Control Center in iOS

Control center is one of the most useful features in iOS. Its purpose is to give  you easy access to system settings that you may need to access quickly or easily from anywhere on your iPhone or iPad.

You access control center by swiping up with one finger on the bottom of the screen. You can do this in almost any app and even the lock screen, so long as your settings (settings > control center) has both "access within apps" and access on lock screen" set to on.

The top row in control center are all settings that can either be turned off, or on by tapping on them. When an icon is black on white that setting is turned on, when it is black on gray it is turned off. You have access here to Air Plane mode, Wifi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and Lock Screen Rotation.

Down from there you have a brightness slider control. This allows you to quickly adjust the level of the backlight on you device. Just slide right to make it more bright and left to make it less.

The next section contains the standard audio controls: Play/Pause, volume and fifteen second skips backwards and forwards.

Then we get the airplay and air drop controls. However these controls only appear if they are turned on and can be used. For example if you had wifi off they would not show up because they require wifi to function. Similarly if there is no device around to connect to they will not show up.

The final section of control center contains a row of quick access apps. You cannot control which apps appear here unfortunately so hopefully you like the selection that Apple has chosen. You can use the flashlight, the timer, the calculator, and the camera. Personally I think this is a useful collection, and I use control center to access all of them regularly, except for the timer.

Using control center can help you save a lot of time leaving apps or unlocking the phone to go to the settings app when something just needs to be done quickly. I hope you find these tips helpful, and remember, live better.

Using Dvorak keyboard layout in iOS 8

As most of you know I have been waiting for many a moon for a Dvorak keyboard on iOS. I think that layout is far better then QWERTY. As a side note I had to type on a QWERTY a couple days ago and my wrists quickly started hurting. If you have hand trouble you may want to consider switching over to Dvorak too.

Well, the long awaited day has finally arrived and a system wide Dvorak keyboard is here! In fact it has been possible ever since iOS 8 came out in September. So why the long wait in getting the good news to you? Two reasons. First, nobody immediately came out with a Dvorak keyboard, much to my chagrin. Second, by the team keyboards started coming out school had heated up considerably and I had to put the blog on the back burner for a month or so.

But now it is time. In the past couple months quite a few 3rd party keyboards with Dvorak layouts have slipped into the App Store. I will tell you about two of them here: Fleksy and Dvorak + Colemak Keyboards.


Fleksy
Price: 99¢
Stars: 2

Fleksy came out with the launch of iOS 8, but they did not support Dvorak as a layout right away, even though they already did on Android. Many people really like the Fleksy keyboard and say they can type quickly on it, I cannot. I find the way they do predictive typing to be odd and unwieldy. When they finally did ad the Dvorak layout I found that the keys did not line up as you would expect them to if you were use to typing on a regular Dvorak keyboard.

You can see this in the image below. The entire top row is not aligned where it should be, I soon found out that for some odd reason this is the case in many Dvorak layouts on iOS currently. This makes it hard to type because the keys are not where you would expect them to be.

Fleksy has lots of language layouts besides Dvorak, and it has a lot of customizability in terms of color and size. It also has special swipe gestures for certain functions. My main purpose here though is to review it as a Dvorak keyboard and so I won't go into everything that it does.

Fleksy requires you to give it "full access" under keyboard preferences in order to change to any layout other than English QWERTY. Usually keyboards need full access so that they can do predictive typing, the only problem is that in order to do that they have to collect your keystroke data. This has caused a lot of controversy around the internet because it could potentially be logging things like passwords and credit card numbers. Almost all 3rd party keyboards will ask for full access, it is not just Fleksy.


Dvorak + Colemak Keyboards
Price: 99¢
Stars: 4

Right off the bat this keyboard is looking better because the keys are in the correct locations for anyone use to a standard Dvorak layout. This allows there to be punctuation on the main keyboard, just where it should be. It shouldn't take long for those people to become familiar typing on this keyboard.

This keyboard does lack a lot of the bells and whistles that Fleksy and many other keyboards have, but that doesn't bother me. I don't need fancy color themes or size options I just need something functional.

One thing it is lacking though that is a problem though is an Emoji keyboard. I use emoji a lot when tweeting or texting, so this is a bit of deal breaker for me as far as everyday use goes.

Dvorak + Colemak Keyboards does no require full access to use, so your keystrokes are not logged. You will have to enable full access if you want keyboard clicks however because this is the only way that Apple will allow them to get access to the speakers.


Where I am now
Still using the standard Apple QWERTY onscreen keyboard. Why? Because, and this is nothing the app producers have control over, but 3rd party keyboards have been spotty across the board on iOS 8. Perhaps Apple was not really ready for them, but no matter which one you use it is likely to be buggy. They are sluggish and sometimes (often) will disappear completely. This makes it really unviable to use a 3rd party option as your default keyboard.

So for now, even though I was waiting for this day for so long, I am still primarily using the default keyboard. I hope that Apple will make significant improvements to 3rd party integration in the future, or better yet just make Dvorak part of the standard language package.

Well I hope you have found this post helpful, even if a little discouraging :( If you have found a keyboard (Dvorak or otherwise) that you like to use on iOS please let us know about it in the comments.


Disclosure: Archagon provided me with a free copy of Dvorak + Colemak keyboards to review. I never recommend anything on my blog though that I have not tried myself and that I approve of.

How to Screencast from an iPad Using QuickTime

With the introduction of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite has come a little heralded, but incredibly important, new ability to make an iPad or iPhone screencast on a Mac with no third party software. In the video below I explain how to do this:



Requirements:
iOS Device using lightning connector running 8.0 or later
Macintosh computer running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or later
Lightning cable to connect them

Why is this so important? Well it means it will be much easier for me to make tutorials for you guys. To do this before you needed a third party app, most of which were expensive. Now just with QuickTime I can make high quality examples for you.

This will also make it possible for people to essentially share their iPad screen if they use QuickTime and a conferencing service like Google Hangout. Think how helpful that will be in helping people who are having a problem (once I explain to them how to hook it up).

I am really excited about the possibilities here and I hope you are to. Have a great week and remember, live better.

How to delete apps on an iPad or iPhone

So you downloaded an app that looked cool, but it turned out to be pretty dumb or it crashed all the time, so you want to get rid of it. How do you do it?

The process is actually very simple:

1. Go to the home screen
2. Hold down on an app until they all start to wiggle and an "x" button appears in each corner
3. Tap the "x" button on the app you don't want
4. It will ask if you are sure? Choose yes. 
5. Taadaa! The app is now deleted :)

Be aware that when you delete an app all of its data stored on the device will be deleted as well, so make sure there isn't anything important inside of it before you do. Apps like gmail, Facebook, and Twitter all store their data on cloud servers far away so when you delete the apps you data is actually still there, that is why you can visit those sites in web browsers and see everything you could see from the app. 

Exceptions: the only exceptions are apps that come preinstalled on your iPhone or iPad from Apple (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Messages, iTunes, Weather, Tips, Safari, etc, etc). We call these the stock apps and you cannot delete them because Apple does not make that an option, mostly because many of them have functions necessary to your phone running correctly.

An alternative and more complicated way to do this is to go to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage. Then click on the app you want to delete, you will then be taken to a summary screen of that app where you will have an "Delete App" option.

The reason you may sometimes want to use this approach is because you might want to see which apps are hogging the most space on your iPhone or iPad. For example when I go I find that there are several graphic intensive games that hog my space I hardly if ever play them. If I were tight up for space I would know I could delete these and quickly get some back.

And there you have it, you can now delete apps from you iPad or iPhone. Hope you have a great weekend, and remember, live better. 

How to create keyboard shortcuts on an iPhone or iPad

Do you have to type the same thing over and over again? Maybe it's your username, maybe it's a question you get asked all the time, maybe it's your birth date, maybe it's a hashtag. Whatever it is, it can be super annoying to have to type out all the letters and words you need every time you need them. It is like having a typewriter all over again! (by the way there is an app for that if you really feel nostalgic about typewriters).

Fortunately there is a way to solve this problem and it is built directly into iOS, no app required. It is called keyboard shortcuts. Now this can be a little confusing because we normally think of keyboard shortcuts on the computer as being things like "cntrl-f" or "cmmd-z" to cause certain actions to occur. On iOS it is different. A keyboard short cut here means that you can type in a few code letters and iOS will ask if you want to replace them with some predetermined text.

Let's say that I have to type my consulting website's url all the time, and I don't want to do that anymore, so I make the shortcut bcom expand to the text bendnielsen.com. I show how to do this in the gif below:

Then every time I am typing and I need to put in my url I can save time by just typing out bcom, my iOS device will then suggest bendnielsen.com in the same way that it does with autocorrect. Isn't that awesome? Notice in the gif below how it follows the capitalization of what you actually type, so you want to watch out for that.

And that is really all their is to it. You can add as many of these as you want, and they can even be quite long, so you could put a whole email template in here if you chose and get it all typed with just a few letters. Be sure to make you shortcuts something that you wouldn't normally type naturally so you don't accidentally trigger them.

There you have it. Go create some keyboard shortcuts to make your life easier, and remember, live better.

How to use iCloud Keychain and find your saved passwords

And now we are going to talk once again about a very useful, but often not understood, function of the iPhone and iPad: iCloud Keychain.

What is it?
iCloud Keychain is Apple's built in password generator and manager. If you create a new account on a website you will often see when you get the password step the option for a long and complex auto generated secure password.

This is iCloud Keychain trying to help you out. Instead of using the same password that you have used for everything since 1998, it wants you to use a secure password that nobody could guess because it is randomly generated. The only problem with a password that nobody can guess is that you cannot remember it either, but that is ok because when ever you get the website Safari will just autofill the password for you.

This way you can have a different password for every website without having to try and remember them.

How to Setup an iPhone or iPad (iOS 8)

So you have a fancy new iPhone or iPad with iOS 8 and you are all ready to set it up? Good that is what I am here to help you with.

Setting up any iOS device has become a fairly simple process, if you are able to follow Apple's steps completely when you first turn on your device. However if your wifi is not working, or you forget your Apple ID, or you don't have an Apple ID, the process can be a little trickier. And if you don't restore from an existing backup that can also make it a little more work, unless of course it is your first time using an iPhone or iPad.

First off the easiest way is to follow Apple's instructions when you first start up your iOS device, they will walk you through several grey screens. These screens will help you connect to your wifi network, set your iPad up with your Apple account, or get one if you don't have one, set up iCloud, and restore from an old back up if you have one, ask if you want to use Siri, etc.

It is important that you are able to connect to a wifi network at the beginning of set up otherwise most of the steps cannot happen as they require internet. If you do not have internet connection or are not sure what you want to do at a particular step in the process don't worry you can always go back and change things or get them set up in the settings later, that's what this post is for :)

Now at this point in the process I strongly suggest setting up an iCloud account if you don't already have one. This is especially useful if you use other apple products (i.e. iPhone, MacBook, iMac, or iPod touch) because it allows a lot of communication between them.

Not everything that needs to be setup on your iOS device is set up during the initial phases. To get those taken care of you will need to go to the settings app. Also if you had skip any steps at the beginning this is where you will go to change them.

It does not actually move
but this GIF was too cool to pass up

Take a good look at that icon, its your new best friend. The setting menu's will allow you to change almost anything on your iPhone that can be changed.

Now we will go through settings, if you missed a step during the initial start up you can take care of it here.

How to use iCloud Tabs in Safari

Many people are not utilizing one of the best productivity features on their iPhones and iPads simply because they either do not know it exists, or they don't know how to do it.

It is iCloud tabs, which lets you automatically open up tabs that had open on another device. And it is actually very simple to do. Lets say you have productivity pad open on your Mac, but you want to read it on you iPad, here is what that would look like.

You have this webpage open on your Mac...

...and now you do on your iPad too

Here is how you do it on an iPhone:

And a Mac:

As long as you are signed into the same iCloud account on all your devices you shouldn't have an problems.

To check on a Mac just go to: Apple menu> System Preferences > iCloud > account details. Also make sure that the Safari box is checked. As in the video below.

This makes it very easy to switch from one device to another without having to remember and type in complicated URLs. The only problem you will run into is with password protected sites, you will have to put in your login info again on the new device.

Well I hope that helps. It is a simple tip that can save you a lot of time. Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

Apple Watch, First Thoughts

As promised, I will now give my initial thoughts on the Apple Watch that Apple announced a few days ago. First let me just say that if you haven't gone and watched the video of the Watch it is worth it just so you can see the bands snap closed. Apple has such a great way of presenting a product, if they made a garbage can it would have a cooler video than most luxury cars.

It is beautiful
A lot of people have said and are going to say, "its just strapping a screen onto your wrist." And that is true, in many ways it is, but only Apple could take that concept from nerdy to fashionable. All smartwatches, beyond basic fitness trackers, are going to be a screen on you wrist, but nobody has made one that looks so nice as Apple's does.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Pebble Steel and I am totally convinced that it is the best looking smartwatch on the market right now, but let's face it, it isn't 14 karat gold. That being said I will not be throwing my Pebble out any time soon.

The bands
It is a testament to Apple's design prowess that the bands on the Watch are one of the things I am most impressed with. I was telling some friends the other day; leave it to Apple to take an experience as bad as changing your watch band and make it fun.

The bands will be easily switched by pressing a release on the bottom of the Watch, no need to go to jeweler to remove pins. This will mean people can easily have multiple bands to switch out, but it also has a more practical purpose for some people, namely left-handers. The switchable bands me that left-handers, most of whom wear their watches on the right hand, can easily swap out the two sides of the band to orient the watch correctly on their wrist with the crown the correct spot for left-handed operation.

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, First Thoughts

Alright, now that there has been a couple days for the news to settle and the hands-on reports are out, I wanted to give my non-hands-on impressions of the new iPhones.

I like them

No surprises there, right? I normally like what Apple puts out and once again I think they have made some fantastic new products this year.

iPhone 6 and 6 plus
I am admittedly a phablet hater. I think they look dumb when people use them and that the reside in a space that does not need to be filled. So I don't foresee myself ever owning a 6 plus. Even the 6 might be a little big for me, that remains to be seen until I hold one in my own hands in a few weeks.

One thing I would like to note is that Apple took their sweet time making a bigger phone because they were unwilling to just jump on a bandwagon without thinking through the user experience first. They thought through things like screen resolution on a bigger screen, and one handed operation, and how the operating system would look different on it.

The screens look really good on both phones, but when you are watching on a screen that is lower resolution than the screen you are looking at it is hard to tell...

They both look like gorgeous pieces of design, they are amazingly thin and incredibly elegant from the pictures and videos. Of course if I were spinning in slow motion on a white background I might look elegant too... never mind I wouldn't.

The Letdown
The main thing that disappoints me about these phones is the camera. The fact that there hasn't been any major improvement since the 4s is hard to understand. Each year brings us an incremental improvement, and slow and steady wins the race I guess... But the iPhone is the most popular camera in the world so I would have thought they would want to do more. I was really hoping that with a protruding camera we would get an optical zoom finally, but alas it was not to be.

My feeling on this is that Apple probably has a better camera in the wings, but they are holding it as one of the major improvements for the 4s. They couldn't give everything to us at one time (then who would buy next year?). Regardless the optical zoom probably needs more development before it is ready.

The upshot of the camera staying the same is that I feel less reason to buy any new phone soon, the 4s still has essentially the same camera as the latest model, and it can update to the new operating system, so it should hold fine for now.

Apple Pay
The big benefit of the iPhone 6 and plus in my mind right now is Apple Pay. Why? Because as Tim Cook said, credit cards are old technology that is insecure and needs to be replaced. Is that a reason to run out and buy one? No, not yet. But we know that millions of people will buy these phones, and that means the can begin to take place. This is something that really nobody but Apple could do, and I am excited about it.

Will there be security problems with Apple Pay? Absolutely, and people will make a big deal out of them. That is why Apple is so brave to enter the space. The deal is that there will not be as many security problems as there are with credit and debit cards. Apple waited to do this until they had technology like touch ID in place to help make it more secure. This is in stark contrast to other companies who have ran helterskelter into the mobile payment space producing fractured products with low security and no vision.

Alright, that pretty much sums up my thoughts on these new phones (ok let's be honest, I could talk for hours about them, but those are the important things). I don't want to make this post to long so I am saving talking about Apple Watch for my next post. Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

Apple's September 9th event rumor roundup

Here we go again. Apple will be holding another event tomorrow. And everything currently points to it being a big one. From the fact that Apple is returning to the Flint Center where Steve Jobs first announced the iMac, to pictures of a huge "structure" they are constructing outside it, it seems September 9th will be a day Apple fans will remember.

Here is an image of the invitation that was sent out for the event:

Apple's invitations usually contain a hidden message, but it is almost impossible to pick it out until after the event. However it is worth noting that this invitation is significantly less colorful than last years when the iPhone 5C was announced.

Anyway, here are my predictions on some of the more popular rumors.

iPhone 6: yes we will see the iPhone 6, and I think that will likely be the name of it as well. All the models (if there is more than one) will ship with iOS 8 of course. I am hoping that the 16 GB option will disappear and that 32 GB will become the new starter. I also think the new phones will also come with a 64-bit A8 processor and a new M8 processor for movement tracking.

4 inch: I am doubting there will be a new 4 inch iPhone, but I do think the 5S will move down into the second tier spot and the 5C will move into the free spot, so there will still be options for those wanting a smaller screen.

4.7 inch: This model seems all but confirmed by rumors and photo leaks at this point. I would be very surprised not to see it. It also seems likely that it will be getting a sapphire screen which will make it much less likely to shatter.

5.5 inch: I hope we don't see this model, there have been a few leaks indicating it, but I really hate phablets, and so my personal side is causing me to say no on this one. It just seems to big to the point that it would be filling the same spot the iPad mini already does.

iPhone and iPad tip: How to add the Smiley Face (Emoji) Keyboard

Have you always wanted to be able to get all those smiley faces and other special characters on your iPhone and iPad? These can help you to express emotions in what are normally plain text situations. Getting them is simple once you know how to do it.

In order to get these characters you will need to install an extra keyboard onto your iPhone or iPad. If you speak a language other than English you are probably already familiar with how to do this, but for English speakers the Emoji keyboard is often the only one they ever add.

1. Go into your settings app.
2. Click "General"
3. Then scroll down to "Keyboard" and tap it
4. Then tap "Keyboards"
5. Then Add New Keyboard
6. You well then see a list of all the international keyboard in alphabetical order (except for English which is on top.
7. Scroll down to "Emoji" and tap it.

You are now done. Now whenever the onscreen keyboard opens up you will see the globe icon in the bottom left. If you click that it will switch to the Emoji keyboard.

Here is a Gif I made that shows you how. You might want to  for later.

Isn't that awesome! Now you can express all that emoji goodness. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. And remember, live better.

iPhone and iPad Tip: How To Close Apps

Here is your iOS tip for the week. Most people don't realize or even think about the fact that when they press the Home button on their iPhone or iPad the app that they leave continues running in the background of the devices operating system.

This is a good thing because it allows you to use multitasking to switch between apps without rebooting each app each time. This can be very useful feature if you need to copy and paste something into an email, or you need to a so quick calculations on the calculator, or any other number of reasons.

But if you use a lot of apps (like I do) you can end up having a lot of apps open in the background and that can slow down you iPhone's or iPad's processor. Every once in a while it is a good idea to close out all the apps, particularly if you are getting a lot of crashes or a lot of spinning wheels.

Here is how:
1. Double tap the Home button (meaning click it twice quickly).
2. The multitasking menu will open, you can swipe through all your open apps by swiping to the left.

3. Close out apps by swiping up on them. You can actually close up to 3 at a time by using three fingers.

And that is it! Your apps are now closed. You will want to do this from time to time just to keep things tidy. I would suggest about once a week or more if needed. Older devices will likely need it more often than newer devices.

Note for old devices: if you are running iOS 6 or earlier your screen will look different. When you double tap you will get a "tray" of app icons at the bottom of the screen. You will have to hold down on one of these until the icons wiggle and little red buttons appear in their corners. Click the buttons to close the apps.

I hope that helps things go a little smoother for you. If you have any iPad or iPhone questions you want answered please put them in the comments below. And remember, live better.

iPhone and iPad Tip: How To Quickly Scroll to the Top of a Page

Here is another quick tip that has been around for a while but many people forget about. When you are in an app and you scroll way down (this often happens in apps like Facebook and Pinterest) how do you get back to the top of the page quickly?

Double tap the status bar

Simple right? Whenever you want to just zip up to the top, tap twice on that status bar (the best place is normally right on the clock) and there you are. The screen shot below is of the Gospel Library app, which is an app I use in church a lot. I often need the double tap option in this case because I will end up way down a chapter of scripture and need to get back to the beginning.

Just double tap on the clock

And you jump straight to the top

And that is it. Another really simple tip that can help make things a little easier for you. Please leave you iPad and iPhone questions in the comments below so I can answer them in a future post. And let's all remember to live better.

iPhone and iPad Tip: Home Page Corner Tap

Here is a quick little tip that many people do not know about iOS.

Most people know that you navigate between home screens by swiping left or right as shown below:

But not everybody realizes that you can an also navigate between the home screens by tapping the corners directly above the dock as shown in yellow below:

It can take a little effort to use this navigation technique, but it can be useful for moving quickly between pages.

Hope you enjoyed that tip. If you have iPad or iPhone questions that you would like answered please comment below. Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

WWDC 2014 Keynote Recap

Alright, so as a follow up to yesterday let's talk about what we actually saw at Apple's WWDC keynote, and how it stacked up against what we were guessing.

iOS 8: Yep, we got it, just as everyone knew we would.

We also got the new health data tracking app, called simply Health not Healthbook, which will pair with many different health monitoring devices so long as developers use the new Healthkit SDK.

Notification center got some big and much needed bumps, including responding to notifications directly from them (Yeah!) and 3rd party widgets, which has been long in coming.

Sandboxing isn't going away, but for the first time ever apps are being allowed to talk to each other, through the security of iOS. This is part of what will make widgets possible for notifications, and it will also make possible my two dreams from the last post of having Pinterest integrated and having a Dvorak keyboard. Honestly this is probably what I am most excited about.

There are a ton of other new features in iOS 8 that we will be discussing as we get closer to the release this fall.

OSX 10.10: Yep, we got it too, and it is named for another California location: Yosemite. It will be free update just like Mavericks was and will have a lot of features to make it and iOS 8 work awesomely together. As Craig Federighi said it will be really handy. The biggest thing is that the two OSs will now have handoffs that will be seamless. Your devices will sense each other and you can pick up doing something on one, right where you left off on the other. This will even allow you to send emails and text messages from you computer, and be able to use your phone's hotspot with no configuration.

iCloud: as predicted iCloud got mentioned a whole bunch. The big news here is big advances in Photos and keeping them up to date on all devices. Along with that will come some new cheaper pricing on data for storing those photos and your other information. The opening tier (after the 5 gigs free) will be 20 gig for 99 cents a month.

Beats: Of course the deal to acquire Beats music got mentioned, via a cameo phone call with Dr. Dre. But as expected their were no product announcements around the new acquisition, it is just to soon, and apparently Dre hasn't been to new employee orientation yet.

Apple TV: zilch, nothing, nada. Complete and total silence on the Apple TV front, it was basically like it didn't even exist. So much for moving it from hobby status. Well I guess I should be glad I didn't hold out for a new one. I did watch the keynote on my Apple TV 3rd gen, so I guess that counts for something.

Home Automation System: Sort of. Apple did not introduce any hardware for your home. But they did introduce the HomeKit SDK for developers to unite home automation into a seamless iOS experience as they build products. I hope this SDK will make home automation a lot better and less fractured.

iWatch: Nope, just as predicted, the fabled iWatch is still just a fable.

Alright, those are just the answers to the question from yesterday, there were a lot of other reveals and some really exciting announcements. Mostly the excitement is for developers right now, and that excitement will come to consumers in the fall when we start to see what devs have built with this new stuff.

You will of course see a lot of the online press talking Apple down in the next few days because they didn't release new hardware, but that is silly because this is the developer's conference, it was never suppose to be about hardware. The really big news, I am sure, was a new programming language. But that is hard for most of us to get excited about. In short, Apple stayed true here to the audience they invited, and they were kind enough to let the rest of us look in.

WWDC 2014 Rumor Roundup

Aright folks, today is the day. At 11:00 MDT (no one ever puts up Mountain time, but I live here so I will) Apple will be holding the WWDC keynote. You should be able to watch the keynote live streamed to any Apple device. You can follow me on twitter for live updates during the event.

I am going to go over a bunch of the major rumors here, but before I do I want to make sure everyone is clear on what WWDC is, it is Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference. The main focus of the event (which goes from the 2nd to the 6th) is on Developers who produce things for Apple's products. So while most of us who are Consumers are looking for new products to be revealed at the keynote today (because we love buying more from Apple) the focus of the event is really on software that will be released later this year. After all the tagline for the event is: "write the code, change the world"

Alright, so that being said let's go over what might be announced today.

iOS 8: If there is one guarantee for this year's WWDC it is that iOS 8 will be announced. This is the traditional location for iOS announcements so that developers can prepare for their launches in the fall. We have already seen a banner up at WWDC displaying the 8.

While a new iPhone or iPad is almost certainly not going to be announced at this event, iOS 8 will most likely give us clues into the next generations capabilities.

Rumors for iOS 8 include a new health oriented app called Healthbook, more communication between apps (i.e. less sandboxing), the killing of the game center app, a redesign of notifications, and improvements to the Apple Maps app.

In addition I am holding out hope for two thing that seem small but would make a big difference for me: a Dvorak keyboard option, and Pinterest integration. Neither of these are likely to happen though.

OS X 10.10: Another near certainty is the next version of the Mac operating system. There don't seem to be any big rumors about it though. It will likely be named after another location in California and be a free update through the app store.

iCloud: You can expect to hear something about iCloud during the keynote, and hopefully some big improvements. Wouldn't it be nice if they also bumped the amount of storage you get for free?

Beats: Apple would be remiss if they did not mention their acquisition of the music company at a conference just days after happened. But the news is still to new for me to expect any product announcements based on it.

Apple TV: The 4th gen Apple TV has been rumored for over a year now, so let's hope we see in today. Many rumors include adding 3rd party apps to the system, adding Siri control, getting a new remote, adding a game controller, and ousting cable companies with an al la carte video streaming service. We shall see if any of the materialize. Some seem more likely than others.

Home Automation System: This was the late comer to the rumor party. The concept is that Apple will be entering the internet of things with a system to automate your home from your iPhone. While I think that Apple is the only company that could make a good home automation system at this point, I doubt we will see this today. The rumor was turned down a little bit to instead of being a system form Apple being a program for developers to submit their products to, similar to the "made for iPhone" sticker.

iWatch: As much as I really want to see this product come to life, I doubt we are going to see it today. That being said if Apple want's to release it this year and have apps available for it, they will have to release information on it today. I would love to see this happen, but it still seems unlikely at this point.

Alright, I think those are the major rumors at this point. If I missed any put them in the comments below. Don't forget to follow me @halduauthor for real time reactions.

ToDo List Quest: Apple's stock Reminders app

Reminders is the stock todo list app that comes built into every iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. Most of apples stock applications get a lot of use because they are the default. Even though they are often more bare featured than counterparts in the app store they have the convenience of already being on the device (and you can't delete them) and of being integrated into the operating system.

Apple's Reminders App
is the standard task app

It takes time and effort to go digging through the app store to find a different app to replace one that is already on the phone. For this reason I would guess that Reminders is the most widely used todo list app on iOS devices. Let's look at some of its main advantages:

Siri:
Apple's artificially intelligent assistant gets a lot of flak, so this may not seem like a huge feature. But, I have heard many people say that Reminders is one of the primary features they use Siri for. It saves you having to in put all the details of you todos when you can just speak them to Siri in natural language.

Because Reminders is built into the operating system it is the only todo list app that can boast native integration with Siri, although some apps like Remember the Milk have found a workaround. Siri can take a lot of the work out of actually getting your tasks into the system, and she can also alert you when a task needs to be done.

Sync:
Reminders has built in iCloud sync across all of your apple devices and the iCloud web app. The sync works seamlessly and is completely free, unlike an app like Remember the Milk which will give you only one sync per day with a free account. Reminders also provides you with the option of sharing your list with a family member or coworker so you can stay on the same virtual page for projects and tasks.

The only email integration that Reminders has is the ability to drag and drop emails from the stock Mail app on a Mac into the Mac Reminders app to create a new reminder with that email.

Also Reminders has full integration with the apps Drafts, again the is because it is built into the operating system. This allows you to quickly create individual reminders or lists directly from the Drafts app, something that requires workarounds for most other apps.

Simple:
The Reminders app is an easy app to use. It is well designed by apple to be a simple list app that helps people accomplish there tasks without getting in the way. It is a nice looking app that is clean and uncluttered. People will not have trouble learning how to use it or be overwhelmed by its features.

Conclusion:
The status quo is always a strong argument, so for many people Reminders may prove exactly what they need for task management. That is not the case for me. While it has many good features listed above I find the lack of more advanced options like tagging to be to be to important right now. Although I have to say I am surprised at how well Reminders did on my criteria comparison, I am not ready to switch over to it yet. I am going to continue the quest to see if I can find something to help me live better.

If you use the Reminders app and have any thoughts suggestions or questions please leave them in the comments below. For those who are interested in using Reminders with GTD I found this guide from SimplicityBliss.

This has been a post in the ToDo List Quest, if you would like to read the other articles please click here.

7 Ways to Spring Clean Your iPad

Well, it is that time of year again in the northern hemisphere where the birds are buzzing, the bees are singing... scratch that, reverse it. In any case, many people are going through their closets, garages, and cupboards (an aside, I remember the first time I realized that cupboard was a compound word; changed my life). They are throwing out junk, setting things aside for their summer yard sale (like android tablets and windows phones) and dusting in places that got missed all winter.

Its a great time of year. Spring cleaning originated because as the weather warmed windows could be opened, furniture and children could be moved outside, and the garage and yard were warm enough to work in (thus husbands also could get out of the way). Just because our iPads have nothing to do with the weather does not mean we can't use the opportunity of spring to clean them out. When their is a mental state already in place I say use it. Let's take advantage of our cleaning mood this spring to clean up our digital life.

Here are seven ways to go about spring cleaning your iPad. If you have others please comment or tweet them at me.


Camera Roll
Here is one of the great culprits of iOS clutter. We use the camera and camera roll for so much more than actual photography and photo organization that it becomes very messy.

• Delete all photos you don't need any more
• Transfer photos to computer for storage
• Set up albums to organize your photos

Apps
We love apps so much, and so many of them are free that we can end up with quite a collection of apps we never use. I know I am a big culprit of this. Try these tips to know which ones to delete.

• Go to settings > general > usage
• see which apps are taking up the most space and delete the large ones you never use
• see which apps have large "Documents and Data" files. Go into those apps and decide if some cached files can be deleted or cleared to free up space.
• Clear out all open apps, then don't clear any for a week
• At the end of the week go through and make a list of all the apps you opened. Delete apps that did not make the list.

Software Update
If you have been putting off updating to the latest version of your operating system Spring cleaning is a great time to do it. As of this writing the newest version is 7.1 and it should be fine for everyone to update to, except for jailbreakers.

App Updates
Does your App Store icon have a large number in a red circle on it because you always push off updating your apps? Sometimes there are good reasons to hold off on an update to a particular app, but many of us just forget to go in and do it, now is a good time to take care of that chore.

Permissions
Throughout the year you download lots of apps, and on first opening a lot of those apps ask for permission to do certain things. Spring cleaning is a great time to go back and see what you have given permission for and take it away from apps that don't need it.



Go to settings > privacy and you will find:

•  Location Services
• Contacts
• Calendars
• Reminders
• Photos
• Bluetooth Sharing
• Microphone
• Twitter
• Facebook

Each of these represents a feature of iOS that an app can ask for access to. None of these can be accessed without your express permission, and a list of all the apps that have asked for access can be found by clicking on each item.

Go through each of these as part of your spring cleaning an make sure they all actually need permission for what they have asked for.

App Folders
If you don't use app folders to organize your apps, spring cleaning is a great time to go a head and make some. Here is how.
If you do already use app folders go through them and make sure that apps are in the best place where it will be easiest to find them.

Notes
Chances are that just like your photos app your notes app is full of small files that you created for specific reasons that are no longer relevant or needed. Go through and delete everything you don't need. Notes you do need for later should probably be moved to a more permanent location.

And that's it! Once you have walked through these seven steps I think you will feel much better about your iOS organization and your devices will likely be much cleaner and have more space. If you have other tips for spring cleaning your iPad please leave them in the comments below or tweet them to @halduauthor.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

iOS 7.1

A couple days ago iOS 7.1 was released, and it seems to have been a long time coming. Normally the jailbreakers wait to release until at least the .1 version comes out so that the jailbreak won't be immeadiatly broken, but 7.1 has taken so long that the jailbreak has actually been out for quite a while now.

There is nothing to throw a party about in iOS 7, but it is a nice update for some. Most of the updates had no direct effect on me as they tendend to be for features I don't have (like Car Play) or don't use (like Siri's Mandarain voice). Things are suppose to run faster now, but I can't really say that I noticed, but of course I did not notice things running slow prior to the update so some of these will be bigger for those who were experiencing problems before.

Anyway, here is a list, tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

CarPlay

• iOS experience designed for the car
• Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled vehicle
• Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages, and 3rd-party audio apps
• Control with Siri and the car's touchscreen, knobs, and buttons

• Siri
• Manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak and releasing it when you're done as an alternative to letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking
• New, more natural sounding male and female voices for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English, and Japanese
• iTunes Radio
• Search field above Featured Stations to easily create stations based on your favorite artist or song
• Buy albums with the tap of a button from Now Playing
• Subscribe to iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free
• Calendar
• Option to display events in month view
• Country specific holidays automatically added for many countries
• Accessibility
• Bold font option now includes the keyboard, calculator, and many icon glyphs
• Reduce Motion option now includes Weather, Messages, and multitasking UI animations
• New options to display button shapes, darken app colors, and reduce white point
• New Camera setting to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s
• iCloud Keychain support in additional countries
• FaceTime call notifications are automatically cleared when you answer a call on another device
• Fixes a bug that could occasionally cause a home screen crash
• Improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition
• Improved performance for iPhone 4
• Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000
• Continued user interface refinements

Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.