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How-To - page 9

How to turn off autocorrect on your iPhone

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how to turn off autocrorect
if you dont like being forced into capitalization, heres how to turn it off
image: d griffin jones/cult of mac

you can turn off autocorrect on your iphone if you want your texts to come across as casual and laid back. psychologically, lowercase writing that isnt punctuated with apostrophes or periods read as more informal and friendly

turning off autocorrect is super-easy. you can even turn off capitalization but leave on corrections for spelling and grammar. see how awesome it is? heres how to do it!!! :)

How to set up the best Mac screensaver, Aerial

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Aerial screensaver on a Mac
Beautiful.
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Screensavers fell out of fashion a long time ago, but Apple’s Aerial screensaver looks so beautiful, it just might make you reconsider. In fact, with its stunning visuals, it might just be the best Mac screensaver around.

The Aerial screensaver started on the Apple TV, showing gorgeous, sweeping helicopter photography of the world’s greatest natural landscapes, underwater sights and cityscapes — even shots from space. Now, if you have a desktop display set up somewhere prominently in your house, you can get the same beautiful vistas on your computer with the Aerial screensaver for Mac.

Here’s where to find this beautiful Mac screensaver, plus some setup tips that will really help it shine.

How and why to use iPhone Stolen Device Protection

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How and why to use iPhone Stolen Device Protection
Activate Stolen Device Protection to make your iPhone less valuable to criminals.
Graphic: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

iPhone Stolen Device Protection offers increased safety for your accounts and financial information if someone steals your handset and its passcode.

Here’s how to activate the security feature, and — more importantly — why you should do it now.

How to play Apple’s daily crosswords on iPad and iPhone

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Daily Puzzles in Apple News
Get a crossword every day in the Apple News app.
Image: Wil540 art/Wikimedia Commons/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple has a daily crossword and crossword mini that you can play on your iPad and iPhone inside the News app. This feature is available to anyone with an Apple News+ subscription or the Apple One Premier bundle.

I absolutely love playing the crossword puzzles every day. I’m not very good at them, but it’s a fun challenge and it’s a well-designed app.

Here’s how it works.

How to convert YouTube videos to MP3 files

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How to convert YouTube videos to MP3 files
Makes converting video files to audio easy with the 4K YouTube to MP3 app for Mac, Windows and Ubuntu.
Image: 4K YouTube to MP3

Need to convert YouTube videos to MP3 files easily, so you can transform your favorite streaming content into high-quality audio files that are a breeze to store and play? One simple way is to download and use 4K YouTube to MP3, a powerful Mac app designed specifically for audio extraction.

This specialized converter focuses on delivering crystal-clear audio files from YouTube videos, podcasts, music and other content across popular platforms including Facebook, SoundCloud and Twitch.

Protect yourself online by changing bad old passwords

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Change Your Bad, Old Passwords
Take the chance to upgrade your security.
Image: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

There’s been another big data leak of over 16 billion records, and that’s a great opportunity to do something you’ve probably been procrastinating on: Replace your website passwords that hackers stole because of some lax security. Fortunately, Apple’s new Passwords app makes it easy to find out which of your passwords leaked so you can change passwords right on your iPhone.

Stay one step ahead by fixing a potentially serious problem now, before something bad happens.

See the past week’s weather and other stats on your iPhone

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Is It Actually Getting Hotter?
See yesterday's weather or if it's unusually hot this season.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You can see the past week’s weather on your iPhone in the Apple Weather app. It shows all kinds of detailed weather data — not just temperature and rain, but wind, humidity, visibility, pressure and more.

You also can easily see how that info compares to the average weather data to see if this is an unusually heavy winter or a particularly hot summer. Apple Weather even shows you details on the phase of the moon, all in iOS 17.

Here’s how it works.

How to download the visionOS 26 developer beta

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Get Vision Pro Features Early
I want those spatial widgets!
Image: Apple/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You can download the visionOS 26 developer beta for free — right now. You can get a look at the exciting new spatial widgets coming to the Vision Pro before the update is shipped to everyone. Unlike other platforms, there is no public beta option, only the developer beta.

Of course, there are a few things you should look out for. Beta software can be buggy and can lead to data loss or apps that don’t work.

If you’re still sure you want to try it out, you should make sure you have a backup of your most important data with two copies of your photo library before you try installing. I’ll show you how.

How to save text messages from iPhone to computer

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A screenshot of an iPhone with a WhatsApp chat, and the words
Take control of your vital text message backups with TouchCopy.
Image: Wide Angle Software

The importance of backing up your iPhone messages is obvious. So, when you want to save text messages from iPhone, why settle for a backup that doesn’t let you access them?

Whether precious conversations with a loved one or vital information for a legal case, your messages deserve to be saved — and, more importantly, easily accessible on your computer.

How to make AI images on your iPhone with Image Playground

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How To Use Image Playground for iPhone
Apple’s on-device image generating app.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Image Playground is a free app for iPhone and other Apple devices that lets you generate unlimited AI images for free. You can generate images based on your friends, from a text prompt or totally from scratch, in a wide variety of themes and styles.

It’s part of Apple Intelligence, the growing set of AI features that work on the latest iPhones, Macs and iPads. Here’s how to use Image Playground.

Crop, rotate and skew photos on iPhone

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Fix Your Perspective
Straighten out images that were taken slightly askew.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

If you’re traveling this summer, there’s a neat editing trick to get spectacular shots of landmarks or murals. On the iPhone, you can crop, skew and rotate a photo using the Photos app’s advanced editing tools to make adjustments you might not have thought were possible.

You can quickly fix the perspective or angle a picture was taken from, correct the fisheye distortion on an ultra-wide photo and more. You can also precisely rotate and skew the perspective, for those times when you don’t realize until it’s too late that your shot is slightly to the side or slightly off-center.

The best part is you can can fix it all directly in the Photos app. Here’s how.

How to set up Game Center to pwn your friends

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Game On With Game Center
Set up Game Center and you can compete with friends in the games you both play.
Image: Apple/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Game Center service lets you compete with friends and unlock achievements in the games you play. You can see where you rank among your friends — and globally. Achievements will give you a list of missions to accomplish to prove your mastery of the game. You can even play live multiplayer games on all your separate devices using SharePlay.

Up until iOS 10, Game Center existed as a separate app on iPhone and iPad, which made this all easier to manage. And rumor has it that Apple will replace Game Center with the next major version of iOS, to be announced next week at WWDC25.

How do you manage your Game Center account now, on iOS 18? What options do you have? How do you add friends?

How to use Freeform, Apple’s collaborative digital whiteboard app

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You Should Check Out Freeform
Freeform is a weird and very underrated Apple app.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Freeform app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro is a digital whiteboard you can use to brainstorm or gather ideas in one infinitely scrolling canvas.

You can use Freeform to throw together ideas with a colleague. You could build a presentation using Freeform’s scenes, kind of like using Prezi. Or, you can use Freeform as a drawing app with your iPad and Apple Pencil.

Freeform comes with all kinds of features for adding text boxes, rich links, drawings, clip art, sticky notes, files, photos, videos and more. It’s a great way to build a mood board or connect big ideas.

Keep reading below or watch our video guide to find out how to use Freeform.

Find the highest-quality original images online with Reverse Image Search

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Find the original version
Is the best copy of a picture you have blurry and pixellated? Use Google’s image lens tool to find the original.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You can use Google reverse image search to find a higher-resolution (and higher-quality) original version of an image online. If you’re putting together a presentation, making a YouTube video or writing a blog post, you want the highest quality versions of every image. You might feel stuck if you only have a low-quality picture and you need to fill a bigger space.

Google reverse image search will let you upload a photo and find matches all around the web. You can find out where it’s from to cite the source and save the uncompressed original image. Let me show you how Google reverse image search works.

3 ways to emulate old video games and computers on your Mac

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Windows XP, Mac OS 9 and Super Mario Bros. running in emulators on a Mac
Run Windows XP, Mac OS 9, Windows 11, Super Mario Bros. and more on your Mac.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Collecting old video game consoles and vintage computers is a fun hobby, but keeping all that hardware working can quickly become an expensive, never-ending task — not to mention all the space you need just to store the gear. You might instead (wisely) opt to play your favorite games and software using emulators for your Mac.

In this guide to Mac emulation, I’ll walk you through the best apps you can use to accomplish the two most common scenarios: playing old video games, and taking Classic Mac OS for a test drive on a modern Mac. Plus, I’ll wrap up with the easiest way to virtualize modern operating systems like Windows and Linux on your Mac. (This handy virtualization software also works for old and obscure computer operating systems.)

Best of all, each of these Mac emulation methods is free and open source.

How to keep your iPhone battery from going to crap

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Keep It Like-New for Longer
Maximize your long-term battery health.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Adopting a few smart habits can preserve your iPhone battery health, greatly extending the device’s useful lifespan.

By simply tweaking how you use and charge your device, you can keep your battery from going bad, which is often cited as a reason to upgrade to a new iPhone. Just make these easy lifestyle changes, and your iPhone should last longer in the long term.

Keep reading or watch our video to find out how to boost your iPhone battery health.

Make battery-hogging apps like Spotify better with DIY web apps

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Web apps that don’t suck
Suck away battery life, that is.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

There are a bunch of not-great apps like Spotify and Slack that suck battery life, because they basically run a full copy of Google Chrome inside each window. Chrome is a notorious energy hog, and running multiple copies of its Blink engine inside four different apps can take unnecessary memory and resources.

But you can create your own, much better versions using web apps based on Safari. Web apps are easily made in Safari and live in your Mac’s Dock.

For apps that you use every day, like Spotify, Discord and Slack, it’s easier to launch them from the Dock and move them around separately from your browser tabs. Let me show you how they work.

What’s the deal with that orange and green dot on your iPhone?

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What Does That Dot Mean?
A long-standing mystery solved.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

What does the orange dot on your iPhone mean — and while we’re at it, how about the green dot? These mysterious dots can appear in the Dynamic Island of newer iPhones, or in the upper right corner of older models, near the battery icon.

The dots are part of Apple’s vast system of privacy and security features built into the iPhone. Of course, these privacy features only work if you know what they mean and how to use them — so keep reading for the answer below.

How to choose the right iPad for you

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iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad and iPad mini
With a variety of models to choose from, what the best iPad for you?
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

You want the best iPad, but shopping for one can be overwhelming. Apple sells six iPad models in a wide range of sizes, prices and capabilities. Our iPad comparison explains the strengths and weaknesses of each model. You don’t want to get one that doesn’t have all the features you want, but you also don’t want to pay too much for features you won’t use.

Here’s some straightforward advice on picking the best iPad for you.

Translate from your Apple Watch

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Translate From Your Wrist
Your Apple Watch is right there, all the time, to help out.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

The Apple Watch Translate app can help you quickly speak in a different language while you’re abroad, right from your wrist. Translate between 20 different languages by speaking out loud, play translations out of your Apple Watch speaker and build a list of favorite phrases you can play instantly.

Apple Translate doesn’t support as many languages as the more popular Google Translate — but Google doesn’t have an app for the Apple Watch. The fastest and most convenient way to speak another language from your wrist is with Apple’s app.

Keep reading or watch our video here.

Schedule an email to send in the future in Apple Mail

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Never Forget to Send It
Let your computer handle sending emails. It’s what they’re good at.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You can save time — and make sure your messages always go out when they’re supposed to — when you schedule email from the Apple Mail app. You can set your mail to deliver at any date or time in the future, whether it’s next Monday at 9 a.m. sharp, in two weeks’ time or even years from now.

If you work with someone in a different time zone, you can schedule messages to arrive just when they start their workday, which is especially helpful if the allotted time is in the middle of the night for you. You can schedule a series of reminders for that one irritatingly forgetful client of yours. Or, if you work remotely, you can try (and risk) prewriting messages to your boss to maintain the illusion of regular work. You can even schedule emails to remind you of an important anniversary, years down the line.

It’s easy to set up. Keep reading or watch our short video.

How to use Surfshark’s free, privacy-protecting DNS server

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Free DNS servers from Surfshark
Switch to a free DNS server to protect your privacy.
Photo: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac

You use Domain Name System (DNS) servers many times every day, even if you don’t know what they are. You can’t avoid it, and whichever one you use can track where you go on the internet. That’s why you might consider switching to the free DNS servers Surfshark just launched that promise not to track you.

Here’s how to set your iPhone, iPad and Mac to use the Surfshark DNS server. It’s free!

How to transfer video from iPhone to iPad via cable

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Transfer video from iPhone to iPad
Apple makes moving images and video from iPhone to iPad via a cable quick and easy.
Graphic: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Now that both iPhone and iPad have USB-C ports, transferring video and images between them can be easily done by connecting them with a cable, without mucking about with wireless transfers.

It’s easy, and brings some advantages over AirDrop. Most notably, iPhone Pro 15/16 users get a big speed boost.

Here’s what to do.

Create custom emoji in Messages using Genmoji

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Make Your Own Emoji
Genmoji can fit every occasion.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Using Apple’s Genmoji, you can create custom emoji when you can’t find the exact right one to express yourself nonverbally. The Apple Intelligence feature generates emoji on the fly based on your descriptions.

Finally, you can enhance your conversations about ostriches or shovels or tissue boxes with your own custom emoji. Or make an emoji that matches your pet, like a white cat or a Pomeranian dog. You can even make emoji versions of people you know.

Here’s how to use the fun new feature.

Look things up with your iPhone’s camera using Visual Intelligence

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Looking up a computer mouse using the camera with Visual Intelligence, captioned, “Look It Up With The Camera”
Search for products and get information with Visual Intelligence.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple’s new Visual Intelligence feature provides a quick way to find information just by pointing an iPhone 16’s camera at an object in the real world. Then you can ask ChatGPT to explain what you’re looking at, do a reverse image search to find products and look things up visually, get information on a business as you walk down the street, quickly add events to your calendar and identify plants and animals.

With the release of iOS 18.4, Apple added the capability to use Visual Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro models. Here’s how it works.