In preparation for the iCloud launch in autumn, I have been thinking about its impact on my use of Apple services. Our family uses several iDevices and the better syncing options offered by iCloud will be very welcome. However, I have some concerns about purchasing and synching.

At this moment I use two different accounts to access Apple’s services: I have a regular Apple ID which I use for purchasing Apps and home sharing media, and I also have a MobileMe account for synching data between my Macbook and the iPhone. The MobileMe account is used just by me, while all iDevices share the same Apple ID for the obvious reason that I don’t want to purchase apps twice. Furthermore, by using two separate accounts we are able to access all iTunes libraries from the AppleTV, without being obliged to synchronize calendars as well, as those are being synched using another account. In short: the Apple ID identifies the family/home, while MobileMe is used to identify a person.

When Apple activates iCloud, my Apple ID will also become the token for synching information, which is a problem for me. I would like to continue using the Apple ID to make purchases for the whole family and stream media between the devices of our family, while on the other hand each member needs a personal ID for synching calendars, mail accounts and other personal data. When Apple closes MobileMe I will be forced to sync my calendar through iCloud, but my wife has no interest at all in my appointments (and vice versa).

As far as I have been able to find out, iCloud will not offer such granularity. I assume that my situation is quite common and that many families with several devices will face the same issue. Does anybody know a solution for this problem, or do we simply have to wait for the final version of iCloud and hope that Apple has already a solution?

Google has released a new security measure to help you protect your ever increasing amount of data stored on their servers. This 2-step authentication means that when you log in to your Google account with your username and password, you will receive a code by SMS message. Only after entering this code you will be able to get to your data.

Even though I don’t have a lot of data on Google’s servers (I hardly ever use Gmail or Google Docs, mainly just Google Reader) I thought that it was a good idea to activate this service – better safe than sorry, right?

Activating 2-step verification

So I went ahead and activated the service. The procedure is fairly easy: First you switch the service on, then you configure your mobile phone number and activate it with the code you receive by SMS. Finally you have the possibility to print out a list of backup verification codes. Google advices you to keep this list in your wallet, which I found very strange: if you loose your wallet, you give the lucky ‘finder’ the possibility to get into your Google account without needing the SMS confirmation.

I immediately tried it out by opening Google Reader, and yes: after I gave my Google credentials I received a SMS message with a new code from Google. They appear to be sending them from the UK, which means that –with the current roaming rates in Europe– they are willing to spend a small fortune on better security. When I entered the verification code I noticed that fortunately there is a possibility to remember the verification on a computer for 30 days. It worked!

External applications

Satisfied I closed the browser Window and went on with other issues. Later that day I opened Reeder on my iPhone to read some news, but got an error. It appears that by activating the 2-step verification all access from external applications is blocked automatically. To re-enable access to your Google account from a third-party application, you will have to generate a special password for that application only:

Some mobile or desktop applications that work outside of a browser aren't yet compatible with 2-step verification. These applications are hard-coded to ask for a username and password, and do not prompt for a verification code. If you want one of these applications to access your Google Account, you must enter an application-specific password, not your Google Account password, when asked for a password.

I went ahead and generated passwords for IMAP access, Reeder for iPhone, FlipBook, Reeder for iPad, Feedly, Google Earth and a bunch of other applications. After generating each password, Google warns you that you will not be able to see the password anymore once you close the screen, so I made sure to configure each application immediately and test it before going on with the next application.

Does it make sense?

After a while I started wondering what the heck I was doing. On one side I had made my account more secure, because whenever I access my account through the browser I have to give the SMS verification code. However, if instead of the browser I access my data through an external application, I can choose from a whole list of valid passwords for my account. API access went from a single username/password combination to a whole bunch of passwords valid for the same username.

I know that Google sees the browser window as the principal interface to their services, and for users who work that way, the 2-step notification process is quite an improvement. However, I see the browser as just one of the many interfaces/applications I use to access my data on Google’s servers. To me it makes no sense that –even though one application increased its security– the security level for all other applications is significantly lowered.

I finally disabled the 2-step notification for my Google account, when I found out that I can’t use Google anymore as my OpenID provider, since I am required to generate a new password for each blog or web –those that require registration– I want to comment on. Too much of a hassle to be functional…

After some weeks of work –though I only spend 1-2 hours every week on this project– I am re-releasing brain tags. I have lost the count of the version numbers of this blog, but is should probably the 6th or 7th overhaul. I am very excited about it, as I see it as a fresh start with some important changes:

A new CMS

After many, many years, I have exported all data from my old Movable Type Pro installation, and installed a fresh copy of Melody on a fresh new account. For those who are not familiar with those two applications, Melody is a fork Movable Type version 4.

I choose to move to Melody for several reasons. First of all, I was not completely happy with the latest versions of Movable Type, which added a lot of unneeded bloat, such as the possibility to create sites. In fact, Movable Type obliges you to first create a site to be able to create a weblog. But the biggest reason is the fact that support for Movable Type is decreasing, now that the owner is focussed on advertising, and development on Movable Type takes place in Japan.

Melody was created by two former employees of Six Apart –one of them was product manager for Movable Type– and a very active community member. They have already been able to solve a lot of the main issues in Movable Type in Melody, and I simply trust more in them than in the current developers of Movable Type.

A final note on the change: while both Melody and Movable Type can handle multiple blogs and I traditionally have managed all my blogs from a single installation, I am now separating them again. This way I can make my customizations without making my other blogs more complex. It also gives me a way to test out things.

A new theme

Melody comes with a very nice minimalistic theme as the default theme, DePo Clean, and I decided to keep it. For the moment I haven’t personalized the templates, though I did fix some minor bugs in the theme. Once I figure out how to make diff files, I will probably submit the patches to the Melody developers.

I do have a list of wishes and desires for the theme, so don’t be surprised when things change over time.

Comments are disabled

Even though the combined Akismet and Typepad spam filters are very effective, I still had to deal with several comments in the moderation queue every week. Since nowadays there are plenty of other ways to express your opinion, I have disabled the comments function. If you want to share your opinion, feel free to send me a [tweet]6 or mail.

Less images, more text

When importing the old entries, I left out all decorational images. In the last years, I always accompanied each post with an image to make the post more attractive. Those images are now gone, you will only find images which help making my point. I want the focus to be on my words, and will also try to write longer, more thoughtful posts from now on.

I am very excited about this new start. What do you think?

Starting Monday May 23rd I will be moving this blog to a new platform on a new server. This migration serves as a test for the migration of El Canasto and I will be trying out many different things in order to make the migration of El Canasto run smoothly.

Since my available time is limited and I can only dedicate a few hours per week to this test, I expect Brain Tags to be down during a significant period of time (read: days).

The reason for moving from my beloved Movable Type Pro to Melody (a fork of MT) is simply the fact that most of the community effort has moved to Melody and I expect a better support in the future now that the development of MT only takes place in Japan.