Tag: iPhone/iPad

iPhone/iPad

How to Clean Your Device

The Coronavirus is in the news in a big way, almost a Pandemic by World Health Organization. The news has you aware of how many times you touch your face, how many times do you touch your device?

What you Will Need

What can we do about this? To get our gadgets gleaming, you will need microfiber cloths, cotton swabs, isopropyl alcohol, compressed air spray and distilled water. Before you apply any cleaning, unplug or turn off your device. We are going to disinfect your device and give everything else a general cleaning.

Cleaning your Phone or Tablet

iPhone Image

Phones and tablets have fingerprint resistent coating that could come off. Manufactures generally recommend wiping them down with distilled water on a microfiber cloth, then using cotton swabs to clean around the edges of the screen, buttons and camera lens.

What To Do

Apple recently released its updated guidelines for cleaning. They endorse using 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipe or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. You may gently wipe the nonporous surfaces such as the screen, keyboard or other exterior surfaces.

You can create a mixure by using 70 percent alcohol and 30 percent water in a spray bottle. Be sure to wash your hands before starting the cleaning. Then remove any case (leave on any protective screen), spritz the cloth with the solution and thoroughly wipe down your device. Let it dry completely. Then be sure to wash your hands again.

What To Avoid

  • Do not use bleach
  • Avoid getting moisture in any opening
  • Do not submerge your Apple device in any cleaning agents
  • Don’t use the wipes on fabric or leather surfaces
  • Do not reuse the microfiber cloth
  • Avoid using Windex

Cleaning Your Desktop or Laptop

Laptop

First unplug your device and remove the battery for a laptop. Turn your laptop or PC keyboard upside down and (gently) shake out to get rid of dirt and crumbs. Then grab a can of compressed air blaster (available at WalMart and similar places) and blast it. Use cotton swaps to get inside the crevices like the keys.

Lightly spray a microfiber cloth with your solution and wipe down the plastic and metal surfaces to include external devices.

To clean the screen, use a screen cleaning product or your mixture and spray onto a microfiber cloth. For a laptop, a one stop solution is to try 3M Notebook and Tablet Cleaning Wipes. If you have a touch screen, clean it with a microfiber cloth; for smudges, use only water or eyeglass cleaner applied to the cloth to remove them.

Don’t forget the mouse. Using the same mixture, dab it on a cotton swab and run it over the feet of the mouse and any crevices. Then take a microfiber cloth dipped in the mixture and go over the body of the mouse and cord.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Five Tips for Using Your iPhone at Night

Apple added the Dark Mode feature in iOS 13+. This allows less eye strain, especially at night, and promotes a healthier sleep. You can use Dark Mode all the time or have your iPhone automatically turn it on.

This is for iPhone and iPad

1. Enable Dark Mode

  • Tap Settings
  • Tap Display and Brightness
  • Select Light or Dark
  • Toggle on Automatic to enable auto switching. You can also setup a schedule under Options. Refer to following image:
Dark Mode 1
Enable Dark Mode on automatic schedule

Note! Not all apps support Dark Mode, especially Facebook and Messenger.

2. Enable Night Shift

This feature is for iOS 9.3 and above. It limits blue light and makes the iPhone “warmer” for a healthier sleep.

  • Tap Settings
  • Tap Display and Brightness
  • Tap Night Shift
  • You can enable a “Sunset to Sunrise” automatic schedule or choose a custom schedule. See following image:
Dark Mode 2
Enabling Night Shift on a schedule

3. Enable Night Vision

Night vision naturally occurs in low light as our pupils adjust to reduced light. By using a red filter, the iPhone simulates night vision. This feature places a red filter across the screen. You can adjust the amount of red color being displayed.

  • Tap Settings
  • Tap Accessibility
  • Tap Display and Text Size
  • Scroll down and tap Color Filters and toggle it on. Tap Color Tint from the list. Move the Intensity and Hue sliders all the way to the right. The screen will be very red in color. Refer to following image: (Note! The reddish color does not show up in a screenshot)
Dark Mode 3
Enabling Night Vision

4. Adjust the Flashlight

To do this, launch the Control Center by one of the following ways:

1. iPhone 10 and above – Swipe down from upper right hand corner

2. iPhone 8 or earlier – Swipe up from bottom of screen

See below image:

  • Tap and hold the Flashlight icon. You will see a segmented bar in five sections. Tap a section to control the brightness of the Flashlight. It will keep this brightness setting until you change it by following the above steps. Refer to below image:
Dark Mode 5
Adjusting the Flashlight intensity

5. Enable Led Flash for Alerts

Let’s say you are on silent mode and want to be notified of alerts at night. We can use the camera flash to alert you of a push notification or a phone call.

  • Tap Settings
  • Tap Accessibility
  • Tap Audio/Visual
  • Toggle on LED Flash for Alerts. Optionally, you can toggle on Flash on Silent. See following image:
Dark Mode 4
Enabling LED flash on alerts

Personally, I like the auto switching of Dark Mode. This feature reduced my eye strain at night. I wrote this post at night using Dark Mode on my iPhone. It was much easier to write and edit than using Light Mode.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech or smart device question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

How to Find an App on iPhone or iPad

If you are like me, you have dozens of apps on your smart device. Instead of swiping screen by screen to locate and launch an app, let’s explore another method using Spotlight Search.

This is for iPhone and iPad

Launch Spotlight Search

  • Near the middle of any screen, especially the Home screen, tap and swipe down. This will open the Spotlight with a keyboard and a search bar. See below image:
iPhone Find App 1
Launch of Spotlight

Finding an App

  • Type a few letters of the app name. In my example, I am searching for “TV App”. See following image:
iPhone Find App 2
Finding an app using Spotlight search
  • Spotlight will suggest a “Top Hit” and other possibilities. Refer to below image:
iPhone Find App 3
Spotlight Top Hit for your search

Launch the App

  • Once you find your app, tap it’s icon to launch. See following image for launching “TV App”:
iPhone Find App 4
Launching the Spotlight search app
  • You can also use Siri to locate and launch an app. Once Siri is activated, just say “Launch” followed by the app name.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech or smart device question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Related

How to hide an app on your iPhone or iPad

How to Hide an App on Your iPhone or iPad

You have some choices but you can’t completely “hide” an app. You can delete an app by a tap and hold on the icon until the “X” appears, then tap it.

The choices are making the app hard to find via a search or using Siri. To do this we are going to turn off some of an app features.

This is for iPhone and iPad

Hide an App

  • Launch Settings
  • Tap Siri and Search. See below image:
iPhone Hide App 1
The Settings screen for Siri & Search
  • Find the app you want to “hide” from your list of installed apps. I selected the app “Yale Cleaners”. Refer to below image:
Phone Hide App 2
My Yale Cleaners app
  • On this screen, disable all items by toggling them off. The Show App toggle will be revealed; disable this toggle as well. This will exclude the app from all search results and and suggestions screens. See below image:
Phone Hide App 3
Disabling all Yale Cleaners searches

Note! The Settings app does not follow the rules. Any app you try to “hide” will appear in Settings and it’s search field.

Find Your Hidden App

To find the “hidden” app, you have to find its icon somewhere among your installed apps to launch it.

Unhide Your App

  • Launch Settings
  • Find the app from your list of installed apps.
  • Tap Siri & Search and toggle on each feature
  • Tap Notifications and toggle it on. Refer to below image:
iPhone Hide App 4
Unhide Yale Cleaners for searches

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech or smart device question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Related

How to find an app on your iPhone or iPad

Five Areas to Update your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn software can be a dauting task to setup and maintain. You should update your LinkedIn profile regularly to attract recruiters, coworkers and friends. Of course, most of us don’t have the time, so we put off this task. If you want to take a little time, you should addrtess fives areas of your profile.

This feature is for your iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android device, Windows 10 or whatever smart device supports LinkedIn

1. Your Heading Statement

This is the short statement that appears below your name. That Heading is what the recruiter’s search for. The Heading needs to say what you do or want to do. It should hit these points using keywords. People who haven’t updated their profile in a while might have their current job title followed by a comma and then their employer or department name. If so, I suggest changing the Heading to some keywords that match what you want to do.

See below image for my Heading as a Blogger: (Note! I used the tips in this post to update my LinkedIn profile for blogging purposes).

LinkedIn Heading statement

2. Updating your Photo

Does the photo reflect who you are today? It would be unwise to visit a recruiter looking completely different from your photo. Of course, you want a headshot photo of you smiling. Put on an appropriate shirt or blouse because it might show up in the photo. You want a photo that will impress recruiters, coworkers or friends.

3. Using Keywords in your Profile

We have discussed using keywords in your Heading. Using keywords in your Skills & Endorsements is also very important. You can use a ton of keywords. Make sure you hit the top words that reflect your experience. Click the “plus” sign in upper right hand corner to add skill(s). Refer to following image:

LinkedIn Skills section

Tap in the Skill search box. Then go thru the aphabet, keying in one letter, ie, key in A, then select your keyword(s); then key in B, etc. through the alphabet to see which LinkedIn keywords to apply. See below image:

LinkedIn adding Skills using keywords

4. Using your Geography

If you are looking for work, it helps to provide a location. Its best to use a general location in a greater city areas, like Oklahoma City/Tulsa metro area instead of a just a single city. This will open up more possibilites for recruiters to locate a matching job.

5. How Open are you to Recruiters?

LinkedIn has a setting you can turn on which tells only recruiters that you are open to being contacted. When you turn on this setting, no one else can see it, only people who have recruiter accountgs. This setting is found in several places in your profile. The setting is labeled Only recuriters.

Go to your profile and look just below your Heading (refer to the first image in this post). When you tap Only recruiters, you are taken to the Job preferences screen. See below image:

LinkedIn Job Preferences

Tap the Edit icon (the pencil in upper right hand corner). Here you can add Job titles, Job locations and select Job types. Refer to below image:

LinkedIn adding Job titles, locations and types
  • Tap the Only recruiters drop down arror to allow your job information to be shown to anyone using LinkedIn or just Recruiters.

Updating these five areas of your profile will open up more job opportunities and attract more recruiters.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

How to Disable Google from Tracking You

Whereever you go, Goggle is tracking you, especially Google Maps, and archives that activity in your Google Timeline. It is both a blessing and a curse. It can take you down memory lane, but as a curse, it leaves the door wide open to your privacy.

With Timeline, Google Maps can show where you are going and where you have been. Even photos taken and uploaded to Google Photos can reveal your location. You can also share your location in realtime on your smartphone.

If you prefer to keep your location private, you can remove your location history and stop Google from following you.

This feature is for your iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android device, Windows 10 or whatever smart device supports Google

Stop Activity and Location Tracking

  • Open your Google browser
  • Log into your account at myaccount.google.com
  • Select Data & personalization
  • You can disable what Google can tract and collect from you by managing your Activity controls. To stop tracking, click on the Title and toggle the switch to off. See below image:
Google Tracking 1
Google Activity controls

Warning! Turning off these Activity controls will effect the use of their features.

Delete your Activities

Your activities are kept until you manually delete them (the default). You have the option of deleting all data for the past 18 months or past 3 months.

  • Navigate to your Google account at myaccount.google.com
  • Select Data & personalization>Web & App Activity>Manage Activity>Choose to delete automatically. See below image:
Google Tracking 2
Google Deletion process
  • Select the 18 or 3 month option
  • Tap Next. See below image:
Google Tracking 3
Google selection of how long to keep your activity
  • Google will show you what is about to be deleted
  • Tap Confirm at the bottom of your screen. See below image:
Google Tracking 9
Google confirmation of your activity deletion
  • Also, you can delete a particular day’s browsing activity by taping the Trash icon next to the day. Refer to second image above.

To select a custom range, an hour or a date:

  • Tap the Menu icon located next to My Activity
  • Select Delete activity by. See below image:
Google Tracking 4
Google custom deletion
  • Choose one of the following options. See below image:
Goo5le Tracking 6
Google selecting your custom deletion
  • There are other privacy settings you can explore such as Location Services under Settings>Privacy and Security>Location>Location. A set of apps that use Location Services can be toggled on or off. See the following screen:
Google Tracking 8
Google Location Services to turn on or off

Warning! Turning off these Apps Location Services will effect the use of their features.

Go Incognito

The best and easist way to “hide” your browsing is to set the Incognito Mode. This feature allows you to browse without Google compiling history, cookies, site data or form information. Google has extended the feature to Maps and YouTube. Maps will stop tracking your location history; YouTube will no longer track your search and view history.

  • Launch Google
  • Tap the More icon in bottom right hand corner (the 3 dots)
  • Tap Turn on incognito. See below image:
Google Tracking 10
Google setting for Incognito Mode

You will see the following screen:

Google Tracking 7
Google Incognito Mode turned on

To turn off Incognito Mode:

  • Launch Google
  • Tap the More icon in the bottom right hand corner (the 3 dots)
  • Tap In incognito mode
  • Tap Turn off incognito. Refer to following image:
Google Tracking 7
Google Incognito Mode turned off

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Want to Fix Your Crooked iPhone Photos?

Your photos are off center and you want to fix one or more. The Apple iOS 13 photo editor can straighten a photo. But what if you want more control over the photo. I am going to introduce to you to a free third party app called Snapseed from Google.

This is for iOS devices iPhone and iPad

  • Either take a crooked photo or select one that you want to fix. See my following crooked photo:
iPhone Crocked Photo Cropped 1
My crooked iPhone photo

Cropping the Photo

  • Tap the Edit button
  • Tap the Crop button at the bottom of the screen

The photo will be automatically crop and the perspective will be changed. Sometimes, this is enough. If so, just click Done and your finished. In my case, I had to use the Straighten tool to rotate the photo then I clicked Done. Notice I rotated the photo a -18. Refer to below image for my result:

iPhone Crocked Photo Cropped 3
Editing with iPhone photo editor

If you are using iOS 13+, head over to the App Store to download and install the free program Snapseed. Once installed:

The Snapseed Tools

  • Open your crooked photo in Snapseed
  • Click on Tools at the bottom of the screen. You will see the following image:
iPhone Crocked Photo Cropped 5
Snapseed tool set

As you will notice, there are lots of tools to chose from for your photo.

  • Click on the Perspective icon. You can tilt up or down, rotate right or left, scale the photo or free hand the perspective. Refer to my below image:
iPhone Crocked Photo Cropped 6
Using the Snapseed Perspective tool

The app is super sensitive to your touch, much more precise than the built in iPhone photo editor. As you move the perspective, the app will automatically fill in the edges. Check out all the other tools you can use for photo editing. Once you are finished, click Done. Notice at the top of the screen the Straighten is precise to the hundreds of a percent. See the below image:

Phone Crocked Photo Cropped 7
Final image with Snapseed. This photo was cropped showing white edges

Saving Your Photo

  • Tap on the Checkmark icon in the lower right of your screen
  • Tap on Export. You will see the following image:
iPhone Crocked Photo Cropped 8
Saving your photo
  • Tap on Save to save your changes or Save a copy to preserve your original photo. You are now finished.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Four Tips and Gotchas for a WordPress Blog

I have been blogging using WordPress as my hosting site for a couple of months. I have discovered a few tips and gotchas using WordPress that may be of interest to you.

First, if you noticed some strange highlighted text on your site, don’t panic. They will go away by exiting and relaunching your site. I had some highlighted text (in yellow) in my Categories section that I did not enter. After exiting and relaunching, the highlighted yellow text disappeared.

Second, if you have links in your posts, the linkage may add the words “opens in a new tab” at the end of your URL. This happens if you have the slider control Open in new tab turned off. This control is found in the drop down arrow next to the Return or the Edit (the pencil) icon). Your links will not work. You must remove the words (opens in a new tab) in the link URL. To open the link in a new tab, you must turn the slider control Open in new tab to the On position.

Third, when I am writing a post, I want to return to a previous block to add or change some text. I position the cursor in the text, but nothing happens. I am unable to add or change any text. I have to save whatever changes I have made, exit the post, then relaunch the post. Then I am able to make text changes. This is most frustrating aspect of WordPress.

Fourth, in my version of WordPress, the Dashboard does not automatically load. To get to the Dashboard, enter <your website name>/wp-admin in your browser search field. For my blog, I would enter the following in my browser: techsavvy.life/wp-admin.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Why Auto Logging Out of Apps Should Be Required

This is for iOS, Android, Mac and PC devices

We all have our favorite smart device apps. This would include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Reddit and others. What happens when you turn off your device, power off or shutdown? These apps are still active and readily available when your device is turned back on.

These apps offer you convenient access by keeping you logged in. When you log into a financial institution, say Bank of America or Morgan Stanley, you are logged out within two minutes of no activity.

Our favorite apps should do the same. By staying logged in, the apps are more subjective to hacks by others.

Of course, by logging out, means you have to reenter a UserID, Password and Passcode, if using Two Factor Authentication, to gain access. And that can be a pain but it’s worth it.

If you are selling or disposing a smart device, you should log out all apps. Also, you may consider erasing all data and/or resetting your device. Only do this if you no longer need the device.

I would like the app industry to follow the same logging out protocol as financial entities. What do you think? Please take the one question survey.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

A Few Notable Features in Safari for iOS 13

Apple had made some new enhancements to its feature browser, Safari, for the iPhone/iPad. There are a few notable features that increase our productivity regarding bookmarks and open tabs. Safari’s toolbar has only five choices for you to select from, Forward, Backward, Share, Bookmarks and New Tab/Page. Instead of just taping on a choice, we are going to press down on these icons and see what happens.

This is for an iPhone/iPad and Mac iOS 13 operating system

This seems to be an Apple feature. I have gotten into the habit of pressing down on every icon in iOS 13. Just press and hold the Share icon, the one with an up arrow, nothing happens until you release your hold. You will get the regular Share screen, like the image below:

Safari Share Behavior

Safari Bookmarks

So much for that.

The Bookmarks

Let’s try pressing and holding the Bookmarks icon. You will get the following screenshot:

Safari Add Bookmark

Well, that worked. I do not recommend adding Bookmarks for all open tabs; this would tend to make your bookmarks messy. It would be better just to add a Bookmark for the current tab.

Testing the New Tab/Page

Okay, lets press and hold the New Tab/Page icon. You should get the following screen:

Safari Close Tabs

Yea, two out of three have the press and hold feature. From this screen, you can close all open tabs or just the current one. Also, you can create a new Private Tab or a New Tab.

This time, just press the New Tab/Page icon to reveal your open tabs (normal behavior). Press and hold a tab to move it into a different location. This works in portrait or landscape mode.

Setting the Time Interval

There is another feature to explore; setting a time interval as to when tabs are closed.

Go to Settings and select Safari. You will see the following image:

Safari Close Tabs Timeline

Click the Close Tabs button. Your screen should display options on when to close your Safari tabs like the following image:

Safari Close Tabs Timeframe

Select your choice from the four options.

Okay, for now. Thanks for trying out these iPhone/iPad features for Safari in IOS 13+.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.