How to secure the Notes app on iOS 9.3

Apple recently announced the preview of an upcoming iOS update. Included in the future iOS 9.3 update, Apple is adding features such as Night Shift which it claims will help you fall asleep easier despite staring at your screen after sunset.

Additional features such as allowing multiple user accounts on a single iPad, CarPlay enhancements and (finally) the ability to password protect personal musings in the Notes app can also found in the update.

Adding the option to protect a note -- perhaps containing a bank account number, health information or even just a daily diary -- feels like it should have been in the Notes app from day one. Alas, it wasn't, but Apple is intent on fixing that.

Keep in mind that in order to lock a note right now, you'll have to be using either the developer or public beta preview of iOS 9.3. You can learn more about the risks of running a beta version of an OS on your device, as well as where to sign up if you feel like living on the technological edge by visiting Apple's beta page.



For those already on iOS 9.3, or those about to take the plunge, here's what you need to do to secure a note in the Notes app.

• First, start by selecting a note you'd like to lock down with a password or Touch ID.
• Tap on the share button in the upper-right hand corner.
• Select Password Protect Note from the list of options.

If this is the first time you've selected this option, you'll have to enter a password and a password hint. Notice the warning just below the password section: You cannot access any secured notes on non-iOS 9.3 or Mac OS X 10.11.4 (also in beta) devices. If you'd like to use Touch ID in addition to a password, leave the switch in the On position.

Alternatively, you can set up or change your Notes password by launching the Settings app on your iOS device, then going to Notes > Password Protection. This is also where you'd go if you want to change the password for your Notes.

With a password set, the next time you select Password Protect Note from the share menu, the note will be placed behind your password. You can identify which notes are protected when viewing the list of notes in your account thanks to a lock icon placed just below the title.

Source: Cnet

Automatically Install iOS Software Update in the Middle of the Night

Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will now notify you when a new iOS Software Update is made available, as you may have noticed by now. When you see the Software Update screen popup on your iOS device with the message “iOS (version) is available for your device and is ready to install” you’ll be presented with three options, to install now, to get details about the update, or the option we’ll focus on here, “Later”, which allows you to postpone the update to be reminded again later about it, or have it install itself automatically in the middle of the night.

This feature is only available on modern versions of iOS, so anything running a release prior to 9.0 won’t have this option available.

How to Use Automatic iOS Software Update

When you see the Software Update screen available, tap on the “Later” option, to which you’ll be presented with two options:

• Install Tonight – this will install the update automatically between 2AM and 5AM assuming the device is connected to wi-fi and a power source – note: only choose this option if you have iCloud automatically backup every night, or if you manually back it up yourself before the night begins
• Remind Me Later – just as it sounds, the same Software Update screen will appear again a day later where you can either take action on it and install then, choose to install at night, or postpone it again to a later date

See also: How to Backup your Apple devices?

The “Install Tonight” option is undeniably useful, it updates your iOS device while you sleep, and you’ll wake up to a device with the latest version on it. This works the same with iPhone, iPad, an iPod touch, but as mentioned before be sure you have iCloud automatic backups enabled before choosing this option. This option is available in the Settings > iCloud > Backup section, just be sure that iCloud Backup is turned ON to have the feature, and you’ve likely encountered it before if you have backed up the device before. The reason to have automatic backups on may be obvious to some, but basically it insures that if in the odd event something goes haywire with the iOS software update, you’ll be able to quickly restore and recover your stuff.

Absolutely do not use the automatic software update feature without having automatic iCloud backups enabled, it’s rare but if something does go wrong with an iOS update, you could lose your stuff without the backup, and that’s simply not worth it. The only exception to this is if you religiously start iCloud backups yourself manually or through iTunes manually, but just as with installing iOS updates on your own, always back up before updating software.

One other thing worth mentioning is that the aforementioned automatic iOS Software Update feature will download the iOS update to the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch automatically as well. This can take up space, and if you don’t want to install the update this way, you can always head to the Settings app and Storage section to delete the software update from the device before it installs. In rare circumstances if you haven’t updated in a while, the wrong iOS software update version will be stored locally and thus offer an inappropriate release, which is easy to fix by  removing it.

There are similar automatic update options available for auto-updating apps in iOS, and Mac users can choose to have the Mac automatically install app updates itself or automatically update OS X system updates as well, but for either case, be sure you use a regular backup routine to preserve your data.

Source: OSXdaily

iOS 9.2 Faster iPhone Speed Improvement

For users who have been experienced performance degradation after updating an iPhone or iPad to iOS 9 from iOS 8.4.1 or older, you may be pleased to discover improved performance on some devices with the iOS 9.2 update.

The speed boost offered with iOS 9.2 is particularly noticeable with the iPhone 6 Plus, which many users discovered had significant lag and interface stuttering after updating to iOS 9 with even the most basic of tasks, like bringing about Spotlight search or opening the Camera. Additionally, the user interface lag and stuttering seems to have been improved on that device quite a bit as well, and while it doesn’t feel as fast as iOS 8 did on the same hardware, it does seem to offer a noticeable improvement over any of the prior iOS 9.x releases. Apparently some other models also have received a slight performance increase from the device as well, but they may not be as notable as that which is experienced on the iPhone 6 Plus, nonetheless users should probably update to the latest version and discover how the performance is on iPhone 6, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, iPad Air of all models, and all supported iPad Mini devices.

From personal experience, the iOS 9.2 update initially didn’t seem to help the speed of my own frustratingly laggy iPhone 6 Plus with iOS 9.1, but after hard rebooting the device hours later, it was suddenly much faster and the UI lag and stuttering was much improved. No more half second lag to bring up the keyboard in Spotlight search, no more 10 second delay to open the Camera and start using it, apps open faster, the multitasking screen to quit apps is faster, the device just feels much faster, and it’s notable. Sure this is anecdotal evidence and it applies to the iPhone 6 Plus, but a quick search on Twitter, our comments, and Apple Support Forums has shown that many other users have experienced similar performance improvements with iOS 9.2 after a second reboot on other devices too.
The iOS 9.2 Speed Boost Trick: Update, Wait, and Reboot

Again this is mostly relevant to iPhone 6 Plus but it may apply to other devices as well, let us know in the comments what your experience has been.

1. Back up the iPhone first (this keeps your stuff, but also allows you to downgrade back to iOS 9.1, for a limited time anyway, if you want to for some reason)
2. Update the iPhone or iPad to iOS 9.2 and let the installation complete and return back to the Home Screen
3. Let the device sit and do nothing for an hour or two, this is recommended as under the hood tasks are taking place to index the device. Some initial perceptions of reduced speed due to iOS updates are simply the maintenance routines going on in the background, so let this complete
4. After the iPhone or iPad has been updated and sat for a while, do a force hard reboot by holding down the Power button and Home button, let the device boot as usual and enjoy your (hopefully) freshly snappier iOS experience

If you update to iOS 9.2, wait a few hours, hard reboot, and still experience sluggish performance, you may want to try some of these direct performance improvement tips for iOS 9 devices, which involve disabling some features to lighten the software load on hardware a bit.

While the release notes of iOS 9.2 don’t mention much of anything about performance enhancements included in the update, it’s quite possible some under the hood improvements were made. Whatever the reason, iOS 9.2 seems to run faster than iOS 9.1 or iOS 9 did on the same hardware, and a variety of videos help to demonstrate this:

Note some of these performance videos were made with earlier beta releases so they are less reliable, but the topmost video is an iPhone 6 Plus with iOS 9.2 final.

What have you noticed? Have you experienced any performance changes with iOS 9.2? Maybe speed improvements with iOS 9.2? Let us know in the comments. And hopefully you have not found iOS 9.2 leads to slower hardware, but if you’ve experience declines in performance, let us know that in the comments too.

Source: OSXDaily