Yesterday my wife and I took a visit to the local Apple Store, my Time Capsule had died, and since it was one of the original models, it was under a replacement program. I took the Time Capsule back, they traded my broken one for a brand new one, and I was done.
My wife, however, was a different story. You may remember from a previous post of mine that my wife dropped her iPhone4 while getting my daughter out of the car. Whoops. Cracked the back glass to shreds.
She was fairly upset, since she had it about a week. Anyway, she went in, explained what she did to the Apple Genius dudes, and guess what?
They gave her a brand new phone.
/That's/ why I like Apple Stores.
Thanks to the Christiana Mall Apple Store Geniuses. You rule.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Monday, July 26
Monday, July 19
iPhone 4. A review after practical use, part 2
Part 1 Linked here.
Buttons and other Cosmetics
The volume button, the lock button, and the silent/ringer switch all got the same industrial treatment the rest of the phone did. They work much better, have better tactile feedback and are much more defined, making it much easier to find one of these buttons in the depths of your pocket. (Like to turn the volume down on your ringer or something)
There is the single button on the front of the phone, the Home button, which they made a bit more "clicky" I would say. But the one thing about the design of the phone is, when you reach in your pocket to grab the phone and bring it out of your pocket in one swift motion while mashing the Home button, you can't do it.
Since the 3GS had that rounded back, it was easy to feel where the backside was and hit the button. With the square design, it's hard to tell which side is the front and back when it's your pocket unless you try and find the buttons on the side.
This isn't a big deal at all. It's just a quirk that I found that I had that I've had to get used to.
FaceTime
FaceTime is Apple's new "video chat" feature. You use two iPhone 4s, call each other on the phone, and as long as both of you are on Wifi, you can then mash the FaceTime button. If everything is okay, (NAT transversal, etc) you'll shortly be talking to each other via video chat. Is it cool? Yes.
Does it work? Yes.
Have I used it? A lot.
Is it revolutionary? No, video chat has been done before. But this time it's implemented correctly and easily. It works. You don't have to go to Fring and sign up with an account, and then use Video (btw, Fring's video quality sucks, and their audio is a close second). You don't have to do anything extra. Ensure you are on Wifi, and hit the "Facetime" button. The quality is good, audio quality is good. It allows me to sit in my hotel and video chat with my wife and daughter while they are at home. My daughter can show me her picture that she drew that day, she can show me what she's eating for dinner, she can show me her "beautiful dress" that she's wearing. (All dresses, according to my daughter, are "beautiful dresses".)
Could we have done this before? Yes, and still do, with iChat. But there's two things about that. First, iChat requires more bandwidth, therefore hotel internet most of the time, can't handle it, and secondly, my wife doesn't always have her laptop. She most always has her phone. And since my wife is 8 months pregnant, I'm not about to make her get up to get her laptop. I have better sense than that.
I think this is a great feature, it'll be neat if my parents get an iPhone 4 so they can enjoy it as well. Especially when it comes to seeing my new baby.
Speed
This thing is quick. If you bought the 3GS, upgraded from the 3G, or you have the 3G, or if you have the iPhone original. The new iPhone 4 is dramatically faster than the 3G or the iPhone original, the 3GS, yes, it's faster than that, but you'd have do some some really processor intensive stuff to notice a huge difference (like compressing video). So, if you have a 3GS and want to upgrade to the iPhone 4, you need to use one of the other of the 100 new features of the iPhone 4 as your excuse to upgrade. However, if you have a 3G or the original iPhone, you will be blown away by the speed.
Think about this in perspective for a second, the A4's rumored speed is 1 Ghz (after a cursory search of the internet, it's the best metric I could find). Now the A4 is the same chip that is in the iPad and the iPhone. The iPhone A4 is rumored to be clocked down, to preserve battery life.
The amount of RAM on the iPhone 4 is 512 MB (as evidenced by a particular slide at WWDC, Apple doesn't announce the RAM amounts or the clock speed in their mobile devices). I remember, in 2003, my last computer before I bought an Apple computer, was a 1.7 Ghz chip with 512 bytes of RAM. Seven years later, I have a phone in my pocket that is almost as fast, has the same amount of RAM, and as 32 Gb of storage on it. Really puts things in perspective, how things are advancing. I feel it's impressive. (Of course, back then, I had a 1.5 Mb/s Cable connection to the Internet and I thought that was fast. Now I have a 25 Mb/s Fiber connection.)
Camera
On the back is a 5 Megapixel camera, on the front is a significantly lower megapixel camera. The front camera is primarily for taking pictures of yourself, if you are that vain, and also for Facetime. Which serves it's purpose quite well. The back camera, with the LED flash, is for taking good pictures. The iPhone does take good pictures. Not GREAT pictures, not like Cannon 5D Mark II pictures, but it will easily replace that point and shoot my wife carries in her purse. Anything where I can carry less devices is a win for me.
Problems with the camera. The Flash is okay. If you try to take a picture, in the dark, and if the subject is close, it'll work great. As long as the person you are taking a picture of doesn't actually look at the flash. I don't know why, but every picture I have taken of people with the flash at night has a weird "red-eye" effect, except it's not red. It's white. Making my photo subjects a bit creepy.
In low light, and if there is any kind of motion, the iPhone will blur the motion in the picture. Most cameras do this, so I can't fault the actual iPhone.
However, if you are taking pictures during the day, morning, or evening. Indoors or outdoors, sunny or overcast, the pictures are great. It replaces point and shoots.
The other feature of the iPhone is the ability to record 720p HD video. I've done this several times already, recording video of my daughter jumping off the diving board for the first time and things like that. The iPhone 4 handles it just fine. The video looks great on playback on the Retina Display or even after you offload it to your iPhoto and play it on the Desktop.
Overall
I have some opinions, and this is the place to share them I guess, since it's my blog. Overall, I like the iPhone, but I always have. The iPhone 4 is much better than it's predecessor. I'm still not too crazy about the Antenna reception "Don't touch this 2mm of the outside of the phone" thing, but I can overlook it by not touching it there, and getting a case. Do I think it's a bad design? No. I understand why they did it, and it can be overcome easily, but it kinda sucks.
I'm not crazy about the glass on both sides, but according to the things I've read, I understand why it was done. Apparently, they did away with the plastic back because plastic retains more heat than glass, and the iPhone 4 can heat up when doing really processor intensive things like compressing video. It's slippery and obviously, as tested by my wife, it breaks. Apple charges waaay to much to fix this issue, and I think that's BS.
- Do I think it's a good phone? Yes.
- Do I think it's a good computer? Yes.
- Do I recommend it to friends? Yes, if you buy a case with it, or at least have the cognitive ability to not touch that portion of the phone.
Overall? Good. Buy it. It rocks.
Saturday, July 17
iPhone 4. A review after actual use.
Physical Design
Okay, much has been said about the physical design of this phone, it's industrial features, it's glass front and back, stainless steel metal band around the side that doubles as an antenna, dual camera, and an led flash. The buttons, the glass, the band, everything. It makes for a great design, feels smaller and better in your hand than the 3GS. In fact, the 3GS feels fat, plastic, and bloated. I only see two problems with the design.
One, front and back are both glass, meaning, if you drop it it might break. Even though Apple claims that the glass is harder than sapphire, if you drop the thing at the right angle, it will break. Ask my wife, who has already shattered the back of her phone after dropping it on the driveway. (Which Apple wants 199 dollars to replace the back, which is the cost of a new phone! Apple, have you lost your mind?).
Problem Two: it's slippery. If you place your phone on something smooth, say, like in my car, I have a center console. If I place the phone on there, it slips right off. Or on the arm rest of an easy chair. This is as a result of it being glass. Neither is that big of a deal, if you just are careful about how you take care of the phone. If you buy a bumper (which Apple is now giving away for free until September 30th) it has a bit of rubber on the back edge, making it non-slip, and a bit more protected.
The Display
Just after the iPad comes out, and those of us who bought one were running around saying "Wow, look at this really big touch screen display", then following that the Evo comes out with that big screen and people say "Wow, look at this really big touch screen display". For instance, I have a friend of mine that went from an iPhone (o.g.) to an Evo, and he was like "This screen is huge, it's so big!", but I digress.
Apple comes out with this display on the iPhone 4, it's has 4x the pixel display density of the iPhone 3GS. This results in much sharper rendering of, well, damn near, anything. Photos look great, video looks great, games look great, apps look great, but what's the one thing you do, or view on an iPhone the most?
Text.
Oh, it rocks. If you have an iPhone (not)4, do this, and you'll understand:
Go to http://nytimes.com. Don't zoom in after it loads. Big newspaper website right? Look at the text, see how it's barely readable and all pixelated? On the iPhone 4, you can read it. READ it. Right from this screen. You can zoom in on the (not)4, and you'll be able to read it just fine, which you'd probably want to do on the iPhone 4 as well, but that's just an illustration of how much better this display is.
After you see and use the "Retina" Display, and go back to another phone (even the iPad, or a regular computer) you'll wonder how you ever complimented that old screen and how bothersome it is to have all that fuzzy text.
There has been some dispute about the fact that Apple calls this the "Retina Display". As to whether or not the pixel density is actually higher than what the Retina can perceive. First off, two things.
- I am not an optical engineer, and don't play one on TV, so I'm not going to get into the argument by adding my own thoughts here. All I know is that it looks great.
- It's a marketing term people, there is a line to how pedantic you must be people.
In short, the display is quite awesome.
The Antenna
Now, the antenna has been in constant controversy since the iPhone 4 came out. Let me cover a few parts of it.
- The Antenna is broken into two parts, if you are looking at the left hand side of the phone, you will see a black band. The piece of metal that is around the outside of the phone on the left hand side is for Wifi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The rest of the metal is for Edge and 3G.
- It's on the outside of the phone, for better reception.
- If you touch it, right at that black band on the left hand side, the "bars" or signal on the phone degrade into almost nothing, and if you are in a weak signal area, your call will just drop.
Not really an optimum design for an antenna you might think. One that you can touch in 2mm of the phone and the call drops? Yup. I can replicate it, I can do it, at will. You know what else I can do?
Not put my pinky over that part of the phone.
Or if worst comes to worst, get a case. I got a bumper for my phone which covers the antenna and the phone works perfectly.
Now, some people have said that Apple should have never released a phone like this. Well that may be a good point, but I don't know if that would have helped. The antenna is on the outside of the phone, okay? Any phone you grip around the antenna is going to attenuate the signal. It's just the way it is. Apple says this, and you can replicate it on any of the prior iPhones as well as a bunch of the iPhone's competitors.
Remember when we were kids and you grabbed the rabbit antennas on your TV? Remember how the signal would get worse when you did that, even some times when you just got close to the TV? Same principle.
The phone is a radio. Sorry. It has to retrieve and transmit, and they have to put the antenna somewhere. Apple put the antenna on the outside of the phone to try and reduce the dropped calls everyone on AT&T was complaining about.
I personally have much less dropped calls than I used to (despite what Apple said about the iPhone 4 dropping more calls), and I'm not complaining about it one bit. Yes, I can hold the phone in a certain way to attenuate the signal and make the bars go down, so I just don't hold it like that. It de-tunes the antenna, and therefore make signal reception go down.
Since this post is running right around 1000 words right now, I'll cut it into two posts... stay tuned for part two.
Sunday, April 4
iPad review
My mother in law, whose extent of using the Internet is asking where the big blue "E" is, sat done with my iPad and in five minutes of using it, knew how, and was determined that she wanted one. (That is to say that technology is not really her thing, she's a very smart woman)
My three year old daughter, who has prior computing experience on my iPhone, used my iPad for sly of about 3 seconds and was watching videos and playing games on it.
My wife, who also has an iPhone, works on Windows and Macs everyday started using it right away.
Reminded me of that Staples commercial. "That was easy".
I swore to myself that I would approach this device (writing this blog post on it, on the virtual keyboard too) with an open and objective mind, not to be an Apple fanboy, and really use nothing but this device for, say a week, and really give it a good review. I figure the only way to give a good review about this device is to do just that, and see, once and for all, if you really could replace a laptop with it.
Of course there are going to be the people marching with their picket signs proclaiming that the iPad is the end of the net book, "the end is nigh!!!". I am not saying they are wrong, but I am also not proclaiming that they are right either. This device clearly fills a void, that before it came out, we never knew existed.
We never knew what a nice interface for the mobile phone looked like until the iPhone came out either. Remember the interfaces of the Palm Treo and Blackberries before the iPhone came out? We never knew what a touch interface would yield us. Now look at the world, 3 years later, and you'd be hard pressed to go anywhere and not see at least a dozen iPhones on the way to your destination. Even in New York City, where AT&T's coverage is, frankly, horrible, you still see iPhones on almost everyone.
The iPad is similar. You never knew you had a need or a want for a device like this one until you pick one up and use it. For me, when sitting on the couch during the first 10 minutes of having it, browsing the Internet, setting up my email accounts and answering a few emails on it, i said to myself "I get it".
Apple describes the experience in using the device "far more intimate" than using a smartphone or a laptop. Now I understand why they used that particular piece of terminology. It doesn't seem as if there is a barrier to using the device. Not in terms of learning to use this device, but in terms of interacting with the content. You don't have the perception that you are moving the mouse or typing on a keyboard to manipulate the information. You feel like, you are creating or moving the information.
It feels like Star Trek. Ever watch the next generation, when Data or someone was configuring something on the screen? That, was the iPad. That's what it feels and looks like. Minority report (not the big screen, the little one) style.
You want to click on something, you tap it. You want to move or scroll, you move the stuff on the screen with your finger. Want to type something, you just, go and type it.
I'll rate everything on a scale of one to ten.
Typing (6)
It takes a minute to get used to typing on it, especially when you are trying to hit the "a" key with your pinky (i keep hitting s). But after about 20 minutes or 10 emails worth of typing, you are whizzing through typing on this thing fast as heck. No problem. I can type almost as fast on the iPad as I do on the regular keyboard, the main advantage I have is the error correction. It takes a second, just like you had to get used to on the iPhone, to remember that you shouldn't back space, just keep typing and more than likely the error correction on the OS will fix itself. Same issue with the apostrophe on certain words. For instance, "hell" you have to type manually, otherwise it'll come out "he'll". But I can imagine, after typing on this thing awhile, I'll go back to a regular keyboard and try and type the double space shortcut (period then space), and I won't be able to.
Also how you hold it is important, personally I prefer to type in landscape mode, as in portrait mode, the keyboard is a bit too wide to use with just my thumbs. In landscape mode, I can type on it comfortably.
Videos (9)
Watching videos on this thing is phenomenal. I have watched several episodes of tv shows, both House and Top Gear. All in "high definition" and all looked great. Now, the HD purists will complain that the resolution isn't high enough to be called high def, and the true 16x9 ratio isn't there, but it's a great device for watching content on.
Browsing (7)
Yeah, it doesn't have flash. No I don't care. I block flash in my desktop browser anyway, I prefer html5 for many reasons, the main being that html5 has never caused my fan on my laptop to kick on and run in overdrive. Flash always does. Try it. See how fast your computer heats up when you are using flash as opposed to html5. See how fast your battery dies in a comparison between the two. Otherwise browsing on this thing kicks butt. I have only encountered one problem on one website, where I couldn't scroll down, but the scrolling action was controlled by flash. So obviously.
Email (8)
Perfect client for writing a small email on. If you are one of those types who likes to write "War and Peace" length emails, then this might not be the device for you, even though you shouldn't have a problem, heck I wrote this whole long blog post on the virtual keyboard. But if you are like the 99.9% of email writers out there that answer there email in about 5 sentences or a couple paragraphs, then this device is just fine for you. The only two drawbacks so far that i see are, a) lack of universal inbox, which Steve Jobs himself said is coming and b) you cant move an email from one account to another.
Apps (6 for the iPhone apps that are pixel doubled, 8-9 for the iPad native apps)
While the pixel doubling for the iPad is good for iPhone shaped apps, some of the text can look a bit blocky, but they work just fine. My daughter had no problem playing her games, and you shouldn't either. I was testing out Real Racing over the weekend and it worked just fine. It was actually much better playing the game on a big screen instead of the iPhone. Some of the apps for the iPad that have been redesigned are great. I love them. Especially the Accuweather app. Beautiful. You can really tell the difference between the apps that were, from the ground up designed to work for the iPad, and the apps where they took the iPhone app, and just, made it bigger. I am sure, in time those apps will be redesigned now that the hardware is actually out.
Calendar (9)
It actually works, looks, and functions like a calendar. I use the iCal all the time constantly, and it's synced automatically with google calendar. On the iPhone, it worked great, it does work great, but the iPad is just, better some how. It looks better, it looks like a real calendar, or as well as real as a digital calendar can look. They real did a nice job with the presentation of the app, the top of it looks like you just tore off the day prior.
Contacts (9)
Same as above, it looks like a book, an actual contact book that might sit in that drawer under the phone in your kitchen. You use it like a book, it looks like a series of tabs on the left, and you can use it just like that.
Pages, Keynote, and Numbers (7)
These apps are great. I haven't gotten the chance to use Numbers and Keynote yet, but i sent the better part of today editing a document in Pages. (hey like i said, i really wanted to test the thing!). It's not as full featured as the desktop version, but it's a damn good word processor for the majority of documents that are going to be created. If my wife or my mother-in-law wanted to write a document, make a sign, or work on their resume, they could do so very easily.
iTunes, Videos, and Youtube (8)
They clearly designed this device to take advantage of the media in your iTunes library, or some deals that Apple is trying to make. This is a great device to watch videos on, as i already said, but the interfaces wrapped up in each of the above built in apps clearly make this a device perfect for consuming media on.
Speaker (8)
It's good. You can watch a movie, tv show, or whatever, and it functions great and has plenty of sound. It's not a 5.1 surround system, but it works great and it was actually a bit surprising.
Buttons (uh 10?)
Home button, volume buttons, and lock buttons just like the iPhone. However, the silent/ringer button has been replaced with a "screen lock" button. When switched, locks your screen in whatever position you currently have it in. Landscape or portrait, it just stays there. Useful if you are sitting at s strange angle on the couch or something and the iPad's accelerometer doesn't know if it's up or down or sideways.
Battery (10)
The battery is unbelievably long lasting. I've been using it since Saturday, basically as my primary computer, and I've plugged it in once. I've watched videos on it, I've browsed on it, I've played games on it, I've read books on it. Just great battery life.
iBooks (8)
The books are great. I've a couple free ones on my device here, and I've read about 100 or so pages. The books work great in landscape or portrait, in sunlight, and in shade, inside and out. The only thing about the iPad is that it weighs a pound and a half, which isn't a big deal, you just shift the weight from hand to hand every couple pages, unless you are a total sissy, or if you are 2 years old. (My three year old little girl can hold it for a long period of time and not complain, so if that's any indication)
Screen (10)
The screen is beautiful. Yes it gets fingerprints on it, but I have a little cloth from KlearScreen.com that I have had for years (since I first started using Macs), a newer one can be found in these kits. I wipe the screen, it comes right off. Something a little micro-fiberish takes everything right off, yeah, you could use a Tshirt too. Glare on the screen? People seem to think that sunlight would create a gigantic glare on the device, I disagree. I think apps that have dark backgrounds are the worst culprit. You read a book in iBooks, in full sunlight, no problem. But if you are using the (AWESOME) Accuweather iPad app, which has a black background, it can be difficult.
Wifi (8)
I have read some forums online where people are complaining about the Wifi connectivity with the device. It will start off at five bars, and then shrink down to 1 bar, then go back up again. I have to admit, I was experiencing this at my mother-in-laws house, and her router is using WEP, Verizon FiOS Actiontec regular old wireless router with both B and G bands. At home, I have two Apple WAPs running 802.11G and 802.11N. The iPad communicates flawlessly all over the house, yard, and porches with a full five bars on either connection point. Maybe this is a firmware issue (because apparently lots of people are experiencing problems), however, I.. am not, at home.
Now, as you'd expect let's address some of the downfalls of the device:
The Downfalls
No flash -- well, be that as it may. It is what it is, and I am sure, the longer the iPhone stays out, and the bigger the iPad gets, the end of flash may draw near.
No removable battery -- this was the big bitch about the iPhone when it first came out and it seems that people have largely gotten over this. You know, by plugging the darn thing in. This isn't a phone, you don't need to trade out the batteries like you should need to with a phone.
No remove-able storage -- I don't know how this is that big of a deal. The iPad comes in 16 gig, 32 gig, and 64 gig of storage. If that's not enough space for you, then you might want to evaluate a cloud based storage solution of some type.
No Usb ports -- well clearly this is not a full featured computer. For the most of the audience and consumers out there, this could be a everyday useful computer. I think it's perfect for kids at school, for doctors, for lawyers, for my parents, for my brothers. Those of you that need to plug in your wacom tablet, or your thirty USB based devices, this isn't it. Apple clearly wanted the device to be stable and not susceptible tom third party drivers for USB devices and such.
Printing -- you can't print from it. Not natively, not yet. While it is certainly possible to set up a printer on the network and print wirelessly, heck I do it at my house, the iPad does notmhave the built in ability to print. Which kinda stinks. But, just like the iPhone, where someone wrote an app to be able to do just that, I imagine, given time, the iPad will be able to do the same thing.
No Camera -- The iPad has no camera, forward or back. I don't think a back mounted iPad (like the iPhone) would be of much use, I mean, it would just be weird trying to take a picture with a device that big. A forward facing one, so you could use it for video conferencing with iChat? That would be AWESOME, and I wished they would have built it in, but alas, they didn't, so hopefully they do in a future version.
No Microphone -- It has a built in mic, I think the headphones are better. I took my iPhone headphones (the ones with the mic built in to the lanyard) fired up the Skype app and made a call. It worked perfectly.
I am sure there are more, if you feel so inclined to tell me what you think the downfalls of the device are in the comments, I'll be glad to update the post, and/or give my opinion.
In closing
I clearly believe that there is no way that you'll fully understand this device unless you use it. There is clearly a market, and tons of potential for this device, and we'll see where it goes.
What do I recommend?
I recommend you get the biggest one. 64G. You'll understand why once you have it, because you'll want to be consuming media on it, you'll want to be watching movies, have your apps, have your documents, have your stuff. Especially those of you that are like me and travel a lot and want a device to use on the plane. Get the biggest one. The 3G vs. Wifi is a debate only you can answer. Personally, I have a Mifi, so I have no need to have the 3G version, I use the Mifi as a Wireless access point, connect my iPad to it, and away I go. Simple.
Overall Grade: 8
It's an excellent device, try before you buy, but you won't think you need one, until you use one. Then, you won't know how you did without it. It's the perfect couch device, bedside table device, and going to the bathroom device.
My three year old daughter, who has prior computing experience on my iPhone, used my iPad for sly of about 3 seconds and was watching videos and playing games on it.
My wife, who also has an iPhone, works on Windows and Macs everyday started using it right away.
Reminded me of that Staples commercial. "That was easy".
I swore to myself that I would approach this device (writing this blog post on it, on the virtual keyboard too) with an open and objective mind, not to be an Apple fanboy, and really use nothing but this device for, say a week, and really give it a good review. I figure the only way to give a good review about this device is to do just that, and see, once and for all, if you really could replace a laptop with it.
Of course there are going to be the people marching with their picket signs proclaiming that the iPad is the end of the net book, "the end is nigh!!!". I am not saying they are wrong, but I am also not proclaiming that they are right either. This device clearly fills a void, that before it came out, we never knew existed.
We never knew what a nice interface for the mobile phone looked like until the iPhone came out either. Remember the interfaces of the Palm Treo and Blackberries before the iPhone came out? We never knew what a touch interface would yield us. Now look at the world, 3 years later, and you'd be hard pressed to go anywhere and not see at least a dozen iPhones on the way to your destination. Even in New York City, where AT&T's coverage is, frankly, horrible, you still see iPhones on almost everyone.
The iPad is similar. You never knew you had a need or a want for a device like this one until you pick one up and use it. For me, when sitting on the couch during the first 10 minutes of having it, browsing the Internet, setting up my email accounts and answering a few emails on it, i said to myself "I get it".
Apple describes the experience in using the device "far more intimate" than using a smartphone or a laptop. Now I understand why they used that particular piece of terminology. It doesn't seem as if there is a barrier to using the device. Not in terms of learning to use this device, but in terms of interacting with the content. You don't have the perception that you are moving the mouse or typing on a keyboard to manipulate the information. You feel like, you are creating or moving the information.
It feels like Star Trek. Ever watch the next generation, when Data or someone was configuring something on the screen? That, was the iPad. That's what it feels and looks like. Minority report (not the big screen, the little one) style.
You want to click on something, you tap it. You want to move or scroll, you move the stuff on the screen with your finger. Want to type something, you just, go and type it.
I'll rate everything on a scale of one to ten.
Typing (6)
It takes a minute to get used to typing on it, especially when you are trying to hit the "a" key with your pinky (i keep hitting s). But after about 20 minutes or 10 emails worth of typing, you are whizzing through typing on this thing fast as heck. No problem. I can type almost as fast on the iPad as I do on the regular keyboard, the main advantage I have is the error correction. It takes a second, just like you had to get used to on the iPhone, to remember that you shouldn't back space, just keep typing and more than likely the error correction on the OS will fix itself. Same issue with the apostrophe on certain words. For instance, "hell" you have to type manually, otherwise it'll come out "he'll". But I can imagine, after typing on this thing awhile, I'll go back to a regular keyboard and try and type the double space shortcut (period then space), and I won't be able to.
Also how you hold it is important, personally I prefer to type in landscape mode, as in portrait mode, the keyboard is a bit too wide to use with just my thumbs. In landscape mode, I can type on it comfortably.
Videos (9)
Watching videos on this thing is phenomenal. I have watched several episodes of tv shows, both House and Top Gear. All in "high definition" and all looked great. Now, the HD purists will complain that the resolution isn't high enough to be called high def, and the true 16x9 ratio isn't there, but it's a great device for watching content on.
Browsing (7)
Yeah, it doesn't have flash. No I don't care. I block flash in my desktop browser anyway, I prefer html5 for many reasons, the main being that html5 has never caused my fan on my laptop to kick on and run in overdrive. Flash always does. Try it. See how fast your computer heats up when you are using flash as opposed to html5. See how fast your battery dies in a comparison between the two. Otherwise browsing on this thing kicks butt. I have only encountered one problem on one website, where I couldn't scroll down, but the scrolling action was controlled by flash. So obviously.
Email (8)
Perfect client for writing a small email on. If you are one of those types who likes to write "War and Peace" length emails, then this might not be the device for you, even though you shouldn't have a problem, heck I wrote this whole long blog post on the virtual keyboard. But if you are like the 99.9% of email writers out there that answer there email in about 5 sentences or a couple paragraphs, then this device is just fine for you. The only two drawbacks so far that i see are, a) lack of universal inbox, which Steve Jobs himself said is coming and b) you cant move an email from one account to another.
Apps (6 for the iPhone apps that are pixel doubled, 8-9 for the iPad native apps)
While the pixel doubling for the iPad is good for iPhone shaped apps, some of the text can look a bit blocky, but they work just fine. My daughter had no problem playing her games, and you shouldn't either. I was testing out Real Racing over the weekend and it worked just fine. It was actually much better playing the game on a big screen instead of the iPhone. Some of the apps for the iPad that have been redesigned are great. I love them. Especially the Accuweather app. Beautiful. You can really tell the difference between the apps that were, from the ground up designed to work for the iPad, and the apps where they took the iPhone app, and just, made it bigger. I am sure, in time those apps will be redesigned now that the hardware is actually out.
Calendar (9)
It actually works, looks, and functions like a calendar. I use the iCal all the time constantly, and it's synced automatically with google calendar. On the iPhone, it worked great, it does work great, but the iPad is just, better some how. It looks better, it looks like a real calendar, or as well as real as a digital calendar can look. They real did a nice job with the presentation of the app, the top of it looks like you just tore off the day prior.
Contacts (9)
Same as above, it looks like a book, an actual contact book that might sit in that drawer under the phone in your kitchen. You use it like a book, it looks like a series of tabs on the left, and you can use it just like that.
Pages, Keynote, and Numbers (7)
These apps are great. I haven't gotten the chance to use Numbers and Keynote yet, but i sent the better part of today editing a document in Pages. (hey like i said, i really wanted to test the thing!). It's not as full featured as the desktop version, but it's a damn good word processor for the majority of documents that are going to be created. If my wife or my mother-in-law wanted to write a document, make a sign, or work on their resume, they could do so very easily.
iTunes, Videos, and Youtube (8)
They clearly designed this device to take advantage of the media in your iTunes library, or some deals that Apple is trying to make. This is a great device to watch videos on, as i already said, but the interfaces wrapped up in each of the above built in apps clearly make this a device perfect for consuming media on.
Speaker (8)
It's good. You can watch a movie, tv show, or whatever, and it functions great and has plenty of sound. It's not a 5.1 surround system, but it works great and it was actually a bit surprising.
Buttons (uh 10?)
Home button, volume buttons, and lock buttons just like the iPhone. However, the silent/ringer button has been replaced with a "screen lock" button. When switched, locks your screen in whatever position you currently have it in. Landscape or portrait, it just stays there. Useful if you are sitting at s strange angle on the couch or something and the iPad's accelerometer doesn't know if it's up or down or sideways.
Battery (10)
The battery is unbelievably long lasting. I've been using it since Saturday, basically as my primary computer, and I've plugged it in once. I've watched videos on it, I've browsed on it, I've played games on it, I've read books on it. Just great battery life.
iBooks (8)
The books are great. I've a couple free ones on my device here, and I've read about 100 or so pages. The books work great in landscape or portrait, in sunlight, and in shade, inside and out. The only thing about the iPad is that it weighs a pound and a half, which isn't a big deal, you just shift the weight from hand to hand every couple pages, unless you are a total sissy, or if you are 2 years old. (My three year old little girl can hold it for a long period of time and not complain, so if that's any indication)
Screen (10)
The screen is beautiful. Yes it gets fingerprints on it, but I have a little cloth from KlearScreen.com that I have had for years (since I first started using Macs), a newer one can be found in these kits. I wipe the screen, it comes right off. Something a little micro-fiberish takes everything right off, yeah, you could use a Tshirt too. Glare on the screen? People seem to think that sunlight would create a gigantic glare on the device, I disagree. I think apps that have dark backgrounds are the worst culprit. You read a book in iBooks, in full sunlight, no problem. But if you are using the (AWESOME) Accuweather iPad app, which has a black background, it can be difficult.
Wifi (8)
I have read some forums online where people are complaining about the Wifi connectivity with the device. It will start off at five bars, and then shrink down to 1 bar, then go back up again. I have to admit, I was experiencing this at my mother-in-laws house, and her router is using WEP, Verizon FiOS Actiontec regular old wireless router with both B and G bands. At home, I have two Apple WAPs running 802.11G and 802.11N. The iPad communicates flawlessly all over the house, yard, and porches with a full five bars on either connection point. Maybe this is a firmware issue (because apparently lots of people are experiencing problems), however, I.. am not, at home.
Now, as you'd expect let's address some of the downfalls of the device:
The Downfalls
No flash -- well, be that as it may. It is what it is, and I am sure, the longer the iPhone stays out, and the bigger the iPad gets, the end of flash may draw near.
No removable battery -- this was the big bitch about the iPhone when it first came out and it seems that people have largely gotten over this. You know, by plugging the darn thing in. This isn't a phone, you don't need to trade out the batteries like you should need to with a phone.
No remove-able storage -- I don't know how this is that big of a deal. The iPad comes in 16 gig, 32 gig, and 64 gig of storage. If that's not enough space for you, then you might want to evaluate a cloud based storage solution of some type.
No Usb ports -- well clearly this is not a full featured computer. For the most of the audience and consumers out there, this could be a everyday useful computer. I think it's perfect for kids at school, for doctors, for lawyers, for my parents, for my brothers. Those of you that need to plug in your wacom tablet, or your thirty USB based devices, this isn't it. Apple clearly wanted the device to be stable and not susceptible tom third party drivers for USB devices and such.
Printing -- you can't print from it. Not natively, not yet. While it is certainly possible to set up a printer on the network and print wirelessly, heck I do it at my house, the iPad does notmhave the built in ability to print. Which kinda stinks. But, just like the iPhone, where someone wrote an app to be able to do just that, I imagine, given time, the iPad will be able to do the same thing.
No Camera -- The iPad has no camera, forward or back. I don't think a back mounted iPad (like the iPhone) would be of much use, I mean, it would just be weird trying to take a picture with a device that big. A forward facing one, so you could use it for video conferencing with iChat? That would be AWESOME, and I wished they would have built it in, but alas, they didn't, so hopefully they do in a future version.
No Microphone -- It has a built in mic, I think the headphones are better. I took my iPhone headphones (the ones with the mic built in to the lanyard) fired up the Skype app and made a call. It worked perfectly.
I am sure there are more, if you feel so inclined to tell me what you think the downfalls of the device are in the comments, I'll be glad to update the post, and/or give my opinion.
In closing
I clearly believe that there is no way that you'll fully understand this device unless you use it. There is clearly a market, and tons of potential for this device, and we'll see where it goes.
What do I recommend?
I recommend you get the biggest one. 64G. You'll understand why once you have it, because you'll want to be consuming media on it, you'll want to be watching movies, have your apps, have your documents, have your stuff. Especially those of you that are like me and travel a lot and want a device to use on the plane. Get the biggest one. The 3G vs. Wifi is a debate only you can answer. Personally, I have a Mifi, so I have no need to have the 3G version, I use the Mifi as a Wireless access point, connect my iPad to it, and away I go. Simple.
Overall Grade: 8
It's an excellent device, try before you buy, but you won't think you need one, until you use one. Then, you won't know how you did without it. It's the perfect couch device, bedside table device, and going to the bathroom device.
Thursday, April 1
Apples iPad: The Mothership Prepares for Launch
Stephen Fry comes to us from time.com regaling us of his tale of his recent visit to 1 Infinite Loop. Stephen Fry is a great writer and tells a story about how he met and interviewed Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, and Steve Jobs. Then he tells us about his instant love with the iPad.
Many articles have been published about the iPad this morning that came up in my RSS reader. I read Walt Mossberg's, I read Andy Ihnatko's. Stephen Fry's didn't just tell a tale about the iPad, it told a tale about the design of it, the use of it, and the love affair he now has with it.
I have pre-ordered one, as I unabashedly like Apple products and clearly see a potential for this device (and as of this morning it has left China). I'll be posting my own review of the device here for family, friends, and blog readers alike.
I have several family members waiting patiently to see what I think of it before they buy.
Check it out at the link below:
Apples iPad: The Mothership Prepares for Launch - TIME.
Many articles have been published about the iPad this morning that came up in my RSS reader. I read Walt Mossberg's, I read Andy Ihnatko's. Stephen Fry's didn't just tell a tale about the iPad, it told a tale about the design of it, the use of it, and the love affair he now has with it.
I have pre-ordered one, as I unabashedly like Apple products and clearly see a potential for this device (and as of this morning it has left China). I'll be posting my own review of the device here for family, friends, and blog readers alike.
I have several family members waiting patiently to see what I think of it before they buy.
Check it out at the link below:
Apples iPad: The Mothership Prepares for Launch - TIME.
Wednesday, March 17
Hey Microsoft, Don't F*ck Up Windows Phone 7
Hey Microsoft, Don't F*ck Up Windows Phone 7 - Windows phone 7 - Gizmodo.
A funny post over on Gizmodo detailing how, apparently, Microsoft has put out a couple changes to Windows Phone Mobile 7. (What is it with Microsoft and the number 7 all of the sudden? Unified messaging?)
Apparently Microsoft is going to do two things wrong..
As for Multitasking, the iPhone doesn't have it "ish". (Mail and various other "Apple only" apps can run in the background). However, the rumor is that iPhone 4.0 will have multitasking. So Microsoft, instead of trying to get ahead of the curve, you are going to be at least 3 years behind in copying Apple? Seriously? Way to step up the innovation there guys.
Copy and Paste.. Well, the iPhone didn't have it until iPhone 3.0, and a shitton of people bought iPhones too. Not that many will buy Windows Mobile 7 devices, but still...
How can you not put copy and paste in it, when (as the author of the Gizmodo article says) the phone you are trying to compete with (the iPhone) already has it!?
Steller Microsoft, way to win. Whatever, I wouldn't buy it anyway.
A funny post over on Gizmodo detailing how, apparently, Microsoft has put out a couple changes to Windows Phone Mobile 7. (What is it with Microsoft and the number 7 all of the sudden? Unified messaging?)
Apparently Microsoft is going to do two things wrong..
- No multitasking
- No Copy and Paste
As for Multitasking, the iPhone doesn't have it "ish". (Mail and various other "Apple only" apps can run in the background). However, the rumor is that iPhone 4.0 will have multitasking. So Microsoft, instead of trying to get ahead of the curve, you are going to be at least 3 years behind in copying Apple? Seriously? Way to step up the innovation there guys.
Copy and Paste.. Well, the iPhone didn't have it until iPhone 3.0, and a shitton of people bought iPhones too. Not that many will buy Windows Mobile 7 devices, but still...
How can you not put copy and paste in it, when (as the author of the Gizmodo article says) the phone you are trying to compete with (the iPhone) already has it!?
Steller Microsoft, way to win. Whatever, I wouldn't buy it anyway.
Tuesday, March 16
VRT: The New Disclosure Debate and the Evil Mr. Moore
VRT: The New Disclosure Debate and the Evil Mr. Moore.
I am not trying to get into the business of reblogging Sourcefire VRT's blog entries, but I blog things that I think are interesting, or that I think my readers will find interesting and hopefully debate. I think this is yet, ANOTHER insanely great article by Mr. Matt Olney. Please click the link above and read it!
I am not trying to get into the business of reblogging Sourcefire VRT's blog entries, but I blog things that I think are interesting, or that I think my readers will find interesting and hopefully debate. I think this is yet, ANOTHER insanely great article by Mr. Matt Olney. Please click the link above and read it!
Monday, February 22
Writing Snort Rules Correctly
Let me start off by saying I'm not bashing the writer of this article, and I'm trying not to be super critical. I don't want to discourage this person from writing articles about Snort rules. It's great when people in the Snort community step up and explain some simple things out there. There are mistakes, it comes with the territory. If you choose to be one of the people that tries to write Snort rules, you also choose to be someone who wants to learn how to do it better. That's why I write this blog post, not to bash the writer, but to teach.
I noticed this post today over at the "Tao of Signature Writing" blog, and to be honest I glanced over most of it figuring it was a rehash of things I've already read or things that have already been written from countless people about "Here's how you write Snort rules!". I scrolled down quickly skimming, not reading at all really, and noticed this part:
This post is about ActiveX and CLSID detection with a Snort rule, trying to detect an AOL 9.5 ActiveX 0day. Okay, fair enough, so the above paragraph is trying to find the Import command to call the javascript. So I kept reading.
Then I got to this part:
The writer is correct in a couple things.
However, the problem with this above signature is that the offset is placed after the second content match.
So here's what would happen with the above signature so far. The CLSID content match is the longest, so it would be fed into the fast pattern matcher. If the fast pattern matcher came across a packet that matched the CLSID that is specified in the rule, <leaves stuff out>, then the packet would then be run through the detection engine (rule) for detection. Contrary to popular belief, unless an offset/depth/distance/within modifier is specified, there is no order for the packet to match. So if I were to write the above as this:
Snort doesn't care which order the content matches are in. As long as both the contents are in the packet, then the rule will fire. So putting a
The author explains that "Client-side exploits generally flow from server to client". Okay, correct in this instance, but not always, so let me explain:
Flow has four direction operators you can specify:
What happens is when I hear from people is that they think "server" as that 2U thing back in the server room (hence the name), and client being "you". But that's not how Snort thinks about it. Snort thinks about client server in the "who initiated the conversation" term. So, at the beginning of a TCP conversation there is a 3-way handshake. SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK.
The client is who initiated the conversation, the server is who is responding. So, in this case, since we are attempting to catch a web browser accessing a webpage and downloading a webpage which contains this CLSID, the flow would be
The first paragraph is partially correct. If you check for a content match, you can use a pcre to clarify what you are looking for. This is done for a couple reasons. One, as the author states above, is to not miss the possibilities of matching the exploit, but more accurately, it's to avoid obfuscation of the exploit. So for example, let's go back and take a look at the content match before we look at the pcre portion.
Problem with this content match is, well, I wouldn't have put the specific "
So let's come back to the pcre and take a look at it.
Now, this PCRE format was written by the VRT and a lot of people have copied it blindly without understanding what it does. So let me explain, as what the author wrote in the second paragraph quoted above, is wrong. As I said, I'm not trying to be mean or whatever, I am simply trying to teach.
So, the pcre is this:
(I am going to put double quotes around the things we are trying to match that are explicit, the quotes don't actually exist in the regular expression unless specified)
So we are looking for "<OBJECT"
Then a whitespace (\s). That's what "\s" is. (It says 'followed by strings' in the above quoted paragraph). Whitespace is a tab, (0x09), space (0x20), new line character, or a line feed (0x0A), or a carriage return (0x0D). The "+" sign after the "\s" means 'any character directly proceeding it as many times, but there must be at least 1'. So there must be 1 or more "\s" there.
Then you see this "[^>]", which the author says that we are positively looking for. The thing about character classes "[ ]" is, they allow you to do some nifty things. Range matching, ([0-9]), multiple matches, [abc] (this will look for either an a, b, or c, for one character), and you can also do negative matches. Or "lack of" matches. The way you specify a negative match within a character class is to use the carat within a character class. So "[^>]" means, "the next character after any amount of positively matched "\s" cannot be a ">". Directly after that is a "*" character. The "*" is similar to a "+" but the difference is, while a "+" means you must have at least 1 match of the proceeding character (in this case the negative character class), the "*" means you don't have to have a positive match. It means "0 or more".
Following that we have a "classid\s*=\s*" match. So look for classid(maybeaspacehere,it'soptional)=(maybeanotherspacehere)
Then there is a "[\x22\x27]". In regular expressions, if you want to specify a hex character you have to write "\x" before the hex. So, you might see a space specified like this: 0x20. You might see it specified in Unicode like this: %20. In regular expressions, it would be "\x20". Since there are two characters within the character class, 0x22 is the hex for a double quote. " and 0x27 is hex for a single tick. '
Since this is a run of the mill character class match (not a range or something more complex) this means that the next character that the "[\x22\x27]" pattern match is looking for is either a ' or a ". Notice the "?" after the character class? That's a 'lazy optional'. So without going into a long book about lazy and greedy (which, by the way, if you are interested, I suggest checking out the book "Mastering Regular Expressions" by Jeffery Friedl, it's the bible), the "?" basically means "The Character that is directly in front of the "?" is optional". So, it essentially means, when all put together the match is either a ' or a " or not at all.
Then we have (maybesomewhitepacehere)clsid(maybesomemorewhitespacehere):(maybesomemorewhitespacehere){(optionally)(maybesomemorewhitespacehere)A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C.
Notice that I translated "\x3a" and "\x7B" (the latter of which has the "?" behind it, so it's optional) above.
Then the modifiers of the whole Regular Expression at the end are "/si".
"s" means "include new lines in the dot metacharacter". However, there are no "." metacharacters in the regular expression, so that was probably put there by habit (and good practice), and the "i" means "anything within the regular expression treat with case insensitivity" similar to the "nocase;" keyword in Snort's regular rule language.
So the final signature that the writer comes up with is:
Which I am going to rewrite:
So, what did I do different? Removed the "CLSID" content match, it won't speed up detection, and it checked for in the pcre anyway. So, if you are going to fire up the pcre engine to check the content match on the long content match, just knock out two birds with one stone.
What's with the "distance:0;" stuff? I made the content match directly proceeding that relative to the previous content match. Since I don't have a within, I don't constrain the match.
Why did you keep the ".Import(" stuff? False positive reduction. It will do nothing to speed up the match.
So, be careful when writing rules. Unless you understand all the pieces and parts you can walk yourself right into a dark hole and do it wrong. You can do that to yourself, but take extra care that you don't walk anyone down the hole with you.
Again, I post this, not to be mean, but to be constructive.
I noticed this post today over at the "Tao of Signature Writing" blog, and to be honest I glanced over most of it figuring it was a rehash of things I've already read or things that have already been written from countless people about "Here's how you write Snort rules!". I scrolled down quickly skimming, not reading at all really, and noticed this part:
Now, let us look at the second question: “We have “aol” as the id and Import method name. Should we use “aol” along with “Import”?”. Just because we narrowed down to “clsid:” followed by CLSID number, does not mean that we have to narrow down in this case too. Just like how the Shellcode will change, the attackers might change the ID too, to just find out if they could evade the IDS/IPS. Why give them a chance? Hence, we should broaden our search to just the import method: content:”.Import(“. The reason why we have “.” and “(” around the key “Import” is to narrow the chances of triggering the signature on some term “Import” and to concentrate on the vulnerable method.
This post is about ActiveX and CLSID detection with a Snort rule, trying to detect an AOL 9.5 ActiveX 0day. Okay, fair enough, so the above paragraph is trying to find the Import command to call the javascript. So I kept reading.
Then I got to this part:
In here, I would like to position the CLSID before the method. This would help me trigger the signature specific to “AOL 9.5 ActiveX 0day Exploit (heap spray)“. I can do this ordering by using “Offset”. We cannot set the “Depth” in this case, since the position of CLSID or Method in a packet will change according to the packet size or the way in which it is sent. Hence, the content of final signature would look something like this:
content:”clsid:A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C”; nocase;content:”.Import(“; nocase; Offset:0;
The writer is correct in a couple things.
- First, they say they want to position the CLSID before the method, so they want to do with using offset.
- Second, they say they cannot set a "depth" because the position and method in the packet will change according to the packet size, which is partially correct.
However, the problem with this above signature is that the offset is placed after the second content match.
So here's what would happen with the above signature so far. The CLSID content match is the longest, so it would be fed into the fast pattern matcher. If the fast pattern matcher came across a packet that matched the CLSID that is specified in the rule, <leaves stuff out>, then the packet would then be run through the detection engine (rule) for detection. Contrary to popular belief, unless an offset/depth/distance/within modifier is specified, there is no order for the packet to match. So if I were to write the above as this:
content:”clsid:A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C”; nocase;content:”.Import(“;nocase;
Snort doesn't care which order the content matches are in. As long as both the contents are in the packet, then the rule will fire. So putting a
content:".Import("; nocase; offset:0; does absolutely nothing. You can kind of think of offset:0; being implied, but if you don't have any relative content matches, then it really doesn't matter unless you are trying to be specific to a position match. However, as the author already stated, you can't add a depth statement to the rule, so it plain, just doesn't matter. I see this kind of thing all the time, so I figured common mistake. So I kept on reading:Now, let us look into the direction of traffic. Client-side exploits generally flow from server to client: “flow:to_client,established;“.The author explains that "Client-side exploits generally flow from server to client". Okay, correct in this instance, but not always, so let me explain:
Flow has four direction operators you can specify:
to_server- from_server
- to_client
- from_client
What happens is when I hear from people is that they think "server" as that 2U thing back in the server room (hence the name), and client being "you". But that's not how Snort thinks about it. Snort thinks about client server in the "who initiated the conversation" term. So, at the beginning of a TCP conversation there is a 3-way handshake. SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK.
- CLIENT -> SYN -> SERVER
- CLIENT <- SYN, ACK <- SERVER
- CLIENT -> ACK -> SERVER
The client is who initiated the conversation, the server is who is responding. So, in this case, since we are attempting to catch a web browser accessing a webpage and downloading a webpage which contains this CLSID, the flow would be
to_client. (Or from_server) Correct. However, what if someone downloaded a PDF, and upon opening the PDF the PDF went and grabbed something off the internet. This is a client side exploit, however, the flow would be reversed. So, the author is correct in saying that "Client-side exploits are generally..." I wanted to explain to make sure no one was confused. The "established" keyword means the the session is established. So beginning on the 3rd part of the 3-way handshake.In this case some folks might believe that CLSID is already in the “content” part of the signature, and that this is a repetition if we use it in PCRE once again. We are not using this PCRE to repeat the value in the content, but to ensure that we do not miss any possibilities of matching this exploit. Let us look into the PCRE part of this signature:
pcre:”/<OBJECT\s+[^>]*classid\s*=\s*[\x22\x27]?\s*clsid\s*\x3a\s*\x7B?\s*A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C/si”;
In here, the signature is telling the PCRE compiler that there is “< object” followed by strings and “>” with multiple-strings possibly following it followed by “classid” & “=” with the “clsid”, “:” and “{“. The true classid is then inserted into the PCRE. The PCRE ends with /i to indicate the case-insensitive nature of this regular expression.
The first paragraph is partially correct. If you check for a content match, you can use a pcre to clarify what you are looking for. This is done for a couple reasons. One, as the author states above, is to not miss the possibilities of matching the exploit, but more accurately, it's to avoid obfuscation of the exploit. So for example, let's go back and take a look at the content match before we look at the pcre portion.
content:”clsid:A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C”; nocase;
Problem with this content match is, well, I wouldn't have put the specific "
clsid:" in there. Reason? If I was an attacker and I wanted to bypass your rule, I would put "clsid: A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C”. (Notice the space after the colon.) Which completely bypasses the content match.So let's come back to the pcre and take a look at it.
Now, this PCRE format was written by the VRT and a lot of people have copied it blindly without understanding what it does. So let me explain, as what the author wrote in the second paragraph quoted above, is wrong. As I said, I'm not trying to be mean or whatever, I am simply trying to teach.
So, the pcre is this:
/<OBJECT\s+[^>]*classid\s*=\s*[\x22\x27]?\s*clsid\s*\x3a\s*\x7B?\s*A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C/si(I am going to put double quotes around the things we are trying to match that are explicit, the quotes don't actually exist in the regular expression unless specified)
So we are looking for "<OBJECT"
Then a whitespace (\s). That's what "\s" is. (It says 'followed by strings' in the above quoted paragraph). Whitespace is a tab, (0x09), space (0x20), new line character, or a line feed (0x0A), or a carriage return (0x0D). The "+" sign after the "\s" means 'any character directly proceeding it as many times, but there must be at least 1'. So there must be 1 or more "\s" there.
Then you see this "[^>]", which the author says that we are positively looking for. The thing about character classes "[ ]" is, they allow you to do some nifty things. Range matching, ([0-9]), multiple matches, [abc] (this will look for either an a, b, or c, for one character), and you can also do negative matches. Or "lack of" matches. The way you specify a negative match within a character class is to use the carat within a character class. So "[^>]" means, "the next character after any amount of positively matched "\s" cannot be a ">". Directly after that is a "*" character. The "*" is similar to a "+" but the difference is, while a "+" means you must have at least 1 match of the proceeding character (in this case the negative character class), the "*" means you don't have to have a positive match. It means "0 or more".
Following that we have a "classid\s*=\s*" match. So look for classid(maybeaspacehere,it'soptional)=(maybeanotherspacehere)
Then there is a "[\x22\x27]". In regular expressions, if you want to specify a hex character you have to write "\x" before the hex. So, you might see a space specified like this: 0x20. You might see it specified in Unicode like this: %20. In regular expressions, it would be "\x20". Since there are two characters within the character class, 0x22 is the hex for a double quote. " and 0x27 is hex for a single tick. '
Since this is a run of the mill character class match (not a range or something more complex) this means that the next character that the "[\x22\x27]" pattern match is looking for is either a ' or a ". Notice the "?" after the character class? That's a 'lazy optional'. So without going into a long book about lazy and greedy (which, by the way, if you are interested, I suggest checking out the book "Mastering Regular Expressions" by Jeffery Friedl, it's the bible), the "?" basically means "The Character that is directly in front of the "?" is optional". So, it essentially means, when all put together the match is either a ' or a " or not at all.
Then we have (maybesomewhitepacehere)clsid(maybesomemorewhitespacehere):(maybesomemorewhitespacehere){(optionally)(maybesomemorewhitespacehere)A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C.
Notice that I translated "\x3a" and "\x7B" (the latter of which has the "?" behind it, so it's optional) above.
Then the modifiers of the whole Regular Expression at the end are "/si".
"s" means "include new lines in the dot metacharacter". However, there are no "." metacharacters in the regular expression, so that was probably put there by habit (and good practice), and the "i" means "anything within the regular expression treat with case insensitivity" similar to the "nocase;" keyword in Snort's regular rule language.
So the final signature that the writer comes up with is:
alert tcp $EXTERNAL_NET $HTTP_PORTS -> $HOME_NET any (msg:”ActiveX Exploit Signature Sample”; flow:to_client,established; content:”clsid:A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C”; nocase; content:”.Import(“; nocase; Offset:0;pcre:”/<OBJECT\s+[^>]*classid\s*=\s*[\x22\x27]?\s*clsid\s*\x3a\s*\x7B?\s*A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C/si”; reference:url,www.exploit-db.com/exploits/11204; rev:1;)
Which I am going to rewrite:
alert tcp $EXTERNAL_NET $HTTP_PORTS -> $HOME_NET any (msg:"ActiveX Exploit Signature Sample"; flow:to_client,established; content:"A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C"; nocase; content:".Import("; distance:0; pcre:”/<OBJECT\s+[^>]*classid\s*=\s*[\x22\x27]?\s*clsid\s*\x3a\s*\x7B?\s*A105BD70-BF56-4D10-BC91-41C88321F47C/si"; reference:url,www.exploit-db.com/exploits/11204; rev:2;)
So, what did I do different? Removed the "CLSID" content match, it won't speed up detection, and it checked for in the pcre anyway. So, if you are going to fire up the pcre engine to check the content match on the long content match, just knock out two birds with one stone.
What's with the "distance:0;" stuff? I made the content match directly proceeding that relative to the previous content match. Since I don't have a within, I don't constrain the match.
Why did you keep the ".Import(" stuff? False positive reduction. It will do nothing to speed up the match.
So, be careful when writing rules. Unless you understand all the pieces and parts you can walk yourself right into a dark hole and do it wrong. You can do that to yourself, but take extra care that you don't walk anyone down the hole with you.
Again, I post this, not to be mean, but to be constructive.
Thursday, February 4
Review: Jawbone ICON Bluetooth Headset
I am not trying to jump on you like a bully and pummel you with reviews for a few posts recently, but I feel, as a geek, I have the need to tell my other geeky friends if something sucks, or if something is good. That way, not everyone spends money on things that are complete pieces of crap.
For those of you seeking a Bluetooth headset, you may want to look no further than the Jawbone ICON headset. Little bit of background before I proceed.
I've had all three versions of the Jawbone now. The Jawbone One, was big, bulky, but it did it's job right, however, it did not survive the trip through the washing machine. The second version fixed that, (not the washing machine part, the big and bulky part). Same awesome noise cancellation technology, much much lighter, the only problem was, it wasn't very solid in your ear, and it fell out of my ear a lot, simply because it just felt like it was Stallone in Cliffhanger, hanging on for dear life. The only other thing I didn't like about the second generation jawbone was the buttons. I could never find them. There were two buttons, one on the side and the other on the back, kinda. They were next to impossible to find with your fingers, as they didn't have any raised indication that said "hey, this is a button!"
But let me tell you what, with this new one, they have really outdone themselves. The Jawbone ICON comes in six different designs. "The Hero", "The Bombshell", "The Catch", "The Ace", "The Thinker", and "The Rogue". All are various colors and designs, but they all have the same key features.
The NoiseAssasin® technology is awesome. On by default, it uses a sensor that presses against your cheek to sense when you are talking, it compares that vibration with the mic's input, and thusly uses the difference to cancel out all the remaining background noise. It's awesome for wind, trains, or whatever. You can be in a noisy room and talk to someone on the phone, and the only thing that the people on the phone can hear is you. It's incredible. For a video demonstration of how this works, go to Jawbone's website and click on the lower right area. Check it out.
This version of the jawbone adds a few awesome features:
1) If you are using the jawbone with the iPhone, the battery indication is on the screen of the iPhone up next to the battery indicator for the iPhone itself. If you ever bought the iPhone bluetooth headset (which I didn't), you'll recognize what this indicator looks like.
2) But that doesn't matter cause you can reach on the back of the jawbone, press the button once, and it announces in your ear how many hours of talk time you have remaining.
3) When you receive a call, the ICON will read the caller id into your ear. Just the number. Not any names or anything, which kinda stinks. I wish it would at least try to pronounce some of my coworkers and friends names just so I could get a laugh out of it. But the number is just fine. It's a heck of a lot better than scrambling for your phone when the thing rings just to see who called. I mean isn't that the purpose of a bluetooth headset? So you don't have to fumble for your phone?
4) It doesn't have any blinking lights on the outside. Which is nice, because then you aren't sitting on a train or something and have an annoying blue blinking light on your ear. Or even better, when you are in a hotel room and the blue blinking light is so bright it lights up your whole hotel room every 10 seconds or so.
5) Voice control. The Jawbone has always had voice control, but now, coupled with the iPhone 3GS that I have, I can hold down the button for two seconds and say "Call Wife", which the iPhone then asks "Home, Mobile, or Work?" And I simply say what I want. I like the fact (and this is more on the iPhone than the Jawbone) that I don't have to hit ANOTHER button to say "Work". I just say it after the little 'beep'.
6) It has an on-off switch. I don't have to hold down a button that I can't find to turn this thing on and off. The button is a toggle sliding switch on the inside (faces your face) side of the jawbone. Flick it on or off, and you KNOW which one it's doing.
7) Redial is a double tap of the button on the back. The Jawbone then says "Redialing" in your ear
8) When the battery does get low, it will tell you in your ear. No more guessing.
9) You can connect this thing to multiple phones. YES SERIOUSLY. You can even manage calls from two different phones at the same time. Are you kidding me? This is 2010 right? We aren't in 2020 or anything?
10) They converted from their annoying proprietary charger attachment to a Mini-USB plug. Very standard and easily replaceable if you lose it.
So, overall, I'm very satisfied with this thing, and if you are looking for a new one, or if you are happy with your old one... this one is better, it's smaller Oh and one more thing?
This thing stays in my ear! No loop around the top of my ear, I just put it in my ear and it stays there.
Go, run, don't walk, to the nearest Best Buy/Apple Store/AT&T store. This thing is new, so it may not be in all the stores yet (so it's available online via their website) your milage may very. Check the websites.
I got mine at a Best Buy.
For those of you seeking a Bluetooth headset, you may want to look no further than the Jawbone ICON headset. Little bit of background before I proceed.
I've had all three versions of the Jawbone now. The Jawbone One, was big, bulky, but it did it's job right, however, it did not survive the trip through the washing machine. The second version fixed that, (not the washing machine part, the big and bulky part). Same awesome noise cancellation technology, much much lighter, the only problem was, it wasn't very solid in your ear, and it fell out of my ear a lot, simply because it just felt like it was Stallone in Cliffhanger, hanging on for dear life. The only other thing I didn't like about the second generation jawbone was the buttons. I could never find them. There were two buttons, one on the side and the other on the back, kinda. They were next to impossible to find with your fingers, as they didn't have any raised indication that said "hey, this is a button!"
But let me tell you what, with this new one, they have really outdone themselves. The Jawbone ICON comes in six different designs. "The Hero", "The Bombshell", "The Catch", "The Ace", "The Thinker", and "The Rogue". All are various colors and designs, but they all have the same key features.
The NoiseAssasin® technology is awesome. On by default, it uses a sensor that presses against your cheek to sense when you are talking, it compares that vibration with the mic's input, and thusly uses the difference to cancel out all the remaining background noise. It's awesome for wind, trains, or whatever. You can be in a noisy room and talk to someone on the phone, and the only thing that the people on the phone can hear is you. It's incredible. For a video demonstration of how this works, go to Jawbone's website and click on the lower right area. Check it out.
This version of the jawbone adds a few awesome features:
1) If you are using the jawbone with the iPhone, the battery indication is on the screen of the iPhone up next to the battery indicator for the iPhone itself. If you ever bought the iPhone bluetooth headset (which I didn't), you'll recognize what this indicator looks like.
2) But that doesn't matter cause you can reach on the back of the jawbone, press the button once, and it announces in your ear how many hours of talk time you have remaining.
3) When you receive a call, the ICON will read the caller id into your ear. Just the number. Not any names or anything, which kinda stinks. I wish it would at least try to pronounce some of my coworkers and friends names just so I could get a laugh out of it. But the number is just fine. It's a heck of a lot better than scrambling for your phone when the thing rings just to see who called. I mean isn't that the purpose of a bluetooth headset? So you don't have to fumble for your phone?
4) It doesn't have any blinking lights on the outside. Which is nice, because then you aren't sitting on a train or something and have an annoying blue blinking light on your ear. Or even better, when you are in a hotel room and the blue blinking light is so bright it lights up your whole hotel room every 10 seconds or so.
5) Voice control. The Jawbone has always had voice control, but now, coupled with the iPhone 3GS that I have, I can hold down the button for two seconds and say "Call Wife", which the iPhone then asks "Home, Mobile, or Work?" And I simply say what I want. I like the fact (and this is more on the iPhone than the Jawbone) that I don't have to hit ANOTHER button to say "Work". I just say it after the little 'beep'.
6) It has an on-off switch. I don't have to hold down a button that I can't find to turn this thing on and off. The button is a toggle sliding switch on the inside (faces your face) side of the jawbone. Flick it on or off, and you KNOW which one it's doing.
7) Redial is a double tap of the button on the back. The Jawbone then says "Redialing" in your ear
8) When the battery does get low, it will tell you in your ear. No more guessing.
9) You can connect this thing to multiple phones. YES SERIOUSLY. You can even manage calls from two different phones at the same time. Are you kidding me? This is 2010 right? We aren't in 2020 or anything?
10) They converted from their annoying proprietary charger attachment to a Mini-USB plug. Very standard and easily replaceable if you lose it.
So, overall, I'm very satisfied with this thing, and if you are looking for a new one, or if you are happy with your old one... this one is better, it's smaller Oh and one more thing?
This thing stays in my ear! No loop around the top of my ear, I just put it in my ear and it stays there.
Go, run, don't walk, to the nearest Best Buy/Apple Store/AT&T store. This thing is new, so it may not be in all the stores yet (so it's available online via their website) your milage may very. Check the websites.
I got mine at a Best Buy.
Review: Capitol Hilton, Washington, D.C.
This week I had to come down to Washington, DC to work with a customer. Now, I've been to loads and loads of Hotels, and most of the big ones in Washington, DC. This week I decided to stay at the Capitol Hilton. It's about three blocks North of the White House.
So, being the traveler I am, I am a Diamond member with Hilton, for the past three years, which is the highest you can get as a "premier traveler" with Hilton Rewards. I'm not saying that to brag, I'm saying that to illustrate a point. As a diamond member, you automatically get certain things. Free Gym access, free breakfast, free newspapers, and free room upgrades just to name a few.
So, and you might call me spoiled, but whatever, I'm not trying to act that way, I'm giving a review.
So, I get my room. No refrigerator, shower was dirty, shower head sprayed water every which way (indicating that you have hard water, and the shower head hasn't been cleaned), and no electrical outlets in the bathroom.
Now, how do you not have electrical outlets in the bathroom? God forbid I should be a woman and need to plug in the hair dryer! Where was the closest outlet? Behind the TV. Which was on a TV stand, which was immovable. So, there was no way to dry your hair (and curl it, with a curling iron, cause I think of stuff like that for my wife) anywhere close to in front of a mirror. Matter of fact, the only place you could have plugged it in, was behind a TV stand in the middle of the room.
There were four outlets available in the whole room. Two on the lamp on the desk, and two behind the night stand. So, if you are technical person like me, you have stuff plugged in all around the room. Fairly annoying.
The TV was ancient, you couldn't hook up any external media to the TV, which, is also annoying.
Room service food was so-so. The menu consisted of things like foi-gras and the like. Seriously? Who is going to eat food of "that" caliber from the room service menu? People that order room service want things like wings, and quesadillas, pizza. Room service is like, a last resort and you just want something good. Oh, and by the way, a sandwich for 19 dollars? So, you add delivery fee onto that, drink.. You have a 30 dollar dinner? A bit much for a regular sandwich. I order room service fairly often (because I get tired of prowling through a city trying to find food -- you travel as much as me, you'll know what I mean) and the average price is around 19-25 bucks. 30+ dollars for dinner is overpriced for simple food.
Internet. The Internet speed was pretty good actually, but it was something like $15 dollars a night. Again, not what I am used to, and not comparable to the other hotels in DC. The room rate per night was reasonable, (for DC), but the other things they charge you for a the hotel was overpriced.
Now, saying all that, there was a note on the desk of my room saying that the hotel is currently undergoing a 36 Million dollar renovation. So let's hope they fix some things. The biggest request I have, of all hotels, is: PUT MORE OUTLETS IN THE HOTEL ROOMS. Accessible. Easy. In the Desk or something.
So, until the renovations get done, I recommend the Marriott Metro Center. It's nice (without going higher to the Mandarin, W hotel, or JW Marriott), or either of the Hyatt's. They are nice, but they have the 'lack of outlet' problem as well.
So, my review is pretty unhappy. Now, finally, as I said in the beginning, I'm a Diamond member. Would you like to see my view out of my hotel window of the lovely Washington DC?
Lovely eh?
I stay in a lot of Hilton's. Most are nice. This one is obviously old, and we'll forgive them for that. So, maybe I'll try them again after they complete their renovation.
So, being the traveler I am, I am a Diamond member with Hilton, for the past three years, which is the highest you can get as a "premier traveler" with Hilton Rewards. I'm not saying that to brag, I'm saying that to illustrate a point. As a diamond member, you automatically get certain things. Free Gym access, free breakfast, free newspapers, and free room upgrades just to name a few.
So, and you might call me spoiled, but whatever, I'm not trying to act that way, I'm giving a review.
So, I get my room. No refrigerator, shower was dirty, shower head sprayed water every which way (indicating that you have hard water, and the shower head hasn't been cleaned), and no electrical outlets in the bathroom.
Now, how do you not have electrical outlets in the bathroom? God forbid I should be a woman and need to plug in the hair dryer! Where was the closest outlet? Behind the TV. Which was on a TV stand, which was immovable. So, there was no way to dry your hair (and curl it, with a curling iron, cause I think of stuff like that for my wife) anywhere close to in front of a mirror. Matter of fact, the only place you could have plugged it in, was behind a TV stand in the middle of the room.
There were four outlets available in the whole room. Two on the lamp on the desk, and two behind the night stand. So, if you are technical person like me, you have stuff plugged in all around the room. Fairly annoying.
The TV was ancient, you couldn't hook up any external media to the TV, which, is also annoying.
Room service food was so-so. The menu consisted of things like foi-gras and the like. Seriously? Who is going to eat food of "that" caliber from the room service menu? People that order room service want things like wings, and quesadillas, pizza. Room service is like, a last resort and you just want something good. Oh, and by the way, a sandwich for 19 dollars? So, you add delivery fee onto that, drink.. You have a 30 dollar dinner? A bit much for a regular sandwich. I order room service fairly often (because I get tired of prowling through a city trying to find food -- you travel as much as me, you'll know what I mean) and the average price is around 19-25 bucks. 30+ dollars for dinner is overpriced for simple food.
Internet. The Internet speed was pretty good actually, but it was something like $15 dollars a night. Again, not what I am used to, and not comparable to the other hotels in DC. The room rate per night was reasonable, (for DC), but the other things they charge you for a the hotel was overpriced.
Now, saying all that, there was a note on the desk of my room saying that the hotel is currently undergoing a 36 Million dollar renovation. So let's hope they fix some things. The biggest request I have, of all hotels, is: PUT MORE OUTLETS IN THE HOTEL ROOMS. Accessible. Easy. In the Desk or something.
So, until the renovations get done, I recommend the Marriott Metro Center. It's nice (without going higher to the Mandarin, W hotel, or JW Marriott), or either of the Hyatt's. They are nice, but they have the 'lack of outlet' problem as well.
So, my review is pretty unhappy. Now, finally, as I said in the beginning, I'm a Diamond member. Would you like to see my view out of my hotel window of the lovely Washington DC?
Lovely eh?
I stay in a lot of Hilton's. Most are nice. This one is obviously old, and we'll forgive them for that. So, maybe I'll try them again after they complete their renovation.
Sunday, January 31
Flash, time for you to die
I've been reading a lot of hubbub about the new Apple iPad not having the capability of displaying Flash. Of course! It stands to reason that it can't, it has the same OS as the iPhone, which, also can't display Flash. Which leads me to think, why do we need flash?
Answer is, we don't. Not anymore. 90% of Flash usage is for audio or video on the Internet and HTML5 can handle <audio> and <video> tags. It can do Canvas. (Oh and a TON more, I'm just illustrating a point.) Some of the major browsers have adapted most of these technologies. Webkit (Invented by Apple, powers Safari, Webkit, and Google Chrome [amongst others], and Presto (The rendering engine that powers Opera) have supported more than the other two majors (Gecko -- The engine that powers Firefox and all of it's kin), and Trident (The engine that powers Internet Explorer). The last being the worst adopter. Surprisingly.
I read somewhere (I can't find it now), about most browser crashes come from plugins. Flash, Java, etc. Why can't we eliminate these plugins and go with the native protocols? That's what HTML5 is attempting to do for the most part, and I, for one, am glad for it.
Apple has always been about killing off technologies and moving onto what is on the horizon (killing off serial, going for USB, killing of Diskettes, going to CD, Killing off CD's (Macbook Air), moving more wireless (Airport), Killing off displayport, hdmi, dvi, vga, going with Mini Displayport). They have never been afraid to just "move on" to the new thing.
I believe they said to Flash, die, HTML5 is here. Then they turned to web developers and said "fix your stuff". How did they do that? Rolled out the iPhone, which has become the largest mobile browsing platform on the planet now. Slowly and surely, what's happening? Websites are changing away from Flash.
Unless, you know, of course, you are a band or a restaurant. (Seriously? What is with bands and restaurants and your use of Flash?)
I don't even need to get into the security issues of Adobe's Flash. Look, there is one small part of Adobe working on Flash. The entire internet is working on HTML5.
Flash (and Silverlight) is dead. Get over it.
--
100% of the statistics in this post are made up. ;)
Answer is, we don't. Not anymore. 90% of Flash usage is for audio or video on the Internet and HTML5 can handle <audio> and <video> tags. It can do Canvas. (Oh and a TON more, I'm just illustrating a point.) Some of the major browsers have adapted most of these technologies. Webkit (Invented by Apple, powers Safari, Webkit, and Google Chrome [amongst others], and Presto (The rendering engine that powers Opera) have supported more than the other two majors (Gecko -- The engine that powers Firefox and all of it's kin), and Trident (The engine that powers Internet Explorer). The last being the worst adopter. Surprisingly.
I read somewhere (I can't find it now), about most browser crashes come from plugins. Flash, Java, etc. Why can't we eliminate these plugins and go with the native protocols? That's what HTML5 is attempting to do for the most part, and I, for one, am glad for it.
Apple has always been about killing off technologies and moving onto what is on the horizon (killing off serial, going for USB, killing of Diskettes, going to CD, Killing off CD's (Macbook Air), moving more wireless (Airport), Killing off displayport, hdmi, dvi, vga, going with Mini Displayport). They have never been afraid to just "move on" to the new thing.
I believe they said to Flash, die, HTML5 is here. Then they turned to web developers and said "fix your stuff". How did they do that? Rolled out the iPhone, which has become the largest mobile browsing platform on the planet now. Slowly and surely, what's happening? Websites are changing away from Flash.
Unless, you know, of course, you are a band or a restaurant. (Seriously? What is with bands and restaurants and your use of Flash?)
I don't even need to get into the security issues of Adobe's Flash. Look, there is one small part of Adobe working on Flash. The entire internet is working on HTML5.
Flash (and Silverlight) is dead. Get over it.
--
100% of the statistics in this post are made up. ;)
Monday, January 11
Reviewing ModSecurity 2.5, the book
Currently, I am reviewing a book for Packt Publishing, it's entitled "ModSecurity 2.5: Securing your Apache installation and web applications" by Magnus Mischel.
Consequently, I am playing with ModSecurity a bit, and I will try very hard to NOT break things on the blog.
So far it's a good book and it's been quite awhile since I've used ModSecurity (back in the 1.x days) and the configuration has completely changed. So I'm on a quick learning curve as well.
Consequently, I am playing with ModSecurity a bit, and I will try very hard to NOT break things on the blog.
So far it's a good book and it's been quite awhile since I've used ModSecurity (back in the 1.x days) and the configuration has completely changed. So I'm on a quick learning curve as well.
Friday, January 8
Verizon Wireless's Fail
Several months ago I ditched my AT&T 3G Card that I was using for mobile Internet and bought a Mifi from Verizon.
A) Verizon has better connectivity in New York (I was spending a lot of time in New York)
B) Verizon has better connectivity on trains than AT&T. (Not faster, just a more persistant connection.)
Well, in order to manage your account, you have to sign-up for a website called myverizon.com, which, in order to complete the sign-up, asks to text message you your pin/password to verify your identity. So, I laugh to myself, as the Mifi doesn't have a screen or any way to receive a text. So, I get a hold of Verizon, and they tell me that their VZwireless software allows you to see the txt's send to the Mifi, okay, fine..
I fire up the software, no "txt". It's not in the Mac Software, it's only on the Windows VZWireless software. Hilariously irritating, so the alternative is, they mail you a pin number. Physically mail you, using snail mail, a pin number. What a waste of trees. Anyway.. I arrive today at getting my pin number via the mailbox, I sit down, type in the temporary password (pin number) on my login page, and finally, I get to reset the password.
So, there's 3 blanks on this page, and a drop down. First -- New password, second -- as you guessed it -- verify new password.
Now, here's where it gets good. Drop down "Select the phrase to remind you of your password". Your typical "Challenge/Response" thing right?
Here's the drop down:
Yup, seriously. No questions for the "Secret Question" -- I mean, if the questions are secret...
Last drop down was the answer to the "Secret Question".
Okay, so, what have we learned here? Verizon. You are making life extremely painful to me. FIX YOUR SIGNUP METHOD.
Oh, and your webpage. You are DOING IT WRONG.
A) Verizon has better connectivity in New York (I was spending a lot of time in New York)
B) Verizon has better connectivity on trains than AT&T. (Not faster, just a more persistant connection.)
Well, in order to manage your account, you have to sign-up for a website called myverizon.com, which, in order to complete the sign-up, asks to text message you your pin/password to verify your identity. So, I laugh to myself, as the Mifi doesn't have a screen or any way to receive a text. So, I get a hold of Verizon, and they tell me that their VZwireless software allows you to see the txt's send to the Mifi, okay, fine..
I fire up the software, no "txt". It's not in the Mac Software, it's only on the Windows VZWireless software. Hilariously irritating, so the alternative is, they mail you a pin number. Physically mail you, using snail mail, a pin number. What a waste of trees. Anyway.. I arrive today at getting my pin number via the mailbox, I sit down, type in the temporary password (pin number) on my login page, and finally, I get to reset the password.
So, there's 3 blanks on this page, and a drop down. First -- New password, second -- as you guessed it -- verify new password.
Now, here's where it gets good. Drop down "Select the phrase to remind you of your password". Your typical "Challenge/Response" thing right?
Here's the drop down:
Yup, seriously. No questions for the "Secret Question" -- I mean, if the questions are secret...
Last drop down was the answer to the "Secret Question".
Okay, so, what have we learned here? Verizon. You are making life extremely painful to me. FIX YOUR SIGNUP METHOD.
Oh, and your webpage. You are DOING IT WRONG.
Monday, December 28
Review: Vtech DS6322 w/ Bluetooth
My wife bought me this for Xmas, and it's probably one of the best ideas ever. The Vtech DS6322 w/ Bluetooth, is a 3 or 4 phone kit with bases (with an answering machine) that has Bluetooth capability. Buy.com has it here. So, after I paired my wife and I's cell phones to the base, now, when we come home our cell phones connect to the base, and then calls that come in our cell phones can be answered via the regular phone.
The regular phone has all the regular cordless phone buttons that you'd expect to see, plus one additional, a "Cell" button. Whenever a phone call comes in on the cell phone, we just tap this button and we can answer it, all without having to run all over the house to try and find our cell phones. It's convenient, as we have the base station (w/ Answering Machine) and our cell phones plugged into this piece of handiness from Pottery Barn (ours is black). The cell phones stay put in that area, along with the base station, and now we don't have to sprint all over the house looking for phones when one rings.
You can even import the phone books of the phones into the base station. (Nice!) You can set a static ringer, per phone line, so you know exactly which line someone is calling in on.
I recommend it.
The regular phone has all the regular cordless phone buttons that you'd expect to see, plus one additional, a "Cell" button. Whenever a phone call comes in on the cell phone, we just tap this button and we can answer it, all without having to run all over the house to try and find our cell phones. It's convenient, as we have the base station (w/ Answering Machine) and our cell phones plugged into this piece of handiness from Pottery Barn (ours is black). The cell phones stay put in that area, along with the base station, and now we don't have to sprint all over the house looking for phones when one rings.
You can even import the phone books of the phones into the base station. (Nice!) You can set a static ringer, per phone line, so you know exactly which line someone is calling in on.
I recommend it.
Tuesday, December 22
Instapaper is so great
I am not sure if Instapaper has apps for anything other than the iPhone, and I kind of doubt, if that exclusivity exists, that it will last any amount of time.
Instapaper is one of those new 2.0 companies that is web/app based. They provide you a free log in to their website, which by the way, by default, had no password. Past this login you get a bookmarklet, similar to the "readbility" bookmarklet I talked about earlier, which, upon use, allows you to turn any article you are reading into a saved article of sorts.
For example, earlier today I was reading an entry on a blog, it was rather long, and I wasn't going to have time to finish reading it as I was about to head out to go to the dentist.
So, with this combination of app/website, I tapped my instapaper bookmarklet, which takes whatever you are reading, and puts it up in the "cloud". Which, provided you then have the Instapaper app on your iPhone, can sync this content down to your mobile device.
Now, whatever article I was reading, just by tapping one button, is now formatted in nice big text on my iPhone, and I can take with me.
I don't know the size limitation of the file you can put on instapaper, I don't know, for instance if you can put a whole book up there or something, but for now, while I am in the dentists waiting room, I have articles to read instead of the weeks old copies of "Newsweek".
Why don't I use something like Google reader? Well I can, except for those websites that shorten their rss feeds to force clickthroughs. It's another couple steps, who knows how it is going to be formatted, and who knows what kind of connectivity you are going to have.
Which, also by the way, is why I removed the "shortened rss" clickthrough thing for my blog. It annoyed me, so I figured it was probably annoying you.
Instapaper is one of those new 2.0 companies that is web/app based. They provide you a free log in to their website, which by the way, by default, had no password. Past this login you get a bookmarklet, similar to the "readbility" bookmarklet I talked about earlier, which, upon use, allows you to turn any article you are reading into a saved article of sorts.
For example, earlier today I was reading an entry on a blog, it was rather long, and I wasn't going to have time to finish reading it as I was about to head out to go to the dentist.
So, with this combination of app/website, I tapped my instapaper bookmarklet, which takes whatever you are reading, and puts it up in the "cloud". Which, provided you then have the Instapaper app on your iPhone, can sync this content down to your mobile device.
Now, whatever article I was reading, just by tapping one button, is now formatted in nice big text on my iPhone, and I can take with me.
I don't know the size limitation of the file you can put on instapaper, I don't know, for instance if you can put a whole book up there or something, but for now, while I am in the dentists waiting room, I have articles to read instead of the weeks old copies of "Newsweek".
Why don't I use something like Google reader? Well I can, except for those websites that shorten their rss feeds to force clickthroughs. It's another couple steps, who knows how it is going to be formatted, and who knows what kind of connectivity you are going to have.
Which, also by the way, is why I removed the "shortened rss" clickthrough thing for my blog. It annoyed me, so I figured it was probably annoying you.
Tuesday, November 10
Looking for a Label Printer?
Recently I needed a label printer for a project I was involved with, and after looking around a bit decided on buying the Brother QL-570 Label Printer. Having not used it before, but having used successful Brother products in the past, I decided that this one was it.
This is a great printer. It prints fast, it cuts automatically at the end of the print. The label paper is readily available at any office supply store, and the software is dead easy to use.
I plugged it into my Mac, (running Snow Leopard) and it was immediately recognized, and the drivers were automatically updated and installed. However, I had no software to design the labels with. The printer comes with the software on a CD, but I usually just go to the manufacturer's website and download the software from there, because, well, often times, the software on the CD is old.
The computer installed the software (I think it had to reboot), and I was designing labels and printing in no time. The only "tricky" part, (I guess it was tricky) was selecting what type of paper was in the machine (on the computer) so that the label printed correctly... which, you set right when you open the program. So, barring that, 2 second option aside, the printer was dead easy to use. It actually fit right in my backpack, (not that I would take it with me), but I did have to on this occasion, and it was small enough to throw right in my bag.
Please leave comments below.
This is a great printer. It prints fast, it cuts automatically at the end of the print. The label paper is readily available at any office supply store, and the software is dead easy to use.
I plugged it into my Mac, (running Snow Leopard) and it was immediately recognized, and the drivers were automatically updated and installed. However, I had no software to design the labels with. The printer comes with the software on a CD, but I usually just go to the manufacturer's website and download the software from there, because, well, often times, the software on the CD is old.
The computer installed the software (I think it had to reboot), and I was designing labels and printing in no time. The only "tricky" part, (I guess it was tricky) was selecting what type of paper was in the machine (on the computer) so that the label printed correctly... which, you set right when you open the program. So, barring that, 2 second option aside, the printer was dead easy to use. It actually fit right in my backpack, (not that I would take it with me), but I did have to on this occasion, and it was small enough to throw right in my bag.
Please leave comments below.
Looking for a Label Printer?
Recently I needed a label printer for a project I was involved with, and after looking around a bit decided on buying the Brother QL-570 Label Printer. Having not used it before, but having used successful Brother products in the past, I decided that this one was it.
This is a great printer. It prints fast, it cuts automatically at the end of the print. The label paper is readily available at any office supply store, and the software is dead easy to use.
I plugged it into my Mac, (running Snow Leopard) and it was immediately recognized, and the drivers were automatically updated and installed. However, I had no software to design the labels with. The printer comes with the software on a CD, but I usually just go to the manufacturer's website and download the software from there, because, well, often times, the software on the CD is old.
The computer installed the software (I think it had to reboot), and I was designing labels and printing in no time. The only "tricky" part, (I guess it was tricky) was selecting what type of paper was in the machine (on the computer) so that the label printed correctly... which, you set right when you open the program. So, barring that, 2 second option aside, the printer was dead easy to use. It actually fit right in my backpack, (not that I would take it with me), but I did have to on this occasion, and it was small enough to throw right in my bag.
Please leave comments below.
This is a great printer. It prints fast, it cuts automatically at the end of the print. The label paper is readily available at any office supply store, and the software is dead easy to use.
I plugged it into my Mac, (running Snow Leopard) and it was immediately recognized, and the drivers were automatically updated and installed. However, I had no software to design the labels with. The printer comes with the software on a CD, but I usually just go to the manufacturer's website and download the software from there, because, well, often times, the software on the CD is old.
The computer installed the software (I think it had to reboot), and I was designing labels and printing in no time. The only "tricky" part, (I guess it was tricky) was selecting what type of paper was in the machine (on the computer) so that the label printed correctly... which, you set right when you open the program. So, barring that, 2 second option aside, the printer was dead easy to use. It actually fit right in my backpack, (not that I would take it with me), but I did have to on this occasion, and it was small enough to throw right in my bag.
Please leave comments below.
Tuesday, August 18
Rambling on Productivity and Email (Part Two)
Managing To-Dos
As I promised a follow up post to my previous blog post here.
I stated, I try to manage things through Todo lists. When I read an email that I need to take action on, I make a ToDo out of it. Simple to complex, I make a ToDo out of it. Not just emails either. If I am in a meeting and I hear an "action item" for me, I knock that out. If I get a shopping list from my wife, I put that in my Todo list as well.
There are several tools that I have evaluated and used over the years, let me go over a few of these and see if any of them help you. The one that works for me is not the one that may work for you. You have to figure it out for yourself. Make the ToDo list work for you, not you working for your ToDo list. If you find yourself spending most of your time in your ToDo list "managing it" (prioritizing, categorizing, contexting... You are doing it wrong. Managing your ToDo's should not be a ToDo within itself.)
1) Google Tasks
Google Tasks is a built in Task manager into the Gmail interface. It is accessible on the left hand side of your Gmail interface near the labels. (Look for the obvious word "Tasks"). I like this method, it's keyboard accessible, works great, and is accessible from the web.
However, There are two reasons I don't use Google Tasks. First is templates. If I want to make a standard "Group" of tasks. Say, 10 things that I must do with each client, I want to be able to template these 10 things, copy the template and use it over and over for each client. The second reason is, for some reason, right now, Google for Domains doesn't support an iPhone version of tasks. This sucks. It works in the regular Gmail, but not in Google for domains, yet. If you have the luxury of using Gmail for your primary email, I'd suggest checking out Google Tasks. Learn the keyboard shortcuts for it, and you'll whiz through it. Best feature? Being able to create a ToDo related to an email (So you can go to the ToDo and get back to the exact email). Shift-t.
All three of these are web based services that you can use for ToDos. I tried several of these, however, most of these require an extra step, or an extra website to log in to and maintain. To me, that's not reducing the amount of work I have to do, that's increasing it. I shouldn't have to increase the amount of things I have to do in order to manage a ToDo list. Each of these has their own merits. I think Remember the Milk is the most extensible. (Meaning it has an iPhone app as well.) GTDAgenda was fairly nice. In the interest of Full Disclosure, I was asked to evaluate GTDAgenda and received a free account. I used it very little because of the above reasons. Backpack is overkill. It's like a Wiki, on crack.
3) Omnifocus
Or OmniOutliner.
This is what I use, it's an OSX only application, but it allows several things that I find vital. The only thing that I don't like about it is that it's a separate app on my system (As opposed to Gmail Tasks, which is built in.) If I have an email (or damn near anything on my computer) I can highlight it with my mouse, and mash a keyboard shortcut (which is customizable) and Omnifocus takes what I have highlighted and makes it a Todo. This is the best.
I am able to assign contexts and projects to everything, assign due dates, make reoccurring tasks... etc.
It also allows me to use templates, as I discussed in Number 1. I can set up a series of tasks, then copy the series of tasks by right clicking and saying "Duplicate".
It allows me to Sync between my computer and my iPhone. Now, the way this takes place is, Omnifocus takes it's DB and puts it up on MobileMe's iDisk. The iPhone, with it's accompanying app then syncs with the DB up on the iDisk. Not a big deal, but it can be a pain to have to keep two in sync. I'd rather just use Google Tasks.
Pain in the butt part? It's expensive. Stupid expensive. It's 79 dollars for the OSX app, and it's another 19.99 for the iPhone app. I think this is bull.
4) Things
This is another program similar to Omnifocus. Simpler to use. (Less complex of an interface), but also, it's 49.95 for the App, plus another 9.99 for the iPhone version. It syncs, but not with MobileMe. Your computer that has the app on the desktop must be on the same Wifi network in order to Sync. That's fairly annoying.
5) ToDo.txt
This is a shell script, basically, that allows you to simply manage ToDos in a simple fashion from the command line. You can barely do contexts and project tagging, but you can't do subordinate projects or anything like that. It's a pretty cool little tool if you are one of those people that likes to manage everything you possible can in a command line. I have several friends like that, and I like to be like that too, but this program just doesn't have enough of the features I need to be able to manage it.
6) Tasks in your email client
Outlook, Thunderbird (with addons), and Mail each have their own ToDo system.
A) Outlooks works like this. You can drag an email over to the right pane (in Office 2007), you can also drag an email down to the "tasks" icon in the left pane at the bottom of the screen. Problem with either one of these solutions is, if you move the mail out of the inbox and into a PST, poof. The ToDo is gone. Seems counter intuitive to me. Anyway...
B) Thunderbird has various plugins for Managing Todos. I didn't put many man hours into investigating the use of the ToDo system within Thunderbird, because I didn't use Thunderbird for more than about five minutes.
C) Mail.app -- This is the only Mail program on OSX that has a ToDo system worth a crap. But even it has it's own problems.
You can create a todo based off an email, highlight the text you want and tap the "Todo" button. Mail will create a Todo based on the email. This Todo is stored in a central db that is shared between Mail.app and iCal. Problem is, as of right now, there is no way to get those ToDos on your iPhone. Come on Apple. Plus Mail.app is dog slow when dealing with 200,000 emails. (And gmails imap implementation sucks)
So, currently I am using Omnifocus until the second best (Google Tasks) comes along. At which point I will probably abandon Omnifocus, even if Google Tasks doesn't allow me to template, I will gladly ditch Omnifocus for a less "sync-y" built in, Cloud managed Task manager. I paid the full retail price for both of the Omnifocus apps (basically totaling about 100 dollars for two apps... to manage Todos. (Seriously Omni Group. The Pricing?)) It's a good pair of programs, but it's a bit overweight and expensive for what its use is.
After my Todos get into my Omnifocus program, I arrange them in two methods.
1) Project
2) Context
If the Todo is work related, I put it under "Work". If the Todo is home related (ex. Get new lightbulb for Microwave), I put it under home. Context is the "Where" portion of the todo.
So if I need to email Dave about that thing we were working on, the Project will be "Work" but the Context will be "Email".
That way, if I have a few minutes, I can take a look at my Todo list under the context "Email" or "Phone" or something, and knock a few of them out. This allows me to fit in ToDos that I have time for. Which will bring me to my next post on productivity, using my Calendar. But that's for another day.
Please leave comments below.
Sunday, August 24
This just in, someone steals another Apple idea
Okay, so could someone please rip Apple off? I mean, it hasn't been done in a couple days. Watch this video. Blackberry Bold unboxing. Tell me that's not almost the exact design of how the iPhone unboxing is? Please.
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This just in, someone steals another Apple idea
Okay, so could someone please rip Apple off? I mean, it hasn't been done in a couple days. Watch this video. Blackberry Bold unboxing. Tell me that's not almost the exact design of how the iPhone unboxing is? Please.
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