The club members are invited to attend a September 18 breakfast meeting to be held at the Country Griddle, 190 Center Street in Clinton. The meeting will begin at 9:00. This is the same place we held the 2009 breakfast meeting. The place offers a fabulous breakfast and has a very nice room where we can meet. Parking at the restaurant is limited so park at the community parking lot right next to the restaurant where there is much more parking space available. The breakfast will be complimentary. Directions to the restaurant will be posted on our club’s group message board at Yahoo. If you wish to call the restaurant directly for directions, the phone number is 908-713-1200. Guests of the club members are welcome.
A member expressed an interest in producing a directory of the club’s members. Privacy concerns could be a problem in producing such a list. A suggestion was made that perhaps we could set up a Facebook group which will show the members and members that are interested could participate.
Q&A
Q: I set up a debit card account for making on-line purchases with a stand alone bank account with a small amount of money in the account to support the card. The bank recently called and said there was an unauthorized purchase made through that account. Since I am dealing with secure sites, there must be something breaking into the system. Is there some utility that can track what I am doing? Perhaps there is a key logger installed on my computer? How can I fix the problem?
A.: First, get a credit report from the three credit rating companies to determine who is looking into your cards or credit. Second, go to the Komando.com web site, http://komando.com/ , for information and software on how to solve this problem. There is a message board to post your question and software can be downloaded from the site.
Also, remember never to access your bank web site through a link, since the web site may not be a true site and your information can be hacked. Be aware that sometimes employees of the companies that you are dealing with could also use your personal information to get into your bank accounts. Perhaps using PayPal for your purchases may be a solution instead of the debit card. PayPal has excellent security on their site.
Another club member brought up a new concern with putting photos on Facebook or your online posts. Geotagging adds GPS coordinates to your photos and you may not even be aware that this information is available on line and that people can track where you are from the photo. Many smart phones can automatically geotag photos. These photos can be plotted on a map and could reveal your home address or location in the photos. This is a threat to your privacy and safety. It is best to disable geotagging unless you specifically need it. On the iPhone, tap Settings, General, Location Services. Select which applications can access GPS data. These options aren’t available in older iPhone software. Disallow GPS tagging.
Presentation: Apple iPad, by Paul Glattstein
Paul received an iPad a few months ago and has been exploring its features and uses. Paul developed an outstanding overview of his findings. Paul said that Apple has been selling one million iPads a month or one every 40 seconds. This is phenomenal and a clear indication of how widely accepted the iPads have become in such a short time.
The iPad is a good size, has a clear screen, but is a little heavy and awkward to hold for very long. This handy device is rather expensive and you must have a computer to use it since you need to load iTunes from the Apple website to download apps to the iPad and to synchronize the device. There is no paper user manual with instruction and all information must be obtained from the Apple website.
The iPad works with Internet Explorer and won’t work with Firefox or Google Chrome. There are thousands of apps available, some free and some priced $5 and under. The iPad weighs 1.5 lbs. It has a 9.7” backlit screen with an auto-dimming feature which can be found under the settings menu. The screen rotates when turned to portrait or landscape. It has a multi-touch screen which allows you to tap on screen to move the images with your fingers to resize or change. Double tapping on text will allow you to cut, copy, paste, or to send to email. It automatically creates a backup of your information.
The device has very few controls other than an on/off button. Controlling the screen is done on screen. The interface is convenient as there is an on-screen keyboard to type numbers or letters.
The device boots in 15 seconds and shuts down in 5 seconds. It goes into sleep mode and uses very little battery power while in that phase. Although Apple says battery life is 10 hours, it seems more long-lasting than that. Synchronization is done with a cable to your computer. It has a built-in speaker plus a stereo headphone jack.
Tech support is free for the first 30 days and contracts can be purchased for longer service. Since there are no user manual instructions, all information or help must be obtained from the Apple website or tech support. The support group is very good and answers can be obtained quickly.
Some drawbacks: There is no camera, no DVD drive, no USB data or SB card connection, no provision for external storage, no GPS sensor on the less expensive models, and the screen gets smudged easily. Other concerns are that it only works with Apple authorized apps, there is no way to try apps before you buy them and you must use Apple iTune to download apps, ebooks, music or videos. It has limited functionality without an internet connection. Safari is the only web browser available and it doesn’t support Adobe Flash for video. There is no central file system, no provision for printing, and no presentation display. If an app is purchased and deleted or corrupted, Apple will provide a replacement. Apple iWorks doesn’t support standard docs, excel and PowerPoint files. The battery is not replaceable. It also does not support multitasking.
Bottom line: It has excellent aesthetics, superior battery life, is so-so at creating content, good for experiencing content, limited usability without internet access, excellent tech support, only runs apps and data sold by Apple, but is high priced compared to NetBooks.
To print, Apple says to email the document to yourself and then print it from your computer.
Pricing: 16 GB, $499; 32 GB, $599; 64 GB, $699 with WiFi only. With WiFi and 3G, the pricing increases about $130 at each level.
Paul has been kind enough to post the link to his full presentation.
Click on the link or copy and paste it into your web browser and it will take you to the presentation. You do not need to have a Google Docs account or login for this to work.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_KDU0PD4cjfOTYzMGFkYjgtYjljMC00M2RiLTk4ZmItYWJhY2I1ZTYzNmFl&hl=en&authkey=CNfNlYAD
Our thanks to Paul for this in-depth analysis of the iPad. Paul’s experiences with his iPad and his sharing the pros and cons of it with us helps us decide if this is something we would want to purchase. Paul concluded his presentation with the statement “Maybe”.