SMUG meeting, September 15, 2020
Notes by Kathleen Charters
Q&A before the meeting starts
Apple Pencil for 2017 iPad Pro – battery level 3%, not charging, trying to connect through Bluetooth; tiny Lithium battery not like a dry cell battery, must be charged occasionally to stay working, may be dead; new iPads with Apple pencils are more robust, recharge as clipped to side of iPad; more useful than original pencil with tablet; software improved on the iPad; if old pencil not holding a charge may be stuck with getting a new one.
Announcement today: new iPad; write things out by hand and ask to turn into typewritten text.
Apple 1990’s Newton handwriting recognition was remarkable for the time, but Jobs canceled it.
New software is great at recognizing handwriting, even for a Doctor! (Quite impressive).
EPA AirNow app was demonstrated—an easy way to test air quality without having to go outside.
Was the last meeting recorded? Yes, but not for posting since I did not get permission to record; I will review and write up notes from the meeting last month.
New macOS/iOS to be announced tomorrow; today announced new Apple Watch and iPads and subscription services; one-hour keynote is on Apple’s homepage; expect additional announcements in October (traditional time to announce new OS) and November.
Safety protocols were followed for productions listed at the end of the presentation.
How many of you are running the current Mac OS? If not, download update for latest version machine capable of running since may not be available after new OS is released; do not have to install; if machine not eligible to run a current OS look for used machine that will run the current OS for security; vulnerable if connect to the Internet; machines can be taken over remotely.
For example, Zoom originally ran a Web-server on your machine and others could log into your machine; Zoom 5.0 and later versions get rid of Web-server running in the background; fixed this after being sued over it; current OS will not allow being taken over by Zoom; Apple refurbished or Other World Computing (OWC) refurbished or older new machines will allow current supported OS which protects from hackers.
Weird things on desktop – if select open terminal; Wineloader is a tool used by system developers to run software under Linux; interprets commands for running on a Mac; for example, the Terminal program “wget” so can use keyboard; Lawrence offered a 1:1 Zoom session to see desktop.
Sabrina
Welcome, 22 people attending so far; Pearletta is doing reasonably well; check out notes on the Website for previous meetings.
The treasurer will give a report next month since they had dental work today.
New attendees acknowledged.
Excited about iOS 14; do watch the keynote today; new iPad and Apple Watch; October will have another announcement.
Dues: make out to SMUG, $24/year, mail to the address in chat.
Chat has a link to the sign-in form for the meeting, so you can keep attendance.
Apple presentation highlights
Low cost Apple Watch SE, useful for a child to track activity and find where they are located; Apple Watch series 6 advances in tracking blood oxygen levels, SOS feature to call designated people if need help; heart rate too fast will get Haptic Touch to alert; 8th generation iPad with Apple Pencil performance faster, iPad Air thinner and has iPad Pro features, does not have facial recognition but does have Touch ID when turn it on; iOS 14 release tomorrow – denial of service attack during the pandemic? (Joke).
Apple Fitness Plus subscription service offers on-screen interactive coaching for novice, intermediate, and high fitness levels.
Apple One – bundle subscription, and you can get a family plan for up to five people.
Average gym membership costs more, takes more effort, and has less guidance.
Apple Watch is a good health supplement.
Topic for Today: Back-up
Time Machine has been built into Mac OS since 10.6, now at 10.15, and moving to Mac OS 11.
Software that automatically backs up the hard drive to someplace else, just needs a place to put the backup.
Time Machine icon on menu bar; check to back-up automatically, show it on menu bar so know if it gets stuck; Lawrence uses a time capsule as the place to put the back-up and does it wirelessly or can plug in a portable drive and put backup there, or any attached hard-drive that is properly formatted; disk selected to back up to needs to be 2-3 times the size of what is being backed up; may have multiple version and temporary files and these are all in the back-up; example of malware on a Mac slowing the machine down, erased the computer and restored from the time capsule back-up wirelessly; disk drives fail, machine may be taken and destroyed; can get a new machine and restore from back up for seamless transition.
Drive toaster – USB connection, plug in hard drive, can remove and store a copy of a point in time of what is on the hard drive; archive by definition is someplace other than the computer.
Back-up is a copy of all your work.
An archive is a select snapshot in time.
USB stick – may hold 32GB; stores a lot of data; a replication (copy); this is not a backup; for comparison: original Mac had (1) 400K floppy.
Q&A
Frequency of backup; Time Machine default is hourly backup; Costco has TB drives for $100; reformat it; plug it in and it will back up every hour; initial backup takes time, then backs up a new copy if the file has changed, does not get rid of the previous version; undoes the flag of what has changed and makes a copy; only slows down machine during first backup; after that there is no noticeable delay.
To restore without restoring malware run a diagnostic of the backup to make sure the malware not there; if find malware can remove it then restore; the average user may not know the difference between malware and software that has crashed or too may tabs open; MacKeeper acts like malware because almost impossible to get rid of it; Malware Bites – free version highly recommended to detect malware Mac users run into – guides through process of detecting it but does not help to get rid of it; MacKeeper requires a professional to get rid of it.
Backup to iCloud vs Time Capsule; iCloud is a targeted backup; it does not back up the machine; a replication of what is on the machine.
Can something on iCloud be backed up – no, because it comes from a machine and replication to iCloud is a destination, not a source; iPad backup to iCloud if you have enough space; Time Machine is for computer backup; mobile device separate from laptop/desktop.
Go to Time Machine Control panel, select Time Machine icon and will see what is backed up and how much space the back-up takes; Time Machine will ask if can back-up to the device plugged in; for new drive reformat it first, give it a custom name; format as “MacOS extended”, metadata explained = data about the file, important in back-up; erase a new hard-drive and reformat to make sure it is working’ a quality control process; Western Digital and Seagate stick things on the hard-drive and you may not want/need that; when machine asks if Time Machine can use the device plugged in, say “Yes”.
Can drill down into Time Machine, can specify a point in time, and get a specific file or specific folder.
How often should a person archive? Lawrence uses a 4 TB hard drive to store 90K high-resolution photographs, puts a date on the hard drive, and stores the archive somewhere other than where the original is located.
Time Machine for only photos is not necessary; allow Time Machine to back up everything.
Create an archive by copying onto an external USB drive (see Costco, note if using USB 2, as this will be slower than USB 3.
Back up continuously; make a snapshot in time for archive.
AirPort Time Capsule; set up to alternate locations for backups; a higher failure rate for a drive is not an issue because it is a backup; having 2 copies in 2 different locations is perfectly OK; only backs up what has changed.
Airport utility; edit; see what is free space.
Do not care about versions.
Use Spotlight, find Disk Utility, use Disk Utility to reformat, will ask what format to use; select macOS Extended.
Example of a punch card with 70 characters per card vs a USB drive – huge difference in storage capacity and amount of space to store.
Examples of loss of data and how crippling this can be to businesses: may be a virus, malware, ransomware; causes financial loss; personal loss of photos, income tax data; songs, books with emotional value; vital to backup, and Time Machine is built-in and free; just use it.
Payment of dues – see the address to mail it to in chat.
Reminders – can share lists, can be set by location.
Apple Maps- can see a view of the campus in Cupertino; in large cities walking map is better than Google Maps.
MacTraders has a stock of refurbished machines that will run the current OS.
Apple gives an Apple warranty for its refurbished machines.
If you get a refurbished machine, make sure to get at least a limited warranty; do not use Craigslist, do not use eBay.
Mobile devices can be dropped – make sure you have a warranty if you purchase a refurbished device.
iPhone 12 with 5G – what difference does it make? There is no technical definition of 5G, a marketing term; 5G runs on bandwidth released by DoD and TV companies for telecommunications use; a spectrum used, no technical definition of speed; a spectrum used for wireless, transmission – characteristics come from what is using the spectrum; can vary by vendor; e.g., Verizon transmission different from AT&T which is the international standard; different chip sets and instructions.
Higher frequency – if you talk faster, more information over a shorter period is transmitted; interference is not an issue; propagation an issue with low frequency – takes a long time to get a signal; infrared spectrum passes less information than ultraviolet spectrum.
Peninsula will be about 2 years behind getting 5G, based on experience in getting 3G and 4 G.
Example of Brazil going to fiber optic telecommunications in 1 year vs. the US 7 years to go to fiber optic; telephone companies constantly replace equipment so it does not take 30-40 years; cheaper to use new technology when something dies than finding something old for a replacement, this means the Olympic Peninsula will get the new technology eventually.
Studies of health and use of iPhones; studies say there is no risk because not transmit constantly, only episodically, and at low wattage.
TV examples of use of technology are misleading; they cannot do many of the things that are shown due to physics.
Apple Watch is not a significant source of radiation, does not use much power; the human body generates more electromagnetic radiation than devices; a microwave is inside a Faraday cage to block electricity, so it will not escape; if you put a phone in the microwave, it cannot function.
Challenge: iPhone takes you to a site and gets messages that say the phone has viruses – to stop this, clear browser history and Website data to remove JavaScript redirecting the phone, then turn iPhone off, and when you turn it on again, it will no longer be redirected.