What's Black and White and Flat All Over? iOS 7

The first delicious rumors have emerged on what Sir Jonathan Ive is doing to iOS 7. 9to5Mac reported that unnamed sources have described the new look and feel for iOS 7 as “black and white and flat all over,” a play on the old-school riddle about newspapers*. The sources also said that iOS 7 will…

What iOS7 did Jonny Ive scrap?

A lot was made of Scott Forstall’s departure from Apple, with Jonathan Ive taking control of all design. The first major product we are going to see in the wild as a result of this changeover is iOS7. We know that Ive is no fan of the skeumorphic, textured, designs that Jobs continually pushed for,…

Manage Your Movie Wish List on iPhone with ToDoMovies

Everyone who's into theatrical movies knows the drill: what do I want to see next? What have I already seen? What's available now in theaters? iTunes? What's coming out soon? Let's view the trailer. And so on. ToDoMovies is an iPhone app that manages all that beautifully, and it's a must for movie fans. The…

iTunes 11.0.3: New MiniPlayer Features

As TMO's Jeff Gamet pointed out yesterday, iTunes has been updated to version 11.0.3. In this article, we're going to go over what's new with the MiniPlayer (and what you may not have known you could do with it before!). If you haven't updated your version of iTunes yet, be sure to pop over to…

Hobbits, Habits & Hobgoblins: Why iOS 7 Must Change

Personal assessments of what technology to adopt and what to ignore is what we do these days. Developers develop, technical columnists experiment and report, and individuals decide “yea or nay.” Basing those decisions on old-fashioned or emotional preconceptions in increasingly unproductive. iOS is Aging Technology When the iPhone was first conceived and derived from Mac…

The iPhone's Hidden Image Editor

Your iPhone or iPod touch makes for a handy camera, and both can take nice images. That doesn't, however, mean you won't need to make some quick adjustments on the go. You can turn to a long list of apps designed to help with that, including Apple's own iPhoto, but if you only need to…

Satellite Safari for iOS is Stellar, Inspiring

Satellite Safari is a realtime, visual guide to hundreds of satellites in orbit. This universal iOS app will tell when they pass overhead and where they are right now. You can follow along in orbit, with the satellite, see what it looks like, look at the ground track from space or watch it pass overhead…

3 Free Manly iOS Apps

Women like to say that men have it easy. We don't give birth, we're unburdened by an abundance of estrogen, and the world, in general, is a lot less scary. While I will readily agree that giving birth looks like something I'd happily leave to the girls to do, and whereas I find it hard…

iOS & OS X: Locking Down Location Services

It's no secret that apps on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch can track your location, but you may not realize Mac apps can do the same, too. You can, however, control which apps know where you are on both platforms, and it's easy to do. iOS Location Services To see which apps are using…

How to Email Multiple Images in iOS

We already know that when we purchase a new Apple product, we don’t get an owner’s manual any more. Who reads them anyway? I have a confession to make. As an Apple Consultant, I have made money providing answers and fixes just by RTFM (Reading The Friggin’ Manual). I feel bad about this. So, to…

iOS 6: Removing Previous Mail Recipients

Previously, I wrote a tip about how to get rid of the pesky previous recipients on your Mac—those email addresses that you've typed in incorrectly or that you just don't want showing up as suggestions when you're composing messages. Turns out that there's a way to do that same thing in iOS 6, and I…

iPhoto ’11: Adding Location Data to Multiple Images

Like to remember where a particular image was taken? If the camera you're using doesn't automatically include location data in your photos (or if it gets it wrong!), you may be stuck adding that information into iPhoto yourself. Luckily, though, you don't have to do it one picture at a time, so here are a…

3 Free iOS System Monitors

There was a time when I was chest high into deep geek doings. I wrote arcane command line scripts that did fun things like parse lists of names for certain parameters and pipe them to another list that might be used for mailing or whatever. But I was only an acolyte deep geek. There were…

Follow the Sun with the Fabulous Sun Seeker for iOS

There are occasions when a photographer, cinematographer, astronomer, pilot, or architect needs to know a lot more about the Sun's position than simply sunrise and sunset. Sun Seeker by Ajnaware Pty Ltd in Sydney, Australia tells you almost everything you can know about the position of the Sun for any day of the year. Plus,…

iOS 7: It's Time to Clean House

It's no secret Apple is working on a new iPhone model and a new version of iOS. Apple is always working on a new iPhone and new version of iOS. What's different this time is that there's been a changing of the guard with industrial designer and Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jonathan…

Hiding App Purchases in iTunes

Typically when someone says “Do you know which iTunes feature I like?” I get ready to hear a long list of complaints. Occasionally, however, I get surprised when they mention something they actually do enjoy — like the ability to hide App Store purchases they no longer want to see. Your iTunes account still tracks…

Create OmniFocus Tasks from Apple's iOS Mail App

OmniFocus is a great tool for keeping track of your tasks, and on the Mac it's easy to take an email and turn it into a to-do. On the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, however, there hasn't been an easy way to do that — until the clever team at The Omni Group figured out…

iOS Mail: Quoting Only Selected Text

A certain someone mentioned in a previous article that you can turn on a preference in Mac Mail that'll only include the text you select from a message when you're replying to it or forwarding it. And if you're not using that tip, you should be, because it makes things SO much easier than trying…

Cally: Conversions & Scientific Calculator For iOS Flubs

The Cally app for iOS is a units and currency converter plus a scientific calculator. It is brilliant at conversions, but flubs badly as a calculator. In fact, the calculator part needs a complete overhaul. The Great Stuff As someone who has spent his whole adult life using scientific calculators, I can really appreciate a…

Nav Clock: Awesome iOS App for Time, Location & Weather

Sometimes an app is so nicely done for a particular discipline that it becomes, perhaps, the quintessential app of its kind. Nav Clock is one of those in my opinion. No pilot, astronomer, photographer, journalist, hiker or anyone interested in time and weather should be without it. Nav Clock was one of the earliest apps…

3 iOS Comics Readers You Gotta Have

Should comics be considered an art form? It can be argued that, in its essence, comics can be just as expressive, emotional, and thought-provoking as any painting or photograph from any master artist. And any argument that points to more poorly executed comics as proof that the medium does not deserve to considered an art…

iOS Kindle Update Deletes Stored Books

Amazon is warning its iPhone, iPad and iPod touch Kindle app users to skip the version 3.6.1 update because it deletes purchases from the app. Users that already installed the update can re-download their missing ebooks, and the company said a new update is on the way. Amazon's latest Kindle update clears ioS user's library…