In iOS 17, you can use Apple’s Reminders app as a grocery list app on your iPhone. It automatically sorts items you add into common sections, which proves incredibly helpful when you go shopping. Just open the Reminders app, and you can easily see if you’ve got everything you need as you’re making your way through the store.
I’ll show you how to use it, including how to share your Reminders app grocery list with someone else so you can both add items and check them off the same list.
During its WWDC24 keynote Monday, Apple laid out dramatic new software updates coming to iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Vision Pro — and the awesome Apple Intelligence features that will power them all.
But if you don’t have time to watch the full hour and 45-minute long affair, here it is in just 90 seconds.
After this morning’s WWDC24 keynote, the Platforms State of the Union explained the nitty gritty details on Apple Intelligence, code completion in Xcode, Swift 6 and the latest software updates.
Susan Prescott, Apple vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, opened the event by thanking the hard work of all Apple developers. “Thank you for making this such an incredible and exciting ecosystem.”
While the morning keynote has become more of a general interest event for the public to see what’s coming later this year, the State of the Union is a show for developers to see how they can adapt their apps to take advantage of the new APIs and software tools. There was a lot to talk about this year.
In iOS 18, you’ll be able to use the power of Apple Intelligence to generate fun, relevant images in your Messages conversations. You can create brand new emoji and personalized artwork.
Apple calls the features Genmoji and Image Playground. “The Image Playground is going to make everyday conversations a whole lot more fun,” said Cyrus Irani, Apple’s Director of Human Interface.
With the Photos app, you can more easily search through the content of your photos and videos, and build custom memory videos without pilfering through your library by hand.
At WWDC24 today, Apple announced that its spatial computing headset will launch in many countries across Europe, Asia and North America.
“The enthusiasm for Apple Vision Pro has been extraordinary, and we are thrilled to introduce the magic of spatial computing to more customers around the world,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in today’s press release.
After the fervor surrounding its launch in the United States, sales have slowed down — a combination of the high price and a lack of specially-made content.
Launching the device internationally will not only broaden the customer base but the number of developers who can create new experiences for the headset.
visionOS 2, the first major update to the Vision platform, will bring Spatial Photos, a rearrangeable Home View, a bigger Mac Virtual Display, new gestures and other nice quality-of-life improvements.
Apple Vision Pro can “unlock completely new possibilities for entertainment, productivity, collaboration, and more” says Mike Rockwell, Apple’s vice president of the Vision Products Group.
Announced right at the top of WWDC24 on Monday, visionOS 2 will be available in developer beta and will release publicly for everyone this fall. This came alongside news that the headset will soon be available in other countries.
Apple reportedly will focus heavily on AI when it announces the next major versions of all its operating systems Monday at WWDC24. Everyone expects an upgraded Siri, summaries that’ll catch you up on a flurry of notifications, image editing that can cut out parts of a picture and the like. But none of that is on my WWDC wish list.
Personally, I’m not convinced that Apple needs to go all-in on AI (or “Apple Intelligence,” as it reportedly will be called). I’d rather see fundamental fixes and long-missing features finally added. Plus, I find Apple’s rumored partnership with OpenAI, of all companies, pretty troubling.
Here’s my WWDC24 wish list of everything I hope Cupertino has been cooking up. Read the full list below or sit back and watch the video.
Knowing how to unsend an iMessage can help you out of a pickle if you accidentally shoot off a text to the wrong person. You also can edit a message after it’s sent to fix a grave typo you didn’t catch. Like if you accidentally text your mom “Finally got laid today!” when you meant to type “paid.”
Keep reading to see how to unsend or edit an iMessage on your iPhone, or watch our quick video tutorial.
Spam calls and text messages seem absolutely relentless these days — you’ll want to know how to block a number on your iPhone to keep your sanity. Luckily, it’s easy. There are a variety of ways you can stop unwanted calls. You can block an incoming phone call or text message. And you can send unknown callers directly to Live Voicemail.
If you’re blocking a person in your contacts list, it doesn’t matter which app you block them from — Messages, Phone, Contacts, Mail, Settings — they will be blocked everywhere. Here’s how to block calls from unknown numbers on iPhone and generally keep spammers at bay.
Whether it’s wedged between the cushions or kicked far under the couch, a handy-dandy feature in iOS 17 and tvOS 17 lets you find your lost Apple TV remote using your iPhone.
Sure, you can take the L and simply use your iPhone or Apple Watch to control your Apple TV. But I like having the physical remote on hand, too.
The mind races when one imagines how many hours of human life might have been saved if everyone had this feature 30 years ago. Let me show you how to find your AWOL Apple TV remote with your iPhone.
If you want to know the fastest and easiest way to send someone photos, videos, files and so, so much more, you should know how to AirDrop. There’s no need to send an iMessage — Apple’s slick AirDrop feature will immediately send and open the content on someone else’s iPhone (or other Apple device). There’s no middle step.
AirDrop works iPhone-to-iPhone, iPhone-to-Mac, iPhone-to-iPad, Vision Pro-to-Mac — any combination and permutation of two Apple devices. And if you’re both running iOS 17, there’s a convenient AirDrop superpower you should definitely know about. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about how to take advantage of AirDrop.
Contact posters let you customize how your Apple contact card looks to other people. If you call someone — and they have your contact info in their address book — your customized contact poster will appear on their screen. If you’re running iOS 17 and don’t know how to create a Contact Poster, let us show you how. (The process might look familiar if you’ve set up a custom Lock Screen.)
Done right, contact posters look great — way better than the old thumbnail images that preceded them. Plus, it’s really easy to turn an ordinary picture into a gorgeous-looking contact poster. And once you set it up, everyone with your matching phone number and/or Apple ID will see your chosen contact picture and personalized contact poster.
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Marvel Studios’ new What If…? An Immersive Story is a free app for Apple’s Vision Pro headset that combines interactivity with storytelling in a brand-new way. Is it a game? Is it an episode of the What If…? animated TV series? It’s not entirely either. It’s an hour-long story where you’re the main character, casting spells with your hands and collecting the Infinity Stones.
If you aren’t a Marvel fan, you’ll find the story a bit drab. But if you want to see the bleeding edge of what’s possible in gaming when you can seamlessly switch between VR and AR with natural hand controls, you need to check it out.
It’s like no other game I’ve ever played.
There are a few hidden gestures on your iPhone that you absolutely need to know. You’re typing out a long text on your iPhone and you need to go back to fix a typo. Tapping on the screen to move the cursor feels like a shot in the dark — but there’s a secret gesture to move around and select text.
Here are three top iPhone tips. Also in this article: how to select and delete a bunch of emails, text messages, anything in a list at once; and the secret gestures that undo and redo. Like, for example, if you accidentally delete a bunch of emails.
If your iPhone is ever having odd technical problems, the first thing you should try is a good old restart — you’ll be surprised how many problems can be fixed by simply restarting.
Restarting your iPhone is just like restarting a computer. All of the apps and software will be reset, and you shouldn’t lose any saved data.
If an app you’re using is acting up, you can always force-quit it and open it again to reset it. But if there’s a deeper underlying problem with your phone’s software, like if Bluetooth accessories aren’t working or phone calls suddenly won’t connect, you should restart it.
Here’s how.
A great way to personalize your Mac is with custom Mac folder icons. In fact, you can change any icon on your Mac to customize it to your taste. That includes any app, folder, disk or file icon.
Personally, I didn’t like the yellow icon of my external hard drive — so I changed it to blue. I’ve also edited a few app icons for better consistency in my Dock.
I’ll show you how to do it yourself.
How do you turn off the webcam video reactions on your Mac in macOS Sonoma? This feature, which puts full-screen animated effects on your video calls, made a good demo when it was introduced. But after it launched, it confused many people who trigger it accidentally in serious situations.
It works in FaceTime video calls and various other videoconferencing software. However, the Off button isn’t where you might expect. It’s not hiding in Zoom, Skype or Google Meet at all — it’s in the Mac’s menu bar.
Let me show you what’s going on and how you can turn off video reactions on Mac.
Whether you run a video production studio or you’re starting a hobby YouTube channel, you’ll want to make sure you have the best Mac for video editing.
Video editing is a good stress test for any computer. Cutting together an epic two-hour video essay requires high-speed storage, a lot of memory, processing power and GPU power. Apple silicon delivers all this in spades. Apple’s chips also come with special built-in hardware for processing video — the Media Engine.
These days, every Mac is capable of 4K video editing. The best Mac for you comes down to whether you want a desktop or a laptop — and the size of your budget. Keep reading or watch our latest video.
Using two iOS 17 features in tandem gives you a great way to stop unknown callers on iPhone. The Live Voicemail feature pairs very well with Silence Unknown Callers. With both of these turned on, unwanted calls will be far less intrusive, but you will still be able to pick up the important calls as they come in.
Here’s how to use Live Voicemail and Silence Unknown Callers to avoid phone spam and other annoyances without missing crucial calls.
If your group chat or work messages start blowing up in the middle of a meeting, you’ll want to know how to silence your Apple Watch quickly. You have a few options: Silent mode controls whether a notification makes a sound. Do Not Disturb controls whether you receive notifications. Theater mode turns off the display.
You can also use a quick shortcut to turn on silent mode in a pinch.
Apple Maps makes it easy to find EV charging stations while you’re on the road to figure out where you can top up your electric car. Apple added some powerful new features in iOS 17 to simplify this sometimes-daunting process for EV owners. Now you can see electric car charger availability, charging speeds and connector types so you can find a way to juice up your vehicle.
Here’s how it works.
The best way to send someone a great article you just read online is to share a link with quoted text: It highlights whatever you found interesting in the post and encourages them to click the link.
Usually, you would have to copy the quote and paste it with the link, but there’s a hidden way to do it in Safari. It’ll properly format the rich link with the quoted text highlighted above.
If you want to quote a specific line from an article or a how-to (like this one), sending it with a pull quote is easier and looks nicer than copying the text you want and putting it in quotation marks as a separate text.
And it takes just a second! Here’s how it’s done.
If you have a family, odds are you share a house, furniture, car and more. But you might not give as much attention to what you share in your digital lives, even if your digital pictures and purchases are equally valuable. Luckily, Apple Family Sharing makes it easy to share photos, movies, apps and more.
It just takes a little bit of setup to share iCloud’s fantastic Family Sharing feature. Here are the top six benefits of using it.
You can make custom stickers from photos on your iPhone and send them in iMessage, Snapchat and WhatsApp. Stickers made from your own pictures are a lot of fun to send in group chats. They’re great for sending highly personal reactions using photos of people or pets that everyone knows. You can even add fun sticker effects.
Making these custom stickers from photos stems from an iOS 16 featured that brought the ability to copy and paste the subject from a picture. Now, in iOS 17, it’s easy to collect your personalized cutouts int a set of digital stickers you can use anywhere. I’ll show you how it all works.
You might only use the Mac’s built-in Preview app when you need to read a PDF or zoom in on a picture, but there’s much more to the software than meets the eye. It’s a pretty handy image editor for Mac, too.
In this how-to, I’ll go over six features that will let you make the most of Preview, a handy tool that’s an overlooked benefit to using a Mac. I have three tips for working with documents and three for editing pictures.