Glenn Fleishman

Freelance technology, science, and typography journalist

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May 27, 2020

Design by design

Over a decade ago, at the beginning of the modern smartphone era, app design remained the province of graphic and interface designers who specialized in creating websites or native software or interactive multimedia design. These early frontend…

May 26, 2020

How to use Zoom or FaceTime with an Apple TV (or any TV)

Speaking for myself and seemingly everyone I know, we are all on Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, Hangouts, Meet, Webex, or some other videoconferencing tool all the time, whether for paid work, volunteering and nonprofit involvement, the PTA, or socializing…

May 25, 2020

The problem with Apple Mail’s junk filtering

Spam remains a problem decades after its unfortunate debut on the internet. Spam, loosely defined, is any message you don’t want to receive of a commercial or misleading nature. Millions of person-hours have been spent to try to identify…

May 21, 2020

Take a HEIC: Make Sure AP and Other Test Uploads Work from Your iPhone and iPad

Some high school students taking the at-home Advanced Placement (AP) tests were stymied at the end of their exams. They were supposed to take a picture of their written answer sheet and upload it to the College Board Web site, but the system rejected…

May 21, 2020

Tips for replacing an Apple AirPort network

Apple’s AirPort Base Station was a revelation in 1999. While it cost $299 plus required a $99 AirPort Card in every Mac you wanted to use with it, this was much cheaper than all other options and it came with the friendly AirPort utility for…

May 15, 2020

Your iPhone unexpectedly says you’re trying to log in from far away. Time to change your password!

Your phone buzzes. It says, “Your Apple ID is being used to sign in [via some method] near [place that’s nowhere near you].” What do you do? Quick! Unlock your phone, tap Don’t Allow (or click it on a Mac), and immediately change your Apple ID…

May 13, 2020

Photos for macOS stops syncing? Here’s one way to fix it

It’s easy from the perch of writing the Mac 911 column to appear as if I have all the answer. Dear readers, I do not. I am always delighted to research on your behalf, but sometimes problems fall into my lap that I know will help you all, because I’m…

May 11, 2020

Do you use Wi-Fi Calling? Here's how to check if it’s active on your iPhone

The Wi-Fi Calling option for iPhones is an excellent tool to improve call quality by routing your cellular call over a Wi-Fi network instead of over a mobile one. While mobile networks can be more robust than Wi-Fi plus broadband, many of us place…

May 8, 2020

How to share downloaded apps across users on a Mac

Apple IDs used to be two different kinds of things: one was a purchasing account, originally associated with the iTunes Music Store; the other, a sync/email account associated with MobileMe (me.com), .Mac (mac.com), and iCloud. Apple merged the two…

May 6, 2020

The best way to video chat with mom on Mother’s Day

If you’re thinking about a virtual visit with mom on Mother’s Day (May 10th in the U.S., if it’s not on your calendar), you should start preparing now to avoid the pitfalls of last-minute technology choices and glitches. Group FaceTime might seem…

May 5, 2020

Why you might have a different count of images in Photos in different places

With iCloud Photos enabled, your pictures and videos sync across all connected devices via iCloud, including retaining a set that’s accessible at icloud.com. However, readers frequently write in that they see a different count of media in the Photos…

May 1, 2020

How to mute audio on your Mac browser when you don’t know where it’s coming from

Unusual times prompt unusual occurrences. A friend was watching a science museum presentation and the presenter was flustered because of a recurring loud sound. They ultimately tracked it down: a tab on their browser was playing back an eagle video.…

Apr 30, 2020

Take safety seriously: Stop using bulgy batteries and smoking monitors

The Mac 911 mailbag is usually full of questions about software, how to connect old Apple displays to newer Macs, and failing Wi-Fi. However, with a huge number of people suddenly working from home, we've had a spate of emails that start, "I'm not…

Apr 29, 2020

How to use a new monitor with an old Mac

While Mac 911 receives a lot of email about connecting Apple’s old series of displays to new Thunderbolt 3 Macs via USB-C connections, it’s also possible to go the other direction: connect a new “USB-C” monitor to older Macs—so long as the monitor…

Apr 27, 2020

How to use iCloud to cope with a Mac that’s low on storage

Because of the relatively high cost of SSD storage, when buying a new Mac you might choose to pick a smaller-capacity drive than in a Mac you’re replacing. That might be to reduce the overall expense or to spend your budget on more RAM or a faster…

Apr 24, 2020

How a nonprofit you’ve never heard of made the web safer for everyone

Let’s Encrypt issued its one billionth digital certificate a few weeks ago. Run by the nonprofit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG), the service provides these certificates to websites for free, allowing your browser to create a secure and…

Apr 24, 2020

Having problems with Bluetooth audio quality on a Mac? Here are ways to fix it

Audio quality via a Bluetooth device can be a great mystery, partly because Bluetooth only mandates in its basic audio standard, A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile), a low-quality audio encoding algorithm. An audio encoder takes a data stream…

Apr 23, 2020

iOS Mail Exploits Serious but Unlikely to Affect Normal Users

The security firm ZecOps has announced that some of its customers were hit with a pair of previously undiscovered exploits for Mail in iOS that caused the app to crash, revealing a mechanism that could be used as part of a sequence of “zero-day”…

Apr 22, 2020

How to get bill-pay and financial sites to work in Safari

When you see the lock icon to the left of a website’s URL in the Address and Search bar in Safari, you assume the site is secure. That may be nice for any site you visit, but it’s particularly critical for ones you use for banking, bill payment, and…

Apr 20, 2020

How to use your Mac to get more info about your iCloud Drive storage

While the Files app for iOS and iPadOS gives you access to browse iCloud Drive, some parts of local storage, and third-party cloud storage, it omits a critical piece of information that’s been a useful part of file navigation since the start of…