How-To

Do you have questions about how to find, download, open, close, organize, delete, and otherwise manage iOS apps on your Apple device? Here's your roadmap to the App Store, and how to navigate all the applications you discover there. Whether you're wondering how to find a specific type of app, how to delete apps you no longer need, how to organize your Home screen so you can easily find the apps you're looking for, or even how to fix an app that's frozen or crashing, we have you covered. Dive in to our apps guide and find the information you need to get the most out of your apps.  

The Apple Pencil is seen by many iPad users as a stylus (much to Jony Ive's annoyance), but its main use is as a tool for markups and creative projects in apps like Procreate or something more simple like Notes. Here are some quick tips for drawing with the Apple Pencil including adjusting opacity and line thickness, shading with the side of the Pencil's nib, erasing, and using the Apple Pencil 2's double tap feature to switch between tools. While there is some overlap with the basics functions of both a regular pencil and an Apple Pencil, you'll find the Apple Pencil has potential to unlock a digital flood of creative possibilties and may help with an artist block or two.

As you use your iPhone, you'll notice status icons are shown to signal certain functions. Here's a quick overview of some of the most common status icons you'll see on your iPhone's Home screen. For iPhones 8 and earlier, I show the screen of an iPhone 7. For iPhones X and later, I use the screen of an iPhone XR. Across devices, the status icons have the same meaning. The display of status icons are arranged differently between iPhone 8 and earlier, and iPhone X and later. But if you know which status icons you're looking for and what they mean, you won't have a problem finding them.

Want to know more about why your iPhone looks the way it does? If you have an iPhone 8 Plus or earlier, here's a general overview of what the external ports and buttons are for. Knowing which functions the buttons perform and what the ports are for can help you navigate and use your device to its full capability. Below I show example of iPhones from Apple's support page to better explain your device.

If you want to quickly revisit pages in Safari, you can save them as bookmarks. But did you know you can save Safari bookmarks in bookmark folders? Instead of scrolling through all the bookmarks you've saved, you can categorize them into folders, making your bookmarks organized and easy to browse. Below, I'll show you how to create Safari bookmark folders.

The Photos app stores all the photos you take with your device, and if you're like me, you have hundreds of photos to scroll through to find the ones you want to share. Here's a general guide to navigating the Photos app, so you'll be able to find, organize, and share your photos with ease. In this article, I'll simply show you the different tabs and their uses in the Photos app. If you have location services enabled on your iPhone, your photos will have a location tag. This will help identify photos you took on vacation, for example, and can also help you find certain photos as you'll be able to search by location in the Photos app. 

If you're learning how to use your iPhone X, XS, XS Max, XR, here's an overview of the different buttons and ports you'll see on your device. So if you've been wanting to know just what is this button on your iPhone is called, or what the holes on your iPhone are for, here is a general explanation. For anyone using an iPhone X or later, here's an introduction on how, and a little bit why, your iPhone looks the way it does.