Want to run Windows 7 right on an iPad? OnLive Desktop does exactly that, letting you access a cloud-based Windows 7 PC directly from iOS. Complete with the full Microsoft Office 2010 suite, you can use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint with full touch controls, and believe it or not it’s actually really fast and fluid.

Amazingly, this is free for the first 2GB of virtual storage space on the cloud PC, though additional storage and paid plans are available. The paid plans start at $4.99 and include up to 50GB of storage, provide access to more Windows applications, add DropBox support, and also bring full Internet Explorer access with Flash (useful for web developers who don’t want to run IE in virtual machines).

Using OnLive Desktop is easy, here’s all you need to do:

• Download the free OnLive app from the App Store (iPad only)
• Sign up for a free OnLive account

The account signup process requires an email but is otherwise quick and painless. Enter that ID into the app, and you’ll immediately find yourself on the desktop of a Windows 7 machine, right on the iPad.

Try this service out and get it while you can, because there is some question as to how long OnLive Desktop will be around. Microsoft is actively complaining that the service violates their Windows 7 licensing agreements, though OnLive is adamant that it’s supported and is willing to fight for it. Hopefully the two can come to an agreement and keep the OnLive service alive, because frankly it’s a cool technical feat and also has some very useful applications for the real world. Better yet, Microsoft should just buy them and offer the service directly with Windows 8 Metro, which is optimized for touch and may well be a significant competitor to iOS down the road… who knows. Anyway, check it out, even if you don’t like Windows it’s impressive to try out the free service.

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A free public beta of Photoshop CS6 has been released by Adobe. The beta features some pretty major changes to Photoshop, including a new graphics engine that dramatically speeds up performance of some tools and an all new darkened user interface.

In terms of features, Photoshop CS6 includes a new content-aware patch, blur gallery, type styles, custom strokes to shapes, layer searching, video editing tools, a new crop tool, auto-select interpolation, and improved camera RAW support.

Anyone is free to download and install Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta and no serial number is needed, although you will be required to enter an Adobe ID and activate online within seven days of first launching the application. From then on, the software is free to use until the final release of Photoshop CS6, which is due out sometime later this year.

If you’re at all interested in Photoshop or image editing, it’s worth a look. Free downloads are available for Mac OS X and Windows, with the Mac version requiring at least 2.5GB of available disk space to install.

• Download for Mac (direct link, 984MB)
• Download for Windows (direct link, 1.7GB)

Watch the video below for a demonstration, or check out Adobe Labs for more info.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, but typically Photoshop is the same price as a new iPad or more. For that reason, many alternatives like Pixelmator or even iPhoto can be good enough for many users photo editing needs.

The next iPhone will feature a significantly larger 4.6″ display, according to a report from Reuters.

The brief report cites an unspecified source who claims that Apple has already placed orders for the larger screen with component suppliers. Display suppliers for the iPhone could be LG and Samsung, with Samsung currently producing 4.6″ displays for their own Galaxy SII Android phone, shown alongside an iPhone 4S above.

If true, the next iPhone screen would be over an inch larger than the current iPhone display, which is measured at 3.5″ diagonally. A larger screen has long been anticipated for the next generation iPhone release, though most speculation focuses on a 4″ display, marking this as the first rumor of a 4.6″ display.

Virtually nothing is known about the next iPhone, though it is expected to follow the release schedule set by the iPhone 4S, which debuted in early October of last year.

Using a little known folder buried within the iTunes directory, you can automatically add any compatible media to iTunes, be it songs, music, movies, just by placing files into the directory. This gets even better when you point downloads to that directory, because all downloaded media is then immediately synced to iTunes with no user interaction.

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Tired of bash? Prefer zsh, ksh, tcsh, fish, or sh? You can quickly change the default shell in Terminal app, in addition to changing a users default login shell for when logging in remotely with SSH or otherwise. Here’s how to do both.
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The iPad battery is advertised to last 10 hours and that number really isn’t exaggerated, the battery life is phenomenal. No adjustments are needed to get 8-10 hours of use out of the iPad, but if you want to squeeze the absolute longest amount of battery use possible, you can adjust a few settings to prolong the life even further.

1. Lower the Screen Brightness – We discussed this in a recent iPad tips post, but other than being easier on the eyes this will make the single biggest difference in battery life. With how bright the iPad 2 and Pad 3 displays are, you can usually get away with 60% brightness at all times. At night, going down to 30% or 40% brightness or less is easier on the eyes and will conserve even more battery. Access the setting by double-tapping the home button and swiping to the left.
2. Turn Off Notifications – Is it crucial to get a notification every time it’s your turn in Draw Something? Probably not. Disable Notifications for apps you don’t absolutely have to have notifications posted for and you can recoup some battery life. Find this in Settings > Notifications, and disable them.
3. Disable Bluetooth – If you aren’t using Bluetooth for an external wireless keyboard or otherwise, keep it disabled
4. Use Airplane Mode – When doing something that doesn’t require internet access, turning on AirPlane Mode can save some battery life. Perfect for reading books or doing things on the iPad, and it has the added bonus of preventing internet distractions. Find this in Settings > Airplane Mode
5. Disable Location Services – Most important for 3G/4G iPads, but you will save battery life even if you just have a Wi-Fi model. Turn these off in Settings > Location Services
6. Disable Diagnostic & Usage Reports – Sending out usage and diagnostic reports helps Apple to make a better iOS experience, but it also causes some minor activity in the background. Disable it for maximum battery conservation. Find this in Settings > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Don’t Send

You’ll find these tips have value beyond the iPad too, and carefully adjusting settings can help to conserve battery for other iOS devices and even Macs.

You can also check out some more general iOS 5 battery tips, though most of those were aimed at addressing a problem that was fixed with iOS 5.1, and thus wouldn’t be relevant to the new iPad because it ships with iOS 5.1 preinstalled.

Bonus Battery Tips

Here are a few more tips from ArsTechnica that could help too, give them a go if the above solutions aren’t enough for you.

• Turn off iCloud when not in use
• Download and watch movies from the iPad itself rather than streaming with YouTube or Netflix
• Disable LTE (3rd gen 4G models only)

Have any tricks to prolong the iPad battery life even further? Let us know in the comments.

If your new iPad 3 has poor wi-fi reception, you’re not alone. After getting a shiny new iPad 3rd gen, I immediately noticed it wasn’t registering any bars of wireless reception, and wi-fi was strangely slow regardless of the network I joined or the distance to the router. It must be defective and I should storm down to the Apple Store and get a refund, right? Wrong. It’s actually really easy to fix, so before you call AppleCare support, give this fix a try, it worked for me.

• Open Settings and tap on “General”
• Tap “Network” and tap “Wi-Fi”
• Tap the blue arrow next to the wireless router you are connected to
• At the next screen, tap “Forget this Network”
• Go back to Wi-Fi and rejoin the network you just forgot

Like magic, you should now have full reception bars, as visible in the upper left wifi indicator.

If wi-fi is still not working, try this as well:

• From Settings, tap “General” then “Reset”
• Tap “Reset Network Settings”
• Reboot the iPad
• Connect to a wireless network again

Resetting network preferences loses router passwords, be sure to have those handy beforehand.

Often these issues are software related and fairly easy to handle, as I’ve resolved a number of times with OS X Lion too, so don’t assume some of the complaints you’ll read on Gizmodo and Apple Discussions are all hardware related. That said, if you’ve attempted both of the methods outlined above and your 3rd gen iPad wi-fi is still problematic, you might actually have a genuine problem and it would be worth contacting Apple or AppleCare.

If you have an Apple Remote Control and a Mac with an IR receiver port, you can quickly put the Mac to sleep using just the remote control. Obviously you’ll need to be in the same room as the Mac to do this, but it’s pretty handy. Here’s what to do:

• Point the remote control in the direction of the Mac and hold the Play button for about 5-8 seconds

The Mac screen will turn black with a few ZzZz’s appearing on the screen, with sleep immediately following.

Remote control sleep works with the good old white plastic remote controls and the newer aluminum models, the only real requirement is the Mac must have an infrared (IR) port. With the exception of MacBook Air and older Macs, almost all of them do.

For Macs without an IR port, or if you’re not in the same room (let alone the same state), you can always sleep a Mac with email or using SSH after some minimal setup.

Thanks to Brian G for the tip

Do you have an event, announcement, or statement you want to broadcast to a group of people? You can easily send out a mass text message to multiple recipients from the iPhone Messages app. The group text will work regardless of whether the contacts you are sending to have iMessage or SMS text messaging, though iMessage users will have a few more features than those who don’t.

Here’s how to send a mass text message or iMessage from the iPhone or iPad:
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Diablo 3 has a release date set for May 15, and if you’re like us you’ve been wondering if your computer can handle the game well enough to be worth buying. The good news is that Blizzard looks to be supporting a wide array of hardware, and most fairly modern computers will run the game just fine. As usual, the newer and better your computer the better, but here are the minimum and recommended specs for Diablo III running on Mac and Windows PC’s. You’ll probably want to check against this before pre-ordering or buying the game.

Minimum System Requirements for Mac OS X

• Mac OS X 10.6.8, 10.7.*, or newer
• Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT or ATI Radeon HD 2600 or better
• 2GB RAM
• 12 GB of available disk space
• DVD drive for retail disc versions (digital download available)
• Broadband internet connection for multiplayer
• 1024×768 or greater screen resolution

Of course the game will run better with better hardware, here are the recommended specs for Mac users.

Recommended System Requirements for Mac OS X

• OS X 10.7.x or newer
• Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz or faster
• 4GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M or ATI Radeon HD 4670 or better

If you have a Windows PC, here are the specs for that.

Minimum System Requirements for Windows

• Windows XP, Vista, or 7 with Direct X 9.0c
• Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz or AMD Athlon 64 4400
• NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT or ATI Radeon X1950 Pro or better
• 1GB RAM for Windows XP, 1.5GB RAM for Vista or 7
• 12GB disk space
• DVD drive
• Broadband internet connection
• 1024×768 resolution

For better performance in Diablo III, go with the recommended Windows system requirements instead.

Recommended System Requirements for Windows

• Windows Vista or Windows 7 with latest service packs
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon 2.8GHZ or better
• 4GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 260 or ATI Radeon HD 4870 or better

A note for Mac users: you will often get better gaming performance by playing in Windows, though this will require Boot Camp and a Windows partition to be able to do. The system requirements will be the same if you choose this route.

Whether you’re new to the iPad or a longtime user, here are some great tips to help you get the most out of the device. A few of these are intended for using on the new iPad, but most of them will be relevant to all iPad models of all ages.

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Many years ago before Mac OS X, the Mac OS Finder was much more simple. There was no toolbar, no sidebar, no drop shadows, and each folder opened in it’s own window showing you only the icons in that Folder. That was basically the default desktop experience from Mac OS 1.0 through Mac OS 9, and you can bring much of that traditional simplified Finder styling to OS X with a few minor adjustments:

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The default passcode for iPad and iPhone uses a fairly simple four digit numerical password, these are certainly better to use than nothing, but they can be somewhat easy to guess because statistically many people use common passwords or some variation of a simple theme, like a repetition, countdown, or birth year. An easy way to add more security to an iOS device is to disable simple passcodes and utilize the full keyboard, allowing you to type out complete passwords of varying complexity, instead of the simple numerical passcodes that are initially used.

Here is how to further secure an iOS device by using the strong passcode option:
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If you have an older Mac that feels slow and sluggish from time to time, follow these simple tips to regain some long lost speed.

We’re going to keep it simple with real tips that will speed up a Mac that are not overly complex or complicated. Nothing here is too technical or time consuming either, these are just simple tricks that should help your old Mac performance a bit. Ranging from a few basic Finder tweaks to some general maintenance and usability tips, your Mac should be feeling quicker in day-to-day tasks in no time. Let’s get to it!

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Need to find or reveal hidden App Store purchases so that you can access and download them again in iOS or ipadOS to your iPhone or iPad?

It’s easy to find and unhide app purchases directly on an iOS / iPadOS device, though the exact technique will depend on what version of iOS or iPadOS you have on the device itself.

To get started, grab the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and then do the following in accordance with the version of iOS / iPadOS you are using:

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In an extreme situation, say a Mac is lost or stolen, you can remotely wipe the Mac of all its data and contents with the help of iCloud. Remotely wiping a Mac goes a step further though and not only removes all data from the computer, but locks it down so that it’s unusable without a set passcode, plus displays a message you provide. This is excellent anti-theft protection, and even if you never end up using it, it’s good to know how to do.

Requirements:

• iCloud configured on the Mac in question
• OS X Lion 10.7.2 or later installed on the Mac
• Access to a web browser and iCloud.com, or the Find My iPhone iOS app (free)

If you meet the requirements, here is how to use the remote wipe feature.

Remote Wipe a Mac with iCloud

1. Go to iCloud.com and click on “Find My iPhone”, or launch the Find My iPhone app in iOS
2. Locate the Mac on the map, and click the “i” next to the computers name
3. At the Info screen, click on “Remote Wipe”



4. Enter a passcode twice for recovery, this will be necessary to know if the Mac is recovered so that it can be unlocked
5. Enter a message to be shown on the Mac after it has been wiped, putting a “Property of Bill Gates, if found please contact 1-888-555-1212” message is a good idea



6. Click on “Wipe” and confirm

The Mac will be wiped clear of personal data and become essentially useless until the passcode has been entered. This rates up there with some of the best anti-theft software available, and considering that iCloud and Find My Mac is completely free to use, there is no reason to not have this setup in case of emergency.

It should be noted this is not a reasonable approach to simply formatting a Mac hard drive, which is best done locally with the Disk Utility application.

For more remote control fun, remember that you can sleep a Mac remotely through email or SSH too. It’s less dramatic, but perhaps more practical on a day to day basis.

If you’re trying to install or download a handful of iOS apps, sometimes an app or even your entire home screen is filled with app icons labeled “Waiting…”. Even worse, sometimes those apps stuck on “Waiting” can be without any of the progress bars moving, with a failure to complete downloading or installing.

Don’t sweat it, if your iPhone or iPad apps are renamed as “Waiting” and they are stuck in that status, you can fix this fairly easily with the two methods detailed below.

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This Mac setup comes to us from Barry L, a high school computer science teacher in South Carolina. The Apple gear is used to teach AP Computer Science, Computer Programming, and Computer Science Research, and the classroom is gradually converting to Macs from a bunch of Dells running Windows XP, which will then be used to teach a class on iOS development this Fall. How awesome is that?

The hardware shown is split between the teachers personal gear and the schools, here’s what is on display:

• Mac Mini (2011) with 8GB RAM connected to two displays
• Dell 21″ LCD
• LG 19″ LCD mirrored to 19 other displays around the room to show code
• MacBook Air 13″ with 256GB SSD
• iPad 2 32GB Wi-Fi
• iPhone 4S 32GB
• iPod touch 4th gen used for development
• Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad

What you can’t see behind the desk is the the remainder of the classrooms gear, which are the aforementioned Dell workstations, a 21″ iMac (2011), two Mac Minis (2011), MacBook Pro (2010), MacBook Pro (2009), and two more iPod touch.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I think it’s pretty great that iOS development, let alone computer science, is being taught in a high school. The only computer class at my high school was a generic “keyboarding” course which focused on how to type (ooh!) and use MS Office (ahh!), talk about boring.

Enjoy reading our Mac setup posts? Want yours featured? Send in pictures of your Apple & Mac setups to osxdailycom@gmail.com and include some brief hardware details and what it’s used for.