iOS 9: The Best Hidden Features

With the introduction of the Apple iOS9, tons of new features and functionality were discussed on various platforms when it was unveiled to the public. However, people are still wondering as to which could be the most exciting feature o fall. Not to worry, we would be covering on a lot today.

There will be a new Home Screen on the device. Users will get all the stories that they are interested in or they like in one place. This will ensure that there is absolutely no need to hunt around sites and applications to get what one might be interested in. The specific information is pulled out from various places as per the taste and specification and arranged in a fashion as preferred by the user. So, when it comes to going through information, it is definitely a beautiful experience irrespective of the type of device being used for the same.

Improved note taking and updation: 

Taking down notes has been a time tested activity and its app format – The Notes app is simply great for taking down notes. Additionally, one is also able to add pictures, site links or maps to the notes. It is even possible to draw a sketch using the finger. And, using the iCloud, any change done would be updated across all the devices that are linked. This ensures that there is only one standard version of version of information, thereby ensuring real-time updation of information and eliminating the chances of any misinterpretation.

Improved options for navigation: 

Travelling will be a new experience with this new OS. The Transit view displays routes, lines and tracks for trains, buses, ferries, etc. in the form of a map. This implies that travelling from one point to another is going to happen in a smooth way, even if it is a new place. Though this feature is available in a limited cities, however, things are expanding pretty fast. The application will show different categories like Food, Fun, Drinks, etc. and users will have to make the selection accordingly to get what they want.

Pay the bills or make purchases conveniently: 

The Apple Pay is another useful feature to make payments using the credit card. The Wallet function is simple to use and easy to access. Even the Kohl’s Charge card can be used with the Apple Pay. Things are underway to include store credit cards along with a range of reward cards so that everything can be managed by a single tap of the Apple Pay app.

SIRI enhancements: 

There have been dramatic improvements and Siri is able to fetch information, much like google, even if there’s no command given. Moreover, it can now recognize the pattern of usage and function accordingly. SIRI has been improved with voice command recognition as well. The notification and alert features too, have been updated.

iOS9 has brought key enhancements for the apps that one frequently uses like email, text messaging, maps, Internet or site browsing, taking notes and a lot of other things. Hence, those equipped with iPads and iPhones are bound to have a good experience once they start using their favorite apps.

Apple recalls power adapters for iOS and Mac products in several countries after shock risk

Apple Recall of Power Adapters – iOS/Mac

Apple, the tech giant, has delivered a recall of power adapters for Mac computers and some of the iOS devices which had been sold 12 years have been found to cause risk of electrical shock. The recall does not seems to touch UK power adapters though the two prong version that were sold in continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Brazil and Argentina were all subject to it together with the World Travel Adapter Kit of the company that had been sold in the UK.

It was observed by the tech company that in very rare cases, the adapter tend to break and create an electrical shock risk. The company stated that they were aware of 12 incidents where the same had occurred. Those which were not affected were the ones sold in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, UK and US. To know if an adapter can be returned, one needs to check the back and read the series of characters on the interior slot.

Affected two prong plug adapter would tend to have four or five characters or no characters on the inner side of the slot where it attaches to the main Apple power adapter. According to Apple, if it is a four or five character number, it should be returned. However if it tends to bear regional letters like `EUR’ then it is considered ok.

Verify Serial Number – Part of Exchange Procedure

User would have to verify their Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad serial number as a part of the exchange procedure and this can be obtained by syncing the device with iTunes. On the other hand users could use a Mac and get the serial number from `About This Mac menu’.

Users using an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or iPod could get the number in Settings, General and About, on an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or iPod. The company has requested customers to stop utilising affected plug adapters and to visit the support site for information on how to exchange the adapters that were affected for new, redesigned ones.

The support page of Apple for the incident has stated that users could return their adapters for redesigned ones, by contacting customer support or at an Apple Store. Apple has mentioned that the `customer safety is Apple’s top priority and that they have voluntarily decided to exchange affected wall plug adapters with a new, redesigned adapter at no charge’.

Visit Apple Site for Replacement

Apple had offered to replace some of the adapters for their iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S in Europe in 2014, after it was found to be overheated. Though the recall does not seem to directly affect the Indian consumers, several of the Indians could have purchased the products of Apple with affected adapters from the affected countries during 2003 and 2015.

As a means of precaution, it is advised to visit the Apple site in order to get a replacement. This could affect the company’s stock and its image and this year has not been very good for Apple with the slowdown in the sales and revenues of iPhone and a recall has been a little unwelcome

How to Determine the Effectiveness of a Disaster Recovery Plan

With more and more businesses and companies relying on their IT systems, having a suitable disaster recovery plan has become almost compulsory. Any downtime of critical systems could very quickly cascade into a loss of revenue, and so having a disaster recovery plan that is ready to kick in and restore these systems as quickly as possible is crucial.

In the past most disaster recovery plans pivoted around the idea of having comprehensive backups in place that could be used when anything happened. Still, the process of rebuilding a server and restoring the backups used to be rather lengthy and translate into several days of downtime. Nowadays that is no longer the case and new technology has come in that significantly improves the timeframe for full restoration – even to the point where it should take just a few hours.

It is important that you look closely at your disaster recovery plan and analyze its effectiveness from time to time. When you do, some of the areas that you should look at include:

• Location

Assuming a physical disaster occurs, it is important that any backup and recovery options that you have in play are located far enough away from your main servers that they won’t be affected. Whether it is a power outage or earthquake or some other natural disaster – the actual location of your backups does matter.

• Frequency of back-ups

Generally speaking, backing up data more frequently is better – but the actual optimal frequency will vary from company to company. Some companies may be able to get by with daily backups (i.e. losing 24 hours of data at most might not be crippling) whereas others may require a much higher frequency and need to be backed up every 15 minutes.

• Back-up integrity checks

To ensure that your back-ups are ready to use in case of a disaster, their integrity needs to be checked from time to time. Once again this will vary on a case-by-case basis, with some companies requiring an integrity check on a daily or weekly basis while others do so quarterly.

• Time to partial and full restoration

Partial restoration normally refers to restoring data to the point where the company is able to access it, whereas full restoration refers to ‘normal’ usage being restored. With virtualization, it is possible for your server to be virtualized using a data center in just a matter of hours – but not all recovery plans will allow for this.

As you can see, analyzing the effectiveness of a disaster recovery plan could have a huge effect on whether or not you’re able to get your server up and running as soon as possible while minimizing (or eliminating) the loss of important data. While it is true that disaster recovery will incur some additional costs, when you consider the fact that it is balanced out against the risk of severe downtime that could affect your revenue then it is easy to put it into perspective.

Apple Invention Uses Spherically Curved Photosensor for Smaller, Better iPhone Camera

Apple’s Curved Photosensors – Smaller iPhone Cameras

Latest Apple patent discloses that the Cupertino Company would soon employ curved photosensors in creating smaller iPhone cameras which can capture improved photos. The design would aid Apple in its task of making the forthcoming smartphone much thinner.

The U.S, Patent and Trademark Office had recently published `Small form factor high-resolutions camera’ describing a cutting edge mobile camera module which utilises complex optics in delivering a much compact footprint with enhanced performance digital shooter suitable for placement in iPad and iPhone.

This exclusive arrangement offers a comparatively small ray fan spot size for all kinds of field heights at the image plane enabling a sharp low-distortion image. Apple has informed that employing curved array limits diffraction across image field, enabling smaller photosensor with equally smaller pixels. Moreover, with an axial length of two millimetres or less, the total camera package is extremely compact.

Sensor Refracts Light Through Trio Lenses

Apple has illuminated how the sensor tends to refract light through a trio of special lenses on a concave surface causing a sharp, low distortion image. The curved array limits diffraction, enables the use of smaller sensor with smaller pixels. AppleInsider has explained that to correct the diffraction as well as the visual aberration which tends to propagate within small cameras, the proposed lens system comprises of three lenses, two of which are convex or considerably convex.

A third meniscus lens or a lens with opposing convex as well as concave surfaces is placed between the first two lens components and the spherical photosensor. However the design seems to have its limitation like barrel distortion and Apple has described how it could use software in correcting the unwanted effects that tend to appear in various degrees of severity based on focal length, aperture as well as other system settings. It is not known whether Apple plans to apply its curved photosensor patent for its future iPhones since the company has relied for long on Sony’s stellar backside illuminated modules for its imaging requirements.

iPhone Thinner/Higher Battery Capacity

The patent had first been filed in 2013 and there seems to be no reason to think that Apple would be willing in replacing the Sony built imaging system already in use. Apple iPhone has been considered as having one of the best smartphone cameras all along. On the contrary, Apple has been looking for means of making the iPhone thinner with a higher battery capacity.

Credit for the patent filed goes to Xi Chen, David S. Gere and Matthew C. Waldon as its inventors. The technology could delay the unavoidable while Apple tends to cram more components in a shrinking device line-up. As in the case of every patent, there is no guarantee that this technology would show up in the near future devices though it is good to know that Apple tends to keep pushing the boundaries with its technology.

With rumours of a FaceTime camera set to make an appearance with the Apple Watch 2 this year, 2016 could probably be the year Apple may come up with one of the smallest and the highest quality cameras one has ever seen.

You can finally disable the iPhone's Default Apps

An Option for Disabling iPhone’s Default Apps

The latest versions of Apple iOS 9 enables users to delete over 30 stock apps built-in, on iPhone. It began with Stocks wherein Apple then added Maps, iBook, Watch, Health, Tips and much more. Presently there are 32 apps on the iPhone which the users are unable to erase.

Most of them seem to be necessary such as Settings, Phone and App Store while the others like Find Friends and Podcasts are seldom used by several users. For many years, user have been finding ways of deleting some of the default apps on the phone while others have accumulated them in a folder in the hope of ignoring them as much as they can.

However, there is now another option for disabling the iPhone’s default apps though it is only available to Apple developers and one may have to pay £79, together with a bit of technical confidence and a full reset of the phone. Being complicated, it recommends that Apple could eventually be ready to permit users in eliminating the default apps. Users who intend to have an easier option of removing the apps, could follow a method which enables them to do it by downloading any special software but the apps tends to return when the phone is turned off and on again,

How to Remove Default Apps

It has been revealed by Reddit user bfodder on how iPhone users who had downloaded the beta version of the new iOS 9.3 software by using a beta version of Apple’s Configurator program enabled businesses as well as school in managing the devices to get rid of stock apps. To remove the default apps one can:

•  Sign up for the iOS beta programme to enable the download of iOS 9.3 public beta, though the full release is not yet out. A full guide is provided on signing for the beta programme including backing of the device. 
•  Once done, then go to Settings > General > Software Update in order to download the iOS 9.3 beta 
•  Then download Apple Configurator 2.2 beta which needs an Apple developer membership cost of £79 
•  Users could then set up a configuration on selecting the option of `Do not allow some apps’ On entering the commands of these apps such as `com.apple.stocks’ for Stocks they can be detached from the iPhone.

System Removes Apps But Returns on Restart

This system which was introduced last year in iOS 9 tends to remove apps though they would return when the phone would restart. This is how it tends to work:

•  Put the app you intend to delete in a folder 
•  Press and hold on the apps till they begin jiggling as though you were to delete or move the app 
•  Drag the app towards the edge of the folder in order to move, so that it moves the next page of the folder, but keep the app in place when the page has been moved 
•  While holding the app, press the home button which should fly off the edge of the screen

Last year, Tim Cook, Chief executive of Apple had stated that the company had been looking for ways of allowing users to remove default apps, but some apps like Phone were linked to functions in iOS , which meant that deleting them could have resulted in problems or rendering the phone to be less capable. Though the latest iOS trick needs difficult work-around, it could be headway for the feature to be utilised more extensively