There are always free apps for the same job, but there are some kinds of apps I would strongly advise investing in, or at least don’t be too put off from buying. One such job is recipe keeping. It sounds like a simple job; just keep the text files on cloud, and text editors are freely available on almost all the platforms. But much like music and ebook library, you can only get so far with bare metal approach.
Tagged iOS
How to Play Mixed Audio Sources to AirPods on macOS
It might sound odd, but there are times you simply wish to stream audios only — not the whole video stream — to an AirPod connected to another Mac. It happens most often for me when I’m watching YouTubes or Podcasts on the side while I have my AirPods connected to the workstation. I prefer to listen to the audio only until I want to take a peek. Previously I had to buy a software to get the polished experience that is equivalent to something as this, now macOS supports it; possibly starting from macOS 15.
Apple to Streamline Its OS Naming in 2025
It’s that time of the year for Apple’s product announcement: WWDC. We already know the California-based company will announce new OS with some witty jokes, but we’ve already seen two major issues with annual release cycle: one. the supposed major update is no longer significant enough, and two. the aside from macOS, all of the iOS and its variants have inconsistent numberings.
How to Fill-in from Password Manager on iOS Prompts
Normally, iOS and any apps on it that have a password prompt should label it as such. The system recognizes the textbox is reserved for password then offers to fill-in automatically from the password manager of choice. But not all apps have properly labeled its password prompts, let alone iOS’. Anyone who has more than one Apple account would know the pain of it all.
How to Change Mail App Badge Counts to All Unread
With the introduction of Mail app categorizations in the iOS 18, Apple is now walking the same path other email services have been on for decades and equally created a gimmick — auto email categorizations. With or without AI, I’ve never seen email categorizations work properly in any context, let alone professional one. Had any tech giants have the technology to create an email butler, we would have seen it first changing the tide of losing fight that is the spam emails.
How to Batch Incrementally Edit Times on Photos
One of the nonsense I had to pull myself through during scanning old family albums was its lack of metadata. I could guess the date of when the photo might have been taken, but photo library apps of any kind would rely on time stamps as well to order the photos. In order to correctly display which photo was taken first from the roll, the program relies on time stamps; and it is that very time stamps scanned photos do not have.
App to Eject Water from iPhone Speakers
Apple has added waterproof to iPhones since 2016. It’s been roughly 9 years since iPhones speakers had chance to be engulfed in water, yet Apple hasn’t provided an effective method to eject water from the speakers. Whereas, on Apple Watch, since 2022, watchOS has a built-in water ejection mechanism which plays specific tune of sounds to eject water from the speaker. It’s not a perfect solution, but I found it to be practical enough.
How to Iterate Through Dictionary on iOS Shortcuts
I’ve talked about using dictionary in Shortcuts to handle data. If you started using one in a custom shortcut, there is one odd bit that may not be immediately obvious if you try to loop through the dictionary; it loops with the entire dictionary as the Repeat Item. It defeats the purpose of using iterating through dictionary if it cannot parse the dictionary for iteration.
App to Test Internal Network Bandwidth
As I was upgrading to a new router this week, one of the things I immediately wanted to test was the existing ethernet cables and ports. As reliable as they are, cables and ports are also physical objects with lifespans. If cables running behind the walls are damaged, that’s a major headache; and if one of the cables running between switches is damaged, albeit minor, it’s still a headache to find out which.
How to Enter and Manage Dictionary on iOS Shortcuts
If you are a fan of Shortcuts on either macOS or iOS, no doubt you would have encountered a similar problem as I. In order to load some data on to a custom shortcut, only sensible way would to do so is via a dictionary-type variable. But Shortcuts doesn’t make it easy to enter the data, let alone manage the data once entered. It’s all done on GUI, which is not ideal when the data needs to be either copied into or typed in.
Expelled! Spiel
If someone asked me what kind of game Expelled! is, I would say it is a visual novel, or a mystery novel stylized in a video game. Its experience is akin to what many Agatha Christie novels were when I first read them —bleak, and justice served was not always what I would have imagined. It is objectively horrible, (when violence isn’t?) but it remains a kind we can digest. In the case of Expelled!, I would argue it is less a question of edibility of the food, but the unique tendency of food escaping from the player’s mouth.
How to Disable In-App Ratings Popup on iOS
I had a moment of pause while I was trying out Reminders. After using it for a while, Reminders app asked if I wanted to leave a star. A to-do list app from Apple called Reminders is asking if I want to leave a star. If I wanted to leave a review for a third-party app, I would have. But for a first-party, a free app no less, that is bundled with the phone? Something was off.
First Party Apple Apps are “Sherlocking” Subscriptions
Back in late 2000s, back when I was considering to move to OS X as my primary system, one of the big appeal —albeit it’s not always up to the level— was that Macintosh was bundled with first party softwares that are often exorbitantly expensive on the other side. And let me tell you, the time and time again, Time Machine alone saved my skin several times; and I had the liberty to tell other people to do the same with their Macs and PCs, always have a backup.
App to Stitch Screenshots on iOS
Whenever I need to share a screenshot of one long formatted contents, unless it’s required to keep the originals, I prefer to “stitch” the images together to it one smooth image. Screenshots of fun moments on chat rooms, some good memes on the internet, and etc., are best served as smooth roll.
How to Set Orientation Lock with Action Button on iOS
Of many things Apple have added to iPhone, or removed from iPhone, one thing I do not understand is how half-baked Action Button is. It’s true that configurable button is more preferable, but it is also true Action Button is not configurable enough to become a new feature of its own. A lot of it comes down to what Shortcuts can do and can’t do, and while setting Orientation Lock is perfectly doable with a simple shortcut, it’s not clear cut why Apple hasn’t made this system-provided option.