Serenity was formerly the Managing Editor at iMore, and now works for Apple. She's been talking, writing about, and tinkering with Apple products since she was old enough to double-click. In her spare time, she sketches, sings, and in her secret superhero life, plays roller derby. Follow her on Twitter @settern.
I use Apple's Voice Memos app for a variety of tasks — recording notes for work; strange foley sounds that might work well for The Incomparable's radio show; or, more recently, short song sketches or covers. When I want to get those off my iPhone, I've got a few different options: It all depends on what computer I'm using. On your primary computer: Use iTunes If you want to send...
As I mentioned on the iMore Show this week, I'm thrilled that Threes won Apple's Best Game of the Year. It's been one of my favorite idle-hands games throughout 2014, and I'm very glad to see it get time in the spotlight — hopefully this will once and for all cement its place above 2048 (a less-charming Threes clone that overtook the original in popularity due to its free download)....
Happy Monday, iMore! And as we're getting back into the swing of things, it seems only natural to chat about that time-honored start-of-the-week occurence: social media procrastination. You may be putting off an email, or trying to figure out a way to stay conscious in a meeting, or simply out of tasks to do at work. Whatever the case, we inevitably fill some of our time looking at...
Are you having trouble opening an app from an unidentified developer? Here's how to override your Mac's security.
I don't use Facebook very often — it's a place for me to keep in touch with Canadian cousins and roller derby folk, and that's about it. As such, what I'm about to say seems a bit crazy: I not only found Casetify on Facebook, but through a Facebook ad. In fact, the accessory-maker may win the award for the first Facebook ad I've ever clicked on. I wish I could say that the copy was...
A few years ago, at Macworld Expo, my former colleagues and I stumbled upon a neat little Mac utility called Boom. The premise was simple: Your laptop's speakers don't always have the oomph you need when playing back music or video; Boom artificially boosts the sound levels to make everything sound just right. Boom 2, released Wednesday, improves upon that initial concept while...
Happy Thanksgiving weekend, America! While I'm happily eating my weight in turkey, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes, I'm also making plans in my head for the many, many holiday gifts I need to purchase for my friends, family, and internet buddies. As such, in honor of the shopping insanity to come, here are a few of my top gadget-and-geekery picks. We've also got lists from Rene,...
Time to break out the big ideas for watch-based computing: WatchKit, Apple's software development kit for creating apps for the Apple Watch, has arrived. You'll need an iOS developer account to start developing with WatchKit and dive into the nitty-gritty technical details, but if you're merely curious as to what WatchKit will let your favorite developers create, Apple was kind enough...
I've been building and editing ebooks for just over four years now. I started back in 2010 with Macworld when we were still hand-compiling HTML files; and though our process changed and simplified greatly over the years, we still needed multiple programs and long working hours to put everything together for multi-platform ebook releases. Enter Vellum. I got my first glimpse of the Mac...
We love AirDrop, which allows people to wirelessly share files between their Macs and iOS devices. But, as with Continuity's other features, pre-2012 Macs are feeling a bit left out. Sadly, there's no way to convince an older Mac to share a file with your iPhone or iPad, but you can transfer files between newer Macs and older Macs. Why can't my older Mac see my iPhone in AirDrop? If...
The games that shape you in your childhood tend to linger in your memory long after you finish playing them. I can't open an exploratory game like Gone Home or The Room without thinking of my first stumblings into Myst years before, insisting my dad not leave the room because I was too scared to go alone and too excited to not have someone to talk to. Playing Space Age stirs a very...
What do you get when you stick Pinterest, Flipboard, Twitter Cards, and the Wirecutter into a blender? I suspect the result might look something like Wildcard, the brainchild of former New York Times designer Khoi Vinh and the other folks behind Coopkanics. Wildcard, released Thursday, combines trending news with featured collections of goods and services to offer you a solution to all...
When it comes to gaming, in-app purchases are a tricky thing. Some games use Apple's mechanism to wrest more cash out of you to complete levels faster; others enrich the game experience with new costumes and player characters; others still use the in-app purchase to build off the original game. It's that last option that has come to Monument Valley, ustwo's brilliantly-constructed...
Apple's iCloud Photo Library service is currently in beta, and for good reason—it currently only allows you to sync images you've taken on your iOS devices, with a Mac app promised in early 2015. If you still want to get some of your Mac's iPhoto images into iCloud Photo Library before the Mac client's official release, however, there's a pretty easy new way: Just use the Upload button...
I got a bunch of requests from folks to explain how, exactly, I did those variable speed-up-slow-downs in my iPhone 6 camera video, so this week, we're taking a look at how you can use iMovie for iOS to do just that. As of iOS 8, iMovie for iOS received a whole bunch of speed controls beyond "sloooooow" and "super super chipmunk fast," and they're really simple to use. Step one:...
The Verge's Josh Lowensohn has recently been partaking in a time-honored Internet technology tradition—light trolling. His method of choice? AirDrop, Apple's wireless file-sharing technology that allows you to send just about anything to iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Each day I get on the train to make the half hour voyage into San Francisco for work, I am surrounded by people using...
Over at Macworld, Susie Ochs spent a few days using one of Pioneer's new after-market CarPlay systems with her iPhone. Her thoughts? CarPlay is cool, and if I was buying a car that had it, I would be stoked to use it—but I'm not going to upgrade the stereo that's in my 2006 Subaru to this aftermarket Pioneer system. For starters, CarPlay can't do anything my iPhone doesn't do...
Dan Frakes, formerly of Macworld, took some time on Monday to write up a giant compendium of iOS 8 tips, tricks, and hints that he's compiled over his months beta-testing the operating system. There's a lot of good stuff in there for people interested in Mail shortcuts, Siri, and Safari, but my personal favorite new trick—and one I hadn't heard about until now—is how to dim the screen...
Much as I would like to pretend that I have all the time in the world to keep my grey matter working at a collegiate level, that's not true. We all have jobs. Errands. Hobbies. I've made peace with the fact that I'll never crack open that 1200-page "Master Your French" textbook sitting on my bookshelf or drop thousands of dollars on graduate studies; instead, I've taken to using third-...
Zip files—that is, single-file bundles that contain multiple items—are incredibly useful tools. On my Mac, I use zip files for all sorts of tasks: shrinking document sizes, transferring data from one place to another, and collecting various files together into a single bundle. On the iPhone and iPad, zip files are a bit less convenient, due to iOS's lack of central file system. You can...