Third-Party Apps

The 2018/19 NBA season is over, but don't worry, the 2019 NBA postseason games aren't far behind; the NBA Playoffs begin on April 13! Whether you're cutting the cable cord for the first time, or looking for new ways to watch an NBA Playoffs live stream, there are a lot of options to research. You might choose an over-the-air antenna, a live-streaming provider, or a combination of both, but there are several pieces of information you'll need in order to make that decision. What TV networks will the basketball playoffs be broadcast on? Which live-streaming services carry the playoff networks? Can we catch any of the NBA Playoffs for free on local networks with an OTA antenna? Let's get started answering those questions and making a plan for watching the NBA Playoffs live, without cable, on our Apple TVs. 

I don’t know how or why it started, I just want it to stop. The past couple months, I’ve started to receive notifications about random friends’ activity on Facebook. It says something like, “Brenda posted a picture,” to which I’m scratching my head wondering, “and why do I care what Brenda who I knew in 5th grade and haven’t seen since did?” Apparently, I’m not the only one suddenly receiving notifications from random friends. So let’s figure out how to stop this! Here’s how to stop receiving notifications from random friends on Facebook.

Instagram introduced My Story to the app a while back. My Story allows users to film or snap pictures and short videos to share with their followers. If a follower is on at the right time, they can even tune into your Story in real time, or they can tap on your circle at the top of their Instagram feed later on to watch it. Your Story lasts a day before disappearing, allowing your followers to keep up with you in yet another way. But maybe there are some followers you’d rather didn’t view your Story on Instagram. You have the option to hide your Instagram Story from specific people; here’s how.

We all know the internet has plenty of people, sitting behind their computer, ready to make a rude, inappropriate, or otherwise unnecessary comment on something they should have just scrolled past. If you’re tired of getting negative comments on your Instagram pictures, there is something you can do about it. Here’s how to filter out negative comments on your Instagram.

When you’re the host of a Facebook event, you can edit a guest's invitation. This gives you the ability to remove them, thereby un-inviting them from the event. You can also select the status of their RSVP, meaning you can say they’re Going, Interested, or Can’t Go. However, they will be notified that you’ve done this. Regardless, sometimes you just need to use your Host privileges, which is why Facebook set it up this way. Here’s how to un-invite someone from your Facebook event.

Tired of receiving negative comments on your Instagram posts? If you’d rather not hear the comments from the critical internet on your Instagram feed, you can turn off comments for individual posts. You’ll need to manually turn off comments each time you post if you don’t want people to be able to leave a comment at all. Here’s how to turn off comments on your Instagram post.

Finally! Instagram recently rolled out an update that allows you to like (love?) comments. When you like a post, you tap on the heart to let the user know. Well, when you like a comment you can tap on the newly added heart next to each comment on a post. This is a feature I’ve been wishing for since I started using Instagram, and it’s finally here! Here’s how to like a comment on Instagram.

If you’ve ever sent invites to your Facebook friends for an event, you’ve probably wondered if those that haven’t RSVP'd are still potentially coming or just not comfortable saying no. Well, you can check your invite list on that Facebook event to see whether or not the people you invited have seen the invitation. This makes it easy to estimate how many people might show up. Here’s how to tell whether or not someone has seen your Facebook invitation.

The Amazon Kindle app is available for free for just about any and every device you can think of. That means not only can you read your e-books on a Kindle, but also on your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook as well. Adding a device to your Amazon account is as simple as downloading the app and logging in with your Amazon account email and password. But what about when you get a new iPhone or buy a different Kindle? As you upgrade devices, the old devices will remain on your Amazon Kindle Account, which can lead to e-book samples accidentally being sent to the wrong device, unless you delete the device, a.k.a., deregister it. Here’s how to delete an old iPhone, iPad, or other device from your Amazon account on iPhone.

‘How much data does Netflix use’ is an important question to answer if you have limited data on your iPhone or iPad. If you often enjoy streaming Netflix on your device, your Netflix data usage can quickly get out of control. We’ll cover how many GB (gigabytes) Netflix uses per hour, which makes it easy to figure out how much data Netflix uses per movie. Remember, if you’re streaming Netflix on Wi-Fi or watching offline content you’ve downloaded from Netflix, there’s no reason to be concerned over Netflix data usage, unless you have very limited bandwidth with your Internet provider at home. Netflix does use a decent amount of data when you’re streaming movies and TV shows, but you can control how much data Netflix uses within the app on your iPhone or iPad. Let’s jump in: here’s how much data does Netflix uses on iPhone or iPad and what to do about it.

Control Center is great because it allows you to quickly do all kinds of useful things like turn Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode, and Do Not Disturb on or off, lock your screen orientation, control playback, adjust volume levels, open your phone's calculator, and use your iPhone as a flashlight. However, some people worry about privacy when Control Center is accessible from Lock Screen (although, rest assured, nothing private can be opened without unlocking your phone), and others get tired of accidentally opening Control Center in an app while playing a game. Which is why Apple made it possible to turn off access to Control Center from Lock screen and within apps. Here’s how to disable access to Control Center from Lock Screen.

What is Chromecast? It’s Google’s equivalent to AirPlay. Except you need the very reasonably priced Chromecast ($35) to stream content from your iPhone, iPad, or computer. If you need a solution for easily streaming Netflix or Hulu on your TV, setting up and installing Chromecast is a great way to go and is significantly more affordable than the Apple TV. Chromecast setup isn’t hard to complete. But it takes more than just plugging it in to figure out how to set up Chromecast. We’ll make your Chromecast setup easy with how-to steps and photos below. Here’s how to connect Chromecast to your TV.

For every iPhone user, there comes a point when they want to know how to transfer photos from their iPhone to a computer, whether it be a Mac or PC, desktop or laptop. Uploading and downloading pictures from your iPhone is a smart way to create more storage space on your iOS device. There are a multitude of ways in which you can import your photos or videos to your computer, including AirDrop, the Photos app (on Mac or PC), using iCloud, downloading from Mail, syncing to Dropbox, or uploading your pictures to Google Photos. We’ll go over all of the methods I just listed so that you have plenty of options for getting your photos off your iPhone. Here’s how to transfer photos from your iPhone to a computer.

Saving a still from a Live Photo on iPhone can be done in two ways. The first is to simply duplicate a Live Photo but save it as a still. However, that method doesn’t allow you to select a single frame from the Live Photo. You can use our tip on saving a still of your Live Photo if that’s what you want, but if you want to save a frame within the Live part of the Live Photo, this tip will allow you to do that. We’ll use the free app, Lively to save a still from the Live Photo. It’s easy to do. Here’s how to save a single frame from a Live Photo on iPhone.

Facebook has this nifty little feature called “On This Day” or “Year In Review” that shows you posts from the past and encourages you to share and comment on them, which is great if they’re memories you want to see. However, Facebook selects which pictures to show you based on past interaction, which doesn’t always mean you end up seeing the happiest of memories. There isn’t a blanket way to turn off the feature, but you can designate people and dates you don’t want to be reminded of. You can easily choose to stop setting Facebook memories from within the mobile app. Here’s how to turn off Facebook “On This Day” Memories on iPhone.

There’s no better time to slow down and evaluate your goals than around the New Year. New Year’s Resolutions have started to get a bad rep, because often people set their goals too high and don’t have practical steps towards the goal or a support system to help them get there. Technology offers a unique realm of possibilities when it comes to sticking to our New Year’s Resolutions. Regardless of your goal, there’s an app that can help you keep your New Year’s Resolution, somewhere in the App Store. Having apps on your iPhone help by offering both practical steps and support towards achieving and maintaining your goals. That’s why I wanted to put this list together; if you’re wondering how to keep your New Year’s Resolution for 2017, here’s the best apps to help you stay consistent.

Super Mario Run has caused a lot of debate since its release. The ten dollar pay-wall users hit after playing the first three levels was a shock for many. Others, gladly paid the money (having paid much more for console games in the past) but quickly beat the six levels and felt short-changed. At first glance, Super Mario Run is a short game that’s fairly easy to play. But how to play Super Mario Run isn’t just about beating the Worlds. It’s about how to play the game to its fullest. I am personally obsessed with the game; I easily beat all six worlds, but do you know how to play Super Mario Run in a way that puts your full ten dollars to good use? That’s what we’re going to cover. We’ll go over the basics on how to play Super Mario Run for iOS, but then we’ll dive into how to play Super Mario Run for real, including how to play without killing your iPhone’s battery life. 

As 3D Touch becomes an older feature, more and more developers are adding 3D Touch options to their apps. Apple now has 3D Touch Quick Action options for nearly every stock app it makes. Netflix made sure it didn't lag far behind. Like other apps, when you activate 3D Touch by hard pressing the icon, a menu of different Quick Action options "pop" out. For Netflix, you’re able to select Search, My List, Trending Now, Continue Watching, or Share Netflix. This allows you to immediately continue watching the show on Netflix you were previously watching. Here’s how to use 3D Touch to continue watching Netflix.

With iOS 10, Apple Maps can work with third-party apps to do all kinds of things including call an Uber, look at restaurant reviews with Yelp, and make dinner reservations with OpenTable. More apps will have extensions for use in Apple Maps as developers catch up. But you can make a dinner reservation in Apple Maps now. Let’s dive in; here’s how to make dinner reservations in Apple Maps.