Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Notes on iPhone and iPad

I use Notes extensively! Anything I might need to know or have with me or keep for future reference is in a Note and backed up to iCloud. Here are some examples:

combinations, furnace filter size, battery sizes, when you changed the oil, medications you take, wifi passwords (to routers), movies you want to see, gift idea lists, phone conversation, who you talked to, date. 

Have iPhone or iPad read books aloud (without audio version)!

I just came across this article on techradar on how you can put your settings to have your iPad or iPhone read your ebook to you aloud while you are driving or hands are busy! I want to save these directions for future use!

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/how-to-make-ipad-or-iphone-read-books-aloud-1297675

Saturday, July 4, 2015

iPhone shortcuts

One of my favorites is under Keyboard Shortcuts
General>Keyboard>Shortcuts
You will see a few defaults there.

The one I use the most is completing my email address without manually typing it every time. Use the + sign at the top right of the screen. 
Under Phrase, type your complete email address.
Under Shortcut, type @g, for example. Now when I'm typing a text or completing a login, all I have to type is "@g" and my gmail address types out in full! If you have more than one email address (work, home, junk), just assign the other ones with a different letter after the @ sign!

Other examples are your mailing address, phone number, work, title, phrases like "talk to you later" (I just type ttyl and it types it all out).
 

Back up your cell phone!!

I can't tell you how many times I have had to wipe off my cell phones, and if I did not have a backup, I would be VERY lost! Nowadays, so many people keep a lot of important information on their cell phones, so it is very important!

I have an iPhone and use both the iCloud backup AND sync it to my iTunes on my MacBook Pro at least once a month.

I do not backup my calendar, mail or contact to the Cloud because I use gmail, google calendar and google contacts, which have those items stored online already.

The best setting for contacts in google to sync without errors between your iPhone, iPad and online is to use CardDAV and ONLY CardDAV for contacts. The default settings on iPhone and iPad will have your contacts sync with main settings, but you need to turn those OFF and only use CardDAV. This prevents duplicates!

First go to Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars. For each account you have, turn OFF Contacts syncing.
Next create an account using CardDAV as the type of account.
     Server:  google.com
     User name: put in your full email address, including @gmail.com
     Password: your email password
     Description: Gmail CardDAV

Under Advanced settings, make sure "Use SSL" is turned on and the Port is 443.

Now, whenever you change, add or delete a contact (on any device), it will update it in all those places within a few minutes instead of making a duplicate!

For another safety setting, you should back up your contacts from google contacts at least every month or so.

Happy 4th of July!

It's been more than two years since I wrote on here. My last post is about my youngest son starting college! Well I'm proud to say he finished that 2.5 year degree two months ago, and graduated with honors! He also was hired for a job the same day he graduated!

I am very thankful for the sacrifices our soldiers made to give us the freedoms we have today. Praying that the current "powers that be" stop giving away those freedoms by making choices that our country's forefathers built into our Constitution.