Upgrading from your iPhone 4S? Don't throw it away yet!

With the unveiling of the new iPhone 5 around the corner, gadget lovers will soon be looking to upgrade their mobile devices. If you own an iPhone 4S, you might be lucky enough to have Apple help offset your costs. Apple offers a Reuse and Recycle Program, which means that if your iPhone 4S is in good enough condition, you can give it back to Apple and receive an Apple gift card for $345.

By giving information on the colour, model and condition of your iPhone, you will be told an estimate of its value. Things like scratches and water damage will obviously diminish this.

You can take advantage of Apple's Reuse and Recycle program with other Apple devices, like iPads, Macs and even PCs. After assessment, you will be sent an Apple gift card appropriate to your device's value. If it is of no value to Apple, they will still recycle it for you at no cost!

Mashable shared this site on ebay proving that there may be more lucrative ways to offset costs of a new iPhone 5!

Do you have plans to upgrade? What will you do with your old phone?

Back to School

With one week left of August and piles of Staples flyers littering my front porch, my mind is starting to slip into "back to school" mode -- time to return to hours spent in front of a Microsoft Word document that refuses to grow at any rate faster than a crawl. Sigh, essays. While I prefer writing a paper over a one-shot midterm/exam, it's always a little rough getting the academic writing juices flowing after four months of summer vacation.

Thank goodness for Written, Kitten! Okay, I haven't actually tried this. But this is one of those sites that I can easily see my room mate and I giggling over late at night while trying to reach our target word counts in the library. The concept of Written Kitten is built around positive reinforcement -- set a word count (e.g. 100 words) and see a new picture of a kitten every time you reach your goal. It's ridiculous, it's fun, and another example of cats invading the internet. Seriously, they're everywhere.

For those of us who need a slightly stricter form of encouragement to increase productivity should check out Write or Die, a program that punishes the tendency to avoid writing (available in desktop mode or as an iPad app). You can set a length of time for writing and/or a word count goal. As long as you keep typing, you're fine. As soon as you stop, there is a brief grace period of a few seconds before you face consequences. These range from Gentle Mode (a box pops up telling you to keep writing), to Normal Mode (an awful sound will be played until you begin writing again) to Kamikaze Mode (keep writing or your work will unwrite itself).

The internet can be a very distracting place, a place where we sometimes find ourselves tumbling down the rabbit holes of YouTube, Pinterest, StumbleUpon and Facebook. With the forces of kittens and Kamikaze Mode combined, perhaps there is hope for me to fight the evils of procrastination and to meet those deadlines that seem so attainable when first assigned... see you in September, kitties!

Mat Honan's Epic Hack

On August 6, 2012 Wired Magazine writer Mat Honan published an article detailing the process of how his entire “digital life” was destroyed over the course of one hour. The Damage? Mr. Honan’s Google account was accessed and deleted, his Twitter account hijacked, and after some key information was obtained from his Amazon account, the hackers went on to break into his Apple ID account, ultimately wiping and locking his iPhone, iPad and MacBook. Mat Honan lost emails, documents, and over a year’s worth of photos including all shots of his one-year-old daughter.

This devastating hack was a product of multiple factors, some of which Mr. Honan could have protected himself from, as he explains in his article:

“My accounts were daisy-chained together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter. Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, it’s possible that none of this would have happened”

Honan also hadn’t been regularly backing up his MacBook, which would have helped him to recover files, photos and emails after the attack.

Honan uses mhonan as a prefix for multiple email accounts. The hackers went to Google’s account recovery page and entered his email address (found on his website) which exposed his second-listed email, partially obscured, to which his temporary password would be sent. m••••n@me.com was not only easy to guess, but the @me.com revealed that Honan had an Apple ID, sending the hackers down that trail.

Perhaps most disturbing is that the methods used by Mat Honan’s hackers exposed gaping security flaws in password recovery/reset processed used by customer service systems for enormous international companies. Apple handed all control over to Honan’s hackers after being provided with a billing address and the last four digits of Honan’s credit card. The billing address was obtained from a simple whois internet search, the last four credit card digits were acquired from his Amazon account. Mat Honan describes the process below, which the writers at Wired actually followed, and succeeded in duplicating twice after just a few minutes:

“First you call Amazon and tell them you are the account holder, and want to add a credit card number to the account. All you need is the name on the account, an associated e-mail address, and the billing address. Amazon then allows you to input a new credit card…

…Next you call back, and tell Amazon that you’ve lost access to your account. Upon providing a name, billing address, and the new credit card number you gave the company on the prior call, Amazon will allow you to add a new e-mail address to the account. From here, you go to the Amazon website, and send a password reset to the new e-mail account. This allows you to see all the credit cards on file for the account — not the complete numbers, just the last four digits. But, as we know, Apple only needs those last four digits.”

Mat Honan had implemented FindMyMac on his MacBook, a feature which allows you to wipe your stolen laptop from afar but also has you create a four-digit PIN to reverse the damage if you ever get it back. In this case, the hackers gained control of Honan’s Apple account and wiped his MacBook, leaving him with a pop-up screen asking him to enter a four-digit recovery PIN… that only the hackers knew.

So what can you learn from Mat Honan’s “Epic Hack”?

·        Back up your data – regularly.

·        Don’t let one account fall into a trail of breadcrumbs leading hackers to other accounts (in Honan’s case, Google led to iCloud)

·        Use multiple-factor identification for logins

·        Have a second thought about “FindMyMac”, if you use it. Honan realized that unlike phones, computers are more likely to be accessed remotely rather than physically.

And, of course, make sure to select a strong password – but don’t use it for everything, multiple accounts = multiple passwords!

PBS Digital Studios - Now with Bob Ross!!!

When PBS Digital Studios first released Garden of Your Mind - an auto-tuned remix featuring a hodgepodge of clips from Mister Rogers - I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the next hour... seriously, if you haven't watched it yet, Now. Is. The. Time.



This genius is thanks to video mash-up artist John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep. PBS discovered melodysheep on YouTube and couldn't wait to begin working together - he's a huge Mister Rogers fan.

Today I discovered a NEW (ok, a few days old) video from PBS Digital Studios, this time featuring Bob Ross. I admit, not as mind-blowing as Garden of Your Mind, but it's worth the watch - even if for no other reason but to admire this man's hair.



Check out more melodysheep videos at http://www.youtube.com/melodysheep

Olympics: Where will you get your fix?

I know, I know… second Olympics post in a row – I’m a fan, ok? Luckily for Olympics fans stuck in time zones that require obscene wake-up calls to catch an event on TV, there are various opportunities to catch up on the day’s games. CTVOlympics.ca has created apps for tablet and mobile in addition to its website. All three platforms provide you with the latest news, medal counts, videos and more.

The Website:

www.ctvolympics.ca

First thought: Ah! I don’t really know where to look first. Pictures, logos, videos, articles—every bit of space is plastered with information. Still, it kind of gets me excited about the Olympics. The site is busy and bursting, but so are the games. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do when I see this site.

One thing worth mentioning – I was surprised to see a scrolling feature on both the Results & Schedule and Viewers’ Guide. Rather than having a scroll bar, you can hold down your left mouse key and drag the schedule page to see more event listings - kind of a tablet/desktop hybrid. It’s not really an effective feature, swiping on a touch screen is simpler than dragging with a mouse, but it’s notable that a feature commonly used for tablet is considered intuitive enough to expect mouse users to know what to do with it.

The website has all the information you need, but the presentation is all over the place.

The iPhone App:

CTV Olympics

First thought: On the go information. This is an app designed for the fan who wants to catch up quickly. Its navigation is simpler than the website in the sense that there are only 3 main menus across the top (Latest News, Watch Now, Today) plus one drop down menu (titled “Menu”) which can steer you in the direction of more specific pages.

This is a great app for a mobile phone. The information is organized and easy to navigate for a user that wants to quickly get up to speed on news, results, and video.

The iPad App:

CTV Olympics

First thought: This is definitely my top pick for getting my Olympic fix. The navigation is well organized with little icons down the side grouping 2-3 menus at a time.

The Viewers’ Guide on the iPad is the best when compared to the mobile app and website. Like the mobile app, you can search through filters “Live Now”, “By Day” and “By Sport”, the tablet version just allows for more graphics calling attention to the kind of event that is listed. The iPad app is my top choice out of the three CTV platforms because its navigation is clean and simple and it doesn’t omit images like the phone app does in some cases due to screen size.

Go for... "the shiniest medal"!

It’s here! The London 2012 opening ceremonies are being broadcasted this afternoon, kicking off the Olympic Summer Games. Oops, was I allowed to day that? Let’s try that again…

A big ol’ spectacle is happening today on your televisions! Some British people will likely be dancing and playing music to welcome several out-of-towners as they collectively get hyped about sports!

Huh?

The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has cracked down on ambush marketing this year. To protect official Olympic sponsors such as McDonald’s and Adidas, Olympics organizers have banned businesses from using words such as “gold” “summer” and “London” IF they give the impression that that business is officially connected to the Olympics. The price tag for a violation? Lesser offenses can ding you up to £20,000.

Check out the “Find Your Greatness” ad by Nike (not an official Olympic sponsor) that tiptoes around these rules by featuring regular folk participating in sports across the many cities and towns around the world that happen to go by the name of London.

What are you looking forward to most during the sports spectacle that is happening in the United Kingdom this season?

Click here for examples of ads that would be considered legal and illegal by Olympics organizers.

iPad: What the Heck Just Happened?

In the past two years, Apple has sold over 84 million iPads worldwide – 17 million in the last quarter.

The total number of DVD players sold between 1997 and 2007 reached 167 million.

By the end of the 1960s, approximately 30 years after its introduction at the World’s Fair, there were 200 million television sets in homes around the world.

That’s right: Apple has sold enough iPads in the past two years to equal almost half of the number of DVD players sold in ten years and televisions 20 years into the so-called “golden age of television”. The world is crazy for tablets, but why? Are they less of a splurge today than a television was in the past? Not especially…

Ready for some more facts & figures?

In 1955, a Zenith 17" black and white TV cost $149. An individual’s mean income in 1955 was $5000, so 3% of a person’s annual income could pay for a 17" black and white TV.

In 2010 an iPad cost $550. An individual’s mean income today is $31,100 - so 1.7% of the average person’s annual income gets them an iPad.

Maybe we’re in “the golden age” of Tablets. Note that these figures only reflect iPad sales, they don’t even mention the array of tablets found in today’s electronics stores (yes, many stores now have entire sections dedicated to tablets).

One more thing I haven’t mentioned: Tablets are toys. Sure, their light weight and access to apps is convenient, but most people own tablets in addition to a desktop and/or laptop and/or smart phone. We can live without them. We already own (sometimes multiple) devices that do the necessary work needed to complete our day-to-day tasks. The television was a breakthrough for society. TV meant a new medium for broadcasting, opening up visual access to information that before seemed worlds away.

Is it our thirst for information that has fuelled the rapid demand for tablets? Or simply a gotta-have-it thirst for technology?

Whatever it is, something is happening out there, just what the heck is it? What do YOU think?

Check out some more stats on TV production here