How-To

Little ones love using iDevices with the games and the swiping and the buttons. However, the owners of those devices may not love it when their toddler starts accessing other apps, notes, or the actual phone. Luckily, there is a way to disable all apps but the one you want your toddler to play with. 

A few weeks ago we published a tip explaining how to add an item to a specific list in Reminders using Siri. If you don't specify which list you want to add the reminder to, it will get added to your default Reminders List. But if you find yourself mostly adding items to a list that is not the default Reminders List, such as your Shopping List, why not make that your default list?

When you're in bed reading a really compelling book, you don't always want to stop just because it's late and your spouse wants to go to sleep. That's when you need the low-light Night theme in iBooks. It means you can finish the chapter without the glare of the screen hurting your eyes or disturbing your partner. 

Sifting through hundreds of pictures when you’re looking for one in particular can be a nightmare. Though we still can’t tag our photos or add descriptions in the iOS Photos app, Apple has added a new feature that allows users to search their images by location, date, time, and even album name. This makes looking for images much easier, if you know when or where they were taken.

If you're wanting to get into the spirit of the holidays, you now have a wide selection of Christmas-themed music in iTunes Radio. Early this month Apple added a number of curated stations for a total of 10 options: The Sounds of Christmas, Holiday Hits, Latin Holiday, Children's Christmas, Rockin' Holiday, Country Holiday, Souful Holiday, Holiday Classics, Classical Holiday, and Swingin' Holiday. Only a couple of these appear in the Featured Stations listing, so you'll want to add them to your list of My Stations.

So maybe you love group messages, maybe you hate them. Either way, the new iOS8 update came with ways to customize your group message experience.

I’m a pretty patient person, but when it comes to Music, I want to be able to switch playlists and songs quickly. I’m usually working out or driving while I listen to music, and I need to be able to quickly change what I’m listening to at a stoplight or in between sets. That's why it's a good idea to customize the bottom toolbar in the Music app to show what you use most, instead of having to click More for the extended menu.

I'm continually amazed at how useful Siri is to control the various functions of my iPad. I often use it to set an alarm or a timer. Doing so is so much faster than interacting with the Clock app itself. You can also use Siri to tell you the time and date, as well as the time at a specific location around the world. And you can ask Siri to tell you the date for a particular day of the week.

Some notifications on iOS 8 have become interactive! With most, you can swipe left and delete unwanted notifications in seconds, but they don’t delete from the app (so you can go back later and check them out). Here’s how: