In theory, it's a great idea: having patients use their iPhone or Apple Watch to track their health data and make it available to their physicians, who are then in a better position to treat them. And now it's clear that major medical providers are seeing the utility of this and are jumping on board. According to GovernmentHealthIT, Duke Medicine and Ochsner Health System are integrating their electronic health records system with HealthKit. They will be among the presenters at the mHealth Summit that's taking place this week in Washington, DC. Mobile health is becoming a hot topic, and doctors are finding that mobile devices can be a real boon.

Doctors have long routinely asked patients to record data such as blood pressure and exercise, and now mobile devices such as the Apple Watch are making that easier. In addition, with the Health app this data can easily be made available to one's physician, helping him or her to make informed decisions regarding treatment. It gives doctors a much better picture of a patient's health than can be accomplished by brief clinical visits.

The move by Duke and Ochsner is a good sign that Apple Watch will realize its promise as "an intelligent health and fitness companion." According to Apple's website, the Apple Watch will keep track of all the different ways you move, including exercising, walking, going up steps, and standing up. It then graphs the amount of time you spent exercising, the number of calories burned, and how often you get up from sitting (since sitting for long periods has been shown to be detrimental to health). The Workout app helps you set goals based on the data it collects, tracks your progress, and gives you summaries of your workouts, including distance, time, and calories burned.

Did you miss out on a great iPad deal during the Cyber Monday madness? Have no fear, Best Buy is here, and the savings are from $50 to $100 on the new iPad mini 3 and iPad Air 2. The more expensive the device, the better the savings, so Apple's newest, most powerful tablets cost about as much as last year's models. For example, a 128 GB iPad mini 3 costs about $500, which is the same as a 128 GB iPad mini 2. Going big is a no-brainer.

Customers might be able to save even more with a cellular model, as carriers may offer a $100 credit for signing up for a two-year contract. They are particularly interested in getting customers to do this, since the new iPad mini and iPad Air 2 cellular models do not lock users into a particular carrier. They can work with AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile; but AT&T will lock the SIM to work only with them, so it might be wise to visit a carrier's store and pick up a SIM dedicated to that vendor.

I got you excited about these new headphones a few months ago, and now they're here! SMS Audio BioSport in-ear headphones, developed in collaboration with Intel, are now available at Dick's Sporting Goods, smsaudio.com and amazon.com for MSRP $149.95. Here are the answers to a few questions you may have about these heart rate measuring headphones:

How do they measure heart rate?

Delivering high-quality audio and actionable fitness data, the heart rate monitoring earbuds are wired with ear-wing buds designed to sit deeper in the ear canal for the most accurate, continuous and reliable data collection. That's right, the monitor is located in the durable waterproof and sweatproof (IPX-4) earbud, replacing the chest strap that you used to wear. 

Do they charge differently than normal earbuds?

No, technology is available that allows BioSport's gold-plated audio jack to charge while they're being used–ensuring they're always ready for your next workout.

How do I see my heart rate?

BioSport headphones are initially compatible with RunKeeper to track heart rate, pace, distance, elevation, and calorie burn. They're working on adding more app compatibility in 2015. 

What's in the box?

In addition to your blue, yellow, or gray BioSport headphones, you'll receive free one month trial of RunKeeper Elite, a neoprene carrying case, and three sizes of ear gels and hooks. 

Life n Soul has a Bluetooth speaker that is like a mullet...business up front, party in the back. That's because the BM211 Bluetooth Speaker ($79.99) has a no-nonsense speakerphone, suitable for conference calls with multidirectional speakers, so the whole office can participate. There's a clever slot that lets you rest a phone or tablet so you can control your VoIP, phone call, Facetime, or, when it's time to party, your music playlist. I could also see using the stand, and speaker, at trade shows.

What I really like about the BM211 is that it folds up nicely for travel so you can have a party, or a business meeting just about anywhere. The BM211 also accepts audio input from a audio in jack, or from the USB port, and it charges via the included microUSB cable. Android users can take advantage of the NFC (Near Field Communication) capabilities for instant pairing. Maybe Apple will open up NFC for use beyond Apple Pay, but for now the rest of us iOS users will have to stick to Bluetooth pairing.

It's photo contest time again. We know you enjoy taking the occasional artistic shot with your iPhone, so why not get rewarded for it! Enter our iPhone Photography Contest for a chance to win awesome prizes and a spot in our magazine! 

Submit your best iPhone photograph(s) at iphonelife.com/enterphoto by December 26. You must take and edit all photos with an iOS device, using only iOS apps. 

Our editors will choose the top three entries, and our readers will choose the fourth and final winner by voting for their favorite images on Facebook. Voting opens on December19 and ends January 5. If your submission is among the winners, you’ll win an olloclip quick-connect lens set ($70 value) and an olloclip Quick-Flip Case ($50 value). The top 9 photos will also be featured in an upcoming issue of iPhone Life magazine.

You still have time to create a winning masterpiece, so get out there and do it!

Check out some of the entries we've already received at the top of this post by Ayşegül Taşbaşı, and below by James Dickerson!

“Where are you?” is a frequently asked question you have to answer when meeting up with friends. With the new location sharing iMessage feature, you can quickly send your location to your friends and family.

First, access the “details” option on the top right corner in your iMessage conversation with the person.

Once in that menu, you have two options. To just send your current location, select “Send My Current Location.”

A map will appear in the iMessage conversation with your location.

The other option, “Share My Location,” allows the person in the conversation to see your location for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. Once shared, your friend or family member can get Apple Maps directions to your exact location.

Be careful to only share your location with your friends and people you trust. Also, remember if you share your location until the end of the day or indefinitely, your battery life will take a hit.

(3 photos)

Apple's Best of 2014 Awards have been posted. This annual event helps guide you to the best apps, podcasts, ebooks, music, movies, TV shows, and more. You can view the lists by using the iTunes software on your computer or by using the App Store, iTunes Store, and Podcasts apps on your device. Apple has selected Elevate - Brain Training (free) as app of the year, and Hyperlapse from Instagram (free) as runner-up. Elevate uses mini-games to help you improve your memory, focus, and other cognitive skills. Hyperlapse is a tool for creating time-lapse videos. Game of the year is Threes ($2.99), a number puzzler. Runner up is Leo's Fortune ($4.99), a platform adventure game. In addition to these winners, Apple also gives a list of the 25 best apps and 25 best games of 2014. The listing of apps includes a number of long-time favorites, such as Star Walk ($2.99) and Camera+ ($2.99), but there are also many other titles that are new to me. Definitely worth checking out.

In the Movies category, Apple picked four winners. Guardians of the Galaxy ($19.99) got the nod for Best Blockbuster, Boyhood ($14.99 pre-order) for Best Director, The LEGO Movie ($17.99) for Best Family Movie, and Obvious Child ($14.99) for Best Discovery. Fargo, Season 1 ($25.99) was named Best TV Show of the Year. Other TV choices include The Honorable Woman ($19.99) for Best Discovery, True Detective, Season 1 ($29.99) for Best Performances, and Key & Peele, Vol. 4 ($19.99) for Best Breakthrough.

Beyonce's album Beyonce ($15.99) got the award for Top Artist. Taylor Swift's 1989 ($12.99) won for Best Album. Iggy Azalea's Fancy ($1.29) was named Best Song, and Sam Smith's Album In the Lonely Hour ($10.99) got the nod for Best New Artist.

Congratulations to the winners. You'll now be a lot richer. App developers say that being recognized in the App Store can make a huge difference in sales.

The Apple Watch is more than just a new product category for Apple: it's a new direction into fashion. There was a fascinating discussion on Quora speculating that Apple didn't name it iWatch because it's not just another gadget being added to a family of gadgets. Instead, the Apple Watch is being positioned as a fashion accessory. And if there were any doubt about its positioning, a report on 9T05Mac says that Apple is currently hiring fashion/luxury experts for their retail stores in preparation for the Apple Watch going on sale next year. According to a document obtained by the website, Apple is recruiting people with a "fashion or luxury background." Add to this the fact that Apple's new head of retail is Angela Ahrendts, who left her job as CEO Burberry, a British luxury fashion company whose line includes fashion accessories. In 2013 Apple also hired Paul Deneve, the former CEO of the Yves Saint Laurent luxury brand. Plus, there's the 18-karat gold Apple Watch that is clearly meant to be a fashion statement. Finally, there was the photoshoot in the November issue of Vogue China that featured model Liu Wen sporting various Apple Watches.

Apparently Apple's new retail hires will help customers decide which fashion accessory best suits their needs. Unlike Apple's other gadgets, which come in a few sizes and configurations, the Apple Watch will have many options. Rumors have said that customers will be able to try on the various combinations of bands and sizes and styles. This will be a different experience for Apple Store staff, and clearly Apple is anticipating this. 9To5Mac suggests that the Apple Stores will get a bit of a makeover, with Apple Watches behind glass cases and Store employees on hand to take the watches out of the case and assist customers in trying them on.

It will be interesting to see how Apple's new direction plays out. Apple started out selling computers, and then took a new direction with the iPod in 2001. The 2007 iPhone was again a new direction, followed by the 2010 iPad. These were practical gadgets. The Apple Watch will also be practical — think of the Health and Workout apps, for example — but it will also be a fashion statement. On one hand, this seems like a natural next step for Apple, given that their products have always had something of a fashionable appeal. They make products people love based on both utility and beauty. But the push into fashion may be changing the equation a bit, focusing more on image. I'm not sure what to think about that. I'd hate to see them lose their focus on utility, since fashion is in some ways inherently superficial and ephemeral. I'll withhold judgment, though, and look forward to the new era of the Apple Watch.

Apple and Bose have an interesting relationship, to say the least. Apple bought Beats by Dre this summer for $3 billion, their largest acquisition ever. Bose products, which had been available in Apple stores were recently pulled from shelves. Bose had sued Beats over noise cancellation patents, and Apple inherited that mess, but that matter has been settled.

Additionally, Bose became the official headphones of the NFL, but rather than comply with NFL rules, players were wearing their preferred Beats headphones, and paying $10,000 in fines. In some cases, players put black electrical tape over the logo to avoid those fines. It was the best advertising Beats could ask for, according to Apple's Jimmy Iovine.

Now, just in time for the holiday rush, it looks like Bose products are headed back to Apple stores. Apparently, the market for high-end headphones is just too important for Apple to play with one hand tied behind their back.

The Accessibility feature on the iPhone is designed to make life easier for someone with a disability. If you have visual issues or motor impairments your iPhone can accommodate you. iUsers without disabilities also find many of these features to be useful when interacting with their devices. An easy way to turn these features on or off or switch between them is to use the triple click-shortcut on your Home button.

When you set a triple click shortcut, you have several Accessibility options to choose from:

• VoiceOver will tell you what’s on your screen. Wherever you tap on the screen, a voice tells you what action it will perform or will read the words on the screen.

• Invert Colors allows those who are color blind to read the screen easier. It’s also a great feature to make the screen easier on the eyes in the dark.

• Zoom allows you to magnify elements on the screen up to 1,500 percent.

• Switch Control lets you control your iPhone with head movements using the FaceTime camera or through Bluetooth adaptive accessories.

• Assistive Touch lets you create your own custom gestures to control your iPhone.

Here’s how to enable the triple click shortcut: Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and tap on Accessibility Shortcut; then choose the features you’d like to use when you triple click the home button. If more than one feature is checked, you will be given those options after triple clicking and you can choose one. 

We all remember Steve Jobs in one way or another. For some, it's him on stage in his black turtleneck, talking about the beauty of the new product he just revealed. For many it might be those iconic black and white photos of Jobs, along with Steve Wozniak, in the early days, working on a computer. Or it could be the official photo from the biography he authorized. For me, it's seeing him live at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) or even when he spoke at my college, Carnegie-Mellon, during his ouster from Apple, to promote NeXT. Long before the black turtleneck, he sported a brown leather Avirex jacket and a button-down shirt.

Now, the media outlets Bloomberg, AP, and CNN are trying to gain access to sealed testimony in the iPod / iTunes antitrust case. Jobs recorded video testimony, as he was too weak to attend in person. The entire trial is not being videotaped, so there are no videos of other witnesses. Yet the media is citing Jobs' uniqueness as a reason to make his video available. I'm sure it would be a boon for ratings to show Jobs in his final days, when he was not as commanding a presence as we remember. But I'd rather remember the Steve Jobs I knew, who was so excited to show off his latest gadget.

How would you like to extend the surface area of your app's user interface exponentially? How would your users react if you added multiple display devices to your app, each containing different content? All of this is possible by using an iOS feature many developers are not aware of—external displays.

In this post, I'm going to show you how to use Swift along with Xcode to generate external display output that enhances the user experience. I'm not talking about simply mirroring the iOS display, but showing different content that augments what's being displayed on your iOS device. This is an extremely useful feature for every category of apps including business apps and games (imagine an external monitor showing a larger picture of an avatar's location in a world while the iOS device shows close-up detail).

To follow along with this post, download the ExternalScreenDemo sample app from this link.

iOS and External Displays

Apple provides a variety of adapters for connecting an iOS device to an external TV, project, or display. You can find out more about these adapters at this link. 

By default, apps simply mirror their output to an external display. It takes a specially designed app to display other content to an external monitor. That's where you, the app developer, come in!

Running the Sample App

Let's take the ExternalScreenDemo sample app for a test run.

1. Open the ExternalScreenDemo project in Xcode.

2. In the Scheme control located in the upper-left corner of the Xcode window, select one of the iPhone Simulators (the app also works in the iPad simulators, but leaves you less room on your screen to view the external screen output).

3. Click Xcode's Run button.

4. When the app first appears in the Simulator, it displays a map, and asks permission to access your location while you use the app (Figure 1). Since this is a Simulator, and not a real iOS device, you're not really giving permission for the app to access your physical location. By default, the Simulator uses Apple headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA as your location.

Figure 1 - The sample app asks to access your location.

5. Click Allow. When you do this, the map zooms in on Apple headquarters (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - The map is zoomed in.

6. That's it. A very simple app. Now go back to Xcode and click the Stop button.

Adding External Video Support to the Sample App

Now you're ready to add support for external video to the sample app.

1. In the Project Navigator, select the ViewController.swift code file.

2. Add the following two properties to the top of the code file.

3. To save you the trouble of typing many lines of code, I've added code that has been commented out to the sample project. Let's uncomment the code now and then we'll take a closer look at it afterward. First, select the following code in the viewDidLoad method by clicking and dragging from the first commented line down to the last commented line:

4. With the code highlighted, press Command+/ to uncomment this block of code. Note that you will see a few compiler errors along the way until you finish uncommenting all of the code blocks.

5. Next highlight the last line of code in the mapView:didUpdateUserLocation: method, and then press Command+/ to uncomment it:

6. Finally, highlight the following two methods, and then press Command+/ to uncomment them:

At this point, you should be able to build the project without any errors.

7. Click Xcode's Run button. When the app appears in the Simulator, it looks the same as before. Now let's turn on the simulated external screen.

8. Go to the Simulator's menu and select Hardware > External Displays > 1024 x 768. This displays a large black rectangle. 

9. Why don't you see anything displayed in the external display? Because it wasn't available when the app first launched. We'll fix this in just a bit. For now, go back to Xcode and click the Stop button, then click the Run button again. Now you should see a zoomed-out version of the map in the simulated external display (Figure 2). For a mapping app, this is a great use of an external display. The map on the iPhone is zoomed in to show street details and the map on the external display provides is zoomed out to provide context of the user's location.

Figure 2 - The external display shows a zoomed-out version of the user's location.

Let's take a look at the code that makes this work.

Go back to Xcode and click the Stop button. Next, check out the following code in the viewDidLoad method:

This code calls the screens method of the UIScreen class which returns an array of screens. If there is more than one screen (screens.count > 1), it indicates an external display is available. The code then calls the following initializeExternalScreen method, passing a reference to the external display:

This code creates a new window the size of the external screen, then stores a reference to the external screen in the window's screen property. Next, it configures the MapView and then makes the window visible by calling its makeKeyAndVisible method.

The last line of code calls the adjustExternalScreenRegion method:

Detecting External Display Connect and Disconnect

Now you're ready to enhance the existing code to detect when an external display is connected or disconnected. This allows external displays that are connected when the app is already running to be detected and updated.

1. Add the following lines of code to the viewDidLoad method:

This code registers with NSNotificationCenter to be notified of the following events:

• UIScreenDidConnectNotification - Indicates an external display has been connected
• UIScreenDidDisconnectNotificiation - Indicates an external display has been disconnected

Notice the selector arguments passed to the addObserver method of NSNotificationCenter are strings:

• "handleScreenDidConnectNotification:"
• "handleScreenDidDisconnectNotification:"

These arguments tell NSNotificationCenter to call these methods when an external display is connected /disconnected. In Swift, you can pass in a string literal wherever a Cocoa Touch API expects to receive a selector, and the string is automatically converted to a selector for you.

2. Now lets add these two methods before the closing curly brace of the view controller:

The first method calls initializeExternalScreen when a new external display is connected. The second method hides the external display and sets it to nil when it is disconnected.

Let's give it a try! We'll disable the external display, run the app, and then turn on the external display to make sure our notification code is working properly.

3. Press Command+Tab to go back to the Simulator. 

4. In the Simulator menu, select Hardware > External Displays > Disabled. This closes the simulated external display window.

5. Go back to Xcode and click the Run button to launch the app in the iPhone Simulator.

6. In the Simulator menu, select Hardware > External Displays > 1024 x 768. This fires the connect notification, which executes the handleScreenDidConnectNotification method and displays the map in the external display!

7. Try connecting and reconnecting the external display to see that the notifications are working properly.

In case something went wrong along the way, you can download the completed project at this link.

Conclusion

If you're interested in getting your app noticed, features such as external display can be a real boost. As you can see, the Cocoa Touch Framework makes it easy to enhance your apps using this great feature with little effort, and huge rewards.

The "official" Steve Jobs movie, based on his approved biography by Walt Isaacson, has had its share of turmoil. The Ashton Kutcher movie was rushed out, whereas this version has stumbled a bit. It has changed movie studios and lead actors. Now it looks like one of the supporting roles has been cast, with Jeff Daniels, star of critically-acclaimed projects like The Newsroom, may take on the role of John Sculley. They share similarities in appearance, so that's a good casting choice. But what I can't get over is Daniels is still in theaters in Dumb and Dumber To. I don't know if they are sending a message, but pushing Steve Jobs out of Apple was a dumb move. Steve had brought Sculley in, famously convincing him there was a better future at Apple, trying to change the world, than "selling sugared water for the rest of your life" as CEO of Pepsico.

Unfortunately, Jobs's demanding nature conflicted with Sculley and the board, and Jobs lost. When Jobs was in exile, he turned Pixar into a multi-billion-dollar business and created NeXT Computer. Apple ultimately bought NeXT, to acquire their technology (which is the core of Mac OS today) and to bring Steve back into the fold. The rest is history.

Speaking of history, and exile, I was hoping Christian Bale would play Steve Jobs, as had been planned. Bale is in theaters this month as Moses, so he knows something about a triumphant return from an exile. He also has quite a temper, so that would have been fun to watch. Still, I'm sure I'll be watching the movie, if and when it finally makes it to the silver screen!

If you haven't gotten into the third-party keyboard craze yet, now's your chance to try! A lot of keyboards are under two dollars (or free), so download a couple of apps to see what you like. They are easy to install.

The biggest feature is the "swipe" aspect that Android phones have had for a long time. It allows users to swipe their words together instead of typing out each letter. It's especially useful for one-handed typing. Another feature is customization! Some keyboard allow you to change the background color of the keys. Even though most support swipe typing, you can still type normally. 

I have tried out three of the most popular keyboard apps on my own device: TouchPal (free), SwiftKey Keyboard (free), and Swype Keyboard ($0.99). Of course there are pros and cons to each, in my opinion.

For me, the Touchpal keyboard is the most responsive to my type of swiping. It also allows for shortcuts for punctuation marks, emojis, and numbers, so you don't have to switch keyboards while swiping. There are also 16 different preset themes to choose from, or you can make your own with your own picture! I like this one the best when typing with one hand. I also like it because it works just as well as the native keyboard when typing words instead of swiping. Cons? The symbols are out of order. But this is remedied by shortcuts in some instances.

The second on my list is SwiftKey. Even though I haven't used it as much as the others, it's predictive text feature is pretty cool. Unlike other keyboards, this one seems to learn more quickly than others. You can almost type complete sentences by tapping the words above your keyboard. It also learns your typing if you sign up for SwiftKey Cloud, which syncs the keyboard with your Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and others. When I go to type my e-mail or website URL, I can tap predictive text options instead of struggling to fight autocorrect. This keyboard only has two themes, light and dark, but the predictive text makes up for it. The backspace key also works twice as fast, making deleting easy. Besides, it was recently named as one of Apple's Best Apps of 2014.

The Swype keyboard is my third favorite of this bunch, and one of the most downloaded third-party keyboard apps on iOS (it's pretty popular on Android too). Swype has many of the same features, including different color themes, shortcuts for punctuation, but it also allows you to put words in your "dictionary." When you type something over and over again, Swype will ask you if you want to add it to it's lexicon. That's right, now you can type selfie without it autocorrecting it to "deluge" or "selfish." There's also a quick shortcut for a number pad incase you need it. Cons? It's harder to switch to the emoji keyboard, if you're into that sort of thing. 

There are other options, too, if you don’t just want to swipe: Fleksy Keyboard ($0.99) allows you to shrink your keyboard down while still allowing you to type at normal size and speed, while with ScribbleBoard ($0.99), you can draw pictures and send them to your friends when words aren’t enough.

Whichever you choose, make sure to check all the third-party keyboard options out—there may be a hidden gem somewhere.

Quick tip: Make sure you go to the keyboard settings on your iPhone (settings > general > keyboards) for each keyboard to allow full access—this is how to get your keyboard to work!

Top image credit: wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock.com.

So maybe you love group messages, maybe you hate them. Either way, the new iOS8 update came with ways to customize your group message experience.

First, access the “Details” menu in the thread.

This will take you to a new screen where you can access the contact information of the people in the thread, location settings and other cool features.

To add someone to the group, tap Add Contact. You will see a list of recent contacts or you can search for someone’s contact information. Want to send your location? Choose to send your current location or share your location until the end of the day. Texts blowing up your phone? Choose to mute notifications by toggling Do Not Disturb on. You will still get iMessages, you just won’t be bothered by endless conversations. If you didn’t create the group, and the texts are getting too annoying, scroll down further and choose Leave the Conversation, a new feature in iOS8.

Top image credit: Vlad Teodor / Shutterstock.com

The Apple Watch is supposed to arrive "in early 2015" and some have even tried to nail down the date as February 14. While that would make for an excellent Valentine's Day gift for my wife to get me (hint hint) it would require a massive production operation in January. And that appears to be exactly what is happening, according to reports from observers of manufacturers in China.

While Apple typically uses Foxconn and Pegatron, it looks like the watch could come from Quanta, a firm that recently expanded from 3,000 production line workers to 10,000 and then as high as 30,000 or 40,000 expected next year. If Apple is to ship 20 to 30 million watches as predicted, that increase could be necessary. At launch, only three to five million Apple Watches might actually be available. Given the demand and numerous combinations (two sizes, three different materials, and more than a dozen strap styles) it may be hard to find exactly the watch each customer desires. I imagine a site like iStockNow will be pretty busy!

There are a few astronomy sims on the App Store, and none are quite as comprehensive as the amazing Redshift, which has 100,000-plus celestial objects in its imagery database. Redshift turns your iPad into an intergalactic portal so you can fly to another galaxy or take a tour of the Jovian moons. People who want to explore the universe, but don't want to spend $10.99, will be happy to know you can instead get Redshift Discover Astronomy—a scaled down version for just $2.99.

Discover Astronomy adds an “Intro to Astronomy” feature (by selecting the upper left corner), as well as Today's Sky (both provide quick views of the animated sky)—features that will also be added to the full Redshift edition in an update. Otherwise the basic layout, function, and features of the two apps are much the same.

In both apps you can fly to planets and moons, orbit them, and even land on their surfaces to get a view of the cosmos from a unique perspective or simply take a grand tour. Though it would be astonishingly cool to have a real Red Planet exploration SIM that lets one conduct a real mission to Mars, Red Shift is about as close as you can get on a mobile device.

I’m not talking a simple fly-by app; I’m thinking a full-blown visual adventure/strategy game with stages that require proper ship configuration for liftoff, docking with a space module, slingshotting up to speed to catch Mars, surviving the trip to Mars (maybe you didn’t stock properly or need to do key repairs to keep your crew alive), landing, building a survivable habitat, and exploring. Of course a nasty alien eats the crew in the end. But I digress; one can have dreams after all. Still, Redshift Discover Astronomy will at least get you to Mars and allow you to land (your imagination must do the rest).

I also use the Solar Walk app, which has great space flight sims and 3D views; but it limits you to our own galactic neighborhood. It also has nowhere near the precision and comprehensive features of Redshift. Redshift also doesn’t nickel and dime you with in-app purchases. Of course you pay a premium for the full app at $10.99.

You can fly up to, say, the Crab Nebula, say “howdy”, and pop back over to Europa for lunch, if you like. The menu system makes it less complicated than actually piloting a spacecraft (although that would be cool too). Everything about the Redshift app is smooth, from the real-time, GPS sky-tracking, and space flight sims, to the animated 3-D planet visualizations. Of course the Discover Astronomy app is also very good at simple and accurate night sky observations, and the object database is amazingly chock full of celestial goodies to view (though less so than the full version).

The Verdict

Discover Astronomy includes the mini tutorials to familiarize the uninitiated to the wonders of the heavens. Many interesting facts abound: Did you know that with a telescope, you can watch a full rotation of the planet Jupiter in a single night? One of the coolest features of both Solar Walk and the Redshift apps are the animations of earth indicating terrestrial satellite orbits; but it's Redshift that really shines in this regard, presenting a fascinating swarm-like depiction of orbiting space equipment. Wow, is all I can say! So go grab Discover Astronomy, which is probably going to be one of my favorite apps of 2014! It’s refreshingly easy to navigate and use, and does not skimp on the science!

United Airlines is purchasing 23,000 iPhone 6 Plus phones for their flight attendants. I thought my family had a lot of iPhones but that's ridiculous! Seriously, each flight attendant will get the large iPhone for official use.

The phones will handle onboard retail transactions and allow the attendants to access corporate email and united.com, United's Intranet, safety instructions, policies, and procedures manuals. This is on top of the iPads the airline provides to their pilots, which continues with the appropriately named iPad Air 2.

Sam Risoli, United's senior vice president of inflight services said "iPhone 6 Plus will enable them to deliver an even higher level of flyer-friendly service and will offer our flight attendants simple, one-touch access to valuable work information, enabling them to better serve our customers."

I remember in the 1980s, when Adobe's "PDF" (Portable Document Format) first came out, when I worked at Sun Microsystems. PDF was a major boon for the airlines in particular, as the manuals required for an airplane, when printed out, took as much space as the airplane itself! With PDF, they could have access to every manual, up-to-date, on a computer. Now, with smartphones and tablets, they can have those documents literally at their fingertips!

After all this time I still don’t get the Flappy Bird phenomenon. Not only was the game a mess, but most of the clones have been even worse. Thankfully every now and again one of the progeny not only rises above the pack but is actually quite playable, and such is the case with C.H.O.P.S. (Free with IAP) This game takes the simple “touch to fly, let go to fall” mechanism and adds some depth with power ups, level ups, and unlockables. It even sports one of the best examples I’ve ever seen on how to implement IAP in a game. This gets my ultimate stamp of approval in the “Thanks For Not Being Flappy Bird” category.In In C.H.O.P.S., you are part of an elite squad whose task is to destroy those that would destroy the world. Who exactly these foes are is unknown and really irrelevant, because they have no qualms about killing you; so if you want to survive, you have to fight back. To do so you’ll get the chance to pilot one of five different helicopters, each of which can be equipped with one of several different devastating weapons as well as your choice of orbitoids, which are little ships that hover around your craft and provide additional firepower. You start with a basic chopper, a fairly benign weapon, and no orbitoid. Luckily, as you fly your missions you’ll collect coins which can be used to upgrade your equipment. You’ll also occasionally collect a gem or two. These gems can be used to purchase new equipment and also to continue a game when you die. Of course, gems are a lot harder to come by, but I’ll get to that later.

Destroying enemies also earns you XP, and when you get enough XP you level up, which earns you extra money and boosts your score multiplier. On certain levels it will also make new weapons and orbitoids available for purchasing. Of course with gems falling out of the sky so rarely, it almost seems inevitable at some point that you’ll need to spend make some in-app purchases to get the biggest and best equipment. However, the game has a daily reward system, and once you pass five days you’ll earn five gems for each day you play (or, for that matter, each day you simply launch the game and claim your prize). I did end up buying the small gem pack just to show my support to the developer, but the truth is, if you show a little patience you could play the game forever without shelling out any cash. And the nice part is that unlike so many of these games that limit you by energy or lives or something like that, the only down side to waiting here is that it takes longer to get the equipment you want.

As mentioned in the beginning, control is a simple matter of touching the screen to fly up and letting go to descend. Unlike so many of the Flappy Bird clones out there, the control in this game actually feels pretty fluid. In other words, the challenge comes from the game itself, not from lousy controls. There’s no Game Center integration at this point which means no achievements, and while you can connect to Facebook I’ve never seen mention of a leaderboard, but so far the desire to unlock and upgrade new equipment has been enough to keep me going.

Aesthetically, C.H.O.P.S. is like a Nintendo game remastered in HD.  The visuals have a great pixel art look without looking pixel-y, and there are several different backgrounds to fly against. I get the feeling the ships came from some “here’s a set of sci-fi ships” sprite pack, but even if that’s the case, they look pretty good, and there are plenty of nifty little effects to liven everything up. The sound effects are pretty standard for this type of game, but the music is pretty decent. Sadly there are only two tracks: one for menu related screens and the other for when you’re actually playing.

Gamers looking for a satisfying scrolling shooter experience probably won’t get their wishes fulfilled with this game. If you actually happen to be a fan of the whole Flappy Bird phenomenon, however, or like me have wondered what people see in that type of game, C.H.O.P.S. provides a rather rewarding alternative. Just don’t go into it expecting too much and you should be pleasantly surprised.

iPhone Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Once I return home from a trip and I can finally relax, I love looking through my collection of pictures and sharing them on Facebook and Instagram. Unfortunately, if you’re like me, you tend to take a lot of pictures, which can be both good and bad.

If you’re looking for a more concise way to share your moments with friends and family—because let’s face it, nobody wants you blowing up their newsfeed—then consider these tips for creating collages that tell stories about particular moments instead!

1. First, you’ll need a collage app. I happen to use Diptic ($0.99), but there are a variety of other apps available, including the free Pic Stitch and Pic Jointer, which essentially work the same.
   
   
    
2. I like gathering up my best images and compiling them with a theme in mind. Consider favoriting the images you like most so that they can be easily accessed in the Favorites folder later. This comes in handy when you start importing photos into your collage, as trying to choose images from thumbnails is difficult, especially if you have many that look similar.
   
   
    
3. During trips, consider the details you would like to include in your collage that illustrate the story you’re trying to tell. These details may not be as exciting on their own, but once they are combined together to convey a particular idea they are much more visually compelling.
   
   
    
4. And finally, don’t restrict yourself by thinking you can only create collages built from special moments. Collages can make even the most mundane tasks seem exciting!
   
   

That’s all there is to it!