First Impression: New Apple Silicon Macs

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I had the opportunity to work with one of the new MacBook airs and I have to say it’s amazingly fast. Very smooth, very clean, pretty much anything compiled for that new processor just happens, doesn’t really take a lot of time.

Even apps that are not compiled for it, that running emulation, a pretty darn fast to. Maybe even faster than on an Intel machine.

But it’s not without it’s problems at this point. A few developers, need to get their butts in gear, and make their applications work. Poorly written, or older programs have problems.  One I ran into was the Google back up and sync that copies your Google drive down to your computer.  It won’t run at all. Google has acknowledged the problem, but has yet to say when they’ll fix it.

I have Printer Driver issues with the Canon Pixma Pro series printers.  Canon has a Photoshop plugin that prints very well but is badly written and breaks with every update.  It is broken again.

Also from some research I did, screen flow doesn’t run at all either. Kind of surprised. I thought these guys were pretty much on top of things but in this case, they’re gonna need to modify. They’ve also acknowledged the problem and say they’ve got a fix in the works.

Overall, these are gonna be great machines. Possibly even revolutionary in the performance they give at a very low price point.

It’s become pretty obvious to me I need to get familiar with them to keep my skill level up. These are the future.

Give developers a couple of months, and I could probably give it a qualified buy rating. 

Today’s the Day: MacOS 11 Big Sur Release…… Please Wait…..

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Well today’s the day. Apple is releasing macOS 11 Big Sur and many people will be rushing to get the latest and greatest operating system released from Apple. But I’d like to give you a couple of good reasons as to why this year, may not be the year that you want to be first on the list with the latest operating system.

It’s been at least 12 years since Apple moved to Mac OS X. That’s a long time to be using the same code base each year and adding features to it. This year Apple has called the release macOS 11 on purpose. It is a major update to the Mac operating system designed to prepare the world for Apple Silicon processors. Apple has said that they are going to continue to update the Mac running Intel processors for quite a while in the future. We know they’ll continue to sell Intel Macs for the next two years, but with Apple Silicon Macs having been released, the hand writing may be on the wall for future updates.

First off, it’s important to note that the Mac you have today is going to be just as good tomorrow. This doesn’t mean we need to run out and buy a new computer and in fact I’d probably hesitate to do that until a lot of the bugs are worked out in the new Apple Silicon Macs. Doing that kind of testing and evaluation is what people like me live for. But for an average user, using their machine to actually do productive work all the time, and it being their only machine, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to move forward today.

But the same can be said for macOS 11. So many things will be changing in this release that I suspect the timeframe to update will be drug out a little longer than actually we’ve seen in the past few years. Typically in the past few years I’ve recommended holding off until we get the first point release. That would be 11.1 or possibly 11.01 depending on how Apple names releases going forward.  But this year, the massive changes were going to see as a result of making this operating system very functional with their new Macs, I suspect waiting a little longer might be better.

So even though today’s the day, if I were you, I’d take a wait and see attitude and put off even the consideration of updating until sometime around the first of the year. Give it a month and a half and will see how things are running.

But if you’re one of those people that just can’t wait, please be sure you have at least one and if possible to back ups of your machine as it stands prior to the update. There’s nothing worse than going in and trying to fix a bad update by rolling the machine back only to find out the back up is either old or not good.

I have all the believe in the world that Apple will make this the best operating system it’s ever released.  And that day will all look back and wonder as to how they made all of the changes work. But just keep in mind, today is not that day…

Can your Mac Move Forward this Fall?

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Apple has already announced this falls update to MacOS. It is looking like they will call MacOS 11.  After about 15 years running MacOS 10, we will finally see the version number clock click over by one.  But what does that really mean to you?  It may well mean your Mac will be left behind.

Apple had also announced that they will be moving to new Apple Silicon processors and ditching the intel processors being used today.  But MacOS 11 “Big Sur” will be running on both the new processors we will see later in the year and on the Intel processors we have. But not all machine running 10.15, “Catalina”, will be able to run the new OS.  Here is what Apple’s website says about this falls update compatibility.

What you will notice is that across the board, most machines have been increased by 1 year.  Where this year, the compatibility date was generally 2012, next year, it moves to 2013 or newer.  That seems reasonable.  SO where do you look to see which machine you have?

Go to the apple Menu, and select About this Mac.  You should see a dialog similar to this one.

This will tell you if your machine will be able to move forward to the new features of MacOS “Big Sur”.

If your machine is older than this, it might be time to begin the thought process of planning for a replacement.

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Watch Out for Fake Emails from Associations or groups you may know or be members of

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Be aware that scammers or hackers are sending fake emails supposedly from Associations or groups you may know or be members of.  In the event that you get an email asking if you have an Amazon account or asking you to buy money cards, delete it immediately. No reputable group or association will ever send a email request for you to put money into an account, buy gift cards or any other personal request of that nature.

For general reference, opening an email does not put you at risk. Clicking on links or opening attachments etc can cause issues.

Opening EMAIL is Generally Harmless

In the past, just opening an email could allow it to run harmful code and infect your computer with a virus or other unwanted program. You’ll be happy to hear that just opening an email is unlikely to expose you to anything nefarious or open the door to any unwanted computer infiltrators. No matter what program you use (Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook Apple Mail, or any other standard web-based or desktop email client), just opening an email should be safe.

Unfortunately, some emails may try to cause harm to or access your system once they are open. Again, you hold the key to preventing them from succeeding. This is because the attachments or links in the emails that lead to harmful websites or programs can’t open and work their evil magic unless you click on them! It’s a good rule of thumb to only open attachments that you are expecting and know are safe, from verified senders whom you know to be safe. Error on the side of even more caution if the attachment is a file a unless you are absolutely sure it is safe. As with everything on the web, you shouldn’t run programs that try to automatically download onto your computer after you click a link. If you have any doubts about an attachment to or a link in an email, contact an IT professional before taking any action.

Use ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAMS on Windows, and good sense

It’s important to keep your software up-to-date, including your mail client, browser, browser plugins, and operating system. Most importantly, if you run a Windows PC, make sure you install and run a quality antivirus program—and keep it up to date. An antivirus program scans your computer and removes malware that has made it onto your computer; it can also monitor your internet connection and block virus attacks and websites known for distributing viruses before they even make it on to your computer. So, if you do accidentally click a link inside an email, it provides another layer of protection against harm.

If you’re running a Mac, Apple takes care of much of this for you. There are still issues with spyware or malware, but viruses are typically not a problem.

Your email program likely also has filters that help sort out “junk” email before it hits your inbox. You can help these filters work better by marking email messages as unwanted instead of opening them; click the checkbox next to the message and then select “mark as junk” or “report as spam” (or whatever similar option your email program has). This helps your email service keep similar messages and messages from the same sender out of your inbox completely.

Here is a perfect example.  This email says its from Apple Support.  But when you hover over the link to login to the support site to fix the issue they say you have, not the location where the link is going.

That location definitely is not an Apple sSupport site.  Don’t click it.  Its a scam.

Use MALWAREBYTES to Scan Your Computer for Malware

Even if you don’t have a virus, your computer or browser may be infected with Malware.  Malware usually gets installed from browsing to a hosting website or seeing an ad on the internet.  We could talk for quite a while about how or why this gets created but suffice it to say that it is very prevalent on Windows PC’s, Mac’s or Android Phones.  Thus far, Apple has been successful in keeping malware off of iOS devices like iPhones and iPads.

Regardless, of how you get it, if you suspect something on your computer or Android Phone is not quite right, download Malware Bytes from www.malwarebytes.com.  The free version is all you need.  Run the software once installed and allow it to quarantine anything it finds.  Then restart your machine and run it a second time. If the second scan comes back clean, you have likely gotten rid of it.

Finally, use good common sense when you receive an email that seems unusual or “too good to be true,” and, in general, avoid clicking through links in emails. One common fraud scheme, called “phishing,” employs authentic-looking emails from real companies to entice recipients to click links or visit sites and turn over personal information. Many times you can hover your cursor over the link in the email and see where it takes you.  If it looks odd, don’t click on it.

If you receive an email from a company you do business with—for example, Amazon.com—purporting to give you information about your account or order, it’s a better practice to navigate directly to the website by typing its address in the URL bar and review your information within the authentic site.

As always, think before you click.  Call someone and describe the issue to them.  If you see a screen on your device telling you to call a phone number, never do it.  It is always a scam.

Have you ever wanted to Dictate to your Mac?

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Dictation is built into the Mac.

Go to System Preferences; Keyboard; and click the dictation tab.

Turn on Dictation.  Under the shortcut is where the trigger key is set.  In the example above tapping the left side command key twice with turn on dictation.

To use this, click the cursor in any application you want to dictate into and press the left command key twice.  After a second a little microphone will show up on the screen and you can start talking. Whatever you say, will get turned into text. I will warn you, I don’t believe the version of Dictation on the Mac is quite as good as that on the iPhone or iPad but it definitely works.

Here is the Apple Tutorial on making it work.

Apple reportedly disabling flash in updated version of Mac Safari

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Well it’s about time, Apple. Flash is been dead for a long time. Even adobe, the creator of flash, as stated that flash will no longer be supported. I’ve written many times in my blog about the evils of updating flash. I hope this will be the last time I write about it.

Flash player updates continue to be the number one method of infecting a Mac. Fake reports that your flash needs to be updated, still these days, caused many people to press that update button and go through the process of infecting them selves. Apple for quite a while, has had the ability to block these but hasn’t done so. It certainly is time that Adobe and Apple both deal with this problem. 

But the press continues to say there are sites out there that use flash that are valuable for people to use. In reality, these are often low hanging fruit sites that get pushed high in search ratings.   None of these sites provide any additional value to the user that you can’t find in other legitimate webpages. sites. 

I’m glad to see Apple stepping up and disabling flash internally in the browser. That will make a lot of difference but it still won’t keep sites from popping up the your flash player is out of date updates.

Whether you run a Mac, or a PC, just keep in mind the flash is dead and there is absolutely no reason to update your flash player and risk any kind of infection on your computer. I suspect, I go out on at least two calls every week that are all related to self infections of peoples on computers. I certainly hope this change from Apple reduces that number on the Mac side. Now we need Microsoft and Google to step up and do the same thing.

If you’re looking for an Android phone here’s the one to buy

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As most of you know, I carry an iPhone. I like the simplicity and the consistency that Apple has put in to the iOS interface but I would be the first to tell you, being in the Apple universe is not for everyone. Many people don’t want to spend the money to purchase an Apple phone but still want a full feature device that gives them the ability to run apps and perform their normal work functions.

In today’s world, if you’re not Apple, your Google.  There are really just two choices when it comes to phone operating systems these days. Now that would be hard to tell if you went out to Best Buy and looked at phones. While Apple is the only maker of an iOS phone, google has a licensed the android operating system to many developers. If each of these developers had used the base Google operating system, the android phone universe would be the same as Apple‘s. All the android phones would look very similar, have the same apps, and operate the same way. But vendors of android phones tend to all believe that they can do it better. They think the operating system from Google is boring and they can put their touch and flair to applications, cloud functionality, and just the general look and feel.  When you walk into the Best Buy store and you look at android phones from Samsung, LG, Google, and others, you believe you’re looking at completely different devices. They work differently, they act differently, and more importantly, they look differently.

Some of these interface improvements that phone vendors make on the android side are in my opinion not improvements. Somethings are intended to push you into using their services, many of them at an extra cost.  One vendor in particular, Samsung, does a lot of advertising to make it look like their phones are much better than any other android phone. But the reality is all android phones run the same apps that you can download from the Google store just like you would download apps from Apple’s App Store.  

One other big reason that people look to android phones is cost. You can get an android phone at your carrier for just a few dollars a month or buy it outright for $150. Now obviously this isn’t the best phone in the world and in many ways it may be four-year-old technology but it will still make calls, get texts, and let you run many apps. So I tend to look at the choice of an android phone differently.  If you want the top-of-the-line feature phone for an android you can get that, from all of the manufactures. For most people the middle of the road, maybe even an upper middle device is really the one to choose.

I’ve taken a look at the phones that are available out there and in my opinion it’s an easy choice. If you’re going to run android, I truly believe you should run android and the only native android phones in the marketplace are made by the company that creates the android operating system, Google. Google has a series of feature pones  called the Pixel that are quite expensiveIn the, but they also have one phone model  it fits nicely in the upper middle with great features and reasonable price. That phone is the pixel 3a. 

The features of the Google Pixel 3a include:

  • 8MP Front Facing Camera
  • 12.2MP Dual-Pixel Rear Facing Camera
  • 32 Hours talk time
  • 13 Days standby time
  • 5.6″ FHD+ OLED
  • 2220 x 1080 pixels
  • Google Assistant
  • 3 Years of Security and OS Updates
  • Bluetooth 5.0

It has an extraordinary camera with features like Night Sight, Portrait Mode, and unlimited storage at high quality with Google Photos. Pixel 3a has a fast-charging Adaptive Battery that learns your favorite apps and reduces power to the ones you rarely use. When you need a little extra help, just ask your Google Assistant to help you find directions, answer questions, send texts, and more. Plus, ease your mind about keeping your data safe with the custom-built Titan M security chip and automatic security updates. It’s everything you love about Google–in a phone.

Best part about the Google pixel 3a is that it starts at $399. If you want large screen phone they also have a larger screen available at a higher price.

Now don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. There are many reasons that an iPhone in my opinion is just better than any of the android phones available. But if you’re looking for an android phone these days, take a close look at the Pixel 3a.