WD—a subsidiary of Western Digital—unveiled new portable drives today. The My Passport Edge drives are sleek, and they’re affordable. But, depending on how you intend to use a portable drive, or what type of data you plan to store on it, the My Passport Edge drives might not be the way to go. For access to crucial data on the go you should consider a more resilient portable drive, or move to cloud storage.
I have a 320GB WD Passport drive that I carry around in my messenger bag when I travel. It gives me some extra space if the 128GB SSD in my MacBook Air runs out of space, and it provides me with a simple way of transferring very large files from one PC to another.
The Passport serves a specific role, and it functions well in that role. For users who are looking to expand storage capacity with an external drive while sitting at a desk safely in an office, a drive like the WD My Passport Edge will suffice. An extra 500GB or more of storage will work nicely—especially if used with a feature like Windows 8 Storage Spaces. The new feature in Windows 8 lets you group drives under one logical drive letter so you can easily expand storage capacity by adding a drive like the WD My Passport Edge.
The clock is winding down to the official launch of Windows 8. With only a few weeks to go until Windows 8 hits the street, businesses and consumers will have to decide whether to invest in the latest Microsoft operating system, or just stick with what they’ve got.
Perhaps you're not fazed by the Windows 8 Modern UI, or by Microsoft embracing the touchscreen interface. Even so, here are five reasons to consider making the move to Windows 8:
Modern UI and touchscreen aside, there are some good reasons to consider Windows 8.1. Bargain Price
The iPhone 5 is coming! The iPhone 5 is coming! In case you’ve been in a coma the last day or two, Apple has sent out invites to the media for an event next week, which is all but guaranteed to be the official unveiling of the highly anticipated iPhone 5.
As with any new iPhone—or anything else Apple makes for that matter—there has been an abundance of rumors, hype, and speculation. Analysts and pundits have been making predictions about the next iteration of the Apple smartphone since the day the iPhone 4S hit the street.
If the new iPhone can't connect to Verizon 4G / LTE, Apple shouldn't bother making it.It might be slightly larger—stretching the display to four inches according to some sources. There is rampant speculation that Apple will introduce a new, smaller dock connector. The new iPhone may or may not include NFC (near field communications) capabilities.
I spent much of August on a 7,000 mile road trip that took me from Texas, to Colorado, to South Dakota, to Montana and Wyoming, back down through Utah to Nevada, then across Arizona and New Mexico back to Texas. The plan was for it to be a “working vacation”, but getting connected to the Internet proved to be much more challenging than anticipated.
In part one of “Lessons from the road” I talked about the unreliable Internet access offered by hotels. The reality I experienced is that the “free Wi-Fi” or “free hi-speed Internet” were often disappointing at best—assuming I could connect to the Internet at all.
I know I’m dating myself, but I remember the days before voicemail. Heck, I remember the days before answering machines and call-waiting—when the only three options for the outcome of a call were that it either was answered, rang indefinitely, or blared that annoying busy signal.
Answering machines were a step in the right direction. At least if the party you were trying to reach was currently unavailable you could at least leave a message to let them know you’d called, explain why you’d called, and ask them to give you a call back at their convenience if there was more to talk about.
Visual Voicemail in iOS is better than some, but I still prefer text messaging.Voicemail made answering machines obsolete. The concept is the same, but the messaging is provided as a service rather than stored on a physical device. Voicemail revolutionized communication and enabled a generation of workers to be more efficient and productive by allowing them to say what they needed to say whether the other party was currently available or not.
One of the luxuries of my job is that it can be done from virtually anywhere…as long as I can connect to the Internet. I spent much of August working from the road traveling about the country with my family on “working vacation” road trip.
I drove more than 7,000 miles over the course of about three weeks--traveling from Houston to Denver, the Badlands of South Dakota and Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon before looping back to Houston. What I learned during my epic road trip is that I’m a bit spoiled living in suburbia with my 35Mbps broadband Internet. The reality in many places is that connecting to the Internet is often easier said than done.
Just because the billboard says "free Wi-Fi" doesn't mean you can actually connect to the Internet with it.If you drive down any stretch of highway in the United States for more than a few miles, you’re likely to see billboards advertising hotels and motels at the exits coming up ahead. Many of those signs proudly proclaim “Free Wi-Fi” or “Free Hi-Speed Internet”. What you find when you get there, though, may not live up to the hype.
Do you know what software is in use on your network? A survey released today by Avecto, a developer of Windows privilege management tools, found that three out of four IT professionals have no idea what unauthorized software might be running on their networks.
The simplest scenario to manage and protect is one that is completely homogenous and locked down. If every single endpoint uses the exact same hardware and software, and everything is configured the exact same way for every user, and the users have no ability to install software or modify the settings of the operating system or software already installed, then the IT admin’s job is much easier.
If you don't know what software is on your network, how can you defend or patch it?That is rarely—if ever—the case, though.
