How to Change the Keyboard Language in iOS Quickly

Whether you’re a multilingual iPhone or iPad user or just learning a foreign language, you almost certainly wish to change the language of the onscreen virtual keyboard from time to time. Switching the keyboard language in iOS is really quite simple once you have an alternate keyboard enabled, so let’s walk through the entire process.

Enabling Alternate Language Keyboards in iOS

Before anything else, you’ll probably want to enable an alternate language keyboard if you haven’t done so yet. This allows you to type in another language using that languages keyboard without changing the language entirely in iOS.

You can add, adjust, or remove new language keyboards at any time in iOS by doing the following:

1. Open the Settings app then go to “General” and “Keyboard”
2. Choose “Keyboards” and select “Add New Keyboard” – tap on any alternate language keyboard to add that to the list of available keyboards in iOS which you’ll then be able to gain quick access to

We’ll assume you’ve already added at least one alternate language keyboard this way, but for the sake of trying out the keyboard switching you can even just enable and use the glyph and symbol keyboard or the Emoji keyboard.

Note that in modern versions of iOS, when you have more than one alternate keyboard language enabled, the familiar smiley face Emoji icon on the keyboard gets switched out with a Globe icon, which is actually the same with what the Emoji and language access looked like in prior versions of iOS.

How to Change the Keyboard Language on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

Once you’ve enabled at least on other alternate language keyboard in iOS Settings, you can access and switch between keyboard languages quickly and easily by doing the following:

1. Go anywhere in iOS where you can access the virtual keyboard on screen

2. Tap and hold on the globe icon to reveal the keyboard language menu

3. Select the alternate language keyboard to switch to

The chosen keyboard language immediately becomes active.

Note that you must tap and hold on the globe icon to reveal the alternate language keyboards. Simply tapping the smiley-face icon once typically just switches to the Emoji keys.

You can switch back or change the iOS onscreen keyboard at any time quickly by performing the same tap-and-hold trick on the globe icon at the keyboard, and you can do this anytime the keyboard is visible on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Mac users have a similar way to switch the keyboard language in OS X with a quick shortcut, so if you’re a polyglot with a variety of different Apple hardware, you should be covered with whatever OS you’re using.

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Which iPhone should you buy?

Do you iPhone 6 or 6 Plus? We help you decide which of the Apple smartphones is the best fit for you

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have been on sale for a while now and we've been living with them both to figure out which is best. They might look identical but both have their own strengths and weaknesses and vary wildly as user experiences.

Size is the clearest difference. The iPhone 6 might be the bigger than any iPhone before it but it is a minnow when compared to the giant iPhone 6 Plus. The bigger a phone is the more expensive it is too, and the 6 Plus comes with a price tag that matches it's hefty dimensions. Both will play nice with the Apple Watch of course.

Whether you like small phones or large there's more to consider than just size.

Battery life, screen, camera and design are key factors for a good phone. The iPhone 6 Plus wins out in a few of these areas compared to its little brother. Does this make it worth the extra cost? We think so.

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Design

iPhone 6: Curved aluminium, gold or light/dark silver, 6.8mm thick, 129g

iPhone 6 Plus: Curved aluminium, gold or light/dark silver 7.1mm thick, 172g

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus look identical. Their dimensions are different though. The iPhone 6 Plus is 2cm taller, 1cm wider and 2mm thicker though. Doesn't sound like much does it? When it comes to phones, though, it makes a huge difference

There's no point skirting around the issue – there are times when using the iPhone 6 Plus one handed is problematic. It's not as bad as you might expect, our average sized hands cope most of the time, unlike with the Nexus 6. The biggest problem with the iPhone 6 Plus is reaching the far edges of the keyboard with one hand. Trying to hit the shift key or the number toggle can turn into a quick game of hand twister.

It takes about a week to get used to the iPhone 6 Plus's size. The more you use it the easier it is to handle. Still as a phone for a stand-up commuter the iPhone 6 is a better fit. It’s slim and narrow enough to use with as much ease as the 4-inch iPhone 5S.

As you'd expect from Apple products both phones are beautifully designed and well-made. Toughened glass covers the display. This curves as it reaches the edges and then blends almost seamlessly into the aluminium chassis. The body feels cool and is grippy enough to keep a handle on. Even though it’s the exact same design, it works better on the smaller iPhone 6. You feel more in control when using it.

Without a case the iPhone 6 Plus feels like a liability. A case increases the dimensions even more but also makes the phones a lot more manageable thanks to the added grip.

Both phones are well crafted, but the smaller size of the iPhone 6 means it’s more ergonomic. It wins the design round.

Winner: iPhone 6

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Screen

iPhone 6: 4.7-inch 1334 x 750, “Retina HD” LCD

iPhone 6 Plus: 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD, optimisation in landscape

The bigger phone, surprise surprise, comes with a bigger screen. This brings a host of benefits in use with surfing the web, playing games and watching movies the pick of the bunch. You'll happily whittle away the hours on a long haul flight watching your favourite shows or films.

It's not just size, there's a difference when it comes to the resolution. The iPhone 6 Plus is full-HD and offers a 401PPI while the iPhone 6 is 1334 x 750 pixels, which amounts to 326PPI. The PPI refers to the pixels per inch, so the higher the number the sharper a display will be. The 6 Plus does have a sharper display but you won’t notice it too much unless you bring the phone up to your nose.

Both these displays are fine even though they don't have the infinite contrast ratios AMOLED screens do. The main difference to consider is that extra screen real estate. The 6 Plus has a few optimisations to take advantage of its screen. it switches to landscape mode – just like the iPad Mini 2.

Winner: iPhone 6 Plus

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Camera

iPhone 6: 8MP camera, 1/3.06-inch sensor, true-tone flash,f/2.2 aperture dual-LED flash, phase detection

iPhone 6 Plus: 8MP camera, 1/3.06-inch sensor, true-tone flash,f/2.2 aperture dual-LED flash, phase detection, OIS

Both phones come with identical front facing cameras that do a good enough job taking selfies and video calling, particularly in lower light. They're not perfect though. Phones like the HTC Desire EYE pander to the selfie generation, these iPhones barely acknowledge it.

The rear cameras are similar too. Both use 8 megapixel sensors with 1.5 micron sensor pixels, dual tone flash and include phase detection, which help the iPhones focus with speed.

The major difference here is that the iPhone 6 Plus comes with optical image stabilisation (OIS). This helps you take better photos by eliminating the blur caused by the small hand movements you make when taking a picture.

                 Here's an example of how the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus cameras compare

In well-lit conditions you won’t notice much difference because the camera can shoot fast enough to minimise the effects of small shudders. When the lights go down the OIS on the 6 Plus shows its worth. Photos are sharper and colours more vivid when it’s dingy, and this applies to video as well.Read 

                              In low-light the OIS on the iPhone 6 Plus helps

Both phones have great point and shoot cameras, but the OIS makes the iPhone 6 Plus the better camera phone.

Winner: iPhone 6 Plus

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Software

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: iOS 8

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus run iOS 8 and the experiences are almost identical barring the landscape mode we spoke of earlier. Even though the screen is bigger you get the same amount of apps viewable on your home screen – 20 in total.

iOS 7’s radical design makeover remains the same on iOS 8 but Apple has delivered some new features that make it a better operating system. A mixture of Android-esque features and some new additions help lay the foundations for a greater push into health and home automation over the coming months

You can now add third party keyboards, use widgets, access apps from the new notification centre and have the ability to work across Mac and iOS devices in more intuitive way. Apple’s own keyboard has also had a bit of a makeover with predictive words now making an appearance.

The iPhone 6 Plus’s larger display also means that you get a few more keyboard shortcuts in landscape mode. These won’t rock your world.

Winner: iPhone 6 Plus (just)

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Performance

iPhone 6: Apple A8 64-bit and M8 co-processor

iPhone 6 Plus: Apple A8 64-bit and M8 co-processor

Apple’s new A8 is in both phones and it’s a great processor. It uses a 64-bit dual-core 1.4GHz CPU with a PowerVR GX6450 quad-core graphics chip supported by 1GB RAM.

In our benchmark tests both phones perform extremely well and beat much of the competition in graphics intensive tasks. That’s good news if you like gaming on your phone.

An M8 co-processor also makes an appearance. This looks after all the sensors on the phone and manages the data in a much more energy efficient manner, which means better battery life.

Winner: Draw

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Storage

iPhone 6: 16GB (£539/$649), 64GB (£619/$749), 128GB (£699/$849), no micro SD card support

iPhone 6 Plus: 16GB (£619/$749), 64GB (£699/$849), 128GB (£789/$949), no micro SD card support

Neither of the new Apple phones offers expandable memory. However, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus do raise the storage ceiling, from 64GB to 128GB.

This year, you get to pick between 16GB models (for the scrimpers), 64GB ones and – for the flush – 128GB phones. There's no 32GB this year and Apple won't tell us why. We did ask.

An iPhone 6 Plus with 128GB of internal storage is dream for watching movies on, offering enough memory for a hundred or uncompressed SD-quality films or 25-plus HD ones. It's going to cost a whole lot of money to own it if you buy the iPhone outright though.

Winner: Draw

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Battery Life

iPhone 6: 1,810 mAh battery, 11 hours video, 11 hours browsing

iPhone 6 Plus: 2,915 mAh battery, 14 hours video, 12 hours browsing

If you think the larger iPhone comes with a larger battery then give yourself a pat on the back because you are absolutely right. The iPhone 6 Plus has a 2915mAh battery compared to the 1810mAh one on the iPhone 6. It means that the iPhone 6 Plus blows its little brother out of the water when it comes to stamina.

If you are a normal user you will be able to make the 6 Plus last two full days, which puts it up there with flagship Android phones like the Xperia Z3, One M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5. It just keeps going and going. The iPhone 6 isn’t bad by any means, it just doesn’t come close to matching the Plus. You’ll easily get a day of use out of it but it’s a phone that you will likely want to charge daily.

In our like for like tests running standard definition video until both phones run out entirely the iPhone 6 Plus lasts for 12 hours while the iPhone 6 for 10 hours.

However, the smaller size of the iPhone 6 means that you can plonk it into a charge case without it becoming too cumbersome. It’s not the most elegant solution, though.

Winner: iPhone 6 Plus by a mile

iPhone 6 Plus vs iPhone 6: Price

iPhone 6: 16GB (£539), 64GB (£619), 128GB (£699), no micro SD card support

iPhone 6 Plus: 16GB (£619), 64GB (£699), 128GB (£789), no micro SD card support

These are Apple phones so they were never going to be cheap but the iPhone 6 Plus is more expensive weighing in at a whopping £789/$949 for the top specification 128GB version. By comparison the same spec iPhone 6 costs £699/$849.

If you do decide to buy one of these phones we’d recommend going for the 64GB one unless you like to store lots of media or tinker with video editing on your phone.

The 16GB versions only have 11GB of usable memory. That's not much at all and the lack of a microSD card means you can't add storage later. If that's important it's well worth considering the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Sony Xperia Z3 or HTC One M8.

Winner: iPhone 6

Next, read our guide to the best iPhone 6 deals

iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: Verdict

Big or small? Apple has taken real pains to make sure the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus offer a consistent experience. Similar screen tech, the same processor and similar-grade cameras make sure there’s no weak link here.

However, we do like that the extra display space of the iPhone 6 Plus and its greater battery life makes it more of a power user device.

We'd opt for the iPhone 6 Plus over the smaller iPhone. If you've got the deep pockets for it, both figuratively and literally, then it is the iPhone to get.

Samsung Galaxy S6 & Galaxy S6 Edge

It's a brave new world where reviewers and high-end hardware lovers will no longer lament or mock the latest Samsung Galaxy's plasticky looks. Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the curved-sided Galaxy S6 Edge are class acts with Gorilla Glass 4 front and back and a matte aluminum (real metal not the faux stuff) frame. Samsung has finally found a design to match their compelling plethora of top specs and high tech features. Granted, the more traditionally designed GS 6 looks an awful lot like the iPhone 6 from the bottom, sides and even front, but it's changed things up enough to have its own personality. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge on the other hand is certainly unique and futuristic looking with glass that curves around the left and right sides. It's a beauty, and that set of curves will cost an additional $100 over the standard GS6. You're paying for the looks here since the side display doesn't add much functional value, unlike the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge's useful edge display.

The chic unibody design comes at a cost that Apple, Sony and HTC have already faced: there's no way to incorporate a removable back so the battery is sealed inside. Those of you who love swapping in a spare battery will have to switch to external micro USB charging packs when on the go. Samsung also axed the microSD card slot (HTC and Sony managed to preserve it, so what gives Samsung?). As a consolation, you can order the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge with 32, 64 or 128 gigs of storage. Of course a 128 gig GS6 Edge is a frightening $960, a price that could get you a top-notch Intel Core i5 Ultrabook. Since all 4 major US carriers now offer payment plans, they're hoping that the high retail price won't scare you away.

The Galaxy S6 siblings run on the Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core CPU with 3 gigs of RAM and your choice of internal storage. We don't usually see the Exynos variant of Samsung phones here in the US where the Qualcomm Snapdragon line owned the LTE chipset market but recent anti-trust grumblings against Qualcomm may have opened up LTE technology to other chip makers like Samsung. For those of you who aren't wildly geeky: smartphones use a SoC (system on chip) architecture where the CPU, graphics and LTE wireless radio are combined in one package. Clearly Samsung can optimize the handset better if it makes the hardware and can customize the OS, and it's paid off here.

The phone has dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and fast CAT 6 LTE 4G (multi-spectrum, 300 Mbps). It will be available on all major and several smaller carriers, and different model variants will support different cellular voice and data bands. It has an AV remote control, heart rate monitor, 5MP front camera, rear 16MP camera with OIS, and a much improved fingerprint scanner. Unlike older Galaxy models and PC laptops where you swiped your finger over the scanner and prayed, this one works like the iPhone 6: rest your finger on the home button and press down. It works 99% of the time, just like the iPhone!

A Super AMOLED Display that's Super

The 2015 Galaxy S6 models have striking 2560 x 1440, 577 PPI Super AMOLED displays (that's the same resolution as the Note 4 display). Arguably, when pixel density moves from the 400's to the 500's as with the S6 from the Samsung Galaxy S5, only those of you with microscope eyes will readily perceive the difference, but Android is always about specs wars. That said, the S6 and S6 Edge have the best looking AMOLED displays on the market: they're very bright (particularly on auto-brightness), have good color fidelity, superb saturation and deep blacks. They're supremely sharp and you won't see any of that AMOLED color fringing on text. The curved model has an infinity pool look that's stunning. Yes, light can refract at the apex of each curve, but that's the nature of glass and light. There's no distortion or problem of any sort here and the phone ignores your palms when you're holding the phone, so you won't accidentally tap on something.

Feeling Edgy

Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, the side display (or displays in the case of the GS 6 Edge) aren't addressed as separate display panels. That allows you to select either side as your edge display, but it also means that there's nothing truly autonomous of the main display going on here. The side display can display a list of your favorite contacts (grab the tiny tab on the side of the display and pull toward the center to reveal the contacts strip so you can quickly contact someone via voice or messaging). The side will glow with the color of the contact who's calling (you assign a color to each favorite contact) and the phone can vibrate when you pick it up if you've missed a call. The remaining edge panels come into play when the phone is sleeping and the display is off. You'll have to swipe back and forth along the length of the edge to bring up the edge panels: stock ticker, missed calls and message notifications, sports scores and RSS feeds. It can act as a bedside clock for up to 12 hours per day based on a schedule that you set. There's no app launcher as with the Galaxy Note Edge (one of our favorite uses of the edge display), nor does the side edge offer a spot for app menus or controls like the Note Edge. Honestly, you're paying for the curved glass look with the GS 6 Edge rather than improved functionality.

Brightness on both the GS6 and GS6 Edge can reach 600 nits, but only with auto-brightness enabled. If you're using manual brightness as I tend to do since auto-brightness sets the display dimmer than I like for indoor use, then you'll get just under 300 nits of brightness. Clearly, Samsung wants to prevent undue battery drain by mandating auto-brightness for max brightness, and that 600 nit mode does look a bit distorted, since contrast and brightness are overwrought. It works fine to combat bright direct sunlight, but you wouldn't want to use it indoors or in heavy shade, so we can understand by Samsung prevents you from manually driving the display in that mode all the time.

Performance and Horsepower

Samsung's Exynos CPUs have been strong performers, but charging speeds and runtimes have sometimes fallen short of competing Snapdragon CPUs. The 14nm Exynos 7420, like the new 20nm Snapdragon 810, is an 8 core, 64 bit CPU. Also like the Snapdragon and recent NVIDIA Tegra CPUs, it uses a big.LITTLE architecture with 4 low power cores to handle less demanding tasks and 4 high power cores to handle more CPU intensive tasks like gaming and rendering rich web pages. Thus a maximum of 4 cores can be active at one time, and it uses the same ARM Cortex A53 + Cortex A57 core architecture as the 810. Samsung runs the chips at a wee bit faster clock speed and the A57 cores are clocked at 2.1 GHz while the A53s are clocked at 1.5 GHz. The S6 models have Mali T-760 MP8 graphics, which benchmarks well and plays games wonderfully. Is the Exynos 7420 fast? Yes! It surpasses the Snapdragon 810 in some benchmarks, and honestly both are much faster than necessary for most tasks. If the Galaxy S6 feels slower or faster than the HTC One M9 or even the Nexus 6, it's more likely due to OS and software optimization rather than the CPU.

The speed improvements don't stop with the CPU and GPU though. The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge use fast UFS 2.0 storage and LPDDR4 RAM. UFS 2.0 is nearly 3 times faster than the eMMC storage used in most smartphones to date. That translates into faster game load times (since games tend to load lots of graphics and sound bytes) and faster video capture times, which is important when you have 4K video recording on board.

Benchmarks

	Quadrant	3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited	AnTuTu	Sunspider JavaScript Test (lower is better)
Samsung Galaxy S6	33,355	21,160	61,873	420 (webkit)/1025 (Chrome)
Samsung Galaxy S5	23,643	18,329	35,357	398
Samsung Galaxy Note 4	24,327	19,667	46,912	425
HTC One M9	33,733	22,168	53,582	852
LG G4	23,730	18,655	46,043	760
LG G Flex 2	26,390	22,644	49,344	730
LG G3	24,385	18,708	36,525	425
Nexus 6	13,595	23,520	49,961	795
Motorola Droid Turbo	22,709	20,735	48,332	795
Moto X (2nd gen)	22,170	19,924	44,340	776
HTC One M8	24,527	20,896	36,087	776
Sony Xperia Z3	21589	16,135	35,008	837
Nexus 5	8808	17,828	27,017	718
LG G2	19,762	9803 (extreme)	32,990	823
Samsung Galaxy S4	12,276	11,601	24,776	826

Geekbench 3: 1454/4619

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Video Review

Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge vs. iPhone 6 Comparison

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge vs. Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Comparison

TouchWiz

We've established that the hardware, from chipset to RAM and storage are very fast. But that can all slow like molasses running down a frosty mug if the OS and software aren't clean and optimized. TouchWiz used to be a pig, and a gaudy looking one at that. With the Samsung Galaxy S5's release last year, Samsung started seriously tuning TouchWiz for speed, so it didn't sap the life out of the GS5. The build on the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge is very well tuned for speed and we never once saw our release firmware T-Mobile unit falter or bog down. Now this is Android, and that means you'll see occasional minor lag here and there on any phone, even a Nexus, but switching from my Nexus 6 (latest, greatest hardware and of course a clean OS with no added UI overlays) I didn't once feel that the Galaxy S6 Edge was any slower.

Is TouchWiz prettier? Yes, it's less cartoonish and cleaner looking and it certainly matches Android 5 Lollipop's Material Design UI better than the sometimes similar looking LG UI on the new LG G Flex 2. It's still a heavy skin over Android and it will certainly look familiar to Samsung users upgrading from an older Galaxy handset. I'm still not a fan of Samsung's icons, though they're less squared off and a little closer to stock Android, but that begs the question--why change something Android and app developers do so well? The settings menu, which was simply frightful on other recent Android handsets is more manageable now too.

Camera

The front 5MP camera is unusually high resolution, and as you might suspect, it takes much clearer and more colorful selfies. You'll look better in Skype video calls too, and video is clear enough that you'll want to make sure you've flossed before jumping on that vid call.

Rear camera resolution remains the same as the Galaxy S5 at 16 megapixels, but photo quality and focus times in low light (the GS5's weakness) are very good now. This is one of the best camera phones on the market and it doesn't fall behind the iPhone 6 Plus. Images are a bit warmer on the Galaxy S6 compared to the iPhone, and that's fine with me because human flesh tones are more pleasing. Samsung has added OIS (optical image stabilization) to reduce blur and jitter from hand shake, though this isn't active if you're shooting 4K or 1080p @ 60 fps video. It does a good job with 1080p @ 30fps and our video looked noticeably less shaky. OIS also allows you to take sharper photos in low light since the camera can use slower shutter speeds.

Camera software features are similar to previous Galaxy S models, though the many modes have been simplified--the important ones are here like background defocus and panorama. You can use your voice to start capture, and you can double-press the home button to launch the camera. When taking selfies, you can use the heart rate monitor on the back (under the flash) as a shutter button--very convenient and clever.

Battery Life

The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a 2,550 mAh battery and the Galaxy S6 Edge has a 2,600 mAh battery and both are sealed inside. The phones support both Qi and PMA wireless charging (it's unusual to see both standards supported by one phone). Samsung's developed their own quick charge technology and they include a quick charger in the box that can top up a battery up to 40% in 30 minutes. The Galaxy gets warm when using the quick charger, and the back gets hot if it's charging while you're using data (streaming video or downloading updates and apps) or gaming. It's not unusual for a fast phone to get uncomfortably warm or hot on the back when gaming and charging simultaneously, but it's certainly worth noting. Also note that wireless charging doesn't use quick charging, which is true of all Qi and PMA phones.

Given past performance, our hopes weren't high for the Exynos and battery life, but the Galaxy S6 and Edge actually managed to match our Galaxy S5 runtimes (and the GS5 was no slouch). As usual, gaming and heavy use of the GPS will drain the battery more quickly than web browsing or streaming music, but in a mix of real world use where we limited gaming to 30 minutes, streamed a 45 minute Netflix episode (Amazon's Prime video player isn't compatible with the GS6, we hope an update will fix this soon), browsed the web frequently, handled emails and checked in to social networks, the battery lasted until bedtime. 

Conclusion

Samsung has done a stupendous job here: the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are premium devices that look and feel the part. I know some of you will lament the loss of the removable battery and microSD card, not to mention water resistance, but given the popularity of attractive unibody phones (cough, cough, iPhone), this is the right move for Samsung to grab a big share of the 2015-2016 smartphone market. TouchWiz is lighter and better looking, the phone is wickedly fast and the Super AMOLED displays are stunning. If you opt for the more expensive Galaxy S6 Edge, you'll get a unique and extremely attractive phone; just don't expect the edge display to do anything terribly important. Yes the thin metal strips on the Edge model dig into your palm a bit more but it's not that uncomfortable, and there's always the standard GS 6 for those who value ergonomics over aesthetics an want to save $100 too. Either way, you're getting one of the best Android phones currently available on the market.

Siri Can Play Many Sound Effects

If you’ve updated your iPhone or iPad to the latest version of iOS (iOS 8.4.1 or iOS 9, with Apple Music), you’ll find that Siri now has the ability to play various sound effects. Whether it’s the sound of fireworks, running water, a camp fire, dogs barking, or, uh, some more lewd sound effects too, Siri will play them all.

As usual with Siri, the commands are simple, so summon Siri and try it out yourself with the following type of requests:

• Play the sounds of a running river
• Play the sounds of a crackling fire
• Play the sound of crickets
• Play frog sounds
• Play horn sounds
• Play the sound of dogs barking
• Play the sound of cat meowing

You get the idea.

Get creative, Siri now has a large repertoire of sound effects available to the virtual assistant through a huge sound effect library that you can now access from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Just ask and see if the virtual assistant can find a sound to match.

(Note: apparently the Siri sound effect library is accessed from Apple Music, so if you hid or disabled the service you may not have access to the sound effects, perhaps that will change in the future…)

You can even request some more lewd sound effects if that’s your thing, which could be entertaining for a prank, or if you’re 12 year sold, or just an inner 12 year old sometimes (hey, me too!).

And a warning in advance since this is totally juvenile and somewhat ridiculous, but if you want to hear something really quite strange and rather amusing, ask Siri to “play loud farts” … no you won’t get what you think, and this is where things get really weird, as CultOfMac discovered rather than sounds of trumpeting flatulence, Siri will play a pop song called “What’s my Name” from artist “Rihanna” – LOL! (Update: the ‘play loud farts’ thing seems to have changed from playing a pop song to, well, the actual sound of flatulence, so enjoy that or don’t, oh Siri).

So yea, Siri still has a sense of humor… though if you’re looking for something a bit more serious (Siri-ous? OK I’ll go home now), you’ll probably find these other commands to be much more useful.

How to Lock Down Your Android Tablet or Smartphone for Kids

Google has added more and more parental control-style features to Android over the years. You can give a kid his or her own restricted user account, lock access to a specific app, or restrict what websites kids are allowed to use.

Depending on the version of Android you have and your device manufacturer, you may not have some of these options — or they may look a little different.

Restrict Access to a Single App

If your device has Android 5.0 Lollipop or newer, you can “pin” a specific app to your phone or tablet’s screen. You can then hand your Android tablet or phone to a kid and that kid won’t be able to leave the specific app until you enter a PIN.

This means you could launch a game and pin it, handing it over and knowing a kid won’t go through your email or look up any inappropriate content. Or, if you want your kids using a specific educational app, you can ensure they’ll stay in that app.

To use this feature, you’ll need to open the Settings screen, select Security, and activate “Screen pinning” under “Advanced.” Tell Android to ask for your PIN or unlock pattern before unpinning the app. Next, open the app you can to pin, tap the “Overview” button to show the list of open applications as cards, and swipe up. Tap the pin on the bottom-right corner of an app’s card.

To leave a pinned app, hold the “Overview” button. You’ll be asked for your PIN or pattern if you configured that option.

Set Up a Restricted Profile on a Tablet

Android Lollipop offers restricted profiles, a feature that arrived in Android 4.3. Restricted profiles are only available on tablets — not smartphones. With a restricted profile, you can create a special user account that only has access to specific apps and content you allow.

(Google added multiple user accounts to Android in Android 4.2, but only for tablets. With Android 5.0 Lollipop, multiple user accounts are now available on phones as well as tablets. However, restricted profiles are still only available on tablets.)

To create a restricted profile, head to the Settings screen, tap Users, tap Add User, and tap Restricted Profile. You can then lock down the profile and switch between the restricted profile and main user account from the lock screen. (Switching back to the main user account will require your PIN or whatever other unlock method you use.)

Theoretically, restricted profiles allow you to restrict access to specific content in some apps. In practice, app developers have to implement this. You’ll mostly be able to choose which of the apps installed on your device the child’s profile has access to.

Set Up Web Filtering

Unfortunately, Android’s restricted profile feature doesn’t provide a way to restrict adult content from being accessed through Google Chrome or other web browsers.

If you want to do this, you have two options. You could visit Google Play on your Android device and install a parental-control or web-filtering app. Or, if the Android device will just be using your Wi-Fi network to access the web, you could configure parental controls on your router. if your router doesn’t offer such built-in parental control features, you could switch your DNS server to OpenDNS and use its parental controls.

We’d encourage you to use OpenDNS and its well-regarded parental controls if possible, as many of the Android web-filtering apps seem to not work too well. They may also require paid subscriptions.

Google Play Parental Controls

The Google Play Store has its own parental control features. To access them, open Google Play on a device, tap the Menu button, tap Settings, and tap Parental Controls. Enter a special parental control PIN here and you can set age restrictions for what types of apps, movies, videos, music, and books a device can download. Anyone using the device won’t be able to download or purchase this type of content without the PIN. However, these restrictions only apply to the Google Play Store — uncensored content is still available through the web browser.

You can also further lock down Google Play to block expensive in-app purchases.

Other Parental Control Apps

Due to Android’s flexibility, the Google Play Store is full of “parental control” apps that provide some amount of lock-down features. These will allow you to set up a special application launcher that can only launch approved apps for a child, for example. These shouldn’t be quite as necessary if you have access to the “restricted profiles” feature. If you do have access to the built-in Android parental control features above, the main reason to install a separate app is torestrict access to websites.