Advice Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

SharePractice wants your doctor to have the best advice on the iPhone

by Michael Rose (Apr 30th, 2013)

Among the startups competing for attention (and funding) at Monday's opening round of the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, one unusual social app for iPhone stood out. SharePractice, from physician Andrew Brandeis and his team, aims to connect physicians to each other and give them access ...

Selecting the specs for your budget Mac mini

by Erica Sadun (Oct 23rd, 2012)

If you've been waiting for Apple to refresh the Mac mini line, so you could update your primary system, you're probably working on a budget. So which choices should you make when picking options for your new mini install? I talked with Josh Carr of Rocky Mountain Mac Repair to get his insights ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Which iPad should I buy?

by Erica Sadun (Jul 29th, 2012)

Dear Aunt TUAW, I decided to sell my iPad 1 and pick up an iPad 2 or 3. not sure which one yet. I will see what the [next iPhone] launch brings. Also, in your opinion will the iPad 2 be supported longer than the iPad 1 was? Just trying to decide what to buy next. Your loving ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me fix my file associations

by Erica Sadun (Jun 29th, 2012)

Dear Aunt TUAW, Good lord, why does Spotify want to open .m4v files? And how do I make it stop that? Your loving nephew, Nehi Dear Nehi, Eh? What was that? Auntie was just giving the kids some Werthers in exchange for them agreeing to play quietly outside the house. Spotify? Good ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me stick my scroll bars

by Erica Sadun (Jun 12th, 2012)

Dear Aunt TUAW, I know I'm late to the party but Lion killed my scrollbars. Please bring back my scrollbars. I miss my scrollbars. Sobbing, Scrollbarless in Seattle Dear, um, "Scrollbarless", Head on over to Settings > General and just set the "Show scroll bars" preference to ...

You're Our Editor: iBooks Author or ePub for the iBooks store?

by Erica Sadun (May 6th, 2012)

Normally we turn to the TUAW Brain Trust for your opinions about hot topics in the news and your predictions about the future of tech. Today, we're switching things up. Instead of asking about where things are going, we're asking you about strategy. Here's the situation: Like many authors, TUAW ...

Grandma wants an iPad: the multigenerational buyer's guide

by TJ Luoma (Mar 13th, 2012)

Are you getting an earful from parents or grandparents about which iPad they should buy? Read on for our guide to buying the right iPad for Mom, Dad, Grandma or Grandpa. Two bits of anecdotal evidence that there's a digital revolution in progress: In the past year, both my mother and my ...

How to avoid sounding dumb when you write about Apple

by Chris Rawson (Feb 11th, 2012)

So, you want to write about Apple? Lots of people do these days. The company is a household name, its financial performance is virtually unparalleled, and it makes products that millions upon millions of users enjoy every single day. I can tell you from personal experience that getting paid to ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Where's my Lozenge?

by Erica Sadun (Jul 24th, 2011)

Dear Aunt TUAW, I miss the lozenge. You know what I mean? The chicklet thing that used to be at the top right of my Finder windows. Click it and it would show the sidebar. Click again, sidebar gone. How can I show and hide the sidebar in Lion? Your loving nephew, Michael N. Dear ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Excel pooped on my desktop

by Erica Sadun (Jul 23rd, 2011)

Dear Aunt TUAW, I just started using Lion and for the first time loaded up Excel today. Much to my surprise, I ended up with a whole bunch of Excel temporary files on the desktop (see the attached screen shot) So I go ahead and try to delete them and I can't. Lion won't let me. It puts up ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: What is this "Lock" TextEdit speaks of?

by Erica Sadun (Jul 22nd, 2011)

Dear Aunt TUAW, I have a list of books that friends recommend to me. I don't update it a lot but when I do, I just want to go into the list and add new ones. Today, I was going to add M. K. Hobson's Native Star and Text Edit stopped me, saying the file was locked because I hadn't made any ...

Dev Juice: Help me set up a multiperson dev team

by Erica Sadun (Jul 8th, 2011)

Dear Dev Juice, We have a 3 man dev team with the iOS developer program (as a small company plan) and we are getting ready to move up to Xcode 4 once Lion is out to the public and the have a stable sdk. What is the best way to set all of our systems so we can each build for adhoc distribution ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me read and annotate my PDFs

by Erica Sadun (Jul 7th, 2011)

Dear Aunt TUAW, I am in love with my iPad 2 and am eager to turn my upcoming trip to the beach into a working vacation. I find the that the PDF support in iBooks leaves a lot to be desired. Which is unfortunate, as I have spent a lot of time uploading a lot of PDFs into my iTunes to have them ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help convert my iDevice into a graphics tablet

by Erica Sadun (Jun 28th, 2011)

Dear Aunt TUAW, I am looking for an iPad app that allows it to function as a graphics tablet, similar to something like a Wacom tablet. I have not found anything; are you aware of something that would fill this need? Your loving nephew, Joe V. Dear Joe, As Auntie recently told ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me convert my iPhone to an iPod touch

by Erica Sadun (Jun 27th, 2011)

Dear Auntie, Is it possible to completely convert my old iPhone 3G into an iPod touch? I don't want it to think it is still my phone and keep trying to backup and restore in iTunes. Your help would be really appreciated. Thanks and cookies! Ryan Dear Ryan, Yes, and it's really easy ...