Take Advantage of CarPlay in Rental Cars While Traveling

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Renting a car has become more interesting in recent years due to changes automakers have been making to car electronics. For example, Apple’s CarPlay is becoming a common feature on rental cars. That lets you run Apple Maps or Google Maps on your iPhone while displaying the map on the car’s built-in screen and routing spoken directions through the car’s speakers. It’s way better than trying to prop your iPhone on the dash for navigation directions.

Although there are no guarantees, rental cars are usually recent models, so it’s likely that if one has a screen, it will support CarPlay. Look for some indication on the screen, see if the car is in Apple’s list of supported models, or check the car’s manual in the glove compartment. (Car manuals are universally terrible, but search for CarPlay in the index.) It might even be worth asking at the rental car desk if it’s possible to get a CarPlay-enabled car.

CarPlay setup should be easy. It will add only a few minutes to the time you already spend adjusting seats and mirrors and familiarizing yourself with the car’s controls. Start by plugging your iPhone into the car’s USB jack with a Lightning cable to see if that’s sufficient to start pairing. If the car supports only wireless CarPlay, you’ll instead tap a button on the screen or hold down the voice control button on the steering wheel to initiate pairing.

You may be prompted to transfer contacts and favorites to the car for access via Bluetooth, but don’t bother—you can access everything you need on your iPhone via CarPlay. There’s no worry about CarPlay revealing any of your information to later car renters.

(It’s worth keeping a Lightning cable in the car for the entire trip because GPS navigation drains iPhone batteries quickly. Keep the iPhone plugged in to ensure you have power for other activities. Remember, CarPlay just sends the iPhone’s display and audio to the car—the iPhone is still doing all the navigational work, so CarPlay won’t do you any good if your iPhone is drained.)

Once configured, CarPlay will likely display a map on screen—that’s Apple’s Maps. Assuming you want to leave the rental car agency and get on the road, bring up directions to your destination in Maps on the iPhone, and everything will start appearing directly on the car’s screen. If you don’t hear spoken directions, make sure the car stereo’s volume is turned up.

You can control CarPlay with the car’s touchscreen or Siri: use “Hey, Siri,” press the voice control button on the steering wheel, or touch and hold a button on the car’s screen. That’s helpful for playing music from your iPhone instead of suffering with random radio stations. Stick with searching for new destinations in Maps when you’re not driving, however, since using any unfamiliar car interface distracts from driving safely, especially when you’re in a new location.

The icons on the left sidebar of the CarPlay display give you access to recent mapping and audio apps, plus Settings. Tap the bottom icon to switch to a tile view that shows the map, Now Playing, and favorite destinations.

If you’re staying in the same location for several days, set its address as a favorite in Maps so it’s easy to navigate back to it merely by tapping a button on the car’s touchscreen. Although Maps works well, if you prefer Google Maps, you can now use that instead. Just start navigating in Google Maps, and CarPlay should automatically bring it up—you can also tap the bottom icon when in tile view to switch to a Home screen-like view of all apps and tap Google Maps there. If you have to swipe left to find the app you want, adjust the icon order on the iPhone in Settings > General > CarPlay > Car Name > Customize.

On subsequent trips, CarPlay should connect automatically and be available for use within a minute or two of starting the car. If it doesn’t, you may need to restart the phone, turn the car off and on again, or even start over by deleting the connection from the car and using Settings > General > CarPlay > Car Name > Forget This Car. You may need to delete the Bluetooth pairing from the car first.

There’s much more to CarPlay, but you’re traveling, so spend your time relaxing and enjoying the trip rather than fussing with technology!

(Featured image by Tonya Engst)

Apple Discontinues macOS Server—Start Your Migration Plans

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In a move that should surprise no one, Apple has discontinued macOS Server, which started out as a server-focused version of Mac OS X and eventually morphed into a set of add-on network servers for macOS. Exactly what was in macOS Server varied over time, but in 2018, Apple trimmed it to just Profile Manager, Open Directory, and Xsan. That was made possible in part because Apple integrated Caching Server, File Sharing Server, and Time Machine Server into every installation of macOS 10.13 High Sierra and later. If you’re still using macOS Server, you can continue to download (look through your purchases) and use the app with macOS 12 Monterey, but it’s time to start planning your migration since Apple says macOS Server won’t work at all in the next version of macOS. Contact us if you need advice on the best way to proceed.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Daniel Megias)

iOS 15 Brings Back the Text Magnifier, but Trackpad Mode Is Easier

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Prior to iOS 13, when you were editing text on an iPhone or iPad, Apple provided a magnifying glass that showed the position of the insertion point. It worked, but was clumsier than just moving the insertion point directly, which is what Apple enabled in iOS 13 and iOS 14. The only problem? Your finger usually obscures the text you want to edit. In iOS 15, Apple brought back the text magnification bubble to show you where the insertion point is in the text under your finger. If you’ve missed that feature, touch and hold on some text and drag the insertion point. Even easier is trackpad mode on the iPhone, which lets you touch and hold the Space bar to turn the entire keyboard area into a virtual trackpad that lets you move the insertion point above.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Ralf Geithe)

Put Files in the Mac’s Trash Using the Keyboard

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You know that you can drag files or folders to the Trash icon in the Dock for later deletion. And you probably know that you can select multiple items on the Desktop or in a Finder window by Command-clicking each one in turn (Shift-click to select a sequential range of items in a list view), after which you can drag them all to the Trash. But there’s no reason to expend effort mousing if you prefer to keep your hands on the keyboard—just press Command-Delete to send one or more selected files and folders directly to the Trash. Finally, if you need your disk space back right away, press Command-Shift-Delete to empty the Trash. However, we recommend not emptying the Trash frequently—that way, you have a chance to recover something you discover that you needed after trashing it.

(Featured image by iStock.com/FabrikaCr)

Don’t Miss the List Views in the iPhone’s Calendar App

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The iPhone’s Calendar app defaults to graphical views for Day, Week (rotate to landscape), Month, and Year, but only the Day view shows information about your actual events, and even then, it’s easy to miss events that are outside the times that fit onscreen. If you find those views frustrating, you may have missed the all-important list view options. In Month view, tap the List button ➊ to split the screen, showing the calendar above and a list of events for the selected day below. In Day view, tap the List button ➋ to switch to a more easily scanned list for each day.

(Featured image by iStock.com/gpointstudio)