10 Must-Do's Before Giving a Kid an iPhone or iPod

Today's generation was born with a device in their hand; not really but it sure seems that way. As a mother of teen daughters, I want to know the best way to keep them safe on their devices. The device of choice for our household is Apple. It is the device I know best and can protect my girls to the best of my ability. This post is a collection of things I feel are "must-dos" before handing your child an iPhone or iPad. Some of these I followed, some I learned about later and put into action. 

1. Set Up Family Sharing
• Family Sharing allows up to six people in your family to share each other’s iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases without sharing accounts. As a parent, kids will share the credit card on file for purchases, but you must approve them first. You can also share photos, calendars, and Apple Music. 
• Here are a few resources for Family Sharing: 10 Things to Know Before Enabling Family Sharing; What is Family Sharing; and How to Set Up Family Sharing.
• I currently do not use Family Sharing because this option was not available when my daughters first received their devices. Since then I have moved my oldest to her own account, but since she is in college, she manages that account with her debit card. 
2. Create Apple ID for Child
• Apple now lets you create a child account for children under 13. You must participate in Family sharing to set up a child account. I'd suggest enabling "Ask to Buy" option, so your approval is needed for any purchases and enabling "Share Location." 
• Here's a guide on how to create an Apple ID for minors. 
3. Set Passcode
• Establish a passcode for your child's device. You can enter a six-digit passcode. Or tap Passcode Options to switch to a four-digit numeric code, a custom numeric code, or a custom alphanumeric code. For young children, I'd suggest a simple four-digit numerical code. 
4. Set Touch ID
• You must first have a passcode before using the Touch ID. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. I'd suggest adding parent fingerprints to children devices.
5. Enable Find My iPhone
• Find My iPhone is great for locating lost phones, but my favorite way to use it is for stalking my daughters. Just kidding...not really. I use this feature to track my oldest daughter when she is traveling home from college. On a funny note, she knows I do this and one day she texted and said: "Can you ding my phone because I cannot find it in my dorm room?" 
• Features of Find My iPhone: 
• Activate Lock Mode
• Erase iPhone
• Display a Message if Lost
• Track Phone (track for last 24 hours when in lost mode)
• Play Sound
6. Set Restrictions
• I'd suggest setting the following restrictions on devices for children:
• Safari - when you enable Safari you give children access to everything on the internet. I'll talk later about the possibility of a safe browser for iOS devices.
• In-App Purchases
• Change ratings for Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books, Apps, and Websites.
7. Consider Purchasing Safe Browser
• There is no filtering system for Safari when using mobile devices when connecting to a cell service. 
• As an option, you can have them to connect to your personal wifi and set restrictions on your wifi.
• Purchase a safe browser for iOS devices. Mobicip is not a free service, but it does have some great features. Here are a few:
• Parent/Admin App
• App Monitoring
• View Browsing History
• Access Requests - user can request for sites to be unblocked
• Time Limits
• Custom Filter Settings - allow/block domains, blacklist phrases.
• Multi-User, Multi-Device Management
8. Get Protective Case
• Cases are vital for keeping devices safe. We typically use Otterbox at our house.
• The Best iPhone 6 Cases for Protection
• Top 10 Best Cases for iPod
9. Get Screen Protector
• Screen protectors are a great way to protect your glass from breaking. My new favorite screen protector is made by Zagg and called the Invisible SHIELD glass protector. The shield is made out of glass, so if you drop your phone, the idea is that the glass screen protector will break before the device screen. Another great benefit of the Zagg screen protector is that it comes with a lifetime warranty. Yes, I said LIFETIME WARRANTY.  Things to do when you buy the Zagg Invisible Shield:
• Go online to Zagg.com, create an account, and register your screen protector. 
• When your Zagg screen gets a crack or break, go online and request a replacement.
• When the replacement arrives, change out the screens but KEEP THE BROKEN ONE. You must return the damaged one in the self-addressed envelope sent to you. 
• Screen replacements cost anywhere from $0-$10 plus $6.00 for shipping.  
10. Consider Apple Care
• Apple offer extended warranty services. For children and teens I recommend this service. I can't tell you how many times we've replaced our phones with broken screens when my girls were younger. Here's a link to What to know about Apple Care for iPhones.

Resources:

Costello, S. (2016). 14 Things to Do Before Giving Kids an iPod touch or iPhone. About.com Tech. Retrieved 3 May 2016, from http://ipod.about.com/od/KidsiPhoneiPodTouch/tp/Nine-Things-Before-Giving-Kids-Ipod-Touch-Iphone.htm

AK, S., Ranjit, P., Lee, S., Firdaus, T., Firdaus, T., & KS, A. et al. (2016). 5 Ways To Make Your iOS Devices More Kid-Friendly And Child-Safe. Hongkiat.com. Retrieved 3 May 2016, from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/tricks-make-ios-device-kid-friendly/

Carlson, J. (2016). 10 Things to Know Before Enabling Apple's Family Sharing | 1: You need iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. | Peachpit. Peachpit.com. Retrieved 3 May 2016, from http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2320215

How to create a new child ID for Family Sharing. (2014). iMore. Retrieved 3 May 2016, from http://www.imore.com/how-create-new-child-id-family-sharing

What's New with iOS 9.3

Apple's iOS 9.3 is here so what does that mean for Apple users? There are three significant updates: night shift, notes, and education. If you have yet to update your iOS device, you may want to read this "throwback" post on what to know before downloading any iOS updates. The post is about iOS 7, but the two rule of thumb principles on what to do before updating still apply today. http://goo.gl/bdDaFV 

Here is what you need to know about iOS 9.3 (by now there is already a 9.3.1 update)

• Night Shift
• Apple has made the display "color friendly" by giving users an option to use warmer (orange color) color tones at night. For my fellow iPad readers at night, you can set your night shift display to turn on automatically with the schedule feature. 
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• You can also access Night Shift in the Control Center.
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• Notes
• Now you can better protect your notes by locking them. Locked notes require a password to unlock or use the fingerprint feature to open.
• Click this link to read a tutorial on how to lock notes on an iOS device. 

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• Education
• For years, the iPad was meant to be a single-user device. As schools deployed shared sets of iPads into the educational world, the problem of managing shared sets became a huge problem for classroom teachers. Multiple users on the same device caused students to lose work or their settings. With iOS 9.3 managing multiple users on a single device could be a significant selling point for education.
• This update offers the following educational features:
• Shared Sets
• Students can pick up where they left off.
• Once a student logs in, they have access to all their apps and materials.
• Simpler login for younger students.
• New Classroom App
• This app becomes the "teaching assistant" for the educator.
• Teachers can see any iPad screen of students with Screen View.
• Teachers can reset forgotten passwords. 
• Teachers can launch an app or website or lock an app to keep students focused. 
• Apple School Manager Portal
• The manager portal is more of a technical feature used by technology to enroll and set up iPads.
• NOTE: The education features is initiated at the admin level. Currently, the technology department is exploring these features and speaking with an Apple engineer on the functionality of this update. 

Sources:

Swider, M. (2016). iOS 9.3: What features are in the new iPhone and iPad update?.TechRadar. Retrieved 6 April 2016, from http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/ios-9-3-update-new-iphone-and-ipad-features-1313731

Tanous, J. (2016). How to Lock a Note in the iOS Notes App. TekRevue. Retrieved 7 April 2016, from http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/lock-notes-ios/

Education - Mac, iPad, Apple TV. (2016).Apple. Retrieved 7 April 2016, from http://www.apple.com/education/products/#learning-with-ipad

Education Preview - Apple (UK). (2016).Apple. Retrieved 7 April 2016, from http://www.apple.com/uk/education/preview/

Help...I'm Out of Storage on My iPhone!

The worst messages that can pop up on my iPhone are the following...
  *  Storage Almost Full
  *  Cannot Take Photo
  *  Cannot Record
  *  Not Enough Space
  *  Manage Your Storage
So what happens now? How does one go about managing the dreaded storage issue on an iPhone? This blog post is a gathering of information from other posts and will offer some ways to clean up your iPhone and create more storage. But before we start with ways to create more storage, let's take a look at what items are taking up the most storage on your phone.

Go to Settings/General/Usage and then Manage Storage. A list will populate as to what storage is being used.


Now that you know where all the "gremlins" are located, time to get your storage under control. Here are a few tips for cleaning up:

1. Delete Apps You Don't Use
• Take stock of the apps that you really, truly need -- ones you use at least once per day or more -- and keep those. I'm notorious for downloading apps for the sake of downloading. Be selective with apps that you keep on your phone. 
2. Delete and Reinstall Apps
• Apps that have been on your iPhone for awhile tend to accrue data. Some of the worst offenders are social media apps, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. As you use these apps, data builds up, and the only way to delete it is to remove the app. 
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3. Be Choosy With Your Music
• The days of storing all your songs on your device are over. Download the albums you love, and stream the rest. Consider downloading Spotify or Apple Music to listen to any music you want without hogging your phone's memory. Here is a comparison between the two: http://goo.gl/ya6m7K (NOTE: Spotify offers a student discount for $4.99 a month.)
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4. Delete Those ZILLIONS of Texts
• Sentimental types, brace yourselves. You're not helping anyone by hoarding all those texts on your phone. In iOS 8, you can change your settings to automatically delete read texts after a month (instead of the auto setting 'forever'), which will prevent iMessage causing you storage woes in the future.
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Favorite Finds

Last week I had the opportunity to attend some great sessions at the TCEA Conference. I enjoyed collaborating and learning from technology leaders through the face-to-face sessions I attended. I also enjoyed being able to follow fellow conference attendees on Twitter as they shared resources and information using the conference hashtag, #TCEA15. It was especially beneficial to debrief with fellow Dragons and talk about how to apply the knowledge and ideas we gleaned. Carroll ISD was well represented by Teachers, Coordinators, Principals, and the Technology Department.

As we reflect on our learning, the Instructional Technology Team, along with other TCEA attendees, will be sharing some of our “favorite finds”—web sites, apps, and ideas—with you over the next couple of weeks. I hope you will find an idea, resource, or web site that inspires you to try something new. 

Here are my Top 3 Favorite Finds:

• Innovation Day- The idea of an Innovation Day is so exciting as we strive to teach our students to take ownership of their learning. What better way to do this than to plan a day in which they can work on anything they want!
• An entire day is dedicated to self-directed learning.
• Students can work on ANYTHING THEY CHOOSE.
• Students must show evidence of their learning.
• Teachers are the guide on the side.
• Workspaces are organized by interest groups.
• NO GRADES are taken.
• NO AWARDS are given
• Plickers (free) Not enough devices in your classroom? Plickers is a simple, formative assessment tool that allows teachers to use their mobile device to collect data without the need for student devices. Students respond using downloadable response cards. Response cards, Apple and Android apps are all available on the Plickers web site.
• Post-It Plus App (free) I love post-it notes for brainstorming and collaboration. Now with the app, you can have the best of both worlds. You have the visual and kinesthetic appeal of the physical post-it notes. And with the app, you can easily scan all the post-it notes to digitize your ideas. Once scanned, you have the ability to organize them digitally and share in a variety of formats!

Wishes Come True with Siri

The new year is here and time to try the new features in Siri. If you have an iPhone and haven't tried Siri, Apple's voice command system, then you should give it a try. When you first start using Siri it is important to remember that your voice will be misunderstood at first. Keep using it so Siri can become familiar with your voice and commands. When iOS7 came out Siri was also updated. Take a moment to read some of my favorite things Siri can do from the article by Bakari Chanavu. 

5 Things Tech Tools Can Do That You Didn't Know

1. Travel Smarter with Google Maps

• Planning a trip using Google Maps provides users with the following features:
• Create a new map.
• Save places to stay on the new map.
• Save travel plans and transit on the new map. This will show traffic and local public transit along with the cost.
• Enable the weather feature on the new map.
• Explore the area of the new map by enabling the webcams of the street view.
• Plan the itinerary by exploring food and activities on the new map.
• Read the full article by clicking here

2. Smart Ways to Use Cloud Storage

• Just a few unique ways to use cloud storage
• Share large photo albums with friends and family via cloud link
• Family history vault
• Store owner manuals
• Create video quizzes on Google Drive
• Read the full article by clicking here

3. How to Get Wifi Free

• Ways to get free wifi
• Get free wifi from your cable company - Cox and Time Warner Cable - click here
• Tether your phone from your computer - iOS device; Android device
• Read the full article by clicking here

4. Things I Didn't Know My Smart Phone Could Do

• My smart phone is too smart; it can now...
• Measure my heart rate (iOS device; Android device)
• Detect metal (iOS device; Android device)
• Name that tune (iOS device; Android device)
• Become reading glasses (iOS device; Android device)
• Measure large objects or longer distances (iOS device; Android device)
• Read the full article by clicking here 

5. Dictate Emoticons to Your Phone

• Emoticons are so fun but did you know you could add emoticons through voice activation?
• iOS Device - turn on Siri and say "winky", "smiley", or "frowny" to get the emoticons.
• Android Device - say "smiley face" or "frowny face" to get the emoticons.
• Read the full article by clicking here 

BONUS:
5 Battery Saving Tips for your Mobile Device - http://www.edudemic.com/battery-saving-tips/

iOS 7 is Here...What to Know Before and After Downloading

iOS 7 is here so what should you know before and after downloading Apple's new operating system? It always surprises me how many people experience difficulties when Apple releases new operating system updates. As I look back over the releases I realize that the problem lies in forgetting some of the basic steps. This post will look at two major basic steps that many users forget to do before they jump into downloading a new operating system. Then you will find eight tips on how to maneuver through the changes after the download is complete. 

BEFORE downloading iOS 7, two basic steps to follow:

1. BACKUP. BACKUP. BACKUP.

• You should always backup your device before making such a big change as downloading a new operating system. That way if any contacts, calendar appointments, notes, etc. are compromised during the download you can retrieve them by restoring your phone to the last backup. That's what I call "Apple 101." Before you go to the Apple Genius bar - backup, get a new phone - backup, download a new iOS operating system - backup, or for good measure just backup every couple of weeks in case your phone crashes.
• iCloud Backup vs. Computer Backup
• I am not a big fan of backing up to iCloud because Apple only gives you a certain amount of space for free. Each backup requires additional space which will eventually deplete. Plus, I found it difficult to find my backup when I used iCloud.
• I find it much easier to backup my devices to the computer. Be warned...make sure your computer is also being backed up via an external hard drive or some type of cloud storage. 
• In all my years of owning an iOS device, I have yet to lose my contacts, photos, notes, calendar appointments, etc. I say that boldly because I have a rule of thumb and that is that I back up my devices at least once a month. Should something disappear, I can go back and restore my device to the latest backup.

2. UPDATE YOUR APPS

• With the release of iOS 7, app developers are quickly pushing out their updated apps. Be sure to go to the App Store and run the updates. Anytime a new operating system is released users need to update their apps so they are compatible with the new system.
• Warning about Updating Apps: Be sure to read the fine print before pressing the update button. Developers will list what is included in the download and if there could be complications. Sometimes it is better to wait depending on what is listed in the update.

AFTER downloading iOS 7, a few tips on changes:

1.  Notification Center 

• New tabs at the top: Today/All/Missed
• Today reveals the weather and your calendar for the day.
• All reveals all notifications.
• Missed reveals any notifications that were not seen.

2.  Spotlight Search

• The spotlight search feature has moved. No longer does swiping to the right reveal the spotlight, but now swipe down (but not swiping from the top of the screen or you will get the notification center) to get to the spotlight search feature.

3.  Shutting Down Apps

• Normally, if users want to close out apps, they double tap the home button and pick the apps they want to close. In iOS 7, after the double tap, apps now appear as a series of screens users scroll left to right. To close apps, simply swipe up.

4.  Deleting Emails 

• In the past, users could swipe left or right on an email to delete. Now users have different options per swipe. Left swipe gives the trash or move option. Right swipe opens the email.

5.  Bigger Folders

• Folders are no longer limited to a certain number of apps. Each one will now hold as many apps as you choose. New pages are created within the folder to accommodate the apps added.

6.  Blocking Numbers

• There's now an option to block callers. You can do this with settings/phone/block and add new, contacts, or numbers found in the Recents menu. Click the info button on the right and scroll down to Block. The feature will block any phone calls, messages or FaceTime chats from that contact.

7.  Camera

• There are more options right in front of you, like High Dynamic Range and Panorama. 
• There's also a new Square option and native filters; Instagram fans will love this. 
• Photos are organized differently, too. There's the standard albums, but when you tap the Photos icon at the bottom left, you can view images as "collections" sorted by date.
• Albums now contain a video and panorama album.

8.  Control Center Features

• From the lock screen, swipe upward on the bar located at the bottom of your device. When you swipe you now have access to these features.
• The top section has five features: Airplane Mode, Wifi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb,Orientation Lock
• The middle section features:  Music and Brightness control
• The bottom section features: Flashlight (new feature), Clock/Timer, Calculator, Camera

Additional resources for this article:

7 tips and tricks for navigating iOS 7

Your Guide to iOS 7