Practical Tips in plain language — how to use your Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod.

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Tap and Hold in iOS and Lion reveals unexpected choices

Tap and hold a virtual key on iOS5 to see more options.

Tap and hold on a letter or symbol on an iOS virtual keyboard to see and select alternate characters while typing. Also tap and hold on the Delete key to quickly delete chunks of text. Here’s how. And as a bonus: find out what Lion does with Tap and Hold!

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Hate typing? Let Dragon Dictate type for you

I type badly; Dictate does so much better.

Dragon Dictate’s Recognition window is my favourite part of the software. It gives me alternatives if Dictate guesses wrongly what I said. Its accuracy is very high, but if I mumble the Recognition window helps me fix the problem.

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Use text macros on your iPhone and iPad with iOS 5

Typing long email addresses, complex names or standard messages is a breeze with the new Shortcuts feature on iOS 5. Here’s how to put Shortcuts to work for you.

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Check your spelling in Māori

Maori placenames are marked as potentially incorrect.

Kiwis now have a free spellchecker they can use that will recognise New Zealand placenames and check spelling in Māori. Here’s what it is and how to get it.

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