MacCraic

Howdy folks, since Ginger has decided to not allow me to trade in rumours & speculation anymore on the podcast (except where I get a patent story in) I have decided to throw in my few cents as to what presents I believe Uncle Steve will be showing us tomorrow. So here we go :

Firstly as the title of this post suggests tomorrow will see the introduction of a new iPod Nano (Touch) with a 1.7 inch touchscreen which is about the size of the screen from the 2nd gen Nano. This is obviously based on the stories broken by Macrumors showing pics from a Chinese accessory manufacturer of a new case for this device & the pic of the 1.7 inch display, also an AppleInsider story with render of what it should look like . This along with the introduction of a 32, 64 & 128GB iPod Touch with features close to those found on iPhone4 (Retina Display for 64 & 128GB model but Facetime for all of them) will mean the dropping of the iPod Classic I believe & the death of the clickwheel. With that, the iPod OS will be no more on all display based iPods running on iOS going forward, the Shuffle will remain for now to cover the lower end of the market.

Secondly, there will be an update to iTunes to allow it to be more social as per AppleInsider but it will not go to the cloud yet as the data centre in North Carolina is not due to go live till January 2011 as per comment from Tim Cook (COO) during last quarterly analyst call. There is also a rumour going that iTunes song previews will be extended from 30 secs to a min (will they allow that on a 2min 30 sec song ?).

Thirdly, believe that iTV (UK naming rights pending ) or AppleTV revised will be previewed at the event, it is believed that this runs iOS (a headless iPod Touch effectively) as originally broken in an Engadget story here , will be compatible with existing iOS apps in the store & can be controlled via an iPod Touch or iPhone using acclerometer or even a remote (Magic Wand here we go) .  Looking to get one of these myself.

As for a far out idea of what I think could also be introduced, I started thinking about the invite being in the shape of a guitar & realised it reminded me of the the electric guitar icon used for GarageBand, so I’m gonna throw out a mad thought that iLife 2011 will be previewed with a new feature/app allowing you to create your own iTunes extras/LP features.

Finally, I’m also hoping as per the current IMP episode panel that iTunes 10 is introduced, written to be Cocoa native with improved performance & media management capabilities.

Will sign off now & look forward to tomorrow.

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Hello MacCraicers , know these posts have been thin on the ground but just want to point out the odd price (possible saving) situation that is occurring re mobile connectivity that you might choose for the iPad you may have bought in Ireland on launch.

At the moment and I’m taking the base model iPad for the simplest comparison, the 16GB model with just wi-fi retails for €499 while you will pay an extra €100 premium for the 3G model (this pricing differential is the same for the different models in the line).

If you choose to get the Vodafone Micro-SIM ( assuming of course you’ve paid the €100 premium for the pleasure of the 3G model) you have option of paying:

1 day iPad Plan

€3.99 per day

5GB data allowance

30 day iPad plan

€20 per month

500mb data allowance

Remember, like AT&T there are no termination fees for ending the contract after 30 days or a day depending on which plan you choose above.

Now here’s where this gets strange, at the moment Vodafone Ireland are pushing on their site the Vodafone mobile broadband hotspot (Mi-Fi anyone)

for the following tariffs:

Vodafone mobile broadband

€19.90 per month

10GB data allowance

Vodafone mobile broadband unlimited

You can purchase the hardware on Vodafone Ireland’s online store for €39 with the above plan of choice.

So let’s think about this for a second, you can pick up a 16GB wifi iPad €499 + VF mobile broadband hotspot €39 = €538 and for sake of comparison you choose the VF Mobile Broadband package-10GB monthly allowance (€19.90 per mth X 12mths) €238.80 gives a figure €776.80 for total cost of ownership initially.

However, if you decide to pay the premium & plump for a wi-fi+3G model and VF data plan then it works out as follows – 16gb wi-fi+3G €599 + again for comparison take the 30 day iPad plan-5GB allowance (€20 per mth X 12 mths) €240 which gives a figure of €839 for initial total cost of ownership

This means that you can save €62.20 by plumping for the first option of buying the base wi-fi model with Mi-Fi initially and enjoy double the monthly data allowance (10Gb vs 5GB). In 2nd & subsequent years you save only €1.20 per year but still get double the data allowance.

Know which iPad & plan you would choose ?  :-)

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Tonight the boys have a quick discussion about Mr Byrne’s quick hop across the Atlantic & all things iOS4. (™ Cisco – Licence pending to Cupertino )

Justin & Dave: We discuss our experiences of installing & using iOS4

Links MacCraicer’s may be (passingly) interested in checking out :

The New iOS4 Shortcuts, Features, and Settings You Need to Know  [IOS4]

Steve Jobs tells us why iPhone 3G didn’t get wallpapers…

Go Daddy Promotion

Contact details

• twitter.com/justingbyrne
• twitter.com/davidshortle
• themaccraic@gmail.com
• Mevio

Outro

Tag- That’s all the Craic from this week’s…iOS4 ..Mac !

 

 MacCraic 83 - The Short One [35:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Using a notebook on the go usually means that you are not in the vicinity of a printer all the time. What happens then when you want to print. Well with Mac OS X you can print to PDF. This is fantastic because you can then batch print those PDFs when you get back to your printer.

The only drawback I have come across with this is that there is no quick key press to print to PDF. ⌘P of course will bring up the print dialogue but then you have to mouse down and click the PDF button and the select “Save as PDF…” which gives you a save dialogue box to name your PDF in.

My problem, I’m a keyboard speed freak. If I’m using the mouse then I like to just use the mouse. If I’m using the keyboard I don’t want to have to switch back to the mouse the back to the keyboard. Precious seconds are lost.

I was thinking about writing an Apple Script solution but I figured there had to be a better way, so with a bit of exploration I discovered a likely candidate in System Preferences.

The keyboard preference pane has a section on Keyboard Shortcuts. Within that is an option to create Application specific shortcuts. With Application Shortcuts selected click the + icon to add a shortcut. You can now select the application that you want the shortcut to relate to. In my case print is the same across applications and I want it to work across applications so i left the default of “All Applications” selected.

The “Menu Title” part is very important. You need to enter the exact text of the dialogue in the menu. In my case it was “Save as PDF…”. Note the ellipses after the PDF. They are part of the menu dialogue and if you don’t type them then it will not work.

The last part is to assign a keyboard shortcut. In my case I made it the same as print ie. ⌘P (This will not conflict with the keyboard shortcut for Print as it is in a level after that shortcut). The double ⌘P press also makes it super fast to print that document to PDF.

I would recommend playing around in the Keyboard Shortcuts section of System Preferences and see what gems you can find to enhance your workflow.

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Those of you reading this who also listen to the podcast will be aware that  I have made the jump into the Getting Things Done philosophy in respect to my personal and professional life.   Part of this adoption has been using iCal more rigorously than I have in the past.   Couple that with syncing iCal with my iPod Touch via Mobile Me and you get a powerful calendar combo.

Well lately that combo has been less than powerful as I’ve had an issue syncing calendars with my iPod Touch. Events I would add on my Mac were not appearing on the iPod Touch.  They would be added when synced via iTunes but the point was I wanted them added on the fly without having to be back at my Mac and wire in my device.

So I put on my investigative hat and went through the settings on the iPod Touch and made sure Push was turned on and that my Calendar was activated to sync.   Then went into my calendar checked it.   Still no new events coming down.  It was getting very frustrating.

Well remembering what Victor Cajiao of TypicalMacUser.com saying “Google is your friend” I executed a Google search for syncing and found a link to a support article on Apple’s website which basically told me to do what I was already doing.  Not very helpful.   As Einstein would put it “The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”.

However in the sidebar there was a section for Related Discussions and under that a topic titled “Problems syncing calendars with Mobile Me“.  Sure enough user Stanley Horwitz was having the same issue as me.   Forum member A A P L had the solution.

This blew away all the crud that was there and I was left with a nice clean calendar with all my events showing up, including the ones just added on the Mac this morning.   Apple forums and user A A P L for the win who described the solution as the “Flush & Fill”.   So appropriate for MacCraic.

I thought I’d share that with you in case any Craicers out there are having  similar issues.

So until next time – flush and fill!

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