In iOS 7, Siri can toggle a lot of settings: Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, and more. And the virtual assistant also gives quick access to more granular settings.
Tell Siri something like, “Change the brightness,” and the brightness slider will appear onscreen, ready for you to adjust. Of course, you could always simply drag up Control Center instead, but who doesn’t like a virtual minion to do their brightness-adjusting bidding?
Source: Mac OSX Hints
One powerful new feature in the Settings app lets you see how much data your apps are using over your iPhone’s cellular connection. You can even block specific apps from accessing data over your cellular connection if you prefer, limiting them to Wi-Fi-based data access only.
To find the options, launch Settings, and tap on Cellular.
Scroll down past all the Personal Hotspot, Call Time, Cellular Data Usage, and other options, and you’ll get to a Use Cellular Data For section.
The list is sorted alphabetically, unfortunately, and not by cellular data consumption. But you can see how much data each app has used over your iPhone’s cellular connection, and use the green slider to disable certain apps from using cellular data at all.
You can tap on System Services to see how much cellular data is used by system components that you can’t prevent from using the cellular connection, like DNS services, Time & Location, Siri, mapping, networking, and such.
You can reset …
Source: Mac OSX Hints
Ever wanted to remove all events prior to a given date from your calendar? Well, there’s a script for that. This Applescript prompts you for a pivot date and removes all events prior to this date from your Calendar database.
display dialog “Please set the pivot date. (Events earlier than the pivot date will be deleted.)” default answer “01-01-2010” with icon note
set dateLimit to (date the (text returned of the result))
display dialog “This might take a few minutes.” giving up after 2
tell application “Calendar”
set cals to every calendar whose writable is true
set r to {}
repeat with c in cals
set event_list to every event in c
repeat with e in event_list
if start date of e is less than dateLimit then
set r to r end if
end repeat
end repeat
if the number of items in r > 1 then
display dialog “Nothing to delete.”
else
display dialog “Done. Found ” & (n …
Source: Mac OSX Hints
In iOS 6, you could tap the Edit button in Messages to delete or forward one or more messages from a text/iMessage conversation. There’s no Edit button in iOS 7’s version of Messages.
Here’s the work around: Tap and hold on any speech bubble in your conversation. A popover menu appears. Tap on the More button, and now you’re in editing mode. You can check as many messages as you’d like with the round checkboxes (checkcircles?) that appear, and then tap either the trash can icon at the bottom left, or the forward button at the bottom right.
There’s also a Delete All button at the upper left to wipe out the entire conversation history from this editing mode.
Source: Mac OSX Hints
The Messages app in iOS 7 doesn’t introduce much in the way of new functionality from iOS 6—though it does sport a dramatically different look.
While iOS 7 shows timestamps in between conversation breaks, you might sometimes want to do know precisely what time a given message arrived. There’s an easy way to find out:
Simply swipe across a conversation in Messages from right to left. As you drag, you’ll reveal per-message timestamps. They slide away as you release your swiping finger.
Source: Mac OSX Hints
Epson requires the user to download drivers for their printers from Apple. Often, Apple Software Update will report the drivers are not available at this time and send the user to Epson. Finding current drivers is difficult and registering the printer to the newly installed drivers requires one simple step…not covered in any instructions.
First, the user must be have an admin account. Download the drivers from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1398 and open the install package. Follow the instructions to install the drivers.
Second, shut down the system and plug the printer in via USB.
Third, restart and log into an admin account.
Forth, (the simple, overlooked step) DISCONNECT FROM INTERNET
Fifth, If your system offers a dialog to add your printer, follow the instructions. If not, then open System Preferences/Printers & Scanners. Click on the + to add your printer.
OSX, unconnected from the Internet, should find the drivers you installed in the first step.
…
Source: Mac OSX Hints
You are probably already aware that extra columns of meta data can be added to the Movies folder in the Finder by right-clicking (ctrl-click) on the folder’s header row. The following extra columns can be added: Duration; Dimensions; Title; Codecs. These extra columns do not feature in the View>Show View Options menu selection.
This hint describes how to obtain the same columns in folders not named “Movies”.
This is a little pedantic, but in the UK we do not tend to use the term “movie” so much. We don’t “Go to the movies” we “Go to watch a film”. In fact the UK version of iTunes recognises this and in the sidebar or pop-up menu we have “Films” instead of “Movies” (and “TV Programmes” rather than “TV Shows” as well).
The Finder does not do this and the “Movies” folder is there in your home folder as expected.
In the “Movies” folder and any folder created inside it the …
Source: Mac OSX Hints
You may already be aware that the Finder allows you to copy and paste files and folders to move them around on your Mac: Select a file, choose Edit -> Copy, navigate elsewhere, and then choose Paste Item. Now you’ve copied the file, and it exists in two places.
If you hold down the Option key, that Paste Item command changes to Move Item Here instead. Now instead of duplicating the file in question, you’ve changed its location on your Mac. Great!
But here’s the hint: Hold down Shift and Option together, and the command becomes Paste Item Exactly. (You can use the keyboard shortcut Shift-Option-Command-V if you’re dextrous.) When you select that option, the Finder prompts you for an administrator password. This option ensures that the file’s original ownership and permission settings (that you’d set via the Get Info panel, or via the chmod and chown commands, for example) are maintained exactly.
Source: Mac OSX Hints
As a follow up to a recent hint, the panorama feature can also be used to take portrait pictures.
For example, when you want to take a tower or a river from a bridge, take your phone landscape in Panorama mode. Although the UI stays in portrait, you can take your picture by moving the device up or down, instead of sideways.
The nice thing is that the picture will still have the proper orientation.
Source: Mac OSX Hints
By Alex Brooks Apple Store Pudong (China) | Image courtesy of Apple
The quiet season is behind us, it was the most prolonged period of quiet from Apple in terms of product releases that I’ve ever known. There’s nothing nefarious to read into; Apple is a company that absolutely loves patterns and consistency and there is no better way to stay consistent than to release products in the same week year after year.
So here we are, the week of Apple’s first announcement event of the season is upon us. I would usually be sat here writing a rumour roundup or something similar. Maybe I’d be having fun shooting down stupid rumours—that’s always a laugh if not sometimes very infuriating.
But life is different for me and spare time is a luxury. Don’t get me wrong I’m still closely watching every rumour, dissecting and calculating the possibilities and the accuracy of individuals. But the rumour game has changed and it’s honestly no where near as bad as it once was. (9to5 Mac and Mac Rumors both have decent roundups.)
Which means I’m going to look at something completely different.
There’s a bolt of frustration that runs through me every time I read a report about iPhone market share, or an analysis predicting how well a product is performing or likely to perform over the coming year. It’s almost always just for North America and invariably it has no reference stating that—quite a typical problem for Americans to assume they’re the only country that counts (World Series anyone?).
Apple has equally been guilty as sin of this in all the time I’ve followed them. A decade ago it was a guarantee that every single product would launch in the US first followed by the UK, Canada and so on. And yes I’m aware of regulatory problems, I’m aware of manufacturing limits, and so on.
But the tables have turned and 2013 marks the first year that we’re seeing a sea change, and if the signals are correct then we’re seeing it in a big way.
The first of those signals is Apple’s foray into what looks to be a much cheaper model of iPhone, much like with the iPod and iPad Apple is beginning to diversify the iPhone range. Traditionally what has occurred is that when a new iPhone comes out then the existing models shift down the line and take up cheaper spots on the lineup. The problem with this solution is the the iPhone 4S would still be lingering around with its archaic Dock connector and teeny tiny display, not what Apple wants.
Empty iPhone shells claimed to belong to the iPhone 5S including new Champage colour
If all rumours are correct, and they’re pretty damn consistent, Apple will unleash a new cheaper iPhone dubbed the iPhone 5C. It’s unlikely that the C stands for cheap but it could possibly mean China. This new iPhone model looks like it’s been trimmed down in cost enough to compete in the huge prepay markets where Apple is not doing as well as it would like (read: China, India, and Brazil). And of course Apple ends up with a decent 4-inch, retina, A6 powered, iOS 7 ready device in its other big markets, soaking up where Android enjoys much freedom these days.
If that isn’t enough the new iPhone 5C will have a polycarbonate shell available in yellow, blue, red, green, and white. Perfect for those harder to hit markets and great for younger generations who love to customise their phones with cases.
But it’s all about China a gigantic untapped market, a lot of Apple’s lack of traction there will be down to culture, particularly the culture of buying phones without carrier subsidy but also there is not the level of wealth that’s available in the Western world (China’s GDP per capita is $9,162 compared to America’s $49,922).
The key to the market appears to be China Mobile, the largest carrier in China with 700 million subscribers (not a typo) and the largest in the world. Up until now there’s been no deal between Apple and the behemoth carrier, this has been rumoured a number of times to be down to “commercial and technical” issues with a part of that being Apple’s lack of offering for the Chinese market. The iPhone 5C as it appears to be dubbed is precisely the handset for China.
The deal with China Mobile, if announced during the September 10 event, will overshadow any product release that Apple has to offer, even if that iPhone does have a futuristic looking OS and fingerprint scanner. Of course it’ll only overshadow if the media and analysts look outside of their bubbles and realise the significance.
Image purported to show iPhone 5C shells
Just to give an idea of the market potential in China the research firm Canalys predicts that the Chinese market will ship 352 million units this year alone, more than double the US and that is likely to increase to 421 million in just two years time.
If all this wasn’t damning enough, Apple is stepping up the ante this year and not just simulcasting the iPhone announcement but holding a separate event in Beijing. The events timing which starts at 10am Beijing time (7pm Pacific, Sept 10; 3am London, Sept 11) makes it impossible for those who emcee the Cupertino event to be in attendance. Will Cook simply ship over some familiar American faces or will we see the first senior Chinese executives on stage giving an Apple presentation in Mandarin?
If you’re still not satisfied with that then the fact that Apple broke out fiscal results for China in recent quarterly results is a sign that the company going to be proud to show off some steep growth in the coming years.
However it shapes up we know for sure that it’s time American analysts stopped looking in their own back yard and starting staring over the pacific towards the future. I’m not suggesting we’ll see Apple shipping products in China before anywhere else but they will continue to cater purely to the market, they will sink significant dollars into the market and the company focus will inevitably shift—the centre of gravity will move.
Source: World of Apple
