I started sniffing around for fun today and I made some disturbing discoveries that shouldn’t have surprised me.  First, I noticed that my POP3 (Post Office Protocol; POP3 is the predominant email protocol) accounts are not authenticating securely. I was able to easily pull my username and password out of the network packets, as well as any email information that was sent or received. A few quick settings changes and I’m now sending and receiving email securely.

I also found out that the AIM protocol is not encrypted either. You can clearly see the message below that I sent to my friend. (Click to see the whole window)

If I get on a WiFi network, I should be able to see other people’s messages. I’m interested to see how many people out there are using no encryption or weak encryption (base64).

Let me begin by introducing the home screen. By pressing the button on the front of the iPhone (the Home button), the iPhone will automatically return to the home screen; no matter what you are doing.

There are multiple pages to the home screen. See the white dot near the bottom and the grayed out one? That means that I’m on the first page of two. The four buttons below that are always on the page, no matter which page you are on, but you aren’t limited to keeping Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod on there. If you never use Safari, you can touch and hold on it and then drag another application to the bar (Maps, for example).

Now the Maps application is always on the bottom of the home screen.

Next, I’ll show the features about Safari that make it stand apart from all other mobile phone internet applications. Safari is able to show an entire page at once, whereas many mobile phone internet applications show a 100%-zoomed version of the internet. Other internet applications make you feel like you’re navigating a maze. With Safari, all of this has changed. Safari renders the whole page as you would see it on your PC. Here is my blog:

Now, I can use the multitouch screen to zoom in and see the details of the page. It so happens that my blog is easily displayed in portrait mode, but some other sites are not. Icanhascheezburger.com is one of these. To view the webpage in landscape mode (for those wider webpages), I simply rotate the iPhone and hold it sideways. The page automatically rotates.

This is definitely one of my favorite features of the iPhone. As always, you can zoom in and out as far as you wish. Once again, you can rotate the phone back to the ‘normal’ (portrtait) position to see more of the vertical page.

Safari also suppots tabs. In the picture above, I have 2 tabs open. Safari even supports the latest versions of Microsoft’s PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents. The same zoom concepts and tilt concepts apply to all of these formats. Here is a landscape Excel spreadsheet (namely, an overview of my schedule):

And here is a zoomed in segment of my schedule:

Also note that the iPhone works with everyone. A right-handed person is likely to tilt the iPhone a different way than a left-handed person does. The iPhone will turn itself around to orient to any way that you hold it (except upside-down, but who holds a phone upside-down anyways?).

Another one of my favorite features of the iPhone is the built-in Mail application. It supports Microsoft Exchange servers, mobileMe mail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL mail, or any IMAP or POP3 account. Personally, I have two accounts that I check routinely. I have my iPhone set up to automatically check for mail every 30 minutes, so that I always have my email with me wherever I go. Eventually, push email will be implemented for certain accounts, so the iPhone receives mail the instant that it arrives. Here is the home screen of one of my email accounts:

Not a whole lot to see here except the folders that I have. When I click on Inbox, I get previews of messages (the preview size is adjustable) and I can easily reply to, forward, or delete messages. The Mail application also works with the landscape mode of the phone, enabling you to view emails in a horizontal mode. If you receive a picture in your E-mail, you can tap and hold on the picture and it will ask you if you wish to save the picture. You can also view certain types of attachments (including the ones listed above). The Mail application is probably my most used application.

Now that I have gone over the larger applications, I would like to finish up this post with two more smaller applications: Weather and Stocks. The weather application is great because it shows a full 7-day forecast on one page. Most phones, if they have a weather application, only show 3 or 5 days at a time. The Weather application can also store and update weather for multiple cities.

The Stocks application shows the various exchanges as well as any companies that you pick. It has a variety of options to customize and it can also show historical graphs.

With all of these features, the iPhone is certainly the best phone on the market. Even with Android-based phones coming out, Apple’s iPhone still outruns them by miles. I am thoroughly enjoying the iPhone and I hope to post in the future about the great applications that you can purchase or download for free through the App store.

Oh, and I lied at the beginning of this post. I must mention that Scrabble is one of the best games for the iPhone.

Oh and I almost forgot: Pressing the Sleep button and the Home button simultaneously makes the screen flash white and a little camera sound emit from the speaker (it takes a screenshot).

I may have almost forgotten the screenshot feature, but I really did forget one of the best iPhone 3G features: GPS. A little dot moves around on the screen as I move. It also has the ability to give directions based on my current location. This saves me from having to look around frantically for a street sign before I pass the turn.

Until next time,

Clete R. Blackwell II

However, I will make up for it by including extra pictures in my next post.

On Saturday, I ordered a brand new iPhone (white 16GB) from AT&T. I’m really excited about it. I have been wanting one ever since the rumors spread on Engadget and elsewhere that Apple would be releasing a phone. I was able to easily place the order on AT&T’s website. Generally, you are not able to upgrade to an iPhone through their website, but since we receive an employee discount from my Dad’s job through the “Premier” program, I was able to. Sadly, the phone is now on backorder, but it should ship this week. I’m extremely excited.

In preperation for my new toy, I have searched the application store for some great additions to my phone. Here is what I have come up with so far:

• Air Sharing — Allows sharing of files between your computer and your iPhone.
• CheckPlease — Tip calculator.
• eBay Mobile
• Facebook
• Flashlight — Will help me check for dead pixels. Also can turn the screen white to be used as a flashlight at night.
• Google Mobile App
• iProcrastinate — A homework scheduler.
• Loopt — Finds iPhone users in your area.
• Mobile Banking from Bank of America
• Mocha VNC Lite — A VNC client.
• Pandora Radio — Free music radio.
• Shazam — If you don’t know the name of a song that is playing, hold your iPhone up to the speaker and it will identify the song for you.
• SimStapler — A staple simulator
• Tap Tap Revenge — It looks like a fun game.
• Units — Unit conversion.
• WhosHere — Another application similar to Loopt.

More to come once I receive my phone!

PASSHE stands for “Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education” and it is the government institution for 14 universities in Pennsylvania. Let me start out by explaining the situation.

The law that Governor Ed Rendell (D) signed into place bans smoking in many public places and all private indoor commercial/industrial places (with exceptions such as bars that sell under a certain amount of food).

Although I will never be a smoker, I believe that this law impeeds on our rights. Why should the government tell a business owner that he cannot allow smoking inside of his building? What right does the government have to control his business? People can look out for themselves; they don’t need the government holding their hands. People, like me, will avoid places that have excessive smoking indoors. I watch out for my health and so do others. I eat my meals in the non-smoking section; I bowl on the days when the owner has prohibited smoking. I hold my breath when I walk by smokers outdoors. People watch out for their health. We don’t need more government and we certainly don’t need the government telling businesses how to run.

However, I do believe that cities (like New York City and Philadelphia) should be able to decide on outdoor bans, since there is such a dense population in a small area. Nobody should be allowed to intrude on our rights when we are indoors on non-government property.

As for outdoor smoking on campuses, I believe that the campus should be allowed to choose. PASSHE should not mandate smoke-free campuses. Campuses should decide on their own (Should we have designated areas? Should we ban it? Should we allow it everywhere?). Government always messes things up and we certainly don’t need Edward Rendell (D) or anyone else intruding on our rights.

Two weeks ago, my wireless mouse (a Targus with a USB dongle, which was a wonderful mouse) began to go awry. I suppose that I accidentally stepped on the dongle, because there seemed to be a short in it. Whenever the dongle would move, it would disconnect and then reconnect. I then decided to shop around for a bluetooth mouse (read: no cords — at all).

The best one on the market appeared to be the Logitech V470 (product page). It was small-looking, lightweight, and it had good reviews by around 95% of the people who reviewed it. I saw a lot of complaints about it shutting off after being inactive for a few seconds, but I wasn’t concerned about it. I decided to buy it and I found it on eBay for $33 or so. It generally costs $49 in retail stores.

Specifications:

This mouse is a laser mouse that has two buttons (that are integrated with only a central seam) and a scroll wheel with side-scrolling capabilities. The V470 takes two AA batteries, but it is still lighter than most battery-powered mice that are on the market. It also includes a small LED light that glows red when the AA batteries need to be replaced.

Performance:

The V470 glides smoothly over almost any surface, due to the fact that it is a laser mouse. The laser is invisible to the human eye, so there is no annoying red light shining all of the time. The mouse does have a slightly noticible lag when it is being used over a counter-top surface. Even when it is on a mousepad, there is still a very slight lag that is enough to render the mouse useless for first person shooter games. Other than these limitations, it is an exceptional mouse when it comes to portability and ease-of-use.

Other Notes:

The Logitech V470 is incredibly easy to install. All I had to do was set my computer to search for a bluetooth device and press the “connect” button on the bottom of the mouse. Once I paired the devices, the mouse was picked up perfectly and was fully functional. After the device is paired with the PC for the first time, it will automatically connect to the PC every time it is turned on.

Summary:

The Logitech V470 is a great buy for the money. It is ultra-portable, light-weight, and it works on almost any surface. If you are looking for an affordable bluetooth mouse, I would highly recommend the Logitech V470.

I recently found out that when laptop makers state that their batteries begin deteriorating in 18 months, they mean that their batteries are completely useless within 15 months. I could not find what they consider to be “normal usage,” but I guess one charge every other day is much more than “normal usage.”

For the past six months, my battery life has been gradually deteriorating from its maximum of 3 hours per charge to about 2 hours per charge. This past week, I was on laptop, using battery power for the first time since the beginning of the summer. I decided to test out my battery and see how much time was left on it. My battery drained normally to 85% or so. I figured the battery was okay, so I stopped looking at it. Within a minute or two, the battery light was flashing at me and telling me that 7% of the battery was left. This was quite a shock to me, as I received my laptop in May of last year. I try to use my battery as little as possible, because I know a replacement battery is around $150.

I thought that maybe my battery meter was incorrect, but the BIOS also reported 7%, so I shut it down and let it charge. I noticed that my battery was fully charged in about twenty minutes. It generally takes over an hour to fully charge my battery. At this time, I still thought nothing of it, because it had to be a fluke. It turns out that I was wrong. Two days later, the same phenomenon happened. The weird thing was that I checked the “battery health meter” in both the BIOS and in Windows and they both reported no problems. I also checked the lights on the battery itself to see if it reported deterioration, but it did not.

I then called Dell and went through the support process. Even though Dell states that batteries should last for approximately 18 months before they even begin to deteriorate, they told me that the warranty on them is only 12 months and my battery was given to me 15 months ago. So, I ordered a new battery for around $160 with shipping. It is due to arrive today or tomorrow. I was very pleased with this, especially since it was not supposed to ship until September 2nd. The support technician, as usual, was very friendly and endured my pushing for a free battery. I knew I was fighting a losing battle because of their policy, so I did not push too hard (so that I would not get negative notes on my record).

Later that day, this happened again, so I first checked the battery, and it reported 60% deterioration. What? This is strange. So I checked it on the computer and it told me that I needed to order a new battery. Well, finally. I do not understand why it went out all of a sudden or why the battery and the laptop were unable to report deterioration until it failed on me completely. I can now get about 10 minutes of battery time.

I spoke with a few friends and they have also had to order a new battery shortly after a year from the time they received their laptop. Ashley’s battery is also going out. She used to get 5 hours of battery time and now she only gets 2 hours maximum.

Batteries don’t last as long as they say they do.

I found out last week that my floor (5A in Laurel) is the international floor, so I have been trying to theme my floor towards that. The hall-wide theme is a beach theme and I will try to fit that theme some, but I wanted to predominately theme my floor as a sort of “world travel” floor. For my first bulliten board, I have printed out a world map, a Pennsylvania map, and a New York map. I will be making slips of paper with the residents’ names on them for the residents to tack onto their hometown or country. It should be pretty interesting to see where people come from. I have already met a resident from Ireland.

I have been out of touch with the world recently; I have no clue what is happening in the world at the moment. I haven’t watched any news and I haven’t been reading up on my favorite geek blogs. Hopefully, once the semester starts, I will have time to relax, play some games, and catch up on the events in the world.

Until next time,

Clete R. Blackwell II

The “High Definition” fad continues with Kodak’s new miniature “HD” video camera, the Zi6. The Zi6 (product webpage) boasts that the camera records in 720p at 60 frames per second. This new “HD” video camera only costs $180 USD. The webpage markets the camera as if it will look wonderful on your shiny HDTV. My guess is exactly the opposite. I have seen a lot of these “HD” camcorders on the market that are the size of normal amateur camcorders. They cost about $1,000 USD and they still don’t look a whole lot better than a normal “Standard Definition” camcorder. If that kind of camcorder can’t record in high-quality “high definition,” why would this pocket-sized camcorder be able to? There is no way that this new Zi6 camcorder, with its small lens diameter, can output anything better than any other pocket-sized camcorder on the market.

The sad thing is, people listen to this false marketing. The video camera simply shoots at a resolution of 1280×720. There isn’t anything special about it. It is all hype. However, thousands of people will still purchase this product over another product that may be better, but doesn’t boast “HD” capabilities. Now, I know it’s all about the marketing and I know sales will be much higher than if they didn’t push the “HD” hype, but it’s still misleading.

For example, I have the Nikon D2H, which shoots at only 4 megapixels. Friends of mine have 10 or even 12 megapixel point-and-shoot cameras. The D2H still blows them out of the water with megapixel quality. A point-and-shoot camera has many things working against it. For one, the lens diameter is smaller, allowing it to take in less detail than a lens ten times its size. The cameras simply can’t take in that much information with such a small lens. The point-and-shoots also have less expensive and less “advanced” CCDs. They do not interpret the light that they take in as well as the D2H or any other professional camera could. A 4 megapixel DSLR will always beat out a 12 megapixel point-and-shoot.

This same concept applies to camcorders. There is simply no way that this Zi6 can record a picture that is distinguishably better than a “normal sized” consumer camcorder that is not “high definition.”

Until next time,

Clete R. Blackwell II

More details about the changes can be found at this page on Expedia’s website.