Tired of typing out long words, names, email addresses, web addresses, or entire sentences over and over again? Well then, save yourself some time and effort and set up iOS keyboard shortcuts for any and all of the text you type regularly. By default, the iPhone and iPad ship with “omw” as a shortcut for “On my way!” but you can create and customize any shortcut you want. What’s more, thanks to iCloud, any shortcut you create will automagically sync between your iPhone, iPad, and/or Mac. Here’s how!

How to create and customize iOS keyboard shortcuts

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap on Keyboard.
4. Scroll down to Shortcuts
5. Tap Add New Shortcut…
6. In the Phrase field, type in the entire phrase you’d like to create a shortcut for.
7. In the Shortcut field, type in the snippet you want to be replaced by the phrase.
8. Tap Save at the top right.

How to edit and delete iOS keyboard shortcuts

You can edit shortcuts by tapping on them. You can delete them by tapping Edit at the top right of the Keyboard screen, or by swiping from right to left on the shortcut and tapping on Delete.

How to use iOS keyboard shortcuts

To use a shortcut just type the text you set up and hit the space key. The shortcut will be replaced by the phrase and you’ll be on your way!

How to Set Up SMS Relay Between Your OS X Yosemite Machine and iOS 8.1 Device

by Anthony Bouchard

So you’ve upgraded your Mac to OS X Yosemite 10.10, and you grabbed today’s iOS 8.1 update for your iOS device(s); now, you just want to set up that cool new SMS Relay feature that Apple has been bragging about since they unveiled iOS 8 at the original Summer keynote.

SMS Relay works from iOS 8.1 to OS X Yosemite, and it also works with your other iOS 8.1 devices. For example, if you have an iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 8.1 and a MacBook Pro with retina display running Mac OS X Yosemite, it will work. If you have an iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 8.1 and an iPad Mini with retina display running iOS 8.1, this will also work. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get SMS Relay all set up.

Doing so is easy; all you have to do is go to your Settings application on your iOS 8.1 device and then go to the Messages cell:

Now you can go to the Text Message Forwarding cell from the Messages preferences pane:

You’ll then see toggle switches for all of the devices that are capable of having SMS messages relayed to them from your iPhone. They’re all disabled by default, for security reasons:

When you enable one of them, you will be asked to enter the special code that appears on the device that you’re trying to connect:

After having been paired, your secondary device will be able to send and receive SMS messages that you would normally have to compose and reply to on your iPhone. It’s a handy new feature, especially if you’re already on another device that isn’t your iPhone.

A China Unicom store in Shanghai has hired a tailor to enlarge the pockets of iPhone 6 Plus buyers, reports TechInAsia and People’s Daily.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launched today in China, India and Monaco. Unlike past debuts, the China launch was described as ‘low-key‘.

About 100 customers waited in line Friday morning outside Apple’s store in Beijing’s upscale Sanlitun shopping district, which opened its doors at 8 a.m. for buyers who had pre-ordered their new wares—the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+. That was in part because the phone also went on sale at midnight elsewhere, including offices of China’s biggest telecom carriers.