apple Archives - Vintuitive

Tag Archive: apple

Posted Jul.12, 2016 under How to, Productivity, Six Second Tech

Six Second Tech is a weekly series of short how-to video tutorials to help you be more productive with your time and your technology.

How-to videos on YouTube are too long

Let’s say you need to find out how to zoom in on Snapchat, how to take a screenshot on a Mac, or how to turn off Twitter notifications. You might go straight to YouTube to search for these kinds of instructional videos. But tutorials and how-to videos on YouTube can often be anywhere from a couple of minutes to half an hour, or more!

What if you could consume this information much more quickly, in just a few seconds?

Tags: apple, how to, ipad, tips, video, vine

You’ll need to update your apple account

It appears I have been logged out of my apple account and to get back in I need to update my account. Hmmm…my “apple” account? I think they mean my “Apple” account.

Lets have a closer look at the contents of the email:

Don’t take the bait! Hover first

The unsuspecting recipient of this email would click on the ‘Update Now’ link, be taken to the scammer’s website, which probably looks identical to the Apple website, and enter their Apple ID and password.

By hovering the mouse cursor over the “Update now” link we can determine where the link would take us without actually clicking it. Doing so on this email reveals that the link doesn’t lead to www.apple.com. Instead, our browser would load up the intruder’s domain – www.gaminges.com, and to a javascript (“js”) folder. Potentially nasty.

Hovering over the link pops up the destination URL.

Identifying the sender

We can also determine who the sender is. Just click on the little downward pointing arrow to the right of the sender’s name and a drop down menu appears. And look at that – the sender’s domain is not apple.com but iapple.com.

Note that the domain of the sender is iapple.com

Dear Costumer, please update your account informations.

Though I do enjoy dressing up occasionally, I don’t think that is what the author of this email intended. Nor did they realise that the plural of “information” is… “information”.

Be on the lookout for emails like this arriving in your inbox. One day these scammers will learn proper grammar, making it less obvious.

Always remember though, don’t click on links without hovering over them to check them out first.

Tags: apple, email

4 Comments

Keyboard Kung Fu: Change of Address

Posted Mar.28, 2014 under How to, Keyboard Kung Fu, Productivity

This week we explore the ⌘ L shortcut, useful for changing the URL in the browser’s address bar and one that can be used in conjunction with earlier Keyboard Kung Fu tips such as Cut, Copy & Paste and Switching Between Open Apps.

Address the Situation with Command L

Throughout the course of a general work day I regularly need to access a website’s URL, that is, a website’s address. Sometimes I need to copy the URL and paste it into another field or application, often into an email so that I can share the website with a colleague. Other times I want to paste a URL that I have obtained from elsewhere into the address bar of the web browser.

This is where the ⌘ L combination is a very useful weapon in your repertoire of Keyboard Kung Fu moves.

Mac Keyboard showing CMD L keyboard combo

Highlight the URL ready to either paste over or copy

How to Select the URL in the Address Bar

Whenever you are using a web browser, be it Safari, Chrome, Firefox or other, simply holding down the ⌘ key with your thumb and then tapping the L key highlights the URL in the address bar, ready to either paste over or copy.

Exercise: Copy & Paste a URL from one browser to another

Now that we have a few Keyboard Kung Fu lessons under our belt let’s consolidate our learning by combining some of these techniques to achieve a practical task.

Task: In this scenario you have opened a website in Firefox but the page is not displaying properly so you want to see what the same website looks like in Safari. How would you do that using as many of the keyboard shortcuts we’ve already learned?

Here’s one way we could do that:
Assuming that you already have both browsers open:
1. While in Firefox use the ⌘ L technique to select the URL in the address bar.
2. Use ⌘ C to copy the URL.
3. Using ⌘ tab will allow you to then move from Firefox to the Safari browser.
4. The ⌘ L combo is then used to select the URL in the address bar of Safari.
5. Finally, use ⌘ V to paste the URL into the address bar and tap return to load the website.

All of this is achieved without ever needing to take your hands from the keyboard to touch the mouse.

Without going out the door, know the world.
– Chapter 47, Tao Te Ching.

Tags: apple, keyboard, mac, tips, url

1 Comment

Keyboard Kung Fu: Hiding Applications

Posted Mar.07, 2014 under How to, Keyboard Kung Fu, Productivity

Clear your view, move your focus to the task at hand with ⌘ H.

Command-H = Hide application

Put simply, the ⌘ H shortcut will make the current application disappear from view. It remains open and running, but invisibly in the background.

Clear your view with Command-H

This is a handy keyboard shortcut when you have many applications running and you want to hide some of them from view without actually quitting the apps. Try repeatedly tapping ⌘ H and one by one the open apps will disappear leaving you on the desktop.

Combine two Keyboard Kung Fu moves to swiftly refocus attention

The ⌘ H combination is very useful when used in conjunction with the Command-Tab action that we covered in a previous Keyboard Kung Fu lesson. Any app that is open can be selected and hidden quickly & easily, and any hidden application can be brought back into view by Command-Tabbing to it. These two actions, hiding an app and then bringing it back into view, replace the need to minimise applications to the dock and then restore them using the mouse.

The Tao is hidden and nameless
Yet it is only the Tao that excels in giving and completing everything.
– Chapter 41, Tao Te Ching.

Tags: apple, hide, keyboard, mac, tips

2 Comments

Keyboard Kung Fu: Switching to a Closed Application

Posted Feb.28, 2014 under How to, Keyboard Kung Fu, Productivity

In a previous Keyboard Kung Fu lesson we saw how easy it is to switch between open applications using Command-Tab. Sometimes though, an app is minimised or closed and can’t be tabbed to. That’s where this handy little manoeuvre comes in.

Command-Tab / Command-Option

Use the ⌘ tab / ⌘ ⌥ key combination to open an application that has been minimised or closed. These apps can be brought up by taking your finger off the tab key, moving it to the ⌥ key, and then removing your thumb from the ⌘ key.

Switching between open apps with the ⌘ tab, ⌘ ⌥ move.

In the image above I have already tried to switch to the Mail app but found that it is closed. So I have then used ⌘ tab to select the Mail app and then taken my middle finger off the tab key and put my index finger onto the ⌥ key. Then when I removed my thumb from the ⌘ key the Mail app popped up into the foreground.

The returning is the movement of the Tao.
– Chapter 40, Tao Te Ching.

Tags: apple, how to, keyboard, mac, tips