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My favorite apps

By Staff | Apr 16, 2015

I’ve been waiting a long time for the new LifeLock app to return. This is a must for everyone who wants to toss their wallet full of credit cards or can’t find their paper insurance card after a cop pulls them over for speeding 70 in a 15 MPH zone. This app will take a picture of your cards, both front and back, and save them (even your birth certificate and passport).

Another app that I use every day is Keeper. This incredible app stores all your e-mail passwords, so you never have to look through notes or click on “Forgot Password” ever again.

RadarScope is an app that shows rain and storms around the island chain. And WeatherBug is the best weather app for a ten-day spread.

I have 12 Linksys Cameras in and around my home that I can view at any time or anywhere (a plus when you have eight dogs). The app is called LiveCams Pro and will work with about any camera out there.

The iPhone camera is great, but for the very best pictures, you need an app called vividHDR. This app will blow you away, and you’ll never save a picture using only the iPhone camera.

This is another app that I can’t say enough about. It takes pictures at night, and the outcome is unbelievable. It’s called NightCap Pro. If you want to take a panorama photo, don’t use the iPhone one. Your pic turns out looking like a big, 60-foot Jaws wave. For a perfect panorama, use the app called Photo Sphere.

The best news apps out there that don’t hit you with a 30-second commercial then a ten-second clip are AP Mobile and Reuters. I like the SmartNews app, but you have be careful scrolling down. One misplaced finger press will take you to hours of terrible, stupid commercials. Another news app for Hawaii is HNN, Hawaii News Now.

If you miss a phone call and want to find who the number belongs to, download Number Guru. The Whitepages app also helps out.

If you want to see how fast your Internet speed is, download Speedtest.

Here are a couple of tricks that I really like. If you just finished a long e-mail, telling your boss where to put it, and it somehow got lost or deleted, just shake your iPhone or iPad, and it comes back up. If you want to see the last few websites you just visited on Safari, just press the double squares on the lower right, and a page full of sites appear (you can even delete them).

In one of my issues, I explained how Siri can read back e-mails, web pages, news articles and iBook stories – and even advance the pages for you. I love this hidden function, and it’s easy to set-up. Just click on Settings, General, Accessibility. From there, click on Speech and check the box for Speak Selection and Speak Screen. To make sure this works, turn off your iPhone or iPad, and when it’s back on, open up any news app. Here is the trick. Swipe with two fingers from the very top of the screen, and a black menu pops down with a rabbit and turtle. Siri automatically begins speaking the text, and you can speed it up, slow it down, stop or restart it. You can hide the app or remove it at any time. If you want to read something, swiping with two fingers down brings it back up.

Send your computer-related questions to mauimist8669@yahoo.com.