How to Disable the Connect Social Network in Apple Music

July 23, 2015

With the debut of Apple Music, Apple kicked off three new services — the Apple Music streaming service, the Beats 1 and Music Radio service and Connect, a social network for fans to “connect” with their favorite artists. Connect allows fans to follow a musician who can share music, photos and other information with their followers. It’s meant to be an outlet for musicians to interact on a more personal level with those Apple Music users who enjoy their music.

Though many people may find Connect to be a useful tool to stay up-to-date with their favorite bands, there are some users who prefer not to use the social network and would like to remove it completely from the Apple Music interface. Thanks to Apple’s strict Parental controls and its tight controls over social networking services such as Connect, anyone can turn off the music-based feature in just a few minutes following the simple steps listed below.

Open the Settings app.
Go to General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions.
Enter a parental control password — write this password down as you will need it to access the Restrictions menu to make changes in the future.
Scroll through the parental controls until you see “Apple Music Connect.”
Use the toggle to disable “Apple Music Connect.” (Similar to other iOS toggles, a green color indicates the feature is enabled, and gray color confirms it is off.)

Once you turn off Apple Music Connect, you can return to the Music app, which should be “Connect-free.” You should no longer see the Connect tab, which has been replaced by “Playlists.” If the Connect tab still appears, simply force close the music app using this guide and re-open it to display the changes you made. If you want to restore Connect and start using it again, just reverse what you did above by opening Settings > Restrictions and using the parental controls to unblock the Connect social network.

ZTE Blade S6: Interior Excellence, Exterior Incompetence

July 22, 2015

For those who don’t want to break their bank account every time the latest and greatest Apple or Samsung smartphone hits the shelves there’s a vast array of options out there.

In fact, the market for budget smartphones is growing and consumers are starting to reap the rewards as the offerings of more reasonably priced manufacturers becomes ever more sophisticated.

Whilst Chinese smartphone manufacturers have long been criticised as copycat manufacturers they’re starting to emerge as viable options for many.

The phone we review here is made by ZTE- a Chinese manufacturer.

ZTE Blade S6

The first thing you notice about the ZTE is its appearance; it looks uncannily like the iPhone 6. A highly unfortunate design error and yet one which many who like Apple but can’t afford their offerings may value.

Still, there is little originality to the phone’s design. While the exterior is somewhat of a pitfall the same cannot be said for the phone’s interior.

In regard to software the phone truly excels, thanks to the inclusion of the Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system. ZTE have added their own twist to the OS with the overlay of a MiFavor 3.0 skin.

Hardware wise the Blade S6 also affords a seriously decent performance output from a budget phone thanks to the addition of a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 64-bit processor. Further to this an average 2GB of internal RAM and 16GB storage are present within the phone; nothing to write home about but certainly enough for the average user.

The only disappointing part of the hardware comes in the form of the low resolution screen and poor battery life.

Finished with two cameras (front and back) and dual sim capabilities, this is a pretty versatile offering from ZTE.

Had they got the design right, we might be comparing the ZTE to a phone from a higher price category. Still, the Blade S6 represents the growing prestige of Chinese smartphone manufacturers, even if they still slip up with the occasional and glaringly obvious copycat faux-pas.

How to Assign a Photo to a Contact in iOS

Kelly Hodgkins

July 22, 2015

Smartphones are all about customization — choosing wallpapers, ringtones, apps and more to configure your phone to meet your personal needs. One simple, but useful tweak is the ability to add a photo to a contact, making it easy to identify them in your address book. As a bonus, using photos in the Contacts app adds some color and creativity to what can be a sometime dry productivity app. The feature is so popular that Apple has provided not one, but three different ways to assign a photo to a contact. Read on for information about these methods so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.

Use the Photos app to Assign Pictures to Contacts

If you are browsing through your photos and stumble upon a picture you like, you can easily assign it to a contact in just a few steps. Here is how:

Launch the Photos app on your iOS device.
Select the image you want to use for a contact.
Tap the Share button at the bottom left.
Tap “Assign to Contact” in the share sheet.
Tap the contact name to which you are assigning the photo.
Reposition the photo inside the preview circle and select “Choose” when you are pleased with the alignment.

Once the contact photo has been saved, you can get back to browsing through your camera roll until you find another image you want to assign.

Assign Photos to Contacts Using the Contacts App

If you already have a photo in mind, you can go straight to the source by opening the Contacts app and making changes directly to your intended contact.

Open theContacts app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Tap the contact name to which you are assigning the photo.
Select the Edit button in the upper right hand.
Tap “Add Photo” to begin the photo selection process.
Use the menu to either take a new photo for your contact or select “Choose Photo” to open the Camera Roll and pick an image already stored on your device.
Find and then select the photo you want to use for the contact.
Reposition the photo inside the preview circle and select “Choose” when you are pleased with the alignment.
Tap Done on the contact card page to save your contact with the updated photo information.

Use Facebook Sync to Auto Assign Photos to Contacts

Lastly, you can take advantage of Facebook’s sync feature to automatically assign photos to your contacts.

Open the Settings app on your iOS device.
Scroll and then select Facebook.
Use the toggle to enable contact syncing.

Once enabled, Facebook will scan your iOS address book and match contacts names with your Facebook friends. If there is a match, then Facebook with use the person’s profile picture and import it into iOS.

Apple Music vs Spotify

Henry McIntosh

July 21, 2015

There are so many music streaming services out there now it’s becoming increasingly difficult to know which one to choose.

Jay-Z’s Tidal was heralded by music royalty as a new and better Spotify but their enthusiasm hasn’t been mirrored by the consumer. In fact, while many complain that Spotify fails to properly reimburse the artist, Tidal has been criticised for helping rich artists get richer.

Still, these criticisms haven’t prevented users from leaving Spotify and for $10 less a month it seems that they prefer the services value for money.

Now, however, Apple have thrown their hat into the ring with Apple Music, but how does it compare to the current market leader Spotify?

If you wish to try before you buy, Apple Music offer a 3-month free trial and Spotify offer a 30-day free trial.

Pricing

Pricing seems to be an important point to most consumers, if it wasn’t everyone would be on Tidal right?

Well, there’s nothing to differentiate Apple Music and Spotify in terms of pricing with both of their premium plans starting at $10 a pop.

Both the services also offer a free version but this comes at a cost. On Spotify the free version means that your music will occasionally be interrupted by ads, whilst Apple’s free offering comes in the form of limited features.

Where the two also differentiate is with their ‘family plans.’ Spotify allows you to add other family users to a premium account for $5 per user extra each month, whilst Apple Music will allow you to add up to 6 users for $14.99 per month.

Obviously, if you only want to add two users or less Spotify’s plan is preferable but any more than this and Apple Music represents better value for money.

Database

Both the services offer relatively similar music databases. Spotify’s is estimated to be slightly larger at over 30 million tracks whilst Apple’s is approximately 30 million large too.

Interfaces

Ease of use is important to most users and whilst we can’t find a winner in regard to pricing and database, the interface may be the deciding factor.

Both are simple and great looking but that is where the similarities end. Apple Music, like all Apple products, looks great. But it has come in for criticism as being too concerned with aesthetics and not enough with user experience.

This problem, is highlighted when you begin to use the platform. You will find that navigation is difficult at first and certain tasks have to be completed in their own section of the app rather than being available at all times. The most annoying of which is when you’re listening to a song and wish to add it to a playlist, rather than being able to add it on-page you will have to navigate to the playlists section; which is annoying.

Spotify isn’t as stunning as Apple Music, but it makes up for appearance thanks to its ease of use. Spotify is incredibly easy to use and if you’re looking for a hassle free experience then I wouldn’t look beyond it.

In the end, it is a question of whether you want your streaming service to look good or be easy to use, I personally prefer the latter.

How to Assign a Custom Ringtone to a Contact in iOS or Android

Kelly Hodgkins

July 21, 2015

Want to tell who is calling without having to run and pick up your phone in order to look at the caller ID information? If you have an iPhone or Android device, then you are in luck as both platforms allow you to assign a custom ringtone to any contact in your address book. Once customized, you only have to listen to the ring to decide if you need to answer that call or wait for it to go to voicemail.

Add a Custom Ringtone on iOS

Adding a custom ringtone on iOS is simple — just open the Contacts app, edit the contact details and select a new ringtone as described in the steps below.

Open the Contacts app on your iPhone.
Select the Contact that you want to edit.
Tap on the Edit button in the upper right hand corner.
Scroll until you see the option for “Ringtone”
Tap “Default” to display a list of available ringtones
Tap to select a new ringtone and select “Done” when you are finished choosing a ringtone.
Tap “Done” to save the changes you’ve made to the contact’s details.

Once these changes have been applied, you will be able to know when a specific contact is calling merly by listening to the ringtone. Though I only use a custom ringtone with my five most frequent contacts, you can use a custom ringtone with as many contacts as you would like.

Add a Custom Ringtone on Android

Similar to iOS, adding a custom ringtone requires you to open the Contacts app and edit the contact details in order to assign a new ringtone.

From the home screen or Apps menu, select “Contacts” to open your address book.
Tap to select the contact you want to which you want to assign a custom ringtone.
Select the edit icon to open the editor interface.
Scroll if necessary and tap “Ringtone.”
Select a ringtone from the list.
Tap “Ok” to confirm the selection.
Tap “Save” to save the changes.

The next time this contact calls you, you will hear the new ringtone you selected instead of the default tone used for all other incoming calls.

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