Apple Wants To Change "Hey Siri" To Just "Siri"

Apple Bytes: 

While you currently have to say “Hey Siri” to activate the assistant hands-free, that may not be the case for much longer. Bloomberg reported on 11-7-22 that Apple engineers are working to drop the “Hey” part of the phrase, so you’d only have to say “Siri” followed by a command to activate the assistant.

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that this is “a technical challenge that requires a significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work.” Apple has reportedly been working on this change for the last several months and hopes to roll it out either next year or in 2024 depending on the progress of development and testing.

As it stands today, Apple is testing this change with employees and is collecting the necessary training data as part of that process. One of the specific challenges is making sure Siri is able to understand the wake word in multiple different accents and dialects.

Apple is also working to make improvements to other aspects of Siri, including its integration into third-party applications and services. “It will integrate the voice assistant deeper into third-party apps and services and improve its ability to understand users and take the correct course of action,” Bloomberg says in the report.

Apple’s mission to change Siri’s wake phrase from “Hey Siri” to just “Siri” shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Doing so would match what’s offered by Amazon, where you simply have to say “Alexa” to trigger the assistant, not “Hey Alexa.” It would also give Apple a leg up on Google, where the wake phrase is “Hey Google” or “OK Google.”

But as the report says, this isn’t a small undertaking and there’s a lot of training and behind-the-scenes work that goes into a change like this. For Apple, this is especially true as Siri is already prone to a number of false positives particularly with activations of Siri on the HomePod.

Credit: 9to5mac.com

How to Switch iPhones Without Losing a Thing

Apple Bytes: 

Everything you need to know to successfully transfer your contacts, music, photos, and apps from one iOS device to another.

Wondering how to switch iPhones or iPads successfully, without losing anything in the process? If you're looking to upgrade, it is possible to do so painlessly. Your photos, contacts, videos, message history, music, calendars, mail accounts, and many of your apps can all be transferred from your previous device to the new one.

1. Back Up Your Old iPhone or iPad

First, you need to back up your old device, which can you do via iCloud or your computer.

Using iCloud

Make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi. Then go into your iPhone or iPad’s settings and click your name at the top, which will take you to your Apple ID page. Depending on which model you have, you will either choose iCloud > iCloud Backup > Back Up Now, or after clicking your Apple ID page, you'll see a list of devices your ID is signed into.

If that's the case, click on your iPhone or iPad. From there, choose iCloud Backup, toggle it on, click on Back Up Now, and let your device back up while it’s still on Wi-Fi. It might be worth setting your new device to automatically backup daily, but be aware that Apple only lets you store 5 GB for free.

Using a Mac

Plug your iPhone or iPad into your MacBook or iMac and open Finder. On the left, you should see your device come up under Locations. You can go through all your saved data, from music and podcasts to photos and files. If your photos have been saved via iCloud, they won't show up here unless you turn that feature off.

Under the General tab, you can select Back Up Now. To save Health and Activity data, choose the option to encrypt your backup, or else it will not be saved; not saving unencrypted Health and Activity data is a default privacy feature. All iCloud backups are encrypted automatically.

Using a Windows Computer

You'll need to download iTunes for Windows and plug your iPhone or iPad into your laptop or desktop via USB. Click the iPhone/iPad button at the top left of the iTunes window, then go to Summary > Back Up Now. Encrypt your backup by clicking Encrypt local backup and setting a password. Encrypting allows you to back up your Health and Activity data, as well. To find your backups, click Edit > Preferences > Devices. Apple also goes through the steps here.

2. Swap SIMs or Activate eSIM

Once you're fully backed up, it's time to sort your SIM card. If you're in the US, the iPhone 14 range no longer has a physical SIM card slot, so you have to use eSIM. If you have previously used an eSIM on an iPhone, you can activate it during setup by following the onscreen instructions.

If you are switching from an older iPhone using a physical SIM card, then you will be asked about transferring your number as a part of the Quick Start process described below. Apple has full eSIM setup instructions for different scenarios. Just know that once you go from a physical SIM to eSIM, your physical SIM card will no longer work.

To use a physical SIM card with an older iPhone, simply swap the SIM card from your old phone into the new phone. You can also do this step after setting up your new iPhone, in case you don't want to miss any calls or messages during the process. Lightly pushing a SIM tool or paperclip into the SIM tray hole will help you open it up. The SIM card has one sloped side, which you can line up on the SIM tray of your new iPhone.

3. Turn On Your New Device

We recommend fully charging both your old device and your new iPhone before you begin, and keep a charger handy just in case. You are ready to turn on the new device. The next part depends on the version of iOS or iPadOS your old device is running.

Note: Anyone using the Google Authenticator app (or any other two-factor authenticator app) should be careful not to delete this app on their old iPhone until they have moved their accounts across to the new one or they may lose access. Google's instructions for transferring Authenticator codes to a new phone are HERE.

If your old device is running iOS 12.4 and iPadOS 13.4 or newer, then you can use Quick Start to directly transfer data from your old iPhone or iPad to your new one. (You can check your iOS version by heading to Settings > General > About > iOS version.)

Steps to use Quick Start:

1. Turn on your new device and place it near the old one, making sure that Bluetooth is turned on. The Quick Start screen should appear on your old iPhone or iPad, and you can tap Continueto begin the process.

2. Wait for an animation on your new device and hold your current device over the new device to center the animation in the camera viewfinder. Wait for a message that says Finish on New [Device].

3. Enter your passcode on your new device and follow the instructions to set up Face ID or Touch ID.

4. You can choose to migrate data directly from your old iPhone or iPad to your new one by choosing Transfer from [Device].

5. Keep both devices close and plugged into power until the transfer is complete and you're done. You can skip the rest of the steps below.

If your old device doesn't support Quick Start, or you don't want to use it, then follow the steps on the Hello screen until you reach a screen that asks whether you want to join a Wi-Fi network. Choose the network you wish to join. You will be prompted to set up eSIM (choose Transfer from another iPhone) and then set up Face ID or Touch ID.

4. Restore Your Backup

Restore from iCloud Backup

If you used iCloud to back up your iPad or iPhone, continue through the setup process until you reach the Apps & Data screen and tap the Restore from iCloud Backup option. Sign in to your Apple ID (if you're forgetful, consider using a password manager to find and store old login information) and choose the backup that you want to use.

The backups are time-stamped, so if you've been regularly backing up your phone there will be several listed; be sure to look at the date and size of the backup to make sure you pick the correct one.

Restore from Mac or PC

If you used your computer to back up your data, plug your phone or tablet into it. If you're using a Mac running Catalina 10.15, open Finder and select your device. If your Mac is running an older operating system or you have a PC, open iTunes. Select your iPhone/iPad when it appears in the window. Click Restore Backup under the General tab and choose the correct date.

5. Make Sure Your Wi-Fi Connection Is Stable

Don't disrupt the Wi-Fi connection until the transfer is totally done. Disconnecting early will cause your backup to pause until you reconnect. The same goes if you are restoring by tethering your device to a Windows 10 PC or Mac, leave your phone or tablet plugged in until it's finished.

There isn't anything else to it. If you went ahead and fired up your new iPhone or iPad without transferring anything, you'll have to either erase it and start over, or transfer your content manually, but that's going to be a lot more work than doing a full transfer. We recommend just starting over from scratch and following the above steps to get all your data over at once.

Do not delete data on your old device until you have your new one up and running. Have fun with your new iPhone or iPad, and if you don't need your old one, consider selling it.

Credit: wired.com

M2 MacBook Air Runs Windows 11 Faster Than Dell

Apple Bytes: 

Real-world experiments with the new MacBook Air show Apple’s latest can use Parallels 18 to run Windows 11 faster than a Dell XPS Plus.

It’s a tribute to the performance of the Apple M2 processor in the latest Air.

MacBook Air can be a high-performance PC

Windows has the lion’s share of the desktop/laptop market. That means that situations arise where dedicated macOS users need to be able to run Windows. That’s where Parallels comes in. This virtualization software can put Windows on a Mac.

The YouTube channel Max Tech loaded the recently released Parallels 18 onto the 2022 MacBook Air and tested it with Geekbench 5. It scored 1681 on the single-core test and 7260 on the multi-core one.

For comparison, the Dell XPS Plus scored 1182 single-core and 5476 multi-core on the same test while unplugged, losing to the Mac on both test segments. That said, take the Windows PC off its battery and its scores rise to 1548 single-core and 8103 multi-core, so one of its benchmark scores beats the MacBook.

But there’s a drawback for someone planing to use their notebook on the go. When talking about the Dell, Max Tech host Vadim Yuryev said, “The battery life on those machines is not good and those chips take a lot of power.”

This is not an example of an expensive Mac being more powerful than a cheap PC. The MacBook Air configuration in the test costs $1599, while the XPS Plus is $1849.

It’s all about the Apple M2

The 2022 iPad Air in the head-to-head test is one of the first with the Apple M2 processor. Apple says the chip is 18% quicker than its predecessor. Real-world tests show that it’s at least that fast.

The new processor already proved its chops by solidly out scoring other Macs in the Speedometer 2.0 benchmarking app.

Credit: cultofmac.com

iPhone Can Identify Any Song With Just A Tap

Apple Bytes: 

The iPhone has a feature that syncs with Shazam and helps you identify any song with one tap.

It can also save a history of the songs you've identified, so you can add them to playlists later.

Your iPhone has a useful feature you might not know about. You can identify the song that's playing on the radio at a bar, in your car or at a friend's house, all without having to open an app. All you have to do is swipe down and tap a single button.

It's part of the iPhone's and iPad's integration with music-recognition service Shazam, which Apple acquired in 2018. It's been available for a couple of years but might be more useful now that people are out and about again. You don't even need Shazam installed.

Here's how to set it up

• Open Settings on your iPhone
• Tap Control Center.
• Scroll down under "More", tap the green '+' button next to Music Recognition

That adds the music recognition function to Control Center, which you access by swiping down from the top-right of your screen or from the bottom of the screen if you have an iPhone with a Home button.

How to identify a song from your iPhone

Once you've done that, you can use your iPhone to identify a song by swiping down from the top-right of the screen to open Control Center and then tapping the Shazam button.

Your phone will listen for a few seconds, then show the artist and title at the top of your screen. And it'll save a history of the songs you've identified so you can go back and see them later. To do that, just press and hold the Shazam button.

Credit: cnbc.com

Apple Announces New Flagship M2 Processor

Apple Bytes: 

Apple is ready to move beyond the M1

Apple introduced its new M2 chip on Monday, 6-6-22, at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). After the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra chips, Apple is now ready to move on to a more powerful M2 chip, with big promises of performance improvements.

Much like the original M1 chip, the new M2 uses Apple’s custom Arm silicon, and it’s built on a 5nm process complete with 20 billion transistors, 25% more than the original M1. All of these transistors should boost performance, and Apple is promising a 18% faster CPU, and 35% faster GPU inside the M2 compared to the original M1.

That performance is apparently 1.9x faster than the “latest 10-core PC laptop chip,” according to Apple. To get better performance over the M1, Apple is using new performance and efficiency cores on the M2, alongside 100Gbps of memory bandwidth and 24GB of unified memory, that’s 50% more bandwidth than the M1.

Apple is using four high-performance cores, with four high-efficiency cores on the M2, with a shared 16MB cache on the performance cores and a shared 4MB cache on the efficiency ones.

Apple’s M2 also features a next-generation secure enclave and neural engine, and an updated media engine that supports 8K H.264 and HEVC video. In reality, this means systems that run M2 chips will be able to play multiple streams of 4K and 8K video simultaneously.

The first Mac to get the M2 chip is one of Apple’s most popular laptops, the MacBook Air. The wedge shape of the MacBook Air has been switched up for a thinner profile this time, and the M2-equipped laptop also comes with MagSafe charging. The new MacBook Air also ships with a bigger 13.6-inch display, better camera, and promises of 18-hour battery life.

Credit: theverge.com

7 Hidden iPhone Keyboard Features

Apple Bytes: 

You spend hours on your iPhone every day, and a good chunk of that time is spent typing away on the keyboard. By now, you have certainly learned the basics, like how you can swipe on the keyboard instead of typing, or how the globe key can help you switch among different keyboards. But there are several other hidden or otherwise weird features on the iPhone keyboard that you might not have encountered yet.

Turn your keyboard into a trackpad

One of the biggest pains with a software touchscreen keyboard is text selection. Apple tries to make it easier with a magnifying loop, but you’re still not always sure where the cursor is, and how much text is being selected. You can fix this by turning the entire keyboard into a cursor trackpad. Tap and hold the Space bar. Now, as you move your finger, the cursor will move along with you. Tap anywhere on the keyboard with a second finger and you’re in text selection mode. Swipe your fingers, and as you move, you’ll be selecting the text.

Shrink down the keyboard to use it with one hand

If you use a larger iPhone, typing with one hand can be cumbersome. But there’s a hidden one-handed mode on the iPhone keyboard: Press and hold the Globe icon, and then use one of the three keyboard layout options. By default, it’s docked in the center, but you can dock it to the left or the right edge of the screen, making it easier to use with one hand.

A long press and a swipe goes a long way

When you’re typing, you frequently need to add special characters or numbers. You can switch to the numbers keyboard, sure, but there’s a much faster way to go: Swipe from the “123" button and it will instantly turn into the numbers keyboard. Now take your finger to the number or character you want to enter, and lift your finger. You have just entered a number, and you’re back to the alphabetic keyboard.

Similarly, you can press and hold on keys to discover hidden symbols. We have a whole guide dedicated to the topic, where you can see a detailed list of all the hidden symbols. For example, pressing and holding the period key (.) will reveal the ellipsis key (...).

Create your own text shortcuts

There are some things you type over and over again, such as your email address, your home address, or maybe your favorite catchphrase. There’s a hidden feature called Text Shortcuts that lets you turn a couple of letters into full-blown words, phrases, or even paragraphs. So for instance, you can just type “twss” and turn it into “that’s what she said.”

Go to Settings > General > Keyboards > Text Replacement and tap the “+” button from the top-right corner. Type in the phrase, the shortcut, and tap the “Done” button. Next time you type the shortcut and press the Space key, it will automatically expand to the pre-selected phrase.

Use the hidden formatting bar to undo, redo, copy, and paste

A three-finger swipe left will quickly undo your last move (whether it was typing something or deleting). But gestures are inconsistent and not for everyone. That’s why it's recommended that you use the hidden all-in-one formatting bar.

Simply tap with three fingers in the text area to bring up the floating bar. From here, you can undo, redo, copy, paste, and more.

Unlock the hidden Emoticon keyboard

Emojis are everywhere. But you can stand out by using emoticon instead, like it’s the good old days of AOL. And you don’t need a third-party keyboard for it. Adding a Kana or Romaji keyboard in Settings will do the trick. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard. Choose the “Japanese” language and add the “Kana” keyboard. Tap the “Done” button.

Now, tap and hold the Globe key on the keyboard, and switch to the Japanese keyboard. Tap the “^_^” key and you’ll see Emoticons at the top bar. Tap the drop-down button to expand this menu and scroll through all available emoticons.

Make your iPhone forget auto-correct phrases

The iPhone keyboard’s prediction engine is sometimes too good at picking up your frequent phrases, and will suggest them to you even when you didn’t ask for them, and then there’s the issue of the iPhone saving misspelled words as autocorrect suggestions. There’s a single answer to both these problems: Nuke your keyboard dictionary and start again. Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary > Reset Dictionary. Now, all your weird auto-complete suggestions will be gone.

Credit: lifehacker.com

6 Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac Users

Apple Bytes: 

These lesser known MacOS keyboard shortcuts will change how you use your computer.

The Mac's Command key is arguably the most important key on your Apple keyboard. With it, you can copy and paste text, undo previous commands, select all your items and much more. Yet, despite all the routine shortcuts it's known for, the Command key is much more important and powerful than you might think.

Even if you're a MacOS power user, you may not be acquainted with everything the Command key has to offer, such as the ability to quickly hide windows cluttering up your desktop or search for anything on your computer. Keep reading: We'll check out six not so commonly known keyboard shortcuts with the Command key that you need to know about.

1. Cycle through all the open windows on your desktop

The first keyboard shortcut in this list is Command + Tab, which allows you to quickly step through every single app window open on your desktop. As long as the window is open on your desktop, and not minimized in your dock, holding down on Command + Tab will bring up a window with all your open apps. Continue holding down Command as you tap the Tap key to cycle through the apps and let go when the app you want brought to the front is highlighted.

2. Hide the window that's currently open on your desktop

Instead of minimizing your window with the yellow minus button up in the top left corner, you can quickly hide any window that's open on your desktop with the Command + H shortcut. Unlike minimizing, the hide keyboard shortcut hides the window from both your desktop and dock, without closing it completely. To open the window back up, simply click the app icon in either your dock or elsewhere. And if you want to hide all app windows except for the one in front, you can use Option + Command + H.

3. Bring up Spotlight to search for files and apps on your computer

Spotlight search is one of the Mac's most powerful features. Bring up the search bar and you can type whatever you want to search for: text messages, emails, documents, applications, notes, music, settings, movies, locations and so much more. You can use the magnifying glass in the menu bar to bring up Spotlight search, but this keyboard shortcut is at your fingertips: Command + Space bar.

4. Highlight the URL in your web browser to quickly share it

Usually, if you're sharing a web address you double-click in the search bar and then copy the selected text to your clipboard. However, there's a faster way to do this: use Command + L. This will immediately highlight whatever is in the address bar in Safari, Chrome or another web browser, whether it's something you typed or the URL of the website you're on. You can then hit Command + C to copy it so you can paste it elsewhere.

5. Reopen any closed tabs in the Safari web browser

You may be familiar with Command + T in Safari, which opens a new tab, but there's also a shortcut that can reopen an accidentally closed tab. Simply hit Command + Shift + T and you'll recover whatever tab you most recently closed. And best of all, if you've closed several tabs and want to recover all of them, you can continue pressing the Command + Shift + T shortcut to open multiple closed tabs.

6. Open something new in various native Apple applications

The Command + N keyboard shortcut is not nearly used enough. While it's almost universally known for opening up a new window in many popular applications, on your Mac, the Command + N shortcut can open a new email in Mail, text message in iMessage, window in Safari, note in Notes, event in Calendar and more. Try it out in your favorite apps and see what Command + N can open for you.

Credit: cnet.com

Browse The Web From Your Apple Watch

Apple Bytes: 

Have a look through the apps on your Apple Watch and you won’t find the Safari web browser. This seems like a reasonable choice considering the small size of the screen and the limited input options.

But if you need to get a webpage up on your smartwatch, know that it is possible. There’s a hidden browser app already on the watch, and you’ll also find a couple of third-party options available to install.

A warning, though, you’ll definitely come up against limitations and the experience is nowhere as good as it is on a phone or a laptop.

You can’t launch the web browser built into the Apple Watch from the standard grid or list of apps. Instead, you’ll have to access it by opening up a link from another smartwatch app. You can use the Mail and Messages apps for this, and all you have to do is send yourself an email or message containing the URL that you want to visit.

This might seem like a long-winded way of getting online, and it is, really. But just in case you ever need it, you can make things easier by emailing yourself a list with the websites you regularly need access to, for example.

Another way of getting to a website is by using Siri on your Apple Watch. Say “Siri, go to…” followed by the URL you want to visit. A list of web results will appear—just tap Open Page underneath the link you want to open it. This works well for sites with simple URLs that can be easily spoken out, like apple.com or google.com.

When it comes to entering text into websites, you can use the usual methods available on your watch, including voice dictation, the scribble handwriting feature, and the on-screen keyboard. It’s not ideal for entering large amounts of text, but it’ll do if you need to search for a few keywords, for example.

Bear in mind that not all websites will load properly (or even at all) on such a tiny screen, and it can be difficult navigating around menus and pop-up dialogs. In some cases, the built-in browser will switch to a simpler view, like the Reader View in Safari on the desktop, so you’ll just get the text and nothing else. Tap on the URL at the top to switch between these views.

You can also navigate backward and forward by tapping on the address bar. Other gestures you can take advantage of are using the Digital Crown or a finger on the screen to scroll, and double-tapping on the screen to zoom in and out. To clear all the collected browsing data, open Settings and choose General, Website Data, and Clear Website Data.

The built-in web browser on the Apple Watch is probably your best bet when it comes to loading up webpages, as Apple has access to parts of the smartwatch’s code that third-party apps can’t get to. Nevertheless, if you want a more fully-fledged experience, you’ve got options.

First up is the free Parrity app, which actually uses a connected iPhone to load and render pages before transferring the results over to your Apple Watch. You can still interact with pages on your wrist, enter new URLs, and even go back on your browsing history, but your iPhone will always need to be around for anything to happen.

Then there’s µBrowser, which will set you back $1. This works entirely independently on the watch and does a very decent job of rendering websites, albeit with some issues (support for multiple fonts is rather limited, for example). You can search the web, enter URLs, and go back to pages that you’ve recently visited.

Credit: popsci.com

Make Your Apple Watch Faster At Everyday Tasks

Apple Bytes: 

The Apple Watch’s portability is both a boon and a curse. It’s an excellent little computer on your wrist, but at the same time, it occasionally takes a bit too long for basic tasks, such as switching between apps. Here are a few hidden Apple Watch tricks to help you speed up some of its standard functions.

Quickly check the time

Not everyone enables the Always-On Display feature of the Apple Watch. Some people have older Apple Watch models that don’t support it, while others disable Always-On Display to save battery life. If you’re among those people, you can slowly rotate the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch to reveal the time and rotate it back to switch off the display.

This helps you check the time quickly without even rotating your wrist and it is more battery efficient, too. That’s because it wakes the display at a lower brightness level for a short duration of time.

The fastest ways to change watch faces

If you have multiple watch faces, you can use two methods to switch between them quickly. The first is to swipe left or right on your current watch face, and the Apple Watch will switch to a different face. You can change the order of these watch faces by opening the Watch app on your iPhone and tapping the Edit button next to My Faces. This action will open a new page with all of your watch faces and you can drag the three-line icons (on the right) upwards or downwards to change the order.

The second method to change watch faces is to use Apple’s Shortcuts app to automatically change your Apple Watch face at a particular time of the day or when you’re in a specific location. For example, whenever you reach the neighborhood park, your Apple Watch can automatically switch to a workout-oriented watch face.

A better way to switch between two apps

If you accidentally tapped a notification while using another app, returning to the previous app takes one tap too many. You can speed this process up by double-pressing the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch. This action will always take you back to the most recently opened app. The limitation here is that it can only switch between any two apps, so if you want to continuously move between more than two apps, you’re out of luck.

Open notifications and Control Center within other apps

When you’ve got a watch face open on the Apple Watch, you can swipe upwards from the bottom to launch Control Center. Similarly, you can swipe downwards from the top to check your notifications. However, this set of gestures stops working when you’ve opened an app on your watch.

There is a workaround for this issue, too. When you have an app open, tap and hold the bottom of the screen to make the Control Center appear. Swipe upwards to open it, or tap and hold the top of the screen to make the Notification Center appear, and swipe downwards to view all notifications.

Control music while you’re working out

When you’re logging any workout on the Workout app on your Apple Watch, you can easily control music without leaving the app. Swipe toward the left from the screen that shows workout data and you’ll see music playback controls. We’ve found this method to be a lot less cumbersome to access during strenuous workouts, as compared to fiddling with the watch to find the Now Playing screen. While you’re at it, consider changing the stats you see while working out.

Cover the Apple Watch’s display to silence or decline calls

Your Apple Watch will buzz or ring when you get a phone call, and if you want to silence or decline it, you can use a couple quick tricks. To silence the call, just cover your Apple Watch’s screen with your palm for a second. The call will end only when the caller disconnects.

To decline an incoming call, you can cover the Apple Watch’s screen for three seconds. You’ll feel a couple of strong vibrations and the call will be declined. If this feature isn’t working for you, open the Watch app on your iPhone and go to Sounds & Haptics. Ensure that Cover to Mute is enabled.

Use your Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone

Your Apple Watch can also help you unlock your iPhone when you’re wearing a mask. Once you enable this, it’s hard to go back to entering passcodes to unlock your iPhone. The only annoyance is that if you use Face ID to unlock third-party apps such as 1Password or Apollo for Reddit, your Apple Watch won’t be able to unlock those.

Unlock your Mac using the Apple Watch

You can also use your Apple Watch to automatically unlock your Mac. This feature saves a lot of time when it works. (It does have a tendency to stop working periodically; when this happens, your best bet is to restart your Mac and your Apple Watch.)

This feature also allows you to grant administrator permissions to perform certain actions on the Mac, such as deleting files from system folders. Apps such as 1Password on the Mac can be unlocked using the Apple Watch instead of a long password, too.

Credit: lifehacker.com

Find An Unwanted AirTag? Here's How To Disable It.

Apple Bytes: 

AirTags are useful when it comes to keeping track of lost accessories. But the Bluetooth trackers are also highly capable of tracking people.

To prevent unwanted tracking, Apple allows users to disable AirTags on the spot. This can be done in a few simple steps.

First things first: Upgrade to iOS 14.5 now

Whenever an unknown AirTag is traveling with you, a pop-up notification will appear on your iPhone that reads: "AirTag Found Moving With You."

In order to receive those safety notifications, you first have to be running iOS 14.5. The new software update is crucial to accessing all the AirTags' safety features. So please, don't procrastinate on updating to the latest software.

To update, go to Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and tap Download.

What to do when you receive a safety alert on your iPhone:

When your iPhone detects an AirTag is moving with you, you'll receive a notification. If you can't manage to find the unwanted AirTag, you can use the Find My app to trigger a loud sound to help you.

If you borrowed someone's bag or keys with an AirTag attached, and have an iPhone running iOS 14.5, then you can choose to either pause the safety alerts for a day or turn the feature off completely.

But if you have absolutely no idea where the AirTag came from, you'll want to fully disable it by removing the battery cover. You can do this by twisting counter clockwise on the back of the tracker (where the Apple logo is) and then manually taking the battery out.

When you find an unknown AirTag on you but you're an Android user:

When AirTags first launched, Android users had no official means of detecting whether an unknown AirTag was moving with them. That left them with only one option: Waiting three days for the unknown AirTag to emit an audible alert and then disabling it by removing the battery.

But Apple recently released an app on the Google Play store to address this issue. With Tracker Detect, Android users can scan for nearby AirTags and other tracking devices within Apple's Find My network. If an unknown AirTag is found, users have the ability to make it play a sound, learn more information about it, or access instructions on how to remove its battery.

It's worth noting that users must manually scan for an unknown AirTag, as opposed to the app automatically running a scan in the background. Many reviews on the Google Play store have cited this as an ongoing issue. It's unclear whether Apple plans to update the app.

When you find an accessory with an AirTag attached:

Since AirTags have NFC built in, you can tap on them using either an iPhone or Android phone (with NFC) to trigger some options. This is handy if you want to return the lost item to which the AirTag is attached. If the owner of the AirTag attached to that accessory has marked it as lost, then tapping on the AirTag with your phone will take you to a web page with their phone number and a message.

And remember, if you ever feel unsafe in the presence of an unknown AirTag, there's really only one thing to do: Remove the battery.

Credit: mashable.com

UPDATE: 2-10-22, Apple releases updated info about unwanted tracking > HERE.