Bryan Chaffin

Article / Updated 07-08-2020

Apple TV+ is Apple's new original content subscription service. Apple TV+ offers subscribers TV shows and movies developed for and available exclusively though Apple TV+. Currently, Apple TV+ is just $4.99 per month, with a one-week free trial when you first subscribe. For a limited time —Apple hasn’t said when it will end — people who buy a new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac get an entire year for free. It’s not expected that Apple will offer that free year forever, but it makes sense to do it now, while the service is new. That's because Apple is rolling out new shows as they go, and while many of those shows are great, there's not yet a deep catalog to justify the price. This is especially true when you consider Apple TV+'s competition is Disney+, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, and other services with more extensive catalogs of original and sometimes third-party legacy content. Apple TV+ has launched shows such as See, The Morning Show, For All Mankind, Servant, Truth Be Told, and Little America, as well as documentary movies such as The Elephant Queen and kids shows such as Ghost Writer and Helpsters. Dozens of other shows have been signed by Apple and are in development, and Apple adds new shows every few weeks. To watch Apple TV+ shows, tap the Apple TV app on your Home screen, and then tap the Watch Now icon at the bottom of the screen. Scroll down and tap one of the Apple TV+ buttons. You see a landing page dedicated to Apple TV+ content. If you haven't already subscribed to Apple TV+, you'll be able to browse the content with frequent opportunities to start a 7-day free trial. During that trial, you can watch as many shows or movies as you want. If you don't cancel your subscription before the 7 days is up, you'll be automatically billed $4.99 per month. If you have a free year because you purchased an Apple device, you won't start paying until that year is up. To view a movie or episodes of a show, tap the cover art for that movie or show. Then tap the Play First Episode button to start a new show, or play Next Episode for a show you've already started. Scroll down on the show's information page to see a list of seasons and episodes. You can download any show to your iPad by tapping the iCloud download icon below the episode. By downloading, you can watch shows offline, say on an airplane, a long car ride, or anywhere else you may not have Internet access. You will, of course, need a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection to stream shows. Streaming video can use a lot of bandwidth, so be mindful of your cellular data caps if you're watching a show over your cellular connection. To leave the Apple TV+ section of the TV app, tap the Watch Now button in the upper-left corner, or tap one of the icons at the bottom of the TV app screen. This service is a great experience on the iPad. When added to all the awesome apps you’ll have on your iPad, you can do so many great things!

Article / Updated 07-03-2020

Killer app is familiar jargon to anyone who has spent any time around computers. The term refers to an application so sweet or so useful that just about everybody wants or must have it for their iPad. You could make the argument that the most compelling killer app on the iPad is the very App Store itself. This online emporium has an abundance of splendid programs, many of which are free. These cover everything from food (hey, you gotta eat) to showbiz. Check out the App Store and discover your favorite killer iPad apps. TripCase Frequent travelers can benefit from an intelligent repository for travel-related information, one that is smart enough to alert them of gate changes, weather delays, flight cancellations, and the like, and one that was easy to configure, convenient to use, and free. TripCase is all that and more. It’s a free app (and website) that organizes details of each trip in one place, with reminders and flight alerts delivered directly to your iPad. TripCase has a lot to like, but one of the best things is that it’s drop-dead simple to add your travel events — without copying and pasting or even typing. You simply forward your confirmation emails — for flights, hotels, rental cars, and other travel-related services — to [email protected]. TripCase parses the details, creates an itinerary, and sends you an email to confirm that our trip is ready to view in TripCase. You can forward confirmations from at least a half dozen travel providers, and TripCase has never failed to interpret them correctly. (And you can always enter details the old-fashioned way — by copying and pasting or typing.) After TripCase has your info, you can view it in the TripCase iPad app or in any web browser. The app is well-organized, with a timeline view of the itinerary. Other details are but a tap away. TripCase also includes an action view with flight alerts, reminders, and other messages. Any way you look at it, TripCase does most of the work for you. TripCase can even help you locate an alternate flight based on your original reservation should your flight be cancelled or delayed. And it reminds you to check in and print boarding passes 24 hours before each flight. Sweet! TripCase’s motto is “stress-free travel.” Although it may not make travel stress free — or increase the legroom in and around a cramped airline seat — it definitely makes travel less stressful. And one more note about TripCase. If you purchase their Receipts feature ($5.99), you can take pictures of your receipts, and TripCase will collect them for you until you’re ready to download them as a PDF. Handy! Shazam Ever heard a song on the radio or television, in a store, or at a club and wondered what it was called or who was singing it? With the Shazam app, you may never wonder again. Just launch Shazam and point your iPad’s microphone at the source of the music. In a few seconds, the song title and artist’s name magically appear on your iPad screen. In Shazam parlance, that song has been tagged. Now, if tagging were all Shazam could do, that would surely be enough. But wait, there’s more. After Shazam tags a song, you can Buy the song at the iTunes Store Watch related videos on YouTube Tweet the song on Twitter if you set up Twitter in Settings Read a biography, a discography, or lyrics Take a photo and attach it to the tagged item in Shazam Email a tag to a friend Shazam isn’t great at identifying classical music, jazz, show tunes, or opera. But if you use it primarily to identify popular music, it rocks (pun intended). It has worked in noisy airport terminals, crowded shopping malls, and even once at a wedding ceremony. Oh, and one more thing: You can have Siri (with Shazam’s assistance) identify a song for you even if you don’t have the Shazam app installed. Flipboard Flipboard is a socially oriented personal magazine app for the iPad that is great for news and information junkies. To get started with Flipboard, tap the topics you’re interested in: business, technology, sports, arts & culture, wine tasting, music, cute animals, and a lot more — over 30,000 topics, in fact. Flipboard then delivers articles based on your selections, all presented in a handsome, intuitive interface. Swipe left and right to move from page to page. Tap on the articles you want to read. Fine-tune the articles that Flipboard delivers by tapping a thumbs-up (more like this) or a thumbs-down (less like this) icon. You’ll find articles in Flipboard that are a lot more appetizing than that one. As a bonus, you can link Flipboard to various social media accounts. Movies by Flixster If you like movies, try the Flixster iPad app. Feed it your zip code and then browse local theaters by movie, showtimes, rating, or distance from your current location. Or browse to find a movie you like and then tap to find theaters, showtimes, and other info. Another nice feature is the capability to buy tickets to most movies from your iPad with just a few additional taps. You can read reviews, play movie trailers, and email movie listings to others with a single tap. You will also enjoy the movie trailers for soon-to-be-released films and DVDs. Other free movie showtime apps are out there, but Flixster is one of the best. IMDb Movies & TV While you’re on the subject of the silver screen, try opening IMDb, shorthand for Internet Movie Database (owned by Amazon). And what a database it is, especially for the avid filmgoer. This vast and delightful repository of all things cinema is the place to go for complete cast/crew listings, actor/filmmaker bios, plot summaries, movie trailers, critics’ reviews, user ratings, parental guidance, famous quotations, and all kinds of trivia. You can always search for movies, TV shows, actors, directors, and so on by typing a name in the search field at the top of the iPad screen. You can also browse various menu choices to find current movies by showtimes, what’s coming soon, or what’s popular. You can browse TV recaps, too, or find people born on the day you happen to be looking and poking around the app. It’s also fun to check out Trending Celebrities on IMDb. The recent roster included Jaimie Alexander, Tom Hardy, Alexandra Daddario, Priyanka Chopra, Emilia Clarke, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Natalie Dormer, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, among many others. One piece of advice to movie buffs: Avoid IMDb if you have a lot of work to do. You’ll have a hard time closing the curtain on this marvelous iPad app. Netflix Flixster, IMDb, and now Netflix. You’ve no doubt detected a real trend by now, and that trend is indeed our affection for movies and TV shows. If you love TV and movies, too, you’re sure to be a fan of the Netflix app. From the iPad, you have more or less instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows on demand as well as Netflix’s original content. You can search by genre (classics, comedy, drama, and so on) and subgenre (courtroom dramas, political dramas, romantic dramas, and so on). Netflix Originals include popular shows such as Orange Is The New Black, the huge hit Stranger Things, Jessica Jones, The Irishman, the Lost in Space reboot, The Witcher, Mindhunter, and The Crown. Although the app is free, you have to pay Netflix streaming subscription fees that start at $8.99 a month. You also need an Internet connection, preferably through Wi-Fi, though it will stream over cellular networks, too. Streaming movies over 3G or 4G can quickly eat up your data, so be mindful of your data plan. Comixology The Comixology app is a fantastic way to read comic books on a touchscreen. Its online store features thousands of comics and comic series from dozens of publishers, including Arcana, Archie, Marvel, Devil’s Due, Digital webbing, Red 5, DC Comics, and Zenescope, as well as hundreds of free comics. Furthermore, many titles are classics, like issue #1 of The Amazing Spider-Man. Released in 1963 for $0.12, a copy in excellent condition goes for at least $25,000 today! Other comics are priced from $0.99 per issue, though many issues of many series are available for free as a teaser. Finally, this app provides a great way to organize the comics you own on your iPad so that you can find the one you want quickly and easily. New releases are available every Wednesday, so visit the web store often to check out the latest and greatest offerings. Both the store and your personal comic collection are well organized and easy to use. And reading comics in Comixology is a pleasure you won’t want to miss if you’re a fan of comics or graphic novels. Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List Do you love to eat, but now your gourmet chef skills could use a boost? You can get a lot of that culinary assistance from Epicurious, which easily lives up to its billing as the “Cook’s Companion.” This tasty recipe app comes courtesy of Condé Nast Digital. With more than 33,000 recipes to choose from, we’re confident you’ll find a yummy one in no time. From the Home screen, you can browse categories, often timed to the season. Recipe collection categories include Halloween Treats, Vegetarian Thanksgiving, Lunches Kids Love, and Chocolate Desserts. Some recipes carry reviews. If you tap Search instead, you can fine-tune your search for a recipe by food or drink, by main ingredient (for example, banana, chicken, pasta), by cuisine type, and by dietary consideration (low-carb, vegan, kosher, and so on), among other parameters. When you discover a recipe you like, you can add it to a collection of favorites, email it to a friend, pass along the ingredients to your shopping list, summon nutritional information, or share it on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to sync favorite recipes on your iPhone and iPad through a personal recipe box on Epicurious.com, you can now do so for free. Bon appétit. Evernote Let’s take a quick look at the problem Evernote resolves for most iPad users: storing our little bits of digital information — text, pictures, screen shots, scanned images, receipts, bills, email messages, web pages, and other info you might want to recall someday — and synchronizing all the data among all our devices and the cloud. Evernote is all that and more, with excellent free apps for iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows, plus a killer web interface that works in most browsers. You can create notes of any length on your iPad by typing, dictating, or photographing. You can add unlimited tags to a note, and create unlimited notebooks to organize your rapidly growing collection of notes. Getting words and images into Evernote couldn’t be much easier, but the info will be useless if you can’t find it when you need it. Evernote won’t let you down, with myriad options for finding and working with your stored data. In addition to the aforementioned tags and notebooks, Evernote offers searching and filtering (Tags and Notebooks) to help you find the note you need. Two other nice touches are worth noting about Evernote: Notes are automatically tagged with your current location (as long as you create them on your iPad or other location-enabled device), so you can filter by Places. You can attach reminders to notes and receive notifications on the date and time you chose. Best of all, you’ll be notified on your iPad as well as on your other iDevices, Macs, PCs, and on the Evernote website! Our two favorite Evernote features are syncing notes with all your devices and the cloud automatically and that everything — creating, organizing, and syncing notes — is free. Pandora Radio This custom Internet radio service is available gratis on the iPad. And you can play Pandora music in the background while doing other stuff. Pandora works on the iPad in much the same way that it does on a Mac or PC. In the box at the upper left, tap + Create Station and type the name of a favorite artist, song title, or composer via the iPad keyboard, and Pandora creates an instant personalized radio station with selections that exemplify the style you chose. Pandora will also suggest some stations you might like based on the stations you’ve already established, and you can browse genre stations. Suppose you type Beatles. Pandora’s instant Beatles station includes performances from John, Paul, George, and Ringo, as well as tunes from other acts. And say you type a song title, such as Have I Told You Lately. Pandora constructs a station with similar music after you tell it whether to base tunes on the Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, or another rendition. You can help fine-tune the music Pandora plays by tapping the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon at the bottom of the screen associated with the music you’ve been listening to during the current session. Pandora also takes advantage of the generous screen real estate of the iPad to deliver artist profiles, lyrics, and more. You may see ads, too, unless you opt for Pandora Plus ($4.99 a month) or Pandora Premium ($9.99 a month), premium upgrades that eliminate them. Both plans add other benefits as well, such as permitting you to more often skip music you don’t like, on-demand listening, and more. If you tap the share icon below an album cover of the currently playing song, you can write a message about the song, and then share it on Facebook or Twitter or email it. Other options in Pandora let you bookmark the song or artist that’s playing or head to iTunes to purchase the song or other material from the artist directly on the iPad (if available). You can instantly create stations from artists or tracks or also indicate when you’re tired of a track. Want to learn more? Check out these ten iPad hints, tips, and shortcuts.

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

The iPad is a great device for browsing and sharing your favorite content. Do you ever want to share the love? The iPad offers you several options for sharing. When you find a great website on your iPad that you just must share, tap the share icon or tap Share after pressing down on a link, and you find these sharing options: One Tap Suggestions: The top row in the iPadOS Sharing pane is one of the best new features in iPadOS. It contains people and places Siri thinks you're most likely to want to share with, such as nearby AirDrop devices, as described next, as well as a combination of your most-used and recent Messages contacts. Sharing with your closest friends and family is now even easier! AirDrop: Share the page with other people who have compatible devices and AirDrop. You’ll need to turn on AirDrop in Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen). Then choose whether to make your iPad discoverable to everyone or only people in your contacts. Messages: Send a link to the web page in a text or an iMessage. Mail: The Mail program opens, with a new message containing a link for the page and the name of the site or page in the Subject line. News: Using this option isn’t so much sharing as opening the web page you're viewing in Apple’s News app. Tap the News icon to go to the Apple News version of that article. Here are other ways to find news and information on your iPad. Reminders: Add to a new reminder a link to the web page you're viewing so you don’t forget! If you tap Options, you can be reminded on a given day or location. Notes: Your iPad opens a pane that allows you to save the web page as an attachment in an existing or new note. Tap Save to finish the process and return to Safari. Books: Convert the web page you're viewing into a PDF that is then added to your Books library. More: Display other recent apps — including social networking apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Tencent Weibo, and others. If you've been using your iPad for a while, you’ll see your frequently used apps. Copy: Copy the page in question. Add to Reading List: You can add web articles to your Reading List. Add Bookmark: Bookmark a web page. Add to Favorites: When you tap the + button to add a new tab, you see a page of icons representing the web pages you visit most often. Tap Add to Favorites to add the web page you're viewing to this most-favored-nation-status grouping. Find on Page: Type a word you want to find. Matching words are highlighted; use the up and down arrows that appear to cycle through each mention. Tap Done when you're finished. Add to Home Screen: This is sometimes referred to a clipping a web page. Print: Print to an AirPrint printer. You can choose the number of copies you want. Tap Print to complete the job. Markup: Convert the web page to a PDF you can then draw on! Use the brush palette that appears at the bottom of the screen to choose a color, a type of pen, and other markup controls. Tap Done to either save or delete the PDF. Want to learn more? Try these ten tips, hints, and shortcuts to get more out of your iPad.

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

There are so many great things about iPads, and some of them are easy to overlook or forget. Here’s a list of ten of the most favorite hints, tips, and shortcuts to make the most of all your iPad’s features. Use the iPad’s do not disturb for others You probably think of the do not disturb (DND) feature as a way of keeping your iPad from bugging you while you are sleeping, in a meeting, or just don't want to be bothered. But DND can also help you be considerate to your family, roommates, or fellow office workers. If you're going to leave your iPad behind when you go somewhere, activate do not disturb to keep your notifications from bothering everyone else! You can activate DND by swiping down from the upper-right corner of the screen to open Control Center and then tapping the quarter moon icon. Create a website home screen shortcut on your iPad You can add any web page as an icon to your Home screen, and then open the icon with a tap, like any app icon. In Safari, pull up the page you want to save to your Home screen, then tap the Share icon on the right side of the screen next to the address bar. Scroll down if necessary to the add to home screen icon, which is a + inside a square. You'll see a preview of the icon. Tap Add to complete the process. Your Home screen appears, sporting your new shortcut. Tap it any time to open that web page. Edit your iPad’s today view We love today view in iPadOS. It's the slide-over view where you can get quick access to recently used apps, see headlines from the News app, see reminders, check out your AirPod battery levels, and more. From the main Home screen, swipe your finger from the left to the right to open today view. Scroll to the bottom of today view, and then tap the Edit button to display a list of all today view widgets you're using and not using. First, get rid of the widgets you don't use. They don't need to be in your way. Next, add any widgets you think you might like — just don't forget to go back and remove them later if you find you don't want them. Customize your iPad’s dock with your most used apps The dock is one of the most used elements of iPadOS. It comes with five apps by default, but you can also add up to 13 apps to the dock. To add an app to the dock, tap and hold down on the icon on your Home screen, and then drag the icon to the dock. It's that easy! Don't be shy — add your most commonly used apps to the dock for quick access to them from anywhere. Type on a floating keyboard Have you ever wanted the virtual keyboard in iPadOS to be smaller? You can do that, and it's easy. In any app that uses the virtual keyboard, just pinch the keyboard using two fingers (or a finger and a thumb), and it will shrink to less than half its normal size. The keyboard will also be set to float, so you can move it anywhere on the screen. To move your floating keyboard, tap and drag the gray bar at the bottom of the keyboard. To expand the keyboard back to its full size and re-dock it to the bottom of your screen, either unpinch it or drag it to the bottom of your screen. It will automatically expand to its normal dimensions and position. Look up words on your iPad To look up a word, tap and hold down on the word to select it. Your word will be highlighted with handles on either end that allow you to adjust the selected word. Tap and drag either handle to reposition it. Above your selection will be a contextual menu that lets you copy, look up, or share the selection. Tap Look Up to bring up the definition of the word, as well as relevant searches, Siri suggested websites, and more. After you get used to this feature, you'll miss it any time you're reading legacy media, such as printed books, newspapers, or magazines Find almost anything on your iPad using Spotlight Spotlight is another feature that can easily be overlooked. If you need to find something on your iPad or do a quick web search without opening Safari first, swipe down from the middle of your Home screen to open Spotlight. Type your search term, and you'll get relevant results from your iPad, apps on your iPad, and Siri suggestions for websites. Tap and hold down on your iPad’s Home screen icons You can tap and hold down on any Home screen icon for quick access to actions specific to that app. Some apps will have more — or fewer — actions available. For instance, tapping and holding down on the News app icon will give you quick access to some of the news sites you follow. Tapping and holding down on the Maps app gives you quick access to marking your location, sharing your location, and searching nearby. Apple's Measure app, on the other hand, has no special actions available, but every app will give you the option to Edit Home Screen or Delete App. Lock your iPad’s screen rotation You can unlock and lock your iPad's screen rotation when needed. This feature is handy. For instance, when lying down and reading, you can lock your screen if you don't want your iPad rotating the screen every time you move. When you are doing many other activities, you might want to be free to rotate the screen at any time. To lock or unlock your screen rotation, swipe down from the upper-right corner and tap the screen rotation lock icon. Use your iPad’s volume button as a camera shutter When taking photographs with your iPad, you can use either the volume up or volume down button as a camera shutter button. Many times, you just can't reach the on-screen shutter button, and this handy trick is really helpful.

Article / Updated 07-02-2020

Recently, Apply introduced a very helpful app to help users manage the time spent on their iPads. This app is called Screen Time. Screen Time consists of two sets of tools. One shows you how much time you're spending on your iPad, and the other allows you to set restrictions on how much time you, your children, your employees, or your students spend on their iPad. Screen Time: See a report of your daily average use of your iPad for the current week. Tap See All Activity to get a more detailed report, including how much time you’ve spent in individual apps. You can also see the average number of times you've picked up your iPad, as well as the average number of notifications you received. All of these tools are designed to help you take control of your own screen time, or the screen time of your children, employees, or students. Restrictions: Screen Time allows you to set restrictions on how and when your iPad is used: Downtime: Set limits on when your iPad can be used. You can block your iPad from use at different times and days of the week — or every day of the week. App Limits: Choose apps you want to limit on your iPad. You can limit individual apps, a category of apps, or all apps. When you've selected the apps you want to limit, tap Next to set the number of minutes or hours (or both) that those apps can be used during a given day. Always Allow: Choose apps that can always be accessed on your iPad, regardless of other restrictions you've set. Content & Privacy Restrictions: Dive deep into a number of settings designed to protect your privacy or the privacy of your children, employees, or students. A vast number of settings are here, and it will benefit you to explore them fully. You can also set a passcode for accessing Screen Time. If you're setting a passcode for your children, employees, or students, it should be different than the passcode that unlocks your iPad to prevent them from undoing the restrictions you so carefully set. Further down in the Screen Time settings is Share Across Devices. Toggle the switch green if you want to copy your Screen Time settings across every device signed into your iCloud account. Choose the Family option if you want to set up Screen Time only for iCloud accounts set up for Family Sharing. If you want to turn off Screen Time, tap Settings→Screen Time→Turn Off Screen Time at the bottom of the Screen Time settings. Want to learn more neat things you can do with your iPad? Try these ten iPad hints, tips, and shortcuts.