Living with the Apple iPhone 6: long-term review (part 1)

Прошло почти четыре месяца с тех пор Apple, выпустила iPhone 6 в сентябре, и в то же время одно стало совершенно ясно: новый iPhone будет бить рекорды продаж и чрезвычайно хорошо принят. После исходных линий и дефиците, iPhone 6, наконец, хорошо укомплектованный и доступны для всех, чтобы купить. Что это означает, что речь идет о времени для долгосрочного обзора Apple, дорогая. 

Я был с помощью телефона офф-и-на в течение нескольких месяцев, но в прошлом месяце я посвятил себя четыре недели интенсивных исследований всех его скрытых аллей. Это, прежде всего, личный путь: я был отложен по решению от Apple придерживаться небольших экранов до начала iPhone 6, а в последние пару лет, мой список ежедневных водителей состоит из устройств Android исключительно. Больше iPhone, однако, требует глубокого оглянуться на экосистемы Apple, и всех его различных аспектах.

В этом iPhone 6 долгосрочного обзора вы найдете краткую информацию о моих самых существенных личных впечатлений от этого четыре недели интенсивного освоения новейших флагмана Apple. Читайте дальше.

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IPhone 6 результат Адамант внимания и дисциплины, что Apple, наложившего на себя на протяжении многих лет. Проведя несколько месяцев с iPhone 6 избранницы Apple, я могу сказать, что новая алюминиевая конструкция тела выдержала испытание временем и выходит, как очень практичный и красивый в то же время. В единственном чувстве премиум опыт работы с iPhone 6 Множество факторов переплетаются: худоба телефону выделяет его (только Sony Xperia Z3 приближается к тонкому профилю, все остальные телефоны, кажется, ужасно пухлые в сравнении), изысканный цвет варианты и очень стильный золотая версия, в частности, сделать это очень желательно, и внимание ко всем мелких деталей вызывает восхищение (в хорошо продуманной и отзывчивые кнопки регулировки громкости, наличие полезной выключателем, ключевой замок, который расположен удобно прямо рядом с большим пальцем).

Реальность поле искажений от Apple, как говорят, забавные эффекты на людей, но я не могу сказать, что это широко распространенное восхищение несправедливо: каждый раз, когда я смогу забрать iPhone 6 после использования наиболее любой другой телефон, я чувствовал себя поражены тонкостью и прочной конструкции. Я чувствовал, аналогичным образом о нескольких других устройств в прошлом: HTC One S был одним из таких телефонов, и в самые последние годы, HTC One (M8) занял особое место в моем сердце также, но это место, отведенное для нескольких телефонов и iPhone 6, кажется, нашел его. Я также обнаружил, алюминий спины iPhone 6 не как подвержен царапинам, как на 5 секунд и ранее 5. Я бы по-прежнему предпочитают носить телефон с ультра-тонком корпусе, когда я знаю, что я буду на ходу и Я боюсь, что это может выскользнуть из кармана, но я считаю себя браконьерства его из дела не один раз, чтобы иметь более прямой контакт и оценить его тонкость. В этих случаях я уверен, что я положил его в карман, где он не будет пообщаться с ключами и другой карманной пуха. Через месяц интенсивного использования, iPhone 6 выглядит как новый, без единой царапины.

Don’t be left out! See what new things Apple has for you!

Lay back, grab a bag of popcorn ‘cause we’re letting you know what Apple brought out from the oven!

Apple’s event announced a few days ago, displayed new products, upgrades and a new operating system that will make our lives easier.
One of the most important novelties is the new digital paying system – the so-called Apple Pay – that will roll-out as soon as Monday.
Apple Pay will join the market next to iOS 8.1, an important update granting access to iCloud Photo Library. The iCloud drive will let you store photos from all your devices online and comes to replace the Photo Stream. Yosemite, the new Apple OS announced a few days ago, is a beautiful, translucent working environment, easy to work on. It also gives you the possibility to move your files and work on from an Apple device to another without any painless effort.

During yesterday’s event other treats were revealed:

• the iPad Air 2: a powerful, very thin device with an A8x chip that makes it way faster than the first edition of iPad Air (with about 40%); this tablet also comes with a rear camera of 8 megapixels! The product is also equipped with the TouchID system, but this helps you only to make purchases online, not in the real life; or, at least, not yet.
• iPad Mini 3 is not that spectacular as iPad Air 2. Like the iPad Air 2, it displays a Touch ID sensor. Its rear camera is of only 5 megapixels, which is a bit disappointing, if we consider the 8 mpx camera that comes with the new iPad Air 2!
  Both tablet computers come in 3 shades: silver, space gray and gold.
• we now have the chance to test the new Mac with Retina display. This spectacular device has a 27-inch screen with a resolution of 14.7 million pixels – 7 times more pixels than any modern, high-definition set has. It’s also extremely thin with its 5 mm body.
• Mini Mac got updated too. It’s a lot faster and has a new Fusion drive that comes both with the new Mac and Mac mini. This technology provides a speedy and spacious alternative to other data storage systems, as you can read here.

What do you think about these new Apple arrivals? If they sound good to you, stay focus! Pretty soon, we might bring into store nice & shiny accessories to match these new devices.

How to Block Unwanted Calls on iOS and Android

Telemarketers, bill collectors or a crazy ex harassing you: what do these have in common? We are not keen on receiving calls from any of them, anytime. If you’re an Android or iOS user there are a few simple ways to block unwanted calls on your device…

Living in the age of smartphones means that any person in the world can reach you through your mobile whenever and wherever you are, an idea that isn’t too thrilling for anyone who has annoying relatives or friends who have the habit of calling at the worst times just to gossip or ask for a favor. You can keep dodging unwanted calls by silencing the ringtone, but why do that when there’s a more elegant method to block unwanted calls if you’re an iOS or Android user?

Before iOS 7, anyone using an iPhone had either to pay their carrier extra fees to block selected numbers from reaching them, or to use a jailbreak tweak, but iOS 7 finally introduced some neat call blocking features that include SMS and FaceTime blocking.

• If the number you want to block is in your contact list you just have to go to Settings->Phone->Blocked->Add New, and then select the contact from the list. When a blocked contact tries to reach you their call will go straight to voicemail without making a sound, and if they facetime you it won’t work either.
• If the number you wish to block recently called you but is not in your contact list, touch the blue (i)symbol that appears near the number, and scroll down to the ‘Block this Caller’ option and select it.
• If you want to block a number that hasn’t called you and also isn’t in your contacts you must save it in your phone book first.

The methods above are for blocking calls, if you want to block incoming SMS messages from someone you must open the Messages app, open the message thread for that person and then touch the blue ‘Contact’ button in the top right. The you have to tap on the blue (i) and scroll to “Block this Caller’.

On Android there isn’t an universal method to block calls that works all devices as this depends on the phone’s manufacturer. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has built-in call blocking features that are easy to find: if you touch and hold your finger on a contact from your phone book or on a number that recently called you a small menu will pop up and one of the options that you can select is “Add to reject list”. If you use voicemail the blocked numbers will go straight to voicemail and if you don’t calls are automatically rejected without the phone ringing. The numbers you add to the reject list can be edited from Call Settings->Call Rejection->Auto Reject List.

If you have an Android phone and you can’t find or the manufacturer didn’t provide call blocking settings you can use one of the many Call Blocking apps that you can find in the Play Market. The most popular are Call Control, Mr Number and Call Blocker, and they are all good at screening calls and messages. Mr Number also has a ‘Spam Database’, where you can check other user’s comments about numbers so you can identify spam or bill collectors easily.

Microsoft announces Lumia, soon to be released

Nokia Lumia is obviously history already, although it’s quite a great cellphone, coming with a spectacular batch of accessories to make it even more useful and entertaining as well. But back to the news, the fellas from Microsoft announced the new Microsoft Lumia, a smart phone addressed to the masses, arriving with some promising features.

The release date is said to be this November, on 11.11 we will get a grip of what Microsoft has to say in terms of mobile technology. Until then, we have some appealing “rumor has it” news that unveil a little of what this new mobile piece of technology has to bring to the table.

So, the specs of this device are not really addressed to the high-end users but rather to a more friendly and with lack in pretensions public. Microsoft Lumia will be a very high quality device but forget about innovation and last generation specs, because they’re not into that.

Instead, the Microsoft Lumia is coming with a 5” screen, with 1GB RAM, a 5MP  camera and the news are also  announcing a forward-facing camera to this particular model, something Nokia chose to cut from the recent low-end Lumia handsets. Also, we will have 8GB of storage and 3G only connectivity.

Thanks to Chinese regulators, we’ve already got a pretty good idea of what Microsoft’s first Lumia will look like, but now the company is ready to start showing it off. While the handset retains Nokia’s familiar design, it will be the first to sport Microsoft’s logo, which’ll be located beneath the earpiece on the front and in a vertical stripe running down the back.

The upcoming mobile phone will bring a colorful approach on its appearance, coming in nice shades of black, white, gray, blue, orange, blue and green.

Until Microsoft will take over with the new Lumia, we will always have the old and steady Nokia Lumia, complete with its set of accessories. With perfectly friendly prices also.

Oops…Apple did it again

With all the fuss, trials and tribulations that appeared shortly after the long awaited launch of iPhone 6, these guys are still in trouble with a trial that is about to begin. This concerns all the data inconsistencies some Apple customers were confronted with, when changing their Apple device into a non-Apple one. Seemingly, the Apple OS bans the message delivery towards the former Apple users that switched to other mobile devices.

It seems that these guys are quite often neglecting some essential technical consequences that may cost them a lot. After the bending issue that turned out to be a great publicity stunt in their very favor, now they’re facing a major lawsuit. Everything started in the land of all possibilities, with the US district judge Lucy Koh, who gave the go-ahead for plaintiff Adrienne Moore to “alleged that Apple’s intentional acts have caused an actual breach or disruption of the contractual relationship.

The claims are that Apple failed to reveal iOS 5 could interrupt the delivery of messages from other iOS users if users switched to a non-Apple device.

While Apple seems to have resolved issues and expanded messaging functionality across its own platform, there are still problems if your want to switch from Apple to non-Apple hardware. The iMessage service is tied not only to your Apple ID but also your phone number and operates over your data connection rather than your carrier’s cellular network. Because of this, if you don’t actively switch off iMessage before heading to another OS like Android or Windows Phone, other iOS users’ handsets still think you’re using the service, and their messages will continue to be delivered over data connections as iMessages, says Wired.

This is serious business because it affects the exact aim of mobile technology, which is to make communication easier, faster and more efficient. Anyways, although the trouble Apple makes either with the new iPhone or their services, they will probably get a new grip of reality and realize that they must make some pretty serious efforts to come with something great to make us forget all the bad things that happened lately.

Above all, it seems that they tried to solve the problem by launching a support page that offered info about how to avoid the issue by de-registering iMessage on your mobile phone before switching to a new phone. They have also been offering a de-registering process using your phone number. Past fixes which had mixed results included deleting and then re-adding iPhone contacts.

What Should You do if Your Apple Gets Picked?

iPhone theft is a major problem that unfortunately has spread to all corners of the world, but the iPhone is such a great gadget that it gives us the possibility to lock it, erase it or locate it in the events of theft or loss.

I hope that you’ll never lose your iPhone or worse, have it stolen by someone, but the truth is that hundreds of phones are stolen daily and the price and value of iPhones makes them especially attractive to thieves despite the protection and security options offered by the devices and despite the fact that these anti-theft feats have led to the capture of the thieves in many situations.

Most people are careless when they are using their iPhones and only a small percent of all iPhone 5owners activate and use its anti-theft feats and apps included in their smartphones which is probably why thieves keep going for them. But the good news is that just like the many owners that get careless so do many thieves; they keep the stolen iPhones turned on or they use them, which makes it easier for us to block them and find them. Here is what you can do to prevent losing your iPhone or in the unfortunate case that it happens to you:

Preventing the theft of your iPhone is a good thing to start with. Be aware of your surroundings and your pockets or purse especially when you’re in a crowded place. Don’t think that if you are holding your phone in your hand you can’t lose it; in many cases the thief grabs the phone straight from the oblivious owner’s hands, sometimes while they are talking on it so you should always pay attention when there are people around you.

If you don’t mind having an unlock code on your phone you should use it – it’s a good first step that you can take to prevent the thief from using your phone, but there are more than a few methods to bypass the iPhone’s lock, so you shouldn’t stop here. You can also install a device finding app, you can find them in the app store and some do a better job than the pre-installed app. Device Locator, GadgetTrak and Phone Trace 4 are some good apps besides Apple’s Find My iPhone app that you can find in the iCloud settings menu (make sure you turn it on if you haven’t already). Also, you should perform backups of your iPhone more often, you’ll feel a little better knowing that at least you still have your messages and photos or files saved somewhere.

If the horrible thing does happen to you and someone else takes possession of your precious iPhone you should go to the nearest computer as soon as you discover the theft and log to iCloud.com with your Apple ID. Then you can click the ‘find my iPhone’ icon and wait until your phone’s location appears on the map. Next you can click on ‘remote lock’ to prevent anyone from using it. If the thief turns the phone off this won’t work so in this case you should call your provider to block the SIM card or wait until he turns it on again – you’ll receive a notification if this happens. Other apps offer more options, for example Phone Trace 4 can give you the new number of the phone if someone changes it or it allows you to send remote tasks to the stolen iPhone.

f you keep important data on your phone you can use apps that encrypt it so no else but you can have access to it. Find my iPhone or any device tracking app will allow you to fully wipe your data from your lost phone but this will also delete the apps that can track it so think about it before you do it. Another good idea would be to change all your passwords after the event so the phone’s user can’t access any of your stored accounts.

Once you find your iPhone you should report it to the police, don’t go and confront the thief yourself, this could be dangerous!

Use Your iPhone as a Mouse or Keyboard!

WiFi Mouse Pro is an iPhone app that can turn any iDevice into a mouse touchpad or virtual keyboard that can control any PC!

Anyone who uses a laptop, Mac, or PC as a media center knows how tiresome it can be to get up and walk to the device each time the pause or rewind buttons need to be pushed. WiFi Mouse Pro is an app that can turn your iPhone into either a wireless keyboard or mouse and even more, it can enhance your media or browsing experience by adding some new features such as text-to speech for all languages and multi-touch support.

Besides the app you must also install a program on your PC or Mac and that’s all you need to connect your iDevice and start using it the app each time you launch it. You can the turn any iPhone or iPad into a mouse trackpad, keyboard, controller or media remote that supports pinch-to zoom, two finger scrolling, left and right clicks and text-to-speech if you don’t feel like writing, on any Windows or Mac OS version.