Learn Tips for Saving Battery Life on iPhone

Tips for Saving Battery Life on iPhone

Last Updated: December 13, 2013

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We’ve all had that moment when we find ourselves somewhere with no power outlets to be found, and with less than 20 percent of battery life left on our iPhone. Sorry, beautiful plate of cheese fries you were planning to show off on Instagram, today is not your day. To prevent that travesty from occurring again, here are 10 tips for saving battery life on the iPhone, with an emphasis on applications in iOS 7:

10 Tips for Saving Battery Life on iPhone

Background App Updates
We agree it’s awesome not having to check which apps need to be updated on your iPhone, thanks to Background App Refresh which allows the automatic updates of your apps. However, this can really take a toll on your battery life. If you prefer to turn this feature off, to disable the feature go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn off the function or choose and pick the apps you don’t want to update automatically.
AirDrop
Airdrop allows you to beam/send files to other iOS devices. You don’t need to have this feature on all the time. In order to save your precious battery life, you can turn off this feature by going to the Control Center and selecting the option to Disable AirDrop.
Lower Screen Brightness
No matter what iOS device you’ve had, screen brightness is a battery killer. If your iPhone’s screen is so bright, you gotta wear shades, consider taking it down a few notches. Go to Settings > Wallpapers and Brightness, then disable Auto-Brightness. You can then lower decrease the brightness of your screen manually.
WiFi Search
If you don’t need to be on the constant search for a WiFi connection, turning off the WiFi Search function will save some battery life. Go to the Control Center and toggle off the WiFi button.
Location Services
Perhaps you find there is no need to have location settings enabled for all your apps. In that case, you can turn them off by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and toggling off the apps you don’t need connected to your phone’s GPS.
Spotlight
This internal search function can come in handy, but it can also put in a serious dent in your battery life while it’s indexing the contents of your iPhone. Go to Settings > Spotlight Search and take a look at any items you don’t use and remove them from Spotlight’s search.
Parallax
You like animations? You like the new dizzying features of iOS 7 like moving wallpapers and such? If not, then you can save your battery life by turning off Apple’s Parrallax feature. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and select Reduce Motion to On.
Email Notifications — So Fetch
Make “fetch” happen and disable the Push option on your emails! Push email downloads emails when they arrive, meaning your iPhone is constantly checking for new email and using up your battery. If you aren’t in a rush to get new emails the moment they arrive, you can schedule when to check for new email. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar and go to Fetch New Data. Disable the Push option. Then set the Fetch Schedule to every 15 minutes.
Push Notifications for Apps
You don’t really need a push notification for all your apps, do you? Give your battery a rest by turning off some of your notifications. Go to Settings > Notification Center and scroll down to the Include section, and turn off some of those pesky notifications.
Siri’s Raise to Speak
The Raise to Speak function does exactly that, allows you to raise your iPhone to speak into it and talk to Siri. This also takes up some battery power, so you can disable this feature by going to Settings > General > Siri > Raise to Speak and toggling the feature off.

Follow these tips for saving battery life on the iPhone, and you won’t be caught with a dying battery when you need it most!

Photo credit: Flickr

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Learn Tips for Saving Battery Life on iPhone

Fingerprint Reader Security: Real Protection for Tempting Apples?

Last Updated: November 19, 2013

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In September 2013, Apple announced its Touch ID system, available with the iPhone 5s. Instead of requiring users to input a four-digit pin to unlock their phone or authorize iTunes purchases, the technology relies on a small fingerprint sensor underneath the home button. Users have been told this fingerprint reader security makes their device less likely to be hacked, but is the hype accurate? Are Touch ID-protected iPhones really more secure?

Touch and Go

The Touch ID system relies on a sub-epidermal fingerprint reader which scans the finger of your choice and then stores it as a mathematical representation on your iPhone’s A7 processor. This data cannot be reverse engineered to produce an accurate representation of your print, nor is it stored in the cloud. In addition, each Touch ID sensor is tied to a specific A7 chip. This means taking one out of an iPhone 5s and swapping it for another will prompt an error message, even if both have never been used.

To use Touch ID, iPhone 5s owners choose the finger they want to use, have it scanned, and then place it over the home button for recognition. According to CNET, if the scanner fails after three attempts, you reboot your phone, or don’t use it for more than 48 hours, the system will go back to asking for your passcode. And any data you have stored in iCloud can’t be accessed via fingerprint scanning — you’ll still need to provide a password. By all accounts, Apple’s fingerprint reader security works almost flawlessly to recognize legitimate users.

Illegitimate Access

A recent Ars Technica article talks about efforts to hack Apple’s Touch ID — efforts which were successful after just 48 hours. Using a laser printer and camera with higher resolution than that of the iPhone 5s produced a cloned fingerprint, which was able to easily fool the fingerprint reader security and allow access. Some experts called the technique “too difficult” for everyday hackers to attempt, while others said that the materials were readily available and amount of time required was not substantial for anyone — a private detective, technology-obsessed teenager, or the FBI — with the motivation to break into your iPhone. It’s also worth noting that Touch ID doesn’t function as a form of two-factor authentication, which would also increase its security. In a two-factor model, just getting to the reader itself would require a password.

According to Apple, however, less than half of all iPhone users actually enable the four-digit passcode lock, leaving their phones entirely open to public scrutiny if lost or stolen. The fingerprint scanner doesn’t require owners to remember anything or carry any kind of special access device —instead, just touching the home button is enough to verify their identity while simultaneously protecting their privacy. The result? Simplicity should lead to greater adoption.

Bottom line? Touch ID isn’t entirely secure. Motivated hackers or interested third-parties can gain access to your iPhone 5s if they’re determined, but that doesn’t mean this form of fingerprint reader security has no value. Thanks to ease of use, more owners should enable the technology, and for day-to-day use, Touch ID helps better protect your phone.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Learn Tips for Saving Battery Life on iPhone

Can an iPhone Be Hacked?

Last Updated: October 17, 2013

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If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Can an iPhone be hacked?” the answer, though it may surprise you, is a resounding “yes.” Here’s what you should know:

Hacked Off

An iPhone is more than just a mobile phone: it’s a personal computer you carry in your pocket, and like any computer, it contains a lot of personal and precious data. It also contains an operating system similar to that of a computer, which makes it highly susceptible to the growing army of unscrupulous and innovative hackers who just love a challenge. Despite Apple’s team of engineers working around the clock to resolve any security issues, the iPhone remains a potential and rewarding target for cyber criminals.

Can an iPhone Be Hacked Remotely?

Due to the intensive and watertight security of Apple’s iOS, having your iPhone hacked remotely has never been considered a realistic threat or something for iPhone users to lose sleep over. However, way back in 2009, at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner exposed an iPhone virus capable of hacking your device through a simple text message.

The hack involves sending a code contained within an SMS. The text would appear as a solitary square character. Upon receiving the SMS, your iPhone would crash, and in the aftermath the device and all its functions would be in the sole control of the hacker. Apple has obviously taken precautions since this concern was exposed, as very few cases of remote iPhone hacking have ever surfaced, but hackers are always working on new attacks, and Apple needs to stay on its toes.

Can Your iPhone Be Hacked When Charging?

At the 2013 Black Hat conference, tech hackers Billy Lau, YeongJin Jang, and Chengyu Song demonstrated how a modified charger could hack your iPhone. This hack works by uploading malicious software as your device is charging and replacing a real app with a fake one in less than a minute. Once users enter their passcode, the Trojan awakes, the iPhone is compromised, and sensitive data is at risk.

The modified charger has been named a “Mactan,” which is part of the Latin name for a virulent and pernicious black widow spider. Apple has yet to address this issue, which renders all iPhone devices at risk; in the meantime, users may want to keep a close eye on their chargers and not use anyone else’s.

Can Your iPhone Be Hacked with Fingerprint Technology?

When your iPhone is stolen, the passcode can be easily circumvented and the device hacked by any criminal with just a little tech knowledge. With the launch of the iPhone 5s, Apple hopes to put an end to the abundance of stolen devices which were subsequently hacked. The iPhone 5s contains a unique fingerprint scanner.

However, concerns have already been raised about the new technology. Fingerprints may be unique, but fingerprint scanners can be temperamental, and there is a risk that an iPhone user could be prevented from accessing her data due to an overzealous scanner which fails to walk the fine line between convenience and security. In the face of such issues, users will simply disable the scanner, and the iPhone will once more be at risk of being hacked… except this time, the hackers will not only have access to your device’s data but potential access to your encrypted fingerprint data, which — unlike a passcode — can’t be changed.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Learn Tips for Saving Battery Life on iPhone

Your iPhone Can Be Hacked: Protect Yourself

Last Updated: September 24, 2013

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When it comes to using smartphones, most users think their devices are immune to viruses and hacking. However, smartphones are much more vulnerable than you may think. Unlike traditional operating systems which have matured over the years, an iPhone can be hacked fairly easily because the iOS operating system is still, relatively speaking, in its infancy.

Accessing Your Data

One of the biggest challenges of securing mobile operating systems is ensuring that applications only have access to the areas of the phone they really need. For example, would you want a game to be able to read your address book? Probably not; an article from Gizmodo, though, discusses how many applications are able to steal your data without your knowledge.

How to Protect Yourself

One of the simplest ways to protect yourself from mobile malware is simply to install a reputable antivirus suite on your mobile device. Lookout has been a pioneer in the mobile security space for decades, meaning that their security software has been refined over the years to deal with the increasing complexity of today’s mobile threats. Although this is a crucial step to securing your computer, running an antivirus program on your phone is not going to protect you from all digital threats.

The next way to protect yourself from mobile malware is to ensure that you pay attention to the permissions that you give to the apps installed on your phone. Although this step is a little tedious, it is the most effective way to prevent outside attackers from gaining access to your data. When you install a game, for example, if the app requests access to your address book, you might want to choose a different application.

The Importance of Common Sense

Although an iPhone can be hacked, by following the simple tips mentioned above and using common sense when downloading apps, you can protect yourself from most malware. The most important thing is that when installing apps on your phone, you should only install programs from reputable vendors and ensure that you actually have a need for the programs.

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Learn Tips for Saving Battery Life on iPhone

Best Mobile Photo Editing Apps for the Android and iPhone

Last Updated: August 6, 2013

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A smartphone may still be just a phone, but consumers expect more from the device. For example, a smartphone also doubles as a camera. And if manufacturers are going to place good cameras into their phones, it just makes sense that consumers have a way to edit their photos. Mobile photo editing has therefore caught the attention of both veterans in the field, such as Adobe, and newcomers, such as FxCamera. It doesn’t matter if it’s an iPhone or an Android phone: there are plenty of options available to edit photos.

Android

Photoshop Touch. This app lets users play with many of the core Photoshop tools they are already accustomed to. Photoshop Touch is a little pricier than some of the other apps, but consumers are getting an app they’re familiar with from the veteran of photo editing.
FxCamera. FxCamera lets users apply different effects to their photos. Many of the effects can also be found on other apps, but this tool has incorporated many of the best features, such as the Symmetry, Fish Eye, and Toycam effects.
PicSay. This is a fun little app that allows users to add word balloons, titles, and clip art to their photos. PicSay can also distort, spotlight, and pixelize photos.

iPhone

Photoshop Express. Although Photoshop Touch also works for the iPhone, Photoshop Express is free. Some of its features include Crystallizing, Auto Correcting, and Burning. There are also add-ons that can be purchased from the App Store.
Filterstorm. This iPhone- and iPad-specific app is the full package. It does what most other editors wish they could. It has an easy-to-use interface allowing users simple and quick access to all of the editing tools. Filterstorm also tracks all edits made by the user. The app allows users to create an automation that shows the change, and it allows the user to go back and undo the edit. With enhanced editing and masking mastery tools, Filterstorm is clearly one of the top mobile photo editing apps on the market.
PhotoGene. PhotoGene was originally designed to work for the iPad, but now there is PhotoGene2, which works for the iPhone. This app actually has more options than Filterstorm, but its lack of accessibility and ease of use is its downfall. It is a great app and has been one of the best sellers at the App Store for the last couple of years, but it comes with a bit of a learning curve.

Mobile photo editing apps are still in their infancy, and as the phones become more sophisticated, so will the editing software. This year alone finds the apps passing information between Bluetooth devices and creating special effects that used to be considered a computer’s job. Listed above are some of the best apps currently on the market, but don’t be surprised to see new ones popping up very soon.