How-To Guides about Apple

An alert claiming your Apple Account email changed unexpectedly could be a scam built to panic you into clicking, or it could mean someone actually got into your account. Those two situations call for different first moves, and guessing wrong wastes time you don't have if the second one is true.

GPTK 4 and CrossOver are making some modern Windows titles genuinely playable on Apple Silicon, which sounds like great news if you're trying to play Windows games on an M5 Max Mac Studio you already own, or one you're thinking about buying. Before installing anything, know this: the most detailed benchmark report behind this guide tested a 40-core GPU, 48GB M5 Max MacBook Pro, not the base M5 Max Mac Studio, which has an 18-core CPU, a 32-core GPU, and 36GB of unified memory. Apple also offers...

Apple's macOS 27 Golden Gate update lets Mac owners route a question, and related follow-ups, to ChatGPT instead of the new Siri AI, but there's no switch that makes the swap permanent. Here's how to use ChatGPT with Siri on Mac: turn on the ChatGPT extension once in System Settings, then ask for ChatGPT by name every time you want it instead of Siri AI, since every new query defaults back to Siri AI otherwise.

For years, every iMessage conversation looked the same: the standard plain Messages backdrop, no matter who you were talking to. That changed when Apple shipped iOS 26, which lets you swap that plain canvas for a photo, a solid color, an animated preset, or an AI-generated image. Learning how to change the background on iPhone Messages takes about thirty seconds once you know where to look, but the feature works differently than most people expect. It isn't a personal theme sitting quietly on...

Apple Intelligence turns itself on the moment an eligible device updates to version 27.0 across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and visionOS, provided the language and region are supported (Apple Support, three weeks ago). Nobody flips a switch for it. That automatic rollout is exactly why a growing number of Mac owners are now searching for ways to disable Apple Intelligence on Mac and claw back the storage it quietly claimed.

Apple's new HomePod mini 2 isn't the only speaker getting Sound Glow, the music-reactive lighting effect introduced alongside it earlier this month. Release Candidate testing shows the feature coming to speakers already sitting on shelves and nightstands: HomePod mini, HomePod mini 2, and HomePod (2nd generation) all support it, while the original full-size HomePod is left out entirely.

Siri AI isn't a routine point update. Apple rebuilt the assistant from the ground up so it can search your messages, mail, and photos, understand what's on your screen, and carry a single conversation across five different device types.

Apple CarPlay not working is rarely about a bad cable or spotty Wi-Fi, not at first anyway. The real diagnostic starting point is simpler: figure out whether the connection is wired or wireless, because the checks that follow are different for each (MacObserver, last year).

Wallpaper Engine isn't available on macOS. Its developers currently support Windows and Android and say they have no immediate plans for a Mac version.

Safari looks almost the same after installing iOS 27. Open it, and the address bar, tab bar, and reading view sit right where they always have. But WIRED found that Apple tucked several new tools into Safari's menus, changes easy to miss if you're just scrolling through a webpage.

iOS 27 now lets iPhone owners create their own Apple Wallet passes without a developer account.

The Apple CarPlay settings worth changing after that first pairing live in two places: the iPhone's Settings app and CarPlay's own Settings app on the vehicle display.

Scroll through a playlist and find half the tracks dimmed and unplayable, and the timing feels random: was it something you did, a subscription hiccup, or the label pulling the song outright? If you're searching for Apple Music songs grayed out how to fix, the troubleshooting path is more structured than the scattered advice online suggests. Apple's own Cloud Status labels, "Waiting," an exclamation mark, or "No Longer Available," point to different likely causes, and only some of them respond...

A Messages background isn't a private wallpaper choice. It's a setting tied to the conversation itself: everyone in the thread sees whatever background gets applied, and anyone in that thread can change it again later (Apple Support). Learning how to change iMessage background on iPhone only takes a few taps, but knowing who else it affects matters more than the taps themselves.

This guide walks through how to use Visual Intelligence on macOS Golden Gate: what your Mac needs before turning it on, the keyboard shortcuts that trigger it, the in-app option built into Siri's systemwide context menus, and which questions are actually worth asking it.

iOS 27 shipped Sept. 14 with a redesigned Siri, but one of its most useful AI features lives inside the Shortcuts app. Describe a Shortcut lets you type what you want in plain language and have Apple Intelligence assemble the actions for you instead of building a workflow one step at a time.

iOS 27 gives Find My something it has never had: a way to pause your location for one specific person without sending them any alert. That closes the long-standing gap between sharing everything and stopping sharing and hoping nobody notices.

A newer iPhone can text emergency services from a trailhead with zero bars, but that capability isn't something you switch on in advance. It becomes available when you're off-grid and a normal call or text to emergency services can't connect, as long as you're outdoors with a clear view of the sky and using an iPhone 14 or later.