The Mac Admin's Blog

At last, Microsoft announced ActiveSync support for Hotmail on iPhone and iPad. This development will open new doors to easy access for iPhone and iPad users who access Hotmail and other similar web services. The MS Hotmail ActiveSync was previously supported by other Smart-platforms like windows mobile, windows phone 7, Nokia (E S, and N series), but now it will also be supported by iPhone and iPad. The Hotmail support for Microsoft’s exchange ActiveSync (EAS) will now be available to customers worldwide. This is a push synchronization support which on the iPhone and iPad would require just a tap to perform synchronization with your email, chats and other Hotmail services. iPhone and iPad users can use Microsoft Hotmail ActiveSync, which will enable them to get their mail, calendar and contacts on a tap-to-push automation using the exchange server. The support is quite robust and supports multiple MS windows versions. The ActiveSync works in a very similar fashion of any live ex

Recently, a lot of media companies are paying heed to the Apple TV apps for iPhone and iPad. Apple has recently launched the iTV which is gradually penetrating into the mobile television market. It seems like Apple’s proclaimed mobile television market has become a lucrative option for media companies. This is the reason we see them pouring in their apps for iPhone and iPad . Various prominent media broadcasters have introduced their Smartphone apps. AT&T U-Verse is an IPTV based television service. They have made their app, which enables the user to download and view content from their iPhone and iPad. All U-Verse customers would be able to subscribe and can use the iPhone TV app to view the content. They would also be able to use the application for managing the DVR. This is currently available for paid app only. Some of the satellite TV providers like Disk Network also give its subscribers the ability to view content on the iPhone and iPad. They follow a different model of f

Whether you are doing your Math homework on your Mac, creating a great Math study guide for your friends, yourself, or students having the ability to actually use Mathematical symbols in documents or even Safari fields comes in handy. With the simple use of Character Palette, you can have access to lots of math symbols and add them to any document within any program. To add Math symbols in your documents and fields on your Mac: Click on the “Apple” icon located at the top of your screen. Select “System Preferences” from the menu. Click on “Language and Text.” Click on “Input Sources.” Check the “Keyboard & Character Viewer” to “On” Make sure that “Show Input menu in menu bar” at the bottom is selected. NOTE: You will now notice a new menu bar icon at the top of your screen. Click on this the new ‘Input Menu’ in the menu bar and select “Show Character Viewer”. Select “Math” from the list and click on the special math symbol you w

I remember an issue reported by a user last week who complained that his Mac asked for DVD region code multiple times for the same disc. This was in fact a PRAM or NVRAM issue. The user who called in was on iMac 27” so it was NVRAM which I had to fix. For readers who are not sure what NVRAM and PRAM is, can refer to my last post : What is PRAM and NVRAM . As we know that information regarding DVD region setting is saved in NVRAM of an iMac, so all I had to do is reset the NVRAM by pressing Command+Option+P+R before the grey screen appeared during the start up. Just by this small step, the issue was resolved.

Any person using Mac OS X machine might have heard of the term PRAM or NVRAM. These both are similar things, the only difference is that in Power PC based Mac machines it was termed as PRAM which stands for Parameter Random Access Memory and NVRAM is Non Volatile Random Access Memory which is in iMacs. What is the purpose of PRAM or NVRAM? The main purpose of PRAM or NVRAM is to save some settings related to hardware or software related to the system. In iMacs these are Screen resolution, display settings, video and screen refresh rate, recent kernel panic information (if there is any recent one), DVD region settings. How PRAM or NVRAM works? In an intel based MacBooks NVRAM takes power from the backup battery, however in other models it takes little (trickle) power from the main source to store data. The information saved in PRAM or NVRAM are: Display and video settings such as refresh rate, Screen resolution Number of colors Startup volume choic

This post is going to be very helpful for the users who don’t have Time Machine and cannot backup data or user accounts on regular basis. For such users, its hard time in case they have to migrate the data on a new drive. Although there are many options available, but this is the simplest ever and would take just few steps to do it (though it might take hours depending on the data you are taking backup of). We are going to perform this with the help of Disk Utility. So lets start: Go to Disk Utility i.e. open Application > Utilities > Disk Utilities from Finder From the Disk Utility application, select ‘New Image’ from the toolbar or Go to File> New> Blank Disk Image Give a name to it and proceed Save this file out, you can add compressing and encryption if you feel like, remembering that it will add to the compressing and decompression time. Compression is useful if you are short of space. This process might take few hours b

Microsoft provided the most extensive look yet into the next version of the Mac version of its popular Office suite on Thursday at Macworld 2010 . The new product, Microsoft Office for Mac 2011, will arrive in time for the 2010 holiday season. Macworld spoke with several representatives of the company’s MacBusiness Unit, who told us the company is focusing on three things with this new release: better compatibility across platforms, improved collaboration tools, and a more refined user interface. Also, as Microsoft announced last August , the suite will include Outlook for Mac, which replaces Entourage as Office’s Email client. And, in keeping with Microsoft’s 2008 promise, the new version of Office will offer renewed support for Visual Basic , which was dropped in the 2008 version of the productivity suite. The new version of Office will incorporate document-collaboration features that take advantage of Microsoft's online storage features. With Office for Mac 2011, Mac

Electronics retailers are revamping their aisles to focus on hand-held gadgets this holiday season to excite consumers who have grown weary of their traditional big-sellers: televisions and personal computers. Handhelds are changing electronics retailing. Above, a Best Buy employee in Chicago delivers iPads in April. Shoppers this Christmas can expect to see more smartphones, electronic readers and touch-screen computers in the most prominent store displays, underscoring a dramatic shift to powerful portable devices that is fast changing the face of consumer electronics retailing. The new priorities are plainly evident in the changing strategy of Best Buy Co., the nation's largest electronics retailer by revenue, which is now morphing into a mobile gadget specialist after decades of promoting the latest in big-screen televisions, desktop computers and high-fidelity stereos. Read more on Wall Street Journal

Apple has decided that now its time to sell refurbished iPads. They have announced a discount of $50 on their online store. Though all the products are not available on Apple online store but they are continuously improving in the availability of numbers of products. According to Apple Insider : Currently, just refurbished Wi-Fi-only iPad models are available, though all capacities can be purchased, with a shipping time of between one and three days. The 16GB model sells for $449, the 32GB offering is $549, and the highest capacity 64GB device is $649. The iPads are available with one year limited warranty from Apple and of course you can get the AppleCare Protection Plan with the product. However, 3G-capable refurbished iPads are not yet available for purchase via Apple's online store. All three models are listed as out of stock, and will also sell for $50, starting at $579 for the 16GB model .

It was on August 20th, 2010 when I completed my Apple Certified Macintosh Technician (ACMT) certification