I haven't had much time recently to have a close look at the new features of MacOS Sierra on my Mac, but one in particular really stood out to me when I was organising my photos.  

It is a feature of the Photos app that allows you to search for 'things' in your photos.  And the best thing is that is works in Photos on the iPhone and iPad too (in iOS 10).

I wanted to put together an Album of photos, one of photos of our cat and the other of our dog.  

I found that I can now type dog into the search field to find all photos in my library that have a dog in them.  Similarly, typing cat gives me all photos that have cats in them.

I found photos that I had so many forgotten photos existed in amongst my 30,000 photos!

I can look for animal, tree, water, house and all sorts of other 'things'.  

Very handy!

Do you want to learn more about Photos on your iPad, iPhone or Mac?

For anyone who is interested in finding out more about the Photos app on the iPad, iPhone or Mac, we have some great classes coming up in November at iTandCoffee.  Details of these classes can be found by selecting the below links.

• Taking, Viewing and Managing Photos  on your iPad and iPhone     
• Photos on your Mac
• Make your own Digital Photo Book - using either a computer OR an iPad    

Videos of these classes can be viewed on the iTandCoffee Website

For those who have already attended any of the above classes, a video of the class is be available on this website - to help you revise and refresh all the things you learned at the class/es.  

If you are an iTandCoffee Club member, you can gain access to these videos FOR FREE - just email videos@itandcoffee.com.au to request your access. 

Those of you who not iTandCoffee Club members can also gain access to any of the class videos that are available on the iTandCoffee website.  Find out how here››

Find out more about The iTandCoffee Club here››

During the past week, Apple has released another 'fix' update for iOS 10.

Not much information is provided about the content of this update, apart from to say that it fixes some cellular issues with iPhone 7's.    Here is Apple's 'update' page.

For those of you who are already on iOS 10, it is OK to go ahead and download and install this update as soon as you like.

For those who have not yet upgraded to iOS 10, it is now very much up to you whether you 'jump in' now and upgrade.  The 'coast is pretty clear', as there an not really major problems with the release.

You might, however, find yourself a bit confused by some of the changes, especially when it comes to some 'navigation' changes.  The most significant of these is the change to the 'Slide to unlock', which has caused a lot of confusion for many.

To assist with this, iTandCoffee now has a new iOS 10 guide available for purchase from the iTandCoffee shop - a guide that will help you to 're-orientate' yourself after upgrade to iOS 10.  

It is the iOS 10 edition of the guide 'Introduction to the iPad and iPhone - A Guided Tour'.

If you are interested in purchasing a hard copy of this guide for $20, contact iTandCoffee on 1300 885 420 or email orders@itandcoffee.com.au.

This guide is also available for download as a PDF for $13.90.  Here is the link to the relevant 'Store' page, if you would prefer to grab this digital version.  It can be saved to your iBooks for reading on the iPad.

In a recent iTandCoffee article, the 'Raise to Wake' feature of iOS 10 was mentioned as a possible culprit for excessive battery drainage.

This feature (and potential problem) were discussed at the iTandCoffee Free Friday session on October 21st, where several people highlighted that they don't actually have that feature on their own iPhone.

Sorry for not having mentioned in the previous article that the 'Raise to Wake' feature is only available on newer iPhones - ie. the iPhone 6S, 6S Plus, 7 and 7 Plus.

​

If it is still not working, it may be necessary to check another setting called Frequent Locations.

Visit Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations and make sure this setting is also On (green). ​

I know you will be asking "How do I add these other effects to my Message?"

Here is a really good article that gives you step by step instructions.

Have fun playing with these new effects.

Have you ever wondered just why you get presented with all that rubbish and advertising on Facebook?  Maybe you have wondered if there is a way to stop certain types of posts from appearing on your timeline.

Here is an article that Macworld published recently that I found really interesting.  

How to find out what Facebook knows about you - Macworld Australia    

​Have a read, and then make any necessary adjustments to the personal information and preferences that Facebook has recorded about you!

                                                           ​

This week, I have found that people have been 'connecting' with me on LinkedIn on the basis of a invitations I supposedly sent them.  Other people in my iCloud address book who are not on LinkedIn have received invitations from me to 'Join LinkedIn and Connect'.

If you are one of the people who go one of these invitations, apologies for that!  I was not aware that I selected any option in LinkedIn that caused this to happen.  

Scary really, as I have had clients come to me with the same problem, so I am very careful when using LinkedIn.  LinkedIn often presents you with suggestions for people to connect with, and the option to proceed or 'skip' the sending of invitations.  I always 'choose skip', but somehow must have chosen some other option (??) that cause the 'mass invite'.

I was aware that LinkedIn had access to my iCloud Address Book - I allowed this connection when I joined LinkedIn many years ago.  But it seems that people who are not in my address book were also invited to connect

To avoid the risk of spamming people again, I have removed this address book access from the LinkedIn account.

Please feel free to delete any invitation you received from me.  

If you are a LinkedIn user, be careful not to get caught out by this too.  I have looked into this problem online, and found that lots of other people have been frustrated by being caught out by the same LinkedIn behaviour.

If you are wondering what Contacts are imported into your LinkedIn account and what 'invitations' you have sent, here are links to the two relevant LinkedIn webpages.

• What invitations you have sent (with or without your knowledge)!
• What contacts are imported to your LinkedIn account.

Here is a quote from Linked In about the use of your Contacts, found on this Quora page.

There has been such a lot of press about the iPhone 7's lack of headphone jack.  Yesterday, was the first day that I put one of the key issues to the test.

We were hosting an event at our home, and I had prepared a playlist using Apple Music that would run for about 5 hours.  

The problem was that I needed to plug my iPhone into our stereo speakers to play this music, so would not be able to charge the phone at the same time.  I was concerned that I should have planned ahead and purchased an adaptor.  

(I could have used Airplay to stream the music over Wi-Fi so that I could charge at the same time, but this can be flakey when the microwave is on!  We had catering happening in the kitchen, so this would have caused the music to cut in and out while zapping things, which is annoying.)

Would my battery die during the 5 hours of music playing?

Something that I have not seen mentioned in the press when talking about the missing headphone jack is that playing music from your iPhone 7 uses so little battery (when that's all your device is doing, of course)!  

All those hours of music playing last night only used a few % of battery.  I was amazed.

Now, I know that the combined charging and earphone port would cause a problem when watching videos using headphones for an extended period.   But that is something I would rarely do on my iPhone.

For now, I am not going to rush out and get that adaptor - I don't think I'll need it.  

​But if I do decide to get one like that shown here from Belkin, it will set me back about $40.  

In the first week after downloading and installing iOS 10, I had a really frustrating experience, where my battery went from 18% to zero in a matter of seconds.

We were away for the weekend, and I had been taking lots of photos.  My battery had been going down faster than usual, so that by about 4pm I got my first 'low battery' warning for the day.  

We were nearly finished our sight-seeing, so I wasn't too worried about this, thinking I would still get in a few more photos.  (Here are some from that day!)

I was taking a photo of a beautiful garden scene when my iPhone 6S Plus just died - one second I had 18%, then next I had nothing. 

I tried turning it back on.  When it came 'alive' again, it showed 30-something percent, then promptly died again, and wouldn't come back on until I charged it.  Very strange.

The next day, we set out for another day of sight-seeing and I found that, once again, my battery was draining very quickly.

It was then that I realised that one of the new features of iOS 10 may have been the problem.

The 'Raise to wake' feature is enabled by default when you upgrade.  This feature means that your screen comes on without any need to press a button - just by raising the phone.

This is normally a great feature.  The problem was that I was walking around with my phone in my hand, and was therefore 'waking it up' at times that I didn't mean to.  This was causing the screen to come on over and over when I wasn't using it.  

Given that they device's display is one of the biggest users of the battery, I figured that the constant turning on of the display might be to blame - so I turned off the 'Raise to wake' in Settings -> Display and Brightness -> Raise to Wake.

This made a HUGE difference, and my battery survived the second day without a problem.

So, if you too are finding your battery is draining faster than usual after upgrading to iOS 10, try turning off this setting. 

Feel free to leave a comment if you too have found battery problems after upgrade to iOS 10.  I would love to hear if turning off this feature help your battery life too.

I have had lots of questions over the past fortnight about whether it is a good idea to update to iOS 10 on the iPad and iPhone, and to MacOS Sierra on the Mac.

While it is still early days for MacOS Sierra, iOS 10 has now been out for nearly 2 months.

Let's deal with iOS 10 first.

Recently, I published an article about a scam that caught out a young client, and resulted in a charge of over $500 on his credit card and some scammers from India gaining access to his Mac computer.

This scam has also impacted THREE iTandCoffee clients during the past fortnight.  

All of these clients contacted iTandCoffee to say that they had received a strange message on their devices while using their web browser.  Two were Mac users, and one was a Windows user.  

This message told them they had a virus and needed to contact a 1800 number.  Here are some images of messages showing variations on the same theme.

In each case, the client's web browser locked up, rendering them unable get rid of the message and go to any other web page.  

In two cases, the clients called the 1800 number and allowed the scammers to get onto their computers.  Fortunately, they realised they were being scammed when they were asked for credit card details.

But the scammers still had access to their computers!

Needless to say, these two clients were very distressed when they called iTandCoffee.  

The first thing we asked them to do was to turn off their internet and shut down the computer.  iTandCoffee was then able to subsequently remove offending software that the scammers installed, and the clients are now back up an running.

PLEASE DON'T GET CAUGHT BY THIS SCAM ON ANY OF YOUR DEVICES.

This type of message can also appear on your iPad or iPhone.

You DO NOT have a virus.  DO NOT call the 1800 number.  

The scammers are trying to 

1. Get you to let them 'remote login' to your Windows or Mac Device so that they can 'prove' you have a virus by showing you something that is not really a virus.  They will be very insistent!  (Note.  They cannot 'remote into' your iPad, so they will probably just try to insist that you have some sort of problem.)
2. Steal information from your computer and see what you type.  If you are on the internet and the software they installed remains on your computer, they will retain this remote access until you remove it.
3. Get you to hand over credit card details so that they can charge you for fixing the non-existent problems on your computer or mobile device.  Rest assured, they will find LOTS of non-existent problems that will be VERY EXPENSIVE to fix!

Here are a couple of past articles that tell you what to do if your web browser does get locked up by one of these scams.

• Help! My iPad's Safari has been locked by 'ransomware'. 
• What to do when Safari is locked up by a nasty screen

Need help?
​
If you are concerned you have been caught out by this, or need help to sort unlock your browser, please contact iTandCoffee to make an appointment.  

We can walk you through what to do over the phone, or in-shop at 34 High Street Glen Iris, Victoria.  If you are in Melbourne, we can do a home visit to help sort you out.  (Please note that charges apply for all appointments.)

There are just so many occasions where I want to save the content of an email to somewhere other than one of my mailboxes on my iPhone or iPad.

For example, when I am arranging a trip, I like to keep all the confirmation emails in my Evernote, so that I can have everything relating to my trip stored in the one Notebook.  This makes finding what I need SO easy.

To date, I have used a 'Premium' (i.e. paid!) feature of Evernote that allows me to 'forward' emails to my Evernote account.  

​While this has worked, in iOS 10 I have discovered a better way - one that does not require a 'Paid' subscription to Evernote, and that allows me to save ANY email as a PDF to Evernote, iCloud Drive, Notes or anywhere else that I choose.

If you are an iTandCoffee Club member you can read more about this really handy tip here ›

Are you a member of the iTandCoffee Club?  

​Why not JOIN TODAY for all sorts of great tips like this and to take advantage of a range of other great content (videos, slideshows, articles), services and discounts for members.  

​As a limited offer for new iTandCoffee Club members, join by 14/10/16 to receive iTandCoffee's 95-page guide "Introduction to the iPad and iPhone - A Guided Tour (iOS 10 Edition)" for FREE.

Members can also book to come along to our monthly 'Free Friday' sessions at iTandCoffee in Glen Iris.  Those members who can't make it to Glen Iris (or if the session is booked out) can watch a video of the session that will be added to The Clubhouse shortly after that session.

Nearly every week I see clients who bemoan the upgrade to Windows 10, and the way it automatically downloads and installs Windows updates at THE MOST INCONVENIENT times.  

I have had appointments with clients where this has happened, and has stopped us doing anything for up to an hour!

For those with a very limited allowance for their internet data, the automatic Windows updates can also be VERY expensive.  

A client I saw recently had a pre-paid 4G 'dongle' that he used for his internet access. The attempted download of the Windows 10 Anniversary update 'sucked up' his remaining prepaid allowance in no time flat, costing him about $30.

When he re-charged, adding just $20 (which gave 500MB more), this credit was used up within minutes.  He brought his PC to iTandCoffee to find out what was causing his credit to disappear.  Investigation showed that the Windows 10 Anniversary update was the culprit.  It was 60% complete - so any further prepaid data credit would have been 'sucked up' again.  To prevent this, the  remainder of the update was completed using iTandCoffee data.

The Windows 10 Anniversary update can, according to the below article, require between 3 and 5 GB to download.  

• Windows 10 updates potentially costing users on data-capped internet plans 

This is a very expensive download for those on pre-paid and limited data plans.

Is there a way to stop these automatic downloads?

If you are using a Wi-Fi connection, there is a way that you can tell your Windows 10 computer that you are on a 'Metered Connection'.  This will stop automatic downloads from occurring.  

Here is an article that tells you how to to this.​​​

If you have a Wi-Fi USB 'dongle' that you plug into your computer, you can instead plug this into a wall power adaptor and connect to the 'dongle' via WiFi, instead of via USB.

Does this all make sense?  If not, and you need any help with adjusting this setting (or other Windows issues), make an appointment with iTandCoffee in Glen Iris (Melbourne) by booking online, calling 1300 885 420 or emailing bookings@itandcoffee.com.au

My brand, spanking, new iPhone 7 Plus arrived just this week and I have now had a few days to play with it.

I must say that I do really like the 'Haptic' Home Button - which replaces the 'real' Home Button of my previous iPhones.  It is so clever how it feels like you are pressing a button, even though your aren't!

And, I am LOVING the speed of the new phone - it is certainly an improvement on previous iPhones. 

Even the battery seems to be lasting longer than my iPhone 6S Plus (after I fixed a problem that is outlined in the article: Battery problems after upgrade to iOS 10 - and how I fixed this).

I was having a problem with one of my 'website monitoring' apps on my new iPhone (it was crashing every time I logged in).  Additionally, my Commbank business banking app was crashing every time I processed a payment.  

​I suspected that the problem was with the Apps themselves (i.e. that they needed to have something updated to handle iOS 10), but I wanted to rule out any other problem on the iPhone.

So, decided I would try to do a 'forced reboot', to see if this made any different to the performance of these apps.

Now that the Home Button on my iPhone 7 Plus is not a 'real' button, the usual method of 'force rebooting' my iPhone does not work!  Instead, this method just activated Siri or put my iPhone to Sleep!

(For those who don't know, the 'usual' method of 'force rebooting' is to hold down the Sleep and Home Buttons at the same time for about 10 seconds, until the Apple symbol appears.  Let go when the Apple appears, and your device will eventually fire up again, and take you to the Lock Screen.  Be patient - it might take a little while sometimes.  In most cases, this fixes whatever problem you were having on your older-than-iPhone-7 iPhone or iPad.)

Because of the change to the Home Button on the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus, a 'forced reboot' requires a different combination of 'hardware' keys.

After a bit of research, I discovered that the combination of buttons that I now need to use to do a Forced Reboot.

To Force Reboot an iPhone 7 / 7 Plus, press and hold the Sleep and Volume Down buttons concurrently for about 10 seconds, until the Apple appears, then let go.

The Volume Down button is the lower of the two volume buttons on the left side of the iPhone.