Hardware and Software Money-Savers

Amazon has Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student Editionat $89.99, almost $60 off of the list price (The Apple Store sells it for $98). This is an especially good deal because you get three installation serial numbers in the package, meaning your $89.99 covers three machines. Microsoft Office is a little on the clumsy side but if you're getting documents in Word and Excel formats you'll be glad that you have Office installed.


Another good deal: Apple Airport Expressfor $94.95 (Apple's price: $99). Use this to extend your wireless network, and/or to play your iTunes music from your Mac through your home stereo-- wirelessly.


And another: iWork '09 Family Pack for $80.49. This is the 5-installation Family Pack, at only $1.49 over the single-user version at Apple. Apple charges $99 for the 5-user pack. Amazon sells the iWork '09 single userpackage for $72.99, if that's the one you need.

All in all, it pays to check Amazon's prices. Use the Amazon box at the left-hand side of this page to do your search, and simultaneously support the Blog.

More Siri Tips

I've discovered some interesting Siri features that I didn't find in the manual, which isn't surprising since there isn't a Siri manual. In no particular order, here are the tips:

1. "Set a timer for 20 minutes." Everyone knows how to do that. But, after a bit, the timer is off the screen, as you switch to some other app or the iPhone goes to sleep. The cool thing is that you can say "Show me the timer" and it comes back to the front. Very cool. I am using that today as I cook my pumpkin pies.
2. "Play some music." Everyone knows how to do this too. The cool thing is that you can say "Stop the music" and it will stop. Nice.
3. "Make an appointment." Everyone knows how to do this too. Siri will ask "When is your appointment?" and you can tell it "4 PM tomorrow" or whatever you like. If you do it this way, Siri will make an appointment that has the title "Appointment." The cool things is you can change the title later. So, when Siri says "Here is your appointment, are you ready to confirm it?" you can say "yes"... and Siri will show it to you. Then, tell Siri "Change the title of the appointment" to anything you'd like. In fact, you can just say "Change the title to blah blah blah" and it will work. Siri knows what you're talking about because the appointment is still on her mind, so to speak.
4. Still talking about appointments, how cool is this: you can say "Make a haircut appointment for 4 PM tomorrow" and it's done in one shot. Very cool. Especially if you want a haircut.
5. Suppose you want to talk to your friend Dave Fournier, on the phone, and you want Siri to set that up. But, suppose also that you have Dave in your address book as "David." Doesn't matter: when you say "Call Dave Fournier" Siri knows out that "Dave" is short for "David" and she makes the call. Same thing with Tom and Thomas. And Chris and Christian, though I never call myself on the phone.
6. In some cases, when talking to Siri, you can interchange "office" and "work", and "house" and "home", and "cell" and "mobile", but not always, and especially not tonight with Siri seemingly overloaded. There are many inconsistencies in Siri, so what works when you're asking for a phone number might not work when you're asking for an address, and this may be one of the reasons Siri is still a "beta" feature. Expect this to improve and become more consistent in the future.

(Yes I am surprised that Apple put Siri out before it was fully ready. Very non-Apple-like.)

By the way, I would not be surprised to see Siri show up on Macs and iPads someday soon. Makes perfect sense.

More tips as I find them.

UPDATE: I found them. Here's a terrific list of Siri commands, from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW). Well done, TUAW.

UPDATE #2: Here's Apple's Frequently Asked Questions for Siri. Good stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving

We'll be back next week. Meanwhile, enjoy the turkey and pumpkin pie, and check out our older posts. Answer our poll question too, if you have the time.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. I'll spend my Thanksgiving cooking a turkey in the Primo Kamado cooker on the balcony, doing a little online shopping, and keeping an eye on the key football games. Here is how I do it. You can do it too.

Cooking a turkey in the Primo Kamado
A Primo Kamado is a ceramic cooker, something like a Big Green Egg. I've cooked a lot of turkeys on my Primo over the years and they have all been delicious. Turns out that the preparation and cooking are much more important than the spices. There are probably fifty ways to cook a turkey on a barbeque but here's the one way I do it every single time.

Get your cooker going with plenty of fuel. Your turkey will cook for about three hours, maybe a little longer. Set it up for about 300 degrees F. You don't want flames to touch your turkey so put a pan down on a lower rack to block the flames or just put the coals on one side of your cooker and the turkey on the other. I have an old cookie sheet (a round one) that I put on the lower rack and it catches the drippings and blocks the flames.

1. Start with a nice fresh turkey. Frozen is OK but if a fresh one is available, get one. I usually pick one that's in the 12 to 15 pound range. If you go too big you won't be able to fit it on the cooker. I've cooked brined turkeys, Butterball turkeys, plain fresh turkeys, and probably some other kinds that I don't remember and they all came out great.
2. Take out the neck and giblets and do whatever you want with them. That's up to you.
3. Cut the backbone out, using heavy kitchen scissors or poultry shears. Some people call this "butterflying," some people call this "splaying," some people call it "spatchcocking." Watch this video, and call it anything you want. The video shows how to do it to a chicken but it's exactly the same on a turkey, only harder. You will need some strength. Watch your fingers. The reason you do this is it cuts your cooking time almost in half.
4. Cut off any extra fat and rinse the turkey off. Pat it dry with paper towels. You will need more paper towels than you thought.

Like I said, the preparation and cooking are more important than the spicing. I've made great turkeys using Dizzy Dust, Grub Rub, Texas BBQ Rub, and Bob Tallman's Ranch Rub. These are all fairly heavy on the brown sugar. You'll need a good bit, maybe half a bottle. You're going to apply rub inside and out, and under the skin, so plan accordingly. Pour a bunch of rub into a coffee cup or some other smallish container and put a spoon in it now because your hands are going to be all slippery pretty soon and you don't want to make a mess of your cupboards if you can help it. While you're at it set out another coffee cup and put an inch or two of olive oil in there. You'll need a brush to apply the oil later so you may as well get that out now.

First, run your fingers under the skin on the breast meat to loosen up the skin as much as possible. If you are careful you can get the skin completely loose from the breast. Get a spoonful of rub and put it onto the breast, under the skin. Do it again on the other side and pat it down with your fingers. You will almost always wish you used a little more rub so this is the time to do it right. Put some more in there.

Next, do the same thing with the thighs. The skin comes loose very nicely and you can dump a good bit of rub onto the thighs, under the skin. This takes a bit of time but it's worth it.

To this point you have not put any rub on the outside of the turkey. It is all under the skin, which is great because the rub you put on the skin isn't going to get into the meat nearly as well as the rub you put down under the skin.

Now put the turkey breast-down, exposing the inside of the bird. Brush the inside of the bird, and any part of the bird that is exposed in this position, with olive oil. There are three reasons for this:

• It makes the skin brown up very nicely
• It makes the rub stick to the bird
• Olive oil makes a lot of stuff better and this is no exception.

After you've brushed everything you can reach with the turkey breast-down, sprinkle rub all over the bird, knowing that you are later going to roll it over and do the other side. Give it a good healthy sprinkling. Like I said, you will usually wish you'd used more.

Now you are almost ready to cook. Hopefully your cooker is ready to go. Put the bird onto the cooker with the breast up.

It will look something like this:

You can see the rub under the skin on the breast.

Take your olive oil and brush everything you can reach. Sprinkle with rub. Yes, the fire is going but it won't be so bad. Work fast.

Your turkey will look like this when it's olive oiled and sprinkled with rub.

Close the lid to the cooker and let time do its magic. A thermometer with a digital read-out outside the cooker will be very handy so get one of those if you can. Put it into the thigh and in a few hours have a look. When it's 170 degrees in the leg your turkey is done. In my experience that's going to take somewhere around three hours. That is probably less time than you expected but that's the whole point of spatchcocking.

It will look something like this when it's ready to come off. I use tongs to lift the turkey but be careful as the legs will be pretty loose and might come off.


Put it on a rack in the kitchen and let it sit for ten or fifteen minutes. It's impossible to carve when it's super hot, so let it cool down a bit. Then, carve it following these instructions. This is the finishing touch and it makes all the difference. Forget about carving it at the table. Carve it in the kitchen and bring out the cut-up meat. Everyone will be impressed and it will be a million times easier to serve.

Here's what it looked like when I'd carved one breast for transport to a friend's house.


Notice that the breast meat is cut much thicker than what you're probably used to. That's the right way to do it. Note that this kind of cooking does not result in a smoky flavor. What it does result in is a juicy, delicious turkey that looks and tastes great.

Practice on a chicken (cooking time: about an hour) and be an expert by Christmas.

Online Shopping Tips
My sister likes to get up early on the Friday after Thanksgiving and get deals at the stores. I like to sleep in and do my shopping online. Here are a couple of tips that will save you money while letting you shop from home.

• Visit www.dealnews.com. Set up an account and have them send you emails when items you want are on sale. I devoted an entire blog post to them and here is the link. Hint: sort the list of deals chronologically. That way, when you check the site a second time, you can quickly see what's new since your last visit.
• Visit www.retailmenot.com before buying something online. RetailMeNot finds discount codes which you can use to save money on your online purchases. This should be part of your routine. Find the item you want to buy online, then make a new browser window (File menu) and go to retailmenot.com to see if there is a discount code for what you're about to buy. I wrote about this site a bit ago and here is the link to that.
• Visit Amazon.com and see what's cooking with their Gold Box specials and also their Black Friday specials.

You'll probably save money with these tips and you'll definitely get more sleep. For some people, the thrill of the hunt makes getting up in the dark and driving to the mall worth it. If that's you, tell me about it sometime after 9 AM.

Keeping Track of the Football Games
You're probably thinking "turn on the TV, silly." Turns out that I don't have a TV, so I keep up with the games in other ways. First, there's the ESPN ScoreCenter app for the iPhone and for the iPad. This keeps you up to date on the scores of the games. Next, there's the Watch ESPN app, for the iPhone and for the iPad. This one actually lets you watch the games right on your iPhone or iPad, with some restrictions based on your internet provider. I also use the Watch ESPN website to watch games live, but also to watch games I've missed, on my Mac. It is very cool to be able to jump to the 4th quarter of a game, or to rewind a game in order to see a key play. Even Monday Night Football can be seen this way.

I also use Yahoo's Sportacular app on the iPhone and on the iPad. These apps do a great job of keeping up with scores and they also provide written play-by-play, so you can keep up with a game without really watching it. Very handy stuff. With several key games this weekend, college and pro, you need all the help you can get.

So there you have it: turkey, shopping, and football. If that's not Thanksgiving in a nutshell I don't know what is. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and thanks for visiting the blog.

Magic Mouse and 27-inch iMac in stock at Amazon

It took a few weeks but Amazon finally has the new Apple iMac 27 inch Quad-Core in stock. You can click this link to go straight there. The price is $1972.98, or $26.02 less than Apple charges... and you don't pay sales tax if you're in California, and there's no charge for the shipping either. When you consider the sales tax it costs you $210 more to buy it from the Apple store. The warranty is through Apple either way, so it seems a lot better to get it from Amazon. (Those of you not living in California should go through the motions of buying the iMac through Amazon to see what your total will be. Regardless, it's probably going to be less expensive than going directly through Apple.)


Amazon also has the new Magic Mouse, reviewed by me here a few days ago. You can click this link to go to the Magic Mouse page on Amazon. You get free shipping and no tax (in California, and maybe where you live too).

Note: purchases made on Amazon through the links above benefit The Boyce Blog. Such contributions-- which come from Amazon, not from you-- keep The Boyce Blog going, and are very, very much appreciated.

More Stuff I Like: Automatic Time Zone

Well looky here: another nifty improvement in the Date & Time preference pane, thanks to Snow Leopard! Finally, all of a sudden, and only in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, your Mac can show you the correct time for wherever you are-- automatically! Those of you who travel with a Mac laptop will appreciate this-- no more trips to the Date & Time preference panel to set the proper time zone. You do have to turn this feature on, so get in there and do it now!

How to Tune Up Your Mac

If your Mac seems a little slower than it used to be it might be in need of a tuneup. Here's the procedure we run for the Macs we're responsible for. Done once a month, this routine will help your Mac to run its best.

It's a three-step program.

Step 1: Run Cocktail

Cocktail does a lot of important stuff that has techie-sounding names, such as "repair permissions", "clear caches", "clear logs", and "perform Unix "cron" scripts." Fortunately, Cocktail knows what all of this stuff is, even if you don't, and it knows how to do it right. My advice: download Cocktail, choose the "Pilot" option (right-most button in the Cocktail toolbar), make it look like the figure below, and then click "Run." Might take a few minutes but it's totally unattended. Let it do its thing, including the restart, and all will be well. HINT: restart your Mac BEFORE you run Cocktail, because it will run better if there aren't other programs in the way.

You can run Cocktail a few times without paying for it but eventually you will want to register it. $14.95 for one computer, $29.95 for five. There are other ways to perform Cocktail's tasks but none that is as easy. NOTE: there's a "Scheduler" button up at the top of the window. Click it and you can set Cocktail to run on a repeating schedule. You won't make things worse by running Cocktail more often, so if you feel like having it run every Monday morning at 4:15 AM go right ahead. That happens to be the way it's set up here and look how I've turned out.

Bonus: the makers of Cocktail provide a free iPhone app with lots of maintenance hints and tips. Worth a look.

Step 2: Run Software Update (repeat until there are no more updates). Restart when they tell you to.

Generally speaking the Software Updates are good things. Sometimes, rarely, a software update will have unintended consequences. For example, a recent software update caused problems for people who emailed PDFs via automatic means, from FileMaker, AppleScript, or Automator. The problem was fixed in a subsequent update but the weeks in between were rough. If you're not sure, ask someone (me).

Step 3: Update your Microsoft stuff (if you have any)
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage or Outlook) has an automated software update system that is supposed to keep those programs up to date. Apple's won't do it, so you have to use Microsoft's. Look under the Help menu in any version of Microsoft Word (or Excel, or PowerPoint, or Entourage, or Outlook) for "Check for Updates." The Microsoft AutoUpdate program will launch and tell you whether there is anything for you or not.

After you get one update you may "qualify" for another. Keep trying until there are no more updates. NOTE: after you choose "Check for Updates" you should quit Word (and Excel and PowerPoint and Entourage/Outlook). The updates cannot install when these Microsoft programs are running. I agree, it's kind of goofy to complain about the programs being open when that's how we got to the updates in the first place-- fodder for another article.

And that's it! It takes a little time, but when done monthly it should be less than half an hour from start to finish, counting the restarts.

NOTE: our Managed Service Plans include monthly maintenance at no charge for up to two machines, and at a reduced charge for others. I do the work personally, over the internet. You ought to look into this-- it's a time-saving, money-saving program and it's all in your favor. Click here to learn more.

Stuff I Like: Snow Leopard Date options

I've been digging around in Snow Leopard, looking for something new, and I found something in the Date & Time preference panel. Finally, after years of waiting, we can display the day, the date, and the time in the menu bar, all at the same time! Until Snow Leopard, you got the day and the time, but not the date (not without clicking on the time). Now you get all three at once.

Here's what it looks like. No click required!


Maybe you're good at remembering the date. I'm not. I found myself heading to the menu bar to find out the date several times a day-- but not anymore! I will probably save myself hundreds of clicks per month. Not sure what I'll do with the clicks I'm going to save but it's nice to think about.

Anyhow, if you're on Snow Leopard, go to the Date & Time preference pane NOW and check the "Show Date" box as shown in the image below. A click saved is a click earned. Etc.
I know, I know: there are plenty of third-party ways to get the same effect. I think it's better that it's built-in, that's all. So check it out and save yourself some clicks.

How to Use Safari's Reader

Every so often I show my Mom something on her iPad (or her iPhone, or her Mac) and her reaction is incredibly enthusiastic. Actually, sometimes it's more along the lines of "I wish you'd shown me this before." Either way, when that happens, I write it up for everyone. This is one of those times.

Safari's Reader feature has been around for a bit but since Mom didn't know about it I'm assuming that there are at least a few others who don't know about it too. In a nutshell, it makes web pages easier to read by eliminating the ads and other distractions. It's available on the Mac, on the iPad, and on the iPhone. It makes a huge difference in readability, especially on the iPhone. You really ought to try it.

Here's an example of a web page on the iPhone, in the normal view:


Here's the same page, after clicking the big grey "Reader" button at the top of the page:


Which would you rather read? Of course you'd rather read the second one. It's a million times more readable. Note the buttons at the top for changing the font size and for sharing the page by email or printing or Twitter or whatever. There's also a "Done" button which takes you back to "normal."

Interestingly, the Reader button is blue when using Safari on a Mac, while it's grey on the iPad and iPhone. Double-interesting: when Reader can't figure out which part of a web page is the "real" content, it disables itself… and on the Mac, it indicates "I can't do this in Reader" with a grey button while on the iPad and iPhone, the button simply doesn't show up. Just to confuse things more, when you're using Reader on the iPad, the button turns purple, and you tap it again to turn leave Reader and turn the button grey. Save us, Jony Ive.

Interface inconsistencies aside, Safari's Reader is a fabulous feature. You should try it.

BONUS: you've probably had to deal with stories on the web that are split into multiple pages, such as the one shown below (with the "next page" buttons highlighted). This screenshot is from an iPad.


Sites that cut their stories into pieces that way do it because it gives then another chance to display ads, which means money for the site. It also means it's more difficult for you to read because you have to read-click-read-click-read. Safari's Reader feature takes care of sites like that by "reading ahead" so that page 2 follows page 1 without a click.

Here's how it looks in Reader:


Did I mention you should try it?

Review: Apple's Magic Mouse

There it is: Apple's Magic Mouse (held by someone else's nicely manicured hand). I have one (a Magic Mouse, not a nicely manicured hand) and so far, so good. I've used it for a week and I'm happy. It's super-precise, it's wireless (yay), and there aren't any parts to get gummy and quit working. Plus it slides very well on the desk.

Setting up the Magic Mouse is easy, except for getting it out of the box. Generally speaking, unboxing an Apple product is a delight, something you want to share with a friend (putting it back in the box, taking it out again, over and over). Not so the Magic Mouse. But once out of the box, it's trivial to set up.

If you're using Mac OS X 10.6.2, you need only to turn the Magic Mouse on (it runs on two AA batteries, which are not only included, but installed at the factory). You can see the on-off switch at top right in the photo below. The Magic Mouse in the picture is on.



If you're using Mac OS X 10.5.8, you will need some software, available here. If you're using 10.4.11 you will not be able to use the Magic Mouse. Sorry Mom.

Everyone wants to know how it feels in the hand and the answer is "it doesn't." That is, you don't hold it in your hand, you hold it with your hand. You don't rest your hand on the Magic Mouse, you rest your hand (the heel of it) on the desk, and hold the Magic Mouse lightly. And it's comfortable that way.

The scrolling-via-the-touch-sensitive-surface is very convenient, and it's nice knowing that it's never going to get gunky. I use the scrolling feature all the time. I love that the Magic Mouse is wireless, and that it's not too heavy even with the batteries (it's barely heavier than the wired Apple Mouse it replaced). The only thing I don't like about the Magic Mouse is the name. Big deal.

The Magic Mouse has a few options: you can set it up to do a right-click, you can zoom, etc. The older Apple Mouse had more options but most of them were better left turned off, so really there is not much of a loss in the options department. Here's a look at the Preference Pane for the Magic Mouse, in Mac OS X 10.6.2:

Nice to know I have a ways to go before the batteries need replacing. Looks as if the batteries will last about three months at a time. I'll keep the wired mouse around just in case.

You can see from above that I turned off the "with momentum" feature. The idea is that you can scroll and if you're vigorous about it the scrolling will continue a bit after you stop. That quickly drove me crazy, not that it was a long drive. At the same time, others think it's the greatest thing ever. Nice that they give you the option.

The Magic Mouse costs $69. You get one for free when you buy a new iMac so if that's in your future don't bother buying a Magic Mouse separately. As of this writing, the Magic Mouse is very hard to find-- Apple doesn't have them online, and neither does Amazon. I'll post an update here when the Magic Mouse is widely available again.

UPDATE: Amazon has the Magic Mouse in stock. $69, free shipping. Click this link to get it.

I like the Magic Mouse and I imagine you will too.

For a video demonstration of the Magic Mouse click this link, courtesy of Apple.

How to Print Mailing Labels

Printing mailing labels is easy, especially if you're using Apple's Address Book. There are plenty of reasons to like the Address Book but the mailing list printing is one of my favorites. Here are some tips for printing beautiful labels with minimal work.

BONUS: a lot of this applies to printing envelopes, so even if you're not a Mailing Label guy there's a lot of good stuff in here for you too. Yes, you could stand at the printer and feed envelopes one at a time for your entire Christmas card list, for example.

Here we go.

Step 1: Get your list together. You'll almost certainly want to print labels for a group of people, not for just one and not for all of them. So, it's time to make a Group. Here's a picture.
One way to make a group is to click where the blue arrow is pointing. That gives you an empty untitled group, so you rename it (easy) and then you click on "All Contacts" and one-by-one drag cards into your group. That second part is not so easy-- it's a lot of dragging. Far easier: start in the "All Contacts" group, then click on ONE person that will be part of your group. Then, hold the Command key, and click on the rest of the people who belong in the group. Then, go to the File menu, and choose "New Group from Selection." It does exactly what the name suggests. Rename the group (double-click on its name) and you are ready for Step 2.

Step 2: Be sure that the addresses in your group are labeled properly. The Home address should have a "Home" label next to it, for example. If the label is wrong click the Edit button and fix it. You'll be glad of this later.

Step 3: Click on the name of the group, then go to File and Print. It is very important that you click on the name of the group. Otherwise, when you go to print, you won't be able to print labels for the whole group. Everyone forgets to do it once in a while, even when he knows better.

The Print box looks something like this. First, be sure the Style pop-up (middle right) is set to "Mailing Labels." Next click the "Layout" button just below that. That's where you get to choose the the type of label you'll be using. BIG HINT: use an Avery brand label. The Address Book is ready for any of more than 100 Avery sizes. Here, I'm using Avery 5161 (2 across, ten down-- a little more than a penny apiece).


Step 4: Now click on the Label button.

This is where you get to specify what gets printed. Notice the "Addresses" menu. By default, it says "All." You might think that means "Print a label for all of the people in the list." What it really means is "Print a label for every address in the list." So, if a person has a home and a work address, you'll get two for that person. Unless the people in your group have only one address each the "All" option is not what you want.

When you click on the "All" pop-up you see something like this (I say "something" because you probably don't have a Texas category, nor a "Primary Mailing" category-- those are custom, beyond the scope of this article). The way this list works is, if you choose "home", you print only the Home addresses. If you choose "work" you only print the Work addresses.

The wild card is the "Distribution List" option. This can be a handy thing but no one knows how it works. It's worth finding out so read on!

A Distribution List lets you print a Work address for some of the people, and a Home address for others, and an "Other" address for still others, all in one group, all in one shot. It is a lot better than intentionally mis-labeling someone's Work address as "home" just because the rest of the addresses in the group are Home addresses. So, cancel out of the Print box and choose Edit Distribution List from the Edit menu. Here's how it looks.

The problem with this box is we're interested in mailing addresses, and they're showing us email addresses instead. That's OK. Just click and change it to Address.

Now you have a box like this.


All you do is click on the address you want to print, when you print this particular contact in this particular group. The address turns bold to indicate you've chosen it (see above). You can manage ALL of the Distribution Lists right here in one box-- just click on a group, and then work your way down the list of addresses at the right, clicking once on the address you want to use for each person. Important Note: it is perfectly OK to choose to print Joe Smith's home address when you're printing from a Friends group, and to print Joe Smith's work address when you're printing from your Prospects group. Apple's Address Book lets you use a different address for each person on a group-by-group basis. The Address Book remembers what you've chosen for each group so you don't have to do the work twice.

In practice it is pretty hard to remember which address you've chosen for each person in each group, so you may go back to this Distribution List box a lot. Once you get it right, you can choose that "Distribution List" option in the Print box, to great advantage. Without the Distribution List there's no way to print some home addresses and some work addresses and some "other" addresses from the same group, all in one shot. So get to know the Distribution List and save yourself a ton of time and trouble.

There's a lot to the Address Book but none of it is very hard. There's just a lot. Take it step by step and you'll be fine. In case you're wondering, this is about ten zillion times easier than doing it in Word with one of their templates. Don't even bother.

Apple Airport 7.6 Update

Apple put out a firmware update (version 7.6) for its Airport wireless routers. It helps with AirPlay (that amazing feature that lets you show your whole iPad 2 or iPhone 4S screen on your TV, provided you have an Apple TV), and with network performance. Apple doesn't say much more about it, but I've installed it here on two Airports and so far so good.

Airport base stations check weekly with Apple for updates. When there is one, like this 7.6 update, your Airport base station's light will flash orange, on and off, and you are likely to get a message on your Mac's screen that there is "a problem" with your Airport. That's overdoing it-- they shouldn't call it a problem-- and you shouldn't be worried that there is something wrong. All you have to do is let the update take place, which it will do automatically if you simply click "Continue" when the box pops up, telling you about "the problem."

You can easily do this yourself. You're supposed to. Note that your internet will go down for just a moment after the update, as the installation requires restarting the Airport and while that's happening, you're offline. It won't take more than a minute or so for the restart, and less than five minutes for the entire process. So go for it.

(If you want to get straight to doing the update, locate the Airport Utility (in the Utilities folder, in the Applications folder) and do the update from there.)

Super-cool: you can update your Airport using your iPad or iPhone. Get the official Apple Airport Utility app and you're on your way.

Tap one of the Airports and you get a bunch of info, including an option to update firmware. So neat.

iPhone 4S: First Impressions

I've had my iPhone 4S for a couple of weeks, long enough to know what I like and don't like.

What I Like

• It's fast. I didn't think my iPhone 4 was slow, and it isn't, but the iPhone 4S is faster.
• Siri is handy and fun. I use it all the time, especially to make reminders and to set timers.
• In general, I like iOS 5, which comes pre-installed.
• I really, really like the over-the-air software updates. This works extremely well.

What I Don't Like

• The battery drains very quickly. iOS 5.0.1 came out yesterday and is supposed to fix "most" of the battery problems but my iPhone 4S still seems to drain more quickly than I'd like. The biggest problem is the inconsistency. Sometimes (tonight) the battery hardly drains at all. Other times it drains 5% an hour just sitting on my desk.
• Some iPhone 4S screens have a yellowish tint. My previous iPhone (the iPhone 4) has a cool blue screen, which to my eye is nicer. This seems to be a problem specific to some of the AT&T iPhone 4S devices.
• The sound quality for phone calls ranges from superb to terrible, without changing locations. Sometimes the sound is so great it's like having the other person right there in the room. Later, in the same call, the sound can be so bad that I can't continue the conversation. Hanging up and redialing solves it, but geez man. This has to be fixed.

Odds and Ends
Siri is beta software, and it shows. There are so many things that seem not-quite-ready. For example, Siri can read your text messages to you, but it can't read an email. It can tell you that you have an appointment at 9 AM tomorrow but it can't read that to you either. Here's an interesting conversation I had with Siri about it:

• Siri requires an internet connection, something that wasn't made obvious in the promotional materials. When the internet is slow, Siri is slow. The slowness is a drag, not because I'm in a rush, but because when Siri is fast, it's indistinguishable from magic. When it's slow, the magic goes away.
• Reminders are cool. But the Reminders app is harder to use than it ought to be. And why isn't it part of the calendar app? Reminders and To-Dos are pretty closely related. I think the Reminders functionality ought to be part of the calendar.
• Notifications are also cool. However, Notifications are a lot of work to set up, and for some reason different apps have different notification methods by default. Some use the banner across the top of the screen, some use the larger "alerts" in the middle of the screen. There's no explanation why you'd want one app to show notifications at the top of the screen and others in the middle. Why not make them all the same, or at least give me that as an option?

Conclusions and Advice
It seems to me that the iPhone 4S, and iOS 5, were a little bit rushed. That's sort of funny to say, considering that many industry people believe that the iPhone 4S came out three or four months late, but I still think it was rushed. Siri's in beta (and that's the first time that Apple's released anything with a "beta" label), and there are battery issues, and there are sound quality issues, and there are more than a few clunky interface issues. If you're looking for pre-purchase advice, I'd say wait until Apple puts out iOS 5.0.2. Hopefully, that update will solve the rest of the battery problems, and maybe solve the sound problems too. The lines will be shorter then anyhow.

Time to Upgrade to Snow Leopard

Apple released the 10.6.2 Snow Leopard update and it fixes a whole lot of issues (click the link and start the download while you read). I had been waiting for this update before moving to Snow Leopard, and I'm glad I did. Apple had already put out the 10.6.1 update, but that didn't address the problems that early adopters of 10.6 had been reporting. For those problems, we'd have to wait for 10.6.2, and now it's here. Armed with the 10.6.2 update, I installed 10.6 on my original Intel iMac (the white one), and then the 10.6.2 update, and also the HP Printers update, and everything is great. Printing is fast again, the iMac starts up quickly, Mail's loading speed is especially improved, and overall the iMac is running better than it was in 10.5.8.

If you have an Intel Mac of any sort and you've been waiting to install 10.6, now is a good time. There is always the chance that something that you use will not be compatible with 10.6, but if you make a backup first (please) you'll be able to revert to 10.5. There's a good list of compatible/not compatible programs at Macintouch.com-- worth your time to check it out.

It is always better to download the "Combo Update" (linked above) rather than a simple Software Update. So do it that way if you can. In fact, if you already did the Software Update, download the 10.6.2 Combo update and run it.

Given the advantages of 10.6 over 10.5, and the super-low cost ($29), upgrading to Snow Leopard (10.6) is a smart move. The only question really was when to do it. With 10.6.2's fixes in hand, the time to upgrade is now.

If you don't have a Snow Leopard disc you can buy Snow Leopard from Amazon and save a few bucks. Single user is $25, five-user Family Pack is $43.99. They ship for free.

iOS 5.0.1 update-- I like it

Apple released iOS 5.0.1 today. It supposedly fixes the issues that the iPhone 4S has with the battery draining much too quickly. As such, it is just what I've been waiting for. I installed it through the air via Apple's new iOS software update system:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Software Update

You will get a warning about doing this without the iPhone being plugged in to power, but my updates (on an iPhone 4S and an iPad 2) went perfectly even without being plugged in. They devices went down about two percent during the update. If you have more than 2% battery left, go ahead and get the download through the air.

The update took about 10 minutes (Time Warner cable modem). There are no options, no choices to make except at the very end of the download when you can either "Install" or do it later.

Considering how buggy iOS 5.0 is, updating to 5.0.1 is a no-brainer. Go get it.

(No, that's not the official iCloud logo, but I thought it would be fun to build one from Safari icons.)

How to Use Safari's iCloud Tabs

Safari's iCloud Tabs is a feature I didn't think I'd be interested in, and now I use it all the time. Give it a try and see if you're not hooked, same as me.

iCloud Tabs keeps track of every Safari window (and every Safari tab) on all of your Apple devices, including Macs, iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Then, it makes the combined list available from each device. What this means is you can start reading a website on your iPhone and have it automatically waiting for your on your Mac so you can finish reading it there.

Before we go any further I have to tell you that this only works with Macs on Mountain Lion (10.8) or higher, and iPhones/iPads/iPods on iOS 6.0 or higher. OS X 10.7 won't do and neither will iOS 5. And, you have to have an iCloud account, but that's free so it's not much of a hurdle.

Let's see how it works.

Here's a screenshot of a fresh-from-the-box Mac Safari window. Notice the toolbar buttons (circled in red). All we have is the back button, the forward button, and the Share button.


(If, in addition to the back, forward, and Share buttons you also see an iCloud button it means your Mac is already set up to sync Safari via iCloud. If not, go to System Preferences, click the iCloud button, and check the box next to Safari. This will lead to a box asking you whether you want to merge bookmarks across your devices. You probably do, so click Merge and move along.)

When your iCloud settings include a checked box next to Safari your Safari toolbar will look like this:



The middle button is the iCloud Tabs button, and it shows up automatically.

Click the iCloud Tabs button and you'll see something like this: a bold grey heading for each of your iCloud Tabs-enabled devices (except for the one that you're currently using) and under each heading the Safari web pages that are open on that device.



You can select an item from the list and load up that web page on whichever device you're using. For example, in the picture above we see that I was looking at a web page called Simran Design | portfolio on my iPhone 5. If I want to see that page on my iMac (the machine I'm currently using) I can select it in the iCloud Tabs list and load it right up. See below.

(In this real-life case, I was browsing the Simran Design site on my iPhone and became distracted-- then, hours later, I was on my iMac, clicked the iCloud Tabs button in Safari, and I could easily go right back to where I'd been earlier. All without having to "do" anything other than ONE TIME going to the iCloud preference pane to be sure the Safari box was checked.)


Here's how it looked on the iPhone.


Actually, there's one more thing you have to do, and that's "set it up on your iPhone too." That's easy:
Tap Settings, then iCloud, then be sure the switch for Safari is "on."

If you want to work it in the other direction (that is, you want to use your iPhone to see web pages that are open on your other devices, such as your Mac), just tap the Bookmarks button (looks like a book), then tap the left-pointing arrow at the top of the iPhone's screen until you see something like this:



Tap the iCloud Tabs button and you'll see the list of open web pages:



Tap any item in the list and you'll load it in Safari on the iPhone.

Pretty cool stuff.

A few things you need to know about iCloud Tabs:
1. You can't do iCloud Tabs without merging bookmarks. This is probably not an issue for anyone.
2. This doesn't work with Google Chrome, and it doesn't work with Firefox. Sorry.
3. Obviously (I think), you have to be signed into the same iCloud account on all of your devices.
4. Remember: Mountain Lion (or higher) on your Macs, and iOS 6 (or higher) on your iPhones, iPad, and iPods.

UPDATED September 5th, 2014: Boyce Blog reader Antonio informs me (from Mexico!) that turning on Private Browsing in Safari will keep that device's windows from showing up in Safari on your other devices. So, if you can't seem to get iCloud Tabs to work, take Antonio's advice and check to be sure that you're not running Private Browsing. I should add that none of this works without you turning on the Safari option in System Preferences/iCloud on the Mac, and Settings/iCloud on your iOS devices. I should have mentioned that to begin with. Thanks, Antonio, for making me go back and make this blog post better. Now please join the mailing list so you can help me out in the future!

iCloud Tabs is a great example of the kind of service that iCloud provides. It's not something you interact with directly-- rather, it's something that allows you to get to "your stuff" no matter which device you're using, in a completely transparent manner. It's about as close to magic as it gets. You should give it a try.

Written by +Christian Boyce

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