Category Archives: iOS

10 iOS lesser known features

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I thought I did this year by giving you my top 10 list of lesser known iOS features. These features are all in the latest release of iOS for your phone and mostly for your iPad too. Enjoy.

1. **Magnifier Shortcut:** Triple-press the side or home button to enable the Magnifier tool, turning your iPhone into a magnifying glass.

2. **Custom Vibrations:** Create custom vibration patterns for specific contacts. Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone > Vibration > Create New Vibration.

3. **Shake to Undo Typing:** Shake your iPhone to undo typing. A pop-up will appear, allowing you to undo or redo your last typing action.

4. **Hidden Level in Compass App:** Open the Compass app and swipe left to reveal a hidden bubble level useful for checking if a surface is flat.

5. **Offline Siri:** Siri can still perform certain tasks offline. Enable this in Settings > Siri & Search > Allow Siri When Locked.

6. **Hide Photos in the Photos App:** Select photos, tap the share icon, and choose “Hide” to move them to a hidden album.

7. **Text Replacement Shortcuts:** Create shortcuts for frequently used phrases in Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement.

8. **Back Tap Shortcuts:** In Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap, you can assign actions to double-tap or triple-tap on the back of your iPhone.

9. **Live Listen for AirPods:** Use your iPhone as a microphone with Live Listen. Enable it in Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls, and then tap the hearing icon.

10. **Bedtime Mode in Clock App:** Set up Bedtime in the Clock app to create a sleep schedule and receive notifications when it’s time to wind down for the night.

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How to Use Apple Files on the iPad

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The Files app is a central hub for all of your files on your iPad. You can use it to view, organize, and manage files from your iCloud Drive, local iPad storage, and even other cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to get started with the Files app and how to use it to manage your files on your iPad.

Getting Started with the Files App

To open the Files app, tap the blue Files icon on your Home Screen.

The Files app will open to the Browse screen, which shows you a list of all the files and folders on your iPad. You can also see your Recents files here.

To view the contents of a file, tap it. If the file is a document, you can tap the Edit button to make changes to it.

Organizing Your Files

You can organize your files in the Files app by creating folders. To create a folder, tap the + button in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Once you’ve created a folder, you can move files into it by dragging them from one location to another.

You can also rename folders by tapping on their name and then typing in a new one.

Searching for Files

If you’re looking for a specific file, you can use the Files app’s search feature. Just tap the search bar at the top of the screen and enter the name of the file you’re looking for.

The Files app will show you a list of all the files that match your search query.

Sharing Files

You can share files with others using the Files app. To share a file, tap the Share button in the upper-right corner of the screen.

You can then select the people you want to share the file with. You can also choose to share the file via AirDrop or iCloud Drive.

Deleting Files

If you no longer need a file, you can delete it from your iPad. To delete a file, tap and hold on to it and then tap the Delete button.

Conclusion

The Files app is a powerful tool that can help you manage your files on your iPad. By following the tips in this blog post, you can get started with the Files app and start using it to organize, share, and manage your files.

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Scanning without a Scanner on the Mac

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Do you ever have a need to be able to get a quick scan of a document to import into a email or other document that you’re working with on your Mac? Apple provides a very easy way to get a scan without a scanner, that is if you have an iPhone. On the Mac, you have the ability to be able to import a picture directly from your phone. And the process is pretty easy. 

In most applications, or even just directly from the desktop, if you right click your mouse button to button mouse, or use two fingers to click on your trackpad, you’re presented with a menu of items that you can select from. One of those items is import from an iPhone or iPad.  

All you have to do to get this menu to come up is right click and then select the import function. When you do that, it drops out a list of all iOS devices but you may have connected to your account. In this case, I want to scan a document from my iPhone 12 Pro. Once I select scan documents under the iPhone 12 Pro, I’m presented with this dialogue on the computer.

When that box comes up, I now move over to my iPhone, and when I pick it up I noticed that it is in camera mode. It tells me to position the document so that it’s shown in its entirety, then press the button.  When I press the button, the camera goes off and I am given the opportunity to scan an additional page, review the scan, and then save it.  Once I hit the save button on the phone, the scan is delivered to the desktop on my Mac.  

The process even works with just takin a photo rather than just as a scan.   Photos are delivered in a jpg format and scans and delivered in pdf format.  

So even if you don’t have a scanner, the iPhone can fill in and quickly get you the document you need.

I just want to print from my iPad

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These days printing has gotten much easier from an iPad or iPhone. Most printers that you would purchase today will support Apple Airprint. In the past, you had to be a little careful that you picked up AirPrint printer. Over the past few years, manufacturers have made the decision to add that as a standard feature. And most printers also are Wi-Fi compatible. They either have built-in Wi-Fi so that you can connect to your local network or they have ethernet connectivity that get you connected to the router. Either way, air print works just great once the printer is on the network.

Once you have the printer connected, and you have your iPad connected to your local network, how do I go about printing.

In the past, we’ve either used Mac or Windows computers. Fortunately both of those computers had a menu bar at the top of the screen with the file menu. In that file menu was always a print command. It really didn’t matter whether you were in photoshop or Safari, there was a file menu with a print command in it.  This made it extremely easy to figure out any applications printing capability. Unfortunately, Apple in iOS has not made it quite that simple. Nearly every application will provide you printing capability but how to get to it can often be different and somewhat confusing.

Let’s start off with Safari, Safari uses a small square box with an arrow pointing up at the top of the screen to get you to what they called the share sheet.

From that share sheet you can often send a link or a page to someone else by email or text but if you scroll down in that share sheet, you’ll find the print command. Once the print command is open, you will often have to find your printer for the first time but once that printer reset on your local network, it will typically come up and allow you to print. From there, you make typical setting changes such as color printing or black-and-white, number of copies, or some other specific command that might be related to printing in that application.

So obviously, Apple who strives to be so consistent with its applications would have that little square with the up arrow in every application to lead us to the share sheet and printing. But not so fast… Unfortunately Apple uses a few other things to define where you need to go to be able to find that print command. Once you’re in the print command, the settings are all consistent as you would expect but getting to that print command is not necessarily simple if you’re not looking in the right place. 

Apples on Mail application doesn’t follow that square with the up arrow consistent share sheet concept.

To be able to print and mail, you need to go to the curved arrow in the lower right corner of the email you’re looking at. This is the same location you would go to reply, or forward that email. Once they are, you’ll find the print command which one selected brings up the consistent print dialog box. But I cannot for the life of me understand why Apple used a curved arrow rather than the standard square with the arrow going up to denote the location to do sharing, or commands based upon the email that you’re in.

And to make it worse, Apple‘s other application such as Pages and Numbers and Keynote, all force you to go to a circle with three dots in the upper menu bar to find the print command. One would think, Apple, who forces uniformity and consistency would have thought enough to be able to use the same method to get people to be able to print their documents. But that’s not the case.

So the important thing to remember is often times printing is available in any application you want to find on the iPad or iPhone. You just have to look around to find where it is in that application, and then remember that’s the place to go to find that print command.

When should I update to iOS 13?

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Apple has released IOS 13 to the public, and we all are looking forward to the great features that they have included.  But when should the average person update their phoned and iPads to this latest and greatest next release.

A wise and longtime Apple tech support individual once told me that it is always best for a general user that does not want their device to be affected by the latest release, to wait until Apple releases the first full point release of the software.  For iOS 13, that would be the release of iOS 13.1.

But this year is vastly different.  Apple announced the release of 13.1 at the same time it released 13.0 to be a year 11 days later.  Then as the release of 13.0 came out, apple moved the 13.1 release up 5 days effectively making the 13.1 release just 5 days after the 13.0 release.

SO what is a person to do and what does this mean.  I, being an Engineer, like to look at the data.

If we look at past years, the average number of days from the .0 to the .1 release has been about 41.  This years quick release of the 13.1 ( and the subsequent 13.1.1 and 13.1.2) releases tells me that iOS13 is not quite to the standards that Apple would like it to be.  SO my recommendation is to wait about the same amount of time before you update to iOS 13 and iPadOS 13.  If you look about 40 days after the 13.0 release you will roughly be at about November 1, 2019.

But it is your choice!  You can wait till the release is very stable, likely around the first of November of throw caution to the wind and go ahead and do the update now.  What ever you choose, be sure you have a backup before you do the update, just in case….

Thank you Apple for saving me $400

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I watched with great interest Apple’s latest announcements on new iPhones. In the work I do I feel like I need to stay fairly current with new phone technology so I typically plan on replacing my phone every couple of years. It also helps that I have a daughter who still loves to have my leftovers and I’m always happy to help her out.

Apples this year announced three new phones. The iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro max. I am typically one that doesn’t like to carry a really large phone so I typically am not interested in the max version of the phone. Just a few years ago Apple would reduce the technology level in the non-Max version of their phone and that was really in my opinion a poor idea. I’m glad they’ve gotten over that and made both of the pro phones pretty much exactly the same with the exception of the screen size and battery.

Beginning last year, Apple inserted a new phone in the lineup just below the two top-of-the-line phones for people who are a little more cost conscious. Last year‘s phone, the iPhone XR, was a terrific phone that I had the opportunity to set up and make adjustments to over the last year while working with a number of different people. But generally, I have been one that wanted the highest end, top-of-the-line device. Until this year…

If you look at the announcements closely, it’s pretty easy to see Apple inserted a lot of filler material in between the true new features of the devices they were set to announce. This showed both in the phones and in the Apple Watch 5 announcement.  The long discussion of the processor describing the architecture of the cores struck me as filler particularly considering the fact that this type of announcement and presentation is truly intended for the masses who don’t care or know what a processor core is. The filler material at the end talking about the Apple Store also had me wondering if they just had a few extra minutes to kill.

In the end, after further analyzing the new announcements this year it seems to me that was exactly the case. Either some of the flagship features of the new phone design did not make the final cut or perhaps they did not work to Apple’s high standards.  If you look at the new phones, and you make the general assumption that there’s going to be a new faster processor every year, the additions in this year‘s phones seem to be a little thin.

So what’s new in the new iPhone 11 Pro? As I look at the announcement, you can basically say there are three major things but the Pro brings to the table. First off the processor is faster, significantly faster if you believe the pre-delivery reports. That additional performance will definitely allow for better Augmented Reality performance and less general phone lag. The second major thing was of course the camera pack. The addition of a wide angle lens to the standard and telephoto lens the previous version had. This three camera configuration is certainly state of the art and will definitely add the ability for people to take better photographs and more creative photographs. Couple that with the software magic apple can perform and it’s clear the point and shoot stand alone camera is definitely dead.  The third thing that could be considered major is battery life. If your phone is going dead in a normal workday, this phone may be the one for you. Four or five hours better battery life is a big deal and this phone can provide it. There are a number of other minor additional features such as support for new Wi-Fi speed, the addition of Dolby Atmos, and Apples new U1 chip (which they didn’t really talk about use cases) but by and large, that’s pretty much what you see in the new pro phones. And just as a note, those minor features are in the iPhone 11 also.  The case design is basically the same although they may have improved the materials to make the phone a little more impervious to breakage and I have to admit that Jade Green color looks stunning.  But again those are pretty minor things to the average user and not really compelling for the high end user.

That brings me to the third phone announced that day, the iPhone 11. This phone uses the same processor, has the same Wi-Fi, sound, and chip enhancements, has a one hour battery life extension from last years iPhone XR, and now has two cameras. Apple chose to remove the telephoto camera from the traditional two camera pack and add the wide-angle lens. So this camera has both the standard and wide-angle lens allowing for some of the new features to work from Apple‘s new camera app. The other thing Apple did with this phone was drop the price by $50. That’s pretty amazing considering the tariff situation going on right now. That Apple would actually reduce the price is actually pretty much unheard of. The new iPhone 11 also comes in a number of colors as the iPhone XR did.

So hows a person to choose. Well honestly I’d love to experiment with the new three camera pack in the pro phone but that said, when I look at my standard use case, it just seems to me it’s hard to justify the price of that phone for so little improvement. The pro phones definitely have a better screen, but all of the phones are retina and if you believe Apple’s hype from just a few years ago, beyond retina really doesn’t make a lot of difference. My last phone, and iPhone X, has 256 GB of storage of which I’m using 87 gig. But in the pro phones, you either get 64 gig or 256 gig. Bumping up that storage is $150 additional cost. Now I truly suspect the amount of ram in the phones may be different too. It wouldn’t surprise me to see 4 GB of RAM in the pro phones and only 3 GB of RAM in the iPhone 11 and that will certainly make the speed slightly different, but I don’t believe that’s different enough to cause me to change my analysis.

So here’s my analysis…

iPhone 11 Pro, 256 GB – $1149
(Telephoto camera, better brighter screen, possibly slightly faster)

iPhone 11, 128 GB Dash $749
(Same processor, retina display, white angle camera, and money in my pocket)

Cost difference is $400 for basically an additional camera lens.

So thank you Apple for convincing me that I can spend $400 less on an iPhone this year. The minor improvements, coupled with how similar the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 11 Pro are make me less able to justify that higher cost.

Now my biggest problem is trying to decide which color iPhone 11 I want to get.

Tips on Working with Images in WordPress

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I have been blogging off and on for quite a few years.  I was first encouraged to blog by a buddy of mine named Steve Mays. He worked for Learfield communication and was responsible for assisting clients to create blogs of their own mostly related to sports teams.  Steve got me involved in a product called TypePad and over the years I moved on and off of other blogging platforms that are mirror footnotes in blog history. Finally, Steve recommended that I move to WordPress and that seems to have been one of the best recommendations I’ve had in my blogging history. 

I was having coffee with Steve this week and talking about an individual I was working with to begin a new blog. After our talk, Steve wrote up some tips for me on about utilizing the WordPress Media Library.   As I read through the tips I knew I wanted to post them on my blog for others to be able to get the benefit of. Steve graciously allowed me to do so.

WordPress Media Library Tips

The WordPress Media Library is powerful but it takes some thought and discipline to get the most out of it. And the time to start is when you launch the blog. Or before. The following are some things I’ve done right — and wrong — with images (and video) on my blog.

Use a good file naming convention. IMG_0850.jpg is not a good file name. Before uploading, take the time to rename the file and there’s no compelling reason to keep the file name short. In the example below I named the file “exhaust pipe 2apr2019-A” but could have just as easily named it “Land Rover original exhaust pipe brazing April 2, 2019 – A”. The more descriptive the better. And be consistent. Use the same format on all images.

WordPress Media Library

The first field in the WordPress form below is “Alternative Text.” This is what one would see when they hovered their cursor over the image. Especially useful for those with vision problems. The link in the form has more on “alt text.”

Title. By default WordPress uses the file name but you can edit this to title the image as you choose. As far as I know this doesn’t appear anywhere on your blog post.

Caption. I tend not to use captions but this will depend a lot on how you display images in your post. I prefer to describe the image within the body of the post. I just don’t like the way way WP handles captions.

Description. I discovered this useful field relatively recently. I wish I had made better use of it from the first day I moved to WP. Again, as far I have been able to determine, the contents of this field does not appear with the image in the post. I started using this field when I discovered the text is searchable. So if you have 1,000 images in your library and would like to search for all with the phrase “Lake of the Ozarks” in the Description field, make sure you include that phrase. There’s no real tagging feature for images but you can use this field for that. For example, you might include the word *gear* for any photo of equipment; *John and Jane Doe* for each photo of John and Jane; *fall foliage* for… you get the idea.

The trick is to spend some time thinking about this at the very beginning because it’s a pain to go back and do this after you have hundreds of photos and videos. And you’ll be surprised how fast your media library grows. And how often you want to reuse an image you you posted months or years earlier.

Inexpensive Security cameras for the Home

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Wyze Cam V2

In the last year or so, the security camera market for your home has exploded.  Where once there were only a couple of options for cameras to choose from, today there are dozens out there and all have their pluses and minuses.  There is a lot to be said for selecting cameras that work inside the infrastructure that you’re already using in your home.  If you have nest products in your homes perhaps the nest cameras are best for you. If you have Ring products in your home maybe ring deserves a second look. The one thing you will find is that selecting one of these big-name infrastructure‘s will definitely cost you. Not only will the cameras be more expensive, but she’ll be forced to live with limitations with each and every set up.

I have tried a number of these different cameras and until recently I have been using a

mixture of D-link and blink cameras.  My DLink cameras have been around for quite a while and I felt like it was probably time to be in looking at other options.  My Blink cameras are only about a-year-old, and are there outdoor cameras. I really love the way they’ve set these up with being battery powered and waterproof. They definitely have a place in my smart home as my outdoor camera variety.

Recently a friend pointed me to some cameras from a company that’s trying to do things a little differently. They are in the process of building their own security infrastructure around their camera models but their big difference is in price. Rather than paying upwards of $200 for a camera, their cameras start at about 25 bucks shipped.  Obviously at that price you’re expecting quite a few limitations, and I would be remiss if I didn’t say there are a few but when it comes to price performance these little cameras are a great option for you to look at. The company I’m referring to is Wyze https://www.wyze.com/ and their Wyzecam products.  

Right now, these cameras come into varieties. The Wyze cam V2 and the Wyze cam Pan.

Wyze Cam Pan

The Wyze cam V2 is their most affordable model coming in at about $26 shipped.  This camera is well featured including night vision and motion detection and comes on an innovative little base that allows you to be able to turn and left the camera to position it exactly the way you want it. Neither of these cameras require a hub because they connect to your wireless network using Wi-Fi. They’re quite easy to activate using the app for your iPhone or android phone. Once activated, you can set them up to send you alerts based upon motion or sound. The cameras have the ability to automatically go into night mode and use the night vision to be able to see in the dark. They can record video to the cloud automatically through the app and also record to an SD card that you can place in the camera. All in all, these cameras have all the features of the $200 models at only $26.

The second model is called the Wyze cam Pan.  This camera is basically the same camera as described above but has the ability to pan left and right and up and down within the app by moving the camera on a rotating basis. Cameras like this from name brands are always very expensive. But this camera comes in at only $36.  It includes all the features of their less expensive model plus the pan feature. 

Wyze App for iOS

Wyze Is also working on adding external motion detection and door sensors to their product. While announced, these have not been released yet but to be quite inexpensive also. At CES this year, they also described a product that will value to have a external hard drive in your house they records all of your video and allows you to use the hard drive as a personal cloud.  If you have an Alexa display, these cameras also work directly with that. You can say “Alexa, show me The living room camera”, and the display shows you live you with that camera.   

Wyze Is quite an innovative company that has made the decision from the beginning to release products at low-cost. If you’re looking for indoor cameras, these definitely deserve a look. At the price they’re charging you can afford to buy one and try it and even if you don’t like it, you don’t have a lot invested.

Multi Camera Event View in Wyze app

iPhone X: Return to the first home screen

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Many of us have been using iPhones for a long time. We all know if you’re on a home screen that is not the first page you can simply double tap the home button to return to the first page of your home screens. Unfortunately, without a home button, the iPhone X doesn’t work that way.

I I have always wondered if Apple provided a shortcut on the iPhone X to do that and so I looked it up. It’s amazing I haven’t run across this simple trick before.

On the iPhone X To move from any application back to the home screen all you have to do is quickly swipe up from the bottom of the screen. But if you’re already on one of your home screens, and you again swipe up from the bottom of the screen quickly, it takes you right back to that first page of your home screen just like double tapping the button did in the past.

I probably should’ve looked at trick up sooner.

Look folks, it’s just a scam!

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I have heard from a number of people this week that they have gotten calls, mostly on landline phone numbers, from someone reporting to be Apple  telling them that their computer was infected and their accounts with Apple were being discontinued. We’ve seen this happen before and like times before this is just a scam.

The interesting thing this time is those people with caller ID say, this time the Number calling is a local area code. Scammers these days are making it harder and harder to screen your calls.

Let me make a pretty bold statement. Apple, Microsoft, and Google will not call you on your phone to tell you you have a computer problem. They just don’t do that! Anytime you get a call to tell you there’s something wrong with your computer it is someone trying to scam money from you. You can count on this. Ignore those phone calls, Hang up the phone, or cuss the collar out if that makes you feel better but do not allow anyone to connect to your computer remotely unless you know who you’re talking to.

Likewise, if a screen pops up on your computer while your web browsing and tells you your machine is infected and you need to call a phone number, it is a scam. Again, someone is trying to get you to call them and allow them to infect your computer. Sometimes these pop-up screens are hard to get rid of, and often times require you to force quit your browser, but they are not real.

Even secure devices like iPads, iPhones, or chromebooks, are susceptible to this same type scam. These people are using a webpage pop up, many times coming from an ad on that webpage, to make you believe there’s a problem when there really isn’t.

All of these efforts, are called social engineering. Computers have become so secure that it’s very difficult for a nefarious person to get access to your computer on their own. It is much easier to do something that convinces you to infect your self. That’s what they’re trying to do. Don’t let them be successful.

If you are troubleshooting a problem, and you call Apple  or Dell for assistance, sometimes they will ask to connect your computer to look at what’s going on. The big difference here is you initiated the call to Them. It was at your choice and not as a result of some pop up message on your screen or a phone call coming into your home. In this case, it’s likely all right to allow them to connect but if you’re not sure you are much better off consulting with someone who can assist you locally rather than taking the risk.

And so it goes…