iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear
Four new computers have joined the Mac lineup, Apple announced in its first release of 2023 on January 17. The new computers feature M2 chips, the second generation of Apple’s own silicon processors, previously available only in the MacBook Air and entry-level MacBook Pro. Here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s latest Mac computers.
The Best Siri HomePod Commands for Every Occasion
By Amy Spitzfaden Both
My first week of owning a HomePod, I was scrambling around, as the only HomePod commands I knew were by touch or through my iPhone, and neither one of those worked seamlessly. Quickly, though, I discovered HomePod Siri commands, which not only made my music listening smoother and more enjoyable, but also helped me do entirely new things with my little smart speaker. Here are the best Siri HomePod commands to get the most out of your HomePod and make your home situation a little more fun.
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AnyTune Pro HQ Review
By Mike Riley
TinyLightbulbs.com is a ingenious young company that specializes in bringing independently funded and crowd funded projects to greater public awareness. Recently they turned me on to a product called The Flex Kit. Here is a case solution that stands out from a very crowded field of iPad cases. Uzibull has created a versatile and unique product, a protective and functional line of accessories for the iPad that is The Flex Kit.
MoPix Video Service Transforms Independent Films into Apps
By Daniel Rasmus
The world of film has become increasingly democratized with the advent of the Internet. People can create films and distribute them with ease. Unfortunately, posting a video to YouTube may generate hits, but it doesn’t necessarily generate bank deposits.
Another video player, 1080 Player, released: full pre-playback MKV remuxing!
By Werner Ruotsalainen
(Please read THIS for more info on MKV's and why they're preferable to any other format when you, say, rip your own DVD or Blue Ray discs to be played back on your iPad / iPhone. The last article on other hardware playback-capable AppStore players is HERE, with further links to other, previous reviews.)
iPhone, meet the CellHelmet case. You break your iPhone, they replace your iPhone. Guaranteed!
By Dig Om
It's no secret, there are a plethora of cases out there that offer extreme protection for your iPhone. Some are definitely designed better than others, and some are bulky, and others less so. In fact, many cases offer protection from water, dust, shock, vibration and impact, but only one company offers the assurance that if your iPhone breaks while it's in their case, they will replace your device.
The Problem with the Scientific American Newsstand Policy
By Daniel Rasmus
No one pays full price for trade publication subscriptions anymore. And if they do, they haven't shopped around. Most of my magazine subscriptions are now on the iPad. When publishers create an iPad app, they proudly announced it and tell current subscribers how to access the bits.
Why Rush Limbaugh loves Apple
By Jim Karpen
The irony. When Rush Limbaugh and co tried to get Apple to advertise on his popular radio talk show, Apple wouldn't even talk to him. Limbaugh acknowledges that, politically, Apple doesn't have anything in common with him. And he acknowledges that Apple's technology is highly restrictive. But despite all that, he loves Apple products. And on his show yesterday he talked at length why he loves Apple products in response to a caller's questions, making assertions such as: "It's just the stuff works.
Great video player AVPlayerHD receives hardware MKV / AVI video playback support!
By Werner Ruotsalainen
UPDATE (08/08/2012): the just-released version (1.51) of AVPlayerHD no longer defaults to the hardware playback of MKV files, as is also mentioned in the update notes:
(click the image for a full-sized one! BTW, as you can see, a lot of other players have also received some serious updates in the last 2-3 days. So did the Photon Flash browser, which I'll also dedicate a separate article in the near future. PlayerXtreme, half-visible at the top of the screen, has only received some bugfixes.)
Fast-forward ad-skipping: the best video players
By Werner Ruotsalainen
If you use your iDevice for watching videos using the built-in, stock Videos app, you may have noticed that the only way of fast forwarding or rewinding is the positioning slider at the top. You “grab” the slider with a finger and drag it to the left/right to rewind / fast forward, respectively.
Additionally, you can also drag your finger downwards to make the slider dragging speed slower. It won't help much when you run or do some other exercise and, in order to keep your pulse high, wouldn't want to stop it.
Using Skype with a Bluetooth headset and via AirPlay (with Audacity tips and tricks)
By Werner Ruotsalainen
While in the gym, I tend to make / receive a lot of Skype calls to my wife or relatives. As I exclusively use stereo (A2DP) Bluetooth headphones in the gym to give me absolute, cable-less iPad 3-video-watching freedom while exercising, I've also run into problems related to the Bluetooth bugs of Skype: most of the time, I couldn't just use the headphones I already worn to conduct the call. Instead, I needed to use the speaker / microphone on the iPad itself, making my environment hear what both I and the other party say. Therefore, I decided to investigate the problem and come up with solutions to it.
When the good folks at iGearUnlimited contacted me asking if I’d be interested in reviewing their customized cases I first checked out their website and saw what seemed to be a quality product. Then I watched their promotional video (see below), and was even more impressed. And then I went ahead and ordered a folio style case, and not only continued to be impressed, but now I feel like I can now unreservedly recommend their products to all of our readers here at iPhone Life.
First of all, how great it is to be able to get a quality case for an iPad with an image of your choosing decorating it! The iPad is already so personal to so many of us; it’s a great plus to be able to customize its protection as much as we can customize its innards.
Selecting the best DVD player app & an It's Playing bugfix
By Werner Ruotsalainen
UPDATE (08/09/2012): in the comments section below, I elaborated on deinterlacing. Note that I'll devote a complete article / tutorial to these subjects (using X.264 / HandBrake / Episode to deinterlace etc.) some time. Before that, it's mostly HandBrake's (default) decombing that will be your best friend.
UPDATE (08/04/2012): THIS thread has a lot of discussion of the subject. Remember to prefer my statements to ones that state the opposite! (The thread is full of factual errors.)
Original article:
Combined article update: iOS 5.1.1 iPad 3/2 Cydia compatibility list
By Werner Ruotsalainen
UPDATE (07/07/2012): I've run some VERY serious CPU usage tests (see THIS for the methology; I used "top" on my iPad 3) and found out the following:
The InfiniDock and Springtomize 2 combo (can be used together to give the highest configurability; see below for related remarks) does not add any CPU usage when
- the device shows SpringBoard
- 10 icons are put in the dock, even with card roll and scrolling (via InfiniDock) enabled
- the maximum number of icons are displayed in each row
Playing Back WMV Videos – the Complete(!) Roundup
By Werner Ruotsalainen
UPDATE (02/21/2013): I've re-tested the current versions of XBMC and compared it to the current AVPlayer(HD) versions on both the iPad 3, 4 and the iPhone 5. AVPlayer and AVPlayerHD have proved out to be considerably better, which means XBMC is still not recommended for WMV playback.
Of XBMC, I've tested the following versions:
- official 12 Eden (currently available from their official repo as the default version)
- the iPad Retina-friendly version (more info)
- the latest (21/Feb) nightly build (13 alpha)
More info & discussion HERE.
5 Of The Top, Rugged iPhone Cases In Review: Welcome to a review of heavy-duty cases by someone who really puts his iPhone's case through some vigorous testing! My iPhone accompanies me on many an outdoor adventure, and like me, has had its fair share of spills and thrills. So I have a good idea of what makes a "good rugged case", a good rugged case.
Review: Multimedia Player PlayerXtreme
By Werner Ruotsalainen
UPDATE (24/05/2012): the new (2.3) version has just been approved by Apple. It has, among other things, improved UPnP support:
In my tests, directory listing indeed worked with Majestic. However, streaming didn't (all I saw was a black screen) and downloading have turned out to be VERY slow - more than an order of magnitude(!!!) slower than with GoodPlayer, under exactly the same circumstances. That is, UPnP-wise, this app still has a lot to be improved...