April 2012
17 posts
2 tags
The Widening Wireless World →
My monthly Web chat for the Consumer Electronics Association—from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern today, April 13—covers a few recent developments in mobile and wireless. But, as ever, no reasonable tech query will be refused, and if I have time I’ll try to get to some unreasonable questions too.
5 tags
We're All Macs And PCs (Unless We're iPhones) →
An essay I wrote about how many of the day-to-day differences between using a PC and using a Mac have faded in recent years. Some represent the market at work, some are Apple and Microsoft making similar mistakes.
4 tags
Passpoint: A Recipe for Wider Wi-Fi →
Switching your phone from overcrowded 3G and 4G to WiFi could get a lot easier with a new standard for wireless roaming.
4 tags
Secure your Mac from Flashback infection →
If you’re worried about drive-by downloads like Flashback—which seems to be the first widely “successful” Mac virus since the days of System 6—the answer isn’t that hard: Stop using the Java software that does next to nothing on a home computer but keeps getting targeted by malware authors.
2 tags
Nokia's Lumia 900: A New Deal For Smartphones →
I thought this review would be more positive, but a bizarre charging issue, unexceptional battery life and the iffy state of Windows Phone 7 apps held it back a bit.
3 tags
Software-Update Policies Could Use An Upgrade →
A plea for some sort of clarity and consistency about how long a manufacturer will provide software updates for the gadgets it sells (especially phones).
8 tags
Rob's March Podcast: Sourcing, RIM Shot, Windows... →
In my monthly podcast for CEA, I go over a round of tech topics - from Research In Motion’s travails to NetZero’s new, sort-of free 4G data service - with ABC News tech correspondent Andrea Smith and follow up on my recent posts for CEA.
4 tags
Glitch mixes up Facebook profile pictures →
My USAToday.com column covers an issue with Facebook’s iOS app first reported to me by… my wife. (But then many other people on Twitter confirmed that they, too, were seeing the wrong profile pics in the News Feed in this app—and, weirdly enough, in the Chrome browser.) The balance of it reminds readers to back up the recovery partition of their hard drive, just in case...
March 2012
20 posts
2 tags
Google Now Comes With A Monthly Statement →
If your online life has felt like you’ve been making deposits at the First National Bank of Google, relax—your monthly statement is finally ready.
1 tag
Sourcing Should Be Part of a Gadget’s Story →
Apple seems to have figured out that how a product was made is a feature in its own right (not that it doesn’t have work to do in its Chinese supply chain). But a lot of other consumer-electronics firms—some of which actually own most of their own factories—have yet to come to that realization, leaving customers hoping that they’re not subsidizing the misery of workers...
4 tags
Art Of Video Games On Display →
This post for Discovery News covers what I got out of this exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum—and what the exhibit left out. Which, sadly, was a lot.
6 tags
Tip: How to copy a DVD to your PC →
Today’s USAToday.com column outlines DVD-ripping options—I continue to recommend Handbrake—and suggests one way to keep your use of an auto-posting Facebook “social app” private.
3 tags
Retina displays, 4K TVs push pixel limits →
I like the Retina display on the new iPad—and I’m pleased that my three-year-old HDTV also qualifies as a Retina display when viewed from my couch.
2 tags
The New iPad: A Super Screen And A Big Battery →
I had the opportunity to borrow not one but two new iPads—one an AT&T LTE model, the other a Verizon LTE unit. Hence I could take a photo of one iPad with the other. (The camera is pretty good, but nowhere near as nice as the screen.)
3 tags
A cautionary tale about syncing →
What one reader’s contacts-syncing mishap can teach us about being too generous with access to our data. Plus: You probably don’t have to put up with the crummy, proprietary onscreen keyboard that came with your Android phone.
1 tag
Which Apps Might Outlive SXSW →
A recap of my experience using people-discovery apps like Glancee at SXSW—and why I may not be enough of a small-screen extrovert to keep using them.
1 tag
Smartphone Battery Life Goes South By Southwest →
What location-based apps are doing for me at SXSW, and what they’re doing to the phones I brought here.
1 tag
Windows 8: The Shock Of The New, And The Old →
A writeup for Discovery News based on a week living with—sometimes, battling with—Windows 8 on my own laptop.
2 tags
Tip: Avoid hiccups in Safari browsing →
My USAToday.com column addresses one of the more infuriating software defects I’ve ever seen in an Apple product and offers a reminder that screengrabs trump privacy policies on social networks.
2 tags
Things Unsaid In Apple's New iPad News →
A look at the consequences of some of the new iPad’s features. (Note to phone vendors: I will gladly accept not-worse battery life if it makes the device weigh a fraction of an ounce more.)
