Tag Archives: iPhone

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

T-Mobile Reports Scam Calls Have Increased 116 Percent Since 2020

If you’re like most cellphone users,  you absolutely love the automatic call blocking feature that most companies offer as part of their standard service.  A call comes in from a “suspicious” number and the phone just blocks it.

That’s awesome and even better is you can add new numbers to it.  So on those occasions when a spam call gets through it’s a simple matter to add the problematic number to the “don’t let through” list and you’ve got one less thing to worry about.

Since those calls are out of sight and out of mind however, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that they’re still happening.  In fact, according to data recently offered by telecom giant T-Mobile the company has blocked a staggering 21 billion scam, spam, and other unwanted robocalls so far this year.

Even more dismaying though is the fact that this year (2021) has seen scam call traffic jump by an almost unbelievable 116 percent compared with the data from last year.  That amounts to more than 425 million scam calls attempted every week.  It’s a mind-boggling crush of phone traffic thankfully blocked by the fine folks at T-Mobile and other carriers.

These calls run the gamut.  According to the company’s data the calls were related to a broad range of topics including fake vehicle warranty scams, scams related to the Social Security office, package delivery, and insurance related scams to name a few.

The company had this to say about its “Scam Shield” service:

“T-Mobile Scam Shield has identified or blocked over 21 BILLION calls for T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers through early December 2021. 

The lowest measured month for scam traffic was January 2021, identifying 1.1 billion calls as Scam Likely. By November, volume had increased exponentially, and T-Mobile identified double the January traffic at 2.5 billion calls as Scam Likely.”

Kudos to T-Mobile for fighting the good fight!

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Study Shows People Are Spending More On Mobile Apps

App spending in 2021 grew by an impressive 25 percent in 2021 and has increased to an impressive $135 billion.  Even better is the growth shows no signs of slowing down.

That is surprising because the industry at large has come under increased scrutiny and both the Apple and Google App Stores have introduced new developer rules governing in-app payments.

Overall Apple’s App Store leads in total revenues while Google’s massive Play Store leads in terms of total numbers of downloads. That is according to the most recently published research by App Annie.

Apple users accounted for 65 percent of the total app revenue with $87.5 billion. Google Play racked up $47.25 billion which is a lower number despite having a larger user base.

A different app analytics company named Sensor Tower reports similar data.  According to their research spending on apps will reach $133 billion in 2021 representing a 19.7 percent growth.

Of interest Sensor Tower’s data provides more detail on the total number of downloads as well.  They estimate that downloads from the Google Play store will top 100 billion by the end of this year (2021) versus just over 30 billion from Apple’s App Store which is a good way of comparing the relative size of the rival ecosystems.

There are some lingering concerns that as the pandemic recedes further into the background and life begins to return to normal that the explosive growth in app sales will taper off.  It’s entirely possible that the rate of growth will slow given that the pandemic has fundamentally altered a number of aspects of our daily life. However all expectations are that growth will continue to be robust.

If you’re thinking of launching a premium app to support your existing business now is a great time to do so.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Apple Rolls Out Digital Keys For Hotels With Partnership

Apple Wallet just got a powerful new feature that’s sure to make it more attractive to busy travelers.  Thanks to an agreement with Hyatt your Apple Wallet is now capable of serving as a digital hotel key.

This counts as a promise kept.  At the 2021 WWDC Apple promised that it would be adding digital hotel key functionality to its wallet app.

Although it took some time to hammer out the details of an agreement Hyatt is the first hotel to embrace the idea.

If your iPhone is running iOS 15 or later or if you’ve got an Apple Watch running WatchOS 8 or above you’ll be able to use it. You will select the key on your device hold it near the built-in sensor on the hotel room door and gain entry just as though you used a conventional room key card.

What’s even better is that keys can be added before your arrival at the hotel so all you’ll need to do is walk up to the front desk to get them activated. Best of all is the keys support alterations after the fact so if there was a problem with your reservation and you need a different room assignment all of that is easy to deal with.

At present the digital keys are only available at a limited number of Hyatt locations. However the company is excited to expand their portfolio and is hoping to develop a global digital key footprint in the months ahead.

Meanwhile Apple is busy making arrangements with other hotel chains and is currently working with a number of governmental agencies (starting in the US) to make digital government IDs a reality.

All of this is very good news that will radically expand the number of use cases for the Apple Wallet and that is fantastic news for anyone who’s a part of the massive Apple ecosystem.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Latest iPhone Update May Fix Dropped Calls Problem

Do you own an iPhone 12 or 13? Have you been dealing with dropped calls? If so then Apple has good news and a fix for that. Simply upgrade to iOS 15.11 and you should be good to go.

15.11 is a minor update that only contains a single entry in the change log. Literally the only thing it does is to improve call performance.

The update isn’t terribly large at just 385MB and even if you haven’t yet experienced any performance or call quality issues it wouldn’t be a bad idea to upgrade in a bid to head them off.

It should also be noted that Apple’s handling of the issue has been absolutely spectacular. Customers complained about an issue and Apple did what Apple usually does. They didn’t spend a lot of time studying the issue. They didn’t complain or make excuses and they simply sprang into action and put people on the task of making it right.

This is the reason Apple customers are so incredibly loyal. In fact it has been said before that Apple doesn’t really have customers they have fans. Die hard absolutely devoted fans. Few other companies in the world can make that claim and everybody wants to replicate the Apple magic.

The good news it that it’s possible. Just be like Apple. Treat your customers like they matter more than anything in the world. Take them and their complaints and suggestions seriously. Go the extra mile and then go a little farther than that when you’re resolving an issue for them.

Apple’s reputation certainly wasn’t built overnight and the company has had their share of missteps but if you’re looking for a company to emulate to strengthen your own you could do a lot worse than Apple. Kudos to the hardworking Apple engineers for knocking another one out of the park.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

You Can Now Easily Block Users in Spotify

Are you a Spotify user? Have you found yourself wanting or needing to block another user?

Until recently if you found yourself in that situation you had no choice but to contact customer support and have them block the user for you. Apparently it’s become a big enough and common enough issue that the company decided to put that power into the hands of individual users.

If you ever need to block another user on the platform here’s how you go about it:

  • The first step is to go to the user’s profile page. Just beneath their username and profile photo but above their public playlist (right next to the “follow” button) you’ll see three dots.
  • Click those three dots and choose the “Block” option that comes up on the menu. Note that on mobile devices it will be labeled as “Block User.”
  • From then on the user in question won’t be able to access your listening activity, your public playlists, your user page, or your profile. You may unblock any user you have blocked at any time.

The company had this to say about the recent change:

“At Spotify, we’re committed to delivering the best possible listening experience to our users. Privacy is something that is and always will be, enormously important to us and our block feature, which gives users more control, is the latest step towards that commitment.”

This builds on a feature that the company added back in 2019 which allowed listeners to block any artist they didn’t like and didn’t want to hear music from. The company has faced a slowly growing chorus of complaints from their user base about other members stalking them online.

It took the company a while to respond but respond they did. The new feature should be available by the time you read these words.

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