I read this book with an eye towards improving my understanding of how people filter information, which is relevant to the focus of this blog and my recent interest in improving the trustworthiness and quality of crowd-sourced product information. I also knew of and respected the author, security expert Bruce Schneier, who is a source for parts of my password management series.

Filtering information effectively requires trusting your information sources as well as the people who recommend these information sources. If it were fully understood why people trust each other and cooperate, that might guide the development of much more effective and automatic systems to make online information sharing more trustworthy and relevant.

So what did I think of Schneier’s book?

Summary of Liars and Outliers (with Online Example)

Liars and Outliers frames trust and cooperation as competing interests (self, relational, competing groups, competing morals) resolved by four societal pressures (moral, reputational, institutional, and security systems). Faced with a decision, an individual decides to cooperate with or defect from a given interest based on these four societal pressures.

I’ll illustrate the conceptual framework with an example of an online system that I believe does a particularly good job at fostering the exchange of trustworthy, high quality information: Stack Exchange.

Stack Exchange (most famous for Stack Overflow) is a question and answer site that uses a number of methods to optimize the quality of both questions and answers. It has achieved a level of quality and trust that is tops among Q&A sites and is far above the average online site.

Stack Exchange actively discourages asking questions whose answers are unlikely to be objective and useful. This includes all subjective questions. However, those who ask questions often want answers to questions with a subjective element.

So here we have an example of a “societal dilemma” where an individual’s self-interest competes with an organization’s self-interest. The individual wants an answer to a subjective question. The organization doesn’t want site quality to decline from the corrosive influence of subjective questions.

Using Liars and Outliers terminology, here’s the societal dilemma:

Societal Dilemma: Subjective questions

Interest: Stack Exchange wants to uphold high quality.

Norm: Cooperate by posting only objective questions that have objective answers (avoid forum-style discussions which inevitably cause quality to degrade over time).

Competing Interest: Individuals want to get great answer(s) to a subjective question via Stack Exchange.

Corresponding Defection: Post a subjective or broadly scoped question.

To encourage people to act in the group interest, Stack Exchange implements the following societal pressures:

Societal Pressures: Stack Overflow on subjective questions

Moral: Uses many methods to educate people and encourages them to feel good about producing a high quality Q&A database. Examples: blog posts, meta boards (answer questions on how to use site), quality metrics are shared, people are required to “sign up” to follow a new Stack Exchange community.

Reputational: Makes reputation explicit with scores. Tweaks (“turns the knobs” of) reputation system to reward good quality and punish bad quality. Online reputation is somewhat tied to real life reputation in the form of job opportunities.

Institutional: Lists policies and FAQs for each stack (and Stack Exchange as a whole). Questions can receive negative comments as a form of shame. Questions can be “closed” when not following the norm.

Security: Algorithmically detects spam. Automatically delays new posts from appearing when appropriate (single user posting too frequently, rapid back and forth discussions, etc.).

So far as I can tell, Stack Exchange relies primarily upon moral and reputational pressure. This is significant and interesting as research suggests that these two pressures rarely scale well, yet Stack Exchange now has millions of users. By relying less on institutional and security pressures and more on moral and reputational pressures with its explicit reputation system, it has become an uncommonly effective online institution (for more about online services as institutions, see pages 203-204 of Liars and Outliers).

If you’re intrigued by the above example but feel a bit confused by the model and the terminology, that’s okay. The first chapter of the book lays out the model and terminology, while the first half of the book describes the model in great detail.

If you’re able to correctly identify all of the different interests and pressures and their strengths, then according to this model it should be a simple matter to predict whether a given individual will defect and cooperate for any single decision. More broadly, you may be able to craft better policy for your organization, family, or online community that results in increased cooperation.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Liars and Outliers

I love this book’s elegant conceptual framework and it made sense to me both intuitively and intellectually, especially given the wide variety of cited research. But how do you get from this conceptual framework to practical results?

That’s what I kept wondering as I plowed through the first half of the book, and kept asking myself, “so how do I accurately identify all of the different interests and pressures and their strengths?” To be fair, Schneier did not set out to answer this question when he wrote this book. But it’s difficult for me to fully embrace the concepts if it’s impossible to actually test them in the real world. Testing Newton’s law of universal gravitation is simple. Testing this conceptual framework is not.

Perhaps my expectations are too high. Perhaps any attempt to bring rigor to the social sciences results in proposed frameworks that are difficult to test.

The other issue was that I found this book tough to read. Schneier goes into great detail, perhaps excessive detail at some points, and I was always afraid I’d miss some key insight. So I tried to read every page. The result is that I kept putting the book down. It took months for me to complete it. In the end, I skimmed the last few chapters. Perhaps rapidly skimming the book and revisiting the sections of most interest would have worked better.

If you choose to skim or speed read, be sure to read the first chapter carefully. Thoroughly understand Figure 1 on page 12. With that understanding, you can dive into any other part of the book in any order you like.

Conclusion

Liars and Outliers presents a conceptual framework which elegantly pulls together disparate research from a broad range of disciplines into a cohesive whole. That alone makes it a very good book. Even better is the enormous amount of meticulously referenced research.

But despite my strong interest in the subject matter, I found I really had to push myself to finish reading the book. The book is not structured and written in a way that makes for an easy read. For that reason, it doesn’t quite belong in the same league as The Selfish Gene, or Guns, Germs, and Steel. These are books I’ve read which served a similar function—comprehensively bringing together the latest research from a broad array of disciplines to explain complex, widely scoped phenomenon that are not fully understood.

Nevertheless, this book is a “must read” for academically inclined individuals who want an introduction to trust and cooperation. If you tend to get a lot out of books like The Selfish Gene and Guns, Germs, and Steel, you’ll find this book just as valuable in helping you construct mental models for how the world works. Just be warned that it’s not as easy to read.

Disclosure: I was among a group of people who were each sent a copy of Liars & Outliers signed by Bruce Schneier at a reduced price. In return, I promised to review it. I believe I wrote this review the same way I would have written it without having received the discounted, signed, copy.

Save Time (No More Battery Management)

iPhone batteries typically last 2-6 hours under moderate to heavy use when most services are turned on (location, Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, etc.). Yes, I know there’s plenty of ways to extend battery life by turning off unneeded services, keeping brightness to a minimum, turning off push, etc. But if you keep your phone fully charged when not in use, you won’t need to spend so much time and attention managing your battery.

Prolong Battery Lifespan for Heavy Users

Apple describes ways to prolong iPhone battery life and lifespan. However, Apple neglects to mention that frequently recharging an iPhone after shallow use can potentially increase battery lifespan. According to Battery University and the book Batteries in a Portable World (page 198), “[for Lithium-ion batteries], the smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid frequent full discharges and charge more often between uses.” So keeping your iPhone plugged in most of the time will have the side benefit of prolonging battery lifespan because the phone will rarely experience full discharge.

Note for light use: For optimal lifespan, Lithium-ion batteries need to be used. The above advice assumes moderate to heavy use throughout each day. If you’re not using your iPhone for days at a time or you use it just a few minutes per day, then only charge it back up once every couple days, as discussed in ars technica’s the best way to use a Li-ion battery.

Reduce 3G Data Usage

The most obscure reason for keeping your iPhone plugged in is also the inspiration for this post: My usage rate increased by about 100MB last month. I finally figured out it was because I was no longer leaving my iPhone plugged into a charger as much.

Why is 3G data use higher when an iPhone is not plugged in? Because WiFi turns off while 3G stays on when an iPhone is in standby. This is done automatically in iOS 5 to conserve battery life. While in standby, 3G data gets used for syncs, push email, etc. You can stop this by going into settings/network and turning cellular data off when not needed. But why take on yet another phone maintenance task? If you leave your iPhone plugged in, WiFi stays on, so 3G data is not used.

Plug iPhones into . . . What?

As every iPhone owner knows, you can charge your iPhone from a computer’s USB port using the included cable or from an electrical outlet with the included plug. But if you’re going to keep your phone plugged in most of the time, you want it to be convenient. If you’re like me, that means one charger upstairs, one charger downstairs, one at my office, and one for my car.

For me the car charger was an easy choice: Kensington 2-port Charger. It can handle any Apple device, including an iPad at 2A and it can also charge other USB devices out of the second port at 500 mA.

For home and office, you can buy additional high quality Apple plugs, if you don’t mind paying top dollar. There are also many low cost, low quality knock offs. I avoid both of these options.

I prefer the versatile Rosewill 4-port USB charger RUC-6180. I have one at home and one in my office, for less than the cost of a single plug from Apple. It’s 2 Amps so it can also charge tablets and e-readers. As you can see in the picture, I always leave 3 different types of USB connectors plugged in: Apple USB to Dock Connector, micro USB, and mini USB.

My particular Rosewill model has a quirk: in order to get the iPhone to charge, I have to plug it in first, before other devices. The other thing not to like is the ugly cord mess, which may inspire you to hide the cords behind desks or other furniture. Alternatively, you can spend more to get more aesthetically pleasing charging stations from iHome.

It’s possible to keep your iPhone plugged in more often without buying additional charging stations. But if your noticing that you’re only charging your iPhone at night, it’s worth buying more chargers. Conveniently located chargers will makes it easier for you to keep your iPhone plugged in more often.

Final Words

Combine a great pocket computer with a limited battery, and you’ll frequently run down the battery. Countless articles describe ways to get more out of your battery by turning battery draining services off, dimming the display, and other tricks. In my opinion, following all this advice is distracting and time consuming.

A key smartphone benefit is the convenience of having a computer available at all times. Add a battery maintenance chore and you’ve lost some of that convenience. Leaving your iPhone plugged in while you’re at home, driving, or at your office is a lot more convenient than managing battery life.

Buried at the end of that post was brief battery charger advice and several suggested models depending on your preferred price. However, I could have been clearer on two points:

1. If you use a cheap, low quality charger, you may be motivated to abandon even the highest quality rechargeable batteries. You may end up with batteries that don’t fully charge, batteries that overcharge, or (in rare cases) batteries that overheat and melt.
2. Out of several hundred battery charger models, there are at least a few dozen good ones. However, one brand of battery charger stands heads and shoulders above the rest: La Crosse.

In this post I describe why good chargers matter, why I like La Crosse chargers so much, and why the La Crosse BC-700 makes the most sense for the most people, even though the more expensive La Crosse BC1000 is arguably the best battery charger on the market. I also describe the minor differences between the 4 La Crosse models listed in the title.

Why Avoid Cheap Chargers?

There are hundreds of AA battery chargers on the market, most of which cost less than $15 or are bundled with batteries. So why pay $35-$60 for a La Crosse charger or even $20 for a medium priced charger?

One way to address this is with a few questions and answers:

Q1) Why Buy Rechargeable Batteries and Chargers?

A1) I covered this thoroughly in my Best AA Batteries post. Short answer: If you use AA and AAA batteries in nothing more than a few alarm clocks and remote controls, then stick with single use Alkaline batteries. But add just one high drain device such as a digital camera, and you’ll find that low self-discharge rechargeable batteries are more convenient, economical, and ecological over the long run.

Q2) Is overcharging bad or dangerous for AA and AAA batteries?

A2) Yes to both. If you overcharge the common NiMH AA battery by tiny amounts, there’s no problem. If you overcharge by small to moderate amounts, battery cells become damaged, resulting in gradual reduction of battery life the more times you do this. If you overcharge by large amounts at a rapid charging rate, the cell can be destroyed due to overheating and could possibly start a fire.

Q3) What do you need to prevent overcharging AA batteries?

A3) You need very slow chargers, timed chargers, or a smart charger. Slow chargers are safe because batteries don’t overheat when charged slowly. The problem is they’re very slow. Timed chargers recharge batteries for a fixed amount of time at a faster rate, but this can lead to overcharging batteries.

Smart chargers cost more but are a much better choice for NiMH batteries because they have a method for detecting when the battery is fully charged (usually detecting a voltage drop that occurs when attempting to keep charging a battery that can’t take any more).

Q4) What exactly is a smart charger?

The term “smart charger” is confusing because it is used in marketing materials to describe several features. The most important feature is to stop charging (or switch to a trickle charge) when the charger senses that one or more batteries are full. Other features related to smart charging include: refresh/conditioning, discharging, testing, trickle charges and independent channels for each charging bay.

Q5) Why do I need independent channels for each charging bay?

A5) Most smart chargers accommodate 2 or 4 batteries. To keep costs low, the circuitry on many smart chargers is set up to monitor batteries in pairs. This prevents overcharging, but also prevents 1 of the 2 batteries from reaching full charge. By using a smart charger with independent charging channels, each battery will reach full capacity. Freshly charged batteries will therefore last longer, on average.

Q6) Do most chargers have smart charger features and independent channels for each charging bay?

A6) No. Scanning through the available chargers on Amazon, it appears that less than half of the chargers on the market have these two critical features. Many chargers bundled with rechargeable batteries lack these features.

Q7) So it’s obvious you should buy a smart charger with independent charging channels. Why not just buy the cheapest charger with these features?

A7) You can if you want. I’ve listed the best I was able to identify at each price point in this Low Self-discharge AA batteries post. Clearly there are many reasonable models in the $15-$25 range.

Q8) So why should I buy one of the La Crosse models, given that the least expensive BC-700 model typically costs $32-$38, while the more expensive BC1000 model costs $60?

A8) The rest of this post will answer that.

What do La Crosse Battery Chargers Offer to Justify Higher Prices?

Before delving into details, I should state that the model I’ve used for the past 4 years is the La Crosse BC-900. However, this is one of 4 closely related models, so my experience applies to all 4 models (see next section for minor differences).

In addition to independent charging channels and circuitry to detect when batteries are fully charged, all 4 La Crosse models also have the the ability to:

• Accept 1, 2, 3, or 4 batteries and charge each one at the same or different rates than the others.
• Fully discharge batteries.
• Test batteries: One full discharge/recharge cycle allows battery capacity to be approximately measured. You can then weed out weak batteries and/or group batteries together which have similar capacities.
• Refresh batteries: Repeatedly discharges and charges the battery until the capacity stops increasing. Do this once every year or two to keep your batteries operating near highest potential capacity.
• Select different charge (or discharge) rates per battery. The BC-700 maximum charge rate is 700mA, while maximums for the other La Crosse models are 1000mA for 4 batteries or 1800mA for 2 batteries. A dedicated button makes it easy to change the charging rate.
• Display a wide variety of information on a large, easy to read 2.2” x .8” LCD display spit into 4 sections, one for each battery. The button located beneath each battery bay makes it easy to cycle through each piece of information related to that battery.

Maha is the only other charger brand that offers a similar suite of capabilities. In several ways, it offers more. For about the same price as the top of the line La Crosse BC1000, the Maha PowerEx MH-C9000 Charger offers a little more flexibility, a little more control, faster maximum charging rates, a larger size, and a simple method for reviving completely drained batteries. This last is a significant advantage over La Crosse, which displays the “null” message when completely drained batteries are inserted (see problems with La Crosse Chargers below). The larger size can also be considered an advantage because battery insertion/removal is easier and batteries remain cooler when charging at the faster rates. For a very detailed comparison between the two chargers, see NLee’s Amazon review of the Maha PowerEx MH-C9000.

So why do I recommend a La Crosse model over the feature-filled Maha MH-C9000? Because the MH-C9000 is far more difficult to use, requiring many more button presses than La Crosse models to perform equivalent functions on a set of 4 batteries. It also has a display which rotates through data on a 48 second cycle as opposed to the La Crosse which has physical buttons that allow you to easily see data for an individual battery. I only recommend Maha for geeks the technically inclined who want the additional flexibility and don’t mind the larger size and ease of use issues. Complex user interfaces are exactly the kind of distraction FilterJoe aims to avoid.

Differences Between the La Crosse BC-700, BC-900, BC-9009, and BC1000 Models

I’ve owned a La Crosse BC-900 charger for nearly 4 years. Apart from accessories, firmware versions, and charging rates, it is identical to the BC-700, BC-9009, and BC1000 models from the user viewpoint. So the above description applies to all 4 models, keeping in mind these differences:

BC-700: This model is inexpensive, usually costing around $35. Its maximum charging rate is 700mA. The other 3 La Crosse models are more expensive but charge at faster rates and include accessories.

BC-900, BC9009: These two models have equivalent functionality but are differently colored and have different firmware versions. Both models can charge faster than the BC-700 (1800 mA max for 2 cells, 1000mA max for 4 cells) and include the following accessories: carrying case, 4 C adapters, 4 D adapters, 4 AA batteries, and 4 AAA batteries. While the carrying cases and adapters are handy, the included batteries are low quality, high discharge NiMH batteries. A big problem with these two models is that they sometimes overheat batteries when charging at the fastest rates. If you use either of these models at the default charging rate of 200mA there’s no danger, but you may not want to risk using either of these chargers to charge at rates higher than 700mA. I personally almost always use the 200mA rate for AAA batteries and 500mA for AA batteries which is gentler on batteries than fast charging. Using low charge rates leads to longer battery life.

BC1000: This model was released in 2011 and is identical to the BC-900 and BC-9009 (including carrying bag, accessories and faster maximum charging rates), except that additional overheat detection circuitry is also included. If too hot conditions are detected, the unit simply stops all charging or discharging activity on all 4 cells. Too many customers reported their BC-900 or BC-9009 units melting due to overheating when charging at the fastest rates. The BC1000 appears to have solved this issue and is the best unit for those who frequently feel the need to charge their batteries quickly, at a rate higher than 700 mA.

Problems with La Crosse Chargers

No brand has a perfect record and La Crosse is no exception:

• Some La Crosse models, including 2 of the 4 models discussed in this post (BC-900 and BC-9009) have had numerous reports of overheating and melted batteries. The company has never publicly admitted to these problems or issued any recalls.
• There are many reports of dissatisfaction with La Crosse customer service.
• These chargers slide around easily, because they are light and have no rubber stoppers on the bottom.
• La Crosse chargers display a cryptic “null” message when a heavily depleted battery is inserted. According to the manual, this means that the battery is defective. In most cases this is not true. It means that the voltage is below the 0.5V threshold needed for live battery detection. This encourages users to throw out good batteries that happen to dip below 0.5 Volts. We have two devices that frequently draw dawn batteries below this threshold.
• There are two ways to rescue dead batteries with a La Crosse charger, neither of which are described in the manual. The simplest is to leave the dead battery in the charger for several days. The La Crosse charger sends a tiny sense current of 60uA to detect the presence of a cell, which is usually enough to raise the battery above the 0.5V threshold (after which it can be charged normally). A faster method is to unplug the charger and use a paperclip to short the dead battery together with a fully charged battery, to share some of the stored energy. The procedure is described here. The simplest dead battery revival method is to use a “dumb” charger or timed charger for an hour or two, and then put the batteries back into the La Crosse charger. None of the workarounds I described are convenient. I consider the lack of a battery rescue feature to be the biggest disadvantage of the La Crosse as compared with the Maha charger I described above.
• To change settings, all La Crosse chargers require that you start making changes within 8 seconds of battery insertion. The first required action is to hold down the mode button for 3 seconds. If you’re too slow (because you don’t have a plan for which buttons you’re going to press) or you don’t hold down the mode button long enough, you’ll need to withdraw the batteries and reinsert to start over.

What I Recommend for a Battery Charger

In my original article on low self-discharge AA batteries, I had already mentioned several smart chargers that do the job, including several that cost less than any of the La Crosse models. Any of those are fine.

However, if you’ve taken the trouble to read through most of this post, I’m guessing you go through a lot of batteries and want a better model.

The La Crosse Technology BC-700 Alpha Power Battery Charger is that model. It costs around $35 and does pretty much everything other models do except charge batteries at a rate higher than 700mA. Batteries charged at these lower rates will tend to last for a longer number of recharges than those charged at faster rates.

If it’s important to you to charge your batteries quickly and/or acquire the carrying bag and accessories, then get the La Crosse Technology BC1000 Alpha Power Battery Charger. It typically costs $60, but allows for faster charging while avoiding the overheating and melting batteries issues of the BC-900 and BC-9009 models (which I don’t recommend).

Lastly, don’t skimp on batteries. To get the most out of your charger, be sure to use low self-discharge batteries such as the Eneloop batteries made by Sanyo. Like good chargers, they cost more up front, but save time and money in the long run.

More importantly, I’m done with noisy PCs. This time I was determined to get the cleanest, quietest PC I could get for less than $700.

Clean system is easy. Stick to Asus or Lenovo systems while avoiding Dell and HP systems, especially those intended for homes. Or switch to Macs.

It took a bit of research to find out that quiet is also easy. Brands, fan types, case types, hard drive quality, DVD drive type, or quality builds are minor factors compared to one dominating factor:

The main chips must generate little heat.

To get quiet along with decent performance, you simply limit your chip choice to mainstream mobile CPUs with integrated graphics from AMD or Intel that have been released in 2011-2012: Lllano, Trinity, Sandy Bridge, and soon Ivy Bridge.

The rest of this post answers in more detail the two questions implied above: For about $600-$700 can an ordinary person with no technical knowledge buy an off-the-shelf system with mainstream performance that is very quiet (and clean, while you’re at it)? Among the thousands of possible off-the-shelf systems, what simple rules of thumb can you apply that insure the system will be quiet and clean?

But first, to understand the basics of why processors are so important to quiet systems . . .

CPU and graphics chips both consume most of the power inside PCs or laptops. The more power they consume, the more heat they generate, and the more cooling is required to prevent damage by overheating. Cooling is usually done by fans, which are effective and inexpensive, but get louder in proportion to how much heat must be dissipated. Therefore:

Less power –> less heat –> slower fan speeds –> quieter system.

The Best CPUs for a Quiet, Affordable PC

To determine which CPUs offered an appropriate mix of high performance and little power usage, I read half a dozen lengthy articles about the latest chip technologies, dove into tech forums, and took extensive notes. It ended up boiling down to just a few points:

1) Chips which require the least amount of power also tend to be too slow for your main system. These include Intel’s Atom and AMD’s E-350 chips. AMD E-350 chips are faster than Atom so some claim they’re good enough for systems used mainly for office work. This may be true for a newly purchased PC. But if you want your system to still feel snappy after a few years of software and operating system updates (or if you use more computationally intensive software), you want a faster chip inside.

2) Mainstream chips since 2011 from AMD (Llano and Trinity) and Intel (Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge) are very fast and power efficient compared to prior generations. Intel’s chips are better suited for computationally intensive tasks like large spreadsheets while AMD’s systems have better integrated graphics and are therefore more suitable for light gaming. Both handle all routine mainstream tasks with ease, including 1080p video playback. Both are not adequate alone to handle heavy gaming, which will generally require the addition of a discrete graphics card.

3) Mobile versions of these chips are geared for lower power consumption, which ultimately means a quieter system than systems using desktop chips. Furthermore, in Intel’s case the mobile version includes better integrated graphics. Intel chose not to include very good integrated graphics with most desktop versions of their Sandy Bridge chips, so most desktop systems will include a graphics card that generates even more heat, leading to an even noisier system. This is very annoying for those (like myself) who prefer desktops over laptops. And, for reasons unknown to me, large Windows system vendors don’t build Windows desktop systems with mainstream mobile chips at mainstream prices.

4) Therefore, to get the best combination of quiet, low power system with good performance (also known as best “performance per watt”), you’re best off with mainstream mobile chips inside. Apple figured this out long ago with its Mac Mini model—the main reason it’s so much quieter than other desktop systems is the mobile CPU inside.

5) Currently the sweet spot for quiet systems with good performance at affordable prices is mobile systems based on AMD’s Llano or Intel’s Sandy Bridge. Recently released AMD Trinity and Intel’s Ivy Bridge systems coming out later in 2012 have better performance per watt, but cost more. You can have a very quiet system with any of these.

How to Get Quiet Systems with Best Performance per Watt at Mainstream Prices

1) To achieve mainstream prices of less than $700 for a very quiet, pre-built Windows system that includes a display and a high performance CPU, you’ll have to get a laptop (or notebook or ultrabook or whatever they call it these days).

2) For Intel, this means any chip model number on this Wikipedia list for mobile Sandy Bridge, or this Wikipedia list for mobile Ivy Bridge.

3) For AMD, this means any chip model on this Wikipedia list for mobile Llano, and any chip model on the mobile portion of this Wikipedia list for mobile Trinity.

4) If you think you’ll want to do light gaming on your system, then get AMD. If you think you’ll do heavy calculating (i.e. very large spreadsheets), then Intel. If neither of these applies to you, then it doesn’t matter whether you use AMD or Intel, so long as the mobile chip is on one of the lists I linked to.

That’s it!

Are My Systems Actually Quiet?

Yes and No. Yes for my work system, thanks to being paired with a quality slot loading DVD drive. I review it here:

My Amazon Review on Lenovo ThinkPad Edge e420s

My home Lenovo system has a tray-loaded DVD drive which is noisy when spinning at high speeds. A bug in Windows Media Center forces noisy, high speed spinning when movies are played from DVD. If not using Windows Media Center to play movies, the less expensive home system is as quiet as the work system:

My Review of the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge e520 on Amazon

If I had to do it all over again I would have purchased both Lenovo Edge e420s systems. The e420s can often be found for less than $600 with an Intel Sandy Bridge i3 inside and has better overall build quality, with the DVD drive mattering most from the noise perspective.

But I’m happy with both of my new systems, despite the fact that Intel marketing pushed me to buy laptops when I really wanted desktops. I’ve even begun to use my systems away from my desk, on occasion.

Bottom Line: My new systems are fast, clean, and quiet. I’m done with Dell. I’m done with useless pre-loaded software. And most importantly, I’m done with noise.

FilterJoe has always been about increasing the signal to noise ratio of the internet.

What I found after 3 years of blogging is that only one type of FilterJoe post had a strong enough signal to be noticed:

Product information.

It happened by accident. People found my first article comparing browsers more than any other prior post. The comparison was a buried side point but that’s what people were looking for. So I made my browser comparison an annual feature and developed more product/service oriented posts.

By the end of 2011 there were over 20,000 unique visitors per month to filterjoe.com, and virtually all of the traffic related to comparisons, reviews, and other information about products and services. This happened despite infrequent postings—fewer than 40 posts between March of 2009 and December of 2011.

In addition to encouragement from readers, I started to have conversations with other people about product information. Why is it so hard to find quality product information online? Why does it take so much of my time? What can I do to make it better?

One thing led to another and now I’m cofounding a company that aims to do a much better job with online product information. More about that later.

Back to the questions:

1. Where has FilterJoe taken me?
2. Where Am I taking FilterJoe?

The answer to both questions: product information.

I’ve learned a lot over the past few months about the way online product information is currently done. Over the next few months, I’ll share some of what I’ve learned. I’ll continue to share information about products or services I use and/or have extensively studied. And I may be experimenting with different styles and types of presentation with the aim of helping inform how we develop our service.

But the basic idea of FilterJoe will stay the same. It will be about helping people find what they need and work without distraction. It will be about increasing the signal to noise ratio of the internet. It’s just that it will mostly be helping people find the product information they need, while keeping distraction and noise to a minimum.

Blackberry delivered. I experienced voice quality comparable to that of a land line during my 3.5 years of Blackberry (8320, 9700) ownership. The siren calls from iPhone and Android devices had no effect on me during this time. By nearly all accounts, iPhones were great pocket computers with lousy phones and Android devices required too much fiddling to suit my tastes.

Then the iPhone 4s came out, promising decent voice call quality, improved battery life, and a better notification system. In other words, a great pocket computer and a great communication device. I decided to switch, and I wrote about this decision here.

Now that I’ve been using an iPhone 4s for nearly 2 months, I’d like to revisit my decision. Is the iPhone 4s performing as expected? How does it compare to the Blackberry 9700 I used for 2 years? Do I have any regrets? You may find some of my answers surprising.

Blackberry vs. iPhone 4s Points Discussed in My Previous iPhone 4s Post

Price: No surprises. Thanks to a combination of AT&T’s rollover minutes, $15/month data plan (200MB), and joining my inlaws’ existing family plan at $10/month, I’m only spending $25/month + fees/taxes. I also paid $200 + tax to get the phone. Details here.

UPDATE: As of January 22, 2012, AT&T no longer offers the $15/month data plan. $20/month for 300MB is the new minimum. Current $15/month data plan subscribers are grandfathered. However, if you ever temporarily switch to a data plan with a higher monthly limit, you won’t be able to go back to the $15/month plan.

Voice Quality: In my experience, using a Blackberry 9700 or 8320 is as good as a quality land-line based phone, whether you hold it to your ear, use earbuds, or use the speaker phone. The iPhone 4s is not even close. I didn’t expect Blackberry quality, but I expected better than what I’ve experienced in the past 2 months. Most of the time my calls are pretty good, which suggests the possibility that my quality issues are related to AT&T’s inferior performance compared with other U.S. carriers. Details:

• Call time so far: 20 hours
• Number of calls so far: approximately 150 calls
• Dropped calls so far: 1 (while signal was strong at my office)
• Low voice quality calls so far: Approximately 15% to 25% of calls
• Best quality hold-to-ear calls: Almost as good as Blackberry when not having issues
• Best quality speaker phone calls: Acceptable quality but tinny and not loud enough for a noisy environment.
• Best quality earbud calls: barely acceptable at best and a much higher incidence of low call quality.

My experience with earbud call quality has been poor enough to warrant further discussion. The included earbuds fall out of my ear easily and sound terrible. Luckily, my trusty Blackberry earbuds are compatible with iPhones and they stay in my ear just fine. But voice calls have been unacceptably erratic even with the Blackberry earbuds. Sometimes the calls are okay, sometimes there’s a little static on my end and sometimes the person at the other end hears distortion or echo so bad that I have to call back. Calls without earbuds are usually of higher quality than calls with earbuds. I have read that Apple is aware of software issues related to earbuds so hopefully this improves over time. UPDATE: Since April 2012 I have experienced NO MORE EARBUD ISSUES. So I’m guessing there was a software issue that got fixed with an iOS update in March or April of 2012.

I have also decided to get higher quality earbuds, so I just purchased this inexpensive yet well-reviewed model:

MEElectronics M9P In-Ear 3.5mm Headphone with Control/Talk

Based on nearly 20 hours of talk time and 150 calls over two months, my voice experience with iPhone 4s at AT&T has been decidedly inferior to the Blackberry 9700 or Blackberry 8320 phones I used for the past 3.5 years at T-mobile. However, it’s adequate, assuming the earbud software issues get resolved.

Notifications: Blackberry users love to point out that Blackberry has fully customizable notifications and a blinking LED light that is not present on iPhones. True. But for my work flow, that’s turning out not to matter, as follows:

I had my Blackberry’s flashing LED set up to indicate when I had received an e-mail or missed a voice call. Reading an e-mail within minutes of arrival doesn’t matter to me the vast majority of the time. But it matters perhaps 1-3 times per week. So if I saw the blinking LED, I’d type in my passcode, click to open my Gmail app, and quickly glance at the messages. I think that’s mildly disruptive. My wife thinks it’s far more annoying than just “mildly disruptive.”

With the iPhone 4s, there’s no flashing LED. But to check recent e-mails, I just click the home button and see e-mails on the lock screen—the title and first 70 or so characters of each message. I love this. Click and glance. That’s all.

The iPhone’s lock screen functionality is the killer feature that causes me to prefer iPhone over the Blackberry for notifications. But in every other way the Blackberry is more refined and customizable than the iPhone. For example, notifications can be customized per contact for e-mails. So when we were on the verge of buying a house, I had our agent’s e-mails forwarded to my Blackberry e-mail address which was set up with a special ring tone and vibration for only her e-mail message. That level of customization is handy, and is not yet available for iOS, though you can customize voice call and instant message sounds for individual contacts.

Blackberry also has notification profiles for different situations: normal, loud, medium, vibrate only, silent, phone calls only, all alerts off. Some people use several of these profiles frequently throughout the week, but I used normal all the time except when I chose the silent profile at events or meetings when I didn’t want to be interrupted. The iPhone has just two profiles: normal and airplane mode. Airplane mode is a bit more drastic than silent mode as it also turns off all connections, but that’s fine by me as it saves battery life. So, although Blackberries have many more profiles, I wasn’t doing more with them than I’m doing with airplane mode on the iPhone.

On the iPhone you can turn off cellular data, which effectively cuts off all forms of notifications except voice calls when outside of WiFi range. Given my 200MB per month plan, I sometimes have cellular data turned off and just turn it on for a few minutes at a time when I want to catch up on things outside of WiFi range. Given my general dislike of interruptions and distraction, I’m actually liking having the 200MB limitation in place—less temptation. Blackberry has the ability to selectively turn on/off any connection, but I never needed to given my unlimited data plan.

Yet another nice Blackberry feature is that you can set it up to go into “bedside mode” when docked. You can customize bedside mode to suit your tastes but if you’re truly using it by your bed, it’s helpful to have it turn off all forms of notification when you sleep, including the ring of a phone. The iPhone has no equivalent. To accomplish the same thing, you have to perform several manual steps (assuming you’ve already downloaded a clock app): Select airplane mode, dim the brightness, turn on a clock app, dock (and reverse when you wake up). With that many steps, I simply won’t do it. If there happens to be “an app for that” please let me know in the comments.

The iPhone 4s does have a thin ring/silent button that silences alerts and sound effects when in the red position. Though this doesn’t exactly correspond to the Blackberry concept of a profile, it is a silencing option that is roughly half way in between airplane mode and normal operation. Unfortunately, this button is hard to use in the dark as it is difficult to find and use by feel.

I personally have been trying to get in the habit of using both the ring/silent mute button and airplane mode at night to eliminate all forms of interruption.

Other Blackberry vs. iPhone Points Of Comparison

Getting Started: Big surprise–getting started with the iPhone 4s on AT&T was far more complicated than getting started with a Blackberry 9700 on T-mobile. Some of this was due to odd AT&T customer service polices related to family plans. For example, I had to give the social security number of the main account holder, my father in law, in order to activate the phone, and his credit card had to be used to buy the phone. But even aside from AT&T issues, there were many quirks such as:

• notification center settings not being accessible until you open and close an Apple app then reboot the phone
• having to wait 3 days before being permitted to buy AppleCare+
• struggling with iTunes (on Windows) to get apps from my iPod touch onto the iPhone . . .

The list goes on and on and it was about a week before I felt comfortable using the phone.

Both iPhone and Blackberry phones have nice setup wizards you go through when first setting up the phone (though iPhone requires you to make complicated choices around syncing and setting up iCloud). But once past the Wizard, Blackberries are ready to use. Not so with the iPhone 4s, though maybe it will get easier over time as the kinks get worked out of iOS 5.

Battery Life: I rarely used even half the battery of a Blackberry on any given day. With the iPhone 4s, I usually have to charge mid day just to make it to dinner (update: 8 months later I discussed several good reasons why I keep my iPhone plugged in most of the time). For the iPhone 4s battery, Apple claims 8 hours of 3G talk time, 200 hours of standby time, 6 hours of 3G Internet time, or 9 hours of WiFi. I get roughly half of that. When I use the camera to take pictures or video, the battery drains especially quickly. And I can drain it in an hour when using Waze to navigate using GPS. I’ve learned to plug my phone into a charger several times a day. Apple has been hard at work fixing iOS bugs related to battery life so hopefully this improves over time.

Data: I haven’t done any formal testing but I am clearly seeing that the iPhone 4s uses more data for the same tasks than Blackberry. How much more? My overall data use has more than doubled despite using the phone for roughly the same activites. I’ve also noticed that the occasional buggy app can consume several MB of data per minute, something that never happened on a Blackberry. With a little self-control and sometimes turning off 3G data, it looks like I’ll be using 100MB to 150MB of data per month.

Speed: It’s not just that iPhone has a faster browser and faster apps. Everything is faster. The camera comes up faster. Initial Cellular and WiFi connections happen faster. Heavy data transfers happen faster. It reboots faster. It even crashes faster—a crash usually takes less than a second as an app suddenly closes (and this happens quite a bit, especially the settings app). It’s so much faster that I spend less time using the iPhone than I did the Blackberry. Part of this is because I simply get my tasks done faster, and part of this is due to lock screen notifications as I discussed above.

Hand Feel: I love the hand feel of the Blackberry 9700. It’s light, grippy, and fits easily in my hand. It is curved in such a way that I can hold it for hours without any sense of hand fatigue. The iPhone 4s on the other hand is heavy, angular, and slippery. It is made heavier by the case (most people feel a case purchase is required in order to protect the glass). I’ve tried using it both with and without a case and I eventually gave up on the case because it was just too heavy for me. However, the iPhone is a bit uncomfortable to hold as the edges cut into my hands. I would be much happier with the iPhone 4s hardware if the edges and back were like a Blackberry Bold 9700 – curved and grippy.

Auto brightness: This will sound like a nit pick but Auto Brightness on my iPhone 4s doesn’t do the job. Yes it does cause the phone to dim slightly in the dark but it doesn’t dim it nearly enough. The end result is that I manually adjust the brightness several times per day. The auto brightness drop with the Blackberry was much more pronounced, so the only time I needed to fiddle with brightness settings was when outdoors on a very sunny day.

Siri: There was a time 10 years ago, when I stupidly tried the Palm-based Kyocera 6035 smartphone. It was awful, and I vowed to never again use a smartphone unless it had a great voice control system. I broke that vow when I got my first Blackberry in 2008, but I got it because I needed a phone with great voice quality and only gradually came to use the smartphone features. What I was most hoping for from Siri was a good replacement for Blackberry’s great keyboard-based phone and messaging functions, such as speed dial, contact lookup, and dashing off a quick e-mail. Siri is indeed a good replacement. For example, to call my wife I just hold the home button for a couple seconds, then say, “call my wife at home” without even going past the lock screen.

But Siri is only a good keyboard replacement when it actually works. Siri has speed issues, inconsistent availability, inconsistent activation with the hold to ear method, imperfect voice recognition, and it frequently cuts my dictation short. This last point ironically means that voice dictation was easier on the Blackberry (using the Dragon Naturally Speaking app). Siri also can’t remember any relationships beyond my wife because my Google contacts sync through exchange instead of natively with Apple iCloud.

I assume most of these issues will get fixed at some point (Siri is in beta after all). And I’m confident that Siri and other voice assistant software will eventually render keyboard advantages obsolete in mobile devices. Siri already seems to be working somewhat better for me in December than it did in November. But for now, Siri doesn’t come close to making up for the lack of keyboard shortcuts. For it to be an adequate keyboard substitute, I need it to work at least 99.9% of the time.

Conclusion

I don’t have regrets about switching to the iPhone 4s. My Blackberry 9700 clearly used data more efficiently, had a longer lasting battery, had a better hand feel, managed auto brightness better, had extra notification options, and had an overall superior voice calling experience. But the iPhone 4s has been better for me in every other way. With camera and pocket computer performance, the iPhone 4s is so far ahead of my Blackberry 9700 that there’s no point comparing them.

Do I miss anything about my Blackberry? Yes, I miss the better overall voice call experience. But that’s it. The other Blackberry advantages aren’t important to me.

So I’m using an iPhone 4s and loving it. And it’s not just because of the better pocket computing experience, the better apps, the better camera, the great user interface, and the blazing fast hardware and software. It’s the overall experience of adding functionality without distraction.

As Mr. FilterJoe, I think and care a lot about distraction. Smartphones have traditionally been very distracting with all of their interruptions and temptations. Blackberries have an extra layer of distraction due to frequent phone reboots, painful upgrades, and other maintenance tasks.

The bottom line is that I’m finding the iPhone to be far less distracting than the Blackberry. The key is that iOS 5 allows you to do so much from the lock screen, including instant camera access, phone calls, and customizable notifications such as email. So I don’t often need to type in my pass code and enter distraction world. But when I do enter, the phone does everything so fast that I’m usually quickly done. I spend much less time per day using the iPhone despite getting much more done, as compared with my Blackberry 9700. The flagship Blackberry 9900 device I considered would have been a big speed increase over my two-year old 9700 but from all reports it still would have been slower than an iPhone 4s and it lacks lock screen functionality.

My advice to anyone thinking about the switch: You may want to stick with a Blackberry if you have a communication intensive life such as that of a broker or real estate agent that includes lots of voice calls. Or maybe you care more about landline-like phone quality even without a communication-intensive profession. For the rest of us, the iPhone 4s is faster, better, and less disruptive, and therefore preferable to Blackberries as the thing you always carry in your pocket.

It’s a great deal if you want a larger E Ink display. It’s also a chance to support FilterJoe with commissions from Amazon for each DX (or anything else) purchased from Amazon after clicking on this link.

FilterJoe isn’t a deal site but I’ve been surprised about the number of clicks to the Nook deal from yesterday’s posting. So I’ll continue posting all the Black Friday deals I can find on products or services I’ve discussed. Maybe I’ll make this an annual tradition.

I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving and thanks to all my readers. Since early October, FilterJoe has had over 5,000 pageviews per week. Thank You!

1Password

1Password is a great password manager. It is especially well suited for those who use primarily Apple iOS or Mac OS X devices, including the iPhone and iPad. All versions are on sale from now through November 30:

AgileBits Thanks-To-You Sale

Note that I receive no commission for any purchases of 1Password or Nooks linked from this post. I just want my readers to know about these great prices.

1Password is one of four password managers I recommend. The best password manager for you will be different depending on whether you use Macs, Windows, a wide variety of devices, or prefer a free (but harder to use) solution. I describe a password manager for each of these scenarios, here:

Which Password Manager?

and an overall guide to password management here:

A Guide to Using Passwords Without Distraction

Nook Simple Touch

The Nook Simple Touch is selling for $79 on Friday, November 23 at Barnes and Noble stores (not online). I wish I hadn’t paid $139 just a few months ago. For help deciding between a Nook and a Kindle, read these two posts:

Nook Simple Touch Review

Nook Simple Touch Firmware Update

Here’s the official deal announcement:

Barnes and Nobles $79 Nook Deal

I’ve been using my new Kindle Touch for a few days and will soon post a detailed review and comparison to the Nook Simple Touch. Here’s my first impressions:

The Kindle Touch user interface and hardware is not as well designed around a touchscreen as the Nook Simple Touch. However, it is a more capable device, because the Kindle platform offers a browser, seamless syncing among devices, more comprehensive PDF support, and most importantly many convenient ways to get data onto the device. My Kindle Touch review will go into much more detail, and perhaps change from this initial impression:

For the moment, my recommendation if you want a touch-based E Ink reading device is to get a Kindle or a Nook:

• If you want simplicity, various in-store benefits, and you will only be reading text heavy books and PDFs, get the Nook Simple Touch.
• If you want additional capabilities, get the Kindle Touch. However, if you like the Kindle platform you may be happier with Kindle keyboard models, for which the user interface is better suited.

In this post I’ll lay out the facts about the update, and then I’ll discuss my opinion about these changes in the context of my prior review of the Nook Simple Touch.

Facts about the Simple Touch 1.1.0 update

The first thing to make clear is that this is a software update. The wording of yesterday’s Barnes and Noble’s press release was fuzzy on this point and many sites misreported that new Simple Touch hardware was being released. I called Barnes and Noble customer service today and was told in no uncertain terms that this was a firmware update. There is no new hardware. Barnes and Noble has shared an internal document which lists bug fixes and minor changes but I could not get access to this document. My suggestion to Barnes and Noble: please post detailed 1.1.0 firmware release notes.

All Nook Simple Touches will be updated automatically to 1.1.0 over the coming weeks. But you can update manually, like I did last night. This link takes you to the manual download page, which includes instructions.

Nook Simple Touch Software Updates

If you choose to manually update, I strongly recommend that you reboot your Nook Simple Touch a few minutes after completing the installation procedure. I followed the procedure carefully and found that my Nook Simple Touch was very buggy after the update—until I rebooted the Nook which cleared away all the bugs.

Here is how Barnes and Noble describes the update:

1. Breakthrough E Ink® display—best just-like paper reading, even in bright sun
2. 25% faster than any other eReader ” Best-Text™ Technology for sharper, ultra-crisp fonts
3. Longer battery life—read for over 2 months on a single charge [for one hour per day, not just half hour per day]
4. Ongoing enhancements and other performance improvements

As advertised, it’s faster, with crisper fonts and better contrast. Pictures appear to me to be a little less clear, including the cover pictures when the Nook is asleep. I can’t comment on the battery which would take weeks to test. See later on in this post for my detailed comments about the new fonts.

Here are the rest of the minor updates and bug fixes I’ve been able to discover so far:

• touch: left edge of display now responds as well to touch as the right edge of display
• touch: the book symbol at the upper left now consistently returns the user to the current book when touched
• touch: The edit shelf button is still small but is easier to touch for those with large fingers
• browser access removed altogether
• settings/shop—can “manage credit card”
• Table of Contents aligns left even for nested TOC
• Previously, all PDFs automatically reflowed at the third and larger font sizes. Now some PDFs reflow at the smallest font size as well (Is this a bug or a feature?)
• Speculative: my Nook sometimes required rebooting before the battery could charge when plugged into an electrical outlet. This bug may have been fixed as I have not had this issue since the 1.1.0 update.

I’ll further update this list over the next few days as I discover more changes. I would greatly appreciate comments on any changes I haven’t yet noticed or any facts I’ve manged to get wrong.

How the 1.1.0 update changes my review of the Nook Simple Touch

Both the battery life and page turn speed were so good to begin with that I don’t think improvements in this area will really matter to most people. They certainly don’t matter to me. The improvements to the font rendering and contrast however are very significant.

Quite a few people have expressed a preference for Kindles over the Nook with respect to contrast and font rendering. I don’t have a Kindle to compare to at the moment, but I will later this month when I get my Kindle Touch. So I’ll just compare the Nook Simple Touch to itself, before and after the 1.1.0 update.

All text appears sharper, and is easier to read when glare is present. Before this update, I disliked 5 out of the 6 fonts at the two smallest font sizes. I only used the default Caecilia font, which was a little darker than the others and good enough that I didn’t notice anything odd while reading.

Nook Simple Touch with malabar font

With 1.1.0, the fonts are now rendered so differently that they appear to my eyes to be altogether different. Malibar is now my favorite (above image is at second smallest font size). I still really like Caecilia too. Amasis does not look as sharp as the other 5 fonts, particularly at the two smallest sizes.

I previously commented that the other three fonts reminded me of what print looked like on 300 DPI laser printers when they first came out 15 years ago—so thin and plain as to be distracting. These three fonts are greatly improved and are fine for reading at any size.

It is my understanding that most people find serif fonts like Caecilia, Malabar, and Amasis easier to read on paper, but sans serif fonts like Gill Sans, Helvetica Neue, and Trebuchet easier to read on computer screens. I believe this is because serifs require a higher resolution than most computer displays offer. The Pearl E-ink display of the Nook Simple Touch is enough like paper to my eyes that I prefer serif fonts over sans serif, despite the great improvements to the sans serif fonts. So I’ll be using Caecilia and Malabar.

One thing Barnes and Noble has not changed is the Home Screen. Barnes and Noble delights in pointing out that, unlike Kindles, Nooks don’t have ads. However, there are many ways in which Nooks act as a funnel into the Barnes and Noble store. Nowhere is that more apparent than the home screen, which advertises displays Barnes and Noble books on the bottom half, and only displays “new reads” obtained from Barnes and Noble’s e-store in the upper right corner. Needless to say, I continue to bypass the home screen in favor of the library screen, which only pushes ads Barnes and Noble book samples about once per month (which I then promptly archive).

I was hoping to see the “return to prior screen” button become standard on every screen but that has not yet happened.

Conclusion

So what do I think of this update? The bug fixes are welcome as are the battery and speed improvements. But the show stopper is the software improvements to the display. I’m guessing that improved contrast and font rendering makes the Nook competitive with the Kindle in the area of text clarity, though I won’t know for sure until I get my Kindle Touch.

However, my overall conclusion about the Nook Simple Touch remains the same: If you want a novel-sized, black and white E Ink touch e-reader with varied options for holding and page turning, then you will be very happy with Nook Simple Touch hardware. I like the hardware so much that I’m not particularly hoping it’s someday replaced with improved hardware. If only I could say the same about the Nook’s platform.

The Kindle platform already had a number of advantages over the Nook when I first wrote my Nook Simple Touch review. But Amazon has improved the Kindle platform significantly since then with the addition of personal document sharing, library lending, and a free book per month lending program for Amazon Prime members. Though Kindle hardware trails a bit at the moment, those who are patient can expect popular Nook hardware features to eventually make their way to future Kindles.

The Nook Simple Touch is a great e-reader, made even better with firmware update 1.1.0. Used in conjunction with in-store advantages, it will be the most appropriate e-reader for some. But for those who don’t have ready access to a Barnes and Noble store and who want to easily access their purchased or side loaded content on any device for many years to come, the Kindle platform currently has the edge.

I briefly considered the impressive Galaxy S II, but I prefer smaller (single hand) devices and more polished operating systems. An inexpensive grandfathered plan gives me an incentive to stick with Blackberry on T-mobile, but the iPhone’s 336 PPI Retina display beckons. Blackberry Bold 9900 or iPhone 4s. Which one?

iPhone 4s. No contest. Here’s why.

Update: Here’s the followup post I wrote after using my iPhone 4s for 2 months:

Blackberry vs. iPhone 4s (After 2 Two Months of Use)

Blackberry vs. iPhone Used to Be a Tradeoff

Historically, Blackberry strengths include:

• great voice call quality
• flexible notifications
• inexpensive monthly plan possibilities (T-mobile USA, in my case)
• free messaging between Blackberries

These have not been areas of strength for the iPhone. Many people love iPhones anyway because they’re such easy-to-use pocket computers.

Here’s how I’ve summed it up in the past:

If you want a great pocket computer, get an iPhone. If you want a great phone and communication device, get a Blackberry. You can’t have both, because iPhones are lousy phones and Blackberries are lousy, overly complicated pocket computers.

Until now.

The latest Blackberries are still great communication devices but also still lousy and overly complicated pocket computers. On the other hand, the iPhone 4s has it all. I’m one of 24% of U.S. Blackberry owners who plan to get one.

iPhone Has Caught up to Blackberries

I’ve always had an interest in the iPhone as a pocket computer, thanks to the superbly designed interface and impressive app quality, quantity, and diversity. I love the 326 PPI Retina display included in recent models. I use my iPod touch 4g to read anything for hours at a time. And my iPod touch just got better thanks to iOS 5. But until recently, I didn’t want an iPhone.

Here are the reasons I previously avoided iPhones and how they have been addressed:

Expensive Plans: Affordability matters to me. I get affordability with a Blackberry on T-mobile. I pay $53/month + taxes and fees for 1000 minutes and unlimited Blackberry BIS data with T-mobile USA, thanks to a grandfathered postpaid plan and a 12% AAA discount. I upgraded to the Blackberry 9700 23 months ago and am now eligible for another upgrade at the fully discounted price.

For years, getting an iPhone in the U.S. was expensive—the least expensive individual AT&T plan was $70/month for unlimited data but with only 450 minutes, which is a little below my average monthly minutes used.

In June 2010, AT&T changed to tiered data. The monthly minimum became $55/month ($40 for 450 minutes plus $15 for 200MB data). That minimum can be lower if you pool together 3 to 5 people on AT&T’s family plan. My wife’s parents already have a family plan with 2 lines with thousands of banked rollover minutes. It costs $10/month to add another line plus $15/month for the minimum data requirement. That’s a total of $25/month additional (plus taxes, fees and a one-time $35 activation fee). Wow. 200MB of data may not be enough for some people. However, I primarily access data via WiFi at home and at my office. WiFi doesn’t count towards the 200MB limit. So switching to AT&T and agreeing to a 2-year contract gets me an iPhone at the subsidized rate and reduced monthly charges. Again: Wow.

Mediocre Voice Quality: I actually use phones to, you know, talk. Old school, I know. But I do spend about 400-800 minutes each month talking on the phone. iPhones have always had problems with dropped calls and reception quality. The iPhone 4 was even worse. Some iPhones have also had short battery life. In contrast, Blackberries have terrific voice quality, WiFi UMA calling (T-mobile only), few dropped calls, and the battery life to handle long calls. So why would I want to downgrade? Thanks to upgraded software, a better Qualcomm radio, and a dual antenna setup, the iPhone 4s is the first iPhone with decent voice performance. Voice quality and battery life may not be as good as Blackberries, but many customers are reporting significant improvement after several days of use.

Unacceptable Notification System: I care a lot about notifications—enough to write about strategies for controlling interruptions and distractions on smartphones. Blackberries are terrific at giving users many options around notifications, making each kind of notification as subtle or as eye-popping as desired (customizable lights, sounds, vibrations, pop-ups, etc.).

In prior versions of the iPhone operating system (iOS), all iPhone activity was paused in order to display a new notification. To stop these overbearing distractions on my iPod touch, I simply turned off all notifications. That’s fine for a pocket reader, but a phone needs to notify me of missed calls and calendar appointments at a minimum. I’d also like to be notified of certain other events according to my preferences.

With iOS 5, incoming messages and app notifications appear briefly at the top of the display without interrupting other activity, and all messages are kept organized within the Notification Center. iOS 5 notification behavior can be customized for each app. I’ve played around with this some on my iPod touch. It’s not as customizable as Blackberry notifications, and some apps haven’t been updated to play nice with the Notification Center yet. But iOS 5 notifications are easy-to-use and they let me confine and control my interruptions adequately.

But that’s not all. You don’t need to unlock your screen to check your most recent notifications. You can quickly glance to see if you have a missed message, an important email, a weather alert, a score in the latest game of the World Series, or whatever else you happen to care about. It’s customizable. It’s getting to the point where checking these things is only slightly more disruptive than checking a wrist watch.

No Free Messaging: Free and easy-to-use messaging is a very popular Blackberry feature. Apple did not include an iphone-to-iphone messaging service prior to iOS 5. All devices that run iOS 5 now have it. It’s called iMessage. People like it. Enough said.

Other Issues: I could go into detail about other minor things Blackberries have historically done better than iPhones. Some of these things were addressed years ago, such as multitasking, cut and paste, battery life, and remote wiping. iOS 5 addresses most remaining shortcomings I haven’t already discussed. The biggest is awkward iTunes issues being solved by iCloud (sync, cloud integration, backups, iTunes wiping out your mp3’s, etc.). But I’ll just sum it all up by saying that with iOS 5, Apple catches up in most of the areas where Blackberry formerly had a big lead.

From a consumer perspective, the only major features an iPhone 4s lacks are a physical keyboard and WiFi UMA voice calls (available on T-mobile Blackberries only, and not yet for the Blackberry 9900). These are not important issues for me because AT&T reception is good at my home and office, and I’m indifferent about keyboard options. Obviously, those who prefer physical keyboards will feel differently.

Should I Upgrade to a Blackberry 9900 or an iPhone 4s? Not a Tough Decision

The latest iPhone has pretty much caught up to Blackberries in the few areas where it used to have a big lead. But the latest Blackberries are not much closer in areas where iPhones have a big lead. The most glaring example is how the latest Blackberry models still require frequent several-minute reboots to update apps and the operating system. Also slow to improve is camera hardware and software, app choice and quality, and ease-of-use, to mention just a few.

The Blackberry upgrade choices I’m currently faced with make my next phone decision easy. The Blackberry 9900 is a very nice device in many ways, but it is also worse than my Blackberry 9700 in a few ways:

• It does not support WiFi UMA calling. T-mobile reception in my home is poor so this feature is important. To be fair, UMA is supposedly coming with a November O/S update, but should I buy a phone with a critical missing feature in hopes it will be available soon? (UPDATE: UMA became available 3/14/12 for T-mobile Blackberry 9900 users)
• It’s expensive. The Blackberry 9900 on T-mobile costs $349 minus a $50 rebate for a net of $299 before taxes. Most of the competition charges $199 with a 2-year contract for their top-of-the-line smartphones. This is true of Apple’s iPhone 4s 16GB as well. Why pay more for a device that offers less?
• Most disappointing of all is that the camera does not include autofocus, which means blurry close up shots. Meanwhile, thanks to more features, better software, and better optics, the latest and greatest handsets from Apple, Samsung, and HTC are reasonable substitutes for $200 point-and-shoot cameras. One more thing—the iPhone’s camera takes pictures fast, and right from the lock screen.

So the choice I am faced with is this:

Do I sign another 2-year contract with T-mobile at $53/month in order to get a $299 Blackberry 9900 that’s missing a few features I care about? Or do I pay $199 and join my in-laws’ AT&T family plan for $25/month in order to get an iPhone 4s 16gb that’s arguably the best pocket computer on the planet—and now with good voice, notification, and messaging abilities as well?

Not a tough decision.

Soon I’ll have a great pocket computer and a great communication device—as soon as my iPhone 4s arrives.

Hardware questions (less important)

1. Do you prefer black and white E Ink or high resolution color LCDs?
2. Do you prefer touch or keyboard?
3. What size do you prefer—pocket, novel, or large tablet?
4. How are page turns? How will your hands feel after hours of use?
5. Are any other hardware features important to you such as speed, battery life, connectivity, or expandable storage?

Platform questions (more important):

6. How good is the user interface on this device and other devices for this platform?
7. How well does the software on the device support what you want to do with it?
8. What kinds of lending, borrowing, and in-store reading are available and how well do they work?
9. What is the e-book store like?
10. Will you be able to read the kinds of material you want to read on this device?
11. How is customer service?
12. Do you want to maximize flexibility or minimize interruption?
13. Summing it up—Which platform do you want?

The last question may be the most important: Which platform do you want? With the printed books lining your bookshelf, you or anyone you lend them to can read them any time, anywhere. With books you buy for your Kindle, Nook, or iOS device, it’s not anywhere near so simple. Who, where, and how your e-books can be accessed is complicated and limited.

The rest of this post describes the choices you have for each of these questions, focusing especially on the device I’ve been using heavily for the past 3 months: The Nook Simple Touch. Think of this post as a reference, a thorough Nook Simple Touch review, and most importantly a thought process for sorting out what you most want in a portable reading device and platform.

UPDATE: Barnes and Noble released firmware update 1.1.0 on November 7, 2011. Read about the incremental changes to this review, here.

Introduction

I bought a Nook Simple Touch about 3 months ago for $139 (+ tax). For something costing this amount, you might think a few minutes is enough time to decide whether to buy it or a competing device like a Kindle 3 (now called Kindle Keyboard) or iPod touch. But consider that e-books cost money too. At a typical cost of $9.99 per e-book, you could spend $200 purchasing 20 e-books each year.

When you buy an e-reader, you’re also buying into a platform which limits choices for accessing various formats and e-book stores, including e-books you’ve already purchased. If you own a lot of Kindle books you’ll want to keep buying Kindles or other devices that can read Kindle’s proprietary format so that you don’t lose access to your already purchased books. Same is true for the Nook.

So, before you commit to buying hundreds of dollars worth of books for the Nook, Kindle, or some other reading platform, you’ll want to know if it’s the right long-term platform for you (Either that, or stick to free reading materials so that you’re not committed to the platform).

Looked at in this light, hardware is not as important as the platform. Most reviews of the Nook Simple Touch and competing devices focus primarily on the hardware, with little regard to the overall platform question. This made sense in years prior when there were many hardware limitations. But most new reading devices released after the middle of 2010 have been plenty good for reading text. The bigger differences are in the platform behind the device.

I’m going to take a different approach and guide you through a series of questions that will help you think about both hardware and platform choices. I’ll focus on the Nook Simple Touch since that is what I’ve been using for the past 3 months, but to properly frame the discussion I will frequently refer to competing devices from Amazon and Apple.

Given the length of this piece, you may want to focus on the sections that most matter to you. If there is one section you shouldn’t skip, it is the last section: “Which platform do you want?”

Question 1: Do you prefer black and white E Ink or high resolution color LCDs?

Many people think E Ink is easier on your eyes than LCD screens. I used to think that too. Having used and written about the iPod touch as e-book reader, I now have a different view. E Ink is far easier on the eyes than commonly available low resolution LCD screens. But the very best LCD screens with 170 PPI or higher such as Apple’s Retina display or Samsung’s Super AMOLED displays are excellent for reading and just as easy on the eyes for many people.

E Ink is generally easier to read in sunny or bright lighting conditions. In dim lighting conditions an E Ink display requires a lamp or clip-on light. An advantage of having no internal backlight is that battery life is measured in weeks.

Conversely, LCD screens are backlit and work well in dark to moderate light conditions. Outdoor use is problematic due to glare. Battery life will be measured in hours.

There is plenty of debate about E Ink vs. LCD. I suspect neither will prove superior, but just a matter of choice and preference. Very helpful is to borrow both an iPod touch 4g and a current generation e-reader such as the Nook Simple Touch or Kindle 3. Try using both in bright and dim conditions. You’ll find out soon enough which you prefer. For some people the answer is both: use E Ink in bright conditions and backlit LCD in dim conditions.

How does the Nook Simple Touch stack up against the E Ink competition?

The Nook Simple Touch has the same 6 inch, 167 PPI Pearl E Ink display found in the latest Kindle and Kobo E Ink readers. Displays using the new Pearl E Ink technology have much better contrast than E Ink displays from prior generations and are therefore easier to read in a wider variety of lighting conditions.

Despite using the same panel, text on the Nook looks different from text on the Kindle. Both have crisp text and good contrast, but Kindle seems a bit crisper to some eyes, and much crisper to others. Part of this is because full refreshes happen only once every sixth page turn on the Nook, causing ghosting (faint images from prior pages). This ghosting can be quite noticeable by the fourth or fifth page. But some people believe that a more important text crispness issue is different font designs and rendering techniques. I have not used a Kindle 3 so all I can say personally is that the Nook Simple Touch is both crisper and easier to read with a greater variety of lighting conditions than older displays such as the Kindle 2 or the original Nook. Most importantly—it’s plenty good enough for me.

Some people are annoyed by the way E Ink flashes with each page turn (full refresh). This happens only once every 6 pages with the Nook Simple Touch. Though it’s nice that this is absent for 5 of 6 pages, some people find this occasional page flash jarring.

Reading with the Nook’s default Caecilia font feels like reading a paperback book—I don’t even think about the font. Not so with the other 5 included fonts. All 6 fonts look good at large sizes. However, at the second or third smallest size (similar to a paperback novel), I find Caecilia far easier to read. My second favorite, Malabar, is readable but thick, squished and wide. Amasis is a fairly narrow font that looks cramped for my eyes at my normal size setting but looks very nice at the fourth and higher font size. The other 3 fonts, Gill Sans, Helvetica Neue, and Trebuchet remind me of what print looked like on 300 DPI laser printers when they first came out 15 years ago—so thin and plain as to be distracting.

As with any touch screen, smudging can be an issue. If I look at my Nook from just the right angle and catch the light just right, I can notice smudges. However, with typical lighting and clean hands, I just notice the text I’m reading. I suspect it’s not a good idea to read a Nook with very dirty or greasy hands—but you wouldn’t want to do that with other e-readers or regular books either.

Some people wonder if the Nook’s touch screen reduces reading quality. I suspect it does, but only slightly. There are rumors that Amazon has been slow to introduce a touch-based Kindle because it reduces crispness and/or clarity of text. The biggest issue I’ve noticed with the Nook’s touch screen is that it catches more glare outdoors than E Ink readers that don’t have a touch screen. It’s not a lot of glare, and glare can be reduced by changing the angle of the Nook. But for those who read outdoors frequently, the (non-touch) Kindle display is at least mildly preferable.

Bottom line: The Nook Simple Touch E Ink display stacks up well versus the E Ink competition (using the default Caecilia font). If you use the smallest font size, you read outdoors a lot, or have very discerning eyes, you’ll likely prefer the Kindle 3 display. But the bigger question will be whether you prefer E Ink or high resolution color LCD. Or both.

Question 2: Do you prefer touch or keyboard?

In the past, getting a touch screen device for reading required an LCD screen. Several E Ink devices are now available with a touch display, so you don’t have to give up touch to go with E Ink.

The success of the iPhone has made it clear that most consumers prefer touch over keyboards in handheld devices. There will always be exceptions, of course. Some people find they can type much faster with physical keyboards and find that useful for taking notes. Some people may be accustomed to Kindle keyboards and don’t want to change to something new. But touch screen keyboards work well enough for most people and help keep devices smaller, lighter, and simpler to use.

Touch works quite well on the new Nook. The infrared touchscreen technology used cannot match the responsiveness of capacitive touch displays found in devices like the iPod touch. However, it doesn’t feel sluggish when turning pages or navigating, and that’s all that really matters for a reading device.

A few quirks:

• Light touches work best.
• The left most edge of the display is less sensitive.
• When used in a hot room, the touch display is less responsive.
• The touchscreen is normally so responsive that it’s easy to accidentally double turn a page.

After a few weeks of use I got used to these quirks and learned to work around them. I now find touch to be responsive, intuitive, and automatic.

Like all touch-based devices, an adult finger is not all that precise. Barnes and Noble designed the interface with buttons in some places that are too small to easily touch. For example, if you want to edit a “shelf” to have more or less books, you need to touch a circle (with a triangle in the middle) that is literally 2 mm wide. I can only hit it in maybe 1 out of every 5 tries, and missing lands me on a different screen. If the button were 4mm wide I wouldn’t have a problem.

There is clearly room for minor improvement, some of which may be accomplished with software updates. But this first version of the touch display already works quite well for reading and navigating. Given that this 1.0 version of touch already competes well with keyboard-based e-readers that have years of refinement behind them, I suspect e-readers are headed in the same direction as phones. Devices with keyboards will be a niche part of the market a few years from now.

Question 3: What size do you prefer—pocket, novel, or large tablet?

For many people, the answer to this will depend on the situation. When out and about, you may want something you can carry in your pocket. When reading around the home or office, most people prefer larger sizes, perhaps a novel size for books, and a large tablet for reading magazines, PDFs, or newspapers.

Keyboard-based Kindles are too large to fit in a pocket. The Nook Simple Touch has the same display size yet fits nicely in a large vest or jacket pocket. I’ve carried it around and used it in a large vest pocket. I find it to be less cumbersome than a paperback book, which is thicker and heavier.

You can carry an iPod touch or smartphone in any sized pocket, but you lose screen size. I find that 3 screens of iPod touch text equal about 2 screens of Nook text. The only way I get this good a ratio is by using a smaller font size on the iPod touch while holding it a few inches closer to my eyes.

Another issue with pocket sized devices is that most of them are general purpose pocket computers. As I discussed in this interruption technology essay, reading on a pocket computer can be more difficult due to interruptions and tempting distractions.

Some things will never work well on a 6” screen. Most notably, PDF documents are usually formatted for 8.5” x 11” paper. PDFs with lots of graphics can be difficult to read on a small screen, even with lots of helpful panning and zooming controls as found on Kindles (but not this Nook). Magazines, picture books for kids, and other large format content will also benefit from larger screens.

The iPad and its large tablet competitors will be preferred for such large format content, all other things being equal. However, as of 2011, large tablets have low resolution displays and are much more expensive. I personally plan to avoid the large tablet category until display resolution increases, price declines, and the software platforms mature.

Given that device costs continue to drop, I suspect that the size issue won’t be an either/or choice much longer. Most people will choose to have multiple devices, each used at different times and places, and for different content. However, the size of the Nook is particularly attractive given that it has a novel-sized screen but can fit into a large pocket or purse.

Question 4: How are page turns? How will your hands feel after hours of use?

I happen to have hands that tire easily when gripping something for hours at a time. I avoid reading large hardback books for that reason. Paperback books are much better, especially slim ones.

How will your hands feel after several days in a row of e-reading many hours/day? It will depend a lot on the size of your hands and how you hold the device. An iPod touch is something you clutch in one hand. If you grip it hard, your hand may get tired like mine does after a few hours. You may find yourself looking for ways to read without holding it.

The Kindle 2 and Kindle 3 are light. But you have to keep your hands in the same place at all times in order to have access to the page turning buttons. Some people are able to use this device one handed while resting the other—but we’re still talking about keeping your hands in the same position, which for some people gets tiring after hours of use.

I think this is the one aspect of the Nook Simple Touch hardware that has leapfrogged the competition. The combination of wide bezel (area surrounding the screen), small size, light weight, rubberized surface, and three page turning methods means there are numerous ways to hold the device.

The most obvious way to hold the new Nook is with the bottom corners digging into palms, with thumbs resting on the bezel, so that you can turn pages by pressing the upper page turn buttons built into the bezel. This would be the most comfortable position for me if not for the hard plastic edge digging into my palm. Wearing bicycle gloves helps a little and using a skin or cover might help even more.

But instead of trying to make my favorite hand position work, I just shift my hands around in a variety of positions, and can hold it in any of the following ways:

• any combination of corners
• like a phone (one handed)
• pinching it with 2 fingers (one handed)
• with one hand in back and thumb across one top corner (one handed)
• with one hand in back and other hand’s thumb on opposite top corner
• lean it against something

Part of what makes this work is having three different ways to turn a page. I often use the slim buttons built into both sides of the bezel. These buttons require a strong press which some people find uncomfortable. But it does mean far fewer accidental page turns compared with button presses on the Kindle or screen touches on the Nook. I also turn pages by touching the screen’s right or left screen edges, when holding the Nook one handed. Others prefer swiping for its reliability (touching the side of the screen sometimes results in double page turns). Having 3 choices means that most people will find some way of holding the Nook and turning pages that pleases them, or may prefer as I do to rotate through many positions to avoid hand fatigue.

If hand fatigue issues have soured you on e-readers, you’ll want to try this device. None of the competition to date offers anywhere near the variety of potential hand positions as the Nook Simple Touch.

Question 5: Are any other hardware features important to you such as speed, battery life, connectivity, or expandable storage?

In talking to people about e-readers, I’ve noticed that a minor feature or two sometimes makes a big deal of difference. Let’s take a look at some of these features, one by one:

Speed: E-reading devices based on E Ink have been plagued with speed issues for years. Older models of the Nook and Kindle had noticeably slow page turns and sluggish behavior for anything but reading a novel. However, the recent crop of devices released since mid 2010 have all been fast enough to read appropriately formatted books without hindrance, and navigation is faster as well. Speed will only be an issue if you’re buying an older, used device.

The Nook Simple Touch in specific is among the fastest E Ink devices available partly thanks to full refreshes only once every 6 pages. While reading, you may not notice a difference between a Kindle 3 and the Nook Simple Touch. However, the lack of full refresh on 5 out of 6 pages means the Nook is much faster at rapidly skimming though a book. While the touch screen does not respond instantaneously to touch, it is plenty fast enough for the types of navigational activities needed on an e-reader.

Browsing: Speed does matter if you need a browser for reading or other purposes. Browsing on LCD devices such as the iPod touch and the Nook Color is much faster and better than browsing on E Ink devices. The Nook Simple Touch doesn’t even try, as there is no officially supported browser. Some types of reading can only be accessed via the web, so the lack of browser in the Nook Simple Touch restricts what can be read on the device. Note that there is an undocumented browser that can be used, but it is buggy, slow, and primitive. The lack of a supported browser means lack of access to cloud-based reading with Google Reader or the recently released Amazon Cloud Reader. If you want a workable (but not great) browser on an E Ink device, you’ll need to get a Kindle.

Battery Life: LCD-based e-readers have battery life measured in hours. If there are times when you’ll be away from an electrical outlet for days or weeks at a time, then E Ink based readers such as the new Nook are your only option. The latest E Ink based readers all have battery life measured in weeks. Minor differences between them are irrelevant.

Storage: Most portable reading devices include at least 2GB of internal memory, which will easily be enough storage to accommodate hundreds of books. 2GB is the advertised internal memory (RAM) for the new Nook. However, 1GB is for system software, and .75GB for e-Books purchased through the Barnes and Noble store. Only 240MB remains for side-loaded content such as PDFs or books from other stores. On the bright side, you can go far beyond this by purchasing an inexpensive SD card.

Expandable storage: Most portable reading devices do not provide an expandable storage option. The Nook Simple Touch is an exception, accepting inexpensive SD cards of up to 32GB. If all you read are text-only books obtained from the default store for your device and you plan to store fewer than 500 books, this won’t matter. However, if you plan to load many PDFs or books with graphics on your device, you’ll need more than 2GB. Also, as discussed in the prior paragraph, the Nook dedicates only 240MB of the device’s memory for side-loaded content.

Audio: The Nook Simple Touch has no audio. Kindles, iPod touches, and most other reading devices include audio, which can be useful for pronouncing words or reading books out loud.

Connectivity: The new Nook can access content via WiFi or a USB connection to a computer. A 3g cellular connection is not an option. This means that WiFi or a USB computer connection is needed for downloading new reading material. For people who travel a lot or who don’t have WiFi at home, this may be an important reason to get the competing Kindle 3g model instead. For a growing number of people, WiFi is accessible at work, at home, or free WiFi hotspots. Barnes and Noble provides free WiFi at all USA Starbucks and Barnes and Noble stores.

International: The Nook Simple Touch is intended to be a USA-only device. There do exist ways to buy the Nook and books from the Barnes and Noble e-book store outside the USA. But if you don’t live in the USA, why bother? The Kindle is designed to be used internationally (including some models with international 3G access) and so are Apple iOS devices such as the iPod touch. On the other hand, if all of your reading material on the Nook will come from PDFs, public domain sources, or other side-loaded content, then the USA-only restrictions won’t matter.

Question 6: How good is the user interface on this device and other devices for this platform?

Apple’s iOS platform has a user interface that is much easier to use than any dedicated e-reader device. But does this really matter? Is Nook’s user interface and supporting software good enough for reading, navigating, and obtaining new reading materials?

Before answering this question, it should be noted that Barnes and Noble tends to rush e-reader hardware to market before the supporting operating system is polished and free of bugs. This is followed over the next year with automated updates that fix or improve the operating system. The original Nook was difficult to use for anything but reading an already loaded book when it first shipped as the software was slow and buggy with several confusing design flaws. As these flaws were gradually corrected over time, many people came to love the device. Not me. I never liked the split user interface and I thought the original Nook was too heavy.

The new Nook breaks the trend of rushing products with unfinished software to market. The 1.0.0 software version that initially shipped with the new device was fast, intuitive, and had few obvious bugs (1.0.1 is the latest version as of September 2011). The onscreen keyboard is well designed and easy to use for most people, including myself. Navigation, controls, and settings are organized around three separate areas, one for words or phrases on the current page, one for the book you’re currently reading, and a physical button to access everything else. Here are the details:

A tap on the center of the screen while reading brings up the reading controls. These include content, find, go to, Aa text, and more. Here’s what they do:

Content: 3 tabs show Chapters, Notes & Highlights, and Bookmarks. Chapters show an active table of contents, if present. You can’t modify the table of contents. Notes and Hightlights show words you’ve highlighted or typed in notes about. To see an actual note, you need to tap on the entry which takes you to the page with that note. Then you tap on the note icon on the right. Bookmarks show a list of page numbers and first few words. These are pages you bookmarked by touching the upper right hand corner of the display while reading. For books which lack table of contents, you can easily construct your own using bookmarks.

Find: Use the popup keyboard to find every instance of the word or phrase you type within the current book. This works as you’d expect.

Goto: Move the slider to any part of the book to see what that part of the book looks like. You can then choose to “go to page” that the slider is on or “go back” to where you were reading. Readers of physical books who miss being able to flip around a book may like this feature.

Aa text: You can change font, size, line spacing, and margins to suit your tastes here. As discussed in section 1 (E Ink vs. LCD), I believe the default font is by far the best but you can judge for yourself. There is also a “publisher defaults” button. I have found that these formatting controls do not always work. For example, books you borrow from a library using Overdrive cannot have margins, line spacing, or font adjusted. PDFs appear in true (and usually too small) PDF form on the two smallest font sizes, but reflow into the appropriate size when one of the largest 5 font sizes are chosen. For Nook-formatted epub books you purchase in the Barnes and Noble store, you can change any of these settings.

More: Brings up information about the book—title, author, size, file location, and date modified.

A tap on the Nook’s one physical button brings up the following choices related to navigating and controlling the device: home, library, shop, search, and settings.

The “home” screen is essentially advertising for Barnes and Noble. It is useless for my needs, and lacks customization options. The home screen is divided into 3 sections:

1. It shows what I’m reading now (redundant because there is a “go back to reading” icon in the upper left corner of most screens).
2. It shows “New reads” from my library. Except it’s not really from my library, but the last 3 books downloaded from the Barnes and Noble store, which is almost never what I actually want to read soon.
3. It shows “What To Read Next” on the bottom half of the screen, which pictures 4 different books from the B&N top 100. Never have I seen a book here I’m interested in reading. If I had a number of Nook lending friends with similar tastes, then their recommendations would show up in this section—but when will that ever happen?

The Home screen would be more useful for a person whose primary reading material is popular books purchased from Barnes and Noble’s e-book store. Few people fit this profile, so it would be great if this screen could be customized to better fit each person’s reading habits. For example, to fit my reading habits, I’d like to see the three most recently read books. I’d also like to see suggested new books that are similar to books I’ve fully read on the Nook from any source.

The “library” screen is far more useful and is my de facto home screen. I am usually reading at least 2 books at a time—one for myself and one to my 6 year old son. So I can conveniently switch back and forth between books from the library screen when “All” and “Most Recent” are selected (which shows my entire library, ordered by most recently opened).

You can use the library’s dropdown menu to view all, books, shelves, my files, archives, and everything else. Shelves are categories that you arrange. You start with no shelves but you can create as many as you want, and then each book can be placed in 0 or more categories. With fewer than 100 books this is a fine way to organize books but I wonder how well this would work if you had hundreds of books.

The search function might prove more useful for those with large libraries. Type in one or two keywords and it will bring up everything on the Nook with these keywords in the title or author name. It’s easy to use but you can’t search the content of your books this way—just titles and authors.

The shop screen gives you many different ways to browse books, including categories, popular lists, and your own wish list. You can also search for titles in the ways you’d expect. Assuming you have a Barnes and Noble account setup with an active credit card on file, purchasing is very easy. The bottom half of the screen rotates through advertisements, including a “Free Fridays” screen on Fridays which highlights a expensive book that you can download for free.

Settings allows you to configure the device to your liking with options around Device Info, Wireless, Screen, Time, Reader, Shop, Social, and Search. Clicking on Device Info gives you remaining battery and available storage information. The most commonly used setting for many people will be Wireless, as turning off wireless extends the battery life.

So now that I’ve run through each part of the interface, how does it work as a whole? Overall, quite well. I like how the controls are logically grouped between device (the physical button), book (tap center of page), and phrase/word (touch word for 2 seconds). But there are some quirks:

1. By far the most important deficiency is a lack of “back” button on most screens. I’m used to it from using browsers and other touch-based gadgets. This lack of “back” button means it often takes 2-4 actions to return to the prior screen.
2. The Nook is designed to funnel you into their store at every turn. I understand that’s how they make money, but some onscreen distractions are over the edge. For example, 1-2 book samples per month are automatically downloaded onto your device which will show up at the top of your library until you archive or buy them (I don’t think you can delete them but at least archiving gets them out of your sight). None of these books have been remotely related to the kinds of books I like to read. As I already discussed, the Home screen is essentially advertising space for books to buy. And, overall, it is very easy to download books from the Nook e-book store but much less convenient to obtain reading materials in other ways.
3. My large fingers are unable to reliably touch the 2mm button (required to edit a shelf). I get it right on about 1 out of every 5 tries. There’s no reason for the button to be this small and I hope that future software versions have a minimum button size of 4mm.
4. I need to see informative error messages. I was not able to take advantage of reading books at Barnes and Noble stores at first because my credit card at Barnes and Noble was out of date. I wasted 30 minutes figuring that out because the Nook did not provide an informative error message. I’ve had other uninformative messages related to the one-hour limit of in-store reading.
5. Selecting a single word for highlighting, sharing, or note taking is simple enough. Just touch the word for about 2 seconds. But selecting more than a single word is more complicated. First select the first or last word in the phrase you want to highlight. Then click on the back bar of this highlight and stretch it over the phrase. Did you let it go by accident or miss by 1 character? Oops. Start all over. On the bright side, looking up old notes or highlights is simple and intuitive.
6. Unlocking the screen is somewhat cumbersome. It’s a two step process requiring first a button press and then a swipe. It may take several tries before your swipe is registered.
7. You need to remember to lock your screen before transporting the Nook by pressing the on/off button on the back side. If you don’t, all sorts of things will happen as the sensitive touch screen gets pressed. I nearly purchased a book I had never heard of and didn’t want because I forgot to lock the screen before putting it into my bag.

All these quirks aside, the touch screen makes many actions very easy. Some screens have a small icon of a book in the upper left corner. Touch that icon to return to reading the current book. To switch books, just press the bottom button, then library, then one of the recent books you’ve been reading. Bookmarking is a simple matter of touching the upper right corner. If you only use bookmarks at the beginnings of chapters, then you’ll end up with a list of bookmarks that is effectively table of contents. This comes in very handy for books lacking table of contents, as the bookmarks can be easily accessed by a tap on the center of the screen, followed by a tap on the bookmarks.

The other Barnes and Noble reading device is the Nook Color, which also has a touch-based interface. I have only tested the Nook Color for a few minutes but there are many positive reports about its ease of use. It includes many additional functions beyond the Nook Simple Touch, including an app store, a web browser, email, and access to colorful magazine content. So if you end up liking your Nook Simple Touch but sometimes want more features and flexibility, you have a solid option. Furthermore, the original Nook “First Edition” model is still for sale, and more Nook devices are expected by year end.

So how does the Nook interface compare to devices from other platforms?

Overall, the Nook seems slightly easier to use than the Kindle, due primarily to a touch-based user interface. This is in spite of the Kindle having a several-year head start. As the Nook Simple Touch operating system gets refined (Back button on every screen? Better home screen?), I suspect it will become even easier to use when compared with the keyboard-based Kindle.

Those who want an interface that is even easier to use and far more flexible should consider an iOS device such as the iPod touch. Reading, browsing, and pretty much everything else is faster, more intuitive, and more flexible.

On the other hand, for many people the point of getting a Nook is to focus on reading text-heavy books and/or PDFs. For that purpose, the Nook Simple Touch interface is “good enough,” and for some people the lack of flexibility (when compared to an iOS device) will help them stay focused on reading. It also costs less.

Question 7: How well does the software on the device support what you want to do with it?

I am amazed by the number of different ways people use e-readers or more general purpose pocket computers like the iPod touch. While researching this post, I met an amateur actress who wanted an e-reader primarily for being able to review scripts without having to carry around large bundles of papers. For her, that automatic PDF reflow feature of the Nook was a huge plus but would only work if the scans of the play scripts were done with OCR that would insure the PDF was actually text (not just a graphic).

There are many ways people use e-readers. Here are a few typical ones, with my brief comments on which e-readers work well for this purpose:

1. You spend a lot of time at Barnes and Noble stores and will buy lots of e-books: The new Nook is ideal.
2. You want to use the Nook primarily for free reading materials such as old classics, public domain works, library borrowing, and text-heavy PDFs. The Nook works well for this, but so does the Kindle and iPod touch. Your decision will be driven by minor differences between the three platforms.
3. You frequently purchase new books as they come out. The Nook is pretty good for this but the Kindle is better, as Amazon strikes many exclusive deals for new e-book releases.
4. You want a device for a very wide range of reading material, including works with extensive graphics or that originate from the internet. Avoid this Nook. While the Nook Color might work, you’re likely to be more satisfied with an iPod touch or iPad.
5. You read on many different devices. You sometimes find yourself starting to read a book on your e-reader, then picking up where you left off on your phone a few hours later, and then switching again later. You’ll be much happier with a Kindle than either a Nook or an iOS device, thanks to superior sync.
6. You’re an extensive highlighter and note-taker. You’ll be happier with a keyboard-based Kindle than a Nook.

I’m sure people use their e-readers in many other ways and some people will not fall neatly into a single category. But perhaps you’ll get a better idea of what you want and which device is best for you as you read through the rest of this post.

Question 8: What kinds of lending, borrowing, and in-store reading are available and how well do they work?

The Nook excels at lending among friends, library borrowing, and in-store reading compared with the iOS and Kindle platforms. iOS offers none of this. At this point in time, Kindle offers lending, and just rolled out library borrowing. Amazon is also attempting to develop a Netflix-like book subscription service which would have access to older titles.

The question is, how well do Nook’s lending, borrowing, and in-store reading work in practice?

The in-store reading works very well. Once you’ve set up a Barnes and Noble account with a current credit card, you can walk into any Barnes and Noble store, click on shop, then search for any e-book in Barnes and Noble’s system. A book without graphics takes seconds to download onto your Nook, while those with graphics take 20-40 seconds. Once on your Nook, you may read the book for up to an hour at the store. After this hour is up, you may not read the book again until 24 hours have elapsed (though there are reports of some books that are limited to one hour—ever). If you frequently hang out at a local Barnes and Noble anyway, this is a great, easy-to-use benefit. It is also a way to thoroughly check out books for potential purchase. If you have kids, you can read entire kids books this way. You can also read full stories in short story collections. Part of why this system works so well is that the Nook is set up to make shopping the e-book store very easy.

Do note that you can also download book samples, any time you have a WiFi connection. But once that short sample is on your Nook, you won’t be able to view the entire book in the store. The only way to regain that privilege is by logging into your Barnes and Noble account on a computer and deleting the book.

The Nook has a lending mechanism as well which I have not tested. The Nook and Kindle both have essentially the same system in place—you can lend each purchased book once ever for up to 14 days to a friend with a compatible device (Nook owners to other Nook owners). A number of web sites have sprung up to facilitate lending between strangers; a virtual library of sorts. However, given that each book can only be lent once, you’ll only be able to read a certain number of books this way.

I really like the concept of being able to check books out of a library without leaving my home. Unfortunately, the actual implementation of this widely touted Nook feature is clumsy. It uses the Overdrive system, which seems designed first and foremost to protect copyright holders using the ADE DRM (Adobe Digital Edition Digital Rights Management) scheme. As described below, setting up library lending and then using it is way too complicated.

First off, it is not obvious how to get started. Thanks to this excellent Nook Overdrive guide, I was able to get through the process of setting up ADE and download my first book in about 30 minutes.

When I browsed the e-book selections at my library, I was surprised to learn that there were a grand total of 1249 books available. Even more surprising was that nearly all of these books were checked out. Not a single ePub formatted book was available for checkout. I placed three ePub books on hold.

I noticed there were some PDF formatted books available. So I decided to check out a juvenile fiction PDF called Bog Child for testing purposes. After several clicks it was on my computer but not Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). I had to double click on the small download which in turn downloaded into ADE. To get it on the Nook, I had to attach my Nook to the computer with a USB cable and drag the icon of the book from one ADE folder to another. It takes 12-15 actions to get into the library, find a book, put it in the cart, check out, enter my library number, download it, double click the download, go into ADE, hook up the nook, drag it onto the Nook, and then disconnect the nook.

As I already mentioned, Bog Child was available only in PDF, not epub. I did get it onto my Nook, and I could read it. But it was not well formatted. It preserved page numbering for a large page PDF which caused blank space to appear at the bottom of each third Nook-sized page. What a distraction.

A few weeks later, I was notified by email that one of my ePub formatted books was on hold (for 3 days) and was available for download. After a dozen or so actions on my part, Greg Bear’s City at the End of Time was on my Nook. This time, the formatting was beautiful, though the font size was tiny. That was simple enough to correct with the Nook’s font size controls. But given that I read more than one book at a time, I needed to switch font sizes each time I switched back and forth from this book to other books.

For my third book I read SuperFreakonomics in epub format. This had wider margins than I prefer, but the font size was normal and was otherwise fine to read. I also discovered that I could keep reading it past the return date. How? Just keep the book open. As soon as you switch away from the book or sync with ADE, you won’t be able to reopen it.

Were it not for writing a comprehensive review of the Nook, I never would have persevered as long as I did to borrow an e-book. The real library has access to hundreds of thousands of physical books throughout the county and is far simpler to use. For now, unless your library has many e-books in its collection, or your eyes require very large print, my advice is to stay away from Overdrive e-book borrowing for the Nook—it’s not worth the hassle until the interface is improved. The system Amazon just rolled out for library borrowing is much easier to use, so hopefully Barnes and Noble follows suit.

In summary, Nook’s in-store reading is great if you have a Barnes and Noble store near you. Nook to Nook lending is limited to 14 days and only once per book but works. The Overdrive-based library borrowing is currently far too limited and very cumbersome to use—but if your local library has e-books available it is possible to make this system work for you. No competitors to the Nook currently offer this breadth of lending, borrowing, and in-store reading so for those who would use these features, this has to be considered a significant advantage of the Nook platform, especially the in-store features which may never be replicated by a competitor.

Question 9: What is the e-book store like?

When I go into a Barnes and Noble store and pull a random book off the shelf, 999 times out of 1000 the quality of editing, organization, and layout is excellent. There are very few (if any) spelling/grammar/typo issues, graphics are sensibly placed and captioned, font size and line spacing are fine, table of contents are always present and well done when needed, etc. It never occurs to me that I might want to check on any of these things before buying a book. Content, writing quality, and author reputation is all that really factors into my decision.

E-book stores like Barnes and Noble and Kindle are a totally different experience. The majority of books I consider for possible downloading have many types of editing, organization, and layout issues. So in addition to assessing whether the book content and writing quality is of interest to me, I must also assess the quality of editing, organization, layout, whether there’s a table of contents, etc. Examining a small excerpt (free for both Amazon and Barnes and Noble) is therefore a highly advisable step when making a purchase decision. This can be time consuming if there are many competing copies of the same book. To help make the process simpler for yourself, you might want to learn the names of the better publishers and stick with them—something you won’t need to do when buying physical books.

My greatest disappointment with Barnes and Noble’s e-book store is free books from Google. I enjoy reading many classics so I tried downloading a few of the free classics from Barnes and Noble, all sourced from Google. Most of them were of such poor quality as to be unreadable—random spaces, missing paragraphs, misspellings, funny characters appearing in the middle of words, and sometimes even strings of 50 or more random characters. Some books have “Digitized by Google” plastered all over the book, often between two words in the middle of a sentence. I tried examining a sample book on Google Books and on my iPod touch and very few of the errors were present. In other words, the books are fairly clean and readable on Google’s end, but somewhere between Google’s servers and my Nook Simple Touch, Google books get corrupted so badly as to be, in most cases, unreadable.

So let’s say I decide to archive one of these poorly formatted books. When I try to unarchive it, it refuses to download it back onto my Nook. After a little searching, I came to realize that Nook’s system for dealing with content on its servers is full of bugs with regards to syncing, archiving, and unarchiving, so these kinds of issues are common.

Bad as all this sounds, the situation is in some ways worse with the Kindle store. You can only examine a small excerpt from the book, which won’t always get you to the parts of the book you need to assess quality. For example, some books have dozens of pages at the beginning in preface which uses up the entire preview so you won’t have much sense of how the main part of the book is formatted and organized. At least with the Nook, you can examine any part of the book when you’re at a Barnes and Noble store (though you lose that privilege for any book for which you download a sample). Furthermore, if you avoid the Google books, the quality on average seems to be a little higher at Barnes and Noble, at least in my (not scientifically tested) experience.

Yet another issue with e-book stores is book spam of various sorts, which often takes the form of public domain or stolen content that is sloppily formatted and sold for low cost. This has been a bigger problem for Amazon than Barnes and Noble, at least in 2011.

Given that Barnes and Noble has a several decade reputation as a quality bookseller, I’m frankly shocked at the variable quality found in the e-book store. For free books, I have already given up on the Barnes and Noble store. I use online services such as Feedbooks or Manybooks to side load content onto the Nook. The books I’ve obtained from these services have usually been free of error.

One big point in Amazon’s favor is that Kindle Store content, including e-books, is eligible for a full refund if returned within 7 days. E-books can be returned for any reason. Amazon has also been know to issue refunds for books that contain formatting issues or missing text outside the 7 day window.

For people who stick to popular, recent releases, the quality is high at both Barnes and Noble and Amazon. This is particularly true for novels which require no graphics or table of contents. For these sorts of books, Amazon is widely considered to have a better selection, thanks to many exclusive deals. There are many physical books present at Barnes and Noble stores that are not available as e-books for the Nook.

It’s hard for me to recommend either Barnes and Noble or Amazon given all the issues I’ve run into. Hopefully these e-book stores improve over time and I can update this section with a more positive outlook. However, it is possible to have a positive experience with either e-book store if you stick to buying books from more reputable publishers. Given the quality issues I experienced in both stores, the ability to fully examine e-books at Barnes and Noble stores is a distinct advantage for those who live near a Barnes and Noble store. For those who don’t live near a Barnes and Noble store, Amazon has the advantage with its 7 day return policy.

Question 10: Will you be able to read the kinds of material you want to read on this device?

The two prior articles I wrote about the iPod touch and the Kindle focused primarily on this question. They were quite lengthy so I’ll avoid discussing the Kindle and iPod touch other than to say that both can be used to read a wider range or reading materials than the Nook, especially the iPod touch. For more detail, here are the posts:

iPod touch vs. Kindle: Which is Best for Reading?

Can You Read Anything With the Kindle? Almost . . . With Google Reader

Because it has no browser, the Nook Simple Touch is limited to a smaller set of reading materials—novels, chapter books (and short story collections), mixed text and graphics, and PDFs, as follows:

For novels, reading is a breeze. I’ve already discussed touch, page turns, user interface issues, and customizability of fonts, size, and margins earlier in this post. All work very well. Particularly impressive is having so many options for holding the device and turning pages, which results in less hand fatigue when reading many hours at a time. The new Nook is clearly optimized for reading novels.

Books with chapters and short story collections are also done well on the Nook—better than Kindle and in some ways even better than a physical book. Those of you who read all books straight through won’t care. Personally, I like to look at the table of contents. I sometimes jump around to different sections. I sometimes flip through books, and I sometimes do that section by section. I like to see stories and/or chapters start at the top of a page. I can do all these things on the Nook Simple Touch.

A very high percentage of chapter books and short story collections from the Nook store have a table of contents. Tap the center of the screen, tap the leftmost icon, and then tap a chapter name and you’ll be swiftly taken to the chapter, with the chapter title at the top of the page.

For books lacking a table of contents, it’s easy to create them on the fly. Just touch the upper right hand corner of a page to bookmark it and then your collection of bookmarks will effectively be a table of contents. Page turning is so fast that even without using the table of contents it’s quick to flip to the next or prior chapter. To top it all off, there’s a slider feature (choose “Go To”) which allows you to very quickly go to any part of the book, indicating the name of the chapter each time you stop sliding. The Kindle “way points” feature is not implemented on the Nook, but it’s not implemented on most Kindle books either. With all the options for moving around, I find reading short story collections on the Nook to be easy and already second nature.

Mixed text and graphics are problematic for all E Ink readers, whether displaying picture books for kids or the occasional chart or diagram. My experience with this type of reading on the Kindle was very poor. The Nook was a bit better as some publishers have taken the time to format their books to fit the Nook screen. Of the dozen or so books I examined, I found a few kids’ books that were a mess and some that worked pretty well such as Rapunzel’s Tale (Disney Tangled). Nonfiction e-books with the occasional graphic tended to be pretty good. Though less well formatted than physical books, it was nice to see there were at least some books that were passably good on the Nook. In contrast, I found poorly formatted graphics in every sample I examined in 2010 from the Kindle e-book store.

The Nook is good for text-heavy, reflowable PDFs, but bad for graphics-intensive PDFs. The text in many PDFs is searchable and therefore reflowable. If you open up such a PDF on your Nook with the third font size or larger, the text automatically reflows the text to fit on the screen, with any graphics removed. I’ve tried this on nearly a dozen PDFs and it usually works well, though the font size is sometimes too large, and cannot be made suitably small. When you choose one of the two smallest sizes, it shows the original PDF shrunk to fit the Nook, so text is too small to read. On the other hand, if text is not reflowable and/or there are graphics you want to view, you’re out of luck. There’s no zooming and panning controls so both text and graphics are too small. If viewing PDF graphics and being able to pan or zoom around a PDF on a small device is important to you, you should avoid the Nook Simple Touch.

E-readers smaller than a piece of paper are generally not going to be easy to use for reading graphics-heavy 8.5 x 11 PDFs, even with far more advanced controls as are present on the Kindle. So perhaps Barnes and Noble has the right idea to not even try. If all you read are text-heavy, reflowable PDFs, then you’ll be very happy with how simply and well this works on the Nook, but for anything more you’ll be disappointed.

All things considered, the Nook Simple Touch works very well for reading anything that is text heavy. Graphics are generally not done so well, though my experience has been that it’s a little better than the Kindle. But do understand that the Nook is restricted in what you can read. Lacking a browser, email, or RSS reader of any sort means that you’re restricted to reading novels, chapter books, mixed text/graphics, and text heavy PDFs that you get from the Nook store or side load from a computer. With the exception of graphics-intensive books and graphics-intensive PDFs, it works quite well for reading these types of content.

Question 11: How is customer service?

Customer service can only be fairly evaluated from hundreds of experiences, so it’s hard for one person like myself to give a balanced view. However, based on many forum comments and some common sense, I think there are a few observations worth sharing.

If you live near a Barnes and Noble store, you can take advantage of the friendly, enthusiastic, and sometimes knowledgeable staff. There’s a dedicated Nook desk at every store. There’s never a big line. Sometimes the people behind the desk are very knowledgeable and tech savvy. Sometimes not. My own experience has been positive (3 out of 5 of the Nook staff I encountered were sharp and helpful). Some things are much easier to explain and show on a Nook in person rather than on the phone.

If you want to talk to someone but don’t live near a Barnes and Noble store, you’ll need to use phone tech support. There are many forum reports that Barnes and Noble’s phone tech support is inferior to the support available for Kindle and Apple owners.

Barnes and Noble also has an online forum where customers help each other, here:

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/

My experience walking into an Apple store suggests that in-store customer service is far better at Barnes and Noble than Apple if you are primarily interested in a reading device. This makes sense given that Nooks are reading devices while iPads, iPhones, and Ipod touches are general-purpose devices. While Apple staff can show you how to use the device, they know nothing about the best ways to use these devices for reading—even how to use Apple’s bundled iBooks app. This is all based on my personal experiences with several staff members at a single Apple store.

Another aspect of customer service which I already discussed in the E-book store is how e-books with missing text or formatting errors are handled. Barnes and Noble lets you examine a book for up to an hour per day in their store but once you buy it you’re stuck with it. Amazon doesn’t let you examine more than a small excerpt in advance but allows you to return an E-book for any reason within 7 days. This comes in particularly handy if you purchase a book by accident.

Overall conclusion: If you don’t live near a Barnes and Noble store, you’ll be much happier with the customer service you’ll usually get from Amazon as a Kindle owner or from Apple as an iPod touch owner. But if you live near a Barnes and Noble store, you can get hands-on technical help and customer service. Hands-on can be faster and easier if you manage to talk to particularly tech savvy staff.

Question 12: Do you want to maximize flexibility or minimize interruption?

Earlier this year, I wrote an essay about the trade-offs between flexibility and interruption—The more general purpose and connected a device, the more you can do with it, but the easier it is to get distracted and interrupted. For example, the iPhone 4 has a terrific reading display but it gets used for so much more that many people can’t focus long enough to read a novel on it, or even a short story. Conversely, less connectivity and flexibility means less interruption. The printed book is on the other end of the spectrum from the iPhone 4.

Roughly speaking, here is how I rank device categories on the flexibility/interruption spectrum, from flexible and most interruptions to least flexible and least interruptions:

• Smartphones
• Notebook Computers
• Pocket Computers such as the iPod touch or Galaxy Player
• Tablets
• E-book Readers (LCD)
• E-book Readers (E Ink)
• Printed Books

The Nook Simple Touch is clearly in the e-book readers (E Ink) category. Within that category, it is one of the least flexible devices, given that it has no web browser, has rudimentary sync, and lacks one-touch methods to download anything that doesn’t come from the Barnes and Noble e-book store. In other words, it is about as close as you can get to being a book without being a book.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Only you can decide for yourself. If you’re the type of person that gets easily distracted, then you may find it easier to read with the Nook Simple Touch than more flexible devices. On the other hand, if you want to read more than just text-heavy epub books and PDFs, you’ll find the Nook Simple Touch much too limiting.

If you’re the kind of person that gets easily distracted by technology, then I advise the following—think carefully about what you primarily want to read. Buy the device that is as close to printed books as possible and still allows you to read what you want. It’s hard enough to find hours at a time for reading, so may as well keep additional distractions and interruptions to a minimum.

Question 13: Summing it up—Which platform do you want?

With some product categories (such as AA batteries), what to buy is obvious after just a little research. Not so with portable reading devices.

A few weeks ago I started writing a review of the Nook Simple Touch. The hardware of this marvelous device is designed to make you fall in love at first touch. It happened to most reviewers and it happened to me. If you want a novel-sized, black and white E Ink touch e-reader with varied options for holding and page turning, then you will be very happy with Nook Simple Touch hardware. And you may be less happy with hardware from the competition.

But the longer I spent with this device, the more problems I noticed with the platform behind this excellent hardware until I realized something quite simple—hardware has reached a point where it’s easy to read a book on any of the latest portable gadgets. And even if a particular e-reader’s hardware is best at one point in time, you can be sure that the major competition will come out with similar or better devices within a year. The more important choice is which of the three major reading platforms would you like to tie yourself to—Nook, Kindle, or iOS?

It is much harder to sum up conclusions about the platform than the hardware. Here’s my best try:

The way the software works for the Nook Simple Touch is not perfect. But for a first release, it’s pretty good, and is not likely to be a limiting factor for most people. My guess is that most of the minor quirks I described in this review will be gone within a year after a few software updates. The most obvious missing software feature is a back button. This doesn’t cripple the device, but it does make navigation more cumbersome than it needs to be. For some people the lack of browser will be a deal killer, but that too may be added in the future.

A more serious annoyance is the borderline-obnoxious tendency of Nook software to emphasize privileged content and penalize side-loaded content usability, whether it’s home screen advertising, awkward library lending, limiting sharing to B&N content, etc. Though Apple and Amazon both hinder usability in their own ways on iOS and Kindle devices, it is not to this extreme. iOS is the best of the three as far as maintaining user-friendliness no matter how you use the device.

But the most important question is whether you can easily read any free or legally paid-for electronic content, no matter how it was obtained. LCD tablets and pocket computers based on Android or iOS systems will let you install apps to access content you purchased on other platforms. Unfortunately, no E Ink device currently lets you do that out of the box, and that most certainly includes the Nook. If you own books purchased from Amazon’s Kindle store or even epub books purchased from Sony, it is not a simple matter to read them from your Nook. Various complicated solutions for the technically inclined are required, such as using conversion software from Calibre or “rooting your Nook” to make it into an Android tablet so you can install Kindle or other e-reader apps.

Competing formats and walled gardens of the sort erected by Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Apple are terrible for consumers. But at this point in time, you’ll need to choose one of these walled gardens if you want to read using E Ink.

So which walled garden is better?

Amazon and Barnes and Noble are clearly the two market share leaders with the most content for devices that emphasize reading. Content from both platforms can be accessed by apps on Android, iOS, and Windows. Both platforms offer multiple models, including color tablets able to access video and audio content in addition to books and magazines.

At this point in time, Amazon has a greater selection of popular, recently published books, better phone and online customer service, and a seamless system for automatically syncing content among multiple devices, which makes Amazon-purchased content easily available on almost any device. Amazon also makes their devices easy to use with content beyond Amazon’s e-book store. Barnes and Noble’s store base means you can get in-store tech help (which is sometimes quite good), examine devices before you buy them, get free in-store WiFi, and read any book free in-store for up to an hour. Nooks can read books from most popular formats (except for Amazon’s proprietary format). Kindles read fewer formats, though cumbersome workarounds exists (i.e. Calibre). Both e-book stores have quality issues, though sticking with reputable publishers (including Barnes and Noble publishing) is a way to filter out most lower quality books. Barnes and Noble’s in-store reading means you can examine any part of the book before purchase.

Given these competing strengths and weaknesses, the majority of people who carefully think through this choice tend to choose Amazon over Barnes and Noble due to greater flexibility, accessibility, and ease of use. But if you already have ePub books from a previous Nook or some other epub-based device, or if you tend to spend time at Barnes and Noble stores, or if you plan to root your Nook, then the Nook platform may be a better choice for you. Frequently visiting a Barnes and Noble store (or not) could be what tips the decision one way or the other.

And what about the iPod touch and other iOS devices? Apple has only begun to emphasize books, so has far less content and reading platform features than the other two major platforms. Furthermore, any content purchased through Apple’s iTunes book store can only be accessed on Apple’s devices. So I can’t recommend purchasing permanently walled-off content from Apple. However, iPod touch and other iOS devices are great devices for reading a wide variety of content, including content purchased for the Nook or Kindle platforms. Just be aware that you won’t be able to purchase Nook or Kindle content directly within an app. You’ll have to make such purchases from a browser or on a different device.

Returning to the Nook, you may love the Nook Simple Touch hardware but fear being tied to an inferior platform. However, you can take comfort in the Nook software available for iOS and Android devices. You’ll have access to your Nook books on these LCD devices for the foreseeable future. You’ll also have access to your Nook books from the many future Nook devices sure to come. You may not be able to access your Nook books from all of your hardware, but you’ll definitely have some choices.

I want to emphasize that I love reading on the Nook Simple Touch. In some ways, it’s even easier to use than a paperback book. If you’re not bothered by any of the platform or software issues I mentioned in this post, you’ll likely enjoy using this device for many years. In fact, The Nook Simple Touch is the first e-reader hardware and reading experience that is so good that I don’t hope for improved hardware to come out a year or two from now. If only I could say the same about the Nook’s platform.

New e-reader hardware features such as those found in the Nook Simple Touch can and will be copied. Platform features can not be so easily copied. Hardware is therefore less important than the platform behind it. The three leading platforms have enough differing strengths and weaknesses that it can be tough to choose among them. I hope this post will prove helpful in making that choice.

What are these batteries? Why are they so great? Where can you buy them? What charger do you need to buy?

It’s Eneloop. Low self-discharge, 1500 recharges.

That’s the short answer. Here’s the long answer:

What are Eneloop Batteries?

Eneloop batteries are a low self-discharge version of NiMH AA rechargeable batteries. Low self-discharge rechargeable batteries lose energy very slowly when sitting idle. This type of battery was pioneered by Sanyo in 2005 but has since been copied by many other brands.

Eneloops are difficult to market because the benefits cannot be clearly communicated in one or two short phrases. The packaging for these batteries typically communicates that they are “pre-charged” in large letters. The fact that they are low self-discharge is mentioned in the fine print. Few people know what low self-discharge means, and even fewer will learn by reading a technically detailed article.

In layman’s terms, here’s why low self-discharge batteries like Eneloop are so much better than Alkaline or high self-discharge NiMH batteries:

Why the Best AA Batteries are Eneloop Low Self-Discharge NiMH Rechargeables

Batteries store energy. Batteries “discharge” their stored energy to provide power to gadgets. Batteries also “self-discharge” their energy when not in use. An unused battery will eventually self-discharge so much energy that it will no longer be able to provide any power.

Devices use energy, often from batteries. “High drain” devices like digital cameras drain batteries quickly. “Low drain” devices like remote controls drain batteries slowly.

Alkaline AA batteries are very popular. They’re cheap. They perform well in low-drain devices. Voltage starts higher than NiMH batteries at 1.5 V (certain devices require this). Most important is their low self-discharge rate. You can buy an inexpensive bulk pack with dozens of AA Alkaline batteries. Idle Alkaline batteries will still work 3-5 years after purchase, or even longer if stored in cool, dry conditions. But two properties of Alkaline batteries motivate people to seek alternatives:

1. They are single use. When depleted, you’ll have to spend time and money to buy more. You’ll also send many batteries each year to a landfill or hazardous waste facility.
2. Alkaline batteries perform poorly in high drain devices such as digital cameras.

Before Eneloop came along, high self-discharge rechargeable NiMH (Nickel Metal-Hydride) AA batteries were the preferred option for high drain devices. They perform better than Alkaline in digital cameras. They can be recharged hundreds of times. Instead of buying a few dozen Alkaline batteries per year to power your digital camera, you can rotate two sets of rechargeable batteries between the camera and the charger every few weeks.

High self-discharge NiMH batteries can be inconvenient to use, because:

1. The self-discharge rate is too high. For 2400 mAh batteries, 20% to 30% of stored energy discharges in just the first month. Higher capacity batteries discharge even faster. The stored energy discharges completely in just a few months.
2. Managing rechargeable batteries is a chore. A typical family with children may have 15-30 devices that have 30-60 AA or AAA batteries. Rotating batteries out of 15-30 devices every 3 months is time consuming, to say the least.

Enter Eneloop. These batteries are suitable for all devices. Like Alkaline batteries, they self-discharge at a low rate. They perform as well in high drain devices as high self-discharge NiMH batteries. So these batteries are well suited for both remote controls and digital cameras. But that’s not all. The original Eneloop batteries can be recharged 1000 times. They last 83 years if recharged once/month. The newer Eneloops recharge 1500 times, or 125 years if charged once/month.

And let’s not forget the very best benefit. Need batteries right away? Put ‘em in. Like Alkaline batteries, idle Enloops retain most of their charge for years: 85% after 1 year, and 75% after 2 years. So it hardly matters if your Eneloops haven’t been charged for months. They’re ready to go. That makes them more convenient to use than high self-discharge batteries.

Eneloops cost a little more than high self-discharge NiMH batteries and much more than Alkaline batteries. But they perform better and can be recharged 1000 times. So buying Eneloops results in lower costs and energy use over the long run, less time recharging, fewer trips to the store, and a smaller number of batteries going to the land fill.

But Isn’t 2000mAh Low?

Wait a minute, you say. Eneloop batteries have just 2000mAh, while other NiMH batteries have 2600mAh or more. Less mAh (milliampere-hours) means less stored energy right? Yes. But only when fully charged.

Five weeks after you take both types of batteries out of a charger, they will all have around 1900-1950 mAh remaining. Five months after you take both sets of batteries out of a charger, Eneloops will have 1850-1900 mAh remaining while high self-discharge batteries will be close to dead. This leads to the following practical advice for digital cameras or other high drain devices:

If you use a digital camera to take flash pictures just a few times per week, you’re much better off using low self-discharge batteries such as Eneloops. They’ll last longer thanks to lower self-discharge rates. A spare set of Eneloops kept with the camera will be useful even if they haven’t been charged in a while.

If you use a digital camera to take hundreds of flash pictures per week, you’re better off using high self-discharge NiMH rechargeable batteries rated for 2600mAh or higher. Just make sure that the 2600mAh batteries you insert into your camera are fresh out of the charger.

Best AA Batteries to Buy

I recommend Eneloop over competing brands. They were first. They continue to improve. They make accurate claims. You know what you’re getting when you buy an Eneloop: low self-discharge, high quality NiMH batteries.

Some competing brands are a little cheaper, some offer slightly higher capacity, and some offer other minor advantages. But the marketing claims for these subtle benefits are sometimes misleading and often confusing. Some brands use nearly identical packaging for both the low discharge and high discharge batteries. And just because a brand claims a higher mAh rating doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better than Eneloop, as this battery comparison demonstrates. Given the low cost of batteries, and Eneloop’s great track record, I’m not willing to spend the time and effort to find a slightly better battery than Eneloop.

All Eneloop batteries are low self-discharge. All come pre-charged between 60% to 80% full. But there are now three different kinds, which I will call the “old,” the “1500” and the “XX.”

I prefer the new Eneloop 1500 since these batteries became available in late 2010, but I describe here the differences between the 3 versions so you can make the best choice for you:

Old Eneloop: The old Eneloops are very similar to the newer 1500s, and for many practical purposes are the same. Both are rated for 2000mAh. The discharge rate is only slightly worse. And not too many people are going to care if once/month recharges will last for 83 years or 125 years (1000 versus 1500 recharges).

One thing caught me off guard with my first purchase of the old Eneloops. When you first charge them, they only reach 92% to 98% of their advertised 2000 mAh capacity. Each battery must go through 3-5 cycles of full discharge followed by full recharge in order to reach or exceed the stated capacity of 2000mAh.

To reach maximum capacity, you’ll need to “condition” (also called “refresh”) each Eneloop battery. Conditioning means to discharge and recharge repeatedly until a battery reaches full capacity. Repeatedly “testing” a battery can accomplish the same thing, but requires more steps.

Though old Eneloops typically sell for 5% to 20% less than the 1500 Eneloops on Amazon, I don’t recommend them anymore because for the minor price difference you may as well get the 1500 Eneloops which are better in several minor ways.

1500 Eneloop: The new 1500 Eneloops are similar to the old Eneloops in both appearance and performance. Packages containing the new Eneloops have “Recharge up to 1500 times” printed on the package. Sanyo claims several subtle advantages for the 1500s over the old Eneloops. These advantages are:

• slightly lower self-discharge rate (85% remaining after year 1, 80% after year 2, 75% after year 3, as compared with 75% remaining after 2 years for the old)
• they can operate at lower temperatures (-20 C vs. -10 C)
• they can recharge more times (1500 vs. 1000)

In my view, the biggest advantage is not even advertised: The first time you charge a 1500 Eneloop, it will almost reach the rated capacity of 2000mAh. After just two rounds of discharge/recharge, it will reach maximum capacity. I’ve also found that maximum capacity of the 1500 Eneloops is higher than the old Eneloops by 1% to 3%.

Furthermore, 1500 Eneloop batteries now state “minimum 1900 mAh.” In my tests, this proved to be true after one round of discharge/recharge for all 8 batteries (low of 1933mAh). All were at least 2030 mAh after the second round of discharge/recharge. Subsequent discharge/recharge cycles did not increase capacity.

The 1500 Eneloops typically cost 10% to 20% more than old Eneloops. In my opinion, the extra convenience is worth the slightly higher cost. List price is $26.99 for 8, but Amazon sometimes sells 8-packs for less than $22:

1500 Eneloop 8 Pack AA NiMH Rechargeable Batteries

XX Eneloop: The 2500mAh XX rated capacity is 20% higher than other Eneloops and most of the competition. However, they cost over twice as much as regular Eneloops. Also note that they can be recharged 500 times and will retain 75% of the charge after 1 year. If you value your time far more than your money, these are the batteries for you:

XX Eneloop 4 Pack AA NiMH Rechargable Batteries

Best AAA Batteries to Buy

Everything I’ve discussed about AA batteries applies to AAA batteries, though the smaller size means smaller capacity. Some Eneloop battery bundles include AA and AAA batteries in one package at a modest discount to buying AA and AAA batteries separately.

Which Charger to Buy?

All NiMH batteries need to be charged with “smart chargers” which won’t overcharge. Unfortunately, charger quality is all over the map, and most cheap chargers should be avoided.

Sanyo only guarantees their batteries if you buy an Eneloop or Sanyo branded charger. The least expensive way to get an Eneloop charger is to buy it as part of a battery bundle.

According to avid Amazon battery charger reviewer NLee the Engineer, the Sanyo Eneloop MC-MQN06U NiMH 4-Battery Charger included with most Eneloop bundles is mediocre and should be avoided. The critical missing feature from this and many other lower quality chargers is the ability to charge each battery independently (as opposed to requiring pairs).

However, the following 2-battery USB Eneloop charger which includes 2 AA Eneloop batteries is a great combination of acceptable quality, great portability, and low cost:

Sanyo MDU01S USB 2-Battery Charger with 2 New 1500 Eneloop Batteries

If you want a four battery charger, you have a few choices, depending on how fancy you want to get.

The simplest and lowest cost charger with minimally acceptable quality is the Sony Cycle Energy BCG34HLD4KN Power Charger with 4 Pre-Charged 2000 mAh AA Batteries. The included batteries are low self-discharge NiMH batteries similar to Eneloop.

If you want to use your batteries at maximum capacity, you need to condition them with a “refresh” or some other means of repeated discharge/recharge. The above two chargers don’t do that.

The following 4 chargers have a “refresh” function. The refresh function on the first charger listed below does a single discharge followed by a single recharge. The refresh function on the 3 La Crosse chargers which follow will repeat the discharge/recharge cycle until batteries reach maximum capacity.

This Sony charger, which costs a little more than the above Sony charger, offers a refresh function, faster charging, and individual cell indicators:

Sony Cycle Energy BCG34HRE4KN Refresh Charger and 4 Pre-Charged 2000 mAh AA Batteries

The BC500 is a step up in features, including battery testing. With testing you can determine maximum capacity and identify bad batteries. The BC500 is also very portable and can charge batteries in a car using the included adapter. The BC500 sacrifices ease-of-use and has a smaller display size compared to larger models. It is best suited as a travel charger:

La Crosse Technology BC500 Alpha Power Battery Charger

For additional control, easily accessible features, and a large display, the terrific La Crosse BC700 charger typically costs less than $40:

La Crosse Technology BC700 Alpha Power Battery Charger

I personally use a La Crosse BC900 Charger which has a higher maximum charging rate than the BC700. Unfortunately, it was replaced by the new BC9009 which I cannot recommend due to overheating issues.

The new La Crosse BC1000 Charger is very similar to the BC-900 and BC9009 as all 3 offer a higher maximum charging rate than the BC700 and have seemingly identical features. However, the BC1000 has internal changes that may address the overheating issue. La Crosse’s web page for the BC1000 includes the language, “Overheat protection to protect battery life. If any one battery or circuit over heat, the charger will stop all channels charging and discharging.” The web page for the BC9009 does not include this language. The BC1000 is more expensive than the BC700, so only purchase this more expensive unit if being able to very rapidly recharge batteries (2 AA batteries at 1800mA, or 4 AAs at 1000mA) is important to you:

La Crosse Technology BC1000 Alpha Power Battery Charger

You can spend even more money on a Maha charger for a little more flexibility, a little more control and an even faster charging rate. But the Maha is harder to use. For most people, the easy-to-use La Crosse BC700 has a good enough charging rate and feature set. So I’ll stop introducing more chargers. I’ll also thank NLee the Engineer for so thoroughly reviewing these and many other chargers on Amazon.

How Do You Store Batteries?

Storing batteries at high temperature is not a good idea as it causes them to discharge at a faster rate. So be sure to store at room temperature or lower, preferably in a dry place.

Some people store batteries in their plugged-in charger. That works fine so long as you have a quality smart charger that senses when a battery is full. You can destroy batteries with a low quality charger that overcharges. For this reason, don’t use an old charger unless you’re certain it’s “smart” enough to sense when a battery is full.

I used to store batteries in a smart charger to keep them full. Then I had a kid. Toys accumulated.

Now, we have many devices that use batteries. Way too many. I occasionally swap out more than 10 batteries in a single week. In fact, it was this massive increase in battery activity that got me thinking about AA batteries in the first place.

So I have a bunch of charged spares, primarily AA and AAA. I store them in this inexpensive, wall-mountable battery holder which includes a battery tester:

Range Kleen WKT4162 66-Battery Organizer with Removable Tester

Spread the Word About Low Self-Discharge Batteries

AA and AAA batteries are used in large quantity thanks to digital cameras, toys, flashlights, and a whole host of other gadgets. Since 2005, battery management has become simpler, less expensive, and better for the environment thanks to Eneloop and its low self-discharge battery competitors. Yet, most people have never heard of them. Therefore, single use Akaline batteries and high discharge NiMH rechargeable batteries continue to dominate the market.

I’d like to help change that. Hopefully, this article will help. You too can help. Here’s how:

• Consider gifting one of the battery/charger combinations described above.
• Point your friends and family to this post.
• Most importantly, replace all of your existing batteries with low discharge batteries, as follows:

Buy a few 8 packs of Eneloop 1500s the next time they go on sale. Condition them. As your Alkaline batteries die, one by one, swap in your low self-discharge substitutes.

Once you’ve swapped out your last Alkaline battery, go to the local hazardous waste faculty to drop off your dead batteries. Take a good look. You won’t be seeing this hazardous waste facility for another 83 years.

There’s just one problem.

Interruptions.

Interruption Technology

Just 15 years ago, interruption technology was mostly confined to the land line telephone. People used this interruption technology sparingly, calling businesses and homes at “reasonable” hours. And many people had rules for keeping interruptions to a minimum, such as my parents’ rule of not answering the phone during dinner.

Fast forward to 2011. Most people carry a cell phone at all times. Voice calls are now just one small part of an ongoing stream of interruptions. Many people set their phones to alert them for each incoming text, instant message, calendar event, and/or e-mail. Some go further with social status notifications from Twitter or Facebook, while others may want to be alerted every time a friend is nearby or their favorite team gets a score.

In addition to all of these “pushed” interruptions, there are self-induced interruptions. It’s all too tempting to frequently check (or “pull”) weather, scores, stock prices, etc. Many people elect to keep pushed interruptions to a minimum, but then obsessively check their smartphone. Whether self-induced or pushed, an interruption is an interruption.

On top of all this, social norms restraining interruptions have largely disappeared. Though some people with phones allow interruptions sparingly, many others check their phones constantly wherever they are, even while conversing, dining, or driving.

Interruptions are not just an issue with smartphones. Computers are becoming more distracting with alerts, notifications, animations, popup ads, and the ever present temptation to multitask unrelated activities. Numerous studies find that computers, smartphones, or any other form of interruption technology challenge our ability to do anything that requires sustained attention, such as reading, writing, working, playing, and conversing.

Clearly there are many types of interruption technology and they impact many of our activities. But most people carry phones, and many people spend quite a bit of their time reading. So let’s take a closer look at trying to read on a smartphone.

Reading on a Smartphone

How do you read on a smartphone, a device that constantly interrupts you?

You don’t. Okay, that’s a little strong. Phones such as the iPhone or Galaxy S display crystal clear text and have software that makes reading a breeze. They’re great for texts, tweets, short e-mails, short posts from your RSS or news reader . . . and any other small chunk of text that doesn’t require sustained attention to absorb. Some people have no problems reading longer text, even entire novels. But for many people it’s hard to read and fully absorb more than a few hundred words on a device that constantly interrupts you or tempts you to interrupt yourself.

What you can do is either turn off the interruptions or use a different device, the right device, for extended reading.

Turning Off Your Phone’s Interruptions

You can turn off interruptions on any kind of phone by simply disabling all alerts and connectivity. iPhones or Android devices have airplane mode. Blackberries have a silent profile. Less sophisticated phones usually have a way to turn off cell phone reception.

Airplane or silent modes are typically used to preserve battery life and/or silence phones in theaters or places of worship. Turn off the interruptions, and you may be able to read for as long as you like. How often have you heard people say they catch up on their reading on long airplane flights?

Silencing a phone may work well for some, but others may not want to be cut off completely from the rest of the world while reading. With a bit of fiddling, it is possible to configure some smart phones to only let through certain types of important phone calls or alerts. Reducing interruptions to just a few times per week would make for a reasonable reading experience, I would think.

Use a Different Device for Reading

I’ve tried turning off my Blackberry’s interruptions. It didn’t help. I simply checked more frequently for voice mails, e-mails, etc. Apparently, I’ve trained myself over the past decade to use my cell phone as an interruption device, no matter how smart or dumb it is. It’s not an easy habit to break, even if I wanted to.

My solution: Use a different device for reading.

I acknowledge that my smartphone is an interruption device not suitable for reading at length. I confine my interruptions to this one device. And I set it out of reach when reading something long or doing anything else that requires sustained attention such as writing, conversing, or eating dinner.

Which device is best for reading? In my case, it’s an iPod touch. What’s best for you will depend on your preferences for size, display type, battery life, price, and most importantly the kind of reading you do. For some people this may be an iPod touch or color tablet. For others it may be an E-ink device like the Nook or Kindle. And for some the traditional printed book is best. I suggest experimenting, taking note of what works best for you for sustained reading.

Interruption Technology in My Own Life

While writing and revising this post over the past month, an interesting thing happened. I became ever more aware of interruptions from my Blackberry, mostly self-induced. I came to think of it as an interruption device. And I changed.

I now follow the two device strategy. I repurposed my iPod touch into a reading device, by moving everything off the home screen that wasn’t related to reading or settings. And I no longer use my Blackberry for anything that requires sustained attention.

Here’s the best part: I move my Blackberry out of reach when I don’t want interruptions. At dinner, it’s 10 feet away. When working, it’s 5 feet away. When reading, I put the Blackberry in its charging cradle, which flips it into interruption-free bedside mode.

I like the results. I’m getting distracted less and sustaining attention more. Fewer interruptions mean better attention when I read, write, work, play, talk, or eat.

Now that I think of my phone as my one and only “interruption device,” I can set aside interruptions any time I want. It’s simple. Just move the phone.

It is important to note that LastPass stores only encrypted passwords on their servers. So even if encrypted passwords are stolen, it will be nearly impossible to reveal them if the master password is strong. This reinforces the need to choose a strong master password to guard the passwords stored in a password manager. For more on master password selection, see here: Master Password Selection.

FilterJoe is a Different Kind of Blog

This revision to Which Password Manager was the most substantial revision I’ve made to a prior post. However, please note that I make revisions to past material frequently. The majority of my posts contain information that will be relevant for at least a year, sometimes much longer. Therefore, I spend a lot of time and effort revising content I’ve already written.

Frequently revising prior blog posts is not standard practice. But I treat FilterJoe more like a reference site than a blog.

To be a good reference site, material needs to be accurate and up-to-date. If anyone ever notices anything in my posts that is not accurate or up-to-date, please point it out, and I’ll be sure to make the necessary revisions.

Why did I wait so long?

Because I’m reluctant to add colorful distractions to a site that specializes in working without distraction. I designed my site for reading.

However, the result has been less engagement than I’d like with my readers. With fewer than 30 posts, FilterJoe now has over 6,000 visitors per per month. This is great! But less than 100 of them subscribe via RSS and most posts have fewer than 5 comments. I’d like more.

So I’m reaching out to my readers. Please consider subscribing to FilterJoe via e-mail, Twitter, or RSS. Please consider sharing your favorite FilterJoe articles anywhere with the share button found at the bottom of posts. And please consider leaving a comment or tweet on any post where you feel you can add an interesting insight or question. I’ll respond to most of them.

Have any other suggestions for getting more people to use, follow, or share FilterJoe? I’m all ears.

Questions and Answers

How often will I post? 0-2 times per week.

Will I post every week? No.

Will I be adding new topics? Yes.

How does this site make money? Primarily from links to Amazon. If you purchase anything at Amazon within 24 hours of following a FilterJoe product link, I get a commission of at least 4%.

Will FilterJoe become yet another distracting web site? I hope not. Here’s how I tried to add noticeable subscription and sharing options to the site without adding a lot of distraction: Individual posts have no colorful icons or other distractions until you get to the bottom of the article. I intend to keep them that way so you can read without distraction. I did add the usual color icons for RSS, Email, and Twitter to pages where people tend to look for them: home, about, and category pages.

Even the lightest of users may have a dozen or so online accounts and heavy users have hundreds. How do you keep track of all these passwords?

The Way Most People Manage Their Passwords Is Not Secure

The way most people manage their passwords is to use a 2 or 3 password system. A typical 3 word system is to use:

• The same short and simple password for unimportant accounts
• A better password for all moderately important accounts
• The best password for critical accounts such as online banking

While this makes passwords easy to remember, this is not a secure password system. Password thieves understand and increasingly exploit this common setup to compromise accounts and sometimes even take over identities. Having your e-mail or financial accounts compromised is a considerable distraction and having your identity stolen is even worse.

Typical Password Advice Is Unrealistic

Unfortunately, if you follow typical password advice you’ll suffer even more password distractions. Overwhelmingly long lists of password rules include using a mixture of upper, lower, number, and special characters, never storing passwords electronically, and changing your passwords every few months, just to name a few. Some of this password advice is unnecessary, yet how do you know which?

More importantly, how many people outside of the security industry have the time, patience, and motivation to manage passwords like this?

A Better Way to Manage Passwords—the Short Version

Here’s a much better way to manage passwords:

Use a password manager to assign unique, random 15 character passwords for all accounts, protecting them with a strong master password.

Why does this work so well?

It’s convenient. Your password manager automatically stores and enters all user names and passwords for you and associates them with the correct web site. All you need to do is enter your master password once at the beginning of your computer session.

It’s much more secure. Because all your passwords are unique, random 15 character jumbles, your passwords are nearly impossible to crack by brute force. Even if one of your accounts gets compromised through no fault of your own, no other accounts will be compromised.

A Better Way to Manage Passwords—the Long Version

The rest of this post is a guided index to a series of posts I wrote on password management, set up so that you can learn as little or as much as you like.

If you’re new to password management and want to develop some intuition through extended metaphors, first read Password Management for the Average Joe. Then, to better understand why password managers are the best solution for typical users, read Why Use a Password Manager.

If you’re ready to choose the password manager that’s best for your situation, read Which Password Manager. For tips on how best to use your password manager, including master password selection, read Tips for Wise Use of Password Managers, Including Master Password Selection. You might also want to read Bad or Useless Advice About Password Managment.

You’ll be better able to defend yourself against password theft if you take the time to read and understand How Attackers Steal Passwords, and How Attackers Exploit the Usual Way Passwords Are Managed.

To improve password management without the use of a password manager, read A Base Phrase Approach to Password Management.

Here’s a list of Definitions For Common Password Security Terms.

Acknowledgements

It took me hundreds of hours of research to write this comprehensive set of posts on passwords, and I continue to spend more time maintaining this guide as new developments occur in the password security field. I received help from a few security experts along the way, some of whom provided feedback after carefully reading through my posts. These people are:

• Carl Hallberg, Information Security Engineer at Wells Fargo
• Mark Burnett, author of Perfect Passwords
• Ron Bowes, Skull Security, Security Research Engineer at Tenable Network Security
• Simon Davis of RoboForm
• Jeffrey Goldberg of Agile Web Solutions

One other person I would like to acknowledge is Karin Fisher-Golton, my wife. She uses her skills as a children’s book writer and former technical writer/editor to edit most of my posts. She went above and beyond the call of duty helping me refine this password management series.

A sincere thanks to all of you who helped make this guide useful, accurate, and comprehensive.

Since that time, there has been an explosion of interest in helping people read without distraction. Apple has included a Readability button with the Safari browser. All browsers but Safari now include a full screen mode. Many web page reformatting services have come and gone.

But Readable and Readability are the two web page reformatting services which came out first, and both have withstood the test of time. Both also came out with new versions in early 2011. Here’s what you need to know about the latest versions.

Readable

The latest version of the Readable bookmarklet is free, very fast, lets you customize appearance with easy-to-use controls, and works on most sites. For those occasional instances where Readable doesn’t automatically grab the text you want, go back to the web page, select the text you want, and click again on the Readable button.

The old version of Readable still exists. But it will no longer be maintained.

Readable creator Gabriel Coarna intends to maintain and improve the new version of Readable and make this speedy service even faster with browser extensions. He does not intend to add a read-it-later service or the ability to merge multiple web pages into one. But he does intend to add a way to share a Readable-formatted page. The current feature set works very well for those who simply want to read without clutter, one web page at a time.

Thanks to a philosophy emphasizing speed and simplicity, no reformatting service currently works faster or with less clutter than Readable.

Readability

Readability 1.0 was popular, fast, convenient, uncluttered, and effective. Recently revamped Readability 2.0 is still effective, reformats multi-page articles into a single page, and settings can now be changed without having to reinstall the bookmarklet. But there are some drawbacks:

• It takes 5-15 seconds to reformat a web page, compared to 1-2 seconds for Readability 1.0 and the latest version of Readable described above.
• The new method for accessing controls involves a colored strip that you can hide or show on the left hand side which uses up more screen space and attention than the former buttons up top.
• The F5 key no longer refreshes the screen to the original web page.

So the new features come at a cost, which in my opinion outweigh the benefits. However, I expect that arc90 will find a way to speed up Readability, and continue to make other improvements.

With Readability 2.0, there are now two versions: free and paid. In addition to the free functionality described above, the paid version also allows you to seamlessly read articles later and on a variety of mobile devices. Readability can be set up using a browser extension or a bookmarklet.

The paid version of Readability is an ambitious experiment to change the business model for reading on the Internet. Currently, you read for free but content creators get paid when you click an ad or purchase a product or service. With arc90’s experiment, content creators get paid by arc90 each time you read something. In return, you get a better reading experience with no ads or other distractions.

The paid version costs $60/year. It remains to be seen if users and publishers embrace this new Internet content business model.

For those who don’t care for the new version, the old version of Readability can be had at Readabilitude, which copied the open source code from the old version. So far as I can tell, it works just like the old Readability.

Tips for Using Readable and Readability

• Both Readable and Readability provide various customization options such as choosing fonts, text size, and line spacing.
• You can specify the content width for each of these services, so the number of characters per line is not excessive on a wide screen monitor.
• Readability also provides options for turning off link visibility and hiding images.
• Both Readable and Readablity now work in Google Reader.
• It is possible to choose FilterJoe colors by choosing the “Joe Golton” color theme when setting up Readable. Other color themes are available as well, or you can set up your own color theme.

Readable Vs. Readability

I’ve used both Readable and Readability since they first came out two years ago. Readability used to be my favorite because it did a better job of identifying and extracting the main text of sites I visited.

With the latest versions, Readable has matched this ability and become very fast. Meanwhile Readability added useful features, created a paid version with even more features, and is encouraging outside developers to build upon their platform. While I applaud arc90’s bold experiments with Readability, these changes have unfortunately increased visual clutter and increased web page reformatting time to 5-15 seconds per page.

The main purpose of using one of these tools is to be able to read without distraction. Adding 5-15 seconds of load time and a vertical bar to each web page is a distraction. So for now, I’ll be using Readable.

In last year’s browser comparison post, I noted that:

“Google’s Chrome browser was designed from the ground up to be good at running web applications, with an underlying architecture that is faster, more secure, and more stable than the competition. Chrome succeeded. The competition responded. Users have benefited.”

I also thought that Chrome deserved the “best browser” award at that time. However, the competition has since greatly improved. Though I again rank the browsers 1 through 5, the gap between #1 and #5 is narrow, as the current versions are all very good. Each browser is best for a different set of users.

The Easy Browser Decisions

Before you spend much time researching and deciding which browser is best for you, I suggest you start with the easy browser decisions:

1. Keep your browser updated with the latest version. This helps speed, security, reliability, and compatibility. Firefox users with many add-ons may want to delay upgrades a few months to wait for add-on compatibility.
2. If you’re satisfied with your current browser, keep using (and updating) it. It can take months to learn how to most effectively use a new browser. Except . . .
3. Stop using Internet Explorer 8. All Internet Explorer versions prior to 9 are far behind the competition in speed, features, security, and usability. Windows 7 and Vista users can upgrade to the much superior Internet Explorer 9 but users of Windows XP don’t have that option and should adopt one of the other 4 browsers.
4. Don’t use the password manager built into your browser. The best password managers are more secure, easier to use, and allow you to use your passwords anywhere.

Browser Speed Tests

Slow loading sites are a distraction and a waste of time. Happily, the latest versions of all 5 browsers load most sites quickly. Users will only notice significant differences between browsers on sites that make heavy use of graphics, animations, or JavaScript (like some web apps).

I’m not a big fan of detailed benchmark speed tests that don’t reflect real world use. For example, Chrome and Opera typically achieve the highest benchmark scores for many tests. But after several hours of using 10-20 tabs (or 3-5 web apps) on my 1GB Windows XP system, these browsers get very slow and need to be closed and restarted. Not so with memory-efficient Firefox, even though it scores lower off a fresh start.

Nevertheless, some of you will want to see the results of formal benchmark tests. This section on speed tests has been updated several times since this article was first published as more recent and/or thorough tests become available. The most thorough speed and memory testing I’ve seen as of September 2011 is:

Tom’s Hardware Web Browser Grand Prix VI August 29, 2011

However, both Firefox and Chrome have been updated since and these less thorough but more recent testings show some changes:

Lifehacker Browser Speed Tests February 14, 2012

Lifehacker Browser Speed Tests September 27, 2011

These tests supersede tests that were performed on older versions of the 5 major browers:

Computerworld browser speed tests March 10, 2011

Computerworld browser speed tests March 16, 2011

ars technica browser speed tests and IE9 review March 2011

Though SunSpider test results indicated IE9 to be slightly faster than Chrome Chrome 10 and Opera 11 in March 2011, the order has changed after July 2011. According to Tom’s Hardware, test results depend on operating system. For OS X, Safari 5.1 is fastest with Chrome in 2nd, Opera 3rd, and Firefox 4th. For Windows 7, Chrome is fastest, Firefox 2nd, IE9 3rd, Opera 4th, and Safari last. The ordering is different for individual tests – this summary combined many different tests.

Lifehacker tests conducted a month after Tom’s Hardware yielded different results. Opera 11.51 was overall fastest with Firefox 7 close behind, while IE9 and Chrome 14 trailed on a number of tests.

In all tests I’ve seen in 2011, there’s not a large difference in speed between the fastest and slowest of the 5 major browsers’ latest versions, with the exception of Apple’s browser. Safari has not been been significantly updated since June of 2010 while the other browsers continue to get faster, and this speed difference is starting to become noticeable on Windows systems. Safari did release a new version that can be used only on it’s latest operating system, OS X 10.7 (Lion), but many people are reporting that it’s slower, especially when many tabs are open.

Expectations are that Firefox 8 (November 8th) will have significant overall speed improvements, and Firefox 9 (December 20) will speed up JavaScript. So it is possible that by the end of this year, Firefox will have better performance than the other 4 browsers.

Here’s lifehacker’s March 2011 attempt at a real world speed test:

lifehacker browser speed tests

Lifehacker’s real world tests (Safari not included) found Opera and Chrome fastest in most tests with Firefox not too far behind. The 64 bit version of IE9 was considerably slower while the 32 bit version of IE9 was comparably fast in some respects, though slower at starting up and processing DOM/CSS.

Microsoft has stated and others have confirmed that the 32 bit version of IE9 executes JavaScript faster than the 64 bit version. A new installation of IE9 is set to the 32 bit version by default.

Browser Comparisons

Below are summaries of the strengths, weaknesses, and future expectations of the five major browsers—and what makes each browser distinctive and appropriate for a certain type of user. The browsers are ranked according to my preferences, which are based on the following criteria in order of importance:

1. How well does the browser stay out of my way and let me focus on work?
2. How flawlessly does the browser run web apps like Gmail and Google Reader?
3. If I need additional features, how much flexibility do I have?

1. Chrome 10

Chrome 10 is available for Windows (XP and later), Mac (10.5.6 and later), and Linux systems. It continues to be very fast, secure, and reliable. Chrome 10 is much faster than prior Chrome versions, and this is especially noticeable on web apps and graphics-intensive sites. Google’s own web apps such as Gmail get an additional speed boost by using the SPDY protocol in place of HTTP. For graphics-intensive sites, Chrome can be made even faster (if your system has a modern operating system and a graphics card with up-to-date drivers, turn it on by typing about:flags in the URL and enabling both GPU acceleration options).

As in prior versions, Chrome’s uncluttered interface, automatic browser updates, and reduced use of dialog boxes help you work without distraction. Chrome works especially well for running various Google web apps as well as others like Evernote or Facebook.

Furthermore, Chrome now has a rich and diverse set of extensions, second only to Firefox. Some types of Firefox extensions will never be possible on Chrome due to a purposeful tradeoff that sacrifices flexibility and potential capabilities in order to keep Chrome fast, reliable, and uncluttered.

Chrome continues to enhance stability and security with additional sandboxing techniques. A properly sandboxed computer process is isolated from the rest of the computer and therefore is not able to have an impact on any part of the computer apart from its own process. The latest sandbox addition is Flash, the source of many a crashed browser. Starting with Chrome 10, Flash may be able to crash a single tab, but presumably nothing more than that. Thanks to sandboxing and other techniques, Chrome 10 is the most secure browser after a fresh installation, though IE9 is stronger in certain aspects of security and Firefox can be made more secure with appropriate add-ons.

Chrome is not for everyone. Firefox users may miss the functionality of some of their favorite add-ons. Some people don’t like the lean interface. Animated alerts for pinned tab updates are distracting (I use the “minimal” theme to take care of this). And though my testing suggests Chrome 10 is slightly more memory efficient than prior versions, Chrome is still a memory hog. You’ll need 1GB RAM for 5-10 tabs, and 2GB RAM if you routinely keep more than 10 tabs open—otherwise you’ll need to close and reopen Chrome every few hours (see here for more elegant workarounds).

Perhaps most importantly, some people feel uneasy about how much of their data Google can see, which can really add up if you use Google search, Gmail, and Chrome. For people who are uneasy about Google’s data collection but still want Chrome’s benefits, there are nearly identical alternatives that don’t collect user data, such as SRWare Iron or other browsers mentioned here. (However, controversy surrounding Iron is discussed here). Google has also attempted to alleviate privacy concerns with a Keep My Opt-Outs extension and detailed explanations of privacy settings.

Despite these issues, Chrome is a great browser. For both power users and regular users with 2GB or more of RAM (and who are not afraid of Google data tracking), Chrome edges out very tough competition for my “best browser 2011” award.

Chrome simply does a better job than other browsers of getting out of the way while you work. Others are liking Chrome as well, as Chrome market share has grown from 7% to 11% since the last time I compared browsers 9 months ago.

Best browser for:

• Power users who value speed and working without distraction over Firefox’s extra flexibility
• Typical users with at least 2GB of RAM who want to get to work, not mess with settings
• Users who frequently use web apps such as Gmail, Google Reader, Google Analytics, etc.

Avoid this browser if:

• You spend hours per day using a browser on a system with less than 2GB of RAM (unless you’re willing to take steps to reduce Chrome’s memory usage).
• You are concerned about how much Google tracks your computing activities

Major upgrade: Google’s philosophy of frequent, incremental updates means that Chrome version numbers no longer really matter. However, changes in Google Chrome 10 (released March 8, 2011) were very noticeable due to the large speed boost, support for hardware acceleration, and a changed interface for settings. Google does not plan any major new features to be added in the next few months, though hardware acceleration will be enabled by default starting with Chrome 11.

Google has users testing a CR-48 netbook that launches into the Chrome browser within seconds after turning on. Like Apple’s iPad, such devices are easier to maintain and keep secure than today’s general purpose computers. Google “Chromebooks” will be available for purchase on June 15, 2011.

Update October 2011: Many users, including myself, are noticing that Chrome 14 is slower than prior versions. On my Windows XP (1GB RAM) system the slowdown is so noticeable that I’m starting to use Firefox 7 instead – which is quite fast when used in combination with add-ons Tab Utilities and Noscript. Given Google’s obsession with speed, my guess is that the recent speed issues will be fixed within a few months.

2. Firefox 4

Firefox is available for Windows (2000 and later), Mac (10.5 and later), and Linux. A fresh installation of Firefox covers all the browser basics with no common features omitted.

A great thing about Firefox is that it doesn’t even matter what the exact feature list is. If there’s anything you don’t like or don’t yet have—you can probably change it or find it among Firefox’s vast library of add-ons. The richness and diversity of these add-ons makes Firefox the most powerful and flexible browser, though some learning is required to take advantage of all this power.

The “awesome bar” feature Firefox introduced last year is worth highlighting. It combines the search and address boxes together along with your bookmarks and browsing history in a way which magically does a great job of figuring out what you want to do next. Most other browsers now have this feature, but it seems to work much better in Firefox.

For those who desire or need the highest level of security, nothing beats Firefox used in conjunction with various security add-ons, such as NoScript and HTTPS Everywhere.

On systems with limited memory, I’m finding that Firefox beats the competition. (Note: many observers are experiencing Firefox 4 as less memory efficient. So it may depend on your system and add-ons configuration). I can open and close tabs all day and have 15-20 tabs open on a system with only 1GB of RAM. Firefox is not as speedy as Chrome or Opera when you first start it and open your first few tabs. But try using Chrome or Opera for a few hours and your 1GB system will slow down so much that you’ll want to close then reopen your browser.

Firefox 4 nearly catches up to Chrome with speed and key features. However, in my opinion it does not catch up with the interface.

Firefox 4 tries for an uncluttered interface (like Chrome or Opera) but misses both aesthetically and functionally. I find myself distracted by the bright orange menu-access button and tabs strike me as too boxy and wide. Worse is what happens when I click that orange button. I am confronted with a large, cluttered, dual-column menu that I find unintuitive to use. For example, it took me minutes to discover how to bring back the old Firefox menu (Click options half way down the second column, then check the item “menu bar” by selecting it). I suspect that bringing back the menu bar is something many veteran Firefox users will want to do.

Of course, Firefox’s sub-optimal interface is only a minor drawback if you’re willing to spend some time customizing. With less than 15 minutes of tinkering you can make Firefox look like it used to. Or you can make Firefox look more like Chrome. Or if you don’t like either of these looks you can customize further with add-ons such as Tab Utilities (do anything with tabs—even Phantom tabs) and Personal Menu (Don’t like Firefox’s menu organization? Make your own!). Or if you like everything about the new interface except the bright orange button, install the App Button Clear add-on. In general, just Google “Firefox add-on” and a few extra words to describe the feature you’d like to change or add, and you should find what you want pretty quickly.

All this tinkering is fine for users willing to make the effort to customize. However, the majority of users just want to work without distraction, not tinker with settings. If you’re such a user, and you don’t like the Firefox interface, I’d recommend Chrome or Opera, or if your needs are very simple, Safari. Conversely, if you want as much control as possible over your browser, you want Firefox.

Best browser for:

• Users with less than 2GB of RAM
• Developers
• Power users who want to customize and personalize their browser

Avoid this browser if:

• You use browsers no more than a few hours a week
• You want an easy-to-use interface right out of the box
• You value speed and/or working without distraction above all else

Major upgrade: Firefox 4 was released March 22, 2011. Soon after this major release, Mozilla adopted the Chrome model of frequent, incremental updates on a 6 week schedule.

UPDATE: Firefox 5 and 6 were minor updates but users will notice big performance improvements in versions 7, 8 and 9 as follows:

Firefox 7 (September 27, 2011): more efficient memory usage

Firefox 8 (November 8, 2011): 10%-20% speed increase in every aspect of browsing except for JavaScript

Firefox 9 (December 20, 2011): 20%-30% JavaScript speed increase.

This is Mozilla’s planned schedule as of August 2011 but actual dates for these performance enhancements may change.

It has been my family’s experience that Mozilla’s rapid updates since March 2011 are resulting in incompatibilities with specific web sites and add-ons. Specifically, when Firefox 6 was first released, I was not able to use rememberthemilk.com, and my wife experienced setup hassles and decreased functionality with the 1Password add-on for Firefox. Whether or not  you encounter difficulties will depend on which add-ons or web sites you use. But it can be a good idea to wait 1-2 months before upgrading to the latest Firefox version. That is usually enough time for authors to make their add-ons compatible with the latest Firefox version.

3. Opera 11

Chrome, Firefox, and Safari attempt to be bare bones browsers, to which you add functionality with extensions. Opera, on the other hand, already comes bundled with many extras that users typically want, such as ad blocking (though not automatic), note taking, and various tab features. Opera also includes a very flexible framework for sharing any kind of data across devices (Opera Unite).

Opera supports many forms of customization through third-party add-ons, including plug-ins, skins, panels, as well as separate applications called widgets. Opera now finally supports extensions as well. Hundreds of extensions are available, including automatic ad blockers and extensions for popular password managers such as LastPass and RoboForm.

On top of all that, Opera works on a wider variety of operating systems than any other browser, including Windows (2000 and higher), Mac (10.4 and higher), and Linux. Two-year-old Opera 9.64 runs on Windows 98 and Mac OS X 10.3. Opera also makes a simpler browser available for most mobile devices, which can sync bookmarks and history with Opera on the desktop. Opera’s turbo feature compresses data, which increases web browsing speed on slow connections and saves money if you have a metered connection where you pay per kilobyte.

Despite the extra included features, Opera is as fast and uncluttered as Chrome. I prefer Opera’s interface to the other browsers as it uses panels and a well designed menu to hide a tremendous amount of power and flexibility, giving me one or two click access to pretty much everything I need. On top of all this, Opera has historically experienced fewer security issues than other browsers.

So if Opera is such a great browser, why is it in third place, why am I not using it, and why don’t more people use it?

1. Like Chrome, Opera is very fast when starting, but quickly overloads my 1GB of RAM and then gets progressively slower. For my Windows XP system, this slowdown happens sooner than with any other browser. I did not experience these memory issues with Opera 10.
2. Some web sites don’t work flawlessly, as many developers don’t test their sites with Opera. Various Google web apps seem to be especially problematic. Examples include incorrect line heights for Google Reader’s article list mode, not automatically placing a curser in Gmail’s “Compose Mail” window, and not immediately changing a date range in Google Analytics (to make it work after the attempted date range change, you have to click to a new report then back to the current report). I have not experienced these types of issues on Chrome or Firefox.
3. Most people have simply never heard of Opera.

The last reason should not stop you from checking out this browser. Opera is a terrific browser that can work well for a wide variety of people—so long as their system has more than 1GB of RAM and they don’t use a lot of Google Apps. If Opera worked as smoothly as Chrome with Google Apps and my 1GB RAM system, it would be my primary browser and rated #1 for 2011.

Best browser for:

• Power users who prefer Opera’s extensive customization options
• Typical users who simply prefer the elegant interface
• Computers with old operating systems (Windows 2000, PowerPC Macs, etc.)
• Users with slow or metered connections (enable Turbo)

Avoid this browser if:

• You spend hours per day using a browser on a system with less than 2GB of RAM
• You frequently use web apps like Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Analytics

Major upgrade: Opera 11 was a major upgrade (December 2010). Opera 11.5 is expected to include much fuller support for hardware acceleration that works with a much wider variety of operating systems and graphics cards than competing browsers.

4. Safari 5

There have been no major changes to Safari since version 5 was released on June 7, 2010. Safari is the browser bundled with all new Mac systems and is good enough for many users. It works on Macs (OS X 10.5.8 or higher) and Windows (XP and higher). The pretty interface blends in well with the overall look and feel of a Mac and Safari is easy to use. Although Safari is not quite as fast as the latest versions of the other 4 browsers, users with fast connections will rarely be distracted by slow-loading sites.

On the topic of distraction, Safari lacks distraction-blocking full screen mode. However, a click of its built-in “reader” button transforms cluttered web pages into an easy-to-read format (similar to arc90′s “readability” bookmarklet). Safari’s smaller feature set and limited flexibility also help reduce distraction and interface clutter. Safari is therefore ideal for people who spend just a few hours a week using the Internet. Such people typically have no interest in ever more powerful features or customizing the browser.

Those wanting to customize the browser do have hundreds of extensions to choose from, including Adblock for Safari. This post on Safari extensions describes some of the better ones, as well as sites that offer extensions not available through Apple. Extensions are a welcome addition to Safari, but the quality and quantity of extensions and overall customizability of the browser trails the competition.

Safari lacks many features users have come to take for granted with other browsers. Missing features include full screen mode, automatically reopening all tabs from last session (must be done manually from the History menu), and pinned tabs, to name just a few. Safari also has had many security issues over the years. While Safari 5 has many improvements over prior versions, hackers still find it easy to exploit Safari vulnerabilities to take over a computer.

Though I’ve listed far more negatives for Safari than the top three browsers, I enjoy using it. It’s simple, fast, and easy to use—ideal for light browsing.

Best browser for:

• You love simplicity and want to avoid anything that is the least bit complicated
• You use browsers just a few hours a week or less
• You want an easy-to-use interface right out of the box
• You want your applications to have the same look and feel as everything else on your Mac.

Avoid this browser if:

• You are a power user with significant needs for customization, flexibility, and some of Safari’s missing features
• Though not a power user, you typically have many tabs open and could benefit from extra tab management features available on other browsers
• Avoiding security issues is a major priority for you

Major upgrade: Version 5 was released on June 7, 2010 for both Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Mac (10.5.8, 10.6.2 and higher), and is described above. Apple has not discussed future specific plans, other than to announce WebKit2 development. This implies that the next version of Safari will be faster, especially on multi-core hardware.

Simpler versions of Safari are available for the Apple’s iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices. These versions do not support Adobe Flash, but are otherwise very easy to use and well suited to these devices.

5. Internet Explorer 9 (IE9)

IE9 is much faster, more secure, and more standards compliant than IE8 and vastly better than versions before IE8, which were very slow, dangerously insecure, and outrageously non-compliant with web standards. As always, I urge my readers to abandon older versions of IE in favor of the latest version of one of the five major browsers profiled in this post.

What do people like about IE9? The 32 bit version (but not the 64 bit version) scored higher on speed tests than already-speedy Chrome and Opera in March 2011 (UPDATE: As of August 2011, Opera and Chrome are faster, and Firefox will be faster by the end of 2011). It is especially fast on graphics-intensive sites that can take advantage of hardware acceleration. Tabs are now separate processes, benefiting security and performance. IE9 warns about socially engineered malware better than other browsers, offers better Active X controls, and has addressed many security issues found in prior versions of IE.

With regards to the interface, the browser integrates with the Windows operating system (especially Windows 7) in a way that makes using web apps seem more like regular desktop software—much more so than Chrome. Many popular features of other browsers such as combining the search and URL bars and an improved download manager have been incorporated. There are many options for customizing and controlling the browser, though some complain that configuration options are strewn all over the user interface. Perhaps most importantly, the interface now uses very little vertical screen space. IE9 may be the best browser for small screen devices such as netbooks, as user can set tabs to be on the same line as the address bar.

So why do I rank IE9 last? For starters, it only works on about 1/3 of all computers—those running Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008. IE10 will only run on Windows 7. Many people in the U.S. now routinely use multiple computers with different operating systems installed, and it’s a considerable distraction to have to learn and use different browsers for each system. If you have a Windows 7 desktop at home, a Mac laptop, and a Windows XP desktop at work, you can use your same favorite browser on all three—so long as it is not Internet Explorer.

Also a distraction is learning how to use the full power of IE9. Remember IE8 features like Web Slices and Accelerators? (You will be excused if you don’t.) Few people actually use these features. It seems likely that IE9’s innovative integration with the desktop and extra control over Active X security will suffer the same fate. What all these interesting features have in common is requiring users to know they exist, seek them out, and learn how to use them. The few people who do may very well love this browser. However, for the rest of us who just want to fire up the browser and get to work, all these extra features are irrelevant.

I have unfortunately not been able to test IE9 myself, as my computers all run Windows XP (I’m not alone: 55% of the world’s computers run Windows XP). But I have read many reports that a number of web sites don’t work perfectly with IE9, with web apps being especially problematic. The problem is likely due to web sites that have created many hacks and workarounds to work with prior, non-standards-compliant versions of IE. These sites didn’t anticipate the possibility that Microsoft would one day ship a standards compliant browser. While putting IE9 into compatibility mode will usually solve this issue for a specific site, many users won’t know to do this. While I expect these issues to be fixed over the coming months, it’s yet another distraction users can avoid by using a different browser.

Despite the negatives IE9 is a huge step up from its predecessors and will be good enough for most people. And this is a good thing, as most computer users use the browser that comes bundled with their new computer and Internet Explorer is the only permitted browser at many workplaces. Window users who choose a different primary browser will still need to use some version of Internet Explorer for IE-only sites such as Windows updates.

For those who use only recently purchased Windows 7 systems, continuing to use the pre-installed IE9 could be the best choice, in addition to being the simplest choice. But if you’re among the majority of people who use at least one system that is not Windows 7 or Vista, you’ll be better off using the same browser on all of your different systems. That browser won’t be Internet Explorer.

Best browser for:

• small screen devices such as netbooks
• regular users who use only Windows 7 or Vista systems
• Power users who like IE9’s extensive feature set and configuration options

Avoid this browser if:

• You regularly use a non-Windows 7 (or Vista) computer
• You need the greater flexibility offered by Firefox, Chrome, or Opera

Major Upgrade: IE9 was just released (March 14, 2011). IE10 will have features such as CSS transitions and more complete CSS gradient support that are more aimed at web site developers than end users. IE10 requires Windows 7, and will not be available for Windows Vista or earlier.

Conclusion: There’s No Best Browser

Last year I sung the praises of Chrome 5 and thought it was the best browser for most users. But I also noted that competitors were responding, and that “you just need to keep regularly upgrading your browser to see big speed, security, and stability improvements, along with an ever less cluttered interface.”

That’s exactly what has happened, and now the most recent versions of all five browsers are all so good that most differences between them are minor. Though I did rank the browsers according to my personal preference, I think there is no obvious best browser for everyone (unlike AA batteries where there is an obvious best aa battery). It’s a matter of choosing which browser best suits the kind of user you are.

Therefore, my strongest recommendation this year is to stick with your current browser. This assumes you are satisfied with your browser and that you have a computer and operating system that supports upgrading your browser to the latest version.

All this is great for users. All five browsers are far faster, more secure and less cluttered than they were three years ago and all include helpful new features. I am especially pleased with what this means for older systems. My work computer is a Dell 4600 Windows XP system that I purchased in 2004. It runs faster than ever because the majority of my work is now done using 2011 browser versions that are far faster and more capable than those from 2004.

Many people replace their computer every 3-5 years when the system gets too slow or outdated. Now, thanks to faster browsers and the trend towards working in the cloud, there is no need to replace computers until they quit working altogether. It’s good for the environment. It saves time. It saves money.

Thanks to great browsers and cloud computing, forced obsolescence of computers is becoming . . . obsolete.

If you liked this reference guide for browsers, you may also like other FilterJoe guides:

Best AA Batteries

Best Monitor Setup to Reduce Eye Fatigue and Distraction

A Guide to Using Passwords Without Distraction

I now use a vertical monitor with high pixel density. It helps reduce eye fatigue, clicks, and distraction.

Why?

How?

The Right Monitor Setup

The picture above is a screenshot of my monitor’s display. Below is one small portion of it. Look carefully at the New York Times article and compare it to what you see on your own monitor, here.

You’ll see that on my monitor:

• There’s no clutter from the web site or the browser.
• The background color is similar to the FilterJoe site, which is easier on the eyes than bright white.
• It’s easy to read!

Furthermore, this 21.5″ 1920×1080 monitor is 34 inches from my eyes, so that I can’t distinguish individual pixels. The enlarged text appears very crisp from this distance, and this means easier reading and less eye fatigue.

To achieve this setup, you need to:

1. Use a vertical monitor. For added flexibility, use a monitor that can pivot between vertical and horizontal positions.
2. Sit far from the monitor and increase screen font size to increase effective resolution. See “Reduce Eye Fatigue” section below for how to calculate this distance for your monitor.
3. When reading or writing a long article, use “fullscreen mode” which can be invoked with the F11 key on most browsers for Windows or Linux users.
4. For cluttered web sites use tools like Readability or Readable to rid a web page of everything except the main content.

For more details on all of the above, keep reading.

A Widescreen Monitor is Not the Best Setup

Reasons people use a widescreen monitor include:

• Entertainment such as video, pictures, games
• Working at two related tasks, such as writing and researching
• Multitasking unrelated activities

The first two uses seem perfectly reasonable, but multitasking unrelated activities is a productivity killer for most people.

Can a widescreen monitor be used effectively for the first two uses? Yes. Many people do. And it may be ideal in certain homes where the display is used for both entertainment and light work. But if you’re trying to work without distraction for hours at a time, you may find that a widescreen monitor will lead you down the dark path of multitasking unrelated activities.

I tried for two years to use a 24”, 1920×1200, widescreen monitor effectively at my office, because I often find myself flipping back and forth between writing and researching. I failed. With the combination of a widescreen monitor and a tabbed browser, I too often succumbed to multitasking unrelated activities.

I had other issues with the wide screen. The short monitor height required too many clicks to scroll through long articles. I couldn’t use fullscreen mode because text stretched super wide. And though tools like Readability or Readable could be used, much of the screen space was wasted with wide margins.

I did distracted myself with many experiments to try to improve the situation, including various utilities or plug-ins designed to manage large screens or block distraction. It turns out that most content is meant to be displayed vertically, and this is assumed in computer software and operating systems. I found myself constantly battling this vertical display assumption, and often losing. So after two years of reduced productivity I gave up on widescreen monitors.

Now I have the best of both worlds. I have a widescreen monitor, but it can pivot into a vertical position. It is in vertical position over 95% of the time.

Reduce Eye Fatigue

Steve Jobs claims that you can’t distinguish individual pixels on a device with more than 300 PPI such as the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch 4g, which both have a 326 pixels per inch (PPI) “Retina Display.” He’s right. That is likely the main reason my eyes get less tired with this device than any other LCD display I’ve used.

This display is so good that the iPod Touch 4g makes for a great e-reader. So I began to wonder: could I get a display this good for reading on my computer?

The answer is yes . . . sort of. You can’t get consumer grade monitors with such high pixel density, but you can simulate it. Here’s why, and how:

Have you ever noticed how a massive HDTV looks great 6 or more feet away, but not so great close up? You can see the individual pixels on a 46” HDTV if you’re 3 feet away, but not if you’re 6 feet away. The same principal applies to an LCD display. Move it twice as far away, and you’ll only be able to distinguish half the detail.

The distance (in inches) at which people cannot distinguish individual pixels can be calculated with this simple formula (see this Discover article for details). Note that PPI is Pixels per Inch:

3438/PPI = number of inches from eyes to display

Example 1: iPod Touch Retina Display 326PPI

3438/326 = 10.55 inches from eyes to display

Example 2: My 21.5”, 1920 x 1080 monitor 103PPI

3438/103 = 33.4 inches from eyes to display

See Wikipedia for the PPI of many common devices.

In other words, you cannot distinguish individual pixels on a 326 PPI Retina Display that is more than 10.55 inches away from your eyes unless you have better than 20/20 vision. The same applies to my 103 PPI monitor at a distance of greater than 33.4 inches.

So doesn’t putting a monitor so far away make it difficult to read tiny type? Yes, but that’s not a problem. I just increase font sizes. To do this in a browser, type control+ on Windows, and command+ on Macs. Or you can use the Readability or Readable bookmarklet with a large font selected.

Enlarged text nearly three feet from my eyes is very easy to read. Another subtle benefit is that page elements such as tabs, menus, and status bars do not get larger. They look tiny relative to the enlarged text, so they’re less noticeable and less distracting.

Note that by enlarging your web pages or documents, you do end up with less information on the screen. I find that I don’t usually need 1920×1080 pixels worth of information on a screen at one time. But when I do, I can simply move the screen closer to my eyes. Yes I lose the benefits of having the equivalent of a Retina Display, but the trade-off is sometimes worthwhile, particularly with large spreadsheets.

Reduce Clicks

Read a web page with more than a few hundred words, and you’ll need to advance the page using a mouse click or your keyboard’s “page down” key. If your work involves reading hours per day, you may do this hundreds of times per day.

On a vertical monitor, you have much more vertical space than on a horizontally positioned widescreen monitor. So you’ll need fewer clicks to scroll through the vertically arranged content, and you’ll be able to see more of it at a time.

For example, my Dell 21.5″, 1920×1080 monitor (HDTV resolution) can pivot between vertical and horizontal positions. The vertical position means 1920 pixels of vertical space devoted to a web page, while a horizontally positioned screen means only 1080 pixels of vertical space

You could theoretically get the same amount of text on the screen by filling up the entire monitor with your browser, but that stretches the text very wide. It is very difficult to read text which has 150 characters per line. Various studies show that people can read fastest at somewhere between 60 and 95 characters per line, which is what I get by positioning my monitor vertically, 34 inches away, with enlarged text.

Reduce Distraction

The advantages of working using the cloud are numerous, but endless web distractions can lead to wasted time and feelings of information overload. I’ve discussed tools for reducing distraction for both writing and reading on the web. These tools work well on vertical monitors but poorly on widescreen monitors.

For example, the simplest distraction blocker is to simply put your browser into fullscreen mode by pressing the F11 key. Try it on a widescreen monitor and you’ll see your text stretches so wide that there’s more than 150 characters per line. This is difficult to read.

Fullscreen mode works as intended on a vertical monitor. You eliminate menus, toolbars, address bars, bookmark bars, and status bars. You also get more vertical space so you’ll display more of what you’re reading, leading to fewer clicks to read a long article.

My favorite distraction blockers these days are tools like Readability or Readable. Readability is built in to the Safari browser and it can be added to Firefox or Chrome with plugins. You can also use Readability or Readable bookmarklets on any browser. These tools do work on widescreen monitors as you can specify the text width, leaving wide margins. But using these tools on a vertical monitor is better because much more text is on the screen, which means less clicks when reading a long article.

But What if You Really Need to See More than One Window?

There are times when it truly is helpful to have two Windows displayed simultaneously. You may be writing while frequently consulting one or more sources. Perhaps your work requires you to monitor numbers, graphs, or images from several different points of view. So what setup works best for this?

Two choices allow you to use vertical monitors.

1. Get a second monitor. You’ll need to make sure that your computer has the graphics card and software to support it and that you have enough desk space. If you need to spend many hours per day with two or more windows displayed, this is the best solution. You can always turn off one of the monitors if it’s a distraction.
2. Get a widescreen monitor that has the ability to pivot. Keep it in vertical position most of the time. Rotate it horizontally only when having more than one window open at a time will really help your productivity.

So What Monitor Models do I Recommend?

If you’re convinced you want to use a monitor setup like mine, you can do it with any monitor that can be arranged in a vertical position.

Inexpensive 19″, 1280×1024 monitors will do. But with 86 PPI, these monitors need to be 40” away to achieve the equivalent resolution of a Retina Display that is 10.55 inches from your eyes. Worse, you’ll need to enlarge the text in order to read it and then won’t be able to see much more information than you can on an iPod Touch. More likely is that you won’t want to position your 1280×1024 monitor so far away, so you’ll notice the individual pixels.

Luckily, high quality 1920×1080 monitors can be purchased for $200 to $400 these days. The diagonal length of monitors with this resolution ranges from 21.5” to 26”, but the larger sizes of these monitors usually cannot pivot. Furthermore, the bigger the monitor is, the farther you’ll need to place it away from your eyes.

So I recommend getting a monitor with the following characteristics:

• Can pivot (vertical or horizontal)
• Is smaller than 24” diagonally
• Has a resolution of either 1920×1080 or 1920×1200

There’s nothing wrong with a resolution higher than 1920×1200, but prices are much higher and you’ll need a powerful graphics card on your computer.

I recommend the Dell UltraSharp U2211H 21.5″ monitor that I’ve been using for the past two months. Clicking on this link takes you to Amazon, which usually sells this monitor for a lower price than Dell.

The 21.5” diagonal screen size was the smallest I could find on a 1920×1080 monitor. It needs to be only 33.4” from my eyes (to achieve the same effect as a Retina Display at 10.55 inches), as opposed to the 37.5” required for a 24” display. Closer is better so I don’t have to lean forward as far when I need to look at something small.

Other notes about the Dell UltraSharp U2211H:

• Its IPS LCD display allows for much wider viewing angles than traditional, cheaper LCD displays.
• This model has dimmer backlighting than most other models. You’ll need to set brightness and contrast higher than you may be used to.
• A modestly more expensive 23″ diagonal version of this model exists: Dell UltraSharp U2311H

There are plenty of other models to choose from, as you can see if you search Amazon for the word “pivot” in the monitor section:

Amazon listing of LCD monitors which pivot

If you’re planning to also use your monitor to watch video, you might want to go with a larger and/or brighter model than my Dell UltraSharp.

Final Comments on Vertical vs. Widescreen Monitors

Having failed to make good use of a widescreen monitor after two years of trying, I’ve obviously given up on them in the office. But many people use them for home entertainment purposes. And some people are very productive with them. Maybe you’re one of them, and you’d like to share about it below.

I’d love to hear about useful alternatives and so would my readers. So please share your comments below about your own experience with monitors or any other related words of wisdom you may have. Thanks!

But are they good for distraction-free reading of the sort I talk about so much at FilterJoe? Should you spend $500 or more on a tablet for use as a dedicated reader? Or should you stick with a less expensive iPod Touch or Kindle for reading?

Bleeding Edge Technology

Many people are happy to read on iPhones, iPod Touches, and other phone models with great screens such as the Samsung Galaxy S. They’re portable. They’re fast. And they’re flexible.

Flexible as these pocket computers are, some people prefer a larger screen for reading. Some formats like PDFs or kid’s picture books involve compromises on smaller screens. Some people will never get used to reading 30-40 words per line that happens on an iPod Touch or a phone. And reading a book on one of these devices to your small child is not a great experience. I’ve tried.

So is it time to buy a tablet for use as a dedicated e-Book reader? Not yet.

Perhaps a better title for this post would have been, “Time for Readers to Buy Tablets? No! Don’t Buy Bleeding Edge Technology!”

The reader-friendly tablet category is new. It was started by Apple with the launch of the iPad in April, 2010. This is bleeding edge technology.

Avoid Buying Bleeding Edge Consumer Gadgets

There are several reasons to avoid buying any bleeding edge consumer gadget.

• You pay a high price to be an early adopter. These $500-$800 devices will be $200-$400 within 3 years.
• Early models are never as good as later models. Expect a combination of added features, better hardware, and refined software within 2-3 years.
• Working through bugs and frequent software upgrades is a distracting waste of time. These issues mostly go away after several years of refinement.

The Garmin GPS navigator that I bought for my car for $140 in late 2009 was faster, lighter, simpler, and has had far fewer problems than the broken Garmin it replaced. The one that cost $440 in 2007. Argh!

There are also reasons to avoid buying a tablet at this time for those who primarily want a reading device:

• The screen resolution of current tablets is less than half the resolution of screens found on many high end phones and the iPod Touch. This can be the difference between experiencing eye strain or not for some people. I’m one of them.
• The iPad and many other tablets weigh more than most books, and are therefore less comfortable to hold for extended reading. Tablets will weigh less with each new generation.
• Dedicated E-book readers such as the Kindle and the Nook cost less, weigh less, and are better focused on reading. The iPod Touch is also a better reading option with its high resolution display and much lower price.

Many People Will Buy Tablets

I don’t mean to knock the tablet category. Many people are happy with their tablets. I’d happily buy a version of the iPad at half the current weight, half the current price, and double the current pixel density. It would be a great device for reading material such as PDFs and picture books that are hard to squeeze onto smaller devices. It might become my main reading device for both work and home.

And who am I to argue with the success of tablets? These devices can do far more than e-book readers. Many people bought tablets in 2010 and many more will buy them in 2011. Reasons will vary from the practical (fits my needs) to fandom (It’s Apple. I have to try it!) to experimentation (It’s new. It’s all the rage. I have to try it!). For many people, $500 to $800 is not a big deal.

Early Adopters Spend More Time and Money

Tablets are winning many fans and I expect them to rapidly improve as reading devices. However, tablets are currently bleeding edge technology.

Early adopters of bleeding edge technology spend more time and money on their gadgets. Avoid distraction and extra expense by avoiding bleeding edge technology.

You may not care about a few hundred extra dollars or the extra time spent on your bleeding edge tablet. And you may find your tablet so useful for so many things besides reading that it’s a great value for you.

But if your primary use will be reading, then you’ll benefit from a lighter, lower cost tablet with a better display. Wait a year or two, and you’ll get it.

• as easy on my eyes as a paperback book
• as portable and convenient as a paperback book
• simple to read for any kind of format
• simple and free to get reading material onto the device

I tried reading anything on a second generation Kindle. The e-ink screen is easy on my eyes and Kindles are great for reading novels. But the software has many shortcomings for reading other material such as PDFs or long articles on the web. I devoted considerable effort to making my Kindle overcome these shortcomings, but in the end decided to try a more flexible device lacking an E-ink display.

An iPod touch and a Kindle

Enter the iPod touch, 4th generation (or iPhone 4), with double the screen resolution of prior models. Reading with the “Retina Display” is easy on my eyes and the software makes reading a breeze for a surprisingly wide range of reading material.

The iPod touch 4G works well for reading. It works so well for me that I stopped using my Kindle and sold it. Read on for details, including many tips along the way for using an iPod for reading.

Contents of this Post

For both the iPod touch 4G and the Kindle, I describe below various aspects of the hardware. I also describe the experience of reading a variety of different materials, including novels, collections of short stories, mixed text/graphics, PDFs, web content, and Google Reader.

As with my Kindle-only post, this is part evaluation and part reference guide, organized by sections so that you can read what is relevant for your and skip the rest. Part of why this post is so long is because the iPod has so much software available for it—but that is a large part of what makes the iPod touch 4G so great for reading.

iPod touch 4G and Kindle Displays

A big advantage of the iPod touch 4G over prior models and competing devices is its 3.5 inch Retina Display, which is 640 x 960 pixels, or 326 pixels per inch (PPI).

The 6″ Kindle display area has 600 x 800 pixels, or 167 PPI.

Why does this matter so much? It has been observed that the unaided human eye can generally not differentiate detail beyond 300 PPI (see here). So all else being equal (including the distance from your eyes), higher PPI will be easier on your eyes, until you pass around 300 PPI.

My eyes are more sensitive than average to fatigue from computer displays, so subtle differences between display types have a big impact. The CRT displays in the 1990s were so tiring that I had to print out anything more than a couple pages long to avoid bleary eyes and headaches. LCD displays are better, but typical 80-140 PPI LCD displays cause eye fatigue if I’m reading text for hours, and mild headaches if I spend more than 10 hours on a given day. Older generations of the iPod touch (163 PPI) are a little better, likely due to the higher pixel density. But none of these have been as easy on my eyes as the paperback novel.

The first truly easy-on-the-eyes display I’ve used is the 167 PPI E-ink Kindle display, when used in well lit areas. Though less than 300 PPI, it seems to be similar in quality to reading a newspaper (see here for microscopic comparisons). Fingerprints and smudges are not noticeable.

I’ve found that the 326 PPI display of the iPod touch 4G is usually just as easy on my eyes. In brightly lit or sunny areas the iPod backlit screen is harder to read, and sometimes the collection of fingerprints and smudges gets distracting enough that I need to stop and wipe. But in most other situations it’s been as easy on my eyes as reading a paperback novel.

Many E-ink proponents believe that the human eye is designed to read reflected light, and that E-ink technology holds the promise of causing less eye fatigue. With current display technologies, this is hotly debated (i.e. see LCD vs. e-ink: The eye strain debate, including comments). Subjectively, some people prefer e-ink, others high quality LCD screens, and for others it depends on lighting conditions.

I’m in this last category, preferring e-ink in well lit areas, and the back-lit iPod in dim areas. Since I mostly read in dim areas, the iPod touch works best for me. My wife far prefers real books and E-ink over back-lit screens, though she does prefer the higher resolution Retina Display to older, lower resolution displays.

The display of the iPhone 4 is even better than that of the new iPod touch. Both have 326 PPI, but the iPhone 4 uses IPS technology which allows for much wider viewing angles. I have not yet tested an iPhone 4 so I really don’t know if the IPS screen makes much of a difference for a single person reading text straight-on. All I can report is that I can read for hours at a time with the iPod touch 4G without experiencing eye fatigue.

If you have an iPhone then you don’t need an iPod touch. However, given that you’ll also leave the phone radio and 3G data on to use it as a phone and pocket computer, the battery may not last as long as an iPod touch that is used primarily for reading.

What about the iPad? It has IPS but a much lower 132 PPI resolution. Now that I’ve experienced how much easier it is on my eyes to read with E-ink or a 326 PPI LCD display, I don’t see why I’d want to use a 132 PPI LCD display for extended reading.

The iPod is FAST

With a Kindle, many things are slow. Page turns are noticeable (especially on older models), and doing anything other than reading a novel can be slow. The browser is especially slow.

The iPod touch is very fast. Whether it’s flipping a page, downloading a book, reading a long article on the web, or opening a PDF—everything happens as fast as you can touch the screen. This is one of the key factors that makes an iPod touch easier to use than Kindles for reading anything but novels.

The thing about reading is you just pick up a piece of paper or book and start reading. If something delays you, you won’t do it as much. With the Kindle, you will experience delays when reading anything except a novel. With an iPod touch, there are no delays.

iPod touch and Kindle Form Factors

The iPod touch is a thin, hand held device, similar in size to a large phone. It can therefore be carried everywhere in a large pocket, purse or backpack. Carrying a small device like this everywhere opens up possibilities for reading in a much wider variety of settings—waiting in line, half-watching kids playing together, showing someone a Wikipedia excerpt, etc.

A subtle but important advantage of using a device this size or smaller is that the small screen forces developers to devote most or all of the screen to the task at hand. This results in a distraction-free reading experience. Sometimes text is sandwiched between strips on the top and bottom devoted to status and/or controls, which is pretty good. But it’s often better: a “full-screen mode” that displays nothing but text.

This is a big deal for me, as FilterJoe’s main focus is on techniques for working without distraction. Here’s a list of the 4 apps I use on the iPod most frequently for distraction-free reading:

• Stanza – eBook reader with full screen mode
• GoodReader – PDF reader with reflow and full screen mode
• MobileRSS – Google Reader RSS client, full screen mode
• Instapaper – Extract long articles from anywhere with a single click for later, paginated reading on your iPod or Kindle

Being a larger device, the Kindle will not fit into a pocket but can fit into a large purse or backpack. With this larger size it is possible to see more text at a time on the screen, hold the device with either one or two hands, and comfortably read on a chair.

The small form factor of the iPod touch can be a detriment when reading in a chair (you don’t want to hold it in the air, but it can slide off your leg). But it is easier to use while standing or lying down given how light it is.

A significant drawback to the size and shape of the iPod touch is that clutching it for hours tires out my hand, a problem I never had with a Kindle. I’ve learned to prop up the iPod by leaning it on nearby objects or by using a specially made stand that came with my protective skin.

Lighting and Battery

Like many people, I do a lot of reading in bed. A Kindle requires external light in the form of a lamp or clip-on light. An iPod is back-lit so no external light source is needed, but many people feel that reading on back-lit screens is unnatural and will make it hard to fall asleep. The backlight can be dimmed however, and those who prefer light text on dark background can select night mode.

E-ink only uses electricity when pages are flipped, so when a Kindle’s connectivity is turned off, the battery can last for tens of hours of reading, and for weeks if the unit is used occasionally.

The battery life for an iPod will vary depending on how it is used but it can easily last over 10 hours if used for nothing but reading. To get the battery to last that long, simply put it into airplane mode and keep the screen as dim as is comfortable for you. Also make sure you have iOS 4.2.1 or later installed as prior versions had issues that shortened battery life.

An iPhone has a larger battery and requires less back lighting to be readable so should last longer than an iPod touch when in airplane mode and used for reading only. However, most people with an iPhone keep cellular connections and 3G data turned on, and this may cause the battery to run out faster than an iPod touch in airplane mode.

Batteries charge from zero to full in less than 3 hours for both the Kindle and the iPod.

Connectivity

Both devices have a USB capability for connecting to computers, but most people find using wireless connections more convenient.

The iPod touch has a WiFi connection only, so for downloading, WiFi must be accessible. An iPod will be much less convenient to use if you don’t have a WiFi router set up at home.

Kindles through the 2^nd generation had 3G cellular connections which was a mixed blessing. On the bight side, you could use these Kindles anywhere a 3G connection is available, which was the U.S. for some versions, and most of the world for other versions. But to keep customers from running up 3G costs too high, Amazon charged a small fee for getting some kinds of data onto the device such as PDF conversions or emailed text. This made the Kindle impractically expensive for reading some forms of everyday reading material. While there are many schemes for trying to get data onto Kindles without cost, many of them required multiple steps or complex setup.

The 3^rd generation Kindle now has WiFi connectivity. There is both a WiFi only model for $139 and a model with both WiFi and 3G connectivity for $189. With the new Kindle, it is possible to use the WiFi connection to get data into the device simply and for free, which makes the Kindle much more practical as a device for reading anything.

For comparison, the least expensive iPod touch typically costs about $210 in early 2011. If you travel a lot and primarily read novels, the $189 Kindle is likely to be the more practical device for you.

Reading Novels

I’ve read a few novels on the iPod touch and it works surprisingly well. The font size I choose gets me around 30-40 characters per line. This is fewer than a paperback but the human eye is good at reading vertically. Though initially skeptical about reading novels with so little text per page, it took me just a couple hours to get used to the smaller number of words per page.

Pages are turned by tapping the right side of the screen or swiping, which is easy to get used to. Accessing the controls varies by app but is usually a tap in the center of the screen or a tap on a settings symbol near the top or bottom of the screen.

What the iPod lacks in screen size it makes up for with great apps, many choices, and fast speeds. If I accidentally turn a page, I can get back to the prior screen very quickly. If I don’t like the line spacing, fonts, or brightness settings, most e-reader apps will let me change that to something I like better.

There are many e-book reader apps for the iPod touch and here are some that I’ve checked out, in order of preference:

• Stanza is my favorite for a number of reasons: typography, brightness controls, full screen mode, speed, ease of downloading/caching content, and a good table of contents system. The greater flexibility of Stanza makes it more complicated to use, so those who want dead simple may not like it.
• The Kindle App also has nice typography but is less flexible. When you buy books through the Kindle store, they’re available and synced to all devices; you can be reading a book on a Kindle and then continue reading right where you left off on your iPod. Books that would benefit from a table of contents often don’t have it.
• Google Books is not in a class with Stanza or the Kindle App in terms of capabilities, but it works okay. And it is impressive that you have access to millions of books.
• The iBooks App made by Apple has a number of shortcomings and very little flexibility to correct them, so I never use it.

Impressive as the iPod touch is for reading novels, novels is probably the one type of reading material that works better on a Kindle. Simply put, the Kindle hardware and software was designed from the ground up to be good at reading novels, and it shows.

A strong case can be made that for reading novels, the user experience on a Kindle is better than an iPod touch. It’s simple to get started reading, purchasing books is easy, and there is no need to download reading software or mess with a syncing service like iTunes. Just wake up the Kindle and start reading.

I won’t repeat all my detailed observations about reading on the Kindle. But I will point out that I turn pages accidentally on both Kindles and iPod touches. An accident is more costly on the slower Kindle. Apart from this one annoyance, reading novels on a Kindle is a joy.

Reading Chapter Books or Short Story Collections

In my Kindle article I already discussed the shortcomings of the Kindle in this area. The actual stories are easy enough to read but navigation is clumsy for the majority of books (both free and paid) for which authors did not take full advantage of the Kindle’s system for setting up a table of contents and way points. If you want to skip between stories, it is usually far harder to do than with a paper-based collection of short stories.

It is harder to characterize the iPod touch because it will depend on which e-book reader app you use. However, I did notice that most of the apps I use seem to have a table of contents for each book for which that is appropriate. And it was very simple to bring up the table of contents and then jump to a story or chapter.

The only iPod touch e-book reader app that seemed to be missing table of contents for most stories was the Kindle App. It is surprising to me that the general purpose iPod touch does a better job than book specialist Kindle when it comes to table of contents that are present and easy to navigate. But that is currently the case.

Mixed Text and Graphics

As I noted in the Kindle post, my experience with Kindle Store’s mixed text/graphics content was so poor that I eventually gave up trying to find a single good sample.

The iPod touch is not consistently good at books with mixed text and graphics either. However, some do work well. Download “Winnie the Pooh” using Apple’s iBooks app store to see a very fine example.

Most other samples I downloaded for the iPod touch seemed like they were not designed to fit such a small screen, but would probably work fine on an iPad.

Using an iPod or Kindle for Reading a PDF

I really wanted the Kindle to work for native PDFs. No matter how much I tried, it didn’t. The problem is that PDFs are designed to fit onto an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper and neither size of Kindle was big enough. A Kindle DX rotated sideways was almost workable, especially if the font size was fairly large, but it was far inferior to simply reading a piece of paper.

Using PDFs on an iPod touch is far better despite the smaller screen size. All PDF apps make use of built-in zooming that makes intuitive use of pinching. But even better is to buy the GoodReader app for $0.99, and use it in conjunction with Dropbox.

Dropbox is a file syncing service that causes all of your files stored in the “dropbox” folder to appear on the devices you choose. I set up dropbox so that all of my PDF files are accessible from all of my computers as well as my iPod touch and Blackberry.

The GoodReader app has the ability to reflow PDFs. For text-heavy documents, it works terrifically.

So how does it work? Just click on the file in Dropbox and open it with GoodReader. Click on the “reflow text” icon and the text reflows to fit the screen.

No matter how much I fiddled with it, I was not able to comfortably read my home inspection report on a Kindle. Kindle’s primitive PDF software is not yet cable of dealing with PDFs that have tiny fonts, like this one.

With GoodReader, I touched the “reflow text” symbol and it instantly stripped out the pictures and reflowed the text to an appropriate size for the screen. I could then read the inspection report like an e-book. I could also flip back and forth between PDF view and reflow view as needed.

To be fair, there are methods for converting PDFs into properly formatted Kindle documents. Many of the methods involve multiple steps and complication (i.e. Calibre) but the simplest is to use the Kindle PDF conversion service. This involves a charge for each converted PDF document unless you are using a 3^rd generation Kindle (or later) in WiFi-only mode. I have not owned a Kindle 3 so feel free to leave comments about the quality of your PDF conversion experience on the Kindle.

No matter how much Amazon improves its PDF capabilities, it is hard to imagine them catching up to devices based on Apple’s iOS platform such as the iPod touch. Software such as Dropbox and GoodReader combined with pinch zooming makes it pretty easy to access and read PDFs without complication.

Web clipping and using RSS with Google Reader

In the Kindle post, I wrote extensively about how people not only use Google Reader to read blogs and other feeds, but also anything clipped from the web. I’ll summarize all those details by saying that among many complicated ways of getting arbitrary reading material onto a Kindle, using Google Reader and a “Note to Reader” bookmarklet was simplest for me. If you want to know more about what RSS is and why it can make it easier to read things from the web, read the extensive section on it in the Kindle post, here.

But even though it was simpler than other methods, it was still very slow and cumbersome to use the Kindle’s sluggish browser to actually read things in Google Reader. It was so much overhead, that I only did it for really long articles.

I’m sure it’s better now with the Kindle 3. It has a faster browser. Alternatively, you can send documents to a Kindle 3 for free when in WiFi-only mode. And that enables you to use something like Instapaper as an alternative and simpler way of getting anything onto a Kindle – without having to pay for each sending.

But all this pales in comparison to using iOS device like the iPod touch. For one thing, the iPod’s Safari browser is far faster and better. You can just use it to read an original article if you like. You can also use the Google Reader Web App that Google so kindly optimized for the mobile Safari browser.

But it gets even better. There are so many options available that it would be a pointless exercise to list them all. I’ll just list two:

You can get a dedicated RSS reader app that syncs with Google Reader. Several of the better ones include Reeder, Byline, MobileRSS, as summarized here. Why use these instead of the Google Reader App on Safari? Mainly, it will allow you to cache articles automatically for later reading. It may also give you features you like—in my case the feature I most care about is reading in full screen mode, which I do with MobileRSS. I do so much reading and bookmarking for later reading using Google Reader that having these few extra features is very helpful—but if you only use Google Reader a little then the web app may be plenty.

You can also get Instapaper, either a free version limited to 10 articles or the $4.99 version that includes pagination. I don’t care about pagination when I’m reading a few hundred words but when reading something long, I use Instapaper to clip it and read later on my iPod touch with pagination.

Instapaper can be used on the Kindle as well but I haven’t tested it so I’ll leave to readers to comment below as to how easy it is to use on the Kindle. I want to reiterate that using Instapaper in conjunction with the Kindle is free and relatively simple on a Kindle 3, but more complicated and costly on older models.

Multi Purpose vs. Single Purpose Devices

The Kindle is a device that facilitates one activity really well: reading novels. Some people think this dooms the device to be eventually replaced by multi-purpose tablets once prices become comparable. Others think that multi-purpose devices have too many distractions to be used for reading. I think it remains to be seen which model becomes more widely adopted.

With regard to general purpose devices, my take on iPhone versus iPod touch versus Kindle is as follows:

Smartphones in general including the iPhone are interrupt driven communication devices. In other words, if a call comes in you want to know immediately and some people feel that way about texts or e-mails as well. If you’re trying to read on such a device, you may get interrupted by calls or various notifications. You can go into airplane mode but for many people that would defeat the purpose of having an interrupt driven personal communication device.

With a Kindle, Nook or other e-book reader you read. It is possible to do other things besides reading but not easy. So it is nearly as easy to stay as focused on reading as with a book.

The iPod touch is in between. I don’t know what most people do, but I use my smartphone for interrupt driven communication, while I use my iPod mostly for reading. There’s no phone, there’s no 3G connectivity, and I don’t really need to do communication with the iPod because I do that with my phone. So 90% of the time I use it for reading, and I often just leave it in airplane mode to further reduce distraction and save battery life.

I don’t have an opinion as to which of the above scenarios is best for the most people. But I’ve become used to the idea of my smartphone as an interruption device. So for me, a smartphone is not a good device for reading without distraction.

Buying Recommendations

If all you want is an inexpensive device to use primarily for reading novels, then the obvious choice is:

Kindle Wi-Fi, Graphite

But if you want the flexibility to read anything, you’ll likely be happier with an iPod touch 4G. The least expensive 8GB model has more than enough memory to store thousands of books and and the 5-10 reading-related apps you may want to install:

Apple iPod touch 8 GB (4th Generation)

If you use your iPod touch 4G to store large amounts of music or video, then you’ll need one of these larger models:

Apple iPod touch 32 GB (4th Generation)
Apple iPod touch 64 GB (4th Generation)

If you buy a used iPod touch, you want to be certain it is the 4th generation as the 4G display is much better for reading than older models.

Conclusion: Which is best for reading, the iPod touch 4G or the Kindle?

For me, the iPod touch 4G is better for reading, according to the four criteria listed at the beginning of this article. Why? It’s faster, more portable, and more flexible. It’s simple to read most formats and it’s usually easy and free to import reading material. The high resolution screen is as easy on my eyes as a Kindle and is much easier to read in dim light.

But the iPod touch won’t be best for everyone. If you’ll be doing most of your reading in bright light, on arm chairs, while travelling, and/or away from electrical outlets for days at a time, the Kindle will be more appropriate. If you want a device to read novels and nothing else, the Kindle is slightly better than the iPod touch for that specific function. It’s also less expensive.

But if you want the most flexible device, you want the iPod touch. It doesn’t work perfectly for all reading material, but it works far better than a Kindle for chapter books, mixed text and graphics, PDFs, web browsing, RSS, and arbitrary clippings from the web.

I spend many hours per day reading things from a variety of sources. I find myself shifting ever more of this reading onto the iPod touch. I tried to do that with a Kindle but too much effort was required.

Of course, some avid readers own both Kindles and an iOS device. I will as well as when Kindles drop further in price. I would use it for rare occasions when I want to read in a chair or in bright light.

What about tablets? That is the subject of the next post: Is now a good time to buy a tablet for distraction-free reading?.

In my best browsers post, Chrome 5 earned my “best browser 2010″ award, thanks to speed, security, and an uncluttered interface. Since then, Chrome has released 3 more versions, with Chrome 8 released on December 2, 2010.

Is Chrome three versions’ worth of better? Or is it worse? Will Chrome be the best browser in 2011?

UPDATE: In March 2011 I posted my latest browser comparison, Best Browsers . . . and Chrome still came out #1, but by the slimmest of margins. In that post, all five major browsers are discussed in great detail. The rest of this post focuses on two issues about Google Chrome that were handled elegantly in Chrome 5, but not since.

The Version Number Thing

Traditionally, when computer software gets a major new change, it gets a new major version number (Firefox 3.0, Internet Explorer 8, etc.). Starting with Chrome 6, Google has abandoned this tradition for Google Chrome. New versions of Chrome are released on a 6 week schedule, whether or not there are significant changes. So new versions now have major or minor changes—or changes that you don’t even notice. You won’t get hints from the version number.

That One Minor Change

Chrome has received a number of new features and changes since June of 2010. Most have been minor changes or under-the-hood changes that users won’t notice. Unfortunately, Google released version 6 of Chrome on September 2, 2010, with one change I really cared about. Phantom tabs were removed. This seemingly minor user interface change negatively impacted my ability to focus and get work done.

Why did phantom tabs matter so much? When I first tested Chrome 5, there were two things I found distracting:

1. Open tabs that are pinned (Gmail, Google Reader, etc.) notify me visually when there is a new message or post. With Chrome 5 it was “throbbing” while more recently it is white clouds that pass from right to left on until you click on them. I like using pinned tabs but hate visual distraction in any form. You get these notifications whether you like them or not.
2. Memory leaks occur with certain kinds of open tabs, which may require restarting the browser every few hours.

So far as I know there has only been one simple way to eliminate either of these distractions from Chrome: Phantom tabs. Close a pinned tab and it turns dim, ready to be quickly opened when needed. I describe how all this works in detail, here.

Combined with Phantom tabs, Chrome 5 was so fast, secure, reliable, and lacking in clutter that I was able to focus on my work better than with any other browser I’ve ever used or tested. But all that changed starting with the forced upgrade to Chrome 6. Since September 2, I get interrupted by notifications on pinned tabs, and I have to divert my attention to memory management as all of my systems have 1GB of RAM that get quickly overrun by Chrome’s memory leaks. Despite hundreds of user requests, there’s no indication of a possible return of the phantom tab.

Improvements to Chrome

To be fair, there have been many subtle Chrome improvements, especially with security. Google Chrome 8 is far more secure after a fresh install than other browsers, thanks to sandboxing techniques that have always been used for tabs and extensions, and which are now used for PDFs and Flash as well.

I really like the new capability in Chrome 8 to selectively turn on plug-ins. Try it. You’ll find that Chrome becomes lightning fast, and there may be a security benefit as well. Suppressing plug-ins on most sites also seems to moderate the impact of memory leaks, so I can sometimes make it through a whole work day without having to restart Chrome.

Here are the steps to enable “Click-to-play” plug-ins:

• Type “about:flags” into the URL bar
• Click on “Enable” next to “Click-to-Play”
• Click on the wrench icon, and select options
• Click on “Under the Hood” and then click “Content settings . . .”
• Click on “Plug-ins” then click on ”Click to play”

For now on, every time you open a tab, plugins will be disabled by default. If you see a puzzle piece surrounded by blank space, you can click on it to enable Flash to do its thing. For some types of plug-ins, the only visual feedback you’ll get is a puzzle piece with a red “X” on the right side of the address bar. Click on it and you’ll be given the option to enable all plug-ins this one time, or enable them always for the web site listed on the address bar.

The above procedure does slow down the rate of memory leaks. There is also now a way to “purge,” which reclaims a portion of leaked memory. Lifehacker explains how to set up and use the purge feature, here.

What About the Competition?

In my opinion, none of the recent improvements to Chrome make up for the Phantom tab setback. The “Click-to-play” plug-ins feature helps moderate the impact of memory leaks, and it is now possible to manually purge memory, but these methods are too complicated for the average user.

I am greatly looking forward to the next versions of Firefox and Opera. I left Firefox due to the interface but Firefox 4 promises a simpler, Chrome-like interface which includes pinned tabs. I haven’t used Opera much because my preferred password manager, RoboForm, didn’t support it. But Opera 11 includes an extensions framework, and the result is full integration with RoboForm. With neither Opera nor Firefox will I need to worry about memory management or interruptions.

UPDATE: There’s a Firefox extension with the equivalent of phantom tabs: Tab Utilities. The behavior of “pinned, unloaded tabs” appears to be identical to the behavior of pinned tabs in Chrome 5. For a more complete description of how pinned tabs work in Tab Utilities, read here.

PINNED TABS VISUAL NOTIFICATION UPDATE: There’s actually a simple thing you can do to make the visual notifications on pinned tabs much more subtle. Choose the minimal theme for Google Chrome. The colors of your Google Chrome installation will change to a whitish grey that is about the same color as moving-cloud visual notification. I am no longer able to notice notifications unless looking straight at the pinned tab.

Final Words

With Chrome 5, Google set the bar much higher for being able to work online without distraction—high enough that even Google has not been able to attain it since. If Google does not bring back the phantom tab, or provide some other means of preventing memory leaks and visual interruptions, I doubt I’ll be calling Chrome the best browser of 2011.

I have been reluctant to post this article as I continue to strongly believe that using a password manager is a much better approach for most people. But having seen a few articles recently describing how to manage passwords without a password manager, I felt the time was right to complete the series on password management.

Read on for specific, detailed examples of how to implement the base phrase approach.

How to Make Good Passwords Using a Base Phrase Approach

This first example illustrates the basic concept: You start with a base password (in this case, “password”), and then you construct the passwords for your Facebook, Gmail, and Chase accounts by using the same rule for each account—in this case, appending the name of the service.

Base Phrase: password
Addition method: append name of service to the end of the base phrase

Example passwords:
Facebook – passwordfacebook
Gmail – passwordgmail
Chase – passwordchase

These kinds of passwords are too obvious, so we need a far better base password, but still easy to remember. So let’s take a phrase you remember but is unguessable, and convert it to a “base phrase” by using the first character of each letter in a logical way, using symbols and capital letters when possible. Use a phrase that is easy for you to remember, such as an interesting fact or a line from a song or poem. For example, let’s say you got a Porsche for your 18th birthday and loved it:

Phrase: For my 18th birthday I got a Porsche 911.  Expensive, but I love it!
Base Phrase: Fm18bIgaP911.$bIli!
Addition method: add name of service to the end of the base phrase

Example passwords:
Facebook – Fm18bIgaP911.$bIli!facebook
Gmail – Fm18bIgaP911.$bIli!gmail
Chase – Fm18bIgaP911.$bIli!chase

These are much stronger passwords and individually very difficult to crack, but there is still a problem. If one of your passwords gets captured, the attacker will do the obvious:  try the same base phrase for all of your other accounts, using the same rule. So we need a better method for naming the service that is much less obvious to an attacker, but easy to remember. Here is one such method:

Phrase: For my 18th birthday I got a Porsche 911. Expensive, but I love it!
Base Phrase: Fm18bIgaP911.$bIli!
Addition method: Transform the first and last letters of the service into other characters by shifting one letter to the right on the keyboard. Insert first transformed character before the base phrase. Append last transformed character after the base phrase.

Example Passwords:
Facebook – gFm18bIgaP911.$bIli!l
Gmail – hFm18bIgaP911.$bIli!;
Chase – vFm18bIgaP911.$bIli!r

With only one captured password, it would be difficult for an attacker to identify which part of the password is the base phrase. On the other hand, if two or more passwords were captured, an attacker could very easily identify the base phrase portion. Armed with this information, the attacker could use brute force methods to crack the rest of your passwords. This is still a vast improvement over standard password management for most people and would thwart many forms of automated attack.

It is also possible to construct more complicated rules that combines your base phrase with the name of the service into a password which eliminates the base phrase altogether. Called “password hashing,” this is considerably more secure than what I outlined above, but far too difficult to implement manually. For more information about password hashing, including helpful tools, read here.

Guidelines

To sum up the above discussion, here are some guidelines to setting up your own personal base phrase system:

• The total password length (base phrase + additional characters) should be 15 or more characters.  I explain why, here.
• The “base phrase” should be easy for you to remember and type, but impossible for others to guess.
• You may want to avoid using special characters in the base phrase, as not all sites accept them.
• The discovery of one password should not imply the others. Use a rule which transforms the additional characters into something else and appending them in a way which is not too obvious.

Gina Trapani of lifehacker fame is an advocate of a base phrase approach (which she refers to as a key with a pattern). You can read her take on the subject here, or even see a video she prepared, here.

A more recent article on this subject was posted to the New York times blog, here. In a follow-up comment, author David Freedman challenged his readers to discover the password he thought up for accessing his nytimes.com account (mcZ3sbja) using an algorithm he devised in his head in 4 seconds. Guess what? A reader quickly figured it out, as described here.

Closing Comments

Correct implementation of the base phrase approach requires considerable care and discipline, and for this reason I do not recommend this approach for most people. There are also other disadvantages compared to a password manager, such as being less convenient to use, not working for sites that require short passwords, and requiring that all passwords be changed if one suspects multiple passwords have been captured.

Nevertheless, some people are very reluctant to entrust software with something as critical as passwords. A base phrase approach correctly used may not be as effective or convenient as using a password manager, but it is a far better method for managing passwords than that practiced by the average Joe.

Can you read anything on a Kindle?

Now the price is lower, the browser is faster, and getting many forms of content onto the Kindle is easier, especially if used in conjunction with Google Reader.

UPDATE 11/3/11: Google recently removed many features from Google Reader, making it useless as a platform for sharing arbitrary content with any device. At the same time, Amazon recently added a personal document service, allowing you to use Kindle’s Whispersync platform to sync your content to your Kindle(s) and all of your devices that have a Kindle app installed. The sections towards the end of this post related to using Google Reader to read anything on a Kindle are therefore no longer useful.

There are two reasons I bought a Kindle 2 and the larger Kindle DX with their eye-friendly screens:

• to read books and short stories (what the Kindle was built for)
• to see if I could read anything (what I really want)

Below I describe the experience of reading a variety of different types of material – novels, collections of short stories, mixed text/graphics, PDFs, web content, and using Google Reader to read RSS or arbitrary web text. While the only truly original part of this post is how to get any web content onto a Kindle (in the Google Reader section), this post may also be of use for laying out in one place what it is like to use a Kindle for a wide variety of reading materials.

FilterJoe readers know that I have an obsession with wanting to read and get work done without distraction. If I completely forget I’m using a Kindle to read, then it’s working. The more I have to think about the Kindle while trying to read, then the less enthusiastic I am.

The Kindles

I bought from Amazon a refurbished Kindle 2 for $140 (occasionally spotted for $110 in July 2010) and a refurbished Kindle DX for $249. The Kindle 2 has a 6” screen, while the DX has a 9.7” screen.

A newer version of the Kindle DX just became available for $379 which has a higher contrast display and a dark frame. There are rumors that the Kindle 2 will soon be replaced by a higher contrast Kindle 3, with possibly other new features.

Using a Kindle for Reading Novels

Reading text-only novels is where the Kindle shines. It is very easy to use the 5 way controller to navigate to the Amazon store and purchase a book. Many public domain books cost little or nothing, while modern titles typically cost $9.99. Purchased books show up on the Kindle home screen. You click on a book to open it.

Text is chunked by page, and the size of the page will vary depending on font size. Clicking the “next” button takes you to the next page. For reading a novel, the navigational controls work well.

With excellent font and typography, I found the screen as easy to read as a newspaper when outdoors, but more difficult indoors, where some form of lighting may be needed unless natural light is plentiful. At night you’ll need either a bright night lamp or clip-on light.

There is a key devoted to bringing up a menu to change font size if you want something bigger or smaller than the default (though I found the default size reasonable). This same menu includes other appearance options, such as “words per line” which I set to “fewest” when reading novels on the Kindle DX.

For books purchased through the Kindle Store, a key advantage over regular books is that you can read them on whatever device you have in your possession, whether it’s a Kindle, an iPad, an iPhone, a Blackberry, or an Android-based device. Bookmarks, annotations, and last reading place are seamlessly synced among devices if you leave your wireless 3G connection on. So, you can be reading the first three chapters of a book on your Kindle, then continue reading right where you left on your smart phone while you’re on the go.

The Kindle does get in my way a little with page turns. With each page turn, there is a brief delay, a distracting flash, and the possibility that I’ll hit the next button too early by accident. I hit the next key accidentally many times at first, but now make this mistake rarely. I make far fewer accidental page turns when using software such as Stanza on touch screen devices.

Though both Kindles work fine for reading a text-based novel, I prefer the Kindle DX because there are fewer page turns. The downside of a Kindle DX is that it’s too heavy to hold in one hand, which is why many people prefer the Kindle 2 over the DX for reading novels. The difference in feel between the two devices is similar to the difference between a hardback and a paperback.

Using a Kindle to Read Chapter Books or Short Story Collections

Some people read chapter books or short story collections straight through without ever looking at the table of contents or flipping around in a different order. For such people, the experience will be the same as reading a novel.

Personally, I want to be able to look at a table of contents and choose where I want to start reading. I would also like to be able to flip through the book, preferably section by section. And I would much prefer to see stories and/or chapters start at the top of a page.

The good news for Kindle owners is that this works pretty well for books which are formatted to take full advantage of the Kindle. Such books will have a table of contents, chapters which start at the top of the page, and waypoints. Waypoints are little dots that appear on a bar at the bottom of the page, and they typically represent the beginning of a chapter or the beginning of a story. They give you a visual representation of how long each chapter is and how far you are in the current chapter. They also give you the ability to flip through the waypoints one by one, forwards or backward, using the 5 way controller.

I like this system, though I would prefer to be able to access the table of contents in one step rather than having to hit the menu key, click on “Go To,” reposition the cursor to “table of contents,” then click on it. Amazon – if you’re reading this – can you please include an Alt-T shortcut in the next Kindle software update?

The bad news for Kindle owners is that most of the free and low cost books on the Amazon store do not include an active table of contents. So far as I have been able to gather, there is no simple way to shop the Amazon store in a way that only displays books with an active table of contents. You might be able to find out if a book is properly formatted by reading the description or reviews. But only by downloading a sample or buying the book will you know for sure if a table of contents is present. For some public domain books there are over a dozen different versions, most or all of which have no table of contents, so it can be somewhat time consuming to download, examine, and delete numerous samples to examine formatting.

I wish that Amazon had a set of rigid formatting guidelines in place that insured only books formatted to take full advantage of the Kindle could make it to the Amazon Store. Amazon has begun to weed out some of the lowest quality books from the store over the past year but they are not weeding out books without table of contents or waypoints.

Thankfully, there is a better way to get well formatted books for the Kindle. Don’t use the Kindle Store.

By far the easiest experience I’ve had is to download Feedbook’s “Kindle Download Guide” (here) and use it as the primary method for obtaining public domain books. It’s a simple matter to search your Kindle from the home screen for your favorite book or author, click to the book, and then click to download it. These books are all properly formatted with waypoints and tables of contents.

The Mobipocket Guide available here is also pretty good but the few books I’ve downloaded did not include waypoints. It is also possible to use the Kindle browser to download books from a number of different sites. Andrys Basten has a complete guide to free or low cost downloads here, but quality varies.

The downside to skipping the Amazon store is that you no longer have the benefit of Whispersync, Amazon’s system for keeping books in sync among multiple devices. If you read all your books on a single Kindle, then you won’t miss this feature.

Lack of table of contents and waypoints in some books were distractions. But setting these issues aside, chapter or story books which are formatted to take full advantage of the Kindle are easy to read and to navigate. If all Kindle books were formatted as well as Feedbook content, I would actually prefer reading chapter books on the Kindle over paper.

Using a Kindle for Mixed Text and Graphics

I downloaded a few samples of books with a mixture of text and graphics and was very disappointed. The graphics quality was mediocre and text that should have been on the same page as a graphic was often not. Changing font size can improve the experience on the Kindle DX, but the Kindle 2 is generally too small for a reasonable reading experience.

Picture books typically assume that the reader is looking at two pages at a time. I tried out two different samples of Curious George books to see if they would even come close to the experience of the paper version. They didn’t. For now, I’ll continue reading traditional Picture books to my son.

My experience with Kindle Store’s mixed text/graphics content was so poor that I eventually gave up after some fruitless tinkering. I hesitate to buy anything from the Kindle store that contains even a small number of graphics and will not do so unless I can see a sample from the book that includes one of the pages with a graphic (Nook owners have an advantage here as they can browse any part of an E-book at a Barnes and Noble store). There may be some good books with pictures or graphics in the Kindle Store but I have yet to see one.

Using a Kindle for Reading a PDF

Both Kindles include a basic PDF reader. My attempts to read PDFs on the Kindle 2 proved futile, as the screen is too small. Text does not reflow to fit the screen, so the only way to read a typical PDF text document is to zoom in. While zooming allows you to read individual words, it is impractical to read a single column 8.5 x 11 page which is divided into 4 or more rectangles, as you have to flip back and forth for each line of text.

The 9.7” screen of the Kindle DX is barely large enough to read a full PDF page. My experience after reading several PDFs is that documents with large font sizes can be read “as is.” However, most of the documents I read use 10 point or smaller fonts. For these, I had several choices:

• Zoom—not a good option, as described above
• Rotate the screen—practical for many documents, though charts and graphs often get chopped in half
• Reading glasses—the best solution in most cases

There are a number of features I hope Amazon adds to future versions of the PDF reader. First and foremost would be a text reflow option. If this is not possible, I’d like to see more flexible zooming that allows me to center in on a particular chart or graph, perhaps by allowing scrolling. Margin cropping would be another useful option.

Overall, reading a PDF on the Kindle DX is worse than reading PDF on a computer and much worse than paper, when the font sizes are small. For documents that use a large font size (12-14pt depending on the font), it works reasonably well, but still not nearly as well as paper. Amazon continues to add PDF capabilities so this may improve over time.

Using a Kindle for Reading a Long Article on the Web

The Kindle browser is faster than it used to be but still slow. So you’re unlikely to use it for general browsing or to read a number of short articles. But it is surprisingly useful for reading long articles on very simple web sites, such as FilterJoe. First turn off JavaScript and Images to make the browser faster. Then navigate to where you want to read a web page that has lengthy text. The Kindle may take many seconds to load the page. But once loaded, the entire text is loaded in memory. This means you can read the entire text of the page like a short story, even if you turn off wireless access.

I find myself not using the Kindle this way. It takes too much time to browse and load pages. Many web pages are too complex to be navigated easily (or in some cases, at all) by the Kindle browser. But the main reason I don’t use the browser is because there are easier ways to get chunks of lengthy text onto the Kindle.

Instapaper,  Calibre, and KindleFeeder are three common ways to get content onto the Kindle (which you can read about here, here, and here). All three of these methods require a USB connection or paying Amazon .15 per MB for wireless delivery.

UPDATE: It is possible to configure Kindles with WiFi (3rd generation and higher) to receive free wireless delivery of content using services such as Instapaper. Instructions here.

I’ve discovered another way that uses a little known feature of Google Reader, which I describe below. Google Reader can be used as a flexible, free and wireless conduit for getting information from computers onto my Kindle.  I find it so useful that 90% of my Kindle Browser use is Google Reader. Below I explain why and how.

The Basics of RSS

As described in Wikipedia here, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works, such as blog entries and news headlines. Consider: Would you rather pick up your Pizza or have it delivered? Similarly, would you rather have to spend your time fetching content from your favorite sites, or have it delivered to you automatically? A feed reader can deliver you content like a pizza delivery man delivers pizza, though with far more flexibility.

One of the most popular feed readers is cloud-based Google Reader which can be used on virtually any device, including the Amazon Kindle. The Kindle does support a proprietary system for reading RSS but it is expensive, inflexible, and offers few feeds, so I have not even tried it.

I use Google Reader to track over 100 feeds. While this sounds like a lot, most of my feeds publish less than 1 post per week, and only one more than 3 times per day. Google Reader provides tools for organizing, pruning, and rapidly reading or skipping content. The main downside of using Google Reader is the potential for self-induced information overload (subscribe to many high volume feeds and you’ll see what I mean). Some of the main benefits include a nice reading format, consolidating your news and blog feeds into one place, discussion tracking, search, archiving, and mobile access.

Using a Kindle for Reading RSS with Google Reader

The mobile version of Google Reader is reasonably fast on the Kindle, especially with the Kindle browser in “basic mode” and images disabled. Before you can use it, you’ll need to set up Google Reader on your computer, and add a few of your favorite feeds. Here is an article that can help get you started:

Google Reader Guide

Then you can access the mobile version of the Google Reader from the Kindle, by typing in this URL:

www.google.com/reader/m

Enter your user name and password. Bookmark the home screen, as well as the screen yet get when you click on “tags.” The Tags screen shows you the tags “starred” and “shared” as well as any tags you have assigned to your feeds. Tags work like folders for the purposes of this discussion.

Once logged in, you can see a list of all unread items on Google Reader Mobile’s home screen. You can also see lists of unread items by a specific tag or specific subscription. A drawback of the mobile version of Google Reader is that you can’t view items you’ve already read unless they are “starred” or “shared.” However, using the “starred” and “shared” tags, you can view almost any web text on your Kindle.

The “starred” tag simply displays any Google Reader items for which you assigned a star, something you can do on every version of Google Reader. I tend to star interesting items either to archive them or because I want to read them later. So I may rapidly go through my list of items on a computer, reading shorter items, skimming some long items, and “mark all as read” the rest. But I “star” long, interesting items for reading at another time. Later, I can easily read them on my computer, my phone, or my Kindle. I prefer to read items with more than a thousand or so words on my Kindle DX.

The “shared” tag displays items that you have decided to share with the world in your own public feed. The intended purpose is to share items with people you think will find the items you select interesting, and you can include a note if you want to comment about the content or explain why you think it is interesting. I have actually never used “share” for this purpose. I use it to read arbitrary web content, as follows:

Google has provided a bookmarklet which allows you to share any piece of content from the web. Follow Google’s instructions to set up the bookmarklet on your computer browser. (UPDATE: I removed this link in November, 2011 because Google no longer supports this bookmarklet or any other method for sharing content with Google Reader). Now, any time you find something on the web that you would rather read on your Kindle, just select the text and click on the bookmarklet “Note in Reader.” You can now read it on your Kindle.

If you simply leave your Kindle’s browser loaded with Google Reader’s Tags you essentially have a way to print to the Kindle. Just select text from a browser, click “Note in Reader,” and the item becomes available on the Kindle. In the Kindle, you need to click on “Shared” then click on the item to open and read it.

So how does all this work in practice? It is more cumbersome than printing to a piece of paper as there are twice as many steps, and the browser is slow. You’ll need to keep battery-draining wireless 3G turned on when navigating Google Reader. And there are some glitches. “Note in Reader” bookmarklet sometimes cuts off text after certain HTML characters, which happened when I clipped a Google 10-K financial document. It is also possible to overload the Kindle browser with a very long item in Google Reader that contains many graphs and charts, which requires a reboot.

However, for text-only documents with basic formatting it works well. It works especially well to accumulate articles and then read a batch of them on the Kindle.

Overall, I find the benefit of reading long posts on a hand held E-ink device outweighs the hassles I just described, but I’m wishing for more. What I really want is to be able to select “print to E-ink” on my computer and it just shows up on my Kindle, as if I had just clicked on it. No limits. No hassles. No Hacks. No complicated setup. Whoever can do this one simple thing well will sell a lot of E-ink devices. Amazon, are you listening?

Conclusion – Can You Read Anything with the Kindle?

The answer is no, the Kindle does not quite work as a device to read anything. Both sizes of Kindle work well for pure text novels and properly formatted chapter books. Both work poorly for picture books or anything image intensive. PDFs are barely acceptable on a Kindle DX, and not acceptable on the smaller Kindle 2. But with a bit of effort, both sizes of Kindle can almost read any web text using several possible methods, the most flexible of which I believe to be Google Reader. Overall, the Kindle DX can be used on a wider range of material than the Kindle 2 due to screen size. But “reading anything” is by no means a seamless experience.

To be fair, “reading anything” is not the intended function of a Kindle. Amazon’s intention is for the Kindle to be a device that makes it easy for people to read books, collections of short stories, and periodicals available on the Kindle Store. This makes sense for Amazon as a business model, as the Kindle store is the primary means by which Amazon makes money off the Kindle platform. Amazon mostly succeeds at this, though there is room for further improvements to the user experience with tables of contents and the average quality level of Kindle store content.

However, I want to be able to read anything on an E-ink screen. For content other than text-only books this is currently cumbersome on a Kindle, and in some cases not workable.

UPDATE: I’ve used an iPod touch for several months, since writing this post. I’ve found that it’s a better general purpose reading device than the Kindle. For my detailed comparison, read iPod touch vs. Kindle: Which is Best for Reading?.

The Future

E-ink devices powered by Android will become widely available in 2011. Some of these devices may make full use of Android’s reading capabilities, including a good mobile browser that can access an Android-optimized version of Google Reader. Third party Android apps such as Evernote, Dropbox, Kindle for Android, and Nook for Android will make it far easier to effortlessly “read anything” on an E-ink screen. The Nook is already based on a restricted version of Android, so Barnes and Noble may choose to take greater advantage of Android’s reader friendly features.

For a very long time I’ve been looking forward to the day when reading anything electronic is comparable in quality and effort to reading traditional books and newspapers. That day is almost here. But not quite.

Chrome is a memory hog because of the way it handles auto refresh on sites such as Gmail, Google Finance and Google Reader. Windows users who monitor memory with the Windows Task Manager can see how the memory increases each time a tab is manually refreshed, or automatically when there are one or more open tabs which auto refresh. I suspect that Chrome does not release caches from refreshed tabs until they are closed—at least not on any of my Windows XP SP3 systems.

There are several workarounds for this issue. The most drastic is to close Chrome and then reopen it. This is time consuming if you need to log back in to several sites. A slightly less drastic alternative is to purchase more RAM. Here are two methods I use that are not so disruptive. Both involve closing and reopening tabs:

Method 1: When Chrome slows down, close all but one tab then reopen them all

1. Type Ctrl-W repeatedly to close all but one tab.
2. Type Ctrl-Shift-T repeatedly until all tabs are back open. This will reopen up to 10 previously closed tabs.

Method 2: (Only works on Chrome 5) Keep most pinned tabs closed so that Chrome never gets slow

1. Pin all auto refreshing tabs which you plan to keep open throughout the day. Tabs can be pinned by right-clicking on the tab and choosing “Pin tab.”
2. When you are done using a pinned tab, close it with Ctrl-W. Notice that the favicon becomes dim, a “Phantom Tab.”
3. When you need to use the closed tab, simply click on the dimmed favicon, and it will open back up. Chrome is so fast, that this will usually take less than a second.

I find dim favicons less distracting than bright ones so for that reason I prefer the second method.

Chrome’s memory management issues complicate what is otherwise a terrific browser, whose merits I describe here. Firefox has more efficient memory management, so may be more suitable for memory constrained systems. Chrome otherwise suits my needs better than the competition so I’ll continue using it with the workarounds described above.

UPDATES:

Chrome 6 rolled out on September 2 and eliminated dimmed favicons (also called “phantom tabs”) which destroyed method 2 described above.

Google Chrome has a voting system for bringing back terminated features. Just visit the link below and click the star if you want Phantom tabs to come back:

Phantom Tabs Always

Since Chrome 8 (12/2/10), plug-ins can be turned off by default and selectively enabled, which seems to reduce memory leaks. I provide details on how to enable this here.

There is also now a way to “purge,” which reclaims a portion of leaked memory in Chrome 8 and Chrome 9. Lifehacker explains how to set up and use the purge feature, here.

Chrome 10 rolled out March 8, 2011. I reviewed all five major browsers a few days later. I briefly noted that Chrome 10 is a little better with memory management than prior versions. To elaborate: it appears to me that memory leaks for auto refreshing web apps happen at a much slower rate or on some pages not at all. Also, closing tabs seems to reclaim a bit more memory than it used to. The net effect of this for my particular usage pattern is that a fresh install of Chrome on a system with 1GB of RAM can last 2-5 hours without needing to be restarted, as opposed to 1-3 hours previously.

For those who love phantom tabs so much that they’re willing to change browsers, note this Firefox add-on: Tab Utilities. The behavior of “pinned, unloaded tabs” appears to be identical to the behavior of pinned tabs in Chrome 5 that turn into Phantom tabs when closed. For a more complete description of how pinned tabs work in Tab Utilities, read here.

NOTE: In March 2011 I posted a more current comparison of the latest browser versions, Best Browsers . . .

In 2010, the same five browsers continue to dominate the market, but my order of preference has changed. Why?

In a word: Chrome.

Google’s Chrome browser was designed from the ground up to be good at running web applications, with an underlying architecture that is faster, more secure, and more stable than the competition. Chrome succeeded. The competition has responded. Users have benefited.

The latest versions of the five major browsers are all far faster, safer, and more stable than they were in late 2008. All five browsers are good and getting better. But with the recent addition of extensions, Chrome has taken the lead, and in my opinion deserves the “best browser 2010″ award.  I explain why I recently switched from Firefox to Google Chrome at the end of this post.

Browser Reviews

Below are summaries of the strengths, weaknesses, and future expectations of the five major browsers—and what makes each browser distinctive and appropriate for a certain type of user. Though ordered by my personal preference, what’s best for me may not be best for you.

For detailed Windows speed tests, look here or here, and for Macs, here.  (UPDATE:  For browser updates coming in 2011, see here for December 2010 speed tests).

1. Chrome 5

Chrome continues to be very fast, secure, and reliable. The uncluttered interface makes it easy to focus on work. Chrome is therefore an ideal browser for running web applications such as Gmail, Evernote, or Facebook. Over the past year, many features were added to Chrome, including support for extensions.

Chrome extensions can use only one tiny icon’s worth of screen space and are restricted in other ways. This purposeful tradeoff sacrifices flexibility and potential capabilities in order to keep Chrome fast, reliable, and uncluttered. Chrome also keeps the user experience streamlined with automatic browser updates, the ability to shrink tabs into small icons, and reduced use of dialog boxes.

Chrome is not for everyone. It is a memory hog, so your system should have 1GB RAM for 5-10 tabs, and 2GB RAM if you routinely keep more than 10 tabs open—otherwise you’ll need to close and reopen your tabs every few hours (see here for a more elegant workaround, and here for why this workaround has stopped working since September 2, 2010). Some people don’t like the minimal look and reduced menu access. Some Firefox users may miss the functionality of some of their favorite add-ons. The built-in password manager does not encrypt passwords, so don’t use it (Use a dedicated password manager instead).

Perhaps most importantly, some people feel uneasy about how much of their data Google can see, which can really add up if you use Google search, Gmail, and Chrome. For people who are uneasy about Google’s data collection but still want Chrome’s benefits, there are nearly identical alternatives that don’t collect user data, such as SRWare Iron or other browsers mentioned here.

However, for both the average Joe and the power user, Chrome’s speed, reliability, and uncluttered interface makes it the best browser in 2010 for getting work done. Users have noticed. Google Chrome’s global market share has jumped from 4.6% to 7.0% over the past 5 months.

Major Upgrade: Version 5 was released on May 25, 2010. It is faster, more secure (Flash auto-updates) and now works on Linux and Mac (10.5.6 or later) systems in addition to Windows (XP or higher). Version 6 will be faster still, with a number of additional minor features.  Chrome appears to be improving at a faster rate than its competition.

By early 2011, tablets and netbooks will be available that launch right into the Chrome browser within seconds after turning on. Like Apple’s iPad, these devices are expected to be much easier to maintain and keep secure than today’s general purpose computers.

2. Opera 10.53

Chrome and Firefox attempt to be bare bones browsers, to which you add functionality with extensions. Opera, on the other hand, already comes bundled with many extras that users typically want, such as ad blocking, note taking, data sharing, and sync. While Opera does not support extensions, it does support many forms of customization through third-party add-ons, including plug-ins, skins, panels, as well as separate applications called widgets. Despite the extra included features, Opera is about as fast and uncluttered as Chrome. On top of all this, Opera experiences fewer security issues than other browsers, partly because hackers typically don’t bother with low market share browsers.

So why don’t more people use Opera? A small number of web sites do not load properly, as some developers don’t test their sites with Opera. Some users simply don’t care for the interface. Recent versions of Opera take up a lot of memory when many tabs are open. Perhaps the biggest reason is that few people have heard of it. But Opera is a fine choice for many users, especially for the majority of people who don’t spend much time changing settings, adding extensions, or taking extra security measures.

Of the five major browsers, Opera runs on the widest variety of systems. Opera runs on Macs (10.4 or higher), Linux, and Windows (XP or higher). Year-old Opera 9.64 runs on Windows 98. Opera also has mobile clients available for most mobile devices, which can sync bookmarks and history with Opera on the desktop.

Major Upgrade: With the release of Opera 10.5 in March of 2010, Opera’s speed is comparable to Chrome and Safari. New features added over the past half year include independent widgets, a very flexible framework for sharing any kind of data across devices (Opera Unite), and support for new web standards. The next major upgrade for Opera has not been announced, though Opera 10.6 will further increase speed and stability.

3. Firefox 3.6.4

Firefox continues to be the most customizable browser, thanks to its vast library of add-ons. It continues to work well on Windows (2000 and later), Mac (10.4 and later), and Linux. Its memory efficient design allows multiple tabs to be opened and closed on systems with as little as 512MB RAM. For those who desire or need the highest level of security, nothing beats Firefox used in conjunction with the NoScript add-on.

This flexibility and security is great for the power user who can make Firefox do almost anything. But for the average Joe, there are simpler, alternatives. With no add-ons installed, Opera and Chrome are both faster, more secure, and less cluttered than Firefox. This is not to say Firefox is a bad browser. It is a great browser, which continues to get faster and better with each release. It’s just that lately, Chrome and Opera are even better.

Major Upgrade: “Catching up with Chrome” is the easiest way to describe most improvements to Firefox since the June 2008 release of Firefox 3.0 (private browsing, process isolation, changing themes without restarting, etc.). Firefox 4.0 is scheduled for release by early 2011 and promises to close the gap further with greater speed, automatic updates, and a simpler interface. Significant improvements to password management, automated sign-ins, and the ability to sync bookmarks and add ons will also be included.

4. Safari 5

For the last few years, Safari lagged behind Chrome, Opera, and Firefox in terms of speed, security, and flexibility. This just changed. Version 5 (released June 7, 2010) is just as fast as Chrome, and finally offers a framework for extensions. It is not yet clear whether Safari is more secure, but Apple’s approval system for extensions will reduce the chance of security issues arising from rogue extensions.

Though Safari still lacks Full Screen mode, a press of its built-in “reader” button transforms cluttered web pages into an easy-to-read format (similar to the “readability” bookmarklet I describe here). The reader button currently works more slowly and on fewer sites than “readability.”

As the browser bundled with all new Mac systems, Safari 5 will likely be good enough for most users. The pretty interface blends in well with the overall look and feel of a Mac. However, some may prefer Chrome or Opera to reduce distractions (such as cover flow) even further. Others may prefer the flexibility of Firefox with its massive extensions library.

Major Upgrade: Version 5 was just released for both Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Mac (10.5.8, 10.6.2, and 10.6.3), and is described above. Expect to see a number of officially sanctioned extensions by August 2010. Apple has not discussed what it has in mind for version 6.

A version of Safari is available for the Apple’s iPad which was released in April. Early adopters are nearly unanimous in their praise for how fast and easy this version of Safari is to use, though it doesn’t work on all web sites due to lack of Flash support.

5. Internet Explorer 8 (IE8)

IE8 is a good browser, and it is vastly better than its slower and dangerously insecure predecessors. But it is ranked last because it is slower, less flexible, and less standards compliant than the competition. And it is also slower to improve. Slices, accelerators, and site suggestions seemed like promising new features to help access information like maps or definitions with fewer clicks and keystrokes—but they don’t seem to have caught on in a big way.

IE8 works on Windows desktop versions XP, Vista and 7, and Windows Server versions 2003 and 2008. Despite the fact that Windows XP currently has over 62% market share, IE9 will not be available for Windows XP.

All Windows users have to use some version of Internet Explorer at least occasionally for Windows updates, Netflix streaming or some other IE-only sites. It is the only browser at many workplaces and comes bundled on all Windows systems outside of Europe. For many of these people, IE8 will be good enough. However, given the greater speed and flexibility of the competition, Window users who have a choice will generally be better off with Chrome, Opera, or Firefox.

Major Upgrade: A beta version of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) will be released for testing this summer. It is expected to be generally faster, more secure, and more standards compliant. Graphics-intensive sites will run many times faster thanks to support for hardware acceleration. IE9 will run on Vista and 7, but not Windows XP.

Conclusions – And Why I Switched to Chrome

Firefox has been my primary browser since 2003. Last year, I began to regularly use web apps like Gmail, Evernote, and WordPress on a wide screen. The Firefox interface worked well for browsing, but not so well for writing and working. I tried to simplify the Firefox interface with extensions like Tree Style Tab, Tab Mix Plus, and Personal Menu. But once RoboForm’s extension was released for Chrome, I capitulated. I switched to Chrome in April 2010 and haven’t looked back.

The best thing about Chrome is you don’t even have to use it to get many of its benefits. Thanks to the increased competition, you just need to keep regularly upgrading your browser to see big speed, security, and stability improvements, along with an ever less cluttered interface. Your browser may not be as good as the latest version of Chrome, but it may be good enough.

What should you do if you are a Skyrock user? What should you do if you are not a Skyrock user?

Skyrock is a leading social network site and blogging platform in France, Belgium and Switzerland and the seventh largest social network in the world. The number of accounts that were potentially compromised have been variously reported between 30 million and 38.5 million.

Social networks with advanced blogging platforms such as Skyrock are a prime target, because successful attackers can steal your identity, install malware on your account, trick your friends into installing malware, and/or break into any other account you own that uses the same password.

If You are NOT a Skyrock User

If you don’t use Skyrock, you should be concerned. Any Skyrock blog you visit could potentially inject malware into your browser. I discuss defenses for browser-based attacks here. Expect an increase in the amount of e-mails or facebook messages from friends asking you to click a link, watch a video, install something, or send money. If you receive such a message, be very cautious. Verify it is really coming from your friend before taking any suggested action.

If You ARE a Skyrock User

If you are a Skyrock user change your password (mot de passe) immediately. Also change your passwords on all other services for which you were using the same password. If you don’t, there is a good chance that all of your accounts will be taken over that use this password, using the method I describe here.

If you have a different password for each of your accounts, the damage from this attack will be minimal. Simply change your Skyrock password and you’re done.

A Better Way to Manage Your Passwords

Most people use the same password for multiple accounts, because it is hard to remember more than a few passwords. This is not a good idea, as many Skyrock users are about to find out.

Earlier this month, I described an easy way to keep track of a different password for each account, here. Use a password manager to assign unique passwords at least 15 random characters long for all accounts, protecting them all with a strong master password. Sounds hard, but it is actually easy to do, and you save yourself time in the long run.

FilterJoe is not a news reporting site so posts of this type will be rare. I made an exception for SkyRock because it is such a large security breach, U.S. reporting of it has been scarce, and password security has been a recent focus on this site. If a few people improve the way they manage passwords as a result of reading this post, then the exception will have been worth it.

Like personal security, password management is something most people don’t think much about until after something bad happens. Unfortunately, the Internet is not secure. Just as you need to be “street wise” when venturing onto streets, you need to be “net wise” – especially with passwords – when venturing onto the Internet. Because, like it or not, your passwords are currently the main barrier between you and the bad guys.

Most password management advice seems designed to torture you as opposed to help you. For the average Joe with average security needs, password management advice needs to be simple and usable, not just secure. Luckily, there is a reasonably secure form of password management that is simple and usable. Here it is:

The Four Steps to Simple, Usable, and Secure Password Management

• Choose a password manager.
• Setup unique, random 15 character passwords for every online account. Sounds hard, but most password managers make this easy to do.
• Protect these passwords with a master password that is strong and memorable.
• Use your password manager by typing in your master password each time you start your computer work.  Then use a single click to log in to each account, as needed.

This is all you need to do.

This is not the usual advice you’ll find in formal and informal blogs across the internet, and it will not perfectly secure you against all possible forms of password theft. It is, however, the best blend of security and ease-of-use I’ve been able to come up with after considerable research and thought about the subject.

If you follow the four steps above, you’ll be much safer than the average netizen – comparable to having a home protected by locks, burglar alarms, smoke detectors, and sprinklers as opposed to just a front door lock with a spare key underneath the mat. You will not only protect yourself from the most common threats, but you will also save yourself a lot of time over the long run thanks to automatic logins and form filling.

Read through the entire series to learn why you should take the time to do this, the best way to go about doing it, what security advice you should ignore, and most importantly to become as “net wise” as you are “street wise.”

The complete list of posts:

Contents

• Password Management for the Average Joe (this post)
• Use a Password Manager to Assign Unique, Random 15 Character Passwords for all Accounts, Protecting them with a Strong Master Password
• Which Password Manager?
• Tips for Wise Use of Password Managers – Including Master Password Selection
• Bad or Useless Advice about Password Management
• A Base Phrase Approach to Password Management
• How Attackers Steal Passwords
• The Usual Way to Manage Passwords and How Attackers Exploit It
• Definitions for Common Password Security Terms

Disclaimers

1)  Passwords are just one form of necessary security. PCs with out-of-date browsers, security software, and/or operating system software frequently get infected with malware. Perfect password security doesn’t matter if malware observes everything you do on your computer.

2)  I have not been paid to create this series of articles, and will receive no payments if you click on any links in the main content area. The only free product accepted as part of writing this series of articles was 1Password for my wife to test on her iMac. I wrote this comprehensive guide because I have developed a passion for the subject over the past year and felt that someone needed to pull all these password-related concepts together into one helpful reference guide. I welcome specific feedback so that I can improve upon this series of posts on passwords, with the hope that helping people to become more “net wise” will help reduce password theft.

Most thieves are not highly skilled, and even thieves with greater skill prefer easier targets. So locking doors will discourage many thieves, and a big, barking dog will discourage even more.

The same is true with hackers – most are not highly skilled and even those who are prefer easy targets. If you are a typical consumer without data of great value to criminals, then using a password manager as I describe here can act as the equivalent of a locked door combined with a barking dog, an alarm system, and a sprinkler system – which will keep out all but the most highly skilled and determined hackers.

Unfortunately, the way most people manage their passwords can be easily exploited by automated malware or as part of larger attacks that harvest thousands of passwords. Even more unfortunately, the vast majority of advice about password management is either misguided or too complicated. In this post I explain why I believe using a Password Manager (to assign unique, random 15 character passwords for all accounts, protecting them with a strong master password) strikes the best balance of usability and security for the average Joe.

The title of this post sums up the password management approach that I believe provides the most benefit for the least effort. In the rest of this post, I explain why.

Why Use a Password Manager?

It is entirely possible to manage passwords well without a password manager, using a base phrase approach. The problem is, few people do it. And for good reason.

With a password manager, it is very easy to manage hundreds of accounts, each with unique, long, randomly generated passwords. The user simply enters a master password at the beginning of each computer session, and all subsequent passwords are entered with a single click or keystroke. With most password managers, you can also have your address and credit card information filled in automatically when setting up new accounts or making one-time purchases.

It takes several hours to set up a password manager for the first time and change your collection of passwords to stronger ones. But in the long run, you actually save time and attention as you will no longer have to manually enter passwords or fill forms many times per day. You also reduce the chance you’ll ever have to spend time recovering a hijacked account.

Why Should Every Account Have a Unique Password?

By far the most important advice in this series of posts is to never use the same password for more than one account. There are numerous ways attackers can capture a password. If you use the Internet in a typical way, chances are high that one of your passwords will get captured, perhaps once every 2 or 3 years. It can happen to anyone, even tech savvy, security conscious people like Amit Agarwal or Cory Doctorow. Once an attacker has your password for one account, the attacker has the password for all accounts which use this same password.

But it is often worse. If you used this same password for an e-mail account, even an old, abandoned e-mail account, it is possible to use information contained in old e-mails to break into most or all of your accounts. It is by this means that several high profile break-ins have occurred to corporate networks over the past year, including the well publicized Twitter break-in.

None of this is an issue if you have a unique password for every account. While it will not protect you from getting the occasional password stolen, it will limit the damage to just that one account.

Why do Passwords Need to be 15 or More Characters Long?

Most people don’t realize that user names and passwords routinely get stolen while your computer is off and disconnected from the internet. How? Web sites with many users and weak security are prime targets for attackers who want to steal a password file which lists all user names and passwords. While most sites do not store passwords as clear text, many sites store passwords in a form that can be read using widely available rainbow table software. For people who use the same password on many sites, the theft of this password on one site can be the starting point for an attack on all of your accounts.

You may not care about all the technical details, but the bottom line is that it is very difficult to crack a password that is 15 or more randomly generated characters, either by brute force or using rainbow tables on captured passwords files. Even more advanced password cracking techniques using the latest software, graphics cards, or bot nets will not be able to crack such passwords.

An additional benefit of using randomly generated passwords that are so long, is that passwords composed of just lowercase letters are plenty strong. For passwords that you need to enter into a cell phone manually, 15 random lowercase letters are easier to enter than something like r5!9f#X.

Why do Passwords Need to be Randomly Generated?

Humans are notoriously poor at generating randomness, in passwords or anything else. It is actually possible to devise memorable passwords which are also very strong. It is something you will need to do once, for your master password, and it will probably take at least a few minutes to come up with a really great password. But there is no need for you to remember any of your other passwords when your password manager remembers them all.

While a computer may have difficulty generating random character strings that would satisfy the stringent standards of a mathematician or cryptographer, in actual practice the passwords generated by password management software will not be the weak link in your password security.  Attackers have many easier ways to steal passwords.

The way password cracking software works is to test passwords from dictionaries, proper names, and lists of common passwords. The software may also try minor variations of all of these common words such as adding or inserting an extra digit – since that is how many people construct passwords. If that doesn’t work, then it will try every possible combination of characters up to a certain length – perhaps 8 or 9 characters.

The random password generators included with the more popular password managers will generate passwords that aren’t on any of these lists, and will not construct passwords the way a human would. Combined with 15 character length, the resulting password is nearly uncrackable by brute force methods.

Why do Passwords Need to be Guarded by a Strong Master Password?

The most common criticism of password managers is that it has access to all of your passwords. In the event that someone gets access to your password manager, they have access to all of your passwords. And this is true.

This criticism scares away many people from using password managers, and many of these people will continue to use the same 2 or 3 weak passwords for all accounts.

The fact of the matter is, it’s not so easy for an attacker to get access to passwords when they are protected by a strong master password. It is theoretically possible for key logging software or hardware to capture the master password or for flaws in the operating system, browser, or password manager to be exploited. But if master passwords were frequently captured, there would be reports of it. I looked but was not able to find any such reports. I was also told by Simon Davis of Siber Systems (makers of RoboForm) that his company has never received a report of someone’s master password being compromised by a keystroke logger. For those working in an environment where keystroke logging might be an issue, Roboform and some other password managers offer an on-screen keyboard option which can not be recorded by keystroke logging software.

Nevertheless, if you use password management software to store all of your passwords, you do need to recognize that all of your passwords are collected in one spot. The way you can protect this collection is to choose a very strong master password, which applies to all of your accounts. I explain master password selection and other password management tips here.

If you’re already using and liking a password manager not mentioned in this post, by all means keep using it so long as it offers master password protection in combination with strong encryption. While most password managers offer password import and export functions, the actual practice of switching password managers and learning a new one is cumbersome.

However, if you’re selecting a password manager for the first time or dissatisfied with your current password manager, you may as well benefit from my efforts to identify the best password managers for individuals. My efforts included extensive use of two password managers and poring through hundreds of reviews, forums, and comments about many others.

Below I describe four password managers with an outstanding combination of features, low cost, ease of use, and well-deserved popularity.

What to look for in a Password Manager

• Security must be a given (master password, AES).
• It should be as easy as possible to get started using the password manager, without sacrificing security.
• It must be easy to securely auto-fill user name and passwords in the more popular browsers.
• It must be easy to capture new login information and associate with one specific site.
• Passwords should be synced and easily available on all the desktop and mobile platforms you use. Keeping your passwords on your phone is more secure than carrying around a printed listing of your passwords, so long as it is protected by a master password.

There are also a few optional features that you may want, such as automatic form filling, secure notes, multiple identities, easy import/export, password generation, USB key support, and additional security features such as virtual keyboards, two-factor authentication, and one-time passwords.

Weaknesses Shared by all Password Managers

So far as I have been able to determine, all password managers will let you choose as weak a master password as you like, some without any warning. Most password managers allow some or all passwords to not be protected by a master password. Furthermore, many password managers ask users to make decisions during setup (or offer options) that require significant knowledge of password security.

By allowing this flexibility, users can be exposed to more danger than if they weren’t using a password manager at all – because all of these unprotected or lightly protected passwords are assembled in one electronic location.

Simon Davis of RoboForm-maker Siber Systems says that users of RoboForm fall into two categories: those who seek convenience and those who seek security. His experience has been that convenience users outnumber security conscious users. Some people do not protect any data with a master password.

I suspect that most users seeking convenience would use a strong master password to protect all passwords if they understood the risks involved of not doing so. I started out as a RoboForm convenience user but changed my habits to a secure user after educating myself about the risks of unprotected passwords.

It is possible to imagine password manager software which does a better job of both warning and educating users about unsafe password practices. It is also possible to imagine a setup process for password managers that asked the user a simple question at the beginning of setup: Do you want to optimize for security, convenience, or half-way in between? At the very least, I would like to see improved, cooperative efforts by the security industry to promote safe password practices.

Best Cloud-Based Password Manager: LastPass

Cloud Computing is the use of web services to create, edit, and store data on servers located elsewhere. A number of cloud-based password services have launched in the past few years. These password services make it easy for you to access your passwords from any desktop or mobile browser. While many people feel instinctively more comfortable storing sensitive information on their own hard drive rather then some far off server, the developers of such sites explain that they don’t store your master password. It is impossible to view the encrypted passwords stored on their servers without the master password, even for employees of the online password service.

If you’re comfortable with your passwords being encrypted and stored in the cloud, you’ll find that using cloud-based password services are convenient. Your passwords are easily available and synced across all platforms using browser bookmarklets, plugins, or extensions. For people who use multiple operating systems, browsers, and mobile devices on a daily basis, a cloud-based solution is far more convenient than the desktop-based competition, which is generally compatible with fewer systems. Assuming proper security, the only disadvantage is that the service can be partially or fully disrupted when the server storing the passwords goes down.

LastPass is one such cloud-based password service. Though I have not personally tested LastPass, an examination of reviews, forums and the LastPass web site suggests that users are overwhelmingly satisfied with LastPass. This service is the only password manager system for consumers I’ve come across that includes every optional feature offered by any of its competitors. The “one-time passwords” feature provides a secure means to access passwords from public WiFi. The potential disruption caused by temporary server failure can be mitigated by local password caching for those who use a plug-in for Firefox or Internet Explorer. LastPass maintains an extensive and well organized web site and forums.

LastPass is a free service with basic functionality comparable with RoboForm or 1Password, yet available on a wider variety of platforms. For $12/year, LastPass offers mobile clients, two factor authentication, and emergency phone support. And most people who have tested multiple password managers claim that LastPass is one of the easiest to use.

You can learn more from these two reviews:

LastPass Review by PC Magazine

LastPass Review by Tech Herald

And from the LastPass web site:

LastPass.com

Risks of Storing Passwords in the Cloud with LastPass (UPDATE)

Two recent incidents highlight the risks of storing passwords in the cloud, so I felt a need to update this post with this entirely new section.

On May 4, 2011, lastpass notified users of an unexplained transmission of data to and from their services. It is not known whether passwords were stolen. Given that stored passwords are encrypted, this is not likely to cause problems but lastpass management has taken precautionary steps. Details here.

On February 26, 2011, security researcher Mike Cardwell reported a LastPass vulnerability. A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability allowed the possibility of any logged-in LastPass user visiting a malicious web site to have various account details logged (though not in a way that exposed encrypted passwords). Mike Cardwell believes other XSS LastPass vulnerabilities may be discovered in the future, based on his understanding of the LastPass architecture. LastPass is a top notch company and I expect them to do everything possible to eliminate any remaining vulnerabilities. Details from lastpass are here.

LastPass responded with great speed and openness to both issues which is a great credit to their integrity. However, these incidents serve as a reminder that web-based software is more difficult to secure than desktop-based software. LastPass is a tempting target for password thieves. I have no doubts about the integrity or ability of the LastPass team. But the more popular they get, the more resources will be used by the bad guys to break in and steal passwords. People with nagging doubts about the security of web-based password managers can now point to these real examples.

Best Windows Password Manager: RoboForm

UPDATE: EasyPass was launched by security software leader avast! in October 2011. It is essentially RoboForm. So this review of RoboForm serves as a review of the Avast EasyPass password manager as well.

For those people who use their passwords primarily on their Windows systems, RoboForm offers fully featured password management and automatic form filling software for a reasonable cost ($29.95 for the first system, $9.95 for subsequent licenses). An online version of RoboForm with fewer features is available for free. For years, RoboForm received top accolades from PC magazine and other publications, though in recent times the competition has greatly improved.

For those who prefer to store their passwords on their own system, RoboForm remains the best option for Windows. Plug-ins for Firefox and Internet Explorer (UPDATE: and in 2011, Chrome and Opera) makes RoboForm work very smoothly with browsers. I have used RoboForm for over 5 years and have no plans to switch. Dropbox keeps my 3 Windows systems’ passwords in sync.

While RoboForm has its roots as Windows software, it has versions for most major mobile platforms ranging from the Blackberry (nonsyncing, basic password storage that can be used via copy/paste) to the iPhone (includes sync and 1 click logins). Using an optional, free RoboForm Online service in conjunction with the RoboForm Bookmarklet allows RoboForm to autofill logins on unsupported browsers or unsupported operating systems (OS X, Linux). RoboForm extensions for Firefox and Chrome used in conjunction with Roboform Online means that RoboForm can be accessed from either of these two browsers on any operating system.

RoboForm is very flexible – perhaps too flexible – as it allows users many options to reduce security. For example, the security settings can be set so that 5 hours after you close your browser, log out, and put your computer to sleep, someone could waken the computer, log in to the guest account, and start logging in to all your web sites. RoboForm is not set up this way by default, but why even allow the possibility of such an insecure setup?

Once you do set up RoboForm securely, it has all the required and most of the optional features one would want in a password manager. Its superior handling of a wide variety of web site styles for automatic form filling and login field detection makes it very easy to use, and a big time saver. Additional nice touches include tracking password changes, an optional feature to gracefully handle new account setup, and a customizable tool bar.

Version 7 of RoboForm improved the user interface, added fingerprint reader support, and extended functionality beyond browsers into many other windows programs that require passwords. Also under development is a Mac OS X client (UPDATE: released in February 2012), a Google Chrome plug-in (that does not require the use of RoboForm Online), an Android client, and improved versions of the existing mobile clients.

You can learn more from this review:

RoboForm Review by Tech Herald

And a video demonstration of RoboForm that is helpful for those totally new to password managers:

RoboForm Demonstration Video

And the RoboForm web site:

RoboForm.com

UPDATE: Roboform 7 was released in December of 2010. See PC Magazine’s Roboform 7 review for an excellent review.

Best Mac OS X Password Manager: 1Password

1Password is by far the most tightly integrated password manager for Apple’s computers, iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches. It looks, feels, and acts as if were a part of the Mac OS, while also including most of the features found in other great password managers. It is therefore the obvious choice for people who use only Apple devices. It costs $39.95 for the Mac version, and $14.99 for a mobile version which works on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Less expensive mobile versions are also available that have fewer features and work on fewer devices.

Like all password managers, setting up 1Password requires some learning. Trying to determine which versions of 1Password work on which operating systems for Macs and iPhones is mildly confusing, as is certain choices during setup.

But once set up, logins are fast and integration with Firefox and Safari is seamless. When you change passwords, 1Password prompts you to replace the prior password so you don’t have to do it manually. The product is very well supported, including an extensive web site with forums. Agile Bits (formerly Agile Solutions) is always very quick to make versions of 1Password available for any new Apple product or operating system (most recently, the iPad).

My wife Karin tested 1Password 2.9.x over the past year with her iMac (Mac OS 10.4.11). Prior to 1Password, Karin had never used a password manager. While Karin expressed reservations both prior to getting 1Password and during the first two weeks of use, it has since become second nature and she has become a fan of the password manager concept in general. So much so, that she recently purchased the 1Password iPod touch version.

Version 3.x was released in November of 2009 and requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. It has a number of helpful new features, including an option to make your passwords available to other operating systems and mobile devices, software license management, greater mobile syncing flexibility, and password storage for applications and other services that aren’t used in a browser.  Setup has also been simplified as the user is no longer required to make a decision about how to store passwords—the Agile keychain is now the only choice.

A 1Password client for Windows is under development (UPDATE: Windows version available since December, 2010. It was awkward to use when first released but I have not tested more recent, refined versions).

You can learn more from this review:

1Password Review by SmokingApples

And the 1Password web site:

1Password

Best Free Password Manager: KeePass

KeePass is a free, open source password manager first released in 2003. It now has versions available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and a number of mobile devices. An advantage of open sourced software is that it is open to scrutiny, which greatly increases the chances that it will be secure and free of bugs, as compared with its proprietary counterparts. This is especially advantageous for security software such as a password manager which requires a user to entrust sensitive data to a third party.

KeePass is a fully featured password manager that includes random password generation, support for desktop application passwords, and additional security features such as two-factor authentication. Various plug-ins provide additional functionality.

However, using KeePass requires a certain amount of computer sophistication and tinkering. The lack of browser integration requires the use of global, auto-login keyboard shortcuts (auto-type), which works on some sites but requires tinkering to get working on others. The commercial password managers discussed above all take care of automatic logins more gracefully and have superior user interfaces. Therefore, KeePass may not be appropriate for the average Joe, but any article about the best password managers should mention KeePass given its zero cost, its open source scrutiny, and its popularity among more sophisticated computer users. Among the tech savvy lifehacker crowd, KeePass is most popular, though the others mentioned in this post are also popular.

Here is a review of KeePass:

KeePass review by Tech Herald

And the KeePass web site:

KeePass

Honorable mention goes to Password Safe (also free and open source), which is associated with cryptography expert Bruce Schneier. It has fewer features than the other password managers mentioned in this post, concentrating on password entry alone. But it works, and may be sufficient to meet some peoples’ needs.

Password Safe

Built-in Browser Password Managers

Many people use password managers that come built-in to their browser or security suite. There are several reasons not to do this:

• Passwords are not shared everywhere you use them (though Xmarks can partially solve this issue)
• Browser password security is sometimes inferior or buggy as compared with stand-alone products, as it is not the main focus
• Several stand-alone password managers have superior user interfaces and flexibility, making single click logins, form filling, and other common functions a breeze

That being said, for users who log on to accounts using only a single browser on a single computer which nobody else shares, a browser’s built-in password manager protected by a master password would be sufficient. Firefox users should be aware of Sxipper, an extension which adds significant functionality such as single click login, automatic form filling, and multiple personas.

So Which One is Best?

The 4 password managers profiled above are all very good and always improving. If forced to choose which is the most convenient for the most users, I’d go with LastPass, because you won’t need to switch to another password manager when changing browsers, operating systems, or mobile devices. Developers for RoboForm, 1Password, and KeePass devote considerable effort to making passwords synced and available on a wide variety of platforms, but the cloud-based roots of LastPass means it will usually be the first to support any new browser or operating system.

As mentioned in the update section, it is possible that cloud-based solutions are inherently less secure than desktop-based password management software. For those who value the (possibly) greater security of desktop software over cloud-based solutions or don’t need multi-platform convenience, great choices are:

• RoboForm for Windows users
• 1Password for Mac users
• KeePass for tech savvy users who would rather tinker than pay

But I can’t say it too many times – more important than which you choose is how you use it. Use unique passwords at least 15 random characters long for all accounts, protecting them all with a strong master password – and your chance of getting multiple accounts compromised will be minimal. And that is something you can do with almost any password manager.

Disclaimers

1)  Passwords are just one form of necessary security. PCs lacking up-to-date browsers, security software, and/or operating system software frequently get infected with malware. Perfect password security doesn’t matter if malware observes everything you do on your computer.

2)  I have not been paid to create this series of articles or recommend these products, and will receive no payments if you click on any links in the main content area or buy one of the reviewed password managers. The only free product accepted as part of writing this series of articles was 1Password for my wife to test on her iMac. I wrote this comprehensive guide because I have developed a passion for the subject over the past year and felt that someone needed to pull all these password-related concepts together into one helpful reference guide. I welcome specific feedback so that I can improve upon this series of posts on passwords, with the hope that helping people to become more “net wise” will help reduce password theft.

Tips for Standard Use of a Password Manager

15 Character Passwords

For each account, use your password manager’s random password generator to generate passwords that are 15 or more characters long, and make sure your password manager stores it. Usually you will want to generate passwords that include upper case, lower case, numbers and special characters to increase password strength. But for passwords that you sometimes enter manually into cell phones or other devices without full-sized physical keyboards, you can generate 15 random lowercase letters. 15 random character passwords are very strong even if restricted to lower case letters.

Unique Passwords

Do not reuse passwords for more than one account. This is especially important for all financial, e-mail and social networking services. I could provide you with a list of reasonable exceptions to this rule, but why bother? Your password manager remembers and enters all your passwords.

Turn on Master Password Protection and Keep it on for All Passwords

All password managers offer a master password to protect your account login data. Always have the master password enabled to protect all current and newly created login data. Most password managers have an option to require new login data be protected by the master password – make sure this option is turned on. Turning off your master password protection is very risky, equivalent to leaving your key chain hanging on the outside front doorknob to your house.

Select a Strong Master Password

Choose your master password wisely and never share it or write it down. It should be at least 15 alphanumeric characters, very hard for anyone to guess, yet very easy for you to remember and enter. Pass phrases containing a mixture of words and numbers work well for this purpose.

Passwords constructed out of obvious personal information (i.e. MySonIs4YearsOld) should be avoided, because password cracking software may try such passwords.  On the other hand, a lie or intentional misspelling (i.e. MySunIs444YearsYoung) is not something password cracking software will have enough time to try, as the number of possible 15+ character lies and misspellings is far greater than the number of true and obvious personal facts.

Following are some weak and strong examples:

Weak:

mybirthdayisJanuary7—guessable as this phrase (or 364 others like it) applies to all people.

antidisestablishmentarianism—long but terrible because it is in the English dictionary. A phrase should have at least three words and 1 number.

4scoreand7yearsago—easily guessable as it is the start of a very famous speech by Abraham Lincoln, and is likely to be in some password cracking programs.

Strong (but don’t use these specific phrases, obviously):

FredAusterlitzwasbornMay101899inOmaha—though in some ways similar to above birthday password it is much stronger because it is longer, unrelated to your life, and it’s not even clear who it refers to, even though it’s easy to remember for fans of Fred Astaire. If it takes you a long time to type out this 37 character password then go with something shorter and with fewer capital letters – you don’t want a password that is really annoying to enter, as you may then be very tempted to abandon a strong master password.

Ireland1871Wales1920disestablished—though inspired by the Wikipedia entry for antidisestablishmentarianism, this is much stronger because it has three separate words divided by 2 numbers.

AIisnolongerthe76ersAnswer—obscure, yet an easy phrase to remember for a 76ers fan who knows that Allen Iverson, nicknamed “The Answer,” no longer plays for the 76ers.

Fred’sPorsche911Turbo–If a minor acquaintance of yours owns a Porsche 911 Turbo, this is a good  password: 19 characters, fairly easy to type, very easy for you to remember, but too obscure for someone else to guess.  If Fred is your husband, though, this is a less good password, because the password contains obvious personal information, which is something password cracking software might try.

And here are a few more examples of strong but memorable passwords from the book Perfect Passwords by Mark Burnett:

• 2+2+3 isn’t five
• staying “interconnected”
• (999) dog-walk
• 1-900-go-NUTS
• 43 O’Clock is late
• Dr.Seuss@greeneggs.com

The examples I provided are long and will take 5-30 seconds to enter, depending on how fast you type. But you’ll only need to type the master password at the beginning of each computer session. This is minor overhead in return for an enormous security benefit.

Expire Your Master Password

After you first enter your master password, you can then log in to online accounts (with a single click each) for the rest of your work session. However, you want your master password to expire as part of your natural work flow—you don’t want someone to walk up to your desk and start logging into your various accounts. Go to your password manager’s security settings to make sure that the master password will logout automatically when you close the browser, put your computer to sleep, go into screen saver mode, and/or after a certain number of minutes of inactivity. Most password managers provide options to customize these sorts of settings to suit your own circumstances.

Open Web Sites Directly From Your Password Manager

Security expert Robert Chapin has criticized password management software for making it too easy for users to automatically login to a fake web site, which then steals the user name and password entered by a password manager. To thwart this technique and save yourself a click, you should only log in by using your password manager to open password-protected web sites directly. Simply select the web site from within your password manager, and you will be taken to the web site and automatically logged in.

Some password managers have an option to automatically log you in if you just happen to visit a site whose name is the same or similar to the one stored by the password manager. Do not enable this feature. You don’t want to automatically be logged into a fake site.

Test Memorized Passwords After Opening a New Account

Password managers can be awkward to use when you open a new account. They will memorize login information for the account registration screen but then might not work for the regular login screen. The best way I’ve found to deal with this is to NOT have your password manager record the password when setting up a new account. Keep the username and password somewhere temporarily. Logout of the new account immediately after setup. Then log back in using the regular login screen and have the password manager record your information as usual. RoboForm has a new account feature to make this whole process easier but it doesn’t get it right for every site, so even with RoboForm you should still test the recorded information by logging back in right away.

Test Changed Passwords

Some password managers don’t deal very gracefully when changing passwords on an existing account (though both 1Password and RoboForm usually get this right). As with new accounts, after changing an account password be sure to temporarily record the new password, then log out and log back in with the new password to make sure the new password was properly recorded.

Backup Your Passwords

You must back up, sync, or print out password files regularly. If you lose your password data due to hardware failure, loss, or theft, or any other reason, then you’ve lost all your passwords and you will only be able to get them back from any backups you’ve made. If you already have a backup system in place, be sure that your password files are part of the backup set. A reasonable low tech solution is to print out your passwords and store them in a safe and hidden off-site location.

For those who regularly use multiple computers, having access to your passwords on every computer can be very handy. “Sync” solutions can do this while simultaneously taking care of backup as well. Web-based password managers such as LastPass do this automatically. Some desktop based password managers offer syncing via an online service or via proprietary syncing software (RoboForm offers both). Yet another option is to use a sync service like Dropbox to sync data among multiple computers.

Any of these options can work. Just make sure these backups are done automatically, or at least frequently. Apart from your master password, you may not actually know any of your passwords, including the new one you just created last week . . .

Use AES

Some password managers offer a choice of encryption algorithms. Be sure that AES is selected (AES 128, 196, and 256 are all fine). This algorithm has withstood extensive scrutiny and as of 2010, breaking AES encryption without the key is so difficult that it is rare for an attacker to even try. AES is the default encryption used by these four password managers.

Tips for Extra Password Security

Everything in the previous section should be considered standard password security procedures. The next few steps are for those who want to be even more secure, but the incremental extra security comes with a significant hit to convenience and usability. So you’ll have to be your own judge as to how much of this is necessary.

Empty the Clipboard

If you use your computers clipboard to store passwords temporarily (for example, when setting up a new account or changing passwords), be sure the clipboard is emptied. Some password managers have an option to empty the clipboard automatically upon logoff or a few minutes of inactivity. Enable these options.

Purge the Newly Generated Password

Similarly, a newly generated password is temporarily held in memory. Some password managers have an option to purge this password upon logoff or a few minutes of inactivity. Enable these options.

Enter the Master Password Using a Virtual Keyboard

Keystroke loggers can and do get installed on some systems, and you won’t know they are present. You can thwart most keystroke loggers by entering your master password using your password manager’s virtual keyboard, and only when all browsers are closed. While the chance of your master password being recorded by malware is small, it is even smaller if you follow these steps.

Use Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication (an option available for KeePass and LastPass) is an even stronger way to thwart keystroke loggers. With two-factor authentication, you will need both a master password (something you know), and an additional factor such as a USB stick or fingerprint reader (something you have) in order to access your passwords. Current implementations of two-factor authentication are somewhat cumbersome to set up and require you to carry something extra in your pocket. Perhaps some day it will be easier to set up and will use something you always carry anyway such as your cell phone.

Store Passwords on a USB device

Some password management software offers an option to store passwords and the software on a USB flash storage device. When the USB device is in physical possession of the owner and not inserted into a computer, it is impossible to steal the passwords. If you choose to follow such an approach, you still want your passwords backed up so that you don’t lose everything if the USB device is lost or destroyed.

Store Encrypted Notes

Most password managers have a feature that allows users to save encrypted notes, protected as usual by the master password. Use this for bits of private information that are not online accounts, such as the username and password to your router, logins to your Windows account, your burglar alarm code, etc.

Periodically Change Your Password

Many claim this is necessary. However, if you use long passwords (15+), never share them, and are a typical home user with average security needs, then the answer is no. The time to change your password is right after you temporarily share it, if it is short, if it is weak, if it is used for more than one account, or if you have even the slightest suspicion that the password has been captured. In fact, an argument can be made that a policy of changing passwords frequently weakens password security, because this cumbersome requirement will cause people to simplify their password management. Common, unsafe tactics people use when faced with periodic password change include:

• Write down the password, perhaps on a sticky note posted near the screen
• Use the same password for multiple accounts
• Use short passwords
• Change the password by 1 character each time

UPDATE: see security expert Bruce Schneier’s post here for more detail on changing passwords.

Do Not Use Password Management Software

This advice is often part of a long list of security precautions. The reason cited, if a reason is given at all, is that an attacker who steals your master password through keystroke logging or some other means will have access to all of your passwords. While this is certainly possible, try searching for instances of this happening to average consumers using one of the 4 password managers I profiled here. You won’t find any. If anyone can cite an actual example, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update this post.

Two-factor authentication can at least partially address this concern by adding an extra layer of security, which makes it much more difficult for an attacker to gain access to the master password. LastPass and KeePass are two consumer-grade password managers that provide this capability.

There is actually a legitimate concern around password managers which I rarely see discussed: They can easily be used insecurely. Many people use password managers without a master password, especially if using password managers built into a browser. The passwords are then stored in clear text that can be scanned by malware. And, as I detail here, several steps are required to insure that a password manager is being used in a secure manner. However, if used correctly, password management software can greatly reduce the possibility of password theft for the average Joe. Hopefully the various posts in this series can help make that happen.

Strong Passwords Require a Mix of Numbers, Special Characters, and Both Lower and Upper Case Letters

This is not true. Length and randomness of password are far more important than the mix of characters. If there are certain accounts you need to input manually on a device without a keyboard (i.e. cell phone), you may as well use passwords composed of 15 lowercase letters, which will be much easier to type.

A random jumble of 15 lower case letters, if it is protected by a typical, strong encryption algorithm such as AES, is for all practical purposes uncrackable. I have seen many advice articles that are against the use of password managers, yet insist on passwords that include a random jumble of alphanumeric and special characters. These difficult-to-remember passwords cause people to circumvent security by doing things like posting sticky notes on their monitors with the password or using the same password for every account.

The following Mandylion spreadsheet is a terrific tool for showing you how long it would take to crack randomly generated passwords by brute force:

Brute Force Attack Time Estimator by Mandylion Labs

Plug in a purely random combination of 7 Alpha/Numeric/Special characters and you’ll see that it would take less than 79 days for an average computer to crack the password. This is far stronger than a password composed of 7 random lowercase letters (less than 15 minutes to crack), but is much weaker than a password composed of 15 random lowercase letters (over 5 million years to crack). And, as I have mentioned here, your passwords stored on web sites in encrypted form are often susceptible to rainbow attacks which can easily obtain all passwords that are less than 9 characters, and in some instances even passwords that are 14 characters long. This is why 15 character passwords make sense.

Wikipedia has a nice chart showing you password strength based on length and character types. You can see that a 64 bit-strength password is very strong and can be had with 14 lowercase letters or with 10 Alpha/Numeric/Special characters.

Simply put, password length is much more important than mixing in numbers, special characters, or capital letters.

Unfortunately, some web sites (especially banks) limit password length to less than 15, so for these sites you’ll need to use special characters and numbers to make up for the lack of length.

For users of password management software, it is no harder to automatically log in using passwords composed of a mix of special characters. So for passwords that you will never enter on cell phones, you may as well use the special characters. Some computer services do a poor job of encrypting data or use a weaker form of encryption than AES – in these cases the more diverse mix of characters may help resist some forms of attack.

Final Comments

The reason people use such terrible passwords is because manually having to manage strong passwords is hard. Periodically changing passwords or using passwords like ;iq3*;@%t will be a nuisance for the typical person, and likely circumvented.

Store unique 15-character passwords for all accounts with your password manager, protecting them all with a strong master password – and the chance of getting multiple accounts compromised will be much lower than that of the average user. Use the auto-fill features of your password manager and you’ll actually save time in the long run despite the better security.

It is better to have pretty good security that is easy for all, rather than perfect security that is never truly implemented because it is too onerous for the average Joe.

#1:  You Hand it Over Voluntarily

People frequently hand over their passwords via phishing, other forms of social engineering, or when a person or entity asks for temporary use of a password.

Protection: The simplest defense is to NEVER share your password for any account with any person, organization, or web site. An additional good defense is to develop “net smarts” analogous to “street smarts” to avoid phishing scams or other forms of social engineering. If you must temporarily share your password (i.e. to import contacts into Facebook), then change your password immediately after its temporary use is complete.

Damage Control: Your damages are limited to one account if you have a unique password for each account. Immediately change the password of the affected account.

#2:  You Hand it Over Unknowingly

This overlaps with the previous attack. You think you are on the web site you intended but you actually mistyped it by one character, you clicked a bad link to get there, or you were tricked by tabnapping.  So you end up on a fake or spoof web site that looks legitimate. When you log in, it collects your credentials then passes you on to the real site. A variation on this theme is an attack which layers extra fields over a legitimate web site. You are tricked into typing private personal information such as birthday, mother’s maiden name, social security number, etc. and then this information is used to “recover” your account (see #7 below).

Protection: A good defense against this ploy is to only login to a web site by selecting it from your password manager’s drop down menu (even if the tab was one you thought you opened yourself). This will automatically log you in to the correct site, which the password manager stores. Another type of defense is for your browser to use a security service that warns you when you might be about to open a hazardous web site – but this may slow down browsing.

Damage Control: Your damages are limited to one account if you have a unique password for each account. Immediately change the password of the affected account.

#3:  Mass Theft of Password Files

Most people don’t realize that user names and passwords routinely get stolen while your computer is off and disconnected from the internet. How? Web sites with many users and weak security are prime targets for attackers who want to steal a password file which lists all user names and passwords. Recent examples include Monster.com and RockYou.com. While most sites do not store passwords as clear text, many sites store passwords in a form that can be read using widely available rainbow table software. For people who use the same password on many sites, the theft of this password on one site can be the starting point for an attack on all of your accounts.

Protection: A simple and effective defense for users is to only use long, randomly generated passwords. How long? 15 characters. Rainbow tables easily crack passwords 8 or fewer characters long and in some cases up to 14 characters.

Damage Control: In the unlikely case that a rainbow table attack manages to crack one of your 15 character passwords, at least your damages will be limited to one account if you have a unique password for each account. Change the password of any account that becomes compromised due to mass theft.

#4:  Brute Force

Brute Force refers to discovering passwords through trial and error, similar to trying every possible combination on a lock. The most well known form of brute force attack is for password cracking software to methodically try millions of passwords on one specific user name on a specific account. A typically weak password can be cracked in less than a day using this method.

Security conscious online vendors like banks or e-mail services provide some protection against such brute force attempts by denying access if there are too many attempts per hour. However, different forms of brute force can be used to get around these safeguards. A common example is software which automatically logs in to millions of different accounts per day by combining popular user names, passwords, and web sites (i.e. try password1 at Jsmith@gmail.com, 123456 at dj@facebook.com, qwerty at Mrodriguez@yahoo.com, etc.). As such methods becomes more widely adopted, it would not be surprising if nearly all accounts with short user names and short passwords get compromised.

Brute force is also used as a supplementary attack after a first password is captured. For example, if the password badpassword1 was captured by phishing, brute force can be used to try similar passwords on other accounts.

Protection: Brute force attacks are highly unlikely to crack very strong passwords. So just use strong passwords. I suggest randomized 15 character jumbles.

Damage Control: Your damages are limited to one account if you have a unique password for each account. Immediately change the password of the affected account.

#5:  Eavesdropping: Keystroke Logger on Your Browser

Many people believe that nothing bad can happen to people who only visit safe, well respected sites. They are wrong. Malicious JavaScript can be injected into any browser on any system, visiting any web site. Keystroke logging is something that is done by some of these Javacript injections. In most browsers, malicious JavaScript can log keystrokes in all open tabs, until the browser is closed. Usernames and passwords entered during the session can be captured this way.

Protection: Keystroke logging via browser is growing more common but is unfortunately one of the more difficult threats to defend against. Defenses include:

• Use Firefox in conjunction with the NoScript extension. While this is a strong defense, the overall complication of using NoScript (popups, whitelists, blacklists) is more of a hassle than the average Joe wants to deal with.
• Some security suites attempt to defend against this threat with browser plug-ins, but these can dramatically slow down browsing.
• A simpler option is to only access the internet using the Google Chrome browser, which is designed so that malicious JavaScript can be theoretically contained to a single tab. At least other tabs will be safe.
• Some password managers such as RoboForm enter passwords and usernames in a way which most JavaScript keystroke loggers can not intercept.

None of these suggestions are sure to stop browser-based keystroke loggers, but if you implement one or more of these suggestions you’ll at least reduce your chances of getting your usernames and passwords logged by malicious JavaScript. The only perfect defense is to not connect to the internet at all.

Damage Control: Your damages are limited to logins captured while browsing, so long as you have a unique password for each account. Immediately change the password of the affected accounts. If using a browser-based or web-based password manager, you should also change your master password.

#6:  Eavesdropping: Public WiFi Monitoring

Passwords are frequently stolen on public computers and over public WiFi connections, using free WiFi traffic monitoring software that is simple to operate.

Protection: Never log in to online accounts using a public computer. When using open WiFi hot spots, you should only log in with your own notebook with services that enforce secure log-ins and sessions (HTTPS), perhaps using the Firefox Add-on HTTPS Everywhere to help. It is far safer to access email and other accounts using your phone data service, if you have one.

Damage Control: If you discover that this type of attack has occurred, then you will need to change the password for all of your accounts as well as your master password. If you know exactly when the attack occurred, you can change passwords only for the accounts you used during that session.

#7:  A Thief “Recovers” Your Account

Many accounts provide an automatic “password recovery” system that allows you to recover your account if you forget your password. But armed with basic personal information (easy to gather, as described here), a thief can “recover” your account and effectively take it over. An especially rewarding target is your e-mail account, where the attacker can find out all sorts of things to attack you further, such as user names and passwords that were e-mailed to you when you opened other accounts.

Protection: The best defense against this form of attack is to disable the “password recovery” option for all sensitive accounts. This option is not usually provided, so the next best defense is to supply only obscure or false information to the password reset mechanism for each account – don’t use information like your mother’s maiden name or the name of your pet which can be easily obtained by a thief.

Damage Control: Your damages are limited to one account if you have a unique password for each account. Use the password reset mechanism to get back control of your account. If that doesn’t work, you’ll have to contact customer service for that account. Once you get back control, disable the password recovery option. If this is not possible, change the questions/answers needed to verify your identity to something much more obscure or false.

#8:  Eavesdropping: Keystroke Logger on Your System

Malware that manages to install itself on your system will often be able to log every keystroke and thus capture all of your user name and password information over time.

Protection: The best defense is a combination of typical safe computing practices such as never logging in on a public computer, installing software from trusted sources only, avoiding phishing attacks, only connecting safe devices to your computer, and keeping your operating system, browser, and security software all up to date. Using Mac OS X or Linux is also a way to lower risk, because most malware is written for Windows. Some password managers enter passwords and usernames in a way which most keystroke loggers can not intercept.

Damage Control: If you discover that this type of attack has occurred, then you will need to first regain control of your computer with the help of an expert, or use a different computer that you are sure is safe. Then change the password for all of your accounts as well as your master password.

#9:  Malware Searches Your System

One class of malware searches your computer’s hard drive or memory for passwords that are not encrypted. Testing software provided by RoboForm and other password manager vendors demonstrates how Windows computers yield a surprisingly large number of passwords when searched this way.

Protection: Passwords stored and entered from within a password manager (that are protected by a strong master password) are immune from this type of attack.

Damage Control: If you discover that this type of attack has occurred, then you will need to first regain control of your computer with the help of an expert, or use a different computer that you are sure is safe. Then change the password for all of your accounts as well as your master password.

But What About . . .

The remaining ways passwords can be stolen are all rarely employed against home users. Such methods include looking over your shoulder as you type, exploiting vulnerabilities in password-handling software or the operating system, zero day exploits (taking advantage of a security flaw in software or operating systems before it is patched), hardware keystroke loggers, monitoring Bluetooth keyboard activity, acoustic cryptanalysis, wiretapping, dumpster diving, side-channel attacks, and undoubtedly a few more I haven’t mentioned.

If you are well protected against the more common attacks listed above, you’re already doing better than the vast majority of home computer users and partially protected against some of the unusual threats mentioned in this section. While security professionals working at large organizations need to guard against these possibilities, it is not worth the time, cost, or effort for a typical home user to guard against or even think about these more esoteric attack possibilities.

However, one possibility that worries some potential users of password managers is what happens if the master password is somehow stolen due to keystroke logging or some other means. While this is possible, I have been unable to find a single instance of a home user getting a master password stolen when using one of the best password managers. Why spend time worrying about something that hasn’t yet happened when there are tens of millions of passwords being stolen per year for the more common reasons listed above?

For those home users concerned about master password capture, two-factor authentication can insure that a captured master password is useless. It is available as on option with password managers LastPass and KeePass, but is unfortunately a bit complicated to implement for the average Joe.

And the Winner Is . . .

When it comes to security, there is no such thing as winning – it’s a matter of trying to minimize risk with as little effort as possible. For a home user, the amount of effort must be very small or it won’t happen. Correct use of a password manager takes little effort, yet effectively blocks attacks #2, #3, #4, #7, #8, and #9 above, as well as limiting damage to a single account from most other forms of attack. Combine that with typical security procedures and a reasonable amount of “net wisdom” and you get good results—a minimal amount of effort to greatly reduce the chance that your passwords will get stolen.

In this post, I describe the typical home user system for managing passwords and how attackers exploit this system.

The Usual Way to Manage Passwords

Many home users manage their passwords something like this:

• For accounts that are unimportant (forums, news sites, etc.), the same password is used for all of them. This password is likely to be a short, easily remembered word or name, perhaps followed by a single digit.
• For accounts that are somewhat important (Gmail, Facebook, etc.), this same weak password may be used, or perhaps a moderately stronger password that is a little longer and has one or two digits or symbols thrown in. But again, the same password is used for a number of different sites.
• For accounts that involve finance or commerce (banks, brokerage, e-commerce, etc.), most people are more cautious. Some people use (what they believe to be) a stronger password for all of their finance sites, while others may have a separate strong password for each financial site, keeping track of the passwords with a password protected spreadsheet or on a piece of paper.

It is possible my description is too optimistic, as 33% of participants in a Sophos study indicated that they use the same password for every site. Only 19% indicated using a different password for every site. Two-thirds of respondents to a 2010 Consumer Reports Survey use some variation of the same password or personal identification number for all or most accounts. Bruce Schneier’s analysis of actual passwords indicates that many are weak.

What’s Wrong with the Usual Way to Manage Passwords

The key weakness is the use of the same password for many accounts. There are many ways to capture passwords, and once an attacker has the password to one account, it can be used on all other accounts that use the same password. Even worse, an attacker may be able to get additional passwords if able to get into your e-mail account. In my opinion, email accounts should be protected with even greater diligence than your financial accounts, because they have fewer layers of safeguards and attackers can use information in old e-mails to gain access to other accounts.

How Attackers Exploit a Weak Password System

Here is an example to illustrate how typical password management fails:

Your name is John Doe. You use the strong password Fm18bIgaP911.$bIli! for all e-commerce, bank, finance accounts, and paid subscriptions including JohnDoe@chase.com, and JohnDoe@burghound.com. You use the weaker password John123 for all the rest, including your Gmail account JohnDoe@gmail.com.

One day, the user list for superduperfastcars.com gets stolen. You posted 3 messages to superduperfastcars.com 2 years ago but then lost interest and forgot all about it. The attacker uses a rainbow table to decrypt over 70% of the hashed passwords from superduperfastcars.com, including your easily crackable John123 password.

The attacker then uses software to automatically try logging in to Gmail, Yahoo mail, and Hotmail using the user information and passwords obtained. One combination that is tried uses the first and last name of the user and the password obtained: JohnDoe@gmail.com using password John123. This one actually logs in.

Next, the attacker searches Gmail for “password.” Many online services automatically e-mail you a user name and password upon sign up. Sure enough, two passwords are found among a number of such e-mails: John123 and Fm18bIgaP911.$bIli!. The stronger password was in a confirmation e-mail you received from burghound.com upon registering for this paid service several years ago.

Now the attacker has your two passwords and can log in to all of your accounts that were discovered in your Gmail archive. Here are some examples of what the attacker can do with this information:

• Transfer funds out of some of your financial accounts
• Copy your contacts’ e-mail addresses into a spam mailing list.
• Send a message to all of your contacts to ask for emergency money to be wired
• Send a message to all of your contacts discussing a really cool site – just click on this link (and if they do, malware is installed)
• Use the information obtained to try to break in to a corporate network, by testing your password on your work account.

The famous Twitter hack of 2009 had many elements in common with this example. An even simpler attack is to capture e-mail login information when someone is logging in using an open WiFi hotspot.

All it takes to limit the damage from these kinds of attacks is to have a different password for each account. If the Sophos survey is accurate, only 1 in 5 people do this. Most people can not remember more than a few passwords, so any approach to password management must take this into account.

Note that attackers are well aware of common password practices and can take advantage of these practices when trying to steal passwords (either automatically or manually). So if whatever approach you take to password security is unusual, that in and of itself is a good defense. Effective use of a password manager is currently one such approach.

AES – Advanced Encryption Standard is a widely used encryption standard adopted by the U.S. Government in 2001. This terrific cartoon is a great tutorial on the inner workings of AES.

Average Joe – American idiom that means a typical person. FilterJoe aims to help typical people (the average Joe) learn key skills for the information age regardless of computer skill level, gender, ethnicity, or nationality.

Encryption – Encryption is the process of transforming information into a form that is unreadable by anyone except those possessing a key. Information encrypted on computers using AES cannot be read without the key, usually a password.

Keystroke Logger – Keystroke logging or keylogging is the action of tracking (or logging) the keys struck on a keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that the person using the keyboard is unaware that their actions are being monitored

Malware – Malicious software designed to infiltrate a computer without an owner’s informed consent. Malware includes computer viruses, works, trojan horses, spyware, rootkits, key loggers, and other malicious and unwanted software.

Master Password - Password Managers typically use a user-selected master password or passphrase to form the key used to encrypt the protected passwords. This master password must be strong, because a compromised master password renders all of the protected passwords vulnerable. How to select a Master Password is discussed here.

Password Manager – Desktop or cloud-based software which stores user names and passwords.Also known as password management software.

Phishing – In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging.

Sync, synch, or syncing – Keep data identical in two or more locations. Short for file synchronization.

Tabnapping - A combination of the words “tab” and “kidnapping” to describe a type of phishing attack. Malicious software secretly changes already open browser tabs, then collects the username and password when entered. For example, a user wants to log in to her Facebook account and sees an open Facebook tab. She clicks on the tab, and seeing that she needs to log in, she types her user name and password. She thought it was a tab she had left open, but it turns out it was a tab that was changed by malicious software, and it collects her username and password as she enters them.

Two-Factor Authentication – Two-factor authentication requires two different “factors” to validate who you are. This can be done using any two of the three “factors” below:

• Something you know: password, birthday, government ID#
• Something you have: bank card, passport, key
• Something you are: finger print, eye, DNA

A popular use of two-factor authentication is withdrawing cash from an ATM, which requires both a card and a PIN number. Some password managers may be set up with two-factor authentication for the master password, requiring both the password and a USB stick.

Virtual Keyboard – An on-screen keyboard that allows a user to enter characters. Virtual keyboards can be used to reduce the risk of keystroke logging. It is more difficult for malware to capture passwords entered from virtual keyboards than it is to capture passwords from real keystrokes.

For a while I decided that you can’t do password security without putting it into the context of all computer security. After learning a bit about computer security, I returned to passwords, because for the average Joe it is often the weakest link in security while actually being the easiest to correct.

It is hard to write well about password security because it’s a complex topic with various trade-offs, such as security versus usability, and complete versus brief explanations. It’s also preferable for people to become more “net wise” as they read through the material, as opposed to memorizing a bunch of rules they don’t understand.

I believe the following series on password management reasonably navigates these constraints, tying together little bits of good advice that is scattered all over the net. It is targeted at home users, but IT professionals may find some of it useful as educational material for users.

I consider the password series a work in process, so I will greatly appreciate any and all suggestions for improvement.

The introductory post which also services as an index to the entire series is:

A Guide to Using Passwords Without Distraction

1. Tinker.
2. Read help files or manual.
3. Call the most knowledgeable person or relative you know.
4. Call Tech Support, if available. Wait on hold a long time then talk to someone who may or may not be able to help you.
5. E-mail Tech Support. Hope that the reply comes soon and actually resolves your issue.

Thankfully, there’s a much faster, more reliable way:  Google it.

Google for help first, and you can save yourself tens of hours per year. In this post, I provide specific examples and helpful tips on how to quickly get tech help using Google.

Examples of Googling for Tech Help

The following examples are all from actual experiences. Note that if you try these searches yourself, the exact results may vary with different search engines or at different times. For each example I’ve created an amusing Google demo using this tool.

Hardware Example

I own a Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS device. Before purchasing a Blackberry Curve 8320, I wanted to know if I could pair these two devices with Bluetooth so I could use my Garmin to have phone conversations in the car. I spent 10-15 minutes searching Garmin’s site, and another 10 minutes on the phone with Garmin tech support, to no avail. I found the answer in less than 1 minute with Google:

1. Google: Garmin nuvi 660 bluetooth blackberry curve
2. Click on the top Google hit, Bluetooth sync problem with Garmin Nuvi 680
3. Done (The clearly explained 11 step procedure explained by ggraves took 10-15 minutes to implement, but it worked.)

For demo, click here.

Web Service Example

My sister Esther Golton is a talented singer–songwriter who wants her music to be listed with Pandora. How? After spending 10-15 minutes looking for the answer on Pandora’s site, she gave up. I found it in less than a minute, as follows:

1. Google: submit pandora music
2. Click on the top Google hit, FAQ (on Pandora’s web site)
3. Use your browser’s find command to find the first instance of the word “submit”
   1. Type control-f
   2. Type “submit”
   3. Enter
4. Done (Esther has the instructions)

For demo, click here.

Software Example

My father-in-law upgraded to Safari 4.0 Beta at my recommendation. He instantly hated the picture slices of web sites on his bookmark page. He spent 20 minutes tinkering with Safari 4.0 to try to completely get rid of it. I was in the next room and couldn’t stand his pain, so I went to a different computer, and found how to get rid of it in less than 5 minutes, as follows:

1. Google: Safari 4 interface
   None of the top hits mentioned these web site picture slices. My query was not specific enough, as I did not know the name for these picture slices. I figure the feature is so prominent it must be mentioned in a review of Safari 4. So . . .
2. Google: Safari 4 review
3. Click on second Google hit, MacWorld’s First Look: Safari 4 Beta
4. Skim article until I find a picture of the feature—it’s called Cover Flow
5. Google: Safari 4 remove cover flow
6. Click on second Google hit, Safari 4: How to Remove Cover Flow from the Bookmarks View
7. Done (I showed my father-in-law the instructions and 2 minutes later the cover flow was gone.)

For demo, click here.

Searching for Tech Help with Google: Tips

The following collection of tips is geared specifically towards finding tech help using major search engines Google, Bing, or Yahoo!

1. Choose keywords carefully, as follows
   • Provide words that you expect to be in the answer
   • Be specific, not general (cover flow versus interface)
   • Use the model name and/or model number
2. If you can’t find a useful search result in the first 20 hits, then
   • Try additional keywords
   • Try different keywords
   • Try visiting a forum specific to your product, and then conduct the search from there
3. If you hardly know anything about the subject, and need additional ideas for key words, then
   • Read a Wikipedia article
   • Read a review of the product
   • Read the product specifications on the vendor’s web site
   • Ask someone who does know the subject for some keywords to use in a Google search
4. If you land on a long page, use your browser’s find command from the menu (or control-f) to find the key word on the page

For more general help with search, the following two links from Google are good starting places.

Basic Search Help (Google)

More Search Help (Google)

Concluding Words

While most people are used to using Google to search for information in general, I have noticed that people still spend many hours getting tech help using the traditional help filters described at the beginning of this post. Traditional tech help methods have failed to keep up with increasingly complex and feature rich technologies.

FilterJoe is all about replacing old filters (that stop working well) with better filters. Googling for tech help is one such filter. More generally, effectively using search engines is an important skill to master in the new millennium.

When in doubt, google it.

Software on a server . . . in the cloud

This post is an attempt to answer these questions from a balanced perspective.

Here is how I describe desktop versus cloud computing for the purposes of this post:

Desktop Computing is the use of desktop software to create, edit, and store data on your hard drive. The operating system is the primary interface through which you access the software that works with your data.

Cloud Computing is the use of web services to create, edit, and store data on servers located elsewhere. The browser is the primary interface through which you access the various software services that work with your data.

Software on a hard drive . . . on your desktop computer

I realize that there are a variety of definitions for cloud computing. The above definition makes sense in the context of typical users getting work done on a computer, which is what this post is all about—both an introduction and a reference for individuals and small businesses considering migrating work from the desktop to the cloud.

A Typical Morning in the Cloud

6:00 Wake up. My Blackberry shows 3 e-mails in my Gmail inbox. I read and archive one message, leaving the others for later.

6:13 Start home computer, then Firefox, which automatically opens my most frequently used web pages into 7 tabs. Enter my Roboform master password, then open Gmail.

6:15 From the Gmail Inbox page:

1. I quickly read and archive my 2 unread messages
2. I glance at the following for today and tomorrow:
   • To Do list (Remember the Milk Firefox add-on)
   • Calendar (Gmail gadget shows my Google Calendar)
   • Weather (part of my Google Calendar)
3. I add an idea to my web security draft article (Click on “web security” document listed under the Gmail Docs gadget, type in idea, close/save it)

6:25 Check financial news on a number of stocks I either own or am tracking, using the finance sites for Yahoo! and Google.

6:45 Go to the Google Reader tab. Scan titles of 43 unread items. Read three of them. I don’t want to read the other 40, so I click “Mark all as Read.”

7:00 Eat Breakfast.

7:15 Check news, e-mail, Google Reader, etc. one last time then shut down computer and bike to the office.

7:25 Start office computer, then Firefox.

7:30 Open my incomplete web security article (from Google Docs gadget in Gmail). F11 and Control-Shift-F to completely block out distractions while I’m writing.

9:00 I stop writing, and check Gmail. 2 new messages:

1. Transcript of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting. I want to read it later. So I “star” the e-mail, which makes it into a (Remember the Milk) To Do item that links back to the e-mail. I set the due date to Friday, then archive the message to keep my inbox clear.
2. Jim’s reply. This is part of a “conversation” that Gmail automatically grouped together, so I choose “expand all” to see the context. We’ve been going back and forth about a FilterJoe site bug. Jim isolated the issue with this last e-mail. So . . .

9:05 I log in to FilterJoe. I make the needed change, do some testing, and find that the problem is resolved.

9:20 Back to Gmail: I thank Jim and tell him the issue is resolved. I then click on the “send and archive” button, which sends the reply, archives it, then returns me to the inbox.

9:25 I spend time researching Internet security. I clip several web posts into Evernote. I also type my own notes directly into Evernote.

10:00 I turn off my office computer and go to a Doctor’s appointment, taking along my Blackberry and EEE PC netbook.

10:05 While riding BART, I read a message on my Blackberry from my father-in-law requesting flight times for a ticket I purchased a few months ago. So I type Southwest into Gmail on the Blackberry. The second e-mail listed is the Southwest itinerary, which I forward to him.

10:45 I arrive on time, but have to wait half an hour. I continue working right where I left off, using my EEE PC netbook. My Internet connection is slow because it uses Bluetooth tethering (the Blackberry acts as a modem, and accesses the Internet through T-mobile’s EDGE network). But it’s good enough for Gmail, Google Reader, and Google News.

Comments about my cloud use

1. I routinely access my data from 2-4 devices per day.  Storing data on the cloud makes this easy. The Dropbox service makes syncing desktop data just as easy.
2. Gmail has replaced MS Outlook as my coordination center: e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks. It also links to documents I’m currently working on.
3. I still use desktop software. Quicken and Excel are examples of desktop software I much prefer over competing web services.
4. Evernote is an example of an app that is a combination of both desktop software and a web service. The desktop software is faster and more flexible, but the web service seamlessly syncs data so that I can access and add to my notes from anywhere.
5. With Evernote, I capture, sync, and find notes I take from any of my computers or smartphones. I prefer using its desktop client, for two reasons:
   • I want a separate window open for note taking as I’m reading.
   • I want to access and add to notes while offline.
6. Before Evernote, I used Google Notebook.  Google ended support for this product, but Google and Evernote made it easy to transfer my data from Google Notebook to Evernote.
7. The title “The Desktop or the Cloud?” implies using one or the other. In reality, you can pick and choose which apps you prefer on the desktop, which on the cloud, and which a hybrid of the two.
8. On the other hand, some benefits of cloud computing happen only if most of your work is on the cloud. I personally experienced reduced computer maintenance time and lower hardware requirements after I replaced MS Outlook with Gmail as my starting point for work.
9. Evaluating and managing each individual cloud service can be time consuming. Life in the cloud is simpler if you use either Google or Zoho as your main service provider, as both of these options cover most of the typical productivity apps.  Thinkfree and Zimbra also cover multiple apps, though not as many.
10. I rarely see the desktop interface. I like Windows XP because it is well supported and doesn’t force me to waste time and money on “upgrades.”

The Pros of Cloud Use

1. Data accessible from anywhere
   • Web apps are easily accessible from any computer
   • Web apps are accessible from smart phones (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.)
   • Web apps can run on any operating system that supports a modern browser (platform independent)
   • Regular desktop apps require complex and expensive solutions such as MS Exchange Server to attain a similar level of accessibility
2. Software upgrades are frequent yet effortless
   • Desktop software requires time and sometimes money to upgrade
   • Web apps get frequent updates, upgrades, and feature additions, usually with no money or time spent by users
   • Cloud users still need to keep upgrading and updating the browser (and its add-ons) when prompted to do so
   • Cloud users must also keep updating (but not upgrading) the operating system in order to stay secure
   • But that’s it—web apps get updated on servers, not your computer
3. Maintaining a computer’s operating system requires less time and effort
   • The more work you move to the cloud, the less time and effort you need to maintain your computer system’s well being
   • If you move everything to the cloud, your computer will essentially play the role of a “dumb terminal” (Back in the 1970s, the primary way computers were accessed were through zero-maintenance dumb terminals that accessed remote computers elsewhere)
   • Customizing your interface still requires tinkering, but with browser settings and add-ons
   • It is far faster and easier to reinstall a browser with add-ons (less than 1 hour) than it is to reinstall an operating system and all the software on a computer (3-12 hours)—so messing up your browser impacts you less than messing up your operating system
4. Computer and operating system upgrades are less frequent
   • Upgrading or buying new computers and/or operating systems takes time, money, expertise, and aggravation
   • Cloud users are never forced to upgrade due to speed or compatibility issues, though hardware failure still forces repair or replacement of computers
   • Windows or Linux computers purchased after 1998 or Macs purchased after 2001 can easily run web services on a modern browser
5. Less expensive hardware
   • Standard computer buying advice: buy at least a mid-range system, so that your system doesn’t get obsoleted too soon by upgrades to the operating system or other software
   • Cloud computer buying advice: buy the cheapest computer that meets your current needs—and you’ll notice that using it for web services gets faster after each browser upgrade
     
   • Cheap and supposedly underpowered netbooks like my EEE PC 1000H run web services at speeds which are not noticeably different than high powered desktops
   • Buying new computers to support upgraded operating systems and software is no longer necessary
6. Less expensive software
   • Many web apps are free
   • Paid web apps can be accessed by any number of devices for a monthly or annual subscription
   • Desktop software purchases and upgrades can be expensive, especially when installed on multiple computers per user
7. More computing power
   • Can rapidly scale up (or down) computing needs without acquiring (or disposing) hardware
   • Complex calculations can be done on servers instead of your computer, enabling new features such as voice dictation on phones or rapidly searching an e-mail archive
8. Collaboration is simpler, yet more powerful
   • Google Apps, Zimbra, Zoho, and other web providers offer collaborative functionality at a fraction of the cost and complication of MS Exchange-based solutions
   • Some forms of web app collaboration are not even possible on desktops (i.e. wikis, blogs, Ning communties)
9. Data backed up automatically and frequently
   • Personal backup systems are usually less regular, less reliable, and less geographically dispersed than backup systems of large web service providers such as Google and Yahoo!
   • If a fire burns down your home, how much data do you lose? (At most a few minutes’ worth if all your data is in the cloud)
   • Even safer are hybrid cloud/desktop backup strategies such as Dropbox, which synchronize data between web servers and multiple computers

This is an incomplete list of benefits to cloud computing, but I believe these are the key benefits for home or small business users. Here are some additional resources on the benefits of cloud computing:

Security benefits of cloud computing

20 reasons web apps are superior to desktop apps

Google’s view of cloud computing

The Cons of Cloud Use

1. Internet connection required
   • When Internet goes down, you can’t work
   • Internet access when traveling is sometimes slow or unavailable
   • Some web service providers are attempting to address this with offline modes, but most current implementations are incomplete or buggy (will likely be less of an issue a few years from now as offline modes improve and the Internet becomes available almost everywhere)
2. Inferior functionality
   • Some types of web services have far fewer features than their desktop counterparts  (i.e. spreadsheets, personal finance, image editing)
   • Graphics intensive software such as fast-paced games work poorly as a web service
   • Some web services are too slow without a fast Internet connection
3. Vendor lock-in and data portability risk
   • Desktop data is clearly your own, but what about cloud data?
   • When proprietary data formats are used, changing service providers can be difficult
   • Some web services make it easy to export or backup your data, but some don’t (hint: sign up only for services with good data export options)
   • Your data is scattered across multiple services, so it is harder to routinely backup to your own hard drive(s)
4. Security
   • The Internet abounds with security threats
   • Some users have reported automatically losing accounts and data with Google or other web services after hacker break-ins
   • Cross-site scripts which install key logging software are especially problematic because passwords can be recorded and stolen as they are being typed (can happen from merely visiting a web site, with the user totally unaware)
   • Hackers routinely break into accounts with simple passwords (names, personal data, words from the dictionary, or anything less than 10 characters)
   • There are several ways to mitigate security risks, but all require user knowledge and diligence.  The most important safeguard is good password management, which I describe here
5. Privacy
   • Some web services do not share your data, some do
   • Some web services use your data to serve you targeted ads (usually in return for a free account)
   • Privacy agreements are often so long and tedious that few people read them
   • Web services must share individual data with the government if subpoenaed as part of a criminal investigation
6. Loss of control (and potential data loss)
   • Upgrades happen whether (and when) you like it or not
   • Upgrades sometimes introduce bugs or undesirable interface changes (you usually have no option to revert a prior version)
   • When service interruptions happen, you have no idea how long they will last
   • What happens to deleted data varies by web service, and is sometimes unclear
   • A web service provider can go out of business without giving you an opportunity to recover data, or without securely erasing data
   • Web services with a sync component can propagate errors across all devices before a user realizes what is going on (mitigated if the service has version and/or deletion histories)
7. Complexity
   • Evaluating and managing web services can be time consuming
   • Choosing the wrong web service provider can lead to one of the problems mentioned earlier in this section

This is an incomplete list of drawbacks to cloud computing, but I believe these are the key concerns of home users or small businesses. Here are some additional resources on the drawbacks of cloud computing:

Wikipedia’s list of cloud concerns

Bernard Golden’s case against cloud computing for the enterprise

Microsoft’s critique of Google Apps

PC World on data loss

Richard Stallman’s critique of cloud computing

Who should move to the cloud?

If some or most of the following apply to your situation, you might consider migrating some of your work to the cloud:

• You routinely access data from multiple devices
• You travel frequently
• You use your phone to access e-mail, calendar, and contacts
• You communicate electronically throughout the day
• You frequently collaborate with others on projects or reports
• You are trying to set up e-mail and other services inexpensively for a new business
• You are trying to keep costs for software and hardware low
• You are not routinely backing up your data

Who should stay with the desktop?

If some or most of the following apply, then you probably won’t want to migrate much of your work to the cloud:

• You access data from a single device
• Your privacy is very important to you
• You don’t travel much
• You don’t use a computer much
• You rarely collaborate with others on projects or reports
• You routinely back up your data and store some backups in a different building from your computer
• You are part of a mid-sized or larger organization with an entrenched information technology infrastructure

Last Words

Life was definitely simpler when I had a home office with a single computer.  Once I moved to an outside office, life become more complicated. I tried to keep my work computer as my main data repository to keep things simple. But all too often I found that my data, especially e-mail, was not where I needed it when I needed it. And that was what started my move from the desktop to the cloud. Over the course of the next 12 months, I gradually adopted one web service after another until I ended up with Gmail as a launching point for much of my work.

So why are people moving to the cloud? In my case, the need to access data from multiple devices was the most important reason. But you’ll hear different answers depending on who you ask, explaining different benefits and drawbacks. Changing anything you do in life takes time and attention, and moving to the cloud is no exception.

For many people used to desktop computing, there is not yet a compelling reason to migrate to the cloud. For those who have questions about the cloud, this post may be a good starting point. And for those who have already started the move from the desktop to the cloud and would like to hear more about password security, Gmail, Evernote, Dropbox . . . stay tuned.

NOTE: In March 2011 I posted a comparison of the latest browser versions, Best Browsers . . .

Most individuals access the web using the browser initially bundled with their computer, and typically don’t update it. Accessing the information superhighway with an outdated browser is like driving today’s roads with a Model T—slow, unsafe, unreliable, and in many places not usable at all.

In this post, I explain why it’s so important to use the latest version of Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Safari—speed, security, reliability, and compatibility. I describe each of these browsers, to help you decide which is best for you. And I lay the groundwork for the next post on cloud computing.

The Browser Upgrade

In general, I’m not very keen on upgrades. Upgrading software and especially operating systems can lead to reduced speed, more bugs, compatibility issues, or the need to purchase a new computer altogether. There may be some enticing new features, but far too often the costs and learning required outweigh the benefits, which is why many people postpone upgrades as long as possible.

Fortunately, with modern browsers, the benefits of upgrading are numerous, while the costs and hassles are few. Major browser upgrades can cause some add-ons to stop working and there may be some learning required to get used to a changed interface. But the learning required is usually modest and the most popular add-ons are typically upgraded in time for a new browser release.

At the time of this writing, there are 5 well maintained browsers with over 0.5% market share. The latest versions of these browsers are:

• Firefox 3.0.x
• Opera 9.6x
• Internet Explorer 8 (IE8)
• Google Chrome 1.0.x
• Safari 3.2.x

Upgrading your browser provides increased speed, security, stability, and compatibility, as follows:

Speed

You can see the speed tests for yourself, here. Or you can subjectively experience how upgrading from Internet Explorer 6 or 7 to a recent browser release feels like getting a newer, faster computer. You can even give a second life to an older computer. I did this recently by installing Opera 9.64 on a 10-year old Dell running Windows 98. It’s fast again!

Security

According to Wikipedia, Web-based vulnerabilities now outnumber traditional computer security concerns, and about one in ten Web pages may contain malicious code. Most Web-based attacks take place on legitimate websites.

Browsers are updated frequently to patch discovered vulnerabilities. Keeping your browser (and operating system) updated is the first and most important step to keeping your system and data secure.

Stability

Older browsers crash more frequently than modern browsers. The multi-process architecture in Google Chrome and IE8 means that a single tab freezing up or crashing has no impact on other tabs—making these two browsers more reliable than the others. Though Firefox is theoretically less reliable, my extensive use of Firefox results in two to four crashes per month, usually when opening a large, in-line PDF file. Older versions of Firefox crash more frequently.

Compatibility

Web standards have evolved over time to support greater speed, more sophisticated capabilities, and easier maintenance for web sites. On older browsers, if a web site looks strange or doesn’t work at all, it is usually because the web site is using techniques that were not possible using older standards. None of the 5 major browsers fully comply with the stringent acid3 standards test. However, the Safari and Opera versions expected later this year will comply with acid3, and the current versions of all 5 browsers display the vast majority of modern web sites properly.

Browser Market Share

According to Net Applications, world wide market share for browsers in March, 2009, was:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 66.8%
• Mozilla Firefox 22.1%
• Apple Safari 8.2%
• Google Chrome 1.2%
• Opera 0.7%

The more popular browsers benefit from greater web site compatibility testing and a well developed ecosystem of add-ons and plug-ins.  For example:  Chrome or Opera users are currently not able to use the 1Password and Roboform password managers (which I’ll be highlighting in a future post).

However, obscurity confers a security benefit to Opera and Chrome.  According to this report, “they are targeted by attackers far less frequently due to market share.”

Differences among the 5 Major Browsers

In this section, I highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each browser. If you need more than this brief overview to decide which browser is best for you, the following links provide more information:

Maximum PC Browser Battle: Nine Browsers of Today and Tomorrow Compared

Hardware Zone: Browser Wars Showdown

Lifehacker:  Browser Speed Tests

Wikipedia:  Comparison of Browsers

The browsers are presented in order of my personal preference, but all 5 are excellent when kept up-to-date and are likely to be supported and upgraded for years to come.

1. Firefox 3.0.9

A library of thousands of high quality add-ons makes Firefox the most customizable browser. When first installed, Firefox is not as fast, as secure, nor as feature-packed as its competition. But it is fast enough.  With just a few extensions, Firefox becomes more secure, innovative, and customizable than all other browsers by a long shot. Firefox’s availability on Windows, Mac, and Linux allows you to have a similar browsing experience on any machine, regardless of operating system.

Major Upgrade: Firefox version 3.5 is expected by July 2009. It will be much faster at running complex web applications.

2. Opera 9.64

Feature-packed, compliant, secure, extensible, yet fast and small—Opera is a better choice than Firefox for the person who will never install an extension. Opera supports the widest variety of operating systems, including many cell phones with an Opera Mini version. It’s the only major browser still supported for Windows 95 and 98. Opera’s interface makes customization easy yet gets out of your way when you need it to. Opera’s small market share means far fewer add-ons, but also fewer security threats (See Market Share, above).

Major Upgrade: Opera 10 is expected by the end of 2009. It will be much faster at running complex web applications.

3. Internet Explorer 8 (IE8)

IE has always been bundled with the Windows operating system, and that is the primary reason it has been the most popular browser over the past 15 years. Prior to 2009, nearly all versions of IE were slower, much less secure, less web-standards-compliant, less extensible, and less innovative than the competition—which is why Firefox was able to gain over 20% market share. However, IE8 (which Microsoft released in March 2009) catches up to, and in some ways surpasses the competition. It is secure, stable, compliant, fast enough, and innovative. Slices, accelerators, and site suggestions are new features which access information like maps or definitions with fewer clicks and keystrokes. Microsoft only supports IE8 for Windows desktop versions XP, Vista and 7, and for Windows Server versions 2003 and 2008.

Major Upgrade: Users of any IE version prior to IE8 should immediately upgrade to IE8 or switch to another browser in order to experience greatly increased speed, reduced security risks, and numerous other benefits. Microsoft has not yet announced plans for a major new release beyond IE8, which was released March 2009.

4. Google Chrome

Only 8 months old, this browser is very fast, secure, reliable, and has little interface clutter—which makes it ideal for running web applications heavy in JavaScript (such as Google’s sites). Speed is not a compelling enough reason for users of Firefox 3.0.x, Opera 9.6.4, or IE8 to switch to Chrome, which currently only works on Windows (XP and Vista), lacks a number of common browser features (including full screen mode), and has a very small library of extensions. Given Google’s strong commitment to Chrome, an underlying design optimized for web applications, and a number of new features and add-ons coming soon, Chrome may rapidly gain market share after version 2.0 is released.

Major Upgrade: Version 2.0 (available for beta testing, release date unknown) will be faster and will adopt many features users miss from other browsers (included F11 for full screen mode). Macintosh and Linux versions are under development.

5. Safari 3.2.x

Safari is bundled with Macintosh computers running OS X, and has been gaining market share in proportion to the market share gains of Macintosh computers. It is fast, has an attractive, Mac-like interface, and now runs on Windows (XP and Vista) as well. However, Safari 3.2.x is less flexible, less extensible, and less secure than the other two major browsers available for Macs (Firefox and Opera). It also offers less control over appearance. Though Apple does not actively promote add-ons for Safari, there are actually a number of plug-ins available that provide additional features. For example, full screen mode and many other features are added with Saft and Glims.

Note: The multi-touch version of Safari that runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch is by far the best browser for a handheld device, but is beyond the scope of this post. The Apple Tablet rumored to be released at the end of 2009 will almost surely run a similarly impressive multi-touch version of Safari—and may well become the browser/hardware combination of choice for reading.

Major Upgrade: Safari 4.0 is expected by the end of 2009. It is more secure, 100% compliant with new web standards, and runs complex web applications extremely fast. Apple is currently pushing the seemingly stable 4.0 beta version on its web site. If you intend to stick with Safari, I suggest you upgrade soon to the Safari 4.0 beta (here). The two plug-ins I mentioned above (Saft and Glims) are compatible with Safari 4.0.

The 6th browser:  iCab 3.0.5 for Mac OS 8 or 9

None of the major browsers are maintained for Mac OS 8 or 9, as virtually all Mac users have migrated to newer computers running Max OS X.  iCab 3.0.5 ($25) is the only option.  You can learn more by visiting iCab’s web site. I learned of iCab from a comprehensive listing of all Mac web browsers, here.

Last Words

My next two posts will be on the topics of cloud computing and password security. To safely use the web for any purpose, an up-to-date browser is required.

IBM reported that 637 million users surf the web with an insecure, out-of-date browser (July 2008). Net Applications reported worldwide market share of 46.5% for IE7 and 18.4% for IE6 (March 2009). IE7 and IE6 are less secure and less functional than any of the 5 browsers featured in this post. So spread the word to anyone you know who uses an older browser: Upgrade!

Is the pen mightier than the computer?

Distraction-free reading is not a fully solved problem–which is why the last article was so long. Distraction-free writing is a solved problem, which is why this article is short.

As mentioned previously (here), FilterJoe aims to be a starting point for anyone wanting to enhance their ability to effectively focus, process information, and get work done. Some content will be original, while other content (like this post) will summarize and reference the great work others have already done.

The Key

For many people, the key to being able to write something lengthy or complex is to eliminate distractions, just as with reading. For some people, using pen and paper in a room without a computer or telephone may be the best answer. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

For those who can type faster than they write, or just plain prefer word processors over paper, read on.

Get Rid of the Interface with Full Screen Mode

Full screen mode is the answer to many computer distraction issues, and so it is with writing on a computer. Most major word processors have a full screen mode which gets rid of all toolbars and menus. Use it. Avoid formatting, spelling correction, researching fine points, etc. until the first draft is done. Just keep your word processor in full screen mode and keep writing.

To elaborate, here’s a simple checklist:

1. Research until ready to write a first draft
2. Invoke full screen mode of your word processor
3. Write, and then . . .
   • Don’t style your text: stay in full screen mode
   • Do not research: stay in full screen mode
   • Write zzz to mark places that need further research
4. When done first draft, revise (replace each zzz)

Word Processors that Support Full Screen Mode

Following is a link to a post with many different products that support full screen mode:

Full Screen Text Editors from techmalaya

Note that Microsoft Word is on the list – choose “full screen” from the view menu to blank out everything except the text area.

I personally use Google Docs’ word processor (with fixed-width page view selected from the view menu), so I can access the document from home, work, or elsewhere. Control-Shift-F, F11, and I’m ready to write.

Get Rid of External Distractions

Getting rid of external distractions can be the hardest part to implement, as it may involve habit change for some – such as not answering the phone.  Here are two articles with a number of good suggestions:

Lifehack Tips and Tricks for Distraction-Free Writing

Writetodone on How to Write Without Distraction

The Lure of Research

A common reason for writers to take so long to write (myself included) is the need for research when writing. The research is necessary, but even a simple look-up can lead to endless surfing once you’re on the web. Here’s a way to keep working, while noting the need for research:

One more thing to look up before getting back to writing . . .

Do enough research to get a decent amount of background. Then write your first draft. Do not look up anything while doing this draft. If you’re unsure of a fact, mark “tk” or “zzz” or some other nonsense letters where you need to do further research or revision to a certain part of your text. After the draft is finished, you can look up every instance of “zzz” and research or revise as necessary.

That’s It

I didn’t mention how to block out every possible source of distraction. I didn’t tell you about a piece of software that automatically writes for you. But for those who haven’t yet worked out their own system for staying focused while writing, perhaps some ideas in this post and in the above-mentioned articles will help reduce distraction.

If you have any further thoughts, questions, or links to other great articles, please leave a comment – that will help make this post an even better starting point for people just learning to write without distraction.

Will reading on the web ever be as good as reading a book?

Will reading lengthy text on the web ever be as comfortable as curling up in your favorite chair with a paperback? In theory, computers offer some reading advantages such as fast look-up and infinite storage. In practice, conflicting priorities of site design and current display technology get in the way.

For people like me who read hours per day, there has to be a better way. Luckily, there is.

Why Reading on the Web is so Difficult

The paperback novel is the easiest of all formats for me to read and the benchmark against which I compare all forms of reading. Currently, reading text on the web is not even close. Here is how I classify the various reading issues on the web that make it so much more difficult to read than a paperback:

1. Typography choices
   • fonts
   • type size and line spacing (usually too small)
   • colors (too bright, over-contrast, under-contrast)
   • page layout
2. Distracting web page elements
   • ads (blinking text, pictures, animations)
   • branding
   • links
   • site navigation
3. Distracting interface (browser and operating system)
   • tabs, icons and buttons
   • menus and search boxes
   • windows, title bars, and scroll bars
   • status and tool bars
   • pop-up messages
4. Hardware
   • light emitting monitors unnatural for human eyes
   • monitor resolution lower than print resolution
   • reading at a desk for long periods is uncomfortable

Some people address these problems by reformatting and printing most long articles. This is fairly easy to implement and comes close to addressing all four reading issues, though the 8.5 x 11 format is not as good for sustained reading as the paperback book. More of a problem is the act of printing, which uses up paper, ink, time, money, and storage space. This is not for me.

How to Vastly Improve Reading on the Web: Three Filters

If you suffer from distraction, eyestrain, or reduced concentration while reading on the web, the following three filters should help. If you spend a lot of time reading on the web, the combination of all three is best:

1. Readability button from arc90 (or Readable)
2. F11 key on your browser (Windows and Linux only)
3. Small device or narrow screen

Continue reading for more detail on each filter and additional help for widescreen monitors.

Reformat with the Readability button

Before installing the Readability button, your bookmarks toolbar must be enabled. On Firefox Menu: View > Toolbars > Bookmarks Toolbar. Then you can follow the instructions here to install the Readability button. Before installing the Readability button, choose the style, size, and margins you think will be most readable for you. On a vertically aligned, 19 inch monitor, I like Style: Novel, Size: Large, Margin: Medium.

After installing, click on the Readability button in the Bookmarks Toolbar. It will extract the main body text from the current web page, formatted beautifully. There are no drawbacks (except that it doesn’t work on all web sites). If you don’t like the formatting style, delete the button and reinstall with different style, size and margin choices.

An alternative to Readability that (as of March 2011) is faster and provides more options is Readable.

I love the Readability/Readable button approach and use it extensively – with one click, the issues of typography and distracting page elements go away.

Eliminate distractions with F11

There’s a very simple and effective method for Windows and Linux users to eliminate all interface distractions:

Press the F11 key to put Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera into full screen mode. Read.

F11 works terrifically on small screens, especially on a narrow display. F11 completely gets rid of all interface clutter from the browser and the operating system. If used in combination with the Readability button, it cleanly and easily takes care of the first three web reading issues. Just click Readability then press F11.

F11 used alone does not always work so well for reading on large and/or widescreen monitors. It does work well for sites like FilterJoe where the main page width is fixed and there is a dull colored background color outside the main page. But most web sites are not designed this way. Pressing F11 may cause text to stretch wide, may expand a distracting background, or may cause the menu or other elements to slide far to the left.

UPDATE: The rest of this section is no longer necessary. Readability now fixes the width of the text instead of the margin.

For F11 to improve reading on a widescreen monitor, you’ll want to create a second Readability button designed to work in combination with F11. Here’s how:

1. Right click on the Readability button you installed
2. Choose properties
3. Rename to something else, perhaps “read” in small letters
4. Go to arc90′s Readability site again, here
5. Choose Style: Novel, Size: Large, and Margin: Extra Large
6. Drag this Readability button to your toolbar
7. Rename it to something else, perhaps “READ”, that will help you remember that this version of the Readability button will produce very large type with very wide margins.

Now click the new button you created followed by F11. The browser will fill the screen and you’ll see very large text with a very wide margin.

While the above procedure works, a preferable solution would not require jumbo fonts.

Effectively using large monitors is a topic in and of itself with benefits far beyond reading. After much testing, I’ve concluded that it’s very hard to eliminate distractions on large, horizontal wide-screen monitors. Thankfully, large monitors are now available that can rotate into vertical position, which is the best monitor setup to reduce distraction.

Use a narrow screen or better yet a small device

Many people now use large, wide monitors with their desktop computers. As described in the prior section, such monitors are not very well suited for reading lengthy text. A vertically orientated monitor is a big improvement, and is what I recommend for online reading at a desk. Those of you with a large or widescreen monitor can hook up a second, smaller monitor to your computer for reading. Alternatively, a second computer with small monitor can be used.

The first two filters work well with any device whose width is 1080 or fewer pixels. Unfortunately, this still doesn’t take care of the fourth reading issue, “Hardware.” I’m not yet aware of a hardware solution as simple and effective as the filters I’ve mentioned so far.

What I would really like to see is all four reading issues go away with one click. Can someone please make the following a reality?

Go to web page. Click. The text appears on a piece of E-paper (Electronic Paper), well formatted for reading. You can carry it with you and therefore read it anywhere.

There are a number of small, portable devices that are superior to reading at a desk, but they all have shortcomings. Briefly expressed, here is my opinion regarding current portable choices for reading:

• E-book readers by Sony and Amazon–easy to read but slow, restricted web access
• Nokia tablet–too small, no rotation
• iPhone and iPod Touch–great interface but even smaller (UPDATE: the new higher resolution display makes the iPod Touch 4g great for reading)
• Netbooks–currently best–see below

Until a better device is released (like my E-paper idea or the oft-rumored Apple tablet), the best full computing experience for reading is a 9 or 10 inch netbook, in my opinion. For example, owners of an Asus EEE PC netbook with EEErotate and the Readability button installed, can read a web site as follows:

1. Click on Readability button
2. F11
3. Control-Alt-RightArrow

The last step rotates the screen 90 degrees, which means the text display is similar to a book. To return to the original state:

1. Control-Alt-UpArrow
2. F11
3. F5 (refresh)

The following screenshots show a New York Times article. The first image shows the article on a 24 inch monitor before any filtering. The next image shows two screen shots from an EEE PC 1000h netbook, after all three filters are applied.

Before: 24 inch monitor (no reading filters applied)

After: 10" EEE PC after all 3 filters applied, pages 1-2

This combination is not as good as a paperback book. The netbook is far heavier, emits light, and takes three actions to get into a highly readable format, and another three actions to return to the regular browser window. But I’ve found it to be the simplest and most effective method for using a computer to read lengthy text off the web at this point in time.

The Future

Thanks to rapid innovation on several fronts, reading on the web could soon approach the experience of reading a book. E-paper displays are as easy to read as regular paper and are perhaps a year or two away from mass adoption.

While devices like the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader already use E-paper, they will likely remain a niche product if data access and connectivity continues to be purposefully restricting.  (NOTE:  Kindle connectivity has improved enough since this post was written that I bought one and wrote about it here)

Safari on an iPod Touch combines unlimited web access with a great interface for reading on the web. If Apple comes out with a moderately larger model, I think it would do for reading what the iPod did for music. If my print-to-E-paper idea becomes reality, that would be even better.

I know there are many other tricks out there to increase readability and reduce distraction. I’ve found most to be excessively complicated or not effective enough for the average person. Be sure to let me know in the comments if you’ve found anything as simple and effective as Readability, F11, and using a small screen.

Typical Priorities for Site Design

To be fair, there are many conflicting priorities behind site design. Priorities usually include most of the following:

• Look great
• Draw attention to the brand
• Draw attention to online ads to generate revenue
• Draw attention to other page elements, as needed
• Be sure to include links to affiliates or other parts of the site
• Take care of necessary chores like navigation, RSS, credits, contact information, etc.
• Make it readable

While readability is usually a part of the mix, I suspect it is not usually the top priority for site design. The overall design philosophy which permeates the web seems to encourage skimming and rapid movement through many pages, not lengthy reading and contemplation. The end result of all these competing priorities reminds me of the following hilarious video about packaging design.

Microsoft Design Philosophy Applied to iPod Packaging

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0

The Goal

The site design for FilterJoe is driven by one overriding goal: make it easy to read content. Make reading so easy, that a user with a default browser setting has no temptation to print it out, copy/reformat text, or use some other trick to make it more readable, even if it’s a long article. Make the medium on which the words are written so unnoticeable, that the only thing a reader notices is the content, which he or she can stay with and contemplate. Just like a book. Or at least a lot closer to a book than the typical blog. And it should remain readable on any size screen, any type of device, with any amount of scaling.

The Realization

With thousands of themes in existence, I thought it would be a simple matter to pick an existing theme that had been designed with reading as the top priority.

How wrong I was. I rejected first dozens, then hundreds of potential WordPress themes. With surprise, shock, and dismay, I realized I’d have to design my own theme!

What? Say again?

I Must be Missing Something . . .

The idea of me designing my own theme is crazy. Here’s why:

• Everything I know about design was learned during the past two weeks. Prior to that I knew nothing.
• Surely some blogs are easy to read? Yes, I found some. But all were proprietary, custom designs.
• Starting a free blog using WordPress.com as host is really easy. Going with an independent host and designing your own theme is not so easy if you’re new to this.  Couldn’t any of the 74 themes available on WordPress.com suffice? No.
• Were there any other themes, anywhere, that were close? Yes, I gave serious consideration to a few, especially a number of themes that described themselves as minimalist. However, virtually all of them had white backgrounds for the main content area (including Contemp and Day Dream from wordpress.com which I seriously considered using in order to save myself 10-20 hours of research and 30-50 hours to build a theme). My eyes tire quickly from maximum contrast (black print on bright white background). There were a number of other shortcomings, but the black on white in and of itself was a deal killer.

In the end, I discovered the fantastic Thematic framework, which is the parent theme to my custom designed child theme, FilterJoe.

Blog Design Elements for Easier Reading

After straining my eyes looking at hundreds of themes and websites (and reading about site design), I identified the following elements that contribute to easier reading for me:

General

• Page navigation menus should be just words in a title bar
• Ample white space helps readers focus on content
• Needs to remain readable when scaled up or down using browser commands like control+
• Two column (main text left, sidebar right) makes scaling work better than 3 column (One column design also possible, if navigation can be gracefully handled)
• Outside of the content area, there should be very little clutter (This means no ads, graphics, bright color, boxes, etc. – only the absolute minimum needed by the user)
• In general, use of color should be restrained (This means no bright colors anywhere, not even traditional uses like the bright orange RSS icon)
• Link color cannot be in high contrast to the background color (Make it easy to continue reading and contemplating without distraction, as opposed to getting lost in an exploratory journey)
• Outside the web page, there should be an unnoticeable bordering color such as gray (This makes it easier to stay focused on reading, especially after hitting the f11 key which causes most browsers to fill up the screen)
• If ads are present, they need to be very unobtrusive

Main Text

• Font: Sans Serif Verdana at <=10pt, Ariel or Verdana at >10pt. Among widely installed fonts, default Sans Serif fonts are the most readable on the low resolution screens most people use – FilterJoe uses Sans Serif. This article (backed by tests) describes in depth the best Sans Serif font choices.
• Black or very dark text
• Ample line spacing
• Background color a light, neutral color, but not bright white
• No more than 66 characters wide for content, because:
  • Paperback width is 45-65 characters
  • This is conventional typographic wisdom
  • Works well on rotated netbook screens (600px)
  • Works well on cell phones
  • Allows site to be enlarged (control+) without spilling off the sides of the screen. Appreciated by people various vision issues or who set up monitors further away, as I suggest here.

Sidebar

• Insure sidebar is less noticeable than content
  • dimmer is better
  • perhaps background a different color
  • perhaps no color unless mouse hovers over sidebar
• Bullets or dots or arrows to help see where items start
• Keep as little as possible in this area

Banner

• Banner should both recede from and set off content.
  • Dark color (Blue? Green? Dark Grey?)
  • Slim
  • Site name and tag line in light color
  • No pictures
• Menu needs to be part of the banner.

None of this should be taken as gospel.  It’s just a list of what makes various sites more readable for me, based on careful observation.  I fully expect to stumble across a site that does it far better than FilterJoe, motivating me to overhaul the site interface.

The End Result

Stanza e-book reader on iPhone

Interestingly, the end result is similar to the Stanza e-book reader’s iPhone interface. I didn’t consciously start with that in mind – but I now see why reading with a dedicated e-book reader on the iPhone is easier than reading on a computer, despite the much smaller screen. The site design of FilterJoe is easy for me to read (though I’m not yet satisfied with the right sidebar interface – I’d prefer that to be less noticeable). However, it may not be so easy to read for others. So please comment below with both praise and constructive criticism – the more specific you can be, the better.

What About Other Sites?

While there are quite a few blogs out there that are easy to read – and I hope this is one of them – what about the vast majority of sites out there that aren’t? Thankfully, there are 3 very simple steps which make nearly any text heavy web site easy to read. That is the subject of the next article:

Filters for Reading on the Web

email, facebook, RSS, IM, SMS, twitter . . .

To this point, many articles on the subjects of information overload, Internet distractions, and declines in reading and focusing abilities have appeared during the past few years. Some of the more interesting ones are here, here and here.

Where is the Information Overload Blog?

While many like to comment or complain about information overload, there isn’t much in the way of resources for teaching people how to deal with it. Sure, there are a few blogs one can point to for getting tips on improving the situation. My favorite is zenhabits, devoted to simplifying your life so that you can focus on the relevant. And there are a number of quality blogs with productivity tips, such as lifehacker and mashable. But no blog or forum specializes in the specific issues I have in mind, so far as I know.

It’s Here!

So here is FilterJoe, dedicated to helping you “find what you need” and “focus on your work”—to be a starting point for you to enhance your ability to effectively focus, process information, and get work done: Joe’s filters for the average Joe. Initially, content will relate to the following subjects:

• reducing Internet/computer distractions
• tools to reduce distraction and how to use them (password managers, clutter-free browsers, etc.)
• improving online reading, writing, email, etc.
• staying focused
• wise gadget use
• finding/filtering information

Rapidly Changing Technologies

The passion I’ve developed for this topic brings together ideas I’ve had for years, and especially the last year, about how rapid technological progress can lead to unintended, undesirable consequences. Case in point: the car alarm. An extra theft deterrent is a great idea, but unfortunately most car alarms are so easy to set off that they are now routinely ignored. Thanks to insurance company incentives, most cars now have them, so the net effect of this new technology is to cause much more noise pollution in return for a slight decrease in auto theft. Probably not what was initially envisioned.

The technology with the largest impact that is changing the most rapidly is the proliferation of ways to get information on the Internet. There are many ways this is obviously good, such as instantly accessing encyclopedic reference information or the solution to an obscure technical issue. But the ease of accessing and generating information has also led to an explosion of new content and methods of access. It is much easier to waste time and lose focus than it is to harness all this information efficiently and productively. Better filters are needed.

So Why does the World Need FilterJoe?

The inspiration for both the title of this blog, and the motivation to start it, comes from a thought provoking interview with Clay Shirky (Part 1, Part 2). There is much of interest in this lengthy transcript, but the key piece for me was the relationship between information overload and how people filter information.

Library of Alexandria (Source: Carl Sagan's Cosmos, 1980)

Shirky correctly points out that there has been more information than any single human being could possibly know since the creation of the library of Alexandria. But over the ages, filtering mechanisms have developed which allow people to get relevant information, without getting overloaded by details. Examples of useful information filters are:

• card catalogs
• news publishers
• social networks

Shirky argues that the best way to view the difficulties arising from recent rapid technological change is not “information overload,” but rather “filter failure.” Filtering mechanisms have not yet caught up with the last decades’ worth of innovations in generating and delivering information. Card catalogs and traditional news publishing now only cover a fraction of available information.

So what we need is not less information, but better filters. This blog is an effort to provide one such set of filters, “Joe’s filters,” that will hopefully be of use to a broad audience of anyone who is hoping to make better use of today’s technology without getting overwhelmed or overloaded.

How Can FilterJoe Help?

To help be part of the solution, rather than the problem, I will attempt to:

• Present information and filters that are both effective and simple to set up and use
• Avoid complex solutions that require scripting or a great deal of learning
• Avoid solutions that require big habit change
• Keep this blog easy to read and free of distraction
• Emphasize content quality over quantity
• Harness group wisdom from comments and emails I receive to drive improvements to the site and ideas for future content

How Can You Help?

If you find my posts interesting or helpful, please subscribe via RSS. Please share via comments any insights or questions you have on specific posts of interest.

Initially, I will be the sole editor and moderator, generating all content. But I welcome on-topic guest posts and ideally this will turn into a group with many active discussions and contributions from others. Social networks have always been one of the most effective information filters, and are likely to continue to be so for the foreseeable future.