The Micro-Byte - December 2025

 

Gifting Apple this Holiday?

Being a kid during the Holidays was always great! There were parties, events, days off from school, and, oh yes, presents. It was a month of joy unlike any other on the calendar. And then we became adults. It all changed. Now we had to organize the parties and events, host the fancy dinners, and, yes, purchase and source all the presents. It's still fun in a way within the stressed-out "need to make it happen" type of chaos. So, if you are thinking of gifting anything from Apple this year, we have your back. Tech is personal, and trying to buy an iPhone or iPad for someone when you don't know how they will use is or what device they are coming from is hard. To that end, here are three easy wins for you to consider. AirPods Pro 3 Apple knocked it out of the park with the latest version of their AirPods Pro. Everybody, and I mean everybody loves them – even the Android people. They are seen as the gold standard of earbuds. Noise cancelling is vastly improved; they have a built-in heart rate monitor; and the live translate feature is a game changer. If your giftee doesn't have a pair, then these are a solid choice. To learn more about the AirPods Pro 3, visit: https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro/ MacBook Air 13-Inch - 512 GB Storage Trying to choose a computer for someone when you don't know how they are using their current machine is very difficult, but the MacBook Air hits the sweet-spot. The M4 chip is ridiculously powerful and can run just about every application out there, aside from the very high-end 3D modeling software, and highly complex design apps. Yes, you can do 8K video editing on one. Yes, you can run the basic parts of Adobe Creative Cloud. And most importantly, they come in several colors. The $1,199 model with the 512 GB of storage is a safe bet. It's not as powerful as a MacBook Pro or Mac Studio, but for many users, it's way more than enough. To learn more about the MacBook Air, visit: https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/ Apple Gift-Card Or just leave the decision up to them and get them an Apple Gift Card. It's not cheating at all. In fact it also absolves you from picking the wrong color, storage, or whatever. Here is a link to the Apple Gift Card page: https://www.apple.com/shop/gift-cards

Monthly Min-Bytes - December 2025

 

Avoiding Scams on Amazon Well, we all probably knew that it would happen someday. It used to be easy. Need something? Just queue it up on Amazon and get it delivered lickety-split. But those days are long gone, and it's too bad in a way. Amazon is not the only outlet that sells on Amazon. Pull up any product and look to the right and in fine print you will see something that says "Sold By." Amazon allows other businesses to use their platform to sell items. You buy the item on the site. It's shipped by Amazon, most often in an Amazon box. But the seller is not Amazon. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, but what has been cropping up lately are a series of seller scams that can not only find you purchasing fake products, but also spending 10 times what the item actually sells for on other outlets. Then there are the fake reviews. And there are a lot of them. It's easy now to pay click farms to stuff in product reviews. The other scam is to rename a page with overall positive reviews with a totally different product altogether. So how can you protect yourself? Purchase only from Amazon listed in the "Sold By," unless you are familiar with the seller. Cross-shop your product at other websites. You may find it cheaper. For example, printers usually come in much less at Staples than at Amazon. Mind the Price: As you are cross-shopping see what the actual retail price is. That way you don't overpay. Make sure you that can return whatever you purchased. Amazon has a very liberal return policy, so use that as another layer of protection.

macOS Tahoe and the Slow Upgrade

macOS Tahoe is good, speedy, and relatively stable. Yes, the Liquid Glass clear over clear design is garbage, but for the most part Tahoe is a solid update. If you have an M-Series processor it will squeeze even more speed out of your already speedy machine. But the update can be slow and appear to hang. This is especially the case right now if you are upgrading directly to the latest 26.1 release. It may sit at that "5 Minutes Remaining" for an eternity – sometimes taking another 30 to 40 minutes to complete. It's not a problem, but it can appear that your upgrade is hanging. It's not. Just go get yourself a beverage or snack and stop back in a bit. It should finish up just fine. But, just make sure you have a backup before you start... as always. To learn more about macOS Tahoe visit: https://www.apple.com/os/macos/

Always Use FaceID Out in Public

Your iPhone is no longer just a phone. It is the key to your entire life, for the most part. It has your email, passwords, texts, and all types of personal information that you must protect. Having a passcode and enabling FaceID is extremely important. But using FaceID when out in public is a must. If you enter in your passcode, someone can see, swipe your phone, and then they are in. In a few moments they can lock you out of your life. Scary? Yes. Avoidable? Absolutely! Always, always use FaceID to unlock your iPhone. If you need to enter your passcode, do it stealthily, like entering your PIN at an ATM. And also make sure that you have physical control over your phone. Don't leave it on a restaurant table or on a bar. It's almost more important than your wallet, so keep it just as safe.