Ailing UK School Makes Dramatic Turnaround
A new video profiles Essa Academy, a once struggling school in one of the most disadvantaged areas of England. New principal Showkat Badat has reinvented the school as a hub of technology-assisted learning, and helped incorporate an ecosystem of Apple products, including iPad, Mac, and iTunes U, into the classrooms. The students? excitement about the technology and direct access to information is reflected in dramatically improved test scores. Since adopting the technology, Essa went from a 28 percent pass rate to 100 percent. ?I don?t see technology as an add-on, a nice option to have,? says Badat. ?It?s what enables learning and creates an environment that sparks creativity.?
published on Thursday, the 2. May 2013, apple-hot-news
Apple Is Tops When It Comes to Computer Tech Support
According to the latest Consumer Reports reader survey, Apple tops the list of brand-name computer manufacturers for the quality of its tech support, far surpassing other large companies. The report points to ?ease of contacting staff, clarity of advice, technical knowledge, patience, and time for follow-up? in the phone and online support areas. Service at the Genius Bar rates equally highly. In addition, Apple improved on its own scores from last year?s survey.
published on Tuesday, the 30. April 2013, apple-hot-news
Sync files across computers with BitTorrent Sync
BitTorrent Labs has released BitTorrent Sync, a tool for syncing files across computers, using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol. This app lets you choose a specific folder (or folders) to sync, and have it automatically synced on one or several computers. It runs on OS X, Windows and Linux. I find this an interesting tool. While I use Dropbox regularly, and depend on it for collaboration, and to sync a number of files between my two Macs, there is a limit in the amount of space available. (With the free version, it's 2 GB; paid subscriptions are available if you want more storage.) But also, Dropbox requires that anything you sync be put in its own folder. You can use symbolic links in a Dropbox folder, but if you want to sync the contents of a specific folder on your Mac to another Mac, this gets a bit complicated. ...
published on Tuesday, the 30. April 2013, macosxhints
Use Dropbox and Automator to automatically import photos from Android
I have an Android phone and wanted to automatically save photos that I take in iPhoto, similar to the Photo Stream feature that iPhones have. Dropbox has a feature that automatically uploads photos that you take into a folder called "Camera Uploads,” which is synced across all of my devices, so was a perfect candidate for creating a cross-platform Photo Stream. First, I needed to import the existing "Camera Uploads" photos into iPhoto, as the folder action only triggers when a new file appears in the folder. Once this has been done, the folder action can be created. Open Automator and create a new Folder Action. Select the folder "Camera Uploads" (in the Dropbox folder). Next, drag "Import files into iPhoto" from the list of actions to the main window. Select the album to import into, and choose whether to delete the photos after import or not (I chose not to). Save and give the folder action a name. Quit Automator and iPhoto. ...
published on Thursday, the 25. April 2013, macosxhints
Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off June 10 in San Francisco
Apple announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 10 through June 14 at San Francisco?s Moscone West. At the five-day conference, developers from around the world will learn about the future of iOS and OS X. WWDC will also feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by over 1,000 Apple engineers and hands-on labs to help developers integrate new technologies. And the popular Apple Design Awards will showcase the most outstanding apps available through the App Store and Mac App Store. Tickets for this year?s WWDC go on sale Thursday, April 25, at 10 a.m. PDT.
published on Wednesday, the 24. April 2013, apple-hot-news
Fix iOS SpringBoard home screen crash
Over at the Mac Observer, Dave Hamilton told of an iPod touch whose SpringBoard would repeatedly crash. (SpringBoard is the iOS equivalent of the Finder.) After trying a number of troubleshooting procedures, he narrowed it down to an iCloud issue, where corrupt data was causing the crash. Hamilton found info in crash logs indications of what was causing the crash. He eventually deleted a folder on the Mac that was linked to the iPod (com~apple~TextInput) and this resolved the issue. iCloud has been, for me, a common source of dismay. I've not found it to be reliable enough to entrust any important data to it - though for some data, such as contacts and calendars, you have no choice. I've had to go through complicated procedures to reset different types of iCloud data several times to resolve syncing issues. This crashing problem is just another of the issues ...
published on Thursday, the 18. April 2013, macosxhints
Manage site-specific Java settings in Safari
Apple has released Safari 6.0.4, and 5.1.9, which, together with a recent update to Java, provides site-specific settings for activating Java. As Java has become a widely-exploited vector for malware attacks, it's a good idea to keep it turned off if you don't need it. The problem is, however, that many people do need it, and the safest way to protect from drive-by attacks on malicious websites is to provide a site-specific activation method. Safari 6.0.4 offers this. If you visit a website that tries to load a Java applet, a dialog will ask if you want to block or allow the applet. You can later go to Safari > Preferences > Security, and click on Manage Website Settings (just after the Allow Java option) to view a list of websites which have attempted to load Java applets. You can then change the behavior for each of those sites. Get more info about Java and Safari in Apple's technical note.
published on Wednesday, the 17. April 2013, macosxhints
Cancel a Mac Store app update while it's downloading
In the Updates section of the Mac App Store, if the user chooses to update an app or apps, the interface offers the ability to pause the download of the update, but seemingly not to cancel it. Canceling the download is possible by holding down the option key. The "Pause" buttons change to "Cancel" buttons. [kirkmc adds: I don't have any current updates to be able to test this. I don't think this stops the update from generating a notification after you cancel the download, but I'm curious as to what happens. Post your experiences in the comments.]
published on Tuesday, the 16. April 2013, macosxhints
Change OS X cursor size
The Accessibility pane of System Preferences holds a number of interesting adjustments you can set to make your Mac easier to use. One of them is the ability to change the size of the cursor; the pointer you see on your screen. Go to System Preferences > Accessibility, then click on Display. Drag the Cursor Size slider from Normal (smallest) toward Large. Find the size you want to use, and close the preference pane. I have a 27" Thunderbolt Display, and I find the normal-sized cursor a bit small, so I've set mine to be a bit larger. You may find this to be a useful tweak as well. Note that some applications may not use the changed setting. Feel free to post in the comments any apps that don't inherit this setting.
published on Monday, the 15. April 2013, macosxhints
10.8: New Notes App Service
I put together a simple Automator action that takes the selected text from any application and creates a new Note. This sort of thing should have been in the Services menu to begin with, but this powerful feature of OS X is often unsung and underused. Hope it helps. Open Automator and create a new Service. Set the Service to receive selected text in any application from the drop down menus. Drag Copy to Clipboard from the Utilities library into the workflow. Drag Run AppleScript from the Utilities library into the workflow. Paste the below text in place of (* Your script goes here *): tell application "Notes" to activate tell application "System Events" click menu item "Notes" of ((process "Notes")'s (menu bar 1)'s ¬ (menu bar item "Window")'s (me ...
published on Friday, the 12. April 2013, macosxhints