Archive for the year 2013

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Converting Image File Formats with the Command Line & sips

Jan 11, 2013 - 16 Comments
Convert image files from the command line

Converting images to new file formats is very easy thanks to a variety of tools built directly into OS X (and most Linux distributions). Though the easiest method uses Preview for converting images, there’s a command line option that uses the same sips tool we’ve discussed before to perform batch resizing from the command line. … Read More

Check the Battery Level of Bluetooth Devices Connected to a Mac

Jan 10, 2013 - 13 Comments
Bluetooth keyboard battery level, shown in the System Preference panel

Most Bluetooth accessories don’t have battery indicators located on the device itself, and that includes the Apple Wireless Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad. Rather than waiting for the battery to run low, thereby causing the devices connection to weaken, stop registering movements, clicks, or certain behavior, you can choose to manually intervene by periodically … Read More

The iPad Potty! The Worst iPad Accessory Ever Made? Or the Best?

Jan 10, 2013 - 11 Comments
iPad toilet

This lovely colorful plastic toilet is also an iPad stand, and that means you can now finally potty train a child (or yourself, no judgment here!) with the help of a convenient iPad-toilet combo. I don’t know about you, but I have far more questions than answers about this thing. Is there an app that … Read More

How to Disable Finder Icon Thumbnails and Previews for Images & Video Files

Jan 10, 2013 - 10 Comments
Disable Finder icon preview thumbnail generation

Have you noticed that when you’re browsing through folders on the Mac that icons are actually previews of images and even live playable videos? This sure makes the OS X Finder snazzy looking, but in some situations where tons of images and video files are contained within single folders, it can have the unwanted side … Read More

Turn Off Repeating Text Message Alerts on iPhone

Jan 9, 2013 - 16 Comments
Disable Repeat Text Message Alerts on iPhone

The default iOS setting for iPhones is for message alerts to chime with the text tone twice, in a two minute interval. While the repeat text message alert sounds, notifications, and vibrations on the iPhone can be helpful for some people, those of us who are basically glued to our phones tend to experience quite … Read More

Enable an Emoji & Special Character Menu Item for Fast Access in Mac OS X

Jan 9, 2013 - 4 Comments
Show the Emoji Character Viewer menu bar item in Mac OS X

Emoji icons are a lot of fun and special characters can be extremely useful, but the standard way of opening the character viewer panel isn’t the smoothest in the world. Fortunately, OS X has an excellent bundled menu bar option that can be enabled to allow for extremely fast Emoji and character access, letting you … Read More

Monitor a Bluetooth Device’s Connection Strength in Mac OS X

Jan 8, 2013 - 14 Comments
Bluetooth Connection Monitor in OS X

Those who use external Bluetooth devices with a Mac, whether it’s a keyboard, mouse, headset, or anything else, are probably aware that connection strength between the device and the computer is going to directly impact how usable the device is. The next obvious question then is, how do you check the strength of such a … Read More

How to Find Archived eMails & Move Them Back to Inbox in iOS

Jan 8, 2013 - 13 Comments
Find archived email in iOS

Moving email around between inboxes in the iOS Mail app is easy, and perhaps sometimes it’s too easy, because accidentally moving or archiving mail messages seems to be an ongoing issue for many. In fact, one of the most frequently asked questions I get from newcomers to the iPhone or iPad is “where did my … Read More

3 Simple iPhone Tips That Make You Smarter

Jan 7, 2013 - 5 Comments
iPhone brain, get smarter with your iPhone

Your iPhone is a smartphone, and if it isn’t making you smarter as well then you just aren’t using the devices included features to it’s full potential. Here are three super simple tips that let your iPhone make you smarter, these will be perfect for educators, learners, students, or really, just about anyone – unless … Read More

Fixing Grey Songs & Unplayable Albums in Music App on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Jan 7, 2013 - 3 Comments
Fixing gray songs in iOS Music app

Have you ever gotten a new album or podcast, synced it over to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, then when you went to play the songs you discovered they were grayed out in the Music app? The album is there, the song title is there, but because the song is grey you can tap … Read More

Nevermind, No Free Downloads of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, & CS2

Jan 7, 2013 - 9 Comments
Adobe Creative Suite 2

Update: Adobe apparently made some sort of error, and is not actually giving away any CS2 software for free. Here is what they have to say on their Community Forums: On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated … You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2! What is true is that … Read More

Easily Add Password Protection to Shared iTunes Libraries & Playlists

Jan 5, 2013 - 2 Comments
Add Password Protection to iTunes Sharing

iTunes Home Sharing is a great way to share music libraries and playlists with others, but if you don’t want everyone to be able to sort through the shared library, you can easily require a password in order to access the shared playlists. This is perfect for situations where some content may be explicit and … Read More

Improve Find My iPhone By Locking Down Location Services

Jan 4, 2013 - 16 Comments
Lock Down Location Services

Find My iPhone and Find My iPad are security features that make it simple to locate lost iOS devices by tracking them on maps through GPS. A potential problem is that after a device has been lost, or perhaps more accurately, after a device has been stolen, GPS or Find My iPhone can be turned … Read More

Watch an iPhone 5 Fall 100,000 Feet and Survive [Video]

Jan 4, 2013 - 15 Comments
iPhone at 100,000 feet drop

G-Form, the makers of extreme protective cases for iPads, MacBooks, and iPhones, is demonstrating the effectiveness of their latest iPhone 5 case by sending a device 100,000′ into the atmosphere with a weather balloon, and then letting it free fall and crash land back to Earth. As you probably guessed, the device survives just fine, … Read More

Old iPhone and iOS? You Can’t Block Calls, So Creating a Blocked List is the Next Best Thing

Jan 3, 2013 - 25 Comments
Do it Yourself Block Call List on iPhone

The ability to block incoming calls on the iPhone is missing on older versions of iOS, and though new versions of iOS can block calls, older devices are left withthe Do Not Disturb feature. Do Not Disturb is excellent, but it’s not really blocking unwanted calls, it just sets a time period where any calls … Read More

Get a List of Preferred Wi-Fi Networks from Command Line on Mac

Jan 3, 2013 - Leave a Comment
Mac Terminal icon

Retrieving a list of preferred wireless networks can be helpful when troubleshooting wi-fi problems, amongst other reasons too. If you’re looking to print out a list of wi-fi networks the Mac has used as preferred and connected to before, the following trick will do just that!

Set a Unique Alert Tone for New Mail Messages from VIP List in iOS

Jan 2, 2013 - 6 Comments
Set VIP Mail Alerts in iOS

Managing slews of email can be one of the most challenging and time consuming parts of ones day, but with the help of VIP lists in iOS and OS X you can help to weed through some of the nonsense by simply having defined persons get precedent over others. On the desktop side of things, … Read More

New iPhone “Dream” Commercial Features Do Not Disturb Mode

Jan 2, 2013 - 10 Comments
Do Not Disturb on iPhone

A new iPhone TV commercial titled “Dream” is running that focuses on the excellent Do Not Disturb feature of iOS, which allows you to block out certain hours where notifications, sounds, and alerts won’t bother you unless they’re from a pre-selected important list. The advertisement features the professional tennis player Williams sisters, playing table tennis … Read More

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