What I Learnt Today

iMessages allows free text messaging to anyone else which has updated their iPhone or iPad to iOS5.

Like me, you may have trouble finding the new iMessages app. This is because there isn’t one. The new service is built into the old Messages app, used for SMS.  

To activate iMessages, go to Settings>Messages and switch iMessages On. 

 If you are sending a Text message to someone who doesn’t have a iOS 5 then it will go by SMS. If they do have iOS5 and have activated iMessages it will go by iMessage, which is free if you are on WiFi, and uses a very small amount of your 3G data allowance if you are not.

You can tell if someone is using iMessages as the Send button (and their text) will be blue instead of the usual green.

 Simple.

 The Messages app is now also available on the iPad. As the iPad doesn’t have a Phone Number,  it uses your AppleID to locate you.

 What if your family share the same AppleID? This is common, as it makes it easier to buy and share apps and songs. Can you still text from one family member to another, or will everyone receive the same messages?

 You can now identify different family members using their email address.

 Go to Settings>Messages, and click on the Receive At button. Click Add Another Email…., and add the email address of the person who uses that iPad or iPhone. 

 To send a message to an iPad, you send it to the email address rather than a phone number. It will arrive in the Mesages app on the iPad. (It will also arrive in their iPhone, if they have set it up with the same email address).

 You can send me an iMessage by texting tony@lemlink.com.au

What I Learnt On 15th October in other years

15th October 2012 Earth to Space to Earth in 2 Minutes

iOS 5, the new operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, was released by Apple today. You can still be one of the first in the world to try it out.

This is a free upgrade, and includes ‘over 200’ improvements and new features, including new ‘Reminders’, ‘iMessage’ and ‘Newstand’ apps.

 We have tested it out on an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2 and things have gone fairly smoothly. There were concerns that it may be ‘sluggish’ on the iPhone 3GS, but Will reports that all is fine.

There was an enormous spike in Internet traffic today, and Apples new iCloud servers were put under intense load. This caused delays for some users – but things seem to have settled down now.

 These are the steps to upgrade to iOS 5

• 1 Make sure that you are running the latest version iTunes on your Mac/PC by selecting ‘Check for Updates’ in the iTunes menu.
• 2  Plug your iPhone/iPad into the computer.
• 3. You will be asked if you want to update to the new operating system. Click Yes.
• 4. At one point in the process, your iDevice will be backed up on the computer. Although this usually only takes a few minutes, many users have reported long delays (up to 2 hours) during this process.
• 5. The software on your iPhone/iPad will be updated, it will start automatically, and then your apps and music will be restored.
• 6. Do not unplug your iPhone/iPad until all restoring is complete.

Let us know in the comments if you run into many problems.

(The SMH app kept crashing, and we had to delete it from the iPad and then restore it from the ‘Purchased’ section of the AppStore App.)

Tomorrow we will kick the tyres on some of the new features of iOS5.

Mike Colman of the Daily Telegraph has published a masterful analysis of the RWC Semi-final to be held this Sunday (7pm EDST),

Why All Blacks will choke at Rugby World Cup

Some highlights:

THE All Blacks had lunch yesterday with the New Zealand team that won the 1987 World Cup. Ambulances stood by in case any of the current lot of players choked.

In the lead-up to this tournament all little New Zealanders went to bed with the same prayer, “God bliss Mum and Did, and don’t lit anything hippen to Dan Carter or Ruchie McCaw, eh men.”

What’s the difference between a tea-bag and the All Blacks? A tea bag stays in the cup longer.

What do you call 15 guys sitting around the TV watching the Rugby World Cup final? The All Blacks.

Why did Graham Henry go to the ball dressed as a pumpkin? Because he hoped when the clock struck 12 he would turn into a coach.

Go Mike! and C’mon the Wallabies!

“Alan, Alan….”

Do you know your port from your starboard?

It is easy if you remember that ‘there is some red port left in the bottle’.

‘Port’ is the nautical term for left, and it is designated by the colour red.

‘Starboard’ is the nautical term for right, and is designated by the colour green,

The WILT team have been away on a houseboat for a few days.

Even when sailing the high seas, there are ‘rules of the road’ that must be obeyed.

Sailboats have right of way over power boats.

When travelling upriver (i.e. towards port), keep the green channels markers on your starboard side, and the red channel markers on your port side. Do the opposite when travelling downstream (towards the sea).

If you current course will cause you to collide with a boat coming towards you, change your course to starboard. i.e. pass the other boat on your left side – the opposite of the way we drive.(Keep right)

If you are on a course that will cross another power boat, you should give way if that boat is on your starboard (right). 

If two sailing boats are on a  collision course, the boat with the wind coming from its starboard side has right of way. If the two yachts are on the same tack, the downwind (leeward) boat has right of way.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Apple

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being

http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/

The White House

Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it….

Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last.  Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/10/05/statement-president-pas…

Wired Magazine 

 Steve Jobs’s Greatest Achievements

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/steve-jobs-greatest-achievements/

Time Magazine

“It ain’t bragging if you can back it up.”

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2096251,00.html

Did you know that our bodies are more bacterial than human?

There are so many bacteria living on our skin, in our nose and (especially) in our bowel, that only 1% of the DNA that we carry around is human. The rest is bacterial.

Our body is made up of 10 trillion cells. In addition, we are home to 100 trillion microbial cells, consisting of thousands of different species.

We need these bacteria. They play an improtant role in our immune system, help to break down the food we eat, and produce some vitamins on which we depend.

This ‘microbiome‘ is all the rage. It is increasingly recognsied that our general health is dependent on the composition of the bacteria that we host. Scientists suggest that ‘we are what we eat’ because the food that we have affects the makeup of our microbiome so directly.

Wired magazine this week has published an atlas of this ‘microbiome’, with a discussion of how it affects our general health.

And Norman Swan on the Health Report has recently discussed  how our diet affects the microbes in our bowels with Professor Charles Mackay, Director of Immunology and Inflammation at Monash University.

Spies have to make difficult decisions.

When it comes to iPhone-controlled manoeuroable video surveillance gadgets, do you go with the tank or the quadricopter?

Both create their own wifi network. You can steer them using the iPhone, and onboard video cameras allow you to view what’s happening from a safe distance.

The brand new Rover Spy Tank is $159, ordered from Brookstone USA.

The AR Drone from Parrot is $349 available in Australia from Dick Smith.

iLounge has a comprehensive review.

There are a number of augmented reality games available for the drone that enable you to compete in dogfights with your drone-owning friends.

Perhaps, as a professional spy, it would be prudent to add both to your arsenal.