Scott Spiro Blog

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Ah yes, this will be a labor of love. To name my iphone app picks in a blog post! Truthfully folks, I have had quite a few iphone enthusiasts ask me “what are your top iphone app picks?” I’m dedicating this post to James Kernan of www.kernanconsulting.com who actually asked me this question and then listened while I described my entire iphone app library to him while we shared some beers at CompTIA Breakaway. Indeed, most folks are interested in my top business app recommendations, while others want to know the game pics, etc. So here they are, my top iphone app picks:

Business Apps:

1. Omnifocus: This is a great app for keeping track of things, and it’s geared specifically for users of David Allen’s “GTD”. But it works just as well on its own too. The app syncs with the mac desktop version of Omnifocus via a webDAV enabled drive like Apple’s Mobile Me. I use it to keep track of client information, meeting information, etc. and then utilize the “contexts” feature to know exactly what I need to be doing when I’m in front of my computer, or in the car, or running errands, etc. Actually, I recommend all of David Allen’s books.

2. Logmein Ignition: If you utilize Logmein this is a great app that allows you to access servers, desktops, etc. from anywhere. Works great over a 3G connection.

3. Amazon Kindle for iPhone: I’m not sure if this qualifies as a business app, but I use it. A lot. I’m always learning more about business and it’s extremely handy to pick up new books while on the go and be able to read them anywhere. Plus, the books sync with my Kindle. So I’m always up to-do-date. My notes and book marks from the Kindle also carry over too.

4. WinAdmin: Great app that allows you to connect to servers using RDP. ‘Nuff said.

5. Evernote: Evernote is a web based service that also has a Windows, Mac, and iPhone app. The service allows you to take notes including pictures and send them up to evernote where OCR is utilized to organize your info. I use the app to take pictures of presentations so I can go back and watch them again later (among other things).

6. NetNewsWire – Syncs RSS feeds with Google Reader. Handy.

7. Flight Track: I use this to track flights all the time. I’m writing this while stranded at McCarren Airport in Vegas (thanks a lot Southwest!). Very handy.

8. LiveATC: Although apps like “flightrack” are great for finding out the status of flights they can sometimes be delayed. That’s why I use LiveATC. When I am tracking someone’s flight I can listen into the tower communications at the selected airport and as long as I know their flight number, I know EXACTLY when they take off or land.

9. Apple Remote: If you use iTunes and have a single or even multiple sound systems in your home or office you must try this app. Even better if you have one or more Apple TV’s. Apple Remote is like a remote on steroids or  even what Logitech’s Harmony would like to do if it could. You can control playlists, songs, artists, genious lists, and even a DJ list that can be “voted on” and play this stuff through one or more audio systems utilizing apple tv or an airport Express. For example, I can play music in my living room via an Apple TV and also in my kitchen through an airport express plugged into a small mixer and a 600 watt Craftsman DJ amp. Either way, it will work. For apple TV’s the surface of the iphone becomes a black control surface that you can “gesture” to navigate the Apple TV menus. Check it out.

Games:

1. Monster Pinball: This game is freaking AWESOME. There’s even a lite version so go try it out. If you like pinball, this game just takes it to the next level. Aside from the game play itself, it has what could be the best sound design on any iphone app. Essentially the game has multiple game boards. There’s not much as far as help is concerned so you pretty much have to figure things out on your own. Go have fun.

2. The Deep: Another cool pinball game from the makers of Wild West Pinball. Great effects and game play. Plus a bit of a story line. Go check it out. Do it. Now.

3. Pocket God: If you are an iphone gamer and haven’t played pocket god then shame on you. Pocket God isn’t so much as a game but an experience. Yes, as you may have guessed you are the “pocket god” and you can yield your supreme powers on these helpless pigmies. The creativity in this game cannot be measured and it keeps getting better.

4. Sally’s Spa: My sister is an esthetician so I know just a little about spas. This is probably my favorite of the time management games (i.e. Cooking Dash, Dining Dash, Ranch Rush) and it literally robbed me of an entire weekend of my life. If you decide to play this game (or any of the others I listed above) prepare for lack of sleep.

5. Space Invaders Infinity Gene: A remake of Space Invaders by Taito Corp. Awesome.

6. Tap Tap Revenge: Any of the versions including the original, Tap Tap Dance, Tap Tap Revenge Lady Gaga, and the newest version. Great games for music lovers.

7. Blackbeard’s Assault: This is my favorite of the “shoot the colored balls” games (Bonsai Blast, StoneLoops of Jurassica, and Luxor also are runners up).

8. Trism and Galcon: Must haves.

9. Lightsaber: Turns your iphone into a lightsaber. Limitless Fun. Also, you can create your own lightsaber.

There are many more, but those are a few you should check out.

Social Media

1. TweetDeck: The iphone version of the top rated desktop twitter app.

2. Facebook: This is a new version of the original app. Greatly improved. And free.

3. Skype: Yes, does everything the desktop version does. Almost.

4. Wordpress: Blog on the go, you know?

Travel and Entertainment

1. DLP Walkee: This is for Disneyland lovers. This app gives you the park map and allows you and the rest of the Walkee community to update the ride line wait times for everyone else to see. Tons of additional info and trivia right on your iphone.

2. Zagat to go: You know what this does right? Access all of Zagat’s reviews right on your iPhone.

3. OpenTable: This really works. You can really make reservations on your iphone!

4. Lonely Planet: The best city guides around.

5. Tripit: Yes, Yes, Yes! Access your Tripit Account!

Shopping

1. Grocery Gadget: This app is the bomb. I can be at the store and my wife can be adding items to the list. I actually took pictures of most of the items I buy a Costco, and insert them in the app.Yes, this might surprise you but for those who really know me it probably doesn’t.

2. Amazon.com: Let me tell you how cool this is- you take a picture of an item you want and a few minutes later the app gets back to you with the item at the amazon store. Freakin’ awesome right?

Music

1. iDrum: Bitchin pattern drum machine.

2. BeatMaker

3. Melodica: Kinda a Tenori-On device..

4. Guitarist: great guitar tools

5. Ocinara: A virtualized 12,000 year old flute that not only allows you to play for yourself but also lets you plan and listen to thousands of other users world-wide.

Apps I’d like to see:

1. Autotask for iPhone: If you are an MSP or Outsourced IT Service Provider you might use Autotask. It’s a great SaaS app. Where is the iPhone App? This would be EXTREMELY useful.

2. iChat A/V for iphone: Ok, so it’s far fetched. But c’mon Apple! We want to video chat from our iphones!

Are there some apps that YOU like? Let me know by writing your comments below.

Ok folks, so here’s the big question: Should you install Office 2007 SP2? Will it make your Office run better, or will it in fact bring your Windows machine to a screeching halt? Honestly, I don’t want to scare you. SP2 should not break down your machine, nor result in a terrible loss of data. Far from it. After testing the update for the past week, I can tell you that overall there are some noticeable improvements: My most used office program, Outlook, opens more quickly and seems to process my thousands of e-mails with a veritable speed I had not seen before.

According to Microsoft, that’s the idea. Most users spend the majority of their time in Outlook, and so the official word from Redmond is that Outlook 2007 SP2 is 26% faster than its predecessor (e-mail tasks are 35% percent faster). After installing SP2 users should indeed notice this improved speed and stability of Outlook, better charting functionality in Excel and more control over the appearance of SmartArt graphics.

Have I experienced any problems running SP2? Yes. I hate to say this, but I have been noticing that Outlook freezes from time to time. However, I’m a bit of a power user. I have Windows XP running in Parallels that’s sucking 2GB from my 4GB iMac. I probably have 20 windows open on each operating system at any given moment. I would just as well attribute my freezing Outlook to a Parallels memory glitch or a recent LA Earthquake than to SP2 (and we did receive a 4.0 aftershock today).

The SP2 update is a manual update. Meaning you’ll need to go to Microsoft Update in your control panel to find it. Alternatively, you can also visit the Microsoft Office Download Site and grab the update. If you are a CSG TotalCare or Managed Services customer, we’ll take care of installing the SP2 update across your network automatically.

For a complete and detailed listing of what SP2 has to offer click here to read the Micrsoft Support Article. If you have any additional questions regarding the update, feel free to post your comments below.

From a Sustainable/Green IT perspective, or even from a general environmental standpoint, the Kindle makes sense.

For example, it costs the New York Times about twice the amount of money to print and deliver its paper than it costs to deliver to the Kindle. According to the Times’ Q308 10-Q, the company spends $63 million on raw materials and $148 million on salaries and benefits. Wages and benefits for just the newsroom run about $200 million.  Now, multiply the quarterly costs by four, then subtract 200 million. A rough estimate puts the Times’ annual delivery costs at $644 million per year. If the subscriber base of 803,000 loyal readers switched to a Kindle, their delivery costs should drop to $297 million according to the Business Insider.

And I’m not going to even speculate in regards to the number of trees saved if an electronic delivery method was implemented by every major newspaper in the US alone.

It’s ironic then that Amazon releases the Kindle DX the day after my informal sit down chat with Ingram Micro’s own Jason Beal.  Now, the DX offers a larger screen, and allows for automatic landscape viewing (similar to an iPhone) for reading newspapers and books. With a $489 price tag, I have to ask myself, “who is going to buy this new device?” (we’ll get to the DX in another blog post).

Jason is the Director of Sales for the Seismic Services division at Ingram Micro. As with most folks who own a kindle, he is a “big fan” of the device. And he’s busy. Really busy. I caught up with him in Dallas on the last day of the Ingram Micro Seismic Partner Conference. Putting Jason’s schedule aside for a moment, I recognize that everyone is different; however I’ve noticed that Kindle users are what I’d call “intelligent purveyors of knowledge”. That is, they typically are success driven people and they see the Kindle as a tool that allows them to harness and scale the power of reading to new levels of efficiency and convenience (for example being able to carry many, many books with them at any time, or download books on the fly).

I scheduled 10 minutes with Jason to discuss the changes in the Kindle 2, as well as how he uses his Kindle for business and personal use. Jason explained that he’d received the Kindle as a gift and was hooked.  Not only does Jason use the device for reading books, but he also enjoys magazines and even a journey onto the internet utilizing its built in browser.

If don’t have a Kindle you may not be aware of the web portal that Amazon provides to manage single or multiple Kindle’s (and iphones). Your books are backed up and ready to be sent to your device of choice. Magazines and newspapers work in the same way, however they are delivered daily, weekly, or monthly to your device automatically; ready to read. You can also send your own documents (Word, PDF, etc.) to the device via e-mail for later viewing. In fact, I am working on a method to have our CSG Reports as well as our free monthly technology newsletter delivered directly to Kindle! (wouldn’t that be neat!)

Go ahead and check out the HD video above for some “real world” commentary on Amazon’s “WhisperNet’, the Kindle 2 re-design as well as Jason’s recommended reading list. If you have any questions regarding the Kindle, go ahead and post them here.

Any of us who spend a good deal of time on the California freeway system ultimately feel the crunch of hours wasted on the road. In an effort to combat this increasingly unproductive part of our day, we resort to strange methodologies for staying in touch and getting things done. Whether that means texting with three fingers on a mobile phone while driving in and out of rush hour traffic via stick shift or talking on our cell while writing a manifesto e-mail it all becomes increasingly more dangerous.

In addition to this, the state of California has mandated that it is now illegal to talk on a cell without a handsfree unit. It is also illegal to send text messages.

Driving into CSG Corporate in downtown Los Angeles as well as visiting our customers can keep me in my Prius 2-3 hours per day. Crazy? You bet. Part of everyday life in LA? Yes. Have I found a helping hand? I think so!

Enter Jott- a virtual assistant of sorts that lets you record notes and ideas with your voice. It also lets you send e-mail too which can be very handy while in the car and much safer than typing on your Blackberry while driving.

Jott makes software for the iPhone and the Blackberry. You can record to-do’s, appointments and notes while on the go. Jott’s amazing voice recognition technology converts your voice notes to text which is then synced with their system. From here, you can even sync with Microsoft Outlook and CSG’s Harmony Hosted Exchange Service. Jott also provides you with a toll-free number. Depending on your service level you can record jotts or retrieve RSS feeds while on the go using your cell phone. To learn more about Jott click here.

As you can see, I’ve had good experience with this product. Being able to send e-mails and record ideas and notes while on the road or anywhere else has resulted in a much better use of my time. I’ve used both the Blackberry and iPhone versions of the software and while there’s some definite improvements to be made Jott is on the right track and I encourage you to give it a try. 

Do you use Jott? If so, let me know what you think of it.

Are you sure your employees are not visiting risky sites? Do they know how to identify phishing e-mails and websites? Educate them and keep your business safe from harm.

Folks, it can happen to anyone. About a year ago I received an e-mail that appeared to be sent from e-bay. It requested that I reset my password due to a security breach. I was reviewing tons of e-mail and at first glance it looked legit to me. I clicked on the link provided, updated my info and went back to work. A few minutes later I realized: that wasn’t ebay! Why would they want me to change my password? And if they did, why did they need my screen name as well?

Most people have a handful of websites they visit regularly and don’t think twice about clicking on e-mails from those select companies. Beware! Some of these sites may be compromised and phishing e-mails can lead to disaster.

Double check the web address for the site you would like to visit and avoid infection or phishing scams.  Simply place the cursor over the ink you wish to check, right-click to open the white menu box and choose “Properties”. A box will open containing the information about that link. If you remmber the web-site address or have it saved in your favorites, double check that address against the one shown to ensure it is not a scam.

Don’t click on links provided in e-mails,  unless you are sure they are safe. Use your “favories” menu as a place to strt from. Then search the site for the particular promotion or offer you had seen in the e-mail.

Phisher’s are getting smarter and they now have the ability to provide phishing pages that can steal your information but still log you into the website you intended to visit. Without proper Web Defense systems in place, your employees are effectively unprotected. For example, say you want to log on to your bank’s website and you click on a link provided in an e-mail in order to open the site. If the e-mail is a fraud, the link provided can divert you to a phish page to login. This is a web page created with the intent to gather your user or other information in order to steal personal data. When you enter your login details they can be automatically stored for the phisher to use again, but you may not even notice a problem. Phishers can now provide a seamless link from the initial login on a the fake page to the intended website. CSG’s Web Defense service works at the network perimeter blocks the Phisher’s ability to bring your users back to the the dangerous webs site.

Nothing looked out of place… Phishers can duplicate a wide variety of websites today and some new phishing pages take the login information gathered and log you in for real so you never know the difference. Take the initiative, check links provided in e-mails or just avoid them like the plague. There may be no break in usual login procedures or indication that you have been phished until it’s too late. If you have any questions, we welcome your comments.

October is the start of the darkest time of the year and a perfect time to prepare for winter months. It’s not uncommon for a severe storm to hit without warning in the fall. That’s why protecting your computer and printer with a surge suppressor or uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is more than just a good idea- it’s an absolute must.

While a home circuit breaker can protect some of your appliances, it was not built to protect the sensitive electronic equipment in a computer. If an electrical surge hits your computer, it could fry your motherboard and CPU in seconds causing you to lose data AND the use of your computer.

The biggest mistakes most office administrators and users make is thinking that their power strip will protect them, when in reality it won’t. To adequately protect your sensitive electronic investments, you need a quality surge suppressor or UPS designed to handle the job.

Invest in a UPS battery backup for your computer. Your computer is continuously powered by the battery and the utility power recharges the battery. When the power goes out, surges, or drops, those problems affect only the battery charger, never your computer. The added benefit of a UPS is when the power goes out completely, you have anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes of power remaining to gracefully power down your computer without losing what you were doing. A surge suppressor will absorb power surges when they occur, but has no built-in battery to provide power should the electricity go out entirely.

A quality UPS can be purchased for $40.00 to $85.00, depending on the length of time you ned the battery to last. The larger the capacity, the higher the cost. In most cases you would want to shut down the computer immediately upon a power failure, so as long as you have 5-10 minutes you could save all of your work and shut down your computer properly.

Brands to look for are APC and Belkin. A great feature to look for in a UPS and a surge suppressor is a failure indicator light. This light will come on (or go out) when the device is compromised and no longer protecting your computer. Most devices have this but make sure to double check. A good surge suppressor can be purchased for $15 to $25. For superior protection… consider a surge station. These are larger surge protectors that fit under your computer or on the floor under your desk. Most have an input for a phone line that will protect your modem from power surges too. Many of these stations come equipped with built-in circuit breakers and can be purchased for as little as $40.00. Of course, there are also more advanced models with all the bells and whistles for upwards of $100.00. Finally, unplug your computer and all computer equipment, telephone, and modem lines during a lightning storm. This is the ultimate protection against sudden and devastating power surges. Most UPS devices have a cable to connect to your computer. This is so when the UPS is running on the battery it can notify the computer to begin shutting down on its own if you aren’t there.

Remember to backup regularly. We cannot stress this enough- always backup your important information. A remote backup solution or internet vaulting solution would always be recommended to ensure data is backed up off-site in case of emergency.