I can see clearly now!

Do you have to squint like I do to make out phone numbers in your Mac’s address book? Having problems reading addresses in your email? If so, here are a few pain-free prescriptions that, in a blink of an eye, will improve your visual acuity while using your Mac.

To make a phone number in your address book easier to read even from 30 feet away, you can temporarily display it in super-sized type. Here’s how:

Select the name of the contact whose phone number you want to magnify. Click the phone label at the left of the number and choose Large Type from the pop-up menu.

To stop displaying large type, click anywhere else on the screen or quit out of your address book.

You can also view enlarged type of phone numbers, dates, and addresses in email messages. Just slide your cursor over a phone number, date, or address in the body of an email until a tiny arrow appears. Press down on the arrow and up pop several options, including Large Type. Choose Large Type if that’s the option you want or, if you prefer, select any of the other options.

Ahhh! Just another example of how Apple pampers Mac users.

Why Apple won't sell laptops

It's true. Apple doesn't sell laptops. I heard it from an Apple employe who chided me when I referred to my MacBook Pro as a laptop. "We don't sell laptops but we do sell portables. We don't sell laptop computers because, generally, portable computers get too hot to keep on your lap." As you know, Apple is a stickler for everything it produces, including the words it uses to refer to its products.

<p>Lesson learned: I won't refer to my MacBook Pro as a laptop unless I'm willing to take the heat.</p>

<p>…or stay cool with SSD.</> 

Thank you, Google

Just a few moments ago I realized that I had swallowed a rubber band. How did I manage to do that? Don't ask. What was great was that Google allayed my fears of unpleasant or even disastrous consequences. I just entered "swallow rubber band" in Google's search box and up came numerous comments. All of them, including several from physicians, were very comforting, assuring me that my health was not in danger and everything would come out okay in the end. (Accidental pun.)