Software

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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Silent but Effective – ESET Cybersecurity for Macintosh

by Michael Sheehan on November 19, 2012

in Apple, Application, General, Interview, Opinion, Review, Safety, Security, Software

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I don’t know how many different types of Anti-Virus or security software I have tested over the years. I would guess that it’s in the 20′s. There are a lot of great providers out there, some paid and some free. Those people who have computers but don’t have ANY anti-virus software are destined to a severe, brutal and ugly day of awakening, especially if they are on a Windows PC. There is so much malware, viruses, bots, zombies, trojans and malicious code out there attached to files, images, programs and even websites that it is hard to imaging NOT getting infected.

And I thought that Macs were immune as well. The truth is, most of the effort of hackers has been spent on the PC market which has a dominance in terms of the number of users. But as Macs are increasing in numbers, especially in the corporate workplace AND the fact that Macs can be a conduit of malicious code simply by forwarding on infected attachments, it’s important to think about Mac security software as well. There are fewer numbers of Mac security and A/V software solutions out there and I have used a few. The latest one that I’m using is ESET Cybersecurity for Mac.

ESET-robot

I’m not a security specialist, I’m just a power user of computers. But I do know what I like in security software. On the PC side, I like having lots of visible controls, complete with notifications. This type of interaction may not be for everyone though. Some users want their security software to just run in the background and not bother them and simply provide the security and protection. For me, on Windows, I like tweaking and tuning the protection simply because I know that there are lots of different ways that your computer can get compromised.

But on the Mac, it’s completely different. Since my Mac has been relatively free of full-featured security software, mainly because I didn’t think it was truly necessary, I didn’t want a security application that was always “in your face.” ESET works that way. It updates regularly and protects even second of the day but all behind the scenes. And honestly, I have completely forgotten that I have it installed until I get the daily reminder alert that the virus definitions had been updated.

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How to Easily Edit Hosts Files on Mac & PC using Free Editors: Gas Mask (Mac) or HostsMan (PC)

October 11, 2012
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If you have ever come across a situation where you need to edit your Hosts file on your Mac or PC, I’m sure that you have discovered that it is a bit of a pain. For starters, on either platform, you need to have elevated privileges, namely that of the administrator. Then you have to [...]

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How To Create a “Work” Menu Like Office 2004/2008 in Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac

May 4, 2012
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While I truly like Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac (you can see my review of it here on the Microsoft Office for Mac Blog), there are some folks who have complained about a feature being removed from previous versions, specifically, the “Work” menu that was present in previous versions of Word in Office for Mac [...]

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Get Those Cleaning Supplies Out & Roll Up Your Sleeves – How to Clean Your Digital Home!

April 24, 2012
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It’s Springtime! Leaves are appearing on the trees, the sun is starting to gain dominance over the rain, and my eyes are teary, not only from the pollen in the air, but also from the fact that I need to start doing my spring cleaning around the house! It’s time to put away the winter [...]

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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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