Connected Monkey

Category: Mac

  • How does Photo Stream work?

    Photo Stream is a new feature of iOS 5 and iCloud. But it’s simplicity and lack of a preferences can be confusing to use.

    The first step is to enable Photo Stream on your devices.

    Mac users will want to go to the iPhoto preference panel.

    Mac Photo Stream

     

    iPhone and iPad users can enable Photo Stream by touching Settings, and then iCloud

    iPhone Photo Stream

    Now think of Photo Stream as a special Album, one that updates and maintains automatically with the following rules.

    1. This album can hold up to 1,000 photos maximum.
    2. It will only show photos from the last 30 days
    3. Photos can not be edited or deleted.
    4. Photos taken with your camera are automatically added.  
    5. You CAN NOT pick and choose what images to keep or delete

    Any photo you intend to keep should be imported into your iPhoto library within 30 days. Otherwise it will be deleted after that. Also after importing you can do anything you normally can do; edit colors, email images, etc. But keep in mind if you delete the photo from your library it does not delete it from Photo Stream.

    Photo Stream is just a convenient way to see all your images on all your devices without worrying about syncing. It’s all automatic, but once again, with this simplicity you loose granular control. This brings us to possible negatives of Photo Stream.

    If you take a photo you want to keep private, you have to delete ALL photos by reseting Photo Stream.

    1. From a computer browser, go to icloud.com and sign in.
    2. Click on your name on the iCloud home page (this is the page that shows all the app icons). If you do not see your name, click the cloud icon in the top left of the page.
    3. Click Advanced.
    4. Here you will see the Reset Photo Stream button. Clicking this button will remove all your Photo Stream photos from iCloud. Once removed, they cannot be recovered, but you can re-upload any photos you’d like to restore to your Photo Stream from a Mac or PC.

    As long as you keep these limitations in mind, Photo Stream is a very easy way to sync images across multiple devices. Just don’t expect to be able to modify the contents manually.

  • Transfer photos from iPhone to Mac easily using Image Capture

    Another easy way to transfer images from your iPhone to your Mac is with a built in app called Image Capture

    1 Plug your iPhone to your Mac using the USB cable

    2 Start Image Capture, a free app that comes with your Mac

    3 You should see your iPhone selected and image previews.

    image capture

    You can select individual images or import all at once. At the bottom you can select where the images are copied to.

    On the left side you can also select to delete images after import, and also a default program to run when you connect the iPhone.

    Also an easy way to transfer images is with Preview

  • Transfer photos from iPhone to Mac easily using Preview

    What’s the fastest and easiest way to transfer photos from your iPhone to your computer?

    Using the Mac there are 2 very easy ways, the first is using the built in Mac app called Preview.

    An interesting note, you don’t have to unlock the phone to transfer images using these methods. A convenience in one respect but also somewhat of a security flaw to keep in mind.

    1 Plug your iPhone to your Mac using the USB cable

    2 Start Preview, a free app that comes with your Mac.

    preview_icon

    3 Select Import from your iPhone from the File menu,

    import to preview

    At this point you can select all the pictures or choose individual images,

    Preview selects iPhone

    4 Choose a destination for the image, and your finished.

     

    After your image is copied to the destination it also opens in Preview.

    Another great way to transfer images is with Image Capture

  • iBooks Author is live in the App Store

    Apple just released iBooks2 and the accompanying iBooks Author is live and free on the App Store. Upon launch it has the feel of Pages and Keynote with a template screen to get you going right away.

    iBooks Author template

    After choosing a template you are given a pre filled content of a Chapter 1, Section 1, and Page 1 to guide you. In the fantastic standard of Apple, all elements are movable with X and Y coordinates as you drag.

    iBooks Author_XY

    But even more exciting is the iPad Preview button, that when clicked prompts you to select an iPad. This seems like a very simple way to sample your design.

    Publishing is also built right into the software along with multiple ways to share work in progress by email, PDF and export as a text document.

    iBooks Author_email

    Apple seems to have built a wonderful way to design not just text books but any type of interactive document with advanced HTML and rich media functions. Get it now in the Mac App Store for free.

  • What’s the difference between IMAP and POP email?

     

    When you add a new email account to your device, you may have noticed there are two types available, but what is really the difference, and is one better than the other?

    What are the PROS and CONS of POP and IMAP?

    iOS email type

    They are very different, and based on how many devices you have and how you expect your email to behave it can make a big difference on you and the space used on your server.

     

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