Tag: iOS

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Best Mac OS X Lion 10.7 Features

I am really excited about the new Mac OS X Lion 10.7 that is coming in July to the Mac App Store for just $29.99. So what is new? The Mac OS X Lion 10.7 has over 250 new features such as Multi-Touch gestures, Mission Control, full-screen apps, and Launchpad. With so many new features, everyone should be excited about it. Features such as Multi-Touch helps you interact with your Mac in greater depth such as full-screen swiping and image zooming. With full-screen apps, you to take advantage of the whole Mac display for your apps. It’s easy to switch from full-screen to desktop view and vice versa. The full-screen apps feature is very similar to iOS, as are many of the new features on Mac OS X Lion. You really get immersed in your apps when it is in full-screen.

Mission Control gives you the ability to have full-screen apps, Dashboard, Exposé, and Spaces all under your fingertips. With Mission Control, you have a bird’s-eye view of everything. It only takes one three-finger swipe to show Mission Control. Launchpad is one of my favorite features. It really brings the iOS feel to your Mac display. Just click the Launchpad icon on your Dock and your Mac display is replaced by a full-screen of all your apps on your Mac. You can organize and arrange them however you like, just like you could on your iOS device. When you download an app from the Mac App Store, it goes straight to Launchpad.

Resume is very self-explanatory. You can now close your apps and reopen them and they will look exactly as you left them. You can restart your Mac and open your apps and they will be the same as before you restarted your computer. Auto Save is also self-explanatory. Your work automatically saves your work so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to save your work and having to start over. Versions is a feature that allows you to chart the history of your documents and place it on a timeline to compare them side by side with your latest version. You can see how much you improved your documents.

AirDrop is a very useful feature that allows you to share files with other AirDrop users that are within about 30 feet of you. You don’t need a complicated set up or internet, just drag the file onto the person’s name and once accepted, the file will begin transferring. Mail is getting a huge upgrade. Mail takes advantage of the full-screen and includes a message list on the left that also includes snippets of the message. You can also search for messages with ease. Lion Server now has a Server app that helps assist you in turning your Mac into a server. Profile Manager allows you to manage all your Macs, running Mac OS X Lion of course, and iOS devices. Mac OS X Lion definitely has many improvements that everyone has been looking forward to. What features are you looking forward to the most?

Feel free to leave a comment.

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How To: Turn your iPad into an external monitor for your Mac

Many iPad owners don’t realize that you can use the iPad as an external monitor for your Mac or Windows PC. For $4.99, you can purchase iDisplay from the App Store. What is iDisplay? iDisplay is basically an app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. You have to install iDisplay Desktop for free on your Mac or Windows PC if you want to use the iDisplay app on your iOS device for use with your Mac or Windows PC. There are also certain requirements you should be aware of before you decide to use iDisplay.

As written on iDisplay’s website:

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later. Intel-based Mac, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or later or Windows XP 32-bit, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (all versions, except Starter). Non-Intel Macs and Macs running OS X in 64-bit mode are not supported.

To setup your iPad as an external monitor for your Mac, you must first go to the App Store and purchase the app iDisplay for $4.99. You must also go on your Mac and go to Shape Services to download the iDisplay Desktop for Mac OS for free. Install the iDisplay Desktop software and restart your computer. Now that you have both iDisplay and iDisplay Desktop, you can click iDisplay Desktop to get it running. The iDisplay Desktop application will not pop up, but will show up on the top right menu bar to show that it is running. Now you can run the iDisplay app on your iPad and an alert will pop up on your Mac display that will say that an “Unknown device is attempting to connect to “iDisplay” on this computer.” You can “Allow always”, “Deny”, or “Allow”.  After you either click “Allow” or “Allow always”, the iPad now acts as an external display.

You can now drag windows onto your iPad. The iPad display may be delayed depending on your internet connection speed. You can take advantage of the iPad as an external display for simple things such as IM, Twitter, and weather. It will really keep your Mac monitor less cluttered. The external monitor is great for when you do multiple things and you are running low on space.

Feel free to leave comments.

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New Notifications for iOS 5

At the Worldwide Developers Conference, which takes place in San Francisco on June 6-10, Apple is expected to show off a new version of iOS and Mac OS X.

As written on TechCrunch:

“The other big news for iOS5 – and yes, I’ve completely buried the lede here, thanks for reading! – two things: completely revamped notifications and widgets.”

It appears that the new version of iOS will have new notifications and widgets. There are many times when you’re using your iOS device and you get a notification, but if you get a more recent one, it will replace it. There is no way to keep track of all the notifications that popped up. There is no storage of past notifications. If Apple can fix this problem, it will mean a great deal to those that receive dozens of notifications a day. Widgets are also important because with widgets, you can put them on your iOS device’s home and unlock screens. You can use the widgets to take advantage of certain things without even having to launch apps. The downside to widgets is that they may clutter the interface.

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions.

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Why Jailbreak your iOS device?

What is Jailbreaking? Jailbreaking is a form of “hacking” your iOS device, but why should you do it? When you use your iOS device, you are limited to what you can do with it, but when you jailbreak it, it seems like you can do anything with it. You can do simple things such as having 5 icons on your dock, instead of the usually maximum of 4, which could come in handy if there are 5 different apps you like to use on your iOS device. Jailbreaking lets you tweak your iOS device so you can have it your way. You can do a variety of things such as getting an AndroidLock. Android devices have a unique lock that has 9 dots that you have to connect in a certain way to unlock your device. The dots act as sort of a password for Android devices, so jailbreaking your iOS device to give it this AndroidLock is a great feature. You can also have folders that scroll down, change the number of icons per page, and have a dock that scrolls. Even when you want to take advantage of the MultiTask feature on iOS devices, when you jailbreak it, you can have a page preview of your apps instead of just an icon of the app when you jailbreak it. You can also change the effects when change pages and in one case, you can click a button to make your apps float around your screen as if there was gravity. You can also download apps from installous and even get apps that aren’t in the App Store. You are free to do so many different things with your iOS device when you jailbreak it. The downside is that you have to jailbreak it again every time you update your iOS firmware.

Feel free to leave a comment.

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Reviews

Time to Change That Wallpaper

“Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.” -Oscar Wilde

Customization goes hand-in-hand with the iPad. One of the easiest changes to make is your wallpaper. The iPad ships with 30 wallpaper images. Your photo library can also act as a wallpaper library, but unless your library is full of abstract art or fancy nature photos, your pictures wouldn’t come close to the packaged wallpapers.

Lucky for you that there are a host of websites available for downloading iPad wallpaper. For free. Even luckier for you, I took a gander at five of them to help you find that perfect wallpaper.

1. iPad Wallpapers HD By far this site has the largest selection. They have a huge bank of Apple logo images, illustrations, and photography. They also have a large selection of “women wallpapers.” You can register with the site if you want to give your own hand at making wallpapers.

2. iPad Wallpapers This site has a good selection of pictures to choose from, though the  page looks cluttered with its wallpaper selection jumbled in with ads. They even have a link to some apps, though none of them have anything to do with wallpaper, nor do they look interesting. Make sure to click the link on the left menu for the wallpapers, and not on the top (more ads).

2. iPad Wallpaper.org The categories here range from 3D to Sports. The site has some Apple logo wallpapers, as well as some cool nature pictures.

4. noupe This site had a blog entry that included the “55 Beautiful Apple iPad Wallpapers.” Certainly a tall claim, but they seem to live up to it. They have awesome pics of Iron Man and Thor.

5. Designrfix You thought the best 55 wallpapers was great? How about the top 70+? Kind of makes you wonder why they can’t just do the top 100, but meh. Anyways, the majority of the graphics will blow your eyes away.

Once you’ve downloaded that perfect picture to your iPad, setting it as your wallpaper is simple:

  1. Click on the Settings app, and select Brightness and Wallpaper.
  2. Select Wallpaper and then choose Saved Photos.
  3. Once you choose your picture, it will show as a full screen preview.
  4. Finally, select whether you would like the wallpaper to be for the Lock Screen, the Home Screen, or both.

Whether you want to pay homage to Apple with a cool logo design, admire a picturesque nature scene, or stare at a bikini model, there are many options out there for you.

Of course, if you’re as much a fanboy as I am, you’ll most likely drift back to the packaged wallpapers once the novelty wears off.

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