Gadget Hacks How-To's: Page 3

Safari isn't the only web browser on your iPhone or iPad that will let you add icons to your Home Screen for progressive web apps and website bookmarks. Apple gave developers the key to its "Add to Home Screen" feature, and your favorite iOS or iPadOS web browser may already support it.

As the iOS 18 beta continues, Apple's still investing time into fixing up iOS 17. Compared to iOS 17.4 and iOS 17.5, which both had over 30 new features and changes, iOS 17.6 is a relatively small software update for iPhone. But there are still some important things to know about.

When you need a file on your Mac as soon as possible, you usually have to get your MacBook or hop on your iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, or Mac Studio. But that's too much work if you're in bed, lying on the couch, or outside in the fresh air. Why even bother when you can access that file directly on your iPhone or iPad — without moving an inch?

Hey, all you Instagram lovers, haters, or people who have no choice but to submissively bow down to the social app giant for other reasons, you've come to the right place. Today, I'm going to walk you through a very simple marketing trick to start boosting traffic to your IG account.

I have nightmares about trying to reply to hundreds of strangers on social media. To prevent the overwhelming feeling of having to small talk with people I don't know, I'm now aiming for more control over the ways that people can contact me. One way is to stop users from hitting me up on Instagram Stories.

If you want to share a video to Stories — but it's over 24 hours old — it may seem like you can't, but there's actually a simple hack on how to do just that.

While you can quickly see the edit history of a modified iMessage in the Messages app, there's no way to view an iMessage that somebody in the conversation deleted unless you happened to see it before it disappeared. But that's only true if you didn't implement these security measures on your iPhone.

Your iPhone goes with you everywhere, and its touchscreen interface is all you need to navigate and use all your installed iOS apps. But an external keyboard can make your iPhone an even more efficient tool for productivity tasks such as drafting long emails, composing detailed notes, and writing reports in your favorite text editor.

When typing an email or website address in a compatible input field on an iPhone, most people will manually type in the domain extension. But there's a much faster way to enter domain suffixes for email addresses and website URLs that you should be using on your keyboard. Even better, there's a way to customize what domain extensions appear in the keyboard shortcut!

There is no iPad version of Apple's Calculator app (at least, not yet), so you won't find it on your Home Screen, in your App Library, or as a shortcut in the Control Center. But that doesn't mean your iPad doesn't have an official calculator.

Apple doesn't include its Calculator app on the iPad and never did. One almost appeared over 12 years ago but was nothing more than a blown-up version of the iPhone app. Since then, the company still hasn't made an iPad-optimized calculator, and there is no shortage of third-party alternatives to fill the gap. It may happen one day, but for now, these are the best calculator apps for your iPad.

The Calculator app is probably one of Apple's most-used iPhone apps, yet I always meet people who don't know all the little tricks there are to using it more efficiently. You may know most of them, but there's a chance you don't or at least forget about some of them.

The Calculator app on your iPhone may seem boring and basic, but there are a few interesting tricks worth knowing. You can ask Siri to perform calculations for you, long-press on results to copy them, long-press the field to paste numbers in, and swipe left or right above the keypad to delete digits one by one. The app can also be used as a scientific calculator with just a simple maneuver.

When it's time to calculate a tip at a restaurant or bar, I usually try some mental math at first, but sometimes I resort to opening the Calculator quickly from the Control Center on my iPhone and doing a quick calculation. But with Apple's Shortcuts app, there's an even easier way, and you don't even have to leave your lock screen to get the results.

When you download files from certain apps like Safari and Chrome on your Mac, those files are tagged with the "Where from" metadata attribute. Depending on where the file was downloaded from, this attribute may refer to the host's URL, a sender's email address, or another piece of identifying information. While not obvious, you can delete or even change this attribute.

Home Screen widgets come in various sizes on iOS 14 and later, and which size you choose will depend on how much content or data you actually want to see. But what happens when you pick the wrong widget size? In a perfect world, you would just edit the current widget's settings, but Apple didn't make it that easy.

You probably know of Apple's Text Replacement feature for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, but you're probably not using it as much as you should. With it, you can create your own keyboard triggers for almost anything you can think of, whether it's an email address or an entire email. There are endless reasons to create custom text replacements — and we'll show you why.

Your iPhone is fairly secure by default, but Apple's Lockdown Mode takes it to Fort Knox levels of protection. If you're a high-value target for spyware, phishing attempts, and other sophisticated cyberattacks, it's an essential feature. But for almost everyone else, it's an extreme move. If you simply want to verify someone's identity when chatting, Contact Key Verification is a more practical option.

If you use the Apple TV Remote found in your iPhone's Control Center, there's a hidden surprise you'll like on iOS 16 and later — one that lets you use the remote without ever having to open Control Center.

Your iPhone has hidden apps that work behind the scenes to filter SMS messages, trust computers, deal with payments, test ads, and perform other actions. You won't find any of them in your App Library, but there are tricks you can employ to unlock and use some of these secret apps.

Email accounts can quickly get out of control, and important emails can easily get lost if you don't have time to look at them right away. In Apple's Mail app, there's a simple way to be reminded of emails you want to read later, whether it's an email with tasks you need to complete, upcoming event details, or a message you need to reply to, and it works no matter the email account.

Apple's built-in search on iPhone is an incredibly valuable tool you shouldn't ignore or underutilize, and we're here to show you why. So, buckle in because this list covers hidden and lesser-known Spotlight features that will leave you wondering how you ever lived without Spotlight Search on iOS.

If you bought an iPhone or iPad equipped with USB-C but didn't max out the local storage, there are some great external storage solutions beyond iCloud and other cloud storage services. And now that the iPhone lineup comes with USB-C ports, you have better-performing external drives available to you than anything you could ever get for a Lightning-based model.

Phone in one pocket, wallet in the other? It's the classic combo guaranteed to give you more pocket bulge. But it's 2024. Half that stuff in your wallet is practically antique. It's time to finally ditch all the dead weight and get a MagSafe wallet for iPhone — and we've got the best picks to slim you down to the essentials.

Lidar, a technology first used by meteorologists and aerospace engineers and then adopted in self-driving vehicles, has slowly crept into consumer electronics over the last five years. If you have a Pro model iPhone or iPad, there's a good chance it has a lidar sensor, and you're likely using it whether you know it or not.

Your iPhone has a neat trick up its sleeves that gives you total control over the focal plane in all the portraits you've already snapped. This gives you the power to significantly enhance the composition and emotional impact of each image. In some cases, you can even focus on new subjects in regular stills and Live Photos.

Apple's latest iPhone software update — iOS 17.5 — is finally ready for prime time. Released on May 13, it includes at least 32 new features and changes you need to know about, from a new game and offline news access to new wallpapers and anti-stalking capabilities.

The last iOS software update was a modest one, but iOS 17.4 has a lot more for your iPhone, including changes to emoji, Podcasts, security, Safari, widgets, Apple Cash, CarPlay, and more.

There are a few significant improvements for your iPhone with the iOS 17.5 software update, released May 13, but my favorite is Apple's enhancements to the Apple News app, which is making its Puzzles section even more fun with Game Center integration and even a new type of word puzzle.

The app with the most significant update on iOS 17.5 is, by far, Apple News. While there are a few changes in Books and Settings, as well as minor changes in apps like Podcasts, Apple News has at least 11 new features and changes you should know, some of which are worth getting excited about.

You no longer have to worry about repair technicians accessing the personal information on your iPhone when you send it in for repairs. With Apple's new security feature, you'll no longer have to erase your iPhone to ensure your photos, messages, accounts, and other private data remain for your eyes only.

Collaboration is available in many different Apple apps, from Notes and Reminders to Photos, Freeform, and even Files. Now you can add to the list Apple Music, which will let you collaborate on playlists with friends.

A great way to incorporate a healthy exercise routine is by taking lots of steps throughout the day. While most smartphones can track and report your steps via a third-party app, you can check them right from your home screen if you have a OnePlus phone.

While it doesn't come with any iPad models out of the box, the Apple Pencil is perhaps the best iPad accessory you can get. It's a powerful writing and drawing tool with an intuitive design and user-friendliness that makes it easy to take notes, draw sketches, mark up documents, and more. And there's a lot you can do with it — some of which you may not have noticed yet.

Whenever your iPhone's ringer is on, you'll hear Apple's iconic "Connect Power" chime every time you connect it to a wired or wireless power source, which lets you know that charging has started. There's no way to disable the sound without turning on Silent mode, but there is a way to make Siri automatically say whatever you want after a successful connection.

Sharing your personal information can come up for any number of reasons: you may want to get in touch with a colleague after work or you've been involved in a car accident and need to stay in contact with the other driver. Unfortunately, giving out information can be the key for others to find your social media accounts, such as Instagram, whether you want it to happen or not.

So, you're trying to show a friend or two a hilarious Reel you liked or saved on Instagram, but where is it? Unlike TikTok, Instagram doesn't make it clear where you're supposed to find your liked and saved Reels. Luckily, we can help.

Apple's Siri is well-versed in the spells of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but it's not like Android users are Muggles. Google Assistant, Android's virtual concierge, can cast a few spells out of the box, and it can learn the spells it doesn't know quicker than a year of studying at Hogwarts.

Besides obvious features like a touchscreen and biometric sensors, the modern smartphone comes with an array of state-of-the-art hardware in the form of various sensors that help your device sense the environment around it. And if you have a Samsung handset, chances are, you have a handy feature built in that enables you to check if these sensors are functioning 100 percent.

When I got my first smartphone, it didn't take long before my friends and I created a game that we liked to call "Paste-Send." You see, instead of having to use T9 to type out text messages, the touch-based interface made copying and pasting incredibly easy. So that meant we could copy a piece of text, then paste it into text messages in rapid succession to text bomb the annoyed recipient. It was all in good fun, of course, and it usually evoked a stream of swear words from the guy on the other...