iOS

Those banners are handy, as you can use them as a way to skip songs you don’t wanna hear (just hover your cursor over one to reveal the “Skip” button). Please don't ever skip this particular song. I will judge you for it. I like this feature a lot—a lot a lot a lot, especially since…

I knew one answer to the first part of her question—how to retrieve a history of purchases—but I was neither positive on the best way to do this, nor on how to print a listing. I did some digging, and am ready to share my findings, just in case you also want to do this.…

Dropbox 3 gets an iOS 7 facelift and AirDrop file sharing support The version 3.0 update also improved PDF support, made it easier to save videos to user's Library, improved file sharing and export support, improved overall performance, and more. Dropbox 3.0 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is free and requires a Dropbox…

iOS 7 comes with a bunch of fancy animations and effects that add some depth and overall make the OS feel alive and cool. Apps zoom in and out of the Home Screen and backgrounds even exhibit a neat parallax effect. But Apple figured back when the OS was released that some people may not…

But of course, there’s a neat trick to quickly dismiss them. To dismiss a notification banner when it slides down, simply tap and hold on the little gray bar at the bottom center of the notification and flick it upward to see it go away. No more waiting for them to go away on their own!…

This being the Halloween time of year it's only fitting that I talk about spooky stuff. I was sitting in a local coffee shop earlier this week and jumped in a conversation with the bartender (Stardust Coffee also serves beer and wine) and a fellow patron. The subject du jour, spooky houses. The guy next…

One of the most radically changed apps in iOS 7 is Safari. Obviously it looks quite a bit different from its predecessor, and much of the functionality found in the previous version has been re-worked for the new look. For example, the way tabs are viewed in the app has been updated to accommodate an…

Along with the extremely noticeable UI changes in iOS 7 came a zillion (yes, a zillion) little changes that have been mostly well received. These are the changes I love most because they tend to affect the way we use our devices every day. However, one change that I didn’t particularly enjoy was the switch…

Within iOS 7, there's a neat new feature to tell you which apps are chewing up your cellular data. If you visit Settings> Cellular and then scroll down, you'll see the awesomeness. Here you have the ability to see how much total data you've used since the stats were reset, along with which apps are…

Apple's busy Tuesday morning included the release of iOS 7.0.3 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The update for the month-old operating system added iCloud Keychain sync support, and fixed a problem where iMessages were failing to send. iOS 7.0.3 fixes iMessages bug and adds iCloud Keychain support The 7.0.3 update also added a…

It's great that the iPhone 5 gives you anywhere access to the Internet, but unfortunately most people have limited cellular data caps. That means apps that love to hog your data connection can push you dangerously close too, or even over, your monthly limit. Good thing iOS 7 lets you block apps from using your…

Just because the display on your iPhone is sharp doesn't mean your eyes are, too.Sure, you can enable bold text to help make words easier to read, but if that isn't cutting if for you, iOS 7 lets you increase text size, too. It's easy and we'll show you how. To increase the size of…

iOS 7's Control Center is a great because it gives you quick access to all kinds of commonly used settings and, well, controls. Some of those controls also give you quick access to the apps they remotely run, including music playback. Read on to learn how. If you aren't familiar with Control Center, you should…

Hey, the iPhone 5s has the ability to capture slo-mo video! Have you lucky new owners played around with it yet? If not, then let me tell you that people eating in slow motion is really funny. Just me? I'm the only immature person here? Whatever, you guys. Anyway, to access it when you're in…

Backups – some of us love them, many of us love to hate them, a good number of us don’t even bother. The fact is, most typical personal computer users (including those who use smartphones and tablets) are unclear about their own data backup status or consciously choose not to back up. Happily, with a…

The Maps app in iOS 7 will do its best to get you from place to place with its built-in navigation feature, and it can show you driving or walking directions. Maps assumes you're in your car, but what if you usually walk? No problem; just change the default from driving directions to walking. Read…

One of my favorite uses for my iPhone is turn-by-turn navigation. When Apple added the feature to Maps in iOS 6, I loved the extra integration it provided over all other GPS apps. However, one thing I really hated about it was the fact that I couldn't change the voice volume from within the app.…

We iOS Mail users have had a unified inbox for a good long time now, right? And it's pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. Well, now there's something that's just as awesome, and it's new in iOS 7—unified trash, sent, and drafts mailboxes. So you can see all of your sent messages, for…

In iOS 7, Safari's integrated URL and search field at the top shows only the primary part of the domain for a website. This tip shows you how to see the full URL. _________________________   For example, here's a TMO article in iOS 7 and Safari. Note how the URL field says simply “macobserver.com.” To…

Sometimes it's the simple things that make operating system updates so nice, like iOS 7's new way of performing system-wide searches. The problem is when the way you get at a feature like that changes and no one tells you where it went. If you're stymied trying to find iOS 7's system-wide search, rest easy.…

iOS 7 has several settings that allow those who are visually impaired to improve the readability of the display. This tip looks at zooming the display and increasing the contrast. ______________________________ In iOS, accessibility settings are found on this path: Settings > General > Accessibility. The ones discussed here are Zoom and Increase Contrast, circled…

Last week in this space I talked about apps to help you jazz up your photos. Now that you have some super cool pix you'll want to share them, right? What do you do? There are a boatload of options of course. This is iOS we're talking about. There's an app for almost anything. Facebook,…

If you're running iOS 7 (and if you've got a supported device, as noted in this TMO article), you'll get an icon to access new built-in filters when you're taking a picture. After you choose whichever fanciness you wanna apply and take your shot, though, what if you decide you hate the filter you picked?…

In iOS 7, Apple makes explicit to the user (or someone else) a log of frequent geographic locations visited. Called Frequent Locations, basically, the iPhone now remembers everywhere the user goes. This option is buried deeply in iOS 7 Settings, and it should be turned off by default. Here's why I believe that. __________________________ For…