1. Five great things about iPhone 5
Let’s be honest, iPhone 5 is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It’s a clear improvement over the previous model but isn’t a huge leap forward, and in some places it’s just playing catch-up with rival devices.
While my colleague Mihaita Bamburic points out the downsides of the new handset, I’d highlight areas where it shines.
Speedier. The new Apple A6 chip is twice as fast as the old iPhone 4S's processor, both in terms of CPU and graphics performance. According to Apple, it will launch apps in around half the time. It’s rumored (and we’ll have to wait to see if it’s true) that the chip runs ARM Cortex A15 cores, beating Samsung to the punch.
Larger screen. Yes, fair enough, the new iPhone’s 4-inch screen isn’t as big as the Samsung Galaxy S III(4.8 inches) or the Nokia Lumia 920 (4.5 inches), but still is larger than its predecessor, and in a device that’s 18-percent thinner and 20-percent lighter than, too. In the hands of another company, the resized screen probably wouldn’t be much of a selling point, but Apple’s retooled all its apps, including iPhoto and Garage Band, to really make the most of that additional real estate, and as the old saying goes, it’s not the size but what you do with it that counts.
LTE/4G. The phone’s LTE connectivity is hugely welcome and lets you make the most of much faster speeds,provided your carrier offers it. A giant step forward for the iPhone. Yes, Samsung, which owns a large collection of LTE patents, may challenge the new phone, but it’s unlikely to succeed to get the device banned.
Better camera. The new iPhone is much thinner, but the camera is just as good, still offering 8 megapixels and 3268 x 2448 resolution. But it also has some great new features, including a dynamic low-light mode that can deliver up to two f-stops greater performance, combined with a new Image Signal Processor with spatial noise reduction. The camera’s sapphire crystal lens cover produces clearer images and won’t scratch easily. You can instantly share images on social sites using PhotoStream, plus the camera can now take panoramic shots (just like, ahem, the Galaxy Nexus), making it useful for creating cool Facebook cover photos.
Additional microphone. iPhone 5 has three microphones -- one built into the bottom, one at the front/top, and one at the back of the device. This helps to ensure good quality audio regardless of whether you're chatting on Facetime, using Siri or recording a video. It will also help with noise cancellation.
I’m not going to pretend iPhone 5 is streets ahead of the competition, but the new improvements do put it back in the race, and for me at least, it’s a solid upgrade that will appeal to many. Plus that aluminum and glass design is really nice…
2. Google Drive: Updates for iOS and Android
Every day, more and more people are choosing to live online and get things done in the cloud. Helping to make this experience as seamless as possible, Google Drive is one place where you can create, share and keep all your stuff. Drive is available on the web, as well as Mac, Windows and Android and iOS.
Updates for iOS
7. Canonical Releases Updated Enterprise Management Solution for Ubuntu Linux
Ubuntu Linux, which started with the tagline “Linux for human beings,” was originally an easy to use Linux distribution for desktop users. Canonical picked what they considered to be the best of breed applications from the many thousands available in the Debian Linux distribution, put on a healthy dose of polish, and released their own version. They then repeated this release process every six months. Six months is slightly too frequent a release schedule for many users — especially companies that might look to standardize on Ubuntu Linux — so Canonical declared that every fourth release would be a “Long Term Support” version, with three of support.
Let’s be honest, iPhone 5 is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It’s a clear improvement over the previous model but isn’t a huge leap forward, and in some places it’s just playing catch-up with rival devices.
While my colleague Mihaita Bamburic points out the downsides of the new handset, I’d highlight areas where it shines.
Speedier. The new Apple A6 chip is twice as fast as the old iPhone 4S's processor, both in terms of CPU and graphics performance. According to Apple, it will launch apps in around half the time. It’s rumored (and we’ll have to wait to see if it’s true) that the chip runs ARM Cortex A15 cores, beating Samsung to the punch.
Larger screen. Yes, fair enough, the new iPhone’s 4-inch screen isn’t as big as the Samsung Galaxy S III(4.8 inches) or the Nokia Lumia 920 (4.5 inches), but still is larger than its predecessor, and in a device that’s 18-percent thinner and 20-percent lighter than, too. In the hands of another company, the resized screen probably wouldn’t be much of a selling point, but Apple’s retooled all its apps, including iPhoto and Garage Band, to really make the most of that additional real estate, and as the old saying goes, it’s not the size but what you do with it that counts.
LTE/4G. The phone’s LTE connectivity is hugely welcome and lets you make the most of much faster speeds,provided your carrier offers it. A giant step forward for the iPhone. Yes, Samsung, which owns a large collection of LTE patents, may challenge the new phone, but it’s unlikely to succeed to get the device banned.
Better camera. The new iPhone is much thinner, but the camera is just as good, still offering 8 megapixels and 3268 x 2448 resolution. But it also has some great new features, including a dynamic low-light mode that can deliver up to two f-stops greater performance, combined with a new Image Signal Processor with spatial noise reduction. The camera’s sapphire crystal lens cover produces clearer images and won’t scratch easily. You can instantly share images on social sites using PhotoStream, plus the camera can now take panoramic shots (just like, ahem, the Galaxy Nexus), making it useful for creating cool Facebook cover photos.
Additional microphone. iPhone 5 has three microphones -- one built into the bottom, one at the front/top, and one at the back of the device. This helps to ensure good quality audio regardless of whether you're chatting on Facetime, using Siri or recording a video. It will also help with noise cancellation.
I’m not going to pretend iPhone 5 is streets ahead of the competition, but the new improvements do put it back in the race, and for me at least, it’s a solid upgrade that will appeal to many. Plus that aluminum and glass design is really nice…
2. Google Drive: Updates for iOS and Android
Every day, more and more people are choosing to live online and get things done in the cloud. Helping to make this experience as seamless as possible, Google Drive is one place where you can create, share and keep all your stuff. Drive is available on the web, as well as Mac, Windows and Android and iOS.
Updates for iOS
Starting today, if you’re using the Drive app on your iOS device you can also edit Google documents, just as you can with the Android app. From your iPhone or iPad, you can create a new document, edit an existing one or format text. And, just like on your computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits instantly as they’re made.
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You’ll also notice other new improvements to the iOS Drive app. For example, you can now view Googlepresentations on your iPhone or iPad, including speaker notes, full-screen mode and the ability to swipe between slides. You can also create new folders, move files into folders and upload stuff (like photos and videos) from your device directly in the Drive app.
Updates for Android
We’re also updating the Drive app for Android phones and tablets today. You can now add comments, reply to existing comments and view tables in your Google documents. And you’ll have the same new abilities to view presentations and organize your stuff as your friends with iPhones do.
More to come...
Looking ahead, we have plenty more planned for the Drive mobile apps—including native editing and real-time collaboration for Google spreadsheets. Stay tuned.
Get Drive in the App Store for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and visit the Play Store to get the latest on your Android phone or tablet. To learn more about Google Drive, visit drive.google.com/start.
3. Oracle VirtualBox 4.2 improves VM management
Oracle has released a major update to VirtualBox taking it up to version 4.2. The virtualization software is available for Windows, Linux and OS X, and now includes a new VM Group features that makes it easier to manage related virtual machines by organizing them together in groups. Users are able to utilize several virtual machines simultaneously either through the GUI, using various APIs or through command line tools.
VirtualBox 4.2 has a number of improvements to networking components, starting with increasingly the maximum supported number of network cards for a virtual machine from eight to 36. This is not the only improvement that has been made to networking as it is now also possible to place limits on network usage by any virtual machine. If a network is being used for other things, this traffic shaping is a valuable way to prevent unwanted slow-down in other areas.
Other networking improvements see the introduction of support for VLAN tagging, allowing for more flexibility in real and virtual network environments. The latest version of the open-source virtualization software now includes a range of new startup options that can be used to automate the launch virtual machine on a host device. Virtual machines can be configured to start automatically with a host device allowing for unattended launching of virtual environments.
The relatively recent release of Mountain Lion and the upcoming release of Windows 8 means that the inclusion of support for these latest operating system should come as no surprise, and there is also support for Oracle Linux 6.3
You can find out more and download a free copy of the program by paying a visit to the VirtualBox 4.2 review page.
4. JD’s Auto Speed Tester clocks your Net connection
If you’re curious about your Internet connection’s performance then of course there are plenty of online speed tests around that promise to tell you more. But these are limited, in particular because they can only measure your connection speed at a single point in time, while your actual performance will probably vary throughout the day.
For more accurate results, then, you should probably grab a copy of JD’s Auto Speed Tester, a powerful free tool that runs in the background and automatically benchmarks your connection at regular intervals.
The program runs hourly tests of all the core statistics, including upload and download speed, ping time, packet loss and jitter. These details are displayed on a graph, so you can see how they vary over time, and are also logged to a CSV file if you’d like to run more detailed analyses later.
And if the upload or download speeds fall below some specified figure then you can even have the program send you an email as a warning.
JD’s Auto Speed Tester is highly configurable, so if any of this doesn’t suit your needs then the chances are that it can be tweaked. You can turn particular tests on or off, for instance; define your own servers for the upload, download or ping tests; and tell the program not to run its tests if you’re busy downloading, say, reducing the chance of it interfering with your regular PC use.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of JD’s Auto Speed Tester, though, is just how lightweight it is. The program consumed barely more than 1.2MB RAM when running in the background on our test PC, and even when browsing the interface it needed only a little more than 2MB.
If you’re looking for the definitive verdict on your internet connection, then, JD’s Auto Speed Testeris the perfect tool to help: detailed and highly configurable, it should run comfortably on most PCs and laptops.
5. I will never buy another laptop
That is the conclusion I reached after several weeks living la vida post-PC. With nothing but my trusty Acer Iconia Tab to work on while waiting for my house sale to close in Florida (see previous post about not needing a smartphone), I've managed to remain productive and connected without touching so much as a byte of "wintel" technology.
Well, maybe a few bytes. There have been the occasional detors off the Android wagon -- for example, when I needed to quickly print, sign and re-scan some legal documents and hijacked my daughter's Dell Inspiron for a few minutes (it was like pulling teeth -- she's quite possessive of her toys). However, for the most part I accomplished everything I needed to from the comfort of my Ice Cream Sandwich-based tablet. And the secret of my success had as much to do with the accessories that I surrounded the tablet with as with the device itself.
For example, since I do a lot of writing (duh!), an external keyboard was a must. Thankfully, my Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard for Android 3.0+ was up to the task. With an excellent, island-style layout and decent key travel, the Logitech gives this seasoned touch-typist the tactile feedback he needs to achieve his accustomed high words-per-minute efficiency. A flick of the keyboard's power switch and I transition from haphazard haptic virtual to perfectly palatable physical in a matter of seconds.
The next weapon in my arsenal is a Logitech M510 wireless mouse. Note that this is not a Bluetooth device, but rather a traditional wireless mouse with a small, nearly flush USB-dongle. One of the advantages to having a tablet with a full-sized USB port is that I can attach a variety of standard PC peripherals directly to the device. In this case, it's the mouse dongle. However, it could just as easily have been an external hard disk or USB key. I can even hang a small USB hub off of the port should I need to use more than one device at the same time.
Again, the tablet-to-PC-replacement transition is nearly instantaneous. One second I'm cradling my tablet while finger-surfing the web. Then a quick prop of the device on its case/stand, coupled with popping in the mouse dongle and flipping the keyboard switch, and I have the equivalent of a fully-functional (from an input and navigation standpoint) desktop. I can type and scroll and generally leverage all of that hard won muscle memory from years of working with Windows. And while not every PC keyboard shortcut or mouse gesture is carried over -- this is, after all, Android we're talking about -- enough of the basic editing functions are present to make using something like QuickOffice HD (my Microsoft Office alternative of choice) quite pleasurable.
The last piece of my post-PC puzzle is a good Bluetooth headset. I tend to bounce between the Motorola S10 HD and Jawbone Icon, the former being used mostly for music and general audio functions and the latter for Skype calls. And since they're both Bluetooth, they allow me to obtain that holy grail of portable device configurations: A completely wireless computing environment.
Of course, the real test of my post-PC commitment will be when I finally return to the island and resume my normal life designing the software back-end for the new "wired" secondary school we're building. It will require that I spend a significant amount of time working in Visual Studio, and that means firing-up my seemingly dinosaur-like Lenovo ThinkPad w700ds workstation. However, based on my success "cutting the PC cord" over these past weeks, I can easily see myself using a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client to access the ThinkPad remotely from my tablet as I continue to enjoy the benefits of the post-PC lifestyle.
But no matter how things play out at home, I know for certain that I will never buy another traditional laptop PC. And given Intel's latest quarterly figures, I've got a feeling I'm not alone in my sentiments.
6. GoDaddy Outage: Anonymous Attack or Maintenance Goof?
Web hosting company and self-proclaimed world's largest domain registrar GoDaddy suffered a major outage on Monday, taking down what's believed to have been millions of websites. A hacker with the handle of AnonymousOwn3r claimed responsibility in a Twitter feed. The hacker is apparently not connected with Anonymous, one of whose Twitter feeds, YourAnonNews, urged readers to look to AnonymousOwn3r as the culprit. GoDaddy tweeted during the outage that it was aware of the "trouble" it was having and that it was working on the issue.
.png)
You’ll also notice other new improvements to the iOS Drive app. For example, you can now view Googlepresentations on your iPhone or iPad, including speaker notes, full-screen mode and the ability to swipe between slides. You can also create new folders, move files into folders and upload stuff (like photos and videos) from your device directly in the Drive app.
Updates for Android
We’re also updating the Drive app for Android phones and tablets today. You can now add comments, reply to existing comments and view tables in your Google documents. And you’ll have the same new abilities to view presentations and organize your stuff as your friends with iPhones do.
More to come...
Looking ahead, we have plenty more planned for the Drive mobile apps—including native editing and real-time collaboration for Google spreadsheets. Stay tuned.
Get Drive in the App Store for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and visit the Play Store to get the latest on your Android phone or tablet. To learn more about Google Drive, visit drive.google.com/start.
3. Oracle VirtualBox 4.2 improves VM management
Oracle has released a major update to VirtualBox taking it up to version 4.2. The virtualization software is available for Windows, Linux and OS X, and now includes a new VM Group features that makes it easier to manage related virtual machines by organizing them together in groups. Users are able to utilize several virtual machines simultaneously either through the GUI, using various APIs or through command line tools.
VirtualBox 4.2 has a number of improvements to networking components, starting with increasingly the maximum supported number of network cards for a virtual machine from eight to 36. This is not the only improvement that has been made to networking as it is now also possible to place limits on network usage by any virtual machine. If a network is being used for other things, this traffic shaping is a valuable way to prevent unwanted slow-down in other areas.
Other networking improvements see the introduction of support for VLAN tagging, allowing for more flexibility in real and virtual network environments. The latest version of the open-source virtualization software now includes a range of new startup options that can be used to automate the launch virtual machine on a host device. Virtual machines can be configured to start automatically with a host device allowing for unattended launching of virtual environments.
The relatively recent release of Mountain Lion and the upcoming release of Windows 8 means that the inclusion of support for these latest operating system should come as no surprise, and there is also support for Oracle Linux 6.3
You can find out more and download a free copy of the program by paying a visit to the VirtualBox 4.2 review page.
4. JD’s Auto Speed Tester clocks your Net connection
If you’re curious about your Internet connection’s performance then of course there are plenty of online speed tests around that promise to tell you more. But these are limited, in particular because they can only measure your connection speed at a single point in time, while your actual performance will probably vary throughout the day.
For more accurate results, then, you should probably grab a copy of JD’s Auto Speed Tester, a powerful free tool that runs in the background and automatically benchmarks your connection at regular intervals.
The program runs hourly tests of all the core statistics, including upload and download speed, ping time, packet loss and jitter. These details are displayed on a graph, so you can see how they vary over time, and are also logged to a CSV file if you’d like to run more detailed analyses later.
And if the upload or download speeds fall below some specified figure then you can even have the program send you an email as a warning.
JD’s Auto Speed Tester is highly configurable, so if any of this doesn’t suit your needs then the chances are that it can be tweaked. You can turn particular tests on or off, for instance; define your own servers for the upload, download or ping tests; and tell the program not to run its tests if you’re busy downloading, say, reducing the chance of it interfering with your regular PC use.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of JD’s Auto Speed Tester, though, is just how lightweight it is. The program consumed barely more than 1.2MB RAM when running in the background on our test PC, and even when browsing the interface it needed only a little more than 2MB.
If you’re looking for the definitive verdict on your internet connection, then, JD’s Auto Speed Testeris the perfect tool to help: detailed and highly configurable, it should run comfortably on most PCs and laptops.
5. I will never buy another laptop
That is the conclusion I reached after several weeks living la vida post-PC. With nothing but my trusty Acer Iconia Tab to work on while waiting for my house sale to close in Florida (see previous post about not needing a smartphone), I've managed to remain productive and connected without touching so much as a byte of "wintel" technology.
Well, maybe a few bytes. There have been the occasional detors off the Android wagon -- for example, when I needed to quickly print, sign and re-scan some legal documents and hijacked my daughter's Dell Inspiron for a few minutes (it was like pulling teeth -- she's quite possessive of her toys). However, for the most part I accomplished everything I needed to from the comfort of my Ice Cream Sandwich-based tablet. And the secret of my success had as much to do with the accessories that I surrounded the tablet with as with the device itself.
For example, since I do a lot of writing (duh!), an external keyboard was a must. Thankfully, my Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard for Android 3.0+ was up to the task. With an excellent, island-style layout and decent key travel, the Logitech gives this seasoned touch-typist the tactile feedback he needs to achieve his accustomed high words-per-minute efficiency. A flick of the keyboard's power switch and I transition from haphazard haptic virtual to perfectly palatable physical in a matter of seconds.
The next weapon in my arsenal is a Logitech M510 wireless mouse. Note that this is not a Bluetooth device, but rather a traditional wireless mouse with a small, nearly flush USB-dongle. One of the advantages to having a tablet with a full-sized USB port is that I can attach a variety of standard PC peripherals directly to the device. In this case, it's the mouse dongle. However, it could just as easily have been an external hard disk or USB key. I can even hang a small USB hub off of the port should I need to use more than one device at the same time.
Again, the tablet-to-PC-replacement transition is nearly instantaneous. One second I'm cradling my tablet while finger-surfing the web. Then a quick prop of the device on its case/stand, coupled with popping in the mouse dongle and flipping the keyboard switch, and I have the equivalent of a fully-functional (from an input and navigation standpoint) desktop. I can type and scroll and generally leverage all of that hard won muscle memory from years of working with Windows. And while not every PC keyboard shortcut or mouse gesture is carried over -- this is, after all, Android we're talking about -- enough of the basic editing functions are present to make using something like QuickOffice HD (my Microsoft Office alternative of choice) quite pleasurable.
The last piece of my post-PC puzzle is a good Bluetooth headset. I tend to bounce between the Motorola S10 HD and Jawbone Icon, the former being used mostly for music and general audio functions and the latter for Skype calls. And since they're both Bluetooth, they allow me to obtain that holy grail of portable device configurations: A completely wireless computing environment.
Of course, the real test of my post-PC commitment will be when I finally return to the island and resume my normal life designing the software back-end for the new "wired" secondary school we're building. It will require that I spend a significant amount of time working in Visual Studio, and that means firing-up my seemingly dinosaur-like Lenovo ThinkPad w700ds workstation. However, based on my success "cutting the PC cord" over these past weeks, I can easily see myself using a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client to access the ThinkPad remotely from my tablet as I continue to enjoy the benefits of the post-PC lifestyle.
But no matter how things play out at home, I know for certain that I will never buy another traditional laptop PC. And given Intel's latest quarterly figures, I've got a feeling I'm not alone in my sentiments.
6. GoDaddy Outage: Anonymous Attack or Maintenance Goof?
Web hosting company and self-proclaimed world's largest domain registrar GoDaddy suffered a major outage on Monday, taking down what's believed to have been millions of websites. A hacker with the handle of AnonymousOwn3r claimed responsibility in a Twitter feed. The hacker is apparently not connected with Anonymous, one of whose Twitter feeds, YourAnonNews, urged readers to look to AnonymousOwn3r as the culprit. GoDaddy tweeted during the outage that it was aware of the "trouble" it was having and that it was working on the issue.
7. Canonical Releases Updated Enterprise Management Solution for Ubuntu Linux
Ubuntu Linux, which started with the tagline “Linux for human beings,” was originally an easy to use Linux distribution for desktop users. Canonical picked what they considered to be the best of breed applications from the many thousands available in the Debian Linux distribution, put on a healthy dose of polish, and released their own version. They then repeated this release process every six months. Six months is slightly too frequent a release schedule for many users — especially companies that might look to standardize on Ubuntu Linux — so Canonical declared that every fourth release would be a “Long Term Support” version, with three of support.
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