Podcast #1: iPhone location tracking, Dropbox, Portal 2

Question

This is first episode of the Ask Different Podcast, an unofficial podcast about Apple and related technologies created by members of the Ask Different community.

Your hosts for this episode are Kyle Cronin, Jason Salaz, and Nathan Greenstein:

• We begin by discussing the return of the Stack Overflow Exchange podcast, and some of the interesting observations Joel made about where Stack Exchange users are coming from.

• Speculation abounds as we discuss iPhone tracking and the location visualizations as provided by iPhone Tracker.

• Jason provides tips for being safe on the web. Including using a strong Password Encryption/Storage service such as LastPass, and enabling always-use-SSL features on sites such as Twitter, Google Mail, and Facebook.

• Nathan talks about Mac security, such as enabling Secure Erase features, and protecting your computer at boot time by setting a Firmware Password.

• Kyle helps keep your iOS devices safe with the free “Find My iPhone” feature of MobileMe for iPhone 4 owners, and setting a passcode (or password) on your device.

• Speculation returns as we discuss the recent revelation that Dropbox is not necessarily a completely private storage service.

• Our Question of the Week was asked by nuc. “What are some great Dropbox uses?”.

  • Dropvox is $0.99 on the iTunes App Store.

  • MacDropAny is free.

  • StepMania is free (and fun!), although it is not directly related to Dropbox.

• Our App of the Week is Portal 2! Portal 1 has been Mac compatible since the day Steam was released for Mac OS X, and Portal 2 has been Mac-compatible from the very beginning.

This episode was recorded on Saturday, April 23rd. You can subscribe to this podcast via RSS or iTunes. If you'd like to get in touch with us, leave a comment on this post or email us at [email protected].

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Answer 1

For those that are still interested, we plan on getting other people on the podcast at some point. It's tough to say exactly when, as our recording and producing process still needs a lot of refinement.

Answer 2

It has been brought to my attention that I mis-spoke on the free vs. paid features of LastPass. Per LastPass' own page on this subject, your data is always available by logging into lastpass.com, the immediate difference appears to be that there will be ads in the management interface.

The premium features are primarily for features such as mobile device app access to your data, two-factor auth via their own system or a yubikey, and priority technical support.

The price and term length were correct. $12/year is the minimum you can buy.