Troubleshooting OS X and iOS (slides)

On December 12 of last year, I spoke to the Main Line Mac Users Group (mlmug.org) about do-it-yourself troubleshooting for common OS X and iOS issues. The one-word summary: restart. If that doesn’t work, help yourself to the slides and see if there’s anything useful in there! The Slides: Troubleshooting OS X and iOS (pdf)

Apple Should Own The Term “Warrant Proof”

It is not only well within Apple’s rights to produce a product that happens to be warrant-proof, but it’s actually Apple’s responsibility to create a product that’s capable of enforcing the highest level of security permitted by our country’s laws… not the lowest. Apple is well within not only their rights, but in practices that support and place appropriate […]

What those weather icons mean

Seems like more and more lately I’ve been seeing symbols in the iPhone’s weather app that I can’t immediately interpret. Here’s a handy chart to help with that. (Click to enlarge!)

Chuq Von Rospach on the iOS 8 Health app

It’s called “A first look at the Health app in IOS 8” but it’s a pretty thorough & thoughtful critique. (My first look was more like: “looks neat”.) I’m bummed that the app seems to have lost access to any data recorded before the 8.0.2 update. I’ve taken many months of steps!

new Apple privacy statement

Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t “monetize” the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market […]

Apple restricts use of consumer health data

With added language to the developer license agreement, Apples guidelines now state that a developer “must not sell an end-users health information collected through the HealthKit APIs to advertising platforms, data brokers, or information resellers.” Developers are also banned from even accessing the information in HealthKit unless it is absolutely crucial to the functioning of […]

Integrating women into the Apple community

Next year at WWDC, I want to see at least one woman in a public speaking role during the WWDC keynote. There are many bright, smart, well-spoken female Apple engineers; let’s put them on stage and be role models for their peers and our daughters. Or Apple’s Angela Ahrendts, who may not be a developer, […]

Power User Tools & Tips

On Saturday I gave a talk at the Main Line Mac Users Group (MLMUG) meeting in Paoli, PA. The title was “Power User Tools and Tips” and I talked about some of my favorite apps which I suspect aren’t widely known. I also talked about some features of OS X that I find are overlooked or underused by […]

Wi-Fi Tips

Use same SSID for all radios on the same network Deal with congestion with more access points using less power Don’t use “Wide” 40MHz channels on 2.4GHz Be smart about antenna orientation 4 Wi-Fi Tips from Former Apple Wi-Fi Engineer – The Mac Observer.

Google and Mac Mail

This guide to How to Get Google and Mac Mail Living in Harmony looks detailed & accurate. This is how my accounts are set up.