opinion

Over the last 6 years, IGG Software has continued to lengthen their lead in the Macintosh Personal Finance space, becoming the dominant player assisting you with all aspects of your Financial Life (ironically, that’s what the aborted attempt at re-writing Quicken was supposed to be called).  Unfortunately, as I predicted, Intuit has only made one improvement to Quicken Essentials for Mac since I wrote my article 4 years ago:  you can now export to TurboTax (wow). But I digress, this article is about iBank 5, the new offering from IGG Software in the iBank line.  A piece of software I’ve been running (and loving) since 2011. The Updates Several new features in iBank 5 will have Macintosh finance...

On March 27th, I was listening to the Security Now podcast (Security Now #397 – “Listener Feedback #164”), when Steve Gibson mentioned a Kickstarter project called the SmushBox.  He described it as “Mark [Thompson] wanted an automated way of sending and receiving SMS messages for his own web-based stuff that he’s doing.”  Hmmm, I thought, “So do I”. So on March 30, 2013, I pledged at the “SMUSH KIT, LATER” level for $250, which included an “activated SmushBox, installation and management software, cables, unlimited texting with unlimited keywords”.  The SmushBox project promised, “unlimited 2-way SMS texting, unlimited mobile subscribers, with no contracts or hidden fees.”  Unfortunately, in the three days since Steve mentioned it on his podcast, they had sold...

I got into a discussion the other day around the merits of Evernote versus Dropbox.  Just about everyone has heard of these two services and I wanted to explore why you’d use one over the other.  I use both of these services, extensively, so wanted to give my opinion on how they each stack up in four different categories:  Security, Data Integrity, Search, and X-Factor (that little something extra). Security I’m a bit of a security buff, so I want to tackle security first.  Is my data stored encrypted or in the clear on the provider’s servers?  Who has access to my data besides me?  Is the service “Trust No One”? Dropbox famously blew itself up on...

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones. We see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the >world, are the ones who do. -- Steve Jobs, The Crazy Ones It's 7:00 a.m. in the morning, EST. My wife is taking our...

Saturday Mornings I get up early, my wife Deb does not.  This is time for me to relax and catch up on my “me” time by drinking some coffee and watching my video podcasts.  There are several video podcasts that I download and watch on my AppleTV, among them:  TedTalks, Hak5, Tekzilla, Scam School, and the occassional DiggNation (until recently).  However, the podcast I always looked forward to, that I knew I would always watch:  Geek Brief TV with Cali Lewis. It wasn’t just the energy that Cali displayed on the screen.  It wasn’t just the unabashed enthusiasm she had for the show, her viewers, technology, and all things related to gadgets.  It was her connection with the...