Hot Apple Posts

How To: Change the AirDrop Alert Sound on Your iPhone to Anything You Want

These days, AirDrop's distinct "doo-doo-doo-doo" sound is almost as iconic as Apple's classic Marimba ringtone. And just like with ringtones, that AirDrop alert on your iPhone doesn't need to sound like everyone else's. In just a few taps, you can make it sound like anything you want.

How To: Redial Busy Numbers Automatically on Your iPhone So You Don't Have to Keep Calling & Calling Manually

Even under normal circumstances, it's almost impossible to speak to a representative for a government agency or company in just one try. Many systems will put you on hold for long periods or ask to call you back when someone is available, but there are still some out there that just give you the busy signal over and over again. In those cases, there's a jailbreak tweak that can help.

How To: There's a Much Faster Way to Activate Dark Mode on Your iPhone

With iOS 13, Apple introduced system-wide dark mode for the first time on the iPhone, and there are several ways to activate it. You could use the brightness slider to change the theme, have Siri do it for you, or adjust it straight from the Settings app. But there's one way that's faster than all others so that you can switch from light to dark in no time.

How To: Force Restart Your iPhone SE (2nd Generation) When It's Frozen or Otherwise Acting Up

Your brand new iPhone SE packs the latest A13 Bionic chip into the form factor of the iPhone 8. With all that modern tech, you'd expect your iPhone to be unstoppable. That said, no smartphone is perfect, and sometimes, the iPhone SE will give you trouble. If your device is frozen, bugging out, displaying the wrong data, or won't shut down the usual way, you might want to try a force restart.

How To: Force-Close Running Apps on the New iPhone SE to Clear Them from the Task Switcher

When you press the Home button on your iPhone SE, you're not quitting your current app. Instead, it stays open in the background. If an app ever bugs out on you or you don't want it to run in the background, you'll need to force-close to quit it completely. Doing so is also helpful when your app switcher gets too cluttered, and you find it hard to switch between apps because of it.

How To: 9 Ways Your iPhone Can Help You Be More Productive When Working from Home

With stay-at-home orders for most of us in the US because of the new coronavirus, many of you are likely struggling to be productive and efficient when working from home. Unless you've worked from home before, it can be challenging to separate work from personal life throughout the "workday." But your iPhone can help make the transition easier and more successful.

How To: Record Video with Two Cameras at the Same Time on Your iPhone

The iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max introduced a new rear camera system to the iOS ecosystem. Each model has a new ultra-wide lens in addition to the wide one, and the Pros have a telephoto lens. Both have improved selfie cams too. With so many lenses, it can be challenging to choose which to film with, but why pick when you could shoot with two at once?

How To: The Hidden Action That Opens Apple Pay from Your iPhone's Lock Screen

I think everyone with an iPhone should be making every purchase they can with Apple Pay. I also think everyone who uses Apple Pay should open the Wallet app ahead of time, instead of simply tapping their iPhone to the card reader. But there's a much faster way to open Wallet than slogging through the sea of apps on your iPhone. You can open it right from the lock screen.

How To: Share Any Password from Your iPhone to Other Apple Devices

In iOS 11, Apple made it easier for you to share passwords with friends. Back then, it was just Wi-Fi passwords, which made sense. "What's the Wi-Fi?" gets old after a while. But now, whether you're running iOS 12 or 13, you can share any password you want with any iPhone around, all with one of iOS' best features: AirDrop.

How To: Bulk Delete Messages Faster with This Hidden iOS 13 Gesture

On the surface, deleting conversations in Messages seems harder in iOS 13 after Apple removed the "Edit" button on the main page. Fortunately, they added a new gesture that lets you remove entire threads and individual messages with ease.

How To: Shut Down & Restart Your iPhone 11, 11 Pro, or 11 Pro Max

From the iPhone X onward, the Side button has taken on many of the functions associated with the Home button, such as summoning Siri, pulling up the AssistiveTouch shortcut, and more. So if you've finally ditched your Home button iPhone for the latest iPhone 11, the process of shutting down and restarting is something you'll need to learn all over.

How To: Keep Safari's Toolbars Hidden While Scrolling Webpages in iOS 13

Normally, when you scroll down a webpage in Safari on your iPhone, it automatically hides the bottom toolbar and minimizes the top Smart Search field. But as soon as you scroll back up, they both reappear, which can be pretty annoying if you don't need them. Apple's iOS 13 update brings many new features to Safari, one of which solves the toolbar issue so you can keep it hidden when reading.

How To: Add Rich Web Link Previews to Your Reminders in iOS 13

With iOS 13, Apple included some major updates to the Reminders app for iPhone. Among them is the ability to add web links to individual reminders, including a rich preview of the link that can be minimized if necessary. So now you can add an Amazon link in a reminder to buy a present or a webpage for a recipe in your grocery list, to name just a few examples.

How To: Make Siri Open Specific Apple Pages Documents on Your iPhone So You Don't Have to Hunt Them Down Yourself

Let's say you have an important report to submit, but you want to check it over for any last-minute edits or changes. Times running out, and you simply can't find this Pages document anywhere. Wouldn't it be great if you could just ask your iPhone to open the report for you, so you could stop wasting time searching and finish the paper? Well, thankfully, Siri can help you out with that.

How To: iOS 13 Makes It Easier to Disable Content Blockers for Specific Websites in Safari

Chances are, your favorite websites run on ads. That means the sites rely on those ads to fund their operations. Without ads, your laughs, news, and guides don't happen. That's why it's helpful to disable content blockers (often called whitelisting) for sites you support. In the past, it wasn't possible directly in Safari, but in-app whitelisting becomes a reality with iOS 13.

How To: Filter Unknown Senders in iMessage to Block Unwanted Notifications & Keep Your Messages App Clean

If your job revolves around prospective clients and customers, you may frequently receive iMessages from unknown numbers. Although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, being bombarded with messages from strangers can create disarray in your inbox if you're not careful. Luckily, Apple makes it easier to organize your conversations by allowing you to filter unknown numbers in the Messages app.

How To: Stop Audio Messages from Self-Destructing in iMessage So You Can Keep Them Forever

Apple has several ways for you to communicate in the Messages app aside from texting — and that includes audio messages. You can send a voice recording via iMessage by long-pressing the microphone icon just right of the input field and speaking. However, by default, these audio messages self-destruct after two minutes, which isn't good if you want them archived.

How To: Everything You Need to Know About Adding & Editing Audio for Videos in Enlight Videoleap for iPhone

The music and sound effects that play in the background of any videos you edit helps set the tone, so it's essential to get it right. Enlight Videoleap, an extremely powerful and popular mobile video editing tool for iOS, lets you quickly and easily add audio from your iPhone and the cloud, but things can still get a little confusing when you have a timeline full of clips.

How To: Replace Video Backgrounds with the Green Screen Chroma Key Tool in Enlight Videoleap for iPhone

Using a green screen is an affordable and easy way to transport your video to anywhere imaginable, even to places that don't exist. You can use it to sit behind a desk in a busy newsroom or dance on the moon, but first, you have to know how to properly perform chroma key compositing two videos together. Fortunately, Enlight Videoleap on iOS makes it easy.

How To: Track All Your Online Orders from One App

Shopping wasn't always this easy. Now, in a matter of minutes, you can order your groceries for the week, send your cracked phone in for repairs, get your holiday shopping done, and have everything delivered to your front door in just a few days — without ever having to leave your home. Online shopping is convenient, comfortable, and a blessing ... right? Well, it can also be a headache.

How To: Prevent & Stop Apps from Using Your iPhone's Microphone & Enhance Your Privacy

Any app on your iPhone could potentially listen in on your conversations and use that information to target you with tailored ads. Although most companies, including Facebook and Apple, have come out and vehemently denied these claims of spying on consumers, who's to say they're telling the truth? The only way to be sure you're safe is to take matters into your own hands.

How To: Customize the Back & Forward Skip Button Lengths in Apple Podcasts from 10 to 60 Seconds

Apple's stock Podcasts app in iOS remains my go-to for all of my podcast-listening needs, but skipping around during an episode can be frustrating. Scrubbing audio along the timeline is often an imprecise maneuver, which is why the skip buttons can be so useful and efficient. Without customizing skip lengths, however, you may find yourself tapping far more than you need to.

How To: Get All the New iPad Pro Wallpapers on Your iPhone

Apple unveiled the iPhone X-like redesign of its iPad Pro line Tuesday, Oct. 30. Among the many new changes to the company's famous tablet was a glimpse at its new wallpapers. These images, while clearly intended to take advantage of the new iPad's striking screen ratio, are clearly well suited for any iPhone as well. That's why we've made it easy for you to download them all.

How To: Force Restart Your iPhone XS, XS Max, or XR When It's Acting Up

We often take for granted how reliable our iPhones are — so much so that many of us get panic-stricken at the very rare event where our device freezes up as a result of a buggy app or an update gone awry. Because of this, knowing the basics of troubleshooting is a handy skill to have, and this still applies to the iPhone XS, XS Max, and iPhone XR. Force-restarting is usually the first tactic to employ.

How To: Shut Down & Restart the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max & iPhone XR

The iPhone X ushered in the Swiss Army Knife-like Side button, which can perform numerous functions, such as summoning Siri and opening Apple Pay through click gestures. This has carried over into the iPhone XS, XS Max, and iPhone XR, so if you've upgraded to one of these devices from a Home button-equipped iPhone, you'll have to learn how to shut down your new device.

How To: Use the Shortcuts App on Your iPhone in iOS 12 for Custom Siri Actions & More

One of the most exciting additions to iOS 12 for iPhones is called Shortcuts, a tool integrated with Siri to help you get things done faster. While there are a few recommended shortcuts available to you in Siri's settings in iOS 12, the Shortcuts app brings the functionality of Workflow to Siri so you can build your own custom actions or select from the gallery of available shortcuts.

How To: Access Your Photo Library in Messages for iOS 12 to Send Already Taken Pics & Vids

Ever since 2009, you could send a photo or video that you've already taken right from the Messages app on your iPhone. You would just tap on the camera icon next to the new message box, then choose either to take a new one or select one from your library. If you're running iOS 12, that's no longer the case, but that doesn't mean the capability is gone entirely.

How To: Unlock the Hidden Weather Lock Screen Widget in iOS 12 on Your iPhone

There are a lot of things that make iOS great, but lock screen widgets are not among them. If you want more information on your lock screen other than the date, time, and notifications without having to swipe to a sidebar of widgets, you'd normally look toward Android. However, iOS 12 aims to shake that up a bit with a secret Weather widget for the lock screen — not for the Today view.