Hands-On Mac explores and explains the Mac — and beyond! From clever Terminal commands to little-known iOS settings, Mikah Sargent shares all the best tips and ...
HOM 169: Flaky Bluetooth on Your Mac? Here's How to Fix It
Mikah Sargent shares essential tips for troubleshooting Bluetooth issues on your Mac in this episode of Hands-On Mac. Learn how to resolve connectivity problems and get your devices working smoothly again with these step-by-step instructions.
In this episode, Mikah covers:
- Restarting your Mac: The simplest and often most effective first step in resolving Bluetooth issues
- Toggling Bluetooth on and off: Quickly turning Bluetooth off and back on in the System Settings can help re-establish connections
- Unpairing and repairing devices: "Forgetting" a previously connected device and setting it up again as new can fix persistent problems
- Accessing advanced Bluetooth information: Holding the Option key while clicking the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar reveals device addresses and firmware versions for connected peripherals
- Force quitting Bluetooth processes: Using Activity Monitor to quit the "bluetoothuserd" background process can help reset the Bluetooth system when other methods fail
- Checking for device-specific issues: Ensuring your Bluetooth devices are fully charged and running the latest firmware can eliminate connectivity troubles
- Minimizing interference: Keeping potential sources of interference, like microwaves, away from your Bluetooth devices can improve stability
By following these troubleshooting steps, you'll be well-equipped to tackle most Bluetooth problems on your Mac and keep your wireless peripherals connected and working reliably.
Bluetooth settings on Mac - Apple Support - https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/bluetooth-settings-on-mac-blth8111/mac
Host: Mikah Sargent
Download or subscribe to Hands-On Mac at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-mac
Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.
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8:32
HOM 168: The Apple Invites App
This episode sees Mikah Sargent walking through the newly announced Apple Invites app. This event invitation tool allows one to invite friends and family to an occasion (like a BBQ) even if the recipients don't have an iPhone. Importantly, a user needs to have an iCloud+ subscription in order to create an event.
Host: Mikah Sargent
Download or subscribe to Hands-On Mac at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-mac
Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.
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17:11
HOM 167: Disabling Apple Intelligence
In this episode, Mikah Sargent walks through step-by-step instructions for turning off the new Apple Intelligence features that are enabled by default on iPhones, iPads, and Macs running the latest software. Disabling Apple Intelligence will turn off capabilities like enhanced writing tools, accessing ChatGPT via Siri, and more.
- Apple Intelligence is a set of AI features now enabled by default on iPhones, iPads and Macs running the latest software.
- Some users may want to disable Apple Intelligence and stick with standard device functionality
- On a Mac:
- Go to System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri
- Toggle off "Apple Intelligence"
- This will disable Apple Intelligence features and revert Siri to basic functionality
- On an iPhone or iPad:
- Go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri
- Toggle off "Apple Intelligence"
- This disables enhanced features and changes "Talk and Type to Siri" option to just "Talk to Siri"
- Toggles off on-device AI models which frees up storage space
- Models can be re-downloaded by re-enabling Apple Intelligence in settings
- Typing to Siri can be enabled separately via accessibility settings when Apple Intelligence is off
Host: Mikah Sargent
Download or subscribe to Hands-On Mac at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-mac
Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.
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7:42
HOM 166: Apple's New AI Clean Up Tool
In this episode, Mikah Sargent explores Apple's new Clean Up feature, part of the Apple Intelligence suite, which aims to remove distractions from photos.
- Clean Up is a new feature in macOS Sequoia's Photos app that uses on-device machine learning to remove unwanted objects from images
- To use Clean Up, enter edit mode, select the Clean Up tab, and either click, brush, or circle the object to remove
- Mikah tests Clean Up on a photo of a puppy with a toy in the background; it successfully removes the toy but loses some pillow texture
- On a building photo, Clean Up struggles to properly remove a person, distorting the stairs
- Clean Up has difficulty fully removing an iPhone and keyboard from a spatial photo of Leo Laporte
- Apple's on-device approach to machine learning, driven by privacy, currently falls short of Google's server-side Magic Eraser feature
- Clean Up is available on all Apple devices that support Apple Intelligence features, including iOS and iPadOS
Host: Mikah Sargent
Want access to the video version and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.
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10:12
HOM 165: Customize Extensions on Your Mac
Extensions in macOS Sequoia can take your system's functionality to the next level, and Mikah Sargent is here to show you how. Learn to set up, manage, and customize extensions for Finder, Photos, Spotlight, and more. Whether you're looking to boost productivity or streamline tasks, this episode covers everything you need to make the most of macOS extensions.
Change Login Items & Extensions settings on Mac - Apple Support - https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-login-items-extensions-settings-mtusr003/15.0/mac/15.2
Host: Mikah Sargent
Want access to the video version and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit
Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.
Hands-On Mac explores and explains the Mac — and beyond! From clever Terminal commands to little-known iOS settings, Mikah Sargent shares all the best tips and tricks for your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. You'll get all the details on Apple's apps and the best apps in the App Store, you'll learn about awesome accessories for your Apple devices, and you'll explore updates to Apple's operating systems — including iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. Hands-On Mac is your one-stop shop for Apple know-how. You can join Club TWiT for $7 a month and get ad-free audio and video feeds for all our shows plus everything else the club offers...or get just this podcast ad-free for $2.99 a month.
New episodes every Thursday.
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