Tom will give us some hints on how iOS and iPad OS have changed with v14.
For a preview read New features available with iOS 14 or New features available with iPadOS.
For a kick and a laugh - watch The Whole Working From Home Thing - a YouTube video by Apple. I'm glad to be retired. But we all can relate to the circumstances of this team. See the in-office prequel Apple at Work - The Underdogs.
Go ahead and update to iOS 14,
Compatible iPhones:
Don't get rid of your shoebox full of photos but be prepared to enjoy the features tech brings to your fingertips! '
Camera
Barbara will introduce you to the features of the Camera app - the best camera is the one you have with you. It is called "iPhone" but most of us use other apps more often than making phone calls.
Review the online User Guide chapters for Take Photos, learn about different modes and camera settings. Reviewing these articles ahead of class will help you absorb the new information.
Zoom with your feet. Avoid using the digital zoom.
The Shutter button is a big round circle. But you can also use the Volume buttons to take a picture, your earbuds or an Apple Watch; also set the Timer to take a photo.
Burst mode to take may photos
QR Codes (quick response codes) scan from the Control Center.
View the 35 short videos in the Apple Playlist How to shoot on iPhone.
Photos
Ok, this is the smallest shoebox ever! But it is well organized with options for you to edit (improve) photos, to share photos and to organize to tell your best stories.
Review the iOS13 online User Guide chapters for View photos and videos, Edit photos and videos, Organize photos in albums, Search for photos (yes, use Siri to search!), Share photos and videos, Browse photos by location, and other articles.
Melissa will introduce a few of the critical features in Photos today and encourage you to explore your own interests with Google and YouTube searches.
The Photos app has many views: Years, Months, Days, All Photos; People, Places. How do you know where you are after opening Photos? Look at the bottom of your screen for a blue highlight. The icons here are like tabs in a file drawer.
A very handy tool to use is Markup. Rea Draw in apps with Markup for more information. This app is available on iPhone and iPad. For art therapy, consider How to Use Markup in Photos from Apple's YouTube Channel.
(Melissa can update her iPhone and iPad to iOS 14 because she is finished with demos for this class.)
Watch this YouTube video from AppleInsider Everything New with Camera and Photos in iOS 14! 30+ Changes & Features and be ready to pause often because Andrew O'Hara talks fast!
Sometimes reading the User Guide or attending class is just way too much information. But if you pause and listen, then re-read your notes, new possibilities come into focus.
Not long ago workplaces or home offices had to purchase new equipment to scan documents. Not anymore. Find a sample document or article clipped from the newspaper. Place it on a table with good side light. For best results, a contrasting tabletop works best with white pages. Open the Notes app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap the icon to open a new note page. Tap the Camera icon to bring up the camera features > tap Scan Documents. Adjust the camera up or down to fit the page to your screen.
This feature takes practice. View the online User Guide Add Attachments to Notes on iPhone article or better yet, view the Teacher's Tech YouTube Use Notes on Your iPhone to Quickly Scan Documents to see the process in action.
Melissa and Carol will report on the core apps Contacts and Calendars.
We want to encourage you to read the iPhone User Guide or iPad User Guide also available in Books for off-line reading, bookmarking, highlighting and personal notes.
Contacts is a core app on your devices. It connects to other core apps, phone, maps, messages, email, Safari, Search and Siri - your personal assistant - can access Contacts!
Contacts with many entries will not take up much space on your device. Feel free to add people from your paper address book or rolodex. And in these COVID-19 times, use your entries to reach out and reconnect with your people! Edit the contact card details as you learn more about your friend network.
If your are a multi-Apple-device household, then designate one person to create the master Contacts list and maintain it. Then every 6 months or so, sit down and Share individual contact cards with others to get them updated. (The receiver can delete the contact card before getting the new card to avoid duplicates.) For shared contact cards, add "Updated" in the Notes field and then use Contacts > Search to find names to share.
Share Contact Cards - open a contact and scroll up to see Share Contact, tap to bring up the Share Sheet and see the best way to share - AirDrop, or send as a Message or Email.
Mark important cards as Favorites so they show up on the Phone app for easy dialing. Scroll up the card to see Add to Favorites.
Mark critical cards for Emergency Contact - SOS. Scroll up the card to see Add to Emergency Contacts (in red type) and tap the text > tap to choose the best phone number to be called. Mobile numbers are best. On your iPhone, review how Emergency SOS works. Settings > Emergency SOS > read info ... Also, set your Emergency Contacts in the Health App after you have created individual contact cards for each person.
Phone and Contacts apps - do you want to avoid unknown callers? Settings > Phone > scroll up > Silence Unknown Callers > ON. What if your significant other's phone is dead and a stranger allows them to call you? Unknown Caller! Leave a voice mail message! Repeat the call 2 more times, with voice mail. Make a contract with your friends/family to review repeated Unknown Callers.
Update a contact card from the Phone app.
Phishing Report via Contacts - for me, Apple, Amazon and Comcast. When I get a suspicious email, it is easy to forward the message to the real vendor.
Do a Google Search for topics on Contacts? Do a YouTube Search for Apple iPad Contacts.
Barbara shared several tips on using the LED flashlight on your iPhone. This is a reminder that there are often several ways to do something on a "computing device".
Three ways to open the Flashlight app
- Hey Siri, turn the flashlight on, Hey Siri, Flashlight on please
- Hey Siri, turn the flashlight off, Hey Siri, shut off the flashlight; or tap the rotating rainbow-like symbol at the bottom of the screen to get Siri’s attention again
- Press and hold the home button or the side button to wake Siri and ask her.
- iPhone X or newer: swipe down from the upper right corner of the home or lock screen. Tap the icon to turn on. Tap again to turn off.
- iPhone 8 or older, swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen. Tap the icon to turn on. Tap again to turn off.
On iPhone X or later, turn on from lock screen by hard pressing (3D Touch) the flashlight icon at lower left. Hard press again to turn off.
ADJUSTING BRIGHTNESS
Open Control Center. 3D Touch the flashlight icon. Swipe up to brighten, swipe down to dim. Tap screen to return to Control Center.
QUICK TURN OFF
You can turn off the flashlight without opening Control Center. From the lock screen, swipe left as though to access the camera, and release before you reach the halfway point.
MISSING FLASHLIGHT ICON?
Go to Settings/Control Center/Customize Controls/Flashlight and tap the green + button to move the flashlight function from “more controls” at bottom to “include” at top.
Did you know? To use Siri you must be connected to the internet?
To prevent Siri from responding to “Hey Siri”, place your phone face down.
Read Apple's online article about Siri on iPhone with iOS 13.
Here are the notes from the Sept. 23 session:
Messages and Maps Basics
By Jennifer Kerr
iMessages: Fun with Texting
You can text not only words, but also photos, videos, music and more. And you can have a lot of fun—and impress your grandchildren! Practice with a friend or relative. You can also send messages to yourself to practice.
There are two kinds of texting: iMessages are with another iPhone or iPad or Mac; you will see a blue message bubble. If you are texting with someone on another kind of phone, those are SMS and you will see a green bubble. If texting to a group and one person is non-Apple, it will be green. Blue texts are free and everything you send or receive is encrypted; green ones use your texting minutes (but most plans are unlimited these days) and are NOT encrypted.
To use iMessage, turn it on in iPhone and iPad in Settings > Messages. You can also do iMessages on Macs if it is on iCloud with your phone (open Messages on your Mac, choose Messages > Preferences, click iMessage, then select the Enable Messages in iCloud checkbox). You might need to put in your Apple ID.
To get Green messages to show up on your iPad and Mac, in phone Settings > Messages, tap on Text Message Forwarding and list the devices you want to send and receive green text messages i.e., iPad and/or Mac.
In Settings > Messages go down to Filter Unknown Senders. This option will list people not in your contacts in a separate list on your Message app. You can then screen them.
How to delete messages: To delete an entire conversation with one or more contacts, tap the three dots on the main Messages page and tap on Select Messages. Mark the ones to delete, then tap Delete in the bottom right. To delete just one or more individual messages, press down on the message itself. You will see More… in a bottom bubble. Tap that and you can then check any messages you don’t want and hit Delete All in the top left.
You can send messages not only from the Messages app, but also from the Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Photos or Safari apps (anywhere you see a phone number or the “Sharrow.”)
To send a message, open Messages and tap on the blue circle with the “pen” in the upper right. Enter a phone number or name. Or click on the blue circle with a plus and it will go to Contacts. Once you have one person, you can add more to this message with the blue plus sign. Once you have one person or a group, you can type or dictate a message in the box below and hit the blue or green arrow to send it. If you get an Exclamation Mark, the message can’t be sent right now (no service) but it will go when you get service.
To see when the message was sent and received, pull the message bubble to the left.
To reply to a message, dictate with Siri or tap into the box and type a reply. When you start typing, a keyboard will pop up. You will also see a symbol for emojis that you can add to a message.
For a Quick Tapback to respond to a message, either double-tap or hold a message and get your choice of gray emojis above the message. Tap one and it goes.
You can send an audio message. Tap on the gray circle in the message place. If you start typing instead, that gray box will turn into the blue send arrow.
SPECIAL EFFECTS in iMessage. Practice these!!!
Quick and Easy: If you type one of these three common messages in the box, it will be sent with special effects: Happy Birthday (balloons), Congratulations (confetti) and Happy New Year (fireworks).
-Send with Effect: To see these, you must first write your message (or even part of it). Then the mic in the message bubble will turn into a blue arrow. Press firmly on this. NOTE: a quick tap will just send the message; you want to hold it down until you get the screen that says Send with effect.
1. The Bubble screen gives you four choices to change how your message is received: Slam, Loud, Gentle and Invisible Ink. Try these out!
2. The Screen screen gives you nine choices of special effects to go with your message (most have sound effects, too): Echo, Spolight, Balloons, Confetti, Inflating Heart, Lasers, Fireworks, Shooting Star and Celebration. Try all of these. They are fun and recipients love them!
-Photos. To the left of the iMessage space, slide over to the Camera. You can take a new picture or access one in your Photos (tap on the overlapping photos in top left). You can mark up your photo by tapping on it until it goes full screen. Tap Markup in the bottom left and you can write or draw on the photo, then send it. You can also add stickers.
-Apps. Tap the App between the Heart and the iMessage bubble. You will get a choice of different things to use. The four balls on the bottom left give you your choices:
1. #images gives you tons of funny GIFs (tiny movies). You can search to get ones on specific topics (birthday, etc.) or featuring someone or something (Star Trek, Spongebob, snakes, cats, etc.).
2. Music. If you have music on your phone, it will give you some of your recently played songs. You can send them.
3. Store. This takes you to the App Store, where you can get (free or small fee) sticker packages. Once you download them, they automatically show up right there in iMessages.
4. YouTube. You can send these in your messages.
-Other quick messages. Turn your phone sideways and look for the swirl on the bottom right. You can use any of the canned messages or hand-write your own.
-Digital Touch. You can write or draw in the box (choice of colors) or choose one of the Digital Touch tapping effects. These are kind of weird and they send themselves when you do them:
-tap to get a burst of color.
-touch and hold for a fireball
-tap with two fingers to get a kiss
-tap and hold with two fingers for a heartbeat
-tap and hold with two fingers and drag fingers to break the hears (this one is hard!)
Animojis and Memojis. These require Facial Recognition.
Animojis map your face and put your facial expressions on an assortment of cute animals and figures. Your voice will be coming out of them as a message!
You can create a Memoji of yourself (as many as you want). Go to the left of the Animojis and click on the plus sign. You can also do a message with your Animoji doing the talking!
There are Sticker Packs that go with them both and you can send them in Messages, too.
Practice all of these with a relative or friend. They are great for birthdays and other special occasions.
Here is a YouTube about a way to send a message using your voice.
Here is a YouTube link about creating a Memoji of you.
Search YouTube for Apple Support and Subscribe to get lots of short instructive videos like these.
Maps: A Few Quick Tips
Maps, like many apps, uses your location. If you would like to know which apps know where you are and when, and how you can control that, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services
You will see a list of apps that seek your location. You can tap on each one and decide when to share your location with it: Never, While Using, Ask Next Time or Always. I think the best answer for most is While Using. Some should be on Never!
Note that a little gray arrow shows an app has used your location in the last 24 hours. A purple arrow that one has recently used your location.
Open Maps. Your current location will be in the center of the map, a blue pulsing circle. If your phone is regularly connected to your car with Bluetooth, Maps will show where your car is parked when you leave it (including your garage!).
At the bottom right is the temperature and the Air Quality Index.
Tap the i with a circle around it at the top right. You can choose map settings: Map, Transit or Satellite. Traffic or not. You can also report issues. The arrow under that indicates your location is being tracked.
The top of the map is North by default. If you move around your map so it is not, a round compass will appear under the arrow.
Use your fingers to move around and drag the map. To zoom in or out, pinch with two fingers. It will show the scale in the upper left as you zoom.
Turn on Satellite and you will see 3D by the arrow. Rotate and move with your fingers to get closeup looks. Tap 2D to go back. Tap the compass to get north back at the top.
In Map settings, look for places where it says Look Inside. Like Arden Fair. It will show you all the shops and where they are in the building. You can get details on the various stores, and restaurants, including hours and which ones take Apple Pay. But not many pictures. In bigger cities like SF, you can get lots of pictures when you see Look Inside. In some cities or places you will see a binocular symbol. Tap on that to get views of a street or attraction. Try Chinatown in SF. Note that license plates and faces are blurred for privacy.
For directions, tap in the search bar and type the city or place where you want to go. The map will show it and offer you directions for you choice of car, walk, transit or ride-share. 14 adding bicycle routes. It often will give you several route choices, its preferred one in blue. Just tap on the gray route if you want that.
Be sure your home address is in your contacts and is labeled as your home. Then when you want directions from some place to your home, the map knows where to go!
Apple made their announcements on Tuesday, September 15th and we suggest you NOT INSTALL iPhone or iPad operating system updates until the early bugs are worked out. We'll be looking for iOS 14.02 or 14.1 before installing.
Tom Holt will introduce us to the app worlds of Books (including Apple's free User Guides), Libby by Overdrive (your public library at your fingertips), Podcasts for audio listening and learning and where to store your PDF Manuals.
This will be a resource packed meeting. Oh NO!!!
New strategy: Join the meeting, relax with your notepaper and pen - with an emphasis on RELAX. Watch the demonstrations to SEE what is possible. Let your curiosity get sparked. Then access this website and compare the notes posted here to your thoughts and questions written at the time of our meeting. Explore the links here that match your questions. Try the Search option on this site to find past topics that match your interests. Talk with your friends about their discovery process.
Books is the app that came on your device. Use the Search feature to find an author or title.
Podcasts is another app that came on your device. Use the Search feature to find an author or title.
Other apps you download from the App Store app
What fun that we are all together again. Ok, apart but together. Together with our iPhones and iPads. Hurray for a new semester.
Review the details of how to create Note pages to keep track of your Zoom classes based on iOS 13.7.
Point your iPhone to this Quick Response Code to get right to our website.
Melissa's Email-to-Notes demonstration went by quickly and was too much to push into our brain. But that is why this website exists. Come by often and re-read past entries - you'll be pleased at what you now know and surprised at what you missed the first time.
Several people shared their glee at learning more about the Notes app. James said it is "Under-appreciated for all it can do!" Pat shared that "After attending this seminar many times I've started to use Notes more. The best example is my grocery list! I always have my list with me." Everyone agreed that using Siri is a habit worth practicing ...
A new semester begins! The iOS Basics Team are volunteers that love and use Apple technology everyday. We want to share our discoveries with you.
We suggest using a computer, desktop or laptop to attend our Zoom meetings and have your iPhone and iPad fully charged before class begins you will then be able to watch the demonstrations on a larger screen and practice using your iPad or iPhone.
We will send a Zoom link in an email every Wednesday morning. Just click on the link to join. The Meeting ID and Password will be the same every week. You can keep track of this in your Notes or Calendar apps.
The iPhone/iPad Basics Fall 2020 Schedule is
Sep 2, 2020 10:00 AM - Meet, Greet & Zoom Practice is optional
Sep 9, 2020 10:00 AM - First class meeting
Sep 16, 2020 10:00 AM
Sep 23, 2020 10:00 AM
Sep 30, 2020 10:00 AM
Oct 7, 2020 10:00 AM
Oct 14, 2020 10:00 AM - Last class meeting
One last tip....be sure to keep your iPhone nearby for all your RenSoc Sessions. If you see something on the screen that you want to save, use your phone to take a picture of it!
BONUS: We have a secret that you want to know. Hint: You need a library card.