The Rose Parade is a celebration of marching bands and floats made entirely of flowers. It’s pretty cool. You should watch it.

My favorite New Year’s Day pastime (while recovering from New Year’s Eve) is to watch the Tournament of Roses parade. It’s the best parade that’s ever been and has been a standing tradition for 129 years. This year, the parade will feature 44 flower and plant-covered floats, 21 marching bands, and a whole lot of celebrating. The most unique aspect of the Tournament of Roses parade is that every float has to be covered in only natural materials like flowers, plants, bark, seeds, and such.

Get the Tournament of Roses Parade app to find out more about it

It happens at 8:00 AM PT on January 1 (unless it’s a Sunday, in which case the parade is moved to January 2). It runs across the U.S on a number of broadcast channels, like ABC, KTLA, and NBC. It’s also available in Armenia, the Caribbean, Latin America, plus about 100 more territories and countries.

You can…

It’s all about college football on New Year’s Day and you can watch your favorite bowl on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV!

If you’re favorite pastime on January 1 is to plop down in front of the TV with a bunch of snacks and a couple of cold-cold ones, you’re not alone. The NCAA celebrates the end of one year and beginning of a new one with a series of bowls, which culminates on New Year’s Day with five big games. Whether you’re here for the Outback Bowl, the Peach Bowl, the Citrus Bowl, the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl, you’ve got a full day of pigskin throwing ahead of you. Here’s the best way to watch the games you want on your iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.

Get the apps

Sorry cord cutters. These New Year’s Day bowls are off-limits for you. That’s because all but one of the college bowls are exclusive through ESPN. If you’ve got a cable subscription and have ESPN and ESPN2 in your package, you’re good to go.

On iPhone and iPad, you’ll need the WatchESPN app.

Download now
On Apple T…

How do I make a speakerphone call with Siri? Ask Siri and you shall receive!

Whether you’re in the car and your iPhone is securely fastened to your car mount or you’re in the kitchen and your hands are covered in food, Siri is fantastic and helping you make calls while your hands aren’t free. By default, when you ask Siri to make a call, it will put through a normal phone call to the number or contact you requested; however, with a couple of extra words you can get Siri to place a call on speakerphone, meaning you don’t have to pick up the phone or touch the screen. Here’s how you do it!

How to use Siri to make a call on speakerphone

Say Hey, Siri to activate Siri. You can also activate Siri the old-school way with the Home button or the Side button on the iPhone X.
Say something like ”Call Meaghan on speakerphone”.

As you can see by the screenshots above, it also works by using relationships of contacts if you have set that up.

Want more useful commands for Siri?

Making call…

On the seventh day of tech tips, my true love gave to meeeeee: a perfect panorama of my family!

It’s the holiday season, and you know what that means: good food, great company, and a ton of selfies. In fact, based on scientific information that I totally didn’t make up on the spot, selfie-taking activity increases during the holiday season around 4000%.

But one tricky thing about taking a selfie? If there’s more than 3 people in the shot, things get a bit cramped/tricky/not-so-great looking, and before you say ”SELFIE STICKS DUH?” — what is this?! 2014?!

Nowadays there are a couple of awesome ways to capture your whole family in a snapshot: and nothing helps more than the Cliquefie Puck.

When I first saw this thing — full disclosure — I thought it was kind of dumb. ”Why would someone spend money on a little phone stand that spins slowly for great panorama photos… The hell…”, I thought to myself while sipping eggnog and delving into holiday…

Make the most of your New Year’s Eve celebration with these great apps!

2017 is almost over (a giant relief for many) and it’s time to celebrate another trip around the sun in style! Whether you plan to have a relaxing low-key New Year’s Eve around the house or you’re heading to the biggest party you can find, you can always increase your enjoyment of the night by downloading the right apps. Here’s some of our favorite apps to help you ring in 2018.

Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball app
New Year Photo Frame Collection 2017
Spaceteam
Streaks

Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball app

You don’t need to be in Times Square to enjoy the yearly classic celebration in New York, take the experience with you with the Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball app.

The app has an on-going countdown to 2018, which is customizable to your timezone, and allows you to watch the famous ball drop live on New Year’s Eve. Plus includes a live stream to the entire evening, so you don’…

What are the new Pokémon Go evolutions and babies coming with Gen 4? Here’s what you need to know!

Pokémon Go Gen 4 won’t be coming until mid- to late-2018 at the earliest. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start preparing now. Unlike Gen 3, many current Pokémon get all-new evolutions in Gen 4. Some are powerful. Others are just plain cool. Here are the current Pokémon you want to catch and hatch now, so you have enough candy for the new Gen 4 evolutions next.

When is Pokémon Go Gen 4 coming?

Here are the launch dates so far:

Pokémon Go Gen 1: July, 2016.
Pokémon Go Gen 2: Februrary, 2017.
Pokémon Go Gen 3: October, 2017.
If that pattern continues, we’re looking at:

Pokémon Go Gen 4: July, 2018.
Which Gen 1 Pokémon have new evolutions in Gen 4?

Magnemite to evolve Magneton into Magnazone.
Lickitung to evolve into Lickilicky.
Rhynhorn to evolve into Rhyperior.
Tangela to evolve into Tangrowth.
Elekid to ev…

How do you fix #iPhoneSlow — or #iPadSlow — and get your old device performing like new again? Follow these steps!

Last year, Apple switched from prioritizing performance to prioritizing battery health on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE. This year, Apple added iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus to that list. As a result, some users have seen significant slowdowns.

Apple is addressing concerns about the slowdowns with a battery replacement program and upcoming software update.

But Apple’s new power management isn’t the only thing that can affect performance on an iPhone. While it’s all currently being conflated together, there are several other factors every user can and should consider, even if only while waiting on a new battery.

Here, from easiest to more difficult, is what you can do help restore speed and performance to your iPhone.

Note: Apple continuously improves iOS over the course of the year. If you stayed away from 11.0, 11.1…