iOS Today episode 719 Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
00:00 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Coming up on iOS Today, rosemary Orchard and I, micah Sargent, share some gadget picks that we think you will find interesting. Stay tuned Podcasts you love From people you trust. This is Twit. This is iOS Today, with Rosemary Orchard and me, micah Sargent, episode 719, recorded Tuesday, september 3rd 2024, for Thursday, september 12th 2024. Our latest gadget picks Hello and welcome to iOS Today, the show where we talk all things iOS, ipados, tvos, homepodos, watchos and all the OSs that Apple has on offer. We love to talk about the software that you should check out for your devices, the settings that you should put together for your devices and everything in between. I am one of your hosts, micah Sargent.
01:02 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
And I am, rosemary, with a basket full of goodies, orchard, ready to talk about them and ready to share.
01:09 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Yes, this is an episode where we are covering gadget picks, gadget gizmoos, and I am looking forward to seeing what Rosemary has as of late in her little collection of goodies. So, Rosemary, kick it off for us.
01:28 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
All right, well, I'm going to kick it off at the high end and then we're going to go downwards in price. So, folks, if this is a little out of your price range, don't worry, there will be some more stuff coming that's a little more affordable. But my first pick is the Sonos Roam 2. So if you're looking at the video, this is just. It looks like a sort of white triangle, sort of Toblerone shape, and it comes in white, black and a whole bunch of other colors. But there are a number of improvements in the Sonos Rome 2 over the Sonos Rome, and I'll let folks who are interested in all the technical improvements go off and look at those. But there is one particular improvement that I would like to call out over the sonos drone one, and that is on the back.
02:07
You've got a power button right above you, the usbc port, because this has usbc charging or wireless charging, um, and if you don't want to buy their magnetic charger, you can just pop this on a magsafe charger, actually um or any kind of wireless charger, and it will charge. But above this power button there is a bluetooth button now, yeah, it's really difficult to see. I really should have painted my nails anything other than white uh to make this more visible. But there we go there is a bluetooth button and this means that pairing this to work via bluetooth is so much easier, because I took my uh original sonos rom with me on some trips recently and our friend was trying to set it up and managed to completely reset the device, um. So I came home and I had to repair my myos back into my Sonos network and so on. Because this is a travel speaker, so you can just pick it up off your wireless charger, take it with you and enjoy AirPlay wherever you go. Or if there is no Wi-Fi available to connect it to and it may not be able to connect to something like a hotel Wi-Fi that pops up a page after you've connected to it and asks you to confirm.
03:05
Then you can compare to this via Bluetooth, which is lovely and honestly, I really enjoy this. If you do have two of them, you can pair them and do a little stereo setup, or you can just use the one, and I love this. This is my bathroom speaker, because I don't have power outlets in my bathroom. That's not usually a thing over here in the UK, so I have this living on a little charger in my hallway and then when I go to have a shower I just pick it up and grab it and I can play music to it from my phone, or I can set up magical automations using the Sonos app and Sonos integrations as well. But you don't actually have to use the Sonos app, and I know that some folks have been struggling with the new Sonos app. But it works really well with AirPlay and Bluetooth without the Sonos app. So it's, after the initial setup, completely unnecessary, which is great.
03:54 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Lovely. Yeah, I have heard a lot about it. I've not actually used one of my own, so it's good to hear that it's working well for you and that the sound is what you'd expect. Moving right along, tell us about your next pick, and then I'll share the first of mine.
04:13 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Well, my next pick just came out of the little case that I've got my Sonos Roam in, and there's a little pocket in the front of the case because, a I want to keep it protected while I'm traveling and, b I don't want to lose that. So I have a BoomTag rechargeable and I've got the packaging for this here Now. The BoomTag rechargeable works with Apple's Find my network, so it will pair to Find my and then be able to charge. But the rechargeable is because it's got a USB-C port on the bottom, which is great. So this is the same price as an AirTag. But when it runs out of battery or starts running out of battery, you don't have to go find a new CR2032 battery. Make sure it's one that doesn't have the bitterant coating on, because that won't work if you try to pop that into your AirTag and so on. You just find a USB-C cable, plug this in, and it came with a teeny, teeny, teeny like two-inch long USB-C cable as well, which is great. But this comes in a whole variety of colors and it's the same price as an AirTag $29 or £29. So I personally think this is a great option, especially as they come in all the different colors. I'll just slide that back into the room case, but I do just want to note as well.
05:20
So the packaging, it's just a nice little cardboard box and it unfolds and comes out and then you slide up the internal part and what is a little trickier to see, there we go, is this is all cardboard. It's all recyclable. Every part of this packaging is completely recyclable. There's some little stickers in here as well from BoomPods with little information telling how to activate your warranty, but you could throw this whole thing in your recycling, in the paper recycling, and it would be totally fine and I have to appreciate companies that do that, because same price as an air tag, I don't need to go find new batteries and it works really really well.
05:58
Uh, for, for folks who are curious, it's very high pitched and it goes something like and repeats um, and that's it. Uh, it's very high-pitched and it goes something like da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da and repeats and that's it. It's very simple, very effective, because it's not an AirTag. When you're looking for it in the Find my app, then it doesn't have the positional finding where it's left, six feet straight in front of you and things like that. It just plays a sound and can give you maps, directions, and that is a limitation with all non AirTag Find my Devices. But honestly, most of the time I just want something to play a sound and if my suitcase is beeping at me I know I'm good to go and that's basically all I care about All righty Moving right along here.
06:40 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
The first pick that I have for you is something that I here. The first pick that I have for you is something that I it's kind of low tech but it's needed to power your other tech, and I had not heard about this brand until I was kind of looking for a way to. I was looking for a way to improve upon the way that things plugged in and I came across this company called Sleek Socket, and Sleek Socket makes these plugs. I think it's probably best if we just show the Amazon thing for it. But they make these plugs that when you plug into the wall it plugs in and is very flat against the plug and the wire runs from the bottom of the part that you plug in, so it kind of covers the outlet first and foremost and then the wire runs from the bottom so you can really push something up against it. So if you have a sofa, for example that is that is, you know, in front of an outlet you know how annoying it can be to have that stick out, and then you're kind of trying to make space for it.
07:56
The one that I linked to is specifically for televisions, and so you plug it into the outlet and then it has on the top, a plug that runs to the back of a television this is, if you decide not to do it in wall, especially if you're a renter or something like that and then one that runs from the bottom and so you can plug in things that are nearby your television and things that are on the wall that are connected to your television, and it's so much cleaner, so much prettier. It also comes with cable management, like a cable management kit, so you can actually, um, keep everything nice and tidy, uh, as you kind of organize it against the wall. So I've been very impressed with sleek socket. Uh, they make more than just the one that I linked to.
08:43
There's also one that has a surge protector. They've got one that's got two, uh, sixfoot extension cords running off of it, so that you can have it can go to two different places, and I have found that incredibly delightful. So that is the Sleek Socket, and that's kind of the company, because there are various models of Sleek Socket. All right, rosemary, tell us about your next couple of picks.
09:11 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Well, my next pick, first of all, is a little bit purple, but it doesn't have to come in purple. This is the Slickwraps iPad Magic Keyboard cover and I've specifically got the retro one. So I've got a little rainbow apple on the back, but honestly I really love these. So the new Apple Magic Key for the ipad pro m4 has that kind of texture where you touch it and your fingerprints are everywhere and it just constantly looks grimy and it doesn't necessarily feel super great. So my preferred solution to this is to just cover it with a slick reps uh sticker. They do peel off very easily afterwards, even if they've been on there for a couple of years. So you you know, if you're looking to resell it, you don't have to worry about disclaiming that it's got a Slickr sticker on it, unless you know the person wants them. But the retro ones come in a whole series of colors, so you can get green if you're Micah Sargent, because he does love green. It also comes in a mint color, which is very pleasing, and pink and so on mint color, which is very pleasing, uh, and pink and so on.
10:14
But the ipad pro slick wraps, uh, or in fact all of the slick wraps come in a whole selection of different patterns and and features, and there's a whole bunch of things on the slick wraps website. So it kind of doesn't matter what generation ipad you've got. They've got the ipad mini 5 as well as 6, uh, they've got the ipad uh, pro, uh, 12.9 inch, from generation 3 to generation 6. In there, they've got magic keyboards, um, and then outside of, uh, you know, apple devices, they support. You know galaxies, pixels, lg devices, steam stream, yeah, steam decks, uh and uh, various wearables, um as well. If you want to get covers for your airpods, for example, they do that. If you want to cover your nintendo switch, your kindle, they do that. So, yeah, there's a whole bunch of options and I really like these.
10:59
So this one was uh, 37, 36.95 to be precise, um, and they often have sales on and you can get a couple of different ones for various devices and just enjoy it, um. And so, yeah, personally I love this and I enjoy it. And so, yeah, personally I love this and I found it just makes you know, when I pick up my iPad, I'm really not worried about dropping it and I'm also not worried about fingerprints because, I mean, my hands are a little sweaty at the moment I've got lights on, I've got my window closed so I don't have outside noise, and like there's nothing showing up on that and it's not super matte I'd say it's a satin finish but yeah, it's covering anything that might be showing up, so I am really loving the Slicker Ups cover for my iPad Pro.
11:41 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Nice, all righty. And then you have one more that you wanted to talk about here.
11:49 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Well, I have a smart home pick.
11:52
And this smart home pick it's not necessarily Apple specific, so it doesn't matter if you don't have Apple devices, actually as long as you've got something. I guess that receives things via IR at the moment, because this is a SwitchBot smart remote, and so what this does is it has an IR blaster on the back and you set it up with switchbot. So you'll need a switchbot hub of some kind to go with this, because the switchbot hubs can also send and receive ir signals. But then, once you've done that, you can set this up to have all of the various different devices that you might want. So I I currently have the fan in my bedroom here showing up so I can turn that on and off, and there's big on-off buttons which are self-explanatory. And then across the bottom there are four different buttons which I program to just time swing and fan speed, because that's all that my device has available. But you can also connect other SwitchBot devices, including I've got my curtain openers here. So I've got two different sets of curtain openers. So if I select that one, then the options that it gives me across the bottom, which these are four buttons across the bottom of the screen 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%. But of course, if I press on then it's going to close them and press off and it's going to open them, and I really like this because this, I feel, is an accessible way to get into controlling some smart home devices and consolidating controls for people who are interested in things.
13:21
And in my case, my fan in my bedroom didn't come with a remote and that was something that was frustrating because that meant I had to either get up and physically touch the top of the fan which it's at the foot of the bed, so it's not right next to the bed or I was going to have to, you know, open my phone and open the app, and then I would have to, you know, have that blast into my eyes and, you know, control my fan through there.
13:45
So now I have the option to control my fan plus other devices in my bedroom right from a little remote control that lives by my bed. It's not that little, but I'd say that's actually a good thing because you know the text on this is very readable and it's very simple. It can control TVs, it can control air conditioning units. If your device has a remote or has a remote receiver on it, then you can probably set it up to work with this and I have to say I'm really pleased that I did. And yeah, this works great. And these are $50 to $60, depending on whether or not they're on sale at the moment but it means that you can control you know devices around your home through a fancy little remote that has a little screen on it that shows you what you're controlling.
14:28 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
I also wanted to mention a SwitchBot product that I'm actually a little sad about, not because it's not great it is great but because when I moved the all of the blinds in the new location where I am, none of them are classic, classic style blinds that have the little stick that you twist to make the blinds open or close, the little stick that you twist to make the blinds open or close, and so because of that, I'm not able to make use of the SwitchBot blind tilt. This device basically replaces the little stick that you use to open and close blinds and you connect it in that spot and it's got a little solar panel. You put it in the window and you can have the blinds open and it spins them open or spins them closed. And, of course, you can set up automation so that when the sun is out and you know when it's when it, when you want a little, whatever it happens to be, you know you can think of dozens of reasons why you would want them to open or close. Then this can work. It is really cool.
15:36
It means not having to spend a bajillion dollars on actual custom blinds, because those get really pricey and I think it's just a clever technology and I'm a little bummed. I can't use it in my new place unless I were to replace the blinds, and, frankly, the blinds as they are are quite nice. So, even though they don't open and close, I think I'm going to leave them where they are. But yeah, I wanted to mention that you can get the SwitchBot blind tilt for $70. And so I never thought about sort of kidding out my whole home with it, but just in the few places where I had windows that were kind of main windows that I'm always opening or closing, this was something that I used in those spots. Um, it's a pretty cool, pretty cool device. All right, rosemary, uh, round us out with your last gadget picks here.
16:31 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Well, my last gadget picks are related to AirTags. So I do love my BoomTag rechargeable, but I still have AirTags and I have been using a couple of different kinds of AirTag holders, including these two from Belkin, which they're great with the asterisk of this one it's their suitcase one. It's got a really cool plastic covered covered wire that you, you know, you can like link to the outside of a suitcase handle. But the problem with that is I'm holding a screwdriver, because what you have to do if you need to replace the battery on the air tag or you want to put this on a different suitcase, you have to unscrew it, and it's not a screw screw, it's a hex key, so you need to have the right one there. And it does come with the little Allen wrench in there in the box. So that's not so much an issue unless you misplace it, which I definitely did. But fortunately I have a convenient multi-tool set. However, the problem with this is, you know, if I'm somewhere traveling and the airtight battery starts running out, I carry a spare battery. Getting this out to replace that battery requires tools. That's not something I'm super cool with, and also there's pros and cons to the AirTag being on the outside of a device. If it's on the outside of a device, then it's visible to other people, which can be a good thing, but also potentially makes it a little easier for them to remove. If they are trying to do that Now, in this particular case, unless somebody had, like, the right tools handy I'm not going to or their Hulk I don't think they're going to get this off. But if they are using something like if you're using something like this, which this is just a little Belkin plastic holder then it's a little trickier or a little easier to get that off.
18:05
So I've been looking into alternatives and one of the first things I picked up because I do love Belkin products is I picked up this cute little Belkin clip which I'm just going to try to put together on there. There we go. So I popped my AirTag in it, I've clipped it together and this is great. So it's just a circular holder and then on the back there's a little clip so I could attach this to a small child potentially and I'm demonstrating here with my dress so you can just sort of clip it onto a piece of clothing, for example, maybe not the neckline of a dress, because that is going to pull that down. Fortunately, nothing went wrong there, but that is, you know, a great option for like clipping to like the lining of a bag, for example, to make sure that it doesn't go missing, especially if you don't have anywhere to like loop this onto.
18:47
However, not all of my bags have somewhere I can clip things into, so I've been experimenting with two further options, which I have right here. So I have some 3M sticker AirTag cases, so these are really cool. They are theoretically waterproof. I have not submerged my AirTag to see whether or not it actually drowned and died, but maybe I can put some paper in there at some point to test. Now I picked these ones up for £4.99 for four of them on the Amazon UK site, and there were loads of them that looked exactly like this. However, I couldn't find the exact one available on the Amazon US website, but I'm sure there will be similar ones available.
19:26
So what you do with this is you just drop your AirTtight in, you screw the lid on, you peel off the sticky back and then you stick it to whatever it is that you would like to stick it to. So that could be, for example, a bicycle or an e-scooter, or most suitcases have got a lining that you can like zipper open in the back, and so my plan for these is to zipper open that lining and stick this inside behind the lining of the suitcase, so that it's not somewhere where it can get lost or bashed around or similar, and then this will just stay out of the way. And should my suitcase get completely soaked, well, my AirTag should continue to keep working. So that is one option. And then the other option that I have been investigating are these and this is a slightly rubberized AirTag holder, and I got a two-pack in sort of a navy blue and a white, but they come in other colors as well and you just pop your airtag in which, uh, it's a little fiddly to do so. If I don't, there we go. I got it right first time. Woo, go me, um.
20:23
But then what you do is these are great for um, when you've got, say, something fabric related that you would like to stick it to, because these come with metal pins. So what you do and I don't happen to have a piece of like something here, or do I? There we go, I have a piece of paper. So what you do is you get a piece of fabric I'm gonna use paper as my example here Okay, and you just push the pin through the fabric into the AirTag sack holder, which I am struggling to do on camera because I cannot see what I'm doing. But there we go, so that's in, okay, and then that's not coming out, okay. So you are going to need a tool for this, but you just need a magnet a strong magnet, admittedly, but just a magnet. And you would think that you put the magnet on the pin to pull it out. That's not how that works. What you do is you put the magnet on the other side and then it releases and then you can take this off.
21:14
So this could be great if you, for example, are taking kids to a theme park and you want to attach an AirTag to them in a way that it can't come off their clothing, for example.
21:22
Or you've got a bag with like a lining, but there isn't really anywhere to put the AirTag. That is not going to be in the way. In my case. I have some really nice Sony headphones and there is a little pocket inside the headphone case. But first of all, if that pocket opens, then I could potentially end up losing the AirTag and the contents of that pocket. And secondly, that pocket's pretty full with, like, the charging cable, my AirFly Pro and all the other things that are in there. I don't want to be shoving an AirTag in there as well. So this allows me to pin the AirTag to the outside of that little pocket in the headphone case but still have the AirTag available whenever I want. And so, yeah, these were $10 for two, so certainly worth looking at, and there are other options as well out there on Amazon, where I think it was $15 for four or so, but I did only need two, so I decided to be sensible and not overpurchase there.
22:14 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Those are cool. Yeah, I definitely will be getting some of those. Anything else from this AirTag kind of rundown?
22:24 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
I don't think so. I mean I can pop links to the previous AirTag hauls I've been using, including the suitcase one from Belkimp, which I don't have any real problem with it, other than if I need to replace the battery while I'm traveling, and the fact that it's on the outside of a suitcase you can hear it better, but it sometimes gets in the way when you're grabbing the handles and the other little one with the loop. They are both good. I have no actual issues with them. I just find that I've been looking for something that's perhaps a little more compact and discreet, hence my current selection of choices.
22:54 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Nice. My final pick is an aspirational pick. I do not own this device. It is a device that I covet. When I came across this device I thought, wow, I would love to have that, but it is very expensive for what it is and therefore I have not purchased it. But I wanted to mention it here Because there's surely somebody out there who makes the money that is required to be able to make this purchase without feeling guilty about it.
23:25
One of my favorite brands is the Simple Human brand. Simple Human makes devices I should say products really for your, for the kitchen and for the bathroom primarily. They make very clever stuff for those places. An example would be we own two simple human trash cans. They're some of the best trash cans that you can, that money can buy. They are just really thoughtfully designed, they are rigorously tested, they are robust and they come with these special custom liners that, while I know that sounds incredibly bougie, really does make all the difference. I've never had one like rip on me and they fit perfectly in the trash can, and those kinds of things make a difference day in, day out.
24:19
I think that's like it's so worth the ridiculous investment, but the thing that I do not own that I would love to own is called the Simple Human Clean Station. It is two hundred dollars. What you do is you take your phone and you put it in the top of the clean station and the clean station will then take it inside and blast it with UV light while you're washing your hands. And by the time you're done washing your hands for the period of time that you should be washing your hands, then the clean station will pop your phone out of the top, having just sanitized your phone. I think it's so clever because I have I do have, I've shown it before a big old UV sanitizing thing that I use for my CPAP and I've got a little phone sanitizer that I got ages and ages and ages and ages ago. But both of those are well the one that I still use, basically because the little sanitizer stopped working.
25:27
But the big one, it has a special purpose and so it is in a specific location that is not like super accessible day to day, so I don't necessarily remember to pop my phone in there and plus the sanitizing cycles for it are like 10 minutes. So the idea that I could have this thing that's right next to where I wash my hands and I wash my hands regularly and then I could just pop my phone in there. I think that's such a clever place for it and it's so, again, just beautifully designed, and so all of that comes together to make for something that I absolutely covet. But I cannot in any good conscience spend $200 on something that is just a phone sanitizer as it stands. If you ever see me posting about having purchased this Simple Human Clean station, it is probably because I received an inheritance, or I won some small lottery, because I don't see myself doing it, or I'm going through a midlife crisis. That could be the other reason I'm not going to buy a red vroom, vroom. I'm going to buy a Simple Human Clean station.
26:32 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
I was going to say Micah. It's like the meme of I won't tell people that I've won the lottery, but there will be signs. Yes, exactly, and I feel like that will be one of those signs and I will know, I will remember.
26:42 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
You will know. You will know, and some of these listeners.
26:45 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
I'll send you the confetti with the congratulations message in iMessage. Thank you.
26:59 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
So that's going to bring us to the end of the gadget picks from us. As I always say, ios Today at twittv, you can let us know what gadgets you have checked out lately that you think are worth talking about. Let's move along to the feedback segment. Mark has written in and says hello, mike and Rosemary. I've been a big fan of iOS Today for a little while now and originally only subscribed to it after it went behind a paywall before I ended up just joining the club fully. Wow, mark. A, that's awesome that you joined for iOS today, and B, it's awesome that we convinced you to become a full on subscriber. That means a whole lot to us. Your recent show on favorite apps was excellent and I thought I'd share one of mine.
27:33
While I am a big fan of Time Machine, I started to want something more robust that would copy the whole drive for me on my MacBook. I did a little research and found a program called Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich Software, very easy to set up, works without a hitch, as it backs up my entire hard drive each night while I sleep. The personal license covers as many Macs as you want, which is beneficial for me, since I have more than one. It is not free, but it does come with a 30-day free trial and after trying it out for a bit I realized this was going to be a future purchase for me. So if any iOS Today viewers want a full drive backup of their Macs, I recommend it highly. It can be found at bombichcom and encourage everyone to give it a try.
28:19
Thank you both for an excellent show and my favorite one of all the club Twitch shows I watch. Mark Mark, first of all, thank you so much. That's so kind. I do want to also throw my weight, so to speak, behind Carbon Copy Cloner. It has long been a recommendation that Leo and I have made on Ask the Tech Guys as a way to do a more thorough backup than one might provide when it comes to Time Machine. It has been around for years and years and years and it works quite well and you know credit where credit is due in terms of Bombage software keeping it updated regularly. So Carbon Copy Cloner is a kind of absolute go-to for many Mac users.
29:10 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Yes, I have it as well and I also use it, and I purchased a license from my dad because my dad has all of the family's photos on his laptop. Now they're also backed up through Time Machine, they're backed up through Backblaze and they're backed up to a Synology NAS in the home. So you know there's multiple places where this is, but you know what More backups is good. So don't necessarily get rid of Time Machine. Keep Time Machine and do Carbon Copy Cloner they're great. And also don't forget the 3-2-1 rule.
29:38
If you can, it's worth having a hard drive that you just rotate off-site, like stick it in the glove compartment of your car or something, because if your Mac is encrypted, your Carbon Copy Blackout will be encrypted as well, and there's a guide on their website as to how to set that up. So maybe have two drives. That could be maybe something to ask for this holiday season as a gift if you are looking for present ideas, or it could be a great combo gift to get somebody or get a family. Get them a license for Carbon Copy Cloner and a drive to back up their Mac with. There's also a mobile backup option, which I haven't seen previously, so I'm going to have to investigate that Micah and we might have to talk about that in the future.
30:16 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Oh, I'll have to look into that too. Yeah, we'll both have to look into that. Alrighty folks, I can hear the music. It's time for Shortcuts Corner. This is Shortcuts Corner, the part of the show where you write in with your shortcuts requests and Rosemary Orchard, our shortcuts expert, provides a response. This week's Shortcuts Corner request comes from Ken. Ken writes Hello, my name is Ken, Hi Ken, and I am a Club Twit member.
30:49
I was wondering if there is a faster way to paste text from the clipboard on my iPhone 15 Pro running iOS 17.6.1. Right now, when I want to paste, I tap the text box. Once that brings up the keyboard, I tap again and then wait to see the paste option come up. I often find myself not waiting long enough after tapping the second time and tapping a third time, only to watch the paste option appear briefly and then disappear. I also just ordered the Bang it case after Rosemary's review on a recent episode and wondered if there will be a way to set one of the extra buttons to paste. Love the show. Keep them coming, ken. Ooh, what an idea.
31:31 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Yeah, this is a really cool idea, and I am just struggling because iOS 18 has moved all of the things around. So I was just poking into the settings under accessibility to see if I could find exactly where the settings are for this case, as I have, since that last episode managed to forget my car, which is absolutely terrible of me, so I'm just having a little poke there to see where that was. But for the time being, what we can do is we can start by just having a look at the accessibility shortcuts on iOS. So on iOS, there is the option to have an accessibility shortcut where, if you triple press that side button which is power and Siri, then it pops up perhaps a series of options for you. So you could, in my case, have Apple Watch mirroring, control nearby devices and also turn on and off assistive touch. Those are the three options that I have there. And if you go into settings and then accessibility, then there is the option to change the accessibility shortcut so that you can either just have it do one thing like, for example, offer background sounds, or you could have it give you a menu, which is what I have it set up to, so that I don't end up just having one thing happen whenever I accidentally triple press the side button.
32:54
So in this case, what I've done is I have set this up to do those options, but if we scroll down here, paste is not an option, and so what I need to do instead is under should be not assistive access, but there should be the option to change, I believe, under touch, assistive touch, to change, I believe, under touch, assistive touch, and then I am going to add or customize the top level options.
33:25
Then we can instead do scroll down and have a look for the various options here, because shortcuts itself doesn't have a paste option, which is a little bit of a shame. A paste option, which is a little bit of a shame, but there should be the option to instead do something custom. And if we do custom, then there should be the option to set it up to actually do a particular gesture, and so I am just having a little bit of a problem setting that up. But there are various gestures that you can do, and and there is a gesture on the iPhone which is tapping with three fingers and, micah, you're much better at remembering exactly what the gestures are and how they work to actually do the paste.
34:07 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Yeah, unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've done that. I think that. I think yeah. No, I don't recall now, because it used to be as simple as double tapping with three buttons or double tapping with three fingers on the screen. So let me see if that's still the gesture.
34:30 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Nope, I thought it was like a three with a spread or something I'm not entirely certain though You're right.
34:37 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Yep, it is. You put three fingers down and then you spread them out, and that does the paste.
34:44 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Excellent, wonderful. So that explains that part. And I have managed to find the manual for the band case, which is great. So I'm just double checking that to make sure that this does work the way I remember. Um, because it is there we go. So, yes, under settings and assistive touch, that is where I thought I should be looking. And so under settings, assistive touch, then pointer devices, here we go on our band case.
35:12
So at the moment I have the double press set up to take a screenshot, but I should be able to scroll down and have a look to see what other options there are and unfortunately paste is not looking like it's one of those, but there is the ability to record a custom gesture using assistive touch that you can then use. So if I do the three and spread and save, and I call that paste, then I should be able to set that up and go into Devices, change this, and I'm going to change my screenshot one to my custom gesture, which should be here paste, and then I will just open Drafts and type hello, cut that and then double press and it pasted. That's it. So what you'll need to do is, under settings and assistive touch, then you go to custom gestures. You create a new gesture and you tap with three fingers and you move the outer two fingers okay, to spread them. Okay. Once you've done that, then you save it I've called my paste because that's what it is and then, for the band case, you can use this as a custom gesture. Now you're still going to have to type, tap into that text field once to activate it, because otherwise it doesn't know where it's trying to paste.
36:37
But once you've done that, then you should be able to do this and you will see the gesture appear on your screen. So that may be a little annoying for you. Up to you if that is a problem or not, but unfortunately this is the only way to do it. But that is a possibility. And once you have that, and once you have other custom gestures which I'm sure I can find a link to to pop into the show notes, then you have a whole oyster, a whole range of options available to you. So, yes, just to show folks on video settings assistive touch, create a new gesture, create your gesture. That's my attempt at doing the three. Save it. I'm actually going to cancel that because I've already done that and I have a paste one and then devices select in this case, the band case, and you're probably going to need the bank case to do this and then change one of your buttons to use that custom gesture, and that's what you should need to do, and that should be it.
37:26 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
Nice. Oh, that's cool. That is really cool. Folks, that is going to bring us to the end of this episode of iOS Today. I remind you, send your shortcuts, corner requests, send your feedback, your questions, your general questions to iostoday at twittv. We'd love to hear from you.
37:42
If you would like to help support the work that we do here at Twit and, in particular, on iOS Today, consider joining the club twittv slash club twit. When you join the club for $7 a month, you gain access to some pretty cool benefits. Every single Twitch show ad-free. It's just the content, none of the ads. You also gain access to the TwitPlus bonus feed that has extra content you won't find anywhere else behind the scenes before the show. After the show, special club events get published there. You gain access to the Discord server, a fun place to go to chat with your fellow Club Twit members and also those of us here at Twit We'd love to see you there as well Plus access to the video versions of our Club Twit shows. So if you'd like to watch us as we talk about all this stuff, then you will need to join the Club Twit. Twittv slash Club Twit Rosemary Orchard, if folks want to follow you online and check out all the great work you're doing. Where should they go to do so?
38:39 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Well, the best place to go is rosemaryorchardcom. It's got links to all the places where I am on the Internet apps, phones, books, podcasts, etc. And, of course, there are plenty of other places where you can find me, including social media linked to my website or that club Twitter, discord Micah was talking about where people like to hang out while we record the show, but also after the show and give us great feedback on it. Micah, where can folks find you?
39:03 - Mikah Sargent (Host)
If you're looking for me online, I can be found at at Micah Sargent, on many a social media network where you can head to, chihuahuacoffee. That's C-H-I-H-U-A, h-u-a, where I've got links to the places I'm most active online. Be sure to tune in on Thursdays to watch Tech News Weekly, as well as watch the video versions of the Club Twitch shows, because those all get released on Thursday as well. Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of iOS Today. We'll be back next week with more Bye-bye.
39:33 - Rosemary Orchard (Host)
Goodbye, folks.
