A discussion of the big news of the month including Apple’s iPhone announcements kicked off the September SEAL meeting.
Key topics from the news discussion included:
- Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 5s and 5c.
- The M7 motion processor and new camera features included in the iPhone 5s.
- iWork and iLife applications now being included with the purchase of new iOS devices.
We had planned to hold our first beginners section at this meeting but, as everyone attending was an experienced Mac user, we decided to hold that over for a future meeting.
For the remainder of the meeting members showed interesting products and tips in our Show & Tell section:
DavidB Demonstrated two useful features of iOS 6 both of which are useful if you’re lending your iOS device to someone or letting a child use it:
The restrictions option in General Settings can be used to limit access to certain apps (for example you could block Safari) and features (such as in-app purchases). You can block access to apps, music and videos based on their content rating too. A PIN is set so the device owner can unblock features or alter the restrictions settings. Apple have a help article about Restrictions on their site.
David also demonstrated the Guided Access feature which is located in the Accessibility section of General Settings. This allows you to lock the iOS device into a single app and then control if touch and/or motion controls are available. It’s also possible to block access to certain areas of the screen to prevent accidental activation of commands. Apple also have a help article about Guided Access.
DavidK then showed us a couple of interesting iOS applications:
Opera’s new Coast web browser is designed specifically for the iPad. This free browser has a minimal user interface so you can concentrate on web content and allows you to browse between pages using touch gestures.
Groceries is a shopping list application which allows you to compile your list from common grocery items (or you can add your own), it learns what products you commonly buy so you can easily add them to your list. The app keeps your list grouped by supermarket aisle to speed up shopping.\
Questions and answers from the September meeting covering creating ringtones in iTunes and assigning applications keyboard shortcuts are now available.