I mentioned my purchase on Twitter and several people asked for my opinion.  My first impression based on the device having to charge initially for 6 hours via USB or 15 hours via light source was that this is not a “solar charger”. It’s actually a rechargeable battery.  That is not a problem but calling it a solar charger is a little misleading.  I saw direct solar charge options when considering this device but those were a little more costly.

The Juice Bar battery charges a variety of gadgets as it came with 12 connectors. Of the connectors that I mainly use three of them: USB Type A, USB Mini-B and iPod/iPhone. I’ve also started carrying the PSP connector as that one works with several gadgets I have. I’ve used the device to charge my iPhone, iPod, and Motorola RAZR which I have recently started carrying again. It has about an hour and a half of charge which works for all of the above devices. I’ve recently resurrected the RAZR and have not located its charger and the Juice Bar is the only thing I have that delivers enough power to charge it.

I tried the Juice Bar at work but the first real test was at a conference I attended in Orlando a few weeks ago. Being that my iPhone doesn’t have the best battery life, having this charger comes in handy. I charged the Juice Bar at night and would bring it out when the iPhone battery starting dying. On the last day, I had forgotten to charge the JB so I tried to grab whatever energy I could from the flourescent lights. Being that I was catching the plane, I decided to use it to keep my iPod alive instead of my iPhone.

For the most part I am happy with the Juice Bar. The one complaint I do have is that the iPod/iPhone connector is kind of loose so movement disconnects it. I have used the USB connector with an iPhone cable to avoid this.  That said, it is a convenient item to carry around.

Bonus: I decided to keep the other connectors around even though I don’t use them. One day my friend got into my car with her dead Blackberry asking if I had anything that would charge it. I handed her a standard USB cable because last time I used a Blackberry that’s what they needed to charge. It didn’t fit. She had a connector that I was not familiar with. So I went in the trunk and got my Juice Bar connectors and sure enough one of them fit. She was able to get enough charge while we were at a restaurant to make a few calls.  Now she and our waitress want one.

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Then while visiting the WordPress blog of a Twitter friend, I get the following very realistic popup indicating that a virus was found on my computer.  (There was a rash of WordPress hackings at specific web hosting providers.)  The popup looks exactly like Windows Explorer.

(Click to enlarge)

This is a mere screen capture of a Flash animation that made it appear like my machine was being scanned by legitimate antivirus software.  When it popped up, I was a little freaked out because it was pretty alarming.  I was, however, browsing with the Linux operating system at the time.  If you look closely at the screen print, you will see that the fake Windows Explorer appears in a Firefox browser window.  You will also notice that this fake antivirus scan does not say McAfee, Norton, Symantec or any other well known antivirus software.

After taking the screenprint I attempted to close the Firefox browser.  The Flash animation would not allow me to close the window without downloading an executable file that had I been using a Windows machine would install fake antivirus software.

This malware relies on the users’ fear of malware to get the user to install it.  After installation, it then essentially asks for money (to clean the supposedly infected system files) to be able to do the most basic task in Windows.  This type of malware is called ransomware in that it holds your system hostage until you pay money to regain access.  An unsuspecting user would likely pay to make their computer work again future opening them up to additional exploitation since criminals would then have the user’s credit card information and who knows what type of malicious activities the still installed software will actually do on their computer.

Legitimate virus  protection can help identify many malware threats but it’s not a panacea.  It doesn’t even matter what operating system is being used if the user will install anything.  Granted this particular malware is targeted specifically to Windows users, but malware is being created for other popular operating systems as well.  Therefore awareness is just as important as technological solutions especially since technological solutions tend to be reactionary.  A good rule is to ignore popups and kill any kind of forced downloads.

It is also important to keep up with updates and patches for your software.  I wonder what kind of damage could have occurred had I been using Internet Explorer 6 on a Windows machine.  If you are using this, please upgrade to Internet Explorer 8.  Also consider installing Firefox and/or Google Chrome.

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This type of monitoring seems to be as a result of all the successfully phishing and malware attacks targeted at Facebook users.

This screen is confusing.  Was my account accessed or was it just a login attempt?  I know I haven’t been phished.  And I’m pretty sure I don’t have any malware installed.

I take issue that Facebook made me go through all of that but wasn’t clear if my account was actually accessed.  I also question the effectiveness of this measure as I still see malware links on Facebook.

Has this happened to anyone else?

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Here are the features I noticed:

• Unified inbox. Finally!
• Emails are grouped by threads.
• App folders.  I love the folders but I wish they looked like folders instead of boxes with miniature icons.
• Camera zoom
• Can view photos by places in camera roll.
• Camera now asks if it can know my location. It’s good that they have added this feature back.  We should be able to decide if we want to geotag our photos instead of it automatically being done for us.
• Can see what apps have requested my location.  In addition, an indicator on status bar shows when apps have access to location.
• Birthday calendar. Creates a calendar of contact’s birthdays.  Incidentally, I also figured out how to sync multiple calendars with Google Sync so I can now see Facebook Events, Facebook Birthdays, and other calendars I have in Google Calendar.
• Syncing notes.  Unfortunately, I’m using Google Sync which does not have Notes functionality.  If I were syncing to an actual exchange server I would be happy with this.
• Edit playlists
• Group SMS messaging
• Google suggestions in Safari. This comes in handy when trying to look something up quickly.
• Spell check. I can see a red dotted line under misspelled words while composing email messages.

Features I read about that I can’t find for iPhone 3G

• Multitasking.  I knew that feature was not included already.
• View photos by Faces and Events
• Rotate photos
• Game center
• Ability to search web or wikipedia from home screen
• Home screen wallpaper
• Bluetooth keyboard support

Most of these missing features, I don’t care about at all.  However, I am upset about the Bluetooth keyboard support.  The home screen wallpaper seems easy enough a feature to be included so I was a little disappointed about that as well.  Many have speculated about a unified notification center but that remains to be seen.

Many argue that the older phones are not capable technically of handling many of the new features which seems reasonable.  To some extent, though, I think Apple intentionally leaves features out to serve as a proverbial carrot to motivate users to get the newer versions.  The carrot on stick motivation technique has never worked for me.  In everything, my loyalty depends on how I am treated.  In August, I will be a free agent in terms of phones and cell carriers.  I will be weighing whether or not I should stay with iPhone or move to Android.

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CLEAR is a wireless internet service that boasts speeds up to four times as fast as 3G. It is completely mobile and works anywhere within the service area. It does, however, require a new type of wireless card to get access to the network.

If CLEAR catches on it could change internet service as we know it. Right now people pay for an internet connection at home, one on their mobile devices and many times wifi at locations such as cafes, hotels, airports and the like. The beauty of CLEAR is that one would be able to pay for one internet service plan and use the same service all over the metropolitan area. The user’s connected devices could also be used in other CLEAR service areas.

The service area is larger than I would expect for the initial launch (I thought it would just be in the District alone) but still does not include where I live. When the service is expanded to my area, my internet service provider should expect an “it’s not me, it’s you” letter from me.

In the meantime, CLEAR will be broken in this week as it will provide internet access for the core events of Digital Capital Week, a 10 day festival in Washington DC focused on technology, innovation and all things digital in our nation’s capital.

CLEAR uses a technology called WiMAX. WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) refers to a standard designed to provide high-bandwidth wireless services on a metropolitan scale – think public WiFi on steriods. Reportedly, WiMAX download speeds rival that of a traditional DSL connection. WiMAX differs from WiFi in that while WiFi tends to work in a radius of about 30 meters, WiMAX’s footprint is 3 kilometers. What does that mean to you? Essentially WiMAX can easily blanket an entire city to provide wireless access. Not only that, the network speeds are not greatly compromised as with WiFi at the outer limits of coverage.

More than a year ago Xohm launched it’s WiMAX service in Baltimore. There have been numerous launches all over the country since then. During that time Xohm changed it’s name to Clearwire and rebranded the WiMAX service as CLEAR.

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• organizing applications by folders
• improved mail: unified inbox, organize messages by threads, open attachments in third-party apps
• iBooks
• create playlists on phone
• 5X digital zoom
• tap to focus video
• view photos based on who’s in them and where they are taken
• home screen wallpaper
• give apps as gifts
• spell checking
• wireless keyboard support

Of these features, those that interest me are the ability to organize applications by folders, the unified inbox (about time), ability to create playlists on the phone and wireless keyboard support (should have been there generations ago).

Since there are over 100 new features, that leaves many to the imagination.  I hope there are features that improve the communications and productivity aspects of the phone.  Here are features I hope are included:

• ability to turn off geotagging in photos or otherwise remove geotags before transmitting photos
• synchronization of notes and tasks
• pop-up notifications consolidated into a notification bar (like PalmOS and Android)
• easier way to toggle on/off wireless and Bluetooth
• Bluetooth file transfer
• ability to use phone as storage device

I understand that Apple’s way is to build from scratch but other phones already do many of these things.  So until I see features I can actually use, the verdict’s out.

Photo Credit: Adam Jackson / Flickr

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This is a product that was so ahead of its time. I’ve had a Bluetooth Stowaway keyboard for several years (maybe 3).  I will gladly use it with my iPhone when the functionality is supported. I wonder if the company will start making these again as I can see increased demand with all the new tablets coming out.

As an aside: I’ve been able to successfully use my keyboard with Linux and Playstation 3 as well as the original Palm device for which it is meant.  I have not been able to successfully use this with Windows and I have no idea why.

See my post on amplify.com.

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I contacted him about the messages and he had no idea how they were being sent.  Looking that the email headers, one can see that the email was not spoofed as it actually originated on the Hotmail service.  The headers also show that originating IP address is in Asia.  Someone (or an automated process on a server) in Asia logged into my friend’s Hotmail account and sent emails to his contacts and who knows who else.

What Probably Happened

In October, it was reported that the passwords of tens of thousands of users of the Windows Live Hotmail email service were leaked online.  Microsoft confirmed that these passwords were obtained as a result of a phishing scheme.  If this is the case, any email service could be a target of such attacks.  In addition to sites that might pretend to be related to Hotmail to get a user to enter their login credentials, there are an unlimited number of seemingly innocuous websites that ask for email credentials many times social networking sites in order to see if the user’s friends are already using their service.  In fact, services like Twitter, MySpace, FaceBook, and LinkedIn have done this very thing to get more users on their sites.  Another factor is trojans that hide on a user’s computer with the sole purpose of stealing passwords.

Spam Isn’t the Real Issue

What many people fail to realize is that when you give away the password to your email account you are essentially giving away the keys to the kingdom.  Many users have financial and other personal information stored in their email accounts.  New websites pop up everyday and there is no way to know how reputable those sites are.  Even when the company is reputable, what happens to the data it has collected if it folds?

You Have to Protect Your Data

The weakest link in information security is always the users themselves.  Users have to be more vigilant in protecting their information.  There is only so much service providers can do if users give out their passwords themselves.

To resolve my friend’s immediate problem, I recommended that he change his Hotmail password and scan his computer for trojans.  The real solution, however, is to prevent disclosure of his password – accidental or otherwise.  It is also a good idea to change the password periodically.

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More concern should be focused on Rocky Mountain Bank’s 1,325 loan customers. The bank sent their names, addresses, social security numbers and loan balances to the “wrong” GMail address. There are just so many things wrong with that statement. Most glaring is how could this information ever be sent to the right GMail account. This bank has opened up 1,325 people to the possibility of the irreparable damage of identity theft.

As a financial institution, Rocky Mountain Bank is bound by regulations meant to protect consumers from having their personally identifiable information exposed. The bank was completely and utterly reckless in the way this was handled. It is likely that the bank could be fined. The bank may even face lawsuits.

What They Did Wrong

They emailed personally identifiable information.
First, personally identifiable information should never been emailed even if requested. The moment unencrypted data is transmitted over the internet, that data is practically available for all to see. Data is stored at each server it has to traverse to get to its destination. It can also be intercepted by anyone on that route. While RMB focused on that one email account, it is impossible to delete all traces of this data as it could be anywhere by now. If this user is in a country that does not cooperate with U.S. law enforcement and has already downloaded or otherwise saved the email, that user is not subject to any litigation originating from the U.S. This data could already be available on the black market.

They did not use encryption.
If there is no other way to transmit the information other than email it must be encrypted. That data must be encrypted whether it’s at rest (on a hard drive, in a database, on a floppy, etc.) or whether it’s in motion (emailed, FTPed, etc.). This is a very basic principle.

Does anything else matter?
The bank could have also used filtering on outgoing messages to recognize sensitive data being emailed. The bank could have also double checked the email address that the message was being sent to as well as the actual email attachment. Or the bank could have implemented a secure messaging system so sensitive information never leaves their network. I’m not so sure this is the point, however. The fact that the wrong file was sent and the wrong email address are beside the point. If the bank made a habit of encrypting data and not sending financial records via email, all the other “what ifs” regarding the incident wouldn’t matter.

They covered their butts first.
In requesting these court orders Rocky Mountain Bank wanted the lawsuit sealed. That to me looks like the bank was trying to protect itself hoping the details of this data breach would not be exposed. The bank has most likely reported the breach to its customers but likely not how the breach occurred. What they have done by getting the email deleted, receiving the GMail user’s identity and deactivating that account does nothing to remedy a situation that cannot be remedied. This bank should bear sole responsibility for releasing customer information in such a reckless manner and should be held accountable.

Rocky Mountain Bank found that the email containing the sensitive data was not read by the email account owner. Rocky Mountain Bank has dropped its lawsuit against Google. Bank representatives are certainly relieved but this hardly means the data is not available elsewhere.

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Phone

The phone quality is pretty good.  I like the loudspeaker mode as it was pretty easy to hear my phone calls.  With other phones it has been somewhat difficult to hear on speaker mode above background noise.  Another feature I like about the phone is the audible caller ID alert.  Though some names sounded strange others were pronounced very well.  This is a neat feature though I’d probably never use it in real life.

There was one day when my calls kept dropping but this only happened when talking with one person in particular.  It did not happen with anyone else I talked to that day or any other day.

Messaging

The first thing I tried to do after inserting my SIM card was send an MMS message but found that I could not – this is most likely because my AT&T account is set up for my iPhone.  The next thing I did was set up Mail for Outlook to use Google Sync to synchronize my calendar and address book.  I was happy that my calendar and contacts were synched.  Included were photos for any contacts for which I had photos attached in my Google contacts.  I then set up Express Mail for two of my GMail accounts and one Yahoo mail account.  I was not as happy about the email client since not many emails were displayed and the emails are displayed in plain text format.  I also did not like that individual mailboxes were displayed instead of one box containing all email and SMS messages (like Blackberry).  The phone also does not seem to support IMAP so I could not organize my mail.  It is likely that Mail for Outlook supports multiple folders but I can’t use this with my GMail accounts.

Browser

The browser can render an entire website but not necessarily the same way it would be viewed on a computer screen.  Navigation in the browser takes a little getting used to but includes a thumbnail window to see what you are looking at in context of the page.  Some pluses of the browser are that it supports multiple browser windows (similar to Safari on the iPhone) and that it supports Flash.

Bluetooth

The phone is has full Bluetooth capability.  Not only does it allow you to use stereo Bluetooth headsets but it also allow you to access files on the phone via Bluetooth (OBEX).  I transfered my images and video from the phone that way.  It syncs the address book, calendar, notes, text messages and bookmarks via Bluetooth as well.  In addition, I was able to  share wifi or other internet connections with other devices via Bluetooth.  I did this with my Palm LifeDrive.

Media

The device can play audio files.  I was able to play my voice mails that I received in email.  I did not use the phone much for audio but there is an included audio player.  In addition to audio, the phone plays video.  The miniSD slot can be used to expand the phone’s memory to hold more media files.  Other helpful apps included are QuickOffice and Adobe PDF viewer which allow you to view various email attachments.

Camera

The E71x’s 3.2 megapixel camera has scene modes that allow you to change the picture taking settings (i.e. portrait, landscape, night, close up, etc.) much like that on standalone digital cameras.  There are various settings for flash, timer, white balance and color settings as well.  The camera has a light instead of a flash.  It stays on a while most likely to prevent red eye.  The camera does pretty decent quality video as well.  While shooting video the light stays on.

Apps

I installed Qik right away and Twibble (a Twitter client).  I tried to install Gravity several times with no success.  I eventually installed Google Maps, which I used to find my way to Assateague Island, Virginia from Pocomoke City, Maryland.  It is a good alternative to the fee-based AT&T Maps service.  I also installed the GMail Java app, Google Mobile and Fring.  I definitely preferred the GMail app to the included email client.  Fring allowed me to make VOIP calls via AT&T’s 3G as well as wi-fi connections.  It also allowed me to connect to Skype and all of my IM accounts.

There are a lot of apps included on the phone including games, XM radio, MobiTV and mSpot Music.  I never used them so I offer no opinion of them.

Verdict

I really enjoyed this phone primarily for the media features (i.e. photos, videos, etc).  I also enjoyed being able to retrieve the files via Bluetooth.  Another feature I liked was the ability to sync my calendar and contacts as I am not one to enter this information into the phone by hand.  It’s a pretty decent phone to use for business and for fun.

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Setup

Setup was extremely easy.  It requires no special software on your computer or phone.  All that is required is to set up an Exchange Activesync account using one’s Google email/calendar credentials.  Before doing this, however, it is important to back up contacts and calendar on the device and upload this information to Google.

Functionality

If I create a new event on my Google Calendar online I am able to see it on the iPhone calendar application within a few seconds and vice versa.  I noticed that changes to contacts seemed to take a few minutes to sync.  I now keep my calendar and contacts in sync without 1) having to pay for a service to do this, 2) connecting to the office and 3) connecting my iPhone to my computer for synching.

Limitations

Google Sync currently only synchronizes contacts and calendar items.  It does not synchronize mail through the Microsoft Exchange Activesync protocol but instead though IMAP, so two accounts have to be set up on the phone to get both mail and calendar/contact information.  The only features that I would like to see added are the ability to sync notes and tasks.

If you still use Outlook you will need to download a separate tool to synchronize Outlook with Google Calendar.  The verdict is out on syncing contacts directly, however.  Plaxo will synchronize calendar, contacts, notes and tasks with Outlook for a fee, however.

Google Sync is a good tool for businesses and individuals that cannot afford to run Microsoft Exchange in house especially when used with a Google Apps hosted domain.  Google Sync is available on iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Mobile phones.

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Suspicious Links

Twitter responded by suspending infected accounts and resetting passwords.  This, however, will not help you protect yourself from scammers.  There are numerous ways that suspicious links are sent.  One method involves Twitter accounts unknown to you sending you links.  These are easy to ignore.  The more effective manner is for malicious programs to send links to you from people you already know and trust which is why these malware programs are hard to avoid.

URL Obfuscation

Getting people to click on links has been successful because the malware takes advantage of the URL obfuscation created by URL shortening services.  Given that, it may be effective to avoid clicking on links all together.  However, avoiding links completely would likely make your Twitter experience less enriching.  One does not have to resort to such drastic measures.  Many URL forwarding services provide functionality to preview a link.  Here are examples from TinyURL and bit.ly:

URLs Revealed

Instead of manually typing the URLs, you can use Twitter clients that allow you to see the actual URL.  My favorite client that allows this is TweetDeck.

If you prefer the web client, you can use the Power Twitter Firefox extension.  Not only does Power Twitter expand short URLs but it also displays photos and video inlne in your Twitter stream.

Another option if you are using the web interface is the Long URLs Please Firefox extension.  It will expand URLs on any web page which is good for other sites where you may see shortened URLs as well.

Other options include looking at your Twitter stream using Friendfeed as it automatically expands short URLs.  Many people are already reading tweets on Friendfeed due to various changes to the Twitter service so it may not be that much of a stretch to use Friendfeed to see links as well.  (Of course, your Twitter friends have to be Friendfeed users as well.)

I applaud Twitter for trying to the curb the proliferation of Koobface but it’s really up to the users not to get infected: we need to be aware of what we are clicking.  Tools like TweetDeck, Power Twitter, Long URLs Please and FriendFeed can help you make informed decisions about what you click before you click it.

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Geotagging

Digital cameras store images in a format called Exchangeable Image File (EXIF).  EXIF files can be TIF or JPEG format but they also include information about the photo including the type of camera used to take the photo and the camera settings.  The EXIF specification also allows for GPS coordinates to be included.  Adding geographic information to photos is called geotagging.  Phones that can geotag photos include Blackberry, iPhone, G1 and Palm Pre.

Geotagged Images Online

With the iPhone there was a limitation in the API used to upload and email photos that stripped GPS and other data when the photos were uploaded directly from the phone.  This can be seen as a flaw by some and an accidental security measure by others.  However, the API was fixed in the iPhone 2.1 update so all EXIF data is now being transmitted depending on what application you are using to upload the photos.  In addition, if you save the photos on your computer the data remains in the file so if you subsequently upload those files anywhere the location data will go along with them.

If photos are uploaded to Flickr, the service can automatically geotag them based on EXIF data.  However, I am not so much worried about sites like Flickr.  Flickr has the ability to hide EXIF data and many image hosting sites strip EXIF data from the image it shows (probably in the interest of saving bandwidth).  But what happens when one uploads photos to blogs or other sites?  Anyone, especially stalkers or other people with ill intentions, can view the photos’ EXIF data to find out where the photos were taken.  One seemingly innocuous photo could result in people knowing the exact GPS coordinates of your house.

It looks like many phones will allow you to turn geotagging off.  However, this feature cannot be turned off on an iPhone without turning off all location services.  At one point the iPhone’s Camera application would ask to know your location.  This was a good way to opt out of location data being stored in the photo.  However, the application no longer asks for permission and automatically stores the location data in each photo.

What Can Be Done

The most important thing is to be aware when you are geotagging photos.  On the iPhone it is likely that turning off location services completely is not a convenient option.  If you are saving the photos on your computer and then uploading them, you will have to edit the EXIF data to remove the GPS coordinates before uploading the files.  Many image editing programs will allow you to do this.  However, if you are uploading images directly from your phone, you are sending your GPS data to the internet.  I just checked the App Store and there aren’t any apps to remove geotags.  (I did see three apps that claim to remove all EXIF data though.)  Your best bet would be to not directly post anything from private locations unless you know for sure that your geotag data will be stripped.

I do not have access to other GPS-enabled phones at this time but will try to get my hands on some for testing.  From a cursory look on the internet it appears that Blackberry and Pre have an option to enable geotagging which probably means it can also be disabled.  I did not immediately find information on whether geotagging can be disabled on a G1.  I will definitely look more into this.

Are you unwittingly sharing location data?

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Within the last month or so, I’ve noticed that even though I still see some of these memes in my Twitter stream I don’t see them in trending topics.  I’ve seen complaints about trending topics being removed.  Complaints also include results related to the trending topic being removed from Twitter search as well as users themselves being completely removed from Twitter search.  Many have suggested various reasons for this but it is my opinion that Twitter is cracking down on intentional trending.

This is speculation since Twitter has not answered questions about why various trending topics were removed.  It is pretty clear that they are removing things from trending topics.  At this point, however, I do not know how they are determining what to remove and what to keep.  Hash tags like #sytycd and #pdf09 are allowed to trend.  Are people reporting certain hash tags and memes to Twitter for removal?  Does Twitter’s staff decide which trends to remove?  Or is it done via an algorithm of some sort?

Whatever it is that they are doing, there should be some way to challenge their decision to remove a trending topic.  So far I have seen that (un)conferences like #privacydc, #cfp09 and #openvideo have had no problems using their hash tags on Twitter.  But what happens if they somehow become flagged as spam (or whatever the process is)?  Coverage of entire events would be lost.  Twitter needs to come clean about what they are doing and also provide a way for “legitimate” trends to challenge being blocked.

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