iOS

How to Update Your iPhone or iPad without Wi-Fi (over Cellular)

A new exploit has been patched by Apple for iOS devices – the iOS 14.8 update fixes the vulnerability that the ‘Pegusus‘ spyware uses.

Updating your iOS device is easy if you have Wi-Fi, but if you only have cellular, you’ll see a message saying ‘This update requires a Wi-Fi network connection to download’.

If you have access to another device, you can hotspot your iOS device to that and run the update. If you don’t, there’s another trick you can do to allow downloading the update over cellular:

How to update iOS over cellular

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Go to General
  3. Go to Software Update
  4. The screen should say you need to be connected to Wi-Fi and the ‘Download and Install’ option greyed o
  5. Go back to General
  6. Go to Date & Time
  7. Turn off Automatic Time
  8. Set Month three months ahead (right now that would be from October to December)
  9. Go back to General
  10. Go to Software Update
  11. Press ‘Download and Install’
  12. While that runs, Go to General
  13. Go to Date & Time
  14. Turn on Automatic Time

Applies To: iOS

It’s worth noting that I tested going a year ahead, and the update wouldn’t download, but 3 months ahead did work.

I believe this is design by Apple to avoid people downloading large amounts of data over their mobile plan, but the updates get to an age where Apple deem them critical, and it’s then better to get the update over cellular than not at all.

I hope Apple address this properly and have a toggle on the screen to just choose to download the update over cellular, with a warning about high data usage (iOS 14.8 is almost 1GB).

Device Limit Reached – Intune Company Portal App

Device limit reached – You have added the maximum number of devices allowed by your company support. Plesae remove a device from the Azure portal or get help from your company support.

There’s a limit to the amount of devices you can register for the Intune Company Portal app.

To fix this, yes you’ll need to remove a device attached to your account. This is not done via Outlook for Web, where you can remove devices – that’s purely for Outlook. It’s also not done via https://myaccount.microsoft.com/device-list as it’s not removing it from Azure.

As per Microsoft Documentation , there’s Intune device limits, and Azure device limits. Intune / EndPoint Manager has a maximum of 15 devices, where Azure has a default of 20, but can be changed to a few different values, including ‘unlimited’.

Intune / Endpoint Manager Device Limits
Azure Device Limits

To remove devices from a user, and admin should use Azure Active Directory and go to Users > Find the user > then under Manage, choose ‘Devices’. Any old device (check by the activity date) can be selected and deleted.

After removing enough devices here, you should be able to register the new device via the Intune Company Portal app again – and in my testing, this was next to instant.

HEIC and HEIF Files Can’t Be Viewed on Windows 10 & 11

If you haven’t come across these file formats already, you probably will soon. Created by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and adopted by Apple amongst others, it’s looking like a replacement for the old JPEG image format.

The format was added in iOS11 and created when doing things like taking a photo. Early on the files were being converted back to JPEG in many situations, including OneDrive Photo Roll syncs.

I expect something else has changed recently, as I’m seeing the files turn up over email from other parties where I’d never seen them before. If I find out more I’ll update this post.

.HEIC and .HEIF files ‘appear’ to be the same thing, but at this stage I can’t clearly find information explaining if there’s a difference, and if so what that is.

These files can’t be natively opened on Windows 11 or earlier, but there’s a few options you have to view them.

OneDrive

If you have access to OneDrive or OneDrive for Business (which doesn’t take much, a free Microsoft account will do), you can copy these files into OneDrive, right click and ‘View Online’. Via your browser, you can then view the image in OneDrive without any extra software required. However, Microsoft documentation currently does not list the formats as being supported, and I’m also asking questions about this in a few areas. (Update 3rd March 2020 – Microsoft updated this page after I asked :) )

Windows 10 & 11

The native Photos app was supposed to have support for this as per these Insider Build notes. I’ve tested on a few different PCs including a fully patched standard Microsoft build laptop, and Photos doesn’t recognise the files. I’ve been told the support of the files needs the two Windows Store apps, and that matches my testing:

HEIF Image Extensions

HEVC Video Extensions from the Device Manufacturer

Both are created by ‘Microsoft Corporation’ so they’re not third party, and both are free. Once installed, HEIC and HEIF files work everywhere I’ve tried, including in the native Photos app.

There is also a paid HEVC Video Extensions version from Microsoft that costs $1.45AU, I’m not sure why you’d need this one over the one ‘from the Device Manufacturer’.

Frustratingly, the ‘HEVC Video Extensions from the Device Manufacturer’ app doesn’t seem to be available to add in Windows Store for Business, but the HEIF Image Extensions is. I’m asking around to try and have that resolved, if I can find someone to listen to me :) (Update 3rd March 2020 – this probably won’t change anytime soon for licensing reasons)

Converting

One final option is to convert a HEIC to JPEG. Here’s a quick guide using Linux via a Debian WSL image, installed from the Microsoft Store (thanks Purana for the tip!)

I’ve got a lot of unanswered questions in the above, but hoping this at least helps others that might get stuck in finding a working solution in the meantime.

Become an Office Insider

Similar to the Windows Insiders program, you can also be an Office Insider.

The programs have the same ideas – give users access to new features before everyone else, and let those users provide feedback to help report issues or shape decisions that will go out to the rest of the world.

This program is for the Click To Run version of Office, not MSI.

If you’re not already a Windows Insider, Microsoft has easy to follow instructions. It’s also not a requirement to be a Windows Insider to be an Office Insider.

For Office Insiders, it depends what version of Office you’re licensed to. Home, Personal and University licenses can just go to File > Account > Office Insider from any Office app, and follow the prompts.

However if you’re using a School or Work account, you won’t see this option. The full instructions are available from Microsoft but here’s the condensed version:

Download Office 2016 Deployment Tool and run it. It will extract a setup.exe and configuration.xml file.

Edit the configuration.xml file: The line -<Add Channel=”Monthly” OfficeClientEdition=”32″> needs the word ‘Monthly‘ changed to either ‘InsiderFast’ to get updates as early in the process as possible.

Open an admin commant prompt, navigate to the folder that contains the two above files and run:

Setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

(If you have any issues, try uninstalling your existing version of Office).

Once that’s done, you should be good to go. Launch an Office app such as Word, log in with your Work/School account, and go to File > Account. Under the About Word section, you should see a mention of Office Insider:

If you want to be an Office Insider for apps on iOS or Android, then follow the instructions here on how to register and obtain updates (it’s very easy!).

Crane Game Toreba – I Won A Japanese Toy?

I’m still not sure what I think about this, but thought it was worth sharing:

I saw an advert online to install an app from the Play Store – ‘Crane Game Toreba; win real prizes!’. Out of interest due to a childhood of playing skilltesters, I wanted to check out what it was

logo_toreba_en

I’d been watching a few YouTube videos on arcade games, and the Japanese ones are a bit different to the ones I’m used to in Australia:

I installed the app; their main website is toreba.net with links to Android and iOS versions of the app. Weirdly, the app lets you pick a Japanese crane game with a particular prize, and play it. You get 3 shots for free with a new account, then need to start paying for turns.

I say weirdly, because this isn’t an animated game. It’s a real life crane that you control, with two webcam views. Via the internet, you’re remotely controlling an electronic and mechanical crane in Japan, trying to win a prize.

The prizes themselves are very Japanese, of which many I have no idea what they are. You can also win food, or sometimes both; such as a soft toy watermelon slice. Something we all need in our lives.

Here’s someone winning a ‘Grand Blue fantasy Byi stuffed’ with the crane, which again I’m not sure what it is….

I was suckered in after my 3 free shots and not winning, but decided to play a ‘ping pong’ game instead. This is where a ping pong ball is scooped up, and dropped into a second area. You win if the ball lands in a particular hole.

It took a few shots, but I won! They sent me a link of the replay of my win, which you can watch too.

The cost to play incudes free shipping worldwide, which means this thing should turn up on my doorstep in a few weeks:

9443f6b7cd8a0f81e4a354cbc6021aeb_1920_KR

I’m sure my son will have fun with it, being 17 months old. I don’t think I’ll play the game again either, but there’s something both interesting and strange about this whole setup. Remote controlling a silly game somewhere else in the world to try and win a prize seems both so right, and so wrong.

If nothing else, try the game for your free 5 shots. You don’t have to use a credit card, and it just seems to use your Play Store or Google Play account.

Referrals used to exist but seem to be gone now, but you can register your credit card for 5000TP: http://www.toreba.net/info/topic/info_news/128016

Update 1st August 2016

A few days ago, my prize turned up in a giant box! Here it is on my couch for scale.. makes a great pillow.

20160728_210254

Update 31st August 2016

I decided to play again with some credit I received, and won a ‘Star Master’ which projects a bunch of lights and stuff. Here’s me winning it!

http://www.toreba.net/replay/detail/10493172

Update 19th June 2017

I hadn’t played this for ages, but some comments here reminded me to try again. This time I won some sort of racing track, which took about 8 turns to win:

http://www.toreba.net/replay/detail/27242352

Update 20th August 2017

OK, I played a bunch this time and wrote up a separate post with all my wins!