David Allen Wizardgold's Blog: Good and Geeky, page 11

Flic Button Switches Part Two

Flic button switches Troubles

Not so happy with the Flic button switches this morning. I moved the office Flic Switch to the Mac App (It was connected to the iPad) and it’s giving me problems. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The bluetooth connection seems to be flakey, or it could be some other problem. I just pressed one of the switches and it took half a second or a whole second before it operated. Long enough for me to think I needed to press it again or to think it wasn’t going to work at all. The light did operate eventually, perhaps it was just too early in the morning. This is with a new 2017 iMac. It’s not as if it’s an old machine I’m working with! There shouldn’t be a problem.

Next is the Hub

The company who makes the Flic switches are working on a hub. With this hub you can connect all the buttons to it and don’t have to have them connected to one of your computers. They are also making an extra infrared connection to plug-in. With that you can set it so it will work with infrared television remotes and infrared for air-conditioning et cetera. This hub will cost around about €80 and isn’t ready yet. It is still a Kick Starter product at the moment. So who knows when that’s going to be ready. So my next trick for today is to verify whether my Flic button switches are the old version all the new version. I’ll send an email to the manufacturers. It’ll be interesting to see how restponsive they are with customer queries.

On a Brighter Note

The Flic button I have connected to the iPhone has been working a treat today. I have the button in my pocket even though I added the included clip to the back of it so I could clip it onto my clothes. With a single click I have it set to turn off or turn on Playing Now sounds coming from the iPhone. This is good when I’m working and I want to listen to something without any background noise. Easy to turn it off quickly. I have the double click button set to do a jump forward by the specified amount in the podcast application. The podcast application I use is called Pocketcasts. I like to set the jump forward by 45 seconds which will easily take me past any annoying adverts in a podcast. The click and hold I have set so that it does a volume control in case I want to have the podcast still playing but at a lower volume. It’s also possible to have a second action to each of the click options, or more, and so I’ve also set this up to be a native camera trigger. For that to work I need to have the camera app open.

Sort of good – Sort of disappointing

When these Bluetooth Flic button switches work they are extremely useful. A few more days later and I’m still testing and trying out how the switches work. When the Bluetooth connection is up and running they work perfectly. Sometimes the Bluetooth connection gets lost and I’m not sure of the best way to reconnect. Now and then pressing the button will make the connection again. Other times I need to press and hold on the button. Or I have to disconnect the Bluetooth by telling it to forget the item, then do a reconnect. Which is tedious because I have to reset up the actions for the switch. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend these to other people as it stands. I do think all be okay once the hub is available, so long as you don’t mind spending the extra money. The button I use for roaming, as in I have it in my pocket to turn on and off the audio from my iPhone, is pretty useful. I just used the search tool within the application to look for Siri and it did the job. So I do have the later version of the switch. I’m pleased to be able to confirm that and I don’t need to make contact with manufacturers now. I have just upgraded the iPhone to iOS 11. I did get a message from Flic to say that it might not work well with the new operating system and perhaps I should wait. Fingers crossed there will be an update within the next few days.

Logitech Pop

[image error]

I have just seen this Logitech Pop product on the Apple Store. It comes with a hub. The hub is connected through Wi-Fi and is HomeKit compatible. The kit rwith the hub and one button is an okay price. The price of the buttons by themselves is a little bit too expensive but if they work better than these Flic Switches then I’ll be happy to change. I’m thinking of getting one to try out. These Pop buttons also have the single click, double-click and A click and hold so you can program more than one automation into the button.

The post Flic Button Switches Part Two appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

iPhone X Upgrading to the Newest from Apple

Apple iPhone X hype starting to die down

It was a good Apple event with the new Apple iPhones making their debut. I enjoyed watching the whole of the event on the day on my Apple TV. I got caught up in the marketing bubble and believed that I really needed a new Apple iPhone X. A couple of days later and it really didn’t take that long either, I have a realisation that I won’t be getting a new iPhone this year. I’ll be keeping my bitcoin safely where it is for the moment. The value of bitcoin has just taken a dive and it’s not a good time to sell any anyway. I’m sure next year will be the time for getting a new phone and I will prepare myself by saving money on a monthly basis so I can choose whichever phone I want. There will certainly be improvements to the iPhone X which was released just the other day. The other thing stopping me from biting the bullet and buying a new phone this year is because I’d rather save up for an electric car. This is something that is expanding horizons out into our future more so than a new iPhone. If money wasn’t an object then I would happily buy the latest iPhone X. Having a larger screen in a smaller body is appealing and the new cameras are also interesting. On the other hand, I am still extremely happy with my iPhone 7 as it does just about all I want from my pocket computer.

[image error]

What about the Apple Watch?

I have series 0 of the Apple Watch and once again I’m happy with the way it works and what it gives me in terms of facilities. On the last upgrade to the Apple Watch I had no interest in getting the new version. I kind of feel the same with this one although it would be nice to have the GPS as well as the new mobile data connection. The mobile data connection is not yet available here in Spain. It seems it has to be working on the same phone number as you work with your iPhone. It’s not like you can buy an extra Sim card for a minimal amount per month. It’s something the mobile data providers have to set up otherwise it would be just kind of nice to share the data you’re already paying for on the iPhone.

[image error]

Animated Emoticons – Talking Shit or maybe a chatty Unicorn

When you have a phone with facial recognition built in it seems the obvious answer is to create an application so you can have animated talking characters. It’s always good to have a bit of fun! It is often the silly but fun things which drive sales in high technology. It’s going to be pretty cool to send a message where the animated cartoon character you choose is delivering it with expression.

[image error]

Facial recognition on the iPhone X

Apple have done away with the fingerprint recognition on the iPhone X. Apple claimed its more secure than fingerprints to have the biometric security of facial recognition. It’s able to recognise your face even if you are making changes by wearing or not wearing glasses. It can learn your face has changed because you’re now wearing a beard or a handlebar moustache. It seems it’s not going to have any problem either if you change your hairstyle. All this remains to be seen when it’s tested by by the millions of iPhone X users. Personally, I prefer the fingerprint recognition because she can do it with fingers from multiple people. This is useful if you want your wife to be able to open up your phone in an emergency. As it stands the facial recognition is just for one face. Whether it’s pretty or not!

Getting an iPhone X

I don’t think so, at least not for some time. In a years time when I have saved up sufficient money I might bite the bullet and get the latest and greatest. If I was to get myself a new phone then I’d want to pass my iPhone 7 onto my wife which is a good thing to do. The only thing is that selling her iPhone 6 will not bring me back much cash to put towards the new iPhone. This year would have been a good time to upgrade my wife’s phone because of the age of it. My own phone, the iPhone 7 is working well and in perfect condition and I was expecting to keep it for two years anyway. At least I will be getting plenty of benefit from the update to iOS 11 even if I don’t have the latest Apple mobile hardware. It would be lovely if the new photo lighting effects could be available in the iPhone 7. Maybe it needs the face recognition hardware to make it possible?

Would you believe it?

I’ve already heard podcasters speculating on what will come next year. Well I suppose there is the question as to whether there will be an iPhone 9??

The post iPhone X Upgrading to the Newest from Apple appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

Ready for the iPhone X Apple event

This latest Apple event is going to be streamed live from the Steve jobs Theatre in California. I’ve just worked out how to get the event streamed live through my Apple TV. I had to go into the Apple TV App Store and find the app for Apple events. It didn’t take much looking for it, it was there ready for me to click on and within a minute it was downloaded and ready to go. It’s still 20 minutes before the event is due to start and so the app is not allow me to start yet. We will finally find out all of the juicy details about the new Apple iPhone. Up until the last couple of days it’s been called the Apple iPhone 8 and possibly a couple of versions being called the Apple iPhone 7S. There’s been a leak over the last couple of days which people seem to think is correct where the premium version of the new iPhone is going to be called the iPhone X. It’ll be called the X because X is the Roman Numeral for 10 and it is ten years since the iPhone was introduced.

[image error]

What can we expect in the new iPhone for 2017

There is bound to be a new processor. All the leaks seem to suggest that this is going to be less than bezel and the same amount of screen making the phone smaller all round. It’s probable that there’ll be no home button and so there’s going to be new ways of making the iPhone work. If you can’t press on a button at the bottom of the phone they’ll need to be a different way to get the fun started. Some of the rumours reckon there’s going to be face recognition. So as soon as you show your ugly mug to the phone it will open up. I don’t think there’s also going to be for print recognition still because otherwise there will be security considerations coming into play. Somebody could take your phone from you and what your still knocked out lying on the ground open your phone and steal your data as well as your wallet.

It’s going to be expensive and it will be available soon

A lot of the commentators seem to think the iPhone is going to cost more than $1000. The OLED screens are more expensive and possibly in short supply. Apple will be able to charge what they want, don’t they do that anyway! There will probably be larger amounts of memory and on top of all that all the new and sexy technology has to be paid for through the nose when you are jumping in as a first adopter. The Apple Store online has been closed for the last couple of hours and will open up as soon as the announcements have been made.

What else will be available?

IOS 11 is probably answers being ready for the general public. I’ve been running the public beta on my iPad for few weeks and it’s been working fine without any problem. I got as far as using iOS eleven beta 9 and those expecting the gold master version to be available before this event. Maybe because of the leak of the gold master version over the last couple days they decided not to bother until the actual announcements have been made.

It would be nice if there was new Mac mini. That handy little computer is always the last one to be updated. The iMac Pro could now be ready following the initial announcement at WWDC

The post Ready for the iPhone X Apple event appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

Flic Switches

I really like having the Philips Hue light bulbs in the house. It’s cool to have the lights set so that when I wake up in the morning they are on already for me to have my breakfast and get ready for work. It’s also cool that they will switch off automatically when I’m finished and tell me when it’s time to leave the house and get in the car. It’s lovely when I’m sitting on the sofa and I want to switch off the lights in the office, I just tell Alexa to do that for me. I have the motion detector to go with the kitchen lights. When I walk into the kitchen the lights will turn on for me. I haven’t set so that if there is no more movement they will switch off after three minutes. I need some Flic Switches.

[image error]

Getting Notified by Lighting

I use the lights as notifier. When I arrive back home in the car and I’m waiting for the gate to open I can’t always tell if the garage door is opening. So I set up the garage door with an Elgato eve switch which is used to automatically switch on the light at the front door. Naturally, I also use automation to turn that turn the light off when the garage door has closed. I can see from where I’m sitting in the car that they garage door has open. I cannot I get notifications on my phone every time the garage door opens and closes but I don’t really need that to happen when I’m away from home. It is good as a security feature when I’m away on holiday though! If any of the doors or windows open and I get a notification I can then use the cameras over the Internet to see if there are people in the house who shouldn’t be there.

I could do more automation

I’d like to do more automations with the lights. I would like to have it so that all the lights turn off when I leave the house. There is the possibility of setting controls based on location and it does work. I’ve tested it. At the moment I can’t use that because if there is someone still in the house then they would be left sitting in the dark. The automation controls need to have a little bit more intelligence built into them so I can set the automatic controls with more precision. Not a good idea to annoy the wife this way. Happy wife , happy life!

Alexa or Siri

Most times I use Alexa to control of the lights. This is because she is always listening and I only have to say her name and then the command. With Siri I need to press a home button to have Siri listen to me. That is unless I have a device plugged in with the lightning cable so she might hear and then do my bidding. My preference at night time and is to say “Good night” to Siri and know that all of the hue lights in the house will be turned off.

It’s not a perfect in this automatic household

Like I mentioned, there is still room for the controls to get more intelligent. The other problem in the house is the semi automatic humans. My wife has this thing where she likes to have the lights turned off and over many years has developed the habit of switching the lights off as she leaves the room. Trouble is, when the lights are turned off at the switch it’s not then possible to control them using the automation. So I’ve been looking at switches to add to my Hue lighting system. Phillips to make switches which will work with your Hue lighting, but so far I haven’t bought any because I don’t like the price.

Bluetooth Flic Switches

[image error]

Yesterday I decided to place an order for some Flic switches these look like they could do the job. I ordered a set of 44 $99. I will stick these onto the switch or near to the switch on the wall. I will then add a small piece of tape to stop the switch from being used. Please switches work over Bluetooth. The battery lasts up to 18 months. It’s not just for controlling lights, they can also be used using IFTTT. There’s a whole range of items to use with including speakers, automated locks and cameras. It’s even possible to set it so that more than one action takes place at the same time.

[image error]

Three Switches in one

Easy to order and soon to arrive

The day after I placed the order I got a message to say they had been sent out. Following day I will have the new switches in my house. I expect a delivery from UPS this afternoon. I’m really looking forward to having a play with these new devices. Look out for a new blog post or an addition to this post to see how I get on with them. I will keep it simple to begin with. I’ll use the single click on the Flic to switch the light on or off. I may use the click and hold to turn off all the lights in the house. I will still have double-click I can use for something else. Also be testing these Flic switches to see how they work inside my car. They also show it as possible to use the switch clipped to your clothing and used to control your mobile device.

The post Flic Switches appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

iPhone Blogging Tips

There are huge advantages to blogging on iOS. The mobility you get from having the iPhone or the iPad with you and being able to write whatever you want and when do you want to. It’s easy to do something else quickly where ever you are. You don’t have to be tied to a desk with a desktop computer. What is the process actually like using the application is available.?

[image error]

What are you going to use?

This depends on where you are doing your blogging. Whether you have a Blogger, WordPress or other type of blog. There are applications specifically made for blogging to Medium, WordPress and Blogger. Or is it better to use a blogging application like Blogo. Then there are writing applications such as Ulysses and Byword. These have publishing export possibilities to a number of different blogging platforms.

It’s all about the experience

While working on the desktop is a known experience and easy to deal with text and pictures. It’s not so defined when using something different like a an iPhone or an iPad. It’s not that it’s more difficult, it’s just that is different and you have to work out your workflows for dealing with text and pictures. Working on a small screen might seem like what it would be like opening your Christmas presents from outside the house through the letterbox on the front door. Fiddly and unsatisfying or is it the ultimate freedom for blogging?

Important questions for bloggers

How are easy it is to get the words onto the page. Can you do the dictation route for getting the words into your document? How easy is it to do the editing necessary to make sure your text reads properly. Will it be easy to get the pictures set the right size for your blog? Can you crop and size the pictures within the blogging software or does it have to be done beforehand? How are easy is it to add links and work with the meta data for the post? Can you work with the editor to set headlines and other page elements or do you need to work with HTML? Lots of questions to be looked at when it comes down to on your mobile device.

Using Blogo

[image error]

Making Links

[image error]

The text editor of choice

It’s may be you have a text editor you prefer using. I like using Ulysses for most writing but also have a number of other text that it is available. I will often write things in Drafts when I’m not sure where the writing is going to go eventually. You have some good ideas and start writing and later you think that will be good in a blog post. That is how this blog post started. I began in Drafts. I then downloaded blow go again. For some reason or other I had stopped using it previously. I think it was because I was able to make a blog posts in Ulysses. It’s very handy to have all of you are writing in one place. Ulysses is also very good for working with markdown which I prefer. It’s also easy to add images. I have had some difficulties in getting blog post to get published to WordPress. I’m not sure if that was a problem with Ulysses or if it was a problem with the WordPress set up.[image error]

Setting a header in Blogo
Blogging from a web browser

I have tried blogging in a Safari browser window. It is unsatisfactory unless you have an external keyboard attached. It is awkward to add links to your text if you have a long post. Specially if you are working on the iPhone with a smaller screen and you can’t see the buttons at the top of the post in order to click on them after you’ve selected some text for making a link. If you do have an external keyboard attached then you can use the keyboard shortcuts to get the job done nice and easily.

Creating links

Having internal links within your blog is a good idea and doing this within the linking facilities of the web browser experience is extremely easy. If you are using another application you need to get your links first and then paste them into the other blogging application. Working in split screen on the iPad it’s a simple job to do that. If you’re working on the small screen of the iPhone then it does get a little bit awkward at times. Having to switch applications quickly is not quite as easy. You do get used to it though. Quick double tap on the home button swipe across to get to Safari and copy the link from there. When you get back in to Blogo it asks you if you want to create a link from the URL it has detected. This just puts a link in without a proper link text, so it’s usually best to say no. Then all you need to do is to select the text you want to use for the link and paste your URL.

The post iPhone Blogging Tips appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

Official date for the Apple event

No more unconfirmed rumours about when the Apple iPhone event will take place. Apple have something on the apple.com web site to say it is 12th September. This means two weeks of speculation of what will be in the announcements on the day. Take everything with a pinch of salt because so many pundits make stuff up for link bait. Can I suggest you take a chill pill and see what comes on the day. It will be nice to have the surprise. I’m going to stop listening to any of the Mac news podcasts or I will get annoyed by all the hot air coming from the presenters.

[image error]

It’s in my calendar

Love the Safari trick which lets me click on a link and add the event to my calendar. I then see it in Central European Time and I don’t have to use any app to convert to my time zone.

Probably no new phone for me this year

I could still be tempted. It depends on how compelling the announcements are. I’m still loving my iPhone 7 Plus and my wife could go longer for a new phone too. It’s always nice to have the newest and shiniest though.

One more thing!

Apple are holding the event in the Steve Jobs Theater. First time to see the new Apple Park facilities being used like this. Will be extra interesting for those of us watching on the Apple TV and more so for the attendees.

The post Official date for the Apple event appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

Own both Scrivener and Ulysses

The Case for Owning Both Scrivener and Ulysses

If you’re a writer, you want the best software to do your writing. You’ve had enough of Microsoft Word, so the first two applications that come to mind should be Scrivener and Ulysses. There are writers and authors who will swear by either one of those applications. Both of the applications will do the job of helping you to write anything from a blog post to a massive novel. Ulysses and Scrivener each have their strong points and if you’re only going to buy one of them you have to work out which one is just going to suit you the best. I think there is a case to be made for owning both Scrivener and Ulysses and have the best of all worlds.

[image error]

Writing in Ulysses

I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be a good idea to send the data in between the two apps constantly. There would be work involved in getting the data transferred in between the two to make sure you didn’t lose any background meta data. The actual words of your document will move between the two without any real difficulties. The extra bits and pieces you might add within either of the applications to help you organise the words could make things a little bit messy. The solution to this would be to have a workflow which had you starting within one application and moving to another to finish off. You might be a fan of using the cork board metaphor within Scrivener and use this application for the outlining process. Then move to Ulysses for the writing. Scrivener also has a view which looks a bit like a spreadsheet which can also help you organise where parts of your document should be. On the other hand using Ulysses you have drag-and-drop outlining features which are pretty easy. It’s just a different way of looking at it. Or just use one or the other depending on the task.

[image error]

Writing in Scrivener iOS

Differences between Scrivener and Ulysses
The money end of things

For some people the cost of using the software is important and with Ulysses you have to deal with a subscription model. It’s not a huge amount of money especially if you got the discount for having bought the previous version before subscription came in. It is a professional application for writers and authors and well worth the cost. Scrivener is going with the one-off payment for the software for the moment. It doesn’t get the requirement for a paid upgrade too often at all. I think there’s been five years or more between buying Scrivener version 2 and the imminent paid upgrades to Scrivener version 3. If you keep up with the upgrades it’s like a subscription model to a certain extent, so check the different prices and see which works out the best for you.

Synchronisation of documents in both Scrivener and Ulysses

Scrivener does have a lot of extra tools and if you make use of them it’s well worth to go with the application that gives you the most. You have the corkboard, the name generator, highly configurable compile options and a useful split view. On the downside it only will synchronise through Dropbox and I don’t find that works half as well as Ulysses synchronises through iCloud. I never get any synchronisation problems with iCloud when I’m working in a document both in iOS and on the Mac. When using Scrivener, especially on the iPad I find I need to be careful to wait for synchronisation to take place before doing anything. If you’re not careful you can easily end up with numerous duplicate files.

[image error]

Sync with Scrivener

[image error]

[image error]

Sync failed in Scrivener

Concentrate on the words

The other thing with Ulysses as it has a very clean interface and the argument that writing is all about the words is spot on. Scrivener does also have views in which the software gets out of the way which lets you concentrate on the words. So you could say there’s not much in between the two on this point.

The user experience of the authors writing tools

Both Scrivener and Ulysses have a really good user experience and which one suits you best depends upon how you work. I absolutely love the clean interface of Ulysses and the use of simple keyboard shortcuts. The simple interface makes it look like a simple application to the point where you are surprised with the power hidden within. Scrivener has a load of menus which is not a problem because it does more things. You don’t even have to look in all of the menus when you are writing. It might take longer to remember where to find what you want in the menu to get done the task in hand. Loads of options in Scrivener for all sorts of writers.

Control export of documents

Using Ulysses on iOS is particularly handy for getting the preview of what your e-book is going to look like. You get quick views either to a page or to the whole document. It’s particularly useful when you’re working with images and you want to see what it looks like on the page. Instead of having a multitude of compile possibilities you work with stylesheet templates. Grab the stylesheet template which is guaranteed to make your book look great on Kindle and you don’t really have to think about it at all. It is possible to make changes to the CSS which powers the formatting for your book or whatever in the stylesheet. Most times you’re going to find a template which does pretty much what you want without you having to do any changes. There is a library of stylesheets available to download and you can also download themes which determine the look of the application while you’re using it.

[image error]

Stylesheets in Ulysses

The use of colour in Scrivener

Some of us work in a more visual way and it’s nice to have the use of colours within Scrivener to help you with the organisation of a document. Set up colours for labels to visually show you where you have your notes, research, chapters subsections and so on. You can also set up colours in a novel based upon the point of view of the chapter. This would be particularly handy for seeing how the flow of the story is going across points of view. You would easily notice a lack of chapters from the point of view of an important character just because there will be fewer parts showing that colour. These colours show up in the binder, the cork board mode and also the outline mode.

[image error]

In terms of organising the progress with the work you can use colours to signify the state of play have any part of the document. You could have yellow as your colour for the first draft, Orange could be the colour for the first edit and the final draft would be green. It’s only going to take a quick look at the documents in Scrivener to see which sections need more work and which sections are finished.

Word counts and targets in Both scrivener and Ulysses

In both of both scrivener and Ulysses you can easily set up targets for the whole document and for separate sections. In Scrivener you get the added benefit of being able to set daily targets. This is especially useful if you’re doing something like Nanowrimo. If you’re working to a deadline put in the date the writing has to be finished and specify which days you want to work. Scrivener tells you words per day needed to hit the target on time. Lots of lovely settings you can choose from to make this a writers tool you don’t want to be without.

[image error]

Setting Target for the Manuscript

[image error]

Loads of settings in Scrivener

The word count facilities and targets are more rudimentary in Ulysses but perfectly functional.

[image error]

Information and word counts Ulysses

Taking snapshots

A particularly useful function within Scrivener is the Snapshots. If you like to make a lot of changes to your work and keep previous versions intact then you just take a snapshot. You can go back to a previous snapshot or you can compare one snapshot with another. You could use something like this if you were sending your document to somebody else for editing. When you get the edited file back you could easily compare what you have with what was edited. The only thing close in Ulysses is the automatic backup and restore available. You need to use something else to compare texts.

[image error]

Scrivener Snapshots

Comments and footnotes

Using markdown XL it’s easy to make comments within a sheet in Ulysses. Within Scrivener you can select something and create a comment or a footnote. The comments and footnotes appear in the inspector which resides on the right-hand side of the screen. This is the same area where you’ll also find the snapshots, the synopsis, keywords, links to document references as well as being able to set custom meta data. With Ulysses you have a way to make notes in the text and they don’t get counted in the word count or make it to the exported document. In the information area add more notes, keywords and pictures.

Export options

In Ulysses it’s great to export directly to EPUB, especially so when using the iOS version. This is an added extra on top of being able to get quick previews so and see what the pages in the book. The iOS export options in Scrivener are much more limited. I love how easy this is in Ulysses.

[image error]

Export options in Ulysses iOS

[image error]

Export out of Scrivener iOS

Both applications Scrivener and Ulysses have their advantages

The application I enjoy using the most is Ulysses because of the writing experience. It is the application I find gets out of the way more so allowing writers to just get on with the job of writing. There’s plenty of enjoyment in Scrivener too. This is because of the huge amount of functionality giving you a way to customise and control how you work. For me it’s made a lot of sense to have both of those applications dividable for me to use. Ulysses is particularly good for blogging. There are enough tools within Ulysses for you to write a whole novel. With a particularly complicated story you could be better to work with Scrivener. I’m sure you can see why I am conflicted about which of these applications is the best. I really like using both of them and I plan to keep both on the Mac and iOS. There is a case for both scrivener and Ulysses

The post Own both Scrivener and Ulysses appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

Downloading iOS 11 Public Beta 7

Yet another update to iOS 11 public beta

The latest version of the iOS 11 public beta has been working pretty well. I only had to do one reboot to sort out a problem with the keyboard not showing up with the public beta version 6. I’m so pleased to be using iOS 11 rather than iOS 10 on the iPad. The dock at the bottom of the screen is magnificent. The split screening and the drag-and-drop between two split screens is pretty good too. I just got my hands on beta version of an application called Shelf this allows you to put items of data onto the shelf to save for later. It’s like a visual version of the application Copied. I’d be able to get back to previously copied items which are kept within the application and use them again. With the application Shelf it’s a case of dragging items in and being able to put them in other places at will later.

[image error]

This iOS 11 public beta seven was only download of 54 MB, so it was pretty small. It seemed to be taking longer to do the preparation of the update than it took to download. I’m getting the feeling we must be getting pretty close to the release date for the GM version. We could be getting close enough to a final version of iOS 11 I could even consider putting it on to my iPhone. I’ve also been thinking about whether I should put the High Sierra onto the Mac. I probably won’t do that because I want to do a full clean install of the new operating system and that’s going to take me some time to get everything just right. It’s going to involve having numerous backups so I don’t lose any data. I especially need to be careful of taking care of my crypto currencies. I wouldn’t like to lose any of that money. I could send it off to a different wallet away from my computer and bring it back again. There would be a small cost involved in moving the money from one place to another but it could be worth having the peace of mind. The last time I did a clean install I should have made a note of where I ran into small problems. Like making sure I had a full copy of TextExpander snippets as well as all the data from one password and utilities like Hazel. The system I work with at the moment is quite well customised after being used for a couple of years.

As I’m writing this the update to iOS 11 public beta 7 was verified and it’s going through the process now of installing. The version 5 of the public beta wasn’t particularly good and I’m hoping that he doesn’t go a bit funny seeing as I’m working with another odd number. I haven’t heard any reports from other people who have been testing iOS 11 on their iPad devices during the last couple of operating system updates.

The post Downloading iOS 11 Public Beta 7 appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

SuperTab 3 Mac Automation

I Do Love Automation On The Mac

As a part of SuperTab 3 Mac Automation – I use a number of tools on my Mac for automation. The most used tool would be the DragonDictate application which gives me excellent dictation capabilities. I never have to write anything with the keyboard if I don’t want to. I use Keyboard Maestro which is like Automator from Apple in some ways, but I find works much better. I can string together a number of actions and get things done with all sorts of applications on my Mac. Then there is Hazel which I mostly use for keeping my desktop clean and the trash folder kept to a manageable size. It also has excellent tools for renaming files automatically. Any files I drag to a specific folder get automatically renamed and moved to where I really want them. Hazel has a number of tricks up her sleeve and is well worth having on your Mac to let the computer do the work instead of you doing things manually. Another utility I rather like is SuperTab. I think in the first instance I got it within a bundle and it was worth trying out. There has just been an upgrade to the application to version 3. The upgrade only cost me three dollars and it would have been crazy not to get the latest version. Let’s have a look at what else can be done with SuperTab 3 Mac Automation.

[image error]

Upgrading to SuperTab 3 Mac Automation

I went to the website after receiving an email to tell me about the upgrade. I used the link to the page for the upgrade and followed the instructions. There were supposedly just a couple of steps to get the job done. The first step was a button entitled Register and this took me to PayPal to purchase the SuperTab 3 registration code. I did that and was expecting to get an email with a new serial code for the application. That didn’t arrive as expected, but in any case I went with the next step which was to download SuperTab 3. Usual story, once downloaded double click on the DMG file and double-click on the icon to install.

Not as smooth as it should have been

The file I had downloaded and installed gave me SuperTab 3 but the registration wasn’t completed. The final part of registration was to enter the registration code. I hadn’t received the registration code and so I had to go to the help section on the website. Something had gone wrong somewhere in the upgrade process, but I wasn’t particularly worried anyway. For a start off, it was only $2.99 and secondly I expected the developers to help out pretty soon anyway. I sent an email to them via the form on the website. Within 20 minutes I had the registration code which I put into the application and I was up and running.

Is it a mega upgrade with 14 major features and improvements?
Item Name Overlays

The first of the new features is the Item Name Overlays. This put a name on top of the icon so they can visually make much more sense when you’re looking at your SuperTab rows. The names show up on the files, folders, websites, Windows, clipboards and display configurations. This is generally quite helpful because instead of looking at a whole row of icons which are all the same and only give you a clue when you mouse over the top of them, you have some names.

[image error]

SuperTab 3 Working with Multi-Monitors

I have an extra monitor alongside by 2017 27 inch top of the range iMac and it’ll be handy to have the option to see SuperTab on the secondary monitor as well. I usually get SuperTab up on screen by using the Command Tab keyboard combination. I’ll have to give it a try with the mouse activation using a hot corner. I can now specify if I want to just on the main monitor or on all of the monitors. With the keyboard activation you can set it so that it’s always on the main monitor, on the monitor with the active menubar or on the monitor where the cursor is. I find the quickest way to get SuperTab on the screen is to do a double tap on the Command key.

Application Badging

The badges you get as notifications from applications are now viewable from within SuperTab. So on the Mail icon for example you’ll see the badge showing how many emails you have waiting for you. Or with Calendar it has a badge there if you have events to be notified of.

A view into the Calendar

Instead of having to open up your calendar there is a row available with Calendar access. Set a date range of just today, three, five days, the workweek or the entire week. If you hover your mouse over the top of one of these calendar events you’ll get more information from that event. Not only can you see these events in SuperTab 3 there’s also the option to do various things. Open it, delete it, copy the event notes, open any URLs found in the event and send emails to the organiser, attendees or any email address found in the event. For those of you who use the Calendar app a lot the quick access to the Calendar events could be very useful indeed.

The Usefulness of SuperTab 3

There’s a whole lot of great features previously available in the application before the latest upgrade. You have the Voice Control and Clutter Free Folders in SuperTab 3 Mac Automation. Then you have the clipboard history and the ability to set a row to show just pictures in clipboard history. Use SuperTab 3 to quickly get at specific folders and it can be faster than opening up the finder. I like having quick access to the screenshots I don’t have to remember specific keyboard combinations to get to something I don’t use very often such as the time delay on a window screenshot. I only have to use the keyboard shortcut I’ve setup which is Command =. I can choose whichever screenshot type I want. The screenshot is saved into a specific folder and I use Hazel to rename it. I could also set it so that the new screenshot will open up in a specific application so for example I could do some markup on top of the photo.

Renaming in Hazel
[image error]SuperTab 3 Mac Automation

With the clutter free folders I can set it so that after a certain number of days files in a folder will get moved somewhere else. That’s something I can also do with Hazel, but it’s nice to have multiple ways of doing things. There’s loads of different things I can do with any of the items within the Rows of SuperTab 3. SuperTab 3 Mac Automation taken to the next level. After I’ve found what I was looking for within SuperTab I have a number of choices to play with. It’s worth spending the time to click on all buttons and try right clicking to get extra options in SuperTab 3. That way your find any hidden gems and get even more automation from the utility.

[image error]

Have a look at the preferences and decide upon some hot corners for your SuperTab 3 Mac Automation. If I put the cursor into the top right-hand corner of the screen that will activate SuperTab. If I move the cursor to the bottom right-hand corner it activates voice control. If you don’t have Dragon dictation software on your computer then using the voice control can be very handy. SuperTab 3 A utility worth having. What do you think of SuperTab 3 Mac Automation?

The post SuperTab 3 Mac Automation appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.

iOS 11 Beta 3 – Diving in

iOS 11 Beta 3 – I couldn’t resist it.

It seems to be a fairly simple procedure to register for the Apple beta program to get iOS 11 Beta 3. This is where you can try out upcoming versions of the operating system. I have done it once before and at the end of it I wished I hadn’t. I lost a couple of days of data in an application even though I had done everything right and was able to go back to the previous version of the operating system. There is a certain amount of time involved because it takes time to set up the device with the new operating system. There is the same amount of time required if you need to go back to the previous version. The reason I have succumbed to the lure of iOS 11 beta is because of the huge changes to the iPad version. I’m particularly interested in the way the new dock works at the bottom of the screen. I can’t wait to do the drag and drop between applications when I’m working in split screen mode. These things are just too good to wait for.

Making the backups of my iPad Ready for iOS 11 Beta 3

I use the application iMazing to create backups of my iPad and iPhone. I’m happy this will give me a really good backup if I need to go back in time with my iPad. This being a little more critical than a normal backup and restore operation I’m going for a backup on iTunes as well. As I’m writing this the iTunes application is backing up my iPad and when it’s finished I’ll follow the instructions and archive the backup.

Using iMazing for Backup

[image error]

It’s important to note that any backup I make during the period while running iOS 11 beta will be no good to me if I want to go back to 10.3.3. I will have no choice but to go back to the last backup made before moving on to iOS 11 Beta 3. It only makes sense! My plan is to use the hell out of the iPad in the first day or two of having installed iOS 11 beta. This is so I can quickly see where the problems are, if there are any. I have heard from other users who’ve tried out the public beta there are not too many problems. Small problems can be niggly and annoying and I have specifically ignored previous beta versions after seeing people complaining of bricked devices.

The iOS 11 beta I’m going for is the public version beta three. If I was a registered Apple developer I could have got my hands on version 4. It’s probably more likely there would be bigger problems to deal with in a developer version. I think Apple is most likely to give the public a slightly sanitised beta version to play with. There are still certainly bugs and one or two annoyances, that’s a given with beta software. Those of us without the patience to wait for the final version to be released in autumn are well aware of the problems of playing with beta software. Fingers can get burned!

Performing the upgrade to iOS 11 beta 3

So after I did the double backup I went to the Apple beta webpage. I registered my device by downloading a profile to my iPad. Obviously I had to do this step from my iPad. I then had to do a restart of the iPad so the system knew of this new profile. The next step is to go to the settings application and go to general and look for a system update. It always seems to take a little while for the system to recognise there is an update available. Then it’s just a case of waiting for it to be downloaded and installed. It was 1.76 GB to download and while that was happening I went for a swim in the swimming pool. So I got back refreshed and ready for the next stage. As I’m writing this part here I’m waiting for the installation process to take place. I expect it to take between 10 and 20 minutes before I can see what’s new with iOS 11 beta 3 – I can hardly wait!

First impressions of iOS 11 beta 3

At first look it doesn’t look hugely different. There is of course the new dock of applications at the bottom of the screen. It’s really useful to be able to hold more applications in this dock area than was possible before. So the first thing to try was putting a few extra applications into the dock. It looks like it’s going to fill up very quickly, but then as you put more icons in there they get smaller and I’ve got thirteen in there right now. To the right side of the dock there is an area which at the moment is showing three icons and I still have to work out why they are separated.

The new dock in iOS 11

[image error]

The next thing to try is to swipe up from the bottom of the screen and see the control centre/application changer. It’s easy to scroll through applications which you’ve been using and you can move out of this area by swiping them up to the top of the screen. If you’ve created a split screen with two applications you’ll see these two applications available at a single touch.

Multitasking with Split Screen

On one side of the screen I have Airmail 3 and to the right-hand side I have Twitterific. It was also easy enough to change the pairing by grabbing an application from the dock at the bottom of screen and replacing Airmail with the Apple Photos application. When you first drag a second application to create the split screen view, the application slides over the top of the first application. Drag down from the top in the second application to make it take up a section of the screen. This pushes the other application over to the other side and you can split it half and half or seventy thirty, either to the left or to the right.

[image error]

Drag-and-Drop in iOS 11 Beta 3

So I put Airmail 3 on the left and Apple Notes to the right. It was sweet to take a photo from one of my emails and simply drag it and drop it into the Notes application. I then found an email which I could select some text to drag and drop that into the note also. Very useful indeed! Just to keep the dragging and dropping going, I took some selected text in the Notes application and put that into Drafts. I’ve also moved photos from the Photos app and it’s kind of phenomenal to have these abilities after being without it for such a long time. It’s going to be as big a change as when cut, copy and paste was introduced to iOS way back when. I have to say – I’m just loving drag and drop in iOS 11 beta.

I Dragged and I Dropped

[image error]

The Files App in iOS 11 beta 3

Within the Files application you have two views, list view and an icon view which gives you a small preview of what is in the file. In the browser view of the Files application on my iPad, on the left-hand side I can see a list of locations. Within this list there is Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, PDF Expert, Transmit, iCloud Drive, Documents (the application from Readdle), On My iPad and Recently Deleted. There is a section called Favourites, but I haven’t worked out yet how to get either locations or documents into the Favourites section. Underneath that there is my long list of tags. To tag a document I only have to move the doc on top of the tag in the list for it to receive that tag. If you want to tag it move with more than one tag drag the document over more than one time. The tags you add to the document are Apple systemwide so if you look at the same file in iCloud drive on your Mac you’ll see the same tags. It’s been a long time coming for this tagging to arrive on iOS. Using tags is a fantastic way to search for specific groups of files.

[image error]

It’s possible to open files from any of your locations. When I open text files they open automatically by Byword. From there I could export to HTML, PDF or email and also share out to any number of applications I have on the iPad. You may also choose the select button to grab one or a number of files. When you have them selected you can then move them, duplicate, delete them or share. When you choose to share at the top of the share pop up you’ll see the tags assigned to the file and add more tags if you wish. It will be a feasible scenario to take files and send them off to the Workflow application, Messages or any other application you have installed. AirDrop is also available. There are plenty of opportunities to send data to wherever you need it to go to.

[image error]

Markup of PDFs and also using the Notes app

I get the feeling that the Files application is still a work in progress as you expect from a beta version. It would be nice to have the ability to drag tags onto files as well as the other way round. I also wonder if it’s going to be possible to do some dragging and dropping of files from one location to another. If you open up a PDF it opens up into a PDF viewer within the Files app and you have some fairly decent markup facilities. You have most of the options available in the Notes application, the ruler is not included. On the other hand, you do have the option to add text, a signature, a magnifier as well as four different shapes. You have squares, circles, speech bubbles and arrows. I thought that when using the selection tool I’d be able to resize what I had selected. It only allows you to move items. I expect when it comes round to the final version there will be parity of tools whether you are doing the markup in the Files application or working directly within Notes. In any case, there are some interesting ways of working with the Files application.

Thoughts so far on iOS 11

Even though it’s still early days or even early hours as I’ve only had a short amount of time working with the new operating system I’m fairly positive so far. I haven’t had any severe crashes which is always a good thing. The iPad hasn’t been bricked by the new software. Everything is more stable than I thought it might be.

[image error]

As things stand at the moment I’ll be keeping iOS 11 on my iPad Pro because I really like the drag-and-drop between applications in the split screen mode. There are definitely productivity benefits in having two applications side-by-side. I like how I can save pairs of applications together and return to it from the control view. Each application can only be used once in these pairings though. That’s not too much of a problem because it’s easy to swap out one application for another as needed. The dock which sits at the bottom of the screen which can be accessed even when not looking at the home screen is pretty cool. Grabbing an application to float either to the left or the right over the application already running is sweet. Doing a long stroke upwards from the bottom of screen goes into the control centre in order to open up background open applications. There are the basic controls for brightness and volume, access to the camera, the clock and music as well as access to my home automation accessory controls. It’s easy for me to switch on and off my lights and see if the garage door is closed or not.

Loving iOS 11 Beta 3

I give a big thumbs up to iOS 11 on the iPad. I’m not brave enough to put it on to my iPhone and in any case changes are not so great as on this iPad version. I certainly don’t like the idea of going back to iOS 10 after experiencing the goodness in iOS 11 beta 3.

The post iOS 11 Beta 3 – Diving in appeared first on Good and Geeky Books.