Ben Gross

Tag: iOS iPhone iPad

  • Password Managers Relieve Password Headaches

    Passwords Are a Hassle I’ll be the first to admit I can’t remember all my passwords. Most of us can’t, so we pick a few passwords that are easy to remember and then use them with multiple sites. This results in two immediate problems. A password manager can help with both of these problems. First,…

  • How and Why to Sniff Smartphone Network Traffic

    Smartphone Network Connection Monitoring Tools for monitoring and modifying connections between web browsers and web servers are essential for debugging, testing, optimizing performance, and assessing vulnerabilities of web-based applications and native applications. Developers, security professionals, and anyone with an interest in gaining insight into the lower levels of web traffic commonly use these tools. There…

  • Why Pinboard is My Favorite Bookmarking Service

    Pinboard is a bookmarking service that allows you to easily save, tag, annotate, share, and archive bookmarks independent of your browser. Pinboard describes itself as “antisocial bookmarking,” which highlights its capabilities as a private and personal archiving tool compared to the social features offered by Yahoo’s Delicious service. I find Pinboard a simple, fast, and…

  • iPhone Screenshot and Photo Smart Album Hack

    I take a lot of screenshots when I research products, both on the desktop and on the iPhone, so having some way to automate organizing my collection is important. The problem is that screenshots images taken with the iPhone have no EXIF metadata. This means there is no straightforward way to produce a list of…

  • Great iPhone and iPad Apps for Reading and Sharing Docs

    Instapaper, Dropbox, GoodReader, and Simplenote are my favorite applications for reading, writing, and sharing documents on the iPhone and the iPad. I have used each application for more than six months and I highly recommend all of them. Instapaper The Instapaper application makes it simple and pleasant to read lengthy articles on your mobile device.…

  • Preparing Your Site for the iPad

    The Apple iPad does an excellent job of displaying most web sites. However, there are a few obstacles you may want to avoid. There are also a few customizations that will make your site look even better on the iPad. I will summarize the most important issues you should start to plan for and the…

  • Smartphone Phishing Protection Needs Improvement

    Recent versions of desktop Web browsers and email clients feature phishing and malware protection in addition to improved security notifications and indicators. Unfortunately, many of these improvements have not reached their mobile device counterparts. While the patterns of use and the threat model for Web browsing and email on mobile devices differ from desktop applications,…

  • Simple Package Tracking with TrackMyShipments

    The web-based interfaces offered by the shipping services allow you to schedule shipments, manage billing, store addresses, and track packages online. Some third-party services offer simplified interfaces and allow you to track shipments from multiple shipping carriers at once. Still, the process of entering multiple tracking numbers into multiple services can be cumbersome. I prefer…

  • TripIt Shows the Value of Combining Email, Web and APIs

    TripIt is a free service that simplifies organizing travel plans. The service has done an excellent job of making it painless to aggregate the collection of email receipts that you receive from airlines, hotels, car rental companies and travel agencies into one master itinerary. In order to use TripIt, you simply forward any email receipts…