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Guides & How-Tos

Tutorial reminder: Try making a new user

[Published Tuesday, June 10th]

There are two main levels at which software problems can occur: the user level and the system level.

Recall that Mac OS X, with its Unix roots, is user-based. Each user has a home directory (with its own Documents, Music, Library, Preferences, and other built-in folders), and permissions are supposed to guarantee that users cannot trespass on one another's territory. It's easy to forget about this, though, because most of us have just one user - ourselves. (And that user is usually the computer's administrator as well.)

When problems occur, one of the … Read more

Your iPhone has a built-in AT&T email address

iPhones, like most other data-enabled phones from AT&T, have a built-in email-to-text address:

yournumber@txt.att.net

Sending a message to this address (replace "yournumber" with your line of service number -- full number including area code with no dashes and no preceding "1") will result in a text message arriving on your iPhone through the built in SMS application. Text messaging charges apply.

Note: For unknown reasons, this feature may not work for all AT&T subscribers. If you receive a bounce-back, try calling AT&T's technical support for assistance. … Read more

Crashing (especially Safari)? Remove Input Managers first!

[Published Friday, July 6th]

A recent cartoon in The New Yorker shows a doctor telling his patient: "Sure, it's a routine procedure, if you routinely have someone slice you open with sharp instruments and then fiddle with your insides." Pretty funny, eh? Who would "routinely" permit that? Yet MacFixIt readers do routinely do something analogous to applications that they depend on - and then they wonder why those applications are behaving oddly.

We here at a MacFixIt continue to receive email from people who are disregarding our advice about Input Managers. How many times do … Read more

How to Clone the Tiger Installer DVD to a FireWire Drive

[Published Thursday, July 5th]

It sometimes happens that, in an extreme situation, it is necessary to reinstall the system. We have, indeed, explained in a recent tutorial that this is not difficult or time-consuming, and that it can be an easy and reliable way to restore the system to a known, clean state without losing any data.

However, the technique we advised in that tutorial does have one step that can be slightly troublesome: "Locate and start up from your system installer disk." The assumption here is that you've got something like a Tiger installer DVD. But … Read more

The iPhone's multi-language support: English-only input, other languages display

Several readers have asked if the iPhone supports languages other than English. Jeffrey Williams writes:

"Here is a question I have not seen addressed anywhere: does the iPhone support ideographic languages like Chinese and Japanese? OS X support for display and input of these languages is quite good, and my Treo runs an OS extension that allows for using these languages. If someone sends a Chinese SMS to an iPhone, can it be displayed?"

The answer is that while the iPhone cannot accept input text in languages other than English and currently offers no options to display interface … Read more

Integrating the iPhone with car Bluetooth systems

We previously noted that the iPhone is significantly hampered with regard to Bluetooth connectivity. Under Mac OS X, Apple's Bluetooth File Exchange cannot send files to the iPhone and iSync cannot be used to synchronize with the iPhone. We've also yet to hear of a Windows utility that can perform an Bluetooth-based synchronization or exchange with the iPhone.

The iPhone can however, integrate easily with most cars' hands-free Bluetooth systems. We've identified some compatible systems, and instructions for a few.

Toyota (Prius and other models) The iPhone integrates well with this system. Instructions for pairing from iPhone … Read more

Talkety: Working VOIP for the iPhone (sort of)

Searching for a viable VOIP solution for the iPhone, we recently gave Talkety a test run. In a nutshell, the service works as you'd expect: some slight delay, but overall decent voice quality.

To sign up, you simply enter a login name and password as well as your name. You're then prompted to enter your iPhone's phone number, at which point you'll receive a phone call from Talkety asking you to enter a verification code. You'll be given a free .50 British pound credit to experiment with the service.

To make a call, you fill … Read more

How to use prepaid service with the iPhone: Getting functionality without a contract

TUAW has instructions for using prepaid service with the iPhone. Essentially, connect a just-purchased iPhone (or one with an inactivated SIM card) to your computer and begin the iTunes activation process, then enter 99-99-9999 as your social security number. Your credit will (obviously) be denied, and you will be presented with options to go to an AT&T store and put down a deposit, or choose an AT&T prepaid plan, allowing you to "auto pay in advance each month for service using a credit or debit card."

The prepaid plans appear to be unique to … Read more

What can you do with Bluetooth on the iPhone?; Bluetooth File Exchange, iSync do not work

The iPhone has Bluetooth 2.0 EDR built-in, but so far it seems to carry little functionality outside use of accessories like the Apple Bluetooth headset.

Apple's Bluetooth File Exchange for Mac OS X cannot send files to the iPhone stating "Device does not have the necessary services."

iSync for Mac OS X cannot be used to synchronize with the iPhone via Bluetooth, delivering the message "iSync can not connect to this device."

We've yet to hear reports of Windows applications that can successfully interact with the iPhone via Bluetooth.

So, what can be … Read more