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How to Back up Your Personal Data on iOS and Android
Phones break or get lost all the time, but that doesn’t mean you have to lose your personal data when and if that happens. In the video above, I go over the basics of backing up your Apple and Android devices. Quick Fix is a new video series where I tackle your most commonly asked…
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How to Shut Down an Unresponsive iPhone
If your iPhone is giving you grief, a simple reboot is one quick way to troubleshoot whatever is ailing it. But what if your device is freezing up and you can’t summon the standard “slide to power off” screen? There are a few different ways to turn off and/or reset your iPhone, and we have step-by-step…
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How to Tell If Your iPhone is Refurbished By Looking at Its Model Number
There’s always a bit of mystery involved when you’re buying an iPhone second hand. Was the phone purchased new by the person selling it to you? Is it refurbished? Turns out, you can actually find that information out by looking at the serial number of the device. It’s a trick that’s been around for a…
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How to Get the Highest Resolution When Watching Movies in iTunes
Screenshot: David Murphy I’m ever-hopeful that Apple will take a look at its Windows iTunes client someday. I realize Apple probably prioritizes this somewhere between “wipe bugs off the windows at Apple Park” and “design a new box for pizzas,” but that doesn’t mean that we Windows fans can’t dream. Right now, iTunes is a…
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How to Enroll in the iOS 13, macOS Catalina, and iPadOS Public Betas
The public betas for iOS 13, macOS Catalina, iPadOS, and tvOS 13 are finally available. Here’s a quick recap of how to sign up, and what testers can expect from these beta builds. How to sign up for and download iOS 13, macOS Catalina, iPadOS, and tvOS In order to receive access to each beta,…
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How to Customize Your AirPods’ Double-Tap Controls
Here’s a hidden little secret that you might not have known about—or have long since forgotten. The side of each Apple AirPod has a double-tap control that can toggle one of several actions, including calling up Siri on your iPhone, pausing or resuming audio, and skipping to and from tracks. Better still, you can assign…
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How To Prevent and Respond to a SIM Swap Scam
SIM swap attacks are “off the hook right now,” as described in a November 2018 article from security maven Brian Krebs. While most of you probably have never, and won’t ever, encounter one, it’s good to be prepared should this irritating hack happen to you. What is SIM swapping? SIM swapping involves a hacker duping…
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How to Schedule iOS Text Messages With the Shortcuts App
Like emails and social media posts, being able to draft and schedule out your texts can be a time management lifesaver—especially if you rely on texts as a part of your job or business, or use them as personal reminders you send to yourself. While some Android apps have text scheduling built in, no first-party…
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How to Trigger Automatic Shortcuts in iOS 13
The iOS 13 beta is out for developers, and testers are finding a host of new features that the rest of us will be able to get our hands on in a few months. One of the most convenient changes to iOS 13 is the addition of automated triggers to the Shortcuts app. The current…
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How to Get Your MacBook Ready to Sell
Photo: David Murphy I’m getting rid of my MacBook. It’s nothing personal; I have to swap out my G/O Media-owned device for another, slightly slower MacBook. It’s an annoying process, but it doesn’t take a lot of time. In fact, it probably took me more time to come up with the “checklist of things I…