Google Authenticator Bug

February 1, 2013 | 1 comment

I am a big fan of Google’s Autheticator app which adds 2-factor authentication to a number of popular apps including Dropbox, WordPress, LastPass and, of course, Google accounts.

Since my mother-in-law’s GMail account was compromised and she wasn’t able to recover it I have considered the use of 2-factor authentication as mandatory rather than a nicety.

What this means in practice is that in order to access your account you need something that you know (the password) and something that you have (your phone). This should considerably increase your online security as if anyone does get your password they still … Read the rest

Moves for iPhone

January 27, 2013 | Comment

Recently I have been getting more interested in my personal health as I try and shed some pounds – so much so that I have even built the website The Chubby Challenge to help me and others do so.

Been a gadget lover this has inevitably led me to look at some technology to help with fitness, weight loss and well-being. Currently there are two players in this market: Nike and Fitbit. Both produce hardware that will record your activity during the day (and night with Fitbit) allowing you to see how active you have been. They both do this … Read the rest

Do Not Disturb (Ever)

January 3, 2013 | Comment

So here’s a fun way to start the new year, with a bug courtesy of those kind people at Apple.

In iOS 6 they added this great new feature called Do Not Disturb (DND) which allows you to either manually or automatically silence your phone but still allow incoming calls from certain groups of people, those marked as your favourites for example.

It works really well, or at least it did until the turn of the year. Since yesterday Do Not Disturb is staying permanently on. You can see that on the picture left with DND supposed to go off … Read the rest

Time to re-evaluate Flickr

December 18, 2012 | Comment

The blogsphere is all abuzz with Instagram’s proposed change of terms of service from the middle of next month which some have already dubbed “Instagram’s suicide note”. Basically the changes give Instagram (or parent Facebook) to sell your pictures of which you get no portion of that sale or any choice in the matter.

You can read a good summary of the situation over at c|net but I am already considering whether I want someone else to have such control over work that I produce and I am thinking that I don’t. I still have a Flickr account that I … Read the rest

Forcing the Upgrade to iOS6

October 21, 2012 | Comment

I have Bento, the Apple produced database app, on both my iMac and my iPad and it is pretty good for what I need – it’s no SQL Server but then it’s not intended for such heavy duty querying. I decided that it would be useful if to also have Bento on my iPhone so that I could update date a database that I often need access to and when I tried to purchase it the message to the left is what I saw.

I haven’t upgrade to iOS 6 yet for a couple of reasons: my iPad is jailbroken… Read the rest

Apple’s iPhone 5

September 24, 2012 | Comment

So I have just tried out an iPhone 5 and I can confirm that it is indeed taller, thinner and lighter. There is also new design detailing. Its new anodised back made it feel plasticky to hold partly, I think, because I was expecting to feel that cold, smooth feeling you normally get with metal. Something else that I wasn’t expecting was just how light it felt compared to the iPhone 4S, so much so that it felt insubstantial, almost toy like.

One real surprise was just how readily available it was. Every carrier and the Apple store itself all … Read the rest

How to shoot yourself in the foot

September 20, 2012 | Comment

There has been a lot of publicity in the tech press recently about changes to the terms and conditions around Twitter’s api. The changes have been made to try and strongly encourage developers of Twitter client apps to, well, basically not continue as Twitter would like to see that area as their sole domain.

Echofon, my go-to Twitter app until this morning, has clearly taken this change to heart and hit the self-destruct button early. Since releasing a new iOS version, which was supposed to bring compatibility is the latest version but seems to have had a devastating effect, many … Read the rest

But what if I don’t want to upgrade?

September 19, 2012 | Comment

So at 6pm this evening iOS 6 went live and no doubt plenty of people raced to upgrade. Not me though as I had already decided that there wasn’t anything in it for me. Flyover view in the new Maps app would be fine if I have a helicopter but I am at ground level and find street view useful so Google Maps is a must. Also I have Siri switched off so there is no need to upgrade for that. So all in all there’s not much there for me.

I went to update my apps this evening and … Read the rest

£25? That’s Taking the Piss

September 13, 2012 | Comment

So yesterday was the big iPhone 5 launch day, somewhat of an anti-climax due to the fact that just about every aspect of the device and it’s accompanying accessories had been leaked in advance. What hadn’t been announced, however, were the prices.

As part of the “updates” to the iPhone Apple introduced a new connector to replace the existing 30-pin version that has been around nine years. While the rest of the industry has standardised on the microUSB connector Apple has introduced a new proprietary standard. Recognising that there are millions of existing cables and accessories that have the existing … Read the rest

A Holiday with Only an iPad

July 25, 2012 | Comment

I’ve just returned from a five day break in Spain. On past holidays I have taken a whole array of kit with me including various laptops. This time I left it all behind bringing only my iPad with me. To supplement this I also brought along my keyboard case, camera connector kit and chargers.

While this was supposed to be a holiday there was a possibility that I might be needed for any support issues that might arise at work. I was fairly certain that the iPad would be able to cope but I couldn’t be certain until I put … Read the rest