No, Aplomb is not a new third-party app to help you manage your Passbook items, cars, or passes. But if any developers plan to make one, please let me know.
Really, once a card, coupon, or time-based ticket is expired in Passbook, you’ll want to delete it to prevent Passbook clutter, right? Well, it’s super easy to do so, and here’s how.
The default Notification Center sound, Basso, is not one that makes anyone super happy. It kind of sounds like a digital fart, to be honest. Why an operating system that’s had the ability to switch alert sounds since at least OS 7 doesn’t have that option here is beyond me, but luckily there’s a way to change it.
Let’s give it a try, shall we?
Passbook is cool, and one of the neat features of the service is the automatic refresh of information on your passes, letting you keep track of stuff like your Starbuck’s balance, or airline miles, or other kinds of cool stuff.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work automatically. This can be an issue if they include balances or loyalty points, right? Luckily you can refresh each of the passes in Passbook manually.
Here’s how to do that.
As Twitter reduces broad spectrum support for third-party apps, you may be looking for a way around using special apps to send out a Tweet from your Mac. Or, maybe you want to just send out a quick Facebook status update about something, but want to avoid the hassle of launching Facebook.com in a browser. Either way, you can send out tweets and update Facebook from Notification Center, starting with OS X Mountain lion.
You will have to enable these services, though, to make it all work. Here’s how.
Apple’s Passbook app and system lets you use passes that contain time-sensitive or location-sensitive information. For example, you might have a pass that triggers when you enter a specific store, like Target. Or, you might have airplane tickets going through Passbook, if you use that specific airline’s iOS app.
The ideal here is that the passes show up on your lock screen, so you don’t have to launch an app. This doesn’t always work, however. What can you do when it doesn’t? I’m glad you asked.
In OS X Mountain Lion, you can set a Calendar notification for a repeating event on your iPhone, then get that notification on your Mac. Heck, you can even set a Calendar event on your Mac and get it when you’re out and about with your iPhone or iPad. It’s all a part of Apple’s iCloud integration, and it works pretty well, most days.
But what if you really don’t want to be notified of a certain type of event when you’re on your Mac? With OS X Mountain Lion, at least, you have a few more options for notifications that come from Calendar. Check it out.
Passbook may be one of the most underrated technologies on the iPhone. In theory, it lets you collect your boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, and loyalty cards all in one place. In reality, it isn’t supported by too many retailers, many of whom already have their own system of handling these types of passes.
In addition, many iPhone users don’t know how to get apps that support Passbook, as the only way to find a special list of apps that are supported by the service is to open the Passbook app itself. If you’re one of those users, here’s how to get some great apps on your iPhone and carry a few less bits of paper and plastic ephemera around with you.
With the abundance of icons in the upper right corner of the Mac OS X screen, it could be time for a change. If you’re tired of the same old Notification Center icon–the one that looks like a bullet list–this tip’s for you.
Somehow, Apple managed to cram in a ton of web browsing functionality into a teeny, tiny package called Safari. To distinguish the mobile web browser from the one of the same name on OS X, we’ll call it Mobile Safari and be done with it.
Regardless of the name, the mobile version of Safari is chock full of features both subtle and hidden. Here are five great tips and tricks to help you master Mobile Safari on your own iOS device, whether that be an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Want to get to websites faster using mobile Safari? No, I’m not talking about upgrading your internet or data plan to LTE or something, though that will obviously help. No, I’m more interested in showing you how to get to most major websites with just a bit less typing involved.
It’s pretty simple and straightforward, to be honest. Here’s how.
If you share your songs and movies via iTunes on your home network, you might not want just any old people to access your shared media or playlists, even if you let them onto your Wi-Fi. While iTunes lets you share all the types of media it can serve up, maybe your kids or office mates don’t need to listen to those hardcore rap tunes.
It’s fairly easy to protect your shared items with a password, using the iTunes Preferences. Here’s how to do just that.
Mobile Safari has a great sharing feature, letting you send a web page to anyone via iMessage, Twitter, Facebook, or email. The bummer thing is, though, that if you hit Mail, your iPhone will wrest control from you and make you send via the built-in iOS Mail App.
But you don’t want to use Mail. You prefer the Gmail app, right? Of course you do. How the heck, then, can you send that adorable picture of a cute pug puppy via email using the Gmail app? With a secret bookmark, of course.
Here’s how.
If you’ve only recently upgraded to iTunes 11, you might be wondering where some of the features you relied on are? If you’re looking for Podcasts or Radio in the Sidebar, you might not see them right off. Luckily, the fix is fairly easy, and it’s also a great way to customize what you do see there, letting you get rid of things like iTunes U, Ringtones, and other stuff that you may not even have an interest in.
Here’s how.
One of the more useful features of modern browsing, the AutoFill function started on the desktop, then made its way to the iPhone and iPad a while ago. It lets your iOS device hold all the form data, populating the oft-repeated fields with your personal info like your name and address. That way, you don’t have to type it all in all the time, which is brilliant on a mobile device with a small touch-keyboard.
When you share a device like an iPAd, like I do with my kids at home, you may not want to share this personal data. Until a proper multi-user experience comes to iOS, the best way to get around this is to clear out your personal info, and then turn off AutoFill. Here’s how.
One of the trickier things about creating a playlist for any party is making sure you have the right music for the people you’ve invited. Sometimes, though, you might want to give this entire nerve-wracking process a miss, and let the guests at your house choose the music from all the songs and artists you have in iTunes on your Mac.
Here’s how to do just that, using nothing more than your Mac and the iTunes Album Artwork screensaver.
One of the limitations of the iPhone and iPod touch version of Safari has always been a lack of tabbed browsing. Granted, there’s only so much space on the smaller mobile screen, but all the same – tabbed browsing is great.
So is being able to open tabs in the background, so that you can continue reading Cult oF Mac posts, but still save an interesting link in another tab, just like you can on the Mac with a Command-click.
When you tap and hold on any link on a web page, Safari’s default behavior on the iPhone is to ask if you want to open the link, open it in a new page, Add to Reading List, or Copy it. Choosing Open in New Page will do just that, but in the foreground, taking you away from your current web page.
Luckily, with a simple Settings tweak, you can change this default behavior.
Smart Playlists are fantastic, and they really do work to help you listen to the kind of music you’re in the mood for, using a variety of user-controlled criteria. You can create a Smart Playlist for any given Artist in your iTunes library fairly easily.
But what if you want a playlist that includes more than one Artist? Well, that’s pretty simple, too.
With all the sites we visit on a daily basis on our iPhones and iPads, we are capturing and storing where we visit in the background of every web page we see. You may want to clear your browsing history or other stored web data from your iPhone from time to time, if you’re of a security or privacy turn of mind.
iOS makes it fairly simple to do so; here’s how.
One of the changes in iTunes 11, which debuted in November of last year, was the loss of a “find all duplicates” feature that was really handy for finding and deleting duplicate files in our rather voluminous iTunes libraries. Luckily, Apple re-included the feature in the latest version of iTunes 11, version 11.0.1. Here’s where to find it, and how to use it to help yourself clean up that iTunes library.
The Mac App Store, originally released for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, takes a lot of the guesswork and uncertainty out of downloading apps for your Mac, and adds a little bit of security as well. You know you’re getting apps that meet Apple’s stringent requirements to work with its operating systems.
Here are five different tricks and tips to working with the Mac App Store that you may not have already known. We think you’ll find something new in the stuff below that will help you master the Mac App Store.
Accessibility is a priority to the designers and engineers at Apple. They have built some amazing software right into each operating system, from OS X to iOS, all for no etra charge and no need to add extra programs on to be able to use the products if you have a visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive disability.
But if you don’t have a disability (yet–we’re all just a lucky step or two away), you can take advantage of these systems for yourself or other family members.
Here are five different ways to do just that.
We’ve all done it. Passed our beloved iPhone handset to a young child or clumsy friend, in hopes that they’ll play a game for a bit and let the grownups continue drinking talking. Then the youngster in question ends up hitting the Home button, dropping into that secret stash of photos, or looking at our web history. Or even worse, playing some splatter-horror game that you forgot was even on the dang thing.
Guided Access is part of iOS 6’s accessibility options, but it can be useful for folks without the need for that specific adaptation. Here’s how to enable it for use.
So, you’ve hidden a few of the apps you’ve purchased in the Mac App Store, but you want to get them back, right?
It’s ok, we understand. Sometimes you just don’t want everyone knowing what you’ve purchased. Or maybe you’re getting a little tired of seeing Mac OS X Lion in your Purchased Apps history. So you hide it.
But then you want to get it back, so you can re-download it, yeah? Well, here’s how to do just that.
Assisted Touch is an accessibility feature for iOS, usable on any iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, that recreates the hardware buttons and other gestures that someone with a motor disability might need to use. It also lets other folks use the Home, volume, screen lock, wake/sleep, and multitasking bar without using any of the hardware buttons themselves.
This can be pretty handy if you have the device in a case or holder of some type where accessing the buttons is tricky or impossible, like a home-made picture frame, for example.
Here’s how to activate this useful feature.
Another advantage of the Mac App Store, besides pausing downloads, safe uninstalls, and easy re-downloads of Mac OS X apps, is the safety of knowing that anything in the Mac App Store has been vetted by Apple.
One way your Mac makes sure you’re (relatively safe) from rogue apps is what’s called Gatekeeper. By default, this bit of software only allows you to install verified apps from the Mac App Store on your Mac. What if, however, you want to download software from a Mac developer who doesn’t distribute their software on the Mac App Store? You’ll need to bypass Gatekeeper in order to do so.
Here’s how to do that safely.
