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Share an Apple Music song to TikTok

In iOS 18.1 and later, Apple makes it easier than ever to share Apple Music songs to TikTok. Keep reading to learn how the app streamlines the process of making music-focused content on the social platform.

TikTok has become a leading venue for music discovery, with countless songs going viral through its short-form videos and trends. Recognizing the demand for sharing music on the platform, Apple in iOS 18.1 added a function that makes sharing songs from Apple Music to TikTok extremely simple.

The direct sharing feature automatically links the song to your TikTok post. This ensures proper attribution while making it easier for others to find and use the same track. So whether you want to create a mood-setting photo montage, or simply share a great song with your followers, this Apple Music integration helps you do it more efficiently.

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PCIe Lane Distribution

No matter what the socket or chipset or processor, PCIe slots meant for graphics cards are always given their own PCI Express lanes. In the older northbridge/southbridge chipset setup, PCI Express lanes meant for the graphics card always went through northbridge, which is the faster chipset. Normally northbridge gave 16 lanes in a x16, x8/x8, x8/x4/x4, or x4/x4/x4/x4 configuration. Higher end chipsets and processors will have more lanes. To summarize in a list:

  • Intel’s LGA115x processors
    • 16 lanes configurable in x16, x8/x8, or x8/x4/x4
  • Intel’s HEDT processors
    • Up to 40 lanes. Intel officially says this can either be a x16/x16/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8/x8 configuration. Lower end processors will only have 28 lanes, which can only be x16 or up to x8/x8/x8.
  • AMD AM3+ and AM4 processors (FX and Ryzen)
    • 16 lanes configurable in x16, x8/x8, or x8/x4/x4
    • AMD claims that Ryzen processors have 24 PCIe lanes, but 4 lanes are dedicated to the chipset and 4 are for general purpose use. The general purpose use ones tend to be allocated for NVMe storage, but it really depends on the motherboard manufacturer.
  • AMD APUs
    • 4 or 8 lanes are provided for a single GPU configuration
    • Zen based APUs have 4 general purpose lanes
  • AMD Threadripper
    • Up to 60 PCIe lanes. AMD claims there are 64 total, but 4 lanes are dedicated to the chipset. However in some configurations, you may be limited down to 48 PCIe lanes for graphics if you are using NVMe storage.

The chipset provides additional PCI Express lanes for other use

  • Any time you see a smaller PCIe slot, like an x1 or x2 slot, they will route to the chipset. So if you see a motherboard with something like “8 PCIe lanes” or “20 PCIe lanes”, it’s coming from the chipset, not the CPU.
  • Peripherals all go through the chipset/southbridge’s PCIe lanes, not the processors/northbridge’s
  • Things like USB ports, SATA, Ethernet, etc. all go through the PCIe lanes that the chipset provides, if the chipset doesn’t provide the feature natively.
  • Pay attention to what NVMe does to your system
  • NVMe requires PCIe lanes; where it gets them from depends on the platform you go with.
  • Intel’s mainstream boards (LGA115x)
    • These take lanes from the chipset. This may disable other I/O like a PCIe slot or a couple of SATA ports
  • Intel’s HEDT boards (LGA 20xx)
    • These primarily take lanes from the CPU
  • AMD prior to AM4
    • These take lanes from the Southbridge
  • AMD mainstream boards (AM4)
    • All processors have 4 lanes dedicated for general use. This tends to be wired for NVMe storage, but it depends on the motherboard. If there is more than one M.2 slot for NVMe use, the other ones will use lanes from the chipset similar to Intel’s mainstream boards.
  • AMD HEDT
    • These primarily take lanes from the CPU.
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How to access Servers, Network Shares, and remote Drives in Finder on Mac

You can connect your Mac to shared computers, network volumes, and remote servers in two ways: the “Connect to Server” command, which requires manually entering the network share address; and a built-in network browser that lets you browse network shares in the same way you would local files and folders on your Mac.

Connect to a Server or Shared Computer via its Network Address

Open a new Finder window or select the desktop. Click Go > Connect to Server in the menu or press Command+K on your keyboard. In the “Connect to Server” window, enter the network address for the computer, server, or networked drive, then hit the “Connect” button.

If you know the login information for the network share, select the “Registered User” option, type your network share credentials into the “Name” and “Password” fields (not your macOS account username and password), and hit the “Connect” button. Otherwise, try connecting with the “Guest” option if the shared computer permits guest access.

Tick the box next to “Remember this password in my keychain” to save this login, so you can connect to this network share in the future without typing the password.

If multiple shared folders or drives are available at that destination, you’ll be asked to pick ones to mount. Hold the Command key to click multiple items, then hit the “OK” button.

The mounted volumes appear as network drive icons on the desktop. To display your mounted servers, network shares, and drives on the desktop for quick access, select the Finder and click Finder > Preferences in the menu. Then, select the “General” tab and tick the option labeled “Connected Servers.”

Use the Built-in Network Browser to connect to a Network Share

You can also connect to computers, servers, and drives that are discoverable on your network or part of the same network area or workgroup as your Mac.

Open a new Finder window by clicking the Finder icon in the Dock, then select the “Network” option in the Locations section of the sidebar. If you don’t see that section, expand it by holding the pointer over “Locations” in the sidebar and clicking the arrow that appears.

No Network option in the Finder sidebar? Be sure to tick the “Connected Servers” option under the Sidebar tab of the Finder settings. Detected network shares will appear in the Finder window after a moment. Double-click the one you’d like to connect to, then hit the “Connect As” button in the top-right corner.

You’ll be presented with the Finder’s “Connect to Server” window. Select whether you’d like to connect as a guest or registered user, then hit the “Connect” button, enter network share credentials (if asked), select volumes or shared folders to mount, and hit the “OK” button.

Your Connection History

If you were previously connected to a network share, click the arrow in the “Connect to Server” window to select it from your history instead of having to re-typing the password.

Anyone using your Mac can see the servers and computers you recently connected to. To boost your privacy, you may want to clear your connection history occasionally: Click the … (ellipsis) icon in the Connect to Server window, choose “Clear Recent Servers” from the menu, and hit the OK button to confirm the operation.

You can also click the Apple menu, select the “Recent Items” option, and select your previously connected network share in the submenu under the “Servers” section. If you’d like to clear the Recent Items menu for privacy reasons, choose the “Clear Menu” option at the very bottom of the menu.

The Finder Sidebar

For even faster access, add your recents to the Finder’s sidebar. To do so, click the desktop or open a new Finder window, then click the Finder menu, choose “Settings,” select the “Sidebar” tab, and tick the box next to “Recents”.

The Recents section is now available in the sidebar of Finder windows. To toggle the Finder sidebar, choose “Show Sidebar” or “Hide Sidebar” from the Finder’s View menu or press Control+Command+S on the keyboard.

The Favorite Servers List

Save time by adding network shares you frequently use to your favorites so you can quickly connect to them via the Favorite Servers list in the “Connect to Server” window.

To favorite a network share, enter its network address in the Connect to Server window, but don’t click the Connect button. Instead, hit the + (plus) button in the window’s lower-left corner. You can unfavorite a server or a saved computer just as easily; simply select it in the list and click the – (minus) button.

If you frequently access networked computers, servers, or drives like your Synology Diskstation for backup and file sharing, it’s a good idea to set them to automatically mount when your Mac starts up. To do this, simply add any desired network shares to your login items, a list of programs that open automatically when your Mac boots. But first, you must connect your Mac to a desired server or networked drive/computer by clicking the Finder’s Go > Connect to Server menu option and following the instructions in the previous section.

With that done, click the Apple menu and choose “System Settings” or “System Preferences” on older Macs. Select “General” in the System Settings sidebar, then click “Login Items & Extensions” on the right. If you don’t see that option, scroll down. Next, click the + (plus) button below the list of your login items, select desktop in the Finder sidebar, choose your mounted network share, and click “Open” to add it to your login items list.

Your Mac will automatically mount this server, drive, or network share whenever you log in to macOS and display its icon on the desktop. Repeat these steps for any other network shares you’d like automatically mounted upon logging in.

You can add a network share as a desktop shortcut. First, mount your network share by following the steps in this tutorial, then select it and click File > Make Alias from the Finder menu or press Control+Command+A to create an alias on the desktop. Rename the alias as needed and optionally customize its icon if you don’t like the default hard drive icon.

I like macOS aliases because they automatically mount the networked drive, computer, or disk when clicked, making it feel like I am handling local folders on my Mac. Aliases persist between restarts until deleted, which doesn’t trash the underlying item they’re linked to.

Drag these aliases to the System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions to automatically mount network shares when you log in.

The fastest way to access network shares is Finder windows. Simply drag a network share to the left panel of any Finder window to create a shortcut right in the Finder sidebar. It only takes a click of the sidebar shortcut to connect to this network share. To remove the sidebar shortcut without unmounting the volume, drag its icon out of the Finder window until the “x” symbol appears, then let go.

With multiple network shares, your desktop can get crowded. Create a new folder and drop all those desktop shortcuts inside. Doing so will help tidy up your messy desktop and you’ll have a dedicated folder on the desktop to access all your network shares.

And now, let me share one of my favorite power tips—drop this folder of network shares to the right side of the Dock into the section after the vertical delimiter, where the Trash icon is.

Clicking and holding this icon pops up a handy menu showing all your network shares. Even better, a network share mounts dynamically when clicked from here. And just like that, you now have a super-fast way to access your network shares!

To customize how the folder springs out of the Dock, Control-click its Dock icon and choose between the Fan, Grid, List, and Automatic options. To have it appear as a regular folder instead of a stack of icons, click “Folder” in the Display As section.

Changing Saved Network Share Credentials

I always save network share credentials, so I don’t have to retype the password each time my Mac reconnects to it. However, if you or someone else changes the server or disk password, you’ll need to manually update the saved password on your end since it doesn’t update automatically. Otherwise, you won’t be able to access the shared computer, disk, or server.

Press Command+Space bar to invoke Spotlight Search (or ask Siri to open it), type “Keychain Access,” select the app in the search results, and press Enter to open it.

Keychain Access is gradually being deprecated in favor of Apple’s new Passwords app. On macOS Sonoma and earlier, Keychain Access used to live in the Applications/Utilities folder. On macOS Sequoia, however, Apple has tucked it away in the /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications folder.

  • You’ll be asked if you’d like to open the Passwords app or Keychain Access. Click “Open Keychain Access” and authorize access with Touch ID or your macOS password.
  • With Keychain Access open, select “login” under “Default Keychain” in the sidebar, then double-click the saved network share on the right.
  • This will open a panel with saved login information. Click the “Show Password” box at the bottom, type your macOS user account password, and then hit the Allow button.
  • The saved password will be revealed. Type your new network share password and click the “Save Changes” button.

You can now close out the app. Going forward, connecting to this network share will automatically use the updated password from Keychain Access.

To delete saved network share credentials from your Mac, select the saved network share in Keychain Access, click Edit > Delete in the menu or press the Backspace key, and hit “Delete” to confirm the operation.

Connecting to network shares may fail for a number of reasons. You’ll usually know something’s wrong because the progress bar when connecting to a network share gets stuck. Other times, there’s no visual indication that a connection cannot be established.

Try these troubleshooting tips if your Mac is unable to connect to a network share.

  • Check the address: Double-check the address of the remote share you typed for typos.
  • Check the username: Is your login name on the list of allowed users?
  • Check the password: If the network share password has changed, ask the admin for the new password and be sure to update the saved password in your Keychain.
  • Check the address format: Though this shouldn’t be an issue, be sure you’re using the right network share format, such as smb:// or nfs://.
  • Check the connection: Is your Mac connected to the internet? Are you connected to a stable Wi-Fi connection? Is your Ethernet cable functional?
  • Check file sharing settings: Make sure that file sharing is turned on for the network share; ask the admin to turn it off and then back on.
  • Check permissions: If you’re denied permission to access a network share, ask the admin to give you permission to access the shared files and folders.
  • Restart: If all else fails, try restarting your Mac, which will reinitialize network connections and get rid of temporary bugs.

There are other ways to connect to remote shares on a Mac. For example, power users may want to use Terminal for that. But for the vast majority of Mac owners, connecting through the Finder will be more than adequate for accessing network shares.

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How to use PlayOnLinux to install Windows Apps on Linux

PlayOnLinux serves as a graphical front-end for Wine, which is a compatibility layer that allows you to enjoy Windows software on Linux without installing a full Windows virtual machine. PlayOnLInux is especially appealing if, like me, you find Wine’s command-line complexity daunting.

The PlayOnLinux is present in the repositories of various major Linux distributions. However, if you prefer the most current version, you can download the .deb file from the PlayOnLinux download page. For example, for Ubuntu and Debian-based Distributions (like Linux Mint and Pop!_OS), use APT:

sudo apt install playonlinux

Fedora users can use DNF, the modern package manager, to install PlayOnLinux.

sudo dnf install playonlinux

For Arch Linux and Arch-based distributions, run:

sudo pacman -S playonlinux

Additionally, for all distributions, PlayOnLinux is available via Flatpak, offering a universal installation method.

flatpak install flathub com.playonlinux.PlayOnLinux4

It’s also recommended to add 32-bit Wine support if you’re using a 64-bit system, as certain Windows applications run solely on 32-bit Wine. You can enable 32-bit Wine support by running these commands:

dpkg --add-architecture i386 
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wine64 wine32

Once installed, you should be able to find PlayOnLinux in your Applications menu.

If you encounter an error while launching PlayOnLinux, ensure you have the asyncore module installed. If not, you can install it by executing sudo apt install python3-pyasyncore command on Ubuntu, or search for the package on your system’s package manager.

When you open it for the first time, you’ll be greeted by the PlayOnLinux main window. It’s a pretty straightforward interface with buttons like “Install a Program,” “Configure Wine,” and “Run.”

Install and Run Windows Program

Now, let’s actually use PlayOnLinux to run a Windows program. To keep things simple and relatable, let’s take a classic example: Notepad++, a popular text editor for Windows.

  • Open PlayOnLinux from your Applications menu. In the main window, you’ll see a button labeled Install a Program or Install. Click on that.
  • A new window will pop up, titled PlayOnLinux Install Menu. Here, you can either search for a program by name or navigate via categories.
  • In the search bar at the top, type Notepad and press Enter. You should see Notepad++ appear in the list of applications.
  • Click on Notepad Plus Plus to select it, and then click Install.

PlayOnLinux will now start a wizard to navigate you along the installation process. It might ask you a few questions, and it will likely download the necessary Wine components if it hasn’t already. Just go with the on-screen directives. It’s usually pretty self-explanatory.

Once the installation is complete, you should see Notepad++ listed in the main PlayOnLinux window. To run it, simply select Notepad++ in the PlayOnLinux window and click the Run button.

What if your Program isn’t Listed?

If the Windows program you want to install isn’t in PlayOnLinux’s list of predefined scripts, don’t worry! You can still install it. In the PlayOnLinux Install window, look for the option “Install a Non-Listed Program” (usually at the bottom-left). Click on it.

Then follow the installation wizard and provide the installer file of your Windows program (usually an EXE file). PlayOnLinux will then create a Wine prefix and let you run the installer within that prefix.

Once the installation is complete, you can run the program the same way you did earlier from the PlayOnLinux main window. You can also create desktop shortcuts on your Linux desktop and run your Windows program directly from there.

You can configure Wine settings for each installed application to optimize performance or resolve compatibility issues. To configure Wine settings for a specific program in PlayOnLinux, first, select the Program you want to configure from the list of installed applications. Then click Configure.

In this window, you can adjust various settings, such as, Windows version, display settings, or any other advanced options. For example, you can change the Wine version for a specific program, emulate different Windows versions (e.g., Windows XP, 7) to match application requirements or enable/disable OpenGL and others.

PlayOnLinux vs. Modern Alternatives (Bottles and Heroic)

PlayOnLinux is known for its simplicity and straightforward interface; it has been a favorite for years. The familiar, wizard-driven setup makes it accessible even to newcomers. But is it still viable today? Newer alternatives like Bottles are considered very easy to use, even for beginners. It simplifies the creation and management of Wine environments (which it calls Bottles). Also, creating a new Bottle for an application is very straightforward.

Just like PlayOnLinux, Bottles also is highly flexible. It lets you easily switch between different Wine versions and also provides more granular control over Wine settings and dependencies.

Heroic Games Launcher, on the other hand, is primarily focused on gaming, but you can also use it to install and run any Windows apps on Linux using an EXE installation file. For example, to run Notepad++, you need to download its EXE file and manually add it to Heroic Launcher as a custom game using the Add Game option. You also need to configure it to use Wine or Proton in the game’s settings within Heroic before you start using it.

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How to identify your device’s COM Port with Device Manager

If you’re unsure what COM port your device uses, you can use the Windows Device Manager to help you identify it (If you’re unsure about what connection method your device uses to transmit data to your PC, you can see our video on Connection Methods here).

On Windows 10 & 11, right-click on the Start button and select “Device Manager,” or find it using the search bar. The Device Manager shows all the devices connected to your PC, organized into categories.

Screenshot of the Windows Device Manager showing the expanded "Ports (COM & LPT)" List.

To see all the COM ports on your PC, look for the section titled “Ports COM & LPT.” Your RS232 or RS232-USB device should appear here with its port number labeled “(COM#).”

  • For PCs with higher Windows security settings, you may need to log in as an Administrator.
  • The “Intel” port is not a usable COM port.
  • If your RS232 device is connected to your computer via USB, you can try identifying the COM port by disconnecting and then reconnecting the cable while observing which item disappears and reappears correspondingly.
  • If there is no “Ports COM & LPT” section, then you do not have any COM ports installed. For USB-connected RS232 devices (see below), it’s possible that you do not have the correct drivers installed for the device or adapter, or that the adapter is not working properly. To remedy this, try installing the driver or contacting the manufacturer.

If you are using an adapter or USB-connected RS232 device

  • Many RS232 scales, balances, and other industrial devices connect to a USB port using a built-in RS232-to-USB converter/adapter. This converter usually comes with a driver that converts the PC’s USB port into a virtual RS232 COM port, typically with a port number above COM 3.
  • If you switch the USB port that the adapter is connected to, Windows may assign a different COM port number to it. To avoid this, we recommend keeping the adapter connected to the same USB port. If you need to change the COM port number, go to the Windows Device Manager, right-click the COM port and select “Properties.” Then, navigate to “Port Settings” > “Advanced” and change the COM port number to an available one.
  • If a driver update is available for your adapter, you can apply it here by right-clicking on its COM port and selecting “Update Driver”.
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