phone
Share Plans And Mobile Broadband Devices
Verizon and AT&T are both offering new share plans that allow all of the family devices to share unlimited calls, unlimited texting, and a pool of data that can be used by up to 10 devices – smartphones, tablets, and PCs. If you already have a number of devices with individual data plans, one of the share plans might save you some money, and it makes it tempting to get more broadband devices in the future. […] continued
Read moreSmartphone Reality Check
The most successful smartphone manufacturer in the world sold more than twice as many phones as its nearest competitor in the second quarter of 2012. In fact, it increased its lead last quarter, when the second-place manufacturer saw sales start to slip.
Quick! Without looking, who finished first?
It was Samsung, of course – by any measure, the world’s largest maker of smartphones. […] continued
Read moreLastPass 2.0 Premium And Form Fill
Previously:
LastPass 2.0: An Upgraded Version Of An Essential Program
LastPass 2.0 And Secure Notes
LASTPASS PREMIUM
Almost all of the important functions of LastPass are available for free, but you should consider paying $12/year for LastPass Premium. Although there are other Premium features, most of you will be paying that dollar a month for a LastPass app to run on your smartphone and iPad. […] continued
Read moreLastPass 2.0 And Secure Notes
Previously:
LastPass 2.0: An Updated Version Of An Essential Program
The upgrade to LastPass 2.0 includes a meaningful improvement in “Secure Notes” to help you use LastPass to store all of your private information, not just Internet passwords.
Secure Notes allow you to store any kind of information securely – a digital encrypted notepad. […] continued
Read moreAndroid Fragmentation (aka Where’s My Ice Cream Sandwich?)
“Ice Cream Sandwich” was Google’s internal name during development of the latest version of its Android operating system for phones and tablets. It’s now known more formally as Android 4.0.
You don’t have it yet. There’s an interesting story about that.
Let’s start with the competitors so you can see the contrast with Google’s fumbling efforts. […] continued
Read moreThe New York Times Explains Smartphones And E-Books
A few days ago the New York Times ran two articles that might be helpful to you if you feel like you’re adrift in the technology sea.
A Guide to Deciphering the Language of Smartphones covers the most important (and confusing) acronyms and concepts in the phone world. There are explanations in plain English of basic terms like “wi-fi” and “apps”, as well as some recent jargon introduced by the carriers – “tiered plan,” “CDMA vs. […] continued
Read moreiCloud, Outlook And Exchange
Previously:
Syncing Contacts And Appointments With Smartphones
Apple introduced the iCloud service last summer. It is a brilliant, intuitive way to move photos from iPhones to iPads and computers, and it’s the engine to transfer information about your music library so you can play music from an iTunes collection on your iPhone and iPad. […] continued
Read moreSyncing Contacts And Appointments With Smartphones
Syncing your data among your computers and mobile devices is going to be the source of much frustration and gnashing of teeth over the next couple of years. You’re going to want to set things up very carefully to avoid nasty side effects.
Your digital life is getting more complicated. iPhones and iPads and Android phones want to be helpful by syncing everything in all directions. […] continued
Read moreThe Latest Toys
New toys are coming on the market, just as promised. As you look at them, keep in mind that this is only the beginning. This is a transition year that will be filled with new products, each one looking better/cheaper/shinier than the one before it.
ULTRABOOKS
By summer the shelves will be full of 13” ultra-thin, ultra-lightweight notebook computers. […] continued
Read more3G, 4G, And Life In The Rural Slow Lane
Sonoma County is a rural county. We look at Santa Rosa and our chests swell at our bustling urban metropolis (population 167,000), but make no mistake: to cell phone carriers, we are small-fry. In 2012 that has a very precise and painful meaning for your mobile devices.
We are inundated with ads touting the wonders of 4G Internet connections. […] continued
Read moreWalled Gardens, Part 3: Microsoft
Previously:
Walled Gardens, Part 1: Apple
Walled Gardens, Part 2: Google
MICROSOFT
Set your clock ahead by eight months. It’s the holiday shopping season in late 2012.
Make two assumptions.
- Microsoft has delivered Windows 8. In its final form, the design is solid and well accepted. The app store is lively and the cloud components work as planned.
[…] continued
The New iPad And A Look At Apple’s Future
Whenever Apple releases a new product there is a tidal wave of news coverage. You already know there’s a new iPad on the way. I won’t go through the details, just comment on the big picture. If you want a rundown of the specific new features, try this.
The new iPad is a minor upgrade of last year’s iPad 2. […] continued
Read moreBe Careful With Confidential Data On Mobile Devices
As much as we all hate remembering passwords and thinking about security, it’s hard to ignore the constant headlines on the front page about hacking and security and privacy.
You’re getting better. You’re well trained to practice safe computing on your home and office computers. With the help of LastPass, many people have begun to use complex passwords for web services. […] continued
Read moreWindows 8 And The Metro UI
The Start screen on your Windows 8 computer will look something like the screen above.
If Microsoft is successful is finding a place in the market for mobile devices, this is what the Start screen will look like on your next tablet:
And the Start screen on your next phone will look something like this:
The look will be consistent. […] continued
Read moreWindows 8 And Post-PC Computing
The logo for Windows 8 that was unveiled over the weekend symbolizes a lot of things that will have a deep effect on you sooner than you think. In a couple of weeks Microsoft will unveil a “consumer preview” of Windows 8 and begin a drumbeat of publicity that will lead up to the launch of the new operating system at the end of the year. […] continued
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