The Preferred Toronto Apple Reseller of MacMedics:
The Preferred iPod and iPhone repair shop in Toronto of MacMedics:
A Safe Way To Dispose Of Your eWaste – And Get A Tax Receipt Too!
My Preferred Canadian-Based ISP
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Jan
14
Hello World…Very Soon
Filed Under Rants, Rumours | Leave a Comment
Well, it looks like we’re getting closer to one of those Apple moments – the one where Steve Jobs slowly descends from the mountain and introduces the world to a new device that changes everything – at least that’s the general sense if you follow this type and this hype of thing – there are over 13 million references on the web to this as yet seen revelation. Yes folks, I’m referring to the elephant in the digital room, the Holy Grail in King Arthur’s notebook bag – the Apple Tablet (aka iSlate – who knows what it will ultimately be called).
I’ve held off commenting on this because nobody knows what this thing is going to be or do. Rumour mills are churning – it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s an iPhone on steroids! It has a camera! No, wait a minute, it doesn’t have a camera! Deals are being made with publishers, TV networks and newspapers. Bounties are being offered (I’m serious) for true pictures or videos – even one offering up to a $100,000 to play with one for an hour! Ridiculous.
Apple has booked a space at the Yerba Centre in San Francisco for January 26th – the day of the big reveal – with a commercial availability of the product in March. Much much more to come. I vow to only comment on it’s pre-release again if something truly worth sharing emerges. Until then, ssshhh!
Jul
14
Word Play
Filed Under Applications, Rants, Uncategorized, Views | 2 Comments
Something that comes up a lot for my clients is the collective dislike of most things Microsoft – especially Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Entourage). The current Mac version of this monolithic suite is Office 2008. As Darrell Etherington points out in a recent NY Times article:
Sometimes I swear Office 2008 was just a ploy to get me to install Windows on a Boot Camp partition and run Office 2007. I find command and menu placement to be completely unintuitive and just plain awkward on the Mac version.
Those who use Excel a lot have a special hate on for the suite and continue to keep the older 2004 version around. To make matters worse those business users who require access to Exchange networks for email and calendaring functions have to purchase the more expensive Standard edition which runs over $500 rather than the Home/Student edition of old for $199 and which included 3 licenses and support for this type of system.
The biggest problem seems to be that many users are afraid to move away from Office applications for fear of not being able to share or open documents with and from others. Thank goodness there are alternatives. One is Google Docs – basically online versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Couple that with Google Mail and Google Calendar and you have a full-featured suite of applications – and it’s FREE.
Sometimes it depends on what you want. If you’re looking for a decent word processor, nothing fancy etc.. then you might consider another free alternative – Bean:
Bean is not a replacement for MS Word. It doesn’t do footnotes or pre-defined styles and is only partially compatible with Word’s file formats
However, it does the job for most things. There is also Apple’s iWork 09 Suite and it’s companion iWork.com (still in beta) which comprises three applications: Pages, Keynote and Numbers. These are excellent alternatives to Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Documents created in iWork 09 can be exported to Microsoft’s versions and they in turn can be imported. Microsoft is currently working Office 2010 and supposedly the Mac version will not be coming out at the same time:
Apple Mac users shouldn’t expect to get any of the new features being touted in Microsoft’s Office 2010 in the near future the company has said.
Microsoft has said that the new office suite, announced on Monday, will go on sale in the first half of 2010 for PC users, however isn’t likely to come to the Mac OS until either late 2010 or as far out as 2011.
Yet another alternative is OpenOffice – a free suite of applications very similar to Office from MS. In the meantime I suggest checking out alternatives to the evil empire’s offerings and not to feel boxed in by the marginalization approach Microsoft often takes towards the Mac.
Apr
13
I’m asked all the time: “Should I install anti-virus or anti-spyware software on my Mac?”. I’ve also noticed that when anything out of the ordinary goes wrong I’m told, not asked – “I must have a virus” to wit I smugly answer – ‘you don’t have a virus, Macs are more secure than Windows’ yadda yadda yadda. Well, I need to wipe that smirk off my face as an article in the NY Times on Mac Security has pointed out:
The security researcher Dino A. Dai Zovi knows this better than most. The attack that won him the Pwn2Own hacking contest in 2007 required that his victims do nothing more than visit a malicious Web site. “All they saw was their Web browser crash,” he says.
“I have found that Macs are less secure than their current Windows and Linux counterparts,” says Mr. Dai Zovi, who is co-author of The Mac Hacker’s Handbook. “At least for the last several years, Apple has lagged behind in security, largely because the threat hasn’t been there.”
Basically, the Mac is safe because it’s market share (10%) is still too small to attract hackers to migrate their tools over to a new platform. The article asks what level of market share warrants attacks. It seems to be from 17% on. We’ll see. In the meantime, Apple releases security updates (what are they doing?) to plug holes as they arise and Snow Leopard should hopefully be more secure than Leopard. In the meantime, read this article and like me, wipe that smug off your face : )
Mac Security Part II – NY Times – Riva Richmond
Feb
9
Peace Of Mind
Filed Under 1. HOW TO..., Advice, Rants, Security, Tips, Views | Leave a Comment
As many of you who read this blog know I am constantly reminding people to back up their data – I never seem to get tired of pointing this out. Just as importantly is securing the data you already have. Security can mean different things depending on your concerns and approach. For some it’s ensuring that you have that basic backup of your important information – that’s one kind of security – against data loss.
So, you’ve got your backup. Check. However, what happens if you lose or have your computer stolen? All that important information like your passwords, credit card information, writing, pictures, contacts, calendar – personal and professional information – all of it is at risk. It’s a very violating feeling to have your computer stolen. I’ve had this happen to me and it’s awful. Even if you have a backup the knowledge that someone may have access to your information is unnerving. You may have to cancel your credit cards, change all of your passwords, call colleagues or friends to be on the look out for any breached information you may have stored.
What can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen to you? These are my suggestions – each has advantages and disadvantages:
1. Give your computer a password! Many of my clients feel they don’t need a password because they’re the only ones using their machine. Please don’t get lulled into this trap. Give your machine a basic password – preferably something beyond 1234, your name or ‘password’.
2. Check out the Security System Preference Pane. There are some very basic things you can choose to do that can help dissuade a casual breach of access to your Mac – in an office or at home. Within this Preference Pane you’ll find the ability to require a password to wake your machine from sleep or a screen saver – someone passing by your machine will probably keep on going. You can also require a secure password to unlock other important Preference Panes – see screen shot.
3. Even with all of these built-in features if someone has physical access to your computer they can by-pass all of these measures by booting up your machine with a startup DVD or external hard drive. To prevent this you can utilize another free utility that comes with every Mac – a Firmware password. Each Startup Disk has on it a utility called Firmware Password Utility. With this you can implement a password at a deep level of the operating system. This will prevent someone from booting up your machine from another media, mounting the drive using Target Disk mode as well as other modes of starting up. This can also prevent diagnostic trouble-shooting modes so be aware of this.
4. Yet another security feature is Apple’s File Vault feature. This protects your Home directory with very sophisticated encryption standards. To you your data appears normal. However, if someone were to steal your machine your data would be secure, even if they booted up your machine from another source – unless they knew or figured out your password (hence no 1234 here)! An issue with Filevault arises with the use of Time Machine. Because File Vault encrypts your directory as a single secure image it will continually back up the entire image and not just the smaller changed files. This can fill up your backup destination much faster.
5. There are 3rd Party solutions as well some of which can help locate your stolen Mac, disable it remotely, take pictures of the thief, where they surf etc…Orbicule is one, MacPhoneHome another as well as Lojack.
6. One solution I’ve used in the past is Securikey – a USB security key approach. With this implemented, your laptop or desktop is only usable with the insertion of the specially formatted USB key – even if your password is breached. It encrypts your Home Directory like Filevault and the data is useless to a thief. If you lose your key the company keeps a backup set which you can get access to by identifying yourself properly with a prearranged authentication.
7. Backup is, as I’ve mentioned, security. An important step is to make sure that you don’t keep your backup and your primary source (computer) in the same location, especially when you travel. Thus, a diverse and secure approach to backup might include an offsite copy of important information using a service like MobileMe, SugarSync, iDrive etc…That way, in the case of loss or theft you will have recourse to those important files. All of these services encrypt their data on remote servers.
Jan
24
The Mac Turns 25! I Gush…And A Warning At The End
Filed Under Apple News, Rants, Views | 2 Comments
A Record sales quarter – best earnings ever! Microsoft lays off 1400 yesterday, 5000 in the next 18 months. A killer worm working it’s way through the internet – hey, Mac User, do you even know it exists? The coolest tech products on the planet – I mean they sold 22 million iPods in the last 3 months! Where are they finding these people? Obama is a Mac user! A happy cult that is open to everyone – yes you can be any denomination and be a Mac-head – there is no threat to your faith. Snow Leopard (10.6 – I encourage you to click on the previous link to get a sense of what’s coming) is on the horizon, embracing Open Source standards like Sproutcore and the coming ZFS file system – open standards which encourage and use collaborative solutions from all over the world while Windows 7 (Microsoft’s next installment of it’s operating system) continues to link it’s technology to a more proprietary platform tied to them.
And the Mac is just fun. It comes with amazing software in every box:
Are you into video or movie editing? They provide iMovie. Are you a Muscian? How about a 64-Track recording studio that also teaches you how to play guitar or piano? Learn how to play Roxanne from…Sting! They provide Garageband! Into photography? iPhoto! How about creating a website or blog or a podcast? Check out iWeb. How about publishing and sharing your creations, your contacts, calendar and email? Use MobileMe (okay, that’s not free). Business oriented? Need a good Word processor or layout program? Want to create amazing presentations? Crunch some Numbers. Apple is now providing iWork in the box! Need to run Windows? The Mac can do it (Windows extra)! I’m a freaking advertisement for Apple, I know. It’s not hard. It’s why I love the platform – it generates passion. It’s the most compatible (generally) operating system on earth created by people who, yes, want to make money, but also create this stuff because they love to:
(Tim) Cook’s job (Apple’s 2nd in command) is simplified thanks to Apple’s “uncanny ability to attract and hire ‘fanatics’ who are entrepreneurial, work hard, and are looking to change the world,” said Wu. In other words, motivation is mostly built in.
On January 24, 1984, Apple premiered an advertisement, directed by Ridley Scott, during the Superbowl that still wins the Best Of Awards to this day. It unleashed a brave new world in computing ‘for the rest of us’.
I could go on and on. It’s an embarrassment of riches - noun; more options or resources than one knows what to do with – origins Mid-18th Century – literally ‘embarrassment of riches, or choice. So, Happy Birthday Mac. There are great things coming – some will be under the hood, some will be in plain site. It’s only going to get better.
P.S. Caveat And A Warning: The Mac isn’t perfect – I wouldn’t have a job if that were the case! In fact, there is a report just released by Intego concerning a current Trojan Horse infecting Macs in regard to Pirated copies of iWork 09 through Bit Torrent. Here’s an example of a potential problem brought on by users installing software from untrusted sources. Symantec considers this to be a low-level threat, but a threat none the less. Secure Mac (an excellent site for info on Mac Security) has released an iWork Packages Trojan Horse Removal Utility for anyone foolish enough to have downloaded this – I mean, Apple is allowing a free 30-day demo download!
Ultimately, however, I feel the Mac is a superior platform to work and play in. I deal with a lot of frustration and emergencies and crazy stuff happens that’s for sure, but it’s ultimately a more stable, secure system. I continue to trust the Mac with my own business and important creative projects and if you treat it right, take precautions (backup, don’t pirate software) you’ll be in good hands. Happy Birthday Mac! (this is worth clicking).
Dec
8
War Is Over…If You Want It
Filed Under Rants, Views | Leave a Comment
And so, if you’re a dreamer, this can be true. Today is the anniversary of John Lennon’s shooting and death. I remember where I was and when I was when it happened. I was a 13 year old, brace-faced, Beatle fanatic with my first guitar (first song, Let It Be – McCartney, I know) on a family vacation in Florida when I found out. I was upset then and I’m upset now – by the waste of what could have been. By the knowledge that he was just beginning again, That he seemed comfortable in his own skin and ready to join the world again and matter. John Lennon was no saint, but he was a symbol, an idealist and he had a powerful voice and influence.
And what does this have to do with the blog? Not much really. There are ongoing negotiations and setbacks concerning the Beatles appearance on iTunes. Other than that I just wanted to mark Lennon’s passing as I often think about him at this time. Perhaps others have thoughts as well they’d like to share. I truly believe that war (all kinds of war – military, mental etc…) is over if we want it – perhaps we don’t like to admit that, sometimes, we don’t really want it.
Memories Of John – The Peace Tower
Jul
30
Cloud Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown
Filed Under MobileMe, Rants | Leave a Comment
This is the title of a book by Alan Watts and a title of a Van Morrison song. It’s also a description of my last couple of days with Apple’s MobileMe service. I was really enjoying the service and loving the near real-time sync of my contacts and calendar. Finally, no more conflicts or lapses in my data between my computers and phone.
That all began to go awry without warning or provocation yesterday. I noticed some contacts missing on my iPhone and then all the names within the Favourites section of the iPhone contacts disappeared. Contact information was jumbled and data was missing. Thank goodness this wasn’t occurring down the line on my other computers (another lesson in why backup is so important). I attempted to fix the issue using Apple’s recommendations of deleting and recreating my MobileMe account on the phone, but I haven’t been able to restore a proper sync since. The issue seems to be most persistent for Contacts – they just won’t appear, although they exist in tact on the web and in my Address Book. The calendar and bookmarks come in, but that’s it. This is disappointing as I again have to physically connect my iPhone to my Mac directly to get my important information onto it.
Not everyone is having this difficulty, but I and many others are. It’s too bad – so much promise. I’m confident this will eventually get resolved, but at the moment, for me, MobileMe is MobileBust.
Jul
24
Apple Store Envy
Filed Under Rants, Views | Leave a Comment
I love Montreal. I really do. I went to school and lived there for 7 years. Many formative changes for me happened there. I go back every summer and other times too. But for goodness sakes, why in the world did Montreal get such a beautiful Apple Store?
I remember when the Yorkdale Apple Store opened in Toronto. It was exciting to have our own store, but let’s face it – it’s small and Toronto is huge. Then came the announcement of an Eaton Centre location. I’m thinking, ‘alright, we’re going to get our flagship store just like San Francisco and New York’. If you’ve been to the Eaton Centre Apple Store you’ll know that it’s another small boutique outlet. Don’t get me wrong – they’re beautiful stores and they do a brisk business.
But I want Toronto to have a huge flagship store. It deserves one – on Queen Street or Bloor Street. We are the GTA! This is Toronto! There is tremendous demand in this city for Apple products and an extremely large existing client base. And it’s fun to walk into these big stores. And they might offer better training facilities for One-To-One users.
I know that the Apple Stores are a threat to the smaller resellers in the city. In fact, I prefer to use local resellers to the larger Apple Store outlet (my preferred reseller is Riverdale and Beaches Mac to be specific). They tend to be more responsive, personal, support the local community and are generally easier to deal with. However, having a large Apple flagship store pushes the brand more into the limelight and I think this helps everyone. So, come on Apple – give Toronto the store it deserves!
Jul
12
Not a steller day for Johnny Appleseed. The release of the iPhone, it’s new software and the MobileMe rollout all in one day – it was just too much. I’m holding off on all the updates to be safe and let the early adopters take the fall. My 2G iPhone continues to work, but won’t be honored by Rogers vis a vis the new services like Visual Voice Mail or better data plan – I have to buy a new 3G model to get that. I have to wait at least a few days past my 1 year as a cellular subscriber. Echh! I can’t log into MobileMe no matter what I try, but I can get my .Mac mail and see my iDisk. Very odd. My iPod Touch remains at version 1.1.4 – the 2.0 software just isn’t appearing. All in all it’s a pretty dismal showing for Apple. I’m sure they’re trying their best, but it’s a bit of a washout. I’m just going to go into denial and pretend the release is next Friday!
Jul
8
Whither iPhone?
Filed Under Rants, iPhone | Leave a Comment
It all just seems so ridiculous. Apple supposedly punishes Rogers for its overpriced, voice and data-starved iPhone plans to protect its image? They won’t support its release in the Apple Stores because that would be sanctioning the hated plans and helping Rogers? Shouldn’t this have all been worked out beforehand? Why did the Canadian Market have to wait so long for the coveted device only to have a measly 20 phones per store made available? It’s not Apple’s fault that Rogers is being greedy, especially on the lower-end plans. Until there is more competition in the cellular marketplace Rogers will continue to act like a Goliath. When I first bought a Blackberry I paid $40/month for 1MB of data and $60 for unlimited (which actually wasn’t unlimited, but 50MB which I was told was virtually unlimited – who knew?). Both Telus and Rogers were the equal in this. I didn’t blame RIM and I didn’t think they would punish the carriers. I just eventually stopped using a Blackberry. The fact there has been movement on the plans is a good sign and one that promises possible further changes. Consumers will decide what ultimately happens. However, limiting access to the iPhone will not give anyone a idea of what’s going on. If Rogers had 100 phones per store and only sold 10 or 20 that would interesting. With such projected low stocks it’s just going to make the device more desired.