In the blog post just above this one, you should see a download link for the previous edition of this ebook. The previous edition pretty much covers the same Apple gear and operating systems, but it describes an older version of AirPort Utility. However, if you are working with older gear and older computers, you may need older advice. To that end, you may download two even older ebooks that focus on the older base stations and that were last updated some time ago—they are frozen in time with older versions of Mac OS X. The two older ebooks are:

• Take Control of Your AirPort Network: This is the first of Glenn's AirPort-related ebooks. It describes networking with 802.11b and 802.11g gear, and its descriptions of Mac OS X are from before 10.5 Leopard.

• Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network (first edition, version 1.6): This is the second of Glenn's AirPort-related ebooks. Last updated in 2009, this ebook covers the simultaneous dual-band 802.11n base stations that Apple released in 2009. Although its core focus is on 802.11n, it also covers scenarios where you are using 802.11b and 802.11g gear, or where you are mixing older and newer base stations on the same wireless network. It's primary Mac OS X focus is on 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, and 10.6 Snow Leopard.

—Tonya Engst 

Keeping in mind that Apple may not have shared a complete change list, let's look at Apple's change list for iOS 5.1.1:

• Improved reliability when using the HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut. On an iPhone or iPod touch, you can quickly open the Camera app from the Lock Screen, making it easy to capture a great photo before a special moment fades away. However, this feature does not appear to be present on the iPad, so there's nothing special here for iPad users.

• Fixed bugs that could prevent a third-generation iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks. If you want to connect a third-generation iPad to the cellular data network in an area where service is patchy, this fix should be welcome—in a situation like this, the better your networking gear works, the faster the bits will trickle in.

• Repaired bugs that affected AirPlay video playback. If you have the necessary gear to stream video from your iPad through an Apple TV, I urge you to try it—it's quite magical at first and even after the novelty wears off, it can still be useful and fun. (In the ebook, see the topic "Play Media with AirPlay." It's on page 94 of the PDF.) If you're already enjoying this feature, then perhaps it will work a bit better with iOS 5.1.1.

• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List. The chapter "Surf the Web with Safari" explains how to bookmark a Web page and how to add a Web page to your Safari Reading List. It also mentions that you can "sync your Read Later list to another device through iCloud, but not through an iTunes sync." When I read that, I thought, "Really? That doesn't sound right." So, I checked again, and found that I could sync Read Later items between Safari on my Mac and my iPad quickly through iCloud, but, indeed, they don't sync through iTunes, even with the Sync Safari Bookmarks checkbox selected on the Info pane in iTunes. The "reliability" that Apple is referring to is a more subtle difficulty with Safari-related syncing.

• Fixed an issue where an “Unable to purchase” alert could be displayed after successful purchase. I've not run into this problem, and now I suppose I never will.

That's all folks. The update from iOS 5.1 to iOS 5.1.1 should be easy to bring about, and if you haven't already installed it, I recommend that you add this simple project to your to-do list. Keep in mind that it will probably take 15 minutes or so for the new software to download and install—and it could take longer.

—Tonya Engst 

Take Control of Your iPad

What if I just want to keep using my email on all my devices?
As of May 1, you can choose to keep using your mail after MobileMe ends, even on devices that don’t meet the iCloud system requirements. Just go to me.com/move and select the option to keep using your email after MobileMe ends. Once you have completed this short process, your mail will continue to work on devices that don’t meet the iCloud requirements after MobileMe ends on June 30th, 2012.

And, as it turns out, following these steps also migrates your MobileMe calendars to iCloud. You can read more details about the transition process in my article "Keeping Your MobileMe Email Address without iCloud".

So there you have it. If you haven't yet migrated from MobileMe to iCloud (or reinstated an expired mac.com email address) and don't plan to do so soon, follow those instructions before June 30 to ensure that you continue having access to your email account.

—Joe Kissell 

Take Control of iCloud

By "the wrong way," I mean perpendicular to the direction of the arrow cursor that shows you the resizing direction. So, for example, you click at one side of the window and start dragging up or down, instead of sideways as the arrow cursor indicates. Presto, you're dragging the entire window! Once you've started dragging the window, so that Lion knows you want to drag rather than resize the window, you can continue dragging in any direction, and put the window where you want it.

This is a big improvement over earlier Mac OS X systems where, for many windows, the only way to reposition the window was to drag the title bar. There were exceptions; for example, in the Finder, if you showed the status bar at the bottom of the window, you could drag the window by the status bar. But Lion extends this so you can drag any resizable window by any resizable edge.

—Matt Neuburg 

Take Control of Using Lion

Spam clogging the arteries of your iPad or iPhone? Joe Kissell and Adam Engst suggest routing your mail through a server that filters out the digital trans-fats.

Take Control reader Genevieve S. wrote in with an interesting question a few days ago:

Genevieve: Do you know any third-party app that can filter mail on iPad and iPhone—i.e., apply rules?
Tonya’s reply: I don’t know of any apps that can filter mail locally on the iPad, but I’ve cc’d Adam and Joe here to see if either of them has a suggestion. Personally, I use my gmail account on the iPad, and Google handles the filtering on the server.
Joe’s reply: There is an app called ibisMail, which comes in both iPad and iPhone versions, that does filtering on the device. However, I do what Tonya does—let a server-based filter do all the work before messages appear on any of my devices.
Genevieve: Thank you for responding. I use the gmail filter too, but the AT&T/Yahoo filter is lousy. This is not a problem when receiving mail on the Mac—the rules in Mail handle the leakage—but if I read the mail on the iPhone, a local filter would help.
Adam jumps in: You could forward the other account to Gmail to get the benefit of its filter. Lots of people do that.
Genevieve: Great idea!!

In the third edition of Take Control of Mail on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, Joe touches on email forwarding in “Decide Which Account(s) to Use,” and he references a Macworld article that he wrote—Streamline email with Gmail. The Macworld article discusses how to forward a non-Gmail email account through Gmail.

—Michael E. Cohen 

Take Control of Spam with Apple Mail

—Michael E. Cohen 

Take Control of Your iPad

—Michael E. Cohen 

Take Control of CrashPlan Backups

The third-generation iPad can also connect to "4G" cellular data networks. “4G” isn’t a technical definition, but it has been used for the last decade to describe particular network properties that aren’t found in 3G networks, including speed, latency (the time it takes for bits to begin to flow), and other niggly provisions. However, cellular carriers have become impatient with using the 3G label, so they have begun calling faster 3G networks by the “4G” name, even though the characteristics remain firmly in that earlier generation.

The 4G label, when used for marketing, has come to describe any 3G network that has the capability for downstream rates of at least 14.4 Mbps. The original iPad and iPad 2, as well as all iPhones prior to the iPhone 4S, can at best use 3G networks up to 7.2 Mbps. The iPhone 4S works on 14.4 Mbps 3G networks, and the new iPad works on networks that can reach downstream rates as high as 21 Mbps, or even 42 Mbps. (These are all raw download rates that include the bits used to direct network traffic and correct errors. On the most advanced 3G networks, actual throughput to an iPhone or iPad is closer to only several Mbps.) So, when you see the label “4G” in the iPad status bar, you’re still on a 3G network, albeit a fast one. When an iPad connects to an LTE network, an “LTE” label appears in the status bar.

In the United States, Apple offers two models of 4G-capable iPads for the 3G and LTE networks operated by AT&T and by Verizon Wireless. These LTE networks, along with dozens around the world, aren’t currently interoperable. However, you can take either iPad model outside the United States, swap in a micro-SIM card from a carrier in the country you’re in, and use any 3G GSM (HSPA and beyond) network. (The Verizon model uses CDMA in the United States for 3G access, but GSM outside the United States)

The 4G-capable iPad also can act as an Internet hotspot, meaning that it can connect to the Internet and then share that connection with up to five other devices at the same time. For example, you could connect the iPad to a 3G or LTE mobile broadband network and then share the connection with two laptops, plus one Wi-Fi–only iPad and a couple of Wi-Fi-enabled handheld game systems. Although the hotspot capability is baked into the 4G iPad, carrier support and charges may vary. At the time that the new iPad went on the market in the United States, Verizon Wireless supported the hotspot feature and didn’t charge an additional fee beyond your normal plan fee any overage charges. At launch, AT&T didn’t support the feature, but said it might in the future. For other countries, check with your carrier to see if the hotspot feature is supported, and what the cost will be.

To more fully understand your 4G-capable iPad, read Glenn’s article What LTE means for Apple’s new iPad. And, for those who can cope with an alphabet soup of tech acronyms, Sara Yin’s essay ITU Redefines 4G. Again. at discusses how the 4G standard has been watered down.

—Tonya Engst 

As you may know, when you sync to an iOS device, you can have iTunes automatically convert your music files to a lower bit rate, so you can save space on the portable device. Previously, the only choice you had was 128 kbps. But iTunes 10.6 offers three choices: 128, 192, and 256 kbps (as shown in the screenshot below). You can access this option on the Summary pane after you select your iPod in the iTunes source list.

This change will certainly please those who have iTunes libraries with music in lossless format, but who don't want to downsample their music to 128 kbps. The three options available are sufficient for all users; if you want more than 256 kbps, then you’ll just sync lossless files.

Note that this conversion can take a long time, so the first sync may take hours–especially if your iOS device has a lot of storage–but subsequent syncs, if you’ve updated only a small amount of your library, will be much quicker.

—Kirk McElhearn 

Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ

Over the years, I have four or five iTunes libraries running around on various drives. Is there a way to consolidate all of them to ONE library, wherein I have all my tunes, but no dupes? I'm guessing there may be a way I can spend two weeks doing it by hand, but...well, you know....thanks in advance!

Kirk wrote back to say:

You’ve got a confusing situation. I’d recommend looking at Dupin: http://dougscripts.com/apps/dupinapp.php. It’s an app designed to weed out duplicates. If you were simply to add all the music from each library to one main library, then use Dupin, you should be able to clean things out. Dupin will certainly save you a lot of time. Now, if you also want to bring in playlists from each library, have a look at this Macworld article, which shows how to export and import playlists: http://www.macworld.com/article/165775/. This will be a fastidious task, but if you simply want the music, use Dupin and it should be relatively painless.

—Tonya Engst 

Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ