Tag: ios 6

Apple’s Do Not Disturb still busted [Update]

/ Dave Caolo / 12 Comments

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Apple’s Do Not Disturb feature, which lets iOS 6 users silence alerts for a given period of time, failed to deactivate as scheduled for many users on January 1. I had no problem with it on the 1st, but noticed that today it’s still engaged, hours after it was scheduled to switch off. It’s a mild annoyance, but still an annoyance.

Is anyone else having trouble with this? Have you found a solution? Comments are open.

Update: Apple has addressed the Do Not Disturb bug, saying:

“Do Not Disturb scheduling feature will resume normal functionality after January 7, 2013. Before this date, you should manually turn the Do Not Disturb feature on or off.”

So, it will stop being broken on January 7th.

iOS 6 “Do Not Disturb” feature stuck for some users

/ Dave Caolo / 1 Comment

dndSeveral iOS 6 users are reporting that their iPhone’s Do Not Disturb feature isn’t deactivating as scheduled this morning. iPhone owners at the Whirlpool forums and the MacRumors forums are describing the issue. Do Not Disturb lets users silence iOS 6 alarms for a given period of time. Note that not all users are affected. My iPhone disabled Do Not Disturb this morning at 7:00 AM as expected.

This isn’t the first time Apple’s iPhone has struggled with New Year’s Day. In 2010, single-use, non-repeating alarms failed to sound. Later that year, alarms struggled again with Daylight Savings Time.

Punctuating abbreviation in iOS 6

/ Dave Caolo

Here’s another nicety I’ve noticed in iOS 6. It no longer capitalizes the the first letter of a word following an abbreviation with a period. In iOS 5, the iPhone would have capitalized the “f” in “for” above. iOS 6 recognizes “appt.” as an abbreviation, not the end of the sentence, and keeps the lower-case “f”. I love it.

Apple’s share menu in iOS 6 (Update)

/ Dave Caolo / 1 Comment

Apple enhanced the sharing features with the iPhone 5 and iOS 6. In addition to options like email and text, users can now share with Facebook, Twitter and more, directly from the share menu. It’s very handy but also posted a challenge to developers: how to display every option in a way that’s not cluttered or overwhelming. The team succeeded by replacing the text-based list with a grid of icons.

What’s available varies between applications and scenarios. In this post, I’ll look at the various share menus in iOS 6 and point out the similarities and differences. Let’s get started.

One quick aside first. The glasses depicted in the Add to Reading List button above are consistent with the icon in Safari for Mac. It made me remember that there used to be an icon in iBooks that resembled Steve Jobs’ famous round specs, which is apparently absent in iBooks in iOS 6. Bummer.

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Using Apple’s Do Not Disturb for iPhone

/ Dave Caolo / 21 Comments

Apple introduced Do Not Disturb with the new iPhone and iOS 6. It lets you prevent incoming text messages, notifications and alerts from making noise during a custom time period. It’s so very useful.

For starters, my iPhone no longer wakes me with scoring updates from late-night West Coast baseball games. Do Not Disturb is also great during meetings, when interruptions are absolutely unwelcome, as well as public events or even time you’ve set time aside to be “unplugged” (remember that?). Or maybe you’re just an anti-social misanthrope who still wants an iPhone. In any case, here’s how to get the most out of Do Not Disturb for iPhone.

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Using Passbook with airline tickets

/ Dave Caolo

Scott McNulty recently used iOS 6 Passbook while flying with United. He describes the whole experience, concluding with a discussion of whether or not it’s worth the hassle:

“It seems to me that Passbook is a clever idea, but honestly having my eTicket with the QR code emailed to me (or just using the one displayed in the United app) would have been simpler. Once you get the ticket into Passbook it is a nice experience, but adding stuff to Passbook isn’t intuative. In fact, once I had my 2 tickets to CA in Passbook I didn’t have the option to add anything else to Passbook from within the app itself since the App Store button was no longer displayed.”

Apple’s Reminders for iOS 6 is a huge improvement

/ Dave Caolo / 1 Comment

Apple’s Reminders app for iOS 6 is a huge improvement over the already great original. I’ve been using this app since it debuted and it’s become indispensable. The current update provides more information, offers faster input and eliminates my pet peeve. Here’s why I love Reminders for iPhone.

Faster Reminder Creation

You can now add details to a reminder as you create it. Previously, you had to create the reminder, tap out of it and then tap back in to add details. Now, a disclosure triangle appears as you’re typing. Tap it to add a reminder location, date or time. Thank you, Apple! That was my pet peeve with this app and I’m so happy it’s been fixed.

iOS 5 on the left, iOS 6 on the right. Note the disclosure triangle on the right that’s not present on the left. Also, the note itself is a bit wider in iOS 6, and the “Done” button is silver and much easier to see.

New List, Swiping

The screen of completed items has changed as well. The list and date buttons are now gone, as are the small buttons indicating the number of active lists. The former creates a tidy appearance while the latter is my only disappointment with this new version. I liked that subtle visual queue.

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iOS 6 audio playback buttons

/ Dave Caolo

I noticed two nice changes to some audio playback buttons in iOS 6. First, if you’re listening to a podcast or an audio book and the display goes to sleep, double-tap the Home button to bring up basic audio controls right on the lock screen. That’s not new, but what is new are the buttons that let you jump ahead or back 15 seconds at a time.

Likewise, you can double-tap the Home button while the display is active to reveal the list of running apps. Scroll to the far right to find the audio playback controls. Again, they aren’t unique to iOS 6, but the 15-second jump buttons — back and ahead — are. Neat.