❤ iPadOS 14: How to use the new widgets on iPad

A big change that arrived with iOS 14 is an all-new home screen experience. This marks arguably the biggest UI update for iOS since it was first introduced. However, iPad isn’t getting all the same new features and changes as iPhone, but there are new widgets to take advantage of. Follow along for how to use the new iPad widgets in iPadOS 14.

iOS 14 on iPhone includes the ability to use the new widgets anywhere on the home screen as well as other app pages. There’s also the new App Library feature.

iPad sees a different experience in iPadOS 14 with the new widgets arriving for use only in the Today View portion of the home screen (can’t be mixed in with apps) and the new App Library feature is absent. In any case, the new widgets still offer some useful new functionality.

Note: iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 are available as free public betas as well as developer betas for iPhone and iPad.

How to use new iPad widgets in iOS 14

If it’s not turned on permanently, swipe from left to right on your iPad home screen to see the Today View
Long press on a black space of your home screen to enter Edit mode (jiggle mode)
You can tap the Keep on Home Screen toggle at the top to keep widgets available all the time
Tap, hold, and drag the existing widgets around to organize them
You can stack widgets of the same size on top of each other for swipeable widgets
Swipe to the bottom of the widgets and tap Customize to add new ones
Tap the green “+” icon to add available widgets, tap Done when finished
When not in Edit mode, you can long press a widget from your home screen to get the edit or remove option (e.g. removing stacked widgets, modify smart suggestions, etc.)

Here’s how all this looks:

Now you’ll be able to edit your widgets.

Tap the “—” icon to remove widgets or tap-hold-drag them to reorganize the layout. Swipe to the bottom to add more widgets, tap Customize.

You can add new widgets by tapping the green “+” icons and then order them by dragging the three-line icons as shown below.

Don’t forget you can stack widgets of the same size on top of each other to maximize your use of space.

And from the home screen you can long press on a widget to get edit and customization options:

What do you think of the new widgets in iPadOS 14? Are you hoping to see the same implementation as iOS 14 in the future? Share your thoughts in the comments below! – https://is.gd/56dRdX

❤ iOS 12.4.6 Update Available for Older iPhone and iPad Models

iOS 12.4.6

Apple has released iOS 12.4.6 for older model iPhone and iPad devices that are not able to run iOS 13.4 and iPadOS 13.4.

The iOS 12.4.6 is said to include important security updates and thus is recommended for eligible users to download and install onto their devices. No new features are expected to be included with iOS 12.4.6.

Devices eligible for the iOS 12.4.6 update include iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5s, iPod touch 6th generation, iPad Air 1, iPad Mini 2, and iPad Mini 3. Newer iPhone and iPad models are able to download iOS 13.4 and iPadOS 13.4 instead.

How to Update to iOS 12.4.6

Before anything else, backup the iPhone or iPad to iCloud, iTunes, or to MacOS before beginning any system software update. Failure to backup could lead to data loss.

The easiest way for most users to download iOS 12.4.6 is through the Software Update mechanism in Settings app on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch :

Open the “Settings” app
Go to “General” and then choose “Software Update”
Choose to “Download and Install” iOS 12.4.6

iOS 12.4.6 will download and install automatically, requiring a device reboot to complete. When the installation has finished, the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will automatically boot itself back up and be usable again as normal.

Release notes accompanying the iOS 12.4.6 update download are very brief stating that it “provides important security updates” and is therefore recommended for all users who are eligible for the update.

More advanced users can also choose to update iPhone or iPad manually by using IPSW as detailed here.

iOS 12.4.6 IPSW Download Links

Separately, Apple has also released macOS Catalina 10.15.4 for Mac, along with Security Update 2020-002 for macOS Mojave and High Sierra, iPadOS 13.4 for newer iPad, iOS 13.4 for newer iPhone, along with updates for tvOS and watchOS. – https://is.gd/lh27wY

❤ How to Delete iPhone and iPad Backups from MacOS Catalina with Finder

Need to clear up some disk space or get rid of some old iPhone or iPad backups on a Mac? With the latest versions of MacOS, managing iOS and iPadOS device backups is done entirely in Finder, including deleting and removing device backups.

Arguably the safest and most thorough way of backing up an iPhone or iPad is to do an encrypted backup via Mac Finder. When the backup is complete you’ll have a copy of all of your data on your computer, complete with encrypted keychain contents. But it all takes up space that you might want to reclaim. As you can imagine, doing a full backup of your iPhone or iPad can take a lot of space. That’s fine if you’re lucky enough to be using a Mac with a multi-terabyte SSD. But most of us aren’t, so we need a way to trip the amount of data used by backups. We need to delete old ones. And in macOS Catalina, that’s a whole new process compared to deleting backups with iTunes. As you’ll see, removing backups this way is similar, but since iTunes is no more in modern macOS versions, it’s obviously a bit different and using a different process.

Here’s how to go about deleting old iPhone or iPad backups in macOS Catalina.

How to Delete iOS & iPadOS Device Backups from MacOS Finder in Catalina

This assumes you have made a backup of iPhone or iPad to macOS before, if not there will not be any backup to remove.

Plug your iPhone or iPad into your Mac using a USB cable.
Open a Finder window by clicking its icon in the Dock and click your iPhone or iPad in the sidebar.
Make sure that the “General” tab is selected and then click “Manage Backups.” You’ll find it at the very bottom of the window.

Click to select the backup that you want to delete and then click “Delete Backup.”

You’ll need to confirm that you want to delete the selected backup before the action is carried out.

The selected backups will be deleted.

Depending on the size of the device backups you removed, you can possibly get a ton more space on your Mac drive, whether it’s a hard disk or SSD, just by removing backups this way. This is particularly nice to do with old device backups that are no longer needed.

Of course you don’t want to delete the only copy of a device backup you have, so be sure you have a backup of the iPhone or iPad somewhere before deleting one from the Mac.

As a bonus, you’ll still have these backups safe and sound if you’re using Time Machine, assuming you use that feature to backup the entire Mac anyway. You can then go about restoring the backup if you still need it, depending on how much time has passed and how long Time Machine keeps files around. Another handy trick for redundant backups is to manually copy a copy of the backed up devices to other external storage mediums, like an SD card, USB flash drive, or external hard drive, which you can then refer to if needed.

Using a Mac is just one way of backing up your iPhone or iPad. You can also use a Windows PC with iTunes if you want to. If you’d rather not have to plug them into a computer at all, you can use iCloud for backups instead as well. With iCloud, your device will back itself up overnight and you won’t need to connect to a computer to restore anything, either. And just like the Mac and iTunes approaches, you can also delete backups from iCloud too.

Finder in MacOS handles all device management now that iTunes used to, and that includes not only device backups but also syncing music to iPhone or iPad in MacOS with the Finder too, along with other device management options. Basically all that used to be device management in iTunes is now in Finder. – https://is.gd/uKwvXv