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 Amber Alerts on your iPhone
January 5, 2021
By default, your iPhone will automatically notify you when local authorities issue an Amber alert or other public safety notification. These Amber alerts can be really annoying! They always seem to be sent at the most inconvenient times and the alert sound is absolutely horrendous. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to disable Amber alerts and public safety notifications. Here’s how to turn off Amber alerts on your iPhone: From the home screen, tap Settings.
How to Change Your Mac's DNS Servers
January 4, 2021
Your Mac uses something called the Domain Name System (DNS) to access websites. It’s a system invisible to you, the user, and most people don’t even know it exists. But if the DNS servers you’re using are slow or unavailable, websites will load slowly or won’t load at all. That’s why it’s important to learn about DNS and consider changing your DNS servers. In this tutorial, we’ll show you everything you need to know about DNS to speed up surfing and ward off potential problems.
How to Force Quit Mac Apps
January 4, 2021
Under normal circumstances, you can quit applications on your Mac by pressing the Command and Q keys or selecting Quit from the application’s menu. But sometimes an application is frozen and just won’t quit. When that happens, you can force quit the application on your Mac to completely close it. Here’s how to force quit Mac apps: From the Apple menu, select Force Quit. The window shown below appears. Find the unresponsive application in the list and click it.
How to Change Your Mac's Startup Disk
January 3, 2021
When your Mac turns on, it loads the operating system on the designated startup disk, a hard disk or partition containing the macOS operating system. Normally, the startup disk is set as the hard disk inside of your Mac, but you can use an external hard drive, USB thumb drive, or DVD as your startup disk. Changing Your Mac’s Startup Disk with System Preferences Here’s how to change your Mac’s startup disk:
How to Open the Library Folder on Your Mac
January 3, 2021
Your Mac contains thousands of hidden files and folders that you’ll probably never need to access. We explained how to access all hidden files and folders in another tutorial, but there’s an easier way to access one of most important hidden folders on your Mac, called the Library folder. The user’s Library folder, which is different than the root Library folder at the top-level of the hard drive, contains hundreds files that store important preferences and settings for many of the applications on your Mac.
How to Switch the Control and Command Keys
January 3, 2021
One of the most subtle differences between a Mac and a PC is also one of the biggest: the functionality of the control key on the keyboard. When you buy a Mac, you’ll need to start using the command key instead of the control key. For example, instead of pressing Control-S to save and Control-C to copy like you did in Windows, you’ll have to press Command-S and Command-C to do the same thing in macOS.
How to Connect an iPhone to a Wi-Fi Network
January 1, 2021
If you’re a new iPhone owner, one of the first things you’ll want to learn how to do is connect your iPhone to a wireless network. That’s because there are certain times when your cellular data connection just won’t cut it, even if you have an unlimited data plan. Using Facetime, downloading and streaming content from iTunes, and even surfing the web can be painfully slow without a wi-fi connection.
Make Your iPhone Ask to Join Wi-Fi Networks
April 11, 2013
By default, your iPhone automatically connects to known wi-fi networks. (To stop an iPhone from automatically connecting, you can tell your iPhone to forget a wi-fi network.) But what happens if you take your iPhone to a new location? You’ll need to manually connect your iPhone to a wi-fi network. That’s a hassle. But if you have the foresight and inclination, you can save yourself time in the future by making your iPhone ask to join wi-fi networks when no known networks are available.
Controlling AirPort Network Access with Time Limits
April 9, 2013
If you own an AirPort base station, you can use the Timed Access feature to control the days and times when users access the internet. This could come in handy in a variety of situations. For example, if you own a cafe and provide free wi-fi access, you can configure the AirPort to block all access to the internet when your business is closed. And if you have children, you can set time limits for specific devices in your home.
How to Find Your iPad's MAC Address
March 28, 2013
Your iPad’s Wi-Fi interface has a permanent, unique serial number called a media access control (MAC) address. Some universities and employers may request your iPad’s MAC address to monitor or limit your access to certain Wi-Fi networks. MAC addresses can also be used for less nefarious purposes. For example, if your iPad is stolen on a university’s campus, the IT department may be able to use its MAC address to trigger an alert when the criminal connects your iPad to a university network.