fixed : delete hacked Pokémon GO (TuTu-hack) from iPhone

Question :

My children have downloaded and installed a hacked version of Pokémon GO on their iPhone using the TuTuHelper-hack.

Now we want to uninstall, but that doesn’t seem to work when we do it the standard way (by deleting the app-icon by pressing on it until the X-badge appears and then clicking that)… What can we do ?

Answer :

TuTuHelper was installed as a developer trail-app using a developer certificate. The hacked version of Pokémon GO was installed subsequently as another developer trail-app using another developer certificate.

You shouldn’t install developer certificates from any developer that you can’t 100% trust, as you are granting that developer permission to access your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) data… and worst case scenario is that that is far more than you’ve bargained for…

To uninstall both of them, do this :

  • on your iPhone, go to Settings –> General –> Profiles & Devices –> CompanyApps
  • there, click on “Wuxi Suntech Power Co.,…” and in the next screen, click on “Delete app” to delete “TuTu Helper”
  • Note : if you do not see the “Delete App” option appearing, you have to temporarily lift the ban on deleting apps you have set in Settings –> General –> Restrictions and try again
  • next, click on “Jin Brand Co., Ltd.” and in the next screen, click on “Delete app” to delete “Pokémon GO” (the hacked version)
  • if you want to make sure your children will not reinstall hacked apps like that again, go to Settings –> General –> Restrictions and set a ban there on “Installing apps” (and preferably on “Deleting apps” also)
  • then restart the iPhone by pressing the physical Home-Button (front) and ON/OFF-Button (top or right) simultaneously until the screen goes completely black and the Apple logo reappears

That’s is !

enjoy 😉

fixed : black screen when trying to take a photo in iOS

Question :

Lately, whenever I try to take a photo with my iPhone, all I get is a black screen.

I am using the pre-installed Camera-app in iOS.

How can I get this fixed ?

 

Answer :

There are two known software causes for this ‘black screen’-issue (so apart from hardware problems like broken iPhones) :

solution  #1 :

If you have just used your camera in another app (e.g. WhatsApp) and you then switched to the  standard iOS Camera.app, you might run into a black screen because the camera is still being claimed by the previous app…

The fix for this is easy : close down the iOS Camera.app and the other app that was using your camera, then re-open the iOS Camera.app ; to do so :

  1. double-clicking on the Menu-button below the screen (in the next view you’ll be able to browse through windows of all open apps)
  2. close all apps that are using your iPhone’s camera (by swiping the windows of those apps you want to close upward)
  3. then return to normal view by clicking the Menu-button once
  4. and when done, re-open the iOS Camera-app

solution #2 :

The black screen issue in Camera.app has been reported as a bug in earlier versions of iOS 9, so fixing it is simply done by updating your iPhone to the latest version of iOS 9 (or iOS 10).

To do so :

  1. on your iPhone, go to Settings –> General –> Software Update
  2. you will most likely see that you don’t have the latest version of iOS
  3. activate the update to the latest version of iOS

…that’s it 😉

enjoy !

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fixed : Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse seems bricked or broken

Question :

As I was fiddling with connecting to a bluetooth speaker, the connection to my Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse suddenly vanished. Even though my iPhone can still see the Mi Band, but it says “Can’t connect to band” and on manual retry connection cannot be established due to a time-out error. In Bluetooth Preferences the Mi Band is visible, but not connected, and on manual retry I also get no connection due to a time-out error.

Is my Mi Band bricked or broken ? If not, what is the right way to reconnect my Mi Band to my iPhone ?

 

Answer :

You are probably in luck as even when your Mi Band seems bricked or broken, is most of the time just hangs and can be fixed doing a reset.

The reset & reconnect procedure in short :

  • switch-off Bluetooth
  • reset the Mi Band
  • reboot your iPhone
  • switch-on Bluetooth
  • reconnect via Bluetooth

That probably isn’t enough info, so here’s a step-by-step walk-through :

  • on your iPhone, swipe-up from the bottom of the screen to get the ‘underwater’ Settings pull-up panel
  • click on the Bluetooth-icon in a white circle, which will then turn grey, indicating Bluetooth is OFF
  • now take the sensor-pod of the Mi Band Pulse out of the bracelet and put it in the refrigerator (yes, the one in your kitchen, but not in the freezer)
  • leave it there for at least one hour (officially that should be at least 4 hours, but experience shows that only one hour will also do most of the time…)
  • first, do a reboot of your iPhone by pressing the MENU- and ON/OFF-buttons at the same time until the screen goes black and a white Apple-logo is displayed [ NOTE : for some iPhones the reboot procedure (a.k.a. “hard reset”) is slightly different ; more info can be found here ]
  • when the iPhone comes back up, type your access code to unlock your iPhone
  • then swipe-up from the bottom of the screen, and in the pull-up Settings panel, click on the Bluetooth-icon in a grey circle, which will then turen white, indicating Bluetooth is ON
  • and open the MiFit-app on your iPhone
  • then, take the Mi Band sensor-pod out of the fridge and plug it in the Mi Band-charger cable and put the USB-end into a USB power adapter (a powered USB-port will also do most of the time)
  • now be quick : only during the blinking of a LED on the Mi Band sensor-pod you have the opportunity to reconnect !
  • while the LED blinks, in the Mi Fit-app, in the Status view, click on reconnect to re-establish the Bluetooth-connection between Mi Band and iPhone
  • if all orange-collored texts are gone from the Mi Fit-app, you have successfully reconnected, if not : just unplug & replug the Mi Band sensor-pod, try again and make sure you act quickly
  • everything should now work properly ; enjoy !

If you can’t get it to work using the above procedure, just try again. And if that still doesn’t help after several tries, try these versions of the procedure, in this order :

  1. try again, without putting the Mi Band sensor-pod in the refrigerator
  2. try again, exactly as described (so including the refrigerator procedure)
  3. try again, now keeping the Mi Band sensor-pod in the fridge for at least 4 hours
  4. try again, now keeping the Mi Band sensor-pod in the fridge overnight
  5. try again, but start with deleting the MiFit-app from your iPhone, and reinstall it after reboot
  6. try again, exactly as described

You probably have things up and running by then, but if you’ve done all this and it still doesn’t work, your Mi Band sensor-pod is probably broken and you should contact your reseller for a replacement…

Good Luck & enjoy !

 

Note/update : there seems to be a German language unofficial manual for the similar Mi Band (so not the Mi Band S1 Pulse), that you can get here :

Xiaomi Mi Band – Anleitung, Tipps & Tricks – das inoffizielle Handbuch

A preview excerpt of this book (which might give you some answers also) can be found here :

Google Books preview – Xiaomi Mi Band – Anleitung, Tipps & Tricks – das inoffizielle Handbuch

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fixed : international YouTube for teenagers on age restricted iPad

Question :

My children have an age-restricted iPad, but ever since Google/YouTube upscaled the age-restriction of the YouTube-app to 17+ in 2015 they can no longer view YouTube video’s on their iPad, not even in Safari.

As they are young teenagers, I would like to enable them to view YouTube videos on their iPad, but I don’t want to upscale their age-restriction to 17+ for a few years.

Is there any way to do this ?

 

Answer :

Since Google (the (step)mother of YouTube) upscaled the age-restriction to 17+ in 2015, they have also introduced the new YouTube Kids-app which has just a 4+ age-restriction.

You can get the YouTube Kids-app here :

iOS YouTube Kids-app

…however, as Google advertises this as a “made for ages 5 and under”, this is not for teenagers

on top of that, the YouTube Kids-app is only available in the US iTunes store, even though it’s claimed to be available in most international languages…

…luckily, there are some alternatives for international teenagers :

iOS VideoTube-app

iOS Tubex Video and Music-app

iOS Tubex Free Music and Video Player-app

all three are available internationally and only have a 12+ age-restriction

and even tough both Tubex-apps use the same name, they are entirely different apps made by different developers…

note that none of these are endorsed by either YouTube, Google or Apple, but that doesn’t have to be problematic of course…

enjoy !

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fixed : old hard reset procedure doesn’t work on new iPhones with finger scan

Question :

I just encountered an error (or bug) in iOS forcing me to do a hard reset on my iPhone, but when I try the good-old reset-procedure by pressing both the MENU- and POWER-button simultaneously, there’s no reset… just a click-sound and a screenshot photo being taken…

What’s going on ?

 

Answer :

For all iPhones (and iPads) that still have the MENU-button (*) without fingerscan [ so all iPhones up until and including the iPhone 5 and 5c ], the procedure for a hard reset is :

  • make sure you have the PIN-code of your SIM-card at hand
  • press and hold the MENU- and POWER-buttons (*) of your iPhone/iPad simultaneously until the entire screen turns black and the Apple logo reappears
  • then release both buttons and wait for the screen to go back to normal
  • and when asked, enter the PIN-code to unlock your SIM-card

…that’s it

For all iPhones that have the new fingerscanning MENU-button (*) [ so all iPhones starting from the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 and newer ], the above procedure does no longer work, so there is a new procedure for a hard reset :

  • make sure you have the PIN-code of your SIM-card at hand
  • press and hold the POWER-button (*) until the screen goes fuzzy and the ‘slide to power off’-slider appears
  • then release the POWER-button and slide the slider to the right to turn the iPhone off
  • wait for the screen to go black
  • then press and hold the POWER-button until the Apple logo (re)appears
  • then release the POWER-button and wait for the screen to go back to normal
  • and when asked, enter the PIN-code to unlock your SIM-card

UPDATE : since iOS 9.3 the ‘old’ procedure for a hard reset was re-introduced as an extra for the newer fingerscanning iPhones, so these can now also be reset by simultaneously pressing & holding the MENU- and POWER-buttons 

…that’s it

(*) the MENU-button is the button that is on the front side of your iPhone or iPad just below the screen :

  • on iPhones up until the iPhone 5 and 5c, the MENU-button has a ’rounded square’ icon on it
  • on iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and newer, the MENU-button has no printing on it, but it has an (invisible) fingerscanning-sensor inside

…the POWER-button is the button that is used to turn the iPhone/iPad screen ON and OFF :

  • on iPhones up until the iPhone 5c and 5s, the POWER-button is on the top-side of the iPhone (just like it is on iPads)
  • on iPhone 6 and newer, the POWER-button is on the right-side of the iPhone

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fixed : where did Santa and the X-mas tree go in iOS9 ?

Question :

As X-mas is coming on, I wanted to brighten up my messages (on my iPhone) with good-old Santa and the X-mas tree from the emoji keyboard… but in iOS9, I can’t find them anymore… they’re not where they used to be… have they been axed in iOS9 ?

Answer :

No, they have not been omitted from iOS9, they are just in a slightly new place… Both of them are still on the renewed Emoji-keyboard, and can be found here :

Santa :

is now in the Smileys & People emoji-chapter in the column that has the Policeman on top, which then goes down to yellow cap guy (Ambulance guy ?), the bear-hat soldier (Royal Guard), the detective and Santa’s at the bottom

to get a Santa with a different skin-tone, keep your finger on the Santa emoji until the popup-list of all Santa’s appears, and select the Santa you need there

Angel :

is now in the Smiley & People emoji-chapter also, at the top of the column that has Santa in it… so right next to the Policeman

X-mas tree :

is now in the Animals & Nature emoji-chapter, at the bottom of the column that has the red dog-steps on top… and then goes down to the Dragon, then the Dragon-head, the Cactus-tree and the X-mas tree at the bottom

Enjoy !

😉

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test : is the HEMA 8pin Lightning-to-USB cable Apple Certified ?

Question :

I saw this good looking Lightning-to-USB cable for iPhone and iPad at my local (Dutch) HEMA store : HEMA has named it “8pin USB Charging Cable – extra long (2m)”.

Since it only costs €4 it’s far cheaper to have around as an extra than the original Apple Lightning-to-USB cables. But I’ve purchased some third party and white label Lightning-to-USB cables previously, and most cheaper ones all give the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone.”-warning and I don’t want any new cables giving me that same error message.

How can I make sure that this HEMA Lightning-to-USB cable is ‘Apple Certified’ ?

Answer :

The HEMA Lightning-to-USB is available in various colors :

blue HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

orange HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

mint (pale green) HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

But there’s no way to be sure if it’s a 100% Apple Certified cable, since such a certification is not explicitly mentioned on the box…

The only things that are mentioned on the box are :

– for use with iOS-devices running up to iOS 7.1

– supported iOS-devices include the iPhone 5/5C/5S, iPad & iPad mini Retina, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPod nano, iPod Touch

…so basically, it’s a cable suited for any iOS-device that doesn’t have the ‘old’ broad (30pin) iPod-connector but the new (8pin) Lightning-connector, which would include the iPhone 6 & 6Plus also…

And what about iOS-devices running iOS 8 ?

That’s a “you won’t know until you try” situation :

From my own experience, I have not encountered the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone.”-warning yet on these iOS-devices :

iPhone 5 (2012) & iOS 8.1

iPad mini (2012) & iOS 8.1

iPad mini 2 “Retina” (2013) & iOS 8.1

…that doesn’t mean that this cable will always be seen as a “Apple Certified”-cable at any time in the future however… there is mention that the “Not Certified”-warning did pop up in some situations, but the cause of those was not figured out… it might just have been an ill-produced sample, or it may have been incompatibility with iOS 8.0 only for some reason (which was then fixed with the release of iOS 8.1).

Conclusion : at this €4 price tag, this is a handy Lightning-to-USB cable to have one or two around as an extra, but keep in mind that this cable might not stay supported by Apple in the long run.

Note : if your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) battery is completely exhausted and it shuts itself down because of ‘lack of power’, using this cable to recharge will take notably longer before ‘minimum level to operate’ is achieved (might even take up to 60 seconds as opposed to the regular 10 seconds), probably because this cable is significantly longer (200cm as opposed to the regular 100cm)

😉

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