Chapter 13. Getting Online

As you may have read, the name “iPhone” grows less appropriate every year, as making phone calls fades in importance. Today, Americans send texts five times more often than they make phone calls. Among teenagers, 92 percent never make calls with their smartphones.

What do they do with them, then? Go online. On an iPhone, the web comes to life, looming larger and clearer than you’d think possible on a cellphone. You get real email, full-blown YouTube videos, hyper-clear Google maps, and all kinds of Internet goodness, right in your hand. And instead of phone calls, we have Internet-based voice networks like Skype and WhatsApp, or video-calling apps like Skype and FaceTime.

The iPhone can get onto the Internet using either of two kinds of wireless networks: cellular or Wi-Fi. Which kind you’re on makes a huge difference to your iPhone experience.

Cellular Networks

Once you’ve accepted the miracle that a cellphone can transmit your voice wirelessly, it’s not much of a stretch to realize that it can also transmit your data. Cellphone carriers (Verizon, AT&T, and so on) maintain separate networks for voice and Internet data—and they spend billions of dollars trying to make those networks faster. Over the years, they’ve come up with data networks like these:

• Old, slow cellular network. The earliest, slowest cellular Internet connections were called things like EDGE (AT&T) or 1xRTT (Verizon and Sprint). The good part is that these networks are almost everywhere, so your iPhone can get online almost anywhere you can make a phone call. You’ll know when you’re on one of these slow networks because your status bar bears a symbol like or .

  The bad news is that it’s slow. Dog slow—dial-up slow.

  You can’t be on a phone call while you’re online using EDGE or 1xRTT, either.

• 3G cellular networks. 3G stands for “third generation.” (The ancient analog cellphones were the first generation; EDGE-type networks were the second.) Geeks refer to the 3G network standard by its official name: HSDPA, for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access.

  Web pages that take 2 minutes to appear using EDGE or 1xRTT show up in about 20 seconds on 3G. Voice calls sound better, too, even when the signal strength is very low, since the iPhone’s 3G radio can communicate with multiple towers at once.

  Oh, and on AT&T and T-Mobile, you can talk on the phone and use the Internet simultaneously, which can be very handy indeed.

• “4G” networks. AT&T enhanced HSDPA, made it faster using a technology called HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet Access), and calls it 4G. (You’ll know when you’re on one; your status bar says .) But nobody else recognizes HSPA+ as real 4G, which is why AT&T feels justified in advertising “the nation’s largest 4G network.” The other carriers aren’t even measuring that network type.

• 4G LTE networks. Now this is 4G.

  An LTE network (Long-Term Evolution) gives you amazing speeds—in some cases, faster than your broadband Internet at home. When your status bar says , it’s fantastic.

  But LTE is not all sunshine and bunnies; it has two huge downsides.

  First: coverage. LTE coverage is available in hundreds of U.S. cities, which is a good start. But that still leaves most of the country, including huge chunks of several entire states, without any 4G coverage at all (hi there, Montana!). Whenever you’re outside the high-speed areas, your iPhone falls back to the slower speeds.

  The second big problem with LTE is that, to receive its signal, a phone’s circuitry uses a lot of power. That’s why the latest iPhones are bigger than their predecessors; they need beefier batteries.

A Word About VoLTE

If you have an iPhone 6 or later model, the dawn of LTE cellphone networks brings another benefit: You can use Voice over LTE, or VoLTE (“volty”). That’s a delightful new cellular feature that promises amazing voice quality—sounds more like FM radio than cellphone—and simultaneous calling/Internetting, even on Verizon. (Behind the scenes, it sends your voice over the carrier’s Internet network instead of the voice network. That’s why it’s called “Voice over LTE.”)

To make this work, every link in the chain has to be compatible with VoLTE: your phone and your cellphone network, and (for that great sound quality) the phone and network of the person you’re calling.

All four big U.S. carriers offer VoLTE, but you generally get the high-quality sound only when you’re calling someone on your own cellphone carrier—not if, for example, you have Verizon and the other guy has T-Mobile. (Cross-carrier calling is supposed to be coming soon.)

To turn on VoLTE, open Settings→Cellular→Enable LTE; select Voice & Data. For Verizon, you also have to visit your MyVerizon web page and turn on Advanced Calling. There’s no extra cost involved—just some truly welcome new improvements in quality and convenience.

Wi-Fi Hotspots

Wi-Fi, known to geeks as 802.11, is wireless networking, the same technology that gets laptops online at high speed in any Wi-Fi hotspot.

Hotspots are everywhere these days: in homes, offices, coffee shops, hotels, airports, and thousands of other places. Unfortunately, a hotspot is a bubble about 300 feet across; once you wander out of it, you’re off the Internet. So, in general, Wi-Fi is for people who are sitting still.

When you’re in a Wi-Fi hotspot, your iPhone usually gets a very fast connection to the Internet, as though it’s connected to a cable modem or DSL. And when you’re online this way, you can make phone calls and surf the Internet simultaneously. And why not? Your iPhone’s Wi-Fi and cellular antennas are independent.

(Over cellular connections, only the AT&T and T-Mobile iPhones let you talk and get online simultaneously. Verizon and Sprint can do that only when you’re on a VoLTE call, as described previously.)

The iPhone looks for a Wi-Fi connection first and considers connecting to a cellular network only if there’s no Wi-Fi. You’ll always know which kind of network you’re on, thanks to the icons on the status bar: You’ll see either for Wi-Fi, or one of the cellular icons (, , , , or ).

Or “No service” if there’s nothing available at all.

And how much faster is one than the next? Well, network speeds are measured in kilobits and megabits per second (which isn’t the same as the more familiar kilobytes and megabytes per second; divide by 8 to get those).

The EDGE/1xRTT network is supposed to deliver data from 70 to 200 Kbps, depending on your distance from the cell towers. 3G gets 300 to 700 Kbps. A Wi-Fi hotspot can spit out 650 to 2,100 Kbps. And 4G LTE can deliver speeds as fast as 100 Mbps. You’ll rarely get speeds near the high ends—but even so, there’s quite a difference.

The bottom line: LTE and Wi-Fi are awesome. EDGE/1xRTT—not so much.

Sequence of Connections

The iPhone isn’t online all the time. To save battery power, it opens the connection only on demand: when you check email, request a web page, and so on. At that point, the iPhone tries to get online following this sequence:

• First, it sniffs around for a Wi-Fi network that you’ve used before. If it finds one, it connects quietly and automatically. You’re not asked for permission, a password, or anything else.

• If the iPhone can’t find a previous hotspot but it detects a new hotspot, a message appears (below, left). It displays any new hotspots’ names; tap the one you want. (If you see a icon, then that hotspot is password-protected.)

  

• If the iPhone can’t find any Wi-Fi hotspots to join, or if you don’t join any, it connects to the cellular network, like 3G or LTE.

Silencing the “Want to Join?” Messages

Sometimes, you might be bombarded by those “Select a Wireless Network” messages at a time when you have no need to be online. You might want the iPhone to stop bugging you—to stop offering Wi-Fi hotspots. In that situation, from the Home screen, tap Settings→Wi-Fi (or tell Siri, “Open Wi-Fi settings”), and then turn off Ask to Join Networks. When this option is off, the iPhone never interrupts you by dropping the name of every new network at your feet. In this case, to get onto a new network, you have to visit the aforementioned settings screen and select it.

The List of Hotspots

At some street corners in big cities, Wi-Fi signals bleeding out of apartment buildings sometimes give you a choice of 20 or 30 hotspots to join. But whenever the iPhone invites you to join a hotspot, it suggests only a couple of them: the ones with the strongest signal and, if possible, no password requirement.

But you might sometimes want to see the complete list of available hotspots—maybe because the iPhone-suggested hotspot is flaky. To see the full list, from the Home screen, open Settings→Wi-Fi. Tap the one you want to join, as shown on the facing page at right.

Tip

Tap next to a hotspot’s name to view an info sheet for techies. It shows your IP address, subnet mask, router address, and other delicious stats. Even mere mortals, however, will sometimes enjoy the Forget This Network button. It removes this hotspot from the list, which is handy if you’ve moved away and don’t need to be reminded of the high speed that was once yours.

Commercial Hotspots

Tapping the name of the hotspot you want to join is generally all you have to do—if it’s a home Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, joining a commercial Wi-Fi hotspot—one that requires a credit card number (in a hotel room or an airport, for example)—requires more than just connecting to it. You also have to sign into it, exactly as you’d do if you were using a laptop.

In general, the iPhone prompts you to do that automatically. A login screen pops up on its own, interrupting whatever else you’re doing; that’s where you supply your credit card information or (if you have a membership to this Wi-Fi chain, like Boingo or T-Mobile) your name and password. Tap Submit or Proceed, try not to contemplate the cost, and enjoy your surfing.

(If that login screen doesn’t appear, or if you canceled out of it accidentally, open Safari. You’ll see the “Enter your payment information” screen, either immediately or as soon as you try to open a web page of your choice.)

Mercifully, the iPhone memorizes your password. The next time you use this hotspot, you won’t have to enter it again.

Airplane Mode and Wi-Fi Off Mode

When battery power is precious, you can turn off all three of the iPhone’s network connections in one fell swoop. You can also turn off Wi-Fi alone.

• To turn all radios off. In airplane mode, turn off all wireless circuitry: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular. Now you can’t make calls or get onto the Internet. You’re saving an amazing amount of power, however, and also complying with regulations that ban cellphones in flight.

  The short way: Swipe up from the bottom of the screen; on the Control Center, tap so it turns orange. (The long way: Open Settings, turn on Airplane Mode.)

• To turn Wi-Fi on or off. Swipe up; on the Control Center, tap so it’s no longer blue. (You can also switch it in Settings→Wi-Fi.)

Tip

Once you’ve turned on airplane mode, you can actually turn Wi-Fi back on again. Why on earth? To use Wi-Fi on a flight. You need a way to turn Wi-Fi on, but your cellular circuitry off.

Conversely, you sometimes might want to do the opposite: turn off Wi-Fi, but leave cellular on. Why? Because, sometimes, the iPhone bizarrely won’t get online at all. It’s struggling to use a Wi-Fi network that, for one reason or another, isn’t connecting to the Internet. By turning Wi-Fi off, you force the iPhone to use its cell connection—which may be slower, but at least it works!

In airplane mode, anything that requires voice or Internet access—text messages, web, email, and so on—triggers a message: “Turn off Airplane Mode or use Wi-Fi to access data.” Tap either OK (to back out of your decision) or Settings (to turn off airplane mode and get online).

You can, however, enjoy all the other iPhone features: Music, Camera, and so on. You can also work with stuff you’ve already downloaded to the phone, like email, voicemail messages, and web pages you’ve saved in the Reading List.

Personal Hotspot (Tethering)

Tethering means using your iPhone as an Internet antenna, so that your laptops, iPod Touches, iPads, game consoles, and other Internet-connectables can get online. (The other gadgets can connect to the phone over a Wi-Fi connection, a Bluetooth connection, or a USB cable.) In fact, several laptops and other gadgets can all share the iPhone’s connection simultaneously. Your phone becomes a personal cellular router, like a MiFi.

That’s incredibly convenient. Many phones have it, but Apple’s execution is especially nice. For example, the hotspot shuts itself off 90 seconds after the last laptop disconnects. That’s hugely important, because a personal hotspot is a merciless battery drain.

The hotspot feature may be included with your data plan (T-Mobile), or it may cost something like $20 a month extra, which buys only 2 gigabytes of data (Verizon). Think email, not YouTube.

To get this feature, you have to sign up for it by calling your cellular company or visiting its website (if you didn’t already do that when you signed up for service).

Tip

If you have a Mac running OS X Yosemite or later, you’re in for a real treat: a much more streamlined way to set up Personal Hotspot called Instant Hotspot. Skip the instructions below and jump immediately to Instant Hotspot.

Turning On the Hotspot

On the phone, open Settings→Cellular→Personal Hotspot (or tell Siri, “Open cellular settings”).

Tip

Once you’ve turned on Personal Hotspot for the first time, you won’t have to drill down as far to get to it. A new Personal Hotspot item appears right there on the main Settings screen from now on.

The Personal Hotspot screen contains details on connecting other computers. It also has the master on/off switch. Turn Personal Hotspot On.

(If you see a button that says Set Up Personal Hotspot, it means you haven’t yet added the monthly tethering fee to your cellular plan. Contact your wireless carrier to get that change made to your account.)

You have to use a password for your personal hotspot; it’s to ensure that people sitting nearby can’t surf using your connection and run up your cell bill. The software proposes a password, but you can edit it and make up one of your own. (It has to be at least eight characters long and contain letters, numbers, and punctuation. Don’t worry—your laptop or other Wi-Fi gadget can memorize it for you.)

Your laptops and other gadgets can connect to the Internet using any of three connections to the iPhone: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or a USB cable. If either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth are turned off, then a message appears to let you know—and offers to turn them on for you. To save battery power, turn on only what you need.

Connecting via Wi-Fi

After about 30 seconds, the iPhone shows up on your laptop or other gadget as though it were a Wi-Fi network. Just choose the iPhone’s name from your computer’s Wi-Fi hotspot menu (on the Mac, it’s the menu). Enter the password, and bam—your laptop is now online, using the iPhone as an antenna. On the Mac or an iPad, the changes to look like this: .

You can leave the iPhone in your pocket or purse while connected. You’ll surf away on your laptop, baffling every Internet-less soul around you. Your laptop can now use email, the web, chat programs—anything it could do in a real Wi-Fi hotspot (just a little slower).

Connecting via Bluetooth

There’s no compelling reason to use Bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi, especially since Bluetooth slows your Internet connection. But if you’re interested, see the free downloadable PDF appendix “Bluetooth Tethering” on this book’s “Missing CD” page at www.missingmanuals.com.

Connecting via USB Cable

If you can connect your laptop to your iPhone using the white charging cable, you should. Tethering eats up a lot of the phone’s battery power, so keeping it plugged into the laptop means you won’t wind up with a dead phone when you’re finished surfing.

Once You’re Connected

On the iPhone, a blue bar appears at the top of the screen to make you aware that the laptop is connected (previous page, right); in fact, it shows how many laptops or other gadgets are connected at the moment, via any of the three connection methods. (You can tap that bar to open the Personal Hotspot screen in Settings.)

Most carriers won’t let more than five people connect through a single iPhone.

If you have AT&T or T-Mobile, you can still use all the functions of the iPhone, including making calls and surfing the web, while it’s channeling your laptop’s Internet connection.

If you have Verizon or Sprint, then your iPhone can’t handle Internet connections and voice calls simultaneously (unless you’re on a VoLTE call, as described in A Word About VoLTE). So if a phone call comes in, the iPhone suspends the hotspot feature until you’re finished talking; when you hang up (or if you decline the call), all connected gadgets regain their Internet connections automatically.

Turning Off Personal Hotspot

If you’re connected wirelessly to the iPhone, the Personal Hotspot feature is a battery hog. It’ll cut your iPhone’s battery longevity in half. That’s why, if no laptops are connected for 90 seconds, the iPhone turns the hotspot off automatically.

You can also turn off the hotspot manually, just the way you’d expect: In Settings→Personal Hotspot, tap Off.

Turning Personal Hotspot Back On

About 90 seconds after the last gadget stops using the hotspot, your iPhone shuts off the feature to save its own battery. To fire it back up again, open Settings and tap Personal Hotspot. That’s it—just visit the Personal Hotspot screen to make the iPhone resume broadcasting its Wi-Fi or Bluetooth network to your laptops and other gadgets.

Twitter and Facebook

Twitter, of course, is a free service (sign up at twitter.com) that lets you send out short messages, like text messages, to anyone who wants to get them from you. Twitter is a fantastic way for people to spread news, links, thoughts, and observations directly to the people who care—incredibly quickly.

And Facebook is—well, Facebook. 1.6 billion people sharing their personal details and thoughts can’t be wrong, right?

These services are woven into the built-in iPhone apps.

Start by visiting Settings→Twitter or Settings→Facebook. Here you can enter your account name and password or sign up for an account. Here, too, you’re offered the chance to download the Twitter or Facebook apps. You can also tap Update Contacts, which attempts to add the Twitter or Facebook addresses of everybody in your Contacts app to their information cards. For details, see this image.

Once you’ve set up Twitter and Facebook this way, you’ll find some nifty buttons built into your other apps, for one-tap tweeting or Facebook posting. For example, the Share button () appears in Photos, Maps, Safari, and other apps, making it easy to post a photo, location, or web page. Siri understands commands like “Tweet” and “Post to Facebook,” too, so you can broadcast when the spirit moves you. (The Tweet and Post buttons are no longer in the Notification Center, however.)

In each case, you wind up at a small tweet sheet or Facebook sheet. Here you can add a comment to the link or photo, or attach your current location, or (for Facebook) specify who’s allowed to see this post—Everyone or just Friends, for example.

For Twitter posts, you’ll notice that the keyboard at that point offers dedicated @ and # keys. (The # is for creating hashtags—searchable keywords on a tweet like #iphone7bugs—that Twitter fans can use when searching for tweets about certain topics. And the @ precedes every Twitter person’s address—@pogue, for example.)