How-To

There’s a great feature in iBooks that allows you to tap a button and skip fifteen seconds ahead or backward when you’re listening to an audiobook. This is helpful if you didn’t hear what the reader said, if you’ve already heard this portion of the book, or if you really enjoyed a point and want to hear it again. However, you can alter how far you skip back and forward when listening to an audio book in iBooks. Here’s how to change the length of time audiobook tracks skip in iBooks.

Who doesn’t love free apps? Luckily, there are a lot free apps in the App Store. But it’s not always easy to tell the awesome free apps from the apps you’ll open once and never again. Luckily there are lots of categories in the App Store that help you search for the specific kind of apps you’re looking for, and there’s also a Free tab so you can sort through only the apps that won’t cost any money to download. Here’s how to find the top free apps in the app store on iPhone.

Once you get over the fact that Apple's earbuds are called EarPods™ you can start to appreciate all the cool things you can do with them. You can answer and decline calls, fast-forward and rewind songs, take pictures, and more with your Apple earphones. Oh yeah, and you can also adjust the volume up and down.

The reminders app is my favorite way to easily remember events coming up. Often, I’ll ask Siri to set a reminder for me. When you add a time or location to your reminder, you’ll get a notification at the perfect moment. Usually to edit this information in the Reminders app, you need to tap the blue “i” next to the reminder. But with 3D Touch (only on iPhone 6s and later), you can skip all that and quickly jump into editing. Here’s how to edit reminders with 3D Touch.

The iPhone has a primary language that is found across and throughout the device. But you can choose to change which language your dates, times, and numbers are shown in while keeping your primary language the same. Someone who is bilingual or learning a new language may find this setting useful. Here’s how to make the language for dates, times, and numbers different than the primary language on iPhone.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who love logging on to Facebook and seeing the latest sports scores. I only tend to see these while a game is currently underway, but Facebook is the only way I know a game is being played because I don’t care for watching sports. So if you’re like me and you’d rather not see those sport scores at the top of your Facebook feed, there is a way to turn it off. Here’s how to get Facebook to stop showing you sports scores.

I use Reminders to remember everything from drinks with coworkers to my friend’s wedding day, which means it’s important I can find that reminder regardless of what device I’m on. Luckily it’s easy to choose whether I want to sync all reminders or just reminders from the last two weeks. Depending on how you use reminders a short period of sync time might work for you; either way, here’s how to designate which reminders to sync.

You can organize your apps on an iPhone, an iPad, and even an Apple Watch. It only makes sense that you’d be able to do so on the Apple TV too. This is specific to the 4th-generation Apple TV or later. All you need is your trackpad remote and a couple of minutes to organize the apps on your Apple TV however you’d like. Here’s how to move and organize your apps on the Apple TV.

In situations when even Night Shift mode is too bright, you can easily invert colors on the iPhone. I was on a late night stroll with my dog when I received a text from my daughter that needed a reply. During the exchange that followed, I dictated my texts instead of attempting to type out a reply while walking and holding an energetic puppy still; but even so, I had to take a moment after sending each message to stop and let my eyes readjust to the darkness. Next time, I’ll use this tip before leaving the house. Here’s how to quickly invert colors on iPhone.

Hopefully you will never need this tip. But there may come a day when you need to either bring in or send in your Apple device to get fixed for one reason or another. But while your device is in someone else’s hands, you’re going to want to protect your information by getting it ready to be serviced beforehand. You also need to get your iPhone ready for service so that the technician can access what they need to in order to fix it. Here’s how to get your iPhone ready for service.

If you need to express money in dollars on the iPhone, it’s easy to find. You simply tap the 123 button on the keyboard and there it is. But what if you need to express how many pounds or even how many cents something cost? You can easily find alternate currency symbols on iPhone the same way you find all the other hidden characters of the keyboard. Here’s how to type currency symbols on your iPhone.

If you’re listening to an audio book or podcast while getting directions to a location from Apple Maps, you probably want the audio to pause so that you can clearly hear the next turn you need to make or exit you need to take without missing anything important in the book or podcast. If your Maps’ voice volume is Normal or Loud, you can turn on Pause Spoken Audio so your navigation prompts are heard and you don’t miss any part of your podcast. Here’s how to pause spoken audio during navigation prompts.

Handoff can help you be more productive by making it easy to switch between iPhones, iPads, and Macs. This is especially true when you need to transfer an unfinished email to your Mac because it's getting too long to type on your iPhone, or when you have to leave your computer and need to finish your email on an iPhone or iPad. Here’s how to start an email on your iPhone and finish it on your Mac or iPad.

When you have an iPad, knowing a few keyboard shortcuts for your external keyboard is essential. Unless you enjoy touching the screen every two seconds, keyboard shortcuts are great for completing common tasks in a second. This tip will focus on two. Once you’ve used them a few times, they’ll become habit. Here’s how to Spotlight search and return to Home screen with keyboard shortcuts on iPad.

A little known trick of the Apple Watch is that you can use it as your shutter remote for taking pictures with your iPhone. When you open the Camera app on your Apple Watch, you’ll see whatever the iPhone’s camera can see. This is perfect for taking family photos since you can station the iPhone on a tripod, join the group, and tap the button or activate the three-second timer right from your Apple Watch. Here’s how to take iPhone photos using your Apple Watch.

There are plenty of keys and character variations that the small keyboard of the iPhone simply can’t fit on the screen. However, accented characters and other extra options are available—they’re merely hidden so as to take up little space. You can use this tip anytime you’re using the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard to see more options. Here’s how to view alternate characters on the keyboard.

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