Want to know how to start a Siri FaceTime call? It’s no secret that you can use Siri to do things like control your music or launch apps. And most people are familiar with using Siri to make a voice call, but you can also use Siri to make a FaceTime call. My mom is a huge fan of this as she continues to learn the best ways to use her iPhone; using Siri to FaceTime me is her personal favorite how-to. Here’s how to use Siri to make FaceTime calls.
By Conner Carey
Once we’re done with schooling, it’s all too easy to let learning fall by the wayside. But in any field, writing, reading, and speaking skills can help you stand out from the crowd. Most brain game apps focus on games that have no real-world application, but Elevate (free) takes a different approach. The free version of the app offers three types of daily games: Brevity, Processing, and Memory. Listening and Math are included in premium content. If you want to expand your vocabulary, improve how many words you can read per minute, and keep your memory sharp, give this learning game a try. Here’s more on what Elevate does and why we love it.
By Conner Carey
Did you know you can zoom in and out using just your thumb in the Apple Maps app? Before iOS 11 you needed two fingers, which meant you generally also needed two hands—one to hold the phone and another to zoom. But now using Apple Maps is easier than ever before on your iPhone; you can hold your phone in one hand and use just one finger or your thumb to zoom in and out of maps in the Maps app. Here’s how.
By Conner Carey
A somewhat hidden feature, did you know you can take pictures of a FaceTime call, including Live Photos? You can turn on a setting that allows you to take Live Photos while you’re on a FaceTime call in the Settings app. Just like with other Live Photos, this means you’ll have a still image of your FaceTime screen that, when activated, comes to life for a few seconds. You can also turn the Live Photo into a still image. Here’s how to turn on FaceTime photos and how to take a pic on FaceTime.
By Conner Carey
The Notes app is your handy iPad and iPhone notepad and sketchpad. If you're looking for a drawing app for the iPad, look no further than the built in Notes. You can simply draw right on the note as though it were the paper. Here’s how to add inline drawings to Notes on iPhone.
By Conner Carey
If you've been wondering, "how do I scan a QR code on my iPhone?", you're in luck. Before iOS 11, you needed a third-party app to be able to scan QR codes on an iPhone or iPad. Now, you can use the stock Camera app on your phone or tablet to scan QR codes, and it’s pretty easy to do. We will show you how to use the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad for scanning QR codes.
By Conner Carey
We've already gone over how to take and share a screenshot on an iPhone. With iOS 12 or later, the screenshot appears in the lower-left corner of the screen for a few seconds. If you want to use Apple's Markup feature on the screenshot, you can tap on the fleeting image to instantly make your changes, adding text, drawings, and more. If you accidentally took the screenshot, you can also immediately delete the image by tapping on it. We'll cover how to mark up screenshots with iOS 13 on your iPhone below.
By Conner Carey
An iPhone Live Photo captures 1.5 seconds before and after a shot is taken, making it easy to accidentally catch the blur from lowering your phone, or worse, something you don’t want anyone to see. The solution is simple, as you can just trim out unwanted frames. Here’s how to edit Live Photos on your iPhone.
By Conner Carey
You’ve probably received thousands of pop-ups asking you to rate and review an app during your time with your iPhone and iPad, but how often have you actually rated and reviewed them? Pop-ups of any kind are super annoying, and if I really love (or strongly dislike) an app, I go out of my way to rate and review it. But the overwhelming majority of these requests are denied before my brain even acknowledges what the pop-up asked me to do. Luckily, with iOS 11 and later on iPhone, you can turn off in-app requests to rate and review apps fairly easily. Here’s how.
By Conner Carey
Do you like to multitask and find yourself trying to text with one hand? Or are the newer iPhone models just too big for you to use one-handed? Well, the one-handed keyboard on iPhone has come in handy (pun intended) more than once after learning this tip. This one is super quick to access and makes quickly typing out a message that much more convenient when you only have one hand at the ready.
Now that we've all got our hands on the iOS 12 update, it's worth a reminder to check a few settings. One of the biggest changes with iOS 11 was the new driving Do Not Disturb for iPhone feature. If you haven't used this driving mode for your iPhone yet, it's a safety feature that's well worth your time to set up. I’ll show you how to turn on Do Not Disturb While Driving, how to turn off Do Not Disturb While Driving, and I’ll also cover the Do Not Disturb While Driving text message auto-reply on the iPhone!
By Conner Carey
The Emergency SOS feature lets you call for help in many different ways, including discreetly by holding down a button, via satellite, and even automatically if a car crash or fall is detected. After an Emergency SOS call ends, your iPhone will automatically send a message with your location to your Emergency contact(s). Add an extra layer of security to your life by adding your iPhone emergency contact.
By Conner Carey
WatchOS 4 for Apple Watch added a lot of quality features to the smartwatch, including new watch faces. My personal favorite addition is the new Kaleidoscope watch face that uses either a built-in photo or a photo of your choice to create a colorful image in one of three different styles. We’ll go over how to use the Kaleidoscope watch face and how to create your own Kaleidoscope Apple Watch face on iPhone.
By Conner Carey
The app store looks very different in iOS 11. Not only are many of the tabs at the bottom different, but also Apple has added new features to the App Store that weren’t there before. The App Store has full articles on how to play certain games, interviews with the developers of a popular app, a featured App of the Day, and more. In a lot of ways, it’s much easier to find and discover apps in the new App Store. But it may take some getting used to. Here’s a quick tour of the new App Store with iOS 11 on iPhone.
Are you someone who finds themselves poring back through their deleted emails, searching for that 20% off promo code you thought you weren't going to use? If you think you might want an extra step of precaution before emails are permanently deleted from your trash folder, consider turning on the Mail app's Ask Before Deleting feature.
