Tag Archives: apps

Apps, short for applications, with specific interest towards smartphone applications.

Tips

Speed Up Your iPhone

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Article Updated July 12, 2016. While a new iPhone runs smoothly, this user experience can change with time. As a result, your once speedy iPhone starts crawling at a slow pace or freezes entirely. This is not an issue that affects iPhones alone but a wide range of electronic devices. With this in mind, you might be wondering what can be done to speed up your iPhone. The following tips can help you squeeze better performance from a buggy iPhone.

Speed Up Your iPhone with a Restart

Restarting your iPhone can help solve issues related to responsiveness. This tip is an old standard from the desktop computer days – just reboot it. To reboot your iPhone, just hold down the wake/sleep button. This will bring up a red slider on the screen. Use your finger to move the slider across the screen. This will turn off your iPhone. You can now power up your iPhone to boot up afresh. Do not worry if this process seems to last a little bit longer.

Disable Background App Refresh

Settings>General>Background App Refresh (OFF) or choose by individual app.

Clear App Cache with Taps

From @zadr’s tweet – apparently tapping 10 times on any single button on the bottom of the following apps clears the app cache for iTunes, iBooks, App Store or Apple Watch apps.

Turn Off Animations

This setting will help iPhone 5 or older as well as iPad 4 or older.
Settings>General>Accessibility>Reduce Motion (ON)

Turn Off Transparency

For iOS9
Settings>General>Accessibility>Increase Contrast>Toggle on Reduce Transparency

Disable Siri Suggestions

Also for iOS9
Settings>General>Spotlight Suggestions>Siri Suggestions (OFF)

Update your iPhone Firmware

If you have not yet updated your iPhone firmware, this can cause apps to run a little bit slower. To get the latest firmware, visit the iTunes website. Synchronize your iPhone before updating your firmware. You can then proceed to check for updates. If an update is available, install it. Remember to restore backup after installing new firmware.

  • Plug your iPhone in to a power source.
  • Tap Settings > General > Software Update.
  • Tap “Download and Install” to download the update. Updates might download automatically while your device is connected to Wi-Fi and a power source.
  • Tap Install when the download completes if you want to complete it now.

Uninstall Buggy Apps

In some instances, a buggy app can make your iPhone behave in a sluggish manner. In this case, the best way to speed up your iPhone again is to delete the buggy apps. You can always reinstall the apps if they are important.

Free Up Some Drive Space

iPhone apps can create a lot of temporary data quickly. It’s best to have at least 500 MB-1GB of free space to ensure your apps aren’t crashing from lack of space. So you may want to consider uploading some of those photos and videos to your iCloud, Google Drive, Youtube, Flickr, whatever you use for cloud storage.

Check Your Sync Settings

Every time an app syncs or updates it’s info, it requires processing power and time. Check your Settings to adjust which apps are syncing and their update frequency.

Restore your iPhone to Factory Settings

You should only resort to this action if all the other tips have failed. It is important to note that restoring your iPhone to factory settings will delete all your apps, contacts, text messages, and videos. If you restore from a corrupt backup, you may have few options to make your iPhone run faster. However, a restore will definitely make your iPhone user experience as smooth as possible. Before attempting to restore your iPhone, make sure that you have backed up all data.

If you have a jail broken iPhone, install apps that are compatible with your iOS version. This will make your iPhone run a little bit faster at all times. However, if none of this works, perhaps you’ll need to repair your iPhone — contact iFixYouri to learn about what we can do to speed up your iPhone.

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An Overview of OS X Mountain Lion

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mountain-lion-osx-ifixyouriApple has kept true to its word and delivered a new OS X known as Mountain Lion. If the previous version of Lion did not meet your expectations, the new OS X is a different breed. To start with, the new OS X borrows a lot from Lion. This means that the new version feels quite familiar in terms of performance and features.

To ensure a smooth transition from Lion to Mountain Lion, the new OS X makes compatibility a breeze. By now, most developers have had time to fine tune and smooth out any app compatibility hitches.

Features

Notifications

One of the newest features in the new OS X is notifications. They make handling alerts from the apps running on your machine easy. Instead of a segmented, jumbled mess, it is all now a pretty streamlined operation. Built-in apps now include Twitter and Facebook as well. In addition, the notification center works well with Chrome and Safari. If you have a Gmail message, an alert will show up on your notification center.

To install unsigned apps, you will have to circumvent the new Gatekeeper feature. However, you can easily tweak the default setting that blocks unsigned apps. For developers, certification will set you back $99 a year for a developer account.

Cloud integration

Another new feature that you will notice quickly is the Documents in the Cloud feature. With this feature, everything from Preview to TextEdit gets OS integration. This means that your files reside within the app environment and in the cloud.

Apps

Some of the apps that have made a transition from Lion to this new version include Messages, Notes, and Reminders. Messages now replaces the iChat app that seemed to have stability issues — and it’s about time, even my old iPhone has these apps.

Airplay is a new feature that you cannot miss. You can now route live web events to your TV via Apple TV. There is no doubt that the new Mountain Lion is a big forward leap.

New Macs are shipped with Mountain Lion installed, or you can upgrade to the new OSX version.  The cheaper route would be to simply upgrade instead of buying a new system, but if your current desktop or laptop needs repairs, iFixYouri can help and save you money.

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Opening Weekend of iPhone 5: Over 5 Million Sold!

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In its first weekend of being available to consumers, the highly anticipated iPhone 5 was quickly purchased by over 5 million fans across the US.  Apple stores in cities around the country reported selling out their Verizon and AT&T iPhones, while a few iPhones with Sprint service were still available on Sunday.

While the initial shipments were completely sold out, it is estimated that Apple could have sold an additional 2-3 million units if there was a greater supply available.  Apple CEO Tim Cook was naturally pleased with the results, but knows there were many consumers who were turned away.

“We are working hard to get an iPhone 5 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible,” he said.  “We appreciate everyone’s patience.”

About a year ago, the iPhone 4S debuted to the public, who gobbled up over 1 million of the popular devices.

Already Disappointment with the iPhone 5

Naturally, there will be features to celebrate, as well as elements that will let down new iPhone 5 owners.  This time, the resounding disappointment comes from the new Map app, which replaces the Google Maps app that came with previous iPhone generations.  Apple’s version of the map app doesn’t include local transit information, and apparently the directions aren’t very accurate.

Apple’s response is that it plans to continue updating the app, and the features will develop over time.

iPhone 5 Sold Out – Now What?

The next shipments from Apple won’t likely appear on shelves for about a month, so those clamoring for the device will need to keep using their old models in the meantime.  Of course, when the new version arrives, so will the inevitable mechanical issues that accompany brand new complicated devices.  If you get your hands on the new iPhone and it doesn’t work properly, don’t spend time complaining about it in forums – just send it or take it in to the iPhone 5 repair professionals, iFixYouri.