Digital matters

Category: Software

  • Problems with Two-factor authentication on a Mac during a recent upgrade

    John raised the problem he’d had with implementing Two-factor authentication on his Mac during a recent upgrade (to High Sierra, I think). Now Two-factor authentication is generally a good thing when you’re talking about access to cloud based services, eg OneDrive, eMail, Google Drive, iCloud – but it seems a bit OTT when you’re talking about an operating system as protection to prevent access to services running on the hardware. But Apple doesn’t make this clear.

    When I was doing my High Sierra and iOS upgrades the other day I was prompted to ask whether I wanted to implement Two-factor authentication, but was also advised that some of my devices wouldn’t support it and I would lose access to services if I chose to implement it. That was enough to warn me off, so I didn’t. John was not scared off – possibly because he didn’t get the warning that I got – and has had to make a trip to the Apple Store to try and get it sorted.

    Two-factor authentication is a “good idea”, don’t get me wrong, but Apple’s implementation is a bit clunky it would appear.

    https://www.macworld.com/article/3130566/security/the-apple-two-step-my-disastrous-attempt-to-use-apple-s-two-factor-authentication.html

  • Difficulties/problems of running Google’s Backup and Sync as a Service

    I shared with the Tuesday group some of my difficulties/problems of running Google’s Backup and Sync as a Service which runs at Start-Up. It appears that this is not a problem, but a design feature – no doubt created by Microsoft. You can do this on the Mac, but apparently not on a Windows 10 machine.

    The article below explains how you can get round this difficulty. For myself, I’m just going to have to remember to right-click the Backup and Sync Icon and run the application as Administrator every time I login. Sometimes, the simple solutions are the easiest!!!!

    https://www.coretechnologies.com/products/AlwaysUp/Apps/RunBackupAndSyncWindowsService.html

  • Compromised Yahoo accounts

    I think it might be a very good idea to change your password if you have an account associated with Yahoo, and that includes Flickr and Tumblr. Yahoo also provided the eMail service for BTinternet. After this breach I made a decision to move away from using my BTinternet eMail account. Just about done for me, but not for others in the family. What a pain!!

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-cyber/yahoo-says-all-three-billion-accounts-hacked-in-2013-data-theft-idUSKCN1C82O1

  • Beware the free upgrade

    Beware the free upgrade

    So … we’re all excited about the advent of iOS 11 for our iPads and iPhones aren’t we? Or we are if our devices can actually take the new operating system. And there’s the first challenge. Apple gives us free upgrades to its operating system software but it comes at a price in terms of the pensioning off of some hardware from ongoing support.
    So, if you don’t have any of the hardware on the list below … stop reading this post and go and do something constructive.

    So what’s wrong with iOS 11, nothing of course, it looks like a really feature-rich release with lots of goodies to enjoy and reports seem to suggest that it doesn’t slow down your device significantly … except it’s a wholly 64-bit operating system. This means that all applications that you run on the device must be written in code that runs on a 64-bit operating system, and the problem is that quite a few of your applications, even some you really like, may have been written using older 32-bit code. You may even have noticed some alerts coming up on your screen to say “contact the developer” when you’ve been running an application – that’s the reason for the alerts – your app is potentially going “end of life”. So … before you do the automatic upgrade just do these checks.
    Goto Settings > General > About and you will see something like this …

    … click on Applications, and something like this will be shown …

    … read the warning message at the top of your screen carefully. What it is saying is that these apps are written in 32-bit code and will tend to run slower than if they were written in 64-bit code. What is more, they will stop working with iOS 11. Then clicking on any of the apps shown on your iPhone (similar to the ones above on my iPhone), will give you this screen message which effectively says that the app is end-of-life UNLESS the developer provides a 64-bit version.

    Now most of these apps on my iPhone I can probably do without but I do know that I ought to approach Cardiff Bus to find out when their 64-bit version of the Timetable and Journey Map is going to be released, as I use that a lot!
     
     
     
     

  • Munzee, munzee, so good to me

    Munzee, munzee, so good to me

    If you want to wow your grandchildren with your knowledge and expertise in using your smartphone, this may be the app for you!
    It uses QR codes, those strange square maze-like images that you’re increasingly finding on packaging, books and even television advertising to provide the basis of a treasure-hunt game. Click on the Munzee logo above to get started.
    The idea is that you search for “munzees” in your local area, shown on this map thus  …
     
     

    There’s a Munzee somewhere here – Devonport, Auckland, NZ

    … and when you find them, you record that find on your smartphone by scanning the QR code that is on a lamp post, or even under a bench.
    If you then want to get really adventurous you can start “hiding” your own munzees and adding to the fun of others.

    Anyway, just a bit of fun that I thought I’d share with you to illustrate how QR Codes can be used.
    Scan this one and it’ll take you straight to Wikipedia.

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  • Here's one for the Mac users, but it's not a problem unique to Mac users.

    Fed-up with selecting the wrong contact from you address book? Time for some tidy-up. This article also shows how you can sort out duplicates held on your iOS (iPhone/iPad) device by using iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage, where you can hold your contacts, so that means that if you’re an iOS/PC user you should be able to clean your iPhone contacts as well.

    https://9to5mac.com/2017/02/09/how-to-remove-merge-duplicate-contacts-macos-ios/amp/

  • What's app doc?

    Another U3A Computer Group meeting, another terrible experience with flaky WiFi, much more flaky than any experience any of us might have experienced anywhere else; a second attempt to discuss Facebook – failed because of the aforementioned WiFi problems; a reasonable attempt to get members registered into our Google+ Community and a discussion of WhatsApp – which is what this post is really about.
    WhatsApp is a multi-media Messaging Application, owned now by Facebook (with potentially all that might involve), which allows the sharing of videos, photographs, as well as enabling voice and video calls, document sharing and straight-forward text messaging between mobile devices on WiFi. That’s about it in a nut-shell – if I’ve missed anything out, go to the link above and find out more for yourself. However the purpose of this short post is just to point you to another couple of links.
    Members mentioned that there wasn’t a WhatsApp App for the iPad (or other tablets), well here’s a link to how you might be able to run WhatsApp on an iPad as long as you have a Smartphone, and here’s another one from MacWorld which explains the same workaround. Neither of these are truly satisfying, but at least it allows you to use the app from your iPad. If all you want is Chat, there is an App that you could install on an iPad, but I have no experience of using it.
    If you want to install WhatsApp on your Windows or Mac device, there appears to be an App to allow you to do it, but again I can’t give you any advice on how good it is. This blogpost from WhatsApp explains where they are with the desktop version(s) of the App.
    And that’s about it. I don’t use WhatsApp. Perhaps I should, but other tools I use such as Facetime and iMessage in my Apple ecosystem do the trick well for me, and I do still like Google Hangouts.