Apple's Investment

Yes, Apple's products are considered on the expensive side, and there are many reasons for that.  Recently Apple invested $200 million in one of its suppliers. Can you imagine a company using its money to help one of its suppliers, to the tune of two hundred million dollars? For more information read this article.

Additionally, Apple has established a $1 billion fund to promote U.S. manufacturing. Article here. Ironically, although Apple has over $250 billion in cash, most of that is sitting overseas, and they had to borrow the $1 billion locally to establish the fund.

Jim Hamm

Improve Battery Life

Here's a helpful article from Computerworld on how to improve the battery life on all your Apple devices. Here's one example, which I wasn't aware of, and just now did, that reduces the amount of 'juice' drawn from your iPhone: switch off AirDrop. I never use this feature, and it has been just sitting there, hour after hour, sipping 'juice' from the battery on my iPhone!

There are other tips in the article that may help keep your devices from losing battery life so quickly. Read the article to find out more.

Jim Hamm 

Opera Web Browser

If you might like to try another browser, here is an article with a review of the Opera web browser. I have it installed, occasionally use Opera, and I like it fine, especially the free VPN feature. Having said that, though, I must admit I'm not fond of having Opera's server in China. 

Remember, by using a VPN, your data is encrypted until it reaches the VPN's server, where it is unencrypted before it is sent on. How much do you trust the Chinese not to peek at your data? Of course, this is true for any VPN, so use your own judgement.

Jim Hamm

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iPad or iPhone Charging

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For your possible interest, here is part of an article written by Hadley Markoski of Small Dog Electronics (http://www.smalldog.com/) that provides info on the charging of your iPhone or iPad. Note especially the last paragraph.

Jim Hamm

"all devices with lithium ion batteries have on-board charge controllers that regulate the charging. Many modular lithium batteries have protection circuits built into them by default. So no matter how much charge current is available, the controller will always have the last say about how much of it hits the battery. This is why you can charge your iPhone with a larger iPad charger. Just because the larger charger is rated for 10-watts (2 amps) doesn’t mean it’ll be delivering that all the time. It means it can deliver up to that if necessary. There is some portion of the iPhone’s charging profile where the extra power can be safely used, but it’s only some portion of the charge process, not all of it. This is why your iPhone will charge faster, but not twice as fast.

Can you go the other direction and charge your iPad with the iPhone charger to extend it’s battery life by charging it more slowly? No. This will not work because the iPad’s larger battery requires the extra power to charge it. The battery cannot be properly charged without the full 10 watts being available. This is why you’ll often see USB chargers say that they can or cannot be used to charge tablets. All tablets, not just Apple’s, typically require 2 amps. USB ports on most computers follow the USB bus protocol which means they can only output 0.5 amps or 0.9 in some cases. USB-C can output up to 3 amps. This is why your iPad may not charge when plugged into your laptop (though it can still transfer data over USB).

These charging rules basically apply across Apple’s entire line of products. You can always charge a smaller device/battery with a larger charger, but not a larger device with a smaller charger. Obviously this only works if the voltages are the same. You cannot charge your iPhone with the charger for your MacBook because the voltages are different (as well as the plugs)."

Apple Going Green

Whether one is a Mac fan or not, certainly one aspect of Apple that causes admiration is its effort on 'going green'. For more on this, read this article.

Kudos to Apple for this effort.

What with the tremendous use of computers, smart phones, and the internet, it's difficult to imagine how many data centers there are around the world, each one consuming a significant amount of electricity and producing lots of heat.

Jim Hamm

Apple "Notes"

For your possible interest, following is an article, by Emily Dolloff, about the app "Notes" from the Kibbles & Bytes #1031 Newsletter from Small Dog Electronics. link . 

I haven't been a user of "Notes" previously, but plan to try the app out as it seems quite powerful.

Maybe this app is one you might find useful, also.

Jim Hamm

Notes!By Emily Dolloff 

I have been a fan of Notes for years! I started out using the Notes program on my mac and used it for everything, and sadly, I mean everything, including usernames andpasswords. Thankfully I learned many years ago safer means of account login storage and abandoned my sticky note ways on my Mac.

What I missed most about my sticky notes was a quick and all in one location for things I needed to jot down, hello and welcome notes! Notes has been out for many years and it’s certainly nothing new on iOS or macOS. Notes is an incredibly versatile program and one that I rely on heavily as another tool for keeping me organized and in order. I’ve written in the past about reminders, but I admit, try as I might I just can’t get away from Notes and find its versatility in features to be something that reminders just can’t compete with. There are several features within the notes program that go beyond just taking a simple note, and I want to share some of my favorite features.

Syncing

I think the ability to sync my notes across all of my devices is hands down the number one reason I use and just can’t break away from this handy little app. I can write a note on my computer and it automatically sends the note to my iPad and iPhone. With iCloud turned on and note syncing your notes update across all devices that are logged into your iCloud account. There is one catch to the auto syncing that is new in the last year or so. In order for your iOS devices and your Mac to get your notes you do need to make sure that in addition to to iCloud being turned on, all of your devices need to be running the latest OS. Last week I had an issue where my notes were syncing from my iOS devices to my Mac, but not from my Mac to my iOS devices. A quick look at my devices revealed I hadn’t run my most recent software updates.

Drawing

Did you know that you can draw within the notes program? Notes allows you to actually write a note in your own handwriting, but also allows you to draw and there is even a handy ruler so you can draw straight lines. There are a variety of colors to choose from to put a pop of color in and you have a choice of a pencil, and two marker options. The details aren’t as responsive or detailed as that of say the iPad Pro. But this little feature allows for handy on-the-go creations. You can easily and quickly sketch out an idea via e-mail, text and even social media. This feature only really works on the iOS, you can do some similar actions on the Mac via Mark Up.

Mark Up

Within notes you can insert a pictures from your photo library (on the Mac you can just drag and drop the image into your note) and then you can mark it up! You can draw over the image, add text, shapes and more. I recently used this feature specifically when I was working to re-model and paint a room in my house. We took pictures of the room and used the mark up feature to finalize what colors and changes we were going to make in the room.

Locking Notes

Another cool feature with the notes program is that you can lock the notes. The only information that is viewable in the note is the title. A passcode must be entered on the computer or iOS device in order to see what is in the note. This is a great way to keep things just a little bit more secure on your devices. While you should keep things like passwords and account information securely stored in your keychain, this is another option. Admittedly if you’re given a code or access to something and need the information temporarily, it’s more practical to jot it in Notes and lock it. Likewise if your a busy mom or spouse and you find yourself making notes about a special event or gifts it’s nice to know you can keep wondering eyes away from your information and keep the surprise.

Notes, the little app that does so much!

How a Solid State Drive Works

Should you have an interest, here is an article that gives a good explanation of how an SSD (Solid State Drive) works. One aspect of an SSD is that it has a finite number of times it can be written to -- which, realistically, isn't going to be a concern to most of us. Having said that, though, one thing I hadn't considered is that every time one uses the 'hibernate' function on a computer, this is a write function and reduces somewhat the life cycle of the SSD.

I've been doing this on my PC running Windows 10, but the hibernate function isn't available on my Mac laptop, running macOS Sierra. Both units have an SSD, but the hibernate function isn't supported natively on the Mac -- perhaps for the consideration of not adding extra write cycles to the SSD.

If you're going to be purchasing a new computer -- and especially a laptop, which is subject to movement and jarring --  I highly recommend getting an SSD. Yes, more expensive, but worth it, in my opinion.

Jim Hamm

VPN Software

Recently there has been a lot more discussion in blogs and newsletters about perhaps using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to increase the security of your browsing the web. If you have an interest in learning more about VPN's, following are some articles you may want to read.

These may be a bit on the 'techy' side, so be aware of this.

Jim Hamm

An introduction...read here

The PPTP VPN Protocol is not secure...read here

Best VPN services...read here