It’s that time again. I’m handing this edition of Feedback Friday over to my brother whom many of you (and your husbands) have come to know + appreciate for his willingness to share that techie brain of his. Heeeeeere’s Kevin!

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I am trying to make an iMovie, after being inspired by your 12 videos of Christmas in Dec. ’11, and I am unable to access my iTunes songs (there is no arrow next to the iTunes icon in iMovie).  Any idea what might be wrong?

Adding an iTunes track to your iMovie project should be really easy to do, which makes me think there isn’t something I’m understanding here. Just in case there isn’t, all you need to do is look for the iTunes button on the right side of iMovie. Clicking this will reveal your iTunes library. From there, it’s a matter of dragging and dropping into your project.

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I recently switched to a Mac and am having such a hard time editing in Photoshop but still effectively using iPhoto for organizing – I’m not using the organizer and need some tips.

For the most part, PhotoShop (and even PhotoShop Elements at that) should be very similar between the Windows and Mac versions. Similar enough to make the transition relative easy when using those tools, at least. As for organizing your photos, there are lots of good how-to videos available on YouTube for using PhotoShop Elements’ Organizer tool.

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I had a paid subscription to me.com before iCloud came.  Now that I have moved over to iCloud and set everything up, do I still need to pay the annual fee in order to access my iDisk and the sync – up of my calendar/ to-do/ contacts, etc?

No – unlike its predecessor, MobileMe (and .Mac for that matter), iCloud was designed to be free for everyone! You will be able to sync most everything exactly how you do now, with a couple exceptions. Apple plans to discontinue the use of iDisk, MobileMe Photo Gallery and iWeb hosting after this Summer. Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, Email, Bookmarks, etc will remain in tact. I’ve actually had really good luck with all of those syncing services since migrating to iCloud. With the exception of the items that will be discontinued, I think you will be really happy with iCloud. I am still hoping that Apple announces equivalent services to compensate for the ones that we will lose shortly. Stay tuned.

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I am new to iMovie.  Do you know of any online classes that would teach me how to use the program?  Do you know of a PC counterpart?

Apple has some really great how-to videos on their site that helps you to get started with using iMovie. I really recommend you spend some time watching some of those. The other recommendation I have is that once you have some of the basics down, schedule an appointment with your local Apple store to go in for further help. Those guys are really, really good at spending quality time with you helping you to understand the ins and outs of your questions. It’s a one-on-one session, and best of all… it’s free!

As for a Windows alternate to iMovie… ArcSoft has a pretty good solution called ShowBiz 5. Check that out. Price is $79.99, but you also have the option of a 15-day trial.

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Any recommendations for organizing your pictures in iPhoto?  How often do you download your pictures?

The answer that I would give here totally depends on a couple things: 1) how large your internal hard drive is 2) how many pictures you take in a period of time. If you have a big hard drive and don’t take a lot of pictures, there really isn’t too much a need to archive older pictures off to an external storage device. However, if you are taking a lot of large (RAW) shots, it’s worth archiving off once in a while. I personally archive my pictures about every 6 months to make sure I have plenty of free hard drive space available. When that time comes, I usually leave about 2 months worth of shots on my local hard drive, the rest are stored elsewhere. Regardless of how you attack this particular challenge, be sure you are BACKING UP your photos! I can’t say that enough.

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I just got an android phone.  I see that the iPhone has an app called ‘Notica.’  Any recommendations for an android app that is similar?

I’m not too familiar with Notica, but I did some quick research for you. The closest thing that I could find for Android would be an app called “Photo Diary“. I’m not necessarily endorsing or recommending this app, but it might be a good place to begin your search. Good luck!

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I am using ‘Transfer.”  Do you know of another app that will move a large number of photos between all my devices: iPad, phone and computer?

As a one-time photo share project, you may want to consider syncing your photos to your computer, using that as your new primary copy, and then simply syncing the photos to your various devices. If you want to continually be in sync (not to be confused with ‘N Sync), you should definitely consider using iCloud’s Photo Stream service. This service (as part of the free iCloud service) syncs your images automatically from one device to another as you take them.

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What size dpi should I be scanning my photos at?  Also, what is the best file type to save them in for archival purposes?

Most consumer scanners have the ability of scanning images at very high resolutions. If the images are significant enough, you may want to consider scanning them at a really high resolution to ensure you are protected going forward, regardless how large you want to blow the images up. That, however, does result in much larger file sizes, so there is a fine line to walk. I scan my images at a 600 dpi resolution, which is good enough for most applications. Keep in mind that when you print these images, you typically don’t go much higher than 300 dpi.

As for format, that again depends on how significant the images are. If you want a really good compression-less format, you will want to use TIFF. Again, that will result in massive file sizes. If you save them in a JPG format, your images will be compressed, but A) you usually can’t even tell, and B) you will save yourself a LOT of hard drive space.

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My iMac just arrived this week.  Any “start doing this now so you don’t spend hours doing it later” sort of tips?  How about any must have software?  And why do I see the little blue box with the question mark instead of pictures?

First of all, congratulations on buying a really nice system! I hope you’re enjoying it. If this is your first Mac (moving from Windows), check out “Learn the Switch the Mac“. It costs $0.99, but walks you through (interactively) how to make the jump from Windows to Mac. Some other apps to look for would be the Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Evernote, Caffeine and Twitter.

As for the “question mark instead of an pictures” issue, head over to my site and send me an email with more details. I’ll help you out.

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My iPhone won’t access all that I have on my computer when I am using Wi-Fi.  Is there a way to access it without having to load it?

There are some limitations to use the mobile version of Safari (the browser built-in to iOS, and thus iPhone/iPad). One of those limitations is the use of Flash video. Apple has made it pretty clear that they don’t intend to support Flash on these devices because of stability concerns.

That probably isn’t answering your question, but if you want to visit my site and provide me with more details, I can help you out.

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Does the iPhoto app allow you to do the same things that iPhoto on a Mac does?

Because iPhoto on an iOS app (iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch) is strictly touch-based and has a smaller display, you will be somewhat limited on what you can do. Having said that, Apple has done a really great job of incorporating the necessary filters and processes to make it a really useful tool. I have it on my devices and use it almost daily.

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How do you take a DVD you own and upload and watch it on your iPad?

This is a great question. I actually get this quite often, so I have a write-up on how to do it (step-by-step) here.

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I take most of my videos on my iPhone because it is always with me.  However, I cannot figure out how to get them on a DVD so we can watch them on the TV and not just on the computer.

First, you will need to transfer the images from your iPhone to your computer. Once they’re on your computer, it’s a matter of burning them to a DVD. Some DVD players will allow you to play a slideshow from a disc containing a series of images, and others require you to use iDVD (or something similar) to build an actual DVD menu. If your DVD player is like the latter, then it can be a painful process.

Another option that you may want to consider is to pick up a $99 Apple TV. These are awesome devices for streaming content to your TV, including photos. It has a feature called AirPlay that allows you to display a picture taken on your iPhone on your TV with a quick tap of the button. It’s very slick.

To be quite frank, the days of the DVD are very quickly going away. I personally wouldn’t spend too much time working out how to use DVDs to accomplice this.

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How do I re-size and purchase pictures using my new iPad?

You can crop photos using most third-party photo-editing apps available for the iPad as well as the built-in Photos app, but cropping isn’t really applicable here. Depending on the size of the original image, there can be an option to resize on the fly when you send the image via email, but outside of that scenario, I’d be curious to know why you need to resize it.

Purchasing photos… is there a specific source that you are trying to purchase these images from? If you’re interested, head over to my site and let’s start a two-way dialog about what you’re trying to accomplish.

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I have an android phone and I see now an app for instagram.  How do you use it and print the 4 x 4 picture?

Yes – Instagram for Android was launched not too long ago. There are two ways to print an image on your Android. The simplest way would be to email the photo to yourself, open it on your computer and print from there. Alternatively, you can print directly from the device. Keep in mind that Android doesn’t support the ability to print from the device by default, but here’s a quick write-up on how to work around that.

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I don’t get instagram – What exactly does it do for me and how do you use it?

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Instagram myself. Having said that, Instagram is a social photo-sharing app. It’s sole purpose is to allow you to easily share your photos with family and friends. Think of it like a photo-only version of Facebook or Twitter. In fact, Facebook recently acquired Instagram for $1,000,000,000 because they feel so strongly that it will compliment their social network nicely.

Becky chiming in: GASP! Not a fan of Instagram, Kevin!? I just wanted to say that I love Instagram for the quick filters that make my everyday pictures look cool. I don’t have it set up for social sharing at all. I don’t follow anyone, and no one can follow me. It’s just for taking personal pictures, which I then implement into Project Life, etc. I know a lot of people love it for the social sharing, and I just felt all these little gasps across the world wide web when Kevin said he wasn’t a big fan.  ; )

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I need help organizing photos in iPhoto.  Previously, on my PC, I have folders organized by year, month and date.  With iPhoto I am finding it hard to organize and find a file easily without having to scroll through my whole library.  Do you have any tips to make the process easier?

There are a few things you can do to make it easier to find your images quickly in iPhoto. First of all, iPhoto has a feature called “Faces”. This technology automatically finds and catalogs the faces of your family and friends. For example, if Sally is in one of your pictures, it will then put a link to that picture in Sally’s personal collection of photos.

Another method of organization would be to use Photo Albums. Using Albums is similar to creating/using albums in iTunes. Your album entitled “Rock” can contain songs of rock and roll. Likewise, your album entitled “Grand Canyon – 2012″ would contain photos of your trip to the Grand Canyon.

The last organizational method includes using tags. You can tag your photos with certain words, then have iPhoto search for all photos matching that tag. For example, if you tagged a series of photos with the words “vacation”, iPhoto would then list those images when you search for that keyword.

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I have a Canon 60D camera and I shoot in the best HD video possible (so I can create quialty home DVD’s).  I have iMovie/Quicktime.  How do I re-size the video/formatting so it does not take hours to upload to Facebook?

iMovie has a very easy-to-use video export feature that allows you to export a video using various sizes and qualities. Be sure to look under “Share”.

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How do I print downloads in the sizes I’d like?  For example it says ’3×4′ but I get a full page when I open it.

It sounds like you might be using Preview to print? If not, I apologize for a misleading answer, but if you are, read on…

The default setting in Preview is to print an image at full page size. Simply change the setting in the print dialog to “Scale” and “100%”.

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What online storage system do you recommend as another backup for photos?

For online backup, I recommend using Carbonite. Mozy is another service to check out.

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I have taken a few instagram photos on my iphone and uploaded them to my iMac.  I plan to transfer them to my USB stick to print along with all the ‘normal’ photos I have taken.  Can you please tell me, when I go to print these off, will they automatically print out as a 4 x 4, even if I select 4 x 6 size?  Will I need to copy them onto the USB separately?

The end-result paper size will be a direct result of the size you request from the printer. If you select 4×6″, you will get 4×6″ paper, even if the image you submit is 4×4″. You will definitely want to check with the specific print house you plan on using to find out how they handle this specific request. I can see this being handled differently, depending on their equipment and individual preference.

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I just got a new iPad 3 and it will not connect to our Wi-Fi network.  Our other devices connect just fine.  The first time I tried to connect my ipad, it was successful but the connection was lost within an hour and will not reconnect.  When I try to select to it again in the Network Settings it just hangs there (i.e., the rotating gear next to the network name just continues to spin).  I’ve tried resetting my network settings to no avail.  Any ideas?

First, let’s try and remove your wireless network connection, then we’ll reestablish. This will effectively reset it on your iPad.

On your iPad, go to Settings > Wi-Fi. Tap on the blue arrow to the right of your home wireless network, and then tap the “Forget this Network” button. When that’s done, go back to your Wi-Fi settings and try to re-add the network. That should do it. If not, head to my site, and we can start a two-way dialog.

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I want to be able to read and write to my new external HD, on both my PC and mu iMac (running Snow Leopard).  My old external HD worked perfectly with both.  My iMac won’t write to my new external hard drive which I think is formatted to NTFS.  I came across a product called NTSF for MAC OS X 9.0 (Paragon Software).  Is this the product I need or is there another way this can be fixed?  Also, when using my external hard drive on my PC it won’t let me save directly onto it from within a program.  It tells me the external HD is full (which it is not).  The only way I can save onto it is to copy and paste from within Windows Explorer.  What am I doing wrong?

This is a good question. First of all, there’s no need to purchase anything to make this work, and it’s easy to work around.

Before we dive in and fix this for you, you need to make sure that you have a copy of everything on the hard drive that you want to keep. If not, make a copy somewhere while we reformat it. If it’s an empty drive, you’re ready to go.

Next, let’s connect your new hard drive to your Mac. On your Mac, go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Select the new hard drive from the list to the left (again, be careful to select the correct drive as the next step is destructive). With the drive selected, click on the tab called “Erase”. From here, change the format to “MS-DOS (FAT)”, give it a name and click Erase…

MS-DOS isn’t the most efficient file system out there (certainly not like NTFS for OS X Journaled), but you can read and write from both Windows and Mac. That’s it! Now you can enjoy using your new drive.

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I was attempting to burn photos onto a DVD that already had 4 months worth of pictures on it.  While in the process, the pictures that were already on the DVD somehow disappeared.  Is there any way of recovering these pictures?

There’s a very good chance there isn’t. If a file has been overwritten, it can’t be recovered because that space has been reallocated for other use, and another image has been overwritten on top of the old. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I hope you have a copy elsewhere!