Guides

Whenever you sell, donate, return to your employer or otherwise decommission an old Mac, it is of utmost importance to clean your private data from it. If you have set up your Messages app it would be wise to delete your Apple ID account from it rather than simply logging out of it. Unfortunately (and amazingly) this is frustratingly difficult to do - you can't just highlight the account and delete it for some odd reason. There is, however, a roundabout way to get the job done; here's how to do it:

If you have ever been added to a Facebook Messenger conversation, especially one that involves many people, you know how quickly it can get annoying. When your iPhone is constantly notifying you that somebody in the conversation has messaged, you probably want to at least mute it; if it's a conversation you no longer care about anyway, it might be time to leave the chat for good. While Facebook often makes tasks like this difficult, muting or leaving a group conversation is pretty easy, here's how to do it:

Google Voice, the company's Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) app for iOS has been completely overhauled with a new design and new features. However, many of the features that made the app popular when it first came out in 2009 have largely become irrelevant due to improved iOS features. Once-favorite features like call blocking, call routing, voicemail transcription, conference calling and group messaging can all be done through iOS now. That said, there is still a very good reason to use Google Voice.

AirPlay is a convenient feature that allows you to stream audio or video to other devices using your Wi-Fi network. You could, for example, play The Expanse on the Amazon Prime Video app on your iPhone and use AirPlay to stream it to your Apple TV. It can be extremely frustrating, however, to start it up only to find pixellated or blurry video, stuttering audio, constant buffering, etc. Luckily there are many steps you can take to improve its performance and ensure you have a smooth AirPlay experience:

Google Translate has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception, to the point where it is a must-have for travelers and students alike. Currently, the app can translate 103 languages using text, and for a number of those it can translate speech and, with the Word Lens feature, live images as well.