Happy New Year from everyone at SEAL.
At our first meeting of the year, held on 10th January, Robert shared some tips concentrating on the Photos app, DaveK talked about Genmoji and we discussed Apple news including stories from the annual Consumer Electronics Show.
Tips
- We discussed the new Photos app and how it can be customised to improve usability. This article on Mac Rumors covers some of the options.
- DavidB pointed out that an option to stop videos automatically looping has now been added to Photos.
- Using the memories option in Photos to view slideshows and generating new ones using the Apple Intelligence powered Memory Movie feature.
- iOS 18.2 introduces a centralised set of options to change the default applications, for example for email and web browsing.
- How to check if your bin (trash can) is set to automatically empty on the Mac.
Genmoji
DaveK talked about using Genmoji as an app developer and demonstrated creating Genmoji. Mac Rumors have an interesting article exploring what you can and can’t make with Genmoji.
Apple News
We discussed recent Apple-related news including announcements from the Consumer Electronics Show:
- LG reveals their Ultrafine 6K monitor.
- Dell moving to Apple-like “Pro” and “Pro Max” naming for their laptops.
- The Swappitt automatic iPhone battery swapper.
- The Satechi M4 Mac mini hub is confirmed to have a cutout for the Mac’s bottom facing power button.
- A new “Time Capsule” case extends AirTag’s battery life by years.
And other Apple news:
- Apple confirms Siri privacy protections after settling a “spying” lawsuit.
- Apple is working to improve AI news headline summaries after some are found misleading.
- AirPods Pro 2 may quietly chime while charging.
Member Topics
- Ben mentioned some problems logging into his BBC account in the iPlayer App on Apple TV. He was eventually able to resolve this by re-adding his account to the App.
- DavidB had been watching 2022 documentary “The Elon Musk Show“ on BBC iPlayer
- Ben and DavidB mentioned using the WiFi Calling feature (enabled in iOS Mobile Service settings) to make calls when there is no (or only very weak) mobile signal but WiFi is available.