mute

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on mute:

Mute Twitter keywords to avoid spoilers

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Mute twitter
Shut! Up!
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Twitter is a swamp of spoilers. You can’t move for tweets about the plot of the new Star Wars movie or spoilers about whatever new TV show is dropping all its new episodes this week. There are two ways to avoid spoilers. One is to avoid Twitter entirely.

The other is to mute keywords, so you don’t see references to — well, references to whatever you want. Mutes don’t have to be about the long-awaited meeting between Spock and Obi-Wan, though. You can mute anything. You could avoid all mentions of President Donald Trump, for example. Brits could stanch the flow of Brexit mentions. Or you might temporarily mute mentions of a sports event if it’s taking over your timeline.

Spotify will let you mute artists you don’t want to hear

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Spotify
You won't have to listen to music you don't like.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Spotify will soon let you mute artists you don’t want to listen to.

It is currently testing a “don’t play this artist” feature in the latest version of its iOS app. Using it will prevent the artist’s tracks from playing altogether — even if they feature in a playlist, chart list, or on a radio station you listen to.

How to mute people on Instagram

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Now you can mute Instagram, just like this creepy doll.
Now you can mute people on Instagram, just like this creepy doll.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Instagram finally lets you mute people, letting you remove their pictures from your timeline. If you’re too cowardly to just unfollow someone (like they’d even notice anyway), or your best friend just got their first dog/baby, and has flooded their Instagram with “cute” photos, you can now block these photos and videos without ditching the person responsible for them. Let’s see how to mute Instagram.

Instagram lets you mute accounts you don’t want to see

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These Instagram tips will help you connect with photographers who share your interests.
We don’t want to see photos from everyone we follow.
Photo: Lee Peterson/Cult of Mac

Instagram is finally giving us the ability to mute accounts that we don’t want to see in our feeds.

The feature lets you weed out annoying friends without actually unfollowing them. You will still be able to view their profile if you choose to, and you can unmute them anytime you want.

How to mute iMessage threads, and spot those you accidentally silenced

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shhh mute iMessage
Shut those annoying conversations up right now.
Photo: Shawn Rossi/Flickr CC

Have you ever had your regular (important) iMessages swamped by a flurry of notifications for that inane group conversations about matcha-flavored KitKats? Or maybe you want to keep your iPad’s notifications switched on, but you want to mute iMessages from your boss until Monday, because she has no concept of boundaries?

If so, you need iMessage’s handy conversation-muting feature. It’s so easy to use that you may have turned it on by mistake. If you’re no longer getting alerts for certain messages, you may want to check this, too.

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How to turn off sound in Facebook News Feed videos

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facebook-news-feed
Some Facebook users now have a second News Feed.
Photo: Facebook

Facebook is making big changes to the way it approaches video. Videos in the Facebook News Feed previously played silently unless users turned sound on. Now if you want to keep the sound off, you’ll need to dig through your Facebook settings.

Turn off the annoying new feature with these steps.

Use Hold Instead Of Mute On Your iPhone [iOS Tips]

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CallOnHoldiPHone

Here’s another one of those quirky, brilliant hidden features of the iPhone’s operating system. I’m sure you’ve all muted a phone call while on the line with someone, right? What about when you’re on speaker phone? Mute makes sure that the other person can’t hear you, but you certainly can still hear them. That can be frustrating, especially when in a room with other folks, like during an interview.

Sometimes it’s just good to mute both sides of the conversation, right? Hold is the way your iPhone can do that.

Developers Say iOS 5.1 Will Not Fix Audio Issues On Your iPhone 4S

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iphone-4s-introduction-images

A large proportion of iPhone 4S adopters have been hit by an issue on the new device that randomly mutes their audio when they make a call. Their recipient appears to pickup — or the call goes to voicemail — but they do not hear anything.

If you’re one of these users and you’re hoping for a fix in Apple’s upcoming iOS 5.1 software update, then you may be disappointed. According to developers already testing the release, it does not address this particular issue.

Dear Apple, I Want Screen Lock Back on the iPad Switch! [Poll]

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iPad task bar displaying the screen orientation lock on the left.

[polldaddy poll=4138392]

Apple released iOS 4.2.1 for the iPad and true to their word converted the iPad switch from screen orientation lock to mute and un-mute. If you’ve had an iPad since it launched you’ll understand how convenient that switch can be when using your iPad. Of course, this change brings the iPad into alignment with the iPhone. The iPhone switch has always been used to mute and un-mute that device.

Both devices now use the switch in the same way and the screen orientation lock has been moved to the running tasks bar which is accessible by double-tapping the Home button and swiping to the left.

iPad’s Orientation Lock Switch Repurposed To Mute In iOS 4.2

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150826-screen_orientation_lock_ipad

There’s an interesting change in the way iOS 4.2 handles orientation lock on the iPad… one that indicates a curious design backpedal on the part of Cupertino.

Previously, orientation lock on the iPad was handled with a physical hardware switch on the side of the device, but in iOS 4.2, it has been repurposed as a physical “Mute” button, with the orientation lock achieved the same way it is on the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch under iOS 4: through the multitasking tray.

It’s a minor but significant change that, I suspect, portends the elimination of the mute/screen orientation button on the second-generation iPad. For famously minimal and streamlined Apple, a physical mute button doesn’t make a lot of sense on an iOS device that isn’t a phone.

[via MacRumors]