iCan't - Call Forward - Verizon

This is almost Identical to my previous “Call Forwarding” iCan’t blog, but this is for Verizon. We recently moved all of our enterprise from AT&T to Verizon and I’ve encountered this problem again.

If you’ve switched from a Nokia or a Samsung or a (insert random phone brand here) to an iPhone recently, you may have noticed that you’re missing the ability to specialize your call forwarding. The iPhone has one Call Forwarding option: Call Forwarding. That’s it. No option to forward just unanswered calls. No option to forward just calls when you’re line is busy. That is, no options visible...

Little did you know, there is a way! So, go to your iPhone’s dial pad and calm down.

To call forward when the call goes unanswered:

*71 + <desired phone number> + CALL

To DEACTIVATE call forward when the call goes unanswered:

*73+ CALL

To call forward when you’re line is busy: 

*90 + <desired phone number> + CALL

To DEACTIVATE call forward when you’re line is busy: 

*900 + CALL

To call forward:

*72 + <desired phone number> + CALL

To DEACTIVATE call forward:

*73 + CALL

iCan't - Lock My Screen

iCan't - Lock My Screen

The average enterprise level computer user takes something as basic as screen locking for granted. But to be honest, I don't see why Apple doesn't have this setting activated by default. It is relatively important. Anyways…

Go to Applications/Utilities and open Keychain Access. Then go to Keychain Access/Preferences and make sure the "Show Keychain Status in Menu Bar" is checked. Once it is, a "lock" icon should appear in your Status Bar (the bar where you're clock/battery is located).

If you click the "lock" icon, you have the option to lock screen. There you go; it's that simple.

Remember: make sure you know what your password is before you do this. Too many people have auto-login enabled on their computers currently and may not remember their administrator password.

@geeky_mcnerd

iCan't Handle this Image Capture Application!

iCan’t Handle this Image Capture Application!

Any of you recent OSX upgraders may have noticed that every time you plug your iPad or iPhone (or iPod touch) into your Mac this pesky application pops up. The worst part about it is that the application itself takes just long enough for you to forget that its going to open, but once you start to do something, that’s when it shows its annoying face and interrupts you. I don’t remember the last time I actually used it. It may as well be a pop-up advertisement in my eyes.

If you’re anything like me (lack patience), you probably want it to go away. Forever. Like, right now. This is relatively easy. Plug your phone in and wait (now that you want it to open it will feel like forever). in the bottom left hand corner of the window there’s a “drop-up” arrow. Clicking that will open an option that says “Connecting this iPhone opens:”. By selecting “No Application” out of the drop down, you will make this application’s interference disappear forever.

Enjoy!

iCan't: Account Not Valid for Use in UK Store? But I Live in a US...

Today I had a user come to me with an interesting error. It actually made me laugh. She tried updating her Facebook application from inside her iPhone 4S’s App store only to receive the following error: “Your account is not valid for use in the UK Store. You must switch to the United States Store before purchasing.” We are located in the US. She’s never been to Britain. She has never even left the country. So I did some research.

Apparently iOS 6, along with bugs, came with more bugs! This one is a simple fix, though. In your App store application, and under the “Featured” tab, you should scroll to the bottom of the page. There you will see your Apple ID. Click it, and hit the “View Apple ID” button. There you will see the ability to change your “Country/Region”. Switch that to the proper Country, back out of that window, and start your App Store updating all over again.

Happy shopping.

@Geeky_McNerd

iCan't: Share My VMWare Virtual Machine between OSX Users

VMWare 4 Virtual Machine Sharing between Local OS 10.6 Users

One of my Mac to VMware virtual machine users went on maternity leave last week, leaving her equipment open for a temporary replacement consultant to fill in for her. Even though we don’t really like temps or consultants to use any of our equipment in general, I had to build a Snow Leopard user account for the replacement, and giver her access to the pregnant woman’s ( virtual machine. This proved to be a tad more complicated than it sounds.

First, you need to be logged into the original VM’s owner and make sure that the virtual machine is not running or suspended. Then, you need to locate the VM bundle on your Mac. If you don’t know where it is, you can find out by opening the Virtual Machine Library within VMWare, right clicking the virtual machine in question, and clicking “Show in Finder”.

Once you know the location of the file, drag said file into the Shared folder </Users/Shared>. Then, right click to “Get Info” so you can change the “Name & Extension” in order to remove the “.vmwarevm” extension from the end of the file name. You will be prompted to Remove; do so. When this is complete, click the lock icon in the bottom corner of window, enter your administrator password if prompted, and ensure that “Everyone” and “Staff” have Read & Write privileges (under Privileges). You also need to make sure you add any other specific users with the + button to said privileges.

If you hit the “More Actions Button” you will see a selection called “Apply to enclosed Items”. Click Okay. Then add “.vmwarevm” back to the end of the file via the Name & Extensions tab. This should be the end of your sharing shenanigans.

To double check that it took, log out of the main user and into the shared user and attempt to open the virtual machine from the shared folder.

Enjoy!

iCan't: Mystery Question Mark in Finder

I had a user come to me yesterday about a question mark that apparently appeared out of nowhere in the tool bar of his Finder window. He was in a slight panic and thought he had broken something.

In reality, all that question mark represents is a missing link. He had a link to a folder (or application) in his toolbar window that no longer existed. He had either moved (or removed) the item from its original location.

You can make this question mark go away by CMD + clicking and dragging the item off of the window. It will disappear in a "puff".

iCan't: Three of Every iCloud Contact

Duplicating iCloud Contacts - Microsoft Exchange

If you’re seeing duplicate contacts, go to the iCloud website and login to check if your contacts are duplicated there (icloud.com/contacts).

If your contacts are duplicated within iCloud (via the web page) you will have to call support. If you were the one who duplicated it (importing the same address book multiple times) there probably isn’t much they will do for you, though.

If you do not see them within the web page but still see them on your phone, it may be because your Microsoft Exchange account contacts are being synced with iCloud. Then, iCloud is pushing those contacts back to your phone as iCloud contacts.

There are two ways to relieve this issue. One is to stop using one of the contact accounts. The second way is to start using iCloud for your personal contacts and Microsoft Exchange for your business contacts.

One of my users followed that advise and his iPhone’s address book isn’t a disaster anymore.