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MacInGenius Tips & Tricks
Helping you make the most of your Apple devices.

December 19, 2014                     
Vol. I, Issue 17

 

Uncovering Safari’s Secrets

Whether they’re listed in Safari’s settings or part of the icons and links in the interface, you’ll be surprised by all the hidden gems Apple’s default browser has to offer.

Search Your Way
Ever since Google became a verb, I’ve preferred the anonymity of searching with DuckDuckGo. Thanks to the iOS 8 update, now I can enjoy the secure feeling and minimalist UI of my favorite search engine. It may not be as good at location-aware searches, but it excels otherwise. If you prefer Bing or Yahoo, go for it. In Settings > Safari > Search Engines, choose your favorite.

Quick Search Your Favorite Sites
Want to search Amazon, or eBay, or Craigslist, or any one of your go-to sites for a particular item or topic? Simply type the site name (no domain extension necessary) before your search term and Safari’s new Quick Search feature will automagically take you to a results page exclusively showing site-specific results. To set this up, go into device Settings > Safari and make sure “Quick Website Search” is turned on. 

Passwords & AutoFill
If you’re using a strong password (my advise, not a requirement) on your mobile device and you want the added convenience of automatically completing username/passwords and the credit card information required when you buy online, this setting is for you. Go to Settings > Safari > Passwords & AutoFill. Enter your “strong” password (Touch ID won’t work here) to add and view this highly personal information. When you visit this setting for the first time, don’t be surprised if you find credit cards and other usernames/passwords stored here. That means you’re already using iCloud Keychain syncing to share this data between devices. 

Two Hidden Address Field Commands
The next time you visit a website in Safari, check this out. Tap on the Address bar. This will reveal your Favorites. If you pull down from the top of the page, you’ll expose “Add to Favorites” and “Request Desktop Site.” This allows you to save the current site to your Favorites Bookmarks or to view the full website instead of the pared-down version that mobile-friendly sites often present. 

View and Delete Tabs
Tap on the overlapping squares in the bottom right of your iPhone (top right on iPad.) Scroll through the tabs, watching the title bar at the top of each card for the site you’re looking for. To delete a card, swipe left or right or tap the “x” in the top left of each card.

Private Viewing
To visit sites and protect your privacy, use this setting. But, if you’re a long-time Private View user, beware. iOS 8 has changed things. You used to be able to delete your privately viewed sites at the end of a session. That’s no longer possible. So these sites will remain in memory even after you’ve turned off Private Viewing. To see what I’m talking about, open Safari, tap the overlapping squares in the lower right corner to open the Tab view and tap the Private button. If there are no tabs displayed, tap the plus (+) sign and enter the sample URL apple.com in the field at the top of the screen. Now tap the overlapping boxes again and then the Private button again. Notice that you’re not asked if you want to delete the current open tab(s). If you tap Private yet again, you’ll see that the apple.com site is still displayed. This is a major bug in Safari, as it makes your privately viewed sites accessible to anyone who knows how to navigate through the app while borrowing your iPhone/iPad. 

Easy Reader 
Tired of slogging through sites that aren’t optimized for mobile or are overrun with ads? Now you can go into Reader mode to view a clean, text-only page. Wait for the site to load completely and then look for the four horizontal lines (the bottom one shorter than the others) in the top left corner. A tap here will windowshade you to a more pleasant reading experience. 

The Bookmarks Screen
Click on the open book icon at the bottom right of your iPhone screen (top left on iPad.) Note the tabs at the top of the screen.

The Bookmarks Tab
The left-most tab gives you access to all of the bookmarks you’ve saved in Safari from any Apple device that’s synced with an iCloud account.

Favorites
Under Settings > Safari, you can select and folder in your bookmarks as your favorites. These sites will appear when you load a blank page. I sync my Safari bookmarks via iCloud, so use the Favorites bar from my desktop Safari.

History
Look here for a listing of all the sites you’ve visited since the last time you cleared your browser history on your device. (Note, this doesn’t reflect your history from your other synced devices.)

Bookmark Menu
This is a list of all the other sites you’ve bookmarked. Again, if you sync your bookmarks, this will reflect all the sites that you’ve stored in Safari across all your devices.


The (eyeglasses) Reading List Tab
This tab holds any websites that you added to your “Reading List.” On your mobile device, select the square with the up-facing arrow at the bottom of the screen and scroll through the grey icons and click on “Add to Reading List”. This is a great way to keep unread content for offline reading. You’ll only be able to read the page you saved, but the interface conveniently connects all the different sites, so you just have to scroll down the screen to jump from one to the next.

The (@) Shared Links Tab
Are you a social media or RSS feed junkie? Shared Links make it easy to subscribe to and access content your contacts have shared on social media as well as all your favorite RSS feeds. Adding a subscription is simple; go to the site you want to follow, tap the bookmark icon, tap the @ sign, and look for the “Subscriptions” button at the bottom of the screen. That will bring you to the list screen with a link at the bottom to “Add Current Site." Tap here, then click “Done,” and that’s it.

Scan Credit Cards
If you’re looking for purchasing power with less fear of security breaches, you can always use Safari’s new (iOS 8) scan feature. On the checkout page, look for the link “Scan Credit Card’ above the numerical keyboard. A tap will open the scanner. Center your card in the rectangle to scan your name and number. Finish the process by manually entering the expiration date and the appropriate security code from your card.
 
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About MacInGenius Tips & Tricks
From iPhones to iPads, Apple TVs to Mac computers (and the 2015 Apple Watch), our topics cover everything from little-known settings that can make your devices work more efficiently, to exposing features and functionality that aren't always as obvious as they could be, to security issues, maintenance tips, and more. Enjoy! If there are specific topics you'd like us to address, let us know. And please forward this email to family, friends, neighbors and colleagues who you think would find it useful.
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