The Apple-in-the-enterprise story continues to unfold, this week with Jamf’s announced plans to acquire mobile threat detection and response company ZecOps.
Already consumer-simple, Jamf becomes government secure
Jamf will likely reveal more about the motivations behind the deal at its JNUC event for Apple admins, which begins tomorrow. The purchase is the latest move by the Apple-focused enterprise MDM provider to supplement device management with an increasingly effective set of tools to bolster device security.
From here, it seems inevitable the addition of ZecOps tech will give managed Apple devices much greater awareness around the state of endpoint security, while also widening Jamf’s own market.
ZecOps — declared one of the world’s most innovative companies in 2021— is used to protect world-leading enterprises, governments, and individuals, including Bloomberg and the BBC. It famously identified a nasty iOS vulnerability in 2020.
“ZecOps is the only available tool that provides the capability to extract, deliver, and analyze mobile device logs for signs of compromise or malicious activity,” said one customer, described only as “Department of State, a G7 government.”
Securing the enterprise
That’s very much in tune with the times, of course. The pandemic has proven the need to secure endpoints as criminals began targeting users to undermine corporate security systems. ZecOps should extend Jamf’s existing mobile security capabilities by adding advanced threat detection and incident response.
Ideally, devices should be able to act and react when a recognized exploit is made against them. This seems to be the direction of travel, given that ZecOps provides iOS users with the same level of threat defense Mac users already get using Jamf Protect.
It gives iOS devices some insight into detecting the kinds of sophisticated mobile threats that Apple’s Lockdown mode aims to prevent. Not only that, but a user can run both Lockdown mode and ZecOps software at the same time. (You have to install the profiles for ZecOps/Jamf Protect and/or any VPN service you use on the device before enabling Lockdown Mode.)
Mobile devices now account for 59% of global website traffic, and according to the 2022 Verizon Mobile Security Index, close to half (45%) of companies claim to have suffered some compromise in the last 12 months.
The addition of the software means Jamf can help accelerate mobile security investigations from weeks to minutes, leveraging known indicators of compromise at-scale and identifying sophisticated 0- or 1-click attacks on a deeper scale.
Threat detection for the rest of us
Jamf CEO Dean Hager Jamf explained why this matters: “We believe ZecOps has built a differentiated solution that meets a very important need for many organizations — the ability to thoroughly detect and investigate threats that target mobile users so they can confidently use these powerful devices for work,” he said.
“This capability further propels our goal of continuing to bridge the gap between what Apple provides and the enterprise requires.”
What Jamf gains
ZecOps is a sophisticated solution that enables advanced threat-hunting by capturing and analyzing logs from iOS and Android devices at the operating system layer. This critical data can accelerate incident response by enabling automatic or on-demand mobile cyber investigations.
The solution has been designed to handle the vast amount of data held in iOS logs to identify potential zero-day or single- or zero-click attacks. According to Jamf, ZecOps “does the heavy lifting for SOC teams, saving months of work per investigation.” To achieve this it automatically builds a suspicious event timeline and compromise to help show how and when devices are hit.
The idea that tech could have access to the logs on your device may make some users uncomfortable, but the companies stress that the log collection the system does is confined to low-level system and diagnostics data. It does not include personal data such as photos, videos, text messages and call logs.
“We founded ZecOps to catch hidden 0-click and 1-click attacks,” said Zuk Avraham, co-founder and CEO at ZecOps. “By combining with Jamf, we can offer our customers truly powerful mobile threat intelligence and threat hunting capabilities that will keep up with the evolving threat landscape without compromising the user experience.”
Enterprise news for Apple IT
This is just the latest in what now promises to be a run of interesting items involving Apple in the enterprise this fall, as we head toward the Apple Mac and iPad event/press release announcements next month. (At the moment, the speculation is there may be no Apple event.)
Jamf last week confirmed Jamf Pro support for virtual Macs in AWS. It opens the doors to JNUC 2022 in San Diego tomorrow.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
GoTo has launched a new co-browsing capability within its contact center, giving agents the ability to securely assist their customers within their web browser and provide more effective help via a single communications and support solution.
Most commonly used in customer service scenarios to improve online conversions and experiences, by having co-browsing software in place, agents and customers can collaboratively “browse” a website, web application or mobile app together in real time.
As businesses overwhelmingly look to consolidate their tech stack, by enabling co-browsing from within the GoTo application, customers will have a solution that allows them to fully serve their customers all in one place, GoTo said in a press note.
Customers will also benefit from the all-in-one unified experience that co-browsing offers, reducing tool fatigue and context switching for both employees and customers, the company said. The new capability allows customers to enable data masking, button blocking, and encryption to ensure the co-browsing experience remains secure.
The co-browsing capability can be activated on any browser and device while agents chat with customers through web chat, social media, or SMS, meaning customers can physically see online application forms, be walked though their ecommerce purchase or directly shown how to use an app or product feature.
The announcement further builds on the updates to the company’s cloud contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) systems that were announced in March 2022, a month after the company rebranded from LogMeIn to GoTo. During that initial update, GoTo added a slew of enhanced contact center options to make agents more productive, including advanced analytics, time saving features and additional remote support capabilities.
The key to ensuring the success of a cloud contact center solution is making it as simple as possible for agents to help customers, said Paddy Srinivasan, chief executive officer, GoTo in a press note.
He added that having heard from customers that there was a gap in the agent and customer relationship, the company felt “uniquely positioned” to bring its co-browsing technology into its CCaaS offering to better assist in form fills, troubleshooting, and problem-solving.
“Co-browsing has long been a feature GoTo has offered in our remote support solutions, and this launch is another way we continue to integrate the best of our technology into a single solution, enabling customers to eliminate the need for multiple tools,” Srinivasan said.
If there’s one feeling all of us phone-carrying cuttlefish can relate to, it’s the sense of anxiety when that dreaded low-battery warning shows up on our screens.
Both Android itself and Google’s Pixel phones, specifically, have gotten much better at managing battery life over the years. But some of the Pixel’s most intelligent systems for safeguarding your stamina are options in your phone’s software — and that means it’s up to you to find ’em.
Google’s Pixel software is absolutely overflowing with those sorts of out-of-sight treasures, so to continue our ongoing Pixel settings explorations, I want to spelunk our way into some of your device’s most advanced options for stretching your battery life to the max.
Make your way through ’em — then make your way over to my free Pixel Academy e-course, if you haven’t already, for seven full days of advanced Pixel sorcery.
The power’s already in your hands. All that’s left is to learn to make the most of it.
Google Pixel battery life booster No. 1: Smarter charging
First up in our Pixel battery life adventure is a way to make your Google-made phone especially optimized and efficient with its charging — which will help make your battery last longer and perform better from a bigger-picture perspective.
It’s not something that’ll lead to any sort of instant satisfaction, but it will set you up for stronger stamina over the months and years that you own your Pixel phone.
The setting is called Adaptive Charging, and the way it works is simple:
Whenever you’ve got your phone plugged in during the overnight hours — between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m., specifically, in whatever time zone you’re in — your Pixel will intelligently slow down its charging so that it spreads out over that entire period of time.
The feature requires you to set an alarm in the Pixel Clock app for anywhere between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. to operate.
It uses that alarm time as a finish line and then times out its charging so that it’ll finish right before you wake up.
All you’ve gotta do is enable the option, and then it’ll automatically work whenever you’re in that overnight charging situation.
With a Pixel 4 or later:
Head into your Pixel system settings (by swiping down twice from the top of the screen and then tapping the gear-shaped icon in the lower-right corner of the panel that comes up).
Tap “Battery” followed by “Adaptive preferences.”
Flip the toggle next to “Adaptive Charging” into the on position.
Flip the bird to any Pixel-oblivious iPeople in the vicinity.*
* Optional but highly recommended
And that’s it: Anytime you’re charging overnight with an alarm set for the morning, your Pixel will rise to the occasion and optimize its charging pattern.
Pretty easy, right?
Google Pixel battery life booster No. 2: Smarter power-spreading
Now that we’ve got charging covered, it’s time to turn our attention to your Pixel’s actual power-using habits — and there, too, Google’s software has some splendid smarts that are just waiting to be embraced.
A Pixel-specific setting called Adaptive Battery will keep tabs on which apps you tend to use the most during the day. It’ll then adjust your system’s power allocation so that anything you use less often has a smaller amount of stamina-sucking resources at its disposal.
It actually learns how you use your phone, in other words, and then customizes the standard Android power management approach to make it as optimal as possible for your specific habits.
Once more, your Pixel will handle all the heavy lifting. Your only task is to make sure the option’s activated:
Head back into your Pixel system settings, and once more, select “Battery.”
Tap “Adaptive Preferences.”
This time, look for the line labeled “Adaptive Battery” and see if the switch next to it is already active.
If it isn’t — well, toggle that thing, gersh dern it!
JR
And we’ve got one more advanced Pixel battery setting to set our sights on yet…
Google Pixel battery life booster No. 3: Smarter saving
Our last Pixel battery life tip may be the most important of all — ’cause no matter how many proactive precautions you take, the day will inevitably come when your purty Pixel phone starts to putter as its metaphorical tank nears the empty mark.
If you prepare yourself now, though, that won’t have to be a moment of panic. And your Pixel can intelligently adjust its behavior as the battery gets low to avoid a full-fledged shutdown.
The secret resides in a spectacular feature called Battery Saver. It’s usually on in some form by default, but with older Pixels in particular, it often isn’t set up in the most optimal way right out of the box.
So do this:
Slither your way back into your Pixel settings.
Press your suspiciously moist finger onto “Battery” and then “Battery Saver.”
Tap “Set a schedule” and then select the “Based on your routine” option.
JR
Now, following the same pattern as our past two tips, your Pixel phone will rely on its Goog-given intelligence to actually learn your typical usage patterns over time and use that as a guide to predict when your battery’s likely to run low based on the way you use your phone.
When it senses your stamina’s in jeopardy, it’ll automatically activate the Pixel Battery Saver system — which limits background activity and location services, falls back to 4G instead of 5G data, and disables a bunch of non-essential systems (including the Pixel’s always-on display along with Assistant launch phrase detection and higher-level display refresh rates) to save on power.
That change alone can help you eke extra hours out of your Pixel’s battery, no matter how low it may be — and if you really want to stretch your stamina, with a Pixel 3 or later, there’s one more setting change worth making:
In that same “Battery Saver” Pixel settings menu, tap the line labeled “Extreme Battery Saver.”
Tap “When to use” and then select “Ask every time.”
That’ll cause your Pixel to ask if you want to activate the Extreme Battery Saver every single time the standard Battery Saver kicks in. The Pixel’s Extreme Battery Saver mode is even more restrictive, which means most apps get paused and are unable to send notifications and your Pixel’s entire processing is slowed down so it requires less power.
It makes for a less pleasant Pixel-using experience, so it isn’t something you’d want active all the time (unless you’re a total maniac) — but in a situation where your priority’s mostly just keeping your phone’s basic functions available through the end of the day, it can be a real lifesaver.
⭐ And one more bonus tip in this area: While you’re on your Pixel’s “Battery Saver” settings screen, look for the line labeled “Turn off when charged” and be sure to flip the toggle next to it into the on position. That’ll cause your phone’s Battery Saver mode to turn back off on its own as soon as your device is charged back up to 90% or higher — just one more bit of helpful intelligence to make your life a little easier.
So there ya have it: a trio of Pixel battery life boosters to keep your phone going strong. Set ’em, forget ’em, and then be sure to mosey on over to my free Pixel Academy e-course to uncover even more advanced magic for your favorite Googley gadget.
Jamf has teamed up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to introduce new tools that let IT admins using Jamf Pro enroll virtual EC2 Macs when they are provisioned via the AWS portal.
It means even virtual Macs can have all the security, policy, and access controls you’d expect from the Mac on your home or office desk when enrolled.
This is news because?
We know AWS is one of the world’s biggest cloud services firms — it has such a major presence that it is seen as a “hypervisor.” Amazon began offering Mac instances in the cloud in 2020 and ramped this offer up with the later addition of M1 Mac minis as a service through AWS.
That already means developers can hire both Intel-based and M1-powered Macs, which many use to build, test, package, and sign off apps built for different Apple platforms. The problem was that when it came to enterprise-specific apps or data, those cloud-based machines lived in a strange gray zone outside of traditional MDM/security policy.
That’s fine for some AWS users, but as the value of personal data and business intelligence continues to grow in a highly digital age, many business leaders needed something more.
What Jamf said
I caught up with Jamf CEO Dean Hager, who shared a few insights into the new deal with AWS. He explained that Jamf and Amazon got together because Amazon found its customers needed this kind of integration. They wanted to be able to apply profiles and install software and keep their virtual Macs as updated and managed as their physical ones — but delivering this wasn’t easy due to the way virtual Mac instances worked.
“We have a long history of solving problems,” said Hager. “So we came up with a an ability to manage the virtual instances that are not dependent on MDM but rather dependent on our own innovations, and now customers are going to be able to … procure and manage virtual Macs.”
[Also read: Jamf CIO: Apple will be the No. 1 enterprise endpoint by 2030]
The partnership with Jamf provides this as it lets IT admins manage these AWS servers just as they can any other Mac in their fleet. It means organizations can provide managed, trusted access to their macOS workloads on AWS, allowing more enterprises to use these solutions.
“We’re excited to continue to push the envelope on what’s possible with cloud-first technologies centered around the Apple platform,” said Hager.
Why AWS?
AWS customers already run on-demand workloads in the cloud. These solutions let developers scale up their available Mac fleet to handle tasks when building apps; they can simply bring on a new virtual Mac in seconds, dynamically, as required.
Customers can also consolidate development of cross-platform Apple, Windows, and Android apps on AWS, leading to increased developer productivity and accelerated time to market. In very basic terms, that means developing complex projects across multiple platforms can benefit from a huge fleet of Macs without the TCO or purchasing costs. It also means they get the horsepower they need to get their work done fast.
In a statement, dataJAR founder James Ridsdale said: “As a service provider managing tens of thousands of Macs across our enterprise customers, we understand the value that Jamf provides. It enables us to ensure the security, management, and seamless onboarding of Apple devices into our platform of services….
“We are excited to see Jamf’s work with AWS to continue to provide more options for organizations who are looking to adopt a range of computing options for their employees, contractors, and engineering workflows through the management of Amazon EC2 Mac virtualized instances. We think this will be a compelling solution for many types of customers.”
Get ready for Apple-in-the-enterprise week
The news comes as we prepare for one of the busiest weeks on the Apple-in-the-enterprise calendar, with Jamf hosting its own vibrant Apple admins event, JNUC, in San Diego September 27-29.
I also anticipate others in the enterprise-focused Apple services space will have more news in the coming weeks.
As I’ve remarked before, this intensifying competition in this side of the Apple industry means enterprise users have never had it so good when considering platform diversification. Not to mention that the wave of Apple deployments can only grow even taller once Apple introduces new Macs, perhaps as soon as next month.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Apple’s latest addition to the litany of tools for project and research collaboration, while inherently limited to Mac, iPhone, and iPad users, might even be of use to pros from time to time.
Apple’s keeping tabs for you
Despite wailing from bookmark reactionaries like myself, Apple seems truly committed to the notion of organizing the web using tabs, rather than traditional bookmarks. It introduced Tab Groups with iOS 15.
These are designed so you can keep dozens of tabs organized and available without needing to have them all open at once. This lets you use your browser in a slightly different way. So, if you were researching components for a major architectural project, you might create Tab Groups for different parts of the project, while also having a third Tab Group within which you gather research for your next vacation.
The useful thing about these groups is that they automatically propagate across all your devices as long as they are all logged into the same iCloud account, which means you can continue working on any device and easily shift to another to complete your tasks.
What’s new in iOS 16 is the capacity to share these Safari Tab groups.
How to share Safari Tab Groups
Lets say you are researching those building materials and need to share the fruits of that research with others on your team — or even with external providers who might help guide your decision. We haven’t yet seen this feature appear on iPads or Macs (those OS updates are due later this fall), but it’s reasonable to think the way we share Safari Tab Groups will be similar on those devices as it is on an iPhone.
To share tabbed groups on an iPhone, you simply open Safari, tap the square icon at the lower right to access your open tabs, select the Tab Group you wish to share in the drop down interface, and then seek out and tap the newly arrived Share icon you’ll find at the top right of the page. You’ll then be asked who it is you want to share the collection with and send them a Message to invite them to your group.
You can share it with multiple people, and once you’ve already shared a collection, you’ll be able to see with whom by tapping the new user profile icon that appears at the top-right of the tab browser interface.
What happens when you share?
The person(s) with whom you are sharing the group will receive a link in the Message they can press to access the shared group on their device. You’ll be told when they accept, and you’ll receive activity updates in the Messages conversation when someone makes a change to the shared collection. If they add or subtract a page, you’ll know about it.
Managing the group
The new user profile icon lets you do more than simply check who you are sharing that collection with. From within this section you can add more people to the sharing circle, remove people, and stop sharing altogether.
Starting a conversation
You can also start conversations using Messages and FaceTime (audio or video) with everyone who shares the group from within Safari. This should also be useful when collaborating on research in a project — particularly when used with Freeform, Continuity Camera, and the many other collaborative features Apple has been putting in place across its ecosystem in recent years.
Returning to the architectural metaphor, when researching materials you may find yourself sharing your collection with a building specialist, the customer, or even a buildings supervisor from your local authority while deciding which materials to use in the vast, circular headquarters building you’re planning to construct.
Eventually, I guess, you’ll even share what you see as you wander round the construction site.
Also read
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
FaceTime, WhatsApp, and Zoom could be in the crosshairs of UK communications regulator Ofcom, which has announced a probe into cloud services, messenger apps, and smart devices. It’s just the latest in a global sequence of regulatory investigations likely to impact Big Tech.
UK is looking into the clouds
The UK regulator says it plans to examine the positions of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google in the UK’s $17 billion cloud services market. These three “hyperscalers” account for the vast majority (81%) of that market.
Enterprises became much more reliant on cloud services during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Gartner predicts 45% of IT spending will be on public cloud by 2026, for example.
The Ofcom investigation will extend to how the cloud is used. “The cloud has become an essential part of how products are delivered to telecoms users, as well as viewers and listeners of TV, radio and audio content,” Ofcom said. “If we find a market is not working well, there can be negative impacts on businesses and ultimately consumers, through higher prices, lower service quality and reduced innovation.”
Regulators in other nations will no doubt monitor the progress of the investigation as they seek to maintain their own level competitive playing fields.
The newly announced study will include a look at digital services such as WhatsApp, Zoom, and FaceTime, as well as the market for smart speakers; the latter will draw many names into the picture, including, no doubt, Apple’s HomePod.
It is important to note that the study will probably take months and it’s possible business models may evolve before any further action takes place — if it does at all.
Why is Ofcom investigating?
Ofcom regulates the UK communications industry, which means it must monitor emerging disruptive change in the sector. It’s inarguable that technology now impacts daily life at numerous levels, including telecommunications and media distribution.
“The way we live, work, play and do business has been transformed by digital services. But as the number of platforms, devices and networks that serve up content continues to grow, so do the technological and economic issues confronting regulators,” Selina Chadha, Ofcom’s director of connectivity, said in a statement.
The investigation seeks to assess how well the markets are currently working and whether market dominance is impeding development. The regulator will also seek to identify current market trends to identify and protect against likely competition concerns.
“That’s why we’re kick-starting a program of work to scrutinize these digital markets, identify any competition concerns and make sure they’re working well for people and businesses who rely on them,” she said.
Providers must get the message
WhatsApp, FaceTime, and Zoom can all expect to see the probe explore the extent of their business activity, how it impacts competition and its effect on the overall market.
But the biggest suggestion of a particular concern visible in the Ofcom press release is that the regulator specifically states: “We also want to understand whether any limitations on their ability to interact with each other raises potential concerns.”
‘Hey Siri, are you a gatekeeper?’
Digital assistants, connected televisions, and smart speakers are also receiving attention. The regulator intends to analyze consumer behavior, consider future developments, and look at the business models of major players in this market.
The roll call of companies likely to be included in this investigation is vast. Big Tech firms including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta will be part of it, but so, too, will device manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, or LG.
While it’s too early to predict how these investigations will go, it does appear that regulators are building new fences to constrain tech firms leaning into the law for competitive advantage. At the same time, other issues could be wrapped into the effort, including protections for personal privacy, particularly as vast swaths of consumer data from using these services become commoditized.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index data seems to show that Apple’s iconic Mac is losing a little luster in comparison to PCs from other makers, but I’m not entirely convinced.
Got to keep the customer satisfied
You see, the data shows Apple narrowly leads in the PC category (82% v. 79%). It also shows that some of Apple’s larger PC manufacturing competitors are gaining ground. Perhaps. But dig a little more deeply into the survey results and you’ll find the biggest innovation across the industry in the last couple of years (other than the move to Apple Silicon) involves improvements in customer services, specifically in call centers.
The survey also confirms that tablets and laptops continue to replace desktop PCs. In 2021, 24% of the survey group used desktops compared to 62% on laptops and 14% on tablet devices; in 2022 desktop users accounted for 20% of survey respondents, laptop users 64% and tablet use reached 16%.
It will be interesting to see whether the incoming M2 and then M3 Macs will help Apple add a point or two to its many-years-long consumer satisfaction leadership in the ACSI survey.
How did manufacturers improve consumer satisfaction? The single biggest improved criteria contributing to the result was the aforementioned call center satisfaction. Not processors, not software, but improved customer communication. As a criterion in the context of our times, that makes complete sense.
Reach out and touch point me
During the pandemic, shortfalls in tech support call handling became huge problems for some manufacturers. In the absence of any in-person help, PC makers had to force themselves to improve their remote communication services, and this led inexorably to better customer response at call centers. They knew they had no other way to make a direct connection with their consumers.
[Also read: Review: Apple’s M2 MacBook Air]
If I’m right, then it’s understandable Apple didn’t see the same level of improvement in customer satisfaction levels across this time.
That’s because it already offered outstanding tech support — both in-person and remote — before the pandemic. While the company did tweak its approach a little since the crisis began, those tweaks could not make best better than it was. But the ACSI survey suggests other PC makers did improve.
That’s a welcome relief for PC users stranded on platforms other than the Mac, I suppose, but it is also noticeable that satisfaction with Microsoft’s software continues to decline, according to the same survey. (Microsoft’s ASCI computer software satisfaction fell from 76 in 2021 to 73 this year.) It’s got to be better to build platforms that don’t generate too many help request calls.
We all by now recognize that Macs consume far less IT support time than other platforms, which translates into real financial benefits in terms of the TCO of these machines. Microsoft’s decline also suggests Apple’s unique selling point around macOS should make for continued gains in market share.
That’s also what the sundry market survey data that’s crossed my desk in the last few weeks suggests. Yes, PC sales have declined, but Apple’s share of those sales continues to grow, and in terms of raw numbers, the company appears to be maintaining while the overall industry shrinks. Given the choice, most employees will continue to choose a Mac, and the latest ACSI survey does nothing but suggest this choice will prevail.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Over the past couple years, those of us who pay close attention to mobile-tech matters have been watching a whole new paradigm of design shape up right before our overly moist eyeballs.
And you know I have to be talking about something important here, ’cause I’m using big words like “paradigm” and, erm, “eyeballs.”
The subject in question is something core to the Android experience — particularly for anyone who’s palming a Google-made Pixel phone, where the core Android software exists in its most undiluted form.
It’s a little somethin’ called Material You, and having lived with a Pixel through a full year of Android 12 and now the beginning of Android 13, I’m here to tell you it’s one of the most shape-shifting and underappreciated advancements we’ve seen in modern tech — even if hardly anyone seems to be giving it the credit it deserves.
Material You, if you aren’t familiar, is the new design standard Google introduced with Android 12 in 2021 and then fine-tuned further with this year’s Android 13 update. It’s easy to brush it off as another mere revamping of Android’s on-screen appearance — some added shadows here, some extra-rounded elements there, and other such arbitrary-seeming adjustments.
To do so, however, would put you at risk of missing not only one of Android’s most clever and significant enhancements of all time but also one of the coolest and most consequential design innovations to hit any form of technology in recent memory.
Mark my words: If Apple had shipped a system like this with its latest iPhone, we’d be hearing endless oohing, ahhing, and overusing of adjectives like “game-changing” and “magical.” But Google is far less shameless effective at marketing its progress, and consequently, this (ahem) magical and game-changing innovation is going largely unnoticed.
So allow me to take a moment to wax poetic about just how impressive Material You on Android truly is and why it genuinely does deserve your oohing-and-ahhing attention.
The magic of Material You on Android
The key piece of the Android 12-and-up Material You setup is something best described as a dynamic theming engine. That’s a fancy way of saying the software can pull complementary colors from whatever wallpaper you’re using on your home screen at any given moment and then create a custom system-wide palette that stretches across your entire Android experience.
Every time you change your wallpaper, bam: Android automatically adjusts its entire interface to match. That means everything from the color of icons on your home screen to the coloring of your on-screen keyboard and even the accent colors throughout all sorts of apps change on the fly, dynamically — without any thought or effort on your part.
It isn’t a productivity feature, per se, and it certainly doesn’t have any practical function. But let’s not kid ourselves: The way our technology looks matters. And feeling like you have a whole new and freshly personalized phone every single day is a powerful perk — one that absolutely enhances your enjoyment of the device and gives you a more pleasant productivity experience.
And — if I may be so bold as to borrow a favorite word from the company currently creating an uproar over a gaping black bar in the middle of its latest device’s viewing surface — it truly does feel magical in a way that extends into nearly every corner of your phone-using journey.
Here, for instance, is my Pixel 6 home screen with a green-themed wallpaper in place:
JR
See how the icons and even the widgets — both the world time clock widget I have at the top of the home screen and the search bar widget built into the Pixel Launcher — are colored to match?
That same coloring shows up in everywhere from my phone’s Quick Settings to its on-screen keyboard:
JR
Compatible apps like Gmail and Google Drive pick up on it, too, and change their entire core appearances to match:
JR
…as do system-level tools such as the Android Calculator app and even something as simple as the Google Contacts Android interface:
JR
And the second I switch to a different wallpaper, poof: The entire system adjusts itself to match.
JR
If I really want to get wild, I can even head into the system Wallpapers tool to override the automatic color matching and create my own custom look, on demand, with a single tap of my suspiciously sticky finger:
JR
And again, in the blink of an eye, the entire system interface takes on a whole new look to match — with the extent of its reach serving as a constant source of delight and surprise.
JR
It may be one of those things you have to live with for a while to fully appreciate, but when you have this level of constantly evolving intelligent personalization in your pocket, it really is an awe-inspiring experience. And you definitely don’t have to be a power-user to appreciate it.
If Google managed to actually market the system in a way that’d let ordinary phone-ownin’ folk understand what it’s capable of doing — to market it in the way Apple would (and perhaps eventually will), in other words — well, the phone-buying masses might start to see how special Android has become and how powerful the presence of advanced personalization potential really can be.
Ready to take your Googley thinking to new levels? Sign up for my Android Intelligence newsletter to get exclusive tips and insights delivered directly to your inbox every Friday.
The urgency with which IT needs to prepare for major iOS releases seems to have slowed since the early days when everyone rushed to install the latest version of Apple’s mobile software.
At least this year, iPhone users appear to have become a little more laid back.
The installation patterns are changing
The reasons for thinking this are suggested by the latest Mixpanel stats. As of earlier today, Mixpanel claims roughly 13.3% of iPhone users have upgraded to iOS 16 since it was introduced this week. That’s a slightly more rapid adoption rate than iOS 15 saw (11.7%) last year, damaged as that release was by user reluctance to accept on-device content monitoring.
Here are Mixpanel’s installation data points for earlier iOS releases at this point in the release cycle:
iOS 16: 13.3%
iOS 15: 11.7%.
iOS 14: 14.7%.
iOS 13: 12%.
iOS 12: 13%.
iOS 11: 19.2%.
As you can see, the last five iOS upgrades have all shown very similar installation patterns, with iOS 11 being the most swiftly installed upgrade since 2017.
The data basically confirms that while people are still excited when new iOS versions ship, they have also become more discerning about exactly when they choose to upgrade.
For Apple admins, this suggests that while they should be prepared for a wave of tech support requests following each iOS release, they can also predict that the kind of questions they get may emerge across the first year of any release, rather than all being asked at once.
[Also read: 14+ reasons enterprises should upgrade to iOS 16]
Slowed doesn’t mean stopped
The data also suggests the feeling of urgency when it comes to upgrades has slackened, but in a broader sense it’s the cadence of installation that has slowed a little, rather than interest in doing so.
After all, Apple tells us that 82% of all the iPhones in use today are on iOS 15, while another 14% still run iOS 14. (The company hasn’t yet updated this data to reflect iOS 16 adoption.)
That means just 4% of all the iPhones in active use on Earth use an older installation, which means enterprises that haven’t yet updated their iOS apps to iOS 16 had better prioritize doing so. Because while users might upgrade more slowly, that doesn’t mean they don’t upgrade at all.
People are changing their approach
Each year, Apple tries to get us involved in updating our iPhones with an array of impressive new features. The company also seems now to hold some good improvements back to trickle out over the first few months following an upgrade, presumably to help ensure we continue to upgrade our devices regularly.
But I think the company accepts that the nature of the Apple market is changing. For many years, Apple was an Apple market. The first iPhone, just like the first iPod, sold into a buoyant market of committed users, and that same hardcore group tended to rush to install every software upgrade. In very general terms, they had a lot of faith in the company and knew that even if problems did occur during installation, a solution would follow swiftly.
However, as the congregation of iPhone users has grown, the nature of the people who use these devices has changed. It’s not just true believers anymore; the crowd also includes a growing number of Android switchers who wish to learn more, those who use multiple platforms, and hordes who fundamentally see tech as a boring necessity, rather than a liberating lifestyle choice. It’s the downside of digital proliferation, if you will – humans are all interested in different things, and the ways in which we use our smartphones are as varied as the people on the planet.
We’ve learned a lot
Across both consumer and enterprise users, other considerations have emerged — not least the that installing a major point upgrade such as iOS 16 on the day of release isn’t always the best decision. That’s because:
Sometimes small flaws are found as software ships. These are usually identified and rectified in a subsequent point upgrade.
Not every enterprise is ready for the new release; in many cases, particularly in tightly regulated industries, they need to measure the systems against security, data protection, and other internal policies. Those businesses will not want users to upgrade on day one.
Key apps, particularly important internally used apps, may not yet have been updated or verified against the new OS. For the enterprise, the same challenge applies for back-end systems and services.
They want to choose when they learn how to use a new iOS version. I’ve heard many casual users ask why the OS needs to change every year.
The first reason has become a truism for many of us. While Apple’s shipped software is usually problem free, many choose to wait a day or two to ensure everything is working correctly. Given the vast importance of the data held on our iPhones, any down time on those devices can impact our personal and professional lives, so it’s wise to be cautious. No one really wants to waste time fixing problems they didn’t expect to have.
For me, it’s good to see the installation data Mixpanel has provided. It suggests that most iOS users now accept that delaying the installation is a good approach to avoiding being snagged by unexpected bugs or the absence of non-updated apps. But I still reckon around 90% of users will have upgraded to iOS 16 by the time the next iteration ships next fall.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
If you’ve switched to iOS 16, you’ve probably already realized Apple has tweaked the system. Notifications now appear at the bottom of the display and there are other changes that must be learned.
We all use them, we all need them
With the recent introduction of iOS 16 and the extent to which mobile pros depend on notifications — and the arrival today of the new iPhone 14 line-up — this is a ood time to look at how Apple has changed the system.
There are two equally valid schools of thought when it comes to notifications.
In one group, you have those for whom notifications are an essential way to maintain at-a-glance insight into people, messages, and app-related events that matter to them. They like to be informed of such things as they happen, but have the determined concentration to remain focused on the matter in hand. They might switch audible notification alerts off, but otherwise they see them as a friendly ambient noise.
The second group consists of those distracted by notifications, who find that they break their chain of thought. They can be a real challenge to some people, generating all kinds of unwanted side impacts.
Life beyond Focus mode
To help navigate the problem, Apple provides Focus Mode, which helps manage the digital overload, hopefully prioritizing what matters above those that don’t. Notification frequency and behavior is important, given the frequently cited 2016 Deloitte study that found people check their phone at least 47 times a day, often in response to these things.
For most of us, notification alerts on our iPhones occupy an important place in our interaction with the device, and increasingly the digital experience is about using the tools at hand in the way that’s best for each of us. I’ve written before about how to use Focus Mode (you can look into that here) — but most mobile professionals must now also learn how to use the new Notifications management tools Apple provides in iOS 16.
So, what’s new?
What’s new in Notifications?
Apple tells us it decided to move notifications to the bottom of the display to reduce clutter on the Lock Screen. If you’ve begun working with iOS 16 (as around 15% of iPhone owners already have, according to Mixpanel data), you’ll note that the move also provides space for the personalization features you can now put in place on your Lock Screen.
[Also read: The quick and easy guide to eSIM on Apple’s iPhone 14]
Notifications still work in a similar way — you can swipe up to view them all, interact with them and more. But there are also new ways to customize what they do, principally with the creation of three different types of notifications, which you choose in Settings>Notifications:
Count: You only see a a few words on your screen to tell you how many Notifications you’ve received, and you need to swipe up to see them.
Stack: Notifications are stacked on top of each other by app, and you can swipe up to work through them.
List: All your notifications in a list, just like they’ve always been.
If you have a love/hate relationship with Notifications, you can swipe down on them when in Stack or List view to immediately convert them to Count view. That’s quite handy if you just want to ignore them for a while, but still want to check them now and then.
Don’t neglect Notification Summary
Apple introduced another useful tool to help control your attention in 2021. Called Notification Summary, it appeared with iOS 15 andvhelps you combine some of your incoming notifications into groups of alerts sent to you at certain times. The idea is that you’ll receive these summaries when it’s convenient to you, helping you to manage your information overload.
It’s useful to think of it like this:
The notifications you really need should be received as and when you receive them; notifications from apps you want to stay on top of but that don’t tend to be urgent should be corralled inside Notifications Summary; and notifications from those apps you never want to hear from should be switched off on a per app basis, again within Notifications.
(It may even be a good time to delete some of those apps if you no longer user them.)
The Summary presents itself as a digest view, made available morning and evening by default, though you can customize time and frequency. When a summary comes in, you need to tap it to see all the notifications it contains. To set it up, just choose Scheduled Summary in Settings>Notifications and enable the feature. You can then schedule delivery times and choose which apps are included in the summary.
Apple helpfully lets you see which apps send you the most notifications in an average day, which may assist in making useful decisions about how you want to proceed.
Striving for a better balance
Moving forward, Apple quite clearly continues to try to find that balance between human productivity, technology, and what we do. Apple CEO Tim Cook has characterized himself as being concerned at the “endless, mindless scrolling” activity so many people have gotten hooked on.
That’s why Apple has Screen Time, and why the company continues to tweak Notifications behavior; it knows those alerts can interfere with focus.
It’s a slightly complex dance, of course, in which most users must strive to find their own balance between inherent ambient connectivity and the need to self-connect. But, like so many things, iPhone users need to spend time making sure they set the device up appropriately, and, for me at least, the new ‘Count’ notification type appears the most discreet.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Geolocation was once a glorious way to know who your company is dealing with (and sometimes what they are doing). Then VPNs started to undermine that. And now, things have gotten so bad that the Apple App Store and Google Play both offer apps that unashamedly declare they can spoof locations — and neither mobile OS vendor does anything to stop it.
Why? It seems both Apple and Google created the holes these developers are using.
In a nutshell, Apple and Google — to test their apps across various geographies — needed to be able to trick the system into thinking that their developers are wherever they wanted to say that they are. What’s good for the mobile goose, as they say.
Food delivery services use geolocation to track delivery people and to see if they have indeed delivered to a customer’s address. Banks use location to see whether a bank account applicant is really where the applicant claims — or to see whether multiple bogus applications are coming from the same area. And AirBNB uses geolocation to try and detect fake listings and fake reviews, according to André Ferraz, the CEO of mobile location security firm Incognia.
“For fraudsters, besides exploiting developer mode to change GPS coordinates, many other tools enable location spoofing, both for IP-based geolocation and GPS-based geolocation,” Ferraz said. “For IP-based geolocation, there are VPNs, proxies, tor, tunneling. For GPS, the most accessible are the fake GPS applications. Still, there are also tampering and instrumentation tools, rooted or jailbroken devices, emulators, tampering with the location data in motion and many others.”
Ferraz is regrettably right. Regardless of which one of these many options a fraudster opts to use, the bottom line is that IT simply can no longer trust geolocation for much of anything. There are some applications where the risk of meaningful damage from location fraud is so low that it’s probably fine to use location — say, a gaming application where someone pretends to be in Central Park when they aren’t. If all they get are points or access to a special visual treat, it’s likely harmless.
Trust, here, is the key word. If your business needs to trust location data, then an alternative is needed.
Can this location fraud be detected? It gets tricky. Certain fraudulent methods can be detected, but not all — and certainly not all of the time. More importantly, merely detecting a geolocation anomaly should not on its own positively determine fraud.
VPN is a wonderful example. Many users have gotten so used to surfing the Internet in VPN mode that they do so all the time. That means they may not even think about it when they try, for example, to open a bank account. Instead of assuming fraud and blocking access and declining the application, banks could offer up a simple pop-up warning: “It appears that you are using a VPN. Although we applaud your security and privacy intent, what appears to be a VPN is interfering with our location-detection. Please turn off your VPN, shut down your browser, relaunch your browser and come back.”
The problem with spoof detection is that some companies will overreact and assume intentional fraud. It’s not that simple.
Ferraz chooses not to fault either Google or Apple, since they truly do need to mimic locations across the globe.
“This feature to enable developers to test their apps as if they were elsewhere was purposefully built by the OS providers, Android and iOS. Therefore, it is not a security vulnerability from the operating system. Otherwise, developers would not be able to work remotely, for example, because they would need to go in-person to places where the App offers some location-based service for testing purposes,” Ferraz said. “The OS even provides APIs for developers to identify if the device is in developer mode and has activated the tool that enables them to change the GPS coordinates. Unfortunately, many developers don’t use this and other device signals to identify location spoofing.”
Ferraz cites the food-delivery service as a classic example of how some companies try to use location tracking — but can get burned. There are multiple ways fraudsters try to rip off food-delivery services; some will accept a delivery and simply not go anywhere. Instead, they trick the food delivery system into thinking they picked up the order and then delivered it.
The problem with some of these services is that they pay instantly once the system thinks the food’s been delivered. If they chose to wait, let’s say an hour or so, they could avoid the fraud. That hour leaves plenty of time for the customer to phone in and complain that the food was never delivered. (Sometimes, the food delivery company will “verify” whether the food was delivered by looking at the geolocation tracking. Oops! They fail to deliver and may call a customer a liar.)
Sometimes, food delivery fraud is not about money — it’s about the food itself. Ferraz said some drivers will actually pick up the order and eat it themselves — while tricking the app into “seeing” the driver deliver to the customer.
This raises the question of what IT should do about the issue. There’s a big difference between “don’t use geolocation” and “don’t trust geolocation.” It’s similar to how a journalist deals with an unreliable source; you don’t necessarily ignore what they are saying, but you triple verify everything.
Take cybersecurity authentication, for example. If you’re doing everything properly — especially in a zero-trust environment — you’re likely relying on dozens or more datapoints. In that scenario, it’s fine to use geolocation data. After all, most of that data is probably fine. Just as with the bank example, don’t reject someone solely based on a mismatched location. But it’s perfectly appropriate to use any mismatch to trigger further questions.
There’s no reason you can’t have different processes; in some cases, geolocation accuracy is relied upon; in others, it’s merely supplemental; in still others, it doesn’t matter that much (possibly gaming). In short, use geolocation but no longer even think about trusting it.
As the dust settles on Apple’s iPhone 14 launch, get ready for the next big moment on the company’s calendar — the joint Mac and iPad introductions we now expect to take place in October. What do business leaders need to know?
What hardware is coming?
Apple may introduce a new breed of MacBook Pro equipped with M2 Pro chips, though some sources warn these may not appear until 2023. It’s thought highly probable the company will introduce a new iPad Pro range, likely boasting an M2 chip, putting that machine on a par with the Mac.
The decision to narrow the gap between Mac and iPad reflects how Apple’s tablet has grown to become a viable PC replacement for many tasks. Business users, for example, have become much more comfortable leaving the laptop at home to work with an iPad when on the road. That the best iPads share the same processors as Macs underlines the complementary nature of both systems, and builds on the increasing popularity of the iPhone across business.
What’s the business appeal?
For business users, the integration between Apple’s computers, tablets, and mobile devices is a real draw. Apple’s move to craft its own chips has also enabled the company to build out a unique proposition based on processor speed.
The strategy also gives Apple something it didn’t have before. When the company was dependent on others, Intel or before that IBM and Motorola, for processors, it was constrained by the limitations of those manufacturers. Now in complete control of processor production, the company can optimize its systems to a degree competitors can’t easily match.
That’s great for Apple enthusiasts, but for enterprise purchasers it represents a clear and coherent strategy. The products work well together and business users considering a switch can see the depth of the company’s commitment to its platforms and a future road map for development. We already expect Apple will begin moving its platforms to 3nm chips starting in 2023, when the first M3 Macs (and, presumably if tablets remain in step) iPads appear.
Year by year, Apple is unleashing performance gains of around 20% across its entire range even as it makes equally significant improvements in energy efficiency. That Apple nurtures a powerful enterprise supporting ecosystem, including a thriving MDM market and regular annual software upgrades that deliver a solid sense of security to businesses considering upgrade. This is a coherent forward strategy more and more business users are prepared to buy into.
Where it counts: employee experience
Apple continues to provide technologies most workers would choose, if given the choice. We saw rapid expansion in Apple deployments during the pandemic as employers sought to support remote workforces.
The adoption of remote working also exposed security challenges, which Apple and its partners have put a lot of focus into in recent years. It is moving to secure a passwordless future, introduced powerful protection such as Managed Device Attestation, and has improved the Mac’s own ability to protect itself from malware with powerful self-diagnosis and malware checking tools. These protections mount up.
Taking the leap
There are always bumps in the road. Economic uncertainty certainly exists. This is likely to blunt the achievement Apple has set up for itself in the last few years.
At the same time, the big advantages it has as it puts its Macs and iPads in a few lines on enterprise purchase orders reflect all the above.
That’s why those occupying seats in the C-suites will be looking with interest at whatever it is that Apple announces next this fall, even as minds continue to wonder aboutt the company’s next big thing.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
The start of fall sure is a special time, isn’t it? Colors are changing, leaves are falling, and fancy new phones are poppin’ up practically everywhere you look.
And that’s not all, either. With the official onset of autumn now just days away, there’s never been a better time to clean up, freshen up, and make sure your own existing work spaces are perfectly primed for productivity.
Making your physical desk presentable is all on you (seriously, pal, would it kill ya to do a little dusting once in a while?), but when it comes to that virtual office in your pocket — y’know, that shiny ol’ smartphone of yours — I’m here to help.
A handful of simple-seeming steps can go an impressively long way in clearing out the virtual clutter and turning your Android phone back into the optimal work companion it oughta be. And best of all? It won’t take you more than 20 minutes to pull off.
So pop open your hood, pull on the nearest pair of oil-stained coveralls, and get ready to get your hands metaphorically dirty: It’s time to step into the garage and get your mobile device in tip-top shape for the months ahead.
This first step may sound silly, but believe you me, it can make a world of difference: Whether they’re apps that came preinstalled or programs you downloaded once upon a moon, there’s a decent chance you’ve got at least some unused items lurking in the mustier corners of your phone. And guess what? Those forgotten icons do more than just collect virtual dust; they actively work against your efficiency-oriented interests.
First, superfluous apps take up space — both in the physical sense of your phone’s internal storage and in the sense of clutter that makes it tougher to find what you actually need. But beyond that, abandoned apps often take a toll on a phone’s performance and stamina by needlessly eating up resources. And beyond that, they open the door to some easily avoidable privacy problems (more on those in a minute).
You can probably scan through your app drawer pretty quickly and figure out which programs you haven’t opened in the past month or two. If you see something you aren’t using — or something you really don’t need — touch and hold its icon and then drag it up to the “Uninstall” command at the top of your screen. Remember, you can always reinstall it later if the need ever comes up.
And if an app can’t be uninstalled, it probably came preinstalled on your device and is baked into the system courtesy of your phone’s manufacturer and/or carrier. You should still be able to disable it, though: Either long-press it and then touch the “i” icon that appears or find and tap its title within the Apps section of your system settings. Then, look for the “Disable” command, tap it with gusto, and send the thing off to app hell — where it belongs.
⭐ Bonus tip: Want a helping hand in identifying your unused apps? Grab Google’s standalone Files app (which notably may not be the same as the Files app that came preinstalled on your phone). Open it once, then set yourself a reminder to check back on it in a month. By then, Files will have built up enough data to be able to tell you which apps you aren’t actually ever using — and to give you a super-simple way to get rid of all of ’em with a few quick taps.
JR
Just be sure to think through its recommendations carefully before uninstalling anything. Sometimes, the Files app will flag an app as “unused” if you haven’t explicitly opened it in a number of weeks — even if it’s something you actually do rely on as a background utility. But it’s a helpful starting point for this part of the process and a great way to get your tune-up going.
And speaking of stuff that runs in the background…
Android tune-up step 2: Lock down battery drainers and background data abusers
⏱ Time required: 5 minutes
Maybe there’s an app you genuinely do use but that drags your phone down with over-the-top background activity — in other words, doing stuff you don’t need it to do while you aren’t actively looking at it. Facebook and Instagram are both notorious for this sort of obnoxious behavior, and they’re anything but the only offenders.
Lucky for us, though, even when an app is poorly designed in this way — with abusive background activity and no easy option to stop it — you can still reclaim control. Start by opening up the Battery section of your system settings and finding the app-by-app battery usage breakdown. (On some devices, you may have to tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the Battery settings to uncover that option.) This’ll work best if you do it toward the end of a day, when your phone has plenty of activity to analyze.
Tap any app with high battery usage and then see how much of its activity is happening in the background — while you aren’t actively using it. For any programs with high amounts of background activity, ask yourself: Is this app doing something in the background that actually matters? For instance, do you really need Facebook, Twitter, or other social media and news tools to be refreshing their feeds while you aren’t looking at ’em? Probably not. But lots of apps like those do that by default and end up draining your device’s battery (and sometimes even taking a toll on your phone’s performance) as a result.
For any such items you come across, you’ve got two options: Look in the app’s own settings to see if there’s a way to turn off its background activity — or, provided your phone is running 2017’s Android 8 release or higher, use Android’s own background restriction option within your phone’s Battery settings or Apps settings to shut it down at the system level.
JR
Let’s check one more place, just to round things out: Head over to the Network & Internet section of your system settings (or the Connections section, if you’re on a Samsung phone) and tap the line labeled “Data usage” — or, if don’t see that line, tap either “Internet” or “Mobile network” and then tap the gear icon next to your carrier’s name followed by “App data usage.” (On some devices, you might see “App data usage” or possibly “Mobile data usage” right on that initial screen.)
However you get there, you should find a list of how much data different apps have been using as of late. Select any apps with high amounts and see how much of their data transferring is going on in the background. If an app is using a significant amount of background data for no apparent reason, take away its ability to do so by deactivating the “Background data” toggle on that same screen — which in turn will free up precious processing power and battery juice in addition to stopping the needless drain on your mobile data plan.
With both parts of this step, just be sure to use common sense and avoid disabling background permissions for any system-level tools — things like your Phone app or “Android OS” — as well as for any apps that genuinely need such capabilities in order to operate (like a messaging app, for instance, which wouldn’t be able to look for new incoming messages if it didn’t have background data and battery access).
Android tune-up step 3: Check up on app permissions
⏱ Time required: 5 minutes
It’s 2022. Do you know what data your apps have access to? (Please read that in your best booming TV announcer voice for maximum effect.)
At a time when personal data is essentially equal to money for lots of companies, you can’t be too careful with keeping tabs on which apps want which bits of your information and why. And it’s up to you to play the role of permission police — because while most reputable apps won’t ask for types of access they don’t genuinely need, you’d better believe there are apps (and, ahem, device-makers) out there looking to tap into your info for all the wrong reasons.
Take five minutes now to revisit which permissions you’ve granted to which apps on your phone and make sure they all seem sensible. First, open up the Privacy section of your system settings and tap the “Permissions manager” option. (On devices with older Android versions, the option may be labeled “App permissions” and bundled in with a broader Security section of your system settings.)
Go through each permission listed there and see what apps have been authorized to access it. Think carefully about whether every app that has access to a given area really needs access to that area — and anytime you see something that strikes you as unnecessary, pull that permission away (either by deactivating a toggle next to the app’s name or by tapping the app’s name and then changing its setting to “Don’t allow” or “Deny,” depending on your specific Android version and implementation).
If your phone has Android 10 or higher, pay extra-close attention to the “Location” section of app permissions — as all reasonably recent Android versions give you the power to get even more nuanced and specify whether apps should have access to your location all of the time, none of the time, or only when they’re actively in use.
JR
With Android 11 and higher, that same concept is expanded with the ability to let an app access your location, camera, and microphone only once — on a limited, one-time basis. All you’ve gotta do is select the “Ask every time” option for any app within that same area of your system settings to go that route.
And starting with Android 12, you can also specify whether an app should be able to access your precise location or see only a broader, more approximate overview of your general whereabouts. Now’s the time to revisit all that stuff and mull over the smartest and most appropriate setting for every app you’ve got installed.
This next part of our tune-up is less about system performance and more about your own sanity and ability to get stuff done. Notifications are distractions, after all — and odds are, your phone’s giving you plenty of attention-demanding alerts you don’t really need.
Think about all the notifications that show up on your Android device — and then think carefully about how many of ’em provide you with truly pertinent info that warrants the interruption. Do you need to know about every breaking news story the second it happens instead of finding that info when you actively seek it out on your own? What about social media mentions or incoming emails? Only you can decide what makes sense for you, but I’d be willing to wager you have at least a couple (and more likely a coupon dozen) types of notifications you’d be better off without.
If you think of any such examples, march back to the Apps section of your system settings and tap the line to see all of your installed apps. You can then select any app you’ve got and either turn off all of its alerts, at the system level, or disable only certain types of alerts it’s able to generate — for instance, leaving on notifications for direct messages in Twitter but shutting off all the other types of interruptions that service loves to send your way.
You can also get even more nuanced and change the way certain types of alerts appear — maybe setting an app’s less important notifications to show up silently so you’ll see ’em eventually but won’t be bothered when they arrive.
⭐ Bonus tip: Provided your phone is running Android 9 or higher, there’s a quick ‘n’ easy way to find your worst notification offenders: Head into the Notifications section of your system settings, tap “App notifications,” and then look for “Most recent” bar at the top of the screen. (On Samsung phones, you’ll instead look for the line that says “More” within the “Recently sent” area of that same Notifications settings screen.)
Tap that, then tap the selector at the top of the screen and change it from “Most recent” to “Most frequent” — and then, you’ll see an ordered list of exactly which apps are interrupting you the most. You can tap on any app’s name from that list to jump directly to its notification controls and tell it to kindly hush its virtual beak.
JR
Android tune-up step 5: Clean up your storage
⏱ Time required: 3 minutes
Android phones often have limited amounts of local storage — especially when you’re working with an old Android device or one that’s more on the midrange to lower-end side of the spectrum. So the next step in our tune-up will clear out the cobwebs and free up some of your device’s precious local space. That’ll give you more room for future downloads and app installs, of course, but it can also help your phone run a heck of a lot more smoothly.
The biggest storage-sucking culprit, not surprisingly, tends to be content from your camera — so if you aren’t already using Google Photos’ excellent cloud-syncing capability, head into the app’s settings and set that up now. Then, you can safely erase all the local copies of your photos and videos and still access them as if they were on your device. Plus, you can get to ’em from other phones or computers, too.
The rest is easy as can be: Remember that Google Files app we were talking about a few minutes ago? Open it up and look through the cards on its main screen. They’ll show you a bunch of smart suggestions for stuff you can clean up and delete, ranging from junk files and duplicates to already backed-up photos, videos, and other files you aren’t using and likely don’t need. You can review all of the suggestions and then click a button to sweep any of the associated files away without ever leaving the app.
JR
⭐ Bonus tip: If you’re using a Google-made Pixel phone, look for the “Smart Storage” option within the settings area of the Files app (which you can get to by tapping the three-line menu icon in the app’s upper-left corner and then selecting “Settings”). Activating that will allow your phone to automatically remove already-backed-up photos and videos whenever your storage is running low or after the files have been on your device for a certain amount of time — taking all the heavy lifting out of your hands and making the ongoing maintenance almost entirely effortless.
Android tune-up step 6: Spruce up your home screen
⏱ Time required: 2 minutes
Last but not least, a tune-up step that’s all about organization and efficiency: getting your home screen tidied up and in optimal working order.
An organized home screen makes it faster and easier to get to the stuff you use the most — and realistically, for most of us, that’s a relatively small number of items. Remember: This isn’t iOS! You don’t have to treat your home screen as a generically cluttered grid of every single thing you’ve got installed.
So look at every item on your home screen and think carefully about how often you use it. If it isn’t something you open at least once daily or close to it, take it off. That way, your home screen will act as an efficient launching board for your most essential apps, shortcuts, and widgets — the stuff you actually access on a regular basis — and then everything else can be pulled up quickly as needed via your scrolling alphabetical app drawer.
JR
⭐ Bonus tip: If you really want to take your home screen efficiency to the next level, consider exploring the excellent Niagara Launcher home screen replacement app. It swaps out your device’s standard home screen setup for a super-minimalist approach that makes getting around your device as speedy as can be. Just be sure to give it a solid week or two to let yourself get used to it, as its unconventional philosophy often takes a bit of adjustment — but once it starts to feel second-nature, you’ll be flying around your phone like never before.
And with that, my dearest darling, your annual Android tune-up is complete. Give yourself a hearty pat on the back and grab a well-deserved donut — and get ready for your phone to roll out of the shop and rev its engine all over the world.
Ready for even more advanced Android knowledge? Come check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone!
When it comes to reasons to upgrade to iOS 16 it’s no surprise that most of the focus is on the consumer-friendly features of the new OS. But there are plenty of reasons for enterprise users to upgrade — including these productivity-enhancing tweaks.
Big improvements in SSO
Single sign-on (SSO) lets an employee sign into their managed device once to see it set up for use, including applications and services deployments. Like most simple things, it relies on a complex web of technologies first introduced with Sign in with Apple in 2019. Significant enhancements have been introduced in iOS 16, including support for user enrollment for iOS 16. You can enroll via an MDM provider or via a Managed Apple ID, depending on company deployment strategy.
In another nugget of good news for enterprise IT, Apple has introduced support for OAuth 2.0, which supports additional identity provision systems from third-party services. You can find out more about these enhancements here.
Sign in with Apple at Work & School
Apple introduced integration with Google Workspace earlier this year following previous support for Microsoft sync. Now it has gone further with Sign in with Apple at Work & School, which adds support for Managed Apple IDs to Sign in with Apple.
What that somewhat brand-name-heavy word jamboree means is that employees, educators, and students can sign in with their Managed Apple IDs, which essentially makes it way easier for businesses to distribute and manage employee apps. This also makes for highly efficient device deployments alongside SSO.
Managed Device Attestation
Announced at WWDC 2022, Managed Device Attestation helps prevent attackers from stealing a device’s TLS private keys, spoofing legitimate devices, or lying about a device’s properties. It relies on the Secure Enclave to secure communication between managed devices and services such as MDM. In use, it helps protect vulnerable endpoints and enterprise services against various forms of security compromises.
Declarative Device Management
Introduced last year and set to be extended to the Mac with macOS Ventura, Declarative Device Management makes managed devices more proactive and intelligent, which means MDM systems gather early warning signs in the event unauthorized changes are made to the device. In iOS 16, this extends to automated and profile-based device enrolments. Shared iPad support will also be introduced with iPad OS.
What’s better than weak passwords? No password
Apple is working to reduce the need for authorization. Its work to replace CAPTCHA technology with seamless authorization based around a device’s first login means passwords will become less important — though it does make it far more important to ensure the one master password you and your employees use is unique, rock solid, and highly secure. Apple has also introduced Passkeys, further accelerating a move toward a hopefully more secure password-free future.
Managed per-app networking
Apple is expanding the per-app managed networking capabilities it supports to include DNS proxies and web content filters for iOS 16 devices enrolled with User Enrollment. This helps ensure only network traffic initiated by managed apps travels through a corporate web content filter or DND proxy. This cleverly keeps your employees’ personal traffic separate and unfiltered, which means your business gets good protection over the data it cares about while your staff keep their private lives private.
Data separation in Calendar and Reminders
If you use Calendar and Reminder apps across your business, you need to know that in iOS 16 both apps support full data separation for devices enrolled with User Enrollment. It means that when a user signs in with their Managed Apple ID, the app will create a second database containing events and metadata that concern your organization’s calendars and reminders. This should help protect user privacy while protecting your business secrets. Another useful enhancement lets you use Filter Fields when sharing contact information from your device, which means you can share just the information that is required, rather than an entire contact card.
Lockdown Mode
While Apple says most of us will never need to use its new and highly secure “Lockdown Mode,” it does make sense for any business or business user to look at the protection it provides. It’s an approach to device security that makes complete sense to any company doing business in unstable regions, or any enterprise in which privacy and data security are paramount. Unfortunately, use of this mode vastly reduces the capabilities of your device. Among other limitations, Lockdown Mode curtails some web services, Messages content, and invitations; wired connections won’t work; and you cannot sign a device into MDM (though pre-existing enrollment is preserved). You enable the mode in Settings>Privacy & Security>Lockdown Mode.
Rapid Security Response
This is an important update for enterprise security. Apple has developed a new system to push security updates out to users swiftly. When Rapid Security Response is enabled, security patches can be automatically downloaded and/or installed as they are made available. Apple has also created two new APIs for MDM service providers, which enable IT admins to either enforce or prevent use of Rapid Security Response across their Apple device fleets.
[Also read: Jamf CIO: Apple will be the No. 1 enterprise endpoint by 2030]
Configurator gets better
If you are an Apple admin used to using Configurator to add devices to your Apple Business Manager (ABM) account as you enroll them to your chosen MDM service, you’ll be exultant that Apple now makes it possible to add Macs, iPads, and iPhones to ABM using a version of Configurator on your iPhone. This is going to save a good deal of time for many businesses who have had to use a wired connection on the Mac to support some devices until now.
A boom for small business
Apple has reached a deal with CloudFlare that lets users purchase email domains from within iCloud Settings. You can then use the custom domain as your email address, share email addresses based on your domain with others, and more in iOS 16.
Smart Card support
iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 support PIV Smart Cards and CCID-compliant readers, though admins will need to contact the developer of their CCID reader to verify that iOS is presently supported.
Making it easier to swap eSIMs
Given that Apple has made iPhone 14 eSIM-only in the US, another improvement that was slightly ignored on announcement now makes a lot of sense. You will be able to transfer eSims between iPhones using Bluetooth. To do so, just move your older iPhone close to your new one and follow the Set Up Cellular command dialog. We’ll see if Apple has gone far enough to make this a seamless transition.
Brand Indicators for Message Identification
Apple has adopted Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI), a specification that enables use of brand-controlled logos within emails. It’s not perfect and the cost of exploiting it is such that most smaller enterprises will probably ignore it, but the move does add another layer of protection to help distinguish genuine corporate emails from spam.
iOS 16 compatibility guide
The following devices are compatible with iOS 16:
iPhone 13
Phone 13 Mini
iPhone 13 Pro
iPhone 13Pro Max
iPhone 12
iPhone 12 Mini
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 11
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone XS
iPhone XS Max
iPhone XR
iPhone X
iPhone 8
iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone SE (2nd generation or later).
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
When you think about it, Apple’s newly introduced Dynamic Island feature is likely to become a critical interaction point between apps and users of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max phones that support it. It looks like a great opportunity for B2C and B2B app experiences that can build digital connection with end users.
What is Dynamic Island?
Dynamic Island turns Apple’s boring notch, behind which the FaceID camera sits, into an excitingly interactive area that lets users monitor important app activity (such as delivery service ETA, music playback, and sports scores) and take control of apps.
It’s possible to hold two apps active in Dynamic Island while working in another app. (For many, that will come down to doom-scrolling Twitter while waiting for pizza delivery. Let’s not judge.)
In typical Apple style, the Dynamic Island presents itself in a range of different shapes with fluid animations. The information it presents should be seen as glanceable data — you won’t be reading books or engaging in more sophisticated tasks in Apple’s Dynamic Island. You have other apps for that.
Apple will enable the feature, which depends on new Live Activities frameworks, in a later release of iOS 16. “Once ActivityKit is available in an update to iOS 16, you’ll be able to implement Live Activities and interact with them in Dynamic Island,” Apple told developers.
Dynamic Island isn’t universally available. It will only be supported on Apple’s most expensive iPhone models and exploits the pill-shaped area that supplants the notch.
To achieve this, Apple redesigned its TrueDepth (selfie) camera, making it smaller. It has also put a proximity sensor behind the display. What’s important about this is that if you are looking at your phone this small interactive area is likely to grab your attention, as it is also where your FaceID sensor sits.
How does Dynamic Island work?
The feature relies on the OLED screen, which can switch off individual pixels, turning them black. This enabled Apple to design a user interface for the area that changes shape to reflect the content of what it does. This space is then used to provide small nuggets of information, such as those described above or data relevant to your app.
The Live Activity frameworks Apple made available to developers are designed to give you active insights into app-related information. That means ride sharing and delivery, sports scores, timers, flight or transit times and more.
What Apple said about Dynamic Island
Apple wheeled out Alan Dye, vice president for human interface design, to explain the feature, which turns a section of the display many saw as dead space into a section not to ignore. With customary modesty, Apple said Dynamic Island “blurs the line between hardware and software.”
It explained that it does so by sharing real time alerts in different shapes to reflect what kind of action is taking place. It’s not like Notifications, which also exist, but is designed to support ongoing background activities.
In a statement, the company also said:
“Without impeding content on the screen, the Dynamic Island maintains an active state to allow users easier access to controls with a simple tap-and-hold. Ongoing background activities like Maps, Music, or a timer remain visible and interactive, and third-party apps in iOS 16 that provide information like sports scores and ridesharing with Live Activities can take advantage of the Dynamic Island.”
In other words, it works to combine notifications, alerts, and activities in one highly interactive space.
What sort of activities does it support?
Apple described several uses of Dynamic Island during its presentation. Different uses present themselves in different shapes, reflecting the information they’re attempting to present.
To support multiple apps, the island divides, presenting itself as a small pill shape to the left with a circle on the right. These can then display different information from different apps. When tapped, the chosen item gets larger so you can interact.
The company showed off a few ways people could use the feature. It is important to stress that Apple has also created frameworks to enable developers to introduce support in their apps. In other words, the examples Apple demonstrated are not the only ways in which the feature may be used.
Apple Pay payment confirmations – in this case, the Dynamic Island presents itself as a square shape to confirm payment has taken place.
Maps can use the feature to show directions.
Music playback controls, song titles and so on. When you are playing music but quit the music app you’ll see a small cover art image appear on the left side of the Island with a live music waveform on the right.
Tracking rides or deliveries.
Timers
Sports scores.
Battery life, charging status, and privacy indicators.
What Apple has also done is create a section of display real estate that promises to deliver the highest casual engagement available anywhere on the device. I think this may be an opportunity for enterprises that can think creatively about how to use this space to create highly useful experiences with their iOS apps.
It’s also important to note that the Digital Island is shown on a device with an always-on screen, which means you can pop your phone on a desk in a meeting and still chance a glance to keep up with sports scores, for instance.
Live Activities and Activity Kit
Apple’s frameworks to provide these interactions are called Live Activities and Activity Kit, used in conjunction with WidgeKit and SwiftUI. “Live Activities display and update an app’s most current data on the iPhone Lock Screen. This allows people to see live information they care about the most at a glance,” Apple explained.
While not available when iOS 16 ships, they will be introduced in an update later in the year, the company said. Live Activities will exploit WidgetKit and SwiftUI to display information, while Activity Kit will handle the life cycle of that data – a Live Activity can only be active for up to eight hours, but can remain on the LockScreen for four more hours after that.
Live Activities aren’t apps in themselves: They work in a sandbox and don’t enjoy unique network access, which means the information they present is provided from within the relevant app.
[Also read: 10 lesser-known iOS 16 features to make work easier]
It is going to be important to ensure the experience offered by any app supporting Dynamic Island is sufficiently meaningful that people remain engaged with the information provided.
I don’t really believe Dynamic Island is meant to be a space for marketing messages, no matter how subtle — it’s an active space for active information that users want and need. Defining where that relationship is in terms of your own company interaction is going to be a task that’s unique to every business.
Developers can find out more about Live Activities in an Apple developer note that is available here.
What comes next?
9to5Mac is already wondering how this feature might work on an iPad. It’s also relatively easy to imagine this as the kind of tech that may once have been destined for the Touch Bar on a Mac.
But, for me, Dynamic Island also feels like the kind of rich content, immersive interactive experience space you can imagine being made visible within AR-based user interfaces. That potential may be the biggest reason for enterprise developers to explore Apple’s new Live Activities frameworks as it’s plausible these will form part of how the company will enable app interactivity in AR space, particularly within wearable experiences.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Got extra smartphones sitting around your office? How about tablets? As we move multiple generations into mobile technology, more and more of us are building up collections of old, dated devices from both our work and our personal lives. And more often than not, those devices do little more than take up space and gather dust.
Here’s a little secret, though: Your abandoned Android gadgets are actually virtual gold mines. You just have to find the right way to tap into their potential and give them new life.
So grab the nearest DustBuster and get ready: Here are 20 ways to make your old phone or tablet useful again.
1. Use it as a wireless trackpad and controller for your computer
With the right software and a couple minutes of configuration, your old Android device can act as an on-demand controller for your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.
An app called Unified Remote and a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection are all you need to make the magic happen. The free version of the app gives you basic mouse and keyboard control along with specialized remotes for media playback and power-related commands, while the full $5 version adds in program-specific remotes for presentation control along with other advanced features.
JR Raphael / IDG
Unified Remote provides basic mouse and keyboard control along with a variety of specialized remotes.
Grab whichever version you prefer and download the server-side software for your computer — then toss your old device into a desk drawer or computer bag and rest easy knowing it’ll be ready and waiting the next time you need to go wireless.
2. Turn it into a remote computer terminal
Want easy access to your home computer from the office — or vice-versa? Your old Android phone or tablet can be a splendid stationary screen for keeping a remote system at arm’s reach.
The newer version of Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop program doesn’t support Android, oddly enough, but a third-party app called TeamViewer handily fills the void. To get started with it, download and install the appropriate app for your desktop computer. Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS are all supported.
Once the program is in place, open it, and you should see an access code and password for remote sign-ins. All that’s left is to install the companion app on your Android device, tap in those same credentials — and within a matter of seconds, you should be staring at your desktop computer from your Android device’s screen.
You’ll find commands for advanced forms of interaction (including locking or rebooting the remote system) in a toolbar at the bottom of the screen. You can pull up a virtual keyboard by tapping the keyboard icon in that same area, meanwhile, and if you need to use the computer’s mouse, you can tap once to click, tap and hold to right-click, double-tap to drag and drop, and drag with two fingers to scroll. You can also pinch to zoom on any particular area.
TeamViewer is free for personal use (so be sure to select the “personal/non-commercial use” option during the program’s initial setup, provided that classification makes sense for you). If you’re using it in a commercial context, plans start at $35 a month for a year-long business license.
3. Use it as a universal smart remote
Even the junkiest old Android device has ample power to serve as a smart remote for your home or office. That can be a helpful way for you and anyone else around to control your various smart devices and multimedia components without needing any special access (or your own current personal phone in hand).
First, the easy part: Load up your old phone or tablet with all the relevant apps for your smart-device setup — things like Nest, Hue, and anything else appropriate for controlling your home or office tech.
Next, think about adding some tools that’ll let the device handle any audio and video systems in your area. There are a few ways you can make that work:
Pair the phone or tablet with one of Google’s ultra-affordable Chromecast streaming sticks. You can then keep the old Android device on your desk or coffee table and use it as a hub for wirelessly casting content — everything from Netflix and YouTube to TED Talks, CNBC, and Google Slides — to your TV.
Use your device as a dedicated remote for your home or office entertainment setup. If the device is running an Android version from 2012 or later, you can give yourself a ready-to-roll Google TV remote that’ll work with any compatible streaming products by installing and then signing into the official Google TV app. The Play Store also has a variety manufacturer-made apps for controlling specific components, including those by Comcast Xfinity, AT&T U-verse, and Roku.
Set up a full-fledged media server using Plex, then use your old device as a dedicated remote to stream your own local content to a TV. (The Plex media server software is free; a premium subscription with added features runs $5 per month, $40 per year, or $120 for a lifetime license.)
4. Let it power scientific research
Here’s something: Your clunky old Android device could actually help scientists search for extraterrestrial life, detect earthquakes, or improve cancer treatments.
It’s all part of a series of programs that use your device’s computing power to conduct scientific research. Some of the more worthwhile options:
Zooniverse connects your phone or tablet to a variety of research projects ranging from wild beluga whale identification to breast cancer tumor mapping.
DreamLab is a project helmed by Vodafone that typically aims to uncover insight into how cancer relates to a patient’s DNA profile. That, in turn, could allow for the development of more specific and effective cancer-fighting drugs. More recently, the app has been focused largely on research into potential treatments for COVID-19 as part of a partnership with the Imperial College of London.
MyShake, from the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, uses your device’s sensors to detect and analyze earthquakes. If you live in an area where earthquakes occur, leaving your device plugged in and on a stable surface will provide the scientists with valuable real-time data about any seismic activity.
All of the apps work in essentially the same way: After downloading and installing (and sometimes going through a brief setup or sign-in procedure), you simply plug your device in and turn its screen off. As long as it remains connected to an active Wi-Fi network, researchers will be able to put its processing power to use.
JR Raphael / IDG
Apps like Zooniverse, left, and DreamLab, right, can turn your old Android tablet or phone into a scientific research machine.
5. Transform it into a free-standing security camera
Who needs a fancy-schmancy connected camera when you’ve got an old Android phone sitting around? With the aid of a third-party app, the camera on your dated device can let you keep an eye on your home, office, or top-secret crime lair from anywhere — and even perform advanced functions like video recording and motion detection.
Just download the free IP Webcam app or get the fully featured $5 pro version and follow its instructions. Within moments, you’ll be able to peek through your device’s lens from any compatible web browser and cackle with glorious glee.
6. Reframe it as a full-time videoconferencing station
Set up your old Android device with the app for your video-chatting platform of choice — Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, or whatever the case may be — then drop it into a dock on your desk or conference room table. Say “hocus pocus” for good measure, and ta-da: You’ve just created a permanent access point for virtual face-to-face communications.
Just think: With enough old phones and tablets, you can create an entire house- or office-wide videoconferencing system. Sign each device into its own unique account, with the name of the room as its username, and seeing someone across the building will never be more than a couple quick taps away.
7. Turn it into a kitchen command center
Hard to believe, but my ancient 2011 Motorola Xoom tablet was one of the most used devices in my house until it finally kicked the bucket some six years into its life. That’s because I converted it into a multipurpose command center for our kitchen — a role my 2012 Nexus 10 tablet then took over for another couple years after that.
So how to make a kitchen command center of your own? Easy: First, use a custom Android launcher like Action Launcher or Nova Launcher to simplify your old tablet’s home screen and add in some easy-to-perform gestures — like double-tapping anywhere on the screen to launch Android’s voice search function for on-the-fly info-gathering and other hands-free commands. If your device is at least a little less ancient than mine, you should be able to take advantage of hands-free voice activation and a much wider variety of commands with Google Assistant instead.
Second, populate the home screen with the right apps for the purpose. Netflix and other video-streaming services will effectively turn your old tablet into a cooking-time television. Recipe apps can also be useful, as can cloud-connected note-taking services — like Google Keep, Evernote, or OneNote — for quick viewing of personal recipes or editing of always-synced family-shared shopping lists.
8. Make it a data-based extension of your current phone service
If you use Google Fi (formerly known as Project Fi) for your current phone’s wireless service, take advantage of a little-known bonus feature: the ability to get an extra SIM card that’s connected to your account and able to provide data on any other device — without any superfluous fees.
All you’ve gotta do is order the card from the Google Fi website, pop it into an old phone (or a tablet, if you happen to have one with a SIM slot) — and bam: That device is instantly online and connected. You’ll pay only for whatever mobile data the device uses in any given month, at the same flat rate associated with your regular Fi plan, so it’s essentially just an extension of your primary phone.
That opens up plenty of interesting possibilities: You could use your old device as a ready-to-go backup phone in case your regular one is ever missing, broken, or low on battery; you could use it as a dedicated hotspot to beam out mobile data access without draining your primary phone’s battery; or you could use it as an always-connected on-the-go slate for your kids (hello, airport video-streaming) without having to pay for an extra line of service.
9. Make it your live window into the world
Don’t have the greatest view from your desk? Let your old Android phone or tablet be your window to wild and exciting locales.
To get started, grab the EarthCam Webcams app from the Google Play Store. It’ll give you one-touch access to an impressive list of live streaming cameras around the world, from the hustle and bustle of New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street to the swooshing serenity of Niagara Falls. Pull up any view you like, then tap the icon to go full-screen and gaze the day away. If you find yourself craving some variety, you can consider upgrading from the app’s free collection to a set of 175 live cameras for a one-time $5 fee.
JR Raphael / IDG
EarthCam lets you gaze down Niagara Falls — or a slew of other webcams around the world — for a break from the mundane.
You can find quite a few mobile-friendly live cameras on the web as well: Pull up your device’s browser and try out the San Diego Zoo’s assorted animal cams — including a penguin cam, koala cam, and tiger cam, among other exotic views — or the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s extensive underwater cams for even more “aww”-inducing options.
10. Convert it into a digital photo frame
Ah, memories. Snag an inexpensive stand, plug your device into its charger, and turn it into a cloud-connected photo frame for your home or office.
If you use Google Photos, just open up the app, tap on any photo in your main library or within a specific album, and then tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. Scroll horizontally along the menu that appears and select “Slideshow.” The app will cycle through your photos and give you plenty of memories to reflect upon whilst relaxing or taking care of business.
If your old Android phone is a Pixel, you can also set it on one of Google’s official Pixel Stands to start an ever-evolving Photos-linked slideshow showing any specific albums or even specific people you want.
11. Use it as a dedicated e-reader
Want a distraction-free reading environment for your next business trip or public transit commute? Load up your old Android device with only the apps you need for reading — Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, Nook, or whatever tickles your text-ingesting fancy.
You can even borrow books from your local library: Check with your nearest branch for information on how to do it or download the free OverDrive app, which is used by a variety of libraries, schools, and institutions.
Be sure to disable notifications from Gmail and other noisy apps — heck, even switch the device into airplane mode once you’ve downloaded the content you need — and you’ve got the equivalent of a dedicated e-reader without all the usual phone or tablet temptations.
NEXT PAGE: Connect your old device with calendars, cars, and cash →
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., a former police officer, faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 13 rape-related charges and 13 murder counts stemm…
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JR Raphael / IDG
JR Raphael / IDG
JR Raphael / IDG
