How-To

There comes a time in every parent’s life when they’re waiting for their teenager to get home. Sure, you could sit on the couch worrying, trying to keep your eyes open long enough to know they’ve safely returned. Or you can use Find My Friends on your iPhone to have your phone alert you when they get home. That way, you can go to bed, relax, and as soon as they pull up, your phone will let you know they’ve arrived. Here’s how.

In the Calendar app, it’s helpful to have multiple calendars for different areas of life. You might have a personal reminders calendar, one for work, one for home, one for family, etc. Each calendar is also color coded to make telling them apart easier; you can also view individual calendars. What happens, though, when you accidentally place an event in the wrong calendar? Easy, simply follow these steps to move it to a different one.

The iPhone has a camera app for taking pictures, but the iPad also has a Photobooth app similar to the one most Apple computers have. Unlike the camera app on your phone, the Photobooth app has filters and effects to alter the image you’re capturing before you even take the picture. Personally, the Kaleidoscope effect is my favorite—everything looks cool. Here’s how to add and change effects in Photobooth on your iPad.

If you use Google Chrome on your computer, you’re probably familiar with a browser's ability to save your password for login websites. But did you know that Safari on iOS has the ability to suggest passwords for you? And Safari will then store the secure password for later use. This is an awesome feature, because not only does Safari create a far more secure password than your dog’s name plus your birthday, but it stores the password so you don’t need to remember it too. Here’s how to get a Safari password suggestion.

You can now set temporary Profile Pictures on Facebook to commemorate events or show support for causes. The Profile Photo expires after a set amount of time, automatically switching back to the original photo it replaced. This is an awesome way to promote a show you’re in, a holiday or event photo that’s fun, or to show support for a cause such as when Facebook allowed users to overlay the rainbow flag on their pictures. Here’s how to set a temporary Profile Picture on Facebook.

Awhile back, Facebook began rolling out the ability to upload a seven second video in place of your Facebook profile picture. The short video plays in place of the usual still photo and doesn’t include sound unless someone clicks on the video specifically. It’s yet another addition to the social network that allows you to customize your profile and generally have fun with it. Without further ado, here’s how to set a video as your Facebook profile pic.

Apple’s Health app is a great way to see your overall health, but long-term health is about daily habits. The Calendar view in the Health app allows you to see all the information your health app has gathered for any particular day. The more apps or devices you have synced with the Health app, the broader and more accurate the overall picture of your health the app can provide. Here’s how to view and utilize the Health App Calendar view.

How to Record a Music Memo

By Conner Carey

Music Memos is one of the most recent Apple apps the company has introduced. You’re used to Voice Memos, but Music Memos is made specifically for iPhone music creation. What’s really cool about the app is the ability to add Bass and Drums to a recording instantly. You can even adjust the added instruments such as choosing a Modern Kit or Vintage Kit for Drums. It’s not always perfect but the technology is amazing. Here’s how to record a music memo.

3D Touch, introduced with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, is still a relatively new feature and as such, more Quick Actions and Peek & Pops are being added to third-party and Apple apps all the time. Every instance where I can use 3D Touch is a welcome shortcut, and previewing a city’s weather is one of those instances. You already know that you can have multiple cities listed in your Apple Weather app, but did you know you can use Peek & Pop to preview each one? Here’s how.

App developers are consistently releasing updates and upgrades to improve in-app experiences and to fix bugs. To make this process easy, your iPhone will automatically download available updates over Wi-Fi. Apps, books, and music you purchase on other devices are also automatically downloaded. If you prefer to updte your apps manually, here’s how to turn the option off.

Even if you're pretty good at doing math in your head, there are so many different measures that you may often find yourself needing to do conversions. For example, when I'm watching tennis on TV and the announcer says the serve was 220 kilometers per hour, I'm fairly clueless. So I just ask Siri to convert to the more familiar mph. (And that would be 137 mph—definitely a fast serve.) Siri can convert currencies and also measures such as distance, weight, volume, cooking measures, temperature, and speed. Plus, since the introduction of iOS 9, there are two ways to get Siri to do conversions: ask Siri or use Spotlight Search—which is basically sending Siri a text message.

When it comes to 3D Touch, it’s hard to know when you can and can't use it. Since it’s a fairly new feature on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, even Apple apps are still updating software to include options like Quick Actions or Peek & Pop. One such occasion when you might not realize you can use Peek & Pop for is when viewing your Bookmarks in Safari. This is a great way to see where your saved links lead and makes clearing old bookmarks much quicker.

Since getting the iPhone 6s, I’ve slowly but surely become accustomed to Peek & Popping various links in different apps. But the problem with 3D Touch being a relatively new feature is that you’re not always sure when you can and can't use it. Luckily, Apple and developers are consistently adding Quick Actions and Peek & Pop features to existing apps. One such app you can utilize the Peek function in is Music. Here’s how.

In photos, there are two different ways to share collections of images and videos. You can share moments, which are found under the Photos tab and usually encompass a day or location. Or, you can select individual images and videos to compile your own collection to share, which is what we'll cover in this tip. Perhaps you visited Costa Rica and want to share pictures of the beach, or a friend's baby is just learning to walk and she wants to send you videos. Regardless of the occasion, it’s fairly easy to share or copy multiple photos and videos. Here’s how to do it.

Last September, Apple released iOS 9 with a slew of upgrades to the software. From the long-awaited iPad multitasking capabilities to the smarter-than-ever Siri to a host of new and reimagined apps like iCloud Drive, News, Notes, and Maps, our iPhones and iPads saw some huge improvements. Yet all the changes, wonderful as they are, can be overwhelming to navigate. There are lots of new ways to utilize your iPhone, and we cover them all in our Ultimate Guide to iOS 9. Here's a sneak peak inside the guide, including an overview of everything it includes plus two full lessons covering iCloud Drive and Apple Pay. 

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