Noobie Tech

Apple TV isn’t just for watching films and television shows or playing games. It can also play an important role in your smart home. With Cupertino’s digital media player, you can now download and install apps to perform everyday home tasks such as checking your security cameras, monitoring your Wi-Fi network, and turning on your lights. To get started, all you need is a fourth- or fifth-generation Apple TV, a few dollars, and your imagination. In this article, you’ll learn about some of the most popular lifestyle and utility apps for Apple TV. Apple TV Apps for Lighting It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that some of the most popular smart lighting systems are controllable through Apple TV. After all, many of these products offer mood lighting, which is perfect for a night with the family in the living room, or a romantic stay-at-home getaway in the bedroom. These Apple TV apps should help you set the mood, whatever it may be. Hue TV  to Control Yo...

It’s safe to say that the Apple ecosystem brought “app stores” to the mainstream. Before the introduction of the iPhone, buying digital software was often full of trials like submitting your payment to the developer’s website, waiting for a license key by email, and negotiating refunds. You’d be forgiven for thinking that free and open source software (FOSS) is rare on the Mac, given Apple’s approach. In reality, the Mac is an excellent host for many of the community’s best free tools. MacPorts  is your “app store” for all this great software. Let’s take a look at how it works. What Is MacPorts? MacPorts is a package system for Macs. It’s very similar in function and use to the Red Hat Package Management (RPM) system and Advanced Package Tools (APT), which install DEB packages on Linux. Actually, it descends from the Ports system of FreeBSD. Did you know Mac OS X started its life as a fork of FreeBSD called Darwin? Even today macOS has a sol...

Creating regular backups of your media should be an important aspect of basic computing hygiene for everyone. Oddly, for many people, backing up data isn’t something they take seriously until they’re the victim of a failed hard drive. Chances are if you’ve lost all your music, photos, and videos once, you’ll make sure it never happens again. If you use iTunes and Photos to manage your media, creating backups and restoring old data is a straightforward process. Don’t be the victim of data loss. Follow this guide to make sure your media is safe. Manual or Automatic? You can back up iTunes and your photos manually or automatically. I’ll cover both approaches in this guide. If you want to create manual backups, you’ll need an external hard drive or a cloud storage provider with a significant amount of storage space. If you’re planning to automate the process, you will probably want to use Time Machine, though some third-party options are also available. C...