But Continuity does a lot more than just send phone calls to your Mac. In today's Apple Tip, I'll step through 7 top tricks to using Apple's new operating systems both together and separately. From having all of your photos available across all of you gadgets, or starting an app task on one gadget and finishing on another, there are a lot of cool things you can do with these new capabilities.
1. Handoff
Apple's Handoff feature allows you to seamlessly work on the same app and the same task on different Apple gear. For instance, if you started writing an email on your iPhone, you may now finish and send it from your iPad or Mac, provided they are within Bluetooth range of each other. Open a Safari webpage on one gadget and there it is available on your other devices.Handoff works with your native Apple apps like Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Maps, Messages, Notes, Reminders, Safari, Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Some third-party apps including New York Times and others are now or soon will be using Handoff.
To use Handoff, your Mac must have OS X Yosemite, and
your iOS devices must have iOS 8. All of your gadgets must have
Bluetooth turned on and be signed in to iCloud using the same Apple ID.
To turn on Handoff:
- On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click General, then select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.” (If you don’t see the option below “Recent items,” your Mac doesn’t support Handoff.)
- On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Go to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps, then tap to turn on Handoff. (If you don’t see the option, your iOS device doesn’t support Handoff.)
2. SMS text messages on your Mac
Apple's iMessage has long allowed you to message other
iPhone users from the iMessage app on your Mac. Now with OS X Yosemite
and an iPhone running iOS 8, you can send and receive SMS text messages
right from your Mac. So when friends text you, regardless of what brand
phone they are using, you can now read and reply from your Mac as well
as your iPhone.
All the messages that appear on your iPhone now show up
on your Mac, too, so your conversation is up to date on all your
devices. You can also start an SMS or iMessage conversation on your Mac
just by clicking a phone number in Safari, Contacts, Calendar, or
Spotlight. Group chats are now enabled, as well. Click Details to name a group chat, add or remove someone, and see friends who’ve shared their location on a map.
3. Make your pictures pop with Photos' powerful new edit tools
In last week's Apple Tip, 5 reasons you must update your iPhone or iPad now,
I mentioned as one of the reasons to upgrade was that Photos is now on
all of your iOS and OS X devices. I have been using Photos this week and
it really is amazing. If you've ever had to email photos from your
iPhone to your Mac when a sync cord wasn't handy, having all of your
iPhone pictures just instantly appear on your Mac is pretty incredible.
Also included in the new Photos are powerful new editing
tools to fine tune your pictures. Apple Photos edit tools are not on
the level of the professional standard, Adobe Photoshop, but it does
pack an all new punch. You can make precise edits by enabling the
histogram, adjusting levels, adding definition, and more.
Bonus Tip:
Want to email more than just a few of your favorite photos? Follow along
to see how you can now send up to 5GB of photos (or anything else) in
just one email right from your Apple Mail app.
4. Answer your iPhone on your Mac or iPad
As I mentioned above, some users are surprised when
their iPhone calls ring through on their Mac. This also works on
Wi-Fi-only (non-cellular) iPads. However, to use this feature, all of
your Apple gadgets must be on the same Wi-Fi network and signed in to
the same iCloud account.
Phone calls on your iPhone will appear in the upper
right corner of your Mac offering you the option to accept or decline.
To make a phone call on your Mac or iPad tap or click a phone number in
Contacts, Calendar, or Safari.
Bonus tip: Want to change your Mac’s default call ringtone? To set a different ringtone, choose FaceTime>Preferences, then click the Ringtone pop-up menu.
5. No Wi-Fi? No problem!
You can use Personal Hotspot on your iPhone to provide Internet access to your iPad or Mac. You'll need to sign in to iCloud using the same Apple ID as your iPhone. Also, your cell provider needs to support Personal Hotspot, but Apple's website lists 46 U.S. providers, including the majors, that support Apple's Hotspot.To get Internet access from your iPhone:
- On your iPad, go to Settings > Wi-Fi on your other iOS device and select your iPhone or other iPad that has a cellular connection.
- On your Mac, go to the Wi-Fi menu at the top of your screen and select your iPhone or iPad that has a cellular connection.
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6. Mail gets some great new features
A full resolution iPhone 6 photo can easily be as big as 3mb or more. Why does that matter? Many email systems will not accept email attachments over 10mb, meaning you can only send about 3 iPhone photos per message. Often your only options are to be very picky about which few photos you share, or bombard your relatives with lots of separate email messages, carrying only about three pictures each. And forget about emailing a video! Depending on the length, videos can span hundreds of megabytes, far too big to ever email. That is, until now.
Apple Mail now offers a way to send large attachments. Or maybe I should say huge, enormous, gargantuan attachments! You may now send attachments up to 5GB in size. How much is 5GB? How about thousands of photos, or at least 3 to 4 full HD movies! It is probably safe to say that 5GB email limit will cover just about anything you might need to send.
Apple calls this new feature Mail Drop and it is built right into Apple mail. Mail Drop automatically uploads the attachments to iCloud. If recipients use Mail in OS X Yosemite, the attachments are automatically downloaded and shown in the message. If recipients use other email apps, they will see a link to download the attachments from iCloud. Your attachments stay in iCloud for 30 days and they do not count against your iCloud storage limit.
Bonus tip: When scrolling through a long list of Mail messages, skip the mouse and use your space bar instead. Use Shift-Space bar to scroll up through email messages or Space bar to scroll down.
Another cool new feature in Apple Mail is called Mark Up. When
sending attachments, say photos or PDFs, you can now add notes, circles,
arrows or even your signature right on the file without having to open
it in another program.
7. Share your screen or see someone else's Mac screen
Besides all the topics on my national radio show, newsletters and this website, I also often get asked by family and personal friends for one-on-one tech support. Based on my experience, I know beyond a doubt that actually seeing the other person's screen or showing them how to do something on my screen cuts through 90% of the frustration of trying to explain something just verbally by phone.Now sharing your screen or requesting to see another user's screen is a cinch in Yosemite. The first step is to ensure that both you and the person you’re trying to share with are using Apple’s Messages app. Open your contact’s message window and select the Details button on the top right hand corner.
The Details button is circled in red below.
