Despite my long history as a Mac user, I recently had an embarrassing encounter with a TouchBar MacBook Pro – the machine had frozen, and I wanted to do a force restart. While this should have been completely simple, I couldn’t work it out!

Eventually, I managed to sort it out, but thought it would be wise to share it with you, in case you end up in the same situation.

The freeze happened when upgrading the MacBook Pro to one of the macOS High Sierra betas. I went through the installation as per usual, but the MacBook Pro ended up stuck in a loop of rebooting, before showing the login screen. I shrugged, entered my login details, and everything seemed OK.

Not long after, I noticed the screen of the MacBook Pro was stuck on a loading bar. I gave it some time, but after waiting for almost 30 minutes, I got impatient and thought I’d better force reboot and try again.

All previous Macs that I’ve used in recent years have had a simple way to perform a force reboot—all you needed to do was hold down the power button and the laptop would force shut down. Since the power button had a similar function on older Mac versions (i.e. shutting down and turning on the machine), I started looking around for the MacBook Pro’s power button…

(The MacBook Pro’s (near) invisible Touch Bar power button.)

Can you see it? It wasn’t visible to me! Even after using this MacBook Pro for months, I had never bothered with the power button – the computer would wake from sleep whenever it was opened, and would quietly go back to sleep when closed. Thinking about it now, it must have been turned on at some point, but I had just forgotten about it!

The key, quite literally, is to look at the Touch Bar’s right end, where the Touch ID button is located – this Touch ID sensor is actually the power button as well. This was obvious once you know, but I had never noticed due to just thinking of it as the login key, using Touch ID.

In the end, all that was required to force reboot a MacBook Pro was to push and hold down this Touch ID button.

I think this is a clear example of where the simplistic design of Apple might have accidentally made something more confusing intially (as a suggestion, perhaps they could have added a power symbol somewhere on, or near, the Touch ID button?). The only documented hint that suggests that the Touch ID button is doubling as the power button is hidden within a support document about accessibility features of the Touch Bar.

We might just be stupid, but hopefully sharing this will help someone else avoid the trouble we had!

Do you share our shame at not knowing which button on our Mac was the power button, or maybe have run into something similar? Help us out, let us know what simple problems you’ve been stumped by!

Outlined in this article are some of the most important new features of iOS 11 in case you need some motivation to upgrade. These are just some of the features, but we think they’ll make clear just how big an update iOS 11 is – especially for the iPad.

• The Files App

(The Files App: iOS 11’s “Finder”.)

One of the most noticeable things in beta testing OS 11 was the Files app – it’s basically bringing the macOS Finder to iOS, and finally giving you full control over your files. Once you have added all your cloud services such as Box, iCloud Drive, Adobe Creative Cloud and Dropbox, you can use the Files app to search through browse all your files, on all of these. This new control over your files is available from within other iOS apps, shared between your other iOS devices, and on your local device, all thanks to the Files app.

• QuickType Keyboard

(QuickType Keyboard.)

In an attempt to make typing on your iOS device much faster, especially for iPads, this new keyboard (see screenshot above) displays numbers, letters, and symbols at the same time as the alphabet. For example, rather than switching to the ‘numbers and symbols’ keyboard, in iOS 11 you can type the “&” symbol by simply flicking down on the “F” key – you can see above that this key also displays a grey “&”.

This feature might seem strange, or take a little bit of time to get used to, but it makes typing on the iPad pro much faster when using the built-in software keyboard.

• The Dock

 This is a feature of the big iPads, not so much the phones. If you have used a Mac before, then you’re probably familiar with the idea of the Dock. It’s basically a shelf for your most used, and most recently used, apps that fades away when you are using an app, but can be brought right up by swiping from the bottom of the screen. It helps you to switch easily between apps and also makes opening new apps quicker. You can drag whatever apps you want onto its left hand side, and your most recently used apps are displayed on the right hand side for easy access.

• Multitasking

 (It’s also possible to place Slide Over items on the screen’s left side.)

Have you ever opened an app on your iPad and wanted to have another available at the same time? This feature was introduced earlier in iOS via Split View and Slide Over, but it has been made even better in iOS 11.

Now, to add a second app to your screen, you can bring up the dock, tap and hold on the app you want to add, then drag it to the side of the screen that you want it to go (refer to the image above).

That’s it! Two apps side by side.

• The Reformulated Control Center and App Switcher

(The new App Switcher (to the left) and the new Control Center (to the right) with the Dock at the bottom.)

In addition to bringing up the Dock, the gesture described earlier will also display the new Control Center and App Switcher (see image above). New to iOS 11 is the ability to choose which widgets show up in Control Center, and the App Switcher displays thumbnails of your most recently used apps, and their current state.

• Drag and Drop

Drag and drop is a feature that has been on the Mac since day one, and is now finally integrated into iOS. To clarify, ‘Drag and Drop’ is when you select one or more items, with one or more fingers, then drag them to a different part of the screen, or different app, before releasing, to move things around. This is a huge change, as it means you can pick something up from one app, and drop it into another app, simply and easily. As you might be able to imagine, it really shines when using Split View on your iPad – you can pick up a photo from an email, and drop it straight into a message, all without moving between screens.

• Text Recognition and Document Scanner in Notes

(iOS 11’s new document scanning function in Notes.)

This one might be hidden away, but is amazing! The Notes app has received a lot of good updates over the years, but this one takes it to the next level (refer to screenshot above). Basically, the Notes app will now recognize text that you ‘scan’ using your device’s camera, and even handwritten notes, and will convert that text so it can be searched. If you’re someone who has ever wanted to scribble a note on a piece of paper, take a photo of it, and be able to find it again later by searching for whatever it was you wrote down, the Notes app can now do that.

Instant Markup with an Apple Pencil

Like many of the features mentioned here, this one is most useful on the iPad Pro. The first part of the feature means that when you take a screen shot in iOS 11, it will appear on left side of the screen of your iOS device for some time. This is an improvement over how it used to work – new screen shots would be hidden away in your camera roll, and you’d have to do some digging to find them. In addition to this little change, you can now also pick up your Apple Pencil and start marking up the screenshot right then, as soon as you take it, from the screen shot itself – no other apps required.

Even when you don’t have an Apple Pencil, this new ability can still be super useful. If you’ve ever wanted to quickly, visually express something on your iOS device to someone – maybe helping a friend find a button, or showing a family member how to use an app – you can now take a screenshot, tap on it to edit it, crop it, and, if need be, add callouts, and send it on, all from the popup. The icing on the cake is that, once you have sent the screenshot, you can choose to save it to your device, or you can just discard it. This should help those of us with a photos album full of old, often-accidental, screenshots on our phone!

• Other Amazing Features
  • While not yet much of a thing here in Australia, it will soon be possible for people to send money to someone using Apple Pay on your iOS device. This is an interesting feature, which should make splitting bills, or paying back friends much easier.
  • New filters have been added to the camera, and your device will now save photos in the brand new HEVC and HEIF formats, which allow you to have the same amount of high-quality photos and videos, in a lot less storage space.
  • Siri now performs translations (English to Spanish, Mandarin, German, Italian or French).
  • The iOS 11 App Store has been updated, making it much easier to discover new apps, and giving developers more options for providing good descriptions of their apps.

These are just some of the big things that we like about iOS 11, but the best way for you to check it out is to upgrade your device! Try it out, and let us know what you think.

MacOS High Sierra has been out for a while – your Mac has probably been bugging you to upgrade – and it also went through a long public beta process. Fortunately for us, this means that there are relatively few bugs to worry about. That said, we so want to caution against assuming that upgrading your computer’s OS to High Sierra is necessarily a simple and straightforward experience. While testing the Beta, and running our own upgrades, we ran into some issues…

Luckily for you, there’s no need for you to go through the same experience we did, so we felt it would be helpful to share some useful tips as to some things you should do before upgrading your computer to macOS High Sierra, or really, any new version of MacOS.

1. Have a Bootable Backup Available
   We cannot overemphasise the need to always have and keep up-to-date backups – in addition to ensuring you don’t lose your files in the case of some sort of catastrophic computer failure, a bootable backup is always a good thing to have, especially given that there will be a big upgrade to a new version of macOS once a year. These are enough reason to ensure your backups are constantly up to date. As an aside, or consolation, for those of you without a bootable backup, there is a bootable section included in your Mac’s recovery partition if you ever get into real strife – you don’t need to worry about this, as your Mac just takes care of it for you, but it’s good to know it’s there if you ever need it.

If, for any reason you encounter problems with your High Sierra upgrade, you might get to the point where the only option left for you is to boot your device from your backup drive in recovery mode, clean your Mac’s boot drive, and then install a fresh version of macOS Sierra or macOS High Sierra onto your Mac’s boot drive.

Some very good backup utilities used in getting your bootable backups good to go include SuperDuper! by Shirt Pocket Software, and Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich Software. These utilities are worth having, and we highly recommend them. Carbon Copy Cloner has just been upgraded to its new version 5 which provides a new user interface with faster operation – this is also the only backup utility that can help to back up the recovery partition. (See image below)

(Carbon Copy Cloner Version 5’s new user interface.)

2) Make sure macOS 10.12 Sierra Is Up-To-Date
Generally, we would assume you have been regularly updating your Mac each time a new update is made available. If you haven’t, this would be a good time to click on the Mac App Store icon in your dock, hit the update tab and check if you have any updates ready to install. The most recent version, as of writing this at the end of 2017, is 10.12.6. You can confirm the version number of your OS by selecting about this mac from the Apple menu (see image below)

(About This Mac shows that this iMac is running 10.12.6.)

3) Update Your Mac Apps

We should also stress the importance of ensuring your Mac apps are up-to-date. A lot of developers make use of the time between Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference in June and the release of a new version of macOS sometime in September or October, to make sure their device is completely compatible with the new version of the OS.

We know it is a lot more difficult to keep your Mac apps updated than it is your iPhone apps, as result of the fact that not all the apps on your Mac devices were purchased from the Mac App Store – some were purchased directly from the developer’s or a vendor’s websites. Most applications have a built-in way of checking for updates. For example, the popular TextExpander app has a ‘check for update’ item under the TextExpander menu, while some other apps automatically check for updates anytime you start your computer, or the app. Further, there are some apps like Google Chrome that do not check for updates, but rather just update the app automatically anytime an update is available, without you needing to worry about it. If there are any third-party apps that you rely on, it’s worth checking out their websites to see if the developer has released an update to make it compatible with macOS High Sierra, or if there are any known issues.

4) Disable Login/Startup Items before the Upgrade

We usually have apps that we use frequently, as a result we enable them to start up automatically any time we start up/login to our Macs. This is can pose a problem.

When we updated our machines to macOS High Sierra, the computer prompted us to upgrade, we agreed, and the installation process ran fairly well. The only thing that made us suspect something was awry were some pauses that made us wonder if everything was OK. We let the installer do its thing, and were finally able to restart, and login.

It was at this point that things started messing up. We could see our startup items popping up on the display, but after a while two worrying things happened: the screen was obscured by a dark translucency, and we could not make use of the keyboard or mouse.

We then realised this was as a result of a screenshot utility that had installed. The developers of that app have not been updating it consistently, and it was clear that something was happening during login that would start the app in a “full-screenshot mode”, this meant that it greyed out the display, and locked out the keyboard and mouse. Luckily, there is a way to prevent something similar from happening to you.

Some apps have the inbuilt option of starting up at login while others can be found under System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items. It is always good to take note of the apps that load automatically during login, and disable them from doing so before doing an upgrade, while leaving those added by Apple. Once you are done with the upgrade you can start adding them back from your notes. This could have saved us some panic!

5) Consider Waiting A Little While before installing macOS High Sierra

One last thing, unless you have a very urgent need to install macOS High Sierra – or any new version of macOS – immediately as it is made available, I would suggest you consider waiting a while, at least for a few days, before you install the update.

Apple usually tests its operating systems thoroughly with both developers and public beta testers, but once in a while an upgrade may sneak through that causes some significant issues for quite a number of users. You’re probably safe by now to install if you want to – just make sure you follow the steps above!

So think carefully before you carry out an upgrade. It is advisable you wait a day or two to check if others are having issues before you go ahead and try it out. If it seems like only a handful of people are having after a few days, then it should be pretty safe to upgrade your Mac.

Have you got any upgrade horror stories, or tips to avoid them? Let us know!

Other World Computing announced today the availability of new Aura Pro X SSDs, integrating the latest NVME and 3D MLC for exceptional power efficiencies while delivering superior data performance of up to 1600MB/s. The Aura family of drives has always been there as the best way to upgrade flash equipped Macs with storage space to spare. Now, with up to 2.3X faster performance, up to 16x the capacity, and with improved power efficiency for longer battery life, the new Aura Pro X line of SSDs takes everything to a brand new level.

Innovative, Dependable, and Designed for Mac first
As with all OWC SSDs, the Aura Pro X supports and enables all of the advanced features of APFS and Apple’s latest MacOS 10.13 ‘High Sierra’ including strong encryption, copy-on-write metadata, space sharing, cloning for files and directories, snapshots, fast directory sizing, atomic safe-save primitives, and improved file system fundamentals.

Aura Pro X SSDs will begin with immediate availability in capacities of 240GB to 1.0TB. Deliveries of the 2.0TB capacity version are expected in mid-November/Q4 2017.

Availability and Pricing
The Aura Pro X1 line debut includes:

• 240GB OWCS3DAPB4MB02
• 480GB OWCS3DAPB4MB05
• 1TB OWCS3DAPB4MB10
• 2TB OWCS3DAPB4MB20

The new Aura Pro X SSDs support more than 50 million Macs in the field, including:

• MacBook Air (Mid 2013 – 2017)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, Late 2013 – Mid 2015)
• Mac Pro (Late 2013 to current)

“When we introduced our first Aura SSDs over 7 years ago, they were a groundbreaking first – the first of many firsts for this line up. Meeting the specialized design needs of specific Mac models, an Aura upgrade is the solution that gives users appreciably more space to create and work and extends the life and capabilities of that Mac you already have,” says Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO of OWC. “Aura SSDs’ sizable capacity and performance provides users a great option to manage and improve efficiency in their workflow, giving them the ability to store and edit vast video, photo and audio libraries, keeping that content secure and intact without the hassle and expense of purchasing a brand new computer. At OWC, we are proud to continue the tradition of helping customers maximize their Macs with our latest, this new line of Aura Pro X SSDs.”

For users who do not want to upgrade to macOS 10.13 High Sierra, the original Aura line of SSDs is still available for purchase.

An easy DIY upgrade
Replacing the PCIe-based flash drive in a Mac can be as simple as removing a few screws. OWC’s free comprehensive video installation guides mean an OWC expert is alongside every step of the way.

Aura SSDs are designed in Austin, TX, and are backed by a 5-year warranty as well as a lifetime of free, award-winning U.S.-based support.

Apple was the first company to bring the graphical user interface and mouse to the masses with the original Mac, and today it’s rare to find any sort of personal computer without a pointing device. There’s only one problem with that; every time you have to take your hands off of the keyboard to click a mouse, tap a screen or swipe a touchpad, you’re interrupting your typing. Here are 15 macOS keyboard shortcuts that can help keep your hands on the keyboard and improve your productivity.

Note that we’re not going to detail the standard copy, cut and paste keyboard shortcuts — ⌘ + C, ⌘ + X, and ⌘ + V — under the assumption that most people already know how to use these.

1) Spotlight Search: Command ( ⌘ ) + space bar

This is the quickest way to bring up the Spotlight search bar on your Mac (see screenshot below). When it appears, start typing the name of a Mac app and it will attempt to auto-complete. Once the app name is in the Spotlight search bar, press Return to launch it.

(The Spotlight search bar.)

2) Close Window: Command ( ⌘ ) + W

While in an open app window or document, typing ⌘ + W closes that window. This is useful in most Mac apps, and can be used to close an open document without quitting the app completely. While using Safari, this command key combo closes the tab you’re currently viewing.

3) Hide or Show the Dock: Command ( ⌘ ) + Option + D

Sometimes it’s handy to hide the Dock, particularly when you’re using a MacBook with its smaller screen real estate. Try doing this with the traditional method of launching System Preferences, clicking on Dock and selecting “Automatically hide and show the Dock”, and you’ve wasted precious seconds. Instead, just type ⌘ + Option + D and watch the Dock disappear (or reappear if you had hidden it previously).

4) Open iCloud Drive from the Finder: Command ( ⌘ ) + Shift + I

Want to browse your iCloud Drive without having to click on the Finder icon in the Dock, opening a Finder window, then clicking on the iCloud Drive icon? While the Finder is active (Finder is listed in the Mac’s menu bar), type ⌘ + Shift + I and a Finder window opens with a view right into iCloud Drive.

5) Empty Trash with no confirmation: Command ( ⌘ ) + Shift + Option + Delete

Does the Trash can overflowing with crumpled paper tweak your OCD tendencies? Instead of clicking on the Trash can, holding down the mouse button, and selecting Empty Trash — and then responding to the confirmation window (see screenshot below) — here’s a quick way to send everything to the dump. Just type ⌘ + Shift + Option + Delete while the Finder is active and you can empty the trash.

6) Zoom in or out of a Safari window: Command ( ⌘ ) + Plus Sign ( + ) or Command ( ⌘ ) + Minus Sign ( – )

Ever been to a website that uses really small type? Zoom in on it by pressing ⌘+ (see screenshot below), or zoom out again by using ⌘-.

(Zoomed in all the way on the Apple Home Page.)

7) Force Quit an application: Command ( ⌘ ) + Option + Esc

Every once in a while you may get an app that shows the old “beach ball” and is not responding. Rather than mousing over to the Apple menu to pull up Force Quit, just type ⌘ + Option + Esc and the Force Quit dialog appears. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll up and down the list until you’ve highlighted the misbehaving app, then press the return key.

8) Get details on any word: Command ( ⌘ ) + Control + D

You’d be surprised how helpful this shortcut is, particularly if you are a writer. In macOS X High Sierra, hover your cursor over a word (sorry, but you will need to use your mouse for this…), then type ⌘ + Control + D. This brings up a floating window that usually displays the dictionary definition of the word, but also includes tabs for Siri search results, and items in the iTunes Store or videos on the web that may be related to the word (see screenshot below).

(Press Command + Control + D over while hovering over any word to get details.)

9) Finder QuickView: Space bar

It always surprises me how many Mac users are unaware of QuickView in the macOS Finder. Select an item in the Finder by clicking on it, then press the space bar. Regardless of the type of file, QuickView displays it in detail in a window without launching an app. For an image file, it displays the image and offers to open it in Preview, while something created in a particular application (a Pages document, for example) displays the preview and provides a button for opening it in that app.

10) Jumping / selecting words while working with text: Option / Cmd / Shift + Arrow keys

While working in any text editor or word processing application, hold down the Option key and press a left/right arrow key to jump one word left/right. Option and the up arrow key takes you to the beginning of the paragraph, while Option and the down arrow takes you to the end of the paragraph.

In any line, hold Command ( ⌘ ) and press the left or right arrow key to go to the beginning or end of that line of text. ⌘ + up arrow takes the cursor to the top of the document; ⌘ + down arrow takes it all the way to the end of the document.

Finally, to select words without using your mouse or trackpad, hold down the shift key while using one of the Option or Command + arrow key shortcuts described here.

11) Open Desktop Folder: Command ( ⌘ ) + Shift + D

Need to look into your desktop folder to see what all you have on your Mac desktop? With the Finder active, press ⌘ + Shift + D to open the Desktop folder.

12) Open Documents Folder: Command ( ⌘ ) + Shift + O

In the Finder, pressing ⌘ + Shift + O opens the Documents folder (see screenshot below):

(Get a quick view of the Documents folder with ⌘ + Shift + O.)

13) Open Utilities: Command ( ⌘ ) + Shift + U

Need to call up Disk Utility, Activity Monitor, Keychain Access, Terminal or any of the other useful utilities in the Applications > Utilities folder? Open that folder in the Finder with ⌘ + Shift + U.

14) Switch through apps without using a mouse/trackpad: Command ( ⌘ ) + Tab

This is one of the most useful keyboard shortcuts if you need to quickly switch to one app while in another. Press ⌘ + Tab to bring up the Application Switcher (see screenshot below), which shows all currently apps currently open on the Mac. Pressing the Tab key repeatedly while holding down the ⌘ key moves through the apps one by one; ⌘ + Shift + Tab moves through the Application Switcher in the opposite direction.

15) Select All: Command ( ⌘ ) + A

This is a huge timesaver if you need to select all of the text, images, or files and folders in any window, as ⌘ + A selects everything. That’s how it’s possible to take this entire post (written in a text editor), select and copy it, and then paste it into the blog editor.

Author: Steve Sande – OWC

Apple’s intelligent assistant — Siri — received a bit of an update during the recent upgrade from macOS 10.12 Sierra to macOS 10.13 High Sierra. While the improvements aren’t earth-shattering, they do make using Siri on the Mac more enjoyable and productive. Here are the major changes that we’ve found in Siri while using macOS High Sierra.

More Natural-Sounding Voices
When you’re having a conversation with a virtual assistant in your Mac, it’s nice to have that assistant sound like a human assistant. Apple worked on making the voices for Siri much more expressive, with a faster cadence of responses as well.

The default voice for Siri — American (Female) — is probably the best and most realistic voice, although the male voice is also better than before. The biggest change is that Siri is now able to change intonation and emphasis based on what it is saying.

Type To Siri
Sometimes it’s inconvenient to talk to Siri, like when you’re in a meeting or doing research in a library. Fortunately, Siri in macOS High Sierra will now accept typed questions.

When Type to Siri is activated, you are no longer able to talk to Siri until you deactivate the feature. To activate Type to Siri, launch System Preferences on your Mac, click the Accessibility button, and then check the “Enable Type to Siri” box (see screenshot below).

When enabled, the Siri input window (which appears in the upper right side of the Mac screen) now shows a flashing cursor in front of the words “Type to Siri” (see screenshot below).

(How Siri responds when Type to Siri is enabled.)

Siri still responds verbally, so your attempts at being quiet will be for naught unless you have your Mac’s sound output set to go to a headset or AirPods. One other thing to remember: when activated from a headset, Siri will continue to beep and listen for voice input.

Siri: Your Automated DJ
Siri has been designed in High Sierra to work better with your music, especially if you are a subscriber to Apple Music. As you listen to Apple Music, Siri learns your preferences and will offer recommendations. For example, you can say “Play something mellow” or “Play more songs like this one” and Siri responds accordingly.

Siri can also play Apple Music stations, so a command like “Play my 70s station” will give you a never-ending string of hits from groups like Pink Floyd, The Allman Brothers Band, The Who and Led Zeppelin.

To help Siri get a feel for the songs or groups you like the most from Apple Music, just click the Siri button in the Dock or menu bar, and say “I like this song”.

From OWC Blog – Author: Steve Sande

The OWC Aura SSDs For Mid-2013 & Later MacBook Air, MacBook Pro with Retina are available now from the Macfixit Australia store. It is the first and only PCIe-based flash storage upgrade for Mid 2013 and Later Apple MacBook Air as well as MacBook Pro with retina display computers. The new Aura SSD emanates from over two years of research and development and it is believed to offer a unique upgrade for users of the more recent MacBook Pros as well as MacBook Airs.

Highlighted below are its features;

• 480GB and 1.0TB capacity options
• Capacity is about 8 times that of Apple factory SSD
• Tier 1 PCIe-based flash having 7% over-provisioning
• Upgrade kits comprise all tools as well as an OWC Envoy Pro drive enclosure that is used for data migration and for repurposing original Apple SSD
• 24×7 support that enables users to upgrade the flash themselves
• 30-day money back guarantee
• Three years warranty

Improved Factory Capacity
The SSD has about 8 times the stock and double the factory capacity through its 480GB and 1.0TB options. This gets rid of the worry and stress of buying a new computer with higher capacity SSD flash drive.

Complete Upgrade Solution
The OWC Aura SSD also come with upgrade kits which make it easy to replace the drive in the MacBook Pro with Retina display or MacBook Air. The upgrade solution also comprise free, comprehensive install videos and top-notch customer support.

No Complicated Hacks
OWC SSDs are advantageous because there will be no need to compromise one’s data by depending on complex software hacks or TRIM enablers to enjoy the best service from the upgrade.

Top-Notch Quality Is the Priority
The Aura PCIe-based flash upgrades that come with quality, tier-1 NAND flash memory that provides about 8 times the capacity upgrade offered by the original factory drive. Since the OWC SSDs are originally meant for Mac, and have excellent technologies for enhanced performance which include error correction, cell-level refresh as well as global wear-leveling algorithms.

Repurpose the Apple Factory SSD
All Aura SSD upgrade kits include the award-winning OWC Envoy Pro, a high-performance enclosure designed to reimagine your Mac’s original drive as a lightning-fast external storage solution. 

Availability and Pricing
OWC Aura SSD for 2013 and Later Macs can be ordered at Macfixit Australia OWC SSD Page. The price for the OWC Aura Upgrade Kits as well as the tools and Envoy pro enclosure include:

• $619.99 for 480GB model – OWCSSDAB2MB05K
• $959.99 for the 1TB model. OWCSSDAB2MB10K

The drive only options are:

• $529.99 for the 480GB model – OWCSSDAB2MB05
• $869.99 for the 1TB model – OWCSSDAB2MB10

The OWC Dual Boot Enabler for Apple Boot Camp has been announced by OWC Digital, adding Boot Camp in support to some of their OWC marquee products. This includes the award-winning Aura SSD along with the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro w/Retina display.

Boot Camp allows users to partition their drive and install Microsoft Windows directly to their Mac. This enables simultaneous use of Windows while providing a straightforward transition between both operating systems. While most OWC products support Boot Camp, this addresses the incompatibility issues that a few of the solid state drives were experiencing, but no longer.

OWC Digital offers a free download that eliminates this particular barrier with a simple, pivotal solution that Gizmodo called “hands-down fantastic”. The OWC drives have augmented their overall function and effectiveness by the inclusion of Boot Camp. Thanks to the OWC enabler, users can now install Windows with the following products along with the SSDs that already support Boot Camp.

• OWC Aura SSD, MacBook Air & MacBook Pro w/Retina Display
• OWC Aura SSD for Mac Pro
• Mercury Accelsior E2

The Gold Stevie Award-winning storage upgrade for Macbook Pro Retina 2013 and later builds upon its unparalleled value which offers the opportunity to expand upon the use of their computers that did not exist before. With eight times more capacity that reaches up to 1TB, those who want Boot Camp capabilities can enjoy the first and only PCIe-based flash storage upgrade for 2013 and later Mac Laptops.

In addition, the Mac Pro models of OWC Aura SSD is available in 1TB, 2,TB, and 4TB capacities. This will add Boot Camp to the internal capacity upgrade that is 16 times the factory drive. In addition to the higher performance and overall capacity, this will create even more possibilities for content creators who use recent Mac Pro models.

Also, the PCIe-based Mercury Accelsior E2 is now part of the OWC SSD line which is compatible with Boot Camp. Delivering over 800MB/sec speeds and enhanced storage expansion flexibility of the eSATA that goes up to 1TB, the Mercury Accelsior E2 gets even more out of older computers that offer PCIe slots thanks to the Boot Camp.

“Ever since the company’s beginning, OWC has been customer-driven, and the introduction of OWC Dual Boot Enabler for Apple Boot Camp is just a recent example,” said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO of OWC. “In pursuit of continual improvement towards excellence with each and every OWC product, we will work to continue OWC’s dedication to giving customers the freedom to do more with their Mac.”

The OWC Dual Boot Camp Enabler which is designed for Apple Boot Camp is compatible with all versions of OS supported by the affected computers. The OWC Dual Boot Enabler for Apple Boot Camp is now available as free download which you can find on OWCdigital.com. Users can choose to uninstall the enabler afterwards if you only need to use it for setup purposes. Or, you can leave it installed since it uses no memory or other resources within the system.

Backup Your iOS Devices

There are many ways to backing up Mac devices, including the built-in Time Machine app (in OS X). Online Cloud services are important for backing up, especially for a redundant backup strategy. Bootable backups are a way to get your Mac running again in case of a primary drive failure. As for the iOS devices, however, we have three different options.

iCloud Backup

One of the easiest and most popular ways to back up an iOS device is to use the function that is already built in, the iCloud. Enable the iCloud backup by going to Settings > iCloud > Backup. iOS devices include iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads – they are backed up when you are logged into iCloud as shown above, at the Lock Screen and not being used, and connected to Wi-Fi. So every time you plug your phone in to charge, whether it be while you’re sleeping or just while you’re not using it, it gets backed up.

The main things that iCloud backs up are account information, documents created on an iOS device, Health information, Home settings, and regular settings. So if you need to reset your phone for any reason, it is incredibly simple to get right back to where you were. It is also useful when it comes to getting a new phone or device. During the setup process for iOS devices, it will ask if the user wants to set up a new device or restore using a backup. You can then select a saved backup from the iCloud, so that settings and data are restored and apps will begin downloading to the home screen.

You must have an iCloud account however. Apple provides 5 GB of free space, so if you have one or two devices, this may work for you. For greater than 5 GB, however, you will need to pay – 50 GB for $.99 a month, 200 GB for $2.99 a month, and 1 TB for $9.99 a month.

iTunes Backup

iTunes can also be used to back up iOS on any Mac or any PC. All you need is a Lightning cable or 30-pin Dock Connector Cable. Which cable you need depends on the model of the iOS device you’re planning to back up.

1. Plug the cable into the USB port of your Mac or PC, then launch iTunes. Connect the device using the cable. Any content that you purchase from iTunes or App Store will then be transferred to your Mac or PC.
2. Go to File > Devices, and then Transfer Purchases, all on the menu bar. If the File menu is not available, hold down the Control and B keys at the same time, allowing it to pop up. Let the content finish transferring before you unplug your device.

When it comes to backing up Health or Activity data, or an Apple Watch, you need to first encrypt the data.

1. Go to the phone menu on iTunes, then select “This Computer”, and check the “Encrypt Data” box. You may have to make a password – make sure it’s one that you’ll remember, because you’ll need it to access the backup. If you don’t have to back up Health or Activity, you can ignore encrypting the data.
2. Click “Back Up Now” and the back up will begin.

When it is done, check to make sure it was done successfully, by clicking iTunes Preferences and then the Devices button. It should show the name of the device backed up, along with the date and time. If it was encrypted, a lock will appear next to the name of the device.

iOS Flash Drive

There are iOS flash drives are available from a multitude of manufacturers, with the most recommended being Leef iBridge, which can be found at macfixit.com.au. This particular iOS flash drive is available in 16GB, 32 GB or 64 GB. It works as a free companion iOS app, displaying when it is available to back up onto the iBridge. It uses a fast, one-tap way to move files from the device to the iBridge. Once it is stored on the drive, it can then be used to transfer onto the computer, or even another iOS device.

Our devices go everywhere with us, carrying a lot of personal information, media, and data. These backups are easy to do, and should not be neglected as they’re incredibly important for restoring, resetting, or transferring data to a new device. Make sure that you include your iOS devices in your overall backup plan.