We get tons of feedback and questions about switching to the Mac so we decided to do an entire show on the subject. This show covers the how and the why and some experience from the trenches about what works and what doesn’t. We’re joined by switching Guru James Coleman.
Next to Star Wars, I loved the original Indiana Jones trilogy. Particularly Raiders of the Lost Ark is, in my opinion, one of the best movies ever made. For the fourth movie, however, I was tempted to walk out of the theater. I’ve actually never watched it again since that first time in the theater. Apparently, Steven Spielberg also had issues with the movie. Now Disney’s announced they’ll be making a fifth Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg but without George Lucas, which is kind of strange but perhaps for the best.
I always thought Indiana Jones should be treated like a Bond movie where they bring in a new actor and wind things back to the 1930s and 1940s. Indy always seemed at his best fighting Nazis. Regardless, I hope they get number five right.
Following up on this morning’s post with the youngest ever home screen post, I thought I’d point out a rising star in the Jazz Community. Indonesian pianist Joey Alexander (Wikipedia) has been getting a lot of praise for his debut album, My Favorite Things (iTunes). As a new artist, he shows remarkable sensitivity. He’s not a show off and plays with subtlety. I particularly like the way he’s listening to the bass and drums and mimics their riffs in his solos. It is something that a lot of artists never quite get right and he seems to do intuitively.
By the way, Joey recorded My Favorite Things when he was eleven. Now he’s the ripe old age of twelve.
In the musical world, prodigy, is usually used for someone that becomes technically proficient at a very young age. I’ve seen “prodigy” jazz musicians that could nail an exact copy of something great from someone else. Rarely do you see someone Joey’s age bring their own voice and soul into the music. Joey does and that’s what makes him so amazing. I can’t wait to see where he goes with jazz as he grows older.
I’ve met so many interesting people through MacSparky. One of those is young Brady Bhalla. Brady and I have emailed each other several times and he is so articulate I couldn’t help asking him to do a home screen post from our youngest contributor yet. So Brady, show us your home screen.
What are some of your favorite apps?
One of my favorite apps on my iPhone is Overcast because I love listening to podcasts. My favorite podcasts are Mac Power Users, Clockwise, Upgrade, ATP, Liftoff, and Connected. Another app that I like is the News app because I can stay up to date about what is happening in the world. I also really like WeMo and IFTTT. If my WeMo Motion in my room detects motion it will turn on the other lights in my room. If I long press my WeMo light switch, the lamp on my side table turns off or on. One other app that I like is Slack. My family and extended family have a channel that we use like a private Facebook.
Which apps are your guilty pleasure?
The games I play the most are Crossy Road, The Blockheads, and Plants vs. Zombies 2. My parents have restrictions on how much time I can play games, so I can’t play them as much as I want.
What app makes you most productive?
One app that makes me productive is 1Password. I have a shared vault with my dad so he can also see my passwords. Some other apps that make me productive are the ones I use for school. These apps are Google Docs, Google Classroom (to check any new assignments), Documents (I scan in my finished homework papers with Scanner Pro and save them in Documents), and StudentVUE (to check my grades). I also sometimes use Notes to plan a big project if I have one. One other app that makes me productive is OmniFocus. I don’t usually use it but sometimes I need to make a packing list before a trip and I use OmniFocus for that.
How many times a day do you use your iPhone?
I usually use my iPhone about five times on a school day, but more on a weekend. I use it so little on a school day because we aren’t allowed to use it during school hours. The things I use my iPhone for the most are weather, news, games (if I’m allowed to), and listening to podcasts.
What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?
There are many features that I really like to use on my iPhone 6s, but if I had to choose one I would probably choose 3D Touch. The things I use it most for are switching apps back and forth and using Peek and Pop to look at my emails and Messages.
Do you have an Apple Watch? Show us your watch face and tell us about it.
I don’t have an Apple Watch, but my parents got me a Pebble Time for Christmas. I use the Simplicity face which just tells me the date and time. I love being able to get texts and other notifications without getting my phone out. I also use my Pebble to track my steps and how much sleep I’m getting.
Thanks Brady!
As I write this, I’m waiting to board my flight to Chicago and the American Bar Association’s annual TechShow, where I have the privilege of sharing some nerdy goodness with other lawyers. The best part about attending these conferences is meeting new people so if you are in attendance, please stop me and say “hello”. If you are not attending but in the Chicago area, there is a certain bar I may happen to be at later today.
There’s some interesting bits on this issue. John Oliver sums it up nicely.
I’ve always wondered how badly the FBI really needs Apple to build the requested super-key. Setting aside how bad it would be if such a key got into the wild–it would–why doesn’t the FBI just go to the NSA? Former national security official Richard Clarke has the same question:
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“Every expert I know believes that NSA could crack this phone. They want the precedent that the government can compel a computer device manufacturer to allow the government in.”
This week’s episode of Mac Power Users is live and it’s a good one. Jason Snell joins us and the two of us reflect on what we’ve both learned after being self employed for a year.
Also, there are some hiccups with the feed for Mac Power Users for some of our long-time subscribers. If you don’t see this episode in your feed.
To fix things, you need to delete the old feed and resubscribe to the current feed. Here are links that will help you do that:
For step-by-step instructions, click here. Thanks.
Katie and I really tried but between March Madness and some local ritual called “St. Patrick’s Day”, we couldn’t get a venue for a Mac Power Users meetup in Chicago this coming week. All that said, on March 16 at around 5:30 p.m. I’ll be fresh off a plane and I will need a beverage or two and there is a nice little bar in the Chicago Hilton called Kitty O’Sheas. If you happen to be there at the same time, Katie and I wouldn’t mind that one bit. Be warned that it may be crowded and we have no reservation. The password is “Steve sent me.”
Watching Google and Microsoft develop applications for iOS over the last few years has been interesting. Microsoft under Steve Ballmer took a pretty soft approach to preparing applications for the iPhone and iPad. Microsoft Office was reserved for Apple operating systems and hardware and those Microsoft apps that did come to iOS left a lot to be desired. On the flipside, Google seem to get the idea of apps on the iPhone from day one.
Somewhere along the line, however, things flipped. These days Microsoft’s iPad apps are arguably better than their Mac apps. I’m particularly impressed with Microsoft Word on the iPad Pro, which I’m using just about every day. Google, on the other hand, has declined.
Google Documents has always been the preferred platform for heavy document collaboration. As a word processor, it’s not particularly good but it is rocksolid in the collaboration department. Nevertheless, there has been a definite slowdown in engineering talent thrown at the Google iOS applications. Google Documents on the iPad just got iPad Pro keyboard support this week. This new update, however, still does not add iPad multitasking. Apple announced multitasking last June at WWDC. We are now approaching nine months and Google’s iPad apps still don’t support this feature. At this point I’m seriously looking at alternatives to Google Docs.
As far as I can tell, Google has not said anything publicly about why app development slowed down for the iPad and iPhone. Maybe they just don’t care and, like the Microsoft of a few years ago, want to put their best stuff on their own hardware. Either way, if a few years ago you had asked me to pick which of Microsoft or Google will suck at creating iPad apps, I never would’ve guessed Google.
We had some sad news in the Mac community this week when the first Mac-based ransomeware was found in the wild. The bad guys hijacked the popular bit torrent client, Transmission, and managed to inject a malicious version of the app into the developer’s web site. Unwitting users downloaded and installed the malicious code and the ransomware, called “KeRanger”, promptly encrypted the user’s drive, demanding 1 bitcoin (about $400) to unlock it.
I’ve had a few legal clients on the PC side get caught in this trap over the last several years. I guess it was only a matter of time until this found its way to the Mac.
There really is no solution for people caught in the ransomeware trap. Even if you pay the criminals, who the heck knows if they will actually unlock it or, if they do, what else they will leave on your hard drive. The only real solution is to nuke and pave your hard drive.
When we first started the Mac Power Users, we spent a lot of time talking about backup. In fact we talked about it so much that we started getting complaints. Nevertheless, job one on any computer should be making certain you have a reliable backup system in place. One backup isn’t enough. It should be redundant.
I think one of the easiest ways to do this on your Mac is to get yourself an Apple Time Capsule, which makes incremental backups of your hard drive. If you add to that a copy of SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, you can make your own manual mirror image-style copies of your data on separate hard drives, which can then be put in a drawer and, more importantly, disconnected from the Internet. There’s a lot more I do and perhaps one day I will write it up in detail. It’s been several years since the last time I described my full backup regimen (Ack! 8 years!) and it has changed since then. (For instance, I no longer use FireWire 800. Grin.)
Either way, if you get yourself an external drive with a clone backup plus a Time Capsule, you’re probably in pretty good shape. More importantly, if you ever get caught with one of these ransomeware clowns, you can tell them to shove it, then delete your hard drive and restore from backup.
