Hey Boroondara council! What's with running an Instagram competition for children in primary school, when Instagram is not supposed to be used by children under 13? I have even heard that you are asking primary schools in the area to promote this competition with the school's 8 to 12 year olds! And that you are asking kids to make their Instagram accounts Public in order to enter the competition! Even worse! We parents who are trying to keep our children off these social media platforms while they are still at primary school are fighting a losing battle when you promote competitions such as this. It's this sort of thing that we talk about at the 'Parenting in this Digital Age' free morning tea gatherings, which will now feature regularly in the iTandCoffee calendar. Click here to find out when this next gathering is scheduled. Update 27/11/14 ... Apparently, an admin officer in the Youth Services area of the council mistakenly made the requests around the Booroondara community without vetting it with anyone. Unfortunately, the damage is probably already done.
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21/11/2014 1 Comment Dealing with 'glitches' on your iPad and iPhone - especially after upgrade to iOS 8!
20/11/2014 0 Comments When you accidentally delete something from your iPhone or iPad - can you get it back?This week I had a visit from a client, who was desperate to recover some very important Notes that were inadvertently deleted from her iPhone. She had visited the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, but was told that there was not really any way of recovering the information that she had lost. So she came to see me to find out if there was any possibility of retrieving these lost Notes, especially given that she had regularly backed up her iPhone to iTunes on her Macbook as well as backing up to iCloud. The answer is ... maybe! While the iCloud backup is unlikely to be of any help in retrieving the lost Notes, it is possible that the lost data is still available in the iTunes backups that are saved to her Macbook. So what's the difference between these two types of backup. The below is taken from a article that talks about i-Device backups. (Read more here if you are interested.) ... iTunes backups are different than iCloud backups. When you back up via iTunes, you’ll get a complete copy of all the data on your device so you can restore your device to the same exact state later. With iCloud, only “the most important data” on your device will be backed up to your iCloud account. For example, iCloud backups don’t include a complete copy of the music and videos on your device — but iTunes backups will. This allows you to save limited iCloud space and avoid having to upload and download huge amounts of data. What this highlights is just how important it is to, if possible, regularly back up your iPhone and iPad to iTunes on a computer - so that you have a complete backup of your device should you ever need it - rather than just a partial iCloud backup. Where are iTunes Backups stored on your computer iTunes backups are saved away to an hidden area on your Mac or Windows computer. In the case of this client's Mac, we could see all her iTunes backups in the folder ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup You can get to this hidden folder by opening Finder, then choosing Go from the menu bar and clicking on Go to Folder, and typing in the above path. (Refer later for where to find the backup folders on Windows.) In that Backup folder, you will see a list of backup folders, which contains a heap of strangely named files that are actually the contents of the backup. The Date Created for each of the folders in Backup provides you with the backup's date. (If you don't see Date Created in the columns provided, right-click on the column heading area and 'tick' the Date Created option from the list that drops down. This will add the column to your Finder view.) Below is a sample of my own iTunes backup folders. I have clicked on the Date Created heading to sort the list of folders in descending Date Created order, so that the newest is at the top. When we looked at my client's backup folders on her Macbook in the same way, we were able to see that she had a backup from just before and after the date that she thinks she deleted the Notes. So hope was restored. But how can you then find what you need in the iTunes Backup The question is then, how can she view the contents of her backup in a way that allows her to locate her missing Notes - given that there is nothing that would indicate which of the files in the relevant backup folder contains her deleted Notes. Double-clicking on a few files at random shows that these backup files are sometimes photos, sometimes text with gobbledy-gook - but finding a couple of Notes amongst thousands of files would be like finding a needle in a haystack. (If you don't have much in your backup, this solution might be workable for finding a particular file.) The easiest way to extract the information contained in this set of folders is to download a product that allows you to view the contents of the backup. The particular product that I use for cases like this is Aiseesoft Mac Fonelab. This app is not available from the Mac App Store, so must be downloaded from the Aiseesoft website. Below is an image of the Fonelab screen. In this image, the app is in the process of scanning my nominated iTunes backup to identify all the Photos, Contacts, Messages, Notes, etc. Once it has finished this scanning, I will be able to look through what it found. The below images shows the list of the Notes that Fonelab found in my backup - I can view the content of each note and, if I choose, can 'recover' these notes to a specified Output folder. While this product is not cheap (right now, it is US$48.96), it can be a real lifesaver for those times that you lose something really important. Some other options (which I have not tried myself, so cannot provide any recommendation) are: So there is hope for my clients lost Notes, if she wants to invest in a product such as those described above. Location of iTunes Backups on a Windows Computer (Windows Vista, 7 and 8) \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ Related Handy Hints and Articles by iTandCoffeeThe below elated hints and articles have been published previously on the iTandCoffee website. Blog Articles can be viewed by anyone, but Handy Hints can only be viewed by members of The iTandCoffee Club - why not join today to be able to view these great tips and hints any time. iTunes and iCloud
Housekeeping - Data Storage, Backup, Battery, Deleting, Troubleshooting
18/11/2014 0 Comments Another update to iOS 8 has just been released - and hopefully will bring better performance to iPhone 4S and iPad 2iOS 8.1.1 has today been released by Apple, for those out there who, like me, have been waiting on fixes to the many bugs and performance issues that still existed in iOS 8.1. I have seen many clients recently who have upgraded their iPhone 4S or iPad 2 to iOS 8 and have been finding their devices incredibly slow - talking ages to open, close and switch between apps. This update is supposed to address the performance issue with these older devices (as well as other glitches!) You may not see the '1' symbol on the Settings app just yet - but you can still go to Settings -> General -> Software Update, and will find the update there - ready and waiting for download and installation. I will be 'test driving' this new update over the next couple of days. So tune in again later this week to see how this goes. 18/11/2014 0 Comments The second most germ ridden household object might be your mobile phone - but don't try this cleaning method!
Oh dear! A friend of mine this week has managed to wash her beloved iPhone with her clothes as part of a full laundry wash cycle! Needless to say, it was not exactly functional afterwards.
Clean, but dead! But it really opened her eyes to how dependent she is on this small device - something she writes about here in her blog. While I would never recommend the form of cleaning used by my friend, a recent article 'scooped' to the iTandCoffee Scoop.it page highlights that regular cleaning of your mobile phone should be on your 'must do' list. This Apple Support web page describes how to clean your i-Device and its case. Do schools think parents are more tech-savvy than they really are? So many schools are now bringing iPads to the classroom - with parents required to provide their children with the school-mandated iPads in many cases. The introduction of these iPads is occurring in early primary years in some schools. This puts powerful technology - small computers - into the hands of very young children. When a school requires that a child, especially a primary school aged child, have their own iPad, who then is responsible for educating the parents about how they can help ensure their child's safe use of the device? My experience from dealing with many parents of children with school-mandated iPads is that too many schools are neglecting their duty of care in this area. They are not providing essential advice to parents BEFORE the children are given their iPads. While many schools will offer 'CyberSafety' seminars for parents - telling parents about the dangers out there in the online world - very few schools include specific instruction as part of these seminars about how to 'lock down' the child's iPad so that they only use age-appropriate features, apps and content. A case in point: At a local primary school, a parent I know requested parent education be provided by the school about Parental Controls on the iPad, and that this occur before the kids 'took possession' of the devices they would be using this school year. She knew that many other parents, like her, did not really understand these devices and certainly didn't know anything about these features. This parent was told by the school that CyberSafety information sessions would be conducted at the school during the year and that this would address her concerns. Offers of free information sessions from iTandCoffee were rejected on the basis that a renowned international presenter, an expert in CyberSafety, would be coming to the school during the year. A local expert offering a free session BEFORE the devices were given to children did not seem worthy of consideration. Offers of access to free iTandCoffee online videos that parents could watch at home were also rejected by the school. Sadly, the promised school CyberSafety sessions for parents were then not run until October - 10 months after the children started using the devices for school. Even worse, these sessions DID NOT cover the topic of how to set up parental controls on the iPad. They only covered the more general topic of online safety. This particular school is not alone. Only today I visited a parent whose boys go to a private school where personal iPads are required in the primary years. After I showed her how her boys' devices could have been locked down (which would have prevented the problems she was now dealing with), she angrily questioned why the school had not provided her with information about the features that I showed her. Once again, excess spending and inappropriate content downloads had resulted from a lack of controls on a child's iPad. Why is it that schools are so reluctant to cover this area with parents? Is it that those who are responsible for 'rolling out' the iPads think that iPads should be 'easy to understand' and that parents should be able to work out things for themselves? Or is it that schools just don't think they are responsible for what the children do on the iPads when they are not at school - that their responsibility is limited to adequately 'locking down' the iPads while on the school intranet. I know from experience in dealing with too many parents whose children have spent over $1000 in a day, or have been targetted by a predator on KIK messenger, or that are 'Facetiming' friends from their bedroom in the wee hours of the morning, that schools can not assume that parents actually do know ANYTHING about these devices. Some might, but a large number don't. Far too often, young children are ruling the technology roost at home due to the parents lack of understanding of the devices that the children are using. And schools are contributing to this problem by bringing the devices to a younger and younger student population. Come on schools - it's not that hard! A one-hour information session can 'enlighten' parents to an area of the iPad's settings that too many people do not even know exists! But it needs to be done before the kids get their hands on their new iPads, not after! Schools need to help shut the gate before the horse bolts! (For more information about free in-school sessions for parents at schools in the Boroondara area and surrounds, on the topic of 'Parental Controls on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, contact iTandCoffee on 1300 885 420 or enquiry@itandcoffee.com.au.) A friend of mine posted a link to the below article on Facebook yesterday.
While it is a really good article about setting rules around the use of an iPhone by a 12 year old, it misses a fundamental piece of information that would have been really useful to include. It does not mention how to set up parental controls on an iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch - something that I consider essential before any child is given one of these devices. I know I am currently up on my soapbox about this particular topic, but I have seen too many families and their kids impacted by inadequate controls over what the kids can do, buy, see and access on these mini computer devices. If you are not sure how to 'lock down' your child's device to protect them from online predators, from inadvertent (or deliberate) unauthorised spending, and from gaining access to material that is inappropriate for their age, come along to the free iTandCoffee morning tea information session for parents on November 19th. Setting up Parental Controls on your kids' iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch Come along to a free morning tea at iTandCoffee to learn about how to keep your kids safe on their i-Devices. For those of you who are the 'default parent' when it comes to the kids online safety, iTandCoffee is hosting a one-hour coffee morning where we will look at how easy it is to set up Parental Controls on your child's iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. When: Wednesday 19th November, 9:30-10:30am Where: 27 Sycamore Street, Camberwell RSVP: By 5pm Tues 18th Nov. Call 1300 885 420 or provide your email address below. I have had an issue with my Calendar on iPhone and iPad ever since I upgraded to iOS 8. I use a booking system called BookFresh, and was previously able to view all my appointments from my BookFresh calendar in my iOS Calendar and on my Mac's calendar. This was achieved by subscribing to the Bookfresh Calendar as one of my iCloud Calendars on my Mac, which meant that the calendar then appeared on every other Mac and iOS device connected to the same iCloud. After upgrade to iOS 8, I have found that my Bookfresh bookings are no longer automatically refreshing to my iPad and iPhone - which is incredibly annoying when I rely so heavily on my iPhone while on the go, to check details of my next appointment! The appointments correctly refresh on my Mac - just not on the iOS devices. The only way I have been able to get my iOS 8 devices to refresh the Bookfresh events in their Calendars is
This takes my back to the days of iOS 5 when the same thing used to happen. It was resolved in iOS 6 and 7, but appears 'broken' again in iOS 8. I haven't been able find anything about this problem on the Apple Website or other online forums. A call to Apple Support looked initially like it solved the problem (uncovering the second option suggested above for getting the calendar to refresh), but only worked at the point I made a change in 'Get Info' and then not again until I changed something in 'Get Info' again. This was something I didn't realise until after the call had been terminated! I will be calling Apple again about this one, but if anyone has a suggested fix for this issue, please leave me a comment. This questions features nearly every week during iTandCoffee classes and appointments. So many people store their passwords in notebooks, on pieces of paper, in their Notes apps and in their Contacts app. Many of these same people do not even have a passcode on their iPad or iPhone, leaving themselves very vulnerable should their device be lost or stolen. Here again is an article about the best Password Keeper / Password Manager apps for the iPad and iPhone. As I have previously mentioned, I use Onesafe and sync my password data via iCloud, so that all my Onesafe data is available on all my Apple mobile devices and computers. |
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