How to Enable iPhone Push Notifications

How to Enable iPhone Push Notifications

Anonymous

12:09

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Forget needing to check your apps manually to figure out whether something has happened in them that you need to pay attention to. These days, apps are smart enough to send you notifications that there's something you need to check out. These alerts, called push notifications, can show up as badges on app icons, sounds, or messages that pop up on your iOS device's home or lock screens. This article explains how to configure and use them.

Push Notification Requirements

In order to use push notifications, you'll need:

• An iPhone or iPod touch (technically it needs to be running iOS 3.0 or higher, but that's pretty much everyone in the world these days)
• Apps that support push notifications
• A web connection (3G/4G or Wi-Fi)

While push works on many versions of the iOS, this tutorial assumes you're running iOS 8.

How to Enable and Configure Push Notifications

You don't need to enable push notifications—they're enabled by default as part of the iOS. All you need to do is choose which apps you want to get notifications from and what type of alerts they send. Here's how to do that:

1. Tap the Settings app to open it
2. Tap Notifications
3. On this screen, you'll see all the apps installed on your phone that support push. Each app's settings have to be managed separately, so scroll down to one you want to work with and tap it
4. On this screen, your first option is whether you want to Allow Notifications from this app. If you do, move the slider to On/green, if not move it to Off/white
5. The next option is to determine if notifications from the app will Show in Notification Center (more on what that is in a moment). Tap that menu and on the next screen tap your choice (none, 1, 5, or 10). Tap Phone in the top left corner to return to the previous screen
6. In the Notification Sound menu, you can select the ringtone or alert tone that plays whenever you get a notification from this app. This is optional; you don't have to hear a sound at all. Tap the menu and make your selection. Some apps—such as Phone, Mail, Messages, and Calendar—allow you to configure different sounds for different email accounts, calendar event types, etc.
7. The Badge App Icon determine whether a red number appears on the app icon when it has notifications for you. This can be helpful to see what needs attention, but not everyone may like it. Move the slider to On/green to use it, Off/white to disable it
8. The Show in Lock Screen option lets you control whether notifications will show on your phone's screen even when it's locked. You may want this for things that need immediate attention, such as voicemail messages and calendar events, but may prefer to disable it for more personal or sensitive information
   
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9. In the Alert Style When Unlocked box, you'll control what the notification alerts look like when your phone is not locked. Tap the one you prefer:
   1. None—pretty self-explanatory. You won't see any notifications
   2. Banners—short messages at the top of your screen that disappear after a few seconds
   3. Alerts—pop up windows in the center of the screen that you need to interact with to dismiss.

With those choices made, you've configured push notifications for that app. You'll need to repeat the process for any other app whose notifications you want to customize.

Controlling AMBER and Emergency Alerts

At the bottom of the Notifications screen, there are two other sliders that allow you to control your alert preferences:

• AMBER Alerts—These are alerts issued by law enforcement during child abductions and related emergencies
• Emergency Alerts—Alerts related to severe weather or other major safety-related events.

You can choose to leave them both on, off, or have a mix by moving the sliders to the settings you prefer.

What is Notification Center?

Notification alerts don't just appear on your home and lock screens. Depending on the settings you choose, they can also appear in their own dedicated area of the iPhone: Notification Center.
Learn all about Notification Center.

Notification Center Widgets

In iOS 8 and above, Notification Center supports the embedding of mini-apps to provide immediate, basic functionality directly from the pull-down.

How to Install and Try Linux the Absolutely Easiest and Safest Way

How to Install and Try Linux the Absolutely Easiest and Safest Way

Anonymous

13:15

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In this follow up to Replace the Retiring Windows XP with Linux we're going learn the easiest and most foolproof way to install and run Xubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS on your old Windows XP computer. The only requirements are that your old computer has USB ports, and that it supports booting from a USB stick. If your computer is too old for USB, then it's pretty darned old and you really need to think about getting a newer one.
There are but four steps: one, go to OSDisc.com and order Xubuntu Linux on a 32-gigabyte USB stick. Then insert the USB stick into your computer, boot up, and start playing with Linux. It is self-contained and doesn't change anything on your computer. You can create and save files on the USB stick, install and remove Linux software, and it's completely portable so you can plug it in and use it anywhere. If you ever get bored with Xubuntu you can delete it and use your USB stick for something else.

Booting to a USB Stick

Ideally your computer is already configured to boot from removable media like USB sticks, CD/DVDs, and even floppy disks if it's old enough. Boot devices are listed in order in your computer's BIOS (basic input/output system), for example CD/DVD, USB, and then hard drive. Your computer BIOS is a little program installed in a microchip on your motherboard, and it performs the initial startup before handing off to your operating system. The BIOS goes down this list of boot devices until it finds one that is present, and then uses that.

Figure 1: Press Del to enter the BIOS.

Watch the boot messages that appear when you first start up your PC and they will tell you how to enter your BIOS, like in figure 1. Then you can see how startup devices are configured. There is no standard way to do this, so you'll need to press the F1, F2, F11, or Del key to get into your BIOS settings, or possibly even something else; but don't worry, the startup messages will tell you. Then explore your BIOS settings until you see where to configure the boot device priority (figure 2).

Figure 2: Setting the boot device order in the BIOS.

Don't worry if your screens don't look exactly like my examples, because they're all a little different. Save your changes, if any, and exit, and when your system re-starts it should boot to your Xubuntu stick. The first screen has two choices: Try Xubuntu and Install Xubuntu.

Figure 3: Try Xubuntu.

Click "Try Xubuntu" to run it from the USB stick. When it's finished booting you'll see something like figure four.

Figure 4: Your new Xubuntu desktop.

Xubuntu recognizes any other installed operating systems, like Windows and system recovery partitions, and there will be icons for them on your Xubuntu desktop. If you have a recovery partition leave it alone. You can click on the Windows partitions to see your files.
Click the little mouse at the top left to see your application menu (figure 5).

Figure 5: The application menu.

Hover your cursor at the bottom to see your Xubuntu dock (figure 6). This auto-hides itself when you move the cursor away. If you want it to always be visible, right-click anywhere on the dock, then left-click Panel > Panel Preferences and uncheck "automatically show and hide the panel."

Figure 6: Make the dock always visible.

Now that you're up and running, you're ready to look at some documentation and learn how to run your nice Linux system. Linux uses right-click menus a lot, so remember this while you're exploring Xubuntu. Visit Xubuntu.org/help for how to's and other help resources.
Take your time and be patient. There is no such thing as a dead-easy, no-knowledge-required personal computer. It doesn't matter what computer you use, whether it's Microsoft, Apple, Android, Chromebook, Linux, or anything else. They all require knowledge and study. You should know basic computer terminology and components, and basic networking concepts. We still need keyboards, and there are lots of free typing tutors if you need a tune-up. There are zillions of great YouTube videos and online how to articles, and all kinds of books, and maybe some classes in your community. Linux and the free/open source software world offer a vast wealth of high-quality software for free. We've had affordable, sophisticated personal computers for over 30 years, and there is a world of knowledge literally at our fingertips. It's not hard once you move past "I can't do this."

About Xubuntu

I chose Xubuntu because it is part of the excellent and popular Ubuntu family of Linux distributions. The 12.04 LTS (long-term support) release, codename Precise Pangolin, receives updates and security fixes until April 2017. The interim releases are supported only for 9-18 months. It's nice and lightweight for older computers, and it has a good straightforward user interface. The Ubuntu installer is the easiest and most streamlined of any distro, and Ubuntu updates and upgrades are reliable. Ubuntu is popular and has the backing of its parent company Canonical, so it's not likely to disappear anytime soon. Xubuntu doesn't look much like Windows XP, but it has the same basic layout: an applications menu, and a panel that shows notifications and open apps. You can find everything with just a little bit of poking around and clicking stuff.
I know, my fellow Linux fans, I know, what about Linux Mint? Mint is a wonderful distro. And so is Mageia, and Fedora, and PCLinuxOS, and openSUSE, and Bohdi, and so many more. Linux is a feast of riches. OSDisc.com offers many Linux distros on USB sticks, so feel free to go nuts and use whatever one you want.