Apple's Family Sharing in iOS 8 is something many users are eager to setup in order to finally deal with the issue of sharing purchased apps (and music and movies and more) with family members. Frustration has set in for some, however, when the setup process informs users that PayPal is not a valid payment…
iOS
iOS 8: Hide and Unhide Images in Photos App
____________________ We'll be working with the iOS 8 Photos app on an iPhone or iPad. (I haven't verified for iPod touch.) 1. In the Photos app, tap and hold on a photo you want to hide. As in iOS 7, there's an option to Copy, but now there's a new option: Hide. Tap and hold…
iOS 8 App Store Bundles Explained
Ultimate Productivity Bundle by Readdle First off, a developer is more than welcome to assemble a bundle, but it can only contain the apps made by a single developer. As of now there is no way to create a bundle with apps from more than one developer, but hopefully that's something that will change in…
iOS 8 Review: Apple Opens Mobile OS to Developers, You Win
Apple laid the groundwork for the future of its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system last year with iOS 7, and now the company is building on that foundation with the launch of iOS 8. Instead of shocking us with a new look that shuns the old skeuomorphic feel — that happened last year…
iOS 8: Quickly Access Your Favorite Contacts with Home Button
I think this is going to be one of my favorite new features of iOS 8. The basic procedure is simple. Start by double tapping the Home button. Double tap the Home button. Swipe the photos at the top to the right to view Phone app Favorites. Swipe the photos at the top to the…
iOS 8: See What's Eating Your Battery
For today’s article, I’m going to write about one of my favorite new features. I have a lot of favorites, by the way, so I may say that a ton over the coming weeks. Expect exclamation points and very little journalistic objectivity. Anyway, let’s check out the new ways you can see statistics on and…
iOS OTA update too big? Use iTunes
First, plug your device into iTunes. Once it's there, click the “Back Up” button on the right, under “Manually Back Up and Restore.” iTunes Backup Screen options. This way you have a bit of extra insurance in case it all goes wrong. If you don't have iTunes set to automatically check, click the “Check Now”…
iOS 8 Upgrade Recommendations By Device/Model
iPhone iPhone 5s or 5c: Probably. If you purchased your 5s on a subsidized contract, you have another year (or more) left on it so upgrading is a good idea. If you bought your 5s off-contract, and you already pulled the trigger on a new iPhone, you may not want to bother since you'll automagically…
PSA: Skip iCloud Drive if You Sync iCloud Data to Mac or iOS 7
Here's why: You can't go back to “regular” iCloud syncing, and your Mac (and any mobile Apple devices running iOS 7 or earlier) can't access anything synced to iCloud Drive. This is a feature coming to Yosemite, the next version of OS X, and that hasn't been released yet. Even if you have the Yosemite…
SwiftKey Announces Prediction Engine and Cloud Syncing for iOS 8 Keyboard Replacement
SwiftKey is a four year-old popular keyboard replacement utility on Android devices, using its own auto-correct feature and some excellent prediction to make text entry easier on touchscreen devices. With the advent of iOS 8 and the option for additional keyboards, SwiftKey is now making this same utility available to Apple users.
How To Prepare Devices For An iOS 8 Upgrade
1) Trim the (digital) fat First off, assess the situation on your iPhone. Is it full? Do you sometimes get notified of an update for an app you forgot you had? Do you buy more iCloud space for backups because of all those photos? Now's a good time to clean out some of those items.…
How to Delete Photos From Your iOS Photo Stream
Photos only stay in a personal Photo Stream for 30 days, but even then not everything necessarily needs to get shared in a Photo Stream. For example, if you take multiple photos to make sure nobody is blinking, you may not need to keep all of them. Perhaps you're, say, taking a bunch of nude…
How To Tell iMessages From Text Messages
Firstly, in the Messages app, your outgoing message bubbles are either blue or green. That color coding is key to knowing what's what. Let's start with blue ones: If they're blue, that means it is an iMessage going from one Apple device (iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Mac) to another. These are free communication, be it text…
How To Label Locations in Find My Friends
Add labels to friend's locations to set notification alerts Under “More”, tap “Choose Label” and choose from your existing labels or create something new. Add labels to locations by tapping More Once you have a label, you can interact with it using the “Notify” option in Find My Friends, or even using Siri. For example:…
I Love Paris! 3 Free iOS Paris Apps You'll Love Too
Perhaps I should qualify that statement. I loved Paris. In 2002 I had an opportunity to spend a day in Paris. It was something that I'd always wanted to do and, as fate, luck, the alignment of the stars, or whatever fatalistic belief you subscribe to would have it, there I was, standing in front…
iOS 7: Preventing Unauthorized Purchases
Once you’re familiar with Restrictions, then, let’s talk about a little-known setting that could give you trouble. You may not know that when you authorize a purchase with an Apple ID password, by default you don’t have to enter that password again for 15 minutes. So your kid hands you his iPad and whines that…
Hilton to Turn Your iPhone into Your Hotel Room Key
Hilton is turning your iPhone into a hotel room key Hilton CEO Christopher J. Nassetta said, “Travelers can use their smartphones as boarding passes to get to their seats on an airplane, so it is only natural that they will want to use them as a way to enter their hotel rooms.” The new room…
3 Free iOS Apps To Help You Find Something To Watch
There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We can reduce the focus to a soft blur,…
Dueling Scanners: 2 Free iOS Scanner Apps You Should Have
Scanning a document is more than taking a snapshot and turning it into a black and white photo. The better apps use sophisticated algorithms to enhance the text so that you have maximum readability, even when the document scanned is in a lest than optimum environment. Think about it. A dedicated scanner optimizes the scan…
How to Add iTunes Pass to Passbook on your iPhone
iTunes Pass works something like a reloadable gift card in that you pay up front a set amount of money and then spend against that until it's gone. When your card is empty, you can reload it again and keep spending. Here's how to set up iTunes Pass on your iPhone: Launch the App Store…
iPhoto: Splitting Events
If you’d like to split your Events up more finely than that setting allows, though, it’s pretty simple. All you have to do first is double-click on the Event you need to edit. Once you’re in, select the first image that you’d like to move to a new Event and choose Events> Split Event. That’ll place the…
iOS 7: Organize Your Music App
So for example, if you don’t use iTunes Radio but often want to sort by Composer, you can add that option into your toolbar instead. Nifty! To do that, open the Music app (you knew I was gonna say that, didn’t you?) and click on the “More” icon on the lower-right. In my screenshot above,…
Backing Up and Restoring in iOS 7 - Now With Less Suck
In iOS 7, restoring from backup can be paused, and then resumed later. So if it takes longer than you anticipated, you can always click the little X in the iTunes window and eject your iPhone. When you come back later, you can plug it back in, hit the sync button, and pick up where…
3 Free Do It Yourself Apps for iPhone and iPad
That's when I ran into a huge list of stuff I should have done over the years, but haven't for some reason. (Laziness is likely the real reason). There's a door that needs to be trued, a bathroom that needs painting, some patches on the lawn that defies every attempt to keep it sodded, a…