"If there is an app for that"

The 7 iPhone Tips That Will Blow Your Mind

December 18, 2018 by RSS Feed

We all love computers, right? And what is the most amazing computer ever created? Why the iPhone, of course! It’s way more powerful than all the computers NASA used to send men to the moon, and much easier to use too :)

One obvious way that it’s easier to use is how portable it is. Much more so than a laptop. Just try putting a laptop in your pocket. Every iPhone is also a multitude of gadgets all rolled into one. Let’s count ’em: a terrific camera, a video camera, a voice recorder, a compass, a level, an altimeter, an instant translator, a notepad, a calendar, a to-do list manager, etc, etc.

With all of that functionality you can’t be blamed for overlooking some very cool features that are not immediately obvious. That’s why we’re here, to give you all the best insider tips.

To start, let’s talk about how flexible your favorite device is. There are tons of customizations (just about everything your wonder device outputs – visual and audio), as well as new ways of working and new things to do that will certainly up-level your day-to-day techniques.

So check out our curated list of the 7 absolute best must-have not-to-be-missed hidden features of your iPhone.

1. What good is your phone if it shuts down?

Here’s how to save your battery if it’s getting too low. If you aren’t near a charger then Low Power mode is the next best thing.

In the iPhone Control Center under “Settings/Battery” is an option called “low power mode”. If you tap that icon to turn it on (or off later) you will give up some functionality but get more battery life in return. A worthwhile tradeoff if you’re in a desperate situation and need some more time to finish that game or get off a few text messages.

2. Breeze through your emails and texting using the hidden “trackpad”

Trying to navigate through a text message or email by tapping on the screen to place your cursor exactly where you want can be extremely frustrating.  This is especially true if, like some of us – no names, you’re a bit of a perfectionist and actually care about correcting errors.

To activate the trackpad all you have to do is press down on your text keyboard. It will disappear and the space becomes a trackpad for your fat finger. Check it out, a very cool hidden feature.

You can easily select and deselect text by pressing down and releasing the pressure. If it seems awkward at first stay with it, with a little practice you’ll be a pro at it.

3. Share the love

If you’ve ever had something on your screen, like say a sequence in a game or app, that needed to be shared, and who hasn’t?, thanks to the newest version of iOS the is now tres simple.

You know about the Control Center, right? Well the options available in it are there for you to manage as you like.

If you wander over to the Customizable option under Control Center you’ll see what we’re talking about. You’ll see the options that are already included and some that are not. Under “More Controls” you just need to tap the “Screen Recording” option. Then just go to the Control Center and tap it. You can record both video and audio if you like. To stop the video, simply tap on the blue banner on the top of the screen or the icon in the Control Center.

You’ll find your video by opening the Photos app.

4. Sometimes you need to type with one hand

It doesn’t matter if you love or hate using both hands to type messages. The point is you can use just one hand whenever you want via the iPhone’s one-handed keyboard option.

If you long press on the smiling face emoji button you will see a hidden menu with 4 lines; Keyboard settings to customize your keyboard, your current language (selected by default), Emoji to see all emojis available, and an image showing you the normal keyboard along with left-handed and right-handed keyboard options. By selecting the left-handed option the keyboard will shift to the left side and be scrunched a bit so you can reach all the keys with your left thumb.

5. The Notes app on steriods

The Notes app has grown up and now makes everyday tasks easier and quicker. If you need to share something you can walk all the way over to your multi-function printer to scan it and then find the file it created, and… fuggedaboudit!

Just open up Notes, start or edit a note and click that funky little plus sign in a circle and select the first option “Scan Documents”. While you will be using the iPhone camera to capture the document, it’s not simply a photo of a piece of paper. It’s a legitimate scan that happens as soon as the doc fills the target square. It doesn’t make text editable but it’s about as simple to use as possible.

6. Keep photos tucked away for privacy

Have you ever passed your phone to someone to see a photo and they innocently swipe to another photo? That next photo may not be appropriate, for whatever reason, for them to see. For photos that you want to have more control over there’s a folder to help you out.

The Photos app has a wide variety of options that you may not use much but should get to know. One in particular is quite handy when it comes to privacy, the “Hide” folder.  If you press the “Share” icon you’ll see a bunch of options including AirDrop, a line of apps, and under that a line of gray tinted functions. On that line scroll over to the right and press “Hide”.

Photos that you put there are accessible (without a password) in the Albums section of the Photos app. Note that this is “security by obscurity”. The photos are not locked down, they’re just not as easy to find.

7. Be safe while driving

Did you know that texting while driving is not only illegal in most states but also puts you at the same risk of an accident as someone who is legally drunk? That’s a sobering thought so just don’t do it!

Stop the flood of messages or calls while on the road by utilizing the “Do Not Disturb While Driving” feature. Once again the Control Center to the rescue! Hit that option and whenever your phone detects that you’re in moving over a certain speed it will kick in. Note that you can easily bypass it if needed, like if you’re actually a passenger in the car or you’re driving but have a death wish.

To keep you safe all of your incoming calls, texts, notifications, and more won’t disturb you but are available to you later. You can also opt to send an auto-reply message that you can’t talk/text now because you’re driving.

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2018/12/the-7-iphone-tips-that-will-blow-your-mind/

The Bird App is the Easy Way to Take Great Care of Your Bird

December 12, 2018 by RSS Feed

Reviewed by The Mule

Those of you who keep a bird know as we do that it’s incredibly rewarding. While you’re not likely to be out “walking your bird”, that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy it’s company and love interacting with it.

Once you know you want a bird all you have to do is head over to a (hopefully) legitimate pet store where you can see all kinds of birds to choose from. But then once you have one, how do you care for it?

The Bird App is a very well thought out and designed app that makes caring for your bird as easy as possible.

Concept and Functionality:

As stated, The Bird App, from Marguerite Hemmings, is very well done. We applaud her efforts because it’s quite obvious that she loves her feathered friends and really, really wants to make sure you and your bird enjoy each other for many years to come.

So how does she do this? Primarily, by providing you with information and insights that you’re sure to find interesting. For example, on the first screen all you do is enter the “human” age of your flappy bird and it will tell you have old it is relative to it’s lifespan.

The tab, Age Calc, is the first of four tabs in this app. The second tab is “Translator” and it’s the most fun of all of them. Using it is pretty simple, you just hit the “Record” button when your flying friend is vocalizing.

Once you’ve captured it’s melody the app will translate that into english so you know what your bird is trying to tell you. I tried this with my Parakeet and it returned the message “I need to be washed” – LOL!

How accurate is this? Hard to say, Google Translate doesn’t offer an “English to Parakeet” option so I have no way to cross check it :)

The Bird App iPhone App

The next tab, Feeding, is a bit more practical. Touching that tab brings you to a screen with 7 buttons that are grouped by bird types. Hitting the first button labeled “Budgies, Cockatiels, Lovebirds, Kakariki, Rosellas & Neophemas” brings up a screen with information about feeding them with Pellets, Seeds, and/or Nuts.

The last tab, Common Q’s, brings up a FAQ type listing of common questions and answers.

Interface and Usability:

There is no doubt that this is a fairly simple app but that’s where it’s beauty lies. It doesn’t try to do it all and we appreciate how it target the bird-owning community. With four tabs there’s not much to get lost in. The app is straightforward and does not require any guidance or tutorial.

Try each tab and see what you think.

Overall Value:

Overall this is a free app and as such is an easy download. If you have a bird we highly recommend checking it out. If you don’t have a bird, well, that’s your problem. Go get one and then get this app!

The Bird App requires iOS 11.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone 5s or higher, iPad, and iPod Touch.

TheiPhoneAppReview’s Rating:

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2018/12/the-bird-app-iphone-app/

Hexa Rune Gems is the Perfect Puzzle to Grab n Play

November 29, 2018 by RSS Feed

Reviewed by The Mule

There are lots of games and puzzles that can only be appreciated if you invest lots of hours to figure out how to play them or at least get good enough to enjoy them.

Sometimes though, you just want to pick up a puzzle and start enjoying it right away.

Hexa Rune Gems is the perfect puzzle game for whenever you want a challenge that you can jump into quickly and play while you have some time to kill.

Available for free through the iTunes Store, with a $0.99 option to remove ads, this game tests your ability to imagine how multiple shapes can fit together and complete a puzzle board.

Features:

Hexa Rune Gems, from developer Craig Giannelli, challenges players to look at a puzzle board, the groups of hexagons that are your playing pieces, and along with some trial and error, figure out how to fit the pieces in the board.

The action of the game is pretty slick. When you touch a group of tiles it jumps up and then snaps to the open spots where you want the group of tiles to go. It’s simple to try a spot and then if you want, move it around to a different spot. Once you have all the groups fitted correctly the board is completed and you go to the next one.

There are four levels of play: Beginner, Advanced, Master and Expert, each with 60 boards to complete. You can select any level but you can only advance in that level by completing a board. You start with four groups of tiles and continue to more and more complex challenges where you have to fit together 10 or more groups of tiles together.

There are hints available to help you complete a board. You get one or two hints as a “Daily Gift” and ocassionally more hints as prizes when you complete a board. You can also buy packages of hints, although we think you can get many hours of play with just the hints that you collect. We made it to the 7th board of the Master level before needing one.

All that said there’s not much else here. No special challenges or side games, just more complex boards to conquer.

Appearance and Layout:

Hexa Rune Gems iPhone Game

For what this game is, the layout and graphics are a great fit. There’s a cartoonish woodsy style that’s colorful, pleasant, and works well.

The overall appearance of Hexa Rune Gems is well done although somewhat repetitive. We’d like to see some variation from level to level just to perk things up a bit.

Value:

Hexa Rune Gems is a free app. Plus, as stated above, you have the option to pay $0.99 to go ad-free. The ads that do appear are not much of a problem though. They’re at the top of the game and very unintrusive.

There are also video ads but you don’t see them too much so they’re really not a problem. This is definitely a puzzle game that you can play for free without being barraged by annoying ads.

Overall, we found the concept and execution of Hexa Rune Gems to be well done.

Hexa Rune Gems delivers a fun and challenging puzzle that requires some thought but no huge time investment. It’s perfect for whenever you have a few minutes to kill and want to do a few brain pushups.

Hexa Rune Gems requires iOS 6.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

TheiPhoneAppReview’s Rating:

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2018/11/hexa-rune-gems-iphone-game/

Burger Shop 2 Review

November 26, 2018 by RSS Feed

You might think that working behind the counter in a burger joint would be no fun at all. But if Burger Shop 2 is anything to go by, you’re dead wrong. It turns out that putting orders together for a succession of hungry customers from a menu of more than 100 items is a great way to kill some time.

This casual time-management sequel from developer GoBit sees you waking up in a dumpster to discover that the catering empire you built in the previous game has been cruelly taken from you.

There’s nothing for it but to start from scratch and regain everything you’ve lost the only way you know how: making fast food.

Once again you’re assisted by the BurgerTron 2000, the secret weapon that helped you dominate the fast food world in the first game. Whoever put you in that dumpster clearly missed a trick.

Your trusty robot companion issues a constant stream of food items into your restaurant via a snaking conveyor belt, while your customers wait at a counter along the bottom of the screen, requesting meals in speech bubbles.

To serve a meal you simply tap on the requested food items, and a plate if necessary, and then on the patron who ordered it. Except that only applies to the simplest of simple dishes. Pretty soon you’ll find yourself cooking food, filling glasses, toasting toast, and much more.

The Good

Burger Shop 2 is deceptively deep. New food items are added before every stage (you get to choose which ones), along with boosts and other features.

Foods need to be prepared in a variety of ways, whether in the oven, from the ice cream machine, out of the fryer, or whatever. There are toppings, too, such as butter on toast or sprinkles on ice creams, all of which makes for a dizzying number of considerations to juggle.

Over time you’ll learn to make the most of the tools at your disposal. You’ll fill fries cartons and soda glasses even when there are none on order, keep the oven working to have steak, ham, and fish ready to go, and you’ll make use of the extra place at the end of the conveyor belt, which allows you to keep one item aside.

You’ll also learn to serve your customers tactically, giving them their meals in parts rather than all at once, so that you can spread your attention equally among your impatient patrons.

The game contains different customer types with different levels of patience and different requirements in terms of the food they like to eat and how many dishes they’re going to order. Learning to identify these customer types on sight is essential if you want to maximize​ your efficiency.

It’s a tough challenge, even in the tutorial stages, but fortunately Burger Shop 2 gives you boosts in the form of lollipops that you can dish out to prevent angry customers from leaving, dog biscuits that you can give to certain customers to make them happier (and thus more generous), and even a little hovering robot called BurgerBot, whom you can deploy to fill an order for you whenever his energy bar is full.

The Bad

Burger Shop 2 isn’t getting any awards for presentation. The graphics could easily belong to a game from 2005, and during gameplay it can be difficult to connect with particular food items because they’re so small on the screen.

It can be frustrating, too. If you make a mistake you can’t simply remove the errant food item from the plate - you need to tip the whole lot into the waste disposal. In cases where cooked food is involved, this can set you back a fatal amount, for reasons that don’t feel intuitively fair. After all, you wouldn’t be expected to start from scratch in real life. Games are supposed to be more forgiving, not less.

The Verdict

Whether or not you played the first Burger Shop, if you’re a fan of casual time-management games like Diner Dash and Cook, Serve, Delicious! you’ll gobble this up. Burger Shop 2 may not be the slickest game of its type, but it has a fun story and a surprising amount of depth and challenge.

8.0

OVERALL

Replayability 8.4

Game Controls 8.1

Sound/Music 8

Gameplay 8.2

Graphics 7.3

FREE

Burger Shop 2

GoBit, Inc.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews

Safe Lock Takes Your Photo Privacy and Security to the Next Level

November 13, 2018 by RSS Feed

Source link:https://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2018/11/safe-lock-iphone-app/