A fair amount of users have been experiencing persistent Bluetooth connectivity problems since updating their iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches to iOS 7. Though some of the issues relate to hardware like an external keyboard, speakers, or a headset, many of the most frustrating problems pertain to Bluetooth connectivity with cars and iOS devices. This seems to happen regardless of the manufacturer, whether it’s something like a custom Alpine or Pioneer deck or even the built-in Bluetooth receivers that many newer model cars come with, and it can impact both voice and call connectivity, as well as music playing and audio output, steering wheel controls, and turn-by-turn directions from the various mapping services. Troubleshooting every individual device is a huge feat, so instead we’ll focus on some general tips that are likely to fix bluetooth connection problems with iOS 7 devices, whether that’s a car stereo, headset, or speaker system.
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iTunes and App Store users have long been able to gift apps, movies, and music, and thanks to a recent iBooks Store change, we can all give the gift of literature too, and complete the whole transaction right in our hand from iOS. Perhaps best of all, you can schedule the gift arrival to be on a specific date, and the gifted book arrives neatly in their email inbox right on time, which means that even total slacker holiday shoppers like me will be able to get something for everyone in time for Christmas.
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Safari now provides finely tuned controls over what websites can use which browser plugins, and there are few better uses for such a feature than selectively limiting the Adobe Flash Player plugin to only be enabled for specifically approved websites.

Basically this means you can have the Flash player installed on your Mac, but blocked for your wider web experience, while still being allowed on a few select sites that you trust the plugin to run on. This serves as a perfectly reasonable alternative to uninstalling the plugin in it’s entirety, and it’s easy to configure for all websites and selective websites in Safari for Mac OS X:
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Maybe I’m just a total boring square, but the newly built-in iPhone flashlight is probably my most used feature of iOS 7, and the Control Center in general is really my favorite feature of all the changes brought to the iPhone software.

I use the flashlight setting just about every evening, whether just for unlocking the front door at night or serving as a basic flashlight on a nighttime walk (it seems to last about 1 minute per percentage point of battery life, for those who are wondering how long they can rely on the light). With something that gets so much use, it sure is nice to find a quicker way to use the feature, and here is a super simple trick to quickly switch the flashlight back off again:
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iCloud Keychain is a password management feature that arrived to the Mac with Mac OS X Mavericks, and to the mobile Apple world with iOS 7 and remains available in all modern system software releases. Basically it stores encrypted passwords securely within iCloud, which can then be accessed securely through your Mac or iOS device, allowing you to never have to enter a password again. That’s convenient enough, but another great feature is iCloud Keychains ability to randomly generate secure passwords directly in Safari, which are then stored in the keychain service as part of the AutoFill service, then accessible from any of your other Macs or iOS devices.

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Apple has started airing their annual holiday TV commercial for this season, now running on most popular TV networks, the video has also been embedded below for easy viewing. This years focus is on the iPhone and it’s ability to make and edit a movie on the go, which can then be shared with others using the wireless AirPlay service.
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Apple has released the version major system update to OS X Mavericks, versioned as OS X 10.9.1. The update appears focused on several prominent complaints focused around Mail app in Mavericks, resolving several issues with Gmail support, improved search functionality, a fix for group contacts, and improvements to Smart Mailboxes. OS X 10.9.1 also resolves an issue with text-to-speech not properly speaking Emoji characters, resolves a keychain issue, and causes the Shared Links tab to be automatically updated if it’s open in the Safari browser. Additionally, Safari has been updated to 7.0.1 and includes several fixes.

Note the Mail app fixes included in 10.9.1 are separate and new from those included in the prior release of “Mail Update for Mavericks“.
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The tap-to-define a word trick in iOS can dramatically help reading comprehension and with learning new words when an unfamiliar word comes up in an article or book. This quick Define feature isn’t just useful for students with an iPad or iPod touch, it’s helpful for the rest of us too, long out of school and just reading the daily news on our iPhones.

While the standard Apple Dictionary that ships with iOS is pretty good, it’s not perfect and doesn’t have definitions for every single word. Also, and perhaps more relevant to most “Define” function users, you may notice a “No definition found” error when trying to define a word that you know for certain is a word, often just because the tense is different. Not to get too off topic, but that means changing an infinite (the basic form of a word) to a past tense version (adding “ed”) or a present participle (like adding “ing”). If you’re wondering where this is going, stay with me just a moment longer… because what this means to the Apple Dictionary function in iOS is that a word like “tuck” may be given a definition, but that word in past tense like “tucked” won’t be defined, simply due to that minor tense change.
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It has been a little while since we have done a wallpaper roundup, but for those who are bored with their existing device backgrounds we’ve got six beautiful high resolution choices to pick from to spruce things up. They’re all following a loosely abstract focused theme, which makes them particularly good for iOS 7 devices, one of which is a new wallpaper that arrived in the recent iOS 7.1 beta 2 build, and two are nebula shots from NASA, which are so out of this world they are basically abstractions to us Earth dwellers anyway. Each of the images are large enough resolution to be appropriate wallpaper or desktop backgrounds for just about any screen size, whether you have a retina iPad, Retina MacBook Pro, a 27″ iMac, 11″ MacBook Air, or anything in between.

As usual, click on any large thumbnail pic below to open the full-sized wallpaper image.

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Using a handy network feature built into OS X and supported by most modern Macs, you can remotely wake a Mac from sleep using an iPhone (or iPod touch, iPad, and Android too). This is done using something called Wake On LAN (WOL), and it’s easy to set up in Mac OS X and use from a smartphone with the help of a free app. The result is basically the total opposite of the remote sleep tricks we’ve covered before, and instead of remotely sleeping a machine, you can remotely wake it instead, having the Mac ready for general network access or just quicker use. Let’s go over how to set this up.
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It’s time for another sweet Mac setup post! This weeks highlighted workstation is from Anthony Y., a video editor who is studying communications. Let’s learn a bit about the hardware, and how Anthony uses his Apple gear:
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The App Store gained a location awareness feature in iOS 7 that lists the most popular applications used in any given region, based upon the devices current location. For iPhone users who live in a particular location, it may not be that exciting beyond a one-time check up – though some cities do have great local apps that can be found and resurfaced through the ‘Popular Near Me’ menu – the feature really shines for travelers when visiting a new city or region. It’s a mainstay feature in the App Store, but if your primary App Store function is just updating apps and seeing what’s on the top charts, you may have missed it.
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Apple has released the second beta of iOS 7.1 for those registered with the iOS Developer program. The new build is 11D5115d and arrives nearly a month after the first beta release of 7.1 was rolled out.

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The PDF file format is ubiquitous for good reason, mostly because it allows for perfect preservation of a documents formatting, text, and other elements, but also because it allows for encrypted password protection of documents. But let’s face it, sometimes PDF files can be bloated, and something that should be 200k or less can be 1.2MB for no obvious reason, particularly if they have been generated at the OS level from something like printing to a PDF, another file that has been converted to a PDF, or created with an app that just doesn’t offer any compression at all.

This article will show you how to reduce the file size of PDF documents using tools included in Mac OS Preview app, which is bundled by default on every Mac. The shrinking of the PDF file size can be very effective and dramatic, so if you need a notable reduction in PDF file size this guide should be of great assistance to you.

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Apple has long included various means of placing parental controls and filtering for content available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but up until recent iOS updates there was not a simple method of blocking web-based adult content and material in Safari. That has changed with new iOS releases, which makes it extremely easy to prevent access to adult themed web sites and general content that is deemed inappropriate for youth.

The web restrictions are very easy to toggle on and off and access to them is password restricted, which makes it perfect to quickly turn on before handing an iOS device off to a youngin’ for unsupervised use.

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Many urbanites and city dwellers get about by walking, the oldest form of transportation in existence. If you’re one of us who often gets about a concrete jungle by propelling your legs in a forwardly direction, you’ll be pleased to know that the popular mapping applications in iOS have you covered. Both the default Maps app from Apple and Google Maps offer walking directions, though using each is slightly different.
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Just about every semi-technical person has setup a wireless router at home or in the office, and in that process has wondered which broadcast channel would be the best to use. Sure, some wi-fi routers make it simple and will recommend a channel on their own, but often it’s left up to the user to decide. Let’s face it, most people have absolutely no idea what would be the best wi-fi channel, let alone which to use for a 5GHz wireless N network versus a 2.4GHz 802.11b/g network, or even what the difference between the networks is. For average people, it’s a bunch of meaningless technical jargon, they just want wireless internet, and they want it to be fast, right? Thankfully, OS X Mavericks makes this simple when a wi-fi router doesn’t, with a simple solution offered through the bundled wi-fi scanner app that works with every single wi-fi router brand out there.

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If you’re like me, you carry the full length MacBook Air / Pro MagSafe adapter cord with your portable Mac. And if you do, you’re familiar with how cumbersome having that large extender cable attached to the MagSafe is, either taking up tons of space as it unwinds, or just being a huge tangled mess. But check out this brilliant simple wrapping trick discovered Twitter by @JC.

Rather than wrapping the little power cable first and trying to wrap the large power cable separately, loop the larger cord around the MagSafe adapter and use the smaller power cord to secure the thick one in place! That may sound confusing to explain, which is why it’s best demonstrated with the picture. Give it a try, it secures extremely well and it packs down much smaller than any other solution I’ve found (aside from just leaving the large extender cable out of your bag, of course). Awesome!
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