How-To

Facebook uses complex algorithms to try to provide you with the content you want to see the most. Some people hated it when Facebook made the change, because now there are posts from friends you may never see. But Facebook has also added the ability to choose whose posts pop up at the top of your news feed. Here’s how to choose whose posts you see first on Facebook.

Thanks to Apple's predictive text feature, called QuickType, your iOS device will suggest words that it thinks you want to use next so you don't have to type them yourself. While AutoCorrect guesses at a word, based on the letters you typed, QuickType predicts what word you might type next based on the context of your message or document. If you find QuickType's context-based suggestions creepy rather than cool, you can easily hide the feature, or you can turn it off completely. Here's how to turn off predictive text completely on your iPhone. 

By default, when you create a new note in the Notes app, you’re immediately creating the body of the note. This is so you can jump straight into the thought you were having and get it on “paper” in the Notes app. However, it’s easier to keep notes organized and know what is what if each note has its own headline. Here’s how to automatically start each note with a headline.

How to Use Hey Siri

By Tommy Ly

Since its inception, Siri has become more and more useful. It’s obvious that Apple has put a lot of thought into Siri’s place in today’s world, resulting in Siri's ability to do everything from calculations to searching the web and making restaurant reservations. With Hey Siri, Apple’s personal assistant makes things even more convenient.

Apple Music offers lots of radio options by genre or curator. But you can also create your own radio stations by starting with a song you enjoy. Apple Music will then offer songs it feels matches the mood, tempo, and genre of what you chose to play. If you really like the radio station you create, you can take it step further and share it with your friends. Here’s how to share a station you created in Apple Music.

This tip was originally published on 03/17/2014. Due to recent updates, this particular tip no longer works for devices running iOS 9 or later.

 

Apple Maps has improved a lot since its disastrous debut. But many people still prefer to use Google Maps as their go-to navigation app. The problem is, when you ask Siri for directions, it'll automatically use Apple Maps as the default app for turn-by-turn directions. If you want to use Google Maps or some other navigation app with Siri instead, try this handy trick:

Currently, Live Photos can only be viewed from an Apple device running on iOS 9 or later and Macs running OS X El Capitan. Others will see only the still version of the Live Photos. However, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users are eager for those Live Photos to be shareable beyond that limited circle of Apple users. Here’s how to create a GIF from a Live Photo so you can share it with anyone.


With iOS 8 came iCloud Drive; and now, there's an app for that. iCloud Drive is, simply put, Apple's Dropbox. When you're logged into iCloud, you can easily save files to the drive, which are then accessible across all iOS devices and work in conjunction with OS X and Windows. With iOS 9, Apple has added an iCloud Drive app that makes it easy to view, edit, and manage the documents saved to your drive. The app is automatically included in the new update; however, the option to display the iCloud Drive app is hidden in your Settings.

You may have had the experience of working on a draft of an email but then needing to look at a different email in your inbox. But the draft obscured the screen and couldn't be quickly pushed aside and then returned to. Fortunately, you can easily swipe away a draft, access your other email, and then quickly bring it back into view to continue working on it. This is typically referred to as "minimizing" the email draft.

Siri is an awesome time saver. Want to view your most recent calls, text someone, get directions, or post to Facebook? Just ask Siri. You can even do all this from your lock screen. The problem is, so can anyone else. If your settings allow for it, anyone can access your call history, send a tweet, or get directions to a contact's home from your lock screen just by bringing up Siri and asking.

 

Panoramic photos are great for capturing an expanded view of a beautiful landscape. Typically, this is done by moving your iPhone from left to right or right to left as you take the photo in Pano mode. But what about when you want to capture a shot of something really tall, like a tree, for example, or even the Eiffel Tower? Well, you'll be excited to hear that you can take vertically oriented panoramic photos with your iPhone too!

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