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News Opinion

Day 1 as an Apple Employee

According to Business Insider, the typical goal of a new hire orientation at most companies is to excite the employees with the new company. Employees are typically greeted with a shiny new computer and company swag. While some of this is similar to Apple, day 1 as an Apple employee requires you to setup a shiny new Mac.

That’s right, no tech support. Apple assumes that if they hired you, you must be smart enough to setup a new computer. This unique way of approaching technology helps break the ice by having employees help one another.

Apple has been notoriously know for their secrecy. The head of security tells the new employees that they will be fired if they leak information. Apple has even been heard to have place employees on “fake products” before they think they can trust them.

The unique part of Apple’s culture can be linked to the success Apple has had over the past few years. Does revolutionizing industries such as the phone and music industry require this magnitude of strictness to produce results?

What do you think about Apple’s unique culture? Can you argue with their unique ways if they produce phenomenal results?

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Average Joe's Tips

How To: View Your Apple Support Profile

Apple Support Profile is a great way to view your history, warranty information, and other details of your apple products. Getting there is easy, just click this link: Apple Support Profile. After that sign into your apple ID account and all items registered under that account will apear. In your Apple Support Profile you will be able to view and do many things like: adding nicknames to your apple devices, viewing/ changing your user information, view serial numbers, unregister devices, coverage details, case activity, repair activity, support resources, and much more. This was a great tip from @MacGeekPro and OSXdaily.com.

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Reviews

Review: OmniFocus

After being swamped with a multitude of tasks, the next step was to determine how to finish all of these tasks. When OmniFocus launches, it becomes apparent that the developers of OmniFocus wanted to build a great Getting Things Done (GTD) application. OmniFocus is a complex beast, but the features OmniFocus provides are invaluable. OmniFocus can be found on the Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Task Management

OmniFocus excels in task management. The key to the OmniFocus task management is that it allows the user to create a task and have the actions required to complete the action. One of the reasons why task management programs do not provide success for the user is because the task added can be very abstract. The abstract task they want to accomplish requires many different actions to complete the task. OmniFocus aids the user to breakdown the task into the actions that will bring successful completion of the task. This is one of the most powerful features of OmniFocus.

Design

OmniFocus launches to a basic user interface that allows complete customization of the application from the toolbar to view. Since OmniFocus contains complexity in the organization of actions, this requires you to open the Inspector using more screen real estate.

Syncing

Unlike other GTD applications, OmniFocus triumphs in the syncing of the application. OmniFocus allows for local network, MobileMe, WebDav, Disk or even the Omni Sync Server. The Omni Sync Server allows for Over-the-Air (OTA) syncing. This is a definite plus not only to backup the current OmniFocus database, but to also sync the database to other mobile devices.

Mobile

The Omni Group does a great job implementing the application in the mobile environment. Currently, OmniFocus is available for iPhone and iPad and can sync your OmniFocus Mac version OTA, so you will always have your tasks on the go. Additionally, the option of OTA allows for an automated and cloud stored version of the OmniFocus database as well as no hassle between syncing versions. The iOS version of OmniFocus does a great job of providing the majority of features of the Mac version to the iOS versions. The iOS versions use location for its advantage by providing helpful information for the user when creating or using a task.

Closing thoughts

OmniFocus helps ensure that projects will be completed through the breakdown of actions that are required for a project to be completed. In addition to the breakdown of actions, OmniFocus provides users with an option of OTA syncing which can allows for the backup of the database as well as no hassle syncing between devices. A major setback to the adoption of OmniFocus is the price of the application. OmniFocus for Mac costs: $79.99 and the iPhone version costs: $19.99, but the value of OmniFocus outweighs the cost. OmniFocus provides the tools to mark tasks off of your tasks list. Take OmniFocus for a spin, visit the site the OmniFocus site.

Categories
News

What’s changed with Apple with Tim Cook?

After Steve Jobs, Tim Cook took over as Apple’s new CEO. Tim Cook brought about very subtle changes to Apple ever since taking the position as CEO. When working with Steve Jobs, they both disagreed about certain components of the company.
One thing that Tim Cook had in mind was using Apple’s cash to pay a dividend or  to buy back stock. Steve Jobs did not agree with that, but now with Tim Cook in control, things may change.

Tim Cook also set up a charity program. Apple isn’t known to be charitable and Steve Jobs wasn’t into giving away Apple’s money. The program is a match employee contributions to non-profits program. It matches up to $10,000.

It was also noted that Tim Cook emails more frequently and addresses Apple as a “Team.” He also promoted Eddy Cue to senior vice president of cloud services. Other changes include dividing up the company’s education division into sales and marketing groups.

With Tim Cook as the new leader of Apple, people are keeping their eyes open as to see what else he will do next. Without the creativity of Steve Jobs, will the company be able to maintain its products and services?

Feel free to leave questions or comments.

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Categories
Average Joe's Tips

How To: Customize Your Finder Window

You might be asking yourself why would I want to customize my Finder Window. Well customizing your Finder Window will help with navigating through files faster. There are multiple ways to customize your Finder Window. The first way is to go to the Menu Bar in the top Left, click on Finder, scroll down to Preferences, and select it. From there go into Sidebar and you can pick what menu items you want to show up in your Sidebar. The next way to edit your toolbar is by right clicking on the toolbar. From there you can choose from hiding icons to customizing all of the buttons on your toolbar. If you select Customize Toolbar… a new screen will pop up and you can drag new icons into open spots, move icons in different spots, or remove icons by dragging it off the screen. Another handy tip is that you can drag any file, document, application, ect.. into an open toolbar space, it will leave an icon in that spot and if it is clicked on it will open the file or application.

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