Boosting Netflix’s Sound on iPhone & iPad …

How can I increase the volume while watching Netflix — beyond maxing out the sound control?

Settings > Music > EQ > Late Night

Really, is that all it takes to increase the volume of sound when the volume controls are already maxed out? Yes, try it …

Managing Apple Watch Alarms Using Siri …

This article will show you how to instruct Siri to set, label, reuse and otherwise manage your Apple Watch alarms …

You probably know how to ask Siri to create alarms on your Apple Watch by saying something like “Hey Siri! Set an alarm for 7.30 am”. Viola! She dutifully sets a generic alarm for 7.30 am. Easy, but she can do much more. Read on.

How to get Siri to use Google Maps: Just add “via transit” to your command …

When asking Siri for directions Just add “via transit” to your command!

Since Apple maps don’t include transit options, you’ll be presented with a selection of Transport Apps, which will include Google Maps if you have it installed. The location information will be handed off to Google Maps. This can be a lot easier than entering the address directly into the Google Maps app. No jailbreak required.

Anticipating a slow iPhone/iPad iOS5 update?

An iOS 5 update to your iPhone or iPad can take an hour — or three, or four. I recommend you choose to “download only” first and then “update” later. In so doing you can untether your iPhone/iPad and leave iTunes to take its time downloading the file. If you choose “update” you cannot untether the device from your computer and you may be in for a very long wait.

App Store “Error 1004 please try again later” on iPhone and iPad?

By all accounts, from googling the experiences of others, issues from clock time to full memory can trigger the iPhone and iPad App Store “Error 1004 please try again later”.

I was simply trying to update my installed apps. The problem hit me simultaneously on iPhone and iPad — which is a hint that the problem is server side.

No amount of waiting to try again later made a difference. Not resetting the time. Nor restarting my iPhone/iPad. Nor rebooting my iPhone/iPad. Nor deleting a couple of videos to recover memory (even though I wasn’t short on available RAM to start with). Nor even switching between 3G and WiFi, thereby excluding router issues.

For me the solution was different and simple.

Apple’s dark side emerging: iPhone patent will allow third parties to turn OFF your camera!

What the hell is Apple thinking? New Apple patent US20110128384 will allow 3rd parties to disable your camera …

iPhone: AT&T vs Verizon. Which way to go?

I’m an AT&T subscriber, but that hardly makes me biased in their favour. Welcome to the iPhone Verizon, I think the competition will be good for keeping AT&T on their toes. I considered switching but there’s a killer problem with Verizon’s service which AT&T isn’t playing up very well to their advantage — so I’ll say it here.

The iPhone thinks the iPad is a uPas! Huh?

The iPhone’s spell check tries to correct your spelling of iPad by offering up uPas? Hopefully the next iPhone OS upgrade will update the dictionary.

BTW I’m perfectly happy with my iPad nano — the iPhone itself!

iPhone’s Success Sucks the Life Out of AT&T’s Service in NYC

In spite of full 3G signal strength AT&T’s service in New York City doesn’t have the bandwidth to squeeze in another 160 characters. It’s bad and rapdily getting worse!

Suggested reading Apple and AT&T Have Reportedly Worked Closely on 3G Network Performance Issues and AT&T Addressing Network Performance in Manhattan and San Francisco, High-Bandwidth Users at macrumors.com

Audio Volume on iPod/iPhone Movies set too Low?!

The audio levels on my iPhone movies are too low. My music is loud enough and can be increased beyond my comfort levels. Movie soundtracks are, however, too soft even when the volume control is maxed out. Why the disparity in sound levels? Not sure. I’m time-shifting movies from DVDs using Handbrake, perhaps this app is to blame?

Here’s how to work around it …

In your iTunes Movies library, before you synch up your iPod or iPhone …

Select all movies
File>Get Info
Select the Options tab
Slide the Volume Adjustment up from None to 100%
Click “Ok”

If asked, acknowledge that you’re changing multiple files through this action!

Of course you can and probably should change the settings on individuals movie files as you add them to iTunes.

Synch up! Your movies should be loud enough, although still not equal to the maximum volume you can crank your music up to!

Third time lucky? Will v3 finally bring select, cut, copy and paste to the iPhone?

UPDATE: Tuesday 17th March. To answer the question before I pose it for new readers of this blog, the answer now is “yes” (see more appended).

Will version three of the iPhone software, to be announced this Tuesday, finally bring select, cut, copy and paste to the iPhone? I would hope so. Tethering would be nice and so would video, push, background applications and stereo Bluetooth — but no requirement has been as long suffering nor as blatantly missing as select, cut, copy and paste.

I’ve previously blogged about this omission: iRegret buying the iPhone: No select-cut-copy-and-paste! and iPhone could learn a lesson from Newton.

Do it Apple, and do it now, it’s long overdue!

iPhone: Trapped inside your company’s firewall?

The joy of finding out your can log onto your company’s wireless network may be short lived if you discover you’re now trapped inside their firewall. You’ll likely be able to browse the internet but you’ll probably not be able to send nor clear your external email using the iPhone’s Mail application.

You could ask your networking people to open up the appropriate ports, but let’s get serious here — they shut them down for security reasons in the first place.

On the up side, you’ll be able to clear your company’s internal email and browse your intranet — without having to VPN in!

So how might you work around this? You could consider trying to tunnel out of your company’s network by subscribing to a personal VPN service like witopia.net — something I thought of doing but did not try. Of course you’ll need your networking people to open some ports, of the less vulnerable kind, which hopefully they may be inclined to do for you. Witopia’s very responsive support people say it’s an iffy endeavor: It works for some and not for others. With their full money back guarantee it may be worth testing.

Let’s look at using your browser to access webmail …