Why you ask?  Well it depends on whether or not you classify the iPad as a PC or something entirely different.  “But it’s not a PC!” you say.  Does it cause a decrease in Netbook sales?  “Why yes it does.”  Does it compete with the same dollars people are spending on a netbook? “Why yes it does…”  Then by all means, we should at least consider that the iPad is related to Apple’s market share of desktop and notebook computers!

In July, Apple reported that it has sold 3.47 million Macintosh Computers in its second quarter.  Comparatively HP, the number one PC maker worldwide shipped 4.6 million computers.  However, Apple also shipped 3.27 million iPads.  If you combine those numbers together, Apple is the number one by volume at 6.75 million units shipped.

While many will continue to deny that Apple s likely the number one computer manufacturer in the United States, the numbers don’t lie.  Apple is moving up in a big way, regardless of what Acer’s CEO thinks.

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A twelve year old girl, Freddie Anne Hodges lives in Plano, and she created the iPhone application Measure Me.

“I’ve always wanted to know how tall I was because I was growing and I was getting taller than my grandma,” said Freddie Anne Hodges.

“She was kind of standing up from the table and she says dad this thing should measure me,” said Freddie Anne’s father Clark Hodges. “She went over and stood against the wall. It was almost like a light bulb moment. I was like that’s a good idea.”

via DFWReporting.

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How to Pair an Apple Remote

In order to bond or pair a Mac with a specific remote control you’ll need to hold the remote in the direction of the target machine while holding the Next/Fast Forward button and the Menu buttons simultaneously for 5 seconds.  Ideally you will want to be within 3-4 inches of the front of your Mac.

The picture shown above is for the white plastic Apple remote.  However, the procedure is the same for the Apple Aluminum remote.

You’ve done it!  Only a single remote will work with your Mac now.  Keep reading to learn how to reverse this procedure.

How to unPair an Apple Remote

Unpairing the Apple Remote is slightly more detailed, but still relatively simple.  Access your System Preferences pane by clicking the System Preferences icon in the dock (or in your Applications folder).

From the System Preferences pane, click on Security.

From the Security pane click the button unPair (if the button shows “Pair” it means no remote is currently paired).  You can now use any remote with your Mac computer.

It’s that simple!

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To disable or block all remote controls from accessing your mac, click on the System Preferences icon.  From the System Preferences screen click on Security.

From the Security settings window check the box next to Disable remote control infrared receiver.

That’s all there is to it.  No remote control will now be able to work with your Mac (regardless of pairing).

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Penny Killed the iPhone 4 from TheGeekPub on Vimeo.

Mike at TheGeekPub.com shows how a simple penny kills the iPhone 4 antenna.

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Renew you IP address on a Mac

The first thing you need to do is click on your System Preferences.  From the System Preferences screen, under the heading Internet & Wireless click on Network.

From this screen, select the Network Adapter that you want to release and renew the IP address for in the left column.  Then click the Advanced button in the lower right corner of the screen.

From the Advanced screen, click Renew DHCP Lease.

That’s all there is to it!  It’s really that easy!

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Well, you can!  In iOS 4, the latest operating system for the iPhone as of this writing allows you to group text messages in a conversation.  When you reply, everyone in the conversation receives a copy of the message!

However, by default, Apple left Group Messaging turned off.  To enable it you’ll need to go to your preferences (  ), then messaging.  You should see the following screen.

Flip the switch under Group Messaging to ON.

That’s it!  It’s that easy.  Now you can carry on text message conversations with a group of people!

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Human Interface Device Daemon

The hidd service is the Human Interface Device Daemon.  In fact, the hidd service is required for your Mac to operate properly as it is responsible for the operation of any human input devices, such as your mouse (or trackpad on a MacBook) or keyboard!

It is a very important process.  If you are experiencing high CPU or memory utilization from hidd, you may want to restart your computer.

Note: If the hidd process is killed, it will restart immediately.

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The first thing you need to do is tap the settings icon on your home screen.

On the left tap General and then on the right tap Sounds.

Now simply click the Keyboard Clicks switch to the off position.

That’s all there is to it!

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On Thursday, June 24th I woke up at 5:45AM.  If you know me, then you know that is insane for me.  I’m lucky to wake up before 10:30 AM on weekends, and no earlier that 7:45AM during the week – and I’m not one bit happy about it!  I told myself I would only be willing to wait for one hour in line.  Any longer than that, and I would just go home.  I get to the Apple Store in Southlake, TX and start counting how far back I am.  The Apple store people come tell us they have 30 people ringing sales at about 7 minutes each.  Awesome, that should be about 1 hour!  4 and a half hours later… I get two new iPhone 4s (32 GB models).  Ugh.

So let’s begin…

The Design of the iPhone 4

It’s beautiful!  The glass front and back, solid black, with an aluminum band around the outside.  The buttons are metal and all recesses (speaker, microphones) are protected with a silver wire mesh.  This thing is gorgeous.  In fact, who couldn’t look at this thing and fall in love with it?  But Apple failed at elegant design with this thing, because elegant design is supposed to look nice and function well.  More on that later.

FaceTime

Apple is touting FaceTime as the biggest new feature of iPhone 4.  I have to disagree.  For me, the screen resolution and processor speed enhancements are by far the best new features – but FaceTime is a big deal – and it will change the way we communicate, but not today.  FaceTime is Apple’s video conferencing solution for mobile phones.  It’s incredible, but has two major flaws:

1) Right now, only iPhone 4s can video call with each other. FaceTime is based on open standards, and Apple said they are going to open the entire protocol to other vendors.  We’ll see over time if the adoption of other vendors takes off.

2) Wi-Fi only.  Leave it to AT&T to take something so life changing, and F#$K it up!  Can you imagine sitting at a store, calling your spouse and showing them a product or article of clothing before you buy it?  Yes, that’s awesome.  But you can’t do it today unless the store has free Wi-Fi and doesn’t block the FaceTime ports!  AT&T manages to fail at every opportunity you give those geniuses.

However, with all that said, I’ve used FaceTime a lot.  I love it!  It’s smooth, fluid, and high quality.  The audio and video are synced well, and it all around just works.  Great job on this Apple.

Facetime Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Retina Display

With iPhone 4, Apple also introduced the Retina display.  The Retina display touts four times the number of pixels on previous generation iPhones, resulting in a 326 pixels per inch screen.

What can I say?  The Retina display is a home run!  The quality of the text, accuracy of the colors, and the wide viewing angle makes this screen brilliant!  Before I actually laid my eyes on this screen I thought to myself “the screen resolution won’t make much difference.”  Was I ever wrong…

When reading iBooks, or Kindle, or when browsing the web the increased resolution and sharpness of the fonts really takes away the eye strain and makes reading on this device a pleasure.  The small screen size becomes less of an irritant when the text is easy to read at any font size.

Big win here Apple!

Retina Display Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Antenna in the Frame

When I first heard about the antenna in the frame I really thought this was genius.  On the iPhone 4, the frame of the phone doubles as the antenna and a structural backbone of the phone itself.  This allowed Apple to make the iPhone thinner, while packing it with yet more features .

It turns out, there is a bug in this design.  What’s not known is whether Apple knew about this or not before they shipped it.  What’s also not known is if they didn’t know about it, how is that possible?

The Antenna in the frame is in three distinct segments.  The left frame section is for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS.  The right frame section is for UMTS and GSM.  The bottom most frame section is not antenna, but completes the frame.  The problem is that when you ground the left antenna with the bottom base portion of the frame with your hand, your signal strength goes from 5 bars to one or none in a matter of a second.  Or does it?

When I first heard about this problem I couldn’t duplicate it.  I tried and tried to no avail.  I simply could not recreate it on either of my phones.  Finally I stumbled onto the problem.  My hands needed to be slightly moist.  I had just finished swimming in the pool.  I could easily recreate the problem on both phones.  Slide the phone into any case, and the problem disappears.

Steve Jobs’ Answer: “This is a non-issue.  Don’t hold it like that.”  My response: “Are you kidding me?”

Antenna in the Frame Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Conclusion

There’s a lot more to iPhone 4 than these three things.  In fact, there’s over a hundred new features in iPhone 4.

• Front Camera
• Rear 720p Video Camera with LED Flash
• Multi-tasking
• Folders
• Apple A4 Processor
• Noise Cancellation Microphone
• and a lot more!

So how do I rate the new iPhone 4?  I certainly think based on my personal usage and experience, that iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market – hands down.  It’s better than Droid.  It’s better than Microsoft.  But this phone is the 4th generation iPhone.  It shouldn’t have issues with the antenna.  Dropped calls and AT&T’s terrible network should have put this at the top of Apples quality control list.

So where does that leave us.  If Apple hadn’t messed up this antenna design I would have given the phone a solid 4.5 stars.  If Apple had dropped AT&T and moved to Verizon, even with the bad antenna design I would have found a way to make a six star rating.  But as it stands, I can only give the iPhone 4 a 4 star rating.  That’s a shame.  Because this is the best phone I’ve ever had.  Hands down.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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