How to Implement Smart App Banners on a Website to Promote App Downloads

Dec 10, 2012 - 3 Comments

Have you noticed how some sites promote their own app to download when you visit their website while browsing through Safari on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch? This is done through a little pop-up menu that appears at the top of Safari when browsing some sites with iOS 6 onward, and it’s done through something called “Smart App Banners”. If you haven’t seen this on the web yet, here is what it looks like at the top of a site:

Smart App Banner
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By William Pearson - Development, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 3 Comments

3 Simple Gmail Tips to Boost Email Productivity

Dec 9, 2012 - 13 Comments

Simple Gmail tips to boost productivity

Gmail is one of the most popular email services around, and if you use the web-based email client as your primary email app too then you’ll undoubtedly benefit from these three simple tips to boost productivity. No, they won’t end the email onslaught and 100 new email messages a day that we all suffer from, but they will help you get in and out of your inbox quicker in several completely different ways, and that’s a big help.
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By Paul Horowitz - Tips & Tricks - 13 Comments

Add Music to iPhone or iPod Wirelessly Without Syncing iTunes

Dec 9, 2012 - 18 Comments

If you want to be able to transfer music to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch wirelessly and without syncing everything on the device with iTunes, you’ll need to turn on iTunes Wi-Fi Sync. Yes, you read that correctly, in order to add a song to an iPhone (iPod, etc) wirelessly and without syncing the entire device, you have to enable a feature that suggests kind of the opposite. This is very easy to do, but surprisingly, wi-fi syncing is disabled by default. We’ll walk you through turning the feature on and then showing you how to copy a song over to an iOS device wirelessly, without syncing everything else which as we all know can take forever.

Add music to iPhone wirelessly
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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, iTunes, Tips & Tricks - 18 Comments

Mac Setup: The Cinematographers Desk

Dec 9, 2012 - 15 Comments

Cinematographer Mac desk setup

This weeks great Mac setup comes to us from Caleb M., the owner of a production company in New Zealand that specializes in cinematography with rapid turnaround. The Apple gear is used to edit, color, process, and deliver materials. Hardware includes:

  • MacBook Pro 15″ (early 2011) – 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD
  • iPad 16GB (3rd Generation) 
  • iPhone 5 16GB
  • 27″ Apple Thunderbolt Display
  • Western Digital My Book VelociRaptor Thunderbolt Duo (2x1TB Raptor Drives, RAID 0)
  • Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter – for offloading media on SSDs
  • Twelve South Hover Bar for iPad
  • Rain mStand Laptop Stand for MacBook Pro
  • ElevationDock for iPhone 5
  • Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K760
  • Apple Magic Mouse
  • Diecast DeLorean for awesomeness

The HoverBar is a great iPad accessory, and in this case it lets the iPad be used as a third display from time to time. You can try turning your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch into an external display by using AirDisplay, which now has a free version available for anyone to test.

Do you have an interesting Mac setup you want featured here on OSXDaily? Send us a good picture or two, a list of hardware, and a brief description of what the workstation is used for: osxdailycom@gmail.com

By William Pearson - Mac Setups - 15 Comments

Add & Edit Lyrics of Songs in iTunes and View Them in the iOS Music App

Dec 8, 2012 - 9 Comments

Did you know you can add or edit the lyrics of any song in your iTunes library? And of course, once you sync that song to your iPhone or iPod touch, you’ll then be able to view the lyrics directly on the iOS device screen. The whole process is quite simple, though you’ll have to fill in lyrics yourself if they aren’t already there, but with no shortage of lyrics sites out there the words the songs are only a quick google search away. The result is that you’ll be able to actually see the words to a song while you’re playing it in the Music app rather than taking a wild guess.

See song lyrics in iOS Music player
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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, iTunes, Tips & Tricks - 9 Comments

21 Useful iTunes 11 Keyboard Shortcuts

Dec 7, 2012 - 9 Comments

iTunes 11 icon The new iTunes interface can be a bit jolting at first, but whether you’re still trying to get the hang of the new iTunes 11 interface of you’ve already made the changes to bring some familiarity back to the app, you’ll find good use out of these keyboard shortcuts.

We’ve split them up into three distinct sections based on usage, and you’ll be able to start and stop songs, change volume, hide and show the sidebar, toggle the new MiniPlayer, and access all of your media libraries, all with the help of nothing but some simple keyboard shortcuts.
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By Paul Horowitz - iTunes, Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 9 Comments

Watch Apple CEO Tim Cook’s First TV Interview with NBC [Video]

Dec 7, 2012 - 7 Comments

Tim Cook talks with Brian Williams The first major TV interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook aired last night, where he spoke at length with NBC’s Brian Williams. A wide variety of topics are discussed, including Cook’s role as CEO, Steve Jobs, the mishaps of Apple Maps, Apple TV, manufacturing, the future of Apple, The Jetsons (yes, the cartoon), competition, and other little tidbits, like Apple’s purpose which led to this great quote from Cook:
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By Paul Horowitz - News - 7 Comments

Snapseed: the Best Photo Editing App for iPhone & iPad is Now Free

Dec 6, 2012 - 9 Comments

Snapseed icon

Snapseed is far and away our favorite mobile photo editing app for iOS, and it just got even better because the best image editing app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is now free. No more $4.99 price tag, now everyone can check it out with no obligation other than a quick download.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, News - 9 Comments

Turn Off Vibrate for Text Messages & iMessages on iPhone

Dec 6, 2012 - 7 Comments

Stop iPhone vibrating with text messages and iMessages

Whether the iPhone is flipped into silent mode or not, an incoming text message or iMessage will vibrate. While that’s great for being notified of a new text, in some situations you’d rather have complete silence when texting, you know, when you’re passing time in a boring meeting, sitting a quiet classroom, or maybe you’re just next to someone who is a very light sleeper. In situations like these the best way to text and send messages completely discretely is to not only mute the iPhone, but to go a step further and disable the vibration alert as well.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 7 Comments

How to Remove EXIF Data from Images on Mac Quickly

Dec 5, 2012 - 16 Comments

Remove EXIF data from an image

Photos taken with digital cameras, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, all include some level of EXIF data, which is basically metadata with information about the image. With pictures taken from the iPhone and other smartphones, that data can even include details like precise geographic coordinates where the image was taken, (though that’s easy to disable), and overall that metadata can just make images more bloated than they need to be.

This tutorial will show you how to remove all EXIF data from pictures you choose to on a Mac in a nice quick and easy manner. EXIF data includes meta data, GPS coordinates, originator information, and more, and by stripping the EXIF metadata from the image file the photo will no longer have that information bundled with the file itself.

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By William Pearson - Mac OS, Security, Tips & Tricks - 16 Comments

9 Command Line Tricks for Mac OS X You Should Know

Dec 5, 2012 - 14 Comments

Command line tricks for OS X you should know

The command line is often considered the realm of advanced users, but that doesn’t mean every usage of Terminal has to involve rocket science. This collection of terminal tips should apply to a wide variety of Mac users, and everyone from beginners to advanced users should find something worthwhile here.
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By William Pearson - Command Line, Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 14 Comments

How to Create a New User Account on Mac OS X

Dec 4, 2012 - 8 Comments

How to Create New User Account on Mac

Creating a new user account in Mac OS X either for yourself or for another person who may use your Mac is often a good idea.

For another computer user, a separate user account insures that your data and their data is separate, effectively sharing the same computer but not the same files. For yourself, a new user account used exclusively for work or play is an excellent way to increase your productivity by reducing distractions. This makes it very easy to use and carry just a single Mac to serve as both a work and personal computer, and can be a real lifesaver for those of us who are either workaholics or just easily distracted by all the stuff that resides on the computer.

We’ll show you how to create a new user account in Mac OS X that you can use for whatever usage is necessary, either for your own needs or for a separate person.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 8 Comments

Turn iOS Maps into a Virtual Globe by Zooming Out

Dec 4, 2012 - 7 Comments

Maps icon in iOS

Have you ever wanted a globe in the palm of your hands? Well thanks to your iPhone or iPad you can have a little virtual world and digital globe, right in your hand!

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 7 Comments

13 Amazing Wallpapers from the National Geographic 2012 Photo Contest

Dec 4, 2012 - 6 Comments

National Geographic wallpaper collections for 2012

Everyone loves good wallpapers, and it’s hard to beat the incredible selections that National Geographic puts up once a year through their photo contests. This year is no different, and there are quite literally tons of freakishly beautiful wallpapers available to download in sizes fit for the desktop, iPad, and iPhone. We’ve provided a small sampling of favorites below, but don’t miss browsing through the collections on the NatGeo website, you’ll be impressed.

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By Paul Horowitz - Customize - 6 Comments

Send & Share Contacts Easily from Mac OS X

Dec 3, 2012 - 2 Comments

Share Contacts easily from Mac OS X app

The Contacts app in OS X makes sharing the contact information of anyone in your address book extremely simple, and if you have iCloud enabled you can share any address from your phone right from your Mac, without reaching for the iPhone itself:
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By Paul Horowitz - iPhone, Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 2 Comments

Make New Playlists & Add Songs To Existing Playlists Easily with iTunes 11

Dec 3, 2012 - 6 Comments

Drag and drop to make playlists in iTunes

If you upgraded to iTunes 11 you know the default view removed the sidebar with its playlist view. Sure it’s easy to show again, but if you’d rather keep with the new simplified user interface, don’t miss this simple trick to make a new playlist or add songs to a playlist, without using the standard sidebar ever again.

  • Click and hold on any song to reveal a temporary sidebar on the right
  • Drag the song into that floating sidebar to create a new playlist, or drag the song to an existing playlist to add it

These playlists can be found and edited further by clicking the “Playlists” tab as usual, and can be added to at any point by just clicking and holding anything else in the iTunes library. With this new feature, you can keep the iTunes interface simplified as the default setting suggests, and it actually starts to make more sense since the action of creating and editing playlists is hidden unless it’s needed.

You can see this in action with the video embedded below, which demonstrates a playlist being created and then songs being added to that playlist, all without showing the primary sidebar:

Thanks for the tip idea Addy!

By Paul Horowitz - iTunes, Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 6 Comments

iOS 6.1 Beta 3 Released for Developers

Dec 3, 2012 - 2 Comments

iOS 6.1 Beta 3

The third beta of iOS 6.1 has been released to developers, edging closer to a wider public release for the minor software update. iOS 6.1 beta 3 arrives as build 10B5117b and is available as an OTA update to anyone currently running iOS 6.1 beta 2. IPSW for beta 3 will also be available for downloading from the iOS Developer Center.

Thus far, no significant changes have been found in iOS 6.1 betas, and the release primarily consists of minor improvements to Maps, Passbook, Siri, and Safari, as well as a variety of bug fixes and minor UI adjustments.

Those who are not developers but interested in learning more about the beta can read some more details at MacRumors.

By Matt Chan - iPad, iPhone, News - 2 Comments

Run X11 in Mac OS X with XQuartz

Dec 2, 2012 - 5 Comments

Advanced Mac users may have noticed that X11 is no longer bundled with OS X, and it’s also no longer available as a separate installation option through Developer Tools. Instead, to run X11 on OS X Mountain Lion (and later), you’ll want to download and install the free XQuartz system, which bundles all the necessary libraries and apps together that are needed to run a full X11 Windowing System perfectly atop OS X.

X11 in Mac OS X with XQuartz
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By William Pearson - Command Line, Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 5 Comments

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