Is iOS7 making you seasick on dry land?

The new iOS brought several new features to the current and newer models of the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod. The new design is very cool, with apps floating and easing from side to side over the dynamic wallpaper which pans as you move the phone around, producing three dimensional-like effects. This is also called parallax.

However, following the update, many users have complained of experiencing motion-sickness and even effects of vertigo. Official support forum of Apple has a thread on this issue which has become a venting ground for frustrated users.

One user shares his experience, "The zoom animations everywhere on the new iOS 7 are literally making me nauseous and giving me a headache.  It's exactly how I used to get car sick if I tried to read in the car. How do I turn them off?  Do I have to revert to 6?", which 100s of users on the forum seems to share.

Experts on motion sickness say the sharpness of the higher-resolution images and movement of icons is partly to blame, as it visually seems that you are moving, when you are really not, causing dizziness and maybe even nausea, reports livescience.com.

Experts To disable parallax go to Settings, General, Accessibility, Reducing Motion and swipe to green, to turn on the reduce motion feature. Disabling this doesn't completely solve the problem, but would certainly ease it a bit. In addition to the parallax effect, zooming in/out during application switching/transition, adds to the sickening feeling. 

Now I'm feeling a bit dizzy, and I'm gonna stop right here :)

By the way, turning on "reduce motion" will help save battery a bit as well.

Cheers!

Being impersonated on Twitter, or subject to abusive/violent threats? Take action!

Impersonation on Twitter and most other social networking website is very common. They say "Imitation is the sincerest forms of flattery". Ok, probably you don't feel a bit flattered when you're seriously impersonated on Twitter, spreading incorrect information like wildfire. Take action immediately!

Twitter "Impersonation Policy" clearly states that "impersonation is a violation of the Twitter Rules. Twitter accounts portraying another person in a confusing or deceptive manner may be permanently suspended under the Twitter Impersonation Policy". Under "content boundaries and user of Twitter" in General Twitter Rules, it states that "Impersonation: You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others", which also sets restrictions on unauthorized/misuse of trademarks, copyrights, and disclosure of private information. Unlawful use, specific threats of violence, pornography, targeted abuse, and username squatting.

If anyone impersonates you or imitates you on twitter, you can report it immediately via "Report an account for impersonation" form on twitter support which can be filled and submitted in just a minute or so. However, it must be reported by the person who is being impersonated or a legal proxy on his behalf. A guideline on how to report such cases and how Twitter handles such reports can be found on this link...reporting impersonation accounts. 

Posting another person's private and confidential information such as credit card numbers, national identification numbers, home addresses, non public personal phone numbers & email addresses, and also images/videos considered private under applicable laws, is a violation of Twitter Rules. These violations, including abusive and violent threats can be reported online via "I'm reporting an abusive user" form. 

Thought I'd share this information which is available in Twitter Support page, since there are many such cases of impersonation and abusive use, violating Twitter Rules. Please feel free to share this article and take necessary action against users in violations. 

Cheers! 

AirDrop..iThink, iShare -^|^- Steal my iPhone and I will make it a $$$ iRock :)

We all mourned the loss of visionary and creative genius, cofounder, chairman and CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs. He surrounds himself with exceptionally bright people who reciprocate and further elevate his thinking to revolutionize computer, music and mobile phone industries. 

But with the new products coming to market today, it's evident that his visions and creativity still lives and grows within Apple. I'm not going to go into details of the new products since 2011. We have certainly seen improvement and further innovations as recently as few weeks back. The new iPhone5S and iPhone5C is just absolutely beautiful...and iOS 7 is just too awesome. Maybe Android users would disagree..thats ok because its not my intention to compare iOS and Android today - not to mention Apple vs Samsung. iOS 7 is a true representation of simplicity in a new dimension, with the most complex computing platform (as of now iPhone 5S is on top of the list of most powerful computing in a mobile phone) simplified with human factor in mind. 

Some of the top features in iOS 7, among many includes: a new control center, simplified and enhanced Safari, robust multitasking, inbuilt Apple AirDrop, more friendly Siri, superb features in camera & a new simplified presentation of Photos, secure iCloud Keychain, new level of privacy with application level controls, builtin encryption of emails and personal information (when passcode is enabled), autoupdate for apps, FaceTime audio calls, iTunes Radio...etc. One of the most notable, and most important feature is additional security in Find My Phone. With iCloud and Find My Phone Service enabled, even if you phone gets stolen and completely erased or iOS gets replaced, it can never be used again without your credentials. That's certainly a great feature!  

I got carried away...so I'm not going to talk about the new iPhone models. I'm going to talk about 2 features; Find My Phone and AirDrop.

New level of security in Find My Phone service makes it practically unusable in case it gets stolen or lost. The new "activation lock" secures your device in case of theft. In addition to passcode set on your device, your iCloud username and password is required to enable and disable Find My Phone in iCloud, and the activation lock which is required to restore iOS or reactivate with a different iOS installation. This new level of security prevents a tech-savvy thief from tweaking your device to a usable device, which can be done in previous versions of iOS. Thanks to Apple! 

Make sure you always have this service enabled. It's free and would take only minutes to setup. And also do remember to turn this off, or completely erase all content and settings when selling your device to someone else...it's as good as a very expensive rock otherwise ;)

AirDrop brings "no setup" file sharing functionality to Apple mobile platform; easy and seamless way to transfer digital assets between compatible devices (Recent Macs with OS X 10.7 Lion or higher, iPhone 5S, 5C, 5, iPad 4th Gen, iPad mini and iPod touch 5th Gen running iOS 7). Limited to recent devices, unfortunately AirDrop between Macs and iOS is not supported yet. Prior to iOS 7, file sharing among iOS was quite a hassle with some third party applications with limited support.

On the technology side, AirDrop is a proximity limited..meaning, two devices has to be in Bluetooth range for this to work, which is about 10 meters. Bluetooth is used to discover AirDrop enabled devices and establish connection, following which an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection is established between the devices for a much more robust transfer, which is very useful when you're sharing large files such as videos. 

It's very easy to setup. Drag the control center, up from bottom of the screen. Click AirDrop which is turned off by default. You've 2 options; contacts only and everyone. With "contacts only" selected, your phone will be discoverable to only those people who are in your contacts. Both devices has to be discoverable for AirDrop to work. Now sharing is a click away..open the file you want to share, click share and you'd see airdrop enabled users around you. Click the person you want to share with...once they accept, it's done. Easy!

You can AirDrop many things such as photos, videos, notes, attachments in emails, PDFs, contacts, and Safari pages among others. I'm hopeful that third party apps would integrate AirDrop soon. Downside is that it doesn't work on any model prior to iPhone 5, even with iOS 7. 

How I wish Apple Stores would allow me to AirDrop money and in return I get their products AirDropped....iPhone 5S. No harm in dreaming, eh ;)