iOS

Not everyone is happy with the idea of using the Apple MobileMe Cloud to sync personal data, especially if the contacts list contains sensitive personal or family data. Also, for those who don’t need the capability of push notification between an iPhone and a Mac, a direct iPhone sync to a Mac is satisfactory. Under…

Back when His Steveness announced the feature ladened iPhone OS 3.0 the salivary glands of the iPhone Faithful kicked into overdrive and vendors of other smart and not-so-smartphones started wringing hands again. See, iPhone owners knew their devices were cool and all, but there were still so many things their Wunder-Phone couldn’t do that other…

Home screen. Nothing’s changed here from when I wrote the prior column. The search feature is as solid as it promised to be. And it serves as an adequate app launcher. But, more than ever, the iPhone needs a better way to organize the (now up to a maximum of 11) Home screens. Trying to…

Spotlight Search Spotlight Search is a great addition to the iPhone, allowing you to search virtually all the content on your iPhone, from apps to contacts to mail messages. That’s why you’ll want to be able to navigate to the Search screen as quickly and conveniently as possible. There are multiple ways to get to…

Instead of seeing their settings when accessing the MobileMe online accounts page, many users saw a message saying “MobileMe Account is currently unavailable.” The Account page is where MobileMe subscribers go to access the new Find My iPhone feature.Find My iPhone is a new feature for iPhone OS 3.0 users that displays their iPhone’s physical…

Today, however, I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve up to his eyeballs in a flood of anticipation for what Santa will bring, except in this case it’s early Summer, I’m a hell of a lot older, and “Santa” hails from Cupertino, California, not the North Pole. I’m waiting, of course, for iPhone OS…

We met on the second level of Moscone West during WWDC, and Mr. Chaffee (pronounced Chay’-fee) gave us a sneak preview of BusyCal before we started recording the interview.John Chaffee, President, BusyMac TMO: Is this a new product? Chaffee: Yeah, it’s kind of the successor to BusySync, although BusySync will continue to be available. That’s…

Each of the utilities is stored in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder. Or much easier, you can enter the name of the utility itself in Spotlight. If you find that you use one or the other of them frequently you can drag the icon from the Applications folder to your dock so you…

To change your default RSS reader application from Safari, do this: Install the RSS reader you want to use on your Mac. I use NetNewsWire, but there are plenty of others to choose from. Launch Safari. Choose Safari > Preferences Click the RSS tab. Choose the reader application you want to use from the Default…

I was not allowed to take the book to another area. The librarians already knew they could not tell the gentleman not to read out loud because he did not understand them. I was under a very tight deadline and could not leave. I kept thinking about how handy the library’s scanner would be. I…

Jibbler’s speech capability is said to be similar to the new iPod shuffle’s ability to speak playlist and track names, with the added feature of real-time voice synthesis. Ars Technica said that the existence of Voice Services functions in OS 3.0 may allow developers to access the technology too. Whether this new technology will work…

Apple was the #4 computer vendor in the U.S., behind Acer (#3), Dell (#2), and HP (#1), and ahead of Toshiba (#5). Apple, Acer, Toshiba, and HP all gained market share during the quarter, while Dell, alone of the top five, posted a drop in market share of 1.6 percentage points (from 15.2% to 13.6%).…

Syrinx 2.0, now in beta, is a Mac-only, free Twitter client that is full featured, colorful and fun to use. It requires Leopard and is based on two goals: efficient workflow and customization. The 2.0 beta adds many welcome features such as search of Twitter, Retweets (RT) and auto URL shortening. Unlike Twitterrific, which supports…

As I reflected on my use of the iPhone, I realized that I am already around 50% on the way to making this substitution. More and more, I pick up my iPhone in preference to any Mac, even when my laptop or desktop machines are just a few feet away. I prefer the iPhone to…

From the descriptions in Software Update: AirPort Utility Software Update 2009-0001 (version 5.4.1): a 19.5MB download This update includes general fixes and compatibility updates for the following applications: AirPort Utility and AirPort Base Station Agent, including AirPort Disk Utility for Tiger. iLife Support (version 9.0.1): a 52.3MB download This update improves overall stability and addresses…

Many people have a technological tipping point. That’s the point where software, iLife ’09 for example, becomes so compelling that it can persuade one to give up personal, specialized, or UNIX geeky ways of doing things and just throw one’s entire weight behind a product. iLife ’09 did that for me with iPhoto and iWeb.…

Today is a light weight, tidy Mac OS X app that extracts iCal calendar events and tasks and places them in a small, time ordered window. It’s a summary screen that can be launched at login, so that iCal doesn’t have to be running, and new events and tasks can conveniently be entered into Today…

The new security guide is listed, along with other security guides for Leopard Server as well as Mac OS X Tiger and Panther. The 2nd edition for Leopard client is 260 pages. One section that may be of interest is the security auditing process associated with the Common Criteria certification process. The Apple Security Guide…

Here’s how to search for specific events in iCal: Click the Spotlight magnifying glass at the far right end of your Mac’s menu bar. Now enter something descriptive for the events you are looking for. As an example, I can find events that relate to the Colorado Macintosh User Group by entering CoMUG. Now add…

Here’s how to disable auto-correct once your iPhone has been updated to software version 2.2: Tap Settings Tap General Tap Keyboard Switch Auto-Correction to OFF You can turn the auto-correct feature on or off any time you want, no need to restart your iPhone. Even if you like the iPhone’s auto-correct feature, turning it of…

John Dvorak claims that itis time for Adobe to fight back against Microsoftis Silverlight initiative by porting its flagship apps to Linux. Itis the right kind of thinking, just the wrong platform. Mr. Dvorak, in a well considered editorial took a look at the emergence of Silverlight, the situation with the NBC coverage of the…

A co uple of quick notes about today’s release of an iPhone (and iPod touch) 2.0.1 bug-fix update: • Updating a jailbroken device. I applied the update to my jailbroken iPod touch. It updated the device without any glitches. The presence of the jailbreak software/firmware did not cause the update to fail. Nor did installing…