911 Club News Windows, UGH! Newsletter for the Mid-Columbia Macintosh User Group

November 2013
Newsletter for the Mid-Columbia Macintosh User Group
Photo taken with new Panorama mode in iOS 7.
911
At the November 12th
Club News
meeting, Jacob Campbell
will demonstrate several
Windows, UGH!
The Snugg iPhone Case
Changing My Cell Phone Plan
How To Take A Panorama Photo In iOS7
applications he uses. More
information on page 3.
Our Mission
The Mid-Columbia Macintosh Users Group is a nonprofit
organization dedicated to bringing together Macintosh computer users for the purpose of exchanging information and
providing education.
In addition, McMUG provides many services and benefits
including:
• A subscription to The Finder, a monthly newsletter.
• A subscription to the McMUG Internet mailing list where
members can get quick help to problems or offer news.
• Access to the McMUG libraries which consist of
Shareware discs, Training Videos and CD-ROM/DVD
library.
• User Group discounts are available from ­various vendors
and Apple.
• Monthly meetings with demonstrations and Ask the Guru
sessions.
• A network of knowledgeable computer users who are
happy to provide support and answers by phone, person
or mailing list.
When we meet:
The Macintosh User Group meets the second Tuesday of
the month. See back page for location.
Reprinting articles
Any article written by a member of McMUG may be reprinted
in other nonprofit group’s newsletters as long as credit is
given to the author and the Mid-Columbia Macintosh User
Group. Please send a copy containing the article to the
address on back of this newsletter.
McMUG Officers
President and Media Librarian:
Scott Armstrong, 783-1713
E-mail: president@macusergroup.com
Vice president:
Paul Didzerekis, 521-7775
E-mail: vicepresident@macusergroup.com
Treasurer & Disk Librarian:
Jack Krajicek, 946-8360
E-mail: treasurer@macusergroup.com
Secretary:
Keith Smith, 783-1957
E-mail: secretary@macusergroup.com
Newsletter editor:
Linda Cameron, 783-8876 or
E-mail: editor@macusergroup.com
Asst. Newsletter editor:
Ange Mills, 947-0360
E-mail: garyange@mac.com
Equipment manager:
Derek Caudill
E-mail: equipment@macusergroup.com
Webmaster:
Paul Didzerekis, 521-7775 or
E-mail: webmaster@macusergroup.com
Mailing list & web hosting:
Paul Didzerekis, 521-7775
E-mail: tech@macusergroup.com
Web site: http://www.macusergroup.com
by Chistopher Breen
Adding subscribed calendars to your iOS device
Reader John Lufkin would like to stay up to date on all his devices.
He writes:
I subscribe to a number of Google calendars and while those
calendars appear on my Mac, they don’t show up in my iPhone’s
Calendar app. How can I configure the iPhone so the events are
added automatically?
As you’ve likely noticed, in OS X’s Calendar application you can
select Calendar > Preferences > Accounts, select your Gmail account,
click on the Delegation tab, and then enable any calendars you’re
subscribed to. This option doesn’t exist in iOS.
Thankfully, with the help of your iPhone’s copy of Safari, you can
add these calendars.
On your iPhone go to https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect.
On the resulting page log into your Gmail account and tap Sign In.
In the screen that appears you’ll see listings for not only your Gmail
calendars, but also those calendars you’ve subscribed to. Enable those
calendars you’d like to sync with your iPhone and it’s done. When
you next open the Calendar app you’ll the events these calendars
contain embedded in your calendar.
Cure for a corrupt Calendar application
Reader Charles Enns would like to put an end to his Calendar
problem. He writes:
When I started my Mac this morning I launched Calendar. Or,
I tried to. Its icon bounced briefly in the Dock, my calendar
appeared for a second, and then the application quit. I’ve restarted
my Mac but this happens every time. It was fine yesterday but
today, broken. What can I do?
This isn’t one of those problems that routinely plagues Macs. Rather,
it’s an example of The Kind Of Thing That Can Happen, which
provides you with the sort of crack-your-knuckles-and-buckle-downto-it experience that so many troubleshooters enjoy.
Normally in these situations you go after the application’s preference
file. Such files can usually be found by holding down the Option key,
clicking the Finder’s Go menu, choosing Library, and in the resulting
window, opening the Preferences folder (or, if you prefer the path:
~/Library/Preferences). To locate the file just enter the application’s
name in the window’s Search field and confine the search to the
Preferences folder: I use “normally” advisedly. Because, in this case,
you find no com.apple.Calendar.plist file. Instead, there’s just the
com.apple.CalendarAgent.plist, which is for something else entirely.
Continued on page 4
By Keith Smith, club secretary
November 12th meeting
•
New member, Jacob Campbell has offered
to demonstrate several applications he
uses—showing each one for just a few
minutes. Some of them are free. Jacob
provided a list of each application he
wants to show us.
•
•
1Password (https://agilebits.com): A
little more expensive, but a password
management service. They have
apps for a mac and iOS devices. Last
week they just put out an update and
I am really loving it. With Mavericks
coming out, the Keychain will be
getting an update, but it is not nearly
as powerful and useful as 1 Password.
TextExpander (http://www.
smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/index.
html): A text expansion software.
You can run it for free in their demo
mode, but is well worth the price. It
lets you create snippets and it expands
the text (whether it be an email
signature, your address, or any other
text). Currently (especially using
it at work) I have saved a little over
9 hours of typing due to this great
software. They also have an iOS app.
•
•
Alfred (http://www.alfredapp.com):
A launcher application. There is
a free version and you can also
pay for some upgrades. It lets you
launch programs, do tasks, create
workflows, and a ton of other
really great tasks without your
fingers ever leaving the keyboard.
OmniFocus (http://www.omnigroup.
com/omnifocus): A task management
software. It is set up to implement a
Getting Things Done type of system
of task management. It a pretty
expensive task management app, but
it is the best that I’ve tried or seen.
NValt (http://brettterpstra.com/projects/
nvalt/): At plain text editor that lets
you keep notes of things coming up in
plain text files and be able to access
them quickly.
Upcoming presentations possible
Longtime member, Harry Habad wants
to do a demo for the January meeting.
He wants to show how to extract recipes
into Word and editing recipes in Adobe
Acrobat.
The December meeting is scheduled as a
MacLab night.
Correction on review of Day One from last month: Day One is not a free app; it
WAS free for a special one-week anniversary celebration event that Apple sponsored
but the current and normal price is $4.99.
USER GROUP COUPON CODE from Peachpit
We provide your group members with a 35% discount off the list price of any of our
books. At checkout, right before entering their credit card information, they must
enter the user group coupon code UE-23AA-PEUF (case-sensitive). This coupon
code is an exclusive offer that may not be used in conjunction with any other coupon
codes. http://peachpit.com
Send us feedback at feedback@macusergroup.com
946-3163
Training Videos & CD-ROMs
•iLife ’08 (iDVD, iPhoto, iMovie)
•Mac OSX Leopard
•iWork (Pages, Keynote,
Numbers)
•iDVD & iMovie ’06 (2 DVDs)
•Adobe Photoshop CS2 (3 DVDs)
•Adobe Photoshop CS (5 DVDs)
•Adobe Photoshop 7 (6 CDs)
•Adobe InDesign CS (4 CDs)
•Adobe Elements 3 (1 CD)
•Networking (1 CD)
•OS X (4 CD-ROMs)
•OS X Panther (4 CD-ROMs)
•FileMaker Pro (4 CD-ROMs)
•AppleWorks 6 (6 CD-ROMs)
•Mac Troubleshooting OS 9 (3
CD)
•Networking (1 CD-ROM)
•Mac OS 9 (4 CD-ROMs)
•Creating Web Pages (1,2)
•Scanning (1)
•Troubleshooting Mac (1,2,3)
•Internet & HTML CD-ROM
•Quicken 7 (2 discs) CD-ROM
•Fonts (1)
•Word 2001—6 CD’s
•Illustrator 9—6 CD’s
•Applescript Training CD—1 CD
…and more
4
w w w . m a c u s e r g r o u p . c o m Continued from page 2
So if not in the Preferences folder, where
might Calendar store the file that’s causing
your problem?
Take one step back to the Library folder and
you’ll find that this application has earned
a folder all its own titled, aptly enough,
Calendars. The fact that Apple went to the
trouble to create an entire folder for one of
its applications tells you that magic may lie
within.
And how do we separate the dark magic from
the light? Simple. Open the folder, choose List
view, click the Date Modified heading, and
see what floats to the top. In this case, I’ll bet
you breakfast that the Calendar Cache file is
among the top two items. Drag this file to the
Desktop and try launching Calendar again. In
addition to breakfast I’ll throw in lunch if the
application doesn’t launch as it should, update
its database, and then correctly display all the
events you’ve synced.
I make this offer not only because I’ve been
there and done that, but in cases where
something works perfectly one day and
then less-so the next (and you’ve eliminated
hardware as the cause), it’s always a good idea
to cock a keen eye at any files associated with
the application that routinely change (such as
a preference or cache file). They’re easier to
spot when you sort by Date Modified.
The Finder
The lazy man’s guide to streaming iTunes
movies to your iPad
Reader Paul Inglis is interested in
transferring media wirelessly to his iPad. He
writes:
Okay, I’m lazy. But my Mac is upstairs and
I’m downstairs on the couch with my iPad
where I want to watch a movie. What’s the
best way for me to do that without having
to plug my iPad into my Mac and sync the
movie using iTunes?
Never fear, Apple designed this stuff with you
in mind. You have a couple of options.
The first requires that, if you haven’t done
so already, you sit down at your Mac and
fiddle with an
iTunes setting.
Within iTunes
choose File >
Home Sharing >
Turn On Home
Sharing. Enter
your Apple ID
and password.
Keep iTunes
running and
head back to the
couch.
Launch the
Videos app on
your iPad and
tap Shared.
You’ll see an
entry for your
iTunes library.
Tap on it and
wait while your
library loads. Once that’s finished, pick a
video to watch and tap on it (see the image
above). It will stream to your iPad.
“But,” I can hear you mutter in a drowsy
drawl, “my Mac is running but iTunes isn’t.
Take pity on me and let me do this without
having to launch iTunes.”
Because I admire your Can’t Do spirit, I’ll
provide an answer for this as well.
I’ve spoken fondly of Stratospherix’s $5
FileBrowser app more than a time or two.
This fine utility allows you to browse the
contents of volumes on your local network
and transfer files between those volumes and
your iOS device. There are other utilities that
w w w . m a c u s e r g r o u p . c o m let you do this as well, but I like FileBrowser
because it doesn’t demand that you know the
IP address of other computers or NAS devices
on the network. Tap Scan and any accessible
devices appear in its list of volumes.
Tap that Scan button, locate the volume where
you store your media, tap the blue icon to the
right of it, and choose Open In. The file will
download to your iPad. Once it’s downloaded
an Open In window appears, which lists any
apps that your iPad believes can play the file
(note that not all of them can). Tap the app
you’d like to use and the video may begin to
play.
May!? Well, yes. There’s the slightly sticky
issue that protected media (videos you’ve
purchased from the iTunes Store) won’t play
in third-party apps. They must be played in
Apple’s Videos app. Regrettably, this app
is not one of your choices in the Open In
window. In such a case you’re stone out of
luck. You must either stream the movie from
iTunes via Home Sharing or copy the movie
to your iPad via iTunes.
If you’re in the clear because the video you
want to watch is unprotected I can offer
a couple of options for viewing it. NXP
Software’s $4 CineXPlayer HD can play
a wide variety of video formats including
those compatible with iTunes. But I might
recommend instead Good.iWare’s $5
GoodReader for iPad. Although the company
touts it as a PDF reader, I keep a copy on my
iOS devices because it can open most files
I throw at it, including common audio and
video files.
Saving documents to your Mac rather than
iCloud
Reader M. Burns asks about an issue that
has puzzled more than one Mountain Lion
user. He writes:
I’m running Mountain Lion on my MacBook
Pro and using Pages. Since upgrading to
Mountain Lion, Pages defaults to saving
files to iCloud. I’d prefer that those files are
saved to my Mac. Yet, even after choosing
that option in the Save dialog box, the
next time I save, iCloud appears again as
the default location. Is there any way to
convince Pages to always save files to my
Mac?
5
There is, but the method I’m about to describe
affects all applications that save, by default,
to iCloud. (They include Pages, Numbers,
Keynote, TextEdit, and Preview.) Just do this:
Launch Terminal (found in /Applications/
Utilities) and in the window that appears enter
this text and press Return:
defaults write NSGlobalDomain
NSDocumentSaveNewDocumentsToCloud
-bool false
This switches the default save location for
iCloud-compatible applications to the Mac.
Should you wish to later change this behavior
back to the default, simply substitute true for
false in the command above.
As for the new default location, when you
save your next document, navigate to the
folder where you’d like to always save your
Pages documents and click Save. When you
save subsequent Pages documents, this same
folder should be the selected destination.
If you find that this doesn’t always work
and you have $35 to devote to the problem,
purchase a copy of St. Clair Software’s
Default Folder X. Among the many things it
can do, it allows you to assign default folders
on a per-application basis. Or, if you prefer to
save documents to specific folders based on
the project you’re working on, you can assign
keyboard shortcuts to those project folders.
For example, Command-Option-F could be
assigned to The Flanders Files. Just press that
key combination while within a Save dialog
box and you’re transported to that folder.
“ …in cases
where something
works perfectly
one day and
then less-so
the next (and
you’ve eliminated
hardware as
the cause), it’s
always a good
idea to cock
a keen eye
at any files
associated with
the application
that routinely
change (such as
a preference or
cache file).
Macworld Senior Editor Christopher Breen
is the author of “Secrets of the iPod and
iTunes (6th edition),” and “The iPod and
iTunes Pocket Guide (4th edition)” both
from Peachpit Press
and
“Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Essential Training
(video)” from lynda.com
Find Chris’ books at www.amazon.com and
www.peachpit.com. Get special user group
pricing on Macworld Magazine! Subscribe
today at http://www.macworld.com/useroffer
The Finder
6
w w w . m a c u s e r g r o u p . c o m Windows, UGH!
Keith Smith,
McMUG secretary
by
M
why!
y grown grandson, Leon, a Mac user
of some years, also has owned and
used a PC for years. I don’t know
Knowing it would not work using
VGA, I tried a DVI cable. Same
result. A message on the monitor
saying there was no video input,
either VGA or DVI.
Taking it upon myself to find a way to
remediate the situation, I began to troll eBay
for an inexpensive replacement, and found
one without too much effort. Another HP of
slightly older vintage, but one that worked,
and for a very welcome price. Much less,
even, than the price of a video card, which
would not have worked anyway! An HP
Compaq dc7700 CMT with dual processors, 2
GB of RAM that had originally run Windows
XP Pro, but came equipped with a clean
install of Windows 7 Home Premium, on an
80 GB hard drive. It is an older model than the
one it is replacing, but has the advantage of
good video output. It also had that important
advantage of being inexpensive with free
shipping!
I surmised the video output had
suffered a terminal failure, and had an
idea to buy an output card to install in
its stead. However, before I took that
plunge, and spent money, I thought it
wise to do some digging online.
When the PC arrived I unpacked it, hooked
up to an MS keyboard, which I keep for such
purposes, a mouse and my spare 19 inch,
LCD monitor. The replacement PC has no
DVI output like the one it’s replacing but a
VGA connection put it into operation.
Recently, his low budget HP computer began
to fail to provide video to its monitor. A new
VGA cable failed to correct the problem
and as the “computer go-to-guy” in our big,
diverse family, I wound up with it in
my possession with a request to figure
out what was wrong with it.
I took the model number off of it, (HP
Pavilion 6300f, dual core Pentium,
with its video card built into the
motherboard), began a Web search
for information and soon became
painfully aware that this particular
model had this symptom as a common
failure. Furthermore, because the
video was integrated and used some common
components with the main board, this
particular failure keeps the computer from
booting at all, (it won’t load the BIOS). In
other words, a separate video card wouldn’t
do a bit of good toward restoring the computer
to usefulness. RATS!!
Now the grandson and his little family are
in a “bucks down” situation at this time,
and the news that their PC was permanently
defunct was good news. Their message to me
was, “We’ll let you know when we can do
something about the PC. They do have my old
G4 1GHZ DP Mirrored Door Mac and a 1.42
GHZ G4 iBook, furnished by yours truly, but
they did have PC specific programs they were
using, and had a lot of data on the 500 GB
hard drive in the defunct PC.
The Finder
The computer booted just fine to an
install screen. While the computer came
with a Windows disc and instructions for
installation, I knew the 80 GB hard drive was
not going to be a welcome replacement for the
500 GB drive that had resided in the broken
computer. So, I thought, the simple thing
would be to remove the hard drive from the
dead computer and just slide it into the drive
bay on the replacement, boot it up and go on
from there. The defunct computer had been
running Vista, but if the replacement was Win
7 compatible, it should run Vista just fine.
Right? WRONG!!
Booting from the Vista install in the
replacement HP resulted in an error message
and a note that the Windows boot had been
stopped to protect the computer!
Now, I’ve taken a hard drive out of one Mac,
installed it in another capable of running
the same OS without the slightest problem
booting from it. Just as it’s possible to boot
from an external drive on a Mac, the same
convenience is achievable when installing a
drive internally. Apparently not so with a PC!
Sheesh! I even tried to “repair” the hard drive
w w w . m a c u s e r g r o u p . c o m using its recovery partition and an installation
disc, all to no avail. The same message
appeared every time, and it got old pretty
quickly, too.
Having been told there were files, videos and
photos on the hard drive that were precious, I
made an effort to retrieve those before going
ahead with an install on the 500 GB hard
drive. (I have an upgrade disc for going from
XP to Win 7 and thought to use it for this
occasion).
7
Installation proceeded without much further
adieu, but with the usual Windows wandering.
(I don’t know why it isn’t simpler)!
Once installation was complete, I connected
the PC to my network via an Ethernet cable,
(no wireless card) and updated to Service
Pack 1. Now to install some applications.
Both computers use a SATA connection for
their drives, and I have a device that allows
me to connect a 3.5 inch hard drive to my
Power PC, and a power brick to power it up.
I had loaned it to MCMUG president Scott
Armstrong at one time, but he couldn’t get
to work. When he brought it back to me, I
diagnosed the problem as a bad SATA cable.
Replacing that cable put the gadget back into
operation and it proved to be very useful, this
time, in rescuing the precious data residing
on the PC hard drive. I just created a folder
to hold the data, went searching amongst all
those Windows files, and simply dragged
the data files to it. The idea is to put those
back on the hard drive after installation of
Windows 7, in case it destroys all existing
files.
Once I had all those files safely copied
and examined for viability, (I’ve been
victimized in the past by files that showed
up as icons, but contained no data after the
copying process), I installed the drive in the
replacement PC, hit the power button and slid
the Win 7 Upgrade disc into the optical drive.
I instructed the PC to start from the optical
drive, which it did and proceeded to the
installation process.
The system provides an opportunity to
install the upgrade while maintaining all
existing files. That seemed like the best way
to go, and would obviate the need to move
all those rescued files back onto the drive
after installation. However, that resulted in a
dialogue box that informed me that could not
be done! Windows, ugh!
The other option was to install the upgrade
and remove all existing files. Having no
known alternative, and as I’d already rescued
all the data files, I commanded this second
option.
Do you know that unlike OS X, Windows
installs only an operating system? No
applications of any sort, except for some
games and the Explorer browser. I remember
when there was a text app, at least, for a
simple word processor. What ever happened
to that? It was one app that I used a lot for
saving e-mail and producing notes. I miss it!
I have AVG Free (a free virus protector) on
a flash drive for this purpose, along with
OpenOffice for word processing. Also
QuickTime for PC and few other useful
Windows apps. Then will come the task of
copying all those rescued files back onto the
HP’s hard drive.
Installation of AVG and OpenOffice went
fairly smoothly. The lack of adequate RAM
(2 GB to run Win 7) makes it a bit painful
for someone who’s used to the rapid response
from a Mac with 8 GB or RAM and an SSD
The Finder
8
w w w . m a c u s e r g r o u p . c o m Changing my cell phone plan
by
Linda Cameron,
editor
“ …what I
wanted was
a little bit
complicated.”
W
hen my iPhone 3GS was no longer
able to be upgraded to the latest
iOS (iOS 7), I decided it was finally
time to get a new iPhone. I had been planning
to get a new iPhone one day but it was always
easy to put it off as long as my current model
was working well. Anyway, it was time, so I
ordered the new gold model of the iPhone 5S
with 32GBs, directly from Apple because I
wanted to be able to use my T-mobile prepaid
plan.
I ordered my unlocked iPhone in September
and it arrived the 30th of October. I also had
ordered a T-mobile sim card/activation kit for
$10.80 directly from T-mobile. It came the day
after I got the phone.
I am sure most people would not have any
problem getting their new iPhone setup with
their old or new service, but what I wanted
was a little bit complicated.
I have had a prepaid T-mobile plan for several
years. It was a plan where you pay $100 or
more for your minutes and they will not
expire for a year. $100 buys you 1000 minutes.
In fact, if you don’t use all your minutes
before the year is up, you can spend as little
as $10 to add more minutes and keep the old
ones for another year.
If that was my only phone, I would definitely
need more minutes each month, but I talk
more on my landline and use the cell phone
for convenience and emergencies. My prepaid
plan did not have a data plan at all, so I had to
rely on WiFi everywhere. Surprisingly, there
is a lot of free WiFi around. Still, I always
wanted a data plan on my cell phone, but
for a long time, the only way to get it was to
have an expensive monthly plan. I don’t like
being ripped off so I went without a data plan,
relying on WiFi to usually be available.
Recently, with the release of the new iPhone
5S, I discovered that T-mobile had a new
prepaid plan that would suit me just fine. For
$30 a month, I would get unlimited data up
to 4G speeds. Once I use up to 5 GBs of data,
it would slow down until the next month.
I have been told it is hard to use 5 GBs of
data on a phone. This plan also includes 100
The Finder
talk minutes per month. For me, that is more
than I now use on my cell phone. For me, the
unlimited data is more attractive than more
talk minutes.
So what is the catch? Well, apparently,
this new prepaid plan is only available for
customers who buy an iPhone at Walmart or
activate their plan over the internet. I knew
I could get this plan by activating it over the
internet, but I happened to have over 1500
minutes available on my old prepaid plan
(a $171.00 balance). I was told by several
T-mobile employees that if I were to switch to
another prepaid plan, I would lose the minutes
I had on my old plan. That was not acceptable
to me. I wanted the data plan on the new
phone even if I had to keep my old phone with
its number and minutes. But I preferred to
transfer my phone number and minutes to the
new phone with the new data plan.
What did I do? I called T-mobile until I found
someone who said I could do that. I spent
most of a day talking to different people who
work for T-mobile. Some were in Denver, one
in South America, one in China and a couple
were in other parts of the country.
The first person who told me I could keep
my minutes and phone number with the new
data plan told me to call back and ask for
“T-mobile prepaid care.” I did that, but the
next person I talked to insisted I could not
use that plan and keep my minutes. She was
adamant. Later, a guy I talked to checked
with a supervisor and said I could go online
and activate the new phone with a new phone
number, then call back and ask to have my old
phone number and minutes transferred over
to the new one and it might take a couple of
days.
I started to do that, but then I second guessed
him and called back once more. That was
when I talked to a girl in China whom I could
barely understand. Somehow, she got my old
plan transferred to my new phone but then
told me I couldn’t get the data plan I wanted
because it was only for Walmart customers. I
asked her to put my old phone back the way it
was and I would go do it myself with the new
w w w . m a c u s e r g r o u p . c o m phone. She told me I would have to go to a
T-mobile store and have them switch it back!
I was livid. I drove to the mall and told
Roberto at the T-mobile store what had
happened and what I was trying to do. He
told me that he thought I should be able to
get what I wanted. He picked up the phone
and called customer service and happened
to get a really awesome person on the line
who offered to help me do it over the phone.
Unfortunately, I had to run back home to get
the activation kit for the codes. When I got
back and he called the number again, he got
a different person, of course. I was sure this
time it wouldn’t work out, but he told this
person to look in the “notes” from the last
person he talked to (and he had the name).
They did the transfer over the phone, but told
me the new plan would not kick in right away.
I would get a text message in a couple of
hours or maybe the next day.
For the next couple of hours, I kept hoping
for a text message but it didn’t come. I was
beginning to worry that maybe it wouldn’t
9
happen, but the next
morning, I logged onto
my T-mobile account
online and saw that my
new plan was posted and
my balance had carried
over! Hooray!!!! The text
message hadn’t come yet, but a couple of
hours later, it did come. The $30 for the first
month was taken from my T-mobile balance
and it will continue to do that each month
until it uses it up and then I will set up an
automatic payment system.
To try out my new data plan on the iPhone, I
went for a walk along the river and called a
friend for a video FaceTime chat. It worked!
He could see me as clear as could be. He
could see the scenery around me and I could
see him (although the sunlight makes it tough
to see what is on the iPhone). I was using my
new data plan to talk without having to use
any of my 100 minutes that goes with the
plan. How cool is it to videochat on an iPhone
while out and about?
How to get a panorama photo using iOS 7
O
n my new iPhone, to take a panorama
photo, I open the camera and swipe sideways until I get to “Pano.” I am not sure other
phones running iOS 7 are exactly like that.
You may need to go into “options” first to get
Pano.
Once you are in Pano mode, you see an arrow
on the screen and if you want to move the
camera in one direction, make sure the arrow
is pointing that direction. As you click to take
the picture, it is similar to a video or burst
where it takes several pictures and stitches
them together as you move the camera or
move your body. You can also use Pano to
move the camera up or down by using as well
as left or right. It is pretty easy to get a wide
view picture this way.
Try to keep the
camera even with the
line on the camera as
you move.
If you have an older
iPhone that won’t
update to iOS 7, there
are some apps that
will let you create
panorama photos
from pictures you
take with the phone.
You might get some distortion in the picture,
depending on how wide you make the
picture. It is also best not to move too fast.
You actually get to see a small preview of the
photo as you are taking it. It grows as you
move.
The Finder
10
w w w . m a c u s e r g r o u p . c o m TheSnugg iPhone case
by
Linda Cameron, editor
I
once made the mistake of buying a new
iPod and taking the plastic off the face,
putting it into my pocket with my keys and
going for a walk. My iPod got all scratched up
and stayed that way the whole time I owned it.
I now have 2 cases I can use to protect my
new iPhone 5S (champagne gold). One is a
black Otterbox. When the phone is in that
case, you can’t see the gold color at all but it is
good for protection.
The 2nd case is a more luxurious, leather case
from TheSnugg.com. The iPhone just slips
inside it (similar to some eyeglass cases that
are open on one end.
The difference between this case and an
eyeglass case is that the iPhone fits into the
Snugg case nice and tight—that is why it is
called “Snugg.” There is a pull tab you lift
when you want to take the phone out of the
case. If you dropped the case with
the phone inside, the case is
padded and tight enough
that it would protect the
phone. The phone did not
slip out of the case when I
held it upside down.
I can still put the phone
in my jeans pocket, as I
always do, or I can drop it
into any pocket. I sometimes
will put my phone in a shirt or jacket pocket
with my earbuds attached while I am out on
a walk, but I try NOT to keep my phone in a
shirt pocket all the time because I have a fear
of dropping it into water if I were to bend over
while washing dishes or something.
With this leather Snugg iPhone case, I can slip
the phone in so the earbud port is facing up
and go for my walk while listening to music,
podcasts, or talking on the phone.
The Snugg case, besides holding the phone,
has a separate compartment where you could
carry some money or a business card. When
I go for my daily walk, I do not carry a purse
or wallet, so it isn’t a bad idea to have a $5 bill
handy in case I need it.
The Finder
I just tried out using the Snugg iPhone case
when I went out for a 3-mile walk. I had it in
my pocket with the earbuds attached to my
ears. That worked well. I listened to a podcast
while walking. About halfway into the walk,
I sat on a bench and checked my email. That
meant pulling the tab to pop the iPhone out
of the case. Then I needed to figure out what
to do with the case while I used the iPhone. I
just sat it on the bench next to me and hoped I
wouldn’t forget it. I didn’t. When I continued
walking, I decided to snap a couple of pictures
with the iPhone. Again, I used the pull tab
to eject the phone from the case. I put the
case into my coat pocket and took pictures,
then put the phone back into the case and my
pocket, then continued on my way listening to
the podcast.
I am used to having a case that stays on the
phone whether I want to take a picture, check
my email or just put it into my pocket. This
case isn’t like that. However, it does have
something going for it. It is more elegant
looking—nice leather. When I remove the
phone, you get to see the gorgeous champagne
gold color. You usually don’t see the color
of the phone with the other type of case that
stays on all the time.
I am thinking that an iPhone, like a person
can change what it wears according to where
it is being used. The Snugg leather case is
nicer for when I am at meetings or out for
lunch or dinner. On the other hand, if I am
outside—walking, boating, bicycling—it
might make more sense to use the Otterbox
case.
Be sure to check out http://thesnugg.com to see
all the different smartphone or tablet cases.
There are a lot of them, and all different
types. I chose this distressed, brown leather
because I thought it would be elegant and it
is. There is an ultra thin clear case that looks
like it might be nice also for showing off the
iPhone color while protecting it. It is the kind
which stays on the phone most of the time
even while using the phone.
I like having a dressier case to use when I am
more dressed up.
w w w . m a c u s e r g r o u p . c o m Continued from page 7
drive. I am tempted to click commands more
than once, as I wait for the PC to respond to
the first. Installing applications was a bit slow.
Nevertheless, it got done, and all programs
responded to commands. I launched each one
to ascertain proper function.
Once I had all apps installed and tested for
function, I ran a full system scan using AVG.
It took quite a long time, about 2 hours, but
it did find three “threats,” all, so it appears,
from the “old” Win files that were archived
by the Win 7 installation. One was a virus
and the other two were adware files. Those
were identified and automatically removed by
AVG.
This is not the first time I’ve found AVG
particularly capable in identifying and
removing viruses from a Windows computer.
One time, a few years ago, I ran AVG on
a friends Dell, after I’d performed a clean
install of Windows and performed all the
updates, the virus software discovered and
eliminated three viruses, a trojan horse and
one worm. The only website I’d visited was
the Microsoft site to find and download the
updates! I’ve also heard that I’m not the only
one to have encountered such threats on the
MS Website. This time, however, the threats
were contained in the HP’s hard drive, and
had most likely been there when the defunct
HP had given up the ghost.
Once all the installations and scans were
finished came the task of putting all the
rescued data onto the PC’s hard drive. To
begin, I went to my desktop Mac where the
rescued data waited and using the “Get Info”
command I discovered that the data I had
copied from the PC hard drive was nearly 60
GB. That meant I needed to rustle up a hard
drive capable of holding that much data, along
with whatever else it might contain.
I have several external drives lying about,
as well as some bare drives that are easily
capable of holding 60 GB of data, and I
gathered one of those up and attached it to
my desktop. Then I dragged and dropped
the folder holding the data into the drive’s
mourned icon.
11
using USB 2.0. Ironically, the defunct HP,
being a later model than its replacement, has
a FireWire 400 port on it. It’s a shame that
computer wasn’t of better quality.
A thorough scan of all the rescued files
using AVG found no threats, and all data
successfully moved over, to my relief and the
delight of my grandson and family. It seems
like a lot of work just to put a PC back to
work, but for some reason, people keep using
those clunkers.
I may be converting a new user to Mac
fairly soon. A young lady I met recently, a
friend of granddaughter Tammy, has an HP
laptop she purchased for college, and which
has spent more time in the shop than in her
possession. As it is less than one year old,
she is in the process now, of returning it for
refund, and plans to have me procure a more
reliable instrument for her use. It is a forgone
conclusion what that will be. Most likely a
Unibody MacBook. I’ve put several of those
in the hands of new users, and exactly none of
them have ever had a moment’s problem with
them. I’m looking forward to bringing a new
user to the platform!
Transfer to the hard drive took about 1 hours,
using the FireWire 400 port on the front of
my Mac G5 1.8 GHZ DP, and approximately
2 hours to put it back on the PC hard drive
The Finder
Mid-Columbia Macintosh User Group
1100 Catskill
Richland WA 99354
First Class
Time Sensitive
November 12th Meeting
2nd Tuesday of month
7:00 p.m. Find a good spot to sit, checkout video training
discs, chat with other members and eat pizza.
7:30 p.m. At the next meeting, Jacob Campbell will
demonstrate several applications he likes. The idea is
to do a quick 5-10 minute demo on each one.
8:45 p.m. Meeting Adjourned
Any questions? Post them to the McMUG mailing list. If
you are not on it, then go sign up now at ­
http://www.macusergroup.com
Meeting location:
Quinault Baptist Church
5400 W Canal Dr, Kennewick, WA,
Arrive as early as 7:00 p.m.
Near the Tri-City Court Club on Edison
Directions can be found at:
http://www.macusergroup.com/directions2.html