Articles by Matt Cone
Matt Cone is a technical writer at Fastly. He has experience creating documentation for organizations like Linode and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Matt’s first book, Master Your Mac, was published by No Starch Press. To get in touch with Matt, visit https://www.mattcone.com.
How to Turn Off Touch ID on Your Mac
January 27, 2022
Newer MacBooks and Apple keyboards have a button in the top-right corner referred to as Touch ID. This feature allows you to use your fingerprint for authentication. Instead of typing a password to log in, you can press your finger on Touch ID to verify your identity. Some people don’t want to use Touch ID on their Mac. If you’d prefer to use a password to authenticate, follow the steps in this tutorial to disable Touch ID on your Mac.
How to Add a Contact to Your iPhone
January 24, 2022
iPhones are handy for all sorts of stuff — surfing the web, playing games, and staying in contact with friends and family. You can save the phone number and address of a friend or family member by adding them as a contact to your iPhone. Adding a person as a contact has many advantages. You’ll be able to call or message your contact quickly, and you’ll be able to add them as an emergency contact using the Emergency SOS feature.
How to Use Touch ID for Purchases on Your Mac
January 23, 2022
Newer MacBooks and Apple keyboards have a button in the top-right corner referred to as Touch ID. This feature allows you to use your fingerprint for authentication. Instead of typing a password to log in, you can press your finger on Touch ID to verify your identity. You can use Touch ID to log in to your Mac, and you can also use Touch ID to make purchases from the App Store, Apple TV, and Apple Music.
How to Change the Default Search Engine on Chrome for Mac
January 22, 2022
If you use Google’s Chrome web browser on your Mac, you can quickly and easily change your Mac’s default search engine from Google to another search engine like DuckDuckGo or Ecosia. Here’s how to change the default search engine on the Chrome web browser on your Mac: Open the Chrome web browser. From the Chrome menu, select Preferences. From the side bar, click Search engine. The Chrome search engine preferences appear, as shown below.
How to Enable Private Relay on Your Mac
January 19, 2022
When you surf the internet with your Mac, your personal information is collected at several points along the way. For example, if you visit nytimes.com, the New York Times web server can log your Mac’s IP address and user agent (Mac), among other technical details that could be used to identify you. That data can be used to track you around the internet and deliver customized advertisements. Understanding How Private Relay Works Apple’s Private Relay feature — new in macOS Monterey and available to iCloud+ subscribers — helps obscure those technical details when using the Safari web browser.
How to Double Space Apple Pages Documents
January 12, 2022
If you use Apple Pages for Mac, you’re already familiar with Apple’s word processing application. Depending on who you’re creating the document for, you may have to double space your document. Many organizations such as schools and legal entities have very strict guidelines regarding the line spacing of documents. Here’s how to change the line spacing of an Apple Pages for Mac document to add double spacing: Open Pages on your Mac, and then create a new document.
How to Change the Margins in an Apple Pages Document
January 9, 2022
Creating a document in Apple Pages for Mac? Depending on who you’re creating the document for, you may have to change the document’s margins. Many organizations such as schools and legal entities have very strict guidelines regarding the margins. Here’s how to change the margins in a Apple Pages document on your Mac: Open the Pages application on your Mac, and then create a new document. Click the Document icon at the top of the window, as shown below.
How to Set Up Emergency Contacts on Your iPhone
January 5, 2022
If you own an iPhone, you should consider setting up emergency contacts on your iPhone. The names and phone numbers of your emergency contacts can be accessed from the lock screen of your iPhone in the event of an emergency, giving emergency responders a way to contact your loved ones if you’re unable to do so. And when used in conjunction with the Emergency SOS feature, your emergency contacts will be notified if you ever activate Emergency SOS using your iPhone.
How to Block Ads on Your iPhone
December 16, 2021
“How do I block ads on my iPhone?” It’s usually one of the first questions that new iPhone owners ask, and for good reason. Internet advertising helps content creators continue publishing content, but ads are everywhere and they’re annoying to look at. As it turns out, Apple has provided several tools that make it relatively easy to block ads on your iPhone, but you’ll need to do a bit of legwork to enable and customize the features.
How to View Lyrics in Apple Music on Your Mac
December 14, 2021
If you use Apple Music on your Mac to listen to songs, you might be surprised to learn that you can view song lyrics right in the Apple Music application. Lyrics are available for most of the songs in Apple Music. Apple Music also has a feature that allows you to share lyrics with a friend, much like how it allows you to share a playlist with a friend. Here’s how to view lyrics in Apple Music on your Mac: