I had a question a FB follower ask that really stopped me in my tracks this morning…
“Which is better, ipad2 or Galaxy Tab 10.1?”
With all the hoopla surrounding the legal wranglings between Apple and Samsung across the globe I have to admit I lost sight of the big picture. How do the products measure up?
Clearly Apple is very worried if it is going to these lengths to shut Samsung out of the market. I knew this was going to be close.
I started digging around some technology blogs and got some mixed results making the decision that much harder after eventually settling on the following verdict.
You should be happy with either.
They are honestly that close you will have a hard time telling the difference between the hardware with slight wins going to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in areas such as Display size, Display resolution, dimensions, weight and Bluetooth performance. Apple still wins in the areas of stability, speed and interface design.
The Samsung standpoint
If you are a fiddler and you want to customize your tablet experience endlessly then you may get what you want out of the Galaxy Tab with the caveat that the Android ecosystem is a bit of a wild frontier so even though it may be cheaper you are running the gauntlet of a marketplace that is not policed so tread this path with your eyes open for rogue apps that might cause you some security headaches.
The Apple argument
If you are after a device that just works out of the box you will find the iPad2 makes a strong start in meeting your needs as soon as you walk out of the store with easy setup and configuration and a clean, slick interface that Apple is so well known for. Of course there is a price and that is that you get slightly less on paper when it comes to hardware and you are also locked into the Apple universe of a tightly controlled user experience which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it.
Add to this the lack of expansion options on the iPad and the only thing saving the Apple is the tightly integrated design, slightly better battery and the reality distortion field that goes with the Apple name.
Picking your next tablet
My verdict requires you to look inside yourself to find your own answer based on the following question.
Are you a genuine geek who loves to tinker or are you someone who expects their technology to serve them?
If you are a geek then you should enjoy the slightly superior hardware in the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
If you are a technology master (your technology serves you, that’s why you brought it) then you will get most right out of the gate from your nice new shiny iPad2.
Looking ahead
Of course this rapidly escalating battle will look very different within 6 months when we can expect to see the iPad2 evolve into the iPad3 and the Galaxy tab may very well fire back with possible upgrades to it’s hardware or a revamped Android marketplace.
With the end of year looming and end of work year preparations underway now would be a good time to tackle that source of stress that stares at you every day reminding you of all the work you have to do.
It’s that inbox that spills over multiple pages and sometimes holds hundreds of unread emails. Some of them are important, others can simply be filed away for future reference.
Here is a great article on taming that inbox. Imagine starting the new work year with a clean inbox that does not give you that feeling of dread.
Follow the link, roll up your sleeves and tame the email monster.
I am about to release a new product aimed at anyone that has irreplaceable pictures, business records, assignments, legal documents or anything that needs to be backed up.
But first ask yourself a few questions.
Do you have a backup?
Do you keep the backup offsite?
Is the backup automatic?
Have you tested the backup?
Do you TRUST your backup?
Feeling a little knot in your stomach while reading these questions? I can help you with that uneasy feeling.
I am about to release a new product called EZiBackup. Now some of my customers already enjoy a regular service where I visit them once a month and perform regular maintenance, answer questions, advise on upgrades etc as well as take a copy of the most recent backup, test it and take it off site. Because this requires me to be on site I have not been able to service everyone but now with EZiBackup, everyone can now have a backup done automatically, securely and kept offsite. Best of all you have access to your backups any time you like through a secure website. You do not need to have me visit to restore data (but you can if you like).
Starting at around AUD$9 per month, you can have complete peace of mind when it comes to those moments in time you will never capture again or the information that will ensure your financial future.
For more information email sales@eziwireless.net.au.
To pre-register your interest and take advantage of a special offer email backup@eziwireless.net.au.
With a big thankyou to an old school friend of my wife I have been granted access to one of the biggest technology stories of the day. My first impressions before the “new toy smell” could fade was that this is indeed a different take on the structure of a social network. Sure FB is that juggernaut that has grown organically to where it is today but G+ has been engineered from the ground up (admittedly on the foundations built from the remnants of the failed Buzz and Wave projects) with what clearly looks like an aim at giving FB some serious competition.
A stroke of genius in the limited beta has not only kept the load on the system low but generated insane levels of interest for the public at large. Any way Google decides to do the public release will most likely work very well and ensure a solid user base to kick start the G+ population.
For a change the super-talented nerds of Google have put some serious time into learning social skills and how technology can bridge the gap between social paradigms. The result is a solid and engaging start.
Well done Google, you get a +1 from me.
We all know that we need to keep our data safe from people that don’t deserve to have it. Usually it is down to a single string of letters and numbers that we use daily and should change often to keep the bad people out.
It has to be easy for us to remember but hard to guess or difficult/slow to crack with a computer. This is where a guru of online security and crypto (secret codes etc.) comes in. His name is Steve Gibson and he runs Gibson Research Corporation (www.grc.com). Recently he had one of those “Aha” moments with passwords. They can be complex and easy to remember at the same time.
Take a password we should never use like “god”. Yes, it is easy to remember but it breaks all the rules for safe passwords. It is short, is a word you find in the dictionary, no capital letters, no numbers and no special symbols. Now for comparison, Steve has made a calculator on how long it would take a computer to crack a password after trying all the dictionary words. You will find it here..
Now using this calculator it would take a slow online attack less than 19 seconds to crack without even using a dictionary attack!
Now using the same word as a starting point we can make it harder to crack by making a few simple changes. This is when god becomes G0d (that is capital G, the number zero and lowercase d). Now the password is complex enough but is still to short. Now an online attack is estimated to take just over 4 minutes. Two simple changes have now made it really hard to guess even at 1000 guesses per second.
Let’s now go to the next level (this is part of the aha moment that Steve had). We can use this with all our existing passwords so no big changes to mess with your memory. We can now start to throw in symbols so G0d becomes G0d! making the time to crack around 23 hours but we can make it even better by making the password massive. This is as easy as padding out your password with characters. They can be the same characters but more variety is better so G0d! can become @@@@@G0d!@@@@@. When it comes to passwords, size does matter and we are now crafting familiar passwords that are big and would take an online attack 1.57 TRILLION CENTURIES to crack!
This is certainly one of those paperclip moments where the simplest idea has a big impact. I urge everyone to consider switching to this simple and effective password scheme and to spend a little time securing your information.
Give the GRC haystack page a go and work out some solid passwords, share this page too so the people you know (that might have information about you) can secure their systems.
Ben
I got an email which had me stop and think..
Here is the email from Yahoo!
—–
Subject: Upgrade to secure email
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 12:41:50 -0500
Yahoo! Mail service has upgraded its security level to prevent hackers, viruses and spywares from getting into your mailbox.
In order to complete this security update, We encourage you to log on to http://mail.yahoo.com
We hope you’ll enjoy our approach to email service.
Please don’t reply directly to this automatically-generated e-mail message.
Sincerely,
Yahoo!
—–
Now this looks pretty genuine like most phishing emails but when I looked at the hyperlink in the email it pointed to <http://64.22.100.194/~dateonec/Y!/prevent.htm> which is certainly not a Yahoo address. Given the timing that Yahoo rolling out security upgrades I would rate this as a much higher threat than the email alone. Like most password-stealing schemes, the mechanism is simple but it is all about the deception and in this case the deception is very well timed and I expect this to catch a few people out.
Bottom line if you use Yahoo mail, log in as usual but do not click on any links you get in the email.
Stay safe.
Ben
Here is an interesting article regarding high prices in Australia, why it is so and what we can do about it. I may run a business but at the end of the day I am still a consumer like everyone else. Have a read and share if you like.
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/06/ask-lh-why-does-everything-still-cost-more-in-australia/
There was a little hiccup in a previous update to the software used to manage my website that caused things to go offline but now with a new update applied I am back on the air without having to redo the entire site. (Big sigh of relief here). So now I can get back to posting more hints, tips and news to this site which I will be mirroring on my facebook pages.
Sorry for the time away but I have been so busy with big projects that I have not been able to spend the time going through the errant code or rebuilding the site. Anyway it is good to be back.
A quick note to all my existing and new clients that I will be taking a little leave with the family from February 8th to February 18th.
Phone and email contact is expected to a bit sporadic but I will do my best to respond to emergencies in the meantime.
Ben
You know I am a geek but I also drive a lot so when I saw this post by the amazing Kari Byron, I had to share her sensible thoughts posted on Geekmom.com.
Makes you think doesn’t it?
Click here for the post and then take it to the road.
Oh and Happy new year to all, I think 2011 is going to be awesome.
Ben
Uncategorized | Ben | 
December 19, 2011 11:04 | 
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