Friday, October 30, 2015

The many microphones of the iPhone 6





Siri stopped hearing me when in speakerphone mode right after my last software update to iOS 9.1! However, I can still talk to people and do other things normally. 

Working:
  • Voice memos
  • Siri via headset
  • Voice dictation via headset
  • Speakerphone voice
Not working:
  • Voice dictation via phone itself
  • Siri via phone
I haven't resolved the problem and have a case opened with Apple Support. However, during troubleshooting, I learned the iPhone actually has 3 microphones as shown in this diagram from Apple:






Monday, October 26, 2015

Siri went deaf. She couldn't hear me nor could I do voice dictation.

I upgraded (?) my iPhone 6 to iOS 9.02 the other day. I didn't realize Siri wasn't working until this morning. Here's what I did that didn't fix her:

1. Power on/off
2. Toggle Siri on/off.
3. Toggle Cellular data on/off.
4. Soft reset (hold down power and home button simultaneously for 10 seconds.)

Here's another procedure that did not work:

Try resetting your network settings:

WARNING: These steps will make you lose any entered passwords in already joined networks. SAVE ANY IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS OR WEBPAGES, YOU MAY LOSE THEM.

  1. Open Settings
  2. Tap General
  3. Go down, tap Reset
  4. Tap Reset Network Settings
  5. If prompted for a pass code, enter it.
  6. Tap Reset Network Settings
  7. A series of different screens will show. This is normal.
  8. Once this is done, unlock your phone and try connecting to a network or cellular network.
  9. Try using Siri.

Monday, October 05, 2015

Problem adding GMail Account to Outlook MS-Office 365

This threw me for a loop this morning for a couple of hours. I logged in via the web browser just fine. I set my GMail account for IMAP. Still couldn't add it to Outlook.
Kept getting this error message despite several attempts and triple-checking my spelling, etc.

Your IMAP server wants to alert you to the following: Please log in via your web browser:
http://support.google.com/mail/accounts/bing/answer.py?answer=78754 (Failure)

Finally found the solution here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2984937

Cause
This issue occurs when you try to sync to a Gmail account after July 15, 2014 and Basic Authentication has not been enabled for your Gmail account.

Google has increased its security measures to block access to Google accounts after July 15, 2014 if those accounts are being set up or synced in apps and on devices that use Basic Authentication.
Resolution
To resolve this problem, enable Basic Authentication for your Gmail account. To do this, go to the following Google website, and then select Enable when you are prompted about whether to let less secure apps access your Gmail account:


For additional security, consider enabling Google’s two-step verification and app passwords as documented at the following web pages:

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/180744?hl=en

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en&topic=2784804&ctx=topic


Note The workaround described here takes you to the page in the following screen shot. You click Enable to work around the issue.

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