How Tos - Page 52

Some third-party iOS apps that you install on iPhone and iPad try to use tracking mechanisms that track your behavior across various apps and websites. Happily, in iOS 14 and later, Apple forces such apps to ask for your permission first. Apps that use these tracking mechanisms will show a popup asking you to enable tracking features, which are used for targeted advertising, data collection, ...

In iOS 14, Apple allows you to limit the level of access that third-party apps have to the photos library on your iPhone or iPad. When apps that ask permission to access your photos, you can now choose to give access to your entire photo library or just a few photos at a time, which is useful if you don't want social networks like Facebook or Instagram seeing your entire camera roll. If...

In iOS 14 and later, your iPhone or iPad can use a different MAC address with each Wi-Fi network to prevent network operators from tracking your phone across different WiFi networks. To communicate with a Wi-Fi network, a device has to identify itself to the network with a unique network address called a media access control (MAC) address. If your iOS device always uses the same Wi-Fi MAC...

One of the smaller improvements that Apple made in iOS 14 is the ability for users to enhance audio recordings made in the Voice Memos app. The new Enhance Recording option is a one-touch feature that attempts to improve the quality of your recording. It does this by using machine learning to remove potentially unwanted sounds such as background noise and echoing. Think of it as the audio...

Family Setup is an Apple Watch feature in watchOS 7 that's designed to allow parents to set up Apple Watches for their children without them needing to own an iPhone as well. ‌Family Setup‌ is mainly aimed at families with children, but it can also be used to set up an Apple Watch for an older adult or anyone else who doesn't have an ‌iPhone‌ but wants to take advantage of the health and...

In watchOS 7, Apple introduced Family Setup, a new feature that allows users to pair additional watches to their iPhone for children or older members of their household who don't have their own iPhones. An associated feature of ‌Family Setup‌, called "Schooltime," allows parents and guardians to remotely turn on Do Not Disturb on kids' watches and display a special watch face with restricted...

Apple this morning announced a second 2020 event, which is set to take place on Tuesday, October 13 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time through a livestream. Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhone 12 lineup and we could also see the launch of rumored products like the AirTags, smaller HomePod, AirPods Studio, and Apple Silicon Macs. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. There ...

If you have an Apple Watch, chances are you've spent some time customizing your watch faces. Apple lets you adjust colors, choose complications, and select backgrounds so you can get watch to look just how you like, and you can share your personalized watch faces with others, too. The ability to share watch faces with other people is a fun addition because it means you can impress your...

In iOS 14, Apple overhauled widgets and introduced an option for adding widgets to the Home Screen, but in the process, a well-loved Favorites widget that existed in iOS 13 was removed. The Favorites widget allowed users to set certain contacts and contact methods as favorites that were easily accessible, so you could, for example, add a favorite option for messaging Eric or calling Dan,...

Apple in watchOS 7 introduced a new Memoji app, which can be used to create the personalized Memoji characters that Apple first introduced in 2018, with the Memoji app available on the Apple Watch Series 4 and later. Creating a Memoji can be done in just a few minutes, and all of the same creation options that are available on iPhone and iPad are available on Apple Watch. Open the...

Apple in watchOS 7 introduced a new Memoji and Animoji watch face that lets you display an Animoji or custom-created Memoji on your wrist. The Memoji watch face is available on the Apple Watch Series 4 and later. Enable the Memoji Watch Face on Apple Watch Long press on the display of the Apple Watch. Scroll all the way to the left and tap on the "+" button to add a new watch face. ...

Apple in September 2020 issued an update for AirPods and some Beats-branded headphones that allows them to automatically switch between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac depending on which device you want to listen to. For example, if you’re listening to another device with your AirPods but you want to listen to your ‌iPhone‌ instead, start playing music, a podcast, or other audio on your ‌iPhone‌,...

Spatial audio is a sonic feature exclusive to AirPods Pro and AirPods Max that adds surround sound to Apple's premium audio wearables. By utilizing dynamic head tracking, it brings a theater-like audio experience to the movie or video you're watching, so that it seems as if the sound is coming from all around you. Spatial audio uses the gyroscope and accelerometer in your ‌‌AirPods Pro‌ or...

With the unveiling of Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, Apple introduced two new styles of band called the Solo Loop and the Braided Solo Loop. Compatible with Apple Watch Series 4 and later watches, these new bands have no clasp, buckle or other fastener. Instead, they use a single strap of material with a stretchy design that allows them to be pulled on and off your wrist over your hand. ...

Since iOS 14, iPhone users have been able to customize their Home Screen with the help of widgets, which are similar to the widgets available on Android phones. Widgets took a little longer to arrive on iPad, and their use was initially limited to the Today view on the left side of the ‌Home Screen‌. With the release of iPadOS 15, however, widgets can be placed anywhere on the ‌Home Screen‌ of...

Ahead of the release of macOS Big Sur, Apple has released the Safari 14 update for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave users, bringing with it a number of new features and improvements. One of the most dramatic changes is the overhauled Start Page, which now includes a browsing privacy report, iCloud tabs, Siri suggestions, and more. It also features several customizable options, such as the...

In iOS 14, Apple added a Picture in Picture mode on iPhone that lets you watch a video in a small screen on your device while you continue to do other things on the phone. Picture in Picture mode doesn't work in the YouTube app, although it was possible to watch videos in Picture in Picture on YouTube's mobile website through Safari until YouTube intentionally nixed the workaround last...

Since iOS 14, Apple has enabled new widgets to be used on the Home screens of iPhones and iPads. You can now customize the look of your Home screen, with hundreds of options to choose from. One popular widget is the Photos widget, used to display a photo from your library on your home screen. The ‌Photos‌ widget is from Apple's stock ‌Photos‌ app, and it is available in three sizes. The photo...

In watchOS 7, Apple introduced Family Setup, a new feature that allows users to pair additional watches to their iPhone for children or older members of their household who don't have their own iPhones. An associated feature of ‌Family Setup‌, called "Schooltime," allows parents and guardians to remotely turn on Do Not Disturb on kids' watches and display a special watch face with restricted...

Sometimes you might not want certain pictures shot on your iPhone or iPad to be visible in your Photo Library, but for whatever reason, you might not want to outright delete them either. That's why Apple's Photos app includes an option to hide certain photos from the main library. Prior to iOS 14, this option would hide pictures from the ‌Photos‌ and For You sections of the ‌Photos‌ app, but...