Hidden Bar - menu bar management for macOS
Mac menu bar utiities are great for quick access to apps that perform simple tasks and that don’t need to sit in the dock or occupy space on your desktop how...
Posts by Tag
- Apps 17
- Mac Setups 12
- Videos 11
- Hints and tips 10
- iOS 9
- Cycling 9
- Humour 6
- iPhone 6
- Office 365 6
- Jekyll 6
- Mac Hardware 5
- Intune 5
- Powershell 5
- Microsoft 5
- Apple Music 4
- PowerApps 4
- Daily Post 4
- Pictures 3
- Security 3
- Apple TV 3
- Teams 3
- blog 3
- Zwift 3
- Photography 2
- Apple 2
- Cyber Attacks 2
- Komoot 2
- Strava 2
- Apple Miscellany 1
- Flow 1
- Edge 1
- HomePod 1
- Airpods 1
- Gadgets 1
- Wahoo 1
- Surface 1
- Camphill Village Trust 1
Apps
Monosnap - Free Screen Capture for Images and Video
Monosnap is a free utility for OS X and Windows that can quickly and easily capture screenshots and save them for editing and annotation, ideal for grabbing ...
TextExpander Alternatives for Disgruntled Smile Customers
Over the last couple of days there has been a lot written about the Smile Software decision to move to a subscription model for version 6 of TextExpandermo...
Near Lock - Unlock your Mac with your iPhone or Apple Watch
Near Lock is a new pair of apps for iOS and OS X that allows you to unlock your Mac with your iPhone or Apple Watch. Once installed and configured the app ca...
Copied - Sync your clipboard for iOS and OS X
Copied has recently become one of my favourite apps for iOS and OS X. It is a slick and useful clipboard manager that makes cut/copy and paste on iPhone,iPad...
Game of the day - 2 Cars
One of my favourite quick-fix games at the moment is 2 Cars from Ketchapp. It is a very simple top to bottom scroller where the objective is to steer your ...
Fresh Background Wallpapers for your Mac
FreshBackMac is a small utility written by Arkanath Pathak, a Computer Science student from eastern India, that refreshes your Mac desktop wallpaper at regul...
Itsycal for OS X - Minimal Calendar Utility
Itsycal is a tiny menu bar application for OS X that gives rapid access to a pop up view of the current month of the calendar.
Stocard - All your loyalty cards on your iPhone
One of my pet peeves is the number of plastic cards I have to carry in my wallet. Most of the time I tend to strip the contents to the essential debit cards ...
Using Duet Display As A Primary Monitor
Duet Display is a slick app developed by ex-Apple employees designed to allow your iPad to function as a second monitor on your laptop or iMac using a lightn...
Facebook App Draining iPhone Batteries
According to this articleon TechCrunch Facebook have confirmed that they are aware of a problem with their iOS app causing excessive battery drain even when...
How do you backup your digital data ?
Unless you have a background in IT the chances are that the only time you have ever considered backups of your information was just after you found out you h...
Infinite Loop - Lovely Relaxing Game for iOS
Infinite Loop is my latest go to iPhone game for instant gratification or the gamers equivalent of meditation. Jonas Lekevicious has created a beautiful puzz...
How to Access Magazines on Zinio for Free
In the days before the Internet I was a regular magazine subscriber and the shelves in my home office used to groan under the weight of all those glossy page...
ImageOptim - An Excellent Free Image Compressor for Mac
ImageOptim is a small free utility for Mac OS X that does one thing well. It compresses image files but without reducing image quality. On test files I have ...
How Much Do You Think A Top Grossing App in Mac App Store Makes Its Author ?
Sam Soffes released a small app onto the Mac App Store this week and was shocked to find it quickly elevated into the top grossing apps list, so you can imag...
Capture Animated GIFs using free GifGrabber
GifGrabber is a free utility available from the App Store that lets you easily create animated GIFs by capturing a user definable area of the screen. It is t...
Mac Setups
Nordic Workspace
Todays featured Mac Setup is another simple minimalist style workspace in a Nordic style and comes complete with instructions on how to Do It Yourself ! The ...
Dual Screen Wallpapers for Macs
Twelve South are a brand well known to Mac users for their laptop and iPhone/iPad stands amongst other products.
Stunning Minimal Loft Space
This is a lovely clean and minimal Mac setup clearly setup for a small group of designers. Plenty of light and wooden surfaces give this a Scandinavian look ...
A Minimal Desk With A View
[caption id=”attachment_107” align=”alignnone” width=”300”] Click to view original article[/caption]
Serious Screen Real Estate
Some serious monitor real estate..
Videos
Working from home - Apples take… Permalink
Fab spoof from Apple on the whole “working at home” thing… Must see.
Show Me Yours - A New Campaign Video from Liberty Human Rights Group
Show Me Yours is a wonderful tongue in cheek video featuring comedian Olivia Lee in which she is seen walking up to strangers in the street asking to see wh...
CassetteBoy vs Jeremy Hunt
[embed](https://youtu.be/uK7DRJx9nbU}
CassetteBoy Vs The Snooper’s Charter
Not directly Apple related but when I saw this excellent @CassetteBoy video cut to the music of the Police and Every Breath You Take I couldn’t resist sha...
ISS Celebrates 15 Years Orbiting The Earth
Today the crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) held a press conference to celebrate 15 years that the satellite has been orbiting the earth. An ...
Animated History Of Steve Jobs
The team in the marketing department at Quartsoft have produced this lovely animated video timeline of Steve Jobs life. Click on this link to go to the Qua...
Think Same !
https://youtu.be/yeiI8cd5rO4
Say no to Pakisaurus - Hilarious Rant by Guzzy Bear
[embed]https://youtu.be/xd4ygI0GHV8[/embed]
Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement address, 2005
[embed]https://youtu.be/Hd_ptbiPoXM[/embed]
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates - Walt Mossberg Interview
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sw8x7ASpRIY[/embed]
South Park Mac vs PC
[embed]https://youtu.be/Id_kGL3M5Cg[/embed]
Hints and tips
On How I Lost Then Found Trackpad Options in El Capitan
My normal approach when a new version of OS X is released is to backup ( create a Carbon Copy Cloner image of my main drive ) and then do a clean install ( ...
Copied - Sync your clipboard for iOS and OS X
Copied has recently become one of my favourite apps for iOS and OS X. It is a slick and useful clipboard manager that makes cut/copy and paste on iPhone,iPad...
Swapping Between Hardware and On Screen Keyboards on iOS
I recently bought the excellent Logitech K380 Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard to share between my iPad, Work laptop and iPhone. It’s a great little keyboard...
Free Markdown Video Tutorial Series
Markdown is the plain text markup syntax developed by John Gruber of Daring Fireball over 10 years ago to help bloggers write in a readable format that cou...
Using Duet Display As A Primary Monitor
Duet Display is a slick app developed by ex-Apple employees designed to allow your iPad to function as a second monitor on your laptop or iMac using a lightn...
How do you backup your digital data ?
Unless you have a background in IT the chances are that the only time you have ever considered backups of your information was just after you found out you h...
For You Disappearing from iTunes after recent update
Last night my MacBook’s iTunes was updated with the latest release ( 12.2.1.16 ) and when it restarted I was prompted with the invitation to Join Apple Music...
How to Access Magazines on Zinio for Free
In the days before the Internet I was a regular magazine subscriber and the shelves in my home office used to groan under the weight of all those glossy page...
Calls To 0800 Numbers Free From Mobiles Starting 1st July (UK)
I just happened across this tidbit and though its not really Mac or Apple related I thought it was worth posting a quick note about it because I expect many ...
Capture Animated GIFs using free GifGrabber
GifGrabber is a free utility available from the App Store that lets you easily create animated GIFs by capturing a user definable area of the screen. It is t...
iOS
CarPlay in iOS 13
CarPlay in iOS 13 is a huge upgrade
How to add an item to specific Reminders list AND set a reminder time? - Ask Different
Siri: How to add an item to specific Reminders list AND set a reminder time? - Ask Different — Read on apple.stackexchange.com/questions/235719/siri-how-to-...
TextExpander Alternatives for Disgruntled Smile Customers
Over the last couple of days there has been a lot written about the Smile Software decision to move to a subscription model for version 6 of TextExpandermo...
Near Lock - Unlock your Mac with your iPhone or Apple Watch
Near Lock is a new pair of apps for iOS and OS X that allows you to unlock your Mac with your iPhone or Apple Watch. Once installed and configured the app ca...
Copied - Sync your clipboard for iOS and OS X
Copied has recently become one of my favourite apps for iOS and OS X. It is a slick and useful clipboard manager that makes cut/copy and paste on iPhone,iPad...
Game of the day - 2 Cars
One of my favourite quick-fix games at the moment is 2 Cars from Ketchapp. It is a very simple top to bottom scroller where the objective is to steer your ...
Swapping Between Hardware and On Screen Keyboards on iOS
I recently bought the excellent Logitech K380 Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard to share between my iPad, Work laptop and iPhone. It’s a great little keyboard...
More Problems with iOS 9.3 ?
It seems the recent reported problems with iOS 9.3 and older iPads isn’t the only issue with the latest release.
Microsoft to release curved keyboard for iOS
Ars technica has this interesting article about a planned new keyboard from Microsoft that will potentially make one handed typing on larger iPhones more pr...
Cycling
Boxing Day Or Is It
A belated Happy Christmas greeting to anyone unfortunate enough to be reading this blog, hope yours went as well as could be given the world in which we find...
Strava Artist Permalink
I have seen this guys Strava rides online before and am amazed at how he manages to “paint” pictures by cycling routes on Strava. Very cool.
Daily Post - 09/12/2020
Thoughts on VS Code as Jekyll/Github editor.
Recovery Day
Tour of the Bridge Towns
Sponsored bike ride - Cancelled
This weekend I was supposed to be taking part in a 65 mile sponsored bike ride from Stourbridge to Lydney in Gloucestershire as part of the 65th anniversary ...
A 50k Loop around Newport
Today I took a break from Zwift and headed out early to do a ride round the lanes near to home. I had planned a 50 loop on Komoot parts of which we familiar ...
Zwift Planning - Route Achievements
Over the last few weeks I have been working my way through the Zwift Achievements and so far have managed to complete 61% of the routes ( 46 out of 76 ), obv...
Zwift Knickerbocker Route Achievement
One more Zwift route complete tonight, this time the New York route Knickerbocker
Zwift Tron Bike at last !
Yesterday was a big day on Zwift for me. Finally after about 18 months of rides I passed the 50,000m climbing needed to be awarded the Zwift Concept Z1 bette...
Humour
Working from home - Apples take… Permalink
Fab spoof from Apple on the whole “working at home” thing… Must see.
ROFL
Shootout: Best Wireless In-Ear Charging Case Lid Sound Competition
Show Me Yours - A New Campaign Video from Liberty Human Rights Group
Show Me Yours is a wonderful tongue in cheek video featuring comedian Olivia Lee in which she is seen walking up to strangers in the street asking to see wh...
CassetteBoy vs Jeremy Hunt
[embed](https://youtu.be/uK7DRJx9nbU}
Spoof Letters Published In Metro Newspaper
This article from Mashable is a few days old so apologies if you have already seen it. Definitely worth a scan !
Say no to Pakisaurus - Hilarious Rant by Guzzy Bear
[embed]https://youtu.be/xd4ygI0GHV8[/embed]
iPhone
CarPlay in iOS 13
CarPlay in iOS 13 is a huge upgrade
iPhone unlocks - Flood gates holding up… For now…
Not at all surprising to hear reports coming through that there are buckets of iPhones being held by US authorities in readiness for the potential flood gat...
Microsoft to release curved keyboard for iOS
Ars technica has this interesting article about a planned new keyboard from Microsoft that will potentially make one handed typing on larger iPhones more pr...
Stocard - All your loyalty cards on your iPhone
One of my pet peeves is the number of plastic cards I have to carry in my wallet. Most of the time I tend to strip the contents to the essential debit cards ...
New Apple Force Touch Table
This is actually pretty cool looking….
Facebook App Draining iPhone Batteries
According to this articleon TechCrunch Facebook have confirmed that they are aware of a problem with their iOS app causing excessive battery drain even when...
Office 365
Daily Post - 08/12/2020
A day battling with Exchange Online mail rules and spam filters
Daily Post - 07/12/2020
MacBook Air Update
Customise the Office 365 encryption Message
Customize the Office 365 encryption Message
Customise Room Resource work hours in Office 365
I have recently started setting up Room Resources in our Office 365 tenant and quickly discovered that that rooms are only available Monday to Friday 08:00 t...
Adaptive Cards for Beginners
Teams and Flow
Wednesday 24 July 2019
##Microsoft Forms
Jekyll
Daily Post - 09/12/2020
Thoughts on VS Code as Jekyll/Github editor.
Updating Jekyll from iPad with Prose.io
So I setup this Jekyll blog a few months ago and as usual after getting it going I promptly let it languish. One of the issues I guess is that unlike Wordpre...
RSS Struggles
As is often the case when learning something new I have run into a problem and the fix for it is alluding me at the moment. In this case it is RSS feeds in J...
Minimal Mistakes Blogs
Now I have got a barebones Jekyll site running, DNS sorted and old Wordpress posts migrated its time to do a bit of personalisation. Like a lot of Jekyll blo...
Jekyll Go Live Day
UKMac.net is now live on Github Pages !
Moving to Jekyll!
After many years of on and off dabbling with Wordpress blogs I have decided to make the move to Jekyll and Github Pages for hosting. Jekyll is very different...
Mac Hardware
On How I Lost Then Found Trackpad Options in El Capitan
My normal approach when a new version of OS X is released is to backup ( create a Carbon Copy Cloner image of my main drive ) and then do a clean install ( ...
Kickstarter - Pixo magnetic Tablet Mount
The Pixo is an interesting looking Kickstarter project to create a magnetic mounting for iPads/tablets to attach to the side or top of your desktop screen/i...
They just don’t make ‘em like they used to
Macworld writer Christopher Phin takes a fond look back at what is probably one of the most iconic Macs ever made, the iMac G4. more>This was—and is—Ap...
Rumour - Ultra-thin 13” and 15” MacBooks due in June-July
Interestingrumour from MacRumors.com
TarDisk Pear - Grow your MacBook Hard drive !
A little while ago I looked at a device called the Nifty MiniDrive a neat little MicroSD card carrier that fits completely snuggly into the SD slot on MacBo...
Intune
Daily Post - 02/11/2020
Probably doomed to failure before I start but I am going to try and start a daily blog post again ( I know seen it before ! ).
What about Win 10 Pro ?
So I just came across another one of Microsofts seemingly arbitrary limitations in using policies to manage Windows 10. This one is another example where the...
Setting Lock Screen Wallpaper with InTune
Just found this article on the Lazy Administrator that describes how to enforce a Windows lock screen wallpaper on Windows 10 for all editions ( not just E...
Creating desktop shortcuts with Intune
I have previously setup a script to push simple shortcuts to Desktop with Intune but this guide from Nicolonsky Tech is much better. Will re-create mine usi...
Daily Log - Tuesday 23 July 2019
Powershell
Powershell
Customise the Office 365 encryption Message
Customize the Office 365 encryption Message
Customise Room Resource work hours in Office 365
I have recently started setting up Room Resources in our Office 365 tenant and quickly discovered that that rooms are only available Monday to Friday 08:00 t...
Setting Lock Screen Wallpaper with InTune
Just found this article on the Lazy Administrator that describes how to enforce a Windows lock screen wallpaper on Windows 10 for all editions ( not just E...
Powershell connection from MFA Account
This is a Microsoft guide I need to use fairly regularly ! Wish connection to Exchange Online and Sharepoint Online from Powershell was a little easier to co...
Daily Log - Tuesday 23 July 2019
Powershell
Microsoft
Daily Post - 09/12/2020
Thoughts on VS Code as Jekyll/Github editor.
Daily Post - 08/12/2020
A day battling with Exchange Online mail rules and spam filters
Daily Post - 07/12/2020
MacBook Air Update
Daily Post - 02/11/2020
Probably doomed to failure before I start but I am going to try and start a daily blog post again ( I know seen it before ! ).
Microsoft Surface Duo - Preorder Permalink
This actually looks pretty nice. Expensive but nice….
Apple Music
Apple warns HomePod users of potentially fatal iOS 13.2 flaw
Apple has pulled the latest HomePod update and is warning users not to reset their speaker, lest they render it inoperable.
Apple TV Updated - Search Apple Music with Siri
One of the big missing features of the new Apple TV was the inability to play music from Apple Music using Siri. Clearly Apple held this back for good reason...
Apple Music has 10M new subscribers but will they stay ?
According to many popular sites it is being reported that Apple Music has already reached 10 million subscribers ( Appleinsider ). This is of course an arti...
For You Disappearing from iTunes after recent update
Last night my MacBook’s iTunes was updated with the latest release ( 12.2.1.16 ) and when it restarted I was prompted with the invitation to Join Apple Music...
PowerApps
Add attachments in PowerApps
This Microsoft guide explains how to add attachments in a PowerApps form to a Sharepoint list.
Powershell connection from MFA Account
This is a Microsoft guide I need to use fairly regularly ! Wish connection to Exchange Online and Sharepoint Online from Powershell was a little easier to co...
Sunday 28 July 2019
##PowerApps
Monday 22 July 2019
##PowerApps
Daily Post
Daily Post - 09/12/2020
Thoughts on VS Code as Jekyll/Github editor.
Daily Post - 08/12/2020
A day battling with Exchange Online mail rules and spam filters
Daily Post - 07/12/2020
MacBook Air Update
Daily Post - 02/11/2020
Probably doomed to failure before I start but I am going to try and start a daily blog post again ( I know seen it before ! ).
Pictures
Fresh Background Wallpapers for your Mac
FreshBackMac is a small utility written by Arkanath Pathak, a Computer Science student from eastern India, that refreshes your Mac desktop wallpaper at regul...
Where can I buy one of these ?
iMac Desk Lamp
Security
Show Me Yours - A New Campaign Video from Liberty Human Rights Group
Show Me Yours is a wonderful tongue in cheek video featuring comedian Olivia Lee in which she is seen walking up to strangers in the street asking to see wh...
Near Lock - Unlock your Mac with your iPhone or Apple Watch
Near Lock is a new pair of apps for iOS and OS X that allows you to unlock your Mac with your iPhone or Apple Watch. Once installed and configured the app ca...
Hackers find way of breaking out of Apple’s sand box ( OS X and iOS )
Just this afternoon I was involved in a discussion about how hackers exploit the most difficult to find holes in operating systems, networks and hardware to ...
Apple TV
Apple TV Updated - Search Apple Music with Siri
One of the big missing features of the new Apple TV was the inability to play music from Apple Music using Siri. Clearly Apple held this back for good reason...
Amazon Removes Apple TV From Store
It seems that Amazon was serious with recent threats to pull ads for media streaming devices that don’t support their own Prime Video service from the Amazo...
New Apple TV Starts Shipping Next Week
The new Apple TV announced at last months iPhone and iPad Pro event is due to start shipping next week. UK pricing is still not available on the Apple site ...
Teams
Daily Post - 09/12/2020
Thoughts on VS Code as Jekyll/Github editor.
A huge pile of new Teams features !
What’s New in Microsoft Teams- Ignite 2019
Teams Tip - Zooming shared screen
How to zoom into a shared screen contents in Teams meeting
blog
Zwift Planning - Route Achievements
Over the last few weeks I have been working my way through the Zwift Achievements and so far have managed to complete 61% of the routes ( 46 out of 76 ), obv...
Zwift Knickerbocker Route Achievement
One more Zwift route complete tonight, this time the New York route Knickerbocker
Zwift Tron Bike at last !
Yesterday was a big day on Zwift for me. Finally after about 18 months of rides I passed the 50,000m climbing needed to be awarded the Zwift Concept Z1 bette...
Zwift
Zwift Planning - Route Achievements
Over the last few weeks I have been working my way through the Zwift Achievements and so far have managed to complete 61% of the routes ( 46 out of 76 ), obv...
Zwift Knickerbocker Route Achievement
One more Zwift route complete tonight, this time the New York route Knickerbocker
Zwift Tron Bike at last !
Yesterday was a big day on Zwift for me. Finally after about 18 months of rides I passed the 50,000m climbing needed to be awarded the Zwift Concept Z1 bette...
Photography
Dual Screen Wallpapers for Macs
Twelve South are a brand well known to Mac users for their laptop and iPhone/iPad stands amongst other products.
How to Take Funny Travel Photos - The Right Way
If you have a Facebook or Twitter account you can’t have missed seeing this article or one of the many variants reported all over the web in the last week o...
Apple
Animated History Of Steve Jobs
The team in the marketing department at Quartsoft have produced this lovely animated video timeline of Steve Jobs life. Click on this link to go to the Qua...
New Apple Force Touch Table
This is actually pretty cool looking….
Cyber Attacks
Louisiana declares emergency over cyberattacks targeting schools
Louisiana declares emergency over cyberattacks targeting schools
An Alternative Approach to Preventing Ransomware ?
The rise in the prevelance of Ransomware hasn’t really impacted on Mac Users as it has with the Windows community so far… moreOf course the Mac has benefit...
Komoot
Recovery Day
Tour of the Bridge Towns
A 50k Loop around Newport
Today I took a break from Zwift and headed out early to do a ride round the lanes near to home. I had planned a 50 loop on Komoot parts of which we familiar ...
Strava
Boxing Day Or Is It
A belated Happy Christmas greeting to anyone unfortunate enough to be reading this blog, hope yours went as well as could be given the world in which we find...
Recovery Day
Tour of the Bridge Towns
Apple Miscellany
iCloud Upgrade Day..
A long time coming but I have finally had to make the jump to the next level of iCloud storage ( 2TB ). The 200Mb subscription has lasted a while but has fin...
Flow
Adaptive Cards for Beginners
Teams and Flow
Edge
Edge Insider - New Tab for Enterprise
The latest Edge Insider release includes a new feature for users to configure the default new tab to include the Recommended and Recent sections from the def...
HomePod
Apple warns HomePod users of potentially fatal iOS 13.2 flaw
Apple has pulled the latest HomePod update and is warning users not to reset their speaker, lest they render it inoperable.
Airpods
New AirPods Pro noise cancellation
Ryan Block on AirPods Pro vs. Bose QuietComfort 35 Headphones
Gadgets
ROFL
Shootout: Best Wireless In-Ear Charging Case Lid Sound Competition
Wahoo
A 50k Loop around Newport
Today I took a break from Zwift and headed out early to do a ride round the lanes near to home. I had planned a 50 loop on Komoot parts of which we familiar ...
Surface
Microsoft Surface Duo - Preorder Permalink
This actually looks pretty nice. Expensive but nice….
Camphill Village Trust
Recovery Day
Tour of the Bridge Towns