Tag Archives: iPhone

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Another Text Bug Could Crash Your iPhone

The more things change, the more they stay the same. When Apple released iOS 11 a few years back, the company had a serious issue revolving around text messages and foreign language character sets.

In that earlier case, the problem revolved around a certain string of Sindhi characters that had the result of locking the OS up and causing the device to crash.

These ‘text bombs’ are not just annoying, they can be absolutely crippling. After all, you don’t even have to read the message, it just has to be sent to your phone. That means that anybody who knows the poison sequence can lock your phone up indefinitely.

A similar problem has resurfaced, impacting any device running iOS version 13.4.1 or earlier. The company is currently working on a fix. The latest beta version of the code, 13.4.5 has what appears to be a viable fix for the issue.

Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t given a firm ETA when the fix will be made available to the general public, and the only other possible defense users are offering to each other is to temporarily disable notifications. While this doesn’t prevent the lockup issue in every case, it does seem to help. So if you’re currently experiencing what appear to be random lockups of your phone and you haven’t been able to trace them back to a root cause, this could be the reason. If so, then disabling your notifications until the bug fix is available might at least make your phone a bit more stable.

All that to say, this isn’t the first time Apple’s products have encountered an issue like this, and it almost certainly won’t be the last. The company is hard at work on a fix though, which should be available soon.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Apple Announced A New Low-Priced iPhone

Rumors have been swirling for months about Apple and the possibility that they’ll release a successor to their iPhone SE.

Recently, the company put a pin in all the speculation and unveiled their second-generation iPhone SE.

It looks like an iPhone 8, but lacks the upgraded internals.

The best part? When the company starts taking pre-orders on April 17th, you’ll be able to reserve yours for just $399, which is $50 less than the now discontinued iPhone 8.

The new phone will be available in black, white or red and have a 4.7 inch display. It is to be powered by Apple’s A13 Bionic processor and there will be three storage options available: 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB. The upgraded storage will add to the price, of course, with the 128GB variant running $449, and the 256GB variant setting you back $549.

Even if you decide to pay extra for the additional storage, those are amazingly good prices, especially given that the iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999.

Even better, the new iPhone SE won’t skimp on extras. Each one will come with an impressive 12-megapixel rear camera and a 7-megapixel front-facing camera, along with an IP67 rating and wireless charging capabilities.

The new phones are not only great starter phones for teens and other young people, they’re a fantastic, low-cost option for business owners who tend to buy in bulk. If you’re interested in tying your company to Apple’s ecosystem and you don’t want to spend a fortune, the new iPhone SE may be the solution you’ve been looking for.

Best of all, by the time you read this, Apple will likely be accepting pre-orders. So this isn’t a product you’ll have to wait months or years to get your hands on, you and your employees will be able to start enjoying them in the very near future.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

iOS Update Includes iPhone And iPad Features And Fixes

If you don’t normally prioritize updating your iPhone and iPad OS, you’re probably going to want to shift gears and grab version 13.4 as soon as possible.

The latest versions of both OS variants contain a number of important bug fixes and convenience features that are simply too big and too significant to miss out on.

On the convenience side, for example, iPhone mail has been tweaked such that the controls to delete, move, reply to or compose a message are always visible. In addition to that, in order to provide better security, all your responses to encrypted email messages are now automatically encrypted if you have configured S/MIME.

The latest update also provides some changes to your iCloud Drive and file sharing via the Files app. Once you download the latest, you’ll be able to limit access only to people you invite or specifically grant access to. In addition, you’ll have more control over who can upload files to your drive and make changes to existing files.

CarPlay also gets a couple of changes, including the addition of a third-party navigation app and the fact that in-call information will now appear on the CarPlay Dashboard.

On the bug fix side, you’ll find fixes for:

  • An issue with the camera’s viewfinder, which sometimes appears as a black screen
  • An issue with Photos that may prevent image sharing if iMessage is disabled
  • Periodic mail crashing issues
  • Issues where inbox messages sometimes appear out of order
  • Safari CAPTCHA tile display issues
  • Reminders that sometimes send you notifications for reminders that have already been completed
  • CarPlay connectivity issues
  • Tapping an activity notification from a security camera in the Home app opening a different recording than the one you actually wanted to see

There are a host of others, but you get the idea. This is a significant update. Grab it at your next opportunity.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

The New Microsoft Office App Looks Like A Winner

In November of 2019, Microsoft made an announcement and gave users an early look at a new unified Office app designed specifically for Android and iOS devices. The purpose, of course, was to provide the essential functionality of Office in a faster, leaner, and lighter package that was better suited for use on mobile devices.

As of February 19th, 2020, the wait is over. Microsoft moved from merely previewing the new app to making it available for all users on both Android and iOS.

In the months since the preview was offered, additional functionality has been added and the app has been further streamlined. The final version includes support for third-party storage services, allowing users to connect their Box, Dropbox, iCloud and Google Drive folders to the app In addition, they’ll have access to popular templates, which makes the creation of complex documents and spreadsheets a snap.

Not content to stop there though. When Microsoft made the app available to all, they also announced that in the months ahead, they’d be releasing a trio of content-creation oriented features. These include Word Dictation, which will allow users to speak text into their devices and write or edit Word documents.

The company will also be releasing Excel Cards View, which is a card format for viewing and editing Excel table row data that doesn’t extend beyond screen limits. There will be a new outline to PowerPoint, which will allow users to create power point presentations in outline form and use PowerPoint Designer to turn it into a slide deck.

In its current form, the app is outstanding, delivering on the promise to provide Office functionality in a sleeker, lighter package. With the planned enhancements though, Microsoft’s new app will go from outstanding to unbelievably good. We can hardly wait to see what else the company may have in store. If you’re an Office user, get this app today. You’ll be very glad you did!

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Latest iOS Update Brings Several Important Bug Fixes

Not long ago, security researcher Brian Krebs discovered an issue with the iPhone 11. It contains a chip dubbed U1, which functions on UWB (Ultra Wide Band). Due to international regulatory requirements, the U1 chip has to disable itself at certain locations, which means that the phone has to periodically check for a user’s location, even if you have that functionality turned off on your phone.

Recently, Apple released iOS 13.3.1, which contains a number of bug fixes. They include a fix that allows you to disable the periodic location checks being performed by the U1 Chip.

Apple has stated that they don’t do anything more with the location data than verify that you’re not in an area where the U1 chip has to be disabled. However, giant tech companies have made such claims before. Too often, it has come out later that the supposedly responsible company wound up selling or otherwise misusing the data in question, so it’s hardly a surprise that Apple has received backlash about this.

Given Apple’s history of responsiveness, it’s also not much of a surprise that they moved quickly to assuage the fears of their legions of users.

As of the latest update, if you don’t want your phone to be performing those location checks, just go to Settings Privacy Location Services And System Services.

There, you’ll find a toggle switch labeled Networking & Wireless with the location services symbol next to it. Toggle the switch off and that icon disappears. That’s all there is to it.

Of course, iOS 13.3.1 contains many more fixes than just that, so be sure to check out Apple’s release notes so you can properly prioritize installing the latest update. Kudos to Apple for their rapid response on the location services issue.

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