iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

While there's been a lot of buzz about the new iOS 16 Lock Screen features, you may have noticed Apple added a new search bar to the iPhone's Home Screen as well. While this feature definitely makes it easier for folks who aren't familiar with pulling down on the center of the Home Screen to open Search, it also hides the Home Screen dots that allow you to quickly swipe through all your pages of apps. But if you want to get the old iPhone Home Screen layout back, we'll show you how to remove the Home Screen search button in Settings. 

How to Control Your Apple Watch with Your iPhone

Sometimes, the Apple Watch screen is just too small. And while most of us wouldn't want a bigger watch on our wrists to fix that problem, it might be nice to be able to more easily maneuver the screen from time to time. That's why I'm loving the Apple Watch Mirroring feature on iPhone. It allows you to navigate your Apple Watch from your iPhone, making certain hard-to-read-menu items and hard-to-press buttons a lot easier to access. 

Protect your iPad for years to come!

(Sponsored Post) By Austin Durr on Mon, 12/04/2023

Zugu iPad cases are considered the very best in their class for good reason. But even the most careful iPad owners will notice dust and dirt accumulating during regular use. Zugu's specially formulated wipes and soft microfiber cloth will keep your iPad feeling and looking sparkly clean. Learn more about Zugu's specially formulated wipes and how you can protect your iPad for years to come!

As you wander around Macworld, you see many variations on a theme.  Vendor after vendor with iPhone caes in every configuration possible were there. You saw several vendors selling the new gloves that work on the iPhone or iPod touch screen at several booths.  App vendors were everywhere. But I came upon one booth that was selling some new and innovative items which made them stand out from the rest. The company was XSKN.

 A company called WildCharge are releasing the first wireless charging system for both the iPhone and iPod touch. The system consists of a special charging skin for the iPhone / iPod touch that you place on a charging pad without the need for cables or fuss. The skin for the iPod touch is available today. However, the iPhone charging skin will not be available until early July.

 

Here is a what WildCharge has to say:

 

How are you guys loving your new iPads?

Right?

The improvements are just incredible. I’ve been cradling mine in my arms like a proud papa since the day I picked it up, and I’m pretty stoked to use it to help me with my travel plans this summer. I found some really cool iPad apps over at Market Watch, and I picked out a few of my favorites to test out for you guys.

Let me continue (previous article HERE) with the systematic test of the Nokia PureView 808, Nokia's new cameraphone flagship model, which, based on my tests and measurements so far, will be even bigger a hit than the Nokia N95 was back in the day. (Just to remember: back in its day, the N95 had by far the best camera among all mobile phones.)

In this current installment, I try to provide you with answers to

- the high ISO behaviour in both full-resolution and binned mode
- whether the downsampling helps at keeping absolute resolution high; that is, is the (binned) image quality, detail-wise, comparable to those of the Foveon sensors

Let's continue my MWC report series (previous (first) part HERE) with the stuff that makes a camera & smartphone freak like me salivate: some serious (and I do mean serious!) camera tests. Note that, as there were no really-really groundbreaking iOS announcements at MWC (as opposed to the announcements and new models of almost all other major manufacturers), I'll only cover iOS later. My exclusive stuff, measurements and new tablets, smartphones  first, even if they aren't made by Apple.

I've just returned to my hotel room from the first day of MWC so that I can get ready for the MobileFocus event in the evening. I couldn't wait with sharing my experiences with you on the spot. Having little free time, however, let's start with the most two important pieces of news: the Nokia PureView 808 (a phone with a freaking good camera) and the Samsung Note 10.1 (a really decent tablet). I had some quality hands-on time with both models. Let's start with the former.

Nokia PureView 808

If you are a Tumblr fan, and looking for an app that makes it easy to follow your favorite photo blogs (or find new ones), TumbleOn might be just what you have been looking for. In similar fashion to reader apps like Pulse, TumblOn leverages the smooth side-scrolling features of the iPad touch screen to make it easy to browse your favorite feeds. The app also provides handy quick-pick services that help you drill down on the best blog content, and even reblog it on your own tumblelog site.

(Note: in the meantime, the app received full iPad / iOS 5 support - see the latest update!) If you've been reading my articles since the Windows Mobile days, you may remember my thorough elaboration of the then-current file transfer methods over Bluetooth. (See e.g.

Wen you first see their product, you will think they made a typo with their company name and instead of Octa, they should be called Orca. But it's no mistake.  Octa's TabletTail is a vacuum-based suction mount that sticks to your flat backed tablet, ideally an iPad 2, and can give it a tail. The tail makes it easy to both grip the tablet and can be used as a stand to prop the device up.

Not everyone wants to keep their iPad or similar tablet in a case. The iPad 2 is wonderfully thin and to put it in a case is almost sacrilegious. Apple's Smart Cover is a nice enhancement but it doesn't always help you keep a good grip on the iPad. In fact, some users have found out the hard way that the iPad 2 can fall to the ground if you grab it by the Smart Cover!

It's nice to see an app by fellow blogger Todd Bernhard, president of No Tie software, win an award at CES. Getting recognition was AutoVerbal Pro Talking Soundboard, a $9.99 app that allows people to communicate who are unable to speak due to conditions such as stroke, surgery, cerebral palsy, and autism. The app has hundreds of photo buttons representing common words or phrases. Users can also program a variety of buttons to speak custom messages. In addition, users can type anything and it will be spoken using text-to-speech.

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