While you were basking at the beach this summer, Apple kept Siri busy taking intensive language classes. In iOS 11, Siri can now translate English words and phrases into Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. So if your next vacation takes you to Paris, you can now ask Siri for help you with commands like “How do I say ‘where can I find a bathroom’ in French?” or “Translate to French: ‘How much does the baguette cost’?’” Even better, tap the triangular play button to have Siri read the translation aloud so you can mimic it or let a Francophone listen, in case your French accent is exécrable.

Although Apple’s eye-catching Desktop image of the High Sierra mountains makes it easy to confirm that your Mac is running High Sierra, the most noteworthy new features are invisible! These changes are aimed at improving your Mac’s performance. But, don’t worry that there’s nothing new in High Sierra to play with—you’ll find plenty to do in Apple’s apps, and we’ll share our favorite features below.

Apple’s invisible, under-the-hood changes modernize the Mac. The new APFS file system significantly improves how data is stored on your disk. It replaces the HFS+ file system, which dates from the previous century. You’ll notice the switch to APFS when you look up the size of a selected folder or duplicate a large file because the operation should run much more quickly. APFS also provides better FileVault encryption and reduces the chance of file corruption.

Also new is HEVC, a new video compression standard that will let videos stream better and take up less space on your drive, and HEIF, an image format that boasts significantly better compression to keep photos from overwhelming your drive. HEVC and HEIF have other advantages too, but they’re so embedded into High Sierra (and iOS 11) that all you’ll notice is more space. When you drag images and videos out of Photos, they’ll come out in familiar formats suitable for sharing.

Photos 3

In Photos, it’s now easier to browse your photos from the always-on sidebar on the left side of the window. Photo editing is also more streamlined, with the Edit screen now separated into three tabs: Adjust, Filters, and Crop.

You can now edit Live Photos! Look at the bottom of the Adjust tab for controls for picking any frame as the static “key” frame, trimming the video, and applying special effects. The most interesting effect blurs the Live Photo by turning the 3-second mini-movie into a single long exposure.

Those who are into tweaking photos by hand should check out the new Curves and Selective Color options on the Adjust tab. Or, if you’d prefer that your Mac do the heavy lifting, try the new filters on the Filters tab.

Our favorite new feature is more of a fix—when you train Photos to match faces with names, that training will now sync through iCloud Photo Library to your other Apple devices. About time!

Finally, for serious photographers, Apple has at long last brought back round-trip editing of a photo in an external app, like Pixelmator or Photoshop.

Safari 11

A new Websites tab in Safari’s preferences lets you specify Web sites that should always open in Safari’s clutter-reducing Reader View, blocks some ads and auto-play videos, lets you set the zoom level on a per-site basis, and more. We like to tweak these options for the current Web page by choosing Safari > Settings for This Website to open a popover with the necessary controls.

And in the “Thank you, Apple!” category, Safari now offers Intelligent Tracking Protection (ITP), which limits advertisers’ cross-site tracking of where you’ve been online.

Notes 4.5

Notes now offers a capable Table feature and a handy File > Pin Note command that puts the selected note at the top of its list rather than listing it by order last edited. Neither feature is earth shattering, but we’re enjoying both already.

Mail 11

Behind the scenes, Mail gets a welcome change you probably won’t notice—according to Apple, message storage now takes 35% less space.

More obvious is how Mail revamped its behavior in full-screen view. Instead of the message-composition area overlapping most of the Mail window, the screen splits, and your new message appears at the right. This layout simplifies viewing an older message while drafting a new one.

FaceTime 4

A fun new FaceTime option is taking a Live Photo of your call. It’s a perfect way to record mini-movies of far-away relatives. If the person you’re chatting with allows Live Photos in FaceTime’s preferences, hover over the FaceTime window to see and then click the round Shutter button.

Spotlight

Spotlight isn’t exactly an app, but it lets you search for anything on or off your Mac. Click the magnifying glass icon at the right of your menu bar—or press Command-Space bar—to start, and then enter your search terms. New in High Sierra, you can enter an airline flight number to see oodles of flight-related info.

High Sierra won’t radically change how you use your Mac, but we’re in favor of anything that makes our Macs run faster and keeps our drives from filling up so fast. Should you upgrade? Yes. When? That’s another story.

Twitter: Find out what we like about the Mac’s new operating system, macOS 10.13 High Sierra.

Facebook: Find out what’s cool in macOS 10.13 High Sierra and which new features we’re most enjoying in Photos, Notes, Mail, and FaceTime.

Apple has long argued that you can use the iPad for productivity but hasn’t backed that claim up with the necessary features in iOS. Until now, that is, with the new iPad-centric capabilities of iOS 11. These changes mean that an iPad running iOS 11 is more like a Mac, and that’s a good thing for those who want to do real work with their iPads.

Dock and Multitasking

The new iOS 11 Dock is easy to find at the bottom of the Home screen, just like before. But it’s better and more Mac-like than before—the left side shows apps or folders you’ve placed there by dragging them on (no need to touch and hold until icons shake anymore!) while the right side helps you get around more quickly by displaying recently used apps and any Handoff apps from your other Apple devices.

Most importantly, you can now view the Dock within any app, without the contextual shift of returning to the Home screen as in previous iOS versions. Just swipe up slightly from the bottom of the screen in any app, and the Dock appears so you can switch apps with a single tap right away.

Or—this is fabulous!—drag the app where you want to go up from the Dock to open it in Slide Over or Split View. Now you can work back and forth between two apps at once on the same screen.

Control Center and App Switcher

Switching apps with the Dock like you do on the Mac is easy, but when you invoke the App Switcher by swiping up to see the Dock and then continuing to swipe up (or by double-pressing the Home button or swiping up with four fingers), it now shows large thumbnails of the four most recent apps (or Slide Over or Split View screens) and the new Control Center. Tap one to switch to it.

Remember that you can customize the buttons that appear in Control Center—visit Settings > Control Center > Customize to make it look the way you want.

Drag and Drop

With iOS 11, Apple finally brought drag and drop to the iPad! Touch and move text, graphics, or files between apps—you can even pick up an item with a finger and use your other hand to reveal the Dock and switch to your destination app before dropping the data.

Use this maneuver in situations where you would previously have used copy and paste or the awkward Share sheet—or just given up! Practice a few times to accustom yourself to the two-handed process.

Files

Just like the Mac, the iPad now provides a single place to browse and open all your files, and you can open a file with a single tap. All this goodness happens in the new Files app, which replaces the iCloud Drive app with a broader view of your files, providing access not just to iCloud Drive, but also to files on your device and in other cloud sharing services like Dropbox and Google Drive. (To add a sharing service whose app you’ve installed, tap Edit in the left-hand Browse panel).

Keyboard Flick

On iPads other than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, iOS 11 simplifies typing on the virtual keyboard. You can now type numbers and many punctuation characters by swiping down on the appropriate key, rather than switching keyboards. Swipe down to see the key turn gray and show only the desired number or character, and then lift your finger.

Apple Pencil

In iOS 11, the iPad Pro’s Apple Pencil becomes even more useful. Want to start a note? Just tap the Lock screen and start writing. Want to search your handwritten notes? Pull down on the Notes list to type your query, and Notes will find handwritten terms.

A new scanning feature in Notes makes it easy to bring a paper document into the iPad, where you can sign it with the Apple Pencil and send it on its way. We also like the new Instant Markup feature that lets you write on a PDF or screenshot easily—tap the Pencil icon at the upper right of the screen to start writing and to access the controls for color and tip below.

With iOS 11, Apple has finally acknowledged that the iPad needs its own features to be a productivity machine—it’s not just an iPhone with a larger screen. With a little practice, you can be using an iPad, particularly an iPad Pro, for all sorts of serious tasks like email, word processing, Web research, and more.

Twitter: With iOS 11, Apple has finally given the iPad the productivity features that it needs to shine. Learn more at:

Facebook: If you’ve been wanting to do more with your iPad, you’ll want to install iOS 11 right away, since its new iPad-specific features go a long way toward making Apple’s tablet a productivity workhorse.

Apple does a great job with Macs, iPhones, and iPads, but stuff goes wrong all the time—as professional providers of technical support we know that better than anyone. So we’re really cheesed off by tech support scams that try to defraud unsuspecting users in the name of fixing problems that don’t exist. Here’s how to protect yourself.

How Tech Support Scams Work

Tech support scams start by trying to get you on the phone. You might see an alarming pop-up message informing you of some problem and giving a number to call for help, end up on a Web site that offers a free “security scan” that will pretend to find problems and urge you to call, or even receive a direct cold call from someone claiming to be from Apple, Google, or Microsoft.

Once you’re on the phone, the scammers’ goal is to convince you to pay them to solve your “problem.” They do this by throwing around technical terms and having you look at low-level files that, they’ll say, show evidence of issues like malware infection or file corruption. They may even ask for remote access to your Mac using legitimate software like TeamViewer and use it to show you log messages that look like concerning errors.

If you fall for this tech talk, the scammers close in for the kill. They may ask for your credit card number to pay for the “services” they’ve rendered, enroll you in a fake maintenance or warranty program, sell you software that is normally available as a free download, or install malware that will give them continued access to your computer. Not good.

How to Protect Yourself from Tech Support Scams

Luckily, it’s easy to ensure that you don’t get scammed.

• Never call a phone number that appears in a pop-up dialog, no matter what it says. Legitimate messages will never ask you to do that.
• If you get an unexpected call from someone you don’t know claiming to be tech support, hang up immediately. Don’t be fooled by caller ID, since it can be spoofed to look like the call is coming from a legitimate company, like Apple.
• Don’t give your passwords to anyone who contacts you on the phone, and never allow anyone you haven’t met in person (and trust!) to control your Mac remotely.

Of course, the awkward part here is that, if we do tech support for you and particularly if we’re using Watchman Monitoring to provide proactive notification of problems, we may need to call you and even ask for remote control of your Mac. We will always identify ourselves clearly, and if you’re at all concerned, you can call us back at a contact number you already have or ask us for some piece of information no scammer could know.

How to Recover from Being Scammed

First, we’re here to help for real, so please feel free to contact us for assistance. That said, there are three main things to focus on:

• Change any passwords that you shared. Plus, if you use the same passwords on any Web sites, change those passwords too. (And start using a password manager like 1Password or LastPass so every site can have its own secure password without you having to remember and type them.)
• If you have legitimate anti-malware software, run it to make sure the scammer didn’t install anything evil on your Mac. If you don’t have up-to-date anti-malware software, contact us to see what we recommend.
• If you paid for any bogus services, call your credit card company and reverse the charges. You can also report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov/complaint.

Finally, beware of the “refund scam.” Several months after you’ve been scammed, you might get a call asking if you were satisfied with the service and offering a refund if you weren’t happy, or saying that the company is filing for bankruptcy and providing refunds. Either way, the scammer will then ask for your bank account or credit card number to process the refund, but instead of depositing money, will extract more. If you get a call like this, hang up immediately.

Twitter: Never call a phone number in a pop-up message on your Mac! Here’s why that’s dangerous:

Facebook: Never call a phone number in a pop-up message on your Mac or let an unknown tech support person talk you into giving them your credit card details!

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to edit the same files on your iMac and your MacBook without copying them back and forth manually or using a service like Dropbox or Google Drive? That has been possible in Apple’s iCloud Drive for some time, but it was clumsy to store files in iCloud Drive instead of in your Documents folder or on your Desktop.

Starting in macOS 10.12 Sierra, Apple added Desktop and Documents folder syncing, which works with iCloud Drive to give you unified Desktop and Documents folders across all your Macs. Plus, you can access their contents on your iPhone or iPad using the iCloud Drive app, or, in the upcoming iOS 11, the Files app. It’s easy to enable this feature, but it’s good to know what to expect before you turn it on.

Think about how much space you’ll need on iCloud Drive—add up the size of those folders on each Mac you want to sync. (If you have any Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion virtual machines, or any other huge files in your Documents folder, move them to another location because they’ll consume a ton of space.) If the total size is larger than the 5 GB of free space Apple gives all iCloud users, you’ll need to pay for more space: 50 GB ($0.99 per month), 200 GB ($2.99), or 2 TB ($9.99) Apple has announced that a Family Sharing iCloud Drive plan will be available later this year.

Once you’re ready, navigate to System Preferences > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Options and select Desktop & Documents Folders. Make sure Optimize Mac Storage at the bottom of the dialog is not selected.

When you do this, Sierra moves your Desktop and Documents folders from your home folder to iCloud Drive, which could be disconcerting. They’re still accessible from a Finder window’s sidebar, from the Finder’s Go menu, and within iCloud Drive itself. It may take some time for iCloud to slurp up all your data, so be patient.

For your other Macs, make sure they’re signed in to the same iCloud account, and repeat these steps. You’ll find each Mac’s files in sub-folders named along the lines of Desktop – name-of-Mac. You can manually move the contents of those sub-folders into the main Desktop and Documents folders if you wish, or keep them separate.

From then on, when you create, edit, or delete a file on the Desktop or in the Documents folder on any of your Macs, macOS syncs that change up to iCloud and then down to all your other Macs. It’s reasonably quick, depending on the speed of your Internet connection, but avoid working on the same file on different Macs without letting syncing complete first, or you could end up with conflicted copies. If you’re offline, you can work as normal, but your changes won’t sync until your Mac reconnects to the Internet.

On older Macs or those that don’t have Desktop & Documents folder syncing enabled, you can work with the contents of your synced Desktop and Documents folders directly in iCloud Drive—choose Go > iCloud Drive in the Finder to access them.

Now, about that Optimize Mac Storage checkbox. When it’s selected, if your Mac’s drive runs low on space, macOS may delete old, large files from the local drive to free up more space. The files remain in iCloud Drive, and you can click a cloud button next to their names in the Finder to download them.

The main thing to keep in mind with files stored only iCloud Drive is that backup apps other than Time Machine likely won’t be able to back them up to a local hard disk. Time Machine downloads such files before backing them up if there’s space, but if your drive is completely full, you could end up with the iCloud Drive version of a file being the only extant copy. As a result, we don’t recommend selecting Optimize Mac Storage on your primary Mac, though it’s fine on a secondary MacBook with minimal storage.

Finally, if you turn this feature off, macOS creates new local Desktop and Documents folders in your home folder, but it doesn’t populate them with content from the previously shared folders in iCloud Drive. You will probably want to move (hold down Command while dragging) the files from the iCloud Drive folders to the local Desktop and Documents folders to make your Mac work the way it did before you enabled this feature.

Desktop and Documents folder syncing is designed to simplify the experience of using multiple Macs (and iOS devices!), but if you’re accustomed to each of your Macs containing different files, give yourself some time to get comfortable with this new way of storing your documents.

Twitter: Desktop and Documents folder syncing can simplify getting at your files from multiple Macs, but beware its quirks!

Facebook: You can use Desktop and Documents folder syncing via iCloud Drive to create unified Desktop and Documents folders across all your Macs, and even access those folders from your iOS devices. Here’s what you should know before turning on this feature.

Apple first unveiled 3D Touch in iOS 9 with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, giving users of those iPhones a new way of interacting with apps, but 3D Touch didn’t catch on until Apple released the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and gave it broader support in iOS 10. Another year later, and 3D Touch is absolutely worth learning if you have a supported iPhone.

3D Touch works in two ways: peek and pop and quick actions.

Apps use peek and pop to let you glance (peek) at an item by pressing down on it (not just a touch, but a press into the screen), and then jump to that item (pop) by pressing harder still. In Safari, for instance, you can preview a link by pressing it, and then either release to dismiss the preview or continue to load it in its own tab by pressing harder. Or move your finger up on the screen without letting go or pressing harder to get controls for opening the link, adding to your reading list, or copying the URL. This trick applies to links in other apps like Mail, Messages, and Notes, too.

You can also use peek and pop with email message summaries in Mail, headlines in News, thumbnails in Photos, people in Find My Friends, dates and events in Calendar, and even the previously taken photo box in Camera. Support for peek and pop in third-party apps isn’t as widespread as it is in Apple’s apps, but it’s still worth trying whenever you want to preview something.

More interesting are quick actions, which present a menu of common actions when you press down on an app’s icon on the Home screen, or on various other items throughout iOS. Home screen quick actions are great, since they let you kickstart an app into doing something with just a hard press on its icon. If the app has a widget, pressing the icon shows that as well.

For instance, pressing on the Phone app shows its widget, which gives you buttons to call people in your Favorites list, along with actions to view the most recent call, search for a contact, create a new contact, or view the most recent voicemail. The Clock app lets you start a timer or the stopwatch, or create an alarm. Messages quick actions can create a new message or open a recent conversation. Press Safari’s icon, and you can create a new tab or see your bookmarks or reading list. You can even press on a folder to rename it quickly.

Quick actions and widgets are much more commonplace among third-party apps than peek and pop support, so be sure to try 3D Touch on all your favorite apps. If all you see is a Share item, the app has no quick actions or widget, but many apps provide both static actions that are always the same and dynamic actions that reflect your past usage.

Starting with iOS 10, you can use 3D Touch in Control Center too. Press the Flashlight button to adjust the brightness of the light, the Timer button for some pre-canned times, the Calculator button to copy the last calculation result, or the Camera button to take a photo, slo-mo, video, or selfie.

On the Lock screen, some notifications work with 3D Touch. For example, press a Messages notification to expand it and reply directly from the notification. And in Notification Center, you can press a notification to expand it, or use 3D Touch on the X button for any day to reveal a Clear All Notifications option.

It’s too bad that there’s no way to know in advance if an app supports quick actions or peek and pop, but as the number of iPhone users who can use 3D Touch increases, developers will incorporate 3D Touch capabilities into their apps more and more. So give it a try!

Twitter: Apple and app developers have hidden great shortcuts throughout the iPhone—here’s how you use 3D Touch to access them.

Facebook: We’re huge fans of 3D Touch because it provides access to all sorts of iPhone shortcuts—read this and give it a try!

To every thing there is a season, and we’re fast approaching the time when Apple harvests the fruit of the last year and releases new versions of macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. There are no major surprises here, since Apple announced the new versions in June and public betas have been available since that announcement. But once macOS 10.13 High Sierra, iOS 11, watchOS 4, and tvOS 11 become available for free download, you’ll need to decide when you’re going to install them.

(Note that we say when and not if. There’s no harm in delaying major operating system upgrades until Apple has had a chance to squash the initial bugs and you have time to focus on the task. But waiting too long puts you at risk from security vulnerabilities and prevents you from taking advantage of new integrations between Apple’s devices. Plus, should you have to replace an Apple device unexpectedly, you will likely be forced to use the current operating system, which could be awkward if you weren’t ready for the upgrade.)

The hardest decision to make is with macOS 10.13 High Sierra. In keeping with Apple’s cycle of macOS upgrades, High Sierra focuses on under-the-hood enhancements, most notably the switch to the new APFS file system and behind-the-scenes HEVC/HEIF formats for videos and photos. But apart from improved performance and reduced storage needs, neither of those changes will impact your everyday Mac experience. Tweaks to apps like Photos, Safari, and Messages will also be welcome but are far from essential. So our recommendation is to wait until at least version 10.13.1 or even 10.13.2 before upgrading. That gives you time to make sure your key apps are compatible with High Sierra and for Apple to resolve any unanticipated problems.

What about iOS 11? Although iOS 11 has received good reviews from beta testers, if you rely on an app that isn’t compatible, you may want to delay your upgrade. Check the App Store listing for each of your key apps, and if they’ve been updated recently, you’re probably OK to upgrade. If you use an iPad, install iOS 11 only once you’re ready for a major interface change, what with the new Dock, the redesigned Control Center, the new Files app, and improved multitasking and drag-and-drop. It’s all good, but it’s noticeably different. Apart from that, we see no significant reason to hold off on iOS 11—you’ll likely appreciate most of its new features.

The question of when to upgrade gets easier with watchOS 4. Although it has some nice new features, like a Siri watch face, improvements to Activity, more workout features, and better integration with Apple Music, it’s not a sea change. With no notable downsides to upgrading, it’s easy for us to recommend upgrading your Apple Watch as soon as you take your iPhone to iOS 11.

The easiest upgrade decision is moving to tvOS 11. If you have a fourth-generation Apple TV, either let it upgrade itself to tvOS 11 or invoke the upgrade manually from Settings > System > Software Updates. Since tvOS 11 is a minor update and you don’t create work on an Apple TV, upgrading is unlikely to cause any problems. You’ll just enjoy the automatic dark and light mode, support for AirPods, and AirPlay 2.

As much as change can be hard, we’re excited about Apple’s new operating systems. Like you, we probably won’t end up using all the new features, but some will definitely enhance the experience of being an Apple user.

Twitter: macOS 10.13 High Sierra, iOS 11, watchOS 4, tvOS 11—when should you upgrade? We have the answers you need at:

Facebook: Apple is releasing four major operating system upgrades later this year—macOS 10.13 High Sierra, iOS 11, watchOS 4, and tvOS 11. They promise improved performance and some compelling features… but when should you upgrade? (Hint: Not necessarily right away.)