In our March virtual meeting, we talked about Continuity Camera and on-line user guides for Apple devices.
With Continuity Camera, you can use your iPhone to scan documents directly into apps on your Macintosh. It is particularly useful in Mail, Notes and Preview. If you scan paper documents into Notes in this way, they become searchable in the Notes app.
The answers to many questions about your device are contained in the user guide for your particular device, e.g. iPhone, iMac, or iPad. Apple has the user’s guides online. Apple doesn’t keep the user’s guides for older versions handy, so if you are planning to keep a device into vintage or obsolete status, download the applicable user guide before it goes out of date.
I will give you some links, but they are likely to go out of date. The consistent way to find the user’s guides is:
I want to document the process I went through recently when I sent my iPhone in for repair. That’s a similar process to getting an entirely new phone. There were some unexpected issues you should be aware of. This is going to be pretty long, so here’s some key points first.
Important Points
While you still have your old phone, whether or not you expect to get a new one soon, make a backup of your phone. If your phone unexpectedly fails, or is lost or stolen, you will have to get a new one. You can backup your phone to your computer or to iCloud. If you specify a password for the backup, you will get a more complete backup than if you do not. I recommend using the password. Write it down.
If you are using two-factor-authentication (2FA) login for any sites, create backup codes to access those sites. Look at your authentication apps (e.g., Google Authenticator, 1Password and Last Pass Authenticator) and make a list of all the sites you are using with those apps. Your 2nd Factor information may not be restored to your new phone. Make sure you know how you will sign on to your sites without it.
If any of your sites use text messages or phone calls as an alternate 2nd factor for login, consider assigning another phone number, such as your spouse’s phone for these, since if you are without your phone, you can’t receive those messages.
Make sure you know your Apple ID username/password, your iPhone’s passcode, and the password to your latest iPhone backup. Write them down. Your Apple ID credentials are the same as you use for iCloud logon.
Your Old Phone
If you are sending your iPhone away, out of your control, for any reason, including repair, or sale or trade, you should follow Apple’s Instructions here. Your phone should then be a blank slate, just as it was when it was brand new, with none of your personal data in it. Be aware, that if you have an Apple Watch, this will render your Apple Watch completely useless until you pair it with another iPhone. (Is this true for cellular model watches also?)
Remove the case from your iPhone if it has one. Remove the screen protector, if any.
Remove the SIM card from your old phone. Save it. You will need it for the new/repaired phone.
Received the New/Repaired Phone
I had backed up my iPhone to my Mac. When I got the phone back, although it was the same phone (I recognized minor scratches on the back), it had a new serial number from Apple, and for all practical purposes, it was a different phone.
The process below will be different if you are restoring from iCloud, or if you make any of several choices differently than I did, but this will give you an idea.
This process was longer and more complex than I would have liked. I had to enter multiple passwords multiple times, and deal with confusing dialogs, but I got done eventually.
Begin by installing the SIM card into the phone.
Next, power on the phone. Enter your language and country when prompted.
I chose “Set up Manually” since I had no other iOS device present.
Enter your WiFi password.
You’ll see a message “…It may take a few minutes to activate your phone”.
You’ll click through the Data and Privacy notification screen.
Next, setup touch ID or face ID, depending on your phone model.
You must create a passcode. You can re-use the passcode you had before. I chose “custom alphanumeric code” for greater security.
Enter the passcode twice. (To prove you really know it, and entered it correctly.)
Restoring Apps and Data
The phone presents you with the following options:
Restore from iCloud Backup
Restore from iTunes Backup
Move Data from Android
Don’t Transfer Apps & Data
I selected Restore from iTunes Backup, and connected my phone by USB to my Mac.
An irrelevant and distracting dialog pops up on the Mac.
“New Network Interface” Dialog
Cancel that to see the meaningful dialog behind it. As of MacOS Mojave, the actions below take place in iTunes. In MacOS Catalina, it is expected to take place directly in the Finder.
New iPhone DialogEnter password for the Backup
I selected my most recent backup to restore, and had to enter the password. Even though I had saved the password to my keychain when I created it, I still had to enter it manually here. Don’t forget your backup password, or remember where you saved it.
Restoring took about 12 minutes
The phone restarts automatically after the restore, and you are presented with multiple popups.
Cancel the network popup, again.
On the iPhone, press Home to upgrade, and enter your passcode on the phone (your iPhone passcode).
This was the one place where things actually went wrong in this process for me. After a progress bar, the Apple logo appeared on the iPhone. After a long wait, iTunes said Syncing TV Shows to “Jamie Cox’s iPhone” (Step 4 of 4), and Waiting for items to copy. I was looking at a 100% progress bar for many minutes. (I only had a couple TV episodes on my phone.)
I gave up waiting and clicked Done in iTunes. The phone wouldn’t power down with a long press on the side power button. (This was an iPhone 7) This proved to me that it really was hung, and would never have finished no matter how long I waited. I held Power and Volume Down for a reset. I then unplugged the phone from USB. When the phone started up, I had to enter my iPhone passcode. I was then at the Update Completed screen on the phone.
Things are back on track now where you should be if the phone doesn’t hang.
General New iPhone Setup
At this point, you will be prompted to enter your Apple ID password. You may also receive this security prompt on the Mac:
Apple ID Allow Dialog
After clicking Allow, on the Mac, you then get a 6-digit code which you need to enter on the iPhone. (If you have two-Factor Authentication enabled on your iCloud account.)
Then agree to the Terms and Conditions screen.
Then you see the Location Services screen. (I chose Enable Location Services.)
Now, you will see the Welcome to iPhone Screen. Choose Get Started.
Now, finally, you are at the iPhone home screen, with icons loading.
On the Mac, you may get a couple more popups. First, asking if you want to add your phone number to iMessage and FaceTime. (I clicked Yes.) Second, notifying you that “Your Apple ID and phone number are now being used for iMessage and FaceTime on a new iPhone.”
At this point, I put the case back on my phone.
Re-Pairing the Apple Watch
Initiate pairing by moving your phone close to the watch. Let the phone’s camera see the pattern on the watch face.
I selected Restore from Backup, to get my watch back to where it was previously.
You’ll have to agree to the Apple Watch Terms and Conditions screen on the iPhone.
Then enter your Apple ID password on the iPhone. (For me, the steps in this sections failed the first three times. I then restarted both the iPhone and the watch. After that, it worked.)
After your Apple ID is verified, you will get to the Shared Settings screen. Tap OK.
You will be asked to create a passcode for your watch. (I used the same code I had before.) You must enter it twice.
You may see the Heart Health screen on the iPhone. Tap continue.
You may see the Apple Pay screen on iPhone. Tap Continue. Then you will have a chance to enter credit cards or set them up later in the Apple Watch App. (I chose to set them up later.)
You’ll see the SOS and Fall Detection screen. Pay attention, this could be important later. I enabled Fall Detection. It can save your life later.
What Wasn’t Restored
All my credit cards were missing from the Apple Wallet after the restoration, both on iPhone and Apple Watch. However, my loyalty cards and passes were still present in Wallet. Apparently Credit Cards are not stored in the Apple Watch or iPhone backups, even when the encrypted backup option is selected. This is probably a security measure by Apple.
As I mentioned before, my Two-Factor Authentication information was not restored in Google Authenticator or Last Pass Authenticator Apps. So, I could no longer generate codes for those sites I had been using with those apps. The 1Password app still had all my passwords as well as 2nd factor codes for those sites which used those. Your mileage may vary depending on your version of 1Password and how you sync it.
My Home Kit devices remained set up in iPhone as before, no problem.
If you had installed a configuration profile, such as the Spectrum WiFi access profile, it isn’t restored, and you will have to follow the instructions from the provider to get it installed on your new phone.
Your WiFi credentials are not restored. You will have to re-login to your favorite WiFi networks.
You will have to re-pair your Bluetooth devices, such as headphones, speakers, and car stereos.
Entering Passwords
During the restore process, you will have to enter passwords or passcodes at least 10 times, assuming you don’t make any mistakes, and everything goes perfectly.
iPhone Backup Password 1 time
WiFi Password 1 time
iPhone Passcode 4 times
Apple ID 2 times
Watch Passcode 2 times
Before you start, make sure you know your existing passwords, or what you want them to be, and write them down in a safe place.
Conclusion
So, I hope this overview of the process of getting a new iPhone was helpful to you. This process seems like it is longer and more difficult than it should be, but knowing it in advance should help. Please leave a comment if this was useful, or if you see anything wrong or anything I left out.
Apple released iOS 11.0.3 on Wednesday, October 11, 2017. The description of the release is as follows:
iOS 11.0.3 includes bug fixes for your iPhone or iPad. This update:
Fixes an issue where audio and haptic feedback would not work on some iPhone 7 and 7 Plus devices
Addresses an issue where touch input was unresponsive on some iPhone 6s displays because they were not serviced with genuine Apple parts
It so happens that I repaired my iPhone 6s screen recently with an apparently reputable, but non-Apple replacement screen.
Old screen, miscellaneous tools and the new screen installed.
Since the repair, I had noticed a few times when the touch screen became completely unresponsive. This was disconcerting at first, because an iPhone that doesn’t respond to any tap, touch, drag, etc. is pretty much a useless brick. However I found that just waiting about 1 minute or so with the screen off would bring it back to life. Since it didn’t happen but a few times, and since I knew a workaround, I didn’t complain to anybody.
Apparently, this was happening to enough people to reach the ears of Apple.
I want to give Apple a big thank you for putting in a software fix to work around a hardware problem that was not their fault. They could have done nothing. Some companies have gone so far as to deliberately disable unauthorized 3rd party hardware. Not Apple. Apple stuck by their customers, and this customer intends to stick by Apple.
Apple customers who used 3rd party replacement screens escaped with only a stern talking-to:
Note: Non-genuine replacement displays may have compromised visual quality and may fail to work correctly. Apple-certified screen repairs are performed by trusted experts who use genuine Apple parts.
While we’re on the subject of screen repair. Although I did successfully repair my own iPhone screen, I can’t really recommend doing it yourself. The process involved a jeweler’s magnifier, a guitar pick, a suction cup and six or eight nearly microscopic screws. I came extremely close to letting the magic smoke out of my iPhone. (Smoke must be what makes it work, because if the smoke ever comes out, it doesn’t work any more!)
I got away for about $50, but the folks who install a genuine Apple screen for, say, $150 are earning their money.
I set out recently to find a shared iOS shopping list App to replace my family’s paper grocery shopping list. I had some pretty simple requirements:
Easy-to-use sharing between family members using different iCloud accounts
Ability to review the list in the store and mark items off
Ability to review and revive completed items (We’ve got milk this time, but we’ll need it again soon)
I spent some time in the App store looking at reviews and didn’t see anything I wanted to buy. Some otherwise useful apps had a bad reputation for crashing. Others were just too complex. Some needed a subscription and a sign-on for sharing to work. It’s just creepy that the vendor would be watching everything on your shopping list.
Eventually I found it. An app that was already on my phone that met all my requirements and didn’t need any additional sign-ups, plus you can use Siri to add items to the list by voice.
The app is:� Reminders — the humble Apple Reminders app that comes with iOS.
Remember the name of your lists: “Shopping List” and “Grocery List” aren’t the same to Siri.
When you invite someone to share your list, they may have to sign on to iCloud on the web the first time to accept the invitation, but after that it can be strictly iPhone-to-iPhone.
Everyone invited has equal ability to add, delete and edit items on the list.
Tap at the bottom of the reminders App screen to see your other reminder lists.
I like this small magnetic mount to hold your phone on your car dash. It clips onto the air vent. The magnet only grips your phone because you must stick a piece of steel (supplied) onto the back of your phone. That metal piece is thin enough so that it doesn’t interfere with even the very thin Apple iPhone case.
Mount clips onto air vent
The magnetic attraction is strong enough to hold your phone in place unless you crash.
The clip holding the mount to the air vent isn’t quite as strong. It has beefy rubber jaws and a strong spring, but sometimes the mechanism sticks, resulting in a less-than-tight grip. I lubricated mine with some silicon spray and worked it back and forth, and it gets a good grip now.
iPhone stuck to magnetic mount
I like this mount because when you get in the car, you can just stick the phone up there. No fooling around with clamps, etc.� — it just sticks on and you are ready to go. In most cars, it won’t block your view out the windshield or your view of the instruments. It’s ideal if you use your phone for navigation. You have a few inches of flexibility up or down as to where you place the phone for the best positioning in your car.
I tried out the Drop Tech Case for iPhone 6 from gumdropcases.com . [Disclosure: MacMAD received a review copy of this product.] Gumdrop makes a variety of case sizes and styles for various devices. This particular case fits the iPhone 6 or 6s.� It currently [Oct 2016] retails for $39.95.
Like many rugged cases, the Drop Tech case is a two-part case with an inner and outer case. In this case, the inner case is hard plastic, and the outer case is softer and more resiliant. This is opposite of some cases which feature the softer case on the inside. I think the inner and outer cases are a good idea, but don’t think it makes much difference which is on the outside.
Immediately on opening the package, I encountered the problem of how to open the case to install it. There were no printed instructions. I visited the web site and watched the install video, which still didn’t make� it clear. I had to email the company.
To install or remove the case you need to stretch the outer case over the inner case. The outer case is quite rigid when new and difficult to get hold of.� The tip I got from Gumdrop was to open the flap that protects the lightning connector, and begin to stretch the case at the thin section near that connector. With this hint, I was able to open the case.
The Drop Tech cases are available in a good selection of colors. It’s nice to be able to get something that differentiates your phone from all the other phones out there. There are two bad things that can happen to your phone. First, it can get broken in a fall or similar accident. Second, it can get lost. Bright case colors help you see your phone, say, in a dark restaurant and make it less likely it will get lost.
Back of the case has heavy texture and bright colors
The case has plastic flaps that close off external ports on the phone. It won’t� make your phone waterproof, but it should certainly improve resistance to rain.
Bottom of phone with protective flaps over ports.
Pros
Sturdy case protects against drops and other damage
Built-in Screen protector
Nice choice of colors
Removable Belt clip/holster/stand included (not shown)
Cons
Expensive (more $ than some Apple cases, which set the standard for high prices)
Too thick for many pockets and purse slots
Impairs access to Touch ID (a problem shared by many iPhone cases)
Difficult to install or remove
Bottom Line
If you are the kind of person who breaks your phones or subjects them to a lot of drops and falls, this is a good case for you. If your usage pattern is more gentle, this case will probably be unneccessarily bulky.
I recently got my first iPhone after having an Android phone. What was that experience like, and were there any pitfalls?
At the AT&T store, when buying the new phone, the guy asked if I wanted him to transfer my phone data to the new phone. They have some software and cables to do this. I said no. I knew it would take a long time, work imperfectly, and I wanted to start fresh. Although there might be a couple unique things on the old phone, the important stuff was all in the cloud. I was still going to have my old phone if I needed something from it. I wasn’t trading it in or anything. (It’s apparently worth less than $10 on resale sites.)
Moto X 1st Gen to iPhone 6s, Both on AT&T
The old and the new phones – the Moto X and iPhone 6s. The iPhone is definitely larger, but not a whopper
My old phone was a Motorola Moto X, first generation. I liked it a lot, but it was two years old, and the battery was about shot. I have been a Macintosh user forever, so it is a little surprising I didn’t get an iPhone sooner. So, why now? Partly it is because of the iPhone’s superior security, and continuing announcements of serious vulnerabilities in Android. Some of these affected my Moto X and didn’t get patched promptly. On the Apple side, I did not like being at the complete mercy of on-line advertisers. Now that iOS has at least some ad blocking capability, an iPhone became a real option for me.
2nd Factor Authentication
If you aren’t using 2nd factor authentication, or don’t know what it is, you won’t need to worry about this.
I have several on-line accounts set up with 2nd factor authentication: in addition to my password to login, I must provide a code. The code comes from a text message sent to my phone, or from the Google Authenticator App running on my phone. Getting a new phone made me realize how incredibly inconvenient it would be to lose my phone for any reason. If you use 2nd factor authentication, make sure that you have backup authentication methodsfor your accounts. The backup method can be one-time codes printed on paper and stored in a safe place, or it can be a second phone, maybe a family member’s phone. If you don’t have a backup method, you could lose access to your account(s) permanently.
I probably spent more time on 2nd factor authentication than on any other aspect of getting the new phone. For most services, I had to disable and re-enable 2nd factor authentication to get it to recognize my new iPhone Google Authenticator App.
I was pleased that AT&T asked for my ID before issuing me a new phone. I’m sure that was mostly to avoid fraudulent purchase of phones, but it also makes sure that no one else gets my phone number, and thus can receive my authentication codes.
Contacts
Since I already had a Macintosh, I already had contacts from my Mac stored in iCloud. However my Android phone kept its contacts in Gmail. I have been using a Mac App called Contacts Sync for Google Gmail for some time to keep my Mac Contacts synchronized with Gmail. So, I didn’t really need to do anything special for my contacts to appear on my new iPhone. As soon as I connected to my existing iCloud account, there they were. Important note: if you already have an iCloud account, make sure you know what it is when getting a new Apple device. Don’t create a new account. You will be much better off if all your Apple devices are associated with the same iCloud account.
Apps
I went into the iPhone App store where I found the iPhone equivalent of most of my favorite apps, usually by the same developers. My favorite apps from Google and Amazon had iPhone counterparts as did social media apps, remote control apps for various gadgets, and magazine & newspaper apps.
I set up Apple Pay/Apple Wallet as the counterpart to Google Wallet/Tap & Pay/Android Pay.
I’m still looking for a favorite Twitter client. I hate the stock iPhone Twitter app.
I used to have an iPad, so I found some of my old favorite apps (paid & free) that I used to have on the iPad. Universal apps I had paid for in the past on the iPad were still available to re-download on the new iPhone without buying them again.
Music and Podcasts
Since I already had iTunes, as soon as I connected my iPhone to my computer, I was able to transfer my music, podcasts and videos to my new phone without a problem. Any music I have bought from Amazon or Google, or outside of iTunes, I have routinely imported into iTunes, so it was ready and waiting to be synced to the new iPhone.
Comparisons
I love Touch ID. This is a great feature on the iPhone. It means I can keep my phone securely locked, but it’s always unlocked for me because it recognizes my fingerprint. I didn’t know this, but you can register more than one fingerprint, which is convenient because sometimes you hold the phone in different positions. You can also use Touch ID to authorize things within Apps, such as buying from the iTunes music store, or paying at the register with Apple Pay. For example, it unlocks my LastPass password manager App. When choosing a case for your iPhone, make sure it doesn’t obstruct the home button (Touch ID sensor) at all.
The Moto X had its own convenience unlock feature.� It was based on NFC and was called Motorola Skip. The phone unlocks when you hold it near a unique physical tag. I lost two of the magnetic Skip clip tags, probably because they were magnetic, and they tended to stick to cars and refrigerators, etc. Even so, this was a pretty cool feature. However, it wasn’t in any other Android phones I know of, and is no longer offered in the newer versions of the Moto X.
I was getting annoying accidental photos and my Moto X would wake up in my pocket and do weird things. I set it to lock instantly, and this prevented it taking photos inside my pocket, or activating apps, but it could still try to butt-dial using the emergency dialer. There didn’t seem to be any way to prevent this. One time it dialed “9116”, which is disconcertingly close to accidentally calling 911. So far, I haven’t seen this happening at all with the iPhone. I think it’s because waking up the iPhone requires a physical press of the home button — not just a vibration and/or a screen swipe.
The new iPhone has WiFi calling and “HD Voice”. I’m happy about anything that can improve cell phone voice quality. On Android, I made WiFi calls using Google Hangouts. That improved audio quality and allowed calling from areas with poor cell coverage, but added some annoying latency (delay). I’m not sure I’ve used WiFi calling on the iPhone yet. It’s enabled, but I don’t know how to tell if it’s really working other than by visiting someplace with no cell service that has WiFi. HD voice is apparently enabled automatically on AT&T on compatible iPhones with iOS 9.2. My calls sound really great so far on the iPhone.
The Moto X had an AMOLED screen, with a cool notification feature. It could wake up momentarily in a minimalist, low-power, monochrome mode where it just shows the time and any texts, voice mails, etc. This mode can be activated by just moving the phone, so it is very easy to check the time. You don’t need to unlock your phone to see the time, or check notifications. Even though the display was usually blank, all you have to do is get your phone out of your pocket and look at it to see the time. The motion of doing so was sufficient to activate the time display. Again, this was a feature of this particular phone — it’s not present in newer versions, other Android phones, or the iPhone.
I really miss this feature of the Moto X:� buttonless time display
I miss Android’s back button in the lower left. The iPhone doesn’t have this. The same functionality is available in apps, but it is located in various spots on the screen, instead of a consistent location.
I think the App permission system is nicer on the iPhone. In iOS, you can enable/disable App notifications and permissions whenever you want in Settings. On Android, you have to either accept an App with all the permissions it wants, or ditch the entire App. iPhone apps can nag you when they want to access something, but you don’t have to grant access.
For notifications, the iPhone lets you decide whether each app can issue notifications at all, can make a sound, can put a notification badge on the app, and whether it can show on the lock screen. Nice. The Android notification system is less flexible for the user.
On Android, I was being nagged to upgrade apps which suddenly wanted access to my camera or microphone, when this was never needed before. There was no way to get the update and still say no.
Many of the newer Android phones are just too damn big for me, so that was one factor in choosing the iPhone. I’m not a fan of these giant phablet phones. The Moto X was modestly sized and fit in my pocket. The iPhone 6s is very close to the same width, but is maybe a half-inch taller than the Moto X. The iPhone is thinner, so overall, reasonably sized.
The iPhone fits in two more rows of icons than the Moto X. That’s another eight icons per home screen. Nice. That’s partly because of the phone being bigger, and also because it doesn’t have the redundant Google Search bar on every page. I do wish I could place the icons where ever I wanted instead of having them autofill from the top.
There really isn’t that much difference in the experience between high-end Android� phones and the iPhone. But, I think the iPhone 6s is the best phone for me right now, and I’m happy with it.
Are you having a problem with your Apple Bluetooth mouse disconnecting frequently from your Mac? The battery is fine, but you have to keep clicking to get it to connect again? The solution is so easy. Get your cell phone away from your mouse!
The cell phone emits enough radio noise to jam the Bluetooth signal from your mouse. Smartphones are just packed with radio transmitters. Besides its own Bluetooth transmitter, a phone has a WiFi transmitter (2.4 or 5 GHz), a cell network transmitter and maybe a NFC transmitter. The cellular transmitter is used periodically to maintain contact with the cell site even if you are not making or receiving a call.
That cellular transmitter is powerful — it has to reach a cell site a mile or so away. That’s probably the one that kills your mouse (or keyboard).
It is so easy to sit down and put your phone right next to the mouse without thinking. Moving it just a couple of feet away is probably enough to eliminate the problem.
