iOS Tip 123 - Delete Safari Search and Browsing History

Safari for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch allows users to clear all caches, website data, and history together in one fell swoop, but sometimes you may want to be more discerning than that. The latest versions of Safari for iPhone and iPad allow users to delete Safari website data, searches, cookies, cache, and Safari activity from the past hour, today only, or today and yesterday. This is a great solution if you want to wipe Safari browser data over a recent period of time, rather than everything for all time, though you can continue to do that from iOS Safari too if you wish.

This is great for when you forget to use Private Browsing mode in Safari for iOS, since it allows you to remove website history, searches, and browsing data after the fact, at whatever time interval is appropriate.

Keep in mind this removes not only Safari data from the local device, but also from iCloud connected Safari devices as well. Because of how iCloud works, if you didn’t do it this way, the Safari caches, search history, and browser data would remain on other iOS devices.

Open Safari and tap on the bookmark icon (it looks like an open book)

Choose the bookmark tab, again this looks like an open book, then tap on “History” near the top of the screen

In the bottom right corner of the History view, tap the “Clear” button, then choose one of the following options:

The last hour – removes all history of web activity in Safari from the past hour
Today – removes any and all web history from Safari in the current day
Today and yesterday – same as before, plus removes website data from the prior day as well
All Time – this removes all Safari data from all time, like going through Settings in iOS to delete all website data

When finished, tap on “Done” in the corner of the History section of Safari to return to Safari as usual.

The effect is immediate and the removal of all website data in Safari occurs on the local iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as well as carrying over to other iCloud connected devices using the same Apple ID. The reason data is removed from iCloud devices as well is because otherwise someone could simply pick up a related device using the same iCloud account and find the same browser data and history that was just deleted, which defeats the purpose for multi-device users and situations.

Of course, if you don’t want to delete everything from a given time period, another option is to delete individual specific pages from Safari history in iOS if you only have a page or two that you want removed from your Safari activity on a device. And ultimately, if you’re finding yourself removing website data and history often, you may want to just get in the habit of using Private Browsing mode in Safari on iOS, which prevents any of it from being kept in the first place.

iOS Tip 122 - Avoid Unwanted Cellular Useage

Turn Off iOS 9 Wi-Fi Assist to Avoid Unwanted Cellular Usage

Hidden deep in iOS 9 is a setting that Apple intended to improve your iPhone experience. Called Wi-Fi Assist, it enables iOS 9 to use cellular data automatically when Wi-Fi connectivity is poor. That’s a nice idea, but it also means that your iPhone (or cellular iPad) may use lots of expensive cellular data when you’re not expecting it to. If you worry about cellular overage charges, turn this feature off in Settings > Cellular > Wi-Fi Assist (it’s near the bottom).

iOS Tip 121 - Enable Wi-Fi Calling

Enable Wi-Fi Calling to Improve Call Quality

If you use AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint in the United States with an iPhone 6 or later, you can turn on a feature in iOS 9 that enables your iPhone to send calls over a Wi-Fi network (and thus the Internet) rather than relying on spotty cellular coverage. It’s especially helpful in thick-walled buildings that block cellular signals. To enable it, go to Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling and run through a few screens that explain the service. You'll be asked to provide an address, so your carrier can associate that address with your call if you make an emergency 911 call over Wi-Fi. (When you call 911 over a cellular connection, the 911 operator will automatically see your actual location; if you turn on Wi-Fi Calling and Wi-Fi is used for your emergency call because cellular won’t work, the operator will receive the address that you provided, regardless of your location.)

iOS Tip 120 - Manage Your Storage

iPhone/iPad have pretty awesome cameras and they are pretty awesome displays for photos as well. They’re actually such awesome cameras that almost everyone fills them up with pictures, and then you’re out of space and can’t take any more photos. To see what’s taking up space navigate to a breakdown of what’s taking up space and how much.

Go to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage. Under the heading of Storage you’ll see Used (what’s actually taken up on your phone) and Available (how much free space you have). There is another option, Manage Storage, which gives you a breakdown of how much space each app is taking up as well as the option to remove that app and its data right from there.
Photos & Camera is the number one culprit for taking up space on most of the phones I see. It’s just so easy to take photos like crazy and run out of space. The biggest culprit is videos; a short video can take up more space than a few dozen photos, or maybe even a hundred or more, depending on the length of the video.

There are a number of different storage options solutions. A common one is to move them onto your computer and remove them from your iPhone. Another one is to upload them to an online service like Backblaze (cheaper than iCloud unlimited storage for $5.00/month) or use iCloud Photo Library. You may need to pay for extra iCloud storage space, but $0.99 per month gets 50GB. It can take hours or even days to upload an entire Photo Library, depending on the size and the upload speed, but it’s really great when it all gets uploaded. There are two options: Optimize iPhone Storage, meaning you get a low resolution thumbnail on the device and a full version available to download in iCloud, and when you try to view that photo it will download for your viewing. The other is Download and Keep Originals. I do that on my Mac, where I have a ton of available space, but not on my phone.

No matter which solution you use remember that if your iPad or iPhone is having a problem one of the "fixes" is to restore the device to factory settings. That means ALL YOUR PICTURES and contacts, videos etc, get erased. Get into the habit of backing up, whether to your computer or an online service.

iOS Tip 119 - Undo Slow Motion Video

Capturing a slow motion video with the iPhone camera is great, and it’s a wonderful effect for many events and scenes you’re recording, unless of course you didn’t mean to record the video in slow motion in the first place. Additionally, sometimes you may have changed your mind after recording a slow motion video and want to change the movie back to regular speed. Whatever the case, converting anything captured in slow motion back to a regular speed video on the iPhone is quite easy.

This works with all slow motion recorded video regardless of the capture speed. Once you have converted the video, if you share the newly regular speed movie it can not be made into a slow motion video again unless the original file is modified.

Using the same adjustment tool to change the portion of video that is maintained in slow motion you can also remove the slow motion effects, effectively converting a video back to regular speed:

Open the Photos app and locate and tap on the slow motion video you want to convert to regular speed

Tap on the “Edit” button

Use the two little sliders in the slow motion timeline to shrink the slow motion portion of the timeline until they join into one, eliminating all slow motion from the video

Tap on “Done” to save the changes and convert the video to regular speed

Now that the video is saved at regular speed you can share it, upload it to social media, or just keep it on your iPhone as a normal speed movie.

There are other ways of converting slow motion video as well, including using iMovie and uploading to various services, but using the built-in Photos app movie adjustment tool is by far the simplest way and it requires no additional apps or downloads. This does require a modern version of iOS however, and earlier versions of iPhone and iPad without the proper camera support won’t have the feature as part of iOS at all.

iOS Tip 118 - Sharing Notes

You can do a lot with the new Notes (see also Tip 104 Drawing Tools) app for iPhone and iPad. You can even send links, locations, photos, videos and much more to a new or existing note from a whole bunch of different places. This can be super convenient if you're brainstorming ideas and collecting information or inspiration for a new project.

The share feature works with a host of stock iOS apps such as Safari, Maps, Photos, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and can even link to content in Apple Music and Podcasts. It also appears to work seamlessly for Google Chrome, Google Maps and photo files on your Google Drive.

It works the same for each app once you get to the Share pop-up window. NOTE: You phone must be updated to iOS9 or later to use these features, and your Mac must be running OS X El Capitan or later to sync them. If you're using an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, you can use 3D Touch to preview the links in the Notes app.

Send a link from Safari to Notes:

1. Launch Safari from your Home screen
2. Browse to the page you intend to share.
3. Tap the Share icon. It's the box with the arrow pointing up on the bottom toolbar.
4. Tap the Notes icon.
5. Enter text you want to accompany the link.
6. Choose the note you want to send the link to, or choose to send it to a new note.
7. Tap Save.

The next time you open that note in the Notes app, the link will be added to the bottom of the document. When you click onthe link it, it will open in Safari. This is the same process you would use for Google Chrome or any other browser that supports sharing to Notes. Notes, however, will use Safari to load links by default.

iOS Tip 117 - Replace Frayed Cables

Just before the New Year, Fox News reported that an iPhone 6 Plus allegedly caught fire while it was charging. Now this isn't the first such report that I’ve heard of, but when I looked at the images something struck me - how ratty looking the charging cable was.

Here's a screen grab of the image in question:

Now before you all jump to tell me how bad Apple's cables are, save yourself the typing. I know I use and sell their products.

Once frayed they're potentially dangerous. An iPhone charger puts out 5 volts at 5 watts/1 amp (an iPad charger puts out 12 watts/2.1 amps), and while that doesn't sound like much, it's more than enough power to cause overheating and the beginnings of a fire. On top of that, a frayed cable can also cook the battery by causing a short circuit, which again can result in a fire.

Apple recommends that you charge its devices using genuine Apple chargers and cables. If you're going to replace old charger or cables, do so with either a genuine Apple part or a decent third-party product (preferably one featuring the "Made for iPhone" logo).

I can't comment on whether the cable had anything to do with the fire in the report, but I certainly would not use a cable in that state. I seen cables that have been repaired but that’s usually a temporary solution. The safest thing to do is to replace any damaged cables.