Apple Significantly Enhances the 27-inch iMac AND ELIMINATES MECHANICAL DRIVES!

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Apple’s workhorse desktop Mac, the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display, hasn’t seen an update since March 2019—nearly a year and a half ago. Happily, the company has finally released a new version of the popular iMac, outfitting it with 10th-generation Intel processors, increasing its RAM and storage capacities, and improving its audio and video capabilities. Prices haven’t changed, with the low-end model starting at $1799, the mid-range model at $1999, and the high-end configuration at $2299.

Separately, although Apple didn’t update either the 21.5-inch iMac or the iMac Pro, it tweaked both of their configurations. The company FINALLY stopped selling the small, inexpensive 21.5-inch iMac with a performance-robbing hard drive. (There is no justification for selling a modern Mac with a mechanical hard drive. It’s bought only by people who unfortunately don’t know the pain that will cause…so I’m thrilled to not have clients complaining about their slow “But-I-just-bought-this,-it’s-brand-new!” Macs.) It now comes with SSDs (solid state drives, i.e., drives with no moving parts, just like in your iPhone.) standard across the line, with a 1 TB Fusion Drive as an alternative. For the iMac Pro, Apple dropped the 8-core Intel Xeon W processor configuration, making the base model a 10-core processor configuration.

There are no industrial design changes this time around, unsurprisingly, but the rest of the enhancements will be extremely welcome to anyone who has been holding out for a new iMac.

Faster Processors

For those who are concerned about performance but don’t want to spend thousands more on an iMac Pro or Mac Pro, Apple increased the 27-inch iMac’s specs in noteworthy ways. You have choices of four of the latest 10th-generation Intel Core processors: a 3.1 GHz 6-core i5, a 3.3 GHz 6-core i5, a 3.8 GHz 8-core i7, and a 3.6 GHz 10-core i9. Performance and cost both rise through that list.

Higher Performance Graphics Chips

Apple also moved to the next-generation AMD Radeon Pro graphics chips, with the Radeon Pro 5300 with 4 GB of memory in the low-end and mid-range models. The high-end model starts with a Radeon Pro 5500 XT with 8 GB of memory, and you can upgrade to a Radeon Pro 5700 with 8 GB for $300 or a Radeon Pro 5700 XT with 16 GB for $500. The more expensive options would be useful for graphics-intensive workflows, complex video editing, or developing 3D content.

Higher RAM Ceiling

All configurations of the 27-inch iMac start with 8 GB, but you can expand that to 16 GB ($200), 32 GB ($600), 64 GB ($1000) or, for the first time in the iMac line, 128 GB ($2600). Unlike on most other Macs, RAM is user-accessible through a panel on the back, so you’d be smart to buy RAM separately, where it will be far cheaper—perhaps as much as two-thirds less.

Increased SSD Storage

Storage is locked at 256 GB for the low-end model, whereas the mid-range model starts at 512 GB and lets you upgrade to 1 TB ($200) or 2 TB ($600). The high-end model also starts at 512 GB, offering the same 1 TB and 2 TB upgrades and adding 4 TB ($1200) and 8 TB ($2400) options. The Fusion Drive is no longer an option for the 27-inch iMac.

Stronger Security and Processing with the T2 Security Chip

New to the 27-inch iMac is Apple’s T2 security chip. Along with encrypting all data on the SSD and ensuring that macOS hasn’t been tampered with at boot, the T2 chip includes custom processors that provide computational improvements for both audio and video. On the downside, the T2 chip’s added security makes certain kinds of troubleshooting and hardware repair difficult or impossible, so it’s extra important to have reliable backups.

Improved Glare and Ambient Light Handling

For those who have problems with screen glare, the 27-inch iMac now offers a $500 option for “nano-texture glass,” which Apple says provides “better viewing under various lighting conditions, such as a bright room or indirect sunlight.” Previously, nano-texture glass was available only for Apple’s Pro Display XDR screen. The iMac’s Retina display also now supports True Tone, enabling it to adjust its color temperature automatically for ambient light conditions.

Better Video and Audio for Videoconferencing

Those who spend their days on video calls will appreciate the new 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a notable improvement on the previous 720p camera. Apple also says the 27-inch iMac now features higher-fidelity speakers and a studio-quality three-mic array for better audio output and input.

Faster Networking

Finally, if you need the ultimate networking performance, a $100 option gets you 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Overall, if you need a powerful desktop Mac with a gorgeous display, you can’t go wrong with the new 27-inch iMac. It’s significantly cheaper than the iMac Pro and more powerful than both the Mac mini and the 21.5-inch iMac. Just remember that some of the options are available only if you start with the high-end configuration.

What We Can Expect from macOS 11.0 Big Sur, iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7

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Every year at its Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple lays out its roadmap for the next releases of each of its operating systems. The COVID-19 pandemic forced Apple to record its keynote presentation ahead of time rather than having it live, but the company doesn’t seem to have tempered its ambitions for macOS 11.0 Big Sur, iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7.

Apple never promises ship dates this early in the process, but it’s a good bet that we’ll see these operating system updates in September or October, given past release dates.

Here’s what to look forward to:

macOS 11.0 Big Sur

Yes, you read that right—the macOS version number finally goes to 11, and it’s named after the Big Sur region of California. Its changes fall into three main categories: design, updates to essential apps, and support for Apple silicon (see our other article about that).

Apple says that macOS 11.0 Big Sur embodies the biggest change in design since the release of Mac OS X in 2001. It still looks familiar but changes nearly every aspect of the visual interface. Window frames are gone, title bars have shrunk and been joined by icon-focused toolbars, and visual complexity has been reduced. Windows and icons are both more rounded than before, and the Dock now sits slightly above the bottom of the screen, much like in iPadOS.

Big Sur also gains a Control Center along the lines of the one in iOS and watchOS, with the twist that you can pin your most-used controls to the top of the menu bar. Apple also revamped Notification Center with features from iOS, making notifications more interactive, grouping them by thread or app, and letting you do more with widgets.

Apple rewrote all its apps to ensure that they’d run natively on Macs with Apple silicon, but some received more substantial changes as well. Messages allows threading in group conversations, lets you @mention people like in Slack or Twitter, and allows you to pin conversations to the top of your list.

Safari exposes more of its privacy-protecting features, allowing you to view a privacy report that shows trackers blocked in the last 30 days, warns you if your account passwords may have been compromised in a data breach, and can translate pages from a number of languages.

Maps provides cycling directions, can include charging stations when routing electric car owners, and provides Apple Guides with travel suggestions. Many other apps, including Photos, Music, Podcasts, Reminders, and Voice Memos receive smaller enhancements.

Remember that new Macs with Apple silicon will require Big Sur, both to support the new Apple processors and for its Rosetta 2 translation environment that makes it possible to run existing Intel-based apps on Macs that lack Intel processors.

macOS 11.0 Big Sur officially supports the following Macs. A few Catalina-capable models from 2012 and 2013 have been dropped.

  • MacBook (early 2015 and later)
  • MacBook Air (mid 2013 and later)
  • MacBook Pro (mid 2013 and later)
  • Mac mini (2014 and later)
  • iMac (2014 and later)
  • iMac Pro (2017 and later)
  • Mac Pro (2013 and later)

iOS 14

Just as macOS Big Sur is the most significant design refresh since Mac OS X, iOS 14 brings a huge change to the look and feel of iOS, thanks to a revamped Home screen. Apple has finally acknowledged that most people know what’s on the first Home screen page and maybe the second, and everything after that is a jumbled mess.

To address that problem, iOS 14 introduces the App Library, which is the rightmost Home screen page. It collects all your apps (below left). It groups apps by Suggestions, Recently Added, and curated categories like Creativity, Entertainment, and Social. Inside each group, all your apps appear alphabetically for easy access. With the App Library, it’s easy to add apps to the Home screen and remove Home screen pages you don’t need anymore.

Even more radical is how iOS 14 lets you break widgets out of Today view and embed them on the Home screen in a variety of sizes (above right). No more opening a weather app just to see the temperature—a widget can give you a quick overview of the conditions and forecast. Or a stock widget can show you just how much AAPL has gone up since the announcement.

You’ll also notice instantly that Siri no longer takes over the entire screen, instead showing you an icon that indicates it’s listening and putting the results in panels on top of whatever app you’re using (below left). Similarly, call notifications will be presented as a standard notification banner rather than obscuring the app you were using (below right). Voice dictation now happens on the device, which should improve responsiveness and privacy. Siri can do translations now, and a new Translate app makes it possible to have a conversation with someone in an unfamiliar language.

Needless to say, there are many other smaller changes. Both Messages and Maps gain the features mentioned previously for macOS. New “App Clips” let you use a tiny bit of an app without installing the whole thing, which is ideal for renting a scooter without having its app, for instance. For those who watch video on an iPhone, iOS 14 now supports picture-in-picture. And for some people, the most welcome change will be the option to specify your own default Web and email apps.

iOS 14 works with the iPhone 6s and first-generation iPhone SE and later, and with the seventh-generation iPod touch.

iPadOS 14

As you’d expect, iPadOS 14 gains all the iOS 14 changes, including the App Library, widgets on the Home screen, and so on. But Apple has also spent some time making iPadOS work more like macOS, redesigning and adding sidebars to many apps, putting toolbars at the top of the screen, and adding pull-down menus to apps like Files. Apple also overhauled the iPadOS search experience, trading the previous full screen look for a simple gray bar that—you guessed it—looks a lot like the macOS Spotlight search interface.

The other massive change for iPadOS is Scribble, Apple’s marketing name for its new handwriting recognition feature. Anywhere you can enter text, you’ll be able to write with your Apple Pencil and have your writing converted to typed text (in English or Chinese, at least). All transcription happens on the device for performance and privacy reasons. You can also select handwritten words by circling them, scratch words to delete them, touch and hold between words to add a space, and more.

In Notes and other apps that support handwriting, you’ll be able to select words or sentences with double and triple taps. A shortcut palette lets you perform common actions without using the onscreen keyboard, including Copy As Text, which lets you copy handwritten text and paste as typed text. Other Apple Pencil gestures include dragging to select and adding or deleting space between sentences or paragraphs. Finally, shape recognition lets you sketch a rough shape and have it automatically converted to a perfectly drawn version.

iPadOS 14 works with the fifth-generation iPad and later, the iPad Air 2 and later, the iPad mini 4 and later, and all models of the iPad Pro.

watchOS 7

Unsurprisingly, watchOS 7 doesn’t deliver as major changes as in Apple’s other operating systems—there simply isn’t room to do as much. Nonetheless, it offers some nice enhancements, starting with new watch faces. For instance, Chronograph Pro has a tachymeter with room for customization, and X‑Large lets you show a single rich complication. You can also add multiple complications from the same app to a face. Once you’ve created the perfect face, you can share it with friends by texting it, emailing it, or posting a link online.

The most notable change in watchOS 7, though, is sleep tracking. Wear your Apple Watch while you sleep, and it will automatically go into sleep mode, turning on Do Not Disturb and preventing the screen from lighting up (but a tap shows a dim time display). watchOS 7 then uses the Apple Watch’s accelerometer to detect sleep states and reports on them when it wakes you up in the morning, either with gentle sounds or taps on your wrist. It will even ask you to charge your Apple Watch before bed if it needs more juice to get through the night, and prompts you to put it on the charger when you wake up so it can get through the day.

The most timely addition to watchOS is handwashing detection and encouragement. When the Apple Watch’s motion sensors and microphone detect that you’re washing your hands, it starts a 20-second timer and encourages you to keep washing through to the end. Plus, when you arrive home after being out, the Apple Watch reminds you to wash your hands. Stay safe out there!

To acknowledge the level that people use the Apple Watch for fitness, Apple has renamed the Activity app to Fitness and added additional workouts for core training, functional strength training, and dance. Plus, you can now use Maps to get on-wrist cycling directions. Siri can translate into ten languages, and watchOS 7 now does on-device dictation for faster and more reliable requests.

watchOS 7 requires at least an iPhone 6s running iOS 14 and an Apple Watch Series 3 or later.

(Featured image by Apple)

 

The Threat Landscape for Apple Devices in 2020

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Mac Threat Landscape 2020

Security company Malwarebytes saw a significant rise in the overall prevalence of threats on computers running macOS in 2019, with an increase of over 400 percent from 2018. However, since you could argue—validly—that part of this was due to a corresponding increase in the total number of macOS devices running Malwarebytes software, it’s more interesting to look at the change in the number of detections per endpoint. Mac detections per endpoint increased from 4.8 in 2018 to a whopping 11.0 in 2019, a figure that is nearly double the same statistic for Windows.

This means that the average number of threats detected on a Mac is not only on the rise, but has surpassed Windows—by a great deal. This is likely because, with increasing market share in 2019, Macs became more attractive targets to cybercriminals. In addition, macOS’ built-in security systems have not cracked down on adware and PUPs to the same degree that they have malware, leaving the door open for these borderline programs to infiltrate.

Further, for the first time ever, Mac threats appeared at the top of Malwarebytes’ overall threat detections. Two Mac threats—NewTab and PCVARK—showed up in second and third place in our list of the most prevalent detections across all platforms.

This is why Patient Computer Help, Inc. recommends installing Malwarebytes for Mac and our associated Apple device management system from Addigy. Together, threats are blocked and your computer is monitored for issues that could hurt your productivity or your data.

Note: If you’re wondering about your iPhone or iPad, malware exists, but there’s no way to scan for it. Most iOS malware is nation-state malware, spread via targeted attacks through iOS vulnerabilities, such as NSO’s Pegasus spyware. China has used this against the Uyfgur people.

 

Should you shut down your computer every night? What is sleep mode?

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One of the most common questions a new computer owner will ask is “Should I shut down my computer every night?”

The simple answer is no. Or, not necessarily. Or, it depends.

In the early days of home computers, we used to shut down our machines at least nightly, and during the day if it was going to be more than an hour or so between uses. Back then, computers didn’t really have the power management features they do now. A computer was either ‘on’, or it was ‘off’. A computer which was powered on but sitting idle was wasting power, generating a fair amount of heat, and adding wear and tear on the hardware.

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Patient Computer Help™ Earns Apple Consultants Network Designation-One of Only Five in Northeast Ohio

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PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
May 2018

Patient Computer Help for Grown Ups™ Earns Apple Consultants Network Designation—One of Only Five in Northern Ohio

 

Chagrin Falls, Ohio – Patient Computer Help for Grown Ups™ (PCH) announced that it has become a member of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN). It is one of only 675 elite IT service providers in North America so designated. In northern Ohio, there are only five ACN members. Patient Computer Help is the only one of those five specializing in residential and small office consulting.

The Apple Consultants Network is made up of independent companies offering IT services based around Apple products. ACN consultants are trained and tested in the implementation and support of the latest Apple technologies (Mac, iOS, Network, Server) annually. Apple created the ACN as a group of consultants in whom they place their trust to work with Apple products. Apple consultants are the only service providers recommended by Apple Stores and on the Apple website.

Patient Computer Help™ supports people with computer and technology issues in their homes and offices, using either an Apple or a Windows platform. However, as a member of the Apple Consultants Network, PCH specializes in supporting Apple Macintosh computers, iPads, iPhones and Apple TVs.

The company also announced the recent appointment of Karen Poccia as Director of New Technology. “Karen comes to us after five years with consulting company Willis Towers Watson. She brings a fresh look at the evolving technologies and demographics that PCH supports,” said Bruce Corson, founder of the company.

He added, “Patient Computer Help is the only ACN in the area specializing in the residential/small office market. By choice, other Apple Consultants focus on the business market exclusively. If you’re a user in your home or small office, Mac or Windows, we’re ready to serve. Ask us anything; we promise we won’t roll our eyes.”

Patient Computer Help for Grown Ups™ has been offering personalized technology consulting services since 2009. We are your best source for patient, understanding help with your computer and other technology in your home or small business, whether Apple or not.

 

Press Contact: Bruce Corson 440-476-3351

Website: PatientComputerHelp.com

Email: bc@patientcomputerhelp.com

Two Sides of Net Neutrality

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Two Sides of Net Neutrality

As the Internet has grown into a vital service for Americans from coast to coast, a number of important issues have come up regarding the operation and management of the networks that comprise it. Chief among these issues is a concept called “net neutrality.” Generally speaking, net neutrality refers to the idea that all Internet service providers should treat all traffic equally, regardless of the content involved or its origin.

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Is my WiFi secure?

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Is my WiFi secure?

Because everything is done online these days, hacking and data theft are very serious problems. Your WiFi network can easily be compromised if it’s not properly secured. If you are like most people, once you have set up your wireless router, you may not think much about its security. As long as you have Internet access on any device you use, that’s all that matters. However, that is a big mistake because your personal and financial information can be vulnerable to hackers. There are several things you can do to ensure that your Wi-Fi is secure.

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How To Use Instagram

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Instagram is a social network that has distinguished itself from others of its kind with its mobile-first, image-oriented style. Rather than writing text posts, Instagram is designed around uploading images and short videos to your profile. It may take some time to get used to its format, but with practice, it’s a great way to socialize with friends.

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What is “The Cloud”?

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What is "The Cloud"

You’ve heard it before, that phrase, “the cloud.” People throw it around as a corporate buzzword, promote it as a selling point, and gild it like some sort of holy grail of computing, but what exactly is it? The answer isn’t always clear, but let’s go over some of the basic tenets to help better define “the cloud.”

In general terms, the cloud is the Internet. All that cyberspace between your coffee shop wifi and the servers that power Facebook, from Amazon to Bing to Pinterest, it’s all of those and the web of connections that ties them together. More importantly, it’s the infrastructure, and the idea behind it, that forms this mysterious cloud.

Accessible Anywhere

One of the main ideas behind the cloud is that everything is “out there” — stored on a server, or in all likelihood, multiple servers, on the Internet, rather than on the computer sitting on your lap. There’s little or no software to install, and in fact, most of the time you simply use the browser (i.e., Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari) already on your device to access the cloud. That means since it’s “out there,” it’s accessible from nearly anywhere: the public computers at the library, your friend’s notebook PC, your iPad, your Android phone — you get the idea.

No, we’re not just talking your files and photos, though that’s a large part of it. Now, entire applications run in the cloud. The technical name is “software as a service,” and it runs right in the browser, too. Google Drive is a prime example — when you normally would have used Microsoft Word or Excel on your desktop computer, you can now use Google Docs for word processing, and Google Sheets for spreadsheets and there’s nothing to show for it on your hard drive. It exists in the cloud. Of course, you can download the files, if you so choose, but, typically, there’s no toting around a floppy disk or USB thumb drive; you simply log in to the cloud from wherever you may be.

Works Everywhere

In the very near past, your choice of operating system could limit which software you installed on your machine. Now, it’s all taken care of for you: if you have a browser, you have the ability to run the software. Granted, the experience may not always be the best, say, on your phone’s smaller screen, but the infrastructure and the idea are still there.

No Upgrade Treadmill

Remember the time you bought that accounting software at your local computer store, then turned around the next week and a shiny new version had just been released? That’s right, you bought version 10 when version 11 was just around the corner. Now you have to pony up some more cash — maybe the full retail price, maybe just an upgrade fee — if you want the latest features. With the cloud, that’s a thing of the past. Sure, there are regular updates and improvements, but they simply replace what was already there in the cloud. The catch is, unlike the one-time software license fees of old, you’re typically now subscribing to that software as a service with a monthly or annual fee, so it’s a bit of give and take.

Built in Backups

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of all this is if your computer crashes or your hard drive gets fried in a lightning storm, your files are safe out there in the cloud. Typically, data are distributed across multiple servers, perhaps multiple locations, and maybe even in multiple countries across the globe (which is also something to think about in terms of legal ramifications), so it would likely take quite the catastrophic event to wipe out your stuff.

So, now you don’t have to wonder what exactly you’re getting yourself into when you dabble in the cloud. There’s no real mystery involved: it’s simply businesses providing you services remotely from servers connected to the Internet.

Luckily, we at Patient Computer Help are here to help you navigate the cloud, should you have any questions.