Iāve had more than a few readers ask me the same question lately, so I thought I would use that question as the basis of todayās TechTalk post. The question is this: āWhat is the best way to share a list of tasks with a small group of people (either family members or work colleagues), without creating a complex system?ā
Itās a great question, and quite frankly, one that I bet is on a lot of minds (if not already, I bet it is now!). So, hereās the answer!
The other day, I helped someone recover some contacts from a no-longer-accessible mailbox. These types of recoveries (like most recoveries) can be a little messy once you have recovered your data. As with many recovery jobs, it left us with duplicate data. Instead of 935 contacts, we had over 2,000 contacts. Ugh.
Being left with duplicate contacts can be a huge pain (to say the least), but not to worryā¦ there is an easy way to find and remove duplicate contacts. The best part is, this clean-up feature is built right into OX Xās Contacts app! Hereās how it works.
This post serves more as a Public Service Announcement (PSA) than a tech tip, but itās something that you should be aware of, especially for those who use the Ethernet port on your MacBook Pro or iMac. Apple recently released a minor update to OS X which adversely affected the functionality of the Ethernet port, to the extent of disabling the port altogether.
I personally wasnāt affected right away because I donāt use my Ethernet port very often, but itās something that we should all be aware of to avoid the disruption. In this post, I will walk you through how to check to see if you are affected (not all users are affected) and how to fix it if you are.
Printing on plain paper is pretty straight forward. We invoke the āPrintā dialog (by going to File > Printā¦ or using the Command+P keyboard shortcut), adjust the quantity and click āPrintā. Thatās it.
When we print to speciality paper (glossy, cardstock, etc.), itās usually advantageous for us to adjust those settings slightly to accommodate those paper types. Adjusting for cardstock, for example, will adjust the rollers and print heads slightly to allow for the thicker paper to pass through. Believe it or not, as subtle as these adjustments are, it does make a difference in print quality. Manually adjusting these settings once in a while isnāt too bad, but if you find yourself printing to specialty paper often, this post is for you!
There's no question, YouTube is an integral part of our lives. It serves as a great resource for literally anything and everything. From time-wasting videos to legitimate work-related stuff... it's indispensable.
There are, however, occasions where streaming video live from the site itself can pose a challenge. For example, if you were to use a video during an important presentation, you wouldn't want to rely on streaming it. Your Internet could be slow that day, WiFi acts funny... any number of potential problems could cause a disaster. In cases like that, a better idea would be to download the video to your local hard drive, and play it from there.
Email management can sometimes be difficult and time-consuming. I ran into an instance a few days ago where I needed to clean up thousands of mail messages in order to reclaim that space. Ordinarily, this would require me to review each folder in my mailbox, select a range of emails then delete them. The problem is, that just moves them to another folder (the Trash folder), which means I have to do it all over again on order to make a real difference in reclaiming that space.
Fortunately, thereās a simple keyboard combination that will help speed things up and significantly reduce the time that it takes to manage your email. This tip also applies to the deletion of files in Finder.
There are a few key components to every computer. Storage (in the form of a hard drive or a speedy Solid State Disk) is one of those critical components. This is where our files (documents, audio, movies, pictures, etc) are stored long-term. We create a Word file and save it to our hard drive, for example. This method of storage is sufficient for most, but some of us (those who are serious about storage and want to take things to the next level), need something more. Something that allows us to easily share those files with others and have them available on any device.
To enhance our traditional ālocal storageā (i.e.: hard drive or SSD), we may want to consider cloud storage. Simply put, this is storage that is primarily in the ācloudā, and secondarily (and optionally) on our local hard drive. A few current cloud storage solutions include Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Box (formerly box.net), Amazon S3, OpenStackā¦ the list goes on and on and on. I canāt possibly describe the features for all the available services, so I will focus on one. Dropbox happens to be my cloud storage solution of choice (for many reasons), so we will focus on that for this post. While some of the concepts here will be applicable to all cloud storage services, the details will be specific to Dropbox.
āBattery lifeā is the amount of time your device runs before it needs to be recharged (short-term power retention). āBattery lifespanā is the amount of time your battery lasts until it needs to be replaced (battery longevity).
In this post, we'll cover 4 simple rules to ensuring you get the most battery life and battery lifespan out of your Mac.
Texting others (and others texting you) is great, and the built-in Messages app in OS X makes this really convenient, allowing you to text from your computer (as if you were texting from your iPhone). In some cases, though, it may make sense (and it may even be a business requirement) to use a messaging system in a slightly different way that offers greater privacy and control.
I have a client that works in the medical industry and they were looking for a good way of messaging between office workers without using a text message-base system. The reason? Because they didnāt want messages to be sent or received from outside the office and they wanted to have much greater control for HIPAA compliance purposes. The essentially needed a closed message network (similar to a CCTV video system). With the click of a button, thereās an easy solution with a lot of benefits. Hereās how it works.
Every once in a while, I run across an app that makes it on my āmust haveā list. Sometimes they are big apps, but usually they are really simple apps that really help to make my life easier and more productive. I ran across an app last week that has made it on that list.
When is the last time you were in a meeting or situation where you wanted to discretely record audio for later playback, but the setting was such that grabbing your iPhone, locating a recording app and placing the device on a table was just enough of a pain to convince you not to bother? I donāt find myself in that situation every day, but it does happen occasionally. This app is the perfect solution.
When I think of significant technological advancements, I think of things like wireless networking, VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), laptops, tablets and smart phones. These are all things that I canāt imagine being without at this point. Another technology that I would include in that short list would be virtualization. Not just in an enterprise datacenter, but on your personal computer... specifically a Mac.
Virtualization is a technology that allows you to run an Operating System within an Operating System. The secondary Operating System runs on virtual hardware, which is being provided it by the primary Operating System and the virtualization software. There are two main players when it comes to virtualization on a Mac: VMWare Fusion (my preference) and Parallels (also a great option).
Adding a nice title to a video can help introduce the video (not to mention help to make it look professional). The design element will vary, depending on what youāre looking for (simple 2D with no animation versus 3D with animation), but thatās a personal preference and will be dictated (at least in part) by what you want the end-result to be.
In todayās post, I will show you how super-easy it is to add a title to your Final Cur Pro project and even uncover some (seemingly) hidden features that will help to make your titles come alive.
When it comes to taking and managing notes, there are a million app options out there to choose from. Evernote, OneNote and Notability are three of the most popular options available today. They each have their strengths and weaknesses (like everything), and offer a plethora of bells and whistles.
For those who are looking for something a little simpler, yet just as effective (in my opinion) with a clean and intuitive interface (not to mention free), this tip is for you! Read on.
The OS X Dock is a great way to quickly access the application that you use most frequently. You can drag new icons onto the Dock, drag icons off the Dock, change the size of the icons... even add a nice animated genie effect to accentuate the icon you're looking for as your run your mouse over the application icons.
About the only feature missing, in my opinion, from making the Dock completely customizable, is the ability to add a spacer between icons. Ok, I lied. Not only is it possible, but with the help of one simple Terminal command, it's super-easy to do!
Editing video in Final Cut Pro is super powerful yet somehow they still managed to keep it relatively easy-to-use. Case in pointā¦ adding a filter to a clip. Find the filter you want to use, then drag-and-drop on clip you want to apply it to. Itās that easy! Want to know another activity thatās super easy to do in Final Cut that can make you look like a pro? Multicam editing.
Picture thisā¦ you have kids playing at the park and happen to have 3 iPhones recording the same video at the same time, from 3 different angles (yes, it could happen). Using those 3 video clips and manually switching between the 3 is a major pain, but with Final Cut Pro, itās simple. Hereās how.
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