Month: April 2022

Technology use in education has come a long way in recent years, and it’s really helped my workflow. Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have believed me to tell you that I would be using my smartphone for email checking or asking the square root of 4 on my phone.

Last Wednesday, I shared my five top apps that I used most often as a student. This week, let me share with you my favorite features I use across my iPhone 12 and Apple Watch SE that help me with my university work.

Siri

Siri has become my multi-tasking companion on my iPhone and Apple Watch. Whenever I don’t have a free hand, I can simply say, “Hey Siri” and the familiar voice is there to help. It’s a great way to remind me, check my day planner, or to search for something in Safari.

Focus mode

We all tend to get distracted at times, and this mode helps turn our attention back to our tasks. When I need to focus on my task or take an exam, Focus mode is the best option.

Once set, it will work across all my devices so I won’t be disturbed. When it’s turned on, I don’t receive any notifications on my Apple devices. However, you can customize to keep certain app notifications on or allow certain people to contact you while Focus is on.

In this mode, you can set certain modes for tasks at specific times. You can, for example, set a Work mode to turn the computer on automatically during work hours. Other modes include Personal, Do Not Disturb and Driving. There’s even the option to customize your own mode – I named mine just for fun.

During my studies, I tend to manually turn on Do Not Disturb because I don’t always work at the same times.

New with iOS 15, Focus mode is an underused feature. My colleague has written a detailed article about Focus mode.

Timer for Apple Watch

I use the timer on my Apple Watch on an almost everyday basis. It’s great to use for personal purposes, but it could also be useful for students. You can set a timer manually using the app on your watch, or you can ask Siri to set a timer for you. I usually opt for Siri’s help as it’s faster.

There are many ways that a timer can be useful for students. One method that comes to mind is the Pomodoro Technique. For those unfamiliar, the Pomodoro Technique is a study method where you do four tasks in 25-minute sprints. After the first three 25-minute sprints, you’ll take a five minute break. Once your fourth sprint is up, you can rest.

There are Pomodoro-related apps, but many require in-app purchases. The Apple Watch’s timer is a fantastic (and completely free!) way to get started. When the timer’s up, the device will gently tap your wrist to let you know.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay is a convenient (sometimes too convenient) tool to pay for items using your iPhone or Apple Watch. Sometimes my wallet is lost in another bag, so I often forget it when I go to school. However, now I have my Apple Card stored in my virtual wallet, and I don’t have to worry about that anymore. Just a click and I can have my money at my fingertips. Not to mention the lovely feeling of getting 1-3% daily cash back from the Apple Card.

Now if only more states would accept digital IDs stored in Wallet, I’d leave my physical wallet behind more often.

What other features are available on the iPhone or Apple Watch?

Are there other features on the iPhone or Apple Watch that can help students? Would you like to recommend any other Apple Watch and iPhone features? Let’s discuss in the comments below.

Playing World of Warcraft gives a player lots of choices and quests, which in theory is fantastic. However, over the game’s many expansions, the formula occasionally fails to work out. Some prefer to concentrate on their main character, while keeping the rest of the content current. Other people prefer to keep a whole stable of characters they can play. Those players will likely be happy with the approach Blizzard is taking in the next expansion, Dragonflight. Almost all progress made on the Dragon Isles will be account-wide, according to game director Ion Hazzikostas.

Hazzikostas and lead narrative Steve Danuser answered fan questions about the upcoming expansion in a Twitter space this Wednesday. One of the earliest answers had to do with account-wide progress for systems like reputation, factions, and the upcoming dragonriding skill. Hazzikostas stated that “almost all” applies to alts on accounts, except for individual quest rewards or other items that are part of a character’s journey. In addition, a few features will be jumping over from Shadowlands. For example, once a character has completed the Dragon Isles’ narrative story, alts will choose whether they’d like to play through the same linear campaign, or skip straight to endgame activities to gain experience.

This is intriguing news for those with lots of alts, because it means skipping a lot of the grinds that plagued the Shadowlands expansion early on. Many players complained that they had to grind their Covenant, Covenant, Renown campaigns to obtain all the goodies. This system would allow players to give up on a character and try something new. Players can switch to try out the Dracthyr Evoker later in the expansion without penalty, or give a new class a spin on a whim.

Dragonflight currently does not have a release date.

As part of its new iCloud+ subscription service unveiled at WWDC 2021, Apple launched iCloud Private Relay. The iCloud Private Relay feature allows users to send requests to two different internet relays, to hide user data.

The feature is currently available to iCloud+ subscribers as an opt-in “beta” feature, but a new report suggests that may change with iOS 16 this year…

A new report from Digiday this week cites “several sources” in saying that Apple is planning a handful of new features for iOS 16 this year to further crack down on tracking of user data. One of the industry sources cited in the article is Charles Manning, CEO of mobile analytics measurement company, Kochava.

Manning stated that Apple would increase its privacy focus through expanding Private Relay:

The logistical implications of policy enforcement combined with Apple’s legacy of creating technical guardrails indicates that they’ll be relying on Private Relay as the (or partial) technical enforcement mechanism.

I believe Apple will say that Private Relay is a hit with customers and will make it an in-app feature.

As it stands today, iCloud Private Relay primarily works for iCloud+ subscribers for Safari traffic. It doesn’t work for most other in-app traffic outside of Safari and certain features in Mail. If the sources quoted in this report are correct, however, Apple could expand Private Relay as an always-on feature for other in-app traffic.

Another important thing to remember is that Apple already does some IP routing for Safari users when they visit HTTP websites. All users are affected regardless of whether they have iCloud+ subscriptions with iCloud Privacy Relay enabled.

Although the details are not clear, it isn’t surprising that industry sources claim Apple plans to make further privacy-preserving improvements. One possibility that some sources have suggested is that Apple could eliminate app fingerprinting altogether with iOS 16, but details on implementation of such a change are unclear.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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Stories discussed in this episode:

• Apple Self Service Repair store now available, allowing customers to repair their own iPhones for the first time
• Studio Display webcam fix: How to get Apple’s update early
• Apple releases Studio Display Firmware 15. 5 beta for developers, webcam fixes included
• New Apple Card promotion offers $75 Daily Cash bonus for new referrals

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Sofa for iPhone and iPad is a wonderful app that offers one place to organize all the movies, TV, music, books, podcasts, apps, and games you’d like to check out. Sofa has five new features that make it easier and more enjoyable to customize lists.

Sofa 3. 3 is now available for iPhone and iPad with some valuable updates. Changes include the ability to add cover images to lists, the option to display large titles along with descriptions, and two new layout options.

You can also view the new edit list view and make custom settings to easily check your settings.

More changes with Sofa 3. 3 include the option to edit custom items, sticky notes markdown support, and eight new themes for spring and summer.

As I said last year when I reviewed Sofa, I recommend the app. It’s a free download with great features, a beautiful UI, and no ads. Super Sofa allows you to unlock all advanced features if it’s a good download. That runs $3. 99/month, $35. 99/year, or comes with a family subscription option at $5.99/month.

Sofa 3. 3 full release notes:

Hey gang, ready for a fun update? This release enables you to make your lists even more personal and fun.

* Cover images for lists

* Large titles and descriptions

* New layout options

* Custom settings per list

* Modify custom item title and image

REQUIREMENTS

* An iPhone or iPad running at least iOS 15+

* An Apple Silicon Mac running 12. 3+

******

**ABOUT THIS UPDATE**

The lists people make in Sofa are very personal. They are often meticulously planned and curated over time. A lot of time, effort, and care go into the creation and curation of people’s reading lists, watch lists, playing lists, and more. The benefit of Sofa is being able to manage all of this in one place so you can be more intentional with your downtime.

******

**WHAT’S NEW WITH LISTS**

For your lists, you’ll now be able to add a cover image, large title, and description, along with more layout options.

COVER IMAGES

Add a large cover image to each of your lists. You can search from Sofa’s movie, tv show, and video game data sources, Unsplash, or add an image with a URL.

LARGE TITLES & DESCRIPTIONS

Display large titles for your lists. Give it a description. For a more creative touch, descriptions can be written in markdown syntax. This is a great way to add bold, italic and links.

LAYOUT OPTIONS

Two brand new layouts for list and grid are now available. These “cozy” options are great for lists where you want a little more information density.

CUSTOM SETTINGS PER LIST

All list settings are now saved per list and synced with iCloud. This means you can choose different sorting and layout options for each list.

NEW “EDIT LIST” VIEW

To make it easy to understand all of these settings and adjust them as needed, you can use a brand new view. Tap the *** button in the top right of each list, then “Edit List Details”.

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**EDIT CUSTOM ITEMS**

Custom items are an excellent way to add content and information to your lists, even though one of Sofa’s data sources isn’t able to find it. Previously, custom items would use a random image from Unsplash. You can now change your custom item’s title or cover image. You can now make your custom items more comfortable in your list.

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**STICKY NOTES MARKDOWN SUPPORT**

Sticky notes now supports markdown syntax. This is helpful for adding emphasis and links to your notes.

IMPORTANT CHANGES

* Sticky Notes Editing requires that you tap the “edit” button at the top of the screen. There are pros and cons to this approach, but the main benefits are that rendering and interacting with Markdown is much more reliable with this implementation.

******

**NEW THEMES**

Sofa is ready for spring and summer with 8 new themes:

SPRING

* The New Day

* Flower Power

* Open Fields

* Sleeping Flowers

SUMMER

* Camp Out

* Clear Skies

* Surf’s Up

* Island Vibes

******

**IMPROVEMENTS**

* You can now take action on items when performing a global search

******

**BUG FIXES**

* Fixed the pluralization of an Activity metric category when the total equaled one.

* Fixed a bug where items would “flash” when being moved to and from the Shelf

******

Please don’t hesitate in reaching out to me with any feedback, questions, or suggestions. Feedback@sofahq.com is where I am most open to receiving feedback.

– Shawn

Update: A day after releasing watchOS 8. 6 beta 3 to developers, it’s now available to public beta testers as well .

A week after releasing watchOS 8. 6 beta 2 to developers, Apple is now seeding the third test version of the upcoming operating system for the Apple Watch. Here’s everything new coming with watchOS 8. 6 beta 3.

Today’s build is 19T5562f. Most of the news related to this version regards Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, which are the features also available with iOS 15. 5 beta 3. These are the :

updates

• Physical Apple Card now called “Titanium Card” in Wallet settings
• Apple Pay is rebranded to “Apple Cash”, in Messages app
• iTunes Pass rebranded as “Apple Account Card” in the Wallet app

As analyzed by 9to5Mac, iTunes Pass will become a new card called the “Apple Account Card.” This card will be displayed in the Wallet app just like the Apple Card and the Apple Cash card. This way, instead of having to show a QR Code when shopping at an Apple Store, the user will be able to complete the purchase using Apple Pay.

Different from watchOS 8. 5, watchOS 8. 6 feels like a small update, since we are getting near WWDC 2022 keynote. The current version of the Apple Watch operating system offers a handful of new features, including 37 new emojis.

It also offers :

• The ability to authorize Apple TV purchases and subscriptions;
• COVID-19 vaccination cards in Apple Wallet, which now supports the EU Digital COVID Certificate format;
• Updates to irregular rhythm notifications designed to improve atrial fibrillation identification (available in the United States, Chile, Hong Kong, South Africa, and many regions where the feature is available);
• Audio hints in Fitness+ provide you with audio commentary of visually demonstrated moves during workouts.

watchOS 8. 6 beta 3 is available alongside the third beta version of iOS 15. 5, iPadOS 15. 5, tvOS 15. 5, and macOS 12. 4 .

If you spot any changes in the new betas from Apple today, let us know in the comments below or on .