Wednesday 14 September 2016

Using Reader, Safari and iBooks together.

I have just update my iPhone and iPad to IOS 10. I meant to have a sort out and a tidy before I did this, but you know how it is, a new toy and I can't wait so I am doing the housekeeping afterwards. As part of this I realised that you can combine the Reader function in Safari to save clean PDF versions of web page to iBook. For all of you familiar with these techniques that all there is to know, you probably knew any way. For anyone interested but do not know what I am writing about the read the following.

 

Saturday 11 October 2014

Keyboard covering text problem - solved

After updating to IOS 8.0.2 on my iPad (v3) I noticed the text behind my on-screen keyboard did not scroll down and I could not see what I was typing. So for a quick work around I grabbed my Belkin Bluetooth keyboard which suppresse the online keyboard and used this.

A sudden thought this morning, what would happen if I turned off Bluetooth on my iPad. This I did and the problem went away. I then turned off the Belkin keyboard, not just disconnected, and turned on Bluetooth and the problem did not return.

It appears the iPad needed this extra shove to get going again.

Friday 5 April 2013

Must have Apps for new iPad owner

Friends just bought their first iPad (in fact a 32Gb mini) and here is a list of must have Apps I sent them.


  • Flipboard.
  • Snapseed
  • Web Albums (Picasa)
  • iPlayer
  • iPlayer Radio
  • ITV Player
  • 4oD
  • Instapaper
  • Calculator
  • National Trust
  • Heritage
  • BBC News
  • iBooks
  • Kindle
  • UNO
  • Dropbox

 

Saturday 6 October 2012

Use Note App to copy from Mac to iPad or iPhone

Typical scenario for me. I m using iPad to build a blog with Blogger+ App and I wanted to reset all my HTML to left border.

Now I use the iPad Keyboard Shortcuts to expand HTML but I had not built the one for this on iPad. Not worry as on my MacBook I use a Mac App called Dash to do the same role. So


  1. Pop over to Mac

  2. Start Note on Mac

  3. Type in short name which automatically expands HTML on Note

  4. Pop back to iPad

  5. Open Note in iPad and sure enough there is the new note via iCloud

  6. Copy expanded HTML

  7. Open Settings and build new Keyboard Shortcut



Note I am running MacBook 2011 with Mountain Lion and iPad(3) with IOS 6.


Friday 5 October 2012

*ION KEY49 Midi Keyboard USB Connection


*ION KEY49 Keyboard with iPad





On recent shopping trip I popped into local Maplin Store and purchased a Midi *ION KEY49 Midi Keyboard for £70. When I got home I connected to it into my MacBook via supplied USB cable, started up Garage Band, and hey presto, now have music. Well noise really as I have yet to learn how to play.


Since then I added a Sustain Pedal, purchased from Amazon for just under £10 including delivery. I opted for one with polarity switch, and this also works fine.


Then I connected it to my iPad(3) via Camera Connection Kit, and hey presto again, works fine. Amazing amount of instruments to play with, but I want to concentrate on learning basic piano first.


I was particularly pleased to discover the keys were touch sensitive as this was not mentioned on the box. Also there is an Up and Down button to shift the 49 keys up one octave, or two if you push it a second time, and down one or two octaves.


All the keys can be used to control mdi input, with a couple of other features but as yet I have no experience of midi.







Tuesday 2 October 2012

Using MacBook Pro as attached Bluetooth Keyboard for iPad.

Using MacBook Pro as attached Bluetooth Keyboard for iPad.

Introduction

Type2Phone
I use my MacBook Pro 13" together with iPad a lot of the time. For example I may have Safari running on iPad with information on how to perform some task, say adding vignetting to PhotoShop Elements, and on the Mac have PSE open so that I can perform instructions.



I have a Bluetooth Keyboard which I use on iPad when I go away for a few days and do not take my MacBook. This got me to thinking that it would be great if I could use MacBook Keyboard in similar way. Sure enough, "There's an App for that!. Only this time it is a MAC APP, available in the Mac Store for £2.99 (Oct. 2012).


Type2Phone

Type2Phone
Although the name refers to phone, it supports many IOS devices and so far I have used it with my 3rd. Gen. iPad. Look it up in the App Store here Type2Phone App Store.

Setting Up

I found it a bit tricky to make the bluetooth connect for the first time, but here is how I did it in the end.

  1. Quit Type2Phone on Mac.
  2. Connecting Mac to iPad via Bluetooth using iPad settings.
  3. The forgetting connection.
  4. Start Type2Phone on Mac

and this time connection procedures worked.


Experience

Type2Phone
I opened Notes on my iPad and typed away on MacBook and it appeared perfectly on my iPad. There is a small window on the Mac which shows you the last few keystrokes but I found it easier just glance now and again at the iPad.

Monday 24 September 2012

IOS 6 Update on Pad whilst asleep! Plus first thoughts.

IOS 6 Update




IOS6 Update




Currently on a weeks holiday with friends in Norfolk and had previously decided not to update IOS devices until I returned home on the weekend. But you know how it is….


I had with me my MacBook, iPad(1) now claimed by my wife, iPad(3) and iPhone(4). So in the evening I ran App updates on iPad(3), 18 of them and backed up iPad via iTunes onto MacBook. Once in bed I started upgrade on iPad and left it running beside pillow (holiday home had twin beds so my wife was none the wiser). Woke up a couple of times and squinted at iPad and all seemed to be progressing OK.


Next morning reached for iPad and was away with new IOS 6. I must say although an easy upgrade I am yet to be amazed. First experience was a slight disappointment. I had hoped that the Notes App would be the same as Mountain Lion, but no. Still cannot add photos or display photos of Notes created on Mac and synced across. And of course new Apple Maps in UK is not too hot and no StreetView. So Apple has created the state where nearly all of us IOS enthusiasts are looking forward to Google releasing a stand alone Map App!





Update



Back home now. Did not have time to finish this whilst in Norfolk, too much time spent walking and board games.



IOS 6 Safari upload photos from iPad




One thing in IOS 6 I really like is the ability to upload a photo from my iPad when using Safari.


Last night whilst watching Downton Abbey I was creating a few eBay entries. The eBay APP did not accept the photos I wanted to use without cropping so I went online and used standard eBay on Safari. In the photos part of eBay I was able to select Standard and then Add Photo which opened a dialogue from which I could select photo from my iPad Photos.


Footnote



This blog was written completely on ipad with Writing Kit The amazing art work created inInkflow and saved to Photos then uploaded to Flickr in Safari using technique described above. Now All I need to do is load it into Blogger+, or maybe straight into Blogger on Safari and wait for it to go viral!