Year: 2016

How to stop your iPhone from counting your steps and tracking fitness activity

Sébastien Page ∙ May 18, 2016

Newer iPhones come with a chip called a motion coprocessor which gathers data from the accelerometers, gyroscopes and compasses of the device to precisely measure motion and fitness data such as body motion, step count, stairs climbed, and more. Most people, including yours truly, do appreciate the data collected as it's particularly helpful if you want to use your iPhone as a step counter and pedometer, for instance. Others are creeped out by this feature.

If you belong to the latter group of people, then I will show you a quick and easy way to stop your iPhone from tracking your steps and other fitness activity.

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Manually checking for Java updates for your Mac or PC

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 19, 2018

Java, just like Adobe Flash, is often a major security flaw waiting to happen for both Mac and PC owners.

Although Apple takes security very seriously and just about forces Mac users with Java to check for Java updates automatically, it's still never a bad idea to check on your own from time to time.

Since we recently showed you how to check for Flash updates manually, it only made sense to follow up with a similar guide for Java, which is also a commonly-used web plugin.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to see if you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer or not.

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“OK Hound, what’s this song?”

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 17, 2016

SoundHound, a Santa Clara, California headquartered audio recognition and cognition company, today pushed an interesting update to its free and paid App Store apps, which now include a brand new, pretty powerful voice-activated music assistant feature.

Responding to the 'OK Hound' keyword, the new search and assistant mode translates your spoken commands into appropriate actions, letting you identify songs, discover new music, add tracks to your Apple Music playlist and more, hands-free.

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Google’s mobile app gains keyboard shortcuts, busiest hours in search results & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 17, 2016

Google's native search app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad today received a pretty significant update on the App Store, bringing the app to version 15.0.

People who use an external keyboard with their iPad can now use time-saving shortcuts within the app to search faster and navigate the app more easily.

Other improvements in this release of the Google app include busiest hours in search results and dynamic font sizing enhancements.

The Google app is available free on the App Store.

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Will iPhone 7 camera support laser auto-focus?

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 17, 2016

Recently leaked images of a purported iPhone 7 backplate have since puzzled technology watchers, who scratch their heads over an additional hole that sits between the rear iSight camera and the LED flash. iPhones already have one hole on the back for a microphone that improves Siri reception and suppresses background noise during phone calls.

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Apple just loves China these days

Sébastien Page ∙ May 17, 2016

Apple is having a hard time in China these days. The economy of Apple’s largest market after the US is slowing down, which led the company to sell not as many iPhones it would have hoped in the last quarter. Just as worrisome, Apple is also facing some pushback from the government, which recently shut down the iBooks and iTunes Movie Stores in the country. What’s Apple to do about it?

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Apple hires two wireless charging engineers from controversial startup uBeam

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 25, 2016

Jonathan Bolus and Andrew Joyce, engineers who worked on wireless charging and ultrasonic technologies for the startup uBeam, are Apple's most recent hires. The Cupertino firm has been bolstering its wireless charging team over the past two years.

News that Apple is staffing up on such experts came amid swirling rumors of wireless charging coming to the next iPhone in 2017.

As The Verge writes, uBeam's technology, even though it works over a short distance, is marred with various technological hurdles and law of physics that experts warn will prove insurmountable and prevent commercialization.

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Tip: this secret Safari shortcut quickly loads your last search results

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 17, 2016

SnapBack, a long-standing and very easily overlooked Safari for Mac feature, can save you a ton of clicks if you search a lot, and most of us do. With SnapBack, you can go right back to the last full search results page, even after traveling multiple pages in from your search results.

Part of the reason most users aren't familiar with SnapBack has to do with Apple's decision to remove the little orange SnapBack icon from Safari's address bar and bury the feature  in the menus.

Here's that secret SnapBack shortcut that everyone should start using right now.

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How to watch YouTube in VR mode on iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 12, 2019

Google Cardboard may be the simplest, most affordable way to experience virtual reality content on a smartphone, but up until recently Google's mobile YouTube app only supported Cardboard on Android.

Beginning with YouTube for iOS version 11.18, iPhone owners can watch YouTube in virtual reality mode on their device.

Here's how you can experience YouTube in VR mode on your iPhone.

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