Your iPhone is pretty much ready to go right out of the box with just some light setup required. But whether you’re an iPhone newcomer or a veteran of the iOS platform, there are some settings that you should change. Many savvy iPhone owners have probably changed these settings already. But check the list and see if there are any that you missed. Continue reading to learn 10 Settings to Change on Your iPhone Right Now.

Most of the things you do on your iPhone probably rely on Wi-Fi. But a strong cellular reception is still essential for two of the bedrock features of a smartphone: phone calls and SMS text messages. Because of that, a poor cellular reception at home can wreak all kinds of havoc on your calls and texts. But there’s no reason to settle for subpar service where you live. If you’re experiencing dropped calls or unsent green texts, continue reading to learn ten things you can do to boost your cellular reception at…

The power behind Apple’s Spotlight feature may be one of the best kept secrets for Mac, iPhone, and iPad users. First introduced back in 2004 for the Mac, the feature redefined how search on a desktop or laptop computer should be done.

Although Spotlight primarily focused on finding files back in those days, Apple didn’t sit still, expanding it in subsequent macOS updates to help you look up all sorts of useful information, and even later bringing it to iOS. Today it’s one of the most powerful features on both platforms, but we’re always amazed that many users don’t realize exactly how much you can do after calling up the diminutive search box with a quick CMD+SPACEBAR keystroke.

Spotlight is especially great for Mac users who prefer to keep their fingers on their keyboard rather than mousing around, since you can quickly launch apps, locate files, and find other relevant bits of information very quickly, and it avoids the cognitive shift of moving from keyboard to mouse. Read on to find out all of the awesome things that you can use Spotlight for on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

The Holidays are here, and Christmas is right around the corner. Christmas music is everywhere, and that probably includes your Apple Music app. You can use the built-in Music app on your iPhone to find Holiday playlists on Apple Music or create your own. But what happens to the music when Christmas is over?

Shuffle All of Your Music, Except for the Christmas Stuff

The problem with adding holiday music to your library is that it’s mixed in with all of your everyday music. Why is this a problem? Well, if you hit shuffle on your entire library during June, you’re bound to get some Holiday jingles. Other music might include children’s music and GarageBand recordings, too.

So how can you change this? Well, if you’re strapped for storage space, you could delete all of those songs from your library. But with iCloud Library and plenty of storage on most devices, space isn’t usually a problem, and deleting music means you’ll need to add it again next Holiday season.

Luckily, you can use the Music app on your Mac to specify which songs should be skipped when shuffling.

Skip When Shuffling

“Skip when shuffling” is exactly what it sounds like. When a song is set up to be skipped when shuffle is enabled, it won’t play when shuffle is enabled.

How Do I Configure It?

It’s pretty easy if you know which songs you want to skip. I recommend creating a Holiday playlist for all of your Holiday music before you begin. That’s because, otherwise, you will need to select each song you want to modify. You can modify multiple songs at once, and it’s a lot easier if they’re all in one place.

1. To get started, open the Music app on your Mac or PC and access your iCloud library (if you’re not using iCloud, you will need to sync your iPhone with your computer for this to work).
2. Find the song or songs you want to skip.
3. Right-click or control + click on the song(s) and select “Song info” or “Get info.” You can also press command + i.
4. To select multiple songs at once, hold the command key while selecting items, or use shift to select a range. You can also press command + “a” (control + “a” on a PC) to select all of the music in a selected playlist or the current view.
5. After clicking “Song info,” you will see a new information page. Be careful making changes when you have multiple items selected, but there are a lot of things you can do from this window. We are looking for the Skip while shuffling checkbox. Check it and save.

One Problem

Okay, maybe it’s not a problem, more of an annoyance. If you like to shuffle your Christmas playlist, you will no longer be able to. Luckily, if it’s all in a playlist, you can enable or disable shuffle before and after the Holidays.

What do you think, do you just add and remove your Holiday songs each year? Or do you shuffle all and just skip what you don’t like? Let us know in the comments and on social media. Thanks for reading!

Apple Music has been getting better and better every year since its release. Just a few years ago, it was a no brainer to choose Spotify over Apple’s music platform. Now the choice is not that simple.

Apple Music has so many cool and useful features, including one of Spotify’s best, that it’s become a great option to choose. (You can even use Apple Music if you’re an Android user.)

Despite being almost five years old now, Apple Music has been revamped many, many times; and so it still has tips and tricks that you might not know about! So if you want to take your music experience to another level, here are some tricks for Apple Music. Continue reading to learn 9 Apple Music Tips and Tricks Every User Should Know.

A virtual private network, or VPN, is an extremely handy thing to add to your digital “toolkit.” They can help protect your privacy and security online, alongside a number of other benefits.

If you aren’t already using one, there’s no better time to start than now. And while you can use a VPN across most of your online devices, they become even more important on the device you carry with you every day: your iPhone.

Why You Should Use a VPN

You can think of a VPN like an encrypted “tunnel” between your device and a destination. When your data travels through this tunnel, it’s much, much safer from prying eyes.

There are both privacy and security benefits that come with using a VPN. They can keep your sensitive data safe when you’re on an unsecured public Wi-Fi network. And they can also help put an end to your internet service provider or carrier snooping on your online activity.

But that’s not all. VPNs can also help you access geo-restricted content online. If you’re in a region with censored internet, they can also help you circumvent those restrictions and access wider portions of the internet.

Lastly, there’s not really any good reason to avoid using a VPN — as long as you opt for a good-quality one with excellent privacy and security policies.

If you don’t need any more convincing, then it’s time to move on to picking and installing a quality VPN service onto your device.

How to Choose a VPN Service

There are a plethora of VPN services online, which can make choosing a VPN service pretty overwhelming. We’ve previously covered how to pick a good one, as well as offered some of our own recommendations. See a few of the best below.

Recommended VPNs:

1. ExpressVPN
2. NordVPN: 3-Year Subscription
3. VPNUnlimited: Lifetime Subscription

Some of the higher-rated options don’t exactly come cheap, but there are some options like Windscribe or ProtonVPN that offer good “free” tiers with bandwidth or data limitations.

In any case, there are plenty of other options out there to suit your exact needs as long as you avoid sketchy, completely free VPNs or VPNs with less-than-ideal logging or security policies.

Of course, your company and business may have their own VPN set up so that you can connect to a company intranet. You can set those types of VPNs up pretty easily, but you’ll need a couple of extra bits of information (which we’ll get to later).

Using VPN Services

Once you choose a VPN, go ahead and download their iOS app from the App Store onto your iPhone or iPad.

When it’s downloaded, just follow these steps to set them up.

1. Most apps will need you to create an account or login with your credentials. So go ahead and do that.
2. Around this point, the VPN will ask for permission to install a configuration profile onto your device. Grant that permission.
3. Now you’ll be prompted to enter your passcode or authenticate with Face or Touch ID.

At this point, the VPN should be enabled.

You can enable or disable a VPN by going to Settings > VPN. This is also how you’d switch between VPNs on your device if you have multiple ones set up.

When a VPN is activated, you’ll see a small VPN icon in the top status bar.

If you’d like to change the server location or configure other preferences for your VPN, that’s usually done through the VPN app itself.

How to Set up a VPN Manually

As we mentioned earlier, you can also manually add a VPN configuration. Whether it’s a company VPN or you just prefer to set things up manually, here’s how to add a VPN service to your device.

1. Launch Settings.
2. Tap on General.
3. Tap on VPN.
4. Tap on Add VPN Configuration.
5. Tap Type.
6. Select IKEv2, IPSec or L2TP, depending on the type of VPN you have.
7. Tap Back.
8. Enter the VPN information — which includes server, remote ID and description.
9. Enter your VPN login credentials.
10. You can also set proxy preferences to Manual or Auto.
11. Tap Done.
12. You may also need to tap the Status bar toggle to switch the VPN on for the first time.

At this point, your VPN should be enabled. As with other VPNs, you can always disable it again by going to Settings > VPN.

Google is now rolling out Incognito Mode to Google Maps on iOS, letting users take back a bit of privacy when using the navigation system.

Incognito Mode has been available on Google Maps for Android since October. The new feature for the iOS version of the app works pretty much the same way. In short: none of the locations you search for or navigate to will be saved to your Google account.

The app won’t update your Location History or your shared location. Similarly, it won’t use any of your activity data to personalize the Google Maps app. Because of that, features like For You, Your Places or Commute aren’t available in the new privacy mode.

How to Go Incognito in Google Maps on iPhone

1. To enable Incognito Mode, just tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the Google Maps app.
2. Select Turn On Incognito Mode.

It’s worth noting that Google says the Maps Incognito Mode won’t stop your location or activity from being logged by “internet providers, other apps, voice search, and other Google services.”

As far as what you’re protecting yourself from, Google says it uses some location data from Location History to serve you ads based on the places you visit.

Still, even though Incognito Mode won’t save data to your Google account, there’s still a chance that anonymized bits of user data are sent to Google’s servers to improve the app and navigation experience.

Alongside the iOS app update, Google is also rolling out the ability to delete timeline data in bulk on Android handsets. It isn’t clear if Google will bring similar functionality to iOS devices, but the Android version will launch next month.

The move is likely part of a continued effort by Google to change its privacy reputation. While Apple is still arguably the most pro-privacy tech company out there, its competitors like Google and Facebook have started to follow in its footsteps.

While Incognito Mode will be a boon for Google Maps users, privacy-conscious individuals may want to look elsewhere for a navigation app.

Apple Maps, for example, never uses data to serve you ads. (Only Apple News and the App Store serve ads, and you can disable location access for them.) It’s even the default navigation app for pro-privacy search engine DuckDuckGo.