Blog – firefly|Interactive

The case for authentic Apple cables

Marshall — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 00:28:50 +0000

When the new lighting connector was announced the internet was awash with rumblings of Apple’s conspiracy to squeeze more money out of their consumers. Indeed the new authentication chip appeared to be something to that effect. There are many cheap reproductions available online, especially at first, most of which iOS 7 would warn you about. These have proven in my experience to be low quality, breaking within a couple of weeks of purchase. Subsequently Apple started a “certified” program with the big names getting on board (Belkin and the like). These accessories have also proven to break down in my use, with loose connections.

The bottom line is that, as usual, apple makes the best items in this arena (Period)

iOS 7: Beta 1 impressions

Marshall — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:29:15 +0000

There is something unique and polished to the iOS environment. Something that Windows 8 and Android are trying to overcome with a new, flat, trend setting kind of design. I’ve heard the gregarious conversation about how flat is now and how Skeuomorphism is passé in user interface design. But regardless iOS has always seemed more polished and professional than either Android or Windows.

iOS 7 is the newly redesigned future of iOS, in some ways I can see the beauty and benefit of flat design. In most ways I feel like Apple is playing follow the leader. Congrats iOS now seems like a follower to android or windows 8! Flat design is about simplifying the interface, but there is only so much you can do without appearing to copy others. I’ve thought from the beginning that android (and now windows phone) lacked the visual enhancements that make iOS the stunning user experience that it is. Read android seems childish to iOS’s sophistication. iOS7 takes iOS into the new era of Flat design to it’s detriment in my opinion. There are many nice and clean visual aspects of the new interface, but there are many things that were sacrificed in the process. Many of the app icons are childish at best. Vector artwork on a slight gradient is the first step of the design process, not the finished product. Over simplification makes them seem cheap and easy.

There are several feature I love from a usability standpoint, the new Control Center gives you access to a bunch of stuff that is extremely useful. Brightness, Alarm Clock, flashlight (builtin), Airplay sharing, etc. This is going to single handedly help me clear several apps from my home page. Love it.

The OS seems slow in general due to the over abundance of effects in moving from state to state or view to view. For example the new 200 ms fade to black when you click the lock button seems slow. Another example, folder to out of folder animation visually takes you from one action to the conclusion, however waiting for the actions to fade in and out and complete makes everything seem delayed. Before iOS was quick and functional, now it’s happy and neat and not in a hurry. Even if you light in the south, you still want to get info quickly on your phone. Each slow fade makes me feel like my phone is slower.

Don’t even get me started on paralax “playfullness” of the lock and home screen. That novelty is wasting too much battery power. Seriously the “wow that’s neat factor” dissolves in about 30 seconds.

Inspire Yourself.

Marshall — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:44:07 +0000

The first person you have to inspire every day is yourself. Running will do that.

Marc Parent, Runner’s World columnist

Time Machine Wipe & Start Over

Marshall — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 02:05:15 +0000

A bit ago I covered my plan for a comprehensive backup plan for my Mac. I thought when OS X Mt. Lion (10.8) came out that being able to use 2 Time Machine drives would fix my, one-in one-out, process. However it did not. When you swap back in the drive that’s a month out of date it still doesn’t always pickup where it left off, and to add to that you get a notice every couple days that the other drive is unavailable for backup. So 1 drive at a time is best in my experience.

After swapping the drives most often it freaks out saying the drive is full and seems unable to actually do house cleaning or pickup where it left off. My guess it regards the drive a new backup not a continuation. So I find it best to start anew each month. After swapping the drive, follow this procedure to wipe the newly back in service Time Machine drive and start off a fresh new month of back up data.

Correct swap in a new Time Machine drive that has been used before:

Stop using the backup drive in Time Machine: Open System Prefs, Time Machine, Select Disk, Click the disk that is active, ‘Remove Disk’. Confirm ‘Stop Using This Disk’.
Stop time machine: Open System Prefs, Time Machine, click the big ‘Off’ switch.
Eject the Volume (if it won’t eject, see “Force Eject Time Machine Drive“)
In Disk Utility: Erase drive, “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” Erase.
Then remount the drive with disk utility and turn back on time machine, you’ll have to reselect your drive, and let it rip.

Force Eject Time Machine Drive:

Terminal: hdforceiutil eject -force [drag drive here]

iCloud Restore Apps Install then Vanish: Fix

Marshall — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:22:35 +0000

For the last two iCloud restores, I see all my apps in the right place with the greyed out progress bars. The problem is that each app would download, install, then vanish. I had to redownload all apps that I wanted and rearrange them, ouch. When I had to get my iPhone 5 replaced for a faulty top lock button, the same thing happened. The fix I found was a language change after the phone restores your settings and before it starts downloading your apps. Basically a language change forces the springboard, e.g. your desktop of iPhone, to restart and fixes the problem. You can’t do it initially because as soon as your settings are restored you language prep comes with it. So it’s a matter of timing it after your preferences are restored and before you apps are downloaded.

I want to apologize for not being able to recover the article I found about the fix. It was good and I want to pay tribute, once I can find it again. Saved me a bunch of time.

Lesson: Changing the language of your phone and forgetting about it will warrant a crazy Siri experience and a Siri who doesn’t quite understand you. English (UK) Siri is a Brit dude. English (AUS) is regular Siri with an Aussie accent. Good Times!

Reminders App Badge Stuck on (2)

Marshall — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:06:51 +0000

After upgrading to iOS6 my reminders app was showing one uncompleted reminder I could not get rid of. Very frustrating, but it turns out it’s rather easy to fix. When iOS 6 updated it hid all local reminder lists, if you had any open reminders in those lists they still contribute to badge count but don’t appear in the app. You have to search to reveal them. Here’s how:

Search a single letter, I used ‘C’.
Uncompleted reminders will appear at the top.
Check them and viola.

Here’s the article I found on how to do it.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4313390#19823194

Passwords and Security

Marshall — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 01:25:35 +0000

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.

Simple rules that have been trumpeted a lot “don’t reuse passwords” and “create strong unique passwords”. PR and public education efforts fall on deaf ears. It’s human nature. People are more likely to know how to beat IT password policies to keep their lame, reused password, than how to find and use a good password manager.

With a string of high profile sites being hacked this kills me. Basically it doesn’t matter how secure my password is, it only matters how many people have used terrible passwords. These weaker passwords allow hackers to reverse engineer the encoding hash of the site and break everyone else’s encrypted passwords. So the big question is:

How do we make security better, when people will always fight to use the easiest and predictable passwords allowed?

Unfortunately I don’t have the answer, I’m just stating what I think is the real challenge. Public awareness and PR efforts will only ever do so much. There are still too many people that think “I just want this to be easy, no one wants my information.” We need to find a way that everyone knows “My lame password just stole everyones information!”