How do you set up third-party messaging services on your Mac? Like this!

While many Mac owners primarily use Messages on macOS to chat with iMessage and even sometimes SMS, the app is capable of connecting to more services. You can link your Google, Yahoo, and AOL accounts to Messages and chat with your friends using the messaging systems built by those companies. Here’s how you do it.

How to set up a third-party message service in Messages

Open Messages.
Open Preferences.
Click the Accounts tab.

Hit the Add button. (Looks like a ’+’).
Choose the type of account you want to set up.

Hit Continue.
Enter account credentials.

Choose which apps will be able to use the account, making sure the Messages is checked.
Hit Done.

How to set up your Jabber account in Messages

If you have an account with the Jabber messaging service, you can use it with Messages just as you would any other account. However, adding it to Messages requires a couple additional steps compared to a standard…

If your Apple Watch won’t unlock your Mac, here are some fixes you can try!

When Auto Unlock works, it’s magical. You open or approach your Mac while wearing your Apple Watch and, instead of having to type in your — hopefully long, strong — password, it just logs you in. No fuss. No muss. But when it’s not working — anger, frustration, blame, recriminations, and having to type in that — hopefully long, strong — password. So what can you do when Auto Unlock doesn’t work?

Check your sets

It’s embarrassing, but it happens. Sometimes even though you’re sure you set up auto unlock right, something may be wrong. And there’s a lot of possibilities here:

Passcode set up and entered on your Apple Watch.
Login password set up on your Mac.
Two-factor authentication set up on your Apple ID.
Auto Unlock enabled in System Preferences on your Mac.
Read — and re-read — how to set up auto unlock on your Apple Watch and Mac

If you find a switch you forgot to flip, great! If not, let…

How do I change my Home button back to normal? Don’t worry; it’s easy!

iOS 10 brought a ton of changes with its release, one of the biggest being the change in the Home button’s behavior. You can now unlock your iPhone or iPad with Touch ID, just by resting your thumb or finger on the Home button (the Lock screen must be awake). If you don’t like it, you can turn it off! You can also change the intensity of the Home button’s click and change the speed for double- and triple-clicks. Here’s how!

How to disable Rest Finger to Open
How to change the click speed of the Home Button
How to change the Home Button’s click intensity

How to disable Rest Finger to Open

If your Lock screen is awake and you rest your thumb or finger on the Home button, your iPhone or iPad will automagically unlock. However, if you disable the option, you’ll have to rest your finger, then press the Home button.

If you go straight from a sleeping Lock screen, rest your finger for a second and press the Home bu…

The aluminum Apple Watch Series 2 is Apple’s best smartwatch: It’s not only a great fitness tracker and portable communicator, but improved battery life, a faster processor, and GPS may appeal to upgraders.

Update: Apple Watch NikeLab, a special edition variant of Apple Watch Nike+, is currently available directly from Nike. Space gray with a bone and black band, it’s otherwise identical to the standard Apple Watch Nike+.

Best overall

Aluminum Apple Watch Series 2

See at Apple

If you’re considering a smartwatch for your iPhone or want to upgrade from your ”Series 0” original-generation Apple Watch, the aluminum Apple Watch Series 2 is the best version of Apple’s smartwatch you can buy. It offers a great smartwatch experience with watchOS 3, stand-alone GPS tracking for outdoor workouts, ”swimproof” water resistance for all but the most grueling underwater activities, a much brighter OLED display, 5GB of storage space for on-the-go music, and better-than-ever integration with t…

How do I use Display Accommodations on iPhone? We can accommodate that question!

In iOS 10, inverting colors and implementing grayscale have all been consolidated under Display Accommodations in Accessibility, and Apple has added the ability to activate color filters to help people with even more types of color blindness.

Activating these filters is as easy as flipping a switch, so here we go!

Note: Display Accommodations are only available for iPhone 5s and later. For all models before, you’ll see a switch to enable grayscale and a switch to invert colors.

How to invert colors
How to reduce White Point
How to enable Color Filters
How to change Color Tint

How to invert colors

Inverting colors makes the iPhone or iPad screen easier on the eyes for people that are sensitive to brightness and helps make objects a little easier to see for some people with color blindness and low vision.

Launch Settings from your Home screen.
Tap General.
Tap Accessibility.

Tap Display Accommod…

With Handoff you can push, not just data, but also the state of activity between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Imagine having that for iTunes and Apple Music..

Handoff — the feature when you can start an activity on one device and continue it on another — was introduced a couple of years ago. Since then, we’ve gotten the ability to unlock our Macs with Apple Watch and authorize Apple Pay on the web with Touch ID on our iPhones. What we haven’t gotten is the ability to start listening to our playlist on Mac and then walk away and have it seamlessly switch to our iPhone. It would be great to be able to start watching The Flash on Apple TV and then, when you’re tired, take it with you to bed on your iPad. Maybe Apple’s working on something from iOS 10.1, iOS 10.2, or iOS 10.3. If not, I’d love to see handoff for iTunes as part of iOS 11

Handoff all the things

Continuity, which includes handoff, was a revelation. Instead of just syncing data, it synced activity — what you were worki…

Can I change the lugs on my Apple Watch? Heck yes, you can! And it’s pretty simple, too.

Friday, April 10, 2015, 2:01:33 a.m. – I’m sitting in an uncomfortable desk chair, anxiously jabbing at my iPhone’s forgiving glass screen. I’ve got the Apple Store app open, desperately trying to pre-order a 42mm Space Gray Apple Watch Sport. From the moment I laid eyes on that graphite-gray beauty, I knew I had to have it; I also knew it would be a tough get, given the popularity of uniquely-colored Apple products. Luckily, my finger-jabbing paid off — I had a Space Gray Apple Watch coming to me on launch day.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before my smug satisfaction began to falter. Apple occasionally releases new bands for its Watch line-up, but many of the ones I was most interested in pairing with my watch came with stainless steel lugs (the clasps that connect the band to the Apple Watch). Some folks can rock the look just fine, but to me, the clashing colors and steel finish were un…

Where are all the Mac updates?

Apple’s new MacBook has been updated in 2016, but the new MacBook Pros are nowhere to be found, and the Mac mini and Mac Pro haven’t seen updates in years. What’s going on with Apple’s Mac product lines? Gartenberg, Ritchie, and special guest Ben Bajarin discuss!

Listen now

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Show notes

Ben Bajarin on Techpinions
Why the Mac may be poised for double-digit market share
So where are all the 2016 Macs?
iPad Pro is the new Mac
Hosts

Ben Bajarin
Michael Gartenberg
Rene Ritchie
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