The home of a tech journalist, freelance writer, and content creator
Apple this week released macOS 10.12 Sierra, the newest Mac operating system release. I’ve prepared a macOS 10.12 Sierra Upgrade Guide at Backblaze that answers the questions you may have about it. Find out what’s new in Sierra, whether your Mac can run it, and what you should do to prepare. That starts, of course, with backing up your data. Backblaze can help!
Apple on Friday released the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2. All three of the devices sport new water resistance and water proofing features that should cut down the number of trips many of us have to take to Apple Stores to get our gear fixed and replaced. Water damage to sensitive electronic devices is an endemic problem, as anyone who’s worked at an Apple Store or service provider can tell you. I think Apple has a real market opportunity to offer a MacBook that can put up with the occasional spill.
I would love to see Apple make the same treatment to the MacBook line, because water damage to Macs is a major issue as well. In my almost three years working at a computer retailer, I saw computers that had been damaged by water almost every time I worked. Plumbing problems, spilled drinks, or full immersion in bodies of water were all real things that happened. I even remember one that was saturated in vomit from a night of heavy drinking.
I’ve been able to avoid the problem myself, thought it has happened to family members, and it cost hundreds of dollars to repair. If you’re lucky, all you’ll have to do is pay for a new top case for your MacBook, or maybe a new power board. Any way you slice it, it’s never cheap to fix water damage. What’s more, Apple’s AppleCare coverage, which I swear by when buying Mac laptops, especially, does not cover accidental damage. You’re on your own when that happens.
We’re not talking about taking the computer into the bathtub (although, in fairness, I had a retail store customer ask me if that was safe once). We’re talking about spill damage caused by the errant tipped coffee mug or the occasional misadventure with a cool beverage.
Right now water resistant laptops are very much a niche market. Panasonic makes the ToughBook and there are a few others whose makers say they’re water-resistant. They are for the most part ugly and inelegant machines, and all of them are running Windows.
So far it looks like the public is responding really well to the water-resistance of the new iPhone 7. Let’s hope it gives Apple an incentive to produce a Mac laptop that might sport the same sort of resilience to the environment.
iOS 10’s lock screen now instructs you to press your iPhone or iPad’s Home button to unlock it. Worried about wearing out your Home button, or just don’t want to press it? If your device uses Touch ID (if it’s an iPhone 5S or later, or one of the many iPad models that sports Touch ID), you can set up your device to unlock by just resting your finger on the Home button instead. Here’s how.
How to unlock your iPhone without pushing the Home button
Now when your iPhone is locked, resting your thumb is all you have to do to unlock it. Enjoy!
Some T-Mobile customers who upgraded their iPhones to iOS 10 this week have run into “No Carrier” problems following a botched Carrier Update setting. There’s a fix available that should help, and it’s easy to install.
Apple released iOS 10 earlier this week. T-Mobile customers also saw a Carrier Settings update when they installed the new operating system. Carrier Settings files give the iPhone key information about T-Mobile’s network.
This is where things went pear-shaped: Apparently something went wrong with the carrier settings updates for iPhone 6, 6 Plus and SE, according to Engadget. After upgrading, some of us noticed our phones were dropping offline. With the hinky carrier settings, once an iPhone loses a connection to T-Mobile’s network, nothing short of powering it down and turning it back on restores the cell service. That’s been my experience, and it’s maddening.
Late on Thursday, T-Mobile and Apple pushed another carrier update setting that should fix the problem. I haven’t experimented with it extensively to test it yet, but I do see that the update is live. Here’s how to apply it. Obviously this will only work once you’re connected to T-Mobile’s network or on a Wi-Fi connection, so if your phone is offline, make sure to restart it.
How to update your iPhone carrier settings
Once you’re done, you should see “Carrier” changed from 25.1 to 25.2.
If you don’t trust the cloud, you may connect your iPhone to a Mac periodically using a Lightning to USB cable. That opens iTunes and the Photos app to backup and synchronize. Photos isn’t the only photo management tool out there. If Photos gets in your way, follow these steps to stop your Mac from opening it. You can even tell the Mac which app you’d prefer to use instead.
Step one is to tell Photos not to open for your iPhone anymore.
How to keep Photos from opening when you connect your iPhone
From now on, any time you tether your iPhone to your Mac, that app will open automatically. I’d keep Photos and its library files around if I were you, but that doesn’t mean you have to use them if you’d prefer other software.
I recently had the pleasure to talk with Chuck Joiner and John Voorhees for an episode of the popular MacJury podcast. We talked about the state of streaming music services, and what the future might hold, so please listen in. Or if you like the bald(ing) white guy look, you can watch the video (embedded below). I call it “Attack of the Lobots.”
A new malware threat affects both iPhones and Macs. Apple already released an update to iOS to fix the problem. Now the Mac has been updated too. Here’s how to check.
First off, this applies to OS X 10.10 “Yosemite” and 10.11 “El Capitan.” If you’re not sure what version you have installed, click on the menu, then click on About This Mac. The overview window will tell you what version of OS X you have installed.
I’d strongly recommend backing your Mac up before you do anything. Use Time Machine, backup software like SuperDuper, Backblaze or whatever you prefer. Don’t make changes to essential software like your Mac’s operating system without making sure you have a current backup first.
To update your Mac with Security Update 2016-001
Once the update is done, your Mac will restart and you can continue to work.
In a tech note posted to Apple’s own support site, Apple explained that this update changes kernel operating system code to address “a validation issue” and a “memory corruption issue.” Apple’s links to the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures List identifications for these problems confirm that it’s the same issue reported for iOS 9 last week.
The actual problem Apple fixed here seems to have been used in a malware exploit created as an act of political espionage. While it’s a nasty hack and a security threat, the actual risk to those of us who aren’t political dissidents is pretty low. Still, Apple acted on this and has eliminated the security threat, so it’s a good idea to update your gear.