Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard that Apple announced new iPhones and a new category of product, a wearable computer, yesterday.  I will offer my thoughts on these with a few details thrown in for good measure:

So what is all this fuss about streaming music services?  There are several services that can stream music to your Mac, iPhone or iPad for free!  You can listen to them all day and enjoy the services’ huge music libraries as well as tell the service what you would like to listen to.

From time to time your Internet service appears to be frozen and you have no access to the Internet.  Often this is caused by your modem being in an odd state and it needs to be restarted.

Phone calls, emails and texts to me about this is a very common occurrence.  While I love to be helpful, I thought it would be more efficient for my clients and me to post a web page explaining how to restart modems.

A “domain” is basically a website address and an associated email address.  Anyone can have one.  Common examples are yahoo.com, aol.com, comcast.net and many more.

I have been unhappy with my company’s domain since I started this business in 2007.  The “dash” in in-hometechservices.com is difficult to communicate to people verbally.

OK, a bit of horn-tooting, here.  Last week I passed Apple’s certification test for OS X 10.9 (Mavericks).  Officially, this certification is called:

“Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) 10.9”

Today Apple announced new versions of their two operating systems OS X for Mac and iOS for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.  Of course, you probably already know that both of these systems run the time-tested UNIX operating system under their hoods, so at some level, these operating systems are the same.

Well, now its official: friends don’t let friends use XP.  Windows XP is officially not supported by Microsoft and, as such, is a sitting duck for security violations (viruses, trojans, malware, etc).  Yes, its a sitting duck even with updated security software.

I have accumulated a few random tech treats for you.  No particular order:

This evening AT&T announced new pricing for their Mobile Share Plans that could save you a LOT of money, especially if you are already a Mobile Share Plan subscriber.

You probably know by now that I am a big proponent of backing up your computer, to at least another portable hard drive and preferably another backup that is offsite, to protect you from fire and theft.

If you have an iPad with cellular capability, this blog is for you!  You can tell if you have this capability by looking at the back of your iPad - if it has a black plastic segment on the top of the back side of the iPad, you have cellular capability.  You can also look in Settings > Cellular - if it is there, you have cellular capability, if not, you do not.

SugarSync - I have recommended this syncing service to many of you.  I have used it for several years.  It syncs / backs up folders that are already on your Mac (like your Documents or Desktop folders).  It is a great service that has been free until now.

Winter Quarter starts just after the New Year.  My classes start on Friday, January 10th. I am really excited for this quarter’s offerings!  Just as in the past, I will teach two sessions per quarter, back-to-back.  Here they are:

Your Mac is now using the shiny new 10.9 Mavericks, but somehow it does not look all that different.  That is a good thing!

However, there is a lot new and it is worth knowing what the changes are so you can take advantage of them and configure them to your liking.

Last month Apple released a new operating system for iPhones and iPads (iOS 7).  On the heels of that, last week Apple released a new operating system for Macs.  It is known as OS X 10.9 Mavericks.  It is the first version of OS X that is not named for a big cat; instead, it is named for a famous surfing beach in California. Bigger news than that is that it is FREE!

This blog will provide instructions for properly installing Mavericks.

I cannot emphasize enough how important backups are.  It saddens me when a client calls saying their computer will not start up and they do not have a backup.  Usually, recovering files (pictures, documents, etc.) from that situation starts at $1000.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you should know that iOS 7, the new operating system for iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches was released a few weeks ago.

Should I update?

Wednesday, September 18th, iOS 7 will be available to download (for free).  The questions I get a lot about these major updates are “should I do it?” and “how do I do it?”.  Let’s address those:

The world is full of apps, millions of them.  Some useful, some not, some hard to use, some easy.  Well, your Mac came from Apple with two very cool, useful and easy to use apps.  They are both located in your Applications folder.

The 80/20 rule is alive and well in the world of computers. 80% of problems can be solved simply with these few tricks.  The other 20% are usually harder and have a vast array of solutions.  Here are my best tricks & tips, in order of importance (to me):