ipad 1 experience:

I recently acquired an iPad1 for work.  I have not been on the iPad "bandwagon" - with a macbook air and iPhone I have not felt a need for an iPad before.  However, I have been in a class with voluminous documents.  Those documents happen to be available via PDF.  I borrowed the iPad 1 to test the utility of an iPad for PDF use in place of the exceedingly heavy 3-ring binder I was using.

I ended up using iAnnotate to read the PDFs.  That meant I could annotate/mark up the PDFs.  Ibooks does not let you annotate PDFs like it does normal ibooks.  I used BOX to copy files from my computer to iAnnotate.

All-in-all I found it usable but a bit of a pain.  It was not a home run experience, but did make it so that I did not have to travel with a thick 3-ring binder.

If I just want to read PDFs in ibooks, the iPad is a much better experience - not so much "fiddling around".

I find the iPad 1 to be perfectly usable for this use even as the "new" iPad retina is available.

Apple Networking Gear

I have found that networking equipment, specifically wireless networking, fails in 9-15 months in my house.  I have previously used linksys and netgear equipment.  They were cheap, feature rich, and not long lasting.

I strongly wanted to enable wireless backups for my apple machines in my home.  I also want to try to have equipment that might last longer.  Trying another brand was in order.  I have also seen a proliferation of wireless networks near my home - at times I have seen 15 or more other networks!  I know professionals recommending Ruckus wireless networking equipment.  I decided that for now Ruckus is out of my price range.

I have also found that there are portions of my home which are not covered by a single wireless router.  I decided to finally attempt to work on that issue.

I bought an Apple Airport Extreme to be my primary firewall/NAT/Wireless access device, and an Apple Airport Express.  Total outlay: about $300.

Many may decry the cost.  I have also heard that getting an Airport Extreme with USB 2 provides much slower disk access for network-accessible disk than a Time Capsule.  Having had a bad experience with a time capsule in the past and wanting more flexibility, I decided to stick to my plan.

Prior swapping my network equipment, I downloaded the Airport utility for my laptop via an ethernet cable (wireless was not working reliably).  After swapping my prior wireless router for the airport express, things did not work.  It was set as a repeater, not as my primary unit.  In advanced settings, I set it up with the same internal address space and security setting as my prior router an voila  - everything worked!  I have numerous devices in my home - Wii, Tivo, a printer, and more.  They were all able to connect.  It was very easy.  Having downloaded the software first was critical.

I downloaded the Airport Utility software for my iPhone as well at this point.  It works quite nicely.  Some spots in my house are still a bit problematic however - the coverage does seem better than before.

Next I added in the Airport Express.  Bam - those holes in coverage are now gone!  I have full access to my wireless network throughout my home.

I added a powered USB hub to my Airport Extreme and added a couple USB drives.  One for backups of a couple laptops, and one for media data.  I back up my iTunes as a separate job from time machine for my own reasons, and backups to this drive work find.  I have a laptop backing up fine as well.  I was unable to make the time machine backup encrypted via airport extreme.  I was also unable to start the time machine backup via a local hookup to the laptop and then moving it over the network to continue backups.  It forced a fresh entire backup.  So I wiped the time machine backup disk and it is working fine (I did not need the old backups).

I am also trying out the Airport Express hooked up to a mini-stereo system.  It works great.  The greatest drawback is that if you set iTunes to use the Airport Express, then the next time you play music that is the default and you may not intend to blare music through those remote speakers...

So I'm very satisfied with my solution so far.  There are drawbacks, some outlined above.  The other main drawback:  There is no easy way to get data about traffic going through my internet connection.  I cannot easily see what internet accesses are happening as is a feature on all other wireless routers of this type.  That is annoying. I have found instructions online to hack into the Airport Extreme to change this - I do not want to do this, I just want things to work.

Update:  I have been using this gear for about 3 months.  I have had no new problems; things work solidly other than having to reboot the extreme box a couple times (it was not responsive to remote management).

The Smartphone Personal Data Conundrum

There have been numerous reports about applications on both the iPhone/IOS and Android platforms.
Android issues:

• Recent PCWorld article about Android permissions problems

iPhone issues:

• portfolio.com iPhone PDF vulnerability article
• Guardian UK article about iPhone address book and inbuilt location database problems
• New York Times photo data available with location data permissions

• Siri if allowed from a locked iPhone would let someone with physical access to your locked phone access all of your personal data - data in your address book, for example.

There are characteristic differences between these sets of problems.   Android leadership generally says things that imply the Android model does what it should.  It appears however that the lack of updates for most platforms and the change in model over time leave most Android users vulnerable.  There are no contrite user-caring actions from Google.  Apple patched for the PDF problem.  They are working on pushing app developers to be clear as required in the developer agreement, and many app developers have updated their code to make data use clear.  Apple is trying to do something about it, has done things about it, and cares.

I'd rather have Apple behind me on this one.

Why I like iPhone independence from Cellular companies

Apple's iPhone was the first phone I'm aware of to completely disallow pre-installed cellular-company software.  You can choose to download the AT&T app, for example, but AT&T gets no software on an iPhone out of the box.

The recent CarrierIQ scandal highlights the benefits of this separation.  I cannot stress enough how much a keystroke logger built into the OS for carriers is very bad news.

I expect that carriers are not leaders in developing and maintaining software that helps create the best experience for users.  It is not their expertise.

I'm flabbergasted at this CarrierIQ news and I am glad to be using an iPhone!


UPDATE: Apple has a very limited form of CarrierIQ installed.  You can turn it off under Settings, General, About, Diagnostics & Usage, Don't Send.  You can also see what data is gathred under Diagnostics & Usage.

Apple has promised to not use any form of CarrierIQ in the future in any case.

UPDATE 2

I have seen reports that Carriers (or is it the OEMs?) are not following Google's recommendations regarding settings related to security.  It is at an NCSU website

A couple months into using a Macbook Air and I love it

I switched to a macbook air a couple months ago.  I had some minor concerns:

• Don't I need that DVD drive with me all the time?
• I've been having a hard time with my machine being slow at times.  Won't that macbook air be slow too?

With the SSD storage in the macbook air, I have had no problems with performance.  In fact, performance has been simply great!  I'm especially happy with the performance of running my virtual desktops in my macbook air.  

I think there will be ultra power users who might really want the additional RAM and cores of a macbook pro, but I firmly believe that few really need that.  Few.

I have missed the DVD player at times, but when I need it, I can have it.  And the rest of the time, I don't have to carry it everywhere.  And that is a good thing.

I'm quite happy.  I'm not so easy to please.

I've got an encrypted hard drive, I have run simultaneous backups to time machine and a network-service-based backup, a virus scanner, and more, and have been able to work without hiccup.  

Why I like the Thunderbolt monitor for modern Apple laptops

#1 I don't have to buy a dual-link DVI video cable - saves about $100.

#2 I don't have to buy a second power supply to carry around.  My monitor is my power supply at my desk - saves $80.

#3 In the past it has been cheaper than other 27-30" monitors - saves $50.

$230 in savings is nothing to sneeze at…

#4 has a camera and speakers.  This does not save me money but is convenient.  It might save someone else money over buying a camera.  It's HD to boot.

#5 it lets me pass through the thunderbolt capability and add thunderbolt accessories if they ever become available

#6 1Gb ethernet port for my macbook air

#7 power savings - even being the power brick for my laptop it seems to give off no heat.  I t uses much less power than other LCD screens I've used in the past.

iPhone brief updates

1. I've been having some problems since upgrading my iPhone 4 to IOS5.  Apps hang.  Apps crash.  Frankly I'm surprised at how little this is interfering with my usage.  But it is real, and two co-workers have said they have had similar experiences.
2. Garageband released for iPhone!  I'l post more about it after I use it, but this is pretty exciting to me.
3. Lots of reports about iPhone 4S problems, mostly about power draining quickly, are out there.  There is talk of rebooting your phone to help.  There is talk of other cellular settings restartings... Comment if you have the real answer
4. I have been having reminder sync problems.  My reminders kept vanishing!  That made them very not useful.  They were set to sync both with iCloud and with Zimbra (via an exchange connector) as well.  It seems Zimbra sucked them in and wiped them from my phone!  Now I'm set to just sync reminders just with iCloud and all is will with my reminders now!  
5. I've been reading the Steve Jobs biography via ibooks on my iPhone!  If only I could also read the ibook on my macbook air...
6. I'm loving the out-of-the-way alerts in IOS5!
7. I'm loving the easy-access camera in IOS5!