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People spend a lot of time worrying about Internet security issues.  One of the biggest concerns is having one’s credit card details on line.  People don’t want to give out these details.  One way of dealing with this is the online payment methods that do not require personal credit card details.  But one has to check out the safest methods possible. There are various different companies offering these so it’s important to check out the validity and reputability of the company.  A good way to do this is by reading other people’s comments on the services offered.  Make sure you get positive feedback before you go ahead and sign up with a company.  Also ensure that you can get out of the contract when you want; you don’t want to be stuck for endless months in a system that is not working for you.  And also make sure that the company has a commitment to you, the client, to promise that any personal information you provide will not be shared with other companies.

Whenever you begin something new, it is always a good idea to start simple and small.  So if you are starting a new business for example and you need to be using computers and other pieces of technological equipment, then go into this with your head on your shoulders, as opposed to a chicken without a head.  The most important thing you can do is plan what you are going to do ahead of time.  Speak to people who have set this up (successfully) before, on a small scale. What were there experiences? What didn’t work for them? What can you learn from their mistakes?  Perhaps you want to get in a professional to help you start the ball rolling.
Your next step should be to find a reputable company to help with installation of all your equipment.  The last thing you want is some shoddy semi-professional person doing a bad job with installation and inadvertently damaging your equipment.  Everything should be configured with the utmost accuracy as well according to planned specification.
A mistake that new businesses often make is that they don’t realize how important backup is. The last thing you want to do is try scrimping on this aspect.  Get good back-up.  And thereafter ensure long-term support (and maybe even insurance) for everything that you have done.

It turns out that Facebook might not be just for teens.  Of course, adults use this network connector as well, but traditionally it has been a really huge hit with the teen community.

Latest news is that two toddler siblings who were kidnapped in 1995 were located via FB.  A few months ago the mother performed an FB search for her daughter, now a teenager and located her!  They exchanged messages but after a while, things cooled down since the teenager said she wasn’t interested in a relationship.  Clearly so much so, that the teen removed her profile but this was just the mother’s first step and an investigator was hired and located the kids in Florida.

Thanks to FB, and Internet social networking, the kids are now living with their mother who has full custody, even though the relationship is still strained.  It’s amazing what technology can do these days.

We certainly thought this recently development was good news – but that might be because we are quite clutzy.  Up until now, AT&T hasn’t offered any type of insurance on the iPhone. If you drop it, lose it or it gets taken, it’s your problem.  However, it sounds like AT&T has recently changed its mind.  Starting soon, they will be offering MobileProtect insurance which will cost $13.99 a month to insure your handset against loss or damage.  It will include a deductible and other details you can read more about.

While this might seem high when you first see it, it’s certainly less than the $600 or more you’ll need to spend if you lose your iPhone and are still under contract.  This program, as far as we’ve heard, won’t be included on your AT&T bill.  Rather, it will be handled through iTunes.  To enroll, you’ll download the MobileProtect application from the app store within 30 days of purchasing your iPhone.  We aren’t sure what this will mean for current iPhone owners – but time will tell how all of this will work!

Yes, it sounds like Amazon may be getting nervous with the new iPad that hit the streets recently.  They have recently announced plans to unveil a thinner Kindle with sharper pictures and more clarity in August.  While the new e-book is not supposed to have the touch screen or color choices that the iPad has, it is going to have a shaper display and more be more responsive.

Color is far in the future, apparently, with Amazon.  CEO Jeff Bezos said that a Kindle with color is still quite a while in the future. To counter any questions about Kindle’s purpose and whether they feel threatened by the new iPad, Bezos said recently that Kindle plans to continue focusing on what they’ve always been – a great reading device.

Certainly, time will tell how the Kindle does, as many other companies are jumping into the e-reader market as well.

If you love to travel, you might want to check out Google Goggles.  In recent news, they are now able to translate texts from many languages, as Google recently announced.  Google Goggles version v1.1 can read English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and can translate into even more languages.

Google is working hard to get this software to recognize other Latin-based languages, and to, eventually, even recognize non-Latin languages such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic.

In general terms, what Google Goggles does is allow users of Android-based phones to search the Web based on pictures they’ve taken with their phones.  In order to translate something, you simply need to point the phone at the word or phrase and then use the “region of interest” button to draw a box around the words. You then press the shutter button and, if Goggles recognizes the text, it will give you the chance to translate it.

Goggles v1.1 offers other great features as well as the new translation one.  It has “improved barcode recognition, a larger corpus of artwork, an improved user interface, and the ability to initiate visual searches using images in your phone’s photo gallery,” Bissacco and Flamholz explained.

Everyone is abuzz about the new iPad. The question, however, is if it’s really a great new device – or if it’s just another gadget flooding the market. What we’ve seen so far from everything that we’ve read, and our own investment in one, is that it is quite useful as long as you’ve purchased it for the right reasons.

If you are comparing it to a Kindle, for instance, which seems to be the major comparison at the moment, then the iPad definitely wins. iPad allows you to play games, watch movies, manage documents, listen to music, and read the books that Kindle lets you read. The Kindle only reads books, so the iPad certainly offers more in this area.

The iPad also makes the magazine reading experience that much more amazing. It has a full color, multi-touch screen that is fantastic to use. You can also purchase and download applications and books directly to the iPad, making it a very convenient tool, indeed.

My whole life – or at least, as long as I can remember – I’ve been savvy about all things techy.  It’s just something that’s been important and exciting to me.  In the past I’ve not minded not sharing this side of my life with the particular girl on my arm, but now that I’ve met Cassie, things have changed. I guess you could say that she has become my significant other.  Only problem is, Cassie just won’t take any interest in any of my latest toys.  I bought the Apple TV about a year ago and thought she’d be thrilled.  I told her I had a great surprise for her, but nothing.  In fact, it was worse than nothing.  I actually got in trouble for it.  My mom says she was expecting something “more romantic” whatever that means, whereas I thought she’d be thrilled I’d taken an interest in trying to think of something we could do together – like watch more TV.

Our latest relationship glitch is that Cassie is claiming that the iPhone has ruined her life.  I don’t know what she’s talking about.  The iPhone is the greatest gadget ever and has given me more enjoyment than, well, I can’t really put that into words.  But you get everything from the iPhone and then some.  Just because I don’t stare into her eyes over a steak and chips because I’m discovering yet another cool app, doesn’t mean I don’t love her.  It just means I have my own special way of showing it.  And if she would only show some interest in these cool new gadgets, she too would see just how awesome they can be.

So the dilemma is presented:  do I ditch the girl or play with my iPhone in private?  Either scenario doesn’t look particularly attractive to me right now and I guess I’m kinda stuck at a crosswords.  Truth is, with gadgets like this that keep coming out,  I think the choice is going to be obvious at the end of the day.

Here’s an interesting problem at many work locations today.  Today’s portable devices, most prominently the smartphone that is powered by Windows Mobile, Symbian Apple and BlackBerry operating systems, are little microcomputers.  You can load them up with all sorts of information that you would also put on your computer at work.

The problem, however, is that these smartphones don’t’ have the processing power of the typical desktop – and that means that their security codes aren’t up to the same standards.  Many companies today are trying to figure out how to manage this technology issue.  Everyone uses smartphones today and most business people have confidential information on their phones.  But, if the safety measures aren’t up to the standards that are necessary to protect client confidentiality – you’ve got a problem on your hands.

If this could be an issue for you and your place of business – look into it.  Find out if your employees are using their phones to store confidential information and if you have the right protection on these phones.  There are certainly many industry specific compliance regulations today, and you certainly don’t want to have a problem with this issue.

We’re just two tech guys who enjoying writing about the world of technology and sharing our geeky-interest with others.  We’ve both got our own day jobs, certainly, but we come together at night to discuss technology issues, to go to conventions and to help our friends with their technical glitches.  It’s all in a day’s work.

Here, we hope to explore all sorts of interesting tech issues and experiences and to help you to figure out how to deal with them.  What fun!  If you’re a techy like we are – or you are curious about technical issues and you find them baffling, then this is the site for you.  Hopefully, we can have fun discussing cutting edge technology together.