Iphone life magazine 2013 07 08 by trainTelco

July/August 2013

Regular Departments 4 6 8 10 12 96

Editor's Message Meet the Writers iGallery iStats, News, and Other Tidbits Caption Contest iView: iGetting Things Done

The 2013 How To

Guide

Introduction

iDevice News

Meet Your iDevice

T-Mobile vs. the Competition

Getting Started

A look at T-Mobile’s “no contract” iPhone plan.

Using Your iPhone

The Rise of Kickstarter

Sending Messages

Connecting to the Internet

Using Siri

Exploring the App Store

Using the Camera

Making Use of iCloud

Navigating iTunes

Connecting External Gear

How to Plan the Perfect Date

How crowdfunding is changing the iOS accessory market.

Let your iDevice help you set a romantic tone.

How to Have a Kick-Ass Road Trip Great apps and accessories for hitting the road.

How to Relax and Unwind De-stress with these soothing apps and tips.

How to Recover Your Stolen iDevice What to do when your iPhone or iPad goes missing.

Kyle Lambert, iPad Artist pages 90-92

i P hone L i f e July-August 2013

How to Troubleshoot Your iDevice Quick-fix solutions for the most common issues.

Apps & Gear for Road Trips pages 56-59

Cool Music & Rhythm Games

iUsers

pages 73-75

22 72 78 82

Great Gear 68

Business Trip Basics Handy travel gear, checklists, and more.

Creating Great Apps

Best Apps 73

83 86

Apps for Writing Remotely Top 10 writing apps for your virtual office.

Gameloft Leads the Way How Gameloft is defining the future of iOS gaming.

Great iPhone Apps for Car Owners Drive worry-free with the help of these 6 apps.

App Development for Non-Programmers A helpful guide for app developers in training.

Best Music and Rhythm Games 9 high-energy games to get your feet tapping.

Laura Knapp Lori Cheek Vivian Perez Susie Monday

iLove it, iUse it 90

Painting on the iPad Interview with Kyle Lambert, renowned digital artist.

Kickstarter to the Rescue pages 18-21

iPhone L if e July -Augus t 2 0 1 3

Editor's Message The Right Knowledge for the Right Job I started playing tennis when I was 12 years old. Every day after school, my dad and I would carry a huge basket of worn-out balls to the nearest tennis court, and we would play for three or four hours straight under the unforgiving Texas sun. We worked on forehands, backhands, serves, and the holy grail of junior tennis player moves—the between-the-legs shot. We talked, analyzed, and implemented new knowledge, and naturally, I got better. By the time I got to high school I had a state ranking. At college, I was on scholarship playing at the Division I level. I learned a lot from that experience, but it was something that happened back during high school that impacted me the most.

Over and Over Again One day during my freshman year out on the high-school tennis courts, I saw a man walk up with a racquet in one hand and a single tennis ball in the other. He stood about nine feet from the wall behind one of the courts, and started hitting the ball against the wall—with poor form—over and over again. “He’s doing it wrong every time,” I thought. “How’s he going to get any better?” That man came to the tennis courts often. In fact, I saw him on and off for the next four years until I graduated high school. And while I kept improving every year, that man kept hitting the ball against the wall—with poor form—over and over again. I started thinking about why he never got any better. He came out to the courts several times a week, so he was certainly dedicated. I realized that what he lacked was knowledge. No one ever told him what he was doing wrong and how to improve it. No one coached him towards a decent forehand. No one showed him how to properly hit a between-the-legs shot. Thinking about all of this made me realize that hard work is useless without the right knowledge. It taught me that even if we carry enormous potential, that potential is useless unless we understand what we can do with it.

The How-To Guide

Alex Cequea Editor in Chief

iPhone Life magazine, alex@iphonelife.com

By now you’re probably wondering what this story has to do with iPhones, iPads, or even mobile technology in general. The truth is that I don’t want to see any of us end up like that man out on the tennis courts. You have a powerful tool in your hands that possesses enormous potential—your mobile device. Without the right knowledge and understanding, you’ll miss out on a world of possibilities. That’s the idea at the heart of our yearly How-To Guide. We want to give you the knowledge to master every aspect of the iOS universe. In this issue, we break down the App Store, iCloud, FaceTime calls, Siri tricks, and much more. This is an issue you’ll be referring back to all year. My mom ﬁnally upgraded to an iPhone 5 recently (from something called a “Blackberry”). It took me about ﬁve minutes to show her some basic tricks that I know will save her time and energy. Even though she’s had an iPad for a couple of years, she learned new ways to perform the same tasks, and realized she was wasting time doing it the same way over and over again. She took one look at me and said, “I think I’m going to like this.” I hope you will, too. Ѷ

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Meet Our Writers Cornelius Fortune

Aiden Grossheider

Jason Lancaster

Becca Ludlum

Kevin McNeish

Award-Winning Journalist arlingtonstories@gmail.com Article page 80

Contributing Writer gambit461@yahoo.com Article page 66

Contributing Writer Twitter: @sporkmarketing Article page 76

Blogger and Speech Therapist rebeccaludlum@cox.net Article page 60

iOS Developer and Trainer kevinm@oakleafsd.com Article page 83

Siva Om

Daniel W. Rasmus

Rebecca Santiago

Brittany Vincent

Web Designer and Writer siva@iphonelife.com Article page 86

Strategist and Industry Analyst dwrasmus@danielwrasmus.com Article page 68

Writer and Editor santiago.rk@gmail.com Article page 54

Freelance Writer brittanylynnvincent@gmail.com Article page 73

iPhone Life Staff David Averbach

Nina Benjamin

Alex Cequea

Hal Goldstein

Donna Cleveland

Publisher and CEO david@iphonelife.com Articles pages 16, 62

Associate Editor nina@iphonelife.com Articles pages 25-53, 90

Editor in Chief alex@iphonelife.com Articles pages 25-53

Senior Editor, Founder hal@thaddeus.com Article page 96

Web Editor Donna@iphonelife.com Article page 56

Jim Karpen

Online Editor/Columnist jim_karpen@iphonelife.com Article page 18

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User-submitted iPhone Photography by Joseph Thibodeaux

by Hieronimus Gunawan by Yosua Dwimaryanto

by Garrett Martin by Catherine Fernandez 8

i P h o n e L i f e July-August 2013

by Tracy Ford

by Shelly Browning

by Lucia Vicari by Annie Noelker

Submit your iPhone photography and get featured in the iGallery! Email your photos to iphotos@iphonelife.com by Albers Gregory iPhone L if e July -Augus t 2 0 1 3

iStats News, Stats, Tidbits & more

The Numbers 6 This past May, Fortune magazine released its annual list of Fortune 500 companies, as ranked by total revenue, placing Apple at number 6 on the coveted list. This is the first time Apple has cracked the top 10, and it’s an 11-spot jump from last year’s position of 17. Apple is now the highest-ranked tech company on the list, followed by HP, which slipped down to number 15. The jump reflects the success of Apple’s stellar 2012 year, when it briefly traded spots with Exxon Mobile as the world’s most valuable company.

$10,000 Apple once again offered a sizeable prize to the lucky user responsible for a welltimed app download. Apple rewarded the user who downloaded the 50 billionth app with a $10,000 App Store Gift Card. It took 5 years for Apple to reach 50 billion downloads. The 25 billionth app was downloaded back in May of 2012, and the 40 billionth app earlier this year in January.

Around the Ofﬁce What’s Your iPhone Etiquette Pet Peeve? David Averbach Publisher and CEO “I’m okay with the occasional texting while talking, but sometimes people will ask me a question and then send a text while I’m answering them and miss everything I say. That drives me crazy!”

Donna Schill Cleveland Web Editor “It bugs me when people blast calls over their Bluetooth speakerphones in the car. Not only am I held hostage to their conversations, but the other party is always in for a shock when an unfamiliar voice laughs at their jokes!”

Nina Benjamin Associate Editor “I can’t stand it when people leave their keyboard sounds on. All it takes is the clickety-clack of one person texting in an otherwise quiet room to make me go nutty.”

fab find Hand Dock iPhone ($65, fab.com) Need an extra hand? The Hand Dock iPhone has you covered. You can mount this artistic dock on the wall or just let it rest by your nightstand. It’s a conversation piece, plus it gives you the opportunity to make jokes like, “Pretty handy, eh?” The hand dock was cast from the designer Harry Allen’s own hand, and is made from resin and marble. 10

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Janet Joyce Ad Sales Specialist “People driving while on the phone drive me crazy! I was sitting at a stoplight and six cars came through. Five out of the six drivers were talking on their phones. Do one or the other, people!”

QUICK NEWS iOS Users More Engaged According to a report from investment bank Piper Jaffray, mobile web trafďŹ c from iOS devices climbed in the ďŹ rst three months of 2013, while Android device trafďŹ c declined, suggesting that iOS users may be more engaged with their devices. The study analyzed web trafďŹ c from 10 of the top 100 mobile websites, such as Tumblr, Examiner, and answers.com. Figures from April showed that iOS web trafďŹ c represented 69 percent of all mobile web trafďŹ c, which was a 2.6 percent increase from Marchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ gures. Androidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile web trafďŹ c, on the other hand, decreased from 29.7 to 26.5 percent during the same period. ÂŠiStockphoto.com/mkurtbas

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COVER DESIGN

Is Nintendo Hoping to Get a Boost from Apple? The Japan Times reported in May that Nintendo is offering Wii U game developers "professional use conversion software." This means that developers would have the tools to more easily port games from other smartphone platforms, presumably including iOS and Android. 2008â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s release of the iTunes App Store turned Apple into a major player in the gaming market. Nintendo, once a leading game console maker, has struggled to adapt to the changing landscape over the last several years, and unit sales have predictably slowed.

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Carl Kopf & Associates 203-944-9466 iPhone Life (ISSN 1949-2014) is published bi-monthly, 6 times a year, Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/ Jun, Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec by Mango Life Media at 402 North B St. #108, Fairfield, IA 52556, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Fairfield, Iowa, and at additional mailing offices. Subscription rates payable in U.S. dollars, checks drawn on a U.S. bank, or by credit cardâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one year: $15.97, two years: $24.97. Postage: United States free; Canada and Mexico add $6 per year; outside North America, add $18 per year. Please allow four to six weeks for receipt of first issue. Executive, Editorial, Circulation, Advertising, Marketing Offices: 402 North B St. #108, Fairfield, IA 52556. Telephone: 641-472-6330, Fax: 641-472-1879. ÂŠ Copyright 2013 , Mango Life Media, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission. Reasonable efforts are made to provide accurate and useful information, but the reader must make his or her own investigations and decisions; the Publisher and Editorial Staff cannot assume any responsibility or liability for the use of information contained herein. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to iPhone Life, Mango Life Media, 402 North B St. #108, Fairfield, IA 52556. Cover Stock Photo: Background on iPad 4: ÂŠiStockphoto.com/VII-photo

More hilarious texts are available in the book ook When Parents Text ($10.95, amazon.com), and on whenparentstext.com. You can also download their new free app When Parents Text (free, whenparentstext.com). iPhone L if e July -Augus t 2 0 1 3

Illustration by Mikaila Maidment, mikailamaidmentart.blogspot.com

“Your caption here” Send us a clever caption for the cartoon above, and we’ll feature our favorite entries in the next issue. The winner will receive a $20 iTunes Gift Card! Send all captions to comics@iphonelife.com.

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May/June 2013 Caption Winner: "I'm sorry, Alec Baldwin dolls must be stowed during takeoffs and landings." Submitted by Rick Rewerts

Runners-Up: "Please stow your humans until we reach cruising altitude." Submitted by Krystal Shaver "What would we do without our smart people?" Submitted by wmec907@aol.com Thanks to everyone who sent in their funny captionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we had a blast reading them all!

iPhone L if e July -Augus t 2 0 1 3

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The iPhone and T-Mobile What Does “No Contract” Really Mean? By David Averbach n March 26, T-Mobile announced that it would begin carrying the iPhone 5. T-Mobile is the fourth-largest cellular provider in the United States and the last major carrier to offer the iPhone. In order to differentiate itself from its competitors, T-Mobile launched a huge marketing campaign, announcing its plan to offer the iPhone 5 without a contract—thus branding itself as the “uncarrier.” About a month after the announcement, the Washington State Attorney ﬁled a suit against T-Mobile, claiming its advertising was misleading to consumers.

So what is really going on here? What does “no contract” truly mean? Is T-Mobile revolutionizing the mobile industry or tricking people with a clever marketing campaign? Most importantly, will buying an iPhone from T-Mobile save you money? Unfortunately, the answer to all of these questions is, “It’s complicated.” Let’s break it down step by step to understand how T-Mobile’s plans are different from the other carriers', why some people ﬁnd them misleading, and whether you should be considering T-Mobile for your next phone.

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The Traditional Model To understand T-Mobile’s new pricing model, it’s important to ﬁrst understand how the other carrier models work. A new 16 GB iPhone costs $650 at full retail price. In order to get you to use their service, cellular providers subsidize the cost of the iPhone and sell it to you for $199, thus taking a loss on the sale of the phone. Then they charge you a high enough monthly fee to recoup the costs of the subsidized iPhone during the course of a twoyear contract. The purpose of the contract is to prevent you from leaving the carrier before you have paid off the cost of the phone.

The T-Mobile Model T-Mobile is utilizing a model used by cellular providers in Europe and in most countries around the world. Rather than subsidizing the cost of a new phone, T-Mobile sells the phone at close to

T-Mobile

AT&T

Verizon

Sprint

Cost of 16 GB iPhone

$149 + $20 per month for 2 years

$199

Entry-level service plan

Unlimited talk and text, 500 MB data

Unlimited talk and text, 1 GB data

Unlimited talk and text; 300 MB data

450 minutes; unlimited data and text

Monthly fee (excluding taxes)

$50

$85

$80

Total cost for two years

$1,829

$2,239

$2,119

Total cost for two years (if replacing phone every year)

$2,458

$2,889

$2,769

full retail price up front. Because T-Mobile doesn’t have to worry about recouping the cost of a subsidized phone, it does not have to lock you into a contract or charge you as high of a monthly rate.

to upgrade to the newest iPhone every year, T-Mobile will save you $350 within two years.

Beyond the Dollar Signs The Gray Area Here’s where things get complicated. T-Mobile knows that most people don’t want to pay $630 up front for a new iPhone, so it offers a ﬁnancing option. T-Mobile allows you to make a $150 down payment on the phone and pay off the remaining balance in increments of $20 per month over the course of two years. If you stop using T-Mobile at any point during the payback period, you are required to pay the remaining balance of the phone. The question the attorney general and many others are posing is, “How is an iPhone ﬁnancing plan with a down payment and a two-year repayment period any different than a subsidized iPhone with a two-year contract?” The answer—at least in my humble opinion—is that while it’s a different model in theory, it doesn’t make much of a difference in practice.

That's Cool, But Will It Save Me Money? While T-Mobile’s “no contract” option may not be as revolutionary as it’s trying to appear, it actually offers very competitive pricing. When it comes to analyzing phone plans, there are way too many variables to know with certainty which provider is the cheapest. Also, since each provider offers slightly different pricing structures, making an apples-to-apples comparison (sorry, I couldn’t resist) is difﬁcult. Nevertheless, in an attempt to ﬁnd the best deal, I analyzed the cheapest iPhone plan from each carrier. As you can see in the chart, the cost of purchasing an iPhone 5 and using T-Mobile’s cheapest service plan ends up costing you $1,829 (not including taxes) over the course of two years. Comparatively, the average entry-level plan on another carrier is $2,159. That means T-Mobile saves you, on average, $330 after two years. If you like

When it comes to choosing a cellular provider, price is not the only factor to consider. First and foremost, you have to ask yourself which company you hate the least. By now, most of us have had terrible experiences with at least one provider. As we become increasingly reliant on our phones, it’s important that your cellular provider has good customer service (I would even settle for mediocre, at this point). Overall, I have heard very positive things about T-Mobile’s customer service. The carrier rarely outsources you to someone in another country who doesn’t speak English (do I sound bitter?). Another important factor is coverage. Currently, T-Mobile only offers 4G coverage in Baltimore, MD; Kansas City, KS; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; San Jose, CA; and Washington, D.C. While I’m sure that list is growing quickly, if you don’t live somewhere currently covered, that could be a major hindrance. I’ve found 4G coverage to be pretty life changing, and it may be worth spending a few extra bucks to get it.

The Consumer Wins More competition is always good for the consumer, so I’m glad to see T-Mobile enter the ring. While the “no contract” plans may not be revolutionary, they are very affordable. Next time you’re in the market for an iPhone (this fall, anyone?), I recommend you take a look at T-Mobile’s plans, especially if you live in an area with 4G coverage. Ѷ David Averbach is the CEO and Publisher of iPhone Life magazine. David has an obsession with all things Apple. He grew up on Macs and now has a MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, and an Apple TV. David enjoys traveling and Ultimate Frisbee. He has been to over 20 countries. To contact David, email him at David@iphonelife.com.

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With a Little Help From Your Friends How Kickstarter Has Changed the iOS Accessory Landscape By Jim Karpen ©iStockphoto.com/CamiloTorres

he most frenzied Apple fanboys hang around Kickstarter (kickstarter.com). Not only do they learn about some of the coolest iOS products coming out, but they also often get them for as much as a 50-percent discount.

of the engineers, a photographer, suggested the iPhone might be able to be used as a light meter. A professional light meter costs hundreds of dollars, but they went to work and designed an attachment, called Luxi (esdevices.com), that they ﬁgured they’d be able to sell for $25.

And what might those products be? An iPhone attachment for $14 that turns your phone into a light meter as good as those that cost hundreds of dollars. A camera lens you attach to your iPhone that gives it wide-angle, ﬁsheye, and macro lenses, all in one. A lightweight and ultra-portable Bluetooth-enabled speaker that transforms your iPad or iPhone into a big-sound audio system that allows you to play games, listen to music, and watch movies at ﬁve times the volume. Kickstarter, you may know, is an increasingly popular fundraising website for people who are launching new products. You post your pitch, saying what your product or project is, how much money you need, and what you’ll do with it. You also offer rewards for contributions, ranging from token rewards to the actual product once it comes out. On Kickstarter, unlike on some other crowdfunding sites, you need to raise the entire amount you specify as your goal, or you don’t get anything.

Luxi Light Meter Take the example of James Flynn. A few engineers associated with his small company meet with him regularly to brainstorm iPhone add-ons that turn the phone into a new gadget. One

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What iPhoneographer wouldn’t want Luxi? You already have your phone with you, so you don’t need to carry a separate light meter. And you’re saving hundreds of dollars. It seemed like a winner. So James prepared his Kickstarter campaign. He lined up a company to begin manufacturing Luxi based on the prototype they had developed. He estimated that he needed $10,000 to begin volume production, created a video demo of Luxi, wrote a clear description of Luxi and light meters in general, and speciﬁed his rewards.

Plus, what better way to start generating buzz for a product than to have it go viral, as the coolest gadgets and apps often do?

Extrasensory Devices for the iPhone Since James eventually raised nearly 15 times more than he’d originally requested, what’s he going to do with the rest of the money? At the time I talked to him, he had three more campaigns that were launching in the coming weeks. All the money is going back into his business, Extrasensory Devices (esdevices.com).

Those rewards included the simple pleasure of seeing Luxi go on sale for a donation of $1 (for which he had over 40 backers); one Luxi light meter adapter with free shipping anywhere in the U.S. for a donation of $14; and a combo pack of an iPhone 4/4S Luxi and an iPhone 5 Luxi for $28.

Luxi Garners Over $100,000 in One Month James raised over $10,000 in pledges on the ﬁrst day of his 45-day campaign. Luxi was in business! On the second day he raised an additional $16,000. By the time I ﬁrst saw his campaign a month later, he had raised over $100,000 from 4,713 backers.

“I really like Kickstarter, because it can tell us if the world at large wants something,” James says. “It eliminates the need for expensive market research such as polling people or holding focus groups.” Plus, you don’t then have to give up a percentage of the eventual proﬁts as you would if you got money from venture capitalists. “The Internet provides a unique mechanism and eliminates the need for middlemen,” James says. “With Kickstarter there’s little risk, and a small investment of time has the potential to pay off a lot.” His feeling is that if a Kickstarter campaign isn’t successful (as is the case over half the time) and he ends up without any funding, that’s valuable too. It tells him that people don’t really want what he had in mind. With Kickstarter, you only make your product if you know there’s going to be a market.

James realizes that the iPhone is a powerful computer, and that because it’s popular, there’s a big market for niche gizmos that attach to it. And he appreciates that the iPhone is standardized, unlike the Android market, where there are so many different form factors. Some Android users have begged him to do a Luxi for them. But he ﬁnds it hard to select the best one to support from all the competing models, so for now, his company is focusing exclusively on iPhone add-ons.

The olloclip iPhone Lens

Another successful Kickstarter project was olloclip (olloclip. com), a “quick-connect lens solution for the iPhone that includes a ﬁsheye, wide-angle, and macro lens all in one.” Within four weeks, olloclip received funding from 1,300 backers in more than 50 countries, achieving 455 percent of their $15,000 funding goal, and ﬁnishing among the top 40 highestfunded projects for that time period (June 2011). Fast forward a couple of years—olloclip is now sold in more than 90 countries and is available through top retailers like Apple, Best Buy, Sprint, and Bloomingdale’s. The device sells for $69.99, but those who backed the cam-

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ﬁnished product on store shelves in under a year, and is available at Target, Apple, Best Buy, and Nordstrom.

paign got theirs for $45. Another typical perk for backers is that they’re the ﬁrst to receive the device once it starts shipping.

SOSCharger Pebble Watch

The company proposing to make a clever gadget called SOSCharger (soscharger.com) met their goal of $27,000 in four days. SOSCharger is a generator the size of a deck of cards that has a built-in hand crank so that you can charge your iPhone the old-fashioned way, no matter where you are. You can also use it to charge any device with a USB connector. The ﬁrst 500 backers got the device for $25, which is nearly half of the anticipated retail price.

Zooka Another appealing product that had a big launch was Zooka (carbonaudioinc.com), a wireless mobile speaker. Zooka is sleek and lightweight, yet it transforms your iPhone or iPad into a big-sound audio system. It went from Kickstarter campaign to

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The most successful Kickstarter campaign to date was for Pebble (getpebble.com), a customizable watch that runs apps and connects wirelessly to your iPhone. The company, which posted their Kickstarter campaign in April 2012, needed $100,000 to bring their watch to market. Each backer who pledged $99 or more was slated to receive a Pebble watch once production began. The demo video of their prototype was impressive, and within two hours they had reached their goal. By the end of the day, their total was $600,000. The next morning it was over $1 million. They eventually raised over $10 million from nearly 70,000 backers.

Not Every Campaign is Successful A company called Ideative launched their Kickstarter campaign in June 2012, hoping to raise $30,000. They ended up with pledges of just $888. Yet they went ahead with their project, frām

(myfram.com), which is an iPhone case with an integrated template that lets you personalize your case by inserting a photo. They eventually had a successful product launch, and they also now have an iPhone app called myFrām (free, app2.me/6014).

iOS Apps Sometimes iOS apps launch via Kickstarter, but funding them successfully is more difﬁcult. Experts say that products with higher perceived value are more apt to receive funding than a $0.99 app. Yet Cesar Kuriyama mounted a campaign last November with a goal of $20,000 and eventually raised $57,000. His app, 1 Second Everyday ($0.99, bit.ly/VILN6Q), facilitates recording one second of each day of your life, and combines it into a movie. After a year’s time, you’ll have a 6-minute video, and in 10 years, a 1-hour video that includes a snippet from every single day.

Finding Good Deals on Kickstarter To view iOS-related projects, go to Kickstarter and search for “iPhone” or “iPad.” The results will list hundreds of campaigns, with the most popular coming up ﬁrst. The people who are among the earliest backers get the best deals. SOSCharger made its device available for $25 to the ﬁrst 500 backers, but once that was gone, the next level of reward was $35 for the device. Remember, though, that your contribution isn’t without risk. It sometimes happens that a company meets their goal, and collects your money, but then they fail to bring the product to market. There’s nothing you can do in that case; at that point, you’re essentially a donor.

Kickstarter isn’t only being used for fundraising; it’s also becoming an important marketing tool. Companies that don’t need the funding are sometimes using the site to create advance buzz for their products.

“What makes a successful Kickstarter campaign? A killer demo video of your product or app.” Other Crowdfunding Websites There are hundreds of crowdfunding websites out there. Kickstarter is the most popular, but it’s limited to the U.S. and U.K. Indiegogo (indiegogo.com) is also among the most popular, but it's international. CrowdfundingBlog.com has a table that lists 100 platforms, their fees (if any), niche, and restrictions. CrowdsUnite (crowdsunite.com) tries to categorize all platforms to let you ﬁlter, sort, and compare them. So check out Kickstarter. If nothing else, you’ll get the scoop on some of the coolest products that will soon be hitting store shelves. Ѷ Jim Karpen, Ph.D, is on faculty at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, IA. He has been writing about the revolutionary consequences of computer technology since 1994. His Ph.D dissertation anticipated the Internet revolution. His site, jimkarpen.com, contains selected regular columns written for The Iowa Source. jim_karpen@iphonelife.com.

Creating a Successful Kickstarter Campaign What makes a successful Kickstarter campaign? Experts agree that it’s crucial to have a killer demo video of your product or app. Also, you have to make sure that the amount you ask for is right—you don’t want to promise something and then find you don’t have enough money to fulfill your promise. “Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver,” James says. “Be honest and forthright.” He also says it’s important to create interest in your product just prior to posting it on Kickstarter, so you get a good pop the first couple of days. He created initial momentum by contacting photography websites and publications to let them know that Luxi was going to be launching its campaign.

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Laura Knapp Age: 33 Location: Orange County, California, and Viña del Mar, Chile One-Line Bio: Creative Director and founder of an interactive design agency called iNova Studios (inovaagency.com/en/).

Calendar: Setting reminders and making appointments in my calendar is the only way I remember anything. If it's not in my calendar, it's not happening!

Foursquare: Not only is it fun to be awarded the title of Mayor of my favorite neighborhood location, but I also get excited every time I get a new badge. My favorite badge to date is the Super User—30 checkins in one month.

Echofon: This is my favorite Twitter app. It allows me to manage my Twitter account (as well as my clients’ accounts), manage my lists, and properly re-tweet other people’s tweets. Follow me @LauraKnapp.

AT&T Code Scanner: As a social media and digital marketer, I am always curious to see how brands are using QR codes, so having a QR reader app is key.

The Weather Channel: I have family members all over the world, and this app lets me see what the weather is like in their cities.

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Photos: Since owning an iPhone, I have deleted very few photos. I love scrolling back to see moments I captured years ago.

Facebook: I can manage my company's Facebook page as well as pages for my clients—checking updates and replying to fans, all while on the go.

Words With Friends: I have about three games going on at the moment, two with friends and one with my mom. It's a great little break in my day.

Instagram: Instagram ﬁlters are great fun, but what I love most is keeping up with friends through their photo updates and being inspired by photos tagged with topics I'm interested in, like #cleaneating and #ﬁtness. (@LauraKnapp)

MyFitnessPal: The best app I've found for keeping track of my physical activity and food intake. I love that I can keep it updated throughout the day, rather than entering items in a notebook at the end of each day.

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The 2013 How To ©iStockphoto.com/ranplett

Guide I

f this is your first foray into the world of Apple products, congratulations! The following pages are filled with tips and tricks to get you started using your iDevice. If you’re an experienced user, fear not—we have tips and tricks for you, too. You’ll find plenty of gems that will help you unleash the full power of these wonderful tools, to make your life easier and more effective.

We cover it all—iCloud, Siri, the App Store, troubleshooting, choosing a case, and much more—but we also made sure to include some guidelines for using your iDevice for fun: turning your mundane road trips into voyages of awesomeness, planning the perfect date, and learning to paint digital masterpieces. So turn the page, dig in, and enjoy the ride!

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Meet Your iDevice Device pictured: iPhone 5 FaceTime Camera

Receiver/Front Microphone

Rear Microphone iSight Camera

LED Flash

On/Off Button Sleep/Wake

Status Bar

Ring/Silent switch

App icons Volume buttons

Multi-Touch Display

Home Button

Speaker

Headset Jack

Dock Connector

Bottom Microphone

Built-in apps: App Store: Choose from hundreds of thousands of apps for your iDevice, from games to travel to business, and everything in between.

Compass: View the direction your device is pointing and the geographical coordinates of your current location.

Mail: Send and receive emails and attachments from multiple accounts.

Contacts: Access and edit your contacts’ names, numbers, email addresses, and more.

Maps: Get directions with turn-by-turn navigation, view trafﬁc conditions, and zoom in to locations with Flyover.

Find My iPhone: If it's turned on in your iCloud settings, this feature lets you see where you left your phone.

Messages: Send and receive text, photo, and video messages.

Camera: Shoot, edit, and share photos and videos; make FaceTime calls.

Game Center: Play games with friends or strangers, and view leaderboards for inspiration.

Music: Play music or other audio from your iTunes music library.

Clock: Check the time anywhere in the world, set alarms, and use a timer or stopwatch.

iTunes: Purchase music, TV shows, and movies; iCloud will sync your downloads across all your devices.

Newsstand: Keep all your magazine and newspaper subscriptions on hand.

Calculator: Perform simple calculations on the go; rotate to landscape orientation for a scientiﬁc calculator. Calendar: Organize your schedule in day, month, or list view. Use iCloud to sync calendars across all your devices.

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How To Device pictured: iPad mini FaceTime Camera Status Bar

iSight Camera Microphone On/Off Button Sleep/Wake

Side Switch Volume buttons App Icons

Multi-Touch Display

Home Button

Speaker Dock Connector

Notes: Jot down and email quick notes on the go, using the smart keyboard or voice dictation.

Reminders: Create to-do lists, set due dates, and receive location- or time-based alerts.

Stocks: View the latest available quotes for your selected stocks, funds, and indexes.

Passbook: All your tickets, coupons, gift cards, and boarding passes are just a tap away.

Safari: Browse the web, view online content ad-free with the Reader feature, and bookmark pages across all your devices with iCloud.

Videos: View movies, music videos, and video podcasts from the iTunes store.

Phone: Make phone calls, respond to incoming calls with several options, and listen to voicemails. Photo Booth: Take wacky photos of yourself using special effects, then share with friends. Photos: View and edit photos you’ve taken or saved; share with Photo Stream, MMS, email, or social media.

Settings: Conﬁgure your device with preferences for individual apps, notiﬁcations, privacy, and much more. Siri: Use this intelligent assistant to answer questions, set reminders, call or text contacts, make reservations, and more.

Voice Memos: Create recordings on the go, then edit and share via email or MMS. Weather: Get the forecast for your location or anywhere in the world.

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How To

Get Started Personalizing Your iDevice

efore using your new gadget, you’ll want to customize its settings. From standard measures like setting passcodes, notiﬁcations, and alerts, to more creative options like selecting wallpaper and ringtones, we’ll walk you through all the necessary steps to get you using your iDevice in no time.

Personalizing Your Screen Setting Background Images: Personalizing your lock screen and home screen is one of the easiest and most fun things you can do in order to make your device different from everyone else’s. While your device comes with several default images to choose from, you can also use images from your Camera Roll or photo apps for a truly individualized look. There are also apps, like Pimp Your Screen ($0.99, app2.me/4020), that offer cool background images and app shelves in a myriad of styles and categories. Go to Settings>Brightness & Wallpaper and tap on the image under Wallpaper. Tap on Wallpaper to choose one of Apple’s stock images, Camera Roll to select from the images you’ve taken or saved, or any photo app in which you’ve saved images, like Instagram (free, app2.me/3183). Tap on the image you’d like, then when you come to the Move and Scale page, zoom in and center the image as you wish. Tap Set and then select Set Lock Screen (what appears when you ﬁrst “wake up” your device), Set Home Screen (what shows behind your app icons), or Set Both.

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Organizing Your Apps For info on how to navigate the App Store and download apps, check out page 40. Once you’ve downloaded some apps, you’ll likely want to move them around and organize them into folders. Rearranging Apps: To move an app, tap it and hold until the icons start to wiggle. Simply drag it where you want it and let it go. To move it to a new screen, drag it off the screen and let it go when the new page appears. Once you’ve ﬁnished moving your apps around, press the Home button and the icons will stop wiggling. To save space on your screen, you may want to create folders of similarly themed apps (e.g., Games, Music, Travel). You need at least two apps to start a folder. Pick two, tap and hold one of them until all the icons start to wiggle, and drag it onto the other. You’ll then see the two apps together and be prompted to name the folder. Press the Home button to return to your main screen and drag any other apps you want included into the folder. Once you’ve ﬁnished organizing your apps, tap the Home button and your changes will be saved. To edit a folder, tap on it until it starts to wiggle, and then tap it again. Drag apps in or out as desired and edit the name by tapping on the text. Tap the Home button when you’re done.

How To

Privacy & Protection Setting a Passcode: Some people are comfortable using the basic lock screen, but if you’d like an extra level of security, set up a passcode so that only you can unlock your device. You can either create a simple, 4-digit passcode or a longer one that uses a combination of letters and numbers.

Go back to Passcode Lock and scroll to the bottom. Toggle Erase Data to ON if you’d prefer for all data on your device to be erased after 10 failed passcode attempts. Go back to General>Auto-Lock. For the strongest security, select 1 Minute. Setting Restrictions:

Simple Passcode: Go to Settings>General>Passcode Lock. Make sure the Simple Passcode setting is set to ON. At the top of the screen, tap Turn Passcode On. Type in the 4-digit code you’d like to use and repeat when prompted.

You can restrict access to certain features or downloaded content on your iDevice. This is a particularly handy capability for parents who don’t want their kids to install apps, use the camera, or listen to explicit lyrics.

Longer Passcode: Go to Settings>General>Passcode Lock. Slide Simple Passcode to OFF. At the top of the screen, tap Turn Passcode On. Type in the alphanumeric passcode you’d like to use, tap Next, re-enter the passcode, and tap Done. Choosing Passcode Requirements: While still on the Passcode Lock screen, tap Require Passcode. The shorter the time you select, the more secure your device will be. For the strongest security, tap Immediately.

Go to General>Restrictions and tap Enable Restrictions. You’ll be prompted to set a 4-digit passcode; this is distinct from the passcode for unlocking your device. Pictured is a list of apps and features to which you can decide whether to allow access; toggle OFF in order to restrict access. Scroll down further, to the Allowed Content section, to create even more speciﬁc restrictions, such as only allowing certain movie ratings or not allowing in-app purchases.

Ringtones & Alerts How your phone alerts you when you receive a text message, call, email, or notiﬁcation is a personal choice. Some people like the vibrate-only setting, while others like loud zips and zings for just about every alert. Luckily, you can drill down to every single sound option in your device’s settings, so you can ﬁnd just the right combo for you! Go to Settings>Sounds. Under Vibrate, chose whether you want your phone to vibrate when ringing or when in silent mode. Under Ringer and Alerts, slide the volume bar to the ringing volume you want. If you’d like to be able to adjust the volume with the volume buttons on the side of your device, slide Change with Buttons to ON. Under Sounds and Vibration Patterns, go through each category and select the sound you’d like, or select None. At the bottom of the Settings>Sounds page, you’ll see Lock Sounds and Keyboard Clicks. If you don’t want your device to make a clicking sound every time you put your device to sleep, wake it up, or type on it, slide both to OFF.

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How To

Managing Notifications You have the power to select exactly how many and what type of notifications you receive from every app on your device. Each time you open a new app, it should ask you if you’d like to allow notifications from it. Right then, select the option you’d like; it’ll save you some work later on. If you’d like to clean up the amount of notifications you’re receiving and revisit your settings app by app, here’s what to do. Go to Settings>Notifications. Under In Notification Center, you’ll see all the apps you’re currently getting notifications for. If there are any you don’t want there, tap on the app name and slide the top option, Notification Center, to OFF. For each app that you choose to continue receiving notifications for, you can select exactly how you’d like to receive them. Tap on an app under In Notification Center and select what kind of Alert Style you’d like: None, Banners (which appear at the top of your screen and go away automatically), or Alerts (which require an action before proceeding). You can also opt to have it make a sound when it arrives, and to have it show up in your lock screen.

Do Not Disturb A great new feature of iOS 6 is Do Not Disturb. It allows you to schedule times during which calls and alerts are silenced. In order to turn this feature on, go to Settings and slide Do Not Disturb to ON. Then tap Notiﬁcations> Do Not Disturb, slide Scheduled to ON, and choose a range of time (for example, when you’ll be in sleeping, or in an important meeting). Under Allow Calls From, select Everyone, No One, or Favorites. Slide Repeated Calls to ON if you’d like a second call from the same contact to go through if it’s made within three minutes of the ﬁrst. This way, if you allow calls from no one, but your spouse calls twice about an emergency, the second call will go through.

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How To

Use Your iPhone It’s the Original Purpose, Remember? Managing Contacts

If you just got a new iDevice, the first thing you want to do is import your existing contacts. You can import contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft Exchange, and other services. To add existing contacts, just open Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Add Account… and choose the account from which you’d like to import existing contacts. Please note that since Apple and Google sometimes fail to get along, adding contacts from Gmail is more complicated than it should be. Here’s how you import contacts from Gmail: 1. Open Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Add Account… 2. Tap Microsoft Exchange (not Gmail—I know, it’s weird). 3. Enter your email address in the Email field, leave Domain blank, and enter your username (without “@ gmail.com”) and password. 4. Under Description, name it “Gmail Contacts” or something similar so you know what it is. 5. Tap Next, and a new field, Server, will appear. Type in “m.google.com.” 6. Tap Next, and your contacts from Gmail will sync to your iDevice. If you want to manually add or delete single contacts, just look for the “+” symbol inside the Contacts app, or in the Contacts tab inside the Phone app (both lead to the same location). If you want to delete a contact, pull up their contact info, tap Edit, scroll all the way to the bottom and tap Delete Contact.

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Facebook Contact Integration If you link Facebook to your iPhone, you can choose to import your Facebook contacts into your Contacts app. Open Settings>Facebook, and sign in to your account to link it. Your Facebook contacts will now appear as contacts on your iPhone. Please note that this can cause a lot of duplicates, especially if Facebook names don’t perfectly match the names in your Contacts app. If this is the case, you’ll have to manually link proﬁles to eliminate duplicates. If you prefer to not link your Facebook contacts to your Contacts app, open Settings>Facebook and slide Contacts to OFF.

Facetime FaceTime is a video-calling feature built into every iOS device with a frontfacing camera. It works over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G, and you can connect with anyone else that has a FaceTime-enabled iOS device or Mac computer. You can be reached via FaceTime through your phone number and any other email addresses connected to your iPhone. To choose settings and see which emails are connected to FaceTime, open Settings>FaceTime, and make your selections. To initiate a FaceTime call, simply bring up the contact you wish to call, and tap FaceTime. Note that if you choose to make a FaceTime call using 3G or 4G, it may consume a fair amount of data. If you prefer to restrict FaceTime calls to happen only via Wi-Fi, open Settings>FaceTime and turn Use Cellular Data to OFF.

Making and Answering Calls

Other Great Calling Features

How To

Yes, your iPhone can make calls, too—isn’t it amazing? Unsurprisingly, there are several ways to make phone calls from your iPhone. The most old-school way is to open the Phone app, tap on the Keypad, dial the phone number, and tap Call. Here are some other ways: Using Siri: Press and hold the Home button until Siri comes up. Say, “Call [name of contact]” or say the phone number. You can also do this if you’re wearing a headset; just press and hold down the headset button until Siri comes up. From the Contacts screen: Pull up the contact you wish to call, and tap on their phone number. From the Favorites or Recents screen: Tap on the name or phone number listed to initiate a call. From the Messages app: If you’ve been chatting with someone and want to call them, just tap on the top part of the screen (where the time is displayed), and you’ll shoot up to the top of the chat log, where you’ll see an option to Call or FaceTime them, or to edit their contact details. When a call comes in, you’ll have the option to answer, silence, or decline it. To answer it, simply tap the green Answer button that appears. To decline, tap the red Decline button, or double-click the Sleep/Wake button on the top of your phone. To silence a call, just single-click the Sleep/Wake button.

Merging Calls Creating conference calls is a built-in feature on the iPhone. Once you have a caller on the line, tap Add Call. The second caller will be put on hold while you dial another person. Once you have them on the line, you can tap Merge Calls to create a conference call with both parties.

With iOS 6 came a couple handy new options for dealing with incoming calls. When a call comes in, slide your ﬁnger up to reveal Reply With Message and Remind Me Later. Tap Reply With Message to send your caller a prewritten text that starts with, “Can’t talk right now…” and ends with whatever you choose. “I’ll call you later,” “I’m on my way,” and “What’s up?” are the default options. You can also create custom texts by opening Settings>Phone>Reply With Message. If you choose Remind Me Later, you’ll get an option to remind you to call the person back in 1 hour, or When I Leave. If you choose When I Leave, you’ll receive the reminder when you move away from your current location (Location Services must be on for this option to work).

Tip

Merge Duplicate Contacts If you have duplicate contacts, you can merge them into one contact. Just open the contact’s info, tap Edit, scroll to the bottom, tap Link Contact…, and select the other contact to merge it with.

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How To

Send Messages Text and Type Like a Pro

t is often more convenient to send a quick text message than to have a phone conversation. There are lots of little tricks that can make your texting experience more efﬁcient and smooth—use these bits of knowledge to message like a pro!

iMessage This is Apple’s messaging system, which allows you to send free text messages between Apple devices. If you’re sending a text message to a non-Apple device, you’ll see the text bubble change from blue to green. That’s how you know whether you’re using iMessage or sending a regular text. It all happens automatically, and it’s an easy way to know when you’re getting charged for a text message and when you’re not.

Pay attention to the color of the text bubble. If it’s blue, you’re sending free iMessages to another iOS device. If it’s green, you’re sending regular texts.

Tip

To send a text message, simply open the Messages app, and from the main screen, tap the New Messages icon located in the top right corner (looks like a pencil inside a rectangle). In the To field, enter a phone number or a name from your Contacts, then tap the field in the middle to type your message. The field will either say iMessage or Text Message, depending on whether the recipient has an iDevice. Type in your message and tap Send. Receiving text messages is pretty straightforward. The text notification will show up as an Alert or a Banner, depending on how you have your notifications set up. Tap on the alert or banner, and you’ll go straight into the Messages app, where you can read the text message. You can also open the Messages app directly to see the latest text message. To change the way notifications show up, open Settings> Notifications>Messages, and choose an Alert Style. Banners are unobtrusive—they appear along the top of the screen and disappear after a few seconds. Alerts show up in the middle of the screen, and disappear only after you tap them.

Custom Shortcuts

Text shortcuts are three-letter codes that expand into speciﬁc phrases. The ﬁrst default shortcut is “omw,” which expands into “On my way” when you type it in an email or text message. You can add your own custom shortcuts by opening Settings>General>Keyboard>Add New Shortcut…”

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How To

Texting From an iPad or iPod touch

Emoticons

You can send iMessages from an iPad or iPod touch, as long as the device is connected to a Wi-Fi network. If you lose the connection, you won’t be able to send or receive messages, but when you reconnect, all the messages will be updated.

What do you do when words aren’t enough to express how you’re feeling? You use emoticons! An emoticon keyboard is built into your iDevice. To activate it, open Settings>General>Keyboard>Keyboards> Add New Keyboard… Scroll down the list until you ﬁnd Emoji, and tap it. When you open your keyboard from any app, you’ll see a new option next to the space bar. Tap it, and you’ll see a huge assortment of emoticons.

Dictating Messages

Send Photos and Videos

You can use Siri to send text messages, but you can also use voice dictation by tapping on the mic icon on the keyboard. You’ll hear a single beep prompting you to begin talking, and when you pause, the iPhone will assume that you’re done and will type what you just said. You can also type punctuation by simply saying the words “comma,” “period,” “semi-colon,” “question mark,” and so on.

There are two ways to send photos and videos as messages. One way is to open the photo or video through the Photos app, tap the share icon (looks like a rectangle with an arrow coming out), and tap Message. If you’re sending a video and it’s too big to send, your iDevice will prompt you to edit or trim the video before proceeding. The other way is through the Messages app. Start a new text message, and tap the camera icon next to the text ﬁeld. It will open your Photo album, from which you can select a photo or a video to attach. You can also send multiple photos by opening Photos, tapping on an album to view your grid of pics, and tapping Edit. Tap on the pictures you want to send, tap Share, and tap Message. The pics will be placed in a new text message, and you can continue writing the message, tapping Send when you’re ready.

International Messages The advantage of iMessage is that it works internationally with other iOS devices. Just make sure you see the blue bubble— otherwise, you’ll end up with a huge bill. Another option for texting internationally is to use a third-party app such as WhatsApp Messenger ($0.99, app2.me/3427), which also lets you share unlimited text messages with other WhatsApp Messenger users.

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How To

Connect to the Internet The Lifeline of Your iDevice Get Connected In order to make full use of your iDevice’s features, you’ll need an Internet connection. There are two ways to connect, via Wi-Fi and via your provider’s cellular network. Via Wi-Fi: Open Settings>Wi-Fi and slide to ON. If there are networks in range, you’ll see them listed. Tap on a network to join, and if the network is password protected, enter the password. Once connected, you’ll see an icon with three horizontally curved bars in your status bar that indicate the Wi-Fi signal’s strength. If you want your iPhone or iPad to alert you whenever there are Wi-Fi networks in range, scroll to the bottom and slide Ask to Join Networks to ON. Via cellular network: When you’re within your carrier’s cellular network range, you’ll see the name of your carrier in the status bar, along with up to ﬁve vertical bars indicating the signal’s strength. You’ll also see EDGE, 3G, or 4G listed, which are the carrier signals available across the U.S.

Whenever possible, connect using Wi-Fi. It won’t use up your monthly allotment of data, so you can browse and download to your heart’s content.

Track Your Data Usage If you don’t have an unlimited data plan, you’ll want to keep an eye on your data usage so as not to get hit with extra charges. Go to Settings> General>Usage>Cellular Usage and look at the amount of data your device has sent and received under Cellular Network Data; normally the limit your carrier sets is the combined amount of sent and received data. You can also monitor your data usage using your carrier’s iOS app, or a third-party app such as DataMan Next ($0.99, app2.me/6010), DataWiz (free, app2. me/6011), or My Data Manager (free, app2.me/6012). The advantage to using this method is that you can set alerts and notiﬁcations for when you near your limit, so you don’t have to keep checking manually.

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Tip

Save Your Power When you don’t need an internet connection for a while, turn Wi-Fi to OFF; it’ll cut down on battery usage. To disable all wireless signals (i.e., no internet, no phone calls in or out, and happy ﬂight attendants), go to Settings and slide Airplane Mode to ON.

Surfin' Safari

How To If you want to browse the web, tap on the Safari icon on your Home Screen. You can also download other web browser apps, such as Chrome (free, app2.me/5488) and Dolphin (free, app2.me/6013), but since Safari is Apple’s built-in browser, it’s integrated into every function of iOS. Here are a few pointers on using Safari.

©iStockp k hoto.com/ymgerman

Viewing Pages: At the top of the screen, enter a URL in the bar and tap Go, or use the Search ﬁeld on the top right to perform a web search. Once on the page, scroll up and down or use the slider bar on the right to navigate the page. Zoom in and out of a page by pinching or double-tapping the screen.

Managing Pages: To open a new page, close an existing page, or navigate between pages while browsing, tap the double-square icon on the bottom right of the screen. Select New Page to open a new one. Hit the small red “X” at the top left of the page to close it. To scroll between pages, slide your ﬁnger left or right, then select Done when you ﬁnd the page you want to open. Sharing & Saving Pages: Tap the Share icon at the bottom of the screen (the rectangle with an arrow coming out) and several options will appear. You can choose to email a link to the page, send it via text message, share on Twitter or Facebook, add it as an icon to your Home Screen, bookmark it, and more. Viewing Bookmarks: Tap the open-book icon at the bottom of the screen to see a list of your bookmarked pages. You can tap Edit to delete bookmarks or create folders. You can also use this button to view your browsing history and to manage your Reading List (a collection of pages to read later, even if you’re not connected to the Internet) and iCloud tabs (see below). The Reader Feature: A small “Reader” button appears on the URL bar when you visit certain sites. If you tap it, Safari will strip the page of all ads, cumbersome formatting, and images irrelevant to the article, leaving only a clean page with easy-to-read text. You can adjust the font size in Reader mode by tapping on the pair of capital “A”s in the top left corner of the screen. Two “A” buttons will pop up; tap the large one to enlarge text, or the small one to shrink it. Customizing Safari Settings: If you’d like to change Safari’s default settings, open Settings>Safari and play around with the different options for Search Engine, AutoFill, and more. You can also turn on the Private Browsing feature from this page.

iCloud Tab Syncing A feature of Safari in iOS 6 is the ability to sync open tabs across multiple devices. Any iDevice running iOS 6 or Mac running OS X Mountain Lion will, if connected to the Internet and iCloud, sync any open tabs across all of your devices. Go to Settings>iCloud and slide Safari to ON. This creates a new list on your Bookmarks page called iCloud Tabs. On your Mac or iPad, just tap on the cloud icon and your list of tabs will appear. Pretty cool, huh?

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How To

Using Siri Your Intelligent Personal Assistant ince Siri’s introduction in 2011, Apple has made a few much-needed tweaks to the feature. They launched an update with the release of iOS 6—now Siri can launch apps, post to Facebook, make restaurant reservations, and more. Check out these “Siri 101” tips so you can make the most of this handy feature.

Activating Siri To talk to Siri, press and hold the Home button (or raise your phone to your ear, if you have that setting activated) until you hear a double beep. The Siri icon will pop up at the bottom of the screen with the prompt, “What can I help you with?” Speak naturally as you say your command or ask your question. After a long pause, Siri will assume you’re done speaking, and will repeat back to you what it understood. If it needs more clariﬁcation, then it will ask for it. You can also tap the Siri mic icon when you want to start or end a command. To cancel a request or close Siri, press the Home button.

Siri Settings

What Can Siri Do?

Under Settings>General>Siri, slide Siri to ON. Then slide Raise to Speak to ON or OFF, depending on whether you’d like to be able to activate Siri simply by raising your phone to your ear.

One of the best resources for examples of Siri’s capabilities is located within the app itself. Activate Siri, then press the little “i” to the right of Siri’s “What can I help you with?” prompt. Scroll through the category options, and select one for more detailed examples of commands and questions.

Tap Language to choose which of the 19 available languages or accents you want Siri to speak in. Tap My Info and identify yourself with your contact info; Siri will use this to identify relationships. Once you’ve established your identity, you can tell Siri things like “Tom Smith is my dad,” or “Skylar is my wife,” and from then on you can simply say things like “call my dad,” “text my wife,” etc.

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Siri can carry out simple tasks such as calling contacts, launching apps, sending messages and emails, taking notes, setting alarms, and checking the weather. It can also perform more detailed tasks like posting to Facebook or Twitter, checking sports scores, ﬁnding movie times, getting restaurant info and making reservations, giving you directions, and more. Take a few minutes to explore all the options so that you’ll be ready at a moment’s notice to take full advantage of Siri’s rich capabilities!

How To

Explore the App Store The Essential Marketplace for iUsers

rom games to social media outlets, news publications to budgeting tools, there are apps in the App Store for pretty much anything you can think of—over 700,000 of them, to be exact. Beyond built-in apps, these third-party applications enhance your iDevice’s power and functionality in surprising ways, and new apps come out every day. Here are some useful tips and tricks to help you make the most of the App Store.

10 Must-Have Apps to Get You Started

Flipboard (Free, app2.me/3473)

Fruit Ninja ($0.99, app2.me/3013)

Facebook (Free, app2.me/260)

Temple Run: Oz ($0.99, app2.me/6009)

Instagram (Free, app2.me/3183)

Pandora (Free, app2.me/2410)

Clear ($1.99, app2.me/4968)

Netﬂix (Free, app2.me/2968)

Angry Birds Space ($0.99, app2.me/5137)

Kindle (Free, app2.me/2482)

Downloading Apps There are two ways to access the App Store to download and buy apps. You can open iTunes through your computer, or open the built-in App Store app on your iDevice. To access the App Store through iTunes, open iTunes, click on iTunes Store, and click on App Store. Even though most apps work universally across iDevices (denoted by a small “+” symbol on or near the price), be sure to toggle between iPhone and iPad sections (see image), so you can see iPad-only apps that aren’t available on the iPhone. You’ll need to be signed in to iTunes with your Apple ID to download apps.

Be sure to toggle between iPhone and iPad sections to browse iPad-only apps.

Downloading is the same through iTunes and the App Store app. Click (or tap) on the app price to download an app, and you’ll be prompted to enter your Apple ID and password. Apple will charge the credit card you have on ﬁle, and the app will start to download. If you’re downloading apps through iTunes, your iDevice(s) will need to wirelessly sync. You can also sync by connecting the iDevice directly to your computer via a USB cable.

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Deleting and Re-Downloading

If you’re running out of space on your iDevice, you may need to delete a few apps. To see which apps are taking up the most space, open Settings>General>Usage. You’ll see a listing of the apps on your device, ordered by size. If Photos & Camera shows up ﬁrst, which is often the case, it means that you need to delete some photos or videos. If an app shows up ﬁrst, you might want to consider deleting it. Don’t worry; deleting an app removes it from your iDevice, but it’s not gone forever. If you want to download it again, you won’t have to pay for it. To re-download an app, open the App Store app, tap on the Updates section, and then on Purchased (or go straight to Purchased if you’re on an iPad). There you’ll see a list of purchased apps that you can download again at any time.

Tip

Top Charts

How To

When you ﬁrst visit the App Store, you’ll probably see a few charts showing the most downloaded paid and free apps, along with the apps that are grossing the most in revenue. I recommend glancing through the list periodically. You’ll notice a lot of games, since that’s the most popular app category. You’ll also notice some of the same apps ranked high in both the Free and Top Grossing categories. This may seem confusing at ﬁrst—how can a free app make so much money? The answer is in-app purchases. If you see free apps ranking high in the Top Grossing category, you can safely assume that those “freemium” apps offer a lot of extras you can buy within the app, such as coins, virtual objects, and unlock features. Also be sure to look through the top charts for different categories—it’s an easy way to get a quick snapshot of which apps might be worth checking out.

How to Read Ratings and Reviews

There are several points to keep in mind when looking at app ratings and reviews that can quickly help you determine whether an app is worth downloading. 1. Number: How many people have rated or reviewed the app? A low number of ratings or reviews could mean that no one is interested in the app—or it could mean you’ve stumbled upon an undiscovered gem. 2. Dates: Did all the reviews happen on the same day? If so, you may be reading unreliable reviews from the app’s development team or others afﬁliated with the app. If the reviews sound promotional or disingenuous, ignore them. 3. Spread: How many positive versus negative reviews are there? Most great apps have excellent reviews and high ratings, with a small percentage of 1- or 2-star reviews. Hey, no app is going to please everybody, and if it does, then you should totally get that app!

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How To

Use the Camera App Maximize Your Photo & Video Skills Camera Basics ups, outdoor portraits, and in dim lighting without a ﬂash; or Panorama, a cool new feature that allows you to take panoramic shots in one smooth motion, complete with a helpful on-screen arrow as you shoot. The far right option, which shows a camera with arrows, switches from the rear iSight camera to the front FaceTime camera, which is handy for self-portraits.

The iPhone has an extraordinary builtin iSight camera. Boasting 8 megapixels and a slew of features, it has the goods to take your mobile photography skills from so-so to super in no time. There are two ways to open the Camera app: tapping on the Camera icon on your home screen, or swiping up on the small camera symbol on your lock screen. Once you’re ready to take a pic, tap the camera button at the bottom of the screen, or press the volume up button—both options act as a shutter, and using the volume button helps you keep the camera a little more stable in order to minimize blurry pics. Here are a few other tips to consider if you’d like to maximize your iPhoneography experience. Focusing & Zooming When you point the camera in the direction of your subject, it automatically brings up the face detection feature, which is a square that indicates the photo’s area of focus. If there are multiple people in the frame, up to 10 squares will appear, lending focus and balance exposure to each face. You can temporarily turn off face detection and move the focus anywhere by just tapping the screen where you want the focus to be. To zoom, simply pinch two ﬁngers together and slide them apart. At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a slider bar; you can also zoom in and out by sliding the bar from side to side. Flash, Panorama & More Tap the top left corner to select a ﬂash option: Auto, On, or Off. Tap the center Options button to activate Grid, which shows a grid in the background as you take a photo; HDR, which stands for “high dynamic range” and is great for close-

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Shooting Video At the bottom right of the screen, there’s a small slider bar; slide it to the right to activate video mode. When you’re ready to start recording, press the red button at the bottom. Press it again to stop recording, and the video will automatically save to your Camera Roll.

How To

What's Photo Stream?

Photo Stream is a feature of iCloud that lets you sync photos between devices. When it’s turned on (Settings>iCloud>Photo Stream, slide My Photo Stream to ON), any photo you take on your iPhone will automatically appear in the Photo Stream album on your other iDevices, Mac, or PC set up with Photo Stream. You can also share your photo streams with chosen contacts. Go to Settings>iCloud>Photo Stream and slide Shared Photo Streams to ON. Then tap the Photos app on your home screen, tap Photo Stream at the bottom, and tap the “+” at the top left of the screen. Enter the email address of another iOS user to invite them to subscribe, or slide Public Website to ON if you want to post the photo stream to icloud.com, giving anyone access to your photos. You can always change the name of the shared photo stream, delete photos from it (or delete it entirely), and add or remove subscribers.

Sharing Options

Editing Photos & Videos

When you open a photo and click on the Share icon (the rectangle with an arrow coming out), several options will appear. You can choose to include the photo in an email or text message; post it to Twitter or Facebook; add it to your Photo Stream; print it, copy it, use as wallpaper, and more. Fewer options appear when you do the same for video, but uploading it to YouTube will be one of them.

Open up your Camera Roll and select a photo you’d like to edit—or if it’s a photo you just took, tap the image at the bottom left of the screen to open the photo, or tap the middle of the screen and slide towards the right to reveal the last photo. Tap Edit at the top right corner and four options will appear at the bottom of the screen: Rotate, which allows you to rotate the photo in 90-degree increments; Auto-Enhance, which improves the overall lighting and saturation (you can undo or redo this whenever you want by tapping it again); Remove Red-Eye, which keeps your subjects’ eyes from glowing red; and Crop, which lets you reposition and crop your photo.

Beyond The Basics The Camera app has a couple basic editing tools, but if you really want to explore the art of iPhoneography, you’ll likely want to take advantage of the advanced editing functions, filters, and effects that third-party apps have to offer. Camera+ ($0.99, app2.me/2583) is a favorite of our iPhoneography writers, and has garnered rave reviews for its design and capabilities. Snapseed (free, app2.me/4057) is another great pick for in-depth editing. If you’re looking for a quick and easy fix, add a cool filter in Instagram (free, app2.me/3183) and post for all your friends to see.

To crop a video, open up the clip and tap the screen. Drag either end of the frame-viewer bar at the top to the desired length, then tap Trim.

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How To

Make Use of iCloud The Invisible Force of iOS

h yes, the iCloud. That mysterious thing everyone’s talking about that you can’t quite put your ﬁnger on. You only know that it truly exists when you see what it does. Here are a few ways to take full advantage of this wonderful and mystifying feature. Since we cover a lot of iCloud features in other sections, here we'll emphasize a few that aren’t covered anywhere else.

Cool iCloud Features Syncing Across Devices Apple uses the iCloud to keep everything synced across iDevices connected with your Apple ID. Apps such as Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Photos, iTunes, Safari, and more all use iCloud to sync information across all devices. To see or edit which built-in apps are using iCloud, open Settings>iCloud. You can turn off any apps you wish to stop syncing.

your desktop computer, sign in with your Apple ID, and click on Find My iPhone. The location of all your Apple devices connected to the same Apple ID will show up on a map. Find My Friends Find My Friends, another app designed by Apple, allows you to connect with friends and see their rough location (within about a 10-50 foot radius, depending on how good the signal is). You can also set temporary permissions, so a group of friends sees your location for only a speciﬁc window of time. iBooks You might be reading a book on your iPhone, and then continue reading the same book on your iPad. iCloud makes it easy to pick up where you left off. Bookmarks and any highlights you make will sync across devices as well. Backup and Restore

iCloud.com To edit and manage your Calendar, Contacts, Mail, and other information synced via iCloud, go to icloud.com and sign in with your Apple ID.

Find My iPhone Our CEO, David Averbach, talks about this feature more extensively in the article on page 62. Sufﬁce it to say that if you keep the Find My iPhone feature on, you’re much more likely to ﬁnd it if it gets lost or stolen. To see where your iDevice is currently located, go to icloud.com from

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Probably the best aspect of iCloud is that it allows you to make wireless backups of all the apps, music, and information you have stored on your iDevices. You can set automatic backups to take place every time your iDevice is charging and connected to Wi-Fi, or you can manually start a backup whenever you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network. To manage backups, open Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup and turn iCloud Backup to ON or OFF, or tap Back Up Now.

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How To

Navigate iTunes Your Portal to Entertainment

ur relationship with iTunes has had its ups and downs. It was never the friendliest of desktop programs, and having to sync your iDevice via a cable was often cumbersome and inconvenient. As of a couple of years ago, however, the iPhone and iPad became free of wired updates, instead opting for wireless syncing via Wi-Fi to download and update all apps, videos, music, and settings. In addition to the desktop version of iTunes, there’s also the built-in iTunes app, which serves as an instant portal to music, movies, TV shows, and audiobooks. Here are some ways to make the most of this powerful tool.

Buying and Renting On your desktop, the movies and music you’ve downloaded will show up on your Library, under the corresponding category. Note that when you rent a movie, a new category for rentals will appear under Movies. Through the iTunes App To rent or buy a movie through the iTunes app, open the app, select the media category you want to choose from, and tap on the movie, song, or album you want to buy.

Through iTunes on Your Desktop Open iTunes, and click on iTunes Store. Click on the media category you wish to browse through, and click on a movie or song you want to download. On the movie or music page, you’ll see a snapshot of ratings and price. For movies, note that there are separate prices for High-Definition (HD) and Standard-Definition (SD) versions, with the SD versions often a few dollars cheaper to rent or buy. Click on the price to initiate a purchase and click again to confirm. Enter your Apple ID and password, and the content will begin to download. To play from your iDevice, open the iTunes app, tap on More…>Purchased, and you’ll see the Music, Movies, and TV Shows categories. Tap on a movie or song you’ve already purchased, and if it’s not on your iDevice, you’ll see a little iCloud icon that you can tap to re-download to your device for free.

Tip

Next to each piece of content, you’ll always see a price, and in the case of movies, you’ll see often see two prices: one for rental and one for purchase. Tap on the price to initiate a purchase, and you’ll be prompted to tap again to buy or rent. Next, enter your Apple ID, and the movie or song will begin to download. Movies and shows will download to the Videos app, and music will download to the Music app.

Rent From Your Desktop

If you make the initial purchase or rental through the desktop version of iTunes, you’ll be able to play that content back on any iDevice connected to your Apple ID. If you make the initial purchase or rental through the iTunes app, you’ll only be able to play that content through your iDevices—not the desktop version of iTunes. Bottom line: when you can, rent or purchase through iTunes on your desktop.

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Other Music and Video Services

Managing Account Settings

How To

Pandora (Free, app2.me/2410) Get instant access to personalized radio with Pandora. A must-have app for anyone who listens to music. Spotify (Free, app2.me/4446) If you’re a Spotify subscriber ($9.99/ month), you can listen to pretty much any song that’s ever existed, even if it’s not in your collection. If you’re not a subscriber, you can still use the personalized radio feature. YouTube (Free, app2.me/5643) The YouTube app has a much friendlier user interface than the mobile version of youtube.com. The search feature is much better as well. Vine (Free, app2.me/6015) While this isn’t your typical video app, it’s worth a mention. Vine is basically Twitter for video. Users upload looping six-second videos that you can comment on or like.

You can only manage your iTunes account settings through the desktop version of iTunes. Click on iTunes>Preferences… to edit account settings.

iTunes Match iTunes Match is a yearly subscription service ($24.99/year) that lets you store your entire music library on the cloud, and play it from any device connected to your Apple ID. You can import songs from CDs or import music you’ve had in your music library for years. Without iTunes Match, only songs you purchase through iTunes will be available on all devices connected to your Apple ID. If you have a large collection of music, iTunes Match might be worth the yearly subscription costs, especially since all your music (or most of it, at least) will get automatically upgraded to the highest-quality version that’s already available in the iTunes Store. To activate iTunes Match, open iTunes on your desktop, and from the Music section on your library, click the Match tab. You’ll also need to activate iTunes Match from your iDevice. Just open Settings>Music and turn iTunes Match to ON.

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How To

Connect External Gear More Power for Your iPhone and iPad he power of your iPhone and iPad extends far beyond the devices themselves. There’s a whole world of accessories—such as speakers, projectors, and printers—that connect with your iDevice wirelessly or through a cable. Here’s a brief introduction to connecting external gear to your Apple device.

Apple TV

Apple TV is a $99 box that connects to your HDTV and the Internet. Through it, you can play content from Netﬂix, iTunes, YouTube, and Hulu Plus, and watch sports programming from the NFL, NBA, MLB, and other sources. You can also connect it to your iPhone or iPad so you can stream content, such as movies and pictures, to the big screen. Setting up Apple TV is simple. Just plug Apple TV to its power source, and connect it to the HDTV using an HDMI cable. Since all the content is streamed wirelessly through your Wi-Fi connection, that’s all you need to get started. To connect your iPhone or iPad to Apple TV, it must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Tip

Turn Off Bluetooth

When you’re not using Bluetooth, remember to turn it back off in Settings in order to conserve your battery life. If you don’t turn it off, your iDevice will waste all its power constantly searching for a nearby Bluetooth accessory to pair with.

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Bluetooth Accessories

©iStockphoto.com/RonBailey

From headsets to external keyboards, there are a ton of Bluetooth accessories you can pair with your iDevice. Pairing is easy. Simply open Settings>Bluetooth and slide to ON. Your iDevice will begin searching for Bluetoothcompatible gear within close range. Make sure the Bluetooth accessory is turned on (otherwise known as “discoverable”). Tap the accessory you want to pair with your iDevice. You may have to enter a password that works speciﬁcally for that accessory; check the manual. Note that while your iDevice can only pair with one Bluetooth accessory at a time, it can keep a record of multiple accessories. When pairing Bluetooth headsets, car kits, or headphones, follow the instructions to route calls through the accessory. When your iPhone is connected to a Bluetooth headset or car kit, all outgoing calls are automatically routed through the accessory. With some car kits, you can transfer your contact list to the car kit, and initiate a call through the car kit display.

AirPlay Mirroring

How To

AirPlay Mirroring is how your iPhone and iPad connect to Apple TV. Once your Apple TV and iPhone or iPad are on the same Wi-Fi network, follow these steps: 1. Double-click the Home button, so the recently used apps come up along the bottom. 2. Swipe from left to right twice, until you see the volume bar and AirPlay icon. 3. Tap the icon to reveal a list of AirPlay-enabled devices on your Wi-Fi network. 4. Select your Apple TV, and slide Mirroring to ON if you want the content to show up simultaneously on the TV and your iDevice. If you leave it set to OFF, the content from your iDevice will only show up on the HDTV. Note that you can also use this same process to connect your iPhone and iPad to any AirPlay-enabled device on your Wi-Fi network.

Printing To print from your iPhone or iPad, you’ll either need to use an AirPrint-enabled printer or a third-party accessory, such as the Lantronix xPrintServer ($99.95, lantronix.com), that lets you print from your iDevice to a non-AirPrint-enabled printer. Either way, you’ll be using Apple’s AirPrint architecture to send the data to the printer. To print a photo, email, or document, tap the Share icon (the rectangle with an arrow coming out) and select Print. You’ll arrive at a screen that will prompt you to select a printer. Your iPhone or iPad will look for printers connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Tap on the printer you want to use, and tap Print. If the printer doesn’t show up, check to make sure it’s connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your iDevice.

Connecting to Any TV Set Not only can you connect an Apple TV to an HDTV to watch movies or listen to music, but you can also connect your iPhone or iPad directly to a TV using an HDMI cable—the TV just needs to have an HDMI port. If you have a Lightningcompatible iDevice (iPhone 5, iPad mini, or 4th-generation iPad), you’ll need an HDMI to Lightning adapter (also called a Lightning Digital AV Adapter; $49, store.apple.com). If you have an older iDevice, you’ll need an HDMI to 30-pin connector. Use an HDMI cable to connect your iDevice to the TV. Once plugged in, it’s a pretty straightforward process. Make sure to set your TV to display the input where you plugged in the HDMI connection, and you should see your iPhone or iPad’s screen mirrored on the TV screen.

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How To

Choose a Case Stay Protected in Style

et’s be honest: one of the best things about a new iPhone or iPad is its sleek, sexy design. But while your beautifully crafted, ultra-modern piece of technology deserves to be admired, more importantly, it needs to be protected. Where to begin? There are so many cases on the market, it can be daunting to choose one. We’ve assembled a list of common types of cases to help you get the lay of the land, with a few examples for each category. Now cover up and carry on!

Heavy-Duty Protection These rugged cases can take a serious hit. Often touted as being waterproof, scratch-proof, dust-proof, and dinosaur-proof (okay, we made that one up), you can trust these heavy hitters to give your iDevice the ultimate protection on adventures of all kinds.

Lifeproof frē for iPhone 5 ($79.99, lifeproof.com)

Otterbox iPad Defender Series ($89.95, otterbox.com)

G-Form Extreme Sleeve 2 iPad Case ($69.99, g-form.com)

Grifﬁn Survivor + Catalyst Waterproof for iPhone 5 ($79.99, grifﬁntechnology.com)

Mid-Level Protection For everyday use, you’ll likely want a case that offers a fair amount of protection but doesn’t add bulk to your device. These often include cases with a shock-absorbent inner layer, or lightweight yet sturdy folio cases.

Speck CandyShell for iPhone 5 ($34.95, speckproducts.com)

Mummy for iPad mini ($30, loopattachment.com)

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Spigen iPad mini Hardbook Case ($39.99, spigen.com)

Case-Mate Tuxedo Case for iPad ($60, case-mate.com)

Basic, Lightweight Protection

How To

Snap-on cases, bumpers, shells, and gel skins offer minimal protection, but are ultra lightweight and practical for everyday users who aren’t too rough with their devices.

Spigen Ultra Thin Air iPhone 5 Case ($24.99, spigen.com)

PureGear Slim Shell Case for iPhone 5 ($19.99, pure-gear.com)

Vera Bradley Snap-On Case for iPad ($48, verabradley.com)

Multitaskers There are tons of cases out there that offer out-of–the-ordinary capabilities (bottle opener, anyone?). From wallet cases to keyboard cases, from tool troves to pepper spray or reﬂector cases, there’s something available for every need. These cases work double-time, protecting your device while making you feel like MacGyver.

Holda Case for iPhone 5 ($39.95, annexproducts.com)

ReadyCase (from $45, ready-case.com)

Belkin Ultimate Keyboard Case for iPad (($129.99, belkin.com)

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How To

Fashion-Forward

Part of the fun of dressing up your iDevice is getting to show off your personality. There are endless options when it comes to ﬁnding cases with ﬂair. Crazy patterns, sophisticated metallics, handcrafted leather—there’s a perfect style companion for everyone.

Case-Mate Zebrawood ($80, case-mate.com)

DODOcase Creator for iPad ($79.95, dodocase.com)

Oberon Design iPad mini Cover ($73, oberondesign.com)

Eco-Friendly Want to support companies that uphold sustainable practices? Lots of case manufacturers have caught on to the ecofriendly trend, creating cases for environmentally conscious consumers from recycled materials.

Miniwiz RE-Case for iPhone 5 ($24.99, amazon.com)

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ReFleece iPad Sleeve ($32, reﬂeece.com)

Looptworks Luhu Envelope Sleeve ($60, looptworks.com)

How To

Battery Cases

If you’re always running low on battery life, check out a case with a built-in battery. They’re super practical for those constantly on the go. You’ll never be faced with that annoying “20% of battery remaining” warning again!

mophie juice pack air ($99.95, mophie.com)

uNu Ecopak ($79.95, myunu.com)

KudoCase Solar iPad Case ($99.95, kudocase.com)

Multitaskers Hesitant to let your little ones pal around with your precious device? There are all sorts of kid-friendly cases out there, so you can let the kiddos have fun without fearing for your device’s safety (sorta backwards, huh?).

Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Apptivity Case ($15, ﬁsher-price.com)

Speck iGuy ($39.95, speckproducts.com)

Kensington SafeGrip Carry Case and Stand ($54.99, kensington.com)

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How Plan the Perfect Date To with Your iPhone By Rebecca Santiago

©iStockp to oc hoto.com o com/Thomas_ mas EyeDesig EyeDesign n

don’t mean to brag or anything, but I’m basically a dating expert. I mean, I’ve been on tons of dates, probably because I’m such a genius with my iPhone. (This could be you! But humbler.)

In all seriousness, though, you use your iPhone for everything else—why not use it to plan the perfect date? In between my numerous outings with adoring suitors, I’ve compiled a list for you of the best apps and gear to tote with you to dinner and a movie. The wooing begins… now!

ing you don’t have the latter, and you can be sure you don’t have the former if you snap on a Case-Mate Colorways case ($40, case-mate.com). I love its graphic, bold patterns for a ﬁrst date. It’s a conversation piece, yet it errs on the side of not-too-wacky.

Wining and Dining

First Impressions

Case-Mate’s Colorways case won the Design Innovation Award at CES in 2012.

So, obviously, you want to impress your date. And, just as obviously, if you intend to do that, you need the right outﬁt. For you, that probably means some kind of cashmere sweater, and for your phone, that means a streamlined, clean case. Because there’s nothing less sexy than a stretched-out, ink-stained softcover case, except a horrible personality. I’m assum-

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Ness is a sleekly designed app that gives personalized restaurant recommendations.

How To Now that you’ve got your case game on lock, you can start looking into restaurants. Ness (free, app2.me/5546), a fantastic restaurant-finding app, can turn a nacho-guzzling plebian into a foodie in mere minutes. It has killer restaurant recommendations, lets you check out the venue’s aesthetics, and allows you to make reservations through Open Table. It’s rare for an app to be significantly more convenient than your laptop, but this one really is. Bonus: if your date has an account, you can check out their favorite spots to get an idea of what kind of cuisine and experience they’re hoping for. Plus, over time, Ness personalizes itself to your preferences—so even if your date sucks, the food definitely won’t. Now for the wine. Oh, the wine. I really can’t imagine anything hotter than a guy who knows his way around a wine cellar. Of course, I’m in my early 20s, so I’m generally just relieved if a dude doesn’t show up with a bottle of André or, worse, jug wine. Hello Vino (free, app2.me/4917) helps you navigate the tricky vineyards of pinots and cabs. You can search the app by taste preference, occasion, region, or, most fancily, by meal. There is little snazzier than knowing what wine pairs best with what fish, no? Also, if you’re picking out a bottle in advance, you can scan the label to see ratings and user’s notes. So wine on, you crazy diamond. Hello Vino recommends wines based on taste preference, occasion, region, or meal.

All the Right Moves

Woo your conquest with romantic verse, courtesy of Poems By Heart.

It takes a bold suitor to pull off this next move. If you screw it up, I can’t promise that your date won’t bolt to the bathroom and climb out the window. But if you nail it, it’s love, babe. Penguin Classics, of printed-word fame, has a nifty app called Poems By Heart (free, with in-app purchases, bit.ly/Z6dF5C). It, duh, helps you learn poems by heart, but it also teaches you about said poets. (Hint: avoid Poe.) I’m telling you, if you can ﬁnd the right moment to drop a meaningful verse into the conversation in an unpretentious way, you win the date.

I believe it was Taking Back Sunday, that time-honored emo band of the early aughts, who declared “Literate and stylish / Kissable and quiet / That’s what girls’ dreams are made of / And that’s all you need to know.” Could’ve been Shakespeare, though. I need

to spend more time with my Poems By Heart app. And, hell, if you’re going to go full-out romantic, you may as well take your date out to see the stars. The Starlight Mobile Planetarium app ($0.99, app2.me/5990) is a terribly seductive astronomy lesson. Cuddle together as you wave your phone at the sky, and watch the app demystify the constellations and planets. Really, it’s almost better that you can’t identify anything but Orion on your own.

Cozy up under the stars with the Starlight Mobile Planetarium app.

You’ve just discovered Andromeda, and at this point, your faces are just inches away. What better time, then, for a little mood music? Philips makes some of my favorite speaker systems, and I’m newly obsessed with the brand’s Fidelio SoundRing ($299.99, usa.philips.com). It’s got a chic, modern design, and for an AirPlay speaker, it’s actually insanely inexpensive ($170 a pop) if you score one on Amazon. You can stream music from your iTunes library, or use the Philips DockThe chic Fidelio SoundRing speaker from Studio app (free, app2.me/5991) Philips lets you set the mood with style. to connect to over 7,000 Internet radio stations for free. I would personally recommend a Sinatra playlist, or, if Sinatra’s not your bag, Van Morrison. I mean, it would work on me. Trust me, with apps and gear like these, you hardly even need personal charm. Just show up for your date with your sleek phone in tow, make sure your teeth are brushed, and the rest should work itself out. Happy romancing! Ѷ Rebecca Santiago is a writer and editor based in New York. She has written for Glamour, Marie Claire, Boston Magazine, and xoJane.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebsanti.

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How Have a Kick-Ass To Road Trip By Donna Schill Cleveland

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ome of my favorite childhood memories are of summer road trips with my family. Every time I hear the song “Wonderwall” by Oasis, it’s as if I’m curled up in the backseat of my parent’s car again with my portable CD player, watching in relaxed reverie as clouds and mountains march by. Another trip—this one more of the National Lampoon’s Vacation variety—stands out in my mind as well. I recall being squeezed amidst luggage in a broken-down minivan with my mom, two sisters, and aunt during a torrential downpour, while my dad managed to drive for miles in reverse to a gas station we only hoped existed.

But road trips have changed—for the better! Today, all you need is your iPhone and a little luck to plan a fun, smart road trip that’s packed with all of the old-school adventure and charm such expeditions have long been famous for.

Essential Apps For every stage of your trip—from planning your dream getaway to ﬁlling up the gas tank to ﬁnding lodging that doesn’t remind you of the Bates Motel—there’s an app to hold your hand through the process. Here are some top picks to make every step of the journey smoother.

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MyDreamBoard (Free, app2.me/5996) Before you let logistics bog you down, take some time to form a vision for your trip. Let your inner child run wild as you peruse stunning photographs of vacation destinations from around the world.

How To MyDreamBoard lets you make a list of the places you’re dying to visit. Filter your search by city, region, or characteristics, such as beaches, parks, buildings, and architecture. A satisfying “I did it!” icon will pop up each time you visit one of your dream locations. This app will come in handy later in your trip as well. As you travel, you can ﬁnd attractions in your area with the “Nearby” feature. Apple Maps (Free, built-in) Surely Emerson had road trips in mind when he wrote, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” After all, what else focuses so intently on the process over the result?

trails. If you’re like most people who need to prioritize, this finance app will help you stay organized and fend off money stress, which is the ultimate road-trip buzzkill. Audiobooks from Audible (Free, app2.me/2951) No more trips to the library to pick out books on tape! Audible, an Amazon company, lets you create your own mobile bookshelf from its collection of more than 100,000 audio programs. If you finish your drive before you get through your book, Audible now lets you pick up where you left off, either with a Kindle or through the Kindle app on your iDevice. The new feature uses Whispersync for Voice to seamlessly switch between reading and listening. CamFind (Free, app2.me/5998) Are you the Curious George of your group? Simply snap a picture of any object around you and CamFind will tell you all about it. This visual search app boasts a variety of features, including a QR and barcode reader, a language translator, and text and voice search. It also offers related images, price comparisons, online shopping, an address finder, film poster/DVD recognition, and social sharing. The app’s camera has automatic flash and focus and is fully integrated with your iDevice’s Camera Roll.

Once you’ve settled on a destination, Apple Maps, vastly improved since its ill-fated debut late in 2012, will offer you a variety of routes to help you get there. If you’d like to try an alternative mapping app, you can’t go wrong with Google Maps (free, app2.me/5404). Both apps offer turn-by-turn navigation and detailed info on the nearest restaurants, gas stations, and more. Weather Underground (Free, app2.me/4979) Depending on the location and season, weather may be an important consideration when planning your route. Weather Underground features an interactive mobile weather map, searchable by temperature, wind, and precipitation, as well as risk of ﬁre and hurricane. It also has a radio feature, which broadcasts detailed local forecasts. iXpenseit ($4.99, app2.me/124) Let’s face it: travelling is expensive. And while creating a budget and sticking to it is never easy, it’s even harder when you’re trying to fulﬁll a long list of wishes you’ve been dreaming up for months, maybe even years! This app helps you choose whether to crash with friends or book the cute B&B, to eat at a food truck or a gourmet establishment, or to spend an afternoon shopping or exploring nearby

Spotify (Free; Premium subscription $9.99/month, app2.me/4446) Like Oasis, Cat Stevens carries strong associations for me. His Greatest Hits album was the only CD in our car when I visited Yellowstone National Park with my family. We listened to the disc on repeat for a week as we made turn after nauseating turn along treacherous mountain roads. Needless to say, I still change the station every time “Moonshadow” comes on the radio! Set the right tone for your trip by creating custom radio stations with the free version of Spotify. If you have speciﬁc songs you’d like to remember your expedition by, I’d recommend splurging on Spotify Premium, which lets you play any song in its extensive music library straight from your mobile device. GasBuddy (Free, app2.me/4286) Unless you’re the lucky owner of an electric car or your vehicle cruises on veggie oil, a big chunk of your travel budget will go toward gas. GasBuddy helps you plan your pit stops by showing you the cheapest

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How To gas prices in your vicinity. This interactive app rewards you with points every time you report gas prices, and points go toward weekly giveaways of as much as $250 in free gas cards. Airbnb (Free, app2.me/3594) Usually when I wait until the last minute— whether to buy my mom’s birthday present or to book a hotel—I end up overspending on something I don’t even like. Not with Airbnb! This community marketplace for vacation rentals features listings in 33,000 cities and 192 countries. Each listing includes beautiful photographs of the rooms, details about the property and host, and a pink price tag pinned in the upper right corner.

Need an excuse to stretch your legs? Feel the itch for a quirky adventure? Add a touch of whimsy to your journey by detouring to an unusual roadside attraction, such as a giant rocking chair, a little-known museum, or a strange statue. The Roadside America app allows you to unlock one of seven regions to explore in the United States or Canada. Unlocking all 9,000 attractions will cost you extra via an in-app purchase. Road Trip Scavenger Hunt ($0.99, app2.me/5997) What’s a road trip without a game of iSpy? Road Trip Scavenger Hunt generates objects and words to search for along the road. Create buttons for each player, and hit them to credit players as they score points.

The app’s “Help! I need a place tonight!” feature allows you to ﬁnd accommodations that match your personality within hours of arrival. Don’t land in a shabby, overpriced motel! Each Airbnb property is unique. Find one in your price range that speaks to you.

You can also use the app to plan ahead by browsing the featured collections in your desired city. Filter your search by the date and other property details, such as number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and amenities like air conditioning and parking. Road Ahead Highway Exit Finder (Free, app2.me/5214) Pit stops aren’t just for refueling your car; they’re also for recharging you and your passengers. See what awaits you at exits along your route with this handy app, which lets you ﬁlter your search by criteria like ice cream or coffee shops, dining, shopping, auto repair, and medical services. Roadside America ($2.99, app2.me/5022) At some point along your journey, boredom is bound to set in. The voice of your audiobook’s orator will grow tiresome, and your companions’ habits (foot tapping, chip smacking) will go from mildly endearing to incredibly irksome.

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Ness (Free, app2. me/5546) For me, travelling and eating are synonymous. If I have to choose one thing to splurge on while visiting a new city, I choose food every time. Ness is my favorite restaurant app, due to its classy look, user-friendly interface, and— most of all—its customized dinner recommendations. Unlike Yelp, which leaves you guessing if other reviewers have similar tastes as you, Ness builds recommendations based on what you’ve enjoyed in the past and presents you with personalized recommendations in your area. The app becomes acquainted with your tastes as you visit and rate restaurants, getting more accurate over time. As its developers say, it’s like Pandora’s music stations, but for food!

How To HipGeo (Free, app2.me/5999) Recording photos, videos, and anecdotes while travelling helps you keep your memories fresh. HipGeo makes it easy to share your adventures with family and friends by compiling your media into a single social travel blog with its own URL. It also lets you share your recordings on Facebook and Twitter!

Essential Gear You’re almost ready to hit the open road. But before you do, make sure you and your iPhone are properly settled in for the ride.

PowerJolt SE with Lightning Connector ($24.99, store.griffintechnology.com) Keep your device fully charged with the PowerJolt SE. This 10watt car charger powers the iPhone 5, iPad mini, and 4th-generation iPad safely and efficiently. If you have an older iDevice with a 30-pin connector and don’t yet have a car charger, check out Griffin’s Powerjolt Micro ($24.99, store.griffintechnology.com). Follow these instructions, and that personal vision for a kick-ass road trip will become a well-documented reality. Happy trails! Ѷ Donna Schill Cleveland is the Web Editor of iPhone Life magazine. Raised by a family of tech enthusiasts, she shares her love of storytelling with a weakness for Apple products. Previously, she worked at a daily newspaper as a staff writer and earned her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa.

iOttie One Touch Car Mount Holder ($24.99, iottie.com) The iOttie Car Mount is a perfect complement to turn-by-turn navigation on your iPhone. It suctions onto your windshield and locks your device securely into place in one simple motion. The mount rotates into landscape or portrait view.

Belkin MIXIT Aux Cable ($14.99, belkin.com) Give your road-trippin’ tunes an audio boost by hooking your iDevice up to your car stereo with the MIXIT aux cable. It’s three feet long, comes in an assortment of fun colors (the pink is my favorite), and will come in handy for playing music and audio books from your phone.

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How Relax With the Help To of Your iDevice By Becca Ludlum

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Apps

GPS for the Soul (Free, app2.me/6004) GPS for the Soul begins by asking you to stay still for 75 seconds while it uses your camera lens as a heart-rate sensor to read your stress level. Then it prompts you to view a “guide,” which is a collection of experiences to help get your day back on track. You can listen to music, read poetry, view yoga poses and meditation prompts, or use a breathing pacer to help decrease your heart rate. You can also choose to create your own guides with personal photos or music choices. With this app, you can also connect with friends and view or share the guides they are using.

Relax Melodies (Free, app2.me/4884) This app comes loaded with 46 ambient sounds to lull you into a relaxed state. You can choose from the standard sounds or create your own melodies by mixing sounds together at different volumes. Set the alarm/ timer within the app so you can wake up slowly and gently to your preferred sounds. Did you know that binaural beats help to relax your brain? The Relax Melodies app has two binaural beat frequencies to choose from.

Sleep Cycle alarm clock ($0.99, app2.me/2801) Sleep Cycle alarm clock uses the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer, which senses movement and gravity, to analyze your sleep cycles. It monitors your movements during the night to help determine patterns in your sleep. To use the alarm, set it to wake you at a certain time or during a 30-90 minute window of time determined by your sleep cycle. After setting your alarm, place the iPhone under your sheet next to your head, where it will monitor your sleep and wake you at your lightest point of sleep during that time window.

n our fast-paced world, we’re always on the go. There are constant obligations clamoring for our attention—meetings to attend, errands to run, and emails to check. Our daily calendars are ﬁlled to the brim, and sometimes it seems that relaxing isn’t going to happen unless we schedule it into our day. Do you schedule time to relax? Finding the discipline to take breaks every day is tough, but these apps and tips make it a little easier to take time out to stop and smell the roses.

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How To Total Relaxation ($2.99, app2.me/6005) â&#x20AC;&#x153;True blissâ&#x20AC;? is how this app was described to me. Hypnotherapist Darren Marks walks you through several carefully timed guided meditation sessions to put you in a state of deep relaxation. Darren is one of the most respected hypnotherapists in the ďŹ eld today and has introduced several iPhone apps to his followers so they can take part in his meditation practices anywhere they go. Enjoy looking at calming images that run alongside the audio sessions, as well as tips from Darren himself about relaxing and reducing stress. SpaFinder (Free, app2.me/6006) Sometimes you need a little help to relax. SpaFinder helps locate spas close to your current location, and even ďŹ nds deals for you! Search for treatments, scan reviews, and even book appointments through the app. Howâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that for non-stressful?

The tinke

($119, zensorium.com/tinke) The tinke by Zensorium is a ďŹ tness and wellness monitor that measures your bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responses in four ways: s (EART RATE COUNTS BEATS PER MINUTE s "LOOD OXYGEN LEVEL MEASURES THE AMOUNT OF OXYGEN carried by the red blood cells in your blood. s (EART RATE VARIABILITY ANALYZES CHANGES WITHIN YOUR heartbeat to help assess your level of stress.

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Other Tips Tip #1: Rather than using targeted stress-relieving apps, clearing your mind of deadlines and meetings with a quick Bejeweled game or Pinterest browsing session might be more up your alley. Set a timer and do what makes you happy... just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to come back to the real world when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ďŹ nished. Tip #2: It can be easy to forget about new apps youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve downloaded on your iDevice. This is because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re used to the way your apps are set up and you may never venture onto the screens where your new apps are located. Go against your muscle recognition by swapping the location of commonly used apps with the new apps you want to remember to use. For example, download the Total Relaxation app and move it to the location where your Messages app is right now. Every time you receive a message, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be reminded to use the new app. Many people say we should put down our iDevices in order to relieve stress. But in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tech-driven world, there are so many tools available on those devices to help us relaxâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;so I encourage you to pick up your phone and try out these stressrelieving apps. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll excuse me, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m off to book a massage.

s 2ESPIRATORY RATE MEASURES lTNESS AND BODY STRESS by monitoring how many breaths you take per minute. These four scores combined make up your Vita index, a measurement of your ďŹ tness, and your Zen index, a measurement of your stress level. No batteries are required for this small device, which is small enough to slide into your shirt or pants pocket. You can share your data through the tinke network or your favorite social media platforms. Your friends and relatives can stay up to date on your current ďŹ tness goals and stress levels with the click of a button. Another fun aspect of tinke is its ability to compare your stress and ďŹ tness scores with othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; scores from around the world. Of course, you can always choose to keep your settings locked so theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re visible to your eyes only. Ńś

Becca Ludlum is a blogger and iPhone addict. A middle school speech therapist by trade, she is taking some time off to pursue her passion for writing. She lives in the middle of the Arizona desert with her husband and two boys, and canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t imagine life getting any better. Check out her blog at OurCrazyBoys.com

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How Recover From Getting To Your iDevice Stolen By David Averbach

hile on a recent trip to Costa Rica, someone broke into the house I was staying at and stole my iPhone from my room. While the experience was pretty upsetting, I also learned a lot about what to do when an iPhone is stolen. There are several simple steps you can take to help protect your privacy and help you recover your phone. Note: Most of the steps for recovering your iPhone are also applicable for the iPad and iPad mini.

Prevention

once the device is stolen. The option to turn on Find My iPhone should come up when setting up a new Apple device. To check whether you have it turned on, open Settings>Privacy>Location Services>Find My iPhone. Having Find My iPhone on will make you feel like your iPhone is protected, but if your phone is unlocked when it is taken, a savvy thief will simply turn off the feature. Fortunately, there are a couple of actions you can take to prevent this from happening. First, make sure that you have your iPhone set to lock automatically and that you have a passcode set. Open Settings>General>AutoLock, and select how quickly you want the iPhone to lock after inactivity. Then, under Settings>General>Passcode Lock, select Turn Passcode On.

The key to recovering your iPhone is being prepared. If you haven’t set up your phone properly, then the probability of recovering it is very low.

Your iPhone will ask for a passcode every time it needs to be unlocked, and you can even set it to erase your personal data if someone enters the wrong passcode 10 times in a row.

Find My iPhone The most important thing you can do is make sure that the Find My iPhone feature is turned on. This feature allows you to use GPS to locate your missing phone from another iDevice or computer. If it’s not turned on, there is very little you can do

If a thief manages to get past your lock screen and turn off Find My iPhone, you’re plum out of luck. Here’s where the second action step comes in. Go to Settings>General>Restrictions, tap Enable Restrictions, and create a different passcode. Scroll down, select Location Services, and change the setting to Don’t Allow Changes. This means that anyone trying to disable Find My iPhone will have to enter another passcode to proceed.

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How To

The Privacy Issue

Some people feel uncomfortable having Find My iPhone enabled. The thought of other devices being able to track your exact location can understandably feel a bit creepy. Apple devices are relatively secure, and without knowing someone’s passcode, it is pretty difﬁcult to hack into the system. The biggest security concern is when someone does know your passcode—they can simply log into iCloud and see your location at any time. I’ve even heard stories of people’s exes logging into their iCloud accounts to check their location.

photos, apps that take up a lot of space), or you aren’t regularly connecting to Wi-Fi. If you have too much stuff on your device, you can either purchase more iCloud storage, or manually select which apps get backed up and which ones don’t.

“I never fully appreciated the value of iCloud until my phone got stolen. I turned on my new iPhone, signed in, and everything was set up exactly the same.”

Insuring Your iPhone

In today’s world, all technology comes with privacy risks. Everybody has to make their own decision when it comes to choosing between convenience and security. If you do not turn on Find My iPhone, it is unlikely you will ever recover a lost or stolen phone. If you do leave it on, make sure to take the usual precautions to keep your passcode safe.

The Importance of iCloud Even if you are using Find My iPhone, the probability of recovering a stolen iPhone is still relatively small. Consequently, it is important to set yourself up for a smooth transition should you fail to recover a lost device. I never recovered my stolen iPhone; I had to purchase a new one upon returning to the U.S. Before my phone had gotten stolen, I’d never fully appreciated the value of iCloud. When I got my new iPhone, I simply turned it on, signed in to my account, and the iPhone loaded based on my latest backup (which had been the night before the robbery). All of my contacts, apps, and text messages loaded automatically on my new phone. Everything was set up exactly the same as my stolen phone. In order to take full advantage of iCloud’s functionality, the most important thing to do is make sure that you have daily automatic backups set up. To turn on automatic updates, go to Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup, and switch on iCloud backup. It’s also a good idea to periodically check that the backups are happening. Scroll to the bottom of Storage & Backup, and under Back Up Now, you’ll see when the last backup took place. If backups aren’t automatically happening, it usually means that you either have too much on your phone to back up (e.g., tons of

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Insurance can be as cheap as $199 when you purchase a new iPhone 5 with a contract. But when you need to replace the phone before your contract expires, it can cost you over $800. Many people purchase AppleCare (apple.com/support/products) or Square Trade (squaretrade.com) to insure their iPhone against damages, but neither of the plans protects you against lost or stolen devices. Some of the phone carriers sell insurance that protects against a stolen iPhone, but make sure you crunch the numbers before buying it. $10 dollars a month may not seem like much for a little peace of mind, but over the lifetime of a contract, that ends up costing $240. When you add in a $175 deductible, these types of insurance plans are often not worth it. Another option if your iPhone is lost or stolen is to purchase a used phone on eBay or Amazon. Once your contract expires, you’ll be eligible to purchase a new iPhone at a discounted price. While the cost of a used iPhone is not cheap, if you take good care of it, you can often sell it for as much as you paid for it.

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How To One thing you may not be aware of is that many insurance plans for homeowners and renters include coverage for theft. This is actually how I ended up getting my iPhone replaced. Before you go purchasing expensive insurance plans for your iPhone, check your current insurance to see if you’re already covered.

Your iPhone’s Missing—Now What?

As frustrating as it can be to sit idly by when you have the address of the person who stole your phone, I strongly recommend that you do not attempt to recover your phone on your own. As much as you love your Apple products, it is not worth risking your life to get them back. If the police are unable to recover your phone, make sure to get a report from them to give to your insurance company. It is also important to take a few precautionary steps to protect your privacy. First and foremost, make sure to wipe the data from your device using Find My iPhone. Also, I recommend changing the passwords to any password-protected services stored on your device, especially services with automatic logins, such as your email and Facebook accounts. You’d be shocked by how much damage a person can do by simply having access to your emails.

Coping With the Loss

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As soon as you realize that your phone is missing, you are in a race against time. If your phone was indeed stolen, the thief will attempt to wipe the phone and sell it as quickly as possible. The first thing that you need to do is locate the iPhone through Find My iPhone. Log on to Find My iPhone (if you get a hold of another iDevice), or go to icloud.com on a nearby computer and enter your Apple ID and password. If your phone is still turned on and hasn’t already been wiped, Apple will pinpoint on a map where it’s located. Once logged in to Find My iPhone, you have several important choices to make. If you think your phone has simply been misplaced or lost, you can have the iPhone beep and set a display message with directions for how to contact you if someone finds the phone. However, if the phone has been stolen, this may alert the thief to the fact that you are using Find My iPhone and prompt them to wipe the phone immediately. If you think your phone has been stolen, it is often wise to check the location, and not make any obvious changes to the phone. The next step is to contact the police with the information. As these location-tracking services are becoming increasingly common, police are getting better at using them to track down stolen devices. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the time, the police will not take the time to follow up on a lead, even if they have the address (especially in big cities). Even if the police do follow up on the lead, they are limited in what they can do without a warrant. It’s not always easy to find the thief, even if you have their address. If the person lives in an apartment building, for example, a location on a map may not be very helpful.

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One of the things that surprised me about the robbery was how emotional I found the whole process. Being victim to such a crime left me feeling unsettled, vulnerable, and violated. And though we may not realize it (or care to admit it), most of us have developed a symbiotic relationship with our iPhones. They’re always with us, and we grow accustomed to using them continually throughout the day. Following the robbery, I was constantly reaching for my iPhone, whether to take a photo or to quickly Google something. Ultimately, I think it’s important to try to keep things in perspective. Your electronic devices are just “stuff,” and if you emerge from the experience unharmed, then you are truly lucky. Try (as I did) to embrace your temporary lack of an iPhone, viewing it as a vacation from being constantly connected. Though it was a refreshing perspective to adopt temporarily, I’ll admit that I’m glad to have an iPhone 5 back in my hands again. Ѷ David Averbach is the CEO and Publisher of iPhone Life magazine. David has an obsession with all things Apple. He grew up on Macs and now has a MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, and an Apple TV. David enjoys traveling and Ultimate Frisbee. He has been to over 20 countries. To contact David, email him at David@iphonelife.com.

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How Troubleshoot To Your iDevice By Aiden Grossheider

hether you just got a new iDevice, or have had your trusty older model for a while now, chances are you've dropped it by now, or it has unexpectedly lagged for a moment, causing a mini panic attack. Well, fear not! This article is designed to set your mind at ease by showing you how easy and painless it is to ﬁx any small blunders in your iWorld. Let's face it, our iDevices control much of our lives—our calendars, our photos, our contacts, and sometimes even our ﬁnances. If they die, it can feel like you’ve disappeared from the grid. Here’s how to make sure that doesn’t happen.

device in it overnight, and try your luck the next morning—this method works on 9 out of 10 devices.

Water Damage Summer is coming, and we all know what that means— beaches, swimming pools, and the occasional lemonade. What do you do if you accidentally drown your iPhone or iPad? The most important thing to remember is to not hit the unlock button to see if it's still working, as this puts unnecessary stress on the waterlogged circuits and wires, and could damage it (if it’s not already damaged). The ﬁrst thing you should do is put your iDevice in a bag of silica gel packets (the "do not eat" packets that come in new handbags or shoes) or, if you don't have those readily available, a bag of regular white rice. Just leave your

i P h o n e L i f e July-August 2013

A Smashed Screen Have you ever dropped your iDevice and watched in horror as it landed screen-ﬁrst on a hard surface? I know I have mul-

How To tiple times, and in my line of work, I see the effects of what happens when your screen becomes a spiderweb of glass. To avoid costly screen repairs, you'll need an iPhone screen repair kit and a replacement screen for your device, both of which are available on Amazon. The kits are generally easy to use if you follow the instructions. If you need a hands-on demonstration, I recommend searching on YouTube; there you’ll ﬁnd several easy-to-follow videos detailing the whole process.

ing to complete certain tasks, the first step is to close all open apps. To do this, simply double-tap the home button to show the multitasking bar along the bottom of the screen. Hold any app down until they all begin shaking and a red X appears in the top right corner of each app. Click on the X on each app to close all open apps. If you're still having lags and difficulties, check your capacity. My iPhone had 3,000 photos, nearly 500 contacts, 173 apps, and 3 movies stored on it. It was a 16GB iPhone 4S, so I only had 0.4 GB of free space. Needless to say, I had to decide what was important, and I cleaned out the rest. To check on these statistics, open Settings>General>Usage, and you’ll be able to see which apps are taking up the most space. You can decide from there if you want to delete some apps, photos, movies, or anything else that’s hogging your precious space and slowing down your iDevice’s performance. Remember that if you delete an app, it’s not gone forever. You can re-download purchased apps at any time through iCloud. Hopefully these tips have set your mind at ease, so that if your device really does run into trouble, you’ll know exactly how to fix it. Ѷ

A Frozen or Lagging Device

A techie for life, Aiden has always been the go-to guy of friends and family for all computer and cell phone troubleshooting issues. Currently sporting the iPhone 4S, he has had over 350 cell phones but believes in an Apple a day.

We've all been there—you’re surﬁng the web and listening to the new Justin Bieber album (okay, maybe the Beatles) when the music stops and the browser becomes unresponsive. What should you do? Restart it, of course. These iDevices are, after all, miniature computers in our hands. To restart your device, simply hold down the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time. The device will shut off, and when you see a glowing white apple on a black screen, release the buttons and wait for the device to reboot. This will take care of most issues of freezing and unresponsiveness.

Recently my iPhone has started to lag when I open photos on Facebook. If you're experiencing this or other lags in which your phone responds more slowly than is acceptable while try-

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BUSINESS TRIP BASICS Traveling Smoothly in the Age of Mobility

By Daniel W. Rasmus

uring my many travels, I’ve learned three lessons about planning and packing for business trips. First, you should only take what you need; second, you should pack your gear so you know where everything is; and third, you should know what you packed. By keeping everything neat and accessible, you reduce the time you spend hunting down gear as well as the possibility of leaving something behind.

What to Pack The answer (beyond the basic charging cable and power supply) is that it depends. This table gives you some ideas of what to pack based on the type of trip or transportation mode.

TRIP TYPE

HARDWARE TO PACK

Rental Car

Auto Power Adapter Apple-Compatible Audio Adaptor Cable (for connecting to a car’s audio system via AUX—you won’t know if you car rocks Bluetooth until you get your car)

Pre-Planning You have to start by understanding what the trip entails. Where are you going? What are you planning to do? If business will take you someplace wet and humid, or dusty and hot, then you’ll probably need to pack differently than you would for a regular urban hotel stay. If you’re giving a presentation, you will need more equipment than if you’re just attending a conference.

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Not only do you need to determine how much gear you should take, but you also need to decide how you want to pack your gear. Will you just ﬁt it into the pockets of your existing luggage, or will your gear get its own bag? I always opt for a gear bag, as it provides a spe-

Airplane

Noise-Canceling Headphones External Battery Portable Wi-Fi Hard Drive

Train

Noise-Canceling Headphones

Boat/Pool Walking

Waterproof or Water-Resistant Case External Battery Bluetooth Headset

ciﬁc home for portable items. Usually it’s just a small carry-on that can also keep your stuff handy if you’re traveling by car. You might also consider a SCOTTEVEST (starting at $80, scottevest.com), which essentially becomes a third carry-on and is a great way to load up with gear. Women will likely already have a bag, but for travel, consider a handbag that is designed for tech, rather than just adding your tech gear to a purse already full of personal items.

The GRID-IT!® organization system helps you keep all your gear in place.

tension cords, standard battery chargers, and video adaptors. If you are traveling sans notebook with just an iPad, you may also want a keyboard with a stand. Use the following as a general list for packing, and to make sure you don’t forget anything when you repack for the return trip.

The SCOTTEVEST is perfect for traveling techies, and essentially acts as a third carry-on.

All travelers could beneﬁt from Cocoon's GRID-IT!® organizing systems (starting at $9.99, cocooninnovations.com), which are made up of interwoven elastic strips mounted on a board, giving most items their own unique place. If you have too much stuff, get a second GRID-IT. I travel with two: one for my gear bag, and one for my larger carry-on. I keep the stuff I’ll need on the plane (or while walking) on the smaller of the two. The larger one holds more in-room accessories like ex-

USB stick Audio splitter (when traveling with companion) Non-gear items to consider, depending on the conditions and needs: Travel umbrella

iPhone/iPad with case

Business cards

iPad stand

RFID protection

Bluetooth headset

Gloves and ear warmers

Headphones

LED Flashlight

External USB batteries for recharging

Nylon wraps or twist ties for securing checked luggage zippers

USB power adaptors with enough plugs to charge everything you brought in one overnight period (Apple 30-pin, Lightning, micro-USB, etc.)

What Apps and Media to Pack Media

One charging cable for each device you have Stylus

Unless you have very few apps, or never put media on your iOS device, you probably have to plan your apps as much as you plan your hardware.

Video adaptors (VGA, HDMI) Microﬁber screen cleaning cloth Bag of choice Keyboard

Especially for those traveling by plane, make sure to put enough media on your device to ﬁll the time you typically need to view movies, watch television shows, or listen to music. For most people, this is more about swapping out video rather

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s Yelp (free, app2.me/236) is great for looking up restaurants and things to do. Also consider OpenTable (free, app2.me/2737) for dinner reservations. s TripIt (free, app2.me/287) works well for keeping track of travel details. s Uber (free, app2.me/5544) and SuperShuttle (free, app2.me/6007) are handy for arranging and tracking transportation.

The Seagate GoFlex Satellite Wi-Fi drive lets you stream media to eight devices at the same time.

than replacing music (though you may refresh your playlists as well). Media includes magazines and books across Zinio, iBooks, Kindle, and Nook. Subscriptions can often take up a signiﬁcant amount of memory. Clean out your old reading material, not just old video and music, so you can load fresh content.

I travel, the Keynote app ($9.99, app2. me/2481) is key for me, as is WordPress (free, app2.me/3209) and half a dozen others. For the most part, it’s the peripheral apps that I swap out. On my latest urban adventure in NYC, I downloaded everything from ofﬂine maps to local magazines and restaurant guides.

If you want to feel like a one-person entertainment cloud, consider a Seagate GoFlex Wi-Fi Drive ($149.99, seagate. com). Their 1TB unit should easily hold your entire collection of music and video. So, rather than worrying about what to carry, you can spend your time ﬁguring out what you want to watch or listen to.

Here are some of the best apps for all aspects of travel:

s 4HE APP FOR WHATEVER CARRIER YOU ARE ﬂying or transportation service you are using should provide check-in access, e-boarding passes, and updated schedule information. Same for the hotel chain you are staying in, if such an app is available. s Regus (free, app2.me/6008) works well for ﬁnding a Wi-Fi lounge or meeting room in many cities.

Business Files

Apps

Think function ﬁrst, then sightseeing. Make sure you have the necessary apps to accomplish the the work you plan on doing. Since I give presentations when

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The ﬁles you need can now be easily packed into the cloud with services like Dropbox (free, app2.me/127), Box (free, app2.me/3107), SkyDrive (free, app2.me/5340), Google Drive (free, app2.me/5341), and others (read more about these cloud storage services in the article on page 80). If you’re worried about privacy or security, the ﬁles can be zipped, encrypted, and then uploaded. If you are presenting, make sure to also include a USB stick with your presentation in PDF format. That way, regardless of what happens, you won’t need to link, login, decrypt, and otherwise fumble for your presentation. Trust me, people might remember a bad start more than your message itself.

Things to Bring Just in Case There are certain items, like a flashlight, that have nothing to do with your technology. In fact, you may wonder why you’d need a flashlight when your iPhone has a flashlight app. My business trips have had their fair share of mini disasters during which only a flashlight could help, from power outages to searches for missing power plugs or other small doodads that landed behind television consoles and under beds. I also carry an extension cord. Some older rooms don’t have sufficient plugs for today’s gear-heavy travelers, and even modern hotels don’t always design the rooms so the outlets are where you want them. An extension cord is a pretty lightweight addition that increases in-room flexibility.

Things You Never Knew You Needed

Station Adapter ($19.99, amazon.com), which extends the traditional Apple 30pin connector so you can mount your iPhone or iPad on the iHome speakers found in most hotel rooms without having to remove your case. I also carry an adapter that turns a mini-USB cable into a 30-pin connector.

Keeping Track of Your Stuff A few months ago, I lost a Satechi Bluetooth Multi-Media Remote Control and a Jawbone Icon HD on back-to-back trips. These were tiny objects. The remote probably ended up wrapped in sheets after an evening of viewing videos on my iPad connected to a TV set. The Jawbone fell victim to a jacket pocket turned the wrong way in a Yosemite Park parking lot. If you carry small tech objects, pay particular attention to where you keep them— and make sure you store them in a safe place. First, increase the object’s size. If you put a small remote in a zip-lock bag, rather than just in a backpack pocket, you probably won’t miss it. Second, create a ritual, especially for new objects. Put the new item next to your glasses, watch, iPhone, or something else you already know you can’t do without. If you follow these tips, you’ll have a smooth—and hopefully headache-free— journey. Trust me, I know from experience. Have a safe trip! Ѷ Daniel W. Rasmus, author of Listening to the Future and Management by Design, is a strategist and industry analyst who helps clients put their future in context. Rasmus was the Director of Business Insights at Microsoft Corporation, and today is a consultant and internationally recognized speaker. He blogs for Fast Company and iphonelife.com. You can reach him at dwrasmus@danielwrasmus.com

The Qmadix Docking Station Adapter lets you mount your iPhone or iPad on the iHome speakers commonly found in hotel rooms

A couple of small items have found their way into my travel arsenal. If you have a pre-Lightning connector device, you may want to consider the Qmadix Docking

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Lori Cheek Location: New York, New York One-Line Bio: Lori is an architect turned entrepreneur, and the Founder and CEO of Cheekd.com, the reverse-engineered dating site.

Instagram: I'm obsessed with Instagram—it makes my not-so-professional pics look a lot better, and makes sharing them tons more fun.

Cheek'd: This is my newly launched app. It's like online dating, but the initial encounter starts in the real world.

Equinox: This is my gym app. I use it daily to check the class schedules, book spa appointments, and check in at the gym.

Lose It!: I use this app to track my daily calorie intake as well as calories burned throughout the day.

Words With Friends: I'm obsessed with word games. I play it while I’m on the elliptical trainer at the gym.

Eventbrite: I use Eventbrite to search for public networking events around NYC.

Flavorpill: I use this app to follow events posted by my friends. It's a little like Instagram, but for social activities.

Happy Houred: I use Happy Houred to ﬁnd nearby drink deals. I just enter the time and my location—it's always happy hour somewhere!

HopStop: I use this public transit app to determine the best routes for traveling from place to place all over NYC.

Vine: I use Vine to make short, simple looping videos to share with my followers and friends.

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Facebook Pages: This app allows me to easily manage my business’s Facebook page while I’m in transit—it's almost easier than using my desktop.

Foursquare: Foursquare has replaced Yelp for me. I love getting the localized mayor and check-in specials, as well as suggestions from friends.

Get Into the Groove Music & Rhythm Games to Get Your Feet Tapping By Brittany Vincent

lenty of different game genres can flourish on iOS devices, and we've seen shining examples of each across the years: first-person shooters, strategy games, action-adventure games—you name it, the App Store carries it. One of the most fun genres is music and rhythm games. But there are so many options out there, it can be difficult to find the diamonds in the rough. We've scoured the App Store for the best games to help you get your groove on while you’re on the move. Forget lugging around an unwieldy dance mat or fiddling with pricey peripherals—you've got the power right in your pocket. Let’s take a look at the best iOS music games currently available. Tap Tap Radiation (iPad only: $2.99, app2.me/5983) Like Flash Flash Revolution before it, not to mention the indomitable Dance Dance Revolution (DDR—where it all started), Tap Tap Radiation offers an outlet through which you can tap your favorite songs to your heart's content. Tapulous is responsible for music games on the App Store that consistently knock it out of the park, so it's not a surprise that Radiation only expands upon an already great formula. Rather than adopting Guitar Hero-like lanes that work like Tap Tap Revenge, Radiation works more like an interactive soundscape that sends gorgeous fireworks exploding across the screen. It comes with 30 songs to get you started, and offers additional song packs at the reasonable price of $2.99 each, so there's tons of content to tide you over. By far one of the best-looking games on the list, Tap Tap Radiation is an excellent rhythm game.

Tap Tap Radiation is an interactive soundscape with colorful, explosive graphics.

SongPop ($1.99, app2.me/5914; Lite version: free, app2.me/5984) Chances are, you're probably already enjoying this deceptively simple social app. It's chock-full of different genres of music for you to test your (hopefully) encyclopedic knowledge of song trivia. It's simple—you choose a genre and you're randomly matched with an opponent in order to test your skills. The object is to be the quickest to identify all songs

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in a set. High-quality clips will play in succession, and you need lightning-fast reflexes to win the miniature match-ups. You can quickly unlock new song packs, and it's extremely easy to find others to play with—plus, it gives you an excuse to blare cheesy '80s tunes from your phone. Groove Coaster ($2.99, app2.me/4735) Taito threw its hat into the ring with Groove Coaster, a gorgeous and inventive rhythm game with the rare ability to make every song played feel like a new and unique experience. Groove Coaster manages to visually represent each tune, including thumping beats, remixed Space Invaders and Arkanoid tunes, and a varied soundtrack. Retrofuturistic graphics and three different levels of difficulty ensure that you stay glued to the screen at all times. The only thing the game is missing is the ability to import songs—but it has such a varied library that you won't have to worry about that for long. Groove Coaster boasts a retro vibe mixed with futuristic graphics and a thumping soundtrack.

Beat Gather (Free, app2.me/5985) Konami already has an excellent track record when it comes to fantastic music games, but Beat Gather manages to kick things up a notch by giving players the ability to generate their own levels via songs already on their devices. These tracks generate note paths on which players have to tap and slide along to the beat. Playing songs created in this manner earns you Beat Points, which unlock other rewards. Getting to play with your favorite tunes upgrades Beat Gather from a very simple game to one that every music-game fan should own. Beat Sneak Bandit ($2.99, app2.me/5150) This game switches it up a bit by adding puzzles and unique gameplay scenarios that build up to a 65+ level adventure, following an adorable little bandit who's always on the move. Every movement is controlled by tapping, even when the protagonist is required to change direction. The music adds another strategic layer to an already challenging game, and as you progress, things only get more difﬁcult. This game is an excellent example of combining multiple genres to create something new, and is well worth your time.

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Guitar Hero ($2.99, app2.me/5986) Since Guitar Hero was a wildly popular and successful franchise upon its inception, it makes perfect sense that its iOS app should be praised as one of the best music/rhythm experiences in the App Store. This original iteration comes packing six songs, most of which have already been featured on console editions, and it gives you the option to buy even more. It plays out much like its big console brothers, but tapping the notes is only one part of the package. Brilliant strumming sections accompany the normal tap segments for a winning combination. If you want a faithful representation of Guitar Hero’s console version for on-the-go play, The wildly popular Guitar Hero offers the best features of its this is it. console version in app form.

Tap Tap Revenge Tour Premium ($2.99, app2.me/5988) Tap Tap Revenge Tour seemed to have started the trend of console doppelgangers, giving iOS players a viable alternative to DDR and its many imitators. Tapulous knew what it was doing—adopting classic cues from Guitar Hero and popular rhythm games to create a series of adaptations for speciﬁc artists and genres. Hitting the colored balls on the beat is as addictive as it gets—and so is staying on top of the leaderboards.

Michael Jackson The Experience HD (iPad only: $4.99, app2.me/4829) Though you're obviously limited to Michael Jackson songs with this iOS version of a popular console game, it's a shining example of how to model a game after one artist correctly. If you're a fan of the King of Pop, you'll be thrilled to see music video sets and choreography from some of your favorite songs nestled within the levels. It's pure fan service through and through, but it offers original Michael songs for your entertainment—and who hasn't pretended to be MJ at least once in their lives?

Tap Studio (Free, app2.me/5987; Pro version: $1.99, app2.me/5989) Sometimes, all you want to do is gather songs from your personal iTunes library and use them in your music games. There’s no shame in that. That's what Tap Studio is for, and it delivers customization and features in droves. Not only does it allow you to import any song from which to create a level, but it also lets you include album artwork, customize each level, and access user-submitted taps to use with your own music. Different skins for each mode of play, additional content if you go Pro, and an exhaustive song catalog ensures Tap Studio as the game to choose if want to use your own music. Ѷ Brittany has been covering various types of media as a freelance entertainment writer for five years. Until her dying breath she’ll be wielding a BFG made entirely of killer drive and ambition. Follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake, or find her work archived at pfhorthewin.com.

Revel in Michael Jackson’s iconic music videos and choreography with this groundbreaking rhythm game.

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Great iPhone Apps for Car Owners By Jason Lancaster

ars and iPhones don't always mix. I’m sure you’ve witnessed drivers texting or talking on their phones when they should be focused on the road. The dangers of distracted driving are well documented, so I’ll bypass the stats and summarize by stating the obvious: using your iPhone while driving is a bad idea.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let me say that cars and iPhones can mix, but should only join forces in ways that don’t compromise the safety of your driving. When it comes to ﬁnding great gas prices, tracking repairs, and more, iPhone apps add a whole new level of convenience and practicality to owning a car. Here are six great apps that will make your driving experience just a little richer. Honk ($0.99, app2.me/5992) If you live in a city where parking can be a bit of a challenge, check out Honk. This app helps you ﬁnd your parked car wherever you left it, either with GPS or by retrieving your photos and handwritten notes describing your parking location. The app also tracks the amount of time left on your parking meter, warning you when it’s about to expire.

Honk is a handsomely designed, easy-to-use app that will more than pay for itself by saving you from costly parking tickets. I highly recommend it. GasBuddy (Free, app2.me/4286) GasBuddy is one of the most popular gas price apps in the App Store, and for good reason—it boasts the most comprehensive database of fuel prices available, meaning that you'll always get the best and most upto-date price info. Additionally, if you're willing to help populate GasBuddy's database by sharing the fuel prices you see, you'll earn points that you can use towards rewards. The only problem with GasBuddy is that it might encourage you to drive a little out of your way to ﬁnd the best deal. If you have to drive 20 minutes to save $3 on a tank of gas, it's probably not worth it. Your time has value, too. Gogobot (Free, app2.me/4341) Gogobot is a new app that’s still gaining steam, but its early adopters can't stop raving about it. Essentially, Gogobot is a curated travel guide. Users can review and comment on tourist attractions, hotels, and restaurants from their iPhones. Because the app is popular (and free), there's a lot of really good travel data available at your ﬁngertips.

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While you probably can't rely upon Gogobot exclusively for travel tips and advice, it's a great tool for your next road trip. When you pull off the highway looking for a tourist attraction or a place to dine or sleep, Gogobot will give you some good recommendations. As the popularity of the app grows, it's likely the name Gogobot will be as recognizable as Expedia or Frommers. Oh, yeah—Gogobot works all over the world, too.

traveled), and a nifty “HUD” feature that lets you read the reﬂection of your phone’s screen directly on your windshield.

RepairPal (Free, app2.me/5993) While it's my sincerest hope that your car never breaks down, odds are that something on your vehicle will need to be ﬁxed or replaced at some point. With RepairPal, you can learn the basics about the part or system that needs to be repaired, so you can speak with your auto mechanic intelligently. The app also gives you an estimate of what the repairs should cost, and can help you determine if the recommended work is really necessary. Lastly, RepairPal can help you keep track of your repairs and maintenance schedule.

Fuzz Alert (Free, app2.me/5995) Fuzz Alert is similar to Speedometer in that it helps you avoid speeding tickets, but it does so by warning you about nearby speed traps and speed cameras rather than monitoring your speed. The problem is, Fuzz Alert relies upon user-provided data, so you can't rely on it to be 100% accurate or up to date. Still, the concept is good, the execution is decent, and the price can't be beat.

The RepairPal app wasn't always great (earlier versions didn't function properly and often didn't provide useful advice), so if you've tried it before and found it to be lacking, be sure to take another look. The latest version is starting to receive critical acclaim, and the average user ratings are quite good. Speedometer (Free, app2.me/5994) Speedometer is a good-looking app that tracks your vehicle's speed using your iPhone's built-in GPS. You can set an audible alarm that will go off whenever you exceed the speed limit, helping you avoid a speeding ticket. Additionally, Speedometer offers some trip odometer features (measuring time and distance

Unfortunately, Speedometer isn't smart enough to know the speed limit based on the road you're driving on, which means you’ll have to conﬁgure it for the speed at which you want to travel. Still, considering the app is free, it's worth checking out.

I’d like to mention a couple of important notes about all of these apps. First, remember that your iPhone's GPS feature can quickly drain your battery life. Second, if you're using an app that requires interaction while driving (such as Speedometer or Fuzz Alert), make sure you can complete this interaction without looking at the phone's screen for more than an instant. Safety ﬁrst! Ѷ Jason Lancaster is a big fan of crowd-sourced apps like GasBuddy, Fuzz Alert, and Gogobot, and encourages all iPhone users to contribute data to these types of apps whenever it’s convenient to do so. When Jason isn’t extolling the benefits of crowd-sourced data, he’s writing for Anderson Ford Motorsports, a company that sells performance parts for the Ford Mustang.

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Vivian Perez Age: 35 Location: San Francisco, California One-Line Bio: Vivian Perez, CMP, is the Event and Sales Director for the Bently Reserve (bentlyreserve.com). In her spare time, she directs marketing for several divisions of Bently Holdings.

Routesy Pro: I use Routesy on a daily basis to plan my day. It’s incredible how accurately it predicts when the next bus or train on the MUNI or BART system will arrive.

Uber: Navigating San Francisco is best without a car, but sometimes you need to arrive in style to an event and don’t want to deal with taxis. Uber makes it really easy to get a black car quickly.

Chefs Feed: I like to check out what my favorite local chefs recommend, especially when I’m exploring other cities.

GrubHub: I like to order from my favorite restaurants through GrubHub. It saves your favorite orders and lets you know when you should pick up your food.

Seafood Watch: When I plan events, I’m expected to make sustainable catering choices. This Monterey Aquarium app recommends which types of seafood to have and which to avoid.

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SF Climates: San Francisco is known for its microclimates, and this app gives me the weather for different neighborhoods in the city.

BR Events app: We developed this app in-house, so when we meet with clients we have all the information about their events at our ﬁngertips.

Salesforce: This app allows me to have access to all my clients’ information no matter where I am, so I can get back to them quickly even when I’m not in the ofﬁce.

Photosynth: I think this is the best app for taking panoramic pictures. I’m no photographer, but this is really foolproof, and the pictures come out looking great every time.

Stitcher Radio: I’m Puerto Rican, and still think that Puerto Rican radio is the best! I love Stitcher because you can listen to almost any podcast or radio station from around the world.

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BACKING UP YOUR WORDS 10 Handy Apps for Writing Remotely By Cornelius A. Fortune ©iS ©iSto ©iStockp hoto.com oto.c m/hocus-f /hocu hocus-focus ocus cus u

ou don't have to be a professional writer to use writing tools in your virtual ofﬁce. In fact, most of us will likely need some type of writing app to get us through our next writing assignment, whether it be a work project, an essay for class, or even a long to-do list.

When working away from home, you needn’t worry about connectivity; your home office is just a tap away on your iPhone or iPad (though, while you can technically do everything on your iPhone, the iPad’s bigger screen is better suited to the task of churning out carefully crafted words). And when you consider the cost (the average office app costs under $10), it makes sense to build an app arsenal specific to your daily needs. Knowing what you're looking for can be a challenge, particularly when the choices are so vast, but getting set up is relatively easy. First things first—you’ll need some cloud storage.

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Choosing a Cloud Service One of the most common worries about using a word-processing program is potentially losing content in a document you’re working on—or, worse, losing the whole document itself. Most cloud storage programs work in tandem with your desktop to keep your files up to date and accessible from almost any computer, mobile phone, or tablet. You can use multiple programs to store different kinds of files, but it’s wise to keep all your important documents anchored to at least one program. These apps are all free, and provide an average of 5 GB of space, though you can pay for more. Dropbox (Free, app2.me/127) It doesn't get much simpler than Dropbox. You download the app on your iDevice and computer, create folders, and place your files in as needed.

As long as your Internet connection is live, the documents you store in Dropbox will automatically sync to the cloud. In addition to the Dropbox app and desktop software, there’s a web portal that lets you access all your documents from wherever you are. The bottom line is that your desktop documents are always with you. If you’re collaborating with other writers and editors, Dropbox makes it easy and trouble-free to save and share documents. Box (Free, app2.me/3107) Box offers the same type of service as Dropbox, but personal preference drives the brand loyalty. Box doesn’t clearly distinguish itself from its rival, but free cloud storage is free cloud storage, and Box offers enough of it to be taken seriously. If you already have Dropbox, I recommend using Box as a backup. Google Drive (Free, app2.me/5341) Gmail users shoud already be familiar with Google Drive. Like Dropbox and Box, Google Drive offers cloud storage, but with a twist—it lets you create, edit, and share your documents, all within the program. In essence, it’s a one-stop shop. While it gets the job done, it isn't as simple and intuitive as other cloud storage services. Google Drive is best used as a back-up account for other, less important documents. Google recently announced that they're bumping up the 5 GB of free storage to 15 GB (shared among Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+ Photos). Microsoft SkyDrive (Free, app2.me/5340) While Dropbox and Box each offer 5 GB of cloud storage, Microsoft SkyDrive offers 7 GB. That’s its main selling point; beyond that, SkyDrive functions along the same lines as the other cloud storage options. Just as Google Drive works well with Gmail, Microsoft SkyDrive is an excellent companion to Hotmail and Microsoft Ofﬁce products. Evernote (Free, app2.me/130) Evernote is tailor-made for brainstorming. It lets you create simple text and photos, store website URLs, and clip articles to read later. Evernote is the ultimate digital note-taking tool for every writer, from novice to professional. It even has a desktop version that syncs easily with your mobile devices.

Polishing Your Prose Now that you have a place to store all those wonderful ideas, you’re ready to use a word-processing app to turn those snippets into breathtaking sentences.

portant emails, essays, and more. You can email your notes as plain text, or copy and paste them into almost any wordprocessing app installed on your iDevice. Don’t take this app for granted just because it’s built in; it’s indispensable. Microsoft OneNote (Free, app2.me/4204) Microsoft OneNote has a very attractive design— a faux notebook with spirals in the margins—and it lets you move your text just about anywhere. The best parts of the app are its organizational features, and the fact that it lets you incorporate photos from your camera roll. OneNote is a perfect complement to SkyDrive. iA Writer ($0.99, app2.me/3501) This app is clean, clear, and concise. If all you're looking for is a blank page to ﬁll, iA Writer is the perfect choice. The app doesn't perform rich text, but it gives you a clean white space to work within. And sometimes, all you want is an empty canvas without all the fancy tabs getting in the way. Open Word Processor ($9.99, app2.me/5462) Although it projects an old-school vibe, this app takes word processing seriously. Those old enough to remember computers of the late ‘90s will feel right at home with this app’s design and feel. If you’re looking for a word processor with charm, this one might do the trick. Documents To Go – Ofﬁce Suite ($9.99, app2.me/128; Premium version: $16.99, app2.me/286) Both versions of this app work well with your cloud storage apps. Formats include .doc, .docx, rich text, plain text, and more. When simple text simply won’t do, Documents To Go is a Microsoft Word user’s dream. And at $9.99, it’s also a great deal!

The Final Draft Whether you’re dusting off that long-lost novel draft, polishing a resume, or composing an essay, it’s essential to be able to access and save your writing remotely. While these apps won’t guarantee you a spot on the New York Times Best Seller list or turn you into the next Hemingway, they might take some of the sting out of the writing process. Try one out, or try them all! Ѷ Cornelius A. Fortune is an award-winning journalist who covers technology, TV, and popular culture. He is the author of the book Stories from Arlington, and has written for Yahoo News, The Advocate, Chess Life, the Detroit Metro Times, and others. He is also a Rhysling Award-nominated poet. Visit his website at corneliusfortune.com.

Notes (Free, built-in) Though it lacks rich text capabilities, the preinstalled Notes app is a great place for brainstorming, making lists, and even drafting im-

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Susie Monday Location: Pipe Creek, Texas One-Line Bio: I’m an artist who makes vibrant textile paintings from fabrics (mostly upcycled from thrift stores) that are dyed, printed, collaged, and stitched. You can see my work at susiemonday.com.

Podcasts: This is my go-to app on the road. I commute to teach workshops and classes in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas, and podcasts keep me occupied on the road.

Pinterest: No doubt in my mind, this is my absolute favorite way to do visual research and to keep track of images that inspire my art.

Evernote: Like a lot of right-braindominant people, I am not the most organized woman in the world. Evernote helps keep me on track.

Photosynth: Stitched-together panoramas made easy! I love this for documenting art shows, museum exhibits, and events.

LINE Brush: The best small, simple sketch app. The scope, scale, and ﬂexibility (brush sizes, opacity, color) are perfect for iPhone drawings on the run. I love the brushes’ responsiveness and calligraphy-like quality, as well as the app’s clean design and interface.

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Flipboard: This aggregator gives me access to quick articles and upto-date news, and serves as a convenient portal to the artist blogs that I read regularly. It is such a visual treat to use.

TED: If all I ever did was watch one TED talk a day, I would be a smarter, more creative, and better-educated person!

TypeDrawing: Text and words often ﬁnd their place in my work, and this handy app is my go-to for manipulating, arranging, and layering type onto images.

Repix: I play around with a lot of apps, since I teach iPad for Art workshops. This is one of my latest ﬁnds for fast, fun ﬁlters. Usually these are just for inspiring ideas and visual playtime, but sometimes I print the photos on fabric and incorporate the images into my work.

Game On! HOW GAMELOFT IS DEFINING THE FUTURE OF iOS GAMING BY SIVA OM

you play games on your iOS device, chances are that you already know about Gameloft, and have likely played at least one of the acclaimed company’s games. From the earliest days of iOS, Gameloft has produced titles that consistently prove how amazing gaming on the iPhone and iPad can be. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to see much difference between one of Gameloft’s iOS games and a console game—the graphics, gameplay, and storylines are that good. In the competitive mobile gaming industry, Gameloft is raising the bar with its cutting-edge graphics, award-winning voice acting and dialogue, and immersive and intuitive gameplay. I had the pleasure of speaking with a few enthusiastic members of the Gameloft team about the direction in which the company is headed.

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Gameloft’s games raise the bar with their cutting-edge graphics, dialogue, and immersive gameplay.

Can Non-Programmers Really Learn to Create Apps? by Kevin McNeish

hese days, it seems that just about everyone you meet has an idea for an iPhone app. Although coming up with a great idea is usually the hardest part, for non-programmers, creating the app can seem like an insurmountable barrier.

As it turns out, you can create your own apps—even if you have never written code before. But let’s be clear, I’m not saying that you can create apps without writing any code. I’m saying that even if you haven’t ever done it before, you can learn to write code with the best of them, given the right tools and the right approach to app building. There are three innovations that make this possible.

Apple Steals Storyboarding From Pixar In October of 2011, Apple “stole” an idea from animation companies (like Pixar, for example) that makes it much easier to design the layout and ﬂow of your app—they introduced storyboards into Xcode, Apple’s free tool for building iPhone and iPad apps. When a ﬁlm studio such as Pixar produces an animated movie, they begin by creating a storyboard, which contains the main scenes in the movie and shows the sequence of how the story

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ﬂows from one scene to the next. Storyboards perform the same basic function in app design; they allow you to lay out each screenful of information (known as a scene) in your app, as well as the ﬂow between them (known as segues).

“…even if you have never written code before, you can learn to write code with the best of them…” The Storyboard tool in Xcode is extremely easy to use. If you can create a slide presentation using tools such as Keynote or PowerPoint, you can use Xcode’s storyboards to design your app’s user interface and ﬂow. In fact, Xcode’s design tools are so advanced that you can create amazing app prototypes without writing any code.

Storyboards allow you to design the visual appearance and flow of your app. Whenever I create an app for a client, I always create a prototype ﬁrst and install it on the client’s iPhone or iPad so they can hold it in their hands and see how the ﬁnished app will look and respond to user interaction. It’s not until the client interacts with the app in this way that they can truly provide meaningful feedback. The beauty of prototyping in Xcode is that you don’t throw away the prototype. When you’re ready to build the fully functioning app, you use the prototype as a starting point and add code to it to make it functional. Even if you decide that writing code isn’t your thing, you can still use Xcode to create a prototype of your app, which you can then hand off to someone else to complete, saving time and money!

Programming With Training Wheels You may have seen ads promising that you can create apps without having to write any code. Although you can create some very basic apps that way, you’re going to have to learn to write some code if you want to create professional-grade apps that

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take full advantage of all the features available on the iPhone and iPad. The good news is that as Apple releases new versions of its app-building tools, the amount of code you’ll need to write will continue to decrease. For example, you used to have to write a lot of complicated code to resize and reposition objects in your user interface for when the user rotates their device from portrait to landscape mode. (To see an example of this, hold your iPhone upright in portrait mode, launch the Calculator app, and then turn the phone sideways into landscape mode. You’ll see that the buttons and other controls are resized and repositioned, and some new buttons are even added to the Calculator.) Recently, Apple introduced a new Auto Layout system in Xcode that allows you to resize and reposition your app’s user-interface controls without writing any code.

"As Apple releases new versions of its app-building tools, the amount of code you’ll need to write will continue to decrease.” Objective-C is the primary programming language used to create apps for the iPhone and iPad. We will dive into the intricacies of Objective-C in a future column, but for now, you just need to know that Apple continues to improve Objective-C, making it easier to use. In previous versions of Objective-C, you had to write some difﬁcult code to manage the memory in your app. Failure to write this code properly caused your app to use up all of its available memory and eventually crash. These days, Apple’s tools take care of much of the memory management for you.

Coding on the Right Side of the Brain Back in 1979, the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was published. This book’s premise was that anyone could learn to draw—it was simply a matter of learning to use the right (creative) side of your brain. Learning to write code is a lot like that. Over the years, my company has been involved in a number of software-rescue projects, in which we come into a company and help them rescue a project that is failing. Typically, the developers on the project use a purely left-brain (analytical) approach that makes designing, writing, and maintaining their code far more difﬁcult than it needs to be. The result is like a plate of spaghetti; all the code is intertwined and difﬁcult to untangle. My main tactic to help put the programming team back on track is to teach them to think about software design using both the left and right sides of their brains. This involves creating objects in their app that mirror objects in the real world. Approaching the project in this way leads to higher, more abstract thinking that makes writing code much easier.

For example, if a team is creating a card-game app, they can create a Dealer object, a Player object, and a Deck that contains a collection of Card objects (see image on left). In this model, all of the code that has something to do with the Dealer, such as shufﬂing and dealing cards, goes in the Dealer object. All of the code that has something to do with the Player, such as cutting the deck, taking a card, and playing a card, goes in the Player object, and so on.

You Can Do This!

PLAYER

When you create objects in your app that mirror objects in the real world, it is much easier to conceive, design, and maintain the code in your apps.

One of the biggest hurdles to writing apps is your own belief that you can’t do it. Based on my experience helping thousands of non-programmers make the leap to app development, I know that it’s more than a possibility—it’s a reality. In future columns, I’ll take you through the basic steps you need to get set up for app development, teach you how to create prototypes, and show you how to turn them into fully functioning apps that amaze your users! Ѷ Kevin McNeish is an award-winning app developer, software architect and well-known software conference speaker in the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of the new iOS App Development for Non-Programmers book series (iOSAppsForNonProgrammers.com) and the winner of the 2012 Publishing Innovation Award. He has spent much of his career making difficult concepts easy to understand. Follow Kevin on Twitter @kjmcneish.

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THE MISSION

AT THE CONTROLS

Gameloft excels at innovation, at taking the best elements of some of the top gaming franchises and re-interpreting them into new and original iOS gaming experiences. The company boasts over 30 studios and a team of over 5,000 game developers, which helps explain how it’s able to consistently create such successful games.

Gameloft’s selections feature a variety of control options, including gesture-based controls, where you tap the screen to move, direct your character, or interact with items; virtual touchscreen joysticks, where controls appear under your ﬁngers on the sides of your screen; and gyroscopic controls, where you either tilt or twist your iDevice to turn, look around, or steer.

Baudouin Corman, Gameloft’s VP of Publishing in the Americas, hinted at great things to come for the company, saying, “We’re looking forward to another very big year for Gameloft’s games, including a number of sequels to some of our most popular franchises, and more exclusive licensed products.” When I asked Thomas Price, Gameloft’s PR Manager, what some of the the company’s priorities were, he replied, “One of our top priorities is to always keep great new games coming. We’re always looking at how we can keep things fresh.” He also admitted that updating the tried-and-true games was a big focus as well, saying, “It’s also important that we regularly roll out great updates that really enhance the games in relevant ways.” If the massive download rates and rave reviews of Gameloft’s older titles are any indication, the company seems to be achieving this quite successfully. Many games feature on-screen control options, like virtual joysticks or gyroscopic controls.

Gameloft even offers an exclusive Bluetooth controller called the Duo Gamer ($41.95, amazon.com), which features two analog joysticks, a d-pad, four buttons, and two triggers, allowing you to interact with the game on your iDevice as if it were a console game.

Gameloft created its own console game-like controller, the Duo Gamer.

GAME ONE, GAME ALL

Gameloft’s popular Asphalt racing series is in its 7th iteration.

You may notice as you browse the Gameloft library that its huge collection of games includes something for everyone— young, old, female, male, sports-inclined, fantasy-oriented, and much more. You won't ﬁnd a selection of games as diverse, or as critically acclaimed, as you will under the Gameloft mantle.

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N.O.V.A. 3 ($6.99, app2.me/5188) This FPS, which has been favorably compared to the popular console game Halo, has it all—great graphics, challenging gameplay, a gripping and mysterious storyline, and topnotch voice acting. Gameloft’s huge selection of games includes something for everyone.

“It all comes down to creating games that will please the fans and keep them playing long term,” Corman explained. “We’ve set a high bar for ourselves, but each game is an opportunity for us to leap over that. We always want our games to be more social, more immersive, and more fun. We think that we’re only at the beginning of what gaming will offer on iOS devices.”

10 MUST-HAVE GAMELOFT GAMES Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour ($6.99, app2.me/5463) This fourth chapter in the award-winning military combat series is one of the best ﬁrstperson shooter (FPS) games on the market.

Blitz Brigade (Coming soon, gameloft.com) This exciting new game is a visually stunning, cartoonish twist on a team combat, World War II shooter.

Asphalt 7: Heat ($0.99, app2.me/5190) This graphically rich, adrenaline-pumping racer is the latest in a series that just keeps getting better. A must-have for any fan of the racing genre!

Gangstar Rio: City of Saints ($4.99, app2.me/4761) If you liked the open-world action of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, you will love Gangstar Rio. I enjoyed San Andreas, but City of Saints surpasses it in many ways.

Zombiewood (Free, app2.me/5979) This dual-stick, animated shooter set in Hollywood during the Zombie Apocalypse is an instant classic.

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Wild Blood ($6.99, app2.me/5980) In its collaboration with Unreal Engine, Gameloft has brought a stunning, 3D battle adventure to iOS, set in the magical and treacherous days of King Arthur and Merlin.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within ($2.99, app2.me/5981) This is an impressive demonstration of how accurately a console game can translate to iOS. If you liked the console version of PoP, you’re bound to get hooked on the iPad rendition!

The Dark Knight Rises ($6.99, gameloft.com) This game, based on the most recent Batman movie, throws you into action as the Dark Knight in a Gotham City that’s been taken over by Bane and his terrorist organization. Test your mettle and see if you have what it takes to save the city!

Order and Chaos Online ($6.99, app2.me/4823) This popular title has a huge gaming community, impressive 3-D graphics, and every other feature of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that you could ask for.

Dungeon Hunter 3 (Free, app2.me/5982) This dungeon crawler is nothing short of excellent. Its fast and furious gameplay and rich visuals make it one of the best RPGs out there. Ѷ My passion for the arts has pushed me to excel at many creative endeavors, including web design, award-winning tattooing (sacredfiretattoos.com), and journalism. Between writing for iPhone Life, creating websites (idoctechsupport.com), gardening, illustrating, and enjoying the wonders of nature with family, I manage to keep myself quite busy. You can reach me at Sivaom@iphonelife.com.

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ver dreamt of painting a masterpiece? Longed to become the next Vermeer, Van Gogh, or Warhol? When you start to consider the years of training required, not to mention the cost of lessons, canvases, easels, paints, and brushes, the goal can seem quite daunting. Thankfully, the arrival of the iPad changed the rules of the game. Now you can create brilliant art using no more than your tablet and index ﬁnger. No one knows this better than Kyle Lambert, a UK-based visual artist that has worked in several mediums and has been featured by major news sources and tech conferences around the world. I had the fortune of talking with Kyle about his experience painting on the iPad.

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It’s always been what I’ve loved doing the most and has gradually transitioned into a full-time profession. My interest in painting started in college, where I began exploring portraiture. I found that painting faces really pushed me to learn about color, lighting, and texture in a big way. I studied painting for two years at the Manchester Metropolitan University and then spent a further two years studying illustration with animation. It was there that I channeled my interest in drawing and painting into a practical storytelling medium and began creating characters and environments. What was your initial response, as a traditional painter, when the iPad came out and painting apps became available? Were you excited or skeptical? iPL

iPhone Life: Could you give us a brief summary of your background in art? Kyle Lambert: I’ve been drawing and making things since I can remember.

It was during my college years that I ﬁrst started exploring the idea of creating artwork digitally. I had been KL

you the ability to directly manipulate your art in a way that has never before been possible. The major differences between working on the iPad and on a traditional canvas are the additional capabilities of digital painting software. When painting digitally, you can undo any unwanted brush strokes, create elements of your painting on layers, move or resize elements, or even save different versions of your work for experimentation. There are so many tools and features that you just don’t have access to as a traditional artist.

If you could only choose one method for the rest of your life, which would you pick and why? iPL

I would choose my Mac and my graphics tablet, because I can pretty much create anything that I can imagine with that combination. The iPad is a great additional tool that allows me to continue working when away from my studio, but it is in no way a replacement for my main machine. KL

Kyle’s striking iPad portrait of Beyoncé drew a lot of attention when he posted it online.

learning Adobe Photoshop for a long time for graphical work, but one day I realized that I could actually paint with a graphics tablet too.

days sketching on it—I instantly loved it. Around a week later, I produced a portrait of Beyoncé, which received a lot of attention when I posted it online.

When I started to learn digital painting techniques, it quickly became apparent that that was how I was going to be creating artwork going forward. My only issue was the gap between a traditional sketchbook and a digital painting environment. I would have to scan in any sketches that I made to continue working on them in Photoshop. Therefore, when the iPad came out, my eyes lit up at the prospect of a mobile computer that could become my digital sketchbook. I bought an iPad on launch day and spent a few

Explain the differences between painting on canvas and on the iPad. What aspects of each medium do you like more or less than the other? iPL

The advantages of creating artwork on the iPad are the portability and power of the device. I can be creative wherever I happen to get the inspiration, on a device that has the tools I’m familiar with from my desktop computer. Another big advantage of working on the iPad is the touch-screen interface, which gives KL

What apps would you recommend for someone who has had little to no experience in painting? iPL

The ﬁrst app that attracted me when I began painting on the iPad was Brushes (free, app2.me/5726). I liked the simplicity of the interface and the speed at which it allowed me to work. Since then, many more apps have come out with far more features. Today I use Adobe Ideas ($9.99, app2.me/5978) for most of my preliminary sketches, because it has a fast scalable vector canvas, which is perfect for exploring ideas. Other good starting apps include Sketchbook Pro ($4.99, app2.me/3289), which has a great tool set; ArtRage ($4.99, app2.me/3292), which is a good traditional paint simulatKL

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iPL

Where do you see technology leading us in terms of the evolution of

art? One of the main advantages of painting digitally is the ability to undo unwanted brush strokes.

I think that technology is a big part of art because it’s what allows us as artists to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Many people think art has to be an oil painting hanging in a gallery; they see digital art as a less valuable commodity. For me, digital art is a medium just like oil, pastels, and pencil, and it should be the decision of the artist as to which medium is most appropriate for any particular piece. For example, if I am creating an illustration for a magazine that is based in another country and it needs to be delivered tomorrow, the digital medium is the only way that it could possibly happen. If I am commissioned to create a portrait to be hung in a gallery, an oil painting might be the best way of creating that. Regardless of the medium, the art should always be about the idea. KL

ing app; and Paper (free, bit.ly/XSxoJ8), which has a nice sketchbook format. iPL

How about for painters at an intermediate to advanced level?

What are some of the key steps people should adhere to when painting on the iPad? Any tips on technique? iPL

One of the apps that I’ve started to play with recently is Procreate ($4.99, app2.me/4642). It has a very similar feature set to Adobe Photoshop and allows you to create really high-resolution digital paintings. It has a lot of customizable options for brushes, which might put beginners off, but if you are an experienced digital artist, it is a real treat. I used it recently to create a set of portraits for the guests at Macworld/iWorld 2013 in San Francisco. They were presented on iPads backstage at the event. KL

Do you have any favorite iPad painting accessories, such as brushes or stands? iPL

For a long time, I was against the KL idea of using anything but my ﬁnger for painting on the iPad. However, having been asked to test a lot of stylus options over the past few years, I eventually settled on using the Nomad Compose Brush ($35, nomadbrush.com) for most of my iPad artwork. It’s just like a normal paintbrush, but with conductive bristles that allow you to “paint” on the glass surface of your iPad. It removes the unwanted friction that you get when dragging your ﬁnger or a rubber stylus on glass and gives you a smooth, loose sketching and painting experience.

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Kyle Lambert’s digital portraits of guests at Macworld/iWorld 2013.

I think the most important thing about starting a new medium—be it oil painting, digital painting, or iPad painting—is to spend the time learning the tools that you are going to be using. Spend the time in your app of choice ﬁguring out what is possible and how best to go about creating art with the app’s available options. Once you have gone through an exploration period, you should be in a strong position to begin working on your paintings. Most people make the mistake of diving straight in, hoping to create a masterpiece, and then wonder why it’s so much harder in that new medium. KL

You can see more of Kyle’s work on his website (kylelambert.co.uk), or follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/ kylelambert.co.uk) and Twitter @kylelambert. Ѷ Nina Benjamin is the Associate Editor of iPhone Life magazine. She holds a B.A. in Literature and Writing and has written and edited articles for several regional magazines, newspapers, and blogs. Once a professional ballet dancer, Nina now enjoys teaching ballet and singing.

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i P h o n e L i f e July-August 2013

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iView Hal, along with his wife Rita, founded iPhone Life’s original publishing company, Thaddeus Computing, in 1985. You can reach him at hal@thaddeus.com.

iGetting Things Done y wife often asks me, “Why are you going into work? I thought you retired!” Actually, even though I’m semiretired, I still manage to get overshadowed by daily tasks. Everything is competing for my attention—daily email, voicemail, ongoing projects, potential projects, consulting work, meetings, family obligations, shopping, civic responsibilities, social media, apps to test, books to read, and a messy desk to boot. How do I deal with all of this?

Some years back, when I ran our publishing company, I integrated David Allen's Getting Things Done® system (davidco. com) into my daily routine. But recently I have fallen off the wagon. Now I am recommitting to using Allen’s proven methodology, making optimal use of my iPhone, iPad, and PC. I do it so I can, as Allen says, “have a mind like water,” which refers to the state of readiness of a still pond that responds precisely to the force and mass of a pebble—neither overreacting nor underreacting—before returning to stillness.

The Heart of GTD: Clarifying Clutter Organizing your tasks with the GTD system requires that you examine each item and quickly determine what to do with it: delete it, delegate it, defer it, ﬁle it, do it if it takes less than 2 minutes, or put it into a next action, someday, or projects list. The key point is that most of our stuff sticks around in our inboxes, desks, and minds because we don't take 10-15 seconds to clearly identify what each piece is.

Enter the iPhone The iPhone is the perfect tool for GTD—you can input, organize, and review tasks at any time. If your trusted system is in the cloud, you could access the same data on your iPad, PC, or Mac. The challenge is ﬁnding the right software.

Choosing GTD Software The GTD system seems to attract technologically inclined individuals, so there are literally hundreds of apps that people use for GTD. According to online blogs and discussion, these tools can be quite helpful, but they also display some areas of clunkiness. Accordingly, the David Allen Company has teamed up with Intentional Software to develop GTD software from the ground up (intentsoft.com/overview/gtd). Cost and release date have not been announced.

David Allen's GTD productivity system and Evernote might be a perfect match.

What is Getting Things Done (GTD)? The goal of GTD is to get stuff out of your head and into a trusted system, so you can have a clear mind present on the task at hand. To do so, one must gather everything—thoughts, emails, papers, and reminders—that has no place to go. With GTD, each item is either dealt with immediately or clariﬁed and placed in a trusted system; nothing gets lost or overlooked. You can review the system as often as necessary and determine the next action steps.

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I don’t want to wait, so I did quite a bit of research online for the best alternative. For Mac, iPhone, and iPad users, the consensus seems to be the OmniFocus app ($19.99, app2.me/132; iPad version: $39.99, app2.me/4351), or possibly Evernote (free, app2.me/130). For those of us who also use a PC, there are several other alternatives. Pocket Informant Pro ($14.99, app2.me/2575) and MyLifeOrganized ($9.99, app2.me/6001; iPad version: $19.99, app2.me/6002), and particularly Nozbe (free, app2.me/6003) and Toodledoo ($2.99, app2.me/3052) were mentioned frequently. For ﬂexibility, comprehensiveness, support, cost, multi-device capability, and synchronization, Evernote may well be the best choice. Ѷ

Next Issue: Using Evernote For to to getget started with Evernote, or toorsubmit Fortips tipsononhow how started with Evernote, to feedback questions, my blogvisit postmy at bit.ly/12psX87 submitand feedback andvisit questions, blog post at bit.ly/12psX87