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 ….

iOS Tip 88 - Reset Siri

Did you know that the longer you use Siri, the better Apple’s voice assistant will work? It’s true. Here’s how Apple puts it on their “About Siri” support page:

"The more you use Siri, the better it will understand you. It does this by learning about your accent and other characteristics of your voice. Siri uses voice recognition algorithms to categorize your voice into one of the dialects or accents it understands."

Neat! This means, though, that if someone else has used Siri on your device a lot, the service may not function as well as it could. So if you’re noticing that your commands aren’t being recognized or Siri’s making a bunch of errors, you could try resetting its training altogether and starting fresh. This is easy to do, but note that you can’t undo it—so don’t walk through these steps if your version of Siri is working well!

Anyhow, you’ll need to turn two options within Settings off. The first is under Settings> General> Siri—it’s the choice at the top. When you attempt to turn that off, it’ll warn you, but you’ll also see some important information.

As that warning suggests, you’ll need to then go to Settings> General> Keyboards and toggle off “Enable Dictation” to make sure that Siri’s data is well and truly gone.

Once both of those options are off, go ahead and turn them back on, and you should have a clean slate with Siri. Want the Siri command "bible"? email Dave and he'll send a copy to you.

Apple issues driver update for Windows 7, 8 on Macs

Improves FaceTime compatibility with Boot Camp-based installs.

In a seeming coincidence to being the day Microsoft has launched its latest version of Windows, on Wednesday Apple released a driver update for those running Windows 7 and Windows 8 on their 2015 series MacBook computers, including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and the latest Retina MacBook. The update is a FaceTime Camera driver update that improves compatibility with Windows when using Boot Camp-based installations.
The update applies only to those MacBook models released or updated in 2015, and comes on the heels of a 2015-specific firmware update for the latest MacBook Pro. The new driver is recommended for all Boot Camp users whose machines meet the qualifications. The update is currently available only through Apple's support site, but will eventually be available through Software Update in the Mac App Store for affected owners.

Make Your Own Mix Tape!

If you'd like to send your friends and family your custom Apple Music playlists, it's really easy to do. It's sort of like creating a mixtape for them! Now that a ton of people have signed up for the service's free trial, it's also the perfect time to share playlists—everyone using Apple Music can listen to the music you choose. We're all about sending digital mixtapes to each other in today's
On the iPad you can just pick the“Playlists” tab without going to“My Music” first.

See that small “New” button I’ve indicated in my screenshot above? That’s where you’ll start a fresh playlist for your recipient if you’d like to. You can give it a custom title and image, add a description, and so on. Personalize the heck out of it!

After you add all of the songs you want, touch “Done.” Then you can share that playlist (or any of your other existing ones) by tapping on the ellipsis icon next to it.

Your recipient will get a link through whatever service you chose.

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iOS Tip 87 - Camera Connection Kit

Apple's proprietary Camera Connection Kit allows you to transfer full-resolution photos and videos from your digital camera to your iPad without the need for a computer. When connected iPhoto will open and allow you to import all or selected photos. You can stop in our store and pick one up or order it from the Apple Store.

iOS Tip 86 - Show Photos on Maps

Being able to see where you've taken photos can be very helpful if you want an overview of which photos you've taken near certain locations. Previous iOS versions highlighted this feature very prominently, but with the advent of iOS 7 and iOS 8, this feature is a little more hidden. To see your photos on a map, try these steps:
1 Open the Photos app
2 Select the Photos tab
3 Locate a header above the photos for a particular date and location, and then tap the location
When you do this, it will show that collection of photos on a map. However, if you wish to see all of your photos for a particular year on a map, navigate back to the Years section, and tap a year header. When you do this, all the photos taken that year will be displayed on a map.