tap 'Large Text'

Here’s how to do it: hit the ‘Settings’ icon and then tap ‘General’. Scroll down near the bottom and tap ‘Accessibility’. This is the Settings section where you can adapt your iDevice to make it easier if you have vision, hearing or tactile difficulties.

Select ‘Large Text’ and you can see the choices for different font sizes. I have mine set for 24 point…that works well for me so I can see the text without using my glasses.

Setting the font size doesn’t work in all programs but it does work in the ones that you likely use very often.

Enjoy!

When you are typing and need to use a number or a symbol (like the @ in an email address), you normally press the 123 button at the bottom of the keyboard, type the character you want, then press the ABC button to go back to the alphabet keyboard. That is three keystrokes: the 123 key, the character you want, and then the ABC key to go back to the main keyboard.

I am going to tell you how to save two keystrokes. Here’s how to do it:

Press and Slide

When you press the ’123′ key at the bottom of the keyboard, don’t remove your finger…keep your finger on the screen. The keyboard will change to the numeric

keyboard and you’ll be able to slide your finger to the character you want. If you want one of the number keys, for example, slide your finger to that number, then let go. The character will be typed and the keyboard will return to the alphabet. You get the character you want without having to press another key to return to the alphabet keyboard!

As an added bonus, if you press the 123 key and then move your finger over a key that offers multiple options, you’ll also get the multiple selections when you hold your finger over the key.

Try this: when you are on the main alphabetic keyboard, press the 123 key and without letting go, slide your finger on the numeric keyboard up to the ‘–’ on the left. Be sure to hold your finger on the dash and you’ll see the four alternatives pop up for that key. You can then slide your finger up and pick the one you want.  Experiment to find the keys with multiple selections; you might find some surprises.

This simple yet powerful shortcut for both the iPhone and the iPad will save you countless keystrokes as you type on your device. Be sure to try it; it’s a cool tip!

In this article, I will use the word iPad and iPhone interchangeably.  Both devices run on the same iOS operating system and, for the most part, they both work the same.

And be sure to read to the end for a bonus tip!

You know you can run a bunch of apps at the same time on your iPad.  When you switch between apps, those that you had used before don’t close; they remain open, taking up valuable system resources and, on occasion, still operate using up your precious battery life.  For example, your map can be using the GPS function to keep track of where you are and that game you were playing could still be running in the background.  The iPad is fast but open apps use memory and closing the ones you’re not using helps keep it fast. Here’s how to close those apps after you’re done using them.

iPad Multi-Task Tray

Double press the Home button and the tray opens at the bottom of the screen: that is the multitasking tray where you can click one of the icons and switch back to that open app.  That’s also the place where you can close the apps that are running in the background.  Here’s how to do it:  hold your finger on one of the icons in the multitasking tray until they all start wiggling with a little red ‘-’ in the upper left corner. Tap the ‘-’ on the apps you want to close and *poof* they’re gone!   When you’re done closing the open apps, press the Home button to stop the icons from wiggling and press Home again to return to the main screen. Remember, you’re not deleting the apps, you’re just closing them (by the way, to cancel the wiggling/delete mode, just press the Home button).

How often should you delete the apps running in the background?  I do it at least once a day; doing it at least once a week will make your device happier.

I told you in the beginning of the article that your iPad and iPhone are computers.  Like all computers, they benefit from a system restart.  For these devices, it’s more than just turning them off and on again – you can reboot your iPhone and iPad!  Here’s how: press and hold the Home button and, at the same time, press and hold the power button until you see the white Apple logo.  First, the screen will let you know your iPad is shutting down. Keep pressing the two buttons. Then the screen will go black. Keep pressing the buttons. Finally, you’ll see a white Apple logo. Now you can let go…you’ve just restarted your device!  You can do a restart whenever your iPhone is acting a little flaky.  Nothing is deleted from your device, it just restarts.

Here’s the bonus tip I promised: it’s easy to take a screen shot with your iPad and iPhone. That means whatever is showing on your iPad can be captured as a photo and saved, emailed and printed. To take a screen shot, hold the power button and then press the Home button quickly – think of the Home button as the shutter release for the screen shot photo. Your screen will flash and the image will be saved in the Photos album on your iPhone (or, if you have the iCloud turned on, in your PhotoStream). Give it a try!

I should tell you first that I am really into pens; I have a beautiful pen case on my desk (a gift from my parents) to display my special writing instruments. I’ve received some pens as gifts, special fountain pens and roller balls that are a pleasure to write with. So the feel of the stylus I use daily with my iPad is important to me.

The styli I originally used were thinner than a normal pen and were ok. I just didn’t love them. I went to stores looking for alternatives but didn’t see anything that moved me to buy. The styli didn’t feel right in my hand and I didn’t love the way it felt when I wrote on the iPad.

I visited the Noteshelf forum on their website, looking for stylus suggestions, and learned about the AluPen from JustMobile. JustMobile makes beautiful accessories out of aluminum and the stylus looked really interesting to me. The AluPen is a thick, chunky stylus that looks great and, according to the people who use it, feels wonderful in your hand and writing on the iPad. I bought one and immediately loved it! It’s heavier than the skinny styli i had before, provides a great precise writing experience on the iPad screen and comes in multiple colors. You can see it on the manufacturer’s website here.

Even though the rubber nib looks bulky, the AluPen writes/draws precisely on the iPad. In addition to writing like a pen in the Noteshelf app, the stylus works great sketching in the drawing apps too. The soft rubber provides a nice drag so it feels good to use it on the screen. And when the rubber tip came off, my email to the company asking for help was answered promptly, telling me what to do: I used my fingernail to put it back together.

Here’s what it looks like.

I’ve bought my AluPens on amazon.com; the prices are good and, as a Prime member, I get them shipped free with two day delivery. I have two, one for home and one for the office, and I’ve given four as gifts. Each AluPen costs around $20, some less depending on the color. I urge you to give it a try if you don’t love the stylus you have now or want to use your iPad to take notes.

Have fun. And do let me know about your stylus experience.

There’s a way to stop the sent mail from showing up on your blackberry!

You have to log into your blackberry internet service (BIS), specifically for your provider. You need the username and password given to you when you got your bb. If you don’t have the info, press 611 on your bb and ask the rep to direct you to blackberry support and they’ll get you your credentials. Then save them!

Verizon’s BIS site is: https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=vzw
AT&T’s BIS site is: http://att.blackberry.com/
T-Mobile’s BIS site is: http://www.t-mobile.com/bis/
Sprint’s BIS site is: http://www.sprint.blackberry.com/

Once you log into the BIS site, you can manage your email accounts that are connected to your bb. You can add signatures, auto BCC, and other things.

You can also add filters! That’s where the magic is. You can add a filter so that certain emails are not forwarded to your device. I have a filter called ‘acai’ so that any mail with ‘acai’ in the subject doesn’t get sent to my blackberry.

So… back to the gmail issue. Add a filter to your gmail account; I call mine ‘me’. In the ‘Apply the filter when’ pulldown, select the from field and in the ‘contains’ space, type your gmail address. Then click the radio button ‘Do not forward messages to device’.

Here’s a screen shot of what my filter looks like:

Once you’ve set up this filter, you will no longer get an email in your inbox after you send a gmail from your blackberry.

Quite cool, eh?

My iPad

I’ve been using my iPad in my day-to-day work all the time.  I thought you might be interested in reading about how I use my iPad when I’m home too.  I leave my iPad charging when I sleep so it’s at 100% when I wake up.

In the morning, here are some of the apps that I look at before I leave my house:

I use my Blackberry to delete my spam first and then I fire up my email program on the iPad so I can easily scan my new mail.

I take a look at Facebook, using Friendly, a free app that I like a lot.  I also have FriendCaster that I like too, but I’m partial to Friendly.  I very very rarely use the iPad Facebook app.

I have a shortcut in my News folder for the Yankees; I take a quick look for any headlines worth reading about my favorite team.  It’s just a glance, unless there’s something there I want to read.

I get the New York Times delivered at home which lets me get unlimited access to all content on the NY Times app on the iPad.  I load the app and read a little bit of the Times; it’s very cool to read the same articles on the iPad that are in the paper that’s waiting at the end of the driveway.

The other app I open every morning is the Weather Channel so I can see the day’s weather forecast (and the weekend’s too!).

If I have any ‘Words with Friends’ games going, I’ll jump over to the games folder and, if it’s my turn, I’ll look at the board and my letters and make a move.

I’ve added another web browser to my iPad: Mercury is a fast, feature-rich app that has multiple tabs and other cool features.  I tap on the Mercury icon and look at the two pages that open automatically: msnbc.com and crackberry.com.

So that’s how I start my day. Thanks for letting me tell you about it!

So now, you won’t have to scroll with the trackball/trackpad to get around your messages.

These tips and shortcuts work on all the message folders on your blackberry: messages, specific email folders and SMS. Depending on how you have your blackberry set up, your messages might all be in one folder or they may be stored separately. These tips and shortcuts will work regardless of how you store your messages.

When you are in a message folder, here are the shortcuts to remember:

t moves to the top of the message list
b moves to the bottom of the message list
n moves to the next date in the list
p moves to the previous date in the message list
s opens the search dialog (you can pick what to search for and what)
e shows the messages that have delivery errors (normally empty!)
w applies a flag to the message (hint: check out the flag properties using the blackberry menu key. Delete the flag there too)
u moves to oldest unread message
j moves to the oldest message in the thread (useful when there have been numerous replies to a message)
alt-u toggles the unread status of that message

When you’re reading a message, press the spacebar to page down. Left Shift-spacebar to page up.

To reply to a message, press r. To forward a message, press f. And to reply to all recipients, press l. These commands work when you’re in a message and when you’re in the message list.

When you are in the message listing, you can press alt-i to show only the incoming mail. Press alt-o to show only the mail that you’ve sent. And alt-s lists your SMS messages.

Give some of these shortcuts a try. They make getting around messages on a Blackberry pretty quick and easy!

Don’t panic!

Our friends at blackberry have figured that out for us. When you have a word-based phone number to call, go to the phone screen and hold the ‘alt’ key down as you type the letters on the keyboard. Your blackberry knows the numbers associated with the letters and will dial it for you properly.

Pretty cool, eh?

You can have your Blackberry set its date & time by the the blackberry network, your wireless network, or manually. I have mine set to take the time from the wireless network.

Here’s how you get to the Date & Time settings: on your Blackberry, select Options, then scroll to and select Date/Time. You’ll see the screen below (or something close to it, depending on your blackberry’s operating system):

Scroll down to the Date/Time Source and click it; you’ll have 3 choices. Once you’ve made your selection, press the menu key (the one to the left of the trackball) and you’ll see the screen shot below:

Select Update Time and, if your phone needs it, you’ll see the time change right before your eyes! You can press the menu key again and save or just press escape (the key to the right of the trackball). If appropriate, you’ll be prompted to save your changes and you’re all set!

When you do a reboot, it’s a good idea to go to the Date/Time function in Options and update the time. That way, you know your blackberry is always accurate.

Have fun!

NOTE: for this tip to work, you need a media card in your blackberry. It’s a little memory chip that lets you store photos, music, and docs-to-go files on it rather than in the blackberry’s device memory. Having the card also allows you to record video with your blackberry. You can get a media card for your blackberry online and in Radio Shack, for example.

Ok… so if you have a media card, you’ll love this tip!

Here’s what you do:

1. turn on the blackberry camera
2. press the menu key (the blackberry logo to the left of the trackball)
3. select the video camera
4. when the round dot appears on the screen, indicating the video camera is on, press the space bar.

The flash over the camera lens will be on and will stay on until you press the space bar to turn it off or the video camera times out. This is a very bright light and is really useful for reading menus in restaurants, guiding you in the dark, and finding things when you’re in dimly lit rooms.

I know some people who use the backlight from the screen to shed some light. After you see the video camera light, you’ll agree that it’s the best light to use.

So give it a try!