iOS 7 Tips

Sorry, I didn’t write these; but found them on the ‘Net.  Hope they help!

Deleting messages in iMessage

Tap and hold a message, then tap on More to get the option to delete individual text messages or the conversation.

Because of the new cleaner interface, some functions have been moved around or are less obvious than before.

Case in point is iMessage — where previously you could tap on Edit at the top of the screen to delete individual messages or clear the entire conversation thread, it’s no longer immediately clear how to do this in iMessage.

To delete indvidual iMessages or clear a whole conversation thread in iOS 7, just tap and hold on a message, which will bring up a “Copy | More..” pop-up menu.

Choose “More…” and you will be given the option to delete individual messages or the entire conversation thread.

Automatic App updates

One of the features that iOS 7 introduces is an automatic app update function which will download and update your apps for you without any interaction on your part.

If you’re worried about the battery drain, don’t — apps will only download and update when iOS 7 detects that your device is connected to power and to a WiFi network.

When you first visit the Updates section in the App Store, iOS 7 asks whether you want to turn this feature on.

However, if you decide that it’s not for you and want to toggle it off or back on again later, just go to Settings\iTunes & App Store and under Automatic Downloads, enable the “Updates” toggle.

Hide Newsstand

While Apple’s Newsstand app is very useful for the larger iPad screens, it’s almost completely useless on small screened devices like the iPhone.

The problem with iOS 6 was that Newsstand couldn’t be put into a folder like every other app and the OCD amongst us had to find other creative hacks to hide the offending app.

Well, it seems our cries have been heard by Apple — in iOS 7, you can easily put Newsstand into any folder just like any other app. Yay!

Swipe your e-mail messages

The new e-mail view in iOS 7 is a lot cleaner and more minimalistic, but again, like with iMessage, some features are not at first obvious.

For example, in your e-mail app’s Inbox view, you can drag a an e-mail message from right to left with your finger to expose more options, such as to Trash the messsage or to directly reply, forward, flag or move the message to a folder.

Block calls and messages

This feature should make a lot of us very happy — iOS 7 now allows you to block calls and messages from specific contacts.

There are two ways to do this — the first method requires you to go to your contact list and select a contact by tapping on it. Then scroll down to the bottom and tap on the “Block this Caller” button.

You can also go to Settings\Messages\Blocked and add or remove callers in the blocked list.

Check that iMessage timestamp

Sometimes, you receive an iMessage or a text message and you’re not sure when it arrived.

Well, iOS 7 now allows you to check the timestamps on every text message — while in your message thread window, just drag your finger from right to left to “peek” at the timestamps for each message in the thread.

Activation lock

PREVENTION: iOS 7’s Activation Lock can be turned on by enabling Find my iPhone in the iCloud settings.

Apple has instituted a major new security feature in iOS 7 that not only remotely wipes your iOS device if it is stolen, but also locks it so that nobody will be able to use it again unless they have your iTunes username and password.

This feature is automatically set up for you if you already have an iCloud account and associated it with your iOS device.

However, there is one setting that you need to check to make sure this feature is on.

Go to Settings\iCloud and scroll down to the “Find my iPhone” option and make sure the switch is enabled.

Once this is enabled, if your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch is stolen, all you have to do is to go to iCloud.com on your PC or Mac and login with your iCloud username and password.

In the Find my iPhone section at iCloud.com, you will get an option to remotely erase your iOS device and basically brick it until the iCloud username and password is entered.

Since this Activation Lock happens on Apple’s servers, the iOS device theoretically cannot be hacked to unbrick the device.

If you still have hopes of recovering your iOS device, you can also alternatively set it to Lost Mode, which will passcode lock the device and set a message of your choosing on the screen, such as “If found, please return this device to XXX.”

iOS 7 Tips (coming soon!)

I am compiling some tips and tricks for iOS 7…..  Hopefully will post tomorrow!

Privacy Tips

There are a handful of websites that allow people to find information on others. These sites are compiled using public records, social networking sites and real estate records. A lot of information can be gathered from this information so it’s a good idea to search for your name in these sites.

Sites such as  www.spokeo.com and www.intelius.com require payment for full information. On both these sites you can remove your information, but it may require a bit of legwork.

Spokeo: At the bottom of the page click on Privacy for steps to remove information

Intelius: At the bottom of the page click on Privacy Policy and look at How to Remove your Information from the Intelius Public Records Databases.

Do: Look at Privacy and Account Settings on all social networking sites

Look for https before revealing private information. The S means the website is secure

Be aware of who you allow access to your information

Ask yourself if your grandmother would be proud of what you were sharing

Don’t: Broadcast your travel plans over the Internet

Share your address, phone number, schedule

Share information about work

I promise to post soon!

Things are going great in my new position. I love North Carolina!

More tips, tricks, and computer history postings soon!!

New Beginnings

Sorry I haven’t posted this week…  After almost 9 years, I left Indiana University Health (formerly Clarian Health Partners) and began a new journey!  I have moved to North Carolina; and on Monday, July 22nd; I start a new position…

Also in IT, but not in Healthcare…

As the pic above shows, bright warm days ahead!

I will post more as it unfolds… Please keep me and my family in your thoughts and prayers as we forge a new path in our lives!

Tom Bates
Tech Tip Tom

Samsung Galaxy S4 review

Samsung Galaxy S4 review

What a slick phone!  Straight lines, sleek, elegant; and huge!  Almost a mini tablet!

Easier to find buttons as versus the S3, and a slight bit lighter as well… And I really like the fact that you can change the battery.

I thought it was a bit freaky that whenever I am not looking at the phone; it dims…Watching a video and get distracted?  Video pauses when you look away…  Cool, but different. And Smart Scroll is great too; wish I had it on my iPhone… You can scroll without actually touching the screen… I don’t have to take off my gloves when using the phone…

I tried the dictation and translate feature to send a SMS message to a German friend… Worked great, and I could listen to the phone read the message to me as well…

I admit, I didn’t test the pedometer, the phone as a TV remote; and the whole “get it wet” gimmick… I couldn’t bring myself to drop this phone into water..

And I couldn’t test the tap phone file transfer; but I understand it is seamless…

The 1920×1080 HD screen made video viewing very enjoyable; 455 pixels per inch as compared to my iPhone 5 (326ppi). But video really draws down the battery; so I tend to plug it in when doing that…

Nice 13MP camera with HDR, where the camera takes several shots quickly and combines them to offer greater contrast and less shadowy areas. The Qualcomm quad-core 1.9GHz chip and the 2GB of RAM combine to make this phone fast and powerful.

Strong battery too, lasted a day and a half with all the video, longer without…

Ultimately, this phone will most likely be like the iPhone 5… Tons of features that most people don’t even use…

Technology!!!

When I got my first car (a 1963 American Motors Rambler); it had an AM radio in the metal dashboard. I added an FM adapter so I could listen to a new radio station in town; Q-95… Bob and Tom were just getting started…

Next I added (under the dash) an 8-Track tape player.. For those who are too young to remember Stereo 8, commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track, is was a magnetic tape sound recording technology. It was popular in the United States from the mid-1960s through to the early 1980s.

8-tracks were the precursor to cassette tapes, another magnetic tape sound recording technology. The Stereo 8 track cartridge was designed by Richard Kraus while working under Bill Lear and for his Lear Jet Corporation in 1963. It was a continuous loop of magnetic tape with a one-inch-long metal foil that activates the track-change sensor.

There were 4 tracks of music, but actually it was 8 tracks; as it was in stereo.

Anyway, those were replaced by cassettes; or Compact Cassettes. They consist of two miniature spools, between which a magnetically coated plastic tape is passed and wound. These spools and their parts are held inside a protective plastic shell. Two stereo pairs of tracks (four total) or two monaural analog audio tracks are available on the tape; one stereo pair or one monophonic track is played or recorded when the tape is moving in one direction and the second pair when moving in the other direction. This reversal is achieved either by manually flipping the cassette or by having the machine itself change the direction of tape movement (“auto-reverse”)…

Of course, those were replaced by CD’s… The compact disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. The format was originally developed to store and play back sound recordings only, but was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM). Several other formats were further derived from these, including write-once audio and data storage (CD-R), rewritable media (CD-RW), Video Compact Disc (VCD), Super Video Compact Disc (SVCD), Photo CD, PictureCD, CD-i, and Enhanced Music CD. Audio CDs and audio CD players have been commercially available since October 1982.

What I am leading up to is in my new 2013 vehicle, I can plug in a “flash drive” with over 3000 songs on it and play it through my stereo!!  A USB flash drive is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 1 oz!!

My flash drive is a 16Gb drive. A flash drive has no moving parts to be driven; therefore, it’s not a true drive. The term drive persists because computers read and write flash drive data using the same system commands as for a mechanical disk drive, with the storage appearing to the computer operating system and user interface as just another drive.

Technology, in my lifetime; is in fast-forward!!

Computer History

June 25, 1981

Microsoft Incorporated

Microsoft incorporated. Founded six years earlier by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft grew out of the friends’ development of BASIC for the MITS Altair home computer kit. With later successes in its Windows operating system and software such as Word and Excel, Microsoft has grown to dominance in the personal computer software industry and billions of dollars of revenue.

Microsoft made a name for itself in 1981, when IBM unveiled the first PC to run MS-DOS. Perhaps the company’s most famous product, Windows, was introduced in 1985.

Windows replaced the daunting command-line interface of MS-DOS — essentially a blank screen with a blinking cursor that waited for you to type commands in the form of words and symbols — with a much friendlier interface.

But it was the first version of Office software in 1989 and the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990 that started Microsoft’s climb to the top of the software industry.

In 2000, Gates named Steve Ballmer CEO and continued his bigger-picture role at Microsoft as chief software architect. Microsoft’s market position surged during the 2000s, as the company released Windows XP and aligned itself as a premier business-to-business vendor.

Microsoft got into video gaming with the release of the Xbox in 2001. First considered a questionable decision, Xbox and the subsequent Xbox 360 have turned into one of the company’s billion-dollar businesses. After trailing Nintendo’s Wii for years, Microsoft secured a lead in gaming with the release of the Kinect motion sensor in 2010.

Gates stepped down from day-to-day responsibilities in 2008, leaving Ballmer and his other deputies in charge. While he is still chairman of the board, Gates works mainly with Seattle’s Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he built into the largest charity in the world.

After Windows Vista failed to take hold and since the release of the Apple iPhone in 2007, Microsoft’s image as an influential consumer company has faded. Once a powerful player the early game of smartphones, Microsoft is now trying to claw back into the mobile-devices race. Despite numerous attempts, the software giant has found it difficult to make waves in hot markets such as smartphones, tablets, music players, cloud computing and search engines.

However, its consumer cash cows — Windows and Office — continue to dominate their markets. Windows 7, released in 2009, was the fastest-selling operating system on record, and Microsoft is hard at work on a major refresh with Windows 8.

After its acquisition of Skype in 2011, the company now includes six business units and operates more than 100 international subsidiaries. As of Sept. 30, 2011, Microsoft had about 90,800 employees.

SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix

Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux

By Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor, 17th June 2013

IBM’s lawsuit with SCO over just who owns Unix has crawled out of the grave and seems set to shuffle back into US courts.

For the uninitiated, or those who’ve successfully tried to forget this turgid saga, a brief summary: SCO in 2003 sued IBM for doing something nasty to bits of Unix it owned. Or felt it owned. SCO also sued Novell, which it felt did not own some copyrights for Unix.

Many private school educations later for the offspring of the lawyers involved SCO lost against Novell. By this time SCO was out of cash with which to keep up the fight against Big Blue, so the matter hibernated for a while.

That stasis persisted until early may when SCO applied to get things going again. As Groklaw reports, that attempt has succeeded.

Groklaw’s assessment of SCO’s current position is that it has asked the court for “a Time Machine, so it can go back in time and do a better job”.

Bored yet?

Don’t be: if SCO can eventually prove it really, truly does own a critical bit of Unix it’s a chance of saying it therefore owns that same bit in Linux. And given that world+dog runs Linux – a couple of billion Android devices for starters – if SCO wins it can start throwing sueballs at the Googles, IBMs and Red Hats of the world and cash in big time.

A more likely scenario is that this case drags on for years longer and that the lawyers involved start to eye off yachts now that the kids have left home.