At our meeting on the 27th of May Robert gave us some tips on macOS Monterey. We also shared some suggestions and helped members with their Apple questions.
macOS Monterey Tips
Robert shared some more tips on macOS Monterey, concentrating on smaller and less obvious features including:
- The “Protect Mail Activity” option in Apple Mail that allows you to view images in email messages without alerting the sender that you’ve opened the message. Mailmodo have an article explaining this feature from an email marketer’s point of view.
- The dot next to the Control Centre menu bar icon which indicates an app is using the camera and/or microphone. The app responsible is shown at the top of the Control Centre menu.
- Also in Control Centre, when the camera is in use you can click Camera Effects to enable background blur, this works in most apps including FaceTime.
- For AirPods Pro and Max users there is an option to virtually Spatialize Stereo audio.
- Low Power Mode is now available on Mac laptops (similar to the option which has been available in iOS for some time).
- A focus mode can be set to be enabled automatically when you use a particular app or apps and is then disabled when you’re not using the apps. Handy if you always want to disable notifications when reading in Books or while editing in iMovie for example.
- The menu bar can be set to always show in full screen, the option is in System Preferences/Dock & Menu Bar.
- Tags are now available in Notes, just type #tagname in the text to tag your notes (not mentioned at the meeting, you can also create smart folders which gater all notes with the tags you select).
- Photos received in Messages now have an icon so you can save them to Photos in one click.
- The import feature of the Photos app now allows you to import from a Photo library allowing you to merge libraries if you have more than one.
- If you cancel a large file copy in Finder, macOS Monterey now offers you the option to resume it later.
Mac Rumors has a list of useful Monterey tips that they keep updated.
App Development Update
DaveK gave us a demo of the progress made on the new iOS app he’s currently developing. You can find details of Dave’s currently available Mac and iOS apps on the Zenopolis web site.
Member suggestions
- Robert mentioned the new iOS Siri feature that allows you to turn off another family member’s alarm. The person must be in your Family Sharing group with their device on the same WiFi network as you.
Ben had a few suggestions for us:
- We discussed Mac troubleshooting and he mentioned that TechTool Pro was previously recommended by Apple. A current version supporting macOS Monterey is available.
- Using the markup feature in Apple apps to add annotations including text to images.
- Hiding the Dock (so it appears only when you move the pointer to the bottom of the screen) to give more screen space. This is set using the option in System Preferences/Dock & Menu Bar.
- The torch function is easily available on the home screen of iOS devices with FaceID, just press and hold the icon. It’s also possible to change the brightness. Apple have an article on how to use the torch.
- DaveK mentioned that you can ask Siri to turn on and off the torch using spell names from Harry Potter, “Hey Siri, Lumos” and “Hey Siri, Nox” respectively.
- Another handy Siri feature from DaveK, you can ask them to roll a dice for you and specify the number of sides, for example “Hey Siri, roll a 20 sided dice”.