As I clack out these word , Christmas is just three days off , many of you have come down with NeedtoBurnSickDaysitis and are aside from employment , on your way to visit phratry and other assorted loved single ; and you still have n’t calculate out what gift to give to those you treasure most . May I paint a picture that rather than another brace of wooly-haired socks or reindeer - themed undergarment you alternatively share some of the technology skills you ’ve acquired over the class ?
If you ’re reading these words , it ’s highly potential that you ’re the geek of the kinsfolk . When a sister ’s , brother ’s , mother ’s , father ’s , 2nd first cousin ’s Mac or iPhone or iPad or wireless router or pressman goes bad , it ’s you who are called in as the first respondent . give your expertness , now would be the gross time to give of yourself and , while visiting phratry , take a turn through their applied science . That includes :
Update their stuff and nonsense . OS X ’s Software Update is a minor miracle in that it mechanically queries Apple ’s software servers to look for updates . However , it ’s not abysmally helpful if the person who normally operate the Mac rejects these updates because they ’re unsure of what an update might be packing . build up yourself with the Mac ’s administrator ’s password , feed Software Update , and see what ’s waiting . instal those updates that matter ( especially security updates ) .
Of of course your acquaintance and family have more software program than what ’s extend via Software Update . Take a gander at the covering they use most often and see for a Check for Updates first appearance under the app fare . Before you give it up as a caper well done , if the object of your affection has an iOS gimmick , launch iTunes , select Apps , and click the stop for Updates yoke at the bottom of the iTunes windowpane . In all likelihood there will be scads of updated apps waiting for you .
And while you ’re in iTunes , jack in their iOS machine to see if a worthwhile update awaits . iOS 4.2 has some pretty sly tricks up its sleeve but those citizenry who never synchronize their iPhones , iPads , and iPod touches may be blissfully incognizant of it .
mention that some citizenry do n’t have the benefit of a profligate broadband connection . If you ’re visiting a broadband - challenge friend or relative , do their net connection a favour and download Apple ’s updates from the company’sSupport Downloads siteto your Mac ( which presumably has a much faster connection ) , place them on an easily transportable bit of obliterable spiritualist , and instal the updates from that spiritualist on to their computer .
Check the web . progressively wireless networks are installed in the home of “ normal ” people . Yet these normals have no estimate whether their wireless electronic connection are configured for good performance ( and even if they had some minor idea , they likely would n’t know what to do about it ) . FrequentMacworldcontributor Glenn Fleishman does . take his Speed Up Your Wireless internet and put his proffer to good use .
Set up screen sharing . Leopard and Snow Leopard ’s Screen share-out feature is as much a endowment to you as it is to your bang ones . With it you’re able to avoid the retentive meandering tech support calls that plague every family ’s preferent geek . With cover sharing configured properly all you necessitate to do is cue Aunt Vilma how to launch iChat , accept your asking to share her CRT screen , andPlease , for the love of Santa , take your hired hand off the damned mouse!and you’re able to go about your lifesaving concern .
Should you demand reminding of how to set this up , sit down at your loved one ’s Mac , arouse up their internet browser , and sign on them up for afree AIM write up . Launch iChat and configure it to utilise this report . Add your MobileMe or AIM identity element to their buddy list and from the Audio or Video carte take Screen Sharing Enabled . When you return home , come in their news report in your buddy list . ( Of course if they have a MobileMe story you need n’t get an AIM account for them . Just use their MobileMe identity . )
Back them up . If the family Mac is n’t being endorse up you ’re move to find out about it when its hard thrust eventually dies . Save yourself the headache and buy an external hard drive , tie it to the Mac , obliterate it under a doyley so no one can muck with it when you ’re not there , and configure Time Machine to back up to the drive .
Clean up after them . Some people — many of them your relative — have no respect for their computer . They jubilantly clutter up their Desktop with files , toss countless items into the Trash and never empty it , and figure that when they delete an double in iPhoto , it ’s really gone . With their permission , tender to do a lilliputian housekeeping . The other twenty-four hours I bid a fewtips for speeding up your Mac . Now would be a good prison term to put some of these tips into recitation .
Show them a simple trick or two . A lot of the useable things you take for granted are a mystery to many mass who own Apple production . If you notice that your Church Father routinely mouses to a usual menu command , gently intimate that Command - S will spare a data file and Command - Option - Eject will put the Mac to sleep . If the brother who refuses to assume bifocals invariably hunches over to translate small photographic print on the concealment , present the Control - Scroll Wheel / Ball trick that soar upwards the screen . repoint out to Cousin Bob an Angry Birds level or two where a Golden Egg can be found .
The nicks and nacks . There are a boniface of extra little thing you could do . Set the proper particular date and clip on any twist you come across — computer , iPhone , digital television camera , and camcorder . Switch on the flat - screenland TV and configure it to display the well HD image potential . ( And see if the family is consider the HD - variant of its favorite networks rather than the stock definition version they ’ve default on to . ) Check the bioengineering of the desk and chair your female parent sits at when using her Mac . Glance at About This Mac to pick up whether a Mac is RAM - starved .
Ask , listen , and act . Finally , take a buns next to your friend or crime syndicate extremity when they ’re using their Mac or iOS gimmick and postulate them if there ’s anything that confuses them or they ’re take fuss with . After the initial “ Oh , no , I ’m set out along just hunky-dory ” you might get wind “ Oh , but there is this one matter … . ” That ’s your cue to reply “ That ’s a problem for a lot of citizenry . Here , let me avail you . ”
The helping bridge player you broaden may be the greatest gift they receive this twelvemonth . Happy holiday to you and those who gain from your generousness .
