What Is All This?

I realize that most people may not be familiar with any of the applications I’m talking about here, so let’s get some definitions out of the way first.

• Google Reader is the dominant application used to follow and read the RSS feeds that are everywhere on the Internet, from blogs to sites like twitter and foursquare. But Reader doesn’t make any money for Google so they’re shutting it down on July 1, 2013. Reader is essentially a back-end database of subscribed feeds and read/unread post information, plus a front-end web application and API.
• Reeder is a great native mobile front-end app for Google Reader. It enables offline use and is much quicker than a web app like Reader or Feedbin. It’s available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS X.
• Feedbin is like Google Reader: A web app and back end for reading RSS feeds.

So you use Reeder to take Reader or Feedbin on the go, keeping up with RSS wherever you are!

Moving to Feedbin

Google’s “Takeout” service allows you to export your entire Reader account as OPML, and Feedbin accepts this same file! I clicked “Settings” in Reader, then “Import/Export” and “Download your data through Takeout“.

It’s nice that your entire Google Reader account can be exported with just a few clicks!

Takeout took quite a while to export my Reader account, and I was surprised to see it weigh in at over 32 MB. But hey, I guess I’m an active user! After an hour or so, Takeout allowed me to download the file to my computer and I logged out of Reader one last time.

Exporting with Google Takeout seemingly took forever!

Reader took so long to export my account, that I began poking around in Reeder on my iPhone and found an option to export my subscriptions as an OPML file right there. Cool! That’s what I was waiting for Reader to do! So I exported there, mailing the OPML immediately to myself. No more waiting!

Why wait for Google?!

Swinging over to Feedbin, I signed up for an account, deciding to go ahead and pay $20 for a year of service (it’s also available at $2 per month). After all, I’m going to use the heck out of Feedbin and I wanted to offer the developer some incentive to make it great!

Logging into Feedbin, I immediately headed to “Settings”, then “Import/Export”, and uploaded the OPML file from my Reeder email. I suppose that the Google Takeout file might have worked too, but I didn’t try it.

Hello there, Feedbin!

Feedbin failed to import the OPML file a few times, giving strange error messages, but I kept trying. Eventually it “took” with my whole set of hundreds of RSS feeds appearing by magic! Feedbin preserved my “tags” as well, essentially folders for organizing feeds a-la Gmail.

More Feedbin Settings

In order properly to replace Google Reader, I set a few more settings in Feedbin. First, under the main “Settings” pane, I enabled my “starred entry feed”. I use Google Reader stars to feed Buffer through IFTTT, and will swing this over to Feedbin in short order.

It’s also a good idea to set the “Hide tagged feeds” option so that it will match Google Reader, but I held off on this until cleaning house (see below).

I love the open Sharing settings in Feedbin, but didn’t yet have a use for it. We’ll see what I do with it in the future!

Next, I opened Reeder on my iPhone and switched over from Google Reader to Feedbin. I removed the Reader account and added the Feedbin settings and everything burst to life! I also use it on the iPad and Mac but they’re not updated for Feedbin yet. Here’s hoping that comes soon!

Cleaning House

The only issue with Reeder as the source for the OPML file is you lose all of your stars and read/unread information. Presumably the huge Google file would have included these. But I took this as an opportunity to revisit my subscriptions and feed organization, clearing out dozens of old, worthless feeds.

Google Reader used to allow you to subscribe to the same feed multiple times, clogging the application with duplicate posts. This was fixed a few years back, but there was no deduplication feature so old-timers like me (and presumably most of Reader’s clientele) still had dupes. Feedbin preserved these dupes too, so I manually went through my subscriptions, nuking the dupes and anything that hadn’t been updated since the Bush administration.

One note: it appears that Reeder doesn’t update and remove unsubscribed feeds right away, or perhaps there was a bug in the program. They were stripped of their tags but still appeared. And I couldn’t unsubscribe there either. But, the next day, all of those feeds disappeared. So that’s good!

Once I got through this process, I went through and marked all of the feeds as “read” in the Feedbin web app. Now I was good to go!

How Is Feedbin/Reeder?

Feedbin works pretty well in my opinion. It’s nowhere near as quick as Reader was, but I believe developer Ben Ubois is working to improve performance. Now that he has more paying customers, he has every incentive to make it great!

I’m not sure the combination of Feedbin and Reeder is entirely stable and complete yet. Reeder can’t tag feeds, apparently, and I’m not 100% convinced that all of my feeds are showing up when I sync Reeder. But I’m sure they’re working to improve this and stomp out any bugs!

I decided to delete my Feedbin account in Reeder and re-add it. This seems to have helped re-sync the feeds with the mobile app with no harm done.

Stephen’s Stance

I am pleased to report that I now have a fully functional replacement or Google Reader, even retaining Reeder app compatibility on the iPhone! But there are still some loose ends: Reeder for iPad and Mac has not yet been updated to support Feedbin, and that web app is frustratingly slow on the iPad. Still, it’s a satisfactory setup so far and looks to get better in the future!

One aspect of Feedbin that I really like is the fact that it is a paid application. Google killed Reader because they couldn’t make any money out of it, and it requires resources to keep an RSS back end running. Paying for applications is the right thing, especially when they are as critical to your Internet experience as RSS readers are to me! Feedbin and Reeder are well worth the money!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2013. | Replacing Google Reader With Feedbin and Reeder
This post was categorized as Apple, Features, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Mophie Juice Pack Air really delivers the goods, giving my iPhone 5 all-day power

The iPhone Needs Juice

I was initially quite impressed by the iPhone 5′s battery life. It definitely lasted longer than my iPhone 4S in day-to-day use! But over time, it has deteriorated significantly. So much so, that I am beginning to wonder if my battery is defective. It recently dropped from 20% to powering off in less than a minute!

Even a brand-new fully-charged iPhone 5 really doesn’t last all day for a heavy user like me, and I doubt any phone will for a long time. I received a Mophie Juice Pack for my iPhone 4 as a gift, and it really helped when I was traveling. But that Juice Pack doesn’t fit on an iPhone 5, so I gave it away.

That’s why I was so pleased to hear Mophie announce the availability of a Juice Pack for the iPhone 5.

But, boy, did they fumbled this launch! The Juice Pack Helium came out first, priced at $79 but not packing enough power for a full iPhone 5 recharge. Then Mophie announced the Juice Pack Air for the iPhone 5, priced at $99 and matching the internal battery’s capacity. I can’t imagine they will sell many Heliums, since the Air is almost as thin and light, and brings much better performance for only a little more money!

If you’re interested, here’s a great comparison of the Juice Pack Helium and Juice Pack Air

Buying a Juice Pack Air

The Juice Pack Air is not yet widely available, though the Helium can be found in the Apple Store and online. In fact, the Air is only this week beginning to appear in stores! My local Best Buy store had at least 3 of each color, however, so I decided to pick one up there instead of ordering from Amazon. That said, I’ve embedded a live Amazon pricing widget below so you can grab one from them if you want.

The Juice Pack comes in a slim and attractive package that opens easily instead of the typical hard plastic shell. I love that it is pre-charged so you can take it out and start using it immediately. This is a big help for someone desperate for a charge on the go!

The Juice Pack package includes a Micro-USB cable and a short headphone extender. The former is necessary since, even though it features a Lightning connector internally, the Juice Pack uses Micro-USB to charge. The latter is just a nice thing to have, since some headphones won’t fit into the hole in the bottom of the case.

The Juice Pack Air in Real Life

Overall, I’m impressed by the Juice Pack Air. It’s well built, with a nice slightly-rubbery texture. The bottom snaps on very securely and features nice “speaker redirectors” so you can still hear the phone. The Air is quite slim, too, adding very little bulk to the phone!

Unlike previous Juice Packs, the Air for iPhone 5 is a slide-in design, making it easier to insert and remove the phone. And the integrated volume, mute, and power switches are much easier to use than the recessed cutout on the iPhone 4 Air and iPhone 5 Helium cases! The power switch and charge LEDs are now on the back rather than the bottom and they seem well-built too.

I do have an issue with the Micro-USB port. It’s charge-only, so you can’t use it to sync or connect to a vehicle entertainment system (like the Sync system in our Ford Flex). I’m not really troubled at having to bring along another cable (I already carry a Micro-USB cable anyway) but the lack of data passthrough is a surprising design defect.

My partial solution is to carry the Apple Micro-USB to Lightning adapter on a Micro-USB cable rather than the official lightning cable. That way, I can charge the Juice Pack or connect the iPhone using the same cable. But I still can’t jack into the phone without pulling off the bottom of the Juice Pack. I would have preferred data passthrough or a Lightning port on the Juice Pack.

Stephen’s Stance

The Mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone 5 is well worth the money for folks on the go who need more battery live. It’s slim and light enough to carry all the time and helps protect the phone to boot! Although the charge-only Micro-USB port is a disappointment, the increasingly-wireless world means I can live with it. Overall, it’s a solid buy.

Buy one at Amazon and help support my blog!

Pros:

• Doubles the iPhone 5 battery life (or more, if your phone is on the older side)
• Well-built, slim-ish and light-ish enough to carry
• Nice design touches like slide-in design and integrated volume buttons
• Comes pre-charged in easy-to-open packaging

Cons:

• Charge-only Micro-USB port means you’ll have more cables to carry and might have to rip off the bottom sometimes
• $99 is a little pricey
• The availability of an inferior Helium model will confuse customers

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2013. | Mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone 5: Hands-On Review
This post was categorized as Apple. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

How to Encrypt the Nifty MiniDrive

First, it’s important to remember that you’re not really encrypting the Nifty MiniDrive at all; instead, you are encrypting the Micro SDXC card it contains. The MiniDrive is transparent to the operating system, as it contains no or logic circuits. So this same guy applies to encrypting any SDXC card!

Second, since I am using an SDXC card, some of these steps might change somewhat for plain SD cards. SDXC was designed to use the ExFAT filesystem, but they retain the same MBR partitioning scheme of previous cards. This doesn’t mean they can’t be repartitioned with GPT and reformatted with HFS+, however!

Without more fuss, here’s the steps to encrypt the SDXC card in your Nifty MiniDrive!

You have to click a lot to get Disk Utility to repartition your Nifty MiniDrive SD card correctly!

1. First, we repartition the card with GPT and HFS+

   1. Open Disk Utility

   2. Select “Apple SDXC Reader Media”

   3. Click “Partition”

   4. Select “1 Partition” in the Partition Layout drop down

   5. Click “Options…”

   6. Select “GUID Partition Table” and click “OK”

   7. Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in the Format drop down

   8. Give it a Name

   9. Click “Apply”

   10. Click “Partition”
   11. Quit Disk Utility
2. Now let’s tell Mac OS X to encrypt this new device
   1. Open a Finder window
   2. Find Nifty in the left side menu
   3. Option-click and select “Encrypt Nifty”
   4. Enter a strong Encryption password and hint
   5. Click “Encrypt Disk”
3. Wait…
   1. It will unmount and remount as a CoreStorage Encrypted volume
   2. It will take a long time to encrypt – about 10 minutes per GB in my case, so 10 hours for a 64 GB card!
   3. You can use it while it’s encrypting, but then it will take even longer. Just let it go.
4. Optionally save the password in your Keychain
   1. Once it’s done encrypting, eject the drive
   2. Re-insert it
   3. Enter your password in the dialog and select “Remember this password in my keychain”
   4. Click “Unlock”
   5. Now it’ll automatically remount whenever you insert it

You may want Mac OS X to remember the volume password for you

Watch Out! It’s SLOW!

Micro SD cards are notoriously slow, but encryption makes this even worse. Writing to an encrypted Nifty MiniDrive is absolutely ridiculously pathetically slow. It’s worst than watching paint dry. Seriously. It’s terrible.

Now that I’ve given you the subjective feeling, here are some objective numbers: Before encryption, the 64 GB SanDisk Micro SDXC card would read at a reasonable 40 MB/s but write below 6 MB/s. After encryption, I’m seeing under 2 MB/s writes. That’s floppy drive slow. It makes a USB 2.0 flash drive seem fast.

This is exacerbated by the target market for the Nifty MiniDrive: The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina are very, very fast, equipped with some of the best SSDs on the market. It’s really jarring to compare the internal SSD’s 200 MB/s or more with the MiniDrive’s 2 MB/s or less. Seriously – it’s easily 100x slower!

Reads are fine, however, even after encryption. Although 30-40 MB/s isn’t exactly speedy, it’s plenty fast for videos, office documents, etc. It’s fast enough on reads that you won’t even notice it except on big transfers.

Note that this performance issue has nothing at all to do with Nifty’s engineering of their MiniDrive. It’s a passive electrical device and does nothing to slow (or speed up) the SD card it contains. The core problem is that Micro SD cards are simple and slow and there’s no getting around that.

Stephen’s Stance

I’m pleased that it’s this easy to encrypt the Nifty MiniDrive. I recommend encrypting all portable media, and this is especially important for a highly steal-able device like this. But the speed impact is so dramatic, it limits the usefulness of the device. Caveat Encryptor!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2013. | How to Encrypt Your Nifty MiniDrive
This post was categorized as Apple, Features, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Verizon iPhone 5 works perfectly on Vodafone Australia’s 3G network

Using the Verizon iPhone 5 on the Vodafone Australia GSM Network

I switched from AT&T to Verizon with the iPhone 5 mainly for local reasons: Verizon’s LTE network remains over 100 times faster than AT&T’s backward 2G in my home town! But Verizon offered free “Personal Hotspot” tethering, a real money-saver.

Another great thing about the Verizon iPhone 5 (and LTE iPad, for that matter) is that it is “unlocked” out of the box, making it simple to use it while traveling internationally. This is all the more remarkable since Verizon uses a completely different network technology than the “standard” international GSM. But their iPhone 5 and iPads work just fine on these networks!

Although I was pleased to hear that the Verizon iPhone 5 was unlocked, I was concerned it might not work overseas. So much so that, before I left, I had AT&T unlock my out-of-contract iPhone 4S so I would have a “fallback device” in case my iPhone 5 didn’t work during my trip to Australia.

I needn’t have worried. The Verizon iPhone 5 is indeed unlocked and works perfectly on Vodafone’s GSM network in Australia. I’m sure it would also work great on most other international 3G networks as well. I simply purchased and inserted a Nano SIM, reset my network settings, and got back to work!

What About LTE in Australia?

I picked Vodafone because they were the first company I spotted on landing at Sydney airport. Their A$49 plan includes 2 GB of data and plenty of calling and texting, and they don’t restrict Personal Hotspot. But I could just as easily have purchased an Optus or Telstra Nano SIM from the store next door.

Note: Prepaid SIM cards are widely available in the International Terminal at Sydney Airport. There are Vodafone and Optus stores outside security and customs near exit C/D and another Vodafone store inside security in Terminal 2. These stores stock prepaid SIMs for phones, smartphones, and mobile broadband, including Micro SIMs and Nano SIMs. I didn’t spot a Heathrow-esque SIM vending machine, however.

Unlike Optus and Telstra, Vodafone doesn’t yet have an LTE network in Australia. But this doesn’t matter for an American iPhone user like me, since the Verizon iPhone won’t work on Australian LTE networks anyway. I would be stuck with GSM regardless of which SIM I picked.

The iPhone 5 comes in three varieties: A GSM/LTE version for North America (including AT&T), a CDMA/GSM/LTE model for CDMA countries (including Verizon in the USA), and an “international” GSM/LTE model for most carriers outside North America. Confusing the situation, the CDMA and international LTE versions have the same model number but different modem firmware. So, although they use the exact same hardware, the CDMA model will not work with the LTE networks found in most countries outside the USA.

Stephen’s Stance

I’m pleased that Australia, like the UK, offers convenient prepaid SIM buying options right in the airport, but I’m even happier that it works perfectly in my Verizon iPhone 5. I also brought along an unlocked Three MiFi, an unlocked ex-AT&T iPhone 4S, and a Verizon LTE iPad 3, all of which work perfectly on Vodafone Australia as well. But with free Personal Hotspot on the iPhone, I decided a single SIM would be enough connectivity, even for me!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2013. | International Roaming With the Verizon iPhone 5
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This is not the latest technology; it’s a junky craptop and will leave the buyer hating Windows

Attack of the Craptops

The Windows PC market is a scary place. Consumers are bombarded by “latest-technology” hype and meaningless specs. Walk into a typical PC store and you’ll see rows of flashy laptops surrounded by stickers and signs breathlessly proclaiming features you’ve never heard of. And everything is available for low, low prices that make the Apple Store seem like a complete ripoff.

As Paul Thurrott noted yesterday, the latest Best Buy circular says it all: “Upgrade to the latest technology”, the headline reads. The Toshiba Satellite notebook directly under this headline lists for just $369.99. Unsurprisingly, it’s an outdated piece of crap. Sure, the AMD Trinity “APU” (combo CPU and graphics processor) is fairly recent, but it’s not as good as Intel’s low-end offering. And a 500 GB 5400 rpm hard drive and 4 GB of RAM? No thanks!

So what’s so “latest technology” about that Toshiba notebook? Windows 8, that’s what. But that Toshiba and its ilk aren’t going to offer a good Windows 8 experience because they lack a touch screen, have limited RAM, and use a slow hard disk drive. There’s nothing “latest technology” about most of the PCs you can buy off the shelf at places like Best Buy!

Not Enjoying Windows 8

At Dell World, I tried out Windows 8 with a touch screen and it was a revelation. Suddenly the bizarre Metro tiled “start screen” made sense! Once I learned how to switch windows and tasks, I was impressed by the smooth animation and innovation in that interface. A convertible tablet like the Dell XPS 12 really does right by Windows 8!

It brought to mind my MVP trips to the Microsoft campus, where it seems every employee has a convertible tablet with a touch screen. I was also reminded of my time putting a Surface RT tablet through its paces. The “Metro” Windows 8 experience really is enjoyable, productive, and innovative!

Unfortunately, Windows 8 is let down by two body blows:

1. Switch back to the old desktop or use a non-Metro application like Office and you’re going to be frustrated with the touch screen input method. You’ll be glad you can convert your XPS 12 back into a laptop or snap a touch cover on your Surface tablet! Your Windows 8 touch experience is continually frustrated by the flood of old fashioned and plain non-compliant applications!
2. A bigger issue for the mass market is the fact that the vast majority of PCs are fatally under-equipped to deliver on the promise of Windows 8. Sluggish I/O from old fashioned hard disk drives, bare-minimum RAM, and slow CPUs and graphics chips are bad enough. But using Windows 8 with a touchpad really doesn’t come near the experience on a touch-screen device!

These two factors combine to ruin the Windows 8 experience for most buyers. Even if Microsoft gets their marketing message across, drumming up some excitement among customers, the vast majority of Windows 8 PCs on offer are a disappointment.

Microsoft needs to do something before the entire Windows market falls apart!

Kill the Craptop

Microsoft should take matters into their own hands. OEMs are locked in a race to the bottom, and big box retailers are playing along. Microsoft must put a stop to it, but it might already be too late!

The craptop/netbook factor is already strangling the Windows PC market. Most consumers really don’t like Windows anymore, believing it’s a bloated mess since it runs so poorly on the “latest technology” PC they just bought for under $500.

Picking up a good Apple or Android smartphone or tablet seals the deal. An iPad or Nexus 7 runs smoothly all day on battery power and does 90% of what consumers want. Microsoft’s own Surface puts the average PC to shame, too! Consumers will eventually give up on PCs if they’re not compelling. And that spells doom for Microsoft!

The “Touch-Only” Option

Microsoft should cut off low-end devices and require a touchscreen for Windows 8. They should also demand a decent amount of RAM, a fast CPU and GPU, and all-SSD storage. This is pretty drastic, but it would place a stake in the ground, at least where laptops are concerned.

The OEMs would freak out, but this would be in their best interest, too! Not only can they escape the low-margin craptop game, they can improve customer satisfaction and salvage the laptop PC market.

Dell, HP, and the rest are perfectly capable of producing quality machines, but there’s no market for them right now. By requiring decent hardware to get the latest and greatest operating system, PC buyers would finally have access to the good stuff. They’d learn that Apple’s MacBooks aren’t magical after all!

But what about the desktop? As Ed Bott notes, multi-touch trackpads are acceptable with touch-enabled Windows, but the wow factor is seriously diminished. And my imaginary all-touch no-desktop Windows Touch wouldn’t be a great fit on the desktop or the server. So I guess this leads to another idea.

The “Split Windows” Option

This probably wouldn’t fly, since it would instantly double prices and would leave desktops and upgraders in the lurch. So this leaves another less-drastic choice: Microsoft should split “Windows Touch” from “Windows Classic” and let the market decide.

• Windows Touch would be all “Metro” squares and touch applications. The Office team could port their iOS app to Windows rather than the other way around. And there would be no desktop or classic application compatibility. Windows Touch would run on ARM or Intel with fat binaries or an all-app store ecosystem. Imagine the iPad of laptops and convertibles!
• Windows Classic would ditch the tiles and continue with a hands-off desktop, keyboard and mouse metaphor. Continue to support craptops, netbooks, and desktops but make it clear that this is the past and Touch is the future. This would be the default OS for Windows Server, too, since Metro makes no sense at all in the datacenter.

The biggest issue with a “Touch versus Classic” battle is that consumers would likely opt for the cheaper path and sink the whole thing anyway. Sure, that Dell XPS convertible with Windows Touch looks awesome, but you can buy two or three Dell Inspiron laptops with Windows Classic for the same money!

Stephen’s Stance

It’s a rare company indeed that is willing to sweep away the past and move into the future, and this is rarer still in the computer industry. Apple has done this repeatedly but at less risk; after all, no one cared if they went under! I can’t imagine Microsoft taking my advice and killing off the low-end crap, since it would nuke most of the PC market at the same time. I could imagine a “Split Windows” future, but it’s destined to fail. So goes the market, and so goes Windows.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2013. | Microsoft: Kill the Craptops Before They Destroy Windows!
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Features, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

A New Hope

I have long used a Series 3 TiVo as my cable tuner, and we often used it for Netflix or Amazon video on demand as well. But it gave up the ghost the other day and I haven’t replaced it yet. Since my ancient and beautiful Sony XBR tube HDTV lacks a QAM tuner, we can only watch Apple TV or DVDs, but that’s increasingly what we want to watch anyway.

The Apple TV is great for watching programs from Netflix and our own private iTunes library. I’ve got many ripped DVDs stored in there, as well as some programs recorded from live TV. There are some things you just can’t get from a streaming service, and Handbrake is a great help there!

For example, I recently downloaded all three “Despecialized” Star Wars movies. Since I own the DVD, I think I’m in the clear legally! These are truly the greatest copies of Star Wars, with the best available video and audio and none of the retro crap George Lucas decided to add over the last decade.

The Empire Strikes Back

I used handbrake to convert the three Star Wars films for compatibility with iTunes and the Apple TV (they were in MKV and AVCHD containers). While I was working on this, I decided to include some of the great alternate audio tracks included in the Despecialized distribution: The original surround mix, a 5.1 mix based on the Laserdisc, and even the mono theatrical mix!

Although the resulting files play fine, I was unsure of how to actually access them on the Apple TV. A web search was no help – it appears Apple really dropped the ball documenting this!

But I did find one valuable hint: Holding down the center button on the Apple remote brings up a menu listing chapters as well as subtitles and alternate audio, if available. But the commenter noted that he couldn’t actually access the alternate tracks!

Hold the center “select” button to access the chapter/subtitle/audio menu

Return of the Jedi

Once I popped up the chapter/subtitle/audio menu on the Apple TV, I quickly discovered the trick to access these features. Although one would think a right- or left-arrow would jump to the next menu, Apple apparently didn’t implement this simple method. Instead, one has to navigate to the top, then right-arrow to the next menu, and then select a subtitle or alternate audio track!

Play a movie from your iTunes library with chapters, subtitles, or alternate audio tracks, and a menu becomes available allowing you to select them.

Hold the “select” button to access this menu, if any chapter markers have been set in the source video file

The first time you hold the “select” button on the Apple remote, it will interrupt the movie and bring up a menu of options. It defaults to a list of all the chapter marks set in the source video file, with the current chapter selected.

Scroll to the top, then right-arrow to access this menu of subtitle options

Scroll to the top of the chapter menu and it becomes possible to access the subtitle or audio menus, if either of these are present in the source file. If you click one, you will be returned to the movie with that feature turned on.

The holy grail: Alternate audio tracks are selectable!

From the top of the list, click right again and you can access the audio menu. This is a list of the alternate audio tracks encoded in the video file. They aren’t helpfully named, but selecting one does seem to activate it. I’m not 100% sure that the Apple TV is passing the correct AAC 5.1 surround mix to my receiver but it sounds like it does. And the commentary track works great, too!

The Apple TV seems to “remember” which track was selected last time, so continuing the movie later will bring the same audio track and subtitle setting.

Note that this menu will not appear at all if no chapters, subtitles, or alternate audio tracks are encoded in the file. And each menu will simply disappear if there would be no content. Unless you go through the effort to encode alternate audio, you won’t even see the option here!

Stephen’s Stance

The user interface for selecting alternate audio and subtitles on the Apple TV is laughably rough, but it works. Hold down the select button, scroll to the top, then scroll right and you can access these features if they are present. Let’s hope Apple improves this in future iOS versions!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | How To Access Alternate Audio Tracks And Subtitles On An Apple TV
This post was categorized as Apple, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Why Encrypt Your MacBook?

Like so many features in Mac OS X, Apple did not invent full disk encryption. What they did was make it simple to set up and non-intrusive on a daily basis. Setting up FileVault 2 is quick and painless, with just a few clicks. Once FileVault is set up, you never have to bother with it!

But if your MacBook is stolen, knowing the data is encrypted will really bring peace of mind! Consider all the valuable personal information on your computer: Banking and health information, passwords, personal correspondence and photos, and so much more. The information on your computer is much more valuable and dangerous than the computer itself!

The iconic MacBook has become a status symbol to be sure. Even though Apple does not pay for product placements, MacBooks are everywhere in movies and on television. And a walk-through any coffee shop shows just how much of a status symbol these computers have become. I have even seen people stick Apple logos on generic PC’s just for the perceived cachet!

I won’t argue that MacBooks are intrinsically more valuable than PC laptops, but I imagine that this massive exposure makes them a prime target for thieves. After all, thieves are people too and they are going to think that any computer with that kind of image is going to be worth something on the resale market! And they would be right, since MacBooks hold their value much better than PC laptops and usually cost more as well.

When it comes to identity theft, MacBooks are an even better target. After all, anyone willing to spend so much money on a flashy laptop has got to have more to steal, right? Hopefully, by now, you are scared out of your wits that someone is going to steal your MacBook. Because that’s a real possibility!

Protect Your Identity and Your Data By Encrypting Your MacBook!

Apple has included FileVault encryption in versions of Mac OS X in back to version 10.3 “Panther” in 2003. But until Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” was released in 2011, it was a hassle and only a partial solution. Back then, I didn’t recommend FileVault and instead used third-party full-disk encryption software.

Now that “Lion” and “Mountain Lion” are here, FileVault 2 has become a “must-have” in my opinion. Although I’m not sure it’s really necessary for desktop computers, since they tend to stay put behind locked doors, there is no excuse not to use FileVault on your MacBook laptop.

What about performance? Encrypting data requires some heavy duty calculations, but modern Apple computers include hardware offload thanks to the Intel AES-NI instruction set. All current Apple computers, including every model of MacBook with a Core i5 or Core i7 processor, support hardware acceleration of FileVault 2 encryption. Although there is some performance lost with FileVault encryption, it’s nothing you would notice in day-to-day usage.

This is especially true when using a SSD-equipped MacBook. Although many SSDs have trouble maintaining performance and reliability when encryption is enabled, Apple specifically chose encryption-compatible SSDs from Toshiba and Samsung for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. If you use a third-party SSD, however, do some research to see if it will have issues with full-disk encryption.

How to Enable FileVault 2 Encryption in Mac OS X

Enabling FileVault 2 encryption in Mac OS X “Lion” or “Mountain Lion” is simple.

1. Close any applications and files; FileVault 2 requires one reboot to set up.
2. Open System Preferences and click on “Security & Privacy”
   
3. Click “FileVault”
   
4. Click on the padlock icon, authenticate with your password, and click “Turn On FileVault…”
   
5. If you have multiple users, you will be asked to authenticate with their passwords so they will be able to access the drive as well.
   
6. FileVault will generate a “recovery key” which can be used to access the drive if you forget your password. You will not need this on a daily basis, but you should keep it in a safe place in case you ever have to use it!
   
7. Apple can store your recovery key on their servers so you will be able to recover it using your Apple ID. I chose not to do this since Apple IDs can be stolen by scammers.
   
8. That’s it! Just click “Restart” and your computer will quickly reboot. You can go back to using it normally afterward – all encryption happens in the background!
   
9. If you’re interested in checking on the status of the encryption, you can open Terminal and type “diskutil cs list” to show CoreStorage status. As long as it is working, it will show “Converting”. Once it’s done, this will read “Complete.”
   

Hardware acceleration and fast SSD performance means that the background work of encrypting your drive won’t impact normal operation and won’t take too long. My 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina (mid 2012) took just 33 minutes to encrypt its 256 GB Samsung SSD while I performed other light tasks.

For more details, see this Apple whitepaper, Best Practices for Deploying FileVault 2

Stephen’s Stance

Once you encrypt your MacBook’s drive with FileVault 2, you’ll never even know it’s there. But if you ever lose your machine, you can rest easy knowing that your data is safe. Considering how well this solution performs and that it is included free of charge, there is no reason not to use it!

It is important to also encrypt any other locations where you store personal information, especially portable hard drives used for Time Machine backups! In another article, I will describe the process for encrypting external drives without losing data.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | MacBook Users: Encrypt Your Drive with OS X FileVault! It’s Easy and Free!
This post was categorized as Apple, Features, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Virtual Memory and Page Outs

Most people are aware that computers contain at least two different kinds of memory:

1. Main system RAM is used by running programs
2. Disks are used for long-term storage

But the lines blur in reality, with modern operating systems able to use disk storage for running applications. Although using disk as memory (a process called paging or virtual memory swapping) allows your system to have effectively infinite RAM, it often slows down performance to an unacceptable level.

Is your system constrained with two little memory, or is it just slow? It can be difficult for the uninitiated to answer this question, but it’s not too difficult to see if your system is swapping excessively: most operating systems will tell you how many “page outs” the system has needed to do, and this is a very strong clue as to whether you have enough memory or not.

Check Activity Monitor in Mac OS X

On Mac OS X, the easiest way to see if you have enough memory is simply to open the Activity Monitor application. You will find this under Applications in the Utilities folder, and it shows you all Certs of useful information about CPU, memory, disk, and network activity.

In Activity Monitor, click on the System Memory tab. At the bottom, next to the pie chart of memory in use, you will see a “Page outs” value. This is the clue you need to know if your system has insufficient memory.

If you have many GB of “Page outs”, you should consider getting more RAM!

“Page outs” in Activity Monitor shows how much memory has been needed but not available since your system last started up. Since it is much slower than RAM, disk space should be thought of as “overdraft protection” for your system memory. It’s fine to dip into it occasionally, but excessive use will cause trouble!

Reboot, run your system normally for a few days, then check Activity Monitor. There is no hard and fast rule, but if the number is higher than a gigabyte or two over a few days use you ought to consider getting more memory!

What About SSDs?

Fast solid-state storage (SSD) drives reduce the impact of page outs. This is one reason that the meager 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM found in a MacBook Air doesn’t impact performance as much as one would think. This begs the question if SSD-equipped computers need as much system RAM.

Even though SSDs are much faster than hard drives, they are slower than main system memory. And SSDs don’t last forever, so excessive page-outs actually reduce the lifespan of your computer. These are true statements, but should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, a computer only needs to be “fast enough” for the user to be satisfied, and the lifespan of the SSD is probably not as much concern as lifespan of the battery!

It is wise to buy enough system RAM to handle your needs, even if your computer uses an SSD. But it is not as much of a necessity, so don’t fret if you can only buy 4 GB. Personally, I was willing to spend the extra money for 16 GB in my retina MacBook Pro, even though it uses one of the fastest SSDs on the market. But I would have happily bought it with 8 GB if that was not an option, and it will perform great either way.

Stephen’s Stance

In this day of soldered-in system RAM and SSDs, it is difficult to decide what to buy. I recommend checking the page outs on your computer to see how much RAM you really need, then deciding whether to upgrade or buy a new computer with more RAM, especially if you’re using a hard disk drive for storage!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | How To Tell If Your Mac Needs More Memory
This post was categorized as Apple, Ask a Pack Rat, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Transporters work together to create a personal storage cloud shared by your friends and family

Introducing Transporter

A few months ago, I met up with an old friend. Geoff Barrall founded Data Robotics, famed for the Drobo personal storage system. Geoff and his team have been at work at another personal storage solution, this time taking aim at Dropbox and other cloud storage providers.

Geoff introduced me to Transporter and a vision for a peer-group shared storage solution. Transporter includes internal storage, a Mac or Windows client, and a web-based management console today, with mobile applications on the way. Watch their video for Geoff’s more eloquent description.

Rather than a traditional launch, Geoff and company decided to try Kickstarter. This lets them rapidly seed a large market and bring in a jolt of funding to get everything delivered smoothly. It also acts as a PR engine if the Transporter project catches on, as I suspect will happen! Dozens of folks have already signed on, in fact!

My Hands On Transporter Preview

I’m lucky to have received a pair of Transporter engineering samples to beta test, and am quite pleased with the product’s progress.

First, let me assure you that Transporter is very real. This is no vaporware “we’d like to make this” Kickstarter campaign. I have two of these things in my hands, and they store and move data. Both the idea and the device were functional even before the Kickstarter project launched.

The Transporter features Ethernet and USB WiFi connectivity

The hardware is very, very slick too. As expected from Geoff’s team, it’s user-friendly and nice to look at and hold. Each Transporter is a rounded pyramid the size and shape of a juice pouch with a 2-segment LED ring around the middle. The rear has an Ethernet and USB port (for WiFi) as well as the power port.

Give it a gentle twist and the top comes off, revealing a laptop 2.5″ SATA hard drive in a slickly-designed carrier. It reminds me somewhat of a Seagate GoFlex dock but the carrier is much more secure and the drive is completely hidden by the cover. The carrier also includes a nice guide to the various LED light signals, though many customers will never open it up to look.

The LED ring changes color to signal what’s going on inside

Plug the Transporter into your network and AC outlet and it will self-configure and update its software, with the LED ring going from green (starting) to blue (ready) in moments. And that’s about it for the hardware. From no on, it will sit quietly and serve as your own personal storage cloud! Happily, you can turn down the intensity of the LED ring in the software interface, because you’ll never really have to bother with it again.

Transporters will be available with hard disk drives or as bring-your-own-drive, though presumably all come with the driver carrier. And it can house the largest 2.5″ drives, even up to 2 TB today! I haven’t tested my collection of assorted drives, but given Geoff’s history I expect it to work with just about any drive you bring!

Transporter Software Overview

One Transporter is usable, but you can mirror your data between multiple Transporters for redundancy, even over the Internet. In fact, I imagine placing one at home and another at work is an ideal use case! Otherwise you can share data between Transporters owned by multiple users for reliability and local performance.

Transporters can act as simple SMB/CIFS file servers, but that’s not the ideal way to use them. Currently, you can only create two SMB accounts and access control is not at all granular. Perhaps additional functionality will be added if users take to this feature.

All configuration is done through a web portal with no software required. But one is wise to install the desktop client on Mac or Windows to get maximum benefit.

With the desktop software running, the Transporter appears quite like a Dropbox folder, allowing access to your data from anywhere. As I type this, my home Transporter in Ohio is synchronizing the company’s press images with my MacBook Pro in Texas, just as would happen with a Dropbox folder. And this is a shared folder from Jim at Transporter’s office in California!

I haven’t had a chance to try the Transporter mobile device apps, but they promise Dropbox-like functionality as well. In other words, you’ll be able to access your data anywhere even though it’s not stored “in the cloud” but in your own home or office!

Stephen’s Stance

Why is Dropbox so great? It’s hard to describe it until you’ve tried it. I’ve been disappointed by Pogoplug and other attempts at personal shared storage, but it’s just as hard to articulate why. I’m not 100% onboard with Transporter, especially with the somewhat rough beta product in my hands today. But Geoff and his team really understand this market. They have a good chance of getting it right!

I’ll be writing more about Transporter as the product improves and as the Kickstarter campaign comes to fruition. The team expects them to be in end-user hands in the first quarter of 2013, and my experiences with this engineering test unit suggest that really will happen. Head over to the Transporter Kickstarter page to learn more!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Geoff Barrall is Back with Transporter, a Personal Shared Storage Solution
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Photography, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The telltale sign of a defective Lightning cable: Mac OS X shuts the port down!

Symptoms of a Defective Lightning Cable

Since my iPhone 5 came with only one cable, I decided to buy an extra for my backpack. Yes, I also carry the fabulously useful micro USB to Lightning adapter brought over from the UK, but you can never have enough cables! This is especially true when it comes to charging a thirsty device like the iPhone 5.

I wandered into a local Apple Store, snatched a $19 Lightning to USB cable off the shelf, EasyPay-ed with my iPhone, and headed out. I didn’t even take it out of the box before hopping a plane to Denver the next day! After all, what could go wrong with a cable?

I first became aware of an issue when, after plugging the cable into a cigarette lighter adapter in my rental car, the phone refused to charge. But I suspected the Kensington adapter instead of the Apple cable, since I had never before used it with the iPhone 5.

My trouble continued once I reached an AC outlet. The iPhone wouldn’t charge regardless of which adapter I tried: The 1 Amp cube that came with the phone, a 2.1 Amp iPad adapter, or a third-party Staples extension. It had to be the cable.

Finally I tried plugging the cable into my laptop. I was immediately greeted by the error message shown above: The USB device was drawing too much power.

What’s Wrong With these Lightning Cables?

I made a Genius appointment and took the cable to the Apple Store. It was quick – I plugged it into one of their computers to show the error message and they immediately replaced the cable. Even though they were out of retail cables, they had a special stock in the back for customer replacement. Interestingly, although new, these cables were in a padded envelope rather than the retail box.

The Lightning cable isn’t just a cable. It includes active electronics to reconfigure the pins on attachment. Presumably, this chip wasn’t functioning correctly and shorted out the USB power pins. Thankfully, all of my USB adapters were “smart” enough to shut off the power before they fried or caught fire!

Stephen’s Stance

I suppose this is to be expected. As cables become more complex and include active components, their failure rate will increase. Right now, cables are one of the most reliable components in regular use. But over time this will become a more-common issue. It’s times like these that I appreciate Apple’s widely-available Genius Bar support – I can just imagine the hassle of replacing a cheaper off-brand cable!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Apple is Shipping Defective Lightning Cables
This post was categorized as Apple, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.