Got an iOS 6 or iOS 5 device? You’re in luck because you can play YouTube videos in the background of iOS and hear the audio while you perform other tasks on the device, just like you can with any other music player on an iPhone or iPad.
Rebooting a Mac from the command line is fairly simple, though it should be pointed out that most Mac OS X users are best served just using the standard Apple menu method to issue a system restart.
Nonetheless, for advanced Mac users, using the terminal reboot command can be an invaluable trick for troubleshooting purposes, remote systems administration, remote management through SSH, after installing software updates on a Mac through the command prompt, and a great number of other reasons.
When you’re stuck staring at the grey lens shutter graphic for 5 to 10 seconds before you can even take a picture, you’ve likely already missed the shot you were hoping to get. Obviously the quickest way to access the iPhone camera is using the lock screen camera swipe instead of manually launching the Camera app, but what if both methods take a long time to open? Read more »
Apple has released an update to Java aimed at addressing the recently discovered security issue that could impact some Mac users. The update, dubbed “Java for OS X 2012-005”, is available for users of Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8. All Mac users eligible for the update are recommended to install it.
You can download the Java update through Software Update, the Mac App Store, or directly from Apple. OS X Lion and Mountain Lion onward do not automatically bundle Java, meaning if you don’t see a Java update available you don’t have it installed on your Mac. If you did manually install Java yourself, you will see the update available though.
Apple describes the update as follows:
Java for OS X 2012-005 delivers improved security, reliability, and compatibility by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_35.
This update configures the Java plug-in to deactivate when no applets are run for an extended period of time. If the prior update named “Java for OS X 2012-004” was not installed, this update will disable the Java web plug-in immediately. Java applets may be re-enabled by clicking the region labeled “Inactive plug-in” on a web page.
Please quit any web browsers and Java applications before installing this update.
Last week, Oracle released a Java 7u7 update to patch the problem for SE 7 as well. The updates from Apple address security issues for both Java 6 and Java 7.
With a new iPhone just around the corner, plenty of us will be looking to sell our current models to upgrade to the latest and greatest. If you’re in the same boat, or you just want to sell your iPhone for another reason, there are three particularly good places to do so: Amazon, Apple, and Craigslist. We’ll discuss each and why some options may be better than the other for you.
For top dollar, Amazon is where it’s at. The iPhone 4S fetches up to $500, and even the iPhone 4 16GB model will get a hefty $270 through Amazon’s trade-in service. The only potential caveat with Amazon’s trade-in program is you’ll end up with the value in Amazon store credit, which could be good or bad depending on how often you shop at Amazon.
Apple accepts trade-ins through their recycling program, and in return you’ll get an Apple gift card. If you’re looking to buy a new Apple product this is undoubtedly the most convenient option, but Apple pays quite a bit less than Amazon and you’ll get more cash by throwing it on Craigslist. Sometimes you pay for convenience though, and Apple makes it very easy so there’s something to be said for that.
To get the most cold hard cash for your iPhone, it’s hard to beat Craigslist. Sure there are a lot of tire-kickers and you’ll get some junky emails while you sort through buyers, but there is no better way to get immediate cash than Craigslist. The prices of used iPhones vary on Craigslist by region and by model number, your best bet is to search for the phone you’d like to sell in your area and price it accordingly. If you want to sell it faster, price a bit lower than everyone else and it’ll go quick. In any major city, you should be able to get cash within the same day of posting the ad. Just remember to meet in a public place like a Starbucks to avoid any potential weird situations.
There’s also eBay but the prices tend to be lower after you factor in fees, BestBuy has a trade-in program but it isn’t too generous either, and both Verizon and AT&T will give you money for a used iPhone but like others they don’t pay you much. Using these other services is completely reasonable and many are very convenient especially if you’re heading to one of the stores anyway, just don’t expect to get the best value through them.
Wait! Increase the Value of Your iPhone by Unlocking
Before you sell, check if your iPhone is eligible for an unlock through AT&T or your cell carrier, and if so, be sure to unlock the device before putting it on the market. Unlocked iPhones command a premium on Craigslist and eBay because they can roam onto any other compatible GSM network just by popping in a new SIM card, making them more valuable on the international market and for anyone who travels frequently. You can easily add $100 or more to the value of an iPhone by unlocking it, and it can be done in just a matter of minutes by putting in an unlock request with AT&T’s web tech support.
Did we miss any other worthwhile options for selling your iPhone? Let us know in the comments.
Want to quickly dismiss a desktop notification without opening Notification Center in Mac OS X?
It’s easy, just hover over the notification with the cursor and use a two-fingered swipe gesture from left to right, swiping the alert to where Notification Center appears, and the alert will quickly zip away and off your Mac desktop in a blur. Read more »
Event Invitations are one of the best features of Calendars in iOS and OS X, and if you aren’t using them yet to confirm the time and dates of meetings and events with people you should start now. Once an invitation is sent, it comes through as an alert to the recipient, and they can either confirm the event time or suggest a different one. It’s probably the easiest way to help manage busy schedules, so here’s how to send out invitations from the Mac and on any iOS device:
Sending Event Invitations from iPhone & iPad
Launch Calendar
Create a new event or tap an existing one and Edit the event
Tap the “Invitees” button and search for the person(s) you want to invite to the event
Going back to the event you will see a list of people who have confirmed the invite, or those who haven’t yet responded to the invitation yet.
Inviting People to Events from Mac OS X
Launch Calendar (or iCal if you’re pre-10.8)
Create or Edit an existing event and click “Add Invitees”
Type the name of the person(s) to invite, click “Done” when finished and to send out the invites
You’ll also find an additional option under the invitee list called “Available Meeting Times” which provides a timeline based on when the recipient is available. If they share a calendar with you everything will be visible, otherwise just suggested meeting times will be visible.
As usual, all of these dates and times will sync automatically between your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac OS X calendars as long as you have iCloud set up properly.
The only potential downside to Calendar invitations? There will be no excuses for anyone to forget an event, be it date nights or those boring Thursday morning meetings.
Want to be notified of a reminder when you arrive at a specific place? Or maybe reminded to do something when you leave a location? You can do both of these from OS X with the Reminders app, much like you can in the iOS world.
And because the reminders sync through iCloud, you’ll be alerted on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, whichever is available when you arrive at the set destination.
It’s now official; Apple is holding an event on September 12 in San Francisco to launch the next iPhone. Select press members were sent an invitation to the Yerba Buena Center this morning with the cryptic but obvious message of “It’s almost here.”
Interestingly, that same invite graphic from Apple shows the number “12” reflecting the number “5”, strongly suggesting that Apple will indeed reference the new device as the “iPhone 5”.
There were some suggestions the next iPhone would be called “The new iPhone” rather than “iPhone 5”, taking a cue from “The new iPad” which was so named rather than “iPad 3”. Colloquially, the devices often end up being called by a number anyway, perhaps a reason for Apple to directly indicate the number 5.
You can expand the app carrying capacity of iOS Dock by using Folders and placing those folders into the Dock on an iOS device. This is a great trick if you have more favorite apps than what fit in the iOS Dock by default (4 on iPhone, and 6 on iPad), so do yourself a favor and place a folder of more frequently used apps into the Dock.
Adding folders to the iOS Dock is really easy. This tutorial will walk through the process, it works the same with any folder on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with iOS.
The Mac OS X social sharing features on the Mac platform let you quickly publish images and videos to a variety of places. Using Share Sheets within QuickTime Player you can even publish videos directly to YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook, right from the app.
This is very fast, and offers a quick way to share or upload videos to a variety of social sharing sites without having to leave the Mac or use a web browser. Here’s how this works for YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo.
If you’re running the newest versions of OS X you’ve probably noticed that when apps attempt to access your Contacts list you will get an alert like “Application would like to access your contacts”, giving you the ability to allow or deny access. The apps that make the Contacts requests then get stored in a privacy list, providing for an easy way to later control which apps can and can’t get stored contact information. Here’s how to access and adjust that list: Read more »
The Sharing preference panel options were changed a bit in OS X Mountain Lion and again in Mavericks, and while things like Internet Sharing remain, the Web Sharing preference panel was removed. The Apache web server remains bundled with Mac OS X though, but you’ll need to turn to the command line to enable the web server. Additionally, you’ll want edit a user configuration file for each user account on the Mac to have the personal web sharing feature active. If any of this sounds intimidating or complex, it’s really not, just follow along and you’ll have a simple web server running on your Mac in no time.
You can play Chess over the internet with friends or random opponents with the help of GameCenter in Mac OS X. It’s entirely free, comes with every version of OS X on every Mac, and doesn’t require any downloads, which makes it particularly convenient.
If you already have a GameCenter account from the iOS world you don’t need to do much, but if you’re new to Gamecenter just be sure to have iCloud set up first, and then follow these quick instructions to play Chess online on the Mac.
Want to control iTunes without flipping to the app and disrupting your workflow? Maybe find a new song or skip the current one? The Mac menu bar is the perfect place for those kind of actions, so do yourself a favor and grab Significator.
Significator is a great looking app that lets you control iTunes right from the Mac OS X menu bar. The little music note pulldown menu reveals the current song and album art and has all the classic iTunes necessities like play, pause, scrub, skip and repeat songs, shuffle toggling, and volume controls. Perhaps best of all though is the ability to search your entire iTunes collection right from the menubar with Spotlight-like speed and precision. It’s currently free on the Mac App Store but may go paid soon, so grab it while you can!
The app works great with OS X Lion and Mountain Lion and is retina-ready. For the best aesthetic experience you’ll want to fill in any missing album art though, which is easy to do right in iTunes by pulling down the “Advanced” menu and choosing “Get Album Artwork”. Any covers it can’t find you’ll have to dig up yourself with Google Images.
This weeks featured Mac setup is the home office of Adam M., the Managing Director of a Canadian property consultancy. Adam works from home when focus is essential, and he’s got the hardware to support it:
Mac Pro with 2.55GHz Quad Core, 6GB RAM
Dual 27″ Apple Cinema Displays
MacBook Pro 13″ for traveling and going to the office
iPad 2 with 3G
Bluetooth wireless keyboard
Not shown is an iPhone 4S, which was used to take the picture.
We’ve said it many times before, but having multiple displays can really boost productivity. If you don’t have an external screen yet, it’s certainly worth considering the investment.
Get your Mac setup featured! Send us a good picture or two with a list of hardware, and provide a short description of what you use it for to osxdailycom@gmail.com
More pictures claiming to be the next iPhone have surfaced. The “iPhone 5”, as it’s labeled, is shown alongside an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS, providing for the best comparison yet on overall device size.
The iPhone 5 is clearly taller than the iPhone 4, as shown in these images:
Want to have your emails read to you? How about talking to write out a reply rather than poking around on the touch screen? You can easily do both in iOS, so the next time you need to read and write emails while you’re on the go or driving, consider using the awesome text-to-speech and Dictation features on the iPhone and iPad.
Rebooting a Mac from the command line is fairly simple, though it should be pointed out that most Mac OS X users are best served just using the standard Apple menu method to issue a system restart. 
