APPLE DEVICES SECURITY ALERT

All apple devices need to update their operating system ASAP. A security breach allows for a third party, hacker, to take over your devices and essentially be you.

Don’t rely on your auto update function, none of my 5 devices updated. I needed to manually request an update to 15.6.1 on iPads and iPhones. If running the Monterey operating system on your computer, that needs an update also.

Short cuts on your iPhone, by Anne Benoit

Decades ago I created my first email account. Not realizing that I would need to type my long and complicated email address many times daily, multiplied by many decades, the ability to create an abbreviation that would then signal my keyboard to type out the long address was an appealing idea.
Ready to try setting up a short cut?
On your Mac computer select System preferences, (under the Apple logo, far left) then select keyboard. Click on the Text function, just to the right of Keyboard and hit the + sign just at the bottom left to signal your computer your ready to set up short cuts. Now type in your desired abbreviation and then type in the phrase or word you want the keyboard to type for you..
Make sure your abbreviation isn’t actually a word, because that would trigger the short cut response when you may not want it. My short cut is qw and that triggers my email address. To my knowledge no English words begin with qw hence my short cut choice.
Once you’ve set up short cuts on your computer it will also work on your iPhone.
Sorry to miss Tech help tomorrow, but I can be reached by email for any iPhone questions. Abenoit859@gmail.com

Mutations, It’s not your imagination

For you iPhone users I’m sure you’ve experienced that your phone responds differently every time you update. Updates are necessary to fix glitches, and most importantly patch possible vulnerabilities that hackers have exposed.. So the only constant in the computer world is change.

Buttons, those sometimes hidden features, compressed so they will fit on your palm size phone, may be tapped, held, dragged or flipped to activate. And since there’s no user manual that tells us what works, within each application, most of these features just need to be explored. Open the default Mail application and if you pull down on the top right your control panel opens. At the bottom, an almost hidden bar, if pushed up, reveals all the open applications on your iPhone. Touch the bottom left corner and your email is filtered by read/not read. Tap on the address of an email and it takes you to contacts. Should you wish to save a sent photo, try holding down on the picture and several option will appear. Pull down on an address, and your map application open to show you the way….

Try these options when you’re not in a hurry, and repeat the process several times to help imbed the new techniques in your memory. Since every app is different, and they all have hidden buttons, don’t stress over the new ways of communicating because there’s always more then one way to get where you want to go. More next time on how to set up preferences so you don’t have to type your email and phone number every time you email or fill in a form on line.

-Posted by Anne Benoit

Apple products need update NOW

A serious security breach for most all apple products from the iPhone 6 and newer, iPads, computers etc. needs to be completed ASAP. The security breach allows a third party (hacker) to take over the operation of your devise and essentially be you.

Don’t depend on your automatic update function to accomplish this task. None of my 5 devices, all on auto update did.

Tips and Tutorials for Apple Users

Folks coming to the Tech support class for help with their Apple devices are sometimes flummoxed by the rapidly morphing world of Applications, and navigation options. So how do you keep up with your devices’ updates and learn ways to use your often mysterious iPhone? Explore MACMOST.com with video tutorials, free Weekly Newsletters and on-line Courses, this website keeps you engaged in the learning process. And, you’ll gain confidence to make more use of your computer/ iPhone/iPad.

Next week I’ll share tips I’ve learned from the Chico Mac Users Group that have monthly engaging zoom meetings on a variety of Mac issues.

And, if your a PC or Android user there are helpful web sites too, this writer has never had really life experiences with these devices, but our Tech group specializes in helping you with whatever your technology challenges

-Posted by Anne Benoit