Guides

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.

Favicons (short for favorite icon) are the little website icons that appear in most browsers's URL bars, tabs and bookmark lists. Not only do they make a bland colorless row of tabs more aesthetically pleasing, they make the tabs visually distinguishable and thus much easier to quickly identify the tab you're looking for when many are open. They first appeared in 1999 with the debut of Internet Explorer 5 and quickly became standardized and supported by most other browsers.

There is an easy way to block websites on the iPhone or iPad. Whether it be on a child's device or for some other reason, Safari on iOS delivers a few ways to limit access to adult content in general, or prevent visits to specific websites. Blocking websites is possible using the built-in Restrictions on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.