iPad&iPhoneUserIssue84.pdf

ISSUE 84

iPad Air

vs Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet P LU S

BEST TRAVEL APPS

COMPLETE GUIDE TO iOS 7.1.1

Welcome... T 

he iPad Air remains king of the tablet world, but its future is starting to look a little shaky with the emergence of the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet. Sony’s Z2 is a solid rival, potentially faster and with fancy features such as waterproofing, but more is required to blow Apple’s champ out the water. We compare the two from page 15. Of course, the iPad Air – and other iOS devices – recently received a boost with the iOS 7.1.1 update. We look at the updated mobile OS in from page 3. Even with the useful functionality afforded by Office for iOS (see page 70), the iPad remains a device we use for entertainment. So what do we like to do with ourselves outside the office? Well, we like to sleep. You’ll find our top sleep apps on page 78. And we like to go on holiday – see page 82 for the top travel apps. Chilling out in front of a film is pretty good, too (see how to import a DVD to an iPad on page 66). But the number-one thing we do with an iPad is go online. We recently asked iPad & iPhone User editors what they’d do without the internet (you can read what they said over on our Tech Advisor blog at tinyurl.com/noyckc6), and we learned that without the web we’d all be unemployed, uninformed, anti-social and pretty darn bored. To make sure you never go without the web, we explain how to manage your iPhone’s data on page 35, plus how to share its data connection (page 32).

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iOS 7.1.1 Definitive review of Apple’s latest iOS update

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OS 7, the latest version of Apple’s operating system software for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, heralds the biggest change to the visual style of its mobile interface since the first iPhone was demonstrated in 2007. For the first time, the new look is the brainchild of Jonathan Ive, the person behind the hardware design of Apple’s products since the original Bondi Blue iMac. The most noticeable differences in iOS 7 are a set of new, brightly coloured icons and a simpler, more minimal design aesthetic. It’s all part of a so-called ‘flat design’ that replaces faux-3D elements such as bevelled buttons and embossed toolbars that were used in all previous iterations of iOS. Yet transparent

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layers and other neat visual tricks convey depth in more subtle ways.

New features Update, 30th April 2014: Before we get on to the major changes from iOS 6 to iOS 7, we’ll quickly cover the smaller (but often significant) tweaks and design updates that have arrived since iOS 7.1’s initial launch. These have been released in Apple’s two latest point updates, iOS 7.1 and iOS 7.1.1, both of which are free to download. (Bear in mind that, barring some clever jailbreaking or similar hacks, you have to install the latest OS when updating. At time of writing, if you want to update from iOS 6 to iOS 7, that means iOS 7.1.1. iOS 7.0 is no longer an option for most of us.)

Visual changes The most obvious change in iOS 7.1 is visual. This update saw some of the more controversial aspects of iOS 7’s design toned down and softened to appeal to a wider audience. Take the ‘toxic’ bright greens that people found so objectionable, for instance. Those are now darker and less eye-catching. This has mostly been applauded, although we now miss the old look ever so slightly. I guess we

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got used to it. Some interface changes are more obvious. The Phone app, for example, sees a lot of bar-style buttons replaced by round buttons, and the old caller ID image, which used to take up the whole screen, has been shrunk to a little thumbnail: iOS 7.1 includes a number of other visual updates, including some changes to typography and colour choices, as well as updated interfaces in Apple apps.

Performance changes The most controversial aspect of iOS 7 wasn’t the look, however – it was the performance penalty seen on older hardware. The iPhone 4 was supposed to be able to handle iOS 7 (it was the lowest level of iPhone ratified for this), but many iPhone 4 experienced slowdowns after updating. iOS 7.1 addresses this, and benckmark tests show that an iPhone 4 is faster on iOS 7.1 than on iOS 7. It’s still slower than on iOS 6, however, and our advice to iPhone 4 owners would be not to update.

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New Siri voices iOS 7.1 included new Siri voices. In the UK that means at long last the option of a female voice hooray! You can stick with the bloke if you prefer.

CarPlay As expected, iOS 7.1 brings CarPlay compatibility. We’ve got more on that here: CarPlay buying guide: which cars and models come with Apple CarPlay?

Touch ID This one will only affect iPhone 5s owners, but iOS 7.1.1 includes some improvements to the way Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner works.

Thin and flat interface design A thinner system font, Helvetica Neue, is used throughout the system. Borders around many apps are plain white with simple black text, with a colour tint used to indicate buttons and interactive elements. This minimalist design reminds us of the approach Jony Ive favours for the seamless casing of Apple’s hardware. Certain apps such as Game Center and Notepad, which previously used graphical replicas of real-world objects to convey their function, such as yellow notepaper and green table felt, have been scaled back to only provide visual information relevant

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to the task they perform. But the flat, simplistic style takes some getting used to. When Apple first demonstrated iOS 7, the initial response was not entirely positive. The icons in particular have polarised opinion, with many describing the bright colours as garish, childish, or plain ugly, compared with the previous established designs. Changing the look of a software interface familiar to millions is a delicate procedure, with the risk that by confusing users, they may abandon your platform and opt for a competitor’s product instead. Sensibly, although Apple has made radical changes to the appearance of iOS 7, the method of interacting with the devices is just about identical. This is no repeat of Microsoft’s Windows 8 debacle, where users were left floundering for their way around.

Transparency, depth and three dimensions iOS 7 grows on you over time. Behind the simple appearance are subtle and complex ideas. The redesigned Notification Centre has a translucent background, allowing the wallpaper and icons to show through, enhancing the sense that each UI element is a physical object lying atop whatever’s underneath. The new Control Centre, accessed by swiping from the bottom of the screen upwards, is similarly see-through, as is the Search bar, which now appears when you swipe down on any empty area of the wallpaper.

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Control Centre provides easy access to commonly adjusted settings such as Flight Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Flashlight toggles, something users have been requesting. The transparent effect is striking. Choose a wallpaper with a range of sharp blues, for example, and UI elements such as the new translucent dock glow with a frosty appearance, almost as through a pane of glass. Change to a purple background – Apple’s new set of included wallpapers have been carefully chosen to highlight this – and the UI looks totally different. Another small touch Apple has added to the wallpapers is a clever parallax effect, where you can tilt your device to slightly roll the background image behind the icons, giving the subtle impression that they are physical objects on a different plane from the background. The effect is nifty, and enhances the idea that three-dimensional space is created from interface elements, rather than via the more basic shading of buttons on iOS 6 and earlier. There’s another 3D effect when opening and closing apps. Tap on an icon and the app neatly zooms in to become full screen. Hit the home button and it zooms out. This works on folders of icons too, and gives the impression you’re drilling in and out of various sections of iOS 7, again to make it seem the OS is built from layers of physical objects. Words

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don’t easily convey how impressive this looks in the flesh, but it’s undoubtedly one of the best visual improvements of the software. On the down side, a number of users with vestibular disorders have reported that the many animation tricks within iOS 7 trigger motion sickness and related problems. Apple has been reasonably responsive to concerns, and you can tone things down by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion, but not everyone is satisfied. With these caveats, however, iOS 7 is on balance a design triumph, full of attractive visual touches. The passcode lock screen (see page 8), for instance – which might seem trivial, but is a screen the average user will be seeing a lot of – has been given a much more modern look.

Music The Music app now lets you browse your music via a scrolling list of cover art, with a quick tap zooming onto the album, displaying a tracklist.

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Voice recorder The voice recorder, which previously showed a redundant picture of a real microphone, now displays a simple spectral analyser and a list of recordings, along with a big red button to start capturing audio.

Camera The Camera has received perhaps the most attention, and is all the better for it. You can quickly swipe through photography modes: normal, square, panoramic and video, with a set of Instragram-like filters to apply, such as chrome or sepia. The iPhone 4 doesn’t get all these features, though.

Safari web browser Rather than being limited to eight, you can now open as many tabs as you like in Safari, which has a smaller border around web pages to display more information on the screen. When browsing through

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your open tabs on an iPhone you can swipe through screenshots of each page, presented as a 3D roll of pages. Safari in iOS 7 also sees improved navigation and performance tweaks, a unified search field, new bookmarking features and more.

Calendar Calendar is perhaps the best example of how iOS 7 uses colour to draw the user’s attention to relevant information. The current date is highlighted with a big red circle, instantly drawing your eye to it, with the same shade of red used to highlight other interactive elements. But there are drawbacks to the aggressive minimalism of iOS 7’s calendar, and we can see many users looking elsewhere for a calendar app. On the iPad, month view lets you see a few words of each appointment or birthday, but the iPhone – which surely is the platform on which most people use a calendar app - is far less useful: in portrait mode you only see a little dot to indicate that something is happening (we advise switching off indicators for Facebook birthdays and such like, or you’ll find that almost every day has a dot). And in landscape mode you only see a five-hour snatch of three days at a time, making it hard to quickly skim your free nights.

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Maps Apple’s much-criticised Maps are still present, as expected, but with a few small additions. There’s a scale indicator in the corner, and bookmarks are now saved in iCloud and shared across devices, a handy addition we think that should have been there in the first place. Mac users can look forward to being able to send maps and directions directly to their iPhone using the desktop Maps app in OS X Mavericks, too.

Siri Two years after it launched, Siri is no longer in beta. The interface is slightly changed, but the big addition is a wider range of search abilities. Ask it to search Wikipedia, and it comes up with the article without going into Safari and loading the page. Search the web (amusingly now with Bing, a further severing of Apple’s ties to Google) and you get all sorts of relevant information directly in the app. This is a far better approach that makes Siri more useful in itself, rather than as a voice-controlled launchpad to other parts of the system.

Newsstand The Newsstand app now runs full screen, with a gorgeous shaded background that shows your wallpaper through it, rather than expanding like a folder as in iOS

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6. And thank goodness, if you don’t use it, it can now be dropped into the obligatory ‘unused’ folder everyone often ends up with on their device, rather than occupying space on the home screen.

Multitasking Multitasking, to simply switch between already open apps, now works as it does on Android or HP’s WebOS software. There’s a snapshot of each running app displayed above the icon. Swiping up closes the app.

Visuals, ringtones and backgrounds As before, Apple has aimed for a consistent experience between the experience of using iOS 7 on both the iPhone and iPad, using the same colours, design choices and identical functionality. The major differences are related to layout, with a prominent use of split-views (such as in the Settings app) to display more information on the larger tablet screen. A small addition that will be welcomed by many is the inclusion of a new set of tasteful ringtones. The old ones are still there too in a ‘classics’ folder, if you’re quite attached to the familiar default Marimba tone, for example. There’s also a range of dynamic backgrounds, with bubbles that slowly move across the screen if you move the device.

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This makes use of a new physics API built into iOS, one of a long list of under-the-bonnet enhancements in iOS 7 that third-party developers can take advantage of.

Miscellaneous updates The hard limit to the number of apps you can keep in a folder has been removed, a major irritation for people with a lot of apps on their device, which often resulted in a messy folder system such as ‘Games 1’, ‘Games 2’, ‘Games 3’ and so on. Once again, a few apps on the iPhone aren’t available on the iPad, and vice versa, wherever Apple has deemed them less relevant. The iPad has no Voice Memos, Passbook, Compass, or Stocks app (thankfully for many unconcerned by city finances) while the iPhone misses out on the Photobooth app.

Verdict iOS 7.1.1 tackles the criticisms that were levelled at iOS 7 in an admirably honest fashion, such as the more extreme colour choices and the performance issues on older hardware. Nevertheless, you’ll be disappointed if you were hoping for Android-like features, such as widgets, the ability to change the default keyboard, or install apps without going through the App Store.

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iPad Air vs Sony Xperia Z2 Ashleigh Allsopp reveals which 10in tablet is best

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ony has launched a new iPad Air rival, the Xperia Z2 Tablet, and with a thinner, lighter design than Apple’s latest iPad it’s certainly a contender for the top spot. Here, we put the two 10in tablets head-to-head to compare design, tech specs, features and software and determine which is best: iPad Air or Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet. Can Sony really scare Apple with its new tablet offering?

Build and design Apple’s iPad Air is known for its incredibly lightweight and thin design, so it may come as a surprise that the Xperia Z2 Tablet, despite having a slightly bigger display at 10.1in compared with the iPad Air’s 9.7in, is thinner and lighter than the Air. Believed to be the thinnest and lightest 10in tablet in the world, the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet is just 6.4mm thick and weighs 429g, whereas the iPad Air weighs slightly more at 469g and is 7.5mm thick.

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While we think the overall look and feel of the Xperia Z2 Tablet is stylish and high quality and are impressed by its incredibly light weight, it still doesn’t ooze style, sophistication and coolness like the iPad Air does. The bezels on the Xperia Z2 Tablet are pretty enormous, and it’s a simple, squared device that is just not as appealing as the iPad Air, in our opinion.

Price The iPad Air and Xperia Z2 Tablet match up closely when it comes to price. Both tablets start at £399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi-only models, or £499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi plus 4G models. That makes it difficult to choose a clear winner when it comes to value. The iPad Air’s 32GB model is £30 more than Sony’s Xperia Z2 Tablet equivalent, though.

Screen While both classified as 10in tablets, the iPad Air and Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet’s screens do differ. The iPad

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Air has a smaller display, at 9.7in, while the Z2 Tablet has a bigger, 10.1in display. The iPad Air has a higher pixel density, though, with a resolution of 2048x1536 pixels which makes it 264 pixels per inch (ppi). The Xperia Z2 Tablet’s resolution is 1920x1200 pixels, which equates to 224ppi, so the iPad Air’s higher pixel density means you’ll get a slightly sharper, more detailed picture. Beyond that, both the tablets have the same IPS LCD display technology and are able to show 16,777,216 colours each, which means both the iPad Air and Z2 Tablet are excellent devices to use for watching movies and television shows, or viewing image slideshows, for example.

Processor, performance In theory, the Xperia Z2 Tablet should trump the iPad Air when it comes to performance, as it has more impressive hardware specifications in terms of processors and memory. The iPad Air sports an Apple-exclusive A7 chip with a 64-bit architecture, which is certainly a speedy processor, but it’s a dual-core at 1400MHz, whereas the Xperia Z2 has a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor running at 2300MHz. The Z2 also has 3GB of RAM

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compared with the iPad Air’s 1GB. That said, both the iPad Air and the Xperia Z2 have such excellent performance specs that it’s unlikely you’ll notice much difference between the two. Both are fast and responsive, even during heavy-duty tasks. We’ve put both tablets through some benchmark tests to give you an idea of where they rank against each other. It’s worth noting, though, that these are synthetic tests designed to give you a number, not hard-and-fast rankings. In the GFXBench test, which benchmarks graphics performance, the Xperia Z2 tablet managed to beat the iPad Air. Averaged over three runs of the T-Rex (onscreen) test, the Z2 tablet scored 1,530 frames at 27fps, while the iPad Air averaged at 1,187 and 21fps. However, both tablets can run the most demanding of games, so you should find that both are exceptional when it comes to graphics performance.

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The GeekBench 3 test for the Xperia Z2 just tops Apple’s iPad Air results. Designed to test the overall performance of a tablet, the Z2 scored an impressive 2719 in the multi-core test, compared with the iPad Air’s 2703. In the single-core test, though, the iPad Air trumped the Xperia Z2 with a score of 1487 compared with the Z2’s 967. In the SunSpider Javascript test, which measures your browser’s ability to handle Javascript, the iPad Air blitzed the Xperia Z2 Tablet. Lower is better in this test, so the iPad Air’s score of 400ms beats the Xperia Z2 Tablet’s 1099ms by a long way.

Storage The iPad Air is available from a 16GB model all the way up to 128GB, though it’ll set you back more than £600 for the latter. The Xperia Z2 tablet, on the other hand, is only available up to 32GB, though,

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it does have a MicroSD slot that lets you add up to 64GB of storage. So, unless you really need the whopping 128GB iPad Air, you’ll find that the iPad Air and Xperia Z2 can offer similar capabilities when it comes to storage. That said, you won’t be able to add further storage to your iPad Air, so you’ll need to pick the capacity you think will suit you when you purchase it and the price skyrockets pretty quickly as you begin increasing the built-in storage. With the Xperia Z2, you can add storage at a later date at a reasonably low cost. A 32GB MicroSD card can cost you around £20, or even less if you shop around.

Camera We’re still not keen on the idea of using a tablet as a camera, aside from video calling, of course, so the specifications of the camera aren’t of critical importance to us. However, for some consumers who enjoy tablet photography, it could be the deciding factor. Apple’s iPad Air falls down against the Xperia Z2 Tablet when it comes to the camera. The Z2

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boasts an 8.1Mp camera with a variety of modes and features including panorama, self timer, smile detection and white balance presets in addition to the autofocus, face detection and HDR that it shares with the iPad Air. The Z2 Tablet’s front-facing camera is also better than the iPad Air’s at 2.2Mp compared with Apple’s 1.2Mp offering. Both the iPad Air and the Z2 Tablet have the ability to capture 1080p HD video, though. Overall, if the camera on your tablet is a really big deal then you might want to consider the Z2 Tablet, but for us, the iPad Air’s camera is perfectly sufficient for our needs so we’d still choose the iPad Air.

Software When it comes to software, the Air runs Apple’s gorgeous iOS 7, with default apps and extra features including iCloud, Safari, Apple Maps, FaceTime, Game Center, Newsstand and iTunes. Apple also offers Find My iPhone, Find My Friends services.

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We love iOS 7, and also love the apps available on the iOS App Store for the iPad, though the Google Play Store is catching up in terms of numbers. We’d choose iOS 7 any day over the Sony Xperia Z2’s Android 4.4 KitKat, additionally because we already own many iOS apps and wouldn’t want to have to buy them again for Android. That said, KitKat is the most recent Android software to be released, and is not yet available on all devices, so we’re pleased to see that Sony had adopted it. Sony also has the Walkman app complete with ClearAudio+ designed for better audio quality, and Music Unlimited, a service similar to Apple’s iTunes Radio (which has yet to arrive in the UK). There’s also the PlayStation Mobile app which lets you download new games directly from the PlayStation Store, and the compatibility with the DualShock 3 controller for an enhanced gaming experience. While Apple’s iPad Air has AirPlay Mirroring (which requires a £99 Apple TV) Sony’s Xperia Z2 Tablet has screen mirroring and a ‘Throw’ feature that lets you virtually flick your content onto your television screen so long as your TV has DLNA or Bluetooth capabilities.

Battery life In terms of battery life, we’ve yet to test out the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet’s battery ourself, so we’ll base this

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on Sony’s own estimations. It says the Z2’s 600mAh battery will last for more than 50 days on standby, but, while in use, it has a mode called ‘Stamina Mode’ which can significantly prolong the battery life of the device. In Stamina Mode, the Z2 recognises when you’re not using the display and automatically turns off unneeded functions that’ll begin running again only when you activate the screen. With this taken into consideration, Sony touts up to 188 hours of music listening time and up to 13 hours of video playback time for the device. You can charge the Z2 Tablet using Micro-USB or, alternatively, the wireless magnetic charging pat situated on the bottom of the device. You’ll need to have a compatible accessory such as Sony’s speaker dock in order to take advantage of the wireless capabilities, though. Meanwhile, the iPad Air has an 8820mAh battery, which is pretty huge but still smaller than the battery found in its predecessors. Apple says that it’ll last for up to 10 hours of web browsing, listening to music or watching videos. Overall, the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet should last longer than the iPad Air in theory, but we’ll need to put the two tablets through head-to-head tests to determine the true result soon.

Other features Really, the only other feature important to note is the durability of the two tablets, which is significantly

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different due to the Xperia Z2’s waterproof and dust resistant nature. Sony’s tablet is waterproof and dust resistant to an IP55 and IP58 standard, and has covers for all ports that could potentially let water in. The iPad Air, on the other hand, is not waterproof or dust resistant, so if you’re known for being clumsy you may want to consider whether the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet is a more suitable option. Of course, you could always buy a waterproof case for the iPad Air if you’ve got your heart set on it.

Verdict As users of Apple products including Macs and iPhones, the iPad Air is the natural and more fitting choice for us. We’d choose the Air not only due to its stunning design and easy-to-use software, but also because it ties in well with the our Apple ecosystem including iCloud and our purchased apps. However, it’s clear that Apple is not absolutely ahead of the game with the iPad Air, and that the successor to its most recent tablet should bring something new to the table that can blow the likes of the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet out of the water. After all, its camera, weight, thickness, and even processor and battery life are better than the iPad Air, at least on paper for the latter. The Z2 is a solid rival that could cause some minor concern for Apple, so let’s hope the company is innovating hard behind the scenes to launch something that enables us to write a comparison review in the future that can recommend the iPad without a shadow of a doubt, because right now, it’s tricky to be convinced that Apple’s ahead of the game.

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iPhoto vs Aperture Which of Apple’s apps is best for your needs?

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Photo comes free with every new Mac, and there is even a version you can use on the iPhone and iPad, but for some people with particularly large photo libraries, or very large images iPhoto might not be enough. Would it be worth updating from iPhoto to Apple’s Aperture in that case? We evaluate the options in this comparison review. It’s easy to get started with iPhoto, as all your photos are automatically sorted into ‘events’ that group together photos taken on the same date. You can also use its Places feature to display the locations of photos on a map, or the Faces option to identify photos of particular people.

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Stepping up to Aperture is just as easy as the latest version of Aperture can share your existing iPhoto library. The first time you launch Aperture it gives you the option of importing your iPhoto library, complete with all your events, places and faces information, so you’ll immediately know where to find all your favourite shots. The only minor complication here is that iPhoto events are referred to as ‘projects’ in Aperture – which is a hangover from the days when Aperture cost hundreds of pounds and was primarily aimed at professional photographers who used it to organise their work projects. Apart from that, the two programs organise your photo library in essentially the same way, ensuring that the transition between iPhoto and Aperture is as straightforward as possible. You can even continue to use the two programs side by side, as editing changes that you make in one program are automatically carried over into the other.

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Sorting and searching These similarities ensure that Aperture will feel very familiar to anyone that has used iPhoto. The difference is that Aperture tends to go further and provides more detailed control than iPhoto, both with its editing tools and its options for sorting and searching through your photo collection. As well as events and projects, Aperture can also create ‘stacks’ of photos that were taken in quick succession – such as a series of action shots at a sporting event – so that you can find the shot that captures just the right moment. Both programs have a basic Search tool that lets you search for keywords such as ‘football’ or ‘wedding’, but Aperture also has a more powerful set of search filters that can employ multiple criteria to locate exactly the photo you need. You can search for photos taken on a specific date and location, or photos in a particular file format or size. You can

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even tell Aperture to only search for photos that you have already edited in some way. And if your photo library is really huge then Aperture allows you to split it into a number of separate library files – perhaps one for a recent holiday and another for a wedding – and then switch between libraries instantly.

Adjustment tools Once you’ve got your photos organised you’ll probably want to do some additional editing work on them. Both iPhoto and Aperture provide a series of ‘adjustment’ tools that allow you to fine-tune the appearance of your photos, but iPhoto tends to focus on just a handful of key options, such as adjusting the exposure or contrast of a photo. This is where Aperture really leaves iPhoto far behind, as it provides an extensive pull-down menu containing 22 different adjustment tools, ranging from basics such as exposure and white

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balance to more exotic options such as ‘colour monochrome’ and ‘spot and patch’. Another key difference here is that iPhoto is mainly used to make ‘global’ adjustments that are applied to the entire photo, whereas Aperture allows you to use brushes to selectively apply effects to specific parts of an image. Aperture’s brushes give you much finer control when using its adjustment tools, but the sheer variety of adjustment options means that Aperture can seem a bit daunting for people who are used to the simpler tools of iPhoto. If you just want to make some quick tweaks to enhance the appearance of a few photos then iPhoto will do the job quickly and easily. But if you want more precise controls and the ability to work on really fine details within an image then it’s worth making the effort to master Aperture.

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Photo effects The Adjustment tools in iPhoto and Aperture are primarily intended to correct flaws and to improve the overall appearance of your photos. However, both programs also include additional Effects tools that allow you completely change the look or the style of a photo. The Effects tools in iPhoto are pretty limited, really just consisting of simple colour adjustments and old standbys such as sepia and black-and-white effects. Aperture doesn’t exactly go to town with its Effects either, but it does provide a few more options than iPhoto. There are several variations on the basic black-and-white effect, a number of different exposure and white balance effects, and some colour effects, such as ‘toy camera’ and ‘intensify’. Aperture also includes a useful preview option that shows how each effect will look on your currently selected photo. However, neither program really goes beyond the basics here, so if you want to get really creative and experiment with a wider range of special effects and filters then Photoshop Elements from Adobe might be a better choice.

Plug and play One final difference between iPhoto and Aperture is that there are a number of ‘plug-ins’ – small, modular programs that you can use to add new features to Aperture. These plug-ins tend to be divided into different categories, such as export plug-ins that will help you to export photos or upload them to sites such as Flickr. There are also plug-ins that provide additional editing tools, filters and other effects. You

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can find more information about Aperture plug-ins on Apple’s website, but just remember that buying lots of plug-ins quickly becomes rather expensive. In that case you might be better off paying for a more fully-featured editing program such as Photoshop Elements or even the full professional version of Photoshop.

Verdict If you’re just a casual photographer looking for a quick and easy way to organise your photos and improve the look of your shots then iPhoto will do the trick quickly and easily. Aperture is more expensive, at £54.99, but professional photographers and more experienced amateurs with really large collections of photos will appreciate its more extensive search tools. Aperture’s editing and adjustment tools are a bit more complex, and probably won’t appeal to casual users, but do provide the ability to make finer and more precise changes than are possible with iPhoto.

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Create a personal hotspot How to share your iPhone’s 3G (or 4G) data connection

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ou can share your iPhone’s 3G (or 4G) data connection with a Mac computer and browse the internet on the Mac remotely. This feature, known as making a Wi-Fi hotspot, is great for working on the go: making an iPhone Wi-Fi hotspot enables you to use the internet on a Mac without having to find a public hotspot. It’s easy to turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, but you should check with your mobile phone carrier first (check the terms and conditions online). Some networks do not want you to turn the iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, and they may charge you extra (or limit your internet if they spot you setting up a

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hotspot). You should also be careful not to exceed your data allowance. If you have a limited allowance you should only use the Wi-Fi hotspot for a short amount of time. A Wi-Fi hotspot turns the iPhone into a Wi-Fi router (like the one in your home). The iPhone emits a Wi-Fi connection that your Mac can connect to. The Mac connects to the iPhone using Wi-Fi, and the iPhone connects to the internet using its 3G/4G cellular data connection. It’s clever stuff and a neat trick to know. Here’s what you need to do: 1. Tap Settings and Mobile 2. Tap Personal Hotspot and set Personal Hotspot to On 3. Tap on Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. 4. Tap Wi-Fi Password and enter a suitable password (this can be any password you choose, it’s not

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related to your Apple ID or usual Wi-Fi connection) 5. Now check the name of the hotspot listed under To Connect Using Wi-Fi (we get “iPhone 5s”) 6. Click AirPort in the Menu bar of your Mac and choose the Wi-Fi hotspot (iPhone 5s in our case) 7. Enter the password from Step 4 That should be it. You should now be able to browse the internet on your Mac using the connection provided by your iPhone. If you do not have the AirPort icon in the Menu bar of your Mac, open System Preferences and click Wi-Fi and choose the iPhone Hotspot from the Network Name. While you’re here, you should place a tick in the setting marked “Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar”; this will enable you to access Wi-Fi settings from the Mac’s menu bar. You can now browse the internet on your Mac using the data connection from the iPhone. Your mileage may vary, however, depending on how good the iPhone’s network connection is. You might find the internet runs a little slower than you are used to. When you’ve finished, tap Settings > Mobile > Personal Hotspot on your iPhone and set it to Off.

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Manage an iPhone’s data 15 tips to stop an iPhone running out of data

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as your iPhone started running out of data before your allowance is reset each month? Do you receive texts from your mobile network warning that you are at 80 percent of your data allowance for the month? Have you ever run out of data before the month was up? If you are tired of running out of cellular data every month follow our tips and never run out of data again.

Track how much iPhone data you use Before you can start to manage your data usage, you need to keep tabs on how much you are using. To view how much data you have used go to Settings

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> Cellular and scroll down to see your Cellular Data Usage. If you have never reset this number it could be pretty big. Our advice is to get in the habit of resetting it every month, perhaps set an alert on your phone so that you remember to reset it on the day your network resets your allowance. To reset your statistics, scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap: Reset Statistics. Get in the habit of looking here once in a while so you can see if you are on target.

Stop iPhone apps using cellular data Another new feature in iOS 7 was the ability to determine which apps are allowed to use cellular data. When we are close to our allowance, we head to Settings > Cellular and scroll down to switch off a number of apps so that we will think twice before wasting our cellular allowance on them. The other benefit of stopping some of your apps using cellular data is that it should stop them updating in the background when you are out and about – thereby preserving battery life.

See which apps are using data on iPhone Below each of the apps on the Settings > Cellular page you will see just how much data they have been using since you

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last reset your phone. You can expect that the apps you use frequently will have higher data usage, but any that stand out as guzzling a lot more data that you think they should be can be switched off here.

Turn off 3G and 4G data on your iPhone If things are really desperate, one way to preserve your data when you are running low is to temporarily disable cellular data. This way if you have a week or so to go until your contract renews then you can manage your usage rather than running out completely. To turn off your cellular data so go to Settings > Cellular and toggle the Cellular Data switch to off. This will turn off all cellular data to restrict all data to Wi-Fi, including email, web browsing and push notifications. We also find this is a handy way to preserve battery life – as opposed to turning the phone to Airplane Mode, which preserves power but means nobody can contact you.

Turn off auto play in Facebook Facebook recently added a feature to their iOS app that means when you are scrolling through your news feed any video that’s been posted will automatically stream – even if you aren’t on a Wi-Fi

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network. Obviously this isn’t an ideal situation if you have a limited data allowance. We recommend you change your settings so that it only streams if you are in Wi-Fi. Go to Settings > Facebook > Settings and scroll down to Video and switch to Auto-play on Wi-Fi only.

Don’t use FaceTime on 3G or 4G network It’s great that we can use FaceTime over 3G, but if you have limited data but loads of free minutes you will probably prefer to stick to normal calls. Go to Settings > Cellular and scroll down your list of apps to make sure that FaceTime is switched off for cellular data. You might be thinking that you wouldn’t contact anyone via FaceTime over cellular, but crucially, this will also stop anyone contacting you via FaceTime when you aren’t on a Wi-Fi network.

Stop iCloud Documents & Data using data Go to Settings > iCloud > Documents & Data. You can turn off the ability for apps to store documents and data in the cloud by toggling the Documents & Data switch, or you can be more specific about which apps you think can do with out this allowance. If you want to stop your documents syncing when you

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aren’t on a Wi-Fi network just toggle Use Cellular Data to off. If you are regularly using Apple’s iWork apps, such as Pages or Keynote, you may find your phone busily syncing large documents over your cellular connection, and you probably won’t want that.

Stop iTunes using data If you have cellular data turned on for iTunes, and you subscribe to iTunes Match, you may find your data is being gobbled up, which is particularly annoying given that you are paying for the service to start with. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store and make sure that Use Cellular Data is switched off.

Use Safari’s Reading List to view articles offline One of our favourite new features in the iOS 7 version of Safari is the Reading List feature that lets you download a web page for reading off line. This is great when you are reading a web page during a commute and about to head into a tunnel. It’s also great if you are out of data and want to be able to read some articles on your iPhone while you are out and about. You can queue up a few web pages in your Reading List while you are on a Wi-Fi network, and then read them without using up any data. While you have access to Wi-Fi go to Safari,

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open the web pages you wish to read, click on the Share icon at the bottom of the page, and select Add to Reading List. Wait for the phone to download the article and then head out. You will be able to read this article even if you are using Airplane Mode. However, if you don’t want your phone to use cellular data to download the pages you have added to reading list on your other devices, you need to head to Settings > Safari and scroll down to toggle off Use Cellular Data for reading list.

Beware iPhone Photo Stream Photo Stream was the main culprit when we started to regularly hit our data allowance back in the summer of 2013, having signed up to a friend’s feed, and started sharing one of our own. When you turn off Photo Stream in Settings > iCloud > Photos and then toggle My Photo Stream on, it looks innocent enough, claiming as it does it will “Automatically upload new photos and send the to all of your iCloud devices when connected to WiFi.” This may be the case, but we were getting sent photos from our friend’s Photo Stream when we were on 3G networks, suggesting that it wasn’t a very cellular data friendly service. Luckily with the iOS 7 update, you can now manage Photo Sharing. You can turn off Photo

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Sharing (at Settings > Photo & Camera), which will stop your phone from downloading images from other people’s shared photo streams that you subscribe to. However, should you still want to be able to see your friend’s images on your phone, you can stop Photo using your cellular connection in Settings > Cellular. If you have a photo stream this is one to watch when you go on holiday.

Turn off Push Notifications How many of your applications are using the Apple Push Notifications service to alert you to new data? Go to Settings > Notification Centre to find out. You can easily stop any apps from pestering you with Notifications here ( just scroll down the list, tap on those apps you don’t want to notify you, and toggle to switch beside: Show in Notification Centre, and Show on Lock Screen). However, you will still want to make sure that those apps that you still want to receive notifications for aren’t doing so over your cellular connection. Those apps that appear under Include on the Notifications Centre tab may be using data to alert you to changes. If you really don’t need to be told that your friend has replied to your post on Facebook turn Notification Centre off by tapping Facebook, and switching the slider to off. Be ruthless

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with the apps that are alerting you to changes, although if you then end up checking them every five minutes it may be a false economy.

Stop fetching email Another one to curb is your email. If you have the phone set to fetch data wirelessly at specific intervals you will quickly consume data – this can get really out of hand if you have your iPhone set to Push data to your iPhone from the server as it will be updating all the time. Start by making sure that Push is not selected. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and if Push is turned on, turn it off. Now make sure you are set to fetch data manually. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and scroll down and select Manually from the list. You can be even more precise if you prefer, and amend your fetch settings for separate accounts. Changing these settings also has the benefit of preserving battery life.

Stop background app refresh in iOS 7 One of the new features of iOS 7 was the ability for your phone to automatically update its operating system, and it’s apps, in the background without you having to act. However, this can be a

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problem if your phone decides to update when you aren’t on a Wi-Fi network. Head to General > Background App Refresh and make sure that the Background App Refresh switch is set to off.

Keep Wi-Fi on If you have ever found yourself switching off Wi-Fi when your phone decides to connect to the Wi-Fi when you are about town you may find yourself using cellular when you are back at home. It’s a frustration that’s easily fixed if you choose to forget the network when one of them pops up. Just tap on the network name, and in the following screen select Forget this Network.

Use Wi-Fi hotspots You’ll be able to find Wi-Fi networks all around, especially in any big city. You can find Wi-Fi in most coffee shop chains, many restaurants, and other public areas like libraries and airports. If you are a BT broadband subscriber you can use the BT Wi-Fi app to get onto any of their hotspots for free. Download the BT Wi-Fi app for iOS here. However, you should always exercise an air of caution when accessing a hotspot, as we explain in this article: How do I know if a Wi-Fi hotspot is safe. The best advice is to use a Wi-Fi hotspot that requires a password.

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Improve battery life Make sure that your iPhone’s battery lasts longer

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ne of the inescapable truths of modern technology is its penchant for regularly sucking from the national grid, like some kind of crazed electronic vampire. You might consider your iPhone or iPad to be the most amazing technology in the world, but they’re little more than metal-and-glass slabs when out of juice. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be like that. We’ve got some brilliant battery-saving tricks and tips that will help you keep the iPhone’s battery running all day long. Here’s how to improve your iPhone’s battery life in iOS 7. These tips will also help you to get your iPhone to last a little bit longer when you’re away for the weekend without your charging cable; during a power-cut; or when you are pootling along on a slow train, trying to coax your iPhone into surviving what

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would otherwise be a long and boring journey home. Follow these tricks to give your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch enough power to last those crucial extra minutes – or even hours. And, if you are experiencing battery problems with your iPhone on a daily basis - perhaps you find that you can’t get through a day on a single charge since updating to iOS 7 – follow this advice and extend your iPhone battery life. Here, then, are the best ways to improve your iPhone’s battery life in iOS 7, from system-wide settings worth tweaking to thirdparty apps that you should stop - or start - using in order to preserve battery life.

How bad is your iPhone battery life really? A quick way to check whether there really is a problem with the battery in your iPhone is to head over to Settings > General > Usage to check your Usage and Standby times. The Usage time is how long you have used the phone since the last charge, and Standby indicates the total time that’s passed since the last charge. Expect usage to be a lot lower than Standby (unless you have been using your iPhone none stop since unplugging it). To test your battery make a note of the usage and standby times and then put the device to sleep

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by pressing the on/off switch at the top. After five minutes check the changes in the times. If your device is working correctly, the usage time should have gone up by less than a minute, while the standby time should have gained five minutes. If you see more than a minute increase on the Usage time, something is stopping your phone from sleeping and you have a battery drain problem. Follow the following tips to stop unnecessary drain when your iPhone isn’t in use, and we also have a number of tips that will increase battery life in situations when you need the extra boost.

Turn down the brightness That iPhone 5s you are lugging around offers a 1136x640-pixel resolution at 326ppi. It should therefore come as no surprise the screen is one of your iOS device’s primary power drains. Lighting the pixels on your iPhone’s Retina display requires a lot of energy. In fact, in testing, excessive screen brightness was the single biggest iPhone battery killer we found. At full brightness, an iPhone 5 lasted 6 hours, 21 minutes while playing 720p video. When we set the screen to half brightness, the phone lasted nine hours, 48 minutes. That’s a huge difference. Luckily you can save some battery life by adjusting the

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iPhone’s brightness. A quick fix is to turn down brightness using the slider in Control Center, accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the display. Drag the brightness slider as far left as possible, but with a setting that still leaves your device usable. You should also open the Settings app, access Wallpapers & Brightness and make sure that Auto-Brightness is turned off, this will stop your phone turning up the brightness every time it deems it necessary.

Auto-lock your iPhone While the screen of your iPhone is on, you’re consuming power, so make sure that your iPhone isn’t awake when you don’t need it to be. If you want to get the maximum battery life from your iPhone, set the Auto Lock to one minute. Venture into Settings > General > Auto-Lock and set your iPhone to sleep after one minute of inactivity. This will provide a substantial improvement to battery life over time. If you really want to max out your iPhone’s battery life, try to get into the habit of pressing the Sleep/Wake button at the top of your iPhone as soon as you’ve finished using it.

Turn on Airplane Mode One of the biggest drains of battery life is the antenna, because it’s constantly checking for nearby

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cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Simply moving around with the phone in your pocket will drain its battery, as it moves from within range of one base station to another. If don’t need to access data, make, or receive, calls, and you don’t require GPS (for maps) you could put the phone into flight mode and stop all use of the iPhone’s antenna. It’s easy to switch on Airplane Mode, just swipe up on Control Centre and tap the Airplane icon on the top left. Alternatively, tap Settings and set Airplane mode to On If you need to use data, you can still use Wi-Fi when Airplane Mode is turned on – after switching on Airplane Mode, tap the Wi-Fi icon beside it and connect to the Wi-Fi network of your choice. It’s a good idea to enable Airplane Mode if you are in an area of low coverage as the iPhone will be working hard to power the antenna to maintain a data connection. If you move into an area with a poor signal - perhaps the basement of a store – your iPhone will start desperately trying to hang on to signal at the expense of your battery. This drain on your battery will happen even if you have a strong Wi-Fi connection, because your phone still needs the cellular connection for calls and SMS messages, according to Apple

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Store genius, Scott Loveless. So, if you’re office is in an area of poor cellular coverage, for example, your battery may spend the day trying to maintain a cellular signal even while your Wi-Fi signal is great.

Disable Wi-Fi If you still need a cellular connection but can live without Wi-Fi, you can disable Wi-Fi by swiping up to reveal Control Centre and tapping the Wi-Fi icon to turn it off (if it’s off the Wi-Fi icon will be black). This will stop your phone from hunting around for Wi-Fi networks it could join. There are a few situations where avoiding using Wi-Fi might stop battery drain. If the Wi-Fi signal is poor then your iPhone will require more power to transmit and receive data. Similarly, if you are rarely in a place where you could join a Wi-Fi hotspot then there is little point in the iPhone hunting for one. However, we wouldn’t recommend using 3G over Wi-Fi if there is a Wi-Fi network available. There is usually no financial cost associated with using a Wi-Fi network, while you may have to keep within a data allowance as part of your network contact. Another reason is that your iPhone consumes less power accessing data over Wi-Fi than it does when doing the same task over Wi-Fi. This is why Apple quotes different battery life for 3G compared to Wi-

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Fi: internet use on both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c is eight hours on 3G, up to 10 hours on LTE, and 10 hours on Wi-Fi. The iPhone 4s offers six hours internet use on 3G and nine hours over Wi-Fi. Tap Settings > Wi-Fi and ensure Ask to Join Networks is set to On. This will help you spot open networks to join.

Disable Bluetooth If you have Bluetooth on the chances are you don’t need it. Swipe up on Control Centre to check if Bluetooth is on, if it is you will see the B-like icon highlighted in white. Bluetooth is usually left on after an iOS update is installed, so you may not even be aware that it is on. If it is, tap the Bluetooth icon to turn it off. You can also tap General > Bluetooth and set Bluetooth to Off. Bluetooth is a battery-drainer. If you’re not using it to connect to a speaker, headphones, or other accessory, then switch it off.

Turn off AirDrop One iPhone service that requires Bluetooth is AirDrop. New in iOS 7, AirDrop allows you to transfer photos and other files to and from nearby iPhones with the same feature switched on. Unfortunately, it’s a battery killer, because of the way AirDrop seeks out nearby iPhones to

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hook up with. You can switch off AirDrop in the Control Centre (swipe upwards from the bottom of the screen). Only turn on AirDrop when it’s needed.

Disable 3G If you can survive without data but still need to be contactable you could turn off 3G (or LTE 4G if you have it). Your data connection can be disabled in the Cellular section of Settings. Go to Settings > Cellular and switch Cellular Data to off. If you have an iPhone that is capable of 4G you can separately turn off 4G here as well. We recommend that you do this if you don’t actually have a 4G contract. If you aren’t using it then switching off cellular data will increase the battery length, the benefit, when compared to switching to Airplane Mode is that you will only disable the cellular data portion of your signal, such as EDGE, 3G, 4G, or LTE. Normally your iPhone receives two signals at once: one for calls and SMS, and one for data, now it only receives the signal for calls and SMS – which means you are still contactable, you just can’t browse Facebook (unless you can access a Wi-Fi network). You should also note that, according to Apple Genius Scotty Loveless, the signal strength meter on the iPhone only shows the signal strength for the non-data connection, which means your iPhone

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could show 2-3 dots in iOS 7 for a standard cellular connection, but actually have a very poor 3G or LTE connection thus causing your iPhone to go into heavy search mode.

Turn down the volume It might surprise you but the volume setting affects battery life too, so if you are playing music or other audio from your phone, turn it down using the volume buttons. Note that the music equaliser also takes up a surprising amount of power. Tap Settings > Music and make sure EQ is turned to Off.

Stop your iPhone vibrating Head to Settings > Sounds and turn off both of the vibrate options, because your device rattling around like crazy when a slew of messages arrives drains the battery like nobody’s business. There are dozens of annoying jingles you can choose from to announce to the world that someone’s just sent you a message without the accompanying vibration.

Tone down visual effects Assuming you don’t suffer from some kind of motion sickness or balance disorder, the various 3D effects in iOS 7 might excite you. These pretty Parallax effects that make your icons and

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notifications appear to float over the wallpaper might look nice, but they constantly use your iPhone’s graphics processor and are therefore a drain on the battery that you could probably manage without if you were trying to get a last half hour of use out of your iPhone on a long journey home. One thing you can do is switch to static rather than dynamic wallpaper - the iOS 7-style wallpaper that moves around as you tilt your phone. This will cut down the power drain a little. When you set a new Wallpaper, tap where it says ‘Perspective Zoom: On’ to turn it off. You can also go to Settings > General > Accessibility > and switch on Reduce Motion to temporarily turn off all the parallax effects. Note that this will replace many system zoom effects with cross-fades that don’t look as nice, but might give you those extra few minutes power you need.

Avoid games and high-impact apps It sounds obvious to say your iPhone’s battery is drained quicker the more you use your phone, but how fast it falls from 100 percent to nothing entirely depends on what apps you use. Some apps burn through your battery much faster than others. Heavy use of the processor and GPU, for 3D games, or the GPS chip, for maps and location-based apps, uses

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up more energy than reading content in iBooks, for example. If you play games with rich, detailed visuals, such as Infinity Blade 3, or 3D racing games like CSR Racing, your iPhone’s battery will be drained quickly, so if you’re away from a charger and waiting for an important call, playing these sort of games is not a good idea if your battery levels are already low. If you’re on the way home and low on power, reading apps like Kindle or Instapaper won’t drain what’s left of your battery terribly quickly. However, it probably wouldn’t be a smart move to start playing your favourite TV series, or, worse, the latest 3D gaming blockbuster. In fact, even quite simple games often utilise complex 3D trickery, and so when in the red battery-wise, avoid them entirely.

Minimise Camera use Isn’t it always the case that the battery on your iPhone runs out just as you take the perfect shot on a night out with your friends? If you are running low on battery you should keep your Camera app usage to a minimum, and definitely avoid using the flash.

Turn off Spotlight Like on the Mac, Spotlight in iOS is constantly working away in the background, indexing your data so you can easily find it later.

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Usually, that’s great, but not when you’re short on power. Settings > General > Spotlight Search enables you to turn off some or all Spotlight categories.

Stop Notification Centre draining your battery Similarly, Settings > Notification Center might be worth a visit, although there’s sadly no global off switch, and, if you are running out of power, editing notification settings for all your apps might take more power than it saves, due to how long it takes. Each time a notification is received, the iPhone’s screen lights up and it plays a sound, which uses energy. Every message wakes your device for 5 to 10 seconds, and that can add up, if you get a lot of notifications every day, to a small percentage of your daily battery charge. We can live without updates about Words With Friends, so it makes sense to turn off notifications for noncritical apps (incidentally, it was the persistent notifications in that app that lead us to delete it in the end). To stop notifications, go to Settings > Notification Centre and scroll down. About half way down the page, under the INCLUDE section, you’ll see a list of the iPhone’s built-in apps, as well as third-party apps installed on your handset. Tap on each one you’re not interested in, and select the

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None option to stop it from sending Banners and Alerts to notify you. You can also remove apps from Notification Centre by Switching the slide in Show in Notification Centre to off.

Stop push email You can set your phone to Push – or rather pull down -– email as soon as it arrives on the server. This is handy if you never want to miss an email and it can save you time because you’ll be able to see all your emails as soon as you open the Mail app. But when your iPhone is running on fumes, it’s best to only grab new emails when you really need them. Push constantly polls the server so when you get a new email the iPhone knows instantly. You can even get a notification every time you receive an email. If you don’t need to know every time an email comes in turn it Push off. Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and tap Fetch New Data and turn Push to Off. You can instead choose to Fetch your emails at certain intervals. Using Push data for email uses far more data (and power) than Fetch. Choose from Every 15 Minutes, Every 30 Minutes, Hourly, or Manually so you only grab emails when you choose to. If you have push email on it will stop your phone from sleeping,

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especially if you have an Exchange email account, you can expect battery life to be hindered.

Remove multiple email accounts Multiple email accounts will consume use of your precious battery life. Try to fold all your different accounts into just the one email service then remove the extras by tapping Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and choosing an account and tapping Delete Account. In the case of Gmail, for example, you could turn Mail off but keep your Gmail Calendar synced.

Turn off iCloud Similarly, if you want to make that last bit of juice last longer, turn of anything you don’t need to be synced via iCloud. iCloud uses a fair bit of data and power, so you can save battery life by turning off unused features. Tap Settings > iCloud and turn off everything you don’t really use, for example, you may not need your Safari bookmarks to be available on the iPhone. Be sure to check the Documents & Data tab to see if there are any apps storing data in the cloud that you don’t need access too, for example, Pages. iCloud backup only works when the phone is plugged in so you can leave that on.

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Turn off auto time zone The iPhone can automatically update its time depending on where you are in the world. Because the iPhone determines the correct time via Location Services, this uses a small amount of power. Tap Settings > General > Date & Time and change Set Automatically to Off.

Location Services Most of the time it is not iOS itself that is causing the iPhone’s battery to drain quickly, but all the apps that are running on it. There are a number of apps that utilise location services on your iPhone and they can play their part in draining your battery too. It’s even more frustrating when it’s not obvious why some of them need to know where you are in the first place. To stop apps from using Location Services, tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services and either turn off Location Services altogether, or deselect any apps that you don’t need to access your GPS.

Siri Even Siri can be a bit of a drain on battery life. Go to Settings > General > Siri and make sure that Raise to Speak isn’t switched on. That sensor is active whenever your phone is unlocked so if it detects that you are holding your

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phone is next to your face it will make Siri listen automatically.

Disable background app refresh Before iOS 7, if you switched between apps by double tapping the home button, the old app would be put into a frozen state, with limited access to system resources. iOS 7 allows background apps to periodically refresh their data though, so when you open the app again, you’ll see the latest updates immediately. This can be useful in certain circumstances, but most of the time is just wasting processing power and battery juice updating apps that you don’t really care about. If you want to get the most out of your battery, turning off Background App Refresh will help. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh. Here you can turn off Background App Refresh altogether, or prune the list down on an app-by-app basis.

Disable app updating Another handy new feature in iOS 7, is the ability to have apps update without you manually telling them to. This is a useful feature that means that apps will always be up-to-date, but can be a drain on your battery. Also, some people prefer to update on a case-by-case basis, since occasionally a

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developer will update an app in a way that reduces user satisfaction. Luckily, you can stop apps from auto-updating. Switch off automatic updates in Settings > iTunes & App Store, scroll to Automatic Downloads and switch off Updates. If you decide to leave any of these Automatic Downloads settings on, ensure that the switch for Use Cellular Data isn’t turned on if you have limited data allowance

Facebook Of all the background refreshing and location service using apps, one stands out as the worst offender. In this blog, former Apple Genius Bar worker Scotty Loveless recommends that you disable location and background app refresh for Facebook. He claims that Facebook app consumes a lot of memory and processing power even when it’s not in use. He tested this theory by disabling Location Services and Background App Refresh for Facebook and claims he actually saw his battery percentage increase.

Stop quitting We tend to quit apps we aren’t using as it seems like a logical way to stop them sucking away at the battery. To quit an app, double tap the Home Button and swipe

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up to close. It seems this isn’t such a good idea after all. Apple Genius Loveless explains that when you close an app you take it out of RAM, this means that when you open it again the iPhone has to load it back into memory. “All of that loading and unloading puts more stress on your device than just leaving it alone,” he writes.

Show the battery percentage on your iPhone If you want to keep an eye on your battery level, you may find it easier to see a percentage representation, rather than a bar icon. If you want to see how much charge you have left as a percentage, go to Settings > General > Usage and activate Battery Percentage. Now you will have a more precise read-out of what life your device has left. Note that for reasons best known to Apple, the iPod touch lacks such an option. All devices, however, will warn when your battery life hits 20 per cent and then 10 per cent; also, be mindful that even if your battery has a few per cent left in it, your device might automatically shut down anyway, so don’t be doing anything too important when your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad is gasping for breath. Apple genius Loveless does warn that some people become so concerned about their battery percentage that they keep turning on their iPhone to

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check it, and every time they wake up their phone a little bit of power dies.

Calibrate to improve iPhone battery life If despite trying all these tips to get more battery life out of your iPhone, you are still finding yourself running out of juice earlier than you think you should – perhaps your iPhone battery it going from 17 percent to two percent in a matter of minutes – your iPhone or iPad might need a battery calibration. Apple recommends that you periodically drain your iPhone or iPad’s battery totally and then charge it up until it’s completely full. That’s down to 0, and up to 100 per cent. You should do this at least once per month. This process, called calibration, helps your device estimate its battery life more accurately. Calibrating your battery will ensure that you know when you need to charge the battery, but the procedure itself doesn’t actually make the battery itself last longer.

How do you know how much battery you have left on your iPhone? Frustratingly, there is no easy answer to this question. Apple offers the ability to discover the percentage of battery power remaining, and you see how long

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your phone has been running without a charge, and how much of that time you have been using the iPhone, but if can’t tell you how many hours you have left. This is probably because the amount of battery life remaining is entirely dependent on what you are planning to do with your iPhone. If Apple told you to expect two hours and then you ran a movie on full blast you would probably run out of battery before the movie ended. However, there are third party apps that can give you some guidance about how much battery life is remaining. One such app is BatteryDoctor (previously BatterySaver) from KS Mobile. This tool offers a broad range of system tweaks, with a particular focus on saving battery life. The app’s main screen shows an estimate for how much battery life is left, based on what’s running in the background, and your current system settings. If you perform some of the tweaks suggested by the app, you’ll see this number creep up. For example, when we switched on Airplane Mode we gained about an hour of battery life – the battery life remaining changed from eight hours, 17 minutes, to nine hours, 21 minutes. Tap on Optimize to see a breakdown of how much longer your iPhone could last if you shut down

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certain services, such as disabling Wi-Fi or GPS, or reducing brightness. Tap on Remaining for details of how much time you have remaining to do certain tasks, web browsing on Wi-Fi, or web browsing on 3G, talk time, video playback, photo taking, and more. The app BatteryDoctor will also alert you to any app being used, which might prove surprising, as in our case it highlighted Facebook which was open, as were many other apps, and yet Facebook appeared to be the only one consuming power in the background (despite the fact that we had turned off Location Services and background updates for that app).

Should you leave your iPhone plugged in? When you get to work do you plug in your iOS devices, so that they’re nicely charged up by the time it’s home time? In principle this should mean your iPhone (and iPad) always have enough power to get you through the commute home. But could this practice of leaving your iPhone plugged in all the time cause damage to the life of the battery? There is some debate about this - the iPhone is designed to stop charging its battery once the battery is fully charged, so this should mean that the battery can’t be ‘overcharged’ as such. However, we know from our experience with laptops that have been left plugged in at all times, the ability of the

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battery to sustain a charge seems to deplete over time. The best advice is to make sure that you drain your battery down to zero at least once a month if you want to ensure that you get a good life span out of your battery.

Turn your iPhone off This one’s a last resort, but if you need an iPhone to survive a weekend or a power outage, and its reason for being powered up is essential communications only, turn the device off when you’re not using it. First, that’ll stop you being tempted in just having another quick go on Candy Crush; secondly, it’ll also ensure even background tasks aren’t supping power. To turn your iOS device off, hold the sleep button for a few seconds and then drag across ‘slide to power off ’.

And finally… We hope that some of these tips we’ve suggested mean you get more life from your iPhone when you’re away from your trusty Lightning or 30-pin charging cable. The points we have covered are the main battery killers in iOS 7. If it seems like we’re switching off all the cool stuff, sorry about that, but to achieve optimal battery life you need to pick and choose which cool features you actually need, and which are draining your battery for superficial reasons, we’re looking at you Facebook.

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Import a DVD to an iPad Convert DVD discs into digital files to watch on the go

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his feature looks at how to import a DVD to play on an iPad. In this guide, we’ll look at how to convert a DVD into a digital video, store the movie in iTunes and sync it with an iPad. Follow this guide to importing DVDs to iTunes and you’ll be able to watch your DVD collection on an iPad. Most of us have a large DVD collection, and lots of great films still to watch DVD. But wouldn’t it be great if you could watch a DVD on an iPad? Not that we’d like Apple to make an iPad with a slot for a DVD drive: that’d be silly, but wouldn’t it be great if

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you could convert all those old DVDs into movie files and watch them on an iPad? Fortunately there is a way to do exactly that: it’s a program called HandBrake that you can download from here. With HandBrake installed on a Mac computer, you can convert a DVD movie into digital video file and store it in iTunes. Once the digital video file is in iTunes, you can sync it to an iPad. Converting digital video files to watch on an iPad is a great technique to know if you have old movies that you still want to watch.

Use HandBrake to copy DVDs to iTunes While iTunes does not have an Import DVD option, you can use a program called HandBrake to copy DVDs to iTunes. With HandBrake, you can migrate a DVD to the Mac’s hard drive as a digital video. You can download the latest version of HandBrake from here. You will need a Mac computer with an optical drive to use HandBrake. If you do not have an optical drive, you can attach an external Apple SuperDrive to a Mac. Follow these steps to convert a DVD to a digital file: 1. Insert the DVD into the Mac’s optical drive.

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2. Open the HandBrake app. 3. Click Source and choose the DVD using the Finder window.. 4. Click Get libdvdcss. Click on the libdvdcss.pkg link on the website to download the file. Open the libdvdcss.pkg file and follow the install process. 5. Return to HandBrake and click Source. Choose the DVD volume using the Finder window. 6. HandBrake chooses what it thinks is the main title, but you can click the pop-up menu next to Title and choose the item you want to encode. The title with the longest duration is often the DVD’s main feature. 7. If the Presets Drawer is not already open, click the Toggle Presets button at the top of the HandBrake window (or press Command-T). Choose the iPad option. 8. Click Browse and choose a location for the video file. 9. Click Start. The DVD will now start to be imported. It takes a while to import a whole DVD.

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10. Locate the file in Finder and drag to iTunes. Now that the digital video files in iTunes you can sync it with the iPad. Note! HandBrake is not available on the App Store and is not from an identified Apple Developer, so Mac OS X’s Security Preferences may prevent it from opening. If so click on System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Click the Lock to make changes; now enter your password and click Unlock. Now choose Anywhere underneath Allow apps downloaded from. Now open the HandBrake app.

Use a video streaming service If you find converting DVDs to iTunes a chore, you might want to consider using service like Netflix and Lovefilm. These video streaming services are used to stream movies directly from to an iPad (via a dedicated app). You can install the Netflix and Lovefilm apps from the App Store.

Is it legal to rip a DVD in the UK? At the end of 2011, the UK Government made it legal for us to make copies for personal use of our media, but that didn’t mean it was legal for people to break the DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology that protects DVDs. Because DVDs have digital protection, you do not get a DVD Import feature in iTunes alongside the CD Import. Technically, it is illegal in the UK to copy any media, but the law has never been enforced (to our knowledge) when it is a product you own and it’s for your own personal use. Where the law gets more serious is if you start sharing or selling, copied files: that will land you in court.

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Guide to Office Mobile Get Microsoft Office Mobile on an iOS device

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icrosoft Office Mobile for iPad has finally been announced after much speculation, bringing Microsoft’s suite of Office programs - Word, Excel and PowerPoint - to the Apple iPad. The suite of iPad apps joins the iPhone Microsoft Office Mobile app Microsoft made available for iOS in 2013. Interestingly, Microsoft has bought the apps to the iPad before offering a touch-based version of Office for Windows. Office is already available on the Microsoft Surface, but Microsoft is yet to launch

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Office for Android tablets or a Metro version for touch-enabled Windows devices. However, a touch-based version of Office is also in the works for Windows, Julia White, a senior Office executive for Microsoft, confirmed.

What does this mean for Microsoft – and for Apple? Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Office Mobile app for iPhone users last year, but the iPad – which is naturally a better platform for document editing – wasn’t supported. Many concluded that Microsoft was intent on promoting its own Surface tablet instead. With this in mind, many are now wondering why Microsoft has chosen to do this now. Is it a clever marketing ploy - a way of smuggling a Windows 8-esque interface under iOS users’ noses, and getting them used to an alternative aesthetic? Is it desperation - the last throw of the dice for a company that knows it took mobile seriously too late and can’t break into the iOS/ Android duopoly? Is it a means to sell subscriptions to Office 365. Or is it a long-awaited but wise strategic play, one that was made possible by the advent of a new Microsoft CEO? Probably a bit of all four (with a emphasis on the Office 365 subscriptions), but we won’t know for a while. It’s certainly exciting news for iPad users, although the lack of Office software for so long

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means most have found alternative word processors by now - maybe Pages, maybe iA Writer. It’s perhaps more significant for the business users who have so far avoided iOS because of its lack of Office - which may have been Microsoft’s strategy all along, but it hasn’t paid off, with Surface sales lagging behind iPad sales. The number of people left who felt that the iPad wasn’t a serious work tool was dwindling, but this may be the final nail in their coffin. Whether Microsoft finds that to be a compromise worth making in order to increase its Office 365 subscriptions is something we’ll have to wait to see.

Microsoft Office – designed for the iPad Microsoft’s Sarah White described the Apple-like apps as “definitely not the ported Windows app to an iPad... These are uniquely built for the iPad.” According to Michael Atalla, director of product management for Office, Office for iPad represents neither a “blown-up” Office Mobile for iPhone nor a stripped-down Office for Windows, but rather a custom version of Office designed expressly for the iPad. Given the fact that Apple is already giving away Pages, Numbers and Keynote for new iPad and iPhone users, Microsoft needed to pull out all the stops to make its apps as beautiful as Apple’s are.

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How to get Office on the iPhone for free Microsoft launched the Microsoft Office Mobile app for the iPhone in 2013. This app, which allows users to access and view Office apps was also updated in conjunction with the launch of the iPad Office apps. Previously only Office 365 users could download the app for free. It is now free for anyone to download. iPhone users with the Office Mobile app can access any Office documents stored in the cloud, via Sharepoint or SkyDrive now known as One Drive, which is part of a Office 365 subscription. It is also possible to open documents and spreadsheets from emails. When you click on a Word document, for example, you will see a preview in the Mail app, to view the preview in Word (or any other app, including Pages if you have downloaded it) click the Share icon and select Open in Office Mobile. In the Office Mobile app there are two modes. Preview where you can select and copy text but do

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little else, and an editing mode where it is possible to edit documents (if you have a Microsoft account). When we opened a Word document in Office Mobile on our iPhone, it appeared to be possible to edit (we were able to paste in a paragraph) but when it came to save it we need to sign in to a Microsoft account. If you don’t have a Microsoft account you will be invited to set up an account. Unfortunately while working through this process we got an error message when we tried to verify our account via Gmail.

How to get Microsoft on the iPad for free You can now download individual iPad versions of the Office apps from the Apple App Store for free, however, it is necessary to sign up for a Office 365 subscription to use the Office for iPad apps for editing. The subscription allows iPhone and iPad users to edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the go.

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Considering that it is possible to view a Microsoft Office document on an iPhone or iPad without downloading the Office app (when you click on a Word doc in Mail, for example, Mail will open a preview), it seems pointless to use the Microsoft apps for no more than viewing. For this reason it is apparent that Microsoft’s motivation must be to encourage people to update to the 365 subscription.

Price Microsoft Word for iPad, Excel for iPad, and PowerPoint for iPad are free to download from the iTunes App Store. As is the Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone. However, users will be only able to view existing documents if they don’t have an Office 365 subscription. To be able to edit inside the apps you will require a Office 365 subscription. The Office 365 subscription will give users access to the full capabilities of the Office for iPad apps, including syncing across all your devices.

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For business users, an Office 365 subscription is available in a number of different packages. Small Business can sign up for £3.30 a month (£39.60 a year) but they won’t gain the desktop versions of the apps. The Small Business Premium package costs £8.40 a month (£100.80 a year, 25 users, including desktop versions). Midsize Business can sign up for 9.80 a month (300 users, including desktop versions and Active Directory). There are also enterprise offerings for £2.60, £5.20 and £15 a month. Home users can sign up for Office 365 Home Premium subscription at £7.99 per month or £79.99 a year and get access to the features, including being able to create and edit documents, as well as desktop versions of the Office apps. Office for iPad: Subscribing to Office 365 Wondering whether to get a subscription to Office 365? We look at what you get for your money. Once you have a subscription to Office 365 you can edit documents or create new documents

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on your iPad. Users can also open existing documents stored on their OneDrive or any other SharePoint location. What else do you get? Depending on the subscription you might get the Office apps for your Mac too. You also get one hour of free Skype calls each month, and 20GB of SkyDrive cloud storage for each of up to five users. Apple on the other hand offers its suite of iWork apps for free on new iOS devices (and as a free update if you already own them).

Syncing Office for iPad integrates with a user’s SkyDrive account, so users can create a document in the Office and then revise it on their iPad while commuting. The document will maintain its formatting even if the mobile version doesn’t support that particular feature. The documents you have stored in OneDrive must be downloaded to your iPad before you can work on them. They are synced dynamically to the Microsoft Cloud at intervals. You can create and save documents on your iPad without saving them to OneDrive, handy if you are offline. However, it appears it’s not possible to move documents from OneDrive to your iPad if you want to work offline. You can collaborate on documents, editing them at the same time as colleagues – you need to tap a share button in the upper left of the toolbar to invite others to access the document. Note that it doesn’t update in real-time though, so you may refresh and find a paragraph you were working on has moved.

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Top iOS sleep apps Get a great night’s rest with these apps

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leeping effectively can make you healthier and happier. Get a good night’s sleep with these breathtaking iPhone sleep apps. These apps will help you get to sleep at night. Sleep Cycle, 69p Sleep Cycle is a popular app that uses the iPhone’s built-in motion tracker to monitor your movements during sleep. It’s an innovative approach to an alarm clock; you place the iPhone under your pillow, and Sleep Cycle analyses your movements. This enables

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Sleep Cycle to monitor periods of deep and shallow sleep and you get a handy chart in the morning of how well you slept. The neat feature we love is hat Sleep Cycle adjusts the alarm clock to wake you up during a period when you’re moving from deep sleep to shallow sleep. The alarm gently tinkles under your pillow to draw you slowly out of your slumber, and you can shake the iPhone to put it in snooze mode. We find this the best alarm clock in existence; it wakes us up slowly and gets us out of bed on time, feeling refreshed and ready for the day. Sleep Time, Free Sleep Time is another alarm clock that monitors your sleep activity and wakes you up at the right time. Sleep Time also contains a soundscape (gentle ambient music) that you can use to help get to sleep in the first place. Sleep Time also tracks heart rate and pulse information, and reports on stress levels. It’s a good way to get a report on how well your sleep is going. Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson, £1.99 Deep Sleep is a guided meditation app designed to help lull you into a deep sleep. Andrew Johnson is based in Ayrshire on the West Coast of Scotland and has created popular self help CDs

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to deal with stress symptoms. The dulcet tones of Mr Johnson talk you into a state of deep sleep, so works similar to meditation or hypnosis (an audio sample is below). Your mileage may vary depending on your cynicism; but we find guided meditation (once you get into it) to be a great way to relax. Pzizz sleep, £2.99 Pzizz is an intriguing app that combines sound and narrative to help guide you into a deep sleep. Whereas other apps (like Deep Sleep) have a single narration, Pzizz creates randomised soundtracks containing speech and ambient audio to create a new track every night. The advantage of this, of course, is that the soundtrack does not become repetitive and stop working. Pzizz is one of the best ways to get to sleep at night. Long Deep Breathing, 69p Long Deep Breathing can help you to practice drawing longer breaths. Unlike other apps here, the idea isn’t to use this app while trying to get to sleep; but you use Long Deep Breathing to help relax in general. According to the App Store description: “Long Deep Breathing will calm the mind, balance the emotions, and harmonize body, mind and spirit”. The NHS recommends relaxed

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breathing as a technique for dealing with stress, so it’s not psychobabble. Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock, 69p On the surface, Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock is yet another alarm clock that monitors your sleep and gradually wakes you up 10 minutes before the alarm is set. What’s more interesting though is the dream manipulation feature: it spots when you are most likely to be in a dream phase, and then starts to play ambient audio: the soundtrack to your dreams. It’s good fun. Relaxing Nature Scenes, Free Reduce stress by listening to natural audio when you sleep. Relaxing Nature Scenes combines different audio streams, such as seagulls, crickets chirping or the sounds of a flute. There are lots of in-app purchases (currently free) such as Sandy Beach, Rainforest Evening and Mountain Stream. A soundboard is used to pick audio noise to combine together and Relaxing Nature Scenes can send you to sleep, and wake you back up. Alarm Clock, Free If all the apps here seem slightly high tech, then you might want to investigate Alarm Clock Free. This turns your iPhone into a good old-fashioned digital alarm clock. Alarm Clock Free has some advanced features, such as weather conditions, but mostly we find users love the great representation of a classic LCD display.

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Holiday apps The best apps to help you get around the UK

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elays to your journey can be stressful, so here we round up some of the best apps, to ensure your journey is as speedy and safe as possible. As well as apps for checking travel arrangements, we’ve also picked our favourite apps for bagging a bargain, including cheaper flights and train journeys. We also highlight some of the best travel companions, including language tools and currency convertors, although you are best to stick to free Wi-Fi spots then get hit by excessive roaming fees. Feel free to add your favourite travel related apps in the comments below, we’ll likely add them in a future update. In the meantime, happy travelling.

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London Bus Live Countdown; Free, £1.99 (ad free) If you travel around London chances are you need to use the buses, at the very least it’s a scenic way to get around town and discover points of interest you might otherwise miss. London Bus Live Countdown uses data directly from Transport for London (TFL), the local government body responsible for the capital’s transport, to take the guess work out of when buses are due to arrive at your stop. Users can also find local bus routes using the iPhone’s GPS function, explore maps and check which routes may be cancelled or delayed. For those will Oyster travel cards, the app also displays your balance, a useful reminder for when you need to top up. The only real niggle here is that the data supplied by TFL is occasionally not available, due to maintenance work. National Rail Enquiries; Free, £4.99 (Ad free) This official app provides customer information for all passenger rail services on the National Rail network in England, Wales and Scotland, promising detailed, real-time train data including delays and disruptions. As well as viewing live train arrivals and departures you can plan and save journeys although you need to visit a third party website, or app, to actually buy tickets. National Rail

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Enquiries has received fairly mixed reviews from users, not least because the rather cluttered design, for now at least, isn’t the easiest to navigate on the go. Ads, the bane of many free apps, also distract and cost a considerable £4.99 to remove. Citymapper, Free Former Apple Editors’ Choice, Citymapper takes a variety of available data including information from Transport for London (TFL), and combines it seamlessly to ensure speedy travel in major cities - currently London, New York and Paris. The app includes an impressive array of features including A to B journey planning, real-time travel information, weather forecasts and much more. Crucially, Citymapper is great to navigate on the go, with an interface which is unfussy yet stylish. The app consistently receives five star reviews, and we are impressed enough to suggest this is a must have app not only for travellers, but for anyone living and working in those locations. thetrainline, Free Billed as the UK’s leading independent train ticket retailer, thetrainline is essentially a one-stop shop for booking a train at the cheapest price available, although a modest fee is

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added to all transactions. You can search and save train journeys well in advance for the best deals, although the actual process is a touch fiddly compared to using a computer. The app also excels as a way to check live train times, including a ‘next train home’ and arrivals, including when possible platform numbers. Additionally, users can buy train tickets up until 10 minutes before boarding, download train timetables for browsing offline and view local maps. Airbnb, Free For the slightly more adventurous traveller, Airbnb offers a: “trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world.” These are B&Bs, flats, homes and even long-term sublets potentially undercutting the cost of staying in a hotel. The app uses a messagestyle system so that guests can chat directly with hosts, along with host supplied photos so that you can gauge the quality of the let before your visit. Hipmunk Hotels & Flights, Free A relatively recent arrival, Hipmunk was launched in 2010 backed by some high profile, hip founders and investors, including actor Ashton Kutcher, who played Steve Jobs in the 2013 biopic of the

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former Apple CEO. Hipmunk essentially compares travel sites to hopefully find the best deals on a range of services, including flights, trains and accommodation. It does this visually to great effect, which is particularly easy on the eye for iPad users and makes searching and planning a trip much more simple and pleasurable. Reviews provided by TripAdvisor are also available to browse, while flights can be sorted by ‘agony’ to best avoid long journey times and layovers. iTranslate – translator & dictionary, Free with ‘Top In-App Purchases’ Impressive translation tool offers support for a wealth of languages, currently over 80, as long as you have an internet connection. Free users type in words or phrases for fast and seemingly accurate translation, while you can listen to the translation being played back to help perfect your pronunciation. iTranslate comes with ‘Top In-App Purchases,’ which removes ads and unlocks the voice recognition function, an extra well worth investing in. Rather than type users speak, which is turned into text without the need for voice training the app and then translated.

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Kayak; Free, 69p (ad free) Well reviewed, KAYAK compares hundreds of travel sites to seek out the best deals on hotels, flights and car rentals worldwide. An attractive and intuitive user interface helps improve the search function, which does get a little muddy at times due to the amount of information available and the diminutive iPhone screen. KAYAK also lets you book from within the app, track flight status, check baggage fees and view and manage your trip itinerary with My Trips. The modesty priced KAYAK PRO includes airport terminal maps for over 100 airports, which may be useful for those who travel frequently. Simply Declare Travel App; Free, 69p (ad free) Simply Declare is part currency convertor, part way of keeping tabs on purchases when abroad and, for those visiting the UK, claiming refunds on tax free shopping. Claiming back money isn’t the most user friendly experience, but Simply Declare helps bring some order to spending despite an unattractive user interface, which looks dated despite iOS 7 compatibility. It offers the ability to photograph and store receipts, and produce an itemised list of purchases, while a modest outlay removes the ads, a good option if you are a regular traveller.

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Skyscanner All flights, everywhere!; Free, £1.49 (ad free) Simple app for finding and indirectly booking via the provider, cheaper flights, with the ability to search millions of flights from 1000 airlines worldwide. Users can search by specific destination, date or, for more impulsive travel, view an interactive globe to see current ‘indicative’ prices. Once a destination is selected, users can easily see the cheapest days to travel, which is great if you have a flexible travel agenda. iTunes App Store feedback is generally very good, with users highlighting the chance to discover genuine discounts on flights. Additionally, the Skyscanner website offers deals on hotels and car hire, with a dedicated Skyscanner Airport Car Hire app available separately and free. TripAdvisor Hotels Flights Restaurants, Free Loved and loathed in equals measure, the popular TripAdvisor website is for many an essential stopoff when booking a holiday, planning a visit or even tucking into a meal. With 100 million plus users generated reviews and photos from users covering hotels, restaurants, flights, attractions and shops. The TripAdvisor app packs a lot in, including maps, local attractions, the ability to save, email and call

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contacts, yet it seems clear from iTunes Store reviews that information is often outdated or simply wrong. TripAdvisor also has its fair share of angry and odd reviews, best viewed with caution, while the sheer venom of some comments can be an unwanted distraction. Word Lens, Free with ‘Top In-App Purchases’ Word Lens translates printed words using your iPhone’s built-in camera so you can read signs, menus and more when abroad. The augmented reality app is more novelty for some users with amusing translations at times, but we found it a useful tool to have on your travels. Unusually, the app works without an internet connection so you won’t have to worry about roaming costs. While the app is free, Word Lens requires ‘Top InApp Purchases’ to translate - English/French, English/ Spanish, English/Italian and so on - so could be costly if you travel frequently across Europe. XE Currency; Free, £1.49 (ad free) XE Currency, as the name suggests, is an excellent tool for converting currencies around the world, so you can better budget on your travels and gauge

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the likelihood of a bargain when the sun or sherry has gone to your head. Live rates and currency charts, including historic rates, are also useful when deciding when to best buy your euros and more. For investors and city observers, the app also includes details on precious metals rates and can be used offline. XE Currency Pro junks the ads and adds the ability to simultaneously monitor twice as many currencies - 20 compared to 10 - which for road warriors and those investing is likely to be a plus. Yahoo! Weather, Free Winner of an Apple Design Award, Yahoo! Weather is an attractive, essential app not just for travellers but for anyone ready and willing to step outside and face Britain’s unpredictable weather. Yahoo! offers the usual location based reports, providing hourly forecasts over a 24 hour period along with a 10 day daily forecast. You can enter and save further locations by simply searching via ‘city or ZIP code,’ which is ideal when planning a journey. Locations extend to the rest of the world and generally results appear impressive, with accurate forecasts complimented by stunning photography provided by participating Flickr users.

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Get more from Siri Guide to Apple’s personal assistant

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iri is, of course, a marvel of modern technology. But it’s also one of those things that a lot of us don’t use as much as we could or should. So a couple of Macworld editors, particularly Senior Editor Dan Frakes, put together the following list of 16 things we think everybody should know how to do using Siri. 1. Search the web Siri can perform internet searches (using Google,

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Bing, or Yahoo), get answers to more specialised questions using Wolfram Alpha (“What’s the square root of pi?”), find reviews of businesses (using Yelp), search Wikipedia, and so on. Just phrase your question in natural language, and then tap a search result to go to the source site (or app) for more information. 2. Control system settings Siri’s become a bit smarter across the board in iOS 7. One of its major improvements is in its ability to control your device’s settings. You can ask it to turn Bluetooth on or off, open a specific Settings pane, and even turn on Airplane Mode). If you need to change a setting Siri doesn’t directly support, and you can’t quite remember how to get to that settings screen, you can also open many toplevel settings groups, and some second-level screens, in the Settings app – for example, “Open Notification Center settings.” This feature doesn’t work for every section of the Settings app – especially those related to security--but it’s worth trying when you need to quickly tweak the way your device works. 3. Teach Siri who’s who If you’ve been saying the full name of your spouse, sibling, other family member, or boss,

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there’s a better way: Say “your wife’s name is my wife” and Siri will remember that designation in the future. You can then just say “Text my spouse” and Siri will know exactly whom to text. You can also add relationships by editing your own record in the Contacts apps: tap Add Related Name, then choose a relationship and a corresponding contact. 4. Send a text or email One of the most-convenient tasks Siri can perform is creating and sending text and email messages. Say, “Send my wife an email” or “Text my wife,” and Siri will create a new message and ask you what you want the message to say. Dictate your message, Siri shows you a preview, and then prompts you to send the message. Say, “Send,” and it’s sent. 5. Create a calendar event Siri can add events to your calendar thanks to commands such as “Make an event for 10am Friday called Training.” But you can get a lot more specific. Add “to calendar name” to choose a specific calendar; say “with contact name and Siri will add that person as an attendee. You can also edit events: “Move my Friday 10am Training event to 1pm” moves the event to the afternoon; “Add Serenity Caldwell to Monday’s 12:30

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meeting” adds her as an attendee. (Many people don’t realize Siri can also check your calendar. Say “When’s my meeting with Dan Moren?” and Siri will tell you. Say “Show me Tuesday” and Siri shows you your scheduled events for that day.) 6. Set a timer The built-in Clock app offers useful timer feature, but Siri makes it much more convenient. Say, “Set a timer for 10 minutes,” and Siri creates (and starts) a new 10-minute timer in the Clock app – you never even have to open the app. 7. Set an alarm Similarly, “Set an alarm for 7am” creates a new alarm-clock alarm for 7am. 8. Get directions You can have Siri get you directions to a destination, using iOS’s own Maps app, by saying, for example, “Show me how to get to Tunbridge Wells.” But Apple’s Maps app doesn’t currently support transit or walking directions, or you may prefer a different mapping app. Add “via transit” to the end of your command, and Siri will display a list of installed and App Store third-party routing apps. Tap one – such as the Google Maps app – and Siri will launch

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that app, preconfigured with your destination. (You don’t even need to choose a transit app, which makes this a great tip for using Siri with third-party navigation apps, such as Navigon.) 9. Create and edit notes Notes is a forgotten app on many iOS devices, but Siri makes it a lot more useful, if not any less simplistic. Say, “Make a note” or “Note that” and you can dictate a new note. Alternatively, say, “Make a note called note name” and you can then add text to that note by saying “Add text”. You can add to a note later by saying, “Add text to note name.” 10. Create reminders You may know that you can use Siri to schedule reminders by saying something like, “Remind me to call Dan at 10:30am tomorrow.” But Siri can do a lot more than that. For example, Siri can do reminder math: “Remind me to cancel my trial subscription in 14 days.” You can also have Siri configure geofenced (location-based) reminders: “Remind me to call the Y when I get home.” 11. Find a restaurant If you use Yelp or another app to find nearby restaurants, give Siri a try instead. “Are there any

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good delis nearby?” shows you a list, along with prices, location, and Yelp ratings. (You can search by location, cuisine, price, and indoor/outdoor seating – or any combination of features.) Tap a listing to get detailed information. And if you’ve ever used Open Table to make reservations, you’ll be thrilled to know that you can say “Find me a table for four for dinner tonight” to see nearby restaurants with openings; tap one to make the reservation. 12. Launch apps Siri can launch apps directly. Just say “Open app name” and Siri will open that app – assuming there’s only one with that name. Note that if your phone is locked, Siri will prompt you to unlock it before the app can be opened. 13. Control iTunes You can, of course, launch the Music app using Siri, but why bother when Siri can start playback for you? Say, “Play playlist Road Trip,” and Siri begins playback of the playlist called Road Trip.” Other things you can tell Siri to play include artist, album and track names. 14. Interact with social media If your hands are occupied, Siri can post to Twitter or Facebook for you. For example, say, “Tweet that the scenery in Tunbridge

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Wells is beautiful,” or “Post to Facebook that the weather in London is surprisingly sunny today,” and Siri does the rest. But did you know you can also search Twitter? Say “What are people saying on Twitter about Manchester United?” and Siri will show you some tweets about the topic. 15. Keep up to date with the latest sports news You don’t need to unlock your phone and open your favourite sports-news app to get the latest scores. Just say “What’s the score of the United game?” and Siri tells you. But Siri actually knows a lot more about sports than that. For example, you can say things like, “What’s Kevin Pietersen’s batting average?” or “Who do Liverpool play next?” to get detailed information about teams, players, and schedules. 16. Find out about movies Siri also knows movies. You may know that you can ask Siri about movie showtimes, but try asking about particular movies and actors: “Is the new Captain America movie any good?” “What time is Grand Budapest Hotel showing?” Siri shows you the results, and you can tap any movie or rating to get more info – you can even view trailers for current movies. Tap a cinema to view its location in the Maps app.

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