Fresh Tablet

Congratulations to the ginger labs team on a great release of...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:27:00 +0100

Congratulations to the ginger labs team on a great release of their notability note taking app for the iPad.

This new release has opened up a great way to tag handwritten notes, and make them searchable.

When you make a handwritten note, afterwards just add a text box with a keyword to the note. You can then search for it. So here, I can search for projector screen, and my notes will popup. Sure it’s not evernote, but it’s very handy.

If you’re in the UK and carry a usb charger for your phone...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:44:00 +0000

If you’re in the UK and carry a usb charger for your phone or ipad, you need this. Genius design, folds flat and takes 70% less space than a UK plug. You can buy it here (not affiliated in any way)

The iPad’s other life: medical device extraordinaire — gigaom.com

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:07:29 +0000

The iPad’s other life: medical device extraordinaire — gigaom.com:

Much of the iPad’s use in medical settings so far has been in the form of pilots and trials, but it’s getting ready to take off in a much bigger way. The Veteran’s Administration in the U.S. is looking at rolling out as many as 100,000 tablets across 152 hospitals, says Wired, based on the success of the 1,500 trial iPads it currently has in use. Over 80 percent of U.S. hospitals have similar trials in place, according to recent comments made by Apple CEO Tim Cook, which means that many more could soon take the plunge, resulting in a huge uptick of orders from medical organizations for the generally consumer-oriented device.

Cool. The feature rich goodreader file manager now supports...

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:22:05 +0000

Cool. The feature rich goodreader file manager now supports public key authentication. That plus encryption and remote wipe makes for pretty good security… Get it at http://www.goodiware.com/

Just love that companies are starting to really think about...

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:04:05 +0000

Just love that companies are starting to really think about design carefully. With this app (world clock hd) most cities get their own sketch. Press on one, and a little glow shows you where it is. A real delight to use!

The iPhone 4 digit keylock doesn't work (but passphrases are a good idea)

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:22:17 +0000

It seems reasonable to assume that combining Apples ‘automatic wipe’ after 10 failed attempts with a 4 digit code is adequate security. After all, 4 digits is 10,000 combinations, and almost impossible to guess in 10 attempts.

However, a hacker who has your device is not just going to sit and type in to the screen. They will attack the system directly, and as Vladimir Katalov at security firm Elcomsoft says “We run the attack on the passcode directly “on the chip”, and the system does not recognize that it is being bruteforced, so we can make as many attempts as we want (and have the time for)” And it only takes about 20 minutes to crack an iPhone 4.

Once the passcode is cracked, the all the encryption is removed, and they have full access to your data.

So the only way to take advantage of ios hardware encrpytion and protect your data is to use a big old long password, as Mr Katalov says “Complex passcode is a good idea — it is almost impossible to break it.”.

I favour a 2 or 3 word phrase that I can remember, and that I can type with one thumb! And to make it more useful, I’ll use motivational pass phrases.

source: http://blog.crackpassword.com/2011/05/elcomsoft-breaks-iphone-encryption-offers-forensic-access-to-file-system-dumps/

Passwords generally suck. If they’re complicated, we...

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:16:00 +0000

Passwords generally suck. If they’re complicated, we don’t remember them, or stick them to the screen with a post it.

Whereas phrases, like “mary had a massive lamb!” are easy to remember, and much harder to crack.

So why not combine security with a motivational line - make your life better, and your device safer in one go!

It's official - TV is crap for under 2's, the Ipad might be ok

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:13:00 +0100

Yesterday, the AAP (AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS) released a report on the use of media by children.

Most of the findings seem pretty obvious, except that most of us hoped there were at least some benefits to watching TV, but Sesame Street can have a negative effect? Damn!

There is hope however, the author said she doesn’t have a problem with touch screens, and as nobody has really researched their use we can keep letting junior use the iPad without feeling guilty!

In brief

TV doesn’t help under 2’s learn.
Families who watch lots of TV spend less time talking to kids, which slows language development
Kids who watch lots of TV read less, slowing reading development.
TV before bed can disrupt sleeping.
2 studies found that watching a program such as “Sesame Street” has a negative effect on language for children younger than 2
Children younger than 2 years who watch more television or videos have expressive language delays,and children younger than 1 year with heavy television viewing who are watching alone have a signiﬁcantly higher chance of having a language delay
Unstructured playtime is more valuable for the developing brain than any electronic media exposure.
1 study claims that for children over 2, some educational TV is good.Children who watch these programs have improved social skills, language skills, and even school readiness

Their recommendations include limiting TV time, not putting a TV in the childs bedroom, and limiting adult TV when children are around.

link: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/10/12/peds.2011-1753.full.pdf+html

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/infant-tv-guidelines/

"I passed out the handouts, everyone ignored them and went for the iPad"

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:06:04 +0100

I had a meeting with a buyer from a large supermarket chain last week, we were talking about some possible uses of safedrop for managing the supply chain.

I had a mix of wireframes (thanks balsamiq!) and screen shots, as well as some raw data from the client. I passed around the handouts, but everyone ignored them, and instead passed around the ipad. And it worked, really really well.

The wireframes were much more useful on a zoomable screen…

The screen was hugely more compelling than the a4. We passed it around, zoomed in on the screenshots to get more detail, and suprisingly, spent a lot of time just looking at a csv file of data, as we all expressed how we would present it.

I didn’t present any slides, as I thought the screen would be too small and I hate using projectors in meetings as they tend to distract more than engage.

With this experience, I will start preparing for meetings in a different way. Instead of lots of slides, I’ll prepare screenshots and diagrams, and instead of a presentation, I’ll talk it through, and pass around the pad to let people interact with it, see the graphics themselves, and get involved. And as any good salesperson will tell you, getting prospects involved in the sales process much improves the chances of success.

Ironically, this messed up my workflow, I usually use the iPad to keep notes, but that obviously wasn’t an option, so I had to borrow a pen and paper!

One option I have seen for presenting that looks interesting, is Prezi’s. Anyone tried those out?