How to lock iPad orientation in iOS 4.2

The iPad orientation lock used to be controlled by a switch on the side of the device, since iOS 4.2 the orientation lock switch has been changed to a mute switch, which functions just like the iPhone and iPod touch. So now what? What if you want your iPad screen locked into horizontal or vertical mode?

How to Lock Screen Orientation in iPad iOS 4.2

Here is how you lock the iPad screen orientation:

• Hold the iPad in the orientation you want locked (vertical or horizontal)
• Double-click on the Home button at the bottom of the iPad to bring up the task switcher
• Swipe right on the task switcher to bring up the iPod and iPad controls, and the orientation lock button will be located on the left
• Tap on the orientation lock button (see screenshot above) to lock the current orientation in place
• Hit the home button to exit

Locking the screen orientation through software like this is easy once you know how to do it, but from a user experience perspective it can be a little confusing to change the functionality of a hardware button after it’s been established. Just get into the new habit and all will be well.

Refurb iPhone Sale: iPhone 3GS for $19, iPhone 4 for $129

Want to buy a cheap iPhone refurb? AT&T is the place to be, there are some great sales on refurbed iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 and each device includes free 2 day shipping. All refurb iPhones require a 2 year contract and a one time $36 activation fee.

All iPhones that are sold with ‘cosmetic blemishes’ include a free case with purchase.

Dragon Dictation - Dragon Search - a must have for iPad & iPhone

Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard.

You can also dictate status updates directly to your Social Networking applications (Facebook and Twitter) or send notes and reminders to yourself….all using your voice.  So when you’re on-the-go, stop typing and start speaking – from short text messages to longer email messages, and anything in between.

Dragon Search translates your voice queries into text and performs a wide-ranging Web search. If you’re looking to go beyond Google, you’re in luck. The app lets you choose from a variety of search engines and other Websites including Yahoo, Bing, iTunes, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, and of course, Google itself.
When you open the app, you get a simple screen with a red button. Tap the button to record your voice query. Nuance then deploys its extensive experience in speech recognition to provide an accurate set of results. In my brief testing the app had no trouble deciphering my voice.

SPE Sync Cable for iPhone and iPad

The SPE sync cable for iPhone and iPad is a affordable solution for the problem of never having enough cables handy when you need them. If you’ve ever experienced being some where and finding your iPhone at only 30% battery life and realizing that you don't have your sync cable or charger… this accessory is for you.

At only $4.95, the SPE sync cable is $14.05 less then the price of Apple’s cable. So there's no excuse now, you can get your self that extra cable or two for those occasions when you need a charge. You can always keep one with you...

http://bit.ly/ib9hzT 

Find your IP Address on a Mac

You can find your IP address from the Mac System Preferences:

• From the Apple menu pull down “System Preferences”
• Click on the “Network” preference pane
• Your IP address will be visible to the right, as indicated in the screenshot below

Your IP address is the number listed, in the above case it is 192.168.0.100

Now we’ll cover the more technical approaches to getting your IP address using the Mac OS X command line:

iOS 4.2.1 - Is Something Missing on Your iPhone?

Some users have reported an issue in which music, movies and other media are missing from the iPod app on their iPhones after the update to iOS 4.2. In this case, the iPod app will generally display the message “No Content. You can download music from iTunes,” although iTunes may show that storage space is occupied on the iPhone.

Fixes

Play a song on your iPhone in iTunes. With your iPhone connected to your computer, select it from the left-hand pane and pick one of your songs or movies, then double-click to play it. This may cause the “sync” message to briefly appear and the iPhone to once again show all media.

Turn iPhone off then on. Simply turn your iPhone off, by holding the sleep/wake button until the power slider appears then sliding it, then back on. Reconnect the iPhone to your computer and you should see a “Syncing” message followed promptly by reappearance of your media.

This is a relatively simple; after using iTunes to play a song stored on the iPhone, resyncing and opening up the iPod app again should force mobile libraries to update. 

iOS 4.2 on a iPhone 3G

My first impression of the upgrade was that it doesn't do much for the much slower 3G iPhone, but then I opened Safari and to my surprise it was like I had upgraded to a 3GS. The update did make the phone speedier when it came to tasks such as typing, scrolling, and loading Web pages.

The reports of benchmark tests show that things seem to have improved, the bottom line is how many cell phones out there that are two years old can you do a OS upgrade to and actually increase their performance. While data entry, scrolling, pinching and zooming have improved. Where I see the most gains on the iPhone 3G is in the JavaScript results.  Whatever the Safari team is doing, it is having a positive effect with each release.