SMUG meeting, June 15, 2021
Notes by Kathleen Charters
Q&A
iMovie Clip trimmer resolution 1/10th of a second and use of track pad (designed for brushing and stroking, so sensitivity is less) vs. a mouse for resolution, track pad is convenient but not precise, video editors use trackballs or mice; magic mouse works with any modern device with a new version of Bluetooth (greater bandwidth)
Themes – blank video screens; not able to preview form, fill out the form, and save the clip before seeing what it is doing. This has been true for a couple of years
Themes and trailers are built on templates; you can use photos to test the theme; it does not have to be a video to test it
Upgrade on iCloud space and add devices as family members to the account to take advantage of greater space; separate Apple IDs must be added to the family plan; go online for directions on how to do this: “Set Up Family Sharing”
Apple Family – do not have to live in the same home, can be in different cities, just adding Apple IDs to the plan
The next iteration of OS can use iCloud backup when buying a new machine
Sizing the plan – if you have 1 GB to back up and part of this is music (purchased albums), it will not copy this, will not copy mail, will copy what is unique to the device
When downloading, it does not do it all at once; it may take a week to get everything. Must have a reliable Internet connection, plug into power, and will back up, takes time
Apple Photo will not send in message because sending to a device not an account; can copy to clipboard and paste into message; designed to share a photo with another e-mail account; messages shares from device to device and knows nothing about accounts so have to copy paste into message; Apple Photo is paranoid; works if share something with person in contacts who has iCloud account; will not allow to send to a phone number; Gmail with a sharing relationship will work; Messages is flexible and lazy; example of social phishing
Spoofed address made it look like she was hacked, found address and send out messages from the person; hackers harvest email address and send out spam/malware; now attack corporations to get massive numbers of e-mail addresses; e.g., sent .PDF to compromise machine when clicked on; separate position from person in e-mail address; protect personal e-mail address, keep track of
Apple World Wide Developer Conference 2021 (WWDC21), https://strait-mac.org/2021/06/06/apple-world-wide-developer-conference-2021/
Meeting business
Treasurer Report
Annual Zoom subscription $163.09
1 dues received
After pending items are processed, Account Balance: $1406.46
Proposed clinic workshop – will need a projector, show things that cannot be shown on Zoom; need a projector that will take an HDMI input; preparing for the future
A hybrid event is not feasible due to bandwidth limitations of being on the Olympic peninsula; Sequim Community Church is open for meetings and has good support; KSQM sites; Sequim Valley 4 Square church; speed needs to be 1 MBS
Demo of Google Office Suite
Free office automation tools; must have a Google account
Google Drive (Google Workspace) is the basis of office automation services
Log-in, new, create doc, sheet, form, drawing tools, map tools, website tools
Word processing document on a Website as a Webpage, so can share by inviting people by copying URL or entering their e-mail address; can change font, size, formatting; can export the document in Microsoft Word format; create Microsoft Word files in Google Docs; Word processing document has no size to count against total
Google Sheets is a spreadsheet with content and formulas; it can be shared using the share button, or you can download and save it as a Microsoft Excel file. Disappointing if a heavy hitter in Excel, but for simple things works seamlessly; the charting function can be customized
Use of slides to create title frames for movies; recognize slides as a PowerPoint
Google drawings – export as a copy of the URL or by sending an email
Example of a custom map made by dropping pins, can edit pins
Change from map view to satellite view
Google Sites – create and publish a website – limited to 15 GB (Apple limits to 5GB for free)
Google Photos
Drag from iCloud to Google
Browsers and Google Suite
Chrome by Google
Firefox
Safari does fine unless doing something complicated
Google Drive works with iPad, iPhone, and desktop/laptop machines
Can set phones to upload photos to iCloud; Google has access to the phone’s photos
Google Lens – iPhone trick; uses power of phone to search for images on iPhone Google Photos Library; select a photo, see icon at the bottom, if selected will analyze photo and state what it is; 1 B photos uploaded today with metadata; Google can look though library of shapes to find a match; there can be errors; looks at shape and makes a guess; can read things e.g., photo of a menu in another language Google Lens will try to translate into English; look for name of a person “Lawrence I Charters” and select images associated with the name; does not work to select a face to get a name because looking at a string on the page; can upload an image to Google of a famous person and it may find a name based on database of things lots of people have uploaded and identified; may find an exact match in the database; referred learning
Authy is a tool for identification, claiming to be 2-factor authentication, but not exactly this; it does help to have 2-step identification; it works with other services, free is limited, and more extensive use takes a monthly rental; a small company
Caution: Instead of being more secure may be less secure if small company is bought out by a hostile government for access to accounts
Google Authenticator – after name and password are entered, have one more step, a random number tied to the Google account that changes every 15 minutes, then get the passcode from the phone to type in to complete the authentication process
Apple has its own 2 step authentication
Google authentication works best with Google products
Apple authentication works best with Apple products
Safari and Chrome work differently with Google Drive; for example, they handle the print command differently
Can share a Google doc with others and work on it together, and track who edits what when; this is powerful
WWDC
Paid iCloud account (even if the minimum fee) + new OS powerful feature = protect Apple Mail client; will scan for malware; e.g., flag when return address does not match what is claimed
Safari’s double proxy system cannot track what you are doing, cannot track the identity of the machine based on the footprint, and scrambles linkages to identity
Facebook can track, but cannot share with Amazon anything useful
Protect from malignant e-mail, tracking Web browser; does not set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) since you have to know what the other end of the tunnel is before it can be secure; e.g., Avast in Hungary, where the government can look at anything
If you use mail and Safari ISP cannot track you
Firefox cannot use this Apple proxy system
A 90% solution can still compromise its security
Not a VPN – the mechanics of this for 3B users is complicated
Well worth taking a look at this – the way rolled out user can be much better protected without doing anything
Apple’s ability to home in on a detail across screens across devices
What kinds of projectors are available – what to look for: lumens and resolution, 1500 – 2000 lumens or better; need 1920 by 1280 pixels better resolution; larger room needs more lumens; more detail needs higher resolution
Things for SMUG to think about
Consider purchasing a used projector
Consider a computer fair to increase the level of knowledge
Consider alternating in-person with Zoom meetings
Next month, possible topics:
Summer activities applications – iHealth, Strava, Parks
Photography
Printers – what to take into consideration, true cost, all-in-one, laser vs inkjet