Some Experience with Windows 365

Here’s a new one: I am writing this review on a Windows computer. With Apple’s transition to Apple silicon, Boot Camp is going away, and many folks who occasionally need to run Windows on their Macs are asking for solutions. There are several, ranging from keeping an Intel Mac or Windows PC around, to working with the ever-improving Windows for ARM.

However, one of the easiest is to subscribe to a virtual Windows PC somewhere on the Internet and run it virtually on your Mac. That’s what I’m doing today with this Windows 365 test machine that Microsoft loaned me for a month. It’s running on my M1 Mac mini through the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, and it appears to be working swimmingly.

One of the biggest reasons to set up a Windows PC virtually is the convenience. If you have a Microsoft Business Enterprise account, you can sign up for a cloud PC at windows365.microsoft.com. The configuration is automatic. You feed it a username and password, and at the end, you get a Windows PC somewhere out there running in a screen on your Mac. It can work through the browser but is a better experience through Microsoft’s Remote Desktop software.

My machine had 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage along with a 2vCPU. In terms of performance, this cloud PC has been fine for most work, like writing, spreadsheets, and web research. In this case, the bottleneck will not be the PC but the Internet connection. This rig is not for gaming or video production, but for many folks, this is plenty of performance to get their work done. The bottleneck is more likely your Internet speed than the Windows 365 compute power. For me, it helped that I recently upgraded my network. I wrote this whole review in NotePad, and it felt as if I was working in a native app. I downloaded and installed software on my machine, watched some YouTube videos, and generally treated it as my PC. There weren’t any problems at all.

Then I went over to my iPad and downloaded Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Mobile app and logged into my remote PC from my iPad with an attached keyboard, and it worked just as quickly as it did on my Mac. Again, I could do word processing, spreadsheets, and web work all without issue, but this time from an iPad.

I’ve tried virtual PCs in the past, and they never felt responsive enough. Windows 365 was the first time I’ve seen this technology work at a level that I could see myself using day-to-day. The pricing for a Windows 365 Cloud PC depends on how many machines you set up and how beefy you make them. The one I’m using would cost $41 to keep. There are alternative builds ranging from $20 to $162 per month. If I were to start using a Windows 365 virtual PC, I’d probably buy-in at the $31/month tier (which has 4GB instead of 8). For the work I’d be doing on it, that would be plenty. At that tier, for $372 per year, you could have an easily accessed PC on your Mac without having to partition your drive and very little to no hassle.

Focused 134: Finding Space, with Sean McCabe

Sean McCabe comes back to Focused to report in on what happened when his year-long sabbatical smacked into a pandemic and how he keeps his focus while winding up a new business.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

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Some Thoughts Following the Apple “California Streaming” Event

The Presentation

The opening video hit me in the feels. I saw lots of grumbling about “California Pride” on Twitter. However, the older I get, the more I love California. Also, that drummer is a complete badass.
One Hour and Fifteen minutes. I like the pacing of these virtual events.

Apple TV

Everyone that hasn’t watched Ted Lasso is sick of being told to watch Ted Lasso. But if you haven’t watched Ted Lasso, you should watch Ted Lasso.

iPad

The latest iPad Basic continues to be the best bang-for-your-buck product you can buy in an Apple Store. A very capable machine for $329. It’s probably enough iPad for most people, including, if I’m honest, myself. HOWEVER, I wish they could find a way to make it work with the G2 Apple Pencil.

iPad Mini

I dig the new iPad Mini. I’m a massive fan of the flat edge design and stoked to see it spread to the iPad Mini (giving the iPad mini G2 Apple Pencil support).
USB-C on the iPad Mini. Come on Apple … you are so close. Just adopt it across the line.
The front-facing 12MP ultrawide camera for iPad and iPad Mini (adding center stage) makes so much sense. In my usage, the front-facing iPad camera is way more important than the back-facing camera.
If I were in charge, I would have made the iPad mini’s back-facing camera flush with the device, even if that meant a lower quality back-facing camera.

The Apple Watch

I kind of love that the rumor mill got the flat sides wrong. I wasn’t sure I’d like a flat-sided Apple Watch.
The rumor mill wasn’t, however, wrong about production delays. They don’t have a sales date at this point except “later this fall”.
Hopefully, the new bike rider features can keep Stephen Hackett alive longer.
Quick charging will be a helpful feature. If you can fully charge your watch in under an hour, it will make it even easier to sleep with it on. I did note this will require you to buy a “quick charge” cable.
That dark feeling that overcame you when they announced the continued sale of the Apple Watch 3 was a moment where every Apple Watch developer in the universe cried out in agony. I wish they could have price-dropped the Apple Watch SE and drop the Apple Watch 3. Friends don’t buy friends the Apple Watch 3
No Ceramic, but titanium remains. I bought the Titanium Apple Watch Series 5, and I still wear it every day. It looks pristine.

Apple Fitness Plus

I use it often and got a thrill out of seeing some of my favorite Apple Coaches in the video (Team Betina!)
I thought with the inclusion of Tai Chi workouts, they’d be adding Tai Chi to Apple Fitness Plus. Sadly, no.
I know Apple Fitness is easy to make fun of, but it resonates with me for the reasons in the video. I don’t have to go to an expensive gym and deal with all of that, yet I still get good workouts.

The A15 Bionic Processor

I’ve never understood why they add the “bionic” moniker.
Apple continues to crush everyone with chip design. They have a 5nm process and didn’t even really brag on it. 15 Billion transistors … in your phone!
I know this is not a giant iPad, but wouldn’t it be awesome if it was?

PICTURE

iPhone 13

I’m glad the iPhone Mini is coming back. But I don’t know anyone that currently owns an iPhone Mini and plans for their next phone to be an iPhone Mini. In the end, I think it is the battery life that spoils the fun.
Starting at 128G. Amen.
Midnight and Starlight are the new Space Grey and Silver.

iPhone 13 Pro

I like the new Sierra Blue, though I’ll likely buy the silver … ahem … starlight one.
I was hoping they’d have an always-on screen with at least the time.
The faster refresh rate is very noticeable to me on the iPad. I’m super curious to see how it feels on the phone. Apple also did a good job explaining why this won’t crush your battery.
I feel like those giant camera lenses are going to matter. I can’t wait for Austin Mann to get his hands on one of these and report in.

Cinematic Mode

Yes!
There still isn’t as much separation (bokeh) as you’d get with a fancy camera system, but if it performs as demonstrated, it will be great.

A Few More Points

Did you catch the part that the new Mag Safe wallet has built-in Find My? Yes, please, but for everything Apple makes.

Breathable App for Air Quality Data

A real concern for many around the world these days is, what’s the air quality like and is it safe to go outside?

There’s now a widget from the app-maker Karbon called Breathable, which is an air quality index (AQI) widget for iOS, iPadOS and macOS.

You can now quickly check out what air quality is like where you are. You know that I live in Southern California and in recent years have written about wildfires near my home, sometimes close enough that my neighborhood is given evacuation orders. The fires were close enough that you can just see that the air quality is really bad, but there are other times, like regular days when the smog is bad, that you can’t tell how safe it is. So a widget like Breathable comes in handy. I walk around the neighborhood daily, so it’s really helpful to know what the air quality is actually like outside.

Breathable uses AQI data from two services, which both offer free accounts and API access for personal use. Breathable uses the United States AQI for all values world-wide. It can use your device’s current location or you can select a location to find the AQI, and your location is only used to request AQI data and is not shared with Karbon or any other third-parties.

The widget is only $1.99, and a portion of proceeds will be donated to one of several climate change foundations such as Clean Air Task Force, Climate Change Emergency Fund, and Union of Concerned Scientists. Air quality is a daily concern here in California theses days and this is best widget I could find to keep me updated.

Mac Power Users 605: File Management in the Cloud Era

Files and folders have been with the Mac user since the very beginning, but today, file management has gotten a lot more complicated. On this week’s Mac Power Users, Stephen and I tackle the topics of tags, search, backups, cloud services, and more, all in the hope of untangling the mess that storage has become for so many.

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Automators 84: Chris Lawley, the iPad Man

iPad expert Chris Lawly joins Rosemary and me on this episode of Automators to talk about iPad-based automation and where a Mac fits in his workflow.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

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Documents X from Readdle

One of my common complaints on iPad is the inadequacies of file management. Readdle’s Documents is a mobile file manager app that lets you do things like download videos, read ePUBs, open ZIP files, watch movies, and edit PDFs. And now, with an update and redesign, Documents X is out with some major improvements.

They built Smart Actions, which is like smart contextual shortcuts. You do a thing like upload a file or scan a document, and then Documents will suggest the best next action to take. For instance, it’ll suggest sharing the uploaded file or offer to download the scanned document. All the suggestions are contextual and natively integrated into the interface so you can speed up your workflow.

The update now gives us faster access to cloud storage. With a dedicated “Connections” tab, you can find all your cloud services with just one tap. Now all your clouds are in “My Files.”

With the updates to Documents, Documents X brings some real file management power tools to iPad and iPhone. Wouldn’t it be odd if the best file manager for an Apple platform wasn’t made by Apple?

Using AppleScript to Announce Glanceable Information

Ernest Rudak (Twitter)(website), a blind Mac power user, wrote a really informative piece on using AppleScript to announce glanceable information. Of course, as someone who’s not visually impaired, there are a lot of things I take for granted or never really thought about, like getting information like time, day, or date with a quick glance on my iPhone. Ernest, with an interest in automation, Keyboard Maestro, and keyboard shortcuts, came up with a solution by writing an AppleScript. Have a go and read it for yourself to see what works for him. I agree with him that the best automations aren’t the ones filled with endless lines of code, but the “small utilities which smoothly fits in your everyday workflow.”

Yoink

You may have heard before how I don’t like to drag-and-drop. I think there’s too much room for error when you’re moving around important files and you have to get it just right. That’s one of the reasons I really dig Yoink. Yoink has vastly simplified and improved drag-and-drop on the Mac by offering a sort of “shelf” for what you want to move or copy. Put your files on the shelf. Yoink holds it until you need it, and then, without having to deal with a whole keep-your-finger-on-the-mouse-and-do-not-let-go situation, you can navigate to the destination of your files and move them more easily out of Yoink and get your files go where they’re supposed to go.

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary on the Mac App Store, Yoink has lowered its price for a limited time to $4.99. It is hard for me to believe that I’ve been using this app for years but, alas, I have. In its 10 years, Yoink’s became even more powerful function-wise with even more things you can do with it. It’s also available for iPad and iPhone so you can even transfer files between all the devices you’re running Yoink on. Get things where they need be with Yoink.