George is having issues with his phone screen going black when he opens his Facebook app. What gives? Leo says that the Facebook app is crashing and closes out when the screen goes to black. If you delete it and reinstall it, that should solve the problem.
Charles wants to know how he can stop robocalls. Leo says robocalls have become an epidemic and up to 80% of all your calls are now spam calls. It's ridiculous. But there are efforts underway to do away with them. AT&T is working on a new technology called "Shaken and Stir" which will authenticate the caller before people even get the call. AT&T also has an app called AT&T Call Protect.
Sandy's iPhone 8 Plus is starting to touch lag severely. Is Apple deliberately slowing it down to get her to buy a new iPhone? Leo says probably not. But it may be high time to back up her data, wipe it, and finally restore it. Leo says that some iPhones have been recalled in the past for touch lag, but not in the iPhone 8 class. So it's likely it just needs to be refreshed. A new battery is also probably a good idea. Apple has a battery replacement program, for $90. What Leo recommends is going to the Apple Store and talk to the genius. Then see what they think.
David has heard that if he formats his microSD card to be part of his phone's memory, it'll be ruined for anything else. Leo says that Google created something called Adopted Storage for this kind of thing and gave up on it because if you remove the card, your phone will be unusable because the phone keeps looking for it. And yes, it will only work with an Android device because it's encrypted. It was abandoned by Android vs. 9. Terrible idea. Better to just use it as an external storage area on your phone. Your phone has to support USB on the Go or UTG.
Danny called last week about his phone's GPS lagging behind where he actually was. His wife recently figured out what was wrong, and that was the metal mesh that supports the rearview mirror attached to the windshield was causing interference. When he moved the phone to the left side of his windshield, the GPS was suddenly accurate again. Leo says that makes sense. The Mesh is causing a kind of Faraday cage for that particular area of your dashboard.
Clinton wants to know if there's a way to report his location when traveling without the use of a smartphone? Leo says that there are Personal Location Beacon (PLB) and Satellite Messengers. Satellite Messengers do require a subscription though. They connect via satellite, and you can set it up to contact anyone in the event of an emergency. But if you have an iPhone or an Android device with vs. 11, you can send an emergency call by pressing the on/off switch five times in quick succession.
The latest scam is to convince the phone company to transfer your mobile phone number to a new SIM. Cloud Hopper is the app that does this. Once that's accomplished, the bad guys can gain control of all your apps, including banking apps with 2 factor authentication through a SIMJACKED phone. That's what happened to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Leo says that what he recommends is contacting your mobile service and request they use a PIN to verify it's you when seeking to get a new SIM.
Every day, data goes out from his iPhone at the same time (3,6,9 pm). Sometimes it is a small amount, sometimes it's 300 MB. What gives? Leo says what AT&T is doing is listing the data in "chunks", not what is actually happening, If it was minute by minute, Bill's bill would be 50 pages. Most likely the phone is "phoning home" to various apps, doing app updates, etc.
New phones are hitting the market starting right now. First out the gate was Samsung with the Galaxy Note10. But it's over $1100! Next up is the Google Pixel 4, probably coming in October. The iPhone 11 is also rumored to arrive soon, and there's an Apple event scheduled for the next two weeks. Huawei will put out the Mate 30 on September 18th, if you can get it. It's the first major phone launch since the company was blacklisted. It will also be the first without Google apps and services. Just Android.
Dave has an iPhone X Max Plus and he's been frustrated with dropped calls, missing contacts and photos, and lousy quality video. He talked to Verizon and they don't know what to do. He talked to Apple, and three weeks later, they don't know either. Leo says that the problem is, that you can replicate the issue for the Apple Genius to see it. Apple used to have gold standard quality control. But lately, that's fallen terribly. So it's likely a lemon. If Apple is trying to help you, great. If not, well, it may be time to get a new phone.
