There’s still plenty of time between now and Memorial Day, but the mattress and bedding sales are already underway.

Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Good grip Automatic right-left detection Good sound Cons Fit and sound depend on the ear cups Our Verdict The Freeclip is an exciting alternative to open-ear headphones with a headband. They fit well and impress with a solid sound that is particularly effective with electronic music. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Price When Reviewed149 Euro Best Prices Today: Huawei FreeClip Retailer Price 149,00 € View Deal 159,00 € View Deal 159,00 € View Deal 159,00 € View Deal 159,00 € View Deal 159,00 € View Deal 167,92 € View Deal 204,95 € View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide View more prices Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Huawei Freeclip is eye-catching in two ways: its elegant, shiny surface and the unusual way they are worn. Unlike conventional open-ear headphones, which either sit in the ear canal or are attached with a headband, they are held directly to the ear with a clip. They work amazingly well. The Freeclip’s secure and comfortable fit is impressive, but since everyone’s ears are different, how they fit will vary from person to person. I found that the Freeclips fit like ear jewelry and are also comfortable while wearing glasses. While each Freeclip earbud looks identical, it doesn’t matter which ear you put them on. The Freeclip can automatically recognize which ear it’s in and adjust the audio appropriately. This is a useful feature and solves one of the most annoying problems with TWS headphones. A typical weak point of the open-ear earphones is the sound quality. If the small speaker sits exactly in front of the ear canal, it sounds fine, otherwise, you have to make some adjustments. During testing, it fitted perfectly straight away. Electronic music is a genre that suits the Freeclip. When listening to Depeche Mode, the Freelcip produced powerful beats, though the treble was a little too restrained. The equalizer was only of limited help here. With the album, Songs For A Nervous Planet by Tears for Fears, the fresh sound harmonized particularly well. The equalizer could add a little more bass if desired–a trick that we also used on Trevor Horn’s new album. Songs by Tori Amos and Seal benefited from this full, rich sound. However, the Freeclips show slight weaknesses with acoustic, jazz, and classical music. Here, the sound seems a little strained and less balanced in places. The Huawei Audio app offers the usual setting options such as battery indicator, gesture control, and equalizer. The equalizer is rather simple and allows the user to choose between four settings: standard, boost, treble boost, and voices. The gesture control of the Freeclip offers both double and triple taps, which can be used to activate the track control and even Siri. Volume control by pressing and holding is still in the experimental phase, but mostly worked reliably in our test. The supporting animations in the instructions are particularly successful and make the operation easier. The Freeclip has even more exciting features to offer: Calls can be accepted or rejected with a simple nod or shake of the head–a practical feature borrowed from the AirPods Pro 2 , but one that may take some getting used to. There is also a localization function using a signal tone and automatic volume adjustment in noisy environments. With such a small surface, gesture control is a challenge. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It is therefore an advantage that a sound is emitted when the gesture is successful. It is helpful if you tap firmly on the bar. Then it works for the most part. Should you buy the Huawei Freeclip? The Freeclip is an exciting alternative to open-ear headphones with a headband. They fit well and impress with a solid sound that is particularly effective with electronic music. However, anyone looking for a more intense sound experience is better off with in-ear earphones.

Celebrate "Global Close Your Rings Day" by earning Message app stickers and badges, a limited-time Apple Watch activity award, and score a commemorative pin at retail stores.April 24 is "Global Close Your Rings Day"April 24 is "Global Close Your Rings Day," and to celebrate, Apple is challenging users to get up, get out, and close their rings. This one-day challenge is available to anyone using an Apple Watch running watchOS 5 or later.Those who close all three Activity rings will receive a limited edition reward, as well as 10 animated stickers and an animated badge for Messages. Apple also encourages participants to share their achievements on social media using the tag #CloseYourRings. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

As artificial intelligence systems continue to grow in capability and accessibility, successive studies have signaled interest among architects in integrating AI systems into their workflows. Across the economy, one of the most prevalent integrations of AI in business is in recruitment. According to the University of Southern California, 55% of companies are investing in automated recruiting measures that use AI. While proponents argue that using AI in hiring can reduce administrative work and speed up candidate screening, skeptics argue that the practice can introduce biased audits and reduce transparency. Recognizing the growth of AI-assisted hiring, several US states have begun implementing laws that govern the use of AI in recruitment. Below, we have listed the details of laws in five states, either recently enacted or soon to go into effect. In addition to the legislation listed below, several other states are currently considering the adoption of AI laws that encompass employm...

With an epic scale befitting its conflicts, DOOM: The Dark Ages promises to be id Software’s “biggest campaign” ever made “by a good bit.” After revealing the Cosmic Realm in a new trailer, game director Hugo Martin confirmed that there are 22 levels in total. Compare this to DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal which both feature 13 missions. The final playtime is unknown, though Martin previously said it’s “really long” with some of the “largest spaces” ever made by the developer. However, he also clarified that it doesn’t want a level to “overstay its welcome” and that the “sweet spot” is about an hour. There is a lot of optional side content, though, and those who hunt down every secret that the shooter has to offer should be in for a “much larger experience.” DOOM: The Dark Ages launches on May 15th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC (alongside Game Pass). Pre-orders get two days of early access. As a prequel to DOOM (2016), the story follows the Slayer’s rise through the Night Sentinels’ ranks and battle against the forces of Hell. Check out our feature for more details on what’s new.

Solid-state batteries are the future. They’re more powerful, compact, safe, and sustainable than Lithium-ion alternatives, but true all-solid state batteries can’t be mass-produced cost-effectively. That’s why Kuxiu has gone semi-solid state for what it calls the “world’s safest” power bank, while calling dibs on it being a world first.Kuxiu’s $79.99 S2 Qi2 5000mAh MagSafe Solid-State Power Bank supports Qi2 for 15W wireless charging. And with a 5,000mAh (19Wh) capacity, it holds enough energy to easily charge the latest iPhone 16 models — with batteries ranging from 3,561mAh to 4,685mAh — from zero to full at least once. And despite using the truncated “solid state” in the S2 name and product page, the company confirmed to me that it’s built around a semi-solid state battery and that distinction matters. I’ve been carrying the Kuxiu S2 for the past few weeks. While I didn’t hammer, pierce, or tear the battery apart or expose it to fire like Kuxiu did, I can at least confirm that it otherwise works as expected.“Solid state” ambiguityIt’s not just you, the battery industry itself can’t seem to agree on what qualifies as a solid-state battery. There’s all-solid state, semi-solid state, and quasi-solid state, to name just a few of the more popular terms. All-solid state is where the hype is and it’s the liquid-free battery of the future. But getting there at scale will likely require a few go-between steps.Solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte — the component responsible for transferring electrically charged particles between the two terminals — but differ in terms of the amount of liquid present. If the amount of the liquid electrolyte is between 5 and 10 percent of the weight of the active part of the battery then it’s typically classified as semi-solid state. Less than 5 percent and it’s quasi-solid state. 0 percent, you guessed it: all-solid state. The battery inside the Kuxiu S2 contains a solid-liquid mixed electrolyte that forms a gel-like consistency that’s visible in the video above. It therefore fits the definition of semi-solid state, according to the company.“Battery Type: Li Polymer.” But not really.So why is “Battery Type: Li Polymer Battery” listed in the fine print on the label stamped onto Kuxiu’s S2 power bank? LiPo batteries have been around in power banks for years, and suffer from relatively short lifespans and low energy densities — exactly the opposite of what Kuxiu claims for the new S2. Turns out that the solid electrolyte inside solid-state batteries can be made from various materials like ceramics and yes, polymers. So Kuxiu’s claim is likely true, the S2 is a Li Polymer battery that’s also a solid-state battery, or semi-solid state to be precise. Therefore, it may very well be the world’s first power bank to use a solid-state battery as the company says.For comparison, the Lithium-ion battery found in the power bank you likely have laying around at home contains over 25wt percent liquid, making it more prone to leakage, thermal runaway, and fire than the s2. But Kuxiu’s power bank doesn’t benefit from every advantage of going solid state — like ever higher energy densities and greater safety achieved with all-solid state batteries — but it’s a step in the right direction. Notably, Kuxiu can mass produce the S2 today using many existing manufacturing processes to help keep costs down.Companies like Anker will tell you that a typical 5,000mAh power bank usually starts to degrade after 300–500 charging cycles. At that point, it’ll only hold about 60 to 80 percent of the original capacity. Kuxiu tells me that the S2 is good for 1,000 charging cycles before capacity drops to 80 percent. So, while it costs about 60 percent more than a comparable liquid-based power bank from companies like Anker or EcoFlow, it should easily last twice as long before you see any noticeable degradation.The energy density is another advantage of the semi-solid state battery inside the S2. Kuxiu claims 360Wh/kg compared to 300Wh/kg for liquid cells. The S2 is certainly compact and lightweight at 10.4 x 6.7 x 1.0cm / 145g, which makes it more portable than EcoFlow’s direct competitor which measures 10.8 x 7.0 x 1.44cm / 180g. But EcoFlow’s 5,000mAh power bank also includes a kickstand and 30W of bidirectional wired charging. Anker, however, edges out the S2 in size and weight with its 5K power bank measuring 10.2 x 7.0 x 0.9cm / 120g. But that likely says more about the materials used to decorate and protect the batteries than their respective energy densities.Those magnets are strong, but not invincible. Photo by Thomas Ricker / The VergeI regret some life choices, but not this one. Photo by Thomas Ricker / The VergePerformanceAs a MagSafe-compatible Qi2 power bank, the Kuxiu S2 automatically starts charging as soon as its 16 N52 magnets grab hold of my iPhone 15 Pro. Those magnets are strong and maintain the bond even as I slip the combo into a loose pocket or bag. Still, they’re not immune to a well-placed bump that could send the battery to the floor. That could spell trouble for the aluminum S2 sandwiched between two sheets of Corning Gorilla Glass, each protected by an “explosion-proof film.” After three weeks of careless handling, my S2 review unit has a small but noticeable nick on the shell, but otherwise looks new. Sadly, the bottom of the battery extends beyond my iPhone 15 Pro to upset the symmetry I’d likely enjoy when paired with one of Apple’s larger Qi2-compatible iPhones. At least the cameras aren’t obscured. I could also do without all the specs listed on the outside of the unit. The power bank does work with or without a MagSafe-compatible case on my iPhone, but the case does cause the S2 to heat up slightly (making it less efficient) to help overcome the gap.The USB-C port on the bottom of the S2 features passthrough, so you can charge the power bank and a magnetically attached iPhone or AirPods at the same time. Charging the S2 solo from my MacBook’s wall charger took the power bank from zero to full in a rather slow 90 minutes.Simultaneously charging my iPhone 15 Pro over Qi2 and my Android phone over USB-C. Photo by Thomas Ricker / The VergeThe aluminum case is already showing wear after a few weeks of usage. Photo by Thomas Ricker / The VergeThe power bank can also charge non-Qi2 devices thanks to its bidirectional USB-C port. That’s useful to juice up devices like over-the-ear headphones and Android phones at up to 20W. The S2 also proved capable of topping up my beefy 14-inch MacBook Pro, albeit very, very slowly. A double-tap on the button along the bottom edge puts the power bank into a low-current mode. That way, the S2 can charge small devices like smart rings and wireless earbuds while bypassing automatic shutoff mechanisms designed for more power-hungry devices. Smart, but not unique to the S2.I do wish that Kuxiu put a kickstand on the S2 like so many of its competitors. At least it’s available in both black and titanium colors to better match your phone.1/4Yes, it works with MagSafe-compatible cases.Misleading battery marketing aside, I’m very impressed by the Kuxiu S2 Qi2 5000mAh MagSafe “Solid-State” Power Bank in terms of what it is and what it promises. Yes, it’s more expensive than similarly specced power banks using traditional liquid electrolytes, but the S2’s semi-solid state battery should prove to be safer and cheaper than competitors over its much longer lifetime.Photos by Thomas Ricker / The VergeSee More:

Autoregressive (AR) models have made significant advances in language generation and are increasingly explored for image synthesis. However, scaling AR models to high-resolution images remains a persistent challenge. Unlike text, where relatively few tokens are required, high-resolution images necessitate thousands of tokens, leading to quadratic growth in computational cost. As a result, most AR-based multimodal models are constrained to low or medium resolutions, limiting their utility for detailed image generation. While diffusion models have shown strong performance at high resolutions, they come with their own limitations, including complex sampling procedures and slower inference. Addressing the token efficiency bottleneck in AR models remains an important open problem for enabling scalable and practical high-resolution image synthesis. Meta AI introduces Token-Shuffle, a method designed to reduce the number of image tokens processed by Transformers without altering the fundamental next-token prediction reach. The key insight underpinning Token-Shuffle is the recognition of dimensional redundancy in visual vocabularies used by multimodal large language models (MLLMs). Visual tokens, typically derived from vector quantization (VQ) models, occupy high-dimensional spaces but carry a lower intrinsic information density compared to text tokens. Token-Shuffle exploits this by merging spatially local visual tokens along the channel dimension before Transformer processing and subsequently restoring the original spatial structure after inference. This token fusion mechanism allows AR models to handle higher resolutions with significantly reduced computational cost while maintaining visual fidelity. Technical Details and Benefits Token-Shuffle consists of two operations: token-shuffle and token-unshuffle. During input preparation, spatially neighboring tokens are merged using an MLP to form a compressed token that preserves essential local information. For a shuffle window size sss, the number of tokens is reduced by a factor of s2s^2s2, leading to a substantial reduction in Transformer FLOPs. After the Transformer layers, the token-unshuffle operation reconstructs the original spatial arrangement, again assisted by lightweight MLPs. By compressing token sequences during Transformer computation, Token-Shuffle enables the efficient generation of high-resolution images, including those at 2048×2048 resolution. Importantly, this approach does not require modifications to the Transformer architecture itself, nor does it introduce auxiliary loss functions or pretraining of additional encoders. Furthermore, the method integrates a classifier-free guidance (CFG) scheduler specifically adapted for autoregressive generation. Rather than applying a fixed guidance scale across all tokens, the scheduler progressively adjusts guidance strength, minimizing early token artifacts and improving text-image alignment. Results and Empirical Insights Token-Shuffle was evaluated on two major benchmarks: GenAI-Bench and GenEval. On GenAI-Bench, using a 2.7B parameter LLaMA-based model, Token-Shuffle achieved a VQAScore of 0.77 on “hard” prompts, outperforming other autoregressive models such as LlamaGen by a margin of +0.18 and diffusion models like LDM by +0.15. In the GenEval benchmark, it attained an overall score of 0.62, setting a new baseline for AR models operating in the discrete token regime. Large-scale human evaluation further supported these findings. Compared to LlamaGen, Lumina-mGPT, and diffusion baselines, Token-Shuffle showed improved alignment with textual prompts, reduced visual flaws, and higher subjective image quality in most cases. However, minor degradation in logical consistency was observed relative to diffusion models, suggesting avenues for further refinement. In terms of visual quality, Token-Shuffle demonstrated the capability to produce detailed and coherent 1024×1024 and 2048×2048 images. Ablation studies revealed that smaller shuffle window sizes (e.g., 2×2) offered the best trade-off between computational efficiency and output quality. Larger window sizes provided additional speedups but introduced minor losses in fine-grained detail. Conclusion Token-Shuffle presents a straightforward and effective method to address the scalability limitations of autoregressive image generation. By leveraging the inherent redundancy in visual vocabularies, it achieves substantial reductions in computational cost while preserving, and in some cases improving, generation quality. The method remains fully compatible with existing next-token prediction frameworks, making it easy to integrate into standard AR-based multimodal systems. The results demonstrate that Token-Shuffle can push AR models beyond prior resolution limits, making high-fidelity, high-resolution generation more practical and accessible. As research continues to advance scalable multimodal generation, Token-Shuffle provides a promising foundation for efficient, unified models capable of handling text and image modalities at large scales. Check out the Paper. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join our Telegram Channel and LinkedIn Group. Don’t Forget to join our 90k+ ML SubReddit. Asif RazzaqWebsite |  + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences.Asif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Comprehensive Tutorial on the Five Levels of Agentic AI Architectures: From Basic Prompt Responses to Fully Autonomous Code Generation and ExecutionAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/NVIDIA AI Releases OpenMath-Nemotron-32B and 14B-Kaggle: Advanced AI Models for Mathematical Reasoning that Secured First Place in the AIMO-2 Competition and Set New Benchmark RecordsAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Meta AI Releases Web-SSL: A Scalable and Language-Free Approach to Visual Representation LearningAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/AWS Introduces SWE-PolyBench: A New Open-Source Multilingual Benchmark for Evaluating AI Coding Agents

Warning: This review contains spoilers for season 2, episode 3 of Doctor Who, "The Well."“The Well” is an immensely frustrating episode of Doctor Who. There’s real promise scattered throughout its runtime, including some striking horror imagery that feels pulled straight from a Stephen King novel, but it struggles to build on that foundation. Flung 500,000 years into the future, the Doctor and Belinda arrive on a crumbling, ice-laced mining colony where something has clearly gone wrong. The infrastructure is in ruins, the crew has vanished, and only one shell-shocked survivor remains. Right from the off, there’s a cold stillness that slowly settles in and wraps around us like a brisk fog, permeating a slow, creeping dread. It’s a sharp contrast to the brilliant chaos of last week’s outing, but the shift to a slower, more ominous pace is a welcome one.Surprisingly (unless you’ve read the leaks), it also serves as a direct sequel to 2009’s "Midnight" – a tense, near-perfect bottle episode built around one of the show’s simplest, most chilling ideas. For better or worse, the follow-up isn’t a retread of that one-off, and doesn’t try to be. But while “The Well” starts as a bold successor to an all-time great, it ultimately ends up slipping into pale imitation.To their credit, Russell T Davies and co-writer Sharma Walfall make a deliberate effort to avoid simply rehashing "Midnight." The entity has been reimagined with fresh rules and visual tricks, and there’s some impressive restraint in how little we actually see of it. They even found a few inventive ways to make this entity almost as terrifying as the first time we encountered it, and there’s still some clear intent in how the mysterious alien is handled. The creature’s design is mostly left to the imagination, and director Amanda Brotchie impressively leans into a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it embodiment. But it’s hard not to feel that this return chips away at the power of the original. “Midnight” was about fear, groupthink, and the fragility of trust, while “The Well” just awkwardly gestures toward a scary monster and calls it a day. Where “Midnight” left gaps for the imagination to fill, “The Well” feels too eager to explain, too quick to visualise the horror rather than let it haunt from the edges. For all the unease Brotchie's direction carefully conjures, the story underneath feels disappointingly thin by comparison. The Midnight entity is no longer this terrifying enigma relying on mimicry and manipulation to sow paranoia and panic. Instead, it’s now a far more conventional monster of the week, jumping between victims in a parasitic chain in a clichéd pass-it-on setup that recalls horror flicks like It Follows or Smile. Gone is the intellectual dread, the eerie unknowability that made its first appearance unforgettable. It was a malevolent intelligence that even the Doctor couldn’t reason with or outwit, toying with language and fracturing a room using just its guile.The Best Doctor Who Monsters of the Modern EraIt shares so little resemblance to its original appearance, and it’s hard to escape the feeling that the reintroduction of one of Doctor Who’s most enigmatic villains is unnecessary at best, and actively disappointing at worst. Even taking the episode on its own merits, and putting aside the unavoidable comparisons, “The Well” still struggles to find any way to stand out. The supporting cast is painfully forgettable, the story lacks any substance beyond the Midnight reveal, and even Ncuti Gatwa feels off-tempo, his usual spark dulled by dialogue that forces a semblance of emotional catharsis from scene to scene instead of truly earning it. There are flashes of great tension and horror, but they’re trapped in a script that desperately struggles to find its footing anywhere else.

Warning: contains plot spoilers for Doctor Who episode “The Well”. If they were really concentrating, fans may have got there just before the Doctor did, at the mention of an Xtonic Star. If they were really really concentrating, they could have drawn the connection even earlier, with the very first reference to Galvanic Radiation and a planet where nothing can live. What connection? The surprise that series 15 episode “The Well” takes place on the same planet as acclaimed series four episode “Midnight”, and features the same baddie – perhaps now retconned as another member of Doctor Who’s growing pantheon of gods, seeing as it survived half a million years between the Doctor’s visits, and appears to have a thing for playing games. In “The Well”, Fifteen and Belinda’s latest TARDIS “bounce” shoots them 500,000 years ahead of 1952 Miami, to the “cold, lifeless and dead” Planet 6-7-6-7. At least, that’s what it’s known as in that time; it used to go by the rather more poetic “Midnight”. In the 2008 Who episode of the same name, Midnight was where the Doctor was paralysed by a malevolent creature whose mystery he never solved. And now it’s back. The June 2008 series four episode saw Donna Noble take some time off from the TARDIS (while Catherine Tate filmed Doctor-lite adventure “Turn Left”). Donna relaxed in a leisure spa while Ten, like the beautiful nerd he is, went on a sightseeing tour of sapphire waterfalls on a planet the surface of which was made of diamond. Except, he never made it to the waterfalls because a shadowy beast attacked their Crusader shuttle and killed four people, very nearly including the Doctor. Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Alice Troughton, “Midnight” is about two kinds of evil: the faceless horror evil of the entity that possesses the tourists aboard the sightseeing shuttle, and the paranoid, protectionist evil of the passengers themselves. When the shuttle breaks down en-route and one of the group becomes ‘infected’ by the monster, the others turn on her and plan to cast her out into the planet’s deadly irradiated atmosphere. The Doctor appeals to their humanity, which makes them also turn on him. It’s only thanks to a heroic act from someone on board that the Doctor isn’t killed and forced to regenerate on the surface of Planet Midnight (and then presumably, to immediately die of radiation poisoning, regenerate again, immediately die, and so on, forever. Though while we’re thinking about this, it was the Toymaker’s use of UNIT’s Galvanic Radiation beam that caused the Doctor to bi-generate, so perhaps if he had been thrown out onto the planet’s surface, there’d now be thousands of Doctors running around, all sharing the constituent parts of a single outfit. Quite the mental image.) In “The Well”, Fifteen tells Belinda that the first time he encountered the Midnight monster, he had never been so scared in his life. That reads, remembering the look on David Tennant’s face while he was paralysed by it, and while it parroted his every word through its unfortunate host Sky Silvestry – brilliantly played by Lesley Sharp. Ten was so shaken by his encounter with the creature that when Donna playfully repeats his words in the episode’s closing scene, he earnestly asks her not to, and remains silent when she asked him what he thought the monster was and whether it was still out there. Until “The Well”, the monster from “Midnight” was a rare case of a baddie that the Doctor had never encountered before and also wasn’t able to identify. Now, showrunner Russell T Davies and “The Well” co-writer Sharma Walfall have returned to that unsolved mystery. Hundreds of thousands of years since it was last encountered, the Midnight creature appears to have evolved a physical form and the ability not just to possess and mimic, but also to hide behind its infected hosts and physically attack anybody who comes within reach. It laid waste to Colony Base 15 when their diamond mine operation awakened it, working its way through their crew and eventually attaching itself to base cook Aliss (Rose Ayling-Ellis), a deaf BSL speaker and lip reader who now has two very good reasons not to want people to turn their backs on her. Even worse than that: it’s out. Ten couldn’t tell Donna whether or not the creature was still out there after it was blown out of the shuttle in “Midnight”, but we have a hint. In the closing scene of “The Well”, it’s suggested that Trooper Mo is the creature’s new host, so wherever she goes next, it goes too. Another game-playing god unleashed? Is that why whatever’s bouncing the TARDIS around (hello Mrs Flood!) sent it back to Planet Midnight in the first place? Doctor Who continues with “Lucky Day” on Saturday May 3 on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ around the world. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

Apple Notes used to be a fairly barebones tool, best known for being used by celebrities to apologize. But a few years back, Apple started investing heavily in making Notes a worthy competitor with third-party alternatives. And in iOS 18, Apple Notes gained a power user feature that’s especially hard to find elsewhere: collapsible sections. My long search for a notes app with one key feature I’ve tried a lot of notes apps over the years, paying close attention to every worthwhile debut on the App Store. And no matter how powerful some of those third-party apps could be, the vast majority of them lacked a key feature I’d always wanted: collapsible sections. In prior jobs, I often needed to hide or show various portions of a note, largely as a way to keep longer notes more organized and easy to skim. To prove just how desperate I got, at one point I was even using OmniOutliner for this one reason alone. I didn’t need an outlining app, but for specific notes, I would create them in Omni’s app only for the chance to have collapsible sections. My work has since changed, and I don’t have the same uses for collapsible sections that I once did. But I was still delighted to find that iOS 18 brought the feature to Apple Notes—and I immediately started brainstorming new use cases. How Apple Notes’ collapsible sections work in iOS 18 In iOS 18, Apple did something very simple with the Notes app: it took an existing feature, and expanded its usefulness. Rather than adding collapsible sections as a whole new formatting type, Apple baked it into the existing support for headings and subheadings. I use headings and subheadings all the time in my notes. It’s my preferred way to organize information—often with a bulleted list underneath. And in iOS 18, any heading or subheading can be collapsed with a quick tap, hiding all the content it contains. All you have to do is tap on a heading or subheading line, then hit the down-facing arrow that appears. This arrow then shifts direction, and all your content is hidden underneath. What I’m using iOS 18’s new Apple Notes feature for Currently, I’m using this feature in two main ways that both happen to involve health and fitness practices. I use collapsible sections for: Exercise instructions Food macros For the former, I have different notes set up for each of my weekly exercise routines. On ‘Pull’ day, for example, I keep track of my reps and weight in a log. But right at the top of the note, I also save information on new or future exercises to add to the workout. Thanks to iOS 18, I can include detailed, step-by-step walkthroughs for each new exercise, but keep them hidden most of the time so they don’t clutter the note. I do something similar with tracking food macros. For meals at home, and especially my go-to restaurants, I save information on each food item’s calories and protein. Collapsible sections let me hide this info under each restaurant or dish’s heading, only seeing it when I need to. This makes the note much easier to navigate. There are countless ways collapsible sections can be used, but these are the two I’ve been enjoying right now. Do you use collapsible sections in iOS 18’s Notes app? Let us know in the comments. Best iPhone accessories Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel