vsatips & vsatrends

Learn WordPress Using the Best Free Tools Available for Beginners

I’ve recommended WordPress several times to friends and family members. I decided to write this post to back up my recommendation with support options!

Introduction

In 2019 most of the popular website platforms offer free websites and a host of free tools for beginners learning to create new websites or blogs. No one in the industry would argue the claims that the WordPress platform is the…

2 Amazon’s Devices Deliver Superb Performance at Rock Bottom Prices

Amazon’s 2 Day Annual Customer Appreciation Sale Prime Days Ends Tonight at Midnight

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The rapid pace which Amazon continues to launch new Alexa enabled Echo devices makes it clear they are set on keeping their huge lead in the smart home, AI device market.

There are 2 devices Amazon includes within this group which consistently outperform the others despite…

Investor’s Business Daily Just Began a New Video Podcast Series to Learn About Investing

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Photographing Money is Fun Introduction

The other day I asked my husband what the current investment market was like, since I don’t usually follow investment news. He told me stock prices were really low right now. To me that appeared to mean this might be a good time to pick up some investing skillls because I know enough to know that buying low and selling high is the obvious…

How to Delete a Facebook Page Using Facebook’s Mobile Apps

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Introduction

I keep reading about the fact that I should have a Facebook Page. I’ve even dabbled around with creating one…

Now I want to delete it!

Frankly, I don’t really get the point of having one because they are confusing to maintain and guess what? So is deleting one! Facebook pages seem to me to be extremely convoluted. Its constructs don’t seem to follow any kind of logic. I do give…

How to Search a Whole Website Using Google

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Above: Apple’s New iPad Pro’s Introduction

One day last week my husband told me he’d searched a website for something. I’m the tech person now in our empty-nester 2 person household, yet I didn’t know that it was possible to search an entire website for one little thing. My own website for example has hundreds of posts and pages,,,.certainly no one could search through all that…

Recent changes to the iOS Facebook app have drastically changed the way that Facebook's Code Generator works. Code Generator is Facebook‘s in-app two-factor authentication security feature. It’s really easy to use if you know how. This post tells you how.

Facebook Introduced Code Generator to Improve Sign-on Security Many Years Ago

It was in 2012 that I discovered it. That was shortly after my Facebook account had been hacked…twice. Both times we were traveling out of the country and I was using public networks.

When I saw in the App Store that my Facebook app had recently updated, I figured out the problem. I figured that Facebook must have…

Apple's new iPad Pro has 1 big design flaw I wish I'd known about prior to buying. I read a ton of reviews but no other reviews really mentions this problem. Its such a big problem that someone else might want to wait to buy it...which is why I wrote this.

…and several minor ones too!

Photo by Daniel Cañibano on Unsplash

Introduction If You’re Buying the New 11″ iPad Pro You Need to Know About this Design Flaw!

There are a lot of things to love about the new 11” iPad Pro, which I won’t get into here. Be assured that I do love my new iPad. That isn’t the focus of this post however.

The focus here is on several design choices that…

How to Travel to Cuba Without a Group

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Follow me on Twitter Follow @vsatips Introduction

I’m writing this from the Plaza Hotel in Havana. I’m here with my family celebrating the Christmas holidays. We were supposed to have been on a Royal Caribbean Cruise because we believed that individuals couldn’t go to Cuba alone, without being part of a pre-planned group.

Through a series of errors and miscommunication…

Inexpensive iPad Pro 11 Sleeves with Pencil Storage

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My Favorite Sleeve for the 10.5” iPad Pro Introduction

Apple’s newest 11″ iPad Pro May be expensive (over $2000 for the 1 TB sim enabled version along with the new Apple Pencil) but a new case for daily use needn’t be. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to use folio style or keyboard cases like we are, an iPad sleeve is the perfect non-case. It provides protection…

Fix a Missing Print icon in Safari ios 12 | HP Printer’s Tap to Print App is a Total Scam

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Introduction

Recent changes HP has made to their ios apps have caused a lot of confusion about which app to use as well as introduced a bogus app that’s ripping off tons of HP and Apple customers.

What may be worse is that unless you’re very careful in your app selection you will be shelling out over $150 a year for nothing and you’ll lose basic Apple features like the…

How to Search a Whole Website Using Google

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Above: Apple’s New iPad Pro’s Introduction

One day last week my husband told me he’d searched a website for something. I’m the tech person now in our empty-nester 2 person household, yet I didn’t know that was possible to search an entire website for one little thing. My own website for example has hundreds of posts and pages,,,.certainly no one could search through all that quickly and…

Find AT&T’s New Private WiFi App | Find All AT&T Links

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 The Private WiFi app only runs on cellphones. Introduction

Apple’s got a brand new App Store…sadly despite all the shiny new bells and whistles you still can’t actually search for an app within the App Store. What I mean to say is…you can, search, that is…just don’t expect to actually find what you’re looking for.

Dumb me, I assumed that the Apple’s App Store overhaul had…

Above: These incredible collections are free for all users…not just Apple users.

Introduction

I apologize in advance for this long introduction. It’s long because this post kicks off a new series of articles designed to assist serious iPhone customers in making their decision regarding which of Apple’s newest iPhones they should purchase.

For most readers, this introduction is completely unnecessary. You should skip it and just head on down to the ‘About the Incredible Wallpapers‘ section.

Anyone who’s considering getting one of the new iPhones…read on.

Apple’s comprehensive new iPhone lineup truly has something for everyone. But with great ideas come the potential for great misunderstandings too. Which is why I tried to create a comprehensive, one-stop shop (if you will) to answer any and all questions about Apple’s newest iPhone lineup. For reasons that will become obvious once you’re into this series, it also includes Apple’s newest Watch 4 too.

This post kicks off the brand new series:

‘iPhone XS, XS Max or XR…which iPhone should I get?’ My Research & Tips’

I began what should have been a relatively short post about the new iPhone announcements on the day of Apple’s live event, September 12th. Thanks to one iPhone-loving nephew of mine I remembered to attend the event…well, not really attend but view it via the live-stream Apple transmits.

In my own predictable fashion of getting completely immersed in a topic, I’ve continued working almost nonstop on this one post! It’s transformed from a short overview into the actual working document I’m using to pick my first iPhone upgrade (because I joined the iPhone Upgrade Program last year with my purchase of the iPhone X.)

Below: 2 Beautiful Mac Wallpapers I’d Not Seen Before

About 2 weeks ago I ended up sharing my original post with 2 family members who were kind enough to proofread it for me. That was no small undertaking!

I was thinking they would suggest major cuts. Maybe they didn’t because I said, “please don’t tell me to get rid of half of this!” because I really do believe that all this information is important…at least it’s important to me in making my decision…therefore it must be important to at least a smaller subset of Apple iPhone customers.

I was very pleasantly surprised when neither suggested that (thereby ignoring my warning completely, which frankly, is a common occurrence in our household!) I was even more pleased when my 20-something, Android loving and ‘well written‘ son said that he thought it was a good article and he wouldn’t cut a thing. In reality, he did suggest one cut. I discovered this as I read through his notes, which conveniently was after he left, bound for his out-of-state home. My typically ‘cut-heavy’ husband also agreed!

Both of them did suggest one thing however. It was the same thing too. They suggested that I split up the massive amount of content into many smaller posts.

That is a great suggestion! It’s one that you’re getting to benefit from, beginning with this post. Because this post kicks off my new series.

About the Incredible (and almost complete) Collections of Apple Wallpapers

Without a doubt, Apple has had some of the most incredible and intricate wallpapers of any computing device known. Unlike Windows computers which many times maintain the same sets of graphics for many years running, Apple doesn’t keep theirs around. As soon as a new operating system is launched old wallpapers seemed to be ‘deep-sixed’.

So many times I’ve seen something that reminded me of one of the old ones that I used to use and which I’ve randomly searched for in vain time and time again.

ios Wallpapers

There are about as many ways to download images as there are devices themselves. Since vsatips is primarily about Apple mobile devices, I wanted to make sure that those users know how to download these wallpapers in the best way possible. So a little further down the page I’ve written a quick tutorial on exactly that.

If you want to know why I bothered to go to all that trouble there are two reasons primarily. The first is that it actually is a little tricky. While you can easily download them or take screenshots of them, that doesn’t guarantee that you get the best resolution. The second reason is because personally I’ve always harbored strong feelings and attachments to some of my oldest wallpapers.

The iOS wallpapers are some of my all-time favorites. After all, who do you know that isn’t married to their cell phones these days? We all got into that habit pretty early. So if that old adage, familiarity breeds contempt were really true (which I’ve always contended is not the case,) we wouldn’t all have such a fondness for those things which harbor the greatest nostalgia in us…i.e favorite old iPhone wallpapers.

I only bring this up because the creator of this amazing collection isn’t a retired baby boomer at all, but rather someone you might think would have been one of the most unlikely to have done so.

The collection creator’s name is Evgenii Bogun. He’s an 18-year-old art and design student in Moscow! He goes by the Reddit handle of nucleam.

According to the Cult of Mac author Luke Dormehl, who actually managed to track him down and interview him…

Bogun told Cult of Mac that he only got his first Apple products in 2013, but said that he wanted to produce a comprehensive archive of older wallpapers due to the fact that, “Apple has [the] best wallpapers among other companies, and people generally have some memories associated with wallpapers they had at a time.”  

The images have been compiled from a variety of sources, including wallpaper packs already online to ones downloaded from older systems directly. The collection isn’t quite complete.

“There are some wallpapers I’d like to have,” Bogun said. He’s missing a few from iOS 6, and some of the classic versions of Mac OS (as it was styled before the current macOS) wallpapers are also absent. “Readers can support albums by sending wallpapers that are not in the album or in better quality,” he said.

Mac OS X Wallpapers

It just so happens that we still have a relatively early model iMac. It’s still setup and it runs. In case you’re wondering…no one really uses it anymore but I’ve always loved that computer…it was our very first Mac. I kept it in part because it’s worth nothing to anyone else today and scrapping it just seems wrong!

Also, I had the idea that I could use it to learn about how Macs are built…which I tried to do somewhat when I upgraded the memory. But it turns out that iMacs aren’t great for that purpose. I think it’s because it’s form factor makes it impossible to see inside the machine. iMacs are basically composed of a few circuit boards which sort-of slide out of this slot.

I bring this up because our old iMac could prove to be invaluable as a wallpaper resource. I examined each wallpaper collection carefully and thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process. Seeing so many old wallpapers brought back many happy memories!

But I also noticed that this collection is missing some very old favorites of my families.

How Legal Are These Collections?

It’s unclear what the actual legal status of any Apple wallpaper collection offered for download to the public is. In the strictest sense, Apple could say that users don’t have the right to freely distribute content they create. However, it’s a practice that’s gone on for decades, and to my knowledge Apple has never made any attempt to curtail it.

In my opinion (imo,) Apple benefits from this free publicity and for all I know these images are considered ‘in the public domain’ in some instances because of their age, or in others because of the ways they’ve been redistributed for years and years.

But what the true legalities are is in question. So, I recommend that anyone who’s interested in downloading some or all of these wallpapers, do so sooner rather than later. You never know if or when they might disappear completely, and once they are in your possession they are essentially yours to do with what you will!

How to Contribute to Evgenii Bogun’s Effort

Providing better resolution wallpapers or missing wallpapers is one important way you can support the creator. However, you can also support the wallpaper collection’s creator, who’s also know as Reddit user nucleam, by making a Paypal donation. You’ll see the notice below immediately upon entering each collection.

In addition to operating system wallpapers these collections also include Apple graphics for many of their special campaigns, such as the one below.

Tips to Download Archival Wallpapers

Part 1 | Viewing the wallpapers in a browser on mobile ios devices is tricky (this probably also pertains to people who are on most mobile devices!)

There are as many different ways of capturing web images as there different types of devices. Since vsatips is primarily a site about Apple mobile devices I want to make sure that users of ios devices know the absolute best way of downloading images using ios devices.

If you want to download these images in the highest resolutions possible using a mobile device such as an iPad or a cellphone follow these steps.

First, note the words in the blue box towards the bottom of the first screen you’ll arrive it, depicted in the screenshot below. It says:

Open In App

No wallpapers will be displayed for you in mobile view because Google Photos wants you to download the Google Photos app and to view the wallpapers using their app. But it’s much easier to download the wallpapers from within the Safari browser. Also, unless you actually use Google Photos you’d be downloading an app that you really won’t use again.

Important Note:

Google Photos is aggressive…I didn’t realize how aggressive until I started working on this with perhaps my 4th iPad.  I wasn’t even shown the above ‘Open App’ message.  It just opened the Google Photos app!

If that happens to you the fastest thing to do (rather than trying to figure out how to change some G. Photos Settings for example) is to delete the Google Photos app!  I had to do that on two iPad’s in order to even get to the place where I could initiate Desktop View…which is my next top below.

Below:  Mac OS Wallpaper Gallery of Some of My Favorite Wallpapers

Tip to Bypass Google Photos App & Make Wallpapers Visible to Mobile Devices

You need to switch to Desktop View in order to view or download any wallpapers. This method will also assure that you download the images in the highest resolution possible too.

Refer once again to the screenshot further up above. The purple arrow demonstrates how to switch to Desktop View. You do so by tapping on the Share Icon (the little box with the arrow in the upper right corner) and scrolling the display that opens until you see the menu item ‘Request Desktop View.’ Tap on that and your display will shift to Desktop View.

You should see something similar to the screenshot shown below.

Note that now you can see all the wallpapers, despite the fact that you’re using a mobile device.

You can download the images now just as if you were using a computer!

Part 2 | Actually downloading a wallpaper

The next step is to tap on any wallpaper. It will open in a second dedicated screen that looks like the one below. In the top right hand corner you’ll see a three dot menu. Tapping on it will open a menu which finally has the ‘Download‘ command.

When you tap on the word Download you’ll be taken to the third and final screen. Below is an example of that screen…it’s the third and final screen. It’s also the actual download screen.

If you follow the instructions on the screenshot and long press anywhere in that screenshot and eventually the words ‘Save Image‘ should appear. You may need to try long pressing several times, because it’s finicky on ios devices.

If long pressing just won’t work for you there’s a second way to save the image. It involves using the Share Icon again. Tap on the Share Icon in the upper right hand corner and scroll through the bottom loose of commands until you find the ‘Save Image‘ one…see below.

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Gorgeous Free Non-Apple Wallpapers

UnSplash is a Great Site to Get Free Beautiful & Contemporary Images for Use as Wallpapers

As a blogger I’m always on the lookout for free images to use on my websites. A year or two ago Unsplash entered the scene. It’s completely changed this task from an effort-based one into a pleasurable one because their images are gorgeous!

The way it works is this. Amazing photographers from all around the world submit their favorite images to Unsplash AND make them freely available for use by the public under Creative Commons laws. Then the general public can come and search their database for the images they need…and no user account is required!

Unsplash reminds you that it’s not necessary to credit individual photographers, but it’s always appreciated, and they provide you with a fast and easy way to do so. So whenever I download images from there, I always attach a small text file with the photographer’s name.

Below: A Sampling of the Wallpapers You’ll Find at UnSplash

Links to Additional Information

I’ve compiled a list of several other websites that reported the news of this great new archive in July 2018 when the news broke, for anyone who’s interested  in seeking out more in-depth information.

There are also links to a few other sites which offer different archives. The ones from iDownloadBlog and 512Pixel are of particular interest imo. They’ve commissioned an artist to re-render various Mac OS wallpapers so they can be used on iPhones.

CNET’S  Get all the wallpapers for all the versions of iOS and MacOS in history

512Pixel’s  Every Default macOS Wallpaper – in Glorious 5K Resolution

MacRumor’s  Archive Offers Up All Past Mac and iOS Wallpapers

iDownloadBlog’s  MacOS Wallpaper for iPhone

iDownloadBlog’s  artist renderings of Mac OS Mojave for iPhones

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Apple News

Apple is set to host a keynote on October 30 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

New iPad announcements are expected. Macs and iPads are expected to take up most of the stage time but hopefully predictions of new AirPods, AirPower and an iPad mini will come true too.

9 to 5 Mac’s New iPad Pro Rendered

Below:  9 to  5 Mac’s Artist Rendering of the Expected New iPad Pro

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