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As I mentioned, I am using two displays now so I thought I would write up a short article on just how you can set up a multiple display situation. There are three different ways that you can use multiple displays:

*Expand Your Desktop*
This is what I am doing and I have one continuous desktop that stretches across two 27-inch monitors and my MacBook Pro display. Move your pointer past the edge of one display and it appears on the other display. At first, your primary display has all of your desktop icons and open app windows. You can drag them to the other display as needed.

*Set Up Mirroring*
Video mirroring shows the same desktop and windows on multiple displays at the same time. You can use it to view content such as photos or videos on a larger display or HDTV.

*Closed Laptop Mode*
You can use an external display or projector with a Mac notebook while its built-in display is closed. This is known as closed-clamshell or closed-display mode.

I will go over each of these but will concentrate upon the extended desktop. I often have two browsers, an email client, Messages, Skype, Numbers, Pages, our K9 database and other windows open when I am working. It does get crowded, especially if I am working on the 13-inch display on my MacBook Pro. Setting up an extended desktop allows me to spread out the work in a much more organized fashion.

Here’s how to set up an extended desktop:
Connect and turn on your additional display or displays. I have mine connected to two of the USB-C ports on my MacBook Pro.

* Open System Preferences.
* Choose Displays.
* Click the Arrangement tab.
* Make sure that the Mirror Displays checkbox isn’t selected.

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* Each display has a menu bar.

* Each display can have full-screen apps. To take an app full screen, click the green button in the upper-left corner of the app window. Or press Control-Command-F.

* You can use Mission Control to organize windows and full-screen apps across your displays.

* If the Dock is positioned at the bottom of your screen, you can view it on any one of your screens by moving your pointer to the bottom edge of that screen. This one had me baffled for a long time as my dock would end up on the wrong display and I could not figure out how to get it back. But moving the cursor to the bottom of the display where you want the dock works every time.

*Arrange your displays*
I don’t think I have the ultimate set up yet but I am playing with positioning my displays. Using the Display pane of Systems Preferences you can tell your Mac where your displays are in relation to each other. Use this feature so that your connected displays match their real-world location when you move between windows.

You can select which display has the Finder’s menu bar and arrange them just right so that mouse movements are smooth from one to the other. In the picture of my setup here you will see that I set the MacBook Pro display much lower than my others. This makes it so when I am a moving between displays it is totally fluid.

The blue boxes in the Arrangement pane represent all displays that you’ve connected to your Mac. The size of each box represents the current resolution of each display.

The white bar at the top of the blue box identifies your primary display. The primary display is where your desktop icons and open app windows first appear. To make a different display your primary display, drag the white bar to the box that represents that display.

*Setting up Mirroring*

Video mirroring shows the same desktop and windows on multiple displays at the same time. You can use it to view content such as photos or videos on a larger display or HDTV.

Here’s how to set up video mirroring:
* Connect and turn on your additional display.
* Choose System Preferences.
* Choose Displays.
* Click the Arrangement tab.
* In the lower-left corner of the Arrangement pane, select “Mirror Displays.”

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In OS X Mavericks or later, you can add a status menu bar item to make it easier to mirror your displays. Use this menu to select an Apple TV or television to use as a display. It appears when you connect to an HDTV, or when an Apple TV is available on your network. To add the menu to the top of your screen, select “Show mirroring options in the menu bar when available.”

*Closed Laptop Mode*

To use closed laptop mode you need:

* An AC power adapter
* An external keyboard and mouse or trackpad, either USB or wireless
* A USB-C to USB adapter if you’re using a USB mouse or keyboard with MacBook (2015 and later) or MacBook Pro (2016 and later)
* An external display or projector

Use these steps to enable closed-display mode.

If the external display isn’t recognized when it’s connected and your Mac is powered on, try connecting the display while your computer is asleep or off. Then wake or turn on the computer after you connect the display.

If you’re using a USB keyboard and mouse:
* Make sure that your Mac is plugged into AC power
* Connect a USB keyboard and mouse to your Mac.
* With your Mac turned on and the display open, connect the Mac to the appropriate port on the external display or projector and turn the display or projector on. Use an appropriate Apple video adapter if necessary.
* After your Mac laptop’s Desktop appears on the external display, close the computer’s lid.

When you close the lid:
In OS X Lion 10.7 and later, the external display changes to a blue screen, then shows your Desktop.

You can now use your Mac laptop as you normally would with a USB keyboard and mouse.

If you’re using a wireless keyboard and mouse:
* Make sure that your Mac laptop is plugged in using the AC power adapter.
* Verify that Bluetooth is turned on
* Pair your Bluetooth keyboard or mouse with your Mac.
* In the Bluetooth pane of System Preferences, click Advanced and make sure the checkbox next to Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer is selected.
* With your Mac turned on and the display open, connect the Mac to the appropriate port on the external display or projector and turn the display or projector on.
* After your Mac notebook’s Desktop appears on the external display, close the computer’s lid.

You can now use your Mac notebook as you normally would with a wireless keyboard and mouse.
It’s best to put your Mac to sleep by choosing Apple menu > Sleep before disconnecting your display

This new BenQ display has a little shelf for the MacBook Pro to sit on when using closed mode but I find it convenient to have that third display as even more desktop.

With all these displays I must look like my friend Larz Barber at Merrill Lynch.

Some of you might have already jumped on the “public beta”:https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/ program for “iOS 11”:https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-11-preview/. If you did, you might have discovered that some apps have stopped working for you. If you haven’t installed it yet this is a good time to get ready.

I’ve been an iPhone user since the iPhone 3GS and I’ve been an iPad user since the original iPad came out. iOS 11 brings on some similar hiccups that have plagued macOS, most apps and applications ( if it’s on the Mac ) will carry over and run, but eventually some apps and applications will stop working and you need to either replace or update them. Here’s the run down on why and what to look for with your iOS apps.

Through the iPhone 5, fourth-generation iPad, original iPad mini, and fifth-generation iPod touch, Apple used 32-bit processors. However, in 2013, Apple instead began putting 64-bit chips in all new iOS devices. Apple encouraged developers to make their apps run on 64-bit mode but kept iOS7 compatible with older 32-bit apps. Starting in 2015, Apple required apps to run in 64-bit mode to receive App Store approval. iOS 10 initially warned that 32-bit apps might slow down your device and later said 32-bit apps would need to be updated.

First off, don’t worry about what 32 and 64-bit mean, all you need to know is that 32-bit apps are old and won’t run on iOS 11, and that 64-bit apps will continue to work as they always have. But how do you know which of your apps are 32-bit? For apps that you use regularly you’ve probably seen one of these warnings. But other apps you may open only occasionally. How can you figure out which of those are destined for the chopping block?

In iOS 10.3, Apple added a feature to call out these apps. Navigate to Settings > General > About > Applications to see a list of 32-bit apps that don’t have direct updates available. Note: you do need to be running specifically iOS 10.3 for this to work. If you are on iOS 10.3 and Applications won’t let you tap it, it means you do not have any 32-bit apps. When I looked up any potential issues I found 4 of my 122 apps are 32-bit. Now what? Well there are some options for handling this.

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**Delete the app.** If it’s an app you don’t use much or perhaps at all anymore just get rid of it! Simply press and hold the icon until you get the familiar shaking apps and tap the X.

**Look for an update that’s a new app** It’s very possible that the developer simply released a completely new version of the app that you need to downloaded. This unfortunately might mean that you have to buy a paid app again, but if you like that app well enough it will be worth it.

**Look for an alternative app.** Few iOS apps are truly unique, so you may be able to find an alternative that does basically the same thing.

If you are in an unfortunate situation where it’s an app you must keep using but there is no update to 64-bit then you’ve got some options, but they may not be ideal. Just like when OS X came out and countless users were faced with costly software upgrades from OS9 to OS X, you might consider running an older iOS device exclusively for that app. You could also consider not upgrading to iOS 11 and keep your device back. Both of these options come with drawbacks and eventually you’ll need to upgrade and migrate to newer versions of the app, so this is only a bandaid. The best advice is to work to replace that older app as soon as possible.

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You’ve still got several weeks to work out a plan and prepare for the official release of iOS 11. For myself, I’m going with the easiest option and just deleting the apps and looking for alternatives.

I’m going to split from my usual articles this week so I can talk about another one of my passions. I recently decided it was time to retire my original iPad Air. It was actually the first Apple product I purchased myself. Someone gave me a Mac mini in 2009, but that doesn’t count. When I got it in June 2014, iOS 7 had just come out and I remember being totally sold on the new direction iOS was taking. I also liked the shift in form factor that came with the Air. It served me well over the years, went on many trips, watched hours of movies and TV shows. It’ll serve a good purpose as my new HomeKit base station. I have it set up in my living room next to my TV. I also use it to Airplay content to my TV.

So what did I replace it with? Well, much like in 2014, iOS 11 really sold me on the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. I was also genuinely impressed with performance specs that actually rival some laptop computers. I actually confirmed this by running Geekbench on both my 10.5-inch iPad Pro and my MacBook Air (circa 2014). Generally, the iPad had higher scores across the board. Some scores were comparable, but where the iPad really shined was in multicore performance. My MacBook Air is a dual-core i5, while the iPad Pros use a 6-core A10X. More cores is obviously going to push that score up a lot for the iPad.

The 120Hz screen refresh rate is something you really have to see in person, and it affects every single thing you do on the device. That combined with what is otherwise a very nice display makes for a really nice user experience. For me, one of the other reasons I wanted this iPad was so that I could get the Apple Pencil and start doing some fashion design. I’m actually a terrible artist, but I wanted to give this a try. So far it’s gone very well. I can’t speak to how the Pencil worked on previous iPads without the 120Hz refresh, but I’ve found it to be actually very useable. Other pen inputs I’ve used in the past, even good ones, have had far too much lag. I’ve found that using the Pencil doesn’t get annoying over time, which I like.

There are actually a handful of apps out there specifically designed for fashion design. One that I really liked initially was Prêt à Template. It gives you all sorts of body form templates that you can draw your designs on top of. I liked this because I had no idea how to draw a body form that looked like an actual human. The problem with Prêt à Template is that instead of just being able to purchase the app, it has a weird subscription model that I did not want to do.

I can however recommend two other apps that have worked very well for me with my designs so far. The first I tried is free. Adobe Sketch is a powerful drawing app with great brush assortment and good layering. Obviously just sketching out fashion designs isn’t intensive digital art, but I love the ability to have such a wide variety of colors and textures available to me anywhere I am with my iPad. The ability to undo is also pretty handy.

The second app isn’t free, but it’s the one I’ve started using exclusively now. It’s called Procreate. It costs $6 in the App Store, but for such a powerful app, I think it’s totally worth it. I prefer Procreate because it has a bit better brush assortment, seems to be better tuned for the Apple Pencil than Adobe Sketch and the undo feature is a bit better. I felt there was a bit more of a learning curve on Procreate, but once I got the basics down for what I wanted to do, I definitely get the results I want.

It’s been a few weeks with the iPad Pro so far and I’m starting to think that once iOS 11 comes out, this device might genuinely be able to replace my MacBook Air in many ways. I’m also excited to see how well it can do with video editing and music creation, two other creative hobbies I enjoy.

We have three basic job requirements here at Small Dog Electronics that go beyond doing extraordinary work. We ask each employee to write a weekly report outlining work accomplished, challenges encountered and any commentary they would like to make about their job. My techs tend to do daily reports which really give me a good handle on the work flow. The second job requirement is to reach the highest level of Apple sales training for even those not on the sales floor. My favorite is my third requirement, which is to take a paid day off and do community service.

The only requirement for that last one is to send me an email and tell me what they have done. It can be as simple as helping an elderly neighbor stack their firewood to designing a web site for a non-profit. I was sort of boasting about this idea one day at a meeting of some other business leaders and the CEO of Ben & Jerry’s listened patiently and then casually said “we do the same thing but we give our employees a week off”. Crawling quickly under the table, I decided that was something to aspire to.

Thank you so much for reading his issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

_Don, Emily & Hadley_