The News app is bundled in modern versions of iOS, accessible from the home screen as a standard app icon and from the Siri Suggestions screen in Spotlight under the News section on an iPhone or iPad. While News app includes a handful of curated Apple-approved sites, users can customize the app on their own … Read More
The Apple Watch user interface uses transparency in the Glances screens and elsewhere to add a subtle layering effect to the appearance of things on display. This is mostly an eye-candy effect, and while it’s quite subtle some users may wish to turn transparency effects off in WatchOS. By disabling transparency on Apple Watch, it … Read More
Many Mac users will inevitably see the “Your startup disk almost full” error message show up in OS X, with a vague note to delete some files in order to make more space available on the Mac. While you can disregard the message for a little while, it will usually come back again shortly, and … Read More
The iOS Messages app defaults to sending what is called a “read receipt” when an iMessage is opened and read within the application. That Read Receipt feature can be helpful for some conversations but it’s not always desired for every message, and though disabling Read Receipts for Messages in iOS is certainly one option that … Read More
Many Instagram users have multiple IG accounts, perhaps a public facing Instagram profile (often referred to as ‘finstagram’, short for “fake instagram”), a more private Instagram profile (the “rinsta” for ‘real instagram’), a profile for their cat, dog, or turtle, and maybe even a business or work account they use and manage (why yes of … Read More
Modern versions of Mail app for Mac OS X and iOS default to scanning through email content to suggest contacts and fill in additional information about existing contacts. While this can offer a convenient way of easily filling in and uncovering contact information exchanged through emails, it can also frequently be inaccurate, leading to erroneous … Read More
Many users like to set a signature to be automatically included in their outbound emails, and for those who like to have a stylized and somewhat interactive email signature, they’ll want to create what’s called an HTML signature. An HTML signature allows for different text styling like bolds, italics, font sizes, and, perhaps most relevant … Read More
The latest versions of iOS support a feature which scans a users mailboxes for contacts and contact information. While this feature can be really helpful in potentially identifying callers and contacts, it can also lead to erroneous information being filled in to your address book contact cards, erroneous assumptions about callers, and even improper suggestions … Read More
AirDrop is a great file sharing protocol for iOS and Mac OS that allows users to quickly and easily send files, photos, contacts, and other data back and forth between iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, and Mac OS X. But sometimes AirDrop doesn’t show up at all in iOS, which obviously prevents the feature from working … Read More
Have you ever had a video that was recorded vertically or sideways, and you wish it was orientated either horizontally or otherwise rotated? This is often the case with videos recorded on iPhone or Android phones shot with the notorious Vertical Video Syndrome, but the technique we’ll demonstrate works to flip or rotate any movie, … Read More
Some iPhone users have discovered their devices battery life percentage indicator within the status bar is stuck and not updating, only to then have the percent jump way down, sometimes to the point where the iPhone is about to run out of battery. This seems to primarily impact the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, … Read More
A large part of the utility with Apple Watch is receiving notifications and alerts which can be quickly sorted through, addressed, or dismissed right on your wrist. While you can quickly clear out the notifications, sometimes you just want peace and quiet instead, and the best way to stop the Apple Watch from tapping your … Read More
The iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch uses a physical Shake to Undo and Shake to Redo feature to serve as the equivalent of “undo” and “redo” keys, since unlike the iPad which has the undo / redo buttons on the keyboard, the iPhone and iPod touch lack screen buttons for those functions. And if you’re … Read More
iOS for iPad has dramatically improved multitasking with Spit View dual-pane apps and its counterpart, Slide Over. The Slide Over feature lets you quickly reference, use, and access secondary apps on the iPad without having to enter into full fledged split screen app mode, and without having to switch apps. This feature is great for … Read More
Some Mac users may see a notification alert pop-up from Mac OS X in the corner of their display with a message stating “Optimizing Your Mac – Performance and battery life may be affected until completed.” While there aren’t any additional details offered in the notification, there is a “Close” button, which will dismiss the … Read More
Having to constantly enter the Apple ID password to download free apps from the Mac App Store is kind of annoying, but thanks to a new settings option you can stop the authentication requirement for free apps while still maintaining it for paid app downloads and for in-app purchases in Mac OS X.
The latest versions of iOS Mail app include a “Trash All” function that allows you to quickly delete all emails in an inbox on any iPhone, IPad, or iPod touch. This is the fastest way to delete all emails in an inbox from an iOS device, and can be helpful if you want to clear … Read More
Notes app includes a variety of enhanced features for iOS and OS X users, but one that is particularly useful is the ability to make checklists easily in the app. As you probably guessed, the checklists are interactive, so you can check things off your own created lists or notes easily to help you keep … Read More
