iPhone calendar - even better, Fantastical

While we're on calendars, I thought the iCal one was fine on the iPhone until I found Fantastical (£1.99 I think). It's an app that simply provides a new calendar interface. Just install Fantastical on your iPhone and it will ask you to give it permission to use your calendars (provided you have linked to them as in the previous posts). Then they, fantastically, appear.



Dates will display across the top of the screen - pull down the tab for a monthly view. Pull down again to return to the list. Scroll around very quickly and nicely - all sorts of other refinements. Nice.

iPhone calendar - show public holidays

The previous post dealt with synching iPhone's calendar with Google calendar, but following that process you don't get public holidays showing.

Here's how to do that.

First do Stage 1 on your iPhone:
Settings> Mail, contacts, calendars > Add account > Other > only this time, select Add subscribed calendar.

Then, the server is whatever public holiday calendar you wish. I used Apple's purely because it's easy to find the server address:
ical.mac.com/ical/UK32Holidays.ics

For US public holidays, it's
ical.mac.com/ical/US32Holidays.ics

Or if you're using Google calendars anyway, here's Google's:
https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/uk__en%40holiday.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Solved: Synch iPhone's calendar with Google calendar

Please see update blog, March 30th 2013

Speed up your iPhone

My iPhone 3GS slowed to a crawl for internet operations like web browsing or using apps, but like magic, it's now ... well ... bearable again. So simple.

Maybe I'm slow on the uptake, but I didn't realise that you have to close down an app. when you've done with it - not just click the Home button.

Try this: click the Home button twice (the round sunken button at the bottom). You'll see all the open apps. in the bar at the bottom of the screen. Scroll right to see the whole line-up. Yes, probably every app. you've ever used. No wonder the thing has slowed to a crawl, it only has a tiny little brain in there.

To close an app.(s), hold your fingertip on one for a bit and you get the red minus signs on them: click to close.

Or, without the red minus signs, just click on an app. to go to it and resume where you left off.

Handy, eh?

BT broadband - sending non-BT account email - solved

Whew! what a struggle!

In spite of bad past experiences with BT broadband, I was tempted by their current offer.

Their website support for email settings etc is the absolute pits. It is unbelievably poor. I spent a whole day and more struggling to set up my non-BT outgoing email. Judging from their discussion forums this is quite common, http://bit.ly/Tpv9uj.

Another user describes the problem:

I switched to BT Infinity earlier this month, but want to retain my existing non-BT email account. I'm continuing to receive emails, but cannot configure the outgoing server. I've searched the forum postings ... with no success. 

I'm using Mozilla Thunderbird.

I myself found that: 

BT's standard help page is absolutely useless. It only gives partial information and quickly dumps you into BT's misnamed 'technical help'; beware, it costs you £15 a call and the help don't even know what you are asking them.

Two steps into the help sequence meant to tell you how to set up your non-bt email account, BT provides the curt message, "Sorry, but we can't help with email accounts that we don't provide." Love it.

A forum expert explained that BT uses Yahoo! email to provide its email service. To use a non-BT email address for sending, you have to register the extra email address with Yahoo!. Yahoo! says this reduces spam etc.  http://www.btyahoo.com/verify  

It is complicated but just follow the instructions.

Once you've registered your non-BT email address(es) with Yahoo!, you need the settings for the outgoing email server. Here are the settings I used, in Thunderbird, but most email clients need the same stuff:

Outgoing server (SMTP): I called it "bt outgoing"

Server Name:  mail.btinternet.com

Port: 465

Connection security: SSL/TLS

Authentication method: Normal password

User name: just your user name, for instance, fluffypaws

[the first time you send you will be asked to input your bt internet account password, which in my case is the same as my bt internet Yahoo! password]

Whoo! finally I can send email, with my normal non-bt email address.

Unlocking an iPhone

Oh dear, a sad dead iPhone after a day under water. Drying out by burying in rice etc has failed to revive it. So options are:

a) get a cheap basic phone and make do with that for 2 months til my contract runs out. Trying that, but I so miss my iPhone.
b) buy a new iPhone - but need to fill up piggy bank for that, better wait for contract end.
c) take it to an Appple store, the kiss of life from the geniuses may succeed. It didn't, but they offer a refurb replacement for £119. Probably the best option, as it can eventually be sold on for a good price.
d) buy a second hand iPhone on eBay.

Guess which option I chose ... yes, you're right, not the best: option d). So now I find myself getting to grips with 'unlocking' your phone.

A mobile is 'locked' when it's been bought as part of a contract with an operator, so it will only work on that network. You can get it 'unlocked' in one of those dodgy looking stalls and shops, or by the operator, often they charge about £20.

My nearly-new acquisition had been unlocked from Virgin, but caution:

I reset the contents (go round with something called "Mum's iphone"? No thanks!) and whoops, it revealed a lock on O2.

To get it unlocked I have to borrow or buy an O2 sim card and put that in it. Request O2 to unlock it and leave it in for about a day, voila, it should then be 'unlocked'. I hope.

Free if I can borrow an O2 sim, or I have to get a pay-as-you-go sim and put £15 worth of calls on it.

Mac - 2 useful applications

If you can remember way back on Macs, they used to show a little icon top R. on the screen to show what application you were in at the time. Well handy, doubtless why Apple abolished this useful feature a long time ago.



However, thanks to Eerko Vissering for developing the little application called Focus, which does the same thing. I've used it with Leopard / Snow Leopard for ages. Eerko has updated it to run on Lion / Mountain Lion. Thanks Eerko!

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11356/focus
http://eerko.nl/software/






Another application I use all the time is QuickApps. This puts a little icon in your menu bar - click on it to show a dropdown list of all your applications.

http://download.cnet.com/QuickApps/3000-2344_4-201757.html

Preview / Mountain Lion - print selected pages solved

Huh! after much whinging - Yes! one can print just selected pages in Preview. So simple:

• Open a pdf file, or several pdf files, in Preview
• Set it to display thumbnails of the pages in the Sidebar (under View)
• Select the thumbnails of the pages you'd like to print, in the usual ways. You can select pages in several different pdfs, or indeed all the pages in different pdfs. A way to combine images into one pdf file.
• Tell it to Print - either cmd-P or File > Print

There! in the print dialogue box, you'll see an option: Selected pages in sidebar.

Then you can either print just the pages you want, or save them as a new pdf.

If you're still in Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) then to print selected pages, select as above, and the command is in the File menu below Print.