If you rely on VNC protocol to access your desktop computers remotely on your iPad or iPhone, then Screens VNC is as best an app you could get. Screens VNC is pricey at $19.90 for an iOS app, but the app gets it right by implementing features that make it easy to use touch based interface to maneuver the cursor on the desktop. Screens app is an universal app with iCloud and AirPlay integration. And a free Screens Connect helper app enable you to access your desktop from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Apple has released iOS 5.1.1, which contains mainly of bug fixes. Among them are reliability improvements to HDR in Photo app, AirPlay video playback and Safari bookmarks and Reading List syncing. The update is for iOS 5 devices, which include iPhone 3GS and above, iPod touch third-generation and above, and all iPad. You can update iOS 5.1.1 directly on your iOS device from Settings app->General->Software Update.
Daniel Hooper has a clever idea that shows Apple how touch editing on the iPad can be better. As he shows in the video, the fix to current iPad keyboard is to make use of the keyboard itself as trackpad for selection, caret movement and shift key. There is no promise Apple will ever implement it, but we all hope iOS 6 will spot at least some of his idea after watching the video.
It is easy to see why Paper app by FiftyThree is selected by the App Store as App of the Month. Created for iPad only, Paper is a beautiful app to capture your sketches of ideas, illustrations and notes. It might inspired you to become the next Picasso. Paper is free to download, additional tools can be added via in-app purchase.
Apple has announced the June 11-15 date for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Moscone Center San Francisco. Conference passes are on sale now for $1599 and is restricted to members of Apple’s developer programs.
Tickets are expected to be sold out quickly and Apple is expected to focus on the coming release of iOS 6 and Mountain Lion for the more than 100 technical sessions in WWDC 2012.
Mountain Lion is the next release of OS X and is expected to be released in late summer. Apple has released Mountain Lion preview for its developers. iOS 6 is expected to be released together with the next iPhone and developers will get a glimpse of iOS 6 details for the first time in WWDC 2012.
Updated: Tickets have sold out in less than 2 hours. For comparison, WWDC tickets were selling out in eight days for WWDC 2010 and under 12 hours last year.
Bejeweled was one of the first downloadable games when Apple launched the App Store in 2006. Made by PopCap Games (also of Plants vs. Zombies fame), Bejeweled is a classic tile-matching puzzle game not to be missed in our App of the Week highlight.
Here’s a quick iOS tip some of you might have forgotten. You can enable Caps Lock in iOS by simply double tapping on the Shift key. The Shift key will change to a blue color highlight as shown above. Tap the Shift button again to toggle off the Caps Lock.
If you’re not aware of Pinterest, check out its app for iOS which is a better way to use the site on your iPhone. Pinterest is a pinboard of the beautiful things in your life. So popular that Pinterest is now the third largest social networking site after Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest app is currently for iPhone only.
When shopping to expand the storage for your Mac, the common solution is to purchase an external storage where you connect via the USB or Firewire port of your Mac. The other option is NAS (Network Attached Storage), which is a storage device that you access via the network.
A NAS is actually a self-contained small computer build for storage purpose. There are many vendors offering NAS products such as Synology, Qnap and Netgear. Even Western Digital and Seagate now offers NAS storage. One of the advantage touted by NAS vendors is the RAID feature found on most NAS.
With proper RAID setup in NAS, you can prevent loss of data in the event of a harddisk failure. For example, if you have 3 units of 3TB harddisk setup in a RAID 5 configuration, you’ll get 6TB (3TBx2) of usable space, with the extra 2TB used for redundancy. With this setup, you are protected with one harddisk failure at a time. When one of the harddisk fails, your data is still there, and you can plug in a replacement to restore back to normal working condition. But when two harddisks fail at the same time, you data is gone.
One area that is often neglected by marketing literature of NAS product is that RAID does not protect against the failure of the NAS device itself. When your NAS device failed (not the hard disks), you have to pray that it can be repaired. There is no guarantee that moving your hard disks to a new NAS will work. There could be differences in firmware version or you can not find the same model replacement for your failed NAS. The risk of complete data loss is there.
Modern NAS has GUI interface that makes their management as easy as possible. NAS is an attractive option especially for sharing media among family members. It does however pays to understand the RAID feature in your NAS and the protection level of your setup. And NAS needs backup.
