jjmarcus tech solutions

Should I install Mavericks?

Did you download OS X Mavericks?

I did, and so far so good. A little hiccup at the beginning made me have to do a forced restart, but since then it has worked fine.

I like the design, and there are great new features. I am also very pleased by the updates to iWork and iLife, and they require 10.9.

But way way better that all of that is the improvements to battery life and performance! All of my computers feel smoother and snappier, and the battery on my MacBook Air lasts at least 10-20% longer than it did on Mountain Lion.

However…

Please read before upgrading!

As with any major upgrade, for most people — and certainly for any mission-critical machines — I recommend [read: urge, plead] holding off just a little bit to let the kinks work themselves out. At least give Apple a chance to get to 10.9.1 before you try Mavericks out on the Macs at your business.

A few clients have installed successfully, but others have encountered a few glitches in printing, scanning, and email. Some important apps might also not be compatible. You can check the software titles you use at the excellent site Roaring Apps. And some printers, especially big copiers, might not have compatible drivers yet.

(For what it’s worth, I now only rely on apps that are currently in development, buying almost everything through the Mac App Store.)

When you feel you’re ready to go, please please PLEASE make sure you have a tight backup for that computer. I have already advised a couple of people whose installations didn’t go smoothly, and their Macs were bricked. A simple restore should fix it, but if you don’t have a backup, you could be in serious trouble if your disk becomes unbootable.

Having said all of that…

Early adopters who are willing to deal with the occasional hassle to get the good stuff are encouraged to go for it! To be safe, give me a call before you hit the Install button, and we’ll go through the checklist to make sure you don’t suffer any downtime.

How about the new iPads?

Thoughts on the iPad Air? I have an iPad 3 now with old connection

I am real psyched by the Air, though because it doesn’t have Touch ID yet, I don’t have a compelling reason to move up from my own iPad 3, at least for my full-size tablet needs.

I will, however, be purchasing an iPad mini with Retina straight away. That will considerably lighten my load when I’m on the road.

iOS 7, after the folderol

Sympathy

I want to start by sympathizing with iPhone users who have been reluctant to upgrade to iOS 7, and for those who did the upgrade and regret it. They have legitimate issues, ones that can’t be lumped under a sweeping, “Change is hard.”

Many folks have suffered dramatic decreases in battery life. Some found their apps crashing, and older apps not working at all. The new animations are dramatic enough to induce vertigo. If not for those serious problems, more people might have forgiven Apple’s choosing garish colors for their app icons, and going rather overboard in the Kate Moss-ification of their interface design.

Satisfaction

Now I’ll say that I have had an almost totally satisfactory experience with the new OS. Control center saves me a ton of time, Siri feels smarter, I love knowing my phone is locked to my Apple ID, Safari works better, and Camera and Photos saw massive improvements. And the layered-but-simple interface makes the whole experience more fun, more playful.

But I got bit by the iMessages bug, and was annoyed by the fix. And I have weird problems placing the text cursor.

I would entertain the popular beef with Apple’s app icons, but I don’t use many apps by Apple. Only the ones I have to, like Phone and Messages. On my phone, I have gone into Settings > General to Reduce Motion (I wish it were more comprehensive), adjust Text Size larger (I wish more apps accommodated Dynamic Type). I tried Increase Contrast, but I prefer the new translucent effects.

I do appreciate where Apple has taken their design language, and I think they had to push it as far as they did. They had to make a dramatic point about software UI, to challenge the rest of the developing world to break out of the bubbly chains of skeuomorphism. The resulting overall look is unquestionably cleaner and more efficient. It’s also worth saying that 7 beats the current Android and Windows Phone offerings into the ground.

Conclusion

While iOS 7 does represent a marked step forward for mobile technology, those who haven’t upgraded don’t have to just yet. Apple should have an update out soon that fixes the majority of bugs, and until they do, later adopters might stick with ol’ reliable iOS 6. When you do make the switch, there are dozens of articles to help you recover from problems and tune the system to your liking.

But change is inevitable. Developers have actively left iOS 6 behind. Apple is sure to require 7 to interface with whatever new magic they release. And once you’re in it, I really think you’re gonna enjoy it.

Meet Juliana

A bunch of you have already met my excellent coordinator, Juliana Abercrombie. Last year, I was inspired to find someone to handle the calendar and order systems. I know Juli through my fiancée’s work at the Witte Museum, and I was thrilled when she agreed to take the gig. She is sharp, organized, thorough, and a clear communicator. Plus, she’s a massive Mac nerd.

When she joined on, Juliana had just gotten her undergrad degree from Ball State, and already had grad school in the works. My business is all about mobility, and I knew she could help me from anywhere the internet reached. So this fall, when Juli embarked on a Master’s program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of San Diego, we had everything in place for her to continue rocking the scheduling and billing duties here at jjmarcus.

And rock she has. Juli has helped me use those excellent cloud apps, like our help desk, Dropbox, and Google Voice to make sure that you get the help you need, a lot quicker than I could get it to you before.

Apple Buys Cue

Bob M wrote:

I had on my list to look more at Cue per your recommendation. Then this happened. I look forward to seeing how it’s integrated into iOS 7.

Ohhhhhhhh that's what happened to them! Thanks for sending me this! I am glad Apple has copped to the importance of making logical connections between our data, and displaying it all at once. Google Now is good, though I can't say it has worked perfectly for me on iOS.

Noelle M, who showed me Cue originally, last week saw they were shutting down, so I went and tracked down Tempo for us.

I like Tempo a lot, and it fulfills most of what I got out of Cue. As Noelle noted this morning, however, it lacks some of the cleverness that made Cue a delight. Package tracking, upcoming travel itineraries, sunrise/sunset. But this is clearly a hot field, sure to attract plenty of heroic developer action in the near future.

Now I get to say one more thing, for the record. I have a pretty good record of picking up on stuff that's primo enough even for Apple.

Check it:

October 2008 – I publish this post about how much I like Lala music streaming service. Didn't know anybody else using it.

December 2009 – Apple buys Lala music streaming service.

2009 – jjmarcus starts introducing clients to the awesome and free Siri Personal Assistant, putting it on almost everyone's iPhones.

2011 – Apple buys Siri Personal Assistant.

September 2013 – jjmarcus posts on Facebook that Apple's apps could stand to be more like Cue.

October 2013 – Apple buys Cue.

And Apple is conservative with their cash.

Which Kindle Paperwhite?

Friend asks:

Gonna buy a Kindle Paperwhite… 3G? no 3G? Ads? No ads?

I bought the cheapest one, with ads, and have been totally happy.
And I was picky before. I only bought one Kindle prior to that, and it was the generation immediately before the Paperwhite. The cheapest one, not the Touch. It was okay, but lack of readability without light put a serious damper on my hamper.

The Paperwhite is perfect form and function. Steve Jobs was right about buttons, and Bezos took a cue from him.

The ads only show up when you are not using it. How brilliant is that? I give them even more consideration than other ads because they don’t get in my way even a tiny iota.

I think the Kindle Fire is a decent device, but its limitations make it overpriced.

Notes on running Windows on a Mac

Terms

Windows runs on your Mac as a “virtual machine,” or VM. Parallels Desktop is a virtualization app.

Basic idea

Windows becomes a file on your computer. Parallels opens that file and tells it to pretend that it is a real computer.

You can start that computer, shut it down, put it to sleep (a.k.a. suspended), or wake it up. Also, you can look at it in a separate window, or full screen, or have the windows you have open on it appear as individual, discrete windows in your Mac environment.

Day-to-Day

Most of the time, you will have Parallels quit, and Windows suspended. When you open the Parallels Desktop app, you will be asked to resume Windows 7.

Then, when you are done with what you need to do in Windows, simply quit Parallels, and it will suspend the VM.

Best Practices

When you do need to have windows running, you should probably quit any other apps that you don’t need to use at the moment. Running Windows consumes a great deal of memory, leaving less room for other apps to do their job, which will result in the spinning beach ball.

As you would with any computer, if Windows is misbehaving, turn it off from the Start menu at the bottom left corner of the Windows screen. Parallels will make it obvious how to fire it back up.

Security

I don’t do much to Windows after I install it, with three exceptions: I install Microsoft Security Essentials, and Google Chrome. I also run Windows Update, which you can find using the search blank in the Start menu.

Configure one Airport Base Station to extend another

Airport Utility

Apple has really made setting up a wifi network easy. Airport Utility now requires only a few clicks, and correctly guesses what you want to do with each device.

When they start adding devices, or reconfiguring existing ones, many people are reluctant to wipe the routers and start from scratch, but that’s totally the thing to do. It saves a ton of time and guesswork.

Here’s how you do:

Reset both devices to defaults
- holding the reset button with a pen til light blinks faster
Unplug your internet modem from power, count to 5, and plug back in.
Set up the Airport A connected to the internet.
- Use the same settings, including wifi network name.
Make sure you can now surf the web.
Plug in Airport B, in the same room as the first one.
Configure B, letting Airport Utility guess correctly that you want the B to extend A.
Once both are green, unplug B, and plug it in where you need it.
Make sure it goes green, and you can surf in the G’s office.

#ilovemyjob

I got to write this to a client today:

Good afternoon. In response to your server’s alert that one of its storage volumes was filling up, I dialed in to take a look.

I used a utility that tells us what’s consuming space.

It looks like the folder called “Crap” takes up the most room. Are the contents of the Crap folder indeed crappy? Can we get that crap off the server, or should it remain, crapping up the rest of your crap?

Let me know. It would be real easy to get a cheap hard drive and put all your crap on it.

How much should I fiddle with the privacy settings on iOS?

O’Grady is a legit writer, and his tips here are not specifically wrong. But I personally have less worry about this stuff, mostly because I think anyone who actually wants to track my location that bad can follow my car around.

This article by Jason O’Grady has some reasonable recommendations.

Also, there are so many other things that companies know about us. Every time we charge our credit card, we reveal our location.

I don’t know how someone would cause me harm just from having the information. But I do know that I benefit from my phone being able to use my location to give me more relevant data and get me through my day.

So, while one can certainly switch these switches, and feel a little more private, I think it’s important to take privacy concerns in context, and recognize where each of us are, and are not, truly vulnerable.