Table of contents for 115 in iPad & iPhone User

Beware the five-second video that will bring your iPhone to a complete halt. Recently, a corrupt video link with the potential to crash any iOS device started making the rounds. Clicking on the MP4 link in question will play a video that will cause your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to overload and eventually freeze to the point of making the Home button, the power button, and the touchscreen totally unresponsive. The only way to get your iOS device working properly is to perform a hard reset. Clicking the link generates a loop that will force your iPhone to crash about 10 seconds after the short video ends. The Verge tested the link on several devices running iOS 10.1, as well as the iOS 10.2 beta. They all became unresponsive.…

The best camera is the one you have with you, the old cliché goes, and as we found in our experiment, if that camera happens to be an iPhone 7 Plus, you’re going to be just fine. The dual-lens camera system lets it take better photos than any smartphone we’ve tried, and the Portrait mode in iOS 10.1 is a lot of fun to play with. Adam, staff photographer at our sister publication Macworld US, was eager to see what the 7 Plus could do, so we hired a model to recreate the kind of fashion photo shoot that he would normally do with his trusty Sony a7R II with a Canon 50mm lens. We shot indoors in low lighting as well as full light, then took the show on…

If Father Christmas is about to bring you a shiny new gadget for Christmas, or you’re buying one for someone else, you’re probably not thinking about what to do if there’s a problem. The new Consumer Rights Act covers things like faulty products and late deliveries, and we explain the law so you know how to return a product for replacement or refund. Computers and gadgets do fail from time to time, so it’s important that you know your rights. Almost all products come with at least a year’s warranty but, depending on exactly when the problem arises, you might need to deal with the retailer rather than the manufacturer itself. In October 2015, the new Consumer Rights Act became law and it replaced the 1979 Sale of Goods Act,…

The iPhone has a very good camera, but you can get more out of it by using an add-on lens. They can increase the amount of zoom, or they provide an effect that gives your photo more impact. Many companies sell a set of lenses as part of a system. That system can include a wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens, and a fish-eye lens. Each system has it own way of attaching lenses to your iPhone. The lenses reviewed here work with the iPhone SE, 6s and 6s Plus (as well as any other Apple handset that has a camera bump like those devices, such as the iPhone 6). In this round-up, we gathered several iPhone lens systems, put tested them with an iPhone 6s, and reviewed each one. Best…

An iOS hidden feature surprised iPad & iPhone User reader P.M. Wright. She had deleted an email in iOS and a pop-up appeared that asked if she wanted to ‘Undo Trash’. She hadn’t seen it before, and wondered what precise action it would accomplish – undo the deletion of all her deleted email? And where does deleted email wind up and for how long? The Undo Trash message is a ‘hidden’ feature: after taking an action in many Apple and third-party apps, you can shake your iPhone gently, which the built-in accelerometer detects. Software that supports undo can then display a message. It’s nifty, but if you don’t know about it, a surprise. Tapping Undo in any app typically is a single operation. Only the immediately previous action gets reverted.…

Two researchers claim to have found a way to bypass the activation lock feature in iOS that’s supposed to prevent anyone from using an iOS device marked as lost by its owner. The first report came from an Indian security researcher named Hemanth Joseph, who started investigating possible bypasses after being confronted with a locked iPad he acquired from eBay. The activation lock is enabled automatically when users turn on the Find My iPhone feature via iCloud. It links the device to their Apple IDs and prevents anyone else from accessing the device without entering the associated password. One of the few things allowed from the activation lock screen is connecting the device to a Wi-Fi network, including manually configuring one. Hemanth had the idea of trying to crash the…

2016 was an interesting year for Apple. It saw the introduction of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, albeit controversially without headphone jacks, and a return to the 4in form factor in the popular iPhone SE. Plus there was the release of the Apple Watch Series 2, a new 9.7in iPad Pro, and an apparently Brexit-related unwelcome hike in prices across the board. So, what does 2017 have up its sleeves for Apple fans? We’ve donned our prognostication hats, investigated every rumour and trend we could find, all to bring you our predictions for 2017. It looks like it could be a big year. Apple Watch 3 Apple released the second generation of its Watch in September of 2016 which added GPS, internal upgrades, and water proofing to the design.…

For a few weeks this summer, it seemed like everyone was playing Pokémon Go. You could tell at a glance, typically, as players stared at their screens (more so than usual) while stumbling about, congregating around real-world landmarks as they passed them. But just as quickly as the phenomenon ramped up, it faded away as players complained about repetition and tedium. Pokémon Go was pretty rough around the edges at launch, and it still has plenty of room to grow and improve, but the experience is already a lot better – especially of late. Haven’t fired up the app in months? Here’s what you’ve missed, and why you might want to get back to the hunt. 1. Daily bonuses Part of the reason why Pokémon Go loses steam over time…

There are a few ways to send calls straight to voicemail. To start, you can quickly switch your iPhone to Silent Mode by toggling the Ring/Silent switch. That’s the switch on the left-hand side of your iPhone, above the volume buttons. You’ll see a small red strip next to the switch to indicate when it’s in Silent mode. That way, depending on your settings, you’ll see a call coming in but you won’t hear your ringtone. By default, your phone vibrates when you receive an incoming call, but you can turn that off if it’s too distracting, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Toggle off the Vibrate on Silent switch. Alternatively, when a call comes in, tap the Sleep/Wake button to silence the ringer and send the call to…

Following on from the success of its hidden games inside Facebook Messenger such as football keep ups and basketball, the firm has launched a fully-fledged gaming feature called Instant Games to its chat service. The firm describes it as a new ‘gaming tab’ inside the app that allows you to challenge your friends and family at a number of games. It’s simple enough to play if you follow the steps below, making sure you’ve updated to the latest version in your app store first. Play games on • Open or start a conversation (groups included) • Tap on the game controller icon • Choose the game you want to play Games list With over 1.2bn games of the basketball game played, launching Instant Games is the next logical step. The…

Apple has released a product that isn’t a phone or a watch or a computer. It’s a 450-page book documenting the past 20 years of Apple design, or, in other words, a book of photos of Apple devices. At £249, it costs more than some of those devices. Designed by Apple in California, comes in a large (413x330mm) and a cheaper, smaller (324x260mm) size. The smaller version is a mere £169. Both versions are available to buy online at tinyurl.com/zf5wb4z or in select Apple Stores. The book documents the creation of the 1998 iMac through the 2015 Apple Pencil and took eight years to develop, Apple said. It is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs. “While this is a design book, it is not about the design team, the…

Apple is working on wearable digital glasses that would connect wirelessly to the iPhone and show content in the wearer’s field of vision, according to a news report. The iPhone maker has indicated previously its interest in augmented reality. Unlike the simulated world of virtual reality, AR supplements with images and information the user’s normal view of the world. “We are high on AR for the long run. We think there are great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity,” Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed in an earnings call in July, talking about the need for Apple’s devices to work with other developers’ products, such as the successful Pokémon Go game. The company has also hired VR and AR experts and made some acquisitions that could help it meet…

Users have praised the performance of Apple’s A10 Fusion chip in the iPhone 7, but its underlying graphics architecture may not be so new after all. The GPU in the iPhone 7 uses a custom version of the PowerVR GT7600 GPU, which is based on the same graphics processor architecture as in last year’s iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, according to an analysis by The Linley Group, which specializes in semiconductors. Apple has claimed that the A10 Fusion CPU is two times faster than its predecessor, the A9, and the GPU about 50 percent faster. Benchmarking has revealed a mixed bag for A10 Fusion GPU’s performance, according to the analyst firm. Some benchmarks supported Apple’s GPU performance gain claims, and others fell way off. But the high levels of GPU…

As far as theft and fraud are concerned, you face (and willingly accept) a moderate amount of risk when you shop online or out in their local neighbourhoods. This holiday season is no different, but the risk is elevated some, because criminals are looking for easy marks and low-hanging fruit. With that said, here are a few tips to help you keep your money, gadgets, and information safe this holiday season, as well as the year ahead. Card skimming While shopping, or stopping for fuel, be mindful of credit card skimmers that can copy or read your card data as you swipe. Criminals use the captured information to create fake cards or go shopping online. The skimmers can be attached to a cash point, or even installed inside of a…

About a year ago, we served up eight tips for iOS Mail users – everything from how to change the size of your previews to dictating your mail messages. Now, we’re back with six more ways to make the most of Mail for iPhone and iPad, including a couple of nifty tricks for iOS 10. For starters, we’ll show you how to tinker with the new mail filter, as well as how to tweak iOS 10’s threaded messages view. You’ll also learn how to customize the Mailboxes screen, pick your own message-swipe options, and more. 1. Customize your swipe options You don’t have to settle for Flag, Mark as Read, and Trash as your only choices when swiping inbox messages to the left or right. If you like, you can…

Over the past few years, development of and interest in the virtual reality arena has truly begun heating up, but the same can’t yet be said for its close cousin, augmented reality. The most prominent product in the category to date was the much-maligned Google Glass, which never really cracked the consumer market. But that doesn’t mean that the interest isn’t still there. Microsoft has been investigating the mixed reality concept with its HoloLens visor, a device that seems to actually make a compelling argument for the technology, and Snapchat has garnered some attention with its new Spectacles glasses, which feature built-in cameras and integrate with the popular messaging app. And now there are rumours that Apple is throwing its hat glasses into the ring. But is this merely the…