Instapaper - A simple tool to save web pages for reading later.

Best way to read Web articles at your leisure - Instapaper's critically acclaimed, award-winning iPhone app is the most popular way to read Instapaper content. View your saved pages in the mobile-optimized Text view. Instapaper is popular among subway commuters and iPod Touch owners because it stores your articles for reading even if you're offline.

1 Million Apple TVs Sold

Apple has confirmed that they did just that. Seems the addition of AirPlay support for wireless streaming, better iOS integration and the device’s aggressive new $99 price point have done quite a bit to spike sales of Apple’s so-called “hobby.” A million units sold within three months of the device’s launch is certainly impressive.

Now with AirPlay®, users can wirelessly stream their music, video and photos from iPad™, iPhone® and iPod touch® to their new Apple TV, making it the perfect iOS accessory. Users can also control Apple TV with their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch using the Remote app, available as a free app on the App Store℠.

Mac App Store to Open on January 6

Apple® announced on December 16th, that the Mac® App Store℠ will open for business on Thursday, January 6. By bringing the revolutionary App Store experience to Mac OS® X, the Mac App Store makes discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever. The Mac App Store will be available in 90 countries at launch and will feature paid and free apps in categories like Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity and Utilities.

“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”

The Mac App Store lets you browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, view staff favorites, search categories and read customer ratings and reviews. Like on iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad™, you can purchase, download and install apps in just one click and start using them immediately. Purchased apps can run on all of your personal Macs and updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store so it’s easy to keep all of your apps up to date. The Mac App Store is available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard® users as a free download through Software Update.

Secret Screen Capture Shortcut

In Mac OS X Leopard, you can capture an image of your entire screen by typing Command-Shift-3. Typing Command-Shift-4 lets you choose a specific part of your screen to save as a screenshot: Click and hold to place the small cross-hair cursor at one edge of the area you want to capture, then drag horizontally and/or vertically to select. When you release the cursor, the screenshot is saved to your desktop.

But creating screenshots this way often means you need to crop or clean up the edges of the image later. That’s especially true if you’re planning to use it as a graphic element in a document or presentation. Fortunately, Mac OS X Leopard offers a way to save clean screenshots of individual elements on your desktop — such as Finder windows, menus, icons, or the visible portion of an open document — without capturing anything else in the background.

Hold down the Command, Shift, and 4 keys, then press the Spacebar. Instead of a cross-hair cursor, a small camera icon appears. When you move this camera icon over the element you’d like to capture, that element is highlighted. Click your mouse or trackpad, and you’ve captured a screenshot of just that element — no further cleanup required.

AirPort Base Station

AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.5.2

AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.5.2

About AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.5.2
Some of the fixes include the following:

General fixes to Wi-Fi base station stability
Fixes some issues with AirPlay streaming
General fixes with USB interoperability including connection to external storage devices
Fixes some issues with NAT port mapping settings
Disables TKIP security with 802.11n rates per the Wi-Fi Alliance specifications

Early reports indicate that the new release may fix some issues with Wi-Fi slowness affecting iPhones, iPads and iPod touches after the iOS 4.2. update.

The new firmware release can be applied through the new version of AirPort Utility, available via the links below (AirPort utility will automatically check for the firmware update when you launch it): Click Here

Occiptal’s 360 PANORAMA

Occiptal’s discovery that Apple Safari mobile browser can access the iPhone 4′s gyroscope (the 4th generation iPod touch also has a gyroscope). Occiptal developed a web site that provides a simple but compelling demonstration of this feature.
http://occip.it/pt3dmqna

iPhoto 11 Update Adds Email App Support

Apple released an update for iPhoto ‘11 on Tuesday that added support for using email applications when sending photos, and also added two new themes for users that prefer to email photos from within the application. iPhoto is Apple’s digital photo management application and is included with the iLife creativity suite for Mac OS X.

Where's the new updates:

• Adds a preference allowing photos to be emailed using an external email application
• Adds “Classic” and “Journal” themes to email.
• Photos attached to an email can now be sized to Small, Medium or Large
• Improves reliability when upgrading a library from an earlier version of iPhoto
• iPhoto now correctly preserves the sort order of Events after upgrading a library
• Event titles displayed in headers can now be edited in Photos view
• Addresses a problem that could cause duplicate photos to be added to a MobileMe album
• Scrolling overlay now correctly displays ratings when photos are sorted by rating
• Photos are now sorted correctly when a rating is changed and photos are sorted by rating
• Fixes a problem that could cause text formatting controls to become inaccessible when editing a calendar

The iPhoto 9.1.1 update added Classic and Journal email themes, improved image sizing options when emailing photos, added the ability to edit event titles in the Photos view, addressed photo sorting issues, fixed a duplicate photo problem with MobileMe albums, improved reliability when upgrading photo albums from earlier versions of iPhoto, and more.

iPhoto 9.1.1 is available as a free update for iLife ‘11 via the Software Update application or as a download at the Apple Support Web site.

Verbs -Your Next IMC

Verbs is a simple instant messaging client that currently supports GTalk. Features: - Local Notifications to alert for new messages when the app is running in the background. - Integrates CloudApp to send photos. - Download files in the received CloudApp message links. - View downloaded Text, PDF, Office and iWork documents right within the app. Verbs requires an account at http://getcloudapp.com for CloudApp functionality listed above.

It's Football - Apple vs. Whoever

For those of you that don't watch or know anything about Football, the game of football is any of several similar team sports, of similar origins which involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot or running with the ball in an attempt to score a points. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer".

The point is the other team doesn't tell the other team how they are going to Score...

"There's every chance Steve Jobs will at some point pull the tech industry equivalent of a rabbit out of a hat in 2011, unleashing an amazing gadget no-one had thought of but that everyone will want "However, through existing Apple announcements, the company's previous form and some cunning and incisive guesswork, we can be pretty sure we will not know until he tells us.

It's Football...

iPod nano watch kits nab almost $1 million on Kickstarter

Does anyone out there want to go into business with me with a design for an iPod nano watch kit?

MINIMAL is a design house that decided to fund the development of a line of iPod nano 6G watch kits through Kickstarter. If you're not familiar with that site, it's where you can send your pet project up the proverbial flagpole and see if anyone salutes it with a pledge of funding.

Apparently MINIMAL founder and designer Scott Wilson has captured some attention with his TikTok and LunaTik iPod nano watch kits, since he raised US$941,558 in funding on Kickstarter. Considering he needed a mere $15,000 to go into production, this would be a case of overkill. Wilson's stated goal is to hopefully get these kits into Apple Stores, and with the publicity he's garnered through this highly-successful funding round, he may just get his wish.

For the time being, you can now pre-order the kits (iPod nano not included). The TikTok will sell for $34.95, while the snazzier LunaTik will pull down a cool $69.95. If you were one of the backers of the project, you'll be getting a significant discount. Want to see what all the fuss is about? Check out the video after the break.

TikTok+LunaTik from Visere on Vimeo.

1992 Apple Duo / Air - iPad - iPhone - iPod Touch

I was in Wichita, KS back in 1992 when I walked into a computer store looking to buy a laptop computer. At the time the T4400 Series Toshiba the Grid and Thinkpad were the hottest laptops available.

I told the sales representative I was looking for a laptop that would fit in my Zero briefcase, he took me over to this laptop which was the smallest laptop I had seen. It fit perfectly in my briefcase so my first questions were how can I get to the autoexec.bat file and config.sys files.

In general, .sys files were called in config.sys, and .exe programs such as the popular disk caching software SmartDrive provided by Microsoft with MS-DOS 5x, were loaded in the autoexec.bat file. Some devices, such as mice, could be loaded either as a .sys file in config.sys, or as a .com in autoexec.bat, depending upon the manufacturer. In my opinion it was the biggest waste of time trying to figure these files to work with devices that you would need to use with your computer, like a printer.

The sales representative said, no such files. I need to configure my devices, don't need to, he said. The computer he showed me was the PowerBook Duo. It was a line of small subnotebooks manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from 1992 until 1997. It weighing in at a mere 4.1 pounds and slightly smaller at 10.9 × 8.5 in (280 × 220 mm) than a sheet of paper, only 1.4" thick, it was the lightest and smallest of all of Apple's PowerBooks of its time. Only the MacBook Air weighs less, though wider and deeper, but considerably thinner making it the second smallest subnotebook overall. In fact the Duo has the most in common with the MacBook Air.  

My dad had the Apple II back in the 70's, but I never spent to much time with it because living Seattle, Microsoft was the new up and coming OS of the future. I spent 20 years working for an Aerospace and Defense company accessing government data bases and never once had a breach, or crash after switching to my Duo.

I can't tell you how my life has changed after visiting that store in Wichita, I bought the Duo and since then many more great Apple products including the Air.

I could give you a myriad of reasons explaining why you should buy Apple products.   However, for purposes of time and page length, here are some of the more important reasons, it's Intuitive, it works the way you think, there faster and surprisingly cost-effective, fewer viruses and spyware, better software packages, wireless connectivity and setting up a wireless network is super easy. I encourage you to find what I found 18 years ago.  My promise is to keep giving you tips on how to enjoy the Mac...

Using Smart Folders in Mac OS X

Smart Folders can save you a lot of time and effort and are one of the underused and appreciated features of Mac OS X. Smart Folders can save you a lot of time and effort. These folders let you save a search to reuse in the future. Smart Folders are updated continuously, so they always find all the files on your computer that match the search criteria. The difference here is that all those files will appear in one convenient Smart folder, they essentially let you create a virtual folder that uses search operators from Spotlight to let that virtual folder contain any and all files that match the search requirements. So, for example, you can create a Smart Folder that contains all the PDF files on your system that you've opened in the past week. Or create a Smart Folder that displays graphics files, but only ones bigger (or smaller) than a specified file size.

If you download a lot, instead of digging around for newly downloaded files, I just created a smart folder that searches for the latest downloads created within the past week. Suddenly all the downloads are now contained within one folder. The possibilities are endless. And because Smart Folders use alias-like technology to display items, the actual files reside in only one location — the folder where you originally put them. In other words, Smart Folders don't gather files in a separate place, they gather aliases of files, leaving the originals right were you stashed them. Neat!Then you refine the criteria for your search by clicking the + button to add a criterion or the – button to delete one. When you're satisfied and ready to turn your criteria into a Smart Folder, click the Save button below the Search box. A sheet drops down so that you can save it wherever you like, as shown

After you create your Smart Folder, you can move it anywhere on any hard disk and then use it like any other folder. If you want to change the criteria for a Smart Folder, open it and click the Edit button, as shown in Figure 2. When you're finished editing criteria, click the Save button to re-save the folder with its new criteria. You may be asked whether you want to replace the previous Smart Folder of the same name; you usually do.

A Smart folder like this will be in your finder window.

You’ll now be able to access that Smart Folder like any other folder in the Finder and it will have saved the search operators. Note that Smart Folders icons are shaded purple and have a gear icon on them (see image above) so they are easy to identify in the future. Smart Folders update on their own, so anytime you open the folder it will change based on the factors you created it under. And remember, if you delete a Smart Folder, it will not effect the files within it.

New iTunes 10.1.1 UPDATE

What's new in iTunes 10.1.1

This release provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

• Addresses an issue where some music videos may not play on Macs equipped with NVIDIA GeForce 9400 or 9600 graphics.

• Resolves an issue where iTunes may unexpectedly quit when deleting a playlist that has the iTunes Sidebar showing.

• Fixes a problem where iTunes may unexpectedly quit when connecting an iPod to a Mac equipped with a PowerPC processor.


• Addresses an issue where some music videos may not sync to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad.


iTunes 10.1 came with several new features and improvements, including:

• Use AirPlay to instantly and wirelessly stream videos from iTunes to the all-new Apple TV.

• Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.2.

• Provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.

http://bit.ly/bxogNF

Changing your Email Address on an iPhone/iPad/Touch the Easy Way

If your like me and have more than one email account set up on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. 

You can go into settings, click on Mail, Contacts, Calendars - scroll down to Default Account and then select the email account that you would like to set as the default email address when emailing. 

Want to know how to change the email address on the one you’re sending without doing the above? It’s simple to do. Mail use's your default email address for new messages, but if you’d rather use a different one that you have on your device, It's easy. 

When you open a new email to send, just tap once on your email address. More options will open up, just tap again on your email address and a selector will pop up listing all your address with a checkmark next to the one that’s currently set as the default. Scroll through the selector to find the alternate address you want to send from tap on it,  the checkmark will show next to it. Tap on the Subject: field (or off the selector) finish up your email and send.

DailyBooth Goes Mobile. Launches New iPhone App

A San Francisco-based social photo sharing service is making the much-awaited leap from the web to the mobile Internet by launching the final version of its iPhone app. The company had launched a beta version of its app earlier this year. This new enhanced version of the app replicates DailyBooth’s web features such as a live feed, comments and follow/following on the small screen.

http://bit.ly/ht9g7Z 

Google Latitude App Arrives in App Store

Google Latitude briefly appeared last week in the Japanese App Store, but disappeared just as quickly. As of early Dec. 13, it’s now available as a free download for all iPhone users. The official app lets you share your device’s location info with contacts of your choosing.

When Google Latitude initially launched in February 2009, it seemed a pretty ideal candidate for the iPhone platform, but Apple apparently didn’t agree. The Mac-maker originally blocked the release of a native app, citing possible user confusion about whether Latitude was actually the Maps app. So instead users got a Latitude web app, which can’t run in the background, limiting the appeal of Latitude’s functionality.

The new app does let you update your location info in the background, thanks to iOS 4′s multitasking abilities. It also lets you disable background updating, set your location manually, or hide your location from specific contacts, in case you’re engaged in some kind of elaborate spy games. You can also choose either metric or imperial units of measurement, and the type of map used to display your contact’s locations.

Latitude is the second official Google app to get a reassessment from Apple’s app review team. The first, Google Voice, was released in the App Store on Nov. 16, after a lengthy period in limbo while Apple “studied” it. Apple’s new stance regarding these apps might stem from its release of App Store review guidelines, but I’m willing to bet it has more to do with a sense that Apple needs to maintain close feature parity with Google’s Android operating system by offering as many Google services natively on the iPhone as it can. It’s hard to believe it’s just coincidence that Apple blocked both Latitude and Voice when it had little to no competition in the realm of app-enabled smartphones, but that now that Android is growing so quickly, there’s suddenly no issue with either app.

http://bit.ly/g3nb9i 

Default Case iPhone Case for a Penny

We want everyone to experience the quality of DefaultCase. To kick our new brand off right & get the word out, we're offering a MASSIVE 99.9% off! That's right, $35 DefaultCases are just $0.01.

http://bit.ly/gBAyyn 

DIY iRig - Just Plug YOU Guitar into your iPhone/iPad

With AmpliTube for iPhone fully loaded, you will be able to choose between 5 amp models (clean, crunch, lead, metal, bass) with full tone and drive controls, 11 stompbox effects (delay, flanger, phaser, overdrive, distortion, filter, wah, fuzz, octaver, chorus, noise filter), 5 speaker cabinets (1×12”, 2×12”, 4×12” A & B”, 1×15) and 2 microphones (dynamic and condenser). Plus, AmpliTube for iPhone features a chromatic digital tuner and a metronome. You can also import and play along with songs or backing tracks, and create, save and recall up to 36 presets on the fly.

The iRig interface adapter is the easiest way to get your instrument’s signal into your mobile device with electrical impedance adapting – this is essential for achieving the best guitar tone. Simply plug iRig into your mobile device, plug your instrument into the iRig, plug headphones or an amplifier to the output and you are ready to rock with no further set-up needed. Plus, you can also use the iRig with line level signal sources such as synthesizers, keyboards or mixers. And not only does the iRig work perfectly with AmpliTube, but it is also the perfect companion to any other guitar or other instrument recording, processing or tuning app that uses an audio input.

As far as performance goes, Amplitube is a sure fire winner.  I didn’t notice any such latency and everything about the App responded in a moments notice.  There was some slow down here and there when loading stomp boxes and amps but it it wasn’t too bothersome all things considered.  One thing I did run into was that you need to extend the auto-shutdown time of your phone as I ran into some issues with Amplitube not knowing what was going on.  It does in fact work with the screen shut down (see pic below) but there were times when weird and pervasive digital noise invaded the headphones upon screen shut down.  It was very unsettling, so watch out.  Other than that, I was impressed with how Amplitube dealt with the live conversion from analog to digital and most guitar players will agree that they’d never imagined playing guitar so smoothly on their IPhones.

iOS 4.2's VoiceOver Improved

VoiceOver

The same VoiceOver screen reader made popular on the Mac is now a standard feature on iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. It’s the world’s first gesture-based screen reader, enabling you to enjoy the fun and simplicity of iPhone even if you can’t see the screen.

What makes VoiceOver on iPhone truly remarkable is that you control it using simple gestures that let you physically interact with items on screen. It’s easy to learn and fun to use. Instead of memorizing hundreds of keyboard commands, or endlessly pressing tiny arrow keys to find what you’re looking for, with VoiceOver, you simply touch the screen to hear a description of the item under your finger, then gesture with a double-tap, drag, or flick to control the phone.

VoiceOver delivers an experience unlike any screen reader you’ve ever used before. Traditional screen readers describe individual elements on the screen, but struggle to communicate where each element is located or provide information about adjoining objects. This contextual information is very important but typically filtered out by other screen readers. For example, “off-screen” models used by traditional screen readers to represent applications and web pages intentionally strip away contextual information and describe web pages as a list or menu of items. But with VoiceOver on iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, you’ll experience something entirely new.

Because VoiceOver works with iPhone’s touchscreen, you interact directly with objects on the screen and can naturally understand their location and context. So, when you touch the upper-left corner of the screen, you’ll hear what’s in the upper left corner of a web page, and as you drag your finger around the screen, you’ll learn what’s nearby, providing an amazing new sense of context and relationship between the items you hear. For many, VoiceOver on iPhone will provide, perhaps for the first time, a true sense of how things appear on screen, not just descriptions of what they are.

You’ll hear descriptions of every item on the screen, including status information such as battery level, Wi-Fi and cellular network signal levels, the cellular network provider, and time of day. It even lets you know when the display changes to landscape or portrait orientation, and when the screen is locked or unlocked.

The speaking rate is adjustable so you can set it to a speed that best suits your listening ability. VoiceOver uses distinctive sound effects to alert you when an application opens, when the screen is updated, when a message dialog appears, and more. And, when Voiceover is talking, the volume of background sounds and music are automatically lowered, “ducking” under the voice, so you can clearly hear what VoiceOver is telling you.

It speaks your language

VoiceOver includes built-in voices that speak 21 languages including Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (US), English (UK), English (Australian), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Thai, Turkish.

Getting started

VoiceOver is built right into iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. There’s nothing extra to purchase or install. All you need is iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS, the latest version of iTunes, and a Mac or PC. You can activate your iPhone and enable VoiceOver without sighted assistance using iTunes with a compatible screen reader like VoiceOver included in Mac OS X and GW-Micro Window-Eyes® for Windows XP and Windows Vista (sold separately). When you activate iPhone using iTunes, you can enable VoiceOver on iPhone to start using it right away. Sighted users can also enable VoiceOver for you directly on iPhone using the Accessibility menu in the Settings application.

How it works

With VoiceOver enabled, you’ll use a different but simple set of gestures to control iPhone. For example, instead of tapping to activate a button, tap the button to hear a description of it, double-tap to activate it, and swipe up or down to adjust a slider.

When an item on the screen is selected, a black rectangle called the VoiceOver cursor appears around it. The VoiceOver cursor is displayed for the benefit of sighted users with whom you may be sharing your phone. When you prefer privacy, VoiceOver includes a screen curtain that turns off the display so no one can read it without your knowledge.

In addition to touching and dragging around the screen, you can also flick left and right to move the VoiceOver cursor precisely to the next or previous item on the screen—no matter how big or small it is. By flicking, you have precise control of what you hear even when it might otherwise be difficult to place your finger on it.

Entering Text

When you’re typing text, such as an email message or a note, VoiceOver echoes each character on the keyboard as you touch it, and again to confirm when you enter it. You can also have VoiceOver speak each completed word instead of and in addition to individual characters as you type them. A flick up or down while typing moves the insertion point cursor left and right within the text so you can edit a word just as easily and precisely as typing a new word.

To help you type more quickly and accurately, iPhone features word prediction and suggests the correct spelling when you type a word incorrectly. With Speak Auto-text enabled, you’ll hear a sound effect and the suggested word spoken automatically. You can just keep typing to ignore it, or press the space key to have iPhone type it for you.

The Rotor

VoiceOver features an innovative new virtual control called a “rotor.” Turning the rotor— by rotating two fingers on the screen as if you were turning an actual dial — changes the way VoiceOver moves through a document based on a setting you choose. For example, a flick up or down might move through text word by word. But when you choose the “character” setting, each time you flick up or down VoiceOver will move through the text character by character — perfect when you’re proofreading or editing text.

You can also use the rotor to navigate web pages. When you’re on a web page, the rotor contains the names of common items, such as headers, links, form elements, images, and more. You select a setting, then flick up and down to move to the previous or next occurrence of that item on the page, skipping over items in between.

Applications

VoiceOver works with all of the built-in applications that come with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, such as Phone, iPod, iTunes, Mail, Safari, and Maps. So, you can place and receive calls, surf the web, text and email your friends, check your stocks and the weather, and much, much more. Apple is also working with iPhone software developers so they can make their applications VoiceOver compatible. Learn more

Wireless Braille Displays

You can use a refreshable braille display that uses Bluetooth wireless technology to read VoiceOver output in braille. In addition, braille displays with input keys and other controls can be used to control iPhone when VoiceOver is turned on. iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS work with many of the most popular wireless braille displays. View a list of supported braille displays.

Voice Control

In addition to gestures, you can use your voice to play music and make a phone call. Just press and hold the home button, listen for the audio prompt, and speak the name of the artist, album, or playlist you want to hear. You can pause, play, change tracks, even shuffle your music.

When you want to make a call, speak the name or telephone number of the person you want to call. iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS understand 21 different languages.Learn more

Zoom

While many iPhone applications let you zoom in and out specific elements such as images in Mail, or web page columns in Safari, Zoom lets you magnify the entire screen of any application you’re using to help you see what’s on the display. Zoom can be enabled on iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS using iTunes when you’re setting up iPhone, for yourself or someone else, or later, using the Accessibility menu in the Settings application on iPhone.

Zoom works everywhere, including the Home, Unlock, and Spotlight screens—even with applications you purchase from the App store.

A simple double-tap with three fingers instantly zooms in and out 200% and you can double-tap and drag three fingers to dynamically adjust the magnification between 100% and 500%. Even when zoomed, you can continue using all of the familiar flick, pinch, tap and other iPhone gestures to run your favorite applications. Zoom can also be used with white-on-black (reverse video) and speak auto-text.

White On Black

For those who need or prefer higher contrast, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS provide an option to change the display to White On Black. This reverse video effect works in all applications including the Home, Unlock, and Spotlight screens and can be used with Zoom and VoiceOver.

Speak Auto-text

When typing, iPhone suggests a word before you finish typing it or a correction when a word is misspelled. Speak Auto-text speaks these suggestions so you can hear them when they’re presented. When zoomed, for example, the suggestion might not be visible on screen, but you can hear and accept it without seeing it. If you’re using VoiceOver, you won’t have to interrupt your typing and touch the suggestion to hear it. Speak Auto-text can be enabled even when you’re not using VoiceOver or Zoom.

Tactile Buttons

iPhone includes a few, easily discernible physical buttons used to control the phone: the Sleep/Wake button, located on the top edge; the Ring/Silent switch and volume-control buttons, located on the upper-left edge; and the Home button, centered below the display.

Giant Fonts For Mail Messages

For improved email readability, you can increase the default font size of email text from Medium (the default) to Large, Extra-large, or Giant.

iPhone Stereo Headset

iPhone comes with a stereo headset with a high-performance microphone built into the cable. Plug it into the standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack and the headset lets you control music playback and answer and end calls by clicking the built-in remote control button.

Several add-on products are also available to work with iPhone that can help those with hearing disabilities, including a hearing aid-compatible induction ear loop from TecEar, wireless remote headset from Oticon, and others.

Hands-Free Speakerphone

Enjoy hands-free communication using the built-in speakerphone, which you can also use to listen to Visual Voicemail, music, podcasts, and video.

Audible, Visible, And Vibrating Alerts

Turn the ringer on, and iPhone delivers both audible and visual alerts. You can activate alerts for phone calls, text messages, incoming and sent mail, and calendar events. iPhone also offers an audio option confirming keyboard clicks. You can even set incoming calls to display a full-screen image or photo of the caller.

In silent mode, iPhone vibrates instead of playing a tone. To ensure that you never miss a notification, you can also have iPhone vibrate and play an audio alert.

Downloadable, Assignable Ringtones

You can assign distinctive ringtones to individuals in your contacts list, using the ringtone as an audible caller ID. Visit the iTunes Store to create, purchase, and download additional ringtones of your favorite songs (sold separately).

Accessible iPhone User Guide

You can read the iPhone User Guide in tagged PDF format using the Preview application in Mac OS X and Adobe Acrobat for Mac and Windows.

Apple names ‘Apps of the Year’ for iPad and iPhone

Apple's iTunes App Store has named the following "Apps of the Year."

• iPad App of the Year: Flipboard - Flipboard Inc. (free)
• iPad Game of the Year: Osmos for iPad - Hemisphere Games (US$4.99)
• iPhone App of the Year: Hipstamatic - Synthetic Corp ($0.99)
• iPhone Game of the year: Plants vs. Zombies - PopCap Games, Inc. ($2.99)

Rewind 2010 not only gives a look at the top Apps of the year, it also gives the top
Audiobooks, Movies, Music, Podcasts, TV Shows and iTunes Weekly Rewind.

How to Sync an iPhone/iPad/iTouch with iCal Calendar on a Mac

Many people don't realize how easy it is to sync your Calendar and other information to you mobile devices, here are just some of the things you can sync:

Contacts—names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and so on
Calendars—appointments and events
Notes (sync with Mac OS X Mail* or Microsoft Outlook)
Web bookmarks
Music and audiobooks
Photos
Podcasts
Movies and TV shows
Applications
Ringtones (iPhone only)
Books
iTunes U content
Note: On iPad, you can also sync documents via File Sharing with apps that support it.

Here How:
Connect your iPhone/iPad/iTouch to your mac. iTunes should automatically open, if not then open iTunes as well. > On the left pane in iTunes, select your iPhone/iPad/iTouch from the Devices list >
In the main window pane, select the Info tab at the top (your default view is summary) > Scroll Down to Calendars, the second section down. > Check the Sync iCal Calendars box. > You have a choice whether to sync all of your calendars or just selected ones. Just check which that you want. >


MobileMe keeps your mail, contacts, and calendar information in the cloud and uses push technology to keep everything in sync across your iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC, and the web automatically. So no matter where you go or which device you use, all your information is up to date — no docking required.

Foxconn readies iPad 2 for February delivery - 100 days

The DigiTimes on Tuesday said initial shipments of the iPad 2 would be 400,000 to 600,000 units. The report suggested that Apple is still testing the firmware for the iPad 2, which has slightly postponed the delivery schedule.

It’s important to note that delivery from a manufacturer like Foxconn, does not mean the product will be released. Apple could hold onto the order for a couple of months before officially announcing its existence.

This would give Apple the opportunity to build up inventory to make sure supply can meet what will no doubt be incredible demand.

For its fourth fiscal quarter, Apple reported selling 4.19 million iPads. It was only the second quarter the device was available.

Mac App Store to Launch December 13?

The Mac App Store was imminent, based on Mac OS X 10.6.6 becoming GM and including Mac App Store support. Today more rumors.

According to a few sources that informed another Apple source site,  that Steve Jobs is pushing for an early launch date for the Mac App Store. The claim states that Steve Jobs originally wanted a December 6 release, but that has apparently been pushed to Monday, December 13. The push to launch the Mac App Store early is apparently in an effort to catch some of the holiday shopping buzz, and gift certificates to the store would be made available in a similar manner to the iTunes Store.

The Mac App Store was originally announced during the Mac OS X 10.7 preview, but Steve Jobs quickly pointed out that the release of the app store would be coming “within 90 days” to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

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Viber VoIP iPhone app: 3G calling, no registration, and totally free

You know those voice minutes you've been coaxed into buying for, like, ever? Now would be an awesome time to bid 'em adieu. Out of nowhere, Viber has swooped in to crush the dreams of Skype and every other VoIP provider out there, and if these guys can reach critical mass, avid iPhone users will certainly be able to buy a mobile plan with fewer minutes. It works as such: install the free app on your iPhone, provide just your phone number (no "registration" is necessary) and then fire it up. Viber uses your existing contact and favorites list, and you can make Viber or standard voice calls from within the app; naturally, a Viber logo pops up beside any contact who is also a user, making it easy to see who you can VoIP call for free. As our brethren over at TUAW point out, there's simply no catch to be found -- well, except for those of you counting your kilobytes on AT&T's newer, metered data plans. Call quality was said to be excellent over 3G and WiFi, and potentially best of all, gratis SMS and an Android version are both on the way. Head on past the break if you need any additional convincing, and tap that iTunes link to get your download on. So, AT&T, what's the value proposition on those "rollover minutes" again? 

Set the primary display on a dual-screen Mac setup

If you are running a dual-display setup, you can easily adjust the primary display monitor in Mac OS X. When would you want to do this? For example, if you have a MacBook Pro 13″ hooked up to a larger external display, and you want the external display with it’s higher resolution to become the primary display, and your MacBook Pro with it’s smaller resolution to become the secondary display.

How to set the primary display on a Mac:

* Have both displays turned on and connected to the Mac
* Open System Preferences
* Click on the Display icon
* Click on the ‘Arrangement’ tab
* Click and hold on the white bar at the top of the current primary display
* Drag the white bar across to the monitor you want to set as the new primary display for your Mac
* Notice the red border that forms around the new primary screen as you drag the white bar into the arrangement, this helps you determine which screen to use
* After you have set the primary display to the screen you wish to use, close System Preferences

Whatever monitor is set as the primary display will become the default display for applications launching, in addition to holding the system menubar, containing all the default desktop icons, and contain the Dock. Using this method you can effectively turn any external display into the main display for any Mac (MacBook, iMac, whatever) which is a really nice way to maximize screen real estate in dual-display setups that feature a smaller screened Mac with a larger external monitor. Note this is different than operating a MacBook or MacBook Pro in clamshell mode, which also will set the external display as the primary.