Kindle by Amazon may still hold the monopoly on e-books, but Apple is trying to catch up. The iBooks app has seen consistent improvements. One great advantage it has over Kindle is the ability to purchase a book within iBooks and immediately begin reading it. Another great feature is the ability to preview chapters from the Table of Contents with an iPhone that has 3D Touch. Here’s how to do it.
By Conner Carey
The Apple News app is a great place to follow your favorite magazines and websites, and the day's top stories. You can save articles to read offline, Like articles to see more of the same, Mute Channels you don’t want to hear from, and Share articles you want your friends to read as well. Regardless of what topics you’re interested in, there’s easily something for everyone here. Here’s how to share articles in News that you find and love.
By Conner Carey
If you have an Apple Watch paired with your iPhone, you’re familiar with Activity rings. On the Apple Watch, your activity is represented by three concentric circles that track how much of your daily goals you have met. There’s a red circle for your Move goal, a green one for Exercise, and a blue one for Stand. However, you can also view these Activity rings in graph form in the Health app and include it as a part of your health Dashboard. Here’s how to view your activity rings in your health app dashboard.
By Conner Carey
In the Apple News app, you have the option to save articles for reading offline. Perhaps you’re about to be in a zone without Wi-Fi and you want to have a list of reading during that period of time. Or maybe you’re at work when you discover an article and you want to save it for the commute home. Whichever the case, it’s an easy process to make sure your New Stories are saved and available offline.
One of the things that confused me on the Apple TV was when the music I was listening to kept playing even after I closed the app and began navigating to other apps. I would then navigate back to the Music app and stop it from playing. As you might expect, there is a simpler way to do this.
By Conner Carey
Who doesn’t struggle with eating healthy? Our lives are busy and we juggle a lot of responsibilities constantly. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to fall out of the habit of taking care of ourselves with fresh, whole foods. That’s why it can be extremely helpful to have a weekly plan for your meals that allows you to grocery shop on Sunday for everything you’ll need. And the easiest way to plan your meals, by far, is with an app. However, a lot of meal planning apps appear free but then require a premium membership. So here’s five of the best free apps for meal planning.
By Conner Carey
With 3D Touch, you can quickly preview information, web pages, access Quick Actions, and more functions for apps are being added all the time. One such function is the ability to get information about a location and select actions pertaining to the address in the Maps app. You can use 3D Touch when pressing a pin or an address in Maps and it’s a super convenient way to jump into getting directions. Here’s how to get information about a location by pressing a pin in Maps.
By Sarah Kingsbury
If you've ever searched your inbox for an email you're certain you did not delete, but couldn't see it on the list, consider your email-flagging habits. If you know you're going to want to return to an email later, you can make it easier to find when searching your inbox by flagging it. Here’s how to make emails easier to find again later.
By Krisoy Desouza
Every now and again you need a simple but challenging game to play while on your commute to work or if you're just having a relaxing Sunday. The Little Prince - Bubble Pop Journey (free) game for iOS is a puzzler that involves matching three bubbles of the same color to eliminate them. The app is based on the film, The Little Prince, which is an adaptation of the book by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. In the film the mother imposes strict rules on her daughter, so she can pass the entrance exam to get enroll in a prestigious school.
By Conner Carey
In the Calendar app, it’s helpful to have multiple calendars for different areas of life. You might have a personal reminders calendar, one for work, one for home, one for family, etc. Each calendar is also color coded to make telling them apart easier; you can also view individual calendars. What happens, though, when you accidentally place an event in the wrong calendar? Easy, simply follow these steps to move it to a different one.
By Conner Carey
How we journal and keep diaries has changed along with technology. I remember when voice-command password protected journals were all the rage, but as the Internet grew in scope, LiveJournal took over. Now, apps are the most convenient and often consistent way to keep a journal. It’s likely with you at all times since you have your phone, and most journal apps allows you to include pictures for further personalization. I looked through dozens of available journal apps; here’s my list of the four best apps for journaling.
By Conner Carey
The iPhone has a camera app for taking pictures, but the iPad also has a Photobooth app similar to the one most Apple computers have. Unlike the camera app on your phone, the Photobooth app has filters and effects to alter the image you’re capturing before you even take the picture. Personally, the Kaleidoscope effect is my favorite—everything looks cool. Here’s how to add and change effects in Photobooth on your iPad.
By Conner Carey
You can now set temporary Profile Pictures on Facebook to commemorate events or show support for causes. The Profile Photo expires after a set amount of time, automatically switching back to the original photo it replaced. This is an awesome way to promote a show you’re in, a holiday or event photo that’s fun, or to show support for a cause such as when Facebook allowed users to overlay the rainbow flag on their pictures. Here’s how to set a temporary Profile Picture on Facebook.
As we move further into the era of cord-cutting, with streaming replacing cable TV, some of the options can get a bit confusing. HBO, for example, offers both HBO Go and HBO Now. Showtime has both a Showtime app and a Showtime Anytime app. Amazon Prime is also a popular service for streaming movies and shows, and we'll look at that option as well. In general, these services are trying to make themselves available on as many devices as possible.
By Conner Carey
Social media and dating apps are a dime a dozen, yet the aspect of connection isn’t necessarily present. It’s all too easy to swipe no or scroll past without really engaging with another human being on the other end. We’ve seen apps come and go over the years that’ve tried to overcome this barrier but few have sustained long enough to gain serious momentum. Honesty and empathy are paramount to our well being, and these three apps manage to bring people together via their smartphones.
By Conner Carey
Awhile back, Facebook began rolling out the ability to upload a seven second video in place of your Facebook profile picture. The short video plays in place of the usual still photo and doesn’t include sound unless someone clicks on the video specifically. It’s yet another addition to the social network that allows you to customize your profile and generally have fun with it. Without further ado, here’s how to set a video as your Facebook profile pic.
By Conner Carey
Apple’s Health app is a great way to see your overall health, but long-term health is about daily habits. The Calendar view in the Health app allows you to see all the information your health app has gathered for any particular day. The more apps or devices you have synced with the Health app, the broader and more accurate the overall picture of your health the app can provide. Here’s how to view and utilize the Health App Calendar view.
By Conner Carey
Music Memos is one of the most recent Apple apps the company has introduced. You’re used to Voice Memos, but Music Memos is made specifically for iPhone music creation. What’s really cool about the app is the ability to add Bass and Drums to a recording instantly. You can even adjust the added instruments such as choosing a Modern Kit or Vintage Kit for Drums. It’s not always perfect but the technology is amazing. Here’s how to record a music memo.
By Conner Carey
3D Touch, introduced with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, is still a relatively new feature and as such, more Quick Actions and Peek & Pops are being added to third-party and Apple apps all the time. Every instance where I can use 3D Touch is a welcome shortcut, and previewing a city’s weather is one of those instances. You already know that you can have multiple cities listed in your Apple Weather app, but did you know you can use Peek & Pop to preview each one? Here’s how.
