Have you ever wanted to identify a plant, flower, or pet breed, or find out what that famous painting is called? Us too. In iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Apple added a new AI-driven feature called Visual Look Up that provides more information about photos of plants, flowers, pets, books, artworks, and landmarks. When you’re viewing a photo, swipe up or tap the sparkle-badged info button ➊ to see metadata about the image (camera model, image details, location, and more) and then tap Look Up to learn more ➋. Depending on the item recognized, it will suggest Wikipedia articles, similar images from the Web, websites, bookstores, map locations, and more. Tap a suggestion to switch to Safari or another app for details. (If the info button doesn’t have the sparkle badge, Visual Look Up hasn’t identified anything in the photo.)

(Featured image by iStock.com/Hakase_)

When you move from an old iPhone or iPad to a new one, the easiest approach is often the Quick Start device-to-device transfer. But if that doesn’t work, or if you have to give up one device before receiving the other, iCloud Backup is a fine alternative. Fine, that is, if you have enough iCloud storage space, which many people with the free 5 GB plan do not. For devices running iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, Apple just introduced the option to create a temporary iCloud backup that’s larger than the available space. Tap Settings > General > Transfer or Reset Device > Get Started to create the backup. You have 21 days (plus another 21 if necessary) to restore that backup, and it sticks around for another 7 days after you restore.

(Featured image by iStock.com/honley)

The Apple Watch has a lot to offer older people, including heart rate monitoring, atrial fibrillation detection, fall detection, and electrocardiogram recording. But if you are—or are helping someone who is—of the generation where watches once did nothing beyond telling the time, too many options can be overwhelming. Adding to the confusion is how easy it is to create and accidentally swipe between multiple watch faces, making it so the Apple Watch suddenly looks and works completely differently. If that’s an issue, use the Watch app to delete all but the preferred watch face. In Watch > My Watch, tap Edit to the right of My Faces ➊, tap the red delete button next to a face ➋, and then tap Remove ➌.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Remember the heady dotcom days, when businesses were desperate to get a short, memorable, easily typed .com domain? It quickly became difficult to get what you wanted—so much so that deep-pocketed companies paid exorbitant sums for just the right domain.

Before we go any further, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. Domain names are necessary because computers on the Internet are all identified by inscrutable numeric IP addresses. You can remember and type apple.com easily; 184.31.17.21 not so much. Domain names have two or more parts: the top-level domain (read from the end, such as com) and the second-level domain (like apple), plus optional third-level domains (which could give you support.apple.com).

Since the days of speculating in .com domains, however, hundreds of additional top-level domains have been opened up, including domains from .aaa to .zone. There are now top-level domains for .doctor, .florist, .lawyer, and many more, including the general .xyz. It might be tempting to switch from the awkward dewey-cheatham-howe.com to the shorter and more memorable dch.lawyer. And even if there isn’t a profession-specific top-level domain that works for you, you may think that if abc.xyz is good enough for Google’s parent company Alphabet, surely it’s good enough for you.

Alas, much as we appreciate the creativity and flexibility offered by these alternative top-level domains, we’d like to dissuade you from using one, if possible. Problems include:

• Email deliverability: If you’re sending email using an alternative top-level domain or including links to that domain, it’s much more likely that your email will be considered spam by receiving systems.
• SMS deliverability: Some SMS text message providers will automatically delete messages containing URLs with alternative top-level domains in an effort to protect their customers from phishing attacks.
• Social media spam filtering: As with SMS text messages, social media posts that include URLs with alternative top-level domains may be categorized as spam or as linking to a malicious site.
• Firewall blocking: Abuse of alternative top-level domains has become so commonplace by scammers that some companies prevent their employees from accessing websites using certain alternative top-level domains at the firewall level.
• User perception: Although there’s no telling how anyone will react to a particular top-level domain, people won’t think twice about .com but might think .ooo seems sketchy. (We would.)

Obviously, it may not be possible to get the domain name you want in .com. What to do? There are a few strategies:

• Expand or abbreviate: At this time, people mostly don’t see, remember, or type domains apart from those that go with businesses that do a lot of real-world advertising. So if you need to add or subtract words (or letters) in your domain to find a unique one, that can work.
• Use a country domain: Two-letter top-level domains are restricted for use by countries, so .us is for the United States, .ca for Canada, and .au for Australia. Every country has different rules for who can register them. For instance, it’s possible to get a domain ending in .it (Italy) as long as you work through a registrar that acts as your representative there. .io (British Indian Ocean Territory) and .ai (Anguilla) are popular top-level domains among tech companies.
• Stick with better, pricier alternatives: Not all alternative top-level domains are equally problematic. The classic .net and .org are fine, and .biz isn’t bad. But how to determine that? When you’re checking to see if a domain name is available, compare prices. For instance, at one domain name registrar, iphonewhisperer.xyz costs only $1 per year, whereas the iphonewhisperer.biz version is $4.98 per year, iphonewhisperer.net is $9.18 per year, and iphonewhisperer.studio is $11.98 per year. The more you pay, the less likely that domain has been abused by spammers and marked for filtering.

In the end, when it comes to domain names, it’s best to be conservative and stick with a top-level domain that won’t cause people or filters to think twice. That’s probably .com, if you can make the rest of the name work for you.

(Featured image by iStock.com/BeeBright)

The most magical feature of Apple’s latest crop of operating systems—iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey—may be Live Text. You’re probably familiar with the concept of optical character recognition (OCR), which turns all the text on a scanned page into normal text you can select, copy, and edit. Live Text does exactly that in Photos, Safari, and the Camera app, plus lets you search for text in photos. And it does it in not just in English, but also Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Thanks to the incredible processing power of Apple’s recent devices, this digitization of graphics to text takes place instantly—hence “live” text. Apple says it works on any Mac that can run Monterey, but on the iPhone and iPad, it requires a model with an A12 Bionic processor or later, which means anything in this list (check your device in Settings > General > About > Model Name):

• iPhone XR, XS, XS Max, and later, including the iPhone SE (2nd generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) and later
• iPad Pro 11-inch
• iPad Air (3rd generation) and later
• iPad (8th generation) and later
• iPad mini (5th generation) and later

Live Text in Photos

The main place you’ll use Live Text is in Photos. In iOS and iPadOS, when viewing a picture containing text, touch and hold a bit of text until it highlights in blue. (For text-intensive images, Photos displays a Detect Text button in the lower-right corner; tap it to highlight recognized text.) The familiar text popover then appears. Drag the blue selection handles to adjust the selection as desired or tap Select All. Then you’ll most likely want to copy the text, switch to another app, and paste, though you can also do a Web search by tapping Look Up or have the device read the text out loud by tapping Speak.

Two quick tips:

• Want to copy text from an app that doesn’t even let you select text? Take a screenshot of the app and use Live Text to copy it.
• If you have an animated Live Photo that contains text, touch and hold the text to select it; touch and hold away from the text to animate the photo.

In Monterey, move the pointer over the text so it turns to a text selection cursor, then select the text, after which you can copy it as you would any other text. You can also Control-click the selected text to access Look Up or Translate.

As a bonus in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, text from Photos that Live Text has recognized is indexed by the system-wide search. So when you pull down from the middle of the Home screen and search, a Text Found in Photos section shows images that contain the search text. Tap one to view it, and note that there’s a Detect Text button in the preview that identifies text you can select right there. Or tap the Photos button in the lower-right corner to open the image in Photos.

Live Text in the Camera App

Sometimes you may want to capture some text in the real world without having a photo to store and later delete—getting an appliance’s model or serial number is a perfect example. When Live Text detects text in the Camera app’s viewfinder, it puts a faint yellow outline around it and displays the Detect Text button. Tap the Detect Text button to freeze and zoom the selection—it even rotates sideways text to be readable—and then tap the text to select and copy it. Tap the Detect Text button again when you’re done.

There’s another way to use Live Text in conjunction with the iPhone or iPad camera that’s useful if you need to insert a large amount of text directly into a document. In an app that supports Live Text, like Notes, tap in the text entry area and then tap the Scan Text button. A viewfinder appears on the bottom half of the screen, with a yellow outline around detected text, and the recognized text above. If that’s what you want, tap the Insert button to put the text into your note or document.

Live Text in Safari and Other Apps

Because Apple integrated Live Text into its operating systems, it’s available nearly anywhere you might see an image that contains text. For instance, in Safari, you’re likely to run across such images, or you might have embedded photos in Notes that contain text. Selecting text using Live Text works exactly the same as in Photos—either touch and hold on an iPhone or iPad, or just select the text on the Mac. And on the Mac, Live Text even works when you select an image in the Finder and press the Space bar to view it in Quick Look.

Other Live Text Tricks

• Identify types of data: When Live Text recognizes text that contains an email address, phone number, postal address, or date, you can touch and hold it to bring up special options to send an email, call the number, map the address, or make an event or reminder.
• Translate Live Text: The Translate app in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 is now a system-wide service, so it can translate any text you can select, including text recognized by Live Text in a photo or in the Camera app. Just select it and tap Translate.
• Hear Live Text: If you rely on VoiceOver to help you navigate your iPhone or iPad, note that you can leverage Live Text to get VoiceOver to read text in your photos out loud. Go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > VoiceOver Recognition and turn on Text Recognition. Then, while viewing a photo, tap the text in the photo to have VoiceOver read to you.

It may take a little while to remember that you can select and copy, look up, or translate nearly any text you see in a picture—or in your camera viewfinder—but once you’ve tried Live Text a few times, we’re betting that you’ll find it surprisingly useful.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

With the betas of Safari 15 on the Mac and iPad, Apple experimented with a variety of interface tweaks related to tabs. By the time Safari 15 shipped, however, Apple had pulled back on the more radical changes from the betas, offering the new Compact Tab Bar layout and colorized tab bar as options. Even with the more traditional Separate Tab Bar layout, however, tabs appeared as buttons above your favorites, a switch from earlier versions of Safari. With Safari 15.1 in macOS and iPadOS 15.1, Apple has reverted the Separate Tab Bar layout even further, making the tabs look like, well, tabs, moving them below the favorites, and eliminating the colorized tab bar (it remains an option in iOS 15.1). The Compact Tab Bar option remains available for those who prefer it, but if you’ve been feeling the sand shifting under your feet, it’s not your imagination—tabs really did change in Safari 15.1.

(Featured image by iStock.com/ESOlex)

It may seem early to start thinking about the holiday shopping season, but with the global supply chain suffering pandemic-related slowdowns, there’s no telling how long it will take to get something you order today. Apple has generally done a good job of managing its supply chain issues, but even still, if you want to make sure you have an Apple something for that special someone, we recommend buying it soon. Here are our recommendations.

AirTag

Do you know someone who’s always misplacing their keys, purse, or backpack? Apple’s new AirTag tracker is the perfect gift for such a person. Attach one to a keyring (with a separate $29 AirTag Loop or $39 AirTag Leather Loop) or drop it in a bag, and from then on, the person can use the Find My app to see where they left their stuff. Support for ultra-wideband enables precision finding with an iPhone 11 or later—with earlier iPhones, the detected location won’t be quite so precise. AirTag uses the Find My network, so even if the item is far away, passing Apple devices that detect it can securely share its location with you. One AirTag costs $29, or you can get a pack of four for $99. You can even have Apple personalize each AirTag with custom text and emoji.

AirPods and AirPods Pro

Apple’s wireless earbuds remain popular, and the company just released the third-generation AirPods to supplement the second-generation AirPods and the AirPods Pro. All three make excellent gifts. The second-generation AirPods cost $129, have a relatively long stalk, and boast up to 5 hours of listening on one charge. The $179 third-generation AirPods shrink the stalk, switch to a force sensor for controls, add support for spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, feature sweat and water resistance, have a MagSafe wireless charging case, and last up to 6 hours on a single charge. For $249, the AirPods Pro include the features of the third-generation AirPods and add silicone ear tips and active noise cancellation with optional transparency mode, but they have only 4.5 hours of listening time. All three have charging cases, support Hey Siri commands, and automatically switch between Apple devices.

HomePod mini

Earlier this year, Apple discontinued the full-size HomePod, which wasn’t a big hit at its relatively high price of $299. However, the $99 HomePod mini remains available, and Apple is now selling it in five colors, with blue, orange, and yellow joining white and black. (The new colors will become available at some point in November.) The grapefruit-sized HomePod mini may be small, but it produces great sound for its size, and it can do pretty much everything the larger HomePod could do. You can control it entirely via Siri, pair two for stereo sound, use it as a hub for your HomeKit home automation accessories, and even have it play the sound from your Apple TV. Put a HomePod mini in different rooms in the house, and you can use Intercom to communicate with family members using your voice. If you’re giving it as a gift, remember that it’s best when paired with an Apple Music subscription.

iPad and iPad mini

If you’re looking to give an iPad as a gift, you have a lot of choice. The top-of-the-line iPad Pro may be overkill for most given its power and price—$799 for the 11-inch model and $1099 for the 12.9-inch model. But the fourth-generation iPad Air, which starts at $599, provides sufficient power for even the most intensive tasks, especially when coupled with a second-generation Apple Pencil ($129) and either a Magic Keyboard ($299) or Smart Keyboard Folio ($179).

If those possibilities seem pricey for an iPad that’s destined for a kid or an adult with basic needs, look no further than the new ninth-generation iPad, which remains a bargain at $329. It works with the first-generation Apple Pencil ($99), and those who need to write can add the $159 Smart Keyboard. Finally, don’t forget the sixth-generation iPad mini, which benefited from a major redesign back in September. It’s now more like a diminutive version of the iPad Air, with more colors and a squared-off industrial design compatible with the second-generation Apple Pencil. It’s $499, and if you need a keyboard, you’ll have to look to a third-party manufacturer or use a standard Bluetooth wireless keyboard.

Apple Watch Gift Certificate

Last but far from least, we love the Apple Watch, and it would seem to make a great gift. However, we urge caution. Apple provides a dizzying number of options for case size, material, and color, plus the band and color, making it difficult to know what would be most appreciated. So we’d encourage giving a certificate that’s good for a conversation about what to purchase. Then sit down with the recipient to run through all the decisions in the Apple Watch Studio.

There are three options this year: the new Apple Watch Series 7 (starting at $399), last year’s less expensive Apple Watch SE (starting at $279), or the much older Apple Watch Series 3 (starting at $199). Get the Series 7 if you want an Always-On Display, blood oxygen sensor, and ECG capabilities—it also boasts a larger screen than last year’s Series 6 while remaining compatible with all the bands. The Apple Watch SE lacks the Series 7’s advanced sensors and has a slightly smaller screen size, but it still provides the compass, altimeter, and fall detection features. The screen on the Series 3 is smaller yet, and it lacks a number of key features. Unless keeping the cost to a minimum is essential, we have a hard time recommending the Series 3—it’s getting too old. Apple has a helpful comparison tool.

You may have noticed that we didn’t include any Macs in this article. They are worthy gifts, but they’re quite a bit more expensive and more difficult to select without extensive discussion of the recipient’s needs. Let us know if you need help choosing the right Mac for someone on your list, but we’re partial to the M1-based MacBook Air and 24-inch iMac for many users.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

We’ve been seeing a spate of bulging batteries of late, both in Mac laptops and iPhones. A bulging battery is a Very Bad Thing and must be dealt with immediately because it could catch fire or even explode. As lithium-ion batteries age, the chemical reactions that produce power no longer complete fully, resulting in the creation of gasses that can cause the battery to swell. Additionally, manufacturing errors or damage to the membranes that separate the internal layers of the battery can also lead to swelling.

What to Look For

With Mac laptops, a variety of problems—some rather subtle—can indicate that the internal battery is swelling, including the screen not closing properly, a gap between the upper and lower parts of the case, a failure to sit perfectly flat, problems clicking the trackpad, or keyboard keys malfunctioning.

With an iPhone or iPad, a swollen battery is usually obvious because it starts to warp the case and can even crack the screen—it all depends on where the swelling takes place and what part of the device gives way first.

What to Do

When you discover a bulging battery, unplug the device immediately and turn it off as soon as you can. Continued charging or use could lead to a fire or explosion. However, if the device is still functional and you need to copy data off or let a final backup run, try to put it in a place where it’s less likely to cause problems—on a concrete, stone, or tile surface, for instance, and preferably outside as long as it’s not wet, hot, or in the sun.

In some cases, as with older MacBooks, it’s relatively easy to disassemble the case and remove the battery. If you feel comfortable doing that, you may be able to reduce the chances of further damage. It’s much harder to work on iPhones and iPads.

Make sure you’re somewhere well-ventilated and safe, with easy access to outside and preferably a foam-based fire extinguisher at hand. If a fire does start, water will also put it out—make sure to have plenty on hand. Be sure to wear eye protection and gloves. Also, make sure you have somewhere safe to store the battery once removed, such as a metal can with a lid or with sand in it. Finally, be super careful around the battery, and whatever you do, do not puncture the swollen cell—some of the gases could be harmful.

Once you’ve removed the battery from the device, you must take it somewhere for recycling. Under no circumstances should you send it via the mail or put it in the regular garbage. Although various companies—including Apple, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowes—recycle batteries, call your local store first to see if they take swollen batteries (they may not be equipped to do so safely). Better yet, check with your county or municipality to see where you should take hazardous waste.

For additional details and advice, see iFixit’s guide and the many comments.

Getting Your Device Fixed

The best-case scenario is that you have AppleCare+ on the device such that Apple will fix it for you. However, that’s a bit unlikely because batteries usually bulge only on older devices. Regardless of AppleCare status, Apple offers battery service and recycling, and if you have an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider nearby, that’s a good option. Independent repair shops can also likely do this work; make sure they have plenty of experience with your device and offer a warranty for their parts and labor.

Although it’s possible to replace batteries yourself—refer to the iFixit site for instructions and links to replacement batteries—it can be finicky work, particularly in iPhones and iPads, and you may not save that much money in the end.

Sadly, particularly with an older iPhone, the damage from the bulging battery may prevent a repair from being worthwhile. The iPhone X pictured above still worked fine even though the swollen battery broke its screen, but it wasn’t worth the money to replace the battery and the screen for a 4-year-old iPhone. In such cases, recycle the entire unit with the appropriate hazardous waste facility.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Social Media: If your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook is bulging, unplug it and shut it off immediately—the problem is the battery. Then read this article for details on what happened and how to deal with it.

You have a new iPhone or iPad—congratulations! When transferring your data to the new device, you have three options: Quick Start, an iCloud backup, or a Mac backup. All will work, but they don’t quite provide the same end result (particularly if you didn’t encrypt your Mac backup). Our advice—backed by this post from Apple expert John Gruber—is to try Quick Start first because it transfers everything directly from your old device to your new one, maintaining app logins in most cases and allowing you to transfer your Apple Watch pairing. It may seem like it’s taking a long time before you can use the device, but it’s worth it to avoid logging in to numerous apps and unpairing and repairing your Apple Watch.

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Multitasking has long been a mess on the iPad, not so much because it didn’t work but because it was tough to memorize the secret swipes necessary to put multiple apps into Split View, work with multiple windows in apps that supported them, and hide and show what you wanted in Slide Over. In iPadOS 15, Apple hasn’t changed the underlying multitasking capabilities much, but it has made them far more discoverable with onscreen controls and tips that supplement the previous gestures.

Use the Multitasking Menu

Most important is the new multitasking menu button that appears in the top center of every app, represented by •••. Tap it to reveal a control with three options—Full Screen, Split View, and Slide Over—and then tap one of those to put the current app into that mode. From left:

• Full Screen: When only a single app is showing, the leftmost button is selected. When you have an app in Split View or Slide Over, tap the Full Screen button to make that app the only one onscreen.
  
• Split View: Tap the middle button to shove the current app to the left edge of the screen, revealing the Home screen and the Dock. A little lozenge replaces the multitasking menu, telling you that you’re working with Split View and to choose another app. Tap any other app to open it (on the right side) with the current app (on the left side), and remember that you can resize each app using the handle on the black bar in the middle.
  
• Slide Over: In the current app window, tap the rightmost button to push the app to the side of the screen, again revealing the Home screen and the Dock and showing a lozenge that tells you that you’re working with Slide Over and to choose another app. Tap any other to open it full screen but with the current app floating above it in Slide Over mode, and remember that you can hide the Slide Over app easily by swiping it to the right.
  

Use the App Switcher

Apple also made it much easier to see and manage your Split View combinations by using the App Switcher. Once you go into it by swiping up from the bottom of the screen (or double-pressing the Home button, if your iPad has one), you have several multitasking-related options:

• Switch among apps: Tap any app, Split View combination, or Slide Over app (located on the right side of the App Switcher) to switch to it.
• Make a Split View: Drag any app or window onto another one to combine them into a Split View (as is shown with Drive and Docs below). Before you start to drag, pause for a moment to pick up the app; drag until the items turn into icon-emblazoned gray rectangles.
• Replace a Split View app: Drag any app or window onto the left or right side of a Split View combination to replace that app or window.
• Break a Split View combination: Drag the left or right side of a Split View combination off until it displays as a full-screen thumbnail.

In the screenshot above, note the red arrow pointing to the little stacked square icons above the Safari Split View windows. Those indicate that the app in question has multiple windows. Tap the icon to display just that app’s windows in the App Switcher.

Use the Shelf

The App Switcher may make it easier to see and switch among multiple windows in apps, but another new multitasking feature, the Shelf, is even more useful. When you use the Dock or a search to open an app with multiple windows available, the Shelf displays them all at the bottom of the screen. The Shelf doesn’t appear when you switch to an app using the App Switcher or four-finger swipe, but you can bring it up at any time by tapping the multitasking menu button at the top of the screen.

When you’re looking at items on the Shelf, tap one to switch to it. You can also swipe up on windows on the Shelf to close them. As soon as you tap anywhere else in the app to start working, the Shelf disappears.

Use Center Windows

In at least some apps with sidebars, such as Mail and Notes, you can now open an item like a message or a note in its own window in the center of the screen. That’s useful for previewing the full content of the item, and you can swipe down on the multitasking menu button to put the window on the Shelf, which keeps it available for quick reference while you work on something else. To create a center window, touch and hold the item in the sidebar and then tap Open in New Window. To close it, tap Close or swipe up on its Shelf thumbnail.

Use the Multitasking Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’re seriously interested in using multitasking on an iPad, you’re probably also working with a physical keyboard much of the time. In iPadOS 15, Apple added a useful set of keyboard shortcuts that you can learn about by pressing and holding the Globe key and then tapping the Multitasking tab at the bottom. It may take a little while to internalize the shortcuts, but if you do most of your work on an iPad, you will probably find the effort worthwhile.

If you like the idea of multitasking on the iPad but have never been able to remember all the necessary gestures, iPadOS 15’s changes will be welcome. Give them a try—we think they finally make multitasking obvious enough for everyone.

(Featured image by iStock.com/metamorworks)