iPad

How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button – A Free & Easy Software Fix

by Michael Sheehan on March 13, 2013

in Apple, Cellular, Fix It, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mobile

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Yesterday I received a panicked call from one of my daughters – “Daddy, my iPhone’s home button is broken!” Tears and wailing ensued. But, as with any broken gadget, I was up for the challenge, knowing that I could either replace the iPhone home button myself or figure out some other way to breath a few extra days or weeks of life into her iPhone 4 so that she could still use it. As it turned out, the “temporary” fix (which could be permanent), it quite easy to do and actually a pretty neat function that not too many people know about. And, it’s built into all iOS devices.

Broken iPhone Home button

Broken iPhone Home button

Normally, when hardware components fail on my iOS devices, I turn to the super-handy iFixIt.com guides. I have done anything from replacing batteries on iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4′s to replacing the power button on an iPhone 4 (let me tell you, THAT one is really hard!). So, I quickly scanned through the steps in the iFixIt guide and realized that even though the part itself was about $15 only, the level of effort to physically replace the button was HUGE. (Here’s the daunting fix-it guide.) So, I needed to find another solution.

Luckily, I remembered in the past reading about how you can reassign a button or create a gesture on a jailbroken phone so I knew there was a software solution out there. However, I didn’t want to jailbreak my daughter’s iPhone. There had to be another solution. And then I found it. What follows are the quick and easy steps on how to fix a broken iPhone home button.

How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button

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Apple Posts iOS 6.1 Release – Here’s What’s New & How to Update!

by Michael Sheehan on January 28, 2013

in Apple, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Software, Tablet

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After releasing iOS 6.1 beta 5 to developers this past weekend, Apple released iOS 6.1 to the public today (Monday Jan 28, 2013). Updates can be obtained directly via your iOS update or via iTunes. You can also download the .ipsw directly from Apple. Details on these processes are below.

iOS-6.1-update

So what is new in this iOS release? Honestly, there aren’t that many visible features but there are plenty of behind the scenes fixes and updates. Specifically:

  • Support for more LTE carriers
  • The ability to purchase movie tickets using Fandango coupled with Siri (US only)
  • If you use iTunes Match, you can now download individual songs from iCloud
  • Reset the Advertising Identifier via System Preferences (General > About > Advertising)
    HTD-reset-ads
  • Security Updates
    • Fixed –> Authentication relying on certificate-based Apple ID authentication may be bypassed
    • Fixed –> Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to a cross-site scripting attack
    • Fixed –> A user-mode process may be able to access the first page of kernel memory
    • Fixed –> An attacker with a privileged network position may intercept user credentials or other sensitive information
    • Fixed –> JavaScript may be enabled in Mobile Safari without user interaction
    • Fixed –> Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
    • Fixed –> Copying and pasting content on a malicious website may lead to a cross-site scripting attack
    • Fixed –> Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to a cross-site scripting attack
    • Fixed –> A remote attacker on the same WiFi network may be able to temporarily disable WiFi

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iOS Apps & Backups are Hogging Up Your Hard Drive – How To Easily Free Up Disk Space

by Michael Sheehan on January 9, 2013

in Apple, Application, Fix It, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Software

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I don’t know about you but I am always looking for ways to clear up my laptop’s precious free hard drive space. I have tools that clean caches, temporary files, language files, logs and files in my trash. But I never seem to get ahead of the game. I probably never will but a periodic cleaning is always an important thing to do.

One place that I have neglected is one that may seem incredibly obvious to many. It wasn’t to me until I spent some time doing some hard drive cleaning. And this is an area where most cleaning applications will NOT look – within iTunes.

Fat iTunes icon

I must admit, I’m not only an iOS device junkie, but also an iOS application addict. I install apps regularly, test them out and then delete them from my iPhone or iPad. That is great for my iOS device in terms of keeping it relatively clean (although I have several pages of folders filled with apps) – but it doesn’t help the “mother ship,” my laptop where I sync my iOS devices.

iTunes has made the process of getting and updating iOS apps (as well as managing your iOS device) pretty darn easy. The problem is, if you back up lots of devices and/or download lots of apps, you are consuming a massive amount of hard drive space, probably without even knowing it.

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A Plush, Propping Pillow for your iPad

by Michael Sheehan on August 9, 2012

in Apple, Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, iPad, Opinion, Review, Tablet

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I have seen many different types of cases for iPads out there and most of the ones that I have reviewed are for “out in the world” use cases, meaning they provide hard case protection (and some even include Bluetooth keyboards). But then I got to spend some time with the CushPad, which is a large, bulky, pillow-like “case” that is more for enabling easier reading, especially while lounging around the house and in bed.

HTD-cushpad-70

The CushPad holds your iPad 2 or 3 (the “new” iPad) snuggly between two bevels. You can use an iPad 1 (which is what we used for testing) but CushPad doesn’t recommend it. My wife was the primary tester of the CushPad, using it when we were lounging around in bed while on vacation.

HTD-cushpad-69

There really isn’t anything techy or geeky about the CushPad, but it can make your techy and geeky life just a bit more comfortable.

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Does the Blackberry Playbook Have Another Play Up Its Sleeve? Potentially!

May 21, 2012
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I remember when the Blackberry Playbook was first announced, in fact, I was at the CES 2011 where it was revealed. Everyone was saying what an amazing piece of hardware it was but then over time, the details emerged about how closely tied it was to having a Blackberry smartphone. Also, during the 1.5 years [...]

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Want to make your Draw Something Game even Better? Get a Stylish Stylus from Targus

April 12, 2012
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I few weeks ago, I was introduced to the amazingly addictive drawing and word game called Draw Something. This game quickly rocketed to the #1 paid application position in the Apple App Store and has been holding steady ever since. It’s a great app. You pair up with someone to play with and then you [...]

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Walking Through IBM’s New iPad Cloud Application

March 14, 2012
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It’s no surprise that I’m writing about clouds and iPads and applications. If you do a search on my site, you will see that I write about all 3 of these topics, just never at the same time. When I found out that IBM had produced a Cloud application, my interests were sparked for many [...]

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How To Configure Location-Based Reminders on the iPhone with iOS5

November 29, 2011
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I kept hearing about how with iOS 5, you could set up Reminders that would trigger when you arrived or left a particular location. It’s a pretty neat concept. You can program in an address, like your work, and set up a series of to-dos that magically remind you when you are geographically near that [...]

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