Mac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting

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You get a firehose of genuinely useful Apple tips this week, starting with new muscle-memory moves you’ll actually use: cycling app windows with Cmd + `, nodding or shaking to answer AirPods, dragging apps straight from iOS search, and building Focus-specific home screens so the right icons appear at the right time.

Edge Light turns your Mac into a cleaner on‑camera rig, Display Buddy tames external monitor brightness, and custom macOS keyboard shortcuts plus Dock CPU meters give you fast, surgical control over your Mac.

Then you level up your living room: master the Apple TV remote’s scrub wheel, undo accidental scrubs, jump in precise increments, push video from iPhone to Apple TV, and fling audio to HomePod with a tap. Even Reminders gets a glow‑up so you can punt a pile of alerts in one shot instead of playing whack‑a‑mole.

From there, you zoom out to “meta” geekery: backing up critical Notes (or moving to OneNote, Ulysses, or Obsidian), even flirting with a git repo to sync prefs and personal data like a developer. On the road, you learn how to keep CarPlay tappable with gloves, and in the cloud you explore why chatbots forget context, when to bring in tools like Claude, Perplexity’s Comet, Atlas, Gemini, or Claude’s Chrome extension, and how having an always‑on troubleshooting assistant changes how you work.

Listener reviews cap it off by framing the show as a kind of PhD in troubleshooting, all so you can experiment, push your tech harder, and, of course, don’t get caught.​

  • 00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 1129 for Monday, February 16th, 2026
    • February 16th: Innovation Day
    • MGG Monthly Giveaway – Enter to win a Copilot Money!
    • Congrats to January’s winner, Amanda Colyer!
    • The MGG Merch Store is Live!
    • Quick Tips
      • 00:00:01 Michael Ilin-QT-Press Cmd + ` to cycle all windows of that app
      • 00:03:06 PilotPete-QT-Nod or Shake to answer your AirPods
      • 00:05:49 Clif-QT-Relocate iOS apps by dragging from search results
        • Eufy Smart Scale
        • Withings Sleep Pad
        • 00:07:47 Different home screens for different Focus Modes
        • 00:11:16 QT-Use Edge Light for video calls in macOS 26.2-and-later
        • 00:16:17 Use Display Buddy to control the brightness of your screen
        • 00:18:09 Russell-QT-Map your own keyboard shortcuts in macOS settings
          • Brave Browser’s LEO AI
          • 00:23:03 The value of an always-on troubleshooting assistant
            • Eney
            • 00:26:32 Doug-QT-Set Activity Monitor to show CPU Usage in Dock
            • 00:30:40 Apple TV Remote Quick Tip Masterclass
              • EyeDentify-QT-Undo Accidental Scrubs on Apple TV
              • Using the Apple TV remote’s scroll-wheel emulator to scrub in a fine-tuned way
              • Double-tap scroll wheel edges to jump forwards or backwards
              • Use Siri Commands, too
              • 00:35:16 Dom Bettinelli-QT-Tap iPhone to Apple TV remote to transfer video to Apple TV
              • 00:37:15 Tap your iPhone to your HomePod to transfer audio
              • 00:37:45 Jeepster-QT-Procrastinate Multiple Reminders at Once
              • Sponsors
                • 00:41:17 SPONSOR: CleanMyMac. Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use our code MACGEEK for 20% off at clnmy.com/MACGEEK
                • Don’t Get Caught
                  • 00:43:56 Steve-DGC-1128-Duplicate important Notes as backup
                    • Microsoft OneNote
                    • Ulysses
                    • Obsidian
                    • 00:54:56 What about a git repo to sync… prefs, notes, whatever?
                    • Your Questions Answered and Tips Shared!
                      • 00:55:53 Steve Hammond-How can I control CarPlay with gloves on?
                        • Capacitive Gloves for Screens and Phones
                        • 01:00:30 DJ Mac-ChatGPT and others regularly forget what I’ve told them
                          • Try claude.ai/giggab for half-price Claude Pro
                          • 01:08:16 William-1128-How do I get my browser to surf for me?
                            • Perplexity – Comet browser
                            • ChatGPT – ChatGPT Atlas browser
                            • Gemini – Gemini in Chrome
                            • Claude – Claude in Chrome extension
                            • Reviews
                              • 01:15:08 gdubs-MGG Review-A PhD in troubleshooting
                              • 01:16:08 michaefs-MGG Review-A great podcast
                              • 01:16:57 d32bus-MGG Review-Excellent show
                              • 01:17:39 MGG 1129 Outtro
                                • MGG Monthly Giveaway
                                • Bandwidth Provided by CacheFly
                                • Pilot Pete’s Aviation Podcast: So There I Was (for Aviation Enthusiasts)
                                • The Debut Film Podcast – Adam’s new podcast!
                                • Dave’s Business Brain (for Entrepreneurs) and Gig Gab (for Working Musicians) Podcasts
                                • MGG Merch is Available!
                                • Mac Geek Gab YouTube Page
                                • Mac Geek Gab Live Calendar
                                • This Week’s MGG Premium Contributors
                                • MGG Apple Podcasts Reviews
                                • 224-888-GEEK
                                • Active MGG Sponsors and Coupon Codes List
                                • BackBeat Media Podcast Network
                                •  

                                  ...more
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                                  Mac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and TroubleshootingBy Dave Hamilton, Pilot Pete & Adam Christianson

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