Picture this... you're on vacation with your family, traveling abroad. You have the perfect shot of the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China or the amazing Egyptian pyramids, except for one problem... there are too many people in the shot!
At this point, you have 3 options:
- You can snap the shot, and be happy with what you have (that's boring)
- You can ask everyone to move out of the way (good luck with that one!)
- You can use PhotoShop automatically remove the people for you
In my opinion, option 3 is the winner, and fortunately, I have a really cool tip to show you how this works.
Let's face it, an iPhone and/or iPad is a pretty hefty investment. Sure, it may only cost $200 -$400 (depending on the model) to purchase a subsidized iPhone from your cell carrier, but have you ever had to replace that phone before your contract is up? You can tack on another $300 or so (depending on your carrier). All of a sudden, a lost device becomes very expensive to replace.
It may not happen every time you lose a device, but in some cases, the finder actually does want to learn who the owner is so that they can return it. We've been taught (and it's good practice) to always use a passcode to protect the data on your device in case it does end up lost. But if the finder can't get into your device, how will they know who it belongs to and how to return it? Simple.
Apple's suite of online services (a.k.a.: iCloud) helps you to manage your digital life. From email to calendaring to photo-sharing, your iCloud account has the potential to be the center of your digital life. This is not only true for you, but it will likely be true for your children as well.
Even though they may not be ready to use iCloud right now, here's some advice that will help you (and them) when they are ready to use it.
If you haven't learned something new today, then you must be dead or on vacation, but even on vacation, you should be learning something new. That's exactly why this "Tech Talk" blog exists... to help you learn something new every day.
When it comes to developing your skills and talents, there are plenty of ways to do this. The most common way that most people think of right away is a formal college or university education. This is obviously still a very valid option, but wouldn't it be nice to attend a college course here or there without the time and expense commitment that goes along with it? Good news... you can!
When Apple introduced FaceTime alongside the iPhone 4 introduction in June 2010, it was used very little. I believe this was the case for two reasons: 1) people had a hard time finding an application for its use and 2) at the time, it only worked over WiFi. Since then, AT&T and other carriers have relaxed their restrictions to the point that yu can now use FaceTime over 4G and LTE on the go. Now, it seems like FaceTime is used more frequently (I use it just about every day, and it's becoming more frequent).
The ability to take a screenshot of your computer is invaluable for troubleshooting a problem or showing off the latest new app. Taking a screenshot on a Mac is easy (you can get instructions here).
Taking a screenshot on your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch may not be as intuitive, but it's just as easy... once you know how to do it. This tip will make it easy for you.
When Apple announced availability of the Apple Watch, they told us that the battery would last a full 18-hours. Here's a copy of their marketing language: "Apple Watch is so capable you’ll want to wear it all day long. So we made sure we gave it a battery that lasts all day, too. Our goal for battery life was 18 hours after an overnight charge, factoring in things like checking the time, receiving notifications, using apps, and doing a 30-minute workout. And because everyone will use Apple Watch differently, we tested several other metrics as well."
So the question is this... is it all marketing hype, or is there merit to their claims? I decided to put the watch to the test for myself, and here are the real-world results.
There are a ton of new features in the new Photos app (released as part of the OS X 10.10.3 update). Most notably is the completely new user interface. It’s clean, simpler to use and matches the experience you have while managing and manipulating photos on your iOS device. Another really nice feature is iCloud Photo Library. In short, this feature allows you to store your entire photo library in the cloud, and access those photos from any Apple product, anywhere.
In some cases, this feature is enabled for you automatically. In others, it’s not. This depends on whether you chose to use iCloud Photo Library when you first launched Photos. Either way, there are a few things that I learned after using iCloud Photo Library in Photos that you need to know about.
When it comes to searching for content on the Internet, Google is king! They do a fantastic job of indexing and searching more available content than I can fathom. Searching for this content is simple in any modern web browser, even Safari on iOS. Just open a new web page, enter your search string in the address bar and tap on "Go". That's it.
Searching for a specific word or phrase within a web page, however, is not so intuitive. Fortunately, there's an easy trick that can save you a lot of frustration and scrolling as you look for that needle in the haystack.
The highly-anticipated (and super-exciting!) Apple Watch will be available for in-store purchase on April 24, but it will be available for pre-order and in-store try-ons this Friday, April 10! In anticipation of the big (pre-order) day, I thought I would answer some reader questions that have come my way, to help you be better prepared to make the purchase.
Today's post comes from a reader. They ask, "Is there a way to restrict what apps my children have access to on their iPad and/or iPhone?" The short answer is yes, and not only is it easy to set up and manage, but this feature happens to do more than just limit what apps the user can use. The question was asked with specific apps in mind... Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, etc.
I see this fairly often when it comes to social networking. Social networks can be a fun way to stay in touch with family, friends and loved ones, but it can also be used as a trap if you aren't careful. In some cases, it's better to just restrict access to these services altogether.
Believe it or not, there are a few really cool tricks when it comes to entering phone numbers on your iPhone. In today's tech talk, I will cover two of them... "pause" and "wait".
You've been there, done that. You need to hop on to a conference call or call into a business where you are forced to enter an automated menu system. Yuk! It can be annoying when you dial the main number, wait for a list of options, choose the one you want only to wait again until the next set of options... especially if you call this number often. While I can't do anything about that unavoidable runaround, I can help to automate the process for you.
The Messages app is one of the most heavily used apps on my iPhone and iPad. That's as critical to my workflow (if not more so) than email is. I love the quick nature of sending and receiving messages. The problem that most people have with Messages, however, is that it seems to always take "forever" (obviously time is relative) to switch to the Messages app, type a reply, send it, then switch back to what they were doing.
For those that fall into that category, I have great news for you! You can actually reply almost instantaneously right from whatever app you are currently in. It's simple and very effective. Here's how it works.
iMovie for iOS is an extremely powerful tool. Imagine this... you attend an event that you want to share with family, friends, coworkers, etc. You shoot some footage using your 1080p iPhone camera, you edit that video, add titles, effects, transitions, etc. Then once you're done, you upload that finished video to YouTube then share the link with others. Sounds difficult or fictitious, right? Not only is this possible (all from your iPhone or iPad), but simple projects are usually completed in just a few minutes (or even quicker)! I attended an event at my 6-year-old's school last week. Before I walked out of the school, I had edited the video and shared it with family. This is what makes technology so great!
Adding titles in iMovie for iOS can be a bit of a challenge. By default, the title you add will span the entire length of the video clip to which you are adding the title. For example, I filmed the first 10 seconds of a soccer game and added a title to that clip. Rather than the title being displayed for the entire 10 seconds, I only want it to show for the first 2-3 seconds, then disappear. There's an easy fix for that.
Meeting up with friends and colleagues can be an awesome experience... once you've actually met up to do something fun. The process of meeting up, however, can be a painful one. In most cases (and considering how we use tech these days), it begins with a simple text "Hey, where are you?". The response is usually something like "Over by the sandwich shop". "The deli or the seafood sandwich shop?". "The deli, but not right next to it, down a few shops". You get the idea. After 10 or more texts and a lot of wasted time, you finally meet up.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to share your location with your friends so that it took all the guesswork out of finding you? The free "Find my Friends" app is one way of doing this, but in some cases, you just want to share your location one time with a friend, not forever. There's a really simple way to do this.
