Archives for October, 2011

Newstand

Apple came out with a new way to organize your newspapers and magazines a lot like how iBooks works. The app is called Newstand and organizing everything into one place. Instead of having different apps for each they are all on a bookshelf within the app. New subscriptions also automatically download in the background. The

Newsstand

Apple came out with a new way to organize your newspapers and magazines a lot like how iBooks works. The app is called Newsstand and organizing everything into one place. Instead of having different apps for each they are all on a bookshelf within the app. New subscriptions also automatically download in the background. The App Store has also been reorganized so searching and buying newspapers and magazines are much easier. A couple nice features are magazine covers update to the newest actual cover and the newsstand app shows a badge number to alert you of new subscriptions. Newsstand is part of Apple’s new iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Learn more from Apple at apple.com/ios/features.html#newsstand

iMessage

Another new feature of iOS 5 is called iMessage. It’s like texting but you can only message to others with the iMessage app. Currently only the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch run the iMessage service. It’s great because it’s a part of the current Messages or Texting app. For iPads and iPod touches, you’ll get

iMessage

Another new feature of iOS 5 is called iMessage. It’s like texting but you can only message to others with the iMessage app. Currently only the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch run the iMessage service. It’s great because it’s a part of the current Messages or Texting app. For iPads and iPod touches, you’ll get a new app that wasn’t there before. For iPhones, It’s part of the same app used before for texting but won’t cost as a text through your carrier if both parties have iMessage. This will not work for regular phone numbers.

When using an iPhone, you can tell if you’re sending a text message or an iMessage based on what is displayed in the typing field before you type something. Here’s an example:

With iMessage, you can also see that the message has been delivered. See the previous screenshot again. You’ll see the word “delivered” under the message. You can also tell what type of message is being sent because the bubbles will be green for text and blue for iMessage and you can see when the other person is typing when a … appears.

A final tip to help you get it set up best: Go to you settings app, then Messages and scroll down to “Receive At” and make sure your email you want to use is listed. I had the word error next to my phone number and had to turn iMessage on and off again in the settings to get it to work again.

iPhone 4S: Faster, More Capable, and You Can Talk to It

Reviewing iPhone 4S at TechCrunch, columnist MG Siegler finds much to like, including its faster speed, improved camera, iOS 5 with Notification Center, and Siri, which he calls “the true killer feature of the device.” He adds: “The iPhone 4 was a great product. The best smartphone ever made. Now it cedes that title to the iPhone 4S.”

Fashion Forward with iPad

The Benetton Group, headquartered in Venice, Italy, is internationally known for its lively fashions and memorable ad campaigns. Recently, they created a fast, color-accurate iPad catalog app that replaces bulky, production-intensive hardcopy catalogs. As a result, the company saves 60 days per year in preparing its sales materials for its staff and is able to adapt instantly to changes.

With Siri, the iPhone Finds Its Voice

Wired reviewer Brian X. Chen writes that a superb new camera and speedy dual-core processor are great additions to iPhone 4S and that Siri alone is reason enough to buy the phone: “To give you an idea of how convenient Siri is, it takes about three seconds to create a reminder with a voice command, as opposed to the 10 seconds it takes me to manually type an event into a to-do list or calendar entry.” Chen concludes: “…both inside and out, this is a magnificent smartphone.”

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Google have finally announced their latest Android smartphone and have made the awesome decision to allow Samsung to manufacture the Google phone. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus wont disappoint you if you were previously upset about the Nexus which was created by HTC.

The distinct advantage of owning a Galaxy S over any of the other Samsung Galaxy mobile phones is that this is the first smartphone to offer Ice Cream Sandwich (The latest Android software) which is the successor of Gingerbread. A nice new feature is the unlocking mode where you can actually unlock your phone is using face recognition and voice typing is also available which is very similar to iPhone’s Siri.

Although the mobile phone looks quite compact in the photo above dont be fooled, the 4.65-inch display makes the Galaxy Nexus almost as large as the HTC Sensation XL however this is made up in thinness at only 7mm compared to the iPhone 4′s 9.3 mm and the Nexus is also 5g lighter than the Apple iPhone 4 weighing at only 135g.

If we are comparing the Galaxy Nexus to the iPhone then we will have to point out that the camera is only 5 megapixel compared to 8 megapixel cameras found in the Samsung Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4. Overall the new android mobile has its advantages over other smartphones such as the brand new software it runs on and its super AMOLED HD display which will be a significant upgrade from the Nexus S.

Restoring iWork Files Lost When Switching to iCloud

With the new option to sync my devices to iCloud instead of my computer, it sounded like a great idea. The problem was, after a couple days of being synced to the “cloud”, all my files in Keynote, Pages & Numbers disappeared on all my devices. I have my iPad, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S

With the new option to sync my devices to iCloud instead of my computer, it sounded like a great idea. The problem was, after a couple days of being synced to the “cloud”, all my files in Keynote, Pages & Numbers disappeared on all my devices. I have my iPad, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S all syncing and it was awesome to watch my files push in to my devices and cross sync between them the first time. When I opened Pages a few days later and all the files vanished. I was not happy. I have a couple major documents on there and I was trying to remember where I might have backed them up. I know I had emailed myself some files just incase something happened but I was having trouble finding them in my email and I know it wasn’t all my files from all devices from all three apps.

Then I remembered that I had backed up to my computer before upgrading. Could I somehow extract the backup into uncompressed data and see my files? Yes! You can! I even found a free app to help with the process. (Note: It does not work if you use encryption to protect your files.)

Here are the steps I took to restore my files:

1. Download the app called iPhone/iPod Touch Backup Extractor found at supercrazyawesome.com.

2. Run the app and click “Read Backups”.

3. Select the backup you want to restore files from and click choose.

4. Find the app you are trying to extract files from. This will work for any app but we’re looking for Pages, Numbers or Keynote. They’ll look like com.apple.Numbers. Highlight it and click Extract.

5. Find that extracted file using Finder. Right click on it and select “Show Package Contents”. This will show you the folders inside the file. Find the Documents folder and your files should be in there!

6. Now we need to send the files back to the cloud. Log into icloud.com and select iWork. Then, in the top right corner click the little gear and select “Upload Document”. Now just pick your files and upload them and they will push to all your devices logged into that iCloud account!

Let me know if this worked for you or if you have another tip on how to restore your lost iCloud files.

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