Rule #1: Trust no one. Rule #2: If you trust anyone, trust Apple. Rule #3: See Rule #1. After walking through Apple’s slow walk iPhone X launch, I’m back to square one and Rule #1. Trust no one. Here’s the deal. I get a new iPhone every year, give or take a month or … Read More »
Archives for October 2017
People Skills: Apple vs. Google vs. Samsung
The Apple is doomed meme is a lame argument, a thought bucket that just doesn’t hold water. No, neither Google nor Samsung or any other technology competitor will unseat Apple from its perch as the de fact leader of gadgets. Yes, competitors abound, but it doesn’t matter. Why not? Apple has people skills. Competitors … Read More »
How To Guard Your Mac’s Camera And Mic
Remember my motto: “If everyone is out to get you, paranoia is the right attitude to have.” Any device that is connected to the public internet is under attack; usually from a gazillion bots hammering various ports, constantly looking for vulnerabilities to exploit. And that’s just one attack vector. Other methods are used to … Read More »
iCloud Drive Has A Dirty Hidden Mess
My preference for cloud storage is Dropbox, then iCloud, then a few others; including Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and even Box. Why Dropbox? It’s fast and syncs files between devices within minutes. Why iCloud? It works on all devices and it’s priced right? Why not the others? They don’t make it easy to sync … Read More »
Amazon’s Infestation vs. Apple’s Siri
What will the home of the future look like? For Apple customers, the home will look, well, like a home. Television, speaker system, always-on Siri ready, able, and capable of answering almost any question or performing any one of hundreds of functions. Lights, door locks, phone calls, channel changing, appliance management, and, of course, … Read More »
Apple: Security Married Convenience
Apple does one thing in the security realm that competitors seem to not comprehend. The marriage of security and convenience. You find it in Apple products. You don’t find the same security or convenience in major competing products. Here’s a good example. Touch ID. The built-in fingerprint scanner is fast and easy to use … Read More »
Amazon’s Home Invasion Has Begun
There are times when I’m just not sure how smart technology executives really are. Tim Cook seems articulate and has a reputation as a supply chain and management genius, but his claim to fame is enormous profits and major products which get neglected or do not ship on time. Mac and iPhone, I’m looking … Read More »
Trust Apple Or Trust No One
Not a week goes by without news of another government or corporate data breach. Most Google and Facebook users just don’t know how much tracking goes on. This week I read about the Android knockoff OxygenOS which runs on the popular Chinese OnePlus smartphone line. Yep. You guessed it. They were stealing customer data … Read More »
When My Parents Switched To Apple
Apple’s customers are evangelizers. We love Macs and iPhones and iPads so much we’re willing to tell family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors about the joys of being an Apple customer and owning Apple products. There are times when that joy can be diminished and evangelizers can become the enemy. Take my parents. Puhleeze. They … Read More »
What If There Was No iPhone X?
What if scenarios can be intriguing or ridiculous. What if 120,000 voters decided to go for Hillary instead of Donald? Move the votes around and the outcome is dramatically different. Here’s another example. What if Apple introduced iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus but no iPhone X? How does iPhone 8 compare to Samsung’s … Read More »
Apple And Google Bet On AI
Artificial intelligence is here. You hear it in Siri. You see it in applications which know more than you know about you. You find it everywhere these days, and though barely out of pre-school and almost ready for the first grade, Apple and Google are betting big on AI. For now, all these personal … Read More »
When Apple’s Siri Is Not Your Friend
Modern computers are not so much smart as they are fast. They can be quick to answer basic questions and quick to perform specific tasks. Smart? A recent study says Google’s Assistant is twice as smart as Apple’s Siri but still barely first grade level. A cloud-based digital assistant that is about as smart … Read More »
Apple And Google Infected With Hypocrisy
Most of us understand what happened to the information superhighway. We were told the internet would connect humanity in a way where the earth became a village, where the free flow of information would benefit mankind for an eternity. Instead, the information superhighway became the misinformation superhighway with alligator filled moat on one side … Read More »