Good Vibrations

Problem: You would like to know who's calling you without having to take your phone out of your pocket or purse, while your phone is in silent mode (ringer turned off).

Solution: Create unique vibration patterns and assign them to people you know.

To create a new vibration pattern,

1) Go to

    Settings > Sounds > Ringtone > Vibration > Create New Vibration

2) Now start tapping a beat on the gray area
3) Tap on the Stop button
4) Tap on the Save button
5) Specify a name for your vibration pattern

To assign a vibration pattern to a contact,

1) Launch the Phone app
2) Tap on the Contacts toolbar icon (on bottom of page)
3) Tap on the Edit button
4) Tap on Vibration
5) Select a vibration from the list (the custom ones are at the bottom)

How to Print a PDF File or Image from an iPhone

Problem: You would like to print a PDF file or Image from your iPhone, but you don't have an AirPrint compatible printer.

Solution: Use your Mac to print documents with the help of Dropbox and Automator.

What you will need:
1) A Mac connected to a printer (via USB, wifi, wired network)
2) Dropbox app installed on both your Mac and iPhone
3) Automator software (comes with Mac OS X)

On your Mac,
1) Create a folder in your Dropbox folder (give it a name such as "To Print"),
2) Launch Automator,
3) Create a new Automator workflow with File > New
4) When prompted, select Folder Action

5) Click on the "Choose folder" menu by the"Folder Action receives files and folders added to" label,

6) Choose the "Other..." menu item,

7) Select the Dropbox folder that you created in Step 1,

8) Add the Print Images workflow action to your workflow,

9) Check the Scale to Fit, select the desired Orientation (e.g., portrait), and the printer if you have more than one printer connected to your Mac, 

10) You can optionally add a Move Finder Items to Trash workflow action to delete the file after it's printed,

10) Save the Automator workflow (this automatically enables this workflow).

At this point, any PDF or Image placed in the "To Print" folder will be printed to the selected or default printer.

To print a PDF document in an email attachment from your iPhone,

1) Tap on the attachment (PDF file) in Mail app,

2) Tap on the Share toolbar icon (box with an arrow),

3) Select "Open in Dropbox",

4) Under the Save Location, tap on folder icon,

5) Navigate to the "To Print" folder that your created in Step 1 in the above instructions,

6) Tap on Choose,

7) Tap on Save.

To print a picture from your iPhone's camera roll,

1) Launch Dropbox,

2) Navigate to the "To Print" folder that your created in Step 1 in the above instructions,

3) Tap on the three dots on the top toolbar,

4) Tap on + Upload,

5) Select the image(s) you want to print.

How to Fix an Unresponsive Finder

Problem: After upgrading to Mavericks (Mac OS X 10.9), Finder is extremely sluggish

Solution: Type the following in a Terminal window:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist && killall Finder

This deletes Finder's preferences then restarts Finder. Warning: you will need to reconfigure Finder's settings (for example, the way the icons are arranged on the Desktop).

Rearranging iPhone Apps

Problem: Arranging iPhone apps is a challenging and often frustrating chore.

Solution: Use the bottom row as temporary storage.

For example, if you wanted to replace an app on the home pages to with another app on a different page, perform the following...

1) From the iPhone's home screen, swipe from right to left across the pages until you reach the last page,
2) Tap and hold down on any of the apps (this puts you in editing mode, i.e., all apps should be wiggling),
3) Move any two apps in the bottom row (i.e., the fixed row of apps that doesn't change when you swipe through the pages) onto the last page,
4) Press the Home button to exit editing mode (this is important because swiping through the app pages while in editing mode can be a challenge),
5) Swipe to the page containing the app you would like to move to the Home page,
6) Go into editing mode and move the app to the bottom row,
7) Tap the Home button to exit editing mode and swipe to the Home page (or press the Home button again),
8) Move the app you'd like to replace onto the bottom row,
9) Move the app to replace it from the bottom row to the Home page,
10) Swipe to the page to store the other app and move it there,
11) Swipe to the last page and move apps back onto the bottom row.

I realize this seems like a lot of work, but, trust me, it will save a lot of time and frustration. You can also rearrange the apps in iTunes (when your phone is connected via an iPhone cable), but I've found it to be equally challenging.

Preventing Apps from Loading Recently Opened Documents (Mac OS X)

Problem: When you launch apps (such as Preview) on your Mac, the most recently opened documents are automatically loaded.

Solution: Go to System Preferences > General and check the "Close windows when quitting an application" item in Mavericks (OS X 10.9) or uncheck the "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps" item if you are running Lion (OS X 10.8).

Replace that Old Mac?

A few months ago, I considered replacing my 2010 Macbook Pro with a newer model. Over time, my laptop's performance degraded to a point where I'd wait for a few minutes for applications (such as Safari and Mail), to respond. I couldn't take it anymore.

I did some research and decided to get a 13" Retina Macbook Pro. Sporting a 2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 2.9GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache and a 256TB flash drive, this Mac offered a serious speed improvement over to my current computer.

I thought I'd give my macbook one last chance to prove itself, so I purchased and installed 4 additional gigabytes of RAM for a total of 8 GBs. To my surprise, my old Macbook is now very responsive. I can run multiple apps simultaneously without seeing the dreaded colorful spinning ball. So, if your Mac is underperforming and you're thinking of buying a new Mac, upgrading the RAM may save you a few thousand dollars.