January 8, 2013 · 6:23 pm

Master Your Mac with Keyboard Shortcuts

CMD TAB

Switch between Applications as quick as a flash using your keyboard, hold down CMD ⌘ and press TAB ⇥ once

This post is specifically for Mac Users with keyboards that
have the Apple CMD ⌘ key

I repeat … hold down CMD ⌘ and press TAB ⇥ once

Its one of the best keyboard shortcuts, second only to COPY and PASTE. Use it more often and you’ll be much more productive, never again will you have to move windows around to get to the one behind or shrink a window to the dock or quit an Application just to get it out the way.

CMD ⌘ and H is the best friend of CMD ⌘ and TAB ⇥. It hides the current Application and all it’s windows.

Just these two keyboard shortcuts will help you navigate your computer quickly and easily and give you more time to think about the problem. In this way, you can hop between Excel, iTunes, Mail, Safari, Pages, Photoshop*, iMessage, iPhoto, Skype & even Windows 7, or any other running Application. Press CMD ⌘ and H to hide an Application and switch control to the one behind it, press them again and again until everything is hidden, except the last one which you cannot hide.

Try it out now!

Press CMD ⌘ on your keyboard, keep your finger or thumb on it

(you might want to read the next bit before proceeding)

Now press the TAB ⇥ key once but keep your finger or thumb on CMD ⌘

A horizontal row of icons appears of all the applications that are currently running on your computer. One of the icons is highlighted with a white border and the name of the application below it.

  • Take your finger off the CMD ⌘ key and the highlighted application will be brought to the front and these instructions will be hidden behind the window
  • Or press TAB ⇥ again (with your finger still on CMD ⌘) to move to the next icon in the row, and again and again to loop around.

Go ahead, try it now for free.

Used in conjunction with CMD ⌘ and H (to hide the current Application and all its windows) these two simple shortcuts will improve your computer navigation skills and help make your computer work for you.

This is quite old-school now, it feels like a Microsoft sort of thing and I suspect its inclusion some years ago was in part due to Windows XP or even earlier. The traditional keyboard is being ousted as an input device as operating systems move towards touch-screen input. LaunchPad and Mission Control are graphical extensions of this simple concept, but it is worth understanding the purpose of the TAB key before it is relegated to a button on the side of the touch-screen device or forgotten completely.

There are plenty of other keyboard shortcuts for beginners and professionals to remember, there’s even some on a Blackberry keyboard. This must be a huge stumbling block for operating system developers; it is quicker to COPY using a mouse and keyboard than it is with a mobile device. Voice activated control is getting better but lacks user confidence and trust. The keyboard is here for a while longer, so learn these shortcuts and you’ll appear like you know what you are doing, even if you don’t.

Extreme Pro-Tip 1 : press BACKTAB (SHIFT ⇧ and TAB ⇥) to move between Applications in the other direction.

Extreme Pro-Tip 2 : press Q to quit the highlighted Application.

* Adobe Photoshop and some other applications reserve the use of CMD H for other shortcuts within the application. You can reassign them in Photoshop using Edit / Keyboard Shortcuts.

Download a PDF of useful Apple Shortcuts

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October 18, 2012 · 10:40 am

iPhone 5 Review

Apple’s latest iPhone model is another step forward for the smartphone. We rely on these devices so much now; checking email, updating schedules, locating the nearest bar and idling a few moments on the train, oh and making phone calls too. A world without them would seem dull and slow.

So do you need the iPhone 5?

Yes, you do. It’s lighter ( a noticeable 25g lighter than an iPhone 4), thinner, smarter and quicker. Pick one up and you’ll immediately feel the difference.

Most of the iPhone 4’s features have been improved;

A bigger screen (9mm taller) which adds an extra row of App icons and gives you widescreen without letterbox and at a higher screen resolution (1136 x 640 but still at 326 pixels per inch). It’s not the biggest screen on the smartphone market, but it is a better experience. If it was any bigger you wouldn’t be able to use just one hand to operate it, and it would have to be called an iPad mini (available soon).

If you are an iPhone 3 or 4 user, sign up to iCloud for free and backup your phone first. With your new phone, login to iCloud and as if by magic all of your old phone’s settings including email, alarms, calendars, contacts, everything in fact, appears on your new phone. No hassle, no fees, all thanks to iOS6 and iCloud.

The iPhone 5 has a new processor too, the Apple designed and Samsung manufactured A6 chip which is faster and uses less power than the previous iPhone processors. Apple and Samsung seem to be falling out at present so I expect the next iPhone will have yet another new processor inside. Just as long as it is as quick as this new A6 then all will be well.

iPhone 5 comes with a new iSight camera which works great with iOS6 and the new Camera.app, it is panorama fun but Apple say “don’t point it at the sun”, I’m not sure why since lens flare can be a good thing. Video is recorded in 1080p HD, just a few years ago such a camera would cost hundreds of pounds.

earPods come with the iPhone 5 and are a great idea and work well, they fit perfectly in my lugholes and the sound is really good too. Designed for right-handed users but not that much of an issue for the sinistrally challenged. The speakers on the phone are better than previous models, but send your music over AirPlay if you need a sound that isn’t just for you.

A new charging and synching connector works much better than the old 30 pin one. I like the way that the serial connector has shrunk and shrunk into the tiny Lightning connector, I just wish someone had thought of it ages ago and it was as ubiquitous as USB has been. I now have to buy spare USB to Lightning or 30 pin to Lightning connectors. All of my Apple iPods and iPhones came with a USB to 30 pin cable, apart from my first iPod which had a firewire connection and the first Shuffle which didn’t need a cable, so I had a few charging stations around the house and office for my iPhone. With just the one cable now I need to buy more, but so do thousands of others and there’s a world shortage. I’m slightly more disappointed with this than when the floppy disk was dropped by Apple, at least then you could buy blank CDs cheaply.

One of the best things about the iPhone 5 is the 4G chipset delivering mobile broadband at speeds up to 100Mbit/s, quicker than UK home broadband speeds. However, there’s a big catch for UK users; only EE (a merger of T-Mobile and Orange) can provide such 4G services at present and will (are) only be available in 16 cities in the UK to begin with. Worse news is that the 4G frequencies used inside the iPhone 5 will not compatible with other UK providers 4G services, so only EE users will be able to benefit from the freedom that such speeds will bring to the iPhone 5 user. Travel to India and soon 4G will be available across the whole sub-continent, even shanty towns will have better mobile broadband than the UK. This is going to be a big issue in the UK, if O2 and the others use spectrum frequencies from the old analog TV signals to provide 4G, we’ll have to wait for the iPhone 5S before being able to make use of the faster speeds. EE is using the 1800MHz spectrum to provide 4G, which is one of the frequencies used by the iPhone 5. Governments sell licences to transmit and receive signals through the skies above us, the air has been privatised, we just haven’t noticed.

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August 22, 2012 · 4:23 pm

Top Tips for Lion Users

and only one for Snow Leopard users

Airdrop. The easiest method of filesharing between computers, ever. Use it whenever you need to move files between computers that are within wifi range of each other. You don’t even have to connect to a network or be on the same local area network. It is simple, quick and easy to use. Its almost how sci-fi writers imagined file sharing would be, without the mind linkup. How it works under the hood is much more complicated and difficult to explain: Airdrop is based on Apple’s own interpretation of the WiFi Direct standards which enable adhoc 5GHz peer to peer WPA2 networks in a similar way to bluetooth. Airdrop is an IT Manager’s nightmare because it’s so easy. Check if your computer can use Airdrop here.

If you haven’t been using LaunchPad, Mission Control and full-screen apps you really should try them again. They make navigating your way around your Mac a lot easier, but if you don’t get on with them how about using keyboard shortcuts instead?

CMD and TAB is the quick and easy way to swap between programs, press CMD then TAB and keep your finger on the CMD key, you’ll see what other programs are currently running (and using the RAM), press TAB to tab between them, press Q to quit the highlighted program or let go to select.

CMD and H will hide the current program and reveal the one behind it. Using just these two keyboard shortcuts is all you need to navigate around your Mac, they’ve both been around for years and are not a new feature of Lion or Mountain Lion.

Upgrade to Mountain Lion. Apple have been quite cheeky with this latest update to the operating system, its more like a bug fix for Lion with some cosmetic (but worth it) changes and additions. If you are a Snow Leopard user you can go straight to Mountain Lion and save yourself the cost of upgrading to Lion, check if your machine will work with Mountain Lion here.

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July 23, 2012 · 3:34 pm

Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion, will be available to download from the App Store for only £14 on Wednesday 25th July. Do you need it?

Yes, you do.

What does Mountain Lion do?

It brings some of the iOS features to the desktop in Apple’s quest to make all of their hardware and software work together in a seamless and recognisable way. Some improvements to iCloud ready for iOS 6 in the autumn along with the new iPhone 5 release could mean getting your Mac up to date now will get you ahead of the curve. Mountain Lion is generally an update rather than a ‘new’ operating system, so most Apps will work fine.

Here’s a quick summary Mountain Lion’s features:

iMessage on the desktop. You can send an MMS to anyone who has an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch or another Mountain Lion user, great for texting from your computer and receiving replies.

Reminders – now on your desktop too, at last you can put a reminder on your iPhone and see it when you open your Mac.

Notification Centre – a bit like having AOL on your desktop, but hopefully much much better. Might be a bit annoying at first, hopefully it will have a “Do Not Disturb” button.

Dictation – talk to your Mac in any App that you can type into. Another voice recognition attempt which learns your voice. Most people I know don’t like the idea of talking to a computer because the software has been difficult (rubbish) – eg. IBM’s ViaVoice and to some extent Siri on the iPhone, but maybe Apple have cracked this one at last.

Power Nap – not sure I like this: when your Mac laptop (with flash storage) is asleep it will still be communicating on the network, downloading your eMails, synching PhotoStream and even backing up. Its not really asleep then is it!

Sharing – buttons added throughout Mountain Lion to share links, photos and files via Mail, iMessage and AirDrop.

Facebook integration, maybe I will finally start using Facebook and not hating it so much or maybe I will just find the button to turn off Facebook. Microsoft have bought their own Facebook App called Yammer, so will no doubt be integrating that into Windows 8, I’m not convinced that Social Networking should be an integral part of an operating system.

Twitter – tweet links and photos directly from Safari and iPhoto. See the responses pop-up  in the Notification Centre.

AirPlay Mirroring – share your desktop screen via your AppleTV wirelessly. That’s quite cool, especially if you have a huge HDTV. Great in the classroom or conference room, no more messing about finding the right adapter.

Game Centre on the desktop. If you have to play games this is the way to do it.

GateKeeper – protects your Mac when downloading Apps from the App Store and other places. Very useful if you download a lot of Apps from various sources and want the assurance that they won’t damage your Mac.

Safari – an upgrade to enable the URL bar as a search bar, just like Windows Explorer! You can now surf on your Mac, pick up your phone and continue surfing in the same place, all neatly synched for you.

Some other tweaks:

Tap for QuickLook – now you can tap the trackpad with 3 fingers to get a quick preview of any file, the spacebar was the way to do this before in case you didn’t know.

Launchpad Search – click on LaunchPad and start typing the name of the App you are looking for, Launchpad displays matching results.

Full Screen Apps on any display. If you have a second monitor you can now put an App in full screen on any display.

Screen Sharing Drag and Drop – you can copy files from a Mac you are managing with Screen Sharing.

Screen Saver enhancements, use PhotoStream as your screen saver

Time Machine now lets you backup to multiple locations, eg home and work.

Summary

There’s no real “killer” improvement as far as I can tell, but as is usual with operating system upgrades you have to buy it to keep your hardware investment up to date and fully functioning. £13.99 is not much to pay to stay in the game.

Apps Known to Not Work in Mountain Lion

see http://roaringapps.com/ for more info

AutoCAD 2012

FileMaker Pro 11.0.3

KeyNote 5.1.1

LotusNotes 8.5.3

Numbers 2.1

OmniPlan 2

PhotoShop Elements 5 v9.0

Apple Remote Desktop 3.5.2

VMWare 3

iPhone 5 rumoured to be released on 12th September 2012, along with iOS 6

Check the Tech Specs to see if your Mac can run Mountain Lion, although the install will check if your Mac can run it for you.

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May 21, 2012 · 9:01 am

from POP to IMAP in 5 Easy Steps

Things you will need to know before you move from POP to IMAP;

  1. Your email username and password, you can check if you know them by logging on to webmail for your email address using a web browser.
  2. Your IMAP server settings, these include the server address and port number and can usually be found on the web in your email provider’s support pages.

Got all them? Then you’re ready to go.

  1. Backup your computer, make sure it includes all your email and settings.
  2. Move all of your email in your Inbox and your Sent Items to local folders on your computer’s hard drive. Move Trash and Drafts also if you need to.
  3. Disable the POP account in your mail settings, only disable, do not delete.
  4. Configure your mail settings for a new account with the new IMAP server settings.
  5. Check you can send and receive by sending yourself a message.

Repeat on all other devices that check your email. Don’t leave any of your devices still checking your email with POP, this will really mess things up for you.

You can create IMAP folders (also known as mailboxes) on the IMAP server and move your old email to these folders if required.

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April 9, 2012 · 12:35 pm

MobileMe and Snow Leopard, iCloud and Lion

There is a deadline looming that MobileMe users cannot escape. On the 30th June 2012 Apple will switch off the servers that run MobileMe and if you haven’t upgraded to iCloud your MobileMe email will no longer work.

If you are running MacOSX 10.7.3 (Lion) then you can move to iCloud by going to http://me.com/move

Update June 2012 : Apple have made it easier for Snow Leopard users, read this below thoroughly and it explains all http://www.apple.com/mobileme/transition.html

Some Snow Leopard or earlier users cannot upgrade to Lion because of incompatible software (eg. Adobe CS4), or they have an early Intel Mac which won’t run Lion, or they simply don’t like what they’ve seen or heard about Lion. However, all is not lost, these users can still move from MobileMe to iCloud without needing to upgrade to Lion. Try following the instructions at EggFreckles to move your email, contact and calendars to iCloud. Some of the iCloud features will be missing for you though; PhotoStream for example and there’s plenty more you’ll be missing out on (and even more in the next OS Mountain Lion), especially if you have an iOS device. You need an Apple ID to use iCloud. MobileMe email addresses are Apple IDs, so if you have a MobileMe account but cannot run Lion then you can manually migrate your Apple ID to iCloud by following the instructions from Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4929

Before you do any of the above, make sure you get a good backup of your entire system.

Please get in touch if you need some help or advice

Not on Snow Leopard yet? Get a free copy from Apple

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Filed under backup, Calendars, cloud computing, Contacts, eMail, iOS5, IT Support, MacOS X Lion, MobileMe, Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard

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March 5, 2012 · 11:37 am

Backup Your Computer

We all know we should backup our data but we don’t always do it correctly, read this to make sure you have got it right.

Reasons to Backup

  • you delete something you shouldn’t have
  • the hard drive or computer suffers a mechanical breakdown
  • the computer is stolen or lost
  • the computer gets infected by a virus
  • a catastrophic event occurs – flooding, fire, a plane lands on the building, you throw the computer out of the window

Backup Methods

  • an external hard drive
  • digital tape
  • USB stick
  • DVD/CD Burner
  • the cloud

Types of Backup

A full backup copies everything including system files. An incremental backup only copies what has changed since the last backup.

Backup Strategy

Choosing a strategy that fits with what you do is vital to ensuring you can recover from any disaster. Decide how often you need to backup, it could be hourly, daily, weekly or monthly and decide how long you need to keep the backups for. If the data is business related or precious you might need to keep off-site backups.

How to Perform a Backup

Windows 7 and MacOS X come with backup software installed and ready to go. Both are easy to use and guide you through the process of configuring the backup schedule and choosing what to backup. If you have the installation disks for your Operating System and Applications, you can reduce the time the backup takes to complete and increase the life of the backup volume by excluding these from the backup schedule.

Copy is not the same as Backup

When you use some backup software a lot of the management of the data is taken care of for you. The “properties” of the files and folders are also backed up; things like file ownership and creation dates are preserved. This makes restoring the files much easier because you can search by date and be sure you get the right version of the file you want to restore.

When you copy your files and folders to an external device as a backup you should always consider this as a temporary copy and not a backup. Otherwise, you will end up with copies of copies and your external disks will fill up with duplicated data. Its always a good idea to make a quick backup or copy of your files before you apply an update or install some new software on your computer. Just make sure you delete the copy after the installation or update is complete.

How to Backup Really Big Files

Graphic designers, video editors, music producers and others who create large amounts of data need a different backup strategy to the software that comes with Windows and Mac operating systems. The solution is to use a tape backup system which can store 1.5TB or more with compression. Projects are often created on one or more external disks which are then stored as an archive of the project. The next project uses new disks or the data is squeezed onto the previous disks. All of the data on these disks must be backed up to tape otherwise there is no backup, just online storage.

Backup the Cloud

Are you a cloud user? Is your business “in the cloud”? Do you backup all of your data that is in the cloud? If your cloud account is hacked or you or an employee accidentally delete something in the cloud you’ll need a backup. BackupGoo, Spanning and Backupify are services which will backup Google cloud data, for a fee.

Prove Your Backup

There is no point in backing up unless you have proven that it works. You should regularly try to restore a random file from your backup just to make sure everything works fine.

Future-Proof Yourself

When you buy a new computer you should make sure you consider how you will back it up. Getting the biggest internal drive you can afford may mean you have to expand your backup devices too.

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