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iOS & iPhone Features

iOS 18 Tips, Tricks, How-Tos, News

How To: Erase Data from Your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch

Before you sell your old iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to a buddy or a company like Gazelle, it's vital that you wipe the entire device of all its content; including sensitive material like contacts, messages, pictures, and videos. There are two easy ways to wipe your iOS device, so let's show you how to do it using iTunes or directly from the device itself.

How To: Organize Emails Better with Your iPhone's Hidden Flag Colors

The latest update to Apple's Mail app introduces a suite of new colors for flags, unique amongst even the best email apps on the App Store. The problem is they're hard to find — if you try to flag an email the old fashioned way, it'll use the default orange color, with seemingly no way to change it. Of course, there is a way, it's just a little out of the way.

Apple Music 101: How to Download Songs & Other Media from Your iCloud Music Library for Offline Playback

For most carriers, "unlimited" data plans aren't really unlimited, and they still cost more than data limited plans. So while subscribing to music streaming services and storing your own music library in the cloud may be more convenient, it may eat your data up like candy. To keep that from happening, try downloading tracks from Apple Music for offline playback.

Quick Tip: There's a Faster Way to Open an App's Settings on Your iPhone

While iOS has many strengths, in-app settings are not among them. Sure, third-party apps often come with a settings gear, but stock apps? No way. To change settings in Music, Photos, Camera, and other Apple apps, you'll need to leave the app. But there's a hidden trick to quickly access an app's settings — without needing to open the Settings app itself manually.

How To: Secure Your iPhone's Clipboard So You Won't Accidentally Paste from Other Devices or Share Your Copied Content

Continuity connects all of your Apple devices so that they all work seamlessly together. For instance, you can start tasks on one device and finish them on another, view and send text messages or make calls on your iPhone from your iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, and even use an iPad as a monitor for your Mac. Its Universal Clipboard feature is also really useful, but it can also be quite annoying in iOS 14.

How To: All of the Ways You Can Use 3D Touch on Your iPhone

One feature in iOS you're likely underutilizing is 3D Touch, a highly useful, unique tool for iPhones ever since it first appeared on the iPhone 6S. Apple's pressure-sensitive interactivity gives iOS an extra layer of functionality, which can be clearly seen across the entirety of your device. From the lock screen to the home screen to the apps in between, there are plenty of ways to use 3D Touch.

How To: Gift iOS Apps, Games, Movies, Music, Books & TV Shows to iPhone Users

One of the best gifts that someone with an iPhone can receive is a paid app, hot new movie, bestselling album, gift card, or anything else in iTunes, Books, or the App Store that costs money. Even if it's a small $0.99 game that you heard a friend talking about, a gesture like this can go a long way. Gifting apps and media is now easier than ever, even if you don't have an iOS device yourself.

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: Stop Apps from Asking to Track Your iPhone Activity in iOS 14.5 for More Control Over Your Privacy

If you're like me, you're not too keen on being tracked. So when an app asks you if it can track your iPhone activity across other programs and websites for ads or data brokers, the answer is pretty much always "no." If you're tired of choosing "Ask App Not to Track" over and over again, there is a way to stop apps from even being able to ask in the first place.

How To: This Secret iOS 8 Feature Gives You Quicker Access to Apps Based on Your Location

Location-based app shortcuts in iOS 8 work at places like Starbucks, the Apple Store, as well as train stations, banks, hospitals, grocery stores, and more. When you're in the vicinity of these locations, a small notification appears at the bottom left of the lock screen. You you can slide up on these icons (as you would on the camera icon on the lock screen) to access specific apps based on where you're located, making it easy to access your Starbucks account when you're buying coffee or che...

How To: Quickly Download Streamable Videos on Your iPhone Before They Disappear Online

Videos hosted on Streamable may be fleeting or forever. So when you come across a cool video that you want to watch again later, it's a good idea to download it to your device in case it's one that disappears after a few months. There is no built-in download button in the Streamable player, but that doesn't mean you can't save anything on your iPhone.

How To: You're Searching Your Safari Tabs Wrong — Use This Hidden iPhone Trick to Find Them Faster

I am constantly hitting Apple's limit of 500 open tabs in Safari on my iPhone, so it's safe to say that I have way too many tabs to sort through. With that many tabs open in the browser, it can be impossible to track down the one needed at any given moment. If that sounds like you, stop browsing tab after tab to locate the right one because there are hidden tricks to searching those tabs that make it easy.

How To: Import Your Health Records onto Your iPhone

Mobile phones are not only essential for work and communication, they're quickly becoming an integral asset to our health. Your iPhone can store valuable data about fitness, nutrition, heart health, and so much more. And since iOS 11.3, your iPhone can even import a list of allergies, medications, immunizations, hospital visits, and other health information from your doctor or hospital.

How To: Use 'Sign in with Apple' on iOS 13 for Better Security & Privacy

We've all seen the login pages that allow you to log in to third-party accounts using your credentials from Facebook, Google, or Twitter. It saves you the trouble of creating another account and remembering more passwords — but it can also become a privacy and security issue, which is why Apple created the "Sign in with Apple" feature for iOS 13.

How To: Sort Reminders Lists by Title, Due Date, Creation Date, Priority & More on Your iPhone

You use your iPhone's Reminders app to keep track of everything from grocery lists to the day's most important tasks. Over recent iOS updates, Apple has added tools to Reminders to make it even more powerful, like assigning tasks to other people and setting location-based reminders. Now there's another great update, and it gives you the ability to sort your lists.

How To: Stop Your Camera from Shooting Video Outside the Frame on the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, or 11 Pro Max

The biggest change this year for iPhones comes with the cameras. All three iPhones get a new ultra-wide camera, which allows the device to capture more of what's in front of you. Not so new this year is the 64 GB base storage, which will fill up fast when shooting in 4K at 60 fps. A new feature will also add to your storage concerns, however, a feature that captures more video than it really should.

How To: The Fastest Way to Share Your Location via Messages on Your iPhone

Apple makes it simple to share your location with your family and friends using tools built into the "info" page for each conversation thread in Messages. With those tools, you can send your current location or share trackable real-time coordinates. But iOS always has a few hidden tricks to make things easier than they seem, and that's precisely the case if all you need to do is share your current location.

How To: Revert Spoofed Photos & Videos in iOS 15 to Their Original Locations & Dates

Apple introduces several new privacy settings with iOS 15, including the ability to better manage the metadata in your photos. With just a few taps, you can effectively spoof a photo's geolocation and change its creation date and time, providing a sort of disguise over your personal information. If you constantly take and share photos, it's a welcomed feature, but its results are not permanent and can be reversed.

How To: Toggle Adjustments in Your iPhone's Photos Editor to Compare Effects Before & After

The Photos app on iPhone has long offered basic editing features for quick edits to pictures, but iOS 13 greatly expanded them and gave the same love to videos. One of the best additions offers the ability to turn off photo and video edits without undoing them, so you can preview how your shots look with or without an effect.

How To: Create an Archived Backup of Your Current iOS Version So You Can Restore After a Downgrade

If you want to try out one of Apple's beta programs on your iPhone — whether that's by becoming a developer, joining the public beta, or using an IPSW of an available beta update — there's always a possibility that you'll want to go back to the stable iOS version you were using before. Likewise, if you updated to the latest stable release but liked how iOS worked on the previous version.

How To: This HomePod Setting Keeps Other People Out of Your Notes, Reminders & Calendar for Good

HomePod and HomePod mini are excellent smart speakers if you're entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. They even offer ways to protect your sensitive information from friends and visitors who try to ask Siri to spill your secrets. But there's an extra layer of privacy you can put in place to make sure nobody gains access to any important notes, reminders, and calendar events.

How To: Use Your iPhone's Built-in Image Analyzer to Reveal the Hidden Meaning Behind Symbols, Signs, and More

When you encounter a mysterious laundry care symbol or alarming vehicle indicator light, you might just ignore it rather than ask somebody, search online, or open a user manual for the answer. If you have an iPhone, there's an easier way to decipher the meanings behind perplexing symbols and signs—and it only takes a few seconds.

How To: View Podcast Transcripts on Your iPhone to View, Search, and Navigate the Audio

Apple's Podcasts app just got a big feature: transcripts. Before, you had to rely on third-party services or the off chance that podcast creators posted transcription links to each of their episodes. Now, you can view, read, and search show transcripts directly in Podcasts, whether uploaded from the creators or automatically generated by Apple.

How To: The 15 Most Annoying Things About iOS 7 for iPhone

I've been playing around with iOS 7 for a while now, and for the most part, I dig it. It's a nice update for a stale OS, and there are a lot of great new features. But like any good piece of tech, there are a few things to be disliked. Some of these are big issues, and some could be considered nitpicking, but given that I'm fairly used to the older iOS 6 version, they feel big to me. Paper cuts always hurt worse than gashes.