- 03 9428 4999
Apple has recently released the latest iPhone, the iPhone 5!
The iPhone 5 looks like quite the sleek machine running faster and physically lighter than it’s predecessors – 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the iPhone 4S.
It has a larger 4″ retina display , a faster A6 chip, the latest wireless technology, an 8MP iSight camera, and more.
In addition to the actual iPhone, the newest iDevice software, iOS6 has also been released. This release brings Apple’s own Maps app replacing Google’s version, a smarter Siri (though we’ll see about that here in Australia), Facetime over cellular network, Facebook integration and Passbook amongst the 200+ listed other new features.
Compatible devices are the iPhone 3GS, 4, 4s and 5, iPod 4th generation, iPad 2 and the new iPad (3).
Everyone in our office has made the jump and had no problems other than minor maps niggles. We’re big fans of the updated Mail client, enhanced phone features like replying to missed phone calls with canned messages in particular.
For an exhaustive list of the 200+ new features click the below link:
http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/
Mac Aid News.
We welcome yet another team member.
Tip of the Month
In this month’s tip, learn about Apple’s free ‘Find your Device’ service.
In the event that one loses, misplaces or has a cheeky workmate hide your iPhone, iPad or Mac then Find my Device can help you locate the device and/or protect your data.
You can log in through the iCloud web login to find any of your devices, play a sound, go into Lost Mode (as below) or Erase itself.
There is a very similar app will let you use an iOS device to locate your missing device on a map, play a sound, display a message, remotely lock your device, or erase all the data on it. iOS6 brings a further ‘Lost Mode’ that locks the phone with a 4 pin code, displays a contact number and sends information about it’s whereabouts.
You can find the app in the App Store or click the link below.
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/find-my-iphone/id376101648?mt=8#
For information on how to set up Find you iPhone read the below how to:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2697
We think this is a very neat and potentially under-utilised app that everybody should be using.
Apple news.
Apple’s newest releases of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 have gotten everyone all aflutter.
Mac Aid News.
We welcome yet another team member.
We at Mac Aid are pleased to welcome yet another team member, Nathan Jarvie-Kohn.
Nathan is our newest junior technician, who is eager to learn, and make his way in the business. Being an amateur competitive ballroom dancer, allows him to have the determination for success and perfection.
In his spare time, he enjoys watching Batman and Harry Potter movies.
As our staff grow to a total of 9, our capabilities and offerings are growing to match. We are committed to developing our existing staff professionally, both through certification and experience, as well as adding to the talent pool as demand continues to grow, so you can expect ever improving service and advice from Mac Aid!
Apple news.
Apple’s newest releases of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 have gotten everyone all aflutter.
Click here to read more about them.
Tip of the Month
In this month’s tip, learn about Apple’s free ‘Find your Device’ service.
Due to the popularity of last month’s tip section, “10 tips that don’t warrant an article each” we thought we would do another one. However,the majority of these tips focus on Apple’s most recent addition to the OSX family, Mountain Lion. Users on earlier operation systems check out the end of the document for some tips that work on all systems.
Read the previous months tips here: http://www.macaid.com.au/july-2012-tip-of-the-month/
Here are some of our Mountain Lion tips:
-You can click on new notifications to take you to the new event eg new email.
– To view all your notifications click the Notification Icon (or swipe left on a trackpad on the desktop) to display the full list (much like iOS5). You can clear notifications by clicking the “x” to the right of an application’s name. To use Dictation, open any application that accepts text input, position the cursor, and press the Function (Fn) key twice—then begin speaking. Dictation will learn your voice characteristics as you use it, so results should improve over time.
– You can turn off the Notification Centre by alt-clicking on the Notification Centre icon in the top right hand corner of the screen.
– Scrolling up in Notifications will display an option to pause all Alerts until the next day.
– To customise your Notification Centre alerts, head to System Preferences, and then Notifications. You can choose between no alert at all, a banner (which fades away), or an alert that stays on the screen until you dismiss it.
– Mountain Lion now has Dictation which will allow to you to capture your speech and paste them into a text document, mail message or anywhere you can type. Enable Dictation within System Preferences > Dictation & Speech.
– To print straight from quicklook, hit the ‘command’ and ‘P’ keys whilst in quicklook. One copy of your document will be printed to the default printer.
– To share your chosen document from quicklook, just press the arrow button (as per the below image). You can then choose where you wish to share it.
Tips for Mac OSX in general:
– ‘Tab’ will switch between dialogue boxes but did you know that if you hold down the ‘Shift’ key and press the ‘Tab’ key it will step through in reverse order.
– To quicklook documents (to see what’s in them without having to open them), highlight the document, and then hit the spacebar. It works in most places, even in email attachments.
– By dragging and dropping a file (eg. a pdf) into the mail icon, a new mail message will be created with that particular document attached.
– If using Apple’s ‘Spaces’, by default, pressing the ‘control’ key and an arrow key will move along to the next space in that direction. For example, ‘Control’ and the right arrow will move you one space to the right. If there isn’t a space to the right, you’ll end up shifting rows and enter the first space on that row (rows and columns are set up when enabling Spaces in System Preferences).
The big question most mac users face is whether or not it’s worth upgrading their operating system to the ‘latest and greatest’.
Sometimes, the latest operating system release is a must have offering much wanted new features and enhance the users experience but sometimes an upgrade can be more of a headache than it’s worth. In any case it’s important to check before you make the jump.
Should I upgrade to Mountain Lion?
First off, if you are running OSX Lion, then you should be fine to make the modest jump to Mountain Lion. There is nothing terribly different or machine breaking about the 10.8 release, so most users will find that their experience should continue much the same with Mountain Lion as it did in Lion.
If you’re on Snow Leopard (10.6) or earlier then you have to ask the same questions as were asked when Lion was released;
What applications do you run and use that are PowerPC Applications?
Like OSX Lion, Mountain Lion has no support for PowerPC Applications and as such it’s important to check that nothing will break at an inopportune time.
You can check this in System Profiler, which you get to by clicking ‘More Info’ on the About This Mac box from the Apple menu. Select Applications under Software in the left hand column and after a moment or three you will receive a snapshot of all the Applications currently installed on your Mac. Identify any PowerPC listings in the ‘Kind’ column and make movements to see if there is a Universal/Lion/Mountain Lion ready version available for each. If there isn’t an update available then perhaps this creates a serious factor stopping you from making the update to Mountain Lion at this point.
Roaring apps is a great site that can reveal the compatibility of various versions of an Application. Check it out..
Is your computer compatible?
Mountain Lion requires the following: OS X v10.6.8 or later, 2GB of memory, 8GB of available storage space.
The Supported models: MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer), MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer), MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer), Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer), iMac (mid-2007 or newer), Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
It is worthwhile to mention that while 2GB of memory on an early Mac might run Mountain Lion it may not give the best experience perhaps by being slow and unresponsive.
In Summary
Remember the upgrade is not essential and you’re not losing out by not upgrading now. You can make the move at a later date perhaps when your software is Lion compatible or a suitable alternative is found.
Also please back up everything possible before making the move as things can go wrong and you want to be protected in the slim chance that it does, but you were backing up anyway weren’t you?
For more info about OSX Mountain Lion have a read at http://www.apple.com/au/osx/
