Technologies

The Easiest Way to Stop Losing Important iPhone Notes

Tagging your notes on iPhone can help you stay organized. Here’s how to do it.

Your iPhone is packed with helpful features — like voice isolation for calls and the option to view all your Wi-Fi passwords — and, Apple’s Notes is no exception. The app is one of the most powerful note-taking tools in the mobile world. It’s clutch for shopping lists, on-the-fly reminders and jotting down any other important tidbits you can think of.

There are an abundance of ways to use the Notes app to track everything in your life. But if you’ve had an iPhone for a long time, there’s a good chance you’ve built up a large collection of notes, which can make it tricky to track down the notes you actually need on a regular basis.

One of the handiest solutions came in the form of tags, which were added to iOS 15 in 2021.

Tags, which are similar to the hashtags used on social media sites such as Instagram or TikTok, can be added anywhere on a note, including the title. You can add them at any time, even retroactively. You can also organize your notes into regular folders, but that requires a bit of forward planning and thought work.

To add a tag to a note, type # then enter a new tag name and press the space bar. You can also choose an existing tag. Type # and select the tag you want from the suggestions that appear above your keyboard where autocorrections usually are.

Three tags I regularly use are the #recipe, #grocerylist and #receipt tags. When I tap on the #recipe tag, Notes will pull up a collection of recipes I’ve tagged irrespective of the folder they’re stored in. I’ll hit up my #grocerylist tag, which will serve up all my previous grocery lists, when it’s time for me to restock. And I’ll refer to my #receipt tag, which brings up tagged receipts, when I’m reconciling expenses against my credit card statement.

Tags don’t need to be one continuous word, but they can’t contain spaces. You can use hyphens, numbers and underscores — for example #receipts-feb2023 or #grocerylist-vegan. You can also add multiple tags to a single note or use tags to create smart folders, which is essentially a collection of notes assembled by tag regardless of which folder they’re stored in.

iphone notes app — Using tags, like the travel one in this image, is a great way to organize your iPhone notes and avoid losing them.

Apple/Screenshot by Sareena Dayaram

Don’t worry if you’ve never used tags before, and want to start organizing your notes. You can tag multiple notes retroactively — here’s how.

1. Go to the folder with the list of notes
2. Tap the More button (three dots), then select Notes
3. Select the notes you want tagged, then tap Tags at the bottom of the screen. If you already have a collection of tags, the iPhone will pull up the ones you already have for you to choose from. (So when selecting notes, its more efficient to choose the ones that have similar topics if possible so you can tag them in one fell swoop.) If you don’t have any pre-existing tags, the iPhone will serve up tag suggestions for you to choose from.
4. Select the tags you want to add to the notes, then tap Done.

smart folder on iphone — The smart folder act like a filter and collects all notes with specific hashtags.

Apple/Screenshot by Sareena Dayaram

If you want to collect your tagged notes into a folder, use the Smart Folder feature (introduced alongside tags in iOS 15) like so:

1. Tap the New Folder button
2. Enter a name and tap Make Into Smart Folder
3. Choose which filters you want — certain tags, when notes were created, when they were last edited and more — those notes will automatically be included in the folder
4. Tap Done, and your Smart Folder is created

You can also convert a regular folder into a Smart Folder by tapping the More button and choosing the «convert» option.

If you enjoyed this iPhone productivity tip, make sure to check out these 10 hidden iOS 16 settings that’ll change how you use your iPhone, as well as the most annoying iOS 16 features and how to fix them.

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Technologies

Ring Finally Goes Wire-Free for Its Latest 4K Video Doorbells

The launch of battery-powered versions of the company’s powerful AI doorbells has been highly anticipated.

Security company Ring on Wednesday announced a significant expansion of its video doorbell line, notably battery-powered versions of both its 4K and 2K models, priced from $80.

Both Amazon’s Ring and Google Nest debuted high-resolution video doorbells with new AI features in the fall of 2025. But they were wired only, and in my tests, I kept thinking, «I sure wish there were battery models available.»

Wireless video doorbells are far better for most front doors than models that require connecting to your existing doorbell wiring, which is often poorly positioned for a security camera. Mine, for example, is located on a wall beside my door that’s useless for any kind of video views, no matter how you angle a lens.

«Enhancing image quality in battery-powered doorbells means customers can enjoy reliable performance with the flexibility to install devices in a way that suits their space, whether renting or living in homes without existing wiring,» a Ring spokesperson said.

At first, I wondered whether the higher 4K resolutions and more advanced AI features would use too much power to support batteries. If so, Ring is the first to fix that issue with this suite of doorbells, including these models available for preorder right now:

Ring Battery Doorbell Pro — $250: This model offers up to 4K resolution and 10x zoom, and Ring says it features a redesigned internal architecture to support battery power.
Ring Battery Doorbell Plus (2nd-gen) — $180: This model includes a quick-release battery pack along with 2K video.
Ring Battery Doorbell (2nd-gen) — $100: This video doorbell includes 2K video, a 6x zoom and what Ring calls a «streamlined, rechargeable design,» which means you take the entire video doorbell to charge it, not just the battery — a design I greatly prefer, since Ring’s battery packs can get fiddly.

There’s also a new version of a Ring wired doorbell with 2K resolution, starting at $80. It wouldn’t be Ring without a plethora of doorbell devices to confuse newcomers, which is why I have a guide specifically for Ring video doorbells that will need some updating once I finish testing these new models.

Resolution plus an intelligence upgrade

Ring’s ordinary subscriptions of the Ring Protect plan give you cloud video storage and intelligent alerts for people, packages and vehicles, which are important but not really advanced AI. But spring for the $20-per-month Ring AI Pro cam, and this new generation of cameras opens up other capabilities.

Ring’s AI features include AI video descriptions, so if you get an alert, you can also get a summary of what the doorbell saw, including people and activities. A similar feature lets you search your video history with specific terms, such as «bike,» «truck» and so on. You also get the beta version of Ring’s Familiar Faces feature, which can ID logged faces of people who approach.

If these AI features make you uneasy and you’d rather protect your privacy, the best option is to avoid a subscription altogether or choose a lower-tier plan that gives you cloud storage without AI.

I also have a guide on how to turn off Ring’s detection and data-sharing features that might make you nervous, so you can keep what you like while ditching what you don’t.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 26

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 26.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? 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.

Baseball is back! You’ll see baseball images patterned throughout today’s Mini Crossword grid, and when you solve the puzzle, they’ll spell out a certain word. Play ball! Er, read on for all the answers. 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: Degrees for boardroom execs
Answer: MBAS

5A clue: «___ want for Christmas …»
Answer: ALLI

6A clue: What Hamlet holds while giving his «Alas, poor Yorick!» speech
Answer: SKULL

7A clue: Wild, as an animal
Answer: FERAL

8A clue: Sphere
Answer: ORB

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Word after «match» or «mischief»
Answer: MAKER

2D clue: Bit of writing on a book jacket
Answer: BLURB

3D clue: Penne ___ vodka
Answer: ALLA

4D clue: Window ledge
Answer: SILL

6D clue: Bay Area airport, for short
Answer: SFO

Technologies

McDonald’s KPop Demon Hunter Meals Include Bright Purple Nugget Sauce

The Derpy McFlurry mixes popping boba pearls and berry sauce into a soft-serve dessert.

McDonald’s has seen success with themed combo meals, including its holiday Grinch Meal. Now, the fast-food chain is capitalizing on Netflix’s Oscar-winning animated film, KPop Demon Hunters, with new upcoming menu items and both a breakfast meal and a lunch/dinner offering. Let’s hope you like the color purple.

The HUNTR/X Meal, named for the K-pop girl group in the movie, is a 10-piece chicken McNuggets meal that includes a medium drink and three special menu items.

Ramyeon McShaker fries come with a small bag of soy, garlic, sesame and spice seasoning, along with regular McDonald’s french fries. You sprinkle the seasoning into the provided bag, dump in the fries, shake it all up and eat.

The meal includes two new sauces for the fries and nuggets. Hunter sauce is a sweet chili sauce mixing notes of chili, garlic and pepper. But my favorite item on this new menu is Demon sauce, a bold mustard sauce with some heat and a bold purple color. There’s just not enough dark purple food out there.

There’s also a new dessert, the Derpy McFlurry, which blends creamy vanilla soft serve with berry-flavored popping boba pearls, served with a swirl of wild berry sauce. McDonald’s named it for the supernatural feline, Derpy Tiger, from the movie.

If breakfast is your bag, the new morning meal is the Saja Boys Breakfast Meal, named for the movie’s boy band.

It includes a Spicy Saja McMuffin sandwich, which is a sausage McMuffin with egg and a spicy Saja sauce, hash browns and a small drink.

Both meals come with a photocard for one of the bands and a Derpy card. The Derpy card includes a QR code you can scan to unlock online content about the film.

The full KPop Demon Hunters menu should be available at participating McDonald’s beginning March 31.

The McDonald’s Grinch meal (and its accompanying patterned socks) sold out quickly, so KPop Demon Hunters fans may want to mark their calendars and nab a meal when they are released.