Author: Emily Dolloff

  • Top Features of iOS 12

    Feeling left behind because you don’t have the latest iPhone or iPad? Don’t, because Apple has a present for you in the form of iOS 12. The new operating system promises to increase performance, particularly for older devices as far back as the iPhone 5s and iPad Air.

    But iOS12 offers more than just a speed boost. Apart from adding fripperies like new animoji, text efforts, and camera efforts in Messages and FAceTime, iOS 12 helps you use your device less. That’s important, as it becomes increasingly obvious that many people spend more time than they’d like on addictive social media apps, games, and cat videos.

    Screen Time

    The marquee feature for helping you control device usage is Screen Time. Found in the Settings app, Screen Time reports on how much time you spend using different apps, how often you pick up your device, and how many notifications interrupt you. You can check it anytime and get weekly reports, and use this information to help you reduce undesirable usage.

    Screen Time has two helpful options, Downtime and App Limits. With Downtime, you can specify a time period when you can only receive phone calls and use specific apps you set in Always Allowed. App Limits let you set how long you may use certain categories of apps. You can ignore that limit, extending it for 15 minutes or for the rest of the day, but that’s cheating, right? Even better, you can set Downtime and App Limits for a child’s iPhone or iPad, ensuring that they can’t play games after bedtime or text their friends during dinner.

    Notification Management

    It’s easy to become overwhelmed with notifications, especially if you have chatty friends in messaging apps. iOS 12 can reduce the impact of non-stop notifications. On the Lock screen, iOS 12 now groups message threads and multiple notifications from the same app. Tapping a group expands it so you can see the details. Plus, with a feature called Instant Tuning, you can change notifications settings for an app right from a notification. Swipe left on a notification and tap Manage. Instant Tuning also lets you send notifications to Notification Center silently so they don’t interrupt you but are available later.

    Do not Disturb

    In the “it’s about time” department, iOS 12 beefs up Do Not Disturb so it works more the way people do. When you bring up Control Center and force-touch the Do Not Disturb button, it expands to let you turn on Do Not Disturb button, it expands to let you turn on Do Not Disturb for 1 hour, for the rest of the day, or until you leave your current location. The beauty of these new options is that they disable Do Not Disturb automatically so you don’t have to remember-and potentially miss important notifications. Plus, a new Bedtime option in Settings > Do Not Disturb dims the display and silences overnight notifications until you unlock your device in the morning.

    Siri Shortcuts

    Another new feature, Siri Shortcuts, aims to help you use your device more effectively. As Siri learns your routines, it will start suggesting shortcuts for common actions, either on the Lock screen or when you pull down on the Home screen to search. You can see its suggestions in Settings > Siri & Search > All Shortcuts, and for those that seem useful, record a custom phrase that will invoke the shortcuts. Plus, a new Shortcuts app lets you create more complex shortcuts that can run multiple steps at once.

    Smaller Change

    Those may be the most significant changes in iOS 12, but they’re far from the only ones. Here’s a sampling of other refinements you’ll notice:

    • Apple has redesigned the iBooks app and renames it Books
    • The News, Stocks, and Voice Memos apps also received redesigns, Stocks and Voice Memos are now available on the iPad, and all three have made the jump to the Mac in Mojave, with their data synced via iCloud.
    • A new Measure app uses augmented reality to help you measure objects in the real world.
    • In Settings > Battery, iOS 12 shows graphs of battery usage and activity for the last 24 hours or the last 10 days.

    iOS 12 has even more minor improvements that we’ll be sharing in the coming months, so watch this space!

  • Notes!

    I have been a fan of Notes for years! I started out using the sticky note program on my mac and used it for everything, and sadly, I mean everything including usernames and passwords. Thankfully I learned many years ago safer means of account login storage and abandoned my sticky note ways on my Mac.

    What I missed most about my sticky notes was a quick and all in one location for things I needed to jot down; hello and welcome Notes! Notes has been out for many years and it’s certainly nothing new on iOS or macOS. Notes is an incredibly versatile program and one that I rely on heavily as another tool for keeping me organized and in order. I’ve written in the past about reminders, but I admit, try as I might I just can’t get away from Notes and I find its versatility in features to be something that reminders just can’t compete with. There are several features within the Notes program that go beyond just taking a simple note, and I want to share some of my favorite features.

    Syncing

    I think the ability to sync my notes across all of my devices is hands down the number one reason I use and just can’t break away from this handy little app. I can write a note on my computer and it automatically sends the note to my iPad and iPhone. With iCloud turned on and note syncing, your notes update across all devices that are logged into your iCloud account. There is one catch to the auto syncing that is new in the last year or so. In order for your iOS devices and your Mac to get your notes you do need to make sure that in addition to to iCloud being turned on, all of your devices need to be running the latest OS. Last week I had an issue where my notes were syncing from my iOS devices to my Mac, but not from my Mac to my iOS devices. A quick look at my devices revealed I hadn’t run my most recent software updates.

    Drawing

    Did you know that you can draw within the Notes program? Notes allows you to actually write a note in your own handwriting, and also allows you to draw. There is even a handy ruler so you can draw straight lines. There are a variety of colors to choose from to add a pop of color, and you have a choice of a pencil or two marker options. The details aren’t as responsive or detailed as that of, say, the iPad Pro, but this little feature allows for handy on-the-go creations. You can easily and quickly sketch out an idea via e-mail, text and even social media. This feature only really works on the iOS but you can do some similar actions on the Mac via Mark Up.

    Mark Up

    Within Notes you can insert a pictures from your photo library (on the Mac you can just drag and drop the image into your note) and then you can mark it up! You can draw over the image, add text, shapes and more. I recently used this feature specifically when I was working to re-model and paint a room in my house. We took pictures of the room and used the mark up feature to finalize what colors and changes we were going to make in the room.

    Locking Notes

    Another cool feature with the Notes program is that you can lock the notes. The only information that is viewable in the note is the title. A passcode must be entered on the computer or iOS device in order to see what is in the note. This is a great way to keep things just a little bit more secure on your devices. While you should keep things like passwords and account information securely stored in your keychain, this is another option. Admittedly if you’re given a code or access to something and need the information temporarily, it’s more practical to jot it in Notes and lock it. Likewise if you’re a busy person and you find yourself making notes about a special event or gifts, it’s nice to know you can keep wondering eyes away from your information and keep the surprise.

    Notes, the little app that does so much!

  • When iOS devices run slow

    Over the past week, I have had several interactions with iOS users complaining of poor battery performance or overall slow performance with their iOS device. In many cases, these issues can be easily resolved by either adjusting how you might be using the device, running software updates, or by updating forgotten settings.

    Battery Health

    Apple introduced new features in iOS 11.3 with battery health, a quick glance can let you see a snapshot of what apps are most frequently used. You can find the battery information by simply tapping on Settings where you can easily see which apps are using your battery the most. In some cases, you might realize it’s a specific app. Perhaps you haven’t realized your child or grandchild grabbing your phone and you discover they’ve been watching YouTube. This was the case with my brother. His son was using YouTube (with permission), but what my brother did not realize is that YouTube was refreshing the content in the background, accounting for even more drain on the battery. I have several news apps which I have set to notify me of breaking news. Depending on the news day, I can have a significant amount of battery life going to my home screen lock being overrun with notifications. With my iPad, my notetaking program clearly dominates my battery usage. Because I use my iPad primarily for notes, there isn’t much I can do to reduce the battery drain and I know I need to charge my iPad every night during heavy usage. In the case of my phone, turning off my news notifications when I need to extend my battery life can provide significant improvements.

    Background Refresh

    Background refresh, the secret battery killer. I say this because this is a setting that I recommend checking often. In the case of just about every app you might download, the default refresh setting is to automatically refresh in the background. You can check this setting by going to Setting> General > Background Refresh, and consider turning off any or all apps. You can tell that an app is set to automatically refresh if the button to the right of the app is switched to green. Social media apps and streaming apps will use the most battery power with background app refresh, so I do make sure those are turned off. Another note, these settings don’t migrate over automatically to new devices so you might find, to your surprise, all your apps are set to refresh in the background.

    Web pages or e-mail open slow

    I spoke to a customer the other day who indicated that when she refreshed her e-mail the “dotted circle” just spins for a minute or so and then her e-mails download. This is something that you just might not be able to control and might not even be a problem with your iOS device. How fast your iPad or iPhone refreshes, downloads and browses is related to your internet speed and the wireless router you are connecting to. If you are finding your iPad is slow to refresh mail, or when browsing the internet or refreshing an app when you are away from your home or office, there is really nothing you can do. It does not mean you have a slow device, it just means your network access is likely slow. When it comes to your home or office, you might just need to update your wireless router. If you have not updated your wireless router in several years, this could be the motivation to upgrade that equipment. Manufacturers such as eero and Linksys have added features of dual and tri-band systems. These dual and tri-band systems allow all users to connect and browse at the fastest speed their device and network can provide, giving everyone equal enjoyment of the network.

    Update the iOS and apps

    Many users might find apps quitting unexpectedly or perhaps getting a slow response time when tapping on an app or general navigation. Often times this could be related to the iOS, and, in many cases keeping the device up to date, just like your computer, can help with performance. Generally speaking, you do not have to worry if those updates will have the opposite effect and slow down the device significantly for the next few years.

    Updating the different apps on your device is also important. Like iOS, the app developers also release updates to fix bugs within their apps and can help with performance. I do recommend automatic updates when it comes to apps, unlike your computer’s software, these rarely have any effect on usage or worry about compatibility. After all, the apps are mini versions of the software.

    I recommend checking settings often on your devices as a variety of instances can cause settings to change or perhaps you missed the release of an update. In the end, however, our devices have their limits. You can only charge the batteries so many times and even with the best practices reduced battery life will inevitably occur. Eventually, you will reach the limits of software updates and the time will come when your hardware simply needs to be updated. However, until then, these simple steps can help you to ensure you have minimal performance issues or at least properly identify if you do have an issue with your device.