Episode 64: Scotty, I need more power...

Hi Everyone,

Have you ever noticed that your battery drain can be somewhat inconsistent. You get half a day’s change on one day and two days change on another. You find yourself wandering if you have a bad battery or was I just playing Bejeweled longer than I thought I was? Well, let’s look at battery power for this tip of the day.

Battery: Tips for increasing your battery life
Did you know that there are several elements that can affect your battery life? Have you ever noticed when traveling your batteries seem to last longer. You don’t always have access to Wi-Fi and if you are flying, your device is in Airplane Mode. On my last flight, I was able to watch three movies and still had more than 50% left on my iPad.

Do you have a lot of apps running in the background? Try closing your apps in the Multitasking window. Double click on the Home button, to open the Multitask bar. Click and hold on an icon. Click on the red minus to close the icon. Make sure you are not deleting apps. You will only see the Multitask bar and the icon will have a red minus and not a black circle with an x.

If you have a Bluetooth keyboard, turn it off when you are not using it. If you are continuously connected to a Bluetooth device, this will drain your battery quickly. Adjust your screen brightness. Do you really need it all the way up?

There are a ton of other factors, push email, location services, notification and more that can drain your battery. Changing your email to manual (fetch instead of push for personal accounts), turning off locations & notification services on apps you don’t use will help increase your battery life (do you really need location services on Fruit Ninja).

To keep your battery healthy, once a month, run it all the way down before your charge it up. If you still can’t make it through the day without having to put your device on a charge, come by my desk and we’ll see what is draining your battery.

Fig 64.01 (Multitasking)

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

Episode 63: Merged Phone Calls & Shared Location

Hi Everyone,

Last time, we were over the river and heading through the woods. Well, what if they decide to meet for lunch before going over to grandma’s house. Here’s some more tips for our holiday travelers.

Maps: Shared Location
Did you know that you can share your location from your map? Have you ever drove around trying to find your party, only to find yourself going in circles? Ask them to share their locations on their map app. They can send it via text. Click on the link and it will send it to your map. Route to location and your back on your way with a small detour before going to grandma’s house.

Phone: Merged Calls
Did you know that you can talk to multiple people on your phone at once? Get out of here...I know...Want to talk to grandma and auntie Em at the same time? Call your first person, "add call" and "merge calls" for the second and so on, depending on your network. This works as well if you are on a call and someone calls you. Just "Answer + Hold" your current call and the "merge calls" to create your own little conference/party call.

Hope you enjoy these tips. Have a safe holiday and don’t forget, if you have a great tip or app, pass it on.

Episode 62: "Sharing your photos"

Hi Everyone,

Well it’s that time of the year when we head over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house, gathering for group photos and videos. Here’s a couple tips for the holidays.

Photo Stream: Sharing your photos
Did you know that you can create a shared folder on your iPhone/iPad that you can share with your friends and family? Make sure that Shared Photo Stream is on (Settings/Photos & Camera), then from Photos click on the [ + ] icon to add a new folder in Photo Stream. Give it a name and share it with your friends and family. It will send out an invitation via email. They click on the link to add to their Photo Stream Folder.  Now, whether you’re over the river or through the woods, when you add photos to the shared album, grandma will be able to see the photos on any iOS, Mac or PC (go to apple.com to download Mac & PC iCloud control panel).

Video to Still: How to make a still photo from a video
Okay, it came up in the office, how do I make a still photo from a video on my iPhone. There are a couple apps (Video 2 Photo) or you can do it with some of my previous tips. Find the frame you want as a still photo from your video by scrubbing through the video (last tip of the day). Pause the video. Either tap on the screen or wait for it to go to full frame. Press the "Home" and "Sleep/Wake" button at the same time to save it in your "Camera Roll". Easy as pecan pie...just in case anyone wants to know my favorite pie lol.

App of the week: Qrafter Pro
Want to create QR Codes (Quick Response Code), try Qrafter Pro. I use this app for adding information to our publications we have in our inventory. I add URL, vendor info, production details, cost and more. With a quick scan on my iPhone, it pulls all the details of that job from a small 1x3 label. when searching for apps, always look for the free versions and don't forget to read the reviews.

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

Episode 61: "Do Not Disturb"

Hi Everyone,

Have you ever traveled to another time zone and got calls in the middle of the night? Here’s a couple tips for our world travelers or holiday travelers.

Do Not Disturb
Did you know that you can set your phone to "Do Not Disturb"? If you are traveling to a different time zone and you don’t want to get calls in the middle of the night, try setting the "Do Not Disturb" feature on your iPhones. You can schedule a time frame to silent your calls. If you are worried about missing calls from family, set it to allow calls from your favorite. Go to Settings\(Turn ON) Do Not Disturb\Notifications\Do Not Disturb.

Scrubbing your video
Okay, you are at an airport or onboard your plane watching videos and you want to rewind or fast forward through a section of the video and it takes you way past where you wanted to go. Did you know that you can adjust the scrubbing speed? Next time click and hold on the white dot on the progress bar (highlighted here in red), drag your finger down to show the various scrubbing speed ( Hi-Speed, Half-Speed, Quarter-Speed & Fine) and then rewind or fast forward your video. Easier than scrubbing your pots and pans.

Checking for new mail
Have you ever sat there waiting impatiently for an email? You know, you forgot your password and are waiting for the email so you can access your account. Try swiping downwards on your in your inbox to refresh your email.

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

Episode 60 "Searching the Web"

Hi Everyone,

How do you search for something on the web? Do you open Safari and then type in the search field or do you open Safari, go to Google and then type in the search field? We all have our different ways for searching to the same thing, which brings us to this week’s TOD.

Using Spotlight: iOS
Did you know that you can use Spotlight to search the web? Just double click to the Home button    and type in what you are searching for and click on “Search Web” (Fig 1.01). This will open your default search browser and the results. Want a different search engine (Bing, Yahoo!)? Go to settings\Safari\Search Engine to make the change.


















Can’t read the menu: iOS, Android & Windows
Okay, it’s finally happening to me and I don’t always have my glasses with me. If your farsighted like me and found yourself looking (without your glasses) at a menu, prescription bottle or something you had a hard time reading because the type is sooooo small. Try using the camera on your phone. I was able to zoom in on a prescription bottle and read the direction. There are some free and paid apps with enhancements (lights, contrast, etc) to make it even easier. If you hold your phone horizontally with the lens on the left, it helps with the shadows (iPhone).














Keyboard Tip: iPad
Here’s this week’s keyboard tip. Looking for the shortcut for the apostrophe or quotation key. Instead of clicking on the [ ?123 ] button, try holding down the [ !, ] or [ ?. ] button and slide up to select.


Enjoy,

Episode 59 "Drafting an email"

Hi Everyone,

Okay, how many of us start an email (on your iPad/iPhone), get interrupted (probably because someone had a question on a tip of the day), save the email to get back to it later? It happens to me a lot, which brings us to this week’s TOD.

Shortcut to your saved email drafts:
I know that  you are just as guilty as me when it comes to pulling up an email draft that you had been working on. Select your email icon...select your email account that you drafted the email in...go to the Drafts folder and open the email. Do you know that there is a shortcut to all of your email drafts? From any Inbox, just hold down the "New Message" icon (Fig 1.01) and you will see your drafts.

Fig 1.01

 

 iPad Multitasking Gestures:
Here’s a couple of my favorite Multitasking Gestures. Instead of double clicking on the Home button to get to your multitask bar, try placing 4 or 5 fingers on your iPad and sweep upwards. To close it, just sweep downwards. If you have a few apps open, try sweeping right to left to see your open apps. Pinching your fingers together (all 5), is like clicking on the Home button. Make sure that "Multitasking Gestures" is on to use these features(Settings/General/Multitasking Gestures).


Enjoy,

Episode 58 "Say Cheese"

Hi Everyone,

Have you noticed that the camera phones are becoming the norm at events. More and more people are pulling out their smart phones to take pictures. I’m even seeing the occasional iPad make an appearance in front of the stage to get their child’s photo. Here’s a tip for you smart phone photographers.

iPhone Camera:
In past episode, I showed you how to quickly launch your camera from the lock screen, by dragging the camera icon up and taking pictures with the volume up button. Did you know that you can use the volume up button on your ear buds (headphones) or some Bluetooth devices (headset, keyboards, etc) to take a pictures? Now you have a remote for those family and group photos.

Clock: New to iPad
If you have updated your iPad iOS 6, you probably have noticed a few changes. Well, one of the changes, is that clock app. The same app that we use on the iPhone is finally on the iPad. Something new to the clock app is the wake to a song. Now you can select a song from your library and wake to a song instead of an alarm or ringtone.

Don’t forget to pass on your tips and favorite apps on our blog. http://rop-tipoftheday.blogspot.com/

Enjoy,