At this meeting, held on the 22nd of November we talked about a number of topics raised by members and shared some interesting tips and discoveries.
Tips & Topics
- DaveK had noticed that in iOS 18 pressing the power or volume buttons causes a visual indent along the screen edge.
- DaveK mentioned a discussion of future AI based Siri enhancements on a recent episode of the MacOS Ken podcast.
- Robert mentioned buying postage online via Royal Mail and their parcel collection service.
- DavidB was able to compare health readings from his Apple Watch with calibrated professional equipment and found the readings he was tracking at the time closely matched. Always best to seek professional medical advice if you get an Apple watch health warning.
- DavidB recommended Lessons in Chemistry, Silo and Bad Sisters all on Apple TV+.
- Ben had noticed “speak” options appearing when he tried to copy a password from the Passwords app on iOS. We found that this was being caused by the “Speak selection” option being switched on in the “Spoken content” section of Accessibility settings.
- Robert mentioned the “Minimise windows into application icon” setting in System Settings/Desktop & Dock on Mac. This prevents minimised windows from being added to the right of the Dock.
- DaveK added that you can trigger App Exposé (which shows all app windows) from the app icon using a force click on a trackpad. We looked into this and found there are lots of other additional actions available with force touch.
- iOS 18 highlights if you’re using a slow USB or wireless charger.
- We talked about iPad battery health and found that a battery health percentage is only available on the very latest 2024 models. Toms Guide have a pretty complex and technical procedure for finding this information on older iPads.
- Mac battery charging was also mentioned, we found this Apple support document about optimised battery charging on Mac.
- DaveK had been using the Bluesky social media platform and we mentioned their starter pack feature that allows you to quickly follow accounts related to a specific topic.
- DaveK asked about the transparent border feature of the iPhone camera app. Ben noted that this can be turned off in settings (it’s called “View outside the frame”) if you do not like it.