Kibbles & Bytes Blog

With Summer in full swing and countless reasons for me to be using my iPhone I am finding that my battery is running down much faster than it normally does. Some of my decline in battery is simply because I’ve had the phone for almost two years now ( I’m holding out for the 7 ) but another factor is the increased demand on my phone.

In my travels this summer I’ve been using navigation more, taking tons of pictures and using my phone to keep up with happenings at home and in the office. I find that by the end of some days I’m down to 10% or less battery power. In addition to using more battery power, I’m also using more data. We get spoiled with our iPhones and auto switching to wifi whenever it’s around. Fortunately most of us have wifi at home and in the office.

There are several small steps you can take to extend the life of your battery when you know you will have longer periods of time between charges. Music streaming, just like movie streaming, is a big suck on your battery. If your using Apple Music I recommend that you create playlists so you can listen to your tunes offline. I’m a fan of turning my phone to airplane mode when listening to locally stored music, it significantly increases my battery life and it’s nice to know you can really relax for a bit knowing you won’t get any calls or text messages!

Location services are another huge suck on your battery. If you are using a navigation app to get to a destination consider turning location services off for that app once you get there. Unless you’re able to keep your phone plugged into a power source, navigation apps are some of the biggest drains on your battery so it’s advisable to turn those off as soon as you can. The same goes for notifications. It’s great to know that Bobby just posted a new picture to your Facebook wall, but it’s another background operation on your phone that can leave you with a dead phone in a hurry.

Another quick ways to help increase your battery life is to simply turn down your screen brightness. This is a really small step that can make a huge difference. You can also set your phone to auto adjust based on light conditions around you. Simply go to **Settings > Display & Brightness** and adjust it to make these changes automatically. Lastly, enabling low power mode can really help to give you some much needed time before you really need to charge your phone. In iOS 9, to enable Low Power Mode, go to **Settings > Battery, flip the switch for Low Power Mode** to tell your iPhone to use less power for a variety of background activities and visual effects. iOS automatically prompts you to turn Low Power Mode on when the battery drops to 20%; it’s best to accept that suggestion.

Summer adventures should be about more fun and less worry, hopefully these tips help you to capture and enjoy all these is to see and do this Summer while still staying connected.

How secure is YOUR Apple ID? Remember when all those celebrities had their iCloud accounts hacked? Did it make you wonder about your data? There is good news, you can do the two-step! In this article, I will explain the difference between two-step verification and two-step authentication both of which can help make your Apple ID and data more secure.

I really didn’t know much about two-step authentication until I started testing the Mac OS Sierra beta and the Watch OS beta to play around with unlocking my Mac with my Apple Watch. I love that capability and I know you will, too. In order to take advantage of this unlocking feature I had to activate two-step authentication. So, I did that and I will show you how. But then I noticed that I was not getting any mail from my iCloud email address. Well, it turns out that if you are using apps that do not support two-step authentication, such as my favorite email client – Airmail, that you need to generate an app-specific password. That got me interested in the two-step and I don’t mean line dancing.

Which two-step? Two-step Authentication.

Two-step verification

Two-step verification will require you to enter a 4-digit code sent to one of your devices. Apple requires two-step verification for many of the sites we use for sales and service information. When I surf over to those sites and enter my Apple ID and password it will ask if I want to send a code. When I say yes, a four digit code is sent to my devices that are registered with Apple. Usually, that means I simultaneously get the code on my Mac, my iPad, my iPhone and my Apple Watch. Once I enter the code, I gain access to the site. Two step verification protects your Apple ID even if someone knows your password. Two-step verification, once activated is needed whenever you:

* Sign in to your Apple ID account page
* Sign in to iCloud on a new device or at iCloud.com
* Sign in to Messages, Game Center, or FaceTime
* Make an iTunes, iBooks, or App Store purchase from a new device
* Get Apple ID related support from Apple

To set up two-step verification you have to surf over to the Apple ID account page – https://appleid.apple.com/#!&page=signin

Sign-in and under two-step verification click “getting started” and answer your security questions and follow the steps to finish setting it up.

Two-step Authentication

Two-step Authentication is a more advanced security feature built into the later operating systems. So, before you activate it make sure you meet or exceed these requirements:

* iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 9
* Mac with OS X El Capitan and iTunes 12.3
* Apple Watch with watchOS 2
* Windows PC with iCloud for Windows v5 and iTunes 12.3.3

With two-step authentication, your account can only be accessed on devices you trust, like your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. When you want to sign in to a new device for the first time, you’ll need to provide two pieces of information–your password and the six-digit verification code that’s automatically displayed on your trusted devices. By entering the code, you’re verifying that you trust the new device. For example, if you have an iPad and are signing into your account for the first time on a newly purchased Mac, you’ll be prompted to enter your password and the verification code that’s automatically displayed on your iPad.

The good thing about authentication is that once you have signed in you won’t be asked for a verification code for that device again, unless you sign-out completely, erase the device or change your password. When you sign in on the web, you will be asked if you want to trust your browser so you won’t be asked for a verification code the next time you sign in from that computer.

The code is sent to a “trusted device or phone number”. A trusted device is an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac that you have already signed in to using two-factor authentication. It is a device that Apple knows is yours and can be used to display an authentication code. A trusted phone is a phone number that can be used to receive a text or phone call with the code. You MUST have at least one trusted phone number to utilize two-step authentication.

Two-factor authentication is currently available to iCloud users with at least one device that’s using iOS 9 or OS X El Capitan or later.

Follow these steps to turn on two-step authentication.

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 9 or later:

* Go to Settings > iCloud > tap your Apple ID.
* Tap Password & Security.
* Tap Turn on Two-Factor Authentication.

On your Mac with OS X El Capitan or later:

* Go to Apple () menu > System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details.
* Click Security.
* Click Turn on Two-Factor Authentication.

A few things to remember once you have activated two-factor authentication. Keep you trusted phone numbers up to date. You can do this at the AppleID account page. At that page you can also view and manage your trusted devices. So, if you sell your Mac to upgrade, you want to remove it here.

App-specific Passwords

This is what led me to learn all I can about the two-step. As you may know, I run AirMail as my email client. I love it and am part of their beta program, too. But it is not Apple’s Mail client (which does NOT require an app-specific password). But for AirMail and other apps that might need to utilize your Apple ID you can generate a password just for that app. You will need one of these special passwords for each device. So, when I generated an app-specific password for my Mac it only works for my Mac for that one app. I had to generate another for my iPad and one for my iPhone too, since they are all running AirMail.

Here’s how you generate an app-specific password:

* Sign in to your Apple ID account page.
* In the Security section, click Edit.
* Click Generate Password and follow the steps on your screen.
* After you generate your app-specific password, enter or paste it into the password field of the app as you would normally.

You will be asked to name this password and I recommend that you make it as specific as possible so you can manage these later. So, in my case I named them “AirMail-Mac”,”AirMail-iPhone”, etc.

You can have up to 25 app-specific passwords and can manage them at your Apple ID account page.

I do recommend that all users activate two-factor authentication. It is the most unobtrusive and easiest to use manner of protecting your Apple ID and hence, anything that might be connected with it. Just get out there and do the two-step!

_Dear Friends,_

I was honored to speak at a press conference with Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin this week. The Governor signed an executive order that gives preference in state contracting to those companies that have implemented steps to protect the environment and combat climate change. Basically, the order states that all other factors being equal, the company that has the strong environmental record will be awarded the contract. The press conference was held outside of our South Burlington store and we got some great press for the event.

We have launched our “Back to School”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002280/back-to-school promotions and have some great values for you when you buy a Mac or an iPad. Additionally, if you come in to visit our stores, you can sign up for a “**weekly prize drawing**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002286/summer-sale with prizes being given away at each of our stores.

I’ll be on the road next week riding out to Chicago to see the Cubs but Apple will release their quarterly financials on Tuesday so I will try to do our quarterly Kibbles & Bytes update from a hotel room somewhere in the midwest. Hadley and Amy will be at the reins of Kibbles next week as both Emily and I will be on vacation. We seem to accidentally schedule our vacations for the same time year after year but it does give Rob Amon, our VP of sales, some time to be boss.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is Don’s “Road Trip” bundle. Let’s see, what do you need when you hit the road? Tunes, video and power, of course. I am bundling the Urbanears Plattan ADV Bluetooth headphones in bright red “tomato” color with an Outdoor Tech Kodiak Mini Rugged Powerbank that has 2600 mAh of capacity to charge your devices and because I know you are going on an amazing adventure we will also include the GoPro Session 4 durable and waterproof camera to record your experiences on land or in the water. “**The Road Trip bundle**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002327/ would sell for $324.97 if bought separately. This week for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can save $45 and buy this bundle for “**$278.99!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002327