February 2017

by Jeff McKamey

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch is selling really well finally:

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/31/apple-watch-revenue-record-q1-2017/

I think this is from a couple of things, Apple keeps improving the speed and functionality of the watch OS with the updates. But also the original Apple Watch is really cheap compared to the original prices.
The new Apple Watch 2 has a GPS so it can track your activities without a phone, and you can swim with it now. Also if your watch is just on wi-fi without the phone you can now get phone calls on it.

MacBook Docs

It used to be the case that a Macbook had all the conectors you would ever want, now you can not even charge your laptop and plug in a thumb drive at the same time. There are a lot of docs and adapters, I thought this one was clever:

https://www.amazon.com/Satechi-Type-C-MacBook-12-Inch-Charging/dp/B019PHF9W2/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1486041984&sr=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=Pass-through+Hub+by+Satechi+also

I worry about putting too much force on the port with big things that attach to the laptop, and something like this might be better:

https://www.amazon.com/Satechi-Aluminum-Multi-Port-Adapter-Charging/dp/B01J4BO0X8/ref=pd_sim_23_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QDGZ43KC3R68FYSTM2MH

USB-C Cables

If you have a newer laptop, don’t get too creative in how you charge your laptop, the older phone and ipad chargers and cables were not designed to put out the juice to charge a laptop and can cause all sorts of problems.

http://www.howtogeek.com/240777/watch-out-how-to-buy-a-usb-type-c-cable-that-wont-damage-your-devices/

iPhone 6S Battery Recall

https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/

If your serial number is on the list, you get a new battery, Unfortunately that probably involves driving to San Antonio….

Netgear Routers

Netgear found a really big hole in their firmware, if you have a Netgear router, you need to update the firmware just to be sure.

http://kb.netgear.com/29960/NETGEAR-Product-Vulnerability-Advisory-Potential-security-issue-associated-with-remote-management

Yahoo Mail Security problems

Yahoo keeps having problems over and over.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/15/technology/yahoo-security-breach-billion-users/

If you have ever used a password on Yahoo, the bad guys know what it is.

Facebook fake account problems:

There are plenty of hackers trying to spoof facebook people.

https://www.facebook.com/help/167722253287296

This page describes fake accounts in more detail.

http://www.wikihow.com/Reveal-a-Fake-Facebook-Account

The biggest red flag for me is when they don’t have many friends.

Shot on an iPhone campaign

http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/01/30/apple-shot-on-iphone-ad-campaign-continues-with-one-night-on-iphone-7

I am not a robot

I liked this video.

https://boingboing.net/2017/01/26/robot-outwits-i-am-not-a-rob.html

Don’t use antivirus?

One of the Firefox developers has decided antivirus products cause more problems than they solve:

http://robert.ocallahan.org/2017/01/disable-your-antivirus-software-except.html

I have rarely fixed a machine where the antivirus has actually caught any problems in the history.

Better Email

There are several email programs that should be better than the built in Apple Email. The easiest one is Spark.

https://sparkmailapp.com/

It’s main thing is it will scan your email and pop up a notification on your phone/watch for ‘important’ emails.

AirMail

The most configurable email program is airmail.

http://airmailapp.com/