Mac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting

We Are Not The Mickey Mice!

Mar 9, 2026

Rapid-fire Apple tips for faster screenshots, unzooming a stuck iPhone, batch-moving apps, and speaking the time from your wrist. Practical tricks to keep Chrome from changing mic levels and to organize appliance manuals with NotebookLM and Books. A dive into AI-assisted coding workflows using Plan Mode and a buyer's guide to Apple’s new affordable-first hardware lineup. Handy AirDrop and Apple TV remote-control fixes round out the show.

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ADVICE

Use Plan Mode To Map App Upgrades

Do use an LLM's Plan Mode (Claude Code Plan Mode mentioned) to map phases of a migration before coding to avoid rework.
Adam and Dave used plan-mode output to split conversion phases and decide when to convert to Swift versus incremental upgrades.

ADVICE

Shortcut To Extract Live Text From Any Screen

Do build a Shortcuts quick action that takes a screenshot and runs OCR to extract Live Text, then assign a keyboard shortcut for instant capture.
The shortcut can combine image and OCRed text, copy it to the clipboard, and paste anywhere for multi-column or hard-to-hover text.

ADVICE

Use Camera Level For Straight Document Photos

Do enable Camera > Level to get on-screen crosshairs that turn yellow when your iPhone is level over a document.
Use the white/yellow plus signs while shooting face-down document photos to reduce keystone distortion before scanning.

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We Are Not The Mickey Mice! — Mac Geek Gab 1132 episode image

You start this episode by supercharging your daily Apple workflow with rapid-fire Quick Tips: speaking the time from your wrist, taming screenshot previews, unzooming a stuck iPhone screen, batch‑moving iOS apps, and sharpening Live Text and document photos so you can capture, control, and share exactly what you want without friction. You also learn how to keep Chrome from quietly hijacking your mic levels before Zoom calls, plus clever ways to organize appliance manuals using NotebookLM and Apple’s Books app so that the answers you need are always a quick search away—Don’t Get Caught hunting for docs or fighting your own settings again.

From there, you dive into Mac Developer Gab with the MGG iOS app as a living example of how AI‑assisted coding becomes a collaborative partner instead of a replacement, including practical use of Claude Code’s Plan Mode to map changes before writing a line of code.

Then you pivot into Apple’s newly “affordable‑first” lineup—MacBook Neo, Air, and Pro, the new Studio Displays, iPhone 17e, and iPad Air M4—breaking down which model actually fits your real‑world use and budget, before wrapping with fixes for flaky AirDrop using the NFC “boop” trick and remote‑controlling Apple TV via hubs so your gear does what you want, when you want it.

00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 1132 for Monday, March 9th, 2026
- March 2nd: National Banana Cream Pie Day
- MGG Monthly Giveaway – Enter to win a copy of SoundSource from Rogue Amoeba!
- Congrats to February’s winners!
- The MGG Merch Store is Live!
Quick Tips
- 00:00:01 Dave C-QT-Hold two fingers on your watch screen to speak the time
- 00:07:16 Todd-QT-Turn Off Full Screen Preview ScreenShot change
- 00:09:18 Gary-QT-Three-finger triple-tap to unzoom your iPhone
- 00:15:10 Pilot Pete-QT-Move Multiple iOS Apps at Once!
Mac Developer Gab
- 00:16:57 Updating the Mac Geek Gab iOS app
  - Developing with AI Assisted Coding is a Collaborative Process
- 00:29:46 Using Claude Code’s Plan Mode
Back to Quick Tips
- 00:31:33 Gene-QT-Live Text Made Better
- 00:36:14 Pilot Pete-QT-Level Your Phone e.g. for Document Photos
- 00:37:59 Dave-QT-In Chrome, Disallow WebRTC to adjust the input volume to keep your mic set for Zoom calls
- 00:40:16 Joe-QTRevisited-1071-Use NotebookLM to store Appliance Manuals
- 00:43:00 Tony-QT-1131-Put User Manuals in the Books app
Sponsors
- 00:43:58 SPONSOR: Stamps.com With Stamps.com you can send from your computer or phone 24/7. No long lines, no low supplies, open any time. Go to stamps.com and use code mgg to get sixty days risk-free!
- 00:45:24 SPONSOR: CleanMyMac. Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use our code MACGEEK for 20% off at clnmy.com/MACGEEK
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Reviews
- 00:48:29 Happy Camper-MGG Review-It’s what you learn after you know it all
- 00:49:17 digger4-MGG Review-Excellent show
- 00:49:29 StillRiverEditions-MGG Review-Makes the Apple universe fun, as it should be.
- 00:50:11 Neo-Wombat-MGG Review-Five Stars
00:51:25 New Macs and More!
- Affordability seems to matter to Apple today!
- Comparing the MacBook Neo, Air, and Pro
- Where are the updates to the Mac mini and more desktops?
- MacBook Neo – $599 – This is essentially macOS on an iPad
- MacBook Air M5 – $1099
- MacBook Pro M5 – $1699
- 27-inch Studio Display and Studio Display XDR – $1599
- iPhone 17e – $599
- iPad Air M4 – $599
Your Questions Answered and Tips Shared!
- 01:07:35 Dan-How to Tame AirDrop Wonkyness
  - Use the iPhone NFC “Booping” Trick
- 01:15:21 Clif-Can I control my Apple TV remotely?
  - Jubilee Hub
  - Harmony Hub
01:21:45 MGG 1132 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
- feedback@macgeekgab.com
- 224-888-GEEK
- Active MGG Sponsors and Coupon Codes List
- BackBeat Media Podcast Network