Meeting Announcements

The next Mini’app’les meeting is Tuesday, June 21st, the third Tuesday of the month, at the Hackfactory (3119 E. 26th Street Minneapolis, MN 55406). At 6:30 p.m., members of the board and other knowledgable people will be available if you have specific questions you would like answered. We will do our best to address your question and help you troubleshoot the issue.

At 7:00 p.m., we will look at Apple’s recent announcements at WWDC 2016 (World Wide Developer Conference). Apple announced updates to their 4 lines of operating systems. iOS 10 has a focus of improving Siri. macOS Sierra brings Siri to Apple’s desktops and laptops with many other improvements. watchOS 3 improves app launch times. tvOS 10 will bring a single sign-on for cable services and a dark mode. Of course that just brushes the top of all that was announced. We will talk about the rest, when you will be able to get it, and on what machines.

We look forward to seeing you there.

The next Mini’app’les meeting is Tuesday, May 17th, the third Tuesday of the month, at the Hackfactory (3119 E. 26th Street Minneapolis, MN 55406). At 6:30 p.m., members of the board and other knowledgable people will be available if you have specific questions you would like answered. We will do our best to address your question and help you troubleshoot the issue.

At 7:00 p.m., we will cover some current news and then we will look at storage options for your Mac and iOS devices. As we take more pictures or expand our music library or save more files, we need to store them somewhere. And eventually, the space we currently have will not be enough. So we will consider the pros and cons of different expansion options, for both primary storage and backups. Factors such as storage space available, physical size and portability, type of connections, and even the type of storage will help determine the best choice for you.

Come and share the storage options you have chosen and see how you might improve your setup. We look forward to seeing you there.

The next Mini’app’les meeting is Tuesday, April 19th, the third Tuesday of the month, at the Hackfactory (3119 E. 26th Street Minneapolis, MN 55406). At 6:30 p.m., members of the board and other knowledgable people will be available if you have specific questions you would like answered. We will do our best to address your question and help you troubleshoot the issue.

After talking about some of the current news, we look at productivity tips at 7:00 p.m.. We all want to get the most done with the least amount of effort. Several members have volunteered to show us different methods that have helped them be more productive for the tasks they need to get done. Sometimes the things we consider mundane are the tips that others are looking for to solve something for them. We hope you will join us and share tips that help you be more productive.

The next Mini’app’les meeting is Tuesday, March 15th, the third Tuesday of the month, at the Hackfactory (3119 E. 26th Street Minneapolis, MN 55406). At 6:30 p.m., members of the board and other knowledgable people will be available if you have specific questions you would like answered. We will do our best to address your question and help you troubleshoot the issue.

After talking about some of the current news, we look at security at 7:00 p.m.. We will look at different options for securing your Mac & iOS device, how to stay safe (or at least safer) when connecting to someone else’s network, and talk about questions such as “Do I need to run an anti-virus program?”, “What is ransomware?”, and “What do I do when I can’t get a Safari window to close?”

While there is no need to think that every WiFi network has been compromised and every USB charger is going to steal info from our device, we do need to be aware of the security issues and be able make informed decisions of how we protect our information.

We look forward to seeing you there.

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Meeting Notes & Links

News

• Ray Tomlinson, email inventor who picked the @ sign for addresses, dies
• Pentium? Core i5? Core i7? Making sense of Intel’s convoluted CPU lineup
• Turn-by-Turn Navigation Showdown: Google Maps vs. Waze
• There’s a New SD Card Class | SD 5.0 VSC SD Is Faster & More Stable
• New OS X Ransomware KeRanger Infected Transmission BitTorrent Client Installer
• Living with: Kaspersky Internet Security
• Security tips from a super-hacker: Kevin Mitnick’s advice on protecting laptops, smartphones, and more
• [Tutorial] Disable iOS system animations (opening, closing and switching between apps) without jailbreaking (not Reduce Motion, no cross fade)
• Apple’s software SVP says quitting multitasking apps not necessary, won’t offer improved battery life
• Bill Gates says he doesn’t back FBI in case vs. Apple, encourages more discussion
• Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’

Security

• Delete Specific Application Saved States from Mac OS X Resume – reset Safari to avoid a nefarious site/installation
• Malwarebytes – malware scanner
• ClamXav – anti-virus/malware
• Little Snitch – inbound firewall
• Sophos Home – anti-virus/malware
• Bitdefender – anti-virus/malware
• DetectX – malware removal
• BlockBlock – monitors for installation of persistent daemons or agents
• DrivePulse (included with Drive Genius) – monitors changes to login items
• That One Privacy Guy’s VPN Comparison Chart
• TorGuard – Anonymous VPN
• Viscosity – OpenVPN client (included free with TorGuard subscription)

New Apps/Hardware

• HooToo Wireless Travel Router
• FileBrowser – Access files on remote computers
• Paragon NTFS – Write to NTFS volumes
• Issuu: A world of magazines. Free.

The next Mini’app’les meeting is Tuesday, February 16th, the third Tuesday of the month, at the Hackfactory (3119 E. 26th Street Minneapolis, MN 55406). At 6:30 p.m., members of the board and other knowledgable people will be available if you have specific questions you would like answered. We will do our best to address your question and help you troubleshoot the issue.

After talking about some of the current news, we look at media streaming at 7:00 p.m..  There is of course iTunes and AppleTV, but there are other options that might fit your setup better. Several people have different solutions and will share them tomorrow. We will cover some tips and tricks that can make streaming media easier for you regardless of how you want to do it.

We look forward to seeing you there.

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Meeting Notes & Links

News

• Pointers Extra: Recovering your iPhone from a January 1, 1970 crash
• ‘Other’ storage on your iPhone and iPad explained
• Never mind encryption, 1 in 3 Android devices don’t even use lock screen PINs
• 3 Ways Experts and Users Disagree on Smartphones
• Here’s where iPhones are the most expensive — and the cheapest
• Apple’s iPad Pro outsold Microsoft’s entire Surface lineup over the holidays
• Class-Action Lawsuit Against Seagate Built On Questionable Backblaze Reliability Report
• The State of LTE
• How Much Data Does a FaceTime Call Use?
• People are being super mean to Tim Cook about his blurry Super Bowl photo
• Why you should use your iPhone with a Bluetooth keyboard as your main travel computer
• VPNify.me – World’s First Localized VPN Speed Testing Tool-Find The Fastest VPN
• Approach to runway 27R Heathrow Airport visit london approach london landing pilot

Streaming Media

• Peter’s streaming media setup presentation
• AntennaWeb – Determine antenna location/direction
• HDHomeRun – OTA/cable TV tuners
• MCEBuddy – Convert video files for optimized playback/cut commercials/rename files for Plex
• Comskip – Cut out tv commercials
• Roku – Stream media on TV
• Plex – Media player and server
• MakeMKV – Rip/transcode DVDs into files
• HandBrake – Rip/transcode DVDs into files
• Roxio Easy VHS to DVD
• gPodder – Download video podcasts and YouTube videos