Showing 11 - 20 of 44
Producers don't give a 4K about Ultra HD
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/02/2015
» Will Ultra HD, sometimes called 4K, technology take off? As someone who likes new technology that provides a sharper picture, I hope so, but the industry pundits are lukewarm on the subject for the simple reason that there are very few ways to get any content with movie studios and TV producers slow out of the gate.
Unconcerned China hacks the iCloud
Life, James Hein, Published on 29/10/2014
» Apple was temporarily enthused that their iPhone 6 was going on sale in China since this has been a reasonable marketplace for them in the past. Then it was reported that China state-supported hackers were actively implementing a so-called man-in-the-middle attack against Apple's iCloud which would give them access to people in China trying to connect to the iCloud.com server. This attack replaces the certificate used by the customer and allows monitoring of user names, passwords and activity.
Just who is accessing your data?
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/10/2014
» According to a recent Department of Finance announcement in Australia, agencies must now adopt cloud technologies. In the announcement, the word "must" is in italics because there are some qualifications like "where it is fit for purpose, provides adequate protection of data and delivers value for money".
7, 8, skip 9, and it's 10!
Life, James Hein, Published on 08/10/2014
» Forget Windows 9, Microsoft is so certain the next version of Windows is so good they are jumping right to 10. Yes, Windows 10. Its reasoning is something about this not being an incremental update, which is what I thought was the point of a decimal numbering system (8.1).
New camera is weighing on my mind
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/09/2014
» I've had it for a while now so I finally decided to upgrade my SLR camera. After some research I decided on a Nikon D5300. Nikon, because that's the brand of the lenses and other camera accessories I already own; and the D5300 because it's lightweight and has all the latest features found in mid-range models. If I was going to match my old D200 I probably would've gone for the D7100 which has more knobs that I will ever need and is also a lot heavier.
Safe surfing with a VPN
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/08/2014
» So how safe is your surfing? Not the water, board and shark kind, but what you do on the web. Sitting in front of your computer you will either have your own internet protocol (IP) address or be assigned one as part of a pool that is doled out by your internet service provider (ISP). Somewhere between you and the rest of the internet will be a domain name server (DNS) that knows how to get a message from out there back to you and vice versa. Or to put it another way, they know where you are.
OnePlus One is new
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/06/2014
» The OnePlus One is a new Android phone from Oppo Electronics out of China. It sells for US$299 (about 10,000 baht), which puts it under half the price of the big models like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8. For that price you get the latest Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS screen, 13MP camera, 4G LTE support, Bluetooth 4 and a 3100mAh battery. You also get Gorilla Glass 3 in a polycarbonate shell.
Protect your photographs from spies
Life, James Hein, Published on 21/05/2014
» Beware the Cloud, or at least Google+. I took a picture with my phone recently, something I don’t do all that often, and happened to visit Google+ soon after. The first thing I saw was the photo I’d just taken. This was the first time I discovered that any photos I take are by default sent immediately to my Google+ area. You would think this was a setting in the Android G+ app but it is instead in the Photos apps. Google’s default push is to fully open up everything you do to Google, so be careful what setting you have and how you use your camera. To be fair the photo was in a “protected” area but we all know how well that kind of protection remains in the open-to-the-world-plus-their-dog environment we live in.
Happy birthday, Gmail
Life, James Hein, Published on 30/04/2014
» This month Gmail turned 10. According to legend, it was created in the free time of Google engineers, who were allocated 20% of their time for personal projects. In those days there was Microsoft (who managed to lose all of my Hotmail emails one year; I’ve never touched it since), Yahoo! and AOL, making Gmail’s rise from nothing quite an achievement. Gmail introduced threaded mail, more data storage and allowed users to send larger emails. They also introduced an “undo send” option, long-term storage of emails, better searching and didn’t delete your account if you remained inactive for a while. It handled spam decently and worked on almost every browser. Microsoft responded by charging for extra space. No wonder it is now the top free email service, at least according to some measures.
It’s now or never
Life, James Hein, Published on 26/03/2014
» I was having coffee with my son recently and he became frustrated because Facebook wasn’t providing the answer he was looking for fast enough. The new generation wants their information now, not in five minutes, but now. This also supports my theory that in general they are willing to accept the first answer that is provided rather than cross check the facts. This dependency on instant information means that manipulation by the media and other groups becomes a lot easier. Not sure where this is all going to end up.