Technologies

Make Your FaceTime Calls Sound Better With This Trick

This feature can help other people hear you clearly.

FaceTime calls can be hectic, from ensuring you have a good connection so your video isn’t choppy to making sure the camera angle isn’t looking up someone’s nose. But you can cut back on the chaos by enabling your iPhone’s Voice Isolation feature in FaceTime.

Voice isolation for FaceTime calls was introduced with the release of iOS 15 in 2021. The feature muffles background noises, like the sound of kids playing in a nearby room or construction outside your window, so others in the FaceTime call can hear you without interruptions.

Unfortunately, you won’t find the Voice Isolation feature in Settings. Instead, you have to be in a FaceTime call to enable it. But once you turn the feature on, it will stay on the next time you’re in a FaceTime call.

Here’s how to activate Voice Isolation so people can hear you more clearly in FaceTime calls.

How to enable Voice Isolation

1. Start or join a FaceTime call.

2. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to access your Control Center.

Control Center menu showing Mic Mode — Mic Mode appears in your Control Center when you’re in a FaceTime call.

Zach McAuliffe/CNET

3. Tap Mic Mode near the top-right corner of your screen.

4. Tap Voice Isolation.

Pro tip: You don’t have to interrupt a FaceTime call with family and friends to turn this feature on. You can call yourself on FaceTime and enable Voice Isolation following the steps above.

How to enable Wide Spectrum

In Mic Mode, there’s another feature alongside Voice Isolation called Wide Spectrum. While Voice Isolation muffles other noises around you in a FaceTime call, Wide Spectrum enhances the noises around you without affecting your voice.

Wide Spectrum is good for conference calls over FaceTime or if you have a large group of people FaceTiming someone else. If you have a little brother or sister who moves away to college and you and your family want to wish them a happy birthday, Wide Spectrum can help you all sing happy birthday to them at once.

FaceTime options Standard, Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum — Opening Mic Mode shows you Standard, Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum options.

Zach McAuliffe/CNET

To enable Wide Spectrum, follow the steps above, but tap Wide Spectrum instead of Voice Isolation.

Like Voice Isolation, Wide Spectrum will stay enabled the next time you make a FaceTime call. To disable either Voice Isolation or Wide Spectrum, follow the instructions above and tap Standard. This will return your microphone to its default setting.

For more on your iPhone, check out the 13 iPhone features you might not know about and 22 iPhone settings you should change now.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, Oct. 14

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 14.

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.

Today’s Mini Crossword has an odd vertical shape, with an extra Across clue, and only four Down clues. The clues are not terribly difficult, but one or two could be tricky. Read on if you need 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: Smokes, informally
Answer: CIGS

5A clue: «Don’t have ___, man!» (Bart Simpson catchphrase)
Answer: ACOW

6A clue: What the vehicle in «lane one» of this crossword is winning?
Answer: RACE

7A clue: Pitt of Hollywood
Answer: BRAD

8A clue: «Yeah, whatever»
Answer: SURE

9A clue: Rd. crossers
Answer: STS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Things to «load» before a marathon
Answer: CARBS

2D clue: Mythical figure who inspired the idiom «fly too close to the sun»
Answer: ICARUS

3D clue: Zoomer around a small track
Answer: GOCART

4D clue: Neighbors of Norwegians
Answer: SWEDES

Technologies

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Technologies

New California Law Wants Companion Chatbots to Tell Kids to Take Breaks

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new requirements on AI companions into law on Monday.

AI companion chatbots will have to remind users in California that they’re not human under a new law signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The law, SB 243, also requires companion chatbot companies to maintain protocols for identifying and addressing cases in which users express suicidal ideation or self-harm. For users under 18, chatbots will have to provide a notification at least every three hours that reminds users to take a break and that the bot is not human.

It’s one of several bills Newsom has signed in recent weeks dealing with social media, artificial intelligence and other consumer technology issues. Another bill signed Monday, AB 56, requires warning labels on social media platforms, similar to those required for tobacco products. Last week, Newsom signed measures requiring internet browsers to make it easy for people to tell websites they don’t want them to sell their data and banning loud advertisements on streaming platforms.

AI companion chatbots have drawn particular scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators in recent months. The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into several companies in response to complaints by consumer groups and parents that the bots were harming children’s mental health. OpenAI introduced new parental controls and other guardrails in its popular ChatGPT platform after the company was sued by parents who allege ChatGPT contributed to their teen son’s suicide.

«We’ve seen some truly horrific and tragic examples of young people harmed by unregulated tech, and we won’t stand by while companies continue without necessary limits and accountability,» Newsom said in a statement.

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One AI companion developer, Replika, told CNET that it already has protocols to detect self-harm as required by the new law, and that it is working with regulators and others to comply with requirements and protect consumers.

«As one of the pioneers in AI companionship, we recognize our profound responsibility to lead on safety,» Replika’s Minju Song said in an emailed statement. Song said Replika uses content-filtering systems, community guidelines and safety systems that refer users to crisis resources when needed.

A Character.ai spokesperson said the company «welcomes working with regulators and lawmakers as they develop regulations and legislation for this emerging space, and will comply with laws, including SB 243.» OpenAI spokesperson Jamie Radice called the bill a «meaningful move forward» for AI safety. «By setting clear guardrails, California is helping shape a more responsible approach to AI development and deployment across the country,» Radice said in an email.

One bill Newsom has yet to sign, AB 1064, would go further by prohibiting developers from making companion chatbots available to children unless the AI companion is «not foreseeably capable of» encouraging harmful activities or engaging in sexually explicit interactions, among other things.