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iOS 18 Tips, Tricks, How-Tos, News

How To: Block Shortcuts Notifications from Showing Up Every Time You Run an Automation on Your iPhone

There are a lot of cool shortcuts you could run on your iPhone, but in iOS 13 and iOS 14, you'll likely see a notification any time you try to run an automation. Shortcuts should feel seamless when their actions are performed, and getting a banner alert each time one initializes takes away the seamlessness of it all. But there is a way to block them.

How To: Apple Saves Your Siri & Dictation History — Here's the Easy Way to Delete It

Apple has an excellent reputation for its privacy and security policies. That said, it isn't a perfect reputation. Take Siri, for example. The helpful iOS assistant isn't just communicating with you — Apple saves and listens to a history of your Siri interactions. If you don't want Apple storing your Siri history forever, there's something you can do about it.

How To: The Best Black Friday Deals on iPhone Accessories

The holiday season is here! Whether you're gift shopping for the iPhone owners in your life or just trying to save some money on your own purchases, Black Friday can deal out the discounts. This year, you'll find great prices on iPhone accessories of all kinds — all Thanksgiving week long — whether you're buying gear for an iPhone 12, X, or 7, there's something here for everyone.

How To: All the Ways Guided Access Can Help While Gaming on Your iPhone

You can't get the same gaming experience on your iPhone as you would on a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or gaming computer. The processing power is less, the controls inadequate, and there are many on-screen distractions, all of which make mobile gaming less enjoyable. While you can't fix many of these issues, there is a way to prevent some problems, and that's thanks to Guided Access.

How To: Auto-Change Your iPhone's Background with MacOS Big Sur's Dynamic Wallpapers

Three new wallpapers showed up in iOS 14.0, each with dark and light versions, while iOS 14.2 added eight more. Each iPhone also has live wallpapers catered specifically for it. However, none of Apple's wallpapers are dynamic. That means they won't change automatically based on certain conditions, such as what time of day it is. MacOS's do, though, and you can get those working on your iPhone.

How To: 10 Coding, SEO & More Courses on Sale Right Now That Will Turn You into a Pro Developer

This holiday season, give yourself a gift that will keep on giving: a new web development skill. Whether it's to secure lucrative freelance work in the new year, bolster your résumé, or have fun with some frankly outrageous discounts on online course bundles right now (up to 99% off), there's nothing better you can do with your free time. Your future (pro coder) self will thank you.

How To: Create the Next Big Video Game by Learning Unity 2D with This Course Bundle, Now 98% Off

Whether you've always dreamed about making your own video games for fun or a career, now you can make the dream a reality with The Unity 2D Game Developer Bundle. Not only does this complete course include a ton of content, but it's not often you get to learn such valuable skills at such a low price. Right now, this course is a huge 98% off its original price, at just $39.99 (regular price $2,189).

How To: Make Sure Your AirPods Pro Are Always Fully Charged by Turning Off This Setting

Your AirPods Pro can run up to 4.5 hours when 100% charged up. However, they're programmed to stop charging at 80%, and it won't kick back in until they think you'll need that extra 20%. That means they won't last as long in your ears before needing put back in the case. And you could end up with dead AirPods Pro if you're out, can't hit up a charger, and your case is out of juice.

How To: Shrink the Pixel 5's Giant Status Bar Down to a Normal Size

The Pixel 5 is the first mainstream phone with perfectly symmetrical slim bezels. Most other "bezel-less" phones have had a disproportionately large bottom bezel, and while the iPhone's side and bottom bezels are symmetrical, there's a huge notch across most of its top bezel. The downside to the Pixel's approach is it has a pretty big display cutout for the front camera.

How To: Stop Getting Unwanted AirDrops on Your iPhone from Strangers & Pranksters

One of Apple's best features is AirDrop, which easily lets you send files to other Apple devices with a simple tap. That said, it might be a little too easy to use since just about anyone can send a file to your iPhone, whether you know them or not. The difference between AirDrop as a useful tool among your contacts and an open channel for the entire iPhone community comes down to one setting.

How To: Learn Coding in Just One Hour a Day with This Top-Rated Course

No matter the field you work in, tech dominates every industry in 2020, and that means that you can always increase your earning potential by adding valuable coding skills to your arsenal. Coding can lead to dream software development career paths, lucrative freelance work, and it can be an impressive boost to your résumé. Now, you can learn these valuable skills at home with The Complete One Hour Coder Bundle, an offer at an unmissable 97% off its usual price, at just $34.99 (usually $1,200).

How To: Make Your iPhone 12 Pro Max Feel Less Huge When Using It with One Hand

For all of its many perks — from the best iPhone camera system money can buy, to arguably the best smartphone display on the market — the iPhone 12 Pro Max is undeniably huge. It has the largest iPhone screen to date despite being 0.46 cubic inches smaller than the iPhone 11 Pro Max in overall size. If you're finding it a little too much to handle with one hand, there are ways to make it much easier to use.

How To: Trigger Reachability on Your iPhone to Interact with the Top Part of the Screen One-Handed

Apple's "Reachability" feature made its debut with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, to compensate for larger screen sizes, allowing users to reach screen items at the top while using one hand. It has since become a staple feature of all iPhones (except the original iPhone SE), but how you activate it varies depending on if it's a model with Face ID or Touch ID.

Blank Icon Maker: The Easiest Way to Place Apps, Folders & Widgets Anywhere on Your iPhone's Home Screen

While Apple has been making strides in iPhone customization, it's still not up to par with what Android is and always has been. You can hide apps from the home screen now in iOS 14, but for everything that's still there, you can't add gaps between icons on the same page to segregate them where you want. However, some workarounds give that effect.

How To: Use Facebook Messenger's Hidden 'Vanish Mode' for Disappearing Messages Whenever You Want

Saving a chat's history is useful for finding valuable information later on or just reliving a favorite conversation from the past. Sometimes, however, it's good to delete chat threads, and it's even better to have them auto-delete right after you see new messages. While some apps have had disappearing messages for some time (e.g. Snapchat), Facebook Messenger now has it too with "Vanish Mode."

How To: Master SEO with This Ultimate Course, Now Just $14.99

All modern entrepreneurs know that your business is as strong as its SEO. Whether you want to Rank #1 on Google to increase your personal branding, traffic to your online storefront, or to add the skills to your resume, you can now get a Complete SEO Training course for just $14.99, in the Gadget Hacks Shop, 92% off the regular cost of $199.

How To: Play Sound from 2 Apps at Once on Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

On a PC, you can play sound from multiple apps at once. It's great, but it can also be confusing — there's a volume slider in each app, then the system-wide one, and probably another knob on your speakers. To avoid this dysfunction, Android only has one sound stream for media. But that has its own problems.

How To: Change the Brightness of Your iPhone's Lock Screen Flashlight

Whenever you need a flashlight, your iPhone's LED flash may be enough to break through the darkness, and you don't even need to unlock your screen to use it. But your LED flash's brightness level may be too strong or not powerful enough. It's not immediately obvious how one would change those lumens from the lock screen, but doing so is almost as fast as turning it on.

How To: Miss When Siri Used to Display On-Screen Transcriptions of Everything Spoken? You Can Get That Back in iOS 14

With iOS 14, Siri no longer takes up the entire display unless you want it to. That may be a good thing, but the update also axed the live feedback when listening to you and responding. Siri used to transcribe your words in on-screen text before answering, and it would transcribe its own answers as well. While it looks like those are gone, you can bring them back to life at any time.

How To: Quickly View Every Link You've Ever Opened on Your Instagram Account

Instagram isn't as link-friendly as other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Still, when you do find and open a link, whether it's for a petition or a product, you may want to find it again later. That's why Instagram keeps track of every link you've ever opened. That way, if you ever need to revisit a webpage, you don't have to find the original post or account from last time.

How To: Use This Trick in iPhone Games So You're Not Redirected to Other Apps When Accidentally Tapping Ads You Try to Close

When you're playing a game on your iPhone, the chances are good that you'll come across an ad you have to watch before you can continue — especially on free games. While it may be annoying to be forced to wait for 10 seconds or even up to a full minute, it can be even more frustrating when you accidentally leave the game to visit the ad's linked app or site when trying to hit the little "x" to continue gaming.

How To: Use Apple's iPhone 12 Studio to See How MagSafe Accessories Will Look on Your New Phone

There's a variety of brilliant colors in the iPhone 12 lineup, including the elegant Gold and show-stealing Pacific Blue finishes on the Pro models. It's difficult enough to choose an iPhone color as a customer, but deciding on accessories can make things even worse. Which color case looks best with what iPhone color? What about a MagSafe wallet attachment? Well, Apple has a tool to help you figure that all out.

How To: Bring Back Full-Page Siri in iOS 14 So You're Not Distracted by Any Apps Underneath

Full-page interfaces are so iOS 13. With Apple's iOS 14, alerts such incoming phone and FaceTime calls now appear as small banners instead. The same goes for Siri. Instead of using your iPhone's full display, Siri now exists in an unobtrusive overlay. But if you miss the focus that full-screen Siri used to bring, you're in luck because the feature still exists — it's just hidden.