The very first text message was sent on December 3rd, 1992 by Neil Papworth, an engineer for Vodafone, and it simply said "Merry Christmas." He may have jumped the gun on the whole Christmas thing, but you trying coming up with the first text message in history! Today, there ...more
Text bombing isn't a very nice thing to do, and sucks for whoever you're doing it to, but it's certainly fun for you! Annoy the hell out of a frenemy, or simply pass the time in your boring Biology class with affably evil fun, by spaming your friend's text inbox with loads of ...more
With iOS 7, Apple is finally fighting back against spam, offering the option to block certain phone numbers from sending you text messages or iMessages (plus, phone calls and FaceTime too). With this new feature, you can block telemarketers, spammers, and their ilk from spamm ...more
Looking to annoy the heck out of someone you dislike? Why not spam their phone a hundred times with a "text bomb" or "SMS bomb"? In this video, learn how to send an SMS bomb by downloading this link. You will need Microsoft's .NET Framework in order to run this program, which ...more
Security researcher and iPhone hacker pod2g has brought attention to a flaw in Apple's iOS that allows the user to change the reply address of an SMS message. This bug has been a part of the iPhone's SMS since the first iPhone in 2007, but Apple has yet to address it. Basicall ...more
Apple took great strides to enhance Accessibility features on iOS 7 for low-vision users, adding button shapes, dark colors, bold keyboard text, and more. With iOS 8, Apple looks to continue their run at making life easier for the optically impaired. Zoom, the built-in magnif ...more
Sick of the default tones your iPhone or iPod Touch has for your text/SMS/message tones? Change your iPhone message tone, and get customized tones for your text message alerts. You will first need to SSH into your iPhone or iPod Touch, which you can learn how to do by going h ...more
ShapeWriter is the iPhone version of Swype. With this app you can type texts extremely fast without ever lifting your finger off the keypad! In this tutorial, learn all about how to type at the speed of light using ShapeWriter and send messages so fast you'll wonder why you ev ...more
Regardless of the operating system, selecting a piece of text on a touchscreen device is never fun. Thankfully, Google has finally added a new feature to Android 9.0 Pie that will make it at least a little less annoying. When you select any text on the latest version of Andro ...more
The transcribing app can be an invaluable tool, especially if you're a student or are in a profession that relies on audio journals or interviews. These apps can convert important recordings like lectures and meetings into text for you to carefully read through to better compr ...more
In this Electronics video tutorial you are going to learn how to magnify to edit text on an iPhone. This video is a part of a series of tips on iPhone finger tips. This is very simple and easy to do and takes practically no time to complete. If you wish to add something to a l ...more
Watch this electronics tutorial video to learn how to use the accent marks on the iPhone. Using accent marks will be easy after watching this instructional video. This how-to video is geared mainly toward new iPhone owners.
With the Group Text app, you can easily set up a distribution list so you can send out text messages to large numbers of people at once. You can also set up form templates, which are useful if you tend to send out a similar text message each time. This short tutorial shows you ...more
You might know that you can increase text size on your iPhone by digging around in Settings. But you also have the ability to text size with a quick toggle so you can use a larger font only when you need it. This feature is known as "Text Size," and it can be added to Control ...more
Why is it that "cut" is such an underappreciated edit function? It copies and deletes text, what more could you ask for? Well, how about a more efficient way to do so? With iOS 13, Apple introduced a suite of new gestures and swipes to edit text easier on iPhone. It just so ha ...more
Pasting on your iPhone has never been easier. You're familiar with the old way of doing things — long-press in the text field to bring up the "Paste" option, then tap that option to paste your text. It's not necessarily hard, but trust me when I say there's a better way. Wit ...more
On a computer, you have keyboard shortcuts like cmd+b and ctrl+i to bold, italicize, or underline text. But how exactly do you this on your iPhone? Easy! Double-tap a word to highlight it and drag the indicators to select multiple words if you want. Then, a menu will pop up. ...more
It feels like someone just overheard me talking shit about my iPhone. I really hate when I need to edit an email, text, iMessage, or whatever because of the way you have to select words and phrases. You either hold down on the screen where you want to bring up the menu, or do ...more
So, you undid something you typed on your iPhone. Maybe you used the new gesture in iOS 13 to do so. Maybe you shook your iPhone, on purpose or accidentally, to trigger the traditional undo method. Either way, you want your text back, or to redo your edit, and you aren't sure ...more
While there's no denying that iPads are better when it comes to multitasking and productivity, your iPhone has a few tricks up its sleeve to rival even the best iPad features. One thing about iPadOS is that it's really easy to highlight editable text with gestures, but it's ju ...more
This video demonstrates how to send and receive text messages on your iPhone. From the people who brought you the Dummies instructional book series, brings you the same non-intimidating guides in video form. Watch this video tutorial to learn how to send and receive text messa ...more
In this video one of the ultimate iPhone hackers, Jonathan A. Zdziarsk, demonstrates how to use a forensics toolkit to recover deleted text messages on an iPhone. But wait - there's more! Not only can you access text messages, but almost any other data on an iPhone as well. We ...more
iPhone: If you've ever looked into text-to-speech transcription for your computer, you've certainly come across Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Now the folks at Dragon have developed their own iPhone app that lets you dictate to your iPhone—and it works really well. Read more here: ...more
There are plenty of options and shortcuts available on the iPhone, and one notable feature is the ability to copy, cut and paste text or images, just like you would on a normal computer. So how do you do it? Best Buy has answers. The Best Buy Mobile team explains how simple it ...more
Trying to get rid of an ex or clingy friend? Just want to keep telemarketers from calling you all the time? You can use the iPhone app iBlacklist (for jailbroken iPhones) to create a list of blocked calls for your iPhone. Blacklisted phone numbers will not be able to send you ...more
If you have T-Mobile and haven't quite figured out how to get MMS working with it on the iPhone, check out this video. This tutorial will cover activating the iPhones original MMS feature to work with t-mobile. This feature also allows you to share your iphones internet connec ...more
Learn how to send an instant message on your iPhone. Tap the Messaging Icon with your finger. To compose a new message, tap the New Text icon in the upper-right hand corner. Enter a phone number or a name from your contact list into the "To:" field. Type in text message using ...more
ShapeWriter is a quick typing program that is made for anything with a touch screen. You can use ShapeWriter on a tablet computer, PDA, cell phone or anything else where you have access to a touch sensitive screen. ShapeWriter makes using touch-screen devices easier, faster a ...more
Apple hasn't refreshed its text tones on iPhones since iOS 7. That's six years of the same sounds. And while text tones like Bamboo and Hello have undoubtedly aged like fine wine, that's still too long to live with the same old sounds day after day. Let's take matters into our ...more
Deleting text messages on your iPhone may seem like a pretty simple task, but it's those really simple tasks that usually end up causing headaches later on. Data can stick around, even if you asked it not to, so there's always a slight chance that embarrassing and incriminatin ...more
Your iPhone comes packed with a long list of excellent text tones to choose from. Bamboo anyone? Of course, for some of us, stock sounds from 2013 don't cut it anymore. We want customizability, something that's found more on Android than iOS. However, you can add your very own ...more
For most people, the font that Apple uses in iOS is just perfect, but some of you may think it's too big while others with poor vision may have a hard time reading it. Whether you're having a hard time seeing text on your iPhone or just want something different, there are actu ...more
My obsession with Siri is well documented, and after I jailbroke my iPhone 4 recently, I thought I would finally be able to rekindle our imaginary love. But, when I downloaded the Siri Port, I found that the app was buggy and super slow. You lucky iPhone 4S and 5 users have S ...more
Ever since iOS 8, Apple's quick reply feature had made it easy to respond to messages without leaving the lock screen or whatever app you're currently in, but you can't utilize all of Messages features when responding this way. You can't add photos, use iMessage apps, record a ...more
There's not much you can do to customize the look and feel of your iPhone's home screen, at least when it comes to official options provided by Apple. But thanks to a new bug discovered by YouTuber iDeviceHelp, you can now hide text labels for app icons and folders on your iPh ...more
One of the best reasons to enter Apple's ecosystem is iMessage, where you can communicate more securely with other Apple users and send and receive chats across all of your connected iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac devices. While those blue bubble conversations sync across d ...more
Texting something as simple as "What up, bruh?" can be transformed into something way more baller by adding emojis, emoticons, GIFs, and textspeak. Some people would even argue that texting is a form of art, similar to Shakespearean sonnets, but it still has a ways to go if yo ...more
Watch this tutorial video to learn how to use the AIM application on the iPhone to send text messages that don't count against your plan's limit. This how-to video is good for new iPhone owners who want to send free text messages on their iPhone.
If you're among the throng of Apple iPhone users to refuse to pay $5 for a monthly SMS allowance, then each text message you receive, whether you like it or not, will run you $0.20. In this how-to, Gary Rosenzweig shows you how to prevent unwanted text messages by turning off ...more
In this quick video tutorial, you'll learn how to hide SMS text message preview on your iPhone. It is recommended that you reboot your iPhone after completing the steps in the tutorial.
There are much better things that can go in your iPhone's status bar besides an always-on indicator displaying what carrier you're shelling out money to every month. While it would be nice to get rid of the carrier name altogether at the top of the screen, an even better optio ...more
Safari has a convenient "Find" feature to search for specific words and phrases in a webpage, and Apple Books has a similar feature for e-books and PDFs. But those do nothing for you when searching text in the real world. Hardcover and paperback books are still very much a thi ...more
Here we go again, softModders, it's time for another awesome tweak for your iPod, iPhone, or iPod running iOS 7. Have you ever felt like changing your lock screen with a custom text instead of it saying "slide to unlock"? Why shouldn't we be able to edit this? We're not given ...more
You may prefer reading news stories, web articles, and books on your iPhone over listening to them in spoken form. Still, sometimes it's necessary when driving, walking, cycling, cleaning, working, or performing other activities requiring a little multitasking. To help you out ...more
It took all the way until firmware version 4.2 for Apple to add a function to the iPhone that's been present on other phones for years: the ability to set custom ringtones / sounds for text messages from different contacts. This video will show you how quick and easy it is to ...more
This clip will introduce you to an app that will allow you to send free SMS and MMS messages to your friends' cell phones. Whether you're the proud owner of an Apple iPhone 4G or perhaps just considering picking one up second hand, you're sure to benefit from this free video t ...more
Copying text is as much an iOS staple as anything else. From its inception in iPhone OS 3.0 (yes, the first two iPhones shipped without copy and paste) until iOS 12, the copy function has stayed exactly the same. While the option is still present in your iPhone's contextual me ...more
WhatsApp may be one of the most popular mobile messaging services around since it's multi-platform, but if most of your family and friends use iPads and iPhones, there's no need to go beyond the stock Messages app. Except, it's so damn boring and slow. You can't really custom ...more
One thing that always bugged me about the Notes app for iPhone is that every note starts with Big, Bold Text. Relevant in some cases, sure, but most of the time, I'm just trying to jot down some thoughts, and having one giant sentence is just unnecessary. Luckily, it's not tha ...more
Quickly jotting down grocery lists, recommended books, phone numbers, and addresses, among other things, has been a pretty straightforward process on an iPad or iPhone. Through the Notes app, you can enter information and have it seamlessly synced across all of your iOS device ...more
Many of us were required to take a foreign language in school, but sadly, many of us are far from fluent in said language. To be a better citizen of the world, learning popular and rare languages would be dope, but in reality, that's probably never going to happen. If you ever ...more
Texting can be difficult sometimes. When you're browsing the web or playing a game on your iPhone and need to respond to text message real quick, you have to exit your current app to do so. Not exactly efficient, especially if a quick "K" is all you need to say. However, if y ...more
Typography is an important aspect of the video editing process. You deal with it when adding captions to news clips, giving on-screen recipes in food videos, creating burned-in subtitles for short films, making no-sound-needed videos for social media, and so much more. Enlight ...more
Whether you're at work or in class, there are times when using your phone is unacceptable, regardless of that subtle yet sudden twitch in your arm that arises every time you hear the vibration of a text message. To combat being seen, addicted text messagers have devised ways ...more
NSA aside, Apple makes it difficult for users to extract and download text messages from their iPhones onto a computer. For whatever reason (legal, devious, neurotic, etc), we've all found a time where we'd like to save backups of certain meaningful, important, or perhaps incr ...more
When you take a screenshot on your iPhone, it's automatically saved to your Photos app. You can ignore the screenshot thumbnail or swipe it away, but you shouldn't. If you open the screenshot editor instead, you'll gain access to your iPhone's most useful screen capture tool: ...more
There are plenty of tools that'll help you type faster and more efficiently on your iPhone or iPad, such as Slide to Type, Dictation, and even a case with a physical keyboard. But one of the best tricks will help you type frequently used words, phrases, sentences, email addres ...more
Now that there's a working jailbreak for every iOS 6.1 device, there are more and more people jailbreaking their iPhones (including me) for better customization. But for those of you who have no desire to jailbreak, you can still do some pretty cool tweaks. One such non-jailb ...more
When iOS 14 came out, Apple released Translate, an app for translating voice and text between several languages (even within Safari). Unfortunately, it's not as comprehensive as some third-party apps or even Siri. That's why Apple uses Microsoft's translation services within S ...more
In the event of an emergency where you can't answer for yourself, trained professionals can view your Medical ID on your iPhone to learn about your medical situation, granted that you have created one. But that's not all your Medical ID can do. With a new feature, iOS can shar ...more