11/28/2023: Make the most of AirPlay
Make the most of Apple AirPlay
Plus: Save your old Google accounts, text from your Mac, and neat new AI tools
Of all the ways Apple tries to trap you in its ecosystem, AirPlay is the one I find the stickiest.
While AirPlay isn’t the only way to stream content from your phone or tablet to other devices, Apple executes it so well that I find myself using it regularly. It’s always the biggest thing I miss while using Android devices (though there’s a workaround for that, as I’ll explain shortly).
Though I’ve sung AirPlay’s praises before, I’ve yet to delve into all the neat things you can do with it. Let’s rectify that with a list of useful AirPlay tips and tricks.
Need to know
More YouTube ad block annoyances: Since last week, some users of Mozilla’s Firefox browser have been complaining of a a five-second delay when loading YouTube videos. Google has denied that it’s going after Firefox users, and instead says the delay stems from its recent crackdown on ad blockers. Strangely, though, some users say they’re experiencing the issue without any ad blockers installed.
Strangely, delay doesn’t seem to affect everyone, and Mozilla says there’s no evidence that YouTube is targeting Firefox in particular. Even so, users were able to circumvent it with a separate extension that can tricks YouTube into thinking the user is running Chrome instead.
It’s a niche issue, but I bring it up anyway because it reminds me of how overzealous DRM harms legitimate customers. Meanwhile, extensions such as Fadblock continue to skirt YouTube’s restrictions without issue.
Check your old Google accounts: Back in May, Google announced that it would start deleting inactive accounts—meaning those that haven’t been touched in more than two years—on December 1. That date is soon approaching, so it’s good time to check up on any addresses you’ve set up for backup or junk mail purposes. Simply reading an email, watching a YouTube video, or accessing Google Drive files for the account should be enough to keep it alive.
Google does say that it will give users ample warning before it deletes their accounts, but you might not get those messages unless you’ve set up a recovery phone number or email address that you actually check. Check out Google’s instructions on how to do that.
Tip of the moment
Text from your Mac: By default, Apple’s Messages app for MacOS lets you send and receive texts from other iPhone users via iMessage. But with a quick settings tweak, you can also bring standard text messages to your Mac, letting you converse with Android users and get two-factor authentication codes without looking at your phone.
Here’s how: On your iPhone, head to Settings > Messages. Select “Text Message Forwarding,” then select your Mac from the device list. Note that both devices must be signed into the same iCloud account for this to work.
What about Windows? As I’ve written previously, Microsoft’s Phone Link app supports sending and receiving messages from an iPhone, but only for one-on-one conversations, and you won’t get images or a full message history. (Android users, meanwhile, should just use the web version of Google’s Messages app, which works on Macs and PCs alike.)
Now try this
Talk to ChatGPT: Using ChatGPT’s voice chat feature no longer requires a $20 per month ChatGPT Plus subscription. Just tap the headphone icon in ChatGPT’s iOS or Android apps, and you can start having a back-and-forth conversation with the AI assistant.
Unlike Alexa or Siri, ChatGPT doesn’t pull real-time information from the web, so you can’t ask things like “Who won the Giants game yesterday?” It also sometimes gives wrong answers. It is, however, a great conversationalist, able to engage in lengthy discussions on all kinds of topics. That makes the voice chat feature an especially strong fit.
Summarize huge documents: Elsewhere in the AI world, Anthropic’s Claude AI can now summarize documents of up to roughly 150,000 words, equivalent to a 500-page book. Just click the attachment button in Claude’s chat window, then try uploading a lengthy PDF document (like, say, a classic book or some academic research). You can request an overall summary of the document or ask specific questions and follow-ups about its contents. Truly wild stuff.
Further reading
- By me: A profile of RTings, which writes the best smart TV reviews on the internet.
- Some Pixel 8 Pros are getting tiny bumps on their screens.
- Not everyone likes Google Maps’ new color scheme.
- This piezoelectric cooling chip aims to change how laptops are built.
- Evernote tests even stricter limits on its free plan.
- Sports Illustrated gets caught publishing articles by fake, AI-generated authors.
Spend wisely
As Black Friday and Cyber Monday give way to “Cyber Week,” I’ve swept through my earlier deal roundup post on the Advisorator website to see which ones are still available. A decent number of them are.
I’ve also added a handful of additional deals to the list:
- TCL 65-inch Mini-LED TV for $500.
- Google Pixel 7 Pro refurbished for $410, $40 less than Black Friday.
- Sonos Arc SL soundbar drops to $509 refurbished.
- Grab a 512 GB Samsung MicroSD card for $25.
- Samsung’s portable 2 TB SSD drops to $100.
- Tile Bluetooth item tracker for $15 when you clip the on-page coupon.
- If you missed Amazon’s 9th-gen iPad deal, Costco still has it for the same $230.
- Woot has the 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pro with cellular for $809.
- TP-Link Deco mesh Wi-Fi (tri-band, Wi-Fi 6E) two-pack for $160, $40 less than Black Friday.
Check the full roundup for a complete list of deals.
Thanks for reading!
Got tech questions for me? Just reply to this email to get in touch.
Until next week,
Jared