For more information on all the great Apple products, features, and services, give us a call!  940-767-MACS (6227).  Or stop by MacTech Solutions, 4020 Rhea Rd, Suite 3B, Wichita Falls.  We’re open Monday thru Friday, 10am to 6pm

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/B4LLS)

The post Be Careful When Scanning Unknown QR Codes first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

Camera Modes and Controls

Apple’s most important additions rely on machine learning to enhance your image or the background. Because of the significant camera and CPU requirements for these features, they require specific setups. All work with any Mac using a sufficiently recent iPhone (excluding the iPhone SE) with Continuity Camera, but several also work with a Mac’s camera.

Here’s what you can do in macOS 14 Sonoma (these features are also available in macOS 13 Ventura’s Control Center, under Video Effects). To access the controls for these features, click the Video menu in the menu bar—it appears whenever the camera is active, but not before. Click each feature to turn it on (green) or off (gray), and each has additional settings you can reveal by clicking the > to the right.

• Center Stage: Use Center Stage to stay centered in the frame as you move around during the call—it’s great for those who work at standing desks and dislike standing still, but be careful if you leave room clutter near the edge of your camera’s view, because it may be revealed as you move. You can choose between the iPhone’s Main and Ultra Wide cameras; experiment to see which you prefer. It requires an iPhone 11 or later over Continuity Camera or a Mac with Apple silicon using an Apple Studio Display.
• Portrait: Rather than replace the background like many apps allow, Portrait blurs the background to keep the focus on you. Its slider lets you control the blur level. It works with an iPhone XR or later via Continuity Camera and on Macs with Apple silicon using a built-in webcam or Apple Studio Display. (Zoom and other apps add a Background item to the Video menu as well; Portrait blurs virtual backgrounds, too.)
• Studio Light: If your room has poor lighting, Studio Light can improve your appearance by dimming the background and illuminating your face. Move the slider to adjust the lighting to your liking. Its Continuity Camera requirements specify an iPhone 12 or later, or a Mac with Apple silicon using its built-in webcam or an Apple Studio Display.
• Desk View: This mode leverages the Ultra Wide camera of the iPhone 12 or later via Continuity Camera to display both your desk and your face simultaneously, which could help show off physical sketches or other objects. It launches a separate Desk View app and requires additional setup beyond what we can document here. Set aside some time to become familiar with it before attempting to use it in a call.
• Manual controls: If you’re not using Center Stage, you can zoom, pan, and recenter your face in the frame. Move your pointer over the video preview, after which you can drag the zoom control left or right, drag your image within the frame to pan, and click Recenter to reset any zooming and panning changes you’ve made. These controls require an iPhone XR or later via Continuity Camera, or any Mac connected to an Apple Studio Display.

Mic Modes

Apple also uses machine learning to enhance your audio, providing spatial audio and two special modes: voice isolation and wide spectrum. To switch between these modes, click Mic Mode in the Video menu or the Audio menu in the menu bar—the latter appears if a running app only does audio and the microphone is active. (Again, these are available for Ventura users under Mic Mode in Control Center.) Here’s what they offer:

• Voice isolation: Use this option to focus on your voice and reduce background sounds in your environment. It’s a good choice for standard video calls.
• Wide spectrum: This option captures your voice and the sounds in the environment around you. Choose it if you want the other parties to hear music being played or other ambient sounds.
• Spatial audio: For multi-person calls, spatial audio makes the voices you hear sound like they’re coming from where each person is positioned on the screen. It doesn’t appear alongside the others; we assume it’s included in Standard mode. It requires wired headphones, a Mac laptop using its internal speakers, or an Apple silicon Mac using AirPods.

Reactions

While Apple’s camera and mic modes are generally useful, many people have issues with the Reactions feature, which fills your frame with a 3D effect when you make the associated hand gesture. The problem is that you can inadvertently make such a gesture when it would be highly inappropriate. Imagine filling the screen with balloons while you’re on an important call with a client’s CEO or, if you’re a therapist, accidentally shooting off fireworks while talking through sensitive issues with a patient. Reactions include hearts, balloons, thumbs up, thumbs down, rain, confetti, fireworks, and lasers.

You can turn off the Reactions feature entirely in the Video menu, and we recommend doing so unless all your video calls are informal and light-hearted. When it’s off, you can manually trigger a reaction by clicking its icon in the Video menu.

As with other video-related features, the Reactions feature requires a Mac with Apple silicon or a Mac using Continuity Camera with an iPhone 12 or later.

Presenter Overlay

One problem with sharing your screen while videoconferencing is that the audience no longer sees you. That’s appropriate when everyone should focus on the shared screen, but in other situations, the audience may tune out if they can’t see you. Apple designed Presenter Overlay to combat that problem—it merges your image with the screen you’re sharing. The Large option puts your shared screen behind you, like a news presenter, whereas the Small option shows your face in a movable bubble, so you stay on screen without obscuring much content.

To start using Presenter Overlay, start sharing your screen using the screen-sharing feature of the videoconferencing app you’re using. Then click the Screen Sharing menu in the menu bar, expand the Presenter Overlay section if necessary, and select Large or Small. The video preview shows what your audience sees. (Presenter Overlay has been somewhat flaky in our testing for reasons we don’t understand. If the controls don’t show up, try switching cameras or restarting screen sharing.)

In Large mode, you can move the shared screen to your other side by moving your pointer over the video preview and clicking the button with opposing arrows. In Small mode, you can move your bubble (it’s on your main screen, not the preview window) by dragging it to the desired position.

If you fell into specific videoconferencing habits in the early days of the pandemic, take a few minutes to explore the options that Apple now makes available for improving your video, audio, and presentations. And turn off the Reactions feature if you don’t want to be surprised by an accidental gesture triggering an effect at a potentially awkward time.

For more information on all the great Apple products and features, give us a call today!  940-767-MACS (6227) MacTech Solutions, 4020 Rhea Rd, Suite 3B, Wichita Falls.  We’re open Monday thru Friday, 10am to 6pm

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

The post Make the Most of the Mac’s Videoconferencing Capabilities first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/serggn)

The post Remember the Magnifier App When You Need to Read Tiny Text first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

Seek from iNaturalist

You’re out for a walk and see a particularly pretty flower or a tree with an unusual leaf shape. In the past, you’d probably wonder what it was and move on, or if you were really motivated to identify it, you might take a photo and consult a master gardener or arborist.

Instead, download the Seek app, created by the team behind iNaturalist, a social network that encourages members to share their photographs of living things to document organisms in time and space. iNaturalist is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, and it maintains a massive database of identified images of plants and wildlife.

To start using Seek, which doesn’t require an account, tap the green camera button on any screen. Then point the camera at something you want to identify and watch as the ID meter at the top of the screen works its way through the taxonomic ranks: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Once Seek fills all seven dots—indicating that it knows the species—you can tap the camera button again to take a photo and add the organism to your observations. Seek then presents a page with additional information about the organism.

Beyond plants, Seek can identify amphibians, fungi, fish, reptiles, arachnids, birds, insects, mollusks, and mammals. It can be more difficult to get a spider or rodent to hold still while you point the camera at it, but you can also take a regular photo and have Seek identify it instead—just tap Photos at the bottom of the camera screen to select a photo from your library. If Seek recognizes the organism, it lets you add it to your observations, but it often has more trouble getting to the species level with a photo.

If you’re a parent, Seek’s challenges and badges might make the app especially fun to use with your child. A new challenge appears each month and asks you to identify a set of species near your location. You can also try past challenges, though you’ll have the most luck with ones from a similar season.

Merlin from Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology

Although Seek can identify birds using its camera, if you’re intrigued to learn more about birds in particular, check out the Merlin app, created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It can identify over 8500 species of birds using images or 685 species by listening to bird songs. Since birds can be difficult to see, much less photograph, Merlin’s capability to identify birds by listening to songs around you is hugely helpful.

To get started with Merlin, tap the Sound ID button on the main screen and then tap the microphone button. The app starts recording, and as it identifies bird songs nearby, it adds them to a list. It’s likely that you’ll hear multiple birds, and as Merlin continues to hear their songs, it highlights the species singing. After you tap the red stop button, Merlin saves your recording. You can then compare Merlin’s recordings with the one you made, and if they match, tap a button to add the bird to your list.

Merlin is also happy to identify a bird from a photo, which you can take from within the app or pull out of your Photos library. (Tip: When viewing your library from within Merlin, search for “bird” to find just the photos you might want to identify.) After you use a two-finger pinch-out gesture to zoom the photo to fit in the box, tap the Next button and confirm the photo’s location and date to see details about the bird. Again, if it’s right, tap the This Is My Bird button to add it to your list.

Just as Seek connects to iNaturalist for additional online capabilities, Merlin can connect to an online eBird account where you can manage your sightings and more. There’s also an eBird app that makes sightings public, provides rankings, and incorporates sightings into cutting-edge research projects.

Whether you’re a parent looking for something to do with your child outdoors, an environmentalist with an abiding interest in the natural world, or just someone who would like to identify a pretty flower or unusual visitor to your birdfeeder, Seek and Merlin are well worth downloading. Both are easy to use and require no upfront commitment, but be warned that you may find them surprisingly addictive!

(Featured image by iStock.com/mbolina)

The post Use Your iPhone to Identify Plants, Wildlife, and Birds with Seek and Merlin first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

The post Use the iPhone Camera’s Zoom to Avoid Glare, Reflections, and Shadow first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

(Featured image by Bruno Massao from Pexels)

The post What Are Those Orange and Green Dots in Your iPhone’s Status Bar? first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

The post Did You Know Your EarPods Work as a Remote Shutter Button for Photos? first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

#1: Dock Scrolls Vertically instead of Horizontally

Press the side button to see the Dock, and you’ll notice that it now scrolls vertically—this makes sense since one of the ways to scroll it is by turning the digital crown. You can now arrange Dock items (using the Watch app on your iPhone) based on either your favorites or which Dock items were used most recently.

#2: Useful and Fun Watch Faces

The new Siri watch face doesn’t add new speech capabilities, but it does show timely information, pulling in personal details and suggestions from apps such as Calendar, Reminders, and Photos. It also shows Now Playing controls when you’re playing audio on your iPhone, along with Apple News headlines and stock tickers. We liked it more after customizing its Data Sources in the iOS Watch app.

When you want something whimsical on your wrist, there’s now a Toy Story face. Or, try the trippy new Kaleidoscope face that changes slowly as time goes by—you can speed it up by turning the digital crown.

#3: App List Supplements Icon Cloud

The App screen’s icon cloud looks impressive, but it can be challenging to locate and tap a specific app. We’re appreciating the new List view, accessed by force-pressing the App screen, which displays apps alphabetically.

#4: Flashlight on Your Wrist

Swipe up to find and tap the new Flashlight button in Control Center, which turns the screen bright white. Swipe left to access a flashing option, designed to make you more visible at night while walking or running. Press the side button or digital crown to turn the flashlight off.

#5: More Fitness Encouragement and Options

The Activity app is now more chatty and will make suggestions in the morning to inspire you. It will also remind you at night if you are close to closing a ring.

Apple gave the Workout app some attention, too. Starting a workout is easier than before: it now requires only one tap, Do Not Disturb turns on automatically, and your default playlist can even start playing. With the workout underway, you can now switch easily to a different workout type (swipe right and tap the + button), and see a multi-workout analysis at the end of the entire session.

Swimmers using an Apple Watch Series 2 or 3 can now track sets and rests, pace for each set, and distance for each stroke type. Apple also has added a High Intensity Interval Training workout type.

Finally, your Apple Watch can connect with some gym equipment, like ellipticals and indoor bikes, allowing it and the machine to share data. Look for an NFC label on your machine, and tap it with your watch.

#6: Multiple Playlists On the Go

The Apple Watch is great for playing tunes to AirPods while you work out, but with watchOS 3 you were limited to just one playlist. With watchOS 4, you can sync multiple playlists and albums via the Music settings in the iOS Watch app. Plus, for Apple Music subscribers, your automatically generated favorites mixes can sync automatically.

#7: More App Enhancements: Phone, Timer, and Camera

Other apps also receive improvements in watchOS 4. You can dial phone numbers manually with a new keypad in the Phone app. Timer now has a Repeat button, so you can repeat a timer with a single tap. And the Camera app offers some new remote options, including support for starting and stopping videos.

All-in-all, watchOS 4 is a solid upgrade, and the changes will make your Apple Watch both more useful and easier to use.

The post 7 Great New Features in watchOS 4 first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

Getting Started

After you install iOS 11, you’ll notice a few things right off. Dock icons no longer have names, and many Apple apps now have the bold text design Apple brought to the Music and News apps in iOS 10.

Although the new Automatic Setup feature won’t help you today, when you next get a new iOS device, it can transfer many settings from an older iOS 11 device automatically. Similarly, the new Share Your Wi-Fi feature lets you send your Wi-Fi network’s password to another iOS 11 device that tries to connect.

You may not need a new iPhone or iPad anyway, since iOS 11 can help you recover precious space. Choose Settings > General > iPhone/iPad Storage and you can offload unused apps (while keeping their settings and data), delete old Messages conversations automatically, and see how much space each app consumes. Deleting music from the Music sub-screen (tap Edit) will help too.

Special Screens

Apple redesigned Control Center, which most people still get to by swiping up from the bottom of the screen (iPad users keep swiping up after the Dock appears, and iPhone X users will have to swipe down from the right-hand top of the screen). It’s back to a single page of icons, and you can access additional options by pressing and holding on any set of controls. Even better, you can add (and remove) controls in Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls. 

The Lock screen is all you’ll see while in the car by default now, thanks to the Do Not Disturb While Driving feature. It blocks notifications and prevents you from using your iPhone while at the wheel, all while auto-replying to people who text you. Calls still come through to your car’s Bluetooth system, and texts from people designated as favorites can break through the texting cone of silence. Passengers can disable Do Not Disturb While Driving easily from a notification on the Lock screen.

Smaller Changes and App Updates

A few smaller changes that you’ll appreciate include:

• Siri sounds more natural, can do translations, and uses on-device learning to understand you better and provide more useful results.
• On an iPhone, a new Emergency SOS feature will call 911 and notify your emergency contacts of your location after you press the Sleep/Wake button five times quickly and swipe the Emergency SOS button. Tap Settings > Emergency SOS to set this up.
• The password auto-fill feature now suggests stored login information for many apps right from the QuickType bar above the keyboard—manage this in Settings > Accounts & Passwords > App & Website Passwords.

Many of iOS 11’s built-in apps receive significant changes as well:

• Camera: New file formats will make your videos and photos take up less space. There are a few new filters, and Camera can finally scan QR codes, which simplify loading Web sites, getting contact info, and connecting to Wi-Fi networks.
• Photos: You can now edit the video in a Live Photo and apply looping, bouncing, and long exposure effects. Photos can at long last play animated GIFs and has a new Animated smart album to hold them.
• Files: This major new app replaces the iCloud Drive app. Look in Files for access not just to iCloud Drive, but also to files on your device and in other cloud sharing services like Dropbox and Google Drive.
• Messages: A new app drawer at the bottom of the screen tries to entice you to use iMessage apps. Most are just stickers, but some are useful and Apple provides a new Apple Pay app here that lets you make person-to-person payments.
  
   
• Maps: Apple has added indoor maps of some airports and malls to Maps. Maps also now provides lane guidance on more complicated roads.
• Notes: The new Instant Notes feature make starting a note as simple as tapping the Lock screen of an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, or the optional Notes button in Control Center. A note can now look like lined paper or graph paper (tap the Share button, then tap Lines & Grids). You can also now scan a document. The idea is that you then sign it with the Apple Pencil and send it on its way. Notes can also now find text in Apple Pencil handwriting.

Take some time to explore—we’re liking these new features and we think you will too! It’s likely safe to upgrade to iOS 11 now, but check our upgrade advice first.

The post The Top Features You’ll Want to Try in iOS 11 first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

1: Pick a Good Location

Consider your position before it gets dark. If you’re too close, you might not be able to capture the full glory of a massive burst. Too far away, and the fireworks will be little spots of light. Make sure there aren’t any power lines or lamp posts between you and the fireworks. If there’s nearby water, you might be able to take some interesting reflection shots.

2: Turn Off the Flash

The iPhone’s flash works only at short distances, so turn it off to avoid annoying people around you. In the Camera app, tap the lightning bolt and then Off.

3: Disable HDR or Enable Keep Normal Photo

You probably want to disable HDR by tapping HDR on the Camera screen and then tapping Off. HDR, or High Dynamic Range, combines three exposures into one photo, which works well when some parts of a scene are dark and others are light.

The problem with HDR is that fireworks will move slightly between the exposures, which may introduce blur. That could be an interesting effect in its own right, so if you want to try leaving HDR on, be sure to enable Keep Normal Photo in Settings > Photos & Camera. That way, you can see whether you prefer the normal image or the HDR version.

4: Hold Still or Use a Tripod or Monopod

To reduce the chance of your fireworks photos coming out blurry, keep the iPhone as still as possible—try holding it with both hands and pressing your elbows into your sides.

Alternatively, use a tripod, although a monopod or selfie stick can offer stability while letting you more easily move the iPhone around to frame different portions of the sky.

5. Try the iPhone’s Special Modes

With fireworks, it’s nearly impossible to predict the exact moment when a blast of color will be at its most impressive. So don’t! Instead, use one of the iPhone’s special modes:

• Burst Mode: Press and hold the shutter button or one of the volume buttons to take ten shots per second. You’ll have to sort through the burst afterward to find the best pictures, but you’re almost certain to get good ones.
• Live Photos: Fireworks are all about motion: the slow climb, the pregnant pause, and then the explosion of light and sound. If you enable Live Photos by tapping its bullseye icon in the Camera app (it turns yellow), tapping the shutter button will take a mini-movie of the action.
  
  
• Slo-Mo Video: If you plan to share your photos on social media, why not share a video instead? A regular video works, but try Slo-Mo mode in the Camera app to slow down the frenetic pace of a grand finale. Hold still while recording!
• Time-Lapse Video: Or, go in the other direction, and record the entire show as a time-lapse video, which compresses everything into a much shorter video. Just flip to Time-Lapse in the Camera app. You need a tripod for a time-lapse video.
  
  

6: Use an App for Longer Exposures

Apple’s built-in Camera app doesn’t let you increase the length of exposures, which can provide striking light trails of fireworks. Lots of independent apps do offer that capability, including LongExpo (free), Shutter (free), Slow Shutter Cam ($0.99), and Manual ($5.49). Regardless of which you try, play with different exposure times to get the effect you want.

One last thing. As much fun as it can be to photograph fireworks, don’t let the iPhone get in the way of enjoying the show with family and friends!

The post Kaboom! How to Take Awesome Fireworks Photos with Your iPhone first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

You need a panorama.

Luckily, the iPhone’s Camera app has been able to do that since iOS 6. At a basic level, it’s easy to use, but with a few tips, you can get even better results.

First, let’s make sure you know how to take a standard panorama. Hold your iPhone in portrait orientation (so it’s taller than wide). Open the Camera app, and swipe left twice on the viewfinder to switch to Pano mode (you can also swipe the labels or tap Pano in that row). Start with the left side of the image in the viewfinder, tap the round shutter button, and move the iPhone smoothly and continuously to the right to capture more of the scene. The white arrow moves across the screen as you move the iPhone. Be careful to keep the arrow on the yellow line—if you wobble too much, your panorama will have jagged edges. If you regularly have trouble moving the iPhone smoothly, look for a tripod with an adapter that can hold your iPhone.

Here’s your first tip: Although the iPhone will stop taking the panorama automatically when the arrow reaches the end of the line, you can stop the panorama at any point by tapping the round shutter button at the bottom. This is useful if you want to cut it off before hitting some less-than-scenic bits at the right edge.

Speaking of edges, it can sometimes be easier or better to move from right to left, rather than left to right. To switch the direction of the panorama, tap the arrow. You might want to make such a switch if it will be easier to keep ugly scenery out at the start, rather than at the end. Also, the Camera app can’t change exposures in the middle of a panorama, so if one side of your panorama is much lighter than the other, starting at the right might provide a better result. Tap the arrow again to switch back.

Although we generally think of panoramas as wide vistas, you can also use the iPhone’s Pano mode to capture vertical panoramas, like towering trees, soaring skyscrapers, and rushing waterfalls. Even an unexceptional scene topped off with interesting clouds can turn an everyday snapshot into a striking photo.

To take a vertical panorama, hold your iPhone in landscape orientation (wider than it’s tall), start at the bottom, and move it so the arrow climbs the yellow line. It’s likely that you’ll want to tap the shutter button manually to stop when you’ve captured the desired amount of sky.

Pano mode works by combining a lot of separate photos into a single image. You can take advantage of that fact to create some interesting effects:

• You can have someone appear in both the left and right sides of a panorama. After you’ve panned past the person on the left side, have them run around behind you to get into the right side of the scene.
• If you’re in the passenger seat of a car, try capturing a panorama of an interesting street scene using the motion of the car. Do not do this while driving!
• If an object, like a pet, is moving while you take a panorama, it can result in some silly photos.

Finally, although a panorama is a very wide (or tall) image, remember that it’s still a regular graphic, which means that you can crop out jagged edges or an undesired edge in a graphics app like Preview.

The post Make the Most of the iPhone’s Panorama Mode first appeared on MacTech Solutions.

The post Change Camera Modes Easily on an iOS Device first appeared on MacTech Solutions.