With iOS 18, Apple is adding a number of new customization options for the iPhone's various menus. Along with the Control Center, you will be able to change the shortcuts that appear on the lock screen of your iPhone, meaning you can swap out those camera and flashlight shortcuts to something else.
How to change lock screen shortcuts in iOS 18
To change the shortcuts on your iPhone's lock screen, you need to lock the device and wake its display. Next, hold the screen and hit Customize. Tap Lock Screen and you'll now see the lock screen customization screen. You can tap the minus button next to the two shortcuts near the bottom of the display, and then tap the plus button.
This will open a pop-up that lets you search for shortcuts to add to your iPhone's lock screen. I've added Recognize Music and Alarm since I use those functions regularly. However, you're free to go through the list and choose whatever works best for you. There are two very useful options—Open App and Shortcuts—that let you place any app or shortcut from your phone directly on the lock screen.
In case you're unsure about removing the Camera app from the lock screen, you can still access it by swiping left on the lock screen, which tends to be faster than holding the lock screen camera shortcut anyway.
You don't have to use any shortcuts on the lock screen
While it may be tempting to place custom shortcuts on your iPhone's lock screen in iOS 18, you also have the choice to remove the old shortcuts entirely and not replace them. This is great for people who keep accidentally firing up the flashlight, camera, or other actions mapped to the lock screen buttons—or for those who simply like a more minimalist aesthetic.
Apple has a free new app for professional videographers that goes a step above the normal camera app. It's called Final Cut Camera, and not only does it offer more advanced controls for recording video, but it also pairs well with Final Cut Pro for iPad to let you record a multi-camera session. Final Cut Camera supports up to four cameras for the Live Multicam feature in Final Cut Pro for iPad, and you can record using any iPhones or iPads that support the app, as long as they're logged into the same iCloud account.
The advanced controls in Final Cut Camera
Credit: Pranay Parab
Final Cut Camera is targeted specifically at those who record videos for a living, and gives you advanced features such as finer control over zooming in, an overexposure indicator, and controls to let you adjust exposure, white balance, and focus.
You can adjust all of these settings easily with the viewfinder enabled, and you'll even get live feedback on all of your changes. Final Cut Camera makes it quite easy to get your exposure and white balance just right, which isn't always possible with the default Camera app.
Put your old iOS devices to good use
Credit: Pranay Parab
Your latest iPhone is probably getting a lot of use, but you may have older iPhones and iPads lying around unused. If you record lots of videos, you can use use Final Cut Camera and your older iOS devices to set up a Live Multicam session with Final Cut Pro for iPad. Most people probably don't have all the devices needed to make this setup work, but videographers are highly likely to be able to use this to their advantage.
Why Final Cut Camera is worth checking out
Credit: Pranay Parab
When you're recording videos and want more control over your iPhone's camera, Final Cut Camera is a great option. The stock Camera app does allow you a lot of freedom to control your video recordings, but Final Cut Camera takes it a notch further. It's highly configurable and has been designed to let you make more precise adjustments to each element of video recording. Even if you're not a professional videographer, I suggest trying out Final Cut Camera once to see what it can do. Perhaps it could be a great tool when you're recording clips for your next TikTok or Instagram Reels video.
It's great that this app is available for free, which makes it very accessible to a large audience. Of course, the real differentiating feature—Live Multicam—requires you to have an active subscription to Final Cut Pro for iPad. That costs $49 per year and requires a powerful M-series iPad, too.
The Control Center has been totally revamped in iOS 18. You can now move pretty much every control around, add more controls than ever before, and have access to multiple pages of controls. My only complaint is that it's still a bit too hard to launch Control Center from the top-right corner of the iPhone's display. That gripe aside, it's a great time to start with Control Center customization, and here's how to do it.
Download the iOS 18 beta
At time of writing, iOS 18 isn't generally available. The good news is that there's a free developer beta you can already sign up for. Follow the instructions here to install the iOS 18 beta on your iPhone, but be careful: you're risking instability and bugs by doing so. I suggest using a secondary phone until the official launch, if you can.
How to add controls to the Control Center in iOS 18
Credit: Pranay Parab
Through iOS 17, you had to go through the Control Center page in your iPhone's Settings app to add or remove controls. Things have changed in a big way with iOS 18, and you can now make a lot of tweaks directly in the Control Center. To get started, open the Control Center by swiping downwards from the top-right corner of the screen and hit the + button in the top-left corner. Alternatively, long press on any empty space in the Control Center, then tap the Add a Control button near the base of your iPhone.
To clean up the Control Center in iOS 18, open it and hold down any empty space until borders appear around the controls. Now hit the - button next to any control and it'll be gone. It's as simple as that.
Explore other pages in the Control Center
Credit: Pranay Parab
There are now three full pages in iOS 18's Control Center, but don't worry, all of the most useful controls are on the first page. Explore these pages by swiping upwards with the Control Center open.
The second page shows you music playback controls. Instead of swiping vertically, you can also open it by holding the media controls widget in the first Control Center page. You'll need this page to control other speakers connected to your iPhone, such as your HomePod.
Swipe upwards once more in the Control Center to see connectivity options. Alternatively, you can see the same options from the first page of the Control Center. Just hold the connectivity widget and you'll get the same features. This lets you quickly toggle airplane mode, AirDrop, wifi, cellular data, Bluetooth, hotspot settings, and VPNs.
Move controls around to make them easier to access
iOS 18 lets you swap the positions of all controls in the Control Center. This means that previously immovable controls such as connectivity options, media playback, and rotation lock can now be moved. The best thing is that you don't have to place all controls next to each other. I like to leave large gaps in between controls to make them easier to access.
To do this, open the Control Center in iOS 18 and hold any empty space on the screen. When borders appear on your controls, start dragging any button or widget to any place you like. I've moved connectivity and media options to the bottom of the screen, where they're far easier for me to access.
Most of my Control Center changes involve making it more ergonomic. There's no reason to keep reaching for the top-right of the screen to launch the Control Center when a better option is available. Back Tap is that option. It allows me to tap the back of my iPhone to fire up the Control Center. You can set this up by going to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. I've mapped Triple Tap to launch Control Center to avoid accidental activations, but you can use the Double Tap option too.
Window management has been a sore subject on Mac for many years. Plenty of people switch to Mac from a Windows machine and find macOS' window management quite lacking in comparison. Apple is finally adding more robust window snapping to macOS Sequoia (currently in developer beta), but until you get that upgrade, I suggest using Loop. A free app, Loop does the same thing and is packed with plenty of convenient keyboard shortcuts, too.
The case for a window management app
There are still various reasons to look at third-party window management apps over Apple's built-in option, which is shipping this fall. The first and foremost reason is that not all Macs are getting the Sequoia upgrade. In case your Mac isn't getting the upgrade (or if you can't immediately switch to Sequoia because an app you need for work won't support it), using third-party tools remains a strong option.
Secondly, these window management apps do a few things better than Apple's tools. For starters, they have easier keyboard shortcuts by default. For example, Loop uses the globe key (fn) along with arrow keys to move your windows easily. Other apps such as Rectangle Pro allow you to hide windows on the edge of the screen, create custom snap targets on your screen, and even set up a custom window size and bind it to a shortcut.
Although Apple has eliminated the need for a basic window management app, advanced users will still find value in using a third-party alternative.
Why you should use Loop
Credit: Pranay Parab
Loop is fast, free, and easy to use. Once you've installed the app, go through its settings and memorize the keybindings. Since it uses the globe key (fn), it's easy to remember most of its shortcuts. Globe-arrow keys let you send any window to any corner of the screen. You can even press two arrow keys together to choose quarters of the screen, such as using Globe-Up-Left arrow to send a window to the top-left. Loop has a shortcut to let you send a window to the center of the screen, one for fullscreen, and another to maximize the current window.
You can also hold down the globe key and keep pressing any of the arrow keys to cycle through window sizes. For instance, you can set a window to occupy the right half of the screen or a third of the screen. You can also restore the window to the original size if you drag it out of its corner as well.
The most important feature in Loop is the ability to exclude apps. This lets you avoid messing with your preferred window sizes for certain apps that don't behave well when they're moved around.
While Loop works really well, its radial menu keeps appearing on screen every time you move an app. This can get annoying if you use the app often. Fortunately, you can get rid of this in the app's settings, under the Radial Menu section. The app has a few different app icons, and you'll be able to unlock them as you keep using the app.
Over the past several years, countless websites have added paywalls. If you want to read their articles, you have to sign up and pay a monthly subscription cost. Some sites have a “metered” paywall—meaning you can read a certain number of articles for free before they ask for money—and others have a hard paywall, where you’ll have to pay to read even one article.
Paywalls are mostly an thing with news websites, largely because relying on advertising income alone isn’t a viable strategy anymore, and news companies are pursuing more direct revenue sources, like monthly subscriptions. Of course, paywalls aren’t entirely a bad thing—it’s worth it to support journalism you find valuable, so by all means, if you can afford to pay to read articles, you absolutely should. But whether you lost your password, haven’t saved it on your phone, are in a rush, or are just strapped for cash and promise yourself that you’ll subscribe later, there are several ways to bypass paywalls on the internet.
You may be able to use some of these methods successfully today, but that could change in the future as websites clamp down on bypass methods. If nothing else, I hope you support the websites that you do read—especially your friendly local news outlet. But if you can’t right now, here are some of the best ways to bypass paywalls online.
Paste the headline into Google
The simplest ways are often the best. There are plenty of paywalled websites that have an arrangement that lets people arriving from Google search access their articles for free. Your first port of call should be to copy the headline and paste it into the search bar on Google. The article should appear as the first result, so just click that to read it for free.
Try a Facebook redirect
Some paywalled websites let readers arriving from Facebook read articles for free, and the method works even if you don’t have a Facebook account. To do it, open the article you want to read and go to the address bar of your web browser. Now paste https://facebook.com/l.php?u= before the URL of the paywalled article and open the page. This’ll show you a Facebook redirect page, and you can click Follow Link to open the website. The paywalled article should now be free to read.
Open the link in an incognito window
Another quick way is to open the paywalled articles in an incognito window in your web browser. Just note that this method works with metered paywalls only. If you’ve used up your free article quota for the month on any website, opening its articles in an incognito window could let you keep reading without paying yet.
Disable JavaScript in your browser
Some websites use JavaScript to hide content behind paywalls, and you can circumvent those blocks by disabling JavaScript in your browser. Note that disabling JavaScript can (and will) break most websites—some may not let you view comments, while others may not load at all. But it’s worth trying if you just need to read the content of the post.
Ideally, you’d use a separate browser for this so that you don’t have to keep enabling and disabling JavaScript. Once you’ve chosen your secondary browser, check out our guide to disabling JavaScript in various ones.
Enable "reader mode"
Most modern browsers now have a "reader mode" that strips extraneous elements from the page (like ads, formatting, and empty space). As a bonus, reader mode will sometimes also allow you to bypass paywalls. This article will tell you how to use reader mode in Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Chrome.
Use a VPN
Some paywalled sites, like The Washington Post, will let you read a limited number of articles for free each month, then throw up the wall once you've hit the limit. You can use a VPN to change up your IP address and trick the site into giving you more freebies. This method won't help you on sites that don't offer any free access, but it's worth trying, and will work with both paid and free VPNs.
Use Bypass Paywalls from GitHub
If you're using a Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge) or Firefox, you can install the Bypass Paywalls extension from GitHub. It's slightly intimidating if you've never installed an extension outside of the Chrome Web Store, but it's pretty simple—just click this link and follow the instructions for your browser of choice. For Chrome, for example, that involved downloading the extension, turning on "Developer Mode" in the browser's settings, and dragging the extension file into the browser window. Once completed successfully, this extension grants seamless, paywall-free access to more than 160 sites, including Vulture, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal—there's a complete list on the GitHub resource page. (Hat tip to reader dsww in the comments for pointing this one out.)
Try another browser add-on
There are lots of browser extensions that allow you to bypass paywalls on many websites. For academic articles, Unpaywall (Firefox, Chrome) is a good choice. For Chrome or Edge, you can also try Postlight Reader, which can also do you the favor of cleaning away the clutter of ads and generally making online content easier to read.
Edit a couple of elements on the webpage
If you understand a bit of HTML and CSS, you can edit elements using your browser to go past some paywalls. Essentially, you’re editing the page to remove the banners that lock content behind a subscription. It’s a lot like opening the curtains to reveal the nice view outside your window.
It works with some websites, but others have added a hard block that reveals the article only if you’ve signed in with a paid account. Still, it’s worth trying once to see if it works:
On any website, right-click the banner just below the last visible sentence of the article and select Inspect Element. This will open up a console where you can search for the offending elements and hide or change them. The exact element varies from site to site, but it’s often labeled display, paywall, or subscribe. Here’s a neat GIF on Reddit that shows you how to get it done.
Use 12ft.io
12ft.io is a simple website created with the sole purpose of breaking through paywalls—and it's so simple to use, it appears to have become an easy target for those who'd like to keep you from easily bypassing a paywall. A few months ago, the site was taken offline (the link returned an error message reading ”This Deployment has been disabled. Your connection is working correctly. Vercel is working correctly,” whatever that means). It's now back, but who knows for how long. (Previously, there was an alternative, 1ft.io, that worked in much the same way, but the developer recently shut it down permanently, as evidenced by an announcement posted to that URL.)
To use 12ft.io, simply paste the paywalled link in the text field and hit “Submit.” (Alternately, you can type “https://12ft.io/” before the URL in your browser bar.) The site will then show you the cached, “unpaywalled version” of the page. The only problem is that the site doesn't always work on all websites (The Wall Street Journal being a notable example). If you get the “access denied” message, try this next tool.
Explore the web 'shackle-free'
If 12ft.io isn't working for you, there's a similar alternative, shacklefree.in. You can either visit that site and paste your link into the address bar, or you can type shacklefree.in/, and paste the article link directly into the browser bar after the slash. The service claims to work with "150+ websites."
Use Archive.today to archive the page
Archive.today is a website that archives any website you paste the link on their bar. Think of it like taking a screenshot of any website with a time stamp (a self-described “time capsule,” if you will). It “saves a text and a graphical copy of the page for better accuracy” and gives you a short link to an unalterable record of any web page. As a bonus, you can often use this functionality to bypass a paywall and read the entire article. Pate your link into the black “I want to search the archive for saved snapshots” bar. If the article you’re trying to bypass isn’t already archived, then put the URL into the red “My URL is alive and I want to archive its content” bar. This tool is a good bet if 12ft.io has already failed you.
Spaywall promises to "legally bypass paywalls"
Another site that works similarly to 12ft.io and Archive.today, Spaywall states that the site "legally [bypasses] paywalls by redirecting you to archived news and research papers." In testing links, it appears it takes the site a big longer to archive pages than some of your other options, so it's probably best for reading older articles.
Use a paywall bypass shortcut on Android
If you are trying to read a paywalled article on an Android phone, you can get around it with the Bypass Paywalls Clean browser extension. This extension used to be available for Firefox but has been removed from the Mozilla store. However, you can add it to a different browser; Reddit users recommend trying the Kiwi browser.
Use a paywall bypass shortcut on iPhone
The last method on our list works only on iPhones: Apple’s free Shortcuts app lets you run automation routines on your iPhone, and its tools have been used to bypass paywalls on various websites. There are plenty of these shortcuts, and they may all not work with all websites. Get started by trying AntiPaywall, Bypass Paywall, Paywall and Cookie Bypass, or Unpaywall.
Check if your local library provides access
Many libraries offer access to paid magazine and newspaper subscriptions online. Typically you'll have to go to your library's website, log in with your card number or account details, and then access different publications indirectly, via the library's portal (for example, if you live in Marin County, California, you can easily read The Washington Post for free). There are too many library systems out there to count, so you may or may not be lucky enough to be in one that allows this perk, but it's worth a shot; since the library is paying the publication for the service, you don't even need to feel guilty. (Not sure if your system has a news portal? Ask your local librarian!)
Ask a subscriber for a "gift article"
This one isn't likely to be feasible often, but it's worth a shot for when you're trying to read that one paywalled article that's going viral: Many publications allow paid subscribers to "gift" a copy of a certain number of articles every month (The Washington Post and The New York Times each allows gifting 10 articles per month, for example). If you know your aunt subscribes to The New York Times, it can't hurt to ask if she's willing to gift you the occasional read.
Buy a single article with Blendle
If you can't pay for a subscription but don't mind paying for a single article, you can try the Blendle app. This news aggregator partners with publications and will sell you a single article for a nominal fee—according to the App Store page, most articles cost a quarter. The downside: The selection of publishers is limited in the U.S. (the company is based in Europe), but includes The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and more.
Scrolling is a hot topic for people who use MacBooks. Some people prefer natural scrolling on the trackpad. Natural scrolling means that when you drag two fingers upwards on the trackpad, your Mac will scroll down. When you drag your fingers downwards, it'll scroll up. It might sound counterintuitive, but it's similar to how you might move a piece of paper in real life.
Your Mac comes with natural scrolling on by default, which means that you'll scroll in the opposite direction of your fingers' movements. Some people prefer this type of scrolling, but if you're used to Windows, you might want to turn it off.
Then there are people like me, who like natural scrolling on trackpad, but prefer un-inverted scrolling when using a physical mouse (or vice versa). MacBooks only let you select one option for all inputs by default, so to enable this, you'll need Scroll Reverser, a free app that lets you set up different scrolling directions for your trackpad and your physical mouse.
Once you install the app, it'll ask for Accessibility permissions, which will let it monitor which device you're using and enable the right settings for you. Grant these permissions. Scroll Reverser will then appear in the menu bar. Select the app and go to Preferences. Next, check Enable Scroll Reverser and adjust your settings. I like to turn on both Reverse Vertical and Reverse Mouse. Before you finish, go to your Mac's System Settings, head over to the Trackpad section, and either enable or disable Natural Scrolling based on what you want your default to be. I like to leave it on.
With these options enabled, Scroll Reverser will do what you need it to—leave natural scrolling untouched on the trackpad while letting you use un-inverted scrolling with your mouse.
This app has one more feature that's useful for people who use a mouse with their Macs. You can configure the size of each "step" that the scroll wheel takes. Quite often, a single step in the wheel drags the page too far up or down, so it's convenient to be able to use Scroll Reverser to change that to your liking. To do this, go to Scroll Reverser's Preferences and move the slider below Step size. Increase or decrease this until you get your desired scrolling behavior.
Your Mac's menu bar can be home to a host of nifty utilities. From managing your calendar to adding a virtual sticky note, there's a great menu bar tool for almost everything. I recently discovered another useful app called Folder Peek, which lets you place any folder from your Mac on the menu bar. You can use this in many different ways, but my favorite is using it as an app launcher.
Using Folder Peek as an app launcher
Credit: Pranay Parab
Once you've installed Folder Peek on your Mac (simply click "Get" while viewing it in the App Store), choose which folder you want to add to your menu bar. Here's a fun trick: if you choose the Applications folder, clicking on it will display all the apps installed on your Mac, which you can click again to launch. This is perfect if you want to declutter your dock, and it can also be faster than launching an app via Spotlight (or a better alternative).
It takes a little bit of configuration to make the most of this setup, though. To customize how your folder looks in the Menu bar, click the Folder Peek icon and press Command-Shift-, (the last key is comma). This will open a settings window. Choose an icon for your folder, give it a title, and head over to the Menu section. I like the Date Accessed sort order and Large file icon size. I also limit the maximum number of icons to 15. You can play around with these options until you land on something that serves you best.
Other features worth trying
Credit: Pranay Parab
Since you can add any folder to your menu bar, there's plenty else you can do with this app. If you add a folder that has some photos in it, you can quickly preview them using Folder Peek. I noticed that this process is faster than using the Spacebar key to preview photos and hitting the arrow keys to scroll through, at least on my M1 MacBook Air. Similarly, you can also preview text files, PDF files, and view what's inside various sub-folders. With sub-folders open in Folder Peek, press Shift to see more options, such as Get Info or Copy Path.
You can also always click the folder title, located at the top of the drop-down menu, to open the folder in Finder. Interestingly, you can use Folder Peek as a way to quickly open bookmarked webpages. To do this, open any webpage in Safari and drag the URL to a folder on your Mac. Now put this folder in the menu bar using Folder Peek and you'll notice that all the pages you saved to it will be listed when you click on it. Clicking these pages will open them in your default web browser.
The app has a few more tricks up its sleeve, which you can explore by opening folders in it and pressing the Option key.
To mark National Audiobook Month this June, Spotify's offering a month of free audiobooks. As long as you are on Spotify's free plan and have a U.S. account on the service, you can sign up for a free trial that will give you access to audiobooks for a month from the date you sign up. You won't be able to access audiobooks if your Spotify account is from other regions.
This trial includes up to 15 hours of audiobook listening and if you're wise with your choices, you could easily squeeze in two to three audiobooks. To sign up for this free trial, you can head over to Spotify's Audiobooks page. The promotion is valid through June 30, 2024. Once the trial expires, you'll be charged $9.99/mo for Spotify's Audiobook Access Plan.
Even the paid plan limits you to 15 hours of listening per month and unused listening time expires at the end of the month. Spotify lets you top-up listening hours if you're willing to pay and hours you purchase expire 12 months after the date of purchase, which gives you more flexibility in terms of choosing when to listen to books.
Unlike Audible, Spotify limits your audiobook use by listening hours. Audible's plans offer "credits," which can be redeemed against books. One Audible credit gets you one book and you're free to purchase more books by paying the listed price. Audible's plans offer greater flexibility because you're able to return audiobooks you don't like and if you're into long books such as epic fantasy series, then one credit can get you access to 40+ hours of listening. At the time of writing, Audible is also available in far more regions and is accessible by a larger number of people.
Still, the hope is that Spotify catches up in terms of availability and can compete with Audible. If the competition for the audiobook market is strong, us consumers end up benefiting the most. These aren't the only two players in the audiobook space. We've got a list of the 10 best audiobook services for you to choose from.
It's taken nearly 13 years, but you can finally rename Siri on your iPhone or iPad. iOS 18 will allow you to set up a custom phrase and use it to invoke Siri. Renaming Siri is possible through an accessibility feature called Vocal Shortcuts, which has been introduced with iOS 18. Before you get too excited, though,you should know that even though you can call Siri by any name, the fastest way to launch and use Siri is still by referring to it as "Siri."
A word of caution: iOS 18 is in a pre-release stage at the time of writing. This means that you should avoid installing it on your primary iPhone. Doing this may lead to major issues with your phone such as basic apps including Phone or Messages not working as expected, network problems, or your banking apps being out of commission for months. With that out of the way, let's take a look at Vocal Shortcuts and how it helps you rename Siri.
What is Vocal Shortcuts?
Credit: Pranay Parab
Lots of tech companies are investing in accessibility, which is a great thing. When a company thinks about and designs features for people who find it hardest to use their technology, the whole world benefits—and Vocal Shortcuts is a great example of that. Apple has designed this feature for people who find it hard to operate touchscreens, such as those who suffer from motor control challenges.
Vocal Shortcuts allows you to configure a custom phrase and map it to a number of actions within iOS 18, such as AirDrop, any of your automation routines, Control Center, and even launching Siri. If you want to see the full extent of supported actions on your iOS 18 device, go to Settings > Accessibility > Vocal Shortcuts > Add Action.
How to rename Siri on an iPhone
Credit: Pranay Parab
One of the most interesting uses of Vocal Shortcuts is renaming Siri. To do this on your iOS 18 iPhone, head over to Settings > Accessibility > Vocal Shortcuts and enable Vocal Shortcuts. Next, tap Add Action on this page and hit Continue. Use the search box up top to locate Siri and select Siri from the list of results. Your iPhone will ask you to type a custom phrase and you're free to choose whatever you wish. Yes, it's totally okay to choose "Alexa," or even "OK, Google."
Once you've chosen your phrase, your iPhone will ask you to speak it three times, and confirm your new name for Siri.
Why you shouldn't rename Siri
Credit: Pranay Parab
Vocal Shortcuts works great. Whenever you speak the custom phrase you set for Siri, it'll launch the voice assistant for you. However, there's a catch—this method adds a significant delay in launching Siri. It takes your iPhone a second or two to understand the custom phrase and fire up Siri.
This means that you'll find yourself waiting after speaking your custom phrase, confirming that Siri has indeed launched, and then using a voice command. This makes the process significantly slower. It's far from ideal.
A workaround that lets you use a different Siri name
Credit: Pranay Parab
There is a hack that lets you get the best of both worlds—renaming Siri and having access to a reasonably fast voice assistant. You can set up a custom phrase for a specific Siri command. This is great for repetitive commands that you use often, such as, "Siri, turn off the lights." You can set up a custom phrase such as: "Alexa, lights," or simply, "Lights off." This way, you'll be able to use a custom name for certain Siri actions.
To do this, go to Settings > Accessibility > Vocal Shortcuts > Add Action > Siri Request. Now type the voice command that you use with Siri, such as, "Close the garage door," or "Play some music." After this, choose the custom phrase you wish to use to trigger the voice command. You can then speak the command three times and confirm the Vocal Shortcut. From this moment on, you can use the custom phrase and it'll automatically make Siri execute the voice command you've chosen.
Feel free to add as many custom phrases as you like, but know that this exposes you to more accidental activations. When you're having an unrelated conversation around your iPhone, it may execute commands if it hears you speak any of the custom phrases you've chosen. It would be wise to choose phrases that you're unlikely to use much in regular conversation in order to avoid unhelpful scenarios such as turning off the lights when everyone's awake.
When you're a passenger in a moving vehicle, you might spend all your time looking at a screen. Some people watch movies, some are on social media, and there are even those who study or work. Unfortunately, motion sickness prevents a significant number of people from doing any of these things. If you're among those who can't look at a screen for more than a few minutes while riding a car, then check out this iOS 18 feature that allows you to reduce motion sickness when you're using your iPhone.
How Vehicle Motion Cues works
Credit: Apple
Different people experience motion sickness differently, which means that this solution may not work for everyone. I cannot look at screens or read a book when I'm a passenger in any road vehicle, for example. However, I'm able to read or watch movies just fine when I'm on trains. For some people, this problem is far more severe, where they can't be in any moving vehicle without medication.
People who suffer from motion sickness usually experience a sensory conflict where there's a difference between what their eyes see and what the brain perceives. Motion sickness is often triggered when one stares at a stable object while in a moving vehicle, as one would do with a gaming console, a paper book, or a smartphone. Vehicle Motion Cues uses animated dots to reduce that sensory conflict, Apple says. The position of these dots changes based on the vehicle's motion, which means that the dots would move from the left to the right if your vehicle turns left. The dots will keep moving on screen, which may be a bit annoying, but if it reduces motion sickness, it could all be worth it for some.
Don't install beta software on your primary iPhone
This is an iOS 18 feature, which means you'll need to install the operating system on your iPhone first. At the time of writing, iOS 18 is in beta and you should avoid installing it on your primary iPhone. But if you have a backup iPhone (maybe an old model you didn't trade in), you're in the clear. Remember that installing beta operating systems on your primary devices can lead to bricked iPhones or situations where your favorite apps keep crashing.
How to reduce motion sickness on your iPhone
Credit: Pranay Parab
Assuming you do have an iPhone that's running iOS 18, go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion and enable Show Vehicle Motion Cues. This will set your iPhone to automatically enable or disable Vehicle Motion Cues when your phone detects that they're appropriate. They will go away if your iPhone detects that you're not in a moving vehicle. At the moment, it's unclear if iOS 18 can tell the difference between a car and a train, but based on what Apple's said, it's optimized for use in cars and other road vehicles.
You can also add this feature to your iPhone's Control Center for more manual control. First, swipe downwards from the top-right corner of your iPhone's screen to open Control Center. Tap the + button in the top-left corner, then the Add a Control button at the bottom. Search for Vehicle Motion Cues in the search box. Select Vehicle Motion Cues and you're all set. Note that enabling or disabling Vehicle Motion Cues via Control Center will not automatically trigger this feature. If this feature reduces motion sickness for you, then you can keep it in the Control Center and enable or disable it as and when you need it.
This post is part of Lifehacker’s “Living With AI” series: We investigate the current state of AI, walk through how it can be useful (and how it can’t), and evaluate where this revolutionary tech is heading next. Read more here.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest tech revolution. Just as the cryptocurrency boom introduced the world to a whole bunch of new jargon, the AI hype train has brought with it a set of terms that are frequently used, but not always explained. If you’re wondering about the difference between a chatbot and a LLM, or between deep learning and machine learning, you’re in the right place: Here is a glossary of 20 AI-related terms, along with newbie-friendly explanations of what it all means.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
In simple terms, AI is intelligence in computers or machines, especially that which mimics human intelligence. AI is a broad term that covers many different types of machine intelligence, but the discourse around AI right now mostly centers around tools that create art, content, and summarize or transcribe content. To call these tools “intelligent” is up for debate, but AI is the term that has stuck.
Algorithm
An algorithm is a set of instructions that a program follows to give you a result. Common examples of algorithms include search engines, which show you a set of results based on your queries, or social media apps, which show content based on your interests. Algorithms allow AI tools to create predictive models, or create content or art based on your inputs.
Bias
In the context of AI, bias refers to erroneous results produced because the algorithm makes incorrect assumptions or lacks sufficient data. For example, speech recognition tools may not be able to understand certain English accents correctly because the tools were trained only with an American accent.
Conversational AI
AI tools that you can talk to, such as chatbots or voice assistants, are called conversational AI. If you're asking the assistant something yourself, it's conversational AI.
Data mining
The process of combing through large sets of data to find patterns or trends. Some AI tools use data mining to help you understand what makes people buy more items in a store or on a website, or how to optimize a business to cater to increased demand during peak hours.
Deep learning
Deep learning attempts to recreate the way the human brain learns, by utilizing three or more neural network “layers” to process large volumes of data and learn by example. These layers each process their own view of the given data and come together to reach a final conclusion.
Software for self-driving cars uses deep learning to identify stop signs, lane markers, and traffic lights, through object recognition: This is achieved by showing the AI tool many examples of what a certain object looks like (e.g., a stop sign), and through repeated training, the AI tool will eventually be able to identify that object with as close to 100% accuracy as possible.
Large language model (LLM)
A large language model (LLM) is a deep-learning algorithm that is trained on a massive data set to generate, translate, and process text. LLMs (like OpenAI’s GPT-4) allow AI tools to understand your queries and to generate text inputs based on them. LLMs also power AI tools that can identify the important parts of text or videos and summarize them for you.
Generative AI
Generative AI can generate art, images, text, or other results from your inputs, which are often powered by an LLM. It has become the catch-all term for the current AI tech many companies are now adding to their products. For example, a generative AI model can generate an image with a few text prompts, or turn a vertical photo into a wide-screen wallpaper.
Hallucination
When AI presents fiction as fact, we call that hallucinating. Hallucinations can happen when an AI’s data set isn’t accurate or its training is flawed, so it outputs an answer it’s confident on based on its available knowledge. That said, because AI is based on a complex web of networks, we don’t necessarily understand each example of hallucination. Lifehacker writer Stephen Johnson has great advice for spotting AI hallucinations.
Image recognition
The ability to identify specific subjects in an image. Computer programs can use image recognition to spot flowers in an image and name them, or to identify different species of birds in a photo.
Machine learning
When algorithms can improve themselves by learning from experience or data, it’s referred to as machine learning. Machine learning is the general practice that other AI terms we’ve discuss stem from: Deep learning is a form of machine learning, and large language models are trained through machine learning.
Natural language processing
When a program can understand inputs written in human languages, it falls under natural language processing. It’s how your calendar app understands what to do when you write, “I have a meeting at 8 p.m. at the coffee shop on Fifth Avenue tomorrow,” or when you ask Siri, “What’s the weather like today?”
Neural networks
The human brain has layers upon layers of neurons constantly processing information and learning from it. An AI neural network mimics this structure of neurons to learn from data sets. A neural network is the system that allows for machine learning and deep learning, and, at the end, allows machines to perform complex tasks such as image recognition and text generation.
Optical character recognition (OCR)
The process of extracting text from images is done via OCR. Programs that support OCR can identify handwritten or typed text, and let you copy and paste it as well.
Prompt engineering
A prompt is any series of words that you use to get a response from a program, such as generative AI. In the context of AI, prompt engineering is the art of writing prompts to get chatbots to give you the most useful responses. It’s also a field where people are hired to come up with creative prompts to test AI tools and identify its limits and weaknesses.
Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF)
RLHF is the process of training AI with feedback from people. When the AI delivers incorrect results, a human shows it what the correct response should be. This allows the AI to deliver accurate and useful results a lot faster than it would otherwise.
Speech recognition
A program’s ability to understand human speech. Speech recognition can be used for conversational AI to understand your queries and deliver responses, or for speech-to-text tools to understand spoken words and convert them to text.
Token
When you feed a text query into an AI tool, it breaks down this text into tokens, common sequences of characters in text, which are then processed by the AI program. If you use a GPT model, for example, the pricing is based on the number of tokens it processes: You can calculate this number using the company’s tokenizer tool, which also shows you how words are broken down into tokens. OpenAI says one token is roughly four characters of text.
Training data
A training set or training data is the information that an algorithm or machine learning tool uses to learn and execute its function. For example, large language models may use training data by scraping some of the world’s most popular websites to pick up text, queries, and human expressions.
Turing Test
Alan Turing was the British mathematician known as the “father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.” His Turing Test (or “The Imitation Game”) is designed to identify if a computer’s intelligence is identical to that of a human. A computer is said to have passed the Turing Test when a human is tricked into thinking the machine’s responses were written by a human.
Apple's Reminders app is great, but I've always wanted to add its entries to my iPhone's Calendar app, too. I am at my most productive when I have a to-do list with deadlines clearly listed, but I find it overwhelming to look at that list at the start of the day. I used to dread adding too many entries to Reminders until I discovered ReminderCal ($5). This app does one job and does it well—sync reminders with the Calendar app.
Why I like seeing my tasks in Calendar
The Calendar app has a neat week view that adds a bit of space between every entry. If I have a run at 5am, meditation at 7, and work at 9:30, these entries seem overwhelming in Reminders. In the Calendar, the same three entries appear vertically with long gaps in between, which tells me that I have lots of free time in between my tasks. It's almost like a trick that reduces the urgency of tasks and makes my brain think: "I can do this!"
How to sync Reminders with Calendar
Credit: Pranay Parab
Once you download and install ReminderCal on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac (a single purchase unlocks the app on all three platforms), you'll need to give it access to your calendars and to the Reminders app. From here, the app will do its job with minimal input.
Now, when you add timed reminders in Apple's Reminders app, they'll start appearing in the Calendar automatically. If there are reminders that you don't want to sync, you can start those entries with $nocal or $nocalendar and ReminderCal will ignore them.
On Mac, as long as you let ReminderCal run in the background, it'll automatically sync all your tasks. You don't need to keep opening it and hitting the sync button.
On iPhone and iPad, background syncing is less reliable due to battery saving measures in the operating system. That's why I suggest using Apple's Shortcuts app to set up an automation to force a sync at a fixed interval. Just open the Shortcuts app, click the "+" in the top-right corner, select a time of day for the Shortcut to activate, tell the shortcut to activate daily, and choose the ReminderCal option. If you want ReminderCal to run multiple times a day, you'll have to set up a few different automations to force it to run every few hours.
Personally, I like to plan my day in advance, so I've set ReminderCal up to automatically sync at sunrise. When I add tasks for the same day, I can always open ReminderCal on my iPhone and sync it manually. It takes a second for the entries to appear in the calendar.
Configuring ReminderCal to your liking
Credit: Pranay Parab
I like ReminderCal's simplicity, and that shows in its settings menus as well. The default options are great for almost everyone, but you can change a few things if you like. The app allows you to choose if you want repeating reminders to appear in your calendars, for example. It's enabled by default but you can disable it if you want to. You can also force the app to sync completed reminders that were due in the past, but this is disabled by default to avoid cluttering your calendar.
There are two tweaks I suggest. I changed the default event duration to one hour from 30 minutes. The second tweak lets you invert the $nocal exception phrase. If you enable it, ReminderCal will only sync those reminder entries that have the $nocal phrase in the body. This is a good option for those who want to be very selective with syncing reminders with the calendar.
A limitation that you should be aware of
Unfortunately, third-party apps often have to deal with restrictions. ReminderCal cannot sync your reminders to calendars other than Outlook and iCloud. That's going to be a dealbreaker for lots of people, especially those who rely on Google Calendar, but there's nothing the app's developer can do about this as of yet.
Most of us stream the vast majority of our music, but sometimes that's not an option. That's where downloading songs or music videos for offline listening comes in. If YouTube is your music platform of choice, there are plenty of methods to download music for when you have spotty or no internet connectivity.
Downloading music from YouTube is legal if you pay for YouTube Premium. All other methods to download songs from YouTube are free, but they may not always be legal. Remember that it's okay to download your own music or copyright-free songs from YouTube, but if you're trying to rip popular music that you didn't create, you're probably going against the site's terms of service.
Download music from YouTube by subscribing to YouTube Premium
The most reliable method for downloading music from YouTube is by paying for the service—which, I know, is probably not what you want to hear.
You can either get YouTube Premium for $13.99 per month, or you can subscribe to just YouTube Music Premium for $10.99 per month. These are two separate services: YouTube Premium comes with YouTube Music Premium, but not the other way around.
Both services allow you to download music from YouTube, plus come with other features such as removing ads. YouTube Premium comes with a host of extra features focused on the video side of the platform, so if you only want music, you can save a little money by just subscribing to YouTube Music Premium.
All other methods for downloading music from YouTube are unofficial and may violate the site’s terms of service, but YouTube probably won't do much to stop you. (Just don't upload any copyright-protected material). In addition, know that using unofficial YouTube downloaders could compromise your security if the app gets bought by malicious developers down the line. I've done my best to recommend safe programs, but I can't predict what the future holds. Always do research before downloading an unofficial app from the internet.
How to download music from YouTube on Android
Credit: NewPipe
If you have an Android phone, try using NewPipe to download music from YouTube. This app is not available on the Google Play store because it essentially gives you all of YouTube Premium's features for free, including the ability to download music from YouTube. Here's how to install it:
Open the downloaded file on your Android phone. You may see a warning and a request for your permission to install NewPipe. Grant this request and go back to the installer.
Once the installation is complete, open NewPipe and search for the music you want to download.
Tap Download, followed by Audio, and NewPipe will save the song for you.
How to download music from YouTube on iPhone
Credit: @gluebyte/Routine Hub
On your iPhone, the best (unofficial) way to download music from YouTube is via Apple’s Shortcuts app. Follow these steps to download music from YouTube to your iPhone:
Download the YouTube Download shortcut from RoutineHub, a third-party gallery for shortcuts for your iPhone.
Open the YouTube video in Safari or in the YouTube app. Tap the Share button, which will reveal the share sheet.
Scroll down and select YouTube Download from the list of shortcuts towards the bottom.
YouTube Download will ask for a bunch of permissions. Unfortunately, you'll need to grant all of these for the shortcut to do its job. When it asks whether you want to download audio or video, select Download Audio. You can also choose the audio format you prefer. (I chose mp3.)
Finally, the shortcut will ask where you want to save the downloaded file. You can pick iCloud Drive or the On My iPhone folder in the Files app.
The downloaded audio file will then be saved on your iPhone. You can repeat this process for pretty much any video on YouTube.
Download music from YouTube on Windows or Mac
Credit: 4K YouTube to MP3
On your laptop or desktop, use the 4K YouTube to MP3 app to get music from YouTube.
Install 4K YouTube to MP3.
Paste the YouTube URL in the app and let the app handle the rest.
The app downloads music in mp3 by default, but you can also get m4a or ogg audio files.
The free version of the app allows 15 downloads per day, which is good enough for most people, but it may be a problem if you’re trying to download large playlists in one go. The app allows you to remove the download restriction at a starting price of $15 for a permanent license.
If you're comfortable with using command-line tools to download YouTube songs, then the excellent yt-dlp is another great choice that doesn't come with limits. Personally, I find the initial setup a bit cumbersome. Since I mostly only download one or two things from YouTube once every few months, 4K YouTube to MP3 does the job faster for me.
With the recent concerns over popular Mac app Bartender surprising users with a mysterious new owner, it's became clear that automatically updating apps is not always good for security. Instead, I suggest using MacUpdater, which makes it easy to check which apps need updating, verify that they're safe to update, and get everything up-to-date all at once.
Why MacUpdater is a great tool for app updates
Bartender's new ownership was actually reported because MacUpdater warned its users about the change. Bartender's ownership change wasn't announced to the public, and MacUpdater had posted a warning in the app about its certificate change and the lack of information about the new owners. That is one of MacUpdater's best features.
If you install apps from outside the Mac App Store, then MacUpdater is a useful tool for checking if an app's updates are secure. There's a tiny i button to the right of every app listed in MacUpdater. If the button is red, then the app has identified a concern with its updates. Review it before installing.
If the button is blue, you can still review the update's release notes before you install it. For added convenience, you can also move MacUpdater to the menu bar and update your apps from there.
How to use MacUpdater
Once you download and install MacUpdater, it'll scan your Mac to check which apps are installed on your computer. The program will then quickly show you which apps are up-to-date and which are not. From here, the free license will only let you update 10 apps, but for $9.37, you'll unlock unlimited updating.
When you're ready to update, hit the Update App or Upgrade App button to update each app in the list individually, or the Select QuickUpdate Apps button to select and update multiple apps at once. Most apps won't have an issue, but some might require you to key in an admin password. Otherwise, the entire process is seamless.
As for why some apps say Upgrade instead of Update, Upgrades are for major version upgrades that may require you to buy a fresh license.
MacUpdater's Pro edition, which costs $21.87, also allows you to schedule apps to update automatically, although I still recommend checking in on apps before updating them.
Some of my favorite apps, such as Calibre, normally require you to download and install each new version manually. Thanks to MacUpdater, that process takes place with one-click. This has saved me a lot of time.
Some areas for improvement
My biggest complaint with MacUpdater is its UI. The app looks a bit dated and could use a few design tweaks to make things easier to use. For example, the aforementioned i button is way too small and it's hard to see its color correctly. I'm sure there's a better way to highlight apps that you shouldn't update.
I've also run into a bug that freezes the app entirely. When I tried to move MacUpdater to the menu bar, one of the options in the list is "Nowhere," which hides the app from the dock and the menu bar. I accidentally selected this, which made the app disappear. I could only access it from the Settings menu, and even force quitting wouldn't bring it back. Thankfully, a restart fixed the problem.
Don't forget the student discount
$9.37 is a pretty good deal to begin with, but If you're a student or if you live outside the top 40 richest countries of the world, you can email the developers for a 40% discount. That's a really good deal for a useful app, but remember that MacUpdater relies heavily on server side maintenance, which means that the app won't continue to work permanently.
The developers have set a January 2026 deadline for MacUpdater 3. When that expires, you'll have to pay again for the next version. I still think it's good value, but you should be aware of the business model before making a purchase.
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