Larry the Mac Guru

07/30/2020

Wow, this just hit my Twitter. Imagine running Oregon Trail on your fancy new Macbook Pro with Catalina. Use OS 8 apps all day (prolly take all day :-) I like this just cuz its fun. My first Mac was the original 128K, but my first Mac at UPENN was a Quadra 900, so as they say, Memories, nothing more than memories. Enjoy:

When people talk about Macs or Mac OS, they’re most likely referring to what was previously and perhaps lovingly called “OS X”. That “X” is, of course, the Roman numer…

07/15/2020

Been a while, but this is the coolest, geekiest, nerdiest thing I have seen in, like forever. Tweet, Slack, etc for a 37 year old Apple IIe. Its a bit slow and tedious, but so totally awesome It this, Then That!!

The Apple IIe was introduced 37 years ago. But don't think it's not up to performing the latest productivity tasks. Well, kind of.

11/27/2019

Apple, Apple, Apple :-)

01/10/2019

We have been traveling in our RV. At home we had a robust backup plan. Traveling creates new challenges. I am working on a plan to deal with this. Will post details soon.

07/26/2018

New tip of the day ;-) It's been a while, but thought I would share this with you. I have been getting more and more robocalls on my iPhone recently. I ran across this little video from MacMost on some things you can try.
I am currently trying the Free version of the AT&T app, I'll post later about how I like it. I don't like that to get the more advanced features, you have to pay for it. $3.99/month is crazy to have to pay the biggest telephone company. AT&T is working with HiYa, which also has a free version and a paid version. And that has good reviews, but still have to pay to get the better features.

Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile all have their own versions of this app. I know nothing about them, so if you do, please share your experience.

Have fun blocking all your robo-callers!!

Spam robocalls are getting more and more common. They can be quite a nuisance. Some of the methods that people use to deal with these, such as blocking and reporting, are ineffective because the caller ID is fake. However, ignoring them, using custom ringtones, or using services from your mobile net...

04/17/2018

The days of 32-bit apps are rapidly coming to a close. Make sure you don't get caught with something you need everyday not working anymore

April 12, 2018 From Lifehacker After booting 32-bit apps from the iPhone and iPad in iOS 11, Apple is getting ready give the same treatment to your

02/18/2018

Anyone out there use Twitter on a Mac?? I hear tell that Twitter is pulling the plug on the "official" Twitter client for the Mac. https://www.slashgear.com/twitter-for-mac-officially-discontinued-here-are-alternatives-16519904/

I downloaded and installed TweetDeck I like it. I usually do most of my tweets from the iPad, but this is one cool app.

Twitter’s Mac software has never been great; it’s 1.5-star rating in the App Store underscores that fact. Rather than putting in the effort to improve it, Twitter has decided to discont…

02/13/2018

The Guru is on the road, sorry for missing tips, but here is something all road warriors will appreciate. We use AT&T as our cell service, so I went to the AT&T store to get a cellular hotspot, Netgear Nighthawk. adding a hotspot adds 10 GB to your plan, no matter what it is. And this is super fast, it’s about as fast as the home connection. I am very happy with it.

Now for that downside every one know is coming. Our cell plan (and other's) “Unlimited” Plan is not really an “Unlimited” plan. It’s full throttle for the first 22 GB, then after that they slowoowwww yoooouuuuu dddooowwwwnnnnnnn. I have heard tales of this not happening, the dude at the Cellular store said he know someone that had 800 GB used in their plan and had not been throttled. Not sure I buy that.

Now for a Guru Tip. If you have the Unlimited plan (I am not sure if this works with others) and they throttle you down, simply login to your cellular plan web site and change your data plan. Reboot one device to get it to register, then go back and reset it to the Unlimited plan and reboot one device to get it to register. This simply resets the clock on the 22 GB un-throttled limit. TaDa full throttle again. Tip came from a sales rep for our plan.

02/01/2018

Make your iPhone Passcode more secure?? Did you know you can use letters in the iPhone passcode?? So instead of 6 numbers (most likely a date that could be guessed) you can add letters.

Do this to change the settings: Settings -> Touch ID & Passcode -> Change Passcode -> Passcode Options -> Custom Alphanumeric Code. Easy Peasy, right?? Just don’t change your birthday code from 020118 to Feb188 ;-)

01/26/2018

Ever run into that situation where you are getting ready to walk out the door and when you go to grab your iPhone (to pocket or purse it) it has a low battery??

Well here’s a quick way to get some charge into that device. Go to Settings -> Airplane Mode (or the Control Center - swipe up on any screen) and enable Airplane Mode. This turns off the cellular phone and data radio and your iPhone will charge just a bit faster than usual.

Just don't forget to turn Airplane Mode off when you need the phone.

01/23/2018

Been busy for the last weeks. It is, after all, hibernation season.

I hope many of you are using the very cool Panorama feature on your iPhones. It will take some amazing shots. However, it only goes one direction, left to right, right?? Not so fast, photo fiends. If you want it to go from right to left (better for left handed folks) just tap on the line where the arrow is and it will flip over to the other direction.

Oh, and those cool Panorama shots work well for web page banners too. They are a better ratio of height to width that a regular picture.

01/09/2018

Do you like to keep your passwords and accounts safe?? There are two newly announced problems that all Mac, iPhone, Windows, Linux, & Android users should be aware of. They are named Spectre & Meltdown, so I guess you could have a "Spectre Meltdown" if you use any modern computer or phone. And I know you are, after all, you are reading this on one of them.

Apple says “no worries mate”. First, there are no known ways for the bad guys to uses these problems, yet. Second, Apple has released 2 iOS updates recently. One, last week, addressed Meltdown and the latest, iOS 11.2.2 addresses Spectre. And no James Bond needed ;-) An update for older versions of macOS and Safari was released yesterday (Jan 8). High Sierra 10.13.3 is also in the works, but a supplemental update was also released yesterday to patch High Sierra 10.13.2.

Please install these updates as soon as you possibly can.

More info is available by Googling your OS and the terms Spectre & Meltdown.

Stay calm and carry on.