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Site Update: All Clear!

Many of you know that I've been dealing with MASSIVE Site issues for the past few days and lot's of minor issues before that. I'm happy that things look like they have returned back from normal. I'd like to personally thank not only all of you who gave supportive comments and emails, but especially web gurus RC and Erik Bernskiold for jumping in and helping to fight the attacks on this site and my bestappsite.com.

I'll still maintain the backup site at terrywhitetechblog.com because it NEVER HURTS TO HAVE A BACKUP, however for now things are looking up. 

Network Solutions posted this message to let everyone know that they solved the issues and they even mention me in their post. 

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Tech Profile of Erik Bernskiold

Erik Bernskiold

Web Designer, Photographer, Software-Trainer
 

Company

Bernskiold Media & XLD Studios

Gothenburg, Sweden

Your blog/website?

Personal blog: http://www.erikbernskiold.com/

Bernskiold Learning (tutorials, news, articles) http://www.bernskiold.com/

XLD Studios (web design company) http://www.xldstudios.com/

MacAppZone (mac application news and reviews) http://www.macappzone.com/
 

Favorite Gadget(s)

My iPhone 3GS. Without it, I would be lost trying to manage my days. A newfound love is my new Kodak Zi8 video camera, which I now use to record my video clips.

Continue reading “Tech Profile of Erik Bernskiold”

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iPhone OS 4.0 Coming This Summer!

Apple just took the wraps off iPhone OS 4.0, which is due out this summer for the iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 3G, iPod touch 2nd and 3rd generations. They are touting over 100 NEW Features. Here's a quick run down of many of the hot features with my favorites in bold:

  • Multitasking – Run Multiple 3rd Party Apps at once!
  • Unified Mail inbox – Finally!
  • App Folders – for better organization!
  • File & delete Mail search results
  • Search SMS/MMS messages
  • Web search suggestions
  • Choose image size in Mail messages
  • QuickLook
  • Bluetooth keyboards
  • In-App SMS
  • iBooks
  • Calendar Access in the SDK
  • Mail gets Threaded Responses, in App Attachment Viewing and Multiple Exchange Accounts
  • CalDav invitations
  • Larger fonts for Mail, SMS & alerts
  • Cell data only setting
  • Spell check
  • Persistent Wi-Fi
  • Gift Apps
  • Birthday calendar
  • Recent Web searches
  • Create Playlists
  • Top Hit in search
  • 5x digital zoom
  • Nested Playlists
  • CardDav
  • Tap to focus video
  • Upload workouts to Nike+
  • Places in Photos
  • Home screen wallpaper
  • Wake on wireless

There will also likely be NEW iPhone's this Summer too!

IMPORTANT NOTE: No Multitasking on the iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2nd gen. Also no OS 4 for the iPad until FALL

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Adobe Creative Suite 5: The Movie

As you know Adobe will be Announcing CS5 on Monday, April 12th. At that time ALL of the details will be revealed about this upgrade and all the mind blowing features throughout the entire suite. This Creative Suite launch will be one of the most highly broadcasted events in Adobe's history because never has there been a time like the present where video content will be made so freely available. Of course I'll have lots of video content here on and on my Creative Suite Video Podcast, my YouTube channel and Adobe TV but the folks over at NAPP are doing something really special on Monday and throughout the week. Check out their video here:

Click here to watch on your iPad or iPhone

Photoshop User CS5 Learning Center from Kelby Media Group on Vimeo.

Continue reading “Adobe Creative Suite 5: The Movie”

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What’s Going On With My Sites?

In case you haven't noticed, I've been having issues with my site lately. I've been getting hacked lately AND my hosting provider Network Solutions has been having Server issues at least two weekends in a row. Let's just say there have been a lot of sleepless nights in the past couple of weeks.

The Hacks

The hacks have been coming in two flavors. The first is some how they've hacked the titles of my post that get indexed by Google. So if you were to Google "terry white tech blog" you'd get some interesting titles to my site. The links sill work, so I'm not sure I see the purpose behind that particular attack. The other more recent attack has been far more troublesome. It's an injection of code throughout my site files that point to a different server know to serve up malware to unsuspecting visitors. That's the one that is yielding the warnings above in both Safari and Chrome browsers and that's the one that's been the biggest pain to deal with.

Chrome users – To make matters worse Google has now flagged my main domain terrywhite.com as a "suspicious" site. Therefore until that times out or until they rescan my site from my request you'll be "warned" about visiting ANY of my sites at the moment. Even if the infections are completely cleared out there's nothing I can do to get rid of this warning until Google rescans it and clears. I have to wait it out.

 

Moving Forward

While I think I'm on the other side of all these problems now and I'm starting to see my way clear of these issues, I was once again reminded of one of he principles I try to live by and that is "always have a backup and a plan B!" I don't expect technology to always work or to be perfect. Nothing is. This is why we have backups and contingency plans. So I started thinking about that a lot lately when it comes to my websites. I also haven't been extremely satisfied lately with my hosting provider as I don't feel like they've had my back during these issues as much as they could have. So it made me start to shop around for other hosting companies. While I'm certainly not settled in on another company just yet, I do now have a backup to this blog!

 

Plan B

For the time being while I sort this all out I will be posting my content in two places. Here on the existing tech blog AND on my new (backup) tech blog:

http://terrywhitetechblog.com

The NEW (backup) blog is hosted by GoDaddy.com. While I'm not 100% sold on them yet, they do come highly recommended by my buddy RC over at Layers Magazine. I know that no hosting provider has 100% up time. However, I do expect issues to be resolved as quickly as possible when sh*t happens! So for now while I continue to weigh my options, you have another place to see my posts in case this server goes down again and until I ultimately decide what to do. Files have been cleaned and ALL passwords have been changed. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for your patience and continued support!

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Charging Your iPad: What You Should Know

The good news is that so far the iPad battery life is really good.However, there are some things you should be aware of when it does come time to charge it. When Apple introduced the iPad and subsequently put the specs up on their website, the first thing that jumped out at me was that they were specifically calling the fact that the supplied charger was a "10W USB Power Adapter".  

The fact that they were announcing the wattage was an alert to me that the iPad had different power requirements than the iPhone and iPods. Typically if a manufacturer calls something out it's for a reason and I was right. So here's what you need to know:

Continue reading “Charging Your iPad: What You Should Know”

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GoGo In-flight WiFi

Last week I finally got a chance to experience in-flight internet via GoGo WiFi. I had been hearing about this service from my buddies for several months, but was never lucky enough to be on a plane that actually had it. My main carrier is Delta. Delta acquired Northwest Airlines and while they now operate as a single company and make no mention of NWA anymore, the former NWA planes seem to be last on the list to get upgraded with WiFi. So I waited. Not much of a choice when you live near Detroit. It's a Delta hub. 

 

I'm online!

 

How much does it cost?

Continue reading “GoGo In-flight WiFi”

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Apple iPad Review: WiFi Model

It's here! I just spent the weekend with my New Apple iPad: 16GB  WiFi model (I'll also review the WiFi+3G model when it ships) and wanted to give you my in-depth review. It's exciting! As a matter of fact my buddy Bruce was waiting at his office on Saturday for his iPad to be delivered and when the UPS guy got there, they started talking and the UPS guy shared with him how people were following him in their cars and begging him to give them their iPads early before getting to their homes. I can't think of too many products that cause this kind of frenzy. See my Unboxing Video here (it's different than any other iPad unboxing video you've seen 😉 ) On to the review and keep in mind that I've only had the iPad for two days, so I haven't touched every single feature yet, but here's what I've seen and touched so far…

The Hardware

The iPad is another example of Apple's attention to detail. Everything from the packaging to the actual design of the device is top notch. There are just a few hardware buttons. The home button is there just like on the iPhone and iPod touch as well as hardware buttons for the volume controls on the right side, on/off switch on top, a screen/rotation lock on the right and built-in speaker on the bottom as well as headphone jack and microphone on top.

My first impression when I picked it up out of the box was "it feels heavy!" Although it's only 1.5 lbs, I was looking at it from a "hold it with one hand while reading" angle. Since it's a book reader, I would want to hold it with one hand while flipping the pages with the other. I would be easily fatigued if I had to hold it in one hand for more than a few minutes. Holding it with two hands won't be an issue and holding it with one hand as long as you have your knee or a table to rest on should be fine.

The iPad comes with a USB sync/charging cable and a wall charger. 

It's FAST! The iPad is VERY RESPONSIVE. I haven't seen any lags whatsoever. Photos, Apps and everything I've tried so far have been very speedy!

Battery Life – So far so good. Keep in mind that testing for a weekend is not real-world regular use. However,  I can easily see this thing going for 10 hours straight. I haven't run it all the way down yet, so I'll have to report back later on the actual battery life I get when I using it under normal conditions. Also very few will run it for 10 hours straight without a break.

Wi-Fi – The iPad takes advantage of 802.11n. So both range and network speed are GREAT! I must also remind you that this is the WiFi version and therefore will only connect to the internet via a WiFi hotspot. I know that sounds like a "duh" statement, but there seems to be a lot of confusion over the difference between the two models: WiFi and the WiFi+3G model that's coming out later this month.

Continue reading “Apple iPad Review: WiFi Model”

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My iPad is here!

I've been playing with the iPad all day and working on my Full Review that will be posted on Monday. In the meantime I thought you might want to take a look at this unboxing video that I recorded earlier. I think you'll like it 😉

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGEmRk87qkA