Sep 23, 2019

📱💻 Finer Tech Newsletter ⌚️📺 all about iOS 13 and iPadOS

By David Chartier • Issue #58 • View online

Hey Finer Readers! We got iOS 13 last week, and iPadOS arrives on Tuesday! These are pretty big upgrades this year, so this and the next couple issues are going to focus on some of the big and small new features and changes.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this issue on Mastodon, Tumblr, or email. Let me know if you have questions or something you’d like to see covered in the future. If you know people who would enjoy this newsletter, I’ll owe you a beverage if you recommend it to them.

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💡 Tips

📱 The Share Sheet is completely different, take some time with it

I think one of the largest changes that will require relearning some muscle memory is to the Share Sheet. Apple completely redesigned it and, while I’m still getting to know and customize it to my needs, I feel it is overall for the better.

Here is a quick rundown of what’s different:

The very top now summarizes what you’re sharing and, in some cases, offers options. For example, if you’re sharing a webpage, you have the option to turn it into a PDF, a “Reader PDF” (anyone know what that is?), and a Web Archive
AirDrop no longer has a dedicated section - More in a second
Share to friends - The second row offers shortcuts to share to recent contacts via Messages (I wonder if other messaging apps can appear here once they’ve updated)
Share to apps - The third row should be familiar - apps you’ve enabled for sharing. AirDrop now appears here, and no you can’t customize to move it (as of iOS 13.1 public beta 4)
Actions List - This section is more nebulous, as it offers specific actions from apps (like the previous bottom row of this sheet) and I think any compatible Shortcuts you have installed

I’m still taking time to customize and get used to this new layout, but I’ve come around. I especially appreciate the people shortcuts, as I share a lot of stuff that way.

📱 Create collections of places in Apple Maps, Share them

Open Apple Maps, scroll down a bit in the.. sheet? drawer? whatever we call it, and there is a new dedicated section called Collections.

These are a great way to bookmark multiple places together, like your favorite restaurants around town or places you visit, or places you want to visit. I created one to list things like my doctors and services around town in order to get them out of my contacts.

Extra tip: Tap into a Collection and there’s a Share Sheet at the bottom (on iPhone, you might have to swipe up). While you can share Collections with other people, it doesn’t appear they can be edited collaboratively like Apple Notes.

📱 Schedule Dark Mode or trigger it manually

Like Night Shift, you can schedule Dark Mode to toggle automatically at sunset and sunrise, or on a schedule. Just go to Settings > Display & Brightness and tinker with some of the options there.

You can also toggle Dark Mode manually from Control Center. The button appeared for me automatically, It looks like a circle with black and white sides.

📱 iPad: Organize Safari tabs by title, website

Long-tap on any tab in Safari for some new organization options. You can now rearrange tabs by title or by website. As far as I can tell, these options are not on iPhone.

📱 Set a reading goal in Apple Books, read all day and night

Scroll to the bottom of the Reading Now tab in Apple Books and you can now set daily and yearly reading goals.

I’m not sure if this feature displays notifications to keep you motivated. But I did find something funny: you can set a daily reading goal of 1,440 minutes—that’s 24 hours.

You can set a goal in Apple Books to read for 24 hours a day. 😄

📱 iPad: Work on the same app in multiple spaces

Multitasking in the newly named iPadOS takes some big, productive leaps, but I’ll focus on just one for now: the oh so eloquently named “apps in multiple spaces” (it’s the only name I can find on Apple’s site).

You can now open multiple copies, or multiple documents, of an app in Split View and work in them alongside separate apps. It’s hard to describe, so check out the screenshot and instructions below.

For now, I’d recommend trying this with Apple’s apps, unless you know you have a third party app that has updated to support this. In my screenshot, I’m using betas of Ulysses and Things.

Long-tap on an app like Safari or Mail
From the pop up menu that appears, tap Show All Windows
You should see an App-Exposé-like view of just that app’s windows
Tap the plus button (+) in the upper right
You’ll get a new, second window of the app
Now you can bring any other apps into Split View
Swipe up to display App Exposé, and you should now see the same app in two separate instances with other apps

I think I’ll work on either a video or screenshot walkthrough of this for the site. I get that it’s al title complicated, but it makes sense once you get the hang of it.

📱 Deleting and rearranging apps has changed

In iOS 13 and iPadOS, Apple is leaning harder into contextual menus when you long-tap on apps. Doing so no longer triggers Jiggly Mode by default, but a menu of quick actions for that app.

Among the options in that menu now is Rearrange Apps. This triggers the classic Jiggly Mode and the option to delete apps.

📱 Get automatic emoji and stickers of yourself

Yes, my Memoji hair is purple

Apple is also leaning harder into Memoji this year. Either during setup or when you use Messages, you should be prompted to set a contact photo and name for yourself, which can be automatically sent to iMessage contacts.

If you haven’t created a Memoji yet, this process will prompt you to do so (on compatible devices). You can then also use the new Memoji Stickers Messages app, which automatically creates emoji-like expressions of you.

I’ll admit, it’s pretty cool to be able to send a ‘head asplode’ Emoji reaction, except it’s myhead asploding.

I’ve found that I can use these stickers in other apps like Slack and Discord. But they seem to be treated as decently sized photos, not actual emoji, so they’re pretty large.

📱 SAFARI FINALLY HAS A DOWNLOADS MANAGER. You know, like a proper browser

FINALLY.

I don’t always all-caps. But when I do, it’s damn warranted.

We can finally tap download buttons in Safari, and it’ll download files like a proper browser! Check the upper right toolbar, just like the Mac version. Downloaded files go to the Downloads section in Files app.

📱 Name files as you save them to Files app

Can I do two ‘finallys’ in one newsletter? Of course I can, it’s my newsletter. But seriously, this has been a pet peeve of mine since Apple introduced Files app.

We can finally name files when we save them into Files app. In the sheet that appears, tap the gray file name to name it. Tap Done, pick a save location, and save.

🔗 Links

The Hu, a New Breakthrough Band from Mongolia, Plays Heavy Metal with Traditional Folk Instruments and Throat Singing | Open Culture

www.openculture.com • Share

More Start-Ups Have an Unfamiliar Message for Venture Capitalists: Get Lost - The New York Times

Frustrated with the perverse incentives of fast growth, founders are criticizing the investment model that built the tech industry as we know it.

www.nytimes.com • Share

What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

Articles about the remote work lifestyle have tended to focus on drinking piña coladas on the beach, traveling the world, and otherwise enjoying a life that inspires envy in your social media following.This is not one of those articles.

doist.com • Share

Let us now stop praising famous men (and women)

After the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris nearly burned down in April, the French luxury-goods magnate François-Henri Pinault was celebrated for committing €100 million to reconstruct what he called ‘this jewel of our heritage’ and ushering in a flood of donations from other benefactors and com

aeon.co • Share

$100M 'Grant for the Web' hopes to make the internet pivot to privacy

Staying private online can sometimes feel like a cat-and-mouse game. As you download the latest ad blocker to prevent trackers from knowing your online activities, advertisers are already looking for ways to work around it.

www.cnet.com • Share

🤩 Thanks for reading

How did you like this issue? Was it useful and bite-sized enough? Are there certain kinds of tips or apps you’d like to see here? Let me know what you think on Mastodon, Tumblr, or email.

Did you enjoy this issue?

By David Chartier

Quick tips to help you get more out of your apps and Apple devices, served with a side of non-news good links across tech and culture.

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