macOS High Sierra For Dummies

• Alltop aggregates information from dozens of great Mac-oriented websites and makes it easy to skim headlines and story summaries. You can even build your own custom version that contains only sites you want to see. Feel free to use the Apple-oriented Alltop page.
• The Apple support site and Apple support communities are treasure troves of tech notes, software update information, troubleshooting tips, and documentation for most Apple products.
• Download.com, the site formerly known as VersionTracker, is the place to go to find freeware, shareware, and software updates for macOS. If this site doesn't have it, it probably doesn't exist.
• Macworld describes itself as, "Your best source for all things Apple," and it's not far from the truth. Macworld is especially strong for comparative reviews of Mac and iPhone/iPad products. If you want to find out which inkjet printer or digital camera is the best in its price class, Macworld.com probably has feature comparison charts and real-world test results.
• The Mac Observer offers insightful opinion pieces in addition to the usual Apple news and product reviews. The quality and depth of the writing at The Mac Observer is superior to most other sites covering the Apple beat.
• TidBITS bills itself as "Apple news for the rest of us," but there's much more to TidBITS than just the news. You can also find thoughtful commentary, in-depth analysis, and detailed product reviews, written and edited by pros who really know the Apple ecosystem.
• Six Colors is Jason Snell's latest venture. The former lead editor for Macworld (for over a decade), he and his team provide daily coverage of Apple, other technology companies, and the intersection of technology and culture. It's only been around for a few years, but the writing is strong, opinionated, and fun to read.
• Other World Computing is a favorite maker of accessories and peripherals for Macs. They have a wide array of storage upgrade kits and memory upgrades that are guaranteed for life.
• DealMac is the place to shop for deals on Mac stuff. With a motto like "How to go broke saving money," this site is often the first to find out about sale prices, rebates, and other bargain opportunities on upgrades, software, peripherals, and more.
• Working Smarter for Mac Users is here, frankly, because one more site was needed to make ten. So visit the home of my productivity-oriented blog and discover my vision of how to use your Mac to work smarter, which means better, faster, or more elegantly.

1. Sign in to the same iCloud account on all of your devices.
2. Turn on Bluetooth on all the devices you want to use. Make sure your devices are near each other. In this case, near means, in the same room, preferably within a few feet of each other.
3. Connect all your devices to the same Wi-Fi network.
4. Use one of the aforementioned apps on one of your devices. For the sake of this example, start a new presentation in Keynote on the Mac. When Keynote is open on your Mac, you'll see a tiny Keynote icon on your iDevice's Lock screen.
5. Swipe up from the bottom-left edge of the Lock screen, where you see the icon. Keynote launches on your iPhone, and you see the presentation you started on your Mac, ready for you to continue working on it.

• On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch: Tap Settings→General→Handoff & Suggested Apps, and turn off Handoff.

• On your Mac: Open System Preferences, click the General icon, and uncheck Allow Handoff.

How to use Personal Hotspot

1. Sign into iCloud using the same Apple ID used on the cellular iDevice.
2. Tap Settings→Wi-Fi and select the name of the iPhone or iPad with the Personal Hotspot.

1. Click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar.
2. In the menu that appears, select the name of your iPhone or iPad with the cellular connection.

How to make phone calls with Continuity

1. Sign in to the same iCloud account on all your devices, including your Mac.
2. Make sure all devices are on the same Wi-Fi network.
3. Make sure all devices are signed in to FaceTime using the same iCloud account. This means that any device using this Apple ID for FaceTime will receive your phone calls. See the instructions for turning off iPhone cellular calling later in this section to disable phone calls on a device.
4. Tap Settings→Phone. If you see Wi-Fi Calling, turn it off.

• Tap or click a phone number in Contacts, Calendar, or Safari, or tap a phone number from a recent contact in the multitasking display of iDevices.
• To answer a call on your iPad or iPod touch, just swipe to answer.
• On a Mac you'll see a notification when you receive a call on your iPhone. You can then click to answer the call, send it to voicemail, or send the caller a message.
• To disable iPhone cellular calls on your iPad or iPod touch, tap Settings→FaceTime→Calls from iPhone and then tap the switch to disable it.

SMS and Continuity

• My first line of defense, of course, is Sierra's excellent Time Machine. There's no excuse not to use it. But although Time Machine maintains multiple copies of files, they're all stored on the same disk. If something's worth backing up to one place, it's worth backing up three times.
• And so, in addition to Time Machine, I use the excellent CrashPlan (free for local backups; $5 per month for unlimited cloud storage). I might use it to back up my Documents folder four times a day to two different hard drives. It also backs up my Home folder continuously to yet another hard drive, so every time I make a change to a document, the backup copy is updated in real time. Finally, it backs up my Home folder over the Internet to the CrashPlan cloud-based servers. Best of all, it does all that for a mere $5 per month.
• Every night at midnight, Carbon Copy Cloner ($39.99) clones (duplicates) my startup disk to another hard drive, which provides me a bootable backup I can use with almost any other Mac.
• Finally, I enable iCloud Desktop & Documents to synchronize current projects among several Macs and my iPhone and iPad, giving me even more backup copies of my most important files.