Steffen Reich

I'm an Apple enthusiast by all measures, but that does not keep me from calling a spade a spade when it's needed. Living in Melbourne, Australia. Follow me on Twitter @melbsteve !

How to have the Music app only show songs stored on your device

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated November 26, 2023

Thanks to the introduction of goodies like the iCloud Music Library and more recently Apple Music, your Music app on iPhone and iPad has not only turned from a luscious red color into a plain icon, but has also become decidedly more convoluted.

The main change since the coming of the cloud-based additions to the Music app? Songs no longer have to be stored locally on your device in order to be visible and playable. In case you haven’t yet found the trick hiding in plain sight to only play the songs downloaded to your device (and prevent exorbitant data charges), let’s fill you in now!

How to automatically create an Apple Music playlist with songs you identified with Shazam

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated December 22, 2022

Once you identify a song with Shazam, you can easily find it later using any of these five ways. You can also make things easier and have Shazam automatically create a new playlist in Apple Music with all your discovered tracks. When you Shazam tracks in the future; they will automatically appear in that playlist inside your Music app.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to create an Apple Music playlist with all your Shazamed songs on iPhone or iPad.

Speed up or slow down iTunes playback for podcasts, audiobooks, and music with Speed-Up

Steffen Reich ∙ March 24, 2017

Still enjoying iTunes despite the beautiful mess it has become on macOS? If the answer is yes, perhaps listen up for this one. Every once in a while, seemingly low-key and low-price apps pop up in the market, claiming to have identified an imperfection or gap in Apple’s software, and in the next breath promising the fix for it. Some of these apps are superfluous to the user for the simple reason that the touted feature is already in place in Apple’s mothership software (in some shape or form), other apps are gimmicky or overly flawed.

Speed-Up for Mac firmly sits in the opposite camp, the one where ostensibly small apps are extremely wholesome and deliver on the promised goods. So what does it promise you ask? Put simply, to speed up or slow down your iTunes playback, an option otherwise notably absent on macOS. If this sounds surprisingly succinct or sober to you, that’s because it is.

Speed-Up treasures simplicity over bells & whistles, and is probably worth a look if you have ever caught yourself wishing for a speed lever in the thick of an Audiobook or Podcast session on your MacBook.

How to teach your iPhone or iPad to recognize people’s faces in the Photos app

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated March 16, 2018

Organizing one’s photos by date or occasion is by far the most common methodology in photography, and of course why wouldn’t it be? The simple fact of the matter is that a chronological structure of photos satisfies most search requests because you pretty much know immediately where to look for a certain snapshot. With that said, more unconventional efforts such as accumulating every single photo taken by the beach or all shots of your family ever snapped, quickly render the chronologic album structure rigid and dated.

How to turn off notifications for specific podcasts on iPhone

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated January 16, 2024

Getting too many podcast notifications on your iPhone or iPad? Learn how to turn off alerts for specific podcast shows without unfollowing or unsubscribing from them. We will also explain how to turn off all notifications for the entire Podcasts app and share what to do if you rely on third-party apps.

How to enable automatic downloads for your favorite podcasts on iPhone or iPad

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated January 16, 2024

Learn how to have the Apple Podcasts app automatically download your favorite podcasts on your iPhone or iPad, so you have sufficient episodes to listen to, even when you have no or patchy internet connection.

Apple wants to zero in on ‘Pro’ segment, but what about the large majority?

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

In a statement warmly welcomed by us internet folk, Tim Cook recently proclaimed "you will see us do more in the pro area." In our circles, this is unquestionably good news, as we all foster an insatiable appetite for new innovations, be that on a hardware or software level. More pro is great, however I invariably had to spare a thought for the average, not-so techy Apple customer.

I’m talking about the type of customer that after owning their iPhone 6S for more than a year, still has little concept of what 3D Touch does. Or how about the one that loves their new MacBook, but will gaze at you with a stunned expression when you introduce them to Force Touch on their trackpad. This is by no means meant to sound snarky or patronizing, because as a matter of fact, I don’t blame them for not knowing - I blame Apple for failing to take everyone along for the ride due to poor communication.

Shifting up the ‘Pro’ a notch in the future sounds great, that said how do you straddle the line between pleasing us tech-warriors and not entirely overwhelming a large majority of users, a majority already only privity to roughly half of the juicy features on their devices? Apple needs to find some cogent answers to this issue, and rather than creating a two-tier system in their hardware sold (labelling only some products 'Pro'), I contend that software could be the key.

Neverthink takes cues from TV era, plays videos in place of programs

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

If you sampled a bunch of people and asked them about their favorite downtime activities, chances are there would be a fairly even split in numbers between respondents choosing a good book over other forms of entertainment and those drawn to the audiovisual media instead. Folks of the latter segment know best for themselves where to get their daily dose of videos from, but places such as Netflix, Youtube or Hulu are generally speaking a solid bet. Internet empowered services aside, there is credible chatter that in the shadows of society, some renegades continue to resort to a traditional TV set for their spate of mindless diversion.

Whether you find yourself all too often hunting for new videos to watch during lunch break or you identify with the dwindling TV crowd, a brand new app called neverthink could be for you. That’s because it marries the old-fashion convenience of always-on programming with the excitement of the sometimes mercurial internet. Neverthink wants you to never again think about what videos to dig up next and their way of going about it is unique enough to potentially strike a chord with you.

The best sleep tracking apps for Apple Watch and iPhone

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated April 10, 2020

Tracking your sleep routine can often lead to insights into all sorts of habits or quirks detrimental to a good night’s sleep. Before Apple Watch, apps promising to analyze your nightly resting patterns and devise remedies to improve on them were already plentiful. Yet after the release of the wrist-worn gadget, a new surge in the category ensued for its ease of use on watch and enhanced precision in measuring body movements at night.

In order to single out the creme de la creme of applications, we have put through their paces both standalone sleep trackers on iPhone and an array of apps requiring the assistance of Apple Watch.

No matter if you rock iPhone and Apple Watch together or solo, find out below which sleep trackers are worthwhile your time and money.

Vidicast lets you broadcast live videos to your friends in iMessage

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

Sometimes you cannot help but feel the iMessage App Store still owes us a couple of unique entrants to wholly justify its establishment last year. Games and stickers aside, the depth and breadth of the store leaves a lot to be desired and must-have iMessage extensions are few and far between. With that, it is always refreshing to welcome a new aspirant to the ranks that sets out to shake things up a little by bringing genuinely new functionalities to your keyboard. Vidicast, a video broadcasting app operating autonomously inside iMessage, does just that.

The iMessage application is best synthesised as a cross of any video broadcasting feature on the most popular social networks today (Instagram, Facebook, etc) and FaceTime. When hooked up, it provides the recipient of the iMessage invitation with a one-way live video stream, which then can be responded to in real time. The ambition of Vidicast is bold, bold enough in fact that one should be willing to give it some rope in regard to early days hiccups. Before you whizz to your iMessage App Store, here’s what you need to know about Vidicast’s attempt to break the mould of iMessage app extensions.

The best iMessage games

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated October 13, 2023

When Apple took the wraps off the iMessage App Store last year, it quickly became evident that the messaging service would become the next playground for some weird and wonderful applications. Since then, developers have largely graced us with conventional stickers and app extensions, despite another under-represented category increasingly showing promise: iMessage games.

Almost half a year after opening the gate, it seems a good time to take stock of the games playable through Apple's messenger and hand-pick the ones not only most captivating but also smartest at circumnavigating the limitations of iMessage. If you fancy the thought of challenging a friend to a duel on iMessage but don't want to waste anyone's time trialling potential duds, read on to find out about the current top performers on the iMessage App Store.

The best weather apps for iPad

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated October 28, 2019

Legend has it that weather apps are about as old as the App Store itself. Their popularity has always sprung from the simple fact that some people like their weather forecast to be scientific and precise to a T. Some like it punchy and condensed, while again others might just want it to be a visual treat. On iPad, it's much more than a matter of taste though, because whatever Apple's rationale, an in-house application for weather is still notably absent.

As a result of this choice, a number of third-party apps have become household names as weather surrogates on Apple's tablet. Even in 2018, some of the old-timers remain too cogent to overlook, but newer arrivals are starting to give the traditional go-to apps a run for their money. Thusly on merits of capabilities and originality, here are some of the best weather apps for iPad you can choose from today.