Did You Know?

Posted on May 21, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

How’s your home Wi-Fi these days? Fast enough? Stable enough?

If you’re not as happy as you could be, there’s hope! Wired has a rather extensive collection of tips to get things moving:

AS WE ALL shelter-in-place and work from home more, figuring out how to make your internet faster has become a necessity.

The good news is that some internet service providers have have increased speeds for low-income customers. Others have suspended broadband data caps.

That makes the internet to your front door less of a bottleneck, but eliminating subpar speeds and Wi-Fi dead zones around the house is largely up to you. To help, we’ve put together some suggestions on ways you can troubleshoot, and hopefully improve, the quality of the Wi-Fi inside and outside your place.

Be sure to also check out our guide to securing your home Wi-Fi network, our guide to the new Wi-Fi 6 standard, and our gear guide for working at home.

For the list, PYBT: 11 Ways to Upgrade Your Wi-Fi and Make Your Internet Faster.

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Were You at the Meeting Last Night?

Posted on May 19, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

If not, a not-taxing-at-all main presentation, hysterics at Apps & Traps, and the return of the drawing missed you badly.

No Meeting after the Meeting…

That’s my story; I’m sticking to it!

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Who Are You and What Do You Do?

Posted on May 18, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

At The Sweet Setup:

Every week we {aim to} post a new interview with someone about what software they use on their Mac, iPhone, or iPad. We do these interviews because not only are they fun, but a glimpse into what tools someone uses and how they use those tools can spark our imagination and give us an idea or insight into how we can do things better.

Today’s victim, er, interviewee:

My name is Fernando Silva. By day, I work in New York City as an Account Executive for an HR Software Company. But what I truly love to do is run my tech YouTube channel. I am a huge advocate that the iPad Pro can be your one and only computer even if you are a power user. That is what my channel is all about. I do software update reviews, “day in the life” glimpses as an iPad user, iPad Pro accessory reviews, among other things. My community shares the same type of interests and are just a bunch of loyal iPad users trying to get the most out of their device.

What’s so unique about my channel is how I pride myself in doing everything I can to keep my iPad as my only computing device. I like to show people that it is possible to dump your traditional laptop or desktop and just use an iPad to do everything you need.

You can catch Fernando’s complete story here: Fernando Silva’s iPad and iPhone Setup for Business and YouTube.

“Back issues” can be found here: Sweet Setup Interviews.

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May 18th General Meeting

Posted on May 1, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

Tax Software

A taxing topic, I know, but you need to know!

Regular Features

Apps & Traps – Our essential monthly feature on interesting new products and services for iOS and OS X, brought to you by Dave Whitby.

Apple News & Updates

Q&A

Our rewarding Monthly Prize Drawing is back! This month, we have A Kanex USB to USB-C adapter, a godonut Universal Stand, a Ventev Powercell 2600, a WHOOSH Screen Shine, a Duration USB car charger, and a mystery iTunes gift card. Be on the lookout, on the Web site, for the Zooming, (Re)Joining, Drawing post, which will have the all gory details on how the drawing (among other things) should work.

The meeting will be conducted on Zoom. The gory details have arrived: Tech Check!

The Meeting after the Meeting is still, sadly, on hold.

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Did You Know?

Posted on April 30, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

How many times have you been at the store lately, and totally forgotten to take off your face mask when it’s time use Apple Pay? Arrrgh! Fortunately, there’s a fix.

Rocket Yard’s Steve Sande feels your pain:

In the course of a few months, most of us have become accustomed to wearing face masks when we’re outside of our homes or businesses. If you own an iPhone X or 11, one thing is probably driving you slightly crazy about having to wear a mask — Face ID doesn’t recognize you. Trevor Tan, a reporter with the Straits Times of Singapore, outlined a simple method of setting up Face ID so it works with or without a mask, and I’m happy to say that it works!

And yes, he steps you through it all. PYBT: How to Set Up Face ID to Work With a Face Mask.

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Dashing Through the…

Posted on April 29, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

…the keyboard…

What’s with all those hyphens⁄dashes⁄little lines throughout bunches of text? Yeah, they’re different lengths, they have different names, and they do have specific tasks.

In How to Type En Dashes, Em Dashes, and Hyphens on a Mac, OWC Mark C does a pretty good job of not only explaining what they all are and what they all mean, but how to type them. Check it out:

We are all familiar with the standard hyphen symbol and know what it’s called. It is primarily used to hyphenate words (hence its name) and often used as the minus sign (-) in math. But what about those dashes that appear more extended than a hyphen? What are they used for, and how do you type them? This quick little guide should help you out.

PYB at the link above to continue.

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Had You Heard?

Posted on April 28, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

The things you don’t know can hurt you!

On Rocket Yard, Steve Sande reports:

Do you have a recent MacBook Pro? While these powerful notebooks have USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports on both sides, we’re going to tell you why you should charge your MacBook Pro using the ports on the right side.

On StackExchange and other sites, MacBook Pro users documented situations where charging using the left side USB-C ports caused unusually high CPU usage. The result? The machine would slow down while the fans on the device went into high gear.

PYBT for the whole story: Power Your MacBook Pro From The Right Side USB-C Ports: Here’s Why

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Were You at the Meeting Last Night?

Posted on April 21, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

If not, you missed a grand debut of virtual meetings!

No Meeting after the Meeting…

That’s my story; I’m sticking to it!

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Gory Details – the New iPhone SE

Posted on April 15, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

TidBITS strikes again! Adam Engst has an interesting review of the new ’Phone:

At long last, Apple has released a second-generation iPhone SE. The original iPhone SE was based on the iPhone 5’s form factor and provided a smaller, less-expensive alternative to the iPhone 6s. Apple has nominally employed the same strategy here, essentially updating the iPhone 8 to bring this new iPhone SE’s specs up to modern standards. You can choose from black, white, and PRODUCT(RED) colors. Proceeds from Apple’s PRODUCT(RED) versions will go to the Global Fund’s COVID‑19 Response.

And there’s mention of an elephant…

It’s all here: Large Size of Apple’s New Low-Cost iPhone SE Disappoints.

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It’s Baaaaaack!

Posted on April 15, 2020 by SGVAUG BlogMaster

You just never know!

From Lauren Goode, on Wired, today:

When Apple discontinued the tiny iPhone SE back in the fall of 2018, it left people who wanted a smaller, less expensive iPhone without many options and was seen as part of a larger strategy to push people toward more expensive phones and drive iPhone profits even higher. Now the iPhone SE is back.

Here’s the rest: Apple’s $400 iPhone SE is Back, Bigger Than Before.

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