Month: March 2017

Unlocking The Possibilities Of Your iPhone 7 Plus

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With great performance, decent battery life, (optionally) huge storage and a camera to die for, the iPhone 7 Plus is a fantastic tool for those who can afford it. At the same time, with such a wealth of features, some less serious users might have trouble learning how to get the most out of this great phone. If you are the kind of person who thinks reading the manual is for other people, we’ve collected some of the most useful features for those migrating from older models.

Getting to Grips With the Interface

People that are used to using the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6S will notice a couple of changes. Firstly, there’s no Home button which has been replaced by a capacitive sensor. Thanks to the Taptic Engine it lets your fingertip know when it’s been activated. You can actually change this sensation by navigating to Settings, General, Home Button and select your favorite feel from the three options.

Also like anything electronic, when things occasionally go haywire it’s time for a hard reset. You would normally use the Home button for this too; instead, hold down the power button on the right-hand edge while keeping the Volume Down button on the opposite side pressed as well. You’ll soon see the Apple logo appear and things should work perfectly once more.

This is certainly the phone for those who like their happy snaps, but the little camera icon on the lock screen you would have used to quickly activate shooting is also missing. Don’t worry, just swipe to the left on the lock screen to open the camera. The Control Center is far more useful in this model. Simply drag upwards from the bottom of the screen to quickly open some of the functions you use most often: Wi-Fi, AirDrop, AirPlay and Bluetooth connectivity plus some of the most frequently used apps.

Factory Unlocking your iPhone 7 Plus

You might have purchased your device from a cellular service operator instead of an Apple store and be regretting it already. The main difference is that a phone supplied by a network is typically tied to only that network while you can put any SIM card in one bought directly from Apple and expect it to work fine. On the other hand you might have found out too late that your chosen provider offers indifferent customer service, poor coverage, and actually ends up charging you much more than the “headline” price they mention on their ads.

The bad news is that the contract you signed with them (you read through that thing, didn’t you?) often doesn’t allow you to unlock your phone before the contract period has expired which is typically twelve to twenty-four months. In this case since the factory unlocking process has to go through the service provider you may be out of luck as far as switching networks goes. However it rarely hurts to ask and a number of companies work with cellular network operators and Apple itself to provide easy, affordable unlocking services. There are quite a few suspicious websites out there so use your discretion but certain enterprises have a good track record and will be quite upfront about what they can and cannot do. Unlockiphoneden.com is a good place to learn about unlocking and typically answer queries in a timely fashion. These companies will register your phone’s unique IMEI number on Apple’s own database as being unlocked, after which you can use any SIM card you like. This will save you a significant amount of money especially if you plan to use your iPhone abroad.

Some Convenient and Time-Saving Features

If you’ve typed part of a text message but decide to start over completely you can tap the backspace button a hundred times or so…or you can just quickly shake the phone to discard all the text you’ve entered. There’s a confirmation step involved so you won’t do this accidentally.

If you’re not the kind of person who likes to check for notifications every five minutes there’s an easy way to set your phone to let you know from across the room with a flashing light. Simply go to the Settings menu, then General and Accessibility. You’ll find the LED Flash for Alerts option and never miss an urgent notification again.

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The Do’s And Dont’s of iPhone Unlocking

The Do’s And Dont’s of iPhone Unlocking

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Many iPhone users want greater control over their device, especially in terms of which network operators they can use. If you choose to follow this route, though, you should be aware of some risks and how to avoid them.

The Difference Between Factory Unlocking and Jailbreaking

Apple seems to have a policy of not encouraging their customers to fiddle too much with their products at a fundamental level. The main reason for this is simply that users tend to break their iPhones when they mess with things they don’t fully understand, and this would place an unreasonable burden on Apple’s tech support if doing so did not void the products warranty.

In the case of official unlocking at the factory level, your warranty remains valid and your phone will continue to function normally, except that you will no longer be tied to a specific service provider. What this process does is to remove the lock to the phone company, but doesn’t change the iPhone’s operating system. Jailbreaking, on the other hand, does mess with iOS. Even if you didn’t realize it, you agreed not to do this when you purchased the product; it’s in the end user license agreement. If something goes wrong – which it very well might, especially for unskilled users – they will not help you out.

Unlocking your iPhone from a licensed service provider, however, is both legal and common practice in the U.S. and most other countries. The reasoning behind this is that, if you own the phone, you should be able to do what you want with it as long as you don’t break any other laws. Reverse engineering or tampering with software owned by Apple would be breaking one such law, but as long as you steer clear of that, your warranty and access to customer support remain intact.

DO: Understand the Effect on Customer Support

The exception to the above is if your phone company has tied you into a contract for some period of time, usually one or two years. You may be able to terminate the contract yourself by paying a cancellation fee. Factory unlocking is done with the cooperation and support of Apple itself, but other forms of unlocking exist which modify the iOS software. If you use one of these, even if your phone contract has expired, the warranty on your iPhone will also be voided.

If your warranty has already expired, you have less incentive not to try either jailbreaking or unofficial types of unlocking, but Apple might choose to refuse you service even if you’re willing to pay for it. The only way around this will be to restore the factory default settings on your device, not only so that your photos and contacts seem to have disappeared, but so that your modification is in no way detectable by a service technician. In short, jailbreaking is technically illegal, but the only realistic way to enforce this is refusing to fix the phone you broke.

DON’T: Use a Fly By Night Unlocking Company

If you choose to unlock your phone contrary to the above conditions, legitimate service companies which have agreements with Apple itself probably will not be willing to assist you. If your phone company can’t stop you from removing their lock, however, which in the case of factory unlocking won’t affect your Apple warranty, make sure that you’re dealing with someone respectable.

Factory unlocking is only legal when it’s done by making changes to Apple’s database. Using do-it-yourself software, or paying someone else to do it, means that you’ve hacked your phone’s operating system. This is illegal, not least because it can be used to reactivate stolen or blocked iPhones. Unless you have a fairly deep understanding of software, this will in any case probably result in a phone that won’t ever work again. It might even work fine for a while, then crash after the next software update.

DO: Contact Your Carrier First

Some network operators make it as difficult as possible to unlock phones bought from them, though some will help you right away. While the ethics of this are debatable, you should know that this has little to do with Apple.

DO: Buy Your iPhone From an Apple Store Next Time

You may have been thinking that you’ll never need to complain about weak signals or hidden fees with your service provider, but judging by the number of customers who want to unlock their iPhones, this is often not the case. Buying directly from Apple might seem to be more expensive in the short run, but you won’t find yourself locked into paying for a contract you don’t want for the next 24 months.

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