I swore I was going to wait for the third developer beta to upgrade my Mac to Mojave but I could not resist. After carefully making sure I had back-ups, I downloaded Mojave. I have just started to play with it but I do want to caution you that, unlike me, you should NOT be […]
It has been hotter and more humid here in Vermont than in Key West this past week but it looks like it is going to cool off a bit this weekend; at least at night where sleeping temperatures will get down to the low 50’s again.
I was showering this morning and glanced out the window that overlooks my backyard garden and spotted some critter eating Grace’s lettuce. It seemed too big for a rabbit but sure enough when it lifted its head it was an enormous rabbit having breakfast in the garden. Gotta love this country living!
I hope you have a great weekend!
Thanks for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!
Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
Don & Emily
When Apple first announced macOS 10.13 High Sierra and iOS 11, one of the promised features was Messages in iCloud, a way of syncing your conversations in Messages via your iCloud account. Despite the fact that Messages already tries to sync its conversations between your devices, this feature proved difficult for Apple to deliver, and it didn’t appear until the recently released macOS 10.3.5 and iOS 11.4.
The idea behind Messages in iCloud is that it, as the name suggests, stores your conversations and their attachments in your iCloud account, rather than on each device individually. That’s a win because it can offload non-trivial amounts of data to iCloud, freeing up more space on that 16 GB iPhone.
Because the primary source of Messages data is in iCloud, the conversations should also sync perfectly and more quickly than in the past, something that was often frustrating when conversations didn’t quite match up across device. (iOS 11.4 also fixes a bug that could cause some messages to appear out of order.) Even better, deleting a conversation or attachment on one of your devices deletes it from all of them.
The main thing to be aware of before enabling Messages in iCloud is that it does count against your iCloud storage space. That said, if you back up your iOS devices to iCloud, removing Messages data from each device—such as your iPad and iPhone—and storing a single copy in iCloud should result in less overall iCloud usage. (And, realistically, if Messages in iCloud would make you need a higher tier of iCloud storage, you were probably going to need to upgrade soon for other reasons anyway.)
I have been testing Mojave Mac OS 11.4 (and my apologies for the mis-spellings last week. It really is Mojave not Mohave!) and one frustration that I have is that Apple seems to have eliminated support for Jabber in this version of messages. I am hoping that it gets added back in later beta versions but I now have to run another Jabber client and have settled upon Astrachat.
Enabling Messages in iCloud is simple.
On the Mac, open Messages > Preferences > Accounts and select the Enable Messages in iCloud checkbox.
In iOS, go to Settings > Your Name > iCloud, and turn on Messages.
There are three quirks to be aware of:
*You won’t be able to enable Messages in iCloud unless you’ve enabled two-factor authentication for the Apple ID associated with your iCloud account. It’s a good idea for security reasons anyway!
*On the Mac, in the Messages account preferences, there’s a Sync Now button you can click if, for some reason, Messages hasn’t synced automatically. We don’t yet know if or when that will be necessary.
*When you first enable Messages in iCloud in iOS, you may see a note at the bottom of the screen saying that uploading to iCloud requires the device to be plugged in and connected to Wi-Fi. That’s necessary only for the first big upload.
Should you wish to turn off Messages in iCloud, be aware that it may take some time for each device to download all the messages.
For most people, Messages in iCloud is a no-brainer. Its syncing works the way you’d expect, complete with quick updates and universal removal of deleted conversations. The main reason you might not want to enable the feature is if you have only the free 5 GB of iCloud storage and aren’t interested in paying for more space.
Dear Friends,
I hope you had a great Independence Day! As usual I helped to push the Prickly Mountain float in the Warren parade. This year it was a gigantic (and beautiful) 32 ft tall Statue of Liberty that folded down into a giant collapsible box with a “repossessed” label. It was handy that it folded down as this was our tallest float ever and we had to maneuver under the power lines. I was pushing the box which had our 10 or 12 coolers of liquid refreshments as well as tools, backpacks, etc. Since the temp was almost 90°, it got quite hot when we collapsed the box and about 20 people had to fill the small space. It was a spectacular float! We even had a kid’s float following behind with a giant crane to help disassemble the statue. We had four generations of float helpers this year! After our float got to the end of the line, we were able to see the myriad of other floats passing by. Turns out we have a very creative community. The Warren parade is truly amazing.
We had a great party at my house afterwards. My favorite part of the 4th is the time in between the parade and the start of my annual party — also known as nap time. I may have set a new record for the number of strawberry adult beverages served. A lot of people showed up and since all the strawberries and the food got eaten, Grace and I declared it a success. It was so good to see all our friends and neighbors together.
This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive features the Apple Certified Refurbished 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. It is the 2.8GHz i7 with 16GB of ram and 256GB SSD drive and 2GB of video ram. It is silver and comes with an Apple 1-Year warranty. We are bundling it this week with AppleCare + which extends that warranty to 3-years and extensors the 90-days of free Apple technical support also to 3—years. I only have 5 available so it is first come, first served. This is our lowest price yet on this bundle at $1999.99!
It is the last weekend in June and we are in store for some hot weather. I know there will be a lot of float building down at the pond on Prickly Mountain as we prepare for the big 4th of July parade in Warren. You know that I will be getting out on my Indian since one of the best ways to cool off is to ride a motorcycle in the mountains of Vermont!
I hope everyone has a happy and safe Independence Day and, in between parades and barbecues, remembers just what was fought for in our independence battles.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!
Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
Don, Emily & Mike
I swore I was going to wait for the third developer beta to upgrade my Mac to Mohave but I could not resist. After carefully making sure I had back-ups, I downloaded Mohave. I have just started to play with it but I do want to caution you that, unlike me, you should NOT be playing with live ammunition. It is buggy and not yet ready for serious production work. It will get there but things like all the buttons in our accounting system have no labels, all my 32bit applications like 2011 MS Office, 4D and several others all bring up warnings that they will soon not work.
I think you will find Mohave to be a big improvement in the Mac OS. There are many features that I am discovering that know I will be using regularly. Here’s just a sampling of the new features.
Dark Mode
After the installation Mohave defaulted to Dark Mode and while it was unique and different, it was not for me and I changed pretty quickly back to Light Mode. Dark Mode puts the focus on your work while toolbars, menus, and controls recede into the background. It’s integrated throughout macOS so it works with built-in apps—and third-party apps can adopt it too. The desktop picture even changes to match the time of day wherever you are. You can toggle between light and dark modes in the General System Preference.
Screenshots
You only have to remember one key command for your screenshots. Taking, annotating, sending, and saving screenshots is easier than ever. Just press Shift-Command-5 to bring up new onscreen controls, including video-recording tools.
Stacks
With Stacks, your Mac automatically arranges all the files scattered on your desktop into neat groups based on file type, date, or tag so you can get organized and easily find what you need. My desktop is usually a LOT messier than this example but I think you get the idea. You can toggle Stacks on or off at Finder->View->Use Stacks.
Finder Enhancements
You can now browse files at a glance with the large previews in Gallery View, view full file metadata, and perform Quick Actions like rotate or markup. This is very cool and I have just scratched the surface but the Finder window is much more powerful now. To markup pics for this article, I am able to do it now in Finder.
Quicklook is part of the new Finder, too. Clicking on the Quicklook eye icon will allow you to mark up and sign PDFs, rotate and crop images, and even trim audio and video files right in Quick Look—without launching an app.
Continuity Camera
This another really handy enhancement in Mohave. With Continuity Camera you can open your iOS device’s camera from your Mac, then immediately transfer the photo you took over to a document that you’re working on. For example, if you are working on a Pages document, and you need a photo of your dog, you can activate Continuity Camera, take the photo with your iPhone, then immediately see that photo pop up in the document on your Mac. Magic, right? Here’s how you do it for a photo, using a scanner is the same:
Open an editable document in an app like Pages or Keynote
Control-click, right-click, or two-finger-click on a space within the document where you want your phone to be located
Click Take Photo under the name of the iOS device you’ll use to take that photo
Take the pup’s photo using your iPhone or iPad
Tap Use Photo. Your photo will now appear in your document where you clicked.
Group FaceTime
With Group FaceTime, you can chat with up to 32 people simultaneously—more than ever before. New participants can be added at any time, and a call can include both audio and video callers. And users can join from any Apple device—iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch. I haven’t given this a try yet but sounds pretty handy.
News, Home, Voice Memos and Stocks
iOS apps on the Mac! Oh no! I use all of these except Voice Memos daily on my iPhone or iPad. I especially like Apple News as it is a great way to catch up on what is important to me. Aside from the normal world and national news my news feed is full of Celtics and Cubs news.
We use our iPhones and iPads to turn on and off our lights, adjust our thermostat and lock the doors. It has always been a bit weird that you couldn’t do that from the Mac – well, now you can and it works great!
This is just the start of iOS apps that may find their way onto the Mac and I think that is a good thing.
We will cover more of the new features in Mac OS 10.14 Mohave as we discover them! The public beta is out now but as I said it is not for the squeamish – some things may not work the way you want them to, some things will not work at all and even though you might like being a pioneer you might also regret heading down that path before all the bugs are squashed.
Dear Friends,
It has been rainy and cool this week but apparently, there is a heat wave coming our way if you believe our weather rumor mongers, Emily and Art. Emily declared that a bunch of AC units on campers were going to freeze up and Artie trotted out his chat status “The days are getting shorter and I hope it snows soon…” It will be nice to have some warmer summer-like weather!
Apple CEO, Tim Cook sat for Fortune interview this week and had some remarkable things to say about business, privacy and a number of topics. When he spoke about business’s role in society I believe he was square on the mark. Cook said that he doesn’t think businesses should deal only in commercial things. “Business to me is nothing more than a collection of people, and if people have values — and I argue we should — then by extension companies should have values.” Companies should speak out after evaluating whether or not a subject is a core value, says Cook.
“Ask yourself — is it a core value of your company? […] If something happens that isn’t consistent with those, then I think you need to speak. Think about if you don’t — then you’re in the appalling silence of good people category and this is something I’ve never wanted to be a part of.
Bravo, Tim! This is one of the many reasons we stick with Apple despite the headwinds that make it a challenge for an independent Apple reseller. Apple’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is important to us.
This week’s Kibbles & Bytes Exclusive features the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. This unit has the 2.9GHz i7 processor, 16gb of ram, 256GB SSD drive and the 4GB video card. It is Space Gray. We have three units that have dented cartons with perfect contents. UPS’s failure is your gain – these units have 1-year Apple Warranty and this week we are bundling with AppleCare + so you get three years of warranty coverage, technical support and up to two incidents of accidental damage (after deductible). Normally with a pristine shipping box, these sell for $2499.99 or $2878.99 with AppleCare +. This week for Kibbles & Bytes readers only for these three units you can get this bundle for $300 off at $2579.99!
Grace and I are heading to Maine for the weekend to try out our new travel trailer. It will be our maiden voyage, and we’re hoping all goes well as we re-discover camping. We didn’t do much camping once we moved to Vermont as it seemed that no matter where we were living we were sorta camping all the time! But with Grace hanging up her motorcycle boots we decided to give it a try. I am looking forward to eating lobster and dipping my feet into the ocean once again.
It has been fun setting up the camper – its got some nice features catering to my need to stay connected, like several USB ports sprinkled around the inside and outside to make sure all my devices stay charged. And, it actually has a 12-volt TV attached to the wall that I will be able to hook up an Apple TV for when we have “shore power”.
I hope you have an awesome first summer weekend!
Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!
Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
Don & Emily
Dear Friends,
I got out on the golf course to play with some old (and I mean OLD ;)) friends this week. We were playing in an event for a great organization, the Central Vermont Home, Health and Hospice. I sank a 40-foot put on the first hole and that was the highlight of the day for me. It was a beautiful summer day in Vermont and we had a great time laughing and hitting a little ball.
I promised myself that I would not upgrade to the new betas of the operating systems until the third beta was released, but when I got notice of the 2nd one, I was sorely tempted. Do you know what operating system you are running on your devices? This week we show you how to figure that out.
Grace is planning our annual 4th of July party which we have been doing for like 40 years and she broke down and called it a tradition. But, hey, 40 years, that would be a tradition!
This week’s”** Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is a gold MacBook 12-inch.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900003299/kibbles-bytes-exclusive-macbook-bundle? This CTO MacBook has the 1.3GHz m7 processor, 8GB of ram and a 512GB SSD drive. We are bundling it with AppleCare + this week. We have only two of these available so clearly first come first served! Regularly this bundle is $1898 but this week for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can get the configure-to-order gold MacBook with AppleCare+ for only $1589!
We have had some coolish weather over the past week but this weekend looks like some sunshine so that might help the gardens grow a bit. It also means that I might get out on the Indian for a little ride!
Here is a little soapbox, I am not going to be quiet about this. Americans do not separate children from their parents and lock them up in old Walmarts. But that is exactly what is being done in your and my name. It is outrageous and there is simply no excuse or valid explanation for the personal horror that is happening right now. Speak up and help to make it an unacceptable practice!
Okay, off the soapbox and back to work — thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!
Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,
Don & Emily
