How-to

3D Touch is a feature that Apple released with iPhone 6s/6s Plus that enhances the touchscreen’s capabilities. Whether you have just gotten a new iPhone with 3D Touch or just haven’t made it a habit to use the feature, we’ll show you some of the best ways to use it and how it can save you time and improve your iPhone experience. We’ll also cover how to adjust 3D Touch settings and how to turn it off (although we suggest giving it the old college try first).

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A little over a month later and one of the biggest challenges using AirPods has to be the primary means of control, Siri. Within Wi-Fi networks or strong cellular service, Siri usually works reliably, even if with some delay. Step into an elevator or subway, and that voice control interface is rendered useless. Without a good internet connection, Siri just doesn’t work and that means pulling out your phone or using your Apple Watch for controls. It’s a first world problem, sure, but that doesn’t mean we can’t push for a better solution. However, even if it’s temporary, there is an offline option to use for now…

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First time checking out this series? You’ll get the most value by starting at the beginning and here is the series overview. The previous article in this series is How to set up automatic backups in macOS and iOS.

Note for regular readers, the already tech savvy, and IT professionals: this is designed as a resource you can give to those you are helping or for those looking to become tech savvy on their own.

Background, Expectations, & Best Practices

A big benefit of our hyper connected world is that we have access to almost any service or system almost anywhere in the world. Because we can access accounts and information without being physically present, unique identification is required for internet accounts. With the large amount of unique accounts most people have, it quickly becomes clear why password management is one of the biggest frustrations people face with technology; there is a lot of information, it changes, and is often simliar but different from account to account.

Like having a solid backup strategy (which we covered last week), implementing a good password management plan allows you to save time, stay more secure, and worry less. This will allow you to focus your time on what’s important and also position yourself to continue building your tech skills. In this article we’ll address how to approach password management, the what, why, and good software options.

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Any Apple Watch can play music without iPhone which is especially useful for outdoor workouts, but you have to decide what music and how you’ll listen ahead of time. It’s fairly simple if you follow the right steps, however, there are a few tricks to make syncing music to Apple Watch easier.

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One year after introducing Night Shift on the iPhone and iPad, Apple is bringing its display color temperature feature to the Mac starting with macOS 10.12.4. Here’s how to enable Night Shift on your Mac and how it works.

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A common concern with the Touch Bar on Apple’s new MacBook Pro is that it may just be gimmicky and not actually useful. Function keys and keyboard shortcuts may make you efficient, but Touch Bar customization can put elements like on-screen Safari controls right on your keyboard.

Touch Bar for me has been a way to discover functionality within apps, and Safari’s customization lets you personalize what you want to access. Below we’ll look at how you can use Safari Touch Bar customization to improve your own workflow on macOS.

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First time checking out this series? You’ll get the most value by starting with the first article and here is the series overview.

Note for regular readers, the already tech savvy, and IT professionals: this is designed as a resource you can give to those you are helping or for those looking to become tech savvy on their own.

So far we’ve covered why you can and should be tech savvy, how to get in the right state of mind, and how to transform your limiting beliefs and set some stakes as you work towards the goal of using technology with confidence and ease. These aspects are the hidden forces that hold us back from achievement, so with all of them addressed we’re all set to move forward with our strategy.

There’s a feature on iPhones called Wi-Fi Assist that is a common source of confusion for a lot of users. Wi-Fi Assist helps your iPhone switch to cellular data with your carrier when your local Wi-Fi is too weak to offer fast enough loading speeds.

That sounds risky especially if you have a limited monthly data cap, but most people shouldn’t have to worry about turning Wi-Fi Assist off. Here’s how to check and understand how much data Wi-Fi Assist is actually using.

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First time checking out this series? You’ll get the most value by starting with the first article. Also, here is the series overview.

Note for the already tech savvy, IT professionals, and regular readers: this is designed as a resource as you help others or for those looking to become tech savvy on their own.

Background, Expectations, & Best Practices

Now that you’ve got the hang of operating in the positive state of a growth mindset, let’s look at how the stories we repeat shape us.

Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny. -Gandhi

This quote paints a clear picture that it’s the small thoughts and words we repeat day in and day out that create our habits and actions, which in turn create the results we see after a year, decade, and our lifetimes.

Apple’s Photos app on macOS Sierra and iOS 10 lets you view photos on a map and search for images based on location, but your images won’t be included if they don’t have location data assigned. iPhones assign this data when shooting, but most standalone cameras can’t collect location by default. Fortunately, Photos lets you easily discover images in your library with missing location data so you can map out all your shots.

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If this is your first time reading this series you’ll get the most value by starting with the first article. Note for the already tech savvy, IT professionals, and our regular readers: this is designed as a resource as you help others or for those looking to become tech savvy on their own.

Background, Expectations, & Best Practices

The foundation and most important factor in becoming tech savvy (or learning anything) is your mindset. Research shows that people with a growth mindset are more likely to achieve success in part because they believe they can. Alternately, people with a fixed mindset, who believe they can only achieve according to ingrained talent or aptitude are more likely to give up on their goals.

Become Tech Savvy is a series designed for anyone who wants to learn how to use technology with confidence, ease, and minimal frustration, as well as those who want to help someone else with technology. No matter your age, experience, background, or current skills, this series will provide a unique strategy for mastery.

For the already tech savvy and IT folks, this will be a helpful resource to share while supporting others as we’ll deconstruct the big barriers that keep people from becoming tech savvy. Follow along for why anyone can and should become tech savvy and why this series is unique.

Over that last month your friends and family have probably purchased or been gifted a range of new devices, and odds may be good that you’re the go-to for tech support. Sometimes it works to problem solve by voice or text message when you aren’t with the user in need, but it’s often better to see what they’re seeing and also have some remote control access. Keep reading after the break for three ways to remotely help others more efficiently.

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Apple’s new AirPods are out, and first impressions are rolling in. One of the common misconceptions that arose when the AirPods were originally announced was that they could not pair with other non-Apple devices. Luckily, this just isn’t true. Apple’s W1 chip makes pairing to Apple devices incredibly easy, but it doesn’t stop other systems from pairing. If you want to pair the AirPods to an Android device, Apple TV, PC, or even an older Mac that doesn’t have Handoff support, read below on how to pair your AirPods to other Bluetooth devices.

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One of the casulaties in today’s 10.12.2 Sierra update for macOS is Apple’s decision to remove the inaccurate time remaining on battery estimation built into the system’s battery menu bar icon. A feature long used by macOS customers all around, the removal of the time remaining may line up with the iOS battery experience but it will leave some users a bit frustrated. Let’s take a look at some alternative third-party apps that can bring this feature back and make you feel back at home in your own system.

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The new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is the first of Apple’s Macs to include a Touch ID sensor built-in for Apple Pay, unlocking the Mac with your fingerprint, and authentication purposes in third-party apps.

Other Macs can use Apple Pay, but they need to use a nearby iPhone or Apple Watch to authenticate and complete the purchase.

Here’s how it works:

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Earlier this month I wrote about a sour experience I had with my Apple Watch and activity tracking. Apple’s Activity app on the iPhone recorded 499 active calories burned, just one active calorie shy of my daily goal, even though the Activity app on my Apple Watch showed my progress at just over 100%.

It was an odd (and annoying) discrepancy that prompted me to think about how Apple’s Activity app could better handle different situations like sick days and harder to track activities. I proposed a new concept of rest days, tolerance levels, and an honor system that could help avoid losing achievement streaks and motivation.

A lot of readers wrote in with similar stories and advice for correcting the data sync bug that I experienced. Now that we’re on the last day of the month (happy Halloween!), I can report that the recommendation I received from 9to5Mac readers was successful and worth passing along.

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One of the few gripes I have with 3D Touch is that it’s not explicitly clear when you can use it throughout iOS to bring up more options. With iOS 10, 3D Touch has gained even more functionality, yet people are still discovering functionality that has seemingly been there, in some form, since iOS 9.

Something I’ve found myself having to do a lot recently is export various documents and webpages as PDFs. My process has always been to export the document into GoodNotes 4 and then share it via email or another method. Recently, however, a Reddit user pointed out that by using 3D Touch, this process is significantly easier…

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Have you ever started shooting a video in portrait orientation on your iPhone, only to quickly rotate into landscape mode after realizing the mistake? Once you’ve begun recording a video while in portrait orientation, it stays locked that way for the duration of the video, and vice versa.

Fortunately, inadvertent vertical videos can be quickly fixed by taking advantage of iMovie’s rotation feature on iOS. If you’d prefer to apply the fix on a Mac, you can just as easily utilize QuickTime’s rotation feature. Watch our hands-on video tutorial to see a couple of brief examples in action.
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At this year’s WWDC 2016, Apple introduced the only feature I really cared about seeing making its move onto macOS: Siri. The voice assistant had finally found its way onto the next obvious platform. While I was excited to see it available, I wasn’t ecstatic to see it would take a keyboard shortcut or icon click to launch it. That requirement made it feel like a step back in a world where nearly all of Apple’s devices had begun moving to hands-free Siri activation. Thanks to a tip on Reddit, however, that is no longer the case if you’re willing to do a little work upfront…

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I love my 2016 MacBook for a variety of reasons, but there are still some areas where its Core M processor struggles to keep up. When it comes to exporting 4K video, the MacBook shines due to Intel Quick Sync Video hardware encoding. Editing 4K video, however, is much more taxing on the MacBook, especially when employing various effects and color correction.

Thankfully, Final Cut Pro X has built-in features that allow users to edit 4K video on even the most anemic of systems. In this post, we’ll show you how to leverage proxy media in order to successfully edit video on an underpowered Mac.
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