iOS Tip 98 - Make Reading in the Dark Easier

Instead of turning down the brightness on your handset, which still leaves a white glare searing into your retinas, try inverting the colors when you need to do some reading in the dark. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > then toggle on Invert Colors. This flips your screen's whites to blacks, and so on. Or, you can also try switching on grayscale (located in the same settings menu) to help alleviate eye strain.

#iOS Tip 97 - Blink When Messaged

Get your iPhone's flash to blink when you get a message
If you find that the vibration or sound that your phone makes when you get a message is not always enough to attract your attention, there's another element that you can add to the alert – light. By going to Settings > General > Accessibility and scrolling down to the 'Hearing Aids' section you can turn on 'LED Flash for Alerts'. Now every time you get a notification, the flash next to your iPhone's rear-facing camera will blink.

iOS TIP 96 - Block Callers

Recently, I began receiving annoying texts from a "mystery shopping" company asking me to do some work for them. I smelled something fishy, so when they kept texting me, I decided it was time to block their number on my iPhone. You may have a number you'd like to block, as well. If so, here's how.
To block someone you've added to Contacts list,:
• Go to Settings > Phone > Blocked > Add New.
• The All Contacts window will appear.
• Scroll until you find the name/number you wish to block and tap it.
• You'll find yourself back at the Blocked window with the offending name/number added to the list of blocked contacts.

From Settings, contacts can also be blocked selecting either Messages or Facetime, and then following the instructions above.

If you want to a block a number that isn't stored in your Contacts list:
• Open the Phone app and select Recents.
• Find the name/number you want to block.
• Tap the blue "i" with a circle around it to the right of the number.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the contact card that appears and select "Block This Caller."
• The message "You will not receive phone calls, messages, or FaceTime from people on the block list" will pop up with two options: Block Contact or Cancel.
• Tap Block Contact to add the number to the blocked list.

You can Block from Messages by selecting the message thread with the contact and tapping Contact in the upper right corner. Select the information icon, and proceed with the same instructions as in the Recents tab in Phone.

iOS Tip 95 - Setting up your Medical ID

Yes, setting up your Medical ID on the iPhone is extremely simple, but have you done it? It only takes a couple of minutes and could be life saving. To do it, you'll need a device with iOS 8 or higher, and then perform the following steps:
1 Open the Health app
2 Tap the Medical ID tab in the tab bar
3 Tap the Edit button to begin editing your Medical ID card
4 List any pertinent information about yourself, including medical conditions, allergies and reactions, and medications
5 Ensure that "Show When Locked" is enabled (Figure A)
6 Tap Done

Follow these steps to view your Medical ID from the lock screen:

1 Press the Sleep/Wake button
2 Swipe left to right to view the lock screen keypad
3 Tap "Emergency" and then "Medical ID"
This will show your Medical ID just as it's viewed in iOS 8's Health app, complete with one-tap access to emergency contacts, all without having to unlock your device.

iOS Tip 94 - Favorites Bar

Looking for your Bookmarks and/or Favorites in Safari? Go to Settings, Safari and toggle on Show Favorites Bar and Show Tab Bar. If you want a little more screen real estate toggle these features off.

iOS Tip 93 - What is "Other"

When connecting your iPad/iPhone to your computer you’ll see on the bottom of the Summary page, in iTunes, just what’s taking up space: Audio, Apps, Photos Other. The dreaded "Other" the mysterious "Other."

This storage section has puzzled many a tech writer and developer (even Apple Support). “Other”, which may take up considerable space on your device, consists of things like cached iTunes content (streamed movies, for example), Mail data, and Safari website data.

You can try to delete some of this, but unfortunately it’s not always possible. In fact, there doesn't seem to be a way to delete cached iTunes content.

The only way to effectively delete "Other" data is to back up and restore your device with iTunes. Backing up is a good habit to get in to not matter what. This process will retain all of your apps in the cloud while deleting any extra junk files that may exist. You'll lose some data like game save files, but it's the only way to reclaim storage claimed by “Other”.

iOS Tip 92 - Find My iPad/phone Important Additon

We've run this tip before but a very important addition is needed: add your phone number when you "message" your device. We've had iPad and iPhone here that obviously were stolen - "return my device and no questions" pops up on the display - but return it to where? A disabled device becomes useless to whoever has it but you can send a message to the screen alerting whoever has it to contact the owner.
If you misplaced your iPad, how would you find it easily? Simply open Settings, then iCloud. Type in you personal Apple ID code and make sure the "Find My iPad" function is turned on. When you activate this feature, you only need to visit iCloud.com to locate a lost iPad or disable it if stolen.

MacKeeper customers can file claims for refund

MacKeeper customers can file claims for refund from class action suit

Purchasers of MacKeeper are now able to file a claim to be reimbursed for the software, it has been revealed. Lawyers representing parties in a class action lawsuit against ZeoBit over the software have launched a site allowing customers to claim their share of a proposed $2 million settlement, with respondents potentially receiving the entire $40 cost in full, depending on how many of the 513,000 eligible customers successfully apply.

The proposed settlement involves ZeoBit, the original developer of the questionable toolkit, paying $2 million into a fund, but with the company not admitting fault. Out of that $2 million, Macworld reports one third will be going towards attorney fees, with the rest going towards the refunds and administration costs. As well as sending emails out to affected customers, settlement administrators Rust Consulting apparently plans to buy millions of ad impressions on Facebook and other platforms to try and get the word of the refund out to as many people as possible.

The suit itself was originally filed in May 2014, with ZeoBit accused of a "common deceptive scheme to trick consumers into purchasing and continuing to use its MacKeeper software, which ultimately fails to deliver the utility that ZeoBit promises." It was also alleged MacKeeper was "intentionally designed" to "ominously report that a user's Mac needs repair, and is at-risk due to harmful (but fabricated) errors." Current software owner Kromtech Alliance was not included in the suit, but it is possible it could be sued at a later date.

Customers who acquired the software before July 8 are eligible for the refund under the proposed settlement, and have until November 30 to apply. Interested parties can also file an objection to the settlement with the court by September 21, ahead of a final approval hearing on October 16.

iOS Tip 91 - Where's the Darn Manual

Right here: https://support.apple.com/manuals

iOS Tip 90 - Avoid Data Overages When Travelling

How to Avoid Data Overage Charges When Traveling outside the US

Disable any apps that you don’t plan to use in Settings > Cellular. It’s tempting to disable only those that have used data in the past period, but it can be hard to predict when an app willdecide to retrieve a large amount of data. Be especially cautious about apps like Music, Photos, Podcasts, Dropbox, Skype, Google Hangouts, and Spotify that might want to stream media, sync data, or provide real-time high-bandwidth communication.

* To prevent email and calendar data from outside arriving on youriPhone unbidden, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > FetchNew Data, turn off Push, and select Manually in the Fetch section. The data will update when you launch the associated app.

* Also, in Settings > iTunes & App Store, turn off Use Cellular Data. To be safe, I’d also recommend disabling automatic downloads. Thatway your iPhone won’t automatically get downloads for purchases made by someone else in your Family Sharing circle, or those made on a device you left at home while you’re travelling.

Fake Safari update installs MacKeeper, ZipCloud

Last week a new version of the InstallCore installer was discovered that displays an unpleasant new trick: it pretends to be a Safari update!

Clicking the Update Now button downloaded a disk image file named “Apple Safari Setup.dmg”.
The installer on that disk image did not look like an Apple installer at all. Continuing with the installation resulted in being asked to accept the “Search-Assist” extension for Safari, with a big “Yahoo!” logo at the top of the window.

Next was acceptance of the installation of MacKeeper (BAD), though the text was relatively small and uniform, and the familiar MacKeeper logo was nowhere to be seen. Finally, I had to accept the installation of ZipCloud.

As a result, both MacKeeper and ZipCloud were installed and opened automatically. Although no browser extensions were successfully installed, both Chrome and Firefox had their preferences modified. Both browsers had their home pages and search engines set to a Yahoo “Search BOSS” page it also had the effect of completely breaking Safari on my 10.9.5 system.

Victims of this malicious installer should immediately remove both MacKeeper and ZipCloud, of course, but should also reinstall OS X. This will overwrite Safari and its support files with fresh copies.

Adware

Adware is a rapidly-growing menace on the Mac. Adware programs are multiplying like the proverbial rabbits. Worse, most of them aren’t detected in any way by any anti-virus software, including Apple’s built-in anti-malware protection. Even when one is detected by anti-virus software, allowing that software to remove the detected files often won’t fully remove the adware.

The best way to avoid adware is to pay close attention to what you’re downloading. Adware typically comes attached to (or in place of) junk software offered by bad sites, or sometimes a bad site will wrap legitimate software in an adware installer. Obviously, you need to avoid such untrustworthy downloads.

However, there is one thing that adware almost always does that will help you identify it: present a license agreement! License agreements are often displayed by installers, requiring the user to click an “Agree” button or something similar, and people typically just click whatever button they need to to make this go away and get on with the installation. Don’t do that! Get in the habit of at least skimming those license agreements, and if you’re being asked for permission to install something other than the software you intended to download, quit the installer and trash it.

If you think you might be infected with some kind of adware bring your computer in and we’ll thoroughly check it out.

iOS Tip 89 - Shut it Down

Today's tip was inspired by an acquaintance who asked for help in buying a new iPad. Knowing that they had a fourth-generation iPad -- not far removed from the current iPad Air 2, I asked why. "Doesn't work anymore," they grumbled resentfully. "Lots of crashes, some apps don't even launch now." I asked if it had ever been turned off. "Every night," they said. I said, "no, not put to sleep -- turned off." "You can do that?!" they exclaimed.

You may laugh but you’d be shocked how often I run across people who have never, ever, years since they got their iOS device, restarted it or powered it down. Ever. It's a real testament to how solid iOS is, but no OS is impervious to faults, particularly with a long uptime and limited RAM as the iPad has.

If you haven't done it in a while yourself, do it now: turn off your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. You just press and hold the sleep/wake button for a few seconds, and a red slider bar will appear which you can then slide. Depending on how full your device is and how long ago you last did this, you may get a faint "busy circle" symbol for a few moments on a black screen before the unit goes entirely black, indicating that it is finally off.

Once that's happened, you can turn it back on in the same way: you'll see an Apple logo to assure you that you've turned it on, and shortly the familiar login screen will appear. For those in a big hurry, there is a faster method: press and hold both the home and sleep/wake button for a few seconds. This will trigger an immediate reboot.

How often should you do this? As preventative maintenance, I'll say once every few months, let's say quarterly. On the equinoxes, if you like. It's up to you, but don't wait too long. If your iOS apps start crashing, a restart is the first and primary step you as a user can take, and the good news is it works 90-plus percent of the time.

If this doesn’t help the next “fix” is to restore the device to factory settings - so BACK IT UP to iTunes on your computer. Restore sets the device back to factory settings and DELETES all your stuff: video, pictures, game scores ….