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

October 17, 2011

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 [...]

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

October 14, 2011

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 [...]

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How To Easily Remove, Replace & Install an Apple iPhone 4 Battery

August 22, 2011

I have done quite a few installs and hardware replacements in my time, but never have I found an easier project than to replace the battery of an iPhone 4. As with many of my previous iPhones, I tend to blow through the batteries pretty quickly. Some of the signs that you have an aging [...]

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How to Get Hostnames to Resolve over a Mac OS X VPN Connection

August 4, 2011

Yesterday I ran into a little issue. I tried to use my Cisco VPN client on my Mac after having upgraded to Lion. For some reason, it was not working. I did find some ways to correct that (the Error 51 issue) and how to migrate your Cisco setting over to the native Mac OS [...]

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VIDEO – How to Re-Download Mac OS X Lion & Create Bootable Install DVD & USB Thumb Drive

July 22, 2011

Yesterday I wrote a post “How To Re-Download Mac OS X Lion & Create a Bootable Install DVD” and it seems to be helping a lot of people out there. So, sometimes it is even more helpful to create a video that explains the process, so I quickly put one together. Also, a few users [...]

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How To Re-Download Mac OS X “Lion” & Create a Bootable Install DVD

July 21, 2011

In my excitement yesterday about the release of the new Macintosh operating system called “Lion“, I downloaded and installed the new OS without thinking about creating a bootable DVD since Lion is the first Apple OS to NOT come on DVD but rather be distributed via the App Store. You will also be able to [...]

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How To Use Chrome Instant Search to Test Twitter Status Updates & Use Reserved Characters via Web Intents

June 24, 2011

Back in May, I wrote a post on “How to Pre-Populate Twitter Status Update the NEW Way via Links & Web Intents“. Essentially, Twitter updated the method for creating a link to “tweet” using their new Web Intents platform. Many developers (e.g., of WordPress plugins) and other designers are updating their code to support this [...]

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How To Get the UUID of your iOS Device – Even In A Panic

June 9, 2011

Most iOS developers know that in order to “activate” your iOS device (e.g., iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) to use the latest beta of iOS 5, you need to have your UUID officially registered with Apple in their Development center. I learned this the hard way as I had not recorded it and had installed the [...]

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About HighTechDad

Michael Sheehan
- San Francisco Bay Area -

Avid technologist, blogger, social media pundit (@HighTechDad on Twitter), loving husband and father of 3 beautiful girls. I write about technology, consumer electronics, gadgets, software, hardware, parenting "hacks," and other tips & tricks. I'm a fan of all technology that is new, exciting and valuable. See my About page for more details.

Professionally, I'm the Technology Evangelist for GoGrid, the #1 pure-play Cloud Computing Infrastructure hosting provider in the world where I write regularly about Cloud Computing on the GoGrid blog.