iTandCoffee ran another two 'Keeping Kids Safe on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch' sessions at local primary schools this week, at St Rochs in Glen Iris and at Ashburton Primary.

A question asked at one of these session was about whether there is an app that allows kids to hide apps that they don't want parents to see.  One of the parents had heard about an app that looks like a calculator, but that  actually hides things the child doesn't want parents to see.

Apps that can hide photos and videos

There are apps available in the App Store that do allow for the hiding of photos and videos that the device owner doesn't want others to see.

Here is an article about such apps:

• Vault Apps - Apps that can look & function like a Calculator

​
Method for hiding Apps

However, these apps do not allow for hiding of other apps - and there is no such app available in the App Store.  (On Android, it is possible to get an app that locks other apps - but this is not possible on Apple devices.)

Instead, anyone wanting to 'hide' apps on an Apple i-Device can use 'app groups'.  

By getting apps into the 'wiggle' mode (holding your finger on an app until it wiggles), one app can be dragged on top of another app to create an app group.

Apps within that group can then be 'hidden' on second and third screens of that app group, so that the App does not appear as a little icon in the group that is on the Home Screen.

Need further information on this?

For those who need to understand this area better - just how one would achieve this 'hiding' in groups, we have recorded a short tutorial and made it available to iTandCoffee Club members, and added it to our library of iPad and iPhone Handy Hints.

Not yet a member of our iTandCoffee Club?  Find out more here » 

A client who visited iTandCoffee last week was concerned that her Mac may have 'caught a virus'. 

She had been browsing flights, going between web pages, when a nasty message popped up in her Safari session, saying that she had a virus and that she had limited time (a count-down clock was shown) to contact a provided phone number to resolve the issue - otherwise her files would be wiped.

In this case, the pop-up that she saw in Safari was a scam, designed to make her think she had a problem when she didn't.

We have covered the topic of fake Safari 'virus', 'malware' and 'ransomware' messages in previous articles:

• What do you do if your Safari session is 'locked up' by a nasty screen that won't go away?
• ​Macs can catch viruses too!
• New Malware/Adware detection and removal product for Mac     

While it is rare for a Mac to catch a virus, it is not so hard to pick up 'adware' and 'malware' - especially if you have teenagers who visits torrenting and gaming sites using your Mac.  Such adware and malware  can slow down your computer dramatically, and cause unexpected behaviour.

​If you want to protect your Mac from real threats, there are some excellent free products available.

Here is a very recent article that provides details of some recommended products.

• 8 best antivirus options to protect your Mac against new malware threats                                                                

If you have one of the newer iPhones - the iPhone 6S or 7 (including the Plus versions), then you have a great feature that makes editing text so much easier.

You can use your iPhone's keyboard as a trackpad, to move the cursor position more easily than the using the usual 'insertion point' method (touching the screen until you see the 'magnifying glass' and then moving your finger over text).

Watch a demonstration of this handy feature in this week's Handy Hint for iPad and iPhone users.

Members of The iTandCoffee Club can view this tip any time.  Not yet a member?  Find out more about the iTandCoffee Club here » 

If you have an iPhone 6S, 6S Plus or 7 or 7 Plus, you may find that your phone sometimes shows something like the below screens - where the top half of the screen appears at the bottom.

This may leave you wondering what you did to cause your screen to change in this way.

The feature you have activated is called Reachability.

It is designed to allow you to use your iPhone one-handed, and to access parts of the screen you can't otherwise access when using it one-handed. 

Reachability is activated by double-tapping on the Home Button.  It is deactivated by double-tapping the Home Button again.

If you are never going to use this feature, you can turn if off - to avoid it happening when you don't mean it to.

Just go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility, and turn off the Reachability setting (which can be found in the 'Interaction' set of options).

Many Mac users that we see at iTandCoffee have a Dock that is full of apps that they don't use.  

The Dock is supposed to just show your 'favourite' apps - those that you will be using on a regular basis.

It is easy to customise your Dock to include the apps that you want to see, and exclude those that you don't.  

​Excluded Apps are not removed from your Dock.  They are still accessible from your Launchpad (or from the Applications folder in Finder). 

Here's a quick video showing how easy it is to put new apps in your Mac Dock, and how to take out any that you don't want to keep there.

iTandCoffee has a great set of user guides that will help you to get to know, and to get more from your Mac.  They are available as PDF downloads, or in hardcopy.  Find out more about these guides here »

Also available on the iTandCoffee website are videos of out 'Getting to know your Mac' classes and the 'Photos on the Mac' classes - for those who want to learn more about their Mac, but can't get to us in Glen Iris (or prefer to learn from home).  Find out more about these videos here »

In the last couple of days, iTandCoffee has received two queries from clients who are frustrated by the huge amount of SPAM that they are suddenly receiving to their Bigpond email accounts - up to 60 per day.

​One client mentioned that she had tried 'unsubscribing' from these emails, to no avail.

Unfortunately, if you ‘unsubscribe’ from any such emails, it only serves to escalate the Junk.  Only ever ‘unsubscribe’ from emails that you know are from legitimate businesses.

(Here is a previous article on this topic: Why you should think twice before unsubscribing from Junk emails.)

For anyone interested, here is an article about dealing with SPAM, on the ACMA website (Australian Communications and Media Authority): Dealing with Spam

How can you stop all that Bigpond SPAM?

SPAM is very difficult to stop.  You may find that you get a flood of SPAM for a while, and then it seems to stop - especially if you just ignore it.

If you find that the SPAM is too much to deal with, you do have the option to set up some ‘rules’ that automatically send these emails to your Junk mailbox, before they ever get to your computer or iPad/iPhone (or any other device).

If some of the emails are from the same sender, you can also 'block' that sender.

These methods of dealing with SPAm can usually be set up in your computers email app (eg. Outlook, Mac Mail), so that any mail that 'hits' your computer is checked and filtered before it goes to your Inbox.  

​Unfortunately, if your computer is not turned on, this does not stop the SPAM from getting to your mobile device first.

It is better to set up any 'rules' and blocks' in the Webmail version of any mail account.

For your Bigpond mail, rules and 'blocks' can be set up by logging in to your account's ‘Webmail’ at email.telstra.com.  

Here are some instructions that Bigpond Support provides in a Telstra CrowdSupport post: 

Unfortunately, Telstra's mail accounts are quite limited in the features that they provide when compared with other mail accounts like Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud.

The option I have preferred is to forward all my Bigpond mail to an alternative mail account (in my case, my iCloud email account - but I could have used my Gmail or Outlook account), and manage it there.  

The other benefit of having done this a few years ago is that there is now very little mail that actually goes to my Bigpond account, which removes my reliance on having a Telstra email - in case I ever want to change my internet and mobile phone provider.

Forwarding your Telstra mail can be easily set up from your account's Webmail.

If you would like to learn more about using your web browser to manage your Bigpond mail, including how to forward your Bigpond mail to another email account, here is the applicable Telstra web page.

If you need help with blocking all that SPAM/Junk email, iTandCoffee can assist.  

​Appointments can be booked online at itandcoffee.com.au/appointments, or by calling 1300 885 420.

If you have been having trouble with your Mac - perhaps finding it is slow, or getting the 'spinning beachball of death' far too often, it may be that you have problem with your Mac's hard drive.  Or there may be a simpler fix for your problem.

I was asked this week if it is worth downloading a product like 'Clean My Mac' or MacKeeper' to do a cleanup of a mis-behaving Mac.  

My answer is a big NO, that I would not download any such app.  I would instead use some build-in utilities provided by Apple on your Mac, as well as performing some basic checks and tasks.

A checklist for improving your Mac's performance

Before you go looking for other potential causes of problems with your Mac, go through the list below. (iTandCoffee Club members can get the detailed instructions for how to do each of the below in the Handy Hint:  A checklist for fixing a slow or misbehaving Mac.)

• Clean up your Desktop - having lots of files on your Desktop can definitely slow down your Mac.
• Restart your Mac, especially if you haven't done this for a while.
• Make sure you don't have too many apps running.  Close those that you are not using.
• Check for apps that are ALWAYS opening on startup.  These might not be necessary and could be consuming memory and processing capacity.
• Check if your Mac is too full.  Just clearing up some space on your Mac can make a huge difference.​  If your Mac is nearly full, this can be the cause of the slow performance.
• If you have Safari (or another web browser) open, close any tabs/pages that you are not using.
• Check what apps and processes are consuming all your memory and CPU, and check for (and terminate) any 'not responding' processes.
• Check for and remove any malware and adware that has been inadvertently installed on your Mac - this can really slow it down.

As mentioned above, all of the above tips are discussed in a Handy Hint for iTandCoffee Club members.  This tip gives a short, video tutorial on how to carry out each of these checks.

If you are not yet a member of The iTandCoffee Club, you can find out more about The Club here ».  Club membership gives you access to a huge library of great tips like this, as well as free sessions, discounts, great online content and more.  

We even have a great competition running - join the club before December 2017, and you go into the draw to win an iPad*.

What of the none of the above helps?
​
I should say here that if you haven't done a backup lately, then it is probably time to do one NOW, to avoid losing your precious files, especially your photos, should you be unable to 'recover' from the problems that are occurring on your Mac.

If none of the above suggestions seem to resolve your Mac issues, it's time to look at whether there are problems with your Mac's hard drive, RAM, and maybe hardware.

In fact, it is worth checking your hard drive's health on a regular basis.  In writing this article and recording the Handy Hint to demonstrate how to check your hard drive, I actually found that my own Mac had an issue that needed to be fixed!  Thank goodness I checked!

Checking for problems with your Mac's hard drive is quite easy, using a utility that is provided on every Mac.

iTandCoffee Club members can learn about how to find and use this utility in the below members-only tip.

What to do if a problem is found and you are told to use 'Recovery' mode to attempt a repair

When you perform this check of your Mac hard drive, you may find that a problem is detected that can't be resolved immediately (as happened to me today!), and that you are told to attempt a further repair from a mode called 'Recovery'.

Learn about how to access and use Recovery Mode in the below Handy Hint for iTandCoffee Club members.

Would you like unlimited access to tips and tutorials like those described above?

Join the iTandCoffee Club today to go in the draw to win a new iPad!*

*Conditions apply.  See our iTandCoffee Club page for further information.

Do you have a document in hard-copy format, but not in digital format?  

If you want to edit that document, you might think that the only way is to start from scratch - re-type the document into something like Word or Pages, and then apply your edits.

There is an easier, time-saving way to get your hard-copy document into an editable format.

In this situation, I would now use an app that I have on my iPhone, an app that can scan a hard-copy document and turn it into an editable document, including both the text and the images.

The app is called Office Lens.  

​It is a FREE app that is part of the Microsoft suite of apps that are available for iPad and iPhone.  Your scans can be saved to OneDrive, OneNote (or any other 'cloud'), and can be opened in Word or Powerpoint for editing.

While I would always stick with my favourite app Scannable by Evernote for my day-to-day scanning using my iPhone, I now have Office Lens 'waiting in the wings' for the occasion where a need a hardcopy document turned into a Word document. 

Handy Hints (for Club members)

• Multi-tasking - switching from one app to another, then back.   
• How do I quickly fix a mis-behaving app on my iPad and iPhone, or a device that is mis-behaving in general?
• Send an iTunes gift from your iPhone or iPad
• Stopping Facebook from autoplaying videos - and wasting your mobile data
• Some great tips for using Maps
• How do I stop all my kids games from appearing on my iPad and iPhone?
• Have you discovered this great feature of the TripAdvisor App?
• Stopping Facebook from autoplaying videos - and wasting your mobile data
• Turning your favourite web page into an 'app' on your Home Screen​​ ​​

Blog Articles

• A great app for tracking data usage on your iPad and iPhone
• Here's an app that allows you to save YouTube videos to your iPhone!
• Library Books On Your iPad?
• A couple of apps I love (an alternative Calendar app and a Photo Transfer app)
• Great news about Microsoft Office for iPad and iPhone
• Is it possible to sort notes in Evernote in alphabetical order?
• Some recent App additions to my iPad and iPhone 
• Recommendation on a good personal finance app
• Have you discovered 'app extensions'?  Here are some really great extensions for the Photos app.
• What about some iPad board games for Christmas?
• What to do when your iPhone is getting someone else's Instagram notifications
• Apparently, my gadgets are keeping my middle-aged brain young!
• Scan business cards into your iPhone or iPad to automatically create Contacts
• How do I get Pages, Keynote and Numbers for free on my new iPad or iPhone?
• How can I print several photos on a single page from my iPad or iPhone
• Getting ready for the school year - a great little app for those ID photos
• A really handy app for reporting a problem in your neighbourhood
• How your iPad and iPhone can help keep you organised
• A really useful iPhone and iPad app that fills a big gap on these devices

If you, like me, use Evernote to store all sorts of information that would otherwise end up in piles of paper someone (kitchen bench, fridge, desk in study, filing cabinet), it is important to ensure that this information is secure.

As mentioned in earlier iTandCoffee blog articles, the best way to ensure the security of anything that you store online (your email accounts, Dropbox, Onedrive, iCloud, Google Drive, etc) is to set up something called two-step-verification (or two-factor authentication).

Here is an earlier article on this topic: How to stay safer online - adding an extra layer of protection.

Evernote is no exception.  You should seriously consider setting up this two-step-verirication on your Evernote account.

• Here is how you set up this extra level of protection for your Evernote account » 

But how do you set up this extra protection for Evernote from an iPad or iPhone?

The above article describes how this extra security can be set up using a web browser on a computer.  This assumes you have access to a computer!

What is not clear is how to do the same on an iPad or iPhone (or other mobile device) if you don't have access to a computer.  

If you go to the Evernote website using Safari on your iPad or iPhone, there doesn't seem to be a 'login' option.  You are only given the option to 'Sign Up' or 'Get the App'.

Even if you choose the 'Sign Up' option, which provides an option to 'Sign In', you get a message saying that 'Evernote Web is not supported for iPhone Browsers' - preventing you from getting to the Security settings for your Evernote account.

I had to contact Evernote to find out how to resolve this one, and here is the answer.

Just follow the below link, which gives a page that DOES allow you to sign in to your Evernote account from an iPhone or iPad.

• https://www.evernote.com/secure/SecuritySettings.action​

That definitely should not have been so difficult!

Have you been told by a helpful family member or friend that it is ESSENTIAL that you regularly 'close' your apps on your iPad or iPhone, to avoid draining your battery or over-using your internet data?

Every week, I see clients who, while they may know only a limited amount about their iPad or iPhone, will show me this key 'trick' that their kids or grandkids have shown them.

They show me how the kids have told them to double-press the Home button, then 'swiping up' any 'open' apps to close them - and that they MUST do this regularly.

Well, here's one you can tell those kids and grandkids!  

​It is NOT necessary to do this.

While it is definitely necessary to keep the number of 'open' apps under control on a computer, iPads and iPhones (and other mobile devices) are quite different in how they manage your Apps.

When an app is not in use, it goes into a 'suspended' state, and is not consuming data or battery.

Here is an article that featured online recently, about this very topic.

• You don't need to close apps on your iPhone to save battery (Business Insider)

Instead, the kids and grandkids should be telling you to check that other more important settings, to ensure that you don't unexpected consume battery and data.

Find out what settings you CAN adjust to conserve data and battery in these past iTandCoffee articles.  You will see, this topic features regularly in this blog!

• The myth about closing your iPad and iPhone apps regularly ..
• That regular article about how to improve your iPhone battery life!
• A change I made on my iPhone that has made a massive difference to my battery life             
• Apps that drain the life out of your iPhone and iPad battery ...             
• Yet another tip for how to improve your battery life      
• View your battery usage by App     

While assisting a client to set up Parental Controls on her 12yo child's new iPhone this week, discussion turned to the topic of the 'Ask to Buy' setting  in the Family setup of iCloud.  

This setting allows a parent to remotely authorise (or not) a request from a child who is a member of their iCloud Family, to purchase/download content (even free apps).

In this particular client's case, her child was very keen to get onto the social media platforms that her friends were already on.  

This mum was considering allowing her child on Instagram (as a Private account of course), so we installed it and set up the app so that it is a Private account.  

She was happy that she had control over what other social media Apps her child could download, through the Ask to Buy setting.

But there is a catch to this setting that meant her child could have downloaded Apps or other content without having to ask for permission.  

All parents need to be aware of this 'back door'.

How your child can bypass 'Ask to Buy'

If another member of your iCloud Family has already purchased/downloaded an app, any member of the family (even a child who normally has to Ask to Buy) can also download that same app - without the usual parent authorisation.

This means that, if you as parent have already downloaded Facebook, Instagram or any other app, your children can download the same apps without your permission.  If your older teenager uses Snapchat, the younger members of the family could also download that app without your permission.

How to prevent downloads of apps purchased by others in family

You can prevent your kids from downloading apps purchased by others in the family by 'hiding' those apps in the Purchased area of the App Store.  The person who purchased/downloaded the app must do this 'hiding'.

If you are a club member, you will find further instructions on how 'hide' apps here.

• Hiding purchased apps in your App Store purchases - so that kids can't bypass 'Ask to Buy'

Preventing kids from downloading/viewing iBooks purchased/downloaded by others in family

Annoyingly, it is not possible to do the same sort of 'hiding' of iBooks just using your iPad or iPhone.  

This means that, if you have a heap of trashy romantic novels in your own iBooks library, the kids can see these books in the 'Purchased' area of iBooks. They can even download them without you being 'asked to buy'.

The only way to 'hide' iBooks that you don't want others to see is using the iBooks app on a Mac, or iTunes on Windows.   

See the above handy hint (for iTandCoffee Club members) for details of how to do this.

Not yet a member of our iTandCoffee Club?

The iTandCoffee Club is a paid subscription service that unlocks access to all sorts of handy hints, videos, guides, special offers, free sessions and more.    

Find out more about The iTandCoffee Club here »