How Tos

On iPhone, listening to YouTube audio in the background usually requires paying for a YouTube Premium subscription, but there is a simple workaround that allows you to keep listening to a video when you are doing other things on your ‌iPhone‌ or when your device is locked. Keep reading to learn how it's done. As YouTube has grown in popularity over the years, Google has opted to park several...

In macOS Sonoma 14.2, Apple included some additional controls for Shazam music recognition, which is now baked into the Mac operating system more than ever. Here's how to add the functionality to your Mac's menu bar and Control Center. For those unfamiliar with Shazam, it's an Apple-owned popular service that can identify the names and lyrics of songs, music videos, TV shows, and more,...

Apple's Music app in macOS Sonoma now includes an option to prevent favorited songs from being automatically added to your library. Here's how to use it. In ‌macOS Sonoma‌ 14.2, a new option included in the Music app enables you to stop favorited songs (and in many cases whole albums) from being automatically added to your music library. It gives you more control over your music collection...

In iOS 17.2, Siri can access data from the Health app, meaning you can ask ‌Siri‌ to read health information available in the Health app or write certain information. Keep reading to learn how it works. Starting with iOS 17.2, ‌Siri‌ can access data from the Health app to answer your health and fitness queries. For example, you can ask how many hours of sleep you had the previous night, ask...

In watchOS 10.2, you can enable a swipe gesture to switch between Apple Watch faces more easily, just like you used to be able to in watchOS 9. Keep reading to learn how it's done. If you are a long-time Apple Watch user, you probably remember a time when it was possible to switch watch faces with a simple swipe gesture across the display. That was the default interaction in watchOS 9, but...

Overcome communication barriers with the new custom Translation option for the iPhone's Action button in iOS 17.2. Keep reading to learn how to use it. If you have an ‌iPhone‌ with an Action button, such as the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple's iOS 17.2 software update brings a new translation option for the button that allows you to translate live conversations into multiple languages. According to...

Apple's Music app on iPhone now includes an option to prevent favorited songs from being automatically added to your library. Here's how to use it. In iOS 17.2, a new option included in the update enables you to stop favorited songs (and in many cases whole albums) from being automatically added to your music library. It gives you more control over your music collection by ensuring that...

In iOS 17.2, Apple has improved the reliability of emergency alerts on iPhone. Keep reading to understand what's changed. Apple has designed its mobile operating system so that you can receive emergency, government, and public safety alerts on your ‌iPhone‌. In the event of an emergency, depending on your location, your ‌iPhone‌ can display the following: Alerts issued by your country or...

Apple in iOS 17 added inline predictive text for iPhones, but did not include a way to turn it off independently of predictive suggestions above the keyboard. In the latest iOS 17.2 update, that's changed. Apple has improved its machine learning technology on iPhones in an effort to make iOS a lot more helpful, and one of the features in which this tech has been deployed is inline...

Apple introduced its long-awaited Journal app for iPhone in iOS 17.2. Apple's Journal app lets you record your daily thoughts and activities, incorporating data like photos, music listened to, workouts, and more, plus it suggests topics to write about. However, if you don't find the suggestions useful, you can turn them off. By default, the Journal app will suggest recent and recommended...

Apple introduced its long-awaited Journal app for iPhone in iOS 17.2. Apple's Journal app lets you record your daily thoughts and activities, incorporating data like photos, music listened to, workouts, and more. You can also set up a journaling schedule. Here's how it's done. Staying consistent with journaling can be difficult, but your ‌iPhone‌ can make it a lot easier with the new Journal...

In iOS 17.2, Apple lets you customize the alert tone used by your iPhone for default notifications. This is good news for anyone who does not like the "Rebound" tone that Apple introduced in iOS 17. In previous versions of iOS, Apple allowed users to choose a ring tone and a text tone, as well as custom alert sounds for email, calendar, and reminder alerts. Anything else that threw up...

Apple introduced its long-awaited Journal app for iPhone in iOS 17.2. Here is everything you need to know about using Journal. Apple in June 2023 announced it was bringing its own journaling app to iOS 17, and it is finally here as part of Apple's December software update, iOS 17.2. Apple's Journal app lets you record your daily thoughts and activities, incorporating data like photos,...

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 17.2 allows you to record spatial video for viewing in the Photos app on Apple's forthcoming Vision Pro headset. Here's how you can do it. Apple's Vision Pro headset is expected to be released around March 2024. Until then, one way you can prepare for it is to use your iPhone to record videos in a special format called spatial video that ...

An increasing number of iPhone users are reporting a persistent iOS 17 bug that causes the app switcher to suddenly appear when they are typing on the screen. If you have experienced this frustrating issue, you are not alone. Apple Community forums and Reddit contain similar reports of people being kicked out of Messages, Notes, and other apps mid-sentence only to find themselves in another ...

AirPods Pro and AirPods Pro 2 feature Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), which is designed to adapt to the shape of your ear and block out the outside world so you can focus on what you're listening to. ANC is typically used when you have both AirPods in, but there is a way to use it when you're wearing just a single AirPod. The feature fully realizes its design aims when both AirPods are in...

Apple's Magic Keyboard combines a sleek design with a stable scissor mechanism beneath each key and a built-in rechargeable battery that's charged via the supplied Lightning to USB Cable, meaning you don't have to mess about with replacing AA batteries. The built-in battery is very long-lasting, and should power your keyboard for about a month or more between charges. If you're unsure how...

Apple's stock Notes app has come a long way since it first appeared on Mac, with password protection, tables, and document scanning being just a few of the top features it has gained in recent years. These and other improvements offer compelling reasons to migrate from a rival note-taking platform, especially if you've been paying for the privilege. Evernote users in particular may feel...

WhatsApp has rolled out a new option that lets users on iPhone share photos and video over the messaging platform in their original quality. Here's how it works and how to use it. Previously, WhatsApp users could only send media in high resolution or "HD quality." But while that is a welcome improvement that addressing the service's low quality media sharing limitation, it still involves...

Next time you're on a flight with someone and you both want to watch a video on your Mac without disturbing other passengers, try this convenient solution for sharing your Mac's audio among two pairs of headphones. The method described below should work regardless of whether you're using one wired pair and one wireless pair of headphones, two pairs of Bluetooth headphones, or even several...