In a conference call, and blog post, MCX tried to answer a variety of questions and offered information. Highlights are below: There are no fines for merchants who decide to stop working with MCX, but those who do so are doing so exclusively. Right now MCX is sticking with QR codes, but could switch later…
Kelly Guimont
Articles by Kelly Guimont
Smartphone-Assisted Halloween Masks
Cyborg! These are masks that come with a pocket for a smartphone to level up your look. Download a free companion app for your iOS or Android phone, and your smartphone becomes a roving eye. They look creepy and amazing, and they run about US $45, with a small charge for shipping to get it…
Yosemite: How To Fix Safari's Address Bar
Safari's Advanced Preferences. That's it! Now you'll get the entire URL in all its glory, as God intended.
How to Make Calls from Yosemite the Geeky Way
So kids, in the olden days you had to make a “phone call” from a device like this. No it didn't have Facebook. There are a number of easier ways to make phone calls on your Mac, one of which is a utility called Continuity Keypad. There's also just opening Contacts and clicking on the…
Continuity Keypad Makes Calling From Yosemite Easier
There isn't much on the site itself besides a link to download the beta. You can find out more on the Continuity Keypad Twitter account, including plans for the Mac App Store and updates to the beta. Right now those plans include ending up in the Mac App Store at 99 cents, and a steady…
How Apple Pay Mitigates Breach Fatigue
Start here: Kirk Lennon posted a fantastic breakdown of the current non-cash payment situation: Why the stripe is a bad idea, how “Chip and PIN” in the rest of the world and “Chip and Sign” in the US are addressing the issues with the stripe, and what Apple Pay does that makes all of this…
iOS 8: Notification Per Email Thread
First off, here's what it is: This is a flag that allows you to set a notification on a particular email thread. It's pretty common to turn off notifications for every single email, so this way you can make sure you don't miss an important one. It only appears as an option if you have…
How to Use Apple Support Profile, and Why You Should
You can access this super useful page at http://supportprofile.apple.com, and all you have to do is log in using your Apple ID, and any hardware you've registered using that Apple ID will appear as if by magic. You can manage this page by adding or removing hardware, and that's basically anything Apple has sold in…
iOS 8: News In Notification Center
First up, you'll want to know how to enable these. Keep in mind that enabling everything possible in Notification Center will likely give you carpal tunnel, so try to be selective. Let's start with the completely free apps. There's the Vice app, which lists top stories in the “Today” view. Also totally free are Yahoo!…
Meet Ello, the Social Network Where You Are Not The Product
There is a new social network that has exploded into the internet's awareness recently, and that network is called Ello. Built by seven people based in Boulder, Colorado, Ello is an ad-free social network that is currently invite-only. What makes it different from the social networks out there now is that the people behind it…
iOS 8: Using Handoff on Mobile Devices
To use Handoff features, you need to have all your devices set up with the same iCloud account. You can go to Settings -> General -> Handoff & Suggested Apps to make sure you have the feature enabled. Also enable Bluetooth if you haven't already, under Settings -> Bluetooth (or turn it on from Control…
iOS 8.0.1 Update Includes Bug Fixes, Kills Service
iOS 8.0.1 fixes some issues, but kills cell service and Touch ID for some Fixes a bug so HealthKit apps can now be made available on the App Store Addresses an issue where 3rd party keyboards could become deselected when a user enters their passcode Fixes an issue that prevented some apps from accessing photos…
iOS 8 App Store Bundles Explained
Ultimate Productivity Bundle by Readdle First off, a developer is more than welcome to assemble a bundle, but it can only contain the apps made by a single developer. As of now there is no way to create a bundle with apps from more than one developer, but hopefully that's something that will change in…
iOS OTA update too big? Use iTunes
First, plug your device into iTunes. Once it's there, click the “Back Up” button on the right, under “Manually Back Up and Restore.” iTunes Backup Screen options. This way you have a bit of extra insurance in case it all goes wrong. If you don't have iTunes set to automatically check, click the “Check Now”…
iOS 8 Upgrade Recommendations By Device/Model
iPhone iPhone 5s or 5c: Probably. If you purchased your 5s on a subsidized contract, you have another year (or more) left on it so upgrading is a good idea. If you bought your 5s off-contract, and you already pulled the trigger on a new iPhone, you may not want to bother since you'll automagically…
PSA: Skip iCloud Drive if You Sync iCloud Data to Mac or iOS 7
Here's why: You can't go back to “regular” iCloud syncing, and your Mac (and any mobile Apple devices running iOS 7 or earlier) can't access anything synced to iCloud Drive. This is a feature coming to Yosemite, the next version of OS X, and that hasn't been released yet. Even if you have the Yosemite…
T-Mobile Unleashes Wi-Fi In Latest Uncarrier Event
First up, all Simple Choice customers can use Wi-Fi calling and texting with capable phones on any Wi-Fi network. As of the time of the announcement, all smartphones for sale from T-Mobile have this capability, and if a customer doesn't have a phone with this capability, not to worry. T-Mobile also launched “open enrollment” in…
SwiftKey Announces Prediction Engine and Cloud Syncing for iOS 8 Keyboard Replacement
SwiftKey is a four year-old popular keyboard replacement utility on Android devices, using its own auto-correct feature and some excellent prediction to make text entry easier on touchscreen devices. With the advent of iOS 8 and the option for additional keyboards, SwiftKey is now making this same utility available to Apple users.
How To Prepare Devices For An iOS 8 Upgrade
1) Trim the (digital) fat First off, assess the situation on your iPhone. Is it full? Do you sometimes get notified of an update for an app you forgot you had? Do you buy more iCloud space for backups because of all those photos? Now's a good time to clean out some of those items.…
How To Clean Lint from iPhone and iPad Ports
Everything from having a hard time charging a device to no sound because your iPhone still thinks headphones are plugged in can be attributed to mystery junk accumulating in the headphone jack or in the charge/sync port (be it Lightning or 30-pin). Here's how to clean those ports and help keep stuff from building up…
How To Manage Apple's Photo Stream on Mac OS or Windows
Not only might that be your only tool on hand to use, if you have a large number of photos to delete, it can be more convenient to remove items from Photo Stream using a keyboard and mouse using a large screen. To start, here's how to enable or disable Photo Stream: Enable Photo Stream…
How to Delete Photos From Your iOS Photo Stream
Photos only stay in a personal Photo Stream for 30 days, but even then not everything necessarily needs to get shared in a Photo Stream. For example, if you take multiple photos to make sure nobody is blinking, you may not need to keep all of them. Perhaps you're, say, taking a bunch of nude…
How To Tell iMessages From Text Messages
Firstly, in the Messages app, your outgoing message bubbles are either blue or green. That color coding is key to knowing what's what. Let's start with blue ones: If they're blue, that means it is an iMessage going from one Apple device (iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Mac) to another. These are free communication, be it text…
How Duke Turned an iPod Giveaway into a University-Wide Digital Initiative
Ten years ago, Apple's iPod inspired Duke University to hand them out to incoming freshmen so that they could listen to recorded lectures and other material. But what began as an iPod-giveaway has since morphed into the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI), a program that embraces technology in many forms to better the education process. In…