One a Day

I've been radioing my head all day to figure out what to write about today. Mostly cause I haven't seen any tech news that has jumped out at me that I feel like commenting on. But after using a app twice in a day I thought maybe that is what I should write about. So today I'm going to tell you all about one a day. 

I'm pretty sure I haven't talked about it before on this blog but if I have well I'm going to again cause it's an app I really love and I don't know if I could live with out it. For those of you who do not know, one a day is a journal app. In the past I have kept booth digital and physical journals. But I always ran into the problem of either losing them or just not having it around when I need it. My first digital journal was a floppy disk and I used Microsoft Works to write my entry's and saved them with a password and then locked the floppy so it couldn't be read if it was inserted accidentally. 

But the problem with that was it wasn't that covenant and probably not all that secure. About 2 years ago I herd about one a day. I'm not sure how I herd about it, it was either iPad Today or from appadvice.com. But either way it was an app I fell in love with cause it was simple and straight to the point. When you open the app it will ask you if you want to use iCloud or Dropbox to sync your entries. This so you can either write an entry from either your iOS devices or a Mac. I for one use it on all my devices I normally use it on my iPad or Mac when I want to write a long entry that could go on forever. I use my phone however when I'm out and about and I need to write a short entry either cause something or someone has pissed me off and I just need to write down quick how I'm feeling and what is going on in my head. Instead of say writing a tweet or a passive aggressive Facebook post.

 I also like that one a day lets you add photos and embed YouTube videos when making entry's. They also give you good way of keeping track of your entry's by being able to tag your entry's and even geo tag them. They can even kind of give you a snap shot of when you were writing the entry but showing what music might be playing and what the weather is at the time you wrote the entry. They also give a lot of ways for you to look at past entry's with a calendar so you can a photo entry mode so you can see only entry's that have photos attached to them or you can look at entries you favorited.

One a day is really a app I don't think I could live with out and is certainly an app worth it's price of $4.99. You can get it from the apple App Store here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/day-one-journal-diary/id421706526?mt=8.   

AT&T Sponsored Data Plans

A couple of days ago AT&T announced Sponsored Data plans. The idea being web sites and web services would be able to make a deal with AT&T so when a user goes to their site or use their service it will not be used against the users data usage. For example if Youtube makes a deal with AT&T then when you watch Youtube videos on your phone it wont count against your data cap.

When you first hear about this you might think this is a good idea but really this is a vary bad thing. This is a neutrality issue. Which I'll just blanket over and just say that the idea is packet on the internet should be a packet and no packet should be treated special. 

So based off that this seems bad. Even the FCC thinks something isn't right here and is putting this sponsored data plan on noticed. Whether or not something comes of this is just up in the air. I just hope that Verizon and Sprint don't pick this up. I just don’t want to live in a world where I cant use Facebook cause I have Verizon and they have a exclusive deal with AT&T. That isn't how it will work for now but if this type of data plan is allowed to exist then a day my come when you have to pick a carrier by what deals they have with the cloud services that you use.

T-Mobile Uncarrier 4.0

At the time I'm writing this T-Mobile has just announced that they will pay up to $350 of your fees for leaving a contract from any of the major US carriers. Starting tomorrow according to a press release once you canceled your plan and have your final bill you can mail it or upload it to T-Mobile. Once you have done that you can trade in your current phone and they will apply that tords a credit to get a new phone. 

For me I was kind of hoping that you could keep your current phone and just move to there network. I just want to get off Verizon pay a little less for my phone bill and keep my 4S. So for me it looks like I'll have to wait till my contract is up with Verizon. Most likely ill probably just go back to Cricket when the time comes and get a 5S threw them. But if you live in an area that T-mobile works well in and you are unhappy with your current network this seems like a good deal. 

A link to T-Mobiles deal: http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/switch-carriers-no-early-termination-fee.html 

Top 3 CES Picks

Today since CES is going on, I would like to pick out some things that I've seen via other blogs that seem interesting and cool.

1. Self driving cars:

CES this year has been a bit of a car show from the looks of it, all the car manufacturers showing off all the new things their cars can do and will be able to do soon. Audi brought with them their self driving car. Though from the article from the verge its self driving functions are a little limited. The A7 from Audi can only drive from were you parked it to pick you up using a smart phone app. But the idea is still cool and that we are so close to seeing real self driving cars. Though don't get too excited for this car its not coming anytime soon.

I for one want self driving cars to be a thing. Not that Im a bad driver but more so because I don’t trust other drivers on the road. Plus I just hate driving, I normally take the bus any place I want to go mostly because I feel I can be productive with my travel time. I can read a book or the news, finish up a paper for school. So the idea of not having to pay attention to the road is a big plus for me.

2. Edison:

The other day Intel announced a vary small computer its about the size of a SD card, and they call it Edison. This little computer has a dual core CPU, Bluetooth, and WIFI chips on it. Edison even runs a custom Linix OS with its own app store. I just think this is so cool There is so much that could be done with this computer. I it will probably help our electronics to become even smaller and thinner, computerize things we never thought needed a computer chip in them. I hope Edison is utilize.

3. Sonys Cloud:

Today Sony announced Playstation Now and a TV service. What is special about booth of these services is that they  are cloud services. Playstation now is a cloud service that will stream PS3 games to a PS4, PS3, Vita, and bunch of other Sony products. I believe they will even add current generation games to this service as well, for a fee. The TV service seems to be like having a DVR in the cloud with universal search. 

Now the reason why I think this stuff is cool isn't necessarily cause of the services themselves but because Cloud computing is really starting to become even more of a viable thing for a lot of uses that even a couple of years ago we never would have thought they would make the jump. Playstation Now uses Gaikai which they bought in 2012 to do there streaming of games. On Live also did this as well but I think theses services where just a bit too early.

This is my top 3 list of things I have read about from CES that I think will change the world in the coming years. If I missed anything or just have a comment please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at mikesworldoftech[at]gmail.com.

Im back :D

I'm going to start blogging here again. I got caught up with school but with it starting to whine down. I still have another semester but I want to write a post a day. Though when school starts I might go to 3 times a week. My content will be short commentary on whatever the big store of the day, or a how too post on how to set something up or what to do with some of your old computers. I may do longer form post from time to time when I think I need a longer post.

I'm in hope to have a post tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow.

Forwarding Student E-mail Part 1

The college e-mail can be forward to your normal e-mail address or if you would like you can also set it up with your iOS device. We will start by forwarding it to your normal e-mail address.

Login to your cayuga e-mail (it is the same as your computer login)

 

From your inbox click options.

 

Then go to create new e-mail rule.

 

Now click the drop down arrow by the new button and click new rule for new mail.

 

When you are at the new rule page click the drop down arrow and click on all messages.

 

Then on the second option drop down arrow and click redirect messages to.

 

It will then take you to your contacts list and at the bottom you should have a box that says "TO:" this is where you put the e-mail address that you want your mail forward to.

Then click ok.

Now click save.

 

Your student mail from this point out should forward to your normal e-mail address. The next part of this I will show you how to setup your student e-mail on a iOS device.

iCloud Redesign Coming Soon

It looks like Apple pushed out a new iOS 7 design of icloud.com. All the web apps but the iWorks web apps have been redesign to have a flatter look to them. I didn't see any new functionality to any of the apps. The only thing new I saw was in the reminders app their is a schedule view for reminders. But out side of that nothing new but there looks. I'm still hoping one day they will add Photo Stream to icloud.com. You can check out the new look today if you want at beta.icloud.com just know things might be buggy. Here are some screen shots I took of some of the apps.

iPad Problems

UPDATE 7/31/13: For some reason I can see the updates now. I don't know what changed but its working and I was able to update all the apps that needed updating.

For the last week I have not been able to update my apps on my iPad 2 cause the App Store update page just shows a blank page. I can download apps and buy apps and even browse the app store but I cant update apps. It will even show the badge on the icon showing how many apps need to be updated but I cant see them. I just wanted to go threw what I have done to try and fix this issue.

To start off I have had this issue before. I open up the app store to update apps and get this:

Normally if I force quit the app store and restart the iPad things go back to normal. When I did this when it showed up a week ago this fix did not work. The second thing that I tried the other was to backup my iPad and then do restore threw the iPad then I restored all my apps and settings threw iTunes. I went to the App Store after everything was done and it still wasn't working.

Today I did basically the same thing but I did the restore threw iTunes so that it would be forced to download a fresh install of iOS 6.1.3. Once again after it was done restoring my backup I went to the App Store still nothing. Then I thought when if I update the apps threw iTunes so I updated all the apps that showed up in iTunes then synced my iPad. Well now it shows I have no updates on the icon badge. But if I go to the update tab it will not tell me there are no new updates like it normally should do if their are no updates.

At this point I have done everything I can think of to get to start working again I can think of except restoring it and setting it up as a new iPad. I don't want to do that since I have 100 apps on my iPad and I don't want to go back in to each one and resign in to every app and my e-mail all that stuff. I will if I have to I might call Apple before I do that they might be able to help or at the vary least put me in the right direction.

Skyping Pets

Today I had to leave the house to go help my grandfather get groceries. I've been tasked to watch after the family dog this week. She docent like to be alone so I came up with this idea to leave my laptop on and call it to check on her and make sure she wasn't barking too much. In this post I'll list what I did to make this work cause its easy and you want to keep an eye on your pets while you are not home.

• Fist off you need Skype installed on booth devices you are going to use and the one you will be calling should be a Mac or a PC. For me I used my laptop and my iPhone 4S.
• You will also need 2 Skype accounts one for your one for each device.
• Next on the device you will be calling go to Tools>Calls then click show advanced options and check mark accept incoming calls automatically and start my video automatically when I'm in a call.

 

•  Then you can change any settings you want to change like the cam settings and audio settings. I had to do this cause I used an external web cam and mic, not the one that came with my laptop.
• Once you have done all this you can sign in on your calling device and add your receiving account to your friends list and call it to test it out. When you call the receiving computer it should pick right up and start video.

 

This is a good way to just check up on your pets quick when you are out of the house. I'm sure for some ambitious people out there you could get something like a Raspberry Pie and make a dedicated Skype computer to use to check up on your pets. For me I'm using an old laptop to do this kind of thing in the future. I hope someone out there will find this useful.

Bigger iPad

I was watching Tech News Today on the TWiT network which is how most of the ideas for blog post come form. They talked about a rumor of bigger iPhone and iPad screens. They seemed to not like the idea of a bigger iPad but to me it made me exited.  

Most companies seem to like this idea of big phones and small tablets. I have never agreed with this to me my iPhone 4S has just the right size of screen for everything I like to do with it which includes watching videos. I've never cared for the iPhone 5 bigger screen and I wish they had made a iPhone 5 that had the old screen size. I don't look at my iPhone and wish it was bigger cause I have a iPad 2 which runs iOS and is a bigger screen. I do look at my iPad and wish it was a bigger screen. I run into this thought normally when I'm doing some photo editing on my iPad or light video editing with the iOS iMovie.

I think the obvious thing would be for watching videos a bigger screen would be way better. When I'm in school I use my iPad a lot to show friends YouTube videos. I've always seen my iPad like a cheap MacBook  Air that runs iOS instead of full OSX. For me I it's all I need and if I need a real computer I remote my Mac threw my iPad. The only real times I need to be in front of my Mac is when I want to play a game like World of Warcraft or something like that or when I have to do major video editing for a project for school. That is only cause no one has made a grate video editing app for iOS and I only have 16 GB of storage of which I have only 1.1 GB free.

So what would I like to see the next generation of iPads to be like? Well I would like a bigger screen, not too big but between 11 and 12in would be perfect. I also would like them to up the storage on the devices. So instead of the cheapest iPad or iPhone coming with 16GB they start at 32GB and maybe go to 320GB. This is all wishful thinking I'm sure we will not see anything like this when they do come out with the new iOS devices. We will more likely see thinner, lighter, faster iPhones and iPads but next year maybe we will see some of these hopes happen.

Apple Wish List

Today Apple announced that their will be a WWDC in June and that tickets go on sale today. When I saw this when I woke up this morning sites were already trying to figure out what the logo could mean and blah blah blah. I started thinking about what I hope they would talk about or even announce. Though they don’t always announce hardware at WWDC but its fun to think what they could do. So I made a quick list of things I wish they would announce anytime really not just at WWDC.

MacPro:

A new MacPro is something we have been hearing about for months now and I hope they do it. They haven't done any real changes to it since 2008. I think they silently made a few changes to it a year or two ago but thing major. What could they do to modernize the Pro.

I think lots of Pros would like to see Thunderbolt come to the mac pro. It would make moving GB’s and GB’s of data from cameras and external thunderbolt drives easyer and faster then it is with Firewire. A faster Processor, faster graphics cards, maybe even the ability to have 30 40 or 60 GBs of RAM. I don’t know why you would need that much but hell its a Mac Pro so why not. The option of having SSD drives a normal hard drive or a Fusion Drive might be nice. Though it would also be nice if they could also update OSX so you could buy your own SSD and a normal hard drive, then just check a box in the settings and OSX would make it a Fusion Drive on its own.

iOS 7:

iOS 7 is something we could vary likely see at WWDC maybe not the whole thing but maybe a few fetchers they might want to show off. As a way to say this is coming and a way to get some feed back that they then wont listen to cause they are Apple and they know whats best for us. I think we may not see it working at WWDC but it would be cool if they did side by side comparisons of iOS 6.1 and 7. Most of the rumors have said that iOS 7 will be more flat and skeuomorphism will be taken out of the OS. So it would be interesting to see maybe them but up a Pic of the notes app on OS 6.1 and it running on 7. Then show it on iPad as well.

OS 10.9:

Another thing I would like to hear about and are likely to hear about at WWDC is OS 10.9. Apple has said that they were going to do yearly major release of OSX and it's been almost a year since mountain loin was announced. I don't know really what they can do to make it any better but I've seen since mountain loin came out blogs rumoring Siri coming to OSX. I for one wouldn't mind it, I use Siri just about every day. She sets my alarm at night and I tell what to remind me of for the next day. She doesn't always get what I say right the first time but that's ok no one or thing is perfect. The other thing is more iOS in our OSX that's pretty much something we know what will happen. But will it be more iOS 6 or iOS 7 and have skeuomorphism taken out of OSX and have a flatter look or will it be behind.
That's my wish list last two things are likely to be talked about but who knows if they will show anything off. As I said before WWDC tickets are on sale today.

Welcome Back

I have taken the site apart and put it back together. I gave it a simpler template then that mess I use to have. I have removed some pages and improved some pages others are still the same. I feel happy with the site over all and I hope you all will enjoy the content I will post here. I'm hoping to do a mix of writing and video content. So maybe app reviews things like that.

Log Me In for iOS

Ive been using Log Me In for a long time now to remote access my computers. I know there are better things like Go To My PC but they charge per computer to use that. Log Me In has a free version that dose what I need it to do effectively. Though I will admit for awhile I used Windows Live Mesh for awhile cause I felt it was a little bit more simpler to setup and all my computers were running Windows 7. But when I got my Mac I went back to Log Me In since Live Mesh didn't work on OS X well the remote access part of it doesn't work.

For a while the only way you could use Log Me In was threw a $30 app Log Me In ignition and you had to have a Log Me In Pro account. But last month they came out with a free version for mobile that works with the Log Me In free account. I've been using it almost everyday since I got it and for me it has come in use for all out laziness. But it has plenty of useful functions like getting school work done from your iPad or getting files from your home computer when your out and about.

The app it's self if is pretty simple to use just log in with your user name and password and all your computers that you have on your account will show up.

You can also send files to your iPad using log me in but I think it might be a Pro features because I never could get it to work. But it is there.

The only real problem I have with this app is when you are remote accessing the computer they give you a on screen mouse and the buttons on it are a little too small. I end up hitting the right button when I mean to hit left or vice versa.

Other then that there really isn't much wrong with this app and is a nice app to have for productivity and even if you don't think it's something you will use everyday you might want to have just in case you ever for get something on your computer. Get something like drop box and you won't have to worry about leavening that paper for school at home again.

Technorati Tags: logmein,iOS,iPad,iPhome,iPod Touch,remote acess

Droid Razor

Today Motorola Mobility announced a new phone the Droid Razor. Yes they brought back probably one of their most popular brand of phones. Though I got to say when I look at the phone it dose not really scream Razor. Its more like a Droid that is a little bit thinner then their other phones. Im surprised they didn’t call it the sliver since this is not a flip phone. Though I can’t say much since I have only seen photos of it from the press release they sent me.

If you look at the image its thin but I just don’t feel like it should be called the Razor. It will be out in early November for $299.99. It seems to have all the specs that any Android phone should have at this point.

Powered by Android™ 2.3.5, Gingerbread
1GB RAM for a fast user interface and multi-tasking
8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p HD video capture and image stabilization technology for crisp and clear videos
Front-facing HD camera for video chat over 4G LTE, 3G or Wi-Fi
4G LTE Mobile Hotspot capable so customers can share 4G LTE speed with up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices
Water repellent nanocoating protects the phone, and even the inside components, against everyday spills
Remote wipe, pin lock and government-grade encryption for email, calendar and contacts as well as voice and video chat conferencing
Use Quickoffice® to view, create and edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on your mobile device from anywhere at anytime
Bluetooth 4.0 low energy
32 GB memory: 16 GB on board and 16 GB microSD™ card pre-installed (actual formatted capacity is less)
Powerful 1780 mAh battery

Im a little shocked that is will not be an Ice Cream Sandwich phone (Android 4.0) since they announced it today. I have e-mailed motorola but I have not herd back as of this time October 18, 2011 11:49 PM.

Some of the things that comes with this phone such as the Quickoffice and remote remote wipe make me think they want to appeal to businesses to make this a work phone as well as a toy.

I would kind of like to see this phone up close and hold it and see how it feels. When it comes out I might have to go over to the Verizon Store and take a look at it. But it is nice to know that the Razor brand is not dead.

Technorati Tags: Mototola,Droid Razor,QuickOffice,Android 2.3.5

Steve Jobs Resigns form Apple

Who says August is a bad month for news we had Google buying Motorola Mobility last week and then the bomb shell of HP getting out of the hard ware business and PC business. So what else could happen? Well not be out done by Google and HP, Apple’s CEO Steve Job has decided to leave his post as CEO.

Letter from Steve Jobs

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

So not to get people confused Steve Jobs is not leaving Apple he just will not be CEO he will be the head of the Board for Apple now. I will try to keep you to date as I can but I don’t think there is much more to say the Unofficial Apple Web Blog has a good post on this as well if you want to check that out.

Technorati Tags: Apple,Steve Jobs,CEO,Tim Cook,Leaving,Chairman of the board

Cricket 3G outage

UPDATE: As of 2:12 AM data service is back.

Its seems that a little after 1AM EST that cricket wirelesses 3G has gone down. This how ever is the second time in a few days this has happen. I recently sent an e-mail asking cricket what is going on with there service and what they plain to do to stop these outages. I use cricket personally for my phone and have enjoyed their service, I just hope that these outages don't become regular. When or if I get a reply back from cricket I will update you on this matter.

Google Mobile Update

The other day Google updated Search I want just want to touch on the mobile update. As soon as you go to Google on your phone you will see the changes:

When you touch them they will do a search for restaurants, coffee places, bars, and other things around you. When you do one of these searches it will use your GPS in your phone or a location that you have put in. It will look much like this:

As you can see a map of the area comes up and as you scroll down the map does not go away, it stays at the top of the screen and when you go by a place that has a street view image or any image it will put that in the corner of the map so you can see what place is like. They also put a directions button that you can use and it will open up Maps on your phone and give you the directions to the place you want to go.

I like the update to the mobile site. I think for people who travel a lot the new places search will help people find the quick searches useful to find a bite to eat or to find something fun to do in a new city. They have many other searches that you can do quickly.  Here they are:

Technorati Tags: Google,Inside Search,Mobile,Places,Search,Maps

How To Turn Off Facebook Facial Recognition

The other day our friends at Facebook turned on a new feature for all of us. When you upload a photo to Facebook it looks to see if their are other people in the photo that you might want to tag in the photo. Now you don’t have to tag your friends in photos yourself. Well I can see how some people might not want to be tagged automatically in other peoples photos. So here is how you turn it off so you are not tagged in other peoples photos automatically.

Step 1:

Go to your Facebook page and click the account tab and go down to privacy settings.

Step 2:

Once you are at the privacy settings page click customize settings.

Step 3:

Once you are the customize settings page go down to ware it says “Things Others Share” and click on the edit settings button for “Suggest photos of me to friends”.

Step 4:

When the prompted comes up just click disable and okay and you will have turned this privacy concern off.

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Security,Privacy,Settings,facial recognition,Photo Tagging

WWDC Announcement: iOS 5

The other day was the start of WWDC and with that was the opening keynote.  Steve Jobs was there talking about three things OS X Loin (10.7), iOS 5, and iCloud. I’m not going to really talk much about Loin only because I don’t own a Mac but what I did see the next version looks cool. You can read up about the next version of OS X at apple.com

iOS 5:

iOS 5 looks to me like it will be a must have upgrade. Some of the new things in this update are wireless sync, iMessages, Android like notifications, and updates to the camera app and the photo app. I think the number one thing I saw from iOS 5 that I want now is the wireless sync so this means you no longer have to plug your iOS device into your computer to add things to your device. This also means when you buy a new iOS device you will no longer have to connect it to your computer to sync for the first so for people who want to use an iPad for their only computer they can now. Don’t worry about updates because in iOS 5 updates will be over the air.

iMessage:

iMessage is an iOS version of Black Barry Messenger (or as one of my friends call it Crack Barry Messenger), iMessanger will allow you to text or MMS people on other iOS devices over WIFI. So if you want to send someone a pic that you took on your iPhone to say an iPad you can just send a pic message to that person’s iPad. iMessage was a surprise to me a BBM style system I would never have imaged that or felt the need to have it, but when they showed it I saw some use for it.

New Notifications:

The last but not least what I think a lot of people have been waiting for a new and improved notification system. This was a much needed change in iOS the notifications as they are now are just annoying. Not to say they are not use full cause I switched from doing Facebook chat form the app to doing it in the windows live messenger app just so I could get notifications. But I have android phone so im use to this:

The screen shot is kind of bad but you get the idea the new notification system on iOS looks a lot like this. They even improved the way notifications look on the lock screen so it shows everything that went on wile the device was locked. Like I said before this was a must needed change almost as important as wireless sync.

If you want to know more about the update or see the keynote you see it all on apple.com.

Technorati Tags: iOS 5,iMessanger,Wireless snync,over the air update,notifacations,iPad,iPod Touch,iPhone,iOS Devices,Android,WWDC

A happy surprise in mobile iTunes

I went to go update my a app on my iPod just a few mins ago and found the purchases button and saw all my apps that I have gotten and so I went to iTunes and all the music I have boughten were there as well. I didn't know they had added that today I thought it was a iOS 5 thing but I'm glade they added it today. I hope to see the whole WWDC keynote latter.