Category: TidBits

Try Swipe Typing with QuickPath on the iPhone
Productivity

Try Swipe Typing with QuickPath on the iPhone

If you’ve had trouble moving from hunt-and-peck typing on the iPhone to the double-thumb typing approach many people prefer, consider QuickPath, better known as swipe typing. QuickPath isn’t new, but many people have never tried it seriously. With swipe typing, you put your finger down on the first letter of the desired word—say “giraffe”—and then drag it from the G

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Share Your Location Temporarily While Traveling
TidBits

Share Your Location Temporarily While Traveling

The next time you’re flying, driving, or biking to visit an iPhone-using friend or relative, try sharing your location temporarily so they can check in on your progress without constant “where are you now?” texts. In iOS 17 and later, open a Messages conversation with that person, tap the ⊕ button to the left of the message entry field, and

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Understanding AI Today: No Longer Just a Chatbot
AI

Understanding AI Today: No Longer Just a Chatbot

When ChatGPT launched in late 2022, using it was simple: you typed a prompt, and it generated text in response. That text came from a statistical model trained on data available at the time. If you asked ChatGPT about anything that had happened more recently, it either couldn’t help or would confidently make stuff up. The chat interface that today’s

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Control Center Is Improved—and Highly Customizable—in macOS 26 Tahoe
Productivity

Control Center Is Improved—and Highly Customizable—in macOS 26 Tahoe

Control Center debuted on the iPhone over a decade ago in iOS 7 and made its way to the Mac in 2020 with macOS 11 Big Sur. However, through macOS 15 Sequoia, Mac users who wanted to tweak Control Center for their needs were limited to turning specific controls on or off. With macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple completely overhauled Control

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How to Share Sensitive Information Securely over the Internet
Security

How to Share Sensitive Information Securely over the Internet

At some point, most of our communications shifted from analog to digital: letters and phone calls became emails, texts, and video calls. With analog methods, we could generally assume that our private communications would remain private. Few people were going to steam open a letter or wiretap a phone line. The Internet changed that—digital communications, if not properly protected, can

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10 Reasons to Upgrade to Apple’s Version 27 Operating Systems This Fall
News

10 Reasons to Upgrade to Apple’s Version 27 Operating Systems This Fall

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote—the final public appearance for outgoing CEO Tim Cook—was different this year. Although it was still a tour of the changes we’ll see in version 27 of Apple’s operating systems, the company broke it into three parts. The first focused on interface refinements, performance improvements, and feature tweaks that smooth rough edges in our current user

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Use Fake Contacts to Improve Dictation Accuracy
Productivity

Use Fake Contacts to Improve Dictation Accuracy

Apple’s Dictation feature is a great way to avoid slow typing on the iPhone and iPad, and it can be welcome on the Mac as well. But it struggles with proper nouns—it guesses wildly at unfamiliar names and often fails to capitalize common words that are part of a name (so you get “New York Public library”). Apple doesn’t provide

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Office 2019 for Mac Goes Read-Only on July 13, 2026
TidBits

Office 2019 for Mac Goes Read-Only on July 13, 2026

If you’re still using Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac, on July 13, 2026, an expiring certificate will cause your copies of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to enter “reduced functionality mode,” meaning you can view and print documents but cannot edit or create new ones. To check if you’re affected, open Word and choose Word > About Microsoft Word (or

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Not Sure If You’re Presentable for a Video Call? Try Hand Mirror
TidBits

Not Sure If You’re Presentable for a Video Call? Try Hand Mirror

Since the pandemic, video calls have become a fact of life for many of us, so much so that it’s now possible to sit down for a meeting without thinking about whether you’ve changed out of your pajamas or brushed your hair. (No judgment; we’ve all done it.) To ensure that you’re presentable before you connect, use the Mac app

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