Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous information platforms storing information beyond simple telephone numbers and are expanding to include names, addresses, email contacts, social media details, photographs, videos and other information which could be used to identify you or those around you. It is not just direct text based information either as background information in photographs and videos may offer clues you might typically be unaware of – but in the wrong hands this information could be used to socially engineer against you.

Information that may be contained on your mobile device could lead to clues regarding your passwords, your online networking activities, your banking information, home address and contents of your home, your family and friends, whilst also directly identifying you and family members, and places you go regularly, through photographs and videos.

GPS tracking can also identify your exact home location – never flag a destination, landmark, favorite or position using something like “Our House” or “Home” – as this is an obvious clue to potential unwanted attention – instead use something a stranger could not necessarily relate to you.

There are the some common sense steps that you could do to safe guard your precious information. Firstly, you should regularly back up your data, software to do this is often included with the mobile device and simply needs installed, and you should regularly review the information contained upon your mobile device so you are aware of the sort, and amount, of information contained up on it.

In addition, and fortunately, there is now software available that allow you to take pro-active action in case your mobile device is lost. This sort of mobile protection software can offer a number of useful features from geo-locating your mobile device to help you, or the authorities, track it down but also you can send lock and wipe codes to your mobile device.

A lock code will typically freeze your mobile device rendering it unusable without a complete wipe or unlock code. A wipe code will erase masses of information that might otherwise have put you at risk. You can often specify the information to be removed and, in the case of a locked phone, it can usually be unlocked once you have recovered the phone.

Much of this mobile protection software can be tracked down quickly on the internet and is often offered for free – so just a few minutes of your time could make a huge difference to your personal safety.

Be proactive, and be safe, take action now to protect your confidential information.

Printing

PrintCentral prints directly to most WIFI enabled printers. If you have a shared home/office printer that can connect to a network, but does not have a built-in WIFI receiver, as long as a WIFI router is connected to that network you can print with your iPad! In addition, PrintCentral allows iPad users to print through their PC or MAC via a WIFI network or Bluetooth. What this means is that pretty much ALL printers can be used with your iPad. For AppleMail users, you can open and print AppleMail directly in the PrintCentral App and print any of the attachments. The PrintCentral App can print all file formats including picture and video. It can also zip and unzip files as well. While we did not test this feature, but the PrintCentral app also allows you to print remotely through your 3G/EDGE network.

Integration

What’s nice about this App is that it fully integrates to your iPad. If an iPad app supports the iPad OS command “Open in…,” that means you can print directly from that app without having to switch to PrintCentral. Printing from the iPad browser worked perfectly. We tried printing with iWork and other iPad apps such as Things and iAnnotate, and the results were stellar. If you use iWork, the full integration allows you do open and edit documents stored in PrintCentral directly in iWork. For those with cloud services such as iDisk/MobileMe, you can open files stored in those services directly in iWork through PrintCentral. (Just go to the “Places” section in the PrintCentral).

Viewing and Printing Emails

The PrintCentral App has a built in email app. What’s useful about this feature is that it allows you to print your email attachments effortlessly. The email app was quite powerful as it allowed us to send HTML as well as formatted text emails. It works like any standard email client allowing you to email various file formats as well as photos and video attachments. PrintCentral’s email client allowed us to view multiple email accounts and inboxes. We tested it with Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Exchange 2007 OWA with no bugs or glitches to report. Any IMAP or POP Server should be easily setup in the email client. The developer stated PrintCentral’s email client also provides limited support to Exchange 2003 but we were not able to test that system.

Other Notable Features

• PrintCentral is compatible with MAC OX 10.4 and above as well as Windows 7. You can copy and transfer files to your PC or MAC.
• If you choose to have PrintCentral installed on another iPad, you can copy and transfer files using Bluetooth or WIFI.
• You can print your maps from any Map that allows the copy function.
• You can print your SMS text messages
• You can add or import bookmarks from your PC or MAC Browser (Note: we only tested this using 3 browsers: Safari/Internet Explorer/Firefox)
• Print Address/Shipping Labels

List of Documents types and File Formats we tested that prints from PrintCentral:

All iWork and MAC formats
All MS Office Files (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.)
All Image Files Photoshop CS4 produced
Video files supported by the iPad

Supported Cloud Services we tested with success:

iDisk/MobileMe
Dropbox
Box.net
Google Docs
WebDav.

iAnnotate is a great app for graduate students, lawyers, analysts, and scientist who read papers and technical books. As a programmer, I enjoy the fact that I can carry around my collection of programming books when I’m working at a café or at a client site.

The App has its own annotation system that you will have to get use to, but within a few minutes you’ll familiarize with the App and everything will become second nature. You can currently highlight, underline, and draw free-form as well as bookmark and make additional comments on your PDFs. iAnnotate is also a full PDF reader so there is no need to purchase another PDF app. The PDF reader function will allow you to continuously scroll and zoom in/out. iAnnotate PDF reader also supports internal links and URLs, bookmark help and PDF outlines.

What I absolutely loved about this app is the tabbed reading. You can have multiple PDFs open and switch from one to the next as you would any tab in a web browser like Firefox. iAnnotate also has a library feature where a database of your PDF library will allow you to easily find and locate your PDFs. The library also keeps track of files you have not read as well as files that you have annotated. There’s also a search feature I found useful that will read through your PDFs to find keywords. For example, when I was looking for “AJAX API support” iAnnotate was able to look through my library of programming books and finding not just the books, but the chapters and pages that mentioned what I was looking for.

What’s great about iAnnotate is that as a full PDF reader, it will save your comments and annotations in the PDF format. This allows you to send your annotated PDFs to friends and colleagues with all your changes saved in PDF format. No matter if the use Adobe Acrobat reader or another PDF reader such as Foxit, the changes will be there without them having to purchase iAnnotate.

Currently you can transfer your PDFs by email, iTunes sync, browsing to any PDF link, or using the proprietary iAnnotate desktop sync. In the future iAnnotate will integrate with MobileMe and other cloud services according to the developer. iAnnotate’s developer, Aji LLC, also has some of the best technical support I’ve encountered among App developers. I emailed Aji with some questions that I had and the technical response team sent me back an answer 2 hours later! They are also very receptive to user suggestions and welcome your feedback. I told them I wanted a strike through feature, not just highlighting and underline, and they had mentioned other users wanted that as well, and are currently developing that for a future update.

Update:

We had a reader email us on how to send documents so below are instructions. How to send Documents to your computer with iAnnotate: When you are done annotating and ready to send a document: If the document is open:

1. Touch and hold the “file” tab till a dialog box shows up.
2. Touch “Upload”

If the document is closed:

1. Touch the “+” in the upper left and find the document name.
2. Tap of little “i” adjacent to the document name. You should now see an “Upload” button
3. Touch the “Upload” button and the file will go to your computer

Notes: If you don’t see the upload button or it’s a lighter shade/dimmed, you most likely have not connected your iPad to your computer. These directions assume you have set up a wireless or Bluetooth connection to your desktop.

For more details, check out the latest article from gizmag.com: http://www.gizmag.com/converse-iphone-app-translates-51-language-translator/14980/

Here’s how it works, first you must have one the above mentioned Windows operating systems for this to work, older versions will not work.  Take the USB drive, preferably one with 1GB or more of memory, and plug into one of your available USB ports on your laptop.  Once connected a new dialogue window will pop up automatically, this feature is called Windows ReadyBoost, and it will ask you if you would like to use the USB drive to speed up your laptops performance.  Once enabled, it will significantly improve how quick the laptop boots up and load your applications.  Not to worry, ReadyBoost may be disable at any time, it is not permanent.  ReadyBoost is especially useful when running multiple applications at once, which can significantly reduce your laptop’s performance.

Sometimes it just isn’t convenient to find a place to plug your laptop into, especially when you’re on the go. It can be even less convenient when you’re in the middle of something important. Fortunately, there are some simple tips that most laptop users will benefit from to get more life out of their battery.

The harder a laptop has to work while running on its battery, the faster the battery is going to drain. To preserve battery life, demand less from the computer until it can be plugged back in. Stick to simpler activities, like checking email, over more demanding processes, like online gaming or streaming videos. To conserve power, it is always better to run programs off the hard drive than the disc drive.

Multitasking will also cause the battery to drain much faster. Shut down any unneeded programs, such as iTunes or multiple web browser windows.

Things like USB devices, WiFi, webcams, and external monitors should not be used when trying to prolong battery life. Use a wired connection to access the Internet, if necessary. Turn off anything not being actively used. Trying to charge your MP3 player while on battery power is going to have you looking for a power outlet to plug into very quickly.

Configuring your laptop’s power settings can help substantially. Dim your laptop screen and have your display turn off when not in use, instead of running a screensaver. It can also help to reduce the time it takes before your display turns off when not in use.

If you’re going to be away from your computer for more than a quick trip to the kitchen for a glass of water, consider putting your laptop into hibernate mode, instead of just sleep or standby. The longer your computer will be inactive, the more power will be saved from choosing hibernate over standby.

Avoid starting up your laptop if it is significantly above room temperature. Heat can cause a laptop to work harder than usual, causing a decrease in battery life. Let the laptop cool down before starting it up.

It is also important to keep your laptop’s air vents clear for better function and battery life. A soft cloth can remove dust. Be careful when using canned air, which can easily damage internal computer parts. Keeping your work station free of dust and debris can proactively keep your laptop from becoming internally clogged.

When using your laptop away from your desk, be aware of soft things, like blankets or pillows, that could block air vents and cooling fans. Blocked air vents could cause a laptop to overheat and lead to a much shorter battery life. It is also helpful to use a cooling pad when working with your laptop on your lap.

Lithium-ion batteries should be fully drained and recharged approximately every 30 charges. Older nickel-metal hydride batteries should be fully discharged every other week to keep the battery in top shape. Remember to keep the battery contacts clean if you remove the battery.

Don’t forget to fully charge your laptop before you leave if you plan to use your laptop away from home or the office.

1. Always ensure that all of your information on the laptop cannot be obtained without a password. Nobody wants their personal information to be viewed by a complete stranger or in the wrong hands altogether. In particular, a complete stranger that could possibly steal their identity. The password should be something that only you and a few choice people would know, and should not be easily guessed or obtained easily. You would be surprised how many people still do not take the time to create a strong password.

2. If staying at a hotel, never leave the laptop out in the open and in plain sought while you are gone, especially if cleaning staff is going to be dropping in. Some hotels have the option of placing valuables inside a safe; go ahead and take full advantage of this. Whether the safe is kept in the room or with the hotel staff, your electronic device will be away from those would take it.

3. Get in the habit of backing up any data on your laptop before doing anything else. Why? The answer is simple. By accident, a person could press a button on the laptop that would cause problems, or wipe out critical information all together. If a back up of your laptop is not done, then you are taking on too much risk.

4. Tagging your laptop and other electronic devices with a recommended asset tagging solution. A self adhesive label or tag with your details and a bar-code printed on it would be a good idea.

5. Protect your laptop by keeping it stored in a bag that does not make it completely obvious as to what is inside. In a nutshell, do not use something that is clearly meant for a laptop or other electronic device. You may even want to utilize something old and worn, the idea being that no would-be thief would feel that it is worth their time to look inside.

6. Remove any and all discs from the disc drive when it is not in use. These are the easiest things to lose, and to be deprived of an important document or other piece of information is a devastating concept.

7. Whilst away from your vehicle, do not leave the laptop, or any of its accessories, out in the open. Cover it with a blanket, or store it away. Remember, however, that if the weather is warm, it could cause damage if the laptop is left for too long.

Technology plays a large part in modern society, and with each invention comes people who would steal for their own gain. If you want your laptop to be safe when away from home or the office, keep these tips in mind. Keep your hardware where it belongs; with you!