*My Photos Won’t Sync!*
I upgraded to the iPhone 4S, and with the higher capacity, I figured that I could put more music and photos on my phone. While my gigantic music library fit nicely, no matter what I did, I could not get my photos from iPhoto to sync. Only a handful of my thousands of photos were copied over. I tried all my normal tricks–turning syncing on and off, selecting albums, etc.–but after searching around a bit, I found the solution.
There is a folder called iPod Photo Cache that you can find when you view the package contents of your iPhoto library. To view the contents of a package, simply right click your mouse and choose Show Package Contents, or you can press the Control key and click. Once you see that iPod Photo Cache file, if you drag it to the trash and then re-sync your photos, you will find that all the photos that fit will be moved to your phone. A new fresh iPod Photo Cache file is created when you do this.
*Siri As a Safety Device*
While most states have banned texting while driving, I think that there remains a lot of texting going on. In fact, as I was riding my motorcycle, I noticed that perhaps one in five cars I passed had a driver looking at his or her phone. Siri is part of the solution, I think, to mitigating the risk of distracted drivers due to texting.
This week, I activated Siri in my car by lifting my phone to my mouth and ear and discovered that because my iPhone was connected to the audio system in my car via Bluetooth, Siri also worked with Bluetooth. I was able to say “Text Grace that I am running late,” and automatically a text message was sent. Very cool and very sci-fi.
*Siri As Threat to Google*
My iPhone is with me nearly 24/7. Back in my days (when the dinosaurs ruled the earth) when I wanted to research something, I would get on the “L,” travel to the Chicago Public Library (usually meeting Grace there) and be wowed by the enormous amount of reference material to do my research. Hours later, I would have my answer. That same research can now be done anywhere I have 3G or WiFi signal with the help of Siri. I just have to ask!
In the more recent past, I would launch my Safari browser and Google whatever I was looking for, but Siri is so fast and so accurate that I truly see it replacing much of my Googling. Siri has to be tried to believe it, but yes, I think that the search engines are now a bit obsolete, especially as their business model emphasizes advertising revenue over information.
