Guide

How to find your Mac’s Bluetooth version

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

With the recent release of Apple's new "Magic" devices—the Magic Trackpad 2, Magic Mouse 2, and the Magic Keyboard—some of you may be wondering if your Mac can support these new peripherals. Since all of the new Magic devices are wireless and work with the latest Bluetooth versions, it's important to know if your Mac will support them before making a purchase.

Apple doesn't exactly make it easy and straightforward to find what version of Bluetooth your Mac sports, but it can be done. In this post, we'll show you a simple method for quickly deriving your Mac's Bluetooth version in just a few steps.

How to disable the mouse pointer shake gesture on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

Have you ever woken your Mac up from sleep, and couldn't find the mouse pointer among the mess of windows and desktop icons. We've all been there before.

Starting with El Capitan, macOS is hoping to help out with that, courtesy of a brand new addition to the operating system. It's certainly not a headline feature, but macOS can help you quickly locate your mouse or trackpad pointer by simply shaking your mouse or swiping your finger back and forth on the trackpad in quick succession.

Watch our video inside to see how it works. We'll also show you where to go to disable the feature in System Preferences.

How to use 3D Touch on iPhone 6s: a video tutorial

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

3D Touch is the biggest new feature to come to the iPhone 6s, and it brings a whole new interaction paradigm to the iPhone. 3D Touch is possible by means of a new pressure sensitive screen used in Apple's new iPhone hardware.

By tapping into this new input method, Apple and third-party developers are able to lend users access to quick Home screen shortcuts, in app previews, and quicker access directly to specific pages within an app. Not only is 3D Touch an awesome feature today, but its potential for the future is even more exciting.

In the following video, I'll share over 15 different points on 3D Touch. Perhaps you'll find something in this list that you weren't aware of.

How to update to watchOS 2

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

As of a few minutes ago, watchOS 2 is now available for download. If you own an Apple Watch, you can upgrade from watchOS 1 to watchOS 2 and enjoy many of the Apple Watch's new features. These features include native apps, third-party complications, and much, much more. In this post, we'll show you how to update your Apple Watch to the latest and greatest.

How to migrate your data from Android to iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2017

Apple just released its Move to iOS app for Android. This is an app that you can download from the Google Play store that will make it easier for Android users to migrate to iOS.

During the initial iOS 9 setup, users are given the option of how they want to proceed with setup, and migrating from Android is one of those options. If a user selects Move Data from Android, they will then be pointed to the Move to iOS app on their Android device for easy migration.

In this post, I'll walk you through the full migration process, which involves pairing the two devices together in order to transfer Android user data to your iOS device.

How to search within third-party apps using Spotlight on iOS 9

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

One of the biggest new features found in iOS 9 is the adoption of universal search. Universal search is a new feature that allows you to search for content within apps directly from Spotlight search.

On previous versions of iOS, searching was limited to the web and first party Apple apps pre-installed on iOS. For example, with older version of iOS you could search for contents within the Notes app, but couldn't do so for third-party note apps.

With iOS 9's new Spotlight search abilities, you can now search and discover content buried deep within the apps on your iPhone. It makes Spotlight feel truly useful and brand new.

How to use Time Machine on your Mac – the full roundup

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Over the last several months, we've revisited Time Machine, the backup utility present in OS X. We've showed you everything from performing an initial Time Machine setup, to encrypting Time Machine backups, to restoring specific files from those backups.

Time Machine is a great tool that every OS X user should become intimately familiar with, and in this roundup, we'll revisit each of the topics covered over the last couple of months.

How to move Music or Photos to a new Mac using Time Machine

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 22, 2020

With Time Machine, it's easy to restore all of your data back to a new Mac or to a fresh install of macOS. As we outlined previously, users can choose to restore all data, or pick and choose the data that they wish to restore during the initial setup process of macOS, and that includes both music and photos.

Another option is to simply restore the entire Pictures or Music folder via the Time Machine interface. We show you how to do that via this post.

In the following tutorial, we'll show you another quick and easy way to recover photo or music data from a Time Machine backup—directly from the backup folder on your Time Machine external drive.

How to set up a new Mac from a Time Machine backup

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 10, 2020

One of the primary benefits of using Time Machine is that it allows you to restore your backup on a new Mac or a new macOS installation. This makes it so that you can essentially pick up where you left off from your old machine or old installation.

Fortunately, restoring Time Machine backups to a new Mac is extremely easy and straightforward. In this fifth tutorial in our Time Machine how-to series, we'll show you how easy it is.

How to create a partition on your Time Machine external hard drive

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

Time Machine is extremely easy to use, and its flexibility makes it a great solution for keeping your Mac backed up safely. But with external drives being as large as they are, you may wish to use some of the space on your Time Machine drive for basic file storage.

There are many ways to go about this, but one of the best ways is to simply create a separate partition on your external drive. By doing this, you have a dedicated partition for file storage, and a dedicated partition for your Time Machine backups.

Although it's possible to store files on your Time Machine partition, in my opinion, it's a better practice to keep them separated. In this fourth entry into our Time Machine tutorial series, I'll show you how simple it is to create a second partition on your Time Machine external drive.

How to update the iOS 9 public beta to iOS 9 beta 4

Jeff Benjamin ∙ July 22, 2015

It's possible to update to the latest developer version of the iOS 9 beta directly from the iOS 9 public beta. If you want the latest and greatest updates offered by iOS 9 beta 4, but you're currently running the public beta, listen up—it's super-easy to upgrade to the latest developer version of the iOS 9 beta.

Jailbreak tip: spoof your location in Snapchat to use any geofilter

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

Phantom for Snapchat is a popular jailbreak tweak that allows you to supercharge Snapchat with all sorts of bolt on features. It also has the ability to spoof your location.

Snapchat uses your location to present you with custom geofilters, which are basically stickers that you can place on your Snaps that reflect your current location. So, for example, you couldn't normally add a Paris filter to your Snaps unless you were actually in Paris.

With Phantom's location spoofing option, it's possible to snag filters for any location that you desire around the world. It's super-easy to use as well. We'll show you how to spoof your location in Snapchat to add custom filters in our video tutorial.