Don’t let the backlash against scrapbooking get you down — photo collages are fun. You can go to the store and buy a multi-framed monstrosity to put your hardcopy photos in and mount it on your wall, or you can use an app on your Mac or iPad to take some of the work out of it.
If you’re looking to make your own collage on your iPad, Pixlr is a fantastic choice, as it makes putting various photos together and adding fun effects incredibly simple and fun.
Here’s how.
We all know a Mac is the best computer. It’s the most reliable, the least fuss and usually the most snappy. But, as with all computers, the trusty Macintosh can also become sluggish after a while.
In today’s Cult of Mac video, we’re going to show you eight easy, useful tips to speed up your Mac.
An update this week has given Instagram a new superpower: You can now stitch together several clips into a single video in the app. Some of the process and details are a little unclear, however, so we’re here to help walk you through it.
Here’s how to make your classic montages in Instagram.
If you’re anything like me, you knew that the new 4th-generation Apple TV supported Bluetooth devices like the Siri Remote, game controllers, and even keyboards, but you didn’t twig to the fact that it might also let you use Bluetooth headphones, too.
In point of fact, though, it does support them, letting you watch Netflix or game on your Apple TV without the sound of your activities waking the baby or a sleeping partner. How great is that?
Here’s how to set it up.
Fitness is not just about walking, running and cycling, despite what your Apple Watch may have you believe. Strength training is also important. Without it, your fitness routine is like a one-hand clap. Whether you are aiming for a ripped beach body or just to improve your overall health, you need to lift some weights.
Apple Watch and iPhone do not offer built-in support for strength training, but the good news is there are plenty of third-party apps that can plug the gap. Apple Watch weightlifting apps can help in three ways: by telling you what to do; showing you how to do it; and keeping a log of what you’ve done.
There are many times when family or friends need help with their Macs, or they aren’t sure how to do something. Trying to walk them through it blind is challenging at best. Luckily, a little-known feature in Messages exists that allows me to share my screen instantly with another Mac user or request direct access to their screen.
Prior to screen sharing being native to the Messages app, you’d have to use a third-party solution such as Team Viewer to help someone with a Mac issue. Messages is far more convenient and, in my experience, an app that almost 100 percent of Mac owners actually use and already understand.
Have you ever wanted to make your own memes? You know, the funny pictures with the bold text on the top and bottom that all the kids are going crazy for these days?
With Photo Editor by Aviary, you can do just that, plus add stickers, frames, and even do some pretty great photo editing right in the same app.
Here’s how to make your own hilarious memes with Aviary (though we don’t guarantee your memes will actually be funny — that’s up to you).
Facebook Messenger is more and more becoming my default chat tool as it’s the one app most of my buddies have, either on their laptop or mobile device, regardless of platform.
Thing is, Messenger filters a bunch of messages you’ve received, and I’m willing to bet you didn’t even know they were there.
If you want to find all those hidden Facebook messages, here’s how.
If you want to create amazing images like the one above, Enlight is a fantastic way to do so on the iPad (or iPhone).
Most of us don’t want to take a huge amount of time, either, learning how to create these images in-camera or with a big application like Photoshop.
Enlight makes it so easy, even a photo newbie like myself can create amazing double exposures with Enlight in just a few minutes.
Back in November, I purchased a 12.9-inch iPad Pro and a Smart Keyboard to go with it. I was so used to my Belkin keyboard paired with my iPad Air 2 that I quickly became frustrated with the Smart Keyboard’s lack of a shortcut row. Before long, I returned the Smart Keyboard (and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro).
Sony’s latest PlayStation 4 update has arrived, bringing Remote Play to Mac and PC for the first time.
This awesome feature lets you enjoy your favorite PS4 games while you’re in another room, or even away from home — and it’s super simple to setup. Here’s what you need to do.
Instagram has a fair amount of filters, but boy everyone uses them all the time. You know a photo’s come from the photo-sharing social network when you can call out the filters on it: X-Pro, Hefe, Clarendon!
If you’re looking to stand out from the crowd, check out AfterLight, a sweetly-priced iOS app for iPad (and iPhone) with over 74 amazing filters and effects (and that’s just the free ones) to make your photos the envy of all the other basic Instagram users out there.
Here’s how to make best use of AfterLight’s massive toolset.
There aren’t a lot of apps I use regularly on my Apple Watch. The ones that I do use regularly consist of utilities that make my life easier, or apps that help me track things, like water intake or how many tasks I have left for the day. One of my favorite utilities is MacID, which offers even faster access to my Mac with my Apple Watch (or my iPhone).
VSCO is a fantastic photo app for iPhone and iPad, and it lets you shoot some killer photos as well as edit them directly in the same app once you’ve taken your masterpiece.
The app is universal, which means it works well on iPhone and iPad, natively. The extra screen real estate, however, makes VCSO on iPad a fantastic choice just for editing any photos you like, whether you took them with your iPad, iPhone, or any other camera you might have.
Here’s how.
If you’re running out of local or iCloud storage space on your iPhone (or iPad), it may be time to check how much space the Messages app is taking up. By default, your iPhone or iPad is set to save any messages you send and receive forever. This can result in iPhone “out of storage” messages, slow performance, and slow-loading performance when scrolling through threads.
Unless you really need to save every single message, there’s a quick way to potentially save gigs of space in just a few taps. Here’s how!
Why would you want to disable the fast mobile network speeds of LTE? Sometimes you’ll hit an area with spotty LTE coverage and your iPhone will bounce between 3G, LTE or even EDGE. That can kill your battery and you’ll want to disable LTE to avoid that.
Or maybe you just want to turn off your data to avoid any overages, or because you feel better when not constantly connected while on the go. Whatever your personal reason, here’s how to disable LTE on your iPhone.
Quick — go check and see if you have enough free space on your iPhone.
I’m guessing you’re like the rest of us, and can use a little more — especially if you’ve got a smaller iPhone in the 16 GB range.
If you’re looking to free up some storage space on any size iPhone, here’s a bizarre little trick that just might astound you.
Whether you need to make something to show of your science project, make the sale, or help museum patrons understand a work of art, chances are you’ll need to make a slideshow that incorporates images, text and other media. Sometimes, you might even need to make one on the fly.
FlowVella is a free slideshow creation app that works on your Mac, iPad, and now iPhone for making killer presentations both at home and on the go. Here’s how.
Every day I hear at least one complaint about the Facebook app wreaking havoc on iPhone battery life. Unfortunately, this isn’t breaking news — it seems to re-surface, with a new level of severity, every couple of months. Not only does Facebook use tons of battery when left unchecked, it can also take up insane amounts of storage space on your iPhone.
This is exactly why I never let Facebook have permission to access … well, almost anything on my iPhone. Here are some tips that will help you stop the notorious Facebook iPhone battery drain.
As you may have noticed over the last month or so, I’ve had a little bit of a fascination with workflow automation and iOS. While some of it is the aftermath of trying to go iPad-only, most of it is simply because I love using iOS to make managing tasks easier whenever possible.
What’s new on your Apple TV? Quite a bit, if you’ve got the latest fourth-generation device and have updated it to tvOS 9.2.
There’s a new folders system for total organization, new support for Bluetooth keyboards, a podcasts app, a multitasking visual upgrade and a new default video-scrubbing behavior.
Check out all of the awesome new tricks you can do with the latest Apple TV update.
No matter how many email apps I try, I just keep coming back to the stock iOS Mail app. While some of the things I’ve come to love about the iPhone’s built-in Mail app are obvious, some are not — such as shortcuts or gestures that make using it even more intuitive. Here are a few favorite iOS Mail tips I think everyone should know.
There’s a new Apple TV update in town, and it adds a few obvious features, like Bluetooth keyboard support and Siri Dictation in search and user name/password fields.
tvOS 9.2 also has some less-obvious improvements, though. For instance, it’s easy to locate the exact spot you want to find in any video. Here’s how to scrub through video on Apple TV with your Siri Remote in tvOS 9.2.
There are lots of finance apps available for iPhone these days. Some of them make tasks that used to be painfully irritating easier than ever — like monitoring your credit report and viewing your credit scores. Even better, if you have the right combination of finance apps, you can regularly monitor all three of your credit scores for free, right from your iPhone. Here’s how!
With this week’s release of tvOS 9.2 for Apple TV, the fourth-generation set-top box now works with Bluetooth keyboards. While the splash screen specifically calls out Apple wireless keyboards, the truth is that you might be able pair pretty much any Bluetooth external keyboard with your new Apple TV.
Here’s how. (And here’s how to upgrade to tvOS 9.2 if you haven’t already.)