Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 privacy-first DNS service is now available as an iOS app

I’ve been using Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 DNS service on my Mac since reading a post by Kirk McElhearn on the Intego Mac Security Blog about the service. The service was introduced April 1st of this year and is designed to be faster than traditional DNS services and more private which is what got my attention.

There are a number of things to explain here. First, DNS, or domain name system, is the system that acts like a sort of phone book on the Internet. Instead of having to remember a numerical IP address, such as 96.126.119.191, you can type intego.com to go to the Intego website. There is a huge directory that records the correspondence between these numerical addresses and domain names to facilitate Internet usage, and to make it easy to move a domain from one server to another.

Most people rely on the DNS server provided by their ISP or phone company. By default, your Macs and iOS devices look for this DNS server, which is either specified in your router, or in the server your iPhone connects to, in order to perform this address translation. But you don’t need to use this DNS server; you can use any one you want. In many cases, ISP’s DNS servers may not be the fastest ones, and this can have a big effect on your Internet usage. For example, if a web page is made up of multiple elements, that are not all hosted on the same server, your browser has to request these elements at a number of servers, and each different domain name requires a new request.

In addition, some ISPs may record the metadata of your Internet activity, or the requests you make: the websites you visit, the servers you connect to, and more.

Now, months after announcing its privacy-focused DNS service, Cloudflare is introducing an iOS app. Having had a good experience using 1.1.1.1 on my Macs I didn’t hesitate to install the iOS app on my iPhone and iPad. I’ve been running the app now for several days and it has been working great and definitely seems to be faster.

For instructions on setting up 1.1.1.1 on your Mac visit this page using your Mac and scroll down to Setup on Mac. For iOS, you can download the app from the App Store, or to set it up manually visit this page using your iOS device and scroll down to Setup on iOS.

iOS 12 keyboard trackpad on iPhone or iPad

Having a trackpad on my iPhone and iPad comes in really handy for moving the cursor around in a document versus trying to tap the cursor where I want it.

If you’re not using the trackpad feature you should give it a try. Here’s how:

If your device has 3D Touch – which includes most iPhones since 2015’s iPhone 6s – you can hard press the keyboard whenever it’s present onscreen, turning it into a makeshift trackpad. If you have an iPhone SE or iPhone XR with iOS 12 -both of which lack 3D Touch -you can now long-press the spacebar to invoke the same trackpad.

Via appleinsider

Web Finds for October 26, 2018

Web Finds are from my web surfing travels. You’ll find some unique and informative news, apps and websites that you may have never known existed. Enjoy!

Apple’s Privacy Website Updated to Reflect Latest Measures Taken in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave – Mac Rumors
Apple updated its privacy website to reflect the latest measures it has implemented in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave to protect customers.
Via MacRumors

How to Request a Copy of Your Apple ID Account Data – Mac Rumors
Apple now allows its customers to download a copy of their personally identifiable data from Apple apps and services. This can include purchase or app usage history, Apple Music and Game Center statistics, marketing history, AppleCare support history, and any data stored on Apple servers, including the likes of calendars, photos, and documents.
Via MacRumors

Apple News’s Radical Approach: Humans Over Machines – The New York Times
Via The New York Times

Here’s How the New UltraFICO Credit Score Will Work
The biggest shift in three decades is coming to how FICO credit scores are calculated next year.
Via lifehacker

Previous Web Finds are here.

Wordpress.com counting my views in stats

I usually write and publish blog posts from my iMac. The other day I happened to be using my MacBook instead. So, after I wrote and published the article I wanted to view it. After viewing it I noticed that WordPress.com was counting my own views in stats. I was surprised that this was happening because it had never happened on my iMac.

The rule for WordPress.com is as long as you’re logged into your WordPress.com account your own views are automatically not counted. So why were my views being counted when I use my MacBook?

Here’s the reason. My iMac is running Sierra. My MacBook is running High Sierra. The privacy settings in Safari 12 are different for each macOS.

iMac running Sierra and Safari version 12

MacBook running High Sierra and Safari version 12

On my MacBook running Hight Sierra when Preferences > Privacy > Prevent cross-site tracking is enabled WordPress.com won’t recognize my site as logged in. It’s being blocked. So to prevent WordPress.com from counting my views I had to temporarily disable Prevent cross-site tracking.

iCloud sync issues on my MacBook

I’ve been having problems with iCloud sync on my MacBook. The odd thing is, it seems to only affect certain apps. For example, Bear always syncs and almost simultaneously. Ulysses almost never syncs unless I first trigger a sync by editing or starting a new sheet.

Today I saved a new file to iCloud from my iPhone so that I could edit it later on my MacBook. When I went to my MacBook to edit the file it wasn’t there. I wasn’t sure how to get the file to sync so on a whim I edited a file that was already on my iCloud Drive. That forced a sync and the file appeared.

This issue has been frustrating me for some time. So, today I disconnected iCloud Drive on my MacBook and then re-enabled it. After everything synced back up I ran a test to see if that might have fixed the problem. As a test, I created a file in iCloud Drive on my iPhone and then went to iCloud Drive on my MacBook to see if the file was there. It was. Fingers crossed my MacBook iCloud sync issue is now fixed.