I have been using Notability for 4 years and I am still 100% convinced. Currently, I use my iPad Pro 2018 11″ with a keyboard and an Apple Pencil. In this blog post, I’ll go over my experiences and the best apps to use in combination with Notability.

For me, Notability is the best app for taking notes in school. Whether it’s math, German, or even history, I always use this app. I have the app installed on my iPad and my iPhone to always have all my homework with me. I sync my files via iCloud Drive. You can also sync your files via WebDAV, DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Box.

There is also Notability for the MacBook, which is super handy for doing more complex homework with a bigger screen. In addition to synchronization, I do backups of all my files via WebDAV to a self-hosted SeaFile server.

Another feature is that you can make voice recordings that can later be saved in the PDF. The microphones on my iPad Pro work super well even at a distance of several meters. In a classroom, this would work well if you want to record what the teacher is saying. I haven’t tested this yet, because in Germany this would only be possible with consent.

Since I am in school in Germany, it is difficult that you always give all worksheets digitally. Since Corona, we have a school portal where it would be possible to upload the worksheets for all students for free. Unfortunately, some teachers don’t want to do this, don’t know how to do it, or are concerned about copyright. In this case, we often get the sheets distributed.

I use SwiftScan to scan worksheets with the iPad. The scans look great and can be inserted into Notability with a few clicks. The scanned worksheets can be edited directly in Notability and look very high resolution, which is a great alternative to “real” scanners.

For mathematical equations, Notability is also suitable, because you can choose different “sheet types”. Furthermore, there are add-ons, such as math conversion, which allows you to convert handwritten formulas via OCR into high-resolution images.

The best plugin in my opinion is the handwriting recognition plugin. The plugin is designed to automatically convert handwriting into printed text when you write with the Apple Pencil or any other stylus. The feature is super handy, especially if you don’t have a keyboard on your iPad. I often share homework during school hours with my friends via AirDrop who also use Notability. A handy side effect when you forget to do your homework.

I think the price for Notability is definitely justified since the app is constantly updated and especially in combination with the Apple Pencil is a must for everyone who uses their iPad at school.

I’ve linked an example below of how to use Notability for math equations and formulas. In this PDF I have not converted my handwriting to images using an addon.

In this Blog Post I tested crypto mining for 24h. I also compared the profit with the electricity costs here in Germany. I used my gaming computer for mining.

How does mining work in a nutshell?
In Bitcoin mining, you use your computing power to solve complex math problems. Most of the time you only use your graphics card. The CPU is usually not profitable and only draws power unnecessarily. You process the transactions of other users with your computing power. As a reward, you get bitcoins or at least parts of a bitcoin.

The more miners are active, the less profit everyone has. However, since bitcoin is currently at a record high, this also means that each miner gets more money.

Software
As mining program I used NiceHash. It is very popular and used by many other users. The setup was very simple and took only a few clicks. You can download different algorithms in the software. I downloaded all of them right away. Then NiceHash decides for itself which algorithm is best for you and your hardware. I mostly used Octopus and daggerhashimoto.

Therefore, you don’t always mine bitcoin, but also other coins that are just more profitable to mine. Another popular coin is Etherum, for example.

Additionally, I set the power limit of my graphics card to 85% via MSI Afterburner, so the GPU doesn’t get as hot and consumes less power. This was important to me so that the card does not break down in the long run.

NiceHash will always pay out the money in Bitcoin. It is important to remember that the 2Factor authentication must be on already for at least 24 hours to transfer the money. If you have a Coinbase account, then the money can be transferred directly there.

Electricity prices based on Germany/Hessen
For me, one kilowatt hour costs about 0.2744€. My PC consumes about 280-300W with all monitors turned off during demanding mining. So mining costs me about 2€ a day.

To monitor the power consumption, I have a Fritz brand smart adapter. This has worked great. You could even export a table and embed it iregendwo. Cool.

Profitable? 24h test
How profitable is mining in Germany? With my RTX 2080 Strix I earned about 3.3€ per day. Minus the 2€ electricity costs, I would have a daily profit of 1.3€. The new generation of Nvidia graphics cards is much more profitable. Unfortunately the new graphics cards are hard to get, because they are very good for mining. You can calculate the profit here.

Conclusion
Compared to other countries, Germany has high electricity costs. It always depends on when you mined. Even if many forums say that the graphics cards do not break so quickly when they are undervolted, I believe that over a longer period of time you will eventually have defects. All in all, it is very interesting to try mining, but for me personally it is nothing, because the profit is simply too low. With a more powerful graphics card, it’s something else again.

This Post is about my experience with my bootcamped Intel MacBook Pro. The BootCamp partition is installed to a external Samsung SATA SSD.

Installation Windows / official BootCamp drivers
The installation of Windows is very simple, you use a normal Windows Boot Stick. I have installed my Windows partition on an external SSD for storage reasons. Therefore I had to boot into the “Boot in Recovery Mode” to deactivate different security mechanisms.

When I booted via my SSD into Bootcamp, the trackpad and the keyboard didnt work, I had to connect external devices. Keep this in mind when you want to install BootCamp/Windows.

When booted into Windows, the installation of the necessary Bootcamp drivers opens automatically. The whole thing works super well. The Mac reboots a few times and if everything went well, you can use the keyboard, TrackPad and camera. The TouchID does not work under BootCamp.

Inoffical BootCamp drivers
For better performance here are free unofficial bootcamp drivers. The installation is a bit complicated. You have to start Windows in safe mode. You can find the tutorial here. The performance of the drivers is really great. Especially when gaming, the performance has increased noticeably. In some games I reach almost double the FPS.

Bootcamp vs virtualization software
Why install BootCamp when you can virtualize via VMware Fusion or Parallels? It’s simple, Bootcamp is simply more performant, especially the graphics card is not emulated in BootCamp. If you don’t care so much about that, virtualization is surely the more comfortable solution, because you can use Windows and MacOS at the same time.

Conclusion
BootCamp is a great solution if you want to run special Windows programs on your Mac. Gaming with the MacBook is no longer a problem under BootCamp. Games are anything but slow and it’s fun to play the latest games directly on the Mac. VMware is a great alternative for me if you don’t want to use GPU demanding programs.

The following Blog Post is about my Experience with Jailbraking and the advantages and disadvantages. I tested checkra1n and unc0ver on IOS 13 and IOS 14.

Recently, Apple has released IOS 14 and fixed major security vulnerabilitys. For long time the IPhone 12 was “unjailbreakable” because of the new security chip. Now, we’re able to fully jailbreak any device up to IOS 14.3.

Unc0ver – Easy to install?
There are several ways to install the Uncover app on your device. The app is unsigned and can be downloaded from the Uncover website. Then you can sign the app with a computer and AltStore or Sideloadly. This requires an AppleID. Alternatively, you can trust 3rd party app stores and download the app through them. However, this is not safe in my opinion.

Customization
With a normal Apple device, you’re kind of trapped. You can only personalize the home screen to a limited extent, the animations are predefined by Apple and generally, the home screen looks the same on almost everyone. With various tweaks like “Cylinder” or “Snowboard”, you can customize your IOS device according to your own wishes. You could say you have infinite possibilities.

Unsigned Apps
Apple does not allow unsigned apps to be installed on their devices. There are of course options, like AltStore or Sideloadly, that allow this on non-jailbroken devices. However, on a jailbroken device you can install any unsigned app via a tweak and the Filza File Manager.

Downgrading Apps, that are still hosted in the AppStore
The Cydia Tweak “AppStore++” allows you to download old app versions from the AppStore. This does not work on devices that are not jailbroken. I think this is a cool feature that is definitely a reason to jailbreak your device.

CarBridge Tweak for Apple CarPlay
One of the coolest advantages of a jailbroken iPhone is that with the tweak “CarBridge” you can launch almost any app available for the iPhone via CarPlay. One example is the Blitzer.de app. On the iPhone, you can use it, but on the CarPlay display, it is hidden. Also, you could watch videos while driving without having to code your car and without losing your car warranty. All in all, I think this tweak is a must-have for any CarPlay user.

Emulators
With IOS 14.4, several unsigned emulators no longer work on IOS. With the jailbreak, the apps work of course. So you can emulate Wii U games or PSP games easily with the device in your pocket. Even N64 or Atari can be emulated. The games run buttery smooth and even play well with joysticks on the display.

Downsides
When you jailbreak your IOS device, you remove any security mechanisms from Apple. In addition, many apps prohibit you from using their software on a jailbroken device. The Sparkasse app, for example, can no longer be launched on a jailbroken device. Of course, there are workarounds for this, but they do not always work or work with every app.

Battery Life
Unfortunately, a jailbreak often puts more strain on the battery. Especially if you install a lot of tweaks, it affects the battery life. For me, this is one of the most important points to know if you want to jailbreak your device.

Rebooting?
Every time you reboot your jailbroken device, the jailbreak is gone. With the Unc0ver jailbreak, you can easily jailbreak your device again, no matter where you are. However, if you are jailbroken via checkra1n, you will need a computer, otherwise, you will not be able to jailbreak your device again.

Conclusion
Everyone must decide for themselves whether they want to jailbreak their device. Personally, it’s nothing to me on my main device because I want to use banking apps without restriction and don’t want to take any security risk. I have a second device jailbroken. Jailbreaking is just awesome in my opinion.