I’m going to share what I’ve learned over the last 20+ years of working with websites and web servers/hosting, a general overview of web-hosting, and why we picked WPEngine to host our websites as well as our client websites **.

This is a long article (and I’ll keep adding to it), so feel free to jump down to the section that most interests you:

• Background
• Types of Hosting
• Why Managed Hosting
• Why WPEngine
• WPEngine – the good, the bad, (and the ugly?)
• What if I can’t afford WPEngine?

Note: some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means that if you follow them and make a purchase, I’ll receive a commission. It will not cost you any more, but would help me a lot to keep producing content like this article, YouTube tutorials, etc. Thanks!

WP Engine – Cart Page – Scale Plan – 4 months free

Background

Maybe it’s my IT consulting / data operations engineer background, but I’m pretty picky about doing tech things the right way. Except, of course, when I cheat a bit on my own personal projects and experimentation.

You see, I got into website hosting in a bit of a round-about way. This, combined with my background, has given me some good insight on the topic, and heavily influenced our choice to use WP Engine for our own sites, as well as those of our clients.

I’ve been into website design and web-related technology since the Web began. But, I was typically working on a website for some other company, or on hosting that wasn’t my own to control/decide. I just worked with what was presented to me or available.

In the mid-90s, I used and managed a Microsoft’s ISS server. I doubt it was the best, but websites were simple back then – just some static text files and a few tiny images; maybe a server-side script.

Enter WordPress

A decade later, a friend introduced me to this new platform called WordPress. I initially started with a blog, but quickly realized this would become the platform for entire websites. It just had too many advantages over trying to build and update static pages.

But, along with this power, came new and complex challenges. Suddenly, it wasn’t just a matter of directory/file security, but vulnerabilities in WordPress core and plugin/theme code. Threats to basic web serving started to escalate as well, as hackers with more computing power started new magnitude-type attacks like DDoS and brute-force methods.

At the time, a friend (who I’m eternally grateful for!) let me use space on his co-located monster server, in trade for some help supporting it. It was a great deal, as it allowed me ‘free’ website space in trade for some time. And, we’re not talking any ol’ server here, this box would still compete well with many of the best dedicated hosting options out there. It had gobs of RAM, SSD main/database storage, high-end RAID for big files, terabytes of storage, quad-Xeon processors, etc. It was a serious machine on a serious internet connection.

I never worried about things like caching or optimizing WordPress. It just wasn’t a problem, especially since I wasn’t dealing with any overly high-traffic sites. But, that doesn’t mean we were without problems…

What is time worth?

Running your own website takes quite a bit of time. But, adding on the time it takes to run a website and server down to the hardware and network level, takes considerably more. You need to ask yourself, ‘how much is my time worth?’

I spent hours, which turned into days (sometimes whole weekends with little sleep) pouring over log files to block IP addresses, researching and fixing hacked sites, or restoring site files manually and resetting file-permissions, once, after an unforeseen series of hardware failures. Murphy is alive and well, and things will happen.

What is stability – and peace of mind – worth?

Then there is just the peace of mind which comes with website stability. Even if your site is a hobby, it is no fun to have it be down or hacked. But, when the website is for a business or organization, money and reputation are on the line. While problems can usually be overcome, it’s so much better to just avoid them in the first place. Let your imagination run a bit here… being off-line for a while is probably the least of the potential problems.

What is productivity worth?

Premium products and services are often about more than simply not having as many problems. They are often about better and more efficient ways of doing things (or a more enjoyable experience).

Once I decided to make the move away from DIY web-hosting, I also looked at the features which could save me time, beyond up-time, speed, and stability.

3 types of web hosting beyond DIY

There are three major types of web-hosting (and arguably a fourth that is more about scale/infrastructure) once you move beyond doing everything yourself. Each adds some benefits and typically a cost increase.

Shared hosting

This is the most common kind of web-hosting we typically see advertised or promoted. Unfortunately, this kind of hosting has kind of set a price in most people’s minds about what hosting should cost. This is the $3.77/mo, or even $9.95/mo type of plans. In fact, the issue is less about price, and more about how the sites are being hosted, managed, and supported.

The quality of these plans can vary greatly, but you have to consider what you’re getting for those low prices. At $3.77/mo, how much of anything is someone going to give you for $45 per year? Think about that for a moment. How much does a computer cost? Electricity to run it? A technical support person’t time/salary? When you put it in those terms, you start to realize you won’t get much, or they’ll be losing money quickly!

The benefit of shared hosting (over DIY), is that because these ISPs specialize at this, they usually have the hardware and basic network / operating system support covered. They probably even have some hardware out in front of the web server to help prevent DDoS type attacks. If you’re lucky, they’ve done some OS-hardening to make the servers less susceptible to certain kinds of hack attempts. And, they usually have a ‘panel’ type web interface to help in setting up accounts and services (as opposed to using Unix command line for install and configuration).

The downside, is that to meet those prices, they have to pack a LOT of websites onto each server. Each site is usually a subdirectory, and more prone to being attacked by security vulnerabilities across the server, or from any site on the server. And, it probably should go without saying that while their staff might know something about WordPress, they don’t specialize in it (they often support most every type of website and/or CMS), nor can they provide too much support (before losing money).

VPS (Virtual Private Server)

The next level up is more of a walled-garden approach to the shared hosting above. Think of it like a bunch of mini-servers running on a single server piece of hardware. This helps eliminate some of the cross site security concerns, or a problem in one site taking the others down with it. It also allows server resources to be distributed more evenly and fairly. Each ‘virtual machine’ can have settings for RAM, CPU usage, network usage, etc. If some other site gets huge traffic or has some problem, it is constrained to those criteria, and won’t impact your site.

The upsides are pretty obvious. The downsides, though, are that based on price you might still get less support than you think, and you’re often not dealing with any better in terms of interface and tools (sometimes less!) to help you get your site running and performing appropriately. While you’re walled off from other sites, you still have to deal with most of the technical stuff above the base-OS/network/hardware level.

Dedicated server

Much like a VPS, but you’re getting the whole machine. You have more power for your site, but the same downsides. Support will depend on the plan pricing, and you usually just get a cPanel (interface for administration). Again, the base-OS, network, and hardware are taken care of, but you manage the rest.

‘The rest’ can be a lot of stuff you might not be aware of. You still have to understand WordPress well enough to install and tune it. You have to know how to secure it against hacks, or fix it when it does get hacked. You have to implement/manage backups. Anything you do to the site could potentially crash it, and then you might have to learn how to rebuild it from a backup (assuming you did one). Are you going to manually backup, or buy some service or plugin? The list goes on and on.

Managed hosting

WPEngine is managed hosting, so we’ll be talking more below about the features and benefits. But, think of this as a whole layer of support and specialization on top of any of the previous plans. Instead of just taking the OS, network, and hardware aspects off your plate, they also manage aspects of whatever platform they specialize in (in this case, WordPress).

They will custom-tune the system for the platform, provide backups, provide specialized support and recommendations, and often take care of some level of the administration of the platform (or provide custom tools to help you do so). They may even provide add-on support, like hack recovery, or content delivery networks, staging servers, etc.

The value of these things SHOULD NOT be underestimated! I often tell people that it would take 5 or 6, $six-figure tech geeks to cover what these kinds of services provide, whereas more basic hosting only covers 1 or 2. In fact, I’d say it’s worth much more than the price difference between the plans would lead one to believe.

Cloud-based or distributed

I should mention this ‘4th’ type, which is over-arching (and why I didn’t give it one of the three categories). Any type of hosting could now be spread across multiple physical servers or even across many servers located around the world. It typically will fall under the VPS model (as low-end shared hosting probably doesn’t use it, and dedicated server is usually a physical machine). But, it could certainly be managed hosting, and will often be advertised as cloud or distributed hosting, as a feature (over basic VPS). By being distributed, it can quickly scale and is more fault-tolerant.

Why managed WordPress hosting?

Before formalizing cgWerks as a website design business, I had been helping friends, a few small businesses, and a non-profit with their websites. When one of these grew rapidly, it spurred me to formalize my business services, but also take into account the serious needs of a more mission-critical, and growing website.

I realized that even if I went with a higher-end VPS or dedicated server, I’d still be dealing with a lot of the headaches I had been on our own server. I’ve always been one to focus more on solving business problems and improving productivity, not re-inventing the wheel. I’d much rather put time into implementing something useful, than fixing stuff that shouldn’t have broken in the first place.

So, I went shopping for hosting, and quickly started to discover the world of managed WordPress hosting. While it was considerably more expensive (especially in terms of cost/traffic), I was impressed with the suite of services and tools provided.

Using managed WordPress hosting as the base of my website design offering, allowed me to focus on where my skills are best used, sourcing and implementing new features for clients.

Why WP Engine?

Before landing on WPEngine, I did a lot of research and reading of reviews. When I joined, it seems they had just experienced some rapid growth and growing pains. The reviews were quite mixed, but after reading more about their founder, philosophy, and the tools they had built, I became convinced they were the way to go.

Since then, the managed WordPress scene has kind of exploded. Others have grown as well, providing some stiff competition. And, older hosting giants have joined the game, offering their premium managed WordPress hosting packages.

While I can no longer absolutely claim WP Engine is the best – as I haven’t experienced all the others – I can say they are certainly a leader… quite possibly the best. While I keep an eye on the field, I see no reason to consider switching. They have outperformed my expectations.

That said, there are a number of managed WordPress hosting providers I have heard excellent things about. For example, I could easily go with Pagely, as I’ve heard such good things from people I trust. I’ve heard good things about Flywheel.

The big thing about WordPress managed hosting, are all the things you don’t have to do. You don’t have to look at a cPanel with hundreds of options. You don’t have to connect FTP (SFTP) unless you want to. You don’t have to worry about directory structure. Setting up a new site (install) is push-button simple.

Their portal/Dashboard is clearly laid out with everything you need right there and pretty easy to understand. Want to do a quick snapshot backup before you update that plugin? Click of a button. Want to restore a daily or snapshot backup because your WordPress site is white-screened after an update? Click of a button (or two), simple.

And, for admin type things you can’t figure out, a quick call, text chat, or support ticket will quickly get you on your way. They’ve even helped with some things which weren’t their problem, and have provided advice on plugin solutions or configuration best practices. While they aren’t going to build your site for you, their support is much more than, ‘fix it because it broke.’

Simple staging server deployment (and backups!) are a life-saver for site development. Within a few minutes, you can have a snapshot of your site ready on a staging server to test or make changes, and then push back to the live environment (with care). Both live and staging environments have the same push-button snapshot, as well as daily, backup systems. I can’t tell you all the times this has come in handy for testing, troubleshooting, or letting a plugin support rep find a cure without messing with the live site.

Mixed reviews?

If you start researching WPEngine, you’ll run into three types of reviews.

The first type are the loud critics. These reviews are often quite unbalanced, even if the critic had some initial reasons for leaving or concern. Sure, I’ve seen a few justified reasons while reading these reviews. They often happened during that rough, rapid growth time mentioned above. From what I could tell, WP Engine did try to keep these people happy, but were unable to retain them. But, the justified reasons often come with a lot of unreasonable ones as well. Many of these type of reviews are quite over the top if you know much about managed hosting.

The rest in this category seem to be from people who just don’t seem to understand the issues involved. Some are from high-traffic sites who got surprised by the cost overages. They based their expectations on their Google Analytics numbers. The problem is that Google Analytics tries hard to measure real users, and exclude all the bot traffic. While WPEngine has, IMO, a pretty fair way of measuring traffic, it takes Bots (good and bad) into account to some extent, as ALL traffic impacts a server. (Note: WPEngine made changes to how Bot traffic is measured a while back, which decreased my billed traffic by about 1/3 to 1/2.)

Others were dead-set on using some particular plugin, only to discover WPEngine didn’t allow it. Some where basing their businesses off of these plugins, and left, quite mad. But, to be fair, these plugins are often not ones that should be used anyway, and have some obvious problems in terms of server-load. I suppose it can be argued that with one’s own VPS or dedicated server, they can run them, even if they are poor or resource hogs. But, there are often better ways of doing such things, and WPEngine typically helps figure that kind of thing out.

The second type, are mostly positive reviews, much like this one. In fact many rave about WPEngine, and I’m really no exception. While I’m going to provide what I see as the good and the bad, my overall experience has been incredibly positive. They’ve made me a fan. The detractors say the positive reviews are due to affiliate commissions. But, I’m sure many, like me, became fans first, and then decided ‘why not’ about the affiliate opportunity. Yes, some sites just try to earn affiliate commissions, but I (and many others) only recommend products we know and use (affiliate opportunities or not).

The third type of review comes from people who left over pricing. I get this one, trust me. WPEngine isn’t cheap. And, when you’re looking at higher-traffic sites that don’t generate revenue, WPEngine might simply not be an option, no matter how good they are. As I noted above, I feel some of these people didn’t consider the costs very carefully. But, others did, and ultimately decided to leave. Price, while I think well worth it, is a very legitimate concern, and a good reason for leaving (or going with something else in the first place).

Just be careful to see if the reviewer is being fair in terms of value. If they are saying stuff like ‘ripoff’ and such, then they probably don’t understand the value. The good ‘left because of cost’ reviews will often admit the features and service were excellent, but just more than they could justify. Fair enough.

WPEngine – the good, the bad, (and the ugly?)

First, I should say that for managed WordPress hosting, you should expect (demand?) excellent up-time, robust/stability, and great service. WPEngine excels at all of these.

The Good

Security / Performance – You really don’t have to worry a lot about regarding security and performance… most of it ‘just works.’ They deal with the caching (it’s quite advanced) and most of the preventative security measures. And, if your site does get hacked, they’ll quickly get Succuri on the case. I’ve used this a couple of times over the last few years, and it’s at that moment when you realize just how valuable the service is.

Custom portal – If you’ve setup a WordPress site on typical shared hosting with cPanel, you’ll appreciate how simple and straight-forward it is on WPEngine’s interface. Given my background, I can easily figure out either, but I bet that’s not the case for many new users on cPanel. I’d guess those same users could figure out WPEngine, at least much more quickly.

Backup – This is such a big one! WPEngine does daily backups automatically. Then, with the push of a button, you can make a snapshot backup whenever you like. It’s so easy, I always do one before updating anything or making any big changes (sometimes even little ones). Restore is also push-button easy. These backups are available for both the live site and staging server.

Proactive Security – As mentioned above, they proactively do quite a bit to prevent you from having security-related problems, or being hacked, in the first place. And, they have real experts on the case, and real scanning tools, unlike some other hosting providers. (Marcus’ story  is pretty sad… especially for a hosting company recommended on WordPress’ site!)

Caching – Setting up and fine-tuning caching can be quite tricky, as well as many other performance oriented tweaks needed to make WordPress fast. You can throw hardware at it (as I did in the past), but even then, it won’t be this fast.

CDN – A content delivery/distribution network serves static files from a world-wide distributed network of servers, so they can come from the nearest point to the end user, and take load off of the main server. WPEngine has this for Pro and above plans. It can be added to the base plan. But, it’s quite valuable to have in terms of scale and performance.

Staging server – I use this all the time to do testing or allow a support agent from a plugin or service to work on fixes on a copy of the live site, but not the live site. It is also possible to move the live site to staging, make changes, and then push it back to the live server, which is nice for big site refreshes.

Updates – WPEngine will automatically push WordPress updates. They have a sophisticated system which ‘looks’ at the site pre and post update, and if anything doesn’t go well, it gets rolled back. Of course, you can postpone their automated service and do the updates and testing yourself. They do security updates quickly, and usually wait a while on major WordPress releases, sending out notices about when it will occur.

Imported/automated SSL – They offer a number of SSL options, from free to paid automatic certificates. They’ll also help you bring in and setup a 3rd party certificate.

Integration w/ Amazon S3 for certain large storage situations – Because storage is limited for the plans, they have integrated a method for certain situations to enable Amazon S3 storage for nearly unlimited file space.

GIT integration – A code and version control system, often used by teams, but can certainly be used for individual development environments. It allows you to push and roll-back changes made to the site code.

The Bad

The infamous (joking) ‘disallowed plugin list‘ – WPEngine has a list of plugins that they don’t allow in their environment. That said, most of these shouldn’t be used anyway, as there are better alternatives. A lot of people complain about this, though. Is it really in the bad column?

Disabled WordPress features – They disable some standard WordPress features by default, such as post revisions. I think they will let you re-enable them, if you need them. Check with support. I admit that sometimes I wish it was on.

Cost per traffic volume – Their value is in other areas, but they are expensive for a given volume of traffic. Higher traffic sites will want to run some numbers and take that into consideration.
(Note: I see about a 5:1 ratio of WPEngine billable visits to Google Analytics ‘Sessions’. However, the ratio is higher on lower traffic sites, and I don’t have any high-traffic sites to check. I’m talking hundreds, or less, real visitors per day, not thousands or millions like some sites. My theory is that there is a certain ‘noise’ level, and that higher traffic sites climb out of that noise, which lowers the ratio. I’d LOVE to hear from some high-traffic sites as to their WPEngine billable visits ratio to some Google Analytics stat like ‘sessions’ or ‘users’.)

No DNS or email, just WordPress – WPEngine doesn’t provide domain registration, DNS servers, or email. However, I actually don’t think that’s a bad thing. You’re MUCH better off using an email service like Gmail, and should keeping your domain and DNS services apart from your hosting anyway. ⁽¹⁾Less reputable hosting services have been known to hold sites hostage via DNS, and the included DNS services with many hosts are poorly setup after-thoughts. DNS is crucial! The world’s best hosting won’t matter if your DNS gets messed up or hijacked.

Regex redirection – WPEngine’s default method of URL redirection is Regex based, which is powerful, but difficult for users who don’t know Regex. WPEngine support will help with this, though. You can also install WordPress based redirection plugins, but for performance, you’d want to do the big stuff at the server level.

They sometimes remove data – WPEngine has been known to remove certain data, like an overly big wp_options table. They do this for a good reason, and it shouldn’t cause a problem for well-written plugins. However, if someone got caught off-guard by this, it could be a big issue. I’ve seen people complaining about this in reviews.

The Ugly?

As previously mentioned, there have been a few negative reviews for which the reviewers seem to make some good points (ie: they seem to have been wronged). Most of them have been quite a long time ago, but I can understand being vocal about it. IMO, WPEngine usually tried, but sometimes didn’t go as far as I might have liked to see, to fix the situation.

There is also the possibility of someone developing and basing their business on a plugin which WPEngine deems not to be allowed. I don’t know what exactly happens in that case, but I’ve read reviews that ended up with the site moving. That could be costly, but I think, also easily avoided.

Sometimes, they’ve been known to take actions on security problems prior to getting in contact with the site admin/owner. I can understand that sometimes getting such contact is challenging, and they have to move quickly. My understanding is that there have been times when they haven’t tried (based on reviews). They just made changes or took action. That’s bad, if true.

The big ugly, though, seems to be for high-traffic sites that can’t monetize the costs (or raise enough money). Since WPEngine prices are so directly tied to amount of traffic, you could end up with a budget overrun if you don’t predict and/or prepare. You might end up with hundreds of dollars of bills you can’t pay. In reality, for most businesses, if you have enough traffic to overrun their plan limits, you can probably come up with $1/1000 visits (in my estimation, a couple hundred or more real visitors). It’s a problem I haven’t had to face yet, and hope I never will. (I’ve paid ZERO in overage fees so far. One of my clients would, here or there, if they were on the base plan.)

What if I can’t afford WPEngine?

I have experimented with GreenGeeks, and was happy with them for low-cost, bare-bones hosting for low-priority sites or experimenting. I’ve heard great things about SiteGround. It’s a bit more expensive, but probably worth it. Just keep in mind the price you’ll be paying after year one, not the price listed on the sign-up!

** Since closing the web-design and hosting aspect of cgWerks, I have moved this and my other sites to the best WP Engine alternative I could find (to save money). Note, most of my clients stayed with WP Engine… and it turns out the web firms I moved them to use WP Engine as well. Great minds think alike. So, what is this alternative?

WPX Hosting!

I’ve been quite happy with WPX and the customer support is excellent. It is also consistently the quickest support response I’ve ever experienced. However, the UX/UI experience is somewhere between the basic places that use cPanel and WP Engine (which uses a custom interface). WPX Hosting also has a custom interface, but it is fairly crude compared to WP Engine. So, better than cPanel, but not nearly WP Engine.

It is also extremely fast. Since I haven’t been on WP Engine for a few years, it is hard to compare. But, it is faster, especially on the back-end (admin) side than I remember on WP Engine. They have nice premium features like free SSL certificate (as many hosts now do), free site migration, free hack cleanup, included cloud CDN, optimized caching they install and configure, backup and staging capability, etc.

Bottom line: I’ll absolutely be back on WP Engine, should the scale of business/sites justify it again. But WPX is so good that unless I’m doing a lot of complex site-work, I’m extremely happy here.

Also, I’d generally avoid web hosts owned by EIG. Many of the popular hosting companies out there are owned by one giant company. Their practices (from what I’ve heard) tend to drive down expenses impacting support quality after they are acquired.

If you’re technical enough to setup and manage your own server, WPEngine used to use Linode and now, I think use Google Cloud Platform. You can certainly buy servers (or VPSs) from these people, or Amazon Web Services (who Pagely uses), for cheaper prices and do all the work yourself. I’ll bet, though, that unless you’re doing this on a pretty big scale, you’ll find you don’t come out financially, or you’re a riding a disaster waiting to happen.

That lower price is always tempting until something goes wrong. I hear story after story from many of the entrepreneurs I follow about their path from cheap hosting, to VPS, to dedicated server… and still lots of problems until they hired the right people, etc. Many also make the move to managed hosting if they figure it out before they hire the team.

Or, if your budget is too low, and you don’t have the expertise available, consider just starting with someone like SquareSpace to get a basic site up and running until you can afford, or need, more functionality. Just remember that you likely will need to move some day.

WP Engine – Plans

Did I miss something?

If you’d like to know more about my experience or story, or if I’ve missed something in the above, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll try to respond or fill in the holes in the article.

Also, if you’d like to add additional layers of support on top of WPEngine, we at cgWerks take what WPEngine offers to a whole new level by handling planning and development of your website; updating it; adding content to it, if you like, or training/assisting you in that process; helping you with your marketing, SEO, analytics, etc.; adding email lists, e-commerce, membership areas, etc.; or, just being your Webmaster.

Learn more about the services cgWerks offers here.

The post WPEngine review and web hosting explained – best WordPress hosting? Find out. appeared first on cgWerks.

After much debate and discussion in the comment sections of the original article, as well as other sites talking about it, I was asked if I’d like to write a response. I was honored and set to writing one up. Follow this link to read why I don’t think managed Web hosting companies are in much danger.

The post cgWerks featured on WPMayor.com – future of web hosting response article appeared first on cgWerks.

With the release of Mac OS X Yosemite, Minecraft stopped working for anyone who has updated (or any new Yosemite users, such as a new computer purchase). Mojang is of little help so far and seems unconcerned. (Read my update below, as Mojang finally seems to be working on a fix!) The ‘fix’ options so far are to 1) Install an old, specially modified version of Java 6 released by Apple, or 2) install the latest Java version 8 from Oracle and implement a workaround. Fortunately, the latter (a MUCH better option, IMO) is not that difficult. (The article is long due to detail… the steps are relatively easy!)

Get right to the solution.

Overview

• Step 1 – Remove old Java
• Step 2 – Install Java
• Step 3 – Configure Java
• Step 4 – Download Minecraft
• Step 5 – Play Minecraft!
• Step 6 (optional) – Make it pretty!
• Step 7 (optional) – Play with a console controller?
• Estimated time: 10-15 minutes

Background rant (or, Hello Mojang… anyone home?)

Apple officially released OSX Yosemite a month ago on October 16th, 2014. While a month is quite a while to wait for such a crucial update from a major software vendor, Mojang at least had access to Yosemite since the PUBLIC beta offering on July 24th, 2014. And, one might expect that they started testing Minecraft on Yosemite, along with other software developers, back on June 2nd, 2014. Apparently not (or insert other excuse here…. Microsoft acquisition?)

Actually, there are a few other possible theories. If you’re interested, read on. Otherwise, skip to the next section below to get on with the fix.

I waited about a week before installing Yosemite. I usually find it best to wait for the dust to settle after a major software release. I had not been reading about any crucial problems so I decided to upgrade my mid-2013 MacBook Air, as I primarily use my desktop for business work. Everything seemed great until I tried to launch Minecraft.

I did a bunch of reading and was bit shocked Mojang hadn’t addressed the issue yet. So, I contacted @MojangSupport. They responded as if they were unaware of the issue and recommended I report the bug. I started looking at the bug reporting system and noted several tickets addressing or related to the issue. They seemed to be largely ignored. After some more exchanges with @MojangSupport, they basically said they were billing and account support. For other support, submit a bug report (to an ignored bug reporting system? Anyone see a problem here?). Apparently they have no actual customer support for this kind of problem. ⁽¹⁾As an aside, I think this has been a long-term problem. Mojang seems more structured more like an open-source project. If you’re not enough of a geek to figure out setting up an account and installing Minecraft, you are left searching for assistance. I’ve talked to parents, for example, who have been interested in Minecraft for their kids, but felt intimidated over how to get it going. It isn’t that hard, and it’s well worth the effort, but most people are used to simple installers.

One theory is, of course, speculation about the effects of being purchased by Microsoft. Maybe they just aren’t in any hurry to fix problems on non-Microsoft platforms? Maybe Steve Ballmer was sent over on a last contract project to teach proper support etiquette? jk

Another is that maybe Apple has a new version of tweaked Java in the works. Yet another, is that there is a problem with Java 7/8 on dedicated GPUs, causing everyone to hold off.

Whatever the reason, Mojang is being quite unprofessional. At the very least, let us know what is going on! And please, don’t pretend there is no problem.

So, I decided to try and implement some of the various ‘fixes’ to see what might be the best way to get Minecraft working with the latest Java release on OS X Yosemite.

Update: Saturday, November 22, 2014

One of my friends feels I’ve maybe been a bit too hard on Mojang. After all, people can ⁽²⁾While I didn’t test it, there were mixed reports when I was first dealing with this problem click the ‘more info,’ go to Apple’s support page, download and install Apple’s modified Java 6, and get Minecraft working again. As noted, I don’t feel that is a good solution, and certainly is a pretty lame thing to just leave the way it is by Mojang. But, maybe the ‘crucial’ language I’ve used could be deemed a bit over the top.

Also, some in the Minecraft support community have been telling me this has been around since Mavericks was introduced, as that is when Apple stopped installing Java by default. I seriously don’t remember installing Java when I bought my Mavericks based laptop or when I upgraded my desktop to Mavericks. Maybe that’s old age creeping in on my memory. But I, and the above friend, are almost positive the process wasn’t the same.

Update: Friday, December 12, 2014

Good news! It appears Mojang is actually working on a fix. And, what is even better is that this should be a pretty comprehensive fix, with rebuilt launcher and bundled Java (to try to get everyone on 64-bit, the latest version, and kept up to date). I guess a large percentage of their user-base is still on old versions and/or 32-bit java, even on new machines. Aside from taking WAY too long and not communicating well, kudos Mojang! The bad news, it’s going to be a while yet (sometime early next year). So, if you’re hankering for some Minecraft over the holidays, it might be worth trying our tutorial.

Update: Saturday, September 12, 2015

Mojang releases the fix! Actually, it is much better than a fix. Mojang finally did this right and bundled everything needed into one package/app. This way, everything should always be running the latest and greatest, and the install is as simple as any other Mac app. You just drag the .app file to your Applications folder!

Here is the announcement of the new Mac Minecraft installer for anyone interested.

Of course, you can get this by visiting Minecraft.net downloads area.

YAY!

The ‘fix’

A real fix needs to come from Mojang, in terms of a new launcher that properly recognizes other Java versions (or the latest version), as well as install instructions for Java as needed. Until then, here is a ‘fix’ you can implement yourself.

Disclaimer: I’m no expert on Minecraft code or Java. Minecraft is my ONLY Java based concern here, so I did no testing to see if this fix impacts other Java dependencies. Also, all my Macs previously had Apple’s Java 6 installed. I don’t have a ‘clean’ Yosemite install to try this on, but my guess is that it would work. (If you try it, I’d LOVE to hear in the comments below! I’m going to try and do some testing soon.) In other words, try this at your own risk.

Important: As noted above, there seems to be an unresolved Java issue where version 7 and 8 automatically use a dedicated GPU if available (vs integrated GPU). This might impact battery performance negatively until resolved (integrated GPUs typically use far less energy and might be quite capable of running Minecraft). I’m running a mid-2013 MacBook Air with integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000, so this is not an issue for me.

Check out our YouTube video instructions:

After upgrading to Yosemite (or on a new Yosemite based machine/install), you’ll get a dialog similar to this one when you try to launch Minecraft. ‘To open “Minecraft.app” you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime. Click “More info…” to visit the legacy Java SE 6 download website.’

Step 1 – Remove old Java

Let’s try a basic attempt to get rid of old versions of Java. (Note: I realize some of the guts of Apple’s Java 6 install go deeper, but this gets rid of the obvious stuff, and should render it non-functional as far as I can tell.) Caution: If you need Java for other reasons, you might not want to do this without a bit more research and/or testing.

Note: I don’t think you’ll see anything JavaScript related in any of these, but if so, you can ignore that, as JavaScript is a different than Java.

Directly inside your hard drive, you’ll see a Library folder. First look in Internet Plug-ins and get rid of anything Java related (probably just a Java applet plugin).

Hard Drive/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ (look for Java related items)

Also under the Library folder, there might be a Java folder. Toss that if it exists.

Hard Drive/Library/ (look for Java)

Do the same under the ‘home’ (Hard Drive/Users/username/) Library folder, which Apple has hidden, making it a bit more tricky to access. When you are at Finder (ie: click on your Desktop to make it the ‘active’ app), drop-down the ‘Go’ menu and notice a ‘Library’ folder appears if you hold the ‘option’ key down (and disappears if you release it). Select that Library folder and it should open.

Same as above, check your Internet Plug-ins folder (for Java-related items) and look for a Java folder.

~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ (look for Java related items)
~/Library/ (look for Java)

Empty your trash (if you’re sure there isn’t anything else in there you need. I say this as I used to have a client who stored stuff in there they didn’t think they might need again, but never emptied it… eeek!)

Update: Tuesday, November 18, 2014

My desktop iMac has an additional Java install location with an alias into the above folders. It is located at:

Hard Drive/System/Library/Java/

I haven’t upgraded this system to Yosemite yet, but am planning to do so in the next few days. It is my production machine, and is the result of at least a couple of years of OS X upgrades (last clean install was probably Snow Leopard). I’m going to test also trashing this Java folder, but if this is your case, you might want to wait until I’ve reported back.

Step 2 – Install Java

Install Java Runtime Environment (JRE)

Open Safari, go to Oracle.com and look for the Downloads menu. To the left side, you should see “Java for your computer.” This will take you to the following page:

Download Free Java Software

You should just be able to hit the red “Free Java Download” button, but you could also go to the “All Java Downloads” link on the left and pick the appropriate version for Mac OS X.

You’ll get a file currently called: jre-8u25-macosx-x64.dmg

Install this. There isn’t anything tricky, but it will need your admin password. On completion, it asks you to test it with your browser. You don’t need to do that or worry about the results (FYI: mine indicated Java wasn’t working).

Step 3 – Configure Java

It is a really good idea to change the default configuration of Java for safety purposes.

Under your system Preferences, there should be a new Java control panel. Open it. We’re going to go to the Security tab and uncheck “Enable Java content in the browser (Only disabled for this user).”

This is an important step, as most of the Java insecurities you’ve probably read so much about over the last year or two were vulnerabilities accessed via web-sites being visited. In other words, they were browser related. You should almost never need Java via the browser (or if you did for some reason, only enable it for that one trusted purpose, then disable it again).

Note: pay attention to the warning that this only applies to the current logged in user if you have multiple users on your computer. If so, remember to disable it for other users as well!

Another Note: Part of the good aspect of Apple’s special version of Java 6 is that they had removed the ability for it to function via browsers. So, we’re effectively trying to replicate that security advantage via these settings. If you are unsure, check individual browser settings to be sure Java (not JavaScript) is disabled.

Step 4 – Download Minecraft

To make this ‘fix’ work, you’ll need the Linux version of Minecraft (.jar file) from Minecraft.net.

Go to Minecraft.net and look on the right side under the ‘Get Minecraft” button for the “Already bought the game?” and click the “Download it here” link.

That should take you to this page:

Minecraft download page

Click on “Show all platforms” and download the Minecraft.jar under “Minecraft for Linux/Other”

This file is going to be your new ‘launcher’ or ‘application’ for Minecraft (instead of the Minecraft.app file you already have).

You can put this file in your Applications, or maybe on your Desktop (or an alias to it on your Desktop).

Step 5 – Play Minecraft!

Test it out!

Double-click Minecraft.jar (you might have to ‘right-click’ (or ctrl-click) the icon, and then select ‘Open’ the first time so it becomes trusted by OSX) and you should get the normal Minecraft Launcher you’re used to seeing. Click Play if you’re logged in and you should soon be playing Minecraft!

If want to be sure you’re running on Java 8, you can bring up the ‘debug’ information you’d use to get your coordinates, etc. (Typically F3, so hold down the Function key and press F3, ie: fn + F3).

You should see, in the upper right, “Java: 1.8.0_25 54bit” similar to the following screenshot:

Of course, if Oracle updates Java this will vary and you SHOULD be able to update Java via the control panel or by downloading and installing future updates. You’ll want to keep an eye on this, as new releases often include security patches (and you won’t get them via Apple updates).

Note: The big reason I went with Java 8 vs Apple’s Java 6 is that there have been a bunch of security holes patched since Apple released it. I’m also pretty sure I’m seeing decreased CPU load on Java 8 as well (which I’d also expect). As mentioned above, my MacBook Air doesn’t have a dedicated GPU, so if you’re a MacBook Pro user, you might want to use Apple Java 6 or limit your mobile (on battery) Minecraft time.

So, just launch that new Minecraft.jar to launch Minecraft, just like you used to launch using Minecraft.app.

Enjoy! Please leave a comment below letting me know if it worked (or not). Thanks!

Step 6 (optional) – Make it pretty!

Of course, it bugs me that my old Minecraft.app has a pretty Minecraft grass block icon, while my new Minecraft.jar is just a generic Java app icon. We need to fix that!

Do ‘get info’ (Apple + i) on both the Minecraft.app and Minecraft.jar files. Select the little icon in the upper left of the info window (it will highlight) of Minecraft.app and go to Edit -> Copy. Then select the JAR icon in the other info window and do Edit -> Paste.

You’re Minecraft.jar icon should now be nice and pretty like your old Minecraft app.

Step 7 (optional) – Play with a console controller?

Controllers – I love this little app so much, I just had to mention it. If you’d rather play Minecraft with a console controller rather than your keyboard, there is an excellent way to do so on the Mac. It even supports PS3 controllers via Bluetooth with the native Mac hardware Bluetooth (OSX Lion and above). (If you’ve ever tried to make a console controller work with Windows, you’ll quickly recognize the value of this app.)

Please buy the app and send the author a note asking to support ‘toggle’ type key settings. You’ll know what I mean if you’re used to crouch in Minecraft on the PS3. Currently you’ll have to map crouch to a button that is easy to keep pressed down while you’re working the other controls. A ‘toggle’ would allow a button to change the state until pressed again. That would be a really nice addition to an already awesome app.

Special thanks to BoaConstructor for the helpful article. While I read a bunch of articles on the topic, this one ended up being the closest to what I found to work best (though, I found I didn’t need the Java JDK step, and wanted to refine it a bit more).

Oh, and if you need a website or know someone who does, please check out our Website design services!

The post How to make Minecraft work on Mac OSX Yosemite with latest Java 8 appeared first on cgWerks.

Pessimists unite!

For example, infamous tech-industry curmudgeon John C. Dvorak believes the iWatch is going to flop. ⁽¹⁾Note: we have no idea what the name will be, if in fact, this product even exists. The name iTime has been used as well. He says that for it to succeed, it would have to replace the iPhone for most users. Since this isn’t technically feasible (in an elegant form factor), it’s more likely Apple will introduce it as an iPhone accessory. But, Dvorak argues, people want to reduce their ‘gadget profile,’ not increase it. He says, “If it can’t replace the iPhone completely it’s a goner.” While keeping in mind Dvorak’s poor track record on things like the mouse, iPhone, and iPad, he does make some good points.

And, while having a phone on your wrist – instead of in your pocket – has some advantages, it is a complete UI (user interface) nightmare. The trend in smart-phones has been bigger screens, not smaller. And if you’ve ever used an iPod Nano, you know how ‘fun’ a small-screen device is to use. ⁽²⁾‘Fun’ in a very sarcastic manner! While I’ve been highly critical of even the smallest sized smart-phones approaching an un-pocket-able state, a watch sized screen is certainly too small to replace a phone.

So, while I agree with John about reducing our gadget profile, I think trying to replace a phone with a watch would make it a goner. But, I also agree that it’s not enough to have health monitoring sensors or home automation control. These might appeal to a few vertical markets, but most people aren’t going to care once the novelty wears off.

Optimists unite?

Others are more optimistic, thinking the iWatch is going to be the next big thing (and market) for Apple. This article from The Verge says, “Apple’s smartwatch will definitely sell. Here’s how it could change everything.” The evidence that it will sell, though, was based on a Jimmy Kimmel comedy routine. He generated interest in a $20 Casio watch with an Apple sticker on it – and here’s the kicker – in Hollywood. No need to further elaborate on all the problems with this ‘study.’

Reality check

Of course if Apple builds one, it will sell. The problem here is one of expectations. This is why my position is that it will – and won’t – fail. It is just a matter of perspective.

I noted above that Dvorak has a horrible record on predicting Apple’s future product success. But, I think this is substantially different. The reason he was wrong about the iPhone and iPad, is that there was a huge market waiting for someone to come along and fix the pain. Anyone using a ‘smarter-phone’ prior to the iPhone knows this well.

Dvorak simply failed to believe Apple could make the leap it did. He wasn’t alone. Most of the ‘industry experts’ and tech analysts predicted Apple would fail, including now former CEOs of smart-phone competitors. Tablets, likewise, had been tried a number of times before the iPad, but all were horrible implementations that completely missed the mark. Apple made a true tablet that didn’t suck, and it was something people wanted.

The difference

The problem with the iWatch, is that there just isn’t such a market. Who wants one, no matter what it can do? Ok, if they include a food-replicator or transporter, I’m game. Otherwise – and here comes the big point – it could do every last thing any of the most optimistic tech articles have imagined, and I’d still not care. And my best guess? Neither will the majority of the rest of the people on earth.

So, it will fail, right?

Wrong. If Apple brings out an iWatch, they already know what I’ve stated above all too well. There is a market for the iWatch. It just isn’t a BIG market. It’s a speciality market. And, it will succeed within the parameters Apple has planned for it. It just won’t be, “The Next Big Thing!”

Gadget geeks might want one. In fact, a significant number more than for the wildly successful Google Glass. (Please don’t miss the sarcasm there!) There are a bunch of vertical markets for health-care and fitness, though again, not huge numbers there either.

And sure, there is a market for people wanting an accessory, giving them notifications and such without digging into their pockets. I just don’t see this as a big market.

The fashion angle

One overlooked category so far is the fashion watch category. Apple’s history of attention to design detail and quality (and that they’ve hired a bunch of fashion industry figures in the last year or so – and Jonathan Ive’s recent comments, if accurate) might point toward this being a high-end product. If so, they hope to bridge the gap between expensive jewelry and tech.

As cool as that might be, again, it just isn’t a huge market. Now, don’t hear me wrong. I’m not trying to say it won’t sell well. It may well sell tens of millions. But it isn’t going to be Apple’s next iPhone.

What about, ‘the Next Big Thing’?

The problem is that ‘industry experts,’ tech analysts, and day-traders alike seem to believe Apple needs another ‘next big thing’ soon. And many seem to think the iWatch might just be it. And THAT is the problem; ignorance combined with unreal expectations.

If you’re an ‘investor’ counting on the iWatch or Apple to have another ‘big thing,’ you’d better run now. All the gamblers – I mean day-traders – will be disappointed. That won’t be good for stock prices until reality sets back in. If you’re an actual investor, enjoy the show. Apple is as strong as ever. Just pay attention to what Apple is actually doing, so you’re ready to run some day when Apple shows real signs of heading down the wrong path.

Don’t agree?

If you disagree, please just answer one simple question. What could a smart-watch possibly do that would create a mass-market for it?

Image credit: iWatch by brett jordan

The post iWatch: Why Apple’s watch won’t (and will) fail appeared first on cgWerks.

No matter how legitimate these attempts may seem, you are putting yourself in danger. I’ve always told people that if they feel it was legitimate, to go directly to that trusted source, on their own, and check. So, don’t follow a link to a site you need to log into; enter the URL (or use a bookmark you created) to get there, and log in. If this message was legitimate, it should be available for you. Likewise, call your bank directly at the public phone number you find on their marketing material and inquire about the problem. ⁽²⁾And if that was actually a legitimate call you received, and they asked for account information, talk to the highest level person you can and COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!

Recently, it seems all this hard work in training people not to become identity theft victims has been derailed by single sign-on systems like Facebook’s popular Facebook Connect. (Others as well, like Twitter, WordPress, Yahoo, etc.) This has been around for some time, but recently (the last month or two), it is appearing just about everywhere. News sites and blogs I’ve been following (and commenting on) for years suddenly are asking for my Facebook credentials. Worse yet, many have replaced other methods of logging in with one or more of these systems as the ONLY login method.

For the naive (or lazy) user, this seems like bliss. All you now have to do is remember your Facebook user name and password and you are good to go all over the Net. The IT tech (who has often had to worry about security) – as well as amateur social engineer – in me screams, “Danger! Danger!” ⁽³⁾The conspiracy theorist in me is also quite concerned about Facebook having all this additional information about everywhere I comment on things around the Internet! Is it really a good idea to be training people to enter their Facebook credentials into dialog boxes that popup on sites that aren’t Facebook? Doesn’t this play right into the hands of the phishers? I certainly think so.

Oh sure, there are some ways to be reasonably sure ⁽⁴⁾But not necessarily certain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing#Link_manipulation it is actually Facebook you are giving this data to if you are a bit tech savvy and paying close attention. However, even for the tech savvy, the paying close attention part is often neglected, especially as we become more socially trained in this manner. The public, it seems, is already quite confused about how these systems work. The dangers are also more than just phishing if you use public or shared computers.

What can you do to protect yourself? First, I’d say to avoid these single sign-on services when possible. It’s actually a good thing to have a unique account and (strong) password for different sites and purposes. Use a good password manager (I like PasswordWallet). Second, check the URL of any kind of popup or login window you are using. Be careful of misspelled URLs or tricky attempts ex: www.facebook.fake.com (notice in this example, facebook is just a sub-site of FAKE.com). Third, at least with Facebook’s system, if you are already logged into Facebook to begin with, you should only get an ‘authorize’ message, and not have to login separately. ⁽⁵⁾Ultimately, I don’t really like this ‘authorizing’ access to Facebook either.

I don’t want to place the blame solely on Facebook. As I mentioned above, there are many others involved in promoting this type of login. WordPress, for example, has a fairly horrible system in this regard which doesn’t seem to allow you to log directly in without AGAIN logging into another site to comment. This means you either submit to possible abuse or don’t comment. That said, I think Facebook is going to be the largest popularizer of this trend – and given their history of playing fast and loose with user’s privacy (and arguably security) – they are likely to be the most dangerous player in the game.

Update: Saturday, September 3, 2016

Aside from the above advice to login directly to whatever social network you need to use to leave a comment on a 3rd party site (i.e.: login to Facebook, then load or refresh the page, and you should be already authenticated), a comment system that has become quite popular is Disqus (pronounced like the word discuss).

The advantage of Disqus is that you can leave comments across many types of blog and news systems with one universal account. But, it is an account with the sole purpose of leaving a comment. This means that if someone does happen to break into your account through a phishing attempt, they won’t be able to hijack one of your social media accounts. (And, it’s quite good at remembering your login, so you don’t have a browser window open and logged into Disqus to be recognized by other blogs you visit.)

Once you’ve logged in, you should be able to just leave a comment at any blog supporting it. And, best of all, it has a great notification system when you get a reply, which puts you right back to the proper spot to continue the conversation (this is something almost no other system does well).

Typically, I’ve preferred to setup an account on each individual news site (it’s a bit more of a pain with individual blogs), but seeing that WordPress has a pretty poor commenting system, I’d certainly recommend Disqus to any blog owner, and really enjoy using it to keep in the conversation loop. In fact, we’ll be switching this blog to Disqus soon.

Image credit: phishing by Richzendy

The post School of Phish: Why Facebook Connect is a bad lesson. appeared first on cgWerks.

A couple weeks back, I received an e-mail that Gizmo5 services were being shut-down, and that I would have to transition my account to Google Voice, or get a refund on any remaining credit. I was expecting this to happen eventually after Gizmo5 was bought-out by Google, but was a bit surprised at the quick time-frame once announced (about a month). I’m pretty busy right now finishing up my graduate degree, so I really didn’t want this on my plate as well. However, I really had no choice, or we would have lost our phone numbers and been out of business on our phone service.

I’ve been using VoIP phone service since around 2005 when Gizmo Project first got going. We’ve been pretty happy with it in general. It has been flexible for us, as well as saving us money. For example, we’ve been able to keep the same phone numbers for several years, even across several moves. When we got to the ‘new place,’ we only needed Internet service, and everything was up and running again. It allowed us to capture voice-mail as audio files and e-mail them to members of the family. We’ve been getting our calls for around $0.019 per minute or less (sometimes free). About the only down-side is either no-911 service or e911 service, but we always have a cell phone or two around for emergency anyway.

I was a little sad to see Gizmo5 go after all these years. Their support was OK. It took a bunch of monkeying around to get it going initially. We have used an ATA hardware device, which allowed normal phones to be plugged in and used. Once setup and configured properly, though, it has been little different than using a traditional phone. We’ve even been able to have a US and Canada phone number that ring the same phone, which is handy since we now live in Canada but have lots of friends and relatives in the US.

Moving to Google Voice is a WHOLE different story! First, Google seems to have just shut down Gizmo5 support. This is kind of inconsiderate, given that people might need some help with the transition or porting numbers to other services. To make matters worse, it seems Google Voice support is also nearly non-existent. I’m guessing you can get a kind of ‘self-help’ support through their forums, if you can get to them.

First, I had trouble even figuring out what the heck Google Voice is. I have a friend who has used it and told me a bit about it, or I’d certainly be lost by looking at Google’s web site. It just seems to be this Internet calling thingy that may or may not be connected to calling phone numbers, etc. They use a lot of terms for the ‘features’ that make it sound impressive, but I haven’t really figured out anything it can do that most VoIP providers do not.

Second, since I’m in Canada, I couldn’t even get into the Google Voice forums or create an account to see what the heck was going on. I decided to get a refund on my credits, and attempt a port of one of my numbers, but it was a blind move. No support, and no way I could see to get support. I spent an hour one day just trying to see if I could get into their support (I’ve got several ‘Google Accounts’ now, but all failed). I think they must be blocking by IP. In other words, if you’re not in the US, you can’t get anywhere in their support system!

As an aside, if Google support is this horrible (and I’m not the only one who has complained about it… Google doesn’t seem to be known for their customer service), how well does this bode for Android users? Maybe ponder that a bit before you make your decision against getting an iPad or iPhone!

Enter Callcentric! Luckily, I had been experimenting a bit with Callcentric previously on my iPod Touch. I had purchased a Canadian dial-in number for it and was making calls from school and such with it. My experience with them was excellent. Their support was extremely responsive (within minutes sometimes)! Their documentation was very good for setup. Their on-line system for settings, call routing, phone books, reporting, etc. was all excellent! About my only complaint about them, is that their voice-mail system seems a bit outdated, however, it still allows me to route my voice-mail messages to e-mail and deliver them as MP3 files. I’m happy!

So, I was able to port my Gizmo5 number (Canadian) to Callcentric, and decided it wasn’t worth my time or money to try and get our US number out. Callcentric was also running a special on US dial-in numbers, so I just picked one of those up. The experience has been very good, other than maybe wasting about 1/2 to 1 day messing with Google Voice and porting the numbers. It only took me a few hours to get everything going and setup on Callcentric. Interestingly, even Callcentric tech support had to come to my rescue on porting the number, as Gizmo5 didn’t provide me with the docs I needed to authorize the port. Since Callcentric had helped other Gizmo5 people, they were able to point me in the right places to get the info I needed.

So, many thanks to Gizmo5 for getting me into VoIP and years of service. Shame on you Google for doing such a horrible job on the transition and for such cruddy support. And, many thanks to Callcentric for being so supportive in the transition.

Also, if you are wondering why I didn’t mention Skype, it is because Skype doesn’t offer numbers in Canada. Also, Skype is a proprietary VoIP service which isn’t based on the SIP standard. You really want to be SIP based if you want to work with regular software VoIP clients, or standard VoIP hardware. I have nothing against Skype, and use it quite a bit, but IMO, it is a different kind of thing. One thing Skype is really good at, is punching its way out of networks to get a call through. I use both SIP clients and Skype on my iPod Touch when mobile. If I can’t get a call out with the SIP software, I usually can with Skype.

Image credit: gizmo5 by Nano Taboada

The post Farewell Gizmo5, No Thanks Google Voice, Hello Callcentric! appeared first on cgWerks.

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The iPad 2 is said to have kept similar battery life. That is exceptional given the speed increases and even smaller size and weight. It was critical to me, though, that they do so. I wouldn’t want a device that dropped much below 10 hours. This is one of my biggest reasons for wanting to get away from the laptop. I was just at another all-day conference recently, where I was stuck in back corners to keep my laptop powered.

A spec update:

I noted last time that my current MacBook Pro with power brick weighs in at over 7 pounds. Also, since the last article, Apple has released the new MacBook Air 11″. It is one heck of an impressive machine, I must say! It makes the choice much harder. Still, even with a bluetooth keyboard, the iPad weighs less (and gets several more hours of battery life)!

AllThingsD had the following to say about the battery life from real-world testing:

“Also, the battery life, while very good, isn’t as strong as I found it to be on the first iPad. In my tough battery test, where I played full-length movies until the battery died, with the screen brightness at about 75% and both Wi-Fi and cellular radios running, the iPad 2 just barely exceeded Apple’s claimed battery life, dying after 10 hours and nine minutes. That’s 2.5 hours better than the Xoom did on the same test, but more than an hour less than I got from the original iPad, which clocked in at 11 hours, 28 minutes.

On the other hand, in mixed and non-constant use, with the screen set to turn off when idle for a few minutes, the iPad 2?s battery life was impressive. It easily went 48 hours between charges, even while downloading hundreds of emails and dozens of apps, songs, and books. During this period, I played a few light games, viewed photos, briefly streamed some video clips, read newspaper and magazine articles, consumed several chapters of books, frequently checked Twitter and Facebook, surfed the Web, and made a few video calls.”

This is PLENTY good enough to make me happy! Read the previous article for some of the other reasons I really like the tablet concept over the laptop while mobile.

Do my downsides still apply?

CPU power – Last time, I worried about CPU power. While still not matching a laptop, the iPad is closing the gap. From what I’ve been reading about it, it closes it enough to do laptop type things (Consider Apple’s iMovie and Garage Band now on the iPad). I really think for most people, this distinction between a tablet and laptop is going to be a non-issue. I like to do things like play guitar and keyboard effects in a live band, and it looks like the iPad is certainly up to that task! Bottom line: the iPad 2 has the computing power for most tasks. The more realistic question would be if there is an app to do what you want, and if the touch interface is efficient enough to get your job done in that app.

Interface I/O – It doesn’t have all the connectors a laptop does, but with more things moving to cloud storage (I have been as well), this has really become more of a non-issue for me. On the plus side, the iPad 2 now hooks up to HDMI with an improved adapter which allows the normal dock cable as well.

Storage – it still doesn’t have the storage of a laptop, but again, see the cloud point above. This will be an issue for some people who want to stuff it with movies and other media, but I’d say that overall this need is decreasing. (I’m planning on getting the 16 GB at the moment anyway.)

Camera – There are now cameras, both front and back. While not as good of quality as one might wish for, they really fulfill this need for me, and I’d guess, for most people. Video conferencing is the big one. The only reason I’d really like more pixels for the rear camera is to be able to ‘scan’ and OCR books while doing research at the library. I suppose some would like it to be a better still camera as well, but I just don’t really consider phones, tablets, or laptops to fulfill that role very well. I’ll just bring the pocket-camera along when I need that.

Multi-tasking – while some might argue the way to switch apps isn’t good enough, Apple really came through on this point with OS updates (applies to iPad and iPad 2). While it still doesn’t have OSX or Windows like multi-tasking, I’m not sure for a mobile device with touch interface, that this is a big deal. I’d personally WAY prefer the battery life that this scaled-down multi-tasking provides. The screen also isn’t that huge, as to have lots of windows up side-by-side. (That said, there is probably a big market for ‘combo’ apps, like a good note-taking app with browser in a kind of split-screen. Think apps that people commonly work between, where not having to switch would be an efficiency gain. My example is an obvious one! Hint hint for any developers out there!)

Other reported downsides from last time:

No handwriting recognition – still a non-issue in my opinion. There are some great apps though that do interesting stuff for note-taking or drawing.

Lack of 4G – this is still an issue, I guess, for some people. As I said last time, I’d probably do the cellular with a separate box like a MiFi if I need it. I’d like to have just ONE contract that serves all my devices, as well as the option to simply upgrade speed or contracts without buying all new devices.

Lack of Flash – It might be an issue for some, but for the most part, a non-issue. There has been a major shift away from needing Flash, and that movement is just getting going. Also, Skyfire and CloudBrowse can access much of Flash content and apps, if you really need them. Consider:  In Two Years, Most Of You Will Be Reading TechCrunch From An Apple Device or MeFeedia Reports 63 Percent Of Web Video Is HTML5-Friendly or Disney acquires gaming engine startup to build HTML5 games outside of App stores

So, can it replace my laptop?

It certainly can for me, so long as I also have access to a desktop at home or office. I think most people would be in a similar situation. If you are a power-user, then probably not. If your job requires very specific OSX or Windows apps, used heavily, than no (remember that you can remote-desktop to your OSX or Windows box for occasional desktop stuff). If you require a lot of screen space while mobile, than no. Photoshop or CAD professional, probably not.

I think the iPad is capable of doing what most people need to do while mobile, and in some cases, do it better than a laptop. In other cases, it might be a bit harder, but some of the advantages of the iPad might make up for it.

My hope is that Apple does a serious upgrade of the iWork line. Pages still doesn’t have footnotes. Keynote still doesn’t have remote control or support presenter notes. One big thing to note is that iWork for iOS is only partially compatible with iWork for OSX. Shame on Apple for not either a) being more aggressive on fixing this or b) making it WAY more obvious! If you exchange docs between iPad and desktop and edit on both, you’re likely to lose aspects of your document. While this can be worked around, it should be noted and considered in your workflow. For example, I’d simply generate my Keynote presentations specifically for the iPad, as this is where I’d be presenting them from anyway. In Pages, I’d write with in-line notes, and then move them to footnotes if I were going to publish the document.

If you are considering a similar move:

1. Make a list of things you do, and then research and consider how doing them on the iPad would be different than your laptop.
2. Think about your daily workflow, and consider it on both devices.

Look for ‘show-stoppers’ as well as inconveniences. This will help you decide.

For example, here are some personal issues that I thought of:

1. being able to open compressed Nisus Writer docs, though I can always convert, or more broadly, get at doc types the iPad doesn’t support.
2. support for special fonts I might want to use

Some of the benefits:

Have you ever tried to lay in bed with a laptop to read or even relax on the couch? I’m doing more and more of my reading and research with e-books and Kindle these days.

Getting a tablet out in many social situations is much less intrusive, socially, than a laptop. You also don’t have to necessarily need a place to set it. It would be MUCH easier to use while riding public transit. You could even put an iPad in your recipe stand while cooking!

I still see it as an advantage in a family, where you could have one more powerful desktop with multiple accounts, and then iPads for individual use (which is cheaper than multiple laptops).

Some interesting apps and accessories I ran across:

1. Evernote – can find text within images
2. Notes Plus
3. Compass stand for iPad
4. BoxWave Capacitive iPad Stylus
5. ColcaSac iPad Sleeves

All in all, I’m a go for replacing my laptop with an iPad come March 25th (here in Canada). Now all I need to do is find the $.

Update: Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I ran across this blog by Anthony Moody who is actually using his iPad exclusively, and is blogging on that exact topic! iPad Alone: Living with Apple’s iPad and *only* Apple’s iPad

Update: Monday, October 28, 2013

I am WAY overdue on writing up a Part 3, as I’ve now owned an iPad for well over 2 years (as you can see in the attached photo above with my TilledSoil.org site on the screen). I have replaced my laptop with it (at least until recently… you’ll have to wait for Part 3 to see why). I have a bunch of insights to share. I just need to find the time to write it. I would also modify that list of accessories and apps, as I don’t believe I use any of them. Many of them still look nice, but I’ve found other solutions that fit me better.

Image credit: IMG_0712 by Jon Mountjoy

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Photo: Light Graffiti – PS3 Controller by artwork_rebel.

A friend of mine has been using a Plantronics .Audio 770 headset with his Playstation3 and has been quite pleased with it. I was not only unable to find one locally, but the cost on what I did find was more than I wanted to spend. My friend and I schemed a bit and came up with the following solution (cost ~$29):

Plantronics .Audio 370

These seem to range from $10 to $40ish. I picked mine up from FutureShop here in Canada for $19 on a Boxing Day special… but many retailers seem to have them for about that amount as their regular price. ⁽¹⁾These might be hard to find now, but weren’t when I wrote the article. Hopefully other inexpensive solutions are available. If you know of one, please let us know in the comments.

The only problem with these are that they are an analog only headset (basically missing the USB adapter of the more expensive Plantronics models). However, we found the following which works very well:

Syba SD-CM-UAUD USB Stereo Audio Adapter (Link to an example of this adapter on Newegg…) I picked one up locally at NCIX for like $10, but Newegg has them for $9. You might  find them at a local store to save the shipping, but I couldn’t believe the price. It works great with the PS3.

Headset Wiring

As you can see in the first photo (see: Headset Wiring), I have plugged the Syba adapter into a USB extension cable, and the pink plug of the Plantronics into the pink plug on the adapter.

I have plugged the other plug of the Plantronics into a simple audio extension cable. (The cord on the Plantronics headset is, IMO, a bit short).

Stereo PS3 Connection

Next (see: Stereo PS3 Connection), I plugged the USB into my PS3, and the audio cable into the headset jack on my stereo system. You might do the same or hook it to the headset jack on your TV, for example. This will give you all the audio output (voice and game sounds) through the earphones of the headset, and the USB provides the Mic input to the PS3.

PS3 Audio Settings

Now, just set the PS3 settings properly (see: PS3 Audio Settings). I put the mic level at 4 or 5. Set the input device to the Syba adapter (C-Media USB Audio Device). Set the Output device to the ‘System Default Device’. This runs the voice you’d normally get back through a headset to the same place as game sounds… which all end up coming into your Plantronics headphones.

The .Audio 370 headset sounds pretty good and works incredibly well in games, IMO. You should be able to use any PC headset with this adapter… of course sound quality and mic quality will vary.

So, I basically have $29 invested in this setup. Not bad at all for the high quality level. ⁽²⁾This is an article I posted on the PS3 forums on 10-20-2009 (I modified it a bit to update things). It is kind of buried there, and I have friends with new PS3s thinking about setting this up. Enjoy!

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Photo: Snow Leopard by BenedictFrancis.

Just a quick post to point out an update to Devon Technologies’ WordService. WordService has just been updated to version 2.8 if you are already using it. Download from Devon Technologies products page.

If you are not already using this, I really recommend that you check it out. It adds a whole number of quite useful utilities to your Services menu on Mac OSX. From their website:

“WordService provides 37 functions to convert, format or speak the currently selected text, to insert data or to show statistics of the selection within all Cocoa applications (e.g. Textedit, Pages, Mail, Stickies, Safari or Xcode) and Carbon applications supporting services.”

My favorite and most used is ‘Reformat’ which does stuff like strip extra spaces, line feeds and other junk out of text. When I copy something from the web or pretty much anywhere, I typically paste it into a blank TextEdit document set to plain-text. I then do a ‘select all’ and then ‘Reformat’. It cleans the text up really nice! I also use the insert time/date functions quite a bit. The others are really useful as well, but I don’t have keys mapped to many others.

To map a keyboard shortcut go to your Services preferences under System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Services. By the way, the Services settings are a bit tricky until you figure it out. When it says to double-click on the shortcut and then push the key combination to set it, it actually means to double click in the area to the right of the service you want to set the keys for. If you scroll up and down, you should see some, and if you double-click there, you’ll see how it selects and gets highlighted.

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That is a question I have been considering, not too long after the announcement of Apple’s new iPad product-line. Initially, I had been in the camp hoping the new tablet would be some kind of OSX device. While I would still love to see such a device, it is also apparent that one would sacrifice battery life even if it were considerably slower than my current laptop. Slower I could deal with, less battery life I can not. iPhone OS was clearly the way to go for a device of this size/weight.

First a bit of a review:

The iPad has some distinct advantages. First, it leads to much longer battery life. Apple is stating 10 hours of Web surfing or watching video. I’m guessing that if you’re doing less intensive stuff it will go considerably longer. However, 10 hours is enough for most people to be able to charge over-night and not have to worry about lugging a power-brick and cord (like laptop users must). That saves more weight.

Second, this thing is small and light:

• Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
• Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
• Weight: 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg)

I probably don’t need to say much more about this. We all want to lug less weight around with us. My current laptop (2006 MacBook Pro) weighs in at like 6.7 pounds when I include the power-brick (that’s the smaller one now available,the original would push it over 7 pounds) and cord. Even if I add an external Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad (about 14 ounces), I’d still be under 2.5 pounds (which is still less than a MacBook Air).

Then there is stuff like instant on/off. You push the power button… it’s ready to go, push it again, it’s ready to be put away. Believe it or not, this makes a big difference when you’re on the go and want to just take down a quick note or look something up. Similar is not having to open it up and find a place to set it down. Imagine trying to look something up on your laptop while standing on a train or bus, hanging onto the bar with one hand. I can easily do this with my iPod Touch, and I’d guess I could with the iPad without too much more trouble. It would require some gymnastics with a laptop. But these things are also handy when in a more casual meeting where everyone doesn’t have the laptops out and setup, and then you need some info or to jot a note down. A laptop is much more hassle and disruptive to the flow of things. I also like having the ability to use a virtual keyboard or real one (and when I say real one, I’m not talking about an undersized one you’d find on a netbook). The touch interface is excellent for these situations as well.

There are a few downsides:

– CPU power – Obviously, it doesn’t have the computing power of a laptop.

– Interface – It doesn’t have all the connectors like USB and ethernet (though it has WiFi and optional cellular data).

– Storage – It doesn’t have the storage capacity of a laptop with a hard-drive.

– Camera – They left the web-cam off which would be nice for video-conferencing. (I’m going to guess the 2nd generation will, if you can wait that long.)

– Multi-tasking – It doesn’t have full OSX-like (or Windows-like) multi-tasking…. yet. But, even so, really think about what you need that for when doing mobile type stuff. I mainly want to have IM open while doing something else… it can do that. Or, listen to music while I work on other stuff… it can do that. Have a VoIP call open while I look something up… can’t do, yet. I’m hoping they will open up the multi-tasking a bit to allow this to happen, and I think Jobs has already alluded to their doing so. But, that isn’t a deal-killer for me.

Other reported downsides (or disappointments) and my responses:

– No hand-writing recognition – I just don’t get this one. I assume these people have never used it and just think it would be cool or useful. I suppose for a few it could, but to the rest… learn to type! There is no way a person could handwrite such that it could be recognized at a rate anywhere near what someone could type… even on a virtual keyboard, let alone a real one.

– lack of 4G – I guess this is valid, though I’m thinking of taking that external anyway with something like a MiFi or Overdrive unless the plan is VERY cheap (in Canada). I also don’t want a plan for each device, and with MiFi, I could use any device (as well as others with me) on one plan. I also save the additional cost of the 3G model then.

– lack of Flash – I don’t want to get into this one too much. There is a big political aspect to it, and I think Apple is trying to push web standards over stuff like Flash (which I agree with them on). However, there is also a very practical side. Flash sucks! Battery, but also in its instability.

But, can it replace a laptop?

First, I need to make it clear that for most people, this will be a ‘second computer’. It isn’t going to replace the OSX or Windows desktop, for example. I’m talking about laptops for mobile work here.

The real answer to this question is going to be different for everyone. If you need to do things like Photoshop, CAD, etc. while you’re mobile, than obviously not very likely (though there will undoubtedly be those kinds of apps eventually… but unlikely for serious work). I suspect, though, that most people will be able to cover the kinds of things they do with the iPad. What does a typical person do anyway? Check their calendar and make appointments, address book, surf, e-mail, instant message, maybe VoIP. They use word processing, take notes (in class or meetings), spreadsheet, and presentations. The iPad can do all these things. I know when I learned that it has video out, and the ability to present Keynote presentations, I was pretty sold!

What I recommend is that you start making a list of things you do while you’re mobile, and especially note things you ever find yourself doing that you wouldn’t be able to do on the iPad, or things which would be difficult to do on it. Maybe rank them as to how important it is, or if it was something you think you’d seldom have to do or have to do a lot. This way you can make a clear decision when it is released. You may well find some show-stopper, but I have not yet.

The iPad also has some other benefits, even around home. Have you ever tried to use a laptop while laying in bed? This thing will allows me to read books or surf the Web in very relaxed locations a laptop just won’t. A laptop isn’t that nice at the park or a beach… though it will remain to be seen how the screen does in those environments (that might be the one big Kindle advantage for e-books). This is really geeky, but I was thinking it would even fit into our recipe holder on the kitchen counter… try that with a laptop!

I also think it would be nice for families that currently have more than one computer. You could have a desktop with multiple accounts for the heavy-lifting, and then iPads (which are cheaper than laptops) for individual use so desktop-time isn’t always being fought over.

Ultimately, it might be harder to decide what to do with your iPhone or iPod Touch than your laptop. I think I would still need to take my iPod touch along, as the iPad won’t make a good iPod in a lot of ways. It won’t just fit into my pocket and be easily accessible for my music playing like the iPod is. I take my iPod to the grocery store, for example, and the iPad would be just too much for that. But, it also seems a bit silly and redundant to have both.

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