MacMost: Archives

Mountain Lion took away quick access to your Displays preferences by removing the menu bar icon that was in previous versions of OS X. But you can still get to Displays preferences quickly using a keyboard shortcut, the Dock, or an AppleScript. You can also get a third-party app that adds the handy menu bar icon back.

If you have more than one language in your Pages document, it can be useful to set the language for individual passages so that the spell check function recognizes the words from the correct dictionary. You can also set a passage to All or None to further help spell check the document. You can find tips like this and more in my book 'My Pages' http://macmost.com/j-mypages

This week Apple released iOS version 6.1. In addition to stability and security fixes, the new version also supports LTE connectivity for more carriers, allows movie tickets to be bought through Siri, and lets iTunes Match users download individual songs. Another noted change is a large “Report a Problem” button in the Maps app, a sign that Apple is looking for feedback to help improve the data.
Apple also announced a new model to the iPad line. The new one is another version of the 4th generation iPad that has 128GB of storage, up from the previous maximum of 64GB. It will be available on Feb. 5.
There was also an update to Apple TV this week, with a new 5. 2 version of that operating system adding the ability to stream iTunes purchased music directly from Internet, use Bluetooth keyboards, and send audio from Apple TV over AirPlay to other devices. Rumors of a new Apple TV model were both squashed and confirmed by Apple as the company stated that there will be a model update, but the changes will be internal only and not include any new features.

“True, there are no viruses for Macs. But even if you have a Mac, you should still get a flu shot.”

You have many options when creating a login image for your Mac user account. You can take a picture with your Mac's camera, and then zoom in and reposition it. You can also apply a variety of special filters to make it more interesting. You can get an image from elsewhere and drag and drop it to create a more unique login image.

For most apps you can simply open multiple windows or tabs to edit or view separate documents. But some apps only let you have one window open. Sometimes when using apps like Safari, it is useful to be able to isolate windows from each other in case one crashes. Learn how to use the Terminal window to launch multiple instances of the same app. Learn how to then use Automator to create an app that will do this for you automatically.

Save dialogs in Mountain Lion have two different modes: compact and expanded. Learn how to easily switch between them. The last setting is remembered, but you can also set a default using the Terminal. Also learn how to switch between saving to iCloud and saving to your local hard drive. You also have two modes in the Print dialog.

Apple reported more than $54 billion in revenue in the previous quarter, $13 billion in profit. This was from almost 48 million iPhone sales, almost 23 million iPads, almost 13 million iPods and more than 4 million Macs. Lower iMac sales were apparently due to inventory problems as the new iMac models were only available in very limited numbers.
Apple’s stock price was down sharply this morning as Wall Street expected more iPhone sales, and Apple’s guidance for the next quarter were below expectations.
Apple TV had a good year in 2012 with 2 million units being sold in the final quarter. Including media purchases and rentals using Apple TV, it is estimated that the device is now a $500 million business.
Apple did well in 2012 with cloud services. The number of iCloud users reportedly grew from 85 to 250 million during the year. iMessage accounts for about 2 billion messages sent each day.
In other news, the movie jOBS is scheduled to come to theaters on April 19. stars. The Steve Jobs biopic stars Ashton Kutcher and will show at the Sundance Film Festival tomorrow.

iPhone App Ideas
12 for 10 cents

Grammar mistakes can be pointed out to you in apps such as TextEdit, Mail, Pages and Microsoft Word. However, grammar checking is very difficult for computers and only some mistakes can be spotted. Use grammar checking as a second level of spell checking and a way to avoid typos. But do not rely on it to actually fix bad grammar.

Check out the iPad Clock app that was added with iOS 6. It has four modes. The first lets you view time and weather around the world on a map. The second lets you set single or weekly repeating alarms with custom sounds. The other modes let you use a lap timer stopwatch and a count-down clock.

Using the Mail app on your Mac you can get a special alert when an email from a specific sender arrives. This can be a sound, notification, icon bounce or even a special color for the email in your inbox. To do this, learn to use Mail rules. A rule can identify a new message and then apply an action to it. You can also have messages forwarded to another email address.

Apple news this week was dominated by a recent vulnerability in the Java plug-in for web browsers that affected all computers, not just Macs. The potential threat was pretty much a non-issue as Apple used the OS X “Xprotect” system to disable affected versions of Java on Macs. Disabling Java in browsers was also recommended by many, including MacMost (http://macmost.com/disable-java-in-your-browser.html). Oracle quickly issued an update to Java to fix this vulnerability.
FaceTime may soon realize its full potential. The largest iPhone carrier in the U.S., AT&T, is about to allow FaceTime video chat over its network to all customers except those still using the original unlimited data plan. Other major carriers already allow FaceTime.
On Wall Street AAPL had a busy week as the stock was hit with fears that iPhone parts orders have been cut. But other analysts disagreed saying the cuts were only a sign of changes in Apple’s supply lines and the stock rebounded.

“Despite all the hype, Windows still has a 90% market share.”

Volumes are drives and other media connected to your Mac. You can view volumes in the Finder using the left sidebar, the Desktop, or in a Finder window. You can access them in several ways. You can also create a Dock Stack that gives you quick access to your Volumes.

It is easy to disable Java in your web browser. Doing so may help protect you from future malware threats. Java is no longer used on most web sites and you will most likely not notice the difference once you turn Java off.

When building formulas in Numbers it is important to be able to insert absolute cell references. These are references to cells that will not shift as you copy and paste the formula into new rows or columns. You can use the values in absolute cell references for constants like sales taxes or commission amounts.

It has been 6 years since the original iPhone announcement and the disappointing news that it would only be available in the U.S. and on a single carrier. But since then, Apple has slowly increased international availability and expanded to almost every U.S. carrier.
This week saw even more activity as Walmart began offering the iPhone with an unlimited data plan and rumors increased that T-Mobile will soon offer the iPhone. Currently, you can bring your unlocked iPhone to T-Mobile and reportedly hundreds of thousands of people do just that.
There are rumors, again, that a low-cost iPhone may come out this year, but perhaps only to certain countries like China and other emerging markets. In the past rumors of lower-priced iPhones have only led to Apple’s carrier partners keeping older versions of the iPhone, like the iPhone 3Gs or 4, available as a free-with-plan option.
In other news, Apple tweaked its product offerings this week. You can now get a Fusion drive with a 21.5-inch iMac. The prices went down and options increased for official Thunderbolt cables as well.

“Was he in a car accident?”
“No. He hurt his neck Watching Apple’s stock price go up and down.”

You can use the menu bar and the Dock with your keyboard. Learn the shortcuts to activate the menu bar and Dock, and navigate around to select a command. You can also use various other keyboard shortcuts to get to other key functionality.