Mirrors are Wi-Fi's Mortal Enemy
Mac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting
Taming Tech Troubles
This chapter offers practical tips for resolving common issues with Apple devices, including a user-submitted AppleScript for dock management and advice on charge timing for iPhones. Listeners also explore event invitation challenges with Apple’s Calendar app, AirPlay experiences, and the interaction of audio enhancement apps.
Mirrors killing your Wi-Fi? You’re not imagining it. This week on Mac Geek Gab 1102, you’ll learn how metal surfaces sabotage your signal…and what to do about it. From smarter ways to manage your Apple Watch unlocks (hint: avoid accidental calls) to clearing your iPhone’s keyboard dictionary without going full nuclear, the Quick Tips are flying fast. Want your Dock to behave on multi-monitor setups? There’s an AppleScript for that.
Don’t Get Caught thinking “Until Tomorrow” actually means tomorrow…battery limits may surprise you. And if AirPlay is acting up, you might be powering off your speaker in the wrong order. Plus, you’ll discover data-blocking USB-C gadgets, secret vaults for your passwords, and whether SMB is a safe bet now that Time Machine is ditching AFP. All that, and more listener questions answered with your three favorite geeks leading the charge.
- 00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 1102 for Monday, August 11th, 2025
- August 11th: National Align Your Teeth Day
- MGG Monthly Giveaway
- 00:04:13 Your Opinions on MGG’s Titular Methodology?
- Quick Tips
- 00:00:01 Craig-QT-Mirrors are WiFi’s mortal enemy!
- 00:13:04 Andrew-QT-Clear iPhone keyboard dictionary without Nuke and Pave
- 00:13:49 Craig-QT-Inspector is better than Get Info
- 00:16:21 Bruce-QT-1101-Don’t Unlock with Apple Watch to Avoid Dialing!
- 00:18:58 Steve-QT-1101-Require FaceID for Phone app to avoid butt-dialing
- Sponsors
- 00:20:45 SPONSOR: Webroot. Get 50% off Webroot Total Protection or Webroot Essentials when you go Webroot.com/MGG.
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- 00:23:49 SPONSOR: DeskMat for Mac allows you to cover your Desktop with a single click, providing cleaner screen sharing, video conferencing, streaming, and distraction-free work.
- MOAR Quick Tips
- 00:25:14 Joe-QT-1100-Use Pill Organizers for holding screws during a teardown
- 00:27:52 David-QT-1099-AppleScript to move the Dock back to primary monitor
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock orientation -string left; killall Dock; sleep 1; defaults write com.apple.dock orientation -string bottom; killall Dock”
- Don’t Get Caught
- 00:30:55 Antony-DGC-Battery Limit Changed “Until Tomorrow” doesn’t always mean “tomorrow”
- 00:33:04 DGC-Apple’s Calendar.app doesn’t always send invites through Google.
- 00:36:32 Scott-DGC-Turning Off a Speaker Before Disabling Airplay Can Prevent Normal Function of your Mac Audio
- Cool Stuff Found
- 00:39:21 Seth-CSF-Access: Private Vault for Passwords
- 00:40:05 What Password Manager do you use?
- 00:45:52 Kevin-CSF-1101–USB-C (and USB-A) Data Blocker
- Sponsors
- 00:51:53 SPONSOR: Coda, the one Doc to rule them all. Bring your text and tables together! Get six months of the team plan for startups for FREE at Coda.io/mgg.
- 00:53:21 SPONSOR: IDEO U. Practical, relevant courses designed to seamlessly transition you from theory to practice. Get 15% off at IDEOU.com/mgg.
- Your Questions Answered and Tips Shared!
- 00:54:48 Bjørn-Why won’t music play through my phone’s speaker?
- 01:01:19 Craig-Apple is dropping AFP support for Time Machine Backups. Is SMB OK to use?
- “Future versions of macOS will no longer support AFP network disks to Time Machine backups”
- 01:04:44 David-Why Cardio Recovery Data Not syncing from Watch to Health App
- 01:17:04 MGG 1102 Outtro
- MGG Monthly Giveaway
- Bandwidth Provided by CacheFly
- Pilot Pete’s Aviation Podcast: So There I Was (for Aviation Enthusiasts)
- The Debut Film Podcast – Adam’s new podcast!
- Dave’s Business Brain (for Entrepreneurs) and Gig Gab (for Working Musicians) Podcasts
- MGG Merch is Available!
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- feedback@macgeekgab.com
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