12 Things To Do When You Get a New iPhone

When you get a new iPhone—especially if it's your first iPhone—there are literally hundreds (maybe even thousands) of things to learn how to do. But you need to start somewhere, and that somewhere ought to be the basics.
Though these tips only scratch the surface of what you can do with an iPhone, they'll start you on your path to becoming an iPhone pro.

The latest iTunes icon. image copyright Apple Inc.

1.  Install iTunes

When it comes to the iPhone, iTunes is much more than just the program that stores and plays your music. It's also the tool that lets you add and remove music, video, photos, apps, and more from your iPhone. And it's where a number of settings related to what goes on your iPhone live. Needless to say, it's pretty crucial to using your iPhone.
Macs come with iTunes pre-installed; if you have Windows, you'll need to download it (luckily it's a free download from Apple). Get instructions on downloading and installing iTunes on Windows.

Creating an iTunes Account.

2.  Create Apple ID

If you want to use the iTunes Store or the App Store—and you must, right? Why would you get an iPhone if you didn't want to take advantage of its hundreds of thousands of amazing apps?—you need an Apple ID (aka an iTunes account). This free account not only lets you buy music, movies, apps, and more at iTunes, it's also the account you use for other useful features like iMessage, iCloud, Find My iPhone, FaceTime, and many other awesome technologies on the iPhone. Having an Apple ID isn't technically a requirement, but it's very essential. Don't skip this one. More »

Lintao Zhang/Getty Images News/Getty Images

3.  Activate New iPhone

Needless to say, the first thing you need to do with your new iPhone is to activate it. You can do everything you need right on the iPhone and start using it in just a few minutes. The basic setup process activates the iPhone and lets you choose fundamental settings for using features like FaceTime, Find My iPhone, iMessage, and more. You can change those settings later, if you want, but start here.

Sync iPhone. image copyright Apple Inc.

4.  Set Up & Sync Your iPhone

Once you've got iTunes and your Apple ID in place, it's time to plug your iPhone into your computer and start loading it with content! Whether that's music from your music library, ebooks, photos, movies, or more, the article linked above can help. It also has tips on how to re-arrange your app icons, create folders, and more.
Once you've synced via USB once, you can change your settings and sync over Wi-Fi from now on.

iCloud logo. image copyright Apple Inc.

5.  Configure iCloud

Using your iPhone gets much easier when you have iCloud—especially if you've got more than one computer or mobile device that has your music, apps, or other data on it. ICloud collects a lot of features together into a single tool, including the ability to back up your data to Apple's servers and re-install it over the Internet with one click or automatically sync data across devices. ICloud also allows you to redownload anything you've bought at the iTunes Store, so even if you lose or delete them, your purchases are never truly gone. And it's free!

6.  Set Up Find My iPhone

This is crucial. Find My iPhone is a feature of iCloud that lets you use the iPhone's built-in GPS to pinpoint its location on a map. You're going to be glad you have this if your iPhone ever goes lost or gets stolen. In that case, you'll be able to locate it down to the part of the street it's on, which can be important information to give to the police if you're trying to recover a stolen phone. But in order to use Find My iPhone when your phone goes missing, you first have to set it up. Do that now and you won't be sorry later.
It's worth knowing, though, that setting up Find My iPhone isn't the same thing as having the Find My iPhone app. You don't necessarily need the app. 

image copyright Apple Inc.

7.  Set Up and Use Touch ID, the iPhone Fingerprint Scanner

Another very important step if you want to keep your iPhone secure. Touch ID is the fingerprint scanner built into the Home button on the iPhone 5S, 6 series, and 6S series (it also makes an appearance on some iPads). While Touch ID was originally only used for unlocking the phone, and making iTunes or App Store purchases, in iOS 8 any app can use it. That means that any app that uses a password or needs to keep data secure can start using it. Not only that, but it's also an important security feature for Apple Pay, Apple's wireless payments system. Touch ID is simple to set up and easy to use—and makes your phone more secure—so you should use it.

image copyright Apple Inc.

8.  Set Up Apple Pay

If you've got an iPhone 6 series or higher, you need to check out Apple Pay. Apple's wireless payment system is super easy to use, gets you through check-out lines faster, and is much more secure than using your normal credit or debit card (Apple Pay never shares your actual card number with merchants, so there's nothing to steal). Not every bank offers it yet, and not every merchant accepts it, but if you can, set it up and give it a shot. Once you've seen how useful it is, you'll look for reasons to use it all the time. 

Pixabay

9.  Set Up Medical ID

With the addition of the Health app in iOS 8, iPhones and other iOS devices are starting to take important roles in our health. One of the easiest, and potentially most helpful, ways you can take advantage of this is by setting up a Medical ID. This tool lets you add information that you'd want first responders to have in case of a medical emergency. This could include medications you take, serious allergies, emergency contacts—anything someone would need to know when giving you medical attention if you weren't able to talk. A Medical ID can be a big help, but you have to set it up before you need it or it won't be able to help you.   

10.  Learn the Built-In Apps

While the apps you get at the App Store are the ones that get the most hype, the iPhone comes with a pretty great selection of built-in apps, too. Before you dive too far into the App Store, learn how to use the built-in apps for web browsing, email, photos, music, calling, and more.

image copyright Apple Inc.

11.  Get New Apps

Once you've spent a little time with the built-in apps, your next stop is the App Store, where you can get all kinds of new programs. Whether you're looking for games or an app to watch Netflix on your iPhone, ideas on what to make for dinner or apps to help you improve your workouts, you'll find them at the App Store—and usually just for a dollar or two, if not for free.

12.  When You're Ready To Go Deeper

At this point, you'll have gotten a pretty solid handle on the basics of using the iPhone. But there's so, so much more to the iPhone than the basics. It holds all kinds of secrets that are fun and useful. The link above will take you to all the iPhone how-to articles on this site, but here are a few highlights you may find useful:

• Set Up and Use iPhone Personal Hotspot
• How to FaceTime on iPhone
• Use Do Not Disturb

iPhone 5C. image copyright Apple Inc.

13.  And If the iPhone Is For a Kid...

If you're a parent, and the new iPhone in your life isn't for you, but instead belongs to one of your kids, you need to read this article. The iPhone gives parents tools to protect their children from adult content, prevent them from running up huge iTunes Store bills, and insulate them from some online dangers. You may also be interested in how you can protect or insure your child's iPhone in case it gets lost or damaged.

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4 Secrets Wireless Hackers Don't Want You to Know

You're using a wireless access point that has encryption so you're safe, right? Wrong! Hackers want you to believe that you are protected, so you will remain vulnerable to their attacks.

Here are 4 things that wireless hackers hope you won't find out, otherwise they might not be able to break into your wireless network and/or computer:

1. WEP encryption is useless for protecting your wireless network. WEP is easily cracked within minutes and only provides users with a false sense of security.
Even a mediocre hacker can defeat Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)-based security in a matter of minutes, making it essentially useless as a protection mechanism. Many people set their wireless routers up years ago and have never bothered to change their wireless encryption from WEP to the newer and stronger WPA2 security.

Updating your router to WPA2 is a fairly simple process. Visit your wireless router manufacturer's website for instructions.

2. Using your wireless router's MAC filter to prevent unauthorized devices from joining your network is ineffective and easily defeated.
Every piece of IP-based hardware, whether it's a computer, game system, printer, etc, has a unique hard-coded MAC address in its network interface. Many routers will allow you to permit or deny network access based on a device's MAC address. The wireless router inspects the MAC address of the network device requesting access and compares it your list of permitted or denied MACs. This sounds like a great security mechanism but the problem is that hackers can "spoof" or forge a fake MAC address that matches an approved one.
All they need to do is use a wireless packet capture program to sniff (eavesdrop) on the wireless traffic and see which MAC addresses are traversing the network. They can then set their MAC address to match one of that is allowed and join the network.

3. Disabling your wireless router's remote administration feature can be a very effective measure to prevent a hacker from taking over your wireless network.
Many wireless routers have a setting that allows you to administer the router via a wireless connection. This means that you can access all of the routers security settings and other features without having to be on a computer that is plugged into the router using an Ethernet cable. While this is convenient for being able to administer the router remotely, it also provides another point of entry for the hacker to get to your security settings and change them to something a little more hacker friendly. Many people never change the factory default admin passwords to their wireless router which makes things even easier for the hacker. I recommend turning the "allow admin via wireless" feature off so only someone with a physical connection to the network can attempt to administer the wireless router settings.

4. If you use public hotspots you are an easy target for man-in-the-middle and session hijacking attacks.
Hackers can use tools like Firesheep and AirJack to perform "man-in-the-middle" attacks where they insert themselves into the wireless conversation between sender and receiver. Once they have successfully inserted themselves into the line of communications, they can harvest your account passwords, read your e-mail, view your IMs, etc. They can even use tools such as SSL Strip to obtain passwords for secure websites that you visit. I recommend using a commercial VPN service provider to protect all of your traffic when you are using wi-fi networks. Costs range from $7 and up per month. A secure VPN provides an additional layer of security that is extremely difficult to defeat. Unless the hacker is extremely determined they will most likely move on and try an easier target.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Android Smartphone

If you are completely new to using Android smartphones, or even if you are only thinking about upgrading your feature phone to something a little more powerful and up-to-date, you probably have several questions about this type of phone rattling around in your head. After years of being the unofficial Android know-it-all to my friends, family and even passing acquaintances, it strikes me that there are certain questions which get asked again and again.

This list is not an exhaustive Q and A on Android phones, but it should certainly answer some of those niggling beginner queries you may have.

1. What is Android?

The big one! The question I have been asked more times than probably any other when it comes to talking about smartphones. Android is a mobile operating system owned by Google, and used by many smartphone manufacturers as the system software on their devices.

The easiest way to understand what this means is by comparing your smartphone to home PC. The PC may be manufactured by Dell or Mesh, but the operating system (Windows), made by Microsoft, is what turns it from a collection of black boxes into a useful tool by linking up what you see on screen to the hardware inside. You can read more about Android here.

2. Which Are the Best Apps?

An almost impossible question to answer, as it completely depends on what you plan to use your smartphone for. The apps which are best for me, are probably not going to be the apps which are best for you. Sure, there may be some apps which everyone seems to use, such as Facebook and Twitter. Generally, the best way to pick apps is by either using your phone for a while and working out if there is anything missing from it that you want to do, and then looking for an app that does it, or by talking to your friends who also use Android.

If most of your friends use WhatsApp Messenger and SnapChat, it makes sense for you to also try them out.

3. Do All Smartphones Have Touchscreens?

Technically, no. However, the vast majority do have a capacitive touchscreen these days. A touchscreen is often considered to be a key feature in what makes a smartphone a smartphone.
BlackBerry, Nokia and several other manufacturers produce phones which would fall in the smartphone class (with advanced features such as email, browser, etc.,) but do not feature a touchscreen, or at least have a physical keyboard as an alternative input method to a capacitive screen.

4. Do I Really Need a Google Account?

You will need to enter details of an existing Google account, or need to create a new account, during the set-up process of almost all Android phones. If you have a Gmail, YouTube or Picasa account, or an account for any of the other popular Google products, you already have the login details you need. Google migrated all of its separate product accounts into a single unified account several years ago. Without a Google account, you will not be able to take full advantage of all the useful apps which are pre-installed on all Android phones, and as it takes just a few minutes to set up an account, it seems silly to make this a problem.

5. Are Widgets Like Apps?

Not really. Although some widgets do seem to have stand-alone functions (such as the clock or alarm widget) they are always connected to a full app or a system setting, letting you view updates or notifications from the app without actually having to open it fully. The stock Android email widget, for example, can be set up to show either the most recent message or the titles of the last five messages. This allows you to quickly see if you have important messages without having to open the email app. Think of widgets as interactive home screen shortcuts.

6. Which is the Best Android Phone?

Again, it is difficult to recommend a specific handset to someone without knowing what they plan to be using it for. If you want something which will play the all your media with ease, go for something with a large screen and good processor like the Galaxy S4 or HTC One. If your main concern is a good camera, opt for one of the Nokia Lumia range or the Galaxy Zoom. As with apps, your best bet is to ask your friends why they love their phones and see if your needs match. 

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Simple Ways to Reduce Mobile Data Usage

Save your data allowance and save money

An ever-increasing amount of apps and services need access to the Internet. If you are not at a location where you can use Wi-Fi, this means connecting to a mobile data network. Mobile data, either as part of a cellular plan or on pay-as-you-go, costs money, so it is sensible to try to reduce the amount of mobile data you use whenever possible. Even if a certain amount of data is included with your plan, there is usually a limit (unlimited data plans are increasingly rare), and if you go beyond it, the charges start to mount up.

There are, however, a few tricks you can use to make sure your data usage is minimised.

1. Restrict Background Data

Several of the main smartphone operating systems, including Android, allow you to restrict background data with the flick of a switch in the Network Settings. When you restrict background data, some apps and phone services will not work unless you have access to a Wi-Fi network.

Your phone will continue to function, however, and you will reduce the amount of data used. A useful option if you are nearing the limit of your data allowance at the end of a month.

2. View the Mobile Version of Websites

When you view a website on your smartphone, every element, from the text to the images, has to be downloaded before it is displayed. This is not a real problem when viewing the website on your home computer, using your broadband connection, but on your phone each element that is downloaded uses up a bit of your data allowance.
Increasingly, websites now provide both a desktop and a mobile version. The mobile version will almost always include far fewer images and be much lighter and faster to open.

Many websites are set up to detect if you are viewing on a mobile device and will display the mobile version automatically. If you think you are viewing a desktop version on your phone, it is worth checking to see if there is a link to switch to a mobile version (usually at the bottom of the main page).

Aside from the difference in layout and content, you can normally tell if a website is running the mobile version by the "m" in the URL (some websites will display "mobile" or "mobileweb" instead). The browser settings of all of the main smartphone OS's will allow you to set your preference to the mobile version. Stick to the mobile version whenever possible and your data usage will be reduced.

3. Don't Clear your Cache

There is an argument for emptying the browser cache (and the cache of other apps) to help keep your Android phone running smoothly. The cache is a component that stores data ready for use. When that data is requested again, by the browser for example, having it in the cache means that it can be provided faster and without requiring it to be fetched from the web server where it was originally held. Emptying the cache will free up internal memory space on the device and help the whole system to run slightly better.
However, if you are trying to reduce data usage, leaving the browser cache intact has obvious benefits. If the browser does not have to fetch images and other components of regularly used websites, it does not have to use so much of your data allowance. Task managers and cleaning utilities often clean the cache, so if you have one installed, add your browser to the exclude list.

4. Use a Text-only Browser

There are several third-party browsers, such as TexyOnly, available for smartphones which will strip out the images from a website and only display the text. By not downloading the images, which are the largest things on any web page, less data is used.

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What is Rooting on Android?

Rooting is the process of gaining privileged access, known as root access, to the Android Operating System infrastructure. Having root access allows the user to bypass some of the limitations software and hardware developers put on their products, install custom icons, themes and widgets which aren't normally available, and even change the way the phone works completely. The terms rooting and root access comes from the fact that the most privileged user on any Linux operating system is called Root, and Android is based on Linux.
A rooted phone is capable of having custom versions of the operating system installed, which are called ROM's. Rooted phones can also have apps installed (available officially from the Google Play Store) which allows you to increase performance by overclocking the processor or create full custom backups of all apps and software.

Rooting will even let you force an upgrade to a newer version of the Android OS, even if the handset is locked to an older version.

Rooting of Android smartphones has been around almost as long as the operating system itself, with the very first phone to be rooted being the first widely available Android handset, the T-Mobile G1 (also known as the HTC Dream). A few industrious users of this new phone discovered that anything typed on the on-screen keyboard was interpreted as a command in the root shell. Google quickly released a patch to fix this exploit, but a signed image of the exploitable firmware was leaked and rooting continued to increase and expand.

Is Rooting Legal?

Up until the last quarter of 2012, smartphones and tablets (and other mobile devices) were exempt from the law which made it illegal to circumvent security controls that are intended to stop piracy and copyright violations.

Things have now changed and rooting is now, thanks to a new ruling by the US Library of Congress, a bit of a legal minefield.

It is legal to root an Android smartphone if the sole purpose is to allow interoperability of lawful applications and software on the device. It is illegal, however, to unlock a phone so that it can be used on another carrier network without the consent of the supplying carrier.

So if you bought your phone from Verizon Wireless, you will need permission from Verizon to unlock it or request that the carrier unlocks it for you. The grey area to this is where the handset is no longer under contract from the carrier.

Benefits of Rooting

• Install Custom ROM's - The main reason many people want to root their phone is so that they can install custom ROM's. A custom ROM is a piece of software which alters the way the phone works at a core level. You can find ROM's which simply change the user interface, which contain different versions of Android or which contain additional settings and functions such as overclocking. Installing Custom ROM's is not the same thing as Rooting your phone. The ability to install ROM's comes from the act of Rooting.
• Taking Control - Another benefit of rooting is the ability to completely control what software and services you have on your phone. Rooting can allow you to remove bloatware apps (apps installed by the phone manufacturer or carrier which cannot normally be removed) that you might never use or ever want. Rooting also gives you access to a much wider range of customisation. You can alter almost any aspect of a theme, without changing the theme itself.
• Create Full Backups - Many custom ROM's include the ability to backup any data or app, no matter what options the software developer decided to include. You will also be able to make a backup of the whole system and save it to an external SD card. This is not only useful for saving important data and settings, but also means that you can try out different ROM's safe in the knowledge that you can restore to your saved version if you don't like the new one.

Drawbacks of Rooting

• Killing Your Phone - If you follow all the proper precautions, killing (or Bricking, due to the fact that it will be as useful as a brick) your phone shouldn't be a major worry. But remember, your Android phone is a complicated piece of electronic equipment, so if you are not totally sure that you understand what you are doing or cannot afford to lose the cost of replacing the phone, then rooting may not be for you.
• Increased Security Risks - Because you may be installing software from unknown sources (or non-official sources), there is always the possibility that something malicious could be included in the software package. By rooting, you could potentially be giving someone Superuser rights to your phone via their app or ROM. Superuser access means that This means that they could access everything and anything on your phone. One way to avoid this is to only use well-known ROM's and research things properly before you install anything.
• Potential Hardware Damage - Once your phone is rooted there are several ways to overclock the CPU to potentially increase performance. Whilst this is usually fine if you stick within the workable limits of the hardware, if you do not set fail-safe limits you run the risk of burning out the processor and killing your lovely smartphone.

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6 Things To Consider Before You Root

Before You Root

6 things to consider before you root your Android phone.

 

Rooting your Android phone needn't be a scary prospect, as long as you prepare properly and make sure you have everything you need before you start. Some of the tips here may seem obvious to some, but it is always better to go over things one last time rather than discover a problem when it is either too late or when fixing things will be much more difficult.

1- Backup Everything

I can't emphasise this enough!

Backup, backup, backup! Save your cherished photos onto your computer, backup your apps and settings, and ensure that everything you want synced to your Google account has been synced. Bricking your phone might be quite hard to actually do, but wiping everything off it certainly isn't. Almost every method of rooting Android phones involves completely wiping the device data (although not always the data on the MicroSD card), so even if you don't make any mistakes, you are going to lose things if you don't prepare.

2- Check the Details

By details I mean knowing the make and model of your phone, and which version of Android it is currently running. It is even a good idea to check the kernel version and build number. Now, when you are searching for a guide to rooting your phone, you can hopefully find one which is specific to your exact device, and reduce the risk of something going wrong. It is no good using a guide to rooting a Nexus 5 if you have a Samsung Galaxy S5, for while the general steps will be similar, the details may well be very different.

3- Read Before You Root

When you have found the guide to rooting your specific phone make and model, and you are happy that it is well written and contains enough detail (important!) make sure that you understand each step.

You don't need to be an expert in custom recoveries, but at least make sure you know what that means. And while reading, download any files that you are told to throughout the guide. It is not unlikely that newer version of files have been released, and the link given may dead end. If this is the case, try to find a newer version of the file (be careful, as this is not as simple as it may sound) or find a more recently written guide, with a better possibility of working links.

4- Check Your Warranty

If you are still sure you want to root your potentially very expensive phone, and that you understand the process, take a moment to check the warranty. It is not definite that rooting a device will invalidate the warranty, but it is very possible that it will. Even if you can return the phone to what you think is exactly as it was before rooting, the manufacturer or carrier might still be able to tell it has been tampered with. If your phone is still within the warranty period, consider waiting to root until that warranty runs out.

5 Understand the Limitations

I eat, breathe and sleep mobiles phones. I work with them all day, and mess around with them in the evening. To me, rooting is a useful thing to do as it lets me try out advanced settings or functions, and it increases my knowledge of smartphone software. Think about why you want to root, before you take the first step. Yes, rooting will give you access to CPU tuner apps, but that doesn't mean you can make your ageing HTC Desire perform like a Galaxy S5. Installing a custom ROM such as CyanogenMod is very cool, and will definitely make the phone a better tool for some, but you will still be using an Android phone, with many of the features being exactly the same as on your stock setup. It may let you update an old phone to a otherwise unavailable version of Android, but that doesn't mean your phone will be able to cope with the additional power requirements. Think about why you want to root, and understand the limitation of rooting. 

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Who Am I

This is initiative brought about by a professional developer in Nigeria. He has trained a lot of young people in the field of Information Technology.
 Do you care to know more about him? Call, SMS or WhatsApp 07031175291 on any inquiry you need some clarifications on.

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