Improve Find My iPhone By Locking Down Location Services

Find My iPhone and Find My iPad are security features that make it simple to locate lost iOS devices by tracking them on maps through GPS. A potential problem is that after a device has been lost, or perhaps more accurately, after a device has been stolen, GPS or Find My iPhone can be turned off which thereby disables the Find My iPhone service's ability to track the missing device. A great fix for that is to use iOS Restrictions to prevent Location Services from being turned off at all, which basically forces GPS and Find My iPhone to stay on all the time. This means that as long as the device is turned on, GPS will be on, making it trackable the entire time.

Be sure you have gone through the process to set up Find My iPhone first, then proceed with the instructions below to lock down Location Services.

• Open Settings and tap on "General"
• Find "Restrictions" and tap on it, entering the password if it's already enabled. If Restrictions it not yet enabled, at the next screen tap on "Enable Restrictions" and enter a password to access the feature
• Now scroll down to "Privacy" and tap on "Location Services"
• Make sure Location Services are turned ON, then scroll to the very bottom to verify that Find My iPhone is also turned ON
• Now go back to the very top (tap the titlebar to jump there), and choose "Don't Allow Changes"
• Exit out of Settings

With this configured, there is now an additional layer of protection for the device with GPS and Find My iPhone forcibly left on. And yes, this works the same on an iPad or iPod touch too, though the accuracy of the Find My service is not going to be as reliable on a wi-fi only device, and thus we're focusing on the iPhone here.

It's a good idea to use a different password for accessing Restrictions than you do for your lock screen password, and if you're traveling, prone to losing devices, or in a high risk theft area, consider placing a lock screen message on the device with your ownership information on it, which makes it particularly easy to return should a nice person get ahold of the phone.

Nevermind, No Free Downloads of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, & CS2

Update: Adobe apparently made some sort of error, and is not actually giving away any CS2 software for free. Here is what they have to say on their Community Forums:

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated …

You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!

What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don't require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.)

Instead, you should probably just get the best PS alternative around, Pixelmator, or download Gimp for free which is pretty capable too.

If you have an older Mac you're in luck, because the entire Adobe Creative Suite 2 is available for free, including Acrobat, GoLive, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premier. Keep in mind that Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS2) is dated from 2005, but if you have an older Mac (or Windows PC) that can support the old versions they're actually very capable apps and for the most part aren't too different from the gazillion dollar versions offered today. Here is all you need to do to download the apps:

• Create an Adobe account
• Head over to the Adobe download page and grab Creative Suite 2 apps for free
• Log into your Adobe account to get the serial number

Note this only works for older versions of Mac OS X that have Rosetta PPC support, meaning OS X 10.6.8 or earlier. Adobe is more specific is suggesting they only work for later versions of 10.2 to 10.4 but they will run in any version of OS X with Rosetta installed. Unfortunately that means OS X Lion and Mountain Lion users aren't so lucky to get CS2 for free.

Update: Adobe's site is getting hammered by all the attention this is getting and is often down, check back and refresh their download page from time to time and you should get through ok. The impatient can also check out a Slickdeals page which has direct download links to all of the disk images and installers.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in from Gizmodo

3 Simple iPhone Tips That Make You Smarter

Your iPhone is a smartphone, and if it isn't making you smarter as well then you just aren't using the devices included features to it's full potential. Here are three super simple tips that let your iPhone make you smarter, these will be perfect for educators, learners, students, or really, just about anyone – unless you're a human dictionary and encyclopedia, that is. There's no need to download any new apps or do anything that's not included in stock iOS.

1: Learn the Meaning of Words & Get Definitions Instantly

How many times have you been reading something and ran into a word you just don't know the meaning of? It happens to all of us, but now that iOS has a built-in dictionary all you need to do is use it to quickly find out the definition and meaning. Do this by tapping and holding on the word you don't know, then select "Define" from the pop-up menu to summon the instant dictionary right atop what you're currently doing. Once finished, tap "Done" and you'll be back to what you were reading originally.

2: Listen to & Learn Word Pronunciations

Just like we've all encountered words we don't know the meaning of, we also encounter words we just don't know how to pronounce. Even when we know what they mean, sometimes they just aren't heard often enough, if ever, to know how the words actually sound when spoken. Not to worry, because iOS does know how to say words, and the text-to-speech feature of iOS is smart enough to pronounce the vast majority of words that appears in dictionaries properly (though you certainly can't always say the same for peoples names or foreign languages). To get a words pronunciation, tap-and-hold on it within iOS and then select "Speak" to hear it spoken.

3: Ask Siri the Tough Questions

If you have a tough question or just a completely random thought and would like the answer to it, ask Siri! Because Siri is backed by the computational knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha, you'll be able to get information on tons of topics and the answers to a lot of questions just by asking. Just pose your inquiry to Siri as a question, like "What is the population of Anaheim, California?" or "How many minutes are in seven and a half years?", and you'll quickly get a response.

By the way, Siri can also get definitions for you, but if you don't know how to pronounce the word to ask then that likely won't be of much help.

We've focused on the iPhone because most people tend to have one with them at all times, but these tips are iOS wide nowadays, so they will work on an iPad or iPod touch too.

Got any other tips to become smarter using your iPhone? Let us know!

Report: iPhone crosses 53% of US market while Android declines 10%

Good news for Apple from research group Kantar Worldpanel:

 iOS remains the top selling smartphone platform sold in the U.S, with 53.3% of the market for the 12 week period ending November 25th, 2012, marking the first time the platform has surpassed 50% sales share, according to data released today by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

During the same period, Android sales share declined 10.9% to 41.9% of the market, while Windows positioned itself at third place with 2.7% of smartphones sold in the November period.

This tells a different story than comScore who basically reverses these numbers giving Android over 50% of the market…

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech analyst Mary-Ann Parlato states, "The iPhone 5 has been successful this period however we also see that Apple's older models – the iPhone 4S and 4 have also contributed to the growing share of iOS." Parlato continues, "This is particularly the case for first-time smartphone iPhone buyers where we see the older models still selling well amongst this group."

Of those who purchased an iPhone in November, 27% upgraded from another smartphone OS, 34% upgraded from a previous iPhone and, 40% upgraded to their first smartphone.

First-time smartphone buyers upgrading to an iPhone led to iOS becoming Verizon's top selling OS for the first time. Verizon, who has the largest featurephone user base, saw 44% of their featurephone user base upgrade to an iPhone, compared to 38% of AT&T's featurephone user base.

On the other hand, AT&T's original exclusivity with Apple led to half (51.7%) of their iPhone user base upgrading to a newer iPhone – a large difference compared to just 15% among Verizon's iPhone users who upgraded to an iPhone on Verizon.

New 27-inch iMac orders to likely arrive in February

Apple has updated its online store iMac page to note that new 27-inch iMac orders will ship in 3-4 weeks after ordering. This timeframe likely puts new deliveries into early-to-mid February depending on shipping options. Apple no longer says that 27-inch iMacs will ship in January, making it all the more likely that new orders will land in February at the earliest. The 21.5-inch models continue to ship in 7-10 business days.