Ministry of Technology

Essential Mac Apps

2014-01-03T19:00:00.000+00:00

Now that you have a Mac, what are the apps you can't live without? Here's a short list of apps that I have installed on my Mac and that make my life a lot easier.

Quicksilver
Quicksilver is an app launcher, and then more. instead of going to the Applications folder, or the Launchpad, then look for the app I want to launch and click on it, I only have to press ctrl+Space, then start typing the name of the app or file I want to open. Because I use Evernote a lot, and also because I don't want to have 50 apps on the dock, I can type ctrl+ Space, and as soon as I type the "E" for Evernote it shows on the Quicksilver popup window, I press Enter and Evernote is launched. Same for any other application I want to launch, or file I want to open, regardless of where it is.

ClipMenu
Extends the capabilities of the clipboard, stores several copied items for later pasting. Very useful when creating documents or presentations.

Caffeine
Prevents your Mac from going to sleep, when you want it to stay on, even if you're not actively using it.

BetterTouchTool
Create new gestures to better control your Mac from your trackpad, Magic Mouse, Keyboard or Leap. Wished the two finger swipe left and right worked on Finder to go back or forward a folder? Here's your answer.

KeyRemap4Macbook
I have a Logitech R800 remote for presentations. It worked great on my Windows PC with Powerpoint, but Logitech says it doesn't work on Mac OS X. Well, I beg to disagree. Not only it works with MS Powerpoint for Mac, but with the help of this little app and a few tweaks it also works with Apple's Keynote!

aText
A text expander, will be invaluable to anyone who has to type the same thing over and over again, responding to emails, creating documents, etc. You can create whatever snippets of text you want, add a shortcut to trigger the snippet and off you go. I used PerfectKeyboard on Windows, and aText is quite similar in features,

Besides these, there are a lot more, some more mainstream like Evernote, Skype, etc., and others not so much, like FreeMemory or AppCleaner. What are your essential apps?

Mac or PC?

2014-01-03T17:30:00.000+00:00

A couple of months ago, as my work laptop was due for replacement, I struggled with the decision of which laptop I should request next. The options were somewhat limited to a couple of Windows machines, and a couple of MacBooks. For years I have resisted the Apple temptation, and faithfully stuck with Windows. In the last couple of years, though, more and more of my friends and colleagues have made the move to a Mac and keep exalting its qualities.

I have to say I was "converted" to the iPhone a few years ago, after Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Android smartphones. In the realm of tablets, I first used an Android tablet, the Asus Transformer, and thought the world of it, until I played with my wife's iPad. When I got my own iPad I never looked back. But a Mac as a working laptop? Not so sure. The truth is some of the work applications I have to use every single day were Windows only, but that too has changed, for the most part. The CRM I work with is now browser agnostic, and web based, which means I can use it from pretty much any computer that has a browser. And for the few exceptions there's always VMware Fusion or Parallels, allowing for the use of a Windows virtual machine. After much consideration, and to be honest because the specs of the Windows machines were rubbish, I decided to take a leap of faith and try the Mac.

So here we are now, after about a month and a half working with a MacBook Pro! How is the experience? A lot easier than I expected it to be. I have found Mac OS X to be very intuitive, although there are a few things I miss from Windows, like the way folders and files are ordered when viewing them. But otherwise I would say the transition has been very easy. Software is much easier to find for a specific function than I expected, and there are many free applications for it as well. The hardware is fantastic, amazing resolution (Retina display), much lighter than my previous laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad W510), smaller (13") and thus easier to carry around. The sound is far superior to any previous laptop I've owned, and the whole system is super fast (i7 CPU, plenty of RAM and flash storage). And the battery life, around 10 hours, is just beyond any expectations!

Are there any questions you would like to ask a newby Mac user? Go ahead and ask away!

Education Delivery in a Changing World

2013-07-04T18:00:00.000+01:00

After many years I went back to school, and I'm currently engaged in a Leadership and Management degree, which I am enjoying very much. Having said that, I must admit it has been quite a struggle to adapt to a new style of teaching and delivery of knowledge, and for quite some time I felt frustrated with the way the curriculum was organized. I even thought this university was completely out of it, until I started discussing with people at other universities, and that the 'problem' was general!

It wasn't until I paused a bit and looked around at the world that I actually realized what the real 'problem' was... me! I am from a time when teachers would dump loads of theory on top of their students and expected them to memorize most of it. Lessons were lectures, and the student was almost always just a recipient, not a participant. Teachers were like a broadcasting station, and we were radios tuning in to their words.

Between finishing school and now I completed quite a lot of professional training, obtaining certifications and developing my professional skills, and most, especially more recently, have been much different from school used to be, and I realized and accepted that. After all, this was training, not school! Training was more often than not a participative, collaborative experience, where the 'instructor' was more a facilitator than a teacher. This obviously works very well, and I always left these training sessions feeling I had learned a lot of skills that I was ready to immediately put into action.

So, why not the same feeling about school, when the delivery method is so much like the training delivery method? Because I was conditioned by my school experience. I was expecting what I had always seen as education delivery in a school environment. But the reality is that the world is changing, and each one of us must adapt to the new reality. My wife was telling me today about a study where recent graduates displayed better results than experienced therapists, most probably because new graduates come out of university with a lot of practical projects completed, internships, and used to research on the richness of the Internet, while experienced therapists came out of school filled with theory and are still conditioned to see therapy as it was when they graduated. This is not true in every single case, of course, but it illustrates the point I am trying to make.

If we are part of training, educating, teaching, delivery of knowledge in any way, we ought to learn how to facilitate learning, engaging students in discussions and in collaborative projects, that will give them the tools they will need in real life situations. We must change from a 'lecturing mode' to a 'facilitating mode', be it at school, work, church or wherever we are educators. And, my friends, we are all educators to one degree or another.

SSD Woes

2013-07-03T19:43:00.001+01:00

About a year ago I upgraded the SSD on my laptop to one with more capacity. The original was very small and within a couple of months was bursting by the seams. The new SSD, from Crucial, offered 512GB at a reasonable price, and it certainly improved the overall usefulness of the laptop. A few months ago, I started having some issues that I initially assumed were caused by some OS problem.

My Outlook client kept freezing, with messages saying some files were corrupted. I performed a scan on the disk and had the software used correct some issues, which seemed to have solved the problem. Later, my Internet Explorer started exhibiting a very curious behavior. Any time I close a tab, I would get a pop up message that announced IE had stopped working, and I would click on 'Close program' in order to continue. Any other tabs or windows would continue to work, but this became really annoying.

So I started using Chrome for most of my browsing, but some work applications required IE, so the problem kept bugging me. I searched online and applied several suggestions that should cure this problem, but with no luck. Finally, i let down my arms and formatted the hard drive, re-installed Windows and all the applications I need, but from the very beginning I got the same behavior from IE. Even before any extra applications were installed, IE was giving me those pop up messages!

Adding to this, I started getting BYODs every few minutes, to a point where I just couldn't use the computer, not to mention the temperature of the CPU was going through the roof, even with no programs running. After a weekend of BYODs I called Lenovo support, which were amazingly efficient, as always, and the next day I had an engineer at my door to replace the fan. He did, but the BSODs continued, so paid a bit more attention to the error messages and realized that after a BSOD and its corresponding restart a message would display on the screen stating that the hard drive could not be found. A reboot would solve this issue, but that got me thinking the problem could actually be in the SSD.

I managed to get to the Crucial support webpage and downloaded a firmware update for my specific SSD, applied it and guess what? Not only the BSODs stopped, and the temperature went back to normal levels, but my IE was finally cured! A SSD that was dying was now fully restored to full health, and my system is running like new.

My point? Check your supplier for firmware updates, driver updates and so forth, for all your hardware, not just your peripherals. This may solve a lot of issues you may be having with your system.

Typing Tip for iPhone Users

2013-07-03T19:18:00.001+01:00

I'm not a texter! I hate typing on the iPhone, the iPad or any other small keyboards! But every once in a while, one has to do what one has to do, and I will have to send a text message or reply to an email on the phone, not to mention taking notes. If you too have to type on your phone, you will understand that one simple task may be really frustrating, and that is to simply change the keyboard to show punctuation marks so you can type in the period, then add a space, turn on the capitals and start a new sentence. Well, here's a tip that will save you some time and frustration.

When you finish a sentence, just tap the space bar twice, and it will add the period, the leading space and turn on the capitals for you! How about that!! And this works on any iOS device, any application, be it SMS, Email or Pages.

Type away and have fun!

Barclays Pingit App

2012-02-17T13:51:00.002+00:00

It's about time Barclays would come up with such a nifty little app! Not the ideal app yet, but certainly a step in the right direction. Right, so, what is this all about?

Barclays has just launched "Barclays Pingit" for iOS (iPhone), Android and Blackberry, which allows you to send and receive money by using a mobile phone number. After you install it and set it up with your number, name and account details, which include a few verification steps (SMS and PinSentry), you are ready to start sending or receiving money!

The other "undocumented" benefit of this app is that you can check you balance as well! Now all we need is for Barclays to add the possibility of looking at your statement, pay bills and do transfers.

If you have an account with Barclays Bank and a UK mobile phone number, this is the app for you! If you are not a Barclays customer, you can actually register to receive payments, and soon you will be able to make payments as well.

Certifications for 2012

2012-02-16T15:01:00.000+00:00

If you are looking for a new job in the IT world, you probably know that being certified will improve your chances. Well, here's the top 10 for 2012 that will help you get that job you want:

PMP (Project Management Professional)
CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate)
Security+
A+
MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer)
Network+
MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional)
CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)
ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional)

(Source: Dice)

FamilySearch Indexing for iOS, Android

2012-02-04T20:39:00.000+00:00

FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) has now launched an Indexing app for iOS and Android. For all those interested in genealogy and with some free time on their hands, a warning... This is an addicting app!

First you want to do a few names just to test it, next you realise there are stats and you want to have a high number of matches, meaning the way you typed a name matches the way other indexers typed it, and then you just can't stop! You will do just one more name, just one more, just one more...

This is actually a great way to use your free time as you will be contributing to the largest freely available genealogical database on the Web, making it possible to search for names instead of spending hours looking at old microfilms. And with the mobile app you can index on the bus, at the beach or wherever you are, either on your smartphone or your tablet.

Way to go, FamilySearch!

Technology or People, Secret of Success

2012-02-03T16:32:00.001+00:00

Since the Industrial Revolution that technology has not only replaced people in businesses, but it is more and more seen as the solution to productivity, performance, profitability. New automated systems controlled by powerful computers now replace hundreds of workers in many factories, and in the office the ancient role of the telephone operator has been replaced state of the art telecommunication systems.

So, what makes a business successful? What really makes the difference? Is the technology more important than the people that use it? I recently watch a video clip about a nuclear power plant in South Texas that was in danger of being shut down due to business reasons. Instead of upgrading the technology, a visionary CEO decided to grab a handful of his employees at a time, from top executives to the truck driver, and have them gain communication skills, that are key for any business. They are now in the top quartile of US power companies and executives from other in and out of the industry come to see how they work.

My point in this post is that, even though I am a technology geek, and love being surrounded by computers and other gadgets, having the right people and investing in their development is the key to make a business successful. Not better technology, even though it is important. Not the processes, because it is the people that make processes work. I sincerely hope that we don't lose sight of how important individuals are, and that technology is a tool which individuals use to make a business successful.

iOS 5 Woes

2011-11-27T17:52:00.001+00:00

Quite probably one of the most anticipated and feature rich upgrades to Apples`s mobile platform operating systems, iOS 5 ended up being also one of the buggiest. Adding to the (hopefully resolved) battery and DST bugs, it is now surfacing what seems to be one of the most annoying bugs of late, especially if we take into account there is no fix announced. After updating to iOS 5 many idevices are now unable to connect to wireless access points, or get such a weak signal that it becomes impractical to use Wi-Fi at all.

What I find interesting is that everyone criticizes Windows for its bugs, but Apple has no heat for theirs, even repetitive ones, like the DST bug.

I am getting really annoyed at not being unable to connect to my home wireless network, especially when iOS 5 brings Over the Air updates to the iPhone and iPad... right!

Have you been plagued by this bug? What are your thoughts?

Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet

2011-09-17T17:49:00.001+01:00

Lenovo has recently launched the Thinkpad Tablet, powered by Android Honeycomb. This seems to be one of the best equipped, designed and a solid tablet that includes digitising features, but no one seems to have noticed it.

I know Lenovo is targeting the enterprise market with this tablet, but even the "pros" are quiet.

Maybe one such tablet will find it's way to me, so I can post a proper review. In the meantime, check it out at Lenovo.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Airport Security and Other Annoyances

2011-07-04T09:28:00.001+01:00

I am writing this post from Switzerland, where I arrived yesterday for a brief business visit. When I picked my luggage at the airport I immediatly noticed something was missing. I had a bright blue handle wrap on my bag, which helps me identify it among all the other black bags and also makes it more comfortable to hold. Well, that was missing.

This handle wrap is a really cheap thing to buy, and this one was actually a promotional gift, so it cost me nothing, but the fact that it was stolen really had the ability to up set me! What kind of people handle our luggage at airports? An external pocket zip was also opened, but that was empty, so nothing taken there. You are made to go through security, X-Ray machines, searched, your carry on bag opened, and who is checking on the guys handling the luggage?

Another annoying thing is that every time I travel to the USA and go through security, and I mean every single time, I am "randomly" selected to be searched! I will be traveling with colleagues and they, blond and fair, are not searched, but I get the "random" treatment every single time. I must have one of those faces!

Do you feel annoyed at airports? Do you feel no one is watching the "watchers"? Should people working with luggage be unable to carry personal items to the workplace (and therefore unable to take items from the workplace)?

P.S.: If you are either in London or Geneve and see a guy with a bright blue handle wrap, with the words FamilySearch, Where Generations Meet, grab him! It's probably my handle wrap!!!

Social Media Courses

2011-06-22T12:40:00.002+01:00

I am currently writing this post on a train to London, where I will participate in a series of courses on Social Media. While I was researching about what courses were available and which ones were the best I found myself completely lost. Some would say Social Media studies are so new that no courses were actually good at all, while others said that any course would be somewhat valuable.

Accreditation was another requirements I had put forward. Mind you, I am not talking about a University degree, but about training on this matter. So, what organizations would be the best in providing accreditation? I finally found some that were accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the United Kingdom, and evaluating the courses programmes I felt these were the ones providing the most value.

Besides Social Media strategy and implementation I will also be learning about blogging, so lets see if you will be able to see an improvement in my blogging over the next few weeks. I also expect to better understand how to take my blog to the masses, as I currently only advertise it to friends and acquaintances, even though I get quite a few visitors through Google searches.

My question to you, this time, is as follows. Do you think Social Media training courses are a valuable addition to ones curriculum and, if so, should this training be administered only by successful bloggers, web strategists, or is a good trainer, theorist enough?

I would love to read your comments.

Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless

2011-06-18T02:14:00.001+01:00

Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless

My wife gets annoyed with a little habit I have. If I am on the phone, I can’t sit still. I will be walking around the room or the house, talking away. As I work mostly form home and the telephone is one of my main tools, you can imagine the rest.

When I was taking VOIP calls on the computer, though, I was stuck. I have used a bluetooth headset, but not only it made my ear ache, people also couldn’t hear me well. So I was down to a nice pair of Sennheiser PC350, typically used for gaming, but which I love to use both for VOIP calls and even with my iPhone. I had to buy a small adapter that allows both jacks (headphones and microphone) to be used with a combo audio socket, like the one on my Lenovo ThinkPad W510, but it worked fine.

Sennheiser PC350

But now things have changed! I got a Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless headset, and it works like a treat. I can now roam the house as I attend conference calls over the Internet! My wife isn’t too happy.

The ClearChat headset comes with a USB transceiver that is immediately recognized by Windows 7. You then turn on the headset and you are ready to go. Just like that. No drivers, no software utilities, nothing. And because the range is about 10 meters there’s plenty of room to move about. I tried it by wearing it as I walked down the stairs two floors and only in the ground floor it lost signal.

In the headset itself you have the on/off button, volume + and –, and a mute button, all conveniently located. You can also mute the microphone by rotating it up and out of the way. When it is muted there is a red light glowing on the tip of the microphone, which lets you know the mike is off. Obviously, if you muted it by rotating it up this is pretty useless.

The ear pads are quite small, and that is a minus. Besides, they feel too fragile and I am afraid they will break rather early in the lifetime of the headset. There is also a micro USB slot on the headset, used to recharge it.
The quality of the sound is quite good, and according to the manufacturer they provide laser-tuned audio. Technicalities aside, the sound is very good, both with voice and with music, and now I just have to run a few tests to assess the quality of the microphone.

So, here are the pros and cons of this headset:

Pros

Wireless – gives you free movement
Range – 10 meters (33 ft)
Light – you barely feel them on your head
Good quality sound for the type
Easy to setup (requires no setup!)
Handy controls in the headset

Cons

Ear pads too small
Headphones too fragile, won’t survive rough treatment
A bit expensive for the quality of the materials used
One more USB port required on your computer

Logitech, if you read this, correct those few points above and see if you can make it work with the Unifying Receiver to save another USB port.

Community Manager versus Advocate

2011-06-17T19:09:00.001+01:00

One of the new professions that the new “always-on” world has given birth is the Community Manager. Some wonder if this is indeed a real job, but believe me, not only it is a real job, but is also one that is taking impetus and is becoming a key position in any corporation that values its future.

Jeremiah Owyang, an Industry Analyst form Altimeter Group and formerly from Forrester Research, has been an evangelist of this position and he defined what The Four Tenets of the Community Manager are. In brief, these
are the tenets, and you can look deeper into those at his excellent blog post here.

A Community Advocate
Brand Evangelist
Savvy Communications Skills, Shapes Editorial
Gathers Community Input for Future Product and Services

My point in this post relates only to the first tenet, A Community Advocate. According to Jeremiah, the Community Manager represents the customer, and this is his primary role as a community advocate. My question, then, is how does a community manager conciliates the best interest of the community with the best interest of his employer? If faced with this, how does he or she deal with it?

Following from this first question, where do being an advocate for the community and being a brand evangelist may clash or come together? What is their first and foremost passion? The community or the brand they represent?

I would love to hear from you.

Corporate Support Online Models

2011-06-17T18:22:00.000+01:00

As the corporate world moves online, the rest of the world struggles to understand the scope of this move. To be honest, many a good executives and managers, “old style”, are also struggling with the rapid and constant evolution of the online world, and those who think online corporate presence means having a website and maybe an online store are dinosaurs condemned to extinction.

Today, corporate presence online encompasses all aspects of the business, from customer engagement to brand development and hiring. The tools, available on the whole wide world, went from menace to key instruments, and Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn are no longer looked at as
employee distractions or worse. Whole structures are being redesigned and rethought to involve the online community. One of these cases is the support structure for a service or product, with forums and wikis replacing help desks and contact centers. Is this the death of the technical or otherwise skilled support agent? What is the place of these professionals in a world where technical knowledge is at the distance of a keyboard or a smartphone, and people with more or less knowledge are willing to share their experience for free on any forum or wiki?

Talking to support engineers I perceive two distinct feelings, and I guess you won’t be surprised by this. There is a love hate relationship between support engineers and online community support tools. They hate the prospect of support moving to an open source, community model, where users support each other, as this poses a threat to their own job security. On the other hand, they love these tools as they are avid users of the same. Browse through any support forum, especially the ones related to technology, and you will see how most, if not all posts, are contributions of technical engineers who manage or provide support in the field.

What is then the future of these highly skilled professionals in the open model of support? How can they retain their value and adapt? Should they be re-qualifying in related areas such as social media management, digital content management, brand developing, community management? Is this too much of a turn towards marketing? Or do you think the traditional support model will be there and will take all those it employs today?

Your comments are welcome and appreciated.

Angry Birds on Chrome

2011-06-11T18:31:00.001+01:00

For those of you addicted to Angry Birds (or just curious), you can now get it for free form the Google Chrome Store, install it as an extension on your Chrome browser and play it for free. If you want to give it a try, just follow these easy steps:

Start your Google Chrome browser
Go to the Google Chrome Store here (https://chrome.google.com/webstore)
If you don't already see a banner for the game, type "Angry Birds" on the search box and press Enter
On the search results, click on Angry Birds
Now click on the Install button

After Angry Birds is installed it will be available by opening a new tab on Chrome. Play away and have fun!

The Jawbone is connected to…

2011-06-11T11:03:00.000+01:00

No, this is not a post about the human face anatomy, but it could be! I want to share a few thoughts what is purportedly the best bluetooth headset on the planet, the Jawbone® Era. For quite some time now, Aliph has made some of the best bluetooth headsets for mobile phones, and their new iteration, the Era, is a worthy descendant of a great line. You may find the name a bit strange, but it is inspired in the fact that this headset has a small sensor that
touches your jawbone and uses its vibrations to distinguish your voice from environmental noise. The technology used is called NoiseAssassin® 3.0, a military grade noise and wind cancelling technology. This means you should always be heard, loud and clear, when using the headset, even if Katrina is raging around you. My experience with this feature has been mixed, as quite a lot of times, when in the quiet of my office, my interlocutor says “I can’t hear you very well..” Doh!

The Jawbone® Era also allows you to listen to your music, video and calls in “HD-quality sound”. Well, the sound is not bad but, HD? I don’t think so.You can answer a call by simply double tapping on the side of the headset, but I wonder what I look like (you don’t have to say it) when I keep tapping the side of my head until it answers the incoming call! To conclude my criticism to this headset I must also mention the fitting in the ear, via one of eight optional earbuds. These fit the inside of your ear and hold the extra light headset in place, but after a couple hours wearing it my ear is sore for almost a week. You can always use the binaural earloop, but that spoils the whole concept of this headset design.

Now, for some positive things. The first one is that you can connect it to more than one device at the same time, so I have it connected to the phone and the laptop, allowing me to take calls or use Skype, without having to change the headset or re-pairing it. But there’s more. When I get a call, and provided I've entered the number and name into its contact list, it tells me who is calling, or at least reads me the originating number. It also lets me install apps (which I haven’t found that useful yet) and updates. You can even download and install different voices to tell you who’s calling. Battery life is also pretty good and, if you have an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android there’s a battery indicator on your phone for the headset.

Oh, and it looks good too! I have never been a huge fan of bluetooth headsets, but with all its pros and cons, this is still the best one I’ve used. Just wish it wouldn’t hurt my ears so much!

Sat Nav War!!! Well, kinda…

2011-06-10T17:02:00.001+01:00

More and more, a lot of services for which we used to pay premium are becoming free. One such service is satellite navigation, commonly known as Sat Nav or GPS. You can buy a standalone device or have it integrated on your mobile phone or even laptop. There are many brands from where you can chose, like TomTom, Garmin, Nuvii, CoPilot and so many others, and each will sell you maps for a specific region plus the ability to receive turn by turn navigation instructions, speed camera positioning warnings, speed limits and even where you can find the next ATM machine.

More recently, with the mass adoption of mobile Internet access, Google introduced a turn by turn feature to their popular Google Maps, even though this feature is only available in North America, but you would obviously be paying for traffic, as the maps are being downloaded from the cloud. You also need a good connection, so that the refreshing of the maps and loading of new areas takes place in a timely manner. For these reasons and the fact that mobile Internet is still pretty expensive in most places, Google Maps with turn by turn navigation didn’t pose that much of a threat to Sat Nav makers. But that is about to change!

It seems that Google is about to add an offline mode to Google Maps Navigation, allowing the user to cache the maps while within reach of a wireless connection, and then used the cached maps to navigate without the use of the Internet connection on the phone. And it also seems this will be free!!! TomTom, Garmin and company will feel this as a thorn on their side. True, Ovi Maps from Nokia already provided a similar service, but it never really took off, which seems to be a different story whenever Google is involved.

What about us, the consumers? Will this be a benefit to the user or will it provide a less sophisticated product inundating us with ads? What is your take? Is free really free?

iOS 5 Wi-Fi Sync... Oops

2011-06-10T12:23:00.001+01:00

If you read my post from yesterday about the iOS 5 new features and similarities with other existing apps, this one won't come as a surprise to you. It seems like this new feature is very, and I mean very similar to an app submitted a year ago to the Apple Store, which Apple refused, but instead called the developer and asked for his CV. Greg Hughes, though, preferred to take his app to the Cydia Store (that's for jailbroken iPhones, in case you are wondering) where he made about half a million dollars selling it.

Now, a year later, this feature comes up in the latest (future) update of iOS, with basically nearly the same icon, the same name and the same functionalities. As users we are glad we will finally be able to Sync our iDevices via a wireless connection, saving the trouble of connecting a cable to our computers. This way we can sync the iDevice's content from anywhere in the house, for example. My question is, do you think this is ethical from Apple? Could Greg just be boasting and trying to take a slice of the Apple?

For more details check out the following links:
Huffington Post
The Register

Hacker Activity on the Rise

2011-06-09T22:55:00.001+01:00

The last months have been fertile in hacking news. Just as we used to hear about wars and skirmishes between neighbouring countries, we now hear about hackers stealing account data from banks, gaming networks, credit card providers, and who knows what else is not on the news.

Amid these news we hear about accusations of "cyberwarfare", either pointing the finger at China, Russia or even North Korea. While this is not completely outside the probabilities, I personally see these cyber attacks as good old theft, where one steals money from another.

My question is, how safe are our personal accounts? What is being done to counter the current trend? When even giants, like the Sony Playstation Network, are being hacked and seem not to be able to stop new attacks, what can we expect from all the small online stores we give our credit card details to? Obviously, I'm not stopping using my credit card online, and even with the risk we are at a point where turning our backs at the Internet as a platform for commerce and services is unthinkable. So, what can we do, as individuals to protect ourselves?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

iOS 5 New Tricks

2011-06-09T15:48:00.001+01:00

I was really excited when I first read about the new features iOS 5 will bring to the iPhone and other iDevices. I had been waiting for the announcement and partly followed the live coverage of Steve Jobs keynote address. When he finished, I was looking forward to this Fall, when iOS 5 is supposed to become available to the masses, but then I started thinking...

While I still look forward to have iOS 5 on my iPhone, I realized that most of these "new" features are not new at all. In fact, I already have and use most of them.

iMessenger - great stuff, I have been using those features via the WhatsApp Messenger.
Safari reader button - lots of different apps provide this functionality.
Safari tabbed browsing - Opera Mini Web Browser.
Integration with Twitter - well, there are plenty of twittering apps.
Volume + button to take pictures - Camera+ had this feature and Apple forced the developer to take it away, about a year ago.

There are other features that are indeed welcome, and answer the users requests:

- Over the Air (OTA) updates
- Wireless sync
- New Notification Center
- Locked screen new features

As for iCloud, it sounds great and it seems to go much farther than other services like Dropbox.

Are you looking forward to iOS 5 as well?

Watch Flash Movies on your iPhone / iPad

2011-03-10T21:35:00.000+00:00

As you well know, Steve Jobs is not a fan of Flash, and he's committed not to have Flash ever in his iDevices, but some rogue iOS developers think otherwise and decided to open the Pandora's Box of Apple! Yes, you guessed it, there are ways to watch those elusive Flash movies on your iPhone or iPad.

I will only mention two apps that allow you to work around the no-Flash policy of Apple and explore the goodies of Flash based websites, some with more
success than others.

The first app I would like to tell you about is Skyfire (www.skyfire.com). Skyfire is a browser for the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad. It does its wonders by loading your requested page to their own servers where the Flash content is transcoded into HTML 5, then streams the new code to your iDevice, allowing you to enjoy something that otherwise would be blocked in the Apple gadgets. Skyfire is not free, though, so you will have to decide if you want Flash on your iPhone that bad!

The second app is iSwifter, and this one is "free". Well, you know what I mean, you don't pay to install it but you find a few so called "In App" purchases that have made so many free app developers rich. This app is not a browser, although its latest version has introduced "browsing capabilities". One advantage over Skyfire is that it allows you to play Flash games as well as watching movies, but beware, some games are part of the in app purchases. According to some, iSwifter is much faster to stream the video to your iDevice than Skyfire.

Whatever you think of, there's an app for it, so here are a couple to help you watch those Flash movies that you have been missing!

iOS 4.3 New and Improved Features

2011-03-10T20:52:00.000+00:00

Ready for the iOS 4.3 upgrade? Connect your iDevice to the computer you synch it with iTunes and get ready for a 400+ MB download. If you haven't done so yet, you will also need to update your iTunes to its latest version, iTunes 10.2.1.1.

For those of you interested in What's New on the latest iOS iteration, here's a list
of the goodies that you get with the upgrade:

Personal Hotspot*
Share iPhone 4 cellular data connection with up to 5 devices (combination of up to 3 Wi-Fi, 3 Bluetooth, and 1 USB)
iTunes Home Sharing
Play music, movies and TV shows from a shared iTunes library on a Mac or PC (requires iTunes 10.2)
New AirPlay features**
Play videos from the Photos app including the Camera Roll album, iTunes previews, enabled third-party apps and websites on Apple TV
Play slideshows from Photos on Apple TV using transitions available on Apple TV
Faster Safari performance with Apple Nitro JavaScript engine
HD video out using the Apple Digital AV Adapter***
View 720p HD videos from Videos app, iPod app, Photos, YouTube, Safari, Keynote, and enabled third-party apps on an HDMI display
Ping features
Push notifications for comments and follow requests
Post and Like songs directly from the Now Playing screen
Parental controls
New Settings
Messages setting for number of times to repeat an alert
iPad side switch setting to lock screen rotation or mute audio notifications and sound effects
Single tap conference call dialing with a pause to send a passcode
Bug fixes

*Requires iPhone 4 with tethering data plan
**Requires Apple TV (2nd generation) running software version 4.2 or later
***iPhone 4, iPad, iPod touch (4th generation)

For information on the security content of this update, please visit:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

If you are still using one of the old iPhone 3G, than I am afraid you will not be able to upgrade, as this version of iOS is not compatible with those devices. In fact, I highly doubt there will be any more updates to the iPhone 3G operating system. Time to consider upgrading your old phone, maybe?

iOS 4.3 is out!

2011-03-10T17:49:00.001+00:00

Apple has launched iOS 4.3 today to all supported iDevices. This includes the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad. From the several hours I have been using it on an iPhone 3GS I must say I am positively surprised with this upgrade that, though not offering much in terms of new features, has certainly sped up
my iPhone. Page turns, app loading and other tasks seem to be much more responsive and so far no crashes, which is always good!

For those lucky enough to be sporting an iPhone 4 there is a new feature that you will certainly welcome, especially if you move about with a laptop or netbook. This new feature is called Personal Hotspot and is basically turns your iPhone 4 into a personal Wi-Fi Access Point, to which you can connect up to 3 devices for Internet access. Very useful!