February 2019 - Monthly Mini-Bytes

Take the Phishing Quiz! Phishing has been and will continue to be a big problem for every single email user. Every day you will see phishing emails in your inbox or junk mail folders. The potential of being a victim of one of these nefarious messages is easier than you may think. And unfortunately there is no one quick answer. The scammers change up their methods, which means you need to constantly be on your toes and aware. Google has put together a little phishing quiz in partership with Jigsaw. It is available here: https://phishingquiz.withgoogle.com/ If you do take the quiz, don't use your real name and email. Just make one up for an example (per their instructions). The quiz can help you learn about phishing and potential ways to avoid it. And in the words of Sergeant Phil Esterhaus, "Let's be careful out there."

Three Tips to Avoid Spoofed Web Pages Web page spoofing has become a huge problem. Tricksters create a webpage and URL that look very close to the real one, fooling you in to entering usernames and passwords, which are immediately compromised. They may also offer downloads that then load up your Mac with malware. Just as with email phishing, you are the one in ultimate control, and like walking through a bad neighborhood at 2AM with multitudes of Benjamins taped to your person, you must learn that just by being on the internet, you are a target. Act appropriately. Here are three tips to get you started: Be Careful of Your Search Results - First, make sure you are using a reputable Search Engine. Search results vary between them, and some are better than others. When you search and get those results, be careful of what you are clicking on. Look at the listing. If it looks funny, then it most likely is spoofed. Bookmark Frequently Used Sites - Do not use a search engine to hit frequently used sites like your bank, credit union, webmail, etc. This is the main way that the spoofers trap you. Bookmark all your most important sites and access them from the bookmarks. Check the URL - The URL is the thing that often starts with www and ends with .com, .net, or .edu, etc. A website like mybank.com can be spoofed as my_bank.com, mybankcom.net, etc. Be sure of the site you are visiting.

Use the Correct Power Adapter I bet you have a drawer in your house packed with old power adapters that go back to the 90s. We all have them. It's okay. What is not okay is using the wrong power adapter with a device. Whether it be your Mac, iPhone, iPad, external hard drive, cable box, XBOX, or Tesla, using the wrong power adapter and cord can be a huge problem. From battery damage to over heating (or worse), the wrong power adapter can get you into trouble. What to do: Make sure you have the correct power adapter for your device. If you are not sure, check with the manufacturer. Label the power adapter, so you know which device it is supposed to be associated with. Check the condition of the power adapter. If the cord is frayed or the unit itself is in any way damaged, get a new one.

January 2019 - Technology Mini-Bytes

New Year! Time for a Mail Cleanup! Large mail databases are not a good thing. The more mail that you have, the harder your computer and devices have to work to sync everything. Having too large of a mail box can mean delays in getting messages, lockups, the dreaded spinning wheel, or even database corruption, which means moving your mail to a new mail host will be very difficult. So how do you do it? Outside of just deleting everything and starting anew, there are some more surgical methods that we prefer: Empty the Trash and Junk Folders - It's amazing how large these can get. Keeping them cleaned out is an easy thing to do. Delete Old Mail - That sale on curtains from 2014 is long over. Archive Old Messages - If the messages are important, come up with an archive strategy. There are different options depending on your mail host. The choices available to you could be as simple as hiding the folders from the sync function, dragging to local storage, or even moving to an archive email account. And one other thing... It's a good idea to keep the unread count down. Having thousands of unread messages isn't good for you or your mail database. Most mail clients have a way that you can sort by unread. And here's a Pro Tip: Apple Mail and other clients give you the ability to create Smart Folders that can make cleaning up your mail much easier.

Be Spoof & SPAM Savvy Spoofing and SPAM have been around for as long as email has been mainstream. These attacks are not letting up and will not go away. The only thing that you can do is to be more email savvy. Keep in mind, too, that Spoofing and SPAM are not technical problems in and of themselves, but more of an opportunity for education. In fact, many big security firms provide training to companies to teach the staff tips and best practices to protect themselves and the business. But what can you do to protect yourself: Use a Decent Email Provider - Email services are not all the same. Some do a better job filtering out the bad guys. Mom & pop webhosts cannot keep pace with the likes of Google or Apple. Check the Email Address, not the Name - Spoofing emails very often have a mismatch between the name and the email. The name is there for your convenience. The email is the real thing that you want to focus on. If it looks funny, it probably is. You can contact the person directly via phone, or through their known and trusted email account to confirm if it is real or not. Don't Click on Links or Attachments - If you do not know who the email is from, do not click on the link or attachment or call the phone number. This is usually how they get you. If you see something from your bank or credit card, be safe -- do not click on the link, but go to their website as you normally would. Tighten Up Your Password - Make sure for your email account that you are using a unique password with numbers, letters, and symbols. Also, if two factor authentication is offered, consider using it. Having a weak email password can turn you into a victim. Don't be one.

Mac Slow? It May Be Your Hard Drive With all the updates that have come out in the past few months, we have noticed that all Mac computers with the old-style SATA Hard Drives have gotten slower and slower. If you use apps like Mail, Photos, or the Adobe Creative Cloud you are probably familiar with this phenomenon. The bad news is that there really isn't anything that you can do to speed up the process. SATA hard drives struggle with the larger files sizes and loads that a system like macOS Mojave puts on them. It is also a factor that our iPhones and iPads operate with Solid State memory, so the experiences we have on our mobile devices make the old SATA driven Macs feel, well, slow. Outside of getting a new Mac with a Solid State Drive, what can you do? Use Webmail vs. Mail - Working in a browser eliminates the database syncing that goes on when using Mail. Only Open One Application at a Time - Multiple apps use resources. Add RAM - If you can, adding memory will allow your applications to run in RAM space, vs. having to pull data on and off your old SATA Drive. Upgrade to a Solid State Drive - For many, this may not be an option, but if the Mac is only a few years old, it is a possibility. But keep in mind, if your Mac has a SATA drive and is from 2014 or before, it may just be time to replace it. The good news is that all new Macs, except the iMacs, come with Solid State Drives standard. If you do want to get an iMac, you will need to custom order one with a Solid State Drive. iMacs that they stock at the Apple Store only have SATA or Fusion drives. You don't want one of those. And just to be totally clear: We do not recommend purchasing a Mac with a SATA or Fusion Drive. With the complexity of systems today, only a Solid State Drive will give you the performance that you are expecting.

November 2018 - Technology Mini-Bytes

Safety Tip: Use Your Bookmarks Don’t get scammed searching for that perfect pumpkin pie this week. Spoofed internet searches are one of the leading ways that computer users get tricked into downloading malware, and it happens so easily. Say you are searching for your bank. You type in the name of the bank in your internet search engine, click on the first link, and proceed to enter your username and password thinking that it’s, well, your bank. But it’s not! It could be a spoofed site and you just handed the hackers the keys to your kingdom. Can you call them hackers if you give them your password? So what can you do to ensure that you hit your bank’s site and not some fake page? Use Bookmarks. Yes, you know what they are. They have been around forever for a reason. They get you to where you want to go every time. In Safari it’s easy to create and manage your Bookmarks through the Bookmarks Drop-Down Menu.  And remember that when searching for your sites that you intend to Bookmark, the search engine that you use has a lot to do with whether or not you will come across a bogus website. Google does a very good job of cleaning their results. Other services are not nearly as good. Google is not 100% foolproof, but they are far better than the rest. The name of the game is to be very careful on what sites you hit and what information you enter in the pages that you land on. If you are logging into your bank, or credit union, or broker’s site, you want to be 100% sure it is them and not some criminal.

Are you making it simple for hackers? If you have been a regular consumer of Mini-Bytes, you have heard me drone on about not using the same password for every single account. What makes it easy for you makes it easy for the bad guys. One password gets them into all of your accounts.  There has been a big round of sextortion emails using old passwords and usernames to scare users into paying thousands in Bitcoin to scammers. Paying these ransoms does nothing, as another email with the same username and password is soon to follow. If you do get one of these emails, make sure that you are no longer using that password for any account. And remember these tips: Use Strong & Varied passwords with at least 8 characters. Mix up numbers, letters and symbols. Don’t use the same password for every account. Enable two-factor authentication when possible. Have a method to securely store and record your passwords, updating the list as things are added or changed. If you save passwords in Safari you can go up to the Safari drop-down menu and choose Preferences. Hit the Passwords tab and authenticate to view the passwords that you have saved. Look for the yellow triangles. They will tell you where you are using this password as a duplicate. It’s a good tool to help you clean up and vary your passwords.

It’s Mojave to High Sierra and That’s It In the past, it was okay to be on an older Mac operating system up to three editions back. Unfortunately, with security in mind, those days are past. We recommend that your Mac be running either the current macOS 10.14 Mojave or the one-year-old macOS 10.13 High Sierra at the very least. It will help make sure that you can run the latest web browsers, and keep up to date with compatibility with your iPhone and iPad. If your Mac will not run either of these systems, then it is definitely time for a new machine. Mojave will run on most Macs 2012 and newer, and High Sierra will go a few years earlier than that. With the industry lifecycle of 3 years, a Mac that is six years or older has definitely performed well.

October 2018 - Technology Mini-Bytes

macOS 10.14 Mojave is a Good Update The latest version of the Mac operating system was released about a month ago, and of course I downloaded and installed it a few microseconds after it was released. Wendy and I have been on it for the past several weeks, we are very impressed. Apple did a very good job with this update and the stability so far has been excellent. If you are thinking about updating your Mac, here are a few things to know: Do a Backup First: Always, always, always do a backup before updating your operating system. If you are not backing up, now is the time to start. Check Your Computer's Compatibility: Here's the bad news... if your computer is older than mid-2012, you will not be able to update, unless you have one of the pricier Mac Pros (most don't). If this is the case, then it may be time for a new machine. Check Your 3rd Party Software: Not all software has been updated yet to work well with macOS Mojave. If you rely on a piece of software, just check with the developer at their website to see if macOS 10.14 is supported. Microsoft Office 2011: Microsoft ended support for Office 2011 with respect to it running in macOS 10.13, and Mojave is now one generation newer. It may work, but it has broken for many. If you do decide to update to Mojave, you will need to get a new version of Office, or switch to Apple's built in suite of productivity apps -- Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. To learn more about Mojave: https://www.apple.com/macos/mojave/ To learn more about updating to Mojave: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201475

The iPhone XR is a Real iPhone! The new 6.1 Inch Apple XR (10 "R") was just released on Friday. There has been a lot of initial criticism that this is a "cheap iPhone." I think any phone that starts at $750 is far from cheap, and by the time you add AppleCare and a case your wallet will be light close to $1,000. But here is the real truth: It's good... actually better than good and the reviews have all echoed this sentiment. The iPhone XR differs from the iPhone XS in a few distinct areas: The screen is LCD vs. OLED. This is not a deal-breaker. Every iPhone before the iPhone X had the same screen, and at 6.1 inches it is larger than the one on the iPhone XS. It only has one rear camera. The camera is very similar to the iPhone 8, but it uses software to mimic the dual lens units on the iPhone XS. Size: If fits in between the iPhone XS and XS Max. As for processor, etc., all the internals are similar, which means the iPhone XR at $750 to start is a very good option for someone looking to update to a full screen iPhone with facial recognition. To learn more about the iPhone XR: https://www.apple.com/iphone-xr/ Check out CNET's review at: https://www.cnet.com/reviews/apple-iphone-xr-review-2018/

New Apple Stuff: October 30th Event On the heels of the iPhone event last month, Apple is holding another on October 30th in Brooklyn. From the rumors they will be possibly announcing new iPad Pros with the iPhone XS form factor, new Mac Minis, and a replacement for the aging MacBook Air. It is hoped they will also announce a new Mac Pro and a refreshed 12-Inch MacBook. There's not much there, but if you want a link to the event page, here it is: https://www.apple.com/apple-events/

September 2018 - Technology Mini-Bytes

iOS 12 is Out & It's Good! Everyone had major issues with iOS 11. It slowed down phones, contained numerous glitches, and brought us “Battery Gate.” On Monday, Apple introduced its successor — iOS 12. It looks exactly like iOS 11 — in fact, if you have the new operating system installed on your phone it’s hard at first glance to tell that it’s there. The feel is the same, which is good. The improvements in usability are noticeable, which is better. With every release of it’s mobile operating system, Apple tries to include something new and innovative. But this year the killer app is stability and speed. I put iOS 12 on both my iPhone 8 and iPad Pro 10.5 and the difference is significant. The first thing I noticed was the speed. Both devices are much faster, and paired with watchOS 5, which I installed on my Apple Watch Series 3, everything seems to be working like premium Apple products should. Yes, there are a myriad of tweaks and the new Measure app shows us a useful side of Augmented Reality, but for the most part the iOS 12 update is about fixing the problems with iOS 11 and it seems that Apple has done just that. To learn about all the features of iOS 12, check out Apple’s official page at: https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-12/ iOS 12 just came out on Monday, so if you’d like to wait a while to see if any bugs pop-up it’s totally okay and a prudent idea. You don’t have to be an early adopter like Wendy and myself. If you do want to take the plunge, back up your device (make sure to backup), and then back it up again just to make sure. And after confirming the backup of the backup, go to Settings -> General -> Software Update to begin… after you backup.

The Apple Watch Series 4 is a Game Changer I love my Series 3, but Apple hit it out of the park with the new Series 4. Both editions are slightly larger by 2mm, but the screen now goes edge-to-edge like the iPhone Tennis (Xs, sorry). Yes, there is an improved processor, too, but the big news is all the health monitoring. It has fall detection, the ability to sense atrial fribulation, and an FDA (yes, that FDA), approved ECG. Wow! You can take an ECG (single lead electrocardiogram) with your watch. How cool is that! The speaker has been moved to the other side of the watch and is now 50% louder. The back is made of ceramic so it will help with connection to wifi and cellular networks.  To learn all about the new Apple Watch, go to: https://www.apple.com/watch/

The New iPhones: Should You Upgrade? The new iPhones are here! Or they are coming on Friday the 21st… or in late October for fans of the new XR. But what are they? Should you upgrade? Do you have $1500 burning a hole in your pocket and no place to spend it? Do you like candy? I do! But what does that have to do with the new iPhones? Nothing. But the following does: This is an “S” release year, which in iPhone terms means a very mild update. The new iPhone Xs looks no different from an iPhone X. It has all the same external features, and that notch. Yes. It has a newer processor and all the benefits that go with it, but nothing really new or earth shattering. The iPhone Xs Max (Really? The name, Apple?), on the other hand, is all new. It has the largest screen in iPhone history at 6.5 inches. If you are looking for a big screen phone, here it is! Then there is the humble iPhone XR. But is it? Not really. It has all the internals of the iPhone Xs with the new processor, etc., but it has a larger screen at 6.1 inches. The three big differences is that the screen is LCD vs. OLED (higher resolution) and there is only one camera lens on the back. It also does not have Force Touch, which Apple is starting to shy away from. Think of the LCD screen as a larger cousin to the iPhone 8. It’s good… really good, and the XR starts $200 less than the iPhone Xs. They are going to sell a lot of these things. So to the Purchasing Money Making Decision Matrix Questiony Things: Should you upgrade to the Xs if you have a X? No, they are essentially the same phone. Differences are small and the new processor only adds for things like games. It’s a mild update. You have one of the “Pluses” and need an upgrade? The iPhone Xs Max [name] is a significant upgrade to the Plus series of phones. The screen is much larger and the OLED technology offers a significant gain in resolution. You also have another option in the iPhone XR. It has the same LCD screen as your current Plus phone, but bigger at 6.1 inches in a similar form factor… and it’s $300 less than the Max.  You have an iPhone 6s or earlier. Should you upgrade? Yes. I know that iOS 12 will make the phone faster, but the lifecycle for mobile devices is two years. Time for a treat! To learn more about the new iPhones check out Apple’s site at: https://www.apple.com/iphone/

August 2018 - Technology Mini-Bytes

Use Your iPhone or Apple Watch with Emergency SOS Also, Update Your Medical ID  You may have found out by accident that your iPhone or Apple Watch can be used as an Emergency Alert. This feature is built into iOS 11, so if you are on an earlier version of iOS you will need to upgrade to take advantage of this feature.  Accessing the Emergency SOS feature is similar on both the iPhone and Apple Watch. For detailed explanations visit: iPhone: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208076 Apple Watch: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206983 You also have the option of setting up a Medical ID in the Health App. Here is a link to the instructions: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207021

Quick Tips: Spot Email Spoofing Don't Fall for the Tricks Spoofing an email address is when a sender, other than the owner of that address, sends an email that appears to come from the owner. It has been going on for years and it won't stop anytime soon. Here is how you can spot a spoofed email: Name/Email Mismatch - The name may look familiar, but the email will not.  Strange Language - A lot of spoofing comes from non-English speaking countries. The wording may be jumbled and punctuation may be wrong or non-existent. Weird Links - Most spoofed emails come with links the scammers want you to click. Don't click any links! There are other things to look out for, but those are the big ones. Chances are if it looks like spoofing, it is spoofing. Be safe. Be suspicious.

Pro-Tip: VPNs Options for Internet Security VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, have been used for years by businesses to create secure and private links across the Internet to private internal networks. When properly configured they can be very secure as your information goes through what basically is an encrypted tunnel through the web. The key here is "properly configured." If a VPN is not setup correctly it can be just as vulnerable as not having one at all. Recently, VPNs have become popular with consumers trying to protect their online privacy, or by travelers wanting to operate more securely on public networks... again, when properly configured. If you have ever wanted to charter these waters, check out MacWorld's article on the Best VPNs for 2018: https://www.macworld.com/article/3258836/security/best-vpn-for-mac.html

July 2018 - Technology Mini-Bytes

It's a Scam! You don't have a virus! But You May Have Malware This is going to be the next in the tough love series of articles. I've written on this subject many times before, but there seems to be a big push in the virus pop-up scam this summer.  We've all seen it. A page pops-up claiming that our Macs are infected with 3 trillion viruses and if we don't call a number or click on a link in 30 seconds, all data, pictures, and email will be deleted. Well, don't buy it. It is a scam. It is always a scam. They want access to your machine. They want your money. They want to turn you into a victim. Don't be one. Do not call the number! Do not click on any links! Do not allow remote access to your machine! And, please, do not install anything! Since macOS is based on the UNIX operating system it is very difficult to write viruses for it. You can write a virus, but it is so much easier in the Windows PC world since they pass along infections like a kindergarten class. It is more efficient for the scammers to trick you into getting access to your Mac. Now they can deploy all types of malware that can re-direct your web searches, scrape off data, or log your keystrokes.  This is the tough-love part: If you have malware or adware you did it to yourself. It does not install on it's own. Your Mac doesn't go on a drunken binge through the seedy part of town only to awake the next morning with malware. No, you installed it. It may have come on with fake software, or a spoofed page. It doesn't matter, because you did it. And yes, it is okay to blame another member of the household -- out-of-town guests also make excellent scapegoats, by the way. How do you know if you've been infected? If your search page looks different in your web browser, you have it. If your search results look weird, you have it. If you constantly get pop-ups when surfing the web about viruses, you have it. And yes there are other indicators, but those are the big ones. To get rid of it you need software that expressly deals with malware. Subscription anti-virus programs do not always do the trick. We have seen machines running anti-virus software that were seething with malware. We have used a program in the past that used to be called AdWare Medic, but it is now Malwarebytes. It does a good job, but there are others out there. Just be careful, because a fake software that claims to clean up your Mac can just be a scam for you to install more malware, and you are back at square one. How do you avoid all of this in the first place? It is possible to avoid installing malware on your Mac. Since you do it, it's easy to stop. Here are some tips that will help: Use a legitimate search engine: Spoofed search results are one of the big ways you get tricked into installing malware. We have found that Google seems to be the best search engine at scrubbing its results of bogus pages, but even they are not 100%. Check the link: If you are going to your bank's webpage, look at the URL in the search result. It may be spoofed. If you regularly hit websites, we recommend adding them to bookmarks and going that way, which avoids the pitfalls of spoofed pages all together. Think twice before the install: It is amazing, but the Mac does not need a ton of third party utilities. It runs well on it's own. Don't get tricked into optimizers or things such as those. It will potentially throw some malware on to boot. Be Careful with Remote Access: The scammers want to access your machine remotely. They will show you all types of bogus errors or fake foreign IPs and try to scare the heck out of you. In the meantime they may be installing malware, key loggers, or fake profiles. Do not allow anyone to remotely access your machine unless you 100% know who they are. And do not give them any passwords. Let's be frank: The internet is the bad part of town filled with people who want to take advantage of you. They want to take your money, hijack your information, and if they leave you in a gutter somewhere, they just don't care. Don't be a victim. Check your six, and think before you click or install.

Application Stuck? Force Quit It! More Tools for Your Toolbox If you get stuck on one of those fake virus pages in Safari, or another application seems to lock the machine, there is a solution. macOS allows you to Force Quit an application. Here is how you do it: Method 1: Go up to the Apple in the upper left hand corner and select Force Quit from the drop-down menu. Choose the offending application and hit Force Quit. Method 2 (Pro Tip) Keyboard Command: Hit these three keys simultaneously: Command, Option, Escape. The Force Quit window will pop-up. Choose the offending application and hit Force Quit.

Mac being fussy? Maybe you need to Reset the SMC? Power Management Fix You are most likely familiar with Safe Boot and Zapping the PRAM. Well, this little tip falls into that same quick-fix bag of skills. The System Management Controller has responsibility for the fan, battery indicators, keyboard lighting, and a whole host of things. If your Mac is running a little pokey and you've tried everything else, resetting the SMC may be the ticket. Here is a link to the Apple article on what it is and how to do it: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295