Magic Mouse & Trackpad 101

gigaom.com have compiled a nice setup guide for the Mouse and Trackpad on modern Macs with multi-touch devices – worth a read!

Check it out here.

Mouse, Multitouch, Trackpad

Some QuickTips for Safari

Here are a couple of quick tips for Safari. They have been around for some time and have proven themselves quite useful.

Reopen all all windows from last session

If you’ve quit Safari but wanted to open the pages that you just had open, you don’t need to go searching through your browsing history to find the websites you need. You can restore all of your windows and tabs from your last session by going to the ‘History’ menu and selecting ‘Reopen all All Windows from Last Session’. Handy if you’ve quit Safari or have had to shutdown your Mac.

Open multiple bookmarks in tabs

If you find yourself opening the same set of websites within tabs then it may help to have these websites saved and grouped together in a folder within your Bookmarks Menu or Bookmarks Bar. Then whenever you want to open these website go into the folder and select ‘Open In Tabs’. This will open all of the websites tabbed within the one window. I’d recommend opening a new window before using ‘Open In Tabs’, if you have a window open at the time all tabs will be replaced when you use this feature. You can use the back button to restore your tabs if you need to.

Apple, Safari, Tabs, Tip

Find my iPhone

One of the new goodies in iOS4.2 is that the ‘Find My iPhone’ feature is now free for qualifying devices. If you have the latest iPhone (iPhone 4), iPod Touch or iPad then you get this feature for free. ‘Find My iPhone’ allows you to see where you mobile device has gotten to, great when you have forgotten who you lent your iPad to.

Apple has made an easy to follow setup guide for this feature, see here.

It’s a good idea to set this up before you realise you need it. Essentially you just enter or create an AppleID where you would normally setup a Mobile Me mail account, verify you account if needed, agree to the terms and turn the ‘Find My iPhone’ on.

After it is all setup you can find your mobile device by either downloading and signing into the ‘Find iPhone’ App or logging into Me.com website.

Our iPad seems to be located in the carpark, better go and scoop it up!

Apple, Find My iPhone, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Special Characters and Keyboard Shortcuts

Have you ever wondered how to enter some of the frequently used special characters into your text document? Characters such as the Registered Trademark symbol ®, Copyright © and the Apple logo  can be entered with keyboard shortcuts. Here are a few below;

Keyboard Shortcuts
Option and r = ®
Option and g = ©
Option and 1 = ¡
Option and 2 = ™
Option and 3 = £
Option, Shift and k = 
Option and e, then e again = é
Option and u, then u again = ü

You can also browse the symbols that you want to enter. You can do this by turning on the ‘Keyboard and Character Viewer’ within System Preferences.

How to Turn on the Keyboard & Character Viewer
From the Apple menu in the top left, go down and select ‘System Preferences…’
Click on the ‘Language & Text’ Preference Pane
Click on the ‘Input Sources’ tab
Tick on the ‘Keyboard & Character Viewer’, this will put a new icon in the Menu Bar (up by the time).
From the Menu Bar icon you can Show the Character or Keyboard Viewer

The Character Viewer will give you a library of characters to look through, just double click the character to insert it into your current document.

The Keyboard  Viewer will help you discover the keyboard shortcut for characters. Use the Option and Shift keys to reveal the characters on the keyboard.

Character Viewer, Keyboard Shortcuts, Keyboard Viewer, Mac OSX, Tip

Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event roundup

Apple has announced and demonstrated a number of its new products today.

Mac OSX Lion
The new version of Apple’s Operating System will be better known as ‘Lion’.

Taking many cues from iOS that runs on Apple’s iPhones, iPodTouch’s and iPads, Lion will include many multi-touch gestures, full screen Apps, auto save and resume. It will also see the introduction of a Mac App Store (it wont be the only way to get Apps onto your Mac), a new ‘Mission Control’ feature that appears to integrate an improved Expose, Spaces and Dashboard. The new LaunchPad feature looks like a way of launching and organising your Apps like you can on your iOS devices.

Expect to see Lion sometime around mid 2011, more features should be revealed between now and launch.

FaceTime for Mac
Apple has also introduced FaceTime for Mac. This will allow video calling with other FaceTime users, including those iPhone 4 and iPodTouch users.

More information here.

MacBook Air
Apple introduced new MacBook Air’s with updated 13-inch and a new 11-inch model. All models feature flash storage, multi-touch trackpad gestures, and better battery life. They look like impressive machines in a highly portable, compact size.

More information here.

iLife ’11
Updated versions of iPhoto, iMove and GarageBand feature in the latest iLife. People who have bought a new Mac in October can get the upgrade for the cost of postage. All is quite on the iDVD and iWeb front though.

iPhoto features;
- Full screen mode
- Improvements to Facebook and Flickr integration
- Improvements to slideshows, bookmaking, and the introduction of letterpress cards.

iMovie features;
– New “People Finder” face identification
- Improvements to audio controls and video effects
- New movie trailer mode

GarageBand features;
– New Flex Time and Groove Matching feature that focus on getting your rhythm and timing right
- More guitar amps and stompbox effects
- Improvements to lessons

More information here.

10.7, Apple, FaceTime, GarageBand, iLife, iMove, iPhoto, Lion, Mac OSX, MacBook Air

Apple release new toys

Apple have released a whole load of exciting product updates at its annual September event.

Apple TV – The Apple TV has had a major make over and now comes in a very small, sexy package. Apple has realised streaming media to your TV is the way to go, you can stream media from your computer or from other sources such as YouTube and Netflix (only to US subscribers though). You can control the Apple TV via your iPhone or iPod Touch with the ability to stream media from your iDevices coming soon.

iPod Touch - Has received the somewhat expected but appreciated features of FaceTime video calling, a camera on the front and another on the back, high resolution retina display and HD Video Recording. To help with gaming it has a three-axis gyroscope for greater movement precision.

iPod Nano - Has been given a redesign, it now features a small and square multi-touch interface. It also has a built-in FM radio.

iPod Shuffle - now resembles an earlier generation shuffle as the clickwheel has made a comeback. It also features a VoiceOver button so your iPod Shuffle can tell you what song or playlist is playing.

iTunes 10 – Now has iTunes Ping for following artists and friends, TV Show rentals, AirPlay for playing music wirelessly and improved syncing with Apples iDevices.

Apple, Apple TV, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, iTunes

Apple introduce new goodies

Apple has given its Mac Pro line a significant refresh today. Processors have been upgraded, Intel’s “Westmere” is available in two 2.4GHz Quad-Core, or two 2.66GHz 6-Core configurations. The video card in the Mac Pro now comes with 1GB of GDDR5 memory with 2 Mini DisplayPort outputs and one dual-link DVI output.

Check out the Mac Pro here

The new video card will allow you to use two of Apple’s new 27″ LED Cinema Displays on your Mac Pro. The new Cinema Display is very similar to the existing 24″ LED Cinema Display. It does have upgraded speakers and a longer video cable though. It is expected that the 27″ display with replace existing Apple’s 24″ and much older 30″ displays.

Check out the 27″ LED Cinema Display here

The iMac has also been given a refresh, Intel’s dual-core i3 and i5 processors are put to good use with quad-core i5 or i7 available on the higher end iMac. The high end iMac also gets the option of a solid state drive as either a primary or secondary drive.

Check out the updated iMac here

Apple also introduced the Magic TrackPad, a wireless trackpad that resembles a small Wacom but allows you to use multitouch gestures like you can on Apple’s mobile devices. You can pinch, scroll, swipe and rotate on the Magic TrackPad in the same way you can with your Apple laptop. The Magic TrackPad is being marketed as a companion to the mouse, it looks like it will be a while before the mouse gets relegated to history.

Check out the Magic TrackPad here

Apple, Cinema Display, iMac, Mac Pro, Magic TrackPad

Keynote for the iPad

We have been working on the translation of Keynote presentations from your Mac over to the iPad version. The iPad version is very powerful – but does have a cut down feature set compared to the Mac version. With the iPad coming soon (or for those who already have them!) the use of Keynote is an interesting one, especially when you have the iPad to VGA cable allowing you to connect the iPad to projectors!

So, in order to get your presentations ready, take a look at these Apple support pages here and here. And there are a few third party tips sitting here.

Presentations from the Mac are synced over to the iPad using iTunes and then Keynote for the iPad will import the presentation. On that import, it will check your presentation and alert you to any issues which you can then resolve.

Happy presenting!

Apple, iPad, Keynote

Prepare for the iOS 4 update for your iPhone.

To prepare yourself for the new iOS 4, backup your iPhone 3G or 3GS with iTunes 9.2. This version of iTunes is iOS 4 compatible and allows the backup of the folders which iOS 4 has.

To recap on the new features for the iPhone 3G and 3GS, check out Apple’s iOS 4 site.

iPhone 3G owners need to be aware that some new iOS 4 features are not available on the iPhone 3G hardware.

Apple, iOS 4, iPhone

Mac Mini gets an Aluminum Unibody make-over

Apple has given the Mac Mini a make-over. The new Mac Mini features an Aluminium Unibody design with much improved performance.

It looks like the Mac Mini will make an even better media centre than before as it now includes HDMI output to connect to your HDTV, a SD card slot to view and transfer photos from your digital camera, 4 USB ports and 1 Firewire 800 port for connecting external drives. It also includes a Mini DisplayPort, ethernet, wireless and bluetooth so you can use it as a computer should you want to.

For more information click here.

Aluminum, Apple, Mac Mini, Unibody