Quick and easy, step-by-step, troubleshooting guide:

The new Apple TV is a hit! And the AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring got much more stable and faster on the 4th generation device! Even so, problems can still happen, specially with AirPlay. It can be some weirdness on your router, or the iPhone itself… streaming video/screen of the iPhone to the Apple TV involve a lot of technologies.

But don’t worry. Just watch the video and do all the following 9 steps to fix AirPlay problems:

1. Turn OFF the Cable Modem, Router and Wifi
2. On the Apple TV, close all running apps
3. Restart the Apple TV
4. On the iPhone and/or iPad, close all the running apps
5. Restart the iPhone and iPad
6. Turn ON your Cable Modem, Router and Wifi
7. Enable Bluetooth on iPhone and iPad
8. Be sure all devices are using the same Network
9. Keep your devices updated

Putting all devices in the same network and enabling Bluetooth makes AirPlay much easier to work. It is also possible to do “Peer-to-peer AirPlay” from an iPhone or iPad who is NOT connected on the same network, which is useful mostly at offices and schools.

AirPlay Support links

Apple has some very nice and detailed support content about AirPlay troubleshooting:

• Get help with AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:
  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204291
• Use AirPlay to wirelessly stream content from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch (contains some information about peer-to-peer AirPlay):
  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204289

I hope it helped you!

The battery of my iPhone 5 suddenly expanded…

Not fixing your iPhone’s swelling battery can be very disastrous: the battery can expand so much at the point of cracking / breaking the screen/display glass!

In the case of expanding / swelling batteries, take it seriously: even if there is no “official” program for it, take your device for an inspection at an Apple Store. Lithium-Ion batteries store a big deal of chemical energy and can generate flammable gases.

After I published my video, a few friends contacted me privately saying they also had the expanding battery problem and Apple replaced their phones.

My old iPhone 5’s battery was terrible

Our only complaint about that first iPhone 5 was the battery: shorter than my previous iPhone, the 4S, and very often it shut down around 20% battery indication. Apple announced an “iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program” – but its serial number was not it the list… I inherited this iPhone from my wife, when we bought her the iPhone 6 Plus – she got immediately delighted with the 6 plus’ huge battery life.

I got used to my inherited iPhone 5’s short battery life – battery aside, it was a very good phone: fast, slim, beautiful, great camera (for photos)… I was happy with it.

When that iPhone 5 got 2 years and 6 months, I started noticing a weird color movement when I touched the sides of the screen, like when you push a notebook LCD’s screen. In only one week, it got much more visible – and then I realized: the screen was being pushed up from behind. On the laterals, the front glass was almost 2mm up from its original position in the aluminum bezel. The battery was expanding – that’s dangerous, poses risk of fire or even explosion.

Apple replaced my old iPhone 5 with a new one. The Genius Bar experience was superb. At the “Puerta del Sol” store in the center of Madrid, the ‘Geniuses’ were very kind and knowledgeable – they assisted me on upgrading the replacement phone’s iOS to the newest version so I could restore my iCloud Backup. You cannot restore a backup made on iOS 8.3 on a phone with iOS 8.1, for example. But you can restore older iOS backups (lets say 8.3) on a newer iOS, such as 8.4.

My ‘new’ iPhone 5’s battery is EXCELLENT! All the short life and premature shutdowns are gone. I am finally ending my day with plenty of juice left

Apple’s Exchange and Repair Extension Programs

http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/

Programs like this are great for consumers. No production line is perfect. It is very brave of any company to put it open which devices/batch/serials are known for presenting problems – and even offer new devices in exchange. Very recently, Apple determined that a small percentage of iPhone 6 Plus could have cameras with problems to focus: iSight Camera Replacement Program for iPhone 6 Plus. My wife’s 6 Plus is eligible, so we are taking it there too (I still don’t know if they replace the camera or if it is a full replacement).

A screenshot, or screen capture, is like taking a photo of the screen – without a camera. To do it you press the Power Button and Home Button at the same time. The screen flashes and you hear a camera sound. The image is captured directly from the display memory, so it is a perfect image, exactly as you were seeing on the screen.

It works the same on the iPhone and the iPad, no matter which app you are using: it can be during a FaceTime; to grab a frame of a video; playing a game, to register a tweet, a conversation… whatever you have on the screen.

Screenshots are saved together with your photos. Just go to the Photo app and find them at the Camera Roll.

If you want to capture only part of the screen, you will need to do it in two steps: capture the whole screen normally, and later Edit and Crop the image using the Photo app that comes with iOS – or any other image-editing app you prefer.

Which cable/adapter should you buy? Should you go wireless with Apple TV? Here is the ultimate overview tutorial on “Connecting iGadgets to the TV”.

About the adapters: I’ve seen lots of knock-off adapters being sold online… many of them stopped working since iOS 8. I really recommend you to only buy original adapters directly from Apple.

Apple TV in the Classroom / Presentations / VGA Projectors

The Apple TV allows the teacher to mirror his/her iPad to the projector without wires. The absence of cables allows the teacher to freely walk the room while using the iPad and easily hand over the iPad to a student. If students also have iPads / iPhones, they also can engage on AirPlay to show their activities for the whole class on the projection.

But many Projectors only have VGA cables (not the HDMI as the Apple TV outputs). There is great product made specifically for Apple TV that solves this problem: Kanex ATV PRO (HDMI to VGA Adapter). It converts the HDMI output into a VGA + Stereo 3.5mm audio connections.

Check them out on Amazon

• Kanex ATV PRO (HDMI to VGA plus Audio) for AirPlay / Roku 
• HDMI Cable, AmazonBasics, 6.5 feet (2 meters) 
• HDMI Cable, AmazonBasics, 25 feet (7.6 meters) 
• VGA Cable, AmazonBasics, 15 feet (4.5 meters) 

Buying from these links, you are helping me a big deal! Thank you for your support!

Unfortunately, Amazon stopped selling Apple TVs (read about it on  The Verge).

Of course, you can buy Apple TVs directly from Apple and many other resellers.

iPad and iPhone sound problems are very easy to fix!

This tutorial shows you:

• how to un-mute the iPad (lots of people don’t even know it can be put on mute)
• how to un-mute when the side-switch is used to lock the rotation of the screen
• how to turn the volume up
• how to bring up and down the Control Center
• how to close all the background apps in iOS 8 and 7 (it is basically the same on iOS 9, only that now you are presented with a stack of screens, not side-by-side)
• how to reboot/restart the iPad

Hope you enjoy!

Headphones Only

If you tried everything in the video but have “headphones” indication even when you don’t have headphones inserted, your iPad might moisture in the headphones connector. Try inserting and removing your headphones a few times. Also, be sure the docking connector (where you charge the iPad/iPhone) is clean: use a dry toothbrush to remove any dust/dirty particles from the bottom connector. Keeping the iPad in a plastic zip bag with some silica envelopes for a night might help in the case of moisture messing up with the headphones detection or the external docking audio detection.

“Mute” doesn’t mute it all

The “Silent” function (either on “side switch” or  in “Control Center”) doesn’t mute content such as videos in YouTube – this is expected and explained by Apple in its documentation… but it causes some confusion as Apps get silenced and people don’t understand why since videos plays sound but apps are quiet.

Understand the Lateral Switch:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4085

Reset iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch: (rebooting, forcing it ‘off’ and ‘on’ again)
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1430

Unresponsive iOS device, resolution checklist:
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS3281