October 2011

How To Fix Applications Crashing After Upgrading to Apple iOS5 on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

by Michael Sheehan on October 28, 2011

in Apple, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Fix It, Gadgets, General, Hardware, how to, iPad, iPhone, ipod, Mobile, Software

The upgrade to Apple’s iOS 5 is a few weeks behind us now and most people are up and running on it. And, now the iPhone 4S is out in the market and more people are migrating over from older iPhones to the new iPhone 4S. I haven’t heard of too many issues as part of the upgrade process, though my upgrade on my iPhone 4 was a bit chaotic. I had to go through a restore from backup a few times (I can’t remember all of the exact particulars but it was quite involved, including a few hours of restoring all of my data and applications).

However, one thing that I remember clearly was once I “thought” that I had completed my upgrade and restore from backup, I couldn’t launch ANY applications. Well, let me rephrase that. I COULD launch all of the standard base applications that came with iOS5, but none of my 3rd party applications would launch. I would click on them and then they would appear to launch but then immediately quit or crash! It was extremely frustrating!

But I figured out what the issue was and how to fix this issue of crashing applications after the upgrade.

Essentially, I had not let the restore process complete. I had lots of applications, music, photos, data, etc. on my iPhone and since I was restoring from a previous backup, I hadn’t let the process works its way through. And the reason why I thought I was done with the restore is because of the following: there is a big but subtle different between iOS 4.x and iOS 5, synchronization on iOS 5 now takes place in the background. You are no longer greeted with the “Sync in Progress” screen.

[click to continue…]

{ 32 comments }

How Ford is Saving Teenage Lives, One Person at a Time – “Driving Skills for Life”

by Michael Sheehan on October 25, 2011

in auto, Event, Ford, General, parenting, Safety, video

I’m scared. In 1 year, I will have a teenager. In 4 years, I will have a teenage driver. And I have two more daughters after that. Just writing the past few sentences has given me a few more grey hairs. While automobile safety has improved dramatically over the past few years, so have distractions. It’s a leapfrog race to keep drivers safe as gadgets and other things around vie for attention.

How many cars have you seen with drivers chatting away on the phone, or worse yet, texting. Taking your eyes off of the road just to read a quick text for a few seconds when hurtling down a freeway means that you have travelled several hundred feet without looking at the road. A lot can happen during that timeframe. But there are lots of other distractions apart from texting and cell phones, think about teenagers chatting away in a car or loud music playing, that is enough of a distraction alone.

As adults, we have one thing on our side though that teenagers don’t have – driving experience. But if you ask me, I think a lot of adults use this as an excuse to drive even more distracted (drinking coffee, putting on makeup, talking on the phone, playing with the radio and driving a lot of loud children). It’s a miracle that there aren’t MORE accidents.

But Ford is working on a nationwide program aim to help reduce the number of drivers age 15-19 who die every year. The numbers are pretty scary actually. Some sobering statistics:

3000-5000 teens are killed on American roads every year, according to government reports
Most crashes occur within the first hundred miles on the road
There are 4 key areas that contribute to 60 percent of teen crashes: driver distraction, speed space management, vehicle handling and hazard recognition

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

iOS 5 Tips: Cell Data for Purchases, Custom Vibrations and Hourly Weather

by Michael Sheehan on October 17, 2011

in Apple, application, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, Hardware, how to, iPad, iPhone, ipod, Mobile, Software

Post image for iOS 5 Tips: Cell Data for Purchases, Custom Vibrations and Hourly Weather

Last week I talked about a few new tidbits and tricks in Apple’s new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5 (enable Emoji keyboard, get the camera button to appear in the lock screen and how to launch the new built-in dictionary). I have 3 more pretty cool little tips and tricks this time around, namely: cellular data for purchases, custom vibrations and hourly & localized weather.

Use Cellular Data for Store Purchases

Now you don’t have to be restricted to just using a WiFi connection when downloading large apps. If you go into the Settings > Store there is a toggle to use a cellular network to download purchases.

Be careful though, if you have a large app, for example, you may hit some of your data caps (unless you have the grandfathered unlimited data plan like I do). It’s usually better to either download larger apps when you are connected to a WiFi network or by syncing to your computer. (Remember too, you can set up a wireless sync between your iOS device and your laptop and you can transfer purchases you make via that method.) [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

iOS 5 Tip: How to Enable the “Smiley” Emoticon or Emoji Keyboard in iOS 5

by Michael Sheehan on October 14, 2011

in Apple, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, how to, iPad, iPhone, ipod, Software

Post image for iOS 5 Tip: How to Enable the “Smiley” Emoticon or Emoji Keyboard in iOS 5

Here is another great (and fun) feature that is buried deep within iOS 5 for the iPhone and iPad. And, when I showed this to my daughters, they were SO excited about it!

We all love emoticons or “smileys” as many people call them. Well, now you can actually activate an “international” keyboard that contains literally a hundred different graphical icons.

Many people know of these picture characters as “Emoji” coming from a Japanese term for picture graphics or emoticons used in electronic messages or webpages. For some time, you have been able to install iOS apps that give you emojis for use in your messages and texts, but now, Apple has built in the Emoji character set as an international keyboard which is accessible from any editing screen.

[click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

iOS 5 Tip: How to Launch the New Built-in Dictionary on the iPhone or iPad

October 14, 2011

I keep uncovering lots of little surprises in Apple’s new iOS 5 software released this week for the iPhone & iPad. Yesterday, it was the activation of the camera button on the iPhone’s lock screen. This one is just as useful and is extremely helpful. Included in the OS is now a full-fledged dictionary (that [...]

Read the full article →

iOS 5 Tip: How To Activate the Camera Button on the Lock Screen on your iPhone

October 13, 2011

With iOS 5 for the iPhone launching yesterday, there are a flurry of new features that are coming to light. There has been plenty of coverage of these but I thought that I would pick a couple that are particularly cool or helpful and briefly discuss them. One of these is the camera button on the [...]

Read the full article →

Getting Saucy on Cast of Dads Episode #45 “Dads CAN Cook Even When Sauced”

October 6, 2011

We had quite a few topics stewing to be discussed on Cast of Dads Episode #45 “Dads CAN Cook Even When Sauced“. For starters, we had a conversation about a social media campaign that tried to use modern day social media tactics but using a very old and outdated stereotype, that of Dads not being [...]

Read the full article →

R.I.P. Steve Jobs – Your Inspiration Lives On

October 5, 2011

When Steve Jobs spoke, people listened. When he innovated, markets changed. When he had an idea, it was perfect. And now when he quietly leaves this world, we remember his incredible accomplishments as a leader, visionary and individual. In 2005, Mr. Jobs addressed the graduating class at Stanford University. He knew that his time was [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries