Monthly Mini-Bytes - April 2025

 

Regular, Pro, Max or Ultra? Which Chip is Right for You? So you decided on a new Mac, and if you have a machine that still has an Intel processor, then that is a good decision. But the array of choices out there is daunting. There's the M3 Ultra, M4 Pro, M4, M3, and every other variant in between. Choosing wrong can cost you money and productivity. The good news is that it's a lot easier than you think! Let's break it down... Typical Use If you use your Mac for basic functions like mail, surfing the internet, using Apple Photos, or even good old Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, then the standard M-series chip is more than enough to meet your needs. Whether you choose a Mac with a basic M3 or M4 processor it will be able to handle the daily grind of use for many years to come. More Demanding Apps If you use Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom then the Pro level chips would be the ones to consider. The M3 or M4 Pro can even handle video editing, but if you are looking at running intensive effects apps, then you may want to level up. If you are using Final Cut Pro, then this is the minimum processor. Video Editing and Graphic Design The Max series is the workhorse of the Apple chips. It is the one to get if you do intensive video editing with apps like Premier Pro and After Effects. It's also the one we recommend for design in Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, or SketchUp. 3D Modeling, Game Design, AI Generative Processes The M-Series Ultra chips are two Max chips fused together. They are immensely powerful and can handle demanding 3D Modeling, AI Generative Work, 3D Graphics, and just about anything that runs on a Mac today. They are expensive, but if your workflow demands an Ultra then it's always best to have the right tool for the job. No matter what M-Series you choose, they all are much more powerful and capable than the Intel Macs of just a few years ago.

iPhone Battery Replacement: Is it Worth It?

Let's just all agree that the iPhone has been stuck in a rut. It hasn't changed very much since the iPhone X, and if you have a 12 or a 13 you may be wondering if it would be worth it to replace your weak battery, or just jump in on a new iPhone. Both Wendy and I have had batteries replaced by Apple with our older phones, and it was a flawless and relatively inexpensive experience. It generally costs less than $100 and sets the phone up for several more years of use.  We only recommend getting your iPhone battery replaced with Apple. To learn about the process and to figure our what it would cost, visit: https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-replacement

The Heat is Coming! Protect Your iPhone

With Spring in full swing, the temperatures are climbing, and keeping your iPhone from overheating should be on your mind. Did you know that the iPhone is only rated to 95 degrees? That's it, and that's the low temperature for us in Phoenix in the summer... at least it seems that way. Check out this FAQ from Apple about what to do if your iPhone gets too hot: https://support.apple.com/en-us/118431

The Micro-Byte - April 2025

 

A.I. Voice Spoofing is Here

As if we didn't have enough to worry about with all the SPAM, phishing, spoofing, stuffing, cracking, hacking, and all the rest of the nefarious techniques that the bad guys have dreamed up to steal our money, identity, and sanity. Now we have to worry about A.I. Voice Spoofing. This new technique is especially scary as it only takes a short voice sample to build a model. With A.I. Voice Spoofing, the scammers build a model that sounds just like the voice of your son, daughter, aunt, uncle, boss, or co-worker. This A.I. bot calls you in a panic asking most often for money or a version of help that will send you down a rabbit hole that will compromise your data and security. The voice can interact with you just like a real person. It is a massive concern right now, but just like with the scams over text and email, there are ways you can protect yourself. Call the Person Back When you get a call from one of these A.I. Bots, they will try to scare you to react. The easiest thing to do is call the person back on their personal number. This is a number that you know and have used before for this individual. Do not call back the number this bot gives you. It's the simplest way to verify that you are talking with the actual person. Ask a Personal Question We've all seen this one in the movies. Ask this bot a question only the other person would know the answer to. It's not 100% since the bot may have scraped some info from social media, but at least it is another way to confirm that you are speaking with a real person. Have a Code Word This is easiest for family, but have a code word that is used to authenticate who the person is. You can ask for the code word very quickly even in a panicked phone call to verify identity. Ask a Question You can also ask a question expecting a wrong answer, like, "Is Erica okay?" For the person on the other line, supposedly, they don't know an Erica, so if you get a "Yes" you know it's a faker. The good news in all of this is that these A.I. Voice Spoofers are new. Building the models takes some time, so right now targets are very specific and high profile. But over the next few years it will be easier to pull a scam like this together. Still, being aware right now, and developing a plan to handle them is a good idea for all of us.

Monthly Mini-Bytes - March 2025

 

The M4 Chips are Out! Do You Need to Upgrade? The new slate of Apple Silicon chips is super confusing. With an M1 iMac you may be thinking that with the M4s out you need a new machine since you're falling behind, but that is not the case. Maybe you spent a ton of money on an M1 Ultra Mac Studio and you are thinking an M4 Max may be better. The truth is not so simple, but let's see if we can make it so. All M-Series chips no matter what series or type are vastly superior to any of the old Intel machines. Even the humble M1 is immensely powerful and more than capable to handle what you initially purchased it to do. Any of them will handle Apple Intelligence if and when it is released. It can edit hi-res photos and even handle 8K video editing. So what about the Pro, Max, and Ultra variants? It's all about the cores. More processing cores mean a faster and more capable chip. The Max has more than the Pro, and the Ultra is basically two Max chips fused together. That means an M1 Ultra is faster and more capable than an M2 Max, and the new M4 Max is pokier than the M3 Ultra. Trying to explain this makes me sound like a crazy person. So how do we distill it down to something that is actionable and can save us all time and money. Well, look at it like this: If you have any M Series powered Mac computer there is no reason to upgrade unless you want a new machine, need more storage, physically broke the thing, or started using software that needs a bit more power. That being said, if you have an Intel-powered Mac you absolutely want to consider upgrading. Apple desperately wants to leave those machines in the rear view. The newer systems like macOS Sequoia are optimized for Apple Silicon. With the vast array of options, if you do think of replacing that old Intel, it's important to look at what you will need. There is no reason to overbuy since the new chips are so powerful, but storage and the proper number of "cores" in your use case are extremely important. And since everything is now integrated on the chip itself, don't forget the AppleCare+.

Apple Intelligence Delayed Until 2026

And with that, the never-ending beta will continue... Yes, you read that right. Apple has promised and missed a major benchmark with the release of Apple Intelligence. Siri's advanced contextual awareness that is the hallmark of Apple Intelligence is not ready and won't be ready until sometime in 2026. Sure, there are a bunch of AI-ish feature that are live (in beta) like rewrite and photo cleanup, but Advanced Siri is promised to be that all knowing AI assistant that the future, and Tim, promised. So, we are just going to have to wait and just be satisfied by creating our own emojis.  To learn more, visit: https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/what-went-wrong-with-apple-intelligence/

iCloud Private Relay

Trying to protect our privacy and data is probably the most important thing on the minds of many of us these days. It's particularly important when surfing the web. VPNs are a great solution, but Apple has built-in its own VPN-ish solution within iCloud called Private Relay. The feature effectively hides your location and browsing activity when using Safari. It does not work with Chrome or Firefox, so if you want to take advantage of this feature you will need to use Safari. To turn it on, go to System Settings -> [Your Name] Apple Account -> iCloud. Scroll to iCloud+ Features to find it and turn it on. To learn more about Private Relay visit: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102602

The Micro-Byte: March 2025

 

Apple vs. the UK: The Battle for Your Privacy

Of all the tech companies out there, Apple does take the lead and is genuinely concerned about their users privacy. It's what gives Apple a leg up on the competition. It's why a lot of people and businesses choose Apple products over other options. And I would argue to say that privacy is becoming a larger concern for most users, no matter what platform they use.  But the Redcoats are coming... again. This time it's for your data. They want in and Apple is fighting hard to stop that from happening. It's because of a law passed in the UK called the Investigatory Powers Act. This law has global reach, meaning that for a company like Apple that operates in the UK, all data from any user around the globe could fall under the IPA. Apple has consistently fought against putting in back doors or weakening encryption. They have even enhanced ways where users can further protect their data. And the way that you can do it is with Advanced Data Protection. This is the service that is at the root of the conflict. It adds end-to-end encryption to your iCloud data. With Advanced Data Protection enabled you hold the encryption keys, not Apple. It is a setting that we highly recommend using.  To enable Advanced Data Encryption go to Settings -> [Your Name] -> iCloud and scroll down to Advanced Data Protection to access it and turn it on. To learn more about Advanced Data Encryption visit: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/advanced-data-protection-for-icloud-sec973254c5f/web To lean more about the spat between Apple and the UK check out MacRumors: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/04/apple-legal-complaint-uk-backdoor/

Monthly Mini-Bytes - February 2025

 

Did You Get Your 1099 from Apple? Testing... It's probably the most arduous, time consuming, and thankless tasks in all of technology, but it is by far the most critical. Testing software and hardware is important as a market failure could destroy a company's reputation. It's not fun work. It's hard, tedious, and with update after update it is seemingly never ending. It is a high overhead cost for any company. So, how does a corporation like Apple short cut the process to try to save some cash? They introduce the Public Beta. Beta testing is an important process of the whole testing procedure. It gets the software or hardware out to a trusted group of people to use it in the real world. Even with the best internal testing methodology, the Beta always unveils issues. The Public Beta is a different thing. Apple releases unfinished and seemingly lightly tested software temping users with "early access" to features. These features are buggy and could compromise the daily use of your iPhone or Mac. We have never advocated putting any Beta software on a phone or computer that you rely upon. And then comes Apple Intelligence: This has been in a Public Beta since the Fall, but with the latest updates Tim Cook and his merry band of developers have automatically enabled Apple Intelligence making any user of a compatible Mac or device a Beta Tester. Well, boo Apple. Apple Intelligence is not ready. Apple admits that it isn't ready by continuing to have it as a Public Beta. It's not cool to enable a Beta Test for your entire user base. Do the work. Test Apple Intelligence, and when it is ready, release it then. If you have a Mac or iPad running an M-Series processor or an iPhone 15 Pro or newer you, will need to go and turn off Apple Intelligence in Settings. If you want to avoid having it auto-enabled in a future update, just choose a different language selection for English under Siri Requests. It only works with American English. I use British English to get around this myself.

It's Printer Season! With macOS Sequoia your beloved old printer may no longer work with your Mac. Choosing a new printer can be confusing and getting the wrong one will guarantee unwanted frustration. Here are our tips for choosing a good one: The Black and White Laser Printer Black and white laser printers are the simplest and most reliable printers that you can buy. They aren't sophisticated or sexy, but they will print page after page with the least amount of headaches compared to just about any other option. If you print high volume and don't need color, definitely look at one of these. We really like the models from Brother. Photo Printing If you print lots of photos, you want a printer that is designed for that task. A general purpose inkjet will be fine, but it won't have the resolution or color depth of the dedicated photo printers. The Epson Expression series is worth a look in this category. The Color Laser Printer Easily the most expensive option, the color laser printer is more reliable than an inkjet, but cannot print photos as they usually don't have the resolution needed at the more consumer-focused end. They will not dry out if you leave for that three month trip to Antarctica. But they will be more expensive to maintain when it becomes time to replace toner. Check out the options from Brother if you are looking for one of these. The Inkjet Printer These are the least expensive and least reliable printers. They will use a ton of very expensive ink, and the nozzles will dry out if they are left idle for any period of time. Try to get one on sale and avoid spending more than $150. They tend to break, so why shell out the big bucks for something that you'll have to replace in two years anyway. Both Canon and Epson have some decent models. In our experience Staples seems to have the best prices and selection. They are a good place to start. Once you figure out the model you want, you can price shop against Office Depot, B&H Photo, Best Buy, etc.

Apple Introduces the Stripped Down iPhone 16e

iPhone prices have gone through the roof! I know they always talk about the "adjustment for inflation" malarkey, and it may even be true. But spending $1500 on an iPhone (after AppleCare+, accessories, snacks, etc.) is still a lot for a phone. Yes, it's a mobile computer. Yes, you can shoot and edit Hollywood-ish level video on it. But for a lot of people that want the latest chip, but will never use the advanced camera features, MagSafe accessories, or that weird camera button, it's one to consider. That is where the iPhone 16e comes in. It's an iPhone that does iPhone things at a price that is $400 less than a 16 Pro. You only get one camera and it lacks many of the other features, but it still comes with the latest chip and even Apple Intelligence for you aspiring Beta Testers. If you are in the market for a new iPhone, just need the basics, and don't want to spend MacBook Air money on a phone, check out the 16e here: https://www.apple.com/iphone-16e/

The Micro-Byte - February 2025

 

Getting the Most Out of AI: The Prompt

Like it or not Artificial Intelligence is here and it is rapidly changing the face of computing. Whether you use it at work with the likes of the Adobe creative apps, interact with a chatbot at your favorite website, spend casual hours with ChatGPT, or try to untangle that thing that is Apple Intelligence, you cannot escape the AI revolution. But it's not a bad thing. At the end of the day it is just another tool to help make queries and tasks faster and easier. One of the keys to doing this is understanding how to interact with AI, and this requires learning how to create a proper prompt. The Prompt is the question or task that you craft to set any AI out to complete what you want it to do. It is not different from assigning homework to a student or directing an employee to do this, that, or the other thing. Its complexity is in its simplicity. Crafting a prompt incorrectly can mean you just get a pile of misinformation. Here are a few tips to help you on a path to being an expert prompter: Use Proper Language As language and writing have both devolved thanks in part to texting and chat apps, the time has come again for speaking proper English. Write in clear and complete sentences with good structure. Keep it Concise One of the things that many of us learn early in our careers is executive-level communication. Executives don't have time to go through and read a lengthy email. It needs to be brief, to the point, and clearly state the expectations on what is needed. You can find many books and tutorials on executive communication. Any one of these can help you in being better at prompts. Be Clear on the Output State exactly what you want in the prompt. Don't be vague. If you are clear on the output, it will make it easier to re-prompt the AI if you don't get what you want. Direct It Where to Look If you are searching for information on a medical issue, be sure to direct the AI to look in places where you trust like medical journals or research studies. If you don't the AI may grab data from discussion forums or conspiracy sites. No matter what it is, tell the AI the types of sources that you want it to draw from so that you get a better response. Audit the Answer When you get the response from the AI your job is not done. It is imperative to visit the links from the sources presented and to do your own research based on keywords. I often receive wrong answers and when I challenge the bot, I oftentimes get a spiral of increasingly wrong answers to the point where I abandon the thread. AI is not foolproof or correct all the time. Artificial Intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it is not fully self-driving. You cannot take your hands off the wheel. You need to prompt effectively and then audit the answer. Even with this, AI is an incredible time saver, especially when using it as an internet search engine. Happy Prompting!

Monthly Mini-Bytes - January 2025

 

The Current State of Apple Intelligence Apple Intelligence is out! Well... sort of. It's a Beta, meaning it's not a full release and we are all Apple employees now since we are doing the testing for them. If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, or an M-Series powered Apple computer or iPad, you can participate in this public beta and test out all that Apple Intelligence promises to offer... when it is fully released. Apple Intelligence is not enabled by default. You need to opt in on each device to be able to use it. You must also use one of the American English voices -- not one from another country. So, if you choose British English, you are out of luck for now. Being a beta there is a lot missing from Apple Intelligence. The biggest gap is the absence of Personal Context where Siri learns everything about you and then is able to wield A.I. to be the most helpful. This is not promised from Apple until March. So, for right now, Apple Intelligence is a mishmash of tools you have probably used in other apps or platforms. The writing tools are similar to what you may have experienced using apps like Grammarly; Photos allows you to remove objects from the background much like Adobe Photoshop; and the ChatGPT integration is a nice touch. The summation feature for email and texts does not work as well without Personal Context, so you may find it frustrating and end up turning it off. If you do decide to jump in with Apple Intelligence, just know that it is a work in progress. It is not the final release -- Personal Context and Advanced Siri are missing. Without these tools to pull it all together right now it is a fun curiosity more than something that can help us be more efficient.

Here We Go! More iPhone Spying  The hits to our privacy and security just keep on coming! The National Security Agency has published a notice to disable location tracking for certain apps. These apps have been compromised and will unknowingly publish your location data to possible bad actors and third parties. This impacts iPhones and Android devices, too. It is specific to the location data and permissions allowed to each individual application. It is always best to restrict Location Services data to While Using or Never for your apps. You can toggle these settings per app by going to Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Location Services. Here you can see all the apps that have requested location information.  To read the article from Forbes, click here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/01/14/nsa-warns-iphone-and-android-users-disable-location-tracking/

All the Current Updates are Good!

If you are still on the fence about upgrading your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Mac to the latest versions, then we are here to say that all of the new updates are good and well implemented. iOS/iPadOS 18 works surprisingly well, and macOS Sequoia actually breathes a little more snap into the M-Series powered Macs. But, if you're still on a Mac with an Intel chip, you may want to think about upgrading to a new M-Series Mac in 2025. They are so much faster and will allow you to take advantage of Apple Intelligence when it is fully released. It is also important to know that all of the software for Macs is being updated and programmed with the new chips in mind. The last Intels are from the 2020 model year, and five years is unfortunately a millennia in the world of tech.