Category Archives: Apple

Apple goes on record to apologise for the calendar spam – here’s how to stop the spam!

Apple, Tech News, ,

Apple has officially acknowledged and apologised for the calendar spam that is affecting iCloud calendars. This problem has affected my wife and many of my friends.

Apple has stated “We are sorry that some of our users are receiving spam calendar invitations. We are actively working to address this issue by identifying and blocking suspicious senders and spam in the invites being sent.” This came via Rene Ritchie of iMore.com. Tweet below.

If you receive a calendar spam entry, there are two methods needed to remove the problem. First if you decline, accept, or choose maybe on an incoming iCloud invite this lets the hackers know that your iCloud email address is valid.

Firstly, log in to iCloud via a web browser. This means going to http://www.icloud.com. Select the Calendar. the calendar settings. This is the cog bottom left. Go to Preferences, then choose Advanced. Choose to receive all event invitations as email. Emails can be more easily ignored and deleted.

Second, on your iPhone or iPad. Open the calendar app. Tap calendars. Now you can create a new Calendar, name it “Spam”. Tap on the offending spam calendar invite and move it to the “Spam” calendar. Once you have moved all the offending entries, you then delete the Spam Calendar entirely. This method does not tip off the spammers and removes the problem until Apple fixes it.

https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/804081476904042496

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – Day 2 – Battery and More Experiences

Apple, Reviews, Tech News, , ,

MacBook Pro 1

Day 2 with the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. Don’t forget to check out yesterday’s first experiences.

So after a full day, I am still enjoying my MacBook Pro. I have found a few more instances where I am using the Touch Bar too.

So firstly the first full charge and near discharge of battery only produced 8 hours usage. Apple claim 10 hours. I can never see this being reached. To achieve my 8 hours battery life, I had bluetooth, wifi and location services left on. 4 email accounts were active using the mail app. Tweetbot for Mac was streaming in the background. For 60 mins I was streaming a TV show to the Apple TV directly from the MacBook Pro. Other activities including watching some YouTube videos and typing a few bits and pieces, as well as browsing the internet using Safari.

The enhanced colour gamut retina screen is beautiful. Anything and everything you do on it looks great. Listening to any sound is superb via the in built speakers. I have had one instance when the sound wouldn’t play through the inbuilt speakers so I had to soft reset the machine to fix the problem. Bluetooth music audio is truly excellent.

I deliberately subscribed to iTunes Match to ensure my 100gb of music sitting on my old MacBook would be available on any Apple device. This also meant I did not have to worry about transferring data using cables between the old and new devices. Nor would I need a dongle or adapter. I also paid for a higher storage limit with Apple, along with iCloud Photos. With iCloud Drive switched on, all my documents appeared on my new mac. With iCloud Photos and iTunes Match I now have all my music and photos on my new device. To get all my music stored locally as well as the iCloud, I just created a new playlist for all my music and downloaded this playlist, which would make iTunes Match to download every song to the new machine. This was completed overnight.

I have deliberately wanted to try and use all the Apple services and hardware to try and experience the Apple Eco system in full. iCloud seems to work really well, but with more usage and testing I am sure I might found some bugs.

The power and speed of the new MacBook is incredible. Go to the applications page, select all the apps, then do command O. (O is for Open). This will open every app on the MacBook. It will do this really fast.

And now to the Touch Bar. I am not going out of my way to use it all all, but it definitely improves the flow for some tasks. I haven’t found it essential yet, but like having Touch ID, it is a pleasant extra to have available. Scrubbing through YouTube videos using the Touch Bar works really smoothly. Having menu shortcuts on the Touch Bar do bring to life shortcuts that I didn’t know existed.

I haven’t really found any negatives yet. It really is a positive experience, albeit an expensive one. In time as I use it more, I will see whether I believe it represents good value for money. However, the reality is this. If you want a new MacBook Pro, either buy one or don’t. These are your only choices!

The new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – My First Impressions – Speed & Beauty

Apple, Tech News,

MacBook Pro 2

Welcome to my first impressions of my new MacBook Pro 13 inch with the Touch Bar. Below are my first impressions of the new MacBook Pro from Apple.

It is late at night when I typed this post on my new MacBook Pro but I wanted to try and share how things have been plodding along. Plodding is the wrong word as you will read shortly. Whilst typing this post, I tested the bluetooth audio with my Sony MDR-1000x and Beats Wireless Solo 3 headphones. Both sounded excellent and there were no drop outs with the bluetooth.

I wasn’t meant to receive my MacBook Pro order until mid December but fortune happened to be in my favour yesterday. I had to pass by my local Apple Store in Plymouth to try and sort out my wife’s iPhone 6S battery problem and whilst I was waiting to resolve the issue (which was resolved brilliantly by the Apple staff in Plymouth, see update to yesterday’s post) I asked if they had a demo of the new MacBook with Touch Bar available. The answer was no, but stock had just arrived in the store and did I want to buy one now. Well, I said yes, surprise surprise.

I am upgrading my MacBook Pro from 2010 which had 4gb ram, a 512 hard drive and some anaemic processor compared to what’s available in 2016. I have a 13 inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar which is the perfect size for me. It also has 16gb ram, 512 SSD and a 3.3GHz Core i7 processor.

So unboxing the MacBook Pro is a joy. The hardware is stunning in space grey. The MacBook Pro looks stunning. My wife totally agrees with me on this front too. It feels a lot lighter than my old machine and is a smaller profile. Adapters are not an issue for me as I have a few Choetech USB Type C to USB adapters and other Type C cables already. A pair of the Choetech adapters cost £5.99 – Click HERE for More Info. so the issue of adapters is a non starter. The benefit of the more powerful Thunderbolt 3 ports is a bonus in the long run.

The next massive difference is the SPEED. OMFG. This machine flies like a rocket. Lifting the lid, and it starts automatically from a cold boot. A few logins later and less than 5 mins, its setup with my Apple ID, iCloud Photos, Siri, Touch ID, Apple Pay and iTunes Match. Next its time to install Adobe Creative Cloud and Lightroom and Photoshop. To give you some idea in the difference of the speed between my old MacBook Pro and new MacBook Pro, Adobe Lightroom would take the same amount of time to open on my old machine as it took to boil the kettle and make a cup of tea. The new MacBook Pro took just over 6 seconds.

So what else have I noticed? Well the keyboard is totally different to my old keyboard and I was thumping the keys too heavily at first. I now am using less pressure and I am typing really really fast. Took me about one hour to adjust to the new keyboard. The screen makes my photos shine. The new colour gamut which matches the iPhone 7 Plus screen is noticeably better than my old MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro 1

So what about the Touch Bar? Is it gimmick or useful. At first I completed ignored it but as I have gone to do more and more things with the MacBook Pro I have started to use it and it is a smart tool to have. As I type circa 80 words a minute, the word suggestions on the Touch Bar aren’t really useful unless I am trying to type a long word that I am not 100% sure on its spelling. But for other actions it is a quick way to adjust settings, scroll and more. However, it is a feature that I will need to adjust too as time progressed.

For the first time, I have the latest iPhone with the latest MacBook hardware and can fully utilise all the tight integration between the devices. This makes me very happy.

Anyway, these are first impressions. More soon. Any questions, ask away in the comments or find me on all the usual social media channels.

Finally, my thanks to Will and all the lovely staff at Apple Plymouth for their assistance. They are really a friendly bunch and when I unboxed the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, this was the first time any of the staff had seen one first hand. Some it was a wow moment for everyone 🙂

What has happened to the legendary Apple Service? – UPDATED

Apple, Tech News,

UPDATE – So after Apple Telephone support rattled my cage, all got resolved by a quick visit to my local Apple Store in Plymouth. After a few diagnostic tests, Apple decided to replace my wife’s iPhone 6S with a new one, and without any fuss. My thanks to the everyone at Apple Plymouth.

Yesterday I mentioned about Apple’s Battery Replacement Programme for the iPhone 6S.

In a nutshell Apple had determined that a very small number of iPhone 6s devices unexpectedly shut down. This is not a safety issue and only affects devices within a limited serial number range that were manufactured between September and October 2015.

I mentioned that my wife’s 6S had been constantly shutting down unexpectedly. I had thought this was down to a software failure. So I followed the links in the Apple support article to book an appointment at my local Apple Genius bar to get the battery swapped.

There were none available for the next 7 days at my local Apple Store. In fact there were none anywhere except one location which only had one time slot left and this was for a store too far away. So I decided to instigate a call to Apple Support to double check that my wife’s phone was being impacted by the fault as described.

So after holding for 25 mins for a support agent, I was told that the battery diagnostic test that can be run remotely does not confirm if the particular phone has the problem. The suggestion by Apple was for them to post me a box, to place the iPhone into, return back to them, and they will then return the phone once fixed. I told the support agent this solution was not acceptable. There was no way my wife could be without her phone. So the support agent told me to keep checking back each day to see if there are any new Genius appointments.

Why are there no Genius appointments anywhere? There are more Apple stores than ever before too. This NEVER used to be like this. It seems to me Apple was deliberately forcing the postal option.

Well my wife had the best solution. She made the following comments. The phone is just over 12 months old and a lot of money was spent on the iPhone. It Apple can’t fix the phone, they can bloody refund my money in full, and I will then buy one that does work properly.

Sounds fair to me!

Apple offers free battery replacements for iPhone 6S handsets that keep shutting down

Apple, Tech News

Via Apple

“Apple has determined that a very small number of iPhone 6s devices may unexpectedly shut down. This is not a safety issue and only affects devices within a limited serial number range that were manufactured between September and October 2015.

If you have experienced this issue, please visit an Apple Retail Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider and have your device’s serial number checked to confirm eligibility for a battery replacement, free of charge.

Replacement Process –

Choose one of the service options below to have your battery replaced. Your iPhone will be examined prior to any service to verify that it is eligible for this program and in working order.”

This is interesting to note as my wife’s iPhone 6S has this exact problem. The phone just turns off, even though when plugged into the mains, it turns on at around 20-30% charge. Seems she will need a replacement battery now.

My Favourite Recent Photos from the Apple iPhone 7 Plus

Apple, Tech News,

Below are the most recent and favourite photos snapped with my Apple iPhone 7 Plus.

Fury & Tiggy whizz pass granite stone on Dartmoor #iPhone7Plus

Shooting in to the sun with Fury and Tiggy running isn’t the easiest shot to take, but the iPhone did a good job.

Anything for treats - George & Tiggy #dartmoor #iPhone7Plus

Here George and Tiggy are keen to get some dog treats.

Duchy Hotel , Princetown #iPhone7Plus

The Duchy Hotel was host to a Royal Wedding in the 1950’s. Now its part of the High Moorland Visitor Centre in Princetown. This is only half of the building.

Hounds & Hunters #Postbridge #dartmoor

This is a crop of a live photo, snapped through my car windscreen.

Traffic Chaos #Postbridge #dartmoor

Postbridge, Dartmoor. This is the main road through the village. As you can see, not many cars pass along this route.

60 seconds before lights out #dartmoor

I really like the above sunset shot taken on Dartmoor. The sky was as black as anything, ready to deliver a huge storm.

As you can see some lovely photos from the Apple iPhone 7.

Sony MDR-1000x Bluetooth Headphones – 24 Hours Later

Android, Apple, Headphone, Tech News,

sonymdr

In the last 24 hours I have kept the music playing through these headphones for two reasons. One to burn them in and the other to test the battery life of 20 hours.

So far I can say the battery life is matching the claimed 20 hours with noise cancellation switched on. Secondly, I want to burn these headphones in to see what difference it makes to the sound. I will keep music flowing through these for another 7 days before deciding on final thoughts regarding the sound quality. I will then update my thoughts after a full month to see if anything has changed and to see whether any issues have arisen.

As mentioned yesterday, the sound quality from the start has been excellent. This has improved over the 24 hours of burn in. I will cover more of the audio aspects in my full review but needless to say the MDR-1000x are proving to be well balanced across the audio spectrum, but more importantly want me to listen to more of my music and leave me with many wow moments. Toe tapping away at times too!

I tried out the noise cancellation by sitting next to the loud washing machine and dishwasher. The sounds of both of these machines was 98% removed and with music playing through the headphones it was impossible to hear anything but the music. I have also tried these headphones under the bathroom extractor fan and the fan noise is removed. Due to the excellent noise cancellation, I would not recommend wearing these outside in a busy street or when crossing a road.

What I want to see if whether after a full week’s worth of burning these headphones in, whether these are the first pair of headphones that can IMO take the mantra as better or equal to their non wireless counterparts. Stay tuned for more!

More information and the latest pricing on the Sony MDR-1000x CLICK HERE

The new MacBook Pro – All the best apps with Touch Bar support

Apple, Tech News

screenshot-2016-10-27-at-20-59-56

To coincide with the first wave of deliveries of the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, Apple has added a new section in the Mac App Store for apps that support the new Touch Bar.

Apple is highlighting these third-party apps that use the new MacBook Pro Touch Bar and Touch ID power button. This could include integrating application commands, options and functions that were previously in menus, but now are available in a way that is meant to make finding and using the extra functionality easier and with a faster workflow.

The apps highlighted by Apple are –

– Final Cut Pro X
– QuickQuad
– PocketCAS Mathematics Toolkit
– 1Password
– Motion
– Compressor
– dJay Pro
– Day One
– Live Desktop
– Mail Designer Pro 3
– OmniGraffle 7
– Drop – Color Picker
– PicFrame
– Focus – Productivity Timer
– Artistry Photo Pro

Naturally, Apple’s own apps work with the Touch Bar and more third party apps will get updated soon to support the Touch Bar including apps from Adobe eg Adobe Lightroom CC.

Finally, I will be reviewing the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, so if you have any questions that you would like answering for the review, please let me know.

Google Pixel Phone Camera HDR+ Camera Mode on the Apple iPhone 7 – It’s HERE

Apple, apps, Tech News, ,

ProCamera Photo mode Raw unedited

Today it is possible to recreate the Google Pixel Phone Camera HDR+ camera mode on the new Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Here’s how.

First let’s take a quick shot of my local church as shown above. This is actually a RAW photo image, and totally unedited and unprocessed.

But let’s say we now want to achieve the same look that Google’s Pixel camera achieves using the HDR+ mode. Well take a look below at the result.

ProCamera HDR mode - various options

Okay, its in a 16:9 aspect ratio instead of the default 4:3, but if you prefer 4:3 you can switch to this. The problem with Google’s HDR+ mode is sometimes you don’t want such a vivid HDR look. Well fortunately, you have options and can save a multiple of variations on the HDR theme.

ProCamera HDR mode - various options

Perhaps a black and white HDR finish as shown above. Or as shown below as more faded HDR option. In fact there are even more options in the HDR shooting mode.

ProCamera HDR mode - various options

All this camera prowess is done by ProCamera on iOS. It received a big update yesterday to enable the vivid HDR mode for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. With vivid HDR and its low light modes it takes multiple shots and blends them to make a better shot. The lowlight plus mode can merge up to 64 shots in to one photo. This merging of photos replicates what Google is trying to do with its Pixel phone.

In addition, the update to the app improved video capture quality noticeably improved for high frame rates (48 – 120 fps). A new zoom slider has been added with a sleek new design that gives you the option to switch between lenses on the iPhone 7 Plus (Wide/Tele) with a single tap.When shooting RAW photos, you may now save just the RAW file without the additional JPEG file. A new settings option that dims the screen while capturing long exposure photos. It prevents „light pollution“ caused by reflected light from your screen in LowLight Plus camera mode (LUX+).

ProCamera does a lot more too. Below are a list of its features –

– vividHDR – the world’s best HDR on iOS, enables you to take photos with more details in highlights and shadows – now with Scene Analysis for true-to-life colors. No tripod needed, capture brillant images every time, and even snap moving objects in full detail.

– LOWLIGHT PLUS – Capture stunning photos in low light with minimal noise, or use the long exposure feature to make your night shots truly come to life. Up to 64 exposures merged into one shot.

– INCREASED CAMERA CONTROL – The independent Focus and Exposure points create fast and intuitive control in photo and video modes. Or set exposure (EV) swiftly with easy swipe control.

– PRO CONTROL – Set specific values for exposure time, ISO sensitivity and white balance (colour temperature & tint). In Priority Mode, either dial in preferred shutter speed or ISO value, and ProCamera does the rest. Manually focus with easy swipe control.

– PRO EDITING WITH 78 FILTERS & EFFECTS – Editing on a new level: Seamlessly swipe between custom filters and an impressive array of editing tools.

– HD & 4K VIDEO – frame rates range from cinematic 24 fps to 240 fps for stunning slow-mo videos. Record in UHD (4K) resolution (iPhone 6s and above).

– Extras – FULL SCREEN TRIGGER, Broad range of capture formats (4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 1:1, 3:1, Golden Ratio, 5:4) use maximum screen real estate for accurate composition.

– APPLE WATCH – Remotely control ProCamera on your iPhone.

– SHARE – Facebook, Twitter, EyeEm, and Instagram (with SquarePrepare function & support of high-res exports). Upload to DropBox and Vimeo.

– Other – RAW, TIFF, RAPID FIRE MODE, ANTI SHAKE, 3D TILTMETER, SELF TIMER and INTERVALOMETER, FAST STARTUP SPEED, VOLUME TRIGGER, HISTOGRAM, DIGITAL ZOOM, Adobe CREATIVE CLOUD connected, HAPTIC FEEDBACK, distraction free FULLSCREEN MODE, GRAY CARD CALIBRATION, SLOW-MOTION video player, dedicated LIGHTBOX, MANUAL, CODE SCANNER, EXIF/VideoMetaData Viewer, PHOTO COMPASS, and much more.

The app costs £3.99, however in reality you need to spend 2 x £2.49 (one for HDR, the other Low Light) and £0.79 for the San Fran filter pack. The app should just be priced at £9.99.

So as an example, using the low light mode on the church to reduce noise, I got the follow photo below.

ProCamera lowlight mode - less noise

And finally, just to give you an idea what happens when you post process a raw shot, the first photo was edited in Adobe Lightroom for iOS and shown below.

ProCamera Photo mode raw edited

Personally, I do believe the developer is not being totally upfront honest with the cost of the app and it is one of the more expensive options. However, it does do some wonderful tricks with computational photography and it is one of my favourite photography apps.

Useful Links

ProCamera on iTunes
Details on Low Cost Camera Bags & Tripods
More information on the DJI Osmo Mobile 3-Axis Gimbal

Create Studio Quality Photo Collages on iOS with Adobe Photoshop Express

Apple, apps, Tech News,

Ugh

Last night Adobe Photoshop Express on iOS received a huge update. It now features making studio quality collages. These are way ahead of most other apps as the collages using Adobe Photoshop Express are high-quality collages with intelligent layout and style transfer automation choices. The update also features Google photo integration, letting you select and import images from a Google Photos account, edit them in Photoshop Express, and share or export them.

Adobe Photoshop Express Collages helps you create studio-calibre layouts in 5-7 taps.

FEATURES:
• Access images on your mobile device, Creative Cloud, Dropbox, Facebook, and now Google Photos.
• New Adobe-only features like “Intelligent Layout” and “Style Transfer” help you automatically create stunning share-worthy collages in a single tap.
OR
• Pick any photo in the collage, and manually edit it however you like:
– Hold and drag to swap photo position, pinch to zoom in or out, or drag the handles to resize.
– Double tap to pan and zoom.
– Adjust/fix a single image, and apply any look.
– Change border thickness and color.
– Undo and try again
• Easily save and print your collage or even text / email the file.
• 1-tap share with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and WhatsApp.

However, you can do even more by switching to the other free Adobe Photoshop apps:

• Photoshop Mix — Cut out and combine elements from different images, blend layers, and apply looks on your iPad or iPhone — anywhere you are.
• Photoshop Fix — Edit facial features, heal, lighten, liquefy, colour and adjust your images to perfection — and then easily share them across other Creative Cloud desktop and mobile apps.
• Lightroom Mobile – Capture, edit, organise and share professional quality images from your smartphone or tablet.

Source – iTunes