Wrap this paper napkin around an Apple Pencil, and add water. What could possibly go wrong? Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The Apple Pencil is easily the best stylus for any tablet computer, but thanks to the deep hardware ties that make it work so well with the iPad, it won’t work with anything else. Or will it? With this messy hack, you can make your Apple Pencil work with your iPhone. Or with any smartphone or tablet.
dotEPUB turns web pages into fantastic-looking ebooks. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
In my constant search for a way to save and annotate webpages like I used to do with Instapaper before it cut off access to Europe instead of complying with GDPR laws, I came across a great service called dotEPUB.
This quick-and-easy service lets you save and convert any webpage into an EPUB document. Then you can open the file in Apple’s Books app and mark it up just like any other ebook. Let’s take a look at how dotEPUB works.
Is the Mac's default pasting behavior driving you nuts? Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Did you ever copy some text from a Word document, or from the web, and paste it into an email, only to have the pasted text keep its stupid 24-point Comic Sans formatting? Maybe you had to select everything, then start futzing with the Mac’s font panel to get the new text to match.
The way to fix this annoying problem, as you may already know, is the Mac’s Paste and Match Style command. But what you probably never thought of is that you can make this the default option. That way, you can reap its benefits whenever and wherever you paste text.
This rare photo shows the moment that Michael came up with the idea for K.I.T.T's Turbo Boost. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The iOS Low Power Mode is fantastic, letting you squeeze the most possible uptime from your iPhone or iPad. But what about the Mac? Why isn’t there a Low Power Mode for MacBooks? After all, they’re just as likely to be used away from power as an iPad.
Well, here’s some good news. Using third-party software, it’s easy to put your Mac into Low Power Mode whenever you like. You can get around a third more battery life using an app called Turbo Boost Switcher.
Team Rumble just got a lot better. Photo: Epic Games
Fortnite’s latest list of challenges is live in Battle Royale.
As usual, there are seven to complete — four easy and three hard — that will earn you a total of 50 Battle Stars. Three are available to all for free, but you will need to purchase the season five Battle Pass to access the other four.
Make your windows look as good as this one. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
You already know how to take a screenshot on the Mac: You hit either ⌘⇧3 (to capture the entire Mac screen) or ⌘⇧4 (to bring up a crosshairs to select a part of the screen). But did you know that there’s a third option that will snap a fancy picture of a single app window, complete with a classy drop shadow and a clean white background?
Manual control can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
For most photos, the iPhone camera proves perfectly adequate. You just hold up your phone, point it, and shoot. The exposure and focus are almost always correct, or at least correct enough. But on occasion, you need to take control.
For instance, maybe that beautiful dark blue sky keeps getting washed out because the iPhone insists on correctly exposing the face of the human in the foreground, when you’d prefer to see the person in silhouette. (Or vice versa.) Or perhaps the iPhone insists on focusing on that tree in the foreground, instead of the person half-hidden behind it?
Both of these can be fixed using the manual controls built right into the iPhone’s own Camera app. They’re pretty well-hidden, so you might never have even noticed them. But rest assured, they are there — and they are very easy to use!
This car hasn't been disturbed while driving for quite some time. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Apple’s Do Not Disturb While Driving feature has the potential to make you less of a menace on the road. Introduced in iOS 11, Do Not Disturb While Driving automatically switches your iPhone into Do Not Disturb mode when you hop in your car and drive off. While in this mode, iOS suppresses all notifications so you can pay attention to keeping that ton of metal, glass and cupholders from permanently ruining — or ending — the life of a pedestrian or cyclist.
But don’t worry! If you do receive one of those text messages that you previously thought were more important than the lives of your fellow commuters, the sender will get a reply telling them that you’re driving, and that you are now a better person.
All of this is customizable, of course, so let’s see how to set up Do Not Disturb While Driving.
This guy could do with a few video tips. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Your iPhone is capable of shooting incredible videos. Its camera can capture 4K video, which is good enough for the cinema, and the video camera’s auto-stabilization turns your wobbly pans into cinematic sweeps.
And yet it’s still all too easy to shoot a terrible iPhone video. So today we’ll look at some simple tips, and a few gadgets, that will turn your clips into movie masterpieces.
Yes, this is a real sign, and you could look up any of these words with your iPhone. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
iOS’ Spotlight search does more than just search for apps and documents. Way more. Today we’ll look at one of its handiest abilities — looking up a word in the dictionary without even opening an app.
Android has, or is soon to get, an incognito mode for the YouTube app, which will stop watched videos from showing up in your YouTube history. Google will still know exactly what you watch, of course. It’s just a way of keeping embarrassing movies out of your watched videos list.
iOS may or may not be getting the same feature, but that doesn’t matter. By using iOS’ (and the Mac’s) built-in tools, you can already watch YouTube videos without them showing up in your YouTube history. It even stops YouTube from tracking your history via cookies.
Get ready to earn those Battle Stars! Photo: Epic Games
The week is almost over, but Fortnite’s week three challenges for season five have only just begun.
As usual, there are seven to complete — four easy and three hard — that will earn you a total of 50 Battle Stars. You should find most of them relatively easy, but we have some tips if you find yourself struggling.
Here’s our guide to smashing week three’s Battle Royale challenges.
Does your Safari tab view looked like an overstuffed Rolodex? We can totally help. Photo: Sarah Gerke/Flickr CC
You probably know the trick for closing lots of tabs in Safari on your iPhone. You enter the tab overview aka Rolodex view, and then swipe those tabs off the screen one by one. It’s even kind of fun, but if you have lots and lots of tabs open, then the fun wears off pretty fast. So you’ll be happy to hear that there is a better way. A much better way, in fact, that lets you close all your open tabs with one tap.
Get a reminder to log your run every day. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Today we’ll see how to put a Shortcut into a reminder, so you can just tap the reminder alert to run it.
For this, we’ll use the new iOS 12 Shortcuts app, or Apple’s existing Workflow app. For instance, you could have a reminder that pops up every morning at 9AM, telling you to log your run. In the pop-up alert, right there on the lock screen, will be a button to execute a Shortcut/Workflow to do just that. Tap it, and you’ll be able to log your run via a pop up.
And of course this isn’t limited to fitness, nor even to time-based reminders.
It’s easy to give YouTube a kick up the backside. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
Have you ever wondered why YouTube is so much slower than all the other websites you visit in Safari? Did you know that you could make it up to five times faster with very little effort?
YouTube’s new design doesn’t play nicely with browsers that aren’t Google Chrome, but with some simple tweaks, you can switch back to its previous design and enjoy much faster speeds.
Slacking off? Then hide your private chats from your boss with Shhlack. Photo: Giorgio Minguzzi/Flickr CC
Did you know that your boss can read your private Slack chats? That’s right — whenever you switch to a direct messaging session to avoid Slack’s public chat thread, you might think you are chatting away from your boss’s prying ears, the virtual equivalent of a quick word in the stairwell.
However, that’s not the case. The boss can drop in and spy on your “private” chats at any time. Luckily, there’s a way to fix that, using a tool called Shhlack.
The quickest and easiest way to improve iPhone audio is with a Lightning mic. Photo: Zoom
Your iPhone camera is amazing. Especially for video. Modern iPhones capture 4K video, and pretty much any iPhone from the past few years can easily do high-definition 1080p. It’s also likely that your videos will be stabilized, so they look smooth, like they were shot with a Steadicam, not a shaky human hand.
The sound, though, isn’t as good as the image. The iPhone’s microphones are good, but not nearly as high-end as its camera. Also, the best place for a microphone often isn’t right next to the lens. It’s better to put it as close to the sound source — usually a person speaking — as possible. The good news is that it’s easy to get much better sound on your iPhone videos. Here’s how.
Itty Bitty could turn paper posters into web servers. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Quick question: If you wanted to publish a quick one-page website right now, how would you do it? You’d either put it up on a service like Tumblr, or you’d have to register a domain name, find a host, and Zzzzzzzz. But what if you could just create that web page, then zip it up into its own link? Whenever anyone clicked on that link, it would unpack itself, and show up in their browser like any regular web page. That’s what Itty Bitty does.
It’s pretty wild, and gets even wilder. Because while you can paste your link anywhere, like a Tweet, you can also turn that link into a QR code and print it. If you do so, then that paper QR code contains your actual website. Whenever anyone scans it, it will be unpacked, and rendered, no internet required.
It’s time to earn those Battle Stars! Photo: Epic Games
Fortnite season five is already into its second week, which means there’s a brand new list of challenges. As usual, there are seven to complete, which will earn you a total of 50 Battle Stars.
Apple's podcasts app is deeper than you might imagine. Photo: Incase/Flickr CC
Apple’s Podcasts app is now the equal of any third-party podcast, or “podcatcher,” app for iOS. I recently switched to using it as my default podcasts app, and I’ve found it does pretty much everything you could want it to.
In fact, it seems like some developers inside Apple are doing the same. The app really is well-designed and now offers some surprisingly deep “pro” features. And these pro features are what we’re going to look at today.
iOS 12 lets you avoid the temptations of your beautiful screen. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
If you’re running the iOS 12 beta, you may have taken a peek at Screen Time, tried to work it out, then given up and gone elsewhere to try out some other of the update’s awesome new features. I know I did. But even in its currently-confusing state, Screen Time — Apple’s new feature for monitoring and limiting how you spend time on your iPhone and iPad — is pretty neat. Today we’ll avoid the tricky parts and take a look at setting limits for individual apps.
It's easy to hide your photos in iOS -- and just as easy to find them. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Did you know that you can hide photos in your iPhone’s Photos library? This lets you keep photographs away from prying eyes, while still having access to them yourself. And — ironically — it also makes it very easy to find all the embarrassing/explicit photos on somebody else’s iPhone.
Complete all seven challenges to earn 50 Battle Stars. Image: Epic Games
Fortnite season five just kicked off, bringing new locations to explore, a second vehicle, and a whole host of new rewards to unlock.
If you buy the Battle Pass, there’s even more to enjoy, and you can start completing the first week’s challenges right away. There are seven in total, which will earn you 50 Battle Stars.