Strait Macintosh User Group (SMUG), January 21, 2020
Notes by Kathleen Charters
Q&A
New machine – no reason not to upgrade to the latest OS
Wi-Fi router vs Wi-Fi extender vs Mesh – Nighthawk router better than extender (hard to set up and not very effective); Mesh is cooperative network of devices so robust but expensive, the slow part is not internal WIFI it is the WAVE Cable modem at 5-10 MB per second; WIFI router pugs into ethernet port of WAVE modem, just follow the instruction
A Wi-Fi router is just focused on the Wi-Fi signals and connects to the modem
Time capsule does 5 functions: Wi-Fi network router, Ethernet switch, Time Machine hub, printer, firewall
Wave sells a modem (modulator-demodulator). A traditional modem sends sound over a wire, turns sound into digital (historic); the Wave modem sends digital signals; an ISP, internet service provider, gives you a modem, may have 2 boxes, and one is a set-top box for the TV and controlled by a remote for the TV, and one is Internet access
Meeting convened by Lawrence Charters, VP of SMUG
President Sabrina is in Europe
First-time attendees acknowledged
Anika, treasurer, collects dues to support the SMUG infrastructure
Future topics requested: how to set up iCloud Services, GMAIL services
Tonight: iCloud Services setup
Illustration: a university building map and legend that shows no logic, confounds those trying to read the map = how people think about instructions to set up services
If you do not have a Mac and get an Apple ID and use iCloud, useful to have integrated services, no cost, and powerful
Google “Apple ID” and go to the Apple ID site, go to Apple ID support, and get directions on how to set it up, or go to AppleId.com
First Name, Last Name, birthday (for minimum age check to restrict content if under 16 based on European privacy laws and US has no Federal privacy laws but US companies doing business with Europe use those laws everywhere); if want to be over 16 use correct day and month but false year greater than 21 years ago so cannot give out personal information but remember the year as will need it in the future
Can give any name, reasonably complex, as an email address; recommend getting an email account that will move with you, Apple email, and Google email are widely used, Space Station uses iCloud to communicate with family
Select security questions to answer, and put this information into 1Password to securely save it for future use
At the bottom asks what mailing lists you want to be on? Recommend “Apple News” to get useful information about what is going on
Enter the CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) code
Go to iCloud to set up services – can get mail, contacts, calendar, photos, iCloud Drive, Notes, Reminders (date/time, or location dependent), Pages, Numbers, KeyNote (much better than PowerPoint), Find Friends, Find iPhone (any device registered with this service)
Keychain – visible portion of Unix-based password server, hard to understand the interface, 1Password is a better solution since easy to understand, handy for iPhone and Mac, encrypts information stored.
ICloud set-up on computer: go to Internet accounts, set up a new account, click on iCloud button, enter AppleID, password, and will see with list of possible services, how much storage, default is 5GB free, if want more there is a cost; minimum: turn on for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Safari (bookmarks and reading list), Notes, Keychain (shared passwords for use by both computer and iPhone or iPad etc.), Find My Mac,
Optional: Siri, Stocks, News, Home (HomePod when controlling things like lights in the home)
Caution: Photos consume a lot of space; if you only have 5GB will use this up rapidly; select Manage and you can buy more storage, 2TB is cheap at $10/month and can be shared
When you find an interesting article, click on “+” and mark it so you can read it on any device, can also save for offline reading (set on Safari Preferences Advanced); saves any URL; saves it until you get rid of it
Still need Keychain even if you have 1Password; Keychain automatically stores everything, 1Password is intentional, so it may not store everything
Possible to use up storage with email, can see what uses up storage, if close to limit, buy more, can do this for 1-2 months
iCloud vs iCloud Drive – launch Pages, create a document, save to iCloud Drive – saves to Cloud, not to computer, so can have it independent from a device, best for collaboration
Backup to cloud and do not get everything when restore, possible Internet service is not reliable, get a fraction of what is advertised, 10 MB per second best possible for upload with Wave
To get rid of items from iCloud Drive, just throw them away; you need to go to iCloud Drive and send them to trash
Finder -> Preferences -> Sidebar: turn on everything so you can find it
Washington Post example of how to get rid of ads by creating a reader view so you only see the story; the location bar on the left has grey lines, if you click on this, the ads go away
Use up significant space: Photos (e.g., panoramas are huge) – when save in Photos have option to save to iCloud but uses up space quickly; if lose phone still have photos; when iPhone saves to iDrive synchs the photos so all devices have a copy; full size original downloaded to Mac and smaller versions to devices with less storage space
iCloud backup – turn on for phone, if the computer has a small drive, this will use a lot of space
Google services – Gmail, calendar, similar to iCloud but different, 15GB free but not as tight integration as iCloud; if you upload high-quality photos but not full resolution no limit on Google; different collaboration tools, e.g., Google Docs
Can set up so automatically forwards Gmail to iCloud mail, so read in one place
Family information (more sensitive, personal) on iCloud, joint account for Gmail calendar (less sensitive)
Google and Pages can read Word, can export to the format others can read, Word or plain text can be read by others but only saves text; PDF works but a way to spread virus in Windows world; PDF to keep others from editing it; since a page and look at it on a phone cannot read it; ePub flows the text to fit the screen size
Text .txt vs. Text Edit vs. Word .doc; TextEdit can read Word but throws away the formatting
Video – most common format is .mp4; Apple App Store using iCloud account can get a video converter; recommend Smart Converter (free); gives it the right extension so you can share with others
A video is just a file, but a bookmark is a pointer to a file that is somewhere else
May not be able to move if there is not enough room where you want to put it
Finder -> View -> Show View Options -> Status Bar (turn this on and use it as a default for Finder windows), so you can see if there is enough room
Q&A
Reminders – launch on desktop; welcome; upgrade now – do this on desktop and phone, and iPad at the same time; Preferences, Reminders demo – item, date/time, location (iPhone shows map)
Next Topic
Sort Mail – need to cover Google Services first.