How your iPhone can save your life

We all know what your iPhone can do for your social life- let you keep in contact with all your friends, help you meet new ones, keep up with all the new trends, etc. But it is important to know that your iPhone can also literally save your life. Whatever kind of emergency you may find yourself in, there are ways your iPhone can help you – apart from dialling 911- that you need to be aware of.

How many of you know CPR? How many of you know it but fear that you ( or the person doing it to you) might freeze up when it came down to it? Firstly, if you don’t know CPR, download the new CPR guide. It’s free, has a step by step how-to guide and has the ability to dial worldwide emergency numbers from every screen.
If it’s the freeze that has you worried, tell everyone you know that is actually trained in CPR and you know won’t freeze to download The Fire Department App. Once they’ve signed up, this app intercepts data from 911 calls and using the iPhone’s GPS, will alert them and anyone in the area trained in CPR– so help can get there faster. It also alerts that person to where the nearest defibrillator is. Invaluable.

A fantastic app that you should know about is PanicGuard. This app has the ability to bring great comfort for those who worry about the safety of their daughters/sons/brothers/sisters/friends, etc. All you need to do is set up an account on their website and install the app on your iPhone. If you find yourself going into a worrying or potentially dangerous situation, turn the app on, and PanicGuard will track your movements until you switch it off.
If the potential danger turns into actual danger, just shake your iPhone vigorously and it will begin to emit a very loud alarm and trigger your iPhone’s flash in an attempt to scare off anyone who might be trying to do you harm.
Once the alarm has been activated your iPhone will send a text to your chosen emergency contacts, letting them know that you are in danger and your exact location. The beauty of this app is that once the alarm stops, the phone returns to the home screen to fool anyone else into thinking that the alarm is over. It actually starts recording a short video in case anyone around you needs to be identified at a later time, and uploads the video in case the iPhone is broken or smashed.

A less intense, but still important app is Circle of 6, created specifically for college students. This app lets you pick six friends, representing them with icons on your screen which you press in a situation where you might need help. It also sends your exact location to whichever friend you choose. Although this app can also be used for scary situations, they are very useful for situations less serious, and in need of a little subtlety, such as needing to be interrupted on a bad date, needing advice, and needing to be picked up because you had a few too many drinks. All of which are important.

Hopefully you won’t ever need your iPhone to save anything except your social life, but just in case, it is very comforting to know that this technology can be in our hands, on hand, to help us if need be.

How to Create a Backup of your iPhone

Although it is fairly easy to do, there are still a lot of people that would not entirely know how to create a backup of their iPhone.  Here is a quick guide in case you find yourself unsure of how to create a backup.

•  Plug your iPhone or iPod into your computer
• Load iTunes
• Find your iPhone or iPod on the left side under the Devices section of iTunes
• Right Click on your Device
• Click Backup

How to Put a Passcode on your iPhone

Are people always messing with your iPhone? Or do you just want to make sure your data is safe in case you iPhone gets lost or stolen?  Either way, there are several different situation that making having a passcode on your iPhone a good idea.

With the iPhone, you are able to create a 4 digit passcode to prevent people from getting into your phone’s data.  To do this is simple, and there are also several options you may not have known about including:

• The ability to have a complex multicharacter passcode

• The ability to erase all data after 10 failed passcode attempts

• The ability to require a passcode only after leaving the phone idle for a certain number of minutes.

Here is how you do it:

1)      In your iPhone, go to the “Settings” application

2)      Select “Passcode Lock”, it should be near the bottom of the screen.

3)      Select “Turn Passcode On”, it should be near the top of the screen.

4)      Enter in a 4 digit passcode, and then reenter it once more to confirm.

5)      Now you have a passcode on your iPhone!

In addition, you can add several options:

If you would like a complex password, combining both numbers and letters:

1)      Slide the “Simple Passcode” slider to say off.

2)      Enter in your old passcode

3)      Now you can enter any string of characters as your password.

If you would like your iPhone to only require a passcode after leaving it idle for a certain number of minutes:

1)      Select “Require Passcode: Immediately”

2)      Change to your preference of when you would like the passcode to be required, ranging from 1 minute to 4 hours.

And finally, if you would like your iPhone to erase all of its data in the case of 10 failed passcode attempts:

1)      Slide the “Erase Data” slider to say on.

2)      Confirm on the next page by clicking “Enable”

Be careful as in the case you were to forget your passcode and try 10 times, all of the data on your iPhone will be erased!  However, this can be particularly handy in case you were to get your iPhone lost or stolen and it had sensitive data on it.

And that’s how you put a passcode on your iPhone!