As iPhones have become ever more prevalent, one of Apple’s bundled apps—Find My Friends—has become significantly more useful. Although there are legitimate concerns about sharing your location willy-nilly, Find My Friends gives everyone full control over what they share, making it truly helpful for families and close friends. So if you’ve ever thought it would be useful to know when your child left their soccer game or wanted them to receive an automatic alert when you leave to pick them up, Find My Friends is the app for you. It’s...

In Troubleshooting 101, one of the first questions is always, “What version of the operating system are you running?” There’s a big difference between Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and macOS 10.13 High Sierra, and the solution to any particular problem will likely revolve around knowing what operating system is in play. The same is true of Apple’s other operating systems: iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. And, although they aren’t quite in the same category, Apple’s AirPods and HomePod both have system software that can be updated as well. For...

Attend any live theater presentation, and someone will ask the audience to silence their cell phones. But what about your Apple Watch? You don’t want it lighting up or making noise during the show either. To ensure that doesn’t happen, swipe up on the face to display Control Center, and then tap the theater masks icon to enable Theater mode (you may have to scroll down to see it). That automatically turns on Silent mode and prevents the screen from lighting up unless you tap it, press a button, or...

At Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on June 4th, the company unveiled the first developer versions of all four of its operating systems: macOS 10.14 Mojave, iOS 12, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12. They won’t be available until this fall, likely in September or October, but here is a glimpse of what you can expect. macOS 10.14 Mojave Adds Dark Mode, Enhances the Finder, and Gains Four iOS Apps With the update to macOS, which Apple is calling “Mojave” after the southern California desert, the company is beefing up the...

You’ve probably heard of Apple Pay, but have you set it up so you can use it to pay for purchases at checkout? If not, give it a try, since it’s one of those living-in-the future Apple technologies that feels like science fiction every time you use it. Simply put your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch within an inch or so of a compatible payment terminal (look for an Apple Pay or contactless payment logo), put your finger on the Home button to use Touch ID (or double-press the iPhone X’s side...

In just a little over three months, the World Wide Developer Conference will be underway again and auto-mation is a key update. Apple’s Siri is considered lagging behind Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Alexa in terms of voice recognition and executing commands. However, one key aspect that has been neglected in the news and in comparisons among the products is the fact that Siri leverages only your voice ca-pabilities and does not infringe upon your data like these other products do. Both Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Alexa use all the information...

Research company IDC posted the market share results for 2017 wearables earlier this month announcing the Apple smart watch accounts for 1 in 5 smartwatches sold. It’s not surprising with the continued updates and the fact the iWatch can now be used stand alone with a sim card no longer relying on an iPhone for a cellular connection. When buying a smartwatch people are now looking for more sophisticated wearables that integrate with the smartphone they use to provide exercise tracking and even health monitoring with wristbands available for the...