I’ve been an Apple convert for a few years now (I started to see the light in 2010-ish), but every 12-18 months, I grab a Google-endorsed device that can run the latest version of Android and put it through its paces.

I do this because I feel obliged to speak without ignorance on the advantages and disadvantages of the major mobile platforms. Also because playing with new tech is fun.

There’s more to it than the UI

When it comes to Android vs. iOS, the differences are much bigger than user experience. Apple’s business model is completely different to Google’s, which impacts on everything about its hardware, software and online services.

Some of the differences are less obvious than others. For example, Google’s efforts to retain and profit from its users’ data are no secret, but most people don’t realise just how much of their personal information is being passively disclosed. Apple, meanwhile, draws most of its profit from hardware sales and actively avoids the disclosure and retention of user particulars.

A more obvious difference is in the area of version fragmentation. Android hardware vendors aren’t obliged to provide timely software updates for their devices–even if they contain critical security patches–and most of them don’t. Meanwhile, iOS updates are made available, to all devices capable of running them, simultaneously. You can guess which of these ecosystems is riddled with unpatched, deprecated operating system software.

But let’s talk about the UI anyway

Assuming we’ve made peace with Android’s underlying constraints, the next question to ask is: how does its user experience stack up?

To find out, I tested Android “Lollipop” (5.1.1) on a Nexus 7 (2013 version). I tried to use it productively for about a week, in place of an equivalent iPad.

I accept that without migrating all of my data to Google’s cloud services, my experience of the platform wasn’t completely immersive, but hopefully you’ll agree that it was immersive enough to make a few meaningful observations.

1. Reading and typing

iOS always set a high bar when it came to the display, entry and editing of text, but with Lollipop, Android has caught up pretty comprehensively. Its new font (Roboto) is crisp and appealing; the default keyboard has an improved layout and responds without the lag of earlier versions; and working with text selections is much less frustrating than it used to be.

It’s not just the keyboard that’s more responsive. Animations are vastly smoother, and scrolling is finally on par with iOS. I can’t overstate the importance of these these improvements–they significantly increase user enjoyment and confidence.

2. App updates

Android’s built-in apps receive updates via Google’s Play Store. This allows core apps to be updated without the overhead of a full operating system update (great!), but it also makes for a volatile experience when the Play Store app itself needs updating (not so great!). After factory resetting my Nexus 7, I had the Play Store app crash, then declare it wasn’t installed, before eventually starting to work again. Unfriendly much?

The Play Store also had trouble resolving dependencies between core apps while they were being upgraded. A bunch of “You must upgrade X before you can upgrade Y” notifications were thrown at me after I hit “Update All”. This sort of thing shouldn’t happen ever, much less immediately after a factory reset (i.e. with no third-party apps in play).

3. Settings, settings, settings

The design of Android’s “Settings” app has improved significantly since previous versions, but I still found it relatively cluttered, with too many superfluous “advanced” options offered too prominently. Your mileage may vary.

Enterprise users will be annoyed to find that proxy auto-discovery remains unavailable in Lollilop. Manually entering a PAC file URL is still necessary. Apple has been all over this for years now. C’mon, Google!

Also, disabling those annoying keyboard tap sounds is not a simple task, because settings for “Sounds” aren’t all in one place. (I eventually found the toggle I was looking for–deep in “Keyboard” settings. Argh.)

Finally: IMAP users still can’t configure the stock email app to use custom mailboxes for Sent messages and Trash. Their names are hard-coded into the app.

4. Notifications

I liked that I could turn off all notifications for a set period of time (unlike “Do Not Disturb” mode on iOS, which needs to be manually switched off). I didn’t like that I could allow “priority” interruptions during this notification blackout–simply because it’s not clear what a “priority” interruption is (“Did I configure this? Do I trust my former self to have configured it properly? Is my presentation going to be interrupted by a Facebook message?”) I also didn’t like that the UI for this feature only appeared when I used the volume rocker. It belongs on the main notification panel.

My verdict

Android as an operating system isn’t bad. Like iOS, it has annoying shortcomings in some areas, but overall, it’s fast, beautiful and easy to use. When it’s not, pop-up tips pick up the slack.

So why do I think it “still sucks”?

It’s the apps.

Or, to be more specific, it’s the tablet apps.

Android has been tablet-friendly for years now, but a large of number of app developers (including Facebook) stubbornly refuse to build tablet versions of their apps. With a few exceptions, most of the apps I tried on the Nexus 7 opened as stretched or magnified phone apps. I could access all of my content, but the apps were so useless I couldn’t do anything with it.

The iOS App Store, meanwhile, is full of high-quality tablet apps.

Also, iOS plays nice with IMAP.

Also, Apple doesn’t hunger and thirst for my metadata.

The post Why Android still sucks appeared first on luke arms.

For those of us who manage large iPad deployments (and would prefer iOS 8 to be installed by end-users), this is a problem. Potentially a multiple-terabytes-through-a-finite-pipe problem.

Thankfully the Squid hack I figured out during the iOS 7 launch works with iOS 8 too. Otherwise we’d be in trouble.

The post OS X Server doesn’t cache iOS 8 appeared first on luke arms.

I didn’t understand all the angst over getting U2’s latest album for free–until I read Marco’s latest post. Now, I’m inclined to agree. Very clumsy work by Apple.

The post Regarding U2 and Apple appeared first on luke arms.

John Gruber put this together late last year, and I’ve had it queued for posting since then. It remains a helpful summary of Apple’s approach to privacy, especially as it applies to delivering iMessages between devices.

Assurances from corporations aren’t always very, um, assuring, but so far it seems Apple are leaders in respecting the privacy of their users (even if it’s just to minimise their exposure to subpoenas and such).

The post Daring Fireball on iMessage encryption (and privacy in general) appeared first on luke arms.

My experience with the Retina iPad mini alongside full-size iPads (including a brief play with the iPad Air, which does indeed perform like a “desktop-grade” device) confirms everything Shawn Blanc has written here.

If you can’t decide which iPad to buy, go have a read!

The post iPad Air vs. iPad mini with Retina appeared first on luke arms.

Just a heads up that I have updated my earlier posts about gaining access to Apple’s Profile Manager PostgreSQL database. The commands therein now work on Mavericks.

If you’ve upgraded from OS X Server 2.0 on Mountain Lion, you’ll have to open up remote access from scratch. Data is retained (flawlessly in my case), but the PostgreSQL instance has been moved and a new database (with a new name) created beside the old one.

Virtual hugs,

Me

The post Hacking Profile Manager on Mavericks appeared first on luke arms.

Much has been made of Gmail not working under Mail.app on Mavericks, but for those of us who use it with Exchange, it’s been a similar story (with less rage). I’m happy to report that the latency/timeout/crash problems I was experiencing with Mail.app and Exchange 2010 appear to be resolved with this update.

And there was much rejoicing!

The post Mail.app on Mavericks: now plays nice with Exchange appeared first on luke arms.

The only downside (aside from the “later in November” ETA on the Retina iPad Mini) is the downloading involved. Mavericks is ~5.5GB, and with 4 machines to upgrade [just in my house – there are a bunch more at work], downloading through the App Store each time would be painful.

As usual, Apple haven’t made it TOO easy to download-once-install-many (you can’t just restore a DMG onto an install partition anymore), but at least there’s an install media console utility built into the Install OS X Mavericks app.

Here’s how you use it:

1. Use the App Store to download Mavericks. It’s pretty hard to miss at the moment; go to the Updates tab if it’s not immediately obvious.
2. After downloading, cancel the installation process that will automatically start. (I just used Cmd-Q to quit the installer, but I think there’s a proper Cancel button too.)
3. Prepare your install media. I partitioned off 8GB on a USB hard drive. A USB stick might be your weapon of choice (8GB minimum, unless 6GB sticks exist). For the command below to work without alteration, you’ll need an empty Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition called “Untitled”. Disk Utility makes light work of this.
4. Open a terminal and run the command below. When it asks for a password, give your OS X user account password.
5. Press and hold the Option key while rebooting. Select your new install media and proceed.

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction

The post Creating OS X Mavericks install media appeared first on luke arms.

Right now, my challenge is upgrading almost 200 iPads to iOS 7 with minimal pain (read: zero device handling). Factor in less-than-ideal Internet bandwidth and Apple’s disinterest in allowing proxies to cache iOS updates, and it’s been a bit of a headache.

First, a word of advice: ask your users not to upgrade when prompted. Do this before Apple release a major update, to buy yourself some time to test it on your network and to check that the update is being cached properly.

Hopefully your iPad fleet is already using your Squid proxy. Ours is configured (via Apple’s Profile Manager) to use a PAC file when it’s on our WiFi network. The PAC file directs all but onsite requests to Squid.

Unfortunately, iOS doesn’t use the proxy for everything; system update authorizations, in particular, don’t get out unless permitted on your firewall. Here’s the relevant rule on our iptables firewall (no_proxy_ok is one of our custom chains, as is tcp_allowed):

-A no_proxy_ok -p tcp -m comment -m tcp -m multiport -d 17.0.0.0/8 -j tcp_allowed --dports 80,443,5223,2195,2196 --comment "allow Apple services (e.g. APNs, updates)"

Mercifully, the update itself is requested via the proxy, but getting it to cache is non-trivial. Obviously max_object_size needs to be big enough to accommodate a 1GB+ file. I went with 2GB:

maximum_object_size 2048000000 bytes

But this wasn’t enough to get the update to cache. A bit of sleuthing led to the first problem: Apple adds HTTP headers like these to its updates, so Squid discards them:

Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache

The workaround is to break HTTP a little by adding this line above any other refresh_pattern entries in your squid.conf:

refresh_pattern -i appldnld\.apple\.com 129600 100% 129600 ignore-reload ignore-no-store override-expire override-lastmod ignore-must-revalidate

refresh_pattern -i phobos\.apple\.com 129600 100% 129600 ignore-reload ignore-no-store override-expire override-lastmod ignore-must-revalidate

This forces Squid to treat objects from *.appldnld.apple.com and *.phobos.apple.com as “fresh” (i.e. cacheable) for 90 days (129600 minutes), no matter what appldnld.apple.com and phobos.apple.com say.

Finally, I made sure appldnld.apple.com requests were excluded from Squid’s delay pools and filtering ACLs; you may need to make similar tweaks. I also found that maximum_object_size wasn’t being applied correctly to cache_dir, so I defined it explicitly, i.e.:

cache_dir aufs /var/spool/squid3 256000 128 256 max-size=2048000000

iOS 7 is rolling out smoothly as I type.

The post Caching iOS updates on a Squid proxy server appeared first on luke arms.

My last post was about getting access to OS X Server’s Profile Manager database; this post is about doing something useful with it.

Hypothesis: given live access to data from Profile Manager and Active Directory, it should be easy to write a Squid external_acl_type helper that maps incoming IP addresses to usernames. An optional check for group membership? Trivial. Amirite?!

I was half-right. The lookups weren’t hard, but getting the helper to terminate when Squid wanted it to, and to NOT terminate prematurely, required a little trial-and-error. Turns out Squid keeps its helpers alive by sending them empty lines, so terminating on empty input isn’t such a good idea.

Anyway, here’s the code that has our iPad fleet “authenticating” with our Squid proxy server transparently. It’s been tested on Linux (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) and OS X. Yes, Python would have been better than PHP, but I’m more fluent in PHP, and the PHP CLI interpreter is efficient enough for this purpose.

Update 23-Dec-2014: this script is now hosted on GitHub.

To use it in squid.conf (assuming you’ve pulled it down to /opt/git/extensions/squid/external_auth.php):

external_acl_type external_auth ttl=300 negative_ttl=5 children-startup=10 children-max=40 children-idle=10 ipv4 %SRC %MYPORT /opt/git/extensions/squid/external_auth.php

acl Apple_Devices external external_auth
acl Staff_Apple_Devices external external_auth staff
acl No_Filter_Devices external external_auth no_filter
acl No_Access_Devices external external_auth no_access

The “staff”, “no_filter” and “no_access” values map to $SQUID_LDAP_GROUP_DN in the configuration file – customise as needed (many groups may be defined).

Finally, use your new acls in some access rules, e.g.:

http_access allow localnet Staff_Only_Websites Staff_Apple_Devices
http_access deny localnet Staff_Only_Websites Apple_Devices

Questions? Errata? Do comment.

The post Squid authentication via OS X Profile Manager and Active Directory appeared first on luke arms.

Let’s say you’re running the MDM software Apple ship with OS X Server, Profile Manager. (You’ve chosen this because you don’t really need the fancy features of Casper and friends.)

Let’s say you’re also running other services that would benefit from live access to Profile Manager’s device metadata, e.g. a Squid proxy that implements MAC-based iOS authentication (because proper proxy authentication has been broken on iOS since forever). “An external_acl_type that could check enrolled device MAC addresses be super-awesome!” you say to yourself.

Where to start?

Turns out, Profile Manager data lives in an embedded PostgreSQL database, and opening it up for remote access is relatively straightforward.

First, you’ll need to modify /Library/Server/ProfileManager/Config/PostgreSQL_config.plist (note: this path has changed in Server 3.0) to enable access over TCP/IP (by default, postgres only listens on a UNIX socket). Edit the existing listen_addresses= entry, and add the last two lines:

<string>-c</string>
<string>listen_addresses=OSX_SERVER_LAN_IP</string>
<string>-c</string>
<string>port=5432</string>

Note: Server 3.0 creates multiple instances of PostgreSQL, one for each service that depends on it, all on different UNIX sockets. Just in case another instance opens PostgreSQL for TCP connections on localhost, I recommend binding the Profile Manager instance to a LAN-facing IP. Alternatively, you could use a non-standard port.

Then tell postgres that any host on your network is allowed to connect with an encrypted password, by adding a line like this to /Library/Server/ProfileManager/Data/PostgreSQL/pg_hba.conf (note: changed in Server 3.0):

host all all 192.168.0.0/16 md5

Almost done! Now you just need to set up a postgres user to connect as. Start by opening a psql session:

sudo -u _devicemgr psql -h /Library/Server/ProfileManager/Config/var/PostgreSQL devicemgr_v2m0

(This entire command has changed in Server 3.0; note particularly the new database name.)

Then you’ll probably want to run a couple of commands like:

CREATE USER squid WITH PASSWORD 'XXXX';
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO squid;

If you want to create a more privileged user:

CREATE USER dbadmin WITH PASSWORD 'XXXX';
GRANT ALL ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO dbadmin;
GRANT ALL ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA public TO dbadmin;
GRANT ALL ON ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA public TO dbadmin;

Reboot the server and test with pgAdmin or some other PostgreSQL admin tool.

Oh, and don’t blame me if you break your Profile Manager, or Open Directory, or your entire OS X Server.

The post Under the hood: OS X Server’s Profile Manager appeared first on luke arms.

Did you know Spotlight can answer maths questions, without opening a calculator app or widget?

I didn’t.

(via 52 Tiger)

The post Spotlight + arithmetic = calculator appeared first on luke arms.

This has already done the rounds, but if you haven’t seen it yet, click through for a helpful analysis of the iPad’s suitability for tasks based on their complexity and duration. As usual, Fraser is spot-on.

Also, Apple has just posted a 5-minute video showcasing a school that’s using student iPads REALLY well. (For consumption AND creation.) Worth a watch.

The post Fraser Speirs on iPads for consumption and creation appeared first on luke arms.

One of the more common critiques I hear of iOS is that its home screen is boring / featureless / widgetless / uncustomisable.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see customisable widgets in the notifications pull-down of iOS. But the simplicity and consistency of its home screen is a win, in my opinion.

Daring Fireball agrees:

The utter simplicity of the iOS home screen is Apple’s innovation. It’s the simplest, most obvious “system” ever designed. It is a false and foolish but widespread misconception that “innovation” goes only in the direction of additional complexity.

The post Daring Fireball on “Innovation through simplicity” appeared first on luke arms.

Can’t help agreeing with this:

I honestly don’t care about seeing “multiple apps” on the iPad’s screen, but I’d love for Apple to find a way to make iOS multitasking less aggressive without compromising battery life, making the process of moving between apps instantaneous as it is on OS X.

The post On multitasking lag in iOS appeared first on luke arms.

From Federico Viticci, on MacStories:

You just used five apps and created four copies of a file (two of them are iOS Camera Roll + Photo Stream) to annotate a photo. Lather, rinse, repeat for note taking, PDF reading, electronic bill management, and assembling that nice slideshow of your vacation in Italy.

Yes, I love a lot of things about Apple, but it’s not a blind love.

File sharing between apps on iOS still needs a LOT of work. Meanwhile, it’s incredibly annoying, benefits notwithstanding.

The post Why “Open In” doesn’t solve the brokenness of iOS silos appeared first on luke arms.

If you follow blogs that talk about apps, you’ve probably already seen this, but if not:

Fantastical is THE must-have iPhone calendar app. It has completely replaced Apple’s built-in one for me. Its free-text event creation is flawless (especially when paired with the iPhone’s dictation), and the innovative “DayTicker” is the best calendar browsing implementation I’ve seen in.. forever.

Go buy it.

The post Killer [iPhone] app: Fantastical appeared first on luke arms.

Sorry, it’s another iPad mini post.

I agree with almost everything in Fraser’s iPad mini review (and have said most of it myself, albeit much less thoroughly). It’s only the mini’s reading-friendliness we disagree on (he thinks it’s reading-unfriendly).

The post Fraser Speirs on the iPad mini appeared first on luke arms.

I’ve already made a couple of posts about the iPad mini, but more detail about its “low-resolution screen” has been requested.

The iPad mini has the same pixel count as the iPad 2 – i.e. 1024×768 – so given its size, the mini’s DPI is higher than the iPad 2. That said, it’s definitely not retina. You can easily make out individual pixels (if you try hard and/or care about such things).

I don’t have a problem with this. Apple’s anti-aliasing is excellent, so even text-intensive tasks like reading are comfortable on the iPad mini. That said, if you’ve been spoiled by a retina iPad, your mileage may vary.

But was I disappointed that the iPad mini was announced without a retina display? Yes and no. Obviously a “high-resolution screen” would be great, but at what cost? The device would be more expensive, it would need a more powerful graphics processor, it would draw more power, and to get the same battery life, it would be significantly thicker.

In my opinion, Apple have struck the right balance between price, size and battery life with the iPad mini. Hopefully with ever-improving processors and battery technology, a future mini will be retina. Meanwhile, I love my tiny low-res iPad :)

The post On the iPad mini’s lack of retina appeared first on luke arms.

I should probably add an AUX port to my car stereo. Then I’d be able to listen to more podcasts than I do. (Which is almost none.)

But I was keen to hear Fraser Speirs’ extended thoughts on the iPad mini in K-12 education, so I sat down and listened to this one. It was very helpful, confirming many of my own thoughts on iPads in schools, and adding a few new ones into the mix.

Mostly, it became clearer that it’s genuinely difficult to choose the right device now that Apple are making excellent 8” and 10” tablets. But at least I know which way I’m leaning for each use case at my school.

The post iPad mini + education = indecision appeared first on luke arms.

In Australia, iPad minis retail $60 cheaper than equivalent iPad 2’s, and $170 cheaper than equivalent iPad 4’s. Given iPad 2’s are more biggerer, and 4’s add retina and significantly more grunt, it’s fair to say that all are priced in Apple’s typical “premium but sane” way.

I was initially disappointed that iPad minis didn’t start at a more accessible price point (I want to put an iPad in the hands of every student at my school without bankrupting anybody), but having used one, I’m glad Apple aren’t selling a cheap device here. It’s solid, beautiful and.. well.. designed. Y’know?

The size

It’s slightly bigger than Google’s Nexus 7, thanks mostly to its 4:3 aspect ratio (which I find much more practical than 16:10, incidentally), but the iPad mini is SO much smaller, lighter and more portable than the already-small-light-and-portable iPad. It’s actually kinda.. cute. Good thing I got the manly red cover.

Users with fat fingers and/or bad eyes won’t love the small screen as much as I do, but as always, it’s what you do with it that counts. This much portability comes at a price, and even with my youngish eyes, skinny fingers and love of all things diminutive, I think it’s safe to say that “comfortable productivity” is the main one.

That’s not to say you can’t use an iPad mini productively. (Let’s not forget that some of us write entire blog posts on our iPhones.) But it’s not as.. comfortable as working on a full-size iPad. For example, you can’t touch-type with all 10 fingers on an iPad mini. You can on an iPad. For some users (especially those looking at iPads as laptop replacements), this sort of thing is a Big Deal, and using a bluetooth keyboard might not be an effective solution.

Smaller isn’t necessarily better – but it might be. Choose carefully.

The specs

I love my iPad 3’s display, so I expected the mini’s non-retina pixellation to grate. It hasn’t so far, but the same isn’t true for other reviewers, so your mileage may vary.

The mini’s processor is also a step down from the iPad 3 (which, in turn, is slower than the iPad 4), but I wouldn’t say it delivers a sluggish experience at all. I’m sure it helps that it’s not driving as many pixels.

[Aside: given how much more powerful the Nexus 7’s squillion-core processor allegedly is, and how Google “declared war” on UI lag in Android Jelly Bean, it’s amusing that iOS is as buttery as ever on the iPad mini. Jelly Bean still isn’t quite there..]

The conclusion

For me, the iPad mini is perfect. My MacBook Air (very portable in its own right) is usually available for extended writing sessions and technical work that can’t be done on an iPad, so I don’t need “comfortable productivity” in this device. It’s big enough to help me get through emails etc. quickly, and is ridiculously portable for campus use.

For others, the iPad mini will be too small to use for Real Work.

Again: choose carefully.

The post A few thoughts on the iPad mini appeared first on luke arms.

I’d say this comparison between ads for iPad mini and Microsloth Surface is spot-on. Not that I don’t love me a clicky magnet ;)

The post Apple = better products + better marketing appeared first on luke arms.

This pretty accurately describes what I expect to be doing from 2AM tomorrow.

The post “Apple Event Checklist” appeared first on luke arms.

A great piece on why people are starting to find Apple’s product launches boring, and why Apple doesn’t care.

Here’s a choice nugget:

Look at the mobile landscape right now. There are two companies that are making any money in smartphones: Apple and Samsung. Or, put another way: Apple and the company Apple just won a billion dollar-plus judgement against for copying their smartphone designs.

The post “Apple’s Magic Is In The Turn, Not The Prestige” appeared first on luke arms.

You could argue that running a blog/forum called “Mac Rumors” is a bit excessive, but micro-analysing the banners Apple have hoisted for their upcoming launch? Seriously?

I mean, I’m as pumped as the next Apple fanboi for this week’s product launch/es (or, more specifically, how my school might be able to do cooler stuff with better tech), but surely it’s not that hard to know when you’ve crossed the “not quite sane” threshold with the guesswork.

I enjoyed Stephen Hackett’s take:

Tim Cook designed the graphics after taking some LSD he found in Steve’s office.

Let’s all chillax, eh :)

The post How to love Apple too much appeared first on luke arms.

I’d say this is a fairly balanced summary.

My take (as a semi-fanboi who followed a few of the live streams from 3am local time): Apple is definitely getting on with the job of being… Jobsless.

The most obvious example: while everyone else is still figuring out how to sell MacBook Air clones, Apple has shipped a beast that leaves every other laptop/Ultrabook in existence for dead. (Can you tell I want one?)

They’ve drawn a satisfying line between their mobile and desktop platforms, too. Similar UI’s are being delivered where it makes sense (hello, Messages and Notifications in Mountain Lion!), but the operating systems remain as distinct as they should. The same can’t be said for, say, Windows 8.

Anyway. Whatever your take, I’m sure we can agree that we live in interesting times.

The post This morning’s WWDC keynote appeared first on luke arms.