Monthly Archives: June 2018

Tesco is closing down its email server at tesco.net. You’ll no longer be able to log in to your account from 27th June. You can set up free forwarding from your tesco.net address but this will only last until 10th October.

Tesco originally gave out these email addresses to customers of its Tesco Broadband and Homepage service. This was closed down in 2015 and customers were switched to TalkTalk. Tesco decided at the time to keep the email service running.

It’s technically unsurprising that they have decided to now close the email service as well, although many customers are frustrated by the short notice and lack of options to continue or prolong using the service. You can read more on the FAQ at tesco.net.

The primary issue being that many users feel tied to their existing email address, and trying to change at short notice is not easy. Not only do your family, friends and colleagues contact you at your primary email address, but it’s likely that you also use it for logins and accounts on numerous other online services, eg shopping, banking, events, etc.

We recommend moving to an email provider where the email service itself is not bundled in with or dependent on another service. For example, if you have an internet connection with Sky, then we recommend not using their email service, as what happens if you wish to move to another provider? Instead choose a more independent email service, such as Gmail or Outlook. Or you may wish to consider a private or business solution.

At this year’s World Web Developers Conference Apple introduced iOS 12 and the new macOS Mojave. It’s been a quieter year for Apple but there are still some significant updates for both systems.

iOS 12 is said to be a change for the better and focus on reliability and performance. This is also said to be the broadest update yet as it is compatible with 11 iPhones, 10 iPads, and 1 iPod Touch. Typically older iOS devices have slowed with the new updates but this update is expected to make older iPhones such as the iPhone 6 Plus 40% faster at launching apps, 70% faster at launching the camera app, and 50% faster at displaying the keyboard.

The iOS 12 update will have new apps and features and one of the highlights is the new digital health dashboard and improved Do Not Disturb features. To help you balance your screen time, the Digital Health Dashboard, found in the Settings, will include a series of tools to monitor and outline time spent on your device. You can then set app limits where you will receive a ‘Time is up’ notification. Using Family Sharing, parents can also limit kids time in apps by category or individual apps.

Do Not Disturb has had its capabilities expanded and now you can not just silence a notification sound, but also the visual notification which is often just as distracting when trying to switch-off or sleep. The lock screen remains clear until you unlock your iPhone in the morning.

Another small but significant change is grouped notifications — it binds together notifications by message threads and topics, making it easier to see everything at a glance, especially in the morning with often a number of notifications to sift through.

Group FaceTime will also become available and can be used for up to 32 people at a time — you’ll be able to go directly from a group chat to a group FaceTime from within the Messages app

Siri has new shortcuts that now let you assign a phrase to tasks and sync with other apps and Apple Home, e.g. saying “Heading home” will send a message to your partner, set the thermostat, and bring up fastest route home with Apple Maps.

There are many other features and highlights from the iOS 12 update and the first public release will be later this month, likely 26th June. The full finished version will then be released in September 2018 along with the new 2018 iPhones.

Apple’s macOS Mojave 2018 will also be released later this month and the new OS promises security and performance improvements along with new features to improve productivity. The most visual feature is the new ‘Dark Mode’, that can be applied to all elements of the interface, in every app, system-wide.

An update to Safari will have an emphasis on privacy where it will preemptively block tracking sites like Facebook’s ‘Like’ and ‘Comment’ feature. Additionally, Apple will also only give websites a ‘simplified system configuration’ to help prevent them from being able to identify and fingerprint your device for online ads.

There will also be new ways you can utilise your iOS device with the new macOS when working on a MacBook or iMac. Mac users will now be able to choose their iPhone as a method of capturing content when working on their Mac. For example, to add an image to a document, you can choose your iPhone as a capture device, take a picture, and then the image will instantly be added to your document. This function is also useful if you needed to scan a document, with the scan or photograph immediately adding to the document on your Mac.

It’s encouraging to see productive functions between the two devices being added and it’s also a common question of whether the two Apple operating systems for iPhone and Mac will ever merge to create one unified system.

The short answer is no, but they are now saying they are working on bringing iOS apps to Mac hardware. Apple says they have been in development for the past two years working on tools that third-party app developers can eventually use to port their own apps from iOS to MacOS. The point is that there will never be one single OS but, in (rumoured) a year from now, we will likely see iOS apps available for MacOS. Obviously, the apps using iOS are touch-screen operated, so the question was also brought up to Apple’s senior VP of software engineering if future iMac’s would ever be touch-screen enabled, which he firmly replied with a “no” and that they are not convinced touch-screen adds anything overwhelmingly positive to the desktop experience.

Below is a list of the devices that will support iOS 12 and macOS Mojave:

iOS:

macOS:

It’s always very important to update your device to the most recent version of its operating system as the updates also include important security updates and bug fixes. If you have any questions regarding these updates and purchasing a new Apple product, we are an Apple Joint Venture partner, please be in touch for a quote or consultation at, [email protected].

This week, you may have seen the news story regarding Microsoft’s purchase of GitHub for a staggering $7.5 billion. If you’re not a developer or know someone who is, you might not be familiar with GitHub at all. To give you a quick explanation, Git is a free open-source version control system that allows developers to create something, i.e. an app, for example, then make constant revisions to the code and release new versions up to and after the first official release of the app.

Version control systems keep these revisions straight, storing the modifications in a central repository — making it simple for developers to easily collaborate, download a new version of the software, make changes, and upload the newest revision. Git is far and away the most preferred version control system for most developers since it has these multiple advantages over other systems available — letting you store file changes more efficiently while ensuring better file integrity.

Where ‘Git’ is a command-line tool, the centre around which these things involving Git revolve is the ‘Hub’ — GitHub.com — a platform where developers store their projects and network with other developers and like-minded people.

More than 28 million developers already collaborate on GitHub, and it’s home to more than 85 million code repositories used by people in nearly every country. From the largest corporate companies to the smallest startups use GitHub and the growing number of users are not slowing down as the developer community continues to grow with computing being more and more embedded in the world and with every part of our daily life being transformed by digital technology.

The move by Microsoft to acquire GitHub hugely contrasts their former view of the open-source model. Historically people would say the open-source model didn’t mix well with businesses but times have changed and Microsoft is now the most active organisation on GitHub in the world.

Microsoft’s former CEO Steve Ballmer was famously against open-source software but with fresh minds in the company and new CEO Satya Nadella, they have recognised the service has become indispensable to programmers. As well, their recent successful acquisition of LinkedIn shows just how serious they are about evolving and growing the company.

Microsoft’s view is that now and in the future, developers will be at the centre of solving the world’s most pressing challenges. Microsoft’s goal is to ensure the GitHub platform continues to be the number one destination where developers can create, collaborate, share code and build on each other’s work. Workflows of developers will drive and influence business processes and functions across organisations — from marketing, sales and service, to IT and HR. In short, the decisions developers make will increasingly have an effect on every aspect of life and business and ensuring there is a strong and connected developer community, just like any community, will ultimately benefit everyone.

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