Dec 20

Protect yourself from iPad and iPhone germs

By Brian How To 1 Comment »

It’s that time of year — well, yes, it’s almost Christmas, but it’s that OTHER time of year… the time of year when it’s cold, snowy (depending on where you live), and germs run rampant as adults and kids alike have the sniffles. Personally, I’ve dealt with at least two colds and a bout of the flu. It seems like just when I was getting over one contagion, another would come along and smack me upside the head. This, of course, got me thinking very carefully about how to better protect myself from germs and further illness. In addition to doorknobs, restrooms, computer keyboards, etc., there’s the obvious culprit that most of us use frequently in our daily lives — our touch iOS devices!

I use my iPhone 4 constantly and my iPad 2 almost constantly, with plenty of tapping and swiping. I have protective screen covers on both, but the fingerprints and smudges are clear evidence of the constant touching those devices receive on a daily basis. How many germs are we transferring from other places and people onto the touch screens of our iOS devices each day? If you’re like me, you handle your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch without a second thought about the possibility that your touch screen is a Petri dish full of nasty critters.

What’s the solution for reducing the germs on our touch devices? There are numerous cleaning products out there marketed directly at touch device owners, and I won’t go into a discussion on the many products out there, but if we all simply apply a little common sense, we can greatly reduce the germs and risk of infection and illness. We should all wash our hands often with soap and water, use hand sanitizer when available, avoid touching our faces with our hands, and it’s a good idea to *carefully* clean and disinfect our iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone touch screens on a regular and frequent basis. You might simply apply some disinfectant to a microfiber cloth and carefully wipe away the smudges, fingerprints and germs from your iOS devices.

Speak up if you have additional ideas on keeping your iOS devices clean and germ-free!

 

 

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Apr 20

How-To: Free up disk space by deleting iPad/iPhone backups

By Brian How To, News 5 Comments »

Recently my good ‘ol reliable Apple MacBook Pro alerted me that I was running very slim on hard disk space. Yikes! Less than 1GB to go — that simply won’t do. Trying to get creative with freeing up more disk space, I did a little bit of online research and learned that one of the easiest and quickest ways I could free up several gigabytes of space was to look no further than iTunes.

If you open up iTunes, click on “Preferences” in the iTunes menu bar, then select your “Devices” tab, you’ll likely see several backups for your “i” devices, whether you’ve been syncing an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or all the above. Chances are, you have more than one backup, eating up precious gigabytes of space on your hard drive. Unless you really need those older backups, you may want to consider keeping just the most recent backups and deleting the rest. With just a few clicks, I was able to free up enough hard disk space that I went from a skimpy 792MB to just over 17GB!  Now, I have quite a bit of breathing room and I don’t have to rush off and spend $$ upgrade my hard drive.

If you’re more tech-savvy, you can also delve into your file system and find your backups and delete them there, but iTunes is a simple, straight-forward and safer way to do it. If you decide to delete some of your backups, how much space did you free up?

 

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Feb 10

Simple tip: save important info with a screenshot

By Brian How To 6 Comments »

Have you ever taken a screenshot on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch? Have you found something online that you wanted to immediately write down and save? Although an extremely simple, obvious function of iOS devices and perhaps a very obvious way to save information, I’ve done a little retraining of my brain when I find something while surfing the net on my iPad or iPhone and want to remember the data. Yes, you can simply bookmark the page and head back to it later when you need to recall the information. If it’s just a quick bit of information — like a telephone number, address, name of a particular product, book, or new band you want to check out — then maybe the quickest way to save those bits and bytes is a simple screenshot, sending the pic to your camera roll for easy retrieval later.

Yes, there are apps that store the bits and pieces you want to remember in life, like Evernote and even the Notes app that comes with your iOS device. If you’re really looking to keep it simple, though, then just grab a screenshot. If you need to remember the information written on a Post-it note or file away a receipt or information on a sign, just snap a pic with your iPhone camera (assuming you have an iPhone). Then, just like a screenshot, the photo is saved to your camera roll and you can look up the info later, then delete when no longer needed.

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Dec 29

How To: Passcode – Numbers or Characters

By Ivan How To No Comments »

I’m sure by now, most of you have the latest iOS 4.2.1 on your iPad, or some variation of it. If so, you probably would have noticed that there are TWO choices for entering a passcode.

The first, being the more common of the two, is the pin option. With this, you’re allowed to select a pin, comprised of 4 numbers. Basically this is the same as creating a pin for your bank card at an ATM. So, in essence you could have up to 10,000 combinations ;)

Below is a screenshot of the location to edit your choice of having\using a passcode.

Continue reading »

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Nov 22

How to avoid iPad MobileMe Calendar issues with iOS 4.2 update

By Brian How To, News 6 Comments »

 

I suppose it’s better late than never, but the good folks at Apple just sent me an email about updating my iPad to iOS 4.2 and a potential issue with my MobileMe Calendar if certain steps are not followed during the update process. In the event you are a MobileMe customer and haven’t seen the email already, here it is in its entirety:

Dear MobileMe member,

iOS 4.2 is now available and provides full support for the new MobileMe Calendar on iPad, including push updates of calendar changes. To update to iOS 4.2, connect your iPad to iTunes on your computer, select it in the Devices list, and click “Check for Update.”

Important: If you were using the new MobileMe Calendar on your iPad prior to updating to iOS 4.2, you should:

  • delete the CalDAV calendar you manually configured on your iPad
  • set the calendar slider to “on” in your MobileMe account

This will prevent the appearence of a duplicate calendar. For step-by-step instructions, please see this article.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team 

Given some of the issues I’ve had with multiple calendar entries in the past, the last thing I want to happen when I update to iOS 4.2 is MORE duplicate calendar entries! It’s worth taking a few moments and clicking on the provided link above to check out the step-by-step instructions to avoid this problem. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

 

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Aug 27

Review: Power Support 2-piece Anti-Glare Front and Crystal Back Film Set for iPhone 4

By Brian Accessories, How To, Reviews 7 Comments »

I’ve been a fan of Power Support products since my very first iPhone 2G, and now I’ve had a chance to try their latest and greatest on my iPhone 4 when I installed their 2-piece Anti-Glare Front and Crystal Back Film Set ($19.95). Once again, Power Support does not disappoint.

Since the iPhone 4′s design is flat glass, front and back, it makes it easier for accessory providers like Power Support to offer up simple self-installed protection for the front and back of the iPhone 4. The price (around $25 after shipping) may seem a little steep for one set of protection, but I can assure you that it should be the only screen and back protection you’ll ever need for your iPhone 4.

Installation was really a breeze — you just need to make sure that the front and back of your iPhone 4 is as clean as possible. Using a micro-fiber cloth is ideal for removing dust and fingerprints, and it’s best to apply the film set in an environment that is as dust-free as possible. Since a majority of us don’t have “clean rooms” in our homes, Power Support has provided a pre-installation film for removing any residual dust before you actually apply the film set. Just use the pre-install film first, then carefully apply the film set, one side at a time, starting at one end and carefully peeling away the backing as you work your way down to the other end.

I chose the anti-glare film because it does, in fact, reduce glare and it does an excellent job warding off unsightly fingerprints and smudges. I was able to apply the film on my first attempt, smoothed out any little bubbles, and I can gladly say that I managed to install the film set without trapping any dust between the film and the screen. One helpful tip — I recommend starting the installation from the top and working down.

My conclusion — a big thumbs-up for the Power Support 2-piece Anti-Glare Front and Crystal Back Film Set. It’s about the best film set I’ve found for protecting your iPhone 4 and it’s quite a bit easier to intall when compared to my experience installing their film on my iPad!

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Aug 19

How to: disable ability of Facebook friends to “check you in” using Places

By Brian How To, News 1 Comment »

Facebook has just introduced “Places” with their new 3.2 update for the iPhone, and Places is a feature that allows you to “check in” so your Facebook friends know your whereabouts. If you want that kind of transparency in your life, then Facebook has the feature for you, but if you wish to maintain a modicum of privacy, then Places isn’t for you.

Now, that’s all fine and well if you want to keep your location hidden from the rest of your Facebook pals, but guess what? “Places” lets your Facebook friends check in on your behalf, so basically your buddy can rat you out if you’re at the Apple Store instead of at work, or in Las Vegas instead of Barstow, or… you get the picture. This “feature” makes Places just a little bit creepy. So, what to do? Fortunately, you will get an email the first time a friend tries to “check in” for you, giving you the chance to allow or deny their attempt, but instead of relying on this email notification, you can nip this in the bud.

Just go into your Facebook privacy settings, click on the “customize” link, scroll down to “things others share”, and simply disable the “Friends can check me into places” feature. That’s it. Or, you can let everyone know where you are, all of the time. Maybe not a bad idea for your teenager’s Facebook account.

[Android Central]

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Aug 13

How to: travel light with iPad, camera, Apple’s iPad Camera Connection Kit

By Brian Accessories, How To 5 Comments »

A while back we reviewed the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit and found that it’s one of those must-have accessories for your iPad, especially if you like taking pictures and want a convenient way to upload your pictures to your iPad. If you are doing any traveling and plan on taking lots and lots of pictures, it’s not a bad idea to regularly upload your priceless photos to your iPad so that: 1) you don’t run out of space on your digital camera memory card, and 2) you don’t lose your photos in the event something happens to your camera.

For only $29.00 at the Apple Store, the iPad Camera Connection Kit stows easily in a small bag or even in your pocket. Coupled with the ample storage space of your slim and light iPad, you have a powerful system for taking and preserving photos while traveling light. There’s no need to haul a laptop around with you when you can take your pictures, connect your camera to your iPad with the Connection Kit (either directly via USB or by sliding your camera’s SD card into the adapter), and upload your photos to both protect your captured memories as well as create space for more photo-taking.

I’ve used the Kit to upload photos to my iPad and it’s a breeze to use. After uploading your photos, you are given the option to erase the data on your camera or card so that you can take more photos. This combination of iPad Camera Connection Kit, iPad, and digital camera makes it easier to travel light and leave your heavier, pricey laptop at home.

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Aug 04

Ultrasn0w unlock now available for iPhone 4

By Brian How To, Jailbreak, News 1 Comment »

Hot on the heels of the easy-as-pie web-based comex jailbreak available at http://jailbreakme.com, the gurus of the DEV-TEAM BLOG have delivered again, this time with ultrasn0w for unlocking the iPhone 4 and breaking it free from AT&T. This means that once unlocked, you can use the iPhone 4 on other GSM carriers that offer support for the micro-SIM.

This unlock is version 1.0-1 and will work for the iPhone 4 baseband 01.59 and the iPhone 3G/3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04. To see what baseband you are running on your iPhone, go to Settings –> General –> About and scroll down to Modem Firmware. In case you aren’t familiar with unlocking your iPhone, your iPhone needs to be jailbroken first. If your handset is jailbroken and you are running the correct baseband, then go to Cydia and either search for “ultrasn0w” or add the repo:  repo666.ultrasn0w.com.

A big thanks to the DEV-TEAM for their hard work!

[DEV-TEAM BLOG]

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Jun 22

Finding my way using iPad and Google Maps

By Brian Apps, How To 1 Comment »

My first morning in Manhattan and need to make my way to the office. It’s a short stroll and, just in case I’m directions-challenged (which I am), my iPad comes to the rescue. Using Google Maps, I just use my Current Location as my starting point, input the address to my destination, and tap “Start” to get my directions illustrated graphically on the map. I also have the option to tap on the “car” icon for driving directions, the “bus” for mass transit directions, and the “person” icon for walking directions.

There’s been a lot of controversy about Google and privacy lately, but putting that aside, I’m quite impressed with the visual help Google Maps provides. Just tap on the info icon on your destination pin (the red pin) and you will often get a street-view photo of where you are going. It’s a nice touch to help you identify your destination with precision.

I’m off to find some quick breakfast (another benefit of Google Maps on my iPad) and then over to the office. How do you use your iPad and Google Maps?

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