Kibbles & Bytes Blog

There is a huge divide between many users of Android devices and iOS users. This divide is also often huge between Windows and Mac OS users. Being able to dual boot on Macs with Bootcamp, it’s been much easier for folks to transition to using Apple software and hardware, and this has potentially reduced the divide. This is perhaps not true for Android to transition to iOS.

If anything, many users of iOS switched after years of loyalty partly because of price and partly for the features related to cloud sync and specific apps available only on the Play store. Apple has fought hard to push the idea that iOS devices are the only ones to invest in, regardless of the cost vs features because of the high quality design and solid warranty as well as the ability to integrate perfectly with the Apple ecosystem. It only makes sense that they would consider Mac users with Android devices to be black sheep of a sort, and I’ll admit they’ve still done remarkably well letting Google services login and sync and re-allowing a lot of Google apps on the App Store (after the Apple Maps vs. Google Maps fiasco they didn’t have much choice) and Apple allowed Google Drive and Docs/Sheets/Slides even though they compete with iCloud and iWork apps as much as Office 365 and OneDrive do.

That said, it’s always an afterthought to sync with Google accounts and there are some features that do not function properly. It can help to install the Chrome browser on iOS devices and sync that app with your Google account but it’s not the same as having full device sync to Google servers. It was great to see the Files app support Google Drive in iOS 11 and contacts, calendars and email are all able to sync to the stock apps and/or to the special Google versions on the App Store. (Free, very well designed, and let me say, I do love the Gmail and Google Calendar apps).

After all that, you might wonder – where is all that support for Apple sync on Android? It’s not really on Google for furthering that, iCloud simply doesn’t have full support for Android on purpose and Google has it’s own system for syncing all user data and settings, so effectively there’s no reason for Google to want to add iCloud Sync support since you’ve got all your data on the Google cloud servers. It does make things difficult for folks trying to integrate their Android devices to the Apple biome.

Could there be some happy medium here? Of course companies want you to jump into their solution full-bore. Look at Amazon with their FireTV, Alexa, Kindle Fire, etc. Or look at Razer, pushing their laptops, external GPU, custom-built towers, peripherals and accessories. Google has done much to give a full solution, with Android-centric Google Home and integration with Chromecast, Nest thermostat, Phillips hue and many other home kit devices.

If you stay within the Apple Ecosystem, by design everything just works. The hardware and software are optimized to work with one another. Updates and patches are delivered universally across all of your devices and you’re guaranteed a seamless experience. The downside to allowing outside access to this ecosystem is that the variety and vastness of hardware and software is endless. Depending on the Android device you use, you could be on any number of differing versions of Android OS since every manufacturer’s hardware is different and every manufacturer slightly modifies the OS to suit their hardware so opening up a nice, clean, controlled ecosystem to that is difficult to do while maintaining the level of quality that Apple demands.

We are still in the early days of cross-platform compatibility. Everyone wants their solution to be the accepted standard. Much like any technology development, the fight for 1st place will persist until everyone concedes and accepts the new standard. It’s up to every manufacturer and platform developer to keep pushing and striving to be the best and, by that, natural evolution will develop the best solution for everyone.

Hello readers! I’m here to talk about APFS and how it affects your user experience. APFS = Apple File System and this file system was introduced in macOS High Sierra, which released in the later half of 2017. Apple has used the same file system known as HFS+ since 1998! That’s 19 years, a very long time in terms of technology. Apple was working on the conversion to APFS as early as iOS 10.3 for iPhones and iPad devices.

APFS has a lot of benefits, and, if I had to choose, I would say that the main benefit for the average user is that APFS has been designed from the ground up by Apple for SSD’s, which stands for Solid State Drive. SSD’s are the standard for Apple’s Macbook Pro/Air computers. SSD’s are very fast, and with software that’s built for them, they’re capable of even faster computation and data transfers. Another very important benefit that is included in APFS is encryption. Apple always prioritizes security very highly, which I can appreciate from the point of view of a consumer and someone who sells Apple products. Overall I would say APFS is a welcome change from any perspective; developer, consumer, or retailer.

Today’s internet can be a dangerous place from time to time. We are constantly bombarded with a myriad of advertisements and scams with every page that we visit. Something to be wary of while navigating the world wide web is the existence of fake tech support.

Fake tech support is just what is sounds like; it is tech support that is malicious in nature and designed to attack vulnerable users that may not have the experience necessary to differentiate legitimate tech support from fake tech support. The identification of fake tech support can sometimes be pretty simple depending on how it presents itself. One way that you can tell the difference is if you haven’t signed up for a company’s tech support service and you are getting a message from that company informing that your device is ‘infected’ or ‘at risk’, chances are you are experiencing fake tech support. It is pretty simple to come to this conclusion. Why would a legitimate company cold-call you or send you the message to tell you that you are at risk? Well, the simple answer is, there is no reason and only a company trying to trick you into thinking that you require their ‘services‘ would do that.

For example, if you were driving down the road in your car and stopped at a red-light and someone walked up and told you that you need an oil change and they can perform one for you for a good price, would you believe them? Well, most people would not. How would that person know that you need an oil change? The simple answer is, they wouldn’t.

Being able to make this distinction between fake and legitimate tech support services is a great strength to have as these types of scams are only going to increase in abundance in the years to come. So next time you see one of these messages or get a cold-call about your computer, stop and think about what the intentions of the company are that is contacting you before letting your guard down.

Yo, Tech Tails readers! Spring is here, sort of! Since I am writing this on the Friday before Tech Tails Tuesday, and taking…