Use Google Docs to Monitor Availability of iPhone and iPads in Apple Stores

You are looking to buy an iPhone 5S (or the iPad Air or the upcoming iPad Mini Retina) but the model you want is neither available on the Apple website nor at the local Apple Store. Apple will not notify you when they have stock so you manually check the Apple’s online store, multiple times a day, to know if that product has become available or not.

A website called Apple-Tracker.com (now offline) made that task slightly less cumbersome as it allowed users to quickly check availability of Apple products in stores in their locality. You could choose an Apple product, enter your zip code and it would tell you if that product was available for pickup at any of the Apple stores in your locality.

The website is however no longer available but the developer has uploaded the code on Github should you be interested in running a private copy of the Apple Tracker. This is a Node.JS based app and implementation does need some technical know-how.

There’s however a simpler Google Script based version of the Apple Tracker tool available as well that you can run privately in your own Google Drive. This version will send email alerts (sample alert) as soon as it finds that an item in your watchlist is available at a nearby Apple store. You can track stocks of iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina Display and the iPhone 5S.

Here’s how you can use the Google Script based Apple Tracker tool for automatically tracking Apple inventory at various Apple Stores in your locality:

1. Click here to make a copy of the Apple Tracker script in your Google Drive.
2. You’ll have a sheet with a list of all available models of the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and the upcoming iPad Mini with Retina. Put “Y” against items that you wish to track.
3. Go to the Apple Tracker menu in the sheet and choose Initialize. Then click “Accept” at the authorization dialog. The script is open-source  and none of your data leaves your Drive.
4. Choose Start Tracking under the Apple Tracker menu. Enter your zip code (U.S. only) and your email address where you wish to receive product availability alerts. Click the Start Tracking button and exit the Google sheet.

If you would like to disable tracking, just open your Google sheet copy and add “N” against all the product items that you no longer wish to track. Alternatively, you may choose the Uninstall option under the Apple Track menu.

Hate Typing Passwords? Log into your Mac Computer with your iPhone

Knock to Unlock is a new iPhone app ($3.99) that lets you easily log into your locked Macbook using the iPhone in your pocket. While you are near your locked Mac, just know the screen of your iPhone twice and the app will automatically enter your password on the computer.

Knock has two components – the desktop app that runs on your Mac and the iPhone app. When you knock on the iPhone screen, the Mac app automatically enters your password and unlocks the computer. Your Mac is still protected with a password, the app just saves you from the hassle of typing that long password every time you sign-in.

And if your iPhone isn’t around, you will still be able to sign in to your Mac by manually typing the password.

Know to Unlock is currently available for Mac only but a Windows version is also in the works. You need an iPhone running on iOS 7 and not a very ancient Macbook or iMac running on Mountain Lion or Mac OS X Mavericks.

One iPhone can only be paired with one Mac computer though the website says that support for multiple Macs is coming very soon.

Find Out If Your Outgoing Email Messages Leak Your IP Address

When you send an email to someone, the outgoing message may sometimes include the IP address of your computer that was used to send that message. The IP address is included inside the message header and, if available, it can help the recipient trace the approximate geographic location of the sender.

Not all email providers include the sender’s IP address in the outgoing email messages.

For instance, Gmail omits the sender’s IP address if you send mails through Gmail’s website or through Gmail’s mobile apps but the IP address gets included if you use a third-party program – like Microsoft Outlook or the Mail App on your iPhone – to send the message through your Gmail account. Outlook.com also hides the sender’s IP address while Yahoo Mail includes that information in the outgoing message headers.

If you would like to know if your email client is revealing your IP address to the recipients or not, you can either send an email to yourself and look at the message headers but if that sounds a bit too technical, give emailipleak.com a try.

When you open the site in your browser, it detect your computer’s IP address and creates a unique email address for you. You are required to send a blank message from your email client to that address. When the message arrives, the tool looks for your IP address in the headers of the incoming message and alerts you if a match is found.

The site’s privacy policy says that it does not collect any user information and the information is discarded immediately after any results pages are constructed.