While finding directions to a destination is simple enough to do on any navigation app, many of us like to research travel destinations on our computers or tablets beforehand, if for no other reason than having a bigger screen to look at. If you look up directions as part of this pre-travel research, you might as well send them along to your phone so they are ready to go as soon as you sit down in your car. It's not a life changing shortcut but it is a convenience that both Apple Maps and Google Maps offer. Here's how to use it for each:

Apple Maps

Notification badges are great at doing their job - letting you know that there is something you need to look at in the notifying app. The problem is they can easily become overwhelming if you have tons of apps constantly demanding attention for every minor event. While you likely want to know when new emails are sitting in your work inbox, you may not want to know every time your troops are ready to battle, or every time somebody has posted in a Telegram room with 10K subscribers.

If you've ever entertained a group of guests, all who want to get on your Wi-Fi, you know it can be both annoying and tedious, especially if you have an alphanumeric string as a password. iOS 11 made it much easier by allowing you to share your Wi-Fi password, but there is an even easier way that you don't even have to involve yourself with, aside from the initial set up. You can create a QR code, allowing your guests to simply scan it to join. Print it out, frame it, leave it in the guest rooms or wherever is convenient.

Apple has announced that its next keynote will be held on Sept. 12 at the Steve Jobs Theater on the new Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, at 10am PT / 1pm ET. The official invitations sent today to various members of the press included the tagline "Gather round" with an image of a ring. The ring is most likely a refrence to Apple's ring shaped headquarters located at the newly built Apple Park.

Square has updated its magstripe card reader to support current iOS devices. Apple discontinued the 3.5-mm headphone jack with the release of the iPhone 7, forcing some iPhone owners to use an adapter with their Square Readers. The Square Reader for magstripe now comes with both a headset jack and Lightning option.