So long, and thanks…

By

post-132320-image-90bc97cc83f01f0aec3081e3601421aa-jpg

It is hard to imagine that I’ve written and contributed to more than 450 posts during the nearly two-year tour of duty with all the rest of the Cultists at Cult of Mac.

I’ve served up news, break fixes, tips, opinions, etc. to more users than I ever could have imagined, and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to do so. I have always been greatly humbled by your reader responses and surprised by a few too. I have had an amazing time meeting some really great people along the way.

I’ve accepted a job offer with a new start-up, which will take me in new directions and adventures in blogging. However, I’ll never be far from where my heart is. I’ll still be deep into all things Apple. I’ll always be a part of the Cult of Mac just like all of you.

If you would like to stay in touch, please follow me on Twitter or visit my personal website for updates on my next project or big adventure.

 

Amaze Your Friends With Mac OS X Lion Improved Smart Folders [OS X Tips]

By

newsmartfolde1

Smart Folders in Mac OS X Lion are finally something to talk about. In earlier versions of Mac OS X they were frankly kind of dumb, but not any more. They now act and work just like regular folders in Finder and they are incredibly fast. That is why Apple made a Smart Folder, All My Files, the default folder when you open a new Finder window in Mac OS X Lion.

Develop Apps For Mobile And Desktop Platforms With LiveCode 5 [Review]

By

LiveCode ios

There are many other development tools available besides the free copy of Xcode that comes with every Mac. LiveCode 5 (starts at $99; $49 for upgrades), a development tool running on Mac OS X and other operating systems from RunRev, gets it inspiration from the programming language HyperTalk. It is designed with an intuitive user interface to make application development easier using a language that uses an understandable English-like syntax. You can use it to create your own iOS apps.

Fix Your Spotlight Search Results By Forcing Spotlight To Re-index [OS X Tips]

By

spotlightprefs

I’ve had a few friends experience a problem with their Spotlight search results after upgrading to Mac OS X Lion and at other times for other reasons. They claimed to search for items that they knew were somewhere on their computer, but Spotlight wasn’t able to find them in both cases.

Here’s a down and dirty fix for Spotlight that is useful when Spotlight seems to stop providing the results you expect. It is also useful when you just want Spotlight to re-index your system.

Easily Access Your Camera Roll While Taking Photos In The Camera App [iOS Tips]

By

swipe2photos

The other day a friend and I were discussing the merits of the iPhone 4S camera and the new software features in iOS 5. He was grumbling about not being able to see his camera roll after taking some snapshots. His complaint was that he had to switch between apps and leave the Camera app to go to the Photos app just to see the photos he just took. I explained to him that he didn’t have to launch that app to see his photos. Today I’ll show you how.

Quickly Remove Finder Sidebar Items With A Keyboard & Mouse Trick [OS X Tips]

By

Findericon

Apple changed many things on the Finder sidebar with the release of Mac OS X Lion. Probably one of the better changes was how Apple locked down the sidebar. It is now harder to accidentally remove an item from the Favorite section on the sidebar.

If you work in AppleCare or any other kind of support organization you probably want to hug someone for this change, because it probably generated a lot of calls for support in earlier versions of Mac OS X.

MiLi Power Pack 4 Slider Case Packs Power To Go For iPhone 4/S [Review]

By

Mili3

 

One of the biggest customer complaints about the iPhone 4S is battery life. The battery never manages to last even a whole day and sometimes not even a half of a day. Although the iPhone 4 has always managed to last nearly a whole day, it isn’t much better. Apple is working on an iOS 5 software fix that might eventually take care of the battery draining issues that face iPhone 4S customers. Their first attempt, the release of iOS 5.0.1, wasn’t much help for some users.

If you cannot wait any longer and you own either of these phones one solution could be the MiLi Power Pack 4 ($60) from xengadget.com. The 3000 mAh slider case will give your iPhone 4 or 4S the extra power boost it needs to last until bed time. I tested it on my iPhone 4S and I’d like to share my experience with you.

Customize Your View In System Preferences [OS X Tips]

By

sysprefs

Mac OS X ships with a lot of default system preference panes and I have about 30 of these on my MacBook Air running Mac OS X Lion. There are an extra 11 preference panes that I’ve added by installing third-party apps. So out of a total of 41 preference panes there are more than six of these that I don’t really need or even use all that often.

Did you know that you can hide the preference panes that you don’t need? This will clear up your view when you launch System Preferences. You’ll only see what you need to see and I’ll show you how to do this in the tip for today.

Encrypt The Startup Disk On Your Mac With FileVault 2 [OS X Tips]

By

fvwaittime

 

 

 

Last week I wrote a few tips about disk encryption, but I didn’t write about what to do with the startup disk on your Mac. I cannot think of any reason you shouldn’t encrypt your startup disk after the release of Mac OS X Lion. Apple has made it just to easy for you to encrypt your drive.  It is quick, fast and easy. I’ll show you how today.

Emoticons Are Finally Easy To Access In IOS 5 [iOS Tips]

By

emoji

It’s about time! Apple finally made accessing emoticons via the Emoji keyboard a part of iOS. Prior to iOS 5 you had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get them. They’ve been a part of iOS for longer than I can remember, but initially they were only accessible by jailbreak and later by applications that were able to activate them. You used the app, discarded it and were on your way to emoticon heaven.

Now Apple has included an easy way to activate them and use them as much as you want.

Get The Most Out Of The Favorites Bar In Mail [OS X Tips]

By

mailappicon

Like all of its predecessors, Mac OS X Lion ships with a Mail application. It is probably one of the most important applications you’ll find on your Mac, and although it isn’t perfect, it is at least free. You can buy more expensive alternatives, which I won’t list here, but I suggest you spend more time with Mail before giving up on it.

Mail has a lot of not-quite-obvious features that you might have missed and I’ve talked about a few of them in earlier tip posts. Today I’ll take a look at another one that will let you quickly access your favorite mailboxes or folders.

Select A Fun Or Stuffy Font In The Notes App [iOS Tips]

By

notesfonts

I’ve heard people complaining about the fonts in the iOS default Notes app for longer than I can remember. Most of the time people thought the default font was pretty cartoony and they wanted something a bit more professional.

I think Apple has finally offered up a solution for the font dilemma. The default font is no less cartoony or fun, but they now offer one font for business people and another I’ll let you categorize. Pick your favorite — fun or stuffy. You decide.

Create An iTunes Account Without A Credit Card [OS X Tips]

By

itunesappstore


It’s Thanksgiving Week, and that means most of us Americans will start thinking about how much weight we’ll gain and how much money we’ll end up spending on Black Friday, especially if we have children clamoring for an iPhone, iPod or iPad.

If you, like many other parents, are planning on buying your kids an iDevice this Christmas, you should know that your kids will need an iTunes account to use with their new device. Presumably, you’ll want to control how much they can spend buying apps. So you’ll be happy to know you can set up an iTunes account without a credit card. Your kid will be able to download a plethora of free apps and you’ll be able to give them gift cards to use to buy paid ones. This will let you control how much they spend, which is a lot better than giving them carte blanche access to your line of credit.

Use Raise To Speak On iPhone 4S For Text Entry Via Dictation [iOS Tips]

By

dictation

By now, every iPhone 4S user has to know about the raise to speak feature that activates Siri. You simply raise your iPhone 4S to your ear, wait for the two tones and start talking. Ask Siri a silly or serious question and it usually has an answer for you. Sometime it isn’t what you would expect.

Although it is fun to ask Siri questions, you can also use Siri for dictation purposes. You can activate dictation by pressing the microphone button on the iOS pop-up keyboard. But did you know there is another way to start dictation?

Easily Backup Your Address Book Contacts To External Media And Maintain A Historical Archive [OS X Tips]

By

addressbook

I ran into someone the other day and he told me that he had over 700 contacts in the Address Book app on his Mac. He expressed concern about losing those contacts. I asked him, “are you performing backups on your Mac?” He wasn’t. We talked about the various ways he could backup his Mac (i.e. Time Machine, external drive, etc.), but I also shared a tip with him that focuses on his contacts.

Zoom Features That Help When You Lose Your Reading Glasses Or Are Vision Impaired [iOS Tips]

By

access1

I recall the time I met someone who was not only vision impaired, but nearly blind. However, their loss of vision didn’t prevent them from enjoying computers. Although we were both able to get a lot done, they wouldn’t have been able to get as much as I can get done without special tools like a large display with overly magnified and software enhancements on their computer.

Apple’s iOS mobile operating system offers nearly the same features to help the vision impaired and even people who depend on reading glasses to see things displayed on the iPhone’s tiny display. Here’s how to access them.