Hardware

Hardware

Apple’s reversible cable: why anyone cares

Posted by

0

I’m still not saying I care, but I have wondered. Hang on, let me back up a bit. Previously on Cable Watch… For the past week or so, I keep reading news reports saying Apple is about to release a USB cable that you can plug in no matter which way up you have it. Excitement just doesn’t cover it.

But, grief, how the reports keep coming. You’ll be able to plug it in this way or that way. Gosh.

So I liked it when the latest such report begins:

Leaving aside the fact that Apple-related rumors are a dime a dozen and tend to be about as reliable as horse-racing tips, you may wonder what all the hubbub is about. Sure, not having to “find the right way” to insert a USB cable is convenient, but it seems hardly worth so much press. So what’s the big deal?

Details that count: Apple’s obsession with reversible cable connectors – Marco Tabini, Macworld (22 August 2014)

The full piece then examines how such a new cable would actually fit in with an element of Apple’s longstanding design ethos. I’d say that I refuse to get excited but that’s implying I need any effort to stay fully and entirely blasé about the whole thing. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Tabini’s take on the whole deal.

Want: Noke – a bluetooth padlock

Posted by

0

Yes, I was suspicious and/or cynical at first. Fuz Designs has launched a Kickstarted campaign to create Noke, a padlock that requires no key.

You’ve got a lot of questions already but I can predict some of them:

1. Eh?
Lock your bike or whatever you want by snapping the Noke padlock to it as you would any other padlock. Then to unlock it, just press on the Noke – if you have your smartphone with you.

The Noke looks Bluetoothily for a phone that it recognises and if yours is there in range, the padlock opens. You don’t even have to take your phone out of your pocket or purse.

2. Battery
Yeah, that was my first thought: what happens when the battery dies on the Noke. You are screwed. Except that you get a warning on your smartphone Noke app long before that happens and there is also a little secret way around it that you set up in advance.

There’s only one more thing I would say: Fuz Designs made the Everdock, which I backed on Kickstarter before and now use every day. I backed it twice over, buying two of the things. So I both like and trust the firm.

Now, watch their video. I can’t embed it so you need to visit their Kickstarter page – but that does also have a lot more detail. A lot. Check out the Noke Kickstarter page by Fuz Designs.

The time is now. Literally.

Posted by

0

now-watch
I think you’ll like this and I’m pretty sure you haven’t been married to Angela for twenty years so she’s unlikely to give it to you as an anniversary present.

So you can get your own from Tiny Time Machines right here. I can’t tell you the price, it was a gift and I’m not supposed to look, but Angela wants me to make sure you know that there are import and customs charges on top of this. She paid £12.49 to get it into the UK.

Passwords. My mind to your mind…

Posted by

0

I’m afraid I tend to miss most news stories about passwords because I’ve long relied on 1Password and it’s given me no trouble. But I see that passwords are a concern for most people and I do recognise how feeble it is that our 21st-century lives are held together by words we incant. Or at least type. This may not last, though.

We do already have the Touch ID home button on Apple’s iPhones where it is your thumb print, verified, that unlocks the phone. Samsung has a similar thing, though that is a bit of a redundant sentence as if Apple does it, so does Samsung. A bit.

But there’s more this time:

…what if you could prove your identity without doing anything at all? That’s the idea behind Biocatch, a startup that’s observing people’s online behaviors and creating a unique signature for each account holder.
“Essentially, it’s a way to authenticate your mind by observing what you do and how you do it,” says Uri Rivner, Biocatch’s co-founder and vice president of cyber strategy.

To create its biometric “cognitive signature,” BioCatch analyzes as many as 450 physical parameters that describe a customers’ interaction with a computer, web browser, and mobile device.

For example, on a mobile device, it can use sensors like the accelerometer and gyroscope to measure whether someone has a hand tremor or, say, the level of pressure an individual typically applies when clicking a button. On a computer, it measures a person’s hand-eye coordination in using a mouse and precise ticks in how it’s dragged, as well as other browser habits like whether a person always opens new tabs or uses the keyboard to scroll or always corrects typos with a backspace.

No one of these factors by itself will identify any given individual, but by piling on hundreds of tests, within a few seconds of using the account, its algorithms can issue a score on the likelihood that the person logging on is the account holder (or one of several account users).

Forget Passwords: This Startup Wants to Authenticate Your Mind – Jessica Leber, Fast Company (24 July 2014)

You can do some serious damage in a few seconds. I’m just saying. Read more.

 

 

EverDock (briefly) on sale

Posted by

0

Why are these things only ever briefly on sale? So that we rush to get them while we can. And that’s fair enough this time: EverDock is a fine piece of work and the only reason I’m not rushing is that I already did.

EverDock is just a place to pop up your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, tablet, any of that while it charges. But it’s the one dock. Whatever you’ve got, whatever you change to, the same dock works for it all. And it’s a chunk of metal, heavy and solid, that sticks very nicely to tables.

It was originally a Kickstarter campaign and I backed it with a pre-order for two double docks. Both of which are doing fine service all these months later.

Cult of Mac currently has a deal on where you can get a single dock for $39 plus postage. Do it. Even though it means you’re signed up for life to Cult of Macs torrent of deals. Go through this link to make sure you get their deal price.

And watch what sold me on the whole thing: here’s the video that the makers Fuz Designs did for Kickstarter:

Long term review: Belkin Ultimate Keyboard Case for iPad Air

Posted by

0

At the end of last year, I wrote a snap review of how great the Belkin QODE Ultimate Keyboard Case for iPad Air was. Now after seven months of use, it’s not so great. But what was good continues to be excellent and there’s been one positive surprise.

But first, it looks like this:

20140719-202240-73360753.jpg

(Image from iMore.com)

You get the idea. It’s an external keyboard for the iPad Air. I went through a long time of resisting these and just typing directly onto my iPad but it’s true: these keyboards can speed you up tremendously. They just add bulk to the previously very light and slim iPad, they’re just another thing to cart around. But this Belkin one is also a case: the iPad snaps into it and together the two are quite small.

But.

The reason I borrowed that photo from Imore.com is that I couldn’t take one that looked as good. Because mine is not in that great a state. Take a look:

20140719-202604-73564833.jpg

That’s a rubber protective cover that goes over magnets in the case. Or they should. Mine came off within a week or so and I complained to Belkin via their 24-hour guaranteed response support service. After a week of no reaction, I went to their twitter and Facebook pages and that got attention. Eventually, it got me a replacement keyboard.

It just took weeks.

I opened it up, snapped the iPad Air into it and began emailing them a thank you.

But.

The spacebar didn’t work.

I tell you, you know that when a company makes thousands of a device there are going to be some that are wrong. It’s a pain when you’re the one who gets a fault but it happens and the company will replace it. Sheer statistics mean it has to happen and the fact that my second one had an even worse fault was just another fluke. That’s the attitude I had when I began the social media chase again and when I got into long phone calls but by the end I was the disgruntled, annoyed and I’m embarrassed to say also rude customer that I hate being.

They wanted to know if I were sure that the space bar didn’t work. They were willing to take it into their lab and if their technicians agreed that it didn’t work, they’d get me a replacement. “If your technicians don’t agree that it doesn’t work, fire your technicians,” I said. “And I have already been without this for longer than I’ve been with it, why should I wait for you to prove what I already know?”

They promised to skip that whole step and just replace the keyboard. If they did skip it, I can’t tell because it took longer for the third keyboard to arrive.

That one had a working spacebar and the rubber protective feet lasted a fortnight. Three faults in a row means a design fault to me so I don’t see a point going back to them. I’ve continued using the keyboard and just accepted that it looks awful with bare, exposed metal.

As a keyboard, the working version, it works. The feel of the keys is good, I am writing thousands of words on it. In December, I said this:

I don’t like the arrangement of the apostrophe, colon/semi-colon and enter keys: they’re taking me some while to get used to but otherwise, the feel is a lot like the Apple Wireless keyboard one – not as great but still good – and the speed difference it makes is marvellous.

Snap review: Belkin Ultimate Keyboard Case for iPad Air – William Gallagher, The Blank Screen (30 December 2013)

That all still stands. I had hoped that I’d get used to those mis-placed keys and unfortunately I haven’t.

But it’s good enough. I am disappointed that what was an expensive Christmas present for myself has proved less than satisfactory but before it all went wrong, I did recommend the keyboard to a friend and she’s happy with hers. I’m not happy with mine but I use it a lot. I’d like to enjoy using it more than I do, but.

Let me cautiously recommend that you take a look at it on Amazon UK, though, especially as the price has dropped by £30 to £69.99. The black version is here, the white is there.

In America, the price has only dropped around $20 to approximately $120 and the black is on Amazon USA here, the white is there.

But the reason I’m writing this today when it’s been on my mind to tell you for months is that Macworld just updated its roundup of the best iPad keyboard cases and this one doesn’t make the cut. It does get an also-ran mention but there are five other cases that the magazine recommends more. So do take a look at their list too, would you?

Scratchbuilding your perfect steampunk keyboard

Posted by

0

Hey, if it helps you write, I’m all for it. And I am always up for spending a little time now in order to save a lot later or just to make that later time more productive, more useful, more fun. I’m not sure this fits those, but what I lack in patience to do the work, I make up for in fancying the end result.

20140712-213309-77589347.jpg

My goal with this project was to build a retro keyboard that was fully functional and of a sufficient quality that it could be used everyday by a touch typist. In order to achieve this I chose a high quality (though widely available) keyboard as my starting point. This is an IBM Model M “Clicky” keyboard. They were made starting in the mid 1980’s and a version is still manufactured today. This particular keyboard was made in 1989 and shipped with and IBM PowerStation 530, a UNIX box the size of a kegerator.

Besides its overall quality and heft, one of the things that makes this keyboard particularly good for such a mod is the fact that it has removable key caps and the under-cap has a flat surface ideal for affixing a new key top.

Steampunk Keyboard Mod – Jake von Slatt, The Steampunk Workshop (8 July 2009)

Even if you’re no more likely to build this yourself than I am, do go take a gawp at the full feature: it has detailed photos, many videos and so much love that you can’t resist.

Ritot – the world’s first projection watch

Posted by

0

This is another Indiegogo crowdfunding product but it’s done, it’s passed its threshold and will be produced. Ritot is a projection watch, reportedly the first such thing, but it’s easier to show you. Have a watch, so to speak:

}

For some reason it reminds me of my very first digital watch where you had to hold down a button to see some red LED readout. The watch band for this is rather nicer than those but still, I’m not sold.

Plenty of other people are, though, so if this is your bag, go pledge on Indiegogo to get it early or cheaper or with some rewards.

Update: Uiee portable power charger

Posted by

0

Previously… Uiee is a small and cute and colourful battery charger for iPhone and other devices that’s currently well worth your attention on IndieGoGo. I told you upfront that I want one myself, but these chargers don’t last forever and I wondered about how long this would stay useful. My own current battery charger has radically reduced its ability to top up my iPhone, for instance.

You can’t expect a brand new product to have years of usage data but I asked the makers and they told me:

Uiee is built with top range circuit board components, Uiee is expected to hold its charging capacity for at least 5 years as we will be using Samsung battery supplies giving a substantial life.

I also asked about the name:

With regards to the name Uiee, when starting the company, the owners wanted to start something that would take away the fear that most people seem to have when it comes to technology. Uiee came about while searching for a word that felt simple, friendly and warm to say. Uiee is more like a companion than a product.

Do go check out the IndieGoGo page for Uiee.

Ex-WiFi engineer fixes your problems

Posted by

0

Er, with wifi. Alf Watt, ex-Apple engineer, has been speaking specifically about wifi issues, he’s not left the company to become an agony aunt. Mind you, if you’ve ever hung out of a hotel window trying to get a signal, you’d take anything.

He spoke with The Mac Observer and really spoke: they’ve done a podcast interview that goes into a lot of detail. But the MO site also includes a breakout description of the most useful points, including screenshots for those of us who don’t spend a lot of time deep in Wifi dialog boxes.

Have a mug of tea and a read.