Recently I purchased a set of Anti-Glare Film for my refurbished 16GB iPod touch. First, I must say my refurbished iPod touch came in the mail without a scratch on the front or back. It came with new packaging, documentation, earphones, and a cleaning cloth. I was stunned at how my first refurb product from Apple turned out so well. In the end, I paid $219 for a 16GB iPod touch that costs $299 retail.
Now back to the Anti-Glare film set I bought. There was a slight problem — I ordered the one for the 2nd generation iPod touch, when I have the 1st generation. The thing is there was no clear way for me to know this until I applied the film set and noticed it didn’t fit correctly around the home button (square button). After about five attempts at applying the film set, I gave up and just took it off. I threw away the package when I got it originally (thinking that I would not need to keep it). So, when I called Apple’s Customer Service hotline, I wasn’t sure they would allow me to exchange or return the item. After waiting for less than two minutes on the phone, Customer Service picked up. I told them what happened about getting the wrong film set. Then I told them honestly that I threw away the package and was not sure how I could do a return. They placed a next-day order of the Anti-Glare film set for the 1st generation iPod touch for no charge at all. I couldn’t believe it. After this experience, I now understand why Apple has such a high-ranked customer support.
A few pointers that I should mention, I used eight Apple gift cards on Black Friday when I made this purchase over the phone. I made it over the phone because Apple gift cards beyond 3 years do not have a PIN and therefore are not valid with online purchases. Apple kindly helped me out on the phone with the order. The mistake was that the agent ordered the wrong Anti-Glare film set (which is not so easy to find on Apple’s online store).
Just a few things I learned after applying the film onto my iPod touch twenty times. The first time will rarely work perfectly, there is always a small particle of dust. What I learned is to take it off the iPod using a post it note on one of the corners and place the film sticky-side up on top of something like a magazine. Then get three strips of masking tap to cover the sticky side of the film. That strips the dust off. Then reapply the film. Start towards the bottom, lining up the home button and the hole on the film and use a credit card to slowly press the film down. When you’re done you will see the bubbles made from the masking tape. If you wait about 1 hour they completely go away and it looks perfect. If you do notice dust later on, just follow the masking tape trick. Hope that helps.
For most Mac users, I would recommend using iWork for your “office” tools. With Number’s ’08, making a graph is just a matter of clicking a button. On the other hand, with Microsoft Excel, there is a little more clicking involved, making it a bit less user-friendly. Since most jobs these days require that you use Microsoft Office, I figured this would help out many individuals.
First open up Microsoft Excel.
Type in the “X-Axis” values into the first column.
In the second column, type in the “Y-Axis” values. Feel free to use more columns depending on your data.
Once you’ve finished that up, select all of your “Y-Axis” values.
From the menubar, choose Insert > Chart…
You’ll be prompted with the “Chart Type” window. Choose a type that suits your needs.
After clicking the “Next” button, you should see a preview of your graph showing the data ranges.
After confirming the data ranges, click on the “Series” tab at the top of the window.
To name the data, click on “Series1” (or any “Series#”) and type in the title you want in the “Name:” field.
When you’ve named all of your series, click on the triangle icon in the “Category (x) axis labels:” field towards the bottom of the window.
Select all of your “X-Axis” values from your sheet. In the small pop-up for the X-Axis values, click on the upside down triangle icon to save those values.
Click the “Next” button when the “Series” window reappears.
In the “Titles” section, enter the main title for the graph and for the X and Y-Axis.
You do not usually need to change the settings in the other tabs (i.e. Axes, Gridlines ,etc.), but feel free to.
After clicking the “Next” button, the “Chart Location” window appears.
Check off “As object in” or “As new sheet” depending on where you want the graph to be inserted.
After clicking “Finish”, select your graph and go to File > Print… from the menubar.
One problem many Mac users have been noticing lately is the bug Mac OS X 10.5 that does not include attachments when you save Mail messages as RTF. Thanks to Andreas Amann, this bug can be easily remedied with his AppleScript package for Mac OS X Mail. Here is how to export a message to RTF and include attachments:
First download the AppleScripts from Amann’s site.
To install it, just double click on “MailScripts Installer” in the MailScripts.dmg.
Next, go to Mac OS X Mail and locate the messages you want to export.
If you want to export specific messages instead of all of them, make a mailbox called “RTF”
Right-click on the messages you want to export and choose “Copy To” > RTF.
In the menubar look for the AppleScript icon next to the Volume icon.
In list of AppleScripts that appear, all we care about is “Mail Scripts”.
Inside of “Mail Scripts”, choose “Archive Messages…”.
Now, select the mailbox RTF.
In the “Selection Criteria” window, make sure you pick “Rich Text Format” and “Include Attachments” under “Export Format”.
After making any other changes, click OK and the mail message will appear on your Desktop (or elsewhere depending on where you chose to export it) in RTF format with all attachments included.
Once you’re finished exporting, you may want to remove the messages (which are copies of the originals, so they’re safe to delete) from the RTF mailbox so they won’t get exported again for the next time.
If you’re like me, then you are overwhelmed by the vast selection of computer books and which one to choose. When I’m about to spend weeks learning a web programming language, I prefer to do some quick background info online. Mostly basics such as: why use it?, what can it do for me?, and samples. Once I look through some online tutorials to the point of confusion, then do I get a book. Not just your regular “all-in-one” book, but the Visual QuickStart Guide book. I’ll admit, I’ve bought the “all-in-one” book, and honestly, they suck (for beginners). Assuming you (the reader) are about to begin learning web programming or something else from scratch, it’s best to have a well-written, easy to follow book.
Being a “visual” learner myself, I am able to use my photographic memory to remember certain things from images or books. With the Visual QuickStart Guides, you are always greeted with the background of what it is you’re trying to learn, why you should use it, and lastly how you should use it. Let’s say you’re reading a book about PHP. Each chapter of the book will show several lines of code along with a screenshot (showing the output from the code). Having a screenshot helps me the most because it allows me to focus on the reading and not have to use my computer to see what the output would be. Therefore, saving me time, and frustration.
The first chapters give you the basic tools you need to grasp what it is you want to learn (syntax, rules, etc). By the time you reach the last chapters of the book, there are more realistic examples that will get you going on a project. Once you’ve finished the book, it’s great to keep around for referencing or you can always use the corresponding website for extras. This is why I love using VQS Guide — it allows me to conquer something without all the frustration and anger. That’s one thing I dislike about online tutorials is you learn only bits and pieces, not the whole. To learn something completely, you must start from the beginning and learn the basics to get going. That’s what Visual QuickStart Guides will do and will do it very well.
When it comes to photo editing, iPhoto’s capabilities are not up to par with Bridge or Aperture. Thanks to Apple making Aperture it’s quite easy to import your existing iPhoto library. After this tutorial, you will have easy access to all of your pictures from iPhoto within Adobe Bridge. Note: this will NOT work with iPhoto ’09 or later.
Open up Finder and select “Go to Folder…” under the Go menu.
Type in “/Users/yourusername/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals.”
Next, Type in “/Users/yourusername/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified.”
Select both folders and drag them into the Bridge sidebar.
