iTunes 11.1 brought with it support for iOS 7 and the excellent iTunes Radio feature, but another small feature lets you see song changes in the OS X Notification Center. Though it’s a fairly minor feature, there have been a variety of third party tweaks and apps to provide similar services over the years, making it pretty nice to have this natively.

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Some users are finding that updating to iOS 7 seems to have reduced the battery life of their iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. Battery issues are often reported with major iOS updates, but this time around the culprits of newfound battery drain are easier to identify, because much of it relates directly to some new features and new control mechanisms built into the new iOS release. Fortunately, this makes for easy identification and easy remedies, so if you’re encountering any issues with battery life not living up to your expectations, you can probably resolve the draining issues quickly with a few settings adjustments.

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iOS 7 is here (you can download it now if you haven’t done so yet). We’ll be covering tons of iOS 7 tips for iPhone, iPad, and iPod users, but first let’s run over four essentials to get everyone started; Control Center and it’s general greatness, quitting apps with the new Multitasking feature, searching your device with the revised version of Spotlight, and a nice change to the lock screen that will speed things up a bit.

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The simplest way to install iOS 7 is with OTA update available in Settings directly on the device, but it doesn’t always work for everyone, particularly right now as Apple’s servers are overloaded. Also, many users trying to use the OTA update are encountering an annoying error that says “This update cannot be installed because it requires at least 3.1GB of storage.” or a “Software Update Failed” error when attempting to download the update. An alternate solution that will definitely work and avoid any failures or errors is to update to iOS 7 manually with the help of firmware files (IPSW). This method requires the usage of iTunes and a computer, and though it may sound complicated it’s really not.

This specific guide will update an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 7. It does not perform a clean install or a restore, it simply updates the existing iOS 6 release to the new release of iOS 7.
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iOS 7 has been released, and while most users should update to iOS 7.0 directly on their devices using Over-the-Air, another option is to manually update compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices to the latest version by using IPSW firmware. Typically, manual updates with firmware files are considered a bit more advanced, but it’s really not too complicated and you can read about it here if going with a manual update or installation interests you.
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Apple has released iOS 7 into the wild. As you likely know by now, it offers a significant visual overhaul to the entire mobile experience, and also includes quite a few new features.

Devices compatible with iOS 7 include: iPad 2, iPad mini, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPod touch 5th gen, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, and iPhone 5C. Despite the official supported hardware list, we still recommend that older model iPad and iPhone users hold off on updating until a point release resolves some of the ongoing performance issues. Of course, you don’t have to take that advice, and you can find the iOS 7 update right now through iTunes or on your iOS device itself with Over-the-Air update.
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iTunes 11.1 has been released with support for iTunes Radio, a streaming music service, and Genius Shuffle, a smarter way to shuffle through similar music. Away from the music side, iTunes 11.1 also includes a podcasts stations feature, and perhaps most importantly for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users, is that the 11.1 release allows syncing with iOS 7 devices.

Yes, iTunes 11.1 is required to sync iOS 7 devices to a computer, making it a very important update to download and install before upgrading any iPhone or iPad to iOS 7.
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Can’t think of a name for an iOS folder? Or maybe you prefer minimalism and would rather have a folder without any name at all? Why not set a blank folder name! You can’t do this normally, and you may have discovered that typing a bunch of spaces doesn’t set a blank name either, but thanks to a peculiar quirk that comes along with the Starbucks app (yes, Starbucks the ubiquitous coffee shop), you can make a folder with an entirely blank name.
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Apple has started to air commercials for the new iPhone 5C. The first TV advertisement is called “Plastic Perfected”, and features liquid plastic pouring into and transforming into various colored iPhone 5C models. The liquid plastic looks oddly refreshing, like some sort of sports drink, and the commercial includes appropriately themed lyrics to a song playing in the background, “pick up the phone then, ring ring, call them up, tell them about the new trends”.

A video of the TV ad has been embedded below:
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Apple has released the eighth beta build of OS X Mavericks to those registered with the Mac Developer program. The new build includes bug fixes and updates and pushes the the developer version closer to a wider public release.

Individuals running OS X Mavericks can find Developer Preview 8 within the Mac App Store, accessible through the  Apple menu and Software Update. Developers not running existing versions of Mavericks can also begin the installation process through the Developer Center. Developers will find an updated version of iTunes 11.1 beta available, which is required to sync iOS 7 GM or later devices to a Mac. Presumably, iTunes 11.1 will be released to everyone tomorrow or the next day alongside the wider iOS 7 release.
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iOS 7 may be one of the most hotly anticipated mobile operating system releases of all time, but after extensive testing and usage of iOS 7.0 across a variety of devices, we’re taking the unusual step of recommending that some users hold off from updating to the initial release. At the very least, reconsider whether or not some of the potential performance trade-offs that exist with iOS 7.0 on some devices are worth it. This obviously won’t be a popular opinion, but we think this recommendation is in the best interest of our readers, and by waiting until an iOS 7.0.1 or similar update is out we think many users can avoid some frustrating experiences that haven’t quite been resolved.
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Just about every Mac user knows how to select a single file in the Mac OS X Finder, but I’ve encountered many users who are perplexed by multiple file selection. Most of the confusion comes down to not knowing the primary methods of choosing groups of files, and that’s what we’ll aim to clear up here by focusing on the primary means of choosing groups of files: the click and drag, the shift click, command clicking, and using select all. Each are slightly different, but are all useful for moving files around within the Finder file system or even sending elsewhere to another Mac or iOS device.

Each of these tricks work to select groups of files in any Finder list view, be it icon, list, columns, or Cover Flow.
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Need to change the default email account used on iPhone or iPad? Unless it has been changed before, the default email address is always the first email account that has been setup on an iPhone or iPad device.

But for those who use multiple mail accounts on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, changing the default sending address is often important, since whatever is set as the default is what gets used by all other aspects of iOS when sharing through email, including photos or links, and this applies to Mail app as well as third party apps.
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iOS 7 is set for public release on the 18th, making now a good time to start preparing for the major iOS update on any iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. But before jumping ahead with the 7.0 upgrade, you should check on compatibility and do some simple cleanup and backups with your iOS devices… so here are seven steps to prepare for iOS 7 the right way.

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Though you should be patient and wait a week for the official release of iOS 7 on the 18th, you technically don’t have to. For the incredibly impatient who don’t mind a few inconveniences, you can get a head start and update a compatible iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the iOS 7 GM build right now. Of course there’s a catch: you’ll have to download the iOS 7 GM build IPSW from third parties, you have to do a clean install (not an update), and you won’t be able to sync the upgraded iOS 7 device to a computer afterwards – that means no backups, music transfers, restoring from a backup through iTunes, etc – and those inconveniences will remain until the public build of iTunes 11.1 comes out. If for some reason that sounds good to you, then Lifehacker offers up the solution with plenty of links to the GM build to get you on your way, and beyond that, it’s like any other clean installation of iOS.
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Apple has released OS X 10.8.5 system update for all Mac users running OS X 10.8. The update focuses entirely on bug fixes, many of which pertain to various network bugs and quirks that have bothered Mac users since the release of Mountain Lion. The most notable resolution appears to fix the frustrating bug that negatively impacted AFP-based Mac-to-Mac file transfer speeds when any sharing was done over Wi-Fi, and a similar quirk that impacted ethernet transfers.

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Everyone loves good wallpapers, and iOS 7 comes with 33 snazzy new wallpapers for your iOS gear. These particular offerings are sized specifically for iPhone and iPod touch, and due to their limited resolution (744 x 1392) they are not worthwhile for the iPad or desktop yet. Presumably, the high resolution versions from an iPad retina model will surface soon, but for now these should be limited to smartphones.

• Download a zip file of them all here courtesy of MacMixing – (Note: you can open and extract zip files in iOS using apps like WinZip)

If you don’t want to get them all at once in a big zip, click on any thumbnail image below to go to a full size version that can be saved onto your iPhone directly:

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Fresh off the announcement of new iPhone models, late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel took to the streets of LA and handed people a 7.8″ iPad Mini telling them it’s the new iPhone… then got their reactions on the “new iPhone”. The results are hilarious and well worth watching for a quick laugh.

Video is embedded below:

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