HOWTO: Sync iCloud Notes Properly On All Your Devices

Apple’s iCloud was recently improved with new features and enhanced existing ones.

One of those was the syncing of all your Notes between your iOS devices and your Mac or PC.

With the launch of OS X Mountain Lion this is even more useful as Apple introduced a desktop version of the popular iOS app, Notes.

So, you are probably experiencing the problem that so many others are right now which is that you enable iCloud sync for your Notes on your device and expect them to automatically show up on all your other devices, but they don’t.

The problem here is that when you enable Notes sync through the iCloud setting screen on your iOS device it will only sync new Notes and not existing ones.

The slow and tedious way to fix this is to simply copy/paste the contents of your existing Notes into a new Note but of course there’s a better way, especially for those who have a lot of Notes on their devices.

For this article I am going to explain how to sync an iOS device with a Mac running OS X Lion.

It should be very similar if not identical for all iOS devices (iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch) and all recent versions of Mac OS X that support iCloud (OS X 10.7.4 or later).

So, if you’re reading this then you’ve probable got this far, by enabling syncing of Notes (Settings > iCloud > Notes > ON) on your iOS device only to see nothing sync then you may also have noticed a change in your Notes app.

There should now be at least two accounts (tap Accounts in the top left corner of Notes app), iCloud and On My iPad (or On My iPhone or On My iPod).

iCloud will probably be empty to start with and On This iPad will have all your existing Notes in it – which won’t sync to iCloud.

From the actual iOS device, there is no way, apart from manually copy/pasting the contents of all your Notes, to sync the On My iPad (or On My iPhone or On My iPod) account with the iCloud account.  For this. we must use your Mac (or possibly PCs, let’s come back to that – leave a comment!).

To get these in sync (and eventually remove the On My iPadaccount completely) do the following on your Mac:

Open Apple MailAdd a new account (if you have no accounts, you’ll be prompted, if not click Mail > Preferences > Accounts).You need to add your iCloud account which is added using your @me.com address that you were prompted to created when you tried to enable Notes syncing on your iOS device.  Enter your address as yourmeaccount@me.com and your password (which is the same as your Apple account password) > click Create and Create again.When Mail opens, the left side navigator may not be visible > click Show to see it.In the left navigator, you should see a section called Reminders and beneath that Notes with two sub-sections, On My Mac and iCloud.  At this point, iCloud should show anything you’ve already created on your iOS devices iCloud account and On My Mac will be empty.Connect your iOS device to your Mac by USB.Open iTunes.Select your iOS device from the left side.Click the Info tab on the right side.Scroll and place a check mark in Sync Notes > click Apply > click Sync.If prompted to Merge or Replace choose Merge.When the sync is complete, switch back to the Mail app and look in the On My Mac section – you should see all of the Notes that were on your iOS device.Select all Notes (CMD+A) and Cut (CMD+X) them to the clipboard.Click the iCloud Notes account and paste (CMD+V) the Notes into iCloud.  After a few minutes, you’ll see all your Notes in the iCloud account section on your iOS device but you’ll also still see them in the other account (now called ‘From My Mac’) so let’s get rid of the duplicates now.Switch back to iTunes.Select your iOS device from the left side.Click the Info tab on the right side.Scroll and remove the check mark in Sync Notes.When prompted if you want to Keep Notes or Remove Notes, click Remove Notes > click Apply.

Now iTunes will sync once more and you’re done.

On your iOS device you’ll now notice that you no longer have multiple accounts or multiple Notes but just one clean list of Notes which are all stored in iCloud.

If you have multiple iOS devices, simply rinse and repeat.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

"Steered" common marijuana among Teens and medical devices: study

THURSDAY, Aug. 2--HealthDay News) for the treatment of substance abuse among young people, many were used for medical marijuana, which was recommended for someone else, also known as "directed" medical marijuana, found that the new study.

The authors of the study, from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, Idaho, suggest that the policy changes are needed to deter the misuse of medical marijuana by young people.

During the test, the lead Author Stacy Salomonsen-Sautel and colleagues questioned 164 young people aged 14-18 in two adolescent substance abuse treatment programs in Denver about their use of medical marijuana. Researchers found that nearly 74 teens use marijuana, which was recommended for someone else on average 50 times.

Compared with teens who do not use medical marijuana, those who began using drugs regularly in younger age and were also more dependent on marijuana and showed more signs of the disorder, according to the report published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Academy of | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The researchers, however, stressed that the majority of teens believed that drug comes with little or no risk.

Because of recent changes to the rules of the State and Federal have door open to more legalized marijuana medical use in Colorado, the researchers suggested that teens using medical marijuana most likely got it from the registry identification card of an adult important for drugs.

The authors of the study concluded that the improved security measures are necessary to prevent medical marijuana in the hands of people that he should not, particularly teenagers.

"The high risk of many patients in the treatment of adolescent substance abuse medical marijuana transalpine were used on a number of occasions, which means that considerable changes direction takes place from registered users," Salomonsen-Sautel said in the journal messages. "Our results support the need for changes in the rules, which protect against medical marijuana to teenagers cross trade."

--Mary Elizabeth Dallas Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Source: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, news release, 31 July 2012

View the original article here

Industry editorial makes outlandish claim about impact of medical devices

Minnesota is the home of several medical device makers.  So there’s been a lot of editorializing about the medical device tax in the Affordable Care Act. There has been some criticism of Minnesota politicians over whose interests they represent on the issue.

Today’s Star Tribune carries a commentary from an industry spokesman – Dale Wahlstrom, president and CEO of LifeScience Alley. He retired from Medtronic in 2006 after 24 years.  His commentary includes this claim:

Medical devices save and improve lives. Between 1980 and 2000, medical device technology slashed the death rate from heart disease by a stunning 50 percent and cut the death rate from stroke by 30 percent. As a result, life expectancy was extended by more than three years.

Please note: I’ve written to a contact at LifeScience Alley asking for the source of that data.  In fairness, he hasn’t had much time to respond but I don’t expect an answer on the data source because I don’t think there is one. I’ll be happy to post an amendment/addendum if/when an answer is forthcoming. That editorial has been published for hours already and I think it’s important to publish even this quick analysis as quickly as I can.

This quote attributes ALL cardiovascular health improvements to devices rather than siphoning off the mere fraction that might be attributable to devices versus drug therapies versus lifestyle changes.

One analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded:

Approximately 47% of this decrease (in coronary disease death rate) was attributed to treatments, including secondary preventive therapies after myocardial infarction or revascularization (11%), initial treatments for acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina (10%), treatments for heart failure (9%), revascularization for chronic angina (5%), and other therapies (12%). Approximately 44% was attributed to changes in risk factors, including reductions in total cholesterol (24%), systolic blood pressure (20%), smoking prevalence (12%), and physical inactivity (5%), although these reductions were partially offset by increases in the body-mass index and the prevalence of diabetes, which accounted for an increased number of deaths (8% and 10%, respectively).

So a little less than half is attributable to changes in risk factors.  A little more than half to ALL treatments – including drugs, surgery, etc.

The largest reductions in deaths came from the use of secondary-prevention medications or rehabilitation after acute myocardial infarction or after revascularization (a total reduction of approximately 35,800 deaths) and from the use of initial treatments for acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina (approximately 35,145 deaths), followed by treatments for heart failure and hypertension, statin therapy for primary prevention, and treatments for chronic angina.

The editorial is more than a matter of playing loose with the numbers; it is a vast overstatement and a distortion of the evidence. There’s no question that medical devices have contributed to the decline.  It is disingenuous to attribute ALL of the benefit to devices.

I’m not going to comment on the medical device tax.  For now, I’ll leave that to the politicians and special interests.

But on this site, we address and try to correct any misleading claims about medical interventions whenever we see them – whatever the source.  And this editorial made a whopper!

I only hope that such whopping misleading claims aren’t misleading politicians into positions they wouldn’t take if they evaluated the claims.

View the original article here

Industry editorial makes outlandish claim about impact of medical devices

Minnesota is the home of several medical device makers.  So there’s been a lot of editorializing about the medical device tax in the Affordable Care Act. There has been some criticism of Minnesota politicians over whose interests they represent on the issue.

Today’s Star Tribune carries a commentary from an industry spokesman – Dale Wahlstrom, president and CEO of LifeScience Alley. He retired from Medtronic in 2006 after 24 years.  His commentary includes this claim:

Medical devices save and improve lives. Between 1980 and 2000, medical device technology slashed the death rate from heart disease by a stunning 50 percent and cut the death rate from stroke by 30 percent. As a result, life expectancy was extended by more than three years.

Please note: I’ve written to a contact at LifeScience Alley asking for the source of that data.  In fairness, he hasn’t had much time to respond but I don’t expect an answer on the data source because I don’t think there is one. I’ll be happy to post an amendment/addendum if/when an answer is forthcoming. That editorial has been published for hours already and I think it’s important to publish even this quick analysis as quickly as I can.

This quote attributes ALL cardiovascular health improvements to devices rather than siphoning off the mere fraction that might be attributable to devices versus drug therapies versus lifestyle changes.

One analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded:

Approximately 47% of this decrease (in coronary disease death rate) was attributed to treatments, including secondary preventive therapies after myocardial infarction or revascularization (11%), initial treatments for acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina (10%), treatments for heart failure (9%), revascularization for chronic angina (5%), and other therapies (12%). Approximately 44% was attributed to changes in risk factors, including reductions in total cholesterol (24%), systolic blood pressure (20%), smoking prevalence (12%), and physical inactivity (5%), although these reductions were partially offset by increases in the body-mass index and the prevalence of diabetes, which accounted for an increased number of deaths (8% and 10%, respectively).

So a little less than half is attributable to changes in risk factors.  A little more than half to ALL treatments – including drugs, surgery, etc.

The largest reductions in deaths came from the use of secondary-prevention medications or rehabilitation after acute myocardial infarction or after revascularization (a total reduction of approximately 35,800 deaths) and from the use of initial treatments for acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina (approximately 35,145 deaths), followed by treatments for heart failure and hypertension, statin therapy for primary prevention, and treatments for chronic angina.

The editorial is more than a matter of playing loose with the numbers; it is a vast overstatement and a distortion of the evidence. There’s no question that medical devices have contributed to the decline.  It is disingenuous to attribute ALL of the benefit to devices.

I’m not going to comment on the medical device tax.  For now, I’ll leave that to the politicians and special interests.

But on this site, we address and try to correct any misleading claims about medical interventions whenever we see them – whatever the source.  And this editorial made a whopper!

I only hope that such whopping misleading claims aren’t misleading politicians into positions they wouldn’t take if they evaluated the claims.

View the original article here