The IT Nerd

Last year’s macOS High Sierra was a bit of a disaster for Apple. It was buggy and it also suffered from a very nasty and embarrassing bug that allowed anyone to gain root level access. The optics were not that good for Apple. Thus they had to bring something to the table that was much, much better. macOS Mojave was intended to be that.

From an install standpoint, it was easy and orderly. I had no hiccups or anything like that with any of the machines that I tried it on. And it took under an hour for the most part.

First, let’s deal with the one feature that people are making a big deal about. Dark Mode. While for me it’s not a game changer, many of my friends who do photo editing and video editing for a living are thrilled to bits that this feature is present as it makes it easier to do what they have to do for 8 to 10 hours a day. You’ll be asked to enable it after you install Mojave (Which by the way, I did not. But I did try it to see what it was like before switching back to a normal desktop).

But one feature that does mean something to me is Desktop Stacks. It automatically groups items on your desktop into “stacks” of similar types of things. So one stack collects images, another collects screenshots, another collects PDFs, and so on. Because of that, I am able to find stuff quickly and easily.

Another feature that means something to me is that screenshots works in a similar fashion just like it does on iOS. Press Shift-Command-5 and a small panel will appear at the bottom of the screen. There are three screenshot buttons that let you capture the entire screen, a window or a selection of your screen. Likewise, the two video-recording buttons let you record your entire screen or a selection of it. On the left is an X button to close the screenshot panel, but you can also just hit the Escape key to exit out. On the right side is an Options button. It lets you choose where to save your screenshot — Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages or Preview — and set a 5- or 10-second delay so you can line up items that might otherwise disappear when you engage your screenshot tool. This is a definite boost for someone like me who takes screenshots frequently.

There’s a bunch of random stuff that you might or might not care about:

• Dynamic Desktop lets you choose from one of two wallpapers that automatically change throughout the day. Yawn.
• There’s a new Gallery view option in Finder which seems like it could be helpful for photographers.
• Safari is also doing more to block websites from tracking you around the web. Everyone should care about that. Though I suspect Facebook among others will be none too pleased.
• There’s now a feature where passwords can be audited and strong passwords are enforced with websites and the like.
• Apple is working on a way to port iOS apps to macOS. Why I am not sure. But as proof of their efforts, Notes, News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and Home have been ported across and work much like the iOS versions. With the exception of News which didn’t work for me because I am in Canada and sometimes Canada can’t get nice things from Apple like Apple Pay Cash and News. But I digress. This is clearly meant as part of Apple’s strategy to drive you to use iCloud more as they hope that you’ll store data in iCloud so that all your iDevices get access to it.
• The Mac App Store has been redesigned and that’s something that has been long overdue as the look of it was very dated.
• 32-Bit apps on the Mac are on the way out and the OS will let you know when you run one of them so that you can update it because next year, you won’t be able to run that app at all.
• Siri seems marginally smarter. But not as smart as Siri on my Apple Watch or my iPhone.
• Software update is now outside the App Store and inside System Preferences where it should have been in the first place.
• Messages is now exclusively an iMessage/SMS client. Support for AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and any other service based on the XMPP/Jabber protocol is gone.
• The ability to add social networking accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn is gone. I’m guessing that it also means that Apple doesn’t have to fix this issue that I reported to them.
• OpenGL and OpenCL support is gone in favor of Apple’s in house Metal graphics API. Something that has already riled up game developers who are now making noises about abandoning the Mac platform. Their anger makes zero sense as OpenGL and OpenCL support are largely dead or dying APIs anyway.
• Back To My Mac is gone. What you didn’t use it? Neither did anyone else.
• There’s a new login screen with easier to read text. If you’re 45 or older, you’ll rejoice over this change.

So let’s get to security. Apple is trying to up their game when it comes to security. To that end, apps are now required to get your permission to access your Mac’s microphone and camera. Which makes macOS kind of like iOS which has done that for years. It’s also supposed to protect your personal info like contacts and the like. But right out of the gate that’s already been proven to be flawed and will likely require a fix sooner rather than later. It also requires apps like Carbon Copy Cloner to be given full access to the disk. Now all of this won’t bother more technical users. But I can see how less technical users might be a bit peeved by all this extra security. Though I will note that all this extra security is for the benefit of everyone.

Bugs? I haven’t found anything of note so far. But it’s early days yet on that front so we’ll see in the coming days.

Is Mojave worth the upgrade? Well, it’s free and brings a number of interesting new features to the table and is a much better effort than High Sierra was. But as always I’d wait until the first bug fix update appears before making the jump.

Frequent readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of the Apple Watch. I’ve had the Series 2, the Series 3 with GPS, and the Series 3 with GPS + Cellular and today I’m bringing you the latest Apple Watch which is the Series 4 with GPS + Cellular:

The model that you see below is the 44mm model in space grey Aluminum (a stainless steel model is also available along with a Nike+ model and so is an insanely priced Hermes model that is basically a stainless steel model with a really expensive watch band, a sport band, unique packaging, and a unique watch face). And that’s the first big change to the Apple Watch. They have new sizing which are 40mm and 44mm. But that doesn’t mean that they are bigger because they are not. The 40mm watch is the same physical size as the 38mm from the Series 3 or below. And the 44mm is the same physical size as the 42mm from the Series 3 or below. However each watch is a tad bit thinner than the Series 3 and below which means it looks a bit more sleek on the wrist. So, what does the new sizing mean? It’s a reference to the new display which depending on the model you get is going to be at least 30% bigger. Not to mention they seem brighter and sharper to me. And that is something that you will notice and appreciate right out of the gate. The new screens make the watch far easier to read. And things like notifications simply look better. Plus it allows you to use some unique watch faces to put way more info in front of you. One watch face allows nine complications for example. Thus I fully expect app developers to leverage that. It also means that you don’t necessarily need to get the biggest watch to see the screen. In my case, if I didn’t have an investment in 42mm watch bands (which fit the 44mm watch by the way just fine… 38mm watch bands fit the 40mm watch as well), I might have gone for the 40mm version.

There’s some other changes as well.

The speaker is twice as large as last year and you can hear the difference. Especially if you are on a phone call.

The huge red dot that let everyone on planet Earth know that you have a cellular Apple Watch is gone and replaced by a smaller more discreet ring. The crown has another hidden feature in the form of haptic feedback. That makes scrolling through stuff feel a lot more natural. The crown also acts as an electrode for an all new ECG feature. More on that in a second. The microphone which is the dot to the left of the crown is there to reduce echo during a phone call.

The back is made entirely of black ceramic and sapphire. That’s to make it easier for the watch to connect to cellular and WiFi. The heart rate sensor is a brand new design. The rings around the heart rate sensor are the new electrical heart rate sensors, which will be used to perform ECGs once that feature rolls out later this fall in the US. Who knows when it will show up elsewhere as Apple isn’t saying.

Under the hood is a new 64 bit S4 processor which makes it almost twice as fast as the Series 3. You do notice it, but it wasn’t the dramatic jump that I observed when I went from the Series 2 to the Series 3. Still it’s a welcome jump as even the Series 3 could occasionally bog down. watchOS 5 which you can read about here is preinstalled and really leverages this platform. Along for the ride is the ability to detect falls. For some people like seniors, that’s a game changer as it will detect a fall, ask you if you’re okay or if you didn’t fall, and if you don’t respond quick enough phone emergency services and a contact or contacts that you define. However, when I tested it, I set it off by doing jumping jacks. And I suspect if I fall while cross country skiing which tend to be (mostly) painless falls, I may do the same thing. Thus if you have a more active lifestyle, you may want to think about whether you want to turn it on or not as it is off by default. In my case it is off but I am considering turning it back on. Finally, all Apple Watch models now have 16GB of storage for music, apps and the like.

I picked this up from my local Telus store and set it up an hour later. As always, setting up an Apple Watch on the Telus network was dead easy and the total process to do that and move over everything from my previous Apple Watch was less than 45 minutes. Using this Apple Watch for the last few days has been interesting. Beyond the screen which is far easier for me to see, the only time I took a phone call on the Apple Watch the person on the other end of the phone noted that my voice was clear and easy to understand. One other thing I noted was that cellular performance was better with this Apple Watch as I was able to get notifications in my condo’s underground parking lot where getting any cellular connectivity wasn’t possible previously. Battery life is about the same as my previous Apple Watch which I have to admit is a bit of a let down as I hoped that Apple would have at least tried to move the needle on that that front.

So here’s the question that you want answered: Should you get an Apple Watch Series 4? Well, that depends on who you are:

• If you own an original Apple Watch or a Series 0 – 2 Apple Watch, run to your local Apple Store and buy one. Do it now. You will thank me.
• If you have a Series 3 Apple Watch, the screen is going to be the only reason why you upgrade. For those who fit in that category, they may have to think about it before they pull the trigger on the Series 4.
• If you don’t have an Apple Watch and have been thinking of getting one, this is a no brainer as this is the Apple Watch that you have been waiting for.

Here in Canada the Apple Watch Series 4 with GPS starts at $519 CDN. The model that you see above which is GPS and Cellular starts at $649 and in either case they go up from there. Minus the lack of increase to the battery life, Apple has a winner with this version of the Apple Watch as they’ve managed to come out with a package that is well thought through and a coherent package.

Apple dominates the wearables market with the Apple Watch. A big reason for that is this dominance is the operating system that runs the Apple Watch which is watchOS. In the fifth iteration of this operating system, it’s been refined to not only provide a much better user experience. That starts with Siri. You can now invoke Siri by raising the Apple Watch and speaking to it without saying “hey Siri”. It takes some practise to get it right, but once you figure it out it is a handy feature. Though I have to admit that it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world to say “hey Siri” to get her to do something. But at least you have a choice as to how to invoke Siri for the first time.

If you run third party audio apps on your Apple Watch, they can run in the background and they also have access to the digital crown to allow you to control the volume. That’s neat and will be welcomed by users. Another welcome addition is a new podcasts app that supports automatic syncing of podcasts. That will likely be a feature that is welcomed by those with the LTE version of the Apple Watch as that has twice the memory as the WiFi only version.

watchOS 5 also builds on the solid fitness foundation that watchOS has with activity competitions where you can challenge your friends and win awards, expanded Workout types such as hiking and yoga, automatic workout detection which means that if the Watch thinks your running it will offer to start a workout, and advanced running statistics such as target pace. Though as my wife pointed out, you can’t configure multiple paces among other things. Which means you still have to find an Apple Watch app with those capabilities. But I’m pretty sure that these additions will motivate people to be more active. But one thing that I do have to say is that if I start a long walk, the Watch can be a bit too eager to offer to start a workout when all I am doing is walking to the local corner store down the block.

One feature that I wasn’t able to test was the new Walkie Talkie feature. This feature will allow you to send short audio messages to someone else. As long as you both have an Apple Watch running watchOS 5 and you’ve both added each other to Walkie Talkie. It sounds like a gimmick. But I think that Apple might be on to something here as I can see that this might be a niche use case for some users of the Apple Watch. Families for example as this method of communication may be less obtrusive than a phone call. Especially for a quick message such as “I’m on my way” or “I just got here.”

One big addition that most people will care about is that watchOS 5 now has the ability to allow you to connect to any WiFi access point which will give you a reason to not tote your iPhone around the office for example. Especially for those who have the WiFi version of the Apple Watch. That is as long as it is not a 5GHz Wi-Fi network, or it is a captive network or some sort. But assuming that you fit this use case, it works. Mostly. By that I mean that if you have a simple WiFi network with password authentication, it will work just fine based on my testing. But if you try to connect to a WiFi network that is more sophisticated such as an 802.1x network that requires a username and password and requires a certificate to be downloaded to the Apple Watch, your mileage may vary. In my tests of that scenario, it worked maybe 25 percent of the time. The rest of the time it failed to connect and claimed that my password was wrong which. But it wasn’t. That implies that Apple may have some work to do on this front. Another thing to note is that Apple requires you to use the scribble feature to enter the password. That can be frustrating if you have never done that before. But once you get the hang of scribble, it’s really not a big deal.

Another big addition is that the Mail app finally displays HTML content. That way you don’t have to fish out your phone to read an email. Which in turn enhances the fact that you can leave your phone behind and just rely on the Apple Watch.

Gripes? Well, I have noted that the user interface is kind of buggy. For example there is the odd occasion where I try to respond to a text message in Messages and when I use a canned response, Messages disappears and I simply hear the sound that indicates that I have sent the message. But because I am not 100% sure that I have used the right canned response, I have to go back into messages to check to make sure. But that is minor in the grand scheme of things as this is a solid iteration of Apple’s wearable OS. If you have an Apple Watch, you should download this and install this ASAP as it is a major step forward for Apple Watch owners.

Last year’s iOS 11 was far from Apple’s best effort to say the least. It also had multiple security issues. It wasn’t Apple’s best moment. Thus you’d think that iOS 12 would have to be substantially better. At best, it is only marginally better.

Here’s the good first before I get to the bad. The big news is that Apple promised that this update would make your iPhone feel faster. For the most part they’ve delivered on that as this is the first iOS update that didn’t feel slower than the last update. And so far, I am only noticing a slight hit on battery life. By that I mean that the battery drain that this enhanced performance causes is so slight that it’s almost not worth mentioning.

Notifications are now grouped together and easier to manage. That way they are far less overwhelming. This is another welcome change that users will appreciate. Users will also appreciate  the new features in the Do Not Disturb functionality. Specifically the ability to set a specific hour for bedtime and calls, texts, and notifications will be silenced until whatever time you set to wake up. While I still wish for a option to program weekday and weekend Do Not Disturb times, this is a welcome addition. Screen Time is an option that is meant to curb smartphone addition by tracking and even limiting your smartphone usage. I won’t be using this feature personally, but there are many who will.

Siri got some love in this update via Siri Shortcuts which will allow you to create complex actions and trigger them using Siri. For example turning on your HomeKit enabled security system when you leave the house via a Siri command. And the love continues in Siri Suggestions which can tell you to call someone back if you have missed a call for example. The built in apps have been nipped and tucked, and there’s a new one called Measure. This app not only acts as a tape measure and a level, it also shows off Apple’s ARKit 2.0 functionality. Photos is another app that is worth mentioning as the tweaks that it got makes finding and organizing photos easier. Finally, CarPlay will finally allow you to use Waze or Google Maps instead of Apple Maps. At least you’ll be able to use them once updated versions of those apps ship.

So now to the bad. It’s like iOS 11 still shockingly buggy. Let’s start with CarPlay where the Mail notification sound is no longer suppressed in CarPlay. That in my business is called a regression which is a situation where something worked and then broke. It’s also a sign that Apple’s QA didn’t do their job. I’ve also noted user interface bugs in Mail which have been present since iOS 11 where you can go through a list of messages until there’s nothing that is marked as being unread, but you will still see that a message is unread. And browsing the Internet indicates that others have tripped over other iOS 12 bugs as well. Now based on past history, Apple is likely to come out with a quick update to squash bugs in the original release of iOS 12 in the next week or two. But frankly, stuff like this should have never made it out the door and it highlights how far Apple has slipped when it comes to their software quality.

So, should you update to iOS 12? Maybe after the first bug fix comes out you should because even with all the enhancements that Apple has done, I’m finding it difficult to say that you should dive right in given the negatives that I have outlined above. Once they are (hopefully) addressed, then give it a shot.