OS X includes a service where you can open the OS X Terminal at a selected folder, but this is not always the optimal approach. For one, it requires you select a subfolder to act on, which will have the Terminal open it instead of the current Finder window, requiring you to then “cd ..” to get to the folder you want. This also requires there be a folder to select in order for this to work in the first place. Alternatively, there are three additional approaches you can use which may be quicker and easier approaches. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: May 2015
Family Sharing may be draining your iPhone’s battery
If your iPhone is suddenly not holding its charge, then the problem may be stemming from the use of Apple’s Family Sharing service.
Being a fairly generic problem, battery drain on an iPhone can happen from a number of different reasons, and while potential causes include worn out or damaged batteries not being able to hold a charge, this generally progresses over time and is more prevalent with older devices. Continue reading
Apple ditching discoveryd for mDNSResponder in latest OS X 10.10 release
Has your Mac been affected by Wi-Fi dropouts, short battery life, and the inability to maintain connections or discover devices on your network after having installed OS X Yosemite? If so, then the problem is likely going to be addressed in a significant way by Apple in the next update to OS X.
The problem is happening because of the introduction of a new DNS resolving service called “discoveryd” that Continue reading
Messages bug will force your iPhone to restart
If you have recently found your iPhone’s Messages app crashes upon receiving a new messages, then you are not alone. Apparently a bug exists in the app where if a certain string of text is received, then the app will crash, and possibly result in your iPhone restarting. This bug is reminiscent of a problem where Safari would similarly crash when rendering a specific text string. Given that the problematic text is very specific, if you are experiencing this problem, then it is likely because someone has singled you out as a prank, or otherwise. Continue reading
Five tips for speeding up your iPhone or iPad
Unless you are using a significantly older iOS device, then iOS should run at acceptable speeds on supported devices. Even if some apps have relatively demanding hardware requirements and give you choppy performance, when browsing through your apps, using Apple’s provided apps, and otherwise using the OS’s built-in features should at least be a relatively responsive experience. However, if not then there are some things you can try to make your iOS device more responsive and snappy. Continue reading
What to do about error -36 and other I/O errors in OS X
While rare, in OS X you may run across a problem where upon copying or accessing files and folders, the system will stop and display an warning that simply states the operation could not be completed because of an error. For the most part when this occurs, you will see error code -36 displayed, but it can also include other numbers. If these happen, there may be a quick fix you can try, but generally they indicate unknown low level problems with your Mac. Continue reading
Apple Watch 1.0.1 update breaks Heart Rate Monitor data collection
After installing the recent Watch OS update 1.0.1, a number of Apple Watch owners have found that the device’s heart rate monitor has stopped working. Under general use, the Apple Watch should monitor your heart rate when in the background, taking readings every 10 minutes to update the health app on the device. However, with the 1.0.1 update, the monitor may only work when directly instructed to do so, and when put in the background it will pause and stop taking readings. Continue reading
How to contact your iOS App’s developer
Every now and then you may have an app on your iOS device that stops working properly. In some cases it may stop responding to tapping and dragging, or it may unexpectedly quit and drop you back to the main iOS home screen, either during launch or shortly after loading. At other times your app may be working as expected, but you have a special need or concern that you would like to have addressed. In either situation, contacting your app’s developer may give you some quick answers. Continue reading
Browser address bar exploit persists in Safari; other Mac browsers unaffected
A bug that existed in both Chrome and Safari continues to persist in Safari, and allows a malicious Web site to spoof the browser’s address bar to make it appear that you are at one URL when in fact you are at another.
When data phishing sites attempt to steal your information, they will commonly create page layouts that mimic popular and trustworthy pages like those from Facebook, Paypal, Apple, and others. While some of these are impressively similar to the official pages, one easy way to detect them is to look at your address bar and see that the page’s URL is not an official one. Continue reading
Apple issues Watch OS update 1.0.1
For those who have purchased an Apple Watch, Apple has released the first OS update to fix a few outstanding bugs in the device’s initial release. The update, which is about 51MB in size, brings fixes for Siri, as well as improvements for measuring several activities, including standing time, calories for cycling and rowing workouts, and distances for walks and runs. Continue reading