Search: smart home

There was a time, perhaps 20 years ago, when our computers didn't have a lot of supporting infrastructure. We knew they were powerful tools, and there was a sense that they would become instrumental in our lives. But lacking the Internet and modern video capabilities, we were left with the idea that as we prepared…

Internet of Things devices offer almost no security protections A Disrupt New York 2016 panel said the fact that so many devices collect information about us poses a serious privacy risk because data could be intercepted, and also creates enticing targets for criminals, hackers, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies around the world. “It's a field…

Warrant let FBI use suspect's finger to unlock iPhone Paytsar Bkhchadzhyan was arrested in late February, and only 45 minutes later FBI agents had a warrant in hand compelling her to place her finger on her iPhone's Touch ID sensor to unlock the device. Considering how quickly the warrant was obtained, the FBI probably assumed…

Let's get this out of the way right up front: The SolarTab is the best solution I've seen for using solar energy to charge your gear in the wild. The problem is, with the ubiquity of cheap, high-capacity external batteries, I'd pretty much written off solar chargers as obsolete. But more on that later. A…

Image credit: Reuters, Tesla The lower price is enabled by economies of scale. Reuters reports: Tesla says scale from the massive facility [nearing completion in Nevada] will cut the cost of its battery pack by 30 percent to enable the lower-priced vehicle. A boatload of people stood in line yesterday to pre-order, coughing up $1,000…

Image credit: Shutterstock. 1. If the iPhone is the favored smartphone of criminals and terrorists for security and privacy, then we should be using an Android phone instead for our banking and credit card purchases. • True • False 2. If Apple builds the “govtOS” that the FBI wants Apple to build, and defense attorneys…

Episode #163   It’s been a couple of years since I talked about universal remote control devices and apps. For me, an awesome universal remote control is the holy grail of home automation; having a single device that can mimic every function of all five individual remote controls for my home theatre system is priceless.…

There are many ho-hum and many good portable battery chargers for our iDevices. Most are just little boxes with a battery, LED lights and USB ports. However, the new Lynktec (5,300 or 8,000 mAh) charger has a multitude of thoughtful features, expansion options and usage profiles. It sets a new standard. This product has so…

________________________ Leadership isn't just financial success with products customers want and enjoy. Leadership is also an outwardly visible commitment, over a long period of time, to products that Apple believes in. It also means using Apple's technical expertise and trustworthiness to influence the industry in areas where Apple is now following the pack, losing its…

This week, Tim Bajarin, the President of Creative Strategies, Inc starts off the discussion with a very thoughtful essay. ” Autonomous Cars and Their Ethical Conundrum.” Mr. Bajarin starts off by noting: …we are years away from getting autonomous cars on the road and getting the right kind of government regulations passed to make this…

________________________ The sensational, on the surface, news is what Elon Musk said about Apple hiring away his important engineers. Forbes told the story. Important engineers? They have hired people we’ve fired. We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make at Tesla, you go work at Apple. However, all that is just…

Episode #141   The theme for Apple’s event in San Francisco last week was, “The only thing that has changed is everything.” It sounds like marketing hype, but by the end of the event most of the audience (including me) seemed to agree. You’ve surely heard about the announcements: a collection of Apple Watches from…

His expectations for the next generation iPhone models are in line with other analysts. Mr. Um said, “We expect the biggest internal hardware addition to be Force Touch alongside memory, CPU, and camera upgrades and capacity to remain unchanged at 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB.” He expects we'll also see a refresh for the iPad mini,…

______________________ Vidity is the product of the Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA). This organization was founded by both movie studios, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as well as storage companies SanDisk and Western Digital. It currently has over 50 member companies, most notably Intel, Qualcomm, Comcast, Samsung and Walmart. The goal of…

A question then arises. When Apple made this design and business decision, was it because Apple's executive team, led by Steve Jobs back then, believed in the importance of the customer experience or because Apple was trying to maximize revenue? After all, previous experience with the Macintosh showed that a closed system would probably suffer…

The original Internet address space, referred to as IPv4, provides for 232 (4.29 billion) addresses. You've probably seen examples of those addresses on your Mac and iPhone, for example, 192.168.1.1, where each of the numbers can be from 0-255. With the Internet of things, the proliferation of small Internet devices and the adoption of smartphones…