You may have been excited to see the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus get unveiled at last week’s big Apple event. But before you empty your pockets to get a little more umph in them, you might want to try these tricks to speed up your current phone. After all, there’s a new phone every year, and you don’t want to upgrade until it’s totally necessary!

Upgrade to iOS 10

One of the big draws of the new iPhone 7 is the new operating system which has all kinds of cool new features and updates. But the new operating system isn’t just limited to the iPhone 7 models, you can get it on your old phone too! Chances are, Apple has already sent you a notification to upgrade. If not, you can upgrade right now by going to Settings > General > Software Update.

You might be hesitant to upgrade your older phone for fear of the new operating system slowing it down (this seems to happen with every iOS upgrade). But don’t worry! It seems the iPhone 5 and later phones are able to run the new OS with very little noticeable slow down.

Though be warned! The new operating system will not work very effectively and cut off support for any iPhones before the iPhone 5, any iPads before the 4th generation, or any iPod Touch before the 6th generation. Make sure you backup before you upgrade, so you can restore your phone to a previous operating system if needed.

Clean Up Your Phone’s Junk

After years of having the same phone, it’s possible it’s getting pretty jammed full of apps, text messages, photos, music, videos and other digital garbage. Take an afternoon to backup everything on your computer or a hard drive (you should be doing this fairly regularly anyway), and then go nuts scrolling through and deleting anything that’s not totally necessary.

Start with unnecessary apps, photos and videos as these usually take up the most memory, after that you can move to your text messages and delete those. You might also want to go into Safari and delete your browsing history and cookies.

Your old phone may not have as much storage space as the new iPhone 7, but as long as you leave about 1 GB of wiggle room, you should see improvement in your phone’s performance.

Get Rid of the Unnecessary Design Quirks

One of the big pros of the iPhone is the easy to read and pretty displays. However, each little fun design point on the phone takes up a little bit of processing power, so older phones might need to sacrifice some beauty for a little better performance. Fortunately, there’s two design quirks most people can do without.

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion and turning the “Reduce Motion” setting on. This will turn off some parallax effects on notifications.

Another change increasing contrast by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Increase Contrast and turning the “Reduce Transparency” setting on. This will change the transparency of menu backgrounds also saving performance.

Both these changes should improve the speed of your phone and will help reduce battery use.

Restore from Backup

It might be the case your old phone just isn’t handling the new updates very well and needs to be restored to an older version (though this is unlikely to be the case with the iOS 10 upgrade). If you’ve been diligent with your backups, you can restore your phone to an older setting by plugging it into iTunes and selecting “Restore Backup.”

Do a Factory Reset

If you’ve tried the above suggestions, and you still don’t notice much performance improvement, it could be time to start from ground zero. A factory reset will essentially put your phone back to the way it came out of the box (minus the inevitable wear and tear on the hardware inside).

Make an Appointment

We help with iPhone repairs now. If any of the above suggestions haven’t made a significant improvement on your device, it might be time to check the inner hardware components for damage and functionality. We can diagnose any problems with the guts of your iPhone and whether it’s worth fixing. Worst case scenario, we give you permission to treat yourself to a shiny new iPhone!

Hopefully you found these tips helpful! If you need help with any of these steps or want us to look at your phone give us a call, send us an email (info@alarytech,ca), reach out on Facebook, or just drop by (337 King Street West in Oshawa). We’ll be happy to take a look!

UOIT may have given you a laptop, but there’s students out there – or students at Durham College – who decided to roll with Apple instead. This blog is for you! While your machine may be working great, it’s likely there’s a few things that can be done to get it working before the first semester starts.

Back It Up

Okay it’s not really a tune up tip. However, before you start doing tune ups, make sure you have one, and hopefully two backups. When tuning up a computer keeping a backup is just the easiest way to make sure all your files stay safe. You should always keep back ups throughout the school year just to keep those midterm notes from disappearing when you need them most.

Full Clean Up (Inside)

After first year, your computer is likely junked up with tons of music, photos, and maybe some regrettable essays. But there’s also a chance that some malware and other malicious software could be lurking in your computer. At best, malware is slowing down your computer and at worst, it’s stealing important personal info.

Full Clean Up (Outside)

Now we don’t blame you. Residence rooms are small, and after a first year crammed in a residence room, some KD or Cheetos dust was bound to make its way on your keyboard. Fortunately, there’s professional people who know how to clean up keyboards, ports and monitors safely (and to gently remind you to not eat food over your laptop).

Spec Your Computer Right

If you happen to be buying a MacBook for the first time, you want to make extra sure you don’t go for the cheapest option right away. Make sure you know what you’ll be using your computer for to ensure you have enough hard drive storage, enough USB ports (or USB ports at all), and enough RAM. If you plan on gaming or watching high quality movies, you might want to consider adding a little extra umph in your hardware.

Upgrading Hard Drive to a SSD

Maybe you have an older MacBook and it’s running slow. It could be because your old disk hard drive is starting to lose to some of it’s juice. One upgrade that seriously helps speed up your computer is an upgrade to a SSD (soild-state) drive. These drives are more expensive but you get way more bang for your buck and it could save you from having to spend that precious OSAP on a brand new computer.

And that’s it! If you’d like any of the services on this list we’re happy to help you out and give you our student discount. Just come into our store anytime (337 King St. W in downtown Oshawa), no appointment needed!

We’re also happy to answer any additional questions about your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter. You can also send an email to info@alarytech.ca. Best of luck with your studies this year! We hope to see you soon.

Did you know all this already? If you have experience repairing Macs, we could be looking to hire you. Email us a careers@alarytech.ca,

Here’s one PSA we can’t make enough to our clients: BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER. Apple computers are wonderful machines, but they are by no means perfect. Yet for some reason, people think everything on their Mac will last forever. If the problem is motivation, here’s 6 reasons why you should back up your computer today.

It’s Easy

Apple makes it really easy to back up your hard drive. The process is automated using the built-in software Time Machine.. The whole process of backing up takes 10 minutes or less and saves you a mountain of time if you ever lose data. Here is a simple video to show you how

You Have Very Important Stuff on There

I don’t know if you’ve looked at what’s stored on your computer these days, but there’s plenty of important things you don’t want to lose. Whether it’s important files or documents, or photos from your vacation, losing these things can prove devastating. You insure your home, and you insure your car in case anything bad happens. Just consider a back up as insurance on your data.

External Hard Drives are Very Affordable

Considering the importance of things you have saved on your computer, an investment in an external hard drive is well worth it. Chances are the most external storage you will need will not exceed 1TB. These hard drives are sold in all places electronics are sold and you can get peace of mind for only $60-$90 (or less if you go with less storage). Guaranteed, you won’t get insurance this cheap for your car or home.

Hard Drives Aren’t Going to be Around Forever

If you’re not convinced of how easy it is to backup your data, consider this: some hard drives have up to a 30% failure rate. That means, even if you treat your computer like it’s the Holy Grail itself, your hard drive could still stop functioning completely with no warning and take all your precious files, photos and data with it.

Hackers/Viruses/Theft

We all fear the hackers and bad people of the world who try to take things that aren’t there’s. However, if you have a spare copy of everything hackers or thieves can take, there’s no reason to fear or give into pricey Ransomware demands if you’re ever unlucky enough to be targeted. We can fix viruses, but we can’t always recover data. In this case it’s better to have AT LEAST TWO backups – with one disconnected from your computer at all times.

It Makes Our Lives Easier

Okay, this reason is a little selfish. But we’ve had so many instances where a repair or restoration of a computer is made easier when we have a complete backup of a person’s computer. In the end, having this will save us for feeling bad of not being able to save your data and could even save you some money from IT labour fees.

There’s People Who Will Help You

Yes, computers can be scary sometimes and you may not know where to begin. But you also don’t want to lose your data either. At our store, we can help you back up your Mac or iPhone for you or show you how to do it yourself. So honestly, what are you still waiting for?

Time to start paying for things like it’s 2024!

4 Benefits of Apple pay: 

Get your Mac running faster with a little Spring cleaning. For the month of May, we will professionally tune up and clean your Mac for a discounted price.

Ahmed Kufaishi completed the Ontario Self Employment Benefit program in November 2013 with Group 49. His vision was to be the best Apple Information Technology (IT) service provider for businesses and residents in the Durham region. Ahmed recalls, “I wanted to start a computer service company whose focus was on Apple products.” He felt this was an underserviced market in Durham and solid market research supported his feeling. For business, he would provide IT consulting to help set up effective Apple-based systems to support business operations while providing ongoing maintenance and support. For residents, his team of IT service technicians would deliver system setups, repairs and maintenance, as well as trouble-shooting system issues.

Ahmed’s extensive experience in the IT industry included programming, consulting, and heading a team of IT technicians with various organizations. His area of expertise was his in-depth knowledge of Apple/Mac systems. He worked to become an Apple Authorized Service Provider and a member of the Apple Consultant Network.

Starting out, Ahmed intended to work from his home-based office for the first year. However, as he worked on his Apple certification, he also had the opportunity to become an Authorized Service Centre. By enlarging his service scope, it quickly became evident that he would require commercial space much earlier than initially planned. Not having experience in lease negotiations, he turned to his OSEB support to help him work through and secure a prime location on King Street in Oshawa. Taking on commercial space and resources so quickly was a risk and responsibility many would shy away from. His next challenge was to hire a qualified team to assist with repairs and maintenance while juggling his networking, marketing, consulting, and other business demands. However, Ahmed was willing to quickly move far outside of his comfort zone to push his success. The effort paid off as his challenges became rewards.

His coach, Joanne Ferns observes, “Ahmed’s experience and professionalism were evident right from the start. He is very responsive to his customers’ needs, and works hard to treat each client with the highest level of customer care no matter how big or small their issue may be. He realizes they need a quick turnaround and works hard to manage this process quickly, providing quality service to all.”

Both online sites and a network of stores direct Apple inquiries to Ahmed, which allows him to brand and position himself well in the marketplace. Ahmed’s high standards result in satisfied clients, a high Apple service rating, and will greatly contribute to Alary Technologies becoming a lead provider in Durham with repeat business and referrals.

Phishing emails are usually a way to get your login credentials for a service you subscribe to, it could be your bank account, your iCloud account or gmail . Apart from the bank account details a lot of people are very relaxed about their other account details, saying that they don’t have any secrets or, who is going to care about what I have!

Before I give examples of how phishing can affect you, let me briefly explain how it is done;

1. you get an email from what looks like your email provider (google for example) telling you that your email will be disabled unless you activate it within 24 hours, with a link to click here to keep it active, for example:

Dear Tech, 



We inform you that your INTERNAL ACCESS (iLog & iDesk) will expire in less than 24 hours.

And essential to carry out a verification of your data, except your username will be destroyed.

Just click the link below and complete all fields with information ask.

 

Verify Now 


NOTE: If IGNORE this email your account has been suspend.

 

Sincerely,

Apple Internal Staff

 

2. Once you click on the link it takes you to a login screen that looks like google login, you unsuspectingly enter your user name and password, and hit ok, and BANG they have it, after that it may take you any where to cover their tracks.
3. What they can do with your login info can be pretty damaging, for example they send an email on your behalf to all your contacts that looks like this:

“How are you doing. I really hope you get this fast, my sister was diagnosed of Kidney disease in Phillipines must undergo Kidney transplant in order to save her life, the news of her illness got to me as an emergency so i had to quickly rush down here…Her health condition is not improving.

 

I would have called you but my phone keeps displaying No signal due to bad network.She’s in so much pain right now and needs to be operated ASAP. I have got only $3,950 left but the doctor has demanded for $6,550 cash deposit before carrying out a surgery on her, so i really need your assistance with the balance $2,600 as loan, I’ll refund it to you at my return.”

4. Now if you have an email service that includes contacts (gmail an Exchange service), they will not only send to all your contacts, but also delete your contacts, so you can’t follow up to your contacts warning them of such fraud.

Another example of very dangerous phishing, is your iCloud password, because in addition to the gmail example above. Chances are you have an icloud backup that contains your phone backup or your ipad backup, that means they can restore any ipad with your data and have access to all your private content, pictures notes etc..

Now, how to identify if that email is phishing, look at 3 things:

1. The sender’s address; does it look real? You can look at the header of the email and see whom it is really coming from.
2. The greeting; Does it have your name or your email, or something like “Dear customer”.
3. The link; is the link really what it sais, you can find this on the mac by hovering the mouse over the link and it will show the real destination.
4. If you miss the first 3 checks and end up clicking on the link, once you go to the site to put in your password, look at the certificate verification, any site that asks you for an login should be secure, and you should see a pad lock in the address bar in the browser indicating that this site is who it sais it is.

For more details instruction see: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204759

5. Most important; if you are not confident of the link, don’t click on it, just go to your browser and type the address to the website yourself to log in and find if there are any issues with your account for example.

I hope this is found useful and more people are aware of how to fight this extremely serious matter.

Time is one of the hardest things to put a price tag on especially for the information age worker.

Here is the dilemma; the better I am at reaching a satisfying solution the less I will get paid, whether this is because I am smarter, more efficient or simply have more experience. And vice versa, when I am less knowledgeable and take longer to solve the issue, I get paid more!.

Does this sound logical? or even fair?

Is the price for my services based on the time spent on the job or time spent acquiring experience and knowledge to do the job well?

It is common amongst Technicians/Consultants billing for their time, to feel guilty if they take longer time to solve the problem (they feel they should be better than that), and end up giving away time for free!

In reality, there is no measure or reference to how long solving a problem should take, every problem is different, however there are smarter and more efficient Techs/Consultants with more experience who take less time to reach the solution.

Here is the simple answer; just bill for the project and the more efficient you are the higher the profit margin.

This will work for projects with very clear deliverables, for less clear ones the Techs/Consultants would have to take their chances and estimate how long it would take. The more experienced they are the more accurate the estimation is..

The funny thing about this method is even when the Tech/Consultant spends more time than estimated (which is always the case), he or she would be happy to give some time away for the sake of a satisfied client.

Project based billing is my preferred method, I believe it is the fairest to the clients, let’s put it this way; if I can’t estimate how long it will take me to get the job done who can? The client? How would it be fair to tell the client “I’ll come and work on this problem and you need to have an open budget for my services”?

However, not everything is a project with deliverables, there are cases where there is a problem that needs to be solved regardless of the budget (within reason of course), that’s why I feel that we need to know when to bill for time and take no responsibility for any delays and when to own the project and fulfill the job at any cost.

With time the reputation of the Tech/Consultant will proceed him and clients will trust his estimates and his billings.

The more RAM you have the faster and better your computing will be. If your system is low on RAM it will experience slowdowns at practically every turn from launching programs to loading documents. The best way to speed up an old Mac, dramatically, is to replace its old hard drive with a new solid state drive; but just upgrading your RAM is a much more sane solution, being the most cost effective.

RAM (Random Access Memory) refers to a small replaceable circuit board that contains memory chips designed to give a computer a high-speed temporary work area, which is where data apps are temporarily stored while being used. Having more RAM will help your computer to run larger apps, and more apps at the same time, to reduce and even eliminate the need to continuously load data from the hard drive.

The first thing you should do is to determine if your system’s RAM is able to be upgraded (give us a call if you don’t know how to check). If the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, in the case of Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the RAM cannot be upgraded; but, if you’re running MacBooks, Mac Pros, or iMacs, (even on Mac minis, but challenging) then start by checking the memory pressure graph in Mavericks, which should tell you if you are running low on usable RAM. If the green wedge on the chart is always below 25 percent then upgrading the RAM is a MUST.

4GB is a general minimum for RAM, but if the system can handle the extra then install at least 8GB, or 16GB is even preferred. 4GB Macs are fairly limited with running multiple apps at once and 16GB Macs aren’t much of an improvement over 8GB or 12GB Macs, except if the system is running professional-quality (usually video editing) apps. If your Mac can run Yosemite, then its RAM could probably be upgraded to at least 8GB. As well, if you use an iMac heavily for professional, time-sensitive projects like creating videos, music, or creating complex documents, then consider increasing the capacity of your system to 16GB of RAM or more.

Remember that your Mac can contain the same components as a PC, so be sure to consult with us to make sure that the RAM matches your system’s specifications. But whatever you do, don’t cut any corners on the RAM that is installed in your system. Just because PC owners have become tolerant of imperfect RAM, which can cause system crashes, app crashes, and failures to boot, doesn’t mean that Mac users need follow suit. It’s very difficult to trace the source of these types of problems and cheap RAM is a far more common failure point for Macs than most people even realize.

Searching RAM upgrades on your own can be tricky, since you really need to be tech-savvy in order to wade through the part numbers, and relying upon online help or video help guides to get you through the process can be a daunting endeavor and time consuming, as well. Some third party company’s parts have been known to work well in the short term, but failing a year down the line.

Ultimately, you may consult with us here at Alary Technologies, a professional & apple authorized service provider that knows the way around the Mac world. It is well worth it and for the long haul we will provide a real person to talk to directly.