https://mashable.com/article/apple-iphone-privacy-setting-advertising-identifier/ Have you ever noticed how you can look at something on the internet, could be your phone, computer, or ipad, and suddenly you see ads popping up for that very thing. Some of you may like that but personally I find it a bit creepy. There has been a lot of discussion lately about a battle between Facebook and Apple and it is because of this. While facebook is not the only one, they are perhaps the best at tracking us. They have found ways to know everything we do on our phones, tablets, and computers and can then sell very targeted ads at a premium price. Apple has long valued privacy and recently have made changes that will give us all much more control on how we are tracked. There is an article link above that talks about this in more detail but basically Apple's new position is that advertisers must first ask and then we must allow them to track us. In the past this all happened automatically and we had no say. This is a major blow to Facebook, and others, because they will risk losing the ability to track many of us. Your iPhone and iPad need to be running IOS 14.4 or later for this control but if you are open Settings/Privacy/Tracking and you can simply choose to turn this off. Doing so will deny everyone from tracking what you do on your device.

Phishing emails have been a problem for a while but there is a new threat that is coming in text messages. The bottom line is you should never click a link or call a number in an email or text message unless you are absolutely, 100% sure you know where it came from. Any message asking for personal information is most likely a scam and should be deleted. If you want to make sure, find the appropriate phone number for the organization in question, from a source other than the email, and contact them directly. Reputable companies will not request information using texts or emails.

Pocket Dials Many of us have been plagued by our phones making calls on its own. Some call this Pocket Dialing, others Butt dialing, but what ever you call it, it can be annoying. For me it got so bad my wife started calling me the king of butt calls, so I figured I needed to find a way to fix it. I normally have my iPhone in my front pants pocket. How, I wondered, after an hour or more in my pocket my phone could wake up and start calling others. There was one time I heard my pocket talking and realized I had face timed someone. Most of the time the volume is too low to hear your pocket (or purse) talking so I knew it was happening more than I realized. When the screen is off the iPhone is inactive and calls cannot be started, so I thought about ways the iPhone can wake up on its own. There are a couple of settings that will do this. The first setting is Settings/Display & Brightness/Raise To Wake. When this is turned on the phone will automatically wake up when the phone changes from horizontal to vertical. This sounds like a nice feature as it will automatically wake the phone up when you pick it up. Problem is the phone can do this in your pocket with normal motions. Once awake the phone can do strange things without your knowledge. I now have this feature turned off. The second setting is Settings/Notifications/Show Previews. There are three options for this setting. I had mine set to “Always” initially and that automatically wakes the phone when a notification comes in. There are countless options for notifications and with this setting my phone was constantly waking up in my pocket. I changed this setting to “When Unlocked” so I only get notifications when when my iPhone is already awake. It will no longer wake up on its own. The third option is “Never,” which effectively disables notification alerts. This setting would also work for this. Since I changed the above two settings, I am not aware of any annoying pocket dials. Additionally, there was another major benefit to these changes. Every time the iPhone wakes up, the screen turns on, and battery power is used. I have noticed a big change in battery life since I made the changes. Note: The notification changes can also help extend the battery life on an iPad. I used to think it was nice to see the screen turn on when things happened but I now think the cost for that is too high and hopefully if I call you, it won’t be a mistake.

Earlier this week Apple held an event where they introduced Apple Silicon for the Mac. While this may not seem like a big deal, it is actually a very, very big deal. If you will indulge a little history keep reading, but if this is too deep just skip to the bottom to see the attached article about the new Macs. Back in the mid 1980’s I worked for a company in Dallas called Mostek as a field applications engineer in the Boston office. While there I met Ken, a really smart engineer from Minneapolis and we have been friends ever since. This was the beginning days of the IBM PC and Mostek made memory chips used in the PC and other computers. Ken and I would have many conversations about technology and one time he described an idea for what he called a DOS Engine (DOS was the precursor to Windows). Computers have mostly used off the shelf processors, from companies like Intel and those general purpose processors were not designed for any specific application. Being general purpose they had features that not everyone used, making them bigger and less efficient than they could have been. The DOS engine concept was to create a processor designed for one purpose, running DOS. What if the processor was designed to maximize the efficiencies of the operating system with nothing extra. Extra circuitry on a chip impacts the size (which increases the cost) and it increases the heat generated shortening battery life. This was really hard to do in the PC world because Microsoft wrote the operating system but did not make PCs (at least at the time) and IBM and many clone makers lacked the resources to create a new processor so Intel has been the primary processor for the PC and the Mac. After introducing the original iPhone using general purpose processors, Apple purchased a company called PA Semi because they were working on advanced processor technology. This led to the Apple Silicon that has powered the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV for several years now. With Apple controlling both the hardware and the IOS operating system they were able to maximize the functionality, reduce the heat from unused circuitry, minimize the power required to maximize battery life, and more. This was the concept of the DOS engine brought to life and it was only a matter of time before Apple took this to the Mac. Starting next week you can buy a few Macs with the new M1 chip. This is a chip that was designed specifically for the Mac and it offers many advantages over the previous Intel powered Macs. The first Macs are on the lower end of the performance curve but that will not be for long. Apple will have future products that will support the higher end systems too. If you are not a power user, the current products provide great value with higher performance, longer battery life and cooler operation. If you are a power user you may want to wait a little longer for the high end Macs. The following article is one of many that have been reviewing the new M1 Macs, featuring Apple Silicon.

For those who were able to attend the Apple TV session we had a while back, we had talked about other hardware options that supported streaming. At the time, the one advantage Apple TV had over the other solutions was the ability to support AirPlay. This allows you to send the image on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to your TV and can be very handy. As the article below explains, this is now supported by the latest Roku devices. Roku makes great devices and with AirPlay support it is full featured alternative to the Apple TV.

The article below is titled "Ten things to do with your new Mac" but even if you have had a mac for a long time, you need to be aware of these invaluable tips. https://www.macworld.com/article/3018254/ten-things-to-do-with-your-new-mac.html?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Title%3A%2010%20things%20new%20users%20should%20do%20with%20a%20new%20Mac&utm_campaign=Macworld%20MacWeek&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20MacWeek&utm_date=20200131160354

How to Back up iPhone and iPad Backing up your data can help prevent a devastating loss of your valuable and precious information. If your device is lost, stolen, or simply stops working and you have not been faithful in backing it up, you could lose your data, photos, contacts, etc. Apple provides two ways to back up IOS devices. The first is to use iCloud, but frequently this will require paying money to Apple to increase your iCloud storage. They only provide 5 GB of free storage and that is used up pretty quickly, especially if you have newer device with 128 GB of storage. Granted, for $1/month you can get a more reasonable amount of 50 GB, but some are still reluctant to use this option. The second option is to use your Mac to do the backups. This requires you have enough storage capacity on your Mac but so long as you do there is no additional cost, and your data stays on your device. The article below discusses using your Mac to back up your IOS device. How you choose to back up your data is up to use but it is strongly recommended that you do so one way or the other. Or, if you are paranoid like me, you can use both ways. https://www.macworld.com/article/3410567/how-you-back-up-your-iphone-and-ipad-in-macos-10-15-catalina.html?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Image%3A%20How%20you%20back%20up%20your%20iPhone%20and%20iPad%20in%20macOS%2010.15%20Catalina&utm_campaign=Macworld%20Daily&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Macworld%20Daily&utm_date=20200122180314

How to maximize your buying dollars It is no secret that Apple products are expensive. Some of us save money by buying used products but you usually can’t find the latest products that way and there is always the unknown of something used. There is another option that can save money on newer products. Apple offers “refurbished” products on their website. Unlike some of the other sites that claim to have refurbished products, these are refurbished and guaranteed by Apple. You get the same warranty as a new product and can even get Apple Care. Availability is constantly changing so if you are looking for something specific you may have to check back later. The link below will take you to an article that covers this in more detail. https://www.macworld.com/article/3238012/how-to-buy-refurbished-macbook-refurbished-iphone-refurbished-ipad.html?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Title%3A%20How%20to%20buy%20a%20refurbished%20Mac%2C%20MacBook%2C%20iPhone%2C%20or%20iPad%20from%20Apple&utm_campaign=Macworld%20MacWeek&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20MacWeek&utm_date=20200115212813

If you have an email account from Apple, ending in either mac.Com, me.com, or iCloud.com, you can set up 3 alias email addresses. The email addresses can be used for whatever purpose you decide. If your primary email address has your name, you may want an alias to use on web sites, or for shopping accounts. The only requirement is that the address cannot be in use by someone else. The new email addresses are tied to your primary address so there is no need to add them to your set up, they will just show up in your inbox. We did this on the tech support email. The primary email address is slappleusers@icloud.com but we set up an alias of SunLakesAppleSupport@icloud.com because it was a little more descriptive and easier to remember. The link below shows how to set them up. https://www.macworld.com/article/3512033/how-to-use-icloud-aliases-to-send-and-receive-email.html?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Read%20more%3A%20How%20to%20use%20iCloud%20aliases%20to%20send%20and%20receive%20email&utm_campaign=Macworld%20MacWeek&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20MacWeek&utm_date=20200115213653

Time Machine - How to Back up a Mac You will need an external hard drive that your Mac can access. This is easiest with a USB drive that can be found at many stores/websites. The simplest way is to simply plug the external drive into your computers USB port and then follow the instructions at the web link below. Alternatively the external drive may be installed on a USB port present on most wireless routers. Some setup may be required to allow access but once done you can use the hard drive to back up any/all Macs you have in your house wirelessly. The external hard drive needs to be big enough to support this. As a rule of thumb, it should be at least twice as big as the drive(s) you are trying to back up. If your Mac has 500k on board storage you should get at least 1TB. If your Mac has 1TB of internal storage you should get at least 2TB. If you have more than one Mac to back up you will need add them up to determine how big it should be. Bigger is better if you can afford it because that will allow for a longer history from which you can recover lost files. Time machine does a full back up the first time (this can take a long time) and then does incremental backups, only backing up things that have changed. When the back up drive is full, it will delete the oldest back ups to make more room. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

I found this article that reviews the smart plug and Garage Door Controller options that are on the market. https://www.cnet.com/news/best-smart-plugs-in-2019-homekit-google-assistant-alexa-amazon-siri-plug-wyze-apple/?ftag=CAD6b2b181&bhid=21203679704122210630731741667797 https://www.cnet.com/news/best-smart-garage-door-openers-in-2019-for-alexa-google-assistant-and-homekit-siri/?ftag=CAD6b2b181&bhid=21203679704122210630731741667797

Summer Message Greetings to all Club Members This message is being delivered to you via our website Blog. We believe this process will be the most effective way to communicate both to you and hear from you as we work to improve our website. Please let us know what you think by return email to: slappleusers@gmail.com As previously reported, we will hold no classes June through August and will resume in September. Mike Canterbury will conduct the Video Editing Class on Monday, Sept.9 and the Workshop on Monday, Sept.16. These are available now for further description and registration in the Events section of the website. Visit the website at sunlakesappleclub.com to stay up to date. Our special “club only” Classes at the Apple Store at The Chandler Fashion Center will resume in September and October focusing on the Pages and Numbers applications. But you do not have to wait, search “apple today” to view and register for any of the great variety of free classes offered daily. Fourteen days of scheduled classes are available for your review. Our regularly scheduled every Friday one on one Q & A sessions will be on hold for the summer but we will respond to technical questions via email. Since Mike C and Gary T will be “on the road” from time to time, communication will be via email or telephone, not face to face in the Mens Card Room. Register for help using the new Tech Support form at the bottom of the home page, or send questions to SunLakesAppleSupport@icloud.com. Replies to your inquiries may be a bit slower than normal and we ask for your patience. Lastly we need your input on classes or subjects you want to see offered or maybe that you can conduct for our members. We are working on the October through December schedule now so please send your thoughts soon to: slappleusers@gmail.com Thanks and have a great Summer season! Gary B 480-895-2141