Hands-On Tech 188 Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

0:00:00 - Mikah Sargent
Coming up on Hands-On Tech. I've got some more great questions that I plan to answer. We talk about using Cloudflare's DNS system. We also talk about how best to deduplicate music and how we can play it and not have to worry about actually you it, just to play it straight through, and we've got a few questions about cloud storage and Apple All of that coming up on this episode of Hands-On Tech. Stay tuned. This is Twit.

Welcome back to Hands-On Tech. I am Micah Sargent and today we are taking a look at some great questions that you have written in. If you have questions out there, you can email me: hot@twit.tv is how you get in touch, and I'd love to hear from you. There've been some really wonderful questions flowing in and I have kind of sorted through to try to find the ones that we want to cover on the show, and you're really hoping to have that question answered. Then go ahead and get in touch with us as well hot@twit.tv because those questions can kind of fall by the wayside, so to speak. So, without further ado, let us definitely get rolling here with our first question.

That question comes in from Susan, and Susan writes in and asks I have questions for you regarding Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 and Warp app. I understand how this app works in 1.1.1.1 mode, as it just performs encrypted DNS queries, but I am confused as to how this app works in 1.1.1.1 and Warp mode. In the latter mode, my DNS queries are still encrypted, as well as most of my internet traffic. It essentially acts as a VPN, but somehow I don't think it is as private and secure as a true VPN such as ExpressVPN. Could you please explain the difference between these two things? I currently have the paid version, which gives me warp unlimited, and I like that. It uses less resources onp Unlimited, and I like that. It uses less resources on my mobile devices, but I can't figure out exactly how it works and I don't want to throw my money away. If anyone could explain this, I know it's you. Thanks in advance, Susan.

So Susan asks a great question and, honestly, one of the big things here is that things have gotten kind of complicated in the VPN online connectivity space. Apple released an addition to its iCloud services that also kind of sort of acted as a VPN, called Private Relay, but is also not a VPN, and there are other services out there that claim to kind of improve your security online but is also not a VPN. And there are other services out there that claim to kind of improve your security online but are also not VPNs, and so it kind of muddies the water a bit, and it's understandable that things would be a little confusing. What Cloudflare is doing, first and foremost and this is great, Susan knows that Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 service, what that does that it is a DNS service that helps you to connect with different sites online, and because you are using Cloudflare's system, you probably are going to see some performance boosts. But here's the thing when it comes to the warp stuff because I don't even want to call it a VPN, it is not a VPN where it is helping you is in a very particular area that you won't necessarily get from other privacy applications, and that is protection from your ISP, your internet service provider, from your ISP, your internet service provider, seeing what sites you are communicating with.

Okay, so when you use other tools, there's a possibility that whenever you're browsing those sites, your ISP is seeing your DNS queries because by default, your ISP is doing those DNS queries for you. You have to actually go in and change that. So by switching to Cloudflare and then using this encrypted system to do so. That does prevent your ISP from seeing your DNS queries. What Warp does on top of that is it is a the thing that you're paying for. The Warp Plus that you're paying for is a speed boost on the basic 1.1.1.1 Warp service. Okay, you are paying to gain access to more of Cloudflare's data servers and more locations to give you an even faster connection to the internet, and when this first came about, there weren't a whole lot of performance boosts. Over time, performance boosts have improved, but in the grand scheme of things, there isn't a huge, huge, huge difference for you.

So I guess, Susan, what I would recommend here is maybe turning off the Warp Plus and seeing if you feel like there's a difference for you and using that to decide whether you want to continue to do it. But if you're looking for a VPN to do the things that a VPN does, which again lets you visit websites in a way that you are masked from other users because you and other users are using the same IP address to access those sites, then this is not going to do that. Your IP address is not blocked from the site that you're visiting or the different things along the way, like ads and whatever else that happen to be there that are also collecting your IP. That is not what 1.1.1.1 plus warp does. That is not its purpose. It does not solve that issue OnePlus Warp does. That is not its purpose. It does not solve that issue. That is where a virtual private network comes into play, and that is the solution to that problem.

So, Susan, I want to thank you again for your question. It's a very good one, and it's one that I think a lot of people might be kind of confused about. What am I paying for? Here? And in the case of this service from Cloudflare, you're simply paying for even faster speeds than you are already getting when it comes to DNS resolution with that Warp Plus subscription. But should you? Are you throwing away your money? No, not necessarily, but could your money be used in a better place, like having a subscription to a VPN? If that's what you were expecting to be getting from Cloudflare, then, yeah, your money would be better spent on a VPN.

All right, our next question comes in from DA. DA writes I have lots of music on my computer and on a USB stick. My problem oh, this, I forgot, this one has lots of it's sort of one sentence. So let me do this again. I have lots of music on my computer and on a USB stick. My problem is, I have many, many duplications and would like a way to be able to find and remove the duplicates, but have not found a program that can do that. Any ideas? Also, what is the best program for a USB flash drive and on a Windows computer to be able to play these songs continuously, one right after another, and not have to click on them individually to play? So, da, this is a good question, and you have asked it in the context of a Windows machine, and so I have done some research for you.

And a tool that sysadmins seem to like to use when it comes to finding duplicate files, which, of course, will work in your case for your duplicate music, is a tool called Dupe Guru. Dupe Guru is an open source application that has worry, not a GUI, a graphical user interface, and is available on Linux, on Mac OS and on Windows, and will help you find duplicate files and, of course, eliminate duplicate files. So you can take this program and you can run it and have it like, point it at your flash drive that has all of this music on it and help you to narrow in on exactly what you're looking for, on exactly which files are missing, which files you want to actually use. So dupeGuru is going to help you with that part of it. Is going to help you with that part of it. It's very easy. On a Mac, there's an application for Mac Paul that is called Gemini. So, for people who are listening, who might have this question, but they're on a Mac, that's the application I recommend to you. It's currently in its second form, so it's Gemini 2. But for Windows, dupeGuru is where I would start, given that it is a free and open source application that has a graphical user interface, which is very important. If you are not incredibly computer inclined, working on the, you know the command line.

Now for your second question, where you ask what is the best program for a USB flash drive and on a Windows computer, to be able to play these songs continuously, one right after another, and not have to click on them individually to play Best program is incredibly subjective. The program I would recommend, though, is VLC. I would recommend, though, is VLC. VLC is a really easy to use, really well supported, regularly updated, well celebrated, well loved program that I have used for years and years and years, not only for things as simple as this, but also for things to get more complicated, like playing strange file formats or viewing strange file formats, accessing things. Vll, which is available at videolan.org and of course, we'll also have links in the show notes to all of this stuff, is the application that you're probably going to want. In fact, it's kind of built by default to do this.

It's been an annoyance for me in the past where I was trying to play through something and then the dumb thing started over. At the beginning it actually looped, you know, after playing all the way through and I thought, no, I don't want it to do that. You, in this case, do want it to do that. To play all the way through very easily and then continuously not having to click on them individually to play. VLC is going to be your best friend for that. It's super, super simple, as someone has pointed out in the show notes, or rather in the chat. All you do is you use VLC to make a playlist, and so you can add literally all of the songs that you have in your flash drive to that playlist. Hit play on that playlist and VLC is going to take care of the rest of it. So it's all right there, all built in. If you are looking for it and you're wondering, you know, did you get the right thing? Just look for that orange traffic cone and you know you found VLC.

All right, we've got a few more questions to get to, but I want to take a small little moment here to tell you about Club Twit at twit.tv/clubtwit. Club Twit is our membership program, available for $7 a month. That gets you access to some awesome benefits. When you join the club for just $7 a month, you gain access to our ad-free content. Yes, that's right. Every single one of our Twitch shows is available ad-free. You also gain access to the Twit+ bonus feed that has extra content you won't find anywhere else behind the scenes before the show, after the show, special Club Twit events get published there, and access to the members-only Discord server, a fun place to go to chat with your fellow Club Twit members and also those of us here at Twit. On top of that, if you can believe it, there's even more you gain access to the video versions of our Club Twit exclusive shows. So if you want to watch iOS today, or you want to watch Hands on Windows or Hands on Mac. Join the club twit.tv/clubtwit, and we would love, love, love to have you in the club and I look forward to seeing you join us there and, you know, getting a chance to say hi. All right, let's head back to the show.

Alrighty, our next question comes in from Tshepo, who has written in to ask this. I hope you can assist me with the following issue. When I work from a coffee shop, I want to connect my iPad Pro M1 to my MacBook Air M2 via a USB-C cable so that I can use my iPad as a secondary display. Using Duet Display, I am also sharing my iPad's data with my MacBook via a personal hotspot.

The problem I am encountering is that my MacBook starts to charge my iPad via the USB-C cable, which quickly drains my MacBook's battery. My question is is it possible to prevent my MacBook Air from charging my iPad when it's connected via a cable and using my iPad as a second device display Shapo. This is something that I had to do quite a bit of research on to kind of double check that what my gut was telling me was the case and what my gut was telling me is the case. There is not a setting that you can use to disable the charging of the iPad. You can't go into your MacBook and say, hey, don't charge this iPad, or vice versa, you can't go into the iPad and say, hey, don't charge this MacBook because, yes, some iPads can charge some MacBooks. Instead, there are a couple of recommendations that I have for you.

One is that you consider using Sidecar instead of Duet Display. I'm curious, Tshepo, if there's a specific reason that Duet Display is a necessity for you now that the Mac supports Sidecar, which is the kind of wireless method for being able to do this, and in that case, you know, sidecar is Apple's base level of having a secondary display, base level of having a secondary display wirelessly or wired and using your iPad for that. In this case, you wouldn't need to even plug in the iPad, because it would be there and it would be serving the connection wirelessly. Now, when you say you're using it as a hotspot, that is where it leads me to think that it will be able to connect to, or that you want it to connect rather to the Mac so that it can use that data connection to actually transfer your internet connection that way, as opposed to kind of wirelessly serving as a hotspot. So I'm guessing that there's probably a reason that you want to have it plugged in. So this is where I say why not plug in your Mac book? Um, that is potentially an easy solution, uh, to this problem that if your Mac is charging then you don't have to worry about the fact that the iPad is plugged in as well and is doing that.

Now I am seeing in the chat some folks recommending a data only cable From my research, data only cable From my research. This is not something that will work in this situation, the idea that it's only going to transfer data and not transfer power. Uh, apple's systems do not like to play ball with that kind of a cable. Um, it seems sort of USB stack for Apple is default charge and then data is the addition. Does it also send data over or not? And that's from the different Reddit comments and the conversations that I saw online in Apple's support documentation or not Apple's support documentation, but Apple's communities documentation. Those cables will not. It just doesn't work. So, Tshepo, you can try a data-only cable, but I think you'll be wasting your money in doing so. Data only cable, but I think you'll be wasting your money in doing so and I defy someone to reach out and say, oh, I actually got this to work, because from my own research, that was not an option.

So, again, I think that your best choices here are to plug in your MacBook Air while you're doing this, or consider using something like Sidecar wirelessly to be able to maintain that, because it is. It's frustrating that, and you're not alone in wanting that to work. So I don't want you to feel like, you know, this is some weird, weird problem that doesn't have a solution, or that it's a weird problem that nobody else has. No, there are quite a few people out there talking about how they, too, struggle with trying to use both of these devices without one of them draining the other. Some people had the situation where, if the MacBook is off and you take your iPad and you plug it into the MacBook, then the iPad will charge the MacBook, as opposed to the reverse. So then the person is kind of just going back and forth Sometimes the iPad's charging the MacBook, sometimes the MacBook is charging the iPad and that's not. You know, that's an untenable solution. So those are a couple of options for you and unfortunately there's not anything else other than maybe submitting to Apple support Apple feedback, saying, hey, can you give me better support of data only cables, or can you give me the option to turn off charging of an iPad and just let me use it for data transfer between the two devices?

Alrighty, our next question comes in from someone named Jason, who I don't think is a Jason, that I know, but hello to this Jason. Jason says I have a question about cloud storage. Currently, I have files saved across multiple cloud storage companies iDrive, google Drive and iCloud. I would like to consolidate from three different solutions down to one Of the three I currently use. Do you have a suggestion as to which of the three would be the one you would choose? Also, is there an easy way to transfer files from one cloud storage to the other without having to download back locally and transfer back to the cloud, jason? So here's the thing.

Things have improved over time when it comes to data portability, mostly thanks to the EU. The European Union has done a great job of making big tech companies make their data more portable, make your data more portable. So, as you kind of build up data in these different silos, those silos suddenly have how do we put it? Hoses that run between them and you can kind of plug in your information that is required to authenticate and then move that data over to another system. You're probably familiar with Google Takeout, right? Google Takeout is the sort of personal way of taking your data and moving it to another platform by going to privacy.apple.com this is one place Logging in and then using the tool called transfer a copy of your data. When you do this, it will work with a participating service. If you're trying to take your Apple Music playlists and move them to YouTube Music, or trying to take your iCloud photos and videos and move them to Google Photos, you'll log in with your Google account and you'll be able to move those things over. You will find that many of these services have some sort of data portability toolkit that will use these kinds of integrations.

Now, that said, you've asked which of the three would I suggest using. I want to be honest with you and the fact is, none of those three are my online storage solution of choice. I have been a Dropbox user since I don't know 2010, and continue to use it as my online storage solution for not only storing files but sharing files with others and everything in between. That said, I have a Google Drive account, of course, that has some files in it, and I have an iCloud Drive account that has quite a few files in it. I am platform agnostic. I will use all the things.

I think it's going to depend on what you hope to get out of your online storage solution. Are you primarily and nearly exclusively an Apple user? Do you have a Mac? Is that how you connect via a PC? And by PC I mean, in this case, a personal computer, that is, a Mac, not a Windows PC, but a Mac. Do you have an iPhone? Do you have an iPad? Are you primarily accessing all of this stuff with your Apple devices?

If that is the case and you also are mostly sharing files or getting files from people who are also Apple users primarily if that is the case, then consolidating down to iCloud might actually save you some hassle and some money because of the way that iCloud storage is structured, depending on the plan that you go with, kind of built in at the system level and built into different plans like the iCloud Plus options, if you are looking for something that's more universal, something that is widely supported and is kind of well known by people as well. So if they see a link from this that they're not going okay, what do I do with this? Then that's where I think Google Drive would be the choice. Um, I drive is the one that I personally would kind of take your stuff and move it somewhere else, simply because the other two are more well-known or more supported, and having your files there also means that, because it's big tech, the portability is going to be there so that you go about doing that. If you're moving your files into Google Drive, then you can use Apple's data privacy tools to move your stuff into Google Drive, so it's a little bit simpler that way. I wish that it didn't require the download locally transfer option, and that is also why I like Dropbox, because with Dropbox, I can just have Google Drive or actually Google Takeout, pop a folder into Dropbox and put all of my Google Takeout stuff into there, and so that makes it very simple. I really liked being able to do that, and so yes again.

Ultimately, Jason, to round it out, if you use a Windows machine, I do not at all recommend iCloud as your consolidated option. I'm going to recommend Google Drive for that. If you use a Mac and because you mentioned iCloud so you clearly have at least one iOS device or iPadOS device, something from Apple If you are kind of a multi-device household, google Drive is still going to be my suggestion. But if you are primarily Apple and you regularly interact with people who are Apple, that's where iCloud would be my suggestion. In any of those cases, I'm going to recommend consolidating away from iDrive and I'm not going to suggest that you move everything that you have right now into Dropbox just because I use Dropbox. It's just that. That's where I started, and so all of my habits are built around that.

It's not that Dropbox is superior to any of these other options, although in some cases I feel it is, but that's beside the point. You don't need to use Dropbox in place of these. Aside the point, you don't need to use Dropbox in place of these. It all comes down to what you plan to do with your files. I don't know why I'm suddenly getting this accent, but there it is. Whatever you plan to do with your files, Jason, you'll want to make sure you're using the right storage solution for that. So, yeah, ask yourself that question and then you've got your answer. And good luck with the data portability. My other little sort of tip there is you can always type in data portability, apple data portability, iDrive, data portability, google Drive into a search and it will typically take you to that kind of data toolkit that helps you transfer files over All right data toolkit that helps you transfer files over All right.

We're on to our last question, which comes in from Andrius. Andrius writes in and says I currently have many playlists in my Apple Music app on my Mac. I will be getting an iCloud Plus subscription and I know that I can only have the desktop and document folders sync. I would like to move my music folder to the documents folder so that it is synced, but I know this will break all my playlists. Is there any way to keep my playlists after moving the music folder? All right? So first and foremost, I want to say that you've said at the beginning I will be getting an iCloud Plus subscription and I know that I can only have the desktop and documents folder synced.

You do not need an iCloud Plus subscription to use Apple's built-in method for syncing your desktop and documents folders to iCloud and therefore across to other Macs that you may own. That is not a requirement. Icloud Plus is not a requirement is because, with iCloud Plus, you have more storage space options, and so you know you'll have bigger storage options, meaning that it becomes easier to sync your desktop and documents folders without having to worry about them taking too much space on your drive and your iCloud drive, I mean. And so, yeah, let's make that clear up front, andreas, that you do not need to have the iClub Plus subscription in order to sync those folders. Anybody who has a Mac is able to do that and is able to be able to actually have that appear across multiple devices.

Now let's go on to your question, though. You say I would like to move my music folder to the documents folder so that it is synced, but I know this will break all my playlists. Is there any way to keep my playlists after moving the music folder? This is where I say don't, don't move the music folder. By having an iCloud account and by using Apple Music, your playlists sync them. Playlists that are created using apple music, the subscription service, or playlists created using music that you own, that you've created in the apple music app across your devices. That's part of iCloud. So if you do not have that showing up in your um on, you know whatever else it is that you're looking, that you're going into music and you're not seeing your playlists, you need to go into settings, you need to tap on your name, you need to tap on iCloud. You need to make sure that music is toggled on in that section. If it's not toggle that bad boy on, and that is going to make sure that your playlists and everything are synced across devices.

Don't move your music folder, not for this reason. I should say there are reasons to move your music folder. This is not one of them. By moving your music folder, you're just kind of adding more issues to a solution that already exists. Just sync your music.

It is possible to change the location of your music library in a way that does not mess everything up, and the way that you do that is with the music app not running, you hold down the option key. This is again on your Mac. You hold down the option key and then you select the music app, at which point a pop-up will come. That said, a prompt will come up that says music needs a library to continue. You may choose an existing music library or create a new one, at which point you can choose to have the library that you uh, you know already have somewhere as that library, or you can create a new library, say on an external hard drive. That's the main reason why people change the location of their music library is so that they can get it off of their Mac if it's taking up too much storage space. So you could have an SSD that you keep plugged in all the time for you know, a stationary Mac, and then tell Apple Music that that's where it should go to look for your music library, but just for syncing playlists. This is not the way. This is absolutely not the way to do that. So much easier to just turn on the built-in syncing tools that come with your iPhone, your Mac, whatever devices you're using here, and avoid the headache of trying to sync by using the documents folder that syncs across iCloud. Um, that as we are. I'm hearing that as we're rounding out for people who are watching live, the video was kind of low quality, kind of low quality, very low quality, and I'm hearing that, as we're rounding out the show here, suddenly zoom is cooperating and things are looking good again. It is me, anyway, yeah, big shrug, big shrug.

Thank you so much for tuning in this week to another episode of hands on tech. If you so much for tuning in this week to another episode of Hands on Tech. If you have questions that you'd like to have answered, if you've sent questions in the past, they've yet to be answered. hot@twit.tv. Would love, love, love to hear from you Next week I'm pretty sure it's going to be next week. Uh, Patrick Delahanty, our web developer and overall sort of um tech engineer guy, answers a listener question that we had recently, and so I did an interview um with Patrick about that, so you'll be able to see the answer to that as well. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for tuning in and I'll catch you again next Sunday for another episode of Hands-On Tech. Bye-bye.