PC World: Recovering your laptop from theft

This week I begin a new series of columns for PC World entitled “Net Work” that will focus on practical solutions for networking and communications problems for SMBs. My first piece is about how you can protect your laptop when you travel.

I have had my laptop stolen once, about four years ago, from the trunk of a locked car parked at a shopping mall. You never forget that experience of being violated, of being stupid. There are a lot of ways that you can be proactive here, and you can read the column for more details.

AT&T USBConnect Mercury laptop broadband adapter card

The idea of going wireless anywhere – not just where you have WiFi – is appealing. And the adapter cards keep getting better. I tried out this 3G card from AT&T on both Windows XP SP2 and SP3 machines – with SP2 you’ll need two reboots to get everything installed. Near the business end of the connector is the SIM card that enables it to work with the AT&T network. The speeds are much better than the 3G connection on my iPhone, with the claims from AT&T of 700-1400 kbps down and 500-1200 kbps uploads about twice what I observed on my 3G iPhone. One oddity – it didn’t like the tracert command in Windows but could do command line FTP transfers just fine. There is also a simplified text messaging application so you can compose texts and send them on the computer keyboard.

If you need on-the-go Web surfing and email, this is a solid product, once you get past the installation. Macs use a different connection manager that comes directly from Sierra Wireless (the makers of the adapter), while Windows uses one that has some added features to help you make free use of AT&T WiFi hot spots. The initial cost of the card is rebated if you get a two-year data plan. If you don’t, the upfront cost is $250. Either way, you still have to pay $60 a month, which includes a 5 GB monthly usage cap before you get charged on additional usage –  so if you are going to be transferring a lot of files, this may not be the solution for you. 

SecurePC may be too costly for what it delivers

Is $600 for a “netbook” too much to spend these days? Apparently so. I tried out the SecurePC from 01com.com and while a nice package, the price is a bit steep considering the competition.

The idea behind the SecurePC is a nifty one: put together a stripped-down version of Windows XP that just can connect to the Web and do nothing else. You do not have access to any local storage, so your PC can’t get infected from malicious Web sites or emails. You can’t download any programs. If it lives out on the Internet, you can run it – the usual Flash and Java add-ons come with the machine. Otherwise, forget it.

The notebook runs Intel’s Atom processor, so it is quiet, cool, and compact. The screen is bright but isn’t going to win an awards for size – it is a 10 inch diagonal and can run an external video monitor in the odd resolution of 1280×960 because of its form factor, I guess. And it comes with a solid state hard drive so there is one less moving part and heat source to worry about.

I liked the design and feel of the machine’s hard plastic case and they way it boots up almost instantly – it takes longer to find your wireless network than it does to bring up the overall system. The keyboard is a bit cramped for me, particularly the comma and period keys that are somewhat squished together. And it comes with three USB ports, although I am not sure what you would connect to them other than an external mouse. If you try to plug in a thumb drive, you aren’t going to get any files off it. The SecurePC does support USB 3G broadband modems, but I didn’t test any.

You can access network shares via the wired or wireless interfaces, but again, I am not sure what you would do with the files when you see them, unless you could run a auto-executing virtual machine session across the network. To get an idea of how stripped-down this OS is, you open up a rather sparse Control Panel. There isn’t much you can do, which I guess is good if you are getting this PC for grandma.

The disk storage is limited, and I had to play some games adjusting the virtual memory settings that would also allow enough room for temporary files: InTouch could spend some more time tweaking these setings. Another drawback is that you can’t upgrade your OS when Microsoft issues the inevitable patches since you have to wait for InTouch to release a new image of the machine’s innards.

If you are paranoid and can live without any applications – other than IE – than this is worth a look. It could be the perfect kitchen computer, or a second machine to do a lot of Web searching or Webmail on. The only real issue I have is the price. For $350, I can get a Dell, Acer, HP mini (or others here) that has a 10 inch screen and a full version of Windows and larger hard drives, and for the price of the Secure PC I can get a full-strength laptop with a 15 inch screen. And to make things more complicated, Radio Shack is selling netbooks for $99, plus the cost of a 3G broadband wireless plan from AT&T for $60 a month for a two-year contract. 

Ways to transfer files to your iPhone (TidBITS)

I have been a latecomer to the iPhone party, but one of the things that I first noticed, apart from the lack of any cut and paste ability, is a more important omission: I want to be able to make copies any file that is on my main Mac desktop and be able to view the file on my iPhone when I am away from my desk. While using iTunes and iPhoto library is relatively easy to move photos, videos, and music that are stored on my desktop Mac over to the iPhone, I want access to all the other data that I have on my desktop, too. 

In this review for TidBITS.com, I examine five different apps that you can use for this purpose on your iPhone.

How not to steal a laptop

I have had my own laptop stolen just once, from the trunk of a locked car parked in a shopping mall, several years ago. I was putting some packages that I purchased in the trunk, and I guess someone decided to remove not only my purchases but my laptop as well. There are some happier laptop stories, and this one is just so funny, I had to share with you. 

Those of you that aren’t Mac users, by way of introduction all of their laptops come with built-in cameras and software that allows you to take pictures of yourself, or anyone else sitting in front of the thing, called PhotoBooth. Earlier this summer, a Michigan-based headhunter by the name of Damian Zikakis had his laptop stolen when someone broke into his offices. He replaced it a few days later and because he had used Mozy’s online backup service, thought that he was covered at least in terms of being able to bring back his files from the Internet backup. This took some time to recreate all of his files. 

When Zikakis had a moment to examine the layout of his new machine, he “found several incriminating files. The individuals who had my computer did not realize that the Mozy client was installed and running in the background. They had also used PhotoBooth to take pictures of themselves and had downloaded a cell phone bill that had their name on it.” Zikakis did a bit of head hunting on his own and contacted the appropriate police department with this information. They were able to recover his computer, and now have the task of figuring out who actually took the laptop originally and what law enforcement options to pursue.

This is similar to another case reported earlier this year when built-in Mac remote desktop software was used to recover another laptop from a thief who happened to boot the machine up and not notice that he was automatically connected via an IM session.

Note to potential thieves: wipe your stolen laptop’s disk before use. 

And for those of you that want to do something more, there are a variety of software tools for both Mac and Windows that can aid in the recovery of a stolen laptop, here are the ones that I know about:

• Oribicule’s Undercover for Macs
• MyLaptopGPS just for Windows
• Computrace LoJack for Laptops has versions for both Mac and Windows
• Adeona is a free open source product for both Mac and Windows

32 Gigs on a USB stick

USB drives just keep getting cheaper. Soon, we’ll be seeing them as Cracker Jack prizes or surprises in cereal boxes. A few months ago, a 32 GB drive sold for more than $300: now you can get that capacity for close to $100 from many retailers, and within a few more months prices will have dropped yet again, making larger drives more affordable. We looked at four of the roomiest drives on the market—all 32 GB—from Patriot, OCZ (two of them), and Kanguru and found that all offer solid performance, and prices currently less than $130.

You can read my review on Tom’s Guides here.

Buying an SSD-equipped laptop

With Apple’s sexy MacBook Air thrusting them into the limelight, laptops with built-in solid state drives (SSDs) are suddenly all the rage. Now they are also available from a variety of Windows OEMs including Lenovo, Toshiba and Dell. While the drives can offer higher performance than conventional rotating storage, they also add about $500- $800 to the base purchase price of laptops, and can be almost ten times as expensive as a standard hard disk.

In this story for JupiterMedia’s IT Management, I discuss the issues and advantages of getting an SSD-equipped laptop.

Bluetooth technology in motion

One of the oldest cold war technologies still in current use has become the leading edge of present-day technology innovation.  The first satellite launched for the Global Positioning System or GPS back in 1978 has in turn launched a wide variety of programs and innovative applications across mining, farming, transit operations, as well as personal navigation.  And a key link between GPS and Bluetooth protocols is pushing innovation even further. You can read more about the relationship in a story I wrote for the Bluetooth.org’s SIGnature magazine (on p. 16) here.

Time to talk about tablet PCs

Tablet PCs have firmly established themselves in certain vertical markets where users don’t have offices or need to compute while standing. But as the tablet market matures, more sedentary office workers could benefit from using them, particularly when it comes to annotation and approval tasks. This presents opportunities for solution providers to spread the message about tablets.

In my story for eWeek’s Channel Insider this week, I talk about what the channel can do to help promote tablets as a solution for their customers.

Tritton Micro AX Bluetooth headset

I had a chance to check out a new and very stylish BT headset from Trtitton, the Micro AX. It is about an inch long, and weighs less than 10 grams. The trouble I have with tiny BT headsets is that you can easily loose them in your hair (if I had more hair), or they can easily fall out, which defeats the purpose of wearing them, or their buttons are so small that my fingers invariably fumble. The AX gets around all three of these problems by having a special rubber cleat that grips the inside of your ear, and a big button in the most logical place to answer calls. Plus, it is comfortable too. The sound quality is acceptable for voice calls, although you probably don’t want to listen to music through them. It comes with a very nifty and compact charging station, and the standby time is impressive.

It is about $40 at your favorite electronics retailer.