Fix Genius in iTunes store app not working

Start the iTunes store app on an iPad or an iPhone and down at the bottom is Genius (tap More first on the iPhone). This feature displays suggestions from the store based on what is in your iTunes library and what you have previously purchased. It picks music that is similar to the music you already have, and it does the same for films and TV programmes. If you have downloaded comedy TV programmes then Genius will suggest other  comedy TV programmes to download.

The idea is sound, but some people have found that Genius doesn't work. I had this problem yesterday. I don't actually know how long I've had the problem because I can't remember when I last looked at Genius in iTunes. I only noticed yesterday when I came to use it.

A Google search revealed other people with the same problem. You get nothing, just a blank screen with no suggestions. It may possibly be linked to iOS 6, but I can't be certain. It may be a coincidence.

I tried all sorts of suggestions from the web and none of them worked. Today though, I got it working and this may help others in the same situation.

I really needed some screen shots of Genius in action for an article and it wouldn't work on my iPad or iPhone, even after fiddling around for two hours trying all sorts of fixes. So this morning I went to the local Apple Store and used one of the iPads on display to log into my iTunes account. Genius worked fine on the Apple Store iPad. I took my screen shots and emailed them home.

The funny thing is that when I got home Genius on my iPad and iPhone was now working. I don't know whether this was just a coincidence and Genius started working all on its own, which is possible, but perhaps unlikely, or whether logging in with a new iPad kick-started it and got it working. It is worth trying. Get down to your local store and see.

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Vine vs Gifboom

Which is better, Vine or Gifboom? If you've never heard of them then these are social networking apps for your smartphone that enable you to create short videos and share them with others. In some ways they are very similar, but in others they are very different.

Twitter has had huge success with its social networking service and who would have thought that restricting online posts to 140 characters would turn out to be so popular. It is a completely arbitrary limit of course and there is absolutely no reason for it. Yet it works. Twitter is trying to emulate its success with Vine, which enables you to post videos online and share them with friends and followers. Like Twitter, there is an arbitrary limit of six seconds on the length of the video clip. The idea is to encourage creativity and keep posts to the minimum and focused on the subject. If you want to post long videos there is YouTube, Vimeo and others. At vine you've got just six seconds to tell your story.

 . . 

Gifboom looks very similar at first sight, but it is very different. It creates animated gif files. Instead of recording a video clip, you take a series of photos (or load previously taken ones) and these are combined to create an animated gif. Each image is displayed for a fraction of a second, so it looks like a jerky video clip with a frame rate of about five frames per second.

In a similar way to Vine, Gifboom spurs creativity by limiting gifs to 30 frames (six seconds at 5fps), but there isn't any audio with a gif. I find that this makes a difference in two ways. Firstly, Vine's audio can be undesirable because everyone around you can hear it. You wouldn't want to use Vine in a public place like a coffee shop, train or bus unless you use earphones. Some Vine videos can be boring because there is the temptation of video creators to simply talk to the camera. Talking heads can be dull.

Gifboom forces people to focus on creating something that is visually interesting. You can't have talking heads in animated gifs. It is even more minimalistic than Vine. Gifboom also has more features and you can choose manual or automatic shooting modes for taking the frames that make up the animated gif. You can apply special effects to the images and choose the frame rate.

I like Vine, but I think Gifboom has the edge. It is also available on both iOS and Android, whereas Vine is currently only available on iOS. No doubt there will be an Android version sooner or later though. Both are free.

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How many megapixels does your camera need?

I was reading the latest iPhone 5 rumours and while most appear to me to be made up, a few are quite likely, such as a beefed up camera. The current iPhone 5 has an 8 megapixel  camera and the iPhone 5S is rumoured to have a 12 megapixel camera. This seems likely because camera upgrades come along every couple of years. It would also then be on a par with the brand new Samsung Galaxy S4, which has a 13 megapixel camera. The question is, do we need all these pixels in a phone camera? Are more pixels better?

The truth is that more pixels do not always produce better photographs. If a camera takes blurred out of focus images because it has a poor lens, then increasing the number of pixels will simply allow it to capture more blurred out of focus pixels. If photos are too dark, then increasing the number of pixels just produces a larger image that is too dark. The same goes for colour casts and other problems that can occur when taking photographs.

The problem is that megapixels are easy for people to understand and for companies to sell. It is a quantity that can be measured and compared from one camera to another. If one camera has an 8 megapixel sensor and another has a 12 megapixel sensor for example, then the larger one is obviously better to much of the general public.

It is easy to convince people to buy more megapixels. It is not easy to convince people that a camera takes better photos. Suppose the next iPhone has an 8 megapixel camera, the same as the current one, but it takes better photos. It is much harder to convince people that it is better than simply saying it has more megapixels. You can't put a figure on a better photo, you can't measure it and you can't compare specifications.

If you try a lot of phones or digital cameras you will soon see that lots of pixels doesn't always produce better photos. It's hard to describe, but it's just the way the image is focused, the colour balance, the lighting and so on. Sometimes cameras with fewer pixels take better photos than those with more pixels.

How many megapixels do you need? The Samsung Galaxy S4 with its massive 5in screen is 1920 x 1080 pixels. That's 2,073,600 pixels or 2 megapixels. Why have a 13 megapixel camera because photos are simply shrunk down to 2 megapixels when displayed on the screen? Even if you display your photos on your big screen HD TV, it is still only 1920 x 1080 pixels - 2 megapixels. Perhaps you like to share photos on Facebook, well, they still only display on your computer monitor or laptop screen and it's probably not much more than 2 megapixels. The iPad 4 with its retina display is actually just 3.1 megapixels.

Suppose you want to print the photos. An A4 sheet is 11.4 x 8.3 inches and the best human eye can detect no more than 300 dots per inch, even at very close range. That's 3420 x 2490 pixels, which is 8.5 megapixels assuming you print edge to edge without any borders at the very limits of human vision. Why then does the Samsung Galaxy S4 have a 13 megapixela camera and why will the iPhone 5S have a 12 megapixel camera? Of course, some people might want to print bigger pictures, but people rarely print pictures these days never mind print bigger than A4. And for those that do, it's probably better to get a real digital camera than use a phone camera. They take better quality photos that withstand enlargement.

The bottom line is, any camera over 5 megapixels is sufficient for most uses and it is better to focus on camera features and quality rather than the number of megapixels.

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Smart watches - the next big thing?

It seems that smart watches are about to be the next big thing and Microsoft is the latest company to throw its hat into the ring. Apparently the company has been ordering small 1.5in LCDs that can be incorporated into a wristwatch that is linked to your mobile phone.

Some people say that Microsoft is jumping on the bandwagon and is simply copying everyone else, but the company has been dabbling with smart watches for a decade. Almost 10 years ago Microsoft worked with Fossil, Tissot and Swatch to produce watches displayed information like the latest news and weather reports.

Microsoft's watches didn't really take off and it was an idea before its time. We just didn't have the technology 10 or even 5 years ago to produce decent smart watches. The situation has changed though and we are almost in a position where we have good enough technology to produce smart watches that people might actually want.

With Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft working on smart watches it is a safe bet that we will see them sooner or later. There are a number of smart watches already and Sony has an Android powered smart watch that you can buy today. There's also the Pebble and there are several more.

A big problem with smart watches is the battery life and Sony says that with heavy usage you'll only get a day out of the watch. Who wants a watch who's battery runs out after just a day's use? It would be a serious pain in the neck. My current LCD watch has a 10 year battery! To be fair though, with very light usage you might just get a week out of the Sony.

I think Apple, Samsung and Microsoft will all release smart watches (maybe Google will just release a smart watch OS, a cut down Android perhaps). No-one wants to be the first though and they are all waiting to see what everyone else does.

The fact that there are smart watches already out there and that so few people have them is partly due to lack of advertising and promotion. I didn't even realise Sony had an Android watch until I did a Google search for smart watches. If this was an Apple product it would be advertised on prime time TV and people would be queueing up outside Apple stores wanting to buy it.

It's going to be an exciting year if/when smart watches are released and promoted properly. They are going to be must-have gadgets. I really don't want to have to charge one up every night though. I'm running out of power sockets for all the gadgets I have to charge up every night.

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Explore the world with Photowhirl for Windows 8

There are some great photo sharing services on the web and sites like Flickr, Instagram and others are fantastic places for people that like photos. On Instagram you can select people to follow, such as fashion or landscape photographers, celebrities and so on. On Flickr you can browse the latest uploads or explorer galleries. Photowhirl offers a different view.

Photowhirl is a Windows 8 app that is available for free in the Windows 8 Store. It is in the Photography section, but all you need to do is to type the name when you are in the Store and the search facility pops up and finds it.

The app displays a map in the centre of the screen and you can zoom in and out, drag and scroll, show normal and satellite views and so on. There's a button to go to your current location on the map too. All the usual stuff you can do with maps.

On the map are pins with tiny thumbnail images of photos and these are the places where photos have been taken. So you could zoom into New York or London for example, and see pins where people have taken photos.

 Photowhirl gets the images from 500px, Flickr, Panoramio and Instagram and there are on/off buttons on the left to choose which services you want to see photos from. The location of the images is discovered by looking at the location information stored in them or even by looking for landmarks.

Down the right hand side are some larger thumbnail images and you can browse the photos by clicking these instead of the pins on the map. When one is clicked, the map zooms in to the location to give you a detailed view.

It depends on which service the photo came from, but with some you can click the photographer's name to see more of their images.

There are buttons to add photos to your favourites and you can share your finds with others using the Windows 8 sharing facilities - the People app and Twitter if it's installed.

Photowhirl is an interesting way to explore maps and see photos from around the world. You might even find photos taken close to home. I found some taken only a couple of hundred yards away. I never realised the area would look so good in a photograph and the photographer caught it in just the right light and just the right time of year. It's a great app and well worth adding to your collection.

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Take notes with Google Keep

If you haven't already heard, there is a new Google app called Keep. Well, new-ish. It is around two weeks old. This is a free app that is available for Android phones and tablets, and it can also be accessed using a web browser from a computer because uses Google Drive for storage.

Keep enables you to store notes and it can cope with a several different types of content. Tap the new note button and you can either type something in using the onscreen keyboard or you can paste something copied from elsewhere, such as a web page. Paste in a URL and it becomes a live link - tapping it opens Chrome and displays the page.

The camera icon is used for taking photos using the device's camera and then storing them as notes. The microphone icon can be used to dictate notes. Keep stores the audio file, which can then be played back, but in addition to this, it converts speech into plain text too. Check lists and to-do lists can be created and there are tick boxes next to each item so you can mark when items are done.

An interesting feature of Keep is that the notes you create are synced with Google drive and you can go to drive.google.com/keep/ and access your notes on another device, such as a desktop or laptop computer. Notes can be colour coded, so it would be possible to assign colours for different categories or projects, or to indicate their importance.

Note taking apps for Android are not new of course and Evernote has been around for many years and is very popular. It is also more powerful than Google Keep too and it has more functions. However, Keep is very simple and it may be sufficient for people that don't need a lot of features.

To get Google Keep, just go to the Google Play Store on your device and enter 'keep' into the search box.

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The downside of Facebook Home

If you are reading this then you are probably fairly up to date with the latest events around the web and you couldn't have missed the launch of Facebook Home yesterday. There are countless news stories and comments online and you may have read some of them already. Here is a different view of Facebook Home and why it won't work for me and possibly others too.

Facebook Home replaces the lock screen and home screen on your Android phone with images and content from your news feed. Here is the problem: The contents of your news feed is not under the control of Facebook and it is the content that makes Facebook useful, or not.

I haven't done any statistical analysis, but I would guess that on some days as little as 50% of the content in my newsfeed is actually useful. Other days it may be as high as 90%. Just think, on some days the lock screen and home screen on my Facebook phone would be half full of rubbish.

What rubbish you may ask. Well, there are posts that are simply not true, such as a big post today that someone shared. It tells people how to survive a heart attack when you are alone by coughing. It's a hoax. Google it. Recently a fake posting appeared in my newsfeed that looked like it was by Samsung and that 5000 Galaxy S4 phones were being given away to people that like the page. It's a scam. It's not real. Another recently shared image that appeared in my news feed was a Hollywood actor with the words M***** F***** in something like 48 point bold type overlaid on it so you couldn't miss it. Recently an illegal photo appeared in my news feed that had been banned by the UK courts from appearing in print and online (it identified a person the courts said must not be identified).

It's not just content from other people, but adverts too. Facebook suggests things I might like (I rarely do), and shows sponsored posts I have no interest in. Friends advertise or promote things I have no interest in too. For example, they may own or work for a company and when the company launches a new product or service, they like the Facebook page and it appears in my news feed. I have no interest in the latest washing machines or the latest meal deal at a pub 200 miles away that would take me four hours to drive to. (You know who you are.)

Facebook also suggests people you may know and encourages you to make friends with them. Among the  suggestions on my Facebook home page today were 15-year-old girls (I'm a 50+ year old male). How? Well, I have a teenage nephew who has teenage friends, so Facebook thinks I should make friends with them.

Picture this scenario: You're in a busy Starbucks getting a coffee. You get your phone out and switch it on and the lock screen has an image with  M***** F***** emblazoned across it. You go to the home screen and the wallpaper is an illegal image. There are links to contact teenage girls. Oh, and the guy right behind you in the queue looking over your shoulder is an off-duty cop getting a coffee. Doh!

I'm not making this up. These examples are real posts in my Facebook feed. Some people believe everything that is posted on Facebook and share it to everyone they know. Some people think adding swear words to things makes them funny. Some people are taken in by scams.

As I said, sometimes 50% of my newsfeed is junk that I don't want to see. Facebook is for broad minded adults only and is not for general consumption. I don't want to live in the Facebook world and it certainly isn't suitable for lock screens and home screens on mobile phones.

I've actually cut down on Facebook usage, even to the point of disabling notifications on my phone and tablet. This is mainly because of the junk in the news feed. However, occasionally there are great posts -  photos, news and other posts from friends and family. The occasional interesting post and useful message that I wouldn't otherwise see will prevent me from quitting Facebook altogether, but the real world is nothing like how Facebook imagines it in its presentations where every photo is taken by a professional photographer and comments are funny and/or interesting.

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The new Ccleaner 4 for Windows cleans even better

Ccleaner has been around for years and it is a small utility that cleans up the rubbish that is created on the disk drive by Windows and applications. If you have never come across this utility before, you should check it out because it is really good and it is free too.

Run Ccleaner and it scans the disk drive for web browser caches and history, Windows Explorer  thumbnail caches, recent document lists, temporary files, clipboard contents, memory dumps, log files and so on. Junk files created by certain applications are scanned for, like Flash, Microsoft Office, Windows Media Player, anti virus software and so on. When scanning is complete you can delete the junk (or cancel).

It also scans the registry for junk entries, such as for software you no longer have, faulty entries and so on. These can be cleaned out too.

It's a great tool, but my advice is not to try to do everything at once. Use the tick boxes to select a small number of items to clean up, check your PC is OK, then clean up a few more items. I've not heard of problems with Ccleaner, but I've heard of people using other cleanup tools that have created problems by removing something that they shouldn't have.

Ccleaner 4 is about a week old, so it's brand new still and it has a number of new features:

• New improved graphics and icon.
• Improved internal architecture for better performance.
• New Duplicate File Finder tool.
• New System and Browser Monitoring (Pro Version).
• Optimized and improved Registry Cleaning.
• Added cleaning for Avast Antivirus 8, Adobe Photoshop CS6, Samsung Kies and Real Player 16.
• Improved Drive Wiper performance.
• Optimized Startup item detection algorithm.
• Optimized 64-bit builds on Windows 7 and 8.
• Many performance improvements and bug fixes.

There are free and Pro versions and the new Duplicate File Finder tool is in both of them. There are many alternatives that do just as good a job, but now there's on in Ccleaner so you don't have to run a separate utility. There's been an option to run it on startup for some time, but now if you're a Pro user, it can run on shutdown too, so your PC's cleaned ready for next time. The Pro tool can also monitor the system and detect when to run cleanup session based on the amount of disk space that can be reclaimed.

My own preference is for the portable version that doesn't need installing. Get it from the Builds page.

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