{ FIRST } The winner of the Silhouette goodies from yeterday’s giveaway is … Lydia in Texas (the one who said she would gladly build a shelf for the Silhouette)! Lydia, email cwalsh@silhouetteamerica.com to claim your prizes! Congrats!
{ SECOND } My 1,000th blog post is coming up! What’s one of my most memorable blog posts ever for you? I would love to hear from you, and may even include your note in that 1,000th post. Email submissions@beckyhiggins.com and tell me which post you’re thinking of.
……….
{ TECH FRIDAY WITH KEVIN }
There was such an awesome response to my brother’s Tech Friday post last month. So we’re doing it again! I invited you to ask any tech-related question (via facebook + twitter) and you didn’t hold back. Today, Kevin is answering your questions. Because he’s seriously just such a nice guy.
……….
Q: Loved the answers about changing over to NO CABLE, but what about sports?? Are there channels for just certain sports/teams/etc or is that out like local channels? Olympics are included in local? I’d love to switch since we only use about 5 channels+sports PS: you 2 are super cool sis & bro team 
[Ada Fisher]
A: As I mentioned before, the one gap in my home entertainment system is live sports coverage. I’m not a huge sports nut, so it doesn’t bother me much. I do, however, like to watch significant events like World Cup, Wimbledon, etc. Those, fortunately, are covered by the big networks like ABC, which are in turn broadcast (in HD) via free airwaves. These are the channels that are picked up by purchasing an inexpensive receiver from Wal-mart or Target.
If you follow college basketball, you may have noticed something very interesting during this last “March Madness”… a free app that streamed all the tournament games directly to your iPad and iPhone. I watched a few games this way, and the quality was pretty amazing, especially over WiFi. I think going forward, this is how it should be done. Free live streaming (to any device).
…..
Q: My 2 kids and I each have iPhones or iPod Touches and share a computer with iTunes. Is there any way to have separate accounts in iTunes? Everyone is always spending everyone else’s money when they buy things. The kids get gift cards and can not keep it straight whose money is whose. That being said the kids like to share apps and music too. Is there a better way to mange all of this? [Tracey Romanofsky Edmonds]
A: First of all, if you have multiple people in your family using a single computer, I HIGHLY recommend that each user have their own computer account. That will A) ensure that each person can have their own wallpaper, settings, etc, and B) allow everyone to have their own iTunes libraries with their own payment/credit information.
As for sharing content (music, apps, etc), no problem. Check into “Home Sharing”. It allows you to share your purchased iTunes content on up to 5 computers at home or work… legally. Here’s a blog post with more information on Home Sharing.
…..
Q: I have an iPad and love it. I NEED an iPhone! Should I get one now and deal with not being able to surf the web and talk on the phone at the same time? Or should I wait for the next version of the phone, which hopefully has that capability? [Briana Thatcher]
A: As you know, CDMA (the network that Verizon users) has a serious drawback… it doesn’t allow you to use voice and data simultaneously. This is not the same on a GSM network (like AT&T). I consider this a serious drawback because I use that feature all the time on AT&T. Unfortunately, this will not be remedied on the iPhone until the iPhone itself works on their new 4G LTE network. So the question is, will the next iPhone run on the new network?
Apple, of course, doesn’t comment on unannounced products, so it’s left up to people like me to guess what their next move is. Unfortunately, I don’t have a crystal ball, but if I was a bettin’ man, I would say that the next iPhone will NOT work on LTE. The fact is, LTE isn’t broad enough… yet. I am willing to bet that the next iPhone will have a slightly newer design (possibly a larger display), but will have both GSM and CDMA radios built-in, so it can be used on either network. My advice: buy your iPhone now.
…..
Q: Briana, I have had an iPhone thru Verizon since February, and I haven’t once missed being able to surf the web and talk on the phone at the same time. Not once. Go for it! [Annie LaPoint Mills]
A: See previous response. The great thing about technology is that we all use these devices differently. I certainly don’t expect everyone to use an iPhone just like me. That would be nuts. “Adapt and enjoy” is my motto.
…..
Q: I have an Epson 1400 printer. The ink doesn’t want to dry on the photos. Is there a smaller photo printer I should try? [Marsha Alford]
A: I really like Epson for photo printing. I have the 2200, and love it. I haven’t heard of ink “not drying” on photos before, so it begs the question… what kind of paper are you using? I know it sounds crazy, but there is a real science to how ink embeds itself in the fibers of paper. Some people say it’s crazy to buy Epson-brand paper just because you have an Epson-brand printer. The fact is, paper is scientifically designed to accept ink in a certain way.
I gave up on printing smaller prints (4×6, 5×7, etc) at home because it’s too expensive in the long-run (and I don’t do it often enough), but if you’re looking for a good small-format photo printer, check out the Epson Artisan 50 Inkjet Printer. It will run you about $150.
…..
Q: What is the best way to transfer/copy PSE 6 to an EHD? Is it possible to do that? [Joanne Nickla Teliszewski]
A: I’m assuming you want to run the application from the external hard drive. The first thing you want to do is remove the version installed on your primary (internal) hard drive. That will clean it off. After that’s done, you want to reinstall the application from the original install disc. During the installation, it will ask where you want the app installed. Point the installer to the external hard drive, and you’re set to go. One thing you should know: by running the app from an external hard drive, you will likely run into some performance issues. Nothing major, but don’t be surprised if you find that it runs just a tad slower than normal.
…..
Q: I would like to know how David & Becky did the TV/picture screens that are in their kitchen. Maybe you can explain. [Jeanette Campbell Matheson]
A: It’s a lot easier than you think (don’t tell Becky I said that!). The simple part is finding and mounting the screens. In David & Becky’s case, they hung two screens top and bottom. The coolest multi-screen display I’ve seen was 4 screens wide by 8 screens high, each of them mounted right next to each other. Pure awesomeness! I digress. Once the screens are hung, you need something to drive them. In D&B’s case, their screens have a built-in SD slot that has a series of photos preloaded on them. The software in the TVs themselves reads the photos from the cards, and displays them like a screensaver. If you wanted to go one step further, you could add an Apple TV to each of the screens. That would just give you more functionality.
[Becky interjecting] I’m sorry my brother is the one who had to finally answer this question that many of you have had! I’ve been meaning to make a video of our kitchen digital photo display.
…..
Q: Does Kevin have any recommendations for iPad apps? Esp. for editing pictures, but any would be cool! 
[Nancy Wongsotaroeno]
A: Here’s a blog post that shows some of my favorite iPad apps.
As for image editing, check out ArtStudio for iPad. I also really like Camera+ for iPhone. You can, of course, use this on an iPad, but I’ve also been told that an iPad version is coming out soon. That would really be awesome.
…..
Q: I have TOO many photos in my iPhoto library of our main desktop Mac at home (about 22K photos and growing)! I want to weed through them, assigning key words and also delete the photos I don’t need. I would love the ability to do this while mobile (I travel a lot for work). If I got an iPad with the iPhoto app, could i put part of my main iPhoto library on it while on travel, then work on whittling down and organizing the photos in certain events, then sync it back up to the main Mac when I got home? If not, how would you recommend accomplishing this? THANK YOU! P.S. my whole work life is PC/Windows based, so I’d have to buy whatever equipment you recommend. Thanks again!! [Carol Macha]
A: Let me get this straight… you want to start tagging 22,000+ photos? That is serious ambition! I don’t even know you, and I’m proud of you.
I’m faced with a similar challenge. My solution is to cut my losses and do the best I can going forward. That doesn’t work for all, and it sounds like it won’t work for you. I wish I had better news for you on the prospect of taking photos on the go, tagging them and then returning them to a more permanent storage (while retaining the tags). iPhoto is a great photo management system, but it has its limitations, and this is one of them. As the iPad is becoming more popular, maybe this is an opportunity for Apple… portable management. Sounds like a good idea to me!
…..
Q: Another iTunes question. We have the similar situation like Tracy. (too many “iToys”?) How do we manage all these different devices? Two kids have iPod Touches, my husband & I have iPod Nanos & iPads. The kids each have an iTunes account for their iPods. Since we just purchased Apple TVs (thanks for sending us over the edge!) we are looking at purchasing more movies on iTunes now. Can we sync all of our different devices with my account without any problems for the purpose of loading movies onto their iPods? Thanks for helping with the techie stuff! [Susan Loveland]
A: The more “iToys” and iTunes accounts you have, the more complicated it can get. See the previous response for some tips. Another idea is to just have one main iTunes account that everything is purchased through. That way, it’s easy to manage and track. As long as you’re using Home Sharing, you will still be able to share your purchased content with up to 5 computers (and countless devices), enabling everyone in your family to enjoy.
…..
Q: Ack! Another question. I’m trying to use HandBrake to get a DVD that we have into iTunes. When I select source and then the DVD, it says that I need VLC. So I downloaded VLC, opened the movie using it, and now I don’t know the rest of the process to follow. What now? Do you have an easy tutorial on the process I’m supposed to be using (but can’t figure out)? Thanks so much! [Susan Loveland]
A: VLC, in this case, is used for nothing more than a resource app that HandBrake uses to decode/encode. In other words, you need to install it, but you really never need to run it.
For a complete tutorial on how to use HandBrake (and why), check out this blog post.
…..
Q: Is there an app for radio for the ipod touch that doesn’t require internet signal? [Ellie Lundstrom]
A: The only way to listen to the radio (whether it be old-fashioned with an antenna or new-age over the Internet) is to have some way of delivering that content to you. In the case of Internet radio, you HAVE to have an Internet connection, otherwise it won’t have a way of reaching your device.
…..
Q: We’ve noticed our internet download speeds have slowed down. We have many things pulling from our wifi (iPod touch, Color Nook, printer, 2 laptops, DSi, BlackBerry, etc.). We have a Motorola Surfboard Wireless Cable Modem Gateway, model SBG900. Would a new modem/router combo improve speeds? If so, what do you recommend? [Kristine Dreffs]
A: The first thing I would do is test your modem/router to ensure it’s working properly. I’ve actually seen the wireless portion of modern routers go bad over time, while the wired portion works just fine. The first thing you need to do is plug a computer directly into the router with a network cable. Once you can get online, go to www.speedtest.net to test your actual Internet speed. If this matches what you think you should be getting from your ISP (give about a 10% allowance for network overhead), then your router is working fine. At that point, there may be an issue with the wireless location or antennas.
If you’re still looking for a new router, I highly recommend the Apple Base Station (works for both Macs and PCs. They are a little more expensive than other wireless routers, but when you look at the features, I think you’ll find it’s worth the cost. Linksys is another brand to look at.
…..
Q: Love the photos! I have a question…how do you print pics from your phone? I was without a camera for two weeks and used my phone for POTD. Help! [Betsy]
A: Great question! Check out this blog post here for a solution.
…..
Q: On Becky’s blog post about BYU, she said that she is using your instagram for many POTDs. How do you print those? Because they are not a 4×6. I have the same program and love the features and would love to use those pictures! [Kirsten Travis Davies]
A: One of the characteristics of Instagram is its square aspect ratio. When you print a 4” wide Instagram shot, it will print at 4×4”, not a standard 4×6”. If you send that photo to be printed at Costco or another printing facility, the photo would likely come back as a 4×6”, but with a 1” border on the top and bottom. This is because they won’t be using custom paper to print your photo. What does that mean for you? A little more work. You will need to manually chop off the excess.
…..
Q: After remodeling our master bathroom we have had one area of wall and ceiling that constantly “peel”…what do you suggest? [Vicki Maloney]
A: Personally, I would replace the sheetrock with LED displays. That way, when you want to change your wallpaper, it’s just a matter of a click, click and save.
Tags: kevin, technology
hee, hee on the last question.
Thanks for all the info. and the time it took you to answer all those questions!
Would love to know what you suggest for hubby and i issue with using our iPhones in our house. Due to the tech shield, we are unable to talk on the phone or text and it LITERALLY DRIVES ME CRAZY!!
I’ve heard you can buy signal boosters, but there are so many and they range in price from little to nothing to a whole lot of somethings. Please help me! 
I know AT&T has a signal booster you can purchase, but from talking with people who have tried to use them, they don’t work as well as you would expect.
Are you on AT&T?
yes, we’re with AT&T…am hoping there is something out there to help our current situation.
thanks for any help!!
Yes…thank you for answering ALL of everyone’s questions.
I was wondering what brand you would reccomend for a external hard drive? I have been storing lots of pics on my laptop and would like to get them off onto a external hard drive, or do you have another suggestion?? Thank you in advance:)
If you’re looking for a really good (but relatively expensive) archival solution, definitely check out a Drobo system (www.drobo.com). Otherwise, I generally tend to stick with either Western Digital or LaCie. Both are good, and the case designs are nice. G-tech is also good.
Thanks Kevin for answering about the photo frames. And Becky, I am sure everyone would still love to see a video of the digital frame display. Have a great weekend and Mother’s Day.
Great idea! A little DIY How-To video. Maybe the next time I’m down there, I can help her out with that.
Yes, yes, yes!! B/c know I’m searching for a picture of this in Becky’s kitchen. I do not remember seeing it and am DYING TO NOW!
That last answer was PRICELESS! And thanks. Gosh. I feel so left out. Not an Applet girl. (I am a healthcare IT consultant and that entire world is Windows).
Gotta go sell more so I can afford some Apple stuff
Hi,
Love that you take the time to answer questions for everyone!
This may be a silly question but I am not good at this sort of technology. I have an itunes account and an iphone and my daughter gave me her old ipod. Can I use both devices on my itunes?
Absolutely. I have 4 or 5 iPods/iPhones that I connect to my iTunes. iTunes will recognize that they are different devices.
For the person with a question about live sports coverage- we recently purchased an Apple TV and there are subscriptions for some sports such as MLB or NBA. For our family it works out okay because the games we like to watch are not available in our area anyway- because we watch out of state games and would be paying for this anyway.
Great catch, Kaitlin. Like I said before, I’m not a huge sports nut, so I haven’t tried it, but from what I hear, that feature works pretty good. Right now it’s limited to MLB and NBA, but I would love to see it opened up for soccer, tennis, football, etc.
My husband is hoping they open it up for football as well
Thanks for doing these tech Q&A’s I talked my husband into getting the Apple TV after reading about it in your last post. We haven’t had cable in two years now and we don’t miss it either.
thank you both so much for this! @Becky-love that you use your “venue” for such information, and sharing your techy-bro with us….awesome! @Kevin-thank you for answering my question! And most importantly, answering it in a easy to understand “cause I don’t speak techy” way. You rock.
Happy Days,
Ada in Coastal Cali
Happy to help, and glad that you are finding it useful. I realize that not everyone loves tech as much as I do (at least in the sense of the really technical stuff), but I know that people do love to use the gadgets on a personal level. The important thing is that you have fun using it.
Thanks Kevin for the useful information for Apple! You are truly a cool brother!!!
Here’s my question:
I can’t get passed the login screen. It isn’t allowing me to type my login & password. The cursor is there but it’s just blinking. After about 3 to 5 minutes, it shows the spinning-wait cursor and that’s all it does. Do I need to hard reset? Fortunately, I have a macbook where I can still have access to the contents in the iMac, I am currently backing-up the info from the iMac to an external hard drive connected to my macbook. Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated!!
I have a 2006 iMac. It decided it didn’t want to work!
Thank You!!!
Hmmm, it sounds to me like the hard drive might be going bad. As long as you have everything backed up (data), you may want to try reinstalling the OS from the installer disc. Keep in mind, though, that if the drive IS going back (physically), you may be setting yourself up for failure. It may be worth investing $80 into a new hard drive, and reinstalling the OS on that. Another possible issue may be the mother board starting to show signs of fatigue (it is 5 years old, after all). Let’s hope it’s the hard drive though.
Ok, If you can solve this I’d be over the moon.
We hada hard drive crash last year- MAJOR drama, ended up sending the drive all the way to the US from australia to be changed over in a clean room.
Recovered all the data which is brilliant.
But, the problem is, when we re-set up iphoto, it searched for and found all the recovered photos but has imported both the thumbnails and the full sized photo and has screwed up all the dates on the photos. I can find pics of my daughters birth in march 2006, april 2008, september 2010. We now have around 30000 pics, but many are duplicates, thumbnails and I can’t search for photo’s by date beacuse its all screwy.
I’m so thrilled we got the pics back (for $2500!) but need them to be manageable and don’t know how to make them so.
Please, I’ll be your best friend!!
Hi Theresa. First of all, I am sorry that you had to go through the ordeal of sending your drive off to have data recovered. I can think of a million things I would rather spend $2,500 on. Trust me, it’s no fun. This is *exactly* why I am always telling people to backup, backup and backup. My 3-2-1 rule: your data doesn’t truly exist unless it exists in _3_ different locations (home, office, friend’s house) on _2_ different types of media (DVD, hard drive, cloud) and at least _1_ of those copies has to be off-site. I have seen too many people suffer from data loss. Fact: 17% of all consumer-based hard drives fail in the first year. Yikes!
OK, to your problem of duplicates and bad metadata. I’m not sure how you can solve the date issue other than manually (or through batch) changing the dates. Unfortunately, a human will need to know when a shot was taken to know when to reset the date.
As for the duplicates, check out this utility:
http://osxmactips.blogspot.com/2009/01/delete-duplicate-iphoto-photos.html
Hopefully that helps! Good luck.
Brilliant, thank you so much.
Yes, backing up is a good plan, we had a drive called “imac backup” but unfortunately it hadn’t done so for about 10 months (which my husband may NEVER live down!)
Thanks again, I’ll let you know how we go!
What about the recent influx of interest in Apple products and threat of viruses targeted at Apple? I recently read a blog post about that and wondered what you think. Do you run any type of virus protection and is this a concern?
What a program called MacKeeper?
Good question, Amanda. I’ve been running a Mac for 6 years now. When I first made the switch, I was still in the PC mindset, so I actually went out and purchased AntiVirus software. Waste of money. To date, there has not been one Mac-centric viruses found in the wild (contrast that with the hundreds of new viruses detected each week for Windows). Does that mean it will always be that way? Probably not, but remember that OS X is built on top of UNIX, which is a very stable and secure core OS. The only way for a virus or malware to infect your Mac is if you specifically tell it to. Long story short, I have been running without AntiVirus software for 2 months shy of the 6 years.
Take a read through this recent article:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/04/is-mac-under-a-virus-attack/
Thank you Kevin for answering all these questions so galiantly! I had a question to ask you and forgot to post it before, so I am hoping you will take the time to answer it now. It is a techy question – but nothing to do with iTunes, iPads, etc.
My question is: I have tons of sites that I need a password for, and some of them are member sites, etc. I try to keep my passwords in some semblance of order – but I had heard recently that there was some website where you could sign up for free and put all your passwords with the URLs associated to them on this site.
Have you ever heard of this? How do you keep track of your passwords? Do you have a site you recommend or a way to do it?
And my other question is: do you have a recommendation on a time management/to-do list tool? I have been using Nozbe (which is pretty good for certain things), have tried OmniFocus – and would love to get your input.
Thanks for your input!
Nanci
For years now, I have used a password management app called “1Password”, and LOVE it! It works on Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android, so if you are breathing and use something with a processor, you should be in good shape. I was fortunate enough to actually meet the development team behind this last year at Macworld, and they’re great guys with awesome ideas. 1Password also allows you to sync your password database between devices, which is very handy. When I go to a site that requires authentication (like http://www.americanexpress.com), all I do is click a single button (a 1Password plug-in), and it auto-enters my credentials and logs me in. I never have to remember a thing (in the event you need to see a password, you can still look it up of course).
I’m huge on task management, but I keep it really simple. I just use iCal for managing tasks. If you are looking for something a little more advanced, check out Appigo’s ToDo (http://www.appigo.com/todo). It’s slick.
I love all this information- especially about Mac. I have had a Mac computer since 2007 and love it. BUT, oh my goodness! I just got home from a mothers day party at my parents, turned my macbook on and went to download/import my pictures from today to iphoto. It imported just fine, but there are NO pictures or events in iphoto other than todays pictures. In other words, it was empty when I turned it on
I had an event from every month since dec. 2007 and over 32,000 pictures. They are backed up to DVD, but I am so confused? What happened from when I turned my computer off at noon today to now? Any insight or have you even heard of this?
I am so sad, as I love playing around with pictures in iphoto- especially comparing pictures of the kids at the same age, etc. I don’t want to spend my mothers day importing pictures from dvds and I’m stressing about whether I backed up every single photo.
Thank you for any advice! Have a happy weekend!
Michelle in Hagerstown, MD
Oh, wow! That A) sounds bad, and B) sounds very bizarre. Haven’t heard of that one before, but let’s see if we can figure it out (and put your mind at ease). The iPhoto library is stored in your Home directory inside of the “Pictures” folder. Look for a file called “iPhoto Library”. Since you have already imported photos into a new blank library, there may be 2 files with similar names. You’re looking for one that is huge in file size (click on the file, then look to the right for a file size). Mine, for example, is 170 GB.
I can’t really go much further on this one until I hear back from you, so shoot me an email so we can keep this going. My contact info is at http://www.kevinallgaier.com
Good luck!
Thanks for answering all of our questions! I was hoping you would have time to answer one more…
We have an iMac desktop and MacBookPro laptop, we have our email accounts synced/shared so we can see our emails on both computers. Although mail is being received onto both computers, we still have to “touch” each email on each computer, e.g. move to folders, reply, delete, etc. Is there a way to manage email on one (or the other) computer and have the corresponding computer mirror the action? We love the convenience of sharing the emails on both computers, but not the duplicated efforts it takes to maintain them.
I hope I explained my question well enough so that you may help us with an answer.
Thanks!
-valerie
[...] case you’ve missed it before (here and here), my ever-so-giving and super-smart brother Kevin does “Tech Friday” on my blog once in [...]
Jennifer Wells – First time reading these Mac techie tips as I just made the switch to a Mac.
I just saw your question from a long time ago about seeing a question mark instead of a picture when you try to view websites sometimes.
Are you using a PC? When I was, I would get this every once in a while too! It just meant that I needed to clear my cache temporary internet files and cookies.
Here’s what I did…
In Internet Explorer you go to tools > internet options > (then under the general tab under “browsing history”) click delete. The only boxes I have checked are “temporary internet files” and “cookies”.
One word of advice though… when you do this, it will clear things that might have automatically populated (or remembered for convenience). Not a big deal, just stuff like when you sign on to certain websites that remember your email so you don’t have to type it in every time.
Hope this helps!
rachel