Apple's Reminders app is great, but I've always wanted to add its entries to my iPhone's Calendar app, too. I am at my most productive when I have a to-do list with deadlines clearly listed, but I find it overwhelming to look at that list at the start of the day. I used to dread adding too many entries to Reminders until I discovered ReminderCal ($5). This app does one job and does it well—sync reminders with the Calendar app.

Why I like seeing my tasks in Calendar

The Calendar app has a neat week view that adds a bit of space between every entry. If I have a run at 5am, meditation at 7, and work at 9:30, these entries seem overwhelming in Reminders. In the Calendar, the same three entries appear vertically with long gaps in between, which tells me that I have lots of free time in between my tasks. It's almost like a trick that reduces the urgency of tasks and makes my brain think: "I can do this!" 

How to sync Reminders with Calendar

Credit: Pranay Parab

Once you download and install ReminderCal on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac (a single purchase unlocks the app on all three platforms), you'll need to give it access to your calendars and to the Reminders app. From here, the app will do its job with minimal input.

Now, when you add timed reminders in Apple's Reminders app, they'll start appearing in the Calendar automatically. If there are reminders that you don't want to sync, you can start those entries with $nocal or $nocalendar and ReminderCal will ignore them.

On Mac, as long as you let ReminderCal run in the background, it'll automatically sync all your tasks. You don't need to keep opening it and hitting the sync button.

On iPhone and iPad, background syncing is less reliable due to battery saving measures in the operating system. That's why I suggest using Apple's Shortcuts app to set up an automation to force a sync at a fixed interval. Just open the Shortcuts app, click the "+" in the top-right corner, select a time of day for the Shortcut to activate, tell the shortcut to activate daily, and choose the ReminderCal option. If you want ReminderCal to run multiple times a day, you'll have to set up a few different automations to force it to run every few hours.

Personally, I like to plan my day in advance, so I've set ReminderCal up to automatically sync at sunrise. When I add tasks for the same day, I can always open ReminderCal on my iPhone and sync it manually. It takes a second for the entries to appear in the calendar.

Configuring ReminderCal to your liking

Credit: Pranay Parab

I like ReminderCal's simplicity, and that shows in its settings menus as well. The default options are great for almost everyone, but you can change a few things if you like. The app allows you to choose if you want repeating reminders to appear in your calendars, for example. It's enabled by default but you can disable it if you want to. You can also force the app to sync completed reminders that were due in the past, but this is disabled by default to avoid cluttering your calendar.

There are two tweaks I suggest. I changed the default event duration to one hour from 30 minutes. The second tweak lets you invert the $nocal exception phrase. If you enable it, ReminderCal will only sync those reminder entries that have the $nocal phrase in the body. This is a good option for those who want to be very selective with syncing reminders with the calendar.

A limitation that you should be aware of

Unfortunately, third-party apps often have to deal with restrictions. ReminderCal cannot sync your reminders to calendars other than Outlook and iCloud. That's going to be a dealbreaker for lots of people, especially those who rely on Google Calendar, but there's nothing the app's developer can do about this as of yet.

Most of us stream the vast majority of our music, but sometimes that's not an option. That's where downloading songs or music videos for offline listening comes in. If YouTube is your music platform of choice, there are plenty of methods to download music for when you have spotty or no internet connectivity.

Downloading music from YouTube is legal if you pay for YouTube Premium. All other methods to download songs from YouTube are free, but they may not always be legal. Remember that it's okay to download your own music or copyright-free songs from YouTube, but if you're trying to rip popular music that you didn't create, you're probably going against the site's terms of service.

Download music from YouTube by subscribing to YouTube Premium

The most reliable method for downloading music from YouTube is by paying for the service—which, I know, is probably not what you want to hear.

You can either get YouTube Premium for $13.99 per month, or you can subscribe to just YouTube Music Premium for $10.99 per month. These are two separate services: YouTube Premium comes with YouTube Music Premium, but not the other way around.

Both services allow you to download music from YouTube, plus come with other features such as removing ads. YouTube Premium comes with a host of extra features focused on the video side of the platform, so if you only want music, you can save a little money by just subscribing to YouTube Music Premium.

All other methods for downloading music from YouTube are unofficial and may violate the site’s terms of service, but YouTube probably won't do much to stop you. (Just don't upload any copyright-protected material). In addition, know that using unofficial YouTube downloaders could compromise your security if the app gets bought by malicious developers down the line. I've done my best to recommend safe programs, but I can't predict what the future holds. Always do research before downloading an unofficial app from the internet.

How to download music from YouTube on Android

Credit: NewPipe

If you have an Android phone, try using NewPipe to download music from YouTube. This app is not available on the Google Play store because it essentially gives you all of YouTube Premium's features for free, including the ability to download music from YouTube. Here's how to install it:

1. Download the Newpipe apk.

2. Open the downloaded file on your Android phone. You may see a warning and a request for your permission to install NewPipe. Grant this request and go back to the installer.

3. Once the installation is complete, open NewPipe and search for the music you want to download.

4. Tap Download, followed by Audio, and NewPipe will save the song for you.

How to download music from YouTube on iPhone

Credit: @gluebyte/Routine Hub

On your iPhone, the best (unofficial) way to download music from YouTube is via Apple’s Shortcuts app. Follow these steps to download music from YouTube to your iPhone:

1. Download the YouTube Download shortcut from RoutineHub, a third-party gallery for shortcuts for your iPhone.

2. Install two more apps on your iPhone: Scriptable and a-Shell mini.

3. Open the YouTube video in Safari or in the YouTube app. Tap the Share button, which will reveal the share sheet.

4. Scroll down and select YouTube Download from the list of shortcuts towards the bottom.

5. YouTube Download will ask for a bunch of permissions. Unfortunately, you'll need to grant all of these for the shortcut to do its job. When it asks whether you want to download audio or video, select Download Audio. You can also choose the audio format you prefer. (I chose mp3.)

6. Finally, the shortcut will ask where you want to save the downloaded file. You can pick iCloud Drive or the On My iPhone folder in the Files app.

The downloaded audio file will then be saved on your iPhone. You can repeat this process for pretty much any video on YouTube.

Download music from YouTube on Windows or Mac

Credit: 4K YouTube to MP3

On your laptop or desktop, use the 4K YouTube to MP3 app to get music from YouTube.

1. Install 4K YouTube to MP3.

2. Paste the YouTube URL in the app and let the app handle the rest.

3. The app downloads music in mp3 by default, but you can also get m4a or ogg audio files.

The free version of the app allows 15 downloads per day, which is good enough for most people, but it may be a problem if you’re trying to download large playlists in one go. The app allows you to remove the download restriction at a starting price of $15 for a permanent license.

If you're comfortable with using command-line tools to download YouTube songs, then the excellent yt-dlp is another great choice that doesn't come with limits. Personally, I find the initial setup a bit cumbersome. Since I mostly only download one or two things from YouTube once every few months, 4K YouTube to MP3 does the job faster for me.

With the recent concerns over popular Mac app Bartender surprising users with a mysterious new owner, it's became clear that automatically updating apps is not always good for security. Instead, I suggest using MacUpdater, which makes it easy to check which apps need updating, verify that they're safe to update, and get everything up-to-date all at once.

Why MacUpdater is a great tool for app updates

Bartender's new ownership was actually reported because MacUpdater warned its users about the change. Bartender's ownership change wasn't announced to the public, and MacUpdater had posted a warning in the app about its certificate change and the lack of information about the new owners. That is one of MacUpdater's best features. 

If you install apps from outside the Mac App Store, then MacUpdater is a useful tool for checking if an app's updates are secure. There's a tiny i button to the right of every app listed in MacUpdater. If the button is red, then the app has identified a concern with its updates. Review it before installing.

If the button is blue, you can still review the update's release notes before you install it. For added convenience, you can also move MacUpdater to the menu bar and update your apps from there.

How to use MacUpdater

Once you download and install MacUpdater, it'll scan your Mac to check which apps are installed on your computer. The program will then quickly show you which apps are up-to-date and which are not. From here, the free license will only let you update 10 apps, but for $9.37, you'll unlock unlimited updating.

When you're ready to update, hit the Update App or Upgrade App button to update each app in the list individually, or the Select QuickUpdate Apps button to select and update multiple apps at once. Most apps won't have an issue, but some might require you to key in an admin password. Otherwise, the entire process is seamless.

As for why some apps say Upgrade instead of Update, Upgrades are for major version upgrades that may require you to buy a fresh license.

MacUpdater's Pro edition, which costs $21.87, also allows you to schedule apps to update automatically, although I still recommend checking in on apps before updating them.

Some of my favorite apps, such as Calibre, normally require you to download and install each new version manually. Thanks to MacUpdater, that process takes place with one-click. This has saved me a lot of time.

Some areas for improvement

My biggest complaint with MacUpdater is its UI. The app looks a bit dated and could use a few design tweaks to make things easier to use. For example, the aforementioned i button is way too small and it's hard to see its color correctly. I'm sure there's a better way to highlight apps that you shouldn't update.

I've also run into a bug that freezes the app entirely. When I tried to move MacUpdater to the menu bar, one of the options in the list is "Nowhere," which hides the app from the dock and the menu bar. I accidentally selected this, which made the app disappear. I could only access it from the Settings menu, and even force quitting wouldn't bring it back. Thankfully, a restart fixed the problem.

Don't forget the student discount

$9.37 is a pretty good deal to begin with, but If you're a student or if you live outside the top 40 richest countries of the world, you can email the developers for a 40% discount. That's a really good deal for a useful app, but remember that MacUpdater relies heavily on server side maintenance, which means that the app won't continue to work permanently.

The developers have set a January 2026 deadline for MacUpdater 3. When that expires, you'll have to pay again for the next version. I still think it's good value, but you should be aware of the business model before making a purchase.

If your ducking autocorrect is leading to one embarrassment too many on your iPhone, then you can train it to do better. Just like on Mac, there are a few ways to add custom words to your iPhone's dictionary.

Add your custom words as a contact

Credit: Pranay Parab

The dictionary on your iPhone picks up words from your address book, which you can use to your advantage. The next time autocorrect changes a perfectly valid word to something else, just open the Contacts app on your iPhone and create a new contact. Use the first name field to add as many words as you like, each separated by a single space. When you're ready, save the contact and try typing any of these words anywhere on your iPhone. You'll notice that they'll all be easy to type, will have no red lines underneath, and that they've been added to the iPhone's dictionary.

Try text replacements

Credit: Pranay Parab

You can also use the text replacements feature to get the job done. This is a crude method, but it does work. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. Hit the + button in the top-right corner and add the word you want to add to both fields—phrase and shortcut. Save this and repeat these steps for each word you'd like to add to your iPhone's dictionary. After this, when you start typing these words, they'll appear in autocorrect's suggestions and will be a lot easier to type as well.

Use Pages to add words to your iPhone's dictionary

Credit: Pranay Parab

Your Mac has a nifty Learn Spelling feature, which allows you to add custom words to its dictionary. This feature is also present on your iPhone, but only in Apple's Pages app.

Start by downloading it off the App Store and opening a new document. Type a word that your iPhone's dictionary won't recognize, such as "microtransaction." Double-tap the word to select it, and from the popover menu, tap the right-arrow button until you see Learn Spelling. Tap this to add the word to your iPhone's dictionary. This tip was discovered by Mastodon user Ceolaf.

The custom word will work in Pages instantly, but it may take a while for it to be honored across iOS.

Keep correcting autocorrect

Credit: Pranay Parab

Another way to fix incorrect words on your iPhone is to use the word suggestions that appear right above the keyboard. When you type a word, if the spelling isn't recognized, it'll appear within quotes in these word suggestions. Tap that suggestion and it should be added to your iPhone's dictionary. Sometimes, you may need to do this a couple times before this method works.

Reset the dictionary to remove typos

Credit: Pranay Parab

Sometimes, your iPhone can learn incorrect spellings. If old mistakes are haunting you by automatically correcting words to the wrong spelling, then you might want to consider a more extreme approach—resetting the iPhone's keyboard dictionary. This will remove all custom words from the dictionary and give you a fresh start. You can do this by going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary.

In the internet age, language evolves faster than your computer's dictionary. Even if you only speak English, new words such as "rizz," "girlboss," and "microtransaction" keep popping up. No matter how versed you are in slang, these words can definitely still mess up your typing experience on your Mac.

Credit: Pranay Parab

Even if you disable autocorrect, you'll still have to put up with little red lines underneath words your Mac doesn't recognize. But you can get around this by adding words you use regularly to your Mac's dictionary. This will keep your computer from bothering you when you're feeling extra skibidi. 

How to add words to the Mac's dictionary

The next time your Mac tries to autocorrect or underline a word you want to keep as-is, select the offending word, right-click it, and choose Learn Spelling. This will add the word to your Mac's dictionary. This option will only appear when you select a word that's not in your computer's dictionary. Once you ask the Mac to learn a spelling, it will stop bothering you about that word. Note that this option may not always appear in all apps, but if you paste the text into any writing app, it'll appear for sure.

This feature has been in macOS over a decade, but a Mastodon post by John Gruber recently highlighted another method for adding words to your Mac's dictionary. To do this, open Finder and press Command-Shift-G. Now paste ~/Library/GroupContainers/group.com.apple.AppleSpell/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary in the form and hit Return. This will take you to the dictionary folder. 

If you've already added words to your dictionary using the Learn Spelling option, they will appear in a file in this folder. That file is called en if your Mac's default language is English, but it may use a different file name for other languages. Open this file and add one word per line to quickly create your own dictionary. Don't forget to save the file before closing it. Manually adding words is a bit buggy and it doesn't always help your Mac learn the right spellings, which is why I recommend using the Learn Spelling option for best results.

This is a great tip for everyone, but especially for multilingual people who use their Mac to send messages in different languages. In many countries where English isn't the first language, it's quite common to send bilingual messages that have a few words from English and a few from a different language. If that's you, then you can use this feature to add common words from your language to your Mac's dictionary and stop getting bothered about them.

Apple has a great track record of supporting its devices with software updates for many, many years after their release. It's not uncommon for Apple to supply iPhones, iPads, and Macs with updates for well over five years. However, as the years go by, some devices end up being too old to be supported and Apple drops them from the software update cycle. 

When it comes to updates for the 2024 iterations of iOS, watchOS, macOS, and iPadOS, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Good news for iPhone users

iOS 18 will be made available to every single iPhone that can currently run iOS 17. After the iPhone X was cut from updates last year, I was worried about the fate of my trusty old iPhone Xs Max. Fortunately for me, Apple has decided to keep it updated it for one more year.

It's worth noting that all of the flashy new Apple Intelligence features coming to iOS are at the moment reserved for the iPhone 15 Pro series only. Unless you have one of those or are planning to upgrade to one of the new iPhones releasing this fall, you're going to live without Apple's AI features for now.

These Apple Watches won't get watchOS 11

Unfortunately, this is the end of the road for the following Apple Watch models, which won't be able to upgrade to watchOS 11:

• Apple Watch Series 4

• Apple Watch Series 5

• Apple Watch SE (1st generation)

Two MacBook models won't get macOS 15

Apple won't be making macOS 15 Sequoia available to the following MacBooks that were still supported last year:

• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)

• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)

Once again, note that all the Apple Intelligence AI features won't be available on any of the Intel Macs. You're going to need an M-series Mac to update to macOS Sequoia.

Some iPads won't get iPadOS 18

Finally, Apple won't be sending iPadOS 18 to the following iPads:

• iPad (6th generation)

• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation)

• iPad Pro 10.5-inch

And again, the Apple Intelligence features that are a part of iPadOS 18 won't be available on all models—you'll need an iPad with an M-series chip to use these features.

Although this is the end of the road in terms of major version upgrades for all of the devices listed above, Apple may still continue to issue them important security updates for some time to come.

(Follow Lifehacker's ongoing coverage of WWDC 2024 here.)

During Apple's WWDC 2024 keynote, it announced that Safari on macOS 15 Sequoia will get several intriguing updates, like hiding distractions while you watch videos and summarizing articles as you read them. Read on to learn about the other new Safari features coming to your Mac later this year.

Viewer mode hides distractions for videos

Just like Reader mode hides all the clutter on a webpage so that you can focus on reading in Safari, Apple has announced a new Viewer mode to do the same thing for videos on the web. The moment Safari on macOS 15 Sequoia detects that you've played a video on a webpage, it'll hide everything else on the page. The video will expand to take up as much space as is available in your Safari window.

The moment you click away, the video automatically goes into picture-in-picture mode, according to the demo Apple showed during the WWDC 2024 keynote. It's worth noting that just like Reader mode doesn't work well with every website, Viewer mode could also face issues depending on the video player that your favorite websites use. Some of them may be custom players that block Viewer mode, and it remains to be seen how well this feature works.

Save time with article summaries

Credit: Apple

When you're reading a long article, Safari will also offer a summary to help you save time. A summary is not a substitute for reading the entire article, of course, but it could highlight the most important bits when you're in a rush.

Machine learning enhances your browsing

Safari will also use machine learning to highlight important information on the webpage. If you're looking at a website that mentions a hotel, Safari will be able to show you a map location card with a button to help you navigate there via Apple Maps. When reading an article about a movie, Safari may also display a movie information card, for example.

This is a developing story. Apple's WWDC keynote is currently ongoing, with the WWDC conference set to last through June 14. Lifehacker will update this story with relevant information as it is announced.

(Follow Lifehacker's ongoing coverage of WWDC 2024 here.)

At today's WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple announced that iOS 18, the latest version of the iPhone's operating system, is finally getting a feature Android users have enjoyed for over a decade. After the update, your iPhone will allow you to place your app icons wherever you want on your home screen. Previously, you could move your icons around, but it wasn't possible to place icons only toward the bottom of the screen if the top rows were empty.

During the keynote, Apple's demo footage showed how you'll be able to place app icons in all corners of the screen, so you'll be able to clearly see your wallpaper image without icons hiding the important parts (your dog's adorable face).

Credit: Apple / WWDC 2024

If you love messing with the aesthetics of your home screen, there are more features for you to try.

Dark mode filters and color tinting for app icons

iOS 18 will also bring improvements to dark mode, allowing you change the color of your app icons to match the nighttime mood (see the screenshot at the top of this post). Previously, your iPhone app icons wouldn't change color if your phone went into dark mode, but now you'll be able to control that to a degree. And not only will dark app icons be supported, but you'll be able to choose a custom tint color to make these icons fit the aesthetic of your wallpaper at any time. 

It's not yet clear if developers will have to add support for custom app icon tints or if iOS 18 will let you tweak icons even if developers haven't updated their apps with this feature. But considering changing app icons and customizing the home screen required tedious workarounds in the past, it's good to have these features officially added to iOS 18.

This is a developing story. Apple's WWDC keynote is currently ongoing, with the WWDC conference set to last through June 14. Lifehacker will update this story with relevant information as it is announced.

Sometimes you want to listen to music curated by a person instead of an algorithm, in which case radio can be a delightful alternative to music streaming services. There's no dearth of internet radio apps for your iPhone, but the recently launched BMBX (like boombox) is everything I like about indie apps—simple, fast, and a joy to use. Before BMBX, I didn't really go out of my way to seek out new internet radio stations, but that's all changed now. 

Install and setup

BMBX's setup is as simple as installing the app, searching for your favorite radio stations, and hitting the play button. The app doesn't require an account, but BMBX will still sync your favorite radio stations across devices (if you want it to) using your iCloud account. 

Once you've got the app running, hit the rectangular Library icon to the left of the Play/Pause button and tap the + button in the top-right corner to look for radio stations. The built-in search feature, which is powered by the community-driven Radio Browser catalog, is great at surfacing radio stations. I found pretty much every radio station I searched for, but for some unknown reason, it couldn't locate the Portland Radio Project—a community radio station I like from Portland, Oregon. 

For situations like this, the app lets you manually add the radio station's streaming URL. Once I did that, I was able to listen without issue. I do wish BMBX would allow me to directly add artwork for stations right from the internet. Right now, it asks you to download the art to your photo library and imports it from there.

Save the songs and stations you love

BMBX lets you easily keep track of your favorite songs and radio stations. The app's library is divided into three sections—Stations, Favorites, and History. If you love the song that's playing, open the app and hit the Heart button. This will save it to the Favorites tab in the app's library. You can tap any song from this list to go to it in Apple Music. You can also go to the History tab and tap any song to open it in Apple Music.

The Stations tab is where you'll probably spend most of your time when you're not actively listening. To add a station to your favorites, swipe left on it, tap the Pencil icon, and select Show in Favorites. Hit the Save button in the top-right corner to complete the process.

That's pretty much everything there is to BMBX, which I appreciate. The app's beauty is in its simplicity. This makes it easy to use for all kinds of people. BMBX is free to download and has no ads, which means that if you pair it with your friendly neighborhood community radio station, you could have a totally ad-free music experience at your hands whenever you want.

When moving Apple contacts from one device to another, sometimes you end up with duplicates. Luckily, with your iPhone, Mac, or even your browser, there are easy ways to remove these contacts and avoid ending up with ten different copies of the same person on your phone.

Delete duplicate contacts on your iPhone

Credit: Pranay Parab

Fortunately, iOS has come a long way and now allows you to quickly view and merge duplicate contacts on your iPhone. This is really easy—just open the Contacts app and scroll to the top of the list. If you have duplicate contacts on your phone, you'll see a card that says Duplicate Found below your name. Tap View Duplicates and select Merge All to fix duplicate contacts on your iPhone.

Delete duplicates using the Contacts app on a Mac

If you have a Mac, you can delete duplicate iCloud address book entries using the built-in Contacts app. For this to work, you'll first need to check that iCloud contacts are syncing with your Mac—if they’re not, you won’t be able to see anyone on the app. Just click the Apple logo in the top-left of your Mac’s home screen and go to System Preferences > Apple ID. Under “Apps on This Mac Using iCloud,” make sure that Contacts is checked.

Once you’ve done that, open the Contacts app on Mac. If you’re having trouble finding it, use the Command+Space Bar shortcut to fire up Spotlight search (or try these better alternatives). In the search bar, type Contacts and open the app. Here you’ll be able to see all of your contact list's duplicate entries. To find all duplicates in one fell swoop, go to the menu bar at the top and navigate to Card > Look for Duplicates.

The “Look for Duplicates” option in the Contacts app for Mac. Credit: Pranay Parab

A few seconds later, the Contacts app will show you how many duplicates you have. There’s a checkbox in this pop-up, which asks if you want to merge other contacts that have the same name, but contain different information—such as two entries for John Doe, with one having his phone number and the other his email address. You can check this box if you want, but it's optional.

When you’re ready, click Merge, and the Contacts app will do the rest.

Merge duplicate entries in the address book using the Contacts app on Mac. Credit: Pranay Parab

Manually select and delete duplicates on iCloud.com

Alternatively, you can use iCloud.com to manually select and remove duplicate contacts. Remember that this method does not work on mobile devices, such as your iPhone. You’ll have to open iCloud.com on a laptop or desktop to access iCloud contacts.

To get started, go to iCloud.com in any browser and sign in. Once you’ve logged in, click Contacts to view your address book on the web. This will show you all of your contacts. Scroll down and look for any duplicate contacts. Hold Command on Mac or Control on Windows and click each duplicate contact until you’ve selected them all.

Manually selecting duplicate contacts on iCloud.com. Credit: Pranay Parab

Now, just press Delete on the keyboard. You'll see a confirmation pop-up that checks if you really want to delete those contacts. You do, so select Delete to get rid of the duplicate entries.

Use Gmail to delete duplicate iCloud contacts

If you’re stuck using a browser but would rather not spend hours selecting 10,000 duplicate contacts by hand, you can quickly export iCloud contacts to Gmail and clear duplicates using Google’s automated tools. Before you proceed, it’s important to understand exactly what we’re going to do—using this method incorrectly risks losing all of your contacts.

We’re going to export all contacts from iCloud, import them into Google Contacts, and remove duplicates there. Then we’ll delete all contacts from iCloud and import the de-duplicated contact list from Google Contacts. If anything messes up along the way, there is a risk of losing your contacts, so be sure to have a backup of all contacts—and proceed with caution.

Start by signing in to iCloud contacts in any browser. Once you have iCloud contacts open, click the three-dots icon up top and click Select All Contacts. With all contacts selected on iCloud.com, click the gear icon once more and select Export vCard. This will export a .vcf file containing all of your contacts, which you can save anywhere on your computer.

Credit: Pranay Parab

Next, log in to Google Contacts in your browser. It’s best to use a fresh Google account that has no previously saved contacts, which will help you avoid a mix-up. When you’re signed in, click the Import button in the left pane and hit Select file in the pop-up. Find the .vcf file you exported from iCloud, select it, and click Import.

Google Contacts will take a few seconds to import all of your contacts. Once it’s done, all imported contacts will be neatly sorted in a label in the left pane. It usually reads: “Imported on DATE.” With all contacts imported, select Merge & fix in the left pane, which is below the Frequently contacted button.

Credit: Pranay Parab

This will show all your duplicates and let you merge them, too. If it shows no suggestions, refresh the page once. Review to see if it shows all duplicate contacts, and then click Merge all. Finally, click the Contacts button in the left pane and check if all contacts have been merged.

Now, it’s time to export those merged contacts. Select the first contact in the list and then click the down arrow to the left of the text reading 1 selected. Click All to select all contacts. Click the three dots icon below the search bar at the top. Select Export. In the pop-up, choose vCard under Export as and click Export. Save this file somewhere safe on your computer.

Let’s bring these fixed contacts back to iCloud. Return to iCloud contacts in any browser, hit the three-dots icon at the top, and click Select All Contacts. If you haven't already, click the three-dots icon again and click Delete Contacts to remove all of your contacts from iCloud.

Once that's done, hit the + button in the top-right corner of the iCloud contacts webpage and select Import Contact. Import the contacts file you just exported from Google Contacts. This will fix all your duplicate contacts on iCloud.

Bartender, one of the best third-party apps for your Mac, seems to have silently sold to new owners in a move that has users worried. At the moment, there's no evidence to suggest that Bartender is doing anything shady, but the lack of transparency about the change in ownership is a concerning development for everyone who uses the app. If you have Bartender version 5.0.52 or newer, you might want to downgrade to an older version, or use an alternative, until this issue is sorted out.

What is Bartender and why do people use it?

Bartender helps you keep your Mac's menu bar clutter-free by hiding icons that you don't need to see. The app has been a staple for Mac users for a long time, helping them cut down on the messy look that can come with extended computer use. With Bartender, people could choose to show or hide apps in the menu bar based on certain triggers. For example, I'd asked Bartender to show the battery icon only if my MacBook's charge was at or below 25 percent. 

It's an incredibly simple and versatile tool that has been around for over a decade, and has always been among the first apps I'd install on a new MacBook.

How the Bartender ownership change was discovered

According to a recent Reddit post, Bartender's owners appears to have sold the app to a different company. The Reddit user discovered the ownership change through MacUpdater, which is an app that helps you update all your Mac apps. The folks at MacUpdater discovered this issue because the name of the app's owner changed twice without any explanation. Their attempts to reach Bartender's original developer—Ben Surtees—were unsuccessful.

Why this change of ownership is concerning

When there is no transparency around an app's ownership, you don't know what the new management is going to do with your data. In order to function, Bartender requires permission to record your Mac's screen at all times. With an unknown developer, giving this kind of blanket access to your Mac is a big no-no. Until the new owners offer some clarity about who they are, their history with app development, and a transparent roadmap for what they plan to do with Bartender, it's a good idea to stay on an older version of the app or to switch to alternatives.

Why would downgrading protect you?

Downgrading to version 5.0.51 or older of Bartender will protect you from all the changes to the code brought on by the new ownership. Since this is a paid app that costs between $16 and $30 depending on the license you've paid for, you could safely continue using the older version until it stops working. That shouldn't happen for some time, at least until the next version of macOS is released in a few months.

You can easily downgrade to an older version of Bartender by going to an older version of the app's website. This Wayback Machine link should take you to a version of the page from April 2024. Download the installer from there, which will take you to Bartender's 5.0.49 version, which was released before the owners changed. Be sure to skip all updates whenever the app prompts you to do so—you can even use a firewall app such as Lulu or LittleSnitch to block Bartender's access to the internet entirely. This should allow you to safely use an older version of the app.

Bartender alternatives that you should consider

Credit: Hidden Bar

These are a few good Bartender alternatives out there:

• Ice (Free): This is a menu bar management app for macOS Sonoma and beyond. It's in active development, with the GitHub page showing a feature roadmap. It lacks some of Bartender's advanced triggers, but has most other features you might need, including the ability to tweak the menu bar's appearance and show or hide certain items. There are also keyboard shortcuts to reveal sections of the menu bar.

• Hidden Bar (Free): Once again, Hidden Bar is a good basic menu bar manager for your Mac. It can set up zones in the menu bar and automatically show or hide icons in certain sections. There's a keyboard shortcut to toggle the display for icons on and off. It isn't as powerful as Bartender, but handles the basics well.

• iBar (Free): Another basic menu bar management app available via the Mac App Store. It lets you show or hide certain menu bar icons and does its job quite well. You won't get Bartender's advanced features here either.

It's hard to find a feature complete Bartender alternative at the moment. I hope this changes in the future, but until then, you're going to have to deal with either Bartender's concerning new ownership, or having a few missing features for menu bar management.

Apple is stepping up protection against apps that try to use your iPad's camera or microphone without permission. Just like your Mac has an LED near the webcam that lights up whenever the camera is in use, your M4 iPad Pro will now show an indicator light whenever apps are using the microphone and webcam. This feature was discovered by Guilherme Rambo, an app developer and security researcher based in Brazil.

Rambo says the new feature is called a Secure Indicator Light and is available on the M4 iPad Pro. There's no additional physical LEDs for this feature, which instead lights up a few pixels on the display to alert you that apps are using your camera or microphone. Rambo says this is baked right into the hardware, which makes it much harder for malicious software to hijack your M4 iPad Pro's camera or microphone without your knowledge. 

It's worth noting that this feature comes in addition to the software-based alerts that iOS delivers whenever an app uses your device's microphone or camera. Currently, your iPhone and iPad will show you a green dot in the top-right corner of the display if the camera is in use, and an orange dot if the microphone is being accessed, but these notifications require signals from the OS to run. Having an extra layer of security with the more automatic hardware-linked Secure Indicator Light is a welcome move, because it'll alert you about unauthorized access even if malware finds a way to hide the software-based green or orange dots.

As with many other great Apple product features, it's a bit of a shame that this is restricted to the top-end iPad Pro. It's plausible that it may rely on the M4 chip, but I hope that other future iPads and iPhones get this useful feature as they're released.

By default on Safari, Mac users can view link previews in separate windows to take a peek at the website they're about to visit without clicking through. This can be handy for checking headlines or other content before deciding if a link is worth visiting, but the feature has never reliably worked on my Mac. It's supposed to trigger on a force-click or three-finger click on the trackpad, but both inputs can be finicky enough that I tend not to use link previews at all. That changed recently thanks to app developer Jeff Johnson, who discovered a keyboard shortcut Apple has never disclosed that reliably triggers Safari link previews while on Mac. 

The Safari link preview keyboard shortcut

When you're using Safari on your Mac, hover the mouse pointer over any link and press Command-Control-D. A link preview should pop up for you every time. It's still a bit wonky, because you can't easily dismiss this link preview by pressing the Esc key on your Mac's keyboard, but you can click anywhere outside the preview to dismiss it. 

With this shortcut, I no longer have to open links in a background tab in Safari for later viewing. Also, it makes it much easier to open link previews while using an external mouse, where force-clicking and three-finger-taps aren't an option. You can also use it on individual words to pull up Look Up, which shows the definition of the word, in addition to an array of other search results about it.

Note that Link Preview works as intended in Safari for iPhone, where you can press and hold any link to see a quick preview.

Before previewing any link, it's important to remember that you should practice the same safety precautions you would when opening a link, since a preview will still load all of a page's content, including images and code.

Incidentally, Johnson is the developer of the excellent StopTheMadness Safari extension, which makes web browsing a lot better. The extension stops autoplaying ads on websites, removes tracking information from URLs, alerts you when you've exceeded the character limit while making passwords for certain websites, and can re-enable copying and pasting on websites that block it.

Apple loves keeping you in its walled garden of convenient but locked-down apps. That's not always a bad thing—I enjoy using my Apple Watch to unlock my Mac. However, it gets annoying when you can't use third-party apps or services for certain things, like music streaming or voice assistants. Shazam, the song recognition service owned by Apple, is a great example of this.

When you ask Siri to identify a song playing around you, the voice assistant will listen, recognize the song via Shazam, and show you a button to open it in Apple Music. That's great if you use Apple's streaming service, but not so great if you opt for a third-party option. Normally, iOS won't allow you to open these links in Spotify, YouTube Music, or any other streaming app that you might use. Fortunately, the iPhone automation community has a great solution to this particular problem: a shortcut called Quick Shazam, created by user @ZXXII over on RoutineHub.

Force Shazam to send songs to Spotify (or other services)

To stop Shazam from sending you to Apple Music all the time, you'll need to use Apple's Shortcuts app. Most iPhones will already have it, so start by downloading the Quick Shazam shortcut and running it on your iPhone. During the setup process, Quick Shazam will ask you to choose your favorite music platform from the following options:

• Spotify

• Deezer

• Tidal

• iTunes

• YouTube

• YouTube Music

• Pandora

• SoundCloud

Don't worry if you end up dropping a subscription later, as you can change your pick whenever you'd like. Before you use this shortcut, I highly recommend making it easier to access by adding it to the Home Screen. To do so, open the Shortcuts app and hold down the Quick Shazam icon. Hit Share and Add to Home Screen. Now, it'll open just like an app.

From here, just tap the shortcut's icon whenever you want to and it'll automatically open Shazam and start listening for a song. Once the song is identified, you'll see a Shazam pop-up with an Apple Music button for a second or so. Ignore this. The shortcut will automatically dismiss the pop-up and opens the song in your preferred music streaming service.

Modern Macs look and feel great, but sometimes I really miss the look and feel of retro Macs. Skeuomorphism, where digital objects are designed to mimic their real-world counterparts, is dead, but quite often I feel like going back to that era of Mac software. If you're feeling as nostalgic as I am, this guide will walk you through the steps to create the perfect retro look for your Mac.

Make Music look like QuickTime Player

Credit: QuickTune

The Mac's Music app is the go-to for anyone who uses Apple Music. To use a retro controller for this app, check out QuickTune, which recreates the look of QuickTime 7 from Mac OS X Tiger and allows you to control playback for Apple Music. Standout design elements include glass buttons for window controls, a brushed metal theme, and dedicated playback control buttons.

The same developer—Mario Guzman—also made Music MiniPlayer for macOS, which looks like iTunes. 

Use a retro terminal app

Credit: Justin Pot

For those who use command line tools, the modern macOS Terminal app can feel a bit too polished. If you feel like going back to the good old days of using the command line on a CRT monitor, consider using Cool Retro Term. My colleague Justin Pot has written a great piece that walks you through the ins and outs of that app.

Bring back iTunes and iPhoto

Credit: Pranay Parab

iTunes and iPhoto were era-defining apps for the Mac. Everyone knows about the former, which was the default music player, a digital storefront for buying music, and the app you used to manage your iPhone. iPhoto was less popular, but used to be the photo management app before Photos came around. 

No retro Mac setup is complete without iTunes and iPhoto, and we've got a full guide on getting these apps back on your modern Mac. You can use the Retroactive app to install both iPhoto and iTunes. 

Change your Mac's icons

Credit: Ben Vessey

To complete a retro look for your Mac, you're going to need a pack of retro icons. Designer Ben Vessey has you covered here, with 205 old school icons that complete your modern Mac's transformation into a retro computer. This icon pack costs £7.99 (roughly $10) and includes icons for Apple's apps plus lots of third party apps including the Adobe suite, 1Password, Spotify, and more. It also has icons for system folders and commonly used file extensions. This pack includes a complimentary retro wallpaper, too.

You'll also need to buy the IconChamp app ($9) to replace icons on your Mac, and even after that, a couple of system apps including Trash and Calendar cannot be changed due to macOS restrictions.

Get a retro Mac wallpaper

Credit: freddiemt/YouTube

The final step of your retro transformation involves changing your Mac's wallpaper. YouTuber freddiemt has uploaded all of the default wallpapers that shipped with each version of the Mac's operating system to this Google Photos album. You can also quickly search online for retro Mac wallpapers to craft the perfect retro look for your computer.

Run old versions of macOS in your browser

Credit: Infinite Mac

If none of these changes satisfy your nostalgia cravings, you can revisit classic versions of Mac right from your browser. The website Infinite Mac allows you to check out what Apple's operating system looked like before it was even called Mac OS.

Still not satisfied? Check out this retro PC that looks just a classic Macintosh from 1984!

Normally, you wouldn't think of using your keyboard with Apple Music, but like Spotify, Apple Music supports plenty of convenient keyboard shortcuts, even some on Windows. From basic playback controls to managing your playlists, you can do pretty much everything on Apple Music without touching your trackpad or mouse. 

Apple Music keyboard shortcuts for playback and navigation

Credit: Pranay Parab

These are the best keyboard shortcuts to play music, find things in your music library, and to manage playback.

• Spacebar (Mac) or Ctrl-Spacebar (Windows): Play or pause the selected song.

• Option-Command-U (Mac) or Alt-L-Q (Windows): View or hide the playback queue.

• Command-Up Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Up Arrow (Windows): Increase the volume.

• Command-Down Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Down Arrow (Windows): Decrease the volume.

• Return (Mac) or Alt-L-R (Windows): Play the song from the beginning.

• Right Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Right Arrow (Windows): Play the next song. Works only when a song is playing.

• Left Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Left Arrow (Windows): Play the previous song.

• Option-Command-Left Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Alt-Left Arrow (Windows): Go back within the currently playing song.

• Option-Command-Right Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Alt-Right Arrow (Windows): Go forward within the currently playing song.

• Command-F (Mac) or Alt-L-F (Windows): Open the search page in Apple Music.

• Command-T (Mac) or Ctrl-T (Windows): Show or hide the visualizer.

• Option-Command-E (Mac) or Ctrl-Shift-E (Windows): Opens the equalizer.

Control your Apple Music windows

Credit: Pranay Parab

Use these shortcuts to quickly manage Apple Music windows on your Mac.

• Option-Command-M or Shift-Command-M (Mac) / Shift-Ctrl-M (Windows): Open or close the mini player.

• Shift-Command-F (Mac): Open or close the full-screen player in Apple Music.

• Option-click the green button (Mac): Lets you switch between the custom and maximum window sizes for the app. The green button is located in the top-left corner of the window.

• Command-/ (Mac): Shows or hides the status bar, which reveals information about the songs on the screen. This includes the number of songs in a playlist, total duration, and how much space the playlist will occupy if you download it.

• Command-M (Mac): Send the Music window to the dock.

• Command-H (Mac): Hide the Music window.

• Option-Command-H (Mac): Hide all applications other than Music.

• Command-0 (Mac): Show the Music window.

• Command-W (Mac): Close Music.

• Command-Q (Mac) or Alt-F4 (Windows): Quit Music.

Quickly manage your playlists

Credit: Pranay Parab

If you love creating playlists on Apple Music on your Mac, these are the shortcuts you need.

• Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-N (Windows): Create a new playlist.

• Option-Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-Alt-N (Windows): Create a new smart playlist. Lets you define a few requirements and automatically generates playlists with songs that match your needs.

• Shift-Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-Shift-N (Windows): Generate a fresh playlist from songs you've selected. Use this shortcut after selecting a bunch of songs and it'll instantly create a new playlist.

• Command-L (Mac) or Ctrl-L (Windows): Select the song that's currently playing.

• Command-I (Mac) or Ctrl-I (Windows): Open the information window for the selected song.

• Shift-F10 (Windows): Right-click any selected song and reveal the contextual menu.

• Command-] (Mac): With the information window open, this shortcut shows the information for the next song. 

• Command-[ (Mac): When the information window is open, this will show you the information for the previous song.

• Shift-Command-[ (Mac): Moves to the previous tab in the information window.

• Shift-Command-] (Mac): Moves to the next tab in the information window.

• Command-C (Mac) or Ctrl-C (Windows): Copies information of the current song, such as name, duration, artwork, etc.

• Command-V (Mac) or Ctrl-V (Windows): Pastes information that you've copied.

• Command-A (Mac) or Ctrl-A (Windows): Select all songs in a playlist.

• Shift-Command-A (Mac) or Shift-Ctrl-A (Windows): Unselect all songs.

• Delete (Mac) or Backspace (Windows): Deletes the selected song from the playlist (asks for a confirmation before deletion).

• Command-Delete: Deletes the selected song from the library without any confirmation.

• Option-Delete: Deletes the selected song from all of your playlists and your library.

Other useful Apple Music keyboard shortcuts

Credit: Pranay Parab

• Command-U (Mac) or Ctrl-U (Windows): Stream an audio file from a URL using the Music app on your Mac.

• Shift-Command-Right Arrow (Mac) or Shift-Ctrl-Right Arrow (Windows): Go to the next chapter in the audio file (if it has chapter markers).

• Shift-Command-Left Arrow (Mac) or Shift-Ctrl-Left Arrow (Windows): Go to the previous chapter in the audio file.

• Command-O (the letter, not the number) (Mac) or Ctrl-O (Windows): Import an audio file into your library.

• Shift-Command-R (Mac) or Ctrl-R (Windows): Show where an audio file is located.

• Command-, (comma) (Mac) or Ctrl-, (Windows): Open Music settings.

The Mac's built-in tool for screenshots is pretty cool, but recording your screen has always been a bit of a pain. As of writing, this feature is divided between two apps—the screenshot tool (accessed by pressing Command-Shift-5) and the good old QuickTime Player. For a better and more direct alternative to macOS' built-in screen recording tools, try the free QuickRecorder utility.

QuickRecorder combines the best features of macOS' screen recording with excellent customizability, which makes it a must-have. You can record your Mac's screen, or that of an iPhone connected to your Mac, or even capture audio from any app that's running on your Mac. This includes your web browser, a video conferencing app, or any other app that plays audio. 

Why use a screen recording app?

A screen recording app does what it says—records a video of your screen. This is useful for many reasons. If your Mac is having issues, you can use a screen recording app to record a video and demonstrate the problem to either Apple or your friendly neighborhood repair shop. If your grandparent can't figure out how to do something on their Mac, you can record your screen and send them a video to show how something is done. 

With a good screen recording app, you'll be able to choose the quality of the recording so that you can optimize it for either space or looks. A good recording app will also allow you to choose whether to show the mouse cursor, record an app's audio, and allow you to record a voiceover with the screen recording. QuickRecorder does all of these things and it's free, which makes it a compelling alternative to the screen recording tools in macOS.

Installing and setting up QuickRecorder

Since you'll need to download this app off GitHub (click the dmg file to download, then double click the download to install), your Mac may not allow you to use it immediately. You may have to go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway to run it. This is a security feature, but QuickRecorder is safe to use, so you need not worry. The app may also prompt you to allow it recording permissions, which you can do right from the pop-up.

Using QuickRecorder to record your screen

Credit: Pranay Parab

Once the setup is done, you can launch QuickRecorder. The app will show a nice, large rectangular pane with options that are easy to follow. You can choose one of the following options:

• System Audio: Records audio from any app on your Mac.

• Screen: Records the whole screen.

• Screen Area: Lets you create a rectangle on screen and only records things that are inside the rectangle.

• Application: Lets you pick an app and records all visible windows of that app.

• Window: Records the selected open window.

• Mobile Device: If you've connected a mobile device to your Mac using a USB cable, this lets you record the screen of the mobile device. Normally, you'd do the screen recording directly on the mobile device, but this method saves you the hassle of converting formats and transferring the file to your Mac.

Credit: Pranay Parab

Once you've selected any of the above options, QuickRecorder shows you a record button next to a few additional options for resolution, quality, and frame rate. Hit record to begin recording. When the recording begins, you'll see a purple area in the menu bar. Click the pause icon to take a break from recording or the stop icon to end the recording. Once you're done recording, QuickRecorder saves the file to your Mac's desktop.

QuickRecorder also supports Presenter Overlay, the macOS Sonoma feature that lets you place yourself on camera while recording your screen. On older versions of macOS, the app lets you record yourself along with the screen recording using the webcam. 

Configuring QuickRecorder for optimal results

Credit: Pranay Parab

The default settings in QuickRecorder are pretty good, but you can easily configure the app for more utility. When you open the app, click the gear icon to open Preferences. Here you can customize pretty much everything about your screen recording. The most important options are listed below:

• Video Settings: Choose between MOV and MP4 as a video format, and pick an encoder (H.264 for greater compatibility and H.265 for smaller file sizes).

• Audio Settings: Audio format is AAC by default, but you can choose MP3 for smaller file sizes or ALAC/FLAC for lossless audio. You can also enable noise cancellation to block out background noise.

• Shortcuts Settings: Set up keyboard shortcuts to start recording without using your mouse.

• Other Settings: Here, you can add a short delay before the recording begins to allow you some time to compose yourself. You can also choose to include or exclude QuickRecorder and the menu bar from the recordings. The app can also highlight the mouse cursor, in case you want to make it extra clear where to click.

• Excluded Apps: Lets you select which apps not to record.

• Icon Settings: Use these to show or hide the app from your dock or menu bar.

• Select Save Folder: Choose where your screen recordings are saved.

With these options configured, you can level up screen recordings on your Mac.