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Apple continues to lead the way in making technology more accessible.  One of its latest features turns the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) into a powerful tool for hearing support.  In this video, Lee demonstrates how to test your hearing using your iPhone and AirPods, and how to enable Hearing Assistance to make conversations clearer and easier.

Every September we take a look at the major releases of macOS, iOS and iPadOS to ensure you have the latest knowledge so you can use these operating systems to their full potential.

There are, however, a lot of features that get released over the course of the year that can go unnoticed. In this video, Lee rounds up some of the most popular updates since that last major release. He also showcases the Vision Pro app at the very end, for those of you who own Apple's spatial computing device.

These update apply to:

macOS 15.0 and above

iOS 18.0 and above

iPadOS 18.0 and above

In show 1020, Lee looked at Widgetsmith in a Tip video covering the basics in less than 15 minutes, to help get you started. It's fair to say that since then, both the popularity of the app as well as its functionality have increased to the point where it's time for a full-length video. It's one of the most universally popular apps for all age groups because it allows you to customise your Home and Lock screens with widgets and icons that YOU want to see.

Since the last video was released, Widgetsmith has added more Interactive Widgets and Action widgets that allow you tap and execute an action rather than open an app in the usual way. Each category of widgets also has more variations to choose from. If you have an iPhone, or iPad, Widgetsmith has something to offer, and you can get started for free, with more options available with a subscription.

Widgetsmith runs on iOS or iPadOS 15.0 or later.

The Premium version is available for $1.99 per month, or you can have the annual subscription for $19.99

In today's tip Darcy uncovers the deep security measures put in place by Apple for protecting your account and recovering it should it become compromised.  They have cleverly woven these features into the Settings app on your devices, right at the top. where you can go beyond changing your details and password.  After a look at customising your Apple Account contact icon, you learn how you can create new emails using aliases and how to further protect your account by assigning a Recovery contacts and keys.Today's show was created on iPad, but the same options are also available in System Settings on your Mac, as well as Settings on iPhone.  To get the latest features, make sure that you have installed the latest version of the operating system on your devices.

Apple’s build-in Reminders app has received a lot of love recently and the requests for utilising a Kanban view for managing reminders has been granted. Splitting your reminders into different columns offers a new way to organise your tasks and projects. In this video, Lee shows you how to set that up using a real world example. And with Templates now available for those projects you often repeat, Reminders has become even more useful.

The version of Reminders used in this screencast is the latest one available for iPadOS. The features shown here are identical on the Mac as well as iPhone. Make sure your devices run iOS 17 or newer, and macOS 14 or newer.

Most of use Safari daily on our iPhone, some on our iPad, however do we make the most of what Safari can do?  It's one of those native apps that has a wealth of features built-in, yet as the whole purpose of it is to provide us content as and when we need it, many don't feel the urge to dive in, customise it and make our browsing experience even better. In this video, Lee offers an in-depth walk-through of Safari on iPhone as well as iPad, in part to show you how you can personalise it to browse more effectively, and certainly to help you discover features you may not have known about.

In episode 1430, Lee ran through some of the image manipulation tools that landed as part of iOS 18.2. This video covers a few more additions to Apple Intelligence for 2024, including Image Wand, ChatGPT integration, Writing Tools, Mail categorisation, and more.

With iOS and iPadOS 18.2, the next wave of Apple Intelligence tools have landed and the creative amongst us can create custom emoji (called Genmoji), as well as use Image Playground to create fun stills of people from our Photo Library. In this episode, with Lee as your guide, you learn how to use both of these creative tools.

Apple Intelligence is available on iOS and iPadOS 18.2 on the following devices:

iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max

iPhone 16 (any model)

Any iPad with M1 chip or newer

iPad Mini with A17 Pro

Whenever Apple announces a new operating system, there is a keynote accompanied by some fanfare for some marquee features. However sometimes, the smaller changes that are also part of the release are missed whilst we focus elsewhere. iOS 18 is no exception and there are some great updates that may have passed you by. In this video, Lee shows you 20 of those little gems, including changes and improvements to Photos, Camera, Battery management, the Home Screen, Control Centre, the Phone app, and much more.

In this episode, Don goes on a deeper dive of the iPhone Mirroring app that was introduced with macOS Sequoia. You learn how you can control your compatible iPhone using your Mac's keyboard and input device (trackpad or mouse), and do things like copy and paste between a Mac app and your iPhone, right on your Mac. Don also goes through the system requirements in detail so you're ready to start using this useful addition to macOS.

In episode 1412, we looked at how Writing Tools (part of Apple Intelligence) can help you improve how your text is formed. In this video, Lee looks at two more features that have landed in the first wave of Apple Intelligence: Summaries and Smart Replies. Summaries work in Notification Centre, where your alerts can be summarised into the most optimal text, as well as Mail and Messages where you can get a summary of the information displayed rather than read through it all. With Smart Replies, Apple Intelligence can form a response to the message, for you to accept or amend as needed. Lee shows you how to set it all up in this short video.

See Resources section below for system requirements needed to run Apple Intelligence on your device. 

The first wave of Apple Intelligence has landed — in the US at least!  One of the main features that you can now take advantage of is Writing Tools. These tools help take your text and rewrite it, making it more professional, humourous, concise as well as proofread your writing to ensure your syntax, spelling and punctuation are on point. Lee walks through this exciting new feature in this video, and also shows you that you can use Writing Tools on third-party apps, Drafts in this case.

To run Apple Intelligence, you need a compatible iPhone, iPad, or Mac. (See resource below.)

Software requirement:

iOS 18.1 and above

iPadOS 18.1 and above

macOS 15.1 and above

It's that time of year where our beloved Apple devices get their annual OS refreshes. During this year's WWDC announcements, improvements for both iOS and iPadOS seemed to centre around Apple Intelligence, which sadly isn't landing in one hit and is going to be drip-fed over the course of the next year.

There are still lots of improvements to get excited about, however, and in this video Lee walks you through them. This includes customising the Home Screen, working with Maths Notes on your iPad and Apple Pencil, feature updates to Notes, Calendar, Reminders, Messages, and much more.

Note that updates to Apple Maps were covered in last week's video, episode 1393.

Lee used to only fire up Apple Maps for the basics: finding a location and getting there fast. But after some of you suggested a deep dive, he was blown away by what this app can actually do! In this video, Lee goes beyond turn-by-turn directions, and dives into cool stuff like scheduling stops, getting automatic reminders, exploring different map types, checking out public transport info, taking aerial tours of cities, and a lot more. This screencast is a map app adventure!

Most people know that if you long press on an icon on your iOS device, a context menu pops up. Most of the time, this is used to organise your home screen, or remove an app from your device. However, lots of apps have additional actions that can be executed from this menu, and that remain largely ignored.

In this video, Lee runs through some of the best actions you can run from the built-in apps on iOS, as well as a handful of the third-party apps he uses on a daily basis.

Everyone who uses an iPhone has to negotiate the keyboard from time to time and sometimes it can feel laborious. However there are some little-known tricks available that will elevate your typing skills and help you master your device. Whether it's discovering new keyboards or the hidden trackpad feature for precise cursor movement, this video from Lee is worth ten minutes of your time.

Since show 1318, which covered the new features in iOS 17.2, we have had two more 'dot' releases as they are called. In this video, Lee looks at Stolen Device Protection and Collaborative Playlists which came with iOS 17.3. He also introduces you to some of the new features in iOS 17.4, namely a brief overview of the changes required in the EU to adhere to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), updates to the Podcasts app and (of course) more emoji!

In episode 1341, Lee released the first part of his deep dive into Apple Notes, covering how to create notes, format them, create links and work with attachments.  In this second instalment, he focuses on organising your notes using folders, tags and Smart Folders. Lee also covers collaborating with others and exporting your notes for use with other applications.

Some of the stock applications on our Apple devices can be overlooked when the latest, greatest third-party application releases a new update, or a trendy new app gets launched. Apple's own Notes app is an example of one such application that deserves to be covered more, as it's a solid option for a large majority of users who need a place to store short notes, long-form text, attachments, and more.

In this first video in a two-part series, Lee shows you how to add different accounts to your Notes application, create and format notes and work with attachments. You also learn how to create links between your notes.

Keeping track of your Apple devices, AirTag items, and even loved ones, is easy with Apple's Find My app. Regardless of the platform you are using, you can keep track of your devices whereabouts, notify friends and family when you are leaving or arriving at a location, mark devices as lost if you fear they won't be returned and much more. In this video, Lee gives you a tour of Find My and its features.