Regardless of how familiar you are with the conventions of Apple’s iOS that controls your iPhone, there’s always something new to discover. It’s common to find surprising, obscure, and quite handy functionality that may have been buried under the radar. So, as a public service, we dug up some cool operations you can perform with the built-in Notes, Calculator, and Clock apps.
The examples below are derived from iOS 14. While iOS 14 offers an abundance of new functionality, there are also a few downsides to watch for.
The Security Recommendations feature, new for iOS 14, notifies you which of your passwords is too easy to guess or has been compromised in some way. While iCloud syncs your passwords across all your devices, Security Recommendations notifies you if any of your passwords are too easy to guess, or if it’s been leaked in a known data breach. Here’s how to set it up.
If you want to record a document like your car registration, a receipt, or a serial number, generally you’d just haul out your iPhone camera and snap a shot. But odds are that image will be somewhat skewed and hard to print. If you need a clean document, you’d be better off using a scanning app, and there are many free and cheap ones available from the App store.
Finding a good scanning app is time-consuming — you need to hit on one you like, that’s easy to use, and which doesn’t bombard you with ads and popup notations to upgrade. Luckily, the solution lies in your iPhone’s built-in Notes app — the icon that looks like a yellow legal pad. Here’s how to scan with Notes.
The scanner function is pretty smart, as it can automatically pinpoint sections of your document that you may want to isolate, as opposed to only capturing the entire page — which it also does quite well. It also flattens the document and automatically corrects skew and distortion. The steps to accomplish them are similar in iOS 14 and iOS 13.
As you’re adding up a bunch of receipts for your expense report, you discover that you’ve entered one or a series of mistaken numbers that threaten to throw off your calculation. But no worries. With the nifty iOS Calculator app, it’s easy to backtrack without having to start all over from scratch. To delete one error or even several erroneous numbers in sequence, just swipe left over the numerical display and the wrong number will disappear. Swipe multiple times in a row to delete a series of errors. Then, continue with your work. The process here is identical in both iOS 14 and iOS 13.
And, if you rotate your iPhone into the landscape orientation, this cool Calculator will display its elaborate scientific calculator variation, should you ever need it.
With iOS 14 comes big changes in using the Clock as a sleep utility. While iOS 13 gives you Bedtime Mode, iOS 14 gets rid of that feature in favor of setting up sleep parameters in the Health app. Here’s how to do it.
With iOS 14, the Health app is now in charge of your shuteye. It lets your iPhone or Apple Watch track your sleep schedule, sleep pattern, and sleep and wake goals.
Here’s a look at how to enable and set a Sleep Schedule on your iPhone using the Health app.
If you are still using iOS 13, see the steps below for setting up sleep parameters in the Clock.
While iOS does not have an elaborate sleep function that measures REM sleep, light sleep, and how often your eyelids flutter while you dream, the Clock’s Bedtime Mode can help you get to bed and wake up on time and track your progress in actually getting the amount of shuteye you desire. It can even remind you when bedtime is approaching if you like.
Don’t bother cheating Bedtime Mode. If you start scrolling through your Twitter feed after you’re all cozy under the covers, your iPhone will not count that screen time as sleep. So put your phone on the nightstand and settle down to get those Zzzs. Similarly, if you hit the snooze button instead of climbing out of bed in the morning, it will add that time to your sleep total. Sweet dreams!
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.