Universal Control, not just Sidecar for a multi-device workspace.
The Magical Desk That Spans All Your Screens
Imagine your Mac’s cursor is a tiny race car and your iPad is a neighboring city. With Sidecar, it’s like putting your iPad on a ferry to become a temporary extension of your Mac’s screen. But with Universal Control, it’s as if you’ve built a magical bridge. Your race car can now zoom straight from your MacBook’s screen, across the invisible bridge of your desk, and onto your iPad’s screen—no ferry needed. You can even use your Mac’s keyboard to type on the iPad. It’s one seamless digital playground across all your devices.
Stop manually creating reminders. Use Siri’s location-based and time-based triggers instead.
Your Personal Assistant Who Knows Where You Are and What Time It Is
Think of your brain as a busy office and reminders as sticky notes. You could keep writing notes, hoping you see the right one at the right time. Or, you could hire a magical assistant: Siri. Instead of writing “Buy milk,” you tell your assistant, “Hey Siri, remind me to buy milk when I leave work.” The moment you drive away from the office, the note magically appears on your phone. It’s like having a helper who taps you on the shoulder at the perfect moment, so you never forget the little things again.
Stop emailing files to yourself. Use AirDrop for instant transfers between your devices.
The Teleporter for Your Files
Imagine you have a printed photo on your desk (your iPhone) and you want to get it to your friend sitting across the room (your Mac). Emailing it is like putting the photo in an envelope, addressing it, and waiting for the mail carrier to deliver it. AirDrop, however, is like a magical teleporter. You just tap a button, and poof—the photo instantly materializes in your friend’s hands. It’s the fastest and simplest way to move your digital stuff between your Apple gadgets, no stamps or waiting required.
The #1 secret for uninterrupted work is custom Focus modes that sync across all your devices.
The Smart Do Not Disturb Sign for Your Digital Life
Picture yourself in a library, needing to study. A standard “Do Not Disturb” is like putting a sign on your table. But what if you could have a “Study” sign that not only silences your phone but also hides your distracting game apps and only lets your study partner’s messages come through? That’s a Focus mode. You can create different signs for “Work,” “Reading,” or “Personal Time.” The best part? When you put up the sign on your iPhone, it automatically appears on your Mac and iPad too, creating a peaceful, synced sanctuary for concentration.
I’m just going to say it: The stock Mail app is more powerful than you think if you use its advanced rules.
The Smart Mail Sorter You Never Knew You Had
Imagine your email inbox is a busy post office with letters pouring in every second. Without rules, you have to manually sort every single one. But the Mail app has a hidden robot sorter. You can teach it rules like, “If a letter comes from my boss, put a gold star on it and place it in the ‘Urgent’ box.” Or, “If it’s a newsletter, automatically file it away for weekend reading.” By setting up these simple instructions, your digital mailroom practically organizes itself, saving you from the daily chaos.
The reason your workflow is slow is because you’re not using Handoff to continue tasks between devices.
The Magic Relay Race Baton for Your Apps
Think of working on a project as running a relay race. You start writing an email on your iPhone while waiting for coffee. As you get to your desk, wouldn’t it be amazing if you could just pass a baton to your Mac and continue typing right where you left off? That’s exactly what Handoff does. A little icon of the app you were using on your iPhone magically appears on your Mac’s Dock. One click, and the baton is passed. The window opens, and you’re back in the race without missing a beat.
If you’re still manually typing passwords, you’re losing time that iCloud Keychain could save you.
The Master Key to All Your Digital Doors
Imagine every website and app is a locked door, each with a different, complicated key. Typing passwords is like fumbling through a huge ring of keys every single time you want to open a door. iCloud Keychain is like having a master locksmith who securely remembers every single key for you. When you approach a door, it automatically finds the right key and unlocks it with your permission (a quick glance for Face ID). It even helps you create new, super-strong keys that you never have to remember.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about Apple Notes is that it’s basic; its tagging and smart folder features are game-changers.
The Digital Lego Box for Your Ideas
Most people see Apple Notes as a simple notepad, like a single stack of paper. But it’s actually more like a giant box of LEGOs with magical sorting trays. You can add tags, like colored LEGO bricks, to any note—#work, #ideas, #recipes. Then, you can create “Smart Folders,” which are like trays that automatically collect all the LEGOs of a certain color. So, your “Work” tray will always have all your #work notes, perfectly organized, no matter where you originally put them. It’s a powerful way to build and find your ideas.
I wish I knew about the Back Tap feature for custom shortcuts when I first got my iPhone.
The Secret Button on the Back of Your Phone
Imagine having a secret, invisible button on the back of your iPhone. What would you want it to do? Turn on the flashlight? Take a quick screenshot? With the Back Tap feature, you can make that happen. A simple double-tap or triple-tap on the back of your phone can trigger almost any action you can think of. It’s like having a hidden magic wand that you can program to perform your most-used tricks with a simple, quick gesture, making your phone feel uniquely yours.
99% of users make this one mistake with their Dock: not using Stacks to keep it organized.
The Self-Tidying Bookshelf for Your Downloads
Think of your desktop as your workspace and your Downloads folder in the Dock as a pile of new books. If you just let them pile up, it quickly becomes a chaotic mess. Stacks is like a magical, self-tidying bookshelf. With one click, it instantly sorts that messy pile into neat stacks based on what type of book it is—one stack for pictures, one for documents, and so on. Now, instead of a mountain of clutter, your Dock holds a perfectly organized library, making it easy to find exactly what you need.
This one small habit of using the Command-Tab app switcher on your Mac will change the way you multitask forever.
The Magical Remote Control for Your Open Windows
Imagine you’re a chef in a busy kitchen with multiple pots on the stove, each representing a different app on your Mac. Constantly moving around to check each pot is slow and inefficient. The Command-Tab app switcher is like a magical remote control for your kitchen. By holding down Command and tapping Tab, you can instantly see all your pots on one screen and switch between them in a flash. It’s a simple move that turns frantic multitasking into a smooth, controlled dance, making you a master of your digital kitchen.
Use Smart Lists in Reminders, not just standard to-do lists.
The Shopping Cart That Sorts Itself
Imagine you have a giant shopping list with everything you need for the week. A standard list is just one long, jumbled mess. A Smart List, however, is like having a magical shopping cart with built-in dividers that sorts your items automatically. You can set up a “High Priority” divider that automatically grabs any item you’ve flagged as important, or a “Due Today” section that only shows tasks for today. It’s a to-do list that does the organizing for you, so you can focus on getting things done.
Stop using a physical calculator. Do calculations directly in Spotlight instead.
The Super-Fast Answer Machine on Your Mac
Think of needing to do a quick calculation. Reaching for a physical calculator or even opening a calculator app is like having to walk to another room to ask a question. Spotlight Search, which you open with Command-Spacebar, is like having a genius sitting right next to you. You can just type “52 * 4” or “100 dollars in euros” right into the search bar, and the answer appears instantly, before you even finish typing. It’s the quickest way to get answers without ever leaving your keyboard.
Stop manually adjusting your screen brightness. Do let True Tone handle it for you instead to reduce eye strain.
The Chameleon Screen That Adapts to Your Room
Imagine reading a book with crisp, white pages inside, and then taking it outside into the warm, yellow sunlight. The pages would still look white to your eyes because your brain adjusts. True Tone does the same thing for your screen. It’s like having a chameleon screen that senses the color of the light around you and adjusts its own colors to match. This makes the screen look more natural, like paper, which is much easier and more comfortable on your eyes, reducing that feeling of screen fatigue.
The #1 secret for quick screenshot edits is using Markup immediately after capturing.
The Instant Photo Editor That Appears When You Need It
Taking a screenshot is like snapping a quick photo. But what if you immediately want to circle something important or crop out a distracting part? Usually, you’d have to save the photo and open it in another app. With Markup, the moment you take a screenshot, a small preview appears in the corner. Tapping it is like having an editing studio instantly pop up around the photo. You can draw, add text, or crop it right there, and then share it, all without ever having to save it to your camera roll first.
I’m just going to say it: The default Safari browser is faster and more power-efficient on Apple devices than Chrome.
The Hybrid Car vs. The Gas Guzzler of the Internet
Think of your device’s battery as a full tank of gas. Browsing the web is like going on a road trip. Using a browser like Chrome is like driving a powerful, but gas-guzzling muscle car. It gets the job done, but it burns through your fuel quickly. Safari, on the other hand, was designed by Apple to be the perfect hybrid car for your Mac and iPhone. It’s incredibly fast and zippy, but it sips fuel, letting you browse for much longer before you need to stop and recharge your battery.
The reason your note-taking is disorganized is because you’re not using nested folders in Apple Notes.
The Russian Nesting Dolls for Your Thoughts
Imagine you’re trying to organize a big project. Throwing all your notes into one “Project” folder is like tossing all your clothes into one big drawer. Nested folders are like having smaller, dedicated containers inside that drawer. You can have a main “Project” folder, and inside that, you can create separate folders for “Meeting Notes,” “Ideas,” and “Research.” It’s like a set of Russian nesting dolls for your thoughts, allowing you to create a clean, logical structure that makes finding anything incredibly simple and intuitive.
If you’re still manually transcribing voice memos, you’re losing time that the automatic transcription feature could save you.
The Personal Stenographer in Your Pocket
Imagine you just recorded a brilliant idea or an important meeting conversation as a voice memo. Manually transcribing it is like painstakingly writing down every single word from a recording, which can take forever. The automatic transcription feature is like having a personal stenographer who listens to the recording and types it all out for you almost instantly. The text appears right below the audio, so you can quickly read, search, and copy the most important parts without ever having to listen to the whole thing again.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about Stage Manager is that it’s just for multitasking; it’s a complete workspace organizer.
The Magical Stage Crew for Your Digital Workspace
Most people think multitasking is like juggling—keeping multiple balls in the air at once. Stage Manager is different. Imagine your screen is a stage, and your apps are different sets for a play. Stage Manager is your personal stage crew. It neatly arranges your current “scene” (the apps you’re using now) in the center of the stage, and keeps your other scenes waiting neatly in the wings. You can group different apps together for different tasks, like a “writing scene” and a “research scene,” and switch between them with a single click.
I wish I knew about text replacements for frequently typed phrases when I was starting out.
The Secret Code That Types for You
Imagine there are phrases you type over and over every day, like your email address or a common reply. Typing them out each time is like writing a long sentence by hand. Text replacements are like creating a secret code for those phrases. You could set it up so that when you type “@@”, your iPhone magically replaces it with your full email address. Or “omw” instantly becomes “On my way, I’ll be there in 10 minutes!” It’s a tiny trick that saves you thousands of keystrokes over time.
99% of people make this one mistake with their calendar: not using color-coding for different event types.
The Rainbow Organizer for Your Life
Imagine looking at a calendar where every appointment is written in the same black ink. It’s a wall of text, making it hard to see what your day really looks like. Color-coding is like giving each type of appointment its own special highlighter. You could make all your work meetings blue, personal appointments green, and gym sessions orange. At a single glance, your week is no longer a jumble of words, but a colorful, organized map of your time, allowing you to instantly understand the shape of your day.
This one small action of creating a “distraction-free” Home Screen with Focus modes will change your productivity forever.
The Tidy Desk for Your Mind
Think of your phone’s Home Screen as your physical desk. If it’s cluttered with tempting gadgets and distracting toys (like social media apps), it’s hard to get any work done. Creating a distraction-free Home Screen with Focus modes is like having a magical button that instantly clears your desk of everything except the tools you need for your current task. When you activate your “Work” Focus, your desk is clean, showing only your work apps. It’s a simple way to create a digital environment that helps you concentrate and be more productive.
Use custom vibration patterns for contacts, not just different ringtones.
The Secret Handshake for Your Pocket
Imagine you’re in a meeting and your phone is on silent. A buzz in your pocket could be anyone—an urgent call from family or just another spam text. Custom vibration patterns are like creating a secret handshake for each important contact. You can assign a unique rhythm—like a quick “tap-tap” for your partner or a longer “buzz-buzz-buzz” for your boss. Now, without ever looking at your screen, you can feel who is trying to reach you, letting you know if it’s truly important or can wait.
Stop hunting for your cursor. Do a quick shake of the mouse to enlarge it instead.
The Spotlight for Your Lost Pointer
Imagine your mouse cursor is a tiny ant crawling across a giant picnic blanket (your screen). Sometimes, it’s easy to lose sight of it in all the visual clutter. Frantically moving your mouse around to find it is like searching for the ant with your bare eyes. But a quick, vigorous shake of the mouse is like turning on a giant spotlight that instantly shines on the ant. The cursor temporarily grows huge, making it impossible to miss, and then shrinks back down once you’ve found it.
Stop closing all your apps in the app switcher. Do let iOS manage memory for you instead.
The Overeager Butler Who Doesn’t Need Your Help
Imagine your phone’s apps are helpers in a big house, each ready to perform a task. Swiping them away in the app switcher is like telling a helper to leave the house completely after they’ve done one thing. To bring them back, they have to walk all the way back and get ready again. iOS is like a brilliant head butler who knows exactly when a helper should rest in the staff room (suspended in memory) or be sent home (fully closed). Trust the butler; the house runs more efficiently when you don’t fire your entire staff every five minutes.
The #1 hack for faster typing on the iPhone is the one-handed keyboard.
The Shrinking Keyboard That Fits in Your Palm
Imagine trying to play a grand piano with only one hand—it’s a stretch and you’re bound to make mistakes. That’s what typing on a large iPhone with one hand can feel like. The one-handed keyboard is like a magical button that shrinks the entire piano to comfortably fit under your fingers. With a simple press and hold on the globe or emoji key, you can squish the keyboard to the left or right side of the screen. This brings every key within easy reach of your thumb, making one-handed typing fast, accurate, and comfortable.
I’m just going to say it: Siri Shortcuts is the most underrated and powerful automation tool in the entire ecosystem.
The Domino Chain Reaction for Your Digital Life
Imagine you have a series of tasks you do every morning: check the weather, get directions to your first meeting, and text your family “Good morning.” Doing each one separately is like tipping over individual dominos. Siri Shortcuts is like setting up a magical domino chain. You can create a “Morning Routine” shortcut, and with one tap or by saying “Hey Siri, morning routine,” it triggers the entire chain reaction. It’s a powerful way to automate almost any sequence of actions on your phone, saving you countless taps every day.
The reason your presentations are stressful is because you’re not using your Apple Watch as a remote.
The Secret Controller on Your Wrist
Giving a presentation with your laptop is like being a ship captain tethered to the steering wheel. You can’t walk around and engage with your audience. Using your Apple Watch as a remote is like having a secret, wireless controller right on your wrist. You can discreetly advance to the next slide with a simple tap on your watch face, freeing you to walk the stage, make eye contact, and connect with your audience. It turns a stressful, static presentation into a dynamic and confident performance.
If you’re still manually creating calendar events, you’re losing time that natural language input could save you.
The Calendar That Speaks Your Language
Imagine your calendar is a personal assistant. Manually creating an event is like filling out a detailed form for them: title, location, date, start time, end time. It’s tedious. Natural language input is like simply talking to your assistant. You can just type, “Meet Sarah for coffee at Noon on Tuesday at The Coffee Shop,” and your calendar assistant is smart enough to understand and fill out the entire form for you. It pulls out all the details and sets up the event perfectly, just from one simple sentence.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about AirPods is that they’re just for music; they’re a powerful tool for hands-free productivity.
The Invisible Assistant Whispering in Your Ear
Most people think of AirPods as just a pair of tiny headphones for music. But they are so much more. Imagine them as an invisible, hands-free assistant whispering in your ear. While you’re cooking or walking, you can say “Hey Siri” and have your messages read to you, dictate a reply, set a reminder, or make a phone call, all without ever touching your phone. They transform from a listening device into a powerful productivity tool that lets you interact with your digital world while your hands are busy with the real world.
I wish I knew about using my iPad as a teleprompter with a simple notes app when I was starting to create videos.
The Secret Script Holder Hiding in Plain Sight
Imagine trying to deliver a speech while sneakily reading from a piece of paper on your desk. It looks unnatural. Using your iPad as a teleprompter is like having the words magically float in front of you, right where the camera is. You can simply open a notes app, type out your script in a large font, and place the iPad just below your camera lens. As you read, your eyes are looking almost directly into the camera, making your delivery look confident, natural, and professional, without any expensive equipment.
99% of users make this one mistake with Finder: not customizing the toolbar with their most-used actions.
The Custom Toolbelt for Your File Explorer
Imagine Finder is your digital workshop, and the toolbar at the top is your toolbelt. By default, it comes with a few standard tools. But what if you’re constantly needing a specific screwdriver or a special kind of wrench? Not customizing the toolbar is like keeping those essential tools in a toolbox across the room. You can easily drag and drop your most-used actions—like “New Folder” or “AirDrop”—right onto your toolbelt. This puts your favorite tools right at your fingertips, saving you countless clicks and streamlining your entire workflow.
This one small habit of using “Hey Siri” for quick conversions and calculations will change the way you work forever.
The Instant Answer Genie That Lives in the Air
Picture yourself cooking and your hands are covered in flour. You need to know how many ounces are in a cup. Stopping to wash your hands, find your phone, and type it in is a hassle. “Hey Siri” is like having an answer genie floating in the air, always listening. Without touching anything, you can just ask, “Hey Siri, how many ounces in a cup?” or “What’s 18% of 75?” You get an instant verbal answer, allowing you to stay in the flow of your work without ever breaking your stride.
Use Hot Corners on your Mac, not just keyboard shortcuts, for common actions.
The Magical Force Fields in the Corners of Your Screen
Imagine the four corners of your computer screen are magical, invisible force fields. With Hot Corners, you can assign a special power to each one. Pushing your mouse into the top-left corner could instantly show you all your open windows. Flinging it to the bottom-right could put your display to sleep. It’s like having four secret buttons that you can activate just by moving your cursor. This turns a simple mouse movement into a powerful shortcut, making common actions feel incredibly fast and effortless.
Stop retyping the same email responses. Do use text snippets in a notes app instead.
The Copy-and-Paste Library for Your Brain
Think about how many times you type the same email reply, like providing your office address or answering a common question. Retyping it every time is like writing a book from scratch over and over. A better way is to create a “Snippets” note in your notes app. Here, you can store all your frequently used responses. Now, when you need one, you just open the note, copy the perfect response, and paste it in. It’s like having a library of your own best writing, ready to be deployed in seconds.
Stop using a generic password for everything. Do let Safari suggest and save strong, unique passwords for each site.
The Master Locksmith for Your Digital Life
Using the same password everywhere is like using the same key for your house, your car, and your office. If a thief gets that one key, they have access to your entire life. Safari’s password manager is like having a master locksmith who creates a unique, un-pickable lock for every single one of your digital doors. It then forges a brand-new, incredibly strong key for each lock, and securely stores it for you. You never have to see or remember these complex keys; the locksmith handles it all for you automatically.
The #1 secret for a cleaner desktop is using Stacks to automatically organize files.
The Magical Butler Who Tidies Your Digital Desk
Imagine your desktop is a physical desk where every new document, photo, and download gets placed. Without organization, it quickly becomes buried under a mountain of paper. Using Stacks is like hiring a magical butler who tidies your desk automatically. With a single click, the butler instantly sorts all the scattered papers into neat, labeled piles—all documents together, all images together, and so on. Your messy desk becomes perfectly organized in an instant, and every new file is automatically put in its proper stack.
I’m just going to say it: The free versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are powerful enough for most users and offer better integration than Microsoft Office.
The Perfectly Tailored Suit vs. The One-Size-Fits-All Rental
Using Microsoft Office on an Apple device is like wearing a generic, one-size-fits-all rental suit. It works, but it can feel a bit clunky and doesn’t quite fit perfectly. Apple’s own apps—Pages, Numbers, and Keynote—are like a suit that has been perfectly tailored for your device. They are designed to work seamlessly together and with all your other Apple services like iCloud. They might not have every obscure button the rental suit does, but for most occasions, they look better, feel more comfortable, and get the job done with more style and ease.
The reason your video calls are low quality is because you’re not using your iPhone as a webcam with Continuity Camera.
The Hollywood Movie Camera Hiding in Your Pocket
Using your Mac’s built-in webcam for an important video call is like filming a movie with a basic home video camera. It works, but the quality isn’t great. Your iPhone, however, has a professional-grade Hollywood movie camera hiding in its back pocket. Continuity Camera is like a magical adapter that lets you plug that incredible camera directly into your Mac. Suddenly, your video calls go from blurry and grainy to crystal-clear and vibrant, making you look more professional and polished without buying any new equipment.
If you’re still manually typing out long addresses, you’re losing time that contact card autofill could save you.
The Magic Pen That Fills Out Forms for You
Imagine you’re constantly filling out forms, and every time you have to write your name, address, and phone number. It’s repetitive and boring. Contact card autofill is like having a magic pen that already knows all your information. When you get to a form on a website, you just give the magic pen a tap, and it instantly and accurately fills in all those tedious details for you. It’s a simple trick that saves you from the mind-numbing task of typing the same information over and over again.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about the Apple Watch is that it’s a distraction; with the right notification settings, it’s a focus tool.
The Smart Filter for Your Digital Noise
Many people think the Apple Watch is just another screen to buzz and distract you. But that’s like thinking a phone can only be used for games. With smart notification settings, the watch becomes a filter, not a firehose. Imagine your wrist as a gatekeeper for your attention. You can set it so only the most important people or apps can tap you on the wrist. All the other digital noise is kept away, on your phone. It transforms from a source of distraction into a tool that protects your focus.
I wish I knew about the “Look Up” feature for quickly defining words and finding more information.
The Instant Encyclopedia Built Into Every Word
Imagine you’re reading an article and come across a word or a name you don’t recognize. Your old habit would be to leave the app, open a web browser, and search for it. The “Look Up” feature is like having an encyclopedia hidden inside every single word on your screen. Just by highlighting a word and tapping “Look Up,” a window instantly pops up with a dictionary definition, Wikipedia entry, and more. It satisfies your curiosity in an instant without ever breaking your reading flow or forcing you to leave your app.
99% of people make this one mistake with Safari: not using Tab Groups to organize their browsing sessions.
The Different Backpacks for Your Internet Journeys
Imagine you’re planning a vacation, working on a project, and browsing for a new hobby, all at the same time. Having all those tabs open in one window is like trying to carry everything for all three activities in one giant, messy bag. Tab Groups in Safari are like having separate, dedicated backpacks for each activity. You can have a “Vacation” backpack with all your travel sites, a “Work” backpack for your project research, and a “Hobby” backpack for your new interests. It keeps your browsing organized and focused.
This one small action of creating a recurring “end of day” reminder to clear your notifications will change your mental clarity forever.
The Digital Sunset for Your Brain
Throughout the day, notifications pile up on your phone like a mountain of unanswered mail on your desk. Going to sleep with that clutter can leave your mind feeling restless. Setting a recurring “end of day” reminder to clear them is like creating a digital sunset. It’s a dedicated moment to consciously archive the day’s mail, respond to what’s important, and throw away the junk. Starting the next morning with a clean slate, a zero-notification inbox, provides a powerful sense of peace and mental clarity.
Use Dictation on your Mac and iPhone, not just typing, for faster text input.
The Magical Quill That Writes What You Say
Imagine you have a long email or a brilliant idea you need to write down. Typing it all out can feel slow, like carving words into stone. Dictation is like having a magical quill that hovers over the page and writes down everything you say, as you say it. You can speak your thoughts much faster than you can type them. By simply double-tapping the function key on your Mac or the microphone on your iPhone keyboard, you can talk instead of type, turning your spoken words into written text in an instant.
Stop manually looking for your Apple TV remote. Do use the Remote app in Control Center on your iPhone instead.
The Remote Control That’s Already in Your Hand
We’ve all been there: the movie is about to start, and the tiny Apple TV remote has vanished into the couch cushions again. Scrambling to find it is a frustrating ritual. But you likely have a much better remote already in your hand: your iPhone. By adding the Remote icon to your Control Center, you have a powerful, always-there remote with a big, easy-to-use trackpad. It’s like realizing the key to the locked door has been in your pocket the entire time, saving you from ever having to search again.
Stop trying to remember where you parked. Do let Apple Maps automatically save your parking location instead.
The Digital Breadcrumb Trail Back to Your Car
Remembering where you parked in a huge, confusing parking garage is like trying to find your way back through a dense forest without a map. You might have a vague idea, but it’s easy to get lost. When your iPhone disconnects from your car’s Bluetooth, Apple Maps automatically drops a pin, like leaving a bright, glowing breadcrumb at your exact parking spot. When it’s time to leave, you just open Maps and follow the trail directly back to your car, turning a potentially stressful search into a simple, guided walk.
The #1 hack for managing multiple email accounts is using Smart Mailboxes in the Mail app.
The Mailbox That Collects All Your Important Letters
Imagine you have separate mailboxes for your work mail, personal mail, and a side project. Checking each one individually is like walking to three different houses to get your letters. A Smart Mailbox is like having a magical, central mailbox on your porch. You can create rules for it, like “Show me all unread emails from all my accounts,” or “Collect every email that has an invoice attached.” It doesn’t move the mail; it just gives you a single, unified view of what’s most important across all your accounts.
I’m just going to say it: The “Today” view with widgets is the most underutilized productivity dashboard on the iPhone and iPad.
Your Personal Mission Control, One Swipe Away
Imagine starting your day as a pilot getting ready for a flight. You’d want a single dashboard showing you the weather, your flight plan, and the status of your plane. The Today View, that screen to the left of your home screen, is exactly that dashboard for your day. Most people ignore it, but you can customize it with widgets that show your upcoming appointments, your to-do list, the news, and more. It’s a personal mission control that gives you a complete overview of your day with a single, simple swipe.
The reason your brainstorming sessions are unproductive is because you’re not using a collaborative Freeform board.
The Endless Whiteboard That Everyone Can Draw On
A typical brainstorming session can feel like everyone is shouting ideas into a void. Freeform is like giving your entire team an endless, magical whiteboard in a shared room, even if you’re miles apart. Everyone can write, draw, post sticky notes, and add images to the same canvas at the same time. You can see your collaborators’ cursors moving around as they add ideas. It transforms a chaotic conversation into a visual, interactive, and organized explosion of creativity where everyone can build on each other’s thoughts.
If you’re still using a third-party app to scan documents, you’re missing out on the powerful built-in scanner in the Notes and Files apps.
The High-Quality Scanner Hiding in Your Notes App
Needing to scan a document used to mean finding a big, clunky machine. Then, apps came along, but the built-in scanner in your iPhone is like discovering that your favorite pen also has a high-quality scanner hidden inside it. Directly within the Notes or Files app, you can choose “Scan Documents.” It automatically finds the edges of the paper, corrects for any skewed angles, and creates a clean, crisp PDF. It’s faster, more convenient, and more seamlessly integrated than any separate app you could download.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about iCloud is that it’s just for backups; it’s a powerful file-syncing and collaboration tool.
The Magic Filing Cabinet That’s Everywhere at Once
Most people think of iCloud as a safety deposit box in the sky, just a place to back up your photos and data in case of an emergency. But its real power is that it’s a magic filing cabinet. Any file you put in your iCloud Drive folder on your Mac instantly appears in the exact same folder on your iPhone and iPad. It’s not a copy; it’s the same file. You can start editing a document on your computer and finish it on your tablet on the bus. It’s a seamless, invisible bridge for all your important stuff.
I wish I knew about the ability to drag and drop between apps on the iPad when I first started using it for work.
The Digital Hand That Can Carry Anything
Imagine you’re researching online and find a great photo. On a computer, you’d save it and then upload it to your notes. With drag and drop on an iPad, it’s like you can physically reach into the web browser, pick up the photo with your finger, and literally drag it across the screen and drop it directly into your notes app running alongside. You can do this with text, links, files, and more. It’s a simple, intuitive gesture that makes moving information between apps feel as natural as moving objects on a physical desk.
99% of users make this one mistake with their iPhone’s Control Center: not customizing it with their most-used controls.
The Secret Toolkit You Can Design Yourself
The Control Center, which you swipe down to access, is like a small toolkit for your iPhone, with basics like a flashlight and calculator. But most people don’t realize they can be their own toolmaker. By going into Settings, you can add and arrange the tools you actually use. Want instant access to the Notes app or your Apple TV remote? You can add those buttons. It’s like customizing a Swiss Army knife to have the exact tools you need, instead of just sticking with the ones that came out of the box.
This one small habit of using the “Share” sheet to quickly send content between apps will change your workflow forever.
The Universal Mailbox for Your Digital World
Imagine every app on your phone is a separate island. The Share sheet is the universal postal service that connects all of them. When you find a great article in Safari, instead of copying the link, closing the app, opening another app, and pasting, you just tap the Share button. This brings up a menu of all the other islands (your apps and contacts) you can instantly send it to. It’s a central hub that lets you move any piece of content to any other place with just two taps, creating a seamless flow of information.
Use Visual Look Up to identify plants, animals, and landmarks in your photos, not a separate app.
The Super-Smart Magnifying Glass for Your Pictures
Imagine you took a photo of a beautiful flower or a weird-looking bug and you want to know what it is. Previously, you’d need a separate app to solve the mystery. Visual Look Up is like having a super-smart magnifying glass built directly into your Photos app. If you see a little sparkle icon on a photo, it means your phone has recognized something. You can just tap it, and it will instantly tell you the species of the plant, the breed of the dog, or the name of the landmark, using the power of the internet.
Stop manually silencing your phone in meetings. Do use calendar-based Focus mode triggers instead.
The Automatic Butler Who Knows Your Schedule
Manually silencing your phone before a meeting is like having to remember to close the door every time you need quiet. It’s easy to forget. A calendar-based Focus mode is like hiring an automatic butler who reads your schedule. You can set it so that any time a “Meeting” event appears in your calendar, your “Work” Focus mode automatically turns on, silencing all notifications. When the meeting is over, the butler automatically turns it off. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it system that guarantees you’ll never be interrupted again.
Stop struggling to select text on your iPhone. Do hold the spacebar to turn the keyboard into a trackpad instead.
The Secret Mouse Hidden in Your Keyboard
Trying to select a specific bit of text on an iPhone with your thumb can be like playing a clumsy game of Operation. It’s frustrating and imprecise. But there’s a secret hidden in plain sight: the spacebar. By pressing and holding the spacebar, your entire keyboard magically transforms into a trackpad, just like on a laptop. Your thumb can now glide around smoothly, moving the cursor with pinpoint accuracy to select, correct, and edit text. It’s a game-changing trick that makes text editing on a phone feel effortless.
The #1 secret for managing a large photo library is creating and using albums and smart albums.
The Photo Shoeboxes That Organize Themselves
A camera roll with thousands of photos is like a giant, messy shoebox full of loose pictures. Finding a specific one is a nightmare. Creating albums is like getting smaller, labeled shoeboxes for “Vacation,” “Family,” and “Pets.” But Smart Albums are where the magic is. It’s like having a shoebox that automatically collects photos for you based on rules. You can create a “Smart Album” for all photos of your dog, taken in the last year, that are also favorited. It does the organizing for you, forever.
I’m just going to say it: The search function within the Photos app is incredibly powerful and can find objects, people, and places in your images.
The Photo Detective Who’s Seen All Your Pictures
Imagine trying to find a specific photo you took years ago. You might remember there was a dog in it, by a lake. Scrolling through thousands of photos is an impossible task. The search bar in the Photos app is like a detective who has memorized every detail of every single one of your photos. You can just type “dog lake” into the search bar, and it will instantly pull up all the photos that have both a dog and a lake in them. It can find objects, places, and people with stunning accuracy.
The reason you can’t find that old iMessage is because you’re not using the search bar within the app.
The Time Machine for Your Conversations
Trying to find an old piece of information in a long iMessage conversation is like trying to find a single sentence in a thousand-page book by flipping through it page by page. It’s slow and painful. The search bar at the top of the Messages app is a time machine for your conversations. You can type in a single word, a name, or a phrase you remember, and it will instantly search through years of messages and show you every single instance where that word appeared, taking you directly to that moment in time.
If you’re still manually typing in credit card information online, you’re losing time that Safari’s autofill with Face ID could save you.
The Secure Wallet That Pays with a Glance
Pulling out your wallet, finding the right credit card, and manually typing in the 16-digit number, expiration date, and security code is a slow and insecure process. Safari’s autofill is like having your credit card securely stored in a digital vault. When you’re ready to pay, the website form appears. With a quick glance at your phone (Face ID), Safari instantly and securely fills in all the information. It’s the digital equivalent of paying with a single, secure tap, saving you time and protecting your information.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about the HomePod is that it’s just a speaker; it’s a central hub for smart home automation.
The Conductor for Your Smart Home Orchestra
Most people see the HomePod as just a high-quality speaker, like a fancy trumpet in an orchestra. But its real role is that of the conductor. The HomePod acts as a central brain for all the smart devices in your home—your lights, thermostat, and locks. It allows you to create automations, like “When I get home, turn on the living room lights and play my evening playlist.” It’s the hub that connects all your smart devices and lets them work together in perfect harmony, all controlled with your voice.
I wish I knew about using Live Text to copy and paste text from photos and videos when I was a student.
The Magical Scanner That Reads the World
Imagine you’re at a presentation and see a slide with a brilliant quote, or you have a photo of a recipe from a cookbook. As a student, you’d have to manually type it all out. Live Text is like having a magical scanner in your camera that can read the real world. You can just point your camera at any text—on a sign, in a book, or even in a video you’ve paused—and instantly select, copy, and paste that text as if it were a digital document. It’s an incredibly powerful tool for capturing information.
99% of people make this one mistake when setting up a new Mac: not using Migration Assistant to transfer their files and settings.
The Moving Truck for Your Digital Life
Setting up a new computer can feel like moving to a new house. Manually moving all your files, reinstalling apps, and re-configuring your settings is like packing, moving, and unpacking every single box yourself. It takes forever. Migration Assistant is like hiring a professional moving company for your digital life. It packs up your entire old Mac—files, apps, settings, and all—and moves it to your new Mac, unpacking everything exactly where it’s supposed to be. You can start working on your new machine as if you never left the old one.
This one small action of enabling “Optimize Mac Storage” will change how you manage your hard drive space forever.
The Self-Emptying Storage Unit for Your Computer
Imagine your Mac’s hard drive is a small storage unit. As you add more stuff, it eventually gets full. “Optimize Mac Storage” is like upgrading to a magical storage unit that automatically moves your older, less-used items to a massive, secure warehouse in the cloud (iCloud). The items still appear to be in your unit—you see a little thumbnail—but they don’t take up any physical space. When you need an old file, a quick click brings it back instantly. It’s an effortless way to keep your local storage unit from ever overflowing.
Use Quick Note on your iPad and Mac, not a full-fledged notes app, for capturing fleeting thoughts.
The Sticky Note That’s Always Within Reach
Brilliant ideas often appear and disappear in a flash. Fumbling to find and open your full notes app is like trying to find a pen and paper before the thought evaporates. Quick Note is like having a magical sticky note pad that you can summon instantly, no matter what you’re doing. On an iPad, a simple swipe up from the corner brings up a new note. You can jot down your thought, and then swipe it away. It’s the fastest way to capture a fleeting idea without interrupting your workflow.
Stop squinting at your iPhone screen. Do use the display zoom feature instead.
The Magnifying Glass for Your Entire Phone
For many people, the text on their iPhone can feel just a little too small, causing them to squint. You can increase the text size, but the Display Zoom feature is like putting a gentle, system-wide magnifying glass over your entire screen. It doesn’t just make the words bigger; it makes the buttons, icons, and everything else slightly larger and easier to tap. It’s a simple accessibility feature that can make using your phone a much more comfortable and less strenuous experience for your eyes.
Stop manually typing in flight information. Do let Mail and Calendar automatically detect and create events for you instead.
The Smart Assistant Who Reads Your Mail
When you get a flight confirmation email, the old way was to manually open your calendar and type in all the flight numbers, dates, and times. It’s tedious work. Apple’s Mail and Calendar apps have a smart assistant built-in who reads your mail for you. When an email with a flight or hotel reservation arrives, the assistant recognizes it and proactively suggests creating a calendar event with all the details already filled in. One tap, and it’s on your calendar, complete with travel time alerts.
The #1 hack for a less distracting iPhone is enabling grayscale mode.
The Color-Sucking Machine for Your Brain
The bright, vibrant colors of your phone’s app icons are like little pieces of candy for your brain. They are designed to be appealing and to make you want to tap them. Enabling grayscale mode is like turning on a machine that sucks all the color out of your screen. Suddenly, that endless scroll on social media is a lot less appealing. It makes your phone a less exciting, less stimulating place, which in turn makes it much easier to put down and focus on the real world.
I’m just going to say it: The best to-do list app for most people is already on your iPhone: Reminders.
The Simple, Powerful Tool That’s Already in Your Toolbox
Many people search for complex, subscription-based to-do list apps, thinking they need more features. This is like buying a fancy, expensive power tool when you just need a reliable hammer. The built-in Reminders app is that hammer. It’s simple, but it’s also surprisingly powerful. You can create lists, set due dates, add location-based alerts, and share lists with others. For the vast majority of people, it has all the power you need, it’s free, and it’s already perfectly integrated with your device and Siri.
The reason you’re always running out of iCloud storage is because you’re not managing your device backups.
The Overstuffed Attic of Your Digital House
Imagine iCloud storage is the attic in your digital house. A big portion of that space is taken up by backups of your devices. If you have backups from an old iPad you sold years ago or multiple large backups from your current phone, it’s like keeping boxes of junk from a previous tenant in your attic. By going into your iCloud settings, you can see exactly which backups are taking up space and delete the old, unnecessary ones. It’s a simple housekeeping task that can instantly free up a huge amount of storage.
If you’re still using your finger to sign digital documents on your Mac, you’re missing out on the seamless signature capture using your iPhone or iPad.
The Magic Pen That Extends to Your Other Devices
Signing a PDF on your Mac with your trackpad can feel like trying to sign a check with a bar of soap. It’s clumsy and looks nothing like your real signature. The signature feature in Preview has a magical trick up its sleeve. You can choose to use your iPhone or iPad as a signature pad. Your device’s screen will instantly turn into a blank canvas, allowing you to sign your name with your finger or an Apple Pencil. Your real, accurate signature then magically appears on the document on your Mac.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about Apple’s free apps is that they’re not for “real” work.
The Professional-Grade Tools That Came with the House
Many people assume that because apps like Pages, Keynote, GarageBand, and iMovie are free with your Apple device, they must be simple toys. This is like moving into a new house and assuming the professional-grade chef’s oven and power tools in the garage are just for decoration. These apps are incredibly powerful and capable of producing professional-quality documents, presentations, music, and videos. For the vast majority of users, and even many professionals, these free tools are more than powerful enough to do “real” work.
I wish I knew about the ability to schedule “Do Not Disturb” for specific times and locations when I was in college.
The Automatic Cone of Silence for Your Life
In college, my phone was a constant source of distraction, especially when I was in the library or in class. Manually silencing it was something I always forgot to do. The ability to schedule Do Not Disturb is like having an automatic cone of silence that descends at the right times. You can set it to automatically turn on every weekday from 9 AM to 5 PM, or even more magically, to turn on automatically whenever you arrive at the university library. It’s a powerful way to protect your focus without ever thinking about it.
99% of users make this one mistake with their AirPods: not customizing the double-tap and squeeze controls.
The Secret Command Buttons for Your Ears
Using your AirPods with their default settings is like having a remote control with only a volume button. They can do so much more. By going into your Bluetooth settings, you can customize what the double-tap on regular AirPods or the squeeze on the Pro models does. You can set the left one to skip to the next song and the right one to summon Siri. It’s like turning your AirPods from simple speakers into a pair of customizable command buttons that you can tailor to your own workflow.
This one small habit of using the search bar in Settings to find what you’re looking for will change how you customize your devices forever.
The Magic Compass for Your Phone’s Brain
The Settings app on your iPhone is like a massive, labyrinthine library with hundreds of different switches and options. Trying to find a specific setting by tapping through menus is like wandering through the library hoping to stumble upon the right book. The search bar at the very top of the Settings app is a magic compass. You can just type what you’re looking for, like “font size” or “battery,” and the compass will point you directly to the exact location of that setting, saving you from a long and frustrating search.
Use Markup to annotate screenshots and images directly, not a separate photo editing app.
The Built-in Paintbrush for All Your Pictures
Imagine you take a screenshot and need to quickly circle a detail or point an arrow at something important. The old way involved saving the image, finding a separate app, importing the image, making the edit, and then saving it again. Markup is like having a set of paintbrushes and pens built directly into the fabric of your phone. Anytime you’re looking at a photo or a screenshot, you can tap the “Edit” and then the “Markup” button to instantly draw, write, or highlight directly on the image, no extra apps required.
Stop manually entering your Wi-Fi password for guests. Do share it instantly with another Apple device instead.
The Secret Handshake for Joining Your Wi-Fi
When a friend with an iPhone comes to your house, the traditional Wi-Fi ritual begins: you find the password on the back of your router and they painstakingly type it in. There’s a much more magical way. When they try to join your Wi-Fi network, a notification will automatically pop up on your nearby iPhone or Mac asking if you want to share the password with them. With a single tap on “Share,” the password is securely sent to their device, and they’re connected. It’s like a secret, digital handshake.
Stop fumbling with your iPhone to pay for things. Do use your Apple Watch with Apple Pay instead.
The Magic Wand for Contactless Payments
Paying for your coffee by taking out your iPhone, unlocking it with your face, and holding it near the reader works well. But it can be a bit of a juggle, especially if your hands are full. Using your Apple Watch is like turning your wrist into a magic wand. With a quick double-press of the side button, your card appears. A simple tap of your watch on the reader, and you’ve paid. It’s faster, more convenient, and feels just a little bit like magic every single time.
The #1 secret for a more organized iMessage is pinning important conversations to the top.
The VIP Section for Your Most Important Chats
Your iMessage inbox can be a long, constantly changing list of conversations. Important chats with your family or best friend can get buried under messages from delivery services and group chats. Pinning a conversation is like giving that person a permanent spot in the VIP section at the very top of your screen. No matter how many new messages come in, your most important people will always be right there as big, easy-to-tap circles, ensuring you can always find them in an instant.
I’m just going to say it: A well-organized and customized “Share” sheet is a productivity superpower.
The Personalized Delivery Service for Your Data
The “Share” sheet—that menu that pops up when you want to send something—is like a postal service. By default, it shows you a long list of every possible destination. But a customized Share sheet is like having your own private delivery driver who knows your favorite drop-off spots. You can edit this list to put the apps and actions you use most right at the top, and hide the ones you never use. This turns a cluttered menu into a streamlined, personalized workflow for sending information exactly where you want it to go.
The reason you’re constantly distracted by your phone is because you haven’t customized your app notifications.
The Personal Doorman for Your Attention
Default app notifications are like having a front door with no doorman, allowing anyone and everyone—news alerts, game updates, social media likes—to burst into your brain whenever they want. Customizing your notifications is like hiring a strict doorman. You can decide which apps are allowed to buzz you immediately (a text from your partner), which ones have to deliver their messages quietly (an email), and which ones aren’t allowed to bother you at all. You become the boss of your own attention, not the other way around.
If you’re still manually typing “I’m on my way,” you’re losing time that the “Share ETA” feature in Maps could save you.
The Live GPS Tracker for Your Friends
When you’re meeting someone, the classic back-and-forth begins: “Where are you?” “Leaving now!” “ETA?” The “Share ETA” feature in Apple Maps is like giving your friend a private, live GPS tracker for your journey. While you’re navigating, you can choose to share your trip with them. They will get a notification and can see your little car icon moving along the map in real-time, with an accurate, constantly updated arrival time. It ends the guessing game and lets you focus on driving.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about screen time is that it’s just for parents; it’s a powerful tool for understanding and managing your own digital habits.
The Honest Mirror for Your Digital Self
Many people think “Screen Time” is just a tool for parents to control their kids’ phone use. That’s like thinking a mirror is only for checking if your kids have dirty faces. Screen Time is an honest mirror for your own digital habits. It shows you, without judgment, exactly how many hours you spend on your phone and which apps are consuming your attention. You can then use that knowledge to set your own limits and app downtime, turning it from a parental control feature into a powerful tool for personal digital wellness.
I wish I knew about the ability to use my iPhone to control my Apple TV when I couldn’t find the remote.
The Universal Remote That’s Always in Your Pocket
The tiny Apple TV remote is a master of disguise, expert at disappearing into the depths of a sofa. The frantic search for it is a common frustration. What I wish I knew sooner is that a powerful remote control is already in my pocket. The iPhone’s Control Center has a built-in Apple TV remote function. With a swipe and a tap, my phone’s screen becomes a large, responsive trackpad and keyboard for the TV. It’s the backup remote that’s better than the original and is almost impossible to lose.
99% of people make this one mistake when sharing photos: not using a shared iCloud album for collaborative events.
The Group Photo Album That Everyone Can Add To
After a vacation or a party with friends, the photo-sharing chaos begins: everyone texts their best pictures, creating a dozen different conversations and duplicate files. A Shared iCloud Album is like creating a single, magical photo album that you can pass around the room. You invite everyone to the album, and they can all add their own photos and videos directly into it. Everyone sees the same collection, can “like” and comment on pictures, and has the entire event captured in one clean, organized, and collaborative space.
This one small action of setting up Medical ID on your iPhone could save your life in an emergency.
The Emergency Contact Card on Your Lock Screen
Imagine you’re in an accident and can’t speak for yourself. How would first responders know your name, your allergies, or who to call? A phone locked with a passcode is just a useless brick. Setting up your Medical ID is like putting a detailed emergency contact card on the outside of that brick. Paramedics can access your vital information—blood type, medical conditions, emergency contacts—directly from your lock screen without needing your passcode. It’s a simple setup that could one day be the most important information on your phone.
Use the built-in dictionary on your Mac and iPhone, not a web search, for quick definitions.
The Instant Dictionary That Lives Inside Your Device
When you come across a word you don’t know, the instinct is often to open a web browser and search for it. That’s like running to the library down the street to look up a word. Your Mac and iPhone have a powerful dictionary built directly into them, like having a massive dictionary sitting right on your desk. By highlighting a word and using the “Look Up” feature, you can get an instant, offline definition without ever leaving the page you’re reading. It’s faster, cleaner, and keeps you in your flow.
Stop manually creating shopping lists. Do use a shared Reminders list with your family instead.
The Magical Shopping List That Updates in Real-Time
The classic shopping list on the fridge is a recipe for disaster: someone takes it and forgets to put it back, or you forget to add milk before you leave. A shared Reminders list is like a magical, live-updating shopping list that everyone in your family has in their pocket. When your partner adds “eggs” from home, it instantly appears on your list while you’re at the store. As you put items in the cart, you can check them off, and everyone else sees it’s been bought. It’s a simple tool that ends household miscommunication.
Stop struggling to see your screen in the dark. Do use Night Shift to reduce blue light instead.
The Sunset for Your Screen
Staring at a bright, blue-tinted screen in a dark room can be harsh on your eyes, like staring at a mini-sun. It can even make it harder to fall asleep. Night Shift is like a personal sunset for your screen. It automatically senses when it’s getting late and gradually shifts the colors of your display away from harsh blues and towards warmer, yellower tones. This makes the screen much more comfortable to look at in the evening and can help ease your brain into a more relaxed, ready-for-sleep state.
The #1 hack for a more personal iPhone experience is customizing your Today View with widgets.
Your Personalized Morning Newspaper, Delivered Digitally
The “Today View”—the screen to the left of your home screen—is often ignored, left with its default, generic widgets. This is like getting a generic newspaper delivered every morning. But you can be the editor of your own paper. By adding and arranging widgets, you can create a personalized dashboard that shows you exactly what you care about at a glance: the weather for your city, your first calendar appointment, your top to-do items, and the latest headlines from your favorite news source. It makes your phone feel truly yours.
I’m just going to say it: The Files app is a capable file manager that can connect to third-party cloud services.
The Universal Backpack for All Your Digital Stuff
Many people think of the Files app as just the place for iCloud documents. But that’s like thinking a backpack can only hold one brand of book. The Files app is a universal backpack that can hold and organize files from many different places. You can connect it to your Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive accounts, allowing you to see and manage all of your cloud-stored files in one single, organized place. It becomes the central hub for your entire digital, file-based life, not just your Apple one.
The reason you’re always late is because you’re not using the “time to leave” alerts in your calendar.
The Personal Chauffeur Who Tells You When to Go
You have a meeting at 3 PM across town. You know you need to leave, but you get caught up in something and suddenly it’s 2:45 PM and you’re going to be late. The “time to leave” alert in your calendar is like having a personal chauffeur who is constantly watching traffic for you. Based on the event’s location and current traffic conditions, your phone will give you a notification that says, “It’s time to leave for your 3 PM meeting.” It takes the guesswork out of travel planning and ensures you’re always on time.
If you’re still manually entering appointments, you’re losing time that Siri’s proactive suggestions from Mail and Messages could save you.
The Mind-Reading Assistant for Your Schedule
When someone emails you “Let’s meet for coffee on Tuesday at 2pm,” the old workflow involved you manually opening your calendar and creating the event. Siri’s proactive suggestions are like having a mind-reading assistant who peeks at your messages. At the top of the email or message, a little banner will appear saying “Siri found an event,” with all the details already filled in. With a single tap, you can add it to your calendar. It’s an incredibly smart feature that saves you countless little steps.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about Apple’s ecosystem is that it’s simple; its power lies in its depth and customization.
The Simple House with a Universe of Secret Passages
From the outside, the Apple ecosystem looks beautiful and simple, like an elegant, minimalist house where everything just works. This leads people to believe it’s basic. But that’s just the foyer. The true power of the ecosystem is in the hundreds of secret passages, hidden rooms, and customizable controls that lie beneath the surface. From powerful automation with Shortcuts to deep customization in Focus Modes, its simplicity is a doorway into a world of incredible depth and power, allowing you to make that simple house uniquely and powerfully your own.
I wish I knew about the ability to record my screen with audio on my iPhone and Mac without a third-party app.
The Built-in Video Camera for Your Screen
There are many times you might want to record what’s happening on your screen—to show a friend how to do something, or to capture a bug in an app. I used to think I needed special software for this. But the ability to record your screen is built right in. On an iPhone, it’s a button in the Control Center. On a Mac, it’s part of the screenshot tool. You can even choose to record your voice at the same time. It’s like discovering your device has a hidden video camera pointed at itself.
99% of users make this one mistake with their Mac’s menu bar: not customizing it to show the information they need.
The Dashboard for Your Digital Cockpit
The menu bar at the very top of your Mac’s screen is like the dashboard in your car’s cockpit. By default, it shows some basic information like the time and your Wi-Fi status. But most users don’t realize you can customize it to show the information you actually care about. You can add icons for quick access to settings, see your battery percentage, or use third-party apps to display stock prices or the weather. It turns a mostly-empty space into a personalized, at-a-glance dashboard for your digital life.
This one small habit of using Spotlight as an app launcher will change the way you navigate your Mac forever.
The Teleporter for Your Computer
Hunting for an app on your Mac can be like looking for a specific store in a giant mall. You might click through your Applications folder or search through your Dock. Using Spotlight (Command-Spacebar) is like having a teleporter. You just hit the keyboard shortcut, start typing the first few letters of the app’s name, and hit Enter. Before you’ve even finished typing, the app is launching. It’s the fastest, most efficient way to get anywhere on your Mac, turning a slow hunt into an instant jump.
Use AirPlay to stream presentations wirelessly to an Apple TV, not cumbersome cables.
The Invisible Cord for Your Screen
Giving a presentation often involves a frantic search for the right cable or adapter to connect your laptop to the big screen. It’s a clumsy and unreliable system. AirPlay is like an invisible, magical cord. If there’s an Apple TV connected to the projector or television, you can just tap the AirPlay icon on your Mac or iPad and your screen will be instantly and wirelessly mirrored. It eliminates the mess of cables and the stress of connection issues, allowing you to start your presentation smoothly and professionally.