Apple iPhone School

My First Day With iOS 7

Douglas — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:26:32 +0000

After downloading and installing iOS 7 on my iPhone 5, I’ve had just one day to see what I think. Don’t forget, this is the first beta firmware of a major redesign so there is still room for improvement. First, the design itself is just ok. It makes me feel like Apple is trying to keep up with Windows or Android phones. That makes me sad. I’d rather see them lead than follow. The design isn’t horrible but it just doesn’t feel totally Apple. Besides the look, I have a few things that I really don’t like. Here’s some of my observations after the first day.

Folders

I like that you can scroll in folders now, but I was doing that before with a hack called Infinifolders. I know what Apple is trying to do here, they want the folders view to look like a big icon so when you open a folder the transition looks nice. The problem is you can only see 9 apps at a time. There is a lot of wasted space going on. And when you have a folder with a lot of apps in it, it’s a long process to get to the app you want. I do like the big folder title at the top. And, if you add some emoticons in there, they are big and clear.

3D Wallpaper

I’m not sure what Apple calls this… I must have missed it. Basically your wallpaper moves behind your icons as you tilt your iPhone to make it appear 3D. This works on the lock screen as well as your home screen. They’ve tried really hard, even making the icon badges move but honestly, it does nothing for me. It’s a bit glitchy, not smooth and looks nothing like it does in their video. Not impressed. As a side note, they do have “dynamic” wallpaper which is like video wallpaper. Not sure how to get more of those but there are two that are included. They move slowly but again, glitchy.

Battery Life

Horrible. Again, this is a beta so this is pretty typical, but my iPhone 5 that was jailbroke with a ton of hacks ran way cooler and lasted longer. Now, my iPhone is quite warm most of the time and I’m pretty much keeping it plugged in any time I’m at my desk or in the car. We’ll assume this will improve with new betas and the final release. I do like the new look of the charging symbol that flashes next to the battery bar while charging and the one that appears on the lock screen when you plug the device in.

Bugs

The first thing a lot of people ask me is, “Is it really buggy?” I’d say no. I’ve had a few small things here and there but this beta is actually really good. I’m always afraid that some app won’t work or a feature will be totally missing and then I can’t do my job. But so far, it’s been fully functional.

Siri

Siri has not been updated yet with the new voice and it still works about half the time for me. But the new controls work well and even give you quick access to the settings when requesting things like more brightness.

Swiping

So there is a new feature that allows you to swipe in from the left of your iPhone to go back a screen. Great idea, one problem… I swipe that direction to delete emails and now that doesn’t work. You have to start from the right. Annoying. :( It is nice not to reach clear to the top left side of the screen with my right thumb to go back but I’m not sure which feature I’d rather have.

Control Center

This is a great feature and is basically SBSettings. I like the flashlight button and quick access to brightness, wifi and rotation lock. I wish you could customize it a little more. I don’t need quick access to the calculator or clock but would like to put a couple of other apps there.

Movement

Not sure what to call this but the motion between apps, the way the apps open, the lock screen fading in and out and the new animations that Apple is using are nice. It’s a fresh update to a five year old design. I just have to get used to the colors!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer you. Thanks!

iOS 7 – Complete Redesign & New Features

Douglas — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:06:37 +0000

Yesterday, Apple announced a new version of iOS firmware, iOS 7. The biggest change is that the look of the whole software has been changed. Not the way it works or where things are but the colors, icons, lock screen, and just the way it moves as you open and close apps. iOS 7 will be available on the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, iPod touch (5th Gen), iPad 2, iPad with Retina & iPad mini.

Some features will not be available to all devices. Here’s what Apple’s website says about what devices will get which features:

Features are subject to change. Not all features are available on all devices.
Panorama format is available on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPod touch (5th generation).
Square and video formats and swipe to capture are available on iPhone 4 or later, iPad (3rd generation or later), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation).
Filters in Camera are available on iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation).
Filters in Photos are available on iPhone 4 or later, iPad (3rd generation or later), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation).
AirDrop is available on iPhone 5, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires an iCloud account.
Siri is available on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad with Retina display, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires Internet access.

Here is a photo gallery of some of the new designs and features.

Video

Broken Mute Switch, Power/Lock Button or Home Button? Fix with AssistiveTouch

Douglas — Sat, 25 May 2013 12:20:07 +0000

Back in July of 2011 we wrote about a new feature coming to iOS 5 called AssistiveTouch. This new feature gives you lots of control over the hardware of the iPhone using just the touch screen. It’s original purpose is to help those with physical handicaps. Now, unfortunately, this feature is being used by many to solve problems with their iPhone’s hardware fails. Personally, my iPhone 5′s Power/Lock button works only about 10% of the time and only if I press really hard on the left side of the button. My wife’s iPhone 4S’s mute switch no longer works. And many of my friends have had the home buttons of their iPhone 4 and 4S stop working. This includes ours also.

To solve these hardware problems, just go to your Settings app > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch and turn it on. You will then see a glowing home button that you can drag around your screen. Personally, I think it’s annoying to have it on all the time so, just under the AssistiveTouch setting there is a Triple-Click setting. Set this to AssistiveTouch and now tripple clicking your home button will enable or diable this feature. Obviously, if your home button doesn’t work then that feature is useless.

I hope this helps those of you who are out of warranty and have a broken device. Let us know if you have other tips for those with broken hardware.

Video

FolderCloser – Automatically Close Folder on App Launch

Douglas — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:27:21 +0000

One thing that has always annoyed me is when I have apps in folders and the folder is still open after I close the app. Most of the time I don’t want to go back to that folder after I’m done using the app. So, this app simply closes the folder automatically as the app opens. This app goes great with an app called HomePage that scrolls your home screen back to the first page as an app opens so when you close the app you see the first page of your apps. Both apps are free and a great way to customize your device!

ScreenShots

FaceDetectionDuringVideo

Douglas — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:42:18 +0000

Face Detection is a feature of the iPhone that adapts the focus & exposure automatically when a face is present in the shot. This feature is only active when taking a picture but this hack allows it to work actively when shooting video. This is really nice as the environment can change quickly during a video and typically you want the video focused on faces if they are part of the shot. This hack is available in Cydia for free.

ScreenShots

AccuWeather Update Getting Poor Reviews

Douglas — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:10:54 +0000

AccuWeather recently updated their iPhone app and I have to say that I do not like it. It had a nice clean design with iPhone style graphics. It functioned. I finally had it figured out since the last update changed so much. Now the new app is ugly, clunky and unorganized. You’ll see there are a lot of grab handles that require you to swipe to get to more data which takes more steps to get to the same info as before. Here’s a before and after of some of the screens and lots of unhappy tweets. What do you think of the new update? Do you have another weather app that you’d recommend to others wanting to switch?

ScreenShots

Tweets

https://twitter.com/h_wolfe58/status/315678619936624640

https://twitter.com/bryce__day/status/315872199170994176

https://twitter.com/KelS609/status/316011921843318784

https://twitter.com/disturbedcrime/status/316015362682519553

https://twitter.com/burakaydik/status/316662044495605761

https://twitter.com/kmc1970/status/316600224187568128

https://twitter.com/DanMeadDesign/status/316539810628124674

https://twitter.com/BLDavid7/status/316510469605167104

https://twitter.com/dualcyclone/status/316456867641585664

https://twitter.com/Emilyyyhhh/status/316364621948805120

https://twitter.com/rayryan6/status/315258943612014592

https://twitter.com/bendy/status/316304788889427968

https://twitter.com/itskatywithay/status/316292995609673729

https://twitter.com/accuweather/status/316279712257286144

https://twitter.com/checkypantz/status/316140985702809600

https://twitter.com/agoeddeke/status/316190758065541122

https://twitter.com/halliwellrach/status/316122541150310401

https://twitter.com/deililly/status/315963787909935105

https://twitter.com/accuweather/status/315947283428569089

Nexa & Prime – 2 Clean Fonts for BytaFont

Douglas — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:11:13 +0000

BytaFont is a great way to make a huge change to the look of your iPhone. You can change the fonts of your Dialer, Calculator, Keyboard, Lockscreen Clock, Notes and the entire system. BytaFont needs to update to get every font working in iOS 6.1 so if you see a couple places where the font hasn’t changed, hopefully there will be an update soon. Here are a couple that I’ve been using latley since I’ve jailbroken my iPhone 5.

Nexa

Prime

AppCap – Add Day, Time, Frequency and WiFi Restrictions to Apps

Brooke — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:24:36 +0000

AppCap is a hack that allows you to set parameters on the day, time, amount of time and the number of times you can launch an application. When I heard about this hack, I knew I would have to check it out. We have four boys and our oldest, who is six, is extremely iPhone savvy… like father, like son. He does really well following the guidelines we put on his phone and it has a password that we have to enter before he is able to use it but an extra precaution couldn’t hurt right. Or, not going to lie, I might use this app to keep myself off Facebook!!

AppCap actually has quite a few options in the setting allowing the ability to be pretty specific about when the app can be used. You are able to set the number of times you can launch an app in a day (ex. the app can only be open 4 times a day), a duration of time in which the app can be launched (ex. between 7:00pm-9:00pm), the frequency in which the app can be used (ex. the app can only be used once every 4 hours), the days of the week an app can be opened (ex. it can only be opened on Saturday) and whether the app can only be launched while on WiFi or even a specific WiFi network. All of these settings can be used together. For example, you could set an app to only launch on a Saturday between 8:00pm and 10:00pm.

The only issue I have with this application is that it only allows the ability to restrict one application at a time. It would be nice to be able to create a list of apps and be able to restrict each one uniquely. It would also be sweet if there was an option to put a password on the AppCap settings. Though, overall, a nice little hack.

Note: If you have any difficultly getting the app to work correctly just toggle it on/off.

ScreenShots

NCSettings – System Toggles for Notification Center

Brooke — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:00:52 +0000

I discovered this hack on accident… kind of. NCSettings is a toggle hack and I already have SBSettings installed (another toggle hack). I wasn’t really looking to replace it, however I was looking for an easier way to toggle my mute on/off. Why you ask… because my mute switch is broken. Sad day. I blame it on children. The need to turn the mute switch on and off a million times a day apparently was not tested thoroughly. Apple really should have tested the mute switch on mothers of young children. ANYWAY… my mute switch is broken and I was getting seriously sick of moving my Accessibility AssistiveTouch button around constantly so that I could tap on things. And then Evasi0n was released and there were tears of joy (ok, there were not really tears of joy but I was happy).

NCSettings is a hack that adds a list of toggles to your Notification Center. It’s a clean little hack that allows you to toggle 18 different functions. There are also a few convenient customization options such as the ability to add/remove toggles from the display, ability to choose the number of toggles displayed before scrolling, etc. A few things I like about NCSettings are that it takes up very little space in the Notification Center and it is super clean… just icons. It did take me a little while to remember which icon stood for which function but, the mind adapts. Oh, I almost forgot, I also love that I can toggle my flash from there as well. No more searching for my flashlight app!

You will find the options for NCSettings in the stock Settings application.

Note: Don’t forget to go into the Notifications option in your Settings app and move NCSettings up into the active apps list. I moved NCSettings all the way to the top of my list so that it would display first in my Notification Center… since it is so pretty and all.

ScreenShots

Subway Surfers – Video App Review

Douglas — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 21:28:39 +0000

Denver, my son, wanted to show you his most recent favorite game in the App Store. It’s called Subway Surfers and it’s a lot like Temple Run only you’re running from the police… The goal is to collect coins to get upgrades like fasters shoes and different characters. Check out the video and download it free in the App Store.