If you get a link in an email you can now preview the link right there in Mail if you have Lion. Just put your cursor over the link and look for a small button to appear just to the right of the link. Then click that button to see a quick preview of the page.
Apple has brought one of the most sophisticated and fun iPad apps to the iPhone and iPod touch. The new universal version of GarageBand gives you an eight-track recording studio in your pocket. You can also have lots of fun with the on-screen musical instruments.
This week Apple updated its iOS GarageBand app making it compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch for the first time. The music creation software is similar to the existing Mac version but with a set of instruments that can be played using the touch screen of iOS devices.
Apple admitted this week that there is a problem with the iPhone 4S related to battery life. The good news is that it is a software problem and an update will be issued to fix it soon.
With its product line most likely fixed in place for the holiday shopping season, Apple is continuing to fine-tune its retail stores. In-store pickup of online orders expanded this week from California to New York, and there are reports that more stores will be supporting this in the upcoming days and weeks.
“Ms. Roth? Instead of doing my class project with Eddie, can I team up with my friend Siri instead?”
A common question people have is “What does this icon mean in the iPhone Weather app?” The iPhone Weather app gets its information from Yahoo Weather. The forecast should be the same as if you want to Yahoo and looked up the weather for your area. But the iPhone Weather app doesn’t include descriptions of the graphic icons that appear next to each day.
Some are obvious. A bright yellow sun means “sunny.” But others are less obvious. So you would think that there would be a guide somewhere to these icons.
Not only is there not a guide, but it seems the icons used in the iPhone app are not used anywhere else. Yahoo has many different sets of weather icons for use on their sites and by third-party developers. But none exactly match the ones used on the iPhone.
However, the following set comes very close. Close enough that you should be able to find a match if you are unsure what an icon means. Note that some icons are used for multiple weather conditions. For instance, Tropical Storm and Hurricane use the same icon as Thunderstorms.
Apple issued a quiet update this week of its MacBook Pro line of laptops. The new models have the same design and basic features as the previous line, but have minor updates to processor speed and hard drive space. For instance, the low-end MacBook Pro now comes with a 2.4GHz i5 processor and a 500GB drive. It previously had a 2.3GHz processor and a 320GB drive for the same price.
The Apple Stores are experimenting with in-store pickup. Three stores in the San Francisco area are now offering the ability to order and pay for products online, and then stop by the stores to pick up the products. It appears that Apple will soon be offering this in more stores in the U.S.
In Lion you can easily add Emoji characters (smiley faces, hearts, graphic icons, etc) in text. Bring up the Characters palette with Command+Option+T and then select Emoji. Then select the type and double-click the character to insert it. Works best in rich text editors like TextEdit and Mail, but doesn’t seem to work yet in Pages.
CleverMedia (MacMost parent) has just updated its Word Spell game for iOS. It is now native resolution for this iPad, and it is now a completely free game. You get six letters and need to spell as many words as you can before time runs out. The new version also adds many performance enhancements.
A classroom in Kent, Washington needs an iPod touch so the students can use educational games and listen to books. Join MacMost in supporting this project.
“Only an A- on your report card? I know you said you’d get a B+, but my expectations were an A+. I’m going to have to downgrade you.”
The launch of the iPhone 4S mirrored previous iPhone launches with long lines, sell-outs and broken sales records at AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. A reported 4 million units were sold over the weekend. The downside was slow and problematic activation for the new phones, with some people having to wait hours before they could use them.
In Apple’s quarterly report it showed new highs for Mac sales with almost 5 million Macs being sold in the last quarter. This is despite the sale of more than 11 million iPads, some of which may have been purchased instead of a new Mac.
Wall Street wasn’t impressed with Apple’s numbers. Even though they passed Apple’s own estimates, they missed the estimates of Wall Street analysts. This was mostly because of lower iPhone sales due to the fact that a new iPhone model wasn’t released until after the end of the quarter.
A classroom in West Chatham Elementary School in Pooler, GA needs two Mac minis. The students will use them to make podcasts, web sites and ebooks. Join MacMost in supporting this project.
With the World Series underway, you may want to check out Home Run Derby by MacMost’s parent company. This is a free game and a quick play. Just take some swings to see how many you can hit over the fence. A new version just out this week adds full screen iPad support.
In Lion you can now customize System Preferences so it only shows the preference panes you want to see. Run System Preferences and choose View, Customize. Then you can uncheck any pane you want to hide. Press the Done button at the top of the screen when done. You can still search and find hidden panes.
