iPhone

Andrew is thinking of switching from the iPhone to the Google Pixel 3. How's the camera? Leo says that he's seen images of the Pixel 3 and the camera is blowing him away. Google has really refined computational photography to the point where the images look very much like those shot with a DSLR. It feels great in the hand, too. People don't like the notch though. But Leo says you get used to it pretty quickly. But Andrew is concerned because he has Apple TV and he knows the AirPlay won't work. Leo says it won't since Goole doesn't support airplay.

Henry wants to know what's a good iPhone app to identify the key of a song being played. Leo says that is a great idea. Google has song recognition capability. There's an app called Shazam, but that can't identify the key of a song. The chatroom says the app is called Keyfinder. It's manual though, not automated.

KeyDetect is another app.

Bernie's current mobile phone is the iPhone SE 128GB, and it has 89% battery life. Leo says that's pretty good and he probably can get another few years with it. Should he buy more than one and keep them in the drawer until the current one dies? Leo says not really. Apple will replace the battery for $99 if he really wants it. The iPhone SE has been discontinued, but the iPhone XR is similar but upgraded, and currently, the iPhone 7 is taking the SE's place.

Anthony is a professional photographer and he's trying to transfer his images and videos from his old iPhone to the new iPhone through his computer. But it's taking forever. Rich says what's likely happening is that it's converting files from the HEIC codec as it transfers. Anthony should go into his settings for image capture and check "keep originals." That should speed things up, especially with video.

Brian has an iPhone 7 and when he's listening to music by bluetooth, and he gets a text, the volume turns way down and stays there. What can he do to stop that? Rich says to do a restart or refresh. There could be an odd interaction between apps. Another thing to try is go into settings, general, reset. Then select Reset Network settings. That will reset your bluetooth. But you'll have to re-pair them.

Maryanne's iPhone 6 won't recharge and now it's dead. What can she do? Rich says that her iPhone battery could be depleted or faulty. The battery in the iPhone has a limited number of charges, and once it surpasses that, the battery will die. And being an iPhone 6, it could be that the battery needs replacing. But before doing that, she should try using a gentle burst of canned air into the lightning port. If it starts to charge, then she'll know there was just a little dirt or fluff blocking the connection. If it doesn't work, then it's time for a trip to the Apple Store.

Scott got an Anker backup battery and sometimes he gets a warning that the accessory may not be supported, and it stops charging the phone. It even does it with the Apple charging block. Rich says that Apple has a program called Apple MFI (made for iPhone). If his accessory is MFI, then the culprit could be a failing cable. It could also be that his phone's connector could have some lint in it preventing his cable from connecting completely. Rich suggests taking a toothpick and sweeping it out. A gentle burst of canned air is a good idea too, but he should be sure to be gentle.

Dale has an Apple and Outlook contact list. He'd like to merge them. How can he? Rich says that the iPhone doesn't do a good job where the contacts are located. But the Mac contact app does. So Rich says to sync all the contacts to his Mac. Add them in his contacts app, and then sync it. Then, Rich recommends using Google contacts as his main contact manager. He can add his Google account in there by clicking the plus sign.

Bob wants to know if it's safe to upgrade to iOS 11. Leo says it is, and not only that, but iOS 12 will be released next week along with macOS Mojave. Leo adds that iOS 11 was a really bad update, and even though there's been several fixes and updates to improve it, there's still a lot of shortcomings with it.