Tag Archives: iPhone

fixed : how to charge Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse ?

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Question :

The Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse seems a great product, but I can’t get it to work.
It seems to come straight from Asia, as the user manual is in Chinese only.
Luckily scanning the QR-code that’s in de manual downloaded the Mi Fit-app, and since the app is in English figuring out how it works was easy.

Only problem was that the app doesn’t include directions on knowing how to charge and when the battery is full…

…the battery pre-charge it came with lasted for less than an hour, so it turned out that the first thing I have to do is charge it…

How do I know ? How can I check ?

 

Answer :

The Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse (a.k.a. Xiaomi Mi Band 1S) is a very high-value-for-money activity tracker indeed. It’s not an extremely accurate top-quality activity monitor, sleep monitor or heart rate monitor, but at this moment it can be considered as the best low-budget activity tracker for people who would normally use the iOS Health app because they want to stimulate themselves into moving or exercising more and want to keep track of their activity during swimming, sporting, exercising and sleeping, even when they can’t keep their iPhones with them.

Secret Trick #1 : Charging :

  • just take the sensor from the bracelet
  • put it in the USB-charging cable the right way round
  • hook it up to a powered USB-port or charger (not included)
  • wait for all 3 leds to light up continuously

Secret Trick #2 : The Missing Manual :

Secret Trick #3 : resetting the Mi Band Pulse / Mi Band 1S :

Secret Trick #4 : try the continuous heart rate app also :

Secret Trick #5 : use it with the iOS Health app also :

  • install the Mi Fit app first and make sure it works with your iPhone
  • then, open the Health app on your iPhone
  • in the Dashboard screen, click on the “Sources” button on the bottom side
  • on the next page click on “Mi Fit”
  • then on the next page choose which data you want to sync between Health app and Mi Fit app
  • then click “Health Data” at the bottom, next to “Sources”
  • then repeat the following for each type of data you want to exchange between the Mi Fit app and Health app :
    • for Sleep Analysis sharing, choose “Sleep” –> “Sleep Analysis” –> “Show on Dashboard” & “Share Data” –> “DATA SOURCES: Mi Fit” –> delete any individual data that you don’t want taken into account
    • for Weight sharing, choose “Body Measurements” –> “Weight” –> “Show on Dashboard” & “Share Data” –> “DATA SOURCES: Mi Fit” –> delete any individual data that you don’t want taken into account
    • for Heart Rate sharing, choose “Vitals” –> “Heart Rate” –> “Show on Dashboard” & “Share Data” –> “DATA SOURCES: Mi Fit” –> delete any individual data that you don’t want taken into account

That’s it 😉

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 : Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse seems bricked or broken

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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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BEWARE ! : phone scam unknown caller call back

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!! BEWARE !!

today I got an extremely short call from an unknown caller, it was hung up before I was even able to answer it…

as the phone no. displayed was in an unknown format, I was immediately hesitant to pick up or call back…

when I looked in the list of recent calls, there was a number displayed starting with “+228” and the label my iPhone automatically put on it was “Togo”… as in the country… I don’t know anyone living there…

this obviously is the sort of phone scam that has been all over the news lately : you get a phone call from an unknown phone no. which is hung up before you can answer… if you let it go, you will keep getting calls from this same number, it keeps stalking you… if you call back, you will hear a phone ringing sound as if your waiting for them to pick up, but you’re listening to a recording… and your call has already been picked up by a computer connecting you to an extremely expensive service line… by the time you decide to hang up, you will already have spend enough time on that for them to charge you an exorbitantly high phone bill… !!!!

don’t call back !!

instead, Block This Caller on your iPhone immediately, as outlined in my other post here :

https://macmanus.nl/2016/04/24/fixed-how-to-block-caller-on-iphone/

so BEWARE ! and don’t let yourself be fooled or mislead by this eMail scam !

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fixed : how to Block Caller on iPhone ?

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Question :

Today I got called by someone who I don’t want to call me on my iPhone. Is there any way to block a caller on my iPhone ?

 

Answer :

Yes, there is.

To block a caller that just called you on your iPhone, do this :

  • click on your iPhone, click on the “Phone”-icon
  • then make sure you are in the “Recents”-tab
  • then click on the “i-in-a-circle”/”info”-icon that’s right next to the phone number (or name) you want to block
  • now make sure you don’t touch anything, but scroll down (or rather “swipe up”) towards the usually invisible bottom part of the page…
  • then, at the bottom, you will see “Block this Caller”… click on it
  • a popup will appear, there, click on “Block Contact”
  • now this caller (or rather this phone no.) won’t be able to call you any longer on your iPhone

that’s it !

enjoy 😉

Note : If you’re having second thoughts and you want to Unblock someone who you have previously blocked, just redo the same procedure as lined out above

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fixed : get rid of “purple paper plane” arrow-icon in iOS

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Question :

Today, I noticed there was a “paper plane”-icon on the top menu bar of my iPhone. More accurately described, it is a “point of a hunting arrow” icon, and sometimes it’s grey, and sometimes it’s purple.

What does it mean ? And how do I get rid of it ?

 

Answer :

The “point of a hunting arrow” icon means that you one or more apps are using Location Services on your iPhone (or iPad), which might drain your battery, especially when the icon is outlined in purple.

There are 3 versions of the Location Services icon (a.k.a. “paper plane” or “point of a hunting arrow”) :

1- a purple Location Services icon will appear next to an item that has recently used your location.

2- a grey Location Services icon will appear next to an item that has used your location within the last 24 hours.

3- an outlined purple Location Services icon will appear next to an item that is using a geofence. (*)

(*) geofence = virtual perimeter around a location. Apps use geofencing to notify you when you arrive at or leave these locations, but…  if an app is constantly checking to see whether or not you are within it’s virtual perimeter, and you are nowhere near this will drain your battery…

 

To get rid of the Location Services icon (a.k.a. “paper plane” or “point of a hunting arrow”) :

  • open the Settings.app –> Privacy –> Location Services
  • in the window that opens, you can choose to switch off Location Services entirely, or select the apps from the list and choose their Location Services setting one by one
  • the primary advice is to set all apps that have the ‘outlined purple’ Location Services icon next to them to “Never”
  • the secondary advice is to set all apps that you do not regularly use to “Never” also

More info on Privacy and Location Services in iOS8 and iOS9 can be found on the Apple-website :

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203033

 

…that’s it – enjoy !

😉

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fixed : battery empty extremely quickly on new iPhone

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Question :

I recently got a new iPhone 6 and after about a week, for some reason it’s battery was empty with half a day, even on days when I rarely made any calls, played any games or made any photos.

Any idea what the problem could be ? (besides a problematic battery)

 

Answer :

In iOS9 you have the option to quickly check what apps have been using the most battery power lately. To do so :

  • open the Settings.app –> Battery
  • in the window that opens, wait for the rest of the page to load under “BATTERY USAGE” (this might take a few seconds)
  • when the loading is complete, a list of apps is displayed together with the percentage of battery power they’ve used in het “Last 24 Hours” (or in the “Last 7 Days” if you click on the other tab-label)

If any odd apps show up in this list, make sure to always close these immediately after usage. To do so :

  • double-click on the MENU(fingerscan)-button
  • in the view that opens, select any app you need to close by putting your finger on it, the swipe up

…if that doesn’t help, there’s another service that might be draining your battery : Location Services. To shut down al unwanted and unneeded Location Services, do this :

  • open the Settings.app –> Privacy –> Location Services
  • in the window that opens, there’s no need to shut down Location Services right away, but you should go down the list of all apps that have would like to have your location info
  • see if there is any app that is marked by an purple outlined arrow, and set the setting for this app to “Never”

…that’s it – enjoy !

…and if that doesn’t fix your battery problem, visit an AppleStore an let them check the quality of your iPhone’s battery

NOTE : the purple outlined arrow indicates an app that is constantly checking if you have arrived within it’s geofence, meaning it can start using your location since you have entered “it’s area”… this constant checking of availability costs a lot of power and is draining your battery…

more info on this is displayed at the bottom of the list of apps in the Location Services window

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fixed : international YouTube for teenagers on age restricted iPad

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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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