You’re considering a mesh Wi-Fi network, because you’re sick of that one spot in your house not getting any reception. But does the convenience of these systems come with the same security as other routers?
You’re looking through Activity Monitor to see what’s running on your Mac, when you notice something unfamilar: coreauthd. What is this process? First of all, it’s part of macOS, so don’t worry about it being nefarious. But here’s a quick look at what it does.
Users shouldn’t have to know about tech company feuds. In an ideal world, where the user experience is the top priority, your ability to watch videos would not depend on how well two multinational corporations are getting along this month.
Typing passwords is for suckers, which is why the best part of the latest MacBook Pro is Touch ID. Skipping the lock screen with a quick tap is easily my favorite feature. But there’s one place that still requires a password: the Terminal, if you want to use sudo.
Amazon has a history of using hardware platforms to make people buy stuff. The Kindle and the Echo are both useful on their own, but Amazon’s long-term plan for both is all about selling things. Amazon’s Fire TV line is no different.
Maybe your Time Machine drive is full. Maybe you’re worried about an older hard drive dying on you, taking your backups with it. Whatever the reason, you want to migrate your Time Machine files from one hard drive to the other.
The internet is down, but you know what to do: unplug your router or modem, wait ten seconds, then plug it back in. It’s second nature at this point, but why does it actually work? And is there some magic to the ten second number?
So you don’t want your kids on YouTube. That makes sense. There’s a lot of garbage on that site, and that’s before you even get to the comments.
YouTube is great, but only if you have a consistent data connection and unlimited bandwidth. That’s the norm for city dwellers in rich countries, but not for most people on planet earth.
A newly-discovered vulnerability in macOS High Sierra allows anyone with access to your laptop to quickly create a root account without entering a password, bypassing any security protocols you have set up.
It’s iconic, but Microsoft wishes it wasn’t. In the 90s it was as core to the Windows experience as Paint and Solitaire, but these days it’s not seen very often.
So you’ve decided you want a Roku, but there are so many choices. There are currently five different models (not including full TVs with Roku built-in), and it’s not at all clear what the difference between them is. Which one do you want?
The Roku is a streaming box…and not much else. There’s no hard drive space onboard for your personal videos, and most models don’t even have a USB port for external drives. But that doesn’t mean you can’t play your own videos, listen to your own music, or browse your photo collection.
You’ve got big plans for tonight, and they all revolve around Netflix. You fire up your Roku and…it’s not working. Is your Internet down, or is Netflix?
Firefox 57, or Quantum, is here, and it’s a huge improvement. Firefox has finally caught up with Chrome in terms of speed, the interface is a lot cleaner, and there are some great new features to boot. There’s not a lot to complain about here.
VPNs can be useful tools for keeping you secure online. A VPN encrypts your traffic, useful when you’re using a public Wi-Fi hotspot or any network you don’t trust. There are many different third party VPN services to choose from, but ultimately using a VPN means trusting the service will keep your browsing data private.
In 2017, TV watches you. At least, it does if you’re using a Roku device: that platform monitors everything you do on their devices. Data is shared with Neilson to supplement ratings, mostly it’s used for advertising purposes.
It’s one of the great annoyances of the streaming media age: figuring out which shows and movies are on which services. Searching Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and other sites individually takes up way too much time, especially when you just want to relax and watch something.
Your Mac stores all kinds of passwords. It’s saved the passwords for your Wi-Fi networks, the ones used by your applications, and even the ones you save in Safari. You might be wondering where those passwords are stored, and whether you can look at them.
Apple’s server software isn’t what it used to be. Once a considerable investment, these days macOS Server only sets you back $20, a bargain considering all the features you get.
Are there multiple iPhones and iPads in your house? What about Macs, or Apple TVs? Have you ever thought about how much bandwidth all those individual Apple devices use downloading the same updates, media, and iCloud content as each other?
So you found something called trustd running on your Mac, and are now wondering if it can be…trusted. The good news is you have nothing to worry about: this is part of macOS.
So you’re using Disk Utility to partition your new hard drive when you’re presented with a choice of potential file systems. The list is longer than you’d think, with terms like “APFS (Case-sensitive)” and “Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)” to choose from.
Whether you want to occasionally test a website in Safari, or try out a little bit of software in the Mac environment, having access to the latest version of macOS in a virtual machine is useful. Unfortunately, you’re not really supposed to do this—so getting macOS running in VirtualBox is, to say the least, tricky.
We all know it’s important to back up your Mac with Time Machine, but remembering to plug in your external drive can be a hassle, especially if you’re a MacBook user. So networked backups come in handy: you don’t have to remember to do anything.
