iLounge

The Complete Guide to FaceTime + iMessage: Setup, Use, and Troubleshooting

I have an ipad3. I want to use face time an the imessage to friends who live outside of the USA.
I keep getting a message “not registered with iMessage”
what does this mean. They have an iphone.
Can you help?

Posted by Bill Weyand on March 27, 2013 at 7:53 AM (PST)

Setting default account for new Contacts

Are Contacts enabled on both accounts and are both accounts appearing in your Contacts app?  Do they both contain actual contacts? Sometimes the option won’t appear if one of the accounts is empty, even if it’s otherwise enabled.

The option also sometimes takes a few seconds to appear after opening the Mail, Contacts, Calendars settings.

Posted by Jesse Hollington in Toronto on March 26, 2013 at 11:48 AM (PST)

Setting default account for new Contacts

I have more than one account with contact sync, but I don’t see that option.  any thoughts?

Posted by Greg Scher on March 26, 2013 at 7:53 AM (PST)

iTunes Store HD Movies Don't Play on My Monitor: Solutions

I’ve encountered this exact same problem.  It irks me to no end.  In my office I have an old 23 inch apple studio display (very expensive from 2003) which still looks beautiful.  It’s connected to my spare MBP13, and I use it to watch tv and movies.  However none of my HD content purchased from Apple will play on the external monitor.

Being an apple user for more than 20 years, I decided to research Apple’s competitor (Google).

Please don’t call me a fanboy, but Google has the same exact restrictions in it’s “Google Play” store (for Android).

It looks like I’m unable to post links here, so Google this phrase (without the quotes) and look at the first result (on support-dot-google-dot-com/googleplay…)

“google play store movies hdmi out android”

Quote:
To watch movies or TV shows from Google Play on your HDTV, you’ll need:

an HDTV that supports High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)—check your tv manufacturer’s website to see if your HDTV is HDCP compliant
a Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable or an MHL adapter and HDMI cable, depending on your device

i.e., this means you can connect an android device to an HDCP device, via HDMI only (not an analog adapter).

Posted by Jackson on March 25, 2013 at 2:22 PM (PST)

Editorial: It's Time For Apple To Fix The iPhone 4's Glass Jaw

I recently had the exact same problem with my iPhone 4. I have a double case on it. Rubber and a hard case, I may have dropped it a couple times, but nothing extreme maybe from a few feet on a rug. Yesterday I was scrolling through Facebook and heard “crack”. The lower left hand corner of my phone has a long hairline fracture. Very weird. Not many electronics are made for long term use, clearly. Annoying.

Posted by Ange on March 24, 2013 at 7:01 PM (PST)

Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of iTunes 11

So you can edit info of songs; album, artist, genre, etc.

and you can do the same with TV shows; season, episode, description.

but you can’t do jack with films!! What’s the deal with that?? Am I missing something? In fact it would be nice to add some more info to tv shows too. The sort thing I mean is where can I edit the info for things like studio or channel or director or writer.

For example, if I were to have an episode of The Blue Planet in the TV Shows tab it would be nice to add that it’s a BBC documentary and that David Attenborough narrates, etc, etc.

Anyway, turned into a bit of a rant. Sorry. It would be lovely if you could point it out to me

Posted by paintMeFrustrated! on March 23, 2013 at 8:59 PM (PST)

Retaining older Calendar entries on iOS

One big problem still remains though even with the suggested setting to sync all events: There is no way to tell Spotlight search on iOS to consider any events older than a year, at least I wasn’t able to figure out how. With this restriction (by design?) having old calendar entries on your device is of rather limited use. If I could always tell when a past event was I wouldn’t need a calendar to remember it for me. But the truth is I can’t tell and the only way to answer such questions currently is to go back to an approximate date and from there flip through the days or weeks and spot the entry myself.

Posted by Uwe Römers on March 23, 2013 at 2:19 AM (PST)

Find My Friends and Passcodes

I don’t see anywhere how to delete the “Find My Friend” app from my ipad 2.

Posted by Pear on March 21, 2013 at 3:40 PM (PST)

Display totals at the bottom of the screen in iTunes 11

Jane, this is a mystery to me… Just like the other 2 guys, I tried to click. Then I tried to double-click, Ctrl-click, Alt-click and so on… Nada ! Even tried to do it when no music was running and then when it was playing. No difference. I clearly missed something. Or maybe we all did.
Apart from that, I understand the iTunes match reason given by Steve to explain the hidden-by-default status bar, even though I don’t know whether it is the actual reason. But actual or not, it remains a completely stupid idea to me.

Posted by Yann on March 19, 2013 at 2:46 PM (PST)

Moving from a shared iCloud to individual accounts

i am tring to do the same thing but i want to make sure that all my apps and pictures and calendars will transfer to my new iCloud , will they?

Posted by s.Clark on March 19, 2013 at 12:59 PM (PST)

Repeat and continuous video playback on iPod touch

Is there any way to play a set of videos, continuously, on a third generation iPod touch? I’m playing my videos set as music videos, and this is not working.

Posted by Aubrey on March 19, 2013 at 12:36 PM (PST)

Resetting a forgotten iPad passcode

Forgot my iPad I’d,please reset

Posted by Mighty kandjii on March 18, 2013 at 4:55 AM (PST)

Retaining older Calendar entries on iOS

Thank you! You ended my panic.

Posted by Peggy on March 17, 2013 at 4:47 PM (PST)

iMessages being sent as Text Messages

I have set “Send as SMS” to OFF the day I upgraded to iOS 5. While the setting is supposed to prevent SMS fallback, it is very buggy. I have had at least a dozen iMessage sent as SMS, as most recent as January of this year. I have also talked to Apple customer service and they confirmed it as a known issue. But I don’t believe the issue has been fixed on 6.1.2 as my friend experienced the same exact issue recently.

Posted by Phil Kim on March 14, 2013 at 8:21 PM (PST)

Disappearing iPhone Calendar events

Thank you so much!!  Was very distressed when all of my calender events disappeared today!  I purchased the iphone 5 a couple of weeks ago and had synched all account from old iphone to new iphone.  After scrollling through the comments I was brave enough to alter icloud calender to on and hey presto all of my events are back!!  Thank you!!

Posted by Kara Rodwell on March 14, 2013 at 8:09 PM (PST)

The Beginner's Guide to iTunes

What’s the point of asking questions if nobody answers…...

Posted by Me on March 14, 2013 at 3:55 PM (PST)

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)

@12, Yes, it may cause quality loss problem on Handbrake,Streamclip,etc. But I finally found the one without this problem. It is kvisoft video converter for mac. It’s kind of all-in-one converter.I can use it to rip and burn CD/DVD, plus converting videos from one formt to others. I am hapy to share with people.

Posted by Kalitree on March 13, 2013 at 10:24 PM (PST)

The Complete Guide to FaceTime + iMessage: Setup, Use, and Troubleshooting

Does Facetime work with Leopard OSX 10.6.8?  We cannot add contact information.

Posted by Mary Mullen on March 13, 2013 at 6:38 PM (PST)

Apple Case Design in 2013, Part 3: On Changes, Innovation, and the Future

This article could not be more topical for me.  As an early iPod adopter I always looked to iLounge for reviews on cases. I’ve used iSkin cases for 4 different generations of the iPod waiting ever so patiently for them to arrive before using my iPod. My last one being the 2007 6th gen 160 gb that is still going strong due to it’s case after having being dropped on the driveway many times.

Having acquired an iPhone 5 last week, I have been researching current cases. So thank you for this timely article, it explains a lot about the type of cases I have been seeing and reading reviews about. I just ordered the iSkin Fuze 360 based on my previous experience with iSkin, the design and the looks. I wish there was more info out there about this case but I guess it’s too early. I am surprised that many companies like iSkin and Marware are releasing cases this late into the release of the phone.  There is definitely a need for highly protective cases for both iPhones and iPads for folks working in industries with harsh environments, but also for families with toddlers who play preschool games on these devices and for folks who enoy the outdoors. Finding the balance between protection, design, heft, port protection seems to be a difficult task and I don’t envy the case makers their tasks. The attributes I was searching for in a case: Shock/Drop Protection, Home Button cover, Port covers, and a not too thick profile. I hope my new case meets these when it arrives. Others are looking for kickstands to stream videos, some want the camera hole to be covered for their harsh environments, some want every part of the case covered for dust protection. Then there’s the preference for type of screen protector and case compatibility. Cases that offer an all in one solution are very attractive.

Posted by manchali on March 13, 2013 at 1:56 PM (PST)

Optimal Size for Album Artwork

It’s worth noting that Apple now requires a minimum of 1400x1400 pixels for music sold through it’s iTunes Store and they recommend going up to 2400x2400. I haven’t confirmed if that larger size gets attached when downloading purchases but if not it probably will be eventually.

All our devices are moving to high pixel density eventually so it might be a good idea to include higher resolution artwork now to future proof it, otherwise you might find yourself redoing your artwork at higher resolution to look good on high density displays that you might purchase.

Posted by Chris on March 12, 2013 at 4:27 PM (PST)

The Complete Guide to Transferring your Content to a new iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

I just received a replacement iPhone4s to replace one with low earpiece volume. After a few attempts to transfer everything using iTunes, I finaly cleared the new phone and used iCloud. iTunes was restoring my apps in a jumbled fashion without app settings, and notes and email settings did not restore. The iCloud backup and restore process was far easier, restoring almost everything in one step.  And that restore returned all apps to the same screen location, and all contacts, calendars, photos, email, and app settings settings were restored. I only had to enter the passwords for accounts when prompted. I have no music on the phone so I can’t speak to restoring that. I strongly recommend using iCloud for transfering your data to a new phone.

Posted by George on March 12, 2013 at 11:33 AM (PST)

Transferring your iTunes Library

I’ve read through the document which has cleared up a lot of things for me. I still have a couple questions unanswered.

I current use Lion and iTunes 11 and have my iTunes Folder stored on an external drive (the folder contains my library database as well as my media content). I just bought a new Mac and a larger capacity external drive.
I would like to move all my Media content to the new external drive, but I would like the library database file to be stored locally on the internal drive of my new iMac (you mentioned in the article there are benefits to this file being stored locally). How do I go about doing this? I’m not too concerned about the original database file that’s on my current external drive – I don’t mind re-creating my playlists.

I was thinking it’s best to launch iTunes 11 on my new iMac so that it creates the database file locally on the internal drive. I would then delete the old library file on my old external drive, move the media folder to the new drive and go into Advance Settings in iTunes 11 and change the media folder location to the one located on the new external drive. Is this correct?

Posted by Tom on March 12, 2013 at 10:06 AM (PST)

iTunes Match and streaming in iOS 6

I upgraded to iOS 6 on my 3rd-gen iPad. Ugh. It lags, is choppy, and there’s pixelation where there was none before

Posted by Edward on March 12, 2013 at 9:19 AM (PST)

Apple Case Design in 2013, Part 1: On Protection + Priorities

Great article Phil. I feel that a lot of people use phone cases as a way to express their personality and make their device unique. As smart phones become smaller and smaller it opens up the opportunity for case manufacturers to design cases that not only protect but offer additional functionality with out adding too much bulk. Also with the advent of affordable and accessible 3D printing I believe we are going to be seeing more custom designed cases and products which extend the use of smart phones. Just look at what Nokia has done with its Lumia 820.

Posted by Chris Peters on March 11, 2013 at 4:44 PM (PST)

Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of Apple TV 5.2

I have the same problem as nimbleg—with the new updated, I can no longer access my movies and TV Shows as it keeps reverting back to the main screen. Netflix and all the other apps seem to work fine. Anyone have any advice?

Posted by mariafia on March 11, 2013 at 11:12 AM (PST)