Apps

Ahhhh there's nothing quite like shooting great quality videos! Before the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus came out, iPhones were capable of capturing 30 frames per second (fps). Now, with the launch of the latest smartphones, Apple has bestowed upon us a magnificent gift: a full 60 frames-per-second recording capability.

The only thing more annoying then getting a song stuck in your head is not being able to remember which song it is you've been humming all day. If you've ever wanted go back and put a name to a song or musician, just check your iTunes Radio listening history.

One of the coolest things about iOS Reminders is the ability to set location-based reminders. Reminders determine when you are leaving or arriving somewhere through geofences. But what if you keep receiving a location-based reminder everytime you happen to be near but not arriving at or departing from the location? Or what if you want to get the reminder sooner as you approach the location? Just make the location's geofence bigger or smaller.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in thinking we know everything there is to know about social media that we forget it’s always evolving. If you’re like me, chances are you often don’t read about the new features added to your updated app or even bother to ask your friends about the tips they’ve discovered themselves. Here are a few tips and tricks that you may not already know about!

Keep in mind that the new iPhone will likely be in short supply, as the iPhone 5s was (especially the gold model.) If you're not willing to wait, you may not get your first choice, and that might mean a step down in storage from your current iPhone. For example, assuming Apple ships a 16 GB iPhone 6 (instead of making 32 GB the minimum) and you currently have a 32 GB iPhone 5, you probably have more than 12 GB of content. Remember, the iPhone uses some of the storage so a 16 GB iPhone really only has about 12 GB of space. I have a 64 GB iPhone 5s and I'm using over 29 GB. That tells me, without some creative pruning, I can't downgrade to a 32 GB model let alone a 16 GB version.

As an App Developer, every new release of iOS means a scramble to make sure my apps are compatible, and usually they are. But once in a while, Apple changes things just enough that old apps need to be tweaked to work with the new operating system. Making a living on the App Store, while difficult, is possible, but you have to keep your apps updated and add new features as Apple adds capabilities. The sad fact is, not every developer does that. Indeed some developers will be probably have apps in the App Store that simply won’t work on iOS 8, and never will. The developers may have shut their doors, and there may be no plans to fix incompatibilities.

Apple's new iOS 8 is great, and one of those great new features is Continuity. With Continuity, users of multiple Apple products can take a phone call on one device and switch to another on the fly. I typically leave my iPhone docked at the entrance to my house and then I work upstairs on my MacBook. When the phone rings, I have to make a mad dash to answer it. Now I can take the call on my iPad. And soon, with Mac OS X Yosemite, I can answer the phone call on my MacBook!

One of the great new features in iOS 8 is the ability to send an audio message. Sometimes it's simply a lot more convenient to make a quick recording than it is to type a message. Why not simply call the person? Because convention requires that we then engage in conversation. An audio message is more efficient. And the party you're sending it to can listen at his or her convenience rather than having to answer the phone.

Often when you're searching the web for some particular bit of information, your search pulls up a long page of text. But you then have no idea where on that page to find the information you're looking for. The next step is to search within the page. The way to do that on iOS devices is simple, but not obvious.