How-To


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!

With the introduction of larger iPhone screens, Apple also created the feature Reachability. You may have activated this by accident in the past; it’s when your interface temporarily moves to the bottom of the screen, providing access to icons or links that were out of reach while holding the phone with one hand. To activate Reachability, you simply tap the Home button twice. Don’t click the Home button, or the App Switcher will pop up. However, if you don’t care for this feature, here’s how to turn off Reachability.

Your music library holds everything...right? Well it doesn’t have to. You have the option to add a song to a playlist without that song automatically ending up in your Apple Music library too. For example, if you’re creating a Christmas playlist, you probably don’t want to hear those same songs play on shuffle in May. Luckily, it’s easy to change this feature in Settings. Here’s how to add a song to an Apple Music playlist but not your library.

This tip works for iOS 8.3 // The feature cannot be found on iOS 9 or later. 

Apple requires users to enter a password or use Touch ID every time content is obtained from the iTunes or App Stores. The purpose of this is to prevent others who may have access to your Apple account from making unauthorized purchases and running up the bill on your credit card. In the past, it didn’t matter if the content was purchased or free, a password still had to be entered to download the material. Now, with iOS 8.3, you no longer have to enter a password when downloading free material from iTunes or free apps from the App Store. It’s free, so what does it matter?

In your Contacts app, you can assign photos to each contact for easy recognition. When you open the Messages app, you’ll see a photo next to each message if that contact has been assigned a photo. However, if you’d prefer to turn this feature off, it’s easy to do. Here’s how to disable contact photos.

Kindle by Amazon may still hold the monopoly on e-books, but Apple is trying to catch up. The iBooks app has seen consistent improvements. One great advantage it has over Kindle is the ability to purchase a book within iBooks and immediately begin reading it. Another great feature is the ability to  preview chapters from the Table of Contents with an iPhone that has 3D Touch. Here’s how to do it.

The Apple News app is a great place to follow your favorite magazines and websites, and the day's top stories. You can save articles to read offline, Like articles to see more of the same, Mute Channels you don’t want to hear from, and Share articles you want your friends to read as well. Regardless of what topics you’re interested in, there’s easily something for everyone here. Here’s how to share articles in News that you find and love.

With the introduction of iOS 9.3, we saw new additions to Apple apps that are 3D Touch enabled. One such addition is the Settings app. Often, there are three main places within our Settings that we need to visit on a regular basis: Battery, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. By adding 3D Touch to the Settings app, Apple has made it super easy to access those frequently visited sections. If you have an iPhone with 3D Touch (iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus), then this will be a welcome addition.

If you have an Apple Watch paired with your iPhone, you’re familiar with Activity rings. On the Apple Watch, your activity is represented by three concentric circles that track how much of your daily goals you have met. There’s a red circle for your Move goal, a green one for Exercise, and a blue one for Stand. However, you can also view these Activity rings in graph form in the Health app and include it as a part of your health Dashboard. Here’s how to view your activity rings in your health app dashboard.

In the Apple News app, you have the option to save articles for reading offline. Perhaps you’re about to be in a zone without Wi-Fi and you want to have a list of reading during that period of time. Or maybe you’re at work when you discover an article and you want to save it for the commute home. Whichever the case, it’s an easy process to make sure your New Stories are saved and available offline.

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