Hello, I'm Evan. I write about tech from my perspective – that of the average tech geek, sometimes with my lawyer glasses on. You can also find me on Twitter and at my real-life job as a lawyer. MORE ABOUT ME.
Early in my Mac life, I looked at ten apps that were essential to me at the time. Looking at that list, I realize that my usage has changed a bit over time. Since then, the Mac App Store was born as well. A recent post by Dan Gold on Google+ inspired me to try to list my ten favorite App Store apps. It was hard narrowing that list down to just ten, and even harder ranking these from 1 to 10. Here’s what I came up with.
I’ve recently started having issues with my WiFi network, such as dropouts and slowness. One of the first steps I’ve taken to address the problem is to try to determine if I’m getting interference from other networks. To see nearby networks, and what channels they’re using, I’ve found WiFi Stumbler to be valuable.
Regardless of some cool input tools, like Swype, entering text and controlling your mobile phone can still be cumbersome. On Android at least, you have the option of controlling your phone right from your computer, using AirDroid. AirDroid won’t let you do access all of your phone’s functions, but the list of available features is pretty impressive.
One of the bigger security-related stories over the past week concerns a vulnerability in WiFi Protected Setup (WPS). WPS is designed to be an easy way for inexperienced users to set up a secure network, using methods such as inputing a PIN from your router into your computer or other device. The problem is that the PIN, which is 8 digits long, is susceptible to brute force attacks. In fact, a free tool named Reaver can crack that PIN in just a few hours. This vulnerability exists regardless of the kind of security you’re using on your network, so even WPA2 is at risk. This means that the kid next door could get Reaver running, go off and watch a movie, and a few hours later he is in your network. The solution? Turn off WPS. Unfortunately, you can’t do this with modern Linksys routers.
And We’re Back . . . Hopefully SOPA and PIPA Aren’t
If you tried to visit 40Tech today, you saw that we went dark from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST. We turned out the lights, shutting off the site, to join the online protest again SOPA and PIPA. For a look at SOPA and PIPA, check out this video. Read more