iOS Tip 119 - Undo Slow Motion Video

Capturing a slow motion video with the iPhone camera is great, and it’s a wonderful effect for many events and scenes you’re recording, unless of course you didn’t mean to record the video in slow motion in the first place. Additionally, sometimes you may have changed your mind after recording a slow motion video and want to change the movie back to regular speed. Whatever the case, converting anything captured in slow motion back to a regular speed video on the iPhone is quite easy.

This works with all slow motion recorded video regardless of the capture speed. Once you have converted the video, if you share the newly regular speed movie it can not be made into a slow motion video again unless the original file is modified.

Using the same adjustment tool to change the portion of video that is maintained in slow motion you can also remove the slow motion effects, effectively converting a video back to regular speed:

Open the Photos app and locate and tap on the slow motion video you want to convert to regular speed

Tap on the “Edit” button

Use the two little sliders in the slow motion timeline to shrink the slow motion portion of the timeline until they join into one, eliminating all slow motion from the video

Tap on “Done” to save the changes and convert the video to regular speed

Now that the video is saved at regular speed you can share it, upload it to social media, or just keep it on your iPhone as a normal speed movie.

There are other ways of converting slow motion video as well, including using iMovie and uploading to various services, but using the built-in Photos app movie adjustment tool is by far the simplest way and it requires no additional apps or downloads. This does require a modern version of iOS however, and earlier versions of iPhone and iPad without the proper camera support won’t have the feature as part of iOS at all.

iOS Tip 118 - Sharing Notes

You can do a lot with the new Notes (see also Tip 104 Drawing Tools) app for iPhone and iPad. You can even send links, locations, photos, videos and much more to a new or existing note from a whole bunch of different places. This can be super convenient if you're brainstorming ideas and collecting information or inspiration for a new project.

The share feature works with a host of stock iOS apps such as Safari, Maps, Photos, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and can even link to content in Apple Music and Podcasts. It also appears to work seamlessly for Google Chrome, Google Maps and photo files on your Google Drive.

It works the same for each app once you get to the Share pop-up window. NOTE: You phone must be updated to iOS9 or later to use these features, and your Mac must be running OS X El Capitan or later to sync them. If you're using an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, you can use 3D Touch to preview the links in the Notes app.

Send a link from Safari to Notes:

1. Launch Safari from your Home screen
2. Browse to the page you intend to share.
3. Tap the Share icon. It's the box with the arrow pointing up on the bottom toolbar.
4. Tap the Notes icon.
5. Enter text you want to accompany the link.
6. Choose the note you want to send the link to, or choose to send it to a new note.
7. Tap Save.

The next time you open that note in the Notes app, the link will be added to the bottom of the document. When you click onthe link it, it will open in Safari. This is the same process you would use for Google Chrome or any other browser that supports sharing to Notes. Notes, however, will use Safari to load links by default.

iOS Tip 117 - Replace Frayed Cables

Just before the New Year, Fox News reported that an iPhone 6 Plus allegedly caught fire while it was charging. Now this isn't the first such report that I’ve heard of, but when I looked at the images something struck me - how ratty looking the charging cable was.

Here's a screen grab of the image in question:

Now before you all jump to tell me how bad Apple's cables are, save yourself the typing. I know I use and sell their products.

Once frayed they're potentially dangerous. An iPhone charger puts out 5 volts at 5 watts/1 amp (an iPad charger puts out 12 watts/2.1 amps), and while that doesn't sound like much, it's more than enough power to cause overheating and the beginnings of a fire. On top of that, a frayed cable can also cook the battery by causing a short circuit, which again can result in a fire.

Apple recommends that you charge its devices using genuine Apple chargers and cables. If you're going to replace old charger or cables, do so with either a genuine Apple part or a decent third-party product (preferably one featuring the "Made for iPhone" logo).

I can't comment on whether the cable had anything to do with the fire in the report, but I certainly would not use a cable in that state. I seen cables that have been repaired but that’s usually a temporary solution. The safest thing to do is to replace any damaged cables.