Unique Techy Gifts

So, you have that hard to shop for significant other that is geeky.  He or she is a tech consumer and already has an iPhone, an iPad, an iEverything and all the other gadgets and gizmos on the market.  What do you do?  Jewelry for her and socks and underwear for him?  Well, maybe, but what if you could buy light saber ear rings and socks that play the theme to star trek?  Well, to my knowledge, these items don't exist, but they darn well should, shouldn't they?  I'm still waiting for the Princess Leia Cinnabon hair wearable, edible ear muffs.  One of my friends last year sent me a link to the "No I will not fix your computer" T-shirt,"  I really only wear it on Sundays around the house.  In any case, all of us have that person on our gift list who has everything.  Relax, you can now cross them off of your list.  I have stumbled across some really unique gifts (some of them REALLY pricey), that just might fit the bill.  Most of you won't buy the 3.4 million dollar Space shuttle life sized replica, but you might spring for the "On Button" lighted earrings or the T-shirt that has a print of a working guitar on the front.  Cool huh?  Well, here's the link and I promise you, much of this stuff is interesting to say the least.  Thank you SyFy Channel for putting these two sites together.  Meatmeter recommends to "clickety click" the links for some cool gear.  Well Done SyFy.

http://blastr.com/giftguide/

http://dvice.com/giftguide/

Backup just a minute!

There has been a recent paradigm shift in the world of backup and recovery of data.  Although the shifting sands seem to move slowly, the sand dune encroachment of cloud computing is soon to be the repository of a full fledged desert.  Now, what in the heck am I talking about?  Sit back, relax, pour yourself a beverage and read on.

As I see it, there are really three different consumers of data space.  There is the student/home/personal user with pictures and tax returns; and there is the business class user who has mission critical data to protect, and the third animal is somewhere in between.  This would be the guy or gal who mixes work with pleasure and has business info and personal info on both their home and business computer at work.  The three different types of data space consumers need to attack their backup and recovery plans in a way that mimics usage.    

BUSINESS ENTITIES

As a consultant in the industry, it never ceases to amaze me at the lack of “dundancy” out there with my clients.  What is “dundancy”? It’s having at LEAST ONE copy of your mission critical data.  Forget RE-dundancy, howza bout start with just one good copy?  Many clients use antiquated servers with antiquated disk drives and configurations, but they just keep doing business as usual and expecting the servers to keep chugging along.  Unfortunately, this is a recipe for disaster as many companies have cut back on IT Expenditures and many disks and servers are aging.  Any good IT person worth his salt, should be able to move from antiquated servers to newer servers, or even move applications to the cloud where the backup solution falls on the cloud service provider.   A prime example is using GoogleApps instead of keeping up (or worse yet upgrading) an antiquated Microsoft Exchange Server.  (by the way, if you are a non-profit, the full version of GoogleApps is available to you for free).  Google completely supports your domain name and you can use them to send your me@mycompany.com emails easily.

I could go on and on about the different ways that business should build in redundancy, but let me cut to the chase.  Make a copy, keep a copy in two physical places (co-location disk to disk, or offsite tape vault).  Most importantly SIMULATE a recovery.  Want to see how good your current system really is? Tell your head IT guru on Friday at 5 that your mission critical server crashed and that it needs to be rebuilt and/or back up and running by Monday?  That will tell you what you need to know.  Too many people find out after a disaster that backups have been inadequate or not even working.  Test it, test it, test it, before the problem occurs.  This can easily be simulated with virtualization software like VMware or by incorporating a co-location facility, which can get complicated and costly, but may be necessary depending on your client/customer needs.

For the home user, there are a few tools that you can use to make this process quite easy.  Here are the products to focus on.  Mozy.com – online backup, Carbonite.com – another online backup which also allows online anywhere access to these files, and finally, my favorite, Dropbox.com.  Mozy and Carbonite are a bit more traditional in that you tell it what files or folders to back up and at a predetermined time, copies are made.  Dropbox is a little different.  It is a virtual online folder.  I like it because I can save a file to it and it is readily accessible on any internet connected device.  I have it on my iPad, my iPhone, my laptop and my business computer.  With this application, you’ll never need to print anything ever again if you have an iPad.  I like it for that reason alone.  This application is particularly relevant to the mix business with pleasure user.

As a home user too, at the very least you should be loading copies of your photos to services like flikr.com or to Google’s picassa web albums.  You should also use Gmail for all of your mail. If you want to use Outlook, it is easily configurable and you can synch the calendar to your iPad or iPhone.  (we now have a clean refrigerator door clear of the family calendar clutter).  I need to do a whole other entry on how Google can change your routine with its many offerings.  That’ll be for later.

In conclusion, if you are a business out there who is still backing up to tape and still has a closet full of antiquated servers and you have never had a disaster recovery drill, call me I can help you.  Also, pull out your Policy and Procedures manual on Disaster Recovery and review them.  I’ll bet you a dollar to a donut hole, they’re out of compliance.

For the home user, take advantage of free online “cloud” services like dropbox.com and Gmail to keep your important data and files safe.  Let’s not forget the social media site you love to hate, facebook works too, for pictures.  Oh, and on a related subject, I would use Gmail’s contact list to keep a list of the contacts you have in your phone for that inevitable time when you lose or break your phone.  They can easily be imported to a new phone with a few steps.  (iPhones, unfortunately don’t play well with Google’s contacts, but they do particularly like Yahoo’s contact list, it might be worth it to set up a shill address just to keep you contacts there for the future).

All for now, and don’t forget BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP and TEST, TEST, TEST your recovery.

HP Tablets $99

TouchPad Fire Sale Redux: What We Know So Far

By Ian Paul, PCWorld    Aug 31, 2011 8:02 AM

Hewlett-Packard is planning one last, glorious ride for the HP TouchPad by manufacturing an unspecified amount of the devices "to meet unfulfilled demand" for the discontinued webOS slate. Although HP's tablet never fared well when it went head-to-head against the iPad at $499, and later at $399, people couldn't get enough of the device once HP gave it a fire sale price of $99.
The company says it will produce TouchPads during HP's fourth fiscal quarter ending October 31. It's not clear if that means HP will be manufacturing TouchPads through the entire quarter or just that the company will be producing webOS tablets sometime between now and Halloween. Rumor has it HP is making new TouchPads to appease component makers in HP's supply chain who were upset about being left with TouchPad parts sitting in their warehouses.
Regardless, it's good news for deal-hunting TouchPad fans that HP has plans to get more cheap webOS slates onto the market. Here's a breakdown of what we know so far about HP's second TouchPad fire sale.

How many TouchPads will be available?

HP says it doesn't know for sure how many TouchPads it will be able to sell, so the company can't promise it will have enough for everyone who has indicated interest in the device.

When will the new HP TouchPads go on sale?

HP isn't sure exactly when it will have its last run of TouchPads available for purchase. The company figures it will be at least a few weeks. If you signed up to be notified via email, HP says it will let you know when TouchPads are available, and the company will also update its TouchPad FAQ page with more information.
But since it is going to be a race to get your hands on a TouchPad, a good strategy would be to keep your eye on the Twitter accounts for HP's social media reps, Bryna Corcoran and Mark Budgell, in case there is no advance notice.

How much will the TouchPads cost?

HP didn't explicitly say that the new run of TouchPads will be sold for $99 each, but all indications from HP suggest that the fire sale price will remain the same.
How many can I buy at once?
It's not clear how many you will be allowed to buy, but don't count on buying truckloads of the device, as HP says it will impose a purchase limit for each customer.

Where can I get a TouchPad?

You can bet on being able to get a TouchPad from HP's online storefront, but it's not clear if retail chains will also be carrying TouchPad stock. HP's FAQ says each retailer will be responsible for its own pricing, but it's not clear whether that means any third-party outlets plan on carrying the device. Your best bet is to contact electronics retailers in your area such as Best Buy, Office Depot, and others to see whether they have any TouchPad news to share with you.

Is buying a discontinued tablet crazy?

Some people, such as Windows blogger Paul Thurrott, think so. "The TouchPad was worthless when it was fully supported. So it's beyond worthless now," Thurrott says. But if you want a tablet primarily for Web browsing, you can't go wrong with a TouchPad. Besides, you will also have access to a limited number of third-party webOS apps, at least for the immediate future.

And if you don't like webOS....

There are several fun projects going on right now to turn the TouchPad into a hacker's dream tablet by porting a variety of Linux-based operating systems to the device. Liliputing has a how-to post for daring readers willing to go through a detailed process to install Ubuntu 11.04 on their HP tablet.
And of course, hackers are hard at work trying to port Android to the TouchPad. The TouchDroid project plans on using Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) for its beta tests before trying to put a tablet-specific version of Android on the TouchPad such as the forthcoming version, Ice Cream Sandwich.
The TouchDroid team better hurry up, as the team over at Cyanogen Mod last Friday was showing off a port of Cyanogen Mod version 7 running on the TouchPad--albeit without a functioning touchscreen. Cyanogen Mod is a popular alternative Android distribution for rooted devices. Cyanogen Mod version 7 is based on the non-tablet-friendly Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
The Cyanogen team says it still has a long way to go before its TouchPad firmware distribution will be ready for prime time and is not providing any estimates on when the port will be ready.
For interested developers, there is also a $2100 bounty being offered to anyone who successfully ports Android to the TouchPad.

Could you survive? Would you want to?

Survival in the Digital Age.

Today’s diatribe is not so much a product review as much as it is an observation.  A while back there was a show on TV called “The Colony”.  It’s premise was to take a dozen or so strangers and put them together with limited provisions and simulate a doomsday scenario where there was a plague outbreak, natural disaster or even nuclear holocaust that ended life as we currently know it on the planet.  It got me thinking about our increased dependence on electronic devices.  Here are a few observations that might make you think.  

Power of the Press? - Really

 As most of our media consumption content (movies, books, radio, TV) goes digital, what we would do if an impending solar flare or Electromagentic Pulse  (EMP), or some other ungodly reason destroyed our ability to produce power.   Now I’m no doomsday or survivalist freak, nor do I listen to Glenn Beck,  but I’m guessing that there would be a world of hurt and confusion if this ever happened.  We’d have no books (ipads, e-readers), we’d have no TV (remember the old days when you could pick up TV on a little black and white battery operated portable – not any more with the advent of Digital Broadcasts and Set top boxes), and if Padora and other radio stations have their way, no radio?  (automakers are including the ability to steam Pandora Internet Radio in its new models soon).  Do newspapers even print papers anymore?  Even so, if they did, I’ll bet they use computers and other sophisticated software to produce the printed version.  I’m relatively sure they don’t use the old Guttenberg presses!  

Food and Medicine?

Refrigeration would be gone, sophisticated supply chains for Just in Time (JIT) inventories of major retailers would dry up and the store shelves would be empty.   No Amazon.com, no Ebay, no Criags list, no Costco or Wal-Mart….oh the horror…we’d even be hard pressed to get medical supplies or help as all of our charts are going digital. 

Man it's FREEZING in here...

We’d have no heat or air conditioning, no lights, no cameras, no action.  Speaking of cameras, there’d be no way to take a picture and produce it would there?  That’s all digital now too?  Face it, a snuggie would be high tech.

Communication?

What would thousands of teens do if they couldn’t play their ipods, ipads, or check their facebook status or tweets?  Don’t even get me started on how they’d handle a cell phone outage.  For those of you who still have home phone lines, they’d go dead as most of those lines wrap up your voice into nice little digital packets and send them over the internet now too.  Communication would go from the speed of light to the speed of dark in a very short order.

Travel?

Without power or satellite data, we’d be lost.  Does anyone even read a map anymore?  Have you had the same experience I have driving  along, following your GPS very obediently to stop and pause and say, “hmmmmm, what if it was wrong and it’s taking me to Rome, Italy instead of Rome Georgia? How would we get gas, provided there was any in a tank, in the ground? Autos wouldn’t crank or run anyway as any EMP would wipe out their electronics.

But I’m Ready…

Einstein said (and I'm paraphrasing) that he knew not what weapons World War 3 would be fought with but World War 4 would be fought with sticks and stones. 

I’ve got faith in the perseverance of humans and I’m confident we’d survive, but I’m not so sure I’d want to be around for the aftermath.  Ground zero might be preferable to what is left. 

I am an early adopter of technology, and I love what it can do for us.  I love gadgets and I’m totally geeky about the latest gear.  It’s the reason I started writing this blog.  We continue to rely very heavily on technology and its integration into our everyday lives.   Think about Katrina, Haiti and all the other natural disasters and wars that basically display the de-evolution example.  In these cases, at least there was a government response and other countries came to the aid of the victims.  Slow response was better than no response.  In the doomsday case, I don’t want to scare you, but no one is coming.  You are on your own.   Hollister and Aeropostale will not be open for business.

I do not believe, and I’m not contemplating the inevitable “big one” going off anytime soon.  But, just thinking about it and writing about it is interesting to say the least.  What 5 items would you think you'd want if you found yourself in this predicament (toilet paper is not allowed.)  Comment below if you think you have the perfect list of 5 items.  Mine would be a bible, a map, a lighter, a gun and an ax. 

Ranks any "Doomsday" scenario as a great bit "RARE"

Single Serve Beverage Wars....

If you’ll pardon the pun, there’s a war a brewin’ in the single cup coffee maker world.  If you’re like me, your day can’t start without that steaming hot cup o’ joe in the morning.  I seem to want to call these coffee makers, but both of these systems make hot tea, hot chocolate, and other items like even iced coffee.   One of these appliances, even touts itself as a “beverage delivery system.”  I’ll just call them coffee makers for now.   The two contenders are the Keurig and the Tassimo.  Both have models that do basically the same job.  They brew a single cup of coffee as if it’s your own personal barista.   Both models use “pods” of coffee in a small cuplike disc.  Tassimo uses the T-disc while Keurig uses the K-cups.   Both models have a built in filter to filter your tap water.   One advantage the Keurig has over the Tassimo is that it sells “my kcup” which allows you to use your own coffee.  Problem with that is the cleanup and the fact that your end result is not as good as the result you get using their K-cups discs.  Starbucks has an exclusive with Tassimo, so if you are a Starbucks fan, Tassimo is your only option unless you use the my kcup.  This device is cumbersome, hard to clean and impractical at best, but it does give you a path to the Starbucks brand via the Keurig.  I don't recommend the my kcup at all.  It totally ruins the convenience factor.   

The discs for both are a bit pricey, but compared to a $5 cup of java at your local coffee cow, it’s a bargain.  The cost per cup ranges from about .50 (for a basic coffee), to 1.50 for a cappuccino (which uses two discs in the Tassimo).  

Another advantage the Keurig has is the availability of the K-cups.  Many stores and discounters are now carrying the K-cups.  While the Keurig leads the market in availability and the fact that you can use your own coffee, the Tassimo is the wiser of the two machines.  The Keurig uses some electronics to affect temperature when brewing, but the Tassimo uses a sophisticated bar code on all the T-discs to brew you a perfect cup of coffee, latte, espresso or cappuccino.  The Keurig just doesn’t have this capability.  If you want this in the Keurig, you’ll have to buy a separate milk steamer.  In the Tassimo, the milk comes in the T-discs and the creamy cup of hot goodness makes itself even though you have to use two T-discs to make it (coffee and then milk disc).  It knows what to do with the discs as you put them in though. 

The Keurig will allow you to adjust brew volume (how much water is used), although it requires you to tell it a 6 oz or 10 oz brew.  This will affect the boldness of your final product.  The Tassimo gives you a period of time when your cup is finished to manually push a button to add more water to your brew.  Again, I like the ability to customize the amount of water using the Tassimo’s approach even though you have to stand and wait for the “add water to me” blinking green light and manually push a button.

If you want a great cup of coffee, the Keurig is a good choice.  It’s simple, it’s a bit faster than the Tassimo and it’s available in lots and lots of places.  If you enjoy Starbucks coffee, like the occasional latte, cappuccino or espresso , then the beverage delivery system called Tassimo is the clear winner.   The only downside to the Tassimo, in my opinion, is the fact that you have to find a retailer in your area that carries the discs.  Typically Bed Bath and Beyond and Kohl’s carry the line.

Both of these devices are a big improvement on your typical "Mr. Coffee", and if you have a sophisticated coffee palatte, I hightly recommend them both.  My clear favorite, because I enjoy lattes and cappuccinos is the Tassimo.  Meatmeater gives the single serve coffee brewers a big well done.  Let me know if you have either of these systems and leave us a post below.  Good luck and good coffee.

Gives Single Server Coffee makers a "Well Done"

Bye Bye Cable TV? not so fast...

Tired of paying too much for cable TV or Dish?  Think you can cut the cord on cable and watch all of your content on over the internet?  The answer is, maybe.  I'm sure many of you pay at least 100 bucks a month for content that you just never watch.  What would happen should you cut the cord?  Here are a few of the basic routes you might take.

Basic route: Who are you?  You are a person who watches local news and perhaps a show or two on network TV. (CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, FOX, WB etc.).  You hardly ever watch ESPN or college or pro sports and you don’t even know who Dexter is.

Here’s your rock bottom solution.  Over the air TV (OTA).  Since the conversion from analog to digital, the signal quality of network broadcasts is usually better than the one they rebroadcast over cable or dish.  If you don’t have a newer HDTV, take the money you’ll be saving on the cable bill and buy one.  Most OTA programming is broadcast in HDTV these days.  As an added bonus, you’ll get subchannels that provide weather and other alternate programming.  In a good metropolitian area, you may be able to get upwards of 30 channels.  The OTA signal is digital now, so you either get it or you don’t.  It’s not like the old analog signal where you could coax the channel to come in when the weather conditions were right.  Also, don’t spend a bundle on an expensive HDTV certified antenna, plain old rabbit ears will do unless you live right on the edge of the broadcast zone, then you might want to spring for an old school outdoor antenna.  Try the rabbit ears first.  This solution will cost you  $0 dollars and the average savings will be close to $1200 - $1600 a year.

Basic with options:  Who are you?  You’re the person who is semi-technical.  You can read a manual and you know how to use and program your universal remote control.  You love the movies on demand and watch a lot of movies.  Your solution is simple, you’re a Basic + Netflix.  Now bear in mind, you’ll have to be a bit savvy to set up the streaming content over your TV, but Netflix has made that simple.  If you can hook up a gaming system, you’re in.  Netflix supports uPNP (Universal Plug and Play) devices for streaming.  This includes just about any set top box you can think of, Play Station 3, Wii, among others.  There are DVD players that support Netflix and many newer TV’s have a Netflix button you push on your remote (Samsung internet ready TV's).  No more renting DVD’s by mail, the movies just stream directly to your TV.  The downside, the movie selection for streaming is often not the latest releases, oh and you’ll also have to figure out how to change your tv source from Antenna (OTA) to an HDMI (recommended) source. Also, there are lots and lots of TV shows you may have not watched (past seasons), that will allow you to get hooked and watch back to back.  My kids and I watched Lost seasons 1 – 6 in a couple of months this way.  More Downside – no sports unless on network TV - in other words, no ESPN.   A Netflix account will run you around $110 a year for a net savings of around $1090 – 1490 a year.

Basic with options plus internet TV.  You are the techno-geek who either has their PC connected directly to your TV or is willing to figure out how to do it.  You like Sci-Fi, Discovery, CNN of FoxNews and you enjoy several TV shows on cable.  Things get a little complicated here, and this barrier to entry is usually technical, although it is getting better.  You’ll need to use a set top box and your options are boxee, appletv, roku or googleTV.  Google is is struggling to get content providers while the other three options will give you good content.  These boxes basically provide you with a menu, but pull the content from sources like Hulu and directly from sites like NBC.com  and others.  Downsides include content not being available in real time (shows posted to websites are usually delayed) and again, no real sports, although ESPN is available for a fee.  Many are not in High Definition (when streaming).  The savings begin to dwindle as you start to have to buy a Netflix account, a Hulu+ account, an ESPN account etc.  Eventually, the savings start to converge and you still have to learn how to switch between OTA sources and HDMI sources on your TV.  My mom still can’t play a DVD on her tv, she is definitely not a candidate.  You could pay upwards of $30 to $40 bucks for a Netflix account, Hulu+ and others.

None of these options include any kind of DVR options (recording shows to watch later). But if you think about it, all of the content is available on demand, so your DVR time shifting becomes a thing of the past.  The BIG negative is sports and live cable TV events like awards shows.  I guess it just depends on how important those types of TV shows are to you.

These are just three options, many more will probably be coming and as you can see, cutting the cable cord is complicated at best.  It is do-able, but you’ll lose some of the convenience you have for a single source content provider like Cable or Dish.  You’ll also have to become “active” in your TV selections.  Some pundits have stated, and there are studies backing them up, that TV is a lean back activity where you just turn on the TV and let your mind go to mush.  Using Internet TV and streaming devices demand that you make decisions and seek out content you want to watch, and this is a lean forward activity that many really don’t like.

Meatmeter's bottom line is that if you enjoy sports, awards shows and not having to look at rabbit ears in your living room, your best bet is to stay with Cable, Dish or ATT's new alternative U-Verse (Verizon has their version too).  If you don’t watch much TV and can pull down your favorites from websites now, why not cut the cord and see what happens?  Our opinion is, until there is an easy one stop, one button solution to rival the ease of cable or dish, alternatives will flounder. 

Tell us what you think in the comments if you've cut the cord or are considering and have tried some of the options above.

Ranks Internet TV and cutting the cord to Cable or Dish as "Rare" for now

Tablets, tablets....everywhere.

The annual Consumer Electronics show was recently held in Las Vegas and there was certainly one theme -  tablets.  The success of the iPad has attracted newcomers to the market and in 2011 expect to see a smorgasbord of tablets.  What exactly does that mean to you the techno geek?  It means a couple of things.  One, you’ll be able to pick up an nice laptop or netbook CHEAP because all the pundits are telling us the laptop is dead (I do not believe this.)  I’ve stated before, the tablet footprint is excellent for absorbing information, but not so good at creating it.  They are hard to type on and the “apps” environment is limiting because there is no real file structure to speak of, so keeping files on your device will not be easy.  There are applications like DropBox which bridge this gap, but it will certainly be interesting at the least to see how competitors try to carve out their niche by concentrating on things like easy peripheral connectivity (read this USB files for example) and FLASH video (a BIG limitation of the iPad).  Data plan pricing and the actual look, feel and functionality of the tablet will separate the products I’m sure.    

Here are a few of the different vendors and architecture they will be using in the tablet niche.

1.)    Dell Streak.  T-Mobile will offer this with a 4G connection.  It’s a 7 inch screen (smaller than the iPad but twice the size of the average smart phone).  It will be using the Android (Google) operating system.  There is also going to be a 10 inch version, but later in the year.    I don’t see the 7 inch version being a winner as there is just not enough real estate on that size screen.  I often wish my iPad was bigger.

2.)    Toshiba Tegra 2. This is a working name.  It’s a 10 inch screen.  It will ship with Android 3.0 O/S.  They will be hanging their hat on a feature that upconverts video to high definition.  It will have a panoply of connections.  Mini USB, front and rear cameras (Skype , Video chat), USB, HDMI, and microSD card slots.  It looks to me like they are going to try to make this a “mobile TV” with the emphasis on video and all the connections, like HDMI which all modern TV’s have.  I see you streaming Netflix to this device, upconvert to High Def and then plugging your device in to your flat screen to watch a streaming movie.  It makes sense since Toshiba is a big TV producer.  I also predict an app that makes this a Super Duper remote control for your TV – so long as it’s a Toshiba!

3.)    Motorola Xoom.  First off, I’m not a big fan of using an X for a Z, but oh well.  The Motorola Xoom will be on the Verizon network and it will use 4G LTE.  It’ll have two cameras, front and rear, and HDMI.  It’ll be using the Android Operating System as well.  Motorola is known for making devices that are rugged and well built.  I suspect this device will be as well.  A good choice probably if you are a Verizon customer.

4.)    RIM Playbook.  This might just save RIM.  Blackberries are getting long in the tooth, although I still recommend them for heavy enterprise emailers.  Their push email technology is best in class.  If they can port this feature over to the Playbook, they have a winner.   This product will also allow you to tether your blackberry so that you can share contacts, data, emails and web connectivity.  RIM’s strategy seems to want to convince you that you need both the blackberry device and the Playbook.  In some ways it makes sense because I carry both an iPhone and an iPad.  Maybe they are banking on the fact that tablets just don’t make good phones and that since you’ll be carrying both, it might as well be a blackberry.  I suspect they will take advantage of Verizon’s network, but could also be available with other carriers.

5.)    Lenovo IdeaPad.  Lenovo  has been in the tablet PC business for years and has never been able to get the convertible swivel screen laptops to take off.  They were heavy, cumbersome to convert and I never liked them.  The Ideapad Slate is going to change this.   Its claim to fame, it will be running Windows 7.  It’s also a netbook.  The screen detaches.  I’m not so sure I’m sold on this either.  It’s basically a full fledged laptop with a detachable tablet portion.  The tablet portion, can however, be purchased separately.  The tablet is around $500 bucks, the whole shebang is $1300.  There may be a market for people who are married to Microsoft.

6.)    Vizio Via.  An 8 inch Android O/S entry.  Vizio makes beautiful HDTV’s and now they make a nice tablet as well.  Their TV’s are always at a great price point, and some in the business speculate they will try and price their tablet under the competition as well.  Its shortcoming is that it’s only available as a WI-FI device and cannot connect to cellular networks.  Future models are supposed to remedy this situation.  They also have a mini HDMI connection and have a built in IR (infrared remote) so all the things I said about the Toshiba tablet doing double duty as a media remote, go for this device as well.  It makes sense.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see this device included as a remote to their higher end tv’s in the future.

7.)    NEC LT-W.  This is an odd device.  It has two screens and opens like a book.  Can you say e-reader?  This device is WAY off as far as production and I only included it because it had a unique two screen design.  It may never see the light of day, at least until battery technology gets to a point to where you can power two screens without the device weighing 20 lbs. 

This list is not comprehensive and the real take away from my article is….. “if you are going to buy a tablet anytime soon, wait”.  Why?... it’s soon going to be a buyer’s market on this product sector and it will be interesting to see which devices end up on top.  My prediction is that one of the Android devices will rise to the top because of a yet unknown consumer “like”.  Maybe even a couple of the Andriod devices will make it.  One thing is for sure, the tablet is really here to stay.  I can’t wait to see the cool things creative people have figured out to add to this format and experience new functions and new features that make these products stand out. 

Rates this market niche .... a "Well Done"

Best Family Friendly web Content Filter

In an earlier post, I stated that there is no “free lunch” on the internet.  That is a good rule of thumb for the most part, but if you find a source you can trust (MeatMeter.com J ) and you know where to look, there are still a few gems to be unearthed out there.  One of my favorite tools, especially if you have kids with new laptops or other devices that are going to connect to your household network, is OpenDNS.   DNS (Domain Name Service) is the internet’s phone book.  Every computer or website on the web has what is called an IP address (Internet Protocol).  To put it simply, DNS takes the address you typed into your browser,  looks up the DNS entry for the IP address and then serves up that page to you.   

OpenDNS was launched in 2006.  It uses its own “phone book” to block or filter content categories.  Quite simply, it makes adult and objectionable content sites unlisted.  Companies like Burger King, Fuji Film and Century21 use their paid services.

OpenDNS is free for personal use and in July they also launched Family Shield (http://www.opendns.com/familyshield) which is also free and is has a few less bells and whistles when compared to their Basic product.  If you like a bit more control, you might like the Basic product better.  

If you connect directly to your cable modem or DSL modem on one PC, you'll only have to set the DNS setting on that one PC.  If you use a router, you'll set up the DNS setting on your router, and it will protect every PC or device that connects to your network (wired or wireless.)  There are step by step instructions on the site for almost every kind of router on the market.  They also have an easy step by step guide on getting started.  Their knowledgebase is huge as well and very helpful.

Caution: 

Be careful when changing settings on your router.  Make sure you copy down the current settings (the DNS addresses) before you make changes as you can render your internet useless.  Keep the info in case you need to roll back if you have an unsuccessful installation.  All you need to do is google “how do I change the DNS settings on <insert your router make and model number here>.

Most of the time you connect to your router through your browser by typing  192.168.1.1 in your address bar.  If you don’t know your router’s username and password, try the defaults. (find your default here http://www.phenoelit-us.org/dpl/dpl.html).  If you don’t know the router password, you’ll have to reset your router.  To be honest, you should know your router’s password and if you don’t, that’s a good reason for you to reset it.  Consult your router’s manual on how to do this.  Every router I’ve ever set up has an online manual.  Be sure to find it and save it locally should you lose internet use while playing around, and trust me, you probably will. 

Protecting your kids from the dark side of the internet is definitely worth a little inconvenience and wrestling with your router’s settings.  Check out OpenDNS at OpenDNS.com.  Well done OpenDNS, well done.

Gives OpenDNS a "Well Done"



Virus, Spyware, Malware...oh my!

Why do people write and spread viruses?  What is the difference between a virus, spyware and malware?  Why doesn’t my antivirus stop this stuff?  All great questions.  Let me try and answer these questions one at a time.

First, why?  Why are viruses spread and why do people spend their time writing viruses?  The answers to this question are many.  Sometimes, someone has an ax to grind and they are putting out a piece of software that might exploit a weakness in a piece of software like Windows.  Whole groups of people feel vindicated and even vigilante-like and victorious when they make Windows send out a hotfix or a patch due to a piece of software they may have written and spread in the wild.  It’s simply for sport.

Next, there are people who write this stuff because there is money in it.  Countless numbers of people click on balloons and windows that pop up (and many look like an official notice from Windows) and tell you that you are infected and need to spend $19.95 to “renew” or remove your infection.  Most of these are bogus, but many are so strong in their kung-fu that your computer becomes unusable.  You may even release the offending software by  clicking on what you might think is the “Cancel” “X” or “No” buttons.  The programs are written to make you think you are clicking “no” but in actuality you are clicking “Ok” even though the button says “no”.  See how sneaky they are?

So there is incentive from a sporting nature of underground programmers and there is money to be made, so that explains why these things keep popping up (pun intended).  I am also not a conspiracy theorist, but if you sell an antivirus, malware, or spyware removal product, you probably like these infections.

Malware, Spyware, Virus?  What is the difference?  In general, all of these types of programs can do harm to your computer, so I’d like to coin a term “nuisance-ware”.  This term incorporates all three of these types of programs. 

In general, a virus is much like its health care counterpart.  It is a program that replicates itself and is programmed to spread in the wild.  I can cause hard drive damage, or even render your PC unusable.  There are worms, Trojan-horses and other types of viruses in this category.  Typically, a good antivirus program will work on these types of threats, although you must keep your virus definitions up to date since there are many different iterations and “strains”.  Operating system updates also help with these types of threats and should be performed regularly.

Spyware is a different animal.  Typically, spyware will install itself and you’ll never know it is there.  This is the kind of software that will steal passwords and find banking information and send it to someone behind the internet curtain and then that person can use your information for malevolent purposes or use your email program without your knowledge to spread itself.  If your computer suddenly starts running VERY slow but otherwise seems ok, this is probably your issue.

Malware is a kind of virus-spyware hybrid.  It uses techniques used by both.  It tries to spread itself in the wild and it also tries to get you to buy a product or spend money to get rid of a problem your PC may have.  This is probably the most active kind of program I usually see.  They usually have very important sounding names like Antivirus2011, VirusWareUpdate, or even official Windows sounding names like WinVirus etc.  (I might also add here that most viruses, spyware and malware do target Windows based computers for reasons I mentioned above and the fact that they are 90% of the installed base - Mac's and Unix based systems are far less susceptible.  They have their share of security issues, but are targeted much less frequently.) 

Ok, so how do you mitigate your exposure?  There are a few simple things you can do to minimize your risk.

DO NOT click on links in email or on facebook (unless it is meatmeter.com:) )

DO NOT view videos in emails or on facebook  (videos spread more problems than anything)

If you get a link to a “cool” video and can’t stand it, go to YouTube first and then search for the video.

DO NOT click any balloon or pop up window that says “Your Computer is infected, click here to…” Even if you click the “NO” “Cancel” “Close Window”, “IGNORE” or the “X” in the right hand window  part of the pop up, you will release the virus.  JUST DON’T CLICK.  A great way to close a potentially offending window or pop up is to hit the CTRL + F4 button.  This will close the active window without clicking.

DO NOT install any toolbars

DO NOT go to Coupon Savers, FREE SOFTWARE, or any other sites that promise savings and/or free stuff.  (Coupon sites will say things like “Click here to install the print drivers so you can print coupons”)  DON’T DO IT.  If you want a coupon for your product, go direct to that product’s website and look there.

DO NOT search for “VIRUS SOFTWARE REMOVAL TOOL” or any iteration thereof.  These programs, are almost ALWAYS viruses or malware themselves.

DO NOT download free music , free software, or free movies from the internet.  They are rife with malicious code.

Just remember, there is no such thing as a “free” lunch, so stay away from any free content and/or any “amazing” new links in any emails or on facebook and you’ll be much safer in your surfing.

Ranks ALL Virus, Malware or Spyware a great big "RARE"

STEER CLEAR (mooooo!)