How Tos

If you have macOS 13 or later installed on your Mac, you can use a nearby iPhone as your computer's microphone input. Keep reading to learn how it works. When Apple released macOS Ventura in October 2022, it introduced a new take on its Continuity Camera feature by letting users use their iPhone's camera as a webcam for their Mac. Continuity Camera works wirelessly or wired in FaceTime,...

Since Safari 17 and macOS Sonoma, Apple's browser has supported favicons in the Favorites bar. Keep reading to learn why favicons can be useful, how to make space for more, and how you can disable them if they aren't for you. A favicon is a small icon that serves as a kind of badge for a website. Its main purpose is to make it easier to locate the webpage when there are multiple tabs open in ...

Apple's Live Photos, introduced in 2015, are photos that capture 1.5 seconds of video before and after you take a picture, with the aim of adding a little bit of life and movement to still images. Since introducing Live Photos, Apple has added some effects to its Photos app that let you turn them into fun animated clips, which you can then share with family, friends, or the wider world. ...

On Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch SE, and Apple Watch Series 6 and later models running watchOS 9 and newer, you can use the Compass app's Backtrack feature to track your route and then help you retrace your steps in case you get lost. Backtrack uses the GPS on your Apple Watch to create a virtual breadcrumb trail of your route so you don't have to worry about keeping track of where you're...

All Apple Watch models include a stock Calculator app that offers a couple of handy features for working out how much you should tip when eating out and how much each person in a group owes if you're splitting the bill. The two functions can be used together, but if it's just yourself dining out then you can just leave the People field set to 1. The steps below show you how it works....

If you've ever tried entering a complex password on your Apple TV, you know the pain. That default linear keyboard layout has you swiping endlessly left and right, hunting for characters like you're playing some sort of tedious game show. The annoying default keyboard layout on Apple TV Here's a secret that'll save your sanity: You can switch to a grid layout that actually makes sense. Head...

There are several ways you can take screenshots on a Mac. Preview offers the option from its File menu. There's also a little screen capture app in the macOS Utilities folder called Screenshot. But the simplest and most common method is to use your Mac's built-in shortcut key combinations. Taking a screenshot is as easy as hitting Shift-Command-3 to capture the whole screen, or Shift-Command...

In macOS, a handy option called "Show suggested and recent applications in Dock" (found in System Settings ➝ Desktop & Dock) adds a divider to the right-hand side of your Mac's Dock, and after it displays any apps you recently used – or any that macOS thinks may be useful to your workflow – that aren't permanently docked. Assuming that you have no undocked apps that are currently open,...

If your iPhone regularly runs out of battery later in the day, Low Power Mode is one way to make it last longer. You can also make Low Power Mode automatically turn on when your battery reaches a certain custom level. Keep reading to learn how. Most iPhone users are familiar with the way iOS throws up a prompt to turn on Low Power Mode when the battery reaches 20%. Low Power Mode can also be ...

On iPhone and iPad, Apple's screen recording feature records a video of what you're doing on your screen, which is great if you want to capture gameplay, walk someone through a tutorial in an app, demonstrate a bug, or anything else. You can also include a voiceover in screen recordings. Keep reading to learn how. If you're making a screen recording to demonstrate something in iOS, chances...

Introduced in iOS 15, Focus mode is an expansion of Do Not Disturb that allows you to set up different permissions for apps, contacts, and more depending on what you're doing. Apple has since expanded what Focus modes can do with new features, including the ability to activate Low Power Mode on your device when a specific Focus in enabled. Here's how it works. The Focus options now include a ...

Losing your Apple Account password can make your digital life a misery, as it can leave you locked out of the account that you use to manage your Apple devices, unable to access your iCloud data and manage your app and service subscriptions. In this scenario, Apple can't just reset your password for you, especially if your have two-factor authentication enabled. Setting up a recovery key is ...

The Apple TV 4K (second- and third-generation) is capable of relaying audio from a compatible TV to a HomePod – even when you're not using your Apple TV. This allows you to stream audio from a TV-connected game console or other set-top box straight to Apple's smart speakers. Keep reading to learn more and how to set it up. The second- and third-generation Apple TV 4K supports two...

Sometimes when you share a webpage link with someone, you just want to bring their attention to a specific passage or sentence to make your point, rather than have them read through the entire article. In 2020, Google added a function to its Chrome browser called Scroll to Text Fragment (STTF) that helps you achieve this. It allows URLs to link directly to any visible text on a page. You may ...

If you're a Mac user with a Windows PC background, you'll probably know how to use the typical copy and paste commands in macOS. But there's a handy clipboard trick that's worth keeping in mind. In Windows, the Copy and Paste key combinations are Control-C and Control-V, respectively. On the Mac, it's very similar – all you do is use the Command (⌘) key instead of Control. But did you...

Remotely controlling the shutter on your iPhone's camera lets you include yourself in the photo while avoiding the limitations of a selfie. For example, it allows you to take a picture of a wider scene with you included in the frame, which is ideal for landscape shots or group photos. If your iPhone is on a tripod, taking the shot remotely also reduces the risk of camera shake. Here's how to do...

In iOS and iPadOS, Apple includes an option for users to specify the Bluetooth accessories they connect using pre-defined individual labels. Labeling your Bluetooth accessories helps to identify connected devices and improve audio notifications. Apple says that classifying Bluetooth accessories like this can also ensure that real-time Headphone Audio Level measurements are accurate....

In iOS and iPadOS, Apple includes a built-in screenshot feature that also provides you with the ability to capture an entire webpage on your iPhone or iPad that you can then save or share with someone as a PDF document. By converting full‑page screenshots into PDFs directly within Safari, you can preserve the exact layout and content of lengthy articles, receipts, or social media threads...

Apple devices support a relatively unknown three-finger gesture that lets you share a photo across your devices in super-quick time. It's a neat trick to fall back on if AirDrop is playing up or your iCloud Photos are taking ages to sync. Universal Clipboard is usually associated with copying and pasting text, but by using this gesture, you can make it work really well for sharing images...

In iOS, the Control Center can be used to quickly take a picture, jot down a note, turn on the lights, control your Apple TV, and much more. It's useful and convenient because you don't even have to unlock your iPhone or iPad to use it. However, with that convenience comes a potential security issue. If you use Control Center to create Instant Notes, for example, you might not want anyone...