How to silence your Apple Watch

Plus use Do Not Disturb and theater mode.

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The other day, I was watching my son sing in a choir (he has the voice of an angel, a bass one) when, to my horror, my phone started ringing.

The woman sitting next to me — a stranger — instantly swiveled to face me with a look of stern disapproval. (Like I rang myself, lady! Give me a break!)

No worries! I placed my palm over my Apple Watch and my iPhone immediately stopped ringing.

The woman’s face turned from annoyance to approval! She gave me an approving nod, and afterward, asked how I’d done it. She’d not seen the feature before.

I went from zero to hero — thank you, Apple Watch!

Silencing calls with my palm is perhaps my all-time favorite feature of the Apple Watch. It’s so simple. So easy to do, and so useful.

And — I didn’t know this — you also can silence the Watch itself with the same gesture.

If your Apple Watch suddenly starts pinging with a flurry of notifications or alerts, just place your palm over it and it’ll go into silent mode.

It’s just one of four ways to silence your wearable — here’s everything you need to know about keeping your Apple Watch quiet.

Also in today’s newsletter:

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Tweetz o’ the day

One more thing ...

Well, my favorite things in life are books, sushi and .... My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time. As it is, I pay a price by not having much of a personal life. I don't have the time to pursue love affairs or to tour small towns in Italy and sit in cafes and eat tomato-and-mozzarella salad. Occasionally, I spend a little money to save myself a hassle, which means time. And that's the extent of it. I bought an apartment in New York, but it's because I love that city. I'm trying to educate myself, being from a small town in California, not having grown up with the sophistication and culture of a large city. I consider it part of my education. You know, there are many people at Apple who can buy everything that they could ever possibly want and still have most of their money unspent. I hate talking about this as a problem; people are going to read this and think, ‘Yeah, well, give me your problem.’ They're going to think I'm an arrogant little asshole.

— Steve Jobs, 1985.

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