The Mac Whisperer Blog

by Dylan Stewart So I guess it’s that time of year again. The new iPhone is out of the bag.

See also last week’s IOS/iPhone 5 webinar here: http://tinyurl.com/8d3s7mk

App of the week For the last week. I’ve been playing with a very cool new app. In fact you might not believe it, but I’m writing this blog with it as we speak. It’s from a company called Nuance. And it’s based on the Dragon voice recognition protocol available for computers. The accuracy is […]

Goodbye MobileMe, Welcome iCloud Back at the turn of the century, (sounds funny to say that, but I’m referring to the early 2000’s),

In the late 90’s, when Steve Jobs returned to Apple,

System OSX has come a long way since it’s first iteration back in March of 2001.

Does this look familiar? If you’re like the rest of us, Apple has been inundating you with this count-down to the end of MobileMe and how you only have X days left to “Download your photos and files.”

It’s summer and kids are out of school. This means they’ve got more time to do two things:

So we got big news last week from Apple.  In addition to the first in depth look at iOS 6, (soon to be seen on iPhones and iPads everywhere), and another, deeper look at Mountain Lion (more on that in our next post), we got a whole new spread of brand new laptops.  In addition […]

So, the dust has finally settled on this year’s WWDC, and we can start to look at what was and wasn’t announced. I’m going to break down these announcements into three categories: iOS6 (the operating system that runs iPhones, iPads and iPod touches Mountain Lion (aka OSX 10.8, the new Macintosh computer operating system) Hardware […]

June is upon us. Usually that’s a good thing, but this year it’s giving some Mac users reason to panic — it’s finally time to let go of MobileMe and make the switch to iCloud (by June 30th, to be exact). For the next few weeks I’ll be touching on this theme of migrating to […]

As we all know, Facebook’s IPO was last week.

The 2012 Apple World Wide Developers Conference is coming up next month (June 11-15), and if you’re like me you’ve probably come across a fair amount of the usual speculation as to what to expect re: new products, operating systems, etc. The major items on the radar are: iPhone iOS 6 (and potentially a teaser […]

Tip #3 Don’t Just Close it, Quit It!!! One of the most frequent question I get from new Mac Users, is “How do I keep my Mac running quickly?”

Tip #2: Don’t be App-rehensive… Avoid the Web and Use Your Apps So I saw something today that caught my attention and gave me clarity about what I wanted to post today. So what did I see? An iPhone with no apps. Not a single one (other than the pre-installed apps). I was aghast. And […]

Tip #1: When in Doubt… Restart. People always ask me why things crash, why they don’t work, and why issues always crop up. My answer? I don’t have one. I don’t want one. I don’t need one. Why doesn’t matter to me… How to fix it? That’s the key! That’s all I care about. I […]

Hi friends, I came up with this list of items you can replace by owning an iPhone… Any things you think I missed? Let me know. I’ll go more into details on all these items (and any you add) in a later post. 50 things you can replace with an iPhone 1) calculator 2) digital […]

Q: Is the iPhone going to Verizon, and should I switch carriers when it does? A: Well, it looks like it’s finally going to happen. all signs point to AT&T losing their exclusivity to the iPhone this next year. The pundits say that it should happen in the first quarter of 2011. Probably by March. […]

In this day and age, more and more people are relying on the cloud. They use yahoo or gmail or hotmail as their email provider, and they get their messages by going to a website. I suggest that the better way to manage your email is with a local mail client like MacMail, Entourage, or […]

Just like the last generation was impressed by a good physical address in Malibu, or Beverly Hills, or a prime phone number in the 310 area code, the next generation is impressed by a smart email address. Free email addresses like AOL, gmail, MSN, hotmail, and yahoo are ok for personal use, but make a […]

In order to set the stage we have to step in the way-back machine… way, way back into the days before OSX, before the iphone, before integrated handheld solutions and smart phones, before ical and even before apple’s address book. Back in these days there was even a version of Microsoft Outlook available for the […]

Ellen asks “How do I voice command my iPhone 3gs to call someone?” And the MacWhisperer answers: “Press and hold home button until you hear the tone, then say “call”. Or “dial .”

Many people ask me what the right machine is for them, Laptop or Desktop. My general feeling is that unless you are a heavy technician and professional computer user, having more than one computer can be more trouble than it’s worth. Certainly if you have two, you should have both a a laptop and a […]

So, in the last post, we discussed how to start de-cluttering your technical life. We moved files off your desktop, and into specified folders. We dumped photos into iphoto, music into itunes, and generally got the ball rolling in a great technological makeover for the packrats among us. I know how to do this, because […]

Let me start off by saying that I love my job. I’ve been doing it professionally for going on seven years now and I wouldn’t give away a single day of it. Before that I did it as a non-professional for friends and family for pocket change, and I wouldn’t give away a day of […]

So, the Kindle has had it’s moment in the sun. It was Amazon’s most gifted item this year. eBook sales outweighed physical book sales on Christmas Day. But what does it really mean? Are physical books dead? Are brick and mortar book shops a thing of the past? Well…. wasn’t that a total given? I’m […]

So, it goes without saying that one of the greatest flaws of the iPhone is it’s less than stellar battery life. One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how to make the most of it. What follows are all of the biggest battery drains of the iPhone. It is not necessary to […]

So, this week fake Steve Jobs popped up all over the mac landscape. He, like most of us, is constantly frustrated with the ongoing AT&T network debacle. Dropped calls, lousy voice quality, huge coverage dead zones have become the daily norm for iPhone users. In this day and age of technological marvels it’s nothing short […]

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So I finally did it. I hacked my phone and ran Quickpwn, and jailbreak the poor little guy. Now, the big question is why… When the original iphone was out, in the days before the App Store, I jailbreak my iphone, and my wife’s and my stepson’s. After all, there were apps I needed on […]

So I have an 18 month old son. And like most kids, be likes to watch the same movies over again and again and again. So, we’ve bought him certain DVDs. The problem is, he also likes to play with the disks and the cases. And to boot, he’s smart enough to open the DVD […]

So now that I have this blog up and running it’s my commitment to constantly add content. But, with a schedule like mine that’s no small feat. Which is where the iPhone scoops in and saves the day yet again. Enter iblogger, stage left. This inexpensive and easy to use app allows me to connect […]

OK. So, I love my iphone. Got the first version on day 1. Got the 3G version on day 1. I use it to it’s fullest. I promote the hell out of it, and all things Apple. But, let’s be serious here… there is definitely room for improvement… and that’s where the 3.0 software comes […]