Tag: Howto »

Apple is introducing a new way to protect the security of your iTunes account. It's called two-step verification, and while it does involve an extra step to log in, it will help make logging in to your Apple ID more secure and make it harder to break into through the use of a trusted device and a secret passkey.

See, security questions are not entirely safe since it's possible for someone who wants illicit access to your account to get things like your mother's maiden name or first job. So instead, this presumes that a more capable form of security for your account is a physical device that you would have to own in order to get access to your account - this can be a trusted iOS device or any SMS-capable phone, though not a Google Voice account, along with a security key or one's password. It's unlikely that someone wanting access to your account from an untrusted source will have two of the three.

Go to Apple's ID page, and log in with the Apple ID you want to set up two-step verification on. Go to the Password and Security section, and if it's available, choose to set it up. You will need to wait 3 days before you can complete the setup of your account. So bookmark this page and come back in 3 days!

Welcome back, unless you stuck around to see what the steps are, then thanks for sticking around!

Now, follow the various dialogs that appear. Apple will warn that once two-step is enabled, it can't be disabled, and that it will require at least two of the three necessary components.

Then, Apple will require you to verify your trusted devices. Every device you choose to verify will have a verification code pushed to it, and you can independently verify your iPhone's phone number in case you change devices or switch to another OS. Not that you'd do such a thing.

Then, Apple will give you your security key. This is one of the other necessary components to get back in to your account. You will need to securely store a copy of this key, by either writing it down, or printing out a copy somewhere. Apple will then make you enter the security key they just gave you.

Apple will then give you one final warning before enabling two-step verification on your account.

Congratulations! You've enabled two-step verification on your account. This will make it harder for unauthorized access into your account. You can disable two-factor from the Apple ID settings if you find it too much of a hassle, however.

Want to listen to listen to the wealth of podcasts that are available on iTunes from anywhere you have an iOS device and an internet connection? Then download the Podcasts app from the App Store. Now, the app can be a bit convoluted to use, so this how to guide should make getting into the app much easier.

If this is your first time using it, the app will show a blank screen with a white square you can tap to go to the Podcasts Store. Otherwise, you can tap Store in the upper-left corner to go browse for podcasts on iTunes.

Use the tabs to find audio and video podcasts, find the most popular podcasts, or search for your favorite podcasts, like The Portable Podcast! You can download individual episodes or subscribe to the podcast, which will show the latest episodes in the app.

To return to the main screen, tap Library in the upper-right corner. From the main screen, tap on the podcast’s icon to open up the available episodes; it’s also possible to add old episodes to be displayed.

Tapping on an episode will start streaming it. It’s also possible to download episodes for offline listening by tapping the downward arrow next to it. As well, tapping the blue arrow will allow you to see an episode’s description, mark an episode as played or unplayed, or add it to an On-The-Go playlist.

When you play a podcast, there’s the standard music controls, along with 15 second skip buttons to easily re-listen to something or skip ahead. The 1x button adjusts playback speed to playback episodes faster or slower, if you wish. The center clock icon allows for a sleep timer to be set. The share arrow allows you to share the podcast via different built-in services.

When you call up the music control buttons from the multitasking bar, the forward and reverse buttons are replaced with the 15 second skip buttons.

The podcast’s settings page allows you to update the podcast with new content, adjust which episodes should be kept, and even enable automatic downloads.

Now, there’s a new “My Stations” feature which is built for the podcast-obsessed. This makes it possible to easily organize your podcasts by topic, or some other methodology. It also houses the On-The-Go playlist for making a quick playlist of podcasts to play back. To make your own custom station, tap the New Station button and name it. Then choose which podcasts you want to appear on the station. The station will show any episodes that have been added to your library, so to get podcast episodes to appear on your station, you need to add them from the individual podcast’s page.

You can choose the order for new episodes from each station to be played in by tapping Edit. Tapping Settings will call up a variety of settings for Play Order, which episodes to include, and the podcasts included in the station.

These tips should help you master Apple’s official Podcasts app for listening to your favorite podcasts from iTunes.

Thanks to the last two major iOS releases, iOS 5 and 6, sharing on social media has gotten a lot easier. It's now easy to tweet and post to Facebook from anywhere in iOS. Want to do this for yourself? Here's our how to guide on taking advantage of social media features on iOS.

First off, you need to log in to your social media accounts, which for most users will be the Twitter and Facebook support. Start by going to Settings. Scroll down to the Twitter and Facebook options. Now you will see a screen that will let you install that service's official app from the App Store, log in with an existing account, learn more about the service, or Create a New Account. If you don't have one, this is the quickest and easiest way to make one. Once you have an account, log in with it and let the fun begin!

For Twitter, you can log in to multiple accounts from this screen. Tapping on an account info will let you re-enter your password if you change it, to change the account's description in iOS, and to disable the "Find Me by Email" setting. Scrolling down to the bottom will allow you to Update Contacts with information from Twitter contacts, and to modify which apps can access data from your Twitter account.

For Facebook, it has many of the same options, but you can only log in to one account. However, you can configure the app's settings for alerts and HD video recording from here.

Now, time to take advantage of this. Bring down Notification Center by swiping from the top of the screen. You should now have Tap to Tweet and Tap to Post buttons. Each one will send a tweet or a post to Facebook. You can add your location, and the Twitter post box will replace the enter button with the @ and # symbols. You can enter a line break by hitting the 123 button and finding Enter there.

If you want to share a photo, you can do so by going to Photos, and tapping the Share arrow, and you will see options to post the photo to Twitter or Facebook. Twitter will automatically add the photo and subtract the characters for the link in your tweet without showing the actual link in it. Anything like this will be shown with a paper clip and a thumbnail of what is being sent.

Apps can tweet and post to Facebook, too. Try sending a link from Safari using the Share arrow. Some games will let you share your high scores, like Punch Quest does.

Apps like can request access to your Twitter or Facebook contacts to find new people to connect to, such as Vine supporting Twitter contacts, or Game Center letting you discover friends through Facebook.

Some apps can let you instantly log in to them with your registered Twitter or Facebook account, even third-party Twitter apps like Tweetbot. Finally, you can Like apps on the App Store by tapping the Reviews tab and then the Like button.

These tips cover the basics of how you can use the built-in social media connections to share from your iOS device. Note that not all apps use the built-in iOS connections, so you may still need to log in separately in some apps.

With text messages and iMessages being such an important form of communication between people, it doesn’t make much sense that there’s no easy way to store them and back them up. They’re backed up when making backups through iTunes or iCloud, but if you have to wipe your device clean, then they’re lost forever. And because of the personal and private nature of these messages, important ones can be lost, unlike email which exists on cloud servers. Now, there is a way to backup your SMS and iMessages manually. Note that this guide will require you to be at a computer with iTunes, and to poke around some hidden directories. If you’re comfortable with this, let’s begin.

Start by making a full manual backup in iTunes of your device. Re-read our previous guide on backing up your device on how to do this.

Now then, the fun part. We need to go into where the backup is stored. On Windows PCs, this location has to be accessed by opening a local Explorer window, and typing in %APPDATA% (a shortcut to your Windows primary hard drive’s Users/[your username]/Application Data folder). On Mac, open up a Finder window. Hold down the Option key, click Go in the top bar, and select the Library folder that now appears. It only appears when you hold down the Option key. The necessary folder will not be visible if you just go to the Library folder from your Mac on the left sidebar in Finder. Open Application Support.

Now, on either OS, open up MobileSync -> Backup. Open up the most recent folder, as that should be your latest backup.

Look for a file called 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28. It may or may not have a file extension on it. Copy this file to a safe place.

Now, if you just open it up in a text editor, the file will be full of gibberish but you can search for text strings and they will pop up. It’s largely unreadable, but it’s something.

Now, if you want them available in a readable format, this can be done. Go to http://iphone-sms.com. Upload that file you just saved, and choose an export format. Note that you are uploading your message data to a remote website, so if you’re concerned about the privacy of your data, you might want to be careful, though there’s no known risk factors with the site. Also, the file doesn’t include picture data, so you might want to save those to your Camera Roll manually.

So, that’s how you get your SMS and iMessages backed up. It’s not easy, but it’s a way to preserve your treasured messages. Or not-so-treasured ones. Such is the beauty of text messaging.

So, your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is acting really weird. It’s constantly rebooting. It isn’t being recognized by iTunes. Or just any sort of weird issue that seems outside the realm of normal troubleshooting. It just feels like this is the end, time to go to the Genius Bar if your phone is still under warranty or just panic otherwise? Not necessarily. There’s still one way to rescue it. It’s called DFU mode, and it can be used to restore your device.

Now, the first thing to know about DFU mode is that it will wipe your device clean, so anything that is not backed up will be lost. If possible, make a backup either via iTunes or iCloud. As well, you need a computer with iTunes in order to use this. This is generally a last resort method of rescuing your device, though entering it is not going to ruin anything.

Plug your device into your computer with iTunes. Turn your device off. Turn it back on, and keep the power button held for 3 seconds. Now, without letting go of the power button, hold down on the menu button for 10 seconds. Now, let go of the power button and keep holding the menu button until iTunes says that it’s detected a device in recovery mode. From here you can easily restore the device.

Now, if you want to escape DFU mode, you can hold down on the power and home buttons for about 15 seconds and it will boot up as normal.

Now, if either of your hardware buttons are broken, it’s still possible to enter DFU mode. This method requires more experience with files and using a hex editor. This method is more complex and potentially more risky to the device, but it should cause DFU mode to be enabled. Read about it at The iPhone Wiki. We’d suggest at this point just going to the Apple Store if you are uncomfortable.

Hopefully this guide helps you rescue your device. Even better would be if you don’t ever need it, but in case you do, it’s here for you.

iPhones are great. iPads are great too, what with their big screens. They can play all sorts of music video, and games from many different sources. But don't forget about the big TV screen when using these devices. Yes, there are ways to take the picture from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, and put it on your TV. Here's how to do that either through the Apple TV or through direct output cables.

Apple TV

The benefit of using an Apple TV is simple: no need to plug in a cable when wanting to view a video on TV, not to mention no wires getting in the way of holding the device when displaying photos or games on TV.

To start viewing your device on TV, set up your Apple TV, have it plugged in, and on the same network as your iOS device. It does not necessarily need to be actively on, with the front light glowing. Now, on your iOS device, call up the multitasking bar by double-tapping the home button. Swipe to the left until you see the AirPlay icon, which looks like this:. You will need to swipe twice on the iPhone and iPod touch, and once on the iPad. Tap the AirPlay icon. Choose your Apple TV. If you have multiple Apple TVs in the same network, it may help to give them custom names in each box's settings.

For those with an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch 5th Generation, or any iPad except the very first model, AirPlay Mirroring for displaying your whole screen on TV is available. By default, mirroring will be off, which means that only audio and apps that support AirPlay video output directly will be displayed. Enabling it will send the entire contents of your screen to your TV. Apps that support video ouput will switch over to that mode instead of using mirroring.

Note that the big drawback to AirPlay Mirroring is that for gaming, it has a noticeable amount of latency; use our previous guide for reducing latency to help out with this.

Video Output Cables

Apple also sells video output cables for those who prefer direct connections, need to output to analog video connections, or want to save some money by not buying a $99 Apple TV.

Simply plugging the cable in to your device, and then plugging the necessary video cable(s) in to your TV will do the trick. HDMI adapters carry audio, analog video adapters have RCA audio outputs, and the VGA adapter requires using a separate audio cable to output through the headphone jack. Digital video connections and VGA will not offer resolution options, though the device will generally output what the TV reports back as the maximum possible resolution.

If you have a device with a Lightning connector and a video output cable with the dock connector, it will not work with the lightning-to-dock adapter currently available. In general, these should lead to better results with gaming due to less video latency.

By following this guide, you can now easily display all the content available on your iOS device on your TV easily.

So, you want to play Real Racing 3 but are cursing your parents that you weren’t born an Aussie or Kiwi? Why do they get the game first, anyway? Well, developers often release free-to-play games early in countries like these in order to let a small segment of the global public get their hands on it, allowing them to tweak things like gameplay and IAP costs, as well as testing a game’s technical backend, before its worldwide release. But there is a way to become an honorary member of another country to get their free apps (at least in iTunes), and I’m going to tell you how.

First, let’s build a fake identity. I use FakeNameGenerator.com, which generates fake names and addresses in order to create a convincing identity. Choose your country to generate a name and address – I recommend New Zealand for this example, as they also get App Store games first on release day as they are close to the international date line.

Now go to iTunes on PC/Mac. Go to the iTunes Store, click the Home icon on the top sidebar. Now scroll to the bottom and to the right, and click your country’s flag in the bottom-right corner.

This opens up a screen to pick a new country. Scroll to Asia Pacific and choose New Zealand. This will switch you to the New Zealand App Store. Now, the easiest way to create an Apple ID without entering payment information is to start to download the app, as just going through the standard iTunes account creation process will require the input of payment info. So, search for the app you want to download, like, say Real Racing 3. Start to download it, and when the dialog to sign in pops up, click Create Apple ID.

For your email address, I recommend putting something like “+nz” after the name but before the @ if you use Gmail. This will still send it to the same base email but will work separately in iTunes. For example: [email protected] still goes to [email protected]. Otherwise, go through the process to register an account, using the info from the fake name generator. Apple will ask you to verify the account by sending you an email. Do so. The app should start downloading on iTunes, or you can now log in to this account on your iOS device. The store will automatically switch to New Zealand from your home country’s account, and switch back upon logging back in.

Note that unless you get your hands on a credit card or gift card for that country’s App Store, you will only be able to download free games, and you will not be able to buy in-app purchases, even if you log in to your home country’s App Store account. This is because iTunes requires that you buy IAP on the account that the game was downloaded from. If you use our guide to transfer saves by deleting the New Zealand app, installing the US version, and then restoring the save, it should work to keep your progress.

This guide should work for other countries as well – having a Canadian account is also handy. Just remember that these games are often not going to be in perfect form as they are still undergoing testing, and that you should redownload on your home country’s account if you want to buy IAP to support the developers. Have any cool games you’ve downloaded besides Real Racing 3 with this guide? Let us know!

Passbook is cool, right? Only thing that stinks is that not everything is using Passbook. Our wallets must suffer under the tyranny of membership and loyalty cards evermore.

Now, here’s the thing about Passbook: it’s really not that special. See, all it does is load in specially-formatted files that are then displayed in the Passbook app. Now, apps have the ability to add in Passbook cards from the app, but cards can also be installed through Mail and Safari. This means that where gaps in Passbook support exist, they can be filled through third-party methods. Plus, there’s other cool tweaks to play with. It’s time to take advantage of Passbook for fun and profit.

Ticketfly is at least one ticket service that supports Passbook through manual file installation of .pkpass files. If an event you wish to attend is selling through Ticketfly, you can get your ticket added to Passbook. If you request mobile tickets at checkout, then their email will include an attachment at the bottom to install the ticket to Passbook. When you arrive at the venue at the time of the event, just open up Passbook or the ticket from your lock screen. If you open from the lock screen, open it up right before it is scanned, because unlocking the device directly will not go back to the ticket. Don’t hold up the line like I did!

Now, this is a very important thing: if you’re installing a Passbook card via email, it has to be done in the stock Mail app, and the card file has to be an attachment, not a link, in order to work.

If you want to integrate other rewards cards in to Passbook, such as a Best Buy Reward Zone card, go to PassSource. This website offers step by step instructions to import your data into customized Passbook cards. Because Passbook offers limited barcode support, some cards won’t have barcodes because the stores are known to be incompatible with two-dimensional barcodes that Passbook supports. Still, it’s a quick way to integrate in those other cards that are cluttering up your wallet. As well, store owners that want to use Passbook for themselves can use PassSource to help set up a system like this.

Now, the most useful Passbook hack may just be the ability to hide built-in apps, at least on a temporary basis. Visit PassHack on your iOS device and install the Passbook card. On the card’s (i) page, links to hide built-in apps will appear. This works by trying to install apps with the same app identifier as the built-in apps, which will fail to install. When you delete the icon, the app is hidden. Nothing is actually done to your device besides hiding the icon, which reappears on a restart. However, for those that want Stocks to go away for a while, this is the secret.

Have you used these tweaks to make Passbook more useful for you? Have you found any more clever tweaks for Passbook? Let us know in the comments!

So, you see your friends using those little smiley faces and emoticon characters that look silly and add flavor to their text messages, tweets, Facebook statuses, emails, school essays, you know, whatever is fit to type into an iOS device. But how does one enjoy the land of these special graphical characters, called Emoji, for themselves? Well, they can now be entirely enabled from default iOS settings without the need for any special apps. Here’s how to enable and use Emoji, along with other international keyboards.

Yes, Emoji is considered an international keyboard – it started out as an option only for Japanese iPhone users and had to be enabled via backdoor methods for others. But there are now ways to do it without any kind of hacks.

Go to Settings, tap on General, and scroll down to International. Now tap on Keyboards.

Tap on Add New Keyboard… and scroll down to Emoji. Select this, and it will be enabled. As well, you can enable other keyboards from this screen. Taking Spanish classes and want to type things up in a keyboard layout suited for the language? That can be done here.

Now, to use the Emoji keyboard and others in actual text, just open up a text box. You will now notice that the space bar has shrunk, and a new globe icon has appeared. Tap this, and it will switch through your various international keyboards. Tap this until you get to Emoji.

Now, you will see a list of characters available. The clock icon will pull up a section of icons that are both used frequently and have been used recently. The other 5 icons switch between faces & people, various flora & fauna, various small physical objects, large physical objects, and assorted symbols. There’s a strange mix in each section, but poke through them to find fun Emoji symbols to use.

If you want to disable Emoji or any other international keyboards, return to the International section. Swiping horizontally on the keyboard entry will call up the delete button, as will the Edit button in the upper right corner. From this screen you can also adjust the order that the keyboards apear in from tapping the globe icon.

These tips should help you use the Emoji and international keyboards with ease.

There are a lot of iPhone users out there who enjoy being able to personalize their ring tones, myself included. But sometimes that can be easier said than done, especially when users can’t sync to iTunes for whatever reason. However, there's a way around this issue that’s both easy and incredibly effective with a minimum of cost (about $6 total) and absolutely no jailbreaking involved!

First and foremonst, two apps need to be installed: ToneConvert and GarageBand. Be warned; GarageBand is a big install that takes up close to 700 MB.

Once both apps are installed and ready to go, the rest is easy. Open up ToneConvert and you’ll see this screen:

Select Browse for audio file. For the purposes of this example we’re going to be visiting www.audiko.net just like in the video. Mostly because it’s a fairly massive source for pre-sized audio files.

Now it’s time to select a sound or song. I’d prefer to search for something myself, so let's look for the Godzilla roar.

After picking the file, tap the Preview button. This will call up two choices: Play or Download. Hit Play first to make sure it’s the desired sound, then go ahead and Download it.

It’s time to Convert it!, then hit Copy to Pasteboard. And that’s the first half of the process.

With the sound file is saved, it’s time to open up GarageBand. When opening the app for the first time, you should see the Instruments screen. Scroll over to the right until reaching the Audio Recorder.

Tap the Tracks icon in the upper-left corner. It’s the one that looks like a few broken lines next to the arrow.

Now tap the empty track and select Paste. You can use GarageBand to further customize your ring tone but for the purposes of this demo we’re going to keep it simple and stick with the default sound.

Tap the arrow in the top-left corner and select My Songs in order to save the project.

From the My Songs screen tap Edit in the top-right portion of the screen, and select the new song. Tap the Sharing icon in the upper-left corner of the screen (it’s the one that looks like a box with an arrow sticking out of it).

Scroll down and select Share Song As “Ringtone”.

From the Export screen you can name the tone whatever you’d like, then hit Export to finish the job.

Now it’s simply a matter of going into the phone’s Settings and Sounds tab to adjust the ring tone settings. Tap on the particular sound you’d like to replace, which in this case is Ringtone, and select the new tone.

And you’re done! Now you can download, adjust, or otherwise create your own custom iPhone ring tones without the use of a computer, iTunes, or a jailbroken device. So, what ring tones are you planning on making for yourself?

What makes iOS great for users with disabilities is that there’s a selection of options to make using an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad much easier. Many of these features are designed for the visually-impaired, the hard of hearing, or those with motor skills issues, to open up their devices to them in a way that most people take for granted. However, there are a few features here that even able users can take advantage of – custom vibration settings started out as an Accessibility option before becoming standard in iOS 6. Here’s a rundown of what the Accessibility features in iOS are.

To find and configure ACcessibility options, open up Settings, tap on General, then scroll down to Accessibility. All the iOS Accessibility options are here.

VoiceOver is primarily designed for visually-impaired users, as it makes it easier to select specific items, which the device will then speak what that feature is, and double-taps are used to then select the item, making it harder to accidentally tap on certain items. Various other settings for devices like Bluetooth-enabled Braille machines, and typing feedback, can be configured here.

Zoom makes it possible to use 3-finger gestures to zoom in and out of the screen, making it easier for visually-impaired users to see certain items when necessary.

Large Text increases the font size in certain Apple apps.

Invert Colors will invert the device’s colors, which can help users with different vision issues.

Speak Selection and Speak Auto-text make it possible to have text-to-speech enabled on selected text.

Hearing Aids is the settings section for Bluetooth hearing aids. Once connected, the options will be made available.

LED Flash for Alerts makes it possible for the LED flash on the iPhone to go off when new alerts come in. This can be handy for any user that wants a way to see that they have new notifications, even when they’re not looking at the screen.

Mono Audio sets the device’s audio to be only in monaural, making it possible for users who only hear out of one ear (or for users who use mono headsets) to hear both channels in one ear. The audio balance can also be set here.

Guided Access makes it possible to restrict a device to one app, with certain screen sections able to be configured as untouchable. This makes it possible to use a device in a demo mode, or to let a child use an app without leaving it or changing any settings.

AssistiveTouch enables a gray button that can be dragged around the screen. This calls up several system functions, that make it possible to do things like multitouch gestures, take screenshots, and more. For users who have a broken home button, AssistiveTouch can make the device still usable.

Home-click Speed makes it easier to double-click the home button, by not requiring it to be double-clicked so quickly.

Incoming Calls can force the audio from incoming calls to either go to a headset or to the speaker.

Triple-click Home allows for VoiceOver, Invert Colors, Zoom, and AssistiveTouch to be toggled by triple-clicking the Home button.

These settings and features are all designed to make it easier to use iOS devices. Have you found any that make using your device better, or have helped other people use their devices? Let us know in the comments below.

Our phones have become a significant part of our lives, holding large quantities of our personal data on them. Apps that use our data are also a significant part of them, especially given the rise of free apps and services – if you’re not paying, you’re the product – and what these apps have access to is often quite extensive. While Apple’s walled garden does keep many of those with malicious intent away from the App Store, they’re not perfect. There may just be an app that you trust that is doing something with the data you gave it permission for. Here’s how to manage these privacy settings.

The first and most obvious destination is the Privacy section in Settings. Here, you will see sections for various types of data that apps have requested.

By going to one of these sections, and switching the toggle for that app off, then it will not have access to that data any more. So an app that requests Photos access can have it be restricted. Or, if you initially denied access and wish to grant it, you can now do so from this section.

The Location Services section is particularly worth delving into because not only can the icon appear at random times for no apparent reason, but the section to manage it has many wrinkles that the others do not. One, there are variably-colored location icons next to each service, and they may not be apparent to what they mean until you scroll to the bottom, where iOS explains what each icon means.

What this means is that you can see on this section which apps are currently requesting your location, not just which apps have access to your location. If an app is continually causing the location services icon to appear in the status bar (and potentially draining your battery), you can see which apps are the culprit here. Often times, apps that use location services can have settings disabled from within the app to have their recurring location check disappear, as having loaction access enabled periodically may be key to your usage of the app. As well, the System Services section shows several system functions that use your location, including one for Location-Based iAds that can modify the types of ads you see.

Hopefully these tips have helped you manage your privacy better, and you have a greater understanding of the types of access that iOS apps and system functions have to your data.

Now, there’s one particular advertising-related privacy setting that’s not in Privacy that’s worth considering. Go to Settings→General→About and scroll all the way down to Advertising. Tap on this, and you’ll see a setting for Limit Ad Tracking. By enabling this, then services that identify your device by the Apple Advertising Identifier cannot track you based on this. This means that advertisements will be less targeted to you.

Safari is an app that’s been around for a long, long time, having been on iPhones since the original one! It’s easy then to get into a rut where you use it and don’t consider what else it can do. Well, let’s go through Safari’s section in Settings to poke through some of the options that can tweak your Safari experience to be much better.

Search Engine allows you to set Bing or Yahoo as your search engine. Sorry, AltaVista fans and Pawnee residents.

AutoFill makes it easy to enter passwords and personal info in website forms. Enable Use Contact Info with your contact card, set as the iOS default but something that can be changed from here, to have names and addresses in forms filled automatically with your data. Names & Passwords will fill in usernames, passwords, and other info from your contacts in forms as appropriate. Tapping Clear All will reset this data.

Private Browsing changes a Safari session to not store any history or browsing data once completed. Open tabs can be saved or closed when switching back and forth. If anyone gets suspicious as to why you’re using private browsing, just tell them it’s for the sleek dark interfaced that indicates you’re in private mode.

Clear History will clear your list of previously-visited sites. Clear Cookies and Data will delete any tracking cookies stored on your device, and also clear out any logins. Reading List’s Use Cellular Data toggle will allow for you to save on data usage by only letting Reading List sync over wi-fi. Fraud Warning will warn when you’re on a suspicious website. JavaScript allows you to disable this for any sites that may be slowed down by this. Block Pop-ups allows you to let pop-ups open as new tabs.

Finally in Advanced, the Website Data section allows you to clear up some storage space by deleting saved data from websites. Web Inspector is a feature for developers who are working to optimize their sites for Safari on iOS.

 Hopefully this guide has shown you some useful features for Safari that you never even knew existed or had no idea how to use!

Google has made an announcement that they are shutting down Exchange ActiveSync as a way to access Google email, contacts, and calendars. This has an impact on those who used our earlier guide to get sync Google contacts with iOS, used it for calendar support, or for push email to their devices. While current Exchange connections will still work after the shut down, new ones will be unable to be made. Thankfully, for those who rely on this for contacts, calendars, and email, there are alternatives available.

For calendars, the best replacement solution is to just use the standard Gmail account setup – this uses a protocol called CalDAV to automatically sync calendar events between the device and Google. It should automatically pull in new updates to calendars shortly after they are made elsewhere.

For email, there is no reliable solution at the moment for getting push email in the default Mail app. The Gmail app, which has been recently updated, works very well and has support for multiple accounts and push notifications. Otherwise, consider using an app like Boxcar or Push 4.0 to get push notifications of incoming email.

For contacts, an open protocol named CardDAV can be used to sync Google Contacts up with an iOS device instead. Setting it up is easy. Go to Settings→Mail, Contacts, and Calendars, and choose Add Account…. At the list of services, select Other.

Now choose Add CardDAV Account under the middle Contacts section.

Now at this screen, for the server, enter google.com, for User Name and Password enter your Google Account email address (this works for both regular Google accounts and Google Apps accounts) and for Description, put whatever you want the account to be named as. If all details have been properly entered, then contacts will now sync up with Google.

To use this account as your default account, go back to the main Mail, Contacts, and Calendars screen. Scroll down to the Contacts header. Tap Default Account.

Tap the name of the account you just set up, and any new contacts will be added to this account going forward. Congratulations, your account is now future-proofed against Google's ActiveSync shutdown.

iTunes 11, just released at the end of November 2012 by Apple, represents probably the biggest changes to the way iOS devices sync up with computers in quite a while. In particular, apps synchronization has changed quite a bit.

In order to access your device settings, click on the button that either shows the name of your iOS device or the number of devices you have connected.

First off, all purchases are automatically transferred from a device to the computer when syncing, even if they are not set to specifically synchronize. There’s still the option to transfer purchases without doing a full synchronization, by going to File -> Devices -> Transfer Purchases.

Second, app synchronization is now automatically enabled. If you are setting up a new device, or syncing with iTunes for the first time, then iTunes, as is its wont, will try to sync a lot of apps to the device. The only real solution is to just go through and click “remove” on any app in the list that is unwanted. This cannot be disabled, and the Automatically sync new apps checkbox will only disable syncing apps that are new to the library to the device. However, devices that have synced with iTunes before will not suddenly find themselves buried in apps that iTunes tries to install, as it will leave the current settings alone.

However, the biggest and most convenient change is that it is now possible to manually install apps without neeeding to synchronize. Just select an app from the list, and click Install, and the app will be installed on the device on the next sync. Clicking Remove will set it to be uninstalled on the next sync. Clicking Will Remove or Will Install will set the app back to its previous installed or uninstalled state.

Wi-fi synchronization can be set up from the Summary page, scrolling down to Options and choosing Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi.

This new method of syncing apps makes it easy to download an app while from the computer, and send it to a device without needing to have automatic downloads enabled. This also makes installing previously-purchased apps much easier than on the device itself, as huge libraries of previously purchased apps don’t even load in iOS 6!

While those buying new devices and syncing them up the first time will find a lot of clicking to be necessary beforehand, this does make syncing apps with iTunes an infinitely better process.