What Can You Do With the iPhone’s Action Button? Nearly Anything!

Starting with the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, Apple replaced the Ring/Silent switch on the top-left edge of the iPhone with the Action button, making the new button standard across the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 lineups in subsequent years. The Action button is a dedicated hardware button you can configure to perform one of many different tasks. Although Apple prompts everyone setting up a new iPhone to configure the Action button, our experience is that many people haven’t integrated it into their everyday usage.

Taking advantage of the Action button isn’t hard, but there are obstacles. The Ring/Silent switch had only one function, whereas the Action button offers so many options that it’s easy to fall prey to decision paralysis. Also, because the Action button is configurable, it behaves differently even if you leave it set to Silent Mode. The Ring/Silent switch was a physical switch that also showed its state with an orange indicator. With the Action button, you can’t tell at a glance if Silent Mode is on, and activating it requires a relatively long press-and-hold. Finally, the Action button’s ultimate power lies in its Controls and Shortcuts options, but many users are unaware of the wide-ranging possibilities these unlock.

So let’s look at how to make the most of the Action button. To configure the Action button, go to Settings > Action Button and swipe through the choices. The choice on screen when you exit Settings will be active. Although there are no bad choices here, many of the options Apple provides can be activated just as easily through Control Center or Siri, so you might not want to dedicate the Action button to them.

• Silent Mode: Toggle call and alert sounds on and off. This is the default setting, but unless you regularly need to toggle the ringer, it’s not worth dedicating the Action button to such a seldom-used option. You can toggle Silent Mode in Control Center just as easily.

• Focus: Activate or switch Focus modes such as Do Not Disturb. We recommend using Focus sparingly because it can block desired notifications, but if you’re a fan, the Action button might be a good way to switch between them. Focus modes are also easy to select in Control Center and turn on with “Siri, turn on Do Not Disturb.”

• Camera: Launch the Camera app. If your iPhone has the Camera Control (as do all Action button-equipped models except the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max and iPhone 16e), the Camera Control is the best way to open the Camera, but the Action button might still be helpful for opening the Camera app to a specific mode: Photo, Selfie, Video, Portrait, or Portrait Selfie.

• Visual Intelligence: Launch Apple’s AI-powered object recognition feature. Again, pressing and holding the Camera Control (if available) is a better way to access Visual Intelligence.

• Flashlight: Turn the flashlight on or off. This may be a good choice if you use the flashlight regularly, but if so, you’re probably already accustomed to tapping its icon on the iPhone’s Lock Screen. If your hands are too full, try “Siri, turn on the flashlight.”

• Voice Memo: Start recording audio in the Voice Memos app. If you use Voice Memos heavily, you may like this use of the Action button. Alternatively, just say, “Siri, record a voice memo.”

• Recognize Music: Use Shazam to identify music that’s playing nearby or on your iPhone. Another way to invoke Shazam quickly is to ask, “Siri, what’s playing?”

• Translate: Starts listening to translate between the default languages you set up in the Translate app. This use of the Action button is a great shortcut if you’re traveling in another country and need quick translations, but most people don’t need it every day.

• Magnifier: Launch the Magnifier app to make it easier to see tiny text and small objects. Those with low vision may particularly appreciate this use of the Action button, but the Magnifier app is also easily accessed from a Control Center button or by saying, “Siri, open Magnifier.”

• Controls: Invoke any Control Center control. Here’s where things get interesting! Starting with iOS 18, iPhone apps can create controls in Control Center. With the Controls option, you can choose any available control, so you could have the Action button start a ChatGPT conversation, add a task to TickTick, create a new event in BusyCal, or myriad other options. We strongly encourage you to scroll through the available controls to see if any catch your interest.

• Shortcut: Activate any custom Shortcut for personalized actions. The previous Controls choice is brilliant, but what if you want even more options? With Shortcuts, you can create custom actions that can even leverage multiple apps to do exactly what you want. For instance, you could create a shortcut that takes a photo of an expense receipt and sends it to a specific email address, all triggered by a long press on the Action button. The sky is the limit here.

• Accessibility: Quick access to accessibility features like VoiceOver, Zoom, Speak Screen, Apple Watch Mirroring, Live Captions, Conversation Boost, and more. Don’t assume these options are only for people with disabilities; many have broader utility.

• No Action: The final option is No Action, which is useful only if you accidentally press the Action button frequently and don’t want it to do anything.

So there you have it! If you’re not currently using the Action button, take a spin through the available options to see which can make a difference in your everyday iPhone experience.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

How to Encourage Successful AI Use in Your Organization

The AI hype train continues to gain momentum, with breathless reports of rapid user growth, billion-dollar deals, and sky-high company valuations. At the same time, it’s easy to highlight AI pilot failures, problematic uses, and worries about job losses.

As always, reality lies between the extremes. AI is just another technological tool, like spreadsheets, email, and the searchable Web. Like them, casual usage won’t automatically increase an organization’s productivity. At best, many people have begun using AI chatbots as a smarter search engine, and while that’s a fine start, it’s unlikely to make a notable difference. Many others are technology skeptics who are uncomfortable with any new technology, let alone one as fuzzy as AI. Even those who are interested and capable are often overwhelmed by their existing work and don’t have time to learn yet another tool.

So how do you set up an organization to make effective—even transformative—use of AI?

Get Buy-In from Management

Ideally, the desire to adopt AI would come from the top of the organization, with leadership discussing and modeling the kind of usage they want to see. But what’s absolutely essential is lower-level management creating the culture, resources, and time necessary for employees to experiment with AI.

Evangelize from the Bottom, Don’t Mandate from the Top

Although management must be on board, a CEO memo mandating immediate AI adoption won’t have the desired effect. Unlike many other technologies, AI solutions tend to be highly specific rather than one-size-fits-all. Frontline employees know where they’re wasting time with inefficient workflows, and they have first-hand knowledge of what customers want, so they’re more likely to be able to leverage AI tools when they are involved in the development and deployment. Solutions created without their participation likely won’t benefit the business’s bottom line, customers, or employees.

Centralize Testing and Support

A top-down approach does make sense for tool analysis and testing. The explosive growth of the AI market means that there are numerous similar options for any desired workflow. To save time, avoid future chaos, and reduce tool jumping, it can be helpful to have a single IT team evaluate the numerous possible tools, make recommendations, suggest best practices, establish basic data handling and privacy guidelines, and provide support.

Adopt a Documentation Mindset

A key to automating workflows with AI is being able to document the necessary tasks clearly first. Some organizations already have a documentation mindset, where they write everything down, define processes, and record decisions. If that’s not the case for your organization, it’s better to focus on building such documentation before creating automation tools that are unlikely to deliver the desired results. Consider using AI to help with documentation, such as by interviewing people who understand the workflows and using AI to extract an outline from the transcript of the recording.

Think of AI Tools Like a Junior Employee

The hard part of using AI is defining your goals and determining where AI can make a difference. It’s much like training a new hire. What are you trying to achieve by hiring them? What do they need to learn to do their job? What level of excellence do you expect? What common mistakes and pitfalls should they avoid? You can only automate something if you have a clear idea of what success entails and precisely what’s necessary to achieve it.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, successful AI implementation comes down to defining what you want to achieve, giving people the time they need to explore possibilities, and providing guidance rather than mandates.

(Featured image by iStock.com/FabrikaCr)

How to Ensure You Don’t Miss Reminders

Recording a task in Apple’s Reminders app on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad is just the first step—the app captures what you need to do—but what matters more is being reminded to take action at the right moment. (The most important step, of course, is following through, but that’s on you.)

Here’s how to configure Reminders to get your attention at the right moment, whether through time-based alerts, location triggers, or when you chat with someone in Messages. Particularly helpful is the new alarm feature in iOS 26.2 that ensures you can’t miss time-based alerts. We’ll focus on the iPhone here, but the iPad and Mac interfaces are similar.

Time-Based Notifications

The most straightforward way to be reminded is at a specific date and time. When creating or editing a reminder, turn on the Date and Time switches to set when you want to be notified. You can also enter natural language times in the title, such as “tomorrow at 3 PM”—tap the autocomplete suggestion to convert it to the actual notification time. Voice commands via Siri also work especially well, such as “Siri, remind me to call my mother at 8 PM.” When the time arrives, you’ll receive a standard notification banner on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch.

For recurring tasks, after setting a date, select an option from the Repeat menu: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom intervals. Recurring reminders are perfect for routine tasks such as taking out the recycling or submitting weekly reports. (Medication reminders are often used as an example of recurring reminders, but they’re more effectively handled in the Health app.)

Early Reminders

Although reminders are seldom as time-sensitive as calendar events, where you can set multiple alerts ahead of the actual event, it can still be helpful to receive an additional notification to prep for the reminder’s time. For instance, you might want an early notification a week before “Cancel free trial subscription” to evaluate whether you want to keep the service.

After setting a date and time for a reminder, choose an item from the Early Reminder menu to receive an additional notification minutes, hours, or even days before the scheduled time. This gives you a heads-up that something is coming due without replacing the original notification at the scheduled time.

Alarms in iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2

For most reminders, it isn’t important that you start the task as soon as the notification appears. It doesn’t matter exactly when you cancel the free trial, as long as it happens before the renewal date, so a notification that remains on the Lock Screen is sufficient. But for other tasks, missing a notification would be a big problem. If the turkey needs to go in the oven at 2 PM so it’s ready for Thanksgiving dinner, you don’t want to get distracted by the football game and miss the notification.

To help, Apple added an alarm feature in iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 that lets Reminders trigger full-screen alarms that behave like those in the Clock app. It’s essential for critical reminders that absolutely cannot be missed. Alarms only work for the person who created the reminder, even if the reminder is on a shared list.

To enable an alarm for a reminder, set a date and time, then turn on the Urgent switch. (It doesn’t appear to be possible to enable Urgent via Siri.) When the reminder comes due, instead of a simple notification banner, you’ll see (and hear) an alarm on your iPhone (and Apple Watch) with options to dismiss or snooze it for 9 minutes. The alarm will continue to sound until you respond, making it much harder to ignore than a standard notification. You can even reschedule snoozed alarms if necessary.

This feature can be a lifesaver for time-sensitive tasks like picking up a prescription before the drugstore closes, joining crucial meetings, or any reminder where a simple banner notification isn’t enough. We hope Apple adds alarms to the Calendar app as well.

Location-Based Reminders

Reminders can also be triggered based on where you are. Location-based reminders are ideal for tasks like “Pick up dry cleaning” when you’re near the cleaners or “Defrost the chicken for dinner” when you arrive home.

Turn on the Location switch when creating a reminder to choose from options like:

• Current location

• Saved locations like Home and Work

• Custom locations

• Getting In or Getting Out (of a car; these options require a CarPlay or Bluetooth connection to your vehicle)

For the location options, you can request alerts when you arrive or leave. To set a custom location, search for an address or point of interest. You can adjust the geofence radius to control how close you need to be for the reminder to trigger.

When Messaging Someone

If you associate something you want to remember with a particular person, Reminders can notify you when you’re communicating with them in Messages. It’s perfect for things you want to mention but aren’t important enough to warrant starting a conversation—“Ask John about their new puppy.”

When editing a reminder, enable When Messaging and select a contact. The next time you open a Messages conversation with that person, a notification will appear reminding you of the task.

Choosing the Right Alert Method

Each notification type serves different purposes:

• Time-based notifications work well for scheduled tasks and deadlines, with early reminders for advance warning and alarms for critical tasks that can’t be missed.

• Location-based reminders are ideal for errands and place-specific tasks.

• When Messaging ensures you remember to discuss something with a specific person.

By combining these options, you can ensure that essential tasks receive the attention they deserve and are delivered in the way most likely to prompt action.

(Featured image by iStock.com/champpixs)

Five Invisible Characters That Still Matter in Word Processing and Layout

In earlier eras of word processing, users were much more likely to encounter explanations of document structure—not because everyone had to become an expert, but because knowledge was shared differently. Software shipped with detailed manuals, user groups and training classes focused on how documents worked under the hood, and power users routinely shared mental models and tips. (Who remembers being turned onto WordPerfect’s Reveal Codes?) Today’s writing tools are simpler to use and much better at hiding complexity, but that also means fewer opportunities for users to learn that invisible characters even exist, much less that they have different attributes and consequences.

We’ll look at five invisible characters that shape how text behaves: the regular space, non-breaking space, tab, hard return, and soft return. You already use regular spaces and hard returns, but understanding the other three—and when to employ them—can help you create cleaner, more professional documents and troubleshoot layout problems.

How to See Invisible Characters

Nearly every text editor, word processor, and page layout app includes an option to show “invisibles” (the term may vary, but the concept is the same). When Show Invisibles is enabled, you’ll see dots, arrows, paragraph marks, and other symbols that represent normally invisible characters. They typically appear in a color different from the default text color, such as the blue characters in the screenshot below.

Regular Spaces Versus Non-Breaking Spaces

Everyone knows what a space is—it’s a breakable separator between words. By “breakable,” we mean the next word can wrap down to the next line of text. A regular space expresses the default intent: separate words and allow normal line wrapping.

However, there are situations when you want two words to stay together because it could be confusing if the second one wraps down to the next line. In those situations, you can use a non-breaking space—inserted by pressing Option-Space on the Mac or (usually) Control-Shift-Space in Windows, and represented in HTML by  . Word processors usually distinguish non-breaking spaces from regular spaces when showing invisibles—for example, Microsoft Word uses a small open circle for non-breaking spaces and a dot for regular spaces.

When would you use non-breaking spaces?

• Numbers with units: The most common use of non-breaking spaces is to keep numbers with their units, such as “1 TB” or “72 ºF.”

• Names with titles, and initials with surnames: Non-breaking spaces are also useful for names with titles, such as “Mr. Spock,” and for people who go by their initials, such as “J. K. Rowling.”

• Short phrases that function as a single unit: Some short phrases are conceptually one piece and should not be split across lines. This includes dates (“January 19”), times (“9:41 AM”), version numbers (“iOS 26”), and textual references (“Figure 4”).

If you are using page layout software, check whether it has character styling that keeps words together, such as Adobe InDesign’s No Break style.

Tabs Versus Spaces

Because spaces separate words, many people overuse them to increase visual separation between words and to align text, such as in a résumé with a job title on the left and the associated dates on the right.

Unfortunately, spaces work poorly for aligning text because most fonts are proportional, meaning a lowercase i is thinner than an uppercase W. Therefore, spaces can’t align text perfectly—not because spaces differ in width, but because the characters before them do. Ragged alignment in a printed document is easily noticeable and looks unprofessional.

The simple solution is to use a tab, which aligns to a fixed position marked by a tab stop. Pressing the Tab key inserts a tab to the next tab stop, which can usually align text to the left, right (shown below), center, or decimal point. Most apps have a few default tab stops, and you may never need anything different. However, you can usually customize the behavior and location of the tab stops. First, put your insertion point in the paragraph you want to work in, or select a swath of paragraphs. Then, either use the ruler to customize the stops or use dedicated tab controls, such as in Microsoft Word’s Format > Paragraph > Tabs dialog. More advanced users will want to customize tab stops within paragraph styles.

Although we can now use tables and layout tools for much of what tabs were necessary for in the early days of word processing, tabs remain useful in some situations, such as:

• Horizontal placement: If you want your signature to appear below a letter on the right, you could right-align the entire line, but a right-aligned tab stop gives you more control over where the signature appears.

• Simple lists: For a short contact list that includes name, phone, and email, setting a few tab stops could be easier than inserting and formatting a table.

• Quick outlines: When creating a quick outline, such as an agenda with left-aligned times and indented session titles, use tabs to create indentation. This preserves the outline structure and makes it easier to adjust later.

If you’re trying to align text rather than separate words, a tab expresses that intent far better than spaces ever can.

Hard Returns Versus Soft Returns

Most people understand hard returns, which separate one paragraph from the next. Pressing Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) creates a hard return. For example, you’d put a return between a heading paragraph and the following body paragraph. Less well-known are soft returns, which start a new line within a paragraph, but do not end the paragraph. An important side effect of a soft return is that whatever paragraph formatting is applied to the paragraph will continue to apply to the new line. To type a soft return, type Shift-Return or Shift-Enter. (In HTML, paragraphs are marked with a pair of <p></p> tags, while soft returns use the <br> tag.)

The most common reasons to use soft returns include:

• Multi-line formatting: Some blocks of text are conceptually single paragraphs displayed across multiple lines. Think of postal addresses, poetry, and song lyrics.

• Maintain numbering or outline level: In lists and outlines, hard returns increment a list number or add a new outline entry, whereas soft returns insert a line break without creating a new number or outline entry. (HTML uses <li></li> tags to denote list items, but you can still use <br> tags within list items.)

• Narrow layouts: Soft returns are often necessary to force text down to the next line in columns, sidebars, captions, and callouts. They are a helpful supplement to non-breaking spaces.

• Intentional formatting: In multi-line headings, captions, and labels, aim to keep lines roughly equal in length, with the last line slightly longer than the others. Use soft returns to adjust line lengths as needed.

In short, use hard returns to separate paragraphs that are standalone units of text. Use soft returns to add line breaks within a chunk of text that is conceptually a single paragraph.

When Invisible Characters Cause Problems

Understanding non-breaking spaces, tabs, and soft returns is important because they can appear in your text without you noticing. Someone might have intentionally added them, or you might have accidentally included them by copying and pasting from PDFs or the Web. Some common invisible character issues you might encounter while formatting include:

• Short lines: If a line appears unusually short, it could be caused by a soft return moving text to the next line or a non-breaking space causing two words to wrap down together.

• Fragile alignment: If aligned text shifts when you change fonts or alignment, it’s usually because spaces are being used instead of tabs.

• Text gaps: If there’s unexpected white space between words, check if a tab is there instead of a space.

• Broken list numbering: In an automatically numbered list, broken numbering may be explained by a soft return being used instead of a hard return. Fix it by deleting the return between the misnumbered line and the one above, pressing Return to insert a new hard return, and repeating as needed.

Remember, you don’t have to type with invisible characters showing, but if your text has mysterious white space or odd line wrapping, you can likely resolve those problems quickly by viewing invisible characters and making sure they are doing what they should.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Fabio Principe)

Stay Safe in 2026 with These New Year’s Resolutions

We’re approaching the end of 2025, so we encourage you to consider your New Year’s resolutions. For many people, the new year offers an opportunity to reflect on habits we’d like to adopt or solidify. Although we support reducing social media use and making other positive lifestyle changes, we’d like to suggest a few additional resolutions to improve your digital security and reduce the risk of bad things happening to you online.

If you read through this list and think, “I’m already doing all that,” then you’re done. Keep up the good work!

Back Up All Your Devices Regularly

The most important thing you can do to avoid digital disasters is to back up your data regularly. Bad things happen to good devices, like a Mac’s SSD failing, an iPhone falling into a pool, or data being lost due to theft, fire, or flood. With a solid backup plan, you can recover from nearly any problem.

For the Mac, the easiest way to back up is to use an external drive with Time Machine, but an off-site or Internet backup is also essential. Backblaze is a good choice, but there are numerous online backup services. For iPhones and iPads, it’s simplest to back up to iCloud, which automatically happens every night if you turn it on in Settings > Your Name > iCloud > iCloud Backup. You can also back up iPhones and iPads to your Mac if you do not have enough iCloud storage space. Apple Watches automatically back up to their paired iPhones, and that Watch data is included in iPhone backups, making restores straightforward. Whatever your setup, restore a few files periodically as a test to make sure your backups are working.

Always Install Security Updates

An important step to enhance your security is to install new operating system updates and security updates promptly after Apple releases them. While the specifics rarely make headlines because they are highly technical and detailed, you can gauge the significance of security updates by noting that a typical update fixes 10–30 vulnerabilities identified by Apple or external researchers. Other security updates include only one or two fixes, as they’re aimed at addressing zero-day vulnerabilities currently being exploited in the wild.

It’s usually wise to wait a few days after an update appears before installing it, in case it causes any undesirable side effects. Although such problems are rare, when they do happen, Apple quickly pulls the update, resolves the issue, and releases a new version, typically within a few days.

Use a Password Manager

We’ll keep emphasizing the importance of a password manager until passkeys—the replacement for passwords—become widespread, which will take years. Until then, if you’re still typing passwords manually or copying and pasting from a list stored in a file, please start using a password manager like 1Password or Apple’s Passwords, which is now pretty good. A password manager provides six significant benefits:

• It generates strong passwords for you. Password1234 can be hacked in seconds.

• It stores your passwords securely. Anyone walking by your unlocked Mac can read an Excel file on your desktop.

• It enters passwords for you. Wouldn’t that be easier than typing them in?

• It audits existing accounts. How many of your accounts use the same weak password, which has likely been stolen in multiple breaches?

• It lets you access passwords on all your devices. Logging in to websites is just as easy on the iPhone and iPad!

• It can store and enter two-factor authentication codes. Whenever possible, protect important accounts with two-factor authentication so even a stolen password won’t provide access.

A bonus benefit for families is password sharing. It allows couples to share essential passwords or parents and teens to share specific passwords.

Using a password manager is quicker, simpler, and more secure. If you need assistance getting started, reach out.

Beware of Phishing Email

Individuals and businesses often experience security breaches due to phishing, which involves fake emails that trick someone into revealing login details, credit card numbers, or other sensitive data. While spam filters catch many of these attacks, you must stay alert. Here’s what to watch out for:

• Any email that tries to get you to reveal information, follow a link, or sign a document

• Messages from unfamiliar people, asking you to take an unusual action

• Direct email from a large company for whom you’re an anonymous customer

• Forged email from a trusted source requesting sensitive information

• Urgent threats like “account locked,” “unauthorized charge,” or “action required”

• All messages that contain numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes

When unsure, avoid clicking the link or replying to the email. Instead, reach out to the sender via another method to verify the message’s authenticity. Legitimate companies—especially Apple, financial institutions, and cellular carriers—will never ask for your password or two‑factor codes by email, text, or voice.

Never Respond to Unsolicited Calls or Texts

Phishing attacks increasingly take place via texts and phone calls—and even some via deepfake audio and video. Because of weaknesses in the telephone system, these messages and calls can appear to come from trusted companies like Apple and Amazon. Other common scams warn about unauthorized logins or payments to trick recipients into calling scammers, advertise fake deliveries with malicious tracking links, or send fake two-factor authentication messages that prompt recipients to click a link to “secure” their account.

Avoid clicking links in texts unless you recognize the sender and it makes sense for you to receive that link. (For example, Apple might send text messages with delivery details for a recently placed order.) Never enter login information on a website you reach through a link because you can’t be sure it’s legitimate. Instead, if you’re interested in more details, go directly to the company’s official website by typing its URL into your browser, then log in from there.

For calls from companies, unless you’re expecting a callback regarding a support ticket you opened, don’t answer—caller ID can be spoofed. Let the call go to voicemail, and if you believe it’s important to respond, look up the company’s phone number from a reliable source and contact someone at that number instead of using the one provided by voicemail.

Avoid Anything Associated with Sketchy Websites

We won’t dwell on this last point, but it’s worth noting that you’re much more likely to encounter malware on fringe websites or those that cater to societal vices. The more you can steer clear of sites that deal with pirated software, cryptocurrency, adult content, gambling, or the sale of illicit substances, the safer you’ll be. That’s not to say reputable sites haven’t been hacked and used to spread malware, but such cases are far less frequent.

Don’t call numbers from pop‑ups or ads, don’t grant remote access, and don’t pay for any service you didn’t seek out unprompted. Instead, go directly to the company’s official site (type the URL) or contact us for help. And never paste commands into Terminal from websites or “verification” pages—you could install malware without realizing it. If you’re worried after spending time in the darker corners of the Web, stop by GeekHampton and we’ll get Malwarebytes set up for you and run a full scan to make sure your Mac is clean.

Let’s raise a glass to staying safe online in 2026!

(Featured image by iStock.com/Marut Khobtakhob)

New Features in iOS 26.1

The first feature update to iOS 26 is now available—go to Settings > General > Software Update to install iOS 26.1. It doesn’t introduce any game-changers, but there are a few new options and tweaks worth knowing about.

Tinted Option for Liquid Glass

For many people, Liquid Glass’s aggressive transparency can make some interface elements, especially notifications, difficult to read. Until now, your best bet for improving readability was to turn on Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency. In iOS 26.1, Apple bowed to user feedback and added a new Tinted view in Settings > Display & Brightness > Liquid Glass, which adds a subtle tint and increases the opacity of many Liquid Glass interface elements. In the screenshot below, the left image uses the default Liquid Glass Clear view, the middle one uses the Tinted view, and the right one uses Clear with Reduce Transparency. You can decide which you like best.

Disable Lock Screen Camera Swipe

For many years, a fast way to get to the Camera app has been to swipe left on the Lock Screen. With new iPhones featuring the Camera Control button for quick access to the Camera app, Apple has given us the option to disable the Lock Screen left swipe. If you find yourself accidentally opening the Camera app from the Lock Screen, you can now prevent that from happening by turning off Settings > Camera > Lock Screen Swipe to Open Camera.

Background Security Improvements

Several years ago, Apple introduced Rapid Security Responses, focused security updates that aimed to reduce update hesitancy with small downloads, automatic installation, and easy reversal. For unknown reasons, Apple used them only a couple of times before reverting to traditional operating system updates. Now, Rapid Security Responses seem to have returned under a new name: Background Security Improvements. They’re enabled by default in Settings > Privacy & Security > Background Security Improvements > Automatically Install. If you prefer to approve these updates in advance, you can turn that off. (A similar setting is available for macOS 26.1.)

Slide to Stop Alarms and Timers

In iOS 26, Apple increased the size of the buttons that appear when alarms or timers go off, but the large Stop button was easy to hit when you meant to tap Snooze (for alarms) or Repeat (for timers). Apple made that mistake much less likely in iOS 26.1 by requiring you to slide the on-screen control to stop the alarm or timer.

Swipe Between Songs in Music

Sure, you could just tap a song in the album or playlist you’re viewing, but iOS 26.1 adds a subtle way to move to the next or previous track: swipe left (next) or right (previous) on the MiniPlayer at the bottom of the screen.

More Languages for Live Translation

iOS 26 introduced Live Translation with the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, AirPods Pro 2, and AirPods Pro 3. Initially, it supported English (US and UK), French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain). In iOS 26.1, Apple added Chinese (Mandarin, simplified and traditional), Italian, Japanese, and Korean. To avoid delays in getting new languages when you are out and about, download the languages you expect to need ahead of time, when you have a fast Internet connection. Go to Settings > Bluetooth and tap the ⓘ next to your AirPods. Scroll to and tap Languages, then select the desired language. For actual use, open the Translate app, tap Live, and select the two languages you want to translate between.

There are a few other tweaks that most people won’t notice, such as support for the new AutoMix transitions between songs in Music when playing over AirPlay, better FaceTime audio quality in low-bandwidth conditions, manual logging of workouts in the Fitness app, and improvements when recording audio with external USB mics.

If you’re already running iOS 26, we recommend updating to iOS 26.1—the changes (and numerous security fixes) are worthwhile. If you haven’t upgraded from iOS 18 yet, now’s a fine time to make the jump.

(Featured image based on an original by Apple)

Make the Most of Visual Intelligence on the iPhone

The “visual intelligence” aspect of Apple Intelligence leverages the artificial intelligence capabilities of your iPhone to make what you see through the iPhone’s camera or on its screen interactive and actionable in ways that weren’t previously possible. It’s one of the most useful aspects of Apple Intelligence.

Triggering Visual Intelligence

We offer numerous examples of visual intelligence’s superpowers later in this article, but first, let’s make sure you know how to activate its two modes: camera mode and screenshot mode. Use camera mode to learn more about the world around you; use screenshot mode for help with something on your iPhone’s screen. Here’s how to trigger each mode:

•  Camera mode: Press and hold the Camera Control button on all iPhone 16 models (except the iPhone 16e), all iPhone 17 models, and the iPhone Air. Press the Camera Control again or tap the shutter button to lock the image for visual intelligence. On the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 16e, which support Apple Intelligence but lack the Camera Control, use the Action button, a Lock Screen button, or a Control Center button.

•  Screenshot mode: Simultaneously press the side button and volume up button to display an interactive preview of what was on the screen.

Visual intelligence analyzes the content of your image and provides relevant action buttons based on what it detects. While the Ask and Search options are always available, other buttons appear contextually depending on the content.

•  Ask: Tapping the Ask button lets you pose a question about the image to ChatGPT. (But we’ve found that Apple won’t pass on health-related questions or queries with certain types of sensitive data.)

•  Search: Tapping the search button conducts a Google Image search for similar items. It may also display tabs for search results from other apps, such as Etsy or eBay.

•  Recognized objects: When visual intelligence identifies an object, such as a specific plant or animal, it displays a button that brings up more details.

•  Text: When it detects blocks of text, visual intelligence provides buttons to summarize the text, read it aloud, or translate it.

•  Dates: If it detects a date in text, visual intelligence displays an Add to Calendar button.

•  Contact info: When details like email addresses or phone numbers appear in the image, visual intelligence can help you call or message the number, or send email.

•  Addresses: When it identifies a physical address in text, visual intelligence displays a button that opens the address in Maps.

•  URLs: This works in the virtual world as well—a URL embedded in an image prompts visual intelligence to display a button that opens the website in Safari.

•  Businesses and locations: When you capture an image of a business or other location that’s known in Maps, visual intelligence can show hours, menus, reviews, and more.

Real-World Uses for Visual Intelligence

It can be challenging to think of uses for visual intelligence at first, simply because it’s a new way of engaging with the world around you and what you see on your iPhone. We’re used to taking pictures of event flyers we want to attend, doing Google searches for things we see, asking questions of chatbots, and using specialized apps to identify plants and animals—visual intelligence can do all that and more. Here are a few practical ways to use visual intelligence today:

•  Create calendar events: Create calendar events from posters, flyers, invitations, or Web pages. When you point the camera at a poster or take a screenshot of an event page, an Add to Calendar button allows you to create an event directly from the on-screen details.

•  Find business information: Point the camera at a business to retrieve details such as hours, menu/services, phone number, and website. It’s the same information you’ll find in Maps, but it’s easier to pull up using visual intelligence.

•  Search for products: Shopping for something? Once you find an example of what you like—such as this mid-century modern sofa—take a screenshot, circle the picture with your finger, and browse the search results for similar items.

•  Summarize and read text aloud: When you’re faced with a large amount of text, especially if the font size is difficult to read, visual intelligence can provide a summary or even read it aloud. The option to have text read aloud can be particularly helpful for those with low vision.

•  Translate text: iOS offers multiple ways to translate text in unfamiliar languages, including the Translate app, but visual intelligence is often the fastest way to get a quick translation of a sign or placard.

•  Quick object identification: We’ve all wondered what some plant or animal is—using visual intelligence, you can point your camera at it to find out quickly. Just tap the name that appears to get more details.

•  Research questions: Sometimes, you know what you’re looking at but have questions about it. Instead of starting a new search, you can use visual intelligence, tap the Ask button, and pose your question to ChatGPT. Tap the response to ask a follow-up question. If you connect Apple Intelligence to your ChatGPT account in Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > ChatGPT, your conversations will be saved in ChatGPT, where you can review and continue the discussion.

•  Manipulate real-world data: Anything that can be photographed or captured in a screenshot can be used as data for other manipulations. For example, you could take a picture of a bookshelf and ask for a list of all the titles, or take a screenshot of a recipe and request the calorie count per serving.

How does visual intelligence compare to apps like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others? It outdoes them in two ways but falls short in one. Thanks to its deep integration with iOS and the iPhone’s Camera Control, it’s easier to activate visual intelligence than any other app. It also transfers data more effectively to other apps, such as sending URLs to Safari, phone numbers to Phone or Messages, addresses to Maps, and more. However, chatbot apps—which can also analyze photos and screenshots—are more conversational, offer more detailed information, and are willing to discuss potentially sensitive topics that Apple won’t touch, such as health and politics. We use visual intelligence for straightforward tasks, but for more complex situations, we often turn to a chatbot app instead.

(Featured image by Apple)

Notable User Interface Changes to Expect in macOS 26

macOS 26 Tahoe is a larger visual leap than any recent upgrade. Although we don’t yet recommend that everyone upgrade, we want to show you some of the user interface changes that will impact your everyday experience of using the Mac.

Liquid Glass Changes

Many of these changes stem from Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language, which we’ve previously covered in more detail. Familiar macOS interface elements with a new Liquid Glass appearance include:

• Rounded corners: You may be surprised by the more rounded corners in many interface elements, including windows. There’s no option to adjust the corner radius.

• Menu bar: Tahoe’s menu bar is now transparent, allowing app windows or desktop wallpapers to show through, which can make it less visually prominent at the top of the screen. To make it opaque, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Display > Reduce Transparency. This setting also affects many other transparent interface elements.

• Icon style: Many developers are updating their icons to conform to Apple’s Liquid Glass guidelines. A more notable change is that users can now switch to dark mode icons, clear icons, or tinted icons in any color. Make these changes in System Settings > Appearance > Icon & Widget Style.

• Widget style: Desktop widgets are now mostly transparent when any window is open on the desktop, and they become solid only when the last window is closed or hidden. You can adjust this setting in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Dim widgets on desktop. Widgets also adopt the same clear or tinted style used by icons.

• Customized folders: Folders start out blank, but you can Control-click one, choose Customize Folder, and pick an icon (monochrome) or emoji (colored) to brand the folder.

• Sidebars: Although they’re less transparent than other items, sidebars become subtly tinted based on what’s under them. That occasionally results in some awkward overlays, such as in System Settings > Wallpaper, where the thumbnails can scroll underneath the sidebar.

Safari

With Safari, Apple’s Liquid Glass interface causes the toolbar controls and the tab bar at the top to float over the page content underneath. On some sites, this can be distracting or make tab titles hard to read (below, top). If that bothers you, turning on System Settings > Accessibility > Display > Reduce Transparency separates the controls from the content more clearly, but also gives them a gray background (below, bottom).

Control Center

In Tahoe, Control Center not only receives a Liquid Glass makeover but also gains notable new features. Similar to iOS and iPadOS, you can now fully customize the buttons, sliders, and other interface shortcuts in Control Center, removing those you don’t need and adding others. To get started with personalization, click Edit Controls at the bottom of Control Center.

The selection of commands is impressive enough on its own, but Apple also promises that independent developers will be able to offer controls for their apps. Clicking the + button in the menu bar provides the equivalent of additional Control Center pages from iOS: another menu bar icon that displays a different set of Control Center items. You can have as many of these extra Control Center pages as you want.

Lastly, note that you can add many items from Control Center directly to the menu bar, where they can function as toggles or quick access shortcuts.

Spotlight

Apple revamped Spotlight in Tahoe, adjusting its interface (yes, it’s transparent by default, too) and introducing clipboard history. When you activate Spotlight with Command-Space and move the pointer, four buttons appear to filter your search by apps, files, shortcut actions, and clipboard history—Command-1 through 4 serve the same purpose.

Previously, Spotlight separated different result types vertically; now you can click buttons just below the search box to filter results by category. Spotlight also remembers past searches, allowing you to use the arrow keys to browse backward and forward through your search history.

Spotlight’s new Apps view, which gets its own icon on the Dock, also replaces the longstanding but little-used Launchpad. If you want a full-screen grid of app icons, similar to Launchpad, consider Launchie, AppHub, or AppGrid Launcher.

Terminal

Although many people never open the Terminal app, which gives access to the Unix command line hidden in macOS, Apple has finally updated it to allow for more customization. Fortunately, Terminal still features completely opaque windows—transparency won’t make reading command-line output any easier. Each profile offers various customization options beyond appearance, so those who frequently use Terminal can tailor it to their preferences.

While we don’t want to downplay the impact these visual changes may have on your Mac experience, we’ve also found they’re easy to get used to or turn off. After using Tahoe for a few weeks, most of these changes will become the new normal. Apple will undoubtedly continue to polish Liquid Glass over the next year, refining its smoothness and eliminating awkward bits.

(Featured image by Apple)