How Tos

With the launch of iOS 14.4, Apple added a new feature for the HomePod mini that's designed to provide haptic feedback when your iPhone 11 or 12 is near the speaker to facilitate the simpler handing off of songs from one device to another. When moving your iPhone closer to a ‌HomePod mini‌ after installing the iOS 14.4 update, the ‌iPhone‌ vibrates quicker and quicker as it gets closer to the...

The HomePod and the HomePod mini are designed to automatically adjust the volume of the Siri assistant based on the level of noise in the room, but you can also verbally adjust ‌Siri‌'s volume level separately from the volume level of the media that's playing. This how to walks you through the commands that you need to specifically adjust ‌Siri‌'s volume as needed. How to Change ‌Siri‌'s Volume ...

Anyone who has ever attempted to open a link to popular social networking site Reddit has probably run into the website's annoying popup that prompts the link to open in the app rather than letting you see the website. These popups are frustrating, but luckily there's a quick and easy way to disable them once and for all in the Reddit settings. Here's how: Open the Reddit app in Safari. ...

Despite strong competition from the likes of Telegram and Signal, WhatsApp remains the most popular messaging platform by a mile. At the last count in 2020, the Facebook-owned service had more than 2 billion WhatsApp users around the globe and rising. If you consider that it had 1.5 billion users in 2018 and 1 billion in 2016, then the number of active WhatsApp accounts has been increasing...

Apple in the iOS 14.5 beta added a new option to change the default music player, a feature that will undoubtedly be appealing to non-Apple Music fans. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Changing music defaults has not yet been fully fleshed out, but if you're a beta user that prefers third-party music services, you can get them set as the Siri default after updating...

Quite often when browsing the web in Safari, you'll see pop-ups asking you for permission for websites to use data about you, such as your location. There can be good reasons for this – if you're searching for local information such as the nearest grocery store or restaurant, then it makes sense for you to share your location data to get the most relevant results for your area. On the other ...

This article covers a new beta option in iOS that lets you unlock an iPhone with Face ID and an Apple Watch paired together, even if you're wearing a face mask. Read on to learn how it works. Apple introduced its Face ID facial recognition system in November 2017 with the launch of the ‌iPhone‌ X, offering users an even simpler way to unlock their smartphone than traditional fingerprint...

If you need replacement ear cushions for your AirPods Max either due to damage to the existing cushion or to have another color option, there's good news -- as of January, Apple is selling replacements. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. How to Buy New Ear Cushions Ear cushions can be purchased from Apple's online site for $69, and that price point includes both the...

Over 100 million new users joined encrypted messaging app Telegram in January 2021. The stunning growth in the platform's user base was linked to an exodus from rival chat app WhatsApp, which concerned many of its users with a confusing privacy policy update that seemed to imply that more of their data would be shared with Facebook. WhatsApp tried to deal with the fallout by clarifying that...

Since iOS 14.4 was released for iPhone and iPad, Apple has included an option for users to specify the Bluetooth accessories they connect with pre-defined individual labels. Not only does the feature help with identifying connected devices and improve audio notifications, Apple says that classifying Bluetooth accessories can ensure that headphone audio level measurements are accurate....

Signal Encrypted Messenger has become increasingly popular among smartphone users, thanks above all else to its emphasis on privacy and security. Signal chats are end-to-end encrypted, meaning no one – not even the Signal service – can see the messages that you send and receive to other users. In addition, Signal supports the creation of group chats, and like regular conversations in the...

Time to Walk is a feature for Apple Fitness+ subscribers that offers audio stories from influential people that Apple Watch users can listen to with AirPods or other wireless headphones while walking. During Time to Walk episodes, you can listen to stories from guests, hear songs they've chosen, and see photos that are meaningful to them on your Apple Watch. The following explains how Time...

Apple's built-in Translate app is a useful way to translate to and from supported languages, and also to hold conversations with people who speak different languages. When you've finished with a translation, you may be wondering if there's a way to clear it or to delete your translation history, and the good news is that yes, Apple has a built-in delete function. There is no way to delete ...

Apple Watch models are available in 40mm and 44mm sizes to compensate for different wrist shapes and to offer customers the choice of a smaller or bigger screen. Whichever model size you go for, both feature clear and bright OLED screens that are designed to display text as clearly as possible. However, if you're longsighted or you regularly suffer from eyestrain, no amount of backlighting...

Apple Watch models are available in 40mm and 44mm sizes to compensate for different wrist shapes and to offer customers the choice of a smaller or bigger screen. Whichever model size you go for, both feature clear and bright high-resolution OLED screens that are designed to display text as clearly as possible. On the other hand, if you're longsighted or you regularly suffer from eyestrain,...

Encrypted messaging app Signal features a face-blurring feature that automatically locates and blurs faces in images shared over the chat platform. It's a neat tool to help protect the privacy of the people in the photos you share, and all processing involved in the blur feature happens locally on the device to maintain privacy. Not only does it make it easy to give every face a hiding...

Apple's Messages app offers one of the most convenient ways of having a text-based conversation with your contacts on iPhone and iPad, but messages aren't the only things you can send and receive. Apple's iMessage service enables all manner of files and attachments to be shared, such as photos, links, documents, audio messages, and more. Files that are sent to you can of course be accessed...

In macOS Big Sur, Apple includes a feature that will be familiar to Windows users, called Fast User Switching. As the name suggests, it lets you switch user accounts quickly and easily, without having to log out or restart your Mac. As you'd expect, multiple user accounts are kept completely separate, and backgrounded accounts still require user authentication to switch between them. So if...

Shazam is an Apple-owned popular service that can identify the names and lyrics of songs, music videos, TV shows, and more, simply by listening to and deciphering whatever is playing. After you've identified songs in the Shazam app by pressing the big Shazam button, you can use streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music to listen to them. In this article, we're going to show you how to ...

This article explains how to control the Active Noise Cancellation feature on Apple's AirPods Max headphones. Bear in mind that iOS devices need to be running iOS 14.3 or later in order to support ‌‌AirPods Max‌. You can check that your device is updated by launching the Settings app and going to General -> Software Update. What is the Active Noise Cancellation Feature on ‌AirPods Max‌?...