Send Last Location

Find My iPhone works great—as long as your lost phone has power, is turned on, and is online. Often, though, it’s lying dead somewhere, or it’s been turned off, or there’s no Internet service. In those situations, you might think Find My iPhone can’t help you.

But, thanks to Send Last Location, you still have a prayer of finding your phone again. Before it dies, your phone will send Apple its location. You have 24 hours to log into iCloud.com and use the Find My iPhone feature to see where it was at the time of death. (After that, Apple deletes the location information.)

You definitely want to turn this switch on.

Activation Lock

Thousands of people have found their lost or stolen iPhones by using Find My iPhone. Yay!

But until recently, Find My iPhone had a back door the size of Montana: The thief could simply erase the phone and sell it on the black market, which was his goal all along. Suddenly, your phone was lost in the wilderness, and you had no way to track or recover it.

That’s why Apple offers the ingenious Activation Lock feature. It’s very simple: Nobody can erase your phone, or even turn off Find My iPhone, without entering your iCloud password (your Apple ID). This isn’t a switch you can turn on or off; it’s always on.

So even if the bad guy has your phone and tries to sell it, the thing is useless. It’s still registered to you, you can still track it, and it still displays your message and phone number on the Lock screen. Without your iCloud password, your iPhone is just a worthless brick. Suddenly, stealing iPhones is a much less attractive prospect. (Fun fact: In New York City reported iPhone thefts are down 90 percent since Activation Lock came along.)

The Price of Free

A free iCloud account gives you 5 gigabytes of online storage. That may not sound like much, especially when you consider how big some music, photo, and video files are. Fortunately, anything you buy from Apple—like music, apps, books, and TV shows—doesn’t count against that 5-gigabyte limit. Neither do the photos in your Photo Stream.

So what’s left? Some things that don’t take up much space, like settings and documents—and some things that take up a lot of it, like photos and videos, backups, email, TV shows, and movies. Anything you put on your iCloud Drive eats up your allotment, too.

When you open Settings → [your name] → iCloud, you get a colorful graph showing how full your iCloud storage is, and what’s filling it (???, right).

Tap Manage Storage to open a comprehensive screen that shows where all your iCloud space is going. For example, you’ll see how much of it your iCloud Photo Library occupies (tap for the option to turn it off); how much each phone/tablet’s Backups are eating up (tap a device’s name to view the size and date of the last backup—and, if you like, to delete them); a list of apps you’ve permitted to save their Documents & Data onto your Drive (tap one to see what it’s storing; swipe leftward to delete it); and how much space your iCloud Mail account is eating up.

Change Storage Plan lets you upgrade or downgrade the amount you’re paying Apple for iCloud storage. For example, if you find 5 gigs constricting, you can expand it to 50 GB, 200 GB, or 2 TB—for $1, $3, or $10 a month.

The Setup

To set up Apple Pay, you have to teach your phone about your credit card. To do that, open the Wallet app. You can also start this process in Settings → Wallet & Apple Pay.

Tap Add credit or debit card. Tap Next.

Now, on the Add Card screen, you’re asked to aim the phone’s camera at whatever Visa, Mastercard, or American Express card you use most often. Hold steady until the digits of your card, your name, and the expiration date blink onto the screen, autorecognized. Cool! The phone even suggests a card description. You can manually edit any of those four fields before tapping Done.

Check over the phone’s interpretation of the card’s information, and then hit Next.

Now you have to type in the security code. Hit Next again. Then agree to the legalese screen.

Next, your bank has to verify that all systems are go for Apple Pay. That may involve responding to an email or a text, or typing in a verification code. In any case, it’s generally instantaneous.

You can record your store loyalty and rewards cards, too—and when you’re in that store, the phone chooses the correct card automatically. When you’re in Dunkin’ Donuts, it automatically uses your Dunkin’ Donuts card to pay.

The Shopping

Once the cashier has rung up your total, here comes the magic. The exact steps depend on whether or not your phone has a home button:

• With a home button. Rest your finger on the home button—no need to wake the phone—and bring it within an inch of the terminal. The phone buzzes, beeps, and says “Done”; it’s all over. It takes about two seconds.

  NOTE

  That’s how you pay with your primary (default) credit card. If you’ve stored more than one, and you want to choose a different one today, the procedure is slightly different: Bring the phone near the terminal (without involving the home button). When your main card appears, tap it, tap a different card, and then touch the home button.

• With an iPhone X. The procedure is different: You’re supposed to confirm your identity before you bring the phone near the Apple Pay terminal.

  

  So begin by double-clicking the side button to make the Apple Pay screen appear. (At this point, you can tap the picture of your default card to choose a different one.)

  Authenticate either by looking at the phone (Face ID) or entering your passcode (boring). Now bring the phone within an inch of the terminal. The phone buzzes, beeps, and says “Done”; it’s all over.

An Apple Pay purchase is just a regular credit card purchase. So you still get your rewards points, frequent-flier miles, and so on. (Returning something works the same way: At the moment when you’d swipe your card, you bring the phone near the reader until it beeps. Slick.)

Apple points out that Apple Pay is much more secure than using a credit card, because the store never sees, receives, or stores your card number, or even your name. Instead, the phone transmits a temporary, one-time, encoded number that means nothing to the merchant. It incorporates verification codes that only the card issuer (your bank) can translate and verify.

Apple never sees what you’ve bought or where, either. You can open Wallet and tap a card’s picture to see the last few transactions, but that info exists only on your iPhone.

And what if your phone gets stolen? Too bad—for the thief. He can’t buy anything without your fingerprint or face. If you’re still worried, you can always visit iCloud.com, click Settings, tap your phone’s name, and click Remove All to de-register your cards from the phone by remote control.

Apple Pay Online

You can buy things online, too, using iPhone apps that have been upgraded to work with Apple Pay. The time savings: no typing your name, address, and phone number every time you buy something.

Instead, when you’re staring at the checkout screen for some app, just tap Buy with Apple Pay.

There’s Apple Pay on websites, too. For example, if you’re shopping on a Mac (and it doesn’t have its own fingerprint reader), you can authenticate with your phone’s fingerprint reader or Face ID. The “OK, all clear” signal gets sent to your Mac automatically.

Apple Pay Cash

You can now send cash to other members of the great, global Apple family with just a couple of taps, directly from your phone. Pay the piano teacher. Pay your share of the bill at a restaurant. Send money to your kid at college. It’s like writing a check or handing over cash—without the checks or the cash. It’s just like Venmo, Square Cash, or PayPal Cash, only…it’s Apple’s.

To use Apple Pay Cash, you need iOS 11.2 or later, with two-factor authentication turned on (“Privacy”). Then:

• Set up Apple Pay Cash. The Apple Pay Cash card is, of course, an electronic fiction—there’s no actual plastic card you slip into your physical purse or wallet. (That didn’t stop Apple from trying to make it look like a real card with anti-piracy features—try shifting your phone around, and marvel at the iridescent, color-changing “anti-piracy” design!)

  So you can’t use Cash until you’ve first set up Apple Pay, which requires a real credit or debit card. Whenever you pay somebody, your Cash card draws money from that actual card. (If you link to a debit card, using Apple Pay cash is always free—nobody takes a cut. If you link it to a credit card, you get hit with a 3 percent fee each time.)

  Once that’s done, open Settings → Wallet & Apple Pay. Tap the little Apple Pay Cash card to begin the activation process, which mostly involves reading legalese. (Along the way, you’re prompted to tap Add Debit Card; if you’ve already got a card set up, you can skip this step.)

  One more thing: If you tap Verify Identity and supply your contact info and driver’s license, you raise your maximum balance from $500 to $20,000.

  You have the option of tapping Add Money to preload money (between $10 and $3,000) onto the Cash card—but there’s no good reason to do so. The card automatically pulls money from your linked debit or credit card as needed.

  NOTE

  In Settings → Wallet & Apple Pay, a master Apple Pay Cash on/off switch awaits. It’s a quick way to shut down the whole thing if your sending-money addiction starts becoming a problem.

  

• Pay someone. Open Messages; open a chat with the lucky recipient (somebody who also has Apple Pay Cash set up). In the apps drawer (“The Apps Drawer”), tap Apple Pay.

Enter an amount from $1 to $3,000, either by tapping the + and - buttons or by tapping the large dollar amount (or Show Keypad) and typing an amount.

When the amount looks good, tap Pay, and then tap . (That Send button, usually blue, appears in black as a visual reminder that you are about to spend money.)

A confirmation screen appears, showing which real card will be funding this amount. (Tap to change to a different card, if you like.) You’re asked to confirm that you’re really you, either by fingerprint or, on the iPhone X, face recognition (and a double-click of the side button).

If, at this point, you return to the Wallet app, you’ll see a screen full of details—time and date, amount, payee, and so on.

• Request payment. You can also operate Pay Cash in reverse. That is, you can generate what amounts to an invoice for the person who owes you money.

  To do that, in a Messages thread with the ower, tap an underlined dollar amount in a text message—or open the Apple Pay app. Here’s the Request button; enter the amount and hit . Of course, there’s no guarantee you’re actually going to get that money; the Request function mainly saves the other person the effort of (a) entering the amount, and (b) remembering.

  NOTE

  For some reason, Apple gives you a choice of whether or not to receive these incoming amounts automatically. Open the Wallet app, tap the Apple Pay Cash card, then tap . Here you can select Manually Accept Payments. Which means that when someone sends you money, you don’t get it unless you tap Accept in the notification. If you wait seven days without doing that (or if you tap the Transactions tab and tap Reject Payment), then you never get the money. What’s wrong with you?

• Track the payment. If you open your Wallet and tap the Apple Pay card, you’ll see that the amount you sent is “Pending”; the other guy hasn’t yet accepted your generous gift of money. Until he does, you can cancel the payment on the Transactions tab. When he accepts, you’ll get a notification letting you know. The transaction, in the Wallet app, appears with all others you’ve made on the Transactions tab. Here you can also request a statement by email.

• Cash out. At any point, you can dump money (up to $3,000 at a time, up to $20,000 a week) from the Cash card into your bank account with just a couple of taps. On the Cash info screen, tap Transfer to Bank. (You’ll be asked to enter your bank’s tracking number the first time you try.) The funds will show up in your bank account in “one to three business days,” says Apple.

Incidentally, A.P. Cash goes beyond person-to-person payments. You can treat your new Cash card as just another credit card for use with regular Apple Pay (“Apple Pay”), and you can also send and receive person-to-person cash with an Apple Watch.

Setting Up Family Sharing

The setup process means wading through a lot of screens, but at least you’ll have to do it only once. You can start either on the Mac (in System Preferences → iCloud →Set Up Family) or on the phone. Since this book is about the iPhone, what follows are the steps to do it there.

Tap Settings → [your name] → Set Up Family Sharing. Click Get Started. Now the phone announces that you, the sage adult, are going to be the Organizer—the one with the power, the wisdom, and the credit card. Continue (unless it’s listing the wrong Apple ID, in which case fix it now).

On successive screens, you read about the idea of shared Apple Store purchases; you’re shown the credit card Apple believes you want to use; you’re offered the chance to share your location with the others. Each time, read and tap Continue.

Finally, you’re ready to introduce the software to your family.

• If the kid is under 13: Scroll wayyyyy down and tap Create an Apple ID for a Child. On the screens that follow, you’ll enter the kid’s birth date; agree to a Parent Privacy Disclosure screen; enter the security code for your credit card (to prove that you’re you, and not, for example, your naughty kid); type the kid’s name; set up an iCloud account (name, password, three security questions); decide whether or not to turn on Ask To Buy (each time your youngster tries to buy something online from Apple, you’ll be asked for permission in a notification on your phone); decide whether you want the family to be able to see where the kid is at all times; and accept a bunch of legalese.

  

  When it’s all over, the lucky kid’s name appears on the Family screen.

• If the kid already has an iCloud account and is standing right there with you in person: Tap Add Family Member. Type in her name or email address. (Your child’s name must already be in your Contacts; if not, go add her first. By the way, you’re a terrible parent.)

  She can now enter her iCloud password on your phone to complete her setup. (That doesn’t mean you’ll learn what her password is; your phone stores it but hides it from you.) On the subsequent screens, you get to confirm her email address and let her turn on location sharing. In other words: The rest of the family will be able to see where she is.

• If the kid isn’t with you at the moment: Click Send an Invitation. Your little darling gets an email at that address. He must open it on his Apple gadget (Mac or iPhone, for example).

  When he hits View Invitation, he can either enter his iCloud name and password (if he has an iCloud account), or get an Apple ID (if he doesn’t). Once he accepts the invitation, he can choose a picture to represent himself; tap Confirm to agree to be in your family; enter his iCloud password to share the stuff he’s bought from Apple; agree to Apple’s lawyers’ demands; and, finally, opt in to sharing his location with the rest of the family.

You can repeat this cycle to add additional family members, up to a maximum of six. Their names and ages appear on the Family screen.

From here, you can tap someone’s name to perform stunts like these:

• Delete a family member. Man, you guys really don’t get along, do you? Anyway, tap Remove.

• Turn Ask To Buy on or off. This option appears when you’ve tapped a child’s name on your phone. If you decide your kid is responsible enough not to need your permission for each purchase, you can turn this option off.

  NOTE

  If you turn off Ask To Buy for someone after she turns 18, you can’t turn it on again.

• Turn Parent/Guardian on or off. This option appears when you’ve tapped an adult’s name. It gives Ask To Buy approval privileges to someone else besides you—your spouse, for example.

Once kids turn 13, by the way, Apple automatically gives them more control over their lives. They can, for example, turn off Ask To Buy themselves, on their own phones. They can even express their disgust for you by leaving the Family Sharing group. (On her own phone, for example, your daughter can visit Settings → iCloud → Family, tap her name, and then tap Leave Family. Harsh!)

Life in Family Sharing

Once everything is set up, here’s how you and your kids will get along:

• Purchases. Whenever one of your kids (for whom you’ve turned on Ask To Buy) tries to buy music, videos, apps, or books from Apple—even free items—he has to ask you (facing page, left). On your phone, you’re notified about the purchase—and you can decline it or tap Review to read about it on its Store page. If it seems OK, you can tap Approve. You also have to enter your iCloud password, or supply your face or fingerprint, to prevent your kid from finding your phone and approving his own request.

  (If you don’t respond within 24 hours, the request expires. Your kid has to ask again.)

  

  Furthermore, each of you can see and download everything that everyone else has bought. To do that, open the appropriate app: App Store, iTunes Store, or iBooks. Tap Purchased and then tap the family member’s name to see what she’s got; tap the to download any of it yourself.

  TIP

  Anything you buy, your kids will see. Keep that in mind when you download a book like Sending the Unruly Child to Military School.

  However, you have two lines of defense. First, you can hide your purchases. On your computer, in iTunes (Chapter 15), click iTunes Store; click the relevant category (, , whatever). Click Purchased. Point to the thing you want to hide, click the , and click Hide. (On the phone, you can hide only one category: apps. In the App Store app, tap Updates, then Purchased, and then My Purchases. Swipe to the left across an app’s name to reveal a Hide button.)

  Second, remember that you can set up parental control on each kid’s phone, shielding their impressionable eyes from R-rated movies and stuff. See “Allow”.

• Where are you? Open the Find My Friends app to see where your posse is right now. Or go to the Find My iPhone app (or web page; see “Find My iPhone”) to see where just their phones are right now.

  NOTE

  If one of you needs secrecy for the afternoon (Apple sweetly gives, as an example, shopping for a gift for your spouse), open Settings → iCloud → Share My Location, and turn off the switch. Now you’re untrackable until you turn the switch on again.

• Photos, appointments, and reminders. In Calendar, Photos, and Reminders, each of you will find a new category, called Family, that’s auto-shared among you all. (In Photos, it’s on the Shared tab.) You’re all free to make and edit appointments in this calendar, to set up reminders in Reminders (“Flu shots after school!”), or to add photos or videos (or comments) to this album; everyone else will see the changes instantly.