On The Road With A Powerocks Magicstick Extended Battery

Highly Recommended

Just back from a quickie business trip – my first with a Powerocks Magicstick 2800 universal extended battery for my phone. When I travel I’ve always been careful about phone use just in case I need to make an emergency call, check for an important email, text etc.  I never seem to be able to find an electrical outlet when I need one. The Magicstick eliminates these worries. 

I’ve been reading Leander Kahney latest book on Jonathan Ive, the head of Industrial Design at Apple. It’s really opened my eyes to intuitive design, simplicity and absence in clutter. The Magicstick has that Jony Ive / Apple feel. It comes in a bunch of different colors (mine is black) and includes a micro-USB-to-USB cable for charging up the Magicstick and a nice little bag to keep it in. 

It’s a small (sort of reminds me of a BIC cigarette lighter at 3.5” long, and 7/8” in diameter) 2800mAh portable battery that you pre-charge using an included micro-USB-to-USB cable. When it comes time to charging the Magicstick you just plug the charging cable in and charge it up. When you want to charge your phone or other portable device you just plug the cable that came with the phone or other device into the Magicstick standard USB port. On the opposite end of the Magicstick there is a smart push-button LED that shows charge status. Blue light = 70% - 100% full, Green light = 30% - 70% full, Red light = 1% - 30% full. 

I was able to get two charges on my old iPhone 3GS (from approx. 20% to 100% and yes I still have an old iPhone) with one fully charged up Magicstick. It will charge Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, etc, etc, etc devices - basically anything that will charge using a USB connection.  Simple.

A nice little stocking stuffer, grab bag, office swap gift, birthday present, etc - The Captain and I give it our highest rating of 5 out of 5 Gordoccinos.  

You can get more info on the Powerocks website. 

Online Tracking, Consumer Profiling, Data Collection and You

Well - it's the holidays when we're using the web along with those credit cards a lot more frequently. Ever wondered who's watching you online?  And who the heck you are giving your personal card info to when making online purchases? Ever also wondered if there was anything you could do to protect yourself a little more? Well, others have too.

Abine, a Massachusetts company spun out of MIT in 2008, has developed some pretty nice tools that allow web users more control over their personal data. These accessible tools allow you to choose when you want to share your information, control your personal data, and provide the ability to protect your online privacy. Before we get to the products - here's some interesting tidbits from an Abine fact sheet:

Online tracking, consumer profiling, and data collection are happening wherever consumers go on the web, usually without their knowledge or approval. Consumers are the product being sold. Social networks, ad networks, and e-commerce sites collect every last byte of personal information they can, combining consumers’ online activity with their offline lives. The consequences of all this data collection are growing and real: lost job opportunities, higher prices, more spam, lower credit scores, identity theft, and more. Let's look at some tracking info and stats:

A tracker is a connection that your browser makes when it loads a webpage that’s intended to record, profile, or share your online activity. Usually these connections are made to entirely different companies than the website you’re actually visiting. The most common types of trackers are:

• Javascript: 43% 

• Images, such as 1-pixels: 14% 

• iFrames: 14% 

• Flash cookies: 5% 

Abine collaborates with the UC Berkeley Center for Law and Technology on a recurring Web Privacy Census. The most recent Census found:

• The use of third-party tracking cookies on the 100 most popular websites increased by 11% from May to October 2012. 

If present trends continue, the amount of online tracking will double on about 2.5 years. 

• Google has a presence on 712 of the top 1,000 websites 

• 26.3% of what your browser does when you load a website is respond to requests for your personal information, leaving the remaining 73.7% for things you actually want your browser doing, like loading videos, articles, and photos.

• Google makes 20.28% of all tracking requests on the web 

• Facebook makes 18.84% of all tracking requests on the web 

5% of the top 1,000 websites use social networking code that can match users’ online identities with their web browsing activities, and nearly 25% of the web’s 70 most popular sites shared personal data, like name and email address, with third-party companies (Wall Street Journal, 12/2012).

So... how do you protect yourself?
Abine has just rolled out DoNotTrackMe 3.0, a browser extension that stops online trackers from finding your contact and credit card info.  Here's a DoNotTrackMe sample screen shot.

In addition, the company is giving out unlimited Masked Cards through December 26. The Masked Cards work with any credit or debit cards you have, allowing you to create disposable credit card numbers for each online purchase you make, preventing having to give out your real card info. 

The company also makes a product called MaskMe which keeps you private as you browse and shop the web, and creates and manages secure passwords and DeleteMe which removes your public profile, contact and personal info, and photos of you from leading data sites. 

Cool stuff. Check them all out.

What is Bitcoin and how does it work?

You may have heard last week that a single Bitcoin unit reached a value of $1000. Lots of people have been asking lately about them. So.... what are they and how do they work? Here's some details snagged from www.bitcoins.com, a site that was put together and went up last week from Mt. Gox.

What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency you can use for personal transactions or business at high speed and low cost. 

How are Bitcoins created?
Instead of being made on a printing press or by a central authority, Bitcoins are created through software available to anyone. Individuals and groups willing to dedicate computer processing power to support the Bitcoin network are rewarded with Bitcoins for their work. This process is known as mining. Most Bitcoin users do not mine, but purchase or trade for their Bitcoins. Mining doesn't affect the average Bitcoin user much, but is still a very important part of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

How are Bitcoins secured?All newly mined Bitcoins, along with every transaction, are publicly recorded. This record is known as the blockchain. While the blockchain records transaction details, it does not record any personal identifying information about the senders or recipients. The blockchain is a critical feature to maintain the transparency of the Bitcoin system, and make counterfeiting or double spending impossible.   

How do you use Bitcoins?Let's look at a step-by-step example. Say you want to give some Bitcoins to a friend to pay for gas on a roadtrip. You’ve both got the bitcoin app on your mobile devices and have internet connectivity. 

1. Find out your friends wallet address by typing, pasting, or scanning it. You can then save the address to use later if you want. 
2. Convert your desired currency amount into Bitcoin.Verify the desired payment amount and send.  
3. The amount in Bitcoin is now deducted from your balance, and entered into the blockchain as a transaction so they cannot be spent twice.  
4. Your friend immediately sees the unverified transaction. 
5. The transaction is verified on the network, and then deposited into your friends wallet.

Be sure to check out the www.bitcoins.com along with the Mt Gox site for more details.

Google "Glass Explorer"

"Humanity pending confirmation; to date, no real persons have ever been known to wear and/or enjoy Google Glass." 

- from a post at Seattlish.

Well..... sort of...... key phrase here is to date. If you follow tech at all you've heard about the self proclaimed  "Glass Explorer" who got kicked out of the Seattle Lost Lake Cafe for refusing to either remove or turn off his Google Glass headset or leave the restaurant. Well, the "Explorer" ended up leaving and then posting a Facebook note complaint requesting 

“an explanation, apology, clarification, and if the staff member was in the wrong and lost the owner money last night and also future income as well, that this income be deducted from her pay or her termination.”

As much as I enjoy new technology - I really don't see the need in a public restaurant to keep your Glass going. Can I see a use for a Glass type product - of course - lots. Would love to have a pair on while fishing for example. But sitting in a restaurant wearing one..... nah. Don't even want to think about someone walking into a public restroom with one on. 

We all carry phones with cameras now. If you want to take a picture or video of your food in a restaurant use your phone.

Looking forward to my next Seattle visit and dining at the Glass free Lost Lake.

Checking Available Disk Space on a Mac

I get asked this question lots - here's how to check your available space step-by-step when running Apple Operating System  OSX 10.7 or greater.

Step 1
Click the Apple icon in the upper left hand corner of your screen and this drop-down menu will appear.

Step 2
Click About This Mac from the drop-down menu. The following dialog box will appear.

If you are not sure which OS version you are running you can see it here. Notice I'm currently running OS X Version 10.8.4

Step 3
Click the More Info... button and the following will appear (note: I've covered up my serial number).

Step 4
Click the Storage (top of dialog box between Displays and Memory) option for the following.

There you have it broken down nicely into Audio, Movies, Photos, Apps and Other categories.

So..... this is a little embarrassing..... I've only got a little over 1.7 GB free..... looks like I need to do a little drive housekeeping or I'm going to be out of space soon :)

Talking and Surfing Same Time Yet? The Verizon iPhone 5s and 5c

Most of us have taken a peak at the exterior and reviewed major specs for Apple’s two latest phones. If you are a Verizon Wireless customer there is one technical detail you may have missed. The new Apple phones are still not supporting SVLTE and SVDO. What’s SVLTE and SVDO? Here’s some details on these two protocols / technical standards:

Simultaneous Voice and LTE (Long Term Evolution)

Referred to as SVLTE, allows a mobile phone to use both voice and data networks at the same time – specifically when the voice network is CDMA 1xRTT (what Verizon uses) and the data network is LTE (what providers are calling 4G. By not using SVLTE, Verizon’s 4G data network is not available while on a voice call.

Simultaneous Voice and Data Only

Referred to as SVDO, this is the older standard for 3G networks. If you have an iPhone 4 or older, you have a 3G phone. Later iPhone (5 and on) have both a 4G and 3G radio and the device will fall back to 3G-mode when not in 4G coverage areas.  Similar to SVLTE, when the voice network is CDMA 1xRTT and the data network is CDMA 3G (also referred to as CDMA 1xEV-DO) the data network is not available while on a voice call.

Is this significant? Yes and No. The lack of SVLTE should not matter once VoLTE (Voice over LTE) launches on a large scale, allowing both voice and data to operate seamlessly on one Verizon Wireless 4G network.

What’s really interesting is Verizon Wireless has required their handset manufacturers to support both of these technical standards – that is - all manufactures except Apple.

DOJ Rejects Transparency Request by Microsoft, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the primary federal criminal investigation and enforcement agency in the U.S., rejected a request made by Microsoft, Google, Facebook and LinkedIn to be allowed to share more details on what data the companies are providing to the U.S. government. The rejection was made in the name of national security and filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court (FISCA).

The DOJ's petition to FISCA claims:

The companies’ contemplated disclosures risk significant harm to national security by revealing the nature and scope of the government’s intelligence collection on a company-by-company basis throughout the country. 

Such information would be invaluable to our adversaries, who could thereby derive a clear picture of where the government’s surveillance efforts are directed and how its surveillance activities change over time. If our adversaries know which platforms the government does not surveil, they can communicate over those platforms when, for example, planning a terrorist attack or the theft of state secrets.

FISCA now needs to rule on this.

There is more - other tech people (Twitter, Apple, Tumblr, Yahoo, etc) are getting involved with 72 companies and non-profit organizations signing a letter on September 20, 2013 to the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committee chairs supporting two surveillance bills (S. 1452 and H.R. 3035) currently moving though the Senate and the House of Representatives. Here's the full titles of those bills:

S.1452 - To permit periodic public reporting by electronic communications providers and remote computer service providers of certain estimates pertaining to requests or demands by Federal agencies under the provisions of certain surveillance laws where disclosure of such estimates is, or may be, otherwise prohibited by law. 

H.R. 3035 - To permit periodic public reporting by electronic communications providers and remote computer service providers of certain estimates pertaining to requests or demands by Federal agencies under the provisions of certain surveillance laws where disclosure of such estimates is, or may be, otherwise prohibited by law.