There are plenty of ways technology can benefit us without the need to divulge all our secrets. However, there are cases where the more information you share about yourself, the more useful technology can be to you. This is a trade off we make and it should always be up to us what information we’re willing to share.

About two years ago, Apple came under fire for allowing apps to have access to your photo library without your permission. Apple took some steps to make things more secure. When you open an app that requires access to your photos, you are asked to give it permission to do so. Problem solved? Not quite.

When this change was implemented, I had a number of people ask me why they couldn’t post photos to Facebook from their iPhone app. Most people’s first instinct when seeing the permission pop-up is to decline, usually without reading the message. Now you have a crippled user experience. You are voluntarily trying to post a photo to Facebook, but instead you get an error message. A message that still doesn’t make it obvious to users why.

With the introduction of iOS 7 came yet another privacy notification. This time it was for apps that require access to the microphone. Now lets say you want to make a Skype call on your iPhone. If you didn’t read the notification and instinctively pressed “Don’t Allow”, the Skype app is effectively useless.

For better or worse, this is how Apple deals with app privacy. They are merely appearing to protect your privacy at the expense of user experience. When you give an app permission to access your photos or use your microphone, they are able to do the same things they could before you were required to give them permission, only this time Apple has shirked their responsibility. What you’re really doing now is giving the app permission to work the way it’s supposed to.

The Google Play store on the other hand will show a notification during the installation process that shows you all the permissions an app requires. You can’t install an app unless you accept the permissions. This solution may not be perfect as it doesn’t allow you to choose which permissions to accept (you have to accept all or nothing), but at least the user won’t be stuck with an app they can’t use.

The post Has App Privacy Gone Too Far? first appeared on The Tech Edit.

Take it all

One of my main complaints with the Hard Graft Flat Pack was the limitations on what you can fit into the bag. Unlike the Flat Pack, I don’t have any problems fitting my charger into the Knomo Kobe Messenger.

The interior of the bag is made up of a section to hold your laptop and a main opening for everything else. The section for your laptop won’t comfortably hold anything more than your laptop. The main area of the bag has plenty of room for a charger, headphones, iPad and anything else you may need to carry. You have plenty of pockets to hold pens, USB keys and other small items. Some of these pockets are zipped as well so things won’t fall out.

On the front of the bag are two pockets, one with a zip and one without. This is great. You can keep things you need quick access to in the open pocket and things like your wallet or keys in the zipped pocket. The open pocket is deep enough so that nothing will fall out unless you were to shake your bag upside down.

There’s plenty of room to fit everything you need into the bag, without feeling like the bag is too bulky to carry. My original appeal of the Hard Graft Flat Pack was the slim look to the bag. It didn’t seem bulky, which is a difficult thing to do with a bag that has to be large enough for a 15 inch laptop. The Knomo Kobe Messenger manages to fit all the essentials while not looking too bulky.

Padded and protected

A major downside to the Hard Graft Flat Pack was that it offered very little protection for your laptop. There was no protection between the large metal zip or the metal hinges of the bag and your laptop. The Knomo has you covered on both fronts.

The separator between your laptop and the rest of the bag is padded on both sides and works almost like a built-in laptop sleeve.

There is no zip for the main opening. Which means there’s nothing for your laptop to scratch against as you lift it out of the bag. The bags cover is kept closed by magnets hidden under the front two pockets, so there are no buttons to press down on to keep the bag closed.

There’s also a little lip that opens up when you lift the cover of bag to take your laptop out (pictured to the right). This lip actually covers the area that the hinges of the strap sit, meaning that your laptop is protected from hitting the metal hinges of the bag as you lift it out. This is ingenious. Clearly Knomo have thought this out in detail.

Summary

I’ve been using the bag now for just over a month and I couldn’t be happier. Comforted in knowing my laptop is safe, while also having the option to carry along anything else I may need. Two things that were lacking in the Hard Graft Flat Pack.

Where to buy

You can buy the bag from the official website, but I found it cheaper on Amazon.

The post The Knomo Kobe Messenger Bag first appeared on The Tech Edit.

I’ve recently purchased a few items that have not only made my daily commute more enjoyable, but also safer.

Hands Free: Belkin AirCast Auto

To remain distraction free while driving, you need a good hands free solution. When we bought our new car a few years ago, we made sure to get Bluetooth installed. Unfortunately, the Bluetooth device that was used was quite poor. Audio quality left a lot to be desired which meant you couldn’t use it to play music through the stereo.

This is where the Belkin AirCast Auto comes in. A sleek looking device that connects to your phone via Bluetooth with one touch.

Installation
You can place the base plate on any flat surface in your car and the button is held on via a magnet. This means you can detach the AirCast Auto if you’re not going to be using it for a while, although it doesn’t take up much space and doesn’t look odd if left in place.

Use
One of the greatest benefits of the AirCast Auto is that you can play music from your phone into your cars stereo as long as you have an AUX connection. The sound quality is great. Unless you’re an audiophile, you won’t notice any difference to playing a CD or the radio. You can play, pause and skip tracks directly from the AirCast, as well as start up Siri. Here are the basic controls:

1. One press = Play/Pause, Answer/End Call
2. Two presses = Skip Track
3. Long press = Siri

Audio Quality
Call quality on the AirCast is ok. It’s as good as you can hope for in a car without spending a fortune. The quality is better than the Bluetooth system that was installed in my car when purchased, but I don’t have much else to compare it too.

For those with an iPhone, you can use the AirCast Auto to activate Siri. I’m assuming this will work on Android devices as long as the voice assistant is activated with a long press of the home button.

Using Siri isn’t the greatest experience. Siri has a tough time deciphering the dictation of a message in a silent environment, let alone with the windows down at 60km/h. It does work well enough for simple instructions, such as reading out received messages and starting calls.

Summary
In short, this has been a great purchase. You could pay a lot more for a poorer solution. I use the AirCast Auto daily and haven’t run into any issues.

Where to Buy
You can purchase the Belkin AirCast Auto on Amazon, but make sure you get the right version for use outside the USA.

Car Mount: iOttie Easy Flex 2

Now that you can access your phone hands-free, you need somewhere to put it. I knew early on I didn’t want one of those massive claw looking arm mounts that people seem to stick in the middle of their windscreen. I also didn’t want a mount that was limited to the iPhone 5. My wife has an iPhone 4S and I want to be able to use the mount with any phone I have in the future.

The iOttie Easy Flex 2 is a simple, compact mount that can be used on the dashboard or windscreen, as well as being compatible with virtually any phone.

Installation
The iOttie uses a sticky suction pad, which makes it very sturdy. It will work on almost any surface (I use it on the dashboard) as long as the surface is flat. I tested out the iOttie on a part of the dash that curved slightly and it didn’t hold. Once you have it set up on a flat surface though, it won’t budge.

Use
The iOttie uses an adjustable arm that tightens on the sides of the phone. This is what makes it compatible with virtually any phone. It’s quick and easy to slot your phone in.

A great advantage in the iOttie is that you can rotate the face of the mount to use the phone horizontally, vertically and everything in between. You can also tilt the arm up, down and sideways to adjust the viewing angle.

The phone is held in place well and because the mount is compact and close to the base, you don’t get too much vibration or shaking.

I have heard that after using the mount in the vertical position for several months, the adjustable arms may not hold the phone as tightly as they should, causing it to slip down. I tend to use the mount in the horizontal position the majority of the time so I haven’t experienced this myself.

Summary
This is a great little mount at a very affordable price. Many of the ugly claw mounts out there are twice the price of the iOttie. It’s not without its flaws. If your phone starts to slip out after extended use it isn’t ideal. I’ve also noticed that moving the mount to a different position on the dash revealed a circular mark from the sticky pad. It’s not the easiest mark to get off either.

Despite these flaws, in my opinion the positives far outweigh the negatives. It’s an affordable car mount that doesn’t look hideous, is compact, completely adjustable and can even fold down to take up even less space.

Where to Buy
The cheapest I found once again was on Amazon. Here is the link to the iOttie Easy Flex 2 on Amazon.

Software

In a future post I’ll discuss some of the apps I use to take advantage of your smartphone in the car.

The post Tech for the Car first appeared on The Tech Edit.

A review by Ben Brooks praising this very product spurred me to write this post. This is an expensive product and most people will (should) do some research before biting the bullet. Ben mentions what he calls, “minor sticking points…” that in my opinion are major.

Let me clear up a few things before I go on.

• I had been eyeing out Hard Graft products for months. These are great looking products and the materials are premium, hence their price.
• What was I looking for? A nice looking, slim bag that would carry my laptop. One that would last me for many years to come.
• This isn’t a review on Hard Graft or their other products.
• I had my Flat Pack for less than a week. Hard Graft’s return policy meant I had to make my decision briskly.

The 15″ Flat Pack is all about form, not function.

Shoulder Strap & Carrying Position

The shoulder strap is attached to the bag at a ninety degree angle. There is no hinge, so the strap can’t move around depending on where your holding your bag (the bag does have a hinge, please see update below). The bag seems to be designed to carry along your back, not to your side. This may be suitable for the 13″, but I found the 15″ too big to sit along my back comfortably. With the ends of the bag sticking out too far for my liking.

This is the 13″ being carried.

Interior Lacks Some Essentials

The bag is very simple on the inside. There is no padding. No separator, just one big space. There are two smallish open pockets along one interior wall of the bag. Not the most useful of pockets as things can easily fall out if the bag is tipped to the side. No separator also means you have to worry about your laptop getting scratched if you start to put other items in along with it.

Those sunglasses aren’t going to be lasting too long in there.

I don’t like carrying my charger with me when I can avoid it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t consider it to be essential. You cannot comfortably or safely fit a charger in the Flat Pack along with your laptop. The only safe place I could put the charger was in one of the open pockets, so as not to scratch the laptop. This would cause a huge bulge out of the back of the bag. Meaning it would stick into your back when trying to carry it. I couldn’t help but feel this would also put pressure on the expensive Retina screen, as it was quite a tight fit. If I’m going to spend this much money on a laptop bag, I need to be able to carry my charger.

I don’t like the look of that zipper on the back of the iPad.

The Zipper

The biggest issue I had with the Flat Pack is the zipper. It’s a big steel zipper that looks nice and works well. The problem is that you have to be extra careful not to scratch your laptop every time you put it in and take it out. You have to ensure the zipper is open the whole way before taking the laptop out and still be careful not to scratch it along the open zipper. This is not acceptable in a laptop bag. Especially not one that costs this much. This was the nail in the coffin for me. A great looking bag that just isn’t functional.

There’s nothing separating your laptop from the zipper.

Conclusion

When I was first looking to purchase the Hard Graft Flat Pack 15″, I looked over these images countless times. Yes, all the images used in this post are from the Hard Graft site. It was all right there, yet I didn’t see what I see now, not until I was able to try the bag out in person. I wanted to love this bag. I guess that’s normal when you buy an expensive, premium product. You sometimes convince yourself it was worth it. In the case of the 15″ Flat Pack, I’m glad I didn’t.

Update

Ben Brooks has featured this article as an alternate view to the Hard Graft Flat pack, of which I am grateful. This was the very intention I had when writing this article. To give people an alternate point of view on what is a subjective matter.

Ben mentions I had made a mistake in my article in regards to the hinge of the bag. I must have missed that the strap does turn away from the hinge. It must be quite tight at first, as I had tried several times to move the bag into different positions and move the hinge around. This is no doubt something that will loosen over time. In my opinion, I still don’t think the bag is designed to be held to your side. Even if the hinge turns, the part connected to the bag is at 90 degrees and will still pull at the bottom. However, I can’t speak of this in certainties as I no longer have the bag.

Update 2

I think I’ve found my ideal laptop bag: The Knomo Kobe Messenger Bag.

The post Why I returned the Hard Graft Flat Pack for 15" Retina MacBook Pro first appeared on The Tech Edit.

The real enemy here isn’t Apple, or Samsung for that matter. The real issue is the patent system. Apple is just playing the game like everyone else is. They had certain patents and Samsung were found to be infringing them. It’s up to Samsung to either differentiate its products or work out a licensing agreement.

I don’t see everyone up in arms over the licensing agreement Samsung has with Microsoft to use the Android operating system.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the Branch thread embedded below.

The post Apple v Samsung; consumers will be just fine first appeared on The Tech Edit.

Apple announced some great updates to their range of Airs and Pros, including the introduction of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display (rMBP). Although tempted, I had all but decided to hold out for another year to see if a Retina MacBook Air was released. The very next day, the crack on my MacBook Air screen worsened…

With the cost of a replacement screen almost as much as a refurbished 2011 Air, the decision was made for an upgrade. I purchased the 13-inch MacBook Air.

13-inch MacBook Air
Arguably Apple’s most impressive MacBook. Great performance in such a compact package, it’s taken years for the competition to catch up. This was a significant upgrade to the 2010 Air. Faster SSD, more memory and a much better processor.

MacBook Air, 13-inch

• 1.8GHz Intel Dual-Core Core i5
• 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
• 128GB Flash Storage

You could tell there was a speed improvement from the 2010 model. This was most notable when waking the computer from sleep and performing tasks that use the SSD. If I was upgrading from last years model, I don’t think I would have noticed much of a difference.

Despite the upgrade, it still felt like I got the same computer. Obviously this is because of the same form factor. Turns out the small speed improvements weren’t enough to keep me happy.

I started to notice little things that had changed for the worse (in my opinion). One of which was the hinge on the MacBook Air is now looser. This is great when you’re lifting the lid, as you no longer have to try hold the base of the laptop down while you lift the screen. However, this means every time you lift or move the laptop a significant amount, the screen will open up the whole way.

The problem I had was I went into this purchase not having decided whether I wanted to stick to the light and portable 13-inch, or move up to a 15-inch rMBP. After 2 weeks with my new Air, I had decided to return it and order the rMBP.

MacBook Pro with Retina display
I must have read every review of the rMBP I could find on the web. This wasn’t a decision I was going to make lightly. This is the most indecisive I’ve been about an Apple purchase. In the end, I’m glad I went through the process of purchasing the new MacBook Air before returning it for the rMBP.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, 15-inch

• 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
• 256GB Flash Storage

The rMBP isn’t as portable as an Air, it doesn’t really come close. But it’s as portable as any 15-inch laptop can be. I worked out a crude way of testing the weight out before I purchased the Pro. If you have a 13-inch Air and a new iPad, put one on top of the other (carefully!) and you have roughly the weight of the rMBP. Not too bad right?

Portability wasn’t a key issue for me. I rarely carry my laptop around for any significant distance. The thing I was really concerned with was heat and fan noise. The only time I would even hear the fans on my Air, or feel heat from it on my lap, was when I was streaming video or browsing Flash heavy sites.

I’ve had the rMBP for just over a week now. In short, I’m impressed, but not for the reasons I expected.

The screen, although impressive, almost becomes normal too quickly. Maybe this is because we’ve been previously spoilt with the move to Retina on the iPhone and iPad.

As impressive as the screen is, it doesn’t take long to run into apps that aren’t yet Retina compatible. Despite a lot of reviews stating that it’s easy to get over, it really isn’t. I’m struggling with using Safari again as I can’t stand the blurriness of Chrome when rendering text. This has been fixed in Canary, but I don’t really want to install a potentially buggy piece of software just to browse the web. I’m lucky a combined search and URL bar has finally been added to Safari in Mountain Lion. The one good thing about using Safari is the text. It’s just so crisp. One of the first things I did was change the theme of this site to remove any images just so I wouldn’t have to worry about it looking blurry on my rMBP.

One of the reasons for moving to the rMBP was increased screen space. I’ve been using the rMBP on the 1680 x 1050 resolution (which isn’t actually 1680 x 1050, but I’m not going to get into that here). If I understand the way the Retina screen works, it means I’m getting slightly less pixel density than on the ‘Best for Retina’ setting. Things still look sharp though, sharper than on the Air.

Speed. The rMBP starts quicker than any computer I’ve used before. When you click on an app, it opens almost immediately. I haven’t done much in the way of converting video yet, but the few Photoshop tasks I’ve done have been quick. No doubt this is to do with the SSD. I had always told people my 2010 MacBook Air seemed quicker than our 2010 iMac because of the SSD. The downside of course is having a smaller hard drive than you would with a traditional spinning disc. I had already been used to 128gb on the Air. With more and more being stored in the cloud, iTunes Match or Spotify for music, Netflix for movies, there’s less of a need for local drive space. Any movies and music that I have digital copies of are on an external drive hooked up to my iMac and shared over the network. I really don’t need a large local drive and going to 256gb now gives me a nice buffer. It’s still nice to have Thunderbolt and USB 3.0, which make expansion options in the future easier. After experiencing SSD on my 2010 MacBook Air for the first time I told myself I wouldn’t buy another laptop without one. That still stands. I can’t stress how much quicker it makes things.

The two things I was worried about most were heat and fan noise. So far I couldn’t be happier on both fronts. I’ve streamed video (using Flash), browsed the web, worked on small projects in Xcode, edited images in Photoshop and so far it hasn’t once got too hot to have on my lap. If you’re just browsing the web, it will barely get warm at all.

Performing the same tasks, I’ve only once had the fans increase in speed to about 2600rpm (they will sit at about 2000rpm by default). At the standard speed you can’t hear a thing. As I write this I’m in a completely silent room and I can only hear the fan if I put my ear within a centimetre of the keyboard. Even when the fan has gone up to around 2600rpm, it’s still very quiet. I don’t play any games on the computer and haven’t tried converting video, both things I would rarely do anyway. When it comes down to it, the performance is pretty damn good in terms of heat and fan noise.

Conclusion
All in all I think I’ve made the right choice for my routine. If you need to carry a laptop around all day and don’t have the need for the extra power, the MacBook Air is the way to go. For me, I don’t use a desktop machine, or plug my laptop into an external monitor. My desktop is my laptop, and I don’t carry it around often. Portability wasn’t an issue, so I’m glad I’ve gone for the extra power, better screen and something that will last me for many years to come. Fingers crossed I don’t have another accident with the screen!

The post Why I chose a Retina MacBook Pro over a MacBook Air first appeared on The Tech Edit.

• 100 million active users on Google+
• 8 million views on YouTube
• 160,000 +1’s on Google+

At least YouTube is doing well.

Note: Figures are as of 7th April 2012.

The post The success of Google+ first appeared on The Tech Edit.

Many have stated their opinions on the video, including some parodies of the clip. It wasn’t until halfway through reading Trevor Gilbert’s take on PandoDaily I stopped. I asked myself, what problem do these glasses solve? What need are they tending to? Maybe I’m missing something, maybe in the future we will all walk around with these glasses because it’s just too much for us to carry a mobile phone with us. Maybe. Or maybe Google just wanted to drive more traffic to Google+.

Inspired by…

• Project Glass
• Project Glass: One day…
• Daring Fireball
• The Problem With Google’s Concept Video
• ADmented Reality – Google Glasses Remixed with Google Ads

The post What are Google Glasses for? first appeared on The Tech Edit.

PandoDaily has seen the latest in this saga with two of their writers debating the issue. The argument for privacy, and the parody on our sense of entitlement.

I won’t begin to go through the issues with the parody argument of stealing an iPhone, but I get the point. Yes, we as consumers can be quite demanding, especially now it has become so easy to get and consume content. Is that our fault as consumers? These channels to procure content exist and they can’t be removed without breaking the Internet. Content providers can either fight the inevitable, or they can embrace the opportunity to reach a larger, global audience, in almost realtime.

For me, nothing sums it up better than Marco’s post. It’s not about what’s right or wrong (or grey). It’s about being pragmatic. Sense of entitlement or no, trying to fight the inevitable isn’t going to solve the problem.

Inspired by…

• Help! I’m Being Forced To Pirate Game Of Thrones Against My Will!
• Help! I’m Being Forced To Steal An iPhone Against My Will!
• Right versus pragmatic
• Heavy Hangs The Bandwidth That Torrents The Crown
• I tried to watch Game of Thrones and this is what happened

The post Piracy and our sense of entitlement first appeared on The Tech Edit.

Retina Display
The obvious prediction. It’s been a while since I remember something being so certain before an Apple product launch. Of course the one thing we can be sure of is that nothing is certain.

iPhoto
Maybe not iPhoto exactly, but Gruber made a prediction and I tend to agree. It’s great having a higher resolution screen, but there needs to be something to take advantage of it. Photos on the iPad are great. There’s no easier way to browse photos with friends and family than on the iPad. Especially if you use AirPlay to an Apple TV. The one thing that’s missing. A way to manage your photos straight from the iPad.

1080p Movies
Again, what better way to show off retina display than 1080p movies. Currently HD movies from iTunes are 720p, which just won’t do justice to that beautiful Retina Display. This also lends to the rumor there’s an Apple TV update imminent.

Games
Gaming has already been a big sell for the iPhone 4S and I don’t see it stopping there. The iPad 3 will bring along improved hardware no doubt. Along with Retina Display, this means an improved gaming experience.

Update
In my haste to get my predictions down, there were a couple I missed…

Siri
Not really a prediction. There doesn’t seem to be a reason why Siri won’t be ported to the iPad.

Photo Stream & iOS 5.1
This would be the perfect opportunity to release iOS 5.1 to the public, hopefully bringing along some much needed improvements to Photo Stream. There are some glaring issues with Photo Stream. One of the biggest being the inability to control what photos appear in the stream, or for that matter, delete individual photos in the stream. This granular control is desperately needed if Photo Stream is going to be of any use.

The post iPad 3 Predictions first appeared on The Tech Edit.