You can use your iPhone to scan paper documents into the Preview App on your Mac. This is a really convenient way to get documents into a PDF file so that you can email them, etc.
You can scan either into a new, blank document, or an existing PDF document, in which case your scans become new pages in that document.
In the Preview App, select File->Import from Phone->Scan Documents.
You’ll then see this prompt on the Mac.
Your iPhone will automatically open the camera app as show below.
The iPhone automatically finds the document in the camera view and captures the scan when the image is in view and stable. You don’t need to press the shutter button. The automatic shutter can be a bit disconcerting if you are not used to it. If you want to turn it off, the button marked “shutter” will disable the auto-shutter, and you can then take each scan manually.
You will have the option to scan multiple pages. There will be a check mark at the upper right. Tap that when you have scanned the last page.
The pages will then automatically appear in Preview on your Mac.
This is very easy and nearly foolproof. Your devices need to be on the same iCloud account, and up-to-date with software, iOS 18 or greater, and MacOS 18 or greater.
This topic is for the September, 2025 MacMAD General Meeting.
The answers range from “turn it off and back on”, to Accessibility Settings, to bad cables. 90% of iPhone and Mac Problems addressed in a few simple steps.
We’ve already gotten an important question on Assistive Access: How do I turn it off, and get out of Assistive Access? You can exit Assistive access by triple-clicking the side button (power button). This brings up the option to exit. You’ll need to enter the 4-digit assistive access code that you originally setup to exit back to your usual user interface.
Also, a question came up about converting a lot of photos. Here is the solution we showed in the meeting:
Also, the macOS Finder has a convenient way to convert multiple images at once. Select some files, then right-click, or Ctrl-click to bring up the contextual menu. Then go down to Quick Actions and select Convert Image. You will see options to convert to JPEG, etc.
Several people asked questions about photo albums in Photos on the iPhone. One tip that might help you make albums appear more prominantly for you:
In Photos, scroll all the way to the bottom where you will eventually see Customize & Reorder.
On that screen, you can select which views of your photos you want to appear in Photos, and drag them into the order you prefer. I have put Albums at the top here, and turned off Memories and Featured Photos. It’s entirely personal preference, and you can adjust this as you like.
As always, here’s the complete iPhone User’s Guide from Apple. On that page, either use the search, or click Table of Contents to get started. If you read that, you’ll be ahead of everybody in understanding the iPhone. Note that the User’s Guide is always for the latest version of iOS. If you are using an older version, it won’t be exactly applicable.
This is the MacMAD Meeting topic for March, 2025, as of iOS 18.3.2.
Settings is a big topic. I’m going to mostly talk about iOS (iPhone) settings. There are literally thousands of separate items in the Settings app for iPhone.
Terminology
Settings for iOS are located in the Settings app. Settings for MacOS are in System Settings, formerly known as System Preferences.
Expect it: There’s a Setting for That
Settings affect everything you do with your device. Many behaviors we know and expect from iOS are optional and can be turned on, off, or adjusted.
One of my favorite rules of thumb for working with computers and smart phones is: It probably already does what you want and if not, it can be adjusted to do that. If you are wishing for a feature every time you use your device, you are probably not the first. The designers and developers also have to use these devices and they have included many of the features that they want as users.
Expect a lot, and you’ll get a lot.
How Settings are Organized
Search is at the top. That’s good because Search is often the easiest way to find the setting you want.
Next comes the Apple Account / Apple ID / iCloud settings. I think of this as being first because it’s important to Apple’s bottom line. Encouraging people to use their Apple account ultimately contributes to Apple’s income, so they put that right at the top.
Take a look at the Subscriptions section to find everything you are subscribed to, not only from Apple, but from any Apps in the App Store. You might find you are subscribed to something you no longer need.
After the Apple Account settings come about 27 system settings that seem randomly organized. They are divided into sections which each seem to mostly be in alphabetic order, but not always. This disorder is one of the reason many users throw their hands up and despair of ever finding anything in Settings.
At the end of the list comes the Apps section. Inside the Apps settings, everything is strictly in alphabetic order, which is good, because you may have dozens or hundreds of Apps installed, each with their own settings. The exception is hidden apps, which appear in a special section at the end of the list.
A Few Favorite Settings
Silence Unknown Callers – This is in Apps ->Phone->Silence Unknown Callers. If you turn this on, it sends calls from numbers which are not in your contacts straight to voicemail. Your phone won’t ring. Also, notice Apps->FaceTime->Silence Unknown Callers. This one is lesser known, and spammers have started using FaceTime lately.
Screenshot
General -> About This often-overlooked section has lots of useful information and controls. What model of phone do I have? It’s in there. When does my Apple warranty expire? It’s in there. How full is my phone’s storage?
Accessibility – This (large) section is mostly for people with some sort of disability of sight, hearing, motor control, etc. But there are some gems in here that might be useful to everyone. Accessibility -> Face ID & Attention -> Require Attention for Face ID. This seems more like a security feature. I have this turned on which makes it less likely my phone will be unlocked without me knowing it.
Accessibility -> Side Button -> PRESS AND HOLD TO SPEAK (Siri). I have Siri selected here. When I hold the side button, the Siri Icon appears, and I’m speaking directly to her without having to say her name first.
Settings -> Notifications – Here’s the answer to those frequent questions like “How do I get rid of those red numbers on my App icons?” and “How can I get rid of all these popups on my screen from Facebook?”
Those numbers on App icons are called badges. They are a form of notification. You can turn those on or off for each App individually in the Notifications section of Settings.
App Icons with Badges
We live in a marketplace of attention. Companies with Apps typically want you to pay attention to their app. Your attention is worth money to them. So they often try to capture your attention with lots of notifications. Of course, this becomes overwhelming when you have dozens or hundreds of Apps clamoring for your attention. iOS allows you to selectively enable or disable notifications from Apps.
Notifications in Notification Center
For many of the worst offenders, like Facebook or other social media apps, your best option is to turn off notifications for those Apps altogether.
Control Center
Control Center is a quick way to access settings and other features of your phone.
Control Center “Favorites” Screen
Pull down from upper right to open Control Center on iPhones with Face ID. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen on iPhones with a home button.
Some of my favorites here are the Magnifier, Apple TV Remote and QR Code Scanner.
Screenshot
You can customize Control Center with your preferences, including controls to launch your favorite Apps, and controls that use Shortcuts to accomplish other tasks, like the “Silence/Allow Unknown Callers” buttons above.
MacMAD Presentation Meeting for Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Helpful Basics On-Line
Tonight’s meeting is primarily an on-line demo. But, here are some supplementary on-line references oriented towards the basic iPhone or iPad user.
iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 have just been released, so the User’s Guides will probably be updated accordingly. For the beginning user, the biggest difference is probably that the Control Center looks slightly different now.
See your device’s model (is this an iPhone 11 or iPhone 12?)
See your device’s warranty status
See how much of your device storage you are using
See how much of your iCloud storage you are using
Sign in to iCloud – You are probably already signed in.
Note – Almost ALL iPhone & iPad owners have an iCloud account, whether you know it or not. If you are paying any amount monthly for iCloud, you have an iCloud+ account.
More On-Line Demos
Take a photo and send it to someone via eMail or text (e.g. sharing with family)
Open an email and add the sender to your contacts.
Open a contact and send them email.
Open a contact and navigate to their address.
Buy and install a new App from the App store.
Add a credit card to Apple Wallet .. Pay someone with Apple Wallet
Visit a Website. Bookmark it. Create a login at a web site. Log out and back in. (iPad)
Create a Calendar Appointment for a recurring event
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has meant different things at different times to different people. It is a moving target. In the 1970s, it meant a machine playing chess. Today, no one would call that artificial intelligence. Now it might be a machine generating an essay, drawing or photograph from a short prompt.
This image of an Apple User Group meeting was generated by AI.
Artificial Intelligence has become vastly more powerful, and it will only continue to get better.
Whether you realize it or not, you are already using Artificial Intelligence in several forms:
Facial Recognition – “Face ID”, Photos
Recognition of Objects: cat, dog, building, The Eiffel Tower, vehicles, humans
Voice and Speech Recognition, e.g. Siri commands
Siri Suggestions – AI forecasts what App/Destination/Search you might want now
Sound Recognition, e.g. Siri can recognize smoke detector sounds
Navigation Apps, driver assist, “self-driving”
Language Translation, Apple & Google Translate Apps
Speech Generation – Personal Voice, Live Speech, in Accessibility Settings
Recognition of facial expressions and gestures – Used in Face Time and the Vision Pro
Face ID is an example of very unobtrusive AI, probably the best kind. You are usually unaware of Face ID unlocking your phone except in the rare situation where your face is obstructed for some reason and it doesn’t unlock.
Apple has dedicated about 1/4 of the on-chip real estate in their new processors to the Neural Engine. This shows a commitment to AI going forward at Apple. The Neural Engine does on-device machine learning.
Much of what you see when you browse the internet is determined by AI.
Search Engine Rankings
YouTube Recommendation Engine
Amazon “Inspired by your Shopping Trends”
Video recommendations for Apple TV, Netflix and Amazon Prime
When you do those captchas (“I am not a robot”, “click all images containing a bus”), you are providing training data for AI algorithms.
Generative AI
The new type of AI getting a lot of attention in 2024 is Generative AI, so called because it generates something, whether text or an image.
When you hear about ChatGPT, GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. This is a large language model trained on a large amount of text.
This type of AI tool can be used to generate documents like reports, emails, ad copy, blog posts and computer code. The generated text usually looks very good, but you must check it for accuracy.
How Can I Try Out These AI Tools?
It’s early days in this phase of the AI revolution, and things are changing rapidly. Web sites appear and disappear. Companies are bought and sold. Tools change hands and change names. Here is a list of generative AI tools that work as of March 2024.
Claude.ai – Account required. Free and paid tiers.
The Microsoft Copilot App – May require Microsoft 365 subscription? Includes Designer (for images), Vacation Planner, Cooking Assistant and Fitness Trainer.
Sora – from OpenAI, generates videos from prompts – only pre-recorded demos now
Artificial General Intelligence
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) doesn’t exist yet. Existing AI software is powerful in certain domains, but it is helpless outside those domains. ChatGPT can write a passable paragraph for a PhD thesis, but it’s not as smart about the world as a five year old. True AGI would have intelligence equal to or better than human intelligence in at least all the domains where humans are knowledgeable.
Here’s Copilot Designer’s response to a request for three yellow ducks and a green goose. It totally failed to include a green goose, or any green bird. It’s really not too bright yet. It draws better than a five year old, but lacks understanding.
One theory is that in order to develop AGI, AI will have to be embodied in a robot where it can gain the experience of the world that a child has.
Is AI a Threat to Humanity?
Scary Robot Drawn by Microsoft Designer / DALL-E 3
There have been a number of topical headlines recently suggesting that AI is a serious threat to the human race. Caution is warranted, as with any new technology, but I believe that the threat isn’t Artificial Intelligence itself, but our own lack of wisdom in deploying it.
Most of our fear of alien or artificial intelligences is that they will be too much like us. We know all too well the human capacity for fear, greed and desire for power.
Artificial Intelligence is likely to lack those things unless we are stupid enough to design them in. Without an equivalent to the more primitive parts of the human brain, robots or AI will lack lust, greed and even an instinct for self-preservation.2
We obviously shouldn’t give an AI control of nuclear weapons, but that has more to do with the danger of such weapons than of AI.
A more realistic concern in the near term is that AI may threaten many people’s jobs. If you write ad copy or blog posts for a living, AI is already coming for your job. If you are an illustrator or photographer, AI can already accomplish many of your tasks in a fraction of the time. Lawyers and computer programmers are probably next, and I am sure there are many other job categories at risk.
Like any other tool, AI can be used by bad people to do bad things. Since it is a powerful tool, it can have a big effect. It could be a propaganda tool without precedent, and will no doubt be used to spread misinformation, fear, uncertainty and doubt on a massive scale.
These are serious social problems. We have already experienced social problems from other aspects of technology such as automation and social media. As a society we need to figure out how to fairly distribute the wealth and other benefits derived from AI and similar technologies and how to protect society from misuse of AI.
This is a live demonstration meeting covering Procreate for iPad. There is also a version of Procreate for the iPhone.
Procreate
Our presenter this month is Ann Posner. She says:
The Procreate app is a powerhouse assistant in my career as a professional artist, as well as in my personal life. I recommend the Procreate app for any computer users or artists from beginners to experts!
Ann on the sailboat with some of her art
The video of this meeting is now on-line here. The audio is low, so turn it up. The actual presentation starts about 4 minutes in.
Text messaging of various types has become very popular since the beginning of mobile phones. The popularity of chat apps has really taken off with additional features such as group chat, photos, and audio and video chat.
The line between Chat Apps and social media such as Twitter (X), has become blurred as more features are added.
Popular Chat Apps
Messages/FaceTime (Apple)
Signal
WeChat
WhatsApp Messenger
Telegram
Messenger (Meta/Facebook)
Google Chat
Why Choose A Particular App?
Convenience: Messages is built into your Apple products. It’s easy to use. There may be no reason to change, especially if your friends use Apple devices also.
Security and Privacy: Signal is your best choice for absolute security, with end-to-end encryption, a security-focused company, and publicly reviewed code. Apple’s Messages is also very secure, but perhaps less so against governments. The Signal protocol has also been adopted by WhatsApp and Google Messages (on Android).
International Travel: WhatsApp is popular overseas and with travelers. You can use WhatsApp with an international data plan. Since it does not use conventional SMS text messaging, you won’t get charged for the texts. WeChat is nearly universal in China and the far east. It is widely used for checkout and payments as well as messaging. Telegram is popular in India, Asia, Africa and parts of Europe.
Features
Group Chat
Audio/Video Chat
Broadcast to large group
Stickers, emojis, reactions
File Transfer
Document Sharing/Team Collaboration
Send money
Under the Hood
The original text messaging protocol was SMS (Simple Messaging System). You’re probably still using SMS if you exchange messages with non-iPhone users (probably Android). SMS has a 160 character limit for each message. MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) is an extension of SMS which allows “texting” of photos and videos (Low-resolution). SMS and MMS messages count as “text messaging” on your cellular plan, and do not use your data plan.
RCS (Rich Communication Services) is a more modern protocol widely used on Android phones. Apple has announced that its Messages App will be compatible with RCS beginning sometime in 2024. RCS messages use cellular data (or WiFi) (not “texts”). However, none of the chat App protocols will probably make a significant dent in your cellular data usage. When RCS is available in Messages, Apple users and their Android friends will see an improvement in the quality of photos and videos sent and received.
The other Chat Apps are each using their own protocols to exchange messages using Internet data over cellular or WiFi. The quantity of data used is probably insignificant.
I had a chance to try out the new feature of the Find My app that lets you send your location via Satellite. This is perhaps not so easy to demonstrate, since it requires you to be at a location without WiFi or cell service. I was traveling in some areas of North Carolina without cell coverage, so I took advantage of that to try out this new feature.
Prerequisites
iPhone 14 or 14 Pro (or later, presumably)
iOS 16.1 or later
Friend(s) previously added to “Share my Location” in Find My
Be away from cell and WiFi coverage
Be outdoors with a clear view of the sky
Sharing your location via Satellite in Find My doesn’t send your location to anyone in particular. It just makes your location available so that friends who already have access to your location can access it. It never asked me who I wanted to send it to. Sending your location is a one-way transmission. You do not receive anyone else’s location, or any other data, except a confirmation that your location was sent.
You start off by pressing Me at the bottom of the Find My app.
You will then see an option to Send My Location under My Location via Satellite.
In Progress. Note Satellite tracking icon at top.
Note the little green satellite tracking icon at the top.
Tapping the tracking icon brought up this screen. You turn to face left and right to keep the white dot centered in the green arc. The iPhone acquired the satellite and sent my location quickly and easily. It seemed like it would have worked without me doing anything special to aim my phone.
I hope this little preview gives you some idea of what to expect if you ever need to send your location via satellite. The most important thing is that you must set up sharing your location with friend(s) in the Find My app before leaving on your trip to a remote location.
Messages/FaceTime (Apple)
Signal
WeChat 
WhatsApp Messenger
Telegram
Messenger (Meta/Facebook)
Google Chat
