iPhone 6 Coming Soon!

September 7, 2014TechnologyHuff Tuff

It’s that time of the year again and no it’s not Christmas, it’s Apples new iPhone release time. This year Apple will be unveiling the new iPhone 6 on September 9th in their California Headquarters. After purchasing and using an iPhone 5 for almost 2 years now I’m definitely looking forward to my semi-leap-year upgrade. I loved the taller screen on the iPhone 5 and it was one of my biggest reasons to jump from the iPhone 4 along with really slow speeds and lack of support for apps and updates. My iPhone 5 hasn’t showed any signs of slowing down yet, but I do feel it’s time to make the jump to newer iPhone and these are my reasons why:

Bigger Screen
Faster Graphics and Processing
Newer Bluetooth Technology
Finger Print Sensor
Supposedly Better Battery
Sapphire Glass
iOS 8
iWatch (rumors)

Coming from the iPhone 5 I obviously will be lacking the finger print scanner and the mid way bridge of processor updates and performance boosting that the iPhone 5s carries. The sapphire glass doesn’t mean I won’t have a case for my new phone, but it will be nice in unison with the LifeProof Nuud case because I can protect the phone from water and still experience a scratch free open faced case. However, I don’t expect LifeProof to have the case ready as soon as the devices launches, neither do I expect to out pre order everyone for my new device so I will be waiting a few months after release to get my new iPhone. I think the few months will also allow for some minor updates by Apple to be pushed in order to fix the bugs that will come along with iOS 8.

iPhone 6 size — iPhone 6 Size Model Compliments of Mac Rumors

If your an iPhone 5s user I highly recommend that you wait to upgrade until the iPhone 6s comes out. I think the few things like iWatch and Finger Print Sensors you will already enjoy. The iPhone 5s already isn’t too slow in my opinion. If you always have to have the newest device, go ahead. I understand! If you have an older mac like my Late 2011 MacBook Pro model, you will not be able to use Apples new Hand Off service since it requires the newest bluetooth technology. It may also be only available in newer iPhone models, so if you don’t have a new Mac and that was your selling point, I would wait until you upgrade your Mac too. If your not used to having a gigantic iPhone, I would settle for the 4.7 model. I love the smaller iPhone sizes because they fit in my pocket easily, and there small enough to hold and operate with only one hand. This bigger phones will change that.

If your coming from a jailbroken device, I would also wait to get the iPhone 6 until after the device has been around for a while so that the jailbreak will be released. As always, the first installment of a jailbreak is usually tethered (not permanent and gone when the phone is restarted). If you live off of your Cydia tweaks, definitely hold off. If your however using this new iPhone as a way to get the iPhone 5s marked down, I assuming the new “iPhone 5c” or cheaper equivalent iPhone will have matching hardware to that of the iPhone 5s. With this being said, it may be cheaper to buy an iPhone 5s (and more stylish in my opinion) then a new “iPhone 5c” if they are released with the iPhone 6. If your worried about the longevity of your device and how many more years it will run, I expect the iPhone 5 to see one more year, maybe 2. It’s showing no signs of slowing down with the newest operating system currently out (iOS 7) and it supports the current beta of iOS 8. Altogether, I think you can easily decide if the new device is for you.

If your coming from an Android device for the first time because Apple is finally offering a large screen, just remember the difference in the interface and how the device works is largely different then that of an Android. It will be frustrating to get used to. A lot of Android users complain about the lack of customization. If your capable of rooting your Android, your capable of Jailbreaking your iPhone and I see no reason why you can’t find a tweak that will help you do whatever it is you want with your new device! For those of you leaving Apple after the update, I recommend getting a Nexus 5 Android phone as I believe it is the flagship of Android devices for many reasons I will discuss in another post some day.

My Mac FTP Client

September 5, 2014SoftwareHuff Tuff

Being a web developer, I find a lot of my time spent in some very key apps like text editors, web browsers and of course FTP Clients. For the longest time I had been using FileZilla and it worked fine for a while until I began to wonder if there was a software that would integrate with my system better and allow me to connect through Web Dav and Amazon S3 servers. After a while of research I came across this awesome program called Transmit by Panic.

Transmit is a pretty nifty app because it integrates well with Finder and has a couple of cool features like Disks, which is a way to mount a web server onto your Mac like it’s an external drive. You can view and access all your files and drag and drop files to your server as if to a flash drive. You can also view and edit the files from your computer, and upon save have the changes written automatically. Although, keeping a backup is always a good thing, but it’s awesome for making quick changes.

Transmit Disks — Disks Running On My MacBook

In addition to disks, I like having features like linked folder browsing. If you have a site entirely downloaded in a directory on your computer and the file and folder structure is the same as on your server, you can link the navigation so that as you move through directories on your server, it also moves them through your finder.

Folder Linking — Linked Folder Browsing Works Without All Directories Downloaded

However, aside from the good things that it does do, where it really excels over Filezilla is I can change the default actions of what the double click function does. Instead of it always transferring files to and from my server, I have it setup to open the file in my text editor by default.

Another good selling point for me was the syncing feature that allows me to sync my local directory to the server or sync the server to my local directory. It also lets you simulate the sync telling you what is going to happen before you commit. It basically just makes sure all files and folders in one spot match those in another.

In finder I really enjoy being able to press the spacebar on a selected file and seeing a preview of it. This can also be achieved in Transmit by selecting the file and hitting the spacebar.

Quick View — Quick view of a text file on my server

Aside from all it’s good points, there are only a few things that I find irritating. For starters, I can’t download all the folders above a file the way Dreamweaver can. For instance, in Dreamweaver I may want my functions.php file in my theme. Normally, Dreamweaver will download the functions.php file as well as the directories it’s contained in. Transmit nor FileZilla do this. Transmit also has slow refresh rates. Waiting to see all the files and folders on some of my sites can take some time. However, if you haven’t used it, download it and try the trial of the software to see if it’s a fitting client for you! It has been great features that I think out weight some of it’s faults.

Terminal Based Pandora

September 1, 2014Software, WebHuff Tuff

I found myself, for the longest time, switching between streaming Pandora off of my phone to my Mac through line in as opposed to in browser on my computer. As crazy as that sounds, it was one of the few ways I could save resources on my Mac and not burn half of my CPU to a “Chrome Helper” service running on my Mac. I constantly wondered if there was a native Mac client that would let me play Pandora without the need of Flash and all of my CPU’s resources. Luckily, after looking around, I found a few alternatives I would like to share with my followers…

3. Hermes

This was one of the best alternatives I could find that had an interface and was free! You can use all the normal functionality of Pandora right from this app. After using it for a while though, I was not impressed with the sound quality. I felt like it was lacking and quickly moved away. You can download it here for free: http://hermesapp.org/.

2. Muse

Not only better looking and equipped with more functionality, Muse is a great app for people in love with Pandora who want the best possible experience when listening to there music. Get notified of song changes, use native OS X keyboard commands, a sleek interface all in one $5 package. Get muse in the app store or find it online here: https://industriousone.com/.

1. Pianobar

Personally, my favorite of the 3 apps, comes at number with the lowest foot print on my system. Pianobar is a terminal based Pandora client that uses little resources without sacrificing performance and sound quality, yet lacking a normal graphical user interface (GUI). Getting the app to install is pretty easy, and if your already comfortable with Terminal commands, give it a shot now! You’ll need Homebrew. For Mavericks users, just run this in terminal

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)"

It will ask you for your password, so go ahead and punch it in and proceed. After installation, run this command

brew doctor

You should see a “Your system is ready to brew dialog.” Next type

brew search pianobar

If it finds the package go ahead and run

brew install pianobar

After it gets all its required packages installed and PianoBar itself is installed, you can run it by running this command in a new Terminal window

pianobar

From here it will ask for your email and password to sign into Pandora. Once you have logged in, type in the number next to the channel you want to listen to. After you have activated the channel… you can at any time press “?” key to see a list of all commands. The basics are “s” for switch channel, “n” for next track. Generally thats all I use. Here is a screen shot of the awesome app running right off of my mac!

My New Website Design

August 10, 2014WebHuff Tuff

I finally got around to creating a new website for myself. I know I have talked about it a lot in the past, and I never actually sat down to do it, but I have been getting a lot of requests from clients, potential clients and friends alike to finally get my website up and running. I hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them. If you have any questions or concerns just send me a message!