A Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch…

For the last four or five years, Mrs. Digitante and I have used iTunes to manage our music. We prefer to download the music at Amazon MP3, but after the download completes, it loads into iTunes. I am now thinking that my use of iTunes needs to change because Apple’s behavior over the past couple of years has irked me to the point that I’m ready to move on.

What happened?

For a long time, Apple had its own browser for Macs called Safari. They then decided to introduce a Windows version. Unfortunately, they were very underhanded about how they introduced it. They put it in the top section of the Apple Software Updater so it looked like they were upgrading a current program (“then” section), not installing a new program as it should have been (“now” section).

Basically, Apple was using their updater tool to fake people into downloading their browser. Although it is a good browser now, it was riddled with issues when it first came out. After a large outcry, they moved it to its current location as seen in the screenshot above.

All this over only one incident?

That was the first time I saw this but there is much more recent incident that occurred this week. On Monday evening, Apple provided an update to a program called iPhone Configurator Utility. Aside from the fact that configurator isn’t a word, this program was not actually an update, but a completely separate program that would be installed for the first time under guise of an update.

I don’t own an iPhone so I’m no sure why I was even a candidate to receive this program. As it turns out even most people who own an iPhone don’t need this utility since it more of a corporate tool to apply security policies to iPhones that belong to employees. That’s right, not only do you have to own an iPhone, but you also have to have received it from your employer.

Additionally there were some concerns about the fact that the program contained a web server which is a prime location for hackers to gain access to private information on your computer.

As you’ll notice from the screenshot above, Apple pulled the configurator software after a bunch of complaints. I’m really not sure how you don’t learn your lesson after the first time you try this stunt.

Seems a little sketchy

For a company that claims to cares about the user experience above all else, they certainly were taking advantage of their users in a pretty skeevy way.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to work on finding a new, better music player. I’ll be sure to let you know what I find. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment with your favorite music application and I’ll be sure to check it out.

Wireless Router Security…

Maybe you’ve upgraded your router with a new firmware, based on the recommendations from last Thursday’s post. Or maybe you are still rolling the same old router you’ve had for ages. Either way, the security of your wireless network should be a concern for you.

Why should I care?

Most routers come with little or no security turned on by default, although that is changing to some extent. You may feel like you are doing others a favor when you turn off or leave off the security on your wireless network. However, you are opening yourself to a number of potential problems:

• Bandwidth – Your internet only has a finite amount of traffic that can go over it. That is called bandwidth. Imagine a hose with water coming out: if other people put their buckets in front of your hose, you can’t get the water you need. In the same fashion, if other people are streaming movies, downloading music, and surfing the web on your router, you can’t get your information as fast. Big downloads, like high definition movies, can slow your internet experience to a crawl or even a complete halt.
• Illegal Activity – If someone is using your connection to download a high definition movie, chances are they are not downloading a legitimate copy. They are probably downloading a version that they did not pay for and someone else who didn’t get paid is going to try the recoup their loss. In this case, they will come and ask for money from the person who owns the internet connection that the movie was illegally downloaded on. You are then liable for any damages that a judge and jury might award. In some cases, that amount might be in the millions.
• Denial of Service – If you haven’t secured your wireless network, there is also a decent chance that you haven’t changed the password either. If your username is admin and your password is admin, someone could get into your router settings and lock it or even “brick it” meaning that you would be unable to use your router.
• Stolen Information – If you have an unsecured wireless network, that is just one more spot for people to spy on the sensitive information on your computer. Bank accounts, email accounts, and any documents and so forth are at risk when you don’t have a properly secured network.

My router came with WEP security

While WEP is a start, it is not all that secure. A WEP secured network can be cracked in a matter of 5 minutes with the right software and an active connection. What you need is WPA.

As you can see, on my router running Tomato, I have WPA / WPA2 Personal (WPA should be fine) with a AES encryption key. There is an option to use TKIP instead of AES, but recently it was found that TKIP was hackable, although not easily (many days?). To be on the safe side, use AES.

Your shared key is the password to use your encrypted wireless network. Pick a good one and write it down. Windows also has an option that once you successfully gotten one computer on the wireless network, you can put the information on a USB thumb drive and use that drive to configure any other computer you’d like to allow on your network.

Another thing that you can do to help keep your network secure is to disable SSID broadcast. While this is good for another very simple layer of security, it doesn’t prevent anything bad from happening as most wireless adapters can see hidden networks easily.

When being chased by a bear…

You don’t have to run the fastest, you just need to be faster than the slowest guy. This applies to wireless networks as well. You don’t have to have the most secure network, but as long as you don’t have the least secure network on your block, you will probably be alright.

However, it is probably still a good idea to turn off the SSID broadcast and dial up the security to at least WPA with AES encryption. The last thing anyone needs is the police showing up at your door because some weirdo was looking up inappropriate things with your internet connection.

If you need help setting up a wireless network at your house or would like to get your existing setup secure against weirdos, you can always call The Digitante by using the Google Voice widget on the right side bar or you can head to the About page and send an email.

A Sunday Night Post? Must Be Important!

I’ve made some pretty sweet modifications to The Digitante website.

• Post links: Instead of being denoted with a number (http://www.thedigitante.com/?p=289), they will now be more informative and descriptive (http://www.thedigitante.com/2009/09/24/upgrade-your-wireless-router/). Rest assured all the old links with the number will still work and will redirect you to the correct post.
• Short links: While the new long links above are nice for know what the posts are about, they aren’t very good for space constrained applications like Twitter. I picked up the domain http://thedig.in/. You can check out or re-tweet my Friday Night Links from the link http://thedig.in/2.

Hopefully these will help the utility of this site. If you have any other suggestions of things that will help the usability of the site, you can always email The Digitante from the About page or you can call via the Google Voice widget on the right.

Friday Night Links (9/25/2009)…

We got food, Snuggies, art, and organization. Sit down, grab a beverage, and cuddle up in your Snuggie.

• FoodScanner iPhone App – My mother always told me, “You are what you eat.” Now you can know exactly what you are. If you have an iPhone and this app, you can simply scan the barcode and the nutritional information will be loaded and collect stats on your eating habits. For those non-label foods (you know, the healthy ones like fruits and veggies), you can find them by name or by brand.
• Snuggie Sauna – After all those calories you were counting with your new iPhone, you probably could use a good workout regimen. If that is too much work for you, you could just sweat the pounds off with the Snuggie Sauna. Put a blanket with arm holes on, pop the tent up, and turn up the heat.
• Guerrilla Artwork – The Wooster Collective website is artwork from a bunch of street artists from all over the globe. As with all art, some is weird, some is cool, and some of it doesn’t make much sense to me.
• Workspace Organization – From cable management to DIY USB hubs, this guide covers the organization of your desk whether at work or your own home office. I would say my favorite suggestions are the Keep-A-Cable (no more losing cords behind the desk) and the whiteboard paint.

Upgrade Your Wireless Router…

When I got my first laptop back in 2003, I got a wireless router to go with it. This allowed me to surf the internet from the comfort of the couch in front of the TV. It was a far simpler time back then: TVs weren’t high definition, cellphones were for calling people, and Superbowl halftime shows weren’t on a 7 second delay.

Since that time, I’ve gone through a number of wireless routers. Each of them worked well at first, but then slowly needed to be unplugged, reset, and tossed out as time went on. After my last router went kaput, I decided to take a different approach.

Enter Tomato

I had heard mentions of a firmware for certain routers called Tomato. Firmware is somewhere between software and hardware. Software is computer coding that allows users to interact such as surfing the internet with an internet browser or typing a document on a word processor. Firmware is different in that it is computer programming that tells the hardware what its function is. Firmware generally allows minimal user interaction and most people would never know it exists.

In the case of the router I purchased, the Linksys WRT54GL, the original firmware was written by the Linksys company (or Cisco, it’s owner). The downside is that it was not well written and contained a number bugs which would cause it to crash. However, the upside was that the firmware was made using a modified version of the Linux open source operating system. If you have read my previous post on open source software, you will know that anyone can take and modify the code and do with it as they please.

The creator of Tomato did exactly that, he created great firmware that replaced the problematic Linksys default firmware.

One of the goals, it seems, was to create a stable environment where you didn’t need to reset your router on a weekly basis. I just checked and my Tomato router has been going non-stop for 46 days. I actually know that we had a power outage that was the reason the router reset 46 days ago. Before that, it had been running since about May, when the power was out from a thunderstorm.

In addition to making Tomato extremely stable, they also added functionality that wasn’t available in the default Linksys firmware:

• Power boost – If you needed a little more range on your router so you could use your laptop in your yard, garage, or basement, you can tweak the power output. The only drawback is it causes extra wear and tear on the router and might make it conk out prematurely.
• Mesh network – If you buy more than one Tomato router, you can have them cooperate and work together. This has worked out really well for me. In our house, we have our internet connection hooked to a router that serves the media center PC and provides wireless for our bedroom and the living room/kitchen. We have another router in our office which has a network printer and a network hard drive attached to it. Having those items upstairs in the living room would have been an eyesore and running wires from upstairs to downstairs would have been unsightly and a hassle. Additionally, adding a second router in this manner would alleviate the need for the power boost suggestion above, extending your router’s lifetime.
• Quality of Service – This one is complicated, but it basically allows you to prioritize various uses of your internet. This comes in handy if you have multiple users on your network using a lot of bandwidth. Services such as Vonage (an internet based landline system) would have top priority since they would need to have a stable connection. Email and basic web browsing would be in second place since it isn’t very bandwidth intensive but is fairly high priority for most users. Downloading music and movies would be given lowest priority since these could be done at night when no one is using the internet.

The other alternative: DD-WRT

DD-WRT is much like Tomato in that it is an open source alternative firmware. I recently started experimenting with it and it has many more versions with various features and has support for FAR more routers than Tomato. I know that if you have to pick between DD-WRT and Tomato, you probably aren’t going to go wrong. I like the spartan design of the Tomato interface. However, DD-WRT has some features that are required for a project I’m working on (creating a WiFi Hotspot for a local coffee shop, more on that later).

You can go to the DD-WRT hardware page to see if your current router can use the DD-WRT firmware and also get instructions on installing the firmware. If you need help figuring out if your router can use Tomato or DD-WRT or if you are having trouble getting your router set up properly, you can contact The Digitante by heading to the About page and sending an email or you can simply click on the Google Voice widget in the right side column to call me for free.

Security

We didn’t talk about security settings for your router, regardless of whether you use Tomato, DD-WRT, or the firmware that came with your wireless router. Next week, I will have a full post dedicated to the security of your home wireless network including common questions on the various encryption schemes and why you even need security on your router at all. Look for that next week and as usual, Friday Night Links will pop up sometime tomorrow evening.

Picasa Update…

So in the 8 days since I wrote about Google’s photo management software, Picasa, it has been upgraded from version 3.1 to version 3.5. And a worthy upgrade it is!

What’s new?

The big thing is tagging. Tagging is just what it sounds like: it is just a little note about the picture. You can add multiple tags such as “beach” and “North Caroline” for your trip that you took to the beach in North Carolina. If you later search for the tag “beach” it might show you the photos of your trip to North Carolina, but it will also bring up photos of your surfing trip to Mexico since that also was tagged with “beach”.

But what would be most important for tagging in photos? People! The Picasa update adds automatic facial recognition so that you can simply name a person and it will find all similar pictures of that person for you.

It starts tossing faces into a folder. From there you tag them with the name of the person. As it finds more pictures of the same person, it adds them to their folder. You have a chance to confirm any that Picasa deems questionable.

Any other kinds of tagging?

Yes! There is also Google Maps integration which I had also talked about a couple of weeks ago. The tagging used here is called geotagging. How it works is that your GPS enabled camera or cameraphone records your location when you take a picture. When you load that picture into Picasa, the location data is read and used to plot the location of a map. This could be especially fun if you were on a roadtrip and took pictures of landmarks along the way.

If you are interested in a camera or a phone that is capable of geotagging in the future, you can feel free to ask The Digitante by sending an email from the About page or clicking the Google Voice widget in the right sidebar.

Technological Convenience vs. Function…

In addition to this lovely blog, I do a bit of consulting. In working with a client, I ran into an issue that I’ve bumped into before: convenience vs. function.

It is nice to have a device such as the iPhone that functions as a phone, internet portal, gaming machine, music player, GPS, and the list goes on and on. However, it becomes very dangerous to take your phone, internet portal, gaming machine, and GPS with you to the gym where it could easily get water from a bottle dumped on it or get dropped on the treadmill. It would be much less risky to have a dedicated music player at a cost of $50 that can take a drop or be cheaply replaced if needed.

This is where the battle of convenience vs. function starts heating up.

Some scenarios

There are a couple of ways to approach this and all approaches are going to depend on who you are and your personal preferences.

Personally, I prefer to have high-functioning gadgets. I like my phone to have a long battery life. I like my music player to be small. I like to be able to put away the games when it is time to buckle down and work. I like to have my GPS set up and ready to go. I like to be able to view the internet on a nice large screen and not have to squint and zoom all the time.

For this reason, I have chosen function, even if it means carrying around a number of devices. Typically, I have to carry my phone and my music player when I head to the gym. If I’m going on a car trip, I usually take my phone, my GPS, and my laptop. I’ve decided that having all these devices along for the ride is worth hauling around the extra equipment.

Others are willing to accept some compromises for the sake of convenience. I mentioned the iPhone: while it does all of the above, it took a LONG time before it had full GPS capabilities, the cellphone reception is a common complaint, and playing games on it (especially graphic intensive ones) will drain your battery rather quickly. However, based on the fact that it is one of the most popular and desirable phones out there means that people are willing to compromise or are actually completely willing to overlook some of the faults in the name of convenience.

Real life

As I mentioned, I was working with a client recently and they had a 4-in-1 printer, fax, copier, scanner combo. After looking at it, I determined that there was something wrong with the scanner – most likely a burnt out motor or some other broken part. The printer still functioned fine, but the copying, faxing, and scanning functions were all shot. If they had opted for a scanner and a printer as two separate devices, they could have replaced one or the other instead of having to replace a broken item plus an item that was still in great working condition.

After talking it over with them, it was decided that they valued having extra clear space on their desk and one device that did it all, so they picked up a new 4-in-1 combo device. On the upside, they do plan on donating the old combo device to someone who doesn’t care too much about the scanning function and just needs a great printer.

What items cause this debate for you?

It doesn’t have to be technology even: Do you want a sturdy, solid screwdriver that can be used to put in a single type of screw, or do you want a multi-driver that can put in many types of screws but requires you to keep an eye on lots of little bits?

If you have your own debates, you can share them in the comments below. If this is your first time commenting, your comment won’t show up right away, but as soon as I know who you are, your comments should show up immediately in the future.

If you need help deciding what direction to head in the convenience vs. function debate, you can contact me, The Digitante by heading to the About page and sending an email, or you can click the Google Voice widget to the right and be connected to me to discuss your options on the phone.

The New King of Cellphone Plans…

Sprint recently announced their new cellphone plan perk: Any Mobile, Anytime. Essentially it allows Sprint customers to call any cellphone for free.

But I have Verizon/AT&T/T-mobile with free mobile-to-mobile!

Most people I’ve told about this new plan are confused and it takes a moment or two and some additional explanation before it truly sets in. If I have Sprint service, I can make calls anytime, day or night, without using my minutes and I can call any cellphone: my friends who have iPhones on AT&T, Android G1s on T-mobile, and Blackberry Storms on Verizon.

I previously enjoyed free Sprint-to-Sprint calling because my whole family, brother, sister, parents, and wife, were all on Sprint. However, calling my wife’s parents, quite few of my friends, and business associates still used my daytime minutes. Not to mention that 80-90% of my phone calls were made to other cellphones. Any Mobile, Anytime has eliminated the possibility of our family ever having an overage charge for using too many minutes.

This is certainly a boon to those who use their phone for work during the day and make a lot of calls to co-worker’s or client’s cellphones.

What’s the catch?

How did you know there was a catch? Well, you’re right, there is. Any Mobile, Anytime is only available on the Sprint Simply Everything Data plans.

If you have a smartphone such as a BlackBerry, Palm Pre, or HTC Touch, you probably already have this plan and Any Mobile, Anytime will automatically be added at your next billing cycle (or you can call and ask for it sooner).

If you don’t have a smartphone and instead have a flip phone or slider-style phone, you may be less inclined to need the data portion of the Simply Everything Data.

However, if you DO use a lot of minutes and you DO call lots of mobile numbers, this plan might still be a great deal for you with the added bonus that you could check email, weather, and tons of other stuff on your phone on the go.

Details

Individual Simply Everything Data plans including unlimited email, web, messaging, navigation, and Sprint TV:

• 450 minutes: $69.99
• 900 minutes: $89.99
• Unlimited minutes: $99.99

Shared/Family Simply Everything Data plans including unlimited email, web, messaging, navigation, and Sprint TV:

• 1500 minutes: $129.99
• 3000 minutes: $169.99
• Unlimited minutes: $189.99

Note: the unlimited plans are listed for comparison, but technically since you have unlimited minutes, you wouldn’t need Any Mobile, Anytime.

If you are curious if this might be a good deal for you, or you want to know how much you could save per month with a plan like this, The Digitante offers a service that you might find interesting. I will sit down with you and 3-6 months of your phone bill with your current provider. Based on your minute usage and any other specifications (need for internet, messaging, etc), I can figure out how much you could expect to save by moving to a different carrier or changing plans with your current carrier.

To contact The Digitante about any of this, you can head to the About page where you will find my email address or you can simply click the Google Voice widget in the right column, enter your phone number, and be connected to me.

Friday Night Links (9/18/2009)…

We’re a little light-weight on the links tonight. I would blame it on the internet for not posting cool enough stuff, but it is probably because I wasn’t looking hard enough. On to the links:

• Nintendo – You can play Nintendo games online in a little tiny screen. Plus you don’t have to blow on the cartridges to get them to work. On the downside, there are only a couple of games available. On the upside, Contra is one of them and up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-B-A-start works to that is nice.
• Sharp razors – I’ve heard in the past that storing your disposable razor in a cup of rubbing alcohol but unfortunately unless it is covered, I could see that only lasting a couple of days. This tip is much better. It involves dousing your dry razor in a cup of mineral oil. I might have to make a Home Depot run tomorrow.
• Chocolate Snobbery – One of the first things I learned after marrying a Canadian was that American chocolate is terrible and has no place in our house. Whenever we head north of the border, we always schedule a stop by Duty Free for some of the Canadian chocolate. Hersheys is probably the worst offender but there really isn’t much American stuff that is good. Over-cooked cacao beans and the addition of caranuba wax makes for some overly crunchy and waxy chocolate. Move over to the Canadian side and realize the creamy, melty difference.

Google: The Rest of the Story…

So far we’ve covered the biggest tools that Google offers. I use Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Google Voice pretty much everyday. I find Google Docs invaluable for opening PDF files since Adobe Reader is such a slow and bloated piece of software. I have a new found love for Picasa and will most likely become a shut-in as I spend the next couple of weekends working on our photo collection.

However, Google has numerous tools that while I use with very sparse frequency, I’ve still found them to be well designed and useful.

Google Desktop

Imagine having the Google search box for the content on your computer. Imagine no more. Google Desktop is a powerful search tool for indexing and searching everything on your computer. To start up any program, you can just type in the name in Google Desktop, click, and go.

Google Earth

Admittedly, Google Earth is probably one of the coolest programs on God’s green internet. Once you download the program, you can begin exploring the Earth (both on land and under the sea) in 3D with real shading and textures. Cities contain 3D renderings of actual buildings. You can fly right by the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben. Just be careful, since all the renderings get downloaded to your computer, this can start weighing down your computer quickly.

Google Groups

Need to organize people scattered across all those places you just looked up on Google Earth? Then you need Google Groups. You can organize in whatever type of group you want, invite others to join a private group, or leave the group open to the public. Or you can join a group that already exists. Groups can be customized visually with graphics and colors. Users can upload videos and pictures. It is a great collaboration tool and can be a fun way to socialize with other who have similar interests.

Google News

Google News is a bit more pedestrian than most other Google tools in that it simply aggregates the most popular news and allows you to browse. It does also allow you to great custom news feeds with topics that interest you and it allows you to enter your location (zip, city, or state) to get local news.

YouTube

Alright, so YouTube actually might be the most popular Google service there is, but I’ll admit, I’ve watched quite a bit of YouTube, but I’ve never uploaded a video and I’m embarrassed about that because I am such a techie and that is a really simple and easy thing to do. Perhaps after I get my photo collection all sorted out.

If you have any questions about any of these or other Google services and tools, you can always contact The Digitante by heading to the About page to find my email address, clicking on the Google Voice widget, or you can also visit me on Twitter by following clicking on my Twitter button. The Google Voice widget and the Twitter button are both on the right hand column of the website.