MacMost: Archives

By syncing your iOS device with your Mac or PC, you can use iTunes 11 to organize your apps. You can sort your iTunes app library by size or date to remove old apps you no longer use. You can also search for apps on your device and re-arrange them using iTunes.

You can tell Pages to prevent single lines from appearing at the top and bottom of pages. You can also keep entire paragraphs together on a page, or with other paragraphs. You can even force a paragraph to start on a new page. These options can all be found in the Text Inspector under the More category.

Export and printing options for Contacts are limited. But you can do almost anything you want with your Contacts data if you know this one trick. By dragging and dropping your Contacts into Numbers, you can then organize, sort and format the information in any way. You can then export it from Numbers, or use Numbers to print a list any way you desire.

A few minor software updates this week addressed small but annoying bugs that have been causing problems for some users. iOS 6 was updated to 6.1.2 to address a problem when iOS devices were used to get email from Exchange servers. iTunes was updated to fix problems with syncing and store purchases. But it also seems to make it easier to sort search results, a problem many were complaining about with the initial release of iTunes 11.
Apple also released another update to Java to prevent another type of potential malware attack. This update gained more attention as this type of attack was allegedly used to infiltrate computers of Apple employees. MacMost recommends turning Java off in your web browser unless you absolutely need it.
In other news, the Mac Pro is no longer available for sale in Europe. This is due to the now-aging model not meeting regulatory standards. Many believe that Apple is simply removing the old model because a new Mac Pro is on the horizon.
Microsoft is pushing Mac users toward its new Office 365 subscription service by raising the price on stand-alone copies of Office for Mac 2011. These are now $140 or $220, depending on whether you want to include Outlook. A subscription to Office 365 costs $100 per year and allows you to use the software on up to five computers.

“Our IT department is against letting us get Macs.”
“Why? Because they don’t know how to fix them?”
“No, because they won’t need to.”

The Desktop is really just an ordinary folder where files are also shown on the Desktop background in addition to a normal Finder window. You can also choose to add items like disks and servers on the Desktop. It is easy to keep your Desktop clean and organized with the help of a few commands. But best practice is to use your Desktop only for temporary storage of files and organize them in your Documents folder as soon as you can.

You can use Pixelmator to add text directly to an image. You can use different fonts, sizes and styles. You can also rotate the text and add a drop shadow. Pixelmator special effects can be applied to text once the text has been converted to a bitmap layer.

If you want to go beyond System Preferences and change other settings on your Mac, you can do so with the Terminal window. But TinkerTool makes it even easier by giving you a list of potential settings and a user interface to make the changes without typing.

Apple has quietly updated the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and also dropped its price. The low-end MacBook Pro with a 13-inch Retina display and 128GB of storage is now $1,499, $200 less than before. The 256GB model is $300 cheaper at $1,699. These now come with a slightly faster 2.6GHz processor. The 15-inch models also received a processor boost to a 2.4GHz or 2.7GHz quad-core processor. The high-end model now also ships with 16GB of memory. The MacBook Air is also less expensive now, with a price tag of $1,399 for the high-end 13-inch 256GB model.
Apple is busy with legal matters as usual, but this time in disputes with its own shareholders. At issue is Apple’s large cash holdings. At least two groups of shareholders are arguing that Apple should find a way to return some of that money to the shareholders. Apple currently issues a $2.65/share dividend each quarter, including one this week.

“Make sure you check in often!”
“Facebook or Foursquare?”

While today's Macs have a recovery disk partition on the internal hard drive that makes it easy to recover from problems, it can also be useful to have an external recovery disk. It is very easy to create one using Apple's Recovery Disk Assistant for Lion and Mountain Lion. it could come in handy if your hard drive is damaged or you need to swap it out for a new one.

By using the app Air Display, you can use your iPad as a second screen for your Mac. This can come in handy if you only occasionally need a second screen, or you want to have a second screen while traveling. You can also mirror your Mac's display on the iPad to make it easier for others to see what you ate doing. You can get Air Display at http://macmost.com/a-368158927

It is easy to end up with many layers of audio, such as background sounds, voiceovers, and music, in a typical iMovie project. iMovie includes several tools for letting you control these audio tracks and adjust the volume and position of each.

A slow news week was interrupted only by Apple’s announcement of the sale of its 25 billionth song on iTunes, the introduction of the AppStore.com domain name during a Superbowl commercial, and an OS X Server update.
The only real event of the week was the launch of the 128GB iPad in Apple Stores, which had been announced the previous week.
Rumors were active, as usual, with the idea of a new Mac Pro surfacing again. The current Mac Pro will no longer be sold in Europe starting March 1 due to regulatory issues, giving more credence to rumors of a new model coming soon. In fact, one report pegs the arrival as soon as this spring.

Mittens never forgave Cynthia for switching to a trackpad.

You can perform some basic and fun image editing using only the Preview app that comes with your Mac. You can cut out a part of one image and paste it into another. You can also crop and resize an image before exporting it to share it.

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.”