If you use voice dictation to type on your iPhone, you might have noticed that Siri/dictation uses the "common" spelling of proper nouns. If you use a less common spelling often, you might also be irritated by the constant misspelling. This post (and the included video) show you how to setup a contact to "teach" Siri/dictation how you want to spell that proper noun. In my examples, I make a new contact, but you could also adjust the existing contact to add the "Phonetic" field if your proper noun is a person already in your contacts. ytvideo{CgU9f9YZe30} Here is a breakdown of the steps in the ..read more

Jump to the screen protector recommendations Jump to the case recommendations My first cell phone screen "incident" happened when my iPhone 4 fell out of the pocket of my maternity pants and on to the hard tile floor of the ASU Engineering department restroom. The phone enclosure was dented in the fall and the screen was cracked to almost useless. I was pretty lucky up to that point and lived life fast-and-loose with no case and no screen protector. Fast forward thirteen years with two kids later, and now I am the person who orders the screen protector and case at the same time that I order th ..read more

Today an app developer asked me an interesting question: “How do you find out what version of an app you're running?” Here's the short and most reliable way to check: Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Select General > iPhone Storage. Wait a moment, and the screen will populate with storage stats for each of your installed apps. Tap the app you want to see the version number for. Next to the app icon you'll see the app name, the version number you're looking for, and the author organization/person. Below that you'll see the size of the app itself, and the size of the data stored ..read more

If you have WhatsApp chats on your iPhone or iPad that you need to print out as a PDF, today’s Decipher Tools instructions will help you accomplish that task in just minutes. There are currently over 2.78 billion monthly active WhatsApp users in the world and it's very common for iPhone and iPad users to have a need to print their WhatsApp chats as a PDF. Printing WhatsApp chats to PDF requires that you first save the WhatsApp messages from your iPhone to your computer. To accomplish this task, we recommend using the software Decipher Chat. Decipher Chat is a helpful program runs on any Mac or ..read more

Problem: Help! When trying to sync my iPhone with the macOS Music app and copy music to my device, I'm getting an error that says "This iPhone is Open in Another Window" . How can I fix this error? I have no other windows open on my Mac! Solution: If you are getting the error message "This iPhone is Open in Another Window" on your Mac it is usually because the Finder window is open which can sometimes cause your device to not be recognized by the Music app. The solution is to "relaunch" Finder on your Mac. Follow these steps to fix the "This iPhone is Open in Another Window" error: Hold down ..read more

Did your iPhone delete your text messages? Have you recently noticed text messages are missing or have been erased on your iPhone? Here are some quick tips to help solve why your iPhone is deleting your text messages. 1. Check your Text Message Settings If your iPhone deleted your text messages, the first step is to select Settings > Messages and under “Message History” make sure the “Forever” option is selected. This will ensure that your iPhone text messages will stay on your iPhone forever and are never automatically deleted. If you have your text messages set to delete after “30 Days ..read more

If you have text messages on your iPad that you want to save and print out, today’s Decipher Tools tutorial and instructions will help you accomplish that task in a few simple steps. There are many millions of iPad users in the world and iPad sales continue to skyrocket. Last year, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Apple reported that iPad sales generated approximately 6.44 billion U.S. dollars in revenue! The New York Times also recently named the iPad as the best tablet on the market. With so many iPad users worldwide, it's normal that iPad users often have a need to export and print out text m ..read more

Why do my iPhone text messages appear in both blue and green colors? Quick Answer Messages in blue are iMessages that are sent or received by iOS users either on an iPhone, iPad, or someone using the macOS Messages app on their Mac computer. The blue messages are unique to Apple devices and are available when an iOS user has the iMessage option enabled on their device. Messages with a green background are SMS/MMS messages. If you are an iPhone user and you are texting someone that has an Android phone or non-Apple device, then messages will appear with a green background. Additionally, if you ..read more

If you are an iPhone user and you suddenly realize that some of your text messages have disappeared and are no longer on your device, here are a few tips to see if the missing messages can be located! 1. Check the Message History Setting on your iPhone or iPad On your iPhone choose Settings > Messages and double-check to see if your "Message History" is set to "Forever." If it is, that's a good sign that your messages will never be automatically deleted. If you have this setting on "30 days" or "1 year," then your iPhone might have already deleted the messages from your device. Source: Del ..read more

With the holiday season just around the corner, it's shopping time! I've curated a list of presents for all of the different kinds of Apple people in your life. For each of these gift ideas, I'm including links to the specific version of the item that I actually use and gift myself. I won't recommend anything unless I've actually tried it myself and enjoy it. Screen Protectors These are a great little gift for anyone, but they're especially good for younger iPhone users, very active people, or anyone who tosses their iPhone in a bag or a purse often. I've been using these specific screen prote ..read more