Your Phone Notifications Reveal More Than You Realize. Here’s How to Lock Them Down
You may have spotted the recent case of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation pulling Signal messages from a defendant’s iPhone, even though the messages were set to disappear automatically, and the Signal app itself had been deleted from the phone. The trick used by law enforcement? Previews of each incoming Signal message were logged […]
The best way to break your social media addiction isn’t Brick
This is One Thing, a column with tips on how to live. Like many of us, I have struggled with social media. After a day of working at Slate, I’d close my computer, only to reach for my phone. Built in screen-time limits didn’t work; I’d just hit “ignore” over and over. Leaving my phone outside […]
How to Use Apple’s Live Translation on Your AirPods
At the same time Apple announced the AirPods Pro 3 last year, the company also introduced a new feature called Live Translation. It makes the idea of the Babel fish, so evocatively described in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a reality: Something sitting in your ear that can instantly translate between languages, on demand. […]
How to view edits in Notes – Six Colors
The Notes app is a handy way to share material with other people. My family—particularly my spouse and I—has about 15 to 20 shared notes that let us collaboratively update various household, financial, college-related, and other details. We even use it with meal planning. However, once you start adding a shared note, you get alerts […]
How to share your location via satellite on iPhone
Apple’s satellite features are designed for situations where cellular and Wi-Fi coverage are unavailable. In supported regions, compatible iPhone 14 or later models can connect directly to a satellite to send messages, access Emergency SOS and share location data. Location sharing via satellite is particularly useful when traveling in remote areas, hiking or driving through […]
Can you chart a murder? How to build an interactive novel – Six Colors
[Editor’s Note: I asked Antony to detail the process by which he created his interactive crime novel, Can You Solve The Murder?, which required some specific tools and a lot of intricate planning. And of course this article contains no spoilers for the book or any of Antony’s work.—J.S.] I’m an author, primarily writing crime […]
Introducing FixBot: We Built an AI That Actually Knows How to Fix Things
Moving my family across the country towing our trusty ‘92 ski boat, I hit a patch of ice in Kansas and slid our trailer into a snowbank. A wonderful local mechanic helped me melt the snow jammed into the wheel, reinflate my tires and sent us on our way. A hundred miles later, I pulled […]
How to silence robocalls | Step-by-step guide
LOT OF THEM. FOLKS, LET ME BE CLEAR WITH YOU RIGHT UP FRONT. WHAT I’M ABOUT TO SHOW YOU HERE WILL NOT STOP CALLS FROM COMING TO YOUR PHONE, BUT IT WILL SILENCE THOSE CALLS. KEEP YOUR PHONE FROM RINGING AND THEN SEND THE CALLS DIRECTLY INTO VOICEMAIL. SO LET’S START WITH THE MOST POPULAR […]
Apple gave up its earnings pop. How to trade it from here
Just days after long time tech darling surpassed $4 trillion in market cap, Apple delivered an earnings report that beat on both the top and bottom. However, the reason we saw shares jump by over 4% in after-hours was due to CEO Tim Cook’s robust guidance on future iPhone 17 sales forecasts. After Apple opened […]
How to tell what’s playing audio on your Mac – Six Colors
My friend and editor Joe and I were trying to talk. But something on his end continued to produce sound, and he couldn’t tell what it was. After some exploration, he realized that we had started using Slack’s “huddle” feature for a one-to-one audio chat and switched to FaceTime. He hadn’t hung up in Slack, […]