The 7 Best Ways To Extend Your iPhone’s Battery Life

Apple Bytes: 

One basic fact of life with an iPhone hasn’t changed in the phone’s 14-year history: If you’re on your phone all day, every day, you run the risk of seeing its power gauge run all the way down to zero.

Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to extend the battery life of your iPhone. Here’s a look at a handful of the most helpful for phones running iOS 14 and above.

Tweak the Background App Refresh setting

Most of the apps on your phone connect to some sort of server somewhere to send and receive data.

But do you really need that crossword app to check for new puzzles every hour? Each of those little pings from each of your apps can affect battery life. The Background App Refresh setting lets you choose which apps can connect when you’re not actively using them and which can’t.

To access it, head into the Settings menu, then General, then Background App Refresh.

Now, from here, you can just go nuclear and turn refreshing off across the board or pick and choose which apps you’d like to allow to refresh in the background. You’ll probably want to let certain apps keep doing their thing (email, for example) but the less refreshing that’s being done, the better your battery life will be.

Disable some push notifications

Another way to save battery life is to turn off push notifications for certain apps. To do that, head into Settings and then choose Notifications.

From here, behold all the apps that want to send you "helpful" messages. Aside from actual messages from the likes of your email, video-chat, and texting apps, you can safely turn a lot of these off. And again, the more you disable, the more your battery life could improve.

Get used to Dark Mode

Dark Mode may be one of the biggest battery savers on this list because every time your phone has to display something white or otherwise light in color, it uses energy to brighten the screen.

With Dark Mode, much of the user interface for iOS itself and compatible apps will leverage power-sipping dark tones that don’t require as much energy from the screen. It can take a bit of getting used to at first, then again, plenty of folks prefer it on purely aesthetic grounds.

You can enable Dark Mode under Settings, then Display & Brightness. Simply choose it to use it all the time, or you can toggle the “automatic” setting to have Dark Mode come on at a certain time each day.

Location, location, location

Another big battery buster: location services. To see which apps know where you are, go to Settings, then Privacy, and tap Location Services.

From here, apps that want to use your location will have three settings: Never, While Using, and Always. Grant “Always” permission sparingly. It’s a battery hog, and few apps need to know where you are at all times.

For apps that would benefit from your location, say a shopping app that wants to show you where the nearest brick-and-mortar store is located, consider the “While Using” setting. That way, the app will only check your location while you’re actively using it.

Minimize the Auto-Lock time

The longer your screen is turned off, the less battery it’s using, so consider forcing your screen to turn off as quickly as possible.

To do that, tweak the Auto-Lock setting by heading into Settings, then Display & Brightness, then Auto-Lock, and setting it to 30 seconds if it’s not already there.

It’s also helpful to get into the habit of pressing the big button on the right side of your phone as soon as you’re done using it. That’ll put your phone to sleep right away instead of waiting for the Auto-Lock feature to kick in.

Enable Low Power Mode

If you’re really in a pickle, head into Settings, then Battery, and turn on Low Power Mode.

This is no way to live on a day-to-day basis, as it saves juice by cutting back on data connections and interface niceties. But it works well in a pinch if your battery’s on its last legs and you’re waiting on an important call or text message.

Review your Battery life suggestions

Once you’ve got all your battery-saving improvements set up, make sure to check for suggestions in the Settings > Battery menu.

If there’s a suggestion for you, it’ll show up underneath the Low Power Mode toggle. If there’s nothing there, then you have no suggestions. Good for you! You can, however, scroll down a bit to see how your battery is being affected on an app-by-app basis. If you notice any apps eating up an inordinate amount of power, take a closer look to see if they’re requesting your location too often or sending out too many notifications. If you’re not using any of them, you might go ahead and uninstall them.

You can also tap into the Battery Health menu here, which will show you the state of your battery’s maximum capacity relative to when you first got your phone. If you’ve had your phone a while, it’s possible that—despite some or all of these battery-saving techniques, your battery is just wearing out. In that case, it might be time for a battery replacement from Apple or a third-party repair shop.

Credit: fastcompany.com

Meetings To Resume

The Oak Run Computer Club (Computer Technology Club, Inc.) will hold a general meeting on June 16, 2021, at 9:00AM in the Orchid Club. Mask wearing is optional. ORHA has requested that no more than 6 people be at any table.

The speaker, Susan Richardson, will explain the operation of ClearCaptions phones and will tell how those who are hard of hearing can obtain a phone at no cost to them.

Since it is too late to submit this information for publication in the Oak Run Newsletter, I ask that you relay the particulars to Oak Run people who may not know about the meeting.

I hope to see you there.

Alan Marcus, President
Computer Technology Club, Inc.

New Google Play Store Rules Aim to Weed Out Spammy Apps

In an attempt to boost confidence in its Play Store offerings, Google has announced new rules designed to weed out misleading, low-quality apps from its marketplace.

In an update published 4-29-21, the company announced new metadata policies that will regulate how developers present their apps in the Play Store. The rules, meant to drive more “meaningful downloads” for consumers, will take effect later this year.

Google has often struggled with marketplace quality control. It’s not just the rashes of malicious, trojanized apps that routinely crop up. The more widespread problem is the issue of spammy apps, lesser quality “clone” apps that are designed to look like legitimate ones, or apps that have low functionality or just don’t do what they say they will do. In the past, the company has gone to certain lengths to de-incentivize and eliminate sketchy practices used to drive downloads and illegitimately boost reputation, though the problem still obviously persists.

The newly announced rules seek to provide some dos and don’ts when it comes to previewing assets—asking developers to provide “a clear and precise app title and brand name” that is limited to 30 characters long. At the same time, there is a list of assets that will no longer be tolerated. Caps lock? Bad. Emojis: also bad. Emoticons and special characters will also be banned or discouraged. Lots of exclamation points? It goes without saying that, as the unfortunate “Crane: travel PLANNER!!” below shows, that sort of enthusiasm will not be tolerated.

The rules also prohibit “keywords that imply store performance, promotion in the icon, title and developer name,” meaning that apps shouldn’t advertise deals or use cheap methods to incentivize downloads.

Basically, Google is telling developers to leave the used car dealership, sign-spinning antics at home and be more straightforward with how they present their products. This tactic will likely boost downloads for apps that can rely on their pre-established brand reputation, while hopefully shutting out apps that don’t actually have anything to offer consumers.

“App title, icon and developer name that do not meet the upcoming policies will not be allowed on Google Play. You can expect more details about this policy change, including enforcement start dates, later this year,” the update states. 

While the company doesn’t give a firm deadline for when these rules will take effect, it says that the company will “start using these guidelines to inform our recommendations starting in the second half of 2021.”

Credit: gizmodo.com

Executive Board Minutes

Computer Technology Club, Inc. – Executive Board Minutes
May 14, 2021

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

How To Mirror Your iPhone Screen On A Computer

Apple Bytes: 

Want to view your iPhone screen on a laptop or desktop, but you don't have an Apple TV? You can with a 3rd-party app or through a built-in secret feature on the Mac.

You can record your iPhone screen with the built-in Screen Recording tool, but what if you want to view the device’s screen on your computer? The iPhone’s screen-mirroring ability allows you to cast your phone's screen to your laptop or desktop PC over Wi-Fi. It’s an easy process, as long as you know where to look.

How to Mirror Your iPhone Screen to a Windows PC

While Windows users can mirror an Android phone with the Your Phone app, iPhone users need to download a third-party tool to cast their phone. There are plenty of tools that offer this functionality, but for simple free casting, try LonelyScreen. It's a barebones app that does one thing: tricks your iPhone into thinking your PC is an Apple TV.

Install and launch LonelyScreen, then click the "LonelyScreen" title along the bottom to change the name of your AirPlay server. From your iPhone, open the Control Center and tap the Screen Mirroring button. If you don’t see such a button, you may need to add it from the iPhone's Settings.

Once you tap the Screen Mirroring button, select your LonelyScreen laptop from the list, and your iPhone screen will appear on your PC right away. If you don't see it, check out LonelyScreen's troubleshooting page, it can occasionally be a bit finicky. From there, you can maximize the window for a closer look, and click the arrow in the bottom-right to bring up a Record button that lets you capture video clips.

Note that LonelyScreen says it's a free trial, but you can click the nag screen away at any time—it doesn't seem to be a limited trial in our testing (though the nag screen may re-appear occasionally as you use it). If you need more features, a paid app like Reflector ($17.99) or AirServer ($19.99) may offer more configuration options for your video recording and screen mirroring. But for quick and dirty mirroring, LonelyScreen should work well for most people.

How to Mirror Your iPhone Screen to a MacBook

Mac users have it easy because this functionality is built right into your MacBook in the form of the QuickTime video player. There's only one catch: you have to plug your iPhone in over USB.

Grab your Lightning cable and plug your iPhone into your Mac. If you haven't done this in a while, you may need to tap the "Trust" prompt on your iPhone before continuing. Once connected, open Launchpad and select QuickTime Player. Once the app is launched, head to File > New Movie Recording. You should see a new window appear.

Click the down arrow next to the Record button in the movie window, and your iPhone should appear in the drop-down under Camera. If it doesn't appear, try disconnecting your iPhone and reconnecting, it should show up afterward. Select your phone from the list, and its screen will appear on your Mac. You can use this for demonstration purposes, or click the Record button to capture a video of your iPhone screen.

If you want to mirror your iPhone wirelessly, you can use the instructions above for Windows PCs. LonelyScreen, Reflector, and AirServer are available for macOS too.

Credit: pcmag.com

Here's Why 'Telegram' Is Becoming A Tool For Hackers

Threat actors are corrupting Telegram.

What you need to know

• A new report claims hackers are turning to Telegram.
 
• Causes cited include the service's ease of use and allowance of relative anonymity.
 
• Telegram gives hackers access to infected computers directly from their phones.

New research by Check Point Software Technologies' malware analyst Omer Hofman indicates that Telegram is a growing hub for threat actor activity (via TechRadar). Thanks to Whatsapp alienating some users with its new policies and settings, Telegram's become more relevant than ever. But where there is popularity, there is danger.

The cybercriminals in question are using Telegram as a command and control (C&C) system for the dispersal of their digital weapons. One in particular that Check Point Research (CPR) has seen an uptick in lately is the remote access trojan "ToxicEye," which CPR has noticed crop up in over 130 attacks just within a three-month window.

ToxicEye is spread through a .exe file contained inside phishing emails. It's an old tactic, but it's working well enough to get ToxicEye inside people's computers. Once the trojan is in there, it can steal data, delete processes, hijack a machine's microphone and camera, and encrypt files to hold them for ransom.

This malware is monitored by attackers via Telegram, where it communicates with them via their C&C server. This server is also where it dumps its stolen data. Some specific reasons for Telegram's popularity amongst bad guys include:

• Telegram is a legitimate, easy-to-use and stable service that isn't blocked by enterprise anti-virus engines, nor by network management tools
 
• Attackers can remain anonymous as the registration process requires only a mobile number
 
• The unique communications features of Telegram mean attackers can easily exfiltrate data from victims' PCs, or transfer new malicious files to infected machines

The full research report makes for interesting reading and is worth checking out if you want a more in-depth look at how innocuous apps can be co-opted for villainy.

Credit: windowscentral.com