There’s This App

It’s one of those tools you never knew you needed until you realize you can’t do without it.

pushbullet_logo

I found an app that solves a real 21st Century problem. It connects all my screens. It has simplified the task of passing stuff between them.

When my phone rings a notification pops up on all my computers. I was surprised how often my phone and I are apart.

It works the same way with text messages. You can even reply from your PC keyboard.

If I take a photo it can be sent directly to my PCs with two clicks.

Addresses or links found at my desk now slide to my phone for cut and paste into a nav program or browser.

I’m using it nearly every day.

It’s Pushbullet. It works on Android and iPhones, Windows and sorta on Macs.

Pushbullet connects your devices, making it easy and automatic to share almost anything between them.

It’s one of those tools you never knew you needed until you realize you can’t do without it. And, of course, it’s free.

You’re Getting More Secure

IMAG1400In case you don’t read the geek press, everything you touch digitally will soon have new encryption schemes built in. That lessens the chance anyone but you will ever see your stuff.

It’s the new world where JLa’s pics stay private.

But everyone knows it’s really about keeping the government out.

Apple and Google’s next operating systems are toughened against spying. It’s my understanding Apple is removing a ‘feature’ iPhones now have which enabled much of this.

More and more websites are https not http. They’ve added layers of encryption. Your transactions are hidden from prying eyes.

Businesses have been hurt by government’s massive spying efforts. Cloud companies, meaning Google, Amazon and a bunch of others, need to reassure nervous clients in our global economy. This is a sector where US companies have had great success.

Businesses and people want to flesh out ideas without later answering for early notes. We should be allowed to think in private.

In the end, by spying too invasively, the NSA and others made their own jobs more difficult. Is this how checks and balances work in the 21st Century? Maybe. Probably.

Ballmer? Really?

The NBA gets another schmuck as an owner. I see Ballmer behind Microsoft’s failure to innovate over the past few years. Even worse, I see his mean spirited imprint on most everything Microsoft has done.

Steve BallmerIt looks like the Clippers will go quickly. Published reports says Steve Ballmer, who recently left as CEO of Microsoft after seeing the writing on the wall, will pay $2,000,000,000. That’s an impressive number. Now I understand why Windows costs so much.

Donald Sterling, disgraced current owner, gets to laugh all the way to the bank. The value of his team seems to have doubled over the past few weeks. He can buy new friends.

The NBA gets another schmuck as an owner. I see Ballmer behind Microsoft’s failure to innovate over the past few years. Even worse, his mean spirited imprint is on most everything Microsoft has done recently.

But let me allow Steve to speak for himself. On the iPhone:

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”

Of Google’s Eric Schmidt:

“F**king Eric Schmidt is a f**king pussy. I’m going to f**king bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to f**king kill Google.”

On Apple’s Macbooks:

“Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction.”

And, on business in general:

“That doesn’t mean nobody else ever thought about it, but ‘How do you make money?’ was what I got hired to do. I’ve always thought that way.”

After a friend posted this sale on Twitter, I replied, “Until Sterling, he was my most despised CEO.”

Good luck to all of us.

The Sad State Of American Manufacturing

Maybe it’s not slave labor in the traditional 19th Century America sense, but it’s the 21st Century equivalent.

There was a long article in Sunday’s New York Times, “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work.” It’s pretty sad because it’s really about manufacturing in general and our inability to compete in the world market.

Since the story was published I’ve seen some references to the ability of foreign companies to be flexible–turn on a dime to fit changing production needs–as the story’s takeaway.

“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”

Red herring! Aggregating vendors around a production center could happen if American manufacturers wanted it. Unfortunately few really want to manufacture here.

Here’s why we’re losing business. Americans aren’t willing to set our way of life back 100 years. Take this story of Apple’s production change for iPhone glass screens:

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

Americans don’t want to compete if competing means living in dorms, eight strangers to a room while making pennies an hour! Maybe it’s not slave labor in the traditional 19th Century America sense, but it’s the 21st Century equivalent.

We (and by we I include me) encourage this race to the bottom by buying totally on price. I am morally disturbed every time I think of it, but I have no idea what to do.

I make the situation worse with each piece of Chinese produced electronics I buy. Without the Chinese today there is nothing.

How sad.

The Less Pretty Look At Steve Jobs

Some have wondered whether Apple has become the Big Brother/1984 company they railed against in their famous Super Bowl ad? It’s a fair question.

Like most of us I was saddened by Steve Jobs death. I wrote about his accomplishments. Then I read Gawker’s portrayal of Jobs and remembered my upset/concerns with those same things. If you only want to remember the innovator Jobs click elsewhere. There is more to this complex man and the company he built.

Jobs created a tightly controlled vertical infrastructure for Apple products. Once you buy an iPhone or iPad you are stuck buying everything else you need from Apple!

If I come up with a great program for your iPhone or iPad I cannot sell it directly to you. I cannot sell it at all without selling it through (and giving a cut of the profits to) Apple. I can’t even write a program Apple would consider for its iTunes Store without writing it using Apple’s tools and a Mac! That is an artificial barrier.

From Gawker: In the name of protecting children from the evils of erotica — “freedom from porn” — and adults from one another, Jobs has banned from being installed on his devices gay art, gay travel guides, political cartoons, sexy pictures, Congressional candidate pamphlets, political caricature, Vogue fashion spreads, systems invented by the opposition, and other things considered morally suspect.

Imagine you bought a Ford and were only permitted to fill it with Ford gasoline. Same thing.

Some have wondered whether Apple has become the Big Brother/1984 company they railed against in their famous Super Bowl ad? It’s a fair question. After all, today it is Apple that’s all about slavish conformity and control.

Apple is also a company that’s moved American jobs offshore. As far as I know all their products are now manufactured overseas. As Mike Daisey wrote in the New York Times:

Apple’s rise to power in our time directly paralleled the transformation of global manufacturing. As recently as 10 years ago Apple’s computers were assembled in the United States, but today they are built in southern China under appalling labor conditions. Apple, like the vast majority of the electronics industry, skirts labor laws by subcontracting all its manufacturing to companies like Foxconn, a firm made infamous for suicides at its plants, a worker dying after working a 34-hour shift, widespread beatings, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to meet high quotas set by tech companies like Apple.

There’s no doubt much of what Jobs did was good. He was not a saint.

On Steve Jobs

We all want to work for a company where only quality matters. This is the type of business people want to see succeed!

Earlier this evening Alec Baldwin tweeted: “Sad about Steve Jobs. On par with Henry Ford, Carnegie and Edison.” Sad because Steve Jobs passed away. The cause hasn’t been released, but he’s fought hard against pancreatic cancer. Few beat it.

What Baldwin said is true. Steve Jobs deserves to be compared with Henry Ford, Carnegie and Edison. It’s not just that he was an innovator, he was an innovator consistently over decades.

I saw the Mac in the early 80s. A computer store opened in Buffalo down the block from the TV station. Everything about the Mac was different. I remember playing with it at the store. Magical.

The Mac had a graphic interface and mouse. These were new concepts!

It was physically beautiful.

It’s understandable Jobs/Apple had a loyal fanbase. Apple consistently made high quality, well performing, state-of-the-art hardware. His products were never the cheapest and often the most expensive. They were always the best engineered.

We all want to work for a company where only quality matters. This is the type of business people want to see succeed!

Apple protects its customers in a way that’s not attractive to me. I like to tinker. Apple’s aren’t meant for tinkering. I understand its value to other people.

Apple supported its products by building up an infrastructure to fill them. The iPhone and iPad wouldn’t be so satisfying without the iTunes Store.

Back in the early days it was Steve Wozniak who was the tech genius. Woz wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without Jobs, the most effective product salesman I’ve ever seen. He owned every presentation.

It’s sad. Guys like Steve Jobs don’t come around often. His absence will be felt.

Alas, even money can’t buy off death.

The Mysterious ITunes One Percent Tax

The funny thing is I wouldn’t have bothered looking had the tax not been as small as it is! What tax is 1%?

A few days ago I bought two games for my iPhone. EA had a 99&#162 sale. I couldn’t resist.

Today the receipt came via email (which Gmail thought was spam and not really from Apple). Added to my $1.98 purchase was 2&#162 for tax.

The tax rate works out to 1%. Connecticut’s sales tax is 6%.

Apple has a physical presence in-state. There are a few Apple Stores. That normally means they must charge state sales tax.

There’s no explanation on the receipt beyond “tax.” Something is weird.

I entered “iTunes tax” into Google. A few other people have asked the same question I’m asking, but with no good answer. Some were in states with no sales tax!

From the search results it’s also obvious lots of states would like to tax iTunes purchases, but as far as I see don’t.

A search on the iTunes support page also produced no info.

The funny thing is I wouldn’t have bothered looking had the tax not been as small as it is! What tax is 1%?

Now this 2&#162 charge will drive me crazy!

An IPhone Revisit

“Call Harold Fox home,” I’ll say. “Subway State Street work,” the phone will reply.

It’s been about a year since I got my iPhone. That’s long enough to form an opinion, right?

I love/hate the phone! No middle ground. Some things are spectacular while others leave me scratching my head.

Recently a friend told me he was shying away from a touchscreen phone because he was scared he wouldn’t be able to hit the keys correctly. That fear, which I shared before getting the iPhone, is overblown. You get used to touching correctly to achieve your goal in a hurry. Even when you miss the auto-correction is mostly good–not always!

There’s so much the phone does… so many reasons to use it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at dinner with co-workers or even talking to a friend and pulled out the phone to find the answer to a question. That’s powerful!

I don’t own a GPS unit for my car, but the iPhone is a more than passable stand-in using free software from MapQuest.

It’s beautifully built. The iPhone is Swiss watchlike in its fit and finish.

What irks me is what the phone won’t do. I can’t sync to my laptop without getting a cable and plugging the phone in. Is the phone capable of syncing wirelessly? Yes, because apps exist to do just that with a jailbroken&#185 phone. Apple just won’t allow it!

The same goes for streaming audio. If I listen to NPR’s streaming programs Apple says they must go through the iPhone’s tiny speaker which is hardly audible in my car. I know I can stream to my Bluetooth earpiece because I have a program which does that, but only on phones which are jailbroken.

Some of Apple’s moves are unexplainable. Others are to protect its revenue stream. That seems stingy considering I’ve already bought the phone.

I like to use the handsfree dialing capability. With my earpiece in one it’s just one press of a button away. It is by far the least dependable part of the phone!

“Call Harold Fox home,” I’ll say.

“Subway State Street work,” the phone will reply.

Then I have to scramble to cancel the call before it goes through.

Once when calling my parents it couldn’t figure out which phone.

“Harold Fox, home or mobile?” it asked.

“Home,” I replied.

“Mobile,” the phone confirmed and off it went to ring up my parent’s cellphone.

I guess the true test of any product is if you’d buy another?

Yes, I would.

&#185 – Jailbreaking refers to unlocking the phone so software which hasn’t been approved by Apple can be installed.

I’ve Got No Choice With Apple’s New Terms

No negotiations. No grace period. Agree or stay away. Agree is the only choice you’re given–literally and figuratively!

I picked up a new app for my iPhone tonight. That meant going to the apps store where a new license agreement was waiting for me.

I pasted my screencap in at a larger than normal size so you could easily see what I saw. The agreement is 62 screens long!

I really had no choice. In order to properly bring my iPhone updated and enhanced software I have to agree. No negotiations. No grace period. Agree or stay away. Agree is the only choice you’re given–literally and figuratively!

That sucks.

What is it that Apple wants that takes up 62 pages? What do they want today they didn’t want yesterday? Why can they change the rule after I’ve already bought the phone and gotten locked into their system?

There’s a good reason I feel powerless.

I don’t have the answers. I wish I did.

Jailbreaking My iPhone

Jailbreaking is against at&t’s/Apple’s policies. End of story until last week when the Librarian of Congress ruled it’s actually OK.

I performed a jailbreak on my iPhone Sunday night.

Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users to run third-party unsigned code on their devices by unlocking the operating system and allowing the user root access. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download many extensions and themes previously unavailable through the App Store via unofficial installers such as Cydia. A jailbroken iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch is still able to use the App Store and iTunes.

Jailbreaking is against at&t’s/Apple’s policies. End of story until last week when the Librarian of Congress ruled it’s actually OK. The Library of Congress is the keeper of copyrights and this is an exemption they can issue… and did.

The jailbreak itself was incredibly easy. That’s a problem. All I did was visit a website and click one link. Too easy–seriously. It makes me very uneasy.

Someone found a security hole in the iPhone’s Safari web browser wide enough to drive a truck through. The jailbreak worked because an improperly formed pdf file was able to gain access to the ‘root’ of the iPhone’s operating system.

It was OK this time because I consciously downloaded the file. Unfortunately someone could fashion a drive-by attack using the same method (and here are some examples already tried!)! Go to a website, get infected invisibly!

This is a weakness caused by Apple’s programming. I’m astounded they haven’t immediately fixed the problem.

Obviously I have crossed purposes here. I want to jailbreak, but I don’t want others to have similar access without my permission.

I’m also upset with the writers of this jailbreak code. By openly exploiting this weakness they created a roadmap for those with less noble purpose.

A lot of the responsibility rests on Apple because their policies have limited the inherent capabilities of the iPhone. People just want to unlock what the phone can actually do. There is an incentive to delve into grey areas which Apple could easily fill.

There’s lots of blame to go around. There’s lots that’s troubling.

Oh Apple

Oh Apple. You shot yourself in the foot with your own gun. It wasn’t pretty. Even Toyota feels bad for you.

Oh Apple. You shot yourself in the foot with your own gun. It wasn’t pretty. Even Toyota feels bad for you.

To briefly recap, Apple released the iPhone 4 to uniformly rave reviews. Then people began to notice holding the phone in your hand could weaken the signal enough to disconnect your call!

PC World said,

In an e-mail Jobs downplayed users’ reception gripes as a “non-issue.” Meanwhile, others within Apple are advising iPhone 4 users to avoid gripping the device from the lower left corner.

Yeah user–it’s your fault.

Later Apple claimed there was no antenna problem. The signal bars were calculated improperly (meaning they historically made at&t’s network look better than it was!). Now Consumer Reports has burst that balloon.

When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.

Apple is putting on a clinic in how to kill your brand. Their strong selling points were unquestioned quality and reliability. This isn’t some Acer or Asus–it’s Apple.

Airlines walked this road. Early on the old line airlines turned up their noses at the low cost competitors. That service differential is gone. Now they compete solely on price and the legacy carriers operate from a weakened position.

Apple has scheduled a Friday press conference. They need to take responsibility even if they don’t feel responsible. Apple needs to finally claim some high ground.

The Frustration Of Style Over Substance

What happened to play testing products? The developers probably never use the product once it’s out of their dev hands.

We’re going on vacation soon, cruising to the Canadian Maritimes. I thought it would be nice to pack my iPhone with some ‘content’ so I could sit on deck, soak up the sun and be ‘edutained.’

I headed to iTunes last night–specifically the podcast section. There are hundreds of geeky university lectures to listen to or see.

You want me to admit I’m King Geek? Fine. I’m King Geek.

Often these lectures delve into subjects far off the beaten path. Thankfully the iPhone’s beautiful screen makes seeing and reading text easy… except here.

In order to preserve the beauty of the page design the descriptive text has been truncated to the point the subject matter can’t be discerned! Look at the screencap (above left) and see if you can figure out what these lectures are about?

Really Apple? Is this what you really wanted to do?

Apple isn’t alone here. My Comcast DVR often cuts movie and program titles to a single word. What movie or show is “Murder?” Who the hell knows? I surely don’t.

What happened to play testing products? The developers probably never use the product once it’s out of their dev hands.

Isn’t anyone looking to see if what’s been designed actually works?

Blogger’s addendum: Yes I was up at 4:37 AM getting this screencap. Guilty as charged.

Iphone’s Rotten Apple

We decided from the outset to set the formula for our bars-of-signal strength indicator to make the iPhone look good — to make it look as if it “gets more bars”. That decision has now bitten us on our ass.

Oh Apple. How could you take the sparkle covered unicorn of technology, the iPhone 4, and screw it up? The controversy over cell reception with the new iPhone 4 is fading away, but make no mistake you are injured. It’s not pretty.

If you’ve been under a rock for the last week or so let me set the scene.

Apple released the new iPhone 4 and almost immediately heard from users there were reception problems. Hold your hand in the wrong place (the most convenient place for your hand to be) and the incoming signal as displayed on the beautiful iPhone 4 screen would plunge. Some folks reported going from four bars to just one by merely picking up their phone.

A name was coined for the problem: Death Grip. That’s a p.r. nightmare in itself.

Steve Jobs’ rollout of the iPhone 4 played up the new ‘integrated in the case’ antenna. That means the whole hand/reception problem was more than a little embarrassing.

Last Thursday Endgadget posted this response to the antenna problem from Apple:

In essence, Apple cops to the fact there are reception issues with the new iPhone — namely, that if you cover the bottom-left corner of the phone and bridge the gap between the notch there with your naked flesh, you could see some signal degradation. Yes, you read that right: it’s not a software or production issue, simply a matter of the physical location of your hand in regards to the phone’s antenna. The company’s suggested fix? Move your hand position, or get a case which covers that part of the phone, thus breaking contact.

So Apple’s checked the problem and it’s YOU! Maybe they misread the old adage as “the customer is always right handed?”

On top of this a series of emails were circulated and attributed to Steve Jobs. In Jobs’ typically terse style they dismiss or downplay the complaints of Apple’s customers. Some took a decidedly “let them eat cake” tone.

There’s a question now whether those emails were real but no one disavowed them at the time. Disavow and undo are two separate concepts.

Finally today another announcement from Apple… a strange announcement.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong.

So, yes a hand in the wrong spot does reduce the signal strength, but not to the extent shown on the phone.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball rewrote Apple’s announcement to reflect what he sees as the reality of the situation:

We decided from the outset to set the formula for our bars-of-signal strength indicator to make the iPhone look good — to make it look as if it “gets more bars”. That decision has now bitten us on our ass.

This condition has existed since the iPhone was first released which means Apple and at&t have been lying about mistakenly reporting signal strength in their favor since day one! That’s a whole other can of worms.

If Apple wasn’t so secretive… if Apple hadn’t taken such a greedily protective stance toward the iPhone this might not be a big deal. But they are and it is.

Blogger’s addendum: Though my iPhone could be running iOS4 I have held back because of jailbreaking, a process which enables me to install software Apple might not approve of (on my phone). So far no reliable, simple, reversible jailbreak has been issued. I expect I won’t have long to wait.

More On AT&T’s Less Data Plan

These are bandwidth hungry applications. You can’t use Netflix for iPhone on a regular basis and expect to stay within the new monthly caps.

Apple is kicking off their annual developers conference, aka WWDC. As is usually the case Steve Jobs is presenting. I’m letting Twitter keep me updated.

Before getting to the new iPhone (very impressive hardware improvements) Jobs talked about some new apps, specifically Farmville (ugh) and Netflix.

This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier post. These are bandwidth hungry applications. You can’t use Netflix for iPhone on a regular basis and expect to stay within the new monthly caps.

NY Times: Download an hour-long TV show to a smartphone or tablet and you’ve used 550 megabytes, or well over a quarter of your monthly allotment. Streaming a two-hour movie from Netflix consumes 300 megabytes.

By the way, I have no idea why an hour long TV show uses nearly twice as much data as a two hour movie. The numbers aren’t as important as the general concept: Bandwidth drives innovation.

Will Greed Bite Some Companies In The Butt?

Hey Apple, Google and Facebook I’m talking to you!

It’s a bad time to be greedy. I’m not saying every greedy company is going to get smacked (Do dreams ever come true?), but there will be some examples made. There must be some schvitzing going on at the highest levels of BP and Goldman Sachs.

Or, possibly, those companies feel they’re impervious to our wrath. Alas, they’re probably right.

On the other hand open greediness is not good for companies that make their money the old fashioned way–selling to consumers.

Hey Apple, Google and Facebook I’m talking to you!

Let’s start with Apple because this is a company so cool until recently its sh*t didn’t stink. Product-after-product came down the pipe on the backs of unicorns, gleaming with glitter. Apple’s products dominate the high end of computing and telephony where the highest profits lie.

You would think they’d be happy in Cupertino. Guess not.

Apple has shown a desire to control every part of your experience once you buy any of their products. They have done it in such a ham fisted that even Apple fanboys are starting to question their motives. These are the people who earlier would have testified on Apple’s behalf in any sh*t don’t stink litigation.

Apple’s brouhaha with Adobe over Flash is but one example of how not to do it in PR. The same goes for its iron fisted grip on what the iPhone can and cannot do (like sync to your computer wirelessly–one of many built-in capabilities Apple has forbidden from being implemented).

Actually, the best example of foot shooting comes from Apple’s ban of an app meant to show Mark Fiore‘s animated cartoons. Right after Apple turned the app down Fiore won a Pulitzer Prize. Oops. Apple relented after the damage was done.

Now Facebook is perilously close to MySpacing! The recent graphic depiction of Facebook’s shifting privacy policies and a few recently unearthed quotes from founder Mark Zuckerberg showing his contempt for his own users will drive people away.

The bad news for Facebook is this PR debacle is happening so quickly that users might revolt without even knowing what they’re revolting against. It makes no difference. Facebook will be the loser.

Of course the reason Facebook’s privacy policies have become so much less user friendly over time is because there’s more money to be made when privacy isn’t respected. That’s more greed in action.

Shouldn’t there be a point when you make more money by innovating not compromising your customers inner secrets?

Finally there’s Google. Just today Google had to backtrack on what information they get as their “Street View” vehicles comb the world. It seems they’re not just taking photos. They’re also scanning to identify WiFi hotspots so they can connect IP addresses with physical locations.

“It’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) Wi-Fi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products,” Alan Eustace, senior vice president for engineering and research

CNET headlines their story about this: “Google: Oops, we spied on your Wi-Fi.” Your information is converted into their revenue stream.

Luckily for Google their biggest search competitor is Microsoft, a previous greed poster child.

The problem for all these companies is their products are becoming more like commodities every day. The iPhone isn’t the only smartphone of its kind anymore. Facebook’s functionality can easily be replicated. Others can perfect search.

For these companies their good name is worth more every day, but only as long as it is actually a good name.

Maybe these exceptionally profitable web companies should realize their users are what gets them the cash. It’s the 21st Century. Their customers will turn on a dime.