The Preferred Toronto Apple Reseller of MacMedics:
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A Safe Way To Dispose Of Your eWaste – And Get A Tax Receipt Too!
My Preferred Canadian-Based ISP
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Aug
30
Summer Tips and Tricks
Filed Under Apple News, Tips | Leave a Comment
Hello everyone. It’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve always tried not to write unless inspiration hits or there’s big news. There was so much Apple news in July I needed to take a break and let all the dust settle. Antennae-gate seems to have subsided and millions of people continue to buy the new iPhone. I have yet to take the leap, partly because I want a white one this time (they’re delayed) and partly because I really love my current 3GS. There’s nothing wrong with it and it performs well. In fact, this has been the least exciting iPhone release for me personally – I find once I’ve hit a certain performance height with my equipment the upgrade really has to be worth it.
I thought, however, since many of you have purchased the new iPhone and may be new to the experience some tricks and tips may be worth imparting. They’re useful for old hands too! I found these put together by mashable.com and the text descriptions were culled by them. My favourite tip was number 6 (I didn’t know you could do that).
One more thing: there will be a big event/announcement by Apple on September 1st so I’ll be sure to followup with all the news. The big rumour of the day is a re-branded AppleTV (to be called iTV), a possible inexpensive subscription/rental rate for TV shows (probably available in the US only!) and most likely some new iPods (what else, it’s September).
On To the Tips and Tricks…
1. HOW TO: Add an International Keyboard
iOS4 has more language options than ever before. If you’re bi-lingual, there’s an easy way to add an international keyboard to your iPhone’s set-up so you can switch between English and Chinese — for example — on the fly.
From the home screen, go to “Settings,” then “General,” then scroll down to see “Keyboard” and tap this option. You can then select “International Keyboards” and scroll through the list to add the language you need.
Now, for all iPhone OS versions, when you have the keyboard on the screen, if you hit the little globe icon next to the space bar, you can switch between languages at the press of a button.
2. HOW TO: Quickly Add a Special Symbol
If you don’t quite see the need to add an international keyboard, but will occasionally need to use special symbols, then there’s a quick way to do it.
Simply tap and hold the relevant letter and the special symbols associated with that letter will appear on the screen. This also works for common symbols too, and is particularly useful for changing a currency sign, using alternative quotation marks, longer hyphens, etc.
3. HOW TO: Use a Sentence-Stopping Shortcut
If you’re not already using this trick, you most certainly should, as it can seriously speed up your typing. It is enabled by default, but to confirm it’s active, go to “Settings,” then “General,” then “Keyboard,” then make sure the toggles next to the “Auto-Capitalization” option and the fourth option down — “.” Shortcut — are set to the “On” position.
Now when you’re typing away, a double tap of the space-bar will add a period (or a “full stop” if you’re British!) and automatically capitalize the very next letter you type.
4. HOW TO: Add Proper Names to the Dictionary
EDIT: As many commenters have rightly pointed out, this option only appears if you have certain Chinese or Japanese international keyboards added (as we did at the time of writing, hence the error) and is not, as you might logically assume, a way to add Western words to the dictionary, even though it appears to give you that functionality. We are sorry for any confusion, and for raising false hopes.
New to iOS4 is the ability to customize the iPhone’s dictionary and add words to it that you use often, such as proper names, brands or lesser-known places.
Although previous versions of the iPhone OS’s dictionary did offer the ability to “learn” the word preferences of the user, this new feature gives the user complete control.
To add a word, go to “Settings,” then “General,” then “Keyboard,” then tap “Edit User Dictionary” and hit the plus icon in the top right to enter your word. It will then be listed alphabetically and can be edited or deleted as necessary.
5. HOW TO: Insert Punctuation More Quickly
To add punctuation to text, most iPhone users will pause typing, press the “123″ key to see the numerical and symbolic options, tap the symbol (or number) they want, and then hit the “ABC” menu to return to the alpha keyboard.
If you’re still adding in symbols and numbers this way, then boy, do we have a treat for you. This will take a teeny bit of getting used to, but from now on, the next time you want to add punctuation, pause typing, press and hold the “123″ key, then without removing your finger (or thumb!) from the screen, slide it over to land on what you want to insert.
As you release your digit from the display, the symbol will have been entered into your text and you’ll be back on the alpha keyboard.
6. HOW TO: Quickly Change .com to Other Domains
If you’re typing in the browser bar in Safari (
), the iPhone adds a handy “.com” button to the keyboard. However, there are a ton of other domain extensions that you’ll likely need to type out on a regular basis. There is a shortcut that can help you out with this — simply press and hold the .com button and other common options will come up.
Similarly, when composing an e-mail, pressing and holding the period will offer a list of domain endings to make entering e-mail addresses super quick.
7. HOW TO: Display Character Counts in Messages
It’s often useful to know how long your SMS messages are, either for Twitter (
) purposes, or to be sure that you’ll only be charged for the cost of one text. The iPhone does not show character counts by default, but it’s not hard to set-up.
Just go to the “Settings” menu, select “Messages,” then slide the “Character Count” toggle to “On.” Now when you are composing a text message — after you get to the end of the first line — you’ll see a running count of how many characters you’re sending on the right of the display, above the send button.
8. HOW TO: Delete Text Using Gesture Controls
We’ve all done it — while pecking away at the iPhone keyboard with our mind on other things, we realize that last sentence was utter nonsense. Instead of holding down the delete key while you curse your uselessness, there’s actually a more fun, and somewhat therapeutic way of deleting the text you’ve just typed.
Simply shake the handset and you’ll get a pop-up asking you if you want to “Undo Typing” or “Cancel.” Hit undo, and the latest lot of gibberish will be gone forever.
9. HOW TO: Reset the Dictionary
Although the iPhone’s dictionary will notice spelling errors and suggest corrections, it does “learn” your preferences. This means if you repeatedly spell a word wrong, and don’t take the phone up on the option to change it, it will eventually stop suggesting the easy correction.
There is a way to fix this by resetting the dictionary, although this will also delete any words you’ve added via the “Edit User Dictionary” option we highlighted above.
If you want a clean slate for your phone’s vocab, simply open “Settings,” select “General,” scroll right down to the bottom to “Reset,” select that and then hit the red “Reset Dictionary” button which will erase any settings that have been overly forgiving of bad spelling or grammar.
10. HOW TO: Change the Font in Notes
For some bizarre reason, the default font for the iPhone’s “Notes” app is Marker Felt — one that’s only a few design steps removed from the typographical outcast Comic Sans.
However, there is a workaround that will enable you to scribe your notes in the arguably more classy Helvetica. Simply add a special symbol-based international keyboard (Korean, Japanese and Chinese all worked for us) and then when you’re next in “Notes,” change the language (via the globe button), type something, and then change it back to English.
Everything you type after that will be in Helvetica, rather than Marker Felt — thanks and praise be to the font gods!
Aug
29
If you just have to upgrade to Snow Leopard over the weekend or you just bought a machine with it pre-installed here are a few links to utilize for application compatibility information:
Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard: Compatibility (Macintouch)
Wikidot 10.6 Compatibility Page
Apple’s own 10.6 Compatibility Pages
Apple’s Printer and Scanner 10.6 Compatibility Pages
That should keep you busy! There are a lot of applications already compatible, some with a few glitches and some waiting for updates. You also may find a few that have reached the end of the line. Not everything is listed of course so do some research on those you need to find out about.
This has, so far, been the most stable release of any Mac OS I can remember – probably because it’s building upon a very solid foundation to begin with (10.5).
I have installed it on my main mobile machine (MacBook Pro 13″) and the process was simple and fast. The drive recovered over 8GB of space and everything feels much zippier – startups, logouts, rebooting, networking. It’s the kind of upgrade that you have to let wash over you. On the surface it looks very similar to what came before, but it’s the little things that begin to seep in as you go about your daily tasks. And of course, what did I do before I installed? BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP – a full up-to-date backup of my entire system before proceeding.
Aug
26
As a followup to the last post Macintouch has provided a compatibility page for Snow Leopard which I strongly urge users to peruse. Apple is releasing Snow Leopard on August 28th – a full month ahead of schedule – which is compromising 3rd party application developers’ ability to fully test or release updates to incompatible software. Adobe has announced that most (that’s right, they use the word ‘most’) of Adobe CS IV is compatible:
“As for Adobe Creative Suite 4
, everything is good with the exception of auto-updates to Flash panels (which I guarantee you’re not using) and Adobe Drive/Version Cue (which doesn’t work at the moment on 10.6). CS3 & earlier haven’t been tested.”
Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium
is a relatively recent release which caused some of Nack’s readers to question the company’s testing methods. Answering these complaints, Nack states: “I’d frankly be shocked if people at Adobe & Apple really hadn’t tested CS3 on 10.6. I *think* it’s just some corporate conservatism at work here, and Adobe doesn’t want to over-promise anything. As I say, though, I’ll try to find out more.”
However, Adobe’s tech support briefing warns: “You may therefore experience a variety of installation, stability, and reliability issues for which there is no resolution. Older versions of our creative software will not be updated to support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6).”
Personally, I think CS 3 will work as it would really alienate a lot of Adobe and Mac users if it didn’t. I also think Adobe has tested it with Snow Leopard (and Apple probably has too) – they’re just not going to allocate huge technical time to ironing out certain bugs.Maddening. Macintouch reports that:
Leister Productions Inc., the publisher of Reunion 9 genealogical software, sent e-mails out to its users stating that their program has incompatibilities with Snow Leopard. An update should be available in a week or two.
I use an application called Daylite for my business. I’m hoping to have a beta in my hands shortly that is compatible with the new cat as the current version (3.9.3) is not – don’t even think about installing it over earlier versions than the most current. I won’t be installing SL on any of my own production machines until my main apps are deemed compatible. So again, please be careful and do your homework before making the transition.
Early Reviews
For those of you who want to read about early reviews check out 9to5Mac’s “Snow Leopard reviews start coming in…”
And of course you’ve got read David Pogue’s: Apple’s Sleek Upgrade
———————————————————-
UPDATE: Adobe has already responded to the CS 3 compatibility issue:
Principal Product Manager for Photoshop John Nack pointing to a new FAQ document noting that only Creative Suite 4 will be officially supported on Apple’s forthcoming Snow Leopard operating system, with Creative Suite 3 and earlier versions reportedly not having been tested on Snow Leopard.
Nack has now posted an update after investigating the CS3 situation in which he reveals that Adobe and Apple actually did do extensive testing of at least Photoshop CS3 on Snow Leopard and found that it is in fact compatible with the new operating system.
It turns out that the Photoshop team has tested Photoshop CS3 on Snow Leopard, and to the best of our knowledge, PS CS3 works fine on Snow Leopard.Nack notes that only two minor issues remain that his Photoshop team is aware of: window highlight rings in Exposé and text field nudging in Japanese versions of Snow Leopard. But while Photoshop CS3 otherwise appears to be perfectly compatible with Snow Leopard, Adobe has chosen to not categorize it as officially supported due to the level of testing it feels would be required in order to be entirely confident in that statement.
That was fast! Follow the above link for more info and wait for more announcements from other software companies.
Mar
31
Spring Is When The Worms Come Out
Filed Under Advice, Alerts!, Recommendations, Tech News, Tips | Leave a Comment
They walk the parks at night with flashlights on their heads and buckets at hand. They’re trolling for worms!
But they won’t find Conficker in the ground. Perhaps you’ve heard of it or have been hearing about it. 60 minutes just ran a scare piece on it on Sunday – I’ve provided the segment in it’s entirety:
Supposedly one of the nastiest worms to hit computers since, well, the last nastiest worm to hit computers. It has infected some 500, 000 computers already! Microsoft has offered a $250,000 bounty for the creators of the worm. Come April 1st this dormant worm is set to receive some kind of instruction to do…nobody knows. Maybe something nasty like steal all the world’s credit card information – or maybe nothing.
Well, not all computers. Not Macs! Yes folks, for those of us who use the best operating system and application suites on the planet – you’re safe! Even with all the new shiny Mac laptops and Mac desktops out there, the increased share of the market hasn’t yet attracted an infection by this little bugger. The Mac remains the safest operating system to use. However…
…Mac users who run Windows on their Macs are at the same risk as those running Windows on PCs.
In other words, if you run Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop or VM Ware Fusion your Windows partition is vulnerable. Now, if your Windows section does become infected it won’t infiltrate the Mac side – you may have to wipe your Windows operating system and start again (at the very least disinfect it), but the Mac remains safe. It is highly recommended that you run all the Windows security updates as well as update or install the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware software for Windows. If you’re really scared, just unplug your computer from the internet the night of March 31st or shut off your wireless connection and wait it out.
Click on the link for a great FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on Conficker from CNET. They provide a background on this beast and best practices to deal with this new potential threat. For example, for Windows users Panda Security has released a free “vaccine” tool for blocking viruses that spread through USB drives. Microsoft has a Conficker removal tool. Again, the Mac OS itself is NOT under threat.
Feb
9
Peace Of Mind
Filed Under 1. HOW TO..., Advice, Rants, Security, Tips, Views | Leave a Comment
As many of you who read this blog know I am constantly reminding people to back up their data – I never seem to get tired of pointing this out. Just as importantly is securing the data you already have. Security can mean different things depending on your concerns and approach. For some it’s ensuring that you have that basic backup of your important information – that’s one kind of security – against data loss.
So, you’ve got your backup. Check. However, what happens if you lose or have your computer stolen? All that important information like your passwords, credit card information, writing, pictures, contacts, calendar – personal and professional information – all of it is at risk. It’s a very violating feeling to have your computer stolen. I’ve had this happen to me and it’s awful. Even if you have a backup the knowledge that someone may have access to your information is unnerving. You may have to cancel your credit cards, change all of your passwords, call colleagues or friends to be on the look out for any breached information you may have stored.
What can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen to you? These are my suggestions – each has advantages and disadvantages:
1. Give your computer a password! Many of my clients feel they don’t need a password because they’re the only ones using their machine. Please don’t get lulled into this trap. Give your machine a basic password – preferably something beyond 1234, your name or ‘password’.
2. Check out the Security System Preference Pane. There are some very basic things you can choose to do that can help dissuade a casual breach of access to your Mac – in an office or at home. Within this Preference Pane you’ll find the ability to require a password to wake your machine from sleep or a screen saver – someone passing by your machine will probably keep on going. You can also require a secure password to unlock other important Preference Panes – see screen shot.
3. Even with all of these built-in features if someone has physical access to your computer they can by-pass all of these measures by booting up your machine with a startup DVD or external hard drive. To prevent this you can utilize another free utility that comes with every Mac – a Firmware password. Each Startup Disk has on it a utility called Firmware Password Utility. With this you can implement a password at a deep level of the operating system. This will prevent someone from booting up your machine from another media, mounting the drive using Target Disk mode as well as other modes of starting up. This can also prevent diagnostic trouble-shooting modes so be aware of this.
4. Yet another security feature is Apple’s File Vault feature. This protects your Home directory with very sophisticated encryption standards. To you your data appears normal. However, if someone were to steal your machine your data would be secure, even if they booted up your machine from another source – unless they knew or figured out your password (hence no 1234 here)! An issue with Filevault arises with the use of Time Machine. Because File Vault encrypts your directory as a single secure image it will continually back up the entire image and not just the smaller changed files. This can fill up your backup destination much faster.
5. There are 3rd Party solutions as well some of which can help locate your stolen Mac, disable it remotely, take pictures of the thief, where they surf etc…Orbicule is one, MacPhoneHome another as well as Lojack.
6. One solution I’ve used in the past is Securikey – a USB security key approach. With this implemented, your laptop or desktop is only usable with the insertion of the specially formatted USB key – even if your password is breached. It encrypts your Home Directory like Filevault and the data is useless to a thief. If you lose your key the company keeps a backup set which you can get access to by identifying yourself properly with a prearranged authentication.
7. Backup is, as I’ve mentioned, security. An important step is to make sure that you don’t keep your backup and your primary source (computer) in the same location, especially when you travel. Thus, a diverse and secure approach to backup might include an offsite copy of important information using a service like MobileMe, SugarSync, iDrive etc…That way, in the case of loss or theft you will have recourse to those important files. All of these services encrypt their data on remote servers.
Feb
6
iPhone/iTunes Troubleshooting Tip
Filed Under Alerts!, Tips | Leave a Comment
Some people have been reporting iTunes quitting when trying to sync their iPhone to their computer following the application of the latest 2.2.1 firmware. If you happen to be affected by this issue check out the following note from Apple:
Dear Customer,
Recently, we uncovered an issue which was causing iTunes to unexpectedly quit when synced with an iPod or an iPhone. This issue impacted a small number of users, and we have identified your account as potentially being affected.
If you have experienced this issue, please follow these steps in order to sync your iPod or iPhone with iTunes:
1. Launch iTunes
2. Select “Deauthorize Computer” from the Store menu
3. Enter your iTunes Store Account ID and Password, then click the Deauthorize button
4. Next, choose “Authorize Computer” from the Store menu
5. Enter your iTunes Store Account ID and Password, then click the Authorize button
Once you have successfully deauthorized and reauthorized your computer, you should be able to sync your iPod or iPhone to iTunes.
I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that you may have experienced as a result of this issue.
Thank you for being an iTunes Store customer.
iTunes Store Team
Another tip to ensure the issue is remedied is to purchase a free app from the App store via the iTunes application before syncing your iPhone/iPod Touch. This should be done after the above actions been taken.
Jan
16
Multiple iPod (& iPhone) Personality
Filed Under Tips | Leave a Comment
So, I have been asked to provide a few more tips in the blog. I happened to be asked a question today about using two iPods with a single Mac, specifically, two iPhones. I came across this great ‘how to’ on the NY Times tech site. Some other links to using Multiple iPods/iPhones with one Mac can be found below. Enjoy!
Multiple iPods with one computer
Manually Managing content on iPod/iPhone
Dec
18
Software Update Issue
Filed Under Advice, Alerts!, Apple Updates, Recommendations, Tips | Leave a Comment
Here’s a classic case of Catch 22. Apple has documented an issue with their software update feature in 10.5 – found under the Apple Menu and usually scheduled to prompt a user with newly available updates:
Symptoms
When attempting to update software using Software Update in Mac OS X 10.5, the update process may stop responding while “Configuring installation” is visible in the update window. This can occur if Software Update attempts to install an update that was only partially downloaded.
They claim the latest 10.5.6 update fixes this problem. Their solution is to use the problematic Software Update to download the update!
Resolution
1. Quit (or if necessary, Force Quit) Software Update. Note: If the issue occurs while installing an update after log out (such as an update that requires a restart), shut down your Mac by holding down the power button, then power it back on.
2. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
3. From the Go menu choose “Go to Folder”.
4. Type: /Library/Updates
5. Click Go. The /Library/Updates folder opens.
6. Select all contents of this folder and move them to the Trash.
Once the above steps are complete, use Software Update again to re-download and install the update.
To avoid this issue, download and install the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update or later. Note that this update must first be installed to avoid the issue; the issue may occur while downloading the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update or later.
So – keep reading the Leopard reader reports if you’re concerned about the latest update and if you’re having difficulty follow the instructions above. I also suggest downloading the 10.5.6 Combo Update as a stand-alone installation which Apple always provides to avoid the whole software update issue altogether. This is a standard and recommended practice. Here are links to Apple’s stand-alone updates (note: it’s a rather large download):
Dec
15
10.5.6 Update Arrives
Filed Under Advice, Apple Updates, MobileMe, Tips | Leave a Comment
As predicted, Apple has released a 10.5.6 update to it’s current 10.5 (Leopard) client and Server operating system. At the update link provided Apple’s first line of advice is to BACKUP. Please, please, either wait to see how the update is received by the Mac community (click here for 10.5.6 reader reports) or back up your data before applying the update and follow the other advice you’ll find there.
A notable aspect to the update is the addition of real ‘push’ services to Apple’s MobileMe service. When it was first introduced, Apple advertised it as ‘exchange for the rest of us’ wherein contacts, mail and calendar events would update almost immediately on a client’s desktop, laptop and phone. In reality, it was taking almost 15 minutes unless a user manually synced each new change and the company withdrew the claim until it could actually provide the feature. Apple now claims, with the the 10.5.6 update that MobileMe now delivers on that promise.
Nov
23
Tips From The Apple Core
Filed Under Advice, Fun, Tips, Views | Leave a Comment
iMacs, MacBooks, Mini’s, MacPros – all these great machines with the best feline Operating System (Leopard) around and what do most people do – write email and surf the web! Okay, not everyone. What I do hear a lot is that we all have these wonderful computers, but we tend to either under-use them or not know how to fully utilize what have in our hands.
My job, which is my delight, is help people find solutions to the things they do everyday. There are a lot of great resources out there and I will be forthcoming with more. A great place to start is with Apple’s very own and very helpful Quick Tips Podcast. When you click on this link iTunes will open and navigate to the proper place. There you will find 30 second videos that will demonstrate some of the basic and not so basic features you never knew you didn’t know (Rumsfeld anyone?). This is a great resource for beginners and old-hands alike.
What is a Podcast? Think of a Podcast like a radio program – which is what it basically is. There are thousands of audio and video podcasts being made by both Professionals and non alike and they are available to you directly from within iTunes. Just click on the Podcast selection in the left-hand source menu, choose to view the Podcast Directory and be prepared to be amazed. What’s even better – most are FREE! You can listen on demand, subscribe to ones you like, sync them to your iPod or iPhone – did I mention they’re FREE?!