Article by Dallas Kerr

Product: To go back to the future, did you know that in the main, film cameras produce better quality than digital cameras and especially mobile phones? Did you know that LCD screens are only now catching up to overall display quality of the older chunkier CRT monitors? You have probably realised that analogue mobile phones had much better call quality and drop out rates on average than our current digital equivalents. Basically when things are shinier and seem better at face value (i.e. a screen on a digital camera) we think it is automatically better. I guess its true that you can’t judge a book by its cover!Did you Know? The internet, broadband, emails and blackberry have allowed us to work from home but what are we actually doing. A recent US survey has shown that one in eight men don’t bother getting dressed at all, just one third wash and shave and one in five take an afternoon nap! From the boss’s perspective, women don’t fair much better with one in 14 naked at their computer and only half taking a shower. 40% of people us the time to do regular housework but interestingly 75% believe working from home improved their productivity which begs the question what are they wearing and doing at work!!Major Gripe: Bans on smoking, computer games, alcohol, porn access and mobile phones are in affect to varying degrees in schools around the country. Now in the case of smoking, alcohol and porn there are laws prohibiting minors from these materials but in all of these examples the usage by young people is on a massive increase which is detrimental to society in so many ways. There is now a proposal to ban soft drinks in schools which probably like all bans will not work especially since this is a legal item for minors. Instead of prohibition which has never worked, what about promoting PE, sport and cultural activities and then responsible use of technology like mobile phones which like it or not will be a part of their lives in the future.PhishingPhishing is when a hacker or internet criminal creates a replica of a website in order to steal your login information. To help you surf safely, Safari has a Fraud Warning setting that helps protect you against these malicious websites. By default, the Fraud Warning is turned on when you first receive your iPad. Just in case you turned it off, you can turn on Fraud Warning by following these steps:1) Tap “Settings”2) Tap “Safari” on the left hand panel and make sure its Safari is highlighted in blue.3) Fraud Warning should now appear on the right hand panel of the Settings. If it’s “OFF,” slide the grey switch to the right to turn “ON.” You should now see “ON” highlighted in Blue.Pop-Up AdsPop-up Ads can range from annoying to malicious. Malicious pop-up ads can hijack your browser – not allowing you to do anything till you click on they want – to even downloading viruses and other mal-ware. Safari has a built-in pop-up blocker that is enabled by default. If turned off, you can turn on the Pop-Up blocker using the same basic procedure as turning on the Safari Fraud Warning.1) Tap “Settings”2) Tap “Safari”3) On the right hand panel you will see “Block Pop-ups.” Make sure it’s “ON” and highlighted in Blue to enable pop-up blocking.The built-in pop up blocker is very effective but is not 100% perfect.