Tag: Apple

Eight days with AirPods

AirPods

I’ve been using AirPods for about eight days. Feels great without the cord, and sounds good across lots of podcasts, music, and video. They stay in while smashing tickets, eating a meal, washing dishes, taking a walk, or riding a bus. I’ve also worn them successfully while lying in bed for a short period of time. They won’t stay in if I fall asleep, which I expected.

I’m usually around a power source, so I haven’t thought of battery life in depth. However, air travel is in my future,1 and I plan to leave my Sony MDR-7506 headphones at home to free up space in my backpack.

Looking at Apple’s product page, I haven’t used Siri with them yet. Perhaps I need to find some podcast episodes for very simple ideas. Suggestions welcome!2

A few times, I mentioned to Amy that wearing them makes me think of something from an episode of Black Mirror. Pretty trippy.

Overall, I dig them! 👍🏾

See also from my colleague, Paul Ciano — A Geek’s Best Friend: AirPods (Part 1), and Part 2.

  1. Team meetup! ↩
  2. I think there’s a few from Back To Work or Mac Power Users. ↩

AirPods, where are you?

Apple AirPods

I misplaced my AirPods for several hours. It was rough, especially since I bought them less than four days ago. 😁

Last night, I placed them in my messenger bag. I had ventured out to visit a friend, and requested a pickup from Lyft1 to get home. After I got home, I couldn’t find my AirPods. Neither could my friend, or the Lyft driver.

After four or five times looking through my “empty” messenger bag, I realized there were exterior side pockets. I rarely use them; my stainless steel water bottle won’t fit.

Conclusion: The AirPods case can fit in those exterior side pockets. 😊

P.S. I wrote this post on January 22nd, and changed the date to reflect the day this happened.

  1. Referral link. I earn $10 in ride credit if you use it for your first ride in Los Angeles. ↩

Write a post on your TV

I can comfortably write in Simplenote, WordPress, or Day One apps on our TV. If I don’t want my laptop on my lap, or my iPhone in my hands, this is another option.

I starting writing instructions, but realized Apple has solid support documents. 🙂

  • About AirPlay Mirroring in OS X — AirPlay Mirroring lets you send what’s on your Mac screen to an HDTV wirelessly with Apple TV.
  • iOS: Use AirPlay Mirroring — You can use AirPlay Mirroring to mirror exactly what’s on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your HDTV via Apple TV.

Unexpected upgrade to iPhone 5s

We didn’t plan on upgrading my white iPhone 4S 64 GB because it wasn’t a priority. Then, Amy dropped her phone and most of the front screen was cracked. Wah wah.

I’ve been out of contract for awhile, so I was eligible for an upgrade.

I chose the silver iPhone 5s 64 GB, we finally merged our Verizon Wireless accounts, and switched to a less expensive plan — at the cost of my grandfathered unlimited data add–on.

Reviewing my billing statements from 2012-07-08 through 2013-12-27, I barely reach 1 GB of monthly usage.

  • Average: 428.9 MB
  • Max: 974.4 MB
  • Min: 206.635 MB

I installed DataMan Pro for real–time monitoring and alerts, and I’ll make sure I keep it under 1 GB per month.

For reference, here’s how we switched things over.

Note: I forgot my restore password and didn’t save it into my password manager, so I couldn’t just restore the data onto my new phone.

Old iPhone 4S

  1. Transfer all media in Photos onto my laptop. (I use Lightroom for my photos.)
  2. Ensure I have backup codes for all online services with two–factor authentication.
  3. Follow these steps from Apple: What to do before selling or giving away your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

New iPhone 5s

  1. Setup new phone — including Touch ID — and log into my Apple account for the various services.
  2. Reinstall apps, starting with the ones required for two–factor authentication. Sign into the App Store, then go to Updates > Purchased.
  3. Setup apps used for two–factor authentication.
  4. Setup other apps. Test.
  5. Reconfigure (read: silence) apps from Notification Center in Settings.
  6. In Settings > Control Center, turn off “Access on Lock Screen”. (Ignore if you’re cool with someone disabling your alarms.)
  7. Other configuration tweaks.

Configuring OpenDNS with AirPort Utility 6.1

I finally added OpenDNS servers to my Apple AirPort Express. (My previous router died while under warranty, and waiting for a replacement would take too long, so I bought an AirPort Express at the Apple Store in Pasadena.)

While their “Configuration for AirPort v7.6.1” instructions are almost spot on, a couple screenshots didn’t reflect what I was seeing in AirPort Utility 6.1.

I couldn’t find anything with an updated screenshot, so I sent one to OpenDNS support. Until they update it, it should look like this:

Goodbye, Steve Jobs

While hunched over my Java textbook on the fourth floor of the university library, I gazed out the windows and saw rain clouds hovering over Pomona. Earlier that morning, my mom complained that it was supposed to rain yesterday. The clouds knew something I didn’t.

At 4:38pm PDT on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011, a flood of Twitter updates moaned that Steve Jobs has died. I didn’t know him personally, but I was stunned. Looking around the huge room, I was unsure if any other students realized the tragic news. (If they were on Facebook or Twitter, I assume they did.)

I found it difficult to focus the rest of the evening.

Fact: I didn’t own an Apple product until the iPod Classic (3rd generation), and the MacBook Air (late 2010) I bought in March 2011.

As a sixth grader, I was part of a group with fascinating computer chops. (Or, something like that.) While I honestly don’t remember much, we demonstrated a slick presentation made for our parents and faculty.

Along with my still functioning iPod Classic, those are my only personal experiences with Apple products. Steve dangled all this stuff in front of me for years. Now that I can finally see myself going completely Apple, he’s gone.

My deepest condolences to his family, friends, and all the lives he’s touched (directly and indirectly).

Thank you, Steve.

Hello, MacBook Air (and Mac OS X)

After much consideration, I finally bought a MacBook Air. It’s my first Mac.

I chose the 11-inch model with a 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB of memory, and 64 GB of SSD flash storage.

PowerMax got my money, not MacMall

I almost bought my Mac from MacMall. But, when I got to the payment step, the math wasn’t correct. The MacBook Air, USB ethernet adapter[1. I bought the USB ethernet adapter just in case.], shipping, and tax didn’t add up to the estimated subtotal (which was six dollars more).

Next, I stumbled onto Oregon-based PowerMax. Their site was visually much more pleasant. After over an hour of reading through their company information about pages, warranty information, and plenty of good feedback, I made my purchase.

Another bonus: I saved on sales tax and opted for free shipping.

After two days of processing and six days in transit, it finally arrived. Thanks PowerMax!

By the way, I finally heard back from MacMall. It took four business days (six days total). While I explicitly stated I did not want to order over the phone, the MacMall Account Executive replied:

If you call my extension I will be able to place the order for you with the correct price.

Wow. No explanation about the math error. That’s a shame.

Setting it up

Opening the box was an elegant experience. I wasn’t rushing. I couldn’t help but snap a few photos.

I’ve been following the directions and suggestions from “How to Switch to the Mac” by Tao of Mac. To minimize any botched accounts, creating a standard user after creating the first Administrator user was stated several times in the article. Once I got that out of the way, and skimmed through the booklet, I was ready to get going.

I updated from Mac OS X 10.6.5 to 10.6.6, plus a slew of other updates, totaling 529 MB. That took about 40 minutes. After rebooting my Mac, an iDVD 7.1.1 Update (36 MB) also needed to be installed.

Another security measure for working at public WiFi hotspots is to configure PPTP VPN to connect to my DD-WRT router at home. (See DD-WRT PPTP Server Configuration for Mac OS X. I needed to force encryption on my router. I should probably update my router firmware, then use OpenVPN.)

Third-party Software

I’ve installed the following:

  • Bean – My current alternative to Q10, a freeware minimal text editor for Windows.
  • Dropbox (referral link) – Now I really need to keep my Dropbox folder tidy, especially since I have a smaller amount of space than my desktop PC
  • F.lux – “It makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.” I’m a long time user.
  • Google Chrome
  • OpenOffice.org – It’s been fine not using Microsoft Word, and I don’t see the need to try iWork at the moment.
  • Synergy and SynergyKM – Allows me to use my keyboard and mouse on my PC to control my MacBook Air.
  • Thunderbird – I didn’t want to try Mail, and I’m used to Thunderbird from Windows.
  • Tofu – Column-ize text to make reading on a widescreen easier. It might come in handy when I’m not reading from Instapaper or Google Reader.
  • VLC
  • StartupSound.prefPane – So I don’t annoy the class with the Mac startup sound if I have to power on or reboot my Mac.

Performance

The boot and wake speeds are ridiculously fast:

  • Cold boot to login screen: 15 seconds
  • Log in to desktop: 7-8 seconds
  • Go to sleep: 2-3 seconds
  • Wake from sleep: 3-5 seconds

With Google Chrome, OpenOffice.org, Bean, Stickies, iCal, and Activity Monitor open, my system is using 1.66 GB of memory, leaving 2.34 GB free. I would be usually running Thunderbird, too, and possibly iTunes. The best part: the system feels incredibly snappy. (I don’t think it’s just cool and new to me. Honest!)

Easter Egg: If you’re on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6), try holding Shift while clicking a stack or folder in your Dock for some slow, smooth opening action.

Other odds and ends

  • Copy my address book from Thunderbird on my PC.
  • Setup printing to my USB-connected HP LaserJet 1020 that’s shared from Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
  • Try MediaRover to sync my iTunes library. I’m not sure if I want to do this, but it depends on the size of my music library. I think it’s under 15 GB.

Why?

I wanted a MacBook Air since it was first released January 29, 2008. With the switch to SSD, it was even more tempting. I don’t need a lot of storage space this laptop won’t be my primary computer.

With a few textbooks, my messenger bag was already heavy. I didn’t want to carry a separate bag for my laptop, nor did I want to lug around one huge bag.

Furthermore, I’m not necessarily biased toward PC or Mac. I see strengths in both. While you can get a PC for much less than a MacBook Air with similar or better specs, it’s not all about specs. It’s a beautiful feeling to put my laptop to sleep in a couple seconds or less, then to jump back into my work much later without missing a beat.

The last six days

After reading Marco Arment’s thoughts on the 2010 MacBook Air, then trying the 11” MacBook Air at the Apple Store, I felt pretty confident that sacrificing screen size wouldn’t affect my usage. I love that it has a full-size keyboard.

So far, I’m extremely happy with it. I write, read (Google Reader or Instapaper), and check email. Speed isn’t a problem. Even right now, I’m typing this blog post from Bean while relaxing on my couch. The screen brightness is set at “4” and I can see everything on my screen pretty comfortably.

As I get accustomed to Mac OS X, you’ll probably start seeing related posts in the near future, so I’m stoked for another layer of diversity here.

If you have any articles for new Mac users, recommended software, or other usage tips, please leave them in the comments.