2015 Fall iPhone and iPad release: What's new and what's not

So here it is September and time for the new iPhone release event for the year from Apple. There was nothing revolutionary released today and it was IMHO a tad bit disappointing to see the direction Apple's product roadmaps are going.

Warning, I write a lot, here is an index to skip past the bits that are not interesting to the bits that are:

• What's New
• What's Not New
• What's Great
• What Apple should have released this Fall
• My recommendations for the year

While I am at heart a PC guy I am by no means an Apple hater. I own a 1st generation iPad mini which I love and my primary workstation at Technicolor is a 27" iMac which is my preference to use for everything other then Microsoft Office applications and network file management. At my recommendation my wife got an iPhone 6 earlier this year and the other two phones in my family plan are both iPhone 5c models.

To prove I am not a hater I will even start this post with what was released today that was shiny and new:

• Rose gold iPhone 6s with color matched dock
• iPhone 6s Taptonic feedback
• 12.9" iPad Pro tablet
• AppleTV

The new iPhone 6s is pretty much just the same as the 2014 iPhone 6 in every way but two things. First, you can now get it in pink, er rose gold, with a charging cradle that matches the color of the phone. Rose gold is new.

The new iPhone 6s now has a taptonic feedback engine under the screen. This means the screen can detect how hard you are pressing the screen and provide a little vibration as feedback so that your finger feels the touch. This technology is a neat gimmick and is one of those innovative technologies that only Apple could pull off and pull off well. It is not entirely a new technology as Apple put it in the touchpad on the Macbook line last year but putting it under a touch screen display is new so I give credit where credit is due. Apple gave it a new name too: 3D Touch. The name is new.

Of course the big announcement of the day (if you ask Tim Cook) was the 12.9" iPad Pro. This is the largest tablet ever from Apple. The sheer size of it is new. Unfortunately it still runs only iOS even though it has the computing power under the hood to run full desktop operating systems. This means it is still limited to the touch screen interface and very limited multi-tasking. There were improvements to iOS 9 but not so much that one would ever choose an iPad instead of a desktop or laptop computer. The biggest iPad ever is new.

The real big announcement (if you ask me) was the new AppleTV box. This is the first year they have released a new AppleTV in the fall announcement so the timing is new. It is clear from the way that they went through the announcement that Apple is taking this product seriously giving it the time it deserves in the spotlight. Apple added Siri to AppleTV for searching and navigating channels. Siri is a gimmick but a well done gimmick and a voice controlled TV (that works well) is new. Sorry, XBox One, I don't think you got it right with your stalker interface. AppleTV is now the only real contender to Roku in the market. With an AppleTV you can get HBO Now without a television provider subscription and Hulu Plus through which you can subscribe to Showtime without a television provider subscription. Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, and DirecTV please take note that this is the future of TV; get on the bandwagon now while there is still room for your large posteriors.

So what was released today that was not great, not so much innovative, and generally just not new?

• watchOS 2
• A9X Processor
• iOS 9
• Smart Keyboard
• Apple Pencil aka Stylus
• Amateur iPads
• iPhone 6s and 6s Plus
• iCloud storage upgrades

For the life of me I can't figure out what was new in watchOS 2. There are more color and band options this year including pink, er rose gold, and a couple new features like nightstand mode and time travel (not like the TARDIS). I guess since it is a new year they upversioned the OS with some new feature that app developers can access. I would not have called it version 2; that should just have been a version 1.1.

With a new year and updated hardware with more resolution and an updated OS with more features Apple needed a new CPU, the A9X. Yes, this is the 3rd generation 64-bit Apple mobile processor and it may have 1.8x CPU performance and 2x GPU performance compared to the A8X in iPad Air 2 but CPU performance doubles every year anyway. A faster CPU is really not new.

With a new year and updated hardware Apple also needed an operating system upgrade. Every year there is a new version of iOS, that is really not a new thing. What are the new features in iOS? A shortcut bar, new built-in apps, and multi-tasking. The shortcut bar and the updated apps are nice but there are little updates like this every year and even in lesser version upgrades. The last version iOS 8.1 upgrade offered a screen reader which can read your eBook for you using Siri's voice which IMHO is a much bigger update then a shortcut bar or new apps. Then there is the "multi-tasking". Slide over, split view, and picture-in-picture are three different gimmicks that will allow you to use two apps at the same time. I wouldn't call that multi-tasking. Duo-tasking is more like it. There was more multi-tasking in Windows 3.1 (released in 1992) and MacOS 5 (released in 1987). Multi-tasking is not new and neither really is iOS9.

Smart keyboard? What is smart about it? Was it smart for Apple to copy Microsoft Surface and offer a keyboard cover? Ok, well maybe that was smart but Apple used to be an innovator and leader in the market. It is disheartening to see Apple become a follower. The new "smart connector" that attaches keyboard to power and data is clever and well done but also not something new. PC tablet makers have been fiddling with laptop / tablet hybrids the last few years that do all that and even offer a backup battery and additional connectors inside the detachable keyboard. A keyboard cover is hardly new.

Apple pencil is a stylus. Steve Jobs always said that the human hand comes pre-configured with 10 styluses already so there is no need for another. Steve is not in charge any more so this year Apple puts out a $99 stylus that works with a single device which will cost you no less then $799. This may be the best stylus ever designed but you better have a real need for it to justify a thousand dollar replacement for pencil and paper. Apple demoed some very high precision artwork and CAD apps for it but the people doing this kind of work already have high precision Wacom tablets and 30" professional monitors; these folks are really not going to be happy doing this kind of work on a 13" screen. BTW Wacom also offers a really nice stylus that works on all capacitive touch screens for only $60. An expensive fancy stylus is not new.

And what about all of the other iPads that are not "Pro"? Does that make them amateur? This year Apple put all of their attention into the iPad Pro and literally ignored the other iPad models. iPad Air and iPad Air 2 get a $100 price reduction this year and nothing else, not even rose gold. iPad Mini 4 gets the guts of the iPad Air 2 which means A8X processor and fingerprint scanner but it should have gotten that last year. In the Steve Jobs years Apple was not afraid to cannibalize their own markets, releasing iPhone directly competing with iPod and then continuing to upgrade iPod Touch with all the latest goodies available in the iPhone. Since last year the trend for Apple has been to protect the market for the new hotness by intentionally ignoring upgrades on the old and busted. This year every iPad but the iPad Pro is suddenly the old and busted.

And what about the upgrades to iPhone 6? The 6s and 6s Plus got the 3D touch and pink paint job but are in all other ways just the same. There was no highly anticipated 4" iPhone 6c and nothing innovative about the s models. These phones should have been labelled s6 and s6 Plus for "still 6" and "still 6 Plus". They are in almost every way exactly the same as last year's iPhones and join the amateur iPads now in the rank of the old and busted.

It was astounding to me that iCloud got stage time this year for paid storage upgrades. All of the other cloud storage solutions have been offering more storage for cheaper then Apple for years now. A 1TB cloud storage upgrade is not new.

Ok, so what should Apple have released this year? What would I have done if I were directing Apple product management? Well first and foremost the 2015 Fall product release should not have been focused on the biggest and most expensive iPad ever. Instead, this product release should have been focused on the Apple pencil. Breaking the mold of a Steve Jobs run Apple and releasing a stylus should have been the first thing they talked about at the event before rolling into the iPad lineup. The first demo of the pencil should have been on the iPad Mini 4 which could have been in all ways the same as what was actually released except with support for Apple Pencil. Following iPad Mini 4 should have been iPad Air 3 with an A9X processor and support for Apple Pencil. Then roll into iPad Pro showing the amazing things you can do with Apple Pencil on iPad Pro. The iPad Pro should also have come with something else entirely new. iPad Pro should have been offered with a mobile version of OS X with full support for all Apple Desktop apps and support for pointing devices. Connect a bluetooth pointing device (mouse) and a cursor appears allowing you to use it just like a laptop. The keyboard cover is a nice gimmick but they should have also offered a full keyboard dock that contains a trackpad, backup battery, and additional I/O ports. Put the iPad Pro in the keyboard dock and put it next to a MacBook and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. But wait, there is more! That mobile version of OS X and the full version of OS X should get support for running iOS apps (in a window or full screened) so that new iPad still runs all of the apps you are used to and then they just eliminate the pre-installed redundant desktop applications like iTunes favoring the lightweight iOS versions instead. Microsoft has already gone through this transition with the abysmal metro / tablet apps in Windows 8 that you can now run in traditional windowed desktop mode in Windows 10. As it stands the iPad Pro is a 12.9" retina display version of Microsoft Surface RT with a fancy stylus option. The Surface Pro and countless other Window 10 tablets that will be released over the course of the next year will come with built-in support for all legacy Windows desktop applications. Apple is falling behind Microsoft lacking a unified experience like Windows 10 which offers with the same interface and apps available on desktop, laptop, and mobile devices.

To round out this article I will give my personal computing recommendations for the year.

First, if you do not already have a primary desktop or laptop computer then start with a good quality desktop computer. If you like Apple desktops then the 2014 line of iMacs are still quite excellent and you can even get one with a beautiful 5K display. If you don't have iMac budget then get a good desktop PC with an i5 or i7 processor. Don't buy a laptop / notebook computer. If you need to sometimes take your work on the go then a tablet is good enough companion device for now, just not good enough to be your primary personal computing device.

If you are looking to buy your first tablet then get either the iPad Air 2 or iPad Mini 4 depending on your size preference. I have an iPad Mini now which I love because I can fit it in my front pocket and it mounts nicely on the dashboard of my commuter car without blocking my view of the road. Don't buy an Android tablet, you will wish you got an iPad instead.

If your contract is up and you are in the market for a phone then consider your options carefully. Do not get a 6s or 6s Plus. The best phone to get at the moment would be the iPhone 6 which just got $100 cheaper. If you are not interested in the fingerprint scanner or Apple Pay then the iPhone 5c is a smaller and even less expensive choice that will work just fine as well. If you are familiar with Android devices and Google applications then consider Android. The Nexus 5X and 6X come out next month and are just as good as iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The new Moto X is another solid offering just as good as a 6s. Don't buy a Samsung phone or a Windows phone.

If you can wait before forging into the laptop / tablet market or upgrading your current laptop / tablet then wait. Later this year and early next year you can expect to see some very solid Window 10 tablet options. Look for these specs: 7" - 12" screen, i5 or i7 CPU, 8-16 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and 8 hour battery life for no more theb $1000. Think about that. The Windows 10 tablet you will be able to buy soon will be twice as powerful as iPad Pro for the same price and will run all of your desktop apps. 

The 2015 Apple Watch or Wait, did you hear about HBO?

If you have been following my blog (yes, I am talking to both of you) then you know that I have been following Apple's progress with the Apple Watch since they did not release one amidst all of the Android wearables that made such a buzz in 2013. Also you would know that I am a big proponent of the unplugging of your television.

That made today, March 9, 2015 a very interesting day for me since both of these topics coalesced into Apple's Spring Forward event.

So first there was the watch. Apple Watch carried no surprises and was just as predicted. It is tied to your iPhone or WiFi for it's internet connection and makes sure the wearer never again has to reach into his or her pocket for their phone just to tell what time it is. Wow. Ok, so there are a couple other nice things about it as well. The Apple Watch is very good for the health conscious with lots of gimmicks to monitor heart rate and let you know when it is time to get up and walk around before your body stagnates from living a sedentary life, The Apple Watch is also the best looking smart watch money can buy. In case you missed it, that was the couple nice things... nag you about your health and looks real purty. Apple is moving out of the realm of personal electronics and into the jewelry market. My prediction is that the best money maker will be the 18k gold Apple Watch Edition going to the rich that can afford to drop $10,000 on a piece of jewelry. In fact there is not really that much great jewelry around for men to wear so those high class fellows will now have something to buy for themselves instead of another pair of diamond cuff links.

As I said in Why no iWatch in 2013? and The 2015 Apple Watch is proof that Steve Jobs is dead the critical technology that was missing in 2013 and is missing still now is the ability for a watch to be a standalone communication device. I will summarize this into three key technologies that are missing for a smart watch to be the "next iPhone" or the "next iPad" which, in their day, revolutionized personal computing as we knew it:

1. The battery technology for a very small battery that weighs only a few ounces to carry enough power to run a cellular wireless radio for 18 hours without a recharge to allow for true "all day battery life" with moderate bandwidth usage. You are not going to be streaming HD video on a screen with 340x272 resolution but you will stream music at a couple hundred kilobits per second, check your email and stock prices, and do the occasional facetime video call.
   
2. Seamless wireless charging. The way to charge the 2015 Apple Watch is to  "simply hold the connector near the back of the watch, where magnets cause it to snap into place automatically". Look at the thing; it is not the least bit elegant. Apple Watch needs to be able to charge wirelessly from a charging access point plugged into the wall 15-30 feet away so all you need worry about is getting into the bedroom where you left it plugged in for a few hours a day. The thing should also be smart enough to learn your habits and warn you if it is about time for charging and you are at home the charger is not sensed when it usually is around so you can dig through the cables under the desk and see if one of the pets ran through wrecking electrical cord havoc again.
   
3. The right wearable headset that is as visually appealing as functional. Clearly no one is holding their wrist to their ear to talk and not just every call can be a speakerphone affair. Even the bejeweled earpieces that musical performers wear at awards shows are still pretty gawky looking for everyday use. For audio only we need a bluetooth earpiece as small and attractive as an earring yet still functional. It would even work to get a unit small enough to fit behind the ear that tucked the audio piece near the ear canal and draped a tiny camera over the top of the ear or even something google glass like that offers a tiny personal viewscreen for augmented reality. 

During Spring Forward Apple also released the details of this year's line of laptops. Nothing surprising there either, just thinner and lighter with a better keyboard and better trackpad. Just more of the same. 

Now here was the real big deal. Right at the beginning of the event they brought out HBO CEO Richard Plepler to drop the real bomb. The HBO Now service will launch in April in time for the season premier of Game Of Thrones and be exclusive to Apple devices for 3 months. HBO Now will not require you to have a cable or satellite service account; you just pay your $14.99 a month to HBO and get access to their entire catalog of content on demand as well as new releases of their exclusive content. $14.99 may seem like a high price but if you love HBO content then now is the time to unplug and send a message to Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, and Verizon that you don't want to pay $100 a month for their bundled channel packages any more. Pay HBO to support the model. Once the cable providers have their backs broken by services like this they will either wise up and start offering customized channel bundles or they will go the way of the record store chains and dinosaurs. 

Unplug your TV! Why and how.

Have you ever wondered why you can't, for example, get just HBO (Game of Thrones), Showtime (Weeds), USA (Covert Affairs), Syfy (everything), BBC (Dr. Who), Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, Disney Channel, and Disney Jr with getting another 200 channels you don't want? It is because the "television providers" are a bunch of bullies to the consumers and content providers alike. Curious what my preferred channel lineup will run you? I did some research...

In my area FIOS would cost me $160.42 a month for two TVs, multi-room DVR service, and a total of 367 channels plus 25Mbps internet bandwidth.

If I went with Charter cable instead (also in my area) for two TVs with DVR service and 60Mbps internet it would cost me $123.95 but I only get 204 channels.

If I lived in Anaheim that is an AT&T UVerse area the same setup with 391 total channels and 18Mbps internet would cost me $107

If I lived in Palm Springs which is a Time Warner Cable area a similar package with 15Mbps internet would be $135.21

If I lived in Oakland, CA where Comcast rules a similar package with 50Mbps internet is $119.89

If I got DirecTV a similar package would be $86.99 but no internet.

So, really, for the 12 channels I want is it worth more than $100 a month? No, no, and HELLS NO.

Here is the problem though.. it is not possible to buy just the channels I want. Even if I was willing to pay $5 a month per channel no one will sell me my preferred $60 a month package because, of course, they would rather sell me a $150 a month package.

Well then, you might ask, why can I not just use HBO Go and the Disney streaming app and stream from Showtime.com to get what I want? Because the television providers have all got together and decided to tell the content providers that if they offer their content without a bundled television service then their content will be removed from the millions of subscribers of the bundled television service providers. Didn't you ever wonder why HBO Go, the Disney TV app, and even the ABC live streaming app require you to sign in to your television provider? That is why and it is pure bullying. This bullying will continue to go on as long as the television provides have millions of subscribers. The only way this will ever change is if the consumers of the content rise up and vote with their wallets by unplugging their TVs and cancelling their bundled television subscriptions.

I voted with my wallet in July of 2009 when I paid my last DirecTV bill ever for $76.99. That same month I paid Earthlink $49.21 for my DSL service. Together it cost me $126.20 for internet and television. Here we are FIVE YEARS LATER and that it still what it costs for internet and television. Prices are not going down due to competition because the competitors have all got together and agreed on the rules of the market. This is bad for consumers.

Just yesterday the news broke that HBO is going to be the first content provider to try and break the market place by selling their service without requiring a television provider:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/15/media/hbo-via-the-internet/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

And today a similar announcement from CBS!
http://www.cnet.com/news/watch-out-hbo-cbs-launches-stand-alone-web-tv-service/

This means that now is the time to unplug your TV. Cancel your cable or satellite subscription and subscribe instead to over the top (OTT) services. I will break it down for you what needs to be done and which services will give you what you need.

The first thing you should do it get yourself setup with free television. That is free as in how much television cost before the cable companies took over. This became possible when the FCC regulated all television broadcasters to switch to digital broadcast signals back in July of 2008. Go and get yourself a nice digital antenna for the roof like this one on Amazon:

Winegard HD7694P High Definition VHF/UHF Antenna

In fact this is the exact same antenna I have on my roof now and 5 years later it is one of the top rated antennas on Amazon. The next thing you need to do is go to AntennaWeb and punch in your zip code to see what direction you need to point the antenna to get the most channels. Then go and mount the thing on the roof. If you or a previous resident of your residence had satellite installed at some point you can do what I did and rip down the dish to use the same roof mount post they installed for your antenna. You can even re-use all of the in house coax cabling that your cable or satellite provider installed for you in each room of the house to carry the digital television signals to your televisions or set top boxes.

Next I highly recommend you install your own DVRs. What I did was custom built three windows PCs and installed Hauppauge TV tuner cards in them. Windows 7 ultimate or home professional versions included the windows media center application and Windows 8 offers it as a $10 add on with any version of Windows 8 that you have. One of my Windows Media Center computers is hooked up directly to the television in the bedroom and then both my and Sandy's computers can also record shows and push the files up to the primary "media server". In the front of the house we have an XBox 360 which can serve as a "Windows Media Center" extender to watch any recorded shows as well as pull the live broadcast feed over through the network. If you are an Apple guy you can do something similar with MacOS X and Apple TV boxes. If you are technology challenged then I recommend a TiVo box which are pretty affordable and the service is $14.99 a month or you can pay 500 bucks one time and it covers the lifetime of the device with no more monthly fees.

After you get your free TV then you need to decide on which OTT services you want to subscribe to. I will give a run down and brief review of each listing best first.

1. Netflix offers a good selection of movies and television programs for a starting price of $7.99 a month. I list Netflix first as the best of the best because they refuse to give in to the "Sign in with your television account number" licensing to get to premium content and they have continued to fight the big television providers in court and with lobbyists in Washington. They are also a subscription only service so the single monthly fee guarantees access to their entire content library. Because they are subscription only it limits their licensing options with the content providers and that means you don't get a lot of new releases and you don't get next day TV releases. For your favorite TV programs you have to wait until the season is over and after it has been released on DVD before it appears on the service. Netflix is also one of the first to start producing their own exclusive content like Orange Is The New Black and Turbo: FAST. Netflix needs to be supported with your wallets to give them more leverage with the providers to fight the big television providers and get access to better content by throwing around their subscriber numbers. As if all that wasn't good enough Netflix still offers the DVD by mail subscription from which you can get all the latest releases on Blu-Ray sent to you in the mail. 
2. Amazon Prime is $99 a year and offers both subscription content as well as video on demand (VOD) through Amazon Instant Video (AIV). Typically the subscription content is about as good as anything you find on Netflix and, as a bonus, your prime membership gets you free two day shipping on a lot of merchandise. Having the VOD option through AIV allows you the ability to purchase the premium content of new release movies and next day TV content. Amazon is also starting to produce their own "Amazon Originals" content like Betas and Annedroids. 
3. MGo is a VOD only service. This means there is no subscription content so no monthly fee but it gets pricey to pay for everything you want to watch, On the plus side they get all the latest new releases as soon as or even slightly before the DVD / Blu-Ray release, they have almost everything in HD and any title you purchase through them that is available on UltraViolet includes the UV rights so that means you can watch it on other services like Vudo and Flixster plus if you already have a bunch of UV content from digital copy codes in Blu-Ray and DVD discs that you purchased you can watch them on MGo. Mgo also does a fantastic job of getting next day TV content online and just starting offering a "season pass" pricing to you can pay for a whole season of new content and get access to the new episodes on the service they day after they air.
4. Hulu offers hands down the best next day TV experience. Hulu gets the new TV content online faster then anyone else and has the most of it. If  new TV shows is your thing then get the Hulu Plus subscription for $7.99 a month. I list them last because they bowed to the pressure of the television providers to make their licensing deals and if you don't provide a television service provider account you only get access to the three most recent episodes of new TV series even with the subscription and then Hulu still inserts advertisements. 

If you did decide to go with TiVo then the TiVo boxes come with apps to stream the major OTT services. If you have a gaming console they offer apps for the major OTT services as well with Sony Playstation having the best offering there. If you don't have a DVR or a gaming console or even a smart TV then I recommend you get yourself a Roku box. The Roku boxes are affordable and offer the most subscription services including my 4 recommendations. 

Now there is one big gap that I have no solution for if you unplug your TV and that is sports. With a digital antenna and a DVR you will get all of the locally broadcast sports content for free. If you are big into sports though I know that is not enough. If you want access to every game from every sport and you cannot let that go then you are going to be stuck paying for TV for a while until the backs can be broken of the big TV service providers and content providers including the professional sports leagues feel free to break loose and offer their content without requiring the television service provider account. 

How easy is it for someone to hack your windows password?

So my Dad died last week and I am visiting my Mom for the funeral and she had a printed document he had written out some time ago about where to access all of the financial records and whatnot which, for the most part, he had copies of stored on his computer. He also had everything backed up to an external hard disk which was pretty smart because he failed to tell my Mom (or she forgot) the password to log on to his computer.

So I found myself in one of the rare situations where I had a legitimate reason to hack someone's computer. I was so taken aback by how ridiculously easy it was that I thought I should post about it.

In less then a minute of googling I found myself on this very nice page that laid out all of the options for Windows password "recovery":

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/passrecovery.htm

I tried the first tool in the list:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ophcrack/?source=typ_redirect

So here I went and burned the OphCrack tool to a bootable CD and it turned out my Dad's computer had no optical drive... oops!

A couple more minutes of googling took me to another tool called Rufus:

http://rufus.akeo.ie/

Rufus allowed me to take the OphCrack CD image and burn it to my handy dandy Yoda USB stick. Yoda is now a password hacker.

Power cycle the computer, punch in a couple keystrokes to get to the BIOS to make the computer boot from USB storage, pop in Yoda, reboot and watch the show. OphCrack decoded the hashed password in the windows registry and showed it to me in under a minute and that minute included time for the Linux image now inside Yoda to boot up. I was all ready with a CD image for a command line password reset tool but I didn't need it because my Dad was not using a complicated password.

Now what if I was not doing this for a legitimate reason? What if I was someone you invited to a party at your house? Or a student you left alone in the classroom with your computer for a few minutes? The possibilities are endless. With Yoda in my pocket and physical access to a computer I can get your password in less then five minutes. This should highlight the need to be very cautious who you allow physical access to your computer. If, like most people, you use the same password for everything then I can steal your identity very easily by simply downloading all of your bookmarks and browser history onto my buddy Yoda.

With Windows 8 it is possible to use a Microsoft account instead of a local account which means your account information is stored in the cloud. Well, Jennifer Lawrence and her boobies can tell you how secure that is! Even with cloud based accounts you need to use two factor authentication to really protect your data.

All is not doom and gloom though if you take sensible precautions to protect your data from Yoda USB up there. Here are some things that everyone with sensitive data on a computer (ok, so that is actually everyone everyone) should do:

1. Never leave your computer unattended in front of people you do not know well enough to trust to hold your checkbook. If you are planning a party unplug the computer or stow it in the attic until the party is over. Definitely do not pass out drunk with your laptop open...
2. Use a complex password. If my Dad had set a complex password it would have taken OphCrack hours to figure it out. Complex passwords have no recognizable words in them and contain letters, numbers, and special characters. Here is a good site with a password generator you can use to create these passwords:
   http://www.pctools.com/guides/%20password/
3. Do not use the same password for multiple password protected websites. If someone were to gain your password because Paypal, Target, Home Depot, Sony Online Entertainment, or Adobe got hacked and they can identify you as that password holder they can easily get into all the other sites you use by trying that same password
4. The most important password to protect is your computer logon password. The next most important is your email password. Your email address is used for the username on a lot of password protected sites and if a hacker gets into your email they can change the password to lock you out of it and then proceed to issue password reset requests to get into all the other password protected sites that you use. Under no circumstances use the same password for both email and computer logon. 
5. Do not write that hard to remember complex password on a sticky note and sticky it to your monitor. Treat written down passwords the same as money.. keep them in your wallet or safe or under the mattress or frozen in a block of ice at the back of the freezer but no where near your computer.
6. Do not email or text message or instant message your password to anyone ever as those forms of communication cannot be secured adequately; anyone on the same public hotspot as you or piggy backed onto your own wireless connection can spy on them. If you must send a password electronically then do it over PGP encrypted email.
   http://lifehacker.com/180878/how-to-encrypt-your-email
7. If the site offers it, use two factor authentication. This means more then just a password is required every time you login like answering a security question, having a one-time-use code set to your phone, or a biometric reader like the fingersprint scanner in iPhone 5s / 6. If iTunes backup files stored in iCloud had been protected by two factor authentication at the time then Jennifer Lawrence's boobies would still be private. 

The 2015 Apple Watch is proof that Steve Jobs is dead.

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs.

With Steve Jobs at the helm of Apple Computer, Apple was a market innovator and led the personal computing market, setting the rules and forcing the competition to follow them. On September 9, 2014 Apple went from being a leader to being a follower.

The Apple Watch is not functionally much different then the Moto 360 or Samsung Galaxy Gear or any of the other recently introduced wearable devices. It is too big and heavy to really be a watch and as a device tethered to your phone it offers not much other then the convenience of not taking your phone out of your pocket or your bag.

I have not worn a watch since I got a pager in the mid 90s. In 1997 I even got a fancy bi-directional pager with which I could reply to messages. When I realized I could just glance at the pager to tell the time I realized I never needed to wear a watch again. My pager was, of course, replaced by a smartphone. In this day and age where a smartphone is an essential device that everyone carries, no one needs to wear a watch. People who still do wear watches mostly wear them as jewelry. As a piece of jewelry this thing is big and clunky and, well, it is, like, square, man... While it may be the nicest looking smart watch offered to day (the Moto 360 is another nice one), it looks like something from the stone ages when compared to a designer watch.

The only thing the Apple Watch brings to the market is the health related functions of monitoring your heart rate while working out. I expect this thing will cost $200 - $300 and it is not worth it for that added functionality. The Apple Watch really brings nothing to the market that is not already available from the Motorola or Samsung smart watches. This is why I say Apple has changed positions from leading the market to a market chaser.

To give some specifics, here is what I consider is wrong with the device that should have prevented it from launching:

• It has to tether to a phone. It has no built in cellular radio to operate as a standalone device. You should be able to "tether" it to a personal computer or tablet that sits at home and be able to choose to take the watch with instead of the phone or even not even own a phone at all anymore since the watch gives you mobile communications while a larger tablet, laptop, or desktop device gives you computing power. 
• You have to plug it in to charge it every night. Even with the clever mag lock charger you still have to remember to charge it every night. A new wireless charging technology is needed; something with the range of Bluetooth. I think with clever enough engineering you could even have it pull enough power to run the device and charge the battery off of a class 1 bluetooth connection of which the RF signal is harvested for the charging circuitry. Or they could have gone really radical and even integrated a solar charging technology into the touch screen layers. 
• It is missing an essential accessory that will allow you to place phone calls and listen to streaming music through the device (as a standalone untethered device). Apple just bought Beats audio! They should have spent some time creating a fantastic bluetooth connected headset with the Beats branding that every teenager would kill for and is not so gaudy that you couldn't use it in an office or a restaurant.
• It is missing the accessory that will allow you to setup an impromptu dance party or movie viewing. A bluetooth connected speaker with HDMI connection out to monitors and maybe even an optional built in 720p projector you could stash in your bag and pull out to start the party and control it all from your wrist.

Remember what the smartphone market looked like before iPhone? The best device out was a heavy Windows Mobile device that required a stylus to use (I had a few of those). Apple watched that market flounder and even see growth for several years before they stepped in with the iPhone and changed the market forever combining the smartphone, digital camera, and iPod into a single device with an intuitive touchscreen interface. Even with the iPhone Apple has decided to follow the market now and make a Phablet with the 5.5" screen on the iPhone 6 Plus. Remember the Steve Jobs keynote where he sung the praises of the 4" screen because it allowed your thumb to travel anywhere on the screen? Well, with iOS8 they added a gimmick to double tap the home button to force the data on the screen to pull down where your thumb can reach it. This also hides the bottom half of the screen until you touch something or double tap again... gimmick.

Remember what the tablet market looked like before iPad? Different tablet configurations were the talk of CES for three years running without anyone making much headway into actually getting people to buy them until Apple stepped in with the iPad and suddenly the tablet market took off like a rocket with many people opting for the much more stable iPad over a laptop.

Apple should not have entered the smart watch market this year. This Apple Watch will still bring lines outside Apple stores when it is released and anyone with a few hundred bucks to burn that already has an iPhone 5 or better that wants to look "Tech Chic" will probably still get one even though no one needs one. I estimate that the total sales of this device will never amount to more then 5% of the active iPhones. Even though this watch may sell more units then all Android based smart watches combined it will still be a flop when compared to the success of the iPhone or iPad initial launches.

Paul's Opinionated Guide to Personal Computing Device Choices 2014

I think I am going to do a post like this at least once a year, more if the industry changes significantly since the previous one. The choices of personal computing devices has changed drastically since my first personal computing device, the Commodore 64 with a 1MHz CPU and 64KB of memory. Back then it was the C64, the TRS-80, or the Apple IIe. Then it was only three real choices and now there are three different markets: Mobile, Laptop, and Desktop.

The mobile market includes both Smartphones and Tablets which all have similar functionality and all include built-in connectivity at least as an option if not a standard feature. If you are on an extremely limited budget it is possible to get by with no other device but a mobile but you will find your capabilities very limited as well with the current capabilities of mobile devices. Screen sizes vary from 4.3" (iPhone) to 10" (tablets). If you can choose only a single personal computing device and want to take it with you then look for a tablet sized device from 7" to 10". With Skype or Google voice installed on a 4G LTE connected tablet and a bluetooth handsfree device it works as well as any phone. If you are going to complement your mobile device with a laptop or desktop then start with a smartphone.

The next decision point is what mobile operating system. There are really only two choices here: iOS or Android; I don't consider Windows Mobile as an option in it's current form. iOS is the most stable and intuitive. If you are new to the mobile market or feel like you want a device that "just works" then choose iOS. With iOS you also get Apple protecting you by censoring the App store and protecting your privacy because Apple wants to sell hardware and cloud services. Android is far more customizable and without a censored App store you can find almost any app you want for your device. One final recommendation in this regard: If your only device is going to be a mobile device then pick an iPad. Android tablets are almost all in 16:9 format which is great for watching content but awful for anything else.

There are a few things to avoid in the mobile market. Do not get phablets! Phablets are phones with screen over 5" in size. The screens are too big to operate single handled, the devices are too big to fit comfortably in a pocket, and yet the screen is really too small for the things you want to do on a tablet like reading books or working on documents. Also avoid the walled garden Android devices. If you want walled garden go with Apple as they are the only ones to do it right. Do not get Amazon kindle fire or fire phone or anything else like that.

The next market is the notebook / laptop market. The laptop and desktop markets are very close to merging into a single market so consider your options carefully here. You should only be looking for a laptop if you need to take your computing power with you. Students and people who take their work home with them fit this category. Chances are that if you need a laptop you can get by without a desktop and in that case pick a more powerful desktop replacement laptop. If you need and can afford to maintain both a laptop and desktop then go for one of the new slim ultrabooks without an optical drive. Avoid netbooks and chromebooks, they really don't serve any purpose better served by a tablet. Also stay away from the "convertible" laptops that switch between laptop and tablet modes, they are too clunky and heavy to make good tablets and not powerful enough to make good laptops. When picking a laptop go brand name; manufacturing laptops is something that takes care and experience you don't get from the off brand manufacturers. I would recommend Apple, Lenovo, Asus, HP, or Dell and nothing else here. Again, think carefully and don't buy a laptop unless you have to right now; if you scroll to the bottom of the article I will explain what is coming in the next few years that is worth waiting for.

The last market is the desktop market. In most cases a laptop with a good docking station and external monitors will do just as well as a desktop. There are really only three reasons to maintain a desktop computer nowadays: gaming, personal media libraries, and video editing. Laptops do not have enough GPU power to play games well so if you are into gaming get yourself a desktop with an upgraded video card and oodles of memory. Hooking a computer up to a big screen HD TV makes for a nice way to watch all of the movies you have stored on big inexpensive SATA hard disks. Stick in a digital tuner card connected to an antenna on the roof and you have yourself a nice DVR that saves you the $100 a month cable and phone companies want to charge you for the privilege of having a hundred channels you never watch so you can get the handful of channels that you do. If you are doing any form of content creation from blogs to home movies, independent films, or music then you need the power of a desktop. Microsoft continues to struggle to maintain a stable platform but, for most things, Windows is still the way to go with most desktop computing needs. The exception to the rule is creative content creation. If you are doing heavy video, audio, or even artwork content creation then go with MacOS X, otherwise stick with Windows 8.1. Here also though hold off if you can; Windows 9 is coming out next year and looks to be very promising.

Whats coming that you might want to wait for? The personal computing markets are merging. In a few more years you will be able to maintain a single primary device that goes mobile as a tablet, docks into big monitors for a full desktop experience, and talks to wearable technology so you can leave it in your bag while walking, driving, exercising, whatever. Microsoft is very close to writing a single operating system environment that works on all devices; windows 8.1 is not quite there but Windows 9 might make it. If Windows 9 still falls short of the goal then Microsoft will be the hare and the tortoise Apple will win the race. Apple is releasing their first wearable technology later this year and it may pull them ahead in the race, we shall see. This is what to look for that will signal the change: A 10" tablet running a laptop CPU (core i5-like) with a dedicated GPU, 8GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD, and 10 hours of battery life weighing in at 1 pound or less with an available keyboard dock (that carries it's own battery doubling the effective battery life), and an available desktop dock that can run two HD monitors. Without accessories this device should come in under the $1000 price point from a major brand. When you see that device trade in your laptops and desktops and get one. Until then, hold off if you can.

Want to know what is coming next after the merged personal computing market? Think 10 to 15 years from now (which really is not that far off). Google named their operating system "Android" for a reason. In our lifetimes we will see personal assistant robotic technology. Everyone will have a personalized robotic device that goes where they go and carries all of their data with them. These androids will be tied into the technology in your vehicle and wearable technology, they will take meeting notes for you, remind you of events, warn you when traffic is bad, let you know when your spouse is likely to meet you (wherever you usually meet), find restaurants, movie times, and the cheapest fueling station and generally assist you in all things replacing the need to swipe and click on multiple devices to find out what you need to know. Initially they will be clunky ugly things that need to be repaired frequently but after another 10 or 20 years of the market maturing they will be smooth and reliable and you can order one that looks like C3P0 or R2D2 or a tiny pink fluffy Unicorn if that is what you like.

2014 Are we living in a post PC era?

With all the talk about smartphones and tablets I keep seeing references to how we "are living in a post PC era" but, really, are we? Will 2014 be the year we officially switch from desktop PCs to another platform and transition into the "post PC era"? In short the answer is NO, see below for further discussion about what the post-PC options are and why they are still just "PC enhancers" and not really ready to handle all of our personal computing needs without a desktop PC.

Wikipedia reference to "Post-PC era": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-PC_era

Ok, so what are the options that we humans could use in place of a desktop or laptop PC? I think it breaks down into Smartphones and Tablets with the latest round of game consoles as a close runner up.

The gaming console market is currently split between Sony Playstation and Microsoft XBox with poor Nintendo trying to keep up with the Wii.The PS4 and XBox One come pretty close to being PC replacements but are still very focussed on the living room with some social networking features added. To be real contender they would have to be something you would consider putting in a cubicle. They are at least two generations away from that and with the gaming console generation lasting about 10 years that is a good bit away.

Ok, so in both the smartphone and tablet market there are options available from Apple (iOS), Google (Android), and Microsoft (Windows). Each has pros and cons but none really can yet stand alone without a full sized personal computer.

The Apple smartphone aka iPhone was a trend setter when it was released in 2007 by releasing a device with the touchscreen as the only form of input supported; no keyboard and no stylus. The iPhone was closely followed by the iPad in 2010. Even today iOS has the best all around and most intuitive user interface. My five year old had no trouble picking up the iPad and figuring out how to use it. In fact he gets yelled at a lot for having the volume up too loud and has trouble finding the physical volume controls on one corner of the device but was able to more easily figure out how to double click the home button, scroll through open app icons to get to the music controls, and turn down the volume there on the touch screen rather then figure out which end of the device is up that has the physical volume controls. Microsoft and Google were years behind Apple copying their multi-touch controls. The other outstanding feature of iOS is the walled garden. The iTunes store is the single source for legally purchasing music, movies, applications and books. The advantage of this walled garden is that you know you will get a good product and you know you can trust the reviews because Apple censors everything that comes through the iTunes store. The disadvantage of the walled garden is that Apple censors everything that comes through the iTunes store so there are things you might want that you cannot get. Strangely enough the other really outstanding selling point for iOS is as an eBook reader. Out of the box iOS supports ePub, PDF, iBooks, Kindle, and Nook books which covers all of the available formats and it is so easy you can show Grandma how to do it. There is also the Overdrive app for free eBooks and audio books from the library.

Will an iPhone or iPad provide you with all of your personal computing needs? No, it won't. The iPhone is the perfect size to work one handed while walking, standing in line somewhere, on the toilet, or wherever else you need some instant electronic gratification. The iPad has a much bigger screen for viewing presentations, watching movies, reading books and documents, checking on your social networking sites, and catching up on emails. The lack of a physical keyboard may seem like an impediment but it really is not once you get used to it. I can type just as fast on my iPad mini touch screen keyboard as I can on my desktop computer keyboard. Where iOS falls apart is in content creation. There are some specialized kinds of things you can create on an iOS device like touch screen art, music, movies, and time lapse photography sequences but to monetize them you have to get them out of the device and that requires a desktop or laptop computer to sync with your iTunes. The other thing the iOS devices lack is a file system. Yes, iOS has a filesystem under the hood based on a Unix core but it is entirely hidden behind the UI and each app is put into its own little walled garden that limits access to data from other applications. You have to supplement your iOS device with cloud based storage solutions like DropBox, Google Drive, and iCloud (with iCloud being the most limited). Lacking the ability to create or edit documents makes iOS useless for any business application. Just try to take a document attached to an email, make edits, and send it back out for review via email; you need a desktop computer in the middle to make that happen.

Google has its Android operating system that it has made available on both smartphones and tablets. Android was a bit behind the iPhone launching it's first smartphone in 2008 and the Nexus 7 tablet in 2012. There were Android tablets before 2012 but it is best not to speak of them because they were truly terrible. Android stole most of the nice touchscreen interface features from iOS but also made its own contributions to the mobile operating system market. The pull down notification menu on Android was a huge improvement over how iOS plastered notifications in the middle of the screen interrupting whatever you may have been doing at the time. Apple was quick to copy the Android style notifications in iOS5 with the iPhone 4s release but still is not as good at it. The big advantage of Android is that it is so open where iOS is so locked down. This means practically any manufacturer of any device can run Android as its core platform and add their own special sauce to it. This makes for a much wider selection of devices more suited to your personal tastes that are not offered by Apple in its limited iPhone and iPad model lineups. The Google Play store is like the anti-iTunes store. You can buy practically any app you want there even stuff that straddles the lines of legality like apps to crack WiFi passwords or mobile hotspot apps you can run after rooting your device that you don't have to pay the extra fees to your mobile provider for the luxury of using. The big disadvantage of Android is that it is so open so means practically any manufacturer of any device can run Android as its core platform and add their own special sauce to it. This means there is not a lot of consistency in Android devices. Moving from one Android device to another means re-learning where a lot of the widgets you are accustomed to have moved. It also becomes harder to select the best app to do what you need since you have to filter through several apps until you find one that works like you want and the reviews are useless as they are all 5 star reviews bought by the manufacturer of the app. You also have to keep in mind that where Apple started selling low cost devices to push it iTunes sales, Google started selling low cost devices to get in the hands of consumers where they can collect data about the users that they use to sell advertising. Big data is big business. If you have concerns about personal privacy then do not use Android devices. Android comes a lot closer to having a file system. If you know what you are doing you can navigate the core file system, copy files and and out of there at will, and even get into the core operating system files and run custom shell scripts once you root the device. You can also find a device with an SD card slot you can use to move files in and out of the device and share with other devices. So you can copy your docs down to an SD card, work on them on a long plane flight on your Android tablet, then attach them to an email and send them out to your colleagues a lot easier on Android. Another area where Android lacks is in eBooks. Where iOS supports all of the eBook formats right out of the box it becomes a science experiment with Android where you end up choosing the right app that works with the book formats you have chosen to purchase. I also want to personally want advise anyone in the market for a tablet device to avoid at all costs the Amazon Kindle Fire, even the new HDX one. Where Android is the not-Apple device Amazon has taken a step back and put the Kindle Fire into its own Amazon branded garden so you can only get your music, movies, books, and even apps from Amazon. If you want to live in a walled garden get an iPad instead and live in a much more luxurious and larger garden.

Will an Android device provide you with all of your personal computing needs? No, it won't. At best it can be used as a companion device to allow you to take your content with you and even work on it in a limited fashion. What Android is still lacking as well as iOS is true multi-tasking. Both iOS and Android are full screen devices. You can have multiple applications running but you have to switch between them and even with Android it is not easy to use different apps to work on the same files; some apps will support that and some will not; some apps will work with dropbox or google drive and some will not; some apps can access the SD card storage and some cannot. When you really want to be production you still need a desktop computer from which you can have multiple applications running in multiple windows at the same time, operating on the same files and complementing each other. This is something that desktop computers have been doing since the days of Windows 3.1 in 1992. Touchscreen devices have still not quite figured out how to multi-task effectively.

Last and least in this space where they should have and should be dominating is Microsoft. With Microsoft Window and Microsoft Office as their core business Microsoft stands to lose the most in the transition to the Post-PC era. Unfortunately Microsoft was really stumbled through this. The first version of Windows CE was released in 1996, more then 10 years ahead of the iPhone. I owned a Philips Velo 1 running Windows CE  in 1997 (http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/7122/Philips-Velo-1/). Windows CE v3.0 was the basis for the Pocket PC operating system in 2000. Pocket PC powered the first generation of PDA devices like the Compaq iPaq. Pocket PC led to Windows Mobile running on the first real smartphones in 2002 which was fully 5 years ahead of the iPhone. I had two different Windows Mobile based smarthpones, one with a stylus and one with a slide out keyboard. So, what happened? Microsoft kind of dropped the ball and went from leading the smartphone market to following it. The iPhone and Android blew Microsoft right out of the market while they kept trying to improve Windows Mobile to compete but it just felt like they weren't trying very hard. Where windows mobile smartphones used to be the cool device for which you could get any app they were completely replace by Android which is now the cool device for which you can get any app and Apple which maintains a level of system stability Microsoft devices have never had and even Android does not have now. Microsoft has attempted to re-enter the market with the Windows Phone operating system released in 2010 but by then they were late to the game.

As sad as the Microsoft story sounds they are actually now taking an interesting path that has the potential to leapfrog Apple and Google. With the Surface tablet and Windows 8 Microsoft has started to unify the mobile and desktop interfaces into the same look and feel. What they have out now is atrocious. The Windows 8 touchscreen interface (Metro) is terrible and the first thing you want to do with a new Windows 8 PC is get into desktop mode and get your start menu back. The Surface RT and Surface 2 tablets have a desktop mode but it won't run the same desktop apps you can run on your PC so it is just annoying. The Surface 2 Pro comes the closest to a device with the potential to be called a truly usefull Post-PC era device but compared to any other tablet it is huge, heavy, and clunky and compared to a laptop it is tiny with a crappy keyboard.

Will any Microsoft phone or tablet do replace your desktop PC. Well, yes, actually, the Surface Pro 2 could as well as the third party variants of the same style like the Dell Venue 11, Sony Vaio Tap 11, and Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11s. What all of these devices share is that they are too big and heavy to compete with iPad or Android and the Windows 8 interface is just too clunky as it is now.

2014 is not the year of the Post-PC era. What my generation grew up on (the PC era) and is accustomed to for multi-tasking is WIMP - Windows, Icons, Mouse, and Pointers. The full screen multi-touch interface has icons (aka apps) and can get by through the use of a finger to replace the mouse and pointer. The technology is missing a revelation that can replace Windows as a mechanism for working on multiple applications at the same time. With the release of Windows 9 in 2015 we might be there. That also gives Apple another year to surprise us by merging the Max OSX and iOS experience into the same operating system and releasing touchscreen iMacs, MacBook, iPhone, and iPad lines to take advantage of it. Strangely enough without the vision of Steve Jobs at the helm I think Microsoft may have a chance to get back in the game here. Android is almost always a follower in the phone and tablet market so I don't see Google surprising us unless Google glass or robots become viable  in the next 2 years. Google could *really* surprise everone if they managed to come up with an affordable and reliable personal assistant robot with 12 hours of battery life running an Android operating system powered by voice commands and locomotive enough to follow you around in your daily activities and present you with information when you need it. I don;t see that happening until Microsoft or Apple come up with a more clever way to enable multi-tasking in the multi-touch interface and thus unleash us from our desktop computers.