The recent wave of bad Apples

Recently, we placed a call in to Apple Support and requested to speak to a senior-level support executive to discuss some issues, for which we've been noticing more and more incoming calls from Apple owners.

Below is a summary of the three most-prevalent Mac-related problems and when appropriate, the response from the very professional and knowledgeable Jonathan at Apple. It is worth mentioning that Jonathan confirmed that these issues are some of the most common calls he currently receives at Apple Support.

iWeb Replacement in the Film / TV / Entertainment Industry

Finally, a solution to replace iWeb with iPhoto's Journal feature, available on Apple iOS:

In this posting, we are providing a step-by-step tutorial for using the Journal feature to easily publish photos, text, etc using Apple's iPhoto iOS App for iPads/iPhones. However, if you don't have an iOS device, or just want to keep using iWeb to make all of your site changes, you are going to need to set up hosting with an entirely new company & reupload/move your website to their servers (yes you can cancel your subscription with Apple and keep your site). Apple inexplicably recommends GoDaddy for this, but we can certainly provide support and other recommendations- just give us a call if you need any help.

We believe this will meet the requirements of photographers, designers, and artists working within the entertainment / advertising / commercial film & television businesses who have been searching for a replacement to the ever-popular Apple iWeb photo publishing/sharing software previously provided with MobileMe. In transitioning to iCloud, subscribers are informed that as of June 2012 Apple will be sunsetting iWeb.

All you’ll need is an Apple mobile device, the $5 iPhoto App and an iCloud account. In fact, as of this writing you cannot create or edit your journal on a computer or via iCloud’s website - only on iOS meaning only on your iPad or iPhone. The app autosaves everything as you create & edit, in real time; however, any edits you make to individual photos in the iPhoto app reflect in your published Journal online.


For an example website with three separate Journals, click here.

Amazing piece of Microsoft's past

Lifesaver for when your iPhone's home button is broken

...and you know it's hardware-related:

The following workaround makes the iPhone quite usable until you find the time to get it fixed.

1. Go into Settings –> General –> and tap Passcode Lock and set up a passcode on your iPhone.
2. When you are in an app and you want to back out just press your power button twice –> slide to unlock
3. Then tap Emergency Call –> tap the left arrow key at the bottom left
4. Then input your Passcode and you are out to the app and at your home screen.

From these kind folks.

Epson WorkForce 545/645 Series incapable of printing its own User's Guide

A retired Fire Dept Battalion Chief called me recently to help out with a few computer problems, mainly related to the new fully-featured Epson printer/scanner/fax he'd just purchased. I'd assumed he needed help installing it, but when I got there he'd already had that covered. His (odd, I thought) request was to help him print the detailed User's Guide to the printer, which (despite the inclusion of a "quick start guide" and a full-color brochure hard-selling the printer he'd just bought) was not included. 


We went to the support site, and found a link to the User's Guide. The manual looks like this but you can't print it! You'd have to expand all the little +'s and expand some more and some more and click print on each individual page in order to accomplish this. 

So I called Epson to request that they email us a PDF file, or some printable version, and the kind voice of Sanj from Pakistan told us over the speakerphone, "No, there are none, and please you should check the installation CD". When I explained that the CD only contains an HTML link (to the same page linked above) and no actual file for the guide, he asked why Chief wanted to print a 100+ page technical user manual...

He's interested in all the detailed features and in learning about the Epson product so he can access them, naturally. 

So why then does he not visit our site and search for it that way?

Because he likes to read the actual manuals, and print things out; that's a reason he bought a printer.

email accounts, mail programs, and The Stamp

Hi Adam --

Hope you're well.  I started teaching at TheUni this semester and am forwarding my .edu mail to my .com account.  I'm just wondering if I need to set up my Uni email in my email program.  It does forward, but I don't have a separate icon for TheUni email account.  Part of the problem is I don't know if it's a POP server, etc, and couldn't seem to determine that.  What is the advantage of having the separate icon/account?

Thanks,

Jane

adam@computersWTF
to Jane

Hi Jane-

It's purely a personal preference. Think of the Mac Mail program (aka The Stamp or technical term: mail client) as an old mail room in a big office building- sorting, filing and ultimately providing you with your mail as you like it. If you want to have a separate "box" for each of your accounts, each with it's own inbox, sent folder, and so on, then Mac Mail can do that. If you want to have TheUni forward their mail to another account and come in that way, you can obviously do that too as that is your current setup. Each computer has a different mail client (or more than one, like Thunderbird, Outlook, etc), as do mobile devices and tablets. Conversely, web-based email can be logged into remotely from any device or computer with Internet access. Most email accounts can be accessed either way, although some companies/orgs choose to go with one or the other.

Best,

Adam

...but what happens when your car kills someone?

Tom Vanderbilt's new Wired cover story on robotic cars is a must read:

The last time I was in a self-driving car—Stanford University’s “Junior,” at the 2008 World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems—the VW Passat went 25 miles per hour down two closed-off blocks. Its signal achievement seemed to be stopping for a stop sign at an otherwise unoccupied intersection. Now, just a few years later, we are driving close to 70 mph with no human involvement on a busy public highway—a stunning demonstration of just how quickly, and dramatically, the horizon of possibility is expanding. “This car can do 75 mph,” Urmson says. “It can track pedestrians and cyclists. It understands traffic lights. It can merge at highway speeds.” In short, after almost a hundred years in which driving has remained essentially unchanged, it has been completely transformed in just the past half decade.

As an extremely alert and aware driver this scares me quite a bit, but as a tech-geek I'm completely mesmerized by the idea of being able to read on a drive somewhere while knowing that the computerized-cars are probably (more than) twice as safe as all the bad drivers out there.

I just can't help the nagging thought: what will happen when someone's car freaks out (or worse, is hacked into) and goes on a rampage?