Mac IT Help

Optimize Your WiFi Network Using NetSpot

2013-05-21T16:04:00.001-07:00

Pulling CAT5 Wire through your home use to be a normal activity for the geeky homeowner. Now everyone uses WiFi. Using WiFI saves a lot time and effort but how do you know where to put your router? Is the signal weak in your family room? Do you have slow Internet speeds in your bedroom? Using a tool like NetSpot you can map your network, visualize the coverage and figure out the perfect configuration.

NetSpot is free and you can get it from the Apple App Store. As of this posting, the current App Store version is 1. 3.344. Version 2 is available directly from NetSpot. I have taken most screen shots below using the older version. I will make note when the screen shot is version 2.

It goes without saying that you must have a portable Mac with working WiFi to map your network. After you download the app start it up and you will be asked to create a new survey and either draw or load a map.

The drawing tools included in NetSpot are great but you can also use use a drawing program like iDraw or Intaglio to create your map. If you are a paper and pencil sort, you can also draw a map by hand, take a photo of it using your iPhone or iPad and import the file using the "Load a Map" function.

After you have the map loaded you will be asked to select two points and give the correct dimension between the two points.

Now you just need to start scanning. Click the "Start Scan" button in the upper left of the map, click your current location on the map and NetSpot will start scanning.

A list of available networks will appear in the panel on the left and a green circle will show the location you just scanned. Now walk to a new location and click that point on the map. A new scan will start. Continue on until your whole area has been scanned.

Click the "Stop Scan" button in the upper left of the map section to stop active scanning. Now comes the analysis.

If you are using version 2.0 you can use the Discover mode and just see the network information you have gathered. This is an improvement over version 1 and gives you a quick look at the raw numbers.

To see a graphic representation of the numbers you need to switch back to the Survey mode. Use the"Visualize" drop down menu and choose from various options. Below is the graph of Signal-to-interference ratio.

The closer to the hot end of the spectrum you are the better your WiFi performance will be. You will also see where NetSpot thinks each of your routers is located. In my case I noticed that they seemed misplaced. Using the "Resume Scan" button I added more points on my map and got a better representation of their actual location. I have 3 routers on 2 floors. I have circled them in red.

Don't be afraid to add a lot more data points. In this case more is better. By clicking on a WiFi hotspot you can get more information about that router.

If you are using version 2 then you get a pop up explaining what the definition is for each Visualization selection.

"The signal-to-interference ratio is similar to the signal-to-noise ratio, but in this case the interference is specific to co-channel interference from other radio transmitters."

In plain English that could mean that you have a problem if your network channel is on the same frequency as your neighbor. If so you might want to change it. As you can see, by using the different plots you can easily figure out where dead zones might be, if you need a bridge repeater or if you have too many routers in one area.

In general NetSpot does a great job of giving you a visual picture of your network. Getting the location of wireless equipment right always means a little trial and error and having a tool like this can really help perfect your configuration.

There is a paid for Pro version available with more features but for home use NetSpot is a great product.

Movie Effects - Quick, Easy & Free way to Rotate Video

2013-05-06T08:55:00.002-07:00

With a Mac there are always at least 2 or 3 ways to do something. As time goes by, and new apps are created, there might even be a better way. Such is the case with rotation of video. I wrote a post a while back on how to rotate video using iMovie. Since iMove comes with your Mac when you buy it, using iMovie to rotate your video was an easy way to get the job done.

Two years has passed since I wrote that blog post and the number of applications in the Apple Mac App store has exploded. I recently discovered a great little video editing application called Movie Effects that has a lot of features. One of which is rotating video.

The developers from Etinysoft list Movie Effect's key features as:

Whole window are available for dragging and dropping any video
Support almost all popular video formats such as mp4, mov, avi, flv, etc.
Freely apply more than one effects to a video.
Customize parameters of a part of effects to your desired level.
Directly preview video before or after effects being applied.
Add image as watermark at any point with effect “Image Watermark.

Go download a copy now and explore this great app. To help you out here's a walk through of how to rotate video.

Open the application and at the main screen drag a copy of the video you want to rotate.

In the left hand column click "Add Effects" and select "Rotation"

You will notice that rotation is just one of the options to change your video so feel free to play around. Once you have selected rotation there will now be several choices on how to rotate. Just make sure you preview your video before you process and save it. If you select 90° rotation and vertically flip it you will end up with this:

Opps! Selecting just 90° rotation you will get the correct orientation.

Now that you have your video rotated you will want to save it. Select the save format at the bottom and you will see that there are a ton of formats available to you. Select the one you want and click save.

Just be careful with the choice you make. Some formats will change the aspect ratio of your video. For instance, selecting "Common Video" and "MPEG4 MP4" created this video

Opps again! For use on a Mac, going back and saving as iPhone, iPad or AppleTV format worked just fine. Again, explore experiment and see what works for you.

That's it! your video is rotated with only a few clicks. Movie Effects is a great application that lets you rotate your videos quickly and easily. Best of all it does a lot more then that and it's free!

How to Edit Your Playlist On Your iPhone

2013-04-22T09:24:00.001-07:00

With the iPhone now a permanent part of my daily life one thing that has changed is music. Music is always playing in my house and because everyone now has an iPhone or iPod.

Music sets a mood, makes someone laugh or can help set the tempo of a workout. Our normal mode of operation is to load up our iPhones, iPads and iPods with music by plugging into the computer and syncing up. You can do the same thing via WiFi or iTunes Match but we find it more convient and faster to just cable up. After you unplug and are on the go, one thing that isn't clear is how to change the order of your playlist.

If you want to change your playlist on your iPhone just open up the playlist and click the "Edit" button.

You can delete a song by selecting the red circle beside the song then hitting the red "Delete" button that pops up.

If you want to reorder the playlist click on the bars off to the right of the song yo want to move, hold it down and drag it to the position you want. When you have it where you want it click "Done".

When you are done your playlist will be in the order you want and you are ready to enjoy your music in the order you want it!

Carrying the Mail

2013-04-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I help a friend or relative with a Mac issue or problem I wonder if what I'm doing is worthy of posting on my blog. When I got two requests within a week on how to move mail from one Mac to another I knew I needed to write it up.

As most people know there are different flavors of mail and mail servers; POP, IMAP, SMTP etc. If you have been around a while and have an ISP that uses it's own mail server, you probably have a Post Office Protocol or POP account. POP was designed for, and works best when you use only a single desktop computer. Normally, messages are downloaded to your desktop computer and then deleted from the mail server. The difficulty with POP is that all your downloaded mail resides on your computer so when you get a new machine you won't be able to access your old mail unless you move it. So how do you move mail from one machine to another?

Open the Mail application on your source machine. In the left column select the inbox and right (or control+click). From the drop down menu select "Export Mailbox..."

Save the file to your desktop. If you have created your own mailboxes on your Mac you will also need to export each one in the same way.

Now you will need to transfer these Mailbox files to your new Mac. From your new Mac mount up the Hard Drive of your old machine and drag the file over to the new one.

Once you have the file on your new Mac you will need to start the mail application on that Mac and do an import. In the "File" menu just select "Import Mailbox" for each of the mailboxes you exported.

Once you have imported all your mail you are almost done. Now you need to make sure that your attachments are accessible.

Apple's default storage location for mail downloads is:

Users/Username/Library/Mail Downloads

Since Apple doesn't normally allow you access to your library folder from the finder you will need to use the Finder "Go" menu. I bet you've never used it have you?

Open a Finder window and at the top of the screen in the "Go" menu select "Go to Folder"

Now type "~/Library/ in the "Go to folder:" window.

Once the window opens navigate to the "Mail Downloads" folder and drag the contents from your old Mac to the same location on the new Mac. It might be easier to drag the whole Mail Downloads folder to the desktop of the new Mac then drag the contents of that folder from the desktop location to the New Mac's Mail Downloads folder.

You don't want to overwrite any files or folders on your New Mac. All you want to do is add the contents of your old Mail Downloads folder to the Mail Downloads folder of the new Mac. Make sense?

That's it! You're done. Just as a quick FYI - You would usually want to use the Migration assistant to move your data from your old Mac to your new one. It's easy and it's what Apple recommends. But it's not always the best solution.

Sometimes it's better to do a spring cleaning and not transfer all your data and preferences. That way you can start with a clean slate and remove the chance that outdated files and old data corrupt your new machine. By choosing to move your data and files manually you get to decide what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of rather than loading down your new machine with outdated junk.

Workflow Processing Multiple Files - TiVo Edition

2013-03-20T10:14:00.001-07:00

It seems that there are a lot of people that have been struggling with their TiVo. Like me they want to watch shows when the want, where they want and on the device they want. The problem is getting the recorded show off the TiVo, decrypted, edited then transcoded into a file type that their personal device can play.

I originally wrote about an application called iTiVo that made this process a lot easier.

TiVo & the Mac - Downloading TiVo files

Then an OS update broke iTiVo so I wrote up a work around. You can read about it here:

TiVo to Mac - Mountain Lion Edition

After a few months, when iTiVo finally became usable again, I wrote up a quick way to update the beta version to get full functionality back.

Continuing Adventures with iTiVo

I don't know when iTiVo will be updated to work without major surgery but hopefully it will be soon. So while we wait I want to answer a question that has been asked a lot during this whole process; How do I create a Apple Workflow that will process multiple files? This question doesn't just apply to processing TiVo files of course but I'll use that as my example.

Apple provides a great tool for speeding up and automating your work tasks. It's called Automator. It's an easy tool to get to know but getting it to do just what you want, in the way you want can be a trial.

Let's assume for a minute that iTiVo is broken again and you want to watch the entire season of Supernatural that currently sits on your TiVo. Downloading the files is easy. You can use the web version I wrote up here, or if you have Roxio's Toast you can use the included "TiVo Transfer" application to download your files. Either way you end up with a file on your Mac that is encrypted. So let's decrypt them.

Assuming you have followed all my directions you should have a copy of tivodecode loaded on your Mac. Now all you need is an Automator Workflow to convert all the files. Not one at a time, but in a batch so you can set it running before you go to bed.

Open up the Automator application and create a new Workflow

In the column at the left you will need to select "Files & Folders" icon on the left then drag the "Ask for Finder Items" into the window pane on the right. In the "Prompt" section just type in "Choose a Tivo file(s)" and fill the folder location you normally use when you download your Tivo files. To handle multiple files make sure that the Type is set to "Files" and "Allow Multiple Selection" box is checked.

In order to deal with multiple files we need to assign them as variables. Select "Utilities" from the Library and drag "Set Value of Variable" to the right window pane. In the Variable box create a new variable. I called mine "Tivo_File".

Just as an explanation, the variable "Tivo_File" will be set to the file or files you select manually when you run the action. The value of the variable will be the full name of the file including path.

example:

.../TiVo Files/Supernatural_Hunteri_Heroici_111 KSTWDT_1363233538.TiVo

This is a very important point that we will have to deal with later in the shell script. The tivodecode application needs both the path to the file and the file name. Now that the variable is set we need to use it.

Again select "Utilities" from the Library and drag "Get Value of Variable" to your script. It seems odd, and you would think the computer should remember the variable because you just set it, but that's the way scripting works. Especially when dealing with multiple files. Make sure that the Variable is set to "Tivo_File" or whatever name you choose in the set variable value step.

Another important point is to make sure the "Ignore this action's input" check-box is checked in the options tab since our input is the variable itself.

Now that we have our variable we need to run a shell script to decode it. Grab the "Run Shell Script" action from utilities and move it to the Window pane on the right. Make sure the "Shell" is set to "/bin/bash".

The first thing we do is start a loop to process each of the files you selected. I have titled my loop counter as the letter "i".

for i in "$@"
do

After we start our loop we need to decode our variable and just grab the file name without the full path information in front of it. To do that I choose to use the UNIX awk command. There are a lot of ways to do this but this one works. The assumption here is that your file name extension has .TiVo at the end. Or to be more exact, it has a dot "." and an extension at the end of the file name. I've set the file name to a script variable called "fname".

fname=`echo $i | awk -F"/" '{print $NF}'| awk -F"." '{print $1}'`

After we have the file name we need to run tivodecode.

tivodecode -m 1234567890 -o "/MacHD/Users/Username/Movies/$fname.mpg" "$i"

Remember to insert your real MAK address into the command where I have put "1234567890". Also insert the real path to your output file. The output file will be the same as your downloaded TiVo file name but with an ".mpg" extension. The "$i" at the end of of the statement is the full path & filename. Make sure to inlude the quotes as I have shown above.

Since that's all the processing we need to close the loop by adding "done" at the end of the script. This is how your script should look.

Since that's the last step here's a copy of the entire automator action

You can check your script at this point by hitting the run button at the top. If it all works as planned you are ready to save your Automator Workflow as an executable app. Make sure it's saved as an application in the "File Format" drop down menu.

Happy converting and I hope this answers the question of how to process multiple input files in a single script.

What do Geeks do on their day off?

2013-03-04T09:28:00.001-08:00

This past weekend Seattle hosted the Emerald City Comicon. According to their web site it's "the largest comic book and pop culture convention in the pacific northwest!" After attending this geekfest I tend to agree. It was jammed with artwork, comics, TV stars, & people dressed as their favorite characters. It was a a great break from the more technical side of my brain and my family and I had a blast.

I thought you might enjoy some photos just to help get you through your Monday. Enjoy! If you see a friend, someone you know or yourself leave a comment and I'll send you a copy of the photo.

These escalators are empty at this point. Usually they were packed.

Notice the eyes? Where do you get yellow contacts? Oh, right they sell them in one of the booths.

Makes my neck hurt just looking at her

You wonder how much makeup you go through to get yourself this pink all over?

Just how many cows died to make this!?

Couples often coordinated their costumes

Artists were working during the show

A Seattle icon with a twist

The depth and breadth of the artistic skill was impressive

This artist actually worked for WB and was one of the animators for Pinky and the Brain as well as Animaniacs.

Great booths with lots to see

Say it with me, "Drinking blood is bad"

Who knew under all that armor Boba Fett had tats and needed more.

Here's a Brave little girl.

It's all about comics.

My legs hurt just looking at these costumes. Let alone walking around in them for 3 days.

The floor space was HUGE.

"No ghosts here... I think..."

Girl power

Everyone took pictures.

Nice toys were also available

Misha Collins - The reason my wife and daughter wanted to go to the con.

Red Sonja

Queen of Hearts

Riddle me this

Steam Punk and some nice gaming furniture

Comic/CosPlay fans come in all ages

Spidey sense isn't always enough and sometimes you just have to text

I found this guy outside the men's room. Looks like even Waldo needs to go sometimes.

Venom

The requisite Storm Trooper

Here's a motley crew

Even heros have to rest for a while.

What a family.

There are so many characters and I soon realized that those that grew up on DC comics or Marvel are in the minority. With the web, TV and all the independent comic companies it's hard to know what series this is from.

Ready for action!

Had a fun time talking to this very nice person. She wasn't sure anyone would want to take her picture. But I think the costume is great.

A princess for sure

I'm not quite sure what this is but all I can say is Wow!

A Cylon from my youth

Avitar

The Joker

Zombie Rogers - So wrong, yet so right

Antonia Stark

Jack Frost

Baby-Fett

Continuing Adventures with iTiVo

2013-02-20T11:16:00.001-08:00

Getting shows off Tivo and into the Apple environment has been an adventure. I first blogged about a method using an application called iTiVo. It was a basic straightforward method that was easy to use. Then iTiVo broke when I updated to OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Because I still wanted to watch my shows on my AppleTV, iPhones and iPad I wrote up a work around that actually works well. It had a few hicups but once you get things set up it you are back in business. Then iTiVo got fixed! Hallehluya! I could use the original iTiVo method again.

But now, as of 2/20/2013, iTiVo broke when Tivo updated their software. When you try to download a show you get an error that says "Couldn't Download 'show name'"

The good news is that once again the iTiVo community has a work around that will fix it.

The fix involves using the Terminal app and some editing of some resource files inside iTiVo. Don't worry, it's nothing too difficult. The first thing you will want to do is download the latest iTiVo application and make a copy. Always, ALWAYS work any edits to program resource files on a copy. That way if you mess up you don't have to re-download the application. Once you have downloaded and made a copy we can start the edits.

Open Terminal and type in this command:

curl -c ~/Documents/cookies.txt -d "tivo:MAK" http://tivoip:80

(replace "MAK" with the Media Access Key and "tivoip" with the ip of your tivo). To find out the IP address of your Tivo you can look at my previous blog post which uses LanScan from the Apple App Store. Your command might look something like this:

curl -c ~/Documents/cookies.txt -d "tivo:9876543210" http://192.168.2.20:80

This command will output a file called "cookies.txt." that will be placed in your home directory in the Documents folder. Once you have run the command, you will need to edit the cookies.txt file. Of course, before you do that you will want to MAKE A COPY!

Open your Documents folder in your home directory and find the cookies.txt file that you just created and duplicate it. Call it something like cookies_ORIG.txt. Now edit the file called cookies.txt using your favorit text editor (Text Wrangler, Text Edit or even VI) . It will look something like this.

The problem that iTiVo is having is caused by an expired cookie. The "1360972800" in the cookie.txt file is the number of seconds past the beginning of the world. And as every geek knows the beginning of the world started on January 1, 1970. You will need to change that value to something much larger. I just changed the first 1 to a 2. Now save the file.

Now that you have your updated cookie file set up you need to edit the iTiVo resource file to point to it. Find the copy of iTiVo you made and right-click, and click "Show Package Contents".

Go to Contents folder and drill down to the Resources folder. Find the file called "http-fetcher.pl" right-click it. Using the "Open With" command open it in Text-Edit or other editor. Find the long line of code that has this in the middle of it:

...... -c /tmp/cookies.txt --retry 12....

You will need to update the cookies.txt location to show the new /Users/'home folder'/Documents/cookies.txt" location. Make sure to update the line with your information by changing 'UserID' to your user account. Don't for get to change the flag from "-c" to "-b"

...... -b /Users/UserID/Documents/cookies.txt --retry 12....

Then re-open iTivo and it should start working again!

Cron - The GUI way

2013-02-17T12:18:00.001-08:00

In my last blog post I showed how to write a simple script to record your external IP address. Then, using cron, how to schedule that script to run on a regular basis. The hardest part of the whole exercise was editing the crontab file using the VI editor. How about I show you an easier way to edit the crontab file using CronniX.

CronniX is a great GUI (graphical User Interface) front end to the cron function. When you open CronniX you will see a list of your current crontab file.

If you click the "New" button in the upper left you can enter in a new command.

You are greeted with a non-functional example screen but choosing either the Simple or Expert tab to enter your interval and command is a much easier way rather than using weird UNIX keystrokes on the command line.

If you want to make sure the end result will run when you want it to check out this web page. Enter in when you want things to happen and it will output the correct crontab entry so you can see what it should look like. It's a great web tool to check your crontab file and ensure it's doing what you want. There are other GUI cron editors out there so if CronniX isn't for you feel free to check out Crontooie, or Lingon.

Give Cronnix a try the next time you want to schedule a recurring or one time job to run while you are away from your computer.

Know Your External IP

2013-02-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

My name is Bruce and I'm a UNIX geek. There, I've said it. Maybe it's my start to a 10 step program but I hope not. I like my addiction. The thing about being a UNIX geek is it's fun to figure out how to do something behind the scenes using terminal or your favorite text editor. Somethings you look for a problem you don't really have just to try to fix it using the command line. For me I wanted to find a way to identify my external IP address so I could access my computer remotely.

If you are away from your computer and want to access it how do you do it? Apple has built in Back-to-My-Mac or Screen sharing. There are also tons of Mac VNC apps (Chicken of the VNC, JollyFastVNC, TeamViewer, etc) or iOS connection apps (VNC Viewer, Remotix, LogMeIn, etc.). Whatever the interface or OS they all have one thing in common, they need to know the IP address of the target machine. Without that you don't know where you're going.

Some of the VNC apps, most that charge you money, will configure your target Mac with a small background app that registers with their server and records the IP address so you don't need to worry about it. You can also use a service like Dyndns to register your machine for free but they have changed their set up so your hostname will expire every 30 days unless you upgrade to the pro version (which costs money). So what do you do if you're cheap and don't want someone else to keep track of the address? How do you do it yourself and make sure you know an address that can change at any moment? This is where the fun with UNIX begins.

This example assumes you have a free cloud service like dropbox. You need a place to record your IP address that's available to you when you are away from home. You need to be able to update that file on a regular basis so if your IP changes you can record it. That means you need a UNIX script to run at regular intervals and record your IP address. To do that you will use a UNIX application called cron.

Every flavor of UNIX, including the BSD core that Mac OS uses, has cron. It allows you to schedule jobs using to run when you want. Any time of day. Any day of the week, month of the year and anything in between. The data for cron is stored in the crontab file and by editing this file you can set a script to run. Each user has a crontab file that cron looks at when you log in. To see your own file type the following at the command line.

crontab -l return

You will either get a statement that your crontab file is empty or it will show you what's currently in your crontab file. If you are like most people you will just see a header line starting with the pound symbol.

To set up our IP address recording script you will need to edit this file. UNIX is very picky about how things are set up and edited so you will need to use a command line editor like EMACS or VI. Sounds scary but I'll give the exact keystrokes to make it work using the VI editor. Make sure to type EXACTLY what is written! I will use bold in red for hitting the return key or other command keys.

crontab -e return

You should see something like this on the screen

Now just type the letter "o" without hitting the return key. That's the "oh" key not zero. Again, Don't hit return. The "o" is short for "open". Now your cursor should be on the next line down.

Now is a good time to tell you how to get out of things if you mistype or screw up. At any time you can hit the "esc" key ( the one in the upper left corner of your keyboard) and type

esc :q! return

This says to escape to the VI command line and quit without saving. You loose your edits but your file doesn't get hosed up.

So... back to editing the file. After you have done the "crontab -e" command and opened a new line you can type the following. Make sure to replace "UserID" with your own Mac userID. Obviously, if you have placed the default dropbox folder somewhere else you would enter that path instead.

0 0,12 * * * date | awk '{print $2" "$3" "$4}' > /users/UserID/Dropbox/IP.txt;curl -s http://checkip.dyndns.org | sed 's/[a-zA-Z/<> :]//g' >> /users/UserID/Dropbox/IP.txt

This command is all on one line with no returns. Also, a special character worth noting is the pipe "|" character. It is located just below the delete key, above the return key. The pipe symbols says take the output of one part of the script and use it as the input of the next part.

I won't parse the whole line for you but basically the cron will run mini-script at noon and midnight every day of the week. The script will record the date and time and write it on the first line of your text file (IP.txt) that is located in your dropbox folder. Then run a check using "checkip.dyndns.org" to find your external IP. It takes what the website returns, gets rid of the garbage and only keep the IP address and writes that IP to the IP.txt file.

Once that's done with your typing you need to save your file.

esc :wq return

That command writes the file and quits. Once you are back at the main command line you can check your work by retyping the crontab list command.

crontab -l return

You should now see the file with your added line.

Another command worth noting. If you mess up and save the file with a typo or other error, you can clear out the file using the following command at the UNIX prompt and start all over.

crontab -r return

But if you are careful you shouldn't need to use that command. If everything goes well you should now have a file in your dropbox folder that you can check to find out the external IP address of your computer.

Now for a shameful admission. Do you remember when I said sometimes you look for a problem you don't really have just to try to fix it using the command line? Well, just so you know, if you have dropbox you already have access to your external IP address.

Open any web browser you can find out the external address of any of your currently connected devices. Go to the dropbox web page and open up your settings.

Choose the "Security" tab and you will see a list of all your devices. Hover your mouse over the information icon for any of your devices.

Guess what? You now know your external IP without using any UNIX at all and it tells you the last time it was updated. But where's the fun in that?

Key Ring an Alternative to Passbook

2013-02-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

When Apple's iOS Passbook was announced I knew Apple had another hit on their hands. Being able to slim down your inch think wallet by getting rid of your reward cards, membership cards and gift cards would be wonderful. Too bad the reality didn't match the promise. To me Passbook is one of those applications with great potential but just doesn't match the hype. Don't get me wrong I love the idea of Passbook I just think that right now, the better digital wallet is Key Ring.

Key Ring is an iOS app that allows you to ditch all the paper and plastic and store all your rewards cards, coupons, membership cards and gift cards digitally. Unlike Passbook, you can easily scan your existing barcodes and add them to your key ring with a minimum of a hassle. You also can set it up to receive digital coupons from your favorite retailers and automatically add points to your reward cards. But the main feature for me is Key Ring's ability to store any type of card that you want to digitize.

First a clarification; Passbook will allow you to add your own card but it's difficult. You need to visit one of several web sites, register with them and then hope the vendor you want is listed.

Most of the sites are also geared toward merchants, not to the customer. PassSource, PassTools are two of the better sites so give them a try. The biggest drawback is that Apple's Passbook application only allows you to use only 2D types of barcodes (Aztec, BDF417 & QR). If you have a membership card with a numeric or alpha numeric barcode you are out of luck. So what the heck does that mean you ask?

Open your wallet and pull out one of your loyalty cards or a coupon. If the barcode is just a bunch of lines then it's either a numeric or alpha numeric barcode. If the barcode looks like a bunch of squares jumbled together then it's a 2D Barcode.

If you are interested you can read more about barcodes here.

So let's use an example from real life. The Seattle area, where I live, is currently rated number 2 in the country as the most literate cities in the US. One of the factors for literacy is the number and usage of libraries. Like a lot of families, everyone in my family has their own library card and can put books on hold. That means that when someone stops by the library to pick up books they need to know every card number and PIN for every member of the family. Rather than copy each card or write down the numbers use Key Ring.

Open the app and from the main menu select "Add Card." Lay your card in front of you and scan the barcode

You can now enter in details about your card. Choose "Select a Retailer" & Key Ring will give you a choice of Loyalty Card, Gift Card or unknown. Choose the card type and scroll through the provided list and select your card vendor. In the case of my King County Library System (KCLS) card I choose unknown for the card type then choose "Other Retailer Not Listed" from the provided list. I input "KCLS" For my title and under description input "library".

If for some reason you need to need to edit the barcode you can. You can rescan your existing card or just edit the number. If you know it, you can even change the barcode type and choose to hide beginning and trailing digits.

Because I happen to know that KCLS uses codabar with a mod 10 check digit I made sure that "codabar" was selected in the list and the first and last digits were hidden. More then likely you wont need to do this step. But it's nice to know you can if you must.

Once you are done with any edits you can hit the save button and you are finished.

The rest of the app is very straight forward. There are tips for how to make sure your newly created card will scan correctly, registration for backing up all your cards and even an "offers" list for online bonuses and sales.

If you are like me and your wallet is thick with extra cards and you want to ditch the extra weight, then this app is a godsend. It will allow you to quickly store all your data in one location for fast access and safe storage, and you will never again forget your cards at home (unless you forget your phone). Give it a try and let me know what you think.

TiVo to Mac - iTivo Update

2013-01-09T10:53:00.000-08:00

I first wrote about moving your Tivo files to your Mac using iTivo here. When Mountain Lion broke the application I did an updated post outlining a work around here. Well, I'm happy to inform you that there is an update to iTivo, the application that makes it easy to download and decrypt your tivo files. iTivo now works with OSX 10.8!

Although the application is currently in beta release it does work. You can download the application on this web page. Make sure to download the latest copy and give it a test drive and see if it works for you.

When things were still broken you may have tried to fix things by adding a soft link to find your Tivo on the network. Since you no longer need that link you can remove it using terminal. Open terminal and type:

cd /usr/bin

ls -al mDNS

The computer should return something like this

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 15 Jul 26 11:54 mDNS -> /usr/bin/dns-sd

to remove your link type the following

sudo rm mDNS

That's it. You should be done. Happy downloading!

UPDATE - 2/20/2013

As of 2/20/2013 iTiVo is working again. The application does needs a manual fix however. Please download the latest iTiVo and apply the fix outlined in the this MacITHelp post.

Santa's Best Intentions...

2013-01-01T15:24:00.000-08:00

Ever since I was a kid I loved getting tech toys for Christmas. When I was younger I remember screaming for joy when I found a Walkie-Talkie set under the tree. When I was in Jr. High Santa splurged and got me a real LED watch. WOW it was cool! Who cares that it ate batteries like a hungry teenager goes through PB&J sandwiches.

Later on, when I was in High School, I got my first calculator. That calculator really stands out as a perfect tech gift from Santa (my grandfather really). It was the RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) HP-25C. It was an awesome gift for a high school geek and future engineer. But what do you do when the gift isn't perfect?

This year I gave Santa my VISA card and had him bring me a Citizen Eco-Drive Bluetooth Proximity watch. It sounded perfect: Bluetooth communication with my iPhone, on the wrist alerts for email & phone calls all in a great looking solar powered body.

On Christmas day, after the carnage of the all the wrapping paper was cleared, I sat down to set it up. I read the manual, watched the set up movies on the included USB drive and finally got it to work, ... for about 5 minutes. That's when things went south. I'm talking southern hemisphere south.

The watch relies on a cool iOS app that sets things up for you. You first must pair the watch and your phone but once you have that working the app allows you to sync time, receive alerts & find your phone if you've misplaced it.

So if you hear a giant "but" coming you're right. Yes the watch is complex and not easy to set up but I figured that I would only need to do the paring and set up once. The problem is keeping it paired and working. I discovered that if the Bluetooth connection between the watch and your iPhone drops it just won't work again unless you go through the whole pairing/set-up procedure again. After the fifth time this happened I hit the Internet and found I wasn't alone.

A whole host of issues is outlined on the Amazon review section for the watch. Various blog posts and tech reviews also outline some of the issues. Couple this issue with the fact that the watch won't alert you to SMS & iMessage texts and I realized that just maybe this was one tech gift that didn't work out.

I'll admit it, I was blinded by the tech and the all the promises the PR guys made. The watch is beautiful and and has potential but like the eMate or Newton it just wasn't ready for prime time yet. After agonizing for a day or two I decided to return it.

The moral of the story is that for every HP calculator, iPhone or iPod there's a Nokia N-Gage or Microsoft BOB. I have no doubt that in the near future someone will get it right. Maybe it will come from Pebble or Meta Watch or just maybe (fingers crossed) it will come from Apple.

As a true watch lover I won't be one of those youngsters who give up their watch and exclusively use their cell phone. I want both. And I want them to work together. Maybe next year.

Creating iPhone Ringtones

2012-11-19T12:25:00.003-08:00

Now that I've had my new iPhone 5 for a couple of months I've finally started to get my phone configured the way I want it. The apps I use most frequently are on the main screen. I've created folders for utilities, different types of games, and for the photography apps I have in abundance. But the one thing that really personalized my phone was setting individual ringtones for people.

Ringtones are a very nice way to personalize your phone and let you know who is calling as soon as you hear it. You can buy ringtones through Apple but did you know you can create your own? It isn't obvious, but creating your own ringtone is an easy thing to do.

A lot of blogs have a step-by-step on how to create a ringtone for free using iTunes or GarageBand. You can look at those instructions here, here or here. Rather than re-do those instructions I want to show you how easy it can be using an almost free solution.

For only 99 cents you can download a great ringtone application called, appropriately enough, Ringtones. This inexpensive solution will really speed up your ringtone creation and allow you to create an unlimited number of ringtones from any DRM-Free song in your iTunes library. Since Apple now allows you to download the DRM free version of purchased music it basically means anything in your library.

The Ringtones application interface looks a lot like iTunes. When you open the Ringtones application it will display your entire iTunes library of music including all your playlists. Your first step is to select the song you want to use for your ringtone.

Once you have selected the song the wave form of your song will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. If you don't know what a wave form is don't worry about it. Just think of it as an audio map of your song. The key will be to find the section of the song you want to use for your ringtone. Whatever is inside the blue rectangle will become your ringtone.

You can grab and move the blue selection left or right to get just the part of the song you want. You can also grab the left or right side of the rectangle to change the starting point, end point as well as the length of the ringtone.

At the bottom of the window you can set manually set the ringtone loop size, fade in or out and adjust the volume. To hear how your selection will sound just hit the "Preview" button. As your ringtone plays the selection will loop continuously until you stop it. You can adjust the starting points and stopping points during preview and get just the section you want. After you have the perfect selection, click the "Send to iTunes" button on the lower right and you are done.

Now when you open iTunes and select "Tones" you will now see your brand new ringtone!

Your next step will be connecting your iPhone and dragging the ringtone to your phone.

Apple makes great software but how you add a ringtone to an individual contact isn't one of their great moments in ease of use or interface design. To add your new ringtone masterpiece as the ringtone for a specific individual open the contacts app on your iPhone and select the person's entry you want to modify. In the upper right corner select "Edit."

Now scroll down and click on the ringtone arrow button.

Select the ringtone you created and added to your phone and you are ready to go!

You can use ringtones for phone numbers, text tones, Facebook Post or any sound that the iPhone uses to alert you. Those sounds are available in the Settings App under "Sounds" and you can change them the same way you modified the contact information.

Now you can stop worrying about all the little details and just concentrate on being creative while you build your ringtone library!

Picking my iPhone 5 Case

2012-10-15T15:18:00.001-07:00

One thing that strikes you when you pick up an iPhone 5 is how well put together and balanced it is. You also notice that it's all aluminum and glass, and that means it can be slick. As beautiful as it is, if you want to keep your new phone looking nice it's dangerous to carry it around naked. I needed a case.

Less than a month after the release of a new product it was surprising how many case manufactures had iPhone 5 cases. Lots of research later I decided that I didn't want a bumper or a hard case. I knew I wanted to keep my phone safe but I also wanted show off it's great looks and keep it from becoming a clunky brick. That led me to a sleeve case. One of the best out there is the DODOcase durables iPhone wallet. At $50 it's not cheap but when you plan on spending the next 2 years with your phone I wanted a nice case that I won't have to replace in the next 6 months.

The exterior of the DODOcase is waxed canvas with a real leather base that acts as both a great grip and extra pockets. It's made in the U.S. and the quality shows in both the materials and the workmanship.

The inside is cotton linen that won't scratch your device.

When the case arrived I ripped open the package and immediately slipped in the iPhone. It was a great fit. Unfortunately it wasn't a perfect fit. Like all hand made items I'm sure there is a small amount of variation in any product but I think that the DODOcase is made just a touch large to facility easy access to your phone. That's great, but after a couple of days of use my phone came out of the case a little too easily. That's when I found a nice solution.

While I was waiting for my case to arrive I had been carrying around my phone in an old glasses pouch that came with a pair of sunglasses. I realized that I it was a perfect match for the fabric inside my new DODOcase. Viola! Problem solved. Put the phone in the glasses pouch and put the pouch inside the DODOcase.

It was kind of like getting your groceries double bagged at the supermarket. Just that little bit of extra fabric gives you a sense that your phone won't accidentally slip out but it still is easy to grab when you want it. The draw string makes it even more secure when you want to make sure it the phone stays put.

So there you have it. A great product with a DIY addition that makes it even better. I'm loving my new iPhone 5 and now that I have a great case to protect it I know that it will be in great shape when the iPhone 7 comes out and it's time to replace it.

iPhone Setup - Opting out of Ads

2012-10-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

Getting my first iPhone has been an awesome experience but also a learning experience. Making sure your phone is set up the way you want, with all the right data it is only part of the fun. You also need to make sure some of the more obscure settings are configured the way YOU want not the way Apple wants. One of the first I changed was Ad tracking.

There has been a lot of news about Apple tracking the iPhones and what it means to you. You can read a couple of great articles about it here and here. With all that public focus, Apple changed a few things in iOS 6 and made it a bit easier to opt out of Ad tracking. Here's how to do that.

From your iPhone open up Settings and Navigate the following setting:

Settings > General > About > Advertising

Toggle the "Limit Ad Tracking" switch to "On." Notice how easy that was to find? No? Well, just because Apple put the ability to limit Ad tracking in iOS doesn't mean they make it easy to find.

There is also one more thing you need to do. You also need to opt out of Apples iAd tracking from their web site.

On the iPhone open the following URL

http://oo.apple.com

You will be greeted with the following web page.

As Apple states in the body of the text, "You may still see the same number of ads as before but they may be less relevant because they will not be based on your interests." This isn't about the number of Ads it's about tracking your interests and keeping that information about you. Do you really want Apple to know you're interested in prostate treatment or menopause cures? I don't think so.

The iPhone is a great phone with a wonderful UI. Just make sure it's not used by someone else to gather information about you and your family you don't want to give out.

My First iPhone

2012-09-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

With a Blog titled "Mac IT Help" you would figure I was one of those early adopters of all things Apple, and you would be right, ... except when it comes to the iPhone.

My first Mac was the venerable Mac II color computer. Over time I worked my way through a PowerPC Mac 7100, Mac 7500, the original iMac, a Power Mac G4 and G5, as well as multiple iPods. Today I have an iPod Touch, iPod Nano, an iPad 3, several Mac Laptops and my workhorse PowerMac, but before Sept 21 2012 I didn't have a personal iPhone.

The company I work for provides a cell phone for business and personal use so to save a few bucks my daily use cell phone is a Blackberry. But that changed when the iPhone 5 was announced. I took the plunge, this week I decided to join the enlightened and buy an iPhone 5 for myself and upgrade my wife to the latest and greatest as well.

My decision wasn't made in haste, I thought about it for almost a full 5 seconds before I figured out I needed Apple's latest and greatest. It was time to treat myself to a personal phone that didn't suck.

It's kind of a pain to carry 2 phones during work hours but after playing with my new phone I've come to the conclusion it's worth it. This new Apple phone is a masterpiece of engineering and work of art.

Over the next few weeks I plan on publishing several iPhone centric blog posts but for now I'm going to go play with my new toy.

Bellevue Apple Store Grand Opening

2012-09-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today was the grand opening of the new Bellevue Square Apple Store and the new location is gorgeous!!!

The whole front wall is glass and the store is about 4 times as large as the old one. The crowd gathered well before the 9:30AM opening and when they officially opened the store everyone rushed to grab a free t-shirt and look at all the great products.

The layout inside the new store includes areas for each of the major products and accessories.

The sales associates were out in force helping people spend their money.

The new store also has a lot more space dedicated to Personal Setup and a much larger Genius Bar

A little poking around revealed that each of the rectangles on the Genius Bar wall (see picture above) is actually a drawer filled with cords, parts and paperwork. A nice way to keep things tidy.

Another great feature of the store is the large skylight in the center. It gives the store a wide open feel, and in the normally dreary Northwest rain, will offer much needed exposure to sunlight, even if it's filtered through clouds.

If you have a chance to visit Bellevue I highly recommend you include a stop in the Bellevue Square Apple Store.

Bellevue Apple Store Expansion

2012-08-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Way back in May of 2011 I wrote about plans that Apple had to move it's Bellevue Square to a larger footprint. Things have been very quiet for over a year but a little birdie told me that the new store will open in time for the arrival of the iPhone 5 and the coming Christmas shopping season. Let's hope that birdie isn't chirping out of the side of it's beak.

The current store has a narrow 30 feet of storefront and about 3500 square feet of floorspace.

The new store will be one of Apple's largest and located on the second floor of the same mall.

As a resident of Bellevue I look forward to a new updated store. When it opens I'll grab my camera and take a few photos.

UPDATE 8/27/2012

Here's some (below average) iPod photos I made when I made a trip to the Apple Store today.

UPDATE 8/28/2012

Just got an official Apple email letting me know that the new store will open September 1st!!

TiVo to Mac - Mountain Lion Edition

2012-07-31T17:12:00.002-07:00

With every new OS update from Apple you get a lot of cool new features. Unfortunately you also get a few apps that don't work. One application I rely on for getting TV shows off my Tivo is iTivo. I wrote about it here in a previous post. After I upgraded to the new Mountain Lion OS I found that iTivo was broken. Now I had to go to plan B if I wanted to watch my favorite TV shows on my iPad or AppleTV. Thankfully plan B works great. It just takes a few more steps.

UPDATE - 2/20/2013

The work around outlined below works fine but as of 2/20/2013 iTiVo is working again. The application does needs a manual fix however. Please download the latest iTiVo and apply the fix outlined in the this MacITHelp post.

Part 1 - Finding Your Tivo

Our first step is downloading your TV show from your TiVo to your Mac. To get download your shows you first have to locate your TiVo on your network and log in. Did you know that you can actually log onto your tivo from any web browser? No, well you can but you need to know the IP address that your Tivo is using. The easiest way to figure that out is to use a free application called LanScan.

You can download LanScan from the Apple App Store here. Once you have LanScan installed start it up and scan your network. You should see a screen like this:

You will notice that my Tivo has the local IP address of 192.168.2.10. Armed with that information you can now log into your Tivo using your favorite web browser and grab your files.

Part 2 - Logging into Your Tivo

Open up a browser window and type in the IP address you found above. For this login you will want to use a secure login so make sure to type in the "https://" before your IP

https://192.168.2.10

Once you do that you should see a login screen like this one:

The User Name will always be "tivo" and the password will be your personal Tivo Media Access Key (MAK). If you don't know what your MAK is follow these steps. On your TiVo box go to TiVo Central > Messages and Setup > Account & System Information > Media Access Key. Write that number down, you will use it a lot to get things working.

Once you log onto your box you will now see all your current recordings.

To download a show just click the download MPEG-PS link and your file will be transferred from your Tivo to your Mac. Remember though that it will be encrypted so your next step will be to decrypt the file.

Part 3 - Getting the Decryption Software

The software to decode the TiVo files isn't a standard Mac application and runs under UNIX. To get things to work you will need to download and install a small UNIX application then build a script to use it.

Don't worry, it may seem daunting but I've done all the leg work so this is going to be easy. I've included a lot of screen shots for each step so just follow along. First you need to download a file set called MacOSX_tools from an application called kmttg.

Once you have it downloaded and decompressed it open up the folder and find the file called tivodecode. It's at the bottom and only 66KB in size.

You now need to start channeling your inner UNIX geek and use the terminal to copy the "tivodecode" file to a specific location on your Mac.

Part 4 - Loading the decryption Software

Open up the terminal application. You will find it in the Utilities folder inside the Application folder.

Once it's open you need to go to the /usr/sbin location where you will install tivodecode. Type in

cd /usr/sbin

Now type in "sudo cp" and drag the tivodecode file you downloaded to the terminal screen. When you drag a file onto the terminal screen it will automatically that files current location and type it in for you. Now finish the command by typing a "." The period says 'copy this file to my current location'. So the full second command might look like this:

sudo cp /FTP/kmttg_MacOSX_tools_v0p8l/tivodecode/tivodecode .

After you you are sure you have the command correct hit the return key. You will be prompted for your password and then the command will be executed. Hopefully everything will work fine and tivodecode will be installed. To check if it was copied you can perform the list command to see.

ls -al /usr/sbin/tivodecode
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 57096 Jul 30 16:32 /usr/sbin/tivodecode

You should see tivodecode listed rather than "No such file or directory".

Part 5 - Creating a script to decode your Tivo Files

Now that you have installed the software you will want an easier way to run tivodecode rather than use the terminal. The easiest way is to create a script. To do that use Apple's own Automator application located in the applications folder. Find it and open it up.

Once it is up select "New" from the file menu and "Application" as the type of Automator file you want to create. You will only need a 3 step script to decode your Tivo files. Here's a picture of the script.

Your first step is to select the "Files & Folders" icon on the left then drag the "Ask for Finder Items" into the window pane on the right. In the "Prompt" section just type in "Choose a Tivo file" and fill the folder location you normally use when you download your Tivo files.

Now select "Utilities" from the Library and drag "Run Shell Script" to the Window pane on the right. First make sure the "Shell" is set to "/bin/bash". In the Shell Script window type the following:

/usr/sbin/tivodecode -m <MAK> -o "/Folder/tivofile.mpg" "$@"

Remember to insert your real MAK address into the command and the real path to your output file.

If you have Growl installed you can add this final step. It isn't really required but it does help you to know when your file is done decrypting. In the "Utilities" menu find "Show Growl Notification" and drag it to the right side of the window. Now type in a title and description.

Now that you are done editing save the file and make sure it's saved as an application in the "File Format" drop down menu.

Part 5 - Running the Script

This is the fun part. You have all the pieces in place to download your Tivo recordings & decrypt them. Start up the appliclation you just created and select a .TiVo file.

Once selected you will see the command you set up to run with your real MAK. If you want to change the location of the file or the file name you can do so here. Just highlight the text you want to change and type in a new name or path.

Once you hit continue your file will process in the background and eventually you will see the notification that your file is done decrypting. VOILA!! you are finished.

As you can see, it would be much easier to use the iTiVo application but until someone fixes it you have a work around. It's a lot of steps but nothing difficult. Let me know how it works out for you. When iTiVo pushes out an update I'll let you know.

UPDATE -

It seems that some people are getting a "Bad CPU type" error when they try to run tivodecode. This is probably due to the compiled version downloaded above. There's a couple of things you can try to fix it.

Download tivodecode from Source Forge. You can try the latest version or an old version.

Some people have also had success extracting tivodecode from the old, non-working, iTivo application. Open the iTivo package contents by control+clicking on the iTivo application and selecting "show package contents". In the Contents/Resources folder you should find a copy of tivodecode. Drag a copy to the desktop (option+drag) and then move that version of the tivodecode file to /usr/sbin to see if things work.

Connecting Remotely Using BTMM - From Someone Else's Machine

2012-07-10T13:55:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of Mac applications available that will let you connect to your Mac when you are away from home. All of the easiest to use applications have some sort of registration so you can find your Mac out of the millions that are using the Internet at any given time. Apple has one of the best remote access applications built into their OS. It's part of Apple's free iCloud service and called "Back-to-my-Mac", or just BTMM for short.

When you register each of your Macs with iCloud, and enable BTMM, the software allows you to access any of your Macs disks or share the screen remotely from where ever you are. If you are sitting on the Lanai of your beach condo in Hawaii and need a file from your home computer just connect to Mac and mount up your hard drive. Copy the file and you are done. Even better, if you want to operate your Mac remotely just click the "Share Screen" button and log in.

The one drawback to all this remote convince is trying to connect from a Mac that isn't yours or is associated with a different iCloud user back to your machine. The good news is that with a little preparation and the right software you can do it! To get things working you need to gather some specific information and set up your Mac.

The one key piece of information you need to know is your Mac's Internet address. This is a unique number that identifies you to the internet. Most Internet Service Providers (ISP) assign you a dynamic IP. That means that you will never know what it is on any given day unless you write it down. There are free DNS services that will associate a name to your IP address but thankfully, for Apple iCloud users, Apple does this for you! To find out your DNS name all you need to do is open up the Terminal application located in your Utilities folder and run a simple command.

First off, don't be afraid of the command line. You just need to run one simple command, write down the information, then quit terminal. The command you need to run is the multicast DNS service discovery. It will figure out the DNS name associated with your iCould account.

$ mDNS -E

Looking for recommended registration domains:

Talking to DNS SD Daemon at Mach port 5891

14:42:11.478 Recommended Registration Domain local. Added

14:42:11.479 Recommended Registration Domain <.Mac ID>.members.mac.com. Added

14:42:11.479 Recommended Registration Domain XXXXXXX.members.btmm.icloud.com. Added

As of MacOS 10.7 Apple is still using the .Mac members DNS name even though it no longer works for this particular VNC use. The DNS name you need to copy is your iCloud DNS name. In the example above it's the last line. The results will have a unique number associated to your iCloud account name.

12345678.members.btmm.icloud.com.

Now you need to make sure your Mac is set up. Open up the system preferences and select "iCloud" under "Internet & Wireless" and click the "Back to My Mac" check box.

Because you can have multiple Macs associated with a single iCloud user ID you also need to identify which Mac you want to connect to. For each Mac associated with your iCloud user ID open "System Preferences" and click the "Sharing" tab. Write down the "Computer Name:" that appears at the top. In the case below it's just "iMac".

Lastly you will need to enable VNC connections for your Mac. Select "Computer Settings" in the same "Sharing" Preferences panel, check the VNC box and type in a strong password. Because your machine is accessible from outside your firewall I suggest using upper & lower case letters, numbers and characters (!,@, #, etc.)

You are now set up and have all the information you need to connect to your machine using your favorite VNC app. One of my favorites is Chicken of the VNC. You can download it here.

Once the application opens just use the new connection command in the "File" menu. in the host: box type

<computer_name>.XXXXXXX.members.btmm.icloud.com

An example might be

iMac.12345678.members.btmm.icloud.com.

When you connect you will see a login box. This is where you type in the VNC password you just set above.

If you don't want this box to appear you can enter your VNC password in the VNC Login screen and select "Remember Password." After your VNC connects you will see your Mac's login screen.

Select your user and log in! If everything works as planned you should be now be logged into your machine.

Dragging Analog into Your Digital World

2012-06-23T15:26:00.003-07:00

For all the recent hype about Apple's new hardware and the new features (Solid State Drive, Retina Display, No DVD/CD Drive) the one constant is the need for something good to put on your shiny new Mac. Today I want to concentrate on how to get your data onto your Mac.

When people think about data they usually think about text documents, old email, music, movies & photos. If you already have digital data moving it from an old computer to your new Mac, even one without a CD/DVD drive, is easy. Just use your WiFi network, drag and drop. But what about digitizing your old analog data? What about documents that aren't in digital form or old photographs your parents or grandparents gave you? This is where scanners come in.

Scanners may be something out of the 1990's (has it really been over 20 years?) but they work well and give you a high quality output. I own an Epson Perfection 3170. A great scanner for it's day and one that still works well. A quick trip to your local thrift store and you will see that a lot of people have dumped their scanner thinking they will never need it. But if you want to bridge the analog/digital divide then a scanner can come in handy.

If you do own a scanner your next question is how to use it. Although most of the major manufactures have their own software most of that software is out of date junk. The rapid updates of Mac OSX often renders all those applications useless. Not to worry. Did you know Apple has a way to scan using Apple's own software that comes with every Mac? Today I want to show you how to use the ubiquitous Preview application with your scanner.

Scanning with Preview

1) Turn on the scanner and open up Preview

2) Under the "File" Menu select "Import from Scanner" and select your scanner

3) You will now see a blank page with less than basic scanner functions available. In order to really take advantage of the power of your scanner you need to select the "Show Details" button at the bottom.

4) Now the fun starts. Selecting "Overview" will give you a preview scan of your photo. From this you can select the image and crop to the desired size. Once you have set the scan area you can now balance the color.

On the right side of the window are the controls to help color balance and correct the image. There aren't a lot of controls but tweaking the sliders can greatly improve your photo. If you are familiar with iPhoto you shouldn't have any issues figuring things out. If not, just experiment and with the sliders until the photo looks right to you.

As a last step before scanning make sure to change the resolution to a value that suits how you are going to use your photo. If you just want to email it or post it on Facebook you only need to set it at 100 dpi or so. If you want to take your file to your local drug store to get a reprint or you want to edit it in Phtoshop then scan it at a higher resolution.

5) Once you are done adjusting the color just select the "Scan" button at the bottom, save the file and you are done.

There may be better scanning applications out there that give you greater control of your output but convenient and free sure is nice!

Extra Storage for your iPad

2012-04-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

When Apple's first iPad went on sale people rushed out to buy one. When the iPad 2 came out even more people bought one. Then came the iPad 3, or as Apple calls it, the "New iPad." This new iPad is faster and has a better screen but throughout all these upgrades the storage sizes remained the same: 16GB, 32GB & 64GB.

The best new feature on the new iPad is the retina screen. It's amazing! But one of the things people don't think about is the impact that georgous retina display has on storage space. To take advantage of the hi-res display application developers have added new retina display compatible graphics in their Apps. The result is an increase in App size.

Since all versions of the iPad, both old and new, use the same application everyone who owns an iPad, regardless of model, is impacted. When you start to add up all the extra storage space those apps are adding the increase is alarming. After a while that midrange 32GB iPad is looking a bit cramped and the 16GB model is getting downright tiny. You may be able to host your music in iCloud but hosting video files is a bit trickier. And sometimes you don't have WiFi or cell connection.

If you like movies & TV shows, have a lot of old USB drives or SD cards laying around and want to save some space on your iPad, here's how you can use external storage to store your video files.

First some caveats:

Your videos must be H.264-compliant
You need to own one of Apple's camera connection kit adaptors
You need to rename your video files to mimic the filenames from a camera SD card
You must have enough free space you your iPad to copy the file
You won't use the "Videos" app on the iPad to watch your files you will use "Photos"

Getting your video ready

I did a write up about using Handbrake to get your videos off of DVD and into the proper format here & here. Just make sure it's H.264-compliant. Once you have your video file you now need to get it on the iPad. Go do a search around your house and in your desk. If you're like me you will find a ton of old 1GB, 2Gb or even 4GB USB drives and SD cards. Grab one and set it up.

Setting up the SD Card or USB drive

The name of the SD/USB device can be anything you want but the folder structure must match the structure found on camera SD cards. On the device create a folder called "DCIM" and a subfolder called "100DICAM" or , if you are a Nikon fan, "100NCD90"

Add the Video Files

Copy the video file you want into the DCIM subfolder you just created and rename the file. You MUST use eight characters with sequential numbers exactly the same way your camera does it. Use something like DSC_1000, DSC_1001, and so forth. If you do load up several different movies just make sure to keep track of your video names and what you called them. A 32GB flash drive holds a lot of old Animaniacs episodes and heaven forbid if you should pick the wrong one to watch on a long plane flight.

Now make sure you have enough free space on your iPad to store the file then plug in the camera connection kit adaptor with your SD card or USB drive plugged in.

Importing your Videos to the iPad

After you plug in the connector you will be prompted to import you file(s).

Once the import is done you can unplug your connector. Now just tap the video and start watching. Remember that your videos are only accessible in the "Photos" app not the normal "Videos" App.

Deleting iPad video files

After doing this walk through several times one thing that isn't intuitively obvious is how to delete these video files you added so I figure I'd review it for you.

Open up Photos and select "Albums" or "Events"

Select the video you loaded and on the next screen tap the button in the upper right corner.

Select your video

And delete it

On a long trip you can now take along videos for everyone without worrying about who get's to choose what goes on the iPad. You also free up space for Apps music and other photos.

Enjoy!

iPad OverDrive Tutorial

2012-03-18T16:02:00.003-07:00

Libraries have changed in the digital age. Many new libraries are being designed with less shelf space for hard bound books and adding more space for computers & desks. Fewer books on the shelves may mean you won't be able to find a copy of your favorite thriller when you want to read it but the change to the digital world also has its advantages. One of the biggest for the voracious reader out there is digital books.

Holding a real cloth and paper book may be comforting for the old school among us but more and more publishers are discovering that they sell more digital copies than paper copies. Companies like Adobe, Amazon and Barnes & Noble recognized and spurred the change with their own digital book formats. iPad, Kindle and Nook compatible books are now the mainstay of many libraries. To distribute those digital books, libraries rely on a company called OverDrive. OverDrive set up an infrastructure that lets library patrons check out electronic books, audio books and videos. Because using OverDrive isn't intuitively obvious I've written instructions to help guide you through the use of OverDrive to check out and read library books on your iPad.

Set Up OverDrive

Make Sure Overdrive is loaded on your iPad. If it’s not you can download it at the in the App Store in iTunes. If you don’t have OverDrive installed you can download it here:

Overdrive

Another account you will need to have is an Adobe ID. This is required to read the EPUB version of e-books. To get an account go the adobe website and create your Adobe ID.

You can use a unique, but not necessarily functional email address for this step. They will not email you to confirm your account.

To install your Adobe ID open OverDrive and select the “Get Books+” icon in the upper right of the screen.

At the bottom of the next screen click the settings button.

Now you just need to click the Adobe Authorization button and input your newly created Adobe ID.

Once these steps are done you can now start downloading books.

Downloading your Books

Open the App by touching it and you will see a screen showing all your current books and a “Welcome to OverDrive” book included with the program.

Now click on the “Get Books+” icon in the upper right corner of the screen and you will be asked to “Add a Library”. Click the plus sign to add your local library.

Type in your local Zip code ...

And find your library...

After you select your library it will be added to the OverDrive list and you wont need to add it again. Selecting your library from the OverDrive list will now open the Safari browser with the OverDrive web page for that library.

Select “Login” and enter your library card number and PIN number. You may need to visit your local library to get this set up if you don’t already have a card and PIN number.

Now comes the fun part, finding books to read! Just click on the search tool (the magnifying glass in the tool bar) and enter your favorite author, title or subject. Once you find what you are look for you need to add it to your cart. For the iPad you need to make sure to select Adobe EPUB ebook.

After you add the book to your cart you can continue to browse the library or you can check out. Once you select the check out option a screen will be displayed showing you the books you are checking out, the format of the book (Adobe EPUB) and a choice for check out period.

Unlike old school paper books libraries tend to limit the checkout time for e-books. They also limit the number of books you can have checked out at one time. If you are a fast reader make sure to choose the shorter checkout period because unlike paper books there isn’t a way to return e-books before they are due. If you are at your book limit you may have to wait until the digital check-in period is over to check out a new book.

Once you have confirmed your check out you can download the book. Just click the download button for each book in your cart.

Once the download finishes you can close Safari, go back to the Overdrive app and your books should be available to read!

Reading your Books

When using iPad Overdrive to download your library books you must use the Overdrive application to read your books. This is a result of the digital rights management the publishing industry has instituted for all digital material. Each book has a digital signature with the library it came from and your library ID. When you check it out and download it the book is encrypted so only you can read it and only for the check out time period. It’s not convent but it works. Just tap on the book jacket to read it.

Settings

OverDrive does have some built in features to make reading easier. Like iBooks you can change the font size, screen background color & brightness as well as set reading to night mode. Just tap once in the middle of the screen and the menu selections will appear. At the upper left corner of this screen is an arrow to get back to the main OverDrive screen showing your book library.

Now sit down with a good cup of tea and enjoy your books!!

Rumors & Whispers of New Products

2012-03-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

The Mac world and all things Apple, have always had rumor sites. You know the ones; Some China based manufacturer leaks the specs to the latest Apple gadget and the blog world goes nuts speculating about how much they believe it (or not). When the first iPhone came out the Internet was awash with speculation on the new iPod turned phone. Before the first iPad came out rumors swirled for months about how big it was going to be, the screen resolution, if it would have a built in camera, what was the processor, no detail was too small for speculation. Many sites got it right but just as many were way off base. Well today I'm about to join the ranks of the rumor sites.

First let me make something very clear, I have no inside source. I live a stones throw from many of the Microsoft campuses. If you want MS rumors I may be able to dig something up, but Apple rumors, not so much. I'm not connected with any clandestine Apple mole that feeds me information. I'm just going to speculate on current rumors and what they could mean based on creative thinking and a gadget freaks day dreams.

The iPad 3 is coming out very soon and the current buzz seems to have identified some features based on solid fact. I do believe that it will be about the same size and shape as the iPad 2. I think it will have a better camera and a 4 core CPU. I think it will be 4G LTE and will be priced about the same as the current iPad 2. The iPad 3 rumors are cool and interesting but everyone is talking about the iPad 3. What I want to talk about are the rumors that are starting up about the iPad-mini or 7 inch iPad.

When the first iPad came out people from the media asked Steve Jobs if Apple was ever going to make a smaller version of the iPad. Something that could compete with the Kindle, Galaxy or other small tablets that were in the market. He famously responded with, and I paraphrase here, "Hell No!" Yet the rumors persisted.

There is a current rumor that Samsung of all people, has leaked that they are going to supply Apple with 7+ inch displays for new smaller iPad device to be released in the 4th quarter of 2012. Everyone is convinced that the world needs a new smaller iPad to compete in the world market and it's going to be the next big (little?) thing from Apple. As for me I don't think so. Or rather, I think everyone has it wrong. I don't think it will be an iPad at all.

Heres my big prediction. I think Steve Jobs lied by omission. He was totally truthful that there would never be a 7 inch iPad but he was never asked if Apple was planning on making a remote for the rumored Apple TV.

You see, there are also a lot of rumors going around about a new Apple TV product that is a real TV with the Apple infrastructure for media distribution built in. Some say it will be a 50-inch set costing about twice as much as most TVs of the same size. Others think it will come in various sizes. But whatever its form, many people, myself included, are convinced that this is a real device. Sometime this year I think we will see an Apple product that will truly revolutionize the living room and home media in general. If you want to read about it you can do so here, here or here.

If you take as fact that Apple really is going to build this device then you have to ask yourself how are you going to control it? Then a light bulb appeared over my head ( no CFL for me, it was a good old fashioned incandescent). What if that rumor of a 7 inch iPad was in fact a controller for this new Apple TV set?

I was excited. I thought about it a while and figured that Apple would want to wow the market and make something spectacular that worked well if they were going to get people to invest some serious money on a TV set. A well designed TV with an integrated AppleTV interface would be great. But you would also need some way to control it. Something quintessentially Apple. Something easy to use and inspirational. Sure you could use an iPod, iPhone, or iPad but contrary to Apple's goals, not everyone has one. Maybe, just maybe, they plan on including a smaller iPad like device that can take user input, give feedback and act as a mobile interface to your TV.

If you built such a remote it would have to have features a standard iPad/iPhone/iPad doesn't have. Maybe it would have a high quality microphone built into it. You can use it for inputs to Siri without getting Siri distracted by the sound coming from the TV itself. That same mic could also act as a way to balance your speakers for you so you have the perfect audio environment for listening to that movie Apple just sold you.

Maybe it could have a built in IR blaster with the ability to control all your current devices attached to your TV. Wouldn't it be nice to have a universal remote for your Amp, Stereo, Blu-Ray player, & CD player? It could be a better version the Harmony remote.

With a large 7+" screen you could have IMDB like information at your fingertips. Maybe Apples social medial failure Ping would finally be useful. Wow!

With all of those features I would buy one! And that's the point. A TV is great, but with something like a large remote, that can control ALL your devices, give you internet access, provide you with voice commands and come with the TV, I think Apple would have a real winner on their hands. Maybe they could update the current AppleTV product to use it as well but I'm thinking it will probably be exclusive to the new Apple TV set.

So there you go, write it in your notebook and date it. I don't know if I'm the first to predict this, but I sure haven't seen anyone else speculate that Apple is making a 7 inch Apple TV remote for their new TV. In 6 months to a year I'll probably end up with egg on my face. But who knows, maybe I'm right. What do you think?

PS - Since I used some logos from other sites I figure I should at least link to them.

Cult of Mac
MacRumors
9to5Mac
MacOSRumors

Weekend Update

2012-02-25T17:27:00.000-08:00

When it comes to computers and software, you have to remember is that there is always change. New hardware comes out on a regular basis. For Apple, some the new Mac hardware comes out in the spring. But not always. As for software, it depends on the vendor. Some software get updated almost weekly. But most major (non bug related) software updates occur every 6 to 12 months.

Sometimes updating software can be annoying, like when your favorite software feature is discontented. Other times its a good thing, like when your old forgotten program is now improved and updated. Well last week a new version of VLC came out that included a lot of new features.

The new version is an awesome update that I highly recommend you get. However, the challenge comes when you try to use Handbrake to rip a DVD. The software update to VLC 2.0 breaks the ability to run Handbrake.

I explained how to rip a DVD in this post. If you re-read the post you will see that VLC is a required part of the equation when using Handbrake to rip a DVD. Because of the legal issues with DRM removal, Handbrake itself doesn't contain the required libraries. It uses VLC for that task.The issue is a that VLC version 2.0 is missing the required library.

To fix the problem you need to download and install the missing library from VLC. You have 2 choices, download just the libdvdcss.2.dylib file and move it to /usr/lib on your own or you can download an installer package which installs it for you. Either way, once the file is installed, Handbrake will work once again.

As a general rule most software updates don't usually break things. But if they do, use your favorite search engine and see if someone else has the same problem and has found a fix. I know it's goes agains all the laws of geekdom but as a last resort you can actually read the manual this often included with the software. Sometimes you might find your answer there as well.