How to use Apple Watch’s fantastic nightstand mode

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Zzzzzz. The Apple Watch's nightstand mode even has snooze.
Zzzzzz. The Apple Watch's nightstand mode even has snooze.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Have you heard of the Apple Watch’s nightstand mode? I knew about it from digging through the settings in the iPhone Watch app, but I never tried it out. I wear my watch while sleeping, mostly so I get a nice haptic alarm in the morning instead of an audible iPhone alarm. But if you charge your watch overnight, you should almost certainly be using nightstand mode, aka bedside mode.

How to stay informed about coronavirus without terrifying yourself

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COVID-19 coronavirus news got you down? Don't panic!
Don't panic! You can keep up with COVID-19 news without going nuts.
Photo: Simon English/Unsplash

Open up a newspaper, visit a news site or turn on the TV, and you’ll see the end of the world is nigh. And, of course, the COVID-19 coronavirus is serious business, especially if you are in one of the vulnerable categories.

But that doesn’t mean you need to panic. In fact, panicking about anything usually just makes things worse. So, how do you stay informed about the rapidly spreading disease without succumbing to media terror?

How to work from home without losing your mind

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Telecommuting tips: Who wants to go to an office when they can work from home like this?
Who wants to go to an office when they can work like this?
Photo: Nathan Riley/Unsplash

Thanks to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus, lots of people are being told to work from home. And that’s good, work-wise, because working from home can be relaxing, highly productive and, of course, very convenient. But depending on your family situation, your home layout and your guilty stress from feeling like you’re not doing enough, it also can be a nightmare.

Most of the Cult of Mac team works from home, so I asked for their top telecommuting tips. Here they are.

These Control Center tricks let you take control of Do Not Disturb

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grid of doorbells
Do Not Disturb.
Photo: Serge Le Strat/Unsplash

This is a trick I use almost daily, and until I showed it to a friend yesterday, I didn’t realize that it might not be generally known. Most people know about iOS’ amazing Do Not Disturb mode, which stops users from being pinged by incoming messages and app notifications all the time. But did you know about the great do not disturb shortcuts built into the Control Center?

How to check the exact time someone read your WhatsApp message

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a crumpled up paper receipt
The correct fate for all receipts.
Photo: Michael Walter/Unsplash

In a civilized society, there would be no such thing as a “read receipt” for messages or emails. You’d send your message, and that would be it. But read receipts are here, and if you’re one of the folks that doesn’t turn them off, then you’re going to love this WhatsApp tip.

You already know the meanings of the checkboxes that indicate successfully sent, delivered and read messages in WhatsApp. Today we’ll see how to check the exact time a recipient read your WhatsApp message.

How to make Logic Pro X record something after you played it

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Logic Pro X
Logic Pro X. Is there anything it cannot do?
Photo: Apple

If you’re a musician, or if you ever tried to record yourself singing, playing or just trying to bang out “Happy Birthday” to add to that cool video you made, you’ll be familiar with the First Law of Recording Music: Your best ever performance will be the practice run right before you press record.

No matter how many takes you do, the best one will always be the one that you didn’t record. Wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a way to go back in time, and record the one that got away? If you’re using Apple’s Logic Pro X software, you can do just that — with both audio and built-in software instruments (MIDI).

NetNewsWire is reborn on iOS

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radar dish NetNewsWire
NetNewsWire has used a satellite as an app icon since forever.
Photo: Donald Giannatti/Unsplash

Nerds of a certain age will have a warm place in their dorky hearts for NetNewsWire. First released in 2002, for years it was the best RSS newsreader on the Mac. At some point, a terrible version turned up on iOS, then withered and died. Now, original developer Brent Simmons is back in charge, and a new, free iOS version of NetNewsWire just launched for iPhone and iPad.

How to quickly flip through a stack of apps in Slide Over

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Slide Over
Hopefully this iPad won't "Slide Over" into the pool. Ho ho.
Photo: Maarten van den Heuvel/Unsplash

iPad multitasking, Split Screen and all that stuff, has been getting a bad rap recently, and rightly so. It’s a mess. But amidst this storm of iPad hatred, there’s one great feature that stays great: Slide Over. On the iPad, Slide Over lets you dock a mini, iPhone-size version of an app over on the right side of the screen. You can swipe this away to hide it, and swipe again to bring it back out.

That’s cool, and very handy (as we shall see in a moment). But even better is that you can dock a whole bunch of apps over there, ready to use, and then fan out the stack to help pick the one you want. Let’s take a look. You’re going to love this.

How to disinfect your Mac, iPhone, mouse, trackpad, keyboard and cases

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Disinfect your gadgets with DIY alcohol wipes.
Disinfect your gadgets with DIY alcohol wipes.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Apple has a long support page of links and tips, dedicated to keeping your devices clean and shiny. But what about keeping them germ-free? Even if you only ever use your iMac’s keyboard at home, you probably transferred plenty of unwanted organisms onto it before you started washing your hands properly.

As for your iPhone, it’s probably dirtier than a music-festival toilet. And your AirPods, which you keep touching with your dirty hands all day long? I feel nauseated just thinking about it.

So, how do you keep all this stuff sanitary? It’s easy, even if your local store has run out of disinfectant wipes due to panic buying induced by fears about the COVID-19 virus.

How to change your Safari downloads folder on iPhone and iPad

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books
Don't let your iCloud Drive end up looking like this.
Photo: lle dnuor/Unsplash

By default, Safari on iOS downloads all files to a folder in your iCloud. This means you can access those files from all your devices. But it also means those files fill up your iCloud Drive. Worse, every megabyte you download also gets uploaded back to iCloud, doubling your bandwidth usage.

Today we’ll see how to change the location of your Safari downloads folder in iOS 13.

Mailbrew turns Twitter, YouTube and Reddit updates into email newsletters

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mailbrew envelopes
Mailbrew sends the internet to your inbox -- in a good way.
Photo: Diana Akhmetianova/Unsplash

Apparently, people love email newsletters. Perhaps it’s because they are clean and free of annoying ads and endless “related” “content.” Or maybe its because everyone secretly still uses their email inbox as a de facto inbox for everything in their online life. If you are one of these newsletter lovers, then you will be super-stoked to hear about Mailbrew, which gathers up the latest posts and news from your favorite time sinks, and converts them into emails.

How to mark email as junk on your iPhone

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junk mail
The inevitable spam:junk-mail metaphor image
Photo: Pau Casals/Unsplash

Your iPhone’s Mail app is pretty good. It does most of what you need, and you can be sure that it doesn’t steal your email password, or send details from your incoming mail to Apple. There are even a bunch of very powerful smart folders and features hidden in its sidebar. But getting basic stuff done is sometimes awkward, thanks to Apple’s insistence on hiding everything in the name of minimalism.

That includes marking an email as spam. It’s actually easy, but you might not know how to do it. Today we’ll look at three ways to mark email as junk mail.

How to restore a previous version of that Mac document you messed up

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With Time Machine versions, you can recover old versions of Mac documents.
Did you delete an old version of an important Mac document? All is not lost.
Photo: Şahin Sezer Dinçer/Pexels CC

Have you ever ruined an essay by over-editing it? Did you ever mistakenly delete a huge chunk of a report, and not realize it until days later? Maybe you thought you’d saved another copy of that important document, but your Mac seems to have swallowed it. No problem, because your Mac saves versions of your documents as you go, and lets you browse and restore them. And it’s all built in to — yes — Time Machine.

Shortcutify integrates Spotify, Google Maps, Todoist and more into Shortcuts

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Control your smart lighting, your music, and more with Shortcutify.
Control your smart lighting, your music, and more with Shortcutify.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Shortcutify is a free iOS app that lets you use web-based services in your Shortcuts. For instance, it can connect with Spotify, Todoist, AirTable and more, and provides an easy bridge between these services’ complicated APIs and the Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad.

If you use any of the supported services, you’re going to totally love Shortcutify. If not? More app integrations are planned for the future.

iPadOS 13.4’s Full Keyboard Access offers incredible touch-free control

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tab key Full Keyboard Access
You will come to love the Tab key with iPadOS 13.4's Full Keyboard Access.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Did you know you can control your iPad using just a keyboard? You can use the arrow keys to move between icons on the Home screen. You can use the arrow keys (again) to scroll lists. And you can even tap and toggle buttons using the space bar. Apple added this capability via iOS 13.4’s new Full Keyboard Access feature, and it’s wild.

How wild? How about offering system-wide, custom keyboard shortcuts for running actual Shortcuts? And that’s just the beginning.

How to use your iPhone calendar with your Bullet Journal

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Bullet journal Mac
Paper and pixels, working together.
Photo: Matt Ragland/Unsplash

Bullet journaling is a big deal. It’s a way to put your notes, lists, to-dos and calendars into any old notebook, and be able to find all of those things instantly. It’s truly the paper equivalent of an iPhone’s notes, reminders and calendar apps, only it’s all on paper. That means you can doodle and go totally free-form, instead of being constrained by an app-maker’s design.

The only thing a paper Bullet Journal can’t do is send you an alert or a notification. Today, we’ll see how to fix that, combining the paper journal with your iPhone’s calendar app.

You should really stop checking your phone all the time

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stop checking phone
It's hard not to pick up your iPhone all the time.
Photo: Tyler Lastovich/Unsplash

Your iPhone is amazing. And that’s part of its problem. Every time you’re at a loose end, waiting in line, or just think that you’re bored, you pull it out and graze those Home screen icons to find something that might interest you.

This, you may not be surprised to know, is unhealthy behavior.

How to stop your UWB-equipped iPhone 11 from tracking you

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This is not how Apple's UWB tracking works.
This is not how Apple's UWB tracking works.
Photo: Hadis Malekie/Unsplash

The latest generation of iPhones (the 11 and 11 Pro) contain the new U1 chip, which lets your iPhone locate other iPhones with pinpoint accuracy. Currently it is only used to show you the direction of other iPhones when you AirDrop a file. However, it will almost certainly soon be used to keep track of the rumored Apple Tags (or AirTags) tracking devices.

But what if you want to turn off UWB (ultra-wideband) tracking altogether? No problem.

Start work right with this one-click app and playlist launcher

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applescript
Writing this AppleScript is as easy as writing your shopping list.
Photo: David Ballew/Unsplash

Every morning when I sit at my Mac to start writing, I open the same apps and start the same iTunes playlist. This repetitive, tedious task is what computers are supposed to do for us, so I figured I’d make my Mac open up those apps, and start that music playing, all without me having to do anything.

That dream was quickly quashed — the Mac isn’t quite able to read my mind yet. So I settled for the next best thing: An AppleScript that I can leave in the Dock, and then click once to open everything. The best part is, it’s absurdly easy to make your own.

Add a one-tap web search button to your iPhone Home screen

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Add a custom search button to your Home screen on iPhone or iPad.
Super-charge your web searches with this customizable Home screen shortcut.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

This fantastic shortcut makes searching the web with your iPhone faster than ever. It places an icon on your Home screen, and you just tap it, type a search into the box that pops up, and hit enter. Your search will then open in Safari.

This customizable search shortcut proves speedier than pretty much any other method, including iOS’ built-in Spotlight search.