iOS & iPhone How-Tos
How To: Turn Your iPhone's Auto-Brightness Off in iOS 11
If you're not a fan of your iPhone's ability to adjust screen brightness by itself, you've probably turned off auto-brightness on multiple occasions in the past. All you would do is go to your "Display & Brightness" settings and toggle it off, but that's no longer the case in iOS 11.
Cydia 101: How to Add Repos to Find More Jailbreak Tweaks
Unlike the iOS App Store, which is a one-stop shop that lets you search for and instantly download apps on your iPhone, jailbreak apps found within Cydia are far more fragmented and not as easy to source. In fact, Cydia only comes stock with a fraction of the apps and tweaks that are available on its official Apple counterpart. That's where Cydia repositories come in.
How To: Unlock Your iPhone's Secret Camera Level in iOS 11
Apple's stock Camera app has a few great new features in iOS 11, but one of the more interesting ones is a level that helps you take photos of documents and nicely plated food from a top-down perspective. Unfortunately, you'd never know it was there since it's not enabled by default, and there is no obvious setting for it.
Messages 101: Get Text Sounds & Vibration Alerts for Specific Contacts in 'Do Not Disturb' Mode
In the "Do Not Disturb" menu in your iPhone's settings, you can choose to allow phone calls from everyone, your favorites, or specific groups. However, this does not apply to text messages, only phone calls, so there's no way to get vibration or sound alert for messages from select contacts — but that doesn't mean there isn't a way.
Messages 101: How to Hide Alerts for Specific Conversation Threads
When somebody is in the middle of rapid firing you some text messages and they become too much for you to bear, you have a few options on your iPhone. You can simply leave the conversation, if it's an iMessage group chat with four or more participants, or you can put the whole message thread on silent, which applies to everyone, no matter if it's iMessage, SMS, MMS, or a group conversation.
Messages 101: How to Leave Group Conversations on Your iPhone
Group chats can get out of control. One minute you're in the middle of a thoughtful debate, the next minute everybody is sending gratuitous stickers and emojis like nobody's business. If you're at work or school, this can obviously get a little frustrating as your notifications fill up, even with your iPhone on silent. Luckily, there's a simple option — leave the group.
Messages 101: How to Name Group iMessages on Your iPhone
Group messages are great when you want to talk to multiple people at the same time. However, things can get disorderly real fast in the Messages app, especially if the same person is in multiple group conversations. That's where custom group names come in, which helps you make sense of all those disorganized threads with multiple names/numbers attached.
Messages 101: How to Enable & Disable Read Receipts for iMessages
If you've accidentally turned on "Read Receipts" for all of your iMessages, there's an easy way to disable it so that no one knows when you're actually reading their incoming messages. You could also pick and choose which conversations can see that you've read their messages if you don't want to kill the feature entirely.
FaceTime 101: How to Turn Speakerphone On Automatically for FaceTime Audio Calls
By default, when you receive a FaceTime video call on your iPhone, the speakerphone kicks in immediately after answering. However, it's the exact opposite when it comes to FaceTime audio calls. Luckily, this is pretty easy to remedy if you'd rather have the speakerphone kick in instead of the built-in ear speaker.
FaceTime 101: How to Take or Disable Live Photos During a Video Call
Nothing has stopped you from taking a screenshot of a funny moment in a FaceTime video call before, and nothing probably will. In fact, Apple has made it even easier — and more lively — to take FaceTime screenshots on your iPhone.
How To: Drag & Drop Photos on Your iPhone in iOS 11
One of the more interesting improvements to the Photos app in iOS 11 includes a way to drag and drop a photo from one album into another album. In fact, you could even drag and drop multiple photos at the same time. And this is not an iPad-only feature — it works just as well on an iPhone.
VLC 101: How to Stream Videos from Your Favorite Cloud Storage Services on iPhone
If you have movies and videos stored on Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, you should definitely be using the VLC app for iPhone. After setting a few things up, VLC will let you stream videos directly from any of these services with a proper video player UI, complete with gesture controls.
How To: Everything You Need to Disable on Your iPhone for Maximum Security
Privacy and security go hand in hand, especially for smartphones. When it comes to privacy, you decide what personal information about yourself is out there to discover. Security, on the other hand, is all about enforcing those privacy decisions.
How To: Block Certain Apps from Appearing in Your Notifications History in iOS 11
Apple has changed up quite a few things regarding notifications in iOS 11. They've added optional persistent notifications, made it possible to disable notification previews for all apps, and changed "Notification Center" to "Cover Sheet." In the process, they've also included another handy feature — the ability to hide certain app notifications from appearing in your Recent Notifications list.
How To: Disable Notification Previews for All Apps in iOS 11
I couldn't live without seeing previews of certain notifications on my iPhone, but there are definitely some that I'd like to hide, either because they're annoying or because I don't want anyone else to see them. Previously, you could only disable notification previews for Apple apps such as Mail, Messages, Photos, and Wallet, but in iOS 11, you can disable previews for every single app on your iPhone.
FaceTime 101: Save Cellular Data by Using Wi-Fi Only for Audio & Video Calls
This may not matter to you if you only FaceTime from your iPhone occasionally, but if you're FaceTiming every day on a limited data plan from your cellular provider, you're going to want to conserve as much data as possible by making sure that you're connected to Wi-Fi only — especially if they are video calls.
FaceTime 101: How to Change Your Caller ID to an Email Address or Your Phone Number
Whenever you make FaceTime audio or video calls from your iPhone, Apple automatically uses your phone number or Apple ID email address as the caller identification. So when someone that you're calling sees the incoming call, they'll see it's from your phone number. But what if you'd rather it be a different identifier?
FaceTime 101: How to Add or Remove Email Addresses to Be Reached At on Your iPhone
On your iPhone, your phone number and Apple ID email address are the default ways in which somebody can contact you on FaceTime. While you can't remove your phone number as an option, you can remove your Apple ID email account. More importantly, you can add any other email addresses you'd like to this list, so you never have to worry about a friend, family member, or coworker not being able to audio or video chat with you.
How To: Create a Strong (Or Stronger) Passcode for Your iPhone
When you first set up an iPhone, you'll be prompted to create a 6-digit passcode to unlock your screen and access certain system settings. If you skip this step, you can always go back and create one, which we highly recommend. Without a passcode, everything on your iPhone is accessible by anyone who gets their hands on it — nosey friends, hackers, thieves, local law enforcement, the FBI — and you don't want that, do you?
Siri 101: How to Turn Off Voice Feedback (Aka Mute Siri)
Siri can definitely be helpful when you need her (or him), but you may not want the entire world hearing Siri's responses in certain situations. If you're in a library, meeting, class, or another scenario where your iPhone's voice assistant would do more harm than good, there's a way to keep Siri silent ... but it's tricky.
Siri 101: How to Use 'Hey Siri' Hands-Free on Your iPhone
The primary method of activating Siri is done by pressing and holding the home button on your iPhone, but there's a much better way to ask a question to or command Siri — and you don't need to touch your iPhone at all to do it.
How To: Disable Auto-Playing Videos in the iOS 11 App Store
Apple just jumped on the auto-play bandwagon with their revamped App Store in iOS 11. Now, when you visit an app or game page that has a video trailer, it will automatically play. This can not only get pretty annoying, but it can eat up your precious data. Luckily, there's a way to restrict these auto-playing videos to Wi-Fi only — or disable them altogether.
Facebook 101: Turn Your Live Photo into a Facebook Profile Video
Changing your Facebook profile picture to a video has yet to become fashionable on the social media platform, but it's a good way to stand out. A regular video file isn't the only option, though — if you're an iPhone user, you can also upload a Live Photo as your new profile picture to make your Facebook page pop.
Siri 101: How to Type Questions & Commands Without Any Talking
Brace yourselves, because Siri just got a new trick up its sleeve, and it's something that iPhone users have wanted for some time. Yep, that's right, I'm talking about the ability to use Siri without having to talk out loud for the whole world to hear you. It's great for privacy, Siri-ing on the down-low when you're not supposed to, or ... you know ... if you have a speech disorder.
Siri 101: How to Completely Turn Off Siri on Your iPhone
Not everyone digs Siri. Some of you probably can't live without the personal assistant on your iPhone, and some of you probably never even use it — and likely never will. If you fall into the latter category of iPhone users, you can simply disable the feature altogether, which will prevent accidentally triggering her or him anymore and will keep your iPhone nice and secure overall.
How To: 18 Tips for iOS 11's New Screenshot Tool on Your iPhone
The first thing you'll probably notice after updating your iPhone to iOS 11 is what happens after you take a screenshot. Instead of just a flash of light and maybe a noise, you'll also be greeted with a thumbnail image of what you just captured — and that tiny thumbnail image holds a lot of superpowers.
How To: Unlock Virtual Reality 'Flyover' Cities in Apple Maps on Your iPhone in iOS 11
A little-known feature in Apple Maps for your iPhone lets you tour big cities like your Godzilla, and it's actually quite easy to access — if you know the secret.
How To: Improve Battery Life on Your iPhone in iOS 11
The new iOS 11 was just released by Apple for beta testing, and you can install it right now. Overall, it's got some great features, but how does it fare battery-wise on your iPhone? And how can you increase daily battery life for more juice and less charging every day?
How To: Instantly Share Wi-Fi Passwords from Your iPhone to Other iOS 11 Devices Nearby
When you don't know the password to a Wi-Fi network at a friend's house or coffee shop, you have to ask for it to save data on your iPhone. If the hotspot's owner can actually remember the password, good luck putting it in on the first try. If they don't remember, then you might just have to use cellular data. Thankfully, this whole process is getting much easier with Apple's iOS 11 update.
How To: Quickly Switch Between Alphabet & Numeric Keyboards on Your iPhone
The keyboard is one of the biggest weak points of iOS devices, in part due to the lack of an option to add a number row. Fortunately, there is a way to quickly switch between the numeric and alphabet layouts on your iPhone or iPad's keyboard.
How To: Enable One-Handed Typing on Your iPhone's Stock Keyboard in iOS 11
Apple introduced third-party keyboards back in iOS 8, and swipe-input options like Gboard, SwiftKey, and Swype made typing on and iPhone one-handed much easier. Even better, apps like Word Flow moved the keyboard to the side of the iPhone so there was less thumb-stretching. Now, in iOS 11, Apple added an option for better one-handed typing right into the stock keyboard.
How To: Use 'Do Not Disturb While Driving' on Your iPhone in iOS 11 (Or Turn It Off if You Don't Like It)
One of the most anticipated new Maps features in iOS 11 for iPhones is live and ready to keep you safe on the road. Right now, Do Not Disturb While Driving is opt-in, but if you missed Apple's on-screen prompt to enable it and want to turn it on, or if you accidentally enabled it but want it turned off, we're here to help.
Instagram 101: How to Frame Your Instagram Stories with the Letter O
Instagram Stories is one of the most flexible ways to share creative and original content with your followers. It allows you to alter text, markup images, and add cool graphics and stickers, along with other fun ways of expressing yourself.
How To: Navigate Indoor Mall & Airport Floorplans in Apple Maps for iOS 11
Apple has some great features aimed at making the lives of globetrotters and mall aficionados significantly easier — by incorporating detailed floor plans for airports and shopping centers in its native Maps app with the launch of iOS 11.
How To: The 6 Best New Notes Features in iOS 11 for iPhone
With iOS 11, Apple's very own Notes app will now come standard with a number of new features that aim to make it significantly more user-friendly and help it compete against more popular notepads like OneNote and Evernote.
How To: Save $20 a Year on Apple Music
Apple Music offers a cheaper subscription option to those of you who look for it — only $99 for a year. If you are already an Apple Music user, you can access the option right now. Otherwise, you have to sign up for a normal monthly plan first, then switch to this plan to get a better deal after.
How To: The 5 Best New Siri Features in iOS 11 for iPhone
There are a lot of exciting improvements in store for Siri in iOS 11. Apple showed off some of the highlights at WWDC, but there are five changes in particular that you don't want to miss.
How To: Take Live Photos of FaceTime Video Calls in iOS 11 (& Protect Yourself from Getting Recorded)
When you're taking a video in the Camera app on your iPhone, there's a little white shutter button in the corner that lets you take a still image while you're filming. Now, Apple is bringing that same concept over to the FaceTime app in iOS 11, so you can take Live Photos of your friends during video chats.
How To: Automatically Answer Phone Calls on Your iPhone in iOS 11
If you've ever missed an important phone call because you're hands were too dirty to touch the screen, you won't have to worry much longer about it happening again. Apple is remedying this age-old problem on the iPhone with a hidden feature in iOS 11 that ensures you'll never miss another call again.
Gaming: Play Brawl Stars by Supercell on Your iPhone Right Now
Supercell's highly anticipated Brawl Stars has soft launched in Canada, with gamers worldwide salivating at the prospect of a full debut around the corner. Unbeknownst to many, this game can be played on your iPhone right now, regardless of where you live.
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