Month: June 2018

Tips & Tricks: 18 iPhone Tips And Tricks You’ll Wish You Knew About Sooner

Holy sh*t! These are legit.

 

By Kevin Smith of BuzzFeed

 

1. Completely customize your control center:

This one’s easy, go into “settings,” next, tap “control center,” and tap “customize controls.” Finally, select whichever features you want to add to your control center by tapping the green “+” icon.

*Make sure you include screen recording so you can follow along with the next step.

2. Record your screen:

 

From the previous step, you added Screen Recording. Now, swipe down on the right side (if you have an iPhone X), or swipe up (if you have an iPhone 8 or later). You’ll see a record button (the arrows are pointing to it), tap that and your screen will begin to record. You can record whatever you like, and when you’re done, tap the red bar at the top.

3. Hide your “private” photos:

If you have sensitive pictures on your phone like “private” photos or even something as simple as bank account information and you don’t want it to show up when you open your photos app try hiding them.

Open up your Photos app, next select the photo or video that you want to hide.
Then, tap hide (you may have to slide over a bit to see it), finally, confirm that you want to hide the photo or video.

4. You can close out three apps at once:

When you open the app switcher, use three fingers and drag up on the apps. It will close three at once.

5. Have Siri read your email out loud:

Activate Siri and say, “read me my emails” and the digital assistant will read them out loud to you. You can also do this for text messages by saying, “Siri, read me my messages.”

6. Turn your keyboard into a trackpad:

If you press and hold anywhere on the keyboard it will turn into a trackpad so you can easily move around a big block of text.

7. Make custom vibrations for alerts:

To make a custom vibration, head into settings, next tap “Sounds & Haptics.” Once you’re in there select the “sound and vibration patterns” you want to change. For this example, we’ll go with “ringtone.” At the top you’ll see “vibration.”

Towards the bottom you’ll see under “custom” the “create new vibration” option, follow the on screen instructions and you can create a vibration pattern of your choosing.

8. Use words and letters to make your password instead of numbers:

This one’s pretty simple, a stronger password is one with numbers and letters. So if you want your phone to be even more secure go into settings and then select “Passcode.”

You’ll have to enter your current passcode and then when you go to change it, the second screen will come up. From there choose “create alphanumeric code,” and come up with whatever combination you like.

9. If you make a mistake remember you can “shake to undo” as a way to backspace:

 

Just shake your phone from almost any screen and you can undo.

10. Use the built-in compass as a level to make sure things are hanging straight:

Open the compass app, and swipe to the left. A new screen will pop up and it’s a level. What’s great about it is that the screen turns green when something is level.

11. Use the built-in clock to go to bed on time

Go into the clock app. Select “Bedtime” at the bottom. Set how many hours you want to sleep each night and the app will tell you what time to go to bed and will wake you up. It can also give you an analysis of your sleep quality. Cool!

12. Have your flashlight go off when you get an alert:

This one’s pretty cool. If you want your phone’s flash you light up when you get an alert do this. Start by going into “settings,” then go into “accessibility,” after that scroll down to the “hearing” category. Once you’re there switch on, “LED Flash for Alerts.” Your phone will now flash when you get a message, phone call, or other alert.

13. You can ask Siri what planes are flying above you right now:

Simply say, “Hey Siri what plans are flying above me right now?”

14. Use your phone to set reminders when you arrive or leave a specific location:

Open the reminders app. Tap the “+” sign and write out your reminder. Once you’re done, tap the “i” next to your reminder. Select “Remind me at a location” and then tap the “location” option that shows up. It will allow you to enter an address and then you can choose “when I arrive” or “when I leave” and you can set a reminder for a particular place.

15. You probably already know this one, but if you push the volume button it will snap a photo:

Pretty simple, but you can use the volume button to snap a photo if your hand can’t reach the actual shutter on the screen.

16. Use the camera as a magnifying glass:

For this one start out in settings. Next choose “general.” Once inside that menu, select “accessibility.” Select “magnifier,” and switch it on.

If you have an iPhone X to activate it click the side button three times. If you have an iPhone 8 or later, you can triple click the home button. You can then zoom in on anything and use the screen to see it easier.

17. If you have an iPhone X you can swipe at the bottom of the screen to switch between apps:

Easily switch between apps on the iPhone X by taking your finger and sliding it across the bottom corner. This makes it easy to get back to what you were doing in a different app.

18. And finally, record in 4K video:

Your phone by default doesn’t record in 4K, but it has the capability to. Every phone after the iPhone 6S can record in 4K.

To turn it on start by going into settings. Next, scroll down and go to “Camera,” once inside the camera settings, tap on record video and select 4K and whichever frame rate you want.

Remember that 4K takes up a lot of space and battery so use it with discretion.

 

What’s your favorite iPhone Tip? Tell about it in the comments below!

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Weekly Round Up 6/29/18

 

I guess anything is better than nothing….
WHAT ARE THE UK’S PLANS FOR LEGISLATING CHILDREN’S USE OF TECHNOLOGY?

Facebook, of course, is selling out people for a quick buck….
Tech companies quietly work with ICE as border crisis continues

….and then turns around and pretends to care.
Tech condemns Trump: Apple, Microsoft, Airbnb oppose separating families at the border

I like the idea of education as a service….
7 CRUCIAL EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY TRENDS FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS

This makes me very happy…
Sesame Workshop to create new children’s TV shows for Apple

I feel like this really isn’t news to us women in the tech field…I just might file this story under “Duh!”
Tech’s leaky pipeline: Sexual harassment in college forcing women out?

Great. Now we can pay them directly for stealing our data.
Facebook is testing subscriptions for private groups, where you pay as much as $30/month for access to exclusive content

As morbid as this sounds, it’s really a good Idea.
How to prepare your Google account for when you pass away

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Tales from the Orchard: Apple’s Screen Time feature proves you’re addicted to your iPhone

 

 

By Heather Kelly of CNN Tech

I spent 36 hours and 23 minutes on my iPhone last week. That’s almost an entire work week frittered away on Netflix, Twitter and Slack.
Clearly, I have a problem.

And the odds are, you do too. Because, face it — we all spend too much time staring at our phones.

Apple wants to help us with that.
Beginning today, anyone with an iPhone 5S and later can glean detailed information about just how often, and for how long, they interact with their device. On Monday, Apple (AAPL) released the public beta of iOS 12, the latest version of its mobile operating system. It includes a suite of features designed to track your phone usage and help you cut down on screen time.

Apple is the latest company to address a mounting issue created by its own products. “Time well spent” is the hot catchphrase in Silicon Valley as tech titans like Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB) roll out features to help people make better use of their time. I’ve spent two weeks using iOS 12, and although it hasn’t changed my habits just yet, I am much more aware of — and anxious about — my relationship with my phone.
Related: Tim Cook reveals his tech habits: I use my phone too much

The new operating system is available now as a beta (which almost certainly includes bugs and isn’t recommended for most users) and coming to everyone later this year. It includes performance improvements, group FaceTime calls, customizable Animoji’s that look like you, and new augmented reality powers. But the central feature is Screen Time.

The tool, found under settings, tallies the time you spend on your phone by day and week, and breaks it down by app and category. It shows how many notifications you receive and how often you pick up your phone (I grab mine every six minutes). You receive all this info in a convenient weekly report that makes it hard to deny you just might have a problem.

 

“Each person has to make the decision when they get their numbers as to what they would like to do,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNN when he announced the feature last month.

After reading my reports, I decided to cut down on social media, which sucked up six hours of my week. I used the Screen Time tools to limit my daily time on Twitter (TWTR) and Instagram and all the rest to just 15 minutes. I soon upped it to one hour, because Screen Time takes its job very seriously. Hit your self-imposed limit and the screen goes gray, making it impossible to see the app. You have the option to extend your time by 15 minutes or waive the limit for the day.

I quickly formed a habit of repeatedly hitting the snooze button while thumbing through Twitter, and eventually just turned off the feature entirely.

Another feature, called “Do Not Disturb,” lets you shut down all your notifications and calls. You can schedule regular blackouts, or simply let your phone shut them down automatically based upon your location, your calendar, and more. I opted to schedule my executive time from 6pm to 9pm, when I’m usually ignoring my phone anyway. That still didn’t stop me from peeking at the screen. I couldn’t help it. You probably can’t, either.

“The biochemistry of your brain is urging you to check in. That’s really hard to change,” said Dr. Larry Rosen, a psychologist and author who focuses on how people use technology.

Stop looking at your phone, he says, and your anxiety mounts. It’s called nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, although you might know it as FOMO–fear of missing out.

Apple isn’t alone in trying to help people with this. Google unveiled similar features for Android, and Facebook is testing time-tracking and alarms in its apps. Such features are the first baby steps toward changing how people use technology. They won’t solve the mounting problem of tech addiction, but Rosen says they’ll make people aware of the problem.

He’s got a point. Seeing just how much time I spend thumbing my phone was sobering, if not entirely helpful. Screen Time, like the Android features, doesn’t provide any context for the data, no suggestions for how I might change my behavior, no clues to what’s normal or even acceptable. It’s hard to know, looking at my weekly report, if 36 hours and change on my phone is dangerously high, or just mildly excessive.

Rosen says his research shows that young adults spend about five hours a day on their devices and glance at them 50 to 60 times. A survey from Deloitte put that figure at 47 times daily.

As for me, Screen Time tells me I pick up my iPhone X a whopping 75 times a day. That shocked me almost as much as learning I look at the damned thing every six minutes. But without knowing where I sit on the bell curve of phone use, it’s hard to know what to do.

“If we want to change how people are habitually interacting with their phone, just giving them more numbers is not going to cut it,” said Ramsay Brown, a neuroscientist and COO of Boundless Mind. His company makes software designed to change user behavior, including a tool called Space that forces you to wait for apps to launch.

If you want to make the jump from being aware of your behavior to changing it, Brown suggests starting with fewer notifications. Apple has new features to help with that. iOS 12 provides more granular control over silencing notifications from some apps, or grouping them in a “stack” so one alert notifies you of the 25 comments left on your latest Instagram post. Siri also will suggest changes to your settings based upon your behavior.

All of that should help, because those infernal notifications trigger half of all phone pickups, Rosen says. If you want to do more, weed out the apps you’re most likely to waste time on (Goodbye, Twitter! See you later, Slack!) by burying them inside a folder or deleting them entirely.

And finally, go easy on yourself. Don’t try to make radical changes all at one. I tried limiting myself to 15 minutes on Twitter, than an hour. That plan that quickly fell apart. Rather than beat myself up, I’ll try using it just a little less, paying more attention to the people around me, and maybe deleting a few apps.

It may not work. But at least Screen Time has made me aware of the problem. That’s the point.

Do you have any tips for curing tech addiction? Tell us in the comments below!

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WIT: This Silicon Valley exec has dedicated her career to empowering women. Has it worked?

 

By Shanon Gupta of CNN Tech

When Sukhinder Singh Cassidy would look around boardrooms, all she’d see were men.

In her 20-plus year career in Silicon Valley, she had only sat on one gender-balanced company board.

“The candor of discussion among all participants was definitely stronger on [that] board,” the entrepreneur told CNNMoney. Cassidy knew there had to be a way to increase the representation of women.

Her solution? Hire more women directors.

“There are a number of seats in the boardroom, versus just one seat as CEO,” she explained. That makes the boardroom the perfect place to gather diverse perspectives.

Three years ago, she created theBoardlist, a site that connects female leaders with opportunities on tech company boards — 75% to 78% of which have no women at all, according to the company’s research.

The site invites executives and investors to help identify and recommend candidates. So far, more than 2,000 female business leaders have joined the site.

Since its launch, theBoardlist says it’s helped place more than 100 women on private and public company boards, including Aparna Chennapragada to Capital One’s board in March.

Before launching the theBoardlist, Cassidy was the founder and CEO of the online shopping network, Joyus, and the CEO of Polyvore, a website that allowed users to make fashion collages. This year, she became the president of Stubhub.

CNNMoney asked Cassidy about her fight to make Silicon Valley more inclusive for women, the power of #MeToo and the scariest part about running her own business.

Where did you find your inspiration for TheBoardlist?

I was a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, serving on public boards, and asked by a venture capitalist, “What can we do to solve the problem for women in tech?” (He was referring to the lack of women in the tech industry.)


I suggested that 100% of VCs in the valley could act now by putting a great woman leader on the board of every company they funded. I believed we could change the game significantly with this one simple act at the top.

While I pitched the idea to him and several other VCs, none took me up on the offer. A year later, I continued to be frustrated by the continued narrative about how there were so few women in tech, and I wanted to provide a tangible solution.

I reached out to 50 influential leaders in Silicon Valley and they helped me launch theBoardlist in less than 45 days.

Has the #MeToo movement had an impact on theBoardlist’s goals or mission?

Our mission has not changed from the day we launched: improve gender diversity in the boardroom.

What has changed is the environment in which we operate. Movements like #MeToo have brought greater visibility and accountability to behavior in the workplace, causing more people to seek out ways to address the issue.

So, while our mission hasn’t changed, the urgency and demand for solutions like theBoardlist have certainly increased.

Have attitudes toward women in Silicon Valley changed since you launched three years ago?

There has definitely been movement in the right direction.

TheBoardlist recently highlighted 30 public and private tech companies that have at least one woman on their board. We receive requests from men and women alike every day for qualified female talent to fill open board seats.

But, when we look at the overall picture — with theBoardlist’s research showing that only 7% of board seats at private tech companies filled by women — we know we still have a long way to go.

What’s the scariest part of your job?

The scariest part is living in constant uncertainty over a period of years, not months.

As a founder and CEO in the tech industry there are two big truths: Change is constant and timing is everything.

Innovation de facto means doing something different from the status quo. But consumers may not yet be ready to adopt even the best new ideas, despite what you build.

And while you are trying to find the right product for the market, the landscape itself keeps changing with new competitors and other companies also pivoting into your space. This creates even more uncertainty.

While I’ve gotten comfortable living with constant change, the fear of pouring all I’ve got into a company or idea and knowing it might not pan out never quite goes away.

If I could tell my 18-year-old self one thing, what would it be?

To relax. It all works out as it’s supposed to for each of us.
I was even more intense and impatient when I was younger, but I did ultimately find my place in Silicon Valley where I thrived by embracing my strengths and going where they were valued.
I believe you can’t “force” everything to happen, but you can feel confident that if you know who you are and focus on excelling in one or two areas where you shine, you will find your professional and personal success.

What brings you the most joy?

Personally, my children and family and being with them. Professionally, its building new experiences that consumers love and working with tremendous people along the way to achieve that goal.

If you could have dinner with any influential figure from any time period, who would it be with and why?

Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi, because I’m awed by leaders who embrace their resisters and create change over very long periods of time using patience and calm, peaceful protest.

This is often in contrast to the high speed, highly competitive and rapid return mindset we practice in industries like technology. Seeing the lasting and global impact of leaders of this type is inspiring on both a leadership level, but also a deeply personal one.

I’m especially inspired by their abilities to create change using fundamentally different skills than the ones I have.

What do you want to be remembered for?

Creating and building new joyful, delightful or empowering experiences that lots of people love to use.

I’d also like to be remembered as someone who was able to accelerate the success of others throughout my professional career, and who always acted with great authenticity and integrity.

What’s something most people probably don’t know about you?

My parents were doctors, but my father loved being an entrepreneur as much as he loved medicine.

He exposed me to every aspect of his business from a very young age and taught me the value of working for myself. I look back on him today and understand the power of being raised by the quintessential entrepreneur.

If you weren’t a founder and CEO, what would you be?

I’d be a film producer because I loved making movies in high school and am always moved by the power of great storytelling through film.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Work really hard and do great work for great people. There is no substitute for the value of putting your head down and being known as the person who will over deliver without ever needing to be asked.

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App of the Week: Companion

Meet Companion, a travel app that claims it will keep you safe.

 

 

By Christopher Elliott of Fortune.com

Can a smartphone really keep you safe? On the face of it, the answer is, of course not. A phone can’t protect you from violent crime any more than a PC or a tablet computer. But information is power, as they say, and the combination of a smartphone’s data, location technology and innovation can keep you out of some kinds of trouble.

That’s the idea behind Companion, an iOS app that allows solo travelers to connect with family, friends or public safety departments who can track them on their trip and get alerts if they run into trouble. It’s part of a growing category of apps that promise to keep you safer when you’re on the road, including LiveSafe and Rave Guardian.

Companion became one of the most downloaded iPhone apps early after it’s initial release. Although the company wouldn’t disclose exact numbers, a representative told FORTUNE that it has more than a million users.

It’s no surprise. A slew of articles in the tech press have breathlessly described Companion as an “incredible” new app that lives up to its billing of keeping you safer on the go.

Here’s how it works

Say you’re walking back home after dark through a questionable neighborhood. The app allows you to designate one of your smartphone contacts as a “companion,” letting that person know where you are and where you’re going.

The Companion app tracks you as you head home, asking you if you’re “OK” from time to time. If you don’t acknowledge the prompt by tapping a button, the app will notify your companion that you could be in trouble.

The app can also tell if you’re walking or have broken into a jog, and it can detect if your headphones have been removed from the jack. Any of these events can trigger a notification, sending a message to your designated friend or to law enforcement.
“We are able to detect when you may be in a sketchy situation and automatically alert your companions with our real-time alert system,” the company says on its site.

But the app has garnered some decidedly mixed reviews.

“I feel ten times safer walking home [with Companion],” raved one iTunes store reviewer. “I constantly get approached by strange men and the ‘I feel nervous’ button is an awesome idea.”

Another customer complained that she selected a companion — her husband — and then tried to send him notifications. She received a return receipt, but he never received them. She called the app “dangerous and deceptive.”

Overall, the app has three out of a possible five stars.

Who’s getting saved?

I asked the company if it could connect me with any satisfied users — people who found themselves in an unsafe situation and were helped by Companion. Normally, software developers keep a list of end-users who are willing to share their stories with the press.

“We have no concrete examples of someone being saved by our app,” Lexie Ernst, the co-founder of Companion, told me. “However, we have heard many people say that they love using Companion with their kids who walk alone to a bus stop early in the morning, with their family/friends studying or traveling abroad, and even people using it with their elderly parents or grandparents. Overall, it’s a great way to keep in touch!”

Perhaps Companion’s promise to turn your iPhone into a “safety device” is slightly overstated, but one thing is certain: The app appeared on the scene at the right time. No amount of smartphone technology, or wearable devices and new features, can really protect us from a determined criminal — at least not yet.

Download Companion for iOS here.

 

What do you think of this kind of App? Useful or no? Sound off in the comments below!

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How to: prepare for the iOS 12 public beta

 

 

By Matthew Potuck of 9to5Mac

Apple has shared that it will open up its public beta program for iOS 12 (along with macOS Mojave and tvOS 12) this month. Are you considering running the latest software on your iPhone or iPad? Follow along for how to get ready to join the iOS 12 public beta.

We don’t know exactly when Apple will launch the iOS 12 public beta, but based on previous years, it could be early next week. While it can be exciting to pickup the latest features and updates ahead of this fall’s general release, there are some considerations before installing beta software on your iPhone (or other device).

How to prepare for the iOS 12 public beta

 

Expectations

Before installing the iOS 12 public beta, it can be easy to focus on all the great features and changes that the software will bring. However, it’s also important think about the downsides and weigh the trade-offs.

Being pre-release software, the public beta will naturally include bugs that means apps and features won’t always be reliable. That being said, the first and second iOS 12 developer betas have been relatively stable.

Here’s a few of the issues we’ve noticed at 9to5Mac so far:
• GPS showing inaccurate location
• CarPlay crashing when viewing backup and side camera
• Reminders app crashing
• Increased battery drain

If you can, install the public beta on a secondary iPhone (or iPad). Otherwise, just make sure you’re okay taking some risks if you’re going to go for it on a primary device.

Backing up

If you do decide to run the public beta, backing up your iPhone is especially important. If you’ve been using iCloud to back up with iOS 11, these will be replaced by iOS 12 iCloud backups once you move to the public beta. If at any point you want to revert to iOS 11, you won’t be able to restore from an iOS 12 iCloud backup.

Be sure to make an iTunes backup with your Mac or PC with your iPhone prior to installing iOS 12. This will allow you to restore your data in the event you’d like to downgrade to iOS 11.

Keep in mind that while this is one of the best solutions to protecting your data when running the public beta, there may be some missing data depending on how long a timeframe there is between your last pre-beta backup and when you revert from iOS 12 back to iOS 11.

The best idea to cover your bases is to download and save any important information manually, both before installing the beta and before downgrading from iOS 12 (if you do).

Smörgåsbord

If you’re eager to try out the other public betas, Apple will be launching tvOS 12, macOS 10.14 Mojave alongside iOS 12 access. Like last year, Apple will be reserving watchOS 5 for the developer beta only.

Check out the videos below covering all that’s new with iOS 12, macOS Mojave and more.

 

Are you planning to try any of Apple’s Public Betas of their new software? Sound off in the comments below.

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Tales form the Orchard: Apple Nabs Oprah in Latest A-List Grab

 

 

By Kimberly Roots of TVLine.com

Apple just got OWN’d.

Oprah Winfrey has entered a multi-year content partnership with the tech company, Apple announced Friday.

The producer/actress/talk-show host/force of nature will join Apple in creating “original programs that embrace her incomparable ability to connect with audiences around the world,” per the official release.

Winfrey’s projects will be part of Apple’s robust slate of original content, which includes a Reese Witherspoon/Jennifer Aniston-starring series set at a morning talk show, a comedy featuring Hailee Steinfeld as poet Emily Dickinson, and dramas from directors Damien Chazelle (La La Land) and M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense). The tech giant has also ordered the thriller Are You Sleeping, headlined by Octavia Spencer, and an untitled Kristen Wiig comedy, both executive-produced by Witherspoon.

Winfrey’s national TV career began with her daytime gabfest The Oprah Winfrey Show; her Harpo Productions company are responsible for Dr. Phil, The Dr. Oz Show and Rachael Ray. She founded the cable network OWN, of which she is CEO and chairman, in 2011.

At the Golden Globes ceremony in January, she was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille award and accepted with a speech that many hoped hinted at a future presidential bid. (Winfrey later said that she was not interested in running for office.)

“For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare to speak their truth to the power of [brutally powerful] men,” Winfrey said in her remarks. “But their time is up… A new day is on the horizon! And when that day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women… and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that… nobody ever has to say, ‘Me too’ again!”

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WIT: Atlanta’s Women Cybersecurity Leaders Stoke Interest in Tech with Girl Scouts

 

By Madison Hogan of americaninno.com

Several of the leading women in cybersecurity in Atlanta know all too well what its like to be the only woman in a room.

Enter the Atlanta Women in Cybersecurity Roundtable. It’s an initiative founded by women chief privacy officers, chief information security officers, general councils and other executives who want to share their experiences, collaborate on industry initiatives and inspire young women to enter the field.

Bess Hinson, a senior associate at Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP and chair of the firm’s cybersecurity and privacy practice, said she started her search for other women in cybersecurity about a year ago, surfing LinkedIn and other sources to find peers.

“It’s so nice to be in a room with women and I think that when you work in a profession where everything is new and rapidly evolving and changing and you’re the only woman in the room, it can feel isolating and it can feel challenging,” she said.

When Hinson first organized the roundtable, she was working with a list of 12 women leaders in the city; today, about a year since its inception, the organization has 45 active members. Some of the members include female leadership in cybersecurity at The Home Depot, AT&T, Equifax, SunTrust and Gwinnett Medical Center, she said.

“We now have 32 organizations and companies represented on the roundtable,” she said. “The idea was to bring together these women, because studies show that in the United States of America, only 1 in 10 cybersecurity professionals are women.”

Though one of the fastest growing sectors in tech with the rise of data-breaches and hacking, women are far too often a minority in the field, Hinson said. The purpose of roundtable is to get these women together to share their experiences when all too often, there’s not another female leader in the office, and the role of a cybersecurity leader is often to relay bad or challenging news to leadership.

“We share our challenges and we compare notes on how we are assisting our companies and leadership to understand the security risks which exist and also to support each other and communicate these risks to leadership,” she said. “Women with great power within their organization and incredible responsibility are communicating new, scary, cutting edge risks related to technology and big data to the C-suite—that I would venture to say in most cases is still majority male and a more senior generation that may have less familiarity with the technologies that are being implemented and used to help these businesses thrive.”

But the scope of the roundtable goes beyond sharing tips for how to prepare a CEO on a data-breach or how to lead, Hinson said. The women also hope their work will lead by example for young women and girls who wish to pursue STEM fields and see that cybersecurity is a career path for them, she said.

“IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, THAT A CYBERSECURITY PROFESSIONAL LOOKS LIKE YOU, YOU AREN’T GOING TO ENVISION YOURSELF IN THAT ROLE. WE NEED EXAMPLES.”

 

“I think it continues to be an uphill battle,” she said. “I’ve had several conversations with professors at Kennesaw State who teach related curricula, and they have very few women who go on to complete the degree in cybersecurity and they are pushing hard to support these women who have an interest. I think that, unfortunately some stereotypes remain within academia regarding whether girls or young women could be good at science or engineering, I think some of our institutions do a great job supporting young women—Georgia Tech does a great job of bringing women in that pipeline. But not everyone does.”

Recently, the roundtable has partnered with the Girl Scouts of Atlanta to educate troop leaders on cybersecurity who will teach their troops on the subject for the opportunity to earn a newly debuted cybersecurity badge. Hinson said troop leaders may not understand all the technicalities and nuances with cybersecurity, which is where leaders from the roundtable come in.

“I think it’s going to be very helpful for members to serve as if they were teachers to the troop leaders to help give them some insight and also some examples of how this applies to the real world,” she said. “And I think it’ll give the troop leaders more tools and basics of cybersecurity of the curriculum as they’re teaching it.”

Role models are essential for young girls, Hinson said, and even more so in the cybersecurity industry because of the statistic stating women’s presence in the sector is few and far between.

“If you don’t know what it looks like, that a cybersecurity professional looks like you, you aren’t going to envision yourself in that role,” she said. “We need examples.”

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App of the Week: Notability

Notability for iOS adds handwriting search & conversion, side-by-side view, & more!

 

By Chance Miller of 9to5Mac

Popular note-taking and annotation app Notability has been updated this week with a handful of new features. The update brings the app to version 8.0 and includes handwriting recognition and conversion, a new Multi-Note feature, and much more.

For iPad users, Notability now supports Handwriting Search. This means the app is capable of searching your handwritten notes, making it much easier to go back and find the information you need. Furthermore, that handwriting can also be converted to text. Notability says that the first time you open the app after updating, it will automatically index your existing library of notes:

• Handwriting is now searchable from the Library and within a specific note.
• Handwriting can also be converted to text.
• The first time you launch Notability, your library will be indexed.

After that, your handwriting will be searchable! If you have a lot of handwriting, creating the initial index may take a while.

Also for iPad users, Notability now supports a side-by-side view of notes with a new Multi-Note feature. This allows you to view two sets of notes next to each other, allowing you to seamlessly switch between them.

• Multi-Note lets you work with two notes side-by-side.
• The new Note Switcher allows you to quickly switch between notes.
• Supports audio recording and playback.

Finally, the update brings a new Recent Notes section, allowing you to view your 10 most recently accessed notes directly on the homepage of the application.

Now that the $329 iPad supports Apple Pencil, there’s a much bigger market for advanced note taking applications like Notability. The app allows you to easily create notes from scratch, as well as to annotate existing documents such as PDFs and slide shows.

Notability is a $9.99 download on the App Store and is available for iPhone and iPad.

Do you have a favorite Notetaking App? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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How to: Call 911 from Your Apple Watch in Case of an Emergency

 

 

By Justin Meyers of ios.gadgethacks.com

When you can’t reach your iPhone or don’t have it on you, how do you get help from emergency services? Unless you have one of those life-alert mobile triggers, someone nearby, or some amazing telepathy skills, hope might be the only answer — unless you wear an Apple Watch, that is.

No matter which model of Apple Watch you own, one of the biggest benefits it has is its “Emergency SOS” feature. In the United States, once activated, the Apple Watch will automatically call 911 emergency services and send emergency contacts the coordinates to your current location, if possible.

If you’re traveling abroad, your Apple Watch will call whatever local emergency service there is. However, in some countries, such as China, you have to set it to call either the police, fire department, or an ambulance beforehand.

 

How Different Apple Watches Call Emergency Services

If you have a newer Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) model, you don’t need to have your iPhone nearby to make an emergency call. Technically, you don’t even need to have a cellular carrier to call 911, just like you don’t need to with an iPhone, but it it doesn’t work as smoothly though. Aside from being able to record your runs and make calls, this is the number one reason to invest in a Series 3 model with cellular capabilities, not just GPS.

For other Apple Watch models, you’ll need to be connected to your iPhone, which also needs a cellular connection. Alternatively, if there is no cellular signal, an Enhanced 911 (E911) call can be made over Wi-Fi as long as you have “Wi-Fi Calling” enabled on your iPhone. Also, as long as you have “Wi-Fi Calling” turned on on your iPhone, you don’t need to be near the iPhone to call E911 either — your Apple Watch just needs to be connected to a known 802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network.

• Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular): Can make 911 calls over its own cellular connection. Can make E911 calls with Wi-Fi calling enabled, with or without iPhone nearby, as long as connected to a known Wi-Fi network.
• Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS): Can make 911 calls over connected iPhone’s cellular network. Can make E911 calls with Wi-Fi calling enabled, with or without iPhone nearby, as long as connected to a known Wi-Fi network.
• Apple Watch Series 2: Can make 911 calls over connected iPhone’s cellular network. Can make E911 calls with Wi-Fi calling enabled, with or without iPhone nearby, as long as connected to a known Wi-Fi network.
• Apple Watch Series 1: Can make 911 calls over connected iPhone’s cellular network. Can make E911 calls with Wi-Fi calling enabled, with or without iPhone nearby, as long as connected to a known Wi-Fi network.
AT&T, C Spire, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon Wireless all support E911 calls over Wi-Fi. However, emergency calls over Wi-Fi might not be supported outside of the US.

Making Sure Wi-Fi Calling Is Enabled on Your iPhone

No matter if you have an Apple Watch with cellular capabilities or not, you’ll want to enable “Wi-Fi Calling” in order to make E911 calls when there is no cellular connection available. This is especially important when you don’t have your iPhone nearby during an emergency, because your Apple Watch can use an existing trusted Wi-Fi network nearby, if one is available, to call emergency services.

To make sure this is set up, on your iPhone, open up the Settings app, then select “Phone,” followed by “Wi-Fi Calling.” After that, tap “Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone” to toggle it on, if not already enabled.

After tapping the toggle, you’ll be greeted with a confirmation prompt giving you more details about what this setting does. Hit “Enable” to finish things up.

Once back on the “Wi-Fi Calling” screen, it’s a good idea to select “Update Emergency Address” to make sure the address matches where you will be, since emergency technicians may use this as a basis if they can’t find your exact coordinates. If you’re in your hometown, your home address is likely best here. If traveling, maybe your hotel information.

 

Make Sure ‘Hey Siri’ Is Working on Your Apple Watch

As you’ll see in a bit, one way to call 911 with your Apple Watch is to use the “Hey Siri” command, but that will only work if you have “Hey Siri” enabled. To make sure it’s on, go to the Settings app on your Apple Watch, then tap “General.” Next, select “Siri,” then make sure “Hey Siri” is toggled on.

If you cannot toggle it on, you likely have Siri turned off on your iPhone. While “Hey Siri” does not need to be enabled on your iPhone, Siri itself does need to be in order for it to work on your Apple Watch. On your iPhone, open up Settings, then select “Siri & Search.” On the next screen, make sure “Press Home for Siri” or “Press Side Button for Siri” is toggled on. If not, tap it, then “Enable Siri” on the popup. Then try enabling “Hey Siri” on your Apple Watch again.

Set Your Emergency SOS Preferences

When it comes to actually calling emergency services, there are two ways you can go about it, depending on how you set things up. On your iPhone, open up the Apple Watch app, tap on the “My Watch” tab, then select “General.” From the list of options that appear, select “Emergency SOS.”

Here, you have two options. If “Hold to Auto Call” is toggled on, you’ll just have to hold down the side button on your Watch for about five seconds. When this is toggled off, you will only be able to long-press the side button to bring up the option to activate an emergency call by swiping.

On is probably the best option because, in some emergencies, such as struggling in the water, press-holding is a surefire way to make the call, while swiping on the screen may not work properly because of the capacitance.

If you’d like a close relative or friend to be contacted automatically about the emergency, you can set up an emergency contact in the Health app on your iPhone.

After a call to 911 has finished, this contact (or contacts) will receive a text message with your current location — even if “Location Services” is turned off — though, you can cancel this if it’s nothing too serious. They may also get periodic updates if your location changes, which can help them find you at the hospital when you get there, if that’s the case.

Calling 911 from Your Apple Watch

With everything set up and ready to go, calling 911 or another emergency service is super easy, and there are a few ways to do it, depending on how you set things up.
If you have “Hold to Auto Call” enabled above, long-press the side button on your Watch. Keep long-pressing it until a successful call has been made. The power menu will appear briefly, then a countdown from “3” will begin, alerting you with a sound and vibration. When the countdown is over, the call will be made.

This other way works whether or not “Hold to Auto Call” is enabled. Just long-press the side button, then when the power menu appears, swipe the “Emergency SOS” slider to the right to immediately make the call.

Alternatively, if you can’t reach the button on your Watch for some reason, you can also use Siri to call 911 for you. After saying “Hey Siri, call 911” to your Apple Watch, a countdown will begin, and the call will go through after five seconds. You can also tap “Call” to make it right away or “Cancel” to stop it.

If you can’t speak, emergency services still may be able to locate you after making the call. You can also try using Siri to text 911 a distress message, but very few call centers in the US can handle emergency texts, and you’ll like get a response saying to call 911 instead.

 

How Emergency Services Can Track You Down

After placing a call to 911, the first thing you should do it tell them where you’re at so they can locate you even if the call gets cut off. If you can’t speak, though, how do they know where you’re located?

There’s no easy way to say exactly what will happen in every scenario since different carriers utilize different technologies to communicate with public-safety answering points, and those call centers may or may not be equipped to handle wireless enhanced 911 calls for each carrier, if at all. Keep in mind, when making cellular calls to 911 from an Apple Watch, the call may use the Watch’s cellular capabilities, if any, or use your nearby iPhone’s cellular network.

• If you’re using a carrier-branded hotspot to call over Wi-Fi, the 911 call will likely be made to the 911 communications center that services that hotspot’s area, and that hotspot may serve as a basis for locating you.
• When making a Wi-Fi call using another trusted network, the call center may use your “Emergency Address” that you added when setting up Wi-Fi Calling, so always make sure this is up to date.
• When making the call over a cellular network, they may or may not receive a general location based on which cellular tower the call came from.
• In some cases, the call center may “re-bid,” or refresh, the data to receive a more accurate location thanks to AGPS and other technologies, if making the call over a cellular network.
• When an approximate location is unattainable, the call center may use your “Emergency Address” that you added when setting up Wi-Fi Calling, so always make sure this is up to date.

You can visit AT&T, C Spire, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, or Verizon Wireless to learn more about how each carrier handles 911 calls on their end.

If you’re unresponsive when the police or emergency medical technicians get to you, they can use your “Medical ID” on your Apple Watch to see basic information about you, such as age, weight, medication allergies, etc., if you previously added that info in iOS. You can add Medical ID information via the Health app on your iPhone.

After the 911 call has ended, your emergency contacts, if any, will get texts with your location data, and they may continue to get updates on your location until you cancel.

Real-Life Examples of How Apple Watch Saves Lives

John Dovgin’s muscles gave out when about to take his boat out on Lake Michigan with his wife in late-April 2018. He fell into the cold water and was at risk of drowning. John’s wife, Mary, threw a life ring at him to hold onto, but also went into the water to make sure he did not drown. She was able to get emergency crews there to help pull John out of the water after using Siri on her Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) to call 911 using its cellular connection.

A few months before that, Kacie Anderson was stopped at a red light when her car was struck by a drunk driver. She and her child were flung around inside the car before it came to a stop. Unable to find her iPhone after the crash, she then used the side button on her Apple Watch to call 911 for help. The child only had minor injuries, but Kacie suffered a severe concussion, brain swelling, and bulging disks.

In April 2017, Casey Bennet was driving to class when he was hit by another driver, which flipped his Jeep over and caused him to be trapped by the seat belt and the deployed airbag. His iPhone was out of reach, but he was able to use the long-press shortcut on his Apple Watch to call 911 for help.

These are just a few instances where the Apple Watch has saved lives.

Preventing Accidental 911 Calls from Apple Watch

As helpful as Emergency SOS is, it does have a downside. If the “Hold to Auto Call” option is toggled on, which is the default position, there’s a chance you could accidentally call 911 when you’re sleeping. If you’re a light sleeper, the loud sounds and vibrations during the countdown should wake you, but if you’re a deep sleeper, you may make an unintentional emergency call.

There are plenty of stories of Apple Watch owners having the police show up unexpectedly. Some triggered the call while sleeping, while others have triggered it when changing Watch bands. To keep this from happening, just make sure “Hold to Auto Call” is disabled.

 

 

 

How do you feel about using the iPhone and the Apple Watch as Personal Safety Devices? Sound off in the Comments below!

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