Time Machine in OS X offers a quick way to back up your entire system, but one requirement for this is you need to plug in your backup drive in order to keep the system backed up. For desktop systems this is a matter of simply keeping the drive attached and tucked away behind your iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro; however, if you are a MacBook owner, then you might find yourself periodically misplacing your drive, or not having it with you, and then getting messages that you haven’t backed up in a number of days. There are two easy approaches to help prevent this, especially if you have multiple Macs available. Continue reading
Fix the News app missing from iOS 9 after upgrading
One of the new features of iOS 9 is Apple’s News app, which offers a new way to subscribe to sources and interact with the latest headlines. The app is a replacement for Newsstand, and instead of featuring individual subscriptions to news sources, offers collections of them in groups based on categories like Politics, Science, Finance, and others. You may be eager to try this new option, but after upgrading, many people are finding this app missing from their home screens. Continue reading
How to overcome Apps crashing or hanging in iOS
Apple’s iOS is developed to be relatively simple and straightforward, where you download an app and run it with one tap, and it should then give you new functionality. However, there may be times when apps you download will either crash, hang, or otherwise not run properly. If this happens, iOS’s simplicity limits what you can do to troubleshoot the issue, but there are some steps you can take to help overcome the problem. Continue reading
Buying decisions: iPad Pro or MacBook Air?
Apple’s iPad line is getting bigger and more powerful with every new release, and while tablets have some distinct differences from classic laptops, their capabilities are progressing to overlap with or in some cases extend beyond those of laptops. With the release of Apple’s new iPad Pro and upcoming iOS 9, the distinctions are becoming even less, so if you are in the market for a new system, you might find yourself wondering whether to go for an iPad or a comparably priced OS X system such as a MacBook Air, especially if it will be your only computer. Continue reading
Fix persistent invalid certificate errors in OS X
When connecting to various online services, your Mac will use certificates to validate a connection. If a certificate being used for a connection is expired or invalid, then OS X will notify you of this when attempting to use it, and offer you the choice of continuing with the connection, inspecting the certificate, or canceling the connection. Such warnings are convenient for detecting an invalid connection, such as one that might be malicious, so if they happen then consider looking into them; however, there may be times when practically every connection you attempt gives you a certificate warning. Continue reading
Quickly recover deleted photos from your iOS device
Apple’s iPhone and iPad are great to use for snapping a quick photo, and with the ever-increasing number of features at your disposal, such as time-lapse, panorama, and video options, it is easy to end up with thousands of photos on your device. When managing your photos, you may inadvertently delete some and wish to get them back. If the photo was not deleted too long ago, then you may be in luck and have a quick recovery option right at your fingertips. Continue reading
How to add system user accounts to a folder’s permissions in OS X
OS X is a user-based operating system where each user that access the system has a separate account that holds preferences and other settings for the user account to run, and also allows the system to implement security by using permissions to restrict filesystem access. While by default you might think of a user account as a human user, many background services like Web servers or database servers, run under special user accounts. These might be called “www,” “http,” or similar, and you can see some of these if you open Activity Monitor. Continue reading