Thursday 27 December 2012

Something for nothing from Apple

Anyone with an iOS device, and those new to Apple's iOS software, yes I'm looking at you, people-that-just-got-something-Apple-related for Christmas, should check out Apple's free app, 12 Days of Christmas.

Link to application on iTunes

Every day, following Christmas Day, there will be a free gift from Apple to you when you open the app on that day.
The first day (26th) was 2 remixed songs from Maroon 5 and a video, and the second day - today, the 27th, is a game called Score! which is a soccer (or football, depending where you're from) game.

The remaining 10 days are yet to be seen, but I'm sure there is something for everyone.

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Friday 14 December 2012

My Wii U experience

So far, not good.

I bought a Wii U premium black edition last night with the copy included of Nintendo Land.

As I was setting it up the screen went blank, and then nothing happened for about 20 minutes, I turned the power off. Then turned it back on. Nothing happened. The Wii controller showed that it could not connect to the Wii, even though I could power the Wii up with the power button from the controller.

So with a little bit of technical knowledge on things like this, I left it off for about 20 minutes unplugged from the power cable, and also pulled the power cable out of the wall socket.

Turned it back on with no luck. The TV continued to show no signal on the HDMI port that it had previously been working on. So I got the component cable from my old Wii and plugged that in to my TV and new Wii U thinking that perhaps the HDMI port had become faulty on the Wii or the TV as the Wii showed that it was on by the blue light, and the fan spinning. Still nothing. I then tried all the HDMI ports on the tv and the AV plugs I had. Nothing.

All this time the Wii Controller would not reconnect to the Wii, even though it could power the main unit on.

So I took it back this morning to the shop I bought it from, and got an exchange for a new one.

The second unit I had more success with, though only for a short time. The unit powered on fine, connected to the TV and Wii Controller. I was able to play a little bit of Nintendo Land and set up a Mii. Then, midway through a game on Nintendo Land, the Wii just froze, along with the Wii Controller, and I couldn't do anything. So with history repeating itself a bit, I turned off the Wii again, pulled the plugs out and tried again. Twice. Both times the machine powered on, but I was met with the Wii U screen logo on both the control and the TV, and cannot get any further.

I called the Nintendo support people who took down my serial number and suggested I leave the power off for about 30 minutes from both the wall outlet, and pulling the power out of the machine from the back. The guy I spoke to strongly suggested to do a system update as I bought the wii from the initial launch period. He recommended to me to power it back on and if I get the same screen to take it back a second time for a third new machine, but in the event I could get it going to do a system update.

So this is where I am now as I eat my lunch writing this entry. I'll update the blog later with an update of what happens.

If you have the same experience, I'd recommend calling Nintendo for help or taking your unit back. There seems to be a major issue with the firmware on the new Wii U systems that are being sold on launch day. A disappointing time for Nintendo who are already struggling in the gaming industry.

Update: Looks like it won't go past that screen after waiting the 30 minutes, so I'm taking back to the shops now.

Update 2: The place I bought it from was surprised to see me a third time so they unboxed a new Wii for me, set it up and downloaded all the necessary updates, and tested a few games to make sure it worked. Took it home and it's fine, playing Super Mario Bros for Wii U now. Looks like the firmware update is the key to be the first thing that needs to be done when getting a new Wii setup.

Hope all of that helped. :)


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Thursday 13 December 2012

Beware of Whatsapp scammers

A few hours ago I got a text from an unknown number to me on a popular texting app on smartphones called WhatsApp. After a quick google of the country code it showed that the number originated from Thailand.

If you ever get unsolicited text messages from anyone it's always helpful to try and google the number to see if it shows up anywhere. I've included my screenshot below from when I got the message.

It's very import and you just delete the message straightaway and do not click any of the links inside the message. Clicking the links inside will take you to a website which shows to the sender that you have validated your number and displayed in interest. The scammer will then continually likely send you text messages and all call you in order to get information from you.

In this instance, the number that I got the message from was +66 86 643 2701

Just a warning to everyone to not click any links you may get a message from from this number or from any number that you don't recognise for that matter.

This is another friendly public service announcement :)

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Windows 8: How to get the snipping tool back

If you've got Windows 8 and you used the snipping tool a lot in Windows 7 butyou can't find it in 8, you've come to the right place.

To get the snipping tool, go to Start by hitting the Windows key on your keyboard, or button if you're using a tablet. Then just start typing the word "snipping tool"

It's likely that before you even finish typing the two words the icon will appear. Click it, and away you go!

You can pin the snipping tool to the Start menu if you use it frequently by right-clicking the icon before you launch the program, and choosing "Pin to Start" down the bottom.
You can also do this with any application you use frequently. Just start typing the name if you don't see it, and pin it to the start menu. You can then rearrange your start menu as you like by dragging the tiles around to where you like them.

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Monday 10 December 2012

Windows 8: How to access "My Computer"

I've recently upgraded my computer to Windows 8, and I am the sort of person who keeps all of their files in organised folders - sort of. Since the introduction of the new operating system from the team at Redmond, aka Microsoft, I've found that accessing these files is not easy to do like it used to be. Either I'm not taking the right steps, or the options just aren't immediately accessible.

I have found a solution that works in the interim. On the right, is a picture of the task bar, with the familiar icons (the first two anyway) that come as standard with a Windows 7 installation. As I upgraded from Windows 7, I am unsure if they are standard with Windows 8, but this guide is going on the assumption that you either upgraded from 7 or they are standard in 8.

Clicking the folder icon will bring up the "Libraries" window which shows your documents, pictures, videos etc. On the right is a navigation pane, which you can use to view different folders on your computer. You'll notice that there is the "Favourites" section up the top, then the Libraries section, then Homegroup and finally Computer. The "Computer" section is the one we are interested in for this guide.

Right clicking it will give you a number of options, look for the one that shows "Pin to Start".

This will create a tile in your start menu, which you can access from literally any program simply by hitting the Windows key on your keyboard.

You can move this tile around by clicking and dragging it to the desired location in your start menu screen, giving you instant access to your hard drive, devices and network locations attached to your computer.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post in the comments section below.

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Wednesday 22 August 2012

Adding a table of contents to your report

Writing a report whether for school, for university or for a job is something most people will come across at least once in their life. One of the key features of a report is a table of contents. But instead of entering all the page numbers manually, and spending hours formatting it, most word processor applications such as Microsoft Word for Windows and Mac, and the Pages application from the iWork suite for Mac have a the table of contents feature built in.


This post is separated into three parts depending which software/system you are using.

  1. First is Pages for Mac, 
  2. Second is Word for Mac, 
  3. Third is Word for Windows

Please scroll down to find the section relevant for you!


Thursday 16 August 2012

New MacBook Air 13" Reviewed

My old laptop was getting a little slow for my personal use, and so I donated it to my better half for her use. And I got myself a new MacBook Air for Uni/Blogging/Photo editing purposes.

First off the bat, let me say that this is a great machine. The slim design, the battery life and the display are all fantastic, and I am really happy with it.

The thing that impressed me the most was the resolution on the 13" display. My previous laptop was a 15" MacBook Pro, with the same resolution. 1440x900. However having the same resolution on a smaller screen makes everything seem so much crisper than before. I did consider for a brief moment the MacBook Pro with the retina display but the price tag was a little too high given the specification it came with. I felt I just couldn't justify purchasing it. Having a resolution like this on a small screen is kinda like the improvement noticed between a using an iPhone 3G (and 3GS) then using an iPhone 4. Everything is sharper. And when it comes to reading text, or editing photos, you can really see the difference. But enough about the display, what else?

The size is perfect. 11", the model below the 13" felt too small when I picked it up in the shop. And the display did feel a little cramped when opening a webpage or a document. It's lightweight, unlike it's brothers in the "Pro" side, and the battery life is really good. Lasts just long enough for a day at uni, without the need to bring a charger.

The SSD (solid state drive) which is the internal storage for the laptop makes accessing files instant, and the power on time is much faster. There is virtually no lag at all on the machine when in use, however I have noticed that when resuming from standby, i.e. opening the laptop from closed position, that there is a bit of a delay before the input is recognised. Although the display does light up and show instantly, mouse movements and keyboard inputs are not recognised for approx 3-5 seconds, sometimes up to 10 seconds. However when in use, everything is a snap, and multi tasking is a breeze. The laptop can quite easily handle multiple applications open at the same time. For example, I have at least 10 apps open at the moment (in addition to the other system applications) and switching between them is instantaneous and responsive, this is because of the SSD and the 4GB of ram that the computer has, allowing multiple processes to easily be handled.

I am very thankful that Apple has decided to include a backlit keyboard with the Macbook Air's as it makes working in low light conditions, like on an Airplane, or in a dimly lit coffee shop (like where I am posting this right now) great, without having to strain your eyes to see where all the keys are.

One noticeable change with the move the ultrabook computing (MacBook Air falling into this catagory) is that there is an absolute minimum on external connections and ports. The most obvious example is the omission of a CD/DVD drive. Most Apple software that previously came on discs is available through their new "App Store


This store sells a lot of software made by Apple and other developers, and even includes entire Operating System upgrades - which is a huge change in the way that users upgrade their operating system. Normally this would involve buying a disk with a unique code that would assign itself to your computer. However with the introduction of the App store, software is now sold and assigned to your AppleID, or email address which is used to identify yourself with Apple. This means that if your computer get's stolen or damaged and is no longer useable, once you get a replacement computer all the previously paid for applications can be re-downloaded to your computer at no cost, as you have already paid for them. All you need to do is sign into the store with your Apple ID (or email address) and you can view your purchases. When I was at the Apple store, I signed in to the App Store on my new laptop and I was instantly able to download all of my applications! This was a huge bonus for me. So the omission of the CD drive is significant, but much of the content from discs is now available online, movies and music included. In the rare case you do need to use a CD drive you can "borrow" the drive from a nearby Mac via wireless, or you can purchase a USB drive which attaches itself to your computer.

Finally the exterior. This was another reason I picked the 13" over the 11". The additional port for the SD card slot made the 13" a clear winner for me. Having a hobby in photography, being able to shove my SD card into the side of the laptop without the need to actually get the camera, and a cable plugged into the laptop is a huge help and saves time and effort in getting my pictures onto my computer for editing as quick as possible.



There is not a lot wrong with this laptop. At all. Apart from setting up bootcamp (read: installing windows) on to this computer which I could see to be a problem this laptop has it all. For the amount of power packed into this very lightweight machine, the two USB3 ports, the thunderbolt port and the SD port this machine is very reasonably priced especially with the latest 3rd generation ivy bridge processor.

For an everyday laptop with punch, battery life, and speed, this is an excellent buy and I have yet to complain about anything. 5 out of 5 stars from me.


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Saturday 23 June 2012

Galaxy S III and iPhone 4S comparison (Australia)

The two hottest selling phones on the market at the moment are the Galaxy S and the iPhone. Both Samsung and Apple are battling it out for customers and market share, along with a more behind the scenes legal battle with respect to patents.

Three weeks ago the Galaxy S III hit the shelves in the Australian market, and as my contract expired I was up for a new phone. I had bought outright the 4S on the day of it's release in Aus replace my damaged phone I had prior, and since a lot of similarities between both phones are found, people are wanting to know - whats better? There are numerous videos on the YouTube and many other sites compare the phone, so this is an Australian perspective.


Galaxy S III Home Screen
In short, both phones have lots of strong points that they both share. The battery life is great, photos and videos are excellent, and being both smart phones they have a whole host of apps available to them. I used my iPhone quite a fair bit and took it overseas, and used it as my digital camera. Saved me having to carry around two devices. Photo's I've taken with my Galaxy in the few short weeks I've had it have also been excellent.


The range of apps on the Apple app store is second to none. And it's proabably the biggest selling point for an iOS device for me. The sheer range of apps and amazing list of things they can all do is quite simply huge. I have yet to find an app that can't do what I'm wanting it to do. Android has a bit of catching up to do in this area, and may never catch up due to the strong developer and ease of use focus that Apple has for their system. That said, many of the popular apps are available on both phones and my personal ones, such as my banks app, flipboard, facebook, etc can be found on both, and usually there is an app which will do similar things on Android that Apple has, and vice versa.


The most obvious difference between the two phones/platforms is the way the "home" interface is used. In iOS, the home screen contains your apps, and app folders. In Android you have a home screen which has widgets and apps on it. Widgets include things like weather, clocks, play/pause buttons etc. Things you'd normally have to open an app for in iOS but can see in a dashboard style look on the one screen. Live wallpapers, such as one that interacts with the weather, and changes the backdrop accordingly are part of Android compared to Apple's picture only wallpaper.


iPhone 4S Home Screen
In terms of functionality, there are things that one phone can do that the other can't. Some of the stand out comparisons for me include the sync'ing of your iTunes playlists to your phone. Because the iPhone doubles as an iPod, you can put your music from your iTunes playlist, via a sync to your phone. Android doesn't have an iPod, rather it has a music player, which does the same thing, but doesn't have the sync functionality. But the voice feature (Siri) on the iPhone doesn't know anything about local restaurants, or driving directions in Australia, where as S Voice recognises you asked for directions, and will open up Google maps presenting you with a choice, which then loads the driving directions through GPS. S Voice is more or less a carbon copy of Siri, and I don't really use either that often. Both can send messages and schedule appointments for you, but after a while the novelty wears off, and I pretty much stopped using it a few weeks after getting my iPhone.


If you're looking for features like cloud sync - i.e. keeping your photos, calendars, contacts, bookmarks, tasks, email etc all together, in one place and accessible from pretty much anywhere, the good thing is that both phones do just that. Android has GMail, Google calendar, tasks etc, and Apple has iCloud. You simply sign in when you first use the phone and both are freely available. On Android, it's all set up for you as soon as you sign in, you just accept the conditions, and iPhone will take you through the step-by-step.


Both phones are pretty similar in terms of functionality, and ability. The main differences are the cosmetics of the phone, the screen size, the interface, and what the phone can do without needing to download any additional apps for the same level of functionality. i.e. the Galaxy S comes pre built with a video player that supports a huge range of codecs that allow all sorts of videos to be played, whereas you need an app (possibly one at additional cost) for that on iOS. The built in task app wasn't to my taste on the Galaxy S, so I downloaded another.

If you're in the market for a new phone, my suggestion is to look at the phones, go to your carrier's shop and ask for the demo models. Hold them, and have a look in the flesh and see what you think, then compare the prices and plans. Both phones are really excellent and offer plenty of functionality. I have been very impressed with both.

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Tuesday 15 May 2012

How to stop the iPhone's screen rotating

Was asked yesterday about how to lock the iPhone's screen from rotating when you view it side on. I thought a few of you out there might find this useful, so here is a step by step guide to follow. It's really simple!

Start by double tapping the home button.

This will pop the screen up and show you your recently used applications. Once this appears, swipe your finger right, and it will show this screen:

This screen has a few options. You can play and pause your music, you can go to the iPod, or you can lock the screen, by clicking on the icon to the left.
Once you've clicked it, the icon will change to a padlock, as shown below:

If you press the home button once more, your screen will now be locked. And a little icon indicating this will appear in the top right hand side of the screen in what is sometimes referred to as the "tray", but next to the battery icon.



















That's it - it's that simple. If you decide you'd like to turn rotation back on, you can do so at any time from any screen your on.

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Tuesday 8 May 2012

Wrong Date/Time on Mac after shutdown?

Your computer's clock is set to a date before Jan 1, 2008. This may cause some applications to behave erratically.

This happened to me about 15 minutes ago after my laptop ran out of battery last night whilst I was using my computer, and the power cut out.

The error on the screen looked like this:
When I clicked on to my time in the top right hand corner of the screen, I noticed that the clock's time had returned to normal.

However, this can cause problems for you if it's not automatically set back, so here's how you can fix it.

Click the system preferences icon in the dock, as shown below, or click the Apple Icon at the top left hand corner of the screen, and choose system preferences from the drop-down box.
In the system preferences pane, choose Date & Time, then tick the box to automatically update if it isn't already, and that should connect to the Apple servers to update the time.

That said, you can always leave it un-ticked, and set the time manually yourself if you like, and that will resolve the problem.

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Monday 30 April 2012

A complete idiots guide to twitter

Twitter is another type of social networking you've no doubt heard of, but if you're like many that haven't even looked at it, or ever understood what it's for, you've come to the right place!

In short, twitter is a service that allows you to share what your up to, whats on your mind, what's new, what's going on, what's trending etc. There is a limit to how much you can write with a limitation of 140 characters per tweet.

There are different types of users too. Some are companies, most are individuals, some are blogs, some are news sites, others are spam. You get all sorts on twitter.

Apart from "tweeting" what you're up to, or whatever your tweet is, you can also "follow" people. This principle is similar to the friend feature on facebook, except that most people don't have their profile on private, in fact by default your account is public, which means anyone can follow you and get your updates.

Many people don't even use twitter to post anything, rather they just use it to follow others (myself included) to get their updates and find out whats happening. The way I use twitter is to get news updates from specific companies that I have an interest in. For example, you can follow Microsoft, Google, Apple, your bank, your phone carrier, your friends, your local news publisher, and so on. In this way you essentially get a customised news feed which gives you updates and news on places, companies and people you care about.

Personally, I think this is the best thing about twitter, and this is the primary reason I use it.

Let's get into a few guides on how to use and interact with twitter.

Firstly, you'll have to get an account. When you navigate to twitter.com for the first time, you'll get a login screen, and a prompt to sign up for a new account. It will look similar to this:

In order to sign up, just enter your details in the box that says "New to Twitter?" then click the yellow button below.

The next screen will confirm your details and ask you to create a username. This username will appear all over twitter whenever you make tweets or when people refer to you in a tweet. This can be changed later if you need to. It looks a little like this.
Finally, you click create my account. You will then be presented with a quick set-up which will help you find your friends on twitter, help you locate potential people/companies/etc to follow

Towards the end of the set-up guide, the service will ask you for a short Bio about yourself, with a limitation of 160 characters, and the option to upload a profile picture. None of any of this information is required, however I'd recommend putting at least something in. Even if it is very basic information. Eg. "My hobby is stamps", or something.

This is the final step to the set-up guide of creating a twitter account on the twitter website. The next screen you'll see is the main screen. This will change over time as you start to follow more and more people. But it might look like this when you first start. You may also be asked to confirm your email address with twitter.

On the left hand side of the screen, you can see worldwide trends, which you can customise to be your location, by clicking change.

Above this box is your profile box, where you can create a new tweet, see how many people you follow, how many follow you, and how many tweet's you've made since creating your account.

The last piece of info I'll go into in this guide is the hashtag section. A hashtag is a tag you can add to your tweets when you are tweeting about something that is relevant to an event, time, news or something happening. For example, looking at the list of trending topics posted in the screenshot, Titatic is a topic which is getting a lot of attention on twitter at the moment. If you were to write a tweet about the Titanic movie, you could include a Titanic hashtag in your tweet. An example tweet could be: "Going to see a ship destroyed by an iceberg in 3D. Should be awesome. #Titanic" In this way, you are referring to the titanic, but not actually including it in your sentence. It's a good way to add topics to your tweet, whilst reducing the word count, and keeping up with current trends.

That's it. With all this info at hand you should have a basic idea about twitter, how it works, and how to use it. If you have any questions, please feel free to post in the comments below, and I'll do my best to answer you.

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Friday 27 April 2012

Google Drive: What is it, and how do I use it?

Google announced recently it's remote storage services called Google Drive. This is similar to the hard drive in your computer, except it's stored on Google's servers remotely, which means for you, you can access your files anywhere you have an internet connection. No more having to carry USB's around for printing documents and sharing files.
The only limitation on the service - which is free to use - is that the storage space is 5GB. If you're only storing documents, then it will more than likely be more than enough, however, if you feel that you need more space, you can upgrade to some paid options of 25GB, 100GB and higher if you need.

Basically, how it works is that the installer, which you can download from the site, creates a folder on your computer which you can then create sub-folders for if you need, or just copy and paste your documents into this folder, and they will automatically be synced to the cloud, or Google's Drive.

Then, when you go to another location, you can just sign in and your files can be seen on the screen, available for download.

Let's get into some screen shots to show what this all means.













Let's quickly go over the boxes.
- Blue: Main menu options, from here you can create, star, share, trash etc. Similar to GMail's main option
- Purple: You can share, organise, delete, and preview documents with this button.
- Orange: Your actual files you have on Google drive. Note that it can read pages, numbers and keynote files created using Mac's iWork suite.
- Green is a link to the file that creates the program on your computer.

Apart from syncing files, you can also create new files, documents, power presentations etc, by clicking the big create button at the top left. You can also upload your files manually too, if you like, by clicking the upload button which is next to the create button.

If you'd like to install the software, Google will set one folder which automatically syncs with the server, so any files in this folder will be on the Google Drive, backed up in the cloud.

I'd recommend saving a project folder as a sub-folder on your drive, so any files you save here are automatically backed up. In this example below, you can see my files are mirrored on my computer as they are created, and automatically sent to the Google Drive application.



That's the basics of Google drive.

If you've got any specific questions, feel free to ask me or make a post in the comments for all to see.


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Wednesday 25 April 2012

A quick guide to uploading videos to YouTube

Everyone on the internet has been to or watched a video on YouTube before, unless of course you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years. But have you ever shared one of your own videos? YouTube is the perfect place to share one of your videos with whoever you want, and you can choose if you'd like to keep the video private or not.

This quick guide will teach you how to upload your first video to YouTube which you can then use to upload subsequent videos if you like.

To start, let's point our internet browser to http://www.youtube.com/

Then on the right hand side, as shown below, click on the upload button. If it's not there, you may need to sign in, or sign up.

Then, you'll be presented with this screen:

Click on the button below the upload icon that says "Select files from your computer"

Once you've found the file you are wanting to use (I recommend saving the video to your desktop to find it easily) select it, and choose, upload.

Once you've chosen the file to upload, it will start uploading, but whilst it's doing that you'll be presented with this screen which has a few important options, so make sure you clearly select the options you want.
The green boxes are where you want to name your video, give it a description, and some tags. The title will help people find it.
The red box is the box that will determine how public or private a video is.
- Public speaks for itself
- Unlisted means the video can be seen by anyone that has the unique link, and it will not show up in searches on google or anything like that.
- The last option is only available to other people that have a specific YouTube account and require them to sign in.

I'd recommend an unlisted video. It allows anyone with the link, (that you will email to them so they can see) to view it, but stops it coming up in searches and to the general public.

Unless of course the video is one you don't mind sharing with the entire world, then choose public.

Once the upload completes, you can click Video manager, (top right) to be taken to the management screen of all your videos. From here you can get the link to your video, and then share it with anyone you like.

That's it! You've just uploaded your first video to share.

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Tuesday 24 April 2012

Keeping your Mac up-to-date

Since the recent news of a Mac malware that was brought to light, a few friends have asked me - how do I know if my Mac is secure and if it is up-to-date? Well this post will explain how to keep your Mac up-to-date, and ensure you have the latest patches and software updates.

The first step is to open software update. If you look at the top right hand side of the screen, it will have an Apple icon. Clicking it will give you this menu. Choose software update.


Clicking software update will present you with this box:
Once that progress bar reaches the end, you'll get one of two boxes.
If there is a software update for your computer, you'll be able to install the updates by clicking install, and if you have the latest software, you'll get a box saying your system is up-to-date, such as below:
That's it. Easy done!

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Friday 20 April 2012

The fire from the sky still falls. Diablo III has not yet launched.

When trying to install the game you get this error message: "The fire from the sky still falls. Diablo III has not yet launched." and a screen that looks like this:

Click to zoom

If you're wondering what this error means, because you're trying to install the public beta opening this weekend, it means that you have downloaded the retail version of the game, and the version available for play this weekend is for beta clients only, not with retail clients (which is a slightly different install).

You should be able to access the Diablo 3 beta download from Blizzard's page here https://us.battle.net/account/download/index.xml

Note that you need a battle.net account to use it. You can sign up for a free account through this site too.

UPDATE #1 (24/04/2012) : As the public BETA weekend is now over, you will not be able to access the game unless you have been invited to do so with a BETA key.

UPDATE #2 (11/05/2012): Blizzard have announce on their blog that:
We will be unlocking the game's installer at 17:01 CEST on May 14. This will allow you to begin installing the game, troubleshoot any issues you run into, download and install the launch day 1.0.1 patch, and be ready to play as soon as the servers come online.
So this error after this date will no longer be a problem.

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How to get Smiley Faces and Icons for texting on an iPhone [Emoji Keyboard]

I have been asked many times by friends how to get the smiley faces in their texts to their friends. Well, if you have an iPhone with the latest software update (currently 5.1) you're in luck.

It's quite simple to turn the keyboard on, and once it's on, you are ready to go. I'll put a quick caveat in, that this does work over iMessage, and other chat clients like WhatsApp, but I am not 100% sure on compatibility for general SMS messages. Some seem to work, some don't. Feel free to try and if it works - great! If not, maybe check the recipient has a recent phone with the most up-to-date software.

Here's the step by step guide of how to turn it on for iPhone.

On the home screen, go to settings.
Scroll down to General
Scroll down to select International


















Choose Keyboards


















Choose add new keyboard
Pick Emoji from the list
















 

You should have two keyboards listed.


















 Go to Home screen
Choose the Messages App


















You should have a little globe icon in the corner of the screen, tap it.

Now you have the Emoji keyboard up.
You can scroll through the list of smileys by swiping left or right, and seeing all the options you have available to use and if you choose one of the icons down the bottom, this changes the tile set, and you have a whole bunch of new icons to choose from.
Hope that helps!

Feel free to share this article with your friends using the share buttons below.

Thursday 5 April 2012

Setting up any printer to use over a network in Windows

If you've bought a printer that's promised network printing, and it's come with a bunch of CD's, but you're having trouble getting it working, fear not, for there is a simple way to get it going.

Before we start, note that this guide has been designed for windows XP, however, the similarities between windows 7 are quite close, so you should be able to adjust easily, and follow along.

  1.  The first step in this guide is turn off all your devices, including your modem, computer, and anything that connects to the network, including Wifi devices, but leave on the printer attached to the modem/router.
  2. Next, what we want to do is just power on your modem/router so that the only device it's connected to is the printer. The purpose of these first two steps is to get the router to assign the first available IP address to your printer, which we'll come to later in this guide.
  3. Then you can start to turn back on the other computers and devices that connect to the network.
  4. Once on, click start, then go to printers and faxes in the menu.
  5. Click add printer in the column on the left hand side.
  6. In the wizard that pops up, click next to start the process.
  7. The next screen will ask you for a local or a network printer. This is a very confusing question as we are adding a network printer, but it's on a local network, which means that we will choose the first option, a local printer attached to this computer. Click Next.
  8. On the next page, go to bottom option which is create a new port, and then in the drop-down list, choose "Standard TCP/IP port"
  9. When you hit next a new wizard will popup showing add port wizard.
  10. This screen will ask you for the IP address of the printer. This will probably be one of the harder steps to complete as it's not immediately obvious which TCP/IP address you need to use.
  11. The best way to check this for your printer would be look on the actual printer through the screens on it's mini screen if it has one. Failing that, you can log on to the modem/router and check the DCHP table. If this sounds a bit too technical for you, don't fret, we can try and take a pretty calculated guess at what the port will be.
    1. Click start, then click run, and type CMD, then hit enter
    2. Type ipconfig on the black dialogue box that appears.
    3. You should see a few sets of number depending on what set up you have, but we are interested in the IP address of your computer, and the IP address of the default gateway.
    4. If you default gateway is 10.1.1.1, and your computers IP address is 10.1.1.3 for example, it's pretty safe to bet that your printer is 10.1.1.2 because remember at step 2 earlier in this guide we turned on the printer first?
    5. Similarly, if the address for the default gateway is 192.168.1.1, and your computer is 192.168.1.3 (see the pattern here) then your printer could be 192.168.1.2
  12. With these addresses in mind, type the missing address in the box on the wizard screen, and then hit next.
  13. If you have problems a this stage it probably means that the printer wasn't able to be located, or the address we have is incorrect. You can click back to try a different one if you wish. If not you may need to get the help of a technical friend or call in a computer tech to help.
  14. With not problems, it should find the printer and prompt for a driver you'd like to use. In this screen you can choose from the list if your printer is listed, if it isn't pick the closest model, and failing that, chuck the CD into the drive, and click have disk.
    1. Clicking have disk will open a new window, asking for the location of the disk, and to search automatically which you can choose to do.
  15. Once the driver has been found hit next and it will install the printer on your system.
  16. If it asks to keep the same driver, I would also recommend this as it's known to work, and we want to keep using something that works :)
  17. The next screen will offer to name the printer and ask if you'd like to print a test page.
  18. Now the momemt of truth - print the test page and if it comes through you're good to go. If not you may have missed something along the way I'd recommend going back and checking you've done each step.
  19. Now click finish
  20. You're done!

I will also post a guide to adding a network printer on a Mac shortly.

Tuesday 3 April 2012

How do I get the battery percentage my iPhone?

Sometimes the little icon in the top right hand side of the screen just isn't enough to know how much juice your battery really has.

If your like me, and you find charging the phone annoying, or you'd rather avoid it if you can, a good way to check to see if the battery is going to last you the rest of the day is to use a percentage value to find out how much charge your battery has left in it, which can be the difference between having a usable phone later in the day if you go out somewhere that evening, and might need your phone.

Apple don't have this option turned on by default, and to the extend of my knowledge, it's only available as an option from the iPhone 3GS models and newer, so if you have a 3G, your sweet out of luck, and you may as well stop reading here.

To set up the battery percentage meter, follow these steps.

  1. Go to settings
  2. Click General (you may have to scroll down a bit)
  3. Choose usage
  4. Scroll right down to Battery Usage heading
  5. Slide the switch to "ON"

You'll notice that the battery's charge value, in percentage has appeared next to the battery icon. This will indicate to you the amount of battery remaining and will permanently be displayed there until you turn the switch to "OFF"

Hopefully this will help you manage how much battery you've got and help decide whether you need to charge again sooner rather than later. It may also help you see how much usage your phone is actually taking up during the day, and allow you to kill any unnecessary apps running in the background.

Setting an Email Signature [How-to]

If you send a lot of emails, and you use emails for business or some kind of organisation or you just want to better represent yourself when creating an email to people, an email signature is a good way to go about this.

An email signature is a tagline or default bottom section to an email which outlines who you are, who you work for, and ways to contact you.

Depending which email program you use there are different ways to set it up so I'll run through what a signature should look like, followed by a few client walk throughs to get you started.



How a signature should look:


Generally there are a few ways about doing this, and can depend on if you want to include a logo or not. In my example I have decided not to include a logo, but I will point out where it could be placed if you did decide to include one. Keep in mind this is just how I like a signature to look, feel free to customise in any way you wish.
-----------------------------------

Regards,

Firstname Lastname
Position Title
Department

Company or Organisation Name (can be replaced with a logo)
e: name@example.com
p: (123) 4567 8910
w: http://www.example.com/
-----------------------------------


Setting up a signature on Mail for Mac:


When you've got mail open, follow these steps.

  1. Click the word Mail, next to the Apple icon
  2. Choose preferences from the drop-down list
  3. Along the tab up the top, select signatures.
  4. Click the plus sign
  5. Type a name for your signature
  6. Type the signature in the box on the right.
  7. Tick the box that says to match the message font.
  8. Ensure that Place signature above quoted text is ticked
  9. Close the box
  10. Open a new email, and you should see your signature there.

Setting up a signature on Outlook 2010:

Open outlook, and follow these steps
  1. Open a blank email.
  2. On the message tab, in the group "include", click signature
  3. Then click Signatures...
  4. In the email signature tab, click new
  5. Type your signature in, and hit save
  6. Close the box and you should be back in your blank email
  7. Click the signature button again, and you should see your signature
  8. Click the saved name, and it will appear at the bottom of your email.

Setting up a signature on an iPhone, iPad, iPod:

Get to your home screen, then select settings.
  1. In settings flick down to Mail, Contacts, Calendars
  2. Choose this option, the scroll to Signature
  3. Choose signature, and you'll have a box where you can type your signature
  4. If you don't want a signature at all, delete any text here.
  5. If you'd like to change the default "Sent from my iPhone" then simply remove the text you don't want and type the text you do.
  6. When done, choose the back arrow, and you'll be back in settings.
  7. If you hit home, and go to the mail app, and create a new message, your signature should be automatically populated.

I hope this guide was simple enough for you, but if you were unable to get it to work, or you have a different version of one of the programs I've listed a guide for, feel free to make a comment below and I can add a guide for your version, or at least point you in the right direction :)

Wednesday 28 March 2012

What does limited or no connectivity mean? And how to fix?


Update: If you are a Windows 7 or a Windows 8 user, the message you get may show that your Internet connection says limited access.

If you're using Windows XP, and you can't connect to the internet or anything else on your network, there is a good chance you've got this error. You may have a box with words similar to the image below appear on your screen.
What's happened? Well, when your computer connects to your modem or wireless router, it is asking for an address that is can use to communicate with other computers. If for whatever reason your modem/router is unable to give this address you get this error.
There are a couple of ways this can happen. Usually you've plugged the cables in, or your computer's wifi connection is up, but it's not getting any data flow.
As a result, there are a few different ways to fix it.
  • Start by turning everything off for at least 1 minute. This includes the modem, the router, the computer and anything else you use on your network. This is also known as a power cycle.
  • When everything is back up and powered on, if you're still getting the same error, you can try repairing the connection by hitting the repair button (as shown above)
  • If this doesn't fix it, there is a command you can run through the command line program in windows which should help resolve the issue.
    • Open the command line by clicking Start, then choosing Run
    • At the prompt, type "cmd" (without the quotes) and hit enter
    • You should have a black screen up with a prompt waiting for you to enter some text
    • At this point, type in "netsh winsock reset" (again without the quotes)
    • You will get a message saying successfully reset the winsock catalog, and it will say you need to reboot the machine.
    • Reboot your computer.
  • Lastly, if you're still reading and it's still not working, you can try factory resetting your modem/router that your computer is connecting to, which usually involves pressing the reset button on the back of the modem where all the plugs go or you can try with another modem/router.
These steps also apply to Windows Vista, and Windows 7. The error message is slightly different, saying "Connected with limited access" however, the steps taken to fix the issue are the same.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Setting up any printer to use with AirPrint for iOS devices.

I'll start off by saying this problem has annoyed me for a while.

When I first learned of AirPrint, I thought great! What an awesome idea, then I learned that Apple only wanted to limit it to a specific range of printers and this annoyed me, why couldn't we just use any printer attached to a computer that was part of the same wireless network to print?

Apparently, according to many, many other people, I'm not the only one who thinks this way, and thanks to the developers at Netputing there is a solution! They've designed a handy little piece of software which allows sharing over the wireless network in your house to provide for AirPrint. And it works well.

Without re-writing their webpage, head over to http://netputing.com/airprintactivator/airprint-activator-v2-0/ to download their latest version, as well as a handy video and screenshots for set up. Normally, I'd be happy to do that here, however they've already done the hard work and made it simple to use on their site.

The best part about their software? It's free. If however you do like the software, and you'd like to thank them for their hard work, they do have a donate button on the top of their site, and for such a great, simple piece of software that works so well, you may decide you'd like to contribute. I did, as I have been really happy with it.

Hello World!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog here.

This is just a small project dedicated to tech support, and helping people out with issues they might not find an easy answer to on the web. If you are having a problem with it, you can always let me know, and I'll try my best to make a post about your particular problem, and then everyone can share the knowledge, as chances are, another person has the same question as you!