Guides

When it comes to security concerns, the Heartbleed security flaw is currently dominating headlines everywhere. The good news is that iOS devices are not vulnerable to Heartbleed. Regardless of this fact, setting a passcode is the first step in securing personal information on the iPhone from prying eyes.

Simple passcodes are convenient to use, but limited to a four-digit number. For those looking to beef up the security of their iOS devices, replacing these four digits with a complex passcode will help. Once activated, this feature allows numbers, letters and special characters to be used, vastly improving the strength of the passcode. A long string or several words strung together can be used, locking down an iOS device at the specified time interval.

Flipping an image horizontally or vertically with the stock iOS Photos app is not possible. Pictures can be rotated with the Edit function, however getting a mirror image of the photo requires third party software. Fortunately, there are many free options on the App Store. One versatile example is Adobe Photoshop Express.

Click here for instructions on how to rotate (spin) a photo around.

To flip a picture you have taken vertically or horizontally, install and open Photoshop Express. Give the app permission to access the Camera Roll, then tap Open from Camera Roll to import the image you wish to modify. The image will load.

Game Center may be the least used and most hated stock iOS app on Apple devices. Not only is it pretty useless, but the "Welcome back ..." banner which pops up every time you open an app has been known to interrupt game play. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any easy way to disable it, however, some users claim logging out of Game Center and canceling it four or five times will force it to go away. Here's how to log out of Game Center.

1. Navigate to Settings > Game Center
2. Tap the "Apple ID" tab and select "Sign Out" from the pop up box

Jailbreaking a new iOS device, or restoring an existing one means that Cydia packages must be reinstalled. This includes any apps, tweaks, themes or other content that was previously purchased by the user. In many cases, developers will offer a free upgrade for new versions of Cydia packages running on an updated version of iOS.

Restoring purchased packages or installing a package upgrade that was previously purchased requires logging into the Cydia account associated with the user. To restore packages already purchased, first open Cydia and navigate to Manage Account on the intro page.

Looking for a way to recover deleted photos on the iPhone? The scenario can be grim when important images are deleted before being backed up or imported to iPhoto. Unfortunately, iOS does not have a trash can or recycling bin that stores deleted files.

This means that when pictures are deleted in the Photos app or elsewhere they are immediately removed from the iPhone. So is there any hope for recovery? Luckily there are several software packages that can be used to recover deleted images on iOS hardware. Leawo iOS Data Recovery is one example, which can be installed on Mac or Windows computers for $59.95.