Skip to content
Thoughtful, detailed coverage of everything Apple for 33 years
and the TidBITS Content Network for Apple professionals

Category: Productivity

Adam Engst 16 comments

Mastodon Clients Could Do So Much More

Current releases of Mastodon clients look and work essentially like apps for Twitter, with a chronological timeline of posts. Can Mastodon’s open architecture let clients advance beyond the Twitter paradigm?

Adam Engst 10 comments

Large Retina Monitors Coming from Samsung and Dell

At CES, Samsung announced a 27-inch 5K display and Dell a 32-inch 6K display. We hope they'll give Apple's Studio Display and Pro Display XDR some more-affordable competition.

Adam Engst 20 comments

Use Live Text to Digitize Your Cookbooks

Faced with the desire to import recipes from his cookbooks into Paprika, Adam Engst discovers that iOS’s Live Text feature works wonders for scanning recipe text using his iPhone’s camera.

Adam Engst 43 comments

Apple Releases iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1 Ventura, watchOS 9.2, and tvOS 16.2

Apple has updated all of its operating systems, adding the Freeform digital whiteboard app, support for Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, Apple Music Sing, Stage Manager on external displays, and various smaller improvements. A fix for a serious security vulnerability encourages updating soon.

Adam Engst 9 comments

Microsoft Office Updates Now Require macOS 11 Big Sur or Later

The October 2022 update to Microsoft’s Office apps was the last one for users running macOS 10.15 Catalina. Upgrade to at least macOS 11 Big Sur to continue receiving enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

Josh Centers 18 comments

Regain Control of Your Inbox with SaneBox

Drowning in unimportant email, despite your best efforts at filtering? The SaneBox service is a power tool that can help clean up even the messiest of inboxes.

Adam Engst 17 comments

Messages Becomes More Flexible and Forgiving of Mistakes

For many people, Messages gains some of the most welcome new features of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13 Ventura. You can now mark messages as unread, edit messages, unsend messages, and more.

Josh Centers 3 comments

Tab Wrangler Keeps Your Browser Clean by Automatically Closing Tabs

Do you have tons of browser tabs open, either because you forgot to close them or because you’re holding on to them to read or act on later? The Tab Wrangler extension for Chrome and Firefox closes them automatically while maintaining a list of closed tabs, just in case.

Josh Centers 30 comments

European Union to Mandate USB-C in Electronic Devices by the End of 2024

A new European Union directive aimed at reducing electronic waste and saving consumers money will require new electronic devices to charge using USB-C. Most observers assume this will cause Apple to replace Lightning ports with USB-C across its product line.

Josh Centers 16 comments

Meditate for Free with the Oak App

Oak is a free alternative to subscription-based guided meditation apps. It offers a simple menu of meditations that should be more than enough for most people.

Josh Centers 15 comments

How to Use Note Tags and Quick Notes

Apple added two features to Notes in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey to enhance your note-taking. Note tags give you an alternative way to organize your notes, while Quick Note gives you an always-available shortcut for creating notes on your Mac and iPad.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata 10 comments

Continuity Camera Turns an iPhone Into a Mac Webcam

If you think the webcams built into the latest Macs and Apple’s Studio Display leave a bit to be desired, there’s an alternative: Continuity Camera. Harnessing an iPhone as a Mac webcam, Continuity Camera provides a high-quality virtual-camera system in the upcoming iOS 16 and macOS 13 Ventura.

Adam Engst 8 comments

Examining Slack’s New Free Plan Restrictions and Motivations

Slack has overhauled the limits on its free plan, claiming that the majority of active free teams will have access to more message and file history than before. But your mileage may vary—and some people feel betrayed. Adam Engst explores the topic and muses about what we should be able to expect from free services.

Adam Engst 9 comments

TipBITS: Disable Live Text for Easier Selecting in Preview

Having trouble dragging selection handles in Preview because Live Text wants you to select text in the image instead? Here’s how to turn off Live Text if necessary.

Glenn Fleishman 29 comments

Apple Brings Mail Merge Back to Pages

Years after removing the feature in a major rewrite, Apple has returned mail merge to Pages so you can use data from Contacts or a spreadsheet to customize letters, envelopes, or cards.