Dan Miller at Macworld has some great tips for using the keyboard on the iPad. I knew a fair number of these already, like tapping and holding most keys for extra stuff (which also works on the iPhone). I did not know that you could simply swipe up on a key to expose those extras ever faster. That's something I'd like on the iPhone, frankly.
Since around Christmas 2011, I have noticed a marked uptick in text message spam on both my iPhone and my wife’s iPhone on AT&T. For me, all of the spam has come from full 10-digit phone numbers, and it is never the same one twice. My wife has had mostly the same type of spam, save for one occurrence.
Just before Christmas my wife received a message from a subscription service’s short code. It was called ChalkboardIQ, and the initial message was an ad to receive daily quiz questions. It said nothing about what to do if she wanted to actually subscribe, but it did say to send STOP to cancel. Seeing as she had never received a message like this before, she did just that.
And then our AT&T bill was charged $10.
A quick phone call with AT&T cleared the charge from our bill, and unsubscribed my wife’s phone from the scam service. I also said to the AT&T customer service rep that I thought it was crazy that this sort of thing was allowed. She agreed, and I could tell from her tone that she deals with removing a lot of charges such as these. I thanked her.
The best thing to do if you get a text from a short code is to never reply to it. You really shouldn’t reply to any spam text message, but biting the bait on a short code will subscribe your account and charge you.
Recently, spam has increased at a steady clip. I’m getting three or four a week now. Since I have an ancient 200 texts/month plan, that doesn’t make me happy.
So what can a person do to curtail text message spam? There are a couple things I have seen for AT&T customers.
This will work on any AT&T phone, but I’ll go through how it works on my iPhone.
Edit button, and tap the message. A red circle with a white checkmark should appear to the left of the message.Forward button. 7726 (which is SPAM on a phone’s number pad).Send.ATT FREE MSG from 772-6. It will prompt you to reply with the phone number of the spam sender.Add Contact button, then Create New Contact. I then copy the phone number to the clipboard and hit Cancel on the contact creation.772-6. Paste in the phone number and tap Send.That is admittedly a long process, which could be easier. I’m not sure if this has really helped, because so far I have not received a spam text message from the same number twice. And that was before I started taking the time to report it.
Also, it is worth noting that if you report a message from a subscription short code, the reporting service tells you so and tells you to refer to your bill and to call customer service for further assistance.
You can visit att.com/db to check your account for any active subscriptions. This is much easier than sifting through a couple months of 11-page bills.
If you do have an active subscription, it’s time to dial 611 on your AT&T phone and chat with a support rep.
While you are on the phone an AT&T support rep removing that subscription, be sure to ask for Purchase Blocker, which is a free parental control that blocks any and all “premium content purchases” such as ringtones, games, and subscriptions that are directly billed to your AT&T account.
If you’re on an iPhone, you should be using iTunes for all that stuff anyway.
Remember, dial 611 and ask for Purchase Blocker.
I don’t know whether or not Verizon and Sprint offer ways to combat spam text messages. AT&T does. While a carrier is a carrier to me, I’m glad to know that AT&T is doing something about spam. Hopefully it works.
finermac found a great resource for every aspiring keyboard ninja out there using OS X.
via Minimal Mac.
I am a die-hard Safari user, but I do have Google Chrome installed on my Mac for the occasional need of Adobe Flash, since Chrome has a player embedded within, and I prefer to keep Flash off my machine otherwise.
One of the things I do love about Chrome is its Omnibar — the unified bar that handles addresses and search. Safari still keeps a separate search bar next to the address bar. Thanks to a post by Stephen Hackett, I have found a Safari extension that adds most of the Omnibar functionality to the address bar.
Now, Stephen talks mainly of a SIMBL plugin, which is a little hacky for my liking. In the update, he talks of an extension, which is Apple’s approved method. I’m using the extension.
The extension is available via the Safari extension page. It’s filed under Search Tools and is simply named Omnibar. The developer’s github page has some info on search shortcuts.
The one advantage of the SIMBL plugin over the extension is that the plugin can hide the standard Safari search field, much like Chrome’s look. But I’m still going to stick with the extension, as it sure seems much easier to deal with.
Hopefully Apple will someday hop on the Omnibar bandwagon.
I used this tip on how to reheat pizza today for my lunch. I dare say my pizza tasted better using this method than when it was freshly delivered last night. Sure, it takes a lot longer than zapping the pizza in the microwave, but it is definitely worth it.
[via TBR, a long time ago]
When I meet new folks, I often have to spend a moment explaining my last name, since many don't catch its pronunciation the first time. My last name has French origins, but many people (especially Midwesterners) pronounce it as duh jabbit. And that is so far from how it is said.
My last name is actually very close in pronunciation to déjà vu. Except drop off the voo sound and replace it with bay.
déjà-bay
See? Not too difficult. Once I make the déjà vu connection, people seem to remember it.
Tell that to my iPhone.
When I try to voice dial my wife or my parents (I don't voice dial often, but often enough) I have to say my name incorrectly.
Apparently I am not the only one. Shawn Blanc shared a tip today that made my day. By visiting the Contacts app and entering Edit mode, you can tap on Add Field and then add a phonetic first or last name (or both).
So, for all my fellow De Jabet's out there, I added a phonetic last name of déjà-bay to their address cards. And now voice dial works correctly and even speaks the last name correctly back to me.
If you have me in your iPhone's address book, maybe you should copy and paste déjà-bay as my phonetic last name.