Apple Archives - Bad Coffee Club

How to Hide Hidden Album in iOS 14

If you are an iOS user, you probably know you can hide photos in the Photos app, and still be able to see them in the Hidden album.

To hide a photo, simply tap on the Action button () and then select Hide.

How to Hide Photo in iOS

Once a photo is hidden, it will disappear from the Library tab and it will only live in the Albums tab under Utilities in the Hidden album.

iOS Hidden Album

Hiding photos this way is good enough for most people. However, it is still easy for others to stumble upon what you’ve hidden when they look around in your Photos app.

In iOS 14, Apple is allowing users to also hide the Hidden album.

To hide the album, go to the Settings app, tap into Photos. Somewhere in the middle of all the settings available, you will see a toggle new to iOS 14 called Hidden Album.

iOS 14 New Feature - Hide Hidden Album in Photos

With the toggle turned on, the Hidden album will appear under Utilities in the Albums tab, so to really hide your photos, disable Hidden Album by turning the toggle off.

Interested in learning more about iOS 14? Check out this post! With Apple’s latest event scheduled for September 15th, we are also getting closer to the release date of iOS 14.

Back Tap – iOS 14 New Feature

iOS 14 Logo

In a recent post, we looked at a few of our favorite iOS 14 features. Now that iOS public beta 3 (18A5332f) is out, there is one more feature we love and that is Back Tap. This feature allows you to double or triple tap on the back of your iPhone to perform actions quickly.

Back Tap is built as an accessibility feature in iOS 14 and is turned off by default. To turn it on, go to Settings, Accessibility, Touch, and at the bottom, you’ll see Back Tap. Go into it and you’ll be able to choose what action to perform when you tap on the back of your iPhone twice or three times.

The list of available actions include:

System

App Switcher, Control Center, Home, Lock Screen, Mute, Notification Center, Reachability, Screenshot, Shake, Siri, Spotlight, Volume Down, Volume Up

Accessibility

Assistive Touch, Classic Invert, Magnifier, Smart Invert, Speak Screen, Voice Over, Zoom

Scroll Gestures

Scroll Up, Scroll Down

Shortcuts

Shortcuts you have set up in the Shortcuts app, and suggested shortcuts that come with iOS 14 public beta 3

I have the double tap set to open App Switcher and triple tap to run one of my shortcuts. iOS 14 public beta has been great so far, but Apple did take away my favorite 3D Touch feature which is force touching on the left bezel to activate App Switcher. Tapping on the back to switch apps is not as fast and intuitive as force touching on the bezel, but hey it’s something.

Apple giveth and Apple taketh away.

Back Tap in iOS 14 Public Beta 3

Our Favorite iOS 14 Features and Updates

iOS 14 Logo

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple had their first-ever no-live-audience WWDC keynote on June 22, 2020. As expected, Apple announced iOS 14. Between the keynote and Apple’s iOS 14 preview page, here are 5 features and updates we love in the next iOS release.

CarPlay Wallpaper

Starting with a really small and personal one. In iOS 14, users will be able to change the CarPlay Dashboard and Home Screen wallpapers. Apple’s WWDC demo and iOS 14 preview page suggest users will only be able to select from pictures shipped with iOS 14 – not from their own photos. But hey, it’s something. I drive a Volkswagen so my car’s interior needs some livening up – I know.

iOS 14 feature - CarPlay Wallpaper

Pinned Messages

Apple’s Messages app is one of those things that’s been keeping a lot of people in the ecosystem, myself included. However, it’s becoming a headache over the last couple of years to deal with spam messages. I get so many of them and they quickly bury the real conversations. This is why being able to pin conversations to the top of the Messages app in iOS 14 is such good news to me.

Pinned Messages in iOS 14

New Compact Incoming Calls UI

Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, incoming calls have always taken up the whole screen. This is anxiety-inducing sometimes. In iOS 14, incoming calls will no longer take over the whole screen. Instead, they’ll show up on the top of the screen, just like any other notification, and if you so choose, you can dismiss the banner with just a flick of your finger.

See, this is why I believe Apple is the biggest troll. This feature feels like something we should have had all along, but Apple took 13 years and 14 iOS releases to give it to us. Who’s complaining?

Incoming Calls Banner in iOS 14

Smarter Siri with New Compact UI

I use Siri a lot, but only for simple things, like conversations, translation, setting timers, and creating reminders. When I ask Siri other simple questions like how old a celebrity or politician is, instead of giving me the answer, Siri would show me web search results which I have to pick up the phone to look at. This really defeats the purpose of a virtual assistant.

Siri has been dumb for some good reasons that we will not get into here. But it’s really great to know that in iOS 14, Siri will be able to answer a broader set of questions using information across the internet without me having to browse the web – exactly what I need.

The iOS 14 Siri will also have a compact UI and no longer take up the whole screen. It will only appear at the bottom and it’ll have new animations.

iOS 14 Compact Siri UI

Enhanced calendar picker for Reminders app

This update is so small that even on the iOS 14 preview page, it’s listed at the bottom in the “Even More” section, but it’s really important and personal for me.

Ever since iOS 13, the Reminders app can contextually add the date and time as I type out the text of a reminder. However, if I want to pick the date and time manually, I need to flip two separate toggles, one for the date and the other for the time. In iOS 14, users can choose the right date and time to be reminded with a new calendar menu, quickly see the whole month, and easily scroll through months and years.

iOS 13 Reminders App Screenshot

iOS 14 is expected to release in September 2020 with the public beta available in July.

What are some of the iOS 14 features you are looking forward to? Let us know in the comments.

Free iTunes Movie Rentals from Apple

In honor of the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the country, Apple has been offering a selection of free iTunes movie rentals. Here is an incomplete list of the movies.

Apple TV Screenshot

Glory

Glory - Free iTunes Movie Rental

Drama – 1989

Tomatometer – 93%

Starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman. Director Edward Zwick.

Considered one of the classics by many, Glory tells the epic story of the first black regiment to fight for the north in the civil war.

Ali

Drama – 2001

Tomatometer – 68%

Starring Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight. Director Michael Mann.

Will Smith plays Muhammad Ali “The Greatest”.

Antwone Fisher

Drama – 2002

Tomatometer – 79%

Starring Derek Luke, Joby Bryant, Denzel Washington. Director Denzel Washington.

Denzel Washington’s directorial debut tells the true-life-inspired story of Antwone Fisher, a troubled sailor who embarks on a remarkable journey to confront his painful past and connect with the family he never knew.

Monsters and Men

Drama – 2018

Tomatometer – 86%

Starring John David Washington, Anthony Ramos, Kelvin Harrison Jr. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green.

A young father witnesses the police shooting of an unarmed black man and what ensues.

Selma

Drama – 2015

Tomatometer – 99%

Starring David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo. Director Ava DuVernay.

Nominated for Best Picture and winning Best Original Song (Glory) at the 87th Academy Award, Selma tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic struggle to secure voting rights for African-Americans, culminated in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama that helped brought forth the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

TV App Screenshot on Mac

iPhone Battery Health Explained

In this post, we look at how to view and understand your iPhone battery health.

First, some background.

Apple got into trouble around 2017 when they implemented performance controls on older iPhone models with degraded batteries. According to Apple, this was to preserve system stability on those devices. However, they did this without first telling their users. When the news broke out, people were understandably furious. History will forever know this as batterygate.

One of the things Apple did to mitigate the situation was the new Battery Health feature in iOS.

Released in iOS 11.3 on March 29, 2018, the feature allowed users to gain visibility into their device’s battery health by displaying the battery’s maximum capacity. This seemingly simple piece of information was previously only available to users via third-party apps. The Battery Health feature also allowed users to disable performance throttling when using an older battery.

The Battery Health feature remains available today.

How to View iPhone Battery Health

1. Go to Settings
2. Scroll down and tap Battery
3. Tap Battery Health

Understanding Your Battery Health

In the Battery Health screen, you’ll see your battery’s maximum capacity, whether it’s capable of supporting peak performance, and whether you want optimized battery charging.

Maximum Capacity means how much charge your battery can hold. The number would gradually drop over time as you use your device and your battery ages. While Apple does not explicitly say at what point you should swap out your old battery for a new one, their iPhone Battery and Performance support page hint at 80%.

Peak Performance Capability tells you if your battery can handle peak performance. If iOS has determined that your battery can not support peak performance, it will turn on performance throttling, and this is where you can disable it.

Optimized Battery Charging was introduced in iOS 13. When the feature is enabled, your battery will wait to finish charging past 80% in certain situations. This improves your battery’s lifespan, as keeping the battery percentage more centered instead of complete charges and discharges reduces strain onto the battery.