When you make playlists in Apple Music, the service lets you use a custom cover. You can either choose a photo from your library or pick one of the covers it generates. I tend to pick the latter, but over the past few months, I've become bored with Apple's playlist cover options—choosing from the same six templates gets boring after a certain point. That's when I discovered Denim, an app that lets you make custom Apple Music playlist covers.
Denim's been around for a couple years, and it recently got a big update that added a many more cover art options. Its developer also made Hezel, which lets you back up all of your Apple Music playlists.
How to use Denim to make custom Apple Music playlist covers
When you open Denim, the app will ask for access to your Apple Music data. This is required for the app to see your playlists and help you generate cover art for them. Once you grant this permission, the app shows you all your playlists in helpful sections. One of these highlights all the playlists that have one of Apple's default covers and the other shows you the ones with a custom cover.
This makes it easy to find the playlists with stale cover art. It's also good that the app only shows custom playlists you've created. That saved me a lot of trouble because I have around 200 playlists on my Apple Music account, including around 50 that I've created. To get started with creating a cover, tap any of your playlists and Denim will generate a whole bunch of covers. There is a good variety of basic covers with a solid background color, and some with gradients and textures in the background.
Credit: Pranay Parab
I like the Denim covers that prominently display an artist from your playlist. Another personal favorite is the emoji cover, which looks at the region and genre of music, and picks emoji for the cover based on those factors. You may see the flag of the country that songs are from and some instruments commonly used in the songs. But the real fun begins when you tap the Browse More Covers button. This lets you see covers that are based on moods, scenes, genres, activities, seasons, and much more.
Denim is a free download and it has a $5 in-app purchase that unlocks editing options to let you personalize the covers to your liking, including changing the font, the background, and the text on the cover.
How to format external drives using your iPhone or iPad
Credit: Kaleb Cadle/Substack
First, you need an iPhone or iPad running iOS 18 or iPadOS 18. Follow these instructions to update your device, but be careful if you're using your main device, as installing a beta could introduce instability to it.
Next, connect your external drive to the device. This may require an adapter in some cases. Once you've plugged in the drive, open the Files app, long press the name of the external drive in the sidebar, and tap the red Erase button.
You'll now see the new options, which will allow you to choose the filesystem for your external drive. You have three choices: APFS, ExFAT, and FAT. Click through here for a breakdown on each format. Pick an option to format the external drive accordingly.
The feature works with hard disks, pen drives, and even SD cards so long as you have the right adapters.
Why format a drive on iPad or iPhone?
Plenty of people use their iPhones and iPads for professional purposes, like creating photos and videos. Often, these files need to be moved to external drives. Having formatting options baked into the OS helps all those who want to use their iOS devices as productivity tools, since it'll keep them from needing to reach for their Mac or PC.
Having said that, your Mac's Disk Utility is a much more powerful tool than what you'll find in the iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 Files app. In addition to formatting, Disk Utility allows you to partition drives, restore them with content from another drive, and can attempt to repair drives that are giving you trouble. Another thing worth noting is that Disk Utility allows you to choose the Mac OS Extended file system, which is exclusive to Macs. You can't choose that option on your iPhone or iPad, but on the flip side, the APFS format is exclusive to iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 devices.
The option to format drives is a positive development for iOS devices, but there's a long way to go before your iPad can totally replace your Mac.
Apple has added a whole bunch of new text effects, or animations, to the Messages app in iOS 18. Not only are these effects fun to use, but they can also be applied to individual words, as opposed to the entire message. Apart from this, the Messages app also got additional formatting options for your texts including bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough. Some of these options are pretty basic, but the end result is a more robust system that will be able to better compete with alternatives like WhatsApp and Telegram.
All the new text effects in iOS 18's Messages app
Credit: Pranay Parab
Here's a quick list of all the new iOS 18 text effects and what they do:
Big: Makes the selected words or emoji bigger for a second before returning them to their normal size.
Small: Makes words smaller for a bit.
Shake: Gives selected text a quick jiggle.
Nod: Moves text up and down, imitating a head nod.
Explode: Makes text or emoji explode. All the letters in your words will temporarily scatter in different directions, while emoji just become bigger and disappear for a second.
Ripple: Makes text jump up and down.
Bloom: Make letters pop up on the screen one after another.
Jitter: Gives the selected text a little shiver.
If you're worried about losing messages, all of these effects are temporary. They appear on screen for a second or two, and then your text returns to normal. iOS 18 also has new, more permanent formatting options, but they don't need much of an introduction. They're identical to the bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough formatting other apps have been using for years.
How to use iOS 18's new text effects
Credit: Pranay Parab
To use these shiny new text effects, first install the iOS 18 beta on a compatible phone using these instructions. To keep your main device stable, I suggest using a backup device if possible.
Next, open the Messages app. Type something in the text box and hit the A button in the top-right corner of the keyboard. This will show your text formatting options. Now, select the words you want to add effects to and choose the effect you want. For formatting options, tap the B, I, U, or S buttons up top. All eight text effects are listed below these, so to use one, simply select it here.
Remember that you can add multiple text effects in a single message. You can choose one effect per word, apply different effects to different emoji, and make all your words dance around, if you wish. You can also apply text formatting to emoji as well, which means that you can underline your emoji or use strikethrough, for example. If you apply the bold formatting, the underline and strikethrough lines become thicker.
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.
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