F-11 Photo & The Print Refinery™

At F-11 Photo and The Print Refinery™, the love of photography inspires everything we do. For more than three decades, we’ve helped our customers discover fresh ways to express their photographic vision.

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Ransomware:
Should You Worry? What Protective Steps Should You Take?

Malware makes headlines regularly these days. Although Macs are targeted far less than Windows PCs, Mac users still need to remain vigilant. A particularly serious type of malware is called “ransomware” because once it infects your computer, it encrypts all your files and holds them for ransom.

Luckily, despite the virulence of ransomware in the Windows world, where there have been major infections of CryptoWall and WannaCry, only a few pieces of ransomware have been directed at Mac users:

The first, called FileCoder, was discovered in 2014. When security researchers looked into its code, they discovered that it was incomplete, and posed no threat at the time.
 

The first fully functional ransomware for the Mac appeared in 2016, a bit of nastiness called KeRanger. It hid inside an infected version of the open source Transmission BitTorrent client and was properly signed so it could circumvent Apple’s Gatekeeper protections. As many as 6500 people may have been infected by KeRanger before Apple revoked the relevant certificate and updated macOS’s XProtect anti-malware technology to block it.




In 2017, researchers discovered another piece of ransomware, called Patcher, which purported to help users download pirated copies of Adobe Premiere and Microsoft Office 2016. According to its Bitcoin wallet, no one had paid the ransom, which was good, since it had no way of decrypting the files it had encrypted.

So, don’t worry too much. Because it is likely that malware authors will unleash additional Mac ransomware packages in the future, we encourage you to be aware, informed, and prepared.

First, let’s explain a few key terms and technologies. Apple’s Gatekeeper technology protects your Mac from malware by letting you launch only apps downloaded from the Mac App Store, or those that are signed by developers who have a Developer ID from Apple. Since malware won’t come from legitimate developers (and Apple can revoke stolen signatures), Gatekeeper protects you from most malware. However, you can override Gatekeeper’s protections to run an unsigned app. Do this only for apps from trusted developers. Even if you never override Gatekeeper, be careful what you download.

Apple’s XProtect technology takes a more focused approach, checking every new app against a relatively short list of known malware and preventing apps on that list from launching. Make sure to leave the “Install system data files and security updates” checkbox selected in System Preferences > App Store. That ensures that you’ll get XProtect updates. Similarly, install macOS updates and security updates soon after they’re released to make sure you’re protected against newly discovered vulnerabilities that malware could exploit.

Also consider running anti-malware software like Malwarebytes Premium or Mac Internet Security X9. That’s not absolutely necessary, like anti-malware solutions are for Windows, but doing so can provide peace of mind, particularly if you regularly visit sketchy parts of the Internet or download dodgy software.

Although regular backups with Time Machine are usually helpful, KeRanger tried to encrypt Time Machine backup files to prevent users from recovering their data that way. Similarly, a bootable duplicate updated automatically by SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner could end up replacing good files with encrypted ones from a ransomware-infected Mac, or a future piece of ransomware could try to encrypt other mounted backup disks as well.

The best protection against ransomware is a versioned backup made to a destination that can be accessed only through the backup app, such as an Internet backup service like Backblaze (home and business) or CrashPlan (business only). The beauty of such backups is that you can restore files from before the ransomware encrypted them. Of course, that assumes you’ve been backing up all along.

If you ever are infected with ransomware, don’t panic, and don’t pay the ransom right away. Contact us so we can help you work through your options, which might involve restoring from a backup or bringing files back from older cloud storage versions. There are even decryptors for some Windows ransomware packages, and such utilities might appear for hypothetical Mac ransomware as well.

Feel overwhelmed by all these things to keep up with on your Mac? Contact us to set up a time to review your needs.  And, to repeat, there’s no reason to worry too much about ransomware on the Mac, but letting Apple’s XProtect keep itself up to date, staying current with macOS updates, and using an Internet backup service will likely protect you from what may come.

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Photographing Montana's Winter Outdoors

Article ©2018 by Jenna Caplette, with tips from our staff at F-11 Photo and The Print Refinery™

The magic of sunlight sparkling on newly fallen snow transforms the Montana outdoors, enticing us to explore the winter landscape.

From the dry, "cold smoke” skiers love, to hard-to-shovel, heavy, wet “mashed potato” variety, snow takes on many intriguing forms that beg to be photographed.  Its hard to resist the tiny individual crystals and magical scenes of white, bathed in beautiful light.

Snow can ruin digital imaging equipment. Marsha Phillips of F-11 Photo and The Print Refinery™ explained, “As everyone knows, water and electricity don’t mix. Cameras are no exception. As cameras warm up after a stint in winter temperatures, moisture evaporates, condensing on the internal parts and damaging them.”

To prevent damage to your equipment, you need to protect it while you carry it in a way that provides quick and efficient access to gear when you want to capture a shot. Your best choices are weatherproof bags. Padded compartments protect your camera from bumps. Built-in weatherproof covers offer a simple, efficient way to keep the day’s powder out of your gear if you fall or are caught by an unexpected snow flurry.

Two of the most popular types of bags for outdoor excursions are fanny packs and backpacks. Swing a fanny pack forward, unzip it, and its is fast and easy to get to your camera, lenses and accessories. If you have a larger load, consider a backpack.

Since it‘s a good idea to carry extra personal items to be sure you can keep yourself warm and dry, a backpack may be best for longer winter outings. Many include a vertical attachment system for your tripod so it won’t get smacked by trees or rocks as you shush down a trail.

Either way, you should create a winter first aid kit for your gear. Phillips recommends that you pack zip lock bags, a ground cloth of some kind, a warm pair of gloves with grip, and a microfiber towel. Using zip lock bags will help keep your stuff dry, just don’t leave damp items in them when you get home. The ground cloth comes in handy if you need to spread out your gear to locate essential accessories, hang out while you wait for good light or dry something off. Gloves with rubber grips prevent the “whoops” of dropping something in to a snowdrift.

If you do drop a piece of your gear, immediately dry it off with the microfiber towel and you may save the day’s shoot as well as the equipment.

Cold saps batteries. Have extras on hand. When you get ready to head out, put these in a pocket next to your body, where they will stay warm. Also carry Op/Tech Rainsleeves™ to keep your camera dry while shooting in snow, fog, waterfall mist and rain. Brilliantly simple, these clear, plastic sleeves protect your camera and lens, and will even work when you’re using a tripod. Made by Op/Tech USA®, a Belgrade company, a package of two costs only $8.99 – an incredible bargain.

While you're packing, Phillips recommends several items that will greatly improve the quality of your winter images. First, a polarizer minimizes snow glare and makes clear winter skies pop. If you’re a film shooter, you should also include a warming filter to take some of the blue out of snow, especially in shade. Digital photographers can accomplish this by simply changing the white balance on the camera to “cloudy” or “shady”. If you shoot RAW, you can play with the white balance later from the comfort of home. Also recommended for wintertime is a high quality UV filter. It will not only protect your lens from the weather, it reduces excessive blue at high elevations. Ask about filters with a coating that sheds water for ultimate in convenience. As always, be sure to bring extra film and/or memory cards with you, and keep both clean and dry. Be especially careful with memory cards, as a wet card can damage your camera and your card reader.

Now, when you have that chance for the shot you want, your equipment will be as ready as you are. Enjoy yourself and good luck capturing the magic!

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Looking for More Image Editing Power than Photos Can Provide?

In macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Apple strengthened the editing capabilities of Photos, adding tools for adjusting specific colors, fine-tuning color and contrast via curves, and even focusing an image with vignetting. But it still lacks many features found in other image editors, including applying a filter to an arbitrary portion of an image and adding text to an image. The good news is that the latest version of Photos brings back a feature from iPhoto that lets you edit any image with any editor on your Mac. Just Control- or right-click a photo and choose Edit With >YourFavoriteImageEditor, and the photo opens in that app. Make your changes, and when you save, those changes are reflected in the version in Photos.

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Apple Lowers Battery-Replacement Pricing for iPhone 6 and Later

Did you hear about the battery-related controversy swirling around Apple at the end of 2017? There has a lot of buzz about how, starting with iOS 10.2.1, iOS has been slowing down iPhones with old, weak batteries to avoid unexpected shutdowns. In response, Apple posted A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance to explain what was going on. 

Apple announced that it would reduce the price of out-of-warranty battery replacements for the iPhone 6 and later from $79 to $29 through December 2018. The company also said that an upcoming iOS update would give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone battery. The practical upshot of this is that if you have an iPhone 6 or later that suffers from short battery life or unexpected shutdowns, make sure to take advantage of the $29 replacement price this year.

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Having Trouble Switching Apps on the iPhone X? Try This.

Since the iPhone X lacks a Home button to press twice for the app switcher, you need to switch apps in a new way. To bring up the app switcher, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to about halfway, and then pause until the app thumbnails appear.  Now you can scroll through your launched apps by swiping horizontally and switch to an app by tapping its thumbnail. While in the app switcher, you can also force-quit a frozen app: press a thumbnail to get a red minus button and tap that button. Alternatively, you can skip the app switcher entirely. Instead, swipe right on the very bottom of the screen to switch to the previous app—swiping left switches to the next app.

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Amazon Prime Video Finally Comes to the Apple TV

A $99-per-year Amazon Prime membership provides various perks, including free 2-day shipping from the Amazon online store and streaming access to Amazon’s media libraries. But for Apple TV users, accessing Prime Video content has been frustrating, because there was no Amazon app for the Apple TV. That has all changed. If you have an Amazon Prime membership and an Apple TV, the new Amazon Prime Video app gives you a boatload of additional video content, including Amazon’s original programming (like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is hilarious). Find it on your fourth-generation Apple TV or Apple TV 4K in the App Store app. If you are still using a third-generation Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video should appear automatically on your Apple TV Home screen.

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Five Things You Should Never Do with Passwords (and Three You Should)

Passwords are the bane of our online lives. Nearly anything you want to do, it seems, calls for a password. As the Internet’s reach extends beyond computers and into phones, TVs, appliances, and even toys, we have to enter passwords with increasing frequency and in ever more annoying ways.

To make dealing with passwords easier and more secure, everyone should use a password manager like 1Password or LastPass. Such apps generate random long passwords like kD*SSDcCl7^6FN*F, store those passwords securely, and automatically enter them for you when you need to log in to a Web site. They are essential in today’s world. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. 

You’ll still need a few passwords you can remember and type manually—for instance, the master password for your password manager and your Apple ID password. Make sure those passwords are at least 12 characters, and we recommend going to at least 16 characters.

If you’re unsure of the best way to create a strong password, try taking the first letter of each word in a sentence you can remember, and also change a few words to digits. Then “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party!” becomes a password along the lines of Nitt4agm2c2ta0tp!. So that no eavesdroppers learn your password, avoid saying your sentence out loud whenever you enter it! Or, combine four or five unrelated dictionary words, like correct-horse-battery-staple, that add up to at least 28 characters. (Don’t use the examples in this paragraph!)

When possible, take advantage of two-factor authentication on sites like Apple, Google, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, and more. Accounts protected by two-factor authentication essentially require that you enter a second, time-expiring password as part of the login process. You’ll get that second password via text message, authenticator app, or other notification method when you log in.

But what we really want to focus on here is what you should not do with passwords. 

Follow these tips to avoid making mistakes that can undermine even the security provided by a password manager.

Don’t use the same password twice. This is key, because if the bad guys get your password—no matter how strong—for one site, they’ll try it on other sites.

Don’t share passwords with anyone you don’t completely trust. That’s especially true of passwords to accounts that contain sensitive information or that can be used to impersonate you, like email and social media. However, sometimes you have to share a password, such as to a club blog with multiple authors. In that case…

Don’t send passwords to shared sites via email or text message. If someone hacks into your recipient’s email or steals their phone, the password could be compromised. Instead, use a site like One-Time Secret to share a link that shows the password only once, after which the recipient should put the password into their password manager.

Don’t write your passwords on sticky notes. Yeah, it’s a cliché, but people still do it. Similarly, don’t put all your passwords in a text file on your computer. That’s what password managers are for—if someone steals your computer, they can’t break into your password manager, whereas they could open that text file easily.

Don’t change passwords regularly if you don’t have to. As long as every site has a strong, unique password, changing a password is a waste of time, especially if doing so makes you write down the password or communicate it insecurely. If you do have to update a password regularly, a password manager makes the task much easier.

Sure, it’s tempting to take the easy road and share a password with a friend via email or write a particularly gnarly one on a sticky note. But today’s easy road leads directly to identity theft and is paved with insecure password habits. You might think no one would pay attention to little old you, but times have changed, and organized crime is interested in any Internet account that can be cracked.

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Adjust Web Site Behavior with Safari’s Site-Specific Settings

Although macOS 10.13 High Sierra was light on new features, it did bring one welcome addition to Safari—site-specific settings. Imagine that you regularly visit a blog that you prefer to read using Safari’s Reader view. You can now set Safari to use Reader automatically on that site. Similarly, if there’s a site whose text is too small, Safari can remember your page zoom setting for that site. Pretty nifty, huh?

Here’s how to make the most of Safari’s site-specific settings. First, load a site whose settings you want to customize. Then, choose Safari > Preferences and click Websites in the toolbar. You see a list of general settings in the sidebar at the left, followed by any plug-ins you’ve installed. For each setting or plug-in, you can set what happens when you visit the site you just loaded—or, if you have a bunch of sites open in different tabs, you can customize the behavior for any open site. Here are your options.

Reader

Reader view displays an article as a single page that’s formatted for easy reading, without ads, navigation, or other distractions. It’s such a significant change that it’s off by default—you enable it by clicking the Reader button to the left of the URL in the address bar. To turn it on for all of a site’s articles, in Safari’s Websites preferences, select Reader and choose On from the pop-up menu next to the site name.

Content Blockers

Another way of seeing fewer Web ads is to install a Safari content blocker. Choose Safari > Safari Extensions to open Safari’s Extension Gallery, and then scroll down slightly to find the page’s Search field, where you can search for blocker. There are several—look for one like Adguard AdBlocker that supports Safari’s content blocking API. Once you’ve installed one, select Content Blockers in the Websites preferences. By default, Safari blocks ads on all sites, so choose Off from the pop-up menus for sites whose ad content you want to see.

Auto-Play

Little is more annoying than sites that play a video when a page loads, distracting you from the text you want to read. Even worse are those sites—Macworld, we’re looking at you—that auto-play videos that aren’t even related to the page. Safari squelches auto-playing videos by default, but for sites like YouTube, you might want to allow videos to play. You can also choose to stop only videos that have sound.

Location

Most Web sites that ask for your location want to determine how close you are to particular stores. If that’s information you want to share, let them see where you are, by all means. And if you’re using a mapping service that wants your location, it’s entirely reasonable to set its pop-up menu to Allow. But if a site keeps asking and it feels creepy, set it to Deny.

Notifications

Are there sites whose new posts you’d like to know about right away? If they support Web notifications and you give them permission, they can post push notifications that appear on-screen and in Notification Center, just your other notifications.

The Notifications preferences look different from the others because they show only sites that have asked for permission in the past. Safari remembers your choice, and if the site gets annoying later, you can always take back permission by changing the Allow pop-up menu to Deny. And if you never want to be prompted for push notifications—they can be distracting—uncheck the “Allow websites to ask for permission to send push notifications” checkbox at the bottom of the pane.

Plug-ins

It’s impossible to know what plug-ins you’ve installed, but Safari is configured to make sites ask for permission to use a plug-in each time you visit. That’s the safest setting, but for any given site and plug-in, you can use the pop-up menu to give the site access (choose On) or not (choose Off). And if you can’t even remember what a plug-in does, you can deselect its checkbox to disable it.

Some of Safari’s site-specific settings work without any interaction from you, such as your page zoom and notification preferences. Others require a tiny bit of configuration. The result? A web browsing experience that’s right for you. 

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Who Should Buy the New iMac Pro?

Put simply, it’s the most Apple’s new iMac Pro is the most powerful Mac ever, a title it will likely retain until Apple releases a new version of the Mac Pro, promised for sometime in 2018.

What’s special about the iMac Pro, and should you buy one?

The main thing to know about the space gray iMac Pro is that it’s aimed at high-end professionals, so gets pricey fast. The base configuration starts at $4999. Max out all its options and you’ll spend over $13,000. That’s a lot of money, but you get a lot of bang for your buck.

The power starts with the processor, an 8-core Intel Xeon W. Or, choose 10-core, 14-core, and 18-core options. You can bump up RAM too—32 GB comes standard, 64 GB and 128 GB are also available. The default storage is a 1 TB solid-state drive, but you can increase that to 2 TB or 4 TB. You can’t upgrade the iMac Pro in any way yourself, but you can take it to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to have more RAM installed after the fact.

The screen is a stunning 27-inch Retina 5K 5120-by-2880 P3 display, and the iMac Pro drives all those pixels with a Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics card with 8 GB of memory, though you can get even more graphics processing power from an optional Radeon Pro Vega 64 card with 16 GB.

Most of the iMac Pro’s other specs are similar to the existing 27-inch iMac with Retina display—a 1080p FaceTime camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, an SDXC card slot, four USB 3 ports, and a headphone jack—but it also boasts four Thunderbolt 3 ports for driving external displays and large storage arrays, along with 10 Gb Ethernet for lightning-fast network access.

It comes with a space gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and a space gray Magic Mouse 2. You can switch to a space gray Magic Trackpad for $50 or buy both input devices for $149, which you might want to do because the space gray peripherals aren’t sold separately.

Many of the iMac Pro’s options come with eye-watering price tags—$2400 for the 18-core processor and another $2400 for 128 GB of RAM—but those stratospheric costs make the purchasing decision fairly easy. If you’re in a line of work where increased performance translates directly to increased productivity, you’ll want an iMac Pro as soon as you can get one. It’s ideal for video editors who need to work with 8K video, engineers using complex modeling software, and developers suffering through long compile times. Put simply, if time is money for you, you’ll want an iMac Pro.

If you’re a professional whose needs aren’t nearly so specialized, rest easy knowing that the regular 27-inch iMac can give you more than enough performance for a lot less of an investment.

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How to Split Restaurant Checks with Apple Pay Cash

You’re out to lunch with tech-savvy friends, one of whom picks up the check and says, “Just send me your share via Apple Pay Cash.” Say what?

Apple Pay Cash is Apple’s new person-to-person payment service, designed to make it easy for individuals to send and receive money. It’s perfect for repaying a friend who buys concert tickets or a relative who picks up some groceries for you. Or rather, it’s perfect when your friends and relatives use iPhones with iOS 11.2 or later—for green-bubble Android acquaintances, you can instead rely on cross-platform services like Venmo, Circle, and Square Cash.

Here’s how to start using Apple Pay Cash.

First, if you haven’t yet enabled Apple Pay, go to Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Add Credit or Debit Card, and follow the prompts to add at least a debit card. You’ll also need two-factor authentication turned on in Settings > Your Name > Password & Security—regardless of Apple Pay, two-factor authentication is essential for security. With Apple Pay enabled, tap Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Apple Pay Cash and run through the setup process. You might also be asked to verify your identity after setup—it’s necessary to send or receive more than $500 in total.

When you’re done, you’ll end up with a new Apple Pay Cash card in the Wallet app. It’s a virtual card that stores money you receive and works like any other debit card for payments. If it doesn’t have enough money on it to cover a payment, you can choose any other debit or credit card you’ve added to Apple Pay. You can also add money to it or withdraw money to a linked bank account. Use a debit card when adding money or paying beyond your balance with Apple Pay Cash, since then there is no transaction fee. A credit card incurs a 3% fee.

To send or request money via Apple Pay Cash, you use its Messages app, which is installed automatically. While in an iMessage thread (blue bubbles) with the person with whom you want to exchange money, make sure the app drawer is showing (tap the app button if necessary) and then tap the Apple Pay button in the drawer.

A panel appears with a dollar amount, + and – buttons, and buttons for Request and Pay. Use the + and – buttons to set the amount, or tap the dollar amount to show a keypad where you can enter an exact amount, with cents if necessary. Then tap Request or Pay to insert the transaction into the message. It won’t be sent until you tap the black send button, so if you change your mind, you can tap the little x to delete. Lastly, you’ll be prompted to verify the transaction in the usual Apple Pay fashion, which means authenticating with Face ID on the iPhone X or Touch ID on all other iPhones.

You can even use Siri to initiate transfers—“Send my mother $15.” or “Ask my sister for $4.99.” And if you have an Apple Watch with watchOS 4.2 or later, you can send money from its Messages app, or send or request money via Siri. On the watch, double-press the side button to confirm the transaction.

The downside to Apple Pay Cash is that it works only within the Apple world. But as long as you want to exchange money with Apple-using friends and relatives, it’s fast, easy, reliable, and one less reason to visit the ATM.

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What You Need to Know about Face ID on the iPhone X

Apple’s new iPhone X does away with the Home button, a fixture since the original iPhone that has long served as the Touch ID sensor. To replace Touch ID, Apple developed a new facial recognition technology called Face ID. With Face ID, the iPhone X scans your face to authenticate you instead of using your fingerprint. It is truly amazing technology. Here’s answers to the questions we are being asked most often. If you have others, get in touch!

How does Face ID work?

Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Face ID is cutting-edge technology that uses Apple’s TrueDepth camera system to project over 30,000 invisible dots onto your face. Then it illuminates your face with infrared light and takes an infrared image. Finally, it translates that image into facial recognition data that’s encrypted and stored within the iPhone’s Secure Enclave (the data never leaves your iPhone).

Face ID updates its mathematical representation of your face over time to keep up with how your appearance changes.

How secure is Face ID?

Very. Apple claims that Touch ID’s false positive rate—the number of people who would have to try logging in to your iPhone before someone would succeed randomly—is 1 in 50,000. Face ID’s false positive rate is It can’t be fooled by a picture or a simple mask, although a high-enough quality 3D reproduction of your face might get past it, just as a sufficiently good cast of your fingerprint could fool Touch ID.

Face ID does have trouble distinguishing between identical twins and siblings who have nearly identical features. So if you have an evil twin, stick to a Touch ID-based iPhone or your passcode. The probability of an incorrect match is also higher with children under 13, since their facial features haven’t become sufficiently distinct yet.

By default, Face ID works only when you look at the iPhone X—it can’t be unlocked by your face when you’re sleeping.

Face ID does have trouble distinguishing between identical twins and siblings who have nearly identical features. So if you have an evil twin, stick to a Touch ID-based iPhone or your passcode. The probability of an incorrect match is also higher with children under 13, since their facial features haven’t become sufficiently distinct yet.

By default, Face ID works only when you look at the iPhone X—it can’t be unlocked by your face when you’re sleeping.

How fast is Face ID?

Not quite as fast as Touch ID in current iPhones, but fast enough that you likely won’t notice the difference. When you pick up your iPhone X so you can look at it, Face ID will, in most cases, have already recognized you.

This quick recognition is possible in part because the iPhone X can start scanning early, thanks to iOS’s Raise to Wake feature and a new Tap to Wake feature that automatically wakes the iPhone X when you touch the screen.

What if Face ID doesn’t work?

For starters, in case you were wondering, things like wearing a hat, scarf, or glasses won’t confuse Face ID, nor will growing or shaving a beard. Thanks to that infrared camera, it even works in complete darkness. However, Face ID does fail occasionally. One reason for a Face ID failure is holding the iPhone X too close to your face, easy to accidently do if you’re nearsighted and not wearing your glasses. (Some sunglasses prevent Face ID from seeing your eyes, but you can work around that problem by disabling Require Attention for Face ID in Settings > Face ID & Passcode.)

To make Face ID retry a facial scan, hold the iPhone X at a normal viewing distance, tilt it away from you, and then tilt it back to your normal viewing position. If that doesn’t work, or if you want to let someone else use your iPhone, enter the passcode. Entering the passcode is always an option.

Alas, unlike Touch ID, which let you enroll up to five fingers (so family members could unlock your iPhone without using the passcode), Face ID lets you have only a single face.

Can I use Face ID for anything besides unlocking?

Yes, Face ID completely replaces Touch ID, so you can use it to authenticate when you’re using Apple Pay, the App or iTunes Store. Plus, apps that previously relied on Touch ID, such as the 1Password or LastPass password managers, will automatically use Face ID instead.

Wouldn’t it be great if Apple can make the hardware necessary for Face ID inexpensive enough to bring it to other devices as well? Then you you could walk up to your Mac and have it automatically unlock because it had already focused in on your face.

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Stuff NOT to Use When Cleaning Your iPhone (Or You’ll Wish You Hadn’t)

iPhones pick up fingerprints and it’s so very easy to get it dirty with ink, lotion, makeup, dirt, food, and oil. When faced with an iPhone that needs cleaning, resist the urge to spray it with window cleaner, rubbing alcohol, or ammonia, or, even worse, to scrub it with baking soda or Borax. All iPhones have oleophobic—oil repellent—coatings on their glass surfaces that make it easy to wipe off fingerprints. You don’t want to remove that coating any faster than it will wear off normally, and cleaning products will strip it quickly. Instead, 

Apple recommends a soft, lint-free cloth such as you would use for glasses or camera lenses. By the way, even though the iPhone 7 and later have some level of dust and water resistance, it’s important to avoid getting moisture in the openings—most of the time, a lens cloth should be all you need.

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Follow This Quick Tip to Put Calendar Events in the Right Place

Apple’s Calendar apps in both macOS and iOS let you manage multiple calendars. Some of those may be private and others may be shared with family or colleagues. If you create a new event on the wrong calendar, you may end up oversharing with colleagues (who don’t need to know about your colonoscopy) or undersharing with your spouse (who does need to know about the soccer carpool). To reduce the chances of this happening, set the most appropriate calendar as your default. In macOS, you do this in the Calendar app, in Calendar > Preferences > General > Default Calendar. In iOS, set it in Settings > Calendar > Default Calendar.

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Apple Pay Updates Your Credit Card Details Automatically

File this as reason number 17 why Apple Pay is better than plastic. (Hint: it simplifies things for you)

Let’s say your credit card expires and your bank sends you a new card with a revised expiration date. Or perhaps your bank replaces your card with one that has a different number. Either way, most credit card issuers automatically update the credit card expiration date and number in Apple Pay so you don’t have to make those changes yourself. (If your bank doesn’t do this, you’ll have to remove the old card and add the new one.) However, if you move or change your billing address, you’ll need to update that info yourself: in iOS, go to Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay; in macOS on a MacBook Pro with Touch ID, go to System Preferences > Wallet & Apple Pay.

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Here’s the Fastest Way to Set Up a New iPhone

When you’re unboxing a new iPhone, you may also be worrying about how you’ll move your digital life from your old iPhone to the new one. 

If your old iPhone is running iOS 11, you can use Quick Start, a new iOS 11 feature that makes the transfer easy. 

Just turn on the new iPhone, set it next to the old one, and tap Continue when asked whether you want to use your Apple ID to set up your new iPhone. An animation appears on the new iPhone for you to scan with the old iPhone—once you’ve done that, follow the rest of the instructions to enable Touch ID or Face ID and then restore your data and settings from your most recent iCloud backup (you can update the backup first if necessary). 

Leave the two iPhones next to each other while data is being transferred, and if possible, keep the new one plugged in and on Wi-Fi after setup so it can download your apps, photos, and music from Apple’s cloud-based services.

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Watch Out for Phishing Attacks Hidden in Incoming Emails

One of the most important things you can do to stay safe on the Internet is to be careful while reading email. That’s because online criminals know that we’re all busy, and we often don’t pay enough attention to what we’re reading or where we’re clicking.

To take advantage of our inattention, these Internet information thieves forge email messages to look like they come from companies like Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, along with well-known banks, payment services, retailers, and even government agencies. Even more dangerous are messages that appear to come from a trusted individual and include personal details—these messages are often targeted at executives and company managers. These attacks are called phishing—you can tour some examples here.

The goal? Get you to click a link in the message and visit a malicious Web site. That site usually continues to masquerade as being run by a company or organization you trust. Its aim is to sucker you into revealing confidential information by asking you to log in, pay for a product or service, or fill out a survey. The site—or an attachment in the email message—might also try to install malware. Yes, macOS is quite secure, Just the same, if you approve security prompts, it can still be infected.

Phishing is a huge problem that costs businesses hundreds of millions of dollars every year. 

Easily identify phishing messages by looking for telltale signs:

• Be suspicious of email messages, particularly from people you don’t know or from well-known companies, that ask you to click a link and do something with an online account.
 • Look closely at email addresses and URLs (hover the pointer over a link to see the underlying URL). Phishing messages don’t use official domains, so instead of paypal.com, the addresses and links might use paypa1.com—close enough to pass a quick glance, but clearly a fake.
 • Watch out for highly emotional or urgent requests. They’re designed to make you act without thinking. Take any such messages with a grain of salt.
 • Channel your inner English teacher and look for poor grammar or odd phrasing, which are red flags for phishing messages. Email from real companies may not be perfect, but it won’t have multiple obvious errors.

So what do you do if you get a message that may be phishing for sensitive information?

Most of the time you can just ignore it. If you’re worried that it might be legit, instead of clicking any links in the message, navigate to the site in question manually by typing the organization’s URL into your browser—use a URL that you know to be correct, not the one in the email message. Whatever you do, do not open attachments that you aren’t expecting and never send confidential information via email.

If you think you’ve fallen prey to a phishing attack and given away a password, change passwords on any affected accounts. If you’ve opened any attachments or approved any installs, run anti-malware software to determine whether your Mac has been infected. Contact us here at F11-Photo if you need help. And remember, regular backups protect your data. 

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Print Labels with Apple’s Contacts App for Your New Year’s Cards

It’s easy to print mailing labels on standard label stock using your Mac’s Contacts app. You can even add a personal touch by including a graphic and using a custom color and font choice. 

Here’s what you need to do:

1. In Contacts, choose File > New Group to create an empty group into which you can collect your card recipients.  Name the group something like New Year’s Greetings.
 

2. Click All Contacts to see your full collection of contacts, and then drag your recipients from the center column to the New Year’s Greetings Cards group. Note that you have to click and hold briefly before Contacts lets you start dragging a contact; if you drag too soon, Contacts assumes you want to select more contacts. You can drag contacts one at a time or select several at once and drag the entire selection. This doesn’t move contacts out of All Contacts—you’re just adding them to the Holiday Cards group, which functions much like an iTunes playlist.



3. Once the New Year’s Greetings group is populated with all your recipients, click its name in the sidebar, and then choose File > Print to open the Print dialog.
 4. To set up your cards, you need to see details in the Print dialog, so at the bottom of the Print dialog, click the Show Details button (if it’s already called Hide Details, you’re all set). You also need to see the special controls for Contacts, so make sure Contacts is chosen from the pop-up menu underneath the page range fields. Then from the Style pop-up menu, choose Mailing Labels.

5. Beneath the Style pop-up menu, make sure Layout is selected, and then in the Layout view, from the Page pop-up menus, choose the manufacturer of your labels and the number associated with the labels. (Avery 5160 is the most common label type and is readily available at office supply stores and online.)
 

6. Click Label to switch to the Label view. From the Addresses pop-up menu, choose the type of address you’re using. Home is likely the most appropriate; if you choose All, Contacts will print both Home and Work addresses if available. You can also choose to print company and country here, and if you print country, you can exclude your own country, which makes it easy to include overseas friends and relatives without printing the country for most people.

7. Although the defaults are fine, if you want, you can change the color of the label text, select a small image to print next to each contact, and change the font.

 8. It’s time to print, but not on your label stock just yet! Click the Print button to print a draft of your labels on plain paper. You’ll use this draft for two things—checking the addresses for accuracy and verifying that the labels will print properly on the label stock.

To check if the labels will print correctly, stack a page from the draft on top of a sheet of blank labels, and then hold them up to a bright light or sunlit window. You should be able to see whether the positioning is right—it should be in most cases. If not, make sure you’ve chosen the right label in the Print dialog, and if all else fails, create a custom label with your own margins and gutters to make it work.

 9. Once you’ve fixed addresses for everyone who has moved recently and verified your positioning, you can print for real on your label stock.

Cool beans! Most of the work comes in selecting people, making sure their addresses are correct, then updating those that have changed. Actually printing labels takes only a few minutes. As you stick your labels on envelopes, think of all the other ways you can use this new skill.