Apple’s Shortcuts app is already great, but in iOS 13 it gets even better. You can still create simple or complex workflows to do all kinds of tasks, from downloading YouTube videos or setting a quick meditation timer to resizing a whole folder of photos. But until now, you had to trigger those shortcuts manually.
In iOS 13, your iPhone or iPad can run a shortcut at a preset time or when you arrive at a specific location. This is huge.
iOS 13, iPadOS, and tvOS 13 will finally allow you to play games with a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One controller.
That means there’s no need to purchase a pricey MFi controller that is restricted by Apple’s outdated gamepad guidelines. Simply connect one of the controllers you already own and you’re good to go.
Here’s how to get set up.
The iPadOS beta is out, and it has one killer feature — mouse support. Not only can you use any Bluetooth mouse or trackpad to control the text-selection cursor on the iPad, you can use the mouse just like you would on a Mac — clicking buttons anywhere in the entire iPad user interface.
The feature is not on by default. It’s not even a regular checkbox. To enable mouse and trackpad support on your iPad, you have to dig into the Accessibility settings.
Today Apple will announce iOS 13, possibly the new Mac Pro, plus a slew of Mac and Apple Watch-related news. Cult of Mac will not be live-blogging the action — instead you can join our WWDC 2019 watch party or follow along on Twitter. And as always, you can watch the show live.
We’re expecting to learn all about the incredible new iOS 13, which many expect will turn the iPad into some kind of Mac Pro-beating powerhouse1. Also expected is a Marzipan update, and perhaps our first peek at the real new Mac Pro.
Whether you’re watching on your Mac, your iPhone or iPad, or your Apple TV, we’ll show you how to tune in.
You can even show up at an Apple Store and watch it on the big screen!
Background refresh is what lets your iPhone and iPad download your email while your iPhone is sleeping, to update your weather app while you are sleeping, and to grab all kinds of data so that it’s ready before you need it — news feeds, notes-app syncing, and pretty much anything else.
However, as revealed this week by the Washington Post, plenty of bad apps are abusing the background refresh mechanism. They are using it to send your private data — you location, your email address, your phone number, and much much more.
It’s likely that this is happening to you, because background refresh is enabled by default for newly-installed apps. Fortunately, it’s an easy problem to fix. Today we’ll see how.
Ever wanted to resize a photo before sending it, or posting it to the web? The quickest and easiest way to do this is with a shortcut. And it’s even quicker and easier because I’ve already written it for you. All you have to do is share the photo from inside the Photos app, pick this shortcut, and you’re pretty much done. Check it out.
Today we have another great tip ripped form the iPhone’s accessibility settings. The screen reader lets you use a quick two-finger gesture to read anything on the screen. This is obviously designed for folks who have trouble reading the screen, but it is also very handy for everyone else.
You can listen to a long magazine article while you do the dishes for example, and much more.
The big iOS 13 news is all about the iPad. Or at least, we expect it to be based on rumors and leaks. But what about the iPhone? How will iOS 13 shape up on the most popular of iOS devices? Will it be a dead year, while the iPad gets all the (somewhat overdue) attention? Or will it be just as exciting for iPhone owners?
The good news is, the iOS update will probably be huge overall. In recent years, Apple has managed to lock down the secrecy around software, but this year the rumors — based on purported leaks — abound. That might mean the iOS 13 is bursting with new stuff.
So, let’s take a look.
If you diligently close your Apple Watch’s Activity rings every day in the hope of getting ripped like The Rock, you are going about it all the wrong way. Apple’s Activity app focuses on cardio conditioning and burning calories. That’s great for losing weight, but irrelevant if you want to build muscle. In this post, we’ll look at what really makes muscles grow — and how to build muscle with your Apple Watch and iPhone using specialized apps.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could take that awesome (and hilarious!) GIF, and use it as an animated wallpaper for your iPhone? You could wake your iPhone, press on the screen, and watch the action unfold. Over and over. And over.
Sadly, GIF wallpapers are impossible. Or are they? Well, you can’t set an actual GIF to run as your lock-screen wallpaper, but you can convert any GIF into a Live Photo, and use that to animate your iPhone’s lock screen.
Here’s how.
Maybe in iOS 13 we’ll be able to add songs to our music iPhone libraries without having to wake up a Mac or PC running iTunes. Until then, there’s no way to listen to songs downloaded from Bandcamp, or exported from GarageBand, alongside the rest of your music collection.
But there’s a workaround. Vox is a slightly confusing music app that combines your built-in Apple Music library with your Soundcloud, Spotify, and other services. And it will also let you import any audio file, and then add it to playlists and so on. Let’s know more about how to achieve this.
10.8% in ’94. Plus, Apple’s software sales were growing more slowly than those of rival companies. Curious about what is an Apple Fellow? This article provides more insights.
Maybe you’re one of the non-vocal majority that doesn’t mind the Touch Bar. Perhaps you even like it. And maybe, at the same time, you can’t see the point of Siri on the Mac.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could tailor your MacBook Pro just for you? A lovely, handy, beautiful Touch Bar, only without that dumbo Siri? Well, yes it would. Here’s how to remove Siri from the Macbook’s Touch Bar.
I love and hate typing on the iPad Pro’s on-screen keyboard. I love that it’s a proper keyboard, with a number row, and extra punctuation keys. But I hate that auto-correction is more of a comedy lexical lottery than an actual correction feature. So I finally decided to do something about it. I switched off autocorrect on my iPad, and here’s what happened.
The lack of trial versions on the App Store makes it risky to take a punt on any app that costs more than a few bucks. $50 is a fair price for a pro-level app, but it’s a lot to drop without testing it out first. No amount of videos or reviews will tell you if it’s right for you. Fortunately, there’s a workaround. Kind of. You can request a refund for any app you buy, and often you’ll get it.
Summer is almost upon us.* If you’ve been training hard all winter to look awesome in a Speedo on the beach, then you can totally skip this post.
Still here? That’s cool. Because in this post we’ll look at five awesome ways your Apple Watch can help give your body a quick tune-up before you hit the beach this summer.
Did you ever wish that Safari on the Mac had a proper download manager? Or at least a proper download window,
instead of the popover that sticks to the browser window and gets in the way until you close it?
Well, today your wishes will come true. Or this one modest wish will come true at least.
Apple’s new TV app, available pretty much everywhere with iOS 12.3, lets you subscribe to TV and movie channels, as well as renting films and shows direct from Apple. The bad news is that, if you only want to watch your own sideloaded videos, the app is worse than the old Videos app. But if you subscribe to channels, or would like to, then TV is a fantastic way to consolidate all that entertainment.
And guess what? It’s even useful when you’re traveling or commuting. Today we’ll see how to download and watch TV shows and movies offline.
With a podcast like the CultCast, you can drop in and start listening at any time. News-based podcasts are meant to be listened to, and then discarded. Another one will be along soon. But what about more structured podcasts? Podcasts that work episodically, like a TV series? With those, you want to listen from episode one, and listen in order — episodes 2, 3, 4, etc.
But podcast apps don’t let you do this. They’re geared towards disposable, periodically-updated podcasts. They may show you a list of previous episodes, so you can tap to download them manually, but then it’s no longer a podcast.
What you need is a service that takes any podcast feed and rejigs it, serving you a new episode each week as if the series had just started.
Apple has finally given us the ability to pay for App Store, iTunes, and Books purchases with Apple Pay.
The company’s own mobile payments system can also be used for Apple Music and iCloud storage subscriptions. Here’s how to set it up.
Over the last couple years, tons of iOS apps switched from one-time purchases to monthly or annual subscriptions. As a user, this can seem frustrating — or annoying even — but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The rise of app subscriptions brings benefits to users, developers and the app ecosystem as a whole. Whether you’re subscribing to your favorite weather app, task manager or podcast player, the subscription model offers perks that never existed in the one-time-purchase world of apps.
If you’ve been wearing an Apple Watch for a while now, chances are you have built up a huge amount of data related to your health. But do you know what it all means? What exactly is that wrist-mounted technological marvel trying to tell you?
All those different stats Apple Watch saves to the Health app can be a little overwhelming. But if you know how to interpret them, they provide a surprisingly wide variety of insights into your health. Like how fit you are, how much stress you are under and whether you are at risk of heart disease — click here to learn more.
It’s worth taking the time to understand what your Apple Watch is telling you. It can help you improve your wellbeing — and it might even save your life.
In the bad old days, there used to be just one way to send an email attachment from your iPhone. You had to find the file or image, and use the share sheet to send it via email. Then, you’d add the address, subject line and message, and send the mail. And if you needed to add another file to that email? Tough.
Now, things are much better. There are now several ways to send mail with attachments on iOS — the exact number depends on whether you’re using the iPhone or iPad. Let’s check them out.
Way back in iOS 9 days, Apple added “content blocking” to the iPhone and iPad. More commonly known as “ad-blockers,” this tech lets you use third-party apps to block ads, malware, trackers, comments, and more, in Mobile Safari. Apple itself doesn’t do any more than make blocking possible. To actual decide what to block, you need a third-party app.
Enabling ad-blocking is easy, once you know how, and you can set-and-forget it once done. Or you can keep on top of things, adding custom rules, and white-listing trusted websites. Here’s how.
If Apple Watch ever becomes as common as the smartphone, TV dramas will get a whole lot less dramatic. You know how when a beloved character is in danger — perhaps there’s a killer stalking them in their own home — and you scream at the screen, telling them what to do?
Well, the Apple Watch’s SOS Mode pretty much does everything you’re telling them to do. It can call the cops, notify a friend, and track your location, all with a squeeze (and maybe a swipe). That might not be great as a standard storytelling trope, but it’s fantastic for your personal safety.
Did you know that you can record the music playing on your iPhone, to your Mac, straight up the USB cable? Just hook your Mac up to your iPhone (or iPad), using the Lighting cable that came in the box, and you can record anything. Additionally, if you’re looking to play music while recording video iPhone, this guide will show you how.
It’s just like taping off the radio when you were a kid — or maybe when your dad was a kid — only better quality.