Tek Tip: Immediately Remedy Broken iPhone Buttons with AssistiveTouch

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Chris D'Lando

Here at Tekserve, we see a lot of broken devices. Some are certainly worse than others or broken beyond repair, but, occasionally, we’ll get one with a stuck power button or a non-working home button. For some, a non-functioning button amounts to a minor inconvenience, but, to others, it can be disastrous.

Never fear! Whichever camp you land in, your iOS device has a really cool, lesser-known, built-in feature that will immediately solve your problem.

Built into every iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch running iOS 5 or later is a feature called “AssistiveTouch.” AssistiveTouch is an accessibility feature designed for people with disabilities, allowing users to have easier access to physical buttons and multi-touch gestures, using only one finger on the touch screen.

To activate AssistiveTouch, choose Settings > General > Accessibility. You’ll then see the toggle to turn AssistiveTouch on and off.

Once turned on, you’ll notice the appearance of a white dot on your screen. This is the AssistiveTouch “button” — it can be dragged anywhere on the screen.

Turning on AssistiveTouch will add this small white button to your screen

Activate the AssistiveTouch menu by tapping on the dot. When you do so, a menu will pop up giving you access to Home and Siri buttons right on the touchscreen. Also, there is a Favorites menu—where you can store gestures you’ve created—and the Device menu. From the Device menu, you can lock the screen, control the volume, take a screenshot, and more.

Easily access Siri, the Home button, and more

Use AssistiveTouch in place of a broken/stuck button – or just use it for easier access to certain functions. Personally, I find it smoother and easier to access Siri on my iPad using AssistiveTouch instead of holding the home button. Give it a try!

Want to fix that broken button for good? Contact us for help.

Joe Quesada & Alex Trochut at Our Official Wacom Cintiq 13HD Release Party; Tony Santo Recaps at Media Hygiene

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Gus Guyot

Wacom Cintiq 13HD

Earlier this week on Tuesday, May 7th, we were pleased to host the official Wacom Cintiq 13HD release party, a special after-hours event held on the main floor of Tekserve. This exciting event featured presentations by Marvel Comics’ Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada, as well as Alex Trochut, renowned designer of MTV, New York Times, and Rolling Stones fame.

Celebrated art director, illustrator, and designer Tony Santo was in attendance. He recently posted a great summary of the evening to his Media Hygiene blog:

Tekserve hosted the after-hours free presentation for ticket-holders only, including an impressive spread of food and drink that I rarely see at such events. Attendees mingled, munched, networked, and test-drove the Cintiqs and other models on display. Marvel Comics fans were happy to see Marvel CCO and favorite artist Joe Quesada as one of the guests who generously shared his Cintiq workflow with the audience. The standing room presentation was comfortable, as the absence of seats felt informal and flexible. I was close to the stage, but a big screen and other monitors broadcast everything throughout the store, enabling guests to watch and listen from anywhere in the shop.

Tony also commented on Joe Quesada’s presentation, saying:

It was interesting to see Quesada’s workflow. He uses the Cintiq for layout purposes mainly, sometimes sketching concepts directly on the screen, other times working from scanned pencil/pen doodles on paper. He manipulates Google Sketch-Up models of cars, buildings, and other props as desired until he finds the right angle. Then he brings a screen shot into Photoshop to draw over this reference to satisfy his final layout. He often will drop in shading with a big broad brush, and if I understood him correctly, he will sometime ink his work using Photoshop’s pencil tool instead of the brush tool (which he feels is too unpredictable in line quality). Although I was a bit confused with his flow at times, he clarified that he will work the layouts up as pencil on paper drawings for the final art. After that I was unclear if he produced the final black lines in analog or digital form. Quesada mentions that many comic-book artists have not abandoned the pencil and India ink final art pages because of the demand for after-market original art sales they may enjoy. However, since sharing a lot of his finished BW and color art, I gather that Quesada is comfortable using both methods.

Check out Tony’s full write-up here.

Stay tuned for more upcoming special events at Tekserve.

Adobe Creative Suite Is Dead—Long Live Creative Cloud

Featured

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Gus Guyot

Adobe MAX, “The Creativity Conference”, opened today in Los Angeles with a big announcement from Adobe: a major update to Creative Cloud (CC), including fully integrated cross-device collaboration, community and publishing capabilities, and the next generation of Adobe’s pro creative desktop applications.

This milestone update to Adobe Creative Cloud simplifies the entire creative process with new versions of desktop tools, services that take publishing content to the next level, and capabilities that make it easier than ever to collaborate and share work on a worldwide basis.

The update also marks a major name-change for Adobe. Adobe’s desktop tools, previously known as Creative Suite (CS) since 2003, are now officially unified under the name Creative Cloud (CC) to reflect that they are an integral part of the collection and have been reinvented to support a more intuitive, connected way of creating.

All of Adobe’s major desktop apps have been updated under the new “CC” moniker—introducing: InDesign CC, Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, Dreamweaver CC, Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC, Muse CC, and more. In all, Creative Cloud will now consist of more than 30 tools and services that enable professional-grade content creation and delivery across print, web, mobile apps, video and photography.

With Creative Cloud, your entire creative world gets its own centralized hub where ideas, files, fonts, settings, notifications, and team members are connected and organized. Join group folders to work collaboratively; track updates and comments to shared files; stay connected to work on Behance; get notified when app updates are available and download the latest updates; and access favorite colors, fonts and settings, wherever you are. All files and assets will be automatically synchronized between the desktop, cloud and mobile devices.

What Else?

Today was a huge day at Adobe MAX. Other updates and announcements include:

Creative Cloud members will have access to the services necessary to publish highly personalized portfolio websites using Behance ProSite, high-impact digital magazines for iPad using Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) Single Edition, and PhoneGap™ Build to create and publish mobile apps for any device.
Photoshop CC’s new Camera Shake Reduction deblurs images that would have otherwise been lost due to camera movement. All-new Smart Sharpen makes texture and detail pop, and Adobe Camera Raw 8 adds even more powerful photographic controls to straighten and perfect images.
A new, modern architecture for InDesign CC turbocharges performance, and in-browser editing in Adobe Muse™ CC — a tool for designers to create and publish HTML websites without writing code — allows clients to make edits to a published website, which can then be reviewed, approved, and updated by the designer.
Premiere Pro CC integrates powerful color workflows, with the addition of the Lumetri™ Deep Color Engine to easily apply rich color grading looks. A high-impact version of Adobe After Effects® CC brings motion graphics and visual effects artists more creative possibilities and allows them to work more easily in 3D with the new Live 3D Pipeline with Maxon Cinema4D integration.
Adobe is also previewing a new workflow from Photoshop CC to Edge Reflow CC that will enable creatives to build web designs in Photoshop that can easily be turned into responsive web sites.

This major update is expected to be available in June. To read Adobe’s press release with complete details, click here. To learn more and request a quote, contact us today.

Tek Tip: Getting Started with iCloud, Pt. 4 – Does iCloud Back Up My Mac? What Else Should I Know?

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Gus Guyot

In short, no; iCloud is not a backup solution for your Mac. While it can be used to recover some data in the event of a hard drive failure, only a small number of your files will be retrievable. Additionally, iCloud is primarily meant for syncing, not for recovering from data issues.

This means that if the reason you are looking at your iCloud backup is to recover a file you have accidentally changed or deleted, iCloud will not be of any value to you. For Mac backups, we highly recommend you make a Time Machine or SuperDuper backup, and invest in a dedicated online backup solution such as CrashPlan. Check our website for more information about backing up.

What About My iOS Devices? Does iCloud Back Those Up?

For iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, iCloud will backup the iOS device settings – including favorites, mail, and calendar settings; home screen and app organization; messages; ringtones; visual voicemail; your camera roll; most saved passwords; and other preferences.

This means that if you lose or replace your iPhone or iPad (e.g., through a warranty swap at Tekserve under AppleCare+), you will be able to quickly make your replacement device look and work just like the old one.

Check the iCloud preferences on your iOS devices to select which Apps back up their data and sync to iCloud.

Is There a Limit to How Much I Can Store in iCloud?

iCloud includes a 5GB limit for free.

If you discover you need additional storage, you can purchase up to 50GB from the iCloud panel in System Preferences. From there, you can also see what is using the space you have available in your account and delete anything you no longer need (but be sure about it – you cannot undo this action).

Photos and videos in your iOS devices’ Camera Rolls will eat up this 5GB the fastest. If you use iCloud Photo Stream to get all your photos onto your computer, and set iPhoto to automatically add those to your computer’s iPhoto collection, you will see the most recent 1,000 photos in your Photo Stream (which doesn’t count against the 5GB limit), and you can delete them from the Camera Roll, saving backup space.

Is There Anything Else iCloud Can Do?

iTunes also takes advantage of iCloud. All of your past purchases (so long as Apple is still selling them) can be re-downloaded at any time.

For music, you can go even further and sync your entire music library – even things you haven’t purchased from iTunes – using the iTunes Match service. This $25-per-year add-on to iCloud allows you to sync music and playlists over the Internet without needing to plug in and move any files by hand.

**Where On My Hard Drive Can I Find iCloud?**

We’re not telling. Not because we don’t think you can handle the information, but because hidden files are hidden for a reason. iCloud data should be accessed through the application using it. Making changes to iCloud data in other ways can result in problems (check out this TUAW blog post for an interesting tale of woe).

Know that the data is there – which is why you can still access it even when offline – but unless you really know what you’re doing, it’s best to stay away from the iCloud folder on your Mac.

This concludes our “Getting Started with iCloud” series. Looking for more tips and tricks for your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch? Stop by Tekserve to pick up your copy of the brand-new iOS FAQ and the 12th Edition of the Tekserve Mac FAQ – both available now!

Tek Tip: AppleCare+ Demystified

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Gus Guyot

For the legal nitty-gritty, check apple.com/legal/sales-support. But here’s the scoop in English:

AppleCare for iPhones and iPads is now AppleCare+. You generally must purchase it when you buy your iDevice. In addition to free phone support and doubling the hardware warranty, AppleCare+ adds two incidents of accidental damage coverage, at a $50 repair cost for each. So, if you drop your phone and crack the screen—or even drop it in the toilet—come to Tekserve, pay $50, and we’ll swap your cracked or water-logged device for a like-new model. It usually takes about 10–15 minutes.

The third time? Well, let’s just say it’s not a charm.

Check out Tekserve.com for more information about AppleCare+ service at Tekserve. And, for more tips and tricks for your favorite iOS device, stay tuned for the Tekserve iOS FAQ, coming soon!

Post Magazine Gives a Thumbs Up to Tekserve’s HP Z820 RED Edition

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Gus Guyot

Last week, Brady Betzel of Post Magazine reviewed Tekserve’s HP Z820 RED Edition. The Z820 RED Edition is a lightning-fast digital video editing workstation built specifically for RED Digital Cinema workflows. A collaboration between HP, RED, Nvidia, Adobe, and Tekserve, it’s the only workstation preferred and approved by RED Digital Cinema. You can learn more about it or request a quote here.

Overall, Brady gave the Z820 RED Edition a very positive review. Check it out below, or read it in its entirety directly at Post Magazine‘s website.

Review: HP’s z820 Red Edition Workstation
By Brady Betzel

Have you ever worked on a multimedia workstation that felt about five, seven or even 10 years too old for the masterpiece you are creating? Then it’s time for you to upgrade your ride, because the days of “getting by” on your 32-bit dual-core laptop are quickly growing dim.

The HP z820 Red Edition workstation will quench your thirst with its dual 8-core Intel Xeon 3.1GHz processors each boasting a 20MB cache, standard 32GBs of memory, and a wide array of hard drive stocking options.

HP, Red, and the traditionally Mac-based Tekserve have come together to build a customized workstation. Tekserve builds these systems, tailoring them to your Avid, Adobe or any other workflow. (Promax, www.promax.com, will provide a similar set-up.) With the HP z820 Red Edition you will bring your multimedia post from the ground floor to the penthouse.

A CLOSER LOOK

First off, the z820 is the quietest workstation I have ever heard thanks to its liquid cooling solution. Under the hood it is clean, neat and has an easily accessible tool-less case construction created by HP. It gives the user the ability to replace hard drives, memory or other internals without the need to send out their units for days or weeks at a time. The real meat of the HP z820 Red Edition workstation is shown in the standard 32GB DDR3 RAM (it can be expanded to 512GB, but will cost you a house) and the 20MB per processor cache. The unit I received came loaded with the optional SSD boot drive and a 10TB RAID-0 — and it screams.

The accompanying 24-inch HP Dreamcolor monitors are beautiful. I wish I could have these for my day job. They have a large viewing area, and very rich and accurate color. Once the system booted, I was off to the races. I hooked up my eSATA drive and began transferring my R3D files. After my 1TB of Red files transferred, I did a first light color pass in Red’s RedCine-X Pro. This is only my first stop in testing the R3D files, next I will bring them in using Premiere, but for now I am inside of RedCine-X Pro viewing my files from the 10TB internal RAID, doing a first color pass. With my debayer settings set at half-quality, I had no playback issues, and at full quality I had a little hiccup but pretty extraordinary performance for 4K raw footage.

The z820 Red Edition has made me re-think my whole impression of Adobe Premiere as a broadcast viable end-to-end NLE solution. If you’ve read any of my reviews in the past, you are aware that I focus on Avid products. After using Adobe CS6, I am starting to see what may be on the horizon of post. Avid has a strong historical significance, following and a networked working environment, ISIS — it will not be going away anytime soon.

However, Premiere is giving them some healthy competition. If Adobe can come to the forefront of networked editing and storage environments like Avid has, we will have a strong contender for supremacy in the NLE world.
Back to the fun stuff: inside of Premiere I “imported” my R3Ds. These files work natively, and because I am using the z820 behemoth of a workstation I can playback at 1/2 debayer settings without issue — multiple layers, color correction, transitions, the whole enchilada. I can only imagine if I had two Red Rockets and the Nvidia Tesla, the power would be unrivaled.

Adobe harnesses the power of the Mercury Playback Engine alongside the Nvidia graphics cards with CUDA as well as the Red Rocket card; you can really feel the horsepower when working with effects and the R3D files inside Premiere and After Effects. I opened the R3D files in RedCine-X Pro from within the Premiere project, manipulated some color inside of Red Cine-X Pro, then came back into Premiere. My R3D’s had been updated… phenomenal! Because I know how well Adobe’s Dynamic Linking works between its own programs, such as After Effects, Photoshop, etc., I began to feel excitement for Adobe again. Premiere isn’t a prosumer product anymore. With products such as After Effects and Speed Grade, Adobe has embarked on an end-to-end finishing solution with the power to natively handle ever-demanding Red footage.

TEKSERVE

Terry Brown, the media and entertainment sales manager for HP, who facilitated getting the z820 to test, along with Tekserve, have put together a great package for anyone working with multimedia. Tekserve tunes the systems to work at their optimum speed and visually give the user an easy transition if they are coming from an iOS environment using “Transition Technology.” People coming from Macs to PCs sometimes don’t go easily, it’s like editors going from FCP to Avid — not fun, usually.

Tekserve has created a smooth Windows 7 environment for any user to feel at home. A USB 3.0 restore thumb drive comes with each system. If you ever have any problems you can easily boot with this drive and restore your system back to Tekserve’s finely tuned goodness, including all programs and their serial numbers already entered. You can even create your own restore point with your own custom settings dialed in. A true blessing if you are the one doing all the tech work. I really did test this thumb drive out, and in less than 15 minutes I had a brand-new install of everything on my system.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you are looking for a new multimedia workhorse, give HP’s z820 Red Edition your full attention. It even looks good, with the customized Red LEDs and Dual Red Mag readers for those DIT jobs taking place in the field.

Tek Tip: Getting Started with iCloud, Pt. 3 – What Kind of Files Work with iCloud?

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Gus Guyot

iCloud lets you sync contacts in your address book, events in your calendar, notes, reminders, and Safari bookmarks and tabs. You can also sync the photos you’ve taken to other devices or share them with other users via Photo Stream. You can locate a lost device (including your Mac), or sync documents and data from supported applications.

That part about “supported applications” is important. You cannot just throw any old file on your computer into iCloud. The software you are using to create it must support iCloud directly.

For example, most of Apple’s apps – like Keynote, to name just one – can save directly to iCloud. This means that on any device where you’re running Keynote and logged into iCloud, you can open and edit that document, and all your other devices will stay up-to-date with any changes you make. Invaluable for mobile lifestyles and work environments.

On the other hand, Microsoft PowerPoint, for example, does not support iCloud. There is no way to use iCloud to keep your PowerPoint presentations in sync (although you can use third-party services – like Dropbox – for that).

Continue reading Part 4 of Getting Started with iCloud

Looking for more tips and tricks for your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch? Stay tuned for the Tekserve iOS FAQ and the 12th Edition of the Tekserve Mac FAQ – both coming soon!

Check Out Extreme Windows Blog’s Video Interview with RED Digital Cinema on the HP Z820 RED Edition

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Gus Guyot

Gavin Gear from the Extreme Windows Blog recently interviewed Ted Schilowitz, co-founder of RED Digital Cinema, on the HP Z Series workstations, the Z820 RED Edition in particular, and 4K video editing workflows.

The HP Z820 RED Edition is a lightning-fast digital video editing workstation built specifically for RED Digital Cinema workflows. A collaboration between HP, RED, Nvidia, Adobe, and Tekserve, it’s the only workstation preferred and approved by RED Digital Cinema. You can learn more about it here.

And be sure to check out the writeup and watch Gavin’s interview with Ted here.

Amazing New Verizon Smartphones: Introducing BlackBerry Z10

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Suhas Sreedhar

It’s an exciting time to be shopping around the mobile world. Here at Tekserve, we’ve been featuring some of the hottest equipment to come to Verizon Wireless – the Samsung Galaxy S III, the HTC Windows Phone 8X, and, of course, the iPhone 5.

But it’s 2013, and time for a fresh crop of devices to tease their way into our lives – right?

…So, what’s new?

BACK IN BLACKBERRY with the BlackBerry Z10

BlackBerry? Really?

REALLY. Over the last few years, iPhone and Android seem to have dethroned this one-time giant, but it’s been poised for a comeback. Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian mobile manufacturer that makes BlackBerry, even recently changed its company name to BlackBerry, symbolically tying its fate to the future of the device. With the name-change comes a new touch-based smartphone, BlackBerry Z10, and an entirely new mobile OS that incorporates the best security, reliability, and work performance that made BlackBerry famous in the first place.

If you’re serious about getting work done, the BlackBerry Z10 is the right phone for you. Its entire experience is designed for fast and easy communication. Within a couple of swipes – no matter what screen you’re on – you can access your messages, make a phone call, or compose an email. No home button to press; no further apps to open. The Z10 also features productive multitasking – there’s a page on your home screen that shows you a preview of every app that’s running. You can swap between them or quit them with a single tap.

The Z10 can open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents; has built-in Dropbox integration; features the ability to “print” any document from your computer directly onto your BlackBerry’s screen, so you can take it with you wherever you go; offers rock-solid secure messaging through BlackBerry Messenger (BBM); gives you quick toggles for settings like Wi-Fi; and provides hundreds of other sleek-yet-robust features that make work and play equally easy, efficient, and enjoyable.

The BlackBerry Z10′s multitasking screen.

BlackBerry Z10 is available right now for only $199 with a two year Verizon service agreement. Swing by Tekserve and check it out today!

And, coming soon….

Go Cosmic with Samsung Galaxy S4

Bigger screen. Bigger battery. 13-megapixel camera. Super-stellar speed.

The successor to last year’s most popular Android phone is almost here.

Stay tuned for more updates…

New from NAB: Avid Everywhere, Pro Tools 11, Media Composer 7, & More from Avid

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Gus Guyot

Last night at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Avid announced a host of products and solutions that represent Avid Everywhere, its initiative to create the most fluid end-to-end, distributed media production environment in the industry. As one of Avid’s largest partners, we were thrilled to hear about new ways to help our customers create incredible media.

To learn more about upgrade discounts, trade-in credits, and how you can integrate these new tools, please reach out to us at business@tekserve.com to speak to an account manager.

Creative Tools

Avid Pro Tools® 11 — Avid’s industry-leading digital audio workstation features a new 64-bit architecture, expanded metering, and direct HD video workflows. It’s so fast that you can even run it on a Mac mini.
Avid Media Composer® 7 — The nonlinear editing solution now features accelerated and simplified file-based workflows, automated media operations, and Interplay® Sphere for Mac support, extending real-time production everywhere.
Avid Fast Track® Solo and Duo — These two new portable audio interfaces for composing and recording high-quality audio come equipped with Pro Tools Express software for Mac and PC and connect directly to the iPad, providing high-quality I/O for any iOS app.
Avid Motion Graphics™ 2.5 — The next-generation platform of on-air graphics production includes a new dual-channel configuration option and stand-alone playout engine to increase deployment flexibility and speed graphic workflows, to create stunning imagery and get work quicker to air.

Media Management Solutions

Avid Interplay Production 3.0 — Avid’s latest version of the industry-standard production asset management solution simplifies and speeds file-based workflows for post production and broadcast customers, and offers Interplay Sphere with full Mac support.
Avid Interplay Pulse — Avid’s enhanced multi-platform content distribution solution now has full Mac support, delivering content to online, mobile, and social platforms everywhere.
Avid AirSpeed® 5000 2.5 — Avid’s latest-version video server delivers slow motion playback for SD and HD, fast media replay, and continuous record.

Blog

Category Archives: Business