Tag Archives: iPad

tip : get Texaco Rocks’ loyalty points for your Apple purchases

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— this tip is only for people living in the Netherlands —

Did you know that you can get Texaco Rocks’ loyalty credit points when buying online at the dutch Apple Store, at Bol.com and at Wehkamp.nl ? (that’s right… the same loyalty points you get from buying gasoline for your car at Dutch Texaco petrol stations)

Only if you go to the official Rocks’ loyalty website, and you login to Apple.nl, Bol.com or Wehkamp.nl, you can get Rocks’ loyalty point for all your Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPods and related purchases. (…and for other purchases also, except for Dutch & Frysian language books). Go to the Rocks’ loyalty website to do so :

http://www.rocks.nl/online-sparen/

NOTE : of course, if you want to get the sharpest prices on your Apple-gear, do not go to the online stores mentioned above straight away, but check other stores also before you buy. (you will rarely find ‘below standard’ pricing on the latest Apple hardware, so this especially goes for the non-Apple stuff)

fixed : iCloud Photo Stream from business iPhone to family Mac

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Question :

My iPhone is a business device, so I want to sync my ‘business life’ including Contacts, Calendars, Mail, Documents & Data, etc to my MacBook Pro… but I want my upload/sync the photo’s I’ve made with this ‘business’ iPhone to our shared ‘family’ Mac which holds our family’s entire iPhoto-database. iCloud doesn’t seem to enable me to do so… what can I do ?

Answer :

Even though you can setup a secondary iCloud account on your iPhone, you cannot do what you would like to do, because :

1- Photostream is only supported for your primary iCloud account (*)

(*) UPDATE d.d. September 20th 2012: only when running iPhoto 9.4 or newer on OSX 10.8.2 or newer, you have the option to subscribe to a ‘Shared’ Photo Stream besides your primary iCloud account’s Photo Stream

If you want to this ‘Shared Photo Stream’ feature on an older, officially unsupported Intel-Mac, you could consider installing a patched version of OSX 10.8 – for more info, look here :

fixed : install OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion on unsupported Macs

 

2- Documents & Data syncing is only supported for your primary iCloud account

…so using iCloud you will never be able to make the logical split between Documents & Data sync (which is strictly ‘business’) and Photostream (which is mainly ‘family’)…

The only solution at this moment is to find an alternative to Photostream… and I’ve found (only) one : Eye-Fi does the trick !

And… Eye-Fi is free (free account, free iOS-app & free Mac-app ; by SanDisk)

download it here for OSX :

http://support.eye.fi/downloads/center/

and download the iOS-app here :

http://itunes.apple.com/en/app/eye-fi/id306011124?mt=8

the only thing you need to beware of is that the Eye-Fi App needs to be running/open on your iPhone/iPad and on your Mac both Eye-Fi Center and iPhoto need to be running/open…

…so it still feels a little more ‘manual’ than iCloud Photostream, since you need not forget to open the Eye-Fi App…

…but that’s a small price to pay, since you get 3 things that iCloud doesn’t give you :

– auto-transfer of your video recordings into iPhoto

– a free online gallery (like the one we lost when ‘upgrading’ from MobileMe to iCloud)

– separation of your ‘photostream’ from your primary iCloud-account

Note :

even though using DropBox might seem to be a valid alternative to iCloud’s Photostream also, since it does auto-upload of iPad/iPhone pictures to ‘the cloud’… it is not really useful in the end, as it does not provide auto-import into iPhoto…

tip : quickly switching your AirPort Guest Network ON or OFF from your iPhone, iPad or Mac

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Question :

I have an AirPort Guest Network setup on my WiFi network, but most of the time I don’t need it… is there a way to temporarily switch it OFF ?

Answer :

Yes, you can do that quickly using the AirPort Utility app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

Here’s how to :

– make sure you have the AirPort Utility app installed (on your Mac it’s pre-installed), for your iPhone or iPad, you can download it here :

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/airport-utility/id427276530?mt=8

– open the AirPort Utility

– click on the picture of your AirPort Base Station (or Time Capsule)

– if you’re asked to type your password, type the password you’ve set on access of your AirPort Base Station hardware (note : that is something else than your WiFi / AirPort password)

– in the page (on your Mac it’s a popup window) that opens, click the EDIT-button

– on the page that opens in iOS, select your Guest Network and on the next page switch Guest Network OFF and click on DONE, then DONE again on the next page and UPDATE in the popup panel

– on your Mac you should select the “Wireless”-tab and uncheck the check mark in front of Guest Network and click UPDATE

– then wait for the AirPort Base Station (or Time Capsule) to restart, and then exit the AirPort Utility app

– Done !

To switch the Guest Network back on, just use the same procedure, but put the Guest Network to ON (in stead of OFF).

fixed : quickly share your Mac’s internet connection to your iPad

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Question :

I just got myself a WiFi-only iPad, but I have no WiFi reception in my living room (that’s why my Mac in my living room is connected to my network through an Ethernet/UTP-cable). Is there an easy way to get internet connection on my iPad in my living room ?

Answer :

Yes, there is.

Your Mac can share it’s internet connection from one of it’s internal network-connections to another. So from Ethernet to WiFi in your case.

To get it working is easy :

– turn on your Mac (if your Mac isn’t running, this won’t work)

– go to System Preferences (under the Apple-dropdown menu in the upper left corner of the desktop/Finder-menu)

– in the window that opens, click on “Sharing”

– in the screen that opens, click on “Internet Sharing” in the list on the left

– then, on the right, select your incoming network/internet connection at “Share your connection from:” (so, in this case select “Ethernet” there)

– and then select your outgoing internet connection at “To computers using:” (so, in this case put a check mark at “Wi-Fi”)

– if you want your shared internet to be password protected, click on the “Wi-Fi Options…”-button and choose your preferred network name, the preferred password protection protocol and your preferred password. If you don’t need protection, just leave everything as-is.

– then put a check-mark at “Internet Sharing” in the list on the left and quit System Preferences

– now you will see that your AirPort/WiFi-pie icon in the upper right of the desktop / finder-menu has turned into a new icon with an arrow pointing upward.

– then, on your iPad (or iPhone or any other WiF-connectable device) go to Settings, click on WiFi and select your new local WiFi-network

– done ! enjoy !

Note : you’ve just turned your Mac into a local WiFi-router (also), so remember that your Mac has to be switched on to sustain the WiFi-network connection

tip : planning on buying Apple stuff ?

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If you’re planning on buying Apple hardware, be it an iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro or Cinema Display, you should consider checking if now is the right time to buy first.

MacRumors’ Buying Advice doesn’t advice you on what product to buy, just on WHEN to buy and when not to buy (which means : “hold on and wait just a little until the product gets refreshed”) :

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

MacRumors’ Buying Advice is based on the regularity of the product cycles of Apple hardware (not on the rumors, but current rumors on upcoming hardware are listed also …as MacRumors originally is an Apple rumor site…)

The ‘advice’ categories are :

Buy now! Product just updated

Buy only if you need it – Approaching the end of a cycle

Don’t buy – updates soon

[ for your convenience, I also included this “When (not) to buy ?” link as an extra at the (static) top of this website ]

fixed : switching the language of the spelling check in iOS5, iOS6, iOS7, iOS8, iOS9, iOS10, iOS11 & iOS12

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Question :

Is it possible to (quickly) switch the language of the spelling check while I’m writing a message on my iPhone ?

Answer :

Yes !

It’s really simple :

1- make sure you have installed multiple languages / multiple keyboards on your iPhone or iPad : Go to Settings –> General –> Keyboard –> (International) Keyboards –> Add New Keyboard…

…and select your desired languages from the list (then exit the Settings-app)

2- you have now installed not only the keyboard for each language, but also the spelling check… and it’s now available in any text or message you type (including SMS)

3- to switch the language of the spelling check, just tap on the globe-key next to the space-bar : when tap it, the space-bar will (only for a quick second) display the name of the keyboard you’re using… but… the language of the active keyboard layout is also the language of the active spelling check…

😉

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fixed : add Emoji emoticons to your iOS keyboard

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Question :

How do I add ‘picture’ emoticons (like smileys 😉 ) to my iPhone and iPad texts and messages ?

Answer :

In iOS 5 and above, Apple has added a ‘picture language’ called “Emoji” which includes smileys, smiley-esques and mini clip-art like flags, fireworks, balloons, thumbs-up, etc.

Best of all : it’s FREE !

Activating Emoji on your iPhone/iPad  is simple :

1- make sure you are running the latest version of iOS (at least iOS 5 or newer)

2- Go to Settings –>General –> Keyboard –> International Keyboards –> Add New Keyboard…

3- choose “Emoji” from the list and exit the Settings-app

Done !

To use the Emoji-smileys in your texts and messages :

Whenever the keyboard appears, you will see a globe-key next to the left of the space-bar. If you tap the globe-key, you will get the emoticons-‘keyboard’. This is more like tabbed pages of emotions than a regular keyboard ; the tabs from left to right are :

globe-tab : return to a standard keyboard (so more of a key than a tab actually…)

clock-tab : here you can find all emoticons you’ve recently used

smiley-tab : the real emotions ; all smileys, faces, heart, hand signs, etc.

flower-tab : plants & animals

bell-tab : seasonal (like X-mas & Halloween),  party, communication tech, sports, clothing and food & drinks

car-tab : travel, transportation & flags

punctuation-tab : signs, zodiac signs, clock-times & trademarks

backspace-tab : ‘backward delete’-key to delete mistyped emoticons (so not an actual tab, but a key also)

Note that the Emoji-keyboard layout is not a regular keyboard layout, which means it does not include a space-bar or a return-key ; to use those you will have to (temporarily) switch back to your regular keyboard using the globe-key

FYI : this feature is not available for iOS4 ; if you are on a iPhone 3G and can not upgrade to iOS you should either stick with using text-based emoticons or buy, download & install one of the Emoji-apps that are available in the App Store.