The latest version of Apple's "Hey Siri" feature works hands-free without being plugged into power, and it can be found in several recently announced Apple mobile products, including the fifth-generation iPad mini, third-generation iPad Air, and second-generation AirPods. What's perhaps less well-known is that many of Apple's new Macs also support "Hey Siri" hands-free, meaning that users no longer have to click the menu bar icon or press a keyboard shortcut before they can start talking to the digital assistant. What follows is a list of Macs that support "Hey Siri" hands-free, and below that you can find instructions on how to enable it on your machine. Note that future Mac models that include Apple's T2 security chip are likely to support the feature, too. MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018) iMac Pro How to Enable "Hey Siri" hands-free on a Mac Click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Preferences.... Click the Siri icon in the preference pane. Tick the checkbox next to Listen for "Hey Siri". Click Continue to follow the Siri setup process, repeating verbally the commands shown on the screen. Click Done and then close the preference pane.Now that you've enabled the feature, simply say "Hey Siri" to invoke the digital assistant and ask a question or give a command. If you're familiar with the Siri function on iPhone or iPad, you should find most of the same general commands work on Mac, too. For more information on how the

In April 2019, Google announced the launch of a free, ad-supported version of its YouTube Music streaming service for use with Google Home and other smart speakers that feature its voice-activated assistant. Essentially, the free streaming tier means that you can listen to songs from the YouTube Music catalog, interspersed with occasional ads, on your Google Home or other Google Assistant-powered speaker right out of the box. With YouTube Music and Google Home, you can ask Google Home to play the right music for any moment or mood, and YouTube Music will play a station customized to your tastes based upon your request. So you could say, for example, "Hey Google, play music for working out," and your speaker will fill the room with some upbeat tunes. At the time of writing, free, ad-supported YouTube Music is available on smart speakers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, and Austria. Google is also working to make the service available in more countries. To enable free, ad-based YouTube Music on your smart speaker, simply follow these steps. Launch the Google Home app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Tap the account Settings option on the app's main Home screen. Scroll down and tap Music. Tap YouTube Music to link the streaming service to your smart speaker and make it your default music provider.That's all there is to it. If you have an Echo device instead of a Google Home device, you can listen to Amazon's new free music service

After previously only existing as an "Easter Egg" setting, Facebook in April 2019 added a Dark Mode theme as an official display feature of its standalone Messenger app. Facebook says that Dark Mode is designed to provide less harsh brightness in situations where ambient lighting is lower while maintaining contrast and vibrancy. If you have an OLED iPhone, such as an iPhone X, iPhone XS, or iPhone XS Max, enabling Dark Mode can also conserve battery life, since black pixels in an OLED panel basically switch off and consume far less power. Enabling Dark Mode in Facebook Messenger is easy – simply follow the steps below. Launch the standalone Messenger app on your iPhone. Tap your profile picture in the top-left corner of the screen. Toggle the Dark mode switch to the green ON position. And that's all there is to it. If you don't see the Dark Mode switch in the settings menu, try force-quitting the iPhone app and launch it again, then follow the steps above.

Your Apple ID account is used for so many things you can do with Apple devices and services, such as shop on the iTunes Store, sign in to iCloud, buy apps on the App Store, and more. If you forget your Apple ID password, all is not lost. Apple has a website that you can use to manage your Apple ID and reset your password at appleid.apple.com. The rest of this article shows you how you can also perform steps on your Mac and iOS devices to reset your password and regain access to your account. You can use these steps if you just want to change your password to something else for security reasons, too. Before we go on, it's important to note that the following steps for Mac and iOS assume you have two-factor authentication enabled for your Apple ID. If you don't have 2FA enabled, click these corresponding links to take you to the section explaining how to reset your Apple ID password if you're using SMS-based two-factor verification, or if you have email, password and security questions set up for your account. What if You Forgot Your Apple ID? To reset your password, you need to know the email address for your Apple ID. If you've forgotten it, there are a few ways to find it on your Mac. One way is to click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen, select System Preferences..., then click iCloud. Assuming you're logged in to iCloud, you should see your email address below your name. Another way is to open iTunes, then choose Account -> View My Account. If you're signed in to iTunes with your Apple ID, you'll see your account name

As the admin account holder on a Mac, you have the ability to create and manage other user accounts including whether they have restrictions imposed via parental controls. The following steps show you how to disable parental controls for an existing account. Note that by turning off parental controls you are essentially allowing the person with access to that account to use your Mac without restrictions, so they'll be able to browse any website, use any apps, and change settings for things like scanners and printers, for example. With that in mind, here's how it's done. How to Disable Parental Controls Click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Preferences.... Click Users & Groups. Click the lock in the lower left corner of the window. Type in your admin password if prompted. Click Unlock. Select an account in the column on the left. Click the box next to Enable parental controls to uncheck it. Click the lock in the lower left corner of the window to secure your changes and finish.If you want to enable parental controls, or turn them back on, make sure to check out our how to that walks you through enabling them.

As the admin account holder on a Mac, you have the ability to create and manage other user accounts including whether they have restrictions imposed via parental controls. When it comes to setting up multiple accounts with parental controls, you can save time by copying restrictions from one user account to another. Follow the steps to learn how it's done. Click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Preferences.... Select the Parental Controls icon in the preference pane. Click the lock in the lower left corner of the window. Enter your admin password if prompted and click Unlock. Select the user account that you want to copy restrictions from. Next, click the cog icon at the bottom of the accounts column and then select Copy Settings for "[name of account]". Select the user account to whom you want to apply the copied settings. Now, click the cog icon again and select Paste Settings for "[name of account]". Lastly, click the lock in the lower left corner of the window to secure your changes and finish.For managing parental controls and setting them up initially, make sure to check out our dedicated parental controls how to

macOS features powerful parental controls that, once enabled, allow you to monitor and restrict the time your children spend on your Mac, ensuring they enjoy a safe and secure experience. You can set up custom parental controls for each child who will be using your Mac by adding separate user accounts. Alternatively you can set up a guest account for anyone to use, but with parental controls enabled. The below steps show you how to add a new named account to macOS with parental controls. If you want to turn on parental controls for an existing user account, check out our separate how-to article which guides you through the process. How to Create a User Account With Parental Controls Click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Preferences.... Click Users & Groups. Click the lock in the lower left corner of the window. Type in your admin password if prompted. Click Unlock. Click the plus (+) at the bottom left of the account column to add a user account. In the New Account dropdown, select Managed with Parental Controls, then fill in the account fields, including a new verified password. Click Create User.Note that if you select the new user account in the side column, the box next to Enable parental controls is checked. To disable parental controls for this account at any time, simply uncheck the box. For more details on managing the restrictions associated with parental controls, click here

Setting up a guest account on your Mac provides a simple and convenient way for other people to use your computer without handing them access to your private data and digital workspace. Essentially, a guest account allows a friend, family member or co-worker to perform basic computing tasks on your Mac while ensuring that your personal data and account settings remain private and secure. Anyone using a guest account with full privileges has access to your Public and Desktop folders (located in Users/[Username]/), where they can save files, but everything else on the system remains inaccessible. Moreover, a guest account is temporary, meaning once the user logs out, all their information and files are deleted, thereby preserving their privacy and your storage space. With that in mind, here's how to set up a guest account in macOS. How to Create a Guest Account Click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Preferences.... Click Users & Groups. Click the lock in the lower left corner of the window. Type in your admin password if prompted. Click Unlock. Click Guest User. Click the checkbox alongside Allow guests to log into the computer.Using Parental Controls for a Guest Account Following the above steps, you may have noticed that you can optionally set up a guest account with parental controls by ticking the associated checkbox. While many of these settings are aimed at restricting what children can do, there are a few options that may come in handy for limiting guest users of any age. For

With an Apple News+ subscription, you can download magazines for offline reading, but Apple doesn't provide an easy way to see what's downloaded and what's not. You can tell on an individual magazine basis by checking to see if a download icon (cloud and arrow) is available, but there's no section in Apple News+ for managing offline content. You can, however, still check to see what's downloaded, though you'll need to turn off your WiFi and LTE to do so. Open up the Control Center on your iPhone or iPad. Tap on the Airplane Mode icon to disable WiFi and your cellular connection if using an LTE iPad. Open up the Apple News app. Tap on the Apple News+ section. Let it load. When the Apple News+ section is done loading whatever content is available, you'll see a list of all of the magazines that have been downloaded for offline reading. You can tap on any one of the magazines that you've downloaded to read it, and to download more, simply turn WiFi and LTE back on. For more on Apple News+, make sure to check out our dedicated Apple News+ guide. Apple News users can follow MacRumors on Apple News using this link.

Apple News+ includes a feature that lets you download your favorite magazines for offline reading so you can check them out even when you don't have a WiFi or cellular connection, such as while on a flight. Here's how to do it: Open up Apple News+ on iPhone or iPad. Choose a magazine, either from your My Magazines list, the search feature in Apple News, or the browse feature in the Apple News+ section. Tap on the download icon underneath the magazine's title. It looks like a little cloud with an arrow through it. Tapping on the download icon will make the magazine available to read offline. You can use the browse feature or the My Magazines feature to add current issues for offline reading, but make sure to use the search feature or tap a magazine's name when reading it to go to the main overview that will let you download past magazine issues. For more on Apple News+, make sure to check out our dedicated Apple News+ guide. Apple News users can follow MacRumors on Apple News using this link.

The Apple News+ service lets you access current and past issues of more than 200 magazines, but the interface for the app is a bit confusing and it can be hard to find past issues. There are a couple methods that will let you see back issues of magazines, which we've outlined below. Accessing Back Issues Through a Magazine's Overview Page Every magazine has an overview page in Apple News+, and though it's not immediately obvious, it's easy to get to. Open up Apple News. Select the Apple News+ section. Tap on any magazine that you want to read. Tap on the title of the magazine at the top of the app. This method will let you see the overview page for the magazine, where all back issues are listed. You can swipe to scroll through them and tap the download icon to download them for offline reading. Accessing Back Issues Through Search You can get to the same magazine overview page through the search function in Apple News, without having to open up a magazine. Open Apple News. Access search. On iPad, it's on the sidebar. On iPhone, it's under the "Following" tab. Search for the magazine you want to find. Tap the magazine's name. All of the back issues for the magazine will be listed under "Recent Issues," and you can swipe through them as mentioned above. While Texture users had issues dating back years, Apple News+ is limited to issues of magazines from March 2018 on, which is the date when Apple acquired the Texture app. Back issues before March 2018 are not available within Apple News+, but going forward, Apple will

macOS features powerful parental controls that, once enabled, allow you to monitor and restrict the time your children spend on your Mac, ensuring they enjoy a safe and secure experience. You can set up custom parental controls for each child who will be using your Mac by adding separate user accounts. Alternatively, you can set up a guest account with parental controls enabled. The below steps show you how to turn on parental controls for an existing user account. To create a new user account on your Mac with parental controls, check out our separate how-to article on the subject. How to Turn on macOS Parental Controls for an Existing User Account Click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Preferences.... Click Users & Groups. Click the lock in the lower left corner of the window. Type in your admin password if prompted and click Unlock. Select a user account in the side column and then tick the checkbox next to Enable parental controls. Click the lock again in the lower left corner of the window to secure your changes and finish.Once parental controls are enabled, you can manage them in System Preferences and do things like create a whitelist of allowed apps and websites, set time limits based on a schedule, and even prevent users from changing the settings of peripherals like printers and scanners. For details on setting up parental controls, make sure to check out our how to.

If you want to give your children or other people access to your Mac, then it's worth familiarizing yourself with the user account restrictions available to you as administrator when you enable parental controls. In macOS, Apple includes the ability to manage various levels of restrictions for individual user accounts. So if for example your children use your Mac, it's easy to control individual access based on their age. But while many of these settings are aimed at restricting what children can do, there are several options that may come in handy for limiting users of any age. For example, you can create a whitelist of allowed apps and websites, set time limits based on a schedule, and even prevent users from changing the settings of peripherals like printers and scanners. Follow the links to learn how to set up a guest account or set up a user account with parental controls enabled, and then meet us back here to learn how to manage the restrictions available to you. How to Manage Restrictions in Parental Controls Click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Preferences.... Select the Parental Controls preferences pane. Click the lock in the lower left corner of the window. Enter your admin password if prompted and click Unlock. Select the user account that you want to set restrictions for from the column on the left.Following the above steps brings you to a number of restriction options that you can manage by clicking the associated tab. A summary of the various options follows. Apps: This menu

If you plan to give away, sell, or trade in your Mac, the first thing you should do is erase the data on it and perform a factory reset. This article shows you how. First, Back Up Your Data Before you do anything, you should back up the files on your Mac. You could do this manually by copying across files onto an external drive. If you use iCloud, your photos, mail, contacts, documents, and so on should be automatically backed up in cloud storage. However, we highly recommend that you take the time to perform a Time Machine backup of your system using an external drive. That way, the same backup volume can be used by Apple's Migration Assistant during a macOS installation to quickly transfer your applications, files and settings from the old Mac to a new one. Check out our dedicated guide on how to back up your Mac using Time Machine. Unlink your Apps There are certain apps that will need to be manually unlinked from your Mac before you say goodbye to it. Some third-party apps require licenses that only work on a limited number of computers, so think about any licenses you may have purchased. Similarly, you should de-authorize your iTunes account on the Mac, as this removes its access to content that you bought from the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, or App Store, including things like music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books. To learn how to de-authorize your iTunes account, check out our dedicated guide. Sign Out of iCloud It's also important to disable Find My Mac and sign out of iCloud in macOS. That way you'll know for sure there isn't

Apple News+ includes a full subscription to all content from The Wall Street Journal, but because Apple restricts the WSJ articles that are shown in Apple News+, it can be hard to access certain paywalled content. Luckily, a Reddit user recently shared a useful solution that gives you a straightforward way to read any WSJ article on your iPhone or iPad, though you'll need to use Safari to get to content. Find a paywalled article on The Wall Street Journal that you want to read using your Apple News+ subscription. Tap on the "Share" icon at the top of the browser. Make sure to tap the share icon native to Safari, and not the one in the article itself. Choose the "Open in News" option. That's all you have to do. Once you tap "Open in News," the full article from The Wall Street Journal is accessible and can be read in its entirety through your included Apple News+ subscription. There's also the option of searching for the title of an article that you want to read, though that's a bit more of a hassle than simply tapping on the share sheet. The Apple News+ section of Apple News and the Apple News app will surface some WSJ content independently, but Apple is sharing general interest stories rather than financial or other content, so this browser workaround method will need to be used for those stories as Apple News+ does not include a WSJ web login. Apple News+ subscribers should also be aware that older content from The Wall Street Journal is only accessible for a period of three days before it is no longer available. The steps listed here for Th

Apple in iOS 12.2 introduced Apple News+, a subscription service that provides access to hundreds of magazines and some paywalled news content for $9.99 per month. Apple has some work to do with the Apple News+ interface, and it's not obvious how to do simple things like add a magazine to "My Magazines" to make sure you receive new issues of your favorites. In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps you need to follow to get a magazine to show up in My Magazines. There are two separate methods you can use to favorite a magazine, including through search or with a magazine you're already reading. While Reading a Magazine With the News+ app on iPhone or iPad, open up the magazine you want to add to My Magazines. Tap on the title of the magazine at the top of the navigation bar. Tap on the icon shaped like a heart. Through Search On iPhone or iPad, search for the name of the magazine that you want to add to favorites. To do so, on iPhone tap on the "Following" tab to get to the search interface and on iPad, open up the side bar and use the search bar at the top. Type in the name of the magazine you want to add to My Magazines. Tap on the heart icon in the search results to add it to My Magazines. Any magazine that you've favorited with a heart will be listed in the My Magazines interface, and new issues will automatically be downloaded for offline reading when available. You'll also be notified whenever a new issue becomes available to read. Note that My Magazines will also show recently read magazines and magazines that you're

Performing a factory reset of your iPhone or iPad is a good idea when it comes to selling the device, giving it away, or taking it to a store for repairs. Resetting an iOS device can also fix certain issues, so it's worth knowing how it's done. But before you reset, you should back up your device. You can back up your data to iCloud, but we'd advise you connect your iPhone up to a computer and perform an iTunes backup instead, just to be sure. You can find steps to back up your iPhone by clicking here. Now that you've backed up your iPhone or iPad, it's time to perform a factory reset of the device. It's a simple procedure, once you know how. The following steps guide you through the process. How to Factory Reset Your iOS Device Unlock your iPhone or iPad and launch the Settings app. Tap General. Scroll to the bottom and tap Reset. Tap Erase All Content and Settings. Tap in your passcode if requested. Enter your Apple ID password to erase the iPhone and remove it from your account. Tap Erase.Allow the reset process to continue – it shouldn't take any longer than a couple of minutes. Once it's completed, you'll see the iOS welcome screen, then you're free to power off the device and sell it, pass it on, take it in for repair, set it up as new, or restore a backup.

In Apple's Home app, you can add your HomeKit accessories to different rooms for organizational purposes. Once you've done that, you can group together similar rooms into zones which allows you to control them all at once, either by room or by zone. Keep reading to learn how it works. How to Add Rooms to the Home App Before you can add rooms to the Home app you need to add some HomeKit accessories to it. Once you've done that, you can follow the steps below to add rooms. Launch the Home app on your iPhone or iPad. Press and hold on an accessory. Tap Settings. Tap Room. Tap Create New and enter the name of your room, or choose from the suggested room names. Tap Done.Once you've assigned a room to an accessory, that room will appear in the above list of available rooms to make it easy to add further devices. You can access rooms you've set up by tapping the Room tab and then tapping the menu button in the top-left of the screen. How to Group Rooms into Zones Grouping rooms together into a zone, like upstairs or downstairs, allows you to control several rooms using a single Siri command. For example, you could simply say "Hey Siri, turn off the lights downstairs" when you're making your way up to bed for the night. Launch the Home app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap the Rooms tab at the bottom of the screen. Tap the menu button in the top-left corner of the screen. Tap Room Settings and then select a room. Tap Zone. Enter the desired name of your zone or choose a suggested name. Tap Done. Repeat steps 3 to 7 to add more rooms to the zone.Organizing

Apple's HomeKit allows you to create home automations for your accessories so that you can have the lights automatically turn off when you leave, for example, or trigger a scene when you unlock the front door. The Home app makes creating these automations simple and allows you to trigger them based on the time of day, your location, motion detection, and more. Before you can create automations, you need to add HomeKit accessories to the Home app. You also need to designate a device as a home hub, which remains powered on and connected at your home when you're away. Click on one of the links below to learn how to set up an Apple device as a home hub. ">Set up HomePod as a HomeKit Home Hub Set up Apple TV as a HomeKit Home Hub Set up iPad as a HomeKit Home Hub Create an Automation for an Accessory Action Launch the Home app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap the Automation tab in the bottom right corner of the screen. Tap the plus (+) button in the top-right corner. Tap An Accessory is Controlled (or tap A Sensor Detects Something, if you have a motion device). Select the accessory that you want to start the automation. Tap Next. Choose the action that triggers the automation, such as if the device turns on or off. (On this screen, you can also choose a time of day when the automation is active, or base it on when someone is home or not.) Tap Next. Select the accessories and/or scenes that are activated in response to the action. Tap Next. Tap Done.These kind of automations are useful if you want to do something like have all of your lights come on when your

Apple's AirPlay 2 brought speaker controls to the Home app, allowing you to individually control all of your AirPlay-compatible speakers from your iPhone or iPad. Keep reading to learn how to add your speakers to the Home app and organize them by room. Before you start adding speakers to the Home app, make sure that your iOS device is running iOS 11.4 or later. You should also check that you've turned on iCloud Keychain on your iPhone or iPad. To do so, launch the Settings app, tap your name in the banner at the top, tap iCloud, then turn on the iCloud Keychain toggle. If you own a HomePod, it should automatically appear in the Home app on your iOS device. You can also add an Apple TV to the Home app as a speaker, so long as it's on the same Wi-Fi network and signed into iCloud with your Apple ID. The following steps show you how to add third-party AirPlay 2 speakers to the Home app. How to Add Speakers to the Home App Apple maintains a section of its website that lists the speakers and receivers that come with AirPlay 2 support. Note that some speakers might require a firmware update or additional setup with the manufacturer's app before the following steps work. Launch the Home app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap the plus (+) button in the top-right corner of the screen. Tap Add Accessory. Tap Don't have a Code or Can't Scan, then tap the speaker you want to add. You may have to wait a moment for it to show up. Wait for your speaker to be added, then give it a name and choose a room where it's located. Tap Done.How to Organize Your Speakers by Room When