Quick Tips
How To: See What Traffic Is Usually Like Between Any 2 Addresses
If you're in the market for a new house, how do you know what your commute would be like if current traffic is unseasonably low? Or if you're considering a new job across town and want to weigh the pay raise against the extra time stuck in a gridlock, how do you measure the discrepancy? Google Maps can help.
How To: This iOS 14 Trick Lets You Navigate Apps More Easily & Faster Than Ever Before
Apple always finds a way to sneak in tiny, inconspicuous features that improve the iPhone experience. And with iOS 14, there's a hidden, unannounced gesture that makes it possible to navigate apps and menus faster than ever before.
How To: Sick of the 'Undo Typing' Pop-Up on Your iPhone? Here's How to Get Rid of It
Between sending iMessages, jotting down notes, and crafting emails, you do a lot of typing on your iPhone. No doubt, you've been in the middle of an important task when everything comes to a screeching, obtrusive halt, where a rogue "Undo Typing" pop-up forces you to close it before continuing with your typing. Don't put up with the BS anymore — here's how to stop it.
How To: New Notes on Your iPhone Don't Have to Start with Big, Bold Text
One thing that always bugged me about the Notes app for iPhone is that every note starts with Big, Bold Text. Relevant in some cases, sure, but most of the time, I'm just trying to jot down some thoughts, and having one giant sentence is just unnecessary. Luckily, it's not that hard to fix.
How To: Do This to Make Sure You're Not Getting Billed by Any Mysterious Subscriptions on Your iPhone
We hardly need to "buy" anything these days since games, music, books, news, movies, and TV are all available on the iPhone with various monthly subscriptions. Just set it and forget it so that your wallet does all the work for you. But if you're on a free trial or two and don't want to commit, you might get an unexpected charge if you forgot or don't know where to cancel. Here's how to avoid that.
How To: Battery Almost Dead? Here's the Best Way to Squeeze More Juice Out of Your iPhone Without a Charger
Your iPhone's almost out of battery power, there's no wired or wireless charger in sight, and you left your portable power bank at home. You don't want your battery to die, but you still need to use your iPhone. This is when Low Power Mode comes in handy, but you could be wasting valuable time and power if you're activating it the wrong way.
How To: It's Surprisingly Simple to Stop YouTube from Saving Your Search History
Sure, your search history can be useful, but more often than not, it's a paper trail of privacy infringement. It's perfectly reasonable not to want to see a complete list of your YouTube queries every single time you search for a new video. Luckily, blocking YouTube from saving your search history takes only a few taps.
How To: Change Your iPhone's Default Text Responses for Incoming Phone Calls to Quick Reply in Style
Since iOS 6, "Respond with Text" has allowed us to quickly respond to a call we can't (or don't want to) answer. But Apple only gives you three options to choose from, and if you don't have time to type out your own response, those three might not cut it. Luckily, you can customize these three replies to whatever you want.
How To: Make Sure Your AirPods Pro Are Always Fully Charged by Turning Off This Setting
Your AirPods Pro can run up to 4.5 hours when 100% charged up. However, they're programmed to stop charging at 80%, and it won't kick back in until they think you'll need that extra 20%. That means they won't last as long in your ears before needing put back in the case. And you could end up with dead AirPods Pro if you're out, can't hit up a charger, and your case is out of juice.
How To: Stop Getting Unwanted AirDrops on Your iPhone from Strangers & Pranksters
One of Apple's best features is AirDrop, which easily lets you send files to other Apple devices with a simple tap. That said, it might be a little too easy to use since just about anyone can send a file to your iPhone, whether you know them or not. The difference between AirDrop as a useful tool among your contacts and an open channel for the entire iPhone community comes down to one setting.
How To: Change the Brightness of Your iPhone's Lock Screen Flashlight
Whenever you need a flashlight, your iPhone's LED flash may be enough to break through the darkness, and you don't even need to unlock your screen to use it. But your LED flash's brightness level may be too strong or not powerful enough. It's not immediately obvious how one would change those lumens from the lock screen, but doing so is almost as fast as turning it on.
How To: Miss When Siri Used to Display On-Screen Transcriptions of Everything Spoken? You Can Get That Back in iOS 14
With iOS 14, Siri no longer takes up the entire display unless you want it to. That may be a good thing, but the update also axed the live feedback when listening to you and responding. Siri used to transcribe your words in on-screen text before answering, and it would transcribe its own answers as well. While it looks like those are gone, you can bring them back to life at any time.
How To: Bring Back Full-Page Siri in iOS 14 So You're Not Distracted by Any Apps Underneath
Full-page interfaces are so iOS 13. With Apple's iOS 14, alerts such incoming phone and FaceTime calls now appear as small banners instead. The same goes for Siri. Instead of using your iPhone's full display, Siri now exists in an unobtrusive overlay. But if you miss the focus that full-screen Siri used to bring, you're in luck because the feature still exists — it's just hidden.
How To: Audio Messages Keep Disappearing in iMessages? Do This to Stop Them from Self-Destructing
Introduced in the Messages app back in iOS 8, audio messages are a fun way to spice up an iMessage thread when you're bored with text, emoji, and GIFs. However, it can be frustrating to lose an important, funny, or otherwise-interesting sound clip because iOS auto-deletes it two minutes after you send or listen to it. Thankfully, there is a way to stop this from happening.
How To: Stop Deleting iPhone Notifications One by One — Clear All Alerts at Once by Doing This
If you're like me, no matter how hard you try, your iPhone's notifications are a mess. There's just too many of them. That's when it becomes helpful just to get rid of the whole bunch and start fresh. However, deleting alerts one at a time is as tedious as it is unnecessary since you can clear all of your notifications at once.
YSK: You Can Manage App Downloads & Updates Right from Your iPhone's Home Screen
Everyone knows that app updates on iOS are found in the App Store. What you might not have known, however, is that you don't need to manually open the App Store app to manage your updates and downloads. In fact, that work can be started or completed directly from the first place you interact with on your iPhone — the home screen.
How To: Finally, You Can Hide the 'Hidden' Album from the Photos App on Your iPhone
The "Hidden" album on your iPhone has always had one problem — it was never truly hidden. Since iOS 10, when the feature was introduced in the Photos app, any image or video that you conceal in the private folder could be seen by anyone with access to your unlocked device. Finally, that has changed.
How To: The Hidden Way to Delete Numbers on Your iPhone's Calculator
Let's say you're using your iPhone's Calculator app, and you're knee-deep into a complicated calculation with many steps. You type in a large number, for example, "123,466,789," but mess up. You meant to type "5" midway through but accidentally typed "6" instead. The only thing to do now is start over, no matter how far along you are, right? Wrong.
How To: You Can Block Any App from Using Up Your iPhone's Precious Mobile Data by Doing This
If you have a limited mobile data plan on your iPhone, you know how tricky it can be to stay within your given allotment. Large app installs and updates, 4K resolution videos, and photo backups can waste precious data resources in no time. And apps like Apple News, Facebook, Mail, and Netflix eat data like it's candy. But you can nip the problem in the bud by restricting data hogs from your cellular network.
How To: Do This to Start Your Day with a Favorite Song, Not an Obnoxious iPhone Alarm Sound
Why are you still waking up to an annoying alarm clock sound on your iPhone? It's 2020, not 2011. That's almost a decade since you were limited to a strict set of default tones. Yes, your iPhone has a ton of tones by now to choose from, but you could be waking up gently to your favorite slow song, or jolting awake by the harsh sounds of metal ringing in your ears to get pumped for the rest of the day.