Tagged: iPod Touch

How to do a hard reset on iPhone, iPad and iPod

General
13 Mar, 2012

iOS Every once in a while, an app freezes on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. You can try force quitting the app by holding the icon down in the app switcher at the bottom, but sometimes an app freezes so hard that you aren’t able to force quit. That’s when a hard reset can come to the rescue.

To perform a hard reset, do the following:

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Hold down the power button until the Slide to Power Off message appears
When the message appears, release the power button
Now hold the Home button at the bottom of the device until the problematic app quits

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This tip is extremely helpful when on occasion you come across a rogue game or suspect app on the App Store!

Google releases Gmail app for iOS users

Mac & OS X
21 Nov, 2011

Gmail for iOS Get the official Google Gmail experience for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. As you may know, Google released the app previously, but it was buggy and was pulled shortly after. The app offers little more than the mobile version of Gmail, but users may be interested in giving it a try anyway.

With the Gmail app, you can:

Receive notification badges for new messages
Read your mail with threaded conversations
Organize your mail by archiving, labeling, starring, deleting, and reporting spam
Keep track of important messages with priority inbox
Auto-complete contact names as you type
Send and receive attachments
Search through all your mail

The Gmail app is available for devices running iOS 4+.

Two great calendar apps for your iPhone

Mac & OS X
19 Apr, 2011

I’ve been on the lookout for a better calendar application for use on my iPhone. Something about Apple’s built-in Calendar app just doesn’t work for me. There are a ton of apps that sync with Google Calendar, but the selection of non-Google calendar apps is much slimmer.

Two apps that got my attention greatly improve the built-in calendar app are Week Cal from Utilitap, and Calvetica from Mysterious Trousers. Both integrate with iCal and the iPhone’s built-in calendar, as well as sync with Google Calendar for those that prefer to go that route.

Week Cal for iPhone offers landscape calendar view as well as a week view

Week Cal brings a decidedly iCal-like interface to your iPhone and boasts numerous features. Perhaps one of the top features is the ability to rotate the screen for a landscape view of your calendar, and great list, day, week and month views. Week Cal costs $1.99

Calvetica for iPhone offers a simplistic interface offering quick access to everything

Calvetica goes in the opposite direction, opting to offer a simple interface that requires as few taps as possible to view and set calendar items. Calvetica is fast, syncs with iCal, and offers snoozable event alarms. There is a free version that allows you to try the basic functionality, and the pro version costs only $2.99.

I’ve been using the free version of Calvetica for a few days and really like it, but both apps appear to be quite impressive. If you’re looking for something a little different to keep track of your day, I think you may find at least one of them to be to your liking.

Site News: New mobile version of the site, and new Facebook page

Site News
11 Oct, 2010

The new Graphic Mac mobile site

You may have already noticed, but I thought I would share the news anyway. This past week I created a completely separate Facebook page for The Graphic Mac. So if you were following my personal page on Facebook, you may want to “Like” the new page page to catch the updates. I created a Discussion area on the new page as well, so if you have questions, comments or just want to chat about something in particular, feel free to post away. I plan on sharing links, and leaving comments about all things Apple and Adobe that don’t necessarily warrant a full article here on the site.

The second bit of news that will only affect readers who view The Graphic Mac on their iPhone or iPod Touch device.

I’ve set up a mobile version of the site that strips away most of the design of the site and just lists the articles to click on. The article graphics are still there, but it makes it much easier to navigate the site this way. You’ll still have the ability to search, and view topics by category, as well as see if there are any comments on the article (the little red badge on the date icons); it’s just a little easier on the eyes. I hope you like it.

Deleting backups on iPod Touch and iPhone to save space

Mac & OS X
12 Aug, 2010

iTunes creates backups of settings and certain other information on iPhone and iPod touch devices, which can be used to restore those settings to those devices after a software restore or transferring to a new device. The problem is, those backups take up space.

Deleting iPhone backups is easy with iTunes

You can delete those backups quite easily in iTunes simply by visiting iTunes>Preferences from the menubar. Select Devices from the icons across the top of the dialog window.

In the list below the icons, click the name of your device and hit the Delete Backup button. That’s it, space saved.

How to quit multitask apps on your iPhone

Mac & OS X
21 Jul, 2010

With Apple’s release of iOS4 for iPhone and iPod Touch we finally received multitasking, a feature requested since apps became available. However, if you’re not paying attention, you can quickly find yourself with 16 apps open, with no obvious way to quit them.

Quitting apps in iOS4

You activate multitasking by double-clicking the Home button at the bottom of your iPhone or Touch. This sends the active app into a sudo-hybernation mode. You can access those opened apps by double-clicking the Home button at any time have the multitask dock slide up from the bottom of the screen and display the open apps. Swiping to the right will show you up to 4 screens of open apps, all using battery life – though only a bit.

I’m not sure why Apple didn’t make it more obvious, but you can quit those apps simply by pressing and holding your finger over any app icon until a circular red icon appears on each icon. Clicking that red circle will close the apps. Press the Home button one more time to resume working.

iPod: It’s faster to talk than it is to type

Mac & OS X
10 Feb, 2010

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s faster to talk than it is to type. But after decades of tried and failed attempts by several software vendors, Mac OS X is still left without a viable solution in the speech-to-text arena.

If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch though, you’re no longer left out in the cold. And better yet, it won’t cost you a dime!

Nuance has a version of Dragon Dictation for both devices that works superbly. I dictated this article on my iPod Touch using Dragon Dictation with only one minor error.

The only major complaint is that the app has a time limit of 20-seconds on the length of the recording that gets converted into text, making it cumbersome for lengthy speech-to-text conversions.

The app requires a second or third-generation iPod Touch or iPhone with a microphone (Apple’s built-in headphone/mic combo works fine), and an Internet connection (WiFi or 3G works more than adequately, though Edge is a bit slower, obviously). The Internet connection is necessary because the app actually uploads the data to the Nuance servers for the translation.

Dragon Dictation is easy to use, requiring only a tap of a button to do its job

Using Dragon Dictation is easy. You simply hit the Record button and speak. When the recording hits the 20-second mark, or you stop speaking, the app converts the recording to text. If you have a long email or message to dictate, you’ll have to hit the record button again to continue adding to the text. When you’re finished, you can copy the text to the clipboard, send it as a text message or email it.

Dragon Dictation is free, and is available from the iTunes store.