Putting It Another Way

I've thought quite a bit about this Apple, Adobe, and Flash issue. I think it comes down to this: Adobe is saying "Hardware doesn't matter." They have an idea for an app (for a smartphone) or an idea for a desktop application (for a Mac or a PC), and then they try to make it run on all of the machines they can. They don't care which phone you use-- iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, something else-- they just want to get their program to work on it, and if they're able to make it work on your phone, you can be sure that it will look exactly the way it looks on someone else's phone. Even if you have an iPhone with lots of cool hardware features, and the other guy has some other phone that isn't as good. Adobe starts "at the top" with an idea of how they want their app to work. The hardware that it runs on is irrelevant to them.

Same thing with their desktop applications (Photoshop, InDesign, etc.). They have an idea of what their program should be, and then they try to fit it onto Macs and onto PCs. They ignore much of what makes a Mac special, because that's not interesting to them. Adobe's focus is on getting Photoshop to run on as many machines as possible-- and to look exactly the same, whether you're running a Mac or a PC. Again, the hardware doesn't matter to them.

The problem with this, of course, is that some machines are simply better than others. Some phones have accelerometers, and GPS devices, and touch screens. Others don't. Macs have features that PCs don't, notably the Mac OS X operating system and a set of user interface guidelines that make using a Mac a consistent, predicable experience-- unless you're using Adobe applications, with their own Print and Save As and Open dialog boxes, a complete thumbing of the nose to the ones Apple provides for all developers to use.

If you're making smoothies it doesn't really matter if your blender is a Waring or a Hamilton Beach. If you're painting a house you can use a brush from Ace or from Home Depot (but use the one from Home Depot, I have stock). In cases like that, nobody cares about the hardware, because when you get right down to it all blenders blend, and all paint brushes paint, and there's not a lot of difference between them. When you're dealing with phones, and desktop/laptop computers, there IS a lot of difference between the offerings from different companies, and when Adobe ignores those differences, you (the iPhone and Mac owner) end up with the same crummy experience that people with lesser phones and computers get. And it's not very good.

In my opinion, hardware DOES matter. It matters a lot. So does the operating system. Adobe doesn't think so, Apple does, and that's the root of this conflict.

Apple, Adobe, and Flash

You may have heard that Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch do not run Flash. Flash is Adobe's plug-in software, used by web designers for animations and video. Apple doesn't like Flash because it's buggy and slow, and-- I suspect-- because it leads to sloppy, cheesy websites with gratuitous rollover action.

Adobe gives away the Flash plug-in-- you probably have it. They sell the tools that developers use to MAKE Flash (you watch it for free, but the people who make it pay to make it). This is a nice business for Adobe, with no real competition. They'd like to keep that going.

Adobe also makes tools that help people make applications for cellular phones-- including, but not restricted to, iPhones. Using Adobe's tools, which they sell, a programmer could write ONE program and have it work on an iPhone, a Blackberry, a Google Droid, etc. That's not possible with any other tool today. You can imagine how appealing this is to a programmer-- write your app once, and sell it to everyone with a smart phone, whether that device is an iPhone or not.

The trouble with Adobe's write once, works everywhere approach is that all smart phones are not created equal. A programmer then has to develop for the least common denominator-- that is, the set of features common to all smart phones. (Example: iPhones have accelerometers built in, so when you rotate the screen your email and your web page etc. can rotate automatically. Other smart phones don't have accelerometers. A programmer writing an app for a wide audience would not include features reliant on accelerometers because those features would only work on the iPhone.) The result is a watered-down, dumbed-down, why-did-I-spend-all-this-money-for-an-iPhone-if-the-apps-don't-take-advantage-of-its-features experience. It was the same way with Java-- you might remember. I remember, and Apple remembers, and Apple's not going to let it happen again.

Apple's recently changed its agreement with iPhone app developers to say, in effect, "use Apple software to create your apps. Otherwise, they won't be approved for sale in the App Store." Pretty compelling argument to the developer! Apple wants to ensure that applications take full advantage of the features they've built into the iPhone, the iPad, and the iPhone OS, and eliminating a middle-man (Adobe) that may not be motivated to do so is a good move in terms of guaranteeing a high-quality experience for users of Apple's devices.

Adobe's come down on Apple, officially and unofficially, saying that not supporting Flash is bad for users, nevermind bad for Adobe, and that forcing app developers to use Apple's tools will lead to stifled creativity etc. This has gone on for a few weeks now, played out on blogs and in interviews, but now Steve Jobs has addressed the issues in a nice long letter. It's interesting reading. Provide the coffee and I'll talk it over with you.

Here's the link to Steve Jobs' letter.

Another Time Machine Backup Success Story

One of my customers has a Mac Pro tower, and the hard drive went bad last week. A replacement drive was only $60, and it was even bigger and faster than the one that died. Of course the new drive was blank... but we had a Time Machine backup so we restored from that and in less than an hour the customer was back in business.

Turns out we'd only set up this backup system two weeks earlier, so we really lucked out. Let's make sure that you're lucky too. If you don't have a Time Machine backup, let's get you one. You'll need an external hard disk, such as this one:


Seagate GoFlex 1 terabyte external drive, $159.99 from Amazon, with free shipping.

You also need a Mac with OS X 10.5 or higher, and there are a lot of other reasons to have 10.5 or higher so if you're on 10.4.11 let's get you to 10.5 at least. You 10.4.11 people know who you are. (Unless you don't-- in that case, go to the Apple menu and choose "About This Mac" and see what it says in there).

Time Machine is Apple's own backup software, built into the system starting with 10.5, and it works like a charm. If you are on 10.5 or 10.6 you already have the software and it's already installed.

If you buy a drive that is formatted for a Mac (like the Seagate above), all you do is connect it and answer "Yes" when asked whether you want to use it for Time Machine. If you buy some other drive you will probably have to format it as Mac OS X Extended (use the Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder). Either way, from then on you'll be backing up automatically every hour, nothing for you to worry about, and when your Mac's disk quits working the cost of the backup drive will seem like small potatoes. Recovering data from a dead hard disk will cost you at least $1,000 and usually more. It does not make sense to tempt fate here-- use Time Machine and have that backup for when you need it. Eventually, you'll need it. Make like a Boy Scout and be prepared.

Make Your iPhone Battery Last All Day

When it comes to the iPhone, I hear two complaints over and over:
1. AT&T is the pits, and
2. The battery runs down too quickly.

I'm not thrilled with AT&T either but I can't solve that problem for you. I can, however, help you make the battery last longer. Do it my way and it will last all day.

First thing you do: turn down the brightness on the screen. Turn it way down. Here's where mine is:

A bright screen will run down your battery like nothing else. So fight back by dimming things down.

Second thing you do: set the "Auto-Lock" to 1 minute. This means that your iPhone will shut off its screen automatically in one minute. Yes, it's an irritation, but it's a lot less irritating than running out of battery power.


Third thing you do: turn off WiFi when you know you won't be using it. Turn it back on when you get home or to the office or Starbucks or wherever it is that you use WiFi. (The internet stuff is MUCH faster with WiFi than with the 3G network, so remember to turn it on when it's available.)


Fourth thing you do: turn off Bluetooth unless you need it. (You need it if you have a Bluetooth headset.)


Fifth thing you do: get yourself a couple of extra chargers and get in the habit of plugging the iPhone in when you can. I have one in the car and another at my desk. If you need a link, here's one for a car charger that costs $2.84, and here's one for a USB cable that provides power from your Mac that costs only a penny. You'll get both, shipped, for less than ten bucks.

Four Tips for New iPad Owners

Are you new to the iPad? Here are some tips that will help you get more from this amazing device.

1. Get an Apple iPad dock.
   
   It will hold your iPad at the perfect angle for use as a digital picture frame (more on this later), or for viewing any kind of information that you'd like to see at a glance (such as your calendar, or a weather map, or a webcam, or whatever). There's a place in the back of the dock for connecting the charging cable that came with the iPad so while the iPad's in the dock it's also charging. In my experience, standing the iPad up in the dock makes a world of difference. It's neater and more useful to have it standing up and visible than to have it lying down flat and buried under papers etc., and you're more likely to use it if you can see it. It takes less room on the desk when it's docked as opposed to lying down flat, and always being charged is a big plus. The only downside is that the Apple iPad dock is not designed with a lot of wiggle room, so while you can use it with an iPad 2 or "the new iPad" you cannot use it if your iPad has any kind of case on it at all. Personally, I'd rather use the iPad without a case anyway. You can get Apple's iPad dock at the Apple Store for $29. Or, save $10 and get it from Amazon. Be sure to get a genuine Apple dock and not a knock-off. The knock-offs aren't nearly as good.
   
   
2. Get some pictures onto your iPad and use it as a digital picture frame.
   The iPad's screen is gorgeous, way better than most "real" digital picture frames. You already have the thing, so why not use it to show off your pictures? There are several ways to get pictures onto your iPad, including: use the camera, sync them from iPhoto on your Mac, save emailed photos (tap and hold on a photo in an email, then tap "Save Image"), open images in Dropbox (then tap the "Share" button and choose "Save Photo"). Use the Settings app to configure the Picture Frame, then put the iPad to sleep (or just wait for it to go dark). When you wake it up, don't swipe to unlock. Instead, tap the flower icon (see below). That starts the slide show. Stop by tapping anywhere on the screen. Of course this is a lot better if you have the Apple iPad Dock to stand the thing up in.
   
   
   
3. Learn a couple of semi-advanced techniques.
   Here's one: with the iPad awake, double-tap the Home button. The screen slides up, showing you the apps you've used most recently across the bottom. Swipe those apps from left to right, revealing the brightness slider. Adjust the brightness as desired then tap anywhere on the screen to make it slide back down. This saves you a trip to the Settings. (Bonus hint: keep the screen dimmed as much as you can and you'll save the battery. You'll also save your eyes. (If you're not dimming your iPad at night you're needlessly tiring out your eyes.)
   Here's another: the iPad rotates the image on the screen when you rotate the iPad itself... but it can't tell that you've spun the thing if it's flat on the table. If your iPad doesn't seem to rotate properly try tilting it up so it's more on-edge. It will rotate then. (If it still doesn't rotate, someone's turned off rotation. Look in the Settings, under General for "Use Side Switch to:" and if it is set to "Lock Rotation" just slide the side switch the other way and you'll be fine. If the setting says "Use Side Switch to: Mute" it means you have to look somewhere else for the rotation lock. Luckily, you already know how to do it: double-tap the Home button, swipe left to right, and at the very far left, just past the brightness slider, there will be a big button. If it has a picture of a lock on it, tap it to unlock it. There, that's that.
   
   
   
4. Get "iBooks" from the App Store (for free), and after that get the iPad Manual (it's also free).
   
   Here's a link to the iBooks app, and here's a link to the official Apple iPad Manual. You'll learn a lot if you read it, I promise, and it gives you a nice introduction to what the iBooks app is all about.

How to Type Accents (and other diacritical marks) on a Mac

Ever want to type something like that, but all you could get was "Ole"? Or maybe you want to type "¿Que pasa? but you can't find the upside-down question mark. Either way, this is the article for you. We'll have you typing all kinds of groovy accents and symbols and other neat stuff in no time.

You could memorize everything but that's no fun. Here's how you can learn for yourself where the special characters are.

1. Go to System Preferences and click on Keyboard.


2. Check the box that says "Show Keyboard & Character Viewer in menu bar."

Close up System Preferences and look in your menu bar for a new icon. It looks like this:

Enlarged, it looks like this:

3. Click the Keyboard & Character Viewer icon in the menu bar and choose "Show Keyboard Viewer." Now you see a representation of your keyboard. Here's mine.



Try holding down the shift key on your real keyboard. You should see something like this:


Of course this is nothing new. You already knew that you would get capital letters if you held down the Shift key. Notice, by the way, that when you press a key on the keyboard it changes what you see in the Keyboard viewer. Here, the shift key is down, so both shift keys on the screen are highlighted.

4. Now for the good stuff. Hold down the Option key. You'll see something like this:

Ignoring for the time being the orange keys, look at all of the other great stuff in there. Now you know how to type a perfect bullet: Option-8. You can type a cent sign (¢) with Option-4. You can type that upside-down question mark using Option-1. If you think about the Option key as being something like a shift key, you'd be on the right track. The keys do different things when you hold down Shift, and they do other different things when you hold down Option.

Turns out they do other other different things when you hold Option AND Shift at the same time. Here's a look:

If you've ever wanted to type an Apple logo, now you know: it's Option-Shift-K. And there's our upside-down question mark: Option-Shift-question mark.

Now, back to our orange keys. When you hold the Option key by itself it shows you those five orange keys. If you keep the option key down, and then type one of those keys, and then you let go, and then you type a vowel (usually) you will get a special character, along these lines:

à, è, ì, ò, ù

á, é, í, ó, ú

ä, ë, ï, ö, ü

â, ê, î, ô, û

That's going to come in handy someday. Especially if you need to properly type "résumé" (and you might-- there's a recession on you know). Or "Löwenbräu" (and you might-- there's a recession on, you know).

You might have noticed that I did not use the Option-n combination yet. That's because it doesn't work on the vowels. Instead, it works on the "n" itself. So, you type Option-n, then let go, then "n" again, and you get...

ñ

Perfect for typing "hasta mañana," a great way to end.

UPDATE: this is all very nice if you are using a Mac with OS X 10.6 or higher. If you are on 10.5, you'll find the controls for turning on the Keyboard Viewer and the Character Viewer under "International" in the System Preferences. If you are on 10.4, it's time to upgrade. Get to 10.5 if on a G5 machine, 10.6 otherwise.

Option Key tip #10: System Profiler

I have to admit, I thought I might not get to Option key Tip Number 10... but here it is!

I'll bet you've chosen "About This Mac" from the Apple menu-- it shows you a box something like this.

Processor, Memory, Startup Disk-- all interesting stuff to know.

The "More Info..." button launches the System Profiler application, an important trouble-shooting tool. But, if you hold the Option key, the first item in the Apple menu changes from "About This Mac" to "System Profiler," saving you a click. It doesn't sound like much but they all add up.

And that's 10.

Can't Add a Printer? Reset the Printing System

Many new printers from Epson, Canon and Hewlett-Packard come with instructions to NOT install the software that comes with them on CDs. Rather, the instructions say, get the software from Apple, and indeed that is excellent advice. Apple long ago tired of waiting for printer manufacturers to provide software compatible with each new version of OS X, so they started doing it themselves, and on the whole this has been a good thing for Mac users.

In general, the process is

1. Connect printer to Mac with USB cable (or wirelessly)
2. Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu, then click on "Print & Scan"
3. Click the "+" at bottom left of the Print & Scan Preference Pane
4. Let Apple deliver the software over the internet (totally automatically)

It almost always works. But sometimes it just won't. Usually the failure happens when getting the software from Apple: everything seems to be proceeding apace when all of a sudden, during the download, a message pops up saying something about the software not being available, and to "Please try again later." Try later all you want, but once you see that message it is NEVER going to work. Never, that is, unless you know what to do next.

The thing to do next is to "reset the printing system." That gives you a fresh start, and in my experience, resetting the printing system ALWAYS solves the problem, allowing the printer software to be downloaded successfully from Apple. I've never seen it not work.

The trouble is, resetting the printing system wipes out all of the printers in your Print & Scan Preference Pane. Here's what mine looked like before I Control-clicked in the printer list area (outlined in red here for you):

And here's what it looked like after. No printers. But, that's what "reset" means.


After you've reset printing (and wiped out all of your printers) you can click that little "+" (the one next to the "-", not the one in the middle of the screen) and add your printer, the one you couldn't add a few minutes ago. It's going to work this time. You can also go back and click the "+" to add your other printers. It's easier than it sounds and will take just a few minutes per printer. No one likes making extra work for himself but sometimes it's the only way, and like I said before, in my experience resetting the printing system always works. So, as a last resort, now you know what to do.

One Time Machine Mystery Solved

Every so often I solve a problem and the solution involves some luck. I had one of those the other day. In an attempt to save someone else from struggling with a similar problem I'm writing it down. Or writing it up. Whatever.

The problem involved Time Machine. The Mac was a brand-new MacBook Pro Retina and the Time Machine backup was set to use a Time Capsule for storage. The initial backup progressed a tiny bit (500 MB) but wouldn't go further. By the time I got there to trouble-shoot the estimated time for the initial backup was reported as 122 days.

Funny thing was, everything looked right. The Time Capsule disk was chosen in the Time Machine Preference Pane, there was plenty of room on the Time Capsule, and the connection to the Time Capsule, while wireless, was very strong. Restarting the Mac did not help and neither did restarting the Time Capsule. It was a real head-scratcher.

Out of the blue I had the idea of checking the contents of the Time Capsule. In the Backups.backupdb folder I found backups representing other Macs, but none representing the new Mac. That seemed odd: every backed-up machine should have a folder on the backup drive with its name on it, as shown below (for my Mac's backup).



And where does Time Machine get the name of the machine? From the Sharing Preference Pane, that's where. Here's what MY Mac's Sharing Preference Pane shows. You'll note that my Mac's backup folder has EXACTLY the same name as shown in the "Computer Name" section below (because Time Machine just reads the Computer Name and creates the backup folder to match).



When I looked at the Sharing Preference Pane on the MacBook Pro that wouldn't back up the Computer Name was completely blank. Completely! No one knew why it was blank, but blank it was. And as soon as I entered a Computer Name for the MacBook Pro the Time Machine backup got back to work. The time remaining went from 122 days to 8 hours to 7 hours to 6 hours in the space of twenty minutes. The owner reported a completed backup the next day and it's been backing up fine ever since.

The moral of the story is you have to have a Computer Name, in the Sharing Preference Pane, if you want Time Machine to work.

iPhone Photo of the Week

Here's a picture of bluebonnets, taken with my iPhone in Austin, Texas.


Here's a link to more photos of Texas wildflowers (taken with my other camera, an Olympus Camedia C-720).

Siri Tip: Add Item to a Reminder List

Apple's Reminders app for iOS is super handy. It is even handier when you use Siri to add items to the Reminders by voice. All it takes is the keyword "Add." So, Kate (this is for my sister Kate who recently joined the iPhone Club), you press and hold your iPhone's Home button, wait for Siri's microphone to pop up, and then say something like…

"Add Gatorade to my Groceries list"

and Siri does the rest.

Of course you have to actually have a Groceries list (which you make in Reminders by tapping "Create New List…"). It works with other things too, not just Groceries, and not just Gatorade. I want to make that clear. Just remember to start your request with the word "Add."

Anyhow, if you go into Reminders, make a few lists, and then let Siri do the rest you are going to be one organized person.

Most people write stuff down so they don't forget things. Totally wrong. The point of writing stuff down is to ALLOW you to forget, because knowing that these little things are written down somewhere means you can stop clogging up your mind trying to remember them, and therefore have brain capacity for doing other, bigger, things.

Naturally if you're an iCloud member, and you have an iPad, or a Mac with Mountain Lion (10.8), the reminders you make on your iPhone will show up on your iPad and/or Mac. That's pretty cool too.

VIDEO TIP: How to Add PDFs to Your iPad

Recently I hit upon the idea of gathering up as many of my PDF manuals as I could-- manuals for my printer, for software, for my camera, etc.-- and putting them onto my iPad for reading in the iBooks app. The way I do it is easier than what I'd seen described online, so I thought I'd document my method in video form so everyone can benefit.

You can see the three PDFs (Olympus camera manual, HP printer manual, and AppleScript Language Guide) on the top shelf of the iBooks bookcase. Watch for another blog entry here with all kinds of iBooks tips.

UPDATE: if your iTunes is set to "Sync Books" you should drag your PDFs to the LIBRARY in iTunes, at the top left of the iTunes window. If you try to drag to the iPad itself it won't work. You will also have to click the "Sync" button in iTunes when you are done dragging. If you're synching "All Books" that's all you do. If you are synching "Selected Books" you will have to check the box next to these newly-dragged books. Either way, it's not hard.

Billion Apps contest

Apple’s iPhone App Store is closing in on one BILLION downloads. From now until the billionth download, everyone who downloads anything from the App Store will be entered into a drawing for a gob of cool prizes ($10,000 iTunes gift card, iPod Touch, MacBook Pro, lunch with C. Boyce, etc.). Click here for the details.

iPhone OS 4 Coming Soon

Apple showed off its upcoming iPhone software update, the so-called iPhone OS 4. It really looks great but to most people, it won't "look" at all because it's mostly under the hood, which is how it ought to be. All you'll know is your iPhone (and iPad) will be easier and more fun to use.

There are plenty of things to like about this new version but the thing I'm looking forward to the most is Multi-tasking. Multi-tasking means that with iPhone OS 4 the iPhone can do more than one thing at a time. This lets you receive Skype phone calls on your iPhone even if you're doing something else. It lets you listen to Pandora radio while you do other things. It lets you use the very cool "Line2" voice-over-IP app even if you switch away from the Line2 app. (It also lets you move between apps very quickly. This will solve a problem for ME-- the one where I'm reading a book and want to adjust the brightness. It used to be hit the Home button, find the Settings, go to the Brightness, then back to the Home screen, then find the book app, then finally tap it. Yikes. Now it's going to be about three taps. About. Yay.

I'm also looking forward to organizing my apps in iPhone OS 4's new "folders."

You can watch Steve Jobs and Co. introduce iPhone OS 4 by clicking the link. You'll see multi-tasking, folders, and a whole lot more.

The iPhone OS 4 software will come to us this summer. Watch for it.

What to do about the Flashback trojan

Bad news and good news about Flashback.

First the bad news. There's this thing called Flashback and it will mess up your Mac big-time. You could get it simply by visiting an infected website. Flashback will inject code into your browser and the modification lets the bad guys collect information as you visit various websites. The information could include, for example, your online banking username and password. Ugh. You don't want this to happen.

Now the good news. Flashback is reasonably easy to detect, and reasonably easy to protect against. Let's start with detection. This AppleScript will let you know whether your machine shows signs of being infected by Flashback. Download it, expand it (if it doesn't expand automatically), and then double-click to run it. You can read the code here, then copy and paste it into Apple's Script Editor if you'd prefer to run it that way. Thanks to macstuff.beachdogs.org for the script.

(Flashback creates various files, some of them invisible, and the AppleScript automates the process of looking for them.)

If the script tells you that your Mac is Flashback-free, that's that-- except not quite. Now you have to stay clean. The easiest thing to do is to run Software Update (under the Apple menu) until it tells you you're up to date. That may take a few iterations. The reason this works is that the Flashback program takes advantages of security holes in early versions of Java. Apple has patched those holes and provides the patches via Software Update.

If the script tells you that it found malware you have to take action. Unfortunately it isn't easy. Here are directions but they're not for the meek. Get help if you aren't comfy with Terminal. You could easily make things worse if you make a wrong turn.

Now for some background on Flashback.

• The Flashback trojan has been around awhile. Its name comes from one of its early infection methods, which involved putting up a fake "Adobe Flash Updater" dialog box and fooling people into installing something bad. Flashback's creators have modified it several times; each variation is given a letter designation by those in the computer security business, with this most recent one being "Flashback.K."
• Technically, Flashback isn't a virus (it doesn't spread from machine to machine), and it isn't even technically a trojan horse (because you can get it just by "driving by" an infected website. Most people will call it a virus but you will know better. Previous versions were trojan horses but the latest version is not.
• There's some debate about whether there are really 600,000 Macs infected by Flashback.K. I've seen one instance of it. Most likely the sky is not falling but it is smart to carry an umbrella.
• Flashback will not install itself if it finds anti-virus software on the Mac because it wants to keep a low profile (good luck with that now). My personal favorite is Intego's VirusBarrier X6 as it is the least intrusive of all of them, and it comes from a company that is focused on Macs. You can download VirusBarrier X6 from Amazon for $49.95 (good for two Macs, and compatible with OS X 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7). Order the VirusBarrier 5-user Family Pack on disc from Amazon for about ten dollars more.

Bigger is Better: Mail

(Part II of a series)

So, we made Safari bigger. Now Mom wants her email bigger too. But, as before, we can’t simply choose a lower resolution in the Displays preference panel (Apple menu/System Preferences.../Displays), because doing it that way has the side effect of making a flat-panel Mac’s screen a little blurry.

Mom uses Apple’s Mail program. Fortunately, Mail allows us to set the size of a lot of things. We can change the size of the Mailbox font. We can change the size of the Message List font. We can change the size of the Message Text (sometimes). Here’s how we do it.

1. Get Mail running.
2. Go to the Mail menu and choose Peferences...
3. Click on the Fonts & Colors button at the top.

From here, it’s pretty much click-and-experiment time. You will get the most mileage out of the first three sections (Mailbox font, Message List font, and Message font). Here’s what my Mail program looked like before I started changing things...


Here are the settings that went along with it.

I changed the settings (by clicking the various “Select...” buttons) as shown below...

...and now my Mail program looks like this:


A couple of notes: first, you’ll notice that clicking the “Select...” buttons leads you to a panel with font sizes like 12, 14, and 18. If 14 is too small, and 18 is too big, you’re stuck... or are you? No, you’re not. Type in any size you want up at the top right, as I did to get 16 point for my Message List font.


Second, no matter which size you specify for the Message font, plenty of messages will stubbornly resist the change. Try all you want and the messages stay as they were. (Messages that are pure text will enlarge as directed, but most will not.) Solving that problem takes another couple of steps, but they’re worth it.

1. Choose “Customize Toolbar...” from Mail’s View menu.
2. Find the “Smaller Bigger” buttons and drag them to the toolbar.


3. Close up the Customize Toolbar window and give your new buttons a try.

If you tend to double-click messages so they open in their own windows, you’ll have to drag the buttons to a message window too. Just get a message open, go to View/Customize Toolbar, and drag the buttons up.

Here’s what a message looks like in the regular size:

Here’s what it looks like after a couple of clicks of the “Bigger” button (top right of the message window, right where I dragged it):


Try these adjustments for yourself. They make a world of difference. As always, if you’re stuck, send me a note and I’ll help you out.

Macworld/iWorld 2014 Wrap-Up

I'm back from Macworld/iWorld, having spent three days searching for the newest and grooviest Mac, iPhone, and iPad stuff. Although Apple remained a no-show, I am happy to say that Macworld/iWorld appears to have found its post-Apple stride. The crowds were fairly large, the exhibition floor was full of interesting stuff, and almost everyone was enthusiastic and happy to be there. Here's what I found particularly noteworthy.

Note: if you'd like to listen to my Macworld/iWorld report with Doran Barons and Ric Allen on the Digital Village radio program, here's the link to that.


Perfect 365, an iPhone/iPad app, can improve anyone's portrait. Take the picture, let Perfect365 figure out where the eyes, nose, and mouth are, and then start making things better. One tap takes away circles under your eyes, smooths your skin, whitens your teeth, slims your face-- in short, it makes your picture look like the person you know you are, not the person your lying mirror says you are. Check out the Before-and-After below (and click the picture to see a larger version). It's really rather amazing. And yes, this was done on an iPhone, with ONE tap.



Perfect365, free (with in-app purchases)

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Refurb.Me is a website that helps you purchase in-demand refurbished items from Apple's store. Yes, you could go to Apple's website to see if the item you want is available or not, but RefurbMe.com will do it for you-- for free. You set the criteria-- which items, which options, which price-- and Refurb.Me watches Apple's site for you, and sends you notifications when your items come up. Visit Refurb.Me, watch their introductory video, and learn all about it. I know I'll be using Refurb.Me next time I'm looking to buy a refurbished machine from Apple and I think you should do it too. (Refurb.Me gets paid by Apple for referring customers to Apple's online refurbished items store-- that's how it works. Thus, there's no charge to you for this service.)

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Speaking of websites, EverWeb (formerly EasyWeb) makes creating and publishing a website easy as pie. For $99.95 you get the EverWeb software and a year of web hosting. If you've arranged hosting with someone else you can buy the software for $79.95 and use it with them. EverWeb's software reminds me of Apple's now-defunct iWeb, only better, which means it's easy and fun to use (and comes with lots of templates so you don't have to start from scratch). If you've wanted to make a website but were overwhelmed by choosing software and a web host, EverWeb is for you. One-stop shopping.

(If you're thinking that "easy-to-use" means that EverWeb can't make a fancy site, think again! EverWeb lets you add a bunch of nifty features to your sites, including:

• Menus
• Google Maps
• Image Sliders
• YouTube videos
• Facebook "Like" buttons

and a lot more.) Download the software and give it a try-- for free.

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Diving Into iOS 7, by Kevin J. McNeish, is Book 1 of the iOS App Development for Non-Programmers series. It's really, really good. In fact, it's so good that I've ordered Book 2 and Book 3.

Book 1 teaches you everything you need to know in order to use Apple's Xcode to make a prototype of an iPhone app. (I've been trying to learn iPhone app programming for a long time, taking online classes from Stanford that were way over my head, and reading books that assumed I already knew a lot about programming using Xcode, and the results were a big fat nothing. Two days into McNeish's book has given me a giant boost of confidence, teaching me how to make a working prototype of an iPhone app the very first day.)

If you've ever thought "I'd like to make an iPhone app, but it looks kinda hard" this is the book (and series) for you. Even if you end up hiring someone else to do the actual programming you'll have a greater understanding of how it all works after reading this book. Book 1 is $16.99 (list) for the paperback, with Books 2 and 3 listing for $24.99 and $29.99 respectively. Kindle versions are available for about $5 less than the paperback versions. Here's the link to Amazon, which discounts the books by about 10%.

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Other interesting things, which might have gotten top billing here had they been available at the show instead of "real soon now":

The PetCube is a webcam, microphone, speaker, and laser pointer, all in a little cube. Put it in your house and play with your pet over the internet, using your iPhone. $199.

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FLIR One is an infrared camera attachment for the iPhone. Wondering where your house is short on insulation? Want to see wildlife (or bad guys) in the dark? Want to be like the CSI people, locating fluid stains that can't be seen by eye? A thermal camera's the thing for you, but until now they've been too expensive for most of us. Not anymore. FLIR is making a thermal camera that connects to the iPhone and they're going to sell it for $349.

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Lumo Lift is a small wearable device that reminds you to stand up straight by gently vibrating when you slouch. An iPhone app tracks your slouchiness. It also tracks how many steps you take and how many calories you burn. The app keeps track of your slouching whether you have the Lumo Lift set to vibrate or not. In a way, you're paying $99 to be nagged.

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Next year's Macworld/iWorld is scheduled for March 12th, 13th, and 14th. If you plan ahead you can get in for free, and it's a great excuse for spending a couple of days in San Francisco. Think about going. It really is fun.

Written by +Christian Boyce

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