Chris Breen
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How to avoid iCloud email spam
It's nice to know that Makayla, Taylor, Olivia and Madeline are all thinking nice thoughts and letting me order my pills online. They're part of a rush of spam emails that showed up in my iCloud email last week. Apparently I'm not the only person who received those oddly written spam missives, since Chris Breen at Macworld ran a post today on how to report spam emails to Apple so that the next wave is caught by the company's spam filters. There are two ways to go about this, according to Breen. First, any emails that are marked as junk or dragged into the Junk folder are automatically reported to Apple. This is true whether you are using Mail.app on your Mac or iCloud webmail. It's rather easy to accomplish -- in Mail.app you can just click on the message and then click that thumbs-down button to mark it as spam. For iCloud webmail, just select the message, click the Mark As pop-up menu (or the "flag" in iCloud beta) and choose Junk Mail. Another method is to forward your junk email as attachments to spam@icloud.com. To do this, select the message in Mail.app and then choose Message > Forward as Attachment. Type the above email address in the "To:" field, and send the message on its merry way to Apple, which will use the information to filter future missives from the spammer. In case you're wondering, iOS 7 allegedly provides a way to mark email as spam from your iOS devices. At this time, there's no way to do so.
Create a bootable iPod classic
Remember the iPod classic? That chunky little slab of plastic in which you could store thousands of songs on an internal hard disk drive? Well, if you do, and if you still happen to have one laying around somewhere collecting dust, Chris Breen over at Macworld has the perfect job for it: using an iPod classic as a bootable emergency drive. This isn't a new trick by any means. I still have my old fourth-generation iPod within arm's reach in case I need to boot a Firewire-equipped Mac, and I even wrote about this in my now-obsolete 2007 e-book Take Control of Your iPod: Beyond the Music. But Breen and the crew at Macworld have updated the process for the USB-equipped iPod classic, with a few caveats thrown in for good measure. First, since the iPod classic isn't vented, it can get hot if you keep it hooked up as an external drive for a while. Second, it's slow, so your boot times aren't going to be exactly speedy. Breen points to another post by his Macworld cohort Dan Frakes in which the latter blogger shows how to install Mountain Lion on a bootable external disk. It's a bit of work, but if you have an iPod classic that's no longer being used, at least you can give it a job to do in case of emergency.
Holiday Gift Guide: Procrastinator's Edition
You know who you are. It's Christmas Eve, your stockings are yet to be hung with care, and there's a dismayingly large gap in the "gift gotten" column of your personal Nice list -- or maybe you haven't figured out what the last three days of Hanukkah are going to look like when it comes to gift exchanges. Don't panic; we're right there with you. While physical gifts may be more difficult (though not completely impossible) to get at this stage, the intangible options are still on the table. Some of the best ideas for late gifting were summed up this week by Andy Ihnatko in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chris Breen at Macworld, so be sure to check their lists (twice, even). If you've got a pair of giftees on your list who are craving new cellphones -- or, more to the point, slightly previous-generation cellphones -- MacRumors notes that Best Buy stores are running a special 2-for-1 deal on the iPhone 4 32GB model, today only. Apple no longer has the 32GB iPhone 4 on the product list, so this is an inventory dump; still, it's an inventory dump that works in your favor. Both phones need new 2-year contracts. The growth in the installed base and reach of iOS devices means that you no longer have to head for a specialty retailer (or an Apple store) to get compatible accessories. Every local Radio Shack, Walgreen's, CVS, Staples or Rite-Aid carries iPhone and iPad accessories, albeit often cheap and crappy ones. An extra pair of iPhone-friendly headphones or a set of iPad screen covers would make a dandy 'light' gift, and an SD card or Bluetooth mouse could make the holiday brighter. As Chris Breen's story points out, sometimes the best gift is the one you give of yourself. Assisting a family member with app updates, backup setup or remote access configuration might help them all year long. Making sure that Logmein or iChat are properly configured for remote support can also save you aggravation and travel time later on when that new Mac starts behaving oddly. You can always send a pretty email certificate that your relatives can print out and stick up on the wall for quick reference. The list of digital-only gifts is, of course, very long -- Andy I's story cites most of the usual suspects, including of course gift certificates for all the nicest places. He points out that a Flickr Pro account is ideal for shutterbugs, and that while Spotify doesn't offer gift subscriptions, streaming music competitors Rdio and Pandora both do; so does Netflix, for that matter. Andy also noted something I knew long ago but had forgotten: you can gift an entire iTunes playlist, even if you don't own all the songs in the list. Just drag tracks directly from the iTunes store listing into the playlist, then under the Store menu in iTunes, choose 'Share Playlist...' -- you'll get a dialog offering to publish or gift the playlist. Keep in mind that gifts of individual tracks or full playlists are only redeemable in the country of purchase; you can't do iTunes gifts for far-flung overseas family. Finally, there are the gifts that really keep on giving: learning opportunities and charitable contributions. You could simply send some dough to your recipient's favorite cause, but the fun of giving might be enhanced by one of these charitable apps. For the Mac or iOS user who wants to expand their horizons and sharpen their skills, there are plenty of solid last-minute additions to place under the virtual tree. Both the Amazon and Apple ebook stores include instructional titles like the Missing Manual, Apress or Take Control offerings. (New Mac OS X 10.7 Lion users might particularly appreciate this one.) For visual learners, it's easy to get great tutorial content from vendors like lynda.com, covering a wide range of creative computing topics. This year's crop of screencast content is particularly rich for Apple's new Final Cut Pro X, with great courseware from Larry Jordan, Manhattan Edit Workshop and Izzyvideo among others. As you scramble to find something perfect at the last second, take a mindful moment to breathe, relax and enjoy your blessings with your family. Of course, thanks to the honey-voiced hypnotherapist Andrew Johnson, there's also an app or two for that.
TUAW Video: A Mac Moment with Chris Breen (Part 2)
Part 1 was good. Part 2 is even gooder. Check out my continued Mac Moment interview with Macworld luminary Chris Breen, as we discuss the AppleTV, the lack of Mac announcements at Macworld (gasp!), more talk about the iPhone, and Chris's iPod book. (Click here for the original mp4 file.)
TUAW Video: A Mac Moment with Chris Breen (Part 1)
In this edition of TUAW's Mac Moment, I speak with Macworld/Playlistmag editor Chris Breen, unquestionably one of the most notable faces at Macworld. In Part 1 we discuss -- what else? -- the iPhone: his impressions, its various realities (and uncertainties), and the Cingular tie-in. (Those looking for the direct .mp4 file can download it here.)
Leopard: what we got and what we wanted
Chris Breen has written a nice follow up piece about Macworld's predictions for Leopard. The article lists the things that Apple delivered on, and the things they didn't. Granted the editors just listed things they wanted to see and not things that they were sure were going to see the light of day, but Apple did deliver on quite a few their wishes.So, dear TUAWers, what OS X wishes did the sneak peek of Leopard fulfill and what features did it still leave you craving?
Macworld releases iPod/iTunes "Superguide"
There's no doubt that the folks at Macworld and Playlist Mag (like Chris Breen,* Dan Frakes, etc.) have written some great articles on the iPod and iTunes. Wouldn't it be nice to have them all in one convenient location?To that end, Macworld has released the iPod and iTunes Superguide. It's an 88-page collection of the best of their best articles on getting the most out of your iPod and iTunes, plus troubleshooting, accessory information and a whole lot more. You can order your copy as either a download-able PDF ($12.95US), an actual, honest-to-goodness, color book ($24.99US) or as a CD ROM ($15US). It sounds like a great reference for the iPod-toting geek in your life (or even yourself). Check it out.*I didn't meet Chris Breen once. It's sort of a long story.
Charge your iPod and listen to it at the same time
This might be old news for most of you, but those new to the iPod might benefit from Chris Breen's latest iPod tip. Chris found himself in a hotel that has a TV with the right ports to hook up his iPod with video, however, the iPod was seriously lacking juice. He could just plug it into his laptop, but then it would display that 'Do Not Disconnect' message and not allow him to use it. That is, unless you eject the iPod from the iTunes source list.Easy, simple, and potentially useful. Just how I like my tips.
Let's go to Macworld and get married!
Isn't it sweet when geeks fall in love? You may know Shawn King as the host of the great Your Mac Life internet radio show. You may not know that he met his wife-to-be at the Macworld expo of three years ago, and got engaged at last year's expo. How else could you possibly wrap up this story than with a Macworld wedding? A host of notables from the Mac community will be in attendance when Shawn and his bride tie the knot at the end of this week, including Chris Breen on piano, David Pogue (who will give away the bride) and Andy Ihnatko (who will actually perform the ceremony; he's a deputy marriage commissioner in the State of California). Good luck, you crazy kids![Via Cult of Mac Blog]
