Monday, June 25, 2012

Episode 50: Can't find my phone

Hi Everyone,

I know that we never misplace things in life and definitely not an iPhone. Did you know that there are tools to help you find your iPhone and tools that you should consider to help protect your iPhones/iPads.

Where did I put the phone?
“Find My iPhone” is a service that you can use to help find your iPhone/iPad. Everyone should have “iCloud” setup on your mobile device. All you have to do is enable “Find My iPhone/iPad” to launch this free service. If you have multiple devices (iPhone/iPad) and you misplaced your phone, just launch “Find iPhone” (available at the app store if it’s not on your device) to send a message, see where you placed it or even lock and remote wipe the phone. From a computer, go to icloud.com and login with your Apple ID and password.

The great part is that even if you had set your phone to vibrate or volume to low, the sound it plays is loud. If in the event that your phone is stolen, you can remote lock and remote wipe your phone, protecting your information on your phone. Which brings us to my next tip security.

Are you protecting your information?
If you don’t protect your phone with a passcode, you can’t protect the information, photos, videos, etc on your iPhone/iPad. If you are like me and don’t have a passcode to open your phone, at least enable restrictions and passcode protect location services.

Go to Settings\General\Restrictions\Enable Restrictions (you’ll have to create a passcode here…don’t forget this passcode) \Location\ and select “Don’t Allow Changes”

This will help keep location services locked on your iPhone/iPad. If your device is stolen and turned off. You can still send a lock or remote wipe command to the phone (Find iPhone app or iCoud). As soon as it is turned on, it will lock down or wipe the info (depending on the command you sent). If it was a wifi device like an iPad, the same thing will apply as soon as it connects to the internet. This is the only drawback of not protecting a wifi only device with an opening passcode. Until the device connects to the internet, they have access to your personal info on that device.

Take a snapshot (press the On\Off button and Home button and the same time) of your “About” screen to store your serial number and IMEI number (you’ll have to scroll up to see both on the screen at the same time and make sure to upload the photo to your computer or cloud). The IMEI number is what your service provided will need to blacklist your device from their network.

Turn your printer into an AirPrinter
Okay, you have plenty of regular printers at home and no AirPrinter to print from your iPad/iPhone. Sure there are apps out there that will print from the app, but you want to print from your web browser or your document that you’re reading. Well, if you have a wifi network at home and a shared printer on your network, you can turn your printer into an AirPrinter. Go to Netputing and download their AirPrint Activator. It works on my Mac network. If you have PC’s at home, let me know if the universal driver works on your network.

Our favorite app of the day: Temple Run Brave ($0.99) It’s like the free version of Temple Run, but based on the movie Brave. Lots of fun…I see Susie playing it all the time…LOL.

Hope you enjoy these tips. Don’t forget, if you have a great tip or app, pass it on.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Episode 49: What a pane, trying to find that file

Hi Everyone,

Did you know that you have a tool out there that will help you look through a document without launching the application (ex. Word). Most of you use it every day when you open up your email and see the content in the preview pane.

Where did I put that file?
Here’s a little tool that can be very helpful when managing similar or large (number or items, not size) files. I seldom see people using this tool. For one reason or another, perhaps you haven’t opened it in a while and it’s no longer in your recently opened list.  I’ve seen so many users opening and closing numerous files, trying to find a file they are looking for. Raise your hand if you are one of them. Next time, try the “Preview Pane” (see Figure 1.01). Click on the icon and the preview pane will open, letting you preview the file without opening the application (see Figure 1.02). You can scroll through the document, highlight and copy information (I use it to copy scripts and formulas). Remember, this is just a tool that you want to use when needed. Like a light switch, turn it on when you are searching for something and turn it off when you are done.


Surfing the web (iPhone/iPad)
Here are a few web tools to try. Okay, you’re surfing the web on your mobile device and you want to copy the image from the web? Click and hold on the image and you will see the options window open. Us it to save or copy the image. If you save the image, it will save it to your camera roll. I also us this option to open links in new tabs. Click on hold on a link to open the page in a new tab. Have you seen “READER” in the address bar when looking for article on the web? Click on it to read the article without the ads or clutter of the web page. If you want to save the article or read it later, add it to your “Reader List”.