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Image Credit: geralt
pixelbay.com
Both the Google Pixel and Pixel XL have seen a positive response, and are meeting their sales expectations for the last quarter of 2016. This is impressive in a world that seems to be dominated by Apple and Samsung. The success of their freshman device has them going back to the drawing board to release the next iteration of Pixel smartphones. The Pixel phones were a success, despite there being too few devices to meet demands. The next release is expected to command a higher price tag, since it will be marketed as a premium device.
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I had the opportunity to get my hands on the the Dell Latitude E7450 laptop, and my initial impression of this system is that is will be a good system for the road warrior. Several of these were purchased for clients, because they are very lightweight with the same usability as a traditional laptop. Having a full and spacious keyboard is helpful with for cranking out those last minute reports. I have nothing against tablets, but they cannot compete with the usability of a laptop.
The Latitude line of of laptops have always been solid systems, and I have been using them since the Latitude E5500 was released. I have used the E55, E65 and now the E7450. Most of the engineering folks I have work with loved the fact that the older Latitudes had the ability to accept SD cards, an RS232 port, and DVD burner, and a video port to do presentations. Most people know have no idea what RS232 is, but this capability comes in handy when controlling different systems. Yes, you can use an RS232 to USB converter, but this is not helpful when many systems now have limited USB capabilities. This system comes with 3 USB ports, so if your like me and have dozens of devices connected all the time, you will need to invest in a docking station or a USB hub.
The systems that were ordered had the following specifications:
- RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz
- CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz
- Disk: 250GB SSD
- Display:14" FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare (16:9) WLED,
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics
- Weight:3.43lb
- Extras:Camera and Microphone, WLAN support, Up to 11.5 hours of battery life, 3x USB 3.0, HDMI
I believe that from Dell knocked this one out of the park, or so I thought. About three months into my clients using these systems, two of the systems needed warranty repairs to replace the motherboard. I think Dell has awesome support on their business line of computer, but it is unfortunate that it was actually needed. Both systems went down because of the motherboard. In both cases, the symptom was that the system would not power on. Multiple Dell power supplies were plugged into these system to see if the issue was a dead battery and a bad power supply, and none of them powered up the computer. Even with the battery removed, the laptop will not power up using the power supply. Thankfully, Dell had a technician on site within 24 hours to get these users back online. Despite these issues, they seem to be solid systems.
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It is important that passwords are not left out. This includes, but is not limited to dry erase boards, sticky notes, or anywhere else that can be seen. Spreadsheets are used by many as a way to keep track of passwords, but spreadsheets do not offer a easy way to manage a few dozen or few hundred passwords. Trying to sync passwords and keep track of which passwords have changed or is due to be changed, can be a nightmare using a spreadsheet.
If you need assistance managing several passwords, I would recommend a tool called KeePass. KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way.It is very simple to use, and allows you to organize and store passwords for everything. It can also be ran from a flash-drive.
KeePass will allow you the ability to segregate work and personal passwords in separate categories, or separate databases, and secure all those passwords with one master password. You also have the ability to sync passwords and keep track of which passwords have changed or is due to be changed. If are like me and need your passwords on the go, you can run KeePass on ALL devices (i.e., Android, iPhone, Windows, and yes Blackberry).
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I am finally getting around to giving my opinion of the Lenovo Mix 2 8. It was purchased as a replacement to my Blackberry Playbook, simply because I wanted to do more and the development of the Playbook seems to have ended. My Playbook's primary use was for reviewing email, documents, and light web browsing during football seasons. I'm not big into games, so Angry Birds and Tetris suited me fine during times of long waiting. My biggest complaint with the Playbook was that document management and creation was not what you would expect from a business device. The feature I loved the most about the Blackberry Playbook was the communication between my tablet and my Blackberry phone. This allowed me to use the tablet almost like a thin client and interact with emails, texts, BBM, etc on the tablets larger screen
