by Steve Sorbo | May 2, 2025 | Uncategorized
Apple’s AirPlay is one of those low-level technologies that’s more capable than many people realize. In addition to allowing you to stream video and audio from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to an Apple TV connected to a large-screen TV, AirPlay also enables you to use that TV as an external Mac display, either mirroring what’s on your Mac’s screen or extending the desktop. It even allows you to turn one Mac into a display for another.
The big win of connecting to a TV comes when you want to demo something from your Mac to a group—it’s a compelling reason to have an Apple TV-equipped screen in a conference room—or when you want to use one Mac’s display from another without the hassle of rearranging cables. In this article, we focus on these external display features, which are helpful to both individuals and businesses alike. There are three ways to use AirPlay to enable another display: mirroring the entire screen, mirroring selected apps or windows, and extending the desktop.
Set Up AirPlay to Receive Video
First, ensure that all devices have Wi-Fi turned on and are connected to the same network. If you’re using AirPlay to a Mac, note the minimum system requirements (primarily macOS 12 Monterey or later). Additionally, if you’re using your own devices, it’s best to be signed in to the same Apple Account.
Second, make sure the screen to which you want to mirror is accessible:
- On an Apple TV, the settings are likely already enabled; however, if not, navigate to Settings > AirPlay and HomeKit and turn on AirPlay. You can also set who can gain access (everyone, anyone on the same network, or only people sharing this home) and require a password. For an office environment, you can turn the Apple TV into a conference room display that provides connection instructions with the screen saver, requires a PIN, and allows you to set a custom message and background photo. Also, note the AirPlay Display Underscan option, which you can turn on to reduce the chance of the screen being cropped or turn off to eliminate black bars. Auto tries to choose for you—in our testing, cropping was sometimes unavoidable.
- On a Mac, go to System Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff and turn on AirPlay Receiver. The “Allow AirPlay for” menu lets you specify who can access it, and you can require a password.
Mirror Your Mac’s Screen
Apple’s recommended method for mirroring your screen is to open Control Center by clicking its icon at the right side of the menu bar, click Screen Mirroring, and select the desired Apple TV or Mac from the list. Once you do that, your Mac’s screen will appear on the external display.
However, it may not display at a usable resolution. You control the resolution in System Settings > Displays, and you can jump there by clicking Display Settings in either of the two rightmost windows shown above. In the Displays settings screen, from the Optimize For pop-up menu, choose either your Mac or the external display. If you choose the external display, you can select from all available resolutions.
If you’re mirroring to a Mac with multiple displays, a small, dark lozenge in the upper-left corner of the destination screen provides a menu from which you can choose which display to use.
Mirror Selected Apps or Windows
Mirroring your entire desktop is often overkill when all you want to share with the group is one or two windows. As of macOS 15.2 Sequoia, that’s now possible. An added benefit is that you don’t have to worry about others seeing your messy desktop or potentially sensitive information in other windows.
To mirror one window or all the windows in an app, open Control Center, click Screen Mirroring, select the destination display, and then click Change or Choose Content. In the dialog that appears, select Window or App and click Choose Window or App.
Then select the desired window and click either Mirror This Window or Mirror All Application Windows.
You’re not limited to windows from a single app. You can add additional windows by clicking the purple Screen Mirroring menu in the menu bar, clicking Add Windows, and selecting another window. (If you want to stop mirroring one and start mirroring another, select the current window to see a Stop Mirroring This Window button.)
Extend Your Mac’s Desktop
Mirroring is useful for presentations or working with a group, but if you instead want to boost your productivity with additional screen real estate, you can opt to extend your Mac’s desktop to another Mac or TV.
To do so, open Control Center, click Screen Mirroring, select the destination display, click Change, and in the dialog that appears, select Extended Display and click Extend Display.
This option often requires additional configuration to get everything looking the way you want. Open System Settings > Displays and click the second display. First, you may want to select a different resolution to see more or less content on the second display. Clicking Show All Resolutions expands the list, but many of the additional resolutions won’t be ideal. Unfortunately, some desirable resolutions are marked with a “low resolution” tag—they’ll be fuzzier than ideal.
Once you have your desired resolution, you need to arrange the screens appropriately. It’s usually best to match the real-world positioning, so if your second display sits to the left of your Mac, move its representation there so dragging windows and other items on the extended desktop works as you expect. Click the Arrange button, drag the second display into the desired location, and click Done.
Regular Use and Stopping Mirroring
Although it’s simple to start mirroring or extending your desktop and to switch among the various modes, you’ll probably use one of the modes most of the time. The good news is that macOS remembers your previous choice, so if you mirror your entire screen or extend your desktop, clicking Screen Mirroring in Control Center will default to that option the next time you invoke it. Mirroring windows always requires that you pick the window to share.
Regardless of how you’re mirroring your screen, you can stop by clicking Stop Mirroring in the purple Screen Mirroring menu in the menu bar. Alternatively, open Control Center, click Screen Mirroring, and click Stop Mirroring. Or click the Disconnect button in Displays.
On the remote Mac, that small, dark lozenge also provides an X button that ends screen mirroring when clicked from the remote Mac. Turning off the remote Apple TV also works.
Using AirPlay to mirror or extend your Mac’s display to another Mac or TV may not be something that you use on an everyday basis, but it’s a big win when you need to share content with a group, do a presentation, or ramp up your productivity without rearranging cables.
(Featured image by iStock.com/Ratchapon Supprasert)
Social Media: Want to demo something on a big screen? AirPlay can mirror your Mac’s display—or just specific windows—to an Apple TV-equipped TV or another Mac. It’s perfect for presentations, sharing content with a group, or increasing your screen space.
by Steve Sorbo | May 2, 2025 | Uncategorized
Are employees at your company surreptitiously using artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini for everyday business tasks? It’s likely. An October 2024 Software AG study found that half of all employees use “shadow AI” tools to enhance their productivity, and most would continue using them even if explicitly banned by their employer.
Increased productivity is a good thing, but unsanctioned and unregulated AI use poses risks. A February 2025 TELUS Digital survey found that 57% of enterprise employees admit to entering high-risk information into publicly available chatbots. This includes personal data about employees or customers, product or project details, and confidential financial information like revenues, profit margins, budgets, and forecasts.
A clear AI policy will help a business minimize the risks of using AI tools. These risks include leaks of confidential information, compliance failures, accidental copyright violations, and reputational damage. As AI becomes a routine part of knowledge work, every business—even small firms—must establish an AI policy to maximize the benefits of using AI while safeguarding the company, its employees, and its clients.
Risks Addressed by a Formal AI Policy
Unauthorized AI use can create several types of problems:
- Data security: Employees routinely paste sensitive data—including customer information, financial records, and unreleased products—into public AI tools, thereby losing control over how that data is used. That can make security audits nearly impossible and drive IT staff crazy. Notably, the free versions of ChatGPT (by default, it can be turned off) and Google’s Gemini can incorporate user data into their training models, making it possible that the information could be included in a discussion with someone else.
- Legal and compliance risks: Sharing protected information with non-compliant AI systems could result in penalties during regulatory audits, even if no actual data breach or harm occurs. For instance, using such systems to summarize patient records could violate HIPAA, while using them to analyze customer data could run afoul of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
- Unintentional discrimination: Without clear guidelines, the use of AI can lead to unintentional discrimination in hiring, customer service, and decision-making. This may violate ethical standards and expose the company to legal liability.
- Employee confusion: The lack of a coherent AI policy leads to inconsistent practices and uncertainty about acceptable tools and proper procedures, resulting in reduced productivity and increased anxiety about AI use.
Essential Elements of an AI Policy
The specifics of an AI policy vary by the type and size of company, but at minimum, most AI policies should include the following:
- Permitted AI uses and tools: Clear guidelines on the types of tasks employees may undertake with AI assistance and a list of approved AI platforms for business activities
- Data privacy and legal compliance: Rules for safeguarding confidential, personal, and proprietary information when using AI, coupled with rules that ensure adherence to relevant industry-specific regulations and privacy laws
- Human oversight and transparency: Requirements that employees thoroughly review AI-generated content before use and disclose AI involvement when appropriate in client-facing or public materials
- Risk reporting and incident response: Clear instructions for reporting AI-related errors, security incidents, or potential misuses
- Ownership and intellectual property clarifications: Statements affirming that work products created with AI assistance belong to the company. These statements should also address any intellectual property considerations.
Building Your AI Policy
If your company doesn’t already have an established process for generating policies, AI tools can themselves provide a starting point when used thoughtfully. Here’s an approach:
- Prompt an AI tool like ChatGPT or Claude to generate a basic AI policy template. Be explicit about your company’s size, industry, and other relevant details, and be sure to specify that it must cover the elements listed above—you can paste them in. Iterate as necessary until the template has all the required sections.
- Review the generated template carefully, removing generic content and noting areas that need company-specific details.
- Ask for feedback on the draft from key stakeholders, including:
- Leadership to align with company goals and values
- IT team to verify technical feasibility and security measures
- Legal counsel to ensure compliance with relevant regulations
- Department heads to confirm that it will be practical to implement the policy
- Incorporate the feedback to create a policy that reflects your company’s specific needs while maintaining necessary protections.
Remember: An AI-generated template is for starting the conversation. The final policy must be tailored to your organization’s specific needs and thoroughly vetted by relevant stakeholders.
The rise of AI tools in the workplace isn’t just a trend—it’s a fundamental shift in how work gets done. Whether your employees are already using AI tools without oversight or are hesitant to use them due to uncertainty, now is the time to establish a formal AI policy. Start with the template approach outlined above, engage your stakeholders, and develop guidelines that work for your organization. A well-crafted AI policy will help your business harness the benefits of AI while minimizing its risks.
(Featured image by iStock.com/girafchik123)
Social Media: Shadow AI is commonplace in workplaces, with half of employees using unauthorized AI tools and many sharing sensitive data. Learn why your business needs a formal AI policy to harness the benefits of AI while safeguarding against its significant risks.
by Steve Sorbo | May 2, 2025 | Uncategorized
No one likes passwords. Users find managing them annoying, and website managers worry about login credentials being stolen in a data breach. The industry has developed a better solution: passkeys.
Passwords versus Passkeys
Traditional multi-factor authentication involves three methods of authentication, at least two of which are required for protection. They include something you know (a password), something you have (usually a code from an authenticator app or text message), and something you are (biometric authentication). Most systems primarily use the first two, but that leaves room for attack because someone could acquire your password and an authentication code through nefarious means.
Passkeys change the model. Instead of how passwords and codes use words and numbers that can be copied and shared, passkeys are pairs of cryptographic keys: a public key and a private key. Websites keep the public key, and the private key is stored securely within a device or encrypted vault, such as in the Secure Enclave in Apple’s chips or a 1Password vault. Authenticating with a website requires providing the private key that matches the account’s public key, something that Apple users with modern devices can usually initiate with Touch ID or Face ID.
Instead of generating security with something you have and something you know, passkeys rely on possession (do you have the device?) and presence (are you physically in front of the device?). This approach is fundamentally more secure than passwords because the private key can’t be phished, copied, or used remotely, and you must be physically present to unlock your device. Nor can you be tricked into providing a passkey to a malicious website. (Neither approach protects against physical coercion.)
Where Can You Use Passkeys?
In practice, since you use passkeys primarily to sign into websites, passkeys are stored alongside account details in your password manager. For Apple users, Safari (in iOS 16 or macOS 13 Ventura and later) with Apple’s Passwords app provides the most integrated passkey experience. However, most independent password managers, such as 1Password, Bitwarden, and Dashlane, also enable you to store, share, and enter passkeys and can take over for or work alongside Apple’s Passwords. They provide consistent passkey functionality across all major Web browsers, although experiences may vary slightly due to differences in how they handle authentication prompts and platform integration.
You’ll also find robust support in the Password Manager built into Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, including Arc, Brave, Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi. Firefox’s native passkey support is more limited, but third-party password managers work well with Firefox.
Although website support for passkeys was initially slow, an increasing number of sites now support them. That includes the big three of Apple, Google, and Microsoft, of course, as well as Amazon, Best Buy, Discord, eBay, GitHub, Intuit, Netflix, Notion, PayPal, Robinhood, Stripe, Target, Walmart, and WhatsApp.
Setting Up Passkeys
The process of setting up passkeys varies a little by website, but is generally remarkably easy. You may be prompted to create a passkey while signing in, or you may need to navigate to the security options associated with your account.
Google offers both approaches. Setting up a passkey for a Google Account can be as simple as agreeing to do so while logging in. If you’re already logged in, Google’s Passkeys and security keys page lets you make one. Once you click Create a Passkey, you’ll be prompted to save it in either Apple’s Passwords or another password manager like 1Password. That’s it.
Note that if you use both Passwords and another password manager, you can save the passkey in only one, and only that one can use it to sign in later. However, most sites that support passkeys let you add multiple passkeys, so you could save separate passkeys in different password managers.
Signing in with Passkeys
Similarly, using a passkey to sign in is trivially simple. You navigate to the website’s login page, enter your username, choose the passkey sign-in option if necessary, and then authenticate.
Exactly how you authenticate depends on the device you’re using and your password manager. On the Mac, Passwords will ask you to use Touch ID if available (above) or a dialog otherwise (below, left). 1Password, once unlocked for the session, presents a dialog with a Sign In button (below right).
On the iPhone and iPad, an authentication dialog appears at the bottom of the screen asking if you want to sign in with your passkey. Tap Continue and authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID (with a fallback to your passcode if necessary).
Unsurprisingly, Apple makes it particularly easy to sign in to Apple websites like iCloud.com using a passkey. As soon as you navigate to such a site in Safari, the device prompts you to sign in using your current Apple Account username and an implicit passkey.
When using other browsers or another Mac that lacks access to your passkey, selecting the passkey sign-in option displays a QR code that you need to scan with an iPhone or iPad that has the passkey stored on it.
Managing and Sharing Passkeys
As noted, passkeys are stored in accounts managed by a password manager. In fact, passkeys are currently stored alongside passwords in each account. There’s nothing to see or edit, although you can delete passkeys like any other data. Although deleting the passkey on your device guarantees that it can’t be used to sign in again, it’s best to also delete the passkey at the website where you created it to avoid confusion.
Passkeys are automatically synced among all your devices by the password manager so you can take advantage of them everywhere, but note that syncing is specific to just one password manager—for instance, iCloud Keychain doesn’t sync with 1Password or other third-party managers. The authentication method varies by device, but the overall experience remains the same.
You can also share passkeys with other people in your family or workgroup, just as you would with password-only accounts. They can log in to your passkey-protected accounts because they can prove possession (they have the passkey) and presence (they’re authenticating). In essence, you’re saying, “This person is authorized to act as the account holder.”
Passkey Concerns
Although passkeys are a big step forward in usability and security compared to passwords, they’re not without limitations or concerns, which have slowed adoption:
- Account recoverability: Because passkeys are tied to devices, if a user loses all their devices and doesn’t have a cloud backup option (such as registering a new iPhone to an existing Apple Account or adding a new device to a 1Password account), it’s impossible to recover an account. This is primarily a concern for those who have only a single device and no one with whom to share.
- Sharing hurdles: If you want to give someone else passkey access to an account—perhaps a shared bank account—you must log in on their device and then create an additional passkey that is stored on their device.
- Lack of portability: Although passkeys can be synced between devices using the same platform (iCloud Keychain, 1Password account, etc.), there’s no way to export a passkey from one platform and import it into another. You have to recreate passkeys from scratch for each platform. Vendors are working on the problem, but as you can imagine, enabling export/import opens up security concerns.
- User confusion: People are, understandably, still unfamiliar with passkeys, leading many to avoid them on principle. It hasn’t helped that using passkeys is slightly different on every website. The industry is working to standardize the user experience, but we’re not there yet.
- Passwords still exist: No major websites allow passkey-only accounts. Since all accounts still have passwords that can be stolen, passkeys aren’t increasing security nearly as much as they could.
- Enterprise support: Large organizations want to know if a passkey was generated on a secure device, if it can be revoked or rotated, and if the user employing the passkey has truly been verified. Support for these requirements is still evolving.
- Digital inheritance: When passkey-only accounts become commonplace in the future, passkeys may be more challenging to manage in situations involving the user’s death. For now, the solution is to share passkey-protected accounts with family members in advance using a password manager. The industry would do well to establish standards around this inevitability.
Nonetheless, the perfect shouldn’t be the enemy of the good. Passkeys improve on passwords in both usability and security, and the best way to get to an easier, more secure future is to start using passkeys wherever possible today.
(Featured image by iStock.com/tanit boonruen)
Social Media: Passkeys are finally gaining mainstream traction, with support from Apple, Google, Microsoft, and numerous major websites. Find out why they’re more secure than passwords and how to start using them.
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