The Best New iOS Apps of 2015 (And Our Favorite Updates) | Dramel Notes

Every year brings a new version of iOS and a host of new apps and updates that take advantage of Apple’s latest features. 2015 has been an awesome year for iPhone and iPad owners, with the arrival iOS 9, Force Touch and proper multi-tasking. Apple has also unleashed some of the most exciting hardware we have seen for years.

We’ve sorted through the stream of new apps that arrived in 2015 and devised a list of our favourites just for you. Here are ten apps that we think were some of the best from the past year, and five great updates that transformed older apps.

New Apps for 2015

Live GIF ($1.99)

One of the new features of the latest iPhones is Live Photos. When you take a photo, the camera also records the action from a few seconds before and a few seconds after you push the shutter. It’s essentially a GIF with sound.

Live Photos, however, have no where near the level of support enjoyed by GIFs. That’s why Live GIF is one of our favorite apps of the year. It takes your Live Photos and converts them into regular GIFs, which you can share anywhere. It may sound like a gimmick but since getting my iPhone 6s I’ve used it a lot more than I thought I would.

Tweetbot 4 ($9.99)

Tweetbot has consistently been one of the best iOS Twitter apps you can buy. The latest version, Tweetbot 4, is the greatest yet.

Tweetbot 4 was one of the first apps to embrace the new features of the latest iOS devices like 3D Touch on the 6s and split-screen multitasking on the iPad Pro. It’s a great example of what a small team of dedicated developers who understand the platform they’re working with can do. If you like Twitter and have an iDevice, this is the app you should be using.

Lara Croft GO ($4.99)

More than any other mobile game released this year, Lara Croft GO has caught our imagination here at MakeUseOf. It’s an amazing twist on the traditional Tomb Raider concept. Rather than trying to force you to play a 3D action platformer using a touch screen, Tomb Raider GO takes the spirit of the original games and turns it into a beautiful series of puzzles.

This is a game that deserves to be on every iPhone.

Workflow ($2.99)

As Apple has gradually opened up the iOS platform to developers, new apps have sprung up to offer previously impossible features. One of the breakouts this year was Workflow, which allows you to create your own powerful extensions. If you want to create shortcuts that can create a GIF from a series of photos or turn a Markdown document into a PDF file, Workflow can do that and a whole lot more.

For iOS power users, it’s opened up a whole new realm of possibilities on iDevices.

Periscope (Free)

Meerkat may have beaten Periscope to the punch but it was the latter, with the support of Twitter, which has become the clear winner in the live streaming app space.

It’s hard to believe that Periscope only launched this year given how fast it has been embraced by celebrities and media figures, and it looks set to be even more popular next year. It’s incredibly rare for an a brand new app to come out and make such a dent in social networking which is why it’s earned its spot on this list.

VHS Camcorder ($3.99)

Sometimes someone hits on an idea that makes you go “why did no one do that before?” VHS Camcorder is one of those ideas.

The app’s premise is simple: it records videos and processes them to look like 80s style home VHS. It’s the video equivalent of all those retro photo apps. If you’ve ever wanted to recapture the blurry, shaky, discolored magic of early camcorder footage, this is the app to do it with. It’s shockingly good fun.

Apple Music ($9.99/month)

While technically not a dedicated app but a replacement for Apple’s default iOS Music app, Apple Music launched to much fanfare this summer and by and large it was deserved. While I’m still a fan of Spotify, I have to acknowledge that Apple’s new Music app is a lot prettier and has some great exclusive content. Apple’s success with cloud-based services hasn’t been stellar so it was good to see that Apple Music launched without any major issues.

If you want to stay entirely contained in Apple’s ecosystem then Apple Music is for you.

Layout from Instagram (Free)

https://www.instagram.com/p/4wiRvnTQsT/

Instagram has changed a lot since they were purchased by Facebook — in many ways for the better. They’ve developed new filters, stopped forcing a square crop on all images, and generally listened to their users. Photo collages have always been popular on Instagram, and now the service supports them directly with the new Layout app.

It would have been simple for Instagram to push out a simple offering, but instead they developed a powerful app for combining multiple images into a single post. You get a huge amount of flexibility about how each image is positioned and cropped. If you’re a regular poster on Instagram, Layout needs to be on your phone.

The Robot Factory ($3.99)

Robots are awesome. Creating your own robots is even more awesome. Robot Factory is the awesomest.

This gorgeous app lets children create and design their own robots from 100s of parts. Their robots can be put to the test in real world physics based situations so they can see how different parts have different effects. It’s the perfect game for young engineers and tech geeks. It even picked up Apple’s much coveted iPad App of the Year so how could we not include it here?

Prune ($3.99)

The imaginative Prune was the worthy winner of Apple’s iPad Game of the Year. In this beautiful, minimalist game, you prune a tree so that it grows towards the sun all the while avoiding the dangers of the world around it. It’s simple and, in a strange way, incredibly relaxing.

It’s the closest I’ve ever seen a game come to meditation, so much so that we’d say it’s part-game and part relaxation tool. If you haven’t played it yet, you need to.

Updates for 2015

LinkedIn (Free)

LinkedIn is the Justin Bieber of social networks. Its fans absolutely adore it, while those who don’t like it can’t see the point in it at all. The latest iOS update might not win the social network any more Beliebers, but for existing fans it’s a welcome change. It brings some much needed functionality and makes the app a whole lot more pleasant to use.

If you’re one of LinkedIn’s fans, then this update probably made you smile.

Pixelmator ($4.99)

Pixelmator is one of the best Mac apps to come out in years. The iOS version is just as good and the latest update makes it even better. It now works on everything from an iPhone to the iPad Pro with full support for features like 3D Touch and the Apple Pencil. Not only is the Mac app a legitimate Photoshop contender, now the iOS version is too.

Microsoft Outlook (Free)

A year ago I would have been laughed at for suggesting that in 2015 Microsoft would release the best iOS email client. With the latest version of Outlook, that crazy event has come to pass. The latest releases of Microsoft Outlook for iOS have embraced the minimalist trend driven by apps like (the now defunct) Mailbox while still offering all the features you’d expect from Outlook. It’s both one of the simplest and most powerful email clients on iOS.

Snapseed (Free)

When Google bought Snapseed I thought I was going to see one of my favorite photo editing apps abandoned. Instead, this year they released an amazing update. While the most obvious change is the interface refresh, there are some big changes under the hood. New tools, effects, and filters give mobile photographers more options than ever before.

Overcast (Free)

Overcast was already one of the best iOS podcast apps available but the latest update has pushed it to the top of the list. Overcast had many innovative features like Smart Speed and Voice Boost that were kept behind a pay wall; the latest update has removed the in-app purchase adding all the features to the free version. Even better, Overcast has also added much requested features like streaming support and smart playlists. All in all, it’s one of the best updates of the year.

What Are Your Best Apps of 2015?

As a tech publication we try to keep on top of new apps and updates, but some things always slip through the cracks. If you think we’ve missed any apps or updates please let us know in the comments.

What’s your favorite app of 2015? Any big updates you absolutely loved?

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How to Set Up and Use a Passcode on Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

You probably secure your iPhone with Touch ID or a passcode. If you have an Apple Watch, you can secure that against unauthorized access as well. Additionally, you need to have a passcode enabled on your watch to be able to use Apple Pay.

You’re probably thinking, “But, I don’t want to enter a passcode on that tiny screen every time I want to use my watch.” Luckily, that’s not the case. You only have to enter the passcode on your Apple Watch in a few situations, such as when:

• You reboot your watch
• You manually lock and then unlock your watch
• You remove your watch from your wrist and put it back on

So, if you wear your watch all day, you’ll only have to enter the passcode once when you first put it on. We’ll show you how to turn on the passcode, change the passcode, use a longer passcode, and automatically unlock your watch when you unlock your iPhone.

NOTE: If you wear your watch loosely, you will have to enter your passcode more often.

Turn on the Passcode

To turn on the passcode on your watch, we’ll use our iPhone. Tap the “Watch” icon on the Home screen on your phone.

NOTE: You can also turn on the passcode directly on your watch and we’ll mention how to do this later.

Make sure the “My Watch” screen is active. If not, tap the “My Watch” icon at the bottom of the screen.

On the “My Watch” screen, tap “Passcode”.

Tap “Turn Passcode On” on the “Passcode” screen.

NOTE: We will be using the “Passcode” screen at various times throughout this article.

A message displays on your phone telling you to enter a new passcode on your watch.

Tap out a new passcode on the number pad that displays on your watch. By default, the passcode to unlock your watch is four digits.

NOTE: Your Apple Watch passcode can be different from your iPhone passcode. In fact, you should make them different for better security.

Dots at the top of the watch screen turn white as you tap out your passcode. If you mistype a number, tap the delete button to the right of the “0”.

You will be asked to re-enter your passcode, so tap it out again.

Your passcode is now set and your watch returns to the clock face.

Change the Passcode on Your Watch

You may want to change your passcode from time to time. You can do this on your phone or watch. We’ll show you how to do this on your phone, but changing the passcode on your watch is similar.

On the “Passcode” screen in the “Watch” app, tap “Change Passcode”.

Enter your current passcode on your watch.

Enter the new passcode you want to change it to on your watch.

Now you can use the new passcode to unlock your watch.

Use a Longer Passcode on Your Watch

You can create a passcode as long as 10 digits on your watch if you want better security. To add a passcode from 5-10 digits long, turn off “Simple Passcode” on the “Passcode” screen in the “Watch” app on your phone. The slider button moves to the left and turns black and white, as shown below.

Enter the current 4-digit passcode on your watch.

Then, enter a 5- to 10-digit passcode and tap “OK” when you are finished.

Now, you can use the longer passcode to access your watch.

Unlock with iPhone

If you take your Apple Watch off occasionally, and you don’t want to enter your passcode every time you put it back on, you can make your life easier by turning on a setting to unlock your watch automatically when you unlock your iPhone.

To unlock your Apple Watch automatically when you unlock your iPhone, tap “Unlock with iPhone” on the “Passcode” screen in the “Watch” app on your phone. This option can also be turned on and off directly on the watch, as we’ll mention later in this article.

With “Unlock with iPhone” on, you may never have to enter your passcode on your Apple Watch, as long as you’re wearing it. This is useful, if you can’t stand having to tap your passcode on the small screen.

Erase All Data from Your Watch

You can add further security to your Apple Watch by automatically erasing the data from the watch after 10 failed attempts to enter the passcode. To turn on this feature, tap “Erase Data” on the “Passcode” screen in the “Watch” app on your phone.

If you turn on this option, be careful how many times you enter your passcode incorrectly to avoid erasing the data on your watch.

Lock Your Watch Automatically

You can choose to lock your Apple Watch automatically when you’re not wearing it. To do this, open the “Watch” app on your iPhone and tap “General”.

On the “General” screen, tap “Wrist Detection” so the slider button turns green.

NOTE: The “Wrist Detection” option must be on to be able to use Apple Pay.

Lock Your Watch Manually

There may be times when you want to lock your watch when it’s on your wrist, but this doesn’t happen automatically. To manually lock your watch, press and hold the side button on your watch.

Three slider buttons display on your watch screen. Drag the “Lock Device” slider button to the right.

You’ll be required to enter your passcode the next time you want to use your Apple Watch.

Enter Your Passcode

If you take off your Apple Watch, wear it very loosely, or manually lock it, it asks for your passcode the next time you try to use it. Simply tap out your passcode on the number pad that displays.

Turn Off the Passcode

If you decide you don’t want to have to enter a passcode on your watch anymore, you can turn off the passcode using your watch or phone. We’ll show you how to do it on the watch this time. If you want to use your phone to turn off the passcode, go to “My Watch”, the tap “Passcode” and you should see the option to turn the passcode off.

NOTE: Remember, if you disable your passcode, you can’t use Apple Pay on Apple Watch.

On your watch, press the digital crown to access the Home screen and tap the “Settings” icon.

Tap “Passcode” on the “Settings” screen.

On the “Passcode” screen, tap “Turn Passcode Off”.

NOTE: You can also change your passcode or turn the “Unlock with iPhone” feature on or off on this screen as well.

Enter your current passcode.

The “Passcode” screen now shows the “Turn Passcode On” option.

If you’ve forgotten your passcode, you must reset your watch to access it.

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How to Find Your iPhone Using Your Apple Watch or iCloud | Dramel Notes

Do you often misplace your iPhone? If you have an Apple Watch, it’s easy to find your phone using the ping feature, saving you the embarrassment or hassle of asking a friend or family member to call your phone to help you find it.

Your Apple Watch must be connected to your iPhone via either Bluetooth or the same Wi-Fi network to be able to use the ping feature on your watch to find your phone.

To ping your iPhone, make sure the clock face is showing on your watch. If it’s not, press the digital crown until the clock face displays. Swipe up from the bottom of the watch screen to open the Glances.

Swipe right until you see the Settings glance, which is the leftmost glance screen. Tap the pinging phone button.

Your iPhone will emit a short, pinging sound to help you find it, even if it’s in silent mode. A message saying “Pinging iPhone” displays briefly on your watch’s screen as well.

If your iPhone is not in range of your watch, you can use iCloud.com to find your phone. In a browser, go to iCloud.com and log in using your Apple ID and password.

NOTE: When using the “Find iPhone” feature on iCloud.com on a Windows PC, it only works in Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft Edge, or in an Incognito browsing window in Chrome. It will not work in a standard Chrome window or Firefox.

Click on the “Find iPhone” icon on the main iCloud page.

A page displays indicating that “Find iPhone” is “Locating…” your device.

A point on a map indicates where your device is currently located.

You can access more options for dealing with a lost iOS device by clicking “All Devices” at the top of the map in the browser window. Click on the device you located.

A popup dialog box displays showing you how long ago your device was found and even the battery level displays in the upper-right corner of the dialog box. To play a sound on your phone, click “Play Sound”. This can be useful if you discover your phone is not far away, but the connection between your phone and watch has been lost.

When you select your device from the “All Devices” menu, a popup also displays above the location of your phone on the map.

If you left your phone (or other iOS device) somewhere or someone stole it, use “Lost Mode” on iCloud. “Lost Mode” locks your device with a passcode so that others can’t access your personal information. For more information about “Lost Mode”, see Apple’s support article. You can also erase your iPhone remotely using iCloud.

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How to Enable Handoff on Your Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

Handoff is the feature on Apple Watch and iPhone that allows you to start a task on one device and finish it on another. For example, you might check email on your watch and then switch to your phone to compose a reply.

You must use your iPhone to enable the Handoff feature on your Apple Watch. Tap the “Watch” app icon on your phone’s Home screen.

Make sure the “My Watch” screen is active. If not, tap the “My Watch” icon at the bottom of the screen.

Tap “General” on the “My Watch” screen.

On the “General” screen, tap the “Enable Handoff” slider button to turn on the feature. The button turns green when it’s enabled.

Now, you can perform a task on your watch, such as viewing an email message.

Then, you can access your iPhone to see an email icon in the lower-left corner of the lock screen. Drag up on the icon.

You may be prompted to enter your passcode to access your phone, but once you log in the email you were reading on your watch displays on your iPhone screen.

Handoff works with Mail, Maps, Messages, Phone, Reminders, and Calendar, and Siri. Your Apple Watch must be in close proximity to your iPhone for the Handoff feature to work.

Handoff is part of the technology called Continuity that allows you to transfer tasks among your iOS devices and your Mac. Continuity also includes Phone Call Forwarding, Text Forwarding, and Personal Hotspot.

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How to Add, Share, and Sync Calendars on Mac and iPhone | Dramel Notes

Utilizing your Calendar to maximum effect on your Mac or iPhone can really keep you on top of things. Today, we want to discuss how to add, share, and sync calendars on your Mac and iPhone so your agenda follows you wherever you go.

The Calendar that comes with your Mac and iPhone has everything you might need to create appointments, set reminders, and basically organize your life so you don’t miss important events and happenings.

In order to have a calendar that syncs across your devices, you must be logged into the same iCloud account. This will ensure that, just as with Reminders, everything you do on your Mac will appear on your iPhone or iPad, and vice-versa.

As always, if you’re not seeing your calendars or calendar events show up from device to device, then it might mean you’re not logged into the same iCloud account, or more than likely, you’re dealing with an iCloud sync issue.

We’ll review how to check to make sure everything is working properly later in this article.

Creating and Sharing New Calendars

To create a new calendar, click on the “File” menu, select “New Calendar” and then “iCloud”.

Your new calendar will appear under the iCloud list in the left Calendar pane.

You can name it to whatever you feel like and share it by clicking share icon to the right of the calendar’s name. You can even make it a public calendar, which means anyone can subscribe to a read-only version of your calendar.

You will now be able to access your new calendar on your iPhone or iPad. Open the Calendar app and tap the “Calendars” link at the bottom of the application.

Now you will see all your iCloud calendars listed including your newly created one. If a calendar is shared, you’ll be able to see who is sharing it or with whom it is being shared.

You can edit a calendar by either tapping the “i” symbol next to a calendar or by tapping the “Edit” button and then the calendar you want to attend to.

Once you’re in the edit screen, you can rename or delete your calendar by tapping on it or, more importantly, you can add people with whom you want to share it.

Scroll down to change the color of your calendar or make it public.

Remember, when you make a calendar public, anyone can subscribe to a read-only version of it, so make sure you don’t include any personal details or events.

Editing calendars is also how you add them, so just like on your Mac, when you create a new calendar on your iPhone, it will appear on any other devices connected to that iCloud account.

Making Sure it Syncs Correctly

If everything is syncing as it should, then you’re good to go. If you’re not seeing your new calendars appear on your other devices, then you need to make sure everything is connected to the same iCloud account.

If that isn’t the problem, then check your iCloud settings to ensure your calendars are set up to sync to iCloud.

On you iPhone or iPad, open the Settings, then tap open “iCloud”.

Scroll through your iCloud settings and ensure “Calendars” is enabled.

Next, on your Mac, open the System Preferences and then “iCloud”. Same as on your iOS device, go through the various settings and make sure Calendars has a check next to it.

That then is how you add, share, and sync calendars on your Mac and iOS devices. It works much like Reminders in that you can share with other people and sync across the entire range of your iCloud connected devices.

The nice thing about having all your calendars connected, is that you don’t have to spend time replicating your efforts, such as creating the same calendars, events, etc. Moreover, when you share a calendar, you will then be able to keep everyone else in the loop.

We hope then that you found this article useful and will be able to use it to keep your agenda more organized and effective. If you want to add a question or comment, we encourage your feedback in our discussion forum.

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How to Rearrange the App Icons on Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

As you install apps on your iPhone that have Apple Watch companion apps, the Home screen on your Apple Watch may get a bit disorganized, making it hard to find your apps. It’s easy to rearrange the app icons on your watch’s Home screen.

However, you need to use your phone to rearrange the app icons on your watch. So, tap the “Watch” icon on the phone’s Home screen.

Make sure the “My Watch” screen is active. If not, tap the “My Watch” icon at the bottom of the screen.

Tap “App Layout” on the “My Watch” screen.

All the icons for the apps installed on your watch display on the “Layout” screen. Tap and hold an icon and move it to another location. Drag the icons around into whatever pattern you want.

NOTE: You can move all the icons except for the Watch face, which must stay in the center of the layout.

Here we have a neater diamond-shaped layout. You can arrange your icons into whatever shape you want to make it easier for you to find your apps and open them.

By the way, if you don’t like how the app icons on the Apple Watch Home screen change size as you move around the screen, you can make all the app icons the same size.

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The Most Precise Way to Monitor Bluetooth Battery on iOS | Dramel Notes

I’m going to tell you a quick story, and it might just leave you feeling terrified. You’re getting ready to go out on a long run. You pair your Bluetooth headphones to your iPhone and start running. Five minutes in, your headphones die. You’re now stuck on a long run with no tunes.

This could happen because that icon at the top of the screen that shows battery percentages of connected Bluetooth devices is so tiny that it’s nearly useless. But there’s a better way! You can actually see these battery percentages in the Notification Center instead.

Open Notification Center and make sure you’re on the Today panel. Scroll to the bottom and click Edit. Scroll to the Batteries item on the list, and then click the + button to add it to your device.

Now, anytime you go to the Notification Center, you’ll see the battery percentage of any Bluetooth devices that are connected. It’s far more precise than the tiny one on the top of the screen, and now you’ll have a far more accurate idea of how much life your devices have left before you run out of the house.

Note: The Batteries item will only appear if a Bluetooth or other wireless device is connected!

Have you ever felt the terror of your Bluetooth device dying because you didn’t know its battery percentage? Share your horror stories in the comments!

Image Credit: guteksk7 via ShutterStock

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Sony Xperia Z5 Review & Giveaway | Dramel Notes

You’re looking for a new phone. Something reasonably powerful, big screen, great sound. A handset to blow your iPhone-loving friends out of the water.

This might just be it.

Sony’s Xperia Z5 is a larger phone, verging on phablet dimensions. Available in a variety of finishes, we’re reviewing and giving away one in a stunning gold finish. But is it a good enough smartphone for you to spend time reading this review and entering our giveaway?

The Sony Xperia Z5: What’s Inside?

This phone comes with a lot of spec.

 

Requiring a nano SIM, the inside of the 146 x 72 x 7.3 mm case is packed full of tech, the highlight of which is the Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 chipset with a Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and Adreno 430 GPU, backed up by hefty 3Gb of RAM.

Several versions of the Xperia Z5 are available, including the Xperia Z5 Premium, a super flagship boasting a 5.5 inch 4K display. The model we’re reviewing, however, is the Xperia Z5, the standard flagship, still with phablet dimensions (a slightly smaller 5.2 inch), but with a more battery friendly Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel display, complete with Sony’s TRILUMINOS™ with Live Color LED for remarkable color reproduction.

A microSD slot – in the same caddy as the nano SIM – will support up to 200 GB, which will add to the 32GB internal storage.

As with any modern smartphone, you can expect to get online via mobile Internet (GSM, HSPA, LTE) or wireless, and the device also features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and wireless hotspot. Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, NFC, micro USB with USB host support and FM radio are all included.

Fingerprint Recognition Brings Added Security

One particularly useful feature is the fingerprint recognition, made possible using a small scanner mounted in the power button. Setting this up requires several cans of your thumb to be captured, and if you don’t vary the position of your chunkiest digit, you’ll be setting this up for a while. The best approach is to consider that the scan is looking at a strip of your thumb, and between scans move it slightly so that a different portion of your opposable digit is scanned.

All in all, the results are good, but the only benefit a thumb fingerprint recognition brings – beyond the obvious security benefits – is to save you pressing the power button. Instead, you just rest your thumb against the scanner to unlock the phone.

It’s nice to have, and can frustrate any unauthorized user, however.

Portable Entertainment Center

Like most Sony devices, the Xperia Z5 is an entertainment center, albeit one you can stick in your pocket and take with you anywhere. As a result, the smartphone has superb video and audio. The TRILUMINOS system makes a massive impact when you start watching video, while hi-res audio reproduction is as good as any other on the market, including Beats Audio, if not better.

Factor in the microSD slot and you have a smartphone that can hold its own against any other (and quite a few tablets and PCs) in multimedia playback. Whether you’re planning on enjoying music, streamed video or gaming, put simply, the Xperia Z5 is a fun device.

On the subject of gaming, meanwhile, you’ll find a PlayStation subfolder in the app drawer. From here, you can connect to your PS4 and use the Remote Play feature, as well as access various services on the PlayStation Network. It’s a bit like the Xbox 360 and Xbox One apps for Windows Phone and Android, only better…

Lollipop with a Stripped Back Custom UI

Upon booting, the first thing you see is Android 5.0 Lollipop. Although the phone ships with the promise of an imminent upgrade to Android 6.0 Marshmallow (likely January), the most important thing to note here is that Sony has been working on a new user interface that closely resembles stock Android.

The result is a user interface that feels very much like Android 5.0 Lollipop but with a heavy dose of Sony software. As for branding, the only ever present element is the clock/calendar widget which can be removed if preferred. All in all, this is a slick, satisfying presentation of Android Lollipop, which suggests good things for the imminent update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

A nice addition to the UI are the Favorites Bar shortcuts on the Recents screen. Here, you can add a collection of lightweight apps (all windowed) such as a calculator, timer, browser, etc., that can be instantly launched. These can prove useful, and act more like widgets that can be quickly closed rather than standard apps.

Battery Life & Performance

One of the biggest surprises about this phone is the battery life. The non-removable Li-Ion 2900 mAh battery lasts up to 520 hours on standby, with up to 13 hours talk time. How does this translate into daily use?

While on standby and disconnected from both 4G and Wi-Fi, the Xperia Z5 battery decreases in daily chunks of 10-12%. Essentially, this means the phone can last over a week without recharging in a low-use scenario, although of course this would be an unlikely occurrence.

But what it does mean is that you can leave the Xperia Z5 at bedtime and wake up 6 hours later to find that it still has something approaching a useable charge. Better still, it recharges within a couple of hours and is equipped with several battery management tools. STAMINA mode and Ultra STAMINA mode activate power save functions, the latter enabling only basic phone functions – ideal for those desperate times when you’re nowhere near a power source for recharging. Background data queuing can also be enabled to reduce battery impact.

Using Antutu Benchmark to gauge an idea of how fast the phone is, we can see that, unsurprisingly, it’s a bit of an animal. User experience and other benchmarking tools may well differ, but based on Antutu, the Xperia Z5 running Lollipop is very highly rated, with only the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Note 5, and the Letv Le1 Pro coming in ahead.

That’s not bad at all.

However, it isn’t without its quirks. For instance, EA’s Dead Space seems to launch incorrectly half the time, sometimes with perfect sound, others with just ear-splitting static. For a phone with such good audio, this is particularly jarring.

Does the 23 MP Camera Deliver?

An impressive 23 megapixel camera (5520 x 4140 pixels) with phase detection autofocus and LED flash is mounted in the chassis of the Xperia Z5, offering a 16:9 ratio. You may prefer, however, to decrease to 20 MP and get the standard 4:3, but it is 8 MP that is selected by default, so if you’re looking for hi-resolution images from this camera, open the Settings screen in the camera app before you start snapping.

Color reproduction is convincing, with tones and hues appearing lifelike regardless of the environment. Various apps can be used within the camera app, such as 4K video, Multi camera view (which records footage from your device’s main camera and that of another Sony Xperia Z5 series phone or a recent Wi-Fi-compatible camera), panorama mode, and even Face in Picture, which records or snaps from both front and back cameras, and Vine, for uploading video clips to Twitter. In total, 12 camera apps are available, with more ready to be downloaded.

Other settings are also present, such as scenes and camera modes, and the smile detection works really well. Nighttime photography without the flash is impressive, with a more realistic color reproduction than you would find on cheaper phones. Think a camera on a par with the Samsung Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6S, here, but with the added polish that Sony brings to photographic hardware.

Meanwhile, snaps and videos recorded at the same location are automatically compiled into a story, much like the feature in Google Photos and other automated movie making apps.

Is the Xperia Z5 a Phone You Want?

As you’ve seen, the Xperia Z5 delivers a competent smartphone experience, combining the best of Android Lollipop with some surprisingly good pre-installed Sony apps and solid hardware.

This is a good smartphone, perhaps Sony’s best (although 4K fans will prefer the Z5 Premium.)

Compared to another 2015 phablet that we’ve reviewed – the Samsung Galaxy A7 – the Xperia Z5 is the more user friendly device. The useful thumbprint scanner on the power button saves time; the weight of the phone is perfect – not too heavy, not too light – and the camera is superb. Benchmark results speak for themselves.

However, you might be concerned that the phone ships with Android 5.0 Lollipop rather than the current Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Sony has stated that it will be making Marshmallow available on the Xperia Z5 in due course. So no need to panic!

Sony Xperia Z5 Giveaway

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Speed Up Your iPhone by Manually Clearing the RAM | Dramel Notes

Have you ever found yourself messing around with your iPhone, only to have it start to feel a little sluggish? It feels like everything you want to do takes longer than it should. Launching Twitter should happen in an instant, but it doesn’t!

Maybe you need to flush your iPhone’s RAM. I’m not talking about manually quitting all of the apps running. Rather, I’m talking about a lesser-known technique that will get everything out of RAM and let you feel like the phone just turned on.

The first thing you need to do is hold the power button until “Slide to Power Off” appears on the screen. Don’t slide it though! Instead, press and hold the Home button for a few seconds, and you will be placed back on the Home screen with a fresh slate as far as your RAM is concerned.

Don’t believe me? Double-tap the Home button. You’ll see that the apps you were running are still there, but if you click one, it will need to relaunch as if you were launching it from its icon.

Also, it should be noted that iOS generally does a good job of managing memory, and you shouldn’t need to do this often. But if something goes wrong, it’s a nice trick to have in your back pocket!

Have you tried using this technique when your iPhone is running slowly? Did it solve your problem? Let us know!

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Travelling A Lot? You Need These Free iPhone Apps | Dramel Notes

As you step into the airport ready to jet off to exotic locations — maybe with your Apple Watch on your wrist — your iPhone should be a handy travel tool, rather than an incredibly efficient way of racking up expensive roaming charges.

There are some awesome apps for travellers out there. They can do everything from completely manage your trip to book you a castle (yes, a castle) for the night. Here’s a few of them.

TripIt

If you travel a lot TripIt (which we looked at a few years ago) is a life saver. You forward your booking confirmations to TripIt — or if you’re brave, directly connect your Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook email account — and they scrape all the important details: flight numbers, check in times, hotel names, and everything else. They then gather all this information into one master itinerary.

That on its own is pretty handy, but if you subscribe to TripIt Pro, they also keeps you updated if anything changes. It’s amazing to get a push notification in the airport if your gate changes or your flight is delayed by half an hour. You don’t have to walk miles in the wrong direction or leave the bar so soon!

Most features of TripIt are entirely free, so you don’t even have to travel that much for it to be useful to you. Having all of your important travel information in one single place makes things like filling in customs forms a lot easier. If you set up TripIt to automatically scan your email, everything happens like magic.

Kayak or Skyscanner

The more you travel, the more you end up spending on flights. If you save even $20 or $30 dollars every time, it can add up to be quite a lot of extra cash to spend when you get to where you’re going. There are quite a few apps that allow you to compare flights between airlines, but the two I’ve found to be the most reliable are Kayak and Skyscanner

Both apps give you a good idea of the prices that different airlines charge on the routes you want to go. If there’s no direct flights, the apps will create multi-leg trips — even if you want to fly to a really obscure destination, you can find out how to get there.

Kayak has one amazing feature I really love: buying recommendations. When you search for a flight, the app compares the price data against all the historic data available (and there’s a lot of it). They then give you a recommendation on whether to buy the flight or wait based on whether similar flights in the past have gotten more or less expensive over time.

I’ve found this to be really accurate. Once I failed to heed Kayak’s recommendation to buy and the price had doubled by the time I checked back a week or so later. I haven’t made that mistake again. Both Kayak and Skyscanner, despite their names, also compare hotel and car rental prices. They aren’t, however, quite as good at this.

LoungeBuddy

In his awesome guide on how to learn to love flying, Matt raves about airport lounges and the app that tells him all he needs to know about them: LoungeBuddy.

LoungeBuddy has a database of thousands of airport lounges in all the major airports. They tell you how much they cost, what requirements (like memberships) that they have for entry, and, most importantly, what amenities are available. It’s not worth paying $50 to get into a glorified box with leather couches and a grumpy waiter, but $40 for access to free food and showers might have you thinking differently.

Relaxing at the Cathay Pacific First and Business Class Lounge at SFO thanks to @LoungeBuddy https://t.co/Iziv6ZbnPO

— James Miller (@JamesADMiller) December 4, 2015

If you’re travelling a lot, you’re invariably going to find yourself stuck in an airport at some point. It could be for any reason from just a long layover to a missed connection or delayed flight. When it happens, check out LoungeBuddy and see if you can find something better to do than trying to sleep on your luggage in the corner.

Google Maps

Apple Maps has come along way — it’s now my go to maps app when I’m back home in Dublin — but it’s always good to have a back up. While Apple Maps is great if you know the street name of where you’re going, in my experience it struggles to find businesses by their names. Instead of directing me to the nearest Starbucks, it picks one a few hundred miles away!

If you ask Google Maps for walking directions from The Shire to Mordor, it tells you that "One does not simply walk into Mordor."

— Interesting Facts (@neverknownfacts) December 3, 2015

With Google Maps you know you’re getting an (uglier) app that has (mostly) accurate business listings. You might not know your hotel’s address, but Google probably does. When you land you can use it to easily find out where you’re going. The public transit directions are also great in most major cities; they can save you a fortune on taxi fares.

Uber and Hailo

If you want to avoid public transport and all the headaches that go with it, then you need to have Uber, Hailo and whatever local app is popular on your iPhone.

Uber gets a lot of press, much of it negative, but the service they offer is solid. Trying to actually call or hail a taxi is almost impossible in some cities. There can often be the language barrier, weird regulations, and a lack of cabs to contend with. Uber ignore all of these problems with their iPhone app.

Hailo is similar to Uber (although they use taxis instead of other people’s cars) and a genuine competitor in some major European cities. If you try to use Uber in Dublin you’ll be waiting for hours while there’ll be a Hailo cab nearby in moments.

Do a little bit of research before you go, and learn which transport apps are popular with the locals — for example, Ola Cabs or Meru Cabs in India. Uber has the biggest name but it isn’t available everywhere. Don’t get tied into using it out of habit.

Airbnb, Hostelworld, and Booking.com

Once you get to your destination you actually need somewhere to stay. Depending on why you’re travelling there are different apps that will fit your needs best.

If there’s a few of you going or you want a more authentic experience, Airbnb is the app to use. Like Uber, Airbnb gets a lot of negative attention but the service it offers is still great. With Airbnb you can rent out anything from a room in someone’s home to a castle.

If you’re on a budget then youth hostels are the best places to stay. Most major cities have some pretty great hostels with comfy bunks, bars, and good locations. They’re my preferred place to crash when I’m in a new city. Finding the best (or cheapest) hostel doesn’t have to be hard; I just use the Hostelworld app. It’s well designed and does everything you need it to do.

Finally, if you’re travelling for business or have any other reason to book a real hotel room with things like room service and mini bottles of shampoo, Booking.com is the best app I’ve found. It has a huge list of hotels which you can reserve with a few taps.

What Apps Do You Use When You Travel?

There are thousands of other apps out there for travellers. The ones I’ve listed above are just the ones that I’ve found to be great. It’s far from a complete list.

Got a favorite app that never leaves your iPhone when you travel? Let me know in the comments.

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HTG Explains: Why Do We Still Use Analog Audio Ports? | Dramel Notes

When leaks about what the chassis of the iPhone 7 might look like hit headlines earlier this week, technology columnists and industry analysts jumped on the chance to report that Apple’s next device may finally ditch its 3.5mm audio port altogether. Instead of clinging to the nearly-ancient technology, the next iPhone could begin paving the road to a world where we’re finally past the point of relying on cords to listen to our audiobooks, podcasts, or playlists altogether.

But why do we still use audio jacks in 2015 that were invented in the 19th century? And what’s going to be the next best thing that comes along to replace it?

Digital Killed the Analog Star

When discussing the nuts and bolts of how your digital song on your digital phone plays as an analog audio signal to the analog speakers inside your headphones, it helps to know how the transmission of audio actually works first. Not to slow anything down with an entire technical manual on the subject, but in short, it looks a little something like this:

To explain what we’re talking about even further, we’ll follow the lifespan of a song from start to finish via a Spotify selection.

First, a song is recorded: in 2015, this almost always done with a specific mix of digital and analog tracks mixed together inside a computer sent through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which is then used to digitally master that music into the final track. This file is uploaded to one of Spotify’s servers, and next, the company makes the song available to stream over the air at a quality level of 320 kilobytes per second, or the same quality as an average CD rip if you pay for the monthly Premium service.

Your phone takes that digital data (about 7MB for a full song at 320kbps), and sends it through what’s called a “digital-to-analog converter, or DAC. The DAC is usually installed inside the phone itself, and is designed to take the binary data of your song and translate that into analog audio signals, morphing each one and zero into a series of different currents and voltages that push the driver inside a headphone to create the sound you eventually hear. The jack on the end of every smartphone is attached to a very small DAC, which allows you to plug in everything from a pair of headphones to a full stack of tower speakers and still get the same amount of sound out of either. While the headphones would be loud considering their size, the sound would be very quiet on larger speakers without the help of an external amplifier to boost the signal.

The trick of keeping headphones small is relying on a DAC that’s stored inside the phone, the computer, or the laptop that takes care of the heavy lifting. As such, 3.5mm audio jacks have survived this long because they’re the essential, universal way to play music on any device in 2015, but doesn’t all this back and forth conversion seem like a little much?

Why Not Just Get Rid of the Wires Altogether?

Without wasting any more of your time than we have to: it just doesn’t sound as good, as much as we might want it to.

When looking at this debate, it’s easy to draw parallels toward another argument that’s been raging with PC gaming geeks everywhere for years – wired vs. wireless mice. Even with all the advancements made to wireless mice and the technology it uses to communicate every click or scroll your mouse makes, the responsiveness is still miles behind what you’d get with a wired setup. This is because the air between the transmitter and the receiver (in the case of mobile music: the phone to your headphones) isn’t always an empty space. There are walls and floors and denim-lined pockets to get through, all of which cause resistance on the wireless link between two devices.

To handle audio, currently Bluetooth transmits over what’s known as the A2DP standard, short for the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile. And while Bluetooth 4.2 is plenty fast enough to digitally transmit the file of your song in a few seconds, actually getting it to play out of audio speakers is another job entirely. This is handled by a DAC installed inside the Bluetooth headphones themselves, and while the quality of wireless signal decoding continues to get better as time goes on, most audiophiles already know you’d never listen to your favorite album over Bluetooth unless you were completely out of other options.

Cost comparatively, a pair of $300 Bluetooth headphones won’t sound as good as good as a wired pair simply for the fact that the wireless version need extra components like a battery or onboard DACs in order to work. Without the need to include these, wired headphone makers can squeeze those extra dollars into higher quality drivers, which leads to higher quality sound at the same price. Not only that, but a higher price means less availability in the developing world, regions where Apple continues to do gangbusters selling pre-owned devices that work with basic 3.5mm headphones.

The Best of Both Worlds

If Apple really wants to commit to ditching the audio port, they’re going to need to have something that sounds just as good and is as easy to plug in to boot. The company’s MFi program has confirmed that Apple wants more people to start thinking about the Lightning port as a one-stop shop for everything from charging to plugging in your headphones…but this is easier said then done.

First, there’s the issue of sound quality. While adding Lightning audio to say; a new pair of over-the-ear Beats headphones does seem enticing, what kind of monopoly could this lead to? What about the manufacturers who can’t afford to license Apple’s proprietary connection technology to add to their earbuds? Will they simply move on to Android devices instead? What about DRM restrictions, which when attached to a digital audio stream, can automatically prevent anyone from listening to pirated music on that device?

People want to use their smartphones the way they want to use them, and potentially putting rules on top of that about where or how you jam out alone or with friends could backfire immensely if approached without enough caution. History has taught us that the problem with trying to introduce a new way of doing something in the digital world, is that from the very start everyone has to be on board the ship at once – or no one will be. Apple has had an incredible ride over the past decade and a half, dotted with very few missteps, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t massively over-calculated their position in the past or paid the price as a result.

Remember Watson? Yeah, neither does anyone under the age of 30.

This isn’t to say it can’t be done – and if there’s anyone who could, it is absolutely Apple – but it’s going to be a long, uphill climb to wipe out a way of listening to audio that’s older than recorded audio itself. Even though the iPhone 7 may be attempting to take the first step for us, it’s likely that the audio port won’t be going anywhere for a few more years. Apple will have a long road ahead of them filled with a lot of people who need convincing, and right now there are just too many wired headphones when compared to Bluetooth that still lack the umph they’ll need if true audiophiles are going to start taking it seriously as a way to enjoy high-quality audio.

In order to truly change the marketplace for good, Apple will need to do a whole lot more than just take the aging analog audio jack off their next model. They’ll need to help push Bluetooth forward to move past a2dp as its only means of getting consistent sound from one place to the next over the air, and quell the consumer’s concerns about using Lightning audio as a way to introduce DRM restrictions on certain types of music.

---

So then, it seems the main reason why we still use analog audio ports because for the time being: they’re what works best across every section of the market, without fail. They’re cheap to manufacture, hold up for years at a time, and provide the same level of quality no matter whether you’re listening on a Sony Walkman from 1997 or an iPhone 6s.

That kind of ubiquitous reliability can’t be overestimated, and although Apple has led the way when it comes to encouraging consumers to leave certain technologies in the dust (where they belonged), they also thought FireWire was going to be a revolution in connectivity – and just look how that worked itself out.

All this in mind, it’s clear that we need to start thinking about this as a society, and look forward to wireless as the logical progression of our audio enjoyment experience. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t always mean what we think it does, and sometimes, it’s just a precursor to “don’t fix it unless you know you can do better”.

Image Credits: Flickr 1, 2, 3, Wikimedia

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How to Find Your iPhone Using Your Apple Watch | Dramel Notes

You put your iPhone down somewhere, but you can’t remember where. You know it can’t be far; you just had it a little while ago. Finding your missing iPhone is quick and easy using your Apple Watch.

To find your iPhone, you’ll use the “Settings” glance. If the clock face is not currently displaying, press the digital crown until it is. Then, swipe up from the bottom of the watch face to access the Glances.

You may have several Glances, depending on how many apps you’ve installed on your watch and chosen to show in Glances. If the “Settings” Glance is not currently displaying, swipe to the right until you reach the left-most Glance.

On the “Settings” Glance, tap the pinging phone button. Your phone will emit a loud pinging sound that will help you locate it.

To return to the clock face, press the digital crown.

NOTE: Your iPhone must be within range of and connected to your Apple Watch for this feature to work.

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8 Amazing Things You Can Do With an iPhone | Dramel Notes

Over the years, we’ve taken a look at several creative and unique uses for the iPhone. With each new iteration of Apple’s best-selling product, there appears to be no limit to what we are able to do with a small touchscreen device that exists mostly in our pockets.

You can now use your iPhone to pay for public transport, replace your credit card and even buy things while travelling at altitude. Far more importantly, it has become a key accessibility device for people with vision loss, hearing impairments, developmental challenges, and more.

The iPhone has also become a solid companion for professional photographers, filmmakers, musicians, and podcasters. With a robust developer ecosystem, we are seeing people come up with ways to turn the humble phone into a digital scale, a 3D scanner, and more.

So let’s take a look at some of the most impressive feats you can accomplish with an iPhone.

Music Production

Given the larger screens available on the latest iPhone models, it’s easier than ever to turn your mobile phone into a musical instrument.

The smaller iPhones of 2010 didn’t stop Atomic Tom from using nothing more than their iPhones and a few simple apps to perform one of their songs on the New York City subway, in what was later revealed to be a publicity stunt — and a genius one at that.

The filming of the video went on to garner 1.2 million views on YouTube, and will probably always be cited in lists just like this one on the ways your iPhone is so much more than just a phone.

This was by no means the first example of songs performed using the iPhone as an instrument, and hasn’t been the last. This list of ten songs performed using the iPhone, or iPad, in lieu of instruments proves that.

Five years later and the quality music creation apps has exploded. Apple’s Garageband is available as a $4.99 app for the iPhone (and iPad), and we think it’s worth the cash. If you’ve bought an iPhone anytime since September 2013 to the present, or upgraded to iOS 8 on a qualifying device, you get Garageband for free.

Besides the Apple app, you’ll find a wide variety of great drum apps, piano apps, or even something like AudioBus, which brings all these apps together. And it really doesn’t take much to create an impressive piece of music using your iPhone as this video proves:

If you’re in the mood for something more elaborate, check out behind the scenes in how an iPhone 6 was used, almost exclusively, to record a far more involved song:

Shooting a Film

With the iPhone 6s shooting glorious 4K video, production quality is even more impressive than before. Impressive, cinematic video has been shot using the iPhone as far as back as the iPhone 4 or 4s (check out this list of six short movies shot with the iPhone 4 and 4s).

Fast forward a few years, and as groundbreaking as those videos seemed, we have come a very long way in such a short period of time. This video was shot entirely using an iPhone 6:

With the arrival of 4K video, the difference is even more significant, as seen in the very first short film shot entirely on the iPhone 6s:

A significant feature that only the iPhone 6s plus brings to the table is optical image stabilization for video. See it in action, compared to the iPhone 6s, here:

Professional Photography

Staying in line with what the iPhone camera has to offer, mobile photography has also come a long way. Mobile photography is now a recognized category in the profession, regardless of what purists may say. As Time magazine points out, professional photographers were impressed with the iPhone 6s’ 12 megapixel camera.

In the hands of a professional photographer, the sky is the limit. It’s been used by a professional sports, National Geographic, and fashion photographers, to great results.

And that doesn’t mean older versions of the iPhone aren’t just as good. This year’s winner of the iPhone Photography Awards, Michael Koralewski came in first place with this photo, taken using his iPhone 5s:

The iPhone As A Scale

With the iPhone 6s’ new 3D touch feature (which might just make you jump ship from Android to Apple), the capabilities of the smartphone are really opening up. One example is the potential to use your phone as a scale.

While the app itself, created by Simon Gladman, is not yet available, you can see the concept in action here:

Another attempt at creating a similar app made it as far as the review process in the iTunes store, but as developer Ryan McLeod points out in a Medium post, it was turned down.

See McLeod’s app in action below:

Track Your Climate Footprint

What if you wanted to use your iPhone to help solve climate change. Oroeco, an app available both for iOS and Android, allows you to track your actual carbon footprint with its automated calculator.

In their own words, the app will:

• See how every aspect of your life connects to climate change, from your home energy and transportation decisions, to your diet, shopping and entertainment choices.
• Automatically track the climate impacts of how you spend your money with the world’s most powerful carbon footprint calculator.
• Save money and the planet with personalized tips and actions on how you can lower your impact for the environment.
• View your carbon offsets from award-winning clean cookstove projects.

Generate More Accurate Weather Reports

With the iPhone 6’s barometric sensor and a little bit of crowdsourcing, all iPhones can be used to generate more accurate weather reports. Yes, really.

The $3.99 app Dark Sky allows iPhone 6 users to share barometric pressure data. They explain in a blog post what this all means for users:

If you opt-in, your phone will periodically submit pressure readings which will provide us with extremely useful meteorological data.

That is not the only way in which the iPhone is being used to crowdsource important information. Apple’s ResearchKit offers the opportunity to crowdsource medical data. ResearchKit projects currently focus on five conditions: Parkinson’s, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and diabetes.

Scan a 3D Model

The iPhone could soon become an essential 3D printing tool. Microsoft has created an app that uses the basic phone camera to create a 3D scan. The quality of those scans are good enough to create 3D printed models, which according to Cult of Mac, could potentially be used to create augmented reality video games.

See the concept in action here:

Create, Edit & Publish Podcasts

We’ve previously shown you how to create a podcast, from A to Z, using nothing but your iPhone. With the right set of apps you can record and broadcast directly from your phone.

There’s a huge variety of new apps available to users now made just for podcasting. Opinion is available as a free download, with a limit of 10 minutes per recording. You can unlock unlimited recording for just $3.99.

With Opinion, you can do just about everything with the one app. You can record, edit, and share your podcasts to the iTunes podcast directory, Soundcloud, and more, with just the one app.

See how the app works below:

If you need a more robust app, iPhone app Bossjock has far more features built into it, but it comes with a price tag of $9.99. You can record while triggering intros, background music, and more. You can also share your final recording directly from the app to iTunes, Soundcloud, and Audioboo, among others. If you’re not ready to fork over $9.99, you can try Bossjock Jr. for free first.

See it in action here:

Now it’s your turn: What amazing things have you accomplished with your iPhone?

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Facebook Releases Live Video Streaming to Limited Number of iPhone Users by @dantosz | Dramel Notes

The live video feature Facebook began testing with celebrities this summer is now available to a small portion of US-based iPhone users. According to the Facebook Newsroom, this new feature will allow users to share streaming videos they are seeing in real-time.

To share a live video, click “Update Status” and then look for the “Live Video” icon, next to the photo, tag, and emoticon options on your iPhone. The icon appears as a person with two rings around their head.

Facebook described the features abilities in a blog post by Vadim Lavrusik and Thai Tran.

“During your broadcast, you’ll see the number of live viewers, the names of friends who are tuning in, and a real-time stream of comments. When you end your broadcast, it will be saved on your Timeline like any other video, which you can then delete or keep for your friends to watch later.”

The expansion of this feature may be in an effort to challenge sites like Periscope and Meercat.

Currently, I do not have this new feature on my iPhone. Do you? I’d love to hear your thoughts after trying it.

 

Featured Image: 1000 Words / Shutterstock.com

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How to Customize the “Respond with Text” Messages to Calls on iPhone | Dramel Notes

You can easily ignore or reject calls on your iPhone. However, what if you want to at least send a quick message to acknowledge the call? There are three default text messages you can send as responses to calls on your iPhone.

If none of the default text message responses serve your purpose, you can change them. To customize the “Respond with Text” responses, tap “Settings” on the Home screen on your iPhone.

On the “Settings” screen, tap “Phone”.

Tap “Respond with Text” on the “Phone” settings screen.

On the “Respond with Text” screen, tap on the response you want to replace.

Type your custom response. Your response is stored automatically and you can return to the Home screen directly using the Home button.

NOTE: If you return to the Home screen directly from the “Respond with Text” settings screen, that same screen will display the next time you open “Settings”.

Any responses you customized display in darker text and a round button with an “x” on it displays to the right. If you decide to go back to the default response you replaced with your custom response, tap on the “x” button.

NOTE: You can only choose from three text message responses for calls. You cannot add any more; you can only change the existing responses.

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How to Set up and Use AirPlay on the New Apple TV | Dramel Notes

When you use AirPlay on the new Apple TV, it means you can mirror your Mac, iPhone or iPad’s screen, play videos from iTunes, and so forth. Here is how to go about setting up AirPlay on your new Apple TV.

We described how to set up AirPlay on the previous third generation Apple TV. With the new fourth generation Apple TV, the procedure isn’t too different, but there are several new options to which you should be aware.

To begin, you should click the “Settings” tile on your Apple TV’s home screen.

In Settings, click open “AirPlay”.

In the AirPlay settings, you will see that the first option will immediately let you turn the feature on or off.

The second option lets you rename your Apple TV to something either location-based such as “Living Room” or “Kitchen” or you can give it your very own custom name.

If you select the custom option, you will need to use the Siri Remote to delete the default name “Apple TV” and enter a new one. We’ve not been shy about detailing how much of a pain this is, but you can adjust the remote’s sensitivity if you have a difficult time hitting your targets.

One of the new features you’ll find in the fourth generation Apple TV is “AirPlay Display Underscan”. If you’re projecting an image from your Apple TV and it is cropped, then turn the underscan feature on; if there are black bars around the image, then turn it off.

The underscan feature is set to “Auto” by default. You will probably not have to mess with it.

When you project your screen from your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, you can elect to assign security to the process. You can do this in the form of a passcode or password.

Finally, the last option is to “Require Device Verification”. With this enabled, you will need to enter a one-time onscreen code to use your devices with Apple TV on your Wi-Fi network.

Let’s talk briefly now about how to use AirPlay in practice on a Mac and then on an iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad.

Using AirPlay on Your Apple Devices

If you want to actually use AirPlay to project something from your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, then it’s very simple to accomplish.

On your Mac, you can mirror your full screen, which means if you want to watch a movie using VLC or watch YouTube videos in a Safari tab, the option is available.

First open the display preferences and look to the bottom-left corner where it says “AirPlay Display”.

Click it and choose which ever Apple TV you want to mirror to. Remember you can rename your Apple TV(s) (described above) so if you have a unit in the living room or the bedroom, you can mirror to it.

If your device requires verification, the Apple TV will display a code on the screen and you will need to enter it into your Mac when it asks for the “AirPlay Device Password”.

While you’re at it, you should tick the box on the display preferences that says “Show mirroring options in the menu bar when available”. You will then see the AirPlay icon, which if you click, will display mirroring options for your Apple TV(s).

In iTunes, you can stream to your Apple TV directly from iTunes. If you have a large iTunes library or have converted your DVDs to an iTunes-friendly format, then you can play everything to your Apple TV without having to mirror you screen, which means you can then continue to work on your computer.

Again, on iTunes, you will need to enter a code if the Apple TV requires it.

If this is just temporary, then you can store the “AirPlay Client Identity” once by clicking “Allow” or if it is permanent, then you can click “Always Allow”.

Moving over to iOS, swipe up from the bottom edge to access the Control Center and tap “AirPlay” to turn it on. You also need to make sure that your iPhone or iPad is connected to your WiFi network.

The AirPlay dialog will have you choose your AirPlay device, in this case the only one available is our Apple TV. Like on our Mac, you have the opportunity to mirror your device’s screen.

If you have device verification enabled, a code will appear on your TV screen, which you will need to enter into your device.

Once you’ve got AirPlay set up and running, you can project your iPhone or Mac’s screen to your TV, watch movies, TV shows, or play music. You can even play games if you’re so inclined, though you might experience a small amount of lag, which might hamper your gaming performance.

We hope you found this article useful and will be able to use AirPlay on your Apple TV and other Apple devices. If you have any questions or comments you would like to contribute, please leave your feedback in our discussion forum.

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The 8 Best Apps For Any Event Planner Needs For iPhone, iPad And Android | Dramel Notes

The 8 Best Apps For Any Event Planner Needs For iPhone, iPad And Android

 

Any kind of event planning can be stressful, even if you are an organized being. With the endless checklist to wade through and last minute changes, it is challenging to keep on top of things. Luckily, there are apps for your smartphone and tablet which can make things easier.

 

Here are the most useful apps for any event planner.

 

1. Bizzabo

Event planning is like juggling multiple elements of an event or conference at once. Bizzabo can help you with this by allowing your attendees to see a mobile agenda, understand the networking capabilities, and integrate it with social media to create a buzz about the event itself. You have the option to send out real-time announcements about any changes to be really engaged with your attendees.

 

2. Eventbrite

Eventbrite is a great ticketing app that can help you speed up the check-in process. Go paperless and integrate it with your mobile device, so that you can avoid having to carry a guest list around. The Eventbrite app can quickly scan barcode at the door and provide an up-to-date list. Your guests will be pleased by the ease of getting in the door.

 

3. Evernote

Event planning is a team effort. Evernote can help you delegate and manage the event as a mobile filing system, organize everything from venue research, travel itineraries, and menus. You can share notes and update seamlessly with the members of your team by syncing this app across multiple devices so that everyone will receive the latest information.

 

4. HeyTell

Communication with your team members is vital for a smooth event. HeyTell which turns your smartphone into a walkie-talkie is ideal when you need to speak to someone quickly and urgently and is far more efficient than email or texting.

 

5. Scanner Pro

Digitize your papers and receipts with this handy app., without worrying about hard copy. Scanner Pro will help you scan documents with a snapshot and convert it to PDF to be easily sent out via email.

 

6. Dropbox

With all your important notes, guest lists, and photos synced across devices with your team members, all you need now is a cloud storage to keep everything organized and accessible from any device. Dropbox will allow you to upload, organize and share all manner of documents digitally and even edit on the spot.

 

7. 24me

The responsibility to manage an event or conference might be overwhelming. 24me can help you manage your day-to-day responsibilities and act as a smart calendar, constantly reminding you what will be up next.

 

8. Hootsuite

Stay on top of your social media engagement with Hootsuite. This handy app will create streams and help you keep up-to-date with the buzz surrounding the event content, schedule new posts, and generally know what is being said in real-time.

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5 Best Love Apps For Couples On iPhone, iPad And Android | Dramel Notes

5 Best Love Apps For Couples On iPhone, iPad And Android

 

Instant messaging apps really does help to keep in touch with friends and families, but what about couples? What if you and your sweetheart want to share with each other more than just text? Yes, there are apps designed specially for couples.

 

They can make you feel a lot closer to each other than you actually are. Here is a list of best apps that cater to couples.

 

1. Avocado

This heart-shaped seed app is a social media and sharing app made for two. I love the feature that everything that you do with your significant other is archived, so that you can track your relationship as it progresses. There is a sketch pad in the app so you can doodle all over your photos or start over with a blank canvas. Send hugs to your love by holding the phone to your chest or tap a photo to send kisses.

 

2. Snapchat

Snapchat is a fun messaging app. Take a snapshot, add a caption and send it to the one you love. They can view it, and laugh, then the image disappears from their screen unless they take a screenshot. The app promises that the snaps, chats, and stories are deleted once they expire so this app is one of the favorite among lovers.

 

3. Couple

The ThumbKiss feature in this app is really sweet. Place your thumb on the screen, and when your significant other does the same, your phone will give a slight buzz. Couple encourages you to get out of the house by suggesting restaurants and popular destinations. Both of you can doodle together in real-time or play games from thousand of miles apart.

 

4. Between

Between has a nice user interface that is simplistic in design. Send weather updates to the one you love so that couples can feel closer together by visually showing the weather that they are experiencing. Couples can also store and share their intimate moments with each other in their private photo album.

 

5. LoveByte

LoveByte’s customizable timeline will let you decide which photos or notes are important to post as a milestone in your relationship. Similar to Couple app, this app can recommend interesting date ideas and activities for both of you. It is a couples messenger and private scrapbook of happy moments between you and your significant other.

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