📱💻 Finer Tech Newsletter ⌚️📺 - Close Safari tabs, save Twitter videos and GIFs, search Things, more

Happy February all you finer readers. Can you believe we’re already 1/12th of the way to 2021? Wild.

In issue 61 of the Finer Tech Newsletter, I have a mix of tips for iOS, Mac, and Apple Watch.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this newsletter on Mastodon, Tumblr, Micro.blog, 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.

I have previously covered a shortcut to close all Safari tabs on the site. But what if you want a quick way to close just a handful of specific tabs?

And yes, at any given time I usually do have at least three open tabs related to Destiny, my favorite game. 😄

The aspiring black hole of attention that is Twitter treats all videos and GIFs in such a way as to prevent downloading them for yourself. 

But the excellent Twitterrific breaks down that barrier, allowing you to save that media to their original file format. Simple press and hold on a video or GIF in a tweet, and the share menu that appears will offer a save option. As far as I can tell, this is only in the iOS version; I can’t find it in Twitterrific for Mac.

Hat tip to @ayemrscarter for finding this one

A recent update to Things (my task app of choice) brought a handful of useful new search shortcuts. From almost anywhere in the app, you can start typing to search for things like tasks, projects, or sections like Today.

This works on the Mac version and iPad with a hardware keyboard. On an iPad or iPhone without a keyboard, pull down on the main task area for a search prompt.

The new search shortcuts include: deadlines, repeating, tomorrow, all projects, logged projects, and settings. These are quick ways to get around the app, including some options like ‘deadlines’ that I don’t think were previously possible.

CardHop is from the Fantastical folks, and it’s basically Fantastical for your contacts. It offers some good power tools and customization to search, create, and reach out to your contacts. For example, when searching for a contact, you can change the default messaging option to apps like Telegram or WhatsApp. Ditto for email.

One great option is that it can create contact groups and smart groups. This is especially useful for iOS users since, even after 13 versions, Apple’s Contacts app stillcannot create groups. These groups are created in your contacts database, so Apple’s app will recognize them and sync to your other devices.

To create a contact group on iOS, tap All Contacts at the top of the app, then scroll to the bottom of your groups to find the Add Group button. On a Mac, mouse over the name of your contacts account to display the (+) button.

You can make your Apple Watch speak the time out loud by holding two fingers on the display for a beat. But first, turn this “Speak Time” feature on in Settings > Clock (on either the Watch or its companion iPhone app). Be sure to choose between Control with Silent Mode and Always Speak.

Thanks for reading #61 folks. I’ll be back in a couple weeks with the next issue. Let me know if you’d like to see specific apps or features covered in a future issue. I’m on Mastodon, Tumblr, Micro.blog, or email.