Pro Tips - page 4

Change your Apple Watch Move goal to stay fit during lockdown [Pro tip]

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Increasing your Move goal can help you be even more active.
Photo: Apple

Pro-tip-4You might need to exercise a little more if you hope to stay fit while stuck at home for most of the day during a global pandemic. Give yourself a little push by increasing your Move goal on Apple Watch.

It’s easy to do, and if you’re one of the many Apple Watch owners who likes to complete their Move goal every day, it will help you burn a few additional calories to make up for spending most of the day on the couch.

Pro tip: Adjust mouse and trackpad scroll speed in iPadOS

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Make using a mouse with iPad even better.
GIF: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple’s default mouse and trackpad settings in iPadOS might work great with the company’s own accessories, but they can be less than ideal with third-party peripherals. Scroll speed, in particular, seems very temperamental.

Unfortunately, Apple decided it would be a good idea to hide away those scroll speed settings, so a lot of users have no idea they can be adjusted. Here’s where you can find them on iPad.

This one trick will make the Apple News app way better

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Scrolling Apple News on iPhone
Scrolling Apple News doesn't have to be about ignoring dozens of articles.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Ever since its launch, people have mostly been dismissive about Apple News on iPhone, iPad and Mac. One big reason is the way it interacts with links on the web, boxing users into the News app instead of letting them visit the open web.

For me, that’s actually a pretty desirable thing, because I really like the News app. It’s much cleaner-looking than many ad-bloated websites, and far less emotional and combative than getting your news on social media.

But making the News app show you the things you care about, with less clutter and noise, requires one simple trick.

Pro Tip: Your Apple USB-C headphone adapter works anywhere

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USB-C headphone adapter
The dongle works pretty much anywhere.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip: This to-do list hack turns your tasks into questions If you own a 2018 iPad Pro, you probably also bought Apple’s USB-C-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter, just so you can plug headphones into your $1,000-plus computer. But what if you want to do something totally crazy like, I don’t know, listen to music and charge the iPad at the same time? Or, given that this a pro machine, maybe you want to hook up a MIDI piano keyboard, or other gear, and use headphones at the same time?

Tough luck, right? No! If you have any old USB-C hub or dock, you can plug Apple’s cheap little dongle into the hub itself. Check it out.

Access your App Store updates from the iOS 13 Home screen [Pro Tip]

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iOS 13 app updates
The quickest way to see your app updates in iOS 13.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Pro Tip: This to-do list hack turns your tasks into questions iOS 13 did away with the old Updates tab in the App Store, and replaced it with Apple Arcade. That’s pretty bad news if you don’t want to use Apple Arcade. But on the plus side, you can access your app updates from the Home screen using 3D Touch. And the good news is that, in iOS 13, you can also use this trick on the iPad.

Pro Tip: This to-do list hack turns your tasks into questions

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Question mark to list trick
Rephrase your tasks as questions.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip: This to-do list hack turns your tasks into questions How many times have you stared at the same list of stale tasks on your to-do list? I have whole sections that have been there so long they’ve become invisible to me —- just like the sign in by bathroom telling guests to sit down to pee has become invisible to certain of my antisocial visitors.

Now, today’s tip isn’t going to help you to finish off those lingering tasks. You may as well just delete them, because you’re never, ever going to complete them. But it might help you rescue newly added tasks from the same stagnant fate. It’s called the “question mark to-do list trick”, and so far it’s working for me.

Pro Tip: How to reveal the Files sidebar in portrait view

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Files may be clunky, but it's better than this.
Files may be clunky, but it's better than this.
Photo: Phil Roeder/Flickr CC

Cult of Mac Pro Tip: How to reveal the Files sidebar in portrait view This is a simple tip, but until I worked it out it was driving me crazy. In landscape orientation, the iPad Files app’s sidebar is always present, making it easy to get to any favorite folder, location or label, pretty much instantly.

In portrait, though, the sidebar disappears. However, there are two easy ways to make it come back, neither of which involves tapping the back arrow until you arrive at the root level of iCloud Drive.

Yes, you can use the 2018 iPad Pro as a fridge magnet

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You can attach iPad Pro to a refrigerator thanks to magnets. But don't try this at home.
Don’t try this at home. Or at the office. Or anywhere, really.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The new 2018 iPad Pro has a lot of magnets inside. There are around 90 of them on the back of it alone, just to stick it to the Smart Keyboard Folio or the ridiculously priced new Smart Folio cover, according to tests done by Pocket Lint. But those magnets are also great for sticking the iPad Pro to a refrigerator door like a giant fridge magnet.

Pro Tip: How to activate Tweetbot 5’s hidden themes

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Gotta activate 'em all.
Tweetbot 5 themes: Gotta activate 'em all.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bug Tweetbot 5 for iOS adds some nice modern features, including a dark theme that looks great on OLED screens. There’s also an awful, creepy new icon.

But that’s not why we’re here today. The iPhone’s best Twitter app also packs a whole bunch of secret, hidden themes for you to choose from. Here’s how to activate them.

Pro Tip: Make Siri STFU for once

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Tell Siri to put a sock in it mute siri
Tell Siri to put a sock in it.
Photo: murielle29/Flickr CC

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bug Despite its many flaws, Siri is still useful for lots of tasks: Setting a coffee timer, adding a reminder, looking up a fact. But what I almost never want is Siri’s voice feedback.

Usually I’m looking at my iPhone when I use Siri, and I don’t use Hey Siri ever. What I want is to ask Siri a question, and have it answer, without all the usual smart-mouthed nonsense. Thankfully, there’s one setting that does just that: Mute Siri.

Pro Tip: Instant Markup gets way better in iOS 12

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This is how it feels to use iOS 12's new Markup tools
This is how it feels to use iOS 12's new Markup tools
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bug iOS 12 doesn’t really have any huge new standout features. It’s more a collection of really solid improvements to iOS 11. It sounds odd to say that my favorite new feature is Do Not Disturb during Bedtime, but it’s made a big difference in how I use my iPhone.

Likewise with today’s Pro Tip. iOS markup for screenshots, PDFs and Photos was already good, but new options for the pen tools make it great.