The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

iPhone cellular data not working? Try resetting your network settings

Sang Tang — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: How-tos, Tips and tricks, TUAW Tips, iPhone, iPhone 101

The "Reset Network Settings" button on the iPhone not only resets your Wi-Fi settings -- resulting in a clean slate with respect to Wi-Fi access points and their passwords -- it also resets your phone carrier settings. Several months back, I had the darndest trouble with cellular data access. I could place and receive calls, but couldn't get cellular data access no matter what I did. I tried going into and out of airplane mode, turning the phone on and off, and resetting it, all with no luck.

So I decided to call AT&T. Apparently, one of the cell phone towers near my office was having trouble and fell out of and back into commission. And although the tower was back up and running, my iPhone was stuck in cellular data purgatory. AT&T support suggested that resetting the network settings on the device would likely resolve the issue: and it did. Resetting network settings has also helped me resolve an issue I was having with Visual Voicemail on another occasion.

To reset your iPhone's network settings, tap your way to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. With great power also comes great annoyances, like having to reconnect to previously remembered access points and having to re-enter passwords.

iPhone cellular data not working? Try resetting your network settings originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dangerously driving a car with an iPhone

Tim Wasson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Hacks, How-tos, iPhone

Here at TUAW we've seen lots of uses for the iPhone as a remote control, but if you were watching and thinking that those projects were way too safe, then the guys at Waterloo Labs have got you covered. They approached the project with a low budget and DIY attitude, building a low-cost (relatively speaking) car that is controlled by a first generation iPhone. Not content with just building the car, they also chose to car-surf on the hood and roof, Teen Wolf style, while testing their handiwork.

While we at TUAW do not condone such dangerous behavior, we can recommend that you watch this other video by Waterloo Labs as a more in-depth instructional video on how to build your own vehicle.

Dangerously driving a car with an iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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5 smart albums to help you organize your iPhoto library

Sang Tang — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: iLife, How-tos

Like smart playlists in iTunes, smart albums in iPhoto provide a way for you to better organize your photos. Whether it's a list of your most recent photos or photos with a specified aperture range, there are countless smart albums you could create to fit your needs. Here are a few of my favorite.

Recently added: I always like having my most recent photos with me, and this is the smart album that gives them to me.

Match the following condition.
Date is in the last "90 days" (or whatever date range you prefer).

The smart family album: Say there are three family members in a family -- Tobias Fünke (dad), Lindsay Fünke (mom) and Maebe Fünke (daughter) -- and you want pictures of all of them in one place.

Match any of the following conditions.
Face is "Tobias."
Face is "Lindsay."
Face is "Maebe."

The camera-specific smart album: We've recently added a new member to the camera family, the Canon EOS 40D. But, like many a household, ours is one with several different cameras, and sometimes it's nice to see where each photo originated from.

Match the following condition.
Camera Model is "Canon EOS40D"

A smart album for videos: Some digital cameras these days can also function as "good enough" alternatives for camcorders. Here's a smart album that collects all of your videos imported from your digital cameras.

Match the following condition.
Photo is "Movie."

The best of the best: Your highest rated photos in one place

Match the following condition.
My rating is greater than "*" (or however many stars you desire)

Readers, tell us about some of the iPhoto smart albums that you've created.

5 smart albums to help you organize your iPhoto library originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An illustrated guide to Boot Camp and Windows 7

Josh Carr — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Features, How-tos, Tips and tricks

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for TUAW to introduce our illustrated guide to installing Windows 7 with Boot Camp. Windows? On a Mac? Blasphemy! Yes, yes... we hear you, but we could argue the pros and cons to having Windows on a Mac all day. So, let's just get to the installation process. Be warned, it's a lot of pictures and step-by-step information. It's not necessarily a "fun" read, unless you want to make fun of how I click a button...

Continue reading An illustrated guide to Boot Camp and Windows 7

An illustrated guide to Boot Camp and Windows 7 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac 101: How to manually enable menu extras

Josh Carr — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:30:00 EST

Filed under: How-tos, Productivity, Tips and tricks, Mac 101

More Mac 101, our tips and tricks for novice Mac users.

For some reason, I tend to come across times when my optical drive doesn't want to eject the CD or DVD that's in it. I found myself having to restart the computer and try again... in more serious instances, I have to restart and force-eject the disc by holding down the mouse button during the boot process.

At some point I thought to myself, "There's gotta be a better way to do this." Having to restart my computer when a disc doesn't want to eject is not exactly user-friendly. After pondering the possibilities for quite some time, I remembered that you could enable some menu extras (including an eject button) from the CoreServices folder.

Go to the root of your hard drive, either by choosing "Computer" from the Go menu or by clicking it in the sidebar of a Finder window (my hard drive is the icon labeled 'Server' in the screenshot), and follow this path:

System > Library > CoreServices > Menu Extras

Once in that folder, you'll see a lot of different extras that you can put into your menu bar. Just double-click the ones that look appealing to you and they will appear in your menu bar. Go ahead and give them a try. If you decide that you don't want something in the menu bar, just hold down the command key and drag it off the bar.

The eject button doesn't always fix a stuck CD, but it's one more option to try before restarting my computer.

Mac 101: How to manually enable menu extras originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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5 Smart Playlists to help you manage your iTunes library

Sang Tang — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: How-tos, iTunes, TUAW Tips

Smart playlists have been a feature of iTunes since version 3.0 (circa 2002), and they provide a means for you to create automatically-updated playlists that fit a certain criteria. For me, they serve as a hands-off way to stay up-to-date on my latest music and Podcasts, as well as a repository for a certain genre of music. To create a smart playlist, click on "File" and select "New Smart Playlist" (or you can use the command-option-n keyboard shortcut).

If you want a playlist that contains only holiday music, you could specify that the playlist include all songs with either the "Christmas" or "Chanukah" genre tag on it. Because smart playlists auto-update, you needn't worry about adding songs to it: as long as the track's tags meet the criteria, it is automatically included in the playlist -- unless, of course, you choose the "limit to" option, which limits the the tracks in the playlist based on your choosing.

Read more for five of my favorite smart playlists, as well as criteria for how to create them.

Continue reading 5 Smart Playlists to help you manage your iTunes library

5 Smart Playlists to help you manage your iTunes library originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quick and easy podcasting with an iPhone 3GS, GarageBand, and Posterous

Steven Sande — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Audio, iLife, How-tos, Podcasting, iPhone, iPod touch

I love podcasting.

My first podcasts weren't really podcasts, just recordings that I made and uploaded to a website in the late 90's so that other people could listen to them. Unlike the podcasts we know and love today, there was no way to subscribe to all of the episodes that I recorded. When podcasting as we know it hit the world in 2004, I started hosting podcasts through one of my companies.

Despite creating two long-running podcasts between 2004 and 2007, I finally gave up because of the time involved. Part of the problem was due to me being a stickler for perfection in my podcasts, while the rest was due to the fact that I was stuck with podcasting when I was near my iMac and could edit and update a feed file on a regular basis.

Earlier this month, I decided that I wanted to start up a personal podcast again. Yeah, I talk about tech, but for the most part I wanted this to be a free-form podcast that could talk about photography one day, music the next, and the joys of being a cat owner the third. Since my calendar is already pretty well jammed, the only way I was going to be able to commit to doing a podcast every day was to get the podcast workflow down to as little time as possible.

Continue reading Quick and easy podcasting with an iPhone 3GS, GarageBand, and Posterous

Quick and easy podcasting with an iPhone 3GS, GarageBand, and Posterous originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Snow Leopard Fixes: the angle-bracket "copy email" behavior

Dave Caolo — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: OS, How-tos, Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard introduced many welcome changes to Leopard and one huge annoyance. When copying an email address from Mail, Snow Leopard wraps the address in "< >" brackets, for example, "". When pasting, you've got to go back and remove the brackets.

Mac Daddy World has identified the preference setting and posted the simple Terminal commands that will eliminate the brackets. I tried it and it's working perfectly! Thanks, Mac Daddy World. That was very simple and most welcome.

While most users are happy with Snow Leopard, there are these annoyances. Is there something bothering you?

Snow Leopard Fixes: the angle-bracket "copy email" behavior originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Batch move your playlists to an iTunes folder

Sang Tang — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: How-tos, Tips and tricks, iTunes, AppleScript

Folders, which have been a feature of iTunes since iTunes 5.0, serve as a means to better organize your music. For example, you could create genre- or artist-based folders with corresponding playlists nested within them. But moving playlists into folders isn't the most fun thing, and can be especially time consuming if you're going to be moving a bunch. Fortunately, the "Move Playlists to Folder" script provides a means for you to easily move multiple playlists over to a specified folder in iTunes.

First, download and install the script: the file should reside in your [username]/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ folder. After successful installation, the script will now appear as an item in the scripts menu. If you didn't already have any scripts installed, the script menu allows you to access and run scripts for a specific app.

This AppleScript, along with a host of many other iTunes script goodies, is available as a free download at Doug's Scripts. However, Doug would also be more than happy if you were generous enough to donate a buck or two to help buy him a latte.

Batch move your playlists to an iTunes folder originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask TUAW: Emptying the trash, migration assistant, Safari bookmarks, Mac mini server and more

Chris Ullrich — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Software, Features, How-tos, Ask TUAW

Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about the Trash, Migration Assistant, Safari Bookmarks, Mac mini Server, Windows and Mac file sharing and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.

CL asks:

Is there any way to just delete a single item in the trash can? I only see options to empty the entire trash can?

Unfortunately, as they say in computer parlance "That's a feature, not a bug." At the moment, Apple only allows you to go for an "all or nothing" approach to emptying the trash. Of course, the best solution is to only put things in the trash you want to delete. But I'm sure you already thought of that.

Lamdavidortez asks:

I will be upgrading from my current February 2007 Macbook Pro that is running Leopard to a new October 2009 MacBook Pro that is running Snow Leopard I plan on transferring my data via the "Migration Assistant" but being that this is the first time I perform this type of operation ... I want to make sure that I do not run into any issues.

Are there any precautions I should take? My other concern is that I backup my current 2007 MBP via Time Machine to my Time Capsule. What will happen to that data once I switch over to the 2009 MBP? Will I still have access to that data? Will it be rendered useless?

Migration Assistant has been around for several years now and has evolved and become better with each successive update. There was a time when I would never consider using it and did things the manual way by copying each and every thing I needed individually from an old Mac to a new one. Now, Migration Assistant is good enough and, more importantly, reliable enough to be used on its own. So, migrate away.

Continue reading Ask TUAW: Emptying the trash, migration assistant, Safari bookmarks, Mac mini server and more

Ask TUAW: Emptying the trash, migration assistant, Safari bookmarks, Mac mini server and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Create GrabUp-style functionality with Dropbox and Jing

Dave Caolo — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Software, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Internet Tools

Before Snow Leopard was released, we were enjoying GrabUp for super-simple sharing of screenshots. It was a great little utility: After a brief setup, it automatically sent any screenshot to its servers (or your own) and added the resulting URL to the Clipboard. It was fast and very useful.

Snow Leopard killed it by changing the naming convention of screenshots. The developers haven't fixed it (in fact, Google now throws up a danger warning when I try to access the site) and it looks like they aren't going to. We posted a fix not too long ago, and today we found another approach on the Dropbox wiki that uses Dropbox and Jing. You get free online storage for up to 2GB of screenshots, and an easy way to get the URL of your screenshot where you need it in a hurry.

Here's how it works. First, download and install Jing (it'll work with the free version -- more on that later) and get a Dropbox account (again, the free version will work). Once your Dropbox install is all done, create a destination folder in your Dropbox's Public folder -- maybe "screenshots," for example. Now it's time to fill in the Jing preferences. Read on...

Continue reading Create GrabUp-style functionality with Dropbox and Jing

Create GrabUp-style functionality with Dropbox and Jing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Using DHCP Reservations to overcome Bonjour woes

TJ Luoma — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Cool tools, How-tos, Airport

I love everything about my MacBook Pro, but for some reason it does not like to share its screen. It appears under the "Shared" section of the sidebar in Finder, and file sharing works perfectly, but for some reason screen sharing won't work. The "Connecting To 'MacBookPro'" panel will pop up and then disappear a few moments later (as if it is about to connect), but at least 90% of the time no screen sharing window appears.

Fellow TUAW writer Aron Trimble suggested that I go into Finder and try "Go > Connect to Server" and then put in "vnc://10.0.x.x" (where 10.0.x.x is my MacBook Pro's IP address). That worked immediately, and every time.

This confirmed that it wasn't a firewall setting (Screen Sharing is explicitly on) or trouble accessing the MacBook Pro over the LAN (file sharing already worked perfectly). For some reason the screen sharing connection was just not being made over Bonjour.

The only drawback to this direct-IP method is that my network, like most, uses dynamic addresses with DHCP, meaning that the IP addresses change from time to time, especially on a network with multiple devices which are not always turned on. My first thought was to create a static IP for the MacBook Pro in System Preferences > Network, but then I realized that my office LAN uses IPs which start with 192.168.x.x. I could create a new network "Location" but that would also involve manually switching it back and forth, or using a third-party program.

What I really needed was a way to make sure that my MacBook Pro is given the same IP every time it connects to my home LAN. Fortunately, Apple's Airport Extreme will allow me to do just that using DHCP Reservations.

A DHCP Reservation tells the Airport Extreme to reserve a certain IP address for certain computers, as determined either by a "DHCP Client ID" or the computer's MAC address. A DHCP Client ID is easier to remember than a MAC address, but the MAC address will never change unless you swap out the logic board or Airport card of your Mac. I'll show you how to set it up using either method.

Continue reading Using DHCP Reservations to overcome Bonjour woes

Using DHCP Reservations to overcome Bonjour woes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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5 ways for Mac users to get ready for NaNoWriMo

Steven Sande — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Software, How-tos, Odds and ends

You've heard me talk about National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, before. It's the annual event aimed at getting potential bestsellers out of the minds of would-be writers and onto paper -- virtual or real. The idea is that most people have a couple of good novels hidden inside them, and that they just need a push to get those words written. NaNoWriMo involves starting to write on November 1st, and having at least 50,000 words written by the end of the month.

Seeing that NaNoWriMo begins in about two weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to do some recruitment and provide some ideas on how you can get ready for this event. From what I've seen over my 25 years as a Mac user, those of us who "think differently" are more apt to be creative and participate in something like NaNoWriMo.

Continue reading 5 ways for Mac users to get ready for NaNoWriMo

5 ways for Mac users to get ready for NaNoWriMo originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Working with Keynote builds

Sang Tang — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Software, How-tos, Productivity, iWork

In Keynote (and also in PowerPoint), a build refers to the appearance and/or disappearance of elements (such as text, bullets, images, audio and movies) within a given slide.

Working with builds is relatively straightforward. You select the item(s) that you want to create a build for and then choose the order to activate or deactivate each element. These controls are accessible via the Build Inspector pane, which you can get to by clicking on Inspector button or with the Command-Option-i keyboard shortcut. By default, builds are activated by a click with your mouse, or via the spacebar or right-arrow key on your keyboard.

There may be times when you want to add some creativity and more Steve-ness to your builds, and automated builds provide you this functionality.

In this picture, I have three elements that I want to "build in," or have appear, on the screen. I want "Who?" to show up first, "What?" to show up second, and "I don't know" to show up third

Using the Keynote defaults, these elements would show up in the order that I click: "Who?" after the first click, "What?" after the second click, and "I don't know" after the third click.

But let's say I wanted "What?" and "I don't know" to automatically appear in sequence after I click on "Who?" To do this, I just need to change the "Start Build" options of both elements. For the "What?" build, instead of choosing "On Click," I'm going to choose the "Automatically after Build 1." And for the "I don't know" build, I'm going to choose "Automatically after Build 2." Now, "What" and "I don't know" will automatically build in after "Who?" is clicked.

One neat thing about automatic builds is that they can apply to "actions" as well. So if, in this baseball example, we want the elements to move to different bases after a build, we would apply the same "Automatically after..." logic to them.

Got more Keynote tips (or want more)? Let us know in the comments.

Working with Keynote builds originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Getting started with WordPress and MAMP on your Mac

Sang Tang — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Software, How-tos, Open Source

WordPress is among the more popular blog publishing and content management systems available. Some web hosting providers, such as GoDaddy and DreamHost, provide a relatively seamless and integrated WordPress installation process built into their dashboards. However, if you'd like to dip your toes into the WordPress waters and learn what lurks beneath it, but aren't yet ready to make a web hosting commitment (or switch, if your host currently doesn't support it) you can get you feet wet using MAMP.

Continue reading Getting started with WordPress and MAMP on your Mac

Getting started with WordPress and MAMP on your Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Getting in shape with iChat Theater

Sang Tang — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Software, How-tos, Odds and ends

Whether it's because you're at school or work all day, finding the time and energy to workout is difficult. So, why not make it easier on yourself and find a partner to workout with via iChat Theater?

When iChat went Leopard, it included a series of features and enhancements. One of these enhancements was iChat Theater. iChat Theater allows you to share documents, photos and videos with your buddies in an easy and oh-so-Apple elegant way. With Snow Leopard, iChat Theater gained the capability of displaying content at a higher resolution: up to 640 by 480 pixels.

While photos and presentations translate well over iChat Theater, I've found that sharing videos is not without its hiccups unless you have an extremely fast and consistent Internet connection with robust upload speed. I've found both video and audio quality to be unacceptable for watching movies or TV shows.

But this doesn't really matter when you're working out.

Sure, there may be some lip syncing (audio delay) and the video quality may not be the greatest, but hey, you're working out: you've won the biggest battle already. And, you're not alone: your buddy on the other side of the iChat will push you along as well.

To start iChat Theater, click on "File" and then select "Share a File with iChat Theater." After selecting your file, you will be asked to start a video chat. You'll then need to highlight the buddy you'd like to invite, and the click on "Buddies" and then selecting "Invite to Video Chat."

Alternatively, you could start a video chat with a buddy and then initiate iChat Theater.

My sister recently purchased the P90X workout program for me as a gift, and an intense workout regimen it certainly is. After I opened up the box set, I immediately created an iPhone formatted version of it (HandBrake), which I take with me when I workout at the gym or the park with a friend of mine. On days when I'm working out at home (after a long day's work, of course), the workout sessions are done over iChat Theater.

So while iChat Theater can't do all the heavy lifting for you, it certainly finds alternative ways for you to motivate yourself to do it.

Getting in shape with iChat Theater originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Using aliases to extend Front Row's capabilities

Sang Tang — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, How-tos, Tips and tricks

While Front Row's integration with iTunes and iPhoto provides a nice, seamless experience, there are times when your needs demand a not-so-integrated approach -- say, for example, if you have an external hard drive full of videos that you'd like to watch on Front Row, but don't necessarily want to import into iTunes or copy into your Movies.

One solution to this is to create an alias that points to said external hard drive or any other folder on your computer or network. For new PC-to-Mac converts, an alias is the equivalent of a "shortcut" on Windows. To create an alias, right-click on the file or folder (in our case, folder) and select "Make Alias." Now, place said alias in the your Movies folder, which is located in /Users/username/Movies.

Now, you'll be able to browse and play movies of the folder that the alias points to. And if QuickTime can play the file, then so too can Front Row.

Using aliases to extend Front Row's capabilities originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How to create Keynote themes

Sang Tang — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Enterprise, Software, How-tos, Productivity, iWork

Out of the box, Apple's Keynote is a gem. The app is intuitive and, like many Apple products, strikes a nice and delicate balance between ease-of-use for novice users and functionality for more advanced power users. While Keynote offers a nice set of built-in themes, there may be times when you want a more customized look -- be it a different resolution, font, background or element or graphic.

To begin, choose an existing theme. Here, I'm choosing to use the default "White" Keynote theme. Then, you'll want to modify the master slides, which is accessible by pulling down the divider adjacent to the "Slides" viewer, or by clicking "View" and selecting "Show Master Slides."

Continue reading How to create Keynote themes

How to create Keynote themes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac 101: Create a wireless network between Mac and iPhone

Josh Carr — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: How-tos, Productivity, Tips and tricks, iPhone, Mac 101, iPhone 101, iPod touch

Many applications require your Mac and your iPhone to be on the same wireless network in order to communicate properly or sync. Apple doesn't advertise the ability to use such applications without a wireless router... nor do many developers. It's not only possible, it works great in a pinch or even as a standard. A few quick examples:

Be a makeshift DJ. I have a lot of music on in my iTunes Library. If there's something I or my friends want, I'll buy it and add it to the collection. Because of that, I get asked "Can you bring your music to the party tonight." I used to say no, because I didn't want to play DJ all night and miss out on the party. Now, I can setup a network anywhere I go and control my iTunes Library directly from my iPhone with Remote.app -- even play requests during a conversation.
Keynote presenters unite! Creating a wireless network on your Mac frees you to worry about your presentation not the availability of wireless in the lecture room. Setup a network, connect and you're swiping through your slides.
Sync applications anywhere, anytime. Victor just pointed this out today... if you're in an airport and need to sync some information from a desktop app to your iPhone, you don't need to pay for the airport wireless. Syncing apps like Bento, MacGourmet, Things, TextExpander or any other apps that sync over the network can update whenever you want without issues.

I'm sure there are many more uses for this idea... those just name a few. Please read on for a step-by-step, illustrated guide to create a wireless network between your Mac and your iPhone (or iPod touch).

Continue reading Mac 101: Create a wireless network between Mac and iPhone

Mac 101: Create a wireless network between Mac and iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quick and dirty troubleshooting

Dave Caolo — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Hardware, How-tos, Troubleshooting

There's a great post at creativebits today listing some basic troubleshooting techniques. I like it because it lists some simple tasks that anyone can perform. Some of the tried-and-true techniques include:

Restarting
Quitting unused apps
Installing updates
Re-installing a misbehaving app

Back when I was a part of an IT team, we always checked the simplest solution first. Printer isn't recognized? Is it plugged in? How about turned on? You may laugh, but ruling out the easy answers makes things clearer and it often solves the problem. There are many more tips at creativebits so read the whole post.

It's true that the Mac OS still has its problems, but least we've moved beyond the Extension Conflict Hell that plagued many pre-OS X users. Or my other favorite, The Chooser. "That port is in use ...."

Good times.

Quick and dirty troubleshooting originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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