May 25, 2013

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Google Maps for iOS

December 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Just on the off chance you didn’t know – a new Google Maps app is now available in the App Store.

And yes, it’s free.

The timing couldn’t be better, in light of the recent report that Apple Maps almost killed a few people in Australia.

While Apple’s maps are pretty, the app’s accuracy has been a big question mark since its release. Google has been doing maps for a long time, and they’re really good at it. So if you’ve been holding off on upgrading your iPhone to iOS6, now you can feel comfortable doing it without the fear of losing a good mapping solution.

Go get the Google Maps app, because you can’t beat the price.

 
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Business Insider: Apple Again Tracking Users’ Locations

October 15, 2012 by 1 Comment

I ran across this article in Business Insider today (thanks to Twitter) – Image: Business Insiderit would appear the good folks at Apple are still looking for ways to leverage your location data.

Apparently, they’ve got one – and it’s buried deep inside iOS 6.

And yes, it’s on by default. You can opt out of it, but it’s not the most intuitive maneuver, as the report shows. As a result, most people will have it enabled because of its obscure location in the Settings.

Oh, I was one of that “most people” group, until about five minutes ago. It’s work your five minutes to take a look at the report, iPhone in hand.

 

 
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New Stuff From Apple

June 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

AppleBig news today from Apple today – their Worldwide Developer Conference kicked off this afternoon, and their keynote address actually ended up being more like three keynote addresses. There’s big news on three fronts: MacBook laptops, OS X Mountain Lion and iOS6.

I’m just going to hit the highlights – only because there are dedicated writers out there will have much more comprehensive reviews and opinions of things. I’ll include some links you should check out at the end of this post.

MacBooks:

Updates to the Existing MacBook Air/MacBook Pro lines, including:

  • New processors (meaning faster)
  • Better graphics processing (crisper images)
  • Expanded RAM/Disk Storage options
  • USB 3.0 support (faster peripheral devices)
  • MacBook Air starts at $999
  • MacBook Pro starts at $1,199

IN SUMMARY: Some nice updates/upgrades, with no change in price.

Brand new MacBook Pro with Retina Display:

  • 15″ Only
  • Display supports 2880×1800 resolution (meaning it’s sharper than a Blue Ray player – wow).
  • Supports up to 16GB of Memory
  • Dual Thunderbolt Ports, and now an HDMI Port and USB 3.0
  • Ultra Thin (.71 inches) and very light (4.46 pounds)
  • Starts at $2,199

IN SUMMARY: This is a beast of a machine for the price, and I want one. It’s targeted at high-end users to be sure – video and photography types in particular have to be drooling over this thing. What’s noticeably missing from this machine is no RJ45 (network) port and no optical (DVD) drive. For network there’s a Thunderbolt adapter, and for optical there’s a USB-based SuperDrive option.

It also appears that the 17″ MacBook is going away – it’s not listed under the MacBook Pro family on the store site. My guess is that the new MacBook w/ Retina is the replacement for it.

OS X Mountain Lion:

  • Available In July.
  • If you buy a machine today or later,  the upgrade is free. Otherwise, it will be a $20 upgrade via the App Store that can be applied to all of your home Mac machines. This is the same plan as the Lion upgrade – only cheaper.
  • 200 New features in it, but a handful were highlighted.
  • Reminders, Messages and Notes (all available in iOS) will be available in OS X. All iCloud enabled.
  • Dictation will be available.
  • Some really wild integration with Safari and iCloud – and how it will also integrate and extend to your iPhone/iPad.
  • Will have full screen AirPlay, and Game Center will be a part of the OS. Oh, and AirPlay will run at 1080p to the new AppleTV device.
  • Mixed in with this is the announcement of a new AirPort Express (still $99), which will now support dual band wireless (2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz)
  • IN SUMMARY: Some really great features and integration is on the way. If you’re world is heavily laden with Apple “things” (like mine), the integration of them will continue to be incredibly seamless. It will be well worth the $20.

iOS 6 (iPhone, iPad and iPod):

  • Available in the Fall 2012 (if tradition holds, expect sometime in October).
  • Upgrade can be applied to iPhone 3GS and later, iPod 4th Generation and later, iPad 2 and later.
  • Much tighter Facebook integration into the device OS – very similar to how Twitter is integrated in iOS5.
  • Very interesting and long overdue incoming notification management, with a Do Not Disturb option for incoming mail, texts and calls. This also includes what they’re calling VIP lists – which to me translates to defining what a priority call/message should be.
  • Better Siri stuff, with integration into things like Yelp! and OpenTable (for you foodies out there).
  • The ability to launch apps with Siri, and do things with them. Again, long overdue.
  • New Maps app (to replace the current Google Maps) – including turn by turn directions and ridiculous 3D and flyover capabilities.
  • Facetime over cellular – it used to only work if you were on a WiFi connection. That limitation is now gone.

IN SUMMARY: This will be a great upgrade for mobile devices. I also find the timing interesting – fall is usually right in line with the update cycle for the iPhone.

 

Each of these sections could be a couple of posts each – and probably will be in some form as these things land in people’s hands. This is where you, our faithful readers, can help. If there’s something in particular you think we should expand upon, please tell us. For now, I’m really excited to see these things deliver.

If you want more detailed information , here are a few site you should visit (because they do a great job):

If you’re interested in watching it, Apple has posted the video of the Keynote (beware – it’s almost 2 hours long).

And if you’re interested in going shopping, the Apple Online Store sure beats waiting in line at a physical Apple Store.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please post them in the comments – we’d love to hear from you.

 
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Change your iOS Defaults: Sounds

April 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I’ve been seeing a lot of new iPhones and iPads in the hands of people. How do I know they’re new? They’re still using the default settings: the background image, default sounds and things like that. If there’s anything we hope to do at Beyond The Defaults, it’s to show our readers how to move beyond what’s delivered out of the box.

So gather ’round everyone, and I’ll show you a few things that will make your device a lot more “personal”.

In this post, I’ll show you how to manage sounds on the device – because the sounds your phone or tablet makes are the first giveaway that you’ve got a new device;  it’s  the most noticeable thing – to both you and the people around you.

Open the settings and find Sounds – then tap on the item in the menu to display the entire array of Sounds options (a snapshot of my iPhone settings are shown on the left).

As you can see there are a number of settings, but here are the ones I think most people should change. Here’s why I encourage these in particular – if every iPhone in the room has the same settings, one phone call, e-mail message or text message will have every iPhone user in the room reaching for their hip or bag. That, and by default the device settings are “noisy”.

Ringtone

Choose something different if you can. I use the Old Phone option, but I also have a few custom tones for specific people. Can you create ringtones from files? Sure you can – and I’ll do a separate post on how you can do that without buying an app.

Text Tone

This is the one that usually gets everyone in the room all reaching for their phones when a new message arrives. The default is Tri-Tone, I use something a little more subtle (Ding), or I’ll just make it None.

New Mail & Sent Mail

I typically recommend setting both of these to None – because people that use smartphones are usually fairly heavy mail users (both incoming and outgoing). No need for the device to make that much noise.

Calendar and Reminder Alerts

Ever sit in a meeting and learn that three people in the room have a meeting right after the one you’re in? That’s because their Calendar Alerts all go off at the same time with the same tone. The default for both is Alert – a good suggestion would be to either use something different or just make it silent.

Lock Sounds & Keyboard Clicks

If you want to draw attention to yourself quickly, leave these two set to the default of On. By doing so, every interaction you have with your phone/tablet will make a clicking noise. I strongly recommend to most people to set both to Off as soon as possible.

One thing you’ve probably noticed in my suggestions – the “None” options is a frequently used and  perfectly good choice. As you’ll see from the snapshot of my Sounds preferences, I use None a lot. Primarily, it’s to be considerate of others (see my Lessons Learned post), but there are other reasons as well – such as not needing a tone when mail arrives during the night or the caller that I didn’t answer left me a voice mail message. My phone will still notify me – I’ve got the Vibrate option on, so in addition to (or in place of) sounds, the device will vibrate.

I’m making the device work the way I want to work, which is exactly what everyone should do.

Now, go forth and personalize.

 
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Why Won’t My New Password Work On My iPad?

March 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

My sister called me on Friday afternoon because she needed some help with her iPad.  She had recently changed her Facebook and Pinterest passwords but wasn’t able to log into either account using the browser (Safari app).  (She knows she can use the Facebook app but chooses to use the browser.)  The fix is pretty simple.

Open your Settings and go to the Safari option.  From there click on “Clear History” and “Clear Cookies and Data”.  Press the Clear button when prompted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go back to Safari and try logging into your accounts again and it should work.

Did you notice the new Evernote clipper at the bottom of each post? Its new and we hope you will try it out. If you are reading this in your email, you will need to click through to the post to see the new button.

Did you know Beyond The Defaults is now on Facebook and Twitter? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up to receive new posts delivered directly to your Inbox!

 
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Home Fruitification: AirPort and AirPlay

March 15, 2012 by 9 Comments

So when I say AirPort, you think AirPlane. Maybe with better spelling.

AirPort ExpressActually, when I say AirPort I’m referring to wireless networking from Apple. These devices make it very easy to add wireless connectivity (along with media sharing and network printing) to your existing home network. Having a home network today almost demands wireless access, because so many devices rely on wireless networking to function – laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and even iPods.

AirPort comes in two flavors:
  1. AirPort Extreme ($179) – This is the full-blown wireless base station, complete with all of the bells and whistles you’d see when buying a new Wireless Access Point+Router. If you don’t have a home network yet, this is a great choice because it will provide everything you’ll need to get going (firewall, guest networking, wireless printing and a few other things).
  2. AirPort Express ($99) – The AirPort Express is a much smaller device, and provides a number of the same features as the Extreme – with a few more interesting (and to me, more useful) tricks. It doesn’t provide firewall or other security services, so if you’ve already got a network in place, this is a great solution. But the real reason I like the AirPort Express is that it offers the ability to leverage your existing wireless network in a very “entertaining” way – as in being able to use your home entertainment system to play your music.

You configure them both from a computer on your network, using the AirPort utility software from a computer. There’s software for both Mac and Windows, so you don’t need a Mac to configure it (although the utility is built into the Mac OS). As is generally the case with Apple, the software is very intuitive and easy to follow – even for the novice. There are a multitude of resources available for setting up wireless networking (if you’ve not done it before), so I won’t go into great depth here. I’ll do a post soon on wireless network security tips and planning, because there are three or four things (all of them pretty simple) that you can and should do to keep your stuff safe.

Now – on to the ”entertainment” portion of the show, or the real reason I’m even writing about this: music.

I have a significant digital music collection – at current count, over 8,000 music entries in iTunes. One of the greatest things about digital music is that you can enjoy it anywhere (thank you, iPod). With an AirPort Express, that “anywhere” includes your home audio system. My AirPort Express is plugged into an outlet right next to a component amplifier/tuner; using an additional cable kit, I can plug the AirPort Express into one of the RCA-plug inputs on the amplifier and treat it as a connected component – in my case, it’s the “CD Player”.

The music is still on your iPod/iPad/iPhone or even on your computer (via iTunes), but through the wonders of something called AirPlay, that music can be output/directed to the AirPort Express device. Here’s the best part – if you’ve set up the AirPort Express correctly (and it’s not hard), all of the “i-things” will just find it as an available AirPlay device and make it available as an output either on the device or in the iTunes software.

Here’s where you find it:

On an iPhone/iPod:

AirPlay is is an option in the Music player app on the device.

Find the AirPlay icon (on the right side of the music player controls); tap on the icon, and the available AirPlay destinations on your network will be displayed. Select a destination, and the music being played on the device will be re-directed to the AirPlay destination.

 

On an iPad:

The AirPlay icon on the iPad music player is at the top of the screen, the rightmost control in the music controls.  Just like the iPhone/iPod, select a destination for the music, and off you go.

In iTunes (Windows and Mac):

If you’re rather just use the library on your computer (because it’s probably bigger and has more stuff), not a problem. The AirPlay option in iTunes is available in the right side of the status bar (the bottom bar of the iTunes software).

Click the AirPlay icon, select your destination of choice, and you’ll be enjoying the sound of music from something other than your computer.

Now, as you might have noticed in each of these screens, there’s an Apple TV in the mix as well. Just like the AirPort Express, Apple TV can be an AirPlay receiver.

Here’s the extra-special bonus: if you’ve got both (like I do), or maybe multiple AirPort Express devices installed, and you’re delivering your music from your computer via iTunes, you can simultaneously send the output to multiple locations by selecting “Multiple Speakers…” from the AirPlay icon and then choosing your endpoints.

Whole house music, all delivered wirelessly and controlled from one location. Ok, I’ll say it: that’s just cool.

In the next installment of “Fruitification”, I’ll talk a little more about Apple TV and AirPlay – because with the latest iPad, the latest Apple TV and the upcoming Mountain Lion updates for the Mac, Apple TV and AirPlay have some great things to offer.

Much more to come. Stay tuned.

 
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Home Fruitification: iTunes Home Sharing

March 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Let me start by saying: I know, I’m becoming a bit of an Apple snob. Allow me to explain.

For a long time, I was very anti-Apple, sticking to my Windows machines, BlackBerry phones and a slew of Creative MP3 players. Strictly a cost decision, as in every case the price tag was less than Apple. But the longer I used them, and the more I’ve used my Apple gear, I’ve realized a few things:
  • There are thousands of products that integrate iPod/iPhone into their operation. From docking stations to external speakers to car stereos, there’s a way to incorporate these devices.
  • Apple makes really good products, and they’ve proven to me that they’re worth the price a person pays.
  • Apple puts a lot of thought into how to make all things Apple play nice together.

There are lots of ways to “Apple-ize” one’s world (as I’m learning), so I’ll be posting from time to time on the various products Apple offers and how to make them fit into your own world.

Today, I’m starting with something that anyone with more than one computer running iTunes can use: Apple Home Sharing.

Beginning with iTunes 9.0 (and includes iTunes for Windows), the Home Sharing option allows you to share your iTunes library with other computers on your home network. The good news, it’s really easy to set up.

In iTunes, select Advanced > Turn On Home Sharing. Yes, it’s that easy. Once enabled, there’s only one screen of information required:

Home Sharing
The only requirement is that you need an Apple ID to enable it. If you don’t have an Apple ID (if you shop in the App Store, you already have one), you can easily register one. Fill in the Apple ID and password, click Create Home Share and you’re done.

Home Sharing Complete

I set this up on my Windows workstation. So when I open up iTunes on my MacBook, I now see the library on my workstation in the left panel:

I can play anything in the library, as long as my workstation is on, is connected to the network and iTunes is running. I’ve had a few instances where I’ve needed to restart iTunes on my workstation in order to get it to appear on my MacBook, but not the other way around.

Another thing to note is that when I’m in my shared library, I have the Import button available to me – which means I can then copy the selected shared library item(s) to the library on the MacBook so that they’ll be available to me when I’m not connected to my home network. This is particularly handy when traveling or when I’m working outside of my office, but it also makes transferring media and iThings (iPod, iPad and iPhone) to new machines (because a lot of us do end up replacing machines at one time or another) a lot easier.

Speaking of networks – this only works inside your personal network. If you need access to music (and other media) outside of your network via the Internet, iCloud is what makes that happen (a good topic for a future post, because iCloud is a lot more than music).

One thing that is inconvenient, though, is that you can’t use the normal display options that you would in iTunes (the options just to the left of the Search field). The more attractive looking tiling/grouping of things you see in the local library isn’t an option, so you’re left with having to manage things from a great big list. The good news is that the columns are sortable in a few ways; I’d click on the Album column header a few times, most of the more useful setups can be found there.

That’s all there is to it.

So as you go forward and set up your own Home Sharing, here are some helpful pointers (should you need them):
  • To check what version of iTunes you’re running, choose Help > About iTunes (for Windows) or iTunes > About iTunes (OS X); this will display the installed version number (and a variety of other things). Just in case you go looking for things and they’re not there.
  • If you need to update your iTunes software, go to http://www.apple.com/iTunes .
  • If you run into trouble and need some help, start with the Troubleshooting Home Sharing document on Apple’s support site.

This is only one small part of what Home Sharing offers; the really cool stuff comes into play when we introduce AirPort Express and Apple TV. In the next installment, I’ll cover Apple’s AirPort Express – the simple and easy way to take your tunes and pipe them through your home audio system. Not only from your computer, but also from an iPod Touch/iPhone.

So until then, happy sharing.

 
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3 Ways: To Delete an Email from iOS

February 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

One of the things I’ve learned about most technology is that there’s usually (at least) three ways to do most things – whether that’s getting a map to a location on my smartphone, updating somebody’s contact information or sending a message of some kind.

With that in mind, I’m starting a periodic series titled “Three Ways:” (stunningly original, I know). I’m certain I won’t be the only one contributing to this series; Abby is very good at finding alternative ways to do things, so expect her to be adding to the Three Ways library.

I’m starting this little journey with something that every iOS (meaning iPhone/iPod/iPad) user does – delete messages from their mail. And believe it or not, there are three ways to do it:

Way #1: From the message itself, using the Trash Can.

This is probably the most obvious method – open the mail message, read it and then throw it away. The Trash Can icon in the bottom menu bar is just that – the trash. Tap on that icon and the message is moved out of the Inbox/folder and marked as deleted.

 

Way #2: In bulk, using the Edit button at the top of the listing.

If you’re looking at the Inbox (or another folder) on your device, there’s an Edit button. Tap it, and it allows for selection of individual items in the listing.

 

Select the items you want to delete – the red check mark will appear as you select items.  When ready, tap the Delete button on the bottom menu bar. Once again, off to the trash they go.

 

Way #3: Individually from the Inbox, using a swipe gesture.

This is the one that most people don’t know about, and it’s the one I probably use the most.  iOS is loaded with swipe gestures, each of which does something different (depending on where you are in iOS).

While in your Inbox (or another folder listing), use one finger and swipe horizontally across the message you want to delete. When you do, a Delete button will appear on the right side of the message listing. Tap Delete, and away it goes.

There you have it – three ways delete mail.

This is the first of what I hope will be many Three Ways postings – so if there’s something you think is more difficult than it should be, let us know what that is and we’ll see if there’s a better way. Or two.

 

 
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Thinking Apple? Free Shipping through 12/22

December 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Thinking about something fruity for someone’s holiday gifts?

If you’re going to Apple.com, you’ll enjoy free shipping through December 22.

So if you’re in the market for a new MacBook, iMac or iPad, be sure to visit the Apple Store online. Or if you like waiting in line, go to your local Apple store.

Go forth and shop.

 
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