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iView: iPhone in Nature

By Hal Goldstein

iView: iPhone in Nature

My wife and I are most fortunate to own and share 33 acres of rural Iowa forest with birds, trees, plants, grasses, insects, fish, reptiles, small mammals, and deer. Admittedly, staring at my iPhone when walking in our woods is not a good look. Yet, worlds have opened thanks to apps that let me name trees, identify birds, diagnose plant health, and plot our newly created paths.

How to Text on the Apple Watch with Scribble (2023)

While the Apple Watch keeps getting bigger and bigger (see the new Apple Watch Ultra), the tiny keyboard may feel a bit unruly and difficult to maneuver, especially if you have clumsy fingers like me. Instead, you can send Apple Watch messages with Scribble. The Scribble feature allows you to use your finger to write each individual letter of your response. It’s easy, but best for shorter messages. You wouldn’t want to write a novel with Scribble messages on an Apple Watch, but you might use it to say, “OK,” or “omw” (on my way). Here’s how to type on your Apple Watch with Scribble.

The iHome iPLWBT5 Docking Clock Radio ($129.99) could really eliminate some of the clutter on your nightstand. It's a clock radio, which iHome has been making for years, but it also doubles as a dual charging dock for your iPhone 7 and Apple Watch. There's a Lightning dock on the top, which should accommodate most cases except really protective ones. For iPhones in protective cases or an iPad, there's a USB port so you can charge a device via your own Lightning cable. Finally, sitting on the side is an Apple Watch magnetic charging base. 

With iOS 10, you can send stickers to your friends that you’ve acquired from the App Store that’s within Messages. Our tip on Stickers in Messages will give you the full rundown if you’re not familiar with how to get and use stickers. If you’ve been using stickers with your friends, you’ve probably received a sticker from a friend that you liked and wanted but didn’t know how to find in the App Store. Well Apple built an easy shortcut into Messages for this exact instance. Here’s how to get the same stickers that your friend just sent you in Messages.

TreasureHunter ($4.99) is a  iOS board game conversion of the identically named, mildly popular board game released in 2015. This card game was created by legendary game designer Richard Garfield (the creator of the wildly popular Magic the Gathering trading card game). The conversion to iPad board game app was done by the game's Germany-based publisher Queen Games, a company that has had a somewhat mediocre track record digitally converting its other physical board games such as Alhambra and Kingdom Builder to iOS board games. Does TreasureHunter rise above those previous efforts? Read on to find out.

iPhone and iPad word processors are nearly as plentiful on the App Store as flashlight apps. In order to stand out from the crowded selection, developers need to offer products that meet a specific need. In the case of prose composition, one word processing app that enables the narrative (e.g. story and screenwriting) and article construction and evolution process is Scrivener ($19.99). Originally available only for the Mac, Scrivener has recently made the leap to the iOS platform. How does it fare on both? Read on to find out.

3D Touch on iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 6s, and 6s Plus allows you to jump into a specific place within an app using Quick Actions. This is done from Home screen by 3D Touching an app icon. Options for jumping into the app will pop up and you can select one. For example, the Settings app has Quick Actions for jumping to the settings for Wi-Fi, Battery, Bluetooth, and Cellular Data. Here’s how to jump into apps with 3D Touch on iPhone.

With the introduction of WatchOS 3 came Breathe, a feature on Apple Watch that’s similar to Stand in that it reminds you to breathe throughout the day. Obviously we don’t need to be reminded to breathe, but the feature is about putting your focus on your breath, stopping everything else you’re doing, and taking a minute (or more) to practice a little mindfulness using breath as the centering point. On days I’m stressed, I appreciate the reminders. But most of the time, I dismiss it. If you’d rather not receive reminders to breathe throughout your day, here’s how to turn off Breathe reminders on Apple Watch with WatchOS 3.

You’re probably familiar with the idea of sharing a song from Apple Music via Messages or Mail. But did you know that you can Airdrop an Apple Music song to someone? This is a great method if you’re in the same room or building as the person you want to send the song to. All you need is a Wi-Fi connection and for both of you to have Airdrop turned on in Control Center on your iPhones. Here’s how to Airdrop a song from Apple Music.

How to Redeem iTunes Gift Cards on iPhone

If you're here, you've probably been given an iTunes gift card and now it's time to redeem it. It's also possible that you've already redeemed your iTunes gift card and simply want to check the remaining Apple gift card balance or add more money to your iTunes balance. You're in the right place; we're going to cover everything you need to know about your Apple gift card.

Apple added Split View in Safari as part of multitasking on iPad when iOS 10 was introduced for iPad. Previously, you could only open up two different apps simultaneously on iPad using Split View. But it makes sense to use Split View in Safari since users often have multiple tabs open anyway—you might as well be able to view two at the same time. There are multiple ways to open and use Split View in Safari on iPad; here’s how.

If you are on the hunt for a powerful outdoor Bluetooth wireless speaker, one that can pump out massive volume and is also well-equipped to handle extreme environments, then the following head-to-head review of these two behemoths will be for you. I'm putting two of the best modern Bluetooth boomboxes to the test, to see which one of them fares the best.

Productivity apps on our iPhones can do a wide range of things from helping us organize our schedule to making sure we stick to it. The best productivity apps for iOS tend to have a streamline design while being easy to use right from the start. We wanted to cover the best productivity apps, specifically, for keeping your focus. There are lots of apps that are all about focusing or time-tracking. Some utilize the Pomodoro technique while others allow you to grow virtual trees that wither away if you leave the app. The best productivity app for you is the one that actually helps you focus. Here’s five of the best productivity apps for staying focused.

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