OS 8.1.1 for IPhone has been released

I know for many of you this probably won’t apply…but OS 8.1.1 was released and is now available for download.  It is supposed to increase performance for the IPhone 4S and IPAD 2. I have an IPAD2, but an IPhone 5S.

Early reports for me are that the IPAD2 is definitely a little more responsive.  My IPhone is as well, but there is one other key change which I am happy to report on..

How many of you have paid attention to that “other” category when you have sync’d your phone? After doing the upgrade to OS8 my “other” contents seemed rather large. I found it rather odd that that I only had 8GB free on a 56GB IPhone, but I haven’t spent a lot of time trying to figure it out.  Yes the device was a little slow at times, and I had to keep an eye on the amount of available memory.  I did work on deleting some apps I never used and was keeping an eye on the music I have downloaded, but I didn’t think a wipe and rebuild was in order (or anything like that).

Well after doing the upgrade, it appears the OS got cleaned up a bit, because these are my current numbers.

It’s been less than a full day, but performance has clearly improved, and I am sure A LOT has to do with the space I clearly have back!!

So if you have an older Apple device, and have been reluctant about upgrading the OS, I thought I’d provide you some encouraging first-hand news.

Have a great day.

Backups…Backups…Backups…

Did i say it…backups….

I can not stress enough the importance of a good backup.  Whether it’s your business data, that important presentation you are creating on your home machine, or important data in your personal life (financial files, emails, all those pictures you’ve taken of your kids as they are growing up).  Having a solid backup in place is vital for “peace of mind.”

IT Peace of Mind…wait, what? That’s what I provide!

I have recently become a Carbonite Reseller. You can read more about the offerings here (Business Plans are listed, but i also can provide deals on personal PC plans). I will admit i have gone back and forth about “cloud-based” backups, but i have started to come around given that a “set it and forget it” philosophy seems to be of more interest to users.  i know external hard drives are very inexpensive these days, but most backup programs require that the computer be on and connected at a specific time for the backup to run (meaning that if it’s not on, or can’t connect to the destination device, it won’t run the next time it’s “connected”)

Carbonite provides “automatic backups.”  As soon as you click “save” then the file gets backed up.  If you aren’t connected to the internet (working on that plane flight?) then the file(s) will be backed up as soon as the computer connects.  You also have the ability to retrieve the documents on other computers, mobile devices, etc…

I recently had a situation where someone i support had been working on a big PowerPoint presentation. After putting it away for a couple of days, he went back to it only to find it was gone.  After the initial panic of what happened, how did it get deleted, etc…instead of starting the process of figuring out when was the last time it was backed up, he went right to his Carbonite website and downloaded the last saved version.  Crisis averted…stress level reduced.

Many of my clients are on this mailing list…so they know i have their business backups under control…but home machines are always a question.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me…