Apps

Many of us have had a conversation with a friend, only to be scrolling on our phones later and come across an ad for the very thing we thought we’d been discussing in private. My colleague, Erin MacPherson, told me this story: “My mom was talking to me about wanting a side-by-side double trash can for under her breakfast bar, and a few days later, I was seeing Amazon ads for exactly those. It was... freaky. Up until then, I had pretty much assumed that I’d forgotten about Googling something or looking it up on Amazon, but I was sure I hadn’t with that one.” Stories like this raise the question—is your iPhone spying on you?

Have you ever used Find on your computer to search for a word on a web page? It’s incredibly useful when looking for something specific among a lot of text. Wouldn't it be great to know how to search for a word on a web page on your phone too? While you can't do Command-F or Control-F on your iPhone, there is a way to search a webpage in Safari on the iPhone called Find on Page. You can use Find on Page to search a web page for the information you’re looking for. Here’s how to use Safari search on the iPhone.

Have you ever gone to use an app you haven’t touched in a long time, only to find that the app has disappeared? The good news is you’re not losing your mind: Apple occasionally offloads apps it doesn’t think you’re using anymore. The better news is that you haven’t lost any data stored in the app (you only need to reinstall to get it back), and the best news is that it's easy to prevent your iPhone from unloading unused apps in the future. Let’s go over how.

I have an Apple Watch, but there are times when I don't always wear it. That's why I was pleased to try the Activity Tracker app (free) from Bits&Coffee. Even as I type this, my Apple Watch battery has less than 10 percent left. This is why I can't always wear it, but I almost always have my iPhone with me. When combined with the Activity Tracker app, I can keep track of steps via the built-in pedometer independent of my Apple Watch.

While family sharing can be a useful way to consolidate your family's tech, there can be many reasons why you might want to hide app or e-book purchases. Some apps have credit card information you might not want to give your kids access to, and other apps may have content suitable for some family members but not others. Whatever your reason is for wishing to hide certain app or book purchases from Family Sharing, it is possible to do. First, here's how to hide app purchases, followed by how to hide book purchases.

When you purchase a new Kindle book, it’s automatically delivered to your default device. You can send e-books you’ve purchased to any or all of your devices, but only your default device will receive it automatically. While you may simply be able to view your Kindle Cloud on your device and download the book for reading there, you may not want to go through that process each time you get a new book if you know for certain where you’re going to end up reading it. For some, books get read on iPhone or iPad, since it’s a device that’s often or always with you. Regardless of whether you want your iPhone, iPad, or Kindle device to be your default, here’s how to change where new Kindle books are sent.

Safari extensions can boost your browsing in many ways, from blocking adds, to finding deals, and even to doing good things for the environment. Now that Safari extensions are available on your iPhone and iPad in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, you may be wondering what's the best way to use them on your device, and which extensions are reliable and worthwhile. Here are the best iOS Safari extensions and what each one can do for you.

The Notes app is great for jotting done ingredients or creating a to-do list, but did you know that you can create and add recordings to a note using the Voice Memos app? That's just one of the many things you can do with the Voice Memos app. In this article, we'll cover how to create, edit, share, and save recordings made using the iOS Voice Memos app. Whether you're brainstorming an idea, recording a lengthy lecture, or sharing ideas with a friend, we'll teach you how to conquer every aspect of the Voice Memos app. Read on to learn all about how to record your thoughts using Apple's Voice Memos app.

I take a screenshot on my iPhone several times a day, so I'm happy that Apple has introduced a new way to take a screenshot. One of the new iOS 14 features Apple has rolled out is Back Tap, a set of shortcuts that allow iPhone users to double or triple tap the back of their phones to perform various tasks. Back Tap is a great iPhone accessibility feature for people with reduced dexterity or limited vision, but being able to take a screenshot with a few taps on the back of our iPhones is convenient for everyone. Let's learn how to take a screenshot on your iPhone using Back Tap. Back Tap works with the iPhone 8 and later, including the iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and the new iPhone 12 line.

Did you know that the Measure app (which acts as a digital tape measure and level) on your iPad Pro and iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max can automatically take a height measurement when it detects a person in the viewfinder? Let's go over how to measure someone's height with the iPhone and iPad Measure app, then take and save a photo with their height measurement. 

You probably already know that you can control your iPhone’s music from the Apple Watch. And if you have the Apple Watch Series 3 with Cellular, you know you can stream music directly on your watch without your iPhone. But if you have an Apple Watch without cellular data and want to leave your phone at home, how will you listen to music without your iPhone? And if you have the Apple Watch Series 3 with Cellular, how can you listen to music without data or Wi-Fi? The best way to listen to music while running or doing another iPhone-free activity is to put it on your Apple Watch, of course. We’ll go over how to make a playlist on your iPhone, how to sync music to your Apple Watch, and how to pair Bluetooth headphones with your Apple Watch so you can listen without data.  Here’s everything you need to know about how to add music to your Apple Watch.

Text message conversations may contain evidence of important memories, and if you’re like me, you probably want to download your iMessages, save your messages, print your messages, or do something, anything, to make those exchanges more secure and accessible. One useful trick to save those interactions is to use the Messages Mac application to download your message history as a PDF file. This will let you keep that conversation on your computer and share it as you like, whether it was a conversation with a friend who isn't around anymore, or with a landlord and you need a record. Read on to find out how to turn an Messages conversation into a document you can save on your computer, or print later.

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