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Avatar for Sarah Guarino

Sarah Guarino

I have been using Apple products for over ten years.  My first Mac was a 14″ Late 2004 iBook with a 1.33 GHz Power PC processor, 60 GB hard drive, and 512 MB of RAM.  Now, I write and work on a 15″ Mid 2010 MacBook Pro with dual core 2.4 GHz i5 processors, 500 GB hard drive and 8 GB of RAM.
I currently have a 16 GB iPhone 4S, a 32 GB iPad 2 Wifi Model, a third-generation Apple TV, a 8 GB fourth-generation iPod Touch, a fourth-generation iPod shuffle, a seventh-generation iPod Nano, and a (rare!) @mac.com email address.
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Crowdfunding Roundup: smart clothing, collapsable universal cable, & more

crowdfunding roundup

Crowdfunding campaigns from sites like Kickstart and Indiegogo are great ways to support cool projects, but it can be difficult sometimes find the gems at times. Rather than make you sift through all of these projects, we’re tracking down the best or most notable crowdfunding projects from around the web and delivering them to you in a simple roundup. If there’s a project that you’ve backed – or even a project that you founded – be sure to leave a link below so it can be considered for the next roundup.


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How-To: Safely backup and update iOS on your iPhone, iPad, & iPod touch

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iOS 9.3

With Apple’s Special Event being live tomorrow, and with iOS 9.3 most likely being released shortly after, it’s worth taking a look at how you should prepare your device for the feature-packed update. Before installing the update, it is recommended that you have a backup of your data. This tutorial is going to walk you through backing up your iOS device and how to perform a software update when available.


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Review: Zand, the stand that makes using the iPad at a desk comfortable

iQuinx Zand Adhesive

The Zand is a desktop stand designed to be used with the iPad. It is constructed out of brushed aluminum. To use the stand, there’s no adhesives, clamps or hooks used to make the device stick to it. Instead it uses nanoparticle adsorption to keep the iPad in place.

iQuinx Zand

The base of the stand lifts the iPad a couple of inches off of the desk, so that it sits slightly higher at eye level, which makes it easy to see. The base mimics the look and feel (texture wise, obviously it’s a lot lighter at 8.5 oz) of the base of the iMac.

comparison of Zand and iMac

Just like the base of the iMac, there’s a hole on the back for the Lightning cable. Most of the time, I used the Zand in the upright mode so I was able to use Duet Display (review here) on my iPad mini and MacBook Air.

Macbook Air with Zand using Duet Display

While using the iPad on the Zand, at first I was skeptical about how well the iPad would stay on.


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Opinion: Going watchless to see how the Apple Watch really impacts me

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I’ve had my Apple Watch since the day it launched on April 24th and have been wearing it everyday since. This was probably the longest I’ve had a wearable without having any hardware issues. Then my speaker blew out first thing randomly one morning…

Yes, I did all the trouble shooting steps one should do before officially being upset and frustrated: checking the volume under settings, turning the iPhone and Apple Watch off and on, and even erasing the Apple Watch setting it back to factory settings and setting it up as a new Apple Watch, even though I had a backup. After testing the sound by using timers, and trying to make phone calls from my watch, none of that worked. This meant I had a few days to really see how going without the Apple Watch would actually impact me.


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iOS 9 How-To: Put your iPhone in Low Power Mode & extend your battery life

iOS 9 battery

Have you ever wondered how much of your battery is being used? Or been in a quick pinch and you’re desperate to make your device last the whole day? Even though it’s at 18% and you won’t be able to access a charger for several hours?  Or have you ever wondered why sometimes when you use certain apps your battery dramatically drains? New in the iOS 9 Settings application is the ability to put your device in Low Power Mode.


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iOS 9 How-To: Quickly delete multiple images in Messages to free up space without losing your conversations

Messages iOS iPhone iPad iOS 9 16-9

When you send pictures, videos, audio messages and other attachments in Messages on iPhone and iPad, it stays on the device by default taking up memory. For a lot of people, Messages is the second biggest app on their device in terms of storage, with Photos often being the biggest, because of the fact that the photos they share from Photos actually gets stored twice on the device: within Photos and within Messages. In this How-To article, I’m going to discuss how to delete multiple images in Messages very quickly.


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Apple offers new accessory bundles w/ deep discounts for the creative artist

Screen Shot 2015-11-11 at 8.04.19 PM

New for the holiday season, Apple is offering some bundles for the photographer and videographer. The iPhones have a great camera, as demonstrated by the Shot on iPhone 6 campaign and Apple is certainly looking to capitalize on these capabilities. With these bundles, they are making it easier for a hobbyist or a professional to get started with accessories.


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iOS 9 How-To: Access your iTunes library using Home Sharing

Screen Shot 2015-09-17 at 7.58.53 PM

With the launch of iOS 8.4 earlier this summer, Apple removed support for Home Sharing, prompting the users to voice their dissatisfaction with the company’s decision. Eddy Cue then revealed that Home Sharing support would return with iOS 9, and sure enough, it did. The process for using it is similar to what it has always been, but let’s go through the steps…


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Getting Ready for iOS 9: How to backup your device and set up the new iPhone & iPad OS

iOS 9 preview

With iOS 9 launching later today, it’s worth taking a look at how you should prepare your device for the new operating system. Before installing the update, it is recommended that you have a backup of your data. This how-to is going to walk you through backing up your iOS 8 device and transitioning it over to iOS 9:


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Apple Watch How-To: Control and use the Stopwatch app

Apple Watch Stopwatch

Apple Watch comes with a stopwatch app built into it, which saves you time from grabbing your iPhone, opening up the Clock app and pressing the Stopwatch tab.

There are several different ways to open up Stopwatch on the Apple Watch. You can open the app by tapping on the orange icon with a complete white circle on the home screen, use Siri to open Stopwatch by pressing and holding on the Digital Crown, hands free by saying “Hey Siri open Stopwatch,” or depending on which watch face you are using from the Stopwatch complication on the watch.

When you first open up the Stopwatch, you see the Analog view.

Apple Watch Analog Stopwatch

Pressing the green circle in the corner will start the stopwatch. (Note the green circle will be in a different place depending on which hand you wear the Apple Watch as well which side the Digital Crown is on). The red circle stops the stopwatch and pressing the green circle resumes it. Pressing the white circle starts a lap. In the Analog view, swiping up from the bottom of the display gives a detailed view of the information, showing the break down of the laps.

There are different views of the Stopwatch that can be displayed. Switching between the different views requires you to press firmly on the screen for about a second until you feel the haptic feedback. Force Touching the display presents an additional three different views for the Stopwatch: Digital, Graph and Hybrid. Digital displays the stopwatch in a numerical view. Graph conveys how long each lap took on a graph. The last view, Hybrid combines the three different views Analog, Digital and Graph into one stopwatch.

When you are using the Stopwatch on the Apple Watch, the information doesn’t sync to the iPhone, nor does starting the Stopwatch on the iPhone allow you to continue and put laps from the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch How-To: Use Maps for navigation and directions

Apple Watch comes with Apple Maps, which allows you to find your current location, pan and zoom around on the area, search the map, get information about a location, call a location, get directions, and more. One of the benefits of having Maps on the watch is that it allows you to get directions without needing to pull out your iPhone, especially if you happen to be lost or in a sketchy neighborhood. In this how-to article, we will discuss how to use Apple Maps on the Apple Watch.


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Apple Watch How-To: Take and share screenshots from your Apple Watch

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Apple Watch Screenshot

Now that you have your Apple Watch, you might be curious to know how to take a screenshot from your your new device. The process is a little different from taking screenshots on an iPhone or iPad and the photos aren’t automatically saved to the watch, but you may want to screenshot fitness and activity achievements or show friends your customized Apple Watch face. In this how-to article I will quickly discuss how to take a screenshot on your Apple Watch and how you can make the process easier.


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Apple details the technology and functionality behind Apple Watch’s heart rate monitor

watch-heart-rate-monitor-hero

Ahead of the Apple Watch making its way onto the wrists of consumers, Apple has published a new support page detailing the device’s heart rate monitor. As we know, the Apple Watch includes a heart rate reader to measure a person’s intensity during workouts.

With knowledge of this intensity data, the Watch is able to more accurately measure the amount of calories a person burns per day. Additionally, a user can check their heart rate at any time using a feature known as the Heart Rate Glance. But beyond these two user functions, this new support document details the technologies behind the hardware as well as some little known software features.

According to the document, the Apple Watch will silently measure your heart rate every 10 minutes. This data will be stored in the iOS 8 Health application for later viewing and integration with third-party health tracking applications and hardware.


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iOS 8.3 How-to: Type like a Vulcan

Spock_vulcan-salute

With Apple’s release of iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3, there are now over 300 new emojis including diversity options. Apple uses the unicode emoji set, which includes Spock’s Vulcan salute. However, Apple hasn’t added the Vulcan salute — or “raised hand with fingers separated between the ring and the middle finger” symbol as it’s officially named — to the emoji keyboard, so you cannot type it without creating a workaround. There is a trick, however, that can be done by creating a keyboard shortcut.

Open up this tweet on your iOS device. Then you are going to copy the emoticon by tapping and holding on it. Then press Copy.

Copy Vulcan salute

Since we copied Vulcan salute emoji, we can now create the text shortcut. Open up Settings, and then select General.

iOS 8 Settings app

Scroll down and select Keyboard.

iOS 8 Settings Keyboard Selection

Then select Shortcuts.

iOS 8 Keyboard Settings


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OS X Yosemite How-To: Move your iPhoto or Aperture library to Photos

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Photos MacApple’s latest app Photos is now available for free as part of OS X 10.10.3 for Mac. The new app is the future of photo management from Apple with support for iCloud Photo Library, burst photos, slow-mo and time lapse videos, and more. Here’s how to migrate your photo library to the new Photos app from iPhoto or Aperture, both of which will no longer receive support for software updates going forward:


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iOS 8.3 How-to: Report iMessages as junk

iMessage Spam example

If you use iMessage, it’s possible to receive junk messages due to the fact that spammers only need the email address associated with your Apple ID. You’ve always been able to report spam messages to Apple by sending an email containing a screenshot of the spam, the phone number or email address of the spammer, and the date and time it was sent. But let’s face it, most of us probably didn’t bother reporting the spam or going through that much trouble to do so. With iOS 7, Apple added the ability to block numbers, which helped to some extent. Now with today’s update of iOS 8.3, however, the process of reporting spam received through iMessage has become even easier. iOS 8.3 also added the ability to organize messages between Unknown Senders and senders already in your contacts.


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How-To: Upload your photos into iCloud Photo Library from your iOS device and iCloud.com

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Photos preview at WWDC 2014

Apple announced Photos last year during the WWDC. The Photos app along with iCloud Photo Library will allow you to store all of your photos in the cloud with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, provided you upgrade your iCloud storage space to accommodate your iCloud Photo Library. Photos will end up replacing Aperture and iPhoto. You can upload your pictures to iCloud Photo Library via iCloud.com. Currently this feature is in a public beta and this how-to article will discuss how to get a head start and upload your pictures to iCloud Photo Library before Photos becomes available for the Mac to the public.


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Review: Inateck’s felt sleeve for the iPad mini

Inateck sleeve for iPad Mini

iPad mini sleeves and bags are nearly a commodity today, with a huge selection of styles and options available for purchase online and offline. Even though the iPad mini is light weight and durable, a carrying case is still essential for any kind of travel for many people. I’ve been using Inateck’s felt sleeve for the iPad mini for the past few weeks and it is a functional light way to protect the 7.9-inch iPad.


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iOS 8 How-To: Use Siri to search the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store

app store hero flat modern

Sometimes searching the App Store can be an overwhelming task. You might already know what you want to download, or other times you might get distracted when you open the store and forget why you were there, and typing in what you want to download is old fashioned now. With iOS 8, you can use Siri to search the App Store, iTunes Store, iBooks Store, and more for you. It’s all a matter of asking Siri with the right commands.

Press down and hold on the home button for two seconds for Siri to appear.

Siri what can I help you with

For example you can say something like, “Search the App Store for sports apps,” and Siri will open up the App Store and bring you to the search results of sports.


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