Apple Authorized Service Provider Oshawa Toronto

1 (855) 800-4817

Follow Us
Apple Authorized Service Provider
  • Home
  • Services
    • IT Managed Consulting Services
    • Apple & Device Security
    • Automated Device Enrollment
    • Apple Authorized Repair Centre Durham
    • Apple Authorized Reseller
    • Healthcare IT Solutions
  • About Us
  • Case Studies
  • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Services
    • IT Managed Consulting Services
    • Apple & Device Security
    • Automated Device Enrollment
    • Apple Authorized Repair Centre Durham
    • Apple Authorized Reseller
    • Healthcare IT Solutions
  • About Us
  • Case Studies
  • Contact Us
  • Blog

Yearly Archives : 2015

Home/2015
ahmed02

Summer 2015 Impact Award Profile for Ahmed Kufaishi

by Ahmed Kufaishion 25 July 2015in blog No comment

Ahmed Kufaishi completed the Ontario Self Employment Benefit program in November 2013 with Group 49. His vision was to be the best Apple Information Technology (IT) service provider for businesses and residents in the Durham region. Ahmed recalls, “I wanted to start a computer service company whose focus was on Apple products.” He felt this was an underserviced market in Durham and solid market research supported his feeling. For business, he would provide IT consulting to help set up effective Apple-based systems to support business operations while providing ongoing maintenance and support. For residents, his team of IT service technicians would deliver system setups, repairs and maintenance, as well as trouble-shooting system issues.

Ahmed’s extensive experience in the IT industry included programming, consulting, and heading a team of IT technicians with various organizations. His area of expertise was his in-depth knowledge of Apple/Mac systems. He worked to become an Apple Authorized Service Provider and a member of the Apple Consultant Network.

Starting out, Ahmed intended to work from his home-based office for the first year. However, as he worked on his Apple certification, he also had the opportunity to become an Authorized Service Centre. By enlarging his service scope, it quickly became evident that he would require commercial space much earlier than initially planned. Not having experience in lease negotiations, he turned to his OSEB support to help him work through and secure a prime location on King Street in Oshawa. Taking on commercial space and resources so quickly was a risk and responsibility many would shy away from. His next challenge was to hire a qualified team to assist with repairs and maintenance while juggling his networking, marketing, consulting, and other business demands. However, Ahmed was willing to quickly move far outside of his comfort zone to push his success. The effort paid off as his challenges became rewards.

His coach, Joanne Ferns observes, “Ahmed’s experience and professionalism were evident right from the start. He is very responsive to his customers’ needs, and works hard to treat each client with the highest level of customer care no matter how big or small their issue may be. He realizes they need a quick turnaround and works hard to manage this process quickly, providing quality service to all.”

Both online sites and a network of stores direct Apple inquiries to Ahmed, which allows him to brand and position himself well in the marketplace. Ahmed’s high standards result in satisfied clients, a high Apple service rating, and will greatly contribute to Alary Technologies becoming a lead provider in Durham with repeat business and referrals.

Continue Reading
image

Phishing Emails: Know How To Identify It With The Help Of Example

by Alary Techon 14 May 2015in blog No comment

Phishing emails are usually a way to get your login credentials for a service you subscribe to, it could be your bank account, your iCloud account or gmail . Apart from the bank account details a lot of people are very relaxed about their other account details, saying that they don’t have any secrets or, who is going to care about what I have!

 

Before I give examples of how phishing can affect you, let me briefly explain how it is done;

  1. you get an email from what looks like your email provider (google for example) telling you that your email will be disabled unless you activate it within 24 hours, with a link to click here to keep it active, for example:

 

Dear Tech, 



We inform you that your INTERNAL ACCESS (iLog & iDesk) will expire in less than 24 hours.

And essential to carry out a verification of your data, except your username will be destroyed.

Just click the link below and complete all fields with information ask.

 

Verify Now 


NOTE: If IGNORE this email your account has been suspend.

 

Sincerely,

Apple Internal Staff

 

  1. Once you click on the link it takes you to a login screen that looks like google login, you unsuspectingly enter your user name and password, and hit ok, and BANG they have it, after that it may take you any where to cover their tracks.
  2. What they can do with your login info can be pretty damaging, for example they send an email on your behalf to all your contacts that looks like this:

 

“How are you doing. I really hope you get this fast, my sister was diagnosed of Kidney disease in Phillipines must undergo Kidney transplant in order to save her life, the news of her illness got to me as an emergency so i had to quickly rush down here…Her health condition is not improving.

 

I would have called you but my phone keeps displaying No signal due to bad network.She’s in so much pain right now and needs to be operated ASAP. I have got only $3,950 left but the doctor has demanded for $6,550 cash deposit before carrying out a surgery on her, so i really need your assistance with the balance $2,600 as loan, I’ll refund it to you at my return.”

 

 

  1. Now if you have an email service that includes contacts (gmail an Exchange service), they will not only send to all your contacts, but also delete your contacts, so you can’t follow up to your contacts warning them of such fraud.

 

Another example of very dangerous phishing, is your iCloud password, because in addition to the gmail example above. Chances are you have an icloud backup that contains your phone backup or your ipad backup, that means they can restore any ipad with your data and have access to all your private content, pictures notes etc..

 

 

Now, how to identify if that email is phishing, look at 3 things:

 

  1. The sender’s address; does it look real? You can look at the header of the email and see whom it is really coming from.
  2. The greeting; Does it have your name or your email, or something like “Dear customer”.
  3. The link; is the link really what it sais, you can find this on the mac by hovering the mouse over the link and it will show the real destination.
  4. If you miss the first 3 checks and end up clicking on the link, once you go to the site to put in your password, look at the certificate verification, any site that asks you for an login should be secure, and you should see a pad lock in the address bar in the browser indicating that this site is who it sais it is.

 

For more details instruction see: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204759

 

 

  1. Most important; if you are not confident of the link, don’t click on it, just go to your browser and type the address to the website yourself to log in and find if there are any issues with your account for example.

 

 

I hope this is found useful and more people are aware of how to fight this extremely serious matter.

Continue Reading
Time billing Mac IT Support

Time billing vs. Project billing

by Alary Techon 29 April 2015in blog No comment

Time is one of the hardest things to put a price tag on especially for the information age worker.

Here is the dilemma; the better I am at reaching a satisfying solution the less I will get paid, whether this is because I am smarter, more efficient or simply have more experience. And vice versa, when I am less knowledgeable and take longer to solve the issue, I get paid more!.

Does this sound logical? or even fair?

Is the price for my services based on the time spent on the job or time spent acquiring experience and knowledge to do the job well?

It is common amongst Technicians/Consultants billing for their time, to feel guilty if they take longer time to solve the problem (they feel they should be better than that), and end up giving away time for free!

In reality, there is no measure or reference to how long solving a problem should take, every problem is different, however there are smarter and more efficient Techs/Consultants with more experience who take less time to reach the solution.

Here is the simple answer; just bill for the project and the more efficient you are the higher the profit margin.

This will work for projects with very clear deliverables, for less clear ones the Techs/Consultants would have to take their chances and estimate how long it would take. The more experienced they are the more accurate the estimation is..

The funny thing about this method is even when the Tech/Consultant spends more time than estimated (which is always the case), he or she would be happy to give some time away for the sake of a satisfied client.

Project based billing is my preferred method, I believe it is the fairest to the clients, let’s put it this way; if I can’t estimate how long it will take me to get the job done who can? The client? How would it be fair to tell the client “I’ll come and work on this problem and you need to have an open budget for my services”?

However, not everything is a project with deliverables, there are cases where there is a problem that needs to be solved regardless of the budget (within reason of course), that’s why I feel that we need to know when to bill for time and take no responsibility for any delays and when to own the project and fulfill the job at any cost.

With time the reputation of the Tech/Consultant will proceed him and clients will trust his estimates and his billings.

 

 

Ahmed Kufaishi
Chief Technologist – Alary Technologies
Continue Reading
HOW TO SPEED UP YOUR MAC

How To Speed Up Your Mac Device

by Alary Techon 21 April 2015in blog No comment

The more RAM you have the faster and better your computing will be. If your system is low on RAM it will experience slowdowns at practically every turn from launching programs to loading documents. The best way to speed up an old Mac, dramatically, is to replace its old hard drive with a new solid state drive; but just upgrading your RAM is a much more sane solution, being the most cost effective.

RAM (Random Access Memory) refers to a small replaceable circuit board that contains memory chips designed to give a computer a high-speed temporary work area, which is where data apps are temporarily stored while being used. Having more RAM will help your computer to run larger apps, and more apps at the same time, to reduce and even eliminate the need to continuously load data from the hard drive.

The first thing you should do is to determine if your system’s RAM is able to be upgraded (give us a call if you don’t know how to check). If the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, in the case of Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the RAM cannot be upgraded; but, if you’re running MacBooks, Mac Pros, or iMacs, (even on Mac minis, but challenging) then start by checking the memory pressure graph in Mavericks, which should tell you if you are running low on usable RAM. If the green wedge on the chart is always below 25 percent then upgrading the RAM is a MUST.

4GB is a general minimum for RAM, but if the system can handle the extra then install at least 8GB, or 16GB is even preferred. 4GB Macs are fairly limited with running multiple apps at once and 16GB Macs aren’t much of an improvement over 8GB or 12GB Macs, except if the system is running professional-quality (usually video editing) apps. If your Mac can run Yosemite, then its RAM could probably be upgraded to at least 8GB. As well, if you use an iMac heavily for professional, time-sensitive projects like creating videos, music, or creating complex documents, then consider increasing the capacity of your system to 16GB of RAM or more.

Remember that your Mac can contain the same components as a PC, so be sure to consult with us to make sure that the RAM matches your system’s specifications. But whatever you do, don’t cut any corners on the RAM that is installed in your system. Just because PC owners have become tolerant of imperfect RAM, which can cause system crashes, app crashes, and failures to boot, doesn’t mean that Mac users need follow suit. It’s very difficult to trace the source of these types of problems and cheap RAM is a far more common failure point for Macs than most people even realize.

Searching RAM upgrades on your own can be tricky, since you really need to be tech-savvy in order to wade through the part numbers, and relying upon online help or video help guides to get you through the process can be a daunting endeavor and time consuming, as well. Some third party company’s parts have been known to work well in the short term, but failing a year down the line.

Ultimately, you may consult with us here at Alary Technologies, a professional & apple authorized service provider that knows the way around the Mac world. It is well worth it and for the long haul we will provide a real person to talk to directly.

Continue Reading
Apple Hard Drive Upgrade

How To Improve The Life And Performance Of Mac Device With SSD?

by Alary Techon 2 April 2015in blog No comment

Why You should Upgrade Your Mac’s Hard Drive for Maximum Life and Performance

Once you have verified that merely upgrading your RAM is not enough for you, and that your machine is older than 3 to 5 years (manufactured 2009 to mid-2012); as opposed to spending $2,499 for the new iMac with a 5K Retina Display, it’s possible to radically enhance the performance of your Mac. Installing a solid state drive (SSD), either in addition to or instead of its original hard drive, is an easy step to extending the life and performance of your machine.

An SSD uses high speed memory chips instead of spinning platter mechanisms in a traditional hard drive. This achieves up to five times the processing speed with no moving parts. Just five years ago SSDs were limited in capacity and expensive, prohibiting Mac users from utilizing the technology. Now these very high quality SSDs are reasonable, and as a bonus are they greatly improve iMacs.

Some prefer to keep the old hard drive intact and just replace the media drive with an SSD, while others prefer to keep the media drive for the occasional CD or DVD and replace the original hard drive with the SSD. It is easier to swap the media drive than it is the machine’s original hard drive, but either option will work.

You will, however, save some money by keeping the old hard drive and swapping the media drive instead, since it’s possible to go with a lower capacity model (128GB or 256GB) by doing so. This way all your music, photos, and videos can stay on the old drive and the new SSD can hold OS X and all of your apps. If you want to swap the hard drive, you’ll need a 512GB or 1TB drive, giving your machine enough room for files to accumulate during the next few years.

Apple hard drives have temperature probes inside, but third-party SSDs don’t. An in-line digital thermal sensor is a good idea when installing a new SSD to keep the iMac from automatically turning on its fans whenever the computer is turned on. There are other alternatives to this, but it’s a fairly small investment which will prevent having to mess around with manual fans in order to keep the Mac running smoothly.

As soon as your installation is complete your iMac will be noticeably quicker and you’ll see that by simply adding a new SSD, allowing 3 to 5 times the speed of the old hard disk across apps and other files, your iMac will feel like a brand new machine. The prices have fallen enough so that users can now have the perfect balance of speed and capacity, and they can have it reasonably. There is no better, cost effective way to put some new speed into an old iMac.

We specialize in the upgrades of Macs. You can say we are professionals.  Call us today to find out how you can boost your Macs performance and make it better than brand new.

Continue Reading
suspicious-activity-scam

Mac Tech Support Scams: Know How To Deal With It

by Alary Techon 3 February 2015in blog 2 comments
The Apple computer is still one of the most secure system around but the humble pop up is making its way to the system in ever increasing ways via your web browser. The pop ups in themselves don’t harm you but your reaction can. If you have the option to click any button apart from “OK” or “Continue” then do so. What the scammers want is for you to continue and agree to there terms and condition, this maybe in the form of downloading software, going to another website for you to enter payments or calling a phone number to speak with a technician who can fix the problem you seem to have. Some are even wording the text in a way that you think your contacting Apple for help, Apple will never ask you to call a number from a pop up window.

 

If any website suddenly displays a pop up saying you need to install flash or java make sure the site is trustworthy before you do so, then don’t use the link provided go to flash or java yourself and download it from them directly. Don’t use a supplied link from a webpage if your unsure.

 

Some examples of known pop up are below, if your ever in this position, try and close the message or the browser window, if it no longer lets you close the window try and quit the browser from the menu bar or use “command Q” to quit. If that is also not working you may need to force quit the browser, from the Apple menu you will see the force quit menu option.

 

Another tip is if you restart Safari and it’s going directly back to the same page or pop up, you can “safe boot” Safari by holding down the Shift key as you launch this will then ignore the last page Safari visited.

 

 

If you are past that stage and you can’t set rid of the message, call us.

 

Below are some examples of the FAKE messages
Genieo-fake-Flash-10Bz55zRGrsNW2c21MRE92QjV3Y1U
Now Safari will some times detect a Phishing site, and here is how the REAL warning looks like, as you can see there is no telephone number to call:

Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 12.12.42 PM

 

Ray Allen
Apple Certified Technician
Alary Technologies

 

Continue Reading
Time machine

How To Backup Mac Device With Time Machine

by Alary Techon 3 February 2015in blog No comment

 

We all know we should back up but how many of us actually do, should we bother.  Short answer is if you value your digital life then YES and often.

 
Why!!
The device your currently looking at and reading this on is purely that, an electronic device, a device that can fail at any given moment for no apparent reason. It could get lost, damage, stolen, broken the list goes. DATA can be lost in a instant for a number of reason. This of course may not happen to you, but it could. You need to protect yourself.

Any DATA that is important to you and is in a digital form should be in at east two places at any given time, that does not mean “I have a copy of it on my desktop and another in my documents folder” thats still in the same machine on the same drive that can fail, both will be gone.

How:
The Mac for may years has made this task easy, you plug in an external hard drive and switch on Time Machine, then the mac does the rest. At the simplest level that is it.

1. Get any external hard drive.
2. Make sure its in the right format, Time Machine requires “Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) if the drive is new out of box, Time Machine will prompt you then reformat it for Mac if it was a PC formatted drive. If it does not you can erase the external drive with Disk Utility from your Utilities folder.
3. Go into the “Time Machine” preferences from the System Preferences or from the Time Machine icon in the menu bar.
4. Switch on Time Machine and select the backup drive from the list. You can encrypt the backup is you wish.
5. Sit back and Time Machine backup everything.
6. If your on a laptop make sure the charger is plugged in and the machine is not going to sleep.

The first backup can take a long time depending on how much stuff you have, after that when ever the drive is plugged in whatever files change on your Mac they will be backed up every hour. Don’t have time to wait for the hour, You can also force a “backup now” from the time machine menu bar.

Time machine will let you restore individual file or in the event of a drive failure it can restore the machine back to how it was before.

When:
Backup as often as you can, if you don’t like having the drive plugged in all the time on lets say a laptop, then plug it in after you have done some important work and feel a copy of that should be made. Then select the backup now feature from the menu bar.

If you forget to run a backup, Time Machine will remind you after so many days you have not performed a backup and will keep telling you until you do.

You can also have more than one backup hard drive running on Time Machine and if you really want to be safe, setup another drive and maybe update this every week and store the drive away from the computer, ideally in a different room or location (even consider off site)

Hard drive are cheap, DATA for some people is not replaceable at any cost.

Your next step….. go and backup.

Ray Allen
Apple Certified Technician
Alary Technologies

tm_new_drive
Continue Reading

Archives

  • June 2025
  • April 2025
  • November 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • January 2024
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • November 2013
  • September 2013
Apple Consultants Network
Office 365 Reseller
jamf MSP Partner
Sophos Antivirus protection

© ALARY Technologies 2024
Apple IT Business Solutions Toronto & Oshawa

FAQ
CONTACT US