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Tag: safari

  • How to Use Apple’s Distraction Control Feature in Safari

    How to Use Apple’s Distraction Control Feature in Safari

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    It works best for elements that you know you’re not going to want to interact with, whether that’s an advert for a 10 percent off deal, or a navigation bar offering links to similar stories. Also, While it’s not marketed as an ad blocker, Distraction Control can be used to hide ads to some extent—though the ads do tend to pop back in again as you continue browsing.

    Should you use Distraction Control to dismiss a pop-up asking to set preferences, or agree to cookies, or something along those lines, the website will act as if you’d never interacted with the dialog box: So in the case of cookies, for example, you might find the site doesn’t remember your location or your preferences, as cookies haven’t been allowed. On some pages, a little trial and error might be needed to figure out what you can hide while keeping everything functioning normally.

    How to Use Safari Distraction Control

    Safari won’t identify and hide distracting items automatically—you need to hide items manually if you don’t want them to be visible. Load up a web page, and scroll to the part of the page showing the elements you want to hide from view: It’s a quirk of Distraction Control (at least for now) that you can’t scroll around a website while you’re also hiding parts of it.

    Tap the icon to the left of the address bar at the bottom of the Safari interface, which looks like a rectangle on top of several lines. From there, choose Hide Distracting Items: You’ll then be able to select parts of the webpage onscreen, and you can tap on the Hide button on any element to dismiss it (which comes with a satisfying little animation).

    A screenshot showcasing Apple's new Distraction Control in iOS 18.

    You can start hiding items with a couple of taps.

    Photograph: David Nield

    Sometimes the web page reorganizes itself to account for the missing element, but sometimes not; it most likely depends on what you’re hiding and how the page has been coded. You can keep going with hiding items, and a running total is kept at the bottom of the screen. When you’re happy with how the page is looking, tap Done to return to browsing (or tap Cancel to undo your changes).

    If you want to restore the items you’ve hidden, tap the same button to the left of the address bar at the bottom of the Safari interface, then choose Show Hidden Items and Show to confirm. Everything you’ve previously hidden comes back into view again—there’s no option to unhide elements one by one.

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  • How to Clear Your Browser’s Cache, and Why You Should

    How to Clear Your Browser’s Cache, and Why You Should

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    Every web browser has what’s called a cache: A temporary storage space for web pages that syncs online content to your computer or mobile device. This syncing is designed to help websites load up faster, and put less of a strain on your internet bandwidth.

    It’s a good idea and it works well most of the time, which is why every browser does it. However, it can cause problems. By its very nature, cached content can fall out of date: Browsers will try to ensure this doesn’t happen, but it can, and that might mean you’re looking at information, links, and images that are no longer accurate or relevant.

    What’s more, discrepancies between cached content and what’s actually on the internet can also cause all kinds of weird bugs, like pages not loading properly or web apps not functioning.

    Cached content can also represent a security vulnerability. Data stored on your computer about the websites you’ve visited can tell a story of your online activity—and while it would require physical access to your computer and a skilled hacker to find it, it’s a possibility.

    For all these reasons, you might want to regularly clear out cached pages. Clearing the cache effectively resets the browser’s relationship to the webpage, and can often fix problems with a site.

    Note that cached files are different than cookies. Cookies are bits of information saved by websites that tell them details about who you are and where you’re located—so you don’t have to log in every time you visit Gmail, for example. The cache holds different information, like images and page furniture.

    There are reasons to clear your browser’s cookies too, but we’re going to focus on the cache here. This is how to do the job no matter what browser you’re using.

    Google Chrome

    Screenshot of Chrome

    Clearing the cache in Google Chrome.

    Courtesy of David Nield

    In Chrome on the desktop, click the three dots (top right), then Settings. Open up the Privacy and security tap, click Clear browsing data, and then select Cached images and files under the Basic tab.

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