Day 11 – iOS Champion

How much longer can I be an iOS Champion

There is a possibility that today I will go and collect my iMac from the store. During the last week and a half I have used iOS almost exclusively. That makes me an iOS champion! I say almost exclusive because I did switch on and have a look at my Raspberry Pi briefly. Maybe that doesn’t count because it was only for a few minutes and I only entered a few commands into the terminal and that was that. It’s nice to know that Apple was able to get my computer fixed within four days after initially telling me it could take 10 days to get the job done. To underpromise and over deliver is the best way to deal with customers for any company! So now I have to make another trip to the Barcelona Apple Store to collect my iMac. Whether or not I go and collect it today will depend upon how tired I am this afternoon. I have a very early start to the day having to get out of bed at 5 o’clock in the morning. If I’m feeling wrecked, then I’d rather wait until tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to have a good nights sleep. During this time with my iOS devices I have done more writing for my blogs and I have before. It’s been easy to create blog posts of between 700 to 2,000 words using Siri dictation and a little bit of typing. Using the Ulysses application on the iPad and also on the iPhone has worked out really well. It’s a really good interface for working on the posts. It’s been easy to add links while still working in Ulysses. I experimented with using the application Blogo and it wasn’t too bad. Great to be able to use that application for adding images and to have the option to crop them at the time of adding. It’s a little bit fiddly for adding the headlines in the post. I had a similar problem using the WordPress app for blogging. I had to go to The HTML view in the application in order to convert paragraph text into headline text. That was if I was writing directly into the application. It was easier to have your blog post with the formatting already done before sending from Ulysses. The most successful way of working with the blog posts was to open up Safari and to login to WordPress directly.

Using Ulysses

No time to do everything in iOS

I almost wish that the Apple Store was keeping my computer for another week. It would give me another week of being an exclusive iOS champion. During this last 10 days I have created audio and video as well as dealing with photos on iOS. Doing the writing work on iOS has been pretty good, even with using Siri dictation. Obviously, I do miss having the use of DragonDictate. It’s worked out well to pair up the Bluetooth keyboard from my Mac up to the iOS devices and do some typing as well. There are some times when it’s not a good idea to try doing dictation. If I’m not alone in the room or there is TV on in the background I can think and type better than I can dictate. Even after this post PC experiment has officially ended I’m going to continue using the iPad and iPhone as much as possible. I’m going to make a video using iMovie on iPad and iPhone. I want to compare that with the experience I had using the application Pinnacle. I’ll be able to keep up with my daily blog posts about being an iOS champion!

iOS champion uses iMovie

Privacy and security with iOS devices

I was really happy when I upgraded to the latest version is of the iOS devices with the fingerprint recognition. Apple have done a good job of integrating security measures to keep our data safe. If you want another opinion on that you could ask the FBI in America. I also have it set up on the iPad and iPhone so I can use PGP encryption. With encryption I can encrypt sections of text or whole files in order to send them safely and privately to anybody else using PGP. I have also set up within my Mail application to use SSL certificates. I now have a choice of sending emails using the certificate or using PGP. Receiving encrypted emails this way on the iOS devices is really easy and works automatically. I’m not sure if it is possible to use the method with a certificate for sending encrypted emails from iOS. For this reason when you’re sending private emails from any iOS devices, it’s best to use PGP encryption. Unlock the section below to get a FREE Cheatsheet to help you get started with PGP. If you want to find out more and really go in to depth, you can buy the book about how to keep your email private. Good and Geeky Private Emails

Who needs email these days

Email isn’t as popular as it used to be. An iOS champion these days will rely upon sending messages through the messaging apps or through social networks rather than using email. The messaging apps are great because many of them now have end to end encryption. While the message is protected during its transmission from place to place, you do have to remember that it is unencrypted on the device. This is why it is a good idea to have the fingerprint recognition and a good password protecting your mobile devices. We need to do this because there are bad people who would like to steal your identity and your money. You have to protect all of your data in all of your places. This is because the bad guys have ways of putting together bits of information from various places and using the whole sum of it to steal your identity.

Two factor authentication

With your important accounts like your email account I fully recommend that you use two factor authentication. You can use the Google authenticator app or the application called Authy to receive the one time codes allowing you to access your account. These codes only last for 30 seconds for being replaced with a new one. Best to use 2FA if you want to be an iOS Champion.