Resources
Supplementary class materials
“There's an App for That!” (Apple edition)
“Get Smart with Your iPhone (or iPad)!”
This web page provides additional information and resources for students of classes offered through the Arlington Adult Education program. This page gives you some starting points, but is not intended to provide exhaustive listings.
Tutorials and More Info
- How to sync your device to multiple computers — it can be done, easily, but there are some pitfalls to avoid
- The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials
- Get Started with the iPad
- iPad User Guide (official Apple document)
- iPad Guided Tour (official Apple)
- iPhone User Guide For iOS 6 (official Apple)
- The Five-Star Guide For Your iPad
- Unofficial Guide to Installing iTunes without Bloatware — if you're willing to go slightly "under the hood", you can have a more streamlined installation of iTunes.
- iCademy — "discover your iPhone" app, with lots of quick tips
- The Free iPod Book — hundreds of pages of info, includes iPhone
- How to Transfer Files to Your iPhone or iPad (for Beginners)
- How to Clean Your Dirty Smartphone (Without Breaking Something)
- How Do I Sync My iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with a New Computer Without Wiping Out All My Data?
- Syncing an iPad Wirelessly
- How to Copy Music from Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to Your Computer for Free
- How to transfer files from Windows to the iPad
- A Beginner’s Guide To Setting Up An eBook Library On Your iPad (or other device)
- 5 Great Tips For Recording Audio With Any Smartphone Or Tablet
- How To Safely Clean Your Tablet Or Smartphone’s Touchscreen
- How HDR helps your iPhone or Android camera 'go pro'
- How Can I Improve My Mobile Typing Skills?
- Why Free, Ad-Supported Apps May Be More Expensive Than Paid Apps (this article was written for Android, but is equally applicable to iPhone and iPad)
- How Not To Fall For Fake & Dangerous Apps
- A Virtual Visit to Your Library with Overdrive Media Console (use your device to access electronic content from your public library)
- How to Use Siri — full list of Siri Commands for iPhone and iPad
- How to Use Android and iOS Together
- Phone camera uses you might not have thought of
- Does Your Smartphone Really Need a Screen Protector?
- The HTG Guide to Using a Physical Keyboard With Your iPad or iPhone — useful for its lists of keyboard shortcuts
- The Best iPad Tips and Tricks
- Take Control of Your Smartphone’s Automatic Photo Uploads
- Ten Steps to Smartphone Security for Apple iOS
- Five Best Mobile Document Scanning Apps
- How to get the most from your smartphone battery [video]
- Getting Started with Add-on Camera Lenses (Android article, equally applicable to iPhone)
- Take Control of Your Smartphone’s Automatic Photo Uploads
- Are You Using a Passowrd Manager Yet?
- The Best Password Managers You Can Download In 2017
- Awesome Apps for Bicyclists
- Use These 7 Great Apps to Share Your Location with Friends and Family
- 5 Smart Travel Planning Apps for Easier Trip Itineraries
- Best Free Music Apps for Android and iPhone
- How to Clean a Smartphone
- Build Better Smartphone Habits With 8 Home Screen Tweaks
- Digital Wellbeing features in iOS 12
- How to Back Up and Restore Your iPhone
- 60+ of the Best Siri Commands to Use on Your iPhone
- A Day in the Life of Your Data
- Data detox: Five ways to reset your relationship with your phone
- How to Protect and Restore Your Smartphone’s Oleophobic Coating
- 7 Ways Google Assistant Can Help You Plan Your Day
- Siri dictation guide
- 7 iPhone Settings and Tweaks to Boost Your Privacy
- 9 Apps to Improve Your Hiking Experience
- Why You Shouldn't Constantly Close Apps on Your iPhone
- Why Is Your Phone Storage Always Full? 6 Ways to Make Space
- Wet iPhone? Use This Shortcut to Eject Water From the Speakers and Microphones
- 10 Ways to Use Google Assistant to Make Your Life Easier
- 11 Cleaning Tricks to Make Your Phone Look Like New
- 13 Cool Tricks You Didn’t Know You Could Do With iPhone Gestures
- 10 Useful iPhone Tips for Seniors
- You’re charging wrong: 5 ways to make gadget batteries last longer
- How to Disable Precise Location Tracking on iPhone or Android
- Your Weather App Is Spying on You, Here’s What to Do — and find an app that doesn't spy!
- What do do when you run out of iCloud storage
- 10 Things You Didn't Realize Your iPhone Can Do for You
- What Is Super Siri Mode and How Can You Use It?
- Phone Storage Always Full? 6 Ways to Make Space
- 10 Tips to Use Apple Mail on Your iPhone Like a Pro
- Don't Sell Your Old Phone or Laptop Without Doing These 10 Things First
- How to Scan Documents on Your iPhone
- How to Clean Your Dirty iPhone: A Step-by-Step Guide
- 10 Ways to Make the iPhone User-Friendly for Seniors
- How to Save a Phone or Tablet Dropped in Water
- The 10 Best Language Learning Apps That Really Work
- How to Reset Your Apple ID Password: 5 Simple Ways
- 20 Fast and Quick Mobile Games to Kill Time on Android and iPhone
- iPhone Storage Full? How to Create Free Space on iOS
- These 5 iPhone Features Helped Me Minimize Distractions at Work
- Waze vs. Google Maps: Which Navigation App Is Right for You?
- How to Customize the Lock Screen on Your iPhone or iPad
- I Use 8 Free Tricks to Get Higher Quality Audio Recordings On My iPhone
- How I Protect My Phone From Drops and Scratches
- Make Your iPhone Easier to Use With These Hidden Accessibility Features
-
Your smartphone may have tools to make your calls sound better
Additional Information Sources
- Daily App Show newsletter
- iPhone App Reviews
- Best iPhone Apps — "The Site for Discriminating Downloaders"
- Gizmo's Best Free iPhone Apps
- Gizmo's Best Free iPad Apps
- The 106 Best iPhone Apps
- Appstorm reviews
Software to Manage Your Device
- Note that I haven't tried these programs, so can't vouch for the results.
- iPhone Explorer — lets you use an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad as if it were in disk mode or a flash drive. Freeware, for Windows and Mac.
- Cucusoft iPad/iPhone/iPod to Computer Transfer — backup and restore all your iDevice content. For Windows and Mac. (Not free.)
- Sync Blocker: Block iTunes from automatically syncing and deleting your media when you plug your device into your computer. Free, for Windows and Mac.
- DiskAid: iPhone & iPod Music & File Transfer for PC & Mac
Miscellaneous
- The app-driven life: How smartphone apps are changing our lives
- Stylus reviews — not everybody wants or needs a stylus, but this article can help you make an informed decision.
- On Touch Screens, Rest Your Finger by Using a Stylus
- Calibre — create your own e-books
- Hamster Free eBook Converter
- dotEPUB — creates an e-book from any web page
- New Yorker video — shows a New Yorker magazine cover being created with an iPhone
- "Take Me Out" — rock video created with iPhones!
- Five Apps to Spice Up Your Walks — provided by WalkArlington
Highlighted Apps
- This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but these are some of the apps which were mentioned in class. I haven't tried all of them, so do your own evaluation. There are frequently multiple choices offering similar functionality, so if you don't like my choice, try another! If your web browser is correctly configured, clicking a link should cause the app to open in the App Store; otherwise, just do a search to find and download it. Unless indicated, apps listed are free. Many are "lite" versions to give you a chance to try them out, before buying "pro" versions that might have more features or no advertising. If you've got an iPad, look for an iPad-specific version to enjoy the full screen, although the iPhone version should work okay. Many apps are now "universal", with a single version that works well on both the tablet and the phone.
- App Advice Daily (daily selection of apps that are temporarily free)
- Weather: WorldWeather, MyWeather, AccuWeather, Yahoo! Weather, Hurricane (Red Cross tracker), Storm, Dark Sky; Clean Air Partners Air Quality (DC local)
- Reading: iBooks, Stanza (eBook reader), Bible, Washington Post, NYTimes, Wikipedia, Pocket (for reading things later); magazines: Currents, Zite, Zinio. Check to see if your print subscriptions include digital access.
- Listen/Watch: CBC Radio, Public Radio, NPR Music, Pandora Radio, Spotify, Folk Alley; Flixster, IMdb (movie database); The Phillips Collection, MoMA. Also look for your favorite radio station or musem.
- Web browsing: Safari (built-in), Dolphin, Chrome, Opera Coast, Vivaldi, DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser
-
Travel:
MetrO
worldwide subway navigator,
Transit Maps;
real-time local subway information: iTrans
DC Metro ,
DC Rider,
Embark DC Metro,
HopStop (covers multiple cities);
iNextBus Realtime Bus Tracker;
Curb (Arlington Red Top Cab);
SpotHero (find and reserver parking), itinerary tracking:
TripDeck,
TripIt; AAA
TripTik,
Skyyer
(city travel guides),
Triposo (country guides),
TripAdvisor hotels/restaurants,
iFindHotel,
AroundMe,
GateGuru
(airports guide),
DC Airports,
INRIX Traffic,
66 Express Lanes;
95-395-495 Express Lanes;
Dos & Don'ts (cultural advice for different
countries),
FlightAware and
Flightwise (flight trackers);
TripLingo;
PackPoint (packing list). National Park Service
National Mall.
Galileo Offline Maps, plus offline option in Google Maps.
Flush toilet finder
Also look for country- and city-specific apps and apps for your airline. See also Washington Post's D.C. transit apps roundup. - Photography: Instagram, PuddingCamera, HDR for Free, Pixlr Express photo editor, Snapseed, Camera360, Pic Stitch
- Calculators & Timers: Currency, Calc Zero, Convert Units, Splitsville (tip calculator), Tip Calculator, Splitwise, TouchCalc, Magical Calculator Pro, Abacus, Counter Lite, 1TapAlarm, Timer+, Alarm Clock, Road Trip LE (gas mileage calculator), Gas Cubby Free (gas mileage calculator and maintenance tracker), Drivvo car management
- Food: Yelp, Urbanspoon, Giant Food, Harris Teeter, Elevation Burger, Grocery IQ (shopping list), Out of Milk, ZipList, Cook's Illustrated, Epicurious, Whole Foods, Allrecipes, BigOven, Fooducate, Open Table (restaurant reservations), Tasting Table, TruxMap, USDA FoodKeeper. Seasonal Food Guide. Also look for apps at your favorite food places, such as Elevation Burger, Panera, Chipotle, etc.
- Finance and Shopping: Key Ring (frequent shopper cards), BofA, Bank Tracker; iAccountsLite, RoboForm, MiniKeePass password keepers (or try the build-in iCloud Keychain), Dashlane, Avira Password Manager; Square (accept credit card payments); RedLaser (scan barcodes for comparison shopping, read QR codes), Barcode Scanners, ScanLife, Kaywa; Expensify, Shoeboxed (scan and track receipts); Cheap Gas!, GasBuddy. Also look for apps from your bank or financial institution.
- Reference: Dictionary!, Dictionary.com, Google Translate, Dial Zero (customer support phone numbers), iCademy (iPhone tips)
- Foreign language: Duolingo, Memrise, Mondly, Babbel
- Productivity: Evernote, Microsoft To Do, Outliner Free, ListPro, HoursTracker, Hours Tracker, OnSite Time Tracker, Documents 2, iLogger Lite, MyStuff Lite, iditia free (create mind maps), Orchestra To-do (collaborative to-do lists), Remember the Milk, Remote Desktop lite (remote desktop connection to a Windows PC), Springpad (note-taking), Dragon Dictation, Twitter, PlainText (Dropbox text editing), Dropbox (synchronize files across multiple systems); Genius Scan - PDF Scanner, Evernote Scannable; presentations: Prezi, SlideShark
- Tools: Flashlight, iHandy Level, RulerPlus, Pedometer 24/7 Free, Bug Me! Stickies, AppBox Lite, Find My iPhone, Mirror
- Audio/Video: Skype, Google Duo, Facetime [built in]; Audio Memos Free, Magisto video editor, Adobe Premiere Clip, Splice video editor
- Music: DigiDrummer Lite, iOrgel, MiniPiano, GuitarChords LE, Metronome!, BtBx, Guitar Tuner, FretBoard, Scale Wizard, Singing Fingers, TonePad, TapTheBeat, LeafTLite, KalimbaFree, iShred ($5), Soundrop
- Art: Brushes, MyPaint Free, Drawcast, Tayasui Sketches
- Games: Sudoku, Cat Physics, FreeCell, Minesweeper, Sol Free, BiBallLite, Glow Puzzle, VexedJewels, MazeBox Lite, Angry Birds, GravBot, Bubble Ball, Doodle Fit, Mega Jump, Cogs, Bejeweled Blitz, Bubble Shooter, Tiny Tower, Naboko Lite, KenKen, Trainyard Express, Dumb Ways to Die, Blendoku, Orbit - Playing with Gravity
- For computer techs: TeamViewer Remote Control, LogMeIn Ignition ($100), iSSH ($10), Scany ($6), BSOD Stop Codes, iTransfer (FTP client), Mobile Admin (ssh/telnet client)
- For business users: LinkedIn, Documents to Go ($10), Documents 2 Free, Smart Office 2, Microsoft Office Mobile, Google Drive
- For school users: Blackboard, iStudiez Lite, School Buddy, TeacherKit, Coursera
- Customize: Print Hammermill, or look for an app from your printer manufacturer (HP, Canon, Epson, Brother, Samsung, etc.). Note that Google Cloud Print is automatically available for Gmail and Google Docs within the web browsers.
- Miscellaneous: Layar Augmented Reality Browser, Junaio AR, World Around Me Lite; Trapster (speed traps), Google Search, Koubachi (plant watering), SkyView (stargazing); Google Assistant (alternative to Siri)