6+ iOS 8 mistakes that make you look dumb

You’ve been using iOS for ages and think you know what you’re doing, but do you? These common iOS mistakes make you look dumb, so here’s how to avoid them.

Wrong finger

You set Touch ID up to work with your thumbprint — all the same when you try to approve a payment or purchase a tune you keep using your finger an it doesn’t work. Annoying.

There’s a solution:

Open Settings>Touch ID & Passcode and enter your passcode to access the next screen. Look to the Fingerprints section and you’ll see Finger 1, below which you’ll see the ‘Add a Fingerprint…’ option. You can enrol up to five fingerprints for Touch ID.

Bonus tip: If you share your device and trust the person you share it with, why not add their fingerprint too?

iOS security

You’ve set up passcode lock, Touch ID and have Find My iPhone enabled. You use a strong iCloud password and two-step verification.

You can do more:

Open Settings>Touch ID & Passcode. Atthe bottom of the menu you’ll find ‘Erase Data’. This is off by default but when enabled your device will erase all your data after 10 failed passcode attempts. If you care about your security you should use this — particularly if your iPhone is also your credit card, thanks to Apple Pay.

Bonus tips:

• Turn off Diagnostics and Usage Data (Settings>Privacy>Diagnostics and Usage, tap Don’t Send.)
• Turn off Geo-Location for Photos (Settings>Privacy>Location Services>Camera, Never.)
• Disable Location based Ads (Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services, toggle to Off.)
• Limit Ad Tracking (Settings > Privacy > Advertising and set Limit Ad Tracking to On.) Also be sure to Reset Advertising Identifier so advertisers cannot track you using the ID you’ve used until now.
• In Safari (Settings>Safari>toggle Do Not Track to on) — and set the default browser to Duck Duck Go instead of Google.
• Finally in Settings>iCloud>Find My [Device] turn on the Send Last Location option.

Now you seem much less dumb.

Slow phone!!!!

Some users have claimed their iOS device runs slower since they installed iOS 8. They moan about it so much you know that some of those complaining probably don’t even use iOS!! It’s funny – but all these complainers are pretty dumb, unless they’ve at least tried this fix:

Open Settings>General, select ‘Reset’ and then choose ‘Reset All Settings’. This won’t delete anything (bar your WiFi password) but might help mitigate performance problems.

Bonus tips:

Now read this for a bunch more useful iOS 8 troubleshooting tips.

Clickety-click — shut up!!

You type, the keyboard clicks. You may not mind but someone near you probably really wants you to “Shut up, dumb-ass!” Here’s how to schtum:

Settings>Sounds>Keyboard Clicks, toggle to off.

Bonus tips:

To find answers to 8 other common iOS 8 questions click here.

iOS 8 won’t show the full Website (and other fables)

Here’s the situation, you’ve gone to a Website only to be shown the feature-limited mobile version of your destination. iOS 8 sucks, right?

It doesn’t suck.

Here’s what to do: When on a Website that shows the mobile site rather than full desktop version, tap in the address field and then tap in the bookmarks menu that appears (don’t tap a bookmark). Keep your finger in the list and drag the page down: Two new commands appear: “Add to Favorites” and “Request Desktop Site”. Tap the latter and you’ll get all the bells and whistles of the real site. It’s easy.

Bonus tips:

Now take read these tips to become a Siri power user.

Missed the email

You say: “I’m sorry I missed your message about, [insert important ‘thing’], I get too many messages and miss them sometimes.” You may get away with this on other phones, but not on iOS 8 where you can do two things to make sure you never miss an important message:

1/ Set VIP status: Take the contact(s) you need to keep up with and create contacts for them. The assign them VIP status at the bottom of their contacts card: you’ll find all mail from them kept in the VIP folder on your device.

2/ iOS 8 will monitor messages: To access this tap the flag icon at the lower left of a message thread view screen and choose ‘Notify Me…’ Now iOS 8 will notify you when an important message comes through.

Bonus tips:

Try these.

I hope these tips help improve your iOS usage.

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