iPhone Life April 2015 USA

Apple Pay % Manage Your Photos: Drones, 3D Printers & = in —— A Step-by-Step Guide Smart Homes, Oh My! PKoneff? Best Apps + Top Tips+ Great Gear iii P¥ou.n02 @ WATCH = Is It for You? The Productivity Issue Powerful Apps, Professional Gear, and Expert Guides pc 2« Fra ES ES LIFEPROOF WATERPROOF, DROP PROOF CASES FOR iPHONE 6 THAT GO WHERE YOU GO GET YOURS NOW AT LIFEPROOF.COM iPhonef INSIDER] BECOME AN IPHONE LIFE INSIDER iphonelife.com/insider “oS BEEBE March/April 2015 } | \ i) __} .-] = | \e The Productivity Issue 36 iPhone Life's Guide to Productivity A collection of apps, gear, and tips to keep you on top. Productivity: Then and Now A snapshot of what's changed in the last 30 years. Professional Gear Recreate your ideal office wherever you go. Farewell, Laptop Making the switch to an iDevice. Focus on Apps 6 picks to help you stay on point. Surviving Grad School with Evernote Agrad student's guide to using Evernote. Acommentary on Apple's new market opportunity. Manage Your Life with OmniFocus Learn to put the “Getting Things Done” method to use. Taking Apple's mobile payment system for a spin. Convert to a Paperless Office Top apps for erasing your paper trail. How Apple's new smartwatch Cloud Storage Showdown could improve your life. A look at today’s top cloud services. 2 iPhone Life March/April 2015 How your virtual assistant can help manage yout life. Snap, save, and sync your pho- tos using iCloud Photo Library. Real estate apps to jump-start your home search. Creative approaches that make learning math fun. 27 innovative products from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. iPhone Life March/April 2015 3. Editor's Message Tech Trends from CES 2015 I'm still buzzing from the excitement of January's Consumer Electronics Show, where the world’s most innovative companies gathered to showcase everything from 4KTVs to driverless cars. Here are the top mobile trends we saw at CES this year (see page 69 for Best of CES awards): The Rise of 3D Printing 3D printers are amazing, with the ability to produce anything from artificial limbs to entire homes. And now they've gone mobile! At CES, industry leader MakerBot showed off its free MakerBot PrintShop app, which lets you design things like vases and rings on your iPhone and print them from one of the company’s 3D printers. The Home of the Future We heard a lot about Jetsons-like smart homes last year, and at CES, they were on full display. Panasonic displayed an entire prototype smart kitchen with embedded cameras that let you keep an eye on what's cooking from your iPhone. Drones and Selfie Sticks—Your Personal Paparazzi A flying camera may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of drones, but CES was teeming with these winged paparazzi. | had a blast seeing Parrot show off its tiny Bebop drone with a choreographed performance to classical music, and witnessing Hexo debut its GoPro-toting drone for cap- turing extreme sports videos. While less high tech, the monopod (otherwise < known as the selfie stick) was around every corner at CES. Some say its nick- Downy Cull Claud) name is unfair—after all, you can use the accessory for more practical purpos- es than snapping selfies at further than arm's length, like to get an awesome = a a crowd shot, or to take a belfie (I'll let you look that one up). Editor in Chief iPhone Life magazine, donna@iphonelife.com Virtual Reality Though I'd read the hype about Oculus VR, nothing could've prepared me for the intense immersive experience of the latest developer's edition, Oculus Crescent Bay. During a demo, | found myself on the ledge of a skyscraper, the open air whistling around me. | had to close my eyes to stop my knees from buckling only to find a T-Rex closing in on me when | opened them again. | left the demo understanding how such technology could have uses beyond gaming, such as for military training or to help people overcome their fears. A Note on Productivity Looking beyond cool gadgets, you'll also find a healthy dose of tips to help you become more organized and efficient. To make 2015 your most productive year yet, check out our featured section starting on pg. 36. 0 iPhoneLife.com iPhone Life magazine Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Get Our Daily Tips = iPhone | Apple news, tips and tricks, Now available on Apple Newsstand. Giphonelife facebook.com/iphonelifemagazine iPhoneLife.com/dailytips best apps, and more! Download at iPhonelife.com/ourapp. 4 iPhone Life March/April 2015 HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING IF YOUR SMARTPHONE IS BURIED IN YOUR BAG? Getting from Point A to Point B can be easy with today's GPS-enabled smartphones. Easy, that is, except for when you need your hands on the wheel and your attention on the road. Square Jellyfish has a solution. Our Car Vent Mount is designed to hold your phone within easily viewable and audible distance right on the dashboard of your car. In an instant, your smartphone becomes an onboard navigation system, a streaming music player and a hands-free phone. Our tiny mount can be attached or removed in a matter of seconds so you can use it in all your personal vehicles and even rental cars. Get the Square Jellyfish Car Vent Mount on Amazon for $17.95 and know where you're going. a= square jellyfish Holds smartphones and phablets, with or without cases, with up to 6-inch screens measuring up to 3 5/8 inches wide. Holds your device in both vertical and horizontal positions or any angle in between. Works with most flat-flange vents, Be sure to observe all laws and sate driving practices when positioning and using this device. Learn more at squarejellyfish.com. 6 Meet Our Writers Nate Adcock Todd Bernhard ‘Systems Test Engineer Founder, No Tie Software Article page 69-76 Article page 68-76 natestera@gmail.com toddbernhard@yahoo.com Becca Ludlum Siva Om Blogger and Speech Therapist Web Designer and Writer Article page 69-76 Articles pages 44, 69-76 rebeccaludlum@cox.net sivaom@iphonelife.com Anjerika Wilmer Grad Student/Freelance Writer Articles pages 50, 64 anjerikawilmer@gmail.com + = Abbey Dufoe Jordan Joynt Charity Kountz Freelance Writer Digital Producer Freelance Writer and Author Article page 41 Anticle page 22 Article page 58 abbey.dufoe@gmail.com joynt jordan@gmail.com ccharity@charitykountz.com the SN Daniel W. Rasmus Rebecca Santiago Brittany Vincent Strategist and Industry Analyst Writer and Editor Freelance Writer Articles pages 54, 57, 69-76 Article page 48 Article page 66 dwrasmus@danielwrasmus.com santiago.rk@gmail.com brittanylynnvincent@gmail.com Staff bal David Averbach Donna Schill Cleveland Publisher and CEO Editor in Chief Article page 26 Articles pages 34, 69-76 david@iphonelife.com donna@iphonelife.com Rheanne Schlee Associate Editor Articles pages 38, 78 theanne@iphonelife.com iPhone Life March/April 2015 a & Hal Goldstein Jim Karpen ‘Sarah Kingsbury Senior Editor/Founder Online Editor/Columnist ‘Web Editor Article page 80 Article page 18 Article page 30 hal@thaddeus.com jim_karpen@iphonelife.com sarah@iphonelife.com oe \ es lt > je ‘ re aml & dG Jaybird News, Stats, Tidbits & more THE NUMBERS Every day, we post 1.8 billion images to Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Snapchat, and WhatsApp, ac- cording to tech analyst Mary Meeker’s recent “State of the Internet” report. A 2014 Nielsen report reveals that while the ma- jority of Americans now own a smartphone, no group accounts for a bigger slice of the pie than Generation Y. Of the 77 million Millennials in the US aged 18 to 34 years old, more than 85 percent own smartphones. ChefJet Pro by 3D Systems (Price TBA) It's still hard to wrap our minds arou . in 3D, like clothing and a Pro lets you print candy! The made from sugar chocolate var iPhone Life March/April 2015 WHAT'S HOT IN THE APP STORE TwoDots (Free) This fiercely addictive game may look simple on the outsi but it's loads of fun! The idea it V vorks like a digital bu: there and r = =. = shortage of photo- = s out there, but is that yo! endle: bining them to an even save your your library for future Monument Valley ($3.99) Valley ida subtle yet in ting storyline. The goal of the game is to help the cess Ida complete her quest through les that involve spinning and nt to pi aren't incredibly g, you'll find that its simplicity is what makes the game most enjoyable. CES 2015: Largest in History This year's International Consumer Electronics Show was the largest in CES history, with over 3,600 exhibitors and a re- cord number of startups, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. From reimag- ined products to new ideas still in prototype form, CES show- cased everything from virtual reality headsets to driverless cars. iPhone Separation Anxiety Exists! People can suffer from genuine separation anxiety when parted with their iPhones, according to a study published in January by the University of Missouri. Participants showed immediate signs of distress when completing word puzzles without their iPhones. The study found decreased performance and a significant increase in anxi- ety, heart rate, and blood pressure when separated, revealing just how addicted we've become to technology. A Tunnel to Apple Here’s some news you don’t hear every day. f : While many people were q waiting in line to get the Te~ iPhone 6, three men in Beijing decided to take matters into their own hands and dig a tunnel into a warehouse, stealing 240 of the new iPhones, according to a local news source. Police finally caught the men by tracking the serial numbers of the stolen phones. iPhone PUBLISHER AND CEO David Averbach - david@iphonelifecom CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Raphael Bures -raphael@iphonelifecom CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Noah Siemsen + noahaiphonelifecom EDITOR IN CHIEF Donna Schill Cleveland - donna@iphonelife.com SENIOR EDITOR AND FOUNDER Hal Goldstein -halaiphonelife.com WEB EDITOR Sarah Kingsbury «arahiphonelfecom ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rheanne Schlee«theanneaiphonelifecom CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Nina Benjamin -nina@iphonelife.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS & WRITERS See page6 ART DIRECTOR Jaime Thatcher jaimeiphonelife.com COVER DESIGN George Foster- georgeaifostercovers.com ADVERTISING SALES COORDINATOR Marge Enright -margeaiphonelifecom ADVERTISING SALES SPECIALIST Janet Joyce -janetaiphonelfecom CUSTOMER SERVICE & SUBSCRIPTIONS. For address changes or subscription questions, vst www.iphonelifecom/custom- erservice, email customerservice@iphonelifecom, or cll 847-763-4940. 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Telephone: 641-472-6330, Fax 641-472-1879 © Copyright 2015, Mango Life Mea al rghts reserved. No partofthis publication may be reproduced without written permision. Reasonable efforts are made to provide ac- curate and usefulnformation, but the eader mustmake his orher own investigations and decisions; the Publisher and Editorial Staff anno assume any responsibity orbit for the use of information contained herein POSTMASTER: Please end adress changes to (tia las lent Relationship Manager Hal ark Data Stems 730 Linder koi I 60077 Coverimages courtesy of Apple Inc iPhone Life March/April 2015 9 APTION CONTEST Illustration by Mikaila Maidment, mikailamaidment.com YOUR CAPTION HERE Send us a clever caption for the cartoon above, and we'll feature our favorite entries in the next issue. The winner will receive a $25 iTunes Gift Card! Send all captions to comics@iphonelife.com. 10 iPhone Life March/April 2015 MARCH/APRIL 2015 CAPTION WINNER “I'm flexible, but only when | need to be.” Submitted by Armando Zapata RUNNERS-UP: "| got this, everyone knows that no other phone can bend like the iPhone 6 Plus!" Submitted by Jennifer Edwall "| used to be a size 5." Submitted by Dorota Walters Riordan Thanks to everyone who sent in their funny captions! iPhone Life March/April 2015 11 AROUND THE IPHONE LIFE OFFICE What Apps or Gear Are You Using to Boost your Productivity? Donna, Editor in Chief: | recently began using the project-management software Asana (free) to coordinate iPhone Life's editorial calendar with our team of writers. It helps me spend less time wading through emails and gives me an at-a-glance impression of prog- ress on each issue. Rheane, Associate Editor: After all the great things I've been hearing about Evernote (free) for years, | finally gave in and downloaded it myself. | can al- ready see what a huge difference it's going to make in helping me stay orga- nized! 12 iPhone Life March/April 2015 Janet, Sales Specialist: | got a Fitbit Flex ($99.95) for Christmas, and have found the fitness bracelet to be really motivating! Sitting at a desk all day is bad for your health, and the Flex helps me stay active and on point throughout my day. Raph, CTO: This year I've really been into using the “Getting Things Done” method developed by productivity ex- pert David Allen. To that end, I'm using WorkFlowy (free) on my desktop and iPhone to keep track of everything | need to do in one place. Hal, Senior Editor and Founder: The Eson Universal HV-800 Wireless Earphones ($16 on Amazon) are great for listening to podcasts. | have found them to be decent-sounding, ergonomi- cally pleasing Bluetooth headphones that pair easily with my iPhone and iPad and block out ambient noise. Sarah, Web Editor: At work, | use my iPhone to research tips and reader ques- tions, but being on my device can also be a distraction. The app Moment (free) helps me stay productive by tracking my iPhone usage and alerting me after ev- ery 15 minutes so | don’t get sucked into checking Facebook or playing a game. FUGOO XL is a rugged Bluetooth® speaker with eight premium drivers delivering 360° high fidelity sound. 35 hours of battery life, USB charge out to power your other devices, and 100% waterproof protection. Built for every adventure! IPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY will receive the following prizes: i - s, a 2nd Place a “I - if Ty ma clip Want to see your photo featured here? Enter your best shots at iPhoneLife.com/contest for a chance to win. Our editors choose the top three entries, and our readers choose our fourth and final winner by voting for their favorite images on Facebook. Prizes include the olloclip Quick-Connect Lens and Quick-Flip Case as well as a spot in an upcoming issue of /Phone Life magazine. By Nick Roefer By Bill Rogers By Zulma Lopez By Chris Ritchey By James Ronan By Karen Harvey By Niluxan Sivathasan By Roberto Di Tivoli iPhone Life March/April 2015 15 The (Tunes Gift Card Challenge How would you spend a $50 iTunes Gift Card to plan your perfect date night? dations in music and plan to purchase La Femme's 2013 album accordingly. The New Food Lover's PAR S ($4.99) We'll get dining recom- Amélie mendations from ac- ($12.99) claimed food critic Patricia Wells (Yelp This movie might not work so well in Paris!). starring Au- drey Tautou is our favorite! We'll load it on the iPad and watch it over and over in the hotel. Rick Steves' Pocket Paris ($9.99) A travel guide with of- fline maps? We'll need it! “The Whole French English Dic- Fromage" La Femme's tionary+ ($10.99) “Psycho Trop- ($9.99) Kathe Lison’s ical Berlin” This language app will book exploring ($7.99) act as a reference book byaries the glories of My favorite as well as a French to English transla- FR aE French cheese blogger is Emily tion tool, with more than half a million ES will be my Grossman, an words available offline. a book of choice American girl to read on the who loves ev- plane. erything French. | follow her recommen- Tell us how you would spend a $50 iTunes Gift Card to plan the ultimate family vacation. To enter, send us a list of four to eight apps, movies, books, songs, or TV shows that add up to close to $50. Email your responses to challenge@iphonelife.com by March 9. The winner will receive a $50 iTunes Gift Card and will appear in the May/June Travel issue of iPhone Life magazine! 16 iPhone Life March/April 2015 Removable 3200mah battery 2 Hour Quick Charge Premium Soft Touch Feel Charge & Sync via iTunes ONLY 0.55 inch thin Minimalist Ultra Slim design Full iPhone case protection Up to 120% Extra iPhone that mimics the iPhone 6 with 3 raised frontal points Charge with 3200mah speaker & headphone ports to protect screen removable battery module Refuel your life and upgrade to REFUEL INVICTUS today! Phone is registered trademark of Apple, Inc. All trademarks are registered to their respective owners. J) Available in 3 colors - Matte Black , Space Gray and Gold 18 iPhone Life March/April 2015 ith the unveiling of the Apple Watch last fall, Apple launched a new product cat- egory for the first time since Tim Cook became CEO. The implications of the Apple Watch release are huge for both Apple and its CEO, giving rise to a host of questions. Will the Apple Watch sell? Can Cook replicate the late Steve Jobs's genius and add another hit product to the string of successes that began with the iPod in 2001? Does Cook have what it takes to keep Apple on top? iPhone Life March/April 2015 HIGH EXPECTATIONS MEAN HIGH STAKES More than anyone else, Wall Street market ana- lysts want to know the answers to these questions. Overall, they're predicting healthy sales, with some estimating Apple will sell around 20 million watches in 2015 and others saying 30 million or more. According to a survey conducted by investment firm Piper Jaffray, 7 percent of iPhone owners plan to buy an Apple Watch. That may not sound like a lot, but con- sidering Apple has sold well over 450 million iPhones worldwide in the past three years, that would equate to over 30 million watches—an amount considerably higher than the number of iPhones and iPads sold in their first years. What's more, in the first half of 2014 the total number of all smartwatches sold was 7 mil- lion. That means that if Apple could pull off selling 30 million in less than a year, their sales would be more than double that of all other smartwatches combined. With numbers like these, consumers certainly have high expectations of Apple. Last December, Time maga- zine named Apple Watch as the top gadget of 2014, even though it wasn't available for purchase yet. If for some reason sales are mediocre, Apple’s stock will likely take a big hit, and the company's image will be tarnished. FASHION ACCESSORY OR TECH GADGET? Not only is the Apple Watch a foray into a new product category, it's also a new leap into the fashion world. Late last year, rumor had it that Apple was plan- ning to hire fashion experts for its retail stores to assist customers as they try on various bands and styles. And if you recall, in 2013 Apple hired Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, as its head of retail, and Paul Deneve, the former CEO of the Yves Saint Laurent brand, as vice president of special projects. In addition, Apple is also rumored to release an 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition, priced in the range of $5,000. Apple's devices have always been fashionable, but they were gadgets first and foremost. In this case, the balance is shifting from utility to style. WHAT WATCHKIT REVEALED ABOUT THE APPLE WATCH New details about the Apple Watch emerged when Apple released the WatchKit tools so developers could make apps for the new device. During its September presentation, Apple had already described many of the watch's features; however, the manual for developers gave more depth, revealing both the watch's strengths and its weaknesses. The most interesting detail may be the way in which the Apple Watch will require an iPhone to function—at least initially. When the Apple Watch displays information, the processing of that information actually takes place on one’s iPhone and is then pushed to the Apple Watch. At first, the Apple Watch will have only three stand- alone apps: Dates, Times, and Timers. That means if you don’t have your iPhone with you, you'll still be able to use your Apple Watch as a watch, but nothing else. Thankfully, this doesn't seem to be a permanent problem, as Apple did say that fully native apps would arrive later this year. GLANCES AND NOTIFICATIONS: WHAT'S IN A LOOK? Another interesting detail is that WatchKit offers developers two main options for communicating with the user: Glances and actionable notifications. A Glance is a non-interactive “template-based notifica- tion” on the watch display sent via an app on one’s iPhone, such as a weather app. Actionable notifications, on the other hand, present information on the screen that you can respond to, a feature that's basically an extension of iPhone notifica- tions. For example, the American Airlines app will use actionable notifications to remind you when it’s time to go to the airport, as well as to update you on gate changes, your connecting gate, and boarding times. Plus, it will give real-time location information while you're in the air via Glances. Apple Watch will also distinguish between “short look” and “long look” notifications. If it senses that you're just glancing at your watch, you'll get a single message, such as “Your plane is boarding now.” But if you keep looking at the notification, more informa- tion appears—in this case, the flight number, boarding time, and gate number. During the long look, the icon for the app and the original notification get smaller and move to the top of the screen to make room for the additional detail. You can then scroll through the additional information and perform actions such as commenting, favoriting, or dismissing. LIMITATIONS OF THE APPLE WATCH Apple's WatchKit software for developers revealed that many of the Apple Watch's features won't be avail- able to developers—including the heart rate monitor; the near field communication (NFC) chip; the Taptic Engine feature; and even the digital crown, which is used to zoom and scroll Apple apps and to return to the Home screen. To top it off, the device's microphone will only be usable by developers for dictating text, and there will be no custom alerts available. You can use the Apple Watch to control the iPhone's Camera app, but not other camera apps. And to begin with, only Apple will be offering watch faces. Developers won't be able to offer their own custom faces, nor will they have the option of offering in-app purchases. The use of gestures on the Apple Watch will also be much more limited than on other iOS devices. They will reportedly be limited to vertical swipes to scroll through the screen, horizontal swipes to go between pages, tapping to select, and the “force touch,” which opens a contextual menu. There's also an “edge swipe” that goes back to the previous screen and an- other edge swipe that opens the glance view. A WORK IN PROGRESS Despite the Apple Watch's limitations, | think it's likely that many of its features will eventually be acces- sible to developers. For now, Apple appears to want to keep things simple and uniform to ensure that the Apple Watch gets off to a strong start. As always, the company has given a considerable amount of attention to every tiny detail. And that’s exactly why people love Apple's gadgets so much. | think Apple has a winner. © Jim Karpen, PhD is on faculty at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield 1. He has been writing about the revolutionary conse- ‘quences of computer technology since 1994. His Ph.D dissertation anticipated the Internet revolution. His site, jimkarpen.com, contains selected regular columns written for The owa Source jim_karpen@ iphonelife.om. SIMORE Use 3 SIM cards on your iPhone Your world is bigger than you think ! WWW.SIMORE.CH Business SIM Travel SIM Personal SIM SiMore App THE DEAL WITH APPLE PAY A REVIEW OF APPLE’S MOBILE PAYMENT SERVICE BY JORDAN JOYNT 22 iPhone Life March/April 2015 ays of fumbling through your wallet and credit cards in the checkout line may be coming to an end. With the introduction of Apple Pay—a mobile payment service baked into iOS 8.1 on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus—Apple aims to make your wallet obsolete in favor of storing your credit card information directly to your phone. With this touch- and-go technology, users can make quick purchases within apps, or wirelessly in brick-and-mortar stores using near field communication (NFC) technology. This obviously speeds up the point-of-sale process in the checkout line, but is it really a bona fide “credit card killer?” Of course, Apple isn't the first company to take a shot at making mobile payments. Both Google and PayPal have tried to stake their claim to the service. What separates Apple Pay from the likes of Google Wallet and PayPal’s mobile app is an added emphasis on security and ease of use. A few added steps (entering a PIN at the terminal) make using Google Wal- let less inconvenient, and PayPal requires an app, a password, and a little extra time searching for the restaurant or store. The beauty of Apple Pay is that those extraneous steps are taken out of the equation, making the process exactly how it was intended to be: simple HOW DOES IT WORK? Near field communication—a type of wireless technology that lets you send information to nearby devices using an electrical field—is imbedded in your iPhone 6 and allows you to use the credit and debit card information stored in your Passcode app in order to make payments. You can enter this information by either snapping a photo of your card with your iPhone's camera or by entering the number manually. For my purposes, | used a debit card with U.S. Bank, so setup only took a minute or two. Apple Pay works with most major US banks, but some smaller, regional banks may not participate right out of the gate. Once you reach a pay terminal, you'll want to hover your phone near the contactless reader. Simply place your finger ‘on your Touch ID sensor, wait for the vibrating notification, and you're finished—it’s that easy. IS APPLE PAY SAFE? Due to Apple’s high-profile data breaches and security is- sues last year, it's natural that people would question the security of Apple Pay. Apple remains confident, however, claiming that vendors will never actually come in contact with users’ credit card numbers. Instead, Apple Pay assigns and stores a Device Account Number on a dedicated chip on the iPhone rather than on Apple servers. When you make a pay- ment, the account number and a special security code are transmitted, while your credit card information remains pri- vate. Transactions aren't stored on your iPhone, though recent purchases will show up in your Passbook app. If you happen to lose your phone, you can use Find My iPhone to switch your device to Lost Mode, or even wipe the iPhone drive com- pletely to protect your data. WHERE CAN | USE IT? Several retail partners announced their backing of the pay- ment system early on. These included various clothing stores like American Eagle Outfitters and Bloomingdale's, along with many fast food chains, including McDonald's and Panera. | decided to put Apple Pay to the test at McDonald's, American Eagle, and a Nike outlet store. The process was much smoother than | expected, especially considering how new the service still is. My attempts to use Apple Pay at McDonald’s and American Eagle were success- ful on the first try, although it took a couple of attempts at the Nike outlet store before my purchase went through. This was likely due to an issue with the NFC reader or Touch ID, so it didn’t steer me away from the payment method altogether. A couple of locations still required a signature or PIN after using the mobile payment method, making the process nearly identi- cal to swiping a card, both in time and efficiency. Hopefully, this added step will soon fall by the wayside. Even though the payments were largely successful, some of the employees were bewildered when | opted to pay with a phone rather than swipe a card. That could be chalked up to a widespread illiteracy concerning mobile payment. This illus- trated to me the need for better training. You can also use Apple Pay to make in-app purchases. | found this process to be even simpler and will likely be my go-to choice when shopping online. Several apps have already integrated the service into their payment methods, so you can skip entering in your card number when signing up for servic- es like Uber and Lyft. | used the Target app to buy a flash drive and noticed a speedier checkout with Apple Pay. Payment in- formation is already in place, but you may still be prompted to enter your billing address. VERDICT: Apple Pay still has a ways to go in building trust and famil- iarity with consumers and retailers alike. But as far as mobile payments are concerned, this one is hard to beat. Once we see a sizeable growth in retailers and iron out some of the wrinkles, | could see using the service on a fairly regular ba- sis. Until then, I'll continue to reach for my wallet. © Jordan Joynt isa web content producer for Meredith Corporation. He also writes about emerging technology, mobile news, and interesting Kickstarter projects. To see more of his work, visit jordanjoynt.com. iPhone Life March/April 2015 23 Both Print & Digital 7°) for only $15.97! > @ Sever {coe ——: iPHone iPhione| @WATCH Is It for You? ¢ Print edition PLUS Full Digital “clickable” version for iPad, iPhone, Mac/PC! ¢ 6 issues/year including May/June How-to Guide & Nov/Dec Buyer’s Guide! ¢ BONUS: Get a FREE Toddy Cloth! ($10 Value) SHO Ba What’s on iPhoneLife.com? S === =| AT&T ANNOUNCES NEW iPAD DATA atat ' PLANS: $5/DAY, $25/3 MONTHS é€ For those who only need occasional connectivity, such as during a day trip, AT&T has announced a plan that's $5 per day for 250MB of data that can be used over a 24-hour period. TOP 5 PHOTOGRAPHY APPS FOR THE iPHONE AND iPAD Out of a crowded field, I've distilled a list of my top 5 iPhone camera apps, ones that I've put to continual use, and they've consistently performed well. Read on, some of my top picks may surprise you! TIPS & TRICKS FOR LESSER KNOWN Wow Does A7 Processor on the iPhone 55 Compare to Other Phoe FEATURES OF iOS 7 Ca Oa Humans use only 10 percent of their brains. Actually, — ~ that's a myth, but it's probably not a myth that many of us utilize only about 10 percent of our iPhone's capabilities. NEW RUGGED BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS: THE BUCKSHOT AND SLINGSHOT The sound that this speaker pumps out is plenty sufficient to be heard loud and clear over the sound of a roaring shower, a raging river, or a raucous day at the park oa Buy mit ned e908 iPhone Life March/April 2015 27 AN APPLE WATCH? BY DAVID AVERBACH hen | first heard about the original iPhone, | wasn't impressed. My initial reaction went something like: “Just what | need, another way to check Facebook.” Admittedly, at the time, | was a couch- surfing kid in Thailand, rocking a fuzzy mohawk and carrying all my worldly possessions around on my back. | had not yet blossomed into the tech enthusiast and die-hard Apple fanboy that | am today. That began to change the first time | saw an iPhone in action while hiking through Golden Gate Park with a friend. When we started to get hungry, he took out his new iPhone, found a tasty Thai place nearby on Yelp, and used Maps to direct us there. When Apple announced the iPad in 2010, | once again failed to recognize the value of the new product category. “Why would anybody want an oversized iPod touch?” | thought. Six months later, an iPad occupied prime real estate on my night- stand and it hasn't left my side since. READ BETWEEN THE SPECS Just as | once questioned the value of the iPad’s larger screen, many are now questioning the utility of the Apple Watch's tiny screen. It’s human nature to resist change and to doubt the next big idea. I've underestimated Apple twice already, and I’m not about to do it again. In my five years of covering the industry, I’ve learned that what makes a product great is not a collection of features and specs, but rather the contribution the product makes to your life. Steve Jobs under- stood this better than anyone, and the company that he built is continuing his legacy. RECEDING TECHNOLOGY A major critique of modern society is centered around our tendency to walk around with smartphones in front of our fac- 28 iPhone Life March/April 2015 es. The Apple Watch will give us access to many of the iPhone’s most valuable features while allowing the technology to recede into the background. It will allow us to navigate big cities, pay for goods, and view notifications all while keeping our phones in our pockets and remaining engaged with the outside world. IMPROVING HEALTH One of the biggest benefits of the Apple Watch is, of course, its fitness-tracking capabilities. It's no secret that we have an obesity epidemic in the United States. Nearly 70 per cent of all Americans over 20 years old are now overweight or obese, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Apple Watch uses an accelerometer, a heart rate sensor, and GPS to track our steps and number of calo- ries burned throughout the day to help us improve our health by getting in better shape. NAVIGATING THE INTERNET OF THINGS | believe the Apple Watch will be instrumental in connecting the so-called “Internet of things.” One of the hottest trends at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was the connected home—from smart cars to refrigerators to security systems. While smartphones offer more advanced navigation than tradi- tional analog controls like keys, light switches, and intercoms, they still pose some challenges. Nobody wants to constantly keep his or her smartphone on hand. Smartwatches provide the perfect solution—they still offer an advanced user interface, but are much more accessible than the iPhone. On a frigid winter day, it would be much easier to hold your wrist to your car's ignition than to have to take off your gloves and dig your phone out of your pocket or purse. | think that smartwatches will eventually become the lynchpin of the connected home and the Internet of things. THE COMPETITION The Apple Watch is going up against competition from two product categories: smartwatches and fitness trackers. Most competing smartwatches are Android wearables running Google's modified OS, Android Wear. Yet Apple Watch is well ahead of today’s Android watches, both in terms of looks and functionality. Android Wear relies primarily on Google Now cards. In theory, these cards give you relevant information based on your time and location, showing the weather as you leave the house or your shopping list as you pull up to the store. In practice, however, | found Android Wear to be somewhat lim- iting. Google didn't always pull up the information | wanted, and the operating system felt a little half baked. While it lets you respond to texts and set reminders, it lacks some core functionality, such as the ability to initiate texts and view pho- tos. Furthermore, all of the Android watches still fee! bulky. The round-faced LG G Watch R is perhaps the nicest-looking Android wearable on the market, but it still feels a bit too heavy on my wrist. Apple did not differentiate its health functionality much from other fitness trackers on the market. If all you want is to track your health metrics, most fitness trackers will have the same metrics as Apple, but they'll be more compact and cheaper, with a better battery life. My favorite fitness tracker is the Withings Activité. It looks like an analog watch, but it syncs with your iPhone and has all the fitness metrics you could DRY SHINZ incom. want. But if you want iPhone integration, including navigation, messaging, and Apple Pay, the Apple Watch is by far the best option on the market. THE QUESTION AT HAND So, for those of you wondering if you should buy the Apple Watch, my advice is unequivocally, “Yes!” Not only will it make your life better right out of the box, but it will also continue to improve over time. As with the iPad and the iPhone before it, many of the benefits of the Apple Watch will become obvious as we Start using it and as third-party developers invent new uses for the device. When the iPhone first came out, the media and blogo- sphere wrote countless articles analyzing whether or not you should buy the world's first smartphone. Today, very few people are debating whether smartphones add value to our lives. The question has shifted from “Should you buy a smart- phone?” to “Which smartphone should you buy?” In five years, we will be treating wearables the same way. Smart- watches are the future, and Apple has once again moved to the head of the pack. © David Averbach is the CEO and Publisher of iPhone Life and Android Life magazine, David has an obsession with al things Apple. He grew up on Macs and now has a MacBook Pro, Phone, iPad, and an Apple TV. David enjoys traveling and Ultimate Frisbee. He has been to over 20 countries. To contact David, email him at David@ iphonelife.com. NEW! DRY SKINZ WATERPROOF CASES The new Dry Skinz waterproof case for iPhone 6 has just arrived and it truly raises the bar when it comes to delivering a lightweight, waterproof case to consumers. It provides flawless performance and at $69.95 suggested retail... the price clearly blows the competition out of the water! Available in 5 colors, the Dry Skinz case has a clean, distinctive look that accents the design of the iPhone and it provides an incredibly comfortable fee! and grip in your hand. Dry Skinz will protect your phone from drops and it can be completely submerged for up to 1 hour in 6% feet of water. Dry Skinz... wherever you may " be protected... “just in case”. www.dryskinz.com N S S SSS OSS @ ALLL by Sarah Kingsbury IS f you're not using Siri, you should be. Apple's Si virtual assistant can increase your productivity S dramatically, whether you're writing and sending N emails, searching the web, or posting on social Ne media. Even simple activities like opening an app AY or a Settings menu are easier with the help of Siri “Add 198.25+150.42+9.99" Alright, here's what | got: Double Check Your Calculations The Calculator app on your iPhone is convenient for quick- ly adding a string of numbers or figuring out how much to tip at dinner. But the app won't let you see the numbers you've entered or edit any mistakes. With Siri, both are possible. Just say, “Add 198.25 plus 150.42 plus 9.99.” and Siri will give you the answer. If you've made a mistake, just tap to edit and correct your query using the keyboard. 30 iPhone Life March/April 2015 For even more productivity tips, sign up to get the daily iPhone or iPad tip newsletter delivered directly to your inbox Naming that tune Identify and Buy Songs Playing on the Radio If you keep hearing a catchy tune on the radio but don’t know its name, Siri can help you out. Just ask it, “What's the name of this song?” Then give it a mo- ment to listen to the ambient music. Once Siri’s identified the song, it'll offer its name and an option to buy it. All the songs Siri identifies for you are also saved on your Wish List in the Store in the Music app. Find fitness apps in the App Store” OK, here are some health & fitness apps on the App Store... Quickly Search iTunes and the App Store Instead of opening iTunes or the App Store yourself and typing your query on the keyboard, save time by having Siri search for you. Say, “Search iTunes for workout music” and Siri will present you with a list of workout music radio stations, albums, and songs. Ask Siri to find productivity apps, and it'll present you with a list of apps in categories such as Manage Your Time, Stay on Task, and Take Note. OK, do you want me to remember that Rosemary Smith is your wife? Introduce Yourself and Others to Siri Introduce your con- tacts to Siri so you can ask it to mes- sage a contact with- out having to specify aname. First, create a contact card for yourself. Then go to Settings > General > Siri, tap on My Info, and select your name in Contacts. Next, introduce Siri to people you know by saying, “Rosemary Smith is my wife,” or “Alex Johnson is my manager,” and then confirming. Then, when you say, “Call my manager,” Siri will know whom to call. “Enable Wi-Fi" OK, | turned on Wi-Fi. Settings Bypass Control Center If you choose to re- strict access to Con- trol Center within apps, you may want to use Siri to control many of the same settings instead of having to exit an app in order to open Control Center. Fortunately, you can use Siri to control Airplane Mode, Do Not Disturb, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen brightness, clock functions, the Calculator app, the Camera app, and the pausing and playing of music or videos in some apps. S your email rr rah Kingsbury: Mail Dictate Emails, Notes, or Messages Dictating a text or email to Siri is sig- nificantly faster than typing. Just say, “Email John Smith,” and Siri will prompt you to dictate a sub- ject line and then to dictate your email. Don't forget to dic- tate punctuation or your correspondence will look unprofes- sional. Add punctua- tion by saying “comma,” “period,” “semicolon,” or “ellipsis,” as you compose your message. iPhone Life March/April 2015 31 OK, I can add this to your She Reminders. Add Reminders to Specific Lists When you ask Siri to create a reminder, it automatically adds the reminder to your default Reminders list. If you want the reminder added to a different list, just phrase your request a little differently and make sure to include the name of your preferred list. In- stead of saying, “Remind me to buy milk; say something like, “Add milk to my Shopping List.” Searching Google for ‘the iPhone 6"... Use Google In- stead of Bing when Searching the Web Microsoft and Apple may have partnered to set Bing as Siri's default search en- gine, but that doesn’t mean you have to use it when search- ing the web with Siri. All you have to do is say something like, “Google the iPhone 6," or “Search Yahoo for the iPhone 6,” and you'll get your results from the search engine you specify. 32 iPhone Life March/April 2015 Here's what | found on the web for ‘Where is the’ Web Search Get Siri to Stop Interrupting You It's annoying when every time you start speaking a request, Siri interrupts you to say, “OK, here's what | found on the web.’ Here's how to avoid this frustrating sce- nario: After pressing the Home button to activate Siri, continue holding it until you are finished speaking. No more interruptions! Here's your new Facebook status. Ready to post it? Facebook Can't wait for spring! Post on Twitter and Facebook Use Siri to quickly update your Twitter feed or Facebook status. Activate Siri and say “Tweet ‘| love this spring weather!’" or “Post to Facebook, ‘Can't wait for spring!'” or whatever message you want to share. You can also ask Siri to include your loca- tion or search Twitter for hashtags or users you're interested in. O Sarah Kingsbury is the web editor of iPhoneLie.com. She goes almost nowhere without her iPhone and is the main contributor to the site’ Tip of the Day col- umn, She has overa decade of experience writing and editing for online and print ‘ publications. iPhoneliié MAGAZINE 90000 Verizon 3:46 PM eux € Inbox (103) We are now giving away iOS tips and tricks for free every single day. We research the best tricks for beginners and advanced users alike to share with you. How to Search Within a Web Page Often when you're searching the web for some particular bit of information, your search pulls up a long page of text. But you then have no idea where on that page to find the information you're looking for. The next step is to search within the page. The way to do that on iOS devices is simple, but not obvious. Go to: iPhoneLife.com/dailytips and start receiving your free emails today! Donna Schill Cleveland Editor in Chief iPhone Life magazine To search within a page, type the search term into Safari's search bar. Let's say | TOR ICLOUD PHOTO LIBRARY BY DONNA CLEVELAND t's hard to fully appreciate Apple’s new iCloud Photo Li- brary service without dwelling for a moment on the com- pany’s past photo management troubles. We all know how easy it is to squander our iPhone's storage supply with copious amounts of photos and videos, and I'm not convinced anyone using Apple’s Photo Stream found it to be a real solution. And while a straight-up iCloud backup has its place, it doesn't actually give you access to your photos—you just have to believe that they do exist and will ap- pear on your new iOS device when it comes time to upgrade. For all of these reasons, iCloud Photo Library is a very happy addition to Apple's offerings. The system, which is still in beta and available to anyone who's updated their device to iOS 8.1 or later, syncs all of your shots across iOS devices 34 iPhone Life March/April 2015 and, unlike Photo Stream, uploads not only images but videos as well to iCloud.com (and, Apple promises, to a Photos app for Mac very soon). It lets you save smaller, lower-resolution versions of your photos on your iPhone and edit them freely while keeping the originals stored in the cloud in case you decide to revert. It also supports diverse file formats, includ- ing JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF TIFF and MP4. JOIN THE CLUB! To begin using the ser wom OF ewer mS . fa'Scitinas. ti vice, go to Settings, tap on Photos & Camera, and turn, B compass ‘on iCloud Photo Library (this @ seta assumes you have an iCloud account; if you don't, go to Settings > iCloud, and en- ter your Apple ID to create one). You can also access iCloud Photo Library by going to Settings > iCloud > Photos, and then iCloud Photo Library. Once turned on, it will begin to upload your shots to the cloud as 6 asic Pt viteos 7 BD Game Center : long as you're connected to Wi-Fi. ©) witer EA Facencox END YOUR STORAGE WOES Once you've enabled the service, you'll notice an option to Optimize iPhone Storage or Download and Keep Originals. Tap the former to store lightweight versions on your phone (clearing room for other important items like epi- sodes of Orange is the New Black). Your full-resolution image will still be stored in iCloud, so if you want to, say, print an image or look at it on a large screen, you can change your set- ting back to Download and Keep Originals. Even if you choose to optimize, your device will continue to store the high-resolution versions of your most-viewed and recent pictures, space permitting. conmar ot eam ORES IGloud Photo Library Beta) a (Optimize iPhone Storage Download and Keep Originals Upload to My Photo Stream Anice feature of optimization is that it's customizable on each device, so you can choose to keep originals for your larger-screened iPad and your iPhone show reduced files. ARE PHOTO STREAM & CAMERA ROLL GONE FOR GOOD? The quick answer is, not really. All images from your Camera Roll and Photo Stream are now stored in one big folder called All Photos. But here's where it gets a little confusing. For now, you can still use Photo Stream to sync your 1,000 most recent photos or ones taken in the last 30 days without counting against your iCloud storage. While a bit redundant, there are a few reasons you might want to keep Photo Stream enabled. While it’s ru- mored that Apple will phase out Photo Stream this year when Apple releases a new Photos app for Mac, for now, it’s useful if you use iPhoto on your Mac or PC and you want your recent photos to continue to syne, or if you have an older device not running iOS 8.1 or later. For best results, turn on both iCloud Photo Library and Photo Stream so you can access your shots via iPhoto or Aperture. EDITING & DELETING PHOTOS seas ana ot One of the best features of iCloud Photo Library is that you can go crazy with edits, knowing you can revert back to your originals at any time, which are safely stored in the cloud. The system also takes a forgiving approach to deleting shots. Once a photo is deleted, you can retrieve it from an album titled Recently Deleted, where it's stored for 30 days. After that, you can get it from iCloud servers for an additional 30 days by contacting Apple Support. Keep in mind that iCloud Photo Library takes an all-ornothing approach to storage. Once it's turned on, you can't selectively store some shots locally and others in the cloud. That can be a minor annoyance when, say, embarrassing selfies you took on your iPhone sync to the family iPad. AT WHAT COST? While you can begin us- ing iCloud Photo Library for free, once you exceed 5 GB of storage, you'll need to buy a plan. Luckily, they’re pretty af- fordable, with a monthly cost of $0.99 for 20 GB, $3.99 for 200 GB, $9.99 for 500 GB, and $19.99 for a whopping 1 TB of space. 20GB $0.99 a month 200GB $3.99. amonth 500GB $9.99.amontn 1TB $19.99. a month TURNING ICLOUD PHOTO LIBRARY OFF If you decide you'd like to < Settings Photos & Camera free up some iCloud space, you can easily turn your Photo Library off by going to Settings > iCloud > Stor ca age > Manage Storage > iCloud Photo Library, then selecting Disable and De- lete. After that, you'll have ¥ 30 days to retrieve your library, which you can do on your iOS device by selecting " _ Keep Originals or by down- robe : loading images from iCloud. com/photos. If you change your mind, you can cancel the deletion in iCloud Stor age Management. © coos araT (TF ean -~o Upload to My Photo Stwam @ Donna Schill Cleveland isthe Editor in Chie of hone Life magazine. After a short tint asa newspaper reporter she became web eitor thon Life, where she continues to pairher penchant fr storytelling with her lov of Apple products. Donnaholdsamasters degree from the Univesity oflowa School of Jouralism & Mass Communication. iPhone Life March/April 2015 35 The Productivity Issue e’ve all been there—you know, when you find yourself juggling more responsibilities in life than you can coolly handle? And when things don't feel under our control, it's easy to blame our iPhones for our productivity failings, as we remember countless hours spent watching Netflix series with abandon, reading inspirational quotes on Facebook at work, or con- quering levels in Plants vs. Zombies. Thankfully, there are plenty of effective ways that we can use our iDevices to actually save time. The following pages feature a slew of useful apps and products designed to help you get organized, from task-management apps like OmniFocus (see pg. 54) to business-related iOS gear (see pg. 41). So whether you aim to tackle your to-do lists more efficiently or find time in your busy schedule to relax and do what you love, you'll find guidance for how to make your iPhone your greatest productivity ally. KEEPING IN UCH PRODUCTIVITY & NOW HOW 30 YEARS HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE GET THINGS DONE BY RHEANNE SCHLEE Years ago, you might have used an address book or Rolodex to store contact information, but today’s technology lets you easily store contacts on your iPhone or keep in touch via social media. TOP SONG RISE OF THE MACHINES i” NOW “Likee Virgin,” By Madonna (1985) minutes of talk time and standing more than a foot tall! Meanwhile, the latest iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer 14 hours of talk time and up to 128 GB of storage. — 7 *HAPEY = The hefty Macintosh 128K may have been the computer that started it all, but its 128 KB of built-in storage pales in comparison to the gigabytes of space available in the latest iPads. t i ' ' ' Priced at $3,995, the DynaTAC was the first mobile phone, offering only 30 ' t i H ' ' i H ' 38 iPhone Life March/April 2015 Sou es: Motorola, icy Archives Collection, Internet Li 's, Apple Support, Mashable, Billboard Ch: Archive 1985 & 2014, Apple Wiki PHOTOGRAPHY Hl 02 WNP ee : oo f 4 ' : THEN ' THEN ' ' Whereas many in the 1980s relied on the newspaper or TV to stay up to date : , | with current events, now people can get their news from a variety of sources— H H | from Flipboard to social media and everything in between. ' t H H Cassette tapes remained one of H H t the most popular formats for listen- In the days of manual cameras, ' ' ing to music in the '80s, but today people would wait days for their ' H music streaming services allow shots to develop. Today we can pull H H users to listen to music right from out our iPhones, snap a picture, H H their phone. and share it immediately. ' THEN t i ‘ i i ' / : A : H ee H ' nm t ' > : i ' ' ew } yo ' Now i i | Remember using locked briefcases | | H ! to transport your important docu- |} THEN NOW H | ments? Now you can store and Ye ' | retrieve almost anything online via | | Remember consulting your atlas during long trips? Now you can tell your phone | { cloud services like Dropbox. | | where you want to go, and its built-in GPS does all the work for you! H iPhone Life March/April 2015 39 6 Digital Issues ‘ezinio only $12.99! Read iPhone Life anywhere, anytime,on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or PC. OxA0) (0) We'll purchase your no-longer-used PDAs,smartphones,iOS devices,and laptops! We specialize in We buy and sell Windows Mobile Fj 4 IN VOLUME! z Used landhelds Contact: 641-472-1875 or eduardo@usedhandhelds.com Productivity Get to Work! Accessories to Help You Stay On Task By Abbey Dufoe ou may not consider your iDevice to be a business tool in a traditional sense, but if you think about it, you'll likely find that you use your iPhone or iPad all day to get work done. From checking your email on the way to the car to changing document formatting for a presentation during your lunch break, your device helps you make progress wherever you are. These gadgets will help you take your mobile productivity a step further, challenging the limitations of what you can accomplish on the go. iPhone Life March/April 2015 41 Productivity PureGear Express Folio for iPhone 6 ($39.99) If you're constantly using your iPhone for work, pleasure, or even in place of a wallet, then you'll love the functionality and usability of PureGear’s Express Folio case. Available in faux leather and canvas styles, these cases offer light protection and are incredibly versatile, allowing you to access your credit cards from the case’s built-in cardholder (or, if you have Apple Pay, you can eschew cards altogether). The magnetic flap doubles as a kickstand, so you can finish reading an important email or report before heading back to work. Beats Solo HD Headphones ($169.95) Over-ear headphones have made a comeback. Sure, Apple's EarPods are great for making phone calls, but a pair of Solo HDs by Beats are much more comfortable for those who listen to music all day at their desk. They are collapsible and smaller than most in their class, but still fit perfectly over your ears to provide clear sound. The built-in microphone lets you easily answer and make calls with a tap of your finger. 42 iPhone Life March/April 2015 Apple Wireless Keyboard ($69) You may already use a detached keyboard with your Mac- Book, but did you know you can use Apple’s wireless key- board with your iPad as well? Just pair the iPad and keyboard via Bluetooth and control your device from as far as 30 feet away during a presentation. The latest version of this keyboard shuts off when not in use to conserve battery and features a sturdy yet light aluminum frame so you can take it from your desk to the conference room with ease. Wacom Bamboo Stylus duo ($29.95) Whether for designing or taking notes, a stylus is a must- have for those who use their iPads religiously. The duo doubles as a rubbertipped stylus on one end and a fine ballpoint pen on the other, allowing for seamless note-taking during meetings You can use all Bamboo styluses with an iPad or iPhone. Lightning Digital AV Adapter & Lightning to VGA Adapter ($49 each) Already using Microsoft and Google apps on your iPad for cloud storage and word processing? Try using your iPad for Productivity work presentations, too! Use Apple’s VGA or HDMI to Light- ning converters to mirror your iPad display on the big screen. Both adapters, available from the Apple store, allow you to plug your iPad into a power source while connected to a pro- jector or monitor so your iPad doesn't run out of juice. Twelve South Compass 2 for iPad ($39.99) If you like to keep your iPad free of clunky cases, try Twelve South's Compass 2 stand for iPad. It's adjustable, so you can change it to fit your needs, whether you use it for a typing stand or to view videos hands-free. In every position, your iPad is elevated enough to charge without crunching the charging cord. The stand is portable and comes with its own small carry- ing case so you can take it wherever your desk may be. O HP Officejet Pro 8620 e-All-in-One Printer ($299.95) Using your iPad as a laptop replacement in the office? This AirPrint-enabled printer lets you wirelessly print pages from your iOS device as well as scan physical documents directly to your email. Because this printer doesn't require a router or access to any local network, anyone in your office can print from it with the tap of a button—no need to log onto a work computer. This touchscreen printer also allows for easy copy- ing, scanning, and faxing. YS) Abbey Dufoe isa graduate student in environmental journalism. Her friends cal her theapp monster’ and she’ always itching forthe newest i0S gadget (current favorite—the Pad Air) She loves concerts, the environment, and ice hockey, but loves tweeting about them even more. Follow her on Twitter @abbeydufoe or visit her blag at abbeydufoe.com. Cocoon GRID-IT! Wrap 10 for iPad/Tablets ($29.99) Now that you have all these gadgets, you need a way to transport them to and from work. Cocoon's organizing systems are perfect for that, with rubberized woven elastic that keeps all of your accessories secure and easily accessible. Store your charging cord, adapter, keyboard, stylus, iPhone, and iPad in this completely customizable carrying case. If you already have an iPad case, the other grid systems fit into your bag perfectly while still keeping everything you need on hand. iPhone Life March/April 2015 43 Productivity Farewell, Laptop Making the Switch to an iDevice by Siva Om ince the iPad's release in 2010, laptop sales have been S in flux—and for good reason! After all, the iPad is more compact, efficient, and in many cases, affordable. And now, the new phablet-sized iPhone 6 Plus threatens to in turn cut into iPad sales. As our device options continue to expand, the standard laptop is becoming an increasingly archaic op- tion, particularly to the younger generation. Personally, | enjoy using the 128 GB iPhone 6 Plus as my primary computer, and for me, leaving behind my laptop for an iOS device has been easier than you might imagine. For those ready to make the switch, here are a few preliminary considerations. The Fine Print If you have poor vision, it may seem daunting to make the switch to a smaller screen. However, the Accessibility fea- tures of the iPhone 6 Plus and the iPads mean you can take advantage of bold text, highlighted buttons, increased con- trast, and Zoom and Speech features that are built into every iDevice. Regardless, the 5.5-inch display of the iPhone 6 Plus or the 79-inch screen of the iPad mini may be too small for some tasks, in which case the 9.7-inch iPad Air 2 or the antici- pated 12.9-inch iPad Pro may be the way to go. Portability & Comfort If you do most of your computing at a table or desk, a larger iPad may be the best option. With accessories like the laptop- style ClamCase Pro ($169) and the Stabile 2.0 ($64.99) desk- top emulator, you can make using your iPad more comfortable and ergonomic. ClamCase Pro ($169) For some, portability is a higher priority than a large screen, in which case a smaller device like the iPad mini or even the iPhone 6 Plus might be best for you. The ideal setup for me has been to use the iPhone 6 Plus for the majority of my com- puting tasks in tandem with my iPad for those times when I'm multitasking or need a larger screen—for instance, when I'm streaming movies or playing graphically intense games like Vainglory (free). The Laptop Advantage ZAGG Pocket ($69.99) If you typically like working with a mouse, then you may be disappointed, as there isn’t currently an iOS-compatible iPhone Life March/April 2015 45 Productivity mouse controller available for your iPad or iPhone. On the bright side, the absence of a physical keyboard is easy enough to remedy. If you're looking for a great portable keyboard, con- sider the ZAGG Pocket ($69.99), a foldable wireless keyboard and stand designed for the iPhone 6 and iPad. Storing Your Files LaCie FUEL ($179.99) With the exception of the MacBook Air, all of Apple's other laptops and desktops far exceed the onboard storage capacity of an iPhone 6 Plus or iPad. If the limited storage of an iDe- vice is an issue, users have the option of storing files remote- ly with Apple's cloud service, iCloud. If Cloud isn't your cup of tea, Google Drive (free) also offers similar remote storage services, and dedicated cloud-based sites like Dropbox (free) and SpiderOak (free) give iDevice users even more freedom to store and share files (for an in-depth comparison of cloud services, see pg. 59). The drawbacks of cloud storage are that if you rely on the cloud for storing and sharing data but you aren't near a Wi-Fi signal most of the time, you may burn through a lot of data transferring files between your device and Apple's cloud banks. Also, your access to those files de- pends on the strength of your cellular signal. A practical alter native to cloud-based storage is the LaCie FUEL hard drive ($179.99). Available in 1 or 2 terabyte capacities, the FUEL is a Wi-Fi hard drive that creates its own wireless network that as many as five devices can join to access and share files. Tackling Any Task When it comes to being productive using iOS, it's hard for any apps to compare with Apple's own iWork and iLife suites, which are free with the purchase of any new iDevice. With iWork and iLife for iOS, users will find all of the excel- lent productivity apps they've come to know and love on OS X, including iPhoto, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and GarageBand. You'll be able to build complex spreadsheets with Numbers; compose and edit live music on the go with GarageBand; design professional presentations with Keynote; 46 iPhone Life March/April 2015 and draft articles, brochures, and cards with Pages. From my experience working extensively with these apps, | can say that the iOS versions function very much like their OS X coun- terparts, but with touchscreen interfaces. While Apple's iLife and iWork suites are excellent, fully functional productivity tools, many other productivity apps offer even more specialized creation features, such as the award-winning illustrative app Procreate ($5.99), the Photo- shop-like Filterstorm ($3.99), the versatile website builder HTML Egg Pro ($15.99), or the advanced music-mixing app, Traktor DJ ($9.99), to name a few. Helpful Extras SennheiserUrbanites ($1995) Along with a functional case or keyboard for your iDevice, there are a few other accessories that may help smooth the transition from laptop to iOS device. An external backup battery like the Mophie Powerstation Duo ($99.95) means you won't have to stress about running out of power when computing on the go. A good Bluetooth speaker like the UE BOOM ($199.95) or a high quality pair of headphones like the SennheiserUrban- ites ($199.95) is also a must for the mobile worker. You Can Do It! Moving from a laptop or desktop to an iOS device may take some getting used to initially. However, if you stick to your plan, you'll find that Apple’s mobile ecosystem of products and software are all you really need for the task at hand. © Siva Omi passion forthe ats has pushed him to excel at many creative endeav- 1, including web design, award-winning tattooing (sacredfiretattoos.om), and journalism, Between writing for iPhone Life, creating websites (idactechsupport. om), gardening, ilustrating, and enjoying the wonders ofnature with family, Siva manages to keep himself quite busy. You can reach him at sivaom@iphonelif.com. Remember when typing felt good? tactile pro Mac users who crave the satisfying “click” of Apple’s legendary Apple Extended Keyboard will LOVE the Tacife Pro. Unlike other keyboards made these days, each key is built on a premium ALPS mechanical switch, They feel better and you'll type faster. quiet pro & laptop pro Clicky keyboards feel and sound great, but may be too noisy for certain settings. Perhaps you have Office mates (or house mates) who don't appreciate loud keyboards as much as you do. For those situations, we make the Quiet Pro and Laptop Pro. They give you that satisfying click feeling, without the excessive click sound www.matias.ca Productivity Take a Load Off! 6 Apps for Handling Your Busy Life by Rebecca Santiago STAY ON TOP Pa rt of Porm Ld ee Owner YUL OP ASDFGHUKL ¢ ZREVENM eo Timeful (Free) While you may be the kind of person who gets your work done in a timely, ef- ficient fashion, | have to be hon- est with you—I have bad work habits. That's why | was so en- ticed by Timeful, a calendar app that uses behavioral science to help you optimize your time. | love tech that thinks for you, and that's totally what Timeful does—it monitors your pat- terns and deadlines to suggest the best time of day for you to complete certain tasks. Also: it's GORGEOUS. 48 iPhone Life March/April 2015 ook, I’m the first to admit that I'm a little scatterbrained. Life’s busy, man! | have a lot going on. Granted, my busy days often consist more of Gilmore Girls reruns than actual, productive work. Well, no more, because I've just downloaded six killer productivity apps (aside from Evernote—download that if you haven't already) that'll work miracles on my life if | can manage to stick to them. Selfless angel that | am, I've decided to share them with you. 30/30 Free) Oh, you think you're fancy, huh? Then you'll probably dig 30/30, which reminds me of those snazzy planners you used to buy at the middle school book fair. You know, the kind with stick- ers reading “AWESOME” and “HOTTIE” across the front and with random quotes bordering the pages. This app lets you enter and time your tasks. It’s tailored to visual learners—the interface is really chic and looks almost like an infographic, with color and icon-coding options that help you keep your plans straight. Healthy Habits 12 Week Chasenge i] Big Fat indian Wading in Fit 4 L Duarwens Account? Get a me tat of Ey Praca ~ STAY BALANCED EasilyDo (Free) | was pretty much born requiring a personal assistant. My mother sufficed for some time, but I've since graduated to using Easi- lyDo. Think of all the stuff you'd love to foist onto an unfortunate intern—handling receipts, main- taining contacts, holding onto boarding passes, reminding you of your Very Important Lunch Meeting. Yep, EasilyDo can do all that and more, and the free- mium app’s userfriendly layout doesn’t hurt either. Vesper ($2.99) Vesper’s one of my favorite apps—imagine being able to install your fourth- grade composition notebook into your phone, and you'll get the basic idea. The app has a relaxed list format with a tag- ging system that provides just the right amount of structure. It's a smart way to keep your thoughts straight, especially if you find all those organizational bells and whistles to be more distracting than helpful. Cloze (Free) What's that, you say? A social media app isn’t exactly a productivity app? Au contraire, my friends. The genius of Cloze is that it filters your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn feeds, as well as your mail, to prioritize people you actually care about. And its minimalist interface aids this goal. Bottom line: Cloze will save you so many hours of falling down the rabbit hole of Facebook stalking wed- ding photos of a girl from your high-school geometry class. WN QWERTYUIOP ASDFGHJKL Ozxcvenmey a: ~ 5 brownie batter; lick spoon.” © iPhone Life March/April 2015 Productivity Bloom* (Free) If Pinterest and your life goals had a child, it would be Bloom*, the rosiest productivity app of all time. It's just as pretty as Instagram, and it's more fun to use, in my opinion (there's more to click on). | suppose you can add any- thing you like to your Bloom* calendar, but its true purpose is to schedule much-needed “you time” into your busy day—and to remind you of it in a zen way. Now, if you'll excuse me, | have an alarm going off that reads, “Eat small bow! of Rebecca Santiago isa New York-based writer and editor, with bylines at Architec- tural Digest, Glamour, Bustle, Boston magazine, and more. Sheis an alumna of Tufts University. Follow her on Twitter at @rebsanti. ao Productivity Surviving Grad School with Evernote By Anjerika Wilmer hen you find an app that genuinely im- W proves your life, you stick with it. Being a full-time graduate stu- dent, I've come to rely on Evernote for everything from collab- orative projects to personal productiv- ity. To say that having all of my notes in one digital workspace has been a lifesaver would be an understatement. Throughout the semester, | relied on this cross-platform productivity app to clip notes, record observations, set 50 iPhone Life March/April 2015 agendas, and ultimately assess what I'd learned. The following are some of the many ways that Evernote has helped me take control of my busy life and transform it into one that’s more productive and less stressful. Whether you're a student or business professional, the same prin- ciples apply. Just remember, Evernote works best when you're fully commit- ted. The more information you store in it, the more helpful you'll find it to be. Collaborative Projects My introduction to Evernote occurred during a digital rhetoric course in which collaborative learning was paramount. Because my program revolved around writing, rhetoric, and technical com- munication, it was vital that | be able to share my ideas with professors and those in my cohort. | found Evernote’s Work Chat feature to be the best tool for the job. As opposed to sending multiple emails that could get lost in a flooded inbox, | now use Work Chat to share notebooks with my professors and advi- sors, allowing me to collaborate with them and grant specific users access to whatever content I’m sharing. By simply clicking on the chat icon within a note or notebook, | can invite someone to ac- cess and comment instantly.In addition to viewing privileges, | can also grant users the ability to edit content, provide feedback, and add additional viewers. In the workplace, imagine how ef- ficient it would be to have all of your col- leagues keyed into what's on the agenda at an upcoming meeting. Sharing notes virtually prior to meeting in person is an excellent way to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Staying Organized | can't stress enough the convenience of storing everything in one place! With Evernote’s notebooks, tags, and robust search function, you'll never have to worry about being organized again. Take a Tour of Evernote You can group your projects or topics into an unlimited number of notebooks by tapping Notebooks on the main screen, and then tapping New Note- book. To carefully track all of your notes and notebooks by theme or type, you'll find the tagging function to be conve- nient. You don’t need to overthink this function: simply tap the info icon by the title of your note and enter keywords when applicable. Then, when you want to find a tagged post, tap Tags from the main menu for your complete list. Perhaps even more convenient for finding specific entries is Evernote’s search function. Instead of scrolling through endless notes, take a shortcut by typing keywords into the search box designated by a magnifying glass. The app will bring up all relevant notes at your disposal. Research & Resources Another highlight of Evernote is its web clipping tool that lets you save con- tent you've found online into notebooks, which is convenient whether you're con- Productivity Clip websites to your Evernote notebooks that youl want to revisit later. ducting research or creating a portfolio of innovative websites. It's super easy and intuitive to use—when surfing the web on your iPhone, just hit share and select the Evernote icon as your method of sharing. To use the web clipping tool ona desktop computer or laptop, down- load the Evernote web clipper extension The Evernote app is free, but for premium features, such as the ability to upload larger files, scan business cards, get offline access, add password pro- tection, and use presentation mode, there is a $4.99 monthly fee (or $44.99 a year). Evernote Business has even more features, and charges $10 per user per month. For me, the free version suffices. Users can download the cross- platform app onto Macs, PCs, and smartphones alike. @ The Text icon allows you to record notes or observations. ment, or business card. checkmarks, or numbers. ©0008 The Camera lets you take a photo or snapshot of a Post-it note, docu- Have a task to complete? No problem—simply create a reminder and set the due date. You'll get a notification when the deadline rolls around. You can also create a list, which you can format with bullet points, Located below the note entry types is a list of your most recent notes (organized chronologically) and notebooks. iPhone Life March/April 2015 51 Productivity to begin saving articles. The next time you log into Evernote, the websites that you've clipped will appear alongside any notes you may have keyed in. Personal Productivity ‘Arrange your notes in Cards View for an aesthetically pleasing and as-o-view interface. As a grad student by day and creative type by night, it’s safe to say that | like being able to juggle a variety of tasks. Outside of school, having the Evernote app to help me keep all of my freelance writing and blogging projects in order has been a major asset. From an ongo- ing list of potential article pitches to weekly to-do lists and friendly remind- ers, Evernote is great for keeping tabs on all of life's little details. | prefer the Cards View, which showcases every- thing in a Pinterest-like manner. If you’re hoping to go beyond tradi- tional note-taking, then you'll appreciate Evernote’s ability to instantly recognize and store Post-it notes right within the app—and, boy, are they rendered beauti- fully! It even picks up on your handwrit- ing and automatically syncs your notes across all devices. For those of you who go sticky-note crazy, you can breathe a sigh of relief—all of your notes are stored in Evernote for safe keeping. 52 iPhone Life March/April 2015 Thanks to Everote's Post-it note feature, youl be able to organize all af your notes in one place. | understand the importance of be- ing able to conceptualize my thoughts through words and images. That's why | appreciate the app‘s incorporation of Skitch, an app that allows you to an- notate uploaded photos with arrows, shapes, and text to better communi- cate your ideas. The beauty of Skitch is that you can mark up a proof image all within the Evernote app, and it syncs instantly! Within your notes, Sktch canbe used to mark up and anotate your photos with arows, text and shapes. ‘ud Monaco Use Evernote’s business card function to scan and record important contacts in the format of a n For those in a professional workplace setting, Evernote's business card func- tion is a game-changer. Though only available to Premium users, this feature instantly scans your business cards, uploading a photo of each one along with contact info as a note, so you have all of the important information about a contact stored in one place. Now, as | work to complete my cap- stone internship, it's important that | rely on Evernote as a means of gathering scholarly research, drafting propos- als, and keeping my advisor up-to-date through brief memos. Moving beyond this semester, | can already think of a million ways that Evernote is going to come in handy during my social media internship at an art gallery and beyond. © Anjerka Wiimer is a full-time graduate student and freelance writer who fanciesall things digital. Though a tried-and-true fashion gi, she counts art history, architecture and good design as con- stant sources of inspiration. Attention, Batman! Commissioner Gordon is calling. Gotham City needs your help again! na TE Get the Award-winning - App for Talking Caller ID | gq in dozens of voices! , a é ee Our users have ‘ greated over Another award-winning app from SEVEN MILLION x Ringtones and y dh I E .NET counting! Productivity Manage Your Life with OmniFocus By Daniel W. Rasmus e’re all familiar with the concept of time management, yet few of us actually commit to learning effective methods W to put the practice to use. This tutorial aims to change that, offering practical advice about how to use the tried- and-true OmniFocus software, a sophisticated yet easy-to-use task management system bent on boosting your efficiency. 54 iPhone Life March/April 2015 The Omni Group, a Seattle-based app development com- pany, built OmniFocus around the popular “Getting Things Done" (GTD) method coined by productivity consultant David Allen. GTD is based on Allen's philosophy that you accomplish more when you bring everything stored in your brain—from mundane to-dos to work projects to larger life dreams—out into an organized system of actionable items. This tutorial is designed to offer guidance that will help you customize and find your own path toward a more effective use of your time. Step 1: Commit to One Tool The most important step in using technology to manage your tasks (and your life) is to accept a single tool. If you start trying a number of tools, all of them will fail because your stuff won't be in one place. OmniFocus is designed to capture all your to-dos and make you aware of what you need to ac- complish. < Bock Getting 10 the Nurs. [e) Today 5 00 PM Cost is another incentive to commit to OmniFocus from the start. The iPad app requires an investment of $29.99; it's $19.99 for the iPhone app. To get it on your Mac, you can pay $39.99 for the Standard version or $79.99 to go Pro with extra features and customization options. Step 2: Tell OmniFocus Everything Mastering OmniFocus begins with the inbox, the nonjudg- mental repository of everything you need to accomplish. It can take some time to get everything in initially. Some meth- ods suggest a 30-minute brain dump, but | recommend taking whatever time you need and adding as you go. Task manage- ment shouldn't be about arbitrary deadlines and beating your Productivity self up about missing things. You will spend less time in the inbox as your process matures. Step 3: Add Dates, Projects & Contexts Omroce Cea ‘ Biowe sick ° enki) - aeemmee a cod Bron wou ~ ow 208 sone ne 4 20M B00 MA Once you have a big list of items, you need to begin sorting them, assigning each one a date, aligning it with a project, or associating it with a context. Due dates, projects, and con- texts aren't mutually exclusive, and none are required. In order to make decisions about assignments, though, you need to be able to think in projects and contexts. Projects are contain- ers for tasks. For example, if you want to hold a garage sale, you need to think about the tasks required in order for the sale to be successful. The garage sale is the project, and all of the action steps involved are the tasks. Like everything else in OmniFocus, you can add projects on the fly. [ eed B= - = Brace Brome Breen) While most task managers just display a list of dates, Om- niFocus supports sequential tasks (those that start only after iPhone Life March/April 2015 55 Productivity you complete a previous task), using dates generated by de- pendencies rather than entered directly. The most complex and powerful feature of OmniFocus is Contexts. A context is a situation in which a task can be accom- plished. Think about questions you want to ask a therapist or the list of things you want to buy at Costco. The therapist and Costco become contexts. Because the iOS versions of Omni- Focus are GPS enabled, they will inform you of tasks you can complete when near a relevant location. Create a context for your local Costco. As you create shopping lists for parties or of- fice supplies, assign those tasks to the Costco context. When you are at Costco, tap the context, and all of the items you need will appear, regardless of the project they are assigned to. Common contexts include computer, office, garage, yard, or client location. For tasks that recur, set up rules for that task. “Update your Constant Contact contacts from LinkedIn,” for instance, can be set as a monthly reminder fixed to the second Tuesday of each month. This all presupposes work you need to get done in the future. Time management techniques make this sound so easy, but a brain dump may yield so many things you should have already done that you have to go through the process of prioritizing them and assigning dates. Just because you can do something right now doesn’t mean you have time or, to be honest, the inclination to do so. But with OmniFocus, if you put if off, at least it will be documented and not just some nagging thought in the back of your mind. Step 4: Manage Day-to-Day Tasks Managing your tasks needs to become a ritual. Start your day with the Forecast. The Forecast reveals today’s tasks and makes you aware of past-due and future tasks as well. 8 Pe ni os on = ov coon aus r) @ 8 a Bevin 56 iPhone Life March/April 2015 OmniFocus and its day view of the Forecast keeps tasks aligned, and its integration with the Calendar puts tasks there as well. OmniFocus keeps you aware of your tasks, regard- less of the way you want to view them. It is up to you, how- ever, to make OmniFocus a part of your routine. The first rule is to always keep your work ahead of you, even if it is late. To fix a past-due item, locate its Due Date, and change it to today or some future date. Leaving things past due isn’t helpful, as you can’t travel back in time to com- plete them. Then start picking off your items one by one. How you work is up to you. | tend to skip around so | don't get bored. | tackle things with hard dates first, or those that someone else is depending on to work. The GTD method breaks down, however, when too many things become immediate. This is where personal discipline must step in. Don't try to micro-schedule the day, because days full of interruptions and conflicting priorities don’t lend themselves to minute-to-minute schedules. Create half-day or even full-day tasks, ending a group of tasks before lunch or before the end of the day, for instance. Yes, that creates what appears to be a mound of work due at a certain time, but part of managing time means managing reality. If the work is due, the work is due (if you are feeling burdened, however, do check to make sure the list of today’s items really need to be done today). By creating these larger boundaries, you can feel good about accomplishing work at a natural pace. Step 5: Manage your Future There will be inbox leftovers, ideas, and tasks for which you don't have a commitment, perhaps even from yourself. There will be wishes and plans: going to the moon, getting married, taking a trip to Yellowstone. OmniFocus accommodates these future to-dos as well. Simply create a placeholder project, like hopes and dreams, and put those items in there. Be sure to check back regularly to see if you can make one into a project of its own. Perhaps you'll find that once you make tangible action steps, you'll find they lead you to realizing that hope or dream. O Daniel W. Rasmus, author of Listening tothe Future and Management by Design, isa strategist and industry analyst who helps clients put their future in context. Rasmus ‘was the Director of Business Insights at Microsoft Corporation, and today isa consul- tantand internationally recognized speaker. He blogs for Fast Company andiphanelife. com. You cn reach him at dwrasmus@danielwrasmus.com The Elusive Paperless Office Productivity Best Apps for Eliminating Paper Waste By Daniel W. Rasmus efore the days of iPhone and iPads, the paperless office was nothing more than a mythical fantasy—an idea that was great in theory, but impossible in practice. But with the help of a growing number of iOS apps, today, reducing paper waste is a much more feasible endeavor. While you may not succeed at getting rid of all of your paper, if you keep at it, you will find less mess cluttering your workspace, and perhaps more clarity in the process. Capturing & Recording Traditional note-taking requires pa- per, meaning you can lose your notes far too easily. Regardless of platform, Evernote (free, $5/month for Premium) is the ultimate place to store your stuff, from research for your next novel to collections of recipes and favorite blogs. Many of the apps I've listed here deliver their content effortlessly to Evernote. This useful app also lets you capture and search business cards so you can stop bringing them home from meetings and conferences. Evernote also lets you clip and organize interest- ing articles, or you can try Instapaper (free). Instapaper ets you clip your favorite webpages, eliminating the need to rin articles. Invoke Istapapr fom the Safi Share menu to instantly save. Digitize Your Paper Trail If you want to experience a truly magical app, look no further than Post- it Plus (free) by 3M. It captures white- boards and flip charts filled with Post-it Notes, creates editable versions on your iOS device, and it exports to Drop- box or Evernote. ‘eeoce aTaT UE vs9 PM - = = Tap in image to add or remove notes Post-It Plus processes your notes into a virtual hoard that you can edit and amend. Another way to turn your good old- fashioned notes into digital records is with a Livescribe 3 smartpen (starting at $149.95), which magically transfers iPhone Life March/April 2015 57 Productivity your written words to the Livescribe + app (free), so you can capture notes, then recycle the paper. Livescribe pens also work with NoteShelf ($5.99), a one-stop app that turns handwritten notes and PDFs into canvases for anno- tation and markup. Task Management In my experience, the best way to avoid paper is to pick one digital task manager and stick with it—otherwise you may relapse into writing notes by hand. Apple includes Reminders in iOS, but | use OmniFocus 2 for iPhone ($19.99), which integrates bidirection- ally with the calendar (for more on OmniFocus, see pg. 54). The key feature for me is context, which lets me know what projects and tasks | should work on based on my location and meeting schedule. Reading: Magazines, Books, and News One obvious way to go paperless is to move your reading into the digital realm. While | still prefer holding a good novel in my hands, | can’t say the same for the business book de jour or the ephemeral magazine. | prefer to read business books via the Kindle app (free) and magazines on Zinio (free). Comic book aficionados will also find Comics (free) by Comixol- ogy to be an essential. FlipBoard (free) takes popular news and social media feeds and transforms them into image-heavy digital maga- zines, while LinkedIn Pulse (free) offers amore browsable environment featur ing content from major publications. Subscribe to the newspaper just for the technology ads? Download flipp. (free) and get digital copies of weekly deals without the rest of the paper. 58 iPhone Life March/April 2015 Banking & Accounting Creating PDFs | use my First Tech app (free) to make deposits, track balances, and make transfers. If you sell things, con- sider Square Register (free) to turn your device into a paperless point-of- sale terminal, and PayPal (free) to keep track of what you sold. Writing down passwords is a waste of paper and isn’t secure. | haven't done that for years because of eWallet ($9.99). Sure, your web browser now keeps most passwords handy, but they may not capture items like frequent flyer numbers and membership cards. eWallet brings it all together in an en- crypted file that also synchronizes with Macs, PCs, and iCloud. Paperless Travel Triplt (free) organizes all of my travel records in one place so | don't have to fumble for the car reservation after ar- riving at the airport. Tickets are also a thing of the past, thanks to apps from airlines such as Alaska, American, Al- legiant, and Delta (all free), combined with Apple's Passport, which allows international travelers to simply show their phones at security and boarding. Email your travel confirmations to plans @tipitcom and Tipit will store all of your ravl plans in one place If you typically write out long lists before a trip, download Packing Pro ($2.99), which provides a customizable list that will remind you of essentials you wouldn't have thought to pack. 50 PM Edit 1/1 Il ‘SOtWeThOeS ‘sag caneg DURAN, ST/90/E0 Seutx3 S x 6 S yy 4 i ABBYY Fine Scaner captures documents with your iPhone's camera ‘and supports a variety of post-capture editing tools to ensure an appropriate look. | use scanning apps at conferences to capture sales literature and program guides. ABBYY Fine Scanner (free) does a great job of capturing content and integrating it with various file sys- tems. Its big brother on the Mac helps when you want to take paperless to the next level. O Daniel W. Rasmus, author of Listening to the Fu- ture and Management by Design, isa strategist fs and industry analyst who helps clients put their future in context. Rasmus was the Director of Business Insights at Microsoft Corporation, and today is a consultant and internationally recog- nized speaker. He blogs for Fast Company and iphonelfecom. You can reach him at dwrasmus@danielwrasmus.com Productivity Cloud Storage Showdown A Comparison of Today’s Top Services by Charity Rountz t's a great time to be in the market for a cloud storage service. With mobile devices I at the center of so much that we do, on- the-go access to your documents, photos, videos, and music is becoming increasingly important. In the last year, digital storage prices have dropped precipitously, and after a year full of cy- ber security concerns, providers are strengthening measures to protect their customers’ private data. Read on to learn the strengths and weaknesses of a handful of industry leaders: Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, Box, and the newest addition, Amazon Cloud Drive. How Cloud Storage Works Instead of storing your documents and photos directly on your hard drive, cloud storage services allow you to upload your data to a remote third-party location that you can access online. Typically, these services use a combination of applica- tion programming interfaces (APIs) that govern the look, feel, and function of the software. Unlike USB drives, which can risk being lost or stolen, or your computer, which can unex- pectedly fail, cloud storage is an effective solution for storing files without the frustration of having to keep copies on mul- tiple devices. Dropbox Launched in 2008, this San Francisco-based ee cloud service company serves over 300 million “6 users. One of the main reasons Dropbox is so popular is because it’s reliable and easy to use, allowing you to synchronize your files between multiple devices and offering one of the simplest user interfaces of any cloud storage service currently available. Best of all, there is no size limit on the files you upload—unless you are upload- ing them through the website, in which case there is a 10 MB limit. Unfortunately, there isn’t a range of storage options avail- able outside of the free 2 GB you initially receive. You can either purchase 1TB of space—currently priced at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year—or you can receive 500 MB of additional stor age for every new user you refer (up to 18 GB total). iPhone Life March/April 2015 59 Productivity Dropbox Google Drive iCloud Box Amazon Cloud Drive Free Storage 2GB 15 GB 5GB 10 GB for personal use _5 GB, unlimited photo storage for Prime & Fire device owners. Pricing $10/month for 1 TB $2/month 100 GB - $0.99/month 20 GB - $10/month for 100 GB $10/year for 20 GB - $500/ $10/month 1TB $19.99/month 1TB year for 1,000 GB Cross-Platform Yes Yes No Yes Yes Support Security Two-step verification, Two-step verification, Two-step verification, Password-protected 28-bit encryption Features 256 bit encryption 256 bit encryption 128-256-bit encryption _ File Sharing Offline Access Yes Yes Yes Yes No Automatic Yes Yes Yes No Yes Photo Backup Numerous organizations have raised concerns over Drop- box’s privacy and terms of service, especially when it comes to storing sensitive information. As a result of this pressure, Dropbox released a transparency report detailing government requests for access to users’ information in 2014; however, users are still advised by IT professionals to use caution when uploading confidential documents. Google Drive ooo atat oh ana —— My Drive Aventures OEsxToP Prove Protos 2014 Pictures 2006 Google Drive has been the go-to choice for Google fans since the cloud service's release in 2012. The cross-platform application syncs files to all your devices and works well with Google's many other free services, including tc 60 iPhone Life March/April 2015 Google Docs. Gmail users can bypass the 25 MB email size limitation by linking to Google Drive files, rather than attach- ing them in the email. You can keep your files private or share them publicly, in which case they become searchable by Google's search engine. While Drive comes with a generous 15 GB of free storage, keep in mind that it's shared between Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos. Paying for additional storage with Google is astonishingly cheap, starting at $1.99/month for 100 GB. In an effort to boost security, Google has collaborated with Dropbox to create a partnership with research and develop- ment organization Simply Secure. Users of either Google Drive or Dropbox should expect to see security changes in the future as this collaboration gains ground. iCloud For those of you invested in the Apple eco- system, iCloud may be the simplest solution. While limited historically compared to its rivals, Apple's recent release of iCloud Drive, iCloud Photo Library, and Family Sharing make it a much more attractive offer. With iCloud Drive, you can now save and sync any file across your desktop and iOS devices. For instance, on a Mac, you can save a Pages document to iCloud Drive in your Finder, and it will appear in the Pages app on your iPhone. With Apple's over hauled photo management system, you can now back up pho- tos and videos taken on your iPhone and access them online at iCloud.com (for more on iCloud Photo Library, see pg. 34). One of the greatest features about iCloud is Family Sharing, which lets up to six family members share files like music, books, and apps. iCloud also seamlessly integrates with iTunes, allowing you to access purchases you made on any device Compared to Google Drive's 15 GB, iCloud offers a meager 5 GB of free space, although the cost of additional storage is only $0.99/month for 20 GB. The main drawback with iCloud is pretty obvious—if you own an Android or Windows mobile device in addition to an Apple product, you cannot access your iCloud files from those devices; iCloud is only compatible with iOS devices and your PC, Mac, or Windows computer. Box = » ee e BI | Cloud storage service Box launched in 2005, earning a strong reputation for its enterprise solutions. While Box offers some basic services for personal use, including a rather generous 10 GB of free storage, its strongest features are for business users. The starter service—which allows for 3-10 users, 100 GB storage, and a maximum 2 GB file size—is $5 per user per month. You can comment and assign tasks to documents and assign granular permissions when sharing files ranging from “view only” to “upload only.” Box also of- fers enterprise-level features that allow for tracking, reporting, and managing through activity reports. box Amazon Cloud Drive It should be no surprise that Amazon—the market juggernaut set on revolutionizing every industry it touches—recently released a new cloud storage solution. Cloud Drive’s main fo- amazon Productivity cus is on media syncing. While you can sync documents via the desktop app on your Mac or PC, only photos and videos will sync to the Cloud Drive mobile app. Amazon Cloud Drive offers unlimited photo storage to Ama- zon Prime members and Amazon Fire device owners, and automatically backs up from pictures from your phone to the cloud server when you're connected to Wi-Fi. While Amazon offers 5 GB of storage free, paid plans start at a very economical $10 per year for 20 GB. That's a cost of only $0.83 per month—by far the cheapest storage solution of its class. Even the 100 GB tier of services is extremely eco- nomical at $50 per year ($4.16 per month). Higher space op- tions are dramatically more expensive, though, with the 1TB option costing a whopping $500 per year ($41.66 per month). If you don’t need more than 100 GB of space and you're main- ly interested in syncing photos and videos, Amazon Cloud Drive is a great alternative to Dropbox or Google Drive. A Few Final Notes about Cloud Storage While you're exploring these different services, don’t be afraid to make the most of all the free storage you can from each service. Eventually, however, you may find it simplest to pay for your favorite cloud service to handle all your storage needs. O Charity Kountzis a freelance writer and author ofthe award-winning childrens book Jason, Lizzy and the Snowman Village. An aggressive researcher capable of covering wide range of topicareas including business, education, If, and finance, she enjoys tackling new challenges in writing and beyond. Charity’ nonfiction = Work hasbeen published by Coldwell Banker, Strategy Magazine and Moxie Lady. iPhone Life March/April 2015 61 Si ONSOREDPAEPS FE / Signul (Free) The Signul app works with Signul’s personal beacon system ($50) to help you control your smart home, keep tabs on your kids, send automated messages, and much more