iOS Passbook

Passbook is one of the most useful and, at the same time, underused feature of iOS 7*. From Apple's website...

"Passbook keeps things like airline boarding passes, movie tickets, and gift cards all in one place, letting you scan your iPhone or iPod touch to check in for a flight, get into a movie, redeem a coupon, and more."

Imagine walking into a Starbucks and your loyalty/rewards card automatically appears on your phone's lock screen. Passbook uses your current location to determine the appropriate card to display. You're a simple swipe and scan away from enjoying your favorite beverage. At the airport, suitable boarding pass pops up on your phone's lock screen to scan at security and at the gate.

* Passbook is available in iOS version 6, as well

Taking Screenshots in Mac OS X

Problem: you would like to take a snapshot of all or part of what is being displayed on your Mac.

Solution:

To take a snapshot and save it to a file that will appear on your Mac's desktop...

Cmd+Shift+3...........................................Entire screen
Cmd+Shift+4...........................................Specified region of the screen

Cmd+Shift+4 and then space bar...................Specified window

To take a snapshot and place it in the copy buffer (use Cmd+v to paste it into an app)

Cmd+Ctrl+Shift+3...................................Entire screen

Cmd+Ctrl+Shift+4...................................Specified region of the screen

Cmd+Ctrl+Shift+4 and then space bar...........Specified window

iPhone Shortcuts

Problem: You want an easier way to enter commonly-used phrases into your iPhone.

Solution: Use Shortcuts by going to

  Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts

and

1) Tap on the Add New Shortcut... button
2) Enter a Phrase
3) Enter a Shortcut

For example, enter a phrase such as "I'm driving. Text you later" with the shortcut "drv"

My Favorite iPhone Apps

Here's a short list of my iPhone favorites:

1) United Airlines -- great app if you regularly fly on United. It allows you to check-in to flights, display QR boarding passes, change seats, and more.
2) Clear -- intuitive To Do list manager. Very innovative user interface and syncs via iCloud with the Mac version of the app.
3) Yelp -- very useful app to find great places to eat near home or while traveling.
4) Instagram -- an app that lets you share photos with others. Large community of users.

Enabling Photo Stream on your Apple Devices

With Photo Stream enabled, the pictures you take with your iPhone's camera will be available on all of your devices, including your Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. Photo Stream stores your most recent 1000 pictures on iCloud. It copies new photos to iCloud when your iPhone is connected to the Internet through WI-FI. To turn on Photo Stream on your devices, follow instructions below.

iPhone

On an iPhone running iOS 5 or later, go to

    Settings > Photos > Camera

and turn on My Photo Stream in the Photo Stream settings item. You can optionally turn on Shared Photo Streams as well if you want to share selected photos with family and friends who have Apple devices.

Mac

On a Mac running Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) or 10.8 (Mountain Lion), go to

    System Preferences > iCloud

Click on the Photo Stream checkbox then click on the Option… button. Check the My Photo Stream and, optionally, the Shared Photo Stream items.

Apple TV

On an Apple TV, follow the steps below…

1. Select the Photo Stream item, which is usually located near the bottom/left of the Home screen.
2. At the Photo Stream Setup page, answer the question, "Would you like to turn on Photo Stream using the account xxxxx?" by selecting "Yes."
3. At the Use Photo Stream as Screen Saver? page, you can optionally show your photos when your Apple TV is idle for a set time. Select "Yes" or "No."

Unable to Switch Apple TV's Network Connection from Wired to Wireless

Problem: Your Apple TV is set up to connect to a wired network, but you want it to connect to a wireless network. When you select Settings > General > Network, you find it's not obvious how to switch to a wireless network.

Solution: Disconnect the ethernet cable from the back of the Apple TV and try again. The wireless option should now be available.

Enabling Text to Speech on an iPhone or iPad

Problem: You have text that you would like to have read to you.

Solution: Enable the text-to-speech capability on your iDevice by performing the following steps...

1) Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Speak Selection

2) Turn on the "Speak Selection" option

In any app that allows text selection (e.g. Notes, Safari), highlight a section of text and select Speak from the popup menu.

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Creating a Form in Microsoft Word

Problem: You don't know how to create a user-fillable form in Microsoft Word for Mac OS X.

Solution: Just follow the instructions below...

1) Create a new document and open the Forms toolbar by

View > Toolbars > Forms

Figure 1. Forms toolbar

2) Layout your form by adding a combination of text and various form fields. The available form fields are text, checkbox, and pulldown.

To add a text form field to the form, left-click where you want the field to appear in the form and then click on the first item (i.e., ab|) in the Forms toolbar. Word will insert a text field at that location within the form.

Figure 2. Text form field

Similarly, you can add a checkbox to the form by selecting an insertion point and clicking on the second item in the toolbar.

Figure 3. Checkboxes

The third toolbar item adds a pulldown form field to the form. To enter the menu items, double click on the field and add the items using the dialog box.

Figure 4. Pulldown form field

3) After laying out the form, click on the right-most toolbar item (i.e., the lock icon). This will toggle between Protect and Unprotect Document modes. When the lock icon is highlighted, the document is protected, which prevents anyone from editing the document. In this mode, the user will be able to fill out the form but not edit it. You can optionally password-protect the form by selecting

Tools > Protect Document...

and select the "Forms:" option and set a password. To further edit the form, switch to Unprotect Document mode by clicking on the lock icon.

Unable to Update Apple TV's Software Beyond Version 5.1

I successfully updated my Apple TV to versions 5.2 using the following instructions from Apple's website...

If you have a micro USB cable (sold separately), you can restore your Apple TV from iTunes:

1. Disconnect the power and HDMI cables from Apple TV.
2. Open iTunes and verify that you are using the latest version: iTunes > Check Updates
3. Connect one end of a micro USB cable to the back of your Apple TV, and the other end to one of your computer's USB ports.
4. Apple TV (3rd generation) only: Reconnect the power cable to your Apple TV.
5. Select your Apple TV in the Source list, and then click Restore.

Your Apple TV will restore to its factory settings, and will also download and install the latest Apple TV software update. This process may take some time. Do not disconnect any cables from the Apple TV until the restore process is completed.

Details:
Apple TV version: 3rd Generation
Model number: MD199LL/A
Software Version: 5.1


Click here for a list of the Apple TV software versions

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Manually Transferring a Numbers Spreadsheet from an iPad to a Mac

Problem: You want to manually transfer a Numbers spreadsheet from your iPad to your Mac.

Solution: Follow the instructions below.

From Apple's website...

1. In Spreadsheets view (with all spreadsheets closed), scroll until the spreadsheet you want to export is in the center of the screen, and then tap .
2. Tap “Send to iTunes,” and then tap the document format you want to export to: Numbers, PDF, or Excel.
3. Connect your iPad to your computer and open iTunes on your computer. After a moment, your iPad appears listed under Devices on the left side of the iTunes window.
4. In iTunes, select the name of your iPad, and then click Apps.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the Apps window, and then select Numbers in the Apps list under File Sharing.
6. Select the name of the spreadsheet you want to transfer to your computer and click “Save to.”
7. In the window that appears, navigate to the location where you want to store the spreadsheet, and then click Choose.

Extending iPhone's Battery

Problem: Your iPhone's battery doesn't last a full day without recharging.

Solution: From Apple's website...

Adjust brightness: Dimming the screen is another way to extend battery life. Go to Settings > Brightness & Wallpaper and drag the slider to the left to lower the default screen brightness. In addition, turning on Auto-Brightness allows the screen to adjust its brightness based on current lighting conditions. Go to Settings > Brightness & Wallpaper and set Auto-Brightness to On.

Turn off push mail: If you have a push mail account such as Yahoo! or Microsoft Exchange, turn off push when you don’t need it. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off. Messages sent to your push email accounts will now be received on your phone based on the global Fetch setting rather than as they arrive.

Fetch new data less frequently: Applications such as Mail can be set to fetch data wirelessly at specific intervals. The more frequently email or other data is fetched, the quicker your battery may drain. To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually. To increase the fetch interval, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly. Note that this is a global setting and applies to all applications that do not support push services.

Turn off push notifications: Some applications from the App Store use the Apple Push Notification service to alert you of new data. Applications that extensively rely on push notifications (such as instant messaging applications) may impact battery life. To disable push notifications, go to Settings > Notifications and disable notifications for select applications. Note that this does not prevent new data from being received when the application is opened. Also, the Notifications setting will not be visible if you do not have any applications installed that support push notifications.

Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services or use location services only when needed.

Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas: Because your iPhone always tries to maintain a connection with the cellular network, it may use more power in low- or no-coverage areas. Turning on Airplane Mode can increase battery life in these situations; however, you will be unable to make or receive calls. To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings and set Airplane Mode to On.

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Apple's Confusing Modifier Key Icons

Problem: You would like to use a keyboard shortcut that appears in a Mac app's menu, but you don't recognize the modifier keys by their icon.

Solution: From Apple's website, here's a list of the modifier key icons...

 (Command key) - On some older Apple keyboards, this key also has an Apple logo
 (Control key)
 (Option key) - "Alt" may also appear on this key
 (Shift key)
 (Caps Lock) - Toggles Caps Lock on or off
 Fn (Function key)

How to Take a Screenshot on your iPhone

Issue: You want to take a screenshot of what's currently displayed on your iPhone (e.g., a webpage, a picture on the Instagram app).

Solution: Hold the On/Off button and quickly press and release the Home button. The screenshot will be stored in your photo library.

Disabling Apple TV Remote on a Mac Running Mac OS X Lion (10.7.x) or Mountain Lion (10.8.x)

Problem: When you use your Apple TV's remote, your Mac responds to the command (e.g., iTunes launches and plays a song).

Solution: Follow these steps

1) Go to System Preferences / Security & Privacy / Privacy
2) Click on the Lock icon
3) Type password
4) Click on Advanced...
5) Check the "Disable remote control infrared receiver" option
6) Click on the Lock icon
7) Close the System Preference window

Resetting Your iPhone Voicemail Password

Problem: Your iPhone keeps asking you to enter your voicemail password, but you don't remember it.

Solution: Reset your password using AT&T's automated system with the instructions below.

From AT&T's website...

Reset voicemail password with AT&T's automated system

Call 611 from your iPhone,
Press 1 to confirm your phone number,
Press 5 to go to voice mail help,
Press 1 to reset your password,
Enter the billing zip code for the account.

AT&T will send you a text message with a temporary password
Remember or copy the temporary password
Go to Settings > Phone > Change Voicemail Password
Change your password

Preventing Safari from Opening with Previously Opened Pages

Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) has a new feature that automatically loads web pages that were open when you last quit Safari. This can be useful in some situations, but it can also be very annoying at times.

To prevent Safari from starting up with the previously opened web pages, type the following in a window of the Terminal app...

defaults write com.apple.Safari ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES

To turn the feature back on, type


defaults write com.apple.Safari ApplePersistenceIgnoreState NO