“How to add phone to iPad capabilities before Apple”

How to add phone to iPad capabilities before Apple

Posted: 19 Sep 2010 07:50 PM PDT

Q: I recently got an iPad and have been thoroughly satisfied with it, except for one thing: It doesn't have a built-in phone. Do you think that in the future Apple will sell a combined iPad/iPhone, and in the meantime, is there a way to turn my 3G iPad into a phone?

A: I think there's a very good chance that the iPad will include voice and even video-phoning, but probably not until the device moves to 4G or faster. And yes, you can turn your 3G iPad into a basic mobile phone today. What you need is a service that transmits phone calls over the Internet. The best option currently may be Whistle (whistlephone.com), which you can download for free at the App Store on iTunes. It offers free calling inside the United States, and dirt-cheap rates for international calls.

The downside of using the iPad as a phone is the device itself. You could use the built-in microphone and speakers, holding the tablet up next to your head like a radio. Or you could get a headset with a microphone - a tad cumbersome for phone calls. Mono Bluetooth headsets designed for mobile phones don't seem to work with the iPad.

Q: Sometimes when I'm browsing the Web with Firefox, I get this warning: "You have requested an encrypted page that contains some unencrypted information. Information that you see or enter on this page could be read by a third party." Is it safe to proceed to the website in question?

A: Secure websites for banking, shopping and other personal transactions safeguard information that you send and receive by encrypting it. Yet other information on the site may be coming from a different server and isn't encrypted. What's the point of encrypting an ad, for instance? So I wouldn't worry about the warning - assuming you're visiting a site that you know and trust.

Tell you what: In Firefox, go to Options in the Tools menu, tab over to Security and click the Settings button. There you can instruct the browser not to warn you every time you're about to visit an encrypted page that contains some unencrypted information.

In Internet Explorer, the warning about pages with both encrypted and unencrypted information is slightly different. It stats with "Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?"

To turn off the warning, go to Internet Options in the Tools menu and tab to Security. With the Internet zone selected, click the Custom Level button and scroll down to "Display mixed content," and select Enable.

Q: We are renting out our upstairs apartment as a vacation rental. One of the perks we have been offering is free wireless Internet. In fact, many people have been very pleased about that. I give them our network password and they can surf all they want. However, I am worried about the security of this. Any suggestions about how to offer Wi-Fi without incurring any risks or liability?

A: As long as your vacationers can't easily get into the computers on your network, the risk is minimal. Newer routers can be configured to let guests go on the Internet without giving them access to other computers or devices on the network. Another option is simply to disable file and print sharing on your network - effectively turning it into an Internet-only affair.

As for liability, it's hard to conceive how you could be responsible for what other people do when they're online. If that were the case, do you think Starbucks would offer free Wi-Fi?

Q: Some of my friends use Twitter, but I just can't seem to get into it. I don't see the value in letting people know what I think every minute, and I'm not really interested in what they have to say. I figure if it's important they'll e-mail or call me on the phone. Does this make me an old fuddy-duddy?

A: Not at all. But if you use the Internet a lot, Twitter's worth a try, A., because it's free and B., because you may find you've been missing out on some cool stuff. Twitter (twitter.com), a social networking and "microblogging" service, is a great way to keep up with breaking news and important social and political issues. And with a desktop utility like TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com), you can set up columns showing tweets from or about people and topics.

That said, billions of people get along just fine without Twitter, and you can, too.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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