Technology Class: AI Email Tools, Apple Pay & Q&A 8.27.26

By

Technology Class: AI Email Tools, Apple Pay & Q&A 



History of Email

  • Email originated in 1965 at MIT as computer-to-computer communication over early intranet/telephone lines, long before the public internet
  • Consumer email only became practical in the 1990s with dial-up internet; major early providers included AOL, CompuServe, and Hotmail (Microsoft's first major free service)
  • Core email functionality (compose, subject, send, reply) has remained largely unchanged since then

AI Writing Tools in Email

  • Gmail app and macOS Mail both offer AI writing assistance via a small star/nebula icon (Apple calls it "Apple Intelligence")
  • "Help me write" (Gmail): Compose a reply without reading the email — just describe what you want the AI to write (e.g., validate the team, highlight an event, ask three questions), then tap Create
    • AI reads the email content and generates a contextually relevant, signed reply
  • Proofread (macOS Mail): Highlight your text → click the nebula icon → choose Proofread; AI corrects grammar/spelling and adds punctuation without changing your voice
  • Rewrite: Same steps but choose Rewrite; AI completely rewrites the selected text — useful for writer's block but loses your original voice
  • Alternative access: Highlight text → Control+click → Writing Tools → choose desired action (also works for Make Concise)
  • Jason Dare's personal use case: proofreading late-night or fast-typed emails to catch errors and missing commas, without the stylistic conflicts of having a human editor
  • Caveat: AI-generated emails may feel impersonal; recipients may notice a change in someone's writing voice
  • Note: AI features in macOS Mail require an updated operating system

Upcoming Apple Keynote (September)

  • Apple has a keynote around September 9th with new product announcements
  • Anticipated products include a possible new iMac; rumors suggest Apple will not release a larger-screen iMac and will keep it one size
  • Discussion of the rumored foldable iPhone (expected to open like a book)
  • Jason Dare agreed to review the keynote highlights at the following class

Foldable Phones Demo

  • Jason Dare demonstrated a Google Pixel Fold in class
  • Two main foldable phone makers available in the US: Google (Pixel Fold) and Samsung
  • Opening the phone doubles the screen size for photos/media; for text/web pages, font size stays the same but more content is visible
  • The phone is slightly thicker than a standard phone but not double the width; weight is largely due to the battery
  • There is a visible seam down the middle of the screen
  • A flip-style foldable also exists: folds to half an iPhone's size, opens to full iPhone size

Unsubscribe Laws & Spam

  • By law, commercial/solicitation emails must include an unsubscribe option and the sender's address/company information
  • "Unsubscribe" may appear as opt out or be buried in terms and conditions
  • Best practice: Only use unsubscribe for recognizable, legitimate senders; for obvious spam or suspicious emails, use the email program's spam/block feature instead — unsubscribing from spam may result in receiving more messages

Outdated Browser / Safari Issue

  • Issue raised: some financial websites block login because Safari is out of date
  • Root cause: Safari only updates with macOS; older computers that can't upgrade the OS are stuck on an outdated Safari
  • Workaround: Download Firefox or Chrome, which update independently of the operating system

Searching for Missing Emails

  • When searching for an email, results show all matching messages across all folders, with the folder location shown on the right side of each result
  • If an email is found in the trash, it was accidentally deleted — move it back to the inbox by dragging or using Move
  • If found in archive (common with Gmail), it was auto-archived — this can actually be useful for users prone to losing emails
  • Raised by Brooks: emails known to exist but hard to locate; resolved by using search and checking folder labels

Apple Pay

  • In-store: Double-press the power button → Face ID authenticates → tap to pay at the register
  • Online (Mac/Safari): Apple Pay on a Mac works only in Safari; credit cards must be synced via iCloud Wallet between iPhone and Mac
    • To enable sync: Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Wallet — toggle on
    • Verification online uses either a fingerprint (Touch ID on Mac) or the card's CVV code
  • There is no "tap to pay" on a computer; the card appears as a checkout option within Safari

Popular posts from this blog

Technology Class 8-22-04

By
Image
 Visit the Amazon AI Popup in San Francisco https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/robots-on-market-street-lure-visitors-to-amazon-ai-pop-up-space/ar-AA1p96y0?ocid=BingNewsSerp#image=3 https://aws.amazon.com/startups/lp/aws-gen-ai-loft-san-francisco Watch Drone Light Shows with over 1500 drones on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNcMDoBmhGA When searching be cautious and check the http... website address and look at the article to be sure it's what you want. When going to a website, use the address bar on the top of the window, type in the name with .com, and save the website to your bookmarks for a reference to the trusted site in the future by clicking the star. On Macintosh Photos how can I find duplicates? Open the multicolored flower Click the categories on the left and find Duplicate Click Duplicate to reveal the duplicate photos How can I test my foreign language skills. Use the dictation on Google Translate https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=zh-CN&op=tr...
Read more

All About Email pt 1 & 2 3/6/2025

By
Image
Email Security Use a reliable email service. *If you are on @comcast.net setup a secondary email address. And you can forward emails from @comcast.net to your new email while you slowly transition over to a more secure email provider. Getting too much Spam (Junk Mail) Unsubscribing doesn't usually work Use the SPAM/Junk filters Create your filters/rules ~If the above options don't help, setup a secondary email address and share the new address with friends and family while leaving the junk behind in the old email. How to create a new email address? Go to gmail.com (Google), outlook.com (Microsoft) Choose Create Account, follow the prompts How do you access your emails? Webmail = gmail.com, outlook.com (this is recommended by the email provider because they have control over what you see, including the ads) Mail Client App = Macintosh Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird,  2 Layer SPAM filter 1st filter = Mail Providers Spam/Junk filters from your provider. Best Spam/Junk filters gmail.co...
Read more

Q & A Session from 2/27/2025 - Hacked: Warn contacts, change password, tech help. Podcast: on-demand radio app. Shazam: identify music via iPhone control panel.

By
Image
My emails have been hacked! What do I do? Notify all your contacts, friends and family to ignore the recent email and NOT send you money or respond to the email. This includes someone to send the message on your behalf.  Or create/use a secondary email to send a notification email to your friends/family group or distribution list NOT to send you money or respond to the email. (Be sure to put all the contacts in the BCC and send to groups of no mare than 50 contacts at a time) 1. Contact a Computer Tech to help cleanup and verify your email settings are properly configured, change your password and setup 2 factor authentication 2. Determine the extent of the Hack and if your original email can be secured you can continue to use it OR you might need to create a new email address What's a podcast? On-Demand Streaming Radio Shows Apple has a podcast app on their Computers and iOS devices ~Open the app to search for a show by name or host. ~Choose follow to add the show and newly added ...
Read more