You can finally hide your wallpaper while using your iPhone 14 Pro’s AOD.

The iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max feature an Always-On Display (AOD) that allows you to check the time without waking up the entire screen. The feature is great to have (albeit years behind Android), but its execution was a bit lacking, as it wouldn’t allow you to hide your wallpaper entirely. Instead, Apple’s approach involved showing a dimmed Lock Screen wallpaper. This looks fine, but in practice, it could lead to worse battery life—plus, it’s easy to mistake the dimmed AOD screen as your iPhone actually being awake. Overall, it’s a bit of a mess.

However, the situation has changed with iOS 16.2 beta 3. You can finally decide if you want to see your wallpaper (and notifications) on your iPhone’s AOD, rather than have Apple decide for you. As iOS 16.2 is still in beta testing, you will need to enroll your iPhone in Apple’s beta program to try it out. Remember, though, that beta software is unfinished, which means it isn’t reliable: If you need to remove the software for whatever reason, you could lose your data, so we don’t recommend installing beta software on your main device.

To use this feature on an iPhone 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max running iOS 16.2, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On Display, and you will see two new options: Wallpaper and Notifications. To improve your battery life,disable the Wallpaper option.

In case you want to minimize distractions andmaximize your battery life, you should disable both of these options. By doing so, your iPhone’s AOD feature will show you the date and time and nothing else. It’s a relatively small change that makes the feature much more subtle.

iOS 16.2 is expected to ship in the coming weeks, so you can always wait if you don’t want to bother with beta software now. In the mean time, you could always try this hack to fix the shortcomings of the AOD feature on your iPhone. This alternative method involves creating a Focus mode to get the job done, and it’s surprisingly effective.

Source: lifehacker.com

Stop googling “where is the downloads folder on my iPhone.” Add it to your home screen.

After a long decade, the iPhone finally added a downloader to Safari with iOS 13 so you can download files and automatically store them on your iPhone in a Downloads folder. But where exactly is the downloads folder? How do you actually access the files that you downloaded from Safari?

Well, they’re not in Safari. They’re in this other app called Files, and you can find it by going to Files > Browse > iCloud Drive > Downloads. But instead of taking four steps, you should use the Shortcuts app to create an automation thatopens your Downloads folder (or any folder that you need, for that matter). Add that shortcut to the home screen and you’ll have your own dedicated Downloads app.

To get started, open the Shortcuts app, tap Plusfrom the top right, and tap Add Action in the shortcut editor. Here, add the “Folder” action from the Files app. Tap the empty “Folder” icon in the shortcut, navigate to the “Downloads” folder, and tap “Open.” That’ll make the Downloads folder the target for your shortcut. To open that folder easily, search for and add the “Open File” shortcut. When it’s added, it’ll automatically take the folder from the previous step as the input—but make sure to tap the “Default App” button and choose the “Files” app.

Then just tap the shortcut title at the top, give it a name like “Downloads,” and tap “Add to Home Screen.” You can add a special icon there if you want, then just tap “Add” to add it to your home screen. When you tap your new makeshift “Downloads” app, it will take you directly to the Downloads folder in your iCloud Drive (or local storage, depending on your settings).

Source:lifehacker

You need Google’s latest patch to protect your phone from would-be intruders.

Your phone’s lock screen is supposed to be a safeguard against the world (and accidental unlocks in your pocket). When it’s locked, your phone can’t be opened without either the passcode, a face scan, or a fingerprint. If you lose your phone or someone snatches it from you, you can rest assured they won’t be able to do anything with it. Except right now they can, thanks to a recently discovered vulnerability allowing anyone to bypass an Android device’s lock screen.

As reported by Bleeping Computer, cybersecurity researcher David Schütz discovered a way to unlock both a Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 5 without needing to know the passcode. It happened after his Pixel 6 ran out of charge, and after he incorrectly entered his PIN wrong three times. His SIM card was then locked, so he entered the PUK (Personal Unblocking Key) to restore it.

However, once the SIM was recovered, the Pixel asked him to scan his fingerprint. That shouldn’t happen, since Pixels (as well as most phones) require you to enter the passcode in order to unlock after a reboot. You shouldn’t have the option to use your fingerprint to unlock the phone until after one successful unlock with the passcode.

From there, Schütz realized there was a legitimate security flaw here. If an attacker inserts their own SIM into a target’s Android, then enters the wrong SIM PIN three times, they can enter their SIM’s PUK to be able to create a new SIM PIN. Once they do, they bypass the lock screen entirely and access the phone.You can watch the hypothetical attack play out in the video below:

Schütz brought this flaw to Google’s attention back in June of this year, but it took the company five months to finally push a patch. Still, it’s good there is a patch: It’s not clear how long this vulnerability was actually floating around, potentially putting millions of Androids in jeopardy.

How to fix the latest lock screen security flaw on Android

If you have a phone running Android 10, 11, 12, or 13, you need to install the November 2022 security update in order to patch this vulnerability. If you already installed the patch, you’re good to go! But otherwise, install it ASAP.

To install a security patch on Android, head to Settings > System > System Update, then allow the OS to look for a new update. If there’s one available, you can download and install it from here. You can also check for security updates from Settings > Security > Google Security checkup.

Source:lifehacker