Yahuui Blog: July 2015

Friday, July 31, 2015

Apple : iOS Tips: How to forward text messages on iPhone

iOS Tips: How to forward text messages on iPhone

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Let's say you have an important bit of info you received via an iMessage (or regular text message) on your iPhone, but now you need to get that info to someone else. Sure, you could retype it, or you could copy and paste, but there's an easier option: you can forward text messages - or even entire conversations - straight from your iPhone. Here's how.

To start, go to the message you're interested in forwarding. Find any part you want to forward, then hold your finger on it for a second or double-tap it. You'll see a pop-up appear with the words "Copy" and "More...." Tap "More..." and a blue checkmark will appear next to that part of the message, indicating it's selected for forwarding. You'll see empty circles next to other parts of the message, too. Tap them to select those parts of the message as well.

Forward Messages iPhone

When you've selected everything you want to forward, tap the arrow in the lower-right corner. Fill in the name of whoever you want to send it to in the "To" field, then tap Send, and the forwarded message will be on its way.

Forward Messages iPhone

Everything you need to know about the iPhone 6C

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Apple : Mac Tips: How to lock your Mac using OS X Yosemite

Mac Tips: How to lock your Mac using OS X Yosemite

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Sometimes you have sensitive information on your Mac you don't want other folks to see. Or maybe you don't want someone else jumping on and using your machine when you're not looking. Whatever the case, the solution to keeping your Mac safe when you leave it unattended is to lock it with a password.

Fortunately, setting up a password lock on your Mac is easy. To do so, select System Preferences from the Apple menu, then navigate to Security & Privacy > General. Check "Require password after sleep or screen saver begins." You'll want to make it so your Mac locks on command, so set the drop-down menu to "immediately." You can also set your password here.

Lock Your Mac

Now that you have that set, your Mac will be locked any time it goes to sleep, and it'll require your password to make it useable again. Of course, you can make it go to sleep by choosing Sleep from the Apple menu, or you can use a keyboard shortcut: hit Control + Shift + Eject (or Control + Shift + Power) to make the screen go to sleep, or Command + Option + Eject (or Command + Option + Power) to make the entire computer go to sleep.

You can activate an additional shortcut by going to Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen Saver. Click the "Hot Corners..." button, then set any corner of your choosing to "Put Display to Sleep" (preferably a corner you won't activate accidentally). Whenever you move your mouse to that corner, it will put the monitor to sleep, thus locking your computer. Now your data is safe and secure, even when you need to step away.

Lock Your Mac

How is iOS 9 stacking up?

Software : Google can now translate 27 new languages instantly

Google can now translate 27 new languages instantly

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Earlier this year, Google had said that it was working on increasing the number of languages it can translate instantly through its Google Translate app.

Today, the search-giant announced that it had added support for 20 languages for instant visual translating, increasing the total to 27 languages.

Although the app does still translate up to 37 languages by taking a photo of text and then downloading a translated language pack for each photo, the live visual translation feature doesn't require you to download anything.

You're only required to open the app, select the language you want text to be translated to, click on the camera button and then point it at whatever you're trying to translate.

The translation will show up on your screen within the visual context of what you're pointing at, without needing an internet connection - a plus when you're traveling.

What does the sign say?

Previously, the app could only instantly translate to and from English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Google Translate's update will now include Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian for instant translations.

Google says the app will also allow you to do one-way translations from English to Hindi or Thai.

The update will be rolled out to Android and iOS over the next few days.

Check out our review of the Galaxy Note 4

Office Mobile apps arrive in time for Windows 10

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Microsoft's celebration of Windows 10 has kicked up another notch with the news that the Office Mobile apps suite has been released.

The four apps that come under the Office umbrella (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) have been completely revamped to adapt to the new touchscreen experience that is at the center of Windows 10.

Word has all the features you've come to expect plus plenty of new options, such as the ability to share and co-author documents, read mode, and Smart Lookup to bring documents to life with online elements.

Recommended charts makes it arrival on Excel, which is "ideal for smaller screens" and allows you to easily put data into charts. Various templates have also been added into the app that are specifically designed for mobile situations.

190 countries

Presentations have taken a step up thanks to a new Presenter View that has arrived inside PowerPoint to make giving your presentation easy. OneNote completes the package.

Office Mobile for tablets is available across 190 countries via the Windows Store, and Office Mobile for phones arrives later this year when the mobile version is released into the wild. Office 2016 for desktops, meanwhile, will be released for Windows 7, 8 and 10 in the fall.

Check out our Windows 10 live blog for all the latest news

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Apple : Mac Tips: How to share printers on Mac

Mac Tips: How to share printers on Mac

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Just because you have multiple Macs doesn't mean you need multiple printers, nor does it mean you need to rely on only one computer to handle print jobs. OS X includes a very nice network printer system that lets you easily share printers between all of the Macs on your network. In this Mac tip, we'll show you how it's done.

Start by logging into the Mac with the attached printer, then follow these steps:

1. Open System Preferences (Apple Menu > System Preferences).

2. Open the Sharing preference pane.

3. Enable the option for Printer Sharing.

4. Check the box beside of each of the printers in the Printers list that you wish to share over the network.

Share Printer

That's it! Once you've enabled these settings, your connected printers will now be available for sharing over the network with all of the other Macs. However, you still need to set up the shared printer on your other Macs in order to use it by performing these steps:

1. Open System Preferences (Apple Menu > System Preferences).

2. Open the Printers & Scanners preference pane.

3. Click + to add a new printer.

4. In the Add dialog that appears, select the printer displayed from the network scan to add, then click Add.

Share Printer

Once you've done this, you're now ready to print over the network to the connected printer. There's no trick necessary: when you try to print, the job will automatically transfer over the network to the computer containing the printer, then the print job will be executed and printed.

Updated: Buying Guide: 10 best laptops for students 2015

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Best laptops for students

Even for those who feel at home with their nose in a textbook, the end of summer break (or Winter recess) is a big bummer. But as much as it's a return to school and schedules, it's an opportunity. This is a fine excuse to invest in some fresh tech to make the coming academia-addled year a little more bearable.

If you're still reliant on a desktop, or if your laptop winces at the sight of a high-definition video lecture, it's time to look into an upgrade. And thankfully if you know where to look, it's possible to get a sleek and impressive notebook without blowing through your savings (or student loans).

We've pored through ourarchives from the past several months and picked the best laptops for school. Our short list spans a variety of budgets that range from power-sipping Chromebooks to help you with that 1,000 page dissertation to more powerful machines that'll do better at a dorm room lan party.

Update: If you're looking to outfit your dorm with a stylish laptop, the Acer Aspire S7 is an excellent option with its wide glass lid. Performance is speedy, too, with Intel's latest Core i7 Broadwell processor, but you'll need to uninstall the bloatware first.

For Chromebook users, the Asus Chromebook Flip comes with a metal body, a low starting price, and excellent battery life to get you through your day.

1. Asus Zenbook UX305

A most affordable and excellent Ultrabook

Solid performance

Incredibly thin and light

Wonky video driver

Tinny speakers

Call it a MacBook Air knockoff all you want, the Asus ZenBook UX305 is one of the best and most affordable Ultrabooks available now.

Read the full review: Zenbook UX305

Best laptops for students

2. Acer Chromebook 15

Chrome OS comes to the big screen

Absolutely radiant display

All-day battery life

Sudden crashes

Tinny but serviceable speakers

The Acer Chromebook 15 asks if you need a big machine to just run a Chrome browser, and I say 'oh, yes.' The Chromebook 15 takes Chrome OS to new places as it's the first device to arrive with a 15.6-inch display and the first to come with Intel's newest Broadwell processor.

Read the full review: Acer Chromebook 15

Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (early 2015)

3. Apple MacBook Pro 13.3-inch with Retina Display

The fastest small MacBook Pro yet is a force of nature

Retina Display

Faster processor

Force Touch underdeveloped

Unchanged design

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is an excellent option for students who may need more power than a Chromebook or a MacBook Air without sacrificing portability thanks to its long battery life, relatively light weight, and high resolution display. Students on a budget will be happy to know that they can get started right away as the MacBook Pro with Retina display ships with free copies of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote out of the box as well as iMovie, Photos, and GarageBand for basic, creative projects.

Read the full review: MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina display

Acer Chromebook 15 C910

4. Acer Chromebook 15 C910

The colossus of Chromebooks

Fast processing speeds

Long battery life

Too heavy

Awkward keyboard

Don't be fooled by this fatso. The Acer Chromebook 15 C910 is a durable workhorse that will reward you for looking past its size in favor of its performance, long battery life and stylish good looks.

Read the full review: Acer Chromebook 15 C910

Best laptops for students

5. Apple MacBook Air 13-inch

Finally, battery life within our grasp

Fantastic battery life

Haswell processors

No Retina screen

Not user upgradeable

While it has yet to make the leap into Retina, this is still the laptop that the ultrabook aspires to, thanks to incredible battery life and AC Wi-Fi.

Read the full review: MacBook Air 13-inch

Best laptops for students

6. Asus ROG GL551

The best entry-level gaming laptop available

CPU: 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4710HQ Processor (quad-core, 6M cache, up to 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost) | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M (2GB GDDR5 RAM); Intel HD Graphics 4600 | RAM: 16GB DDR3L (2x 8GB at 1600MHz) | Screen: 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), matte finish | Storage: 1TB HDD (7,200 rpm) | Connectivity: 802.11g Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0 | Camera: 1.2MP, 720p webcam | Weight: 6 pounds | Dimensions: 15.0 x 10 x 1.3 inches (W x D x H)

Impressive performance

Solid build

Finicky screen

Rather thick

With a surprising amount of horsepower under the hood, you couldn't ask for more from the Asus GL551, save for maybe a better screen.

Read the full review: ROG GL551

Best laptops for students

7. Acer Aspire V7

Offering great all-round performance this is ideal for a student

CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U (dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.60 GHz with Turbo Boost) | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT 750M (4GB DDR3 RAM); Intel HD Graphics 4400 | RAM: 8GB DDR3L RAM | Screen: 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 glossy IPS touchscreen | Storage: 500GB (5400 rpm with a 16GB SSD cache) | Connectivity: 802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0 | Camera: 720p webcam | Weight: 4.41 pounds | Dimensions: 13.4 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches (W x D x H)

Seamless design

Gorgeous screen

Rough trackpad

Short battery life

A short battery life and an obnoxious amount of bloatware hold back this otherwise excellent notebook that tows the line between Ultrabook and gaming laptop.

Read the full review: Aspire V7

Read: Acer Aspire V7 review

Surface 3

8. Microsoft Surface 3

Thinner, lighter, quieter, cheaper

CPU: Quad Core Intel Atom x7-78700 processor (2MB Cache, 1.6GHz turbo boost to 2.4GHz) | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics | RAM: 4GB | Screen: 10.8-inch ClearType Full HD Plus Display (1920 x 1200) | Storage: 128GB | Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0 | Camera: 3.5 megapixel front-facing camera; 8.0 megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus | Weight: 1.37 pounds | Dimensions: 10.52 x 7.36 x 0.34 inches (W x D x H)

Display

Design

Keyboard

Storage

If you want the cheapest and most portable Surface tablet money can buy for lightweight computing tasks, the Surface 3 fits the bill. Power-hungry users should consider the low-end Surface Pro 3 instead.

Read the full review: Surface 3

Best laptops for students

9. Microsoft Surface Pro 3

Thinner, lighter, quieter, cheaper

CPU: 1.9GHz Intel Core i5-4300U (dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.9GHz with Turbo Boost) | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4400 | RAM: 8GB LPDDR3 | Screen: 12-inch, 2160 x 1440 multi-touch (ClearType, 3:2 aspect ratio) | Storage: 256GB | Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0 | Camera: Two 5MP webcams (1080p HD video) | Weight: 1.76 pounds | Dimensions: 7.93 x 11.5 x 0.36 inches (W x D x H)

Sharp display and design

Huge Type Cover upgrade

Runs hot at times

Type Cover still optional

Not without its drawbacks, this is the brightest shining example of not only Microsoft's vision of a laptop-free future, but the entire laptop-tablet hybrid category.

Read the full review: Surface Pro 3

Lenovo ThinkPad E555

10. Lenovo ThinkPad E555

A ThinkPad, but without the price tag

Great keyboard

Decent performance

Poor battery life

Heavy

Forget Lenovo's Essentials range, the ThinkPad E555, bears all the qualities (well, almost) of the legendary ThinkPad family but without the price tag.

Read the full review: ThinkPad E555

Software : How to save and export voicemail on OS X

How to save and export voicemail on OS X

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Ever wanted to know how to save and export voicemail from your iPhone (or your phone's iTunes backup on your Mac?). We show you how, along with how to save them as usable sound files.

Question

I have voicemails on my iPhone that I want to save and copy to my Mac laptop. Is that possible? Is there a way to share or forward voicemail from an iPhone?

Answer

Voicemails, whether on your Mac as an iOS backup from your iPhone, or on the actual phone itself, can be saved and exported using an application called iExplorer. This application costs $34.99 USD (a free trial is available), and you can get it from the Macroplant website.

Voicemai

Once you've downloaded and installed iExplorer, follow these steps to get your voicemails from either an iOS backup or from the actual device itself:

1. Open the iExplorer application.

2. Connect your iPhone to the Mac .

3. Click on the Device Overview screen once it appears.

4. Navigate to [your phone] > Voicemail (or navigate to Backups > Voicemail if you want to browse voicemails included in the backups on your Mac instead).

5. Select a voicemail and click the play button to listen to it.

6. Click Export Selected Voicemails, or Export All to export the voicemails from the device or the backup to your Mac for safekeeping.

iExplorer exports all voicemail data in the .amr format. This export process is 100% lossless, so you can listen to the voicemail files using QuickTime, iTunes, and other popular audio players. NOTE: If your Backups data is loading blank, make sure that you have iTunes set to back up to your computer on the Summary tab for your device and that the Encrypt box is unchecked.

Mac Tips: How to disable 'open safe files after downloading' in Safari for Mac

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Got an Apple, Mac or iOS tech question? We have the answer. When you use Safari to download files - music, movies, images - it's usually a simple matter to decide if they'll open automatically once they're on your computer. But this time we have a reader who's having trouble getting that function to work. Luckily, we have a Plan B.

Question

I am using Safari 8.0 on an iMac running Yosemite 10.10.1 and the "Open 'safe' files after downloading" is greyed out so that I cannot uncheck it. I spoke with Apple tech support and they did not have an answer for me. How can I uncheck this?

Answer

This is a very strange problem! Normally, all you have to do is select Preferences from the Safari menu, then uncheck the box at the bottom of the General tab. It's quite unusual that this option is disabled. You could try reinstalling OS X Yosemite, but there's a Terminal command that should allow you to disable this functionality.

Disable Open Safe Files

To execute the workaround, open the Terminal app (located in /Applications/Utilities) and type in the following command to disable Safari's "open 'safe' files" option:

defaults write com.apple.Safari AutoOpenSafeDownloads -boolean NO

Disable Open Safe Files

When you press Return on the keyboard, the command will write the new preference to Safari's options. After restarting Safari, see if files are automatically opened after downloading. It should no longer happen after this option has been added. If you continue to have problems, however, then your best bet is to try reinstalling OS X from the OS X Recovery partition (boot using Command + R and select Reinstall OS X).

Got an Apple tech question? Email ask@maclife.com.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Apple : Mac Tips: How to disable 'open safe files after downloading' in Safari for Mac

Mac Tips: How to disable 'open safe files after downloading' in Safari for Mac

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Question

Answer

Disable Open Safe Files

To execute the workaround, open the Terminal app (located in /Applications/Utilities) and type in the following command to disable Safari's "open 'safe' files" option:

defaults write com.apple.Safari AutoOpenSafeDownloads -boolean NO

Disable Open Safe Files

Got an Apple tech question? Email ask@maclife.com.

Software : Apple Music's arrival hasn't opened Pandora's box

Apple Music's arrival hasn't opened Pandora's box

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Apple has had a close and successful affiliation with the music industry since it released the iPod in 2001, so you would think it's entry into the streaming market would have the competition on edge.

But surprisingly, this doesn't seem to be the case. In the eyes of Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews at least, Apple Music hasn't had any discernible impact on the music streaming market since its launch a month ago.

At Pandora's recent earnings conference call, McAndrews said "Going forward, we feel really good about our trajectory and competitive position… there could be some listeners who experiment with the [Apple Music] service and there could be some short-term impact, but … we aren't seeing any meaningful listener impact at this time and we don't expect any long-term meaningful impact either."

Internet radio streaming?

All the reports of Apple Music's bugs, ranging from annoying interface glitches to complete music library losses, suggest that the service's teething process will be anything but straight forward, but there are still some magical elements in there and McAndrews wasn't writing off Apple Music because of its technical limitations.

Pandora and Spotify have both seen success in the music streaming market because, although they both offer paid and free tiers of subscription music streaming, the actual function that each perform is fundamentally different.

Part of the reason there is some credence to McAndrews perspective is because Apple Music is more closely aligned with Spotify than it is to Pandora's algorithmic playlist radio service.

The US financial services firm Morgan Stanley backed up McAndrews perspective when it estimated that any impact Apple Music may have on Pandora's total listening hours would be fully recovered by the fourth quarter of this financial year.

Check out how Apple thinks its Music service is going in the Apple Q3

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Software : How to merge OS X contacts into an existing list

How to merge OS X contacts into an existing list

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Let's find out how to add a new list of contacts to your existing contacts list on Mac.

Question

I'm in a Mac-users group, and I'd like to add a file with my fellow members' contact info to my existing contacts book. All the info has been exported as an archive, but when I try to import it, I get a warning stating that all existing contacts will be erased. How do I add the contacts without wiping out the old ones?

Answer

Instead of exporting the contacts as an archive, select all the contacts and click File > Export... > Export vCard. This creates a single VCF file with all the contacts in it. Import this to Contacts and the imported names are added to the existing list.

Book mailing

If you don't have access to the original contacts list that created the exported archive, create a new user account and log in to that. Now import the archive to a clean Contacts list, select all of them and re-export it to create the vCard as before. Save this in the Public\Drop Box folder of your main account, log in to that account and import the file to the original Contacts list.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Apple : Mac Tips: How to zoom in on a Mac

Mac Tips: How to zoom in on a Mac

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Need to see some up-close detail on your Mac's screen? Or maybe your eyes aren't what they used to be? Whatever the reason, it sounds like you're in need of OS X's screen-zooming feature.

Activating zoom is easy once you know where to find it: just navigate to your System Preferences from the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of the screen, then select Accessibility. Then, select Zoom from the options on the left. Now all you have to do is click the checkbox for "Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom" and/or "Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom" to make the zoom feature active.

Mac Zoom

As indicated in the Accessibility menu, "Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom" allows you to zoom in by holding Command and Option and pressing + (plus), and to zoom out by holding Command and Option and pressing - (minus). You can also toggle zoom on or off by holding Command and Option and pressing 8.

If you activate "Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom," you'll be able to zoom by holding down the assigned key (choose from Control, Command or Option) and moving your mouse's scroll wheel or by swiping up or down with two fingers on your trackpad.

There are also several zoom options available to choose from, including zoom style, which allows you to choose between fullscreen (zooming in on the entire screen) or picture-in-picture (which basically gives you a window that acts like a magnifying glass to zoom in on any portion of the screen that you like). You can make additional adjustments - such as how the zoomed-in image follows the mouse's pointer - to suit your needs by clicking the More Options button.

How to record your iPhone or iPad screen on a Mac

Software : Explained: 17 tips and tricks to get the most from your Apple Watch

Explained: 17 tips and tricks to get the most from your Apple Watch
Microsoft updates Office for iOS for easier, more secure sharing
Microsoft Send wants to make office communication a doddle

Explained: 17 tips and tricks to get the most from your Apple Watch

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Tips 1-7

Some people say the Apple Watch can't do enough yet. It is anything but a simple, feature-free gadget, though. There's about as much to its software, if not more, as there is to iOS.

There's oodles of potential. But it also means there are loads of little optimisations and features that you probably won't discover in your first week, or even month, of using the Apple Watch.

Here are TechRadar's top tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your Apple Watch.

1. Alter the app screen layout to make it less fiddly

Make the Apple Watch more entertaining to use by customising its apps screen. This is a sort of app honeycomb and apart from the clock in the dead-centre you can switch every app's position.

You can't customise this on the watch but you can in the iPhone Watch app when you click on the top entry in the My Watch tab. Its screen looks just like the Watch apps screen, letting you drag and drop the apps however you like.

2. Take screenshots just like an iPhone

Fancy grabbing a pic of the ridiculous speed you hit during a run or your high score in one of the Apple Watch's mostly dreadful games? It's a cinch, working just as it does on an iPhone. Press the power button and crown at the same time and the screen will flash, telling you the image has been saved to the Photos app.

3. The Apple Watch lets you get ahead of time

Are you one of those people who likes to set your watch 15 minutes fast so you can stay ahead of things? It's an odd little human quirk and one you can recreate on an Apple Watch. To do this, go to the Settings app and select the 'Time' menu item. Here you can set the Apple Watch's time up to 59 minutes ahead.

4. Customise your template messages

You can't type message replies on your Apple Watch and not everyone is willing to dictate to Siri what they want to say. However, you can write generic messages and send them directly from your Watch. "OMG", "LOL" and, "Sorry I'm shampoo'ing my poodle" should sort most people out.

You can define these messages in the Watch iPhone app, in the Messages section under the My Watch tab. The bit you need is called Default Replies.

Apple Watch tips and tricks

5. Customise the watch face

Altering the watch face is the best way to customise your Apple Watch without accessories. There's a handful preinstalled. Just press down on the watch face and you'll be taken to a list of available ones.

Under each face preview you'll see a customise button. This lets you tweak parts of the watch face. The customisable areas are highlighted in green and you can switch between each of the settings with a flick of the crown.

6. Measure your heart rate without using an app

Initially it seems like you can only measure your heart rate from within the exercise app, but there is — shock horror — another way. Just swipe up from the watch face then flick right-to-left a couple of times until you see the heart rate reader screen. Tap the screen and the Watch will read your heat rate. Simple.

Apple Watch tips and tricks

7. Use Apple Pay to buy things in the US and UK

Did you know Apple Pay is available in the US and UK? Of course you did! Simply set up Apple Pay on your iPhone and away you go. You can pay using your Apple Watch at any contactless payment terminal.

In the UK you can even use it to replace your Oyster Card on TfL services.

Tips 8-17

8. Track your runs and rides

The Apple Watch doesn't have inbuilt GPS so if you want to use it as a GPS run/cycle tracker you'll need to have a phone connected. Simply get a GPS-using app installed, keep the phone with you during a run and you're away.

Good exercise tracking apps with Watch support include Runkeeper, Nike+ Running, Map My Run and Strava.

9. Multitask and quick-loading apps

You don't have to laboriously trawl through the apps menu every time you want to run something. Instead, quickly double-tap the crown to run the last app you used. This same gesture can be used to switch between two apps used in the same session. Who said the Apple Watch can't multitask?

10. Use power reserve mode to get better stamina

The one aspect of the Apple Watch a lot of people complain about is battery life. However, if you really need it to last a good old while and don't mind trading away features, you can use Power Reserve. It'll pop up when you hold the power button down for a couple of seconds and transform your device into an ordinary watch.

11. Customise notifications

You can pick which notifications ping on your Apple Watch in the Watch app. Just go to the My Watch tab and select Notifications. At the bottom of this screen you can flick an app's notification access on or off depending on your preference

12. Transfer music to your Watch

Did you know you can play music locally on an Apple Watch? There's 2GB you can use for music, which you can hook up to a pair of Bluetooth headphones to listen to tracks.

To transfer tunes, they'll need to be part of a playlist. Go to the Music area in the My Watch part of the Watch app where you'll see a Synced Playlist menu that lets you pick playlists to move over. Your Watch needs to be hooked up to a charger to sync so do that first.

13. Perform a hard reset

If you want to restart Apple Watch's software, hold down the power button and digital crown together for a handful of seconds. It's the simplest way to try to solve Apple Watch performance issues.

14. Use your Watch to find your iPhone

Could this be the Apple Watch's killer app? You can use it to fire off a sound from your iPhone's speaker, making it much easier to find. From the watch face, flick upwards and then press the phone icon at the bottom of the screen. It then emits a sound, but just a quick one. Not an awful, embarrassing alarm.

Apple Watch tips and tricks

15. Buy a third-party strap to save money

Apple makes nice gear. We all know that. But it's also dead expensive. If you bought an Apple Watch Sport edition and want to class it up, it's worth checking out somewhere like Mobile Fun, which offers loads of third-party straps. Some are dirt cheap, others are very high-quality but still a fair bit cheaper than Apple's wares. A good option is the Baseus Milanese strap at £69.99.

16. Long-press the crown to wake Siri up

Apple Watch with Siri on

Want to talk to Siri? Just long-press the digital crown to wake her up. Things you can ask Siri include where to find the nearest restaurant, how many calories there are in a Mars bar, and when Winston Churchill was born. Useful, every-day knowledge, right?

17. Control Apple TV

The Apple Watch can't control just any TV, but it can control any Apple TV box. It's easy because you can basically use the same media controls for your iPhone. It's done using an app you may have totally ignored to date: it's called Remote and looks like a white triangle in a blue circle.

Microsoft updates Office for iOS for easier, more secure sharing

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Microsoft released an update to its Office suite for iOS users. The new app updates for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint make sharing files easier and more secure, and the apps also feature better integration with Outlook.

The enhancements introduced will be welcomed by business users who need to collaborate on documents. For example: you can now open protected documents within the application.

Collaboration

You also don't need to run to the nearest PC to invite others to collaborate with you. From within Word, Excel and PowerPoint, you can invite others to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. You can also grant different sharing permissions within the app.

Improved integration with Outlook will hopefully save users time when they need to edit or revise shared documents. You can send a document as an attachment from within Outlook, and you can also edit a document inside Outlook that's been shared as an attachment or as a link.

On the iPhone when you receive a new email in the Outlook app with a Word document attached, for example, you can either view the document in Outlook or open the document in Word for editing if you also have the Word app installed. With this feature, you don't need to leave Outlook and juggle apps. Once you're done editing, you'll be taken right back to the email message in Outlook.

It's free for iOS

The apps are available as free downloads inside Apple's App Store for iPhone and iPad.

In November of last year, Microsoft removed the Office 365 requirements to use Office on iPhone, iPad and Android.

Today, consumers are able to access most Office features for free, and business users will likely have to pay for more premium functions, including integration with OneDrive for Business and more complex editing features.

The freemium model is part of Microsoft's mobile first, cloud first initiative, and may help the company fight rival suites, such as the free iWork on Apple's systems and Google Docs.

Read our Office 2016 review

Microsoft Send wants to make office communication a doddle

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Microsoft has debuted a new messaging service designed to facilitate quick communication between coworkers and students.

Released from the Microsoft Garage, Send is branded as an "in-and-out" email service that offers owners of Microsoft Office 365 business and school accounts the chance to send short and snappy messages to each other.

At a glance, Send looks like Microsoft's answer to the likes of WhatsApp and iMessage, however, it relies completely on email communication and has the advantage that messages will be kept inside Outlook alongside emails so they can be checked quickly and easily.

"With Send, there are no signatures, subject lines or salutations required. Our design principle for the app was to make conversations fast and fluid while keeping the people who are important to you at its core," read a blog post from Microsoft.

iPhone gets it first

Only messages sent from within the app show up in Send and you are able to message anyone that has an email address through the service.

Microsoft is currently only allowing iPhone users in the US and Canada to use the service, although it will be "coming soon" to Windows Phone and Android and just so long as you also have Office 365 for business or school, you can try it out now.

7 best messaging apps for iPhone

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Software : Best Google cardboard apps and games

Best Google cardboard apps and games
A university in Sydney is turning scientists into Minority Report agents
Explained: How to use Apple Maps with public transit directions
How to disable Continuity call forwarding from an iPhone

Best Google cardboard apps and games

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HTC Vive vs Google Cardboard

The best virtual reality tech we've seen is HTC's Vive, but it's going to be expensive, require a high-end PC, and won't be out until the end of the year at the earliest.

Google Cardboard, meanwhile, is the worst virtual reality tech we've seen, but on the plus side, it's available right now, it's cheap to buy (and even cheaper to make), and requires nothing more than a recent smartphone to work.

So, given that all you need is a bit of cardboard, some scissors and a spare morning to become the owner of a virtual reality headset, here is TechRadar's top 10 Google Cardboard apps you should try.

Shadowgun VR

Shadowgun wants to be the Android equivalent of Gears of War, and while it falls way short of the Xbox third-person shooter, it's still pretty decent.

Shadowgun has popped up on pretty much all the major Android platforms, from smartphones and tablets to dedicated gaming devices like the Ouya and the Nvidia Shield.

The VR version is really just a one-level tech demo, but it's still one of the most graphically impressive games available on portable VR. Think of it as a free demo for the (hopefully in development) full VR game.

Free, Requires Bluetooth Controller

Proton Pulse

If you have an aversion to bright colours and thumping techno music, stay away from Proton Pulse. If, however, you spent a good chunk of your youth in nightclubs (or maybe still do), then you'll get a kick out of this psychedelic puzzle-action game.

It's a bit like a 3D version of Pong or Breakout, but instead of using a controller, you simply look where you want the paddle to go. It's rough around the edges, but there's plenty of invention in the 50 levels, and the meagre price is helping to fund development of the highly promising VR shooter, Vanguard V.

£1.27

Virtual Real Porn

An unwritten rule of the tech industry, apparently, is that any new format's success depends on the backing of the porn industry. While the major porn studios aren't yet jumping on virtual reality, the current trailblazer is a company called Virtual Real Porn, which has more than 60 videos available for Google Cardboard.

There's no way that Virtual Real Porn will be picking up any AVN awards, but the studio has quite a diverse selection, some of which is actually way more female-friendly than traditional adult entertainment. If you're of legal age and have an open mind then it's worth checking out - we guarantee it's the one virtual reality experience your friends will actually want to hear about.

€5.95 (Around £4.19, US$6.53, AU$8.83) (15-day trial)

Jack White: THIRD-D

Best Google Cardboard App and Games - Jack White

Rock 'n' roll auteur Jack White is one of the names you'd expect to have a VR concert at this early stage, and as long as you like his music, you should check out his Google Cardboard app. It contains three songs from two different venues, and gives you the option to skip between them by tilting your head clockwise or counter-clockwise.

The video quality isn't great, the audio quality isn't much better, and it can often be quite difficult to get a good glimpse at White on stage. However, it's a strong indication of how immersive watching music concerts in VR could one day be.

Free

YouTube

There are plenty of video apps for Google Cardboard, but let's face it - YouTube is the main way people watch video content these days. Thankfully, Google has been quick to update its YouTube Android app to be Cardboard-compatible, with a small number of videos viewable in 360 degrees thanks to head tracking.

There's not a lot of content available right now, but technological pioneer Björk is one of the early adopters with her video for Stonemilker. Avicii's Waiting For Love video is a little more visually interesting, however. Expect more 360-degree videos to keep coming and in the meantime keep an eye on this playlist.

Free

Chair In a Room

It's clear that certain genres work better than others in VR -- the "sitting down in a spaceship" genre seemed to be a popular choice for early VR pioneers. But as more devices come out and more game makers create content for them, the horror genre is becoming extremely popular.

Chair In a Room doesn't do anything that different from modern horror games like Outlast and Amnesia, where tension ramps up from unreliable flashlights and creepy sound effects. Yet the immersive effect of VR makes this game all the more chilling - it genuinely isn't for players of a nervous disposition.

Free, Requires lenses

VRSE

It's still early days for Google Cardboard, which means there are lots of glitchy apps that lack polish. VRSE is different: it's a company set up by filmmaker Chris Milk, who has directed cool videos for musicians like Kanye West, Beck and Arcade Fire.

VRSE's aim is to create a hub for storytellers who want to share content and explore the realms of VR. Current highlights include Milk's own Evolution of Verse short film and the poignant Clouds Over Sidra, a documentary about a 12-year-old girl who lived in a Syrian refugee camp for 18 months.

Free

InMind VR

InMind VR is to Google Cardboard what Wii Sports was to the Wii - a game that anyone can pick up and play. You play as someone who has shrank in order to fix someone's body from the inside, a bit like in the movie Innerspace. Once inside the patient's brain, you fix broken neurons, which turn from red to green when you focus your sight on them.

It's not a million miles away from the underappreciated Xbox 360 classic Child of Eden, only sadly without the trippy music and visuals. However, it's simple to pick up and play, completely free, and if you like it, you can support the developer's next game InCELL via in-app purchases.

Free

Village

If there's one thing we've learned about virtual reality, it's that exploring virtual words is vastly more interesting than 2D ones. Village isn't a game, but it's a strong indication of how compelling it would be to have an Animal Crossing-like experience in VR.

In this proof of concept, you walk through the streets of a cartoon village, observing farmers, animals and the environment. You can change the time of day and even the seasons, but that's about it. It's twee enough to be enjoyable though, if only for a limited amount of time.

Free

War of Words VR

Best Google Cardboard App and Games - War of Words

You've probably never thought about what it would be like to experience Siegfried Sassoon's controversial poem 'The Kiss' in virtual reality, but thankfully developer Burrell Durrant Hifle did. With the help of BBC Arts, Hifle's new game, War of Words, drops players into a battlefield during the First World War.

Sassoon's poem references preparing a rifle for battle and bayoneting your enemy, both of which are visually represented in this VR experience. It's beautifully drawn in a stark style, but it's a shame there isn't more interactivity. If anything, it's probably the VR experience that will most appeal to your older relatives.

Free

A university in Sydney is turning scientists into Minority Report agents

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This week, the University of Technology Sydney released a new multimedia room called the Data Arena, to help researchers look at data in ways that haven't been possible before.

Imagine standing in a perfectly circular ten-meter-wide room surrounded on all sides by four-meter-high projector screen walls with a closable screen-door, creating a seamless 360º viewing platform.

Then add in six stereoscopic 3D projectors powered by a rig running nine high-quality Nvidia graphics cards and a 16 speaker surround sound system, and you might get an idea of what this 20K display looks like in real life.

UTS Student Textile Projects in the Data Arena

Not a lonely VR experience

Sprinkle on top a set of remotes that look like miniature molecular models and allow up to 20 people to interact with the display, and this Data Arena becomes as close as the real world gets to Minority Report or the Holodeck from Star Trek.

The man behind the Data Arena's curtain, Ben Simons, was a former head of visual effects at Dr D Studios and worked on animated films like Happy Feet and Mad Max: Fury Road. So the fact that the Data Arena looks like a futuristic film set is partially understandable.

But despite how impressive this multimedia cocoon looks, what is most interesting about the Data Arena is the open source software UTS built to run it.

The life of numbers

This software has been specifically designed to turn copious amounts of spreadsheet data - something that the scientific community has no shortage of – into larger than life interactive visual displays.

To demonstrate, UTS has already let some of its researchers at it, including Cynthia Whitchurch, an associate professor of microbiology at UTS who studies the migration of mycobacteria.

Whitchurch and other UTS researchers have been able to use the software to visualise the movement of bacteria across a flat surface, stating in a launch interview that, "The Data Arena has been able to provide us with a powerful visual tool that allows us to interact with our data in a way that we haven't yet been able to do."

The screen is the showpiece for the open source application that the university intends to make available to researchers around the world through GitHub. This will allow users to run their own research through the 3D modelling software virtually on any computer.

The limitations of the computer running the virtual machine software will, however, often only run a scaled back model of the data, meaning the Data Arena has a place as a more powerful tool for researchers to fully explore the parameters of the complete data models in real time.

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S58Rg2jC6RU

Explained: How to use Apple Maps with public transit directions

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Apple Maps has come a long way. Although its early reliability wasn't great, Apple has done a lot to bring the service up to speed, making it a pretty solid option now for use as your go-to mobile map.

As with most of Apple's software it has good design, smooth performance, and relative ease of use, as well as Siri integration. However, there's one thing that it has yet to fully embrace: public transit info. This information is scheduled to be added with iOS 9, but there's actually no need to wait: you can make Apple maps work with public transit info right now.

The trick to accessing public transit info via Apple Maps is to make it work in conjunction with other apps already installed on your iPhone. It's a built-in feature of Maps, but that functionality might not be obvious unless you know where to look. When you search for or touch a specific location in apps and select the navigation option (by touching the car icon) you'll see three options across the top: Drive, Walk, or Apps. When you click that last option, Apps, you're offered the chance to see your route in an alternative app, and you'll also be presented with several options from the App Store.

Apple Maps

When you select an app in this manner, your starting and destination points should transfer over (so you won't have to enter that info over again), serving as a workaround to get public transit directions through apps such as Google Maps, Transit, Here, or other options.

This feature also works great when you want more info than Apple Maps provides - it works especially well with Google Maps (which tends to have generally the most accurate directions and a lot of extra details that still aren't found inside of Apple Maps) and Waze, which provides a cartoonish interface that works well for navigating through traffic and keeping tabs on your friends.

Apple Maps

Though it's not as nice as built-in public transit info, the apps-inside-the-app feature is a convenient workaround for now. Even after iOS 9 hits, Apple's transit pledge may not make its way to your specific city right away, so this procedure could still be a useful option for many months to come. If nothing else, it's a pretty good method for discovering new map apps - something Apple is always happy to facilitate.

The 50 best free iPhone apps

How to disable Continuity call forwarding from an iPhone

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The ability to answer iPhone calls from your other Apple devices can be pretty convenient, but it can also be intrusive at times. We'll show you how to disable the call-forwarding Continuity feature that was introduced in iOS 8.

Question

Like a lot of Apple users, I own multiple Apple devices — an iPhone, an iPad, an iMac — and I tend to have them all on the same wi-fi network. But I don't like having phone calls sent to my iPad or iMac, especially when I'm trying to work! How do I disable that aspect of Continuity, so my iPhone doesn't push the calls to my other devices?

FaceTime

Answer

The recently introduced Continuity features, which allow you to smoothly transition between all your Apple devices running iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite, can be very useful, but sometimes it can give you more than you've bargained for. Fortunately, this one is easy to fix if you know where to look. To deactivate the forwarding of calls to your other devices, navigate to Settings > Facetime on your iPhone. From there, turn off iPhone Cellular Calls and your phone will no longer push calls to other Apple devices.