iOS

I enjoy gadgets, not because they are new diversions for an ever shrinking attention span – they are, but that’s not the only reason. I like gadgets because I am fascinated by the creativity and thought that went into making the doo-hicky. Photography, for example, is an area where innovation relentlessly pushes technology forward. Film…

Choose the menu item iCal > Preferences (or hit Command-Comma within iCal, as that’s the keyboard shortcut for the preferences for most programs). When that window opens, click the General tab, then toggle “Show: [number] hours at a time” to whatever you’d like it to be.I prefer to change that number to 24; that way,…

Paper Camera includes manga-style, sketch, water color, halftone, neo crayon, pencil, old comic book-style, and noir. The company says that additional filters will be added with future updates.Paper Camera is priced at US$0.99 and is available at Apple’s iTunes-based App Store.

In iTunes, click to select the media you’d like to edit. Then hit Command-I or choose the menu command File > Get Info. If you’ve selected multiple items, iTunes will then ask if you’re absolutely sure that you know what you’re doing, at which point you’ll probably want to click the handy little “Do not…

Spyglass is a powerful but technical app for the outdoorsman. It uses the camera, if available, as a viewfinder and overlays a myriad of positional information using every sensor available. Use it as a waypoints tool, sextant, compass, range finder, speedometer, inclinometer and more. People who would find this app useful include: sailors, hikers &…

This same trick also works for some special symbols; holding on the dollar sign will give you other currencies, doing so on the zero will allow you to insert a degree symbol, and so on. But did you know that you can make your iPhone fill in “.net,” “.org,” “.edu,” and the like? Here’s how.First,…

As explained by Steve Jobs in the WWDC Keynote earlier this month, iCloud has nine main features — from revamped versions of MobileMe’s Mail, Calendar and Contacts to Photo Stream to the new iTunes in the Cloud options. What Steve didn’t explain was what would happen to the features, currently in MobileMe, that were not…

Coders favor iOS over OS XOf the 45 developers surveyed, all said they wrote iPhone and iPod touch apps, and 93 percent said they also coded for the iPad, according to Fortune. Only 7 percent said the also wrote Mac apps, down from 50 percent in 2008.47 percent of those surveyed said they also build…

When I got home, unpacked, and tried to read my email, Mail would not let me in the program unless I entered my administrative password. When I tried to do that, it seemed like a demon had taken over my Mac, a demon intent on typing character after character in the password field when I…

Accessing your previously purchased content, whether it’s apps or songs, is easy to do. Here’s what it takes, for example, to download apps you already paid for: On your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 4.3.3, launch the App Store app. On the iPhone and iPod touch, tap Updates, look to the top of…

According to the KB article, users experiencing problems see a “-50” error when attempting to sync content with iTunes from their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.Apple released iTunes 10.3 on Monday with support for the new Automatic Downloads feature that lets users purchase from the iTunes Store and App Store on one device and have…

To enable Automatic Downloads on your iOS 4.3.3 device, do this: Tap Settings Tap Store Tap the Off slider to enable Automatic Downloads for Music, Apps, and Books books individually. Automatic Downloads works only on Wi-Fi networks by default. To enable auto downloads over 3G data networks, enable Cellular. Enable Automatic Downloads in iOS 4.3.3’s…

iOS 5’s Notification Center iOS 5, which will be shipping this fall, will include: Notification Center iOS 5’s Notification Center replaces the current push notification system with an interface that shows missed calls, calendar alerts, app alerts, instant message notifications and more in one place. Notifications no longer interrupt applications, and tapping a notification takes…

Snow Leopard users that installed Apple’s Security Update 2011-003 can get daily safe file updates Safari uses to help make sure malware doesn’t find its way onto their Macs. Apple doesn’t, however, offer an easy way to tell when your definitions list was last updated, or what list version number is installed, so The Mac…

If you’re not familiar with Street View, you definitely should brush up. In short, Google’s driven around a lot of the world in cars (and in some places, tricycles and snowmobiles!) with camera arrays, taking pictures and putting together panoramic images. This technology has been available on the iPhone since 2008, and I personally love…

Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite hard driveThe drive includes 500GB storage, a built-in rechargeable battery that runs for up to five hours (25 hours in stand by mode), can sync content with your computer via drag and drop or Seagate’s companion application, and can transfer data with user’s computer via cable, too. The GoFlex Satellite supports streaming…

The point of working with Nuance technology would be for Apple to add powerful speech recognition tools into iOS, possibly coupled with a broader use of the artificial intelligence technology Apple acquired when it bought Siri in 2010. Siri currently exists as a “personal assistant” app for iOS that allows you to ask questions using…

Amazon launched the online storage and music playback service near the end of March with 5GB of free storage and the ability to stream songs from your Cloud Drive — unless you used an iOS-based device.Amazon Cloud Player on the iPadNo word was given to explain why Apple’s devices were left out, and no word…

iOS 4.3.3 addresses location tracking concernsThe 4.3.3 update reduces the size of the location data cache, no longer backs up the cache when syncing with iTunes, and deletes the location cache from users iPhones when Location Services is disabled.The update clocks in at 662.3MB on the GSM-based iPhones TMO tested, and 652.8MB for CDMA iPhones.…

Cell tower and Wi-Fi locations near you are stored on your iPhoneThe iOS 4.3.3 update will allegedly reduce the number of days worth of location data stored on user’s iPhones, no longer backs up the database to user’s computers, and deletes the database when Location Services is disabled. The update should also include fixes for…

It’s no exaggeration to say that, once again, Apple has gotten behind the public relations curve on a critical technical issue. This doesn’t happen because, from time to time, Apple slips up or because the media decides to kick some sand in Apple’s face. It happens because Apple is a large, aggressive company and these…

To be more specific, you can’t get this access via any Apple-supplied software. But Apple will allow you to pry open the lid, within limits, via third-party Mac utilities. My personal favorite of these utilities is PhoneView. While programs such as PhoneView have been around almost since the arrival of the iPhone, Apple has recently…

The 10.2.2 update addressed an issue where iTunes could become unresponsive when syncing an iPad, and fixed a problem where photo syncing could take far longer than it should. It also fixed an issue that could cause video previews to skip when viewed in the iTunes application, and fixed other stability and performance issues.Along with…