Appendix A. Signup & Setup
You gotta admit it: Opening up a new iPhone brings a certain excitement. There’s a prospect of possibility, of new beginnings. Even if you intend to protect your iPhone with a case, there are those first few minutes when it’s shiny, spotless, free of fingerprints or nicks—a gorgeous thing.
This chapter is all about getting started, whether that means buying and setting up a new iPhone, or upgrading an older model to the new iOS 10 software that’s described in this book.
Buying a New iPhone
Each year’s new iPhone model is faster, has a better camera and screen, and comes packed with more features than the previous one. Still, “new iPhone” doesn’t have to mean the iPhone 7 ($650, either up front or spread out over 2 years) or 7 Plus ($770). You can still get an iPhone 6 for $550, or the SE for $400. (Thank heaven, the U.S. carriers no longer obscure the true price of the phone in 2-year contracts.) And, of course, you can get older models dirt cheap, used.
In any case, once you’ve chosen the model you want, you also have to choose which cellphone company you want to provide its service: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, or Sprint. Each has something to offer.
Verizon has the best U.S. cellular coverage, and by far the most 4G LTE (high-speed Internet) areas. AT&T’s high-speed Internet networks are faster than anyone else’s. T-Mobile’s plans cost the least in many ways (free texting and Internet when you’re overseas; unlimited music and video without using up any of your data allowance; no 2-year contract; they’ll pay off the early-termination fee if you switch from a rival carrier), but its phone network is the second smallest.
Research the coverage where you live and work. Each company’s website shows a map of its coverage.
You can buy your iPhone from a phone store (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T), an Apple Store, from a retail store (RadioShack, Walmart, and so on), or from the Apple website. You can buy the phone outright, or you can opt to have the price spread out in monthly payments. Or you can lease it.
All right then: Here you are in the store, or sitting down to do some ordering online. Here are some of the decisions you’ll have to make:
Transferring your old number. You can bring your old cellphone or home number to your new iPhone. Your friends can keep dialing your old number—but your iPhone will ring instead of the old phone.
It usually takes under an hour for a cellphone-number transfer to take place. During that time, you can make calls on the iPhone, but you can’t receive them.
Select your monthly calling plans. Signing up for cellphone service involves more red tape than a government contract. In essence, you have to choose three plans: one for voice calls, one for Internet service, and one for text messages. The variations are complicated, but a quick web search (“iPhone 7 plans compared”) can help you make sense of them.
The plan offerings change all the time, but here are some examples: For unlimited calling and texting, plus 4 gigabytes a month of Internet use, Verizon charges $70 plus fees, AT&T charges $80. T-Mobile and Sprint offer unlimited talk, text, and data (for $70 and $65, respectively).
Of course, the problem with fixed data allotments is this: Who has any idea what 2 gigabytes of data is? How much of that do you eat up with email alone? How much is one YouTube video?
As you approach your monthly limit, you’ll get warnings by text message, but you can also see your data usage on your phone (see page 572). Yes, it’s a pain to have to worry about data limits, but at least monitoring them is fairly easy. If you use more than your allotted amount, some carriers automatically bill a surcharge—for example, $15 for each additional gigabyte.
All four cell companies offer unlimited free calls to other phones from the same company. All but the cheapest plans offer unlimited calls on nights and weekends.
And all iPhone plans require an “activation fee” (ha!).
Tip
The choice you make here isn’t etched in stone. You can change your plan at any time. If you have AT&T, for example, visit www.wireless.att.com, where you can log in with your iPhone number and make up a password. Click My Account, and then click Change Rate Plan to view your options.
As you budget for your plan, keep in mind that, as with any cellphone, you’ll also be paying taxes as high as 22 percent, depending on your state. Ouch.
Setting Up a New Phone
In the olden days, you couldn’t use a new iPhone at all without hooking it up to a computer. Now, though, the setup takes place entirely on the phone’s screen.
You don’t need a computer to back up your phone, because iCloud backs it up. You don’t need a computer to store your music and video collections, because the App Store remembers what you’ve bought and lets you re-download it at any time. You don’t need a computer to download and install iPhone software updates, because they come straight to the phone now. You don’t even need a computer to edit photos or to create mail folders; that’s on the phone, too.
The first time you turn on a brand-new iPhone—or an older one that you’ve erased completely—the setup wizard appears. Swipe your finger where it says slide to set up. Now you’re asked about 15 important questions:
Language; Country. You won’t get very far setting up your phone if you can’t understand the instructions. So the very first step here is to tell it what language you speak. When you tap a language, you’re next asked to tell the phone where in the world you live. (It proposes the country where you bought the phone. Clever, eh?)
Wi-Fi Networks. Tap the name of the Wi-Fi network you want, enter the password if required, and tap Join.
Or, if there’s no Wi-Fi you can (or want to) hop onto right now, then tap Use Mobile Connection.
Location Services. The iPhone knows where you are. That’s how it can pinpoint you on a map, tag the photos you take with their geographic locations, find you a nearby Mexican restaurant, and so on.
Some people are creeped out by the phone’s knowing where they are, worrying that Apple, by extension, also knows where they are. So here’s your chance to turn off all the iPhone’s location features. Tap either Enable Location Services or Disable Location Services.
Touch ID. If you have an iPhone 5s or later, you’re now invited to teach it your fingerprint, for the purposes of unlocking it without having to type a password. See Fingerprint Security (Touch ID) for more on registering fingerprints. (You can also tap Set Up Touch ID Later. When the time comes, you can revisit this process in Settings→Touch ID & Passcode.)
Passcode. Whether you opted to store a fingerprint or not, you’re now asked to make up a six-digit passcode (password) for unlocking your phone. You’ll need it whenever the phone won’t accept Touch ID—for example, after you’ve restarted the phone.
Apps & Data. If you’ve owned an iPhone before, or if you backed up this phone and then erased it, you don’t have to load it up with all your apps and settings by hand. This screen offers to reload all your stuff from your most recent backup. (See Chapter 16 and Chapter 17 for details on iPhone backups.)
Tap Restore from iCloud Backup (if your backup was on iCloud) or Restore from iTunes Backup (if your backup was on your computer).
If you’ve never owned an iPhone before, you can choose Set Up as New iPhone to start fresh.
There’s even an option here—sneaky, Apple!—called Move Data from Android. You download a companion app on your old Android phone (called Move to iOS). When you open it, the app (on Android) asks you to enter a number code that’s offered by your iPhone at this stage. Then the Android phone asks what kinds of data you’d like copied to your iPhone: your Google account (email, calendar, and so on), web bookmarks, text messages, contacts, and photos (Camera Roll). When you hit Next, the transfer begins, wirelessly and automatically.
Apple ID. A million features require an Apple ID—just about any transaction you make with Apple online. Buying anything from Apple, from a song to a laptop. Using iCloud (Chapter 17). Playing games against other people online. Making an appointment at an Apple Store.
If you already have an Apple ID, tap Sign In with Your Apple ID and enter it here. If not, tap Create a Free Apple ID. You’ll be asked to provide your name, birthday, email address (or you can create a new iCloud email address), a password of your choice, and answers to a few security questions (you’ll have to get them right if you ever forget your password). You also get to decide if you’d like the honor of receiving junk email from Apple.
(You can tap Skip This Step if you don’t want an Apple ID, at least for now. You can get one later in Settings.)
Terms and Conditions. On the screen full of legalese, tap Agree, and then Agree.
Apple Pay. Next up: If you have an iPhone 5s or later, you’re now invited to store your credit cards, for the purpose of turning on Apple Pay. The process is described in Apple Pay.
If you don’t want to use Apple Pay, or don’t want to set it up now, hit Next anyway, and then hit Set Up Later in Wallet.
iCloud Keychain is a terrific feature. It stores all your web user names and passwords—and even credit card numbers—so you don’t have to memorize them and type them in over and over. It’s all synchronized across all your Apple machines (iPhone, iPad, Mac, and so on).
If you take this opportunity to set it up, you’re asked what you want to use as your iCloud Security Code. That’s yet another passcode, which you may need someday to recover all your passwords if you have a really lousy day and lose all your Apple gadgets. Fortunately, the iPhone offers to use your iPhone passcode (the one you’ve already set up) as your iCloud Security Code, so you don’t have another code to remember.
On the next screen, you’re supposed to enter a phone number—yours or that of “someone you trust”—which Apple will use as a secondary way to verify your identity if you have to recover your iCloud Keychain without having any of your Apple gadgets available.
Siri. Here’s your chance to set up Siri, the greatest phone advance in 15 years. If you want to be able to use the “Hey Siri” hands-free mode (How to Use “Hey Siri”), you’re supposed to speak a few sample sentences so that Siri learns your voice. Tap Set Up Siri to do that now, or hit Turn On Siri Later if you don’t want Siri at all, or want to do the setup later (in Settings→Siri).
Diagnostics. Behind the scenes, your iPhone sends records back to Apple, including your location and what you’re doing on your iPhone. By analyzing this data en masse, Apple can figure out where the dead spots in the cellular network are, how to fix bugs, and so on. The information is anonymous—it’s not associated with you. But if the very idea seems invasive, here’s your chance to prevent this data from being sent.
Meet the New Home Button. On the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, this screen appears to introduce the clickless Home button (What’s New in iOS 10)—and to invite you to choose how hard its click feels. (See here).
Display Zoom. On bigger-screened phones like the iPhone 6, 6s, and 7 models, you get this choice. It asks how you want to exploit the larger screen. If you choose Standard, you’ll see more stuff (icons, menus, lines of text) per screenful than on smaller iPhones. If you choose Zoomed, then you’ll see the same amount of stuff, but bigger. (The one exception: You may not get as many extra buttons on the widescreen keyboard described in The Spelling Checker.) You can always change your mind in Settings→Display & Brightness.
Welcome to iPhone. Your phone is set up. Tap Get Started to jump to the Home screen.
Note
A new iPhone no longer asks if you want to turn on Find My iPhone. It’s turned on automatically; see My Photo Stream, Photo Sharing. It also no longer asks if you want to download the free iCloud Drive app (iCloud Drive)—but you should.
Upgrading an iPhone to iOS 10
If you bought a new iPhone SE, 6s, 6s Plus, 7 or 7 Plus, great! iOS 10 (or one of its successors, like iOS 10.2) comes on it preinstalled.
But you can also upgrade an older or used iPhone to this new software in any of three ways:
Upgrade it wirelessly. Upgrading means installing iOS 10 on top of whatever is already on your iPhone. You don’t lose any data or settings.
This is the easiest way to upgrade. You’ve probably already seen the little red number on your Settings app icon (see The Home Screen), and on the word “General” inside it; the phone is trying to tell you that iOS 10 is ready to download. Tap Settings→General→Software Update to see the iOS 10 info; tap Download and Install. (You have to be on a Wi-Fi network, and it’s wise to have your iPhone plugged into power.)
Upgrade it from iTunes. If you wish, you can also perform the upgrade using the iTunes program on your computer. This method takes less time but, of course, requires being at your computer.
To begin, connect your iPhone and click its icon at top left (see Connecting the iPhone). On the Summary tab, click Check for Update, and then click Download and Update.
Restore it. This is a more dramatic step, which you should choose only if you’ve been having problems with your phone or if, for some other reason, you would like to start completely fresh. This step backs up the phone, erases it completely, installs iOS, and then copies your stuff back onto the phone.
Connect the phone to your computer, open iTunes, and then click Restore iPhone.
The updating or restoring process takes awhile. You’ll see the iPhone restart. When it’s all over, the PC-free setup process described on the previous pages begins automatically.
Software Updates
As you’re probably aware, phone software like the iPhone’s is a perpetual work in progress. Apple constantly fixes bugs, adds features, and makes tweaks to extend battery life and improve other services.
Updating Directly on the Phone
One day you’ll be minding your own business, and you’ll see a red numbered badge appear on the Settings app’s icon on the phone. Open Settings→General→Software Update to read about the new update and install it. Note, though, that unless it’s plugged into a power source, your phone won’t install an iOS update unless its battery is at least half full.
Install Updates from Your Computer
Maybe you’re not that adventurous and you’d prefer to install your software update the old-fashioned way.
No problem: Connect the iPhone to iTunes, wirelessly or not (Connecting the iPhone). Then click the iPhone’s icon in iTunes; on the Summary pane, tap Check for Update.
Restrictions and Parental Controls
If you’re issuing an iPhone to a child, or someone who acts like one, you’ll be gratified to discover that iOS offers a good deal of protection. That’s protection of your offspring’s delicate sensibilities (it can block pornography and dirty words) and protection of your bank account (it can block purchases of music, movies, and apps without your permission).
To set this up, visit Settings→General→Restrictions. When you tap Enable Restrictions, you’re asked to make up a four-digit passcode that permits only you, the all-knowing parent, to make changes to these settings. (Or you, the corporate IT administrator who’s doling out iPhones to the white-collar drones.)
Once you’ve changed the settings described on these pages, the only way to change them again (when your kid turns 18, for example) is to return to the Restrictions page and correctly enter the passcode. That’s also the only way to turn off the entire Restrictions feature (tap Disable Restrictions and correctly enter the passcode). To turn it back on, you have to make up a passcode all over again.
Once Restrictions is turned on, you can put up data blockades in a number of different categories.
Allow
For starters, you can turn off access to iPhone features that locked-down corporations might not want their employees—or parents might not want their children—to use, because they’re considered either security holes, time drains, or places to spend your money: Safari (can’t use the web at all), Camera, FaceTime, Siri & Dictation, FaceTime, AirDrop, or CarPlay (Apple’s specialized connection for certain car models, in which your iPhone’s relevant icons appear on the car’s dashboard screen).
A second list of options lets you block access to iTunes Store, iBooks Store, iMusic Connect, and News—and turn off the option to download Podcasts. You can stop your kid from Installing Apps or Deleting Apps, too. And you can turn off In-App Purchases so that your offspring won’t be able to buy new material (game levels, book chapters, and so on) from within an app that you’ve already bought.
Many of these restrictions work by removing icons altogether from the iPhone’s Home screen: Safari, iTunes, and Camera, for example. When the switch says Off, the corresponding icon has been taken off the Home screen and can’t be found even by Spotlight searches.
Allowed Content
Here you can spare your children’s sensitive eyes and ears by blocking inappropriate material.
Ratings are a big deal; they determine the effectiveness of the parental controls described in this section. Since every country has its own rating schemes (for movies, TV shows, games, song lyrics, and so on), you use the Ratings For control to tell the iPhone which country’s rating system you want to use.
Once that’s done, you can use the Music, Podcasts, News, iTunes U, Movies, TV Shows, Books, and Apps controls to specify what your kid is allowed to watch, play, read, and listen to. For example, you can tap Movies and then tap PG-13; any movies rated “higher,” like R or NC-17, won’t play on the iPhone now. (And if your sneaky offspring try to buy these naughty songs, movies, or TV shows wirelessly from the iTunes Store, they’ll discover that the Buy button is dimmed and unavailable.)
For some categories, like Music, Podcasts & News, and Siri, you can turn off Explicit to prevent the iPhone from playing iTunes Store songs that contain naughty language, or speaking them.
Websites lets you shield impressionable young eyes from pornography online. It offers these settings:
All Websites. No protection at all.
Limit Adult Content. Apple will apply its own judgment in blocking dirty websites, using a blocked-site list that it has compiled.
That doesn’t mean you can’t override Apple’s wisdom, however. The Always Allow and Never Allow controls let you add the addresses of websites that you think should be OK (or should not be OK).
Specific Websites Only. This is a “whitelist” feature. It means that the entire web is blocked except for the few sites listed here: safe bets like Disney, PBS Kids, Smithsonian Institution, and so on. You can add your own sites to this list, but the point is clear: This is the web with training wheels.
Privacy
These switches can prohibit the unauthorized user from making changes to the phone’s privacy settings, which are described in Privacy.
Allow Changes
These items (Accounts, Cellular Data Use, Background App Refresh, Volume Limit) are safeguards against your offspring fiddling with limits you’ve set.
Game Center
These controls let you stop your kid from playing multiplayer games (against strangers online), screen recording in games, or adding game-playing friends to the center.
Cases and Accessories
The iPhone has inspired a torrent of accessories. Stylish cases, speakers, docks, cables—the list goes on forever.
Just be sure you’re buying something that fits your phone. For example, the Lightning connector (where the charging cable connects) on the iPhone 5 and later doesn’t fit any of the charging accessories that came before it—at least not without the help of Apple’s $30 adapter (or the $40 adapter that has an 8-inch cable “tail”).
Accessory companies have been busy introducing Lightning-compatible gear. But for now, buyer beware—or buyer stock up on $30 adapters.
So what might you add to your iPhone?
Cases. It’s the iPhone Paradox: People buy the thinnest, sleekest smartphone in existence—and then bury it in a bulky carrying case. There’s just something so wrong about that. On the other hand, this thing is made of glass; the instinct to protect it is understandable.
Hundreds of cases are available. If you’re worried about droppage, choose a silicone rubber case; it does a better job of protecting your phone than hard plastic cases. You can also get cases with built-in battery backups, credit card slots, and even speakers.
Everything else. Speaker docks. Bluetooth speakers. Headphones and earbuds, wired and cordless. Credit card readers. Car cigarette-lighter adapters. Alarm clocks. Video-out cables. Stylish styluses. Touchscreen-compatible gloves. Tripods. Panorama stands. Kickstands. Car mounts. Activity monitors. Lenses. You Google it, you’ll find it. The iPhone is, without a doubt, the most accessorized phone in the world.