Apple strongly believe in a post-PC era where the consumer will only live in world filled with ‘Apps’ – each application dedicated to act on it’s own and provide all features possibly needed in one contained application. Contrast this to the way consumers (that I’ve noticed) mostly work on PC’s (Macs included) where there are ‘programs’ which users switch between constantly and in some cases use two or three simultaneously – I’m talking Facebook and University assignments, bank spreadsheets and personal accounting software and so on.

Google has taken a similar approach to the phone and tablet market as Apple with their Android OS where it simply runs ‘Apps’.

I’ll be using Apple’s iOS devices to contrast and compare against Microsoft’s Windows 8.

Why a world with ‘Apps’ is good…
Apps allow for one-click install – not reliant on any registry configurations or forcing the user to choose which folder to install or giving administrative privileges to proceed – it just makes the whole clutter easier to deal with.

Go into an App Store/ Market Place, chose what you want, Install. Done.

Viruses/Spyware are all but forgotten in this world, unless of course you jailbreak.

Apps are very contained within themselves, they work very independently and focus on indulging the user within the App. This is great for user-experiences of a particular App (games included). Take Garageband on the iPad for an example. The user is in an environment completely devoted to the instrument they are playing, a few touches and now they’re in an environment where they’re only trimming, re-arranging or removing certain recorded sequences – there are no additional programs running in the background to aid this app, there’s no annoying system update pop-ups going on, it’s just you working with the App – which takes up the entire screen, to provide a dedicated, devoted experience.

However, all that might not always be the best way to go about things…

‘Apps’, the bad…
Contrast the above scenario to working in an app such as ‘Pages’ or even the ‘Mail’ app – yes, indeed when you’re in the app and using it for its primary purpose, the experience is untouched however – when you get down to using them to be productive – things can get messy. Want to work on a document and save it on Dropbox? Unless the app specifically uses Dropbox’s APIs and integrates it within, no can do. Want to merge files from two different Apps (pages, numbers) into a folder specific to a project so everything is put together, very complicated and troublesome to perform – although if the App works with many different file formats, such as Quickoffice – it may be simpler with 3rd party storage services.

Being last to the party definitely has it’s benefits – Microsoft, with Windows 8 – which might just seem like a few UI tweaks and an overlay for touch devices – has potentially bridged the gap between the ‘App’ world and ‘PC’ world.

Their new Metro UI (user-interface) brings dynamic content to the forefront of the device, allowing the user to look at current statuses of their “Apps” without having to open them – Emails, Twitter, Weather, News to name a few. Open an App – you’re into the dedicated, dynamic, individualized experience of what I defined above as an ‘App’ – with a twinkle of a cross-application talking system. Every app, using an API, gets access to the Windows file structure that all windows users are well accustomed to, allowing features like importing photos, saving documents into a dedicated folder-management system and so forth become very manageable.

Where Windows 8 really excels now is having the ability to simply hit on an icon which reads ‘Desktop’ and immediately gets you diverted to the good ol accustomed Windows Desktop – allowing users to use their legacy Windows programs on their new system – be it a full version of Photoshop or your favorite internet browser and for the business user – use those SAPs, Oracal, SQL Management Studios. Hit the Windows key and you’re back to that nifty little Metro UI.

At the end of the day, it’s still the core essence of Windows running in the background meaning you’re still exposed to security threats and many unnecessary system services which continually run in the background – 10hr battery life, not happening on the next portable tablet running Windows 8.

All in all…
The brilliance of Windows 8 lies in giving the end user the ease of using a device in the ‘App-mosphere’ and the legacy working ethics of desktop computing. Users can simply take their tablet computer on the move, get to their workstations (office or at home), plug into a keyboard, mouse and bigger screen and you have you’re fully fledged desktop.

Will this be Apple’s doom?
Not likely, however it will reduce the people who chose to transit between the two different ways of working and potentially even bring back some who have transferred. Apple has gained a very very large market share by the way the iPad has been thought of, albeit just a bigger iPod Touch – it has allowed for many to actually get onto portable computing without many frustrations – well, that’s until they realized what’s missing – hopefully that something is one which Windows 8 can fill in and satisfy the masses – more importantly, save a consumer market for the Windows way of computing.

Note: All statements made above are all but my own personal opinions from my experiences of using the technologies mentioned. Windows 8 is far from its release to the market hence many changes to the system are expected – potentially affecting the statements made at the time of writing this article.

Update: It’s out ! Check out https://www.facebook.com/videocalling

Facebook, a few months ago updated their messaging system to make it a global portal for messages. Message people through your mobile phone, Facebook’s own chatting system, email them – all get stored in one simple place – however that might not be where Facebook wants to stop…

People are increasingly finding video chatting a much better way to communicate now than earlier – better broadband capabilities and technologies most probably the catalyst.
Facebook, with its enamours user base would suffer significantly if it weren’t to jump on this wagon.

Facetime, Skype, Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger are software we need to download and use on our devices – portable or PC – before we can use video chatting features, or so we think.With HTML5 and Adobe’s Flash technology improving we’re slowly migrating to everything being browser-capable, i.e. having no need to install anything to use complicated applications. Google recently launched its new social network, Google Plus (as a closed beta) which incorporates a feature they’re promoting – ‘Hangout’. An in-browser group video chat feature.

With Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for a whopping $8.5 billion – it makes perfect sense to use the technology, servers and framework of the existing Skype to incorporate it into an in-browser, albeit less-featured version, of Skype into Facebook (of which Microsoft has a big stake in). And with Google already on it – it possibly could sever very little in Facebook’s favour if they weren’t to join them.

Facebook have announced an event on July 6 - speculation has it that it most likely is in relation to incorporate in-browser features, however that native iPad app is still missing…

IMAP provides for two-way communications between your device and the Google serves – in other words, you delete an email from your device it gets deleted of the servers. The IMAP protocol is restricted to emails only.

ActiveSync provides similar functionality however it enables something known as ‘PUSH’ Synchronization. This means that when you get an email, instead of having to open the Maill app on your device,  it is pushed to your device and you are alerted for it. This not only works for emails but contacts and calendar events as well.

Google Active Sync setup instructions for your iOS device

Google Active Sync for iOS recently got updated…

Google has recently enable server search functionalities for ActiveSync on iOS devices. Meaning you can now search for emails on the server and not be restricted to the emails only synced to your device.

Google has also gone the extra mile in providing support for event RSVPs – i.e. if you receive a calender event, now you will receive push a push notification for the event as well as an opportunity to accept or decline or even edit the event right on your device.

Google has also addressed that gmail users and Google App users sometimes manage multiple email address from a single account hence have enabled the functionality to ‘Send Mail As’.

To edit any of these features visit m.google.com/sync on your iOS device.

Prevention better than cure

Once a portable device is stolen, tracking it down is hard enough but proving the device is yours gets even harder. Most people can easily get away within a few hours by formatting your hard drive and reinstalling the Operating System (OS) on it – removing most traces of proving the laptop is actually yours. It’s as easy as searching for ‘Recovery’ in Windows Vista/7′s start menu. Even with password protected administrative accounts in place, they can easily be bypassed these days.

Having a system in place to help track your stolen device could prove so much more valuable compared to hastily giving up hope after it gets stolen – this is where ‘Prey’ comes in…

Some of the content content quoted from Prey’s website itself.

What is Prey? 

Prey is very similar to Apple’s FIND MY iPhone feature, where it triangulates the device’s Geo-Location and provides certain commands you can send to the device (beeping, remote wipe etc.) Prey however, offers a bit more than that as well and its all for free!

Prey lets you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen. It’s lightweight, open source software, and free for anyone to use. And it just works.

Prey is software that runs in the background of your Windows, Mac and Android device – importantly without big traces of it running. The software runs quietly and doesn’t do much until called upon from the web – and then boy does it do wonders.

After installing its very light agent on your device, Prey simply sits there to await a command from the web that device is missing. When it does, it gathers information of your laptop – its Geo-Location, picture of the current user from the device’s camera, IP address, hardware and network status, screenshot of current program being used and then generates a report.

I have been using Prey for a few weeks now and hardly have much to complain about – although I haven’t my device stolen yet (thankfully) it does give me some piece of mind that I stand a better chance of getting it back.

Prey is also smart enough to look for WiFi networks and join open ones to pass through reports if the thief doesn’t have an internet connection.

Prey provides for many user actions to be remotely processed  - Alarms, Locking your device, Alert Messages to device, Secure mode – deletes all emails, cookies and cache (prevents thief from deriving your password.

Pros: Peace of mind, Reports are very clear and precise, many vital actions/commands can be sent remotely,

Cons: Just being really picky here but – Reports can only be sent from your computer an internet connection is present, If your webcam has an LED light next to it that shows it active, the thief can quickly react to that, if someone finds/figures your Prey user account password – its stalking heaven.

Tips on using Prey

A few things I’ve picked on while using Prey lately,

Hibernate rather than shutdown while your mobile with your device. This allows all your network adapters to turn on and run in the background (as soon as the device has restarted from hibernation) while your laptop is on the ‘Lock’ screen, and hence Prey as well – allowing reports to be sent through if required. Comparing that to a full shut-down, most programs are run/executed only after the user actually logs into their user account – preventing Prey from working as you’d expect it to.

A video from PreyProject explaining it, possibly in more detail

To see a list of features detailed and download visit Preyproject.com

The browser has well set in amongst its rivals since its release in late 2008 – with many changing their default browsers to Chrome, possibly even you?

It’s fast… we know however, Google Chrome has one tiny little leak in it for the avid password-saving user…

Many save their passwords when the notification  ‘save password for this site’ comes up in their browser – making it just that little quicker to log in to websites – nothing to wrong with that if your the main user of your computer. All browsers store the saved password in an encrypted file somewhere on your computer and can never been seen by anyone – unless of course your using Chrome…

I found this myself the other day while trying to find a way to use a ‘Master Password’ which will only AutoFill my login details on websites after I enter a password – something which can be done on Firefox.

Chrome stores your passwords for you, but it also displays your password!
One of the biggest bends in modern web security in my opinion. A password must never be shown/stored anywhere – besides if encrypted.

The point of this? I’m not too sure – but it makes it very easy for anyone using your computer even for a minute to retrieve a password of yours – which can be devastating.
Most of us, no matter how many countless times we’re told to have different passwords for everything online – we tend to still keep it the same/similar across many sites.

Lets say someone has the same password for many of their online activites. They may save their email password with Chrome without even the slightest thought of it affecting anything else. Now here’s the risk – someone quick with their fingers can simply browse to Chrome’s options menu (while they went for 2 seconds just left to go get your coffee), retrieve their email password within a few seconds (shown below) and save it to use for something later, say trying to login to your bank account. You’ve literally just fed someone much of your cash in your bank account in a few seconds.

Now, I’m not saying don’t use Chrome – however use it as a secondary browser only to browse the web, literally. For all email, social networking and portals which require frequent login – Firefox handles it much better, and as mentioned it has the ability to install a plugin which has a ‘master password’ as well.

The screenshots below are taken from the latest version of Google Chrome.

Facebook Places

UPDATE: 10 March 2011 –  Facebook places has launched in NZ.

Facebook places has
been a great success in the US, UK, Japan and Australian markets..
However we here in New Zealand haven’t yet seen it in action. Many
have asked about the roll-out schedule of Facebook Places – however
no answers from Facebook. Reading around a bit about Places I’ve
summarised and explain when to expect it For those who don’t know -

Facebook Places

The delays behind the roll out of Places would be put down to
Facebook affiliating with local directory companies and bringing
firms on board. Facebook needs a set base of Firms on board before
they can roll out Places to allow it’s users to have places to
‘Check-in’ and use its full benefits by providing discounts,
specials etc. when checking in with a group of friends. The
technology is well working fine overseas – Facebook New Zealand
simply need to flick on a switch to enable it. Late December they
did have a day of testing, which – as I would guess – wasn’t
done with all precautions as many users over here saw the Places
icon in the News Feed on the native iPhone App – including moi -
however it wasn’t functional – but good news would be that they
are working on it. Reasons why USA,
UK, Austrailia, Europe got it before us? Well simple – mobile data
usage in New Zealand is only taking its first steps here – Vodafone
bringing on the unmetered Facebook on SupaPrepay data plans could
be due to an affiliation with Facebook itself – promoting mobile
usage. In comparison, other countries have been using mobile
internet – namely due to cheaper data rates abroad – for a few
years, forcing Facebook to prioritise them first. New Zealand is a
quite significantly smaller market, a much smaller revenue stream
for Facebook – making us not all that important… Facebook had
initially intended to have a global launch by the end of 2010 – but
hasn’t yet come out in majority of countries. When can we expect
it? 2nd or 3rd Quater 2011 – Facebook shouldn’t / wouldn’t want to
wait it out too long as Foursquare is being use a good
substitute in countries where people know about Facebook Places however
they aren’t able to use it – hence Facebook could face loosing
quite a significant market if they keep them waiting and loose the hype it brought.

Switching windows can cause us to lose focus looking for iTunes on the task we’re doing – projects, assignments – bogging.. and well force us to

Apple added a new processor, a better screen handling upto 1024 x 720 resolution at 9.7″, an orientation lock switch, portrait and landscape modes an option to include 3G services and called the iPod and iPad.

Now simply putting 2 and 2 together, Apple will repeat the same process for the 2011 iPod – i.e. building on the 2010 iPod Touch 4th Generation  (iPt4g). Many have rumoured USB ports, disc drives, physical keyboard and so on – but here we’re dealing with Apple – a comapany that strives to provide the best product, by limiting its features – hence, well… playing ‘hard to get’.

So what do we/can we expect from it.. using common sense..

Using that as a base of our thinking – the 2011 iPad can be guaranteed to support:

• High resolution however not exactly ‘Retina Display’ – which Apple defines as doubling the resolution – something not cheaply done on a 9.7″ screen. But a resolution on par with the iPt4g or higher.
• Dual Cameras – expect exactly the same front VGA camera as the iPt4g but possibly an improved rear camera – recording in 720P High Definition.
• Thinner – the iPt4g is well thin – following on from the iPhone 4 – we can surely expect a thinner, more iPhone 4-like look for the iPad
• With the new design, Apple figured a way to extend the batter in both iPhone4 and the iPt4g – something we could see happen in the iPad as well – however it does currently have a 10 hour operating life.
• Increase RAM – iOS 4 (iOS 4.2.1) brought multitasking to iOS devices – Apps don’t run in the background however their ‘state’ is  saved in the device’s RAM – something Apple would increase to improve the ‘smooth’ performance iOS devices boast.
• Three axis-Gyro – an improved mechanism providing a more precise orientation measurement. About:Gyroscopes
• Following the trend which the iPad brought in 2010 – a new, improved Apple chip processor – dual core? most likely not
• iMovie for iPad – with the addition of cameras and more ram – the resource hungry iMovie app will definitely find its way into the next iPad – editing movies on a 9.7″ screen could most likely be that talk for the 2011 iPad
• Surprise hardware feature 1 – hints around the web at a bigger speaker
• Surprise hardware feature 2 – im starting to think Apple may just include telecommunications with the 3G capable iPads
• iOS 5 specific supporting feature

All in all – I believe its going to be a replica of the iPod Touch 4th Gen in terms of looks, upgraded ‘brain’ power and a few surprises – rumours are all around – avoid them.

Antennagate issues? Mind over matter? Apple will compensate the design to make human interferences less reactive for those people who nag on the smallest change in reception – however IMO there never was an issue, just something people couldn’t handle as it was an Apple product and hence blown out of proportion.

I didn’t get the iPad last year as Apple held back significantly – depending on the iOS5 potential – I most likely will be getting it

Whilst watching any video, paused or whilst running just hit the up and left arrow keys and vola ! a translucent game snake appears with its eggs (or watever they’re called) flashing in different parts of the video.

WARNING – there is no humane way of watching AND playing the video at the same time – so if your weary of your bandwidth i say watching the video comes first. :p

Ever received an email or been on a website where you received/had to edit a word document or excel spreadsheet but found that your iOS device could only have a ‘quick view’ without any editing tools attached? Frustrating, wasn’t it? And to add to that frustration you couldn’t save a local copy of it unless you went round different apps copy/pasting URLs and whatnot.

When iBooks launched, (after an update) it included the option whilst viewing a PDF to ‘Open in iBooks’ and would simply switch applications upon click and there was your PDF with options to bookmark, search and access while offline. I loved it! It has worked wonders for quick referencing.

QuickOffice updated their app just recently to include these features. Be it in the Safari browser, your Dropbox app or your Inbox – if there’s any form of document, spreadsheet, presentation or PDF, you get the option to ‘open in QuickOffice’ (image) and simply, the file is ported to QuickoOffice where you can save, edit – offline.

For people on the go, this update and many more for apps to come (rumor has it that Apples launching keynote for iPhone with update 4.1) it’ll make your iOS device all that more useful!