Month: December 2010

Finding the right case for you iPhone can be a challenging and somewhat frustrating process.  Not only do you have to contend with the sheer number of case types, but you also have to balance the needs of your particular listening and working environments.  If you are like me you may have found that you actually need more than one type of case.  While it would be nice to have the ultimate iPhone case that I could comfortably and easily use in any situation, I have yet to discover it.

Recently I purchased an Otterbox iPhone 3G Defender case for use with my iPhone 3GS.  The main motivation behind this particular purchase was the ruggedness of the case.  Next summer I am going to be riding a self-supported bike tour with a couple of friends in Pittsburgh, so I was in the market for a case that could handle the shocks, drops and dust that I would encounter both on the tour and while training for it (man, do I ever need to start the training).

My daily driver of a case to this point has been a red and black (Goooo Dawgs!) iFrogz Luxe.  This is a very nice case that adds minimal bulk to the iPhone design while providing a basic level of protection from scuffs and bumps that can occur during average daily use.

While the iFrogz Luxe turned out to be great for a daily case, it became rapidly apparent that it was not going to withstand the rigors of an extended bike tour and training process.  After determining this, I turned to the Otterbox.  Otterbox is known for making very rugged cases, waterproof cases, and water proof equipment boxes.

Otterbox states that the iPhone 3G Defender is not intended for protection against water intrusion, due to it’s openings for the microphones and speakers of the iPhone 3G design.  This being said a friend that also has one said that it will protect your phone from an occasional spill, like when someone knocks over a coke on the table at a meeting.  I can personally attest to the drop and bump protection, having purposefully dropped my phone while incased onto a concrete sidewalk from a height of three feet.  (Not recommended for the faint of heart!)

I really liked the additional grip that the case provides.  Sometimes the slick plastic back of the iPhone 3G and 3GS can be a little hazardous.  The buttons are fairly easy to operate even while incased in the poly-carbonate shell and silicon rubber cushioning.  All of the ports with the exception of the speakers and microphone are firmly covered with silicon rubber flaps that interlock into the plastic shell when not in use.  This is great, since the water sensors on the 3G and 3GS are located in the headphone jack and inside the dock connecter port.  With the openings firmly covered and protected it is possible to fudge a little on reporting water damage when attempting to get a warranty or AppleCare replacement.

If you want to dock your phone while in the 3G Defender, however, you maybe out of luck depending on the dock connector design.  Due to the nature of the case design, there is a fairly deep recession that has to be navigated in order to connect anything to the dock connector.  A cable or two won’t be a problem, but if you use a device like the iHome or a car mount then you will most likely be out of luck, unless you buy something like the iStubz from CableJive.

Another problem you may run into has to do with the sheer extra bulk added by the case.  I frequently use my iPhone while in my 2007 Toyota Tundra, both for music and for navigation.  I mounted my iPhone on the console in place of the ashtray using a mount and device holder combination from ProClip.  While the combination is a bit pricey, I like their product choices.  Fortunately my device holder is adjustable enough to hold the 3G Defender case, but unfortunately the dock connector plug does not extend high enough to connect with the iPhone while in the case.

Beyond those two issues, which are fairly easy to overcome, I am still having trouble getting used to the confinement of the screen itself.  The 3G Defender enclosure leaves all of the screen itself usable, but some functionality is tricky when using the onscreen keyboard and sliders.  This will be especially noticeable by those of us that don’t trim our fingernails all the way to the quick.  I know that many of my female friends, as well as some males, will find the edges of the case get in the way.  The one application feature I am having the most trouble with is the address bar in mobile Safari.  When using Safari and trying to get the browser to re-display the address bar, I find myself having to use the side of my finger tips instead of end of the finger.

I would judge that the 3G Defender is a great case for use in a physically demanding environment.  I am not completely sold on its use in an average daily environment that doesn’t involve lots of physical abuse.

Pros

• shock protection
• dust protection
• better overall grip (especially for individuals with larger hands)

Cons

• dock connector recessed farther than desired
• added bulk may make accessories unusable without additional cabling
• some on-screen functionality can be impaired due to the side of the case surrounding the screen

Overall I would say this is an excellent case and well worth the price being charged for it.  Paying $50 to protect your $400 investment is a no-brainer.

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UPDATE (2009-04-26 7:06PM EDT): Apparently I was mistaken.  When poking through the preferences of ClamXav in order to restructure my watch folders, I noticed a checkbox that I had overlooked.  Apparently you can add the login item from within the main application.  However, it still doesn’t start the Sentry app when adding the item.  You have to manually click the “Save settings & Launch Sentry” button.

Recently I have bowed to the necessity of installing antivirus software on my Mac, both at work and at home.

In investigating the possibilities I decided to try out the open source antivirus solution ClamAV.  While I tend to gravitate towards commercially supported security products when possible, I currently don’t have the extra money to spend on the Intego VirusBarrier product, and the budget at work is quite strained, as are budgets for most people.

I like the ClamXav frontend for the ClamAV engine.  I know that I can do all the scanning functions from the command line, but I am fan of gui frontends do to the fact that they are often more user-friendly.

The ClamXav is a nice frontend.  The only problem I have with it is that there is inherent mechanism to launch the sentry program at user login.  The ClamXav Sentry application is contained in the Resources section of the Contents of the ClamXav application bundle. Below are the steps to add the application as a login item.

Adding ClamXav Sentry as Login Item

1. Open System Preferences from the Apple Menu

Open System Preferences

2. Open Accounts Preference Pane

System Prefences

3. Select Login Items

Login Items

4. Click the Plus sign button at the button of the Login Items list.

5. When the dialog window comes up, hit the Command + Shift + G keyboard combo.

6. In the window type the following:

/Applications/ClamXav.app/Contents/Resources/”

then click the Go button.

Enter the file path to the Resources of the ClamXav bundle

7. Select ClamXavSentry.app from the list and click the Add button.

Select the Sentry app

8. Congratulations, you have successfully added the ClamXav Sentry as a login item.

Login Item Added

I also wrote an Applescript application that will add the login item for you.  The benefit of using my utility is that it launches ClamXav Sentry after adding the login item.  You download a zipfile containing both the application and script file.

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So, PayPal has thrown down the gauntlet on the safe browser war.  According to an InfoWorld article, they have declined to add Apple’s Safari browser to their list of safe browsers due to the lack of native anti-phishing technology.

I find it interesting that one of the features they explicitly mention in the InfoWorld article as being a reason behind this is the use (or lack thereof) of the Extended Validation Certificate (EV).

Firefox 2 does not currently support this, however the possibility of having the browser warn you to a possible phishing attack is apparently enough for PayPal. According to the Mozilla developer’s, FireFox 3 will support the EV technology.

Personally I think that the automated protection schemes are great, when they work.  One of the first things I did when installing IE7 on my virtual machine was to disable the anti-phishing filter.  It is nice to have the automated systems, but there is nothing like a little user education to make the world a safer place.  According to a NetworkWorld article:

In one study, three groups of 14 participants each received e-mail messages that included spam and phishing attacks as well as legitimate mail. Two of the groups were presented with educational material about how to prevent being phished; but only one group received the material after having fallen for the phishing e-mails and entered personal information into a fraudulent Web site.

The group that was given educational materials but hadn’t been phished were no better at spotting phishing attacks that the third group, which received no educational materials at all, researchers say.

Besides, who is to be the arbiter of whether or not the site really deserves being declared a phishing site?  Sure sometimes it is patently obvious, like when the site is dressed up to look like Citibank, but the URL is really something like “www.citibank.secure.orangecrush.cz”.  However, there is no such thing as a perfect system, and we don’t need to train the users to rely completely on the built-in safeguards.

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