Category: Tech

BlueJeans Blues


In a classic example of trying to strike while the iron is hot, the business unit of Verizon is acquiring BlueJeans. If you’re not familiar, BlueJeans is a video conferencing app like Zoom.

via Engadget


More: Verizon, WSJ

My firm uses BlueJeans as its default video conferencing tool. At first, I really didn’t like it. I found it unreliable and non-intuitive. I still don’t like the user experience, but it seems more reliable, at a time where I’m sure its traffic has skyrocketed. Still seems to me like chasing another train that already left the station, but time will tell.

I’m a Verizon wireless customer (much better reception at the farm and surrounding areas), so maybe there will be some beneficial integration, though at the moment I can’t imagine what that would be.

For more tech news and Kent’s real-time reading list, follow him at Twitter.

Better Screenshots on Your Mac


Of course, you could also just hit Command + Shift + 5 in macOS Mojave or later to pull up its screenshot app, which gives you plenty of options for customizing what you’re taking a picture of, where the resulting file will save, and whether you’d like to enable a timer or not.


More: Customize Your Mac Screenshots With These Hotkeys

I use Command + Shift + 4 multiple times a day. But, somehow, until the other day I did not know about this screenshot app. Very handy!

For more tech news and Kent’s real-time reading list, follow him at Twitter.

Evening Reading: 3/3/19


Evening Reading: 2/15/19


A Happy Day for Mac Lovers

All of this Mac and Apple display news today made me so happy, I wondered if perhaps it was a belated April Fool’s Day prank.  Thankfully not.

Apple is currently hard at work on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro, with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs and big honking hot-running GPUs, and which should make it easier for Apple to update with new components on a regular basis. They’re also working on Apple-branded pro displays to go with them.

I’m a devoted MacBook Pro user, but Apple’s commitment to Mac Pros, and the software that runs them, is fantastic news for all Mac users.  And I’ve long felt that the Mac Mini is an under appreciated gem, so I’m delighted it will remain in the lineup.

There are good times ahead for Apple.

W3C, Big Media, Cats and Bags

The EME-DRM war wages on, while those of us who just want Flash and Silverlight to die long-overdue deaths and to continue watching videos in our browsers await our fate.

It’s difficult to imagine that any content distributors that are currently distributing unprotected media are going to start using DRM merely because there’s a W3C-approved framework for doing so.

The usually reliable Ars Technica.

Are you kidding?  That’s exactly what’s going to happen.  Big media companies are conscripting the mostly powerless W3C in their war to stuff the cat back into the bag.  And anyone who doesn’t think opportunistic content providers will take advantage of the destruction of the open web is dreaming.

Time will tell how this war plays out, but it looks to me like consumers will be the casualties.

The EFF has a good FAQ, for those who want to see what’s at stake.

All About the New Apple File System

 

“Once APFS becomes available, Apple plans to make the process of switching to the new file system incredibly simple. You won’t need to back up your data and start again with a fresh OS install, thank God. Instead, there will be an option to seamlessly transition all your devices without losing any of your files.”

Cult of Mac (who I still haven’t completely forgiven for this).

appleclassicApple (and those of us who rely on its products) needs a new, modern, uniform file system.  No, it’s not some sexy new feature.  But it is integral to the efficiency and future of the devices we use.  All we can ask is that the transition is as painless as possible.  So far, it looks like it will be.

Notes on Notes and a Farewell to Evernote

“Evernote cites ‘building the Evernote of tomorrow’ as one of the reasons for the price increase. The problem is, we as users really haven’t seen much of a change in their service.  For example, using Evernote as a basic notetaker is still a fairly painful experience. Exporting and sharing documents from Evernote is not as easy as it should be. I’m all for innovation, but asking the users to pay for it before you deliver is going to be a tough sell.“

Katie Floyd, long-time Evernote user.

That’s a really good take.  I’ve been a Premium Evernote user for many, many years.  But even before this latest price increase, I’d cancelled my auto-renew, and moved my Notes to Apple’s Notes app.  The Notes app needs a lot of work, but Apple is chipping away at it.  And the fact is, I don’t really need a lot of bells and whistles on my note taking app.  I need two things.

One, the ability to file, manage and find as needed pdfs and other files, as a digital file cabinet for my paperless archival system.  For a long time I used Evernote for this.  Over time I realized I don’t need a separate, dedicated app for archiving and accessing documents.  Finder on my Mac, combined with Dropbox on all my devices, does this as well or better than Evernote.  Sure, I have to pay for Dropbox, but I’m going to do that anyway, so Evernote feels like an unnecessary spend.

Two, a simple but reasonably featured note taking app to take and keep notes for quick reference and some projects-in-progress.  Apple’s Notes app does this well enough.  It doesn’t handle pdfs perfectly, but it handles them well enough for quick reference purposes, again with the heavy archival lifting done via Finder and Dropbox.  And as bad as Notes is with pdfs, it handles them way, way better than OneNote.  I tried for 2 weeks to take notes and manage project materials in OneNote.  It just didn’t work for me.  At all.

So my current workflow is based on my ScanSnap scanner, scanning to designated folders, viewed and managed via Finder and backed up and synced via Dropbox.  With quick notes and oft-used reference cards residing in the Notes app.  Oh, and Google Keep serving as a free and handy cross-platform clipboard as needed.

Before today, I figured I’d continue to use my free Evernote account for something.  But the 2-device limit makes that infeasible.  I’m not mad at Evernote for trying to make more money.  I understand.  It’s just that the price hike on the heels of so little feature advancement leads me to pass.

Good luck Evernote, we had a good ride.