I use virtual machines on an almost daily basis at work. I have VMs for Windows XP and even Windows 98 so I can go back to some legacy software and systems that we occasionally need to access and perform service on.

I also have a Windows 10 VM that has some of the software we use at work everyday licensed and ready. If one of our laptops fails, we can run this VM on any decent backup machine or a new computer right out of the box, load our backed up files, and be back up and running within an hour. The primary control line my company reps also has an offline development environment that runs on Oracle’s VirtualBox. Again, these are products I use often and know well.

Apple News, iPad mini

It Looks Like Apple’s iPad Mini 6 Will Get a Significant Makeover

June 13, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

Photo Source: Front Page Tech

I wrote about the back and forth on potential iPad Mini designs a few times earlier this year (here, here, and here). At the time, it was rumored that a new Mini would be released along with the new iPad Pro sometime in March. Well, March came and went, the iPad Pro was delayed until May, and a new Mini never arrived. That’s the Apple leak and rumor game in a nutshell, I guess.

Thanks to a couple of fresh reports from reliable sources, now a new Mini is back in the game for later this year.

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iPad Insight Deals

Deals: Apple iPad Pro 9.7″ in Space Gray (Refurbished: Wi-Fi Only)

June 12, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

Looking for a good backup tablet that has more power than an base-model iPad? If so, this refurbished 9.7” iPad Pro, originally released in 2016, can fill that role at a reasonable price.

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Apple Music

Spatial Audio for Apple Music is the Real Deal

June 12, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, Apple made an abrupt announcement that Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos were coming to Apple Music. I think the significance of Spatial Audio was lost on most people for a variety of reasons. However, any of us who own the company’s AirPods Max headphones and have watched a movie with Atmos and already experienced Spatial Audio audio could tell you that it was potentially a big deal for music, as well.

The unfortunate thing is that Apple also decided to bring up lossless audio in the same announcement as Spatial Audio without giving everyone the full details of how it works and what hardware it takes to listen. The confusion and frustration over Lossless and its lack of compatibility with Apple’s mobile devices and the AirPods Max ended up burying the lede to some degree.

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Apple Music, Apple Special Event

What We Didn’t Get From Apple at WWDC

June 9, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

No matter how good WWDC is and how many new features we get, there is always something, more often somethings, that we don’t. Sometimes features get left on the cutting room floor. Sometimes we want things that Apple just doesn’t care to deliver. It’s always going to happen, but this year we have a few more notable unrequited requests than usual.

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Apple News, Apple Special Event

My Favorite New Features from Apple’s WWDC Keynote

June 8, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

It’s been a looooong day. My day job never seems to cooperate with the scheduling of WWDC and this year was no different. I was hoping I would have plenty of time to dedicate to watching and Live Tweeting the Keynote during an extended lunch break, but it didn’t last. I was able to watch everything up to the watchOS portion uninterrupted, but that was about it.

I won’t bore you with all of the details of my day, but I just recently arrived in a hotel room in Nashville for some work out of town. However, the four hour drive here from the Memphis area did give me some time to listen to a few podcasts, review parts of the Keynote, and collect my thoughts on what we got from Apple at WWDC.

Here are some key additions and changes that stand out to me.

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Apple Media Event, Apple Special Event

It’s WWDC Eve. What Will Apple’s Second Streamed Keynote Be Like?

June 6, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

Apple’s second consecutive streamed WWDC will kick off tomorrow, starting with their yearly Keynote event. Last year’s WWDC landed right in the heart of the first wave of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, but after the point where many people and companies had figured out how to get work done around the new constraints that COVID-19 put on the world.

Amid early concerns over whether Apple could pull its yearly developer event off, and if so, how polished it would look, the company really impressed with a very well-produced streamed event that mixed a recorded Keynote with live-streamed classes.

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iPad Insight Deals

Deals: Oransi MJR01 Mod jr Room Air Purifier Robotic Vacuums

June 6, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

I think we’ve all put a higher value on better air quality over the last year and a half. I know I didn’t really think too hard about what could be floating around in my house before last March, but I definitely do now.

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Apple Special Event, IPadOS

Gurman is Back to Give Us Some of the Goods on iPadOS 15

June 5, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

I guess spoiling a future iPad Pro with a glass back a few days ago wasn’t good enough for Mark Gurman. Today he’s back to spill more beans on iPadOS 15 two days ahead of Apple’s WWDC Keynote. Like I said yesterday, it’s all part of the game when it comes to Apple leaks.

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iPad Pro

The New iPad Pro Has Been Out For Just Two Weeks. Now it’s Time For 2022 iPad Pro Rumors!!

June 4, 2021 James Rogers Leave a comment

The Apple rumor cycle never sleeps. We’ve all known this was the case with the iPhone for years now. However, today, any early Apple report is big news.

The leaker game is more competitive than ever and there is little rest and no such thing as a vacation for these guys. We got our latest example of this a couple of days ago when Mark Gurman of Bloomberg dropped a fresh report on the next iPad Pro less than two weeks after the 2021 version arrived. No rest for the weary.

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iPad Accessory Reviews

Review: Logitech Combo Touch Keyboard Case for iPad Pro

May 31, 2021 James Rogers 2 Comments

I’ve reviewed more keyboard cases than I count off the top of my head. I have covered Apple’s Smart Keyboard (hated it), Smart Keyboard Folio (disliked it), and Magic Keyboard (really liked it and still own it), as well as all of the recent iPad Pro models from Logitech and Brydge. I also covered many keyboard cases from several manufacturers, all the way back to some of the first for the iPad 2 in 2011 in my former writing position. You could say iPad keyboard cases are kind of my thing and have been for a long time.

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