Hot iOS & iPhone How-Tos
How To: Create Double Exposure Photos & Videos on Your iPhone
Aside from the occasional "creative" collage, most of your friends on social media are content with pretty basic image and video posts. You can easily one-up them with celebrity cameos or awesome time-lapse videos, but to truly outshine them, try your hands at some creative double exposures.
How To: Download Music & Video Files onto Your iPhone Without iTunes
Apple prides itself on simplicity, but the company makes downloading video and music files onto your iPad or iPhone an overly complicated process, requiring iTunes and/or iCloud.
How To: Get Custom iPhone Alerts for Shows, Films, Games, Weather, & More with Hooks
While it's not too hard to remember to watch your favorite TV show every week, it's almost impossible to remember to watch all of your favorite shows. Add on to that sports games, live music events, and new film releases and you'll find yourself in a disorganized mess with a lot of missing out.
How To: This iOS 8 Shortcut Lets You Toggle Brightness Using Your iPhone's Home Button
Automatic brightness adjustments are supposed to make it easier to maintain good visibility on your phone, but it really never works as intended. It usually doesn't adjust properly, leading you to manually pull up the Control Center to adjust brightness via the slider.
How To: Jailbreak iOS 8.0-8.1.1 on Your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch (& Install Cydia)
The release of iOS version 8.1.1 brought some much needed bug fixes to Apple's mobile operating system, but with it came a patch for Pangu's jailbreak method, which worked on iOS 8.0 to iOS 8.1 using a Mac or Windows computer. Luckily, it didn't take very long for a new team of developers to come up with a method for jailbreaking iOS 8.1.1 devices, and much like its predecessor, the process is a cinch.
Noseprint Security: How to Unlock Your iPhone with Your Nose
The Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S was one of the phone's biggest selling points. Now, the Touch ID system can do more than just unlock your phone, like pay for stuff, and is even present on the new iPads (as well as iPhone 6 models, of course).
How To: Apple's iOS 8.1 Update Gives iPhones Everything That iOS 8 Promised
While the adoption of Apple's newest mobile operating system, iOS 8, was smoother than its predecessor, there were still a lot of bugs and features that needed ironed out. There were lost cellular signals, missing Camera Rolls, a confusing iCloud Drive, and no functioning Apple Pay yet, among other things. Now it's just over a month later from its first release to the public and things are finally looking pretty good.
How To: The Fastest Way to Delete Unwanted Photos & Screenshots on Your iPhone
Apple doesn't make it very easy to delete things quickly from your Photos library, mainly for two reasons. First of all, if you delete multiple pictures at once, it's difficult to know the full details of each individual one you're selecting because the tiny thumbnails don't show very much detail. Secondly, if you delete the pictures one-by-one, you'll be able to view them in full screen, but it will take forever. And dealing with a delete confirmation each time is enough to drive anyone crazy.
How To: Unlock Hyperlapse's Secret "Labs" Menu for 1080p Recording, Faster Time-Lapses, & More
While your iPhone may have a built-in time-lapse feature, it's nowhere near as smooth as Instagram's newish Hyperlapse app, and it doesn't give you any speed control like the latter does. If you haven't tested out Hyperlapse yet, check out the short promo video to see just how well its stabilization algorithm works.
How To: Post to Facebook & Twitter from Your Notification Center
Back in the days of iOS 6, iPhone users were able to send a quick tweet from their notification center, but that has long since been removed. This convenient feature was missed enough on iOS 7 for devs to create a jailbreak tweak in its absence. Thankfully, due to the new widget capabilities of iOS 8, we can have Twitter back in the Notification Center along with Facebook.
IOS8: How to Save iPhone and iPad from Children Excessive Use
This video will show you how to set time limit for your children games in your iPhone or iPad. This will restrict children from excessive use of your iPhone or iPad. When this time limit is over, the game your child is playing will be stopped automatically. They will not be able to continue playing games until you start a new session for them. So please watch the video and employ it in your phone.
How To: Create Personalized GIFs Using Faces on Your iPhone or iPad
JibJab may not ring the bell, but you've probably seen one of their personalized videos. Using your own images, JibJab will place you first-hand into silly and usually musically-inspired videos that you can view online. Currently in beta, JibJib has made it's way to iOS in the form of personalized GIF creation. And if you're wondering, "why the hell would I want this", trust me, you'll love creating GIFs starring your and your friend's faces. Check out the guide below to get the app installed...
How To: Create Collaborative Reminders on Your iPhone or iPad
Reminding a spouse or roommate to pick up some last-minute groceries is typically done with a quick message that can easily go unnoticed or unseen. Your feeble attempt of a reminder won't work unless it's conveniently sent at the right moment, like when they're on their way home. Chances are, you'll forget to text them and they'll forget the earlier reminder you sent.
How To: Noice Adds Sounds to Emojis on Your iPhone
As messaging and texting have all but replaced the need to actually call someone, emojis have seemingly replaced our need to type out text. With a simple emoji, you can relay emotions like "I don't feel very well" or "I love you" quickly and easily, knowing that the other party will instantly know what you're feeling.
Siri Exploited—Again: How to Bypass the Lock Screen in iOS 8 (& How to Protect Yourself)
It's becoming more and more apparent that Siri continually drops the ball when it comes to lock screen security. In the past, Siri was exploited in iOS 7.0.2 to send messages without needing a passcode. Then in iOS 7.1.1, Siri was use to bypass the lock screen again to access contacts, make calls, and send emails and texts.
How To: Put Celebs in Your Photos Directly from Your iPhone
It's time to step up your selfie game, especially if all of your selfies tend to have the same vapid look and feel. There are plenty of techniques for better selfie-taking, and I've already shown you a few iPhone tricks, like making yourself look thinner and using hand gestures to get situated better. Now I'll show you how to give your followers something to really "like"—celebrities.
How To: View & Use iCloud Drive Files on Your iPhone
iCloud Drive is Apple's new solution to file management syncing across iOS and Mac OS X. If you've upgraded to iOS 8 and you have an iCloud account, you can use iCloud Drive to store files for certain apps. While you won't really be able to benefit with file syncing between iOS and Mac apps until you get Yosemite, you can still access your iCloud Drive documents online.
How To: The Trick to Opening Up Directions in Third-Party Map Apps on Your iPhone
After a few unnecessary U-turns, I quickly realized that Apple Maps wasn't for me, which is why I hate that it opens as the default app any time I select a shared location or an address from Yelp. Copying and pasting the address to Google Maps isn't a huge deal, but it's certainly not as fluid of a process as I'd like.
How To: Top 5 Free Productivity Widgets for Your iPad or iPhone
More and more devices are using iOS 8 over iOS 7, and that means more and more developers are adding iOS 8-friendly features to their apps, especially widgets. However, not every widget available for your Notification Center right now is awesome. Take for example the Dropbox widget—it's essentially nothing more than a real-time notification, as the only action it performs is opening a recently updated file within the app.
How to Fix a Bricked iPhone 6: Unresponsive Buttons, Red/Blue Screens, & Bootloops
We recently ran into a serious iPhone 6 issue here in the Gadget Hacks office, where the device was stuck in an infinite bootloop with intermittent red and blue screens (of death?) and an unresponsive touchscreen and buttons. From what we can tell, we weren't alone, though some are experiencing only one or a few of the issues we've had.
How To: Translate Foreign Webpages in Safari for iOS 8
While it can be argued that Google Chrome is generally a better browser, iPhone users tend to remain loyal to Safari. But one feature that gives Chrome the upper hand is its ability to recognize the language on any given page and offer you an option to translate it to your native language.
How To: Who Needs Camera Roll? Use MyRoll on Your iPhone Instead
While there isn't a "Camera Roll" anymore in iOS 8 for your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, the photos that were once in it are not missing—they're just not as convenient as they once were. In the upcoming iOS 8.1 update, Camera Roll will be making a comeback, but we've found something better that you can use right now—even after Camera Roll returns!
How To: Add Speed-Dial to Your iPhone's Notification Center in iOS 8
Accessing your favorite and most recent contacts on your iPhone is now faster than ever before, thanks to the iOS 8 update. Just double-click your Home button, select your contact above the app switcher menu, then choose how you want to contact them.
How To: Edit Your iPhone Pics Using Third-Party Editing Tools in iOS 8's Stock Photos App
Extensibility is a feature that allows developers to integrate their apps into iOS 8 in different ways—that's how we have widgets in the Notification Center, more sharing options in the Photos app, the use of third-party keyboards such as SwiftKey, and more.
How To: Messaging Just Got Way More Fun with GIF Keyboard for iOS 8
Third-party keyboards have become a game changer for iPhone owners since their integration in iOS 8. And while the major players from the Android realm—Fleksy, SwiftKey, Swype—already have their keyboards on the iOS App Store, their products are relatively standard fare.
How To: Fix Cell Service & Touch ID After Installing the iOS 8.0.1 iPhone Update
The official release of iOS 8 was highly anticipated, but the truth is it may have been a little premature on Apple's part. Since its debut only a week ago, plenty of bugs and issues have been reported across the various compatible iPhone models.
How To: Get Alerts for When Your Local Apple Store Has an iPhone 6 in Stock
If you're trying to get a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, we know you've been struggling to find one, and we're here to help. With Apple's preorder numbers topping 4 million in the first 24 hours, it was nearly impossible to get one during the first wave.
How To: Securely Erase Your iPhone When Selling, Trading, Returning, or Giving It Away
When it comes to give away or sell your iPhone, you can't just power it down, take out the SIM card, and hope everything will be okay. There's valuable data on your iPhone, and you need to get rid of it. Plus, if you don't perform all the necessary steps, chances are whoever ends up with the device won't even be able to use it. If you're selling it, that could ding your seller reputation.
How To: Maximize Your iPhone's Battery Life in iOS 8
The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are supposed to last a lot longer in your pocket with improved battery life, but that doesn't mean that iOS 8 will be that friendly on your older iPhone model. All of those awesome new features could be killing your battery, but with some simple tweaking, your battery life concerns will be a mere afterthought.
How To: Downgrade an iPhone to iOS 7.1.2 from iOS 8
There are a lot of great new features in iOS 8, but not everyone is enjoying them. Some of you may just genuinely prefer iOS 7 over iOS 8, and some of you may be experiencing lag on older devices like the iPhone 4S, however minimal it may be. Whatever the reason, if you don't want iOS 8 on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, there's still time to downgrade back to iOS 7.1.2.
How To: The 6 Best Third-Party Keyboards Available Right Now for iPhone
Third-party keyboards have been available for iPhone ever since iOS 8, but which ones are worth checking out? There have been many options over the years, and if you want keyboard features like swipe-typing and themes, you're going to have to put Apple's stock QuickType keyboard on the backburner and try out these top hits.
How To: Track Your iPhone 6 Shipping Status
Unless you're waiting in line for your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, it's a sure bet that you'll be sitting by at home for your new device to get delivered today.
How To: Snapchat Directly from Your Photos App on iOS 8
Thanks to Apple's new extensibility features in iOS 8, developers are now able to create extensions for their apps that let you perform actions in notifications, widgets, and in stock Apple apps without having to open up the specific app itself.
How To: Recover Your Missing iPhone Photos & Videos in iOS 8
After updating to iOS 8, some of you have probably noticed that a lot of your pictures and videos are missing from the Photos app. Even if you were to restore your iPad or iPhone to your last backup, they would still be missing. But don't worry, that's just because albums work differently in iOS 8—all of your old photos are still there, just not as in your face as before.
How To: 14 iOS 8 Privacy Settings Everyone Needs to Understand (And Probably Change Right Now)
Keeping data private is vital in the days of smartphones and the free-floating information they carry. Justin wrote a guide on many of the deeply hidden and sometimes concerning privacy settings in iOS 7. Now we're back to cover some of the new (and old) privacy settings in iOS 8 that you need to address right now.
How To: Everything You Need to Know About iOS 8 for Your iPad, iPhone, & iPod Touch
Now that you've updated your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to iOS 8, there's a lot of cool new things to explore. If you felt a little overwhelmed from all of the detailed information available in our Coolest Hidden Features of iOS 8 post, then I've got a simple breakdown of all of the new features available with quick links to their walkthroughs and pictures, if available. Watch the short video roundup, or skip below for the list.
How To: SwiftKey, the Mind-Reading Keyboard, Is Here for iOS 8
As soon as third-party keyboard compatibility was announced for iOS 8, Apple loyalists and the newly curious both looked to the popular Android third-party keyboard developer, SwiftKey, to see if they'd be offering their services to iOS.
How To: Update Your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch to iOS 8
iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch owners: it's that time again. iOS 8 has been released to the public, and those who have been eager to update since Apple's WWDC announcement won't have to wait any longer. Since iOS 8 promises to pack a bunch of new, really great features, it's time to present your options for getting on the latest and greatest for your Apple device.
How To: The Quick & Easy Secret to Reopen Accidentally Closed Tabs in iOS 8's Safari
With a new, somewhat buried feature in iOS 8, unintentionally closing a tab in Safari is no longer the burden it used to be. With iOS 7, you had to tap on the bookmarks icon from the main toolbar and go through your history to get that accidentally closed tab back. Now, Apple makes it easy to much easier to remedy the situation.
How To: Delete Your Message History Automatically
By default, texts and iMessages are stored forever in the Messages app on your iPhone. But do you really need them to be? It's not too often that you'll need to view a text from a year ago, and keeping all those images, video, and other media — not to mention the messages themselves — can take up valuable storage space on your device.