IdoNotes (and sleep)

Outside of Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive for Mac (model STCB3000900) being a huge 3TB of space, the drive itself is incredibly quick when connected over USB 3.0 in backing up your files. I tested with Time machine on one Macintosh and simply dragging files to it on another. As expected, the older machine with USB 2.0 was slower, but we knew that coming into the review.


This Seagate 3TB external drive demands external power due to the sheer size and I think that has something directly to do with the issue many people see in the drive ejecting without warning. What this means is that the Macintosh OS suddenly thinks it is unplugged. As I mention in the video I think it is the Seagate drive going into some sort of power save mode and spinning the drives down. When the Mac OS sees this it thinks that the Seagate has been pulled without proper ejection and gives the error. This is incredibly bad if you consider leaving this plugged into to do automatic Time machine backups. They would fail since the Mac does not think the drive is there.

Head over to get the 3TB Backup Plus external drive from Seagate now or keep reading.
Continue Reading here" Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive for Mac (STCB3000900) review" »

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On Wednesday, June 19th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

This Seagate Slim 500 GB USB 3.0 Hard Drive for Mac (model STCF500102) is a great road warrior tool with it's slim and sleek design. Add in the social backup ability and it has become my external travel drive. You can head right over and grab one here


Seagate sent the Slim 500GB drive for Mac over to get a field test and that is exactly what I did.  The first noticeable thing is that the sleek design and small size make this the perfect travel USB backup and file drive. If it could hold up in functionality then it would be my new choice for the road. Out of the box supports Time Machine with nothing extra to do. This was a huge benefit and made it a quick way for backup but I wanted it for more functions. The USB is 3.0 and 2.0 compatible so pretty much any laptop in the last five years will be fine for usage with it. The included cable states it is 18" but it certainly doesn't have a ton of reach.

The automatic social network software is a nice bonus. You must authenticate each network to give permission for the software to work it's magic. Make sure you remember you gave this authorization if you were to lose this drive as anyone that ended up with it could plug it in and start grabbing you photos. (Just a security tip).

The software on the Seagate Slim 500GB will then download Facebook and Flickr right to the drive. If you are a person that takes tons of pictures on your phone and does not use iCloud or sync your Android to your computer, having an automatic service that does this is quite convenient. However, you must have this drive connected to your Internet connected laptop for that to work. In essence you could have already grabbed the files from your phone at this point but the automation is what sells it. Both networks can be uploaded from the drive as well as YouTube but the options for YouTube were limiting at this time.

Overall I love this drive. The only reason it got 4 stars was the minimal social networks and the limitations on the YouTube uploads. Otherwise this is still becoming my #1 travel USB backup and file storage drive.

Please make sure you let both YouTube and Amazon know this review was helpful by clicking those magic buttons.

Disclosure: No preference was given in the review (as shown in how I sometimes tear products up) but the drive was given free to Spiked Studio.

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On Tuesday, June 18th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

An IBM Notes and Domino 9 Social Edition versus Microsoft SharePoint 2013 competitive sales kit has been released by The Edison Group commissioned by IBM. It contains:

• an executive presentation slidedeck
• a sales guide document
• a battle card document
• a quick reference guide
• a link to a public YouTube video

I note the final bullet as public since the rest are isolated to IBM Business Partners only. Yes, you as the customer should go get a business partner or IBM rep to get you these as you fight this battle internally like many of you do.

IBM commissioned Edison Group, an external research firm, to conduct a study where they compared these two products in depth and interviewed Notes and Domino sellers on the front line to understand their point of view on competitive-related discussions with customers. Based on their research, Edison produced the set of materials in this sales kit.

Here is the link for those of you with access

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On Monday, June 17th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

I take a look at the Kensington KeyCover Hard Shell Bluetooth KeyBoard Cover for iPad 2/3/4 (model K39785US)

http://idonot.es/kensingtonkeycover

The Kensington keyboard was simple to connect to the Bluetooth on the iPad after fully charging it for first use. We found the key size acceptable since they put an entire QWERTY keyboard the same size as the iPad itself. The function keys were well labeled to show the excellent capabilities they built into the function keys. As the video shows, we were able to quickly access:
- music
- home screen
- photos
- search
- copy/paste

The keyboard from Kensington was responsive to quick typing without any noticeable delay. The felt sturdy to the touch and not cheaply made like some other Bluetooth keyboards.

It provides a hardshell back to protect the screen when the iPad was inside it. However there was no additional padding or edge protection. The iPad fit well in both landscape and portrait modes into the provided slot as shown in the video. There was not a lot of room to use the stand on a slant. The front edge did not have a deep enough slot to hold the end of the iPad in our comfort level.

The tiny pop-up kickstand on the Kensington KeyCover works well but scares us in how easily the metal piece could bend or break. If that happens I would not continue to carry this around as a case alone. I am eager to see how well the kickstand performs after consistent usage.

See the video for live demos usage and more opinions

You can get your hands on the  Kensington KeyCover Hard Shell Bluetooth KeyBoard Cover for iPad 2/3/4 (model K39785US) on Amazon.  Make sure you let them know my review helped you while on Amazon.

Check out all the product reviews from Spiked Studio on YouTube in our playlist

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On Friday, June 14th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

IBM Notes Social Edition is a very complex new user experience. Intec has released a cheat sheet for Social Edition and previous versions of the IBM Lotus Notes client.

These are free to download and distribute to your new and even some experienced user as you deploy IBM Notes Social Edition. Everyone may learn a tip or trick.

I will say that the cheat sheet for the Social Edition is a bit overwhelming with tons of arrows, bullets and balloons due to the complexity and options in the IBM Notes client. But that is a topic for an entirely different blog posting.

So make sure you head over to Intec to get the Social Edition cheat sheet for IBM Notes

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On Thursday, June 13th, 2013   by Chris Miller