Some Apple Store locations began stocking the exclusive new Level Lock+ last week, letting users open their door locks with their iPhone or Apple Watch via digital keys. And now you can get it online, too.
The functionality takes advantage of the change in iOS 15 last year adding support for home keys in Wallet. It uses NFC radio technology to let an iPhone or Apple Watch near the lock open it.
If you have a Level HomeKit-enabled smart lock, now you can add a nifty new Level Keypad. It’s an especially convenient way to let others — family, friends, neighbors, the dog walker — have access to your home. And you can control when they can use it.
Remember Horizon, the video app that won’t let you shoot portrait video, keeping the horizon horizontal however you orient your camera? Well, Orient is just like that, only for stills, and it looks pretty neat – as long as you don’t mind a drop in resolution.
Reports of inaccurate motion sensors in the iPhone 5s continue to grow. As reported last week on Cult of Mac, there appear to be widespread problems with the 5s’ compass, gyroscope and accelerometer.
The original forum thread at MacRumors is now at a whopping 19 pages of user reports, and Apple has yet to respond to Cult of Mac’s repeated requests for information.
This morning, Gizmodo conducted its own tests and found the iPhone 5s motion sensors to be “totally screwed up.”
Looks like the problem is far more widespread than the naysayers on our original post, and on the MacRumors thread, are willing to admit.
You might not want to use your iPhone 5s to find your way out of the woods just yet.
A number of users are reporting that their iPhone 5s compass and level are showing incorrect values when placed on flat surfaces. It might be a hardware issue, leaving Apple with a costly hardware recall or replacement issue. The problem could also point to a software snafu that needs speedy patching.
The problem was first spotted on by “tharepairguy” on a forum thread over at Mac Rumors. He set his iPhone 5s and his iPhone 4 to magnetic north. The iPhone 4 reads 179 south, while the iPhone 5s reads 165 south. His car compass confirms the iPhone 4 reading.
He then checked the level app on each phone. The iPhone 4 showed a surface to be level, as did two other Johnson analog levels. The iPhone 5s? -4 degrees.
iOS 6 gave us the Compass, which, honestly, I’ve never really used that much.
The new iOS 7 beta, however, has given me some functionality I’m much more likely to need and use. Heck, I even have a third-party app to make sure my handyman projects around the house aren’t crooked.
I’m talking about a level, and there’s a new one built right into iOS 7 beta, within the Compass app on the iPhone. I haven’t found a comparable app on my iPad running iOS 7 beta, but maybe in the future?
Either way, here’s how to find and use the compass and level app.
I take a lot of the things for granted on my iPhone, since I’ve been using one since the original was released back in 2007. Apple released the iPhone, which many call the iPhone 2G, along with an Apple branded Bluetooth headset. That headset didn’t last very long and it was ultimately abandoned by Apple and replaced by third-party alternatives.
Therefore, although Apple abandoned the headset market iOS retained the support that Apple baked into each Bluetooth headset they made. That support allows my iPhone 4 to display the mysterious symbol that a fair number of readers comment about on my posts. So what is it?
