Edward Kiledjian

Many of our most valuable assets are now online (banking, backups, social media, etc). Losing control of these means weeks of work to rectify the situation. 

Most internet users often forget that their security is only as good as the weakest link and in most cases the weakest link is email. If a hacker gains access to your primary email account, they can then go through you emails, figure out what services you use and request a password reset from those services (which will most often send the reset link to your email account).

I recently received a frantic call from an old colleague who had her GMAIL account taken over by hackers. Within minutes, they had reset password to many of her most important sites (including her bank, online stock broker, twitter, Facebook, smugmug private photo album, etc). She was devastated and recovering all of her accounts took months.

How could she have protected herself? She could have avoided all of this if she had simply enabled 2 factor authentication for her email service.

Most well known sites now support some sort of 2 factor authentication and you should go enable it now.

Enable 2-Factor Authentication For Google Services

There is a great site called 2 factor auth (link) that lists the larger sites that support 2 factor authentication.

Google is constantly pushing to map our big blue marble and some of those locations just aren't accessible via car. What is Google to do? They have resorted to Camel power to records the desert of LIWA in the UAE. 

Not news worthy but we have all been wondering what the L will stand for.

Nice to see Google having some fun.

There are dozens of large well respected online sites that protect their content using paywalls. A paywall is a fancy way to define  subscriber only content. In the above case, it is an article about Elon Musk's electric car company called Tesla.

Unfortunately I can't read the article. If I click the X to close the subscription options, I get taken back to the homepage. But there is a way to gain access to the content without paying the subscription.

The trick to access the content is fairly straightforward. Right click on the link from the home page and copy the destination URL.

Then head over to Google Translate (link) and paste the URL into the translation box. Make sure the translate to is also English.

Then press Translate. The inaccessible site is now "translated" from english to english and you gain access to the content. 

This is possible because many sites want search engines to index their content (in order to drive traffic) so when the page is read by Google, access is permitted and Google then displays it to you.

Everybody loves free and now Amazon is giving you $165 worth of apps for free (nada, zilch) on its Android AppStore.

The offer includes a wide range of categories from office productivity to gaming. 

Examples of the free apps includes:

• Sonic 4 Episode II
• Riptide GP2
• Threes
• Paper Camera
• Sketchbook Pro
• OfficeSuite Pro 7
• Swype keyboard
• Perfectly Clear <- AMAZING PHOTO APP. Get it Get It Get It!
• Merriam-Webster Pro dictionary
• City Maps 2 Go (great offline maps for travel)
• many many more

Deal will be offered until September 27 so download it while the downloading is good.

Here is the link to the Amazon AppStore promo page (link)

A lot of people buy the GoPro adventure camera (cam) as the family vacation video camera. Putting these people aside, the real adventure seekers are the ones that are ready for a challenge anytime day or night. But the GoPro doesn't work at night (quality really degrades quickly as it get's darker and darker). But fear not my friend, the Knog Qudos is here to shed light when ordinary lights scare away and break. 

The GoPro friendly accessory mounts next to your beloved recorder and shines a very bright 400 lumens in wide angle mode (175 in target spot and 275 in ultra wide). The Qudos is waterproof to 40m (131 ft for my american readers) which means this light can go anywhere your GoPro can rain or shine, mountain or ocean. 

The add-on can be used for only $119. Get info on the company's website (link)

There are times when you will be off-grid (camping, disasters, remote location work, etc). You could use satellite phones to stay in touch with your team but that can get costly very quickly. A company called BearTooth claims to have built a smartphone sleeve that turns it into an FRS style radio that uses unlicensed bands to communicate (it seems to convert your cell into a high priced software controlled FRS radio).

It will allow you to have voice conversations, send text messages and send your geolocation information. 

The company claims it will have similar range to "normal" unlicensed band style radios (which means it should work over a couple of miles depending on the terrain). The magic is encased in aircraft grade aluminium and contains the radio and battery. The company says the device will will be controlled by custom built software that will be available for both  IOS (iphone) and Android (Samsung, HTC, Nexus, etc).

It will be available "sometime" next year and pricing hasn't been announced yet. You can checkout the company's website for more information (link).

The Physical

If you  travel frequently, you know how important it is to carry an external hard drive. This is useful for on the road backup but also to carry your data (considering most modern high end laptops are still based on 250GB SSD drives.) But your typical made for home hard drive will have a difficult time putting up with the rigors of travel.

Enter the Lacie Rugged Thunderbolt hard drive (also has a USB 3.0 port). At first glance, it looks like its older Rugged USB 3.0 brother but it has 2 important improvements:

• a built in thunderbolt cable
• a removable cap to hold the thunderbolt cable and protect the USB 3.0 port.

With the protective cap attached, the device is rated to IP54. What is IP54?

You can insert the cap while using the Thunderbolt cable in case you are working in a dusty or potentially wet environment. Lacie is known for premium designs and this product is no exception. Everything just feels well designed and manufactured. The case includes a mini magnet to hold the Thunderbolt cable in place when not in use. The length of the cable is just right (enough to comfortably use it with most laptops but not too much where it get's tangled.)

Nothing creeks or cracks. Everything is solidly built and you know this will be a faithful servant for years to come. 

The drive is Bus powered on both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt which means you won't have to carry another power brick. The fact that they built it with both a USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt means they really thought about their customers (since most non Apple computers still don't have Thunderbolt ports). There is only 1 Thunderbolt port so you will have to place it at the end of your daisy chain (since you won't be able to hook up another thunderbolt product to it).

The device is designed to take a 2 meter drop and continue working as if nothing happened. We drop tested it in the office (cement floor) from a height of 2 meters and it worked perfectly. We slowly dropped it from higher up (up to 4 meters) and in our tests, it still worked great. To be clear we raised it and opened our hand, we didn't power pitch it towards the floor.

we then closed all of the ports (double checked that we closed it properly) then misted it with a salt water solution. We sprayed it until the drive was completely wet and left it overnight. We then checked it our in the morning and the drive worked as expected. 

We threw the drive in a freezer bag and froze it overnight. Then we let it thaw out for 12 hours and it worked flawlessly (I don't recommend freezing your drive).

It's what's inside that counts

So the Lacie Rugged Thunderbolt comes in both a traditional mechanical hard drive configuration (1TB or 2TB) and a super-fast super-resistant SSD configuration (250GB or 500GB).

The SSD version of course is much more drop resistant than the mechanical hard drive since there are no moving parts. This is the version I tested and performance was amazing. The 500GB SSD model performed as fast as any other premium external drive I have tested. It was a joy to use. 

I tested it on my Macbook Pro retina and both interfaces performed at about the same speed. 

Ultimately you pay a little more for Lacie products but you get a solid reliable product in return. Definitely a great buy if you need a more rugged hard drive.

You can pickup the

• 500GB SSD version for $499 (link)
• 250GB SSD version for $299 (link)
• 1 TB mechanical hard drive for $199 (link)
• 2 TB mechanical hard drive for $279 (link)

The slow and consistent Snowden leaks about how everything we do is monitored, recorded and analysed is freaking some people out. And this extra customer push may be what was needed to finally improve on-device security for our most personal devices (aka smartphones).

Apple announced (link) that IOS 8 is a big move for IOS device security because it is now "technologically impossible" to access data stored on a passcode or TouchID locked device. Apple says they can no longer bypass device security. It is important to note that this only applies for on device information (contact, pictures, recordings, etc), anything stored in the cloud is fair game and can be handed over to authorities with a warrant or NSL.

Obviously law enforcement isn't too thrilled about this new hurdle because it (they claim) makes it easier for criminals to perform their nefarious activities and hide.

Why did Apple do this? Because if they can't technically provide the information, then they can  no longer be compelled to do so by a court. It reduces workload for them and improves customer perception. 

Now for the bad news. Renown security analyst Jonathan Zdziarski discussed these new measures on his blog (link) but threw in an important caveat :

I don't want to undersell what Apple has done. Apple has helped make IOS users much safer by fixing many of the security issues present in IOS7. The above note by Jonathan is something to keep in mind. If you want to maintain the highest level of security protection, never connect your iPhone to a PC. 

I love my smartphone because it simplifies or amplifies so many aspects of my life. The smartphone has become an indispensable travel tool. It make every part of travel easier from reserving your airline seats, to buying show tickets to getting around a foreign city. 

There are thousands upon thousands of travel apps available. I will try to share some of the more useful ones with you. If I forgot something, add it in the comments. Many of these apps also have Android versions.

SeatGuru

I have written about SeatGuru in the past (link) and absolutely love it. The app brings the wealth airline seat quality knowledge to the palm of your hand (700 flights with over 100 different airlines). It will help you choose the best seats on any flight in any class. Does your seat recline? Do you have a power socket?

Download Seatguru from the Apple itunes appstore here (link)

Packing Pro

Having spent the last 20 years travelling to all 4 corners of the globe, I have now pack very quickly with minimal fuss. There are travellers that seem to forget something on every trip or spend most of the trip worrying about what they might have forgotten. This is where Packing Pro comes in. A well designed app that costs just $2.99 will help you build a packing list simply and easily. Its database contains hundreds of the most commonly used items conveniently pre-organized in various categories (clothes, medical, kids, pets, etc).

This is just a simple well designed app that pays for itself during your first trip.

Download Packing Pro from the Apple itunes appstore here (link)

TripAdvisor

I love trip advisor and wrote about its web service in an article entitles Travel Tip : Read Review Sites last week (link). You should read that article because it explains why I love TripAdvisor so much and how it can help you avoid a "trip from hell".

Nothing makes reading its millions of user generating reviews easier than its iPhone app. The app brings all of TripAdvisor's rich travel information to the tip of your finger anywhere in the world.

And of course the app is free.

Download TripAdvisor from the Apple itunes appstore here (link)

GateGuru

GateGuru is another TripAdvisor website and mobile app that helps to make travelling just a little bit easier. You input your travel information into the app and it will provide all kinds of very useful airport information such as restaurants, lounges, ATMs and almost anything else you need to get around in almost any airport around the world.

The app has these built in functionalities:

• Check-in airport terminal 
• Airport weather 
• Terminal and gate arrival and departure information 
• Real time flight status with push notifications for changes and updates 
• Estimated TSA security wait times for your checkpoints 
• Airport food and amenity information (with over 35,000 ratings and reviews), customized to your arrival and departure terminal 
• Airport maps and tips to help you navigate an unfamiliar airport 

This app is a must. Download GateGuru from the Apple itunes appstore here (link)

AutoStitch

I have to admit I am addicted to photography apps for my iPhone. I have over a dozen apps installed now and over 30 purchased since my first iPhone. I consider these essential travel apps because they allow you to quickly and easily capture a special moment so you can relive that travel memory over and over. Apple has made the iPhone's Photo.App a fantastic little app to capture that moment even adding a panorama feature. BUT.... and this is a big but... there are apps in iTunes that will allow you to capture better photos than the default built in app (this will be even more true with IOS 8 that will expose many photography settings hidden from these app until now).

Whether you are camping in the wilderness or visiting a Chinese temple, there are times when only a large expansive panorama will do. For this instances, I love AutoStitch. AutoStich will allow you to take a series of pictures (providing guide on when and how to snap each picture) and then stitch them all together on your phone into an 18 megapixel work of art.

What really sets AutoStich apart is the fact that you can take pictures horizontally, vertically or even a mix of both and the app will stitch them together without issues. The resulting panoramas are heads and shoulders above what Apple does by default. This $1.99 app is a bargain considering how often I use it.

Download AutoStitch from the Apple itunes appstore here (link)

Camera+

AutoStitch is great for Panoramas but what about "normal" pictures? This is where I talk about my most used iPhone app Camera+. Camera plus is a photo app that cleanly implements all of the basic photographic features you expect and then layers on incredible editing power.

I shouldn't even have to continue writing anything. Just go buy it. $1.99 is a bargain for this app. And unlike other developers, TapTapTap has made huge improvements without nickle and diming its customers.

Ultimately the best feature in v5 for landscape or city photography is a feature called Clarity Pro. It makes every landscape or cityscape picture incredibly clear, vibrant, sharp and visually very appealing. 

Download Camera+ from the Apple itunes appstore here (link). The developers have promised some incredible new "unannounced" features with the IOS8 version. 

Bittorrent Sync

One of the tenets of security is availability and  anytime I take vacation or travel pictures, I must make sure a card failure won't cause me to lose all my memories. I use the Eyefi Mobi SD Card which allows me (using their iPhone app) to copy pictures from my SD Card to my iPhone (2nd copy). Where WIFI is available, I want a 3rd copy on my home computer (which itself is backed up by Backblaze). How do I get my pictures from my smartphone back to my PC securely without using a cloud service? Bittorrent sync.

BitTorrent Sync uses the very popular Bittorrent peer to peer protocol to synchronize the files from my smartphone back to my home PC. By using this approach, my pictures are never sitting on a 3rd party cloud service which means I'm not worried about hacking of a cloud service, misuse of my personal data or getting screwed by horrible terms of service.

Bittorrent sync does require that all clients synchronizing data between them be available and online at the same time which means you will have to leave your home computer online or buy a Bittorrent Sync compatible NAS device (Netgear ReadyNAS, Seagate NAS OS, QNAP).

Creating the link between their IOS (or Android) app and the client on your home computer is super simple and takes 2 minutes. A side benefit is that you can then share these pictures with anyone else using Bittorrent Sync regardless of where they live, without having to create an account on any service and regardless of its size.

I have been using Bittorrent Sync from its very early start in beta and have been using it ever since, I also use it to sync files between computers, for backups and even archiving. This is a great way to keep your travel pictures safe. I typically copy them over to my iPhone (from the camera) real-time as I am taking pictures. Then sync them back to my home computer when I get back within range of the hotel's unlimited WIFI network or any other trustworthy WIFI network I find along the way.

You can read more about Bittorrent Sync here (link)