Best thing since sliced bread? Well, maybe. So a quick summary of my current opinion.
OK, I like my iPAD very much. Perhaps Apple should have named it the iPED for Personal Entertainment Device, it really is a wonderful gadget. So why do I like it so much? For one it is highly portable, no mouse, no physical keyboard. The UI (user interface) is very nice. I suppose since I never owned an iPOD, the UI is new to me. The use of icons for programs and Web pages is very handy. The browser is very nice, very capable even without FLASH.
I do have a couple of issues mostly minor at this point.
For one, there does seem to be a problem with the browser, if you have a window within your main window, it does not scroll. This is very annoying, there are a variety of sites that use this feature, for example, a menu might be a "subwindow" in the main window, you only get to see the top portion. In fact there are many lists that are used by some WEB sites where you get to see only the top part.
Second, if you browse a book on Amazon, you have the option to look at front cover, back cover, table of contents, first few pages of the book and perhaps a few pages randomly selected. Like the previous issue, the browser does not handle this very well. You can see the top 2/3rds of the page but not the rest. So after viewing the partial table of contents pages, the text pages of the book get squished. Very annoying. I have tried the Amazon app, specifically fitted for the iPxDs but I still prefer the Amazon Web site.
Third, this is probably by design, the keyboard as far as I can tell does not support a "backspace". Yes it does have a backspace that earses but not a cursor backspace. You have to use your fingers to position the cursor. This makes editing annoying as you can't fix a error in the middle of a string without some ackward finger positioning.
In any case, these seem relatively minor issues as compared to the entire package. So, if you don't have an iPOD but enjoy surfing the Web without being tied to an ackward laptop or even a NetPC, I suggest you get one.
Showing posts with label iPAD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPAD. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
iPAD, Microsoft and Cybersecurity
OK, so cybersecurity is one of my favorite topics. There are lots of issues associated with cybersecurity both personal and social. Having said that, there are two innovations that I think work in the interest of corporate protection of data, one is the release of the iPAD and the other is Micorsoft's release of WEB-based M/S Office.
The great security feature of the iPAD is its lack of an USB port. I'm sure that it was not the intent of Apple to provide a non-USB device for the purpose of enhancing security but I think that a corporate IT infrastucture that does not have to worry about people storing data on USB devices or inserting USB memory sticks embedded with viruses is a good thing. Unfortunately, there are adapters but maybe there are ways to disable such devices for corporate applications.
Anecdotally, I have recently read about stories where an USB memory stick being left in a parking lot of a coporation with the appropriate logo of that corporation. A curious employee takes the USB device, inserts it into their PC and opens it, releasing a virus that has penetrated the best of Firewall, Router, Intrusion detection methods. With no USB ports, a product like the iPAD provides protection against such methods.
And now to Microsoft, with applications such as Microsoft Office being able to be accessed on the Web, files need no longer be accessed by downloading them to a PC. For a user the experience should be no different than what it is currently expect that the data will never exist locally albeit on their web browser, and hopefully if configured properly the remote data would no be allowed to be downloaded by the browser.
No local access, no USB port; this protects against many security flaws that have allowed users to take data on an USB memory stick outside corporate offices and lose them or worse yet sell the data. Web-based applications allow for the protection of data from being moved outside of corporate facilities.
The great security feature of the iPAD is its lack of an USB port. I'm sure that it was not the intent of Apple to provide a non-USB device for the purpose of enhancing security but I think that a corporate IT infrastucture that does not have to worry about people storing data on USB devices or inserting USB memory sticks embedded with viruses is a good thing. Unfortunately, there are adapters but maybe there are ways to disable such devices for corporate applications.
Anecdotally, I have recently read about stories where an USB memory stick being left in a parking lot of a coporation with the appropriate logo of that corporation. A curious employee takes the USB device, inserts it into their PC and opens it, releasing a virus that has penetrated the best of Firewall, Router, Intrusion detection methods. With no USB ports, a product like the iPAD provides protection against such methods.
And now to Microsoft, with applications such as Microsoft Office being able to be accessed on the Web, files need no longer be accessed by downloading them to a PC. For a user the experience should be no different than what it is currently expect that the data will never exist locally albeit on their web browser, and hopefully if configured properly the remote data would no be allowed to be downloaded by the browser.
No local access, no USB port; this protects against many security flaws that have allowed users to take data on an USB memory stick outside corporate offices and lose them or worse yet sell the data. Web-based applications allow for the protection of data from being moved outside of corporate facilities.
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