Ask Adam LLC: macOS & iOS consulting
There are plenty of situations where it makes sense to put a date in a filename, but if you don’t use the right date format, the files may appear out of order when you sort them a list view. Using the names of months doesn’t work, since they’ll sort alphabetically, putting April before January. And […]
We all want Mac laptops that can run for days on a single charge and never need their batteries serviced. Sadly, we’re always going to be disappointed. Battery and power management technologies continually improve, but those improvements are matched by more powerful processors and smaller designs with less room for battery cells. Lithium-ion batteries are […]
Apple’s prices for Lightning, USB-C, and Thunderbolt 3 cables often seem high—$19 for a USB-C to Lightning cable or $29 if you want a 2-meter version? Unfortunately, when it comes to cables, you often get what you pay for. Happily, other reputable hardware manufacturers like Anker and Belkin make quality cables and often charge less […]
By default, Apple populates your Mac’s Dock with all sorts of apps and arranges them in a particular order. But there’s nothing sacred about the defaults, and you shouldn’t be afraid to add, remove, and rearrange apps on your Dock. To add an app, drag its icon from the Applications folder to the desired spot […]
Apple’s Batteries widget is a little known but highly useful tool for quickly assessing which of your small Apple devices is lowest on power. To use it, switch to Today view on the iPhone by swiping right on the Home screen or Lock screen. If the Batteries widget isn’t already there, scroll to the bottom, […]
Do you sometimes find it hard to read articles on your iPhone due to ads, banners, extraneous layout, social media icons, and too-small fonts? We often do, and there’s a quick fix! Reader view. Tap at the left of the site’s domain name in the address bar, then tap Show Reader View to switch to […]
It’s easy to share a single photo from your iPhone or iPad with a friend, but if you want to share a bunch of photos or lengthy videos, sending them in Messages or Mail might not work or could impact your (and your recipients’) data caps. In iOS 12, Apple added a clever feature that […]
In a move that completes the transition of the MacBook line from the troubled butterfly keyboard to the Magic Keyboard, Apple has released a new 13-inch MacBook Pro. The company also doubled the amount of storage in each of the standard configurations while keeping prices the same, and it ramped up the specs in the […]
For most people, it’s time to upgrade to Catalina. Most software now works with Catalina’s bifurcated drive approach that puts the system on a separate, read-only volume from your data and apps. We’ve all had several months to come to terms with the fact that old 32-bit apps won’t even launch in Catalina. And Apple […]
As of this writing, the respiratory disease COVID-19 has caused nearly 3000 deaths and infected over 80,000 people worldwide. There are relatively few known cases in North America currently, but that could change quickly. For high-quality information about COVID-19, turn to the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For […]