Apps

Airbnb App: Convenience, Savings & Comfort on Your Next Trip

By Leanne Hays

I'm on a summer road trip right now with my kids and sister; an adventure I've been planning for the last two months. My favorite booking tool for accommodations has been, by far, the Airbnb app. This free travel app has saved me not only money, but also loads of time and effort in researching and budgeting for our lodgings from Iowa to the East Coast and back again. Whether you're planning a business trip or a family vacation, going to somewhere rural or to a big city, there's an Airbnb room, apartment, or house just right for you. Let's go over what the Airbnb app is, how it works, and why you should try it out if you haven't already. 

How to Save & Share a Location from Apple Maps on Your iPhone & iPad

By Leanne Hays

We've probably all had the experience of finding a cool new restaurant or amazing bookstore, only to struggle to remember which block it was on when we try to go back. Apple Maps is a native iPhone and iPad app that can not only save a location but also share it! Now, when I find a place that I know friends and family will love, I can easily send its exact address directly from my Maps app, so they can find it too. Let's get started learning how to share addresses from Apple Maps on your iPhone and iPad. 

App Saturday: Quartz

By Conner Carey

News doesn’t have to be overwhelming. While it’s important to stay aware and up-to-date, there is a better way to get your daily news briefing: the Quartz app. Instead of showing you a flood of articles, Quartz is focused on a single screen that looks very similar to any messaging app, except these messages give you bite-sized nuggets of news. With the Quartz app, you can get an overview of the news and choose which subjects you want more details about. Learn more on what this app does and why we love it below.

Send Beautiful Online Invitations & e-Cards with Paperless Post

By Conner Carey

Whether they're for a summer dinner party with a group of friends or an extravagant wedding for 200 people, sending invitations and keeping track of who all is attending can be a lot of work. Particularly for weddings, acquiring or creating invitations is either lots of time or lots of money. But with the Paperless Post app, you can create invitations, ecards, and textable flyers to send to all of your guests. Learn more on what this app does and why we love it below.

The Must-Have iPad App for Artists, Designers & Creatives

By Conner Carey

For years I’ve heard about the app Procreate. But only recently was I able to download the app and try it with Apple Pencil on iPad for myself. I am certainly no visual artist, but I was immediately amazed by the capabilities and user-interface of Procreate. The app somehow manages to be both user-friendly and built for professionals. I expected a steep learning curve having used various other design software in the past. To my surprise, a couple YouTube videos and a few questions answered via Google were all I needed to feel like I had a grasp on how to use the app. Learn more on what it does and why we love it below.

How to Track Flights Using iPhone Search

By Leanne Hays

Airline travel can be so draining, especially when flights don't stay on schedule; one thing that can help is to have all the information you need to track a flight right on hand. It's possible to get information about a flight with JetBlue, Spirit Airlines, Frontier, or any other airline by turning to Google or using an airline's app or a flight tracker app. But there's an even faster way that doesn't require opening an app. iPhone users can track flights using Search on their devices. Let's get started learning how to track a flight right from our iPhones; all you'll need will be the airline and flight number. 

iPhone Photography Tips: How to Shoot an Overhead Picture

By Leanne Hays

Some of my favorite features of the iPhone are the Camera and the Photos app, though I haven't fully utilized all their features. I'd like to learn more photography tips so I can fully utilize my smartphone to take great pictures, or at least good ones! But how to take good pictures on my iPhone when I've never been much of a photographer? Luckily Apple shares lots of photography tips and tricks, and here's one I want to pass on to you; how to take an overhead shot on your iPhone. Let's get started! 

The Free App That Connects Blind & Low Vision People with Sighted Volunteers

By Conner Carey

For someone who is blind or has impaired vision, Be My Eyes is a resource that makes everyday tasks easier. Sighted people sign up to be volunteers; when a blind or visually impaired person asks for assistance, the app video calls one of over a million volunteers to help. When someone starts a call, the first available volunteer will connect with them. If you’re blind or visually impaired, you can contact volunteers as often as you want; there are plenty of people who have showed up to say, “I’m here; what can I do?” And you can connect with them in a matter of minutes. Learn more on what the app does and why we love it below.

Review: Solve Mysteries at Hogwarts in This Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Game

By Todd Bernhard

Like most people, I am a fan of the Harry Potter universe, including Fantastic Beasts. I've seen all of the movies and even saw the new play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, in London last month. But to review Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (free + in-app purchases) from Jam City, I had to turn the reigns over to my daughter, Ariel, who is a Harry Potter superfan. In fact, she just returned from a trip to Scotland, where she visited the places where J.K. Rowling wrote the books, including the cemetery where she got the names for a number of characters. My daughter is heading to college next year, so it was fun for her to receive a virtual acceptance letter from Hogwarts and get to "attend" classes at that school, answer trivia questions, and more! So, the review below is from her viewpoint: 

Express Your Selfie: Your Guide to Selfie Basics

By Tamlin Day

It might surprise you to learn that the selfie portrait has a history dating all the way back to 1839 when Robert Cornelius snapped a pic of himself in a full-length mirror. Fortunately, taking a selfie is much easier now than in the days of billows and silver nitrate. Your iPhone is the perfect tool for creating both fun and professional-looking self-portraits with minimal hassle. Read on to learn more about taking the perfect selfie with your iPhone.

Offline Games for iPhone: 5 Fun Games That Don't Need Wi-Fi

By Leanne Hays

It seems unfair that the times we're able to play games on our iPhones are the exact times that there's unreliable, unsecured, or no Wi-Fi connection at all. If you've been wishing for a few fun offline games for those long flights, waits at the DMV, or road trips to the back of beyond, I've collected a sampling of no Wi-Fi games just for you. Whether you enjoy offline racing games, strategy games, puzzle games, or even RPG games, there's something in this games without Wi-Fi roundup for everybody. Let me know which of these iPhone games is your go-to when there's no internet available, and if you have any to recommend that I've missed. Let's get started!

Best Wellness Apps: Recipes, Exercise, Yoga, Meditation, Brain Games & More

By Briana Dicks

Our iPhones help us to keep organized, on time, and more productive than ever before, but they can also help us be more physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy. There's an app out there for just about everything, and that includes meditation and mindfulness apps, anxiety relief, relaxation, and anti-anxiety apps, memory improvement and brain game apps, and of course, yoga, exercise, fitness, and healthy food and recipe apps. Here's our latest roundup of the best iPhone and iPad apps to help you be the most fit, relaxed, and calm that you can be. Some of these are free, some you'll need to pay for, but all of them are worth a try; enjoy!  

Keep Your Location & Browsing Private with TunnelBear VPN App

By Conner Carey

Establishing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is important for keeping your personal information safe, especially when on public Wi-Fi. We often think about using a VPN on our computers, but it's worth getting on for iPhone as well. With TunnelBear VPN on iPhone, you can browse the web securely at home and in public. Each month you can use 500 MB of data completely free, and TunnelBear offers affordable options thereafter. With super strong encryption and security that’s been verified by a third-party company, TunnelBear has positioned itself as a VPN to trust. Learn more on what TunnelBear does and why we love it below.

iPad Slow? Learn How to Speed Up Any iPad, Even Older Ones!

By Leanne Hays

If you have an older iPad, you may have noticed that it's not as fast as it used to be and asked yourself, "why is my iPad so slow?" There are lots of different reasons why your iPad may be running more slowly than it did when you first bought it, and luckily there are just as many ways to speed it back up again! Whether you have an original iPad, iPad 2, older iPad mini, or a more recent version of Apple's tablet, we'll go over all the possible reasons why your iPad is running slow and lagging, and explore some fixes for these problems. Some of the slow iPad solutions we'll cover include how to check Wi-Fi connection and internet speed, updating to the latest iOS version, how to reset your iPad, how to delete apps on iPad, how to clear the cache or cached data, and even what to do with an old iPad that just can't keep up with your needs any longer. For even more iPad tips and tricks, check out our comprehensive iPad multitasking guide! 

Improve Your Financial Well-Being with Clarity Money: Budget Planner App

By Conner Carey

Combine all the features of your favorite money apps into this one-stop shop for managing your finances. Not only does Clarity Money give you an overall picture of your spending habits, it offers suggestions, shows you monthly breakdowns of your spending habits, gives you the opportunity to cancel recurring charges, and even allows you to start saving from within the app. Whether you’re new to keeping a budget and nervous about where to start or you’ve tracked your expenses for years, Clarity Money makes it really easy to face the financial music. Learn more on what it does and why we love it below.

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