Beyond the Super Bowl, the iTunes Store has a huge collection of sports programming, both TV shows for purchase and podcasts which are free. (There are over 6000 sports related podcasts as of this writing.) The selection of sports programming depends on which country's iTunes Store you are viewing.
Live streaming of sporting events isn't available; most of what you will find are game highlights and analysis.
Across the top of the iTunes Store window is a black toolbar showing the different types of iTunes media. Hover over the TV shows listing. A downward arrow will appear to the right of the words TV Shows.
Click the downward arrow and choose Sports from the dropdown menu.
You will see the different sports-related TV shows.
Click on a show and you will see the available episodes.
At this point you have three options to receive the TV episodes:
Click the Buy Season Pass button. If you buy a Season Pass, all current episodes are downloaded immediately and new episodes are downloaded to your Mac as they are released.
Click on the Buy button of an episode. That single episode will download to your Mac.
Hover over an episode. To the left of the episode title a Play button will appear. Click the Play button to listen to or watch a 30 second preview in iTunes.
To find and download sports-related podcasts, check out this tip.
In the US iTunes Store, TV Shows usually cost $1.99 or $2.99 per episode. Podcasts are free.
Podcasts are audio or video content that you can subscribe to in the iTunes Store. They are created by individuals or media companies and are most often free. Some publish daily, some weekly and others publish irregularly.
You can watch or listen to podcasts in iTunes or you can download them to watch on your iPod, iPad or iPhone.
Across the top if the iTunes Store page is a menu of content types. One these choices is Podcasts. If you click on the word Podcasts you will go to a page of the most popular podcasts of all types. If you hover over the word Podcasts, a downward arrow will appear. Click the downward arrow and you will see categories of podcasts. Choosing a category will target the results page to podcasts of that category.
Browse the podcasts section and choose a podcast that interests you. (The right side of the iTunes window shows the top rated podcasts.)
You will see a description of the podcast you have chosen and a list of recent episodes.
At this point you have three options to receive the podcast content:
Click the Subscribe button. If you subscribe to a podcast, new episodes are downloaded to your Mac as they are released.
Click on the Free button of an episode. That single episode will download to your Mac.
Hover over an episode. To the left of the episode title a Play button will appear. Click the Play button to listen to or watch that episode immediately in iTunes. This is a good choice is you want to get a feel for the content of a podcast before you subscribe.
You can see your downloaded podcast episodes in the Podcasts section in the left pane of iTunes. The number after the word Podcasts indicates how many new episodes you have ready to listen to. In the Podcast listing, a blue dot in the left column indicates podcasts that you have not yet listened to/watched.
Note: Though "iPod" and "podcast" are similar terms, they aren't necessarily related. You can listen to/watch podcasts on an iPod, but you can also listen to/watch podcasts in iTunes, the iPad and the iPhone.
Bluetooth is a communications service built into all Macs. Bluetooth communicates with wireless keyboards and mice and wireless headsets. Some cell phones can sync with the Mac using Bluetooth as well.
If you are using a MacBook or MacBook Pro, chances are that you aren't using any of these Bluetooth devices. However, Bluetooth is turned on by default and it uses battery power whether you are using it or not. If you aren't using your notebook Mac with a Bluetooth device, you can extend your battery life by turning Bluetooth off.
To turn off Bluetooth, look for the Bluetooth icon on the right side of the menu bar. (see illustration) Click it and choose Turn Bluetooth Off. The icon will go grey to show you that Bluetooth is off.
Wednesday, February 03 2010
Contributed by: chrisb
Making .pdf files of your tax forms
TurboTax
I did my taxes yesterday using TurboTax Online. This is probably the 6th or 7th year I've used TurboTax online, and every year it gets easier to use. But that isn't exactly what this tip is about.
No matter what tax software you use, at the end of the process, you will have the option to print out your tax forms, even if you file electronically. You will no doubt want a hard copy for your files. But you can also make an electronic copy.
TurboTax (and I'm assuming other tax preparation software, correct me if I'm wrong in the comments) can create a .pdf file of your tax documents. A .pdf file is a standard file type that any computer can read and that preserves the formatting that it had when it was created. .pfd files are also generally read-only which is good for documents you want to save.
TurboTax online offers you two buttons, View/Print and Save. Click the Save button and your tax forms will open in Preview.app. From Preview.app you can print the .pdf of your forms or Save As… to name them (TaxForms2009.pdf is good) and save them to disk.
If your tax software opens your tax forms in Safari, follow these instructions:
Hover your mouse over the embedded document and a bezel will appear with options for the .pdf file. Click on the Preview icon (the one just to the right of the vertical divider bar.) In a few seconds your document will open in Preview.
If your tax preparation software creates multiple documents to save (TurboTax did) then it probably makes sense to create a folder called something like "Taxes 2009" and save all the documents there.
Bonus Tip idea #1: If you have a scanner, scan all of your paper documents such as your W-2 and save them into your "Taxes 2009" folder.
Bonus Tip idea #2: Once you have all of your documents together in your "Taxes 2009" folder, burn them to CD. File the CD away somewhere different from your paper files. Now you have three copies of your tax documents: paper, on your hard drive and on CD. (Plus the backup of your hard drive.)
Bonus Tip idea #3: If you have MobileMe, stash another copy of your tax forms on your iDisk.
(I'm sure you think I'm paranoid about losing data. I am.)
Software Update preference pane Click to see a larger image
Apple regularly updates their software. Some updates add new functionality. Others fix bugs (things that were broken). Other updates are security updates to make your Mac more secure.
In Snow Leopard, Apple also sends printer driver updates through Software Update to make sure you have the right software you need to use your printer.
Most of the time, these updates are a good thing and you want to install them. Once in a great while, an update will cause more problems than it fixes and Apple has to pull the update and send a new one. For this reason, some people prefer to wait a few weeks after an update appears before they install it.
You can get to Software Update from the Apple Menu, but you should set it to run regularly as well.
You can set options for Software Update by going to System Preferences from the Dock or the Apple Menu.
The Software Update preference pane offers two options:
Check for updates Daily / Weekly / Monthly.
Download updates automatically.
I recommend that you set Check for updates to Weekly and check the box to Download updates automatically.. Downloading updates automatically makes them immediately available when you run Software Update.
When Software Update runs, you get three options. Show Details shows a list of items available to update. You can check or uncheck the items you do or don't want to update. Not Now cancels the updates until the next time Software Update runs. Install and Restart just starts the updates with no further information. Personally, I like to Show Details so I can see what is about to be uptated.
In the Details list, some items to update have a grey circle with a triangle in it. That means that you will have to restart the Mac after the updates are complete. Before installing updates that require a restart, make sure you have saved all your documents. Closing all your open applications will ensure that you have no unsaved data.
Once you click Update, most of the time you are asked for your account password. This helps ensure that no one can run the updates without your permission. The updates will then install. Installing updates can take quite a while so you might as well go do something else while you wait. When the updates are completed, the Mac will restart (if needed).
Note that if your user account is a standard or managed account rather than an admin account Software Update will never run automatically and if you run it from the Apple Menu you will need an Admin name and password before proceeding.
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