by Steve Sorbo | Jan 2, 2026 | Uncategorized
Recording a task in Apple’s Reminders app on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad is just the first step—the app captures what you need to do—but what matters more is being reminded to take action at the right moment. (The most important step, of course, is following through, but that’s on you.)
Here’s how to configure Reminders to get your attention at the right moment, whether through time-based alerts, location triggers, or when you chat with someone in Messages. Particularly helpful is the new alarm feature in iOS 26.2 that ensures you can’t miss time-based alerts. We’ll focus on the iPhone here, but the iPad and Mac interfaces are similar.
Time-Based Notifications
The most straightforward way to be reminded is at a specific date and time. When creating or editing a reminder, turn on the Date and Time switches to set when you want to be notified. You can also enter natural language times in the title, such as “tomorrow at 3 PM”—tap the autocomplete suggestion to convert it to the actual notification time. Voice commands via Siri also work especially well, such as “Siri, remind me to call my mother at 8 PM.” When the time arrives, you’ll receive a standard notification banner on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch.
For recurring tasks, after setting a date, select an option from the Repeat menu: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom intervals. Recurring reminders are perfect for routine tasks such as taking out the recycling or submitting weekly reports. (Medication reminders are often used as an example of recurring reminders, but they’re more effectively handled in the Health app.)
Early Reminders
Although reminders are seldom as time-sensitive as calendar events, where you can set multiple alerts ahead of the actual event, it can still be helpful to receive an additional notification to prep for the reminder’s time. For instance, you might want an early notification a week before “Cancel free trial subscription” to evaluate whether you want to keep the service.
After setting a date and time for a reminder, choose an item from the Early Reminder menu to receive an additional notification minutes, hours, or even days before the scheduled time. This gives you a heads-up that something is coming due without replacing the original notification at the scheduled time.
Alarms in iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2
For most reminders, it isn’t important that you start the task as soon as the notification appears. It doesn’t matter exactly when you cancel the free trial, as long as it happens before the renewal date, so a notification that remains on the Lock Screen is sufficient. But for other tasks, missing a notification would be a big problem. If the turkey needs to go in the oven at 2 PM so it’s ready for Thanksgiving dinner, you don’t want to get distracted by the football game and miss the notification.
To help, Apple added an alarm feature in iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 that lets Reminders trigger full-screen alarms that behave like those in the Clock app. It’s essential for critical reminders that absolutely cannot be missed. Alarms only work for the person who created the reminder, even if the reminder is on a shared list.
To enable an alarm for a reminder, set a date and time, then turn on the Urgent switch. (It doesn’t appear to be possible to enable Urgent via Siri.) When the reminder comes due, instead of a simple notification banner, you’ll see (and hear) an alarm on your iPhone (and Apple Watch) with options to dismiss or snooze it for 9 minutes. The alarm will continue to sound until you respond, making it much harder to ignore than a standard notification. You can even reschedule snoozed alarms if necessary.
This feature can be a lifesaver for time-sensitive tasks like picking up a prescription before the drugstore closes, joining crucial meetings, or any reminder where a simple banner notification isn’t enough. We hope Apple adds alarms to the Calendar app as well.
Location-Based Reminders
Reminders can also be triggered based on where you are. Location-based reminders are ideal for tasks like “Pick up dry cleaning” when you’re near the cleaners or “Defrost the chicken for dinner” when you arrive home.
Turn on the Location switch when creating a reminder to choose from options like:
- Current location
- Saved locations like Home and Work
- Custom locations
- Getting In or Getting Out (of a car; these options require a CarPlay or Bluetooth connection to your vehicle)
For the location options, you can request alerts when you arrive or leave. To set a custom location, search for an address or point of interest. You can adjust the geofence radius to control how close you need to be for the reminder to trigger.
Screenshot
When Messaging Someone
If you associate something you want to remember with a particular person, Reminders can notify you when you’re communicating with them in Messages. It’s perfect for things you want to mention but aren’t important enough to warrant starting a conversation—“Ask John about their new puppy.”
When editing a reminder, enable When Messaging and select a contact. The next time you open a Messages conversation with that person, a notification will appear reminding you of the task.
Choosing the Right Alert Method
Each notification type serves different purposes:
- Time-based notifications work well for scheduled tasks and deadlines, with early reminders for advance warning and alarms for critical tasks that can’t be missed.
- Location-based reminders are ideal for errands and place-specific tasks.
- When Messaging ensures you remember to discuss something with a specific person.
By combining these options, you can ensure that essential tasks receive the attention they deserve and are delivered in the way most likely to prompt action.
(Featured image by iStock.com/champpixs)
Social Media: Apple’s Reminders app offers more than simple notifications—from location-based alerts to the new alarm feature in iOS 26.2, here’s how to make sure you never miss an important task.
by Steve Sorbo | Jan 2, 2026 | Uncategorized
Apple has now sufficiently refined macOS 26 Tahoe to make an upgrade worthwhile for interested users. You don’t need to upgrade immediately, but there are no strong reasons for most people to delay further.
Unlike last year, when Apple was releasing new Apple Intelligence features with each macOS 15 Sequoia update, the company launched nearly all the promised new features in Tahoe with version 26.0. There’s no need to wait for the more personalized Siri upgrade Apple promised for 2026—we won’t know how good it is until it ships.
Tahoe is now stable and polished enough for most users to upgrade with confidence, particularly on Apple silicon Macs. While there are some minor concerns—such as dissatisfaction with Liquid Glass, higher baseline resource usage, a few battery and performance issues, and the removal of Launchpad—none are deal-breakers. Of course, Apple will continue releasing macOS updates in 2026. You can expect macOS 26.3 in January, 26.4 in late March or early April, and 26.5 in May, along with several security and bug-fix updates in between.
Although Tahoe is ready for prime time, you can still delay the upgrade as long as you’re running macOS 14 Sonoma or macOS 15 Sequoia and are staying current with Apple’s security updates. Older macOS versions no longer receive security fixes, making them more vulnerable to attacks. Possible reasons to continue delaying include:
- You’re too busy: The upgrade process will take a few hours, plus some additional time to configure everything properly afterward. When you’re ready to upgrade, aim for when a little downtime won’t be a problem.
- You rely on incompatible software: Most modern apps should now be updated for Tahoe—Adobe recently qualified its Creative Cloud apps. But if a necessary app is known to have issues, you’ll need to wait for an update or find an alternative that works.
Despite the visual changes from Liquid Glass, using Tahoe remains straightforward—it’s still macOS. Even if you’re not an immediate fan of Liquid Glass, Tahoe has new features that might appeal to you. Control Center is now fully customizable, and you can make folders easier to identify by assigning them colors and badges. Spotlight has become an even better app and action launcher, and it now includes access to your clipboard history, a feature previously available only with third-party software. The Phone app has come to the Mac, allowing you to make and take phone calls on your Mac as long as your iPhone is nearby. Live Translation automatically translates text in Messages, provides translated captions in FaceTime, and offers real-time spoken translations in the Phone app.
Before You Upgrade
Once you’ve decided to upgrade to Tahoe, you have three main tasks:
- Update apps: Make sure all your apps are up to date. If you regularly delay updates, now’s the time to let them complete so you have Tahoe-compatible versions.
- Clear space: Tahoe may require up to 25 GB of free space to upgrade, and the Tahoe installer itself can take up to 17 GB, so we recommend ensuring you have at least 50 GB free. Don’t cut this close—you should always have at least 10–20% free space for virtual memory, cache files, and breathing room. Check by choosing System Settings > General > Storage; in earlier versions of macOS, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu and click Storage. System Settings provides quick ways to free up space. For iCloud Drive users, another easy way to save space is to Control-click large folders and choose Remove Download to “evict” the local versions of those files temporarily; Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive have similar features.
- Make a backup: Never install a macOS update or upgrade without first making sure you have at least one current backup. Ideally, you should have a Time Machine backup, a data-only duplicate, and an Internet backup. This way, if something goes wrong, you can easily revert.
Upgrading
After finishing those tasks, make sure you won’t need your Mac for a few hours. There’s no way to know precisely how long the upgrade will take, so don’t start an upgrade if you need your Mac soon.
To start the upgrade, go to System Settings > General > Software Update in Sequoia, Sonoma, or Ventura (System Preferences > Software Update in previous versions of macOS), click the Upgrade Now button, and follow the prompts. For more help, see Joe Kissell’s ebook Take Control of Tahoe.
After You Upgrade
One reason to set aside ample time for your Tahoe upgrade is that cleanup tasks typically follow. We can’t predict exactly what you’ll encounter—it depends on your current macOS version and the apps you use—but here are a few scenarios we’ve seen before:
- macOS may prompt for your Apple ID password and your Mac’s login password. If you have multiple Macs, you may also need to approve the upgrade from another Mac signed in to the same Apple Account. Don’t worry that malware has compromised your Mac—these authentication prompts are normal.
- Some apps may request additional permissions even if you previously granted them. Again, that’s okay.
- If you use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac and apps (and you should; it’s great!), you may need to re-enable that feature in System Settings > Touch ID & Password (or Login Password on a Mac without Touch ID). In older versions of macOS, it was located in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General.
- If you use Gmail, Google Calendar, or other Google services, you might need to log in to your Google account again.
- Websites that remember your login state will likely require you to log in again. However, if you’re using a password manager like Apple’s Passwords or 1Password, that’s easy.
- You might need to re-enable text message forwarding to your Mac. You do this on your iPhone by going to Settings > Apps > Messages > Text Message Forwarding.
With the housekeeping done, it’s time to check out all the new features in Tahoe!
(Featured image by Apple)
Social Media: When should you upgrade to macOS 26 Tahoe? There’s no rush to install it today, but we believe it’s safe for those who want to take advantage of the new features. Here’s what to do before, during, and after the upgrade.
by Steve Sorbo | Dec 5, 2025 | Uncategorized
Apple introduced a neat new feature in the Phone app in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 (but not macOS 26): callback reminders. Whenever you miss a call and think, “I’d better call this person back later,” you can now create a reminder to do that right within the Phone app. Swipe left on any call, tap the blue clock icon ➊, and select Remind Me in 1 Hour, Tonight, Tomorrow, or Later ➋. The first three options create a reminder in your default Reminders list immediately; Remind Me Later opens the New Reminder editor so you can set a specific time and add details ➌. Tap the blue checkmark button to save your changes ➍.
(Featured image by iStock.com/le_cyclope)
Social Media: Missed a call? Keep follow‑ups from slipping through the cracks by setting a callback reminder right in the Phone app on iOS 26 and iPadOS 26.
by Steve Sorbo | Dec 5, 2025 | Uncategorized
If you use certain apps or documents regularly, you can ensure they’re ready to go after a restart by manually adding them to your Login Items list. Some login items are also added automatically by apps that want to be available at all times. Either way, when the Mac boots, it automatically opens all login items. But it’s easy to end up with login items for apps you no longer use, which can slow down startup and overall performance, increase the risk of conflicts, and even expose you to attacks. We encourage you to review your Mac’s login items periodically and remove any items you’re not using. Just navigate to System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions, select the unwanted items, and click the minus button. If you make a mistake, drag the app back in from the Finder.
(Featured image by iStock.com/artisteer)
Social Media: Speed up your Mac’s startup, reduce conflicts, and improve security by cleaning out old login items. It takes just a minute in System Settings.
by Steve Sorbo | Dec 5, 2025 | Uncategorized
A potentially surprising and fun new feature in Messages in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 Tahoe is conversation backgrounds. To set one, tap the person or group icon at the top of the conversation, then tap Backgrounds, select an image, and tap the blue checkmark to save. What you might not realize is that conversation backgrounds are shared with others in the conversation who use iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26, so be sure to choose appropriate backgrounds. We recommend explaining what you’ve done, as the background can radically change the look of the Messages interface, which some people may find confusing or even upsetting if it happens unexpectedly.
(Featured image by iStock.com/Hector Pertuz)
Social Media: Conversation backgrounds in Messages look cool, and they’re shared with others on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 Tahoe. Pick an appropriate image and explain what you’ve done to delight your contacts rather than confusing them.
by Steve Sorbo | Dec 5, 2025 | Uncategorized
Apple’s latest operating systems have eliminated a longstanding annoyance for frequent travelers: the lack of time zone support in Reminders. If you had set a reminder to alert you at 9 AM Eastern and then traveled from Virginia to California, your alert would go off at 6 AM, which is likely unhelpful and potentially sleep‑disrupting. In iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 Tahoe, you can tap or click the time in a reminder and set the appropriate time zone so the alert fires at the intended local “wall clock” time. For example, set a reminder for “9 AM Pacific” when you’ll be in California so it alerts at 9 AM local time there. There’s an option to turn on manual time zone support in Settings > Apps > Reminders > Time Zone (iOS and iPadOS) and Reminders > Settings (macOS), but it wasn’t necessary in our testing.
(Featured image by iStock.com/VTT Studio)
Social Media: Traveling across time zones? Reminders in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 finally lets you set a time zone per reminder so alerts fire at the right local “wall clock” time.
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