I HATE APPLE

There's a hidden setting in the Displays system preferences pane - hold down the option key and you should see a "Detect Displays" button appear. That's helped whenever I needed to connect to a strange projector (using a rMBP w/10.8.x fwiw)

Really annoyed with the "I'm from Apple, and I'm here to help" attitude w.r.t. certain OS functions. Trying to make things easier on the novice (are there ANY novice computer users left out there?) ends up making things exponentially harder on the folks who know how to do this.

thx, will try that!

started with an "out of range" msg on the projector. I turned on mirrored displays, which fixed that. then it was "no input". tried every onscreen variation, then found a bunch of threads on the apple forums which were pages and pages of poor bastards desperately trying to get their projectors to work.

(are there ANY novice computer users left out there?)

More than you can possibly imagine. Some people are permanent novices at computers, because computers have shitty interfaces.

clicking shit is hard

you laugh but seriously, there are so many.

my mother and my daughter have the same vice when it comes to computers. many times ive heard "Kate/Mommy, why isnt the computer working? Come fix it!" while clicking the mouse like they're hector salamanca with a bomb strapped to his wheelchair.

i don't hate apple but i have an apple-related question and don't know who else to ask:

i have some .avi files that i reeeeeeally want to watch, and they don't work with quicktime so i followed apple's advice and downloaded DivX but there is NO AUDIO enabled for some reason
so i've been told that VLC player for mac is preferable, so i downloaded that but
it won't let me install it because there's apparently a setting i have that won't allow installation b/c it's "not from an approved developer"

please look past the fact that this may be a stupid question, but wtf do i need to do in order to watch these files with sound? i have been shamed by failure enough, now i just want help.

There's a setting you can change to allow installation from unapproved developers.

It was part of Apple's plan to push you further into using the App Store for everything.

System Preferences -> Security -> General -> Allow applications downloaded from: Anywhere

then run vlc and drop your files in there.

xp

(you will probably have to click the lock in the lower lefthand corner and enter a password to change that setting. i forget about that little lock sometimes.)

yaaaaay thank you -- problem solved! i could have fiddled around with it and gotten more frustrated and maybe solved it on my own, but i am glad i asked
no shame in not knowing everything, that's for sure

thank you!

do you have to pay to be an approved dev? vlc seems like it should be approved by everyone

It was part of Apple's plan to push you further into using the App Store for everything.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 13 June 2013 06:55 (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think you're otm, but there's a valid counterpoint about apple protecting inexperienced people from any old malware/spyware/adware/etc

do you have to pay to be an approved dev? vlc seems like it should be approved by everyone

Hm maybe you have to pay the $99 a year.

Perian is usually the solution to watching just about anything in QuickTime player. VLC is useful but a little clunky; I've had better luck with Movist (now a paid app in the App Store, I think?) and MPlayerX.

If you just want to run something unapproved without changing the security settings, right-click on it and choose "open". It'll ask if you're sure, then let you do it.

Good to know, all of it. Thank you. Now I will be over here enjoying some programs about plants :)

Just as FYI, development has completely stopped on Perian. It works fine now, but may have future issues.

i have an iphone 4s bought from apple in europe. model is MD235DN/A.

baffled by the acronyms and frequencies.

can i use this with a tmobile sim in the US and get better than EDGE speeds?

or is there some other carrier i should be going with these days? need no more than 500MB/month.

thought it was only the new "special" iphone 5 that you could use on tmobile usa & get more than edge?

wtf @ 4g coverage in france btw, like, it's amazing that I have better coverage in the midwest usa than in paris

no - T-Mobile US has been busily refarming its old EDGE network to 1900MHz HSPA+ over the last year, changed to the common frequency which the regular iPhone 4S and 5 can use. It's much faster than AT&T's GSM service, pushing LTE speeds in some areas. List of 1900MHz US cities:

http://www.phonedog.com/2013/03/15/t-mobile-says-1900mhz-hspa+-service-now-in-49-cities-one-user-finds-small-patch-of-lte-in-nyc/

when you say "regular iphone 4s", would that include a (GSM) iphone 4s bought in an apple store in the UK 18 months ago?

1900 MHz is on the list here http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/iphone-4s/specs.html, but the "world phone" thing is a euphemism for that phone that does both Verizon/sprint and regular rest-of-world GSM, right? so i'm not 100% sure these specs apply.

as far as I'm aware, all iPhone 4S phones worldwide are the same (model A1387) except those sold in China which are A1431. The MD235DN/A designates a 16MB black phone sold in Austria, Germany, or the Netherlands. These are apparently sold SIM-locked so you may have to have your carrier unlock it for international use (or hack it yourself using methods available online).

more T-Mobile iPhone compatibility info here.

right about "world phone" def.

whoa, thanks for the model numbers.

sounds like i'm good to go.

i'm not an expert at this stuff, but it seems so.

just be sure you're in an area where t-mobile has made the switch (mostly big or mid-sized cities) or else you'll be on EDGE (in both senses!)

i'll be in new york so it should be ok. thanks!

yeah NYC and surrounding is one of their most updated areas

the T-Mobile-tweaked iPhone 5 referenced upthread BTW is so it can get 3.5G in other US areas that are still 1700GHz. Other iPhones will drop to slow 2G EDGE where they haven't refarmed their old towers to 1900GHz. You can still talk or text.

you'll need a software update from Apple to enable T-Mobile US LTE on the non-tweaked iPhone 5 A1428 (AT&T/most of world/GSM). The iPhone 5 A1429 (Verizon/Sprint/CDMA) can't do LTE on T-Mobile US at all.

do you know if i would i get better than EDGE on the t-mobile mvnos too?

according to that macrumors post, yes.

not sure if the visual voicemail works with MVNOs

Thanking you. I never listen to voicemail anyway so.

What are the ways to use facetime where it doesn't drop calls every 5 minutes

Man sues Apple because you can use their products to view porn.

Read the whole thing, but I'll share the punchline in advance:

UPDATE: Above the Law notes in an update that the lawyer-plaintiff in this case was put on "inactive status" by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2011 due to "mental infirmity or illness."

https://twitter.com/UMAD/status/359080118787903488/photo/1

How do I add just a few songs or albums to my iPhone without going through an entire fucking 45 minute backup and sync process? GOOD LORD, APPLE

it shouldnt take 45 minutes for your phone to backup and sync every single time!

Switch to manual syncing? In that way, the sync process only starts when you click 'sync now'.

..and yeah 45mins is pretty outrageous

Is that the setting in the Music section under iPhone in iTunes bcz I already have that set to sync only selected songs instead of syncing my entire library automatically. Or is that something different? Maybe it's not actually 45 every time but its still like 20 or 30 whereas moving 300mb of music to another device really ought to take like 5 tops

No it's not in the Music section, IIRC (iPhone & laptop not at hand) that button is available on the screen (bottom right..?) you get when you click on your iPhone in the left column after you've plugged it into your computer

one thing that may help is changing your backup setting to "backup to icloud" which will just do it automatically in the background whenever youre connected to wifi, and so wont spend any time backing up when you sync. but 20-30 minutes for a regular backup/sync is still way too long

yeah I backup to my computer (not icloud) and it takes me 10 seconds to sync, even when i add new music or apps. i think something's wrong

icloud is the way of the future

*barfs*

icould doesn't do a full backup fuck icloud

presumably you're also and already backing up your media library on your computer, tho

(you can also turn out auto icloud backups and still do manual itunes backups)

AT&T says I'm at 65% of my data plan that started on 10/7

I had jury duty from 10/1 to 10/4 and my phone was turned off and sitting in a box p much all day for 4 days

How and why could this be happening?

Sorry, that started on 10/1 I mean