Dorchester — May 13th 2025

David Parnell showed how you can have a number of websites open at the same time, able to switch between them by clicking on their tab, so you can group those tabs in a folder referred to as a tab group. You can have umpteen tab groups, and a website can be included in more than one group. As an example, David has local newspapers in a tab group and another for websites relating to tools related to his wood turning hobby. Tab Groups are synced on all devices using the same Apple ID.

Moving from Tabs to Tags, Euan demonstrated the benefit of using tags on Mac OS. Tags, more than one, can be included in the file info on any document and are a great system for linking documents with common topics together. Tags are shown in the Finder, by default at the bottom of the Sidebar. Click on a tag, and all the documents with that tag are listed.

When you save a document, immediately below the document title is the row where you can add the tags. The moment you start to type, the list of existing tags will be displayed; start to type a word not listed, and you are invited to create a new tag.

Tagged documents will not be listed on disconnected drives. For higher-level grouping and searching across all drives, whether connected or not, Euan recommends Neofinder. Whilst tags work so well on Mac OS, they do not show on iOS devices.

After the break, Trevor Craven brought us up to date with Apple’s advances into providing hearing loss support using AirPods Pro 2. Trevor showed how the app allows you to test your hearing and showed the results, credibly comparing them with those produced by an NHS test. His results show he has severe loss in his right ear and moderate in the left. Apple claim to be able to help with mild and moderate levels. They clearly do provide aid to hearing but, in his case, cannot compare with full-priced hearing aids, but for £229, they are well worth trying for mild to moderate loss. In the follow-up discussion, members reported difficulties in keeping the AirPods firmly in place, so they are surprised how the young seem not to have a problem. Whilst they will help with listening to TV and radio, Trevor explained that you can also use Live Listen, where the iPhone can act as a microphone.

We ended the evening taking a quick look at the Passwords app. David Moon ran a quick summary of the various headings and demonstrated using the automatic code feature for two-factor verification. To date, very few sites seem to be offering Passcodes. If the app highlights a password as weak or compromised, it displays an Update Password button, which seems to take you to the website’s login page. To play safe, Mick recommended logging in to the offending website in the usual way and changing the “forgotten” password there.

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