How Many Times Has Your iPhone Battery Been Recharged?

Apple Bytes: 

Apple gives you a lot of information about your battery, but not this snippet of information. Here's how you can find out your iPhone's battery recharge cycles without any third-party apps or software.

Go to Settings > Battery, then into Battery Health and Apple gives you a lot of information about your iPhone's battery.

But there's one number that Apple doesn't give you - how many times your iPhone has been recharged.

Now, this is quite a critical number, since rechargeable batteries have a number of recharge cycles in them before they are considered worn. This is true of all rechargeable batteries, not just the one in your iPhone.

Apple has published information about recharge cycles and how they affect batteries. Here's what they say about the iPhone:

"Your battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles."

Also, there's information HERE, which goes into more detail.

But the bottom line is that you can expect to get 500 recharge cycles out of your battery before it's below 80 percent and considered worn.

Note: A "recharge cycle" is how many times a battery has been discharged, and not how many times it has gone from 100 percent to zero. So, if you start the day with a full battery, and you take it down to 50 percent, recharge it, and then take it to 50 percent before charging it again, that's one cycle. You can go through multiple recharge cycles in a single day, or over many days.

But how do you know how many recharge cycles your battery has had?

Apple doesn't tell you.

In the past many have used a Mac app called coconutBattery to pull this information from an iPhone. However, a recent method (seen via Reddit) allows for a way to get at this information without needing an app. But it's a bit fiddly at one point.

• Go to Settings > Privacy > Analytics & Improvements
• Make sure Share iPhone & Watch Analytics is enabled (see note 1)
• Tap on Analytics Data

• Scroll down to log-aggregated-2021-01-16-xxxxxx.ips (notice the date in the file name along with the numbers, and pick the latest file from the list)
• Now comes the tedious part, you can either copy and paste this into the Notes app (scrolling to do the copy is a pain), or, you can email it to yourself and look at it on a laptop or desktop

In whatever app you've opened the file, search for BatteryCycleCount, and that will give you your recharge cycles.

(Note 1: If Share iPhone & Watch Analytics was not enabled, then you must wait 24 hours after enabling in order to generate the report.)

Credit: ZDNet.com

How To Set Any Browser As Default On Windows 10

You don't need to keep Edge as the default when you prefer another browser.

On Windows 10, after a new clean installation or new device setup, the system configures Microsoft Edge as the default web browser experience. In other words, this means that out-of-the-box, when you click a link, or an application makes a web request, the page will open with Edge regardless of any other app you may have installed.

Although the new version of Microsoft Edge based on the Google's Chromium engine is more compatible, offers better extension support, and more features compared to its predecessor, you may still prefer another browser (such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Opera) to be the system default.

If you use another app to browse the web, and it is not currently the default, Windows 10 includes an option to ditch Edge or any other browser and set the app you want.

To set your preferred browser as the default on Windows 10, use these steps:

• Open Settings
• Click on Apps
• Click on Default apps
• Under the "Choose default apps" section, click the current default browser
• Select the browser you want to make the new default, for example, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.

Once you complete the steps, the previous browser will continue to be available on your device, but when an app needs to open a web page, it will start with the new application you specified.

Although the Settings app makes it a straightforward process, most web browsers provide an option to access the settings page from within the application.

For instance, if you want to set Google Chrome as the new default, on this page (chrome://settings/defaultBrowser), you can click the Make default button to access the Settings app to adjust the experience.

On Mozilla Firefox, you can open this page (about:preferences#general) and click the Make Default button to access the page to change the default browser.

Credit: WindowsCentral.com

Apple Is Ready For AirTags

Apple Bytes: 

There’s no reason to be skeptical about Apple’s plans for AirTags. Any iPhone, iPad or Mac user can see evidence that Apple is about to add support for item trackers to the Find Me application.

All that’s necessary is to go to findmy://items in Safari on an Apple device running the latest operating system. Doing so will open a hidden screen on the Find Me app, and begin a search for items.

The screen says, “Keep Track of Everyday Items.” And, “Add accessories or other items that are compatible with Find My and they will appear here." There’s also a link to an Apple support page that isn’t available yet.

The trick reportedly works with iOS 14.3, iPadOS 14.3 and macOS 11.1.

The hidden Find My page shows the app is looking for keys, backpacks, bikes, suitcases and headphones.

The app doesn’t say so, but numerous rumors indicate the most prominent “item” it’s searching for is AirTags. These have been the subject of leaks going back to 2019, and will apparently be Apple’s rival for Tile item-tracking tags. Attach an AirTag to a keychain or a purse and an iPhone can easily track down the device if it gets misplaced.

They supposedly will use ultra-wideband tech, in which radio signals are broadcast across a broad swath of the frequency spectrum. UWB travels well through walls, and allows distances to be determined with great accuracy. That makes it a better alternative to Bluetooth, which is what item trackers use now.

The new Find My functionality also should work with certain third-party devices. Belkin unveiled its SoundForm Freedom wireless earbuds Monday, 1-11, the first non-Apple product that will work with the Find My Network.

Credit: MacRumors

Microsoft's Edge Browser Finally Brings Tab Syncing To Everyone

Last October, Microsoft rolled out tab syncing across devices for users in its insider Edge Dev and Canary channels. Tab syncing is not a new thing in browser land; Google Chrome and Apple Safari both offer it. Just load up your browser with tabs and then log into another device and open up the same browser with the same tabs. Now that feature is finally available to anyone who uses Edge, and might make it a compelling reason to switch to Microsoft’s browser.

Edge’s version of tab syncing works nearly identically to Chrome: sign in to your profile, turn on sync, and bam, you’re done. You can also browse as a guest and add multiple profiles, which is especially useful if you use different email addresses on the same computer, but don’t want the same tabs, or even bookmarks, to show up on different accounts. Each account also opens in a new browser window, just like Chrome.

The new feature also syncs your browsing history across devices - any device, whether that’s Windows, macOS, iOS or Android. Again, that’s just like Chrome, but for anyone who has been getting more worried about their privacy using Chrome, these two big features justify an easy switch to Edge.

Sure, Edge doesn’t have the added benefit of Chrome Actions, which let you use the address bar like a command prompt so you don’t have to dig through your browser settings to change something. But Edge is faster on both macOS and Windows than Chrome, according to some of the recent tests, and there are plenty of other features in development. 

Microsoft in beta channels has released numerous updates to privacy, productivity, and performance. Some of the stand-out features include: alerts if a user’s password is found in an online leak; putting inactive tabs to sleep to free up system resources; and auto-filling the date of birth field and vertical tabs. These along with all the other updates are scheduled to roll out to the stable version of Edge the week of January 21.

Edge has also been improving on the privacy front. It wasn’t an ideal browser to use before, because it sent an identifier back to Microsoft’s servers. That should no longer be the case.

Credit: gizmodo.com

Executive Board Minutes

Computer Technology Club, Inc. – Executive Board Minutes
January 8, 2021

The Board meeting was cancelled by COVID-19 venue closures.

How To Delete Apps On Your iPhone

Apple Bytes: 

It's all well and good getting excited about the latest iPhone app and downloading it to your device, but when the novelty has worn off, it's not obvious to know how to get rid of it.

Whether you're trying to make space on your iPhone, tidy up your home screen, spend less time on Instagram, or have security concerns, this guide will show you how to delete unwanted iPhone apps, whatever version of the iPhone iOS you are currently on.

How to delete iPhone apps on devices running iOS 13 and older

Deleting iPhone apps on older devices is very straightforward. While on the home screen which contains the app you want to be deleted, press and hold ("long press") on any app until they begin to jiggle. Once they start to move in what Apple calls "jiggle mode," any third-party apps you have downloaded will then have an "X" appear at the top left of the app icon.

Tap the "X" on the app you want gone to start the deletion process, then tap on "Delete" in the pop-up confirmation window that appears.

How to delete an iPhone app on iOS 14 devices

The deletion process changes for anyone with a more up-to-date device running iOS 14. This is because this version of the iPhone operating system introduced the new App Library. This is like a folder that all your apps are stored in.

Within the App Library your apps are sorted into categories automatically. So, your social media apps will all be put into a "Social" subcategory. With iOS 14, when you install new apps, they'll be added to your App Library. You can access your App Library by swiping left from your home screen.

How to delete an iPhone app from your iPhone's home screen

With an iOS 14 device, you can delete apps from your home screen by tapping and holding, or doing a "long press" on the app you would like to delete. This will bring up further options. These options differ for different apps. For example, if you press and hold an email app, you'll see a shortcut to create a new email.

For basic apps, you'll see just two main choices — the option to share the app, and the option to "Remove app." Tap this to remove it from your home screen.

All this process has done however, is to stop the app icon from appearing in your live apps on your iPhone's homescreen. If you want to delete the app entirely from your iPhone, you need to head to your App Library.

How to delete an iPhone app from your App Library

From your home screen, swipe left until you see the App Library.

Tap the search field that appears at the top of your screen and start typing the name of the app you'd like to delete. When the app appears in your search results do a long press on the app's icon. This will generate a pop-up window giving you the option to delete the app. Tap to delete.

You then have one final pop-up window to confirm that you would like to delete the app. Tap one last time to confirm your decision and you're done!

Credit: mashable.com