AuntTUAW
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Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me access the lock-screen camera
Dear Aunt TUAW, Have you been receiving reports that the camera button on the iOS 5.1 Lock screen doesn't work? It doesn't matter if the phone is actually locked, or just on the lock screen. Press the camera button and the whole screen just bounces a couple times, then does nothing. I looked through the settings, and didn't see anything about enabling this feature. I read your site everyday, and hope you might know more about this than I do. (Really do love your site, btw. THANKS!) Your loving nephew, Brian Dear Brian, What you're seeing is normal behavior under 5.1. Instead of tapping or double-tapping the camera icon, just drag the icon up to reveal the camera underneath the lock screen. Drag down from the top of the screen to hide it again or use the Home button to leave that mode. Make sure to set a passcode lock for your unit if you don't want your photos and videos library fully accessible from the lock screen. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Should I upgrade to the 3rd Gen iPad?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I own an iPad 2. It suits my needs just fine. I don't use the camera and the apps I use are not that processor intensive. I'm looking at the 3rd Gen iPad and can't seem to make myself pull the trigger on upgrading. What do you think? Your loving niece, Meg Dear Meg, Auntie is torn as well. She's recommending the new iPad for anyone who doesn't yet own one, and yet for now she's sticking to her beloved iPad 2. As the owner of an iPad 2, the newer release feels more like an indulgence than a necessity to her. With a better chip, improved camera, and that luscious Retina display, the new iPad has a lot going for it. And yet, Auntie really wants that 4G technology on an iPhone (especially a Verizon model with free metered hotspotting), not on a new iPad. Right technology, wrong device. She's probably going to pick up a Wi-Fi model in a few months when refurbs start filling channels or when a contracting job demands testing on a new unit. For now, the problem lies in the fact that the iPad 2 is a really, really good iPad. It does everything that Auntie needs an iPad to do and it does it well. Sure, Auntie would prefer the new screen, camera, memory, and so forth, but at $500 and up, none of those technologies are compelling enough to make her jump onboard yet. Auntie loves the new iPad -- but the iPad 2 continues to be a winner as well. Apple clearly agrees, as the priced-to-move $399 iPad 2 that still maintains a spot on its store. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me de-install Pogoplug
Dear Aunt TUAW, My Pogoplug died several months ago. I haven't been using it since then. Today I discovered that it was still launching about a half dozen background processes, for example: 93 ?? 0:03.62 /Applications/Pogoplug/.resources/bin/hbwd /Applications/Pogoplug/.resources/bin/hbadmin. Help me stop these from launching. I don't have a Pogoplug anymore and I don't want it running stuff that I haven't agreed to. Thanks a bunch and here's some home-baked cookies for your pinochle night. Your loving nephew, Dan B. Dear Dan, The cookies were amazing! Who knew that you could make lace-pattered Werther's flavored shortbread? As for your Pogoplug dilemma, Auntie sympathizes. Apps should always provide uninstallers as part of their basic dmg release. Auntie contacted Smadar Artsi, the head of Pogoplug support to see if he could help uninstall the software. He sent along a script (which has been emailed to you directly) but asked that Auntie refrain from posting a public link to it. He writes, "I prefer this script not to become available to all – but through the support only on a request basis." So if any of Auntie's other nieces and nephews are facing a similar dilemma, go ahead and contact Pogoplug support directly. Hugs and poodles, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me manage my Dropbox
Dear Aunt TUAW, I really love my Dropbox account, but sometimes I get frustrated trying to manage my space. I'm at 3.75 GB max storage right now and I'm hovering near the top end of that. Can you suggest any OS X tools that can help me figure out which files to keep, and which to recycle out of the system? Your loving niece, Grace Dear Grace, Auntie is a huge fan of Grand Perspective. Just open it on the Dropbox folder in your home user directory (/Users/youraccountname) and it gives you a great visual overview of which files are taking up what space. That's a great way to track down Dropbox hogs that are consuming your file allocation. In this screen shot, you can see that numerous manuscript release candidates are taking up more space than they should. Those extra files are now happily backed to external storage and off the precious primary Dropbox folder. For dealing with multiple smaller files, look at your folders more holistically and target the ones that seem most ripe for a nice declutter. For example, check out the two folders at the top-left of the Grand Perspective screen shot. All together, they occupy some significant storage space, even though each file is quite small individually. Regularly targeting large, cluttered folders for scanning and weeding helps reduce Dropbox chaos over time. You might look at the last modified dates or try to toss items you've already processed. As for those three giant files at the right side and top-middle of the screen? Don't forget to remind people you share big data with to grab the items you're sending them, and then give you a ping back so you can clear them off your allocation. Hope this helps! Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: The quick hit edition
Dear Aunt TUAW, How can I move books purchased at the Apple store from my library in my iPad to my drop box so I can share them with my friends? Your loving niece, Jacqueline Dear Jacqueline, You can't. Apple books use FairPlay DRM. Although this protection has been cracked by the Brahms Requiem app in recent days, those books are only for you to use, not for you to share with your friends. Hugs, Auntie T. Dear Aunt TUAW, How long after launch does it take for Apple to sell refurbished products, do you think?? Is it worth waiting for the refurb of the iPad 3 after it launches or will it take too long? Your loving nephew, Konstantinos Dear Konstantinos, It usually takes several months for the refurb channels to fill and units to start appearing on Apple's store. Auntie's guessing you should see refurbished next-gen iPads (whether or not they are called "iPad 3") for sale around September, in the run-up to this year's Christmas shopping season. Hugs, Auntie T. Dear Aunt TUAW, If the iPad 3 includes 4G, what is the possibility that us AT&T unlimited 3G data users will be grandfathered to unlimited 4G? Your loving nephew, Kevin D. Dear Kevin, Auntie's thinking "no freaking way" as her best guess. AT&T is grasping for ways to pay for buildout of that 4G network and Auntie doubts that grandfathering in iPhone holdouts will happen. Hugs, Auntie T. Dear Aunt TUAW, Do you have any idea when Mountain Lion may be released? I wouldn't mind buying a new iMac in a year -- do you think it might be out by then? Your loving nephew, Adam Dear Adam, Auntie's thinking around WWDC-ish time. Say June or July this year. As for next year, they'll probably be shipping the next generation OS X LOLcat on new iMacs by next summer. Hugs, Auntie T. Dear Aunt TUAW, Many of my friends and I spent the last few days looking through the capabilities of Messages Beta.... love what we see... and love what all you've posted about it. The thing i think i'm missing from your posts is how to sync all devices... We finally got it all working seamlessly... all devices under one AppleID seeing all conversations, past & present...just like it was supposed to be from the beginning...but it wasn't as easy as Apple made it look in their iOS 5 commercials. Maybe others are having the same problems we did and you guys could post some tips making it easy. I'm happy to share my experience if needed. Your loving nephew, Chad Dear Chad, Here's a handy guide. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Will the iPad 3 double its memory options?
Dear Aunt TUAW, Has there been any information on the likely storage capacity of the "iPad 3?" Is it likely to keep the 16/32/64 paradigm, or might we see a doubling at current prices of $499/$599/$699? Your loving nephew, Dave Dear Dave, Auntie rather doubts that the storage options are going to change this time, especially if we continue seeing the current price points for retail. The iSuppli iPad 2 teardown indicates that there's flexibility in costing for storage expansion, but Auntie isn't counting on it. That's because she feels that other component enhancements will put pressure on keeping current prices. Instead, Auntie is looking forward to better onboard technology such as an improved chip and display. There isn't much broken in the current iPad 2 -- it's an absolutely brilliant device -- and the iPad 3 will likely offer much the same in terms of geometry, storage, and price. If anything, Auntie is hoping for slightly better cameras and speakers. The current camera is so grainy -- Apple doesn't really need to go for more pixels, just slightly better sensing. The cumulative effect of the anticipated component upgrades, especially the CPU and screen, represents a big jump in cost -- enough so that Apple may find it hard to stay at the current price points even leaving aside storage differentials. That's why she's betting that the storage won't change. Of course, Auntie is happy to be proven wrong and hopefully we'll know the answer in a month or two. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me transfer music into iOS iTunes
Dear Aunt TUAW, In the "Post-PC" era, is there a way to get an audio file, such as one stored on Dropbox, onto an iPad? Is a tethered transfer of audio from iTunes the only solution? Your loving nephew, Chris R. Dear Chris, In a word, no. iTunes maintains its own asset library system that isn't generally accessible (except for reading) to developers. Third-party apps can browse the unit's iTunes music library and choose tracks and play them back (and, even access the data directly if they need to). But there's no way for them to modify the library itself by adding new tracks. Although apps like Dropbox can use the documents sharing API to open files in conforming apps, the onboard music app does not comply with this. It does not appear as a possibility in the "Open In" menus for m4a, mp3, and other audio data. Basically this all goes down to digital rights. There have been numerous projects over the years to reverse engineer the iTunes library format and modify it, especially on Mac and Windows, but these projects fall outside of the normal terms and use of iTunes and the onboard iOS app. You'd think that in the "Post-PC" era, Apple would know this and allow you to bring third party tracks like those from Amazon into the iTunes system sans computer -- but we're apparently not quite as "Post-PC" as one might imagine, yet. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Should I mess with my recovery partition?
Dear aunt tuaw, I'm hoping you can tell me how to perform a non-destructive reclaim of the recovery partition space. I'm on Mac OS X Lion and wish to simply reclaim that odd 700 MB without jeopardising my main partition. Your loving nephew, Oscar Dear Oscar, Auntie is sorry, but this sounds to her like an absolutely utterly terrible idea. Lots of services require that the recovery partition be left alone. Find My Mac is the first thing that comes to mind. But that's not all. Apple put that recovery partition there for a really good reason -- it's one of the best ways you get to reinstall the OS, repair your disk, or restore from Time Machine without having to deal with external discs. Sure, if you have a 64 GB SSD (Auntie does on her beloved MBA), that 700 MB represents a big chunk of space -- but Auntie feels it would be tremendously poor judgement (metaphors about "penny wise pound foolish" spring to mind) to try to proceed in the direction you're proposing. Hugs, Auntie T. Got advice for Oscar? Disagree with Auntie? Sound off in the comments.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Should I buy AppleCare+?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I was wondering how you felt about AppleCare+ vs Best Buy's extended warranty. My wife and I just bought 2 iPhone 4S's and would like to protect our investments. The Best Buy option would cost us US$15/mo. for each phone. That is $720 over the next two years. AppleCare+ is $99 for two years of coverage but has the $50 service fee. Can you do a pros and cons list of these two options? Thank you guys. Your loving nephew, John Dear John, AppleCare+ is easy to do -- just buy it when you purchase your iPhone 4S. And when things go bad, which they often do with devices that get used in your hands in real-world conditions (i.e. more often that you'd like, and "all the time" when you're looking at the population as a whole), it's more cost effective. What's more, with AppleCare+, you're in the Apple system. You're going to deal with Apple Geniuses and Apple Retail, which Auntie assures you provides more happy outcomes than dealing with Best Buy. An Apple Store's environment of hands-on help is fantastic. When it comes to "who do you trust," Auntie trusts Apple's service techs over those at Best Buy. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Should I clean up my drive?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I was looking at some apps that claim to help remove stored caches and temporary files. Are these apps a good way to clean up my Mac and remove temporary files? Your loving nephew, Chris Dear Chris, Auntie is super-paranoid about these third-party tools. When it comes to clearing data, Auntie generally sticks with Apple's built-in functionality and reasonably-regular reboots. Auntie knows how easy it is to mess up system files and how hard it is to restore to a pre-mess state. They say Time Machine heals all wounds, but despite the name it doesn't actually get your time back. Hugs, Auntie T. Got advice for Chris? Disagree with Auntie? Leave a note in the comments.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me share my iPhone data to my iPad
Dear Aunt TUAW, I find myself in an interesting position. I am going to be traveling for several weeks within the US. I have my iPhone on a grandfathered unlimited data plan and a wifi iPad 2. I would like to be able to use my iPad while away not only for FaceTime but also general use and even using my slingbox. I would rather keep my unlimited data plan, have thought about using an airport express but that might be cost prohibitive given hotel charges. Is there anything I have missed? If you post this to the blog I would prefer to remain anonymous. Thanks for the help and the great website! Your loving nephew, Anonymous Dear Anonymous, It's pretty easy to share a connection between a non-jailbroken iPhone and a Mac using any of the iProxy-style SOCKS proxy solutions. You can Google up web pages galore about these solutions -- and a new proxy client seems to appear weekly on App Store before it gets pulled a few hours later. At the same time, it's rather hard to share between an iPhone and an iPad without jaibreaking. That's because you need some sort of shared Wi-Fi network and the iPhone cannot create an ad hoc connection without being jailbroken. There are various solutions around but most of them rely on you having a laptop along as well as the two devices, to create that ad hoc network. That makes things even clumsier and harder to set up. In general, you'll do best either by jailbreaking and using MyWi or by buying or renting a third party Wi-Fi hotspot (like Clear or MiFi). Unfortunately, if you do enable iPhone tethering through AT&T, you will give up your unlimited plan. Some TUAW folk have done exactly that -- freeing themselves from feeling they must hold onto the unlimited plan for dear life. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Why does Siri read smilies as colons?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I love Siri. I'm surprised at how much I actually use it beyond the gimmicky stuff. Texting while driving (through my car's Uconnect system) is so handy. One thing I've noticed is that when I dictate a message, add a smiley face and have her read it back to me, she says, "Have a nice day colon comma." The odd part is that she has written :-), which is colon hyphen right bracket. Is this a glitch or does a hyphen and right bracket together equal a comma? I was never good at grammatical math. Your doting nephew, Damien Dear Damien, Ah, bless Siri. She's such a changeable creature. Auntie used to love when Siri would read out "Brr, it's cold" as "Bee. Arr. Arr. It's Cold". Thanks to Apple's live data center updates, Siri now responds "Burr" instead of "Bee. Arr. Arr." The smiley-face being read back as a colon is similar. It's simply a text-to-speech glitch that Apple may eventually improve. You can report any bugs to Apple directly using their Bug Reporter online website. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Can I boot from a RAM disk?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I would like to run Mac OS X 10.6.7 off a RAM disk, for better performance/security while browsing the World Wide Web (I don't want to save the image with all those gnarly cookie crumbs to disk). I understand that a family living down the street from me is able to run Linux from a RAM disk -- can you help me out? Your loving niece, Emily Dear Emily, Auntie immediately consulted with Unkie Mike after receiving your letter. He responded as follows: Running OS X off a RAM disk isn't supported (and hasn't been on the Mac for a long, long time -- since Mac OS 9, in fact). Linux is a different beast. You can run a browser in private or 'incognito' mode if you're concerned about security, or use a virtualization tool like Parallels or VMware to run a virtual Mac on your Mac. However, to run 10.6.7 virtualized you'd need the server version (expensive). You can get most of the performance benefits of a RAM disk with an SSD boot drive, which we've covered on the site. Further, Unkie uncovered the following information from a post on the MacRumors forum. Attributed to a "former Apple Employee," this seems to describe why RAM disks are a poor match to OS X. That thing is snake oil, as are the vast majority of ramdisk products on OS X. Designing a ramdisk that works well on OS X is remarkably difficult because backing a block device into wired memory causes the contents to be double buffered above it in the Unified Buffer Cache. For transient data on systems with no VM pressure, what will happen is the file is created, the object backing it sits in the UBC, it might get synched to disk, but unless you are running low on ram it stays in ram as well. That is why you see no speed increases, all you are doing is eliminating the background asynch writeout, and you are wasting a lot of ram to do it. More importantly, if you are actually creating a wired ram disk you are eating a ton of kernel address space which can be an issue if you have a lot of memory (large page tables) or several video cards. Getting back to your actual issue, it sounds to Auntie as if you're looking for a secure browsing solution rather than a RAM disk boot solution. For that, take a look at this Macworld hints post that shows you how to store your Safari cache on a RAM drive. Hope this helps. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me find a WiFi stumbler app for Lion
Dear Aunt TUAW, I'm a Mac IT professional, and often find myself configuring, troubleshooting, and optimizing wireless networks. In the past I used AP Grapher to graph wireless strength and find competing Wi-Fi networks as I walk around my clients' offices. This allows me to pick the best channel to use with the least competition, troubleshoot wireless strength, and find the optimal location for my hardware. In Lion, AP Grapher has gone from unstable to unusable. I've found that it hasn't been updated since 2007. I have tested other Mac stumbler applications, but have yet to find one that works with Lion. Most crash on launch and others don't reliably detect wireless networks. Can you recommend a Mac application for graphing my wireless strength and recording info about competing wireless networks? Thanks! Your loving nephew, Aaron Dear Aaron, Auntie asked around and it looks like iStumbler will be your best bet. Note that it's currently at its 100 GM Candidate 3 beta stage of development. Another suggestion is the open source KisMAC. You might also want to try out the Wi-Fi diagnostics app that's bundled with Lion's Core Services. Hugs, Auntie T. Special thanks to Fraser Hess, Adrian Burgess, Alex Patsay, Harris Kleyman, Alex Sebenski and Julian Kussman.
Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I silence my iPhone?
Dear Aunt TUAW, There is an article in the WSJ about how an iPhone disrupted a performance of the New York Philharmonic. I have experienced the same problem where it is impossible to turn the alarm off once it goes on. If you set up a calendar alert and change your reminder sounds with the Alarm sound, when the alarm goes off there is no way to silence it. If you turn the phone to silence mode, it still makes noise. If you close the event, it still makes noise. I believe the only way to shut off the sound is to completely turn off the device. This has been so annoying that I stopped using iPhone's calendar reminder alerts. This article reminded me of the problem. Can you explain how this all works? Your loving nephew, Brian Dear Brian, iPhone alarms aren't affected by any of the normal system volume settings. This ensures that you'll still be woken up in the morning, a major design touch point for iPhone users who'd prefer to get to work on time. In fact, the iPhone supports numerous independent volume controls. For example, the mute toggle on the side of the phone controls the ringer without affecting audio playback. The iPod functions built into the unit have independent speaker and headphone levels. Siri audio has its own volume levels as well -- plus lowering Siri speaker audio doesn't change the volume for when you pick up the phone to your ear. Apple designed these multiple controls to work in the most flexible yet reliable ways possible, ensuring that the phone responds as the user expects it to. A single system-wide volume setting wouldn't be able to handle these day-to-day nuances. If you mute your phone for the movie theater at night, you should still be able to wake up the next morning. If you lower the speaker volume for your music, it shouldn't keep you from using Siri to call hands-free. Please note that adding headphones does not re-route alarm audio. That means if you take your phone into a quiet event -- a meeting, concert, or other -- you should probably power off the device completely for the duration. Press the sleep/wake button for about 5 seconds, and then slide to power down. If this is not possible, you'll want to set the ringer to mute, set the system audio to zero, launch Siri and lower the volume to zero, disable all alarms, and review the Settings > Notifications items in the Notification Center to switch off audio. There's probably some items Auntie is missing here, but she trusts her nieces and nephews will refine this list in the comments. In the end, Auntie thinks Apple did a great job in designing the various iPhone audio systems. For those rare occasions where you really need to bypass these design choices, powering the iPhone down will keep it from embarrassing faux pas. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me nix the window shadows in Lion
Dear Aunt TUAW, I recently added a second external monitor to my 13" MacBook Pro. My problem comes with the OS X Lion features that give windows a 3D depth-look, specifically, the shadow effect. As a window on the external monitor approaches the virtual border of the built-in LCD of the MBP, the shadow extends between monitors, creating a shadow/shade over the windows on the LCD (that is to say, if you park a window to close to the edge, the shadow extends the other display). Anyway to turn off the shadowed window effect? Your loving nephew, Seth Dear Seth, Auntie turned to TUAW's braintrust, who quickly pointed her to Unsanity's Shadowkiller haxie. Released in 2006 and "Not compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Leopard," Auntie can confirm that the haxie works just fine with Lion. Download the dmg, copy the app to your Applications folder and then launch to kill the window shadows. Launch again to bring them back. Hugs and a big thanks to everyone who helped find Seth the answer, Auntie T. Particular thanks to @shabooty, @basraayman, @oboewan, @jtregunna, and @capii
Dear Aunt TUAW: Where's the OnLive App?
Dear Aunt TUAW, More of a question rather than a tip, but with the App Store lockdown today, I presume OnLive's Player App will not be live in time for Christmas. I was thinking: Do you think Apple delayed approval of the app to maximize profits by sales over Christmas, including the significant revenue likely generated by the release of Grand Theft Auto 3? Your skeptical nephew, Chris Dear Chris, Hey bud! It's your cousin Mike -- Auntie asked me to field this one, since I recently had a chance to play with the very impressive OnLive app in question. You're right: We heard great things about the app and its accompanying controller a few weeks ago (and I promise they're real, since I've still got the app installed and working on my personal iPad), but since then we haven't heard anything from OnLive, and the promised software has failed to materialize. That only applies to iOS, for the moment; we're told the app is available on the Android store right now, so if you have an Android tablet, you can play with it there. But most of us TUAW folks don't bother with Android, so when is it coming to iOS? I asked OnLive, and they tell me that both the iOS release of the app and the controller are still pending. The app specifically, an OnLive rep tells us, "in the approval process with Apple." The rep couldn't provide any further information, and it's possible that even OnLive doesn't know what the holdup is. Apple's approval process can be pretty secretive, even for the developers in it. There's possibly a few things happening here. First, OnLive might just honestly be waiting on approval -- it's too bad they didn't clear the process before the big announcement, but them's the breaks, and maybe they are just waiting on a release. Second, Apple could have denied the app for some reason, and it's possible that OnLive is working to fix or resubmit the app in order to get Apple's approval. I've used the app, and I can't think of any reason technically that the app wouldn't be accepted, but maybe there was something. Third, as you say, there could be something a little sneakier going on here. OnLive's service is paid for by selling access to PC games running on their own servers, and the way they have it set up, you can't buy those games through the app (you need to buy them from a regular PC before playing them on the iOS app). That means that Apple doesn't get any cut of games "sold" on OnLive, and that may be causing issues with the approval process. But that really shouldn't matter -- Apple doesn't take a cut of Netflix subscriptions, for example, and the Netflix apps are up and running without a problem. Or, as you suggest, Apple could simply want to sell iPad native games, and is holding the OnLive app off in order to increase native app sales rather than OnLive game sales. That seems a little too sneaky to me, but you're welcome to be as paranoid as you want. Honestly, I don't think there's a conspiracy here. The OnLive app makes your iPad more useful, and that's in everyone's favor. My guess is just that the app is caught up in the process. You're right in that it won't be approved over the App Store freeze, so we at least have to wait another week, but I think it'll either be approved soon, or we'll hear back from OnLive or Apple that it hasn't been accepted for whatever reason. In the meantime, OnLive is available on the Mac as well, so you can play all the games you want there for now. And we'll keep checking back with OnLive to see when the app is ready for release. Happy Holidays! Cousin Mike
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me read data from my nano
Dear Aunt TUAW, Greetings from overseas from the long-lost branch of Dutch family members and thanks for al. your helpful posts. My question is the following. I have an iPod nano (sixth generation) which I use quite often as a flash drive. The problem is that I can not use it on a Windows PC since I have set it up initially with my Mac. Is there any way to make this work since quite a lot of people around me (still) use Windows PCs? Your loving nephew, Ivo Dear Ivo, The Windows-OS X file system divide is one of long standing. Unfortunately, the last time Auntie dealt with this problem herself was a badjillion years ago, back when MacOpener was still relevant. So take that in mind as she dishes out advice from the age of the dinosaurs. Your nano is normally formatted using Apple's HFS+ file system. A utility like MediaFour's MacDrive or Paragon's HFS for Windows may solve the problem for you. According to their marketing text, they allow you to mount, read, and write OS X formats from Windows. Each costs US$20 but both utilities offer a free trial, so you can make sure your nano is readable on your Win PC before putting down your money. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me create GPS address book locations
Dear Aunt TUAW, I want to set Siri geofenced reminders for my kids' bus stop and a few other locations. The problem is that I live in a rural area, and these places don't have street addresses. What can I do? I want to be able to remind my wife to pick up milk and butter after she's done picking up the kids. Can you help? Your loving nephew, Kaelin Dear Kaelin, Auntie has some bad news for you. As far as the TUAW team can reckon, the Contacts app doesn't support GPS locations. That means that you can't use geofenced reminders for arbitrary locations beyond "when I leave this location." If you try to drop a pin in Maps, you'll quickly discover that rural locations plus the GPS coordinates plus the address book don't add up to a coherent location solution. Maps tries to find a street address to match the coordinates, and that address may be miles away, especially if you try to mark a camp site in a large state park. Since Contacts is built on street addresses, not coordinates, your locations will be off -- sometimes way off. For now, Auntie recommends the "when I leave this location" workaround if it's you doing the errands, and encourages all her nieces and nephews to file a feature request with Apple. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Brokeback Siri. I just can't quit it.
Dear Aunt TUAW, It's funny how we can write a book to learn to speak to Siri but there's no vocal "quit" command LOL! Your loving nephew, Dig Dear Dig, Of course there is a verbal command. It sounds like this: "Honey, press the Home button. It's the round one at the bottom of the screen." Kidding aside, it looks like Apple meant to put in a Quit command but didn't get it completed on time. See the screen shot that follows. Other Siri responses to "Quit" include, "Did I say something wrong? If you really want me to go away, at least say 'goodbye.'" Another response is, "Quit? Did you mean 'goodbye?'" Auntie would go into a long lecture here about beta software, but (1) she's betting you've already heard that lecture, (2) Apple ships whatever Apple ships so long as it ships on time -- the phrase goes, "Ship on time. We'll buy you new families." Also, you're welcome to submit bug reports and feature enhancement requests directly to Apple itself. Hugs, Auntie T.
