Store Better than Before

So we know I love the flash drive, so it’s no surprise I’m intrigued by Leyio’s new personal file sharing device.

It’s a flash drive taken to the next level.  It stores files, can take files off of other flash drives (it has its own USB port built right in) .  It’s secured with a finger print scanner and it can wirelessly transfer data to your computer or another Leyios.

It comes with a digital screen, but doesn’t use wi fi.  Wireless connections come through ultrawide-band radio, which means to wirelessly transfer to a computer you’ll need to buy a little extra.  It’s due out this month

Wireless Collaboration

We all love convenience, and what’s more convenient than a printer, scanner, copier, and fax machine in one?  Did I mention it’s wireless?

That’s right, the Lexmark X6675 can do everything from print pictures directly from a memory card to scan pictures back to your computer over its Wi Fi connection.  It claims to print 25 pages a minute in black and white.  Four machines in one, and not one extra wire.  How much better does it get?  How much space does that save?

For just over $100 it’s almost steal.  (If you’ve got over $100.)

Wi-Fly

Are you traveling this holiday? Be sure to check out this site to find out which airports have free wi-fi for travelers. When you are on the go and especially if you have long layovers, you’ll love having the freedom to use your wi-fi. Also, if you are still looking for some good gift ideas, remember to check out our Wi-Fi gadget ideas.

Found via Real Simple’s awesome holiday blogathon.

My View of Vista (or Why I May Need a Mac)

You may recall when I took Windows to task for treating me like an idiot. Welll, I just bought a new laptop that came pre-loaded with Vista and suddenly Windows XP seems like a lean. efficient OS that treats me like I’m a PhD.

I could rant about how Vista now asks you a third time before allowing you to do any task more complex than opening an application, but it’s a minor annoyance compared to some of the lovely new quirks to discovered.

I still use Microsoft Office for XP. It continues to serve me well and they haven’t added anything significant enough to justify me spending a thousand dollars on an upgrade. (One of the few things I miss about working for a big company - they paid to upgrade your software!). Part of that Office suite is Outlook 2002. I successfully installed Office on the new Vista machine and cloned my email account info, of course telling it to save my passwords. And it all worked fine until I closed Outlook. When I started it up again, it had purged my passwords and thus failed to retrieve my email until I used the account management tool to re-enter the passwords. A Google search on the problem confirmed that it was common to Outlook 2002 and that Microsoft had no intention of fixing it. “Please send us $1000 for newer versions of software you didn’t want to replace”.

But wait! It gets worse. I had no trouble detecting and logging into my home wireless network - except that it came up “Local Only”, meaning no Internet connectivity. After frustrating attempts to figure out all the new “user friendly” nomenclature for networking I gave up and decided to use good old DOS brute force. Finding out how to open a command line window was a chore and when I finally did and tried the old faithful “ipconfig /release” command, it told me that it required “elevation”. Huh? I live at sea level in a one story home. Did I need to hit the roof? My account was set as “Administrator” but apparently that wasn’t good enough.

In a classic Catch-22, I wanted to check the web for updated drivers, but that required web access that Vista wasn’t giving me. I tried plugging in a cable direct to the router and all of a sudden all the connections worked! Sweet! Or not…

I go to a client’s office where I’ve always successfully connected to their wireless network, but I get the dreaded “Local Only”. After seeking help (and I HATE to do that) from their network admins, I was ready to give up and plug into a network jack. Presto! Once I did that, wireless kicked in. See a pattern emerging?

I was on the road last weekend. Tried to connect in the airport. Yep - Local Only. When I got to my destination, I used someone else’s computer to research the issue. It’s common. I tried to follow some of the proposed solutions. But the only one that ever worked was “plug it into a router”. That’s kind of hard in an airport.

Microsoft is mum on the issue. The net community hasn’t been able to overcome it. And my smug, welf-satisfied Mac friends are all saying “I told you so…”

A Use For “Change”

Some things can be useful, but at the same time they’re amusing.  The Handlink Wi-Fi Base Station is one of those things.  

I haven’t used a pay phone since I was about eight years old, so its been awhile.  If I decide I need to make a call my cell phone (or someone else’s) is always handy.  My main mode of communication these days is definitely computer based, IM, e-mail, facebook ….  So, it seems it was only a matter of time until the pay phone resurrected itself (sort of) to accommodate our upgraded needs.

More specifically, Handlink has upgraded our pay as you go communication.  They have developed the Wi-Fi base station, or kiosk.  Like a pay phone you put in your change to the Wi-Fi station, then grab a printout with your access code and there you go, Wi-Fi internet access.  

With the prospect of free wi-fi in certain centers (and possibly certain cities) there is the chance Handlink will be almost unnecessary in many places, but not all.  Only time will tell if there’s a place for the new change slot that is the Wi-Fi Base Station, but hey, I still see plenty of pay phones around, you never know.