iPad&iPhoneUserIssue84.pdf

COMPLETE GUIDE TO iOS 7.1.1
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iPad Air
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Welcome...
  T
he iPad Air remains king of the tablet world,
but its future is starting to look a little shaky
with the emergence of the Sony Xperia Z2
Tablet. Sony’s Z2 is a solid rival, potentially faster
and with fancy features such as waterproofing, but
more is required to blow Apple’s champ out the
water. We compare the two from page 15.
Of course, the iPad Air – and other iOS devices –
recently received a boost with the iOS 7.1.1 update.
We look at the updated mobile OS in from page 3.
Even with the useful functionality aforded by
Of ce for iOS (see page 70), the iPad remains a
device we use for entertainment. So what do we
like to do with ourselves outside the of ce?
Well, we like to sleep. You’ll find our top sleep
apps on page 78. And we like to go on holiday
– see page 82 for the top travel apps. Chilling out
in front of a film is pretty good, too (see how to
import a DVD to an iPad on page 66).
But the number-one thing we do with an iPad is
go online. We recently asked iPad & iPhone User
editors what they’d do without the internet (you can
read what they said over on our Tech Advisor blog
at tinyurl.com/noyckc6), and we learned that without
the web we’d all be unemployed, uninformed,
anti-social and pretty darn bored.
To make sure you never go without the web, we
explain how to manage your iPhone’s data on page
35, plus how to share its data connection (page 32).
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Definitive review of Apple’s latest iOS update
  i
OS 7, the latest version of Apple’s operating
system software for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch,
heralds the biggest change to the visual style
of its mobile interface since the first iPhone was
demonstrated in 2007. For the first time, the new
look is the brainchild of Jonathan Ive, the person
behind the hardware design of Apple’s products
since the original Bondi Blue iMac.
The most noticeable diferences in iOS 7 are a set
of new, brightly coloured icons and a simpler, more
minimal design aesthetic. It’s all part of a so-called
‘flat design’ that replaces faux-3D elements such as
bevelled buttons and embossed toolbars that were
used in all previous iterations of iOS. Yet transparent
iOS 7.1.1
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layers and other neat visual tricks convey depth in
more subtle ways.
New features
Update, 30th April 2014: Before we get on to the
major changes from iOS 6 to iOS 7, we’ll quickly
cover the smaller (but often significant) tweaks and
design updates that have arrived since iOS 7.1’s
initial launch. These have been released in Apple’s
two latest point updates, iOS 7.1 and iOS 7.1.1, both of
which are free to download.
(Bear in mind that, barring some clever
jailbreaking or similar hacks, you have to install the
latest OS when updating. At time of writing, if you
want to update from iOS 6 to iOS 7, that means iOS
7.1.1. iOS 7.0 is no longer an option for most of us.)
Visual changes
The most obvious change in iOS 7.1 is visual. This
update saw some of the more controversial aspects
of iOS 7’s design toned down and softened to
appeal to a wider
audience. Take the
‘toxic’ bright greens
that people found
so objectionable, for
instance. Those are
now darker and less
eye-catching. This has
mostly been applauded,
although we now miss
the old look ever so
slightly. I guess we
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got used to it. Some interface changes are more
obvious. The Phone app, for example, sees a lot of
bar-style buttons replaced by round buttons, and the
old caller ID image, which used to take up the whole
screen, has been shrunk to a little thumbnail:
iOS 7.1 includes a number of other visual updates,
including some changes to typography and colour
choices, as well as updated interfaces in Apple apps.
Performance changes
The most controversial aspect of iOS 7 wasn’t the
look, however – it was the performance penalty
seen on older hardware. The iPhone 4 was
supposed to be able to handle iOS 7 (it was the
lowest level of iPhone ratified for this), but many
iPhone 4 experienced slowdowns after updating.
iOS 7.1 addresses this, and benckmark tests show
that an iPhone 4 is faster on iOS 7.1 than on iOS 7. It’s
still slower than on iOS 6, however, and our advice
to iPhone 4 owners would be not to update.
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New Siri voices
iOS 7.1 included new Siri voices. In the UK that
means at long last the option of a female voice -
hooray! You can stick with the bloke if you prefer.
CarPlay
As expected, iOS 7.1 brings CarPlay compatibility.
We’ve got more on that here: CarPlay buying guide:
which cars and models come with Apple CarPlay?
Touch ID
This one will only afect iPhone 5s owners, but iOS
7.1.1 includes some improvements to the way Apple’s
Touch ID fingerprint scanner works.
Thin and flat interface design
A thinner system font, Helvetica Neue, is used
throughout the system. Borders around many apps
are plain white with simple black
text, with a colour tint used to
indicate buttons and interactive
elements. This minimalist design
reminds us of the approach Jony
Ive favours for the seamless casing
of Apple’s hardware.
Certain apps such as Game
Center and Notepad, which
previously used graphical replicas
of real-world objects to convey
their function, such as yellow
notepaper and green table felt,
have been scaled back to only
provide visual information relevant
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to the task they perform. But the flat, simplistic
style takes some getting used to. When Apple
first demonstrated iOS 7, the initial response was
not entirely positive. The icons in particular have
polarised opinion, with many describing the bright
colours as garish, childish, or plain ugly, compared
with the previous established designs.
Changing the look of a software interface familiar
to millions is a delicate procedure, with the risk that
by confusing users, they may abandon your platform
and opt for a competitor’s product instead. Sensibly,
although Apple has made radical changes to the
appearance of iOS 7, the method of interacting with
the devices is just about identical. This is no repeat
of Microsoft’s Windows 8 debacle, where users were
left floundering for their way around.
Transparency, depth and three dimensions
iOS 7 grows on you over time. Behind the simple
appearance are subtle and complex ideas. The
redesigned Notification Centre has
a translucent background, allowing
the wallpaper and icons to show
through, enhancing the sense that
each UI element is a physical object
lying atop whatever’s underneath.
The new Control Centre,
accessed by swiping from the
bottom of the screen upwards,
is similarly see-through, as is the
Search bar, which now appears
when you swipe down on any
empty area of the wallpaper.
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Control Centre provides easy access to commonly
adjusted settings such as Flight Mode, Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth and Flashlight toggles, something users
have been requesting.
The transparent efect is striking. Choose a
wallpaper with a range of sharp blues, for example,
and UI elements such as the new translucent dock
glow with a frosty appearance, almost as through
a pane of glass. Change to a purple background
– Apple’s new set of included wallpapers have
been carefully chosen to highlight this – and the
UI looks totally diferent.
Another small touch Apple has added to the
wallpapers is a clever parallax efect, where you
can tilt your device to slightly roll the background
image behind the icons, giving the subtle impression
that they are physical objects on a diferent plane
from the background.
The efect is nifty, and enhances the idea
that three-dimensional space is created from
interface elements, rather than via the
more basic shading of buttons on iOS
6 and earlier.
There’s another 3D efect when
opening and closing apps. Tap on
an icon and the app neatly zooms in
to become full screen. Hit the home
button and it zooms out. This works
on folders of icons too, and gives the
impression you’re drilling in and out
of various sections of iOS 7, again
to make it seem the OS is built from
layers of physical objects. Words
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don’t easily convey how impressive this looks in
the flesh, but it’s undoubtedly one of the best visual
improvements of the software.
On the down side, a number of users with
vestibular disorders have reported that the many
animation tricks within iOS 7 trigger motion sickness
and related problems. Apple has been reasonably
responsive to concerns, and you can tone things
down by going to Settings > General > Accessibility >
Reduce Motion, but not everyone is satisfied.
With these caveats, however, iOS 7 is on balance
a design triumph, full of attractive visual touches.
The passcode lock screen (see page 8), for instance
– which might seem trivial, but is a screen the
average user will be seeing a lot of – has been
given a much more modern look.
Music
The Music app now lets you browse your music via
a scrolling list of cover art, with a quick tap zooming
onto the album, displaying a tracklist.
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Voice recorder
The voice recorder, which previously showed
a redundant picture of a real microphone, now
displays a simple spectral analyser and a list of
recordings, along with a big red button to start
capturing audio.
Camera
The Camera has received perhaps the most
attention, and is all the better for it. You can quickly
swipe through photography modes: normal, square,
panoramic and video, with a set of Instragram-like
filters to apply, such as chrome or sepia. The iPhone
4 doesn’t get all these features, though.
Safari web browser
Rather than being limited to eight, you can now
open as many tabs as you like in Safari, which has a
smaller border around web pages to display more
information on the screen. When browsing through
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your open tabs on an iPhone you can swipe through
screenshots of each page, presented as a 3D roll of
pages. Safari in iOS 7 also sees improved navigation
and performance tweaks, a unified search field, new
bookmarking features and more.
Calendar
Calendar is perhaps the best example of how iOS 7
uses colour to draw the user’s attention to relevant
information. The current date is highlighted with
a big red circle, instantly drawing your eye to it,
with the same shade of red used to highlight other
interactive elements.
But there are drawbacks to the aggressive
minimalism of iOS 7’s calendar, and we can see
many users looking elsewhere for a calendar app.
On the iPad, month view lets you see a few words
of each appointment or birthday,
but the iPhone – which surely
is the platform on which most
people use a calendar app
- is far less useful: in portrait
mode you only see a little dot
to indicate that something is
happening (we advise switching
of indicators for Facebook
birthdays and such like, or
you’ll find that almost every day
has a dot). And in landscape
mode you only see a five-hour
snatch of three days at a time,
making it hard to quickly skim
your free nights.
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Maps
Apple’s much-criticised Maps are still present, as
expected, but with a few small additions. There’s a
scale indicator in the corner, and bookmarks are now
saved in iCloud and shared across devices, a handy
addition we think that should have been there in the
first place. Mac users can look forward to being able
to send maps and directions directly to their iPhone
using the desktop Maps app in OS X Mavericks, too.
Siri
Two years after it launched, Siri is no longer in beta.
The interface is slightly changed, but the big addition
is a wider range of search abilities. Ask it to search
Wikipedia, and it comes up with the article without
going into Safari and loading the page.
Search the web (amusingly now with Bing, a
further severing of Apple’s ties to Google) and you
get all sorts of relevant information directly in the
app. This is a far better approach that makes Siri
more useful in itself, rather than as a voice-controlled
launchpad to other parts of the system.
Newsstand
The Newsstand
app now runs full
screen, with a
gorgeous shaded
background that
shows your wallpaper
through it, rather
than expanding like
a folder as in iOS
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6. And thank goodness, if you don’t use it, it can
now be dropped into the obligatory ‘unused’ folder
everyone often ends up with on their device, rather
than occupying space on the home screen.
Multitasking
Multitasking, to simply switch between already
open apps, now works as it does on Android or
HP’s WebOS software. There’s a snapshot of each
running app displayed above the icon. Swiping up
closes the app.
Visuals, ringtones and backgrounds
As before, Apple has aimed for a consistent
experience between the experience of using iOS
7 on both the iPhone and iPad, using the same
colours, design choices and identical functionality.
The major diferences are related to layout, with a
prominent use of split-views (such
as in the Settings app) to display
more information on the larger
tablet screen.
A small addition that will be
welcomed by many is the inclusion
of a new set of tasteful ringtones.
The old ones are still there too in
a ‘classics’ folder, if you’re quite
attached to the familiar default
Marimba tone, for example.
There’s also a range of dynamic
backgrounds, with bubbles that
slowly move across the screen if
you move the device.
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This makes use of a new physics API built
into iOS, one of a long list of under-the-bonnet
enhancements in iOS 7 that third-party developers
can take advantage of.
Miscellaneous updates
The hard limit to the number of apps you can keep
in a folder has been removed, a major irritation for
people with a lot of apps on their device, which often
resulted in a messy folder system such as ‘Games 1’,
‘Games 2’, ‘Games 3’ and so on.
Once again, a few apps on the iPhone aren’t
available on the iPad, and vice versa, wherever
Apple has deemed them less relevant. The iPad has
no Voice Memos, Passbook, Compass, or Stocks app
(thankfully for many unconcerned by city finances)
while the iPhone misses out on the Photobooth app.
Verdict
iOS 7.1.1 tackles the criticisms that were levelled at iOS
7 in an admirably honest fashion, such as the more
extreme colour choices and the performance issues
on older hardware.
Nevertheless, you’ll
be disappointed if
you were hoping for
Android-like features,
such as widgets, the
ability to change the
default keyboard, or
install apps without
going through the
App Store.
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Ashleigh Allsopp reveals which 10in tablet is best
 S
ony has launched a new iPad Air rival, the
Xperia Z2 Tablet, and with a thinner, lighter
design than Apple’s latest iPad it’s certainly
a contender for the top spot. Here, we put the two
10in tablets head-to-head to compare design, tech
specs, features and software and determine which
is best: iPad Air or Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet. Can Sony
really scare Apple with its new tablet ofering?
Build and design
Apple’s iPad Air is known for its incredibly
lightweight and thin design, so it may come as a
surprise that the Xperia Z2 Tablet, despite having
a slightly bigger display at 10.1in compared with the
iPad Air’s 9.7in, is thinner and lighter than the Air.
Believed to be the thinnest and lightest 10in tablet
in the world, the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet is just 6.4mm
thick and weighs 429g, whereas the iPad Air weighs
slightly more at 469g and is 7.5mm thick.
iPad Air vs Sony Xperia Z2
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While we think the overall look and feel of the
Xperia Z2 Tablet is stylish and high quality and
are impressed by its incredibly light weight, it still
doesn’t ooze style, sophistication and coolness
like the iPad Air does. The bezels on the Xperia
Z2 Tablet are pretty enormous, and it’s a simple,
squared device that is just not as appealing as the
iPad Air, in our opinion.
Price
The iPad Air and Xperia Z2 Tablet match up closely
when it comes to price. Both tablets start at £399
for the 16GB Wi-Fi-only models, or £499 for the
16GB Wi-Fi plus 4G models. That makes it dif cult
to choose a clear winner when it comes to value.
The iPad Air’s 32GB model is £30 more than Sony’s
Xperia Z2 Tablet equivalent, though.
Screen
While both classified as 10in tablets, the iPad Air and
Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet’s screens do difer. The iPad
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Air has a smaller display, at 9.7in, while the Z2 Tablet
has a bigger, 10.1in display.
The iPad Air has a higher pixel density, though,
with a resolution of 2048x1536 pixels which makes
it 264 pixels per inch (ppi). The Xperia Z2 Tablet’s
resolution is 1920x1200 pixels, which equates to
224ppi, so the iPad Air’s higher pixel density means
you’ll get a slightly sharper, more detailed picture.
Beyond that, both the tablets have the same
IPS LCD display technology and are able to show
16,777,216 colours each, which means both the iPad
Air and Z2 Tablet are excellent devices to use for
watching movies and television shows, or viewing
image slideshows, for example.
Processor, performance
In theory, the Xperia Z2 Tablet should trump the
iPad Air when it comes to performance, as it has
more impressive hardware specifications in terms of
processors and memory.
The iPad Air sports an Apple-exclusive
A7 chip with a 64-bit architecture, which
is certainly a speedy processor, but it’s
a dual-core at 1400MHz, whereas
the Xperia Z2
has a quad-core
Qualcomm
Snapdragon
801 processor
running at
2300MHz. The
Z2 also has
3GB of RAM
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compared with the iPad Air’s 1GB. That said, both
the iPad Air and the Xperia Z2 have such excellent
performance specs that it’s unlikely you’ll notice
much diference between the two. Both are fast and
responsive, even during heavy-duty tasks.
We’ve put both tablets through some benchmark
tests to give you an idea of where they rank against
each other. It’s worth noting, though, that these are
synthetic tests designed to give you a number, not
hard-and-fast rankings.
In the GFXBench test, which benchmarks graphics
performance, the Xperia Z2 tablet managed to beat
the iPad Air. Averaged over three runs of the T-Rex
(onscreen) test, the Z2 tablet scored 1,530 frames at
27fps, while the iPad Air averaged at 1,187 and 21fps.
However, both tablets can run the most demanding
of games, so you should find that both are
exceptional when it comes to graphics performance.
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The GeekBench 3 test for the Xperia Z2 just tops
Apple’s iPad Air results. Designed to test the overall
performance of a tablet, the Z2 scored an impressive
2719 in the multi-core test, compared with the iPad
Air’s 2703. In the single-core test, though, the iPad
Air trumped the Xperia Z2 with a score of 1487
compared with the Z2’s 967.
In the SunSpider Javascript test, which measures
your browser’s ability to handle Javascript, the iPad
Air blitzed the Xperia Z2 Tablet. Lower is better in
this test, so the iPad Air’s score of 400ms beats the
Xperia Z2 Tablet’s 1099ms by a long way.
Storage
The iPad Air is available from a 16GB model all the
way up to 128GB, though it’ll set you back more
than £600 for the latter. The Xperia Z2 tablet, on the
other hand, is only available up to 32GB, though,
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it does have a MicroSD slot that lets you add up to
64GB of storage.
So, unless you really need the whopping 128GB
iPad Air, you’ll find that the iPad Air and Xperia
Z2 can ofer similar capabilities when it comes to
storage.
That said, you won’t be able to add further
storage to your iPad Air, so you’ll need to pick the
capacity you think will suit you when you purchase it
and the price skyrockets pretty quickly as you begin
increasing the built-in storage. With the Xperia Z2,
you can add storage at a later date at a reasonably
low cost. A 32GB MicroSD card can cost you around
£20, or even less if you shop around.
Camera
We’re still not keen on the idea of using a tablet as
a camera, aside from video calling, of course, so
the specifications of the camera aren’t of critical
importance to us. However, for some consumers
who enjoy tablet photography, it could be the
deciding factor.
Apple’s iPad Air falls down against the Xperia
Z2 Tablet when it comes to the camera. The Z2
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boasts an 8.1Mp camera with a variety of modes
and features including panorama, self timer, smile
detection and white balance presets in addition
to the autofocus, face detection and HDR that it
shares with the iPad Air.
The Z2 Tablet’s front-facing camera is also better
than the iPad Air’s at 2.2Mp compared with Apple’s
1.2Mp ofering.
Both the iPad Air and the Z2 Tablet have the
ability to capture 1080p HD video, though.
Overall, if the camera on your tablet is a really big
deal then you might want to consider the Z2 Tablet,
but for us, the iPad Air’s camera is perfectly suf cient
for our needs so we’d still choose the iPad Air.
Software
When it comes to software, the Air runs Apple’s
gorgeous iOS 7, with default apps and extra features
including iCloud, Safari, Apple Maps, FaceTime,
Game Center, Newsstand and iTunes. Apple also
ofers Find My iPhone, Find My Friends services.
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We love iOS 7, and also love the apps available on
the iOS App Store for the iPad, though the Google
Play Store is catching up in terms of numbers. We’d
choose iOS 7 any day over the Sony Xperia Z2’s
Android 4.4 KitKat, additionally because we already
own many iOS apps and wouldn’t want to have to
buy them again for Android.
That said, KitKat is the most recent Android
software to be released, and is not yet available
on all devices, so we’re pleased to see that Sony
had adopted it. Sony also has the Walkman app
complete with ClearAudio+ designed for better
audio quality, and Music Unlimited, a service similar
to Apple’s iTunes Radio (which has yet to arrive
in the UK). There’s also the PlayStation Mobile
app which lets you download new games directly
from the PlayStation Store, and the compatibility
with the DualShock 3 controller for an enhanced
gaming experience.
While Apple’s iPad Air has AirPlay Mirroring
(which requires a £99 Apple TV) Sony’s Xperia Z2
Tablet has screen mirroring and a ‘Throw’ feature
that lets you virtually flick your content onto your
television screen so long as your TV has DLNA or
Bluetooth capabilities.
Battery life
In terms of battery life, we’ve yet to test out the Sony
Xperia Z2 Tablet’s battery ourself, so we’ll base this
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on Sony’s own estimations. It says the Z2’s 600mAh
battery will last for more than 50 days on standby,
but, while in use, it has a mode called ‘Stamina
Mode’ which can significantly prolong the battery life
of the device. In Stamina Mode, the Z2 recognises
when you’re not using the display and automatically
turns of unneeded functions that’ll begin running
again only when you activate the screen.
With this taken into consideration, Sony touts up
to 188 hours of music listening time and up to 13
hours of video playback time for the device.
You can charge the Z2 Tablet using Micro-USB
or, alternatively, the wireless magnetic charging pat
situated on the bottom of the device. You’ll need
to have a compatible accessory such as Sony’s
speaker dock in order to take advantage of the
wireless capabilities, though.
Meanwhile, the iPad Air has an 8820mAh battery,
which is pretty huge but still smaller than the battery
found in its predecessors. Apple says that it’ll last for
up to 10 hours of web browsing, listening to music or
watching videos.
Overall, the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet should last
longer than the iPad Air in theory, but we’ll need to
put the two tablets through head-to-head tests to
determine the true result soon.
Other features
Really, the only other feature important to note is the
durability of the two tablets, which is significantly
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diferent due to the Xperia Z2’s waterproof and dust
resistant nature. Sony’s tablet is waterproof and
dust resistant to an IP55 and IP58 standard, and has
covers for all ports that could potentially let water in.
The iPad Air, on the other hand, is not waterproof
or dust resistant, so if you’re known for being clumsy
you may want to consider whether the Sony Xperia
Z2 Tablet is a more suitable option. Of course, you
could always buy a waterproof case for the iPad Air
if you’ve got your heart set on it.
Verdict
As users of Apple products including Macs and
iPhones, the iPad Air is the natural and more fitting
choice for us. We’d choose the Air not only due to its
stunning design and easy-to-use software, but also
because it ties in well with the our Apple ecosystem
including iCloud and our purchased apps.
However, it’s clear that Apple is not absolutely
ahead of the game with the iPad Air, and that the
successor to its most recent tablet should bring
something new to the table that can blow the likes of
the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet out of the water. After all,
its camera, weight, thickness, and even processor
and battery life are better than the iPad Air, at least
on paper for the latter. The Z2 is a solid rival that
could cause some minor concern for Apple, so
let’s hope the company is innovating hard behind
the scenes to launch something that enables us
to write a comparison review in the future that can
recommend the iPad without a shadow of a doubt,
because right now, it’s tricky to be convinced that
Apple’s ahead of the game.
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Which of Apple’s apps is best for your needs?
  i
Photo comes free with every new Mac, and there
is even a version you can use on the iPhone and
iPad, but for some people with particularly large
photo libraries, or very large images iPhoto might
not be enough. Would it be worth updating from
iPhoto to Apple’s Aperture in that case? We evaluate
the options in this comparison review.
It’s easy to get started with iPhoto, as all your
photos are automatically sorted into ‘events’ that
group together photos taken on the same date.
You can also use its Places feature to display the
locations of photos on a map, or the Faces option to
identify photos of particular people.
iPhoto vs Aperture
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Stepping up to Aperture is just as easy as the
latest version of Aperture can share your existing
iPhoto library. The first time you launch Aperture
it gives you the option of importing your iPhoto
library, complete with all your events, places and
faces information, so you’ll immediately know where
to find all your favourite shots. The only minor
complication here is that iPhoto events are referred
to as ‘projects’ in Aperture – which is a hangover
from the days when Aperture cost hundreds of
pounds and was primarily aimed at professional
photographers who used it to organise their work
projects. Apart from that, the two programs organise
your photo library in essentially the same way,
ensuring that the transition between iPhoto and
Aperture is as straightforward as possible. You can
even continue to use the two programs side by side,
as editing changes that you make in one program
are automatically carried over into the other.
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Sorting and searching
These similarities ensure that Aperture will feel
very familiar to anyone that has used iPhoto. The
diference is that Aperture tends to go further and
provides more detailed control than iPhoto, both
with its editing tools and its options for sorting and
searching through your photo collection.
As well as events and projects, Aperture can also
create ‘stacks’ of photos that were taken in quick
succession – such as a series of action shots at a
sporting event – so that you can find the shot that
captures just the right moment.
Both programs have a basic Search tool that
lets you search for keywords such as ‘football’ or
‘wedding’, but Aperture also has a more powerful set
of search filters that can employ multiple criteria to
locate exactly the photo you need. You can search
for photos taken on a specific date and location,
or photos in a particular file format or size. You can
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even tell Aperture to only search for photos that you
have already edited in some way. And if your photo
library is really huge then Aperture allows you to split
it into a number of separate library files – perhaps
one for a recent holiday and another for a wedding –
and then switch between libraries instantly.
Adjustment tools
Once you’ve got your photos organised you’ll
probably want to do some additional editing work
on them. Both iPhoto and Aperture provide a series
of ‘adjustment’ tools that allow you to fine-tune
the appearance of your photos, but iPhoto tends
to focus on just a handful of key options, such as
adjusting the exposure or contrast of a photo.
This is where Aperture really leaves iPhoto
far behind, as it provides an extensive pull-down
menu containing 22 diferent adjustment tools,
ranging from basics such as exposure and white
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balance to more exotic options such as ‘colour
monochrome’ and ‘spot and patch’. Another key
diference here is that iPhoto is mainly used to make
‘global’ adjustments that are applied to the entire
photo, whereas Aperture allows you to use brushes
to selectively apply efects to specific parts of an
image.
Aperture’s brushes give you much finer control
when using its adjustment tools, but the sheer
variety of adjustment options means that Aperture
can seem a bit daunting for people who are used to
the simpler tools of iPhoto. If you just want to make
some quick tweaks to enhance the appearance of
a few photos then iPhoto will do the job quickly and
easily. But if you want more precise controls and the
ability to work on really fine details within an image
then it’s worth making the efort to master Aperture.
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Photo efects
The Adjustment tools in iPhoto and Aperture are
primarily intended to correct flaws and to improve
the overall appearance of your photos. However,
both programs also include additional Efects tools
that allow you completely change the look or the
style of a photo.
The Efects tools in iPhoto are pretty limited,
really just consisting of simple colour adjustments
and old standbys such as sepia and black-and-white
efects. Aperture doesn’t exactly go to town with its
Efects either, but it does provide a few more options
than iPhoto. There are several variations on the
basic black-and-white efect, a number of diferent
exposure and white balance efects, and some
colour efects, such as ‘toy camera’ and ‘intensify’.
Aperture also includes a useful preview option that
shows how each efect will look on your currently
selected photo. However, neither program really
goes beyond the basics here, so if you want to get
really creative and experiment with a wider range of
special efects and filters then Photoshop Elements
from Adobe might be a better choice.
Plug and play
One final diference between iPhoto and Aperture is
that there are a number of ‘plug-ins’ – small, modular
programs that you can use to add new features to
Aperture. These plug-ins tend to be divided into
diferent categories, such as export plug-ins that will
help you to export photos or upload them to sites
such as Flickr. There are also plug-ins that provide
additional editing tools, filters and other efects. You
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can find more information about Aperture plug-ins
on Apple’s website, but just remember that buying
lots of plug-ins quickly becomes rather expensive.
In that case you might be better of paying for
a more fully-featured editing program such as
Photoshop Elements or even the full professional
version of Photoshop.
Verdict
If you’re just a casual photographer looking for
a quick and easy way to organise your photos
and improve the look of your shots then iPhoto
will do the trick quickly and easily. Aperture is
more expensive, at £54.99, but professional
photographers and more experienced amateurs
with really large collections of photos will appreciate
its more extensive search tools. Aperture’s editing
and adjustment tools are a bit more complex, and
probably won’t appeal to casual users, but do
provide the ability to make finer and more precise
changes than are possible with iPhoto.
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How to share your iPhone’s 3G (or 4G) data connection
 Y
ou can share your iPhone’s 3G (or 4G)
data connection with a Mac computer and
browse the internet on the Mac remotely.
This feature, known as making a Wi-Fi hotspot, is
great for working on the go: making an iPhone Wi-Fi
hotspot enables you to use the internet on a Mac
without having to find a public hotspot.
It’s easy to turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot,
but you should check with your mobile phone carrier
first (check the terms and conditions online). Some
networks do not want you to turn the iPhone into
a Wi-Fi hotspot, and they may charge you extra
(or limit your internet if they spot you setting up a
Create a personal hotspot
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hotspot). You should also be careful not to exceed
your data allowance. If you have a limited allowance
you should only use the Wi-Fi hotspot for a short
amount of time.
A Wi-Fi hotspot turns the iPhone into a Wi-Fi
router (like the one in your home). The iPhone emits
a Wi-Fi connection that your Mac can connect to.
The Mac connects to the iPhone using Wi-Fi, and
the iPhone connects to the internet using its 3G/4G
cellular data connection. It’s clever stuf and a neat
trick to know.
Here’s what you need to do:
1. Tap Settings and Mobile
2. Tap Personal Hotspot and set Personal
Hotspot to On
3. Tap on Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
4. Tap Wi-Fi Password and enter a suitable password
(this can be any password you choose, it’s not
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related to your Apple ID or usual Wi-Fi connection)
5. Now check the name of the hotspot listed under
To Connect Using Wi-Fi (we get “iPhone 5s”)
6. Click AirPort in the Menu bar of your Mac and
choose the Wi-Fi hotspot (iPhone 5s in our case)
7. Enter the password from Step 4
That should be it. You should now be able
to browse the internet on your Mac using the
connection provided by your iPhone.
If you do not have the AirPort icon in the Menu
bar of your Mac, open System Preferences and
click Wi-Fi and choose the iPhone Hotspot from
the Network Name. While you’re here, you should
place a tick in the setting marked “Show Wi-Fi status
in menu bar”; this will enable you to access Wi-Fi
settings from the Mac’s menu bar.
You can now browse the internet on your Mac
using the data connection from the iPhone. Your
mileage may vary, however, depending on how good
the iPhone’s network connection is. You might find
the internet runs a little slower than you are used to.
When you’ve finished, tap Settings > Mobile >
Personal Hotspot on your iPhone and set it to Of.
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15 tips to stop an iPhone running out of data
 H
as your iPhone started running out of data
before your allowance is reset each month?
Do you receive texts from your mobile
network warning that you are at 80 percent of your
data allowance for the month? Have you ever run
out of data before the month was up? If you are tired
of running out of cellular data every month follow our
tips and never run out of data again.
Track how much iPhone data you use
Before you can start to manage your data usage, you
need to keep tabs on how much you are using. To
view how much data you have used go to Settings
Manage an iPhone’s data
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> Cellular and scroll down to see your Cellular Data
Usage. If you have never reset this number it could
be pretty big.
Our advice is to get in the habit of resetting it
every month, perhaps set an alert on your phone
so that you remember to reset it on the day your
network resets your allowance. To reset your
statistics, scroll down to the bottom of the page and
tap: Reset Statistics. Get in the habit of looking here
once in a while so you can see if you are on target.
Stop iPhone apps using cellular data
Another new feature in iOS 7 was the ability to
determine which apps are allowed to use cellular
data. When we are close to our allowance, we head
to Settings > Cellular and scroll
down to switch of a number of
apps so that we will think twice
before wasting our cellular
allowance on them.
The other benefit of stopping
some of your apps using cellular
data is that it should stop them
updating in the background when
you are out and about – thereby
preserving battery life.
See which apps are using
data on iPhone
Below each of the apps on the
Settings > Cellular page you
will see just how much data
they have been using since you
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last reset your phone. You can
expect that the apps you use
frequently will have higher data
usage, but any that stand out
as guzzling a lot more data that
you think they should be can be
switched of here.
Turn of 3G and 4G data on
your iPhone
If things are really desperate,
one way to preserve your data
when you are running low is
to temporarily disable cellular
data. This way if you have a
week or so to go until your
contract renews then you can
manage your usage rather than
running out completely.
To turn of your cellular data so go to Settings >
Cellular and toggle the Cellular Data switch to of.
This will turn of all cellular data to restrict all data
to Wi-Fi, including email, web browsing and push
notifications. We also find this is a handy way to
preserve battery life – as opposed to turning the
phone to Airplane Mode, which preserves power but
means nobody can contact you.
Turn of auto play in Facebook
Facebook recently added a feature to their iOS
app that means when you are scrolling through
your news feed any video that’s been posted will
automatically stream – even if you aren’t on a Wi-Fi
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network. Obviously this isn’t an ideal situation if you
have a limited data allowance.
We recommend you change your settings so that
it only streams if you are in Wi-Fi. Go to Settings >
Facebook > Settings and scroll down to Video and
switch to Auto-play on Wi-Fi only.
Don’t use FaceTime on 3G or 4G network
It’s great that we can use FaceTime over 3G, but
if you have limited data but loads of free minutes
you will probably prefer to stick to normal calls.
Go to Settings > Cellular and scroll down your list
of apps to make sure that FaceTime is switched
of for cellular data. You might be thinking that
you wouldn’t contact anyone via FaceTime over
cellular, but crucially, this will also
stop anyone contacting you via
FaceTime when you aren’t on a
Wi-Fi network.
Stop iCloud Documents &
Data using data
Go to Settings > iCloud >
Documents & Data. You can
turn of the ability for apps
to store documents and data
in the cloud by toggling the
Documents & Data switch, or
you can be more specific about
which apps you think can do
with out this allowance.
If you want to stop your
documents syncing when you
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aren’t on a Wi-Fi network just
toggle Use Cellular Data to of. If
you are regularly using Apple’s
iWork apps, such as Pages or
Keynote, you may find your phone
busily syncing large documents
over your cellular connection, and
you probably won’t want that.
Stop iTunes using data
If you have cellular data turned
on for iTunes, and you subscribe
to iTunes Match, you may find
your data is being gobbled up,
which is particularly annoying
given that you are paying for
the service to start with. Go to
Settings > iTunes & App Store and
make sure that Use Cellular Data is switched of.
Use Safari’s Reading
List to view articles of ine
One of our favourite new features in the iOS 7
version of Safari is the Reading List feature that lets
you download a web page for reading of line. This
is great when you are reading a web page during a
commute and about to head into a tunnel.
It’s also great if you are out of data and want to
be able to read some articles on your iPhone while
you are out and about. You can queue up a few web
pages in your Reading List while you are on a Wi-Fi
network, and then read them without using up any
data. While you have access to Wi-Fi go to Safari,
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open the web pages you wish to read, click on the
Share icon at the bottom of the page, and select Add
to Reading List. Wait for the phone to download the
article and then head out. You will be able to read
this article even if you are using Airplane Mode.
However, if you don’t want your phone to use
cellular data to download the pages you have added
to reading list on your other devices, you need to
head to Settings > Safari and scroll down to toggle
of Use Cellular Data for reading list.
Beware iPhone Photo Stream
Photo Stream was the main culprit when we started
to regularly hit our data allowance back in the
summer of 2013, having signed up to a friend’s feed,
and started sharing one of our
own. When you turn of Photo
Stream in Settings > iCloud >
Photos and then toggle My Photo
Stream on, it looks innocent
enough, claiming as it does it will
“Automatically upload new photos
and send the to all of your iCloud
devices when connected to Wi-
Fi.” This may be the case, but we
were getting sent photos from our
friend’s Photo Stream when we
were on 3G networks, suggesting
that it wasn’t a very cellular data
friendly service.
Luckily with the iOS 7 update,
you can now manage Photo
Sharing. You can turn of Photo
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Sharing (at Settings > Photo
& Camera), which will stop
your phone from downloading
images from other people’s
shared photo streams that you
subscribe to. However, should
you still want to be able to see
your friend’s images on your
phone, you can stop Photo
using your cellular connection in
Settings > Cellular. If you have a
photo stream this is one to watch
when you go on holiday.
Turn of Push Notifications
How many of your applications
are using the Apple Push
Notifications service to alert you
to new data? Go to Settings > Notification Centre to
find out. You can easily stop any apps from pestering
you with Notifications here ( just scroll down the list,
tap on those apps you don’t want to notify you, and
toggle to switch beside: Show in Notification Centre,
and Show on Lock Screen). However, you will still
want to make sure that those apps that you still want
to receive notifications for aren’t doing so over your
cellular connection.
Those apps that appear under Include on the
Notifications Centre tab may be using data to
alert you to changes. If you really don’t need to be
told that your friend has replied to your post on
Facebook turn Notification Centre of by tapping
Facebook, and switching the slider to of. Be ruthless
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with the apps that are alerting you to changes,
although if you then end up checking them every
five minutes it may be a false economy.
Stop fetching email
Another one to curb is your email. If you have
the phone set to fetch data wirelessly at specific
intervals you will quickly consume data – this can
get really out of hand if you have your iPhone set
to Push data to your iPhone from the server as it
will be updating all the time. Start by making sure
that Push is not selected. Go to Settings > Mail,
Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and if Push
is turned on, turn it of.
Now make sure you are set to fetch data
manually. Go to Settings > Mail,
Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New
Data and scroll down and select
Manually from the list. You can be
even more precise if you prefer,
and amend your fetch settings
for separate accounts. Changing
these settings also has the
benefit of preserving battery life.
Stop background app
refresh in iOS 7
One of the new features of iOS 7
was the ability for your phone to
automatically update its operating
system, and it’s apps, in the
background without you having
to act. However, this can be a
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problem if your phone decides
to update when you aren’t on a
Wi-Fi network. Head to General
> Background App Refresh and
make sure that the Background
App Refresh switch is set to of.
Keep Wi-Fi on
If you have ever found yourself
switching of Wi-Fi when your
phone decides to connect to
the Wi-Fi when you are about
town you may find yourself
using cellular when you are
back at home. It’s a frustration
that’s easily fixed if you choose
to forget the network when one of them pops up.
Just tap on the network name, and in the following
screen select Forget this Network.
Use Wi-Fi hotspots
You’ll be able to find Wi-Fi networks all around,
especially in any big city. You can find Wi-Fi in most
cofee shop chains, many restaurants, and other
public areas like libraries and airports. If you are a BT
broadband subscriber you can use the BT Wi-Fi app
to get onto any of their hotspots for free. Download
the BT Wi-Fi app for iOS here.
However, you should always exercise an air of
caution when accessing a hotspot, as we explain
in this article: How do I know if a Wi-Fi hotspot is
safe. The best advice is to use a Wi-Fi hotspot that
requires a password.
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Make sure that your iPhone’s battery lasts longer
  O
ne of the inescapable truths of modern
technology is its penchant for regularly
sucking from the national grid, like some
kind of crazed electronic vampire. You might
consider your iPhone or iPad to be the most amazing
technology in the world, but they’re little more than
metal-and-glass slabs when out of juice. Thankfully, it
doesn’t have to be like that. We’ve got some brilliant
battery-saving tricks and tips that will help you keep
the iPhone’s battery running all day long. Here’s how
to improve your iPhone’s battery life in iOS 7.
These tips will also help you to get your iPhone
to last a little bit longer when you’re away for the
weekend without your charging cable; during a
power-cut; or when you are pootling along on a slow
train, trying to coax your iPhone into surviving what
Improve battery life
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would otherwise be a long and
boring journey home.
Follow these tricks to give
your iPhone, iPad or iPod
touch enough power to last
those crucial extra minutes –
or even hours. And, if you are
experiencing battery problems
with your iPhone on a daily basis
- perhaps you find that you can’t
get through a day on a single
charge since updating to iOS 7
– follow this advice and extend
your iPhone battery life.
Here, then, are the best ways
to improve your iPhone’s battery
life in iOS 7, from system-wide
settings worth tweaking to third-
party apps that you should stop - or start - using in
order to preserve battery life.
How bad is your iPhone battery life really?
A quick way to check whether there really is a
problem with the battery in your iPhone is to head
over to Settings > General > Usage to check your
Usage and Standby times. The Usage time is how
long you have used the phone since the last charge,
and Standby indicates the total time that’s passed
since the last charge. Expect usage to be a lot lower
than Standby (unless you have been using your
iPhone none stop since unplugging it).
To test your battery make a note of the usage
and standby times and then put the device to sleep
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by pressing the on/of switch at the top. After five
minutes check the changes in the times. If your
device is working correctly, the usage time should
have gone up by less than a minute, while the
standby time should have gained five minutes. If you
see more than a minute increase on the Usage time,
something is stopping your phone from sleeping and
you have a battery drain problem.
Follow the following tips to stop unnecessary
drain when your iPhone isn’t in use, and we also
have a number of tips that will increase battery life in
situations when you need the extra boost.
Turn down the brightness
That iPhone 5s you are lugging around ofers a
1136x640-pixel resolution at
326ppi. It should therefore come
as no surprise the screen is one
of your iOS device’s primary
power drains. Lighting the pixels
on your iPhone’s Retina display
requires a lot of energy. In fact,
in testing, excessive screen
brightness was the single biggest
iPhone battery killer we found.
At full brightness, an iPhone 5
lasted 6 hours, 21 minutes while
playing 720p video. When we
set the screen to half brightness,
the phone lasted nine hours, 48
minutes. That’s a huge diference.
Luckily you can save some
battery life by adjusting the
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iPhone’s brightness. A quick fix
is to turn down brightness using
the slider in Control Center,
accessed by swiping up from the
bottom of the display. Drag the
brightness slider as far left as
possible, but with a setting that
still leaves your device usable.
You should also open the
Settings app, access Wallpapers
& Brightness and make sure that
Auto-Brightness is turned of,
this will stop your phone turning
up the brightness every time it
deems it necessary.
Auto-lock your iPhone
While the screen of your iPhone is
on, you’re consuming power, so make sure that your
iPhone isn’t awake when you don’t need it to be. If
you want to get the maximum battery life from your
iPhone, set the Auto Lock to one minute. Venture
into Settings > General > Auto-Lock and set your
iPhone to sleep after one minute of inactivity.
This will provide a substantial improvement to
battery life over time. If you really want to max out
your iPhone’s battery life, try to get into the habit of
pressing the Sleep/Wake button at the top of your
iPhone as soon as you’ve finished using it.
Turn on Airplane Mode
One of the biggest drains of battery life is the
antenna, because it’s constantly checking for nearby
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cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Simply moving around
with the phone in your pocket will drain its battery,
as it moves from within range of one base station
to another.
If don’t need to access data, make, or receive,
calls, and you don’t require GPS (for maps) you could
put the phone into flight mode and stop all use of
the iPhone’s antenna. It’s easy to switch on Airplane
Mode, just swipe up on Control Centre and tap
the Airplane icon on the top left. Alternatively, tap
Settings and set Airplane mode to On
If you need to use data, you can still use Wi-Fi
when Airplane Mode is turned on – after switching
on Airplane Mode, tap the Wi-Fi icon beside it and
connect to the Wi-Fi network of your choice.
It’s a good idea to enable
Airplane Mode if you are in an
area of low coverage as the
iPhone will be working hard to
power the antenna to maintain
a data connection. If you move
into an area with a poor signal
- perhaps the basement of a
store – your iPhone will start
desperately trying to hang
on to signal at the expense of
your battery.
This drain on your battery will
happen even if you have a strong
Wi-Fi connection, because your
phone still needs the cellular
connection for calls and SMS
messages, according to Apple
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Store genius, Scott Loveless.
So, if you’re of ce is in an area
of poor cellular coverage, for
example, your battery may spend
the day trying to maintain a
cellular signal even while your
Wi-Fi signal is great.
Disable Wi-Fi
If you still need a cellular
connection but can live without
Wi-Fi, you can disable Wi-Fi by
swiping up to reveal Control
Centre and tapping the Wi-Fi icon
to turn it of (if it’s of the Wi-Fi
icon will be black). This will stop
your phone from hunting around
for Wi-Fi networks it could join.
There are a few situations where avoiding using
Wi-Fi might stop battery drain. If the Wi-Fi signal is
poor then your iPhone will require more power to
transmit and receive data. Similarly, if you are rarely
in a place where you could join a Wi-Fi hotspot then
there is little point in the iPhone hunting for one.
However, we wouldn’t recommend using 3G over
Wi-Fi if there is a Wi-Fi network available. There is
usually no financial cost associated with using a
Wi-Fi network, while you may have to keep within
a data allowance as part of your network contact.
Another reason is that your iPhone consumes less
power accessing data over Wi-Fi than it does when
doing the same task over Wi-Fi. This is why Apple
quotes diferent battery life for 3G compared to Wi-
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Fi: internet use on both the iPhone 5s and iPhone
5c is eight hours on 3G, up to 10 hours on LTE, and
10 hours on Wi-Fi. The iPhone 4s ofers six hours
internet use on 3G and nine hours over Wi-Fi.
Tap Settings > Wi-Fi and ensure Ask to Join
Networks is set to On. This will help you spot open
networks to join.
Disable Bluetooth
If you have Bluetooth on the chances are you don’t
need it. Swipe up on Control Centre to check if
Bluetooth is on, if it is you will see the B-like icon
highlighted in white. Bluetooth is usually left on
after an iOS update is installed, so you may not
even be aware that it is on. If it is, tap the Bluetooth
icon to turn it of. You can also
tap General > Bluetooth and set
Bluetooth to Of.
Bluetooth is a battery-drainer.
If you’re not using it to connect to
a speaker, headphones, or other
accessory, then switch it of.
Turn of AirDrop
One iPhone service that requires
Bluetooth is AirDrop. New in
iOS 7, AirDrop allows you to
transfer photos and other files
to and from nearby iPhones with
the same feature switched on.
Unfortunately, it’s a battery killer,
because of the way AirDrop
seeks out nearby iPhones to
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hook up with. You can switch of
AirDrop in the Control Centre
(swipe upwards from the bottom
of the screen). Only turn on
AirDrop when it’s needed.
Disable 3G
If you can survive without data
but still need to be contactable
you could turn of 3G (or LTE 4G if
you have it). Your data connection
can be disabled in the Cellular
section of Settings. Go to Settings
> Cellular and switch Cellular
Data to of. If you have an iPhone
that is capable of 4G you can
separately turn of 4G here as
well. We recommend that you do
this if you don’t actually have a 4G contract.
If you aren’t using it then switching of cellular
data will increase the battery length, the benefit,
when compared to switching to Airplane Mode is
that you will only disable the cellular data portion of
your signal, such as EDGE, 3G, 4G, or LTE. Normally
your iPhone receives two signals at once: one for
calls and SMS, and one for data, now it only receives
the signal for calls and SMS – which means you are
still contactable, you just can’t browse Facebook
(unless you can access a Wi-Fi network).
You should also note that, according to Apple
Genius Scotty Loveless, the signal strength meter
on the iPhone only shows the signal strength for
the non-data connection, which means your iPhone
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could show 2-3 dots in iOS 7 for a standard cellular
connection, but actually have a very poor 3G or
LTE connection thus causing your iPhone to go into
heavy search mode.
Turn down the volume
It might surprise you but the volume setting afects
battery life too, so if you are playing music or other
audio from your phone, turn it down using the
volume buttons. Note that the music equaliser also
takes up a surprising amount of power. Tap Settings
> Music and make sure EQ is turned to Of.
Stop your iPhone vibrating
Head to Settings > Sounds and turn of both of
the vibrate options, because
your device rattling around like
crazy when a slew of messages
arrives drains the battery like
nobody’s business. There are
dozens of annoying jingles you
can choose from to announce
to the world that someone’s just
sent you a message without the
accompanying vibration.
Tone down visual efects
Assuming you don’t sufer from
some kind of motion sickness
or balance disorder, the various
3D efects in iOS 7 might excite
you. These pretty Parallax
efects that make your icons and
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notifications appear to float over
the wallpaper might look nice, but
they constantly use your iPhone’s
graphics processor and are
therefore a drain on the battery
that you could probably manage
without if you were trying to get
a last half hour of use out of your
iPhone on a long journey home.
One thing you can do is switch
to static rather than dynamic
wallpaper - the iOS 7-style
wallpaper that moves around as
you tilt your phone. This will cut
down the power drain a little.
When you set a new Wallpaper,
tap where it says ‘Perspective
Zoom: On’ to turn it of.
You can also go to Settings > General >
Accessibility > and switch on Reduce Motion to
temporarily turn of all the parallax efects. Note
that this will replace many system zoom efects with
cross-fades that don’t look as nice, but might give
you those extra few minutes power you need.
Avoid games and high-impact apps
It sounds obvious to say your iPhone’s battery is
drained quicker the more you use your phone, but
how fast it falls from 100 percent to nothing entirely
depends on what apps you use. Some apps burn
through your battery much faster than others. Heavy
use of the processor and GPU, for 3D games, or the
GPS chip, for maps and location-based apps, uses
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up more energy than reading content in iBooks,
for example. If you play games with rich, detailed
visuals, such as Infinity Blade 3, or 3D racing games
like CSR Racing, your iPhone’s battery will be
drained quickly, so if you’re away from a charger
and waiting for an important call, playing these sort
of games is not a good idea if your battery levels
are already low.
If you’re on the way home and low on power,
reading apps like Kindle or Instapaper won’t drain
what’s left of your battery terribly quickly. However,
it probably wouldn’t be a smart move to start playing
your favourite TV series, or, worse, the latest 3D
gaming blockbuster. In fact, even quite simple
games often utilise complex 3D trickery, and so
when in the red battery-wise,
avoid them entirely.
Minimise Camera use
Isn’t it always the case that the
battery on your iPhone runs out
just as you take the perfect shot
on a night out with your friends?
If you are running low on battery
you should keep your Camera
app usage to a minimum, and
definitely avoid using the flash.
Turn of Spotlight
Like on the Mac, Spotlight in iOS
is constantly working away in the
background, indexing your data
so you can easily find it later.
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Usually, that’s great, but not when
you’re short on power. Settings
> General > Spotlight Search
enables you to turn of some or all
Spotlight categories.
Stop Notification Centre
draining your battery
Similarly, Settings > Notification
Center might be worth a visit,
although there’s sadly no global
of switch, and, if you are running
out of power, editing notification
settings for all your apps might
take more power than it saves,
due to how long it takes.
Each time a notification is
received, the iPhone’s screen
lights up and it plays a sound, which uses energy.
Every message wakes your device for 5 to 10
seconds, and that can add up, if you get a lot of
notifications every day, to a small percentage of
your daily battery charge.
We can live without updates about Words With
Friends, so it makes sense to turn of notifications
for noncritical apps (incidentally, it was the persistent
notifications in that app that lead us to delete it
in the end). To stop notifications, go to Settings >
Notification Centre and scroll down. About half way
down the page, under the INCLUDE section, you’ll
see a list of the iPhone’s built-in apps, as well as
third-party apps installed on your handset. Tap on
each one you’re not interested in, and select the
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None option to stop it from sending Banners and
Alerts to notify you. You can also remove apps from
Notification Centre by Switching the slide in Show in
Notification Centre to of.
Stop push email
You can set your phone to Push – or rather pull
down -– email as soon as it arrives on the server.
This is handy if you never want to miss an email and
it can save you time because you’ll be able to see all
your emails as soon as you open the Mail app. But
when your iPhone is running on fumes, it’s best to
only grab new emails when you really need them.
Push constantly polls the server so when you
get a new email the iPhone knows instantly. You
can even get a notification every
time you receive an email. If you
don’t need to know every time
an email comes in turn it Push
of. Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts,
Calendars and tap Fetch New
Data and turn Push to Of.
You can instead choose to
Fetch your emails at certain
intervals. Using Push data for
email uses far more data (and
power) than Fetch. Choose
from Every 15 Minutes, Every
30 Minutes, Hourly, or Manually
so you only grab emails when
you choose to.
If you have push email on it will
stop your phone from sleeping,
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especially if you have an Exchange
email account, you can expect
battery life to be hindered.
Remove multiple
email accounts
Multiple email accounts will
consume use of your precious
battery life. Try to fold all your
diferent accounts into just the
one email service then remove
the extras by tapping Settings
> Mail, Contacts, Calendars
and choosing an account and
tapping Delete Account. In the
case of Gmail, for example, you
could turn Mail of but keep your
Gmail Calendar synced.
Turn of iCloud
Similarly, if you want to make that last bit of juice
last longer, turn of anything you don’t need to be
synced via iCloud.
iCloud uses a fair bit of data and power, so you
can save battery life by turning of unused features.
Tap Settings > iCloud and turn of everything you
don’t really use, for example, you may not need your
Safari bookmarks to be available on the iPhone. Be
sure to check the Documents & Data tab to see if
there are any apps storing data in the cloud that you
don’t need access too, for example, Pages.
iCloud backup only works when the phone is
plugged in so you can leave that on.
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Turn of auto time zone
The iPhone can automatically update its time
depending on where you are in the world. Because
the iPhone determines the correct time via Location
Services, this uses a small amount of power. Tap
Settings > General > Date & Time and change Set
Automatically to Of.
Location Services
Most of the time it is not iOS itself that is causing the
iPhone’s battery to drain quickly, but all the apps that
are running on it. There are a number of apps that
utilise location services on your iPhone and they can
play their part in draining your battery too. It’s even
more frustrating when it’s not obvious why some of
them need to know where you
are in the first place.
To stop apps from using
Location Services, tap Settings
> Privacy > Location Services
and either turn of Location
Services altogether, or deselect
any apps that you don’t need
to access your GPS.
Siri
Even Siri can be a bit of a drain
on battery life. Go to Settings >
General > Siri and make sure that
Raise to Speak isn’t switched on.
That sensor is active whenever
your phone is unlocked so if it
detects that you are holding your
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phone is next to your face it will
make Siri listen automatically.
Disable background
app refresh
Before iOS 7, if you switched
between apps by double tapping
the home button, the old app
would be put into a frozen
state, with limited access to
system resources. iOS 7 allows
background apps to periodically
refresh their data though, so
when you open the app again,
you’ll see the latest updates
immediately. This can be useful
in certain circumstances, but
most of the time is just wasting
processing power and battery juice updating apps
that you don’t really care about.
If you want to get the most out of your battery,
turning of Background App Refresh will help. Go to
Settings > General > Background App Refresh. Here
you can turn of Background App Refresh altogether,
or prune the list down on an app-by-app basis.
Disable app updating
Another handy new feature in iOS 7, is the ability
to have apps update without you manually telling
them to. This is a useful feature that means that
apps will always be up-to-date, but can be a drain
on your battery. Also, some people prefer to update
on a case-by-case basis, since occasionally a
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developer will update an app in a way that reduces
user satisfaction.
Luckily, you can stop apps from auto-updating.
Switch of automatic updates in Settings > iTunes &
App Store, scroll to Automatic Downloads and switch
of Updates. If you decide to leave any of these
Automatic Downloads settings on, ensure that the
switch for Use Cellular Data isn’t turned on if you
have limited data allowance
Facebook
Of all the background refreshing and location
service using apps, one stands out as the worst
ofender. In this blog, former Apple Genius Bar
worker Scotty Loveless recommends that you
disable location and background
app refresh for Facebook.
He claims that Facebook app
consumes a lot of memory
and processing power even
when it’s not in use. He tested
this theory by disabling Location
Services and Background App
Refresh for Facebook and claims
he actually saw his battery
percentage increase.
Stop quitting
We tend to quit apps we aren’t
using as it seems like a logical
way to stop them sucking away at
the battery. To quit an app, double
tap the Home Button and swipe
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up to close. It seems this isn’t
such a good idea after all. Apple
Genius Loveless explains that
when you close an app you take it
out of RAM, this means that when
you open it again the iPhone has
to load it back into memory. “All of
that loading and unloading puts
more stress on your device than
just leaving it alone,” he writes.
Show the battery
percentage on your iPhone
If you want to keep an eye on
your battery level, you may find
it easier to see a percentage
representation, rather than a bar
icon. If you want to see how much
charge you have left as a percentage, go to Settings
> General > Usage and activate Battery Percentage.
Now you will have a more precise read-out of what
life your device has left.
Note that for reasons best known to Apple,
the iPod touch lacks such an option. All devices,
however, will warn when your battery life hits 20
per cent and then 10 per cent; also, be mindful that
even if your battery has a few per cent left in it, your
device might automatically shut down anyway, so
don’t be doing anything too important when your
iPhone, iPod touch or iPad is gasping for breath.
Apple genius Loveless does warn that some
people become so concerned about their battery
percentage that they keep turning on their iPhone to
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check it, and every time they wake up their phone a
little bit of power dies.
Calibrate to improve iPhone battery life
If despite trying all these tips to get more battery
life out of your iPhone, you are still finding yourself
running out of juice earlier than you think you should
– perhaps your iPhone battery it going from 17
percent to two percent in a matter of minutes – your
iPhone or iPad might need a battery calibration.
Apple recommends that you periodically drain
your iPhone or iPad’s battery totally and then
charge it up until it’s completely full. That’s down
to 0, and up to 100 per cent. You should do this at
least once per month.
This process, called calibration,
helps your device estimate its
battery life more accurately.
Calibrating your battery will
ensure that you know when
you need to charge the battery,
but the procedure itself doesn’t
actually make the battery itself
last longer.
How do you know how
much battery you have
left on your iPhone?
Frustratingly, there is no easy
answer to this question. Apple
ofers the ability to discover the
percentage of battery power
remaining, and you see how long
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your phone has been running
without a charge, and how much
of that time you have been using
the iPhone, but if can’t tell you
how many hours you have left.
This is probably because the
amount of battery life remaining
is entirely dependent on what
you are planning to do with
your iPhone. If Apple told you
to expect two hours and then
you ran a movie on full blast you
would probably run out of battery
before the movie ended.
However, there are third party
apps that can give you some
guidance about how much
battery life is remaining.
One such app is BatteryDoctor (previously
BatterySaver) from KS Mobile. This tool ofers a
broad range of system tweaks, with a particular
focus on saving battery life.
The app’s main screen shows an estimate for how
much battery life is left, based on what’s running in
the background, and your current system settings. If
you perform some of the tweaks suggested by the
app, you’ll see this number creep up.
For example, when we switched on Airplane
Mode we gained about an hour of battery life – the
battery life remaining changed from eight hours, 17
minutes, to nine hours, 21 minutes.
Tap on Optimize to see a breakdown of how
much longer your iPhone could last if you shut down
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certain services, such as disabling Wi-Fi or GPS, or
reducing brightness.
Tap on Remaining for details of how much
time you have remaining to do certain tasks, web
browsing on Wi-Fi, or web browsing on 3G, talk time,
video playback, photo taking, and more.
The app BatteryDoctor will also alert you to any
app being used, which might prove surprising, as
in our case it highlighted Facebook which was
open, as were many other apps, and yet Facebook
appeared to be the only one consuming power
in the background (despite the fact that we had
turned of Location Services and background
updates for that app).
Should you leave your iPhone plugged in?
When you get to work do you plug in your iOS
devices, so that they’re nicely charged up by the
time it’s home time? In principle this should mean
your iPhone (and iPad) always have enough power
to get you through the commute home. But could
this practice of leaving your iPhone plugged in all
the time cause damage to the life
of the battery?
There is some debate about
this - the iPhone is designed to
stop charging its battery once the
battery is fully charged, so this
should mean that the battery can’t
be ‘overcharged’ as such. However,
we know from our experience with
laptops that have been left plugged
in at all times, the ability of the
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battery to sustain a charge seems
to deplete over time.
The best advice is to make sure
that you drain your battery down
to zero at least once a month if
you want to ensure that you get a
good life span out of your battery.
Turn your iPhone of
This one’s a last resort, but if
you need an iPhone to survive
a weekend or a power outage,
and its reason for being powered
up is essential communications
only, turn the device of when
you’re not using it. First, that’ll
stop you being tempted in just having another quick
go on Candy Crush; secondly, it’ll also ensure even
background tasks aren’t supping power. To turn
your iOS device of, hold the sleep button for a few
seconds and then drag across ‘slide to power of’.
And finally…
We hope that some of these tips we’ve suggested
mean you get more life from your iPhone when
you’re away from your trusty Lightning or 30-pin
charging cable. The points we have covered are the
main battery killers in iOS 7. If it seems like we’re
switching of all the cool stuf, sorry about that, but
to achieve optimal battery life you need to pick
and choose which cool features you actually need,
and which are draining your battery for superficial
reasons, we’re looking at you Facebook.
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Convert DVD discs into digital files to watch on the go
  T
his feature looks at how to import a DVD to
play on an iPad. In this guide, we’ll look at how
to convert a DVD into a digital video, store the
movie in iTunes and sync it with an iPad. Follow this
guide to importing DVDs to iTunes and you’ll be able
to watch your DVD collection on an iPad.
Most of us have a large DVD collection, and lots
of great films still to watch DVD. But wouldn’t it be
great if you could watch a DVD on an iPad? Not that
we’d like Apple to make an iPad with a slot for a
DVD drive: that’d be silly, but wouldn’t it be great if
Import a DVD to an iPad
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you could convert all those old DVDs into movie files
and watch them on an iPad?
Fortunately there is a way to do exactly that: it’s a
program called HandBrake that you can download
from here. With HandBrake installed on a Mac
computer, you can convert a DVD movie into digital
video file and store it in iTunes. Once the digital
video file is in iTunes, you can sync it to an iPad.
Converting digital video files to watch on an iPad
is a great technique to know if you have old movies
that you still want to watch.
Use HandBrake to copy DVDs to iTunes
While iTunes does not have an Import DVD option,
you can use a program called HandBrake to copy
DVDs to iTunes. With HandBrake, you can migrate
a DVD to the Mac’s hard drive as a digital video.
You can download the latest version of HandBrake
from here. You will need a Mac computer with an
optical drive to use HandBrake. If you do not have
an optical drive, you can attach an external Apple
SuperDrive to a Mac. Follow these steps to convert
a DVD to a digital file:
1. Insert the DVD into the Mac’s optical drive.
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2. Open the HandBrake app.
3. Click Source and choose the DVD using the
Finder window..
4. Click Get libdvdcss. Click on the libdvdcss.pkg
link on the website to download the file. Open the
libdvdcss.pkg file and follow the install process.
5. Return to HandBrake and click Source. Choose
the DVD volume using the Finder window.
6. HandBrake chooses what it thinks is the main title,
but you can click the pop-up menu next to Title and
choose the item you want to encode. The title with
the longest duration is often the DVD’s main feature.
7. If the Presets Drawer is not already open,
click the Toggle Presets button at the top of
the HandBrake window (or press Command-T).
Choose the iPad option.
8. Click Browse and choose a location for the
video file.
9. Click Start. The DVD will now start to be imported.
It takes a while to import a whole DVD.
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10. Locate the file in Finder and drag to iTunes.
Now that the digital video files in iTunes you can
sync it with the iPad.
Note! HandBrake is not available on the App Store
and is not from an identified Apple Developer, so
Mac OS X’s Security Preferences may prevent it from
opening. If so click on System Preferences > Security
& Privacy > Click the Lock to make changes; now
enter your password and click Unlock. Now choose
Anywhere underneath Allow apps downloaded from.
Now open the HandBrake app.
Use a video streaming service
If you find converting DVDs to iTunes a chore, you
might want to consider using service like Netflix
and Lovefilm. These video streaming services are
used to stream movies directly from to an iPad (via
a dedicated app). You can install the Netflix and
Lovefilm apps from the App Store.
Is it legal to rip a DVD in the UK?
At the end of 2011, the UK Government made it legal
for us to make copies for personal use of our media,
but that didn’t mean it was legal for people to break
the DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology that
protects DVDs. Because DVDs have digital protection,
you do not get a DVD Import feature in iTunes
alongside the CD Import. Technically, it is illegal in the
UK to copy any media, but the law has never been
enforced (to our knowledge) when it is a product you
own and it’s for your own personal use. Where the
law gets more serious is if you start sharing or selling,
copied files: that will land you in court.
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Get Microsoft Of ce Mobile on an iOS device
 M
icrosoft Of ce Mobile for iPad has finally
been announced after much speculation,
bringing Microsoft’s suite of Of ce
programs - Word, Excel and PowerPoint - to the
Apple iPad. The suite of iPad apps joins the iPhone
Microsoft Of ce Mobile app Microsoft made
available for iOS in 2013.
Interestingly, Microsoft has bought the apps to
the iPad before ofering a touch-based version of
Of ce for Windows. Of ce is already available on
the Microsoft Surface, but Microsoft is yet to launch
Guide to Of ce Mobile
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Of ce for Android tablets
or a Metro version for
touch-enabled Windows
devices. However, a
touch-based version of
Of ce is also in the works
for Windows, Julia White,
a senior Of ce executive
for Microsoft, confirmed.
What does this mean
for Microsoft – and for Apple?
Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Of ce Mobile
app for iPhone users last year, but the iPad –
which is naturally a better platform for document
editing – wasn’t supported. Many concluded that
Microsoft was intent on promoting its own Surface
tablet instead. With this in mind, many are now
wondering why Microsoft has chosen to do this now.
Is it a clever marketing ploy - a way of smuggling
a Windows 8-esque interface under iOS users’
noses, and getting them used to an alternative
aesthetic? Is it desperation - the last throw of the
dice for a company that knows it took mobile
seriously too late and can’t break into the iOS/
Android duopoly? Is it a means to sell subscriptions
to Of ce 365. Or is it a long-awaited but wise
strategic play, one that was made possible by the
advent of a new Microsoft CEO?
Probably a bit of all four (with a emphasis on the
Of ce 365 subscriptions), but we won’t know for
a while. It’s certainly exciting news for iPad users,
although the lack of Of ce software for so long
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means most have found
alternative word processors
by now - maybe Pages,
maybe iA Writer. It’s perhaps
more significant for the
business users who have
so far avoided iOS because
of its lack of Of ce - which
may have been Microsoft’s
strategy all along, but it hasn’t
paid of, with Surface sales
lagging behind iPad sales.
The number of people left
who felt that the iPad wasn’t
a serious work tool was
dwindling, but this may be the final nail in their cof n.
Whether Microsoft finds that to be a compromise
worth making in order to increase its Of ce 365
subscriptions is something we’ll have to wait to see.
Microsoft Of ce – designed for the iPad
Microsoft’s Sarah White described the Apple-like
apps as “definitely not the ported Windows app to
an iPad... These are uniquely built for the iPad.”
According to Michael Atalla, director of product
management for Of ce, Of ce for iPad represents
neither a “blown-up” Of ce Mobile for iPhone nor
a stripped-down Of ce for Windows, but rather a
custom version of Of ce designed expressly for
the iPad. Given the fact that Apple is already giving
away Pages, Numbers and Keynote for new iPad and
iPhone users, Microsoft needed to pull out all the
stops to make its apps as beautiful as Apple’s are.
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How to get Of ce on the iPhone for free
Microsoft launched the Microsoft Of ce Mobile app
for the iPhone in 2013. This app, which allows users
to access and view Of ce apps was also updated in
conjunction with the launch of the iPad Of ce apps.
Previously only Of ce 365 users could download
the app for free. It is now free for anyone to
download. iPhone users with the Of ce Mobile app
can access any Of ce documents stored in the
cloud, via Sharepoint or SkyDrive now known as
One Drive, which is part of a Of ce 365 subscription.
It is also possible to open documents and
spreadsheets from emails.
When you click on a Word document, for example,
you will see a preview in the Mail app, to view the
preview in Word (or any other app, including Pages
if you have downloaded it) click the Share icon and
select Open in Of ce Mobile.
In the Of ce Mobile app there are two modes.
Preview where you can select and copy text but do
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little else, and an editing mode where it is possible
to edit documents (if you have a Microsoft account).
When we opened a Word document in Of ce
Mobile on our iPhone, it appeared to be possible
to edit (we were able to paste in a paragraph) but
when it came to save it we need to sign in to a
Microsoft account. If you don’t have a Microsoft
account you will be invited to set up an account.
Unfortunately while working through this process
we got an error message when we tried to verify
our account via Gmail.
How to get Microsoft on the iPad for free
You can now download individual iPad versions
of the Of ce apps from the Apple App Store for
free, however, it is necessary to sign up for a Of ce
365 subscription to use the Of ce for iPad apps
for editing. The subscription allows iPhone and
iPad users to edit documents, spreadsheets and
presentations on the go.
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Considering that it is possible to view a Microsoft
Of ce document on an iPhone or iPad without
downloading the Of ce app (when you click on
a Word doc in Mail, for example, Mail will open a
preview), it seems pointless to use the Microsoft
apps for no more than viewing. For this reason it
is apparent that Microsoft’s motivation must be to
encourage people to update to the 365 subscription.
Price
Microsoft Word for iPad, Excel for iPad, and
PowerPoint for iPad are free to download from the
iTunes App Store. As is the Microsoft Of ce Mobile
for iPhone. However, users will be only able to view
existing documents if they don’t have an Of ce 365
subscription. To be able to edit inside the apps you
will require a Of ce 365 subscription. The Of ce
365 subscription will give users access to the full
capabilities of the Of ce for iPad apps, including
syncing across all your devices.
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For business users, an Of ce 365 subscription is
available in a number of diferent packages. Small
Business can sign up for £3.30 a month (£39.60 a
year) but they won’t gain the desktop versions of the
apps. The Small Business Premium package costs
£8.40 a month (£100.80 a year, 25 users, including
desktop versions). Midsize Business can sign up for
9.80 a month (300 users, including desktop versions
and Active Directory). There are also enterprise
oferings for £2.60, £5.20 and £15 a month.
Home users can sign up for Of ce 365 Home
Premium subscription at £7.99 per month or £79.99
a year and get access to the features, including
being able to create and edit documents, as well as
desktop versions of the Of ce apps.
Of ce for iPad: Subscribing to Of ce 365
Wondering whether to get a subscription to Of ce
365? We look at what you get for your money.
Once you have a subscription to Of ce 365
you can edit documents or create new documents
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on your iPad. Users can also open existing
documents stored on their OneDrive or any
other SharePoint location.
What else do you get? Depending on the
subscription you might get the Of ce apps for your
Mac too. You also get one hour of free Skype calls
each month, and 20GB of SkyDrive cloud storage for
each of up to five users.
Apple on the other hand ofers its suite of iWork
apps for free on new iOS devices (and as a free
update if you already own them).
Syncing
Of ce for iPad integrates with a user’s SkyDrive
account, so users can create a document in
the Of ce and then revise it on their iPad while
commuting. The document will maintain its
formatting even if the mobile version doesn’t support
that particular feature.
The documents you have stored in OneDrive
must be downloaded to your iPad before you can
work on them. They are synced dynamically to the
Microsoft Cloud at intervals. You can create and
save documents on your iPad without saving them
to OneDrive, handy if you are of ine. However, it
appears it’s not possible to move documents from
OneDrive to your iPad if you want to work of ine.
You can collaborate on documents, editing them
at the same time as colleagues – you need to tap a
share button in the upper left of the toolbar to invite
others to access the document. Note that it doesn’t
update in real-time though, so you may refresh and
find a paragraph you were working on has moved.
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Get a great night’s rest with these apps
  S
leeping efectively can make you healthier
and happier. Get a good night’s sleep with
these breathtaking iPhone sleep apps. These
apps will help you get to sleep at night.
Sleep Cycle, 69p
Sleep Cycle is a popular app that uses the iPhone’s
built-in motion tracker to monitor your movements
during sleep. It’s an innovative approach to an alarm
clock; you place the iPhone under your pillow, and
Sleep Cycle analyses your movements. This enables
Top iOS sleep apps
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Sleep Cycle to monitor periods of deep and shallow
sleep and you get a handy chart in the morning of
how well you slept. The neat feature we love is hat
Sleep Cycle adjusts the alarm clock to wake you
up during a period when you’re moving from deep
sleep to shallow sleep. The alarm gently tinkles
under your pillow to draw you slowly out of your
slumber, and you can shake the iPhone to put it in
snooze mode. We find this the best alarm clock in
existence; it wakes us up slowly and gets us out of
bed on time, feeling refreshed and ready for the day.
Sleep Time, Free
Sleep Time is another alarm clock that monitors
your sleep activity and wakes you up at the right
time. Sleep Time also contains
a soundscape (gentle ambient
music) that you can use to help
get to sleep in the first place.
Sleep Time also tracks heart
rate and pulse information, and
reports on stress levels. It’s a
good way to get a report on how
well your sleep is going.
Deep Sleep with
Andrew Johnson, £1.99
Deep Sleep is a guided
meditation app designed to help
lull you into a deep sleep. Andrew
Johnson is based in Ayrshire on
the West Coast of Scotland and
has created popular self help CDs
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to deal with stress symptoms. The dulcet tones of
Mr Johnson talk you into a state of deep sleep, so
works similar to meditation or hypnosis (an audio
sample is below). Your mileage may vary depending
on your cynicism; but we find guided meditation
(once you get into it) to be a great way to relax.
Pzizz sleep, £2.99
Pzizz is an intriguing app that combines sound
and narrative to help guide you into a deep sleep.
Whereas other apps (like Deep Sleep) have a single
narration, Pzizz creates randomised soundtracks
containing speech and ambient audio to create a
new track every night. The advantage of this, of
course, is that the soundtrack does not become
repetitive and stop working. Pzizz
is one of the best ways to get to
sleep at night.
Long Deep Breathing, 69p
Long Deep Breathing can help
you to practice drawing longer
breaths. Unlike other apps here,
the idea isn’t to use this app while
trying to get to sleep; but you
use Long Deep Breathing to help
relax in general.
According to the App Store
description: “Long Deep
Breathing will calm the mind,
balance the emotions, and
harmonize body, mind and spirit”.
The NHS recommends relaxed
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breathing as a technique for dealing with stress, so
it’s not psychobabble.
Proactive Sleep
Alarm Clock, 69p
On the surface, Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock is
yet another alarm clock that monitors your sleep
and gradually wakes you up 10 minutes before
the alarm is set. What’s more interesting though is
the dream manipulation feature: it spots when you
are most likely to be in a dream phase, and then
starts to play ambient audio: the soundtrack to your
dreams. It’s good fun.
Relaxing Nature Scenes, Free
Reduce stress by listening to natural audio when
you sleep. Relaxing Nature Scenes combines
diferent audio streams, such as seagulls, crickets
chirping or the sounds of a flute. There are lots of
in-app purchases (currently free) such as Sandy
Beach, Rainforest Evening and Mountain Stream. A
soundboard is used to pick audio noise to combine
together and Relaxing Nature Scenes can send you
to sleep, and wake you back up.
Alarm Clock, Free
If all the apps here seem slightly high tech, then
you might want to investigate Alarm Clock Free.
This turns your iPhone into a good old-fashioned
digital alarm clock. Alarm Clock Free has some
advanced features, such as weather conditions, but
mostly we find users love the great representation
of a classic LCD display.
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The best apps to help you get around the UK
  D
elays to your journey can be stressful, so
here we round up some of the best apps, to
ensure your journey is as speedy and safe
as possible. As well as apps for checking travel
arrangements, we’ve also picked our favourite apps
for bagging a bargain, including cheaper flights and
train journeys. We also highlight some of the best
travel companions, including language tools and
currency convertors, although you are best to stick
to free Wi-Fi spots then get hit by excessive roaming
fees. Feel free to add your favourite travel related
apps in the comments below, we’ll likely add them in
a future update. In the meantime, happy travelling.
Holiday apps
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London Bus Live Countdown; Free, £1.99 (ad free)
If you travel around London chances are you need
to use the buses, at the very least it’s a scenic way to
get around town and discover points of interest you
might otherwise miss. London Bus Live Countdown
uses data directly from Transport for London (TFL),
the local government body responsible for the
capital’s transport, to take the guess work out of
when buses are due to arrive at your stop. Users can
also find local bus routes using the iPhone’s GPS
function, explore maps and check which routes may
be cancelled or delayed. For those will Oyster travel
cards, the app also displays your balance, a useful
reminder for when you need to top up. The only
real niggle here is that the data supplied by TFL is
occasionally not available, due to maintenance work.
National Rail Enquiries;
Free, £4.99 (Ad free)
This of cial app provides
customer information for all
passenger rail services on
the National Rail network in
England, Wales and Scotland,
promising detailed, real-time
train data including delays
and disruptions. As well as
viewing live train arrivals and
departures you can plan and
save journeys although you
need to visit a third party
website, or app, to actually
buy tickets. National Rail
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Enquiries has received fairly mixed reviews from
users, not least because the rather cluttered design,
for now at least, isn’t the easiest to navigate on the
go. Ads, the bane of many free apps, also distract
and cost a considerable £4.99 to remove.
Citymapper, Free
Former Apple Editors’ Choice, Citymapper takes
a variety of available data including information
from Transport for London (TFL), and combines it
seamlessly to ensure speedy travel in major cities
- currently London, New York and Paris. The app
includes an impressive array of features including A
to B journey planning, real-time travel information,
weather forecasts and much more. Crucially,
Citymapper is great to navigate on the go, with an
interface which is unfussy yet
stylish. The app consistently
receives five star reviews, and
we are impressed enough to
suggest this is a must have
app not only for travellers, but
for anyone living and working
in those locations.
thetrainline, Free
Billed as the UK’s leading
independent train ticket
retailer, thetrainline is
essentially a one-stop shop
for booking a train at the
cheapest price available,
although a modest fee is
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added to all transactions. You
can search and save train
journeys well in advance for
the best deals, although the
actual process is a touch fiddly
compared to using a computer.
The app also excels as a
way to check live train times,
including a ‘next train home’
and arrivals, including when
possible platform numbers.
Additionally, users can buy
train tickets up until 10 minutes
before boarding, download
train timetables for browsing
of ine and view local maps.
Airbnb, Free
For the slightly more adventurous traveller, Airbnb
ofers a: “trusted community marketplace for people
to list, discover, and book unique accommodations
around the world.” These are B&Bs, flats, homes and
even long-term sublets potentially undercutting the
cost of staying in a hotel. The app uses a message-
style system so that guests can chat directly with
hosts, along with host supplied photos so that you
can gauge the quality of the let before your visit.
Hipmunk Hotels & Flights, Free
A relatively recent arrival, Hipmunk was launched
in 2010 backed by some high profile, hip founders
and investors, including actor Ashton Kutcher,
who played Steve Jobs in the 2013 biopic of the
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former Apple CEO. Hipmunk essentially compares
travel sites to hopefully find the best deals on
a range of services, including flights, trains and
accommodation.
It does this visually to great efect, which is
particularly easy on the eye for iPad users and
makes searching and planning a trip much more
simple and pleasurable. Reviews provided by
TripAdvisor are also available to browse, while
flights can be sorted by ‘agony’ to best avoid long
journey times and layovers.
iTranslate – translator & dictionary, Free with ‘Top
In-App Purchases’
Impressive translation tool ofers support for a
wealth of languages, currently over 80, as long
as you have an internet
connection. Free users type
in words or phrases for fast
and seemingly accurate
translation, while you can
listen to the translation being
played back to help perfect
your pronunciation. iTranslate
comes with ‘Top In-App
Purchases,’ which removes
ads and unlocks the voice
recognition function, an extra
well worth investing in. Rather
than type users speak, which
is turned into text without the
need for voice training the app
and then translated.
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Kayak; Free, 69p (ad free)
Well reviewed, KAYAK
compares hundreds of travel
sites to seek out the best
deals on hotels, flights and
car rentals worldwide. An
attractive and intuitive user
interface helps improve the
search function, which does
get a little muddy at times due
to the amount of information
available and the diminutive
iPhone screen. KAYAK also
lets you book from within the
app, track flight status, check
baggage fees and view and
manage your trip itinerary with
My Trips. The modesty priced KAYAK PRO includes
airport terminal maps for over 100 airports, which
may be useful for those who travel frequently.
Simply Declare Travel App; Free, 69p (ad free)
Simply Declare is part currency convertor, part way
of keeping tabs on purchases when abroad and, for
those visiting the UK, claiming refunds on tax free
shopping. Claiming back money isn’t the most user
friendly experience, but Simply Declare helps bring
some order to spending despite an unattractive
user interface, which looks dated despite iOS 7
compatibility. It ofers the ability to photograph
and store receipts, and produce an itemised list of
purchases, while a modest outlay removes the ads,
a good option if you are a regular traveller.
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Skyscanner All flights,
everywhere!; Free, £1.49
(ad free)
Simple app for finding and
indirectly booking via the
provider, cheaper flights, with
the ability to search millions
of flights from 1000 airlines
worldwide. Users can search
by specific destination, date
or, for more impulsive travel,
view an interactive globe
to see current ‘indicative’
prices. Once a destination is
selected, users can easily see
the cheapest days to travel,
which is great if you have a
flexible travel agenda. iTunes App Store feedback
is generally very good, with users highlighting the
chance to discover genuine discounts on flights.
Additionally, the Skyscanner website ofers deals on
hotels and car hire, with a dedicated Skyscanner -
Airport Car Hire app available separately and free.
TripAdvisor Hotels Flights Restaurants, Free
Loved and loathed in equals measure, the popular
TripAdvisor website is for many an essential stop-
of when booking a holiday, planning a visit or even
tucking into a meal. With 100 million plus users
generated reviews and photos from users covering
hotels, restaurants, flights, attractions and shops.
The TripAdvisor app packs a lot in, including maps,
local attractions, the ability to save, email and call
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contacts, yet it seems clear from iTunes Store
reviews that information is often outdated or simply
wrong. TripAdvisor also has its fair share of angry
and odd reviews, best viewed with caution, while
the sheer venom of some comments can be an
unwanted distraction.
Word Lens, Free with ‘Top In-App Purchases’
Word Lens translates printed words using your
iPhone’s built-in camera so
you can read signs, menus
and more when abroad. The
augmented reality app is
more novelty for some users
with amusing translations
at times, but we found it a
useful tool to have on your
travels. Unusually, the app
works without an internet
connection so you won’t
have to worry about roaming
costs. While the app is free,
Word Lens requires ‘Top In-
App Purchases’ to translate
- English/French, English/
Spanish, English/Italian and so
on - so could be costly if you
travel frequently across Europe.
XE Currency; Free, £1.49 (ad free)
XE Currency, as the name suggests, is an excellent
tool for converting currencies around the world, so
you can better budget on your travels and gauge
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the likelihood of a bargain when the sun or sherry
has gone to your head. Live rates and currency
charts, including historic rates, are also useful when
deciding when to best buy your euros and more. For
investors and city observers, the app also includes
details on precious metals rates and can be used
of ine. XE Currency Pro junks the ads and adds
the ability to simultaneously monitor twice as many
currencies - 20 compared to 10 - which for road
warriors and those investing is likely to be a plus.
Yahoo! Weather, Free
Winner of an Apple Design Award, Yahoo! Weather
is an attractive, essential app not just for travellers
but for anyone ready and willing to step outside and
face Britain’s unpredictable
weather. Yahoo! ofers
the usual location based
reports, providing hourly
forecasts over a 24 hour
period along with a 10 day
daily forecast. You can enter
and save further locations
by simply searching via ‘city
or ZIP code,’ which is ideal
when planning a journey.
Locations extend to the rest
of the world and generally
results appear impressive,
with accurate forecasts
complimented by stunning
photography provided by
participating Flickr users.
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Guide to Apple’s personal assistant
  S
iri is, of course, a marvel of modern
technology. But it’s also one of those things
that a lot of us don’t use as much as we
could or should. So a couple of Macworld editors,
particularly Senior Editor Dan Frakes, put together
the following list of 16 things we think everybody
should know how to do using Siri.
1. Search the web
Siri can perform internet searches (using Google,
Get more from Siri
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Bing, or Yahoo), get answers to more specialised
questions using Wolfram Alpha (“What’s the square
root of pi?”), find reviews of businesses (using
Yelp), search Wikipedia, and so on. Just phrase
your question in natural language, and then tap a
search result to go to the source site (or app) for
more information.
2. Control system settings
Siri’s become a bit smarter across the board in iOS
7. One of its major improvements is in its ability to
control your device’s settings. You can ask it to turn
Bluetooth on or of, open a specific Settings pane,
and even turn on Airplane Mode). If you need to
change a setting Siri doesn’t directly support, and
you can’t quite remember how
to get to that settings screen,
you can also open many top-
level settings groups, and some
second-level screens, in the
Settings app – for example,
“Open Notification Center
settings.” This feature doesn’t
work for every section of the
Settings app – especially those
related to security--but it’s worth
trying when you need to quickly
tweak the way your device works.
3. Teach Siri who’s who
If you’ve been saying the full
name of your spouse, sibling,
other family member, or boss,
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there’s a better way: Say “your wife’s name is my
wife” and Siri will remember that designation in the
future. You can then just say “Text my spouse” and
Siri will know exactly whom to text. You can also
add relationships by editing your own record in the
Contacts apps: tap Add Related Name, then choose
a relationship and a corresponding contact.
4. Send a text or email
One of the most-convenient tasks Siri can perform
is creating and sending text and email messages.
Say, “Send my wife an email” or “Text my wife,” and
Siri will create a new message and ask you what
you want the message to say. Dictate your message,
Siri shows you a preview, and then prompts you to
send the message. Say, “Send,”
and it’s sent.
5. Create a calendar event
Siri can add events to your
calendar thanks to commands
such as “Make an event for 10am
Friday called Training.” But you
can get a lot more specific. Add
“to calendar name” to choose
a specific calendar; say “with
contact name and Siri will add
that person as an attendee.
You can also edit events:
“Move my Friday 10am Training
event to 1pm” moves the event
to the afternoon; “Add Serenity
Caldwell to Monday’s 12:30
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meeting” adds her as an attendee. (Many people
don’t realize Siri can also check your calendar. Say
“When’s my meeting with Dan Moren?” and Siri will
tell you. Say “Show me Tuesday” and Siri shows you
your scheduled events for that day.)
6. Set a timer
The built-in Clock app ofers useful timer feature,
but Siri makes it much more convenient. Say, “Set a
timer for 10 minutes,” and Siri creates (and starts) a
new 10-minute timer in the Clock app – you never
even have to open the app.
7. Set an alarm
Similarly, “Set an alarm for 7am” creates a new
alarm-clock alarm for 7am.
8. Get directions
You can have Siri get you
directions to a destination,
using iOS’s own Maps app, by
saying, for example, “Show me
how to get to Tunbridge Wells.”
But Apple’s Maps app doesn’t
currently support transit or
walking directions, or you may
prefer a diferent mapping app.
Add “via transit” to the end of
your command, and Siri will
display a list of installed and App
Store third-party routing apps.
Tap one – such as the Google
Maps app – and Siri will launch
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that app, preconfigured with your
destination. (You don’t even need
to choose a transit app, which
makes this a great tip for using
Siri with third-party navigation
apps, such as Navigon.)
9. Create and edit notes
Notes is a forgotten app on many
iOS devices, but Siri makes it a
lot more useful, if not any less
simplistic. Say, “Make a note” or
“Note that” and you can dictate
a new note. Alternatively, say,
“Make a note called note name”
and you can then add text to that
note by saying “Add text”. You
can add to a note later by saying,
“Add text to note name.”
10. Create reminders
You may know that you can use Siri to schedule
reminders by saying something like, “Remind me to
call Dan at 10:30am tomorrow.” But Siri can do a lot
more than that. For example, Siri can do reminder
math: “Remind me to cancel my trial subscription in
14 days.” You can also have Siri configure geofenced
(location-based) reminders: “Remind me to call the Y
when I get home.”
11. Find a restaurant
If you use Yelp or another app to find nearby
restaurants, give Siri a try instead. “Are there any
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good delis nearby?” shows you a list, along with
prices, location, and Yelp ratings. (You can search by
location, cuisine, price, and indoor/outdoor seating
– or any combination of features.) Tap a listing to get
detailed information. And if you’ve ever used Open
Table to make reservations, you’ll be thrilled to know
that you can say “Find me a table for four for dinner
tonight” to see nearby restaurants with openings;
tap one to make the reservation.
12. Launch apps
Siri can launch apps directly. Just say “Open app
name” and Siri will open that app – assuming
there’s only one with that name. Note that if your
phone is locked, Siri will prompt you to unlock it
before the app can be opened.
13. Control iTunes
You can, of course, launch
the Music app using Siri, but
why bother when Siri can start
playback for you? Say, “Play
playlist Road Trip,” and Siri begins
playback of the playlist called
Road Trip.” Other things you
can tell Siri to play include artist,
album and track names.
14. Interact with social media
If your hands are occupied, Siri
can post to Twitter or Facebook
for you. For example, say, “Tweet
that the scenery in Tunbridge
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Wells is beautiful,” or “Post to Facebook that the
weather in London is surprisingly sunny today,” and
Siri does the rest. But did you know you can also
search Twitter? Say “What are people saying on
Twitter about Manchester United?” and Siri will show
you some tweets about the topic.
15. Keep up to date with the latest sports news
You don’t need to unlock your phone and open
your favourite sports-news app to get the latest
scores. Just say “What’s the score of the United
game?” and Siri tells you. But Siri actually knows a
lot more about sports than that. For example, you
can say things like, “What’s Kevin Pietersen’s batting
average?” or “Who do Liverpool play next?” to get
detailed information about teams,
players, and schedules.
16. Find out about movies
Siri also knows movies. You
may know that you can ask Siri
about movie showtimes, but try
asking about particular movies
and actors: “Is the new Captain
America movie any good?”
“What time is Grand Budapest
Hotel showing?” Siri shows
you the results, and you can
tap any movie or rating to get
more info – you can even view
trailers for current movies. Tap
a cinema to view its location in
the Maps app.
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