Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
If you have any students in the house from kindergarten to college take a look at this free site: http://ping.fm/hrmoi
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
How to extend your smartphone’s battery life
Tips and tricks to make sure your most necessary gadget keeps going as long as you do
Watching out for a few small things during your day, however, can help extend battery life on your trusty device and make sure you've got enough juice to make it all day and well into the night.
Mixed signals
It takes extra juice for your smartphone to search for a data connection. If you're somewhere where you won't get a signal, like an airplane or subway, putting your phone in airplane mode or turning it off altogether will prevent it from draining your battery. Turning your phone on does require a bit of extra power, so it's best to save shutting it off for times when you plan to leave it off for a while, rather than something like a 20-minute subway ride to work in the morning. Thinking of it as car mode or subway mode instead of airplane mode might just be the mental trick you need!
Likewise, turn off wifi when you don't need it. When it's active, your phone scans for available wifi connections constantly, which kills battery life. If you're using the wifi in a coffee shop or bookstore, remember to disable that connection when you're done to avoid draining your battery while you're on the road.
Your battery bleeds faster when you're inattentive
Sure, you can have your email open, search for directions to a local restaurant, watch a video on YouTube, and play Angry Birds at the same time — but chances are you're really only focused on one of those tasks. Everything you have open on your phone is using some amount of battery power. Try to focus on doing just one thing at a time on your phone, and close unnecessary applications to keep them from draining your battery. Things like your GPS and the bluetooth connection you use to connect to your hands-free device in the car gobble up a ton of battery power and are of no use to you unless you're doing a few specific tasks.
Bright future
Bright screens look great but are a huge drain on your phone's battery. To stretch your phone's life, go into the controls or settings and dim the backlight or brightness of your screen. While the dimmest setting might be difficult to read (especially if you're somewhere brightly lit), something toward the middle will extend your battery life without putting too much strain on your eyes. If your phone has an auto-brightness option, using that can be a one-step solution to balancing battery life and ease of reading.
Along those same lines, try to avoid using animated backgrounds on your phone. Remember, the less you ask of your phone, the less it draws on your battery.
Bad vibrations
It takes more battery power for your phone to vibrate than it does to ring. While you absolutely want to have your phone on vibrate (or turned off) when you're at a movie or in a meeting, keeping your ringer on at other times can help extend battery life.
Mandatory nap time
Just as you would with a toddler, the easiest way to make sure your smartphone's battery lasts all night is to give it a nap at some point during the day. If you're headed into a meeting for a few hours, turn off your phone and leave it in your desk. Likewise, if you're out to dinner with close friends or on a date, turn off your phone and focus on your companions. Not only will you look like a better employee and friend for focusing on the people around you in real life, you'll also save that much more juice for later.
Still having trouble?
If you still find yourself running out of battery life before the end of the day, plug into a charging bag or use an external battery pack such as Morphie's JuicePack to strap on some extra power for the road.
This article was written by Emily Price and originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Analyst: Apple to release redesigned iPhone 5 in summer, just one iPad in 2012
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, in a note to investors, has laid out his predictions for Apple's calendar year 2012. In it he expects a redesigned iPhone 5 to be released in midsummer and only one version of the iPad 3, despite other rumors that Apple could release an expanded lineup of iPad models.
(Credit: Apple) Munster's note, reported by AppleInsider, suggests that Apple's "base case" scenario will see it selling 142 million iPhone units through 2013, which represents an 18 percent increase in revenue from the previous year. In a "bull case" scenario Apple could sell as many as 162 million units, bumping the revenue increase to 35 percent.
(Credit: Screenshot by AppleInsider) With Munster predicting only a single iPad model for 2012, his total revenue prediction for Apple remains conservative at 14 percent. However, many rumors have been circulating that Apple could release any number of iPad models, expanding its lineup considerably.
Should Apple release a 7-inch iPad or an iPad 2S, Munster's predictions could prove to be extremely low.
So what should we make of this? First of all, this is merely a prediction. It is entirely possible that Munster has an inside track on some production plans, but more than likely it's just his best, educated guess.
It remains to be seen whether Apple's delay on releasing the iPhone 4S until fall was a calculated shift in production scheduling or simply a product management decision that resulted in a later release date. I would put my money on the former and not expect an update to the iPhone lineup until next fall.
As for the iPad rumors, I'm with Munster (which is fun to say out loud by the way). While Apple could very well release an iPad 2S alongside an iPad 3, I think it is much more likely to remain on its current trajectory of a single model upgrade. It seems as though the Retina Display will certainly make its debut on the iPad this spring, but I doubt Apple is looking to have multiple models or sizes to choose from.
While I do not profess to be a financial analyst by any stretch, Apple has a habit of crushing earnings estimates (especially conservative ones), so if you've been considering putting some money on Apple, now's as good a time as any I would think.
Should Apple wait until fall to release the iPhone 5 or bring it out next summer? Should Apple have more than one model of iPad? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
(Credit: Apple) (Credit: Screenshot by AppleInsider) Should Apple release a 7-inch iPad or an iPad 2S, Munster's predictions could prove to be extremely low.
So what should we make of this? First of all, this is merely a prediction. It is entirely possible that Munster has an inside track on some production plans, but more than likely it's just his best, educated guess.
It remains to be seen whether Apple's delay on releasing the iPhone 4S until fall was a calculated shift in production scheduling or simply a product management decision that resulted in a later release date. I would put my money on the former and not expect an update to the iPhone lineup until next fall.
As for the iPad rumors, I'm with Munster (which is fun to say out loud by the way). While Apple could very well release an iPad 2S alongside an iPad 3, I think it is much more likely to remain on its current trajectory of a single model upgrade. It seems as though the Retina Display will certainly make its debut on the iPad this spring, but I doubt Apple is looking to have multiple models or sizes to choose from.
While I do not profess to be a financial analyst by any stretch, Apple has a habit of crushing earnings estimates (especially conservative ones), so if you've been considering putting some money on Apple, now's as good a time as any I would think.
Should Apple wait until fall to release the iPhone 5 or bring it out next summer? Should Apple have more than one model of iPad? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Web is Changing! More proof Internet Headed to App Internet Format.
Google debuts digital magazine for mobile devices
December 8, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO—Google is joining a crowd of companies packaging digital content in a magazine-like format for mobile devices.
The Internet search leader released its version, called "Currents," Thursday. It works on smartphones and computer tablets running on Google's Android software, as well as Apple Inc.'s operating system and its iPhone and iPad.
Currents is late to the competition. It will be trying to catch up to Flipboard, one of the most popular applications on the iPad, and Zite, which is owned by Time Warner Inc.'s CNN. Yahoo Inc. released a similar product called Livestand last month.
Google Inc. says more than 150 publishers have agreed to provide material to Currents. The participating publishers include Forbes, PBS, Huffington Post and AllThingsD.
Details on how Currents' ad revenue will be divided weren't disclosed
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The Web is on life support: Forrester Research
December 8, 2011, 7:22 AM
- LeWeb11
Colony said that several models of thinking about the Web/Internet space are dead or outmoded.
Colony distinguished between the Web, which he said is a software architecture, and the Internet, which is a larger organizing framework.
He said technology is migrating away from the PC/Desktop model, as well as what he called the Web cloud.
Colony asked LeWeb attendees to consider “what we will hold in our hands 5 years from now.”
Forrester Research thinks the answer to that question is the so-called App Internet, which offers a “faster, simpler and better Internet experience.”
The App Internet market is worth $2.2 billion, according to Forrester Research.
And decision makers at 41% of companies are now moving away from Web-based software toward the App Internet, Colony said.
He also said that Google, whose products are heavily invested in the Web/Internet space, “are wishing they could stop the world right now.”
“They love the web, that’s how they make money,” Colony said.
Still, “every 10 years there’s a vendor that we think is dead that comes back,” Colony said.
In the 1980s it was Intel; in the 1990s, IBM; in 2000, Apple; and going forward Colony said it could be Microsoft, led by their gaming initiatives.
Although he said that would likely require a generational leadership change from the Windows software maker.
Colony said that three companies could emerge as true leaders in the App Internet sector: Apple, Google (around their Android platform) and Amazon.
He also said that adoption of social media in urban areas was now extremely high and “running out of hours and people.”
Declaring, in effect, that we are socially saturated.
That means “we are in a bubble,” he said, adding that a post-social world was on its way that would “sweep away some of the nonsense like Foursquare.”
A new era of more efficient social enterprise is drawing near, he said.
“Social will thrive but in an evolved form.”
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
IT Security War Will Be Won or Lost at the Endpoint
Posted by Michael Vizard Dec 5, 2011 12:34:14 PM
The State of Endpoint Security
The amount of time IT organizations are spending on security issues is starting to have a significant impact the rest of IT operations.
The battle between good and evil in terms of security is starting to shift locations. Instead of being primarily focused on the network perimeter, it’s starting to become clear that the new definition of the network perimeter involves the client device.
Unfortunately, a new study of 688 IT security professionals in the U.S. conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of Lumension Security, a provider of endpoint management and security software, shows that IT organizations are losing that battle. The reason for this, says Ed Brice, Lumension senior vice president for worldwide marketing, is that with the advent of mobile computing, removable media devices such as USB drives and a host of new applications that run on those devices, IT organizations are falling behind when it comes to investing in technologies such as application control and mobile device management.
Alas, the survey finds that the bulk of the IT security budget is still being applied mainly to firewalls and anti-virus software running on traditional PC devices. The end result, says Brice, is that when it comes to mobile device security, IT organizations are falling further behind.
The good news is that the survey says that IT security professionals clearly identify mobile devices, removable media and third-party applications as the biggest risks to their organizations. But less than half of those surveyed said they have the “ample resources” they need to minimize endpoint risks, which goes a long way to explaining why future investments in IT security are still fairly limited to a narrow range of technologies even as security technologies continue to get more robust and sophisticated.
In the meantime, the survey makes it clear that many IT organizations are seeing an increase in the number of attacks, which manifests itself in the fact that 41 percent of those surveyed said their networks were less secure than they were a year ago. Hopefully, that fear will be enough to motivate IT organizations to re-evaluate their IT security strategies for 2012 at a time when the very nature of enterprise computing has never been more dynamic or difficult to manage.
The State of Endpoint Security
The amount of time IT organizations are spending on security issues is starting to have a significant impact the rest of IT operations.
The battle between good and evil in terms of security is starting to shift locations. Instead of being primarily focused on the network perimeter, it’s starting to become clear that the new definition of the network perimeter involves the client device.
Unfortunately, a new study of 688 IT security professionals in the U.S. conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of Lumension Security, a provider of endpoint management and security software, shows that IT organizations are losing that battle. The reason for this, says Ed Brice, Lumension senior vice president for worldwide marketing, is that with the advent of mobile computing, removable media devices such as USB drives and a host of new applications that run on those devices, IT organizations are falling behind when it comes to investing in technologies such as application control and mobile device management.
Alas, the survey finds that the bulk of the IT security budget is still being applied mainly to firewalls and anti-virus software running on traditional PC devices. The end result, says Brice, is that when it comes to mobile device security, IT organizations are falling further behind.
The good news is that the survey says that IT security professionals clearly identify mobile devices, removable media and third-party applications as the biggest risks to their organizations. But less than half of those surveyed said they have the “ample resources” they need to minimize endpoint risks, which goes a long way to explaining why future investments in IT security are still fairly limited to a narrow range of technologies even as security technologies continue to get more robust and sophisticated.
In the meantime, the survey makes it clear that many IT organizations are seeing an increase in the number of attacks, which manifests itself in the fact that 41 percent of those surveyed said their networks were less secure than they were a year ago. Hopefully, that fear will be enough to motivate IT organizations to re-evaluate their IT security strategies for 2012 at a time when the very nature of enterprise computing has never been more dynamic or difficult to manage.
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About Me
- Bobby
- Certified problem solver. Wannabe food fanatic. Passionate web ninja. Explorer. Lifelong reader.