How-To

When it comes to 3D Touch, it’s hard to know when you can and can't use it. Since it’s a fairly new feature on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, even Apple apps are still updating software to include options like Quick Actions or Peek & Pop. One such occasion when you might not realize you can use Peek & Pop for is when viewing your Bookmarks in Safari. This is a great way to see where your saved links lead and makes clearing old bookmarks much quicker.

Since getting the iPhone 6s, I’ve slowly but surely become accustomed to Peek & Popping various links in different apps. But the problem with 3D Touch being a relatively new feature is that you’re not always sure when you can and can't use it. Luckily, Apple and developers are consistently adding Quick Actions and Peek & Pop features to existing apps. One such app you can utilize the Peek function in is Music. Here’s how.

In photos, there are two different ways to share collections of images and videos. You can share moments, which are found under the Photos tab and usually encompass a day or location. Or, you can select individual images and videos to compile your own collection to share, which is what we'll cover in this tip. Perhaps you visited Costa Rica and want to share pictures of the beach, or a friend's baby is just learning to walk and she wants to send you videos. Regardless of the occasion, it’s fairly easy to share or copy multiple photos and videos. Here’s how to do it.

Last September, Apple released iOS 9 with a slew of upgrades to the software. From the long-awaited iPad multitasking capabilities to the smarter-than-ever Siri to a host of new and reimagined apps like iCloud Drive, News, Notes, and Maps, our iPhones and iPads saw some huge improvements. Yet all the changes, wonderful as they are, can be overwhelming to navigate. There are lots of new ways to utilize your iPhone, and we cover them all in our Ultimate Guide to iOS 9. Here's a sneak peak inside the guide, including an overview of everything it includes plus two full lessons covering iCloud Drive and Apple Pay. 

When you’re browsing the web on  your iPhone or iPad, it’s important to protect your information from malicious or fraudulent websites. The problem with this is you can’t always tell which websites are legitimate and which could cause your device trouble or steal your information. However, Safari has a built in function that will warn you with a Fraudulent Website Warning before you open a suspicious website. Here’s how to turn this on.

If you have an iPhone, you have the ability to send short video and audio messages right from a text message. This could be useful for sharing video or audio of where you are or what you’re doing with a friend without opening your camera or recording audio in the Voice Memos iOS app.

You can even set messages you send or receive to go away after two minutes (the default) or to stick around on your iPhone for a year. (Note that this will not determine how long the messages stay on a recipient's or other sender's phone.)

Instead of waiting by the phone for a call or text, what if you’re waiting for an important email? Sure, every few minutes you could unlock your phone, visit the mail app, open your Inbox, and see if it’s arrived. Or, you can ask Siri if you’ve received that email yet. Remember asking your parents from the back of the car, “Are we there yet?” Well, here’s how to ask Siri if that email is here yet.

Subscribing to a feed allows you to easily view and manage blogs, websites, or social media feeds from any Safari page. For example, if you discover a blog you really like, adding it to your subscriptions will allow you to quickly access and read any new posts. You’ll know which websites allow you to do this by whether or not the Add to Shared Links icon appears in your Share options. For websites that do allow it, here’s how to subscribe to a social media feed.

Many apps provide extra content or enhancements for a fee, but in-app purchases are a good way to accidentally rack up a high App Store bill. Those 99 cent extras add up quickly and before you know it, you (or your kids!) have gone way over your monthly phone bill budget. No worries though; there’s an easy way to prevent this in your Settings app. Here’s how to restrict in-app purchases.

How to Cancel Siri Commands

By Conner Carey

Apple’s AI, Siri, is constantly improving. You can use Siri to do more now than ever, including including playing albums, asking about sport scores, and turning on and off certain settings such as Low Power Mode or Bluetooth. However, sometimes you ask Siri to do something and change your mind or need to ask another question. For instance, if you ask Siri to set a reminder but realize you don’t need the reminder, it’s easy to cancel the command. Here’s how to cancel Siri commands.

There’s two ways to add events in mail to your calendar app. With iOS 9 or later, there’s a feature in Settings that allows for Events Found in Mail to automatically be added to your Calendar app. You can turn this feature on or off. If you’d prefer to turn it off, you can also add individual Mail events to your Calendar app manually. This tip will show you how to do both.

How to Sort Notifications

By Conner Carey

With iOS 9, you have the option to sort pull-down notifications. This allows you to group or ungroup apps and view notifications sorted manually or by most recent. When you group apps, they’re sorted into blocks under notifications with the most recent app appearing at the top. When apps are ungrouped, notifications will sort intermixed by most recent unless sorted manually.

In iOS 9, you can view specifics on which apps are using your iPhone’s battery. If you find your battery is draining quickly, viewing detailed battery info is a great way to figure out why. You can see which apps use chunks of your battery life, how long the app was active, and how long the app was running in the background. This is also a great way to see how much time you're spending on a particular app; in case you're still in denial about your Facebook habit.

How to Sketch in Notes

By Conner Carey


Notes receives my award for most improved app of the iOS 9 update. One of the big upgrades is the Sketch feature. Now, Notes combines text, sketch, picture, and sharing to give you many note-taking options. With three different "marker" tips, a ruler, eraser, and color easel, it's a pretty basic sketch application, but it's effective and easily combined with text or images. 

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