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When it comes to protecting your accounts, the general consensus is to always use two-factor authentication, which traditionally uses a unique six-digit code that’s re-generated every 30 seconds. If you want to keep hackers away, it’s a big help...but the process isn’t seamless. You often need a third-party app, and you end up losing access to all your passwords if you lose your phone or the app itself. With iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, Apple wants to make all of this easier by tying in two-factor authentication with iCloud Keychain. You can set up two-factor natively on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and since it’s linked to your iCloud account, it’s secure, supports autofill, and you’ll never lose access to it. Not to mention, it’s free to use. To be clear, this built-in authenticator is different from your Apple ID’s two-factor authentication settings. The latter sends a code to one of your trusted Apple devices when trying to log into your Apple ID. This new feature, however, is for third-party services that require an authenticator app. Essentially, navigate to the passwords section in a site or app, and choose their two-factor authentication option. Then, choose the option that lets you set up two-factor authentication on the same device. This will directly open the iCloud Passwords screen, where you’ll have to authenticate using a one-time password.

OS 11 is available, officially, today. It's coming to every iPhone and iPad made in the past few years, and chances are, you're going to upgrade. When you install it on your iPhone, you'll find that some things are very different than what you're used to, but the core of how you get around and experience the OS will be the same. For example: the Control Center is wildly different and notifications have changed slightly, but you still have that comfortable (and comforting) grid of apps on the home screen. A lot is new, but not so much that you can't recognize it. The iPad is a different story. That's where Apple has made the most radical changes to the way you open and manage your apps. Apple has introduced an app dock that's available no matter what you're doing with a quick swipe up, so you can get to your most-important apps quicker. It's also changed the way that multitasking works, giving you more flexibility with split-screen apps. And you can now drag and drop content between apps, a feature that takes some finger Jiu Jitsu, but is remarkably powerful once you get used to it. Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/19/16328404/apple-ios-11-review-iphone-update-control-center-how-to

I am asking because I do not like the conditions of employment that I have read about for the production workers in China who make the iPhone at Foxconn.

Is it possible to open a Microsoft Excel file in an IPhone?

This morning I got strange dialog box on my iPhone 6 Plus. It said: "Passcode Requirement: You must change your iPhone unlock passcode within 34 minutes." The combination of the ambiguity of the message and the countdown timer was alarming. Why did I need to change my passcode? Why did I have to do so within a few short minutes? I hit "Later" twice over the next 34 minutes and nothing happened. Evidently it is just a bug related to cookies on a website I have previously visited and it is not malware. Apple couldn't tell me more.

Poor battery life is one of the top complaints among mobile phone owners, especially as they run power-hungry apps that can chew up a battery charge before the day is half over. There have been long-running debates over whether closing a background app helps preserve battery charge. Federighi's succinct response echoes a similar piece of advice on an Apple support page that explains how to close an app. The page says that closing an app isn't necessary unless it's frozen: Another support document clarifies the process in greater detail: Mobile phone users constantly search for tips and tricks to preserve battery life on their phones. iPhone owners can extend the charge to some degree by tweaking certain settings and apps. But unless you turn on Background App Refresh, an option introduced in iOS 7, Apple says you're just wasting your time shutting down background apps in hopes of extending your battery charge.