bruceb news

Dropbox is high on the list of essential utilities. It has been in an extended testing period but a few days ago the official ultra-stable Version 1.0 was released.

I’ve written about Dropbox frequently. The basic concept is easy: Dropbox is a free program to sync files among each of your computers and mobile devices. Dropbox accomplishes that with style and elegance and – most important – simplicity. It works so reliably that many people opt for one of the paid subscriptions that offers generous amounts of space to store thousands of files online, making it a kind of de facto backup service. […] continued

Verizon has introduced a new service that anyone with an Android phone should set up right away. It significantly enhances the security of the phone and adds some important features to make the phone easier to use. Oh, and it’s likely to be free for most of you.

Doesn’t sound like the Verizon that we know and tolerate, does it? This appears to be a genuinely good thing. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Verizon Mobile Recovery is an app installed on the phone that allows you to do five things if the phone is lost or stolen, all by logging in at the Mobile Recovery web site:

• Remotely lock the phone.

[…] continued

Wireless networks are convenient and likely to be the way most of us get our network and Internet connections in the future.

Wireless networks are a huge pain and nearly incomprehensible.

Both of those things are true.

Wireless technology has come a long way since the first consumer routers with wireless access points appeared on the market almost ten years ago. It wasn’t that long ago that it seemed like everyone had one of the ubiquitous blue Linksys routers like the one above. Now we expect wireless connections everywhere – our homes, our offices, hotels, restaurants, swimming pools, national parks, wherever we pull out our notebook computers – and we’re far less likely to have any idea what color the access point is that provides the connection. […] continued

Previously:
Understanding Google Voice
Fully Committed to Google Voice – Part 1
Google Voice Interlude – Background About Voice And Data
Fully Committed to Google Voice – Part 2

Skype is best known for its program that runs on a computer to call other Skype users for free anywhere in the world, but Skype is able to do several other things now – things you’ll recognize from what I’ve been writing about Google Voice.

Skype is built on the same technology to carry your voice over an Internet data connection for as much of the journey as possible. A Skype call to another Skype user travels over the Internet the whole way. […] continued

Previously:
Understanding Google Voice
Fully Committed to Google Voice – Part 1
Google Voice Interlude – Background About Voice And Data

If you’ve been following along, you understand the tension between new services like Google Voice and Skype that move your voice from place to place, and the telcos and cell phone carriers that feel threatened by that technology. That’s why today’s story about mobile phones involves so many circuitous paths – paths which will twist and turn rapidly in the next year or two.

As you read, let me reiterate an important point to keep in mind. According to the promotional materials, using Google Voice is free for calls anywhere in the US and Canada, and very inexpensive for international calls. […] continued

Previously:
Understanding Google Voice
Fully Committed to Google Voice – Part 1

Now things get really interesting.

Well, they do to me, anyway. I’m odd.

This is at best wildly simplified, and at worst completely inaccurate, but pay attention anyway – you’ll need to know this to understand a lot of headlines in the next few years.

Look at the wall plate where the phone is plugged in your office. There are two cables, right? One for the phone, one for the computer. That’s important.

Until recently, when you talked on the phone, your voice would travel along copper wires and fiber cables that connected to equipment run by big telephone companies, on circuits that were walled off – there were completely separate paths for voice traffic and Internet data traffic. […] continued

Microsoft is finalizing a new version of Windows Live Sync, its free software for syncing files among different computers. The new version replaces the two overlapping programs available from Microsoft for the last few years, Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh, combining features from both of them.

This should be good news. Microsoft has declared that the entire resources of the company are being devoted to moving us to the cloud. The file syncing program could have been an important part of that transition to a new way of working with our files that is less tied to particular computers. […] continued

Previously:
Sync Files With Dropbox
Dropbox for iPad, Android

Almost everyone should take a look at Dropbox, the service that syncs folders and files among your computers and mobile devices. If you have more than one computer (home/office/notebook) and you haven’t started using it yet, then go read about it and get started! I’m going to highlight a security issue but that shouldn’t discourage you from using it for all the things it does so well – just keep an eye on all of your tools with security and privacy in mind.

Dropbox has released apps that allow iPhones, iPads and Android devices to connect to your Dropbox folders and display the files and folders you have stored there. […] continued

It’s rare now to find traditional POP3 email accounts, where messages are downloaded to a single computer and are only accessible at that computer. We move between different computers freely (home/work/laptop/netbook) and want our mail to be available on all of them. We are buying smartphones in staggering numbers and getting our email on the phone is a big part of the reason.

Seeing our mailbox from multiple computers and devices can be done clumsily with a POP3 account but it’s far easier with Gmail, Hotmail, or an Exchange mailbox. If you are using an email address is given out by your ISP (@sonic.net, @comcast.net, @attglobal.net), you might want to consider getting the flexibility that will come with a new email address. […] continued

While we’re talking about smartphones, I should mention another way that your phone can use its knowledge of your location to do something interesting.

Google added an unassuming link named “Near Me Now” on the Google search page on iPhones and Android phones. Click it and you’ll get a short list of categories – Restaurants, ATMS and banks, Shopping, Lodging, and more. Clicking on one will bring up a list of results based on where you are standing at that moment. I just pulled up a list of all the restaurants near my house in two clicks, with addresses, phone numbers, reviews, and links to display a map or street view (and get turn-by-turn directions if I started driving). […] continued