As a Mac user, you know how important it is to keep your machine up-to-date. Not only do software updates bring new features and improvements, but they also ensure that your computer is secure and functioning optimally. However, there comes a time when upgrading your Mac is necessary. In this blog post, we'll discuss six ways to know if it's time to upgrade your Mac.
Posts filed under Opinion
A Peek Inside Kevin's Bag
I spend a lot of time in my office (you know, 4 walls, a ceiling and a network connection), but I spend almost as much time on the road. The challenge, as you can imagine, is that while I’m on the road, I need to have everything (and I mean everything) with me as though I were in the fixed office. The includes hardware, software, data, communication… everything. In today’s post, I thought I would take you on a tour of my travel bag. This bag is akin to the “football” for the President of the United States. It goes (almost) everywhere that I go. With that in mind, let’s take a look!
A Peek Inside Kevin's Office
To me, an office is a very personal space. In my case, I like to think that a lot of good happens here, so I really need it to be not only highly-efficient, but inspiring. When I walk in, I want it to feel like I want to be there so that as I settle in for the day, I can work in a positive environment with the right tools and the right mindset. With that in mind, allow me to take you on a brief tour of my office!
An Introduction to A.I.
Unless you’ve been totally off the grid for the last 6 months or so, you know that A.I. (artificial intelligence) is coming in hot and heavy! Not only is it coming in strong, but it’s only going to become more prevalent in our daily lives.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This time of the year is my absolute! As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, my mind turns to the many things that I am thankful and grateful for. In an effort to share some of the things that I am grateful for, I thought I would put together a list. Who knows, maybe my list will help others to enhance their sense of gratitude for the everyday things around them.
There are so, so, so, so many things to be grateful for. Not just this time of the year, but every day of every year. I hope that we (myself included) don’t take these things for granted and cherish them every single day. Life is a gift.
Animoji Performs "Bohemian Rhapsody"
The new iPhone X packs a serious punch when it comes to technology!! And with all great technology comes fun, right? If you can't have fun with tech, then you're doing something wrong (is it ok if I coin that phrase?).
When Apple introduced Animoji (animated emoji) on Stage at WWDC earlier this year, I immediately knew that I had to use this technology to create a music video for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". That song screams for Anomoji to perform in their place, right?
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you "Bohemian Rhapsody", performed by Animoji!
How did I make it? It required a little bit of creativity, Apple's new iPhone X and Final Cut Pro.
The Importance of Staying Current with Software
My father, a practicing pediatrician, constantly advises patients to eat healthier foods. In response, they complain of how expensive eating healthy is. My father always replies, “Think how expensive your doctor and hospital bills will be if you don’t take care of your body. Plus, you will feel a lot better!”
In much the same way, staying current on our software ensures the best, fastest working systems possible. Effective technology allows businesses to increase profitability and everyday users to simplify their lives. As we keep our software up-to-date, we will need to consider (1) why software updates are vitally important, (2) how often we should update our devices, and (3) how to update our systems.
My Top 5 Favorite Features of iOS 11
At precisely 10 AM in Cupertino, CA, iOS 11 became available for iPhone and iPad. As a wannabe-technical-nerd, I wanted to be one of the first to download it. By the time dinner came around, I installed the update, tested many features, and was ready to tell my wife about all the awesome updates. Here are 5 of my favorites.
Protecting Your Online Privacy and Identity
Taking a systematic approach to online safety and protection is only half the battle! To be truly safe and protected online takes effort and discipline on our part. Fortunately, it requires very little time and virtually no effort at all. In most cases, it requires nothing more than a heightened sense of awareness and a few simple tweaks to your online routine. Here are a few suggestions that will go a long way to keeping you (and your data) safe online.
10 Tips for Safer Online Computing
Technology is wonderfully amazing!! Sit back and think about it for just 10 seconds... can you imagine working, playing and relaxing without your laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc? When is the last time you checked your email, Instagrammed (that's a verb, right?) or surfed the web? You're reading this so I know the answer already. We're all connected all the time.
Being connected has it's obvious benefits, but it also introduces a significant amount of risk. Malware, spyware, viruses, hackers... these are all things that can ruin an otherwise great day. But they don't have to, if we're doing the right things! To help keep you safe, I created a list of 10 simple things that everyone can (and should) be doing. There is no rocket science involved here. Mostly common sense infused with many years of my own experiences.
Apple's WWDC 2016 Keynote Event
Apple kicked off their annual WWDC event with their greatly-anticipated keynote, held in the historic Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, CA (the remainder of the conference will be held at the Moscone Conference Center in downtown San Francisco).
Managing Dropbox Upload and Download Speeds
Today's post comes from a Dropbox user: "I've been using Dropbox for a long time and only lately noticed that it takes forEVER to upload files to Dropbox (it seems fine when downloading). Is there something I can do to speed this up??"
The short answer is yes... most likely (how's that for non-committal!). Dropbox syncing will only happen as fast as your Internet connection will allow, and keep in mind that your download speeds are usually much faster than your upload speeds (this is typical, especially for home Internet). Having said that, there is a simple change that you can make to your Dropbox settings that will give you full access to the speeds you have.
Creating Complex but Easy to Remember Passwords
Everyone knows that in today's tech-heavy world, it's crucial that we use good, strong, hard-to-guess passwords to prevent others from accessing our personal and/or sensitive data (bank accounts, medical records, email, etc). Unfortunately, that often means using passwords that are nearly impossible to remember. As a result, we negate the entire effort by writing our password on a sticky note, and posting it on our screen.
Raise your proverbial hand if this is you.
Fortunately, I have some tips on how to create a strong password, and at the same time, make them easy to remember.
The Right Way to Archive Photos from the Photos App
If you're using a Mac, there's a very good chance that you are using the built-in Photos app to manage your precious photos and videos. It's a great, easy-to-use tool for those countless photos and videos that you take on your iPhone, iPad, SLR and even scanned photos.
Over time, your Photos library is likely to grow, and if you're like me, it will get pretty large, pretty quick. These growing libraries are like trees... they need to be pruned every so often to keep them at a manageable size. There's the wrong way to do this pruning (a.k.a.: archiving) and the right way. In this post, I will walk you through the steps I take to archive my photos the right way.
Pro-level Image Editing Without Breaking the Bank
There are certain apps that I use al the time. I mean ALL the time. Mail, Calendar, Safari, etc are some of the ones that you would expect, but one that you may not expect (for someone who does what I do) is PhotoShop. It's an incredibly powerful (and versatile) image-editing tool that allows you to do some really amazing things. The problem is, it can be expensive. It can be hard to justify the cost when the average user wouldn't use more than 20% of what it can do.
There are a lot of PhotoShop alternatives available on the market, but there's really only one that I would (highly) recommend for Mac users...
