Image by Editor B, courtesy Flickr creative Commons.

An article by Randall Stross that came out in the New York Times last week, Bypassing Those Passwords, discussed an exciting future for those of us who are tired of remembering all those computer passwords.

Many people and organizations, including Darpa (the federal government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), are working on systems that can recognize you by the way you use your computer—for example, how many milliseconds you hold down the keys when you type, how hard you push on them, or the way you move the mouse, or even your search patterns. It turns out that these gestures are quite different for different people.

What this means is that your computer could be authenticating you as soon as you start using it.

The increased prevelance of hackers has required all of us to use more and more sophisticated passwords, to the point where our current system of password authentication is crippling productivity (and fun!). Wouldn’t it be amazing if we never had to remember any passwords (or never had to write them down on that piece of paper in the drawer, or never had to use a sophisticated password storage software system)? It’s good to know that the government is focusing on something that will improve our lives in the day to day. Bring it on!

Lock and key image by Editor B, courtesy Flickr Creative Commons.

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The new iPad went on sale this morning. We happened to be passing by the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. Check out our photos of the long wait for the latest iPad.

The area in front of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store is clear, but check out the line in the background.

More people waiting. At left you can see one TV truck; there are many more just outside the frame.

See the Apple employees at street level, in the blue shirts, clapping when somebody walks out with a brand new iPad.

Buying a new iPad on the on-sale day is like being on the TSA screening line at the airport.

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Before working with IvanExpert, Mike Tejera was a Mac Specialist and Genius at the Soho Apple Store, and he also repaired planes as a member of the Air Force. So he has many years of experience troubleshooting all kinds of complex machines.

We asked Mike to answer a few questions about his background and his Apple knowledge.

1. Where are you from originally?

I was born and raised in Brooklyn.

2. How long have you lived in New York City?

The majority of my life, but there were some times I moved away for years at a time.

3. How did you get so much Mac experience?

This is a hard one! It really has been a culmination of experiences over the years. I’ve always been interested in computers in general, and after several years of being an avid user I ended up working for Apple here in the city for about 5 years. That being said, I feel like there is still a lot for me to learn.

4. What’s your favorite technical solution you’ve ever figured out?

I just purchased a G4 1.25 ghz Mac Mini and I could not get it to work with a 3rd party LCD screen I already owned. I could get it to work with my 52 inch TV. So I knew that the Mac Mini worked, it just didn’t work with the screen that I intended to use it with. I installed a remote desktop application on the Mac Mini while I had it connected to my TV, shut it down, reconnected the Mac Mini to my LCD Screen, and then remote controlled the Mac Mini from an old blue and white G3 iMac (my first Mac ) I still have. By doing that I was able to see what was happening on the Mac Mini screen, allowing me to change the screen resolution and refresh rate to a setting that would work for my LCD screen. As soon as I selected a different resolution, my LCD screen turned on and I never had a problem with it again.

5. Outside of IvanExpert work, what are three Mac-related activities that really matter in your life?

For close friends and family I am the go-to special occasion DVD slideshow and photo restoration guy.

6. What’s your favorite thing about NYC?

I love the feel the city has on a warm beautiful day.

7. What’s your favorite iPhone app?

Words with Friends.

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We are giving a webinar, The Parents’ Guide to iPhoto, on April 4th. Learn how to use your Mac to improve your family photos, and to find out new ways of sharing your photos with your friends and relatives. This is a basic iPhoto overview, so beginners are welcome.

The webinar is a partnership with Mommybites, a community for parenting resources, support, and education.

Details:
April 4th, 8:30-9:30 pm
at your computer!
and it doesn’t cost anything!

For more info or to sign up: The Parents’ Guide to iPhoto

Apple has a big event announced for March 7. The invite says “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” The consensus is that a new iPad will be announced that day. Here’s a roundup of many of the rumors on the new iPad 3.

TUAW is guessing it will have “a high-resolution display, a major bump in the processor, Siri and possibly LTE.”

Bloomberg is saying the device will go on sale in March, and it “will sport a high-definition screen, run a faster processor and work with next-generation wireless networks.” It will have a quad-core chip so users can switch between apps faster.

Boy Genius Report says there will be 2 versions, one with wifi only and one with wifi and GSM/CDMA/LTE so it can be used on all carriers. The report also says the new iPad will be a quad-core model, so it will be much faster than the iPad 2.

MacRumors says the new iPad will have a better camera, with a larger lens, and 8 megapixel resolution (up from 1 megapixel in the iPad 2). The iPhone 4S has an 8 megapixel camera already, so this means the iPad camera would finally be as good as the iPhone camera.

Ars Technica has their own iPad 3 rumor roundup which highlights the “retina display” doubling the number of pixels in both dimensions, for a pixel density of 260ppi. It also mentions the 4G/LTE support, so that it could be used on the new Verizon and AT&T high-speed networks. They also mention the rumor of Siri on the new iPad.

Mac expert Julian Bennett Holmes began working with IvanExpert this past September. He’s been using Apple computers since he was a very young child growing up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and has helped our clients with iTunes library issues, setting up email on their computers and mobile devices, and setting up wireless internet networks, among many other jobs.

Here’s a little more info on Julian.

1. Where are you from originally?

Brooklyn, NY.

2. How long have you lived in New York City?

My whole life!

3. How did you get so much Mac experience?

Macs are sort of like a family business for me. My dad, uncles, and grandpa started showing me how to take apart computers pretty much as soon as I could talk, and my dad would take me to MacWorld Expo every year when it came to New York. Watching the MacWorld keynote online every year was like the Super Bowl for our family.

4. What’s your favorite technical solution you’ve ever figured out?

I was once recording an album when one of the microphones kept dropping out. I opened up the mic and saw that part of the insulation had come off of some of the wires, and they were occasionally touching, causing a short-circuit. I didn’t have a soldering iron or any insulation around, but I did have some pine boards, a jigsaw, and a hot glue gun. I cut up a bunch of the boards and filled the mic with a mixture of sawdust and hot glue. That solved the problem!

5. Outside of IvanExpert work, what are three Mac-related activities that really matter in your life?

When I’m not working at IvanExpert, I’m studying music composition at Mannes College. So, I mainly use my Mac for music-related things. I use the software Finale to notate my compositions, and of course research new music online. But I think the most important thing I use my Mac for is to listen to music, on iTunes and on my iPod. I don’t think Beethoven or Mozart could’ve imagined that in the future, people would be able to listen to an amazing performance of any piece of music, any time they wanted.

6. What’s your favorite thing about NYC?

This is difficult to say, as I’ve never lived anywhere else, but the subway is the first thing that comes to mind. In other cities, people actually have to plan how they’re going to get home!

7. What’s your favorite iPhone app?

I don’t think I’m qualified to answer this one, as I’m the proud owner of an LG VX5400!

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Last  week Apple announced that the latest update to their operating system will be called Mountain Lion, and it will be out this summer.

Advance copies of the software were given to some reviewers–here’s what the top IT writers had to say.

New York Times:
Apple’s Mountain Lion Makes the Mac More Like the iPad by David Pogue

” Mountain Lion brings even more of the iPhone/iPad features to the Mac.”

“Over all, Mountain Lion shows that Apple is continuing to unify its ecosystem — to bring the same apps, interfaces and data to all Apple gadgets. It’s a calculated, evilly smart way to make staying within the Apple family even more desirable, comfortable and useful. All your data is waiting for you in identical format and placement on every Apple gadget. All of its operating systems are starting to look more alike, and all of your data is becoming more synced and more accessible.”

MacWorld:
Hands on with Apple’s new OS X: Mountain Lion by Jason Snell

“OS X releases seem to be accelerating, perhaps so that the annual release cycles of iOS and Mac OS X can feed off one another…. Apple is dead serious about making Mac OS X and iOS as synced up as they possibly can be, both in terms of interface and—thanks to iCloud—data.”

Chicago Sun-Times:
Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion pushes iOS integration further by Andy Ihnatko

“It brings more of the iOS experience to the Mac. Just as strongly, it emphasizes just how important Apple’s new iCloud service is to . . . well, pretty much everything they’re doing.”

“So I worry about the danger — real or imagined — of the Mac getting dumbed down by iOS philosophies. Will it continue to be a real computer that can do damned-near anything? Or will Mac OS 11 aggressively transition the Mac towards a boutique operating system that only does what most users need it to do?”

TidBITS:
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Stalks iOS by Rich Mogull

“…The real story is the growing role of iCloud. iCloud is the glue holding the Apple ecosystem together.”

Mac expert David has been working with IvanExpert for a few years, and has helped many of our clients with issues ranging from server setups, to networking problems, to sync solutions, to replacements of dead Mac hard drives.

We were curious about how he got his extensive Apple knowledge, so we asked him a few questions about his background and his technical experience.

1. Where are you from originally?

Springfield, New Jersey.

2. How long have you lived in New York City?

Four years.

3. How did you get so much Mac experience?

I taught math at a private boarding school in VT, before moving to NYC in ’07. I became the default IT person there. When I started at the school in ’92, I had never owned a computer before. In college we just had big mainframes and punch cards and all that. In any case, in my first year as math teacher at the school I was given a Mac Classic to do work on and have fun. The headmaster was an “early adopter” of all things Mac. Over time, I dreamed in Tetris, then helped the school fundraise the transition to OS X with a G5 Tower running Panther server, and a lab of about 20 eMacs. Along the way I taught arts classes in object animation using iPhoto and iMovie, and songwriting using Garageband and Pro Tools.

4. What’s your favorite technical solution you’ve ever figured out?

I used to own a 1965 Dodge Van. It had a bad ignition switch, so I bought a push-button switch, mounted it on the dashboard and rewired the ignition to the dash. It was pretty cool. In the earlier days of wifi (when many users didn’t protect their routers with passwords), I built a cantenna to “acquire” wifi from my neighbors. It was directional!

5. Outside of IvanExpert work, what are three Mac-related activities that really matter in your life?

Recording music on the Mac has been a big part of my life for a long time. I mainly use Pro Tools and a sometimes Logic.  I also use my Mac to help manage my finances, although I often feel I could use more help than the Mac is capable of providing. Lastly, entertainment! Movies, music, podcasts and photos continue to command an ever-expanding presence on my hard drives…and in my life.

6. What’s your favorite thing about NYC?

Jeremy Lin, and/or, not having a car. I can get anywhere in the city by train, bus, or bicycle. Cycling over any of the East River bridges provides amazing views.  As to the subways, I usually arrange my schedule so that I am not on the subway for morning rush hour. There is something peaceful about a half-empty subway car, in a relative way. The system in NYC is so vast. I have a goal to take each line end to end. I also like Momofuku Noodle Bar.

7. What’s your favorite iPhone app?

Spotify!

At MacWorld I learned about a handful of iPad apps that are great for work. Some have been around awhile, some are new. Here are my top 10 iPad apps for work.

1. GoodReader, $5, reformats PDFs so you can read them more easily on your iPad. Plus you can make annotations. And sync everything via Dropbox.

2. Office2 (Office Squared), $8, allows you to create, view, and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint docs right on the iPad. Syncs with Dropbox. QuickOffice, $20, is very similar but costs a little more.

3. OnLive Desktop, free, if you need to work on a Windows PC you can do it using this app. Store up to 2GB of documents free on their servers, so you can access them later.

4. Invoice2go, $10, create invoices on your iPad and send them to clients, plus if you are on Windows you can sync the invoices straight to your Windows PC. A Mac version is said to be coming out later this year.

5. Idea Flight, $10 for the presenter and free for everyone else, allows one person to use his iPad to control the screens of the other iPads in the room. So it’s great for presentations, no projector needed.

6. Agendas, $10, create an interactive meeting agenda that you can share with other iPads on the same network.

7. GoToMeeting and WebEx, both free, these allow you to join a GoToMeeting or WebEx meeting on your iPad—no need to sit in front of your computer. (You can’t host a meeting with these, however.)

8. Air Display, $10, use your iPad screen as a second screen for your Mac. Put your email or your IM on there, so you don’t take up valuable real estate on your main screen.

9. Remote Desktop, $6, allows you to control your Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC from your iPad. (There are other similar apps out there too.)

10. Notability, $1, allows you to take handwritten notes (as well as type onscreen), make drawings, and link audio recordings with your notes. It syncs using Dropbox. Use it with the Adonit Jot pen, $20-$30, which allows for much finer line drawing on the iPad than most of the stylus options out there.

On Friday we attended a “Rapid Fire” session at Macworld—a handful of presenters each had 5 minutes to talk about a specific topic or idea. Titles ranged from “5 iOS Tips You Can’t Do Without” to “Wild Things You Can Do with an iPhone” to “Ripping DVDs with Handbrake.”

Here are the 10 top tips we took away from the session.

1) Don’t you hate it when you’re typing on the iPhone and autocorrect changes what you wrote? An easy way to add words that aren’t in the iOS vocabulary is to use text shortcuts (on iOS 5 only). Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Add New Shortcut, and put your word in there. (Tip from Serenity Caldwell, staff editor at MacWorld)

2) Easily add instant LOLcats to any image using the CatPaint iPhone app. Only $0.99. (Tip from Karen Anderson, www.writerway.com)

3) Inventors are close to finalizing a “glucose tattoo”—a special tattoo that, when you take a picture of it with an iPhone app, it tells you your blood sugar level. (Tip from Karen Anderson, www.writerway.com)

4) In the Maps app on your iPhone: You know that double-tapping on the map zooms you in. To zoom out without having to do the pinch, do a 2-finger single tap. (Tip from Christian Boyce, christianboyce.com)

5) In the Maps app on your iPhone: Add a bookmark to a place you want to go back to, so you can find it easily. To add a bookmark: Drop a pin in the location, then click on the blue arrow at the right, in the dropped pin bar. Click on “Add to Bookmarks.” Later, to go back to that bookmark, click on the blue book icon at the top right of the Maps app. (Tip from Christian Boyce, christianboyce.com)

6) LaunchBar is a Mac application that for $35 allows you to vastly speed up your Mac use with keyboard shortcuts. Of course you can create custom shortcuts in LaunchBar, but did you know you can also:

• move files to other locations
• attach documents to email messages
• open a file in the application of your choice
• get multiple clipboards for copying and pasting
• do searches

All without using the mouse! I am buying this today myself. (Tip from Dan Frakes, senior editor at MacWorld)

7) The iFixIt app on the iPhone and iPad shows you how you can take apart and fix every single Apple product. And it’s free. (Tip from Kyle Wiens, head of iFixIt)

You can rip your own DVDs with 2 applications: Handbrake, which does the ripping, and VLC, which removes the digital rights management. However you will go to hell for circumventing the DRM. (Tip from Chris Breen, senior editor at MacWorld)

9) You can save a search that you perform often on your Mac by using the Save button and naming the search. Then add it to the finder sidebar. That way, with one click you can re-search anytime. (Tip from Dave Hamilton of The Mac Observer)

10) Automator is built in to every Mac and it allows you to automate a series of tasks that would be extremely time-consuming to do manually. It takes a little learning but could save you lots of time for tasks you perform often. (Tip from Benjamin Waldie, whose website, www.automatedworkflows.com, has lots of tutorials on using Automator.)

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