Technologies

No more headaches: 7 ways to magnify your iPhone, iPad or Mac screen

This zoom magnification tool on iPhone and iPad means the end of squinting to read the small print on your device.

With the past year’s spike in remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re spending a lot of time looking at screens. And while we’re navigating screens’ headache-inducing blue light and tiny print on websites, we should remember that technology must also be accessible for blind and visually impaired users.

Fortunately, Apple added a number of accessibility features in its iOS 15 release that you can explore and customize under Settings > Accessibility. Zoom is a new reworked accessibility feature under iOS 15. (And no, we don’t mean more virtual meetings.) Here’s what you need to know about Apple’s Zoom feature:

Apple’s Zoom tool: What it is and where to find it

The Zoom feature lets you magnify specific parts of your screen. You can customize the feature to magnify the whole screen or a draggable windowed view. Zoom also allows you to turn on gestures like double-tapping three fingers to activate Zoom, move around your screen, and change the magnification.

To find Zoom, open the Settings app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, tap Accessibility and choose Zoom.

How the Zoom tool works

Here’s what you’ll turn on or off to make the magnification feature work best for you.

Follow Focus lets you track your selections, like your text insertion point, as well as your typing.
Smart Typing becomes available if you turn on Follow Focus. This lets you switch to Window Zoom when the keyboard pops up. Window Zoom magnifies a section of screen in a window that you can drag around to expand what you need to see, like a digital magnifying glass. Also, once the keyboard pops up, you can double tap to magnify where you’re typing, but the keyboard stays put.
Keyboard shortcuts only apply if you’ve connected an external keyboard to your iPad. If you have, simply toggle the option on to find and customize keyboard shortcuts like toggling Zoom, moving your Window, resizing your Window and more. If you open Zoom on your Mac, you can turn on Zoom keyboard shortcuts, scroll gestures, enable hover text and zoom on the touchbar. For example, toggle zoom is Option + Command + 8. Pressing that combination lets you zoom in and back out. You can also choose whether you want to magnify full screen, split screen, or picture-in-picture mode.

Zoom controller gives you quick access to controls like what activates for single, double and triple taps on the screen. You can also choose to Show Controller on the screen. This puts a little icon on the screen that I found helpful when moving the Window around the screen. Think of it as a little map to keep you oriented when you’ve magnified a section of screen. You can choose between five different colors to make the icon more visible, as well as change the opacity.
Zoom Region lets you choose between a Window Zoom, Full Screen Zoom or Pinned Zoom. Window Zoom will magnify a section of your screen, but you’ll still be able to see some of the unmagnified screen and pan over that area. Full Screen Zoom eliminates the window and works like double tapping to magnify and pan around on a photo. Pinned Zoom lets you choose a specific section of the screen — top, left, right or bottom — and keeps the unpinned section in regular size.
Zoom filter lets you customize the magnified section’s coloring — inverted, grayscale, grayscale inverted or low light.
Maximum Zoom Level is a simple slider that lets you customize the magnification anywhere between 1.2x all the way to 15x.

For more information, check out everything you need to know before upgrading to iOS 15 and these six hidden iOS 15 tricks we found.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 10, #533

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 10, No. 533.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features a lot of team names, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy one to solve. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Play ball!

Green group hint: Not front.

Blue group hint: Certain NFL player.

Purple group hint: They play at Smoothie King Center.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: An AL Central player.

Green group: Words appearing before «back,» in football.

Blue group: Associated with Derrick Henry.

Purple group: New Orleans Pelicans.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is an AL Central player. The four answers are Guardian, Royal, Tiger and Twin.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is words appearing before «back,» in football. The four answers are corner, defensive, full and running.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Derrick Henry. The four answers are Heisman, King, Ravens and Titans.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is New Orleans Pelicans. The four answers are Bey, Fears, Murphy and Queen.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, March 10

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 10.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? I’d just like to point out that the New York Times puzzle-makers love the 7-Across answer — they use it about every other week. Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Writing that lacks substance
Answer: FLUFF

6A clue: Pencil in a cosmetics bag
Answer: LINER

7A clue: ___ acid (building block of proteins)
Answer: AMINO

8A clue: Partner of services, in economics
Answer: GOODS

9A clue: Small criticism
Answer: NIT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Warning sign in a relationship, metaphorically
Answer: FLAG

2D clue: Fancy prom ride
Answer: LIMO

3D clue: SAG-AFTRA, for one
Answer: UNION

4D clue: Luxury fashion house headquartered in Rome
Answer: FENDI

5D clue: Ground coating on a cold morning
Answer: FROST

Technologies

Australians Flock to VPNs in the Wake of Online Age-Restriction Laws

App downloads for VPN services increase sharply as websites in Australia go behind age-restriction walls.

A new set of laws in Australia requiring adult websites and app stores to age-restrict content for those under 18, and requiring AI companies to restrict chatbot offerings from displaying certain types of sensitive or adult content to minors, is apparently driving many to download Virtual Private Network apps there.

Major adult sites have closed their virtual doors to those who aren’t age-confirmed in Australia, and these changes follow a nationwide ban on social media use by teenagers and young children that went into effect in December.

According to reports from Reuters, The Guardian and others, in response to the bans, downloads of VPN-related apps, which people can use to circumvent location-based restrictions, are sharply on the rise. According to Reuters, three of the 15 most downloaded free iPhone apps in the country were VPN-related as the new laws went into effect on Monday.

Lawmakers in some regions, including the US, are well aware that people use VPNs in this way. In states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, laws are being proposed to limit or outright ban VPN use. Wisconsin’s proposed law would require adult sites to block VPN traffic, while Michigan’s proposal would ban VPN use entirely in the state.

There is also a proposal in England under consideration to ban VPN use by minors. That proposal is currently under review.