How to Grant or Deny an iOS App Access to Your Location

Many of the apps you install ask for permission to access your location - and if the app seems useful, you're going to allow it more often than not. But we tend to forget about this afterwards, and over time, you've got a dozen different apps that are asking for location information and draining out the battery. For both privacy reasons and practical concerns about battery life, this kind of usage is a problem. Or sometimes it happens you deny an app location access on first launch, but you may need to enable it later, but are not sure how to go about this.

Some apps such as Zomato only use your location when you have the app open. Others such as Google Maps use your location even in the background. There may be a legitimate reason for this. In the case of Google Maps, it provides directions even when the app is not open. But that's not the case for all apps that use your location.

The easy solution is to just turn off the GPS altogether - but this means that even important apps you rely on can't check your location. If your battery life is getting worse by the day though, or if you're just not comfortable with certain apps sharing your location data, then you can turn off location access for just those apps.

Here's how to enable or disable location access for individual apps on iPhone or iPad.

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
2. Now scroll down to see a list of apps that seek location access.
3. Next to each app, you will see the text Never, While Using, or Always. Apps that have Never written next to their names don't use your location data. While Using means that the app only accesses location data when it is on screen. Always means that the app can access location data even when it is not running.
4. Tap any app that has Always displayed next to its name.
5. Now tap While Using the App. This will ensure that the app doesn't use your location in the background. Some apps don't allow this option, in which case, if you don't think that the app should always access your location, change the setting to Never.
6. Scroll to the bottom and tap System Services.
7. Now you can see system services that use your location in the background. Find My iPhone is a useful anti-theft feature, so you should not deny it location access. You can turn the others off depending on your requirements.

Do you prefer to have apps using your location in the background? Did denying location access improve the battery life on your iPhone or iPad? Let us know via the comments.

For more tutorials, visit our How To section

How to Switch Off and Turn On iPhone, iPad With a Damaged Power Button

If you're an iPhone or iPad user, then you might not realise just how much you end up using the power on your phone. The home button is essential to navigate through your device, and the use of the volume buttons and the mute switch on the side is pretty obvious too, but if your power button stops working, you can't turn your phone off - or back on again for that matter.

It's also pretty easy to damage, with external factors such as excess humidity or dust that can make it stop working. You can get by without switching off the iOS device, but it is always good to be able to turn the phone off if needed. These simple steps to switch off the device without touching the power button could come in really handy.

(Also see: How to Add Touchscreen Home Button on iPhone, iPad)

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to General > Accessibility.
3. Scroll down to the section labelled INTERACTION and tap on AssistiveTouch.
4. On the next screen, toggle AssistiveTouch to the green On position.
5. A white circle with a grey box will appear on screen. Tap this circle to expand it to a big box on screen.
6. Tap Device.
7. Tap and hold Lock Screen until the red-and-white power icon appears on screen with the text slide to power off next to it.
8. Slide the power icon to the right to switch off the iPhone or iPad.

That takes care of switching the device off, but what do you do if you want to turn it back on? If the power button is damaged, how else can you switch on an iOS device? The answer is - charge the device. Yes, just connect it to a power socket or to a USB port on any computer. The device will turn back on in a few seconds. As soon as the white screen with the Apple logo appears, you can disconnect the charger or USB cable.

Have you used any other creative ways to switch off or turn on your iPhone or iPad? Let us know via the comments. For more tutorials, head to our How To section.

How to Enable Extensions in iOS 8

If you're using iOS 8 then sharing from apps has become a lot simpler. Earlier, you could only share links and images to Facebook, Twitter and Apple's default apps. Sending a link from Safari to Pocket (for example) meant copying the link, and then closing Safari and launching Pocket, and finally adding the link. Similarly, if you had been using a third-party password manager app, you would have had to open the app, copy your password and paste it in your browser.

All of those cumbersome steps are no longer necessary. As long as the app you're using supports iOS 8 extensions, sharing will seem much easier.

Understanding extensions
Before you start sharing, take a moment to read about the different kinds of extensions on iOS 8. Primarily, there are four types of extensions in the OS.
1.Photo extensions
These appear in the Photos app and let you share photos and videos directly to third-party apps.

2.Share Sheets
Apps that support share sheets will let you share photos, videos and links to other apps. Safari browser supports share sheets and Chrome has added it too.
3. Action extensions
When you tap the share button in Safari, you'll see two rows of icons. The first row is for share sheets, while the second is for action extensions. Actions were limited to Print, Copy and Bookmark, but now include third party apps. Unlike a Share sheet, where the browser is sharing content, Actions let the third party app "send" information to your browser. This is where, for example, you can use 1password to automatically enter your passwords while browsing the Web.

4. Interactive notifications and widgets
Interactive notifications let you reply to text messages or calendar invites from the lock screen or a tiny banner at the top of the screen. You don't have to do anything to enable these - it's up to apps to enable support for this. Widgets show you updates quickly in the Notification Centre. We've covered how to enable widgets in iOS 8 and written about our favourite iOS 8 widgets as well.

Now that you know about the different types of extensions, here's how to enable them.
Photo extensions
Want to edit photos using third-party apps? You can do this quickly through the Photos app itself. Here's how.
1. Open the Photos app and open any photo.
2. Tap Edit on the top-right.
3. Now tap the three dots icon at the top-left.
4. Tap More in the pop-up.
5. Now you'll see a list of installed apps that support photo extensions. Each app will have an on/off switch next to it, so switch on the extensions you want to enable.
6. You can also drag the three horizontal lines next to the switch to change the order in which these extensions show up.
7. When you've enabled extensions, tap Done.
Now these extensions will show up everytime you tap Edit and hit the three dots icon after opening any photo.

Share Sheets
Share Sheets let you share data with third-party apps. Here's how to use them.
1. Open Safari and open any website.
2. Tap the share button.
3. In the first row of icons, swipe to the end of the list and tap More.

4. A list of installed apps that support Share Sheets will show up here. Slide the on/off switches and tap the three horizontal lines icon to re-order them.
5. Tap Done when you've set it up.
6. Now tap the share button in Safari to see the extensions you enabled.

Action extensions
Password manager apps are making the most of this feature. Here's how to enable it.
1. Open Safari and head to any website.
2. Tap the share button and swipe left in the second row of icons.
3. Swipe to the end of the list and tap More.
4. Now installed apps that support action extensions will appear in a list.

5. Use the on/off switches to enable or disable these. Again, drag the three horizontal lines icon to rearrange the extensions.
6. Tap Done when you're finished.
7. Now go back to Safari and tap share to see these extensions appear in the second row. Password manager apps use this to let you enter passwords quickly on any website.
As of now, one problem with extensions is that none of the apps remember the order in which you want these extensions. We noticed that the extensions always seemed to reset to the default order, no matter how many times we changed the order. This bug will hopefully be fixed soon, but it doesn't affect the extensions' functionality, and enabled extensions remain on, which is more important anyway.
We hope you've managed to configure extensions on your iOS device. Tell us about your favourite extensions via the comments. For more tutorials, visit our How to section.

How to Add Widgets to iOS 8's Notification Centre

Don't want to open apps to check minor things like the weather forecast or cricket scores? Widgets are just what you need. With widgets you can get bite sized information from your apps without having to launch an app. In iOS 8, Apple lets you add widgets to the Notification Centre. This keeps your home screen free of clutter and keeps nuggets of information just a swipe away.
We've written about the notification centre widgets that we like and you should read that article if you want to know which widgets to get started with. If you've updated to iOS 8 and want to know how to enable widgets, read on.
1. Install apps that support Notification Centre widgets. The HemanthSomaraju(Still unavailability in Google play) app does, apart from several others such as Yahoo News Digest, Dropbox, Sky Guide, etc.
2. Now on your iOS device's home screen, swipe down from the top to pull down the Notification Centre.
3. Tap the Today button near the top of the screen.
4. You'll see your day's notification. Tap the Edit button at the bottom of the page.
5. Now you'll see a list of installed apps that support widgets. Tap the green '+' button next to each widget to show it in the notification centre.
6. If you want to remove any widget from the Notification Centre, tap the red '-' button next to the widget.
7. You can also rearrange these widgets. Simply tap and hold the three horizontal lines on the right side of any widget and drag it up or down to the position you desire.
8. When you're done tweaking, tap Done at the top right.
That's it. Now widgets will appear in the Today view in the Notification Centre. Which are your favourite widgets? Let us know via the comments. For more tutorials, visit our How to section.

The Best iOS 8 Notification Centre Widgets

The iOS notification centre already included widgets for weather and calendar, but these were fairly limited. With the launch of iOS 8, the notification centre gets a huge upgrade, as you can now control which apps show up and what additional information can be presented using widgets. This can range from a calendar to a translation widget to just showing you your progress in different books.
There are a lot to choose from and some are more useful than others. We used quite a few of these widgets and here are our favourites.
Wdgts
Wdgts is a great app to start with that really makes the most use of the notification centre. This app has five basic functions - calculator, currency converter, time zones, calendar and photo frame. It puts all of these in your notification centre. Want to quickly check the current exchange rate or make a quick calculation? You can access all these functions at any time by just opening the notification centre.
iTranslate
This widget lets you quickly translate text into English quickly - all you need to do is copy the text wherever you encounter it, and iTranslate will show you the English translation in the notification centre. So if you come across a word in a webpage, email or book, you don't need to copy and paste it into Safari, and then search for it. Simple use cases like this are a great way of using the notification centre without making it complicated.

Sky Guide
Sky Guide (Rs. 150) is a great app for stargazing, more of which we have written about earlier. This app has a widget that shows you the time of the day (or night) when celestial bodies will be visible. In the widget you can see these times for the Sun, Moon (along with its phases), Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. A neat graph to illustrate this is the icing on the cake.

Evernote
Evernote uses widgets to help you speed up the note-taking process. It shows five buttons - text, camera, photos, reminders and list. You can pick any one of these and jump to typing notes in the Evernote app. This gets full marks for boosting productivity, as you save time by quickly selecting the type of note you want to create.

Yahoo Weather
The beauty of Yahoo Weather lies in its design. It is perhaps the best weather app on the App Store from a design perspective. Yahoo Weather now has a widget that shows you the current temperature and forecast in the widget, along with nice background images that are a hallmark of the app. Our only complaint is that the image doesn't fill the width of the screen, but hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Best of the rest
We also liked widgets of many other apps, and here are the best of the rest.

1. Audiobooks from Audible: Tracks total time spent listening to audiobooks. Version 2.2 of this app often crashes on launch, so wait for a fix (v 2.2.1) before you download it.
2. Parcel is a nice app for tracking deliveries of shipments. Unfortunately, it does not support courier services based in India yet.
3. Day One (Rs. 300): Tracks how many notes you have taken everyday and shows a them in a notes versus time bar graph. Shows a few past entries and photos too.
4. TwoDots: This fun puzzle game uses widgets to show game progress, lives remaining and medals won.
5. Dropbox: Shows most recent files from your Dropbox folder. If you use a shared folder, you can quickly open files added by others in the group.

Which iOS 8 widgets did you find like? Let us know via the comments.

How to Make and Answer Calls, Send and Receive SMS From Your iPad, Mac

One of the headline features of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite is their ability to share phone calls and text messages. You can make calls and send text messages from both iPad and the Mac if you've updated to the latest versions of the software. This is incredibly convenient if you're wedded to the Apple ecosystem - you no longer have to switch devices just to answer a phone call. The ability to share phone calls is one of our favourite iOS 8 features and it is easy to set up too. Here's how you can start making and receiving phone calls on your iPad and Mac.
What you need
Any iPhone or iPad that can run iOS 8.1 or Mac that runs OS X Yosemite. You can share phone calls using iOS 8, but you will need to update to iOS 8.1 to send and receive SMS from your iPad and Mac.
How to make and receive phone calls across devices
It's quite simple to share phone calls between your Apple devices. You need to ensure a few things first. These are:
1. All of your devices are connected to the same WiFi network.
2. You have signed in to the same iCloud account on all your devices.
3. You've signed in to FaceTime using the same iCloud account on all devices.
4. Your devices are near each other and have Bluetooth switched on.
Once these things are set up, this is what you need to do.
1. On your iPhone and iOS, go to Settings > FaceTime > iPhone Mobile Calls > On.
2. On your Mac, Open FaceTime > Preferences > check iPhone Cellular Calls.
3. To enable text message forwarding to your iPad or Mac, On your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding > On. Note, this option will appear only when there is a compatible iOS or Mac device connected to the same Wi-Fi network. You can toggle which device(s) you want the messages forwarded to.
4. Your other Apple devices will display a code that you need to key in on your iPhone to enable text message Continuity.
That's it. Now you're ready to start making and receiving calls and sending text messages from any of your iOS or Mac devices. Just pull up a contact and hit the call or message button.
Do you like this new feature? Does it work well for you? Let us know via the comments. For more tutorials, head to our How to section.

How to Enable and Use Continuity, Handoff Features on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

One of the best new features on iOS and Mac is the ability to seamlessly switch between your Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch (5th generation). Continuity allows you to make and answer calls, send and receive text messages via your iPad, iPod touch (5th generation) and even your Mac. It also lets you pick up where you left off with supported apps and easily share a mobile Internet connection across Apple devices. If you compose a document in Pages or edit a photo on your Mac, you can continue it immediately from other Apple devices.
If your device supports Continuity, the feature is enabled by default. But if you haven't been able to use it yet, here's what you need and how it works.
What is Continuity
Continuity primary comprises these four features:
1. Handoff: The ability to pick up where you left off with apps. Whether it's wrapping up an unfinished message on Mail or a document in Pages, these automatically sync across Apple devices with Handoff. Third-party developers can add this feature to their apps too, though remember it won't work for third-party apps unless they have been explicitly updated to support Handoff across various devices.
2. Instant Hotspot: Lets your Apple devices share a mobile Internet connection easily. You don't need to enter a password to connect to the hotspot as long as your devices support this feature.
3. Phone calls: You can make and receive phone calls using any supported Apple device.
4. Text messages: In addition to sending iMessages like you always have, you can now also send and receive text messages using any supported Apple device.
Will it work on my Apple device?
Handoff and Instant Hotspot work on the following devices running iOS 8.1 or above:
1. iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6 and 6 Plus
2. iPhone 4s (only for sharing iPhone calls)
3. iPad (4th gen), iPad Air, iPad Air 2
4. iPad mini, iPad mini with Retina display, iPad mini 3
5. iPod touch (5th generation)
And the following Macs running OS X Yosemite:
1. MacBook Air (Mid 2012 and later)
2. MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 and later)
3. iMac (Late 2012 and later)
4. Mac mini (Late 2012 and later)
5. Mac Pro (Late 2013)
The other Continuity features will run on any device that supports iOS 8.1 or OS X Yosemite.
How to setup Continuity
You need to ensure four things before you can use all Continuity features. These are:
1. All of your devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
2. You have signed in to the same iCloud account on all your devices.
3. You've signed in to FaceTime using the same iCloud account on all devices.
4. Your devices are near each other and have Bluetooth switched on.
When you've done these things, Continuity will work because it is enabled by default. Here's how to manually enable all features, in case of any issues.
Handoff
1. On your iOS device, go to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps > On.
2. On your Mac, go to System Preferences > General > check Allow Handoff.
Once you've done this, and, say, you are composing an email on your iPhone and have the Mac nearby, Mail will show up in the Dock. Clicking on this will let you continue composing the email exactly where you left off without having to save a draft first on your iPhone, then finding it on the Mac and so on.
Conversely, if you start something on the Mac, an icon will pop up on your iPhone or iPad and you can tap it to quickly finish the task. At launch, Handoff works with Apple apps like Mail, Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, and Contacts, but a host of third-party apps should add support soon.
Instant Hotspot
1. Settings > Personal Hotspot > On. You can do this on your iPhone or an iPad.
2. Now the mobile Internet connection will show up as a hotspot on your Apple devices. You can connect to it without entering the password, as long as you meet requirements like proximity and being signed in with the same Apple ID.
Phone calls and text messages
We've described this in detail here. You can follow the steps from that article.
If you're having issues with Continuity, you can check this Apple support page for some tips on how to fix your problem.
You can check out more tutorials in our How to section.