Anyone else here in the post-PC era?

Sounds like you need to buy yourself a PC.(**Straggler ducks**)

Much of this depends on how smart your smartphone is. If you don't have a phone that runs apps, much of this you won't be able to do.1) Get an app like "Yelp" or "Google Places to find good restaurants near where you are, when you're somewhere where you don't know what the good restaurants are. You can also use mobile web versions of these things.2) Give out a Google Voice number instead of your real cell number; you'll get speech-to-text voicemail and free SMS, plus you never have to pass out a new cell number for the rest of your life. You just update Google Voice with your new number if it ever changes.3) If your phone has a camera, it can be used to read QR codes like this one:You may need an app to do it. You may have been seeing these codes already and wondering what they do.4) Your bank may have their own app. I bank through USAA, and one of the things I can do with their app is deposit checks via the camera on my iPhone. Also, your bank may support some form of "two-factor" authentication; a way to make your online access more secure by requiring both a password and a one-time numeric sequence generated by or sent via SMS to your phone.5) The Amazon app has a barcode reader you can use to comparison shop right there in the store.6) Install a tracking app so that you can find your phone when you lose it.7) Download the Netflix app (if you're a subscriber) for streaming on the go.8) Synchronize its calendar and contacts with the online versions you already use; instant PDA.9) Call 800-555-TELL to access Tell Me, Microsoft's voice-based information service. You can get movie times, internet searches, whatever, all by voice recognition. Sort of like Apple's new Siri which isn't out yet.

I've upgraded to Lion on my MacBook and everything is working except the built-in camera. The MacBook now thinks it has no camera. There's no camera in the System Preferences under "Hardware" (if there ever was one, I don't remember). Skype and all the other camera-dependent applications report that there is no camera.I looked up the problem on Google and found several threads indicating that this is a common problem after a Lion upgrade, but while there were a few suggestions, there were none that worked reliably. Any suggestions for what I should do or try next?Secondary question: In 10.5.8 in Safari I was able to drag-n-drop a link to a tab. This no longer works for existing tabs in Safari 5.1 in Lion. It does work if you want a new tab.--Percy

Look and see if the camera shows up in the System Profiler (Apple menu, "About this Mac", "System Profiler" unless they changed it in Lion), it's probably a USB or Firewire device so look and see if it shows up under one of those categories. If it's not being recognized by the host controller then I think you're looking at a Genius Bar visit.

whatever you have to make up and tell yourself everyday

My three week old iPad 2 can't update to iOS 5.Fuckng bollocks!

It's not available in the UK, or something?

I was going to update tonight - what kind of problem did you run into?--Percy

It just won't do the update magic it needs to. I can access it: just not update my brand new iPad.I shall be talking to an advisor on Friday morning to resolve the problem so I should reserve judgement till then.But I'm irrationally annoyed that my new iPad and new PC can't get it together to boot up iOS 5.B'ah!

Not much of a problem since I can't figure out how to even begin the upgrade.

1) Update iTunes. (Use the Apple Software Update tool.)2) Plug your iOS device in, as you would normally do to sync it.3) If your device supports iOS 5, iTunes will ask you if you want to update. Click "Download and Update."4) Wait for the update to download. (It's pretty slow.)If this doesn't happen, your device may be too old for iOS 5. Supported devices are iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S; iPads 1 and 2; and iPod Touch gen 3 and gen 4.

there is probably multiple millions of people trying to update right now, give it a day or two.

All that.New iPod 2.Says it can't back up my pad due to unspecified error.It will all come out in the wash, but colour me vexed.

Thanks and if I understood what you wrote the odds are I might be able to do the update.My device is an iPad2 and to the best of my knowledge I have never plugged it in to anything but a power cord.

Until today, all iPad's began life with an umbilical to iTunes.If you don't already have iTunes 5 it makes you upgrade first. When it finishes installing it calls itself iTunes 10. I started the upgrade, my iTunes status window now says: Gee, I wonder if anyone else is trying to upgrade tonight? --Percy