Every few months we get a press release about some great device from a no-name manufacturer who promises to change the world. One example was the TXTR reader from Germany last January. Another is zzzPhone, a company selling dual-SIM Android powered smartphones from China. Neither company produced much of anything.

Era of the Silicon Valley success story – two guys making something cool in a garage and selling it – is over, at least in hardware. The costs of making consumer electronics, including cellphones and computers, on a small scale have risen so much as to be prohibitive and then the marketing costs of that same hardware is even more prohibitive. Whereas, once, two nerds in a basement could build a computer company I worry that it takes more resources than any one man or woman can muster these days to even approach something like success.
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Tired of your boring home town? Want to “see the world” like you’re the star of a Disney Channel movie? Do what I and countless others have done—go abroad for a few months, experience a new culture, then come home all like, “Um, now what?” Very exciting, yes!

To that end, I’ve compiled a few odds and ends that might make your trip abroad less annoying. You know, gear, junk, wisdom, etc.

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A TC/CG reader Teresa asks we, the gadget-nation, a question: where are the good smartphones for seniors? Sure, they have ClarityLife and the Jitterbug but neither of those work as real smartphones. Teresa wants something with a little power. She writes:

I am one of the 22% of seniors (39 million) that have a laptop, cell phone, etc.
Most seniors are barely online and not often.  They still stick steadfastly to offline behaviors-watch TV & read newspapers etc
 
What I don’t understand is why no company is making a product that, as a senior, is adapted to aging, as follows:
 
1. Easy to use/large print Smartphone that is already loaded with wi fi…with large letters, screen etc. -everyone over 50 has eye changes and everyone over 65 has some limitation in texting due to arthritis etc. 
 
2. Since Nokia & Android may be joining together to create new Smartphone…this would be a perfect time to design, develop & create one that the Boomers (43-63)-81 million adults and Seniors (65+)-39 million adults=120 million adults could use that does is not difficult to use & adapted to aging population.
 
3.  I have had various cell phones and computers and they always have instructions that are long, arduous and only a geek can understand.  As a consumer, shouldn’t I not only be able to understand how to operate it, but also have a choice of what I want on it??  
 
4.  The smart thing to do, would be to create a Smartphone “shell” , making, numbers, screen everything big enough for groups above to read and use, then give them a choice of what they want with it when they purchase it (ie, text messaging, camera, GPS, etc..).  They then are offered choices that can be customized to what they want.
 
5.  It should also include mobile VolP software connectivity without GSM contract & a flate fee plan.  Or use dedicated handset for VolP & GSM cards pre-installed. International travel in this package, is essential, many  travel frequently. Could adapt the Nokia N95 to above & lower the price.

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Super sly reader Ken had to get a back-ordered iPhone and when faced with the choice of black or white, 16 or 8, he chose wisely.

Just got my direct fulfillment order and seem to be no backups or backorder’s at the time. This is for a 16 gb White. others seem to be shipping out still in the quoted 5-7 days.

Our advice? Ask for a 16GB white when you’re put on back-order and enjoy your iPhone a few days early while the rest of the world stands in line outside the Rancho Fashion Mall getting skin cancer. Too manly for the white? You’re going to put the bugger in a case anyway, right?

Thanks to the wisdom of Homeland Security and customs, travellers may now be asked to allow screeners access to your laptops when you fly. While this is pretty shitty for obvious reasons, CNET is offering some advice on how to stop the lads from finding all your homemade tentacle anime.

1. Before going on any international trip, back up all of your important and potentially embarrassing, incriminating, or troubling data. This includes any copyrighted content which you may not be able to prove you own.
2. Create an encrypted disk image/encrypted folder of that data. This can be done with Pretty Good Privacy, Truecrypt, or software built into many operating systems.
3. Remember the password. This is very important, as if you forget it, you lose all your data.
4. Upload the encrypted data to a reliable place on the Internet (or two). Personally, I use Amazon S3, which charges 15 cents per GB-month of storage plus 17 cents per GB of data transfer.
5. Wipe your laptop clean (do this properly, or the data may be accessible after the fact with forensics software), and install a fresh copy of your OS onto it.
6. Travel. You should have no problem at U.S. Customs (or in any other country) as you won’t have anything problematic on your computer.
7. At your hotel/office, fire up your Web browser and download the encrypted data file from Amazon’s servers.
8. Decrypt the data.

I’ve actually gotten to the point where most of my in-progress work is sitting in the cloud somewhere, but if that’s not the case uploading and encryption could be the answer.

OS X users can also add a little security through obscurity by hiding their user names at login:

1. Open System Preferences -> Accounts
2. Create a dummy user to populate the screen. Put up a picture of a kitten as the desktop and some photos in iPhone.
3. Click on the lock and click on Login Options.
4. Click “Display login window as: Name and password.”
5. Login as the dummy user when asked. The rest of your accounts should be nicely hidden and inaccessible except by customs agents with a background in OS X.

UPDATED – Fixed to reflect customs doing this, not TSA screeners.

This just in from a BFF poster:

Unlocking the iPhone is getting popular in the undergrounds and AT&T is lossing millions dollars because of this activity. What with Jailbreak and Metasploit, people can now easily unlock their iPhones or tinker with their units.

But there are a lot of reasons why you should not unlock your iPhone. http://www.iphone-codes.com says aside from the risk of getting virus or other malicious codes from third party applications, you disqualify your phone from the official support page of Apple.

A lot of those how have unlocked their iPhones have complained of several malfunctions, including unresponsive buttons, sudden screen pause, changing colors of the screen, etc. And when you post questions about these problems at Apple’s Support Forum, you will not get any answer.

So if you are now thinking of unlocking your iPhone using Jailbreak of Metasploit, think again. My advice would be to leave the iPhone as it is and wait for the official unlocking of the iPhone by Apple.

CG’s BFF: Accepting unsubstantiated advice as gospel truth for less than a year.

iPhone Codes

This is something that may be near and dear to your hearts: Mom and Dad are calling to ask about this porn pop-up phishing thing they just typed all their credit card info into. Or maybe Grandma wants to make a MySpace page. Regardless of the situation, you have some older folks in your life who probably have a computer. If you’re reading this, you’re good at computers. Therefore, you’re the one who gets the call. This Help Key is for you.

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