Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Day #3 Review

Camera and Photos apps.

Turn on the Grid for taking pictures. Open Settings > Camera > Grid > ON.
Now the Grid is visible when using the Camera, align the horizon or straight lines to a grid line. The grid lines will not be recorded with the photo.

A fun thing to do with photos is to set your device Wallpaper for the Lock Screen or Home Screens. In Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper > ... choose from Apple images or from your albums.

Photos can easily take up both device storage space or iCloud storage space. Keep track of both --
Settings > General > About > Capacity and  > Available
Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage used GB of subscribed GB storage plan

Review the User Guide chapter on Camera to see what the buttons do. Naw, just press every button to explore the options! If a button color is yellow then that function is active/on. Review your screen to be sure your Flash and Live buttons are white, or turned off. Another button is the Timer, when active it will delay the exposure and take several images as a Burst.

Don't let the camera make the decisions for you! Open the camera, set landscape or portrait orientation then touch the screen to set the focus on your subject. You will see a yellow box appear with a sun icon. Slide your finger up or down the screen to change the exposure. Yea! You are in control.

Another type of image that is soooo helpful in using your iPhone and iPad is taking a Screen Snapshot, a picture of what you see on screen. This varies by device model, but usually entails touching two buttons at the same exact moment, the Wake and Home buttons or on iPhone X the Volume Down and the Wake button. Practice searching the web using Safari and type your question like this "make a screen snapshot on ipad"

After you take a picture it will appear in the Photos app. Again, touch every button to see what they do. Read the Photos chapter in the User Guide. Photos has different views that might take practice to master. A powerful feature in Photos is to Search by location or date or subject. An example of search using Artificial Intelligence is to type "cat" or "dog" in the search field. How about "beach" or "flower" for additional practice.

The Albums view in Photos includes automatic albums and custom albums that you make. There are many things to see here, Swipe from right to left and from bottom to top to see more. Some automatic albums are listed as text (iOS 12 & 13). Look at the number associated with Bursts, Live, Video and Snapshots. Important here is the Recently Deleted album. Photos deleted remain in this album for 30 days and then they disappear forever.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Best time NOT to update iOS

Just last week the iPhone OS 13 update was available. Did you update? What lessons can be shared about when is NOT the best time to update your mobile device or computer?

Lessons learned from school of hard knocks:
  • when you have limited time to see the process through
  • when you are in the middle of an important project
  • when your favorite app will not work on the next iOS
  • when you are on public wifi 
I remember a peer pressure reference while skiing on Mammoth Mountain. At the top cornice there was a sign that read "When your friends say 'Go!' have the courage to say 'No!'"

Just because others you know have updated, doesn't mean right now is the time for you to update. It will always take longer and require user attention from time-to-time.

Day #3 Topic - Camera and Photos apps

We will use the Camera app to take photos, use the Photos app to make basic edits, save photos from email messages and share photos using email or text messages.

Remember, we are not using WiFi at the Library. So your iPhone can send a photo from class, but your iPad might prepare an email with a photo and send once you get back home to your personal wifi.

Why do you take pictures? To remember family get togethers; to document events ... for art. 

Day #2 Review

Contacts and Calendars were the topics covered. Read the chapters in the User Guide and play with these apps.

Contacts tips: 
Add information in designated fields. Use the Company field to keep track of associations --
RS iPhone or book group or potluck and then the Search feature will help you find your connections.

Calendar tips:
On an iPhone, rotate the phone to landscape/sideways to see the Week At A Glance view. Toggle the Holidays calendar off to show fewer events.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Beware Phishing Scams

Apple Support has a Twitter account and recently they posted a short video on Phishing Scams. Check it out! Beware of suspicious emails and texts. Watch our video to learn about phishing and how to avoid these types of scams. 

Friday, September 13, 2019

Day 1 Review - Part 1

 iOS Basics Class 
Seminar leaders are volunteers, not experts

We had a good start for iOS Basics. I just prepared an email that was upbeat and friendly and also informative. But somehow in moving from my laptop to my iPad it vanished! I’m ready to cry. But I have some follow-up information from our first meeting to share. This will be sparse but hopefully helpful.
Our iPhone only participants might feel left out, at least on the first session where I demonstrated all things from my iPad. But there are places you can get additional information and go at your own pace. Here’s my beginning list:

One question asked in class was about undoing junk status in email. I wonder how we could make a Google search on this topic question. Open Safari and type in the search field at the top: "how to undo junk mail on ipad" 
When looking at search results for iOS questions, here are some websites with good information: 

Best answer but old iOS - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202315
Correct false-positives: 
Filtering out junk mail can block a legitimate email from reaching your inbox. This is called a false-positive. If you feel that a legitimate email message was accidentally filtered, you can mark it as not junk sothat any future messages from the same sender go to your inbox:
On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 7or later, open the message in the Junk folder, tapthe folder icon at the bottom, then tap Inbox to move the message.
Again, read the User Guide for your device and version of the operating system

Day 1 Review - part 2

One activity promoted last Monday was to name your device. Do you remember the steps? Can you find the instructions in the User Guide? Can you practice a Google Search for the answer? There is a shorthand for writing step-by-step instructions for iOS. In reading the Google search results I found this quick reference to where you change the name of your device: Settings > General > About > Name 

Another question from Monday’s get together, “If I change the name of my iPhone do I need to reconnect to my car radio? “ How might you write a Google search question for that answer? Sometimes you just dive in and try something new to see what happens. So I changed the name of my iPhone, went out to my car and turned on the radio and as usual it played the radio and then it said "Connected to the phone." Success! I did notice that the navigation/radio screen reported that my iPhone name did not change. To me this indicates that the Bluetooth antenna ID is really what connected to the radio, not by the name. My car is a 2013 Honda and it does not have Apple CarPlay but I suspect you would get the same results. Report back if if take the leap to change the name of your phone and if the radio stays connected. 

Why change the name of your iOS device? Because of AirDrop! A great way to share via Bluetooth. Read about AirDrop in the User Guide. 

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Get Ready for Class

Greetings! Welcome to iOS Basics for iPad and iPhone 

Do not expect to use wifi in the library meeting room - same advise for on-campus tech seminars too. Why? Because so many devices trying to go online is like leaving the office at 5 pm and waiting at the freeway onramp for all the other cars to clear the intersection for you. (It hurts when I use "Back in the Days When We Worked" metaphors.)

But I have homework for you before class begins that requires using your home wifi.

Please download the User Guide for your devices. Scroll down to see previous posts for direct links.

Two other suggestions with video tutorials:
Now - make this website a shortcut on your Home Screen. It is your lifeline for questions and updates from class! 

TEB. Touch. Every. Button. You can't break your device by touching app icons or the buttons for volume, wake or Home. Explore. Practice gestures like swipe right to left with one finger, swipe down with two fingers, tap an icon, touch and hold an icon. There are so many more! (Watch a child use an iPad or iPhone to see how natural it is for them to touch, tap and swipe.)
Our class will have challenges when so many people attend with so many devices. We anticipate that some participants will come with just an iPad or iPhone, but some will bring both devices. We might ask the audience to sit in groups by the device they are using. That way the class helper is talking to the same users.
One of the best ways to learn tech is to repeat the lesson from today. Repeat it for yourself and find a friend to share your new skills by repeating the lesson.

User Guides - online edition

Just in case you want to view the user guides in Safari instead of downloading then into the Books app, here are the current links:

Remember, we are expecting iOS 13 to be released and FREE TO DOWNLOAD later in September.

Other references from Apple include



Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Free books by Apple - User Guides

Get your free user guides to have as reference on your mobile devices. Books is an app on your iOS device. Even though these guides are free, you will need to know your AppleID and password.

Touch any link above and a new window opens. Follow these steps:

  1. Touch the [View in Apple Books] link 
  2. Sign in with your Apple ID and password 
  3. Touch the [Get] link to begin the download process 
  4. (Free items pop up - Save) 
  5. Scroll through your Home Screens to find Books
  6. Touch Books to open it 

Read more about Books from the Apple Support team.

If you are not using iOS 12.x there are other user guides to match your version of the operating system.


Apple Support Resources:
Setup a new iPhone  - this happened so fast in the store or in the hands of a friend. Review the setup steps anytime.
Apple Support is also on YouTube with videos. Watch iPhone Support videos on demand.

Setup a new iPad -
Watch iPad Support videos on demand.

Coming in September - iPadOS read about new features compatible with
  • 12.9-inch iPad Pro
  • 11-inch iPad Pro
  • 10.5-inch iPad Pro
  • 9.7-inch iPad Pro
  • iPad (6th generation)
  • iPad (5th generation)
  • iPad mini (5th generation)
  • iPad mini 4
  • iPad Air (3rd generation)
  • iPad Air 2
Checkout this iPad video for beginners by Computer Care Clinic posted in December 2016. So Noah is not using the latest iOS. 
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