The iMom Project, Day Six

Ten tips in ten days. Day Six.

One of the things that we've grown used to on the Mac is Undo. Make a mistake, and if you catch it soon enough you can go to the Edit menu and choose Undo. Super powerful, and super handy. I use it all the time. Turns out the iPhone has Undo too, but you have to know how to do it. Or undo it. Whatever.

First let's look at some scenarios where you'd want to use Undo. Maybe you've been writing an email on your iPhone, and somehow you select a bunch of text, like so:


And then, with all that text selected, you start typing again, or maybe just accidentally touch a key on the iPhone keyboard, and all of a sudden all of that text that was selected is gone. It happens. Oops.


Or, maybe you typed something, backspaced over it on purpose, and then changed your mind again and decided you wanted it back after all. Each of these scenarios screams for an "Undo." So now we're going to learn how.

Remember the Etch-a-Sketch? Remember how you erased it by shaking it? Of course you do. If you think of it as "undoing" your Etch-a-Sketch picture (instead of erasing it) you will know how to "undo" on the iPhone. That's right: when you want to Undo something on the iPhone, you shake it.

Give it a whirl. Type something into an email (or anywhere else that you enter text on the iPhone). Now shake the iPhone (side to side). A little message pops up, with a button that lets you "Undo Typing." Looks like this:


Touch the Undo Typing button, and of course you are back to where you started... but if you shake the iPhone again, you get another little message, and this time there's a "Redo Typing" button. (There's still an Undo Typing button, which would "Undo" your typing even further.) Looks like this:



You can tell from the times on these screen shots that I took a long time to think about whether I wanted to undo or redo, but that's OK. You can take as long as you like.

This "Shake to Undo" method works on the iPads also but you really have to move it to make it happen. I recommend that those who want to use "Shake to Undo" on an iPad hold on with both hands because if you don't have a good grip you will fling the iPad across the room.

That wraps up Day Six of the iMom Project. Hoping you learned something.

Bonus: music to shake your iPhone to.

The iMom Project, Day Five

Ten tips in ten days. Day Five.


Let's talk about the Calculator app. I am sure that you have tried it already, and you are probably thinking it's a little simplistic for a Math major like yourself. Which it is. But, sometimes you just need to do a little quick addition or division or whatever. And the Calculator is great for that.

But wait, there's more.

Suppose you enter something into the Calculator and you make a mistake. Maybe you're trying to enter 727.62 and you get everything right except for the last character. Do you then touch the "Clear" button (marked with a C) and start over? Well, you could. But you don't have to! All you have to do is swipe your finger across the number display and the last digit is erased. Swipe it again and another digit's erased. Erase as much as you need to, then type in the proper digits. See below.

First, the original boo-boo...


Then, we swipe from left to right, in the Calculator's display (or, as it turns out, from right to left in the Calculator's display-- doesn't matter) and we get this:


Finally, we touch the proper digit-- the "2"-- and we are done. This saved us a little bit of tippy-tapping-- all we did was one swipe, and then the 2. That's less work than touching the Clear button and then typing in 727.62 again, which we could easily mis-type again anyway.


Here's another neat thing. The "Clear" button clears only the last number entered, so if you are in the middle of a calculation and you make a mistake you don't have to start over. For example, if you want to figure out the sales tax on an item that costs $19.37, and you type in the 19.37 and touch the X and then you type 0.875 instead of 0.0875, you can touch the "C" and clear just the 0.875. Then you can type in the right number and hit Equals and you're done. (You will notice, after you touch the C button, that it changes to "AC"-- for "All Clear." That can be handy too.)

Of course there is still more.

If you rotate the iPhone you get a much more sophisticated and capable calculator. Have a look at this beauty:


Plenty of options, and all for free. Note: you can rotate the iPhone in the middle of a calculation and it won't miss a beat. (One reason to use the rotated one, even if you don't need the functions, is the rotated Calculator can show 16 digits while the "normal" one shows 9.)

Want more? Good, there IS more. Suppose you use the Calculator and you get some big ol' number as the result, and now you want to put that number into an email. Do you jot the number down, and then switch to the Mail app and then type it in there, giving you two chances to make a simple transcription mistake? No you do not! You touch the Calculator's result with your finger, hold it down until it turns blue (the result, not your finger), then let go and tap "Copy." Now you can go to the Mail app and paste. This way, you can't write it down wrong, and you can't type it in wrong. Way to go, Apple.

One more hint: turn up the volume when you're using the Calculator so you can hear when you've pressed a key. The sound is good feedback.

OK, that's it. Made it with two hours to spare. Halfway through The Project.

The iMom Project, Day Four

Ten tips in ten days. Day Four.

Today's tip: use the "search" screen. It looks like this:


Once you get to this screen (I will tell you how in a minute), you can search for just about anything on your iPhone (or iPad). Here's a partial list:

• Apps
• People
• Notes
• Emails
• Calendar events

I say "partial list" because you can also search, right from this screen, the web (using Google), or the famous Wikipedia. But that stuff's not actually "on" your phone, and the list was about stuff on your phone, so we have to make that distinction.

Let's talk about how to get to this screen. There are two ways that I know of:

1. You can, from any of the home screens, swipe from left to right until you get there, or...
2. You can, from any home screen, press the Home button (which takes you to the first home screen), and then press the Home button again. If you're already at the first home screen when you press "Home" so much the better.

Note: do not press the Home button multiple times quickly. Press it once, see what happens, and then (if necessary) press it again.

So... let's say you want to call me on your fancy new iPhone. Yes, you could go to Contacts, and then you could search for me, and then you could touch my phone number to call me. But, now that you know how to search the whole iPhone, you can press the Home button a time or two to get there, type in a few letters, and voila, there I am. You save yourself the trouble of going to the Contacts, and the result is just as good. See below.


Just touch my name, which brings up all of my numbers, and touch the one you want to call. By the way, I got rid of the old 310-927-3711 phone number so you can take that out of your address book. There are enough ways to contact me without having a second cell phone.

Notice, when you find stuff this way, that you don't have to specify WHERE you want to look. The search automatically in all of the places listed above, all at once. That's cool. Also, you don't even have to touch the blue Search button. The iPhone will search as soon as you stop typing. Everything should be so easy.

So that's it. Play around with this. I think you will be surprised at how handy it is. You might even find things that you didn't know were there!

The iMom Project, Day Three

Here we go. Day Three.


The iPhone clock app. So simple. Yet, so fabulous. I use the clock every day and so should you. Here are some ideas for you:

1. Use it as an alarm clock. It's way way WAY better than the alarm clock you use now, because with this one you can set multiple alarms! Set an alarm for 7 AM on weekdays and for 9 AM on weekends. Set an alarm to remind you that your favorite TV show will soon be on. Set an alarm to remind yourself to go to bed!
2. Use it as a timer. It's way way WAY better than the timer you use now, because the one in the kitchen is attached to the oven and if you're out in the yard you won't hear it go off. Set a timer for two minutes so you don't forget to stir the coffee. Set a timer for 12 minutes so you don't forget to take the biscuits out of the oven. Set a timer for 60 minutes so you don't run out of time on the parking meter.

The clock app actually has four functions, not just two, but I never use the stopwatch and I only used the World Clock a couple of times-- I don't need to know what time it is in Paris on a daily basis. But who cares about what I don't use. It's the stuff that I DO use that is so neat. Anyway, get familiar with the iPhone's Clock app, and you'll find yourself using it all the time.

Here's a picture of my iPhone, with various alarms set for various days.


And here's a picture of the timer, ready for the biscuits.


That's it. Check back tomorrow.

iPhone Software Update (iOS 4)

Somewhat overlooked in last week's iPhone 4 pandemonium is the updated operating system for iPhones called "iOS 4". It's available as a free download for existing iPhone and iPod Touch users. (Sorry, it is not available yet for the iPad.) I put it onto my iPhone 3GS and it's working fine.

Here's what you'll get when you install iOS 4 onto your existing iPhone: (note: iPhone 4 owners can skip this-- the iPhone 4 comes with iOS pre-installed.)

• Multitasking: in effect, it lets you suspend an app, and come back to it later, just as you left it-- saving you the time it takes to launch it and get to where you were.
• Folders: you can group apps into folders now. Each folder can hold 12 items. I have two and a half pages of folders, grouped just the way I like them (Navigation, Utilities, Reference, Shopping, Sports, etc.)
• Improved Mail: you can see all of your Inboxes at once.
• Digital Zoom for the camera: like the one in Gorillacam, but now built-in.
• iBooks: you can now buy books from Apple's store, and read them on your iPhone or on your iPad. Note: free Winnie the Pooh book is included and the books have the same groovy page-turning animations as on the iPad.

It took about an hour for me to do the update on my iPhone 3GS and I would expect it to take about the same for you. If you have an original iPhone (aluminum back), you're out of luck-- it won't install at all, so don't try. If you have a 3GS it's a no-brainer-- go get it, it's free.

Here's a link to Apple's site where you can learn more about the iOS 4. Here's a link showing how to install it.

The iMom Project, Day Two

Ten tips in ten days. Day 2.

When taking a picture with the iPhone, remember that the picture is taken when you take your finger off of the button, not when you touch it. So, get the camera app going, compose your picture, put your finger on the button and keep it there waiting for that perfect moment... and then, very gently, take your finger away. You will get better pictures this way (stabbing at the button to capture the picture at just the right time results in a jarred iPhone, and a blurry picture).

Bonus: remember that that the camera "button" is on the screen-- it's NOT the home button. See below.

The iMom Project

I set Mom up with an iPhone 3GS this week, and she's getting the hang of it. I thought I'd speed up the learning process by teaching her a tiny bit about the iPhone every day. My plan is ten tips in ten days. Figuring that a lot of other people are new to the iPhone too I thought I'd put the tips here on the blog so everyone else can benefit. That means you, Debbie, and also you, Christi.

So here we go with Tip Number One.

Know How to Zoom In and Zoom Out
There's a shortcut for zooming in (and out) and people usually "discover" it by mistake. The feature is not necessarily turned on, but if it is, a three-fingered double-tap on the iPhone screen will zoom you way in.

Here's what a home screen looks like normally...


Here's what it looks like after a three-finger double-tap:

That's a 500% zoom, by the way.

I've received calls from people who have accidentally triggered a zoom with the three-finger double-tap. They think that something was wrong with their phones. It can be pretty mysterious the first time, that is for sure, but all you have to do to get out of it is do the three-finger double-tap again. Easy.

You can zoom any screen, any time. Works everywhere. If you want to scroll around when you're zoomed in, use three fingers to drag the screen around.

If you find yourself accidentally zooming in and you want to turn the feature off, do it like this:

Tap the Settings app, then General, then Accessibility, then Zoom. Turn it off using the switch next to the word "Zoom." Of course, if it's off and you want it on, you can switch it ON, and try it right there. No need to "save" or logout or reboot or anything. You can always come back and change this setting later. I leave mine set to "On" because zooming in comes in handy every so often.

OK, that's it for Tip Number One. Give it a whirl.

Welcome to the party, Mom.

Barcode Scanner app for iPhone

I just learned of an iPhone app called “Snappr.” It’s amazing.

Click here to get the free Snappr app. Launch it, then “scan” a barcode by taking a picture of it using your iPhone’s camera. The picture is sent to Snappr’s servers, where the code is actually read. In a few seconds they tell you how much that thing would cost at Amazon.com, Yahoo.com, and a few others. That way, before you buy that big flat-screen TV as a present for your older brother’s 47th birthday this coming July so he can watch college football games while typing his fingers off in an effort to make the world a better place for Mac and iPhone users everywhere, you-- Brother Spencer-- could check that you were getting a good deal.

I will demonstrate with a box of Rice-a-Roni, recently purchased at my local grocery store. Let’s find out whether I got a good deal.

Here’s the bar code (as seen in the Snappr app after I took the picture)...


And here’s how much it would cost at “Meijer,” wherever that is.

I don’t want 12 boxes but it’s nice to know that it would cost $14.71 for the dozen. I only paid 99 cents for my box so I’m feeling pretty good.

Let’s try something a little different: a CD.

Here’s the bar code (a little blurry)...


And here’s what comes back from Snappr.

Pretty neat. Of course, I already bought it, but suppose I was in the store looking at CDs and was only thinking about buying it. Armed with the price info from Amazon & Yahoo I would know whether I should buy it at the store or not.

Pretty cool stuff.

Snappr says that you have to have a special macro lens on your iPhone to take the bar code pictures properly, but I say you don’t. I took those bar code pictures with my stock iPhone 3G S and everything turned out fine. If you DO want a macro lens, get this case for your iPhone (from Griffin), as it has a little slide-out lens and it does make a difference. You can always try taking a picture of a bar code without the macro lens-- it’s a free app, so it costs nothing to try. (The iPhone 3G S’ camera is Apple’s best camera yet, so maybe the Snappr people just need to update their website.)

Read more about Snappr here. I say check it out.

iPhone 3.0 software-- go get it

If you buy a new iPhone you get the latest iPhone system software (iPhone OS 3.0) and thatt lets you some pretty cool things:

1. Cut, copy, and paste
2. Landscape keyboard for email, text messages, etc.
3. Spotlight search of email, address book, etc.
4. Voice memos

... and lots more. The neat thing is, you can put the new iPhone software on an older iPhone-- for free. It’s fine with me if you quit reading right now and go do it.

In case you need instructions:
1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac with the USB cable.
2. Sync your iPhone (this creates a fresh backup).
3. Click the “Check for Updates” button in iTunes and get the 3.0 software
4. Download the update and let Apple (and time) do the rest.

Click here to see a list of the new features in iPhone OS 3.0 and to find out which of the features will work on your phone.

Speed Up Your Mac (#1)

Everyone wants a faster Mac. It's a lot easier-- and cheaper-- to make yourself faster at using the Mac you have. Here's a great way to do it. First in a series.

Ever seen one of these? It's a Print dialog box with a couple of pop-up menus. If you want to make changes to the print settings you have to click the little up-down arrows in the blue area.

The problem with those little up-down arrows is they're LITTLE. So you have to be rather precise with the mouse, and that takes time, and it's the same with every pop-up menu, in every program, all day long. Except it's not.

Turns out that you can click ANYWHERE on the pop-up menu. Anywhere! Here's a picture showing you (in blue) where you can click-- that's a much bigger target, and much easier to hit. Knowing this, you don't have to be so precise anymore, and that'll save you time.


Here are some more examples. Which would you rather click on-- the big area in blue, or the tiny area in red? Go for the blue. Make it easy on yourself.

Here's the Appearance preference pane.

Here's a slight variation: an iCal event entry panel. Still, it works the same way. Click in the blue area.

So there you have it. With a larger target it's easier to put the mouse in the right place. Assuming you save two seconds per menu, and also assuming you deal with 37.4 pop-up menus per day (a number I just made up-- I mean, the national average), you'll save more than 5 hours in a year using this "aim for the larger target" method. That would let you spend more time ordering stuff through my Amazon link or baking cookies for sending to your favorite Mac guy.

By the way, this is my 200th post to this blog. How about that.

iPhone 3G S-- it's great!

I bought a new iPhone last week-- the 3G S, 16 gigabytes of storage, in vivid black. It looks just like the 3G it replaces but has a few new doodads inside. And it has “S,” which stands for “Speed.”

Here are some pictures.


Here’s a list of the things I like about my new iPhone 3G S.

• It was easy to order from Apple’s website.
• It was “only” $199 (my original iPhone was $599-- yikes).
• It arrived on time, on Friday 6-19-2009, thanks to Fed Ex (no charge from Apple).
• It is MUCH faster than my original iPhone-- at everything.
• The camera can take still photos or video. Video can go straight to YouTube if you’d like.
• The camera has an autofocus but you can tap the screen to show what you’d prefer to focus on.
• There’s a compass inside so when you look at a map it can orient itself to the direction you’re facing.

All of the things I liked in the original iPhone are here in the 3G S: easy to use, elegant interface, great selection of applications.

The only things I don’t like about the new iPhone have to do with AT&T. First, the phone wouldn’t activate, and that was because AT&T had no idea I had this new phone-- even though I had to pass through AT&T’s website to check my eligibility for the new iPhone’s subsidized pricing on the way to buying it. It took me a day to figure out what was going on, but after a couple tries with AT&T’s hilariously uninformed “customer service” squad (“You can’t activate the iPhone without going to either an Apple store or an AT&T store” (wrong). “You don’t have an iPhone 3G S” (wrong). “The internet is like a big highway, and activation of so many phones at once is like running out of gas on the way to your mother’s on 4th of July weekend” (huh? Actually, I made that one up)).

The second thing I don’t like about the new iPhone 3G S is it costs me $10 more per month to get the same kinds of stuff as my original iPhone: 450 anytime minutes, unlimited data plan, unlimited text messaging. It’s faster at the data stuff so I am not bothered all that much. Still, $100 per month sort of adds up.

Hats off to AT&T customer service guy “Justin” who listened to my story, verified that his company didn’t know about my new iPhone, entered my new phone’s SIM card number and iPhone serial number into their computers, AND made sure that my voice mail worked. All without once hanging up on me. More like that, please. Boo and hiss to every other AT&T comedian, I mean “customer service representative,” who either didn’t know anything about the iPhone, or anything about anything. There were four of those. Double boo and double hiss to AT&T’s automated customer service phone system that makes you enter your phone number, then “touch or say 1 for service,” then “touch or say 7 for iPhone support,” then “touch or say 0 to speak with an operator,” then-- after you get through all that they say “Sorry, we’re closed. Call back during regular business hours.” That’s nice.

iCal calendar for World Cup matches

In the "better late than never" category, here's a calendar for your iCal with the time and date of every World Cup match.

Click here to get the calendar.

All you do is click on it. iCal will add it automatically. I would set it to refresh once per day-- not so important now, but when we get to the knockout round it will be nice to have the country names rather than "1st place Group C vs. 2nd Place Group D." You can turn it off with a simple uncheck-of-the-box later, or even delete it. So you're not stuck with this calendar for life.

Search Google Images by COLOR

I know, everyone knows how to use Google... but not everyone knows how to use Google IMAGES to search by COLOR. They will if they read this blog entry.

Suppose you go to Google and you search for something. Here, I've searched for Yoda. I want pictures, so I'll click either of the three red-circled "Images" links.

The result of course is a page full of Yoda images.

Of course you can use the options in the left-hand column to choose an image size (use "Medium" or "Large" if you intend to print the image). But... how about those color options? Who would have guessed that you can find images of Yoda that match a color scheme?

Here's what you get when you click the green square.

Of course, Yoda is green. So you don't see a major effect here. However, look what you get with blue, and black, and purple. Very interesting, and just what you need to match your bag and shoes!



Of course it works with other searches, not just for Yoda. Here are some examples of color-filtered Texas wildflowers. First, the non-filtered search...


Then red (it shows right there on the screen)...


Then yellow...


Then pink...


Then blue. Neat.

I think it's rather amazing. I don't know when they added this feature, but as always, as soon as I noticed I wrote it up here.

The Daily Tip: Automate ebay Searches with SearchDome

Automate ebay Searches with SearchDome

ebay is great, but if the thing you're looking for isn't available the first time you search for it you're going to have to come back and search for it again. That's a bit of trouble, and half the time you forget to do it anyway. So you either put up with searching ebay for your item day after day, or you simply don't find it ever (because you eventually forget to look, or it becomes too much trouble).

All of the difficulties go away if you use a marvelous automated ebay search site called SearchDome.com. It's free, though you can pay and get a little more. But the free service is terrific and I use it all the time. Basically you tell it what you're looking for (by searching ebay once), and then SearchDome remembers your search and performs your search on a recurring basis. The results are emailed to you as soon as they've done the search. If you're not in a hurry to purchase something, and you're willing to wait for the perfect item to appear, SearchDome is just the ticket. Here's how it works.

First, go to www.searchdome.com and create an account. Start by clicking the "Join SearchDome" button.

They're going to ask for an email address and a password. Go ahead and fill in the boxes but please please please, do NOT use your actual email password for your SearchDome password! Make up something else. Using the same password means that if someone discovers your SearchDome password he will also have discovered your real email password. And that's bad. So make up something else. You won't have to type it in very often anyhow.

After you fill in the boxes, check the "I agree" box, and then click Join, SearchDome will send an email to you to verify that your email works and that you can tell them that you really do want an account. When you get the email, which should arrive within 10 minutes, click the link in it and you'll be ready to log into the SearchDome service.

So now login. The button's at top right. You'll see something like this when you're done:

From here it's a matter for following the directions they provide. (Try to overlook the mis-used "your" in step 2.) Here's how I set up a recurring search, trying to find a certain kind of cowboy boot that Tony Lama used to make. I started by clicking the "Search eBay" button at the top left. Then I set up my search the same way I'd do it on ebay itself. (In case you didn't know, Tony Lama has a number for every style of cowboy boot, so instead of searching for "two-tone black boots, leather uppers, embroidered, with goat leather vamps" you just say "Tony Lama 6250." Easy. Of course you have to know the numbers. Hint: they print them on the inside of the boots.)

You can leave a lot of the search form blank, as I did, which of course means you'll get more matches. The "Listing Types" is especially important so pay attention there. I probably should have checked "eBay Stores" too but didn't. Also, maybe I should have told it to search "Titles and Descriptions" instead of "Just Item Titles." Luckily this is changeable later.

Now you click "Run Search" and see what comes up. See below.

If it looks as if the search is worth saving, which in this example it is, scroll back up and click the Save Search button. You'll get the chance to specify the frequency of the search, and if it's daily or even more infrequently you'll also get to specify the time of the search. Note also that you can set an HOURLY search (still for free), which is great for "Buy it Now" listings where time is of the essence. Note: if you've skipped the "Login" step you will not be able to save your search. So login.

Want to make another search? Go right ahead. It can be similar to the first one or completely different. SearchDome does set a limit on the number of free searches you can have at any one time, and though they do not specify the number I can tell you it's at least 16 (because that's how many items I'm searching for with SearchDome).

Now just sit back and let SearchDome do the work. You'll receive emails from them with your search results, on the schedule you specified. You WON'T receive any other emails from them and you won't receive any SearchDome-connected emails from third parties either. SearchDome does not give out your email address.

Here's an example of the kind of email SearchDome delivers. You can quickly scan through the matches to see if any of the items are interesting, and if they are, the link is right there in the email for you to click. SearchDome's automated searches save me a lot of time and they also keeps me in cowboy boots because without SearchDome I would not have the time to track these beauties down.

It's easy to edit a search, it's easy to suspend a search (what a great idea-- they don't make you delete it, they just put it on ice), and if you want some extra options they are there in the Power Search tab at the top of the SearchDome webpage. Explore a little and you'll see.

I really like SearchDome. It's made ebay a lot more usable for me and I think it will also for you. It will also work for your friends so click that Share button at the bottom of this article.