When Apple announced iOS 9, I got really excited about the forthcoming News app. And now that I'm using it regularly, I feel my excitement was warranted. Plus, I like the snappy and seamless manner in which one can toggle between the overview of the news and a specific story. And I recently learned there's an even easier way to return to the overview, as well as to read the next story without going to the overview.
By Paula Bostrom
I love using Wallet. Instead of my actual wallet or keychain getting weighed down with shopper loyalty cards, the Wallet app stores them all in one place, no plastic required. Here's how to switch from plastic to the Wallet app.
By Conner Carey
The iBooks app is extremely useful for keeping books and pdf files together in one place on your iPhone or iPad. From the iBooks app, you can visit the iBooks store and browse the top charts and featured books on the market. However, storage space fills up quickly and you may not want to keep all the books forever. When your My Books storage is getting cluttered, here’s how to remove iBooks from your iPhone or iPad.
By Conner Carey
In the Apple News app, you have the option to view stories you tap as a preview or as the full story. Preview is the default function and makes sense for slower Internet connections; however, if you want to automatically read the full story, here’s how to change the setting.
By Daniel Rasmus
For people who spend time a lot time on the phone at work or in traditional audio calls delivered through Voice over IP (VoIP), Facetime, or on any of the dozens of audio and video conferencing services, Plantronics has recently shipped the ultimate accessory: the Voyager Focus UC ($299.95).
By Conner Carey
Apple Music is kind of tricky. Sometimes My Music wouldn't play when I was away from Wi-Fi and out of Cellular reach and I couldn’t figure out why. Turns out, not all of My Music in Apple Music is available offline. Which means I’ve been using Cellular data without knowing it. To prevent this, Apple Music has the option to view Only Offline Music.
By Conner Carey
On by default, Safari Quick Search uses search shortcuts to look within websites. Therefore, if you type a website name as a part of your search, Safari will look within that website for what you need. For example, type “Youtube cat video” to show YouTube search results for cat videos. If you’d rather this feature be turned off, here’s how.
By Conner Carey
When you type in popular app names into the Safari search url bar, Apple will try to match that with apps you either have or may want from the App store. It’s a suggestion feature turned on by default. Here’s how to turn it off.
By Conner Carey
With iOS 9, your iPhone looks through the Mail app to let you know who might be calling when an unknown number comes in. This is true for outgoing calls as well; iOS 9 will try to match the number you’re calling with a contact from emails. If this is a function you’d like to turn off, here’s how.
By Conner Carey
If Facebook is draining your battery, gobbling up your storage by caching huge amounts of data, or otherwise causing problems on your iPhone, you can delete the app and create a Home screen icon for the website instead.
By Sarah Kingsbury
Whether you encounter a link in an email, a text, or while browsing the web, as long as you have an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, you can use 3D Touch to preview the web page in Safari without actually opening it.
By Conner Carey
With iOS 9, not only can you select multiple photos, but you can drag your finger over multiple photos to select them for sharing or deletion.
By Conner Carey
An interesting new feature of iOS 9 is auto email event suggestions for your Calendar. The software scans your emails to see if there are any events you haven't added to your schedule. This can be very helpful, especially if a lot of your emails contain pertinent events. However, if you find yourself with a cluttered calendar, you can easily turn off the automatic addition.
By Conner Carey
In the days of iOS 8, we had arrows leading from photos to album view. While the navigation arrow is still there, now, there’s an easier way. If you’re viewing a single photo, with one swipe of the finger you can return to viewing the album.
By Paula Bostrom
Everyone hates getting email spam. Sometimes it can be more than just annoying. Sometimes spammers can collect information from your device when the email is opened. If the email contains an image, it usually is downloaded from a remote server. When you open the email, it can tell spammers that you’ve opened it and can even show your approximate location. Pretty scary huh?
By Conner Carey
One of my favorite upgrades with iOS 9 is the News app. It's easy to follow news from specific magazines, websites, or journals as well as broader subjects such as astronomy in a single feed. Currently, the channels and news sources are limited; however, I expect that to rapidly change now that finished version of iOS 9 is available.
By Conner Carey
Our phones have officially become our cameras too, with our Photos apps full of everything from selfies to vacation shots. Yet how do you take that suave picture of youself and put it on Facebook? Or, upload that gorgeous photo you took of Niagara Falls as your cover image? Easily.
By Conner Carey
The Apple Watch is set to remind you to stand every waking hour for at least a minute. If you're at a desk for multiple hours at a time, this can be beneficial and add to your over-all health. However, the Apple Watch's stand sensor is not always the most accurate; many users report getting stand reminders right when they have stood up multiple times throughout the hour. Fortunately, it couldn't be easier to get that pesky reminder to shush. And whether Stand Reminders are enabled or not, your Apple Watch will continue to track how often you move.
By Sarah Kingsbury
You probably already know you can call a phone number from within an email by tapping on the number. But did you know that you can also quickly add the phone number to Contacts as well?
By Conner Carey
It’s easy to miss appointments when our calendars are always full, and pasting sticky notes to computer screens just doesn’t cut it anymore. However, your phone is happy to do the thinking for you; change the Default Alert Time and your Calendar app will remind you.
