2019 Blogs
Jon Brown
Here’s How to See Full URLs in Safari’s Smart Search Field
By default, Safari on the Mac hides full Web addresses—technically known as URLs—from you, showing just the site name in the Smart Search field at the top of the window. If you click in the field or press Command-L, the full URL appears, which is good for checking that you’re really where you think you should be and not on some dodgy site. It’s also useful if you need to copy just a portion of the URL to share or otherwise work with. To make that check easier, go to...
Jul 19, 2019
Jon Brown
Use Spotlight on the Mac to Convert Units Track Flights Find Movies and More
Most Mac users probably think of searching on the Mac in relation to finding files on their drives. That may be the most common use of Apple’s Spotlight search technology, but over the years, Apple has continually enhanced Spotlight’s capabilities, turning it into a veritable Swiss Army Knife that you can invoke with a quick press of Command-Space bar or a click on the magnifying glass at the right side of the menu bar. Here are a few of our favorite uses for Spotlight that you may not have been...
Jul 16, 2019
Jon Brown
Some May Like It Hot But Your Technology Prefers to Stay Cool
When summer brings sunny days and rising temperatures, you may have ditched your business suit for shorts or skirts to stay comfortable, but your technological gear can’t do the same. And keeping your tech cool is about more than comfort—as temperatures rise, performance can suffer, charging may get slower or stop, various components might be disabled, and devices can become unreliable. How Hot Is Too Hot? You might be surprised by the recommended operating temperatures for Apple gear—whether you’re talking about an iPhone X or a MacBook Pro, the company...
Jul 12, 2019
Jon Brown
Munki Customization & Branding
Today we’re going to explore branding and customization of a few popular open source Mac management tools Munki and Munki Report. Before we dive into the specifics and get into the weeds it’s important to first recap and review the importance of branding and its role in the IT admin space. Why is branding so key when it comes to our ability to support our users? When you look at some of the brands on this screen you get a sense, a feeling and it sparks an emotional tone. Branding...
Jul 10, 2019
Jon Brown
Did You Know You Can Make a Video of Anything on Your iPhone or iPad Screen
You know how to use the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad to take a video, but did you know that you can also record a video of what happens on the screen of your device? That’s useful if you’re trying to explain the steps of some technical process to a friend or show a tech support rep what’s going wrong in an app or Web site. You could also use a screen recording to copy a video from Facebook, for instance, that you want to send to a...
Jul 8, 2019
Jon Brown
Buy Quality Cables to Avoid Possible Device Damage or Even Fires
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 than Apple. Stay away from the bargain basement prices from no-name Chinese manufacturers, and if you see a supposedly genuine Apple cable selling for a too-good-to-be-true price, consider the possibility that it’s counterfeit. Apple has...
Jul 4, 2019
Jon Brown
Read More Easily on the iPhone with Safari Reader
Do you sometimes find it difficult to read articles on your iPhone because of ads, banners, extraneous layout, social media icons, and too-small fonts? We certainly do, and there’s often a quick fix for the myriad ills of modern Web pages: Safari Reader. Whenever you see the Safari Reader icon to the left of the site’s domain name in the address bar, tap it to switch to a cleaner view that dispenses with all the unnecessary trimmings and presents the content in a larger, more readable font. Tap the font...
Jul 3, 2019
Jon Brown
Customize Your Macs Dock for Increased Productivity
By default, Apple populates your Mac’s Dock with all sorts of apps and arranges them in a particular order. But there’s no rhyme or reason to 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 on the Dock. To remove an app you never use, drag its icon far enough off the Dock that a Remove tag appears above the icon and then let go. To arrange the...
Jul 2, 2019
Jon Brown
A Quick Way to Check Battery Levels on Your iOS devices
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—something you may wish to do particularly when traveling with only one charging cable. To access it, switch to Today view on the iPhone, accessible by swiping right on the Home screen or Lock screen. If the Batteries widget isn’t already there, scroll to the bottom, tap Edit, and tap the green + button to the left of Batteries in the list. Of course, if you just...
Jul 1, 2019
Jon Brown
Heres What You Need to Know about the Butterfly Keyboard
When Apple introduced the 12-inch MacBook in April 2015, the machine was the thinnest Mac ever, with a tapered design that starts at a mere 3.5 mm and grows only to 13.1 mm. A change from previous laptop models that made such an incredibly thin design possible was a new keyboard that swapped a scissor-style switch under each key for a new “butterfly mechanism” that’s 40 percent thinner. In October 2016, Apple started using a second generation of the so-called “butterfly” keyboard in the MacBook Pro line. Then, in July...
Jun 25, 2019
Jon Brown
Apple Issues Voluntary Recall for Certain 2015 15 inch MacBook Pro Units
Heads up! If you’re using an older 15-inch MacBook Pro—the version with lots of ports that predates the current Thunderbolt 3 models—Apple has started a recall program to replace batteries that could explode and catch on fire. (We’re not kidding.) The affected MacBook Pro models were sold primarily between September 2015 and February 2017. To find out if your 15-inch MacBook Pro is affected, enter its serial number into Apple’s recall page. If it is included in the recall, shut it down and stop using it immediately! Contact Apple for a free...
Jun 21, 2019
Jon Brown
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 instead uploads the files to iCloud and lets you share a simple link that your recipients can use to view and download. Use this approach and your messages will send and be received faster and...
Jun 19, 2019
Jon Brown
Use Dropbox's Selective Sync to Save Space on Small Drives
If you’re like many of our clients who use Dropbox intensively, you have a desktop Mac with a large drive and a MacBook with much less drive space. How do you prevent your large Dropbox account from overwhelming the laptop Mac’s available storage? The answer is Dropbox’s Selective Sync feature. On the MacBook, click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar, click your avatar in the upper-right corner, and choose Preferences. In the Preferences window, click Sync and then click the Choose Folders to Sync button. Deselect the folders you...
Jun 14, 2019
Jon Brown
New MacBook Pros, New iPod touch, OS Updates
Apple is well known for its splashy media events, now usually held in the Steve Jobs Theater at the company’s new Cupertino campus. But Apple reserves such events for major announcements. Smaller announcements, such as minor updates to particular product lines, operating system updates, or new repair programs, get only a press release, if that. But just because a change doesn’t merit much fuss doesn’t mean it’s uninteresting—if you’ve been waiting for the right moment to buy a new Mac, for instance, an announcement of a small MacBook Pro revision...
Jun 10, 2019
Jon Brown
Here's What’s Coming from Apple in 2019
Here’s What’s Coming from Apple in 2019 At Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference on June 3rd, the company unveiled the next versions of all its operating systems—macOS 10.15 Catalina, iOS 13 (and a new iPadOS), watchOS 6, and tvOS 13–along with the much-anticipated new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR. Nothing that was announced will ship until later this year—probably September—but we wanted to give you a quick overview of what’s coming down the pike. macOS 10.15 Catalina With macOS 10.15, which Apple is calling “Catalina,” the company is working to...
Jun 5, 2019
Jon Brown
5 Reasons Why You Should Be Using a Password Manager
We often recommend using a password manager like 1Password or LastPass, but we’ve gotten a few questions asking why we’re so adamant about this. Lots of people think that all they need to do to keep their online accounts secure is create a single password with some numbers, often switching a lowercase L with a 1 and a capital E with a 3. And that’s for accounts people care about—for those that they don’t see as important, they’re likely to use a simple password like their child’s or pet’s name....
Jun 4, 2019
Jon Brown
Senior Executives Pose a Danger to Cyber Security
You Can’t Teach an Old Dog…. or Can You? I remember trying to explain a VCR to older relatives. It wasn’t that they were less intelligent or unable to grasp the overall concept, it was that it wasn’t a necessary thing to learn in their opinion. They weren’t interested in the technology; they had fared fine in life so far without having to watch a recorded episode of anything. In fact, most of their lives were spent without television altogether. While not exactly the same, there are similarities in this...
Jun 1, 2019
Jon Brown
Business Email Compromise Incidents up 133%
Business email compromises (BEC) scams made a big statement in 2018, seeing a 133% increase over 2017, according to a recent report by Beazley Breach Response Services. The Beazley Breach Briefing looked at information gathered from investigations into more than 3,300 data incidents that were reported to Beazley in 2018. The investigations revealed that nearly half (47%) of the data incidents investigated were the result of a hack or malware. Diving deeper, the investigations revealed that half of those hacking or malware incidents were BEC scams. What is a BEC scam? BEC...
Apr 28, 2019
Jon Brown
We are all aware of federal compliance regulations when it comes to the privacy and security of our information. For example, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of HIPAA. Yet are you aware that regulations have been put in place at the state level that have the same goal – to protect our security and privacy? This month (March 2019), the state of New York reached the end date for the Cybersecurity Regulation of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) regulations. These required third-party...
Apr 13, 2019
Jon Brown
Tax Refund Scams – Know What to Look For
Tis the season! You’re making mental plans with what is hopefully a generous tax refund and deciding what to do with the surplus of cash you’ll soon have on hand. Along the way from starting to submitting the paperwork, there are quite a few roadblocks to be aware of. Even if you aren’t getting a refund, your personal information is as valuable as the money you’re hoping for to scammers, so be on high alert. A compromise of this nature can expose so much personal information from social security number...
Apr 7, 2019
Jon Brown
Security Awareness Training: Time to Jump on the Bandwagon
Human-error; we talk about it all the time, but what exactly do we mean? Human-error occurs when an individual performs a task or does something with an unintended outcome. It’s easy to point the finger at employee’s as being an organization’s weakest link, but without appropriate security awareness training provided by the employer, how can employees truly know what to watch out for? An IBM study found that human-error accounts for 95% of security incidents, yet security awareness training for employees often ends up on the back burner. In a...
Mar 1, 2019
Jon Brown
How Will Your Employees Get You Hacked
Breaches are becoming increasingly common as cybercriminals continue to advance their skills and tactics to trick their victims into falling for their scams. While cybercriminals are remaining diligent in their efforts to carry out their attacks, small business owners continue to underspend on cybersecurity. An article on Entrepreneur looks at 5 things your employees are doing that put your business at risk. The 2016 State of SMB Cybersecurity Report revealed that half (14 million) of the 28 million small businesses in the U.S. had been hacked by cybercriminals, but why? According to...
Feb 24, 2019
Jon Brown
What is Your Personal Information Worth on the Dark Web
The dark web is often known for the illegal activities conducted there, and while not everything on the dark web is illegal, it’s most appealing factor is its anonymity. The dark web is often a place where stolen data and personal information is bought and sold following a data breach or hacking incident. An article on Experian takes a look at what your personal information is worth on the dark web and how you can help protect yourself from being exposed. How much is your information worth to an identity thief on...
Feb 16, 2019
Jon Brown
How Does the Dark Web Impact Small Businesses?
Identity theft is an unfortunate occurrence that is all too familiar with most business owners, but do those individuals know where the compromised data will end up? Often, these business owners are unaware of the virtual marketplace where stolen data is purchased and sold by cybercriminals; a place known as the “Dark Web”. An article on Lexology explores what the Dark Web is, what information is available for purchase there and how it impacts small businesses. What is the Dark Web? The Dark Web, which is not accessible through traditional search engines...
Feb 14, 2019