Have You Upgraded to i0S7?

Have You Upgraded to i0S7?

By Bill Crowe, 2^nd  VP, Sarasota PCUG, Florida

October 2013 issue, PC Monitor

www.spcug.org

editor (at) spcug.org

Apple's iPhone/iPad operating system, called iOS, got a huge makeover and you may be considering not upgrading. After all I am just getting the hang of iOS6. The changes, while numerous, are not difficult.

The new operating system, called iOS 7, involves hundreds of interface changes and adds a new "control center" (sweet up from the bottom of the screen) that gives you access to important features like the camera, clock, and music player.

It even includes a new way to multi-task between programs and a built-in flashlight. In short, it makes your iPhone look brand new.

But what are you really getting when you upgrade to iOS 7?

Here are some of some favorite features.

1. It looks completely different. The first thing you'll notice about the new iPhone OS is how different it is. All the icons have been "flattened" with a lot of the textures associated with Steve Jobs' efforts removed. Instead of rich leather lookalikes, you get clean, clear, and crisp text and lines. Instead of photo-realistic icons you get images that "suggest" their purpose.
2. It is truly secure. This is an interesting feature: when you lose your phone, you can lock it completely and thieves won't be able to reactivate it even if they want to. In short, in 99 percent of cases, a thief will never be able to use your stolen phone again. This should, Apple hopes, reduce iPhone theft.
3. Photo browsing got a lot easier. When you take photos in iOS 7 they are automatically organized into moments. For example, when you shoot a bunch of photos at the petting zoo and then come home and shoot a few more, these photos are broken up by time and location.
4. Expect better battery life. The phone should perform better thanks to upgraded multi-tasking and improvements to the base software. While you probably will still suffer if your phone has horrible battery life now -- it probably means your actual battery is broken -- new users can expect snappier performance.
5. Siri is smarter. First, Siri doesn't sound like a robot anymore, which is good news. Second, Siri offers more information in a more pleasing way and it can now search more sources of information and do more
6. It has some 3D tricks up its sleeve. One of the coolest features is one of the most subtle: the icons on the screen "float" over the background. In other words, when you move the phone the icons move around to reveal parts of the wallpaper underneath. It's a very cute feature that lets you see more of your favorite photos and offers a much cleaner view of the interface.
7. It includes iTunes Radio, a cool way to discover new music. If you've used services like Pandora or Radio, you're probably familiar with how iTunes Radio works. In short, it lets you stream music (and buy it) right from your music player. This means you can listen to almost as much new music as you want whenever you want as well as playlists of popular hits.

Think of it as a way to preview iTunes purchases and a fun way to discover new music.

Get Plain Text

Get Plain Text
By Linda Gonse, Editor & Webmaster, Orange County PC Users’ Group, CA
October 2013 issue, Nibbles & Bits
www.orcopug.org
editor (at) orcopug.org

It’s probably safe to say that everyone has copied text from a webpage at some time and pasted it into an email or into a Word-like program. So, of course, you can relate to my dismay of pasting the type complete with its formatting riding piggyback on it.

I always have to stop what I’m doing and unformat and reformat the type, so it blends in with what I’m working on.

I can hear “old timers” yelling, “Notepad! Use Notepad!”

That’s true. And, it’s a good option. I’m using Windows XP (still), so I have a shortcut to Notepad on my Start menu. It’s very easy to click on Start while I have my browser open and click to open Notepad to paste the web text, then recopy it from Notepad, and repaste the text into a document.

But, I found a simpler method.

Really. There is no learning curve.

I only have to click once after copying from a webpage and then I can immediately paste unformatted text into anything anywhere!

With our typical complicated programs to work with, this just doesn’t seem possible. Or, maybe alchemy might be involved!

The short of it is that this is true, no hocus pocus. It is possible with a tiny program called Get Plain Text.

It’s only 70Kb and it doesn’t add an icon to your system tray or grab any memory when you use it.

It works in less than a second to remove text formatting, including fonts, sizes, colors, and embedded images. It just leaves plain text.

Download the program from the developer’s webpage (clipdiary.com) at http://bit.ly/1bzFuea or a secondary download site at http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Office/Clipboard/Portable-Get-Plain-Text.shtml. Save it to your preferred disk location. Click on the program to run it.

Add the icon that launches Get Plain Text to your Quick Launch bar or favorite program launcher.

I keep it on my Quick Launch bar. As soon as I copy something to the clipboard, I click on the Get Plain Text icon. Then, I paste the text anywhere I desire. That’s it.

When I use Get Plain Text, no window opens. There are no dialog boxes or preferences to select. There are no flags, bells, or whistles to tell me it is finished. It simply works fast, silently, and unobtrusively.

What else? Oh, yeah. It’s free!

Fun With Your Scanner

Fun With Your Scanner
By Jim Cerny, Director, Sarasota PCUG, Florida
October 2013 issue, PC Monitor
www.spcug.org
jimcerny123 (at) gmail.com

In a previous article we looked at the many options and ways of having fun with your printer. This time I would like to look at using a scanner. It only makes sense that if you are purchasing a new printer it is a good idea to get a “combo” printer that includes a scanner.

Scanners have been around for a long time and their technology keeps improving. If you have a scanner, you can think of it as a digital camera – it is really taking a digital photo of what you are scanning and making a new file of that image on your computer. Anything you can do with a digital photo you can do with what you scan with your scanner – it creates a “.jpg” file, for example. Here are some basic tips for using a scanner (but read your scanner’s manual!).

When you install your scanner (i.e. combo printer) it will create an icon on your computer Windows desktop to control it. Whenever I scan something I first double-click on that icon to open it and use the controls there to control the scanner. Many combo printers have some controls and buttons to push on the control panel to make copies, print, or do a scan, but I always find that I see more options and get better results if I always use the controls on my computer window. When you do a scan you need to provide the scanner with some information – such as the following:

• File type – do you want to save your scanned image as a “.jpg” photo file?  That is my usual choice. But other file types may be available too if you want or need them.
• File name – give your new file a meaningful name.
• Destination folder – into what folder would you like your new file to be placed?  My usual selection is “My documents”. I can move the file anywhere from there whenever I want. You should always be aware of where your scanner is putting the new files so that you can find them!
• Scan resolution – the higher the density (of dots per inch) the higher the resolution and the more time it takes to scan and create the new file. Go with the suggested default resolution settings to start with and change them later if you need to. Usually 200 dpi (dots per inch) is fine, although most scanners are capable of much higher resolutions.

Scanners will have “default” settings for these and other options. Read your manual to understand how to change these default settings – or you can change them before each scan is performed.

Double-click (the right mouse button) on the printer/scanner icon on your desktop and follow the instructions. Place the object you would like to scan flat (and I mean totally flat) on the clean scanning bed – facedown, of course, the scanner is not an x-ray machine!  Then click on the “scan” control box on your computer window. The pop-ups should tell you what the settings will be for the scan or give you an opportunity to change them. I always give the file a good name, put it into the “My documents” folder, and use “.jpg” as the file type (scanning the object to create a photo file). When I hit the “scan” button on the screen, the scanner with do an “initial scan” of the object and display it in your window. Now you may be able to change the area scanned (that is, you can select only a portion of the image to scan, sort of like cropping a photo). So if you are scanning the page of a magazine, you can select only what you want on that page to be scanned for your final image. When you are ready, hit “scan” again and wait for the results. After a scan has completed, always view the file you created right away to make sure it worked!  Scanning your old family photos to create timeless digital images is always a good use for a scanner.

If you are scanning text (and this is really amazing) you can scan the text and put it directly into a Word file, for example. Do you understand what this means?  It means your scanner can actually “read” text and put the text right into a Word file (or another text file) just as if you typed the text in using your keyboard. You can then edit and change the text in the file all you want. So in this case, your scanner is not “taking a photo” of the text or creating a .jpg file -- it is interpreting the text and entering it into a word processor file for you – so you do not have to enter the text from the keyboard!  An example of this would be scanning a recipe from a document, letting your scanner create a text file with the words (you would select a text “file type” such as Word (.doc) or .txt or other text file type you know you can open and edit) and then opening the file and changing the recipe.

Don’t forget that Google is a great source of information. Even if you lost your scanner manual, just enter the make and model in Google and get all the information you need. But take some time to try your scanner and see what happens. You are not going to break it by trying it out. I am sure you will be impressed.

Finally, remember that it is illegal to scan (or copy) copyrighted material – you know, like books or money. Well, maybe you could scan a few coins but I don’t think they would work in a vending machine anyway.