Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Tutorial: How to get more from your OS X Calendar

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Tutorial: How to get more from your OS X Calendar

The tight integration with OS X means iCal (or Calendar in OS X Mountain Lion) is probably the first choice for many Mac users, when it comes to organising their personal affairs.

But what a lot of people don't realise is that iCal is capable of receiving and sending lots of types of data: emails, web links, Address Book contacts and even Google Maps reference can be used. It's this integration that makes iCal so flexible and a lot more capable than most users might think.

With functionality such as iCloud syncing, shared calendars, drag-and-drop event creation, and natural language recognition, you have a true social scheduling solution.

If you're an iCal user that only utilises the app for inputting single events or simple scheduling, the following techniques will show you new opportunities.

Naturally speaking

iCal's Natural Language allows the user to type in casual sentences to create potentially complex events. When adding an event using the plus symbol in the top left-hand corner of iCal's main interface a small text box appears - this is where the magic happens.

Let's say you want to meet your friend Dave at your local bar on Friday night at 8pm. Usually this would involve creating a new event, typing in something along the lines of 'Meet Dave at bar' and scheduling the exact time, so that the event is displayed correctly within your day's timeline. But now you can simply hit the add button, type in 'Meet Dave at the bar at 8 on Friday night' and hey presto, the event is automatically created and saved in the correct location.

On testing, this function is pretty watertight and has yet to let us down. Obviously a small amount of common sense has to be applied: iCal can't be expected to work miracles and won't recognise text speak, slang or nicknames. But if your nicknames are in your address book its recognition abilities may surprise you.

Drag and drop

Another super-easy workflow technique is iCal's drag-and-drop capability. This is somewhat overlooked by the majority of users and something you should really take advantage of.

Just about anything can be dragged and dropped into iCal to create a new event or alter an existing one. Text files, images, web links and even entire emails can be dragged and dropped into iCal's interface for use with your events. This can be a great way of linking relevant material to scheduled meetings or a nice way of creating a simple to do list.

There are a couple of ways you can go about using drag and drop: first up you can use it for event creation. Let's say you receive an email from a family member; you haven't got time to reply to it just now, you'll do it at the end of the day. Simply drag the email straight into a specific day in iCal and set a time. This creates an event and can act as a handy reminder. Not only will you see the event in your iCal schedule but you'll also have direct access to the email itself.

If you have a memory like a sieve and need a bit of a helping hand when it comes to reminders then you can take things one step further. Try adding an alarm to the scheduled email. You can choose an audio prompt or an email reminder to reply to the critical message.

Using the drag and drop system to append information to iCal events requires a slightly different approach. Double-click any event in the same way as you would performing a standard edit. Now, instead of clicking edit, perform a drag-and-drop action with your chosen file. You can drag pictures, web links or text documents and they'll be added to the event as an attachment. This is a great way to add a newly created spreadsheet to a planned business meeting or a shopping list to a scheduled trip to town.

Everyone's invited

So now you've mastered some faster ways to create and edit events, how can we use iCal to invite people to events and share an event or entire calendar with other iCal users?

As you would expect, it's all pretty straightforward. Let's focus on inviting others to an event. Go ahead and create an event in any way you like. With your event added, hit Edit - you should now see the regular edit page, presenting you with various options for altering your event's parameters.

Towards the bottom you'll see an 'Invitees' section. By typing people's names here they should auto-complete from entries in your Address Book. If you don't have the invitee's address in your Address Book you can complete the address manually, or drag and drop it from an email or note. Once completed, the list of invitees will be emailed and informed of the upcoming event.

If you prefer, you can drag invitees directly from your Address Book into iCal; this will create a meeting event with the chosen contacts and inform them of the meeting.

The social iCloud

iCal Google maps

The final thing we'll think about is how to share an entire calendar with a specific person, or even a group of people.

You can initiate shared calendars using a few different protocols in iCal, but we're going to concentrate on the current Apple standard, iCloud. As with most of the functionality explained here you'll need to be using OS X Lion (10.7+).

To get a shared iCloud-based calendar on the go, you and your invitee need to be fully signed up to the service and you'll also need to use the emails (usually your '.me' based address) you signed up to the service with. Once you have all this in place you can go ahead and create a calendar in the usual way and give it an appropriate name, say, 'My Shared Calendar'.

Click on the Calendar's button in the top left-hand corner of iCal and select the icon that looks like a Wi-Fi beacon. The window provides you with all the options you need to set up one or more invitees for your newly created Calendar. You can fill in the Apple ID-based email addresses here and the invitees will receive an email. Once they agree to share the calendar they'll be able to view all the entries.

You can decide whether they can read, or read as well as write events in the Calendar. With full read and write authorisation both yourself and the invitee can make, delete and append events. You can even choose to be mailed every time a change is made.

Remember that you can see these changes pushed to your new Calendar not only on your Mac but also on any iOS device using the same iCloud account. This means you can view, edit and append your family calendar on the go with your iPhone or iPad.

In addition to this, you can use any of the techniques discussed previously with your shared calendars. So now there's no excuse for missing those important events ever again!



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Monday, August 27, 2012

In Depth: OS X Mountain Lion: the 10 best features

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In Depth: OS X Mountain Lion: the 10 best features

Mountain Lion: the best new features 1-5

Apple's preview of OS X Mountain Lion was revealed at Apple's developer conference in June. Predictably, it garnered all the usual oohs and ahhs, but what's it really like?

Now we can find out, since Apple's new OS is here - check out our Mountain Lion review.

It brings more than 200 new features to boost the way you use your Mac. Making use of iCloud, Mountain Lion claims to make it easier than ever to keep all of your media, documents and important information in one place and, as a result, available across all of your devices. It also adds deep integration with Facebook and Twitter, turning your Mac into a highly sociable machine.

This puts it in line with its iOS siblings, which now boast baked-in Twitter access and have also seen the Facebook app storm the App Store charts.

The gradual merging of iOS and OS X features continues with the arrival of Messages, Reminders, Notifications and Dictation in Mountain Lion - the aim being to make switching between any of your Apple devices as seamless as possible.

But do you need these new bells and whistles or should you be content with what you've got? We weigh up the new features as well as the upgrade considerations in order to provide you with an answer.

1. Social integration

social

A quick trip to the Mail, Contacts & Calendars section of your Mac's System Preferences pane allows you to sign in to a number of social networks including Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and Vimeo.

Once you're signed in, you can share links, photos and more to your friends, right from the app you're currently using. Want to share an interesting blog post with your followers? Or perhaps you've taken a funny picture with Photo Booth that you want to use as your Facebook profile picture. Then simply click the Share button, found in a wide range of apps, and select the network you want to send your content to.

A pane appears with your content included, allowing you to add a message and post it. An additional feature, specific to Facebook, allows you to select which of your Facebook friends can see an update.

The new Notifications feature will also alert you to messages and other information from the social networks you're logged in to. And, from the Notification Center, you can quickly send updates to your social networks in a few simple clicks.

Facebook integration also enhances your Mac's contacts list, pulling in the contact details for all of your Facebook friends as well as their profile picture, and adding them to your address book. If a friend updates their contact information or profile picture on Facebook, your address book will also update so you've always got the right details stored.

2. Game Center for Mac

Game Center

Mountain Lion brings the Game Center experience, previously only available for iOS devices, to the Mac. If you already have a Game Center account you can log in and access all of your game stats and high scores as well as view friend requests and receive game suggestions.

Games you've played on iOS devices will be listed as well as those you download from the Mac App Store, with a link within the app allowing you to view all available Game Center-compatible games.

Game Center isn't just about tracking your gaming prowess, though; it also offers a route to quickly play games against friends or recommended opponents. Regardless of whether the other player is using a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone or an iPod touch, as long as they have the same game linked to their Game Center account you can play against each other.

Head-to-head games, turn-based games and more are all available and game invites can be sent directly from Game Center to another user to challenge them to a game. If you receive a game invite, accepting it launches the game on your Mac automatically. You can even use AirPlay mirroring to play the game on your HDTV if it's connected to an Apple TV on your wireless network.

Game Center in Mountain Lion looks set to open up the fairly small world of Mac gaming to a whole new audience thanks to its cross-platform abilities, and there are sure to be a lot more iOS favourites heading to the Mac in the coming months.

3. Improved Notifications

notifications

As you install more and more apps on your Mac, the number of alerts you receive also increases. One app needs a software update, another is alerting you to an incoming call and so on.

In Mountain Lion, the clutter of different notifications is streamlined and redefined with Notification Center. Notification Center offers a clutter-free way to alert you to all manner of events such as email messages, tweets and calendar alerts.

Notifications from applications you've authorised appear at the top-right of the screen and can appear as banners or alerts. A banner appears and then disappears after a certain amount of time, whereas an alert stays on the screen until you dismiss it. Clicking on an alert takes you to the app from which it came and there are also alert-specific actions for apps like Calendar, where you can select options such as Snooze on the alert.

You can view all of your notifications quickly and at any time using multi-touch gestures (assuming you have a trackpad). You simply swipe two fingers from right to left to reveal Notification Center, which slides out from the side of your screen.

Notification Center includes all of your recent Notifications organised by application and allows you to click on each one to view it. You can even update your social networks from within the Notification Center interface and access the Notification Center pane by clicking the Notification Center icon on your Mac's menu bar.

4. AirPlay

Airplay

Remember when displaying your Mac's desktop on your TV was a complex mix of adaptors, cables and making sure your computer was close enough to the TV? That scenario becomes a thing of the past with AirPlay in Mountain Lion.

A new AirPlay icon appears in the menu bar of Macs running Mountain Lion that allows you to select your Apple TV and mirror your display on your TV. Whether you want to show a web page or a presentation, AirPlay Mirroring makes the process a whole lot easier.

5. Messages

messages

Messages in Mountain Lion is the perfect hybrid between OS X's former messaging app, iChat, and iMessage on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Conversations you have with other iCloud users are kept in sync on all of your iOS devices and now on your Mac. Now you don't have to stay at your desk in order to carry on conversations with friends, and you can even share photos, documents and HD video through the chat interface. A FaceTime call can also be initiated right from the Messages interface.

Mountain Lion: the best new features 6-10

6. Notes and Reminders

notes and reminders

In Mountain Lion, notes have made their way out of Mail and have been promoted to their own app. Notes within the app stay in sync with all of your devices connected to your iCloud account and allow for images and attachments to be added to them if you wish.

Notes can be assigned to specific folders within the app and be shared via Mail or Messages using the Share button at the bottom of each note. You can even pull notes out of the application and open them in their own window if you want to keep them handy on the desktop. Finally, you can forget about all those sticky notes cluttering your screen.

Reminders in Mountain Lion works in much the same way as Reminders for iOS. Reminders syncs through your iCloud account so to-dos you add to your iPhone while you're out and about will be waiting for you when you sit at your Mac. You can even use location-based reminders that will alert you to a reminder when you arrive at or leave a particular location.

Again, assuming you have a suitable trackpad, you can use multi-touch gestures to access your information. You can swipe between different sets of reminders and dismiss notifications by checking the box assigned to it.

As your list of reminders grows, you can use the search feature within the app to find a specific item. If a reminder is triggered when you're using your Mac, it's shown as a notification and is also available to view in Notification Center.

7. Dictation on the Mac

dictation

Wherever you can type text in Mountain Lion, you can also use the new Dictation feature. This feature listens to you speak via your Mac's built-in microphone and converts your words into text.

Dictation can be initiated with two taps of the Fn key whereupon it shows a Siri-esque microphone icon while it listens to your voice. Dictation becomes more accurate the more you use it, since it learns your pronunciations. You can even add punctuation to your dictations such as commas and exclamation marks or tell your Mac to start a new line of text.

Dictation currently supports American, Australian and UK English as well as French, German and Japanese. It requires an internet connection in order to analyse your speech remotely on Apple's servers, before sending it back to your Mac. The process takes a matter of seconds to perform and, as with dictation on iOS devices, words that weren't quite understood are underlined in blue so you can make changes if needed.

Another exciting feature in Dictation is its ability to recognise people in your contacts list so it can accurately add their names when you say them. Dictation can be used to compose emails or enter information into text fields but does have a limit on how long you can speak for - around 30 seconds in most cases. So at the moment dictating a few lines to your Mac is about as much as you can do; long emails or documents are currently out of the question without a lot of stopping and starting.

8. Power Nap

power nap

This clever feature keeps your Mac up-to-date when it's asleep. Currently only available for recent Mac laptops that use flash storage, Power Nap periodically checks for updates to Mail, Calendar, Photo Stream and more, so that when you next come to use your Mac, it's ready to go without you having to sit around waiting for your apps to get up to speed. Power Nap also sends backups to Time Capsule and downloads system and app updates automatically.

9. Better security

Gatekeeper

Fresh from the 'Flashback' Trojan controversy, Apple has introduced a new feature called Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper can be set to only allow app downloads from the Mac App Store or identified developers to make sure no suspect software can access your computer.

Developers can sign up for a unique Developer ID so their software can pass through Gatekeeper's filters, and the software can even check to make sure apps haven't been manipulated before they are installed on your Mac.

10. Safari gets an update

safari

Gone are the days of separate fields for URLs and web searches. With the new unified search field in Safari, you can find what you're looking for faster than ever before. This much-craved feature also includes suggestions when you search, using information from the web, as well as from your bookmarks and browsing history to provide you with results that are more accurate.

When you have a bunch of tabs open, you can now use multi-touch gestures to move out of your current tab by pinching two fingers together and swiping between all of your open tabs. You can then move two fingers apart to access the tab you've moved to.

A new feature called iCloud Tabs helps you access links you have browsed to previously, regardless of the device you were using. Clicking the iCloud Tabs button shows all of the open links on your iCloud devices including Macs, iPhones and iPads and allows you to visit them with a click.

The Reading List feature has also seen an update in Mountain Lion, and now stores entire pages that you add to the list rather than just links. This means you can view them when you don't have access to the internet.

The sharing features found in other apps in Mountain Lion are also available in Safari. This means you can quickly send website links to Facebook or Twitter, as well as email them or send them as part of a conversation in Messages.






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This Week's Reading - 20120827

10 compelling reasons to upgrade to Windows Server 2012 | TechRepublic

Sharing with your Mac, iPhone and iPad: the ultimate guide | News | TechRadar

Greg Tracy's under 10:00 race run at Pikes Peak! - YouTube - On a Ducati Mutlistrada 1200, wow!

In Depth: OS X Mountain Lion: the 10 best features - TechRadar

An alternative to the old Exposé "All Applications" hot corner - Mac OS X Hints

Set Software Update check frequency in Mountain Lion - Mac OS X Hints

Five speedy Windows desktop search apps | TechRepublic

Why Remote Workers Are More (Yes, More) Engaged - Scott Edinger - Harvard Business Review

Troubleshooting sleep in OS X | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews

Best BYOD management: Containment is your friend - Computerworld

Greg Tracy's under 10:00 race run at Pikes Peak! - YouTube

GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X - now THIS is a big deal!

Edit Share menu - Mac OS X Hints

Saturday, August 25, 2012

In Depth: Sharing with your Mac, iPhone and iPad: the ultimate guide

TechRadar: All latest feeds In Depth: Sharing with your Mac, iPhone and iPad: the ultimate guide

In Depth: Sharing with your Mac, iPhone and iPad: the ultimate guide

Sharing at home: plenty of choice

Not too long ago, people tended to own one computer on which they would store all their data, occasionally moving it around using floppy discs, CDs or USB memory sticks. And although we're only a few years down the line from those times, the concept of stuff living on a single machine now seems very outdated.

As technology has developed rapidly, the ways in which you can transfer, share and send files have become many and varied. The rise of the internet is the biggest factor in allowing this to happen, providing an increasingly fast and easy way to send documents, pictures, music and even movies between devices and around the world.

Faster home broadband connections are at the point where uploading stuff no longer takes hours, and a good 3G connection when you're on the move can be just as effective for sending and receiving files.

Networking computers used to be a real hassle, but with modern operating systems, it has become far easier. AirDrop in OS X 10.7 is perhaps the ultimate expression of simple file sharing, a system that doesn't even require the two Macs sharing files to be on the same wireless or ethernet network.

Sharing media has become simple too, with apps like iMovie and GarageBand allowing direct uploads to popular streaming sites, and iTunes Home Sharing and Match giving you much more flexible access to your media at home or on the move. Read on to find out how sharing data can free you from your desk…

Sharing at home

There are lots of ways to share files at home, and it's easier than you think...

sharing 1

Sharing your data across a home network has been possible for a long time, but it's only in recent years that it has become really simple, at least if you're using Macs. We'll skip past the old-fashioned methods of using USB memory sticks or burned DVDs to move stuff; although these are still possible, they're quite labour intensive.

These days, it's all about being networked, and the most common way to network computers is using Wi-Fi. There's a good chance you're on wireless broadband at home anyway. And even if your computer connects to your modem using an Ethernet cable, you can still share its wireless connection (and even its broadband connection) to other computers over Wi-Fi.

To do this you go into the System Preferences > Sharing tab and switch on Internet Sharing. To share files between computers, you can create a network on one computer from the AirPort menu and then join that network from the other computer. Neither computer has to have an internet connection for this to work, as you can achieve the same thing by connecting the two machines using an Ethernet cable.

On supported models you can even use FireWire Target Disk mode by connecting two Macs using a FireWire cable and booting one while holding the T key. This boots the 'slave Mac' as a hard drive on the host Mac and only supports the dragging and dropping of data from one to the other, so it's a basic but effective way of connecting the two.

To share files on a Mac you need to go into System Preferences > Sharing and make sure the File Sharing service is turned on. This means the computer will appear in the sidebar of other Macs on your network and broadcasts itself as an available device.

Also in this window you'll find a list of shared folders you can edit and add to. By default, each user's Public Folder is shared and when someone connects to it over a network they'll see its contents as well as being able to drop items into the Drop Box folder. They can't see the contents of the Drop Box, so it's a secure way for people to transfer stuff to you without altering the contents of the folder afterwards.

For each shared folder you'll also see a list of users, and what their access permissions are for that folder. By default, you have ownership of folders inside your Home directory but you can choose to assign other users from your Address Book with specific access, setting them up a password. So if you wanted a friend to be able to access and edit a certain folder on your Mac, this would be how to do it.

Under the Options menu in the File Sharing section you also have the option to turn on file sharing over FTP in addition to the default AFP protocol. If you activate the third option, SMB, you can share files and folders with Windows PCs on a network. Windows uses different file sharing protocols to the Mac, so switching on SMB should ensure that your Mac communicates with any connected PCs and broadcasts itself properly to them.

If you're running a mixed network and need to move files between Macs and PCs, turning on SMB sharing is a must. You may also find that you need to go into your AirPort preferences and find the WINS section, then add your Mac to a Windows workgroup, which will probably be called MSHOME or WORKGROUP. You can find this by going to My Computer > Properties > Computer Name on the PC. It might take a little work, but it should get you sharing between platforms.

airdrop

Dragging and dropping files and folders between Macs is also possible using AirDrop if you're running OS X 10.7 on both machines. This uses 'invisible' networking with no setup to discover other AirDrop capable Macs in range and make them visible to you in the Finder sidebar. Drag and drop files to a user's picture to share them.

Oddly though, Apple only enables AirDrop on specific, newer Mac models. This is because it uses special features of certain wireless chips, and can work between Macs even if they aren't connected to a network.

As annoying as this is, if yours is not supported, there is a workaround as long as you're running 10.7. Open the Terminal application and type: defaults write com.apple. NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1.

Then quit Terminal and log out and back in again. You should now see AirDrop in your 'Go…' menu. The difference is that it will only work when both Macs are on the same network.

If you have an Apple TV you can stream your iTunes library to it to view on your TV. Third-party apps such as StreamToMe and Air Video can stream from your Mac to an iPad with live video conversion, so there's no need for an Apple TV.

iTunes

Using the iTunes File Sharing section, you can share media between your Mac and your iPad outside of Apple's syncing system by dragging and dropping movies, photos and other things directly to an app. You can copy movies that are not in iTunes-friendly formats directly to an iPad. You can drop AVI movies and various others without having to convert them to M4V or MP4 format first. Various iPad apps can do this, including VLC, AVPlayer HD, CineXPlayer, Movie Player and GoodPlayer.

How to set up file sharing at home

1. Turn on sharing

share step 1

Go into the Sharing section of System Preferences. Locate the File Sharing option in the list of services and click its tick box to make sure it's switched on. You can give the computer a unique name in the box at the top - this is what will be broadcast across your network.

2. Add extra folders

share step 2

Click on the plus icon underneath the list of shared folders and you can choose any folder that you own to share with other users. By default your Public Folder is shared and users will be able to place things in the Drop Box. To create more shared folders, add them here.

3. Set a password

share step 3

In the list of users to the right, click the plus icon to add a new user. If you select an Address Book entry you can set a password for that user and create an account on the local machine for them. With this information they'll be able to access your shared folders.

Sharing with iTunes

As the centre of your digital hub, iTunes lets you share in different ways...

iTunes file share

Apple's iTunes has come a long way since its early days as a simple jukebox. Now it lets you purchase, play and share all your music and movies in a multitude of different ways. It's grown to support all of Apple's iOS devices as well as integrating with iCloud, adding internet storage to its list of capabilities.

If you have an iPad you can connect it to your Mac using a USB cable. Then in iTunes, go to the device and find its Apps tab. Scroll down and you'll see a File Sharing section where various apps are displayed; these are the apps that can swap data with your Mac. It's possible to drag and drop items out of the list to your Mac, or into the list to copy them to your iPad.

If you're running iOS 5, this whole process also works wirelessly if you have enabled Wi-Fi sync in iTunes. At a basic level, iTunes stores all its data inside a single folder on your hard drive, which by default, is located inside your Home directory in the folder Music/iTunes.

Inside this folder it keeps everything, from music and movies to books and mobile apps, as well as your master library file, artwork and backups of your iOS devices. It's important to activate iTunes' option to copy all music to this root folder, so it's not scattered randomly around your hard drive (from previous occasions when you may have dragged and dropped music into iTunes). You can find this in iTunes' Preferences > Advanced section.

It is possible to share an iTunes library by moving it from this directory to an external or networked hard drive so that it can be accessed from different Macs. After copying the whole iTunes folder, go into the Advanced preferences again. In the iTunes Media Folder location box, click to navigate to the folder's new location, which can be over a network as well as on a local hard drive.

On other Macs on the network, hold down the Option key while starting iTunes and from the chooser, select Choose iTunes Library, then navigate to it. You only have to do this the first time you want to use the shared library.

It's possible to share and stream media across your home Macs even without physically moving iTunes' library, using Home Sharing. This feature can be switched on in iTunes' Advanced menu and you'll be prompted to enter your Apple ID. After this, iTunes will broadcast itself to other copies of iTunes on the same network.

If you sign in on those Macs using the same Apple ID, you'll be able not only to play music and videos from the library, but drag and drop them to that Mac's library as well. The ability to physically copy files rather than just streaming means you can sync the files to different iOS devices. The fact that you have to use a single Apple ID for Home Sharing means that piracy is not really possible, but within the confines of a single house, your music and movie collections can be used more flexibly.

If you don't want to use Home Sharing, iTunes has a simpler sharing service, in the Preferences > Sharing section. Activate this and you can share either the whole library or selected playlists locally, with optional password protection. An Apple ID sign-in isn't required, but this service only allows streaming, not physical copying.

Go into iTunes' Advanced menu and you can choose to turn on Photo Sharing from iPhoto to your Apple TV using Home Sharing, and also share any videos that are present in your iPhoto library. If you activate Photo Library sharing from iPhoto, it shares to other copies of iPhoto on the local network.

Control your syncs

share photos

As we've mentioned, it's possible to move data between Macs and iPads via the traditional USB cable approach, or wirelessly if you're running iOS 5. Some people still like to use Apple's syncing system, which automatically synchronises music, movies, apps and other media when the two are connected. You can control what syncs by going to the device in iTunes and selecting what to include.

One of the benefits of syncing like this is that iTunes can choose music for you and transfer it. Others prefer to manually manage data since it offers rather more control, letting you drag and drop from iTunes to the iPad. Select the device in iTunes while it's connected, go to the Summary tab and scroll to the bottom. Activate manual management of music and videos - if you're using Apple's iTunes Match service, you'll only be able to manually deal with videos because your music is delivered from the cloud.

Since iOS devices have lower storage capacities than Macs, syncing whole libraries doesn't make much sense if your music and movie collections are large. In these cases, either choose to sync specific playlists, or use manual management to keep control of how much stuff is being fired over so as not to fill up your iPad.

There's also an option in iTunes' Summary tab to compress media prior to transfer. 'Convert higher bit rate songs' will shrink larger file sizes prior to copying, and 'Prefer standard definition videos' will transfer a lower resolution copy where available, both of which will use less space on the iPad.

How to turn on iTunes Sharing

1. Open the Preferences

iTunes 1

In iTunes, go to the Preferences section and locate the Sharing tab. Click to turn on sharing and select either the whole library or specific playlists within it. You can also set up a password: those who know it can stream music across the network to their copies of iTunes.

2. Turn on Home Sharing

iTunes 2

Go to the Advanced menu in iTunes and choose to Turn On Home Sharing. You'll need your Apple ID and password. With Home Sharing activated on another Mac on the local network, a user will be able to drag and drop music and movies from your library to theirs.

3. Move the library folder

itunes 3

Go to your Home directory and find the Music > iTunes folder. If you have set iTunes to always copy new music into the library folder, this will contain all your music as well as the master library file. By copying this folder to an external drive, you can free up disk space.

Sharing with other people

Sharing with others

When you need to share your files and folders with other people...

GarageBand Share

The internet has revolutionised the way we communicate and consume and share information with each other. The rise of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as the prevalence of fast internet connections means it's now more convenient than ever to share things electronically.

At its simplest, this can mean emailing things to people. Apple's Mail is great with attachments, and you can drag and drop documents into a new message to attach them. In the case of pictures, there's an option at the bottom-right corner of the message window to resize them prior to sending, which works beautifully. Movies can be dropped in as attachments too, and there's even a Photo Browser window that's able to access your iPhoto albums and even your Facebook albums online, if you have enabled this in iPhoto.

compress

Of course it's also possible to send zipped archives, Microsoft Office and other types of documents. Mail generally encodes files properly, so it's rare to have that one of your contacts find they can't open a file you've sent them. The only thing to watch out for is message sizes: movies or large pictures can easily be over 10MB in size, and most ISPs have a message size limit of between 10 and 20MB. Any bigger than this and the mail may get rejected, so split files over several mails or use a file-hosting service such as Sendspace or Dropbox.

After upload you get a link to send to someone, and Sendspace has a downloadable desktop application to help you manage your transfers. Dropbox is even better since it has iOS client apps, so you can upload, download and manage files across all your devices as well as sharing them with others. It's a particularly elegant way to manage data both for yourself and for sharing across the internet with others.

There are other ways to send links and files to people using just your Mac. iChat is capable of sending files between two users if you simply drag and drop a file into a conversation. Other IM clients like Adium can do the same. Some offer encryption, and it makes sense to zip large groups of files together to minimise upload times, either using OS X's built-in compression tools (right click and choose 'Compress…') or a third-party app like Dropstuff, SimplyRAR or BetterZip.

Photo sharing is one of the most popular kinds of sharing, and iPhoto can share your photos across your local network and also to the internet, from the Share menu. You can send pictures straight to a MobileMe, Flickr or Facebook gallery, complete with metadata and other tags, straight from iPhoto.

If you're running OS X 10.7, you can sign in to iCloud and activate Photo Stream, which pushes all new pictures into the cloud. Your master collection is maintained on your Mac, but all pictures imported to iPhoto or Aperture will be viewable wirelessly on your iOS devices running iOS 5. Snaps you take on your iPhone or iPad will be viewable and downloadable in iPhoto on your Mac.

However, you're the only one with access to these. To create galleries to share with others you need to use the Flickr or Facebook options in iPhoto. There are a number of iOS photo-sharing apps such as Instagram, Camera Plus, Photoshop for iOS and iPhoto for iOS, all of which allow you to upload photos and albums directly to sites like Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.

But it's not only photos that get shared: video sharing is huge now as well, and iMovie lets you compress and upload your productions directly to YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo from your Mac. Pro-video apps such as Adobe Premiere and Apple's Final Cut Pro X also have amongst their many export options the choice to send movies to these sites, with more control than you get in consumer apps.

iMovie upload

Obviously these are popular sites, which are advanced enough to handle high-definition content and process it in a reasonable time. You can share movies to these sites from iOS apps such as iMovie and Avid Studio as well, though you really need to be on a wireless connection due to the size of the file transfer involved.

SoundCloud is the go-to site for sharing your music tracks these days, with direct upload support built into many iOS apps and desktop music-creation packages like Cubase (though not yet available with GarageBand or Logic). Of course, you can just export an audio file then upload it to SoundCloud through a browser: it just takes a couple more steps.

SoundCloud is great because its audio players are supported on pretty much every platform, including iOS. It also allows the recording of audio straight into the site, from your Mac or from an iOS device.

iCloud is a great service but it is currently better for sharing your own documents across your own devices than for sharing with the world.

A more open-source alternative is to use Google Docs, a browser-based service that lets you create online documents and spreadsheets that others can access and edit with your permission.

Dropbox is another great solution for sharing documents online, though it allows upload and download of files, not actual online creation and editing, like Google Docs.

Sharing on the go

Even when you're on the road you can still share your stuff...

dropbox

When you're away from home with a laptop, you can still access all of your Mac's sharing capabilities with a network connection. In fact you don't even need a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection if you have an iPhone or 3G iPad.

With iOS 5 and the relevant bolt-on enabled with your cellular provider, you can use the Personal Hotspot feature built in to iOS to share the cellular connection to any compatible device including a laptop.

On your iPad 3G or iPhone 4 or later, go into the Settings > General > Network section and tap to turn on the Personal Hotspot feature. You're then able to create a mini wireless network over Wi-Fi and USB, and even over Bluetooth. On the device you can create a name for the network and set up a password, then it should appear as an available network on your laptop.

You can also use this to share your iPhone's connection with your Wi-Fi-only iPad. In other situations you may only have your iPad or iPhone with you, accessing either a 3G or wireless connection. In these cases you're still able to share a surprising amount of stuff from the device.

At a basic level, the Photos app allows you to select pictures to share over email or in a message, and you can do this with videos as well. Photos, movies and other documents can be copied and pasted into emails and iMessages. As long as they're relatively small (say under 20MB) they'll send even over 3G.

Apple doesn't allow much file management on iOS, but with the addition of a third-party app or two you can get better control over managing data. Downloads and Filer come in free 'lite' and paid-for versions, and are able to provide a basic file browser interface for managing files.

They also allow file sharing with your Mac both through iTunes and the provision of a web sharing service, where you can access the iPad or iPhone from your Mac's browser to transfer files. They allow you to download files from websites, copy them from Mail attachments and manage them centrally.

Filer allows connection to Dropbox, iDisk and WebDAV servers to upload and download files, and Downloads also has a very useful feature set for working with and opening all kinds of documents. Dropbox is a more complete solution because it works across your Mac and iOS devices, and allows comprehensive web-based sharing. It also has features such as the ability to control the quality of uploaded pictures and videos, so you can choose between better quality and faster uploads.

Google Docs is a great way to create, store and share documents from any mobile device, and it has a special mobile interface that works well on iOS. Other good mobile apps for sharing documents on the go include QuickOffice Pro HD, Documents To Go and Smart Office 2, with support for many sharing services including Box.net, iDisk and SugarSync amongst others.

Another thing that people want to do while they're out and about is listen to their music. But music collections are so big these days that few of them would fit on an iPad or iPhone, so we have to choose what to load up.

Or at least we did before iTunes Match came along. This £25-per-year service from Apple gives you access to your entire music library wirelessly wherever you are (with a few caveats). It works by analysing your music library in iTunes on your Mac then uploading the information to Apple's servers. It matches every song that has a copy in the iTunes Store and since it has the world's biggest digital store, most of your music will be on there. Anything that's not available can be uploaded from your hard drive, which takes a little time but only needs doing once.

On your iPad or iPhone you can turn on iTunes Match and instead of seeing the music on the device, you get access to your whole library in the cloud. Playlists are maintained and your Mac remains the master library, so any changes you make there are reflected across all your devices, including the purchase or addition of new content. So whenever you have a wireless connection you can play your music library on any of your devices, choosing from thousands of tracks.

It doesn't actually stream to your iPad - it downloads a track, but these can be deleted at any time and a master copy remains in the cloud. The best bit is that even if your original music tracks were low quality, the cloud versions are 256kbps, high-quality versions.

If you don't have iTunes Match you can still stream music using an alternative app like Spotify or Last.fm - the Last.fm-powered iPad client is called On Air. These let you set up playlists and access them over the air, though don't provide access to your music library. There is a charge for some aspects of the service like physical downloading of tracks in Spotify.

There are a number of other interesting mobile sharing apps like Bump, which lets you share contact information with people nearby, Foursquare which lets you share your location with other users and also Apple's own Find My Friends app, which does the same.

How to set up a Personal Hotspot

1. Turn it on

hotspot 1

On your iPhone 4 or 3G-capable iPad, go to Settings and then the Personal Hotspot section. Tap to turn it on. This will only be available if your carrier plan includes the option to use the hotspot feature. If you don't have it, it can be added for a fee.

2. Connect to the network

hotspot 2

On your laptop, click the AirPort icon and locate the network, which should bear the name of your phone or iPad. Click to join it and enter the wireless password as displayed in the setup screen and you should be sharing the cellular connection.

3. Connect an iPad

hotspot 3

If you have a Wi-Fi-only iPad and want to share an iPhone's connection, use the same technique but connect to the wireless network using the iPad's wireless network selection screen inside Settings. Note, you might go through your data allowance quite quickly.

How to use iTunes Match

1. Set it up

itunes match

In iTunes, make sure you're signed in with your Apple ID and subscribed to the service. Turn on iTunes Match from the Store menu. This can take a few hours, especially if you have a lot of items that need to be uploaded because they can't be matched.

2. Activate on iOS

match 2

On your iPad, go into Settings > Music and turn on iTunes Match. If you have a 3G model you'll also see the option to use a cellular connection for iTunes Match. Show All music can be turned off to only show music downloaded to the device.

3. Play music

match 3

Fire up the Music app and you'll see your playlists and tracks available to play. The cloud icon means the track is stored in the cloud; tap to manually download tracks or playlists. Swipe to delete a track from local storage - iTunes on your Mac maintains the master library file.






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