Get Fast Access to Sleep, Shut Down, and Restart Controls in Mac OS X

Many longtime Mac users may know the handful of keyboard shortcuts to instantly reboot, shut down, and sleep Macs, but for those who haven't memorized the precise keystrokes yet, a much safer option is to instantly summon the power controls for OS X instead. This allows you to choose the power option you need while also providing a measure of safety if you have unsaved documents open or if users are connected to the Mac by networking, and it let's you review the various power options before just jumping right into one of them with a direct keystroke. We'll cover how to summon the Power Controls instantly, and then how you can interact with them by using only the keyboard:

• Press the Power button on the Mac to summon the power controls

Obviously you can now choose to just click the appropriate button if you'd like, but each option corresponds with a single keyboard action as well, and keeping hands on a keyboard is often faster for advanced users. Here are the interaction keys and their corresponding actions:

• S – Sleeps the Mac instantly
• R – Restarts the Mac, but with a prompt if some apps are open and unsaved or if users are connected via networking
• Return – Shuts down the Mac, but includes a prompt for apps that have unsaved data or if LAN users are connected
• Escape – Exits out of the power controls, the same effect as "Cancel"

Notice there are not controls specifically for the display in these choices, for that you will still need to either use the lock screen keystroke or a hot corner that is configured to sleep only the display.

If you have no idea what the power button is, it looks kind of like (|) and is either located in the upper right corner of the keyboard for most modern Macs and portable Macs, or physically located on the Mac itself for desktop models and older MacBook models. It's shown below on a MacBook Air if you're still unsure:

Of course whether or not you should sleep, shut down, or just leave your Mac turned on is a matter of debate, but for a lot of cases we recommend either leaving the device turned on or just putting it to sleep. Rebooting or shutting down a computer every day just isn't necessary for most people.

How to Change Photo Album Names in iOS

Sorting pictures into albums on your iOS devices is a good way to manage photos intended for different purposes, and some image editing apps like Snapseed and Instagram will create their own albums to help keep things arranged. It's not uncommon for an albums purpose to evolve though, and what once may have held just a bunch of pictures for picture frame mode on the iPad may have slowly evolved into a broader place to store photos, making a name change appropriate.

Renaming those photo albums isn't entirely obvious though, so we'll cover how to do this on an iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Renaming Photo Albums on iPhone & iPod touch

• Open Photos and stay in the primary screen with all photo albums listed, then tap "Edit" in the upper right corner
• Tap directly on the name of the album you want to rename to summon the keyboard
• Enter the new album name then tap "Done" to complete the change

Before tapping on Done, selecting other albums will let you change their names as well.

Changing an album name on the iPhone and iPod touch both look identical, and while doing this on the iPad is basically the same process, it looks pretty different because the albums are displayed in thumbnail views rather than lists.

Rename a Photo Album on iPad

• Open Photos and tap on "Edit"
• With the (x) now visible on the albums corner, tap directly on the album name to change it
• Tap "Done" to finish renaming the album, or tap another albums name to rename another one

You can rename any album with the exception of Camera Roll, which holds all photos on the device. There are some cases where you won't want to change the given names though, because some iOS image editing apps like Snapseed will create their own albums for photos altered or modified with those apps. As you may have guessed, if you change the name of those albums made by apps and then use the app again, that app will end up generating a new album with the apps name again anyway.

Set an Ultra-Strong iOS Password by Using Accent Characters

If you want maximum security with your iOS device, having a strong password is essential. Though you can extend password strength by using a phrase with mixed characters, another excellent option is to use special accent characters, making a password virtually impossible to guess. The idea is fairly straight forward: take a word, sequence, or phrase that you would normally use as the password, but then replace certain characters with accent letters or special characters. This will work the same on on any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, and here's what you'll need to do.

Turn On Strong Password Support in iOS

We've discussed the strong passcodes feature before as a great way to secure iOS devices, and that's where this tip begins. Here's how to enable that if you haven't done so yet:

• Open Settings then tap "General" followed by "Passcode Lock"
• Tap "Turn Passcode On" if you haven't done so yet, then flip the "Simple Passcode" switch to OFF

For added security and easier testing, set 'Require Password' to "Immediately", though that is optional.

Setting a Strong Password with Accent Characters

To type accent characters in iOS, you need to tap on a letter and hold for the accent menu to appear. An example of a password created this would would beFor example, a password like "tacobell" could be come "tãçōbęll"

• Now enter a new password, and replace some characters with accented versions to make it more secure

Once this has been set, you can see how it works by locking the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. You will now have the standard keyboard available rather than the simple numeric keys. As usual, the accent characters are accessible by tapping on holding on the letters that support them.

Though no password is perfect, this really does create extremely strong passwords that are almost impossible to guess because just about nobody is going to think to use accent characters, and most people don't know they're accessible at the lock screen anyway.

Finally, don't forget to set up Find My iPhone on the device as well, and consider further improving Find My iPhone by locking down location settings.