Category: Average Joe’s Tips

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Average Joe's Tips

A New Edition, Welcome iPhone 4

As we prepare to welcome the new birth into the iPhone family-though some lucky pre-orders may have received their devices early like our Review Editor Zander, we ask ourselves, “What will I do with my old iPhone?” Well, there are may alternatives: sell your iPhone or keep the iPhone as a fancy remote or book reader.

Where and How to Sell Your Old iPhone:

Where to sell, there are several online retailers where you can sell your device. To state the obvious, eBay and Craigslists on the list. However, there are sites such as NextWorth witch will pay a certain amount of money given the condition of the phone. Additionally, NextWorth allows selling of your charger or dock connector, but will only pay a lousy $1 for an accessory that retails at $29 at the Apple Store. There is also another option, called SellYourMac, which contains a fairly similar process as NextWorth.

Before selling your device, I would suggest removing your data. There are a few different methods of wiping the data from your iPhone. The first and most common, restoring your iPhone in iTunes. Make sure you create a backup of your iPhone, so you can move the settings onto your new iPhone. After the restore, the iPhone will ask you to “Choose from Backup” or “Setup as New iPhone” at that point, you can eject the iPhone, your data has been removed. The second method, is on the iPhone. On the iPhone, go to Settings, General, Reset, then tap “Erase All Contents and Settings.” This will drain most of your battery, so plug your iPhone into the charger and let it run.

Pimp my iPhone:

Of course, there are always different alternatives to selling your iPhone. Why not put the old iPhone to use, with the multitude of apps in Apple’s App Store, turn your iPhone into a remote. If you have AirTunes-see our guide here, use your iPhone as a remote to control the music by the help of Apple’s Remote app (free). If you happen to be a Comcast customer, use their Comcast app (free) to view the upcoming shows and schedule your DVR. Also, download an application such as Mocha VNC (free or U.S. $5.99) to control your iMac from the kitchen. Air Mouse Pro (U.S. $1.99) proves to be a good option if you want to turn your iPhone into a trackpad to control your Mac. Air Mouse Pro even brings in functionalities of a “real” mouse by allowing the two finger swipe.

With iOS 4, Apple brings iBooks (free). Turn your old iPhone into a dedicated book reader. Additionally, I would think about other applications to add such as Marvel (free), Zinio (free), or even GQ (U.S. $4.99).

These are just a few options, but which ever route you choose to take, someone will enjoy the iPhone!

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Average Joe's Tips

AT&T: 3G On the iPad or Not?

To buy 3G or not? That is the question on most people’s minds when they are considering buying an iPad. If you are like most people, you are already paying for internet access at home and with your current phone carrier. Should you spend the money and incur another 3G charge with AT&T? Or is there a less expensive or better alternative? When considering alternatives you should factor in the cost of a 3G iPad which is about $130 more than the WiFi model and the AT&T monthly charge of $29.99 for unlimited 3G access. One option to consider is purchasing a mobile hotspot from Verizon or Sprint. In addition to giving your iPad access to the internet, you can connect up to a total of 5 devices to the hotspot so you may be able to get rid of your home internet service. The Verizon MiFi sells for $49.99. The monthly charge on the MiFi is $59.99 a month for 5GB of 3G service. The only bummer is if you exceed the 5GB cap, you would have to pay extra for the additional data which is not cheap. Similar to the MiFi, Sprint’s Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot costs $149.99. Sprint’s monthly charge is the same as the MiFi at $59.99 a month for 5GB of 3G service or UNLIMITED 4G service. However, only 13 out of 50 states have Sprint’s 4G service – so if you are lucky enough to live in a city with Sprint 4G coverage, this might be the most cost effective solution around. Bottom line – if you expect to be an iPad data hog, then AT&T’s 3G service may be the most economical as the plan allows unlimited data or if you live in a Sprint 4G area. If you don’t expect to exceed to the 5GB service and have a family or multiple people that need to connect when you are on the go, then the Verizon and Sprint options may be more beneficial.

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Average Joe's Tips

What is “Automator”?

Most people know that on their Mac there is some weird looking robot application, called “Automator,” but it seems that not many people know how it works or what it does. Automator is essentially an application to help you perform repetitive tasks on your Mac. It doesn’t help you write those repetative essays for school, but if you have, for example, 100 pictures that you want to rename, than Automator can help you. But Automator doesn’t just rename files — it can do much more, such as add content to your keynote presentation or speak highlighted text. It can even open a web browser and bring up the RSS Feed for your favorite website *cough, cough* TheRealMacGenius.com. But don’t worry, I’m not going to throw you out into the world of Automator after only telling you basically what it does — I will show you how to make one application and introduce some of the more important details of Automator.

First, here are some Automator terms to keep in mind. A workflow is a list of actions that the program performs, which can be edited at any time. However, a workflow won’t run as an application, but will only open Automator. So, if you feel like you have completed your workflow, you can save it as an application. Next, an application is an Automator script that has been finished, but cannot be edited in Automator after being saved. In your library, you can see all of your scripts, whose functions range from editing in Finder to working on the Internet. Here is a quick application that I made to bring up TRMG’s RSS Feed:

1. Under the list of Actions, select the “Internet” tab from the Library. Drag the script “Get Specified URLs” it to the workflow station on the right.

2. In this new window, you will see the default bookmark “Apple”.

3. Delete the Apple bookmark by selecting it then clicking “Remove”.  Then, click “Add”.

4. A new, blank entry should appear. Name the bookmark anything you wish — we recommend: TRMG. Then, under “Address,” copy and paste the following url:  feed://therealmacgenius.com/feed/

5. Add a final script from the “Internet” tab, “New Safari Documents”.

6. Finally, save it as an application, name it and your finished! Now, when you want to view our feed quickly, just run your application. If your application doesn’t work properly, view the image after the break to check your workflow against mine.

Also, you can download the finished application here.

If you would like help making more applications, visit this website.

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Average Joe's Tips

Average Joe’s Biweekly Tips and Tricks

Today I have another trick for you that displays cool graphics on the iTunes Visualizer when playing songs in iTunes! This trick only takes one easy step. Open iTunes and start playing your favorite song. Then click command + T (and if you want it full screen just click command + F). The graphics will change with the beat of the song. To access the iTunes Visualizer from the toolbar, go to view then down to show visualizer. You can also customize the Visualizer by choosing different kinds of Visualizers like the Itunes Classic or Jelly. To do this you go back up to view in your toolbar and scroll down to Visualizer not View Visualizer. After that select the kind of Visualizer you would like to view.

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Average Joe's Tips

Average Joe’s Biweekly Tips and Tricks

I have had many problems with duplicate songs in my iTunes. My Mac tip this week is going to show you how to get rid of the duplicates in your iTunes. The first thing that you need to do after you open iTunes and navigate and click on File in your toolbar. Then scroll back down to see the list of duplicate songs you have. Review the list and click on the duplicate songs you want to delete (for an easy way to delete multiple items at once, click on one of the songs, then hold shift and then click on another song below the one you previously selected). After you have selected all the duplicates you want to delete, a screen will pop up  confirming that you want to permanently delete the song (press ok because you still have the one copy that you didn’t delete). It’s that easy!

How did this tip help you, leave a comment!