I’m one of those people, I walk around in my daily life and I see, hear or say something for one reason or another I need to remember. I had this bad habit though of not making or keeping notes, while a few of my friends had the habit of making a note about everything only to lose it because there were just to many. Then I discovered that Evernote had created an app for Android and I’ve heard good things so I gave it a shot.

Evernote is a great app you run on your iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, or Android powered phone. While you’re out and about you can use the app to record a note in text, photo or even voice. Evernote then uses your wireless carriers data connection to upload the note to Evernotes secure website for you to access, read, and edit later. You can organize your notes into categories, use tags (much like you do with meta data) and search your notes. Even better is if you don’t organize it, Evernote will automatically!

Now you might be thinking that because it’s an app on a cellphone it can’t be as feature rich as it’s computer companion but the crazy thing is, that the app has all the abilities the computer does. Now it’s not a scaled back version but one thing the app does lack is the ability to screenshot your phone, a feature which some Smartphone Operating Systems haven’added this ability yet is probably part of the reason (Google, Android… we’re looking at you).

I have to say that after using it for a while now and I’m loving it. I can be out and about and if I run across something I really need to remember I can. One thing that I love is the cost, does free sound good? Evernote is completely free though you are limited to uploading 40MB of data per month, you also can only upload images, audio, text and PDF files. If you find it useful and want to add more features, space and have more of your files tracked by Evernote you can upgrade to a subscription for $45 a year. Included with your subscription is the ablility to upload 500Mb’s per month the ability to upload ANY file including Microsoft Office files as well as better tracking on your PDF files.

For me, I’m happy with the free account and I’ve been keeping more notes than ever. I can be in class and snap a shot of the board to remember homework as well as capture or record anything that inspires me while I’m going through my day. Friends I’ve recommended the app to have completely ditched notes on little scraps of paper and we’ve all kept more of our good idea’s we’ve had throughout the day.

To me this is just a perfect way to create and keep notes (especially as a computer geek) and while this app probably won’t make you a genius at organizing and your office will probably still have stacks of papers that only you know what’s in them, Evernote is an awesome tool that everyone can use.

We can only imagine what leap forward the next version of Photoshop will make for us, but based on the previous twenty years it’s easy to imagine another twenty years of groundbreaking innovation has already begun.

Waterproofing has been increased as well to 30 feet deep for 30 days. Meaning you could “accidentally” drop this thing in the fish tank forget you left it there for, leave on vacation for two weeks, come home and your data and images will still be safe.

ioSafe is taking pre-orders and shipping on March 13th! Prices start at $499 for a 64GB drive and up to $1249 for a 256GB drive, sure it sounds expensive but if you have some family treasures, business documents, or any other data you want to be absolutely sure is protected as possible this drive could serve your purpose. We only see you getting a bigger and bigger bang for your buck as the cost of SSD drives drop and ioSafe ramps up production.

We’ve been in contact with ioSafe about getting a hands on later this month, so stay tuned. For now visit ioSafe at their website for all the details and visit the BBC’s website to see the drive’s safety be burned, drowned, dropped and crushed at CES 2010.

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As far as expectations versus reality for many people, reading discussions and the few reviews of those who got a hands on there are definitely cheerleaders for the device out there. We ourselves definitely applaud Apple for being first to market with the latest push in the computing market to get consumers hooked on tablet computing. The price is about on par with what you would expect from an Apple product running between $499 for a crippled 16Gb WiFi only version all the way up to $829 for a 64GB WiFi + 3G version. Operating System wise, it’s running the iPhone 3.2 Operating system. Sprinkle in Apples stated battery life of 10 hours, proprietary processor running at 1Ghz and a mid-range 720p HD  touchscreen display and it all sounds kind of cool.

The question now is will this device actually live up to the hype that’s been building on it for the last year? Given some of the feed back on everything from Twitter to Facebook and even just fellow geeks and nerds we’re finding that for now the device has what we’d call a lukewarm welcome. Apple has designed this product around their iPhone OS, this makes the iPad able to run anything you’re going to find on iTunes including all the apps for iPhone. The problem is that means it’s also lacking where the iPhones themselves are lacking and even worse gives the tablet no more use than an iPhone except a bigger screen and lack of actually being able to put the thing to your ear and make a phone call. Now we’re not calling the iPad a failure in that it’s completely useless but since it’s lacking a laundry list of features that were expected and in many ways are becoming kind of standard on computing devices Apple took their next iPod and turned it into what can best be described as an Apple TV.

So why bash the iPad?

There’s a reason for this big let down too, and one we find valid. When you think Apple Computers, you think of a case design everyone loves and innovation. We expect both of these from Apple because their design and innovation is the reason why we buy their products. Without the iPod music would have remained difficult to purchase digitally (via iTunes) and the iPhone created a revolution in cell phones and even caused companies like Motorola to step back (for years) and look at the Apple design in an attempt to create phones that could rival it. Because of the iPhone the cost of touchscreen phones and data plans for cellphones dropped like a rock in a few short years. Sure there’s other market factors for this happening and there’s a chance if Apple didn’t someone else could have but it’s undeniable that when you purchase an Apple product it’s because it’s a hyped device and you expect it to do what it’s hyped to do.

Because it simply lacks innovation, it has a screen that only has 720p HD rather than a full 1080p HD. It has a proprietary processor that if properly “spec’ed” by Apple is for all intents and purposes under powered compared to even $249 PC netbook rivals. Toss in the issue that you cannot multi-task on this “netbook” and you have a real problem, because many people like to listen to music while they compute or check their email while writing a paper. To make matters more complicated Apple still has not partnered with Adobe Flash to bring a Flash player to the iPad, that’s all well and good unless your website is in Flash or you want to watch YouTube, Hulu, or just about 80% of any of the interactive content on the internet. Many people even found the lack of a simple camera for either quick snaps while reading an ebook in the park while the kids play or the ability to web conference just disappointing.

So it’s not innovative and its base price is hovering dangerously close to what most high-end Windows based netbooks cost… so what is the average photographer supposed to do? Well the answer to us is simple, based on Apple’s past history with new devices one of two things will happen with the iPad. This first generation tablet was designed to appeal specifically to the mac addicted die hards that wanted a Mac Netbook without having to create a Hackintosh out of a Windows based netbook. Though possible we think the second most likely scenario is that this is a first generation device and right about at the spot where Apple knows they’ll sell enough to get the market a little saturated. They’ll release the device now and next year they will announce a second generation iPad with a new and improved flavor and people will again jump for joy that a few of their expectations for first generation were finally answered in the second generation. They got away with this tactic when it came to the iPod and iPhone so it wouldn’t be shocking to see it repeat again.

So, to buy or not to buy?… If you’re a die hard fan you’re already camped out in front of the nearest Apple store. If you’re not and you think it’s cool but can wait, definitely wait. There’s PC versions being released in the 3rd and 4th Quarter of this year and you can be sure that it won’t take Apple long to release an updated version of their hardware soon enough.

What Is RAID? (A Quick Lesson) -

RAID is basically a set of two or more hard disk drives that are essentially “synced” together. By syncing the drives in what is called a “RAID Array” the drives then will copy your data to multiple drives. For more on RAID check out this lengthy wikipedia post.

Why Is RAID NOT A Backup Solution?

Many people, not just photographers think that RAID is an instant backup. It’s understandable given that RAID will essentially copy the same file to a second, third, fourth, fifth, twentieth hard drive without you having to do anything. On top of that it speeds up your computer because instead of opening the file from one of those hard drives it will use all of them. By doing this you open gigabytes of files in seconds and “feel” like you have backups of all of them.

RAID has a fatal flaw though if any one of those drives has a problem, writes the file incorrectly, a virus infects them or the hard drive itself stops working the entire RAID system is gone. Aside from all of these flaws we have one last flaw that is present in every computer, cell phone, car, and other consumer electronic on the planet, human error. All of these are reasons why RAID is not a backup solution and why if you are using RAID currently for backup you may want to reconsider.

If It’s Not For Backup What Is RAID For?

RAID is awesome for a few things, the main thing that we in the photography community enjoy it most for is speed! Remember just a minute ago when we said RAID will increase your speed by reading the same file on each of the hard drives? Ok, stick with us because this is what photographers need to use RAID for and why you’ll enjoy it. Lets pretend you have a NAS (Network Attached Storage Device) and it has 4 hard drive inside of it that total 4 Terabytes of drives. Each drive has a maximum speed that it can read and write, we’ll say it’s 100mbps (graphic left).

Because each drive can only read and or write at 100 megabytes per second opening a large file will take a long time. The hard drive has to spin the discs inside of it, the head reader has to scan the disks and find your files and then it all has to be sent to your processor so it can be run and displayed on your screen.

This is where RAID comes in,  it basically adds some rocket fuel to your computer. So lets pretend we just added RAID to this same setup, and because we’re going to keep this simple and not discuss all the different types of raid and use a simple example. like the one to the right.

We’ve enabled the RAID setup on the computer and now our 4 drives disappear and the computer sees all 4 drives as 1 hard drive. It’s also using half of our drives to “mirror” the data, so what this means is instead of having 4 Terabytes of storage we have 2 terabytes of storage and 2 terabytes of mirrors.

So you lose half of your storage but you gain speed, so now one file is copied over to multiple drives and now when you open a file it opens much faster than it would have before because it’s going to open the file using all the drives. This would give us a theoretical speed of 400 megabytes per second when opening a file instead of 100 megabytes per second giving use a 400% speed increase. The other neat thing about RAID is that if you’re using the right types you gain more speed with each additional set of drives you add to the array.

So If We Don’t Use RAID For Backup What do We Use For Backup?

Well, if you think of things like NAS, Drobo’s, and such as external hard drives (just with more risk) than you can work from there to create a backup solution that works for you. Though what we would recommend is that you keep your RAID devices as your “working” drives and use separate drives, online storage, DVD’s and servers for your backups. This will keep your data safe but still with a high speed access while you’re working on it. We’ll be covering more about data backup solutions in the coming days and weeks so stay tuned.

Still confused or have questions? Leave a comment below.

With companies like Geek Squad charging an outrageous $199 for in-store virus removal and $149 for online virus removal the idea of getting a virus yearly or even once every few years is not a cheap one (look for yourself). On top of that it will take time to have the computer worked on, time that you can’t be using the computer which could mean a backlog of work for you. So we decided to create a short and sweet list about what you can do to keep yourself virus free. We’re giving you some of the very basic tips we use ourselves and that has kept us virus free for over 6 years! Yes I said six (6) years so let me say this now and very clearly… IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE ON WINDOWS AND NOT GET A VIRUS. The truth is Windows for the average user is in our opinion very secure, though if you have some government secrets and want to hide them we suggest you look to the N.S.A who spends their days playing “catch the terrorist hacker”.

So how can the average photographer secure their Windows PC and not feel like they just gave up the right to do any more than look at the Google homepage? Common sense mostly and some tips you may not have heard before but if you have and don’t follow them now is a great time to start.

1. Run an anti-virus program, there’s a few great free ones and a few great pay ones. If  completely free sounds like the right price to you check out Microsoft Security Essentials with a price tag like FREE and being ranked in the top 3 anti-virus programs in reviews this anti-virus from Microsoft is coming out of the gate strong. Like Windows but still not a fan of Bill Gates? Check out AVG Free the free edition provides ample protection from virus’ as well as an optional upgrade to the pro version which offers a little more protection. We were using AVG Free for years until our switch to Microsoft Security Essentials in the last few weeks.
2. Never, under any circumstances open an email from a person that obviously looks suspicious. As a business you can’t not open emails from people you don’t know, but you can really reduce your risk by just skipping the ones you know are spam and are not from a possible client. If it has an attachment this is a big red flag most websites sending you a newsletter will not send you an attachment nor require you open a file to view what they have to say. Think the email might have a virus? Visit the company’s website and read the newsletter directly off their page.
3. Your bank will not send you an email with a link to their site’s login page. Even if they do never open a link to any website through an email that you wouldn’t open with a bunch of strangers looking over your shoulder watching you type in your password. If you want to view your PayPal balance and think a link in an email they just sent you is a fast way to get to the site you might get to the site and think it’s the actual site only to find a few days later you have a virus, your account is empty and identity stolen or any one of the three. This is a common way for hackers to gain access to your computer and accounts commonly called “Phishing” (pronounced: fishing).
4. Never visit sites of questionable content… how can we say this delicately these sites usually offer things of an adult nature, free software or even an ability to do something such as see who’s looking at your Facebook page. While were sure everyone who reads this only comes across such things purely by accident it’s important to understand that not matter the nature of the website, if you’re not sure that it’s an actual legitimate website you could visit for a few short minutes or seconds and have a virus installed on your computer. Windows users running a good anti-virus program like the ones above will actually be warned that a site could be potentially hazardous and have the option to not visit the site to prevent infection by most websites.
5. Enable Windows Firewall, it’s free and yes it works! The firewall is like your personal secret service detail, he stands next to your internet connection and if someone you don’t know or he knows not to trust tries to use your computer to talk to the internet or someone tries to talk to your computer over the internet without your permission, he puts them in a headlock and asks you if you know them and if it’s ok for them to pass. Until you say yes (or no) he won’t let you talk to them or visa versa. Now the firewall isn’t without flaws but your average part time wanna be hacker is just going to skip over you and find someone that’s not protected.
6. The last tip is simple, we know you like simple so here it is. If the website you’re about to download a file from looks questionable, move on and find somewhere else to get your files. When you download something your anti-virus won’t always be suspicious at first until the file is completely downloaded (or opened) and only if your virus scan automatically checks new downloads. If it’s a nasty self-duplicating virus you may have an infection that normal software won’t cure and end up visiting a repair shop and having to deal with the drama that comes with a virus infection. Save your time and only download from websites you can trust or that come highly recommended.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll be well on your way to living a PC Virus free life just like this exrtremely over excited PC user.

What’s your favorite way to help keep your computer virus free? Leave us a comment and let us know.

We weren’t paid, bribed or even asked by Lenovo to give this line of laptops recognition, in fact we asked for the chance to try it hands on and we didn’t even get a response. It’s ok though because this line is just that good and will benefit photographers in ways they didn’t know a laptop could so we’ll still spread the word.

The W series from IBM has been on our radar for a few months now mostly because the line is well suited for photographers as these are workstation laptops rather than home, gaming or business class laptops. Coming equipped with NVIDIA® Quadro FX® MXM-based graphics cards means you’re system isn’t geared toward gaming, it’s geared towards getting things done. The new W510 system announced at CES 2010 sports:

• Quad Core Intel i7 processor
• 15.6″ – 95% NTSC gamut 16:9 Touchscreen Monitor
• Built-in X-Rite® PANTONE® Calibrator
• USB 3.0
• Solid State Hard Drives
• Up to 16GB of RAM
• RAID 0/1
• Blu-Ray Disc Drive

Basically it’s powerful, portable and feature rich. The other W series systems include the W700ds which includes a “palm size” Wacom tablet, built-in… yes built in. As well as an additional 10.6″ LCD display and yes it’s also built-in and folds out right next to the main 17″ display with the built-in calibrator.

The downside to the W700ds is that all those extras will hamper battery life and that currently they only offer it in the now outdated Core2 series processors. If you’re looking at the W700ds laptop we say give IBM some time to update the specs with an i7 processor for the added performance gains.

Are we saying this is the be all end all line of laptops for photographers? Not at all, in fact it would be better for the photography community if some of the other big guys would take note and compete, were looking at you DELL, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, Apple.

Currently IBM is only taking orders for the W510 via phone, we’re guessing they just haven’t had enough time to ramp up production to offer them on their site (or they’re just greedy and want to keep all that computing goodness to themselves).

Visit Lenovo’s website for more information.

Last June a flaw found in Mac OS X was reported by researcher Maksymilian Arciemowicz, the flaw allows attackers to remotely take over Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6. Apple computers were not the only affected systems others included a few releases of Linux as well as the Mozilla and Google Chrome browsers. All of whom have released patched updates since the announcement. Apple has not discussed if or when a patch will be made but the good news is there are current recommendations to help reduce your risk of having your computer affected which include:

• Ensure a basic level of protection by enabling the built in Mac OS X firewall (or purchasing a third party firewall)
• Be cautious about websites you visit and emails you open

The flaw seems to be getting in several ways two of the largest seem to be web software (software you have to go to the site to access) and Adobe Acrobat Reader. McAfee, Symantech, Websense and other computer security companies expect 2010 to have a rise in attacks on Mac’s and other Apple devices (such as the security flaws discovered in the iPhone). Rated a level of “high” risk this flaw is definitely not something apple should ignore for long if they want to keep their “problem free” reputation.

If there’s a fix released anytime soon we’ll let you know. Until then practice some safe and common sense computing.

Source: Security Reason

Source: SlashGear

Read the full release over at Nikon