How-To - page 12

If you’ve never tried making your own Siri Shortcuts, I’ve compiled a short list of the best shortcuts for iPhone to introduce you. Shortcuts can quickly run automated actions on your phone (and on your iPad or Mac). They’re made using Apple’s Shortcuts app, where you can visually piece together actions offered by the apps installed on your device.

You can run a shortcut by asking Siri or by putting a widget on your iPhone’s Home Screen. Not a lot of people know this powerful feature exists — or what it can do for them. For eight examples of what you can do with shortcuts, keep reading or watch our video.

You can make a GIF on your iPhone or Mac out of any Live Photo or video you have in your photo library or saved to your computer. You don’t need to download any apps — simply add a shortcut, and you can do it directly from the share sheet.

Of course, not all looping animated images are GIFs. A faster way to animate your Live Photos is with the iPhone’s built-in Loop effect. In the Photos app, just tap on the “Live” tag in the upper left and select “Loop.” This will produce higher-quality results, but might not be compatible with third-party apps like Snapchat or Discord.

If you need an actual GIF file, there’s still a pretty easy way to make them on your phone or Mac. I’ll show you how.

Customizing the widgets Smart Stack on your Apple Watch is a great way provide easy access to the apps you use most. If you have a Tim Cook-esque Apple Watch face full of complications, you can rely on widgets instead. You just need to edit the widgets in your Apple Watch’s Smart Stack to provide the same quick access to your most-used apps and activities.

Today, I’ll show you how to make the most of your Smart Stack of widgets on Apple Watch.

If you’re trying to listen to podcasts or music on your phone, it can be annoying when your AirPods keep switching to other devices, like your Mac or iPad.

Personally, I don’t mind this behavior. If I’m sitting at my Mac, I want to use the Music and the Podcasts apps on the Mac. But a lot of people consider their phone to be their primary device and always want to play audio from their phone, no matter which other device they’re using.

If you want your iPhone to keep supreme control over your ears, here’s how to disable AirPods auto-switching.

You can send a FaceTime voicemail to someone if they don’t answer when you need to video chat. It’s better than leaving a regular voicemail because it’s video — you can relay a message quickly or show something off on camera.

For instance, if your dog or your human child is doing something cute, or if you want to get a second opinion on an outfit, you might want to show someone. If they don’t answer your FaceTime call, you can record a video to send them to watch later.

Here’s how FaceTime voicemail works.

Some people complain that the Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad lacks a backlight for the keys. Turns out the accessory really has one but the controls aren’t where you might expect.

Here’s how to find the control for the Magic Keyboard in the Control Center. And how to adjust the backlight, too.

If you own an iPhone 14 or iPhone 15, it’s time to test one of its best abilities: Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite service. This allows users of these iOS handsets to exchange messages with emergency services while outside of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage.

Getting a compatible iPhone in contact with a satellite isn’t complicated. But it’s something users should know how to do before they need this potentially lifesaving feature.

Here’s how to use the iPhone’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature.

You can turn off those annoying Apple TV sports notifications to stop the constant interruptions while you’re watching your shows and movies. Considering I have no interest in sports, I never watched live sports on Apple TV, and I never agreed to be shown these notifications, every time they come up, I’m intensely irritated.

Apple did a fairly good job of hiding the setting that lets you turn off those irritating sports notifications. However, you can do it — if you know where to look. In this how-to, I’ll show you how to shut them down, along with some of the other Apple TV settings you should change while you’re at it. Keep reading or watch our video.

You can ping a lost Apple Watch from your iPhone, thanks to iOS 17 and watchOS 10. The reverse has always been a cool feature of the Apple Watch, helping you find a lost iPhone you left somewhere nearby.

If you take your Apple Watch off at the end of the day, forgetting to throw it on the charger, you might not remember where you left it the following morning. Now, you can find a lost Apple Watch from your iPhone. Here’s how it works.

iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 let users reformat external drives as well as keep a copy of a file on iCloud permanently stored locally.

Both features were found by developers tinkering with the first betas of these operating systems, and should make the Files app on iPhone and iPad more useful.

Contrary to popular belief, Macs are not immune to trojans and viruses. In the last couple of years, there’s been a significant uptick in the number, variety and sophistication of malware targeting Mac users. And some of it is so sneaky, you might not even know about it until a Mac virus scan shows your machine’s been infected.

While Mac attacks are still a fraction of those on Windows (or even Linux), Mac malware has become a lot harder to detect and remove. Plus, Mac users tend to be targeted individually, rather than en masse, often with malware that’s freely available online and disguised as harmless apps. That means the attacker doesn’t need to be a computer genius — a disgruntled ex could probably figure it out.

Protecting your Mac from trojans and viruses is crucial to ensure that your personal data, privacy and overall system integrity remain intact. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the essential steps to safeguard your Mac and introduce Intego, a top-tier solution for robust protection.

It’s good to know how to close apps on iPhone for those times when an app is acting buggy or becomes unresponsive. It’s really easy — just swipe up to see your running apps and swipe up again to close them. However, does this mean you should you quit open apps? No, not at all.

Despite what you may have heard, quitting apps on iOS usually makes things worse, not better. It’s a myth that quitting apps will save battery life, make your iPhone run faster or free up memory. Overall, it negatively impacts your iPhone performance. Here’s how to close iPhone apps — plus three reasons why you shouldn’t rush to do it.

The Reply button in the iPhone version of Apple Mail does a whole lot more than let you reply to messages. For some reason, Apple packed it with unrelated options.

Here’s everything lying hidden behind that simple button.

Have you heard of the Apple Watch’s nightstand mode? I knew about it from digging through the settings in the Watch app on my iPhone, 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, formerly known as bedside mode.

In iOS 17, you can use Apple’s Reminders app as a grocery list app on your iPhone. It automatically sorts items you add into common sections, which proves incredibly helpful when you go shopping. Just open the Reminders app, and you can easily see if you’ve got everything you need as you’re making your way through the store.

I’ll show you how to use it, including how to share your Reminders app grocery list with someone else so you can both add items and check them off the same list.

Knowing how to unsend an iMessage can help you out of a pickle if you accidentally shoot off a text to the wrong person. You also can edit a message after it’s sent to fix a grave typo you didn’t catch. Like if you accidentally text your mom “Finally got laid today!” when you meant to type “paid.”

Keep reading to see how to unsend or edit an iMessage on your iPhone, or watch our quick video tutorial.

Spam calls and text messages seem absolutely relentless these days — you’ll want to know how to block a number on your iPhone to keep your sanity. Luckily, it’s easy. There are a variety of ways you can stop unwanted calls. You can block an incoming phone call or text message. And you can send unknown callers directly to Live Voicemail.

If you’re blocking a person in your contacts list, it doesn’t matter which app you block them from — Messages, Phone, Contacts, Mail, Settings — they will be blocked everywhere. Here’s how to block calls from unknown numbers on iPhone and generally keep spammers at bay.

Whether it’s wedged between the cushions or kicked far under the couch, a handy-dandy feature in iOS 17 and tvOS 17 lets you find your lost Apple TV remote using your iPhone.

Sure, you can take the L and simply use your iPhone or Apple Watch to control your Apple TV. But I like having the physical remote on hand, too.

The mind races when one imagines how many hours of human life might have been saved if everyone had this feature 30 years ago. Let me show you how to find your AWOL Apple TV remote with your iPhone.

If you want to know the fastest and easiest way to send someone photos, videos, files and so, so much more, you should know how to AirDrop. There’s no need to send an iMessage — Apple’s slick AirDrop feature will immediately send and open the content on someone else’s iPhone (or other Apple device). There’s no middle step.

AirDrop works iPhone-to-iPhone, iPhone-to-Mac, iPhone-to-iPad, Vision Pro-to-Mac — any combination and permutation of two Apple devices. And if you’re both running iOS 17, there’s a convenient AirDrop superpower you should definitely know about. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about how to take advantage of AirDrop.

Contact posters let you customize how your Apple contact card looks to other people. If you call someone — and they have your contact info in their address book — your customized contact poster will appear on their screen. If you’re running iOS 17 and don’t know how to create a Contact Poster, let us show you how. (The process might look familiar if you’ve set up a custom Lock Screen.)

Done right, contact posters look great — way better than the old thumbnail images that preceded them. Plus, it’s really easy to turn an ordinary picture into a gorgeous-looking contact poster. And once you set it up, everyone with your matching phone number and/or Apple ID will see your chosen contact picture and personalized contact poster.

There are a few hidden gestures on your iPhone that you absolutely need to know. You’re typing out a long text on your iPhone and you need to go back to fix a typo. Tapping on the screen to move the cursor feels like a shot in the dark — but there’s a secret gesture to move around and select text.

Here are three top iPhone tips. Also in this article: how to select and delete a bunch of emails, text messages, anything in a list at once; and the secret gestures that undo and redo. Like, for example, if you accidentally delete a bunch of emails.

If your iPhone is ever having odd technical problems, the first thing you should try is a good old restart — you’ll be surprised how many problems can be fixed by simply restarting.

Restarting your iPhone is just like restarting a computer. All of the apps and software will be reset, and you shouldn’t lose any saved data.

If an app you’re using is acting up, you can always force-quit it and open it again to reset it. But if there’s a deeper underlying problem with your phone’s software, like if Bluetooth accessories aren’t working or phone calls suddenly won’t connect, you should restart it.

Here’s how.

A trick you might have missed with the release of iPadOS 17 is support for external USB-C webcams. As good as the tablet’s front-facing camera is, it’s now possible to use a webcam with an iPad.

Here’s why you might be interested, and how to connect a webcam to your iPad with a USB-C port.

A great way to personalize your Mac is with custom Mac folder icons. In fact, you can change any icon on your Mac to customize it to your taste. That includes any app, folder, disk or file icon.

Personally, I didn’t like the yellow icon of my external hard drive — so I changed it to blue. I’ve also edited a few app icons for better consistency in my Dock.

I’ll show you how to do it yourself.

How do you turn off the webcam video reactions on your Mac in macOS Sonoma? This feature, which puts full-screen animated effects on your video calls, made a good demo when it was introduced. But after it launched, it confused many people who trigger it accidentally in serious situations.

It works in FaceTime video calls and various other videoconferencing software. However, the Off button isn’t where you might expect. It’s not hiding in Zoom, Skype or Google Meet at all — it’s in the Mac’s menu bar.

Let me show you what’s going on and how you can turn off video reactions on Mac.