iPhone Life - Best Apps, Top Tips, Great Gear

Is the Apple Pencil Worth It?

By Elisabeth Garry

If you have an iPad that gets a lot of use, you may be wondering if it's worth it to invest in an Apple Pencil to go along with it. Maybe you're an artist wondering if the Apple Pencil can help you get into digital art on your iPad, or maybe you're more a note-taker who wants the freedom of longhand writing without having to lug around a bunch of notebooks. In this article, we'll go over who the Apple Pencil will be good for and who might want to take a pass.

Following the WWDC 2021 event, Apple's Beta software for iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, tvOS 15 and watchOS 8 are scheduled for a public beta release sometime in July. If you enjoy being an early adopter and testing the newest technology, you might be interested in enrolling in the Apple Beta software program and becoming a beta tester. Being a beta tester can be an exciting and rewarding experience, however, all bets are off when dealing with pre-released software. In the article below, we'll discuss the Apple Beta Software Program in further detail, and also cover the pros and cons of enrolling in the program. 

Is the #1 Best Selling Smart Scale Right for You?

(Sponsored Post) By Olena Kagui on Tue, 06/28/2022

Withings has created award-winning body-composition scales in the past, but Body+ is their most popular choice. In fact, it is the #1 best selling smart scale in the USA! This high precision smart scale doesn’t just focus on weight; it also offers measurements of your body fat, muscle mass, total body water, and bone density. With more metrics to track, making lifestyle changes and seeing results becomes so much easier. With Body+ you’ll know if your weight gain or loss is due to a change in fat, muscle, or intake of water, helping you stay motivated on days when a regular scale might discourage you.

UPDATE (07/07/2012): answering a question HERE, 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

Last week, as I was walking through my local Safeway, a louder-than-usual announcement came over the internal sound system, informing shoppers of the new Safeway app. I downloaded it immediately using the store’s WiFi, but didn’t know which e-mail address was tied to my phone number. So I had to wait until I got home to explore.

Sign-up for the service required the web (unless you are new to the Safeway rewards program, and then you can sign-up on the app). I linked a new e-mail address to my phone, registered on the web and started browsing.

Every once in a while I get a gadget I can't wait to tell everyone about. That's the case with the AOC 16" portable USB powered monitor. It's a road warrior's dream come true with its light weight and portability. It works with both PC and MAC.

Once you have installed the appropriate driver, you just plug the provided USB cable into a port on your laptop and the other end into the mini USB port in the monitor, and bazingo, you are in business. For low power laptops, the supplied cable has two USB plugs and you simply use both to get the required power level.

 

Juggernaut. The Revenge Of Sovering. 

Available for FREE in the App Store.

 

 

Juggernaut: The Revenge Of Sovering is the newest, noteworthy turn-based RPG to hit the App store. This game debuted last week to rave reviews and has become an instant hit, with it's stunning graphics, beautifully illustrated cut-scenes, and innovative twists on the turn-based gaming genre.

 

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.

You may already have used Cmd + S (Ctrl + S under Windows) to save the current page in your desktop browser. Well, you can do the same on your iDevice! In this article-tutorial, I show you how. (The current article is, basically, Part II of my previously-published article on Web content filtering on iDevices.)

First and foremost, there are two main usage cases, depending on whether you want to save an entire site or page structure (so that you can follow the article and other links on it when saved) or just the current one. Let's start with the former.

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...

 

Several MacRumors forum members (see for example THIS thread – BTW, my first post there also contains an 1:2.35 movie playback screenshot) have asked me for my opinion on the recently released , free(!) QQPlayerHD (iTunes link).


(main file list dialog; the screenshot also shows the one and only menu available in the app. Click the image for the original-sized one.)

iMore has posted a summary of an interview with Tony Fadell, who was involved in the design of the iPod and the iPhone, in which he says that an early prototype of the iPhone included a hardware keyboard. In fact, he favored this approach. But when Steve Jobs saw a prototype of scrolling on a multitouch screen, he knew that was the direction that Apple wanted to go in. And the rest is history. Interestingly, Fadell eventually joined Palm and realized his vision of a phone that combines touch and a hardware keyboard in the Palm Pre.

In the last few days, I've participated in several discussion threads in the Phone Cameras / Tablets & Apps forum of DPReview. (See for example THIS, THIS and THIS). In order not to have to repeat the same facts again and again in future discussions, I've decided to dedicate a complete article to the question of using the iPad as a photo frame.

In the MacRumors forums (thread HERE), an interesting discussion has emerged on the visible differences between the two most widely used consumer  high-resolution video formats, 720p (meaning 1280*780 pixels) and 1080p (1920*1080 pixels) are visible at all on the iPad 3's screen.

While, in the last week, several multimedia players have been updated (including my favourite, GoodPlayer, which, among other things, has clearly improved its DVD playback support in the current, 5.0 version), one of them I've already (quickly) reviewed (see THIS and also the comparison videos HERE), RushPlayer has received the most updates and new functionality. This is why I'm dedicating a separate (quick) article to it (but, currently, no other players).

(A quick note: I know I've published quite a lot of articles in the last 1-2 days – for example, some three yesterday. The sole reason for this is that I, at last, have had some free time – as opposed to the past two years, when I had very little time for writing – and could resume writing. Hope I'll be able as much as back in the good old days of Windows Mobile ;-) ).

In one of my yesterday's articles (see THIS), answering a request from a forum member, I've promised I'd write an application that shows a text editing field next to a video player (with a Pause / Start icon) so that you can easily write a transcription of a video.

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