iPhone Vs Android

The last time I addressed this topic was seven years ago and although much has changed much is still the same. Many of my arguments then still hold today. However the market is so much more mature and there has been a lot of water under the bridge so what is the situation now.

Before 2007 there really was only one smartphone contender, that was Windows mobile. Sure there were Blackberry, Palm and Symbian but these were never going to become defacto standards. Post 2007 the market is pretty much between iOS and Android with the rest becoming foot-marks in the pages of history. So which is better and which one should you buy.

Fragmentation

This is where you have many versions all offering different features. At last count there were in excess of 10,000 different distinct Android models. Right now there are three Apple models, the 2005 iPhone 6S, 2016 iPhone 7 and the budget SE model. This fragmentation leads to real issues as we will see below. Every man and his dog are making Android phones so there is no consistency and often a lot of confusion about what you are really getting in a phone. Also many of these phones are of dubious quality. Most people realise this and so stick to the big three, Samsung, LG and Sony, but mostly Samsung. However fragmentation can lead to other issues so let's move on.

Cost

This is the biggest argument from people criticising Apple. Let us take a look at Samsung and Apple. The Samsung flagship model is the S8 which starts at about $1,200, whereas the Apple 7, the equivalent from the Apple stable is $1,269, not a huge difference. I will not list the specific specifications since they are pretty close in most respects. If you go through the range the price per equivalent model is pretty close across the range. Pricing is based on technology and specification, not on branding. To say that you pay a premium for the Apple brand is a common fallacy and not borne out by the facts. The one thing you can say is that you can get very cheap Android phones, however that is what you are buying. A cheap phone. In this day pf phone plans you can still get an iPhone SE at $0 on a two year plan. So cost is a fiction.

Features

Since there are so many more Android models there will be this or that model which has a unique or interesting feature. Wireless charging, OLED screen, edge display, rear display, or other feature which are novel but more or less useless.

I recall a discussion I had with an Android fan-boy who was telling me about how wonderful his "edge" display was. This is where the display folds over the edge of the display to show notifications and specially activated side menu features. After extolling its virtues he then told me he turned it off because it was annoying. In fact this is what I found most users do. So this expensive feature is pretty much unused on this model of phone.

This pretty much sums up the situation. Android include features which are often "nice" but pretty much unused. Apple tend to design features for their universal appeal and usability.

There is also the issue of high end features which are limited by the engineering. For instance there have been OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays around for a couple of years now. And as soon as Android phone became available with OLED Apple were criticised for not moving to OLED. The only problem is that OLED is extraordinarily difficult to produce, there is a high failure rate and no one is able to produce the display in quantities that would be required for an iPhone model. The new special edition phone is rumoured to have an OLED display but even that will be in short supply due to the difficulty in obtaining enough displays to meet production requirements.

That phone may have a better camera, this phone may have a better display but what Apple do is develop a phone with features and functions that people actually use and can be produced reliable and in quantity.

The other issue here is fragmentation. When you buy an iPhone you know that you will get every feature, GPS, Fingerprint reader, BT, gyroscope, Stereo sound, quality screen, you have no idea which hardware feature will be missing from your Android.

App Store

There has been much criticism of Apple over its policy of only allowing apps from its own App Store. This has swings and roundabouts. Android has an app store but so do some of the other manufacturers and there are also a number of third party app stores. However this has not stopped almost every app imaginable from appearing in the Apple App Store and I have never heard of anyone not being able to find the app of their dreams. This does not seem to have actually been an issue. Indeed many of the apps that enhanced the operating environment from third parties on jail broken devices have now made their way into the iOS environment.

Interestingly most Android phones are sold with the same restrictions as Apple but without the security management. The closed Apple environment means that you are a lot less likely to get spam apps, viruses, and exploits in your Apple apps.

Updates

The number of Android devices running the latest OS is significantly smaller than Apple. There are several reasons for this. First may Android phones cannot be updated since each manufacturer is responsible for providing updates for each of their phones and most of them do not bother.

Second if you buy a carrier branded phone on a plan then that carrier has to provide the update. This means that you cannot use the manufacturers update even if they provide one and carriers rarely if ever supply updates to their branded phones.

What this means is that you will not get the latest features, for that you need to buy a new phone. Neither will you get bug fixes or security fixes. You are stuck with what you bought.

All apple updates are available to all Apple phones that are compatible. Apple will eventually drop support for older phones but at the writing of this article all Apple phones up to five years old will receive the new iOS currently in development.

Carrier Bloatware

One of the things that Apple was firm about when first negotiating with carriers was that no carrier sold phone could have a customised OS. Up until then all carrier phones on a plan had the OS customised and branded with the carrier and came with additional carrier apps (bloatware) added to the OS that could not be removed.

Many Android phones come with a customised carrier OS and cannot be updated as I said above. In addition there a  bunch of carrier apps pre-installed which cannot be removed. This makes each of these phones less stable slower and not able to be updated. Not so with Apple. What you get with an iPhone is an unadulterated iOS installation.

Locked Into Apple

 Many people criticise Apple for locking you into its own ecosystem. Lightening connector, Apple Store and iTunes. All of this is true but it really is no more than the way you use the Apple iPhone rather than in any way being restricted. You can use whatever peripherals you want, you can use any app you want, it integrates an many ways to most devices so it really is a lot more flexible than many people give it credit for. It interfaces with BT and USB quite seamlessly and  if you do need an analogue output then the adaptor is only $12 from Apple and even cheaper on line, but you do get one in the box.

Conclusion

Regardless of all of this there will still be people who are just Apple haters, just because. There will be no pleasing them. I have met many and they somehow have an irrational dislike of anything Apple.

As for the rest there is absolutely no reason why you would not buy an iPhone. On every level it is a better ecosystem, more secure, no more expensive, and just as flexible. Apple set the standard for the modern smart phone and continues to do so.

Apple TV 4 Review

Introduction

I have been using the third gen ATV for several years now and have mixed feelings about it. The inbuilt apps work fine and do exactly want they say on the box however it is pretty inflexible and allows for very little customisation. . I mostly use it for iTunes vodcasts, music, YouTube, and Netflix. I also use it to Air Play from my iPhone 6+ for such apps as Spotify and ABC iPlayer. I rarely use much else but seldom does a day go by without using the ATV. The biggest thing for me is the limited facility of the inbuilt apps.

When the ATV 4 was announced and the Australian pricing I was determined to buy one despite the high price. Last week I bit the bullet and ordered one from Kogan which was about $50 cheaper than the Apple store price including freight.

The ATV 4 is capable of 1080P 60 FPS but not 4K or HDR. The next generation of hardware may support HDR but we will probably not know until it is announced. There are many theories as to why Apple chose not to support HDMI 2.0, 4K HDR. I suspect that it may have been because the standard was only fleshed out mid 2015 and there was insufficient time to design it into the hardware. Even so it was not until this year that the new standard was available in hardware. The other issue is the availability of content. There is still only a few 4K HDR titles and few displays capable of displaying the new standard. Just because a display is 4K does not mean that it will properly display the 4K HDR standard media.

Setup
On arrival and opening the box there was the ATV, a UK power cable (Kogan shipped the UK version), a lightening cable, the remote and some documentation. The localisation appears to consist only of the power cord and paperwork. Also in the packaging was a power adapter supplied by Kogan for the British plug so that it could be plugged into an Australian outlet.

I removed the old ATV and plugged in the HDMI, Network and power and turned it on. There was an option during setup to use a Blue Tooth to my iPhone to pull the setup from that to set up the Apple TV.  That did not work, which I suspect was due to a bug in the shipped OS 9.0. Otherwise the setup was pretty much straight forward.  I went into settings and manually added my credentials.

I tried to add a BT keyboard but it would not recognise it. 

I then went to the app store and downloaded my favorite apps including YouTube, Netflix and VLC but ABC iView would not install since it required TVOS 9.1 or later.

I performed a manual update to the latest OS and then went back and downloaded ABC iView.

After the update I was able to pair the BT keyboard so it appears that OS 9.0 has a issue with the BT stack.

In Use

The ATV is capable of HFR 60 Hz which means that it can properly deliver HFR video to the display. Playing a 60 FPS video media file appeared to be flawless. The video I streamed showed no artifacts but ... more later.

The app store is limited but have all of the usual suspects except for Spotify. I have contacted Spotify but they are tight lipped on the availability of an ATV app. I suspect that there is one in the works but no idea on the release date. In the mean time I am happy with Air Play which works perfectly fine. I downloaded Infuse media player which has a pro version but I have not yet taken the plunge to upgrade to Pro. I also investigated Kodi (XBMC) and there is a pre-alpha release for developers but it is pretty buggy according to the forums. I have to say that this has always been my favourite media player being completely open source and it has a lot of very good features. I have been using it off and on since it was available on the original XBOX and was the first media center I used.

The interface is fine if somewhat confusing. The home page and Apple apps insist on displaying a banner on the top third of the screen that scrolls through what they think you may want which steals from screen real estate and interferes with navigation. This is inherited from the old ATV and I find it distracting confusing and annoying. Would be nice to be able to turn it off.

The Sony TV I have has a bug in its HDMI negotiation whereby with 1080P 30 Hz the screen would initially appear blank and took some fiddling to fix each time the system turns on from cold. The new ATV also does this to my TV which is really annoying. To be fair it is the Sony TV, not the ATV.

I am really pleased with the ABC iPlayer app. It has the option to stream high def video (it appears to be 720p). You still see compression artifacts but not nearly as distracting as the lo-fi version we have been used to. It is almost as good as over-the-air quality. We have been watching iTunes Podcast versions of some ABC shows and they are utter rubbish with very low definition and obvious and distracting compression artifacts. So the new iPlayer is a huge winner for watching ABC shows.There are also apps for Seven, Ten and SBS streaming which vary in the quality of the streaming media but are fine if not Hi Def.

I used two streaming aps to stream video from my NAS. VLC and Infuse. Since my receiver includes the necessary decoders the player streamed the audio in  raw which appears to work up to and including DTS HD. Infuse did not seem to recognise a BD rip but played all of the other formats I tried including a 60FPS copy of The Hobbit TUJ. The one issue I have is that the necessary frame rate conversion for 24 FPS media leaves somewhat to be desired and resulted in distracting stutter. This is where the device (in this case the ATV) has to insert or remove frames in order to match the native frame rate of your display. So lets say for instance you have a 60Hz display and have a 24 frame source which is the most common combination. The frames are sent to the display multiple times to match the 60Hz of the display. Now a proper conversion will send an alternate stream of repeated 2 and 3 frames in order to match the frame rate. This will appear nice and smooth to the human eye. In the case of the ATV 4 they appear to send a bunch of frames 2 times and every few seconds it just skips a bunch of frames to catch up and hope that you do not notice. With static scenes this is fine but when you have on screen movement for instance moving characters or panning you suddenly see the scene jump. This has come up in forums and Apple are aware of it and don't appear to really care. My Popcorn Hour media device does this conversion seamlessly and without stutter but Apple have chosen the easy option it appears. This is independent of the media player. It seems only to happen to high definition media where there is a lot more processing required to perform the frame rate conversion.

I used VLC to try to watch a downloaded TV series. I selected Ep 7 and it started playing Ep 8 then about 5 minutes in skipped to Ep 9 for no apparent reason. This did not happen when I was playing movies. It seems to be a really strange bug. I went back to the PCH to watch that particular TV episode. Infuse appears to work flawlessly. We watched several transcoded videos and except for a reset in the middle of a video stream it worked without a hitch.

Referring specifically to the two streaming apps, VLC and Infuse I found them both relatively easy to use. One of the features I preferred with Infuse is the ability to create favourite shares. With VLC you had to start with navigating through the list of discovered network devices then navigate down through the media to your location which took many keystrokes. With Infuse though you create network favourites which enable you to choose from a list of locations with custom labels. This makes it much faster to locate the media file you want to stream. I created several shares to various locations on my NAS which made navigating pretty smooth. Infuse will also download artwork if available but it will not cache the artwork (which Kodi will do) so it downloads it every time you navigate to a location.

I am eagerly awaiting Kodi (XBMC) for ATV 4. I think that the Kodi interface has the best of every world and I may install the pre-release version. what is the worst that could happen :O.

As mentioned when the ATV 4 arrive it was on 9.0 TVOS which had a number of bugs including not being able to pair with BT devices other than the remote. It took about an hour to update. The update fixed the BT bug, added app groups as per the iPhone, improvements to Siri, and a number of other enhancements and fixes.

The new remote is interesting to say the least. It has a touch pad which is both a blessing and a curse. It means you can scroll easily using the touch pad  and it is designed to give you fine control over video playback. It also has the simplicity and de-clutter of the old remote. However the glass touch pad can be a bit sensitive and takes some getting used to. For those who lack dexterity I can see that it would be frustrating. It came with about a 75% charge but will change via lightening. You can see the amount of charge bu opening Settings and selecting Remotes. The battery will last weeks on a single charge so plugging it in over night about once a week should keep it charged.

The highest definition movie I tried was The Hobbit  at 60FPS 1080P. It was clear and smooth with no apparent artifacts. Short of a 4K movie it should be able to play anything you throw at it.

Conclusion

Overall I am really happy with the ATV 4. The minimal interface is easy to use and negotiate if you can ignore the top banner. With the latest OS the ability to create groups and customise the layout is very nice. The apps are a definite winner but some companies are somewhat behind the time in terms of app development. I am sure over time that we will get more apps and thus provide greater utility. Not being a gamer I cannot comment on games and there does not seem to be a lot of good games as yet.

The only big criticism for me is the stutter on high definition 24 FPS video. This is a huge mis-step on Apple's part IMHO. If they could fix that then It would be the perfect hi def set top box.

My Top Apps

One of the things that the iOS device class has brought to the user is convenience.  Take the iPhone for instance. You now have constant access to the internet, friends using any of the social media services, games, be they stand alone or multiplayer or interactive. This just did not exist in the way it does now before the iPhone.

On the down side for each application type there are a multitude of apps, a multitude ranging from expensive to free, from excellent to a waste of precious iOS memory. How do you decide between them. I often use reviews but that can be deceptive. You could trawl through forums but that can be tedious. You can ask your friends but often they choose an app on a rather arbitrary basis. There are many tech sites dedicated to bringing you comparative reviews of particular app types and this is probably the best way to find good apps.

This is my attempt to help guide you to what I consider to be my favourite apps and why I favour them. This does not mean that they are the best, only that they are the apps that I happen to like in each category.

I have not counted but I now have many hundreds of apps and no longer use many of them but some I use regularly and some several times a day. I have often collected multiple apps in the same category and I sometimes drift between them from time to time due to feature updates of annoying bugs or sometimes because I can. I am as fickle as the next person so you really need to judge for yourself whether an app will suite you. This is my personal opinion based on whatever random felling or questionable logic I had at the time.

Google Earth Free (universal)

One is one the stable of Google mobile apps. Get a 3D view and lay of the land. To see the other Google apps search for Google in the app store.

Pocket Weather $1.99

There are three decent weather apps which obtain their weather from the BOM they are Pocket Weather,  Oz Weather and Weatherzone. I was using Oz Weather until recently and then shifty Jelly updated Pocket Weather to version 3 with a brand new app and now this is my favourite. It looks gorgeous and the new design is easy to use and full of information. There are still some features I like in Oz Weather and indeed both provide excellent up to date coverage but now Pocket weather has slipped ahead.

Google Maps Free (universal)
Maps Internal

The origonal maps app for the iPhone was provided by Google but it was replaced a couple of years ago by the current version based on Tom Tom maps. I have used both Google Maps and Maps for navigation and both are excellent and pretty close to each other in features.I probably use both equally and have few issues.

Dictionary.com Free (Add free version is $2.99)

In my humble opinion the best free dictionary in the app store and amongst the best of the lower end paid for dictionaries. It has an excellent range and word origins which many of the dictionary apps do not.

Ice TV Free

Not in App shopper since it is not in the US store.

This free app provides a free 7 day rolling TV guide to all Australian TV programs. It can also be used to program your compatible PVR such as BeyonWiz, Topfield, Strong or Dvico, but that requires a subscription which is $99 for 12 months (although I wait for the half price specials). The guide by itself is free. Simply download the app and sign up inside the app and you get your personalised TV guide.

iTV Shows 3 Universal $3.79

 iTV Shows allows you to track which episodes of which series you watch. If like us you have wide ranging tastes it is sometimes difficult keeping track of what you have watched. You get 5 minutes into a show and you realise you have seen it. This app allows you to mark episodes as watched. It also synchronises to the cloud so that you can use it from all of your devices and it updates automatically.

Informant $13.99

This app provides a calendar, todo list, and contacts. It synchronises with whatever service you use including your internal lists. This is on the expensive side but I bought it on discount. I have been using this for many years, ever since I owned a Pocket PC, maybe 2004 at a guess. It is a big improvement on the internal calendar.

eBudy XMS Free iPhone only

This like SMS but free and many more facilities. All of your friends need to use it as well. There are also clients for Android, Windows Mobile, Nokia, blackberry and as a web client on your PC. So whatever smart phone platform your friends use you can communicate using XMS.

Life360 Free iPhone only

This app tracks your friends and family and tells you where they are. Some people are spooked by this but I think it is fantastic. Liesa and I use it to track each other (how else would I know where she is :). Our children also use it to keep track of their children. It gives them great peace of mind. In the free version you can set two way points where you can alert when people arrive or leave. You can also set groups of people so that each group can be private.You can also set avatars, chat check-in and send an alert in the case of an emergency. A circle (group) can pay an additional US$5 for unlimited waypoints expanded history plus a few other features.

DVD Profiler $9.49 (requires paid app for PC or web synchronisation) (universal)

DVD Profiler is one of the best DVD BluRay cataloging programs (PC only). I bought it to catalogue my hundreds of DVDs and now Bly Rays. The iOS app allows me to synchronise with my PC app and also have my entire catalogue on the run. When I buy a ne Blu Ray I scan the bar code on my iPhone, enter the purchase date (today by default) location and cost. I can then synchronise with the PC app and it also allows online synchronisation so that I never loose my catalogue. 

Olive Tree Bible Reader Free (universal)

This is my favourite bible reader for the following reasons

• Most versions available for purchase
• Many additional resources available
• Free app for the Mac and PC
• Can synchronise books between any platforms meaning that you only have to purchase a book once.

Dropbox Free (universal)

Dropbox is an online free backup facility that gives you 2G free online storage. It has a PC or Mac app that automatically synchronises your Access your important files. The iOS app can access these files so that you can view or edit them whenever you have your iOS device with you and you have internet access. You can also share files and folders with other dropbox users or make them public if you wish. There are a host of applications that utilise Dropbox such as KyPass (see below).

Evernote Free Universal

This is a great note taking app and has been around in various guises for a long time. It was one of the first of its type and it is still amongst the best. You can categorise notes, add pictures, format notes. I use it constantly for keeping random things such as grinding wheel sizes, shirt size, random lists of stuff I need to buy at Bunnings, the list is endless. Notes synchronise between devices so you have you notes wherever you have a device. It is available for PC, Mac, and most hand held devices.

KyPass 3 $7.49 (universal)

I use KeePass to store my passwords. It uses high level single password encryption with an optional secure key. There are several iOS apps that can access a KeePass password database but KyPass seems to be the best of them. Using Dropbox I can access the same password database from any Mac, PC or iOS device. Thus I can have my passwords with me wherever I am and all with a single master password. The PC application also has some nice facilities such as auto type to automatically enter your credentials into a web page for instance.

eBuddy XMS Free

It is like SMS but more powerful. It allows you to chat and send photos with text stickers all for no cost. 

IMDB Free (universal)

On line movie database - need I say more :)

iSip Basic $0.99, Full $6.49

Use this to connect to your favourite VOIP service from your iPhone to save a ton of money on interstate and overseas calls. Two such services are Pennytel and MyNetFone.

As I said above, do your own research and look up comparative reviews on the various tech sites do see which apps provides the features you want.

Password Management - One solution

The Problem
I was reminded recently how important it is to manage passwords properly. One of my friends has a lot of trouble remembering their vast number of passwords and sets insecure passwords which they then immediately forget. They also re-use other people's passwords, and use those same passwords across multiple accounts none of which is particularly secure.

Below is a short instructional on how to manage passwords and your various options. I am providing one solution but as with lengths of string, password management solutions are many and varied. However I think that this is a good option and one that can give you a sense of security and is fairly easy to implement. The expert will most likely already have a solution in place but even so this may give you some additional ideas to improve password management.

The Requirements

These are the requirements for a good password manager.

• Available on all platforms including portable devices, PC and MAC
• Able to store multiple pieces of information including URLs notes and secret questions
• Able to integrate so that you can automatically enter passwords (this option is not available on iOS due to the OS restrictions)
• Able to access from anywhere in the universe (assuming a network connection of course)
• Free

As I said above there are many solutions but not all are free and not all are particularly secure. The solution I suggest meets all of these requirements, although the Mac and iOS versions do cost.

The Solution

What I use is KeePass. It is in effect a tiny database manager The feature list is quite extensive but the more important features are,

• Strong security. It has a master password with an optional key file. The key file is simply a very long bunch of random characters that unlocks the database along with an optional pass code (not the master password). This key file supplements, but does not replace your master password. You can store the key file independently on a memory stick, and/or Dropbox for instance and the database is inaccessible without that key file.So if any one cracks your master password they still need that key file to open the password database. (If you use Keepass on iOS the key file needs to be in dropbox along with your password database which sort of defeats the purpose of the key file.)
• Multiple databases. For example you can store work and private passwords independently.
• Password history. It can retain old passwords for you just in case.
• You can run form your PC or even run it from a portable USB key. There are also iOS, and Android apps to access the database.
• You can transport the database using USB or dropbox or any other mechanism so that you can have your passwords wherever you are.
• Windows and Mac versions can auto type your username/password combo to make easy password entry to most web sites or applications.
• It can auto generate strong passwords for you so that you do not have to remember your passwords. Just copy and past or auto type.
• Flexible management. It can have folders and sub folders, You can store URL, notes, auto type options, custom fields, and  auto expiry notification for your passwords.

Setup
To set up Keypass you need to ...

1. To be able to access the same password database on all devices you will need a cloud storage option and the one I like is Dropbox. If you do not already have an account go to Dropbox and set up a Dropbox account. They give you 2G free which is more than enough for your password database plus lots of other stuff. Because your database will be stored inside dropbox this should be extremely secure so choose a secure but easy to remember password for Dropbox. Make sure that this password is unique and especially not the same as your Keypass master password.
2. Download Dropbox for your PC/Mac and set it up. This produces a shared folder on your PC or Mac. This will synchronise anything in your Dropbox with that folder. You can place things in that folder and its sub-folders and they will be synchronised across all of your devices that are using Dropbox.
3. Download the iOS Dropbox app on your portable devices. This is not absolutely necessary but it does make managing Dropbox easier. 
4. Download Keepass for youer PC/Mac and install it. The PC version is free but the Mac version I prefer is KyPass Companion which costs. You may download the stand alone version for PC that you can run off your USB device if you so wish. I also use an add-in called KPEnhancedEntryView. It is free and comes with install instructions. Once installed it adds an additional window that shows all of the selected entry's fields in a separate window that allows the user to easily add, delete and edit fields.
5. Start up Keepass and create a database in the Dropbox shared folder under a sub-folder called crypted. You can give this database whatever name you wish but if you intend to create multiple databases give it a meaningful name such as Private.kdbx or Business.kdbx. If you so desire generate a key file and save it in crypted as well since you will require this file to open your Keypass database. Make the master password secure and easy to remember but different from your Dropbox password. If you use the optional key file it is a good idea to have good backups of your key file but make sure they are secure. A good idea is to give a copy of a USB stick with your key file to someone that you trust.
6. Download the iOS version of Keepass (there are several options here (scroll down) but I use KyPass 3 since it is updated regularly and supports all of the Keepass functions. It is not free but all of the iOS Keepass apps I have researched are paid but it is a one off cost. Before purchasing an iOS app look at the regularity of the updates (check it in Appshoper.com) and the feature list. Also make sure it supports V2 of the database and Dropbox folders.
7. Link the app to Dropbox and them open the Keepass database. Not all of the Keepass database fields may be supported in the iOS version but the critical fields of username and password should be there.
8. Finally store all of your passwords in your Keepass database. Make sure to keep your Keepass folders nicely structured with subfolders. Some folder names you may use are Banking, Web Sites, Forums, Social Networking, Computers, &etc.

I suggest that you tell someone you trust your Dropbox and Keepass passwords in case of emergency. If you have given someone power of attorney then they should be given your key file and master passwords with instructions of how to respond in the case of your disability or death. Our digital presence is now becoming much more important so what happens to your accounts after you die is becoming more important but is by and large not a consideration. This whole discussion is for another time however.

Password Management Suggestions
With so many sites being hacked and user's passwords being stolen password management is more important than ever. Below are my top hints for password management.

• Use secure passwords. Do NOT use Pa55word, John, Fido, M4r1 or similar. Make them look like nothing. People think character such as ^%$ make it more secure. They do not. $ for s is about as secure as no password. You can use your password app to generate random passwords for you which is as secure as you can get.

• Do not use other peoples passwords. If Mary uses Af1a1fa do not use it yourself. Get your own stinkin passwords! Also do not re-use your passwords. If that Russian mafia group hacks your Apple password they will then try it out on Facebook, Google and even your banking site. Each login must use a separate password.

• If 2 factor authentication exists - use it. Many sites now allow you to use such things as an pin sent to you via your SMS, fingerprint reader or an independent code generated in a separate app in addition to your password. If the options are there, use them since it will make it that much easier to crack your accounts.

• Make your secret questions random. If it asks for your mother's maiden name make it Superman, or your favourite pet, QuincyJones then store these in your Keepass database. If you use real answers then people can usually find them out.

• Do not click links in your email that direct you to your bank or online service. These are called Phishing emails and are scams that will steal your information then drain your bank account. Open a new window and then manually type in the site address. You can usually tell by hovering over the link with your mouns, not clicking on it - and observe the link in the footer of your browser window. If it looks like this -> westpac.12jr45.tz/PutYourInfoHere.php then dead cert, it is a scam. If it looks genuine then it is probably dodgy.

• Set a pass code on your phone. If you have fingerprint recognition - use it. 

Finally be wise. Think about what you are doing. We are all pretty smart so use your smarts when it comes to online security. Think of the worst case scenario  and imagine that it could happen to you, since it very well could.

What is the "Cloud"?

The term cloud is bandied about with gay abandon without much definition. Specifically it can mean many things but in general terms it means putting thins to other than your local PC or device. This means that someone somewhere has computers that can perform tasks remotely for you which you can access via the internet. This may be as simple as storing things for you, take Dropbox for instance. In other cases it may be a suite of applications, such as Google Drive which includes apps such as editing and spreadsheets. Google is an excellent example since it encompasses a suite of useful functions such as mail, calendar, Apps and storage.

The "cloud" is now so ubiquitous that every major IT company now offers some form of cloud to their customers/users, some more accessible to your regular Joe such as us and others aimed higher at the small to medium business and others more suited to large companies.

So the advantages of cloud are that your data is accessible everywhere, no need to back up your data, you don't need to buy a new HDD when you run out of space, all of the processing power for the application is in "the cloud" which can be easily reconfigured to cater for changing loads.

The disadvantages are that someone else has your data, good solutions can be expensive, you are relying in the viability of the company hosting your data and applications, you are relying on theis stability and security to no have your data compromised or lost. There have been a lot of instances of data lost, services failing and passwords compromised so this is a serious consideration.

Sorry, this has been rather long winded but I really wanted to get a good definition of cloud since it is the subject of a lot of confusion.

Apple has a cloud solution and has had for some time. I the usual Apple way they have obfuscated their cloud to supposedly make it easy for Apple customers to use but in fact it just makes it more confusion IMHO. You can use the Apple cloud to store the settings of your apps and store device backups. If you wish to pay extra then you get the ability to store your music to the Apple cloud.  Lets look at each of these.

Whenever you use an app which has stored settings, take my TV episode watching app, ITV Shows. When I have watched an episode I mark it as watched in the app. Now whatever device I go to this episode is marked as watched. The details are stored in the Apple cloud. And so with many apps which store data across devices. Of course many apps such as Dropbox, have their own cloud.

Device backups can either be stored on your local computer or to the Apple cloud. On iOS 8 go to Settings->iCloud->Backup to store backups to the cloud. It will back up your device to the Apple cloud. The first time it will take a while but thereafter it will automatically sync to the cloud on WiFi whenever your device has a long idle period. The advantages are that it not be lost if your computer dies or you use the data on your local HDD and you can restore immediately when you purchase a new device. The disadvantage is that a restore will take a lot longer depending on your internet speed, you are dependent on the Apple cloud service being available and it is one more thing to loose if your account is hacked. You may recall that there was one occasion where I was locked out of my account by Apple (trust me, it was not me it was them) for about three months and I could not buy apps, login to my cloud from my devices or access my Apple cloud storage in any way and it was all on Apples side. My only option was to go to an Apple store and the closest store at that time was Melbourne. It was a complete debacle on Apple's part and their only compensation was 5 free movie rentals (which I am yet to use).

The last significant service is what Apple calls iTunes match. This is where your non-Apple purchased music can be stored in the Apple cloud. For this you need to pay Apple AU39.99 per year. We bought it for a year and it was useful but not really worth it for us. One of the nicer features was that Apple replaced any lower quality songs with Apple lossless quality which was nice but even so, it was not really worth it for us.

In the future you will find that more and more services will migrate to the cloud as universal internet access becomes the norm and cloud services will drop in price and ease of use. Even Microsoft Office has a standard cloud service now. Get used to hearing the term "cloud service" and I hope that this missive has cleared the fog surrounding the cloud a little.