Ditching Passwords With Your Phone

Google has finally enabled Passkeys for normal Google accounts (Work/School accounts coming soon TM). Passkeys is a standard Google and many other tech companies came up with in the FIDO Alliance, as an alternative to passwords.

The TLDR as to how it works is, your phone keeps the keys for your account in something like keychain if you use an iPhone, and when you go to log in to say google you will be prompted to authenticate on your phone with either a face scan, fingerprint, or a pin code. However, you normally unlock your phone is how it will know the right person is logging in to Google.

Other sites allow for this type of authentication like Paypal, Shopify, and a few others. More will likely follow now that Google has implemented passkeys.

Now let's go over how to set up passkeys for Google.

1. Go to your Google account settings.

2. Then go to your security settings.

3. Click Add Passkeys.

4. Click the create Passkey button.

5. The click Use another device.

6. Scan the QR code with your phone (you can use the camera app on most smartphones or your QR scanner app of choice).

7. Follow the prompt to authenticate with your phone (Face scan, fingerprint scan, or pin).

8. Add the account keys to your device (iCloud key chain or Google Password Manager).

9. You're done!

You can now use your phone to log in to your Google account. This is something you might see more and more in the coming years.

Lights, Camera, Subscribe!

Today was the day, Apple had its media event. Tim Cook started off by saying the event was going to be centered around Apple services. Which most of us going into this knew. But Apple had some surprises up their sleeve.

Apple News+:

They started off with a new service we knew they were doing pretty much since the first betas of iOS 12.2. Apple News+ is a subscription service you can sign up for $9.99 and get access to a bunch of different magazines and a few newspapers like the LA Times and Wall Street Journal.

They just show up in your Apple News app just like any other news source and look brilliant like most articles in Apple News. You can start your subscription starting today once you have updated your iOS device to 12.2 and the first month is free.

Apple Card:

Apple announced a bunch of services today and for me, the event was kind of a weird roller coaster ride. The Apple News+ was expected and pretty meh to me. I don’t really care much about magazines but it's a nice thing to have if you do like them. Now we have left the station and are going up the coast. We are just about at the top. The Apple Card might be the most important thing they announced today.

Apple now has a credit card. That might not really seem too important but it really is. Everything will be done in the Wallet app, sign up, payments, and management all happen in Wallet. Once you are approved you can start using the card right in Wallet. When using the Apple Card it will show you how you spend your money and help you pay the card back so you are paying the least amount of interest. If you have ever used Mint its seems very similar.

Like most credit cards they will have a rewards program, but they will not be using points. Apple will just be doing daily cash back on purchases, 2% cash back on daily purchases and 3% cash back for Apple purchases and subscriptions. Apple will provide a physical credit card to use in case you need to use the card someplace Apple Pay is not available. If you use the physical card you will get 1% back in daily cash back. Sadly this service did not launch today but will be talked about more in the fall.

Apple Arcade:

Now we are descending down the coaster with our arms in the air. Apple talked about gaming on iOS. For the most part, if you go to the game section of the app store you will see a lot of free to play games. Some of them are not bad while others are terrible but they are the most profitable games in the store. If you really look you can find games you can actually pay for up front and enjoy. But because they have that monetary point of entry most mobile gamers don’t give them much attention.

In the fall Apple wants to fix that with a new subscription service called Apple Arcade. Apple Arcade will be a gaming subscription service that allows iOS users to play any game on the service for a set monthly fee. Kind of like Xbox Game Pass but for mobile games. As of right now, they will have 100+ games to chose from. The games are being made by some well-known studios like Annapurna Interactive, Bossa Studios, Cartoon Network, Finji, Giant Squid, Klei Entertainment, Konami, LEGO, Mistwalker Corporation, SEGA, Snowman, ustwo games. Like Apple Card, we will know more about this service in the Fall.

Apple TV+:

We make it down the first exciting hump and now realize thats was the only one now. The track back to the station is kind of long so you take out your phone and look at Instagram or Facebook endlessly until your back at the station. This is when the event went from exciting to meh for me again. They have made improvements to the Apple TV app, like being apple to have your subscription services in one place and not have to leave the app as it does currently. If you have a cable subscription you can easily get access to shows and services like Showtime. Movies show up in the updated Apple TV app as well.

Wait wait there's a service to tie in with the app. Coming in the Fall, you can subscribe to Apple TV+. This subscription service will give you access to all the original programming Apple is making. From show creators like Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, J.J. Abrams, Jason Momoa, M. Night Shyamalan, Jon M. Chu. A lot of star power there. They went on stage one at a time to give like a pitch of their shows. None of them seemed as bad as Planet of the Apps, the Apple original that was like a Shark Tank but for Apps. Still, nothing really caught my eye and made me feel like Apple TV+ will be the NBC of streaming services (sorry Apple).

Like everything else, Apple TV+ will launch sometime in the fall. You might see a show you want to watch but you don’t own or want to own an Apple TV just to watch a show. Don’t worry the Apple TV app will arable on some Smart TVs, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV devices.

Back at the Station:

The event was truly a weird rollercoaster ride. I know the event was mostly about Apple News+ and Apple TV+ but I feel like the real stars where Apple Card and Apple Arcade. I personally can't wait for fall to know the price of the gaming service which may make or break it. Apple News+ was meh for me cause I use Apple News but more for like a Sunday read and Apple TV+ is meh for me cause I watch more Youtube than traditional network shows. The shows on Apple TV+ seem like more of the same normal TV and I want something more like Youtube or TWiTCH. If another one could ever be made.

Hopefully, Apple announced something today you are looking forward to.

Apples Week of Hardware Updates

Next week Apple is having an event to announce something. We are pretty sure it is the Apple TV service and Apple News subscription service. When Apple has an event we normally speculate on what new hardware they might announce. Well, Apple must not want to focus on hardware next week so they let us know this week.

iPad Air and iPad mini:

This will be a running theme through all of this. The device is the same except they swept out the old chip for a new faster chip. Now we have faster iPad Airs (we are back to the Air name now) and the iPad mini isn’t dead. Both iPads are now sporting an A12 Bionic. With last years iPad update, we got use of the Apple Pencil but it couldn’t register things like how hard you are pushing on it. Well, now you can use the original Apple Pencil with the new iPad Air and mini just like you could on the original iPad Pro. You can pick up the new iPad Air for $499 starting next week or $399 for the iPad mini.

iMac:

The iMac line is now faster as well. The 21.5 inch iMac now has a faster 8th generation quad-core processor from Intel and sports Radeon Pro Vega graphics. The 27 inch iMac now has a 9th generation 6 core processor or you can get it with an 8 core processor. The 27 inch iMac has the same graphics but runs 50% faster. Just like the iPads, you can pick up the new iMacs next week. The 21.5 inch iMac will start at $1299 and the iMac 27 inch will start at $1799.

AirPods:

AirPods just what we have been waiting for, or am I the only waiting for this? Either way, we finally have new AirPods. The new ones are like everything else pretty much the same as the old ones but in this case, the new AirPods add a new feature. You can now use "Hey Siri" with the new AirPods. With the current ones, you can only activate Siri by tapping one of the pods. This is nice if like me you connect your AirPods to say your iPad and then leave that room and want to just say "Hey Siri" instead of tapping your ear. Along with new AirPods Apple is offering a new wireless charging case for the AirPods. You can buy the case with the New AirPods for a bit more or buy the case separately to use with your original AirPods. You can Get the new AirPods for $159 or $199 with the wireless charging case. You can pick up the wireless charging case for $79 if you want it later on or use with your original AirPods. You can pick up your new AirPods next week.

Mondays the Day:

Next week is going to be a busy week for the Apple Store with all this new hardware. I think the only thing left to be updated is the iPod Touch and Apple TV. With Apple's announcement being center around a streaming service, if they have an updated Apple TV they might wait until Monday to announce it. None of these products got major overhauls that some wanted but they are all faster now may have a new service or two on Monday.

My Top 5 Apps

Every day I use my iOS devices to work on things and to play. Hell, I'm using my iPad right now to write this article. Today we are talking about my 5 most used apps. I will leave links to the Android version of them as well as the iOS. So everyone knows I don’t use these apps on android so I don’t know how well they work there. With that said let’s get into the list.

File Browser:

App Store:

Google Play:  No Android App

Now I’ve used other file browser apps. I also use files which is built into iOS but I found a tip about this pacific app a month ago while on Facebook. FileBrowser lets me import different files into the app and plug-in cloud drives like Dropbox. What it does differently is let you access shared folders on your network. Allowing you to access these folders in the built-in files app. Now it may seem counterintuitive to us an app so I can use that same feature in another app. 

Here me out though. Being able to copy a file from my server onto my iPad and then put it in the right folder for the app I want to use it in makes things simpler.  Otherwise, I have to copy it the FileBrowser app then copy it again from that app into the one I want to use it with. Then vice-versa to get it off my iOS device. 

WoW Companion App:

App Store:

Google Play:

Well, we all knew this was coming. The World of Warcraft companion app is for those who play wow in the current expiation. If you used the legion app before it, this app is much of the same. It allows you to start follower missions, recruit troops, and to collect your rewards. It also adds the ability to your characters in the armory.

I’m in and out of this app a lot. Especially when I’m leveling a character to do XP missions while I’m not playing or to get a little more azurite on my main. If you are currently playing wow this is a good way to get something done in wow without having to open the game.

LastPass:

App Store:

Google Play:

You can file this app under work or play. LastPass is a cloud-based password vault. Now some might say being a cloud password vault might make it insecure. But I’ve used things like keypads in the past and it was was too much to manage. LastPass keeps everything synced up and secured. I’ve been using LastPass like 2008 when I was still in high school and it has only gotten better over time. For free you can use LastPass on your PC through a browser extension to keep track of your passwords or create secure passwords. If you want to get access to your passwords easily and securely on your mobile devices, for $3 a month you can use the mobile app.

Reddit:

App Store:

Google Play:

Back to play time. The Reddit app I mean what else can I say it’s Reddit login and go to r/aww when you need a pick me up. I use the normal Reddit it works. If I am going to bed and then open this app before I know it the sun is up.

Overwatch League:

App Store:

Google Play:

Overwatch League started up last week and normally I tune in if one of my teams are playing (NY Or Soul). Otherwise, I have it on in the background or watch something else, but I do still want to see what is going on in the league. The Overwatch League app keeps you update on league news, standings, and scores. It will also show you schedules when teams are playing. You can set the app to give you an alert when your team is playing. It is a must-have if you are an Overwatch League fan.

These 5 apps I have been ushering the most right now, but it does change from time to time. I thought it would be nice to share what I use. If you have your own list or have apps you think I might want to check out let me know in the comments.

Windows 10 Spring 2019 Update

We are entering that time of the year, it’s time to get ready for our quarterly update for windows 10. Some of you might be getting the fall update and now it’s time for the spring update. But don’t worry with the way they roll out these updates it could be months before you see it. It will be at least a month before it is ready to be deployed. Before the update let’s go over some of the most noticeable changes coming in the Windows 10 Spring 2019 update.

Lock Screen:

The lock screen might seem a little different when you first login after the update. It won’t be a huge change. Some may not even notice but when you go to but your password or pin in, you will see the background blur. It’s not a huge change but it is a change in style that started with the fall update with other menus in Windows 10.

Cortona search or Windows search, not booth:

Now that you are logged in you might want to search for a file on your computer. You go to the search box at the bottom Of the screen and search for the file or program you are looking for. Well, you might notice it’s no longer doing a bing search or bring up your calendars. This is because Windows search and Cortona are now separate things. If you are one of the few that use Cortona. You can still use her, she is now an app that you can find right next to the Windows search.

New Fresh Look:

If you are doing a clean install of Windows 10 with this update you will find the taskbar and start menu is now white. With this simple change of paint Windows looks and feels like a whole new OS, even though it's mostly the same. But if you don’t like this and want the black shell back you can change it back in the settings.

Settings New Look:

Speaking of settings, the settings have a slightly new look. At the top, you will notice a new account panel. Showing your Microsoft rewards, Onedrive sync status, the phone you have linked, and if your PC is to date. Another little change for Windows 10 home users, you can pause an update for up to a week. Before only windows Pro and Enterprise users could do this, now anyone can.

Open Safer:

This last thing is a bit more technical and may not even make it to the final build, but is something I'm excited about. Windows Sandbox is a way for you to open files or applications your not sure are safe. Once you do this it will open a Windows 10 virtual machine where you can open the file or application. This is an optional feature for Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise. sadly I couldn't try it since I was playing around with this build in a VM, so it wouldn’t work well if I did it.

Enjoy your Update:

No official word has been made yet about when Microsoft will be making this update public. If I had to guess it will be another month before it comes out. Also for most people, they won't be getting this update a long time. Since Microsoft normally rolls out these updates slowly. Only people like me who seek this update when it comes out. But once people get this update on their computers it will be a nice quality of life change for most people.

Samsung Folding Into Our Hearts

Samsung actually came out with something interesting. Even as an iPhone user I had to stop and admire it. Samsung announced the Galaxy Fold. We have seen plenty of foldable concepts but this is the first from a major mobile company. They even came out with new Galaxy S phones and wearables.

Galaxy Fold:

The Galaxy Fold will have a normal looking front screen. That can be used like any other Android smartphone, but then you can fold it open and now it is a tablet. Without ever losing what you had open on the phone screen. When you have it folded open you can have up to 3 apps open on the screen. So you can use it more like you would a laptop. Of course, the phone will have to have power under the hood with 12 GB of RAM a dual battery which function as one. 

The Fold will have 6 cameras on so no matter how you have it you will have a camera ready to go. It will have 3 in the front 2 on the inside and 1 on the cover. Easily this is the most interesting phone Samsung has come out with, in a long time.

Galaxy S10 and 5G:

Samsung also announced new Galaxy S10 phones. Let's start off with what most people care about, the camera. The Galaxy S10 has 3 lenses and one of them is an ultra-wide lens. This means you will be able to get great wide shots and even grater panoramas. Video recording is even better with, better stabilization. The S10 is the first to be able to shoot HDR 10+. The phones will also have wireless PowerShare. Which is a way for Samsung devices and any Qi-certified device to charge another device. 

The Galaxy S10 will be compatible with WIFI 6 faster LTE, and 5G networks. When we start seeing them (currently no US carrier has 5G). Samsungs Bixby will be integrated with the phone as well. The S10 phones will be available on all the major US phone networks stating at 899.99 starting March 8th.

Wearables:

I should also talk about the wearables that they also announced. Galaxy Active is the smartwatch. It is waterproof and can track your workouts. Like any other smartwatch or can keep you on tasks in your daily life. The Galaxy Fit is a fitness tracker and can do things like blood pressure monitoring. But what would any of these things be without a way to listen to music. Samsung has you covered there too with the Galaxy Buds. They are Bluetooth earbuds that last six hours of playback or 5 hours making a call.

For the Samsung fans, today must have been Christmas in February. But I got to say even as an iPhone user and Apple fan. I saw the Galaxy Fold and had to stop and look at my iPhone XS Plus and feel like it was a little small. This could be the start of a new era for smartphones or it could be a passing fad. But for now it looks really cool and I’m excited.

What to Expect when you are Expecting an Apple Education Event

Tomorrow is the day, Apples Education event. Now is the time to make predictions as to what will be announced at this event tomorrow. I feel like it isn’t going to be much, and they will stay on the topic of education. For the past few years now Apple has lived streamed just about every event they have done, but tomorrows event will not be lived streamed. They are recording it and will have video of it shortly after. 

Cheaper MacBook Air:

Being a event for education price will be a major feature of anything Apple announces at this event. The Mac Air might be the mobile computer that they position as the cheap Mac. Now I don’t think they will do with a new Mac Air but I think they will come out with a new up dated Mac Air that will be a bit thinner and will only have USB-C. Then Apple will keep the current Mac Air and maybe just up its RAM and a few other updated configurations, then just slash the price to say $499 for a base model Mac Air. They may not go that low but my point is it will be much cheaper then any of the other Mac Laptops currently available. 

Mac mini:

I feel the Mac mini will follow the same events. They will most likely announce a new Mac mini with the latest CPU’s and maybe SSDs, better discreet graphics. Then keep the current model with a few new configuration options and discount it to hell making it the cheapest Mac you can buy.

iPad:

Before I go any further I will say you will not see a new iPad mini, this line is all but dead. What will see is a new iPad capable of using AR apps like the iPhone X. This iPad will also support Face ID and maybe due away with the home button on the iPad. This new iPad might also support use of the Apple Pencil. Once they have announced this they will probably keep the current iPad and discount it as well making it the cheapest iPad. 

OS updates Release:

Once everything is said and done apple will most likely release the iOS 11.3 and Mac OS 10.13.4. This will bring new Animoji to the iPhone X and things like iMessage cloud sync and lots of be hind the seances fixes.  

The Rest of the Event:

Majority of this event will be Apple making a case as to why schools should use Apple products and not Chromebook's and Microsoft products. They might even show off a future version of their OS’s that have a better way to manage devices for schools. I wouldn’t expect to hear anything about the Mac Pro, or the iPhone at this event. This event is first and foremost a education event.

I truthfully would like to be wrong about most of this and we get or hear about something really cool, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

My Past Operating systems: Windows 98

I’ve been thinking of doing this for awhile and I finally am getting to do it. I’ve wanted to do a short series on looking back in the past of the Operating systems I have used over the years. Most of these will have video companion on my YouTube channel and some will not. I hope anyone reading this will enjoy this little series of videos and blog posts about the OS’s I’ve used and maybe will bring you some nostalgia.

The Birth of a Computer Nerd:

My fascination with computers came long before I had a my computer at home but I didn’t really get into it until I had my own that I could do whatever I wanted to without getting in trouble at school. I was in 3rd grade and it was around my birthday and I don’t remember if I asked for it or if I was asked if I wanted a computer, I just remember I wanted a Apple computer. Mostly cause my school used Macs so that’s what I was used to,I don’t think I had ever even herd of Windows at that point of time.

Of course I didn’t get a Mac cause even then they were expensive, but I did get a computer a PC made by compaq. I remember my mom picking me up from school and telling me that my grandparents wanted to see me when I got home. This didn’t surprise me too much since it was around my birthday. I came home took my backpack off and went to my grandparents side of the house. (We lived in a double house that my grandparents owned). I think I remember them giving me a birthday card but I was bad at reading and didn’t really know what it said and so I said thank you, they lead me out back were there vane was and my grandpa opened the door. Before the door was even open I could see it was a computer. I could have cared less that it wasn’t a Mac I was just so excited. They got me everything I could have needed, speakers, a printer, the pc, monitor, and a desk to put it all on.

That night I remember sitting in the dinning room were we put the boxes until my uncle and grandpa could put the desk together. I just sat there staring at the boxes and looking at the pictures on them. I even open one box looking at some of the papers and CDs that were in it. I wanted nothing more then to just take everything out right then and there, and just put everything together on the dinning room table and use it. But I couldn’t and I think I had school in the morning. It was a week later before the desk was put together and the computer was set up.

The computer it’s self was a Compaq Presario internet ready PC running Windows 98 had about 98 MB of memory and 2 GBs of hard drive space, a ATI CPU, and a CD-ROM drive.Once everything was setup I just so happy I just started looking around and clicking things to see what they were and playing around in MS paint and the educational games my mom got me for the computer. At this point I didn’t have the internet and it would be another year before I did. But I had no problem with that. I just kept playing and exploring, every thing was new and exciting.

At some point I did something to the computer and it wasn’t working right and I had to ask my uncle to fix it. He ended up using the restore disks that come with the computer and everything was fine again. This was a significant moment for me, learning what the restore disks did. I learned if I fucked up the software on the computer all I had to do is use those disks and everything went back the way it was when I first turned it on. So I started exploring more of the computer going into the C: drive and seeing were things went when I installed them from a CD and other things. This was how I learned how to use a computer and slowly figured out how windows worked.

Windows Memphis:

Now that you know my story let’s talk a bit about Windows 98’s story. Windows 98s development started as early as 1990 and went under the code name Windows Memphis. At one point it was even called windows 97 before finally coming out in 1998 as windows 98. Then a year later they did a update called windows 98 Second Edition, which came with a lot of stability improvements and features.

Windows 98 was supported from 1999 to 2002 and extended support didn’t end until 2006. When I was looking this information up it kind of felt weird that windows 98 was being supported up to a year before the original iPhone was released. Thats just crazy.

Back to the Future:

I guess I should end this and say its nice to look back at this operating system that I had on hardware that I took to the limit at the time. Windows 98 will always have a place in my hart and in my memory, mostly good ones though a lot of them are a dark blue color. Though that wasn’t all windows fault, we can pin some of that on DOS. But it will always be my first OS and the first OS that took me online.

I plan on continuing this with series with the next computer I got which ran Windows XP. We will be taking a look at XP in the next blog post.

The new iPhones

Today was the day that I and I'm sure a lot of others have been waiting for. Today was the Apple event where they announced the next iPhone. They also announced a few other things and we will do what they did, and get threw those things first.

We have to start off with the venue. This years event and I'm sure any other event they do from now on, took place at the Steve Jobs memorial theater. This is a venue located on the new Apple campus. From all the videos and photos I have seen it looks vary beautiful. They then opened the event with some words from Steve Jobs and talked about him. It was very nice and sincere.

Now lets start the on slaughter. Apple Watch Series 3 was announced with with faster chips better wireless and new bands. But what is a surprise is the inclusion of cellular. With the series 3 you will be able to use the watch with out your phone. The watch will use your same phone number so you can get calls and texts and iMessages when your phone isn't around. Even with the extra cellular things inside it the watch is about the same size as the series 2. The watch will even get up to 18 hours of battery life. The Apple Watch Series 3 will go on pre order on September 15th and will start at $329 with out cellular and $399 with cellular. They will be available in stores starting September 22nd.

Now its time for the little engine that could, the Apple TV. One of the things I keep hearing people complain about the current Apple TV was no 4K. Today Apple addressed this and added HDR. The Apple TV 4K has a slightly faster chip to handle 4K and HDR and will have TV OS updated to display the UI in 4K. As far as what you can watch on the Apple TV 4K, will be iTunes movies will be updated to 4K and cost the same as HD movies. Netflix and Hulu will also be bring 4K streaming to the Apple TV with 4K. If you have any Movies you have bought on iTunes that get a 4K version your perches will be upgraded to 4K free of charge. Apple TV 4K will start at $174 for 32 GBand $199 for 64 GB, you will be able to pre order on September 15th and pick one up on September 22nd.

Ok here it is what you have been waiting for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus!

Right just what everyone said it would look like. Yeah I'm pretty sure this was a troll on Apples part. This is also kind of what I predicted in my last post, which you can read here. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus is the more traditional styled iPhone with a home button and the normal bezel.
It has a slight new look over the iPhone 7 with glass on front and back. They say its their most durable glass though I don't know about that glass on the back. As always we get faster chips better cameras and support for for faster wireless standers. The iPhone 8 will also have wireless charging with Qi wireless charging standard. So if you have a Qi wireless charger you can just plop your phone down on a pad and charge your phone. The iPhone 8 will start at $699 for 64 GBs and the iPhone 8 Plus will start at $799 for 64 GBs. Just like everything else you can preorder September 15th and will be available September 22nd.

Now lets talk about what we really wanted to see, the iPhone X. This is the phone we have been hearing about for months with the edge to edge display. The whole phone is screen with just the tiny little bezel. This phone has no home button and has a super retina display. The screen is also an OLED display. It has image sensors out the wazoo. HDR support and the list just goes on and on. 

The real difference seems to be the front image sensors for facial recognition, which will be used for Face ID. This will work a lot like touch ID but with your face. It will recognize your face no mater what day or night, hat or scarf. This also will bring better facial tracking for things like Snapchat and Aniemjie which is a iMessage app that will let you animate your emojis. This also brings portraitmode to the selfie camera.

The iPhone X will not have a home button, instead you will swipe up to go home and swipe up and pause to do multi touch. It will also support all the wireless standers that the iPhone 8 dose including wireless charging. They also showed a charging pad that they will be coming out at some point called the Air Power. This is a pad that will charge your iPhone, Apple Watch, and Ear Pods all at the same time. The iPhone shows a little animation showing the devices being charged.

iPhone X will come in space gray and silver. It will also start at $999 for 64 GBs and will also have a 256 GB model as well. Unlike the other products announced today the iPhone X will go on preorder October 22nd and will be available November 3rd.

That is everything announced today by apple and I will also add, after the announcements I checked for updates on my iPhone running the iOS 11 public beta and I got a iOS 11 update not beta number this time. This is the GM build. So if you are running iOS 11 developer beta or the public beta you can update to iOS 11 today, for everyone else they will have to wait till September 19th. Get your credit cards ready and your F5 keys ready for Friday when most of these things go up for preorder.

Apple Event Predictions

This week on Tuesday Apple is set to make an announcement and we pretty much already know its going to be the new iPhone. As I do pretty much every year I get the blogging craving and need to write what I think might be in the new iPhone. Lets get started!

iPhone X

Lets start with the name or names. Normally we could predict the name by going up one number or adding a S to the current name. This year is a different year compared to others. This year is the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Most people seem to agree that they will show a phone called the iPhone X for the anniversary and this will most likely be the most expensive iPhone. But that will probably not be the only phone they show off, they will probably brake the trend of iPhone # then iPhone #S, and go from iPhone 7 to iPhone 8 and 8 plus. 

These Phones will have most of the new features of the iPhone X except for maybe one or two minor features. These phones will probably start at a cheaper price then the iPhone X. So the line up will probably be iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. 

Infinity Screen

Now lets talk about the thing we all use everyday the iPhone screen. Now I think most people seem to think this will be the same for all models, but I think it might be different. I think one of the key features of the iPhone X will be a top to bottom edge to edge screen. This is what most Android phones have been moving to and that look vary sleek. Most people have been making renders of a iPhone looking like that as well. 

But most people seem to think that is what all the iPhones will look like, I think this style will only be the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will look and have the same screen as the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. iPhone X will need something to make it different and I think that might be one of the things that makes it different from the 8.

Touch ID or Face ID

The iPhone X will also need something else to make it different from the iPhone 8. We have been hearing rumors about touch ID leaving because of the bigger screen. Also if the screen is bigger we will be seeing the end of a physical home button on the iPhone X. Unless they figure out how to make the Touch ID sensor to work under a sheet of glass the iPhone X will not have Touch ID. Instead they may use Facal recognition in replace of Touch ID. 

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus having smaller screens will still have a physical home button and will have the normal Touch ID. Im sure they will come up with some reason the iPhone 8 won't be able to use Face ID so it can be a iPhone X only feature.

Storage

This one shouldn't be too much of a shocker but the rumors have been saying that the new iPhones will start with a 64 GB configuration instead of a 32 GB configuration. We might even see the max storage go to 512 GBs that might be a iPhone X only storage size.

Conclusion

These are probably the mayor things that will be different from the current iPhones. These phones will also have new and faster processors, better cameras, and they will all run iOS 11. I think the prices for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will be similar to what the 7 and 7 Plus are now but the iPhone X will be the one that start higher at $999 or $1,000. So now we wait and see, lucky we only have to wait till Tuesday.

Computers are Dumb

The Problem

As you may already know from following me on twitter or other social networks I have had some computer problems for the last few weeks. Though really the problem has been happening for months now. It seems to have started with one driver update from AMD.

Back in May I believe it was, AMD pushed a driver update for my radeon rx 480 graphics card. I had lots of Blue screens and freezing that day and I finally found out they were just bad drivers and I updated them to a version that AMD pushed out quickly that fixed that. Well that seemed to fixed my problems for awhile but I was still getting blue screens and freezes once and awhile. 

Then June came and these problems seemed to get worst. So I started trying to figure out the problem, thinking it was the Graphics drivers I started trying to find my last stable drivers from AMD but after awhile I started noticing that no mater what driver I installed the compute just kept blue screening and freezing. That is when I thought maybe it wasn't the graphics card and started looking at my other hardware.  

I did a diagnostic on the memory, which came back fine. Then I checked my hard drives, and that came back fine. Finally I thought it might be something with my BIOS so I looked into how to update that, and I updated it. Updating my BIOS was the most nerve racking thing I have ever done with one of my computers. Ive always seen it as a “if it ant broke don't fix it" thing. But I thought maybe it was broke and I did it anyway. I installed everything needed and found an update to the BIOS and installed it, lucky the computer didn't freeze or blue screen during this process. Which wasn't something I thought of until it was half way threw doing the update. Well the computer restarted and I herd the fans going full blast. Then it restarted again and I just had a blank screen. I thought I had bricked my computer at that point, but I decided to plug my screen into the HDMI port on the mother board and I was able to see again. I just had to change some settings so my graphics card worked again.

Once I got that figured out I tested out the computer to see if things were fixed. Well I streamed for about an hour and it seemed fixed. I was happy and went to bed. The next day I woke up and decided to stream heroes and10 or 15 mins in the same freezing and blue screening was happening. At this point I just had no idea what was going on with computer. I finally started googling and looking on AMDs message boards to see if anyone else had this problem. Well I found a few that had similar problems and it seemed it had to do with there power supplies. But I didn't want that to be the problem also I thought Ive had this graphics card for almost a year with no problem until that driver came out. 

Well after a few more freezes and blue screens I finally decide to get a new power supply. I opened up the case to see what it could handle and it turned out it could handle a max of 600W, in doing research of my graphics card I found out my graphics card could suck down a max of 545W. Things slowly started to become clear to me what probably happened that lead me to that point.  

I didn't do the full math put if my graphics card was at max pulling down 545W plus whatever my CPU, RAM, hard drives, and other USB devices were pulling I'm sure that was more that 600W. Though it handled this with no problem for almost a year I'm sure this caused something in side to burn out and what was causing the freezing and blue screens. When I ordered the new power supply I ordered one that could handle up to 1000W I felt like that should be enough.

Well I got the power supply and installed it in the PC to find out that I need a 4 pin connector it only had 6 pins. So I’m waiting for a adapter. I ordered one and it’s coming from China it will take 8 to 15 days to get here. I didn’t notice that when I ordered it. When I found this out I canceled the order and ordered one from amazon I should have that one at the soonest Friday or at the latest next Wednesday. 

Back to my Mac

Since I figured out it was the power supply I started using my Mac Mini again. On my PC I could play World if Warcraft and other Blizzard games at 95 FPS at the top graphics settings. Lucky my Mac Mini can play WoW but at the low setting and I get 5 to 10 FPS. I feel like the worst part of it is that I recently joined a new guild but I don’t want to do anything until the PC is fixed. I don’t want them to think I’m horrible because I can’t see some of the shit on the ground or move in time to avoid stuff. 

Outside of that I don’t mind using my Mac Mini daily again it’s a little slow even for everyday things but I get to use Mac OS and I love that. The other problem is I haven’t been able to record any videos or stream. I miss that more than anything.  

Hopefully this nightmare will be over soon and I can get back to my videos. It’s just the waiting that is killing me. This all may seem like a first world problem, and it is but I still wanted to share this story. I also thought one of my blogs was a good place to bitch.

Hello Again Apple October Event

Another day another company unveiling new things. Today that company was Apple. We got a few new announcements. In short we are getting a new Apple TV app and MacBook Pros. So lets get into more details of this announcements.

Apple TV:

Apple showed off a new app for the Apple TV called TV. The TV app is a hub for everything you are watching on Apple TV or your other devices. App makes it easy to find something to watch or continue to watch. There is a section called up next that shows movies and TV shows that you have been watching and by clicking on an item will launch the right app and begin playing right where you let off.

TV will also have a section for your iTunes movie and tv show library along with a store. The store though seems like more of a recommendation thing. It shows you shows and movies you might want to watch and when you find something it will open the app or install the app if you don't already have it. They also showed off Siri being able to find what live content you want. They showed it off with some football games that Siri was able to find the right app it was on by just telling it what team the presenter wanted to see.

This seems like a good update for people that have the new Apple TV and other iOS devices.

Macbook Pro:

Now on to the whole reason for todays event, new MacBook Pros. Apple showed off new MacBook Pros, a new 13’ and 15’. Booth models have what Apple is calling the touch bar, it goes right where the function keys use to go. The Touch Bar changes depending on what app you are using, if you are using iTunes you will see controls to Play puse and scan what you are listing to. The bar can also be customized as well. The touch bar also introduces touch ID to the mac.

Now that isn't the only thing new. The new MacBook Pros are more powerful than last years and thinner. They went on for a bit about this, comparing it the the Mac Air which almost seemed like they where trying to say the Mac Air is dead. I have not confirmed this yet. The 13’ even comes in 2 models one that has the Touch Bar and one that has the old function keys.

The 13” with function keys ships today. While the 13” with touch bar ships in 2-3 weeks and the 15” model ships in 2-3 weeks as well.

The rumor of the touch bar is something I was hoping it was true, and today I found out it is. Im going to have to go to an Apple store and take a look at it when they have them on display.

Microsoft October Event

Microsoft had their Surface event today, where they unbaked the the new surface books and a new surface studio. They also they showed off a new windows 10 update geared tords artists.

Surface book:

As you might imagine Microsoft showed off new more powerful Surface books and Surface pros. These are geared tords gamers and creators. They packed a 16 hour battery in the new Surface.  the new Surface will be available November 10th. You can pre order today.

Windows 10 creator update:

Along with the new Surface we got a glimpse of the next update for windows 10. They called it the creator update and it is focused around creators and a bit of gaming. One of the things they showed off in this update was the new paint, which is now called paint 3D. You can use this new version of paint to create 3D images. They also showed off streaming with the Xbox app with some service I had never herd of called beam. They will be also adding support for 4K gaming on PC and 4K Blue-ray. Support for holocene will be added to Windows 10. The update will becoming to Windows insiders in the coming days, everyone else will have to wait till early 2017.

Surface Studio:

To me the coolest thing they showed off at the event today, was the new Surface Studio. This is a all in one computer much like the iMac. But it is a Windows 10 PC. It has beautiful looking touch screen. It can be used with a keyboard and mouse as well. This sadly wont be available till early 2017. 

Today was Microsofts day, but tomorrow is Apples announcement. Apple should also be showing off new computers and because they are Apple they will most likely get the most coverage for next week or so. We will find out tomorrow what Apples response will be.

Happy Surprise Apple Update Day

Happy surprise Apple update day. Apple decided to drop iOS 10.1 and Mac OS 10.12.1 today. For the most part this update is a minor update. It fixed a few bugs and security fixes. But for iPhone 7 users this added the Portrait filter that really takes advantage of the new camera on the iPhone 7. Ive been using the public beta since I got my iPhone 7 just for that filter. Here are some shots I took with it.

Apple also released an update for watch OS and TV OS as well so if you have an apple tv or an apple watch you might want to update those as well.

New MS Paint Leak

It seems a new version of Microsoft Paint has leaked. This will be the first redesign of MS Paint since Windows Vista. It will also be able to work with 3D objects wooooo. Microsoft hasn't officially come out the bits leaked and can be downloaded now if you do a google search. Though I would say just wait. Microsoft has an announcement coming soon and I'm sure they will launch the official preview of the new MS paint for windows 10 around then.  Take a look at the screen shots I took.

Made By Google Event

Today was the day of the Made By Google event. We got pretty much everything we thought we would get from Google today. We got the Pixel phone, Google Home, and I think we knew about Google WIFI ahead of time as well. What I dont think we knew ahead of time was Google Daydream. So lets dive into the announcements today.

Pixel:

Lets start with the meat of this announcement, the Pixel phone. As many others have talked about ahead of time the main reason for this event was the Pixel. At first glance it almost looks like an iPhone running android, by which I mean it looks clean and beautiful. It comes in a few different colors Quite Black, Very Silver and Really Blue. The blue one is also vary limited edition.

Now lets talk about software. Being a phone made by google it of course comes with a vanilla Android experience. You will get no bloatware with this phone unlike many other android phones. Bloatware is pretty much what turns me off tordes Android, and the fact that most OEMs don't let you uninstall most of that software. Enough of me lets get back to the Pixel. Like most other phones now a days the Phone had a finger print reader which is found on the back. I cant think of any other phone that has the fingerprint reader on the back of the phone. Form what Google said the sensor is fast than the ones on other phones, so you can get into your phone quicker.

The battery in the Pixel should last all day according to Google. We will see once people get the phone and start using it. I cant see why it wouldn't get all day battery life. The Pixel can also do quick charging, with 15 mins of charging you should get about 7 hours of battery life.

Now for me the most important part of a smart phone is the camera. The Pixel seems to have a grate camera. This is another we will see once people get the phone in their hands and we can compared them with the iPhone 7 and other phones. But from what they showed in the keynote it looks pretty good. 

The Pixel is looking like a grate Android phone and comes in 2 sizes 5" and 5.5". For now you can only get it if you are on Verizon or on Google FI. You can pre order today.

Daydream View:

VR was also talked about today at the keynote. Google announced Daydream View, this is a accessory for the Pixel and other phones that are Daydream ready. The Daydream is a headset that the Pixel can be placed in to turn it into a VR head set. It also comes with a remote that is used when you have the headset on so you can point and click around the apps you will be able to use. You will be able to use it with apps like Hulu (U.S. only), HBO NOW (U.S. only), NBA (U.S. only), Netflix, MLB. Games of course will be apart of this as well the one that seemed fun to me is the Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts game, You can be a Wizard!!!! 

Google Home and Google Assistant:

The pixel and the Daydream View are cool but to me the most interesting things that where talked about today where Google Home and Google Assistant. Google Home is Googles answer to Amazons Eco. It is a small device with a microphone and speakers. Unlike the Eco, Home looks a lot nicer almost like a candle. The google Home can play music, send movies and videos to a Chrome Cast, and will answer and question you ask it.  If you have IOT devices you can have it turn on and off lights and other devices.

Here comes the Google Assistant part. Google Assistant is a Google search for your life. If you don't mind Google have information on everything in your life you can use Google Assistant to tell you things like what appointments you have for that day. You can have Google make you a dinner reservation and call you an über. Google Assistant can do so much and is going to get better overtime when more apps take advantage of the API. They also said that Google Assistant will be open and can be intergraded with just about anything with a mic and speakers. They even mention the Raspberry Pi. 

By long shot this seems to be the most interesting thing that was announced today at the event. You will be able to pre order the Google Home for $129.

Google WIFI and  Chromecast Ultra:

Google announced a WIFI solution for homes that may have issues with WIFI signals, it is a little white puck router that can work with other Google WIFI's to improve your signal. It even works with Google Onhub or alone as its own router. You can get a one pack for $129 and a 3 Pack for $299. 

Last but not least the Chromecast Ultra. Chromecast Ultra is the 4K ready Chromecast. It dose all the things that the last Chromecast did but faster and better. As I stated earlier it will also work with Google Home. So you can tell Google Home to play House of Cards and it will send it to your Chromecast Ultra. At $69 the Chromecast Ultra is the most affordable 4K player out there. 

If you are still reading gratz and grab a cookie. That is everything that was announced to day at the Made By Google event. It was like xmass for everything Google. Everything is ready to preorder today so enjoy and until next time bye!!!

What might Google announce on October 4th

On Sunday October 4th Google is set to have an announcement to unveil something. Based off the page it looks like it will be a new android phone. We also know this cause some images and pre-rendered images of the new phone. It will be the google pixel phone. The name pixel might sound familiar. The released a expensive chrome book a few years ago with the name Pixel.

Speaking of chrome OS Google might also announce a new hybrid OS that they have been working on. This would combined Android and Chrome OS as a single OS to run on mobile devices and desktop and laptop devices. This new OS would have the security of chrome OS and the power of android. This would be far more interesting than a phone announcement.

We will have to see in just a few days what will get announced at the event. We could just see the same old same old phone announcement or we might see a whole new OS from google which I think will be far better.

Apple September 2016 Keynote

Apple had there announcement today and unveiled the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. They also announced a few other things to talk about other than the iPhone. We had a new Apple Watch and an update to iWork.

iWork Update

The first thing of significance was an update to iWork. This update will finally allow you to do live collaboration with other people across all platforms. They haven't said when this would be available but I would guess sometime around sierras launch.

Apple Watch series 1 and 2

The Apple Watch got a update today. The new Apple Watch is called the series 2. It looks pretty much like the old apple watch which is now being called the series 1. The upgrade is more on the inside with a better CPU (dual core) and better graphics. The other difference is this apple watch is water proof up to 50 meters, so this will be usable for swimmers. All the old accessories will work with this model. The series 2 will have a better screen and be brighter so it can be better seen in the sun.  

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Apple also decided to update the first apple watch with the series 2 new dual core processor. You can pre order booth series 1 and 2 on September 16th the series one will cost you around $269 and the series 2 will cost around $369. They also showed off a nike branded apple watch which they say will be good for runners. The Nike + watch will cost the same as the series 2. 

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iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

As you might imagine the whole reason for todays keynote was to show off the iPhone 7. The new iPhone will come in black and jet black. This just means one has a glossy finish and the other has a mat finish. It will come in same colors the iPhone 6s and 6SPlus come in as well. I guess ill rip the bandaid off about the headphone jack and say its gone. I’ll let that sink in for a second. Ok you have had enough time the headphone jack is gone but with booth the 7 and 7 Plus you will get a pair of lightning ear pods and a dongle that goes from lightening to a headphone jack so you can still use your old head phones with it. There reason was basically its time to get rid of it so we can add other things to the phone. They also introduced wireless ear pods that look pretty good and you can still use Siri with now a tap of the ear. 

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Now that we have that out of the way with they have made changes to the home button. It is now a solid state object and will use 3D touch. This makes me think they might be inching there way to a besalist design maybe next year.

The one thing they harped on the most was the new camera on the iPhone 7 Plus which uses 2 12 MP cameras with 2 different lenses. It seems to work much better in low light than any iPhone before it. The flash has improved, it can do up to 2X physical zoom and up to 10X software zoom. You can shoot in RAW finally and can do deep depth photos with a new camera style called called portrait. Though I will say this feture will not ship with the phone it will come in a iOS 10 update later on maybe iOS 10.1? 

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The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will have the same faster better stronger things going for it. a new A10 fusion chip, which will be 64 bit and a quod core processor. It will have better batterie life for most of us.  Apple has also changed the storage for its phones now starting at 32 GB and going up to 256 GB So lets talk about pricing. The iPhone 7 will cost you $649 and the 7 Plus will start at $769.

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Wrap up

They did talk about iOS 10 which will be available one September 13th for all supported devices. Apple pay will be coming to japan in October and speaking of japan Mario will be coming to the app store in a new Mario game just for mobile. A lot was talked about today but I still am wondering about iPads and Mac. This might mean they could have an October announcement coming up. For now we will have to wait and see and enjoy our new iPhones with no head phone jack.

Dos and Don'ts of iOS 10 Public Beta

Today is the day some of us have been waiting for, the iOS 10 public beta is here. As I type this I'm sacrificing my iPad Air 2 to the beta gods. This got me thinking, other people are doing this too and some of them might be first timers. Which is fine its a public beta anyone can sign up and get the bits. So I thought it might be helpful to make a quick list of dos and don'ts when using the public beta, and a lot of these things can be used for other betas as well.

Back-Up

Before you do anything at all, even before you sign up for the public beta program do your self a favor and do a local backup to your computer. Even if you do iCloud back up do a local backup. If you need to roll back to a stable build of iOS it will make things go quicker if you have a local backup.

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Play with your Apps

After you have installed the public beta bits, open some of your most used apps and mess around with them to see if they still work. Just remember this is a beta and none of the apps from the app store are optimize to run on iOS 10 so just be thankful they even open up. Also make sure your apps are all up to date. Sometimes its not an OS thing that is making them crash it could just be a bug that the developer already fixed. But if they do not and you really need the apps to work just roll back to iOS 9, that is why the first tip was to backup.

IMG_0238

Don't bug the Devs

Maybe some of your apps don't work and it might be, because of some changes under the hood in iOS 10. Please for the love of god don't go to the app store and write bad reviews about the app and give them a 1 star. Right now the 3rd party developers can not fix any iOS 10 related problems. If you have a problem with a app that could be a iOS 10 issue file a bug report in the feedback app.

App-Store

Feedback App

The feedback app will help not just you but also apple and 3rd party devs too. This is a public beta test so the whole point is to get feedback from users to find bugs and to suggest things you might want to see in iOS 10 or future updates to iOS 10. This is also where you can tell develops about crashy apps so they can make fixes and can have them ready when they can put iOS 10 optimized apps on the app store.

apple_feedback_assistant_icon_thumb800

I hope these tips help when you are trying out iOS 10. Just keep in mind that this is beta software and it will be buggy so don't get too mad when things break.

Speculations for March 2016 Apple Event

The invites have gone out for next weeks Apple event. Up until today this event was just a rumor but the invites went out for a March 21st event. But what will they be announcing? This is what I want to speculate about. iPhone SE:

First off we have to talk about iPhone. Rumor is that Apple might announce a smaller iPhone one about the size of the iPhone 5 but have the guts of the iPhone 6S. Some of us think even the iPhone 6S is too big of a screen. I still think the 4S screen was the better size but a iPhone 5 screen is pretty good too. I have big hands but I need 2 to use my iPhone a lot. While with my 5c I could pretty much use my iPhone with one hand. Well maybe my next iPhone I will be able to do that again.

iPad Mini Pro:

Back in October the iPad Pro was announced and some people liked it and some didn't. Mostly cause of the size. But most people agree that the best part of it is the Apple Pencil. Well what if you could have the power of a iPad Pro and the ability to use the Apple Pencil in a iPad mini? Well if that's what you wanted you might have won! The iPad mini pro might be a thing being announce in a few weeks.

Apple Watch 2 (1.5):

Almost a year ago the Apple Watch came out and it seems to be a success. Well we might just see the Apple Watch 2. I doubt it will be much different from the original, it will probably be faster and have longer battery life. They might have some surprises in software with watch OS 2 which is in beta right now and will be out at some point.

Watch OS 2, iOS 9.3, OSX 10.11.4, and TV OS 9.2:

This one I would put money on. I'm almost sure they will release them shortly after the event is over or later on in the week. All of these have in beta or public beta for while now and as far as the public builds for iOS they are in 6th build of it. So even if you can't afford anything that might be announced in the event you will still have something to play with that day. That's about all I can come up with. We will see in a few weeks on March 21st what they will really announce. You will be able to watch a stream of The event by Apple and many blogs will be live blogging it as well.