Twitter did the most excellent job on the new Twitter for iPad app.
Read all about it here!

Here’s an excerpt talking about my favorite feature:

Panes: Tapping on a Tweet opens a pane to the right. Depending on the content in that Tweet, you’ll see a video or photo, or maybe a news story, or perhaps another Tweet. You can continue tapping on Tweets, opening new panes, and getting new content as long as you’d like to. And, it’s really easy to move between panes by swiping to the right or left.

What do you think?

Question…

When I go to empty the trash on my mac (os x snow leopard) it is saying it cannot be emptied because things are already in use or locked or just simply can’t be removed.

What’s up and how can I get the trash emptied, it’s driving me nuts!

Answer…

First possible solution:

1. Reboot or log off/on the Mac. This will resolve the problem if it is a simple matter of one of the files still being accessed from a program somewhere.

Second, more likely solution…

1. Download and install Onyx for your version of Mac OS X.
2. Open the program and go to the UTILITIES -> TRASH section as show below.
3. 
4. Choose the Delete option and run the process.

That should do it.

I hope that helps.

John asks…

Every time I plug in my iPad it opens up iPhoto, but I don’t want it to. How do I shut this off?

Answer…

1. Open IMAGE CAPTURE.
   • It is in your applications folder and looks like this…
   • 
2. Plug in your iPad.
3. You will see the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone show up in the list under DEVICES like this.
   • 
4. Select your device.
5. In the bottom left you will see some options as to what application opens when this device is connected. Choose “No Application” as pictured below.
   • 
6. Quit IMAGE CAPTURE and you’re all set.

Let me know if you have any problems with this or if it helped.

If you’re frustrated with the slow response time issues in the iBooks app then keep reading.

For example…

• You double-click on a word to highlight and it takes a long time to bring up the little menu to choose from?
• You turn the iPad to change it to landscape and it takes a lot longer than any other app to switch?

Note that with the latest update to the iBooks app for the iPad it is MUCH MORE RESPONSIVE and the above things have been resolved.

Answer

Update the app to the latest version.
At the writing of this the latest version is iBooks 1.1.2

Have you experienced the same?

Phil asks…

I had to change my password for my email account and now I can’t recieve emails on my Ipod.

Answer…

Phil, this is done the same for any email account on any iOS (iPhone OS) based device when you need to change the password for your account. So this would apply to any version of the iPhone, iPod Touch or even the iPad.

These things may look slightly different depending on the version of iOS your device has and what device you are using, for example the iPad looks a little different than the iPod Touch.

1. Open SETTINGS on your iPod Touch.
2. Choose MAIL, CONTACTS, CALENDARS.
3. Choose your account at the top of the page.
4. You’ll see PASSWORD under “Incoming Mail Server”.
5. Select the password (the dots) and it will pop up a keyboard. Delete what is in there and type in the new password.
6. Save the changes and you should be good to go.

Here are some screen shots of the steps above:

Extended Answer

To setup your account again Phil do the following:

1. Go to settings
2. Mail
3. Add account
4. Other
5. It will be an IMAP account (nothing to choose here, IMAP should already be selected at the top of this screen).
6. Type in your name, etc.
7. For INCOMING MAIL SERVER enter mail.citcom.net
8. For  OUTGOING MAIL SERVER enter smtp.citcom.net
9. Enter your username and password for OUTGOING MAIL SERVER even though it will probably say “optional” in the textbox.
10. HERE’S THE REALLY IMPORTANT PART
11. When you get the following box… CHOOSE DETAILS
12. 
13. You will then get this box… CHOOSE ACCEPT
14. 
15. This will most likely happen 2 or 3 times, just be patient and accept each one as it asks.
16. After all of the needed certificates are accepted you should be good to go.

Please comment below if this was helpful to you.

Elizabeth asks…

I love this new macbook pro, but how do I right-click using the trackpad or this mighty mouse or magic mouse that I got with it?

Answer…

1. Open up System Preferences from the [Applications] folder. There should actually be an icon on your Dock.
2. The icon looks like this…
3. If you cannot find it or if there is no icon on your dock for it then hit COMMAND + SPACEBAR on your keyboard. This will open a little text box in the upper right corner of the screen “it’s called spotlight”.
4. In this text box type “system pref” and it should be the first thing in the list.
5. 
6. FOR THE MOUSE…
7. Open the [mouse] preferences.
8. Choose the right side of the mouse as your “secondary button”.
9. FOR THE TRACKPAD…
10. Choose [trackpad] from system preferences.
11. Choose the option under “Two Fingers” that says “Secondary Tap”. This will make it so that when you click using the trackpad with TWO FINGERS it will be the right-click.

Video Answer (for mouse)…

The Beginner Mac – Right-click Mouse Setting from Dane Bendixen on Vimeo.

Jim asks…

I have this 3 or 4 year old IBM Thinkpad laptop and it is running REALLY SLOW. What can I do to fix this? Is there a program that I can install to clean it up? It doesn’t have any viruses, pop ups, no viruses as far as far as I can tell. There are not a bunch of toolbars in Internet Explorer or any other signs of a virus, it simply takes forever for it to load up anything.

It wasn’t like this when I first got it.

I do not have any reload or restore CDs because I got the laptop from a family member who didn’t need it any longer, so reloading the laptop with a fresh install of the OS is not an option.

It is running Windows XP.

Answer…

Thanks for the question Jim. Here’s a step by step process for getting the hard drive cleaned up so that it is easier for the OS (Windows XP in your case) to read the data from it. Basically, over time, piles of data that were once in a nice neat pile all together and in order, making it faster for the OS to find information, gets scattered all over the place and a defragmentation of the hard drive puts everything back in nice neat piles.

1. Open control panel.
2. Open add/remove programs.
3. Choose to uninstall/remove any programs you are no longer using.
   • Don’t uninstall any programs that you don’t remember installing, they could be related to the OS and include drivers. There is no way for me to tell you what is or isn’t system related, that ability to know what is for sure system related simply comes with experience in the field and a keen eye and since I am not there to sift through all the programs there is no way for me to confidently tell you, so just use the “rule of thumb” above.
4. Restart the computer as needed between uninstalling the programs.
5. You can skip this step if you like. Delete any files you no longer need. This does not need to be a major house cleaning event though because this step is not speeding up anything, it’s just preparation for the next steps. Please don’t go deleting stuff you really would like to keep. Just stuff like things in your downloads folder that you don’t need or stuff on your desktop that you don’t need. If you want you can move older stuff to an external USB drive or something like that, but that’s not necessary.
6. Open [My Computer].
7. Right click on the hard drive that the OS is installed on. Usually this is the “C:” drive.
8. Choose [properties] from the menu that pops up.
9. Choose the [Tools] tab.
10. Choose [defragment].
11. Defragment the hard drive.

• This will take anywhere from 1hr to several hours. It depends on many different things.
• If it never finishes that is a pretty good sign that you are having physical hardware issues with the hard drive and you should consider taking the laptop to a technician, or if you are technically savvy enough buy a new laptop hard drive and install it. You’ll need to buy an OS to load as well.

I hope that helps.

Whatever you may think of Apple Inc. you have to admit (sappy though it may seem) that their press conference today talking about all the stuff floating around on the internet about the iPhone 4 signal issues took some Chutzpah.

Check it out, it is quite admirable the way that Apple decided to deal with the issue.

Click here to watch the press conference.

What do you think of their response?

signing off…

If so, do this:

Well sometimes in the folder /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ are plugins that are older that can cause Safari Problems. Plus if she takes all of the plugins out (to test) she can always reset Safari (or any application) by going to the folder /HerHardDrive/Users/HerUserName/Library/Preferences/ and find the file com.apple.Safari.plist and move it to the Trash can.

sited from this article on macosx.com

Ok, the most frequently asked question I get from any new Apple computer user is “do I need to install antivirus software?”

Well AVG has come out with some software that I highly recommend for any new Mac owner.
Go and download it AVG LinkScanner for Mac and install it.

It is not really “antivirus” software, but it will help you avoid going to a website that is infected by or that carries a virus, so it gives you that heads up you need to be a smart internet surfer. It’s kind of like having a life-guard on duty at all times.

It works by putting one of the following icons next to your web searches when searching Google letting you know whether or not the site is safe to go to. Pretty simple concept and really helpful in keeping the nasties away. For a test install it and then google “paypal” and you’ll see it working for you right away.

Questions, other recommendations? Comment below.

another unseen geek signing off…