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It's no secret the iPhone has revolutionized the ways in which we take and share photographs. With the iPhone we all have the potential to take stunning, professional-caliber photos. Nonetheless, just because the potential is there, doesn't mean the potential is fulfilled. Practicing a lot helps, and the fact that we have our iPhones with us most of the time makes practicing easy. Another great way to get better at capturing images with your iPhone is to study the elements that make up a great photograph, and if you're lucky enough to have someone offering iPhoneography classes in your area that can also be a great way to do so.

The Apple Watch and the iPhone 6 with Touch ID combine to make Apple Pay a compelling method of payment, but how do you get those devices in the first place? BarclayCard thinks it has a better way to buy those devices. A special promotion lets you buy Apple gear with "deferred interest" and earn rewards in the process. The rewards are Apple Store gift cards based on how much you spend. You get 3 points for every dollar in Apple Store or iTunes purchases, 2 points for every dollar at restaurants, and 1 point for ever dollar spent on other purchases. 2,500 points earns a $25 Apple Store gift card. This is significant because Apple products rarely go on sale, especially at the Apple Store.

In an article published on PRWEb two music business "experts" claim that Apple Music is flawed, but the article is full of false and contradictory claims. SAE Institute's Dr. E. Michael Harrington blasts Apple Music as too late to the streaming party, while at the same time praising YouTube and Facebook for their yet-to-be-announced music streaming services. You can't have it both ways. Apple is too late, but those vendors will be timely? Apple observers know that Apple may not always be first to implement a particular technology or enter a specific market, such as wearables, but once it does, Apple is a force to be reckoned with. Music players, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches: all markets Apple entered "late" but dominated.

A new survey of nearly 1,000 people by Wristly found that 86 percent of the owners of an Apple Watch wear it all day, every day, and that another 12 percent wear it most of the time on most days. Only 1.3 percent reported going for several days without wearing their watch, and just three people (less than a third of a percent) said they'd stopped wearing it. In my mind, the fact that people are wearing it regularly suggests a high level of satisfaction. If people didn't find it useful, why would they wear it?

At CES, I saw a demo of an early model of the ZAGG Speaker Case which is currently 40 percent off at $59.99. The case is more of a bumper with a Bluetooth detachable speaker in back. Now I have one to actually test out. Zagg also sent over a Fantastic 4-themed iPhone 6 back cover, which marks ZAGG's partnership with 20th Century Fox to promote the latest Marvel Comics movie.

Apple is pretty secretive about sales figures, especially with a new category like the Apple Watch, but they are required, as a public company, to update analysts with regular financial calls. On July 21, Apple held a conference call to go over their third-quarter earnings. This was the first earnings report since the Apple Watch became widely available and Apple revealed some interesting news. CEO Tim Cook said "the feedback from Apple Watch customers is incredibly positive and we've been very happy with customer satisfaction and usage statistics." Apple cited the Wristly survey, which iPhone Life covered the other day (and, for full disclosure, which I participated in.) The survey showed 97 percent of Apple Watch owners are satisfied with their purchase. Those numbers are better than the satisfaction rates for the original iPhone or iPad!

It was probably a given, but the lower-end iPods are not able to take advantage of Apple Music's offline syncing capability. The iPod shuffle and iPod nano, even though they were just introduced yesterday, July 15th, well after the Apple Music launch, are still designed to play purchased music. If you thought an Apple Music subscription could cut down on your purchased music bill, and still allow you to workout to tunes on your smaller iPod, think again. You will need a more full-featured iPod touch or iPhone for that.

Apple may have revolutionized the world of apps, but Microsoft is the first to offer an App Store that consolidates desktop, tablet, and mobile apps in one place. It helps that Windows computers can use touchscreen apps, so it's possible and practical to write apps that work across the Microsoft product line. By comparison, Apple's desktops and laptops do not use touchscreens and there are no short term plans to do so. The result is that Apple has a split personality, with Mac OS apps and a Mac App Store separate from iOS apps and the iOS App Store.

Originally, beta versions of iOS and Mac OS were only available to developers. This gave developers early access to new features and allowed them to test existing apps for compatibility. As a developer, this was a great opportunity as many apps can break when a new version of iOS is released. Apple also gets expert feedback from developers and I've submitted formal bug reports to Apple when needed. Now, however, Apple is putting the beta version of iOS and Mac OS in the hands of the public and this is causing issues for some developers.

I am so tempted to put the iOS 9 beta on my iPad Air in order try out the new multitasking features. But they say you shouldn't put the beta on your primary device, and my iPad Air is my baby. So short of doing my own hands-on review, I'll share with you the hands-on posts I've been perusing in order to get a better idea of what these features will offer. Macworld has posted an excellent hands-on review with animated gifs that helps visualize Slide Over, Split View, and Picture in Picture. Note that Split View, in which you have two apps running side by side, is only available on the iPad Air 2. The other multitasking features are available on  iPad Air, iPad mini 2, and iPad mini 3. Older iPads, such as the original mini and the second- and third-generation iPads will run iOS 9, but aren't able to use the multitasking features.

A larger iPad, dubbed iPad Pro, has been rumored for years, as iPads take market share away from small laptops. More powerful apps have made it increasingly plausible to replace a laptop with an iPad and they are a lot easier to travel with. Apple has built hooks in to iOS to accommodate a variety of screen sizes and to allow for a multi-window environment, where two different apps could be on screen at the same time. The signs are right and the timing is right to see a new iPad Pro in the fall.

Spotify's paid subscription (without Taylor Swift) costs $9.99 per month. Unless you sign up through the Spotify app, in which case it is $12.99 per month. This is because Apple charges developers 30 percent of any in-app transactions. While Apple dropped this to 15 percent for Apple TV subscriptions like HBO NOW, service providers like Spotify are still paying the full percentage. The launch of Apple Music with Beats 1, at $9.99 doesn't help. Unlike Apple, Spotify offers a free ad-based tier, while Apple only offers a three-month free trial. But Apple has used its leverage, and pocketbook, to bring on Taylor Swift, who pulled her songs from Spotify, increasing the pressure on Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, and other streaming services.

The iPod hasn't been updated since 2013; and historically Apple has axed products that are past their prime, even if they're still making a profit. That was the Steve Jobs way. But now rumors are about that Apple may actually be updating the iPod line, but only with new colors. It appears that the form factor will remain the same. The evidence? According to Macrumors, iPod owners are finding that iTunes 12.2 has images of iPod models in a range of new colors.

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