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How to Secure Your iOS Messages and Photos from Prying Eyes

By
Kelly Hodgkins
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We’ve all been there — someone asks you about something on your phone and you hand it over with great hesitation, hoping and praying they don’t stumble into your photos or private messages. In this post, we will show you how you can protect your personal data and still share your phone securely with friends, family and even that random person on the bus.

Use Guided Access

Guided Access is a feature of iOS that allows you to lock a device to a particular app so it will only run that app. To exit the app and explore the rest of the phone, the user needs a password. The system is designed for parents who let their young children use their iOS device, but we can use it here to protect our device when it is in the hands of others. Guided Access is the easiest method to implement as it is built right into iOS and does not require any third-party tools. You simply enable the feature in the settings, open the desired app and then activate the lock by triple clicking the home button. The user then is free to explore that app and nowhere else on your system.

  • Open the Settings app.
  • Tap General -> Accessibility.
  • Scroll until you see Guided Access.
  • Tap Guided Access and enable the Guided Access toggle. (Green is enabled, while grey is disabled).

Once enabled, you can activate Guided Access whenever you need it and disable it when you are done. It allows you to hand your phone over to someone else safe in the knowledge that they cannot stray outside the intended app without your authorization.

Third Party Apps

If Guided Access does not suit your needs, you also can use third party apps to secure your messages or photos. Snapchat is one of the most popular apps for keeping your text messages “relatively” safe. Send a message to a friend and once it is viewed, it will be disappear from the recipient’s device. Of course, the recipient can take a screen capture or use a variety of tools to capture the chats before they disappear, so you still want to watch what you send. Other similar secure messaging apps include Wickr and Confide.

On the photos side, there are apps likePrivate Photo Vault or Best Secret Folder, both of which allow you to send photos to the app and hide them behind a password. Best Secret is even more stealthy by appearing with the name “My Utilities” on the home screen. People browsing through your phone will pass right by the icon, thinking it contains some boring utility tool and not your most secret photos.

How to Setup Family Sharing on Your Apple Products

By
Henry McIntosh
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After comparing Apple Music’s $14 family plan to that of Spotify’s last week, we’ve kept up the family theme with this article.

Since iOS 8 it’s been possible to share your App Store and iTunes as well as sharing your calendar information and photo libraries.  Setting it all up doesn’t take too much and it’s an incredibly useful feature for those who want share across devices.

When Apple call it Family Sharing they mean just that. You can share across up to six devices; which makes the price of that hefty music collection seem comparatively cheap.

To setup Family Sharing you will need iOS 8 as aforementioned. Then, if you’re using an iPhone, iPad or iPod, simply:

Visit Settings -> Access iCloud -> Select Set Up Family Sharing

Apple then guide you through the setting up process and you’ll be given an introduction into your ‘role’ as organiser.

Essentially, this just refers to the fact that whilst everyone in your group of six can share content, each of you retains control over your individual accounts.

Fortunately, a child’s account can’t be registered alongside a credit card so fiascos akin to children making large in-app purchases won’t be a problem here.

If you’re trying to set it up on a Mac, you’ll need OS X Yosemite. Once you’ve got this set up follow these steps:

Visit System Preferences -> Select iCloud -> Select the Set Up Family Sharing option -> Now simply follow the onscreen instructions to complete set up

Now it’s time to set up your sharing group. It’s extremely easy to set this process up:

Visit Settings -> Select iCloud -> Select Family -> Select Add Family Member -> Then type in said Family Member’s email address to complete the process.

On a Mac the process is relatively similar:

Visit Settings -> Select iCloud -> Select Manage Family -> Click ‘+’ -> Add the specific family member using their email address.

And there you have it, now you can share all your purchases with your family!

Sync All Your Passwords with Google

By
Henry McIntosh
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There’s plenty of software out there that affords users the opportunity to safe their passwords in one secure place.

After one such, innovative, piece of software was recently hacked (LastPass). Many are probably sceptical about putting all their eggs in one basket.

But if you’re a forgetful person, who is forever enabling the Forgotten Your Password? Button, then it may be worth considering using somewhere such as Google to sync all your passwords to.

If you’re sat there thinking that you don’t need to because you have one password for every site, then that’s not good. Not good at all.

Hackers can make one billion attempts a second whilst trying to figure out your password, which means that they can crack a 7 character password within a day. So definitely use different passwords for each important website.

With a different password for each you are liable to forget or get mixed up between them from time to time and that’s where syncing all your passwords using one piece of software comes in very handy.

You can do so with Google’s Smart Lock. Smart Lock syncs your saved passwords between Chrome and Android so you can access your favourite sites quickly and efficiently whether you’re on a mobile or desktop device.

So if you’ve saved a password on Chrome, Google will automatically log you in to the site on Android; making life a whole lot easier.

All you have to do, is choose the Save Password option, which will automatically pop-up when you enable Smart Lock, for the sites you wish to save the password for.

To enable Smart Lock on an Android device, simply:

Visit the Settings App -> Select Smart Lock Passwords -> Turn on both the Smart Lock For Passwords And Connected Account and Auto Sign-In options

If you’re using a desktop simply Google Smart Lock and the first hit will take you to Google’s website where you can turn on the Smart Lock feature!

How to Remove Favorites and Recent Contacts from the iOS Task Switcher

By
Kelly Hodgkins
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Apple made it easier than ever to access your highly used contacts by providing a list of your favorite and most recently used contacts. These two lists are conveniently available in the iOS app switcher — just double tap the home button on your iPhone or iPad and you will see them at the top of your open applications. This positioning makes it quick and easy to send a message or make a phone call to these preferred address book entries.

Though convenient, not everyone wants these contacts visible every time they need to switch between their open applications. What can you do if you want to remove these items from the switcher page? Thankfully in iOS 8, Apple added the option to turn off this feature (or turn it on if it has been disabled) and made it available in the default settings app.

  • Open the Settings app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
  • Scroll if necessary and select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” in the settings app.
  • Find the Contacts section in the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” where you will see “Show In App Switcher.”
  • Use the toggle to turn on or off the options for your Favorites and Recent contact list.

In this setting, you can choose to enable to disable either the Favorites, the Recent Contacts or both as needed. Personally, I do not use this feature at all and prefer my iOS task switcher to contain only applications.

3 Ways to Enhance Your LG G4 Experience

By
Henry McIntosh
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If you’re an LG G4 user I’m not surprised. The phone boasts a strong spec list and a pretty unique and stylish design.

Still, it’s not all perfect and it’s been highlighted that, for a flagship phone, the battery life, build quality and camera launcher speed have all been criticised by various commentators.

That said, it’s still a decent phone but whilst LG will work to fix the problems attributed to the G4 you can do some DIY tricks to enhance the phone too.

  • Help Save Battery

Battery has been a common theme on QOTD in the past couple of weeks. From cases which can charge the iPhone 6 on the go to power banks, we explored the best ways to save an iPhone 6’s battery in a previous article.

Now it’s the G4’s turn. Despite the criticisms attributed to the phone’s battery life, it has a removable battery which means you can alternate, but if this isn’t always the most convenient of solutions.

Instead, enact the phone’s Battery Power Savings mode by visiting the General tab.

Whilst battery saver will make the phone’s display dimmer and the processor slower, if you need to save battery these aren’t exactly your highest priorities.

  • Say No to Smart Bulletin

Often manufacturers try to impose their own customisation onto an Android interface- just like ZTE did with the S6 Blade after layering the MiFavor 3.0 Skin over Lollipop 5.0.

More often than not it’s not the most welcome addition, just as LG’s incorporation of their Smart Bulletin isn’t exactly what you bought the phone for.

Smart Bulletin is essentially just a reference to LG’s in-built apps; which I doubt the majority of G4 users would miss/use.

Luckily, it’s easy to get rid of, simply follow these steps:

Apply a pinch gesture to the G4’s screen (this opens the Home Screen Layout Editor) -> Select the Smart Bulletin page and drag it to the Remove Icon.

  • Knock Knock

Having the power button on the back of the G4 was both inspired and somewhat clumsy. Inspired for the way it allows the user to manipulate the phone without shifting their hand, clumsy because you wouldn’t put the phone down screen first…

As with many manufacturers who adopt Android’s operating system, LG have devised their own security measure: the Knock Code.

The Knock Code affords the user the opportunity to create a security password based on a series of taps to be plugged into a 2 x 2 grid.

3-8 Taps are required to make a successful password, but this negates the problems a user might have because of the power buttons placement.

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