Table of contents for Issue 106 in iPad & iPhone User

At time of writing it’s US presidential primary season, and privacy is one of the few areas of genuine disagreement. (Ted Cruz is against expansion of governmental surveillance, Trump and Rubio are loudly in favour of it, and Bernie Sanders has called NSA activities “Orwellian”. Hillary Clinton’s position remains somewhat unclear.) Most of all this battle will be fought in the realm of technology, where corporate behemoths Apple and Google represent (at least in the mind of the average tech user) opposite ends of the spectrum. Apple makes lots of noise about protecting its users’ privacy, while Google… well, we’ll talk about that in a moment. Still, talk is cheap. If you’re wondering how seriously Apple takes privacy – and about the protections that are in place to protect the…

1. Skype The Skype video-calling app is ubiquitous, and this fact alone gives it enormous usefulness: a lot of people and companies are on it. The beauty of Skype is that it can be used to make video calls, but also doubles up as a low-cost alternative for international calling. Its interface is very easy to understand and makes it easy to use, no matter what platform you’re using. As Skype can be used on all different types of platforms, it’s a great alternative to FaceTime for making video calls. You’ll need a Skype account to use the app, but after Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype back in 2011, there’s far greater integration with other accounts, such as Microsoft’s very own accounts, which can be used to sign into Skype. 2.…

Earin Price: About £180 Earin is a relatively new company to the scene, established in 2013 and funded via a Kickstarter campaign. The idea was to create simplistic wireless in-ear headphones that looked great and, most importantly, had no wires – an idea that was extremely popular, as the campaign was funded and two years down the line, Earin is finally available (albeit in limited quantities). These are incredibly small, measuring in at 14.5x20mm and weighs a lightweight 3.5g, making them the smallest wireless in-ear headphones on the market. The main difference between Earin and its competitors is that many companies that produce wireless in-ear headphones have to include an extra part that rests around your neck, holding all the tech (Bluetooth receiver, battery, and so on), whereas Earin has…

You happen to be regularly calling your friend David (because he is a cool guy) and want to call him through Siri to make your life a little easier. Unfortunately, you’ve got a few David’s on your contact list and cool-guy David isn’t easily recognised through Siri. No problem. Your personal assistant Siri has got you covered through the use of nicknames. If you’re on an Android phone you can add a nickname to your Google Contacts. You’ll need an iPhone 4s or later to use Siri. Add a nickname through Siri There is a good selection of pre-made nicknames you can assign your contacts and through this list, you’ll be able to link a pre-made name (such as: Manager) to one of your contacts. In order to do this,…

£359, 16GB; £439, 64GB • apple.com/uk Apple unveiled the iPhone SE at its ‘Let us loop you in’ launch event on 21 March. This is the first smartphone with a 4in screen that Apple has launched since 2013’s iPhone 5s and 5c. The SE has a design almost identical to the 5s, but its internals match those of the 6s; it’s therefore much faster than its 4in predecessor and, Apple claims, will have a far superior battery life, although we will need to test these claims in our labs. The iPhone became available for preorder on 24 March and at the time of writing was set to on general sale on 31 March. It is available in silver, gold, Space Grey and Rose Gold, like the iPhone 6s handsets, and…

Free • apple.com/uk Apple has released watchOS 2.2, an update to the operating system for Apple Watch. The update includes new features and bug fixes. These include: • Adds support for pairing multiple Apple Watches to one iPhone• Adds Nearby in Maps to browse for places around you by category, including Food and Shopping• Increases frequency of background heart-rate measurements when you are stationary Installation requires iOS 9.3 on your iPhone. When installing a watch update, your watch has to be in range of your iPhone, connected to its charger, and charged to 50 percent of battery life. Once your hardware is all set up, open the Watch app on your iPhone. Tap General > Software Update. The update is 114MB.…

You’ve got yourself a shiny brand new iPhone 6s – but what do you do with your old device? While many iPhone owners will sell their old iPhone or give it to a family member or friend, there are many other options available to you – from trading it in for a few pounds, to using it as a security camera. Here, we list some of the best ways to breathe life into your old iPhone, and give it a new purpose in life. 1. Trade it in The first option in our list of possibilities for old iPhones is probably the most sensible – trade it in, or recycle it. Apple offers its own trade-in service (aptly named the Apple Reuse and Recycle Program) where you can trade in…

In this hyper-connected world we assume that any message we send remains in storage for us to peruse in the future. But for SMS text messages, that is not the case. Once you delete that message of your iPhone, it pretty much disappears. There are ways to get back deleted text messages, however. Here are four ways to retrieve deleted texts on iPhone. How to recover deleted texts from your phone provider, how to retrieve deleted text messages via iCloud, and how to get back deleted SMS messages from iTunes backup. Finally, how to retrieve lost text messages using a third-party app. 1. Phone provider The first port of call is your phone provider. Some – although not all – will keep a record of your text messages, and you…

Smart Keyboard for 9.7in iPad Pro Price: £129 A shrunken iPad Pro means shrunken iPad Pro accessories: Apple’s Smart Keyboard (pictured above) is now available to fit the new tablet. It costs a little bit less – £129 for the 9.7in model, compared to £139 for the 12.9in Pro – but the functionality is the same, with its Smart Connector power port and Bluetooth-less data connection. The larger keyboard is comfortable to type on, and we hope the smaller one doesn’t feel cramped, although we generally only have that problem with keyboards sized for the 7in iPad mini. Apple Pencil Price: £79 Okay, the Apple Pencil isn’t a new accessory, but it’s newly compatible with the new 9.7in iPad Pro, so it’s worth a mention. This pressure-sensitive Bluetooth stylus is…

Notes Apple’s Notes app is a great starting point for handwriting on the iPad Pro. The default drawing tool is a pen, and you get a horizontal sheet of paper to draw on. One nice touch is the slight paper grain on each note (you can see this in more detail by pinching to zoom). It’s easy to use, but it has limitations and they quickly become apparent. The drawing tools are limited, and there’s only one type of pen. You only get a single sheet to draw on, and can’t expand it. You can’t change the sheet of paper to lined or graph paper. Free Paper Paper is one of our favourite iPad Pro apps. Originally designed to work with FiftyThree’s Pencil, the app has taken a wider lease…

It’s useful to know how to transfer text messages from one iPhone to another. The obvious application is when setting up a new iPhone: each new copy of the Messages app is empty of all your old conversations, which can be important for work or hold sentimental value. But it can be a valuable backup too: often the best method is to back up the texts to iCloud or a Mac first, which can be a useful safeguard if you need a record of the messages in the future. Whatever your reasons for copying, backing up or otherwise transferring your text messages, they’re important, and you don’t want to lose them. This article looks at the best ways to transfer SMS and iMessage texts from one iPhone to another using…

On face value, Apple’s March 21 product reveals were a letdown – and, no, not because the product details had already been leaked to 9to5Mac. Rather, the new iPhone SE and 9.7in iPad Pro aren’t particularly exciting devices. Neither introduces a whole new product category the way Apple Watch did, and neither introduces a spectacular, must-have feature such as Siri or Apple Pay. But that doesn’t mean the new hardware won’t sell well. The bottom line is that the iPhone SE and 9.7in iPad Pro fill relevant holes in Apple’s product line-up, and that makes them much more important to real-world consumers than to pundits, journalists, and other Apple watchers who might be looking more for spectacle than substance. An iPhone for the remaining 60 percent Let’s start with the…