Although my hobby is photography and I have a few DSLR cameras as well as a couple of point and shoots, I would say the camera that I actually use the most is the one on my iPhone. It’s the one that’s always with me. I don’t look at it as a replacement for my professional bodies, but I do look at it as a replacement for about 99% of what I used to carry a point & shoot for. I find that I only use my point & shoot these days for concerts. Needless to say I was happy to see a much improved camera on the iPhone 4s. The one on the iPhone 4 was a bit of a let down with early white balance problems (yellow tint) and shots that didn’t look that much better than the 3GS I had before it. The iPhone 4s is a big improvement across the board AND iOS 5 has a few tricks up it’s sleeve too.
1. Double Tap the Home Button on the Lock Screen
I have missed my share of shots. By the time it takes me to unlock my screen, find the camera app, fire it up and what for it open, many times the action was over. Now, in iOS 5 on the iPhone and iPod touch all you have to do is double tap the home button to get right to the camera. BONUS TIP: The Volume Up button also fires the shutter!
2. Swipe to get to the Camera Roll
One of the nice and hidden iOS 5 features is the ability to switch between the camera and the camera roll to see the shots you just took. When the camera is up, you can swipe to the right anytime you want to see your shots and swipe right back to continue shooting.
3. Tweet it right from the camera roll
If you took a shot and want to immediately Tweet it, you no longer have to fire up your Twitter App. Just use the Share menu and Tweet your shot right from the camera roll.
4. Edit your images right from the camera roll
You can do basic edits right on your iDevice without having to launch another App. You can crop, remove redeye, rotate and Auto Enhance just by tapping the Edit button.
5. Move your images into Albums
Finally on iOS 5 you can take images with your camera and then create and move those images into albums. Unfortunately you still can’t edit the albums sync’d via iTunes, but this is a good step in the right direction.
TextExpander has been around for years. I knew about it but never really took the time to check it out. Recently I got the iOS App – TextExpander Touch. Like my love for 1Password, I started using TextExpander on my iPhone and then figured it would be great to also have it on my Mac. Recently TextExpander for Mac was on sale and I couldn’t pass up that deal.
What is TextExpander?
TextExpander allows you to create shortcuts that expand out to the full text that you type on a regular basis. For example, let’s take “MacGroup-Detroit, Inc.” I type that all the time in email, web forms, word processing apps and graphic design apps. With TextExpander I setup a shortcut called “mgd” and now whenever I type “mgd”, it expands to “MacGroup-Detroit, Inc.” It’s not just for simple one liners either. TextExpander can expand a typed shortcut to full paragraphs of formatted text as well. This is great for instant access to your price lists, directions to your location and just about anything else you can think of.
Besides being able to expand basic text, formatted text, text with images and current date/time, TextExpander also has a cool “Fill In” feature. This is where you can create a snippet of text that when it expands it will have fields for you to key in the relevant info for that particular text. I didn’t realize how much I would use this feature until I setup one. Now I’m using it all the time.
Syncs with Dropbox
Like I said, I started with TextExpander Touch and I had already started creating some snippets on my iPhone and iPad. Of course when I got the Mac version I wanted to use those same snippets. The good news here is that TextExpander for Mac and TextExpander Touch all sync with Dropbox. If you create or edit a snippet in one place you’ll have it on all your other devices too.
How does it work with iOS Devices?
While TextExpander is pretty universal with your Apps on your Mac, it’s limited to the Apps that support it on iOS. Here’s a complete list of supported iOS Apps that work with TextExpander Touch. While the built-in iOS Mail App and Message App don’t support TextExpander Touch, you can create new email messages and SMS messages directly within the TextExpander Touch App so that you can take advantage of your snippets
iOS 5 promisses to bring similar functionality to the OS itself. This will be handy as it will be supported in the built-in apps, but like most built-in features it won’t be as robust ast TextExpander Touch. It will be great to have both!
You can get TextExpander for Mac for $34.99 here from the 
You can get TextExpander Touch for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch for $4.99 here from the 
As a photographer I love to "geotag" my photos when I travel. Not only do I think it's a neat technology, I just like the fact that I'll be able to more easily answer the "where was that photo taken?" question. I've given this tip a number of differnt times during presentations and in other posts, but I thought it was time to update it and give some additional tips.
The Problem: Your camera doesn't have a built-in or external GPS
If you're shooting with a regular point and shoot or DSLR camera, chances are it doesn't have a built-in GPS chip. Although there are a few cameras out there that do have them, the vast majority do not have them. On the other hand the cameras in your iPhone and WiFi+3G iPad do have actual GPS chips in them. This means that by defualt every picture you take is tagged with Location Information in the metadata of the image. Your various desktop applications like iPhoto, Lightroom, Aperture, Preview, etc. can use this information and display a map pointing out where the photo was taken. The question becomes how do you get this Location information into the shots that you took with a camera that doesn't have a GPS chip in it?
There are a few ways to do it
iPhoto – chances are as a Mac user you already have iPhoto. iPhoto is a photo management tool and whether you use it to manage your photos or not, you can use its easy ability to "copy" location information and "Paste Location" information into other photos. The tip is to simply take at least one iPhone/iPad 2 photo at each location and then go ahead and shoot with your regular camera. When you get back to your computer, import both the iPhone shots and your regular shots into iPhoto. Now just highlight the iPhone shot and choose Copy from the Edit menu. Select all the photos taken at the same location with your other camera and right-click on them and choose Paste Location. iPhoto will add the location information to each of those photos. Aperture can do this too.
HoudahGeo – While the "free" iPhoto option works fine, I actually prefer to do this with HoudahGeo. I don't use iPhoto to manage my photos. i use Lightroom. Importing and exporting the shots into iPhoto adds too many steps to my workflow just to get Location Information into my DSLR shots. HoudahGeo is a stand alone application that can add Location information to your images from a vareity of different sources including other images. This means that I can import images into Lightroom as I always do, then I can drag those same images into HoudahGeo. I can choose one of my iPhone shots and copy and paste the coordinates from the iPhone shoot to all my RAW (DNG) files. Once I go back to Lightroom I just tell Lightroom to update the metadata from the images. Done!
the shot above is being displayed in Lightroom with GPS info. Click the image to see it on the map!
Check out HoudahGeo here
Geotag as you shoot – My favorite method is to simply geotag my photos as i take them. As a Nikon DSLR shooter I have the benefit of having GPS "support" built right in to my Nikon DSLRs. The only thing that's missing is the actual GPS unit. Nikon doesn't build the actual GPS modules into their DSLRs yet. Instead you have to plug in an external module. There are several to choose from and no matter which one you go with, you can then just shoot! Just like with your iPhone, your Nikon DSLR images will be tagged with Location Information as you take them.
Here are some Nikon Compatible GPS units. Here's one that let's you use your iPhone's GPS via Bluetooth and another that uses a separate small GPS unit as you shoot with your DSLR. Pretty Slick!
Once those photos are geotagged now what?
Once you get the Location Information into your photos chances are you'll be ready to display this information. There are several ways to do it. First off and back to iPhoto. iPhoto can display your photos on a Map. That's what the Places feature is. Not only that iPhoto can use this in your slideshows and photo books too. This is also built-in to your iOS devices Photos App too. In Lightroom you can click the little arrow next to the coordinates and it will fire up your browser and show you the location on Google Maps. If you upload the photos to Flickr (and adjust your privacy settings) your photos will automatically be mapped as well. Even the Preview App can show you a map of your photos and show them to you on Google Maps. Those are just a few ways to see where your photos were taken.
A while back I wrote about a solution to allow you to print from your iOS devices to your printer, even if your current printer doesn't have native AirPrint Support. While FingerPrint (the App I wrote about back then) worked, it didn't work with every printer and not in every case. There was a print to your hard drive PDF workaround, but I've long since forgotten about all that. There were some readers of that post that suggested I take a look at Printopia and you guys were right. I've been using Printopia ever since and it just works!
Easy setup
Printopia installs as a System Preference on your Mac. I installed it on my Mac OS X Server since that Mac is always on and it's been running ever since. I don't even think about it. It shows up on my network to all my iOS devices including iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. I can print directly to the printer or send it to my Dropbox account as a PDF.
Some of the commenters even suggested a free way to do with an Apple Script instead of paying for any of these apps and while FREE is good, you get what you pay for. The free option only works on Snow Leopard whereas Printopia runs on Leopard (Mac OS 10.5), Power PC Macs as well as Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). You also get more options with Printopia like printing to your Dropbox or to a folder on your Mac. Yes it supports multiple printers too.
I don't print very often, but when I do I just print. I don't think about it. Printopia works!
You can learn more and download a free trial here.
Digital content supplier Zinio has a lot of flaming unhappy customers right now. For the past week or more Zinio.com customers had no access to their digital content.
The Zinio.com website and Zinio Reader apps have been completely unavailable and/or erratic for days now, almost a week. On the Zinio website, customers seeking information, were greeted with only a static image indicating that Zinio was offline. No other information.
Zinio.com is up and running more steadily now, and the Zinio Reader apps are working better, but frustration still looms high for some customers, and especially for those who still have gotten no relief from the inability to acess their digital content.
For starters, there was no information whatsoever listed on this static page to inform customers of what was going on, or when the site would be back online. No redirect, no email to contact. Nada.
Only days later did any info seem to come to light, on the Ziniophile blog. The said problem: "An outage at one of our data centers."
Customers understand that things can go wrong, and we customers understand that issues and problems may take time to resolve; even longer than we may like. But only by searching online for a couple of days was I able to find out anything at all on this problem. I was initially concerned with my computer Zinio app, but when a total of three devices showed the same problem, I knew it was something amiss on Zinio's end.
These days, It's completely unacceptable for companies not to proactively communicate issues of this magnitude with the customers they want patience and understanding from. And for the most part, customers will be understanding.
And, I'm pretty sure that the staff over at Zinio is working long and hard to resolve the problems that they find themselves knee deep in. But I think they got on the communication to customers part a little late.
The 1st iPod was introduced in 2001. Yes that was 10 years ago. It was revolutionary in many respects. Although the original model included a Firewire cable and was Mac Only, Apple followed up with the now standard iPod "dock connector" model in 2003. The dock connector has been great and widely adopted by peripheral and car manufacturers. While the dock connector is cool, I ask the question do we really need to plug in a cable to sync our iOS devices today?
Let's lose the cable!
Of course Apple still makes iPods that don't have built-in WiFi. These low cost models obviously need some way of connecting to your computer to sync the media. For those models the sync cable still makes sense. However, for iOS devices that have WiFi (the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) I wonder why we still "need" to plug in a cable to sync media? Don't get me wrong, given a choice I'll gladly plug in a cable when I have several gigabytes of data to sync to a new device over doing it via WiFi any day. Yet that doesn't mean that I should have to plug in a cable for day to day syncing.
- Apple TV streams Gigabytes of Movies Wirelessly
- MacBooks, iMacs, Mac mini's, etc all can backup Terabytes of data Wirelessly
- iTunes allows Home Sharing via WiFi
- iOS devices can download Gigabytes of data/media direclty from the iTunes store via WiFi
Still waiting for my dream to come true
I remember having a day dream when I got my first car with an iPod connection built-in that some day I would pull into my garage, reach into my glove compartment and press a sync button on my iPod (or iPhone) and my device would connect to my computer in the house and sync the latest playlists, podcasts, etc. via WiFi. I'm still waiting for that dream to come true and technically there is no reason why it shouldn't be a reality today. My iOS devices have WiFi. Apple already allows you to download gigabytes of data (movies and apps) from iTunes via WiFi directly to these devices . Why not allow us to do it from iTunes to iOS device? Hey, it's 2011: I shouldn't even have to press a sync button. The device iOS device should just auto sync (via a preference) when I enter my WiFi zone!
FAQ
Whenever I bring this up to my gadget buddies, someone always has a "but what about ______" objection. I can usually shoot these down pretty easily so let's go through the common ones.
Q. Isn't WiFi too slow?
A. Yes and no. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to use a cable if you want to. I'm just saying that we should have the option to do it wirelessly. Also remember that Apple already lets you download gigabytes of data directly to your iOS device via the internet. My Navigon App weighs in at 1.52GBs and I can download it direclty to my iPhone today from the App Store via WiFi.
Q. What if you were doing a OS update via WiFi and your connection died or battery died?
A. OK, what happens today if you accidently unplug the cable during an update? In other words there are problems that can happen today even with the cable. If Apple were truly worried about this they could require you to use the cable for OS updates or provide the same warnings they do today when updating a MacBook/MacBook Pro when you're not plugged into to power. Lastly Apple could do it more like they do it on the Mac. Let the iOS update download first to the device before installing. If the download/sync were interupted then there would be no harm.
Q. Users would complain that syncing takes too long.
A. Yep, they probably would. Apple could easily pop up an alert stating that syncing more than XXX amount of data may take a while over WiFi. Let me make that choice and of course disable the alert.
The Bottom Line
Beyond the first sync of all your media onto your iOS device, there is little reason that you shouldn't be able to sync via WiFi from that point on. Apple let's me backup my entire 500GB MacBook Pro drive via WiFi to a Time Capsule. Yes, it takes HOURS, but they allow it and even sell devices to do allow you to do it. If I wanted it to go faster I could always plug in an Ethernet cable. Syncing a WiFi enabled iOS device via WiFi wouldn't take nearly as long even if the device were empty. Apple can we please lose the cable? It's 2011!
When I talk with my friends that don't have iPhones (and want them), the usual answer I get these days is "I'm just waiting for it to come to Verizon." There seems to be a lot of "I hate AT&T" sentiments out there. For the record, and I'll say it again – I don't have a problem with AT&T and even if the iPhone were offered on Verizon tomorrow I'd probably stay right where I am. First off I live in Michigan and although I travel the world for work, my AT&T service in my area has actually been quite good. I get 4 bars in my basement. I don't drop a lot of calls and the only time I do have issues is when I travel to known problem areas (such as Times Square NYC and the Tampa Bay FL area). So no I'm not an AT&T hater. I don't love them or hate them. They provide a service that has worked out for me. When I travel outside the US I need a GSM based phone and at that point I'm roaming on the local carriers anyway. Nonetheless, AT&T doesn't have a good reputation and certainly the Apple/AT&T relationship has been a bumpy one at times. Only Apple and Verizon know for sure when they will join hands and release an iPhone on the much praised Verizon network (everyone now says 2011 – keep in mind that these were the same people that swore it would be 2010 and 2009 before that), but I had a thought about Apple & Verizon…
What if Apple Bought Verizon?
Apple is all about "control." They like to control every aspect of their products and services. Certainly not being able to deliver data tethering and MMS for so long was a pain for them as well as other things that had to wait for AT&T's network to get up to speed. So that got me to thinking that a Verizon buyout by Apple would probably be a good thing (at least for Apple). They would be buying a popular network and then be able to completely control the user experience on the iPhone. While I'm sure this would piss off not only AT&T, but the whole industry (especially Droid handset makers), it's an interesting thought. It's also not the first time that Apple would have pissed off the whole industry 
While we'll probably never see such an acquisition take place, I bet the thought has crossed Steve's mind at least once. In any case I anxiously await the iPhone adding additional US carriers for a few reasons:
- With the iPhone on more than one carrier it will force AT&T to be more competitive (a win for us all). Right now they are the only iPhone game in town and therefore they can do things like charge a $25 (just because we can) tethering fee on top of your data plan without adding any more data.
- A multi-carrier iPhone would relieve some of the stress on having everything iPhone fall on one carrier (AT&T). Honestly, I'm not sure that Verizon would have done much better if they suddenly had an influx of millions of data hungry users. We'll never know, but it's easy to say your network is the best when you don't have the same volume of traffic.
- Lastly it will shut people up I get a little tired at times of Verizon users telling me how they never ever drop a call ever and how Verizon bows down to their every wish. Keep in mind that I do have a Verizon data card and I know for a fact that just like any other carrier their service is great in some areas and not so great in others. However, I don't argue. I just smile, because I really don't care one way or the other. I'm fine with my service and you're fine with yours, great! It's phone service, not a religion.
Understanding that you would probably wait till your contract was up if you have one, but what would you do…
Admittedly I don't do much printing these days. Also I'd have to say that i can't think of too many times that I was looking at something on my iPhone and thought "I'd like to print this." However, with the iPad things are a little different. I'm not saying that I suddenly have the need to print, but I can certainly see someone making the case for needing to print from an iPad more so than from an iPhone or iPod touch. In many cases the iPad has become a laptop replacement for a lot of people and no one would think twice about being able to print something from their laptop. Apple also sells iPad Apps like Pages and Numbers and certainly you might want to print a word processing document or spreadsheet. Apparently Apple got lots of requests for printing too and they added printing support in iOS 4.2.
The iOS AirPrint built-in printing support is severely limited!
Although iOS 4.2 now includes printing support (AirPrint), the current implementation is VERY LIMITED. Out of the box you can only print to select HP printers. That's right! No Epson printers, no Canon printers, no other printers are currently supported. So unless you're willing to go out and buy a specific HP printer, you're out of luck. Rumor had it that Apple was going to support AirPrint "sharing" in Mac OS X 10.6.5 and the support for whatever reason got pulled out of the final release. That's not to say that we won't see it in 10.6.6 or 10.6.5.1 or whatever Apple decides to call it, but for right now it is what it is. Don't worry though, I found a way to do it now!
FingerPrint to the Rescue!
There's an App for that! If you're on a Mac with a shared printer you can download and test Collobos Software's FingerPrint App for Mac OS X 10.5/10.6. This App aims to bridge the gap between AirPrint and your existing printer. You can download the App and test it for a week at no charge. As a matter of fact they encourage you to test it first before paying for it to make sure that it works with YOUR printer. Yes that means that even with this software there's a chance that your printer won't work and that's exactly what happened to me. Although I don't have any real interest in Printing from my iOS devices, I still want the option if I can have it. So I downloaded FingerPrint and within a couple of minutes I had it up and running and ready to test. It saw my Xerox Phaser 8550DP printer and so did my iPad! Woohoo! However, when I brought up a page in Safari on the iPad and attempted to print it nothing happened. Nothing was ever sent to the printer. I figured, "oh well I guess I will continue to live without printing." Then Collobos updated FingerPrint with a new option. This new option allows you to not only print directly to a "compatible" printer, but also send the print job to the Mac that's running the App as an Adobe PDF. You can either "Send to Mac" or "Send to iPhoto". I tried the "Send to Mac" option and it worked! My PDF ended up in the ~/Documents/FingerPrint folder and immediately launched in Preview. So at a minimum I could at least hit print from there and get the printout that I wanted.
That's not good enough!
One of the most popular features of MacGroup-Detroit and one of the things that sets us apart from most other groups is MacGroup TV. MacGroup TV is the monthly broadcast of our meetings. It allows our members to see the meetings they missed pretty much on any device they choose. While it was already possible to download the meetings or stream time to your iOS device. However, MacGroup-Detroit is pleased to introduce a dedicated App for MacGroup TV.
How does it work?
Like I said, you could already subscribe to MacGroup TV in iTunes and the episodes will download to your computer automatically and sync over to your device the next time you sync. You could also go to the show in the iTunes App right on your device and start watching a meeting stream over the internet or download one. With the App you have a one tap button that takes you right to the show and shows you the most current meeting. You can "Star" your favorites to get to quickly to watch over and over or download them right in the App for offline viewing. Any meeting you start to watch and then want to finish later will pick right back up where you left off. Also unlike iTunes, our App allows us to easily include Bonus Content such as PDF notes/handouts from the meeting as well as bonus clips that only appear in the App. As we move forward this will allow us to distribute even more content besides the movie itself.
The MacGroup TV App is $1.99 and you can get it here from the
This is not the typical "I hate AT&T" rant you're probably thinking of based on the headline. I'm actually one of those iPhone users who does NOT hate AT&T. I don't love them either. They provide a service that for the most part I haven't had any major problems with. Have I had dropped calls? Yep! Have I been in low coverage areas? Yep! Have I experienced an overloaded data network (think Macworld Expo) first hand? Yep! These are all the typical reasons why people HATE AT&T. However, I don't really see this as being very different from any other network. I used to be a Sprint customer and I have a Verizon data card.
I have yet to see or use any network with 100 % great reception in all areas and zero dropped calls. The way I see it is that it's easy to say Verizon (or any other carrier) has GREAT service when they aren't under the same load. Don't get me wrong, I seriously think AT&T needs to improve their network. I also think that if the iPhone had been exclusive to Verizon from the start and saw an influx of millions of data hungry users all at once, we would have seen similar problems with their network too! They may have responded more quickly. They may not have had as many problems. They may have handled the growth better and they may not have. The problem is we'll never know. Lastly let's not forget that it was AT&T that was willing to take a chance on the iPhone back in 2007 when Verizon (reportedly) rejected the iPhone deal.
I want the iPhone to go to Verizon for two other reasons
Even if Apple announced that the iPhone was NOW AVAILABLE on Verizon TODAY, I would not move off of AT&T. The reason is, I need a GSM based phone that can operate in any country in the world as my job requires worldwide travel. Like it or not, the rest of the world is GSM based and CDMA networks are primarily a US thing. Even if Apple had worked things out with Verizon first, they would have still needed to build a GSM version of the iPhone to sell in other countries. Why do I anxiously await a Verizon iPhone?
The first reason is to relieve the strain on AT&T! If Verizon offered the iPhone it's estimated that AT&T would lose about 30% of it's current iPhone base over to Verizon. That means about 30% less strain on the network for the rest of us who are staying. Less strain in theory would mean faster data and less data outages for the remaining customers.
The second and perhaps bigger reason is that it would force AT&T to be more competitive. I find the latest pricing tactics to be a bit "monopolistic inspired." First they remove the unlimited data plans about a month after the iPad shipped, which removed the flexibility of switching back and forth between unlimited and limited data plans as needed. Then they added a $20/month charge for iPhone tethering that just doesn't make sense as there is no technical reason to justify a higher charge. If you're already on a LIMITED Data Pro plan, which maxes out at 2GB/month, why do you have to pay an additional $20/month to use that same data via a laptop? In essence it's a "just because we can" charge. So perhaps if iOS devices were also available on Verizon there would be more of a price war going on between the two that would make it better for all of us.
So whether you hate AT&T or love AT&T, having the iPhone on multiple US carriers is a good thing for everyone.
Assuming your contract was up or you weren't under any current obligation to stick with your provider:
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