How-To

Hurricanes. Floods. Fires. Disaster can strike at any moment, and our most precious memories are often the most vulnerable. Recently, I started going through my old photo albums to scan and upload my pictures and negatives to a hard drive for safekeeping. Of course, it’s not just photographs that we want to preserve. Vinyl albums, cassette and VHS tapes, analog photography, and even old diary pages are subject to the ravages of nature, storage space, and time. Fortunately, new technologies make it possible for us to preserve and protect our memories in the digital realm. From USB-equipped turntables to flatbed scanners large enough to copy an entire sleeve of images, the means of archiving your most precious memories are only limited by your imagination. But don’t worry, we imagined for you and have a list of devices and apps we think you’ll love.

The iPhone's Screen Recording feature lets you record videos of your screen along with in-app sounds so that you can share videos of things like how to use your favorite golfing app or that funny GIF you found online. When you enable the Screen Recording feature in the Settings app, your iPhone can record videos of your screen that include the audio feedback on most apps. While this tip won't let you capture audio in apps like Apple Music or Netflix, it will let you record audio in most other apps. With that in mind, let's dive into how to record your screen along with in-app audio.

The ability to mark, move, or delete emails using the Mail app comes in handy when you need to manage your inboxes. You can easily mark, move, or delete an email in your iPhone's Mail app from within the body of an email using the menu at the bottom of your screen. You can also manage individual emails from within your inbox by swiping to the left over the email. But this is tedious if you have a large number of emails to deal with.

The Apple Pencil is seen by many iPad users as a stylus (much to Jony Ive's annoyance), but its main use is as a tool for markups and creative projects in apps like Procreate or something more simple like Notes. Here are some quick tips for drawing with the Apple Pencil including adjusting opacity and line thickness, shading with the side of the Pencil's nib, erasing, and using the Apple Pencil 2's double tap feature to switch between tools. While there is some overlap with the basics functions of both a regular pencil and an Apple Pencil, you'll find the Apple Pencil has potential to unlock a digital flood of creative possibilties and may help with an artist block or two.

Sometimes I'll have words randomly capitalized while texting, such as "may" into "May" like the month. If you're bothered by unwanted or random capitalizations while typing on your iPhone or iPad, you can try turning off auto-capitalization in your device's keyboard settings, which can be found under General in the Settings app. While this is not the same as turning off auto-correct, having auto-capitalization off can stop words from being capitalized when you don't want them to be. Try this tip to cut down on your texting frustration!

If you have iOS 10 or later, you can challenge a friend to a quick game in the Messages app, provided your friend is also using iMessages! Just find a game you like in the iMessaages App Store, tap to get it, and then start playing with your friend. Playing a game via iMessages is great for when you don't have much to talk about, but still want to keep in touch with someone. Here's how to start and play games in iMessages. 

If you want to get a better handle on file organization on your iPhone, the Files app can really help. Here's how to make a folder in the Files app. You'll have to have iOS 11 or later, and have set up and enabled iCloud Drive on your iPhone. You'll only be able to create a folder within the iCloud Drive category in the Files app. The On My iPhone category only stores files from apps that are downloaded to your device and can't be manually changed. 

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.

When searching the web on your iPhone, you can use the search suggestions that appear below the search bar in Safari or Chrome instead of typing out your whole query. Usually when you tap a search suggestion, it immediately searches with those terms. With iOS 12.2 or later, when you tap the blue arrow next to a search suggestion, the phrase is added to the search bar and you'll be able to continue typing or tapping to add additional search suggestions 

In the 113th episode of the iPhone Life Podcast, members of the team talk everything iPhone 11. Will the next iPhone model slated for a September release really house a triple camera array on the back? Will it be as unsightly as critics say, and will improved photo quality make it a worthy tradeoff? Listen to find the answers to these questions and more.

If you use a sleep tracking app or otherwise like wearing your Apple Watch while you sleep instead of charging your watch overnight, you might struggle to find times to charge your watch and keep your battery levels up. Here's a list of suggestions for how to save Apple Watch battery life at night, while you sleep! While there's no way to keep your battery fully powered, if you try one or a combination of the suggestions below, you'll notice a difference and be able to roll out of bed without having to recharge your Apple Watch battery as often!

As you use your iPhone, you'll notice status icons are shown to signal certain functions. Here's a quick overview of some of the most common status icons you'll see on your iPhone's Home screen. For iPhones 8 and earlier, I show the screen of an iPhone 7. For iPhones X and later, I use the screen of an iPhone XR. Across devices, the status icons have the same meaning. The display of status icons are arranged differently between iPhone 8 and earlier, and iPhone X and later. But if you know which status icons you're looking for and what they mean, you won't have a problem finding them.

The Do Not Disturb function on iPhone allows you to silence all incoming calls, texts, and notifications. Here's how to bypass Do Not Disturb for individual contacts using a feature called Emergency Bypass. This allows the people designated to reach you on your iPhone even if your Do Not Disturb settings are set to silence calls and texts from everyone. Here's how you can tweak the a contact's settings to override Do Not Disturb when it’s turned on so that you’ll still hear their incoming call or text or both. 

Are you wondering how to use the Safari app because you're not quite sure what the icons mean? Here's a brief overview of the main icons in the iOS Safari app and how to use them. All the icons reviewed can be found along the bottom bar after you open the Safari app on your iPhone. The icons do the same thing in the iPad Safari app, but may be located in a different part of the screen.

Ever since Apple’s virtual assistant Siri debuted with the release of the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 in 2011, using our cell phones has become quicker and easier. So why are you still navigating your device with taps, swipes, and gestures when you could be using Siri? Whether you are a seasoned or rookie iPhone user, Siri will allow you to take control of your device, save time, and be more productive.

If you came of age in the pre-smartphone era, you already know the basics of phone etiquette. But now that texting and messaging apps have overtaken phone calls as the preferred method of staying in touch, it’s a good idea to become familiar with the dos and don’ts of texting as well. Here’s how to avoid being the bane of the group chat, telling someone it’s funny that their loved one died, and snubbing someone just by letting them see that you read their message!

Ever since I got my iPhone X last year, I’ve been intrigued by the possibility of creating a wireless charging station for it. Sure, there’s a burgeoning supply of furniture with Qi chargers already built in, but they’re more expensive than I’m willing to spring for. Beyond that, I enjoy repurposing all sorts of items around the house, from pallets, to fabric, to old box springs, and thought this project would be a great way to reuse a less-than-gorgeous piece of furniture while improving my less-than-stellar carpentry skills. My goal was to combine the old and worn with cutting-edge technology to create a piece of furniture no one would suspect had the ability to wirelessly charge your iPhone. 

Want to know more about why your iPhone looks the way it does? If you have an iPhone 8 Plus or earlier, here's a general overview of what the external ports and buttons are for. Knowing which functions the buttons perform and what the ports are for can help you navigate and use your device to its full capability. Below I show example of iPhones from Apple's support page to better explain your device.

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