By Sarah Kingsbury
Thanks to iOS 8, Apple lovers finally have access to widgets on their iPhones. But users will find some widgets more useful than others. Maximize their utility by deleting widgets you don't need to see in the Today view in Notifications and arranging the rest in the most convenient order.
By Sarah Kingsbury
If you want to quickly call, FaceTime, or text a contact, there's no need to open any of the related apps. Those who have iOS 8 on their iPhone can quickly access Favorite and Recent contacts via the App Switcher.
There are many new features available to you in iOS 8 in the Photos and Camera apps. When you're viewing an individual photo, one nice new feature is the ability to designate it as a favorite. Then those photos that you've identified as favorites are automatically collected into an album titled Favorites.
By Sarah Kingsbury
In iOS 8 you can now quickly access your contacts via the App Switcher by double clicking the Home Button. If you don't want to look at a list of your favorite and most recent contacts every time you use the App Switcher, or if you don't want anyone else to easily see who you call or text most often, you can disable the feature in settings.
By Sarah Kingsbury
In iOS 7, deleting individual emails from your inbox in the Mail app was a multi-step process. You had to swipe left on the email preview and then choose Delete from the options that appeared. It's much faster in iOS 8.
By Jim Karpen
One of the great features of recent versions of iOS is how deeply embedded sharing is. You can quickly share items such as photos and videos with friends, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Flickr, and more. In fact, you have so many options now that the screen that pops up when you tap the button for sharing can start to get cluttered. Fortunately, you can customize it.
By Jim Karpen
Time-lapse videos can be fun, whether of moving clouds, a sunset, a busy street corner, a tennis player — basically any situation where there's movement or change. Time-lapse videos simply take still photos at specific intervals, such that a slow-moving snail can appear to be speeding along. One of the neat features of iOS 8 is the new Time-lapse mode in the Camera app. As usual, Apple has made it simple.
By Kevin McNeish
By Sarah Kingsbury
If you've ever tapped on a link that unexpectedly took you to a sketchy website while using your iPhone or iPad, you'll be glad to know Safari makes it easy to check the URL of any link before you go there.
By Rheanne Taylor
I admit it. I use Instagram a lot. In fact, it’s probably the most-used app on my iPhone. That's why I'm always surprised when I discover there are things about it that I don't know yet.
By Paula Bostrom
Little ones love using iDevices with the games and the swiping and the buttons. However, the owners of those devices may not love it when their toddler starts accessing other apps, notes, or the actual phone. Luckily, there is a way to disable all apps but the one you want your toddler to play with.
By Sarah Kingsbury
If you constantly find yourself squinting at your iPhone screen and you're tired of always pinching and zooming in and out, you can try turning on your iPhone's Zoom setting for easy zooming.
By Sarah Kingsbury
A few weeks ago we published a tip explaining how to add an item to a specific list in Reminders using Siri. If you don't specify which list you want to add the reminder to, it will get added to your default Reminders List. But if you find yourself mostly adding items to a list that is not the default Reminders List, such as your Shopping List, why not make that your default list?
One of the nice features of the iPhone and iPad is the ability to see a photo of your contacts, such as when a call is coming in. You can manually add a photo to a contact by tapping Edit and then tapping Add Photo. Doing so lets you either select a photo you already have on your device or take a photo of the person on the spot. However, there's a much faster way. With just a couple taps you can add photos from all your Facebook friends to your contacts.
By Sarah Kingsbury
When you're in bed reading a really compelling book, you don't always want to stop just because it's late and your spouse wants to go to sleep. That's when you need the low-light Night theme in iBooks. It means you can finish the chapter without the glare of the screen hurting your eyes or disturbing your partner.
By Sarah Kingsbury
If you ask Siri to set a reminder for you, but forget to specify a Reminders list, it will end up on your default Reminders list. (Read this tip to find out how to set a Reminders list as your default list.) There's no need to recreate the reminder on a different list though; it's easy to move a reminder from one list to another.
By Rheanne Taylor
Sifting through hundreds of pictures when you’re looking for one in particular can be a nightmare. Though we still can’t tag our photos or add descriptions in the iOS Photos app, Apple has added a new feature that allows users to search their images by location, date, time, and even album name. This makes looking for images much easier, if you know when or where they were taken.
It’s easier than ever to stay on top of your appointments with the Calendar widget in Notification Center on iOS 8, but it’s even easier to be late if you don’t know when to leave for your next appointment. Fortunately, you can integrate travel time into your Calendar events in just a few short steps.
If you're wanting to get into the spirit of the holidays, you now have a wide selection of Christmas-themed music in iTunes Radio. Early this month Apple added a number of curated stations for a total of 10 options: The Sounds of Christmas, Holiday Hits, Latin Holiday, Children's Christmas, Rockin' Holiday, Country Holiday, Souful Holiday, Holiday Classics, Classical Holiday, and Swingin' Holiday. Only a couple of these appear in the Featured Stations listing, so you'll want to add them to your list of My Stations.
Keeping track of what you need to do can be difficult when your errands, or you, cross different time zones, but that can easily be managed right in the Calendar app.
