ComputerUser.ca » How To’s http://computeruser.ca NOT just another computer weblog Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 How to resell your iPad http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/03/how-to-resell-your-ipad/ http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/03/how-to-resell-your-ipad/#comments Mon, 03 May 2010 21:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/03/how-to-resell-your-ipad/ Filed under:

Now that the 3G iPad has been released in the US, many users are looking to sell their Wi-Fi models to make room for its better-connected counterpart. Fortunately, the process of restoring an iPad to its factory settings is easy. Here's how to sell your old (if 28 days can be considered "old") iPad.

TUAWHow to resell your iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 03 May 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that the 3G iPad has been released in the US, many users are looking to sell their Wi-Fi models to make room for its better-connected counterpart. Fortunately, the process of restoring an iPad to its factory settings is easy. Here's how to sell your old (if 28 days can be considered "old") iPad.

TUAWHow to resell your iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 03 May 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In general, Mac hardware is very reliable. Like any complex gizmo, a Mac will have its quirks, but only rarely do those quirks turn into a full-on, machine-killing meltdown. When that does happen, as it recently happened to my wife's MacBook, there's a few things you can do to keep the death of your Mac from becoming more of an ordeal than it has to be.

Before your Mac dies:

Back up your data. Your Mac is humming along nicely now, and if you've never had a computer die on you before, you might think it'll go on crunching binary bits forever. Unfortunately, it won't -- eventually, something on the Mac is going to fail. And when it does, it'll take all your music, documents, games, videos, and family photos down with it... unless you have those things backed up in another location. At a bare minimum you should be using Time Machine to back up your entire Mac to an external hard drive. Considering that Apple bundles this simple-to-use backup software in OS X, and considering how cheap even terabyte-capacity external hard drives have become, there's really no excuse for not backing up your data. Having all of your data backed up to another drive makes a dead Mac an inconvenience rather than a full-blown catastrophe. There are other third-party tools you can use, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, but if you're looking for a solution that doesn't require an additional download (or much conscious thought to implement), Time Machine is the probably simplest backup tool available.

More suggestions, both pre- and post-death, after the link below.

TUAWWhat to do when your Mac dies originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In general, Mac hardware is very reliable. Like any complex gizmo, a Mac will have its quirks, but only rarely do those quirks turn into a full-on, machine-killing meltdown. When that does happen, as it recently happened to my wife's MacBook, there's a few things you can do to keep the death of your Mac from becoming more of an ordeal than it has to be.

Before your Mac dies:

Back up your data. Your Mac is humming along nicely now, and if you've never had a computer die on you before, you might think it'll go on crunching binary bits forever. Unfortunately, it won't -- eventually, something on the Mac is going to fail. And when it does, it'll take all your music, documents, games, videos, and family photos down with it... unless you have those things backed up in another location. At a bare minimum you should be using Time Machine to back up your entire Mac to an external hard drive. Considering that Apple bundles this simple-to-use backup software in OS X, and considering how cheap even terabyte-capacity external hard drives have become, there's really no excuse for not backing up your data. Having all of your data backed up to another drive makes a dead Mac an inconvenience rather than a full-blown catastrophe. There are other third-party tools you can use, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, but if you're looking for a solution that doesn't require an additional download (or much conscious thought to implement), Time Machine is the probably simplest backup tool available.

More suggestions, both pre- and post-death, after the link below.

TUAWWhat to do when your Mac dies originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several weeks ago, we described how Keynote for the iPad suffers from formatting and other issues when sharing presentations with a Mac. No support for custom fonts, disappearing presenter notes, and trouble with screen ratios were some of the problems we encountered. As if they were listening, Apple has published a support document on Keynote for iPad best practices.

It's a nice overview. Apple suggests which theme to use (options include Black, Craft, Harmony and Parchment), the proper size (1024 x 768) and fonts available to both platforms. Fonts not available on the iPad will be replaced with Helvetica.

As for images, Apple recommends scaling them to their intended size before adding them to a slideshow (kind of a hassle), and sticking with the PNG format.

There are a few more tips listed, but we'll let you read for yourself. Hopefully these suggestions will improve the experience for those who wish to present from their iPads.

TUAWApple offers Keynote for iPad advice originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several weeks ago, we described how Keynote for the iPad suffers from formatting and other issues when sharing presentations with a Mac. No support for custom fonts, disappearing presenter notes, and trouble with screen ratios were some of the problems we encountered. As if they were listening, Apple has published a support document on Keynote for iPad best practices.

It's a nice overview. Apple suggests which theme to use (options include Black, Craft, Harmony and Parchment), the proper size (1024 x 768) and fonts available to both platforms. Fonts not available on the iPad will be replaced with Helvetica.

As for images, Apple recommends scaling them to their intended size before adding them to a slideshow (kind of a hassle), and sticking with the PNG format.

There are a few more tips listed, but we'll let you read for yourself. Hopefully these suggestions will improve the experience for those who wish to present from their iPads.

TUAWApple offers Keynote for iPad advice originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unlike the iPhone,* the iPad lets you customize wallpapers for, both, the lock screen and the home screen. While the default image is beautiful (unless you think the stars resemble scratches), many users will want to replace it with something personal. Here's how.

Tap the Settings app and then select Brightness and Wallpaper. There, you'll find two options. First, you can enable auto-brightness, which adjusts the display's brightness by monitoring the environment's ambient light.

Tap the images below to bring up the wallpaper settings. At the top of the page, you'll find the iPad's default images followed by your own pictures (if you've synchronized photos). Tap any image to bring up the full-screen view. Now, you've got three options: set the lock screen, home screen, or both. You're done!

There are two things that you should note. The first thing is that your images are sorted by album, events, and then faces, which makes searching easier. Secondly, you can't adjust or re-size an image before setting it as a wallpaper like you can on an iPhone.

*That's going to change this summer.

TUAWiPad 101: Customize your wallpaper originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unlike the iPhone,* the iPad lets you customize wallpapers for, both, the lock screen and the home screen. While the default image is beautiful (unless you think the stars resemble scratches), many users will want to replace it with something personal. Here's how.

Tap the Settings app and then select Brightness and Wallpaper. There, you'll find two options. First, you can enable auto-brightness, which adjusts the display's brightness by monitoring the environment's ambient light.

Tap the images below to bring up the wallpaper settings. At the top of the page, you'll find the iPad's default images followed by your own pictures (if you've synchronized photos). Tap any image to bring up the full-screen view. Now, you've got three options: set the lock screen, home screen, or both. You're done!

There are two things that you should note. The first thing is that your images are sorted by album, events, and then faces, which makes searching easier. Secondly, you can't adjust or re-size an image before setting it as a wallpaper like you can on an iPhone.

*That's going to change this summer.

TUAWiPad 101: Customize your wallpaper originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unless you don't listen to a whole lot of music, chances are pretty good that your iTunes music library is larger than what will fit on your iPhone. As an example, my music library is over 39 GB, but my iPhone 3G only has a 16 GB capacity -- and I have to fit apps, pictures, videos, and data into that small space, too.

One way of solving this dilemma is by using iTunes's powerful smart playlists to filter your library into a size that's a little more iPhone-friendly. The following smart playlists are examples from my own setup, but the smart playlist system is flexible enough that you can do almost anything with it to filter your songs. Naturally, these tips will work just as well for any of Apple's smaller capacity players, like iPod nanos or lower-capacity iPod touches and iPads; I've focused on the iPhone only because that's what I own.

I've rated almost every song in my library, and those with 4 or 5 stars end up in a playlist called "Top Rated," or in the language of smart playlists, "Rating is greater than three stars." This represents music that I want to listen to more often, and it ensures that songs I don't like don't end up playing when I shuffle songs in iTunes. It also guarantees that only music I actually want to listen to makes it onto my iPhone.

The only problem is that my "Top Rated" playlist is still too big -- almost 23 GB. It takes a little more paring down to get music to fit on my iPhone. Therefore, I created another playlist called "Favorites" which, as you might guess from the name, represents the best of the best in my music library. I set the following conditions for the smart playlist: "Rating is five stars," "Play Count is greater than 4," and I filtered out a bunch of genres that I don't necessarily want to listen to when I'm on the go, by setting "Genre is not" to those genres.

This gets my iTunes library down to a far more manageable 6 GB. Now we're talking. Read on to learn about some more techniques you can use to get the most out of your iPhone's music library.

The "Favorites" smart playlist forms the foundation of my iPhone's music library, with a few standard playlists thrown in to round it out to about 1400 songs. However, I ran into another problem with the smart playlist that I use most on my Mac, one called "Not Recently Played." In order to keep from shuffling through the same songs all the time, I built a "Not Recently Played" playlist based on my "Top Rated" playlist. "Not Recently Played" has a simple setup: "Playlist is Top Rated" and "Last Played is not in the last 1 month." The issue here is that since this playlist is built off of my "Top Rated" playlist, it's far too large to fit on my iPhone. So, in order to get that same "Not Recently Played" functionality in my iPhone's music library, I had to create yet another smart playlist.

Here's how I filtered my "Not Recently Played" playlist into a more manageable size: I created another smart playlist called "iPhone NRP" with the condition "Playlist is Not Recently Played." Nested within that playlist condition by using the (...) button on the far right, I went through and set "Playlist is" to all of the various playlists I synced to my iPhone.


This accomplishes two things: it creates a "Not Recently Played" list for my iPhone with music that I haven't listened to in a month or more, and it pares it down to only songs that are already synced to my iPhone. This playlist doesn't add any music to my iPhone that wasn't already there, but it adds a new condition (not played in the last month) that draws more functionality out of my iPhone's music library.

These are just a few examples of how you can use smart playlists to your advantage when you have a large music library that you need to fit into a smaller device. With all of the metadata iTunes puts onto songs in your library, there are nearly limitless possibilities for setting up smart playlists.

TUAWiTunes 201: Using smart playlists to fill your portable's music library originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]> Filed under: , ,

Unless you don't listen to a whole lot of music, chances are pretty good that your iTunes music library is larger than what will fit on your iPhone. As an example, my music library is over 39 GB, but my iPhone 3G only has a 16 GB capacity -- and I have to fit apps, pictures, videos, and data into that small space, too.

One way of solving this dilemma is by using iTunes's powerful smart playlists to filter your library into a size that's a little more iPhone-friendly. The following smart playlists are examples from my own setup, but the smart playlist system is flexible enough that you can do almost anything with it to filter your songs. Naturally, these tips will work just as well for any of Apple's smaller capacity players, like iPod nanos or lower-capacity iPod touches and iPads; I've focused on the iPhone only because that's what I own.

I've rated almost every song in my library, and those with 4 or 5 stars end up in a playlist called "Top Rated," or in the language of smart playlists, "Rating is greater than three stars." This represents music that I want to listen to more often, and it ensures that songs I don't like don't end up playing when I shuffle songs in iTunes. It also guarantees that only music I actually want to listen to makes it onto my iPhone.

The only problem is that my "Top Rated" playlist is still too big -- almost 23 GB. It takes a little more paring down to get music to fit on my iPhone. Therefore, I created another playlist called "Favorites" which, as you might guess from the name, represents the best of the best in my music library. I set the following conditions for the smart playlist: "Rating is five stars," "Play Count is greater than 4," and I filtered out a bunch of genres that I don't necessarily want to listen to when I'm on the go, by setting "Genre is not" to those genres.

This gets my iTunes library down to a far more manageable 6 GB. Now we're talking. Read on to learn about some more techniques you can use to get the most out of your iPhone's music library.

The "Favorites" smart playlist forms the foundation of my iPhone's music library, with a few standard playlists thrown in to round it out to about 1400 songs. However, I ran into another problem with the smart playlist that I use most on my Mac, one called "Not Recently Played." In order to keep from shuffling through the same songs all the time, I built a "Not Recently Played" playlist based on my "Top Rated" playlist. "Not Recently Played" has a simple setup: "Playlist is Top Rated" and "Last Played is not in the last 1 month." The issue here is that since this playlist is built off of my "Top Rated" playlist, it's far too large to fit on my iPhone. So, in order to get that same "Not Recently Played" functionality in my iPhone's music library, I had to create yet another smart playlist.

Here's how I filtered my "Not Recently Played" playlist into a more manageable size: I created another smart playlist called "iPhone NRP" with the condition "Playlist is Not Recently Played." Nested within that playlist condition by using the (...) button on the far right, I went through and set "Playlist is" to all of the various playlists I synced to my iPhone.


This accomplishes two things: it creates a "Not Recently Played" list for my iPhone with music that I haven't listened to in a month or more, and it pares it down to only songs that are already synced to my iPhone. This playlist doesn't add any music to my iPhone that wasn't already there, but it adds a new condition (not played in the last month) that draws more functionality out of my iPhone's music library.

These are just a few examples of how you can use smart playlists to your advantage when you have a large music library that you need to fit into a smaller device. With all of the metadata iTunes puts onto songs in your library, there are nearly limitless possibilities for setting up smart playlists.

TUAWiTunes 201: Using smart playlists to fill your portable's music library originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It couldn't happen, they said. It wouldn't work, they warned. But gmjhowe over at Instructables did it anyway: he converted his old 1984 Macintosh into a machine that could run Snow Leopard. And he laid out some pretty good instructions on how to do so yourself. His two rules are as thus: don't hurt the old Mac in any way -- besides its value as a collector's item, the thing still looks great. And don't skimp on costs -- you could probably do it a little cheaper than he did, but why would you? This is a one-of-a-kind project, and he went all out.

Because of that, his instructions get a little technical (he actually replaced the innards rather than just trying to fit a Mac mini in there or something similarly easy). So this isn't a very good project for a first-timer for sure. But if you've got a little DIY experience, or just want to see what it looks like to take apart an old Mac and refill it with modern PC parts (he went Hackintosh on the OS), you should definitely check out his writeup. I wouldn't use the computer as a workstation any more -- because, come on now, who can really do any serious computing on a 9-inch screen? -- but as a music server or just a conversation piece, it's great.

TUAWHow to: Get your 1984 Mac running Snow Leopard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It couldn't happen, they said. It wouldn't work, they warned. But gmjhowe over at Instructables did it anyway: he converted his old 1984 Macintosh into a machine that could run Snow Leopard. And he laid out some pretty good instructions on how to do so yourself. His two rules are as thus: don't hurt the old Mac in any way -- besides its value as a collector's item, the thing still looks great. And don't skimp on costs -- you could probably do it a little cheaper than he did, but why would you? This is a one-of-a-kind project, and he went all out.

Because of that, his instructions get a little technical (he actually replaced the innards rather than just trying to fit a Mac mini in there or something similarly easy). So this isn't a very good project for a first-timer for sure. But if you've got a little DIY experience, or just want to see what it looks like to take apart an old Mac and refill it with modern PC parts (he went Hackintosh on the OS), you should definitely check out his writeup. I wouldn't use the computer as a workstation any more -- because, come on now, who can really do any serious computing on a 9-inch screen? -- but as a music server or just a conversation piece, it's great.

TUAWHow to: Get your 1984 Mac running Snow Leopard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Apple removes sexually suggestive apps from the App Store (and is evidently preparing a Red Light District for the future), users are wondering how they can protect their kids from certain content. With that in mind, here's an overview of the parental controls in iTunes.

Note that the screenshot at right is from iTunes 9.0.3. Older versions look slightly different. Parental controls are only available in iTunes 5 and later.

To access these settings, select Preferences from the iTunes menu, and then click the Parental tab. Here you've got several options.

First, you can disable access to podcasts, internet radio or the iTunes Store completely. Note that you can keep iTunes U accessible while disabling the rest of the store. Additionally, you can deny access to shared libraries. Once turned off, these items won't appear in the left sidebar of the iTunes window.

Next, a drop-down menu lets you apply the content ratings systems from one of several countries to your own machine. From there, you can apply more fine-grained content restrictions. For example, if you've opted to use the US's ratings system, you can limit access to movies that are rated G, PG, PG-13 or R. Television shows can be limited in the same way (TV-Y, TV-Y7, etc.).

As for apps, there are four ratings, no matter which country's system you've selected: 4+, 9+, 12+ and 17+.

If you want even tighter restriction, select "Restrict explicit content." This won't let users preview, purchase or subscribe to content in the store that's been marked as explicit by the content providers.

Once you're done, click the lock to prevent further changes and provide your machine's administrator password (which your kids don't know, right?).

All of these changes must be set up for each user account that will have limited access. Also, changes made in iTunes on a Mac will apply to a mobile device (iPod touch or iPhone) that's tied to that same limited account. In other words, Jr. won't be able to use the mobile App Store to download apps that the desktop version denies.

TUAWMac 101: How to use the iTunes parental controls originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Apple removes sexually suggestive apps from the App Store (and is evidently preparing a Red Light District for the future), users are wondering how they can protect their kids from certain content. With that in mind, here's an overview of the parental controls in iTunes.

Note that the screenshot at right is from iTunes 9.0.3. Older versions look slightly different. Parental controls are only available in iTunes 5 and later.

To access these settings, select Preferences from the iTunes menu, and then click the Parental tab. Here you've got several options.

First, you can disable access to podcasts, internet radio or the iTunes Store completely. Note that you can keep iTunes U accessible while disabling the rest of the store. Additionally, you can deny access to shared libraries. Once turned off, these items won't appear in the left sidebar of the iTunes window.

Next, a drop-down menu lets you apply the content ratings systems from one of several countries to your own machine. From there, you can apply more fine-grained content restrictions. For example, if you've opted to use the US's ratings system, you can limit access to movies that are rated G, PG, PG-13 or R. Television shows can be limited in the same way (TV-Y, TV-Y7, etc.).

As for apps, there are four ratings, no matter which country's system you've selected: 4+, 9+, 12+ and 17+.

If you want even tighter restriction, select "Restrict explicit content." This won't let users preview, purchase or subscribe to content in the store that's been marked as explicit by the content providers.

Once you're done, click the lock to prevent further changes and provide your machine's administrator password (which your kids don't know, right?).

All of these changes must be set up for each user account that will have limited access. Also, changes made in iTunes on a Mac will apply to a mobile device (iPod touch or iPhone) that's tied to that same limited account. In other words, Jr. won't be able to use the mobile App Store to download apps that the desktop version denies.

TUAWMac 101: How to use the iTunes parental controls originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/24/mac-101-how-to-use-the-itunes-parental-controls/feed/ 0 Eliminate the blue outer glow in Exposé http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/24/eliminate-the-blue-outer-glow-in-expose/ http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/24/eliminate-the-blue-outer-glow-in-expose/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/24/eliminate-the-blue-outer-glow-in-expose/ Filed under: ,

One of the more questionable changes that was introduced in 10.6 Snow Leopard was a soft, blue glow that appears around application windows when using Exposé. Previously, in 10.5 Leopard, the entire Window was highlighted blue; now, however, the Exposé window previews are able to update their contents on the fly and obfuscating them with a blue highlight negatively affects the user experience.

Unfortunately, the blue glow that Apple's designers have chosen to overcome this gap is somewhat garish and just plain lacking in style. In response, creativebits has posted a tip for changing that glow into something a little more eye-catching and a little less flashy.

The process is fairly simple and involves replacing two PNG image files within the Dock application. Creativebits has the full explanation as well as a sample set of replacement files that work pretty well and look very tasteful. Follow the break for a preview of the tip in action and decide for yourself whether the difference is worth the effort.

TUAWEliminate the blue outer glow in Exposé originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the more questionable changes that was introduced in 10.6 Snow Leopard was a soft, blue glow that appears around application windows when using Exposé. Previously, in 10.5 Leopard, the entire Window was highlighted blue; now, however, the Exposé window previews are able to update their contents on the fly and obfuscating them with a blue highlight negatively affects the user experience.

Unfortunately, the blue glow that Apple's designers have chosen to overcome this gap is somewhat garish and just plain lacking in style. In response, creativebits has posted a tip for changing that glow into something a little more eye-catching and a little less flashy.

The process is fairly simple and involves replacing two PNG image files within the Dock application. Creativebits has the full explanation as well as a sample set of replacement files that work pretty well and look very tasteful. Follow the break for a preview of the tip in action and decide for yourself whether the difference is worth the effort.

TUAWEliminate the blue outer glow in Exposé originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/24/eliminate-the-blue-outer-glow-in-expose/feed/ 0 Mac 101: Adding new microphones to your Mac http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/16/mac-101-adding-new-microphones-to-your-mac/ http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/16/mac-101-adding-new-microphones-to-your-mac/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:00:00 +0000 admin http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/16/mac-101-adding-new-microphones-to-your-mac/ Filed under: , , , ,

There are, roughly, several billion kinds of microphones and headsets, all of which can theoretically be used on your Macintosh to let you voice chat over iChat or Skype. The problem is that a fair percentage of them fail to work exactly right, just out of the box.

Fortunately, there are several tricks that can help you analyze why your audio chats aren't working quite right. Here's a quick run-down of the steps you should take.

Start in System Preferences. The Sound preferences pane lets you select devices for your sound input and output. And, importantly, it lets you test your input device and adjust its volume. After attaching your mic to your Macintosh, use this pane to set-up and test.

The device should be automatically recognized and listed in the columns at the top of the pane. If you do not see it there, disconnect from and reconnect to your Mac.

The Input level bar helps sound check your microphone. When the bar does not respond to your voice or to taps on the mic, you'll need to trouble-shoot your connection. Make sure you have not muted your mic. Many current-generation USB microphone solutions provide at least one, if not two, separate mute buttons. You'll usually find a mute toggle on the cord of the microphone or headset. Some USB solutions offer a second mute button on the dongle that connects to the USB port as well.

Most mic solutions are USB-based. For best performance, connect to a USB port directly on your Mac. The other day, I had a great deal of trouble setting up a voice chat with coblogger Dave Caolo until I switched my mic connector from an external hub to a built-in port. I could hear him; he could not hear me.

Once you have confirmed that you have live voice input as indicated by the Input level bar, make sure you've set up audio properly in your chat client. Both iChat and Skype offer input settings in their built-in preferences (App menu > Preferences, or Command-comma). Make sure that your new microphone has been selected in whichever chat program you use.

Always allow a little more time than you think is necessary to get a new microphone set up with your Mac. Take time to get the input set up and verified before making your first call. Once you've set up your mic the first time, it's generally smooth sailing from there on.

Other tips, courtesy of our readers:

  • Option-click the volume control in the main menu toolbar to select input and output devices without opening up System Preferences.
  • Some Microphones require power on the stereo mini jack and may not work on Mac systems. Try to check for Mac compatibility when buying USB microphone sets.

TUAWMac 101: Adding new microphones to your Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are, roughly, several billion kinds of microphones and headsets, all of which can theoretically be used on your Macintosh to let you voice chat over iChat or Skype. The problem is that a fair percentage of them fail to work exactly right, just out of the box.

Fortunately, there are several tricks that can help you analyze why your audio chats aren't working quite right. Here's a quick run-down of the steps you should take.

Start in System Preferences. The Sound preferences pane lets you select devices for your sound input and output. And, importantly, it lets you test your input device and adjust its volume. After attaching your mic to your Macintosh, use this pane to set-up and test.

The device should be automatically recognized and listed in the columns at the top of the pane. If you do not see it there, disconnect from and reconnect to your Mac.

The Input level bar helps sound check your microphone. When the bar does not respond to your voice or to taps on the mic, you'll need to trouble-shoot your connection. Make sure you have not muted your mic. Many current-generation USB microphone solutions provide at least one, if not two, separate mute buttons. You'll usually find a mute toggle on the cord of the microphone or headset. Some USB solutions offer a second mute button on the dongle that connects to the USB port as well.

Most mic solutions are USB-based. For best performance, connect to a USB port directly on your Mac. The other day, I had a great deal of trouble setting up a voice chat with coblogger Dave Caolo until I switched my mic connector from an external hub to a built-in port. I could hear him; he could not hear me.

Once you have confirmed that you have live voice input as indicated by the Input level bar, make sure you've set up audio properly in your chat client. Both iChat and Skype offer input settings in their built-in preferences (App menu > Preferences, or Command-comma). Make sure that your new microphone has been selected in whichever chat program you use.

Always allow a little more time than you think is necessary to get a new microphone set up with your Mac. Take time to get the input set up and verified before making your first call. Once you've set up your mic the first time, it's generally smooth sailing from there on.

Other tips, courtesy of our readers:

  • Option-click the volume control in the main menu toolbar to select input and output devices without opening up System Preferences.
  • Some Microphones require power on the stereo mini jack and may not work on Mac systems. Try to check for Mac compatibility when buying USB microphone sets.

TUAWMac 101: Adding new microphones to your Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/16/mac-101-adding-new-microphones-to-your-mac/feed/ 0 Tricking your iPhone to play TV shows and movies in portrait view http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/03/tricking-your-iphone-to-play-tv-shows-and-movies-in-portrait-vie/ http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/03/tricking-your-iphone-to-play-tv-shows-and-movies-in-portrait-vie/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:30:00 +0000 admin http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/03/tricking-your-iphone-to-play-tv-shows-and-movies-in-portrait-vie/ Filed under: , , ,

By default, movies and TV shows in the iPod portion of the iPhone and iPod touch play in landscape view. The biggest change with respect to video orientation came about with iPhone OS 2.0, which provided the option for landscape-right viewing (that is, with the volume and silent/vibrate buttons facing up). While most videos could, and should, be viewed in landscape, there are times that call for a portrait perspective -- for example, when placing your iPhone into a dock, which is what I do when working out.

Getting your iPhone to play a movie or TV show in portrait mode requires a simple change in the video's tag, from TV Show or Movie to Podcast. Simply right-click on the file and select "get info "(or you could use the Command-I shortcut). Then, in the "Media Kind" section within the "Options" tab of the video, select Podcast. Now, the videos will show up in both the Podcasts and Videos section of the iPod portion on your iPhone.

Obviously, this isn't something you'd want to do with every movie or TV show in your library. So, to revert the file back to its old self, you'd want to follow the same process and change the video back to a TV show or movie.

TUAWTricking your iPhone to play TV shows and movies in portrait view originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By default, movies and TV shows in the iPod portion of the iPhone and iPod touch play in landscape view. The biggest change with respect to video orientation came about with iPhone OS 2.0, which provided the option for landscape-right viewing (that is, with the volume and silent/vibrate buttons facing up). While most videos could, and should, be viewed in landscape, there are times that call for a portrait perspective -- for example, when placing your iPhone into a dock, which is what I do when working out.

Getting your iPhone to play a movie or TV show in portrait mode requires a simple change in the video's tag, from TV Show or Movie to Podcast. Simply right-click on the file and select "get info "(or you could use the Command-I shortcut). Then, in the "Media Kind" section within the "Options" tab of the video, select Podcast. Now, the videos will show up in both the Podcasts and Videos section of the iPod portion on your iPhone.

Obviously, this isn't something you'd want to do with every movie or TV show in your library. So, to revert the file back to its old self, you'd want to follow the same process and change the video back to a TV show or movie.

TUAWTricking your iPhone to play TV shows and movies in portrait view originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]> http://www.tuaw.com/2010/02/03/tricking-your-iphone-to-play-tv-shows-and-movies-in-portrait-vie/feed/ 0