Guides

Apple's recently released Music Memos is basically the Voice Memos app updated and geared toward songwriters, singers and the otherwise musically inclined. According to Apple's press release, the app was inspired by Voice Memos and the fact that "musicians and songwriters around the world have used [it] on their iPhones to quickly record ideas." Music Memos gives artists tools to record, analyze and share their ideas through a simple, streamlined interface typical of Apple products.

Beta testing is always a risky business, especially if you are installing the unproven software on your main device. The whole point of beta testing is to identify bugs and instabilities in software that has not yet been officially released. As such, there is always the possibility of installing the software and finding that your device constantly crashes in certain situations, or certain features no longer work. For instance, the 9.3 beta has elicited complaints about Bluetooth not working properly.

Apple's Night Shift is a new feature in iOS 9.3 (which hasn't officially been released yet, but is currently available in the public beta) that is similar to the very popular f.lux app that is only available for jailbroken iPhones. The new setting lets the user shift the iPhone's display toward the warmer end of the spectrum.

Data theft is an ever-present danger in the modern world that one must remain on constant guard against. Requiring a username and password combination is one of the simplest security measures that people use to guard their private information. While it is an effective defense, it can backfire in a big way if the same password is used across many sites and services. The average person likely has login information for many tens of sites and apps, if not hundreds, and for the sake of convenience, many use the same password for many sites.

Apple released its first iOS 9.3 beta to developers in mid January, and it became available to the general public shortly after. The upgrade packs quite a bit more than the typical minor release, including Night Shift which, like f.lux, shifts your display colors to the warmer end of the spectrum at night.