iOS 11's Annoying I Issue

Some folks are having a problem when they type an 'I' on their iPhone or iPad.  they,re getting an A with a question mark symbol [?] next to it.  This is a problem in iOS11 that oddly only affects some users.

Apple has released update 11.1.1 that is supposed to fix the problem.  If you haven't updated yet or need to hold off updating, there is a work-around.  Go to:

Settings
     General
          Keyboard 
               Text Replacement 
Hit the + to add a new entry then type an uppercase “I” in the Phrase field and a lowercase "i" in the Shortcut field.

That should fix you right up.

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Apple Mobile Devices - Patch 'em Up NOW

Apple has issued an "important security update", iOS 9.3.5, to neutralize a new piece of malware that can remotely jailbreak iPhones allowing an attacker full access to your device to read texts and email, record calls, track your location and activate your phone's camera and microphone.

The update patches the three previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities that together are referred to as "Trident".

To check if you're at risk look at Settings > General > About > Version   If you're on version 9.3.5 then you're OK.  If you're on a different version you should update now.  You can pull the update through Settings > General > Software Update then just follow the instructions to download and install it.

For those interested we'll go into the details a little:
The three exploited vulnerabilities are:

• CVE-2016-4655, Memory Corruption in Webkit 
• CVE-2016-4656, Information leak in Kernel 
• CVE-2016-4657, Kernel Memory corruption leads to Jailbreak.

The issue was found by cyber security firms Lookout and Citizen Lab, who were tipped off to unusual text messages received by an iPhone user in the United Arab Emirates.
Lookout and Citizen Lab worked with Apple on the patch before releasing information on the vulnerability.
The Trident vulnerabilities are exploited in a spyware package called Pegasus which is widely available throughout the world

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Need to Open Up Space on an iOS Device? PhoneClean 2.0

I was doing some Groundhog Day cleaning on my iPad, you know, moving photos, videos, and such off to get back a little storage space.  When I was done, I saw that I had nearly 5 gig of space being eaten up by 'Other'.

Some of that space usage is legit.  Application data, contacts and the like. But devices can accumulate quite a bit of detritus just from day-to-day usage; temp files, caches, off-line files, cookies, scripts, and corrupt media files from failed iTunes syncs.

So I took a little walk around the Interwebs to see if there was something that would survey my storage and assess what it found.

I came across a little freeware tool called PhoneClean that seemed to be just what I was looking for, so I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl.  You can download PhoneClean directly from the developer’s website.  PhoneClean is available for both Windows PC and Mac.  Once installed onto your computer, it’s just a few steps to run through the files on your device and scrub the unneeded ones.

So here we go:

1. Back up your device.
        Before I do anything that might fubar my data I always do a backup.  I used iTunes to sync my iPad so I'd be able to rollback if this didn't go well.
2. Connect your device to the computer
3. Launch PhoneClean.
   You'll get a screen similar to this:

          You can see how much free space you have, and you can select what type of file to look for.

4. Start the scan.
   When it's done you'll get a screen showing how much space can be freed up and what apps have files that can be deleted:

          Clicking on any of the apps will show you what files can go.

          And you have complete control of which files are removed and which ones stay.

5. Click Clean Up to start the process of deleting the files.
             When it's all done you'll see a confirmation of how much space was freed up.

When I ran PhoneClean it about 20 minutes all together to scan and clear out the files.  In the end it opened up 2.89GB space.

Definitely worth the time and the price is right.

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