While the small, sleek aluminum remote that comes with the Apple TV is nice, it may be one too many. The Apple TV can work with many other infrared remotes, and an Apple technical document outlines the procedure for having the Apple TV "learn" your remote.
You'll need to use the Apple remote to set this up, and you do so by choosing Settings > General > Remotes from the Apple TV's interface. Choose Learn Remote, and press the six buttons that the Apple TV needs to learn.
Some remotes may not work, so read Apple's technical document for more information.
I have always been annoyed by the carrier name taking up a lot of space at the top of my iPhone screen. A few days ago I found a way to insert the much smaller carrier logo without jailbreaking the device.
Just search Google for an IPCC file for your carrier and iOS 5. Download that, go to Terminal and type in the following line:
Connect your iPhone to iTunes and click on "Check for updates" while pressing the Option key. Select the aforementioned IPCC file, and you're done. Unfortunately it seems that the same file cannot be used for an iPad; at least it didn't work for mine.
[kirkmc adds: I didn't test this, and I'd recommend prudence before making this change. There is a chance that this could cause problems with your iPhone. For more about these carrier files, see this Macworld article by Ted Landau, where he explains what they are and what kind of changes you can make to them.
Note that, depending on your carrier, you may already have an IPCC file in ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Carrier Support.]
In 10.7, Apple changed Terminal to include a drop-down path icon in the window's title bar, similar to what you get in Finder and many other applications.
While some may like this, the problem is that it actually changes the window's title, as seen by applications (such as our own window manager, Moom). For instance, run this command in 10.7's Terminal...
osascript -e "tell application \"Terminal"\ to return name of window 1"
...and you'll see the current folder reflected in the window title. If you'd rather not have the path there, the fix is simple. Just add this command to your .profile file (or whatever file you use to init your Terminal windows):
unset PROMPT_COMMAND
Save the .profile file, close and open a new Terminal window, and you'll see that the folder drop-down has vanished from the window title.
If you have a Verizon iPad 3 and an Apple TV 2 or 3, they can connect to each other, simply by using the built-in hotspot tethering. You don't need any pre-existing network, access point, or MyFi-type hotspot. They connect to each other directly and all AirPlay functionality (including full screen mirroring) is available.
I assume that if the content you share via AirPlay is stored locally on the iPad, it won't use up any of your data quota.
[kirkmc adds: I haven't tested this, as I only have a Wi-Fi iPad. I did try setting up a personal hotspot on my iPhone, and my Apple TV sees the network, and can connect to it. But I'm not sure if this wouldn't still use data, as I don't see how to disconnect from my cell carrier (turning on Airplane Mode cuts off the personal hotspot), and the phone is still connected via 3G. (Phones do work differently from iPads.) If anyone else can test this with an iPad, please post your results in the comments. ]
Normally, when you stream video content from the BBC's iPlayer app, or similar apps, to the Apple TV via AirPlay, the iOS device displays a screen saying that the content is playing on the Apple TV, but as soon as you press the home button the stream ends. In other words the app has to be the frontmost running app for video AirPlay to work.
I found a way around this, by starting the stream in the iPlayer app, then switching to Apple's Remote app, and resuming playing. You can then control the AirPlay stream from the remote app instead, and return to the home screen, use other apps, and use the phone, while the stream keeps going.
I have tested this in UK with the BBC iPlayer app and the 4OD app.
[kirkmc adds: This didn't work for me, but I'm not in the UK. I don't think that should make a difference; I tried with a streaming TV app in France, where I live, but I would assume that this should work with any video app that can use AirPlay. Unfortunately, this hint was submitted by one of our most prolific posters, Anonymous, so I can't contact him or her to ask any questions. If anyone can confirm that this works for them, or confirm that it doesn't, please post in the comments.]
If you have an event in Outlook's calendar, you can drag this event onto iCal's window, and it will be duplicated in iCal. You can also drag the event onto the iCal icon in the Dock, and you'll get a dialog asking which calendar you want to use, if you have more than one, and it will be added to that calendar.
[kirkmc adds: Works as described. The hint submitted was about dragging onto the window, but when I tried dragging onto the Dock icon, I saw that it worked too. I use BusyCal, and this works when dragging onto the program's Dock icon, but not when dragging onto the calendar window. If you use other calendar programs, it might be nice to try dragging and dropping between them to see what works, and post your results in the comments. Also, I've only tested with with 10.7.]
In iTunes, there are two ways to categorize your videos: as either Movies or TV Shows. I use the Movies category for very large files, and put everything else in TV Shows, because in the TV Shows library, iTunes allows you to create groups. I've created groups called You Tube Videos, Home Videos, Work Stuff, etc.
To create a group, first make sure both TV Shows and Movies are visible in the iTunes source list. If they're not, go to iTunes' General preferences and check Movies and TV Shows in the Show section.
Next, import your new movie into iTunes by dragging it to the source list where these libraries display. In most cases, iTunes will categorize it as a movie. Select the movie and press Command-I to display the Info window. Click on the Options tab, then, under Media Kind, choose TV Show. If it's as short video, you might want to uncheck Remember Playback Position, because you will most likely always want to start these types of files from the beginning.
Next, click on the Sorting tab. Correct the tag that iTunes applied, if necessary, in the Name field. To create a nested group, you must enter some text in the Show field. You'll want to apply the same name for every item in the group, so the files stay in that group. Click on OK, and this will be applied.
When you look at your TV Shows library now, you'll see that all members of a group will display, in Icon or Cover Flow view, behind a single icon. In Album List view, all of the videos will display, but you'll see them sorted by "Show," or the group name you gave them.
[kirkmc adds: This is a good workraound that can help you organize a big video library, though there are some problems. iTunes seems to choose arbitrarily which icon to display when in icon view, rather than, say, the first item.
Another way you could do this, if you want to display the items in Icon view, is to choose to display them by Genre, and apply custom genres to your video files. However, using the Show tag allows this organization to also display on an Apple TV.]
While reverse engineering the Dock for HyperDock, I stumbled over this useful hidden setting that removes the display delay when the Dock is hidden.
To remove the delay, open Terminal, type or copy and paste the following line and hit return:
defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0 && killall Dock
To restore the default behavior, enter:
defaults delete com.apple.Dock autohide-delay && killall Dock
[kirkmc adds: This is a nice hint. It has always annoyed me that, when moving the mouse to the side of my screen (I keep the Dock on the left side), there is that half-second delay before it displays. I've applied this setting and will use this permanently. It's not that a half-second is a long time, but my brain expects the Dock to appear more quickly, and it is always stymied by the wait.]
My workflow often involves taking Word Documents and manipulating them with handwritten annotations on my iPad. With this method, I can immediately take a downloaded .docx (or presumably any other MS Office file), convert it to a PDF, get it into my Dropbox, and finally my annotation app; all without leaving the iPad. While it may seem clumsy at first, it only takes four easy steps.
You will need the Pages app, the Dropbox app, a Dropbox account, and a a send to dropbox account.
1. Import your document into the Pages app.
2. Tap the wrench and select "Share and print."
3. Email a PDF to your @sendtodropbox address.
4. Check out the "Attachments" folder in Dropbox (or your desired Dropbox-linked 3rd party app).
I own a 5th Generation iPod nano (the one with the camera and the ability to play video). I have also tested this hint with a 1st Generation iPod nano. It may apply to other iPod models as well.
Up until the latest model, the iPod nano has had the ability to do a one-way sync from Address Book to its Contacts. At some point, this ability broke, either with OS X Lion, or with a specific version of iTunes. Attempting to sync Address Book to the iPod nano now produces a zero-byte file called iSync.vcf. I have reported this problem to Apple. There have been updates to both Lion and iTunes since I made that report, but syncing Contacts is still broken. Following is one possible solution that uses a four-step (or less) Automator Workflow.
Optional Step 1: Drag "Run Shell Script" into your Workflow window. In the script area, enter:
Be careful to use your iPod's EXACT name, e.g., if there is a curly apostrophe in "John Doe’s iPod".
Step 2: Drag "Find Address Book Items" into your Workflow. using the popups and text boxes change it to look something like this:
Find [people] where:
[All] of the following are true
[City][is not] xyzzy
[State][is not] xyzzy
This action will find all your Contacts.
Step 3: (Your iPod must be connected to your Mac, and "Enable disk use" must be enabled in iTunes.) Drag "Export vCards" into your Workflow. Set these parameters in this action:
Export [individual vCards] to [Contacts]
If you have Optional Step 1 in your workflow, it does not matter whether you select [individual vCards] or [one vCard]. They look the same on your iPod, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. To complete this Action, choose "Other..." from the destination popup and navigate to the Contacts folder on your iPod.
Optional Step 4: Drag Run AppleScript into your Workflow. change "(* Your script goes here *)" to:
tell application "Address Book" to quit
Click the Run button to see if your Workflow works. If it does, save it in either ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ or ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/iTunes/, and give it a meaningful name such as like "Export Address Book." Run this script each time you want to update the contacts on your iPod nano.
[kirkmc adds: I no longer have an older iPod nano, and have not been able to test this.]
