The Ultrabook I want to see

Posted on January 17, 2012

One of the bigger stories from last week’s CES was the Ultrabook. Whether or not you agree with the oft-repeated dialog that Ultrabooks are merely Macbook Air copies — and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – you probably feel it’s a good thing that the PC makers are trying hard to make better products.  Although I’m all for sharp design, lower weight, instant on etc, my own personal belief is that the PC world is somewhat missing the point with the current emphasis of the Ultrabook. The big picture isn’t about competing with Macs, it’s about the mass transition to mobile and how that affects the PC industry as a whole. So, what’s my issue?  I think that the least important difference between notebooks and today’s mobile devices is weight, design, and instant on. Those are all things that the PC industry should have been working on anyway.  Even touch, which isn’t in evidence in the current crop of Ultrabooks but shows up in the roadmap, isn’t such as big of a factor given the rich interface of the PC.  No, to me the biggest issue is around connectivity and the constant availability of the network. Think about…

VPNs and Public Hotspots

Posted on January 4, 2012

Written by guest blogger, Dennis Bland, Senior Field Engineer at Devicescape You’re sipping your latte and surfing the web at your local coffee joint, just like millions of other people do every day.  You’ve probably wondered about the security of your Wi-Fi connection, and it’s safe to say many articles have been written about it. First, a summary of the most common methods to make your hotspot internet connection secure: 1.  Visit websites with “https:” in the URL.  In this case, your browser automatically creates an encrypted data “tunnel” between your browser and the server of the website you are currently browsing.  This arrangement is required by law for on-line banking, and is almost always employed on any web page where you have to enter personal information such as a username/password or credit card information.  It is important to point out that for this type of connection it does not matter what type of Wi-Fi connection you have, as the data is already encrypted.  This method of security is very secure (assuming your web browser does not complain of a “certificate error”) because it encrypts the entire path from your web browser to the website server, including the wired connection…