Some iPhone 5 users are experiencing a variety of issues with wifi on the device, almost always revolving around inconsistently slow wireless connections. If you’re having this problem, you’re not alone, and the good news is you can almost certainly get an immediate improvement by setting manual DNS on the device.

Fixing Slow iPhone 5 Wi-Fi With Manual DNS Settings

For the impatient, you can immediately try Google’s DNS services (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4), but for the best results you’ll want to follow the full process to find the fastest DNS servers:

• Download NameBench on your Mac or PC and run it to discover the fastest DNS servers for your location, the test will take a few minutes
• Take the best result and grab your iPhone 5
• Open Settings, tap on “Wi-Fi”, and tap the blue arrow alongside the connected Wi-Fi network
• Tap next to “DNS” to manually adjust the DNS entry (Didn’t run NameBench? Try 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4)

Leave Settings and try running Speed Test again, browse the web, or doing anything online with the iPhone 5 using the same wi-fi connection. Everything should be leaps and bounds faster.

Interestingly enough, we’ve been here before, and using custom DNS entries directly on the iPhone has fixed slow wi-fi issues in the past. With the same solution working again, it suggests it’s a compatibility issue with how the iPhone is interacting with certain routers. This would explain why not everyone experiences the problem, and why the same iPhone has issues on some networks but not others.

For iPhone 5 owners that have not experienced the wi-fi issue, basically it’s a lot slower with intermittent connectivity.

Give it a try, let us know how it works for you.

One of the many subtle changes to iOS Mail app in modern versions is how marking emails works in the Mail app. The latest versions of Mail for iPhone and iPad now tuck the Mark as Unread option into a flag menu, which resides in the toolbar of an active email message.

This replaced what used to be a very obvious “Mark as Unread” option sitting atop each open email in prior releases of the iOS Mail app. The new feature is really quite nice once you get the hang of it, so here is how to mark emails as unread with the flag menu in iOS Mail:

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Time Machine backups can be encrypted right from your Mac. This means the backed up data is extremely safe from prying eyes and the very unlikely event of a cracking attempt, and it also means you’ll need a password to access the encrypted backups yourself.

Enabling encrypted backups in Time Machine for Mac OS X can be done in two ways, either during setup of Time Machine, or turned on at a later date if you decide you want to encrypt other backups. We’ll cover both.
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Have you ever wished you had x-ray vision so you could peer right through the enclosure of your iPhone 5 to see the fancy hardware insides? Now you can pretend you’re Superman with the help of a snazzy transparent wallpaper pack from iFixIt, which shows you precisely what the internals of an iPhone 5 look like as if the icons and UI were just hovering over raw hardware.

You’ll notice over half of the inside of the iPhone is devoted to the battery, and the rest is chips, circuit boards, a heat shield over the processor, ribbon cables, and all the other good stuff you find if you crack open any iOS device.

• Grab the internal iPhone 5 hardware shots from iFixIt

If you don’t have an iPhone 5 yet, iFixIt has done this in the past with wallpapers for iMacs, iPads, and other iPhones too, each of which should strike your geek fancy.

Siri now lets you launch applications by just speaking a simple command to the iPhone, iPod, or iPad. This is a great feature for a variety of obvious reasons, and using it is simple:

• Hold down the Home button to summon Siri, then say “Open [App Name]” or “Launch [App Name]”

Sometimes you can just say the app name as well, but that doesn’t always work. Nonetheless, with the “Launch” or “Open” prefix, apps will immediately launch and become the forefront app. You can even launch apps from the lock screen with Siri, though if you use a passcode you’ll have to enter it before the apps open.

The only real requirement here is that your device has iOS 6 installed and it’s compatible with Siri support, which means iPad 3, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPod touch 5th gen, and obviously devices launched thereafter.

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Guided Access, or what we to call “Kid Mode”, is a fantastic addition to iOS that lets you lock an iPhone or iPad into a single app. Well, great when it works as it’s intended, but it appears there’s a pretty frustrating bug that makes the feature work a little too well once it’s enabled in iOS 6 with some apps: triple-clicking the Home button doesn’t summon anything and you’re stuck in an app! This leaves you unable to leave Guided Access mode, but here’s a workaround to get out of it until the bug is resolved:

• Hold the Home and Power button together for 15 seconds until a reboot is forced on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch
• With the device rebooted, go back to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access > and turn OFF as necessary

Because just about everything is disabled when the feature is on, even Force Quit won’t work. Yes that means you’ll have to reboot to escape from Guided Access in certain apps for the time being.

The stuck app bug doesn’t appear to impact any native Apple apps, but it does affect many popular third party apps. Expect a resolution soon that doesn’t involve rebooting with iOS 6.0.1 or a similar incremental update.

Facebook can now be integrated directly into Mac OS X, letting you easily post stuff to Facebook from just about anywhere on the Mac.

To setup Facebook integration in OS X, all you need is OS X 10.8.2 or later (full support is in Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, etc) and a minute or so to get it configured. Once Facebook is setup in OS X, you’ll be able to post status updates from Notification Center, post directly to Facebook from Share Sheets, find your Facebook friends in Contacts, and even see a list of all Facebook notifications right in Notification Center. Sound good? OK great, here is how to set that up.

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The iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone make excellent toys and learning tools for kids, but if you’ve seen a youngin’ with an iOS device you know it’s only a matter of time before the inquisitive mind of a child escapes the current application and ends up elsewhere. That inevitable sequence can be stopped in its tracks thanks to Guided Access, a great new feature brought to iOS in 6.0 that basically functions as “Kid Mode”, whereby any iOS device can be locked into an application with the hardware buttons disabled. This is one of those must-have features for teachers and parents, and using it is easy.

Enabling “Kid Mode” in iOS with Guided Access

As mentioned already, you will need iOS 6 or later to have this feature.

• Open “Settings” and tap on “General”
• Navigate to “Accessibility” and under the Learning section tap on “Guided Access”
• Flip the switch to ON, then tap “Set Passcode” to set a password you’ll use to escape out of Guided Access mode
• Choose whether or not to Enable Screen Sleep, turning it ON will help sustain battery life when the iPad, iPod, or iPhone is left inactive

Now that Guided Access is configured, you can use it to lock the iOS device into any app you want.

Using Guided Access to Lock Into an App

• Launch any app as usual, then triple-click the Home button to summon the Accessibility menu
• Tap “Guided Access” from the menu
• Set the Guided Access rules and swipe areas on the thumbnailed screen to disable certain areas of the screen, choose whether touch input is on or off, and whether motion works
• Tap “Next” to enter Guided Access mode

The iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch is now effectively locked into the current application, and pressing the Home button will no longer leave the app. Sooner or later you’ll surely want to escape out of this mode though, but only those with the passcode set earlier can do so.

Escaping Guided Access in iOS

• Triple-click the Home button and enter the passcode chosen during setup of Guided Access to unlock the device

You’ll now be back to the usual behavior of iOS.

If you’d like to turn off Guided Access completely, just go back to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access > and flip the setting to OFF. You’ll need to enter the passcode again to do so.

Though the Mac doesn’t have the same features to lock into an app by default, there are some simple tips to make Macs more kid-friendly too.

One of the many subtle additions in the iOS 6 update is the new ability to go into Full Screen Mode with Safari on iPhone and iPod touch. With just a tap you can boost the viewable size of web pages while you’re in landscape (horizontal) orientation, making the most of web browsing on the smaller screens:

• Open any website in Safari on iPhone or iPod touch, and tilt the device into landscape orientation
• Tap the little opposite arrow icons in the lower right corner to enter into full screen view

The area visible on web pages is increased dramatically, making reading and browsing on the smaller screened iPhone and iPod much more pleasant. To escape out of full screen mode in Safari, either re-orientate the device vertical (portrait) or just tap the arrow buttons again in the corner to go back to the normal Safari view.

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“Save As” is back in OS X Mountain Lion and Mavericks, but many users have complained of how it modifies the original file in addition to the newly saved file, thereby defeating the purpose of how many people use Save As. If this bothers you, you’ll be pleased to discover that from OS X 10.8.2 onward, there is now an easy option to toggle that prevents Save As from altering the original file when it’s called.

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OS X Mountain Lion may have removed the native ability to subscribe to RSS feeds from Safari in addition to the feed reader in Mail, but that doesn’t mean your RSS feed reading habits are toast on the Mac. Quite on the contrary, there’s a fantastic free RSS reader available to OS X users called NetNewsWire, and not only is it the best free feed reader for the platform, it may be the best RSS reader for Mac in general.

• Download NetNewsWire free here

To subscribe to a new feed, just click the big (+) Subscribe button in the top left corner and place in a web address – you don’t even need to directly link to RSS feeds, give it a short name, and click Subscribe again. Naturally, adding https://osxdaily.com should be your first subscription…

NetNewsWire is surprisingly full featured, customizable, and it will even sync with subscriptions stored in your Google Reader account. With OS X Lion onward, you’ll get full screen support as well. There’s even a handy “Send to Instapaper” functionality so you can save feed items to read later on an iPad or iPhone, though it would be nice if adding stories to Pocket was also an option. All in all it’s a fantastic free app and well worth downloading.

We’ve received a fair amount of questions about RSS readers since the release of OS X Mountain Lion, and hopefully NetNewsWire will help to alleviate some of those questions. The app works with OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 onward. Finally, don’t forget that Safari users can also get a third party extension that adds back the RSS subscription button, making it easy to subscribe to websites feeds right from the browser again.

If you have run out of iCloud storage for backups of either your Mac or iOS stuff, you can now easily manage existing backups and data for all devices right on your Mac from OS X.

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Apple has released a new software update for Apple TV that brings a few of the more popular iOS 6 features to the device. Despite sharing some features with iOS 6, the version is labeled as 5.1 with a build of 10A406e.

The update includes Photo Stream sharing, new screen savers, the ability to switch iTunes accounts, enhanced AirPlay options, Trailers, further subtitle support, and provides for the ability to re-arrange homescreen icons by holding down the Select button on the remote control. The update is available for both Apple TV 2nd and 3rd generation models and is said to also improve the performance and stability of Apple TV.

Updating Apple TV to the latest version is done easiest by navigating to the Settings menu, choosing “General”, then choose software update.

Download Apple TV 5.1 IPSW

These are direct download links for firmware files hosted by Apple:

• Apple TV (2nd gen 2,1)
• Apple TV (3rd gen, 3,1)

Most users are better off downloading the update through Apple TV itself, but using iOS firmware files is the same on Apple TV as it is for other iOS devices and requires a USB connection.

If having Google Maps on your iOS 6 equipped iPhone is an absolute must right now, you’ll be pleased to discover that Google Maps has a surprisingly good web app that works extremely well from mobile Safari. Thanks to the speed of the A6 process in the iPhone 5, the web app so quick it actually feels pretty much like a native app too. Here’s how to get access to Google Maps on your iOS 6 device right now:

• Open Safari and go to maps.google.com
• Tap the [>] arrow button to bring up the task menu, and choose “Add to Home Screen”

Now that you have added the Google Maps web app to your home screen, you can launch it like any other app, though it will load in the Safari web browser. That hardly matters though, because it’s full featured and has complete access to everything Google Maps does with all its detail, accuracy, and directions for cars, walking, public transit, and bikes.

This web-based solution is obviously temporary as Google is widely expected to release an independent iOS Maps app for iPhone and iPad, but there’s still no estimate on when it will arrive. In the meantime, bookmark Google Maps to your home screen, check out Bing Maps as a replacement, and last but certainly not least, give Apple Maps a chance. After using Apple Maps quite a bit I have found it to be quite good, though it’s obviously still a work in progress for some regions. Instead of buying into the negative press (though some of the surrounding humor is quite funny), try it out yourself for a while and you’ll probably agree.

Thanks for the tip idea Ilan

Mail generally automatically checks itself when launched in iOS, or mail checks itself every some-odd amount of minutes based on your Push and Fetch settings. But any modern version of iOS Mail app will not find a standard mail refresh button, but that doesn’t mean you can’t forcibly check mail yourself when you want to on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

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iPhone 5 owners who opted for the Verizon model have discovered the device ships with an unlocked nano-SIM card slot, even if the device was bought under contract at a subsidized rate and did not pay the full unlocked price. This is excellent news for travelers or for anyone who wants to immediately get access to an unlocked iPhone 5 without waiting for them to be officially available.

Several confirmations have been made across the web starting with iDownloadBlog, who confirmed that a Verizon iPhone 5 works immediately with an AT&T nano-SIM on their 3G HPSA+ “4G” network. According to TheVerge, T-Mobile nano-sim cards are also said to work with iPhone 5 immediately, and AP also confirmed the unlocked status.

Currently, iPhone 5 bought through AT&T are locked to their network under the terms of the two-year contract agreement, though anyone is welcome to try unlocking it through them anyway. Compelling cases may be honored, but typically AT&T does not unlock the iPhone sim card slot until the contract agreement is up.

It’s unclear if the Sprint iPhone 5 also includes an unlocked nano-SIM slot. If you haven’t purchased an iPhone 5 yet and want immediate access to overseas GSM networks, the Verizon iPhone may be the way to go.

Alex L. manages a startup in Brazil that builds web apps with Ruby on Rails, and, no surprise, he uses a bunch of great Apple gear to get the job done. Being a startup also means juggling a lot of hats, so beyond development the workstation gets used for design and film production. Hardware shown includes:

• MacBook Pro Retina 15″ – 2.6GHz Core i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, OS X 10.8.1
• Apple Cinema Display 27″
• iPhone 4S – 16GB, iOS 6
• iPad 3rd gen – 32GB, iOS 6
• Logitech K750 Wireless Solar Keyboard
• Apple Magic Trackpad
• Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch tablet
• iPod Nano 16GB in a watch band
• IoGear USB 2.0 Hub
• Just Mobile MTable monitor stand

Maybe it’s confirmation bias because we’re an Apple-centric site and almost everyone we know uses Macs, but it seems just about every startup these days uses Macs and Apple gear. Who can blame them?

Have an interesting Mac setup you want featured here? Send us a good picture or two, a list of hardware, and a brief description of what the workstation is used for to osxdailycom@gmail.com

Apple has started to air a group of four commercials for the iPhone 5, each ad is voiced by Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber, Newsroom) and focuses on different aspects of the phone. The videos are described briefly and embedded to watch below.

The first commercial, titled “Thumb”, focuses on the new 4″ display and how it is sized according to the reach of thumbs:

The next commercial is titled “Cheese” and is centered around the new Panorama camera mode new to iOS 6 and iPhone 5:

Another commercial is dubbed “Physics”, and emphasizes how the new iPhone offers more features and a larger display while weighing less and being bundled in a thinner package:

The final commercial airing is called “Ears”, with a focus on the new and improved EarPods headphones that have replaced the popular earbud headphones and ship with iPhone 5:

The ads are all pretty good, and are thus far being received far better than the controversial and unpopular Mac Genius ads from earlier in the summer. Typically you can catch new Apple commercials on TV during primetime, keep a lookout for them.