iOS

Now that iOS 7 is in the wild I'm getting some interesting questions, like one from a friend who discovered the parallax motion effect that moves the background behind the Home screen icons triggers their migraines. How do you fix that, they asked. Simple: enable Reduce Motion. Tilting your iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, or iPhone…

iOS 7 dramatically changes the look and feel compared to iOS 6. At first, we're not quite sure about our feelings. However, in time, important design elements surface in our consciousness. It's a fascinating journey. _______________________ When I look at iOS 7, it generates very strong, positive feelings. The strongest feeling I get is that…

iOS 7 sports a new look all the way down to the fonts used to display text and the time, and it turns out it's just a little too difficult on some people's eyes. If that's you, it's easy to make iOS 7's text more eye-friendly. Read on to learn how. Standard text (left) isn't…

You know when someone says they remodeled and you show up expecting to see a fresh coat of paint and a new rocker chair from Ikea, but instead find a new kitchen, hardwood floors instead of shag carpet, and a bathroom with a heated floor that's been enlarged to take up that old spare bedroom?…

Apple has been busy rolling out app updates ahead of the release of iOS 7 on Wednesday, and the latest to get some love is iTunes for the Mac and Windows. Version 11.1 is now available, and it includes support for iOS 7 and Apple's new music streaming service iTunes Radio. Download iTunes 11.1 ahead…

Apple rolled out an update for its iCloud website ahead of Wednesday's official launch of iOS 7. The site refresh brings iOS 7's look and feel to the web-based versions of Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and Find My iPhone. iCloud's new look is very much iOS 7 iCloud users can try out the betas…

If you have multiple email accounts set up on your iOS 6 or iOS 7 device, you can have each one play a different sound when new messages arrive. That way, you could instantly know whether an email is work-related or whether you can safely ignore it. Sweet! You'll start configuring things by visiting Settings>…

If you're like me, you think that using passwords is a pain. You probably use Automatic Login on your Mac and have no password on your iOS devices. “It's no big deal,” you tell yourself, “I can remotely lock or wipe my iPhone if it gets lost or stolen.” Of course I'd have to agree…

If you are a user of any iOS device (if you are reading this you most likely are) then next Tuesday (9/10/13) will be a day of interest for you. That's when Apple will be holding a media event that will likely focus on Apple mobile products (iPhones, iPads, iPods) and, hopefully, the OS that…

When you're messing around with a PDF in Preview, you may need to select elements like text or images. There's an easy but fairly non-obvious way that you can control what's being selected. The secret lies in two toolbar icons—the Text Selection and Rectangular Selection buttons. To reveal these useful features, the first thing you'll…

One of iBooks' iOS preferences that I love more than cake is within Settings> iBooks, and it's labeled Both Margins Advance. Turning this on means that when you're reading a book, you can use either the left or the right margin to move to the next page. By default, touching the red area in my…

Typically when you send an iMessage from your iPhone to another, if it doesn't get to the recipient in a timely manner, it will automatically be sent as a text message, but sometimes that fallback just doesn't work. Thankfully, there's a way to force your iPhone to comply with your desire to send a message…

I was never a fan of Shakespeare when I was in school. Trying to make heads or tails out of Elizabethan English hurt my brain, and at the time, the ideas The Bard was trying to get across meant very little to me. I had my young hands full dealing with my own life. Why…

Security measures are evolving in an effort to both protect your data, and dissuade the thieves from absconding with your iDevice in the first place. Apple has announced new security enhancements starting with iOS 7. Additionally, it's rumored that iOS 7 will support hardware-based biometric analysis – specifically, fingerprint scanning via some sort of on-board…

There are those among us who are blessed with an uncanny talent, an ability that few possess. Many have tried to acquire this skill through years of practice only to become merely adequate, but those naturally talented few demonstrate this ability with such finesse that it puts all others to shame. This talent, this revered…

If you keep lots of info in the Notes app on your iPhone or iPad, you're probably aware that you can use Siri to create new notes. To do so, invoke Siri (by holding down your device's Home button until you hear the beeps), and then just say “Note [whatever information you need to save].”…

The computer was originally invented to relieve all of us from the drudgery of repetitious and mindless actions, clearing the way for the realization of our more lofty goals. Clearly, this remains true to this day. Our iOS devices, being quite powerful portable computers, are able to make things easier for us through the automation…

Hey there sport fans. It's been exciting year so far regardless of what type of ball you like to see moved around a field. Watchers of The Sport of Kings saw the comeback of one of that sport's all time legends who fell from grace a while back. Tiger Woods may not be as exciting…

Did you know you can use iOS's Siri to send and reply to emails? You can, and in this column I'm going to show you just how easy it is. Siri can fill in the recipient, the subject line, and take dictation for what you want to say.  If you have more than one email…

If there's a place I don't want to forget, I use the often-overlooked Bookmarks feature in Apple Maps on my iOS devices. It's a quick way to note favorite businesses, camping sites, and so on for future reference. To add a bookmark, you'll first find an address on your map that you'd like to remember.…

Without a doubt, as we wait for iOS 7 to be released, we can all anticipate enhancements and changes to the Spotlight search technology. Most of how we already interact with Spotlight will be applicable in the new iOS, so I thought it appropriate to cover a basic how-to at this point in time. As…

A good friend of mine is downsizing, cleaning house, and tossing stuff she hasn't touched or even seen in years. One item destined for the recycle bin is a complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica reference encyclopedias. When I was a kid I actually wanted a set because I believed that the summation of human knowledge,…

With iOS 7 beta 4 available to developers, word is out that the newest test version of the iPhone and iPad operating system includes code for a biometric sensor. That helps back up the idea that the next iPhone will include some type of fingerprint scanner, but it's most likely for phone security, and not…

Griffin’s PowerDock 5 is a flat, desktop charging station, and it will charge everything from the smallest iPod nano to the latest version of the iPad. PowerDock 5 The base measures 8.25 x 5.25-in (21 x 13.33 cm). It is about the same size as a standard size iPad. It includes six Plexiglas backrests that…