40Tech

On iOS, you can configure your notifications on a per app basis to appear in different ways. One type of notification drops down in a thin box from the top of the screen. Occasionally, this box can get in the way. If you’re typing a web address for example, you might think that you have to wait for the box to disappear to continue your typing. You can actually dismiss the box.

Are you like me – a bit of an iOS app addict? I’ve never found Apple’s App Store to be particularly helpful in discovering new apps. A recent tweet by Adam Christianson of the MacCast mentioned something called Applr, which I had never heard of. It turns out that Applr is a web app that helps you find new iOS apps, by following other people and seeing what they’re using. Other users can also follow you, to see your favorite apps.

If you haven’t noticed, I switched to an iPhone recently, after a couple of years with an Android device. (I recently promised a post explaining my reasons for switching, but just realized that I’ve already written it). The posts here tend to be about my experiences, which is why you’ve seen some iPhone-related posts lately.

Siri is one feature of iOS that has received some knocks, but that I’m finding to be quite useful. I love being able to say, “remind me when I get to work to return John Doe’s call,” and have that reminder pop up as I arrive at the office. That set me off in search of other Siri commands.

Katie Floyd is the host of one of my favorite podcasts, the Mac Power Users, and over on her blog she highlights an app that could help you out if you ever lose your iPhone or iPad. Contact Lockscreen Info is an app that makes it easy to add your contact info to the lock screen of your iOS device.

At this risk of sounding like a snob, I can say that user reviews of certain iOS apps seem to miss the mark at times, because of uninformed users. This often seems to occur with subscription-based apps, such as LastPass, where users don’t realize that a subscription is required to get the full features of the app. Other times, this happens when users don’t seem to understand the limitations of iOS, and the workarounds that these limitations require of developers. One example of this is EverWebClipper, an app that makes clipping web pages into Evernote much easier on iOS devices, but somehow has received many low reviews.

iOS devices are handy, but limited. I’ve written previously on some workarounds I’ve come up with to address these limitations, such as how to download full resolution images from Dropbox to your iPad. Another way that you can “hack” your iPad is to set up Safari bookmarklets, which are bookmarklets that run code and let you perform a variety of actions, such as sending a page to Instapaper, clipping content into Evernote, and more.

When Photo Stream first came to iOS, it wasn’t too useful for anything other than moving your photos between devices. Photo Stream was an all or nothing deal – if you turned it on, all your most recent photos were synced between devices. At the outset, you couldn’t selectively sync photos, and you couldn’t share photos with anyone on a different iCloud account. That’s now changed.

There are many weather apps on the iOS platform. In the winter, I’m a weather geek, so I have several of them. One of the coolest ones out there is Dark Sky, which can tell you when it is going to rain, down to the minute.

Put this in the category of “interesting, although I’m not sure I’d use it.” If your whole life is in Evernote, and you also keep a journal, then you may want to check out Ever Journal Free For Evernote. The app lets you input journal entries, which are then sent into Evernote in a “My Journal” notebook.

If you hadn’t already heard, Google Chrome for iPhone and iPad was released this week — and it promptly became the #1 free app on the app store. This is something that we’ve been waiting for with baited breath, and something that I, personally, was never sure would happen properly due to the rivalry between Apple and Google.

Have no doubt, though, it’s here — and it takes the best of Google Chrome’s desktop browser and jams it neatly and prettily into your pocket.