Jim Karpen holds a Ph.D. in literature and writing, and has a love of gizmos. His doctoral dissertation focused on the revolutionary consequences of digital technologies and anticipated some of the developments taking place in the industry today. Jim has been writing about the Internet and technology since 1994 and has been using Apple's visionary products for decades.
By Jim Karpen
Apple knows you may have good reason not to want your iPhone or iPad to track what you're doing while browsing the web in Safari. For some time, iOS has had Private Browsing Mode, in which no record is kept of which websites you've visited, your search history, or your AutoFill information. Here's how to use Private Browsing in Safari on iPhone.
You can imagine the consternation felt by owners of a new $500 stainless steel Apple Watch when they notice scratches on the casing. According to a report on 9To5Mac, while it does indeed appear that this model is easily scratched, it can also be easily fixed. The article says that such scratching is actually common for stainless steel items and that the scratches can be removed via buffing. A video shows how it's done and gives a good before-and-after comparison of a scratched watch appearing like new again.
It took me over a year to get in the habit of using Siri, partly because she seemed so human-like. I was worried I'd say something dumb. One day I finally got it: there ain't no one listening. And ever since then I've used Siri with abandon. Lately I was surprised to discover that Siri offers a helpful guide to what you can say or ask.
On Thursday a new app from Microsoft that turns your iPhone into a versatile scanner launched in the App Store. Office Lens (free) lets you take a photo of a wide range of documents and convert them into to editable Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files.
In my reporting on iPhone and iPad news, I constantly rely on a range of Apple-related websites. But rather than having to visit each one individually, I gather all their news feeds into a single web page, using the personalization feature of My Yahoo. At a glance I can see all the latest Apple news. These news feeds from websites are called RSS feeds. ("RSS" stands for "rich site summary," though some people say it stands for "really simple syndication.") There are RSS apps you can download that let you gather these news feeds. But you can also subscribe to news feeds in Safari.
If you're thinking of getting an Apple Watch, you'll have lots of decisions to make regarding style and size. This is atypical of Apple, which has usually kept their product line tightly focused. So it will be interesting to see how it does with a device that's also a fashion accessory.
The Flyover feature of Apple's Maps, as you likely know, gives you a 3D view of a city. A list of these cities can be found on the website Flyover Cities. In iOS 8 Apple added a fun new feature called Flyover Tour that takes you on a 3D tour of the city's major landmarks. The Flyover Tour of New York City includes the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Central Park, and more. Only some of the Flyover cities have a Flyover Tour. They include New York City, San Francisco, London, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Sydney.
By Jim Karpen
Anytime you see a link in Safari or Mail, you can tap and hold it to reveal options beyond simply opening the new page. I constantly use this feature when I'm looking at the news in my personalized Yahoo page. If I see a news story I want to read, I tap and hold the link so that the page opens in a separate tab. That way I can quickly go back to the original Yahoo page without having to use the back arrow and waiting for the page to reload. The options in Safari also included adding the linked page to your Reading List. Tapping and holding a link in Mail also gives you the option of adding the page to your reading list as well as opening the page in Safari. Finally, the options include copying the link so you can paste it elsewhere.
If there was a single theme in today's Apple event, it was the company's extraordinary commitment to be constantly envisioning great products, and then continually refining them. No other company seems to have such a dedicated focus, nor the resources to bring it off.
By Jim Karpen
Here's how to optimize iPhone storage with iCloud. All your photos and videos can be stored in iCloud Photo Library rather than being tied to a particular device, making them available to you regardless of which device you're using and preventing their loss if something should happen to your iPhone. Any change you make to a photo or video on one device is carried over to the others. Let's get started learning how to access and back up photos to iCloud, and optimize photo storage on your iPhone.
