April 2019 - Monthly Mini-Bytes

Beware of the Profiles We talk of Adware and Malware a lot, and the last invasion that has shown up is the use of rogue Profiles on your Mac or iPhone/iPad. Profiles are a legitimate way that IT departments can deploy certain system, network, and device configurations to your Mac or iPhone/iPad. The problem is that scammers can also deploy a rogue Profile that can do all types of bad things, from slowing down your computer, to stealing your information. Unless you were given a Profile by your IT department at work or school, you probably don't need one. If one is showing up, it's often a bad thing. To check for Profiles on your iPad or iPhone, go to Settings -> General. If you have a Profile installed you will see an option for Profiles & Device Management. On your Mac, go to System Preferences. If you have or had a Profile installed at one point, you will see a Profile preference.. Remember that schools and businesses will deploy Profiles for device management, but if it is your personal device, then its presence is suspect.

Refreshed AirPods Apple's AirPods have been refreshed, but these are not the fabled "AirPods 2" that the world has been waiting for. The update is mild. They are faster when connecting, have voice enabled Siri, and wireless charging. The good news is that the wireless charging case is available for the original AirPods, too. Should you upgrade? If you have a set of AirPods, there is no need to run out and get the new ones. If you like the wireless charging, you can purchase the case for $79. To find out more, click: https://www.apple.com/airpods/

How to Forced Restart Your FaceID Equipped iPhone If your iPhone 8, X, XS, XS Max, or XR is acting up, there are a few things that you can do to get it working again.The easiest is the Forced Restart. This can resolve many issues from connectivity, to not being able to make calls, and unstick a locked phone. Here is what to do: Press and release the Volume Up Button Press and release the Volume Down Button Press and HOLD the Power/Lock button Keep it held until you see the Apple You are done! For more info and how to do a Force Restart on other models, click here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201412

March 2019 - Monthly Mini-Bytes

New Apples Apple has been busy this week announcing a bunch of new refreshed products. These are more incremental updates and tweaks to existing products rather than totally new offerings. AirPods 2 The AirPods have been updated with a new chip and wireless charging. https://www.apple.com/airpods/ iPad Air 10.5 Inch The iPad Air is back, and you can think of it a lot like the old 10.5 Inch iPad Pro. It can take advantage of the Apple Keyboard Case and the 1st Gen Apple Pencil. https://www.apple.com/ipad-air/ iPad Mini It looks the same, but they updated things under the hood. If you are a fan of the Mini it is back with a better processor. https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/ iMacs All the iMacs have updated processors and internals. https://www.apple.com/imac/

Spring Cleaning Time It's spring and what a better time to clean up your computer! Storage space is precious, so why have it taken up with things that you just don't need? Here are three tips to get you started: Empty the Trash - It's simple, but how often do you do it? You'd be surprised on how big it can get. Clean out your Downloads folder - Downloads can be a dumping ground for all types of old installers, documents, and photos. Go through it and move items that you want to keep and delete stuff that you don't. Purge Old, Unwanted Photos - How many close ups of your left thumb do you really want to keep? Open Photos and find stuff that you just don't want. Photos take a up a lot of space, and there is no use keeping ones that are garbage. Trash 'em!

Make Your Smart TV Smarter with Apple TV Let's speak truth to power: Smart TV software leaves a lot to be desired. Mostly it's there to sell TVs, but if you have spent hours trying to log into Netflix, join your network, or otherwise do anything but watch TV, then how smart are they? Hmmm.... If you are reading this, you are already invested in the Apple Ecosystem, and these days tech is all about the ecosystem. The Apple TV is an appliance that you attach to your TV that allows you to stream from sites like Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, among others. Because it's from Apple it syncs all your purchases across your devices, and even allows you to share your photos right up on your TV! Wendy and I use our Apple TV almost exclusively to access content, and as a TV and movie junkie since I was teething, it has never disappointed. To learn more about the Apple TV visit: https://www.apple.com/tv/

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/