The Need for an iMessage API

So like everyone else with an iPhone I'm a pretty heavy iMessage user.  I love having the ability to use it on both my iPhone AND my Macs.  I like that it's encrypted so that random people can't snoop over an open wifi spot.  I also like that just about everyone I know is on the service.  The only thing I think it's missing?  An API.

I would love it if Apple provided an API or protocol for access to iMessage.  I really like the Messages app on the phones, but I wish I could use a different app on my Mac.  I use the Mac app because it's my only choice.  I would LOVE to be able to hook iMessage into Adium or a similar app.  I think this could really open up a lot of possibilities for apps.

Other possibilities are that a fully open API would open up would be other layers of encryption if you wanted them. Services like Adium provided encryption across services like AOL (RIP) and Yahoo (RIP), so it could stack that on top of Apple’s built in encryption. I don’t think it’s really needed, but having that option would be great.

Remember how when Twitter started it had a completely open API? There were TONS of clients and a ton of innovation. I would love to see that same sort of environment around Apple’s Messages. It would even be a really easy way for them to expand onto Android. Someone else would end up making a client for it. Of course let’s all hope that if Apple went this way that they don’t go down the Twitter route and then lock everyone out.

TripMode for macOS

I recently had to go on a trip where my wifi was super limited.  We were allocated 2gb of data a week over wifi.  Now I don’t know if you’ve ever really paid attention to your data usage on your laptop/desktop, but you’ll eat through that FAST.  It feels like everything on your laptop is calling home, trying to update, etc.  I was trying to find a way to really limit my data usage.  I did some googlefu and stubbled across an app for macOS called TripMode.

TripMode allows you to limit network access to only the apps/processes that you want.  I limited mine to pretty much only the services I needed. If I needed something I turned it on and then immediately turned it off.  It worked wonderfully.  It will even alert you when an unauthorized app has tried to connect to something. TripMode recognized that the network I was on the one that needed to be metered, and auto turned itself on. 

While you have the app turned on you can tell how much data I have used for the session, day, week, or month.  When the app is metering data, you can have it alert you after you’ve used a certain amount.  I had an alert set up when I passed 1gb, so I knew to be extra careful.

TripMode was well worth the money if you are ever in a situation where you need to really limit your data usage.  It would be great when using a wifi hotspot, travel where data is limited, or if you just are really a stickler about your data usage.  It was well worth my $7.99.

Feed Wrangler

A while ago I decided I wanted to start using RSS for my news.  I don’t visit a lot of sites daily so I was missing a lot of stories and blog posts I would find interesting.  I originally started writing my own RSS reader, but ended up deciding to just go find one because I didn’t have time to finish writing one.  I tried A LOT of RSS readers but ended up settling on Feed Wrangler.

I listened to David Smith on some podcasts and decided to give his service, Feed Wrangler, a try.  It actually works very similar to what I was trying to make so it’s been the one service that’s stuck for me.  It’s a bit pricey (compared to other “free” services) but I think it’s worth the price.

Feed Wrangler has both an app and a web service you can log into.  It also allows you to use it as a backend to other services.  I use the Feed Wrangler app and the website.  The web service is pretty basic but it gets the job done.  It helps me blow through my feed quickly when I’m surfing the web.   

The app isn’t anything to write home about, but it works really well.  I can quickly scan through my RSS feed and then read whatever story that looks worthy of my time.  It shows you the story if it’s imbedded in the RSS or you can simply go to the actual site.  You can create "Smart Streams" that let you filter through your feeds for keywords and using logical expressions. It has a few options and I use it to do quick looks at news topics.  I have feeds set up for Programming, Action Figures, Ole Miss, etc.  You can also set it up to do podcasts, but I don't use it as my podcast client so I can't really speak to how well that works.

Over all I am pretty happy with the service.  It lets me use RSS and use it the way I want to use it.

Apple's Messages in iCloud

So Apple finally brought Messages in iCloud in iOS 11.4 and macOS High Sierra 10.13.5.  This was one of the features I was most excited about when iOS 11 was announced.  It was in a bunch of the betas but took until 11.4 for it to make it out into the world. 

Why am I so excited about it?  I like the idea of everything truly syncing with Messages across all my devices and it also provides me with a great backup for my Messages.  Messages are already a part of my daily backup, so they won’t add anymore to my iCloud space usage.  Everything being stored in the cloud should help save a lot of local storage space on my Macs and iPhone.

I’ve also been wanting to do a “clean install” (not installing any 3rd party apps), but I didn’t have a good way to restore messages while clearing everything else.  Now I can do that and restore all my messages.  Not that my messages have any super important conversations, but there are some attachments I might want later that I haven’t saved into Photos or somewhere else.

Messages was the last major service in the Apple ecosystem they needed to be moved to the cloud.  Now to hope iOS merges conversations based on contact info so that I don’t have multiple threads with the same person...

File Transporter

So a few years ago I heard about Connected Data's File Transporter on a podcast.  It was sold as a Dropbox alternative, so I got one and ended up buying a second one to use as an offsite backup.   I only ran across one real problem with the system (apparently trying to backup an iPhoto library on it is a baaaad idea) but it appeared really stable.  

As time went on I started to feel a little uneasy about the transporter.  I noticed that information was getting harder to find, transporters started disappearing from their store, the filetransporter twitter account disappeared, and a lot of other unsettling signs started popping up.  It was the day that I noticed they went from being ConnectedData to Nexsan that I decided to start looking for alternatives.  It wasn't worth the possibility that they quit supporting their products and I end up not being able to retrieve my data.

It wasn't until I updated my Macs to Sierra that a lack of care from Nexsan came to light.  I was not able to install the Transporter software on my laptop because it was not supported and it didn't look like it would be anytime soon.  In the process of looking for an installer I noticed they had a PDF on their site that said the End of Life for the Transporter in 2017.  So I pulled the trigger on my alternative and am moving my data.

While I loved my Transporter I can't recommend any products from Nexsan.  Maybe I am naive but I expected support for my product for more than 2 years after purchase.  With the way they seem to be quietly winding down I just have a hard time trusting them for anything new.  This is unfortunate because I really liked the product.