Amazon has announced, but not yet released, a Siri-like device for your living room or kitchen. It’s called Amazon Echo.

Echo plugs into the wall and your house wifi. Configuration is via an app or browser:

Connect to your home network with a simple setup, guided by the free companion app on Fire OS and Android, plus desktop and iOS browsers.

Interesting that there’s not an iOS app. Clearly, Amazon has the resources to build one. This feels like a tactic, though a bit ham-fisted.

Echo is always on, much like “Hey Siri” or “OK Google”, always listening for its name, a name that you get to choose. Like Siri, you can ask Echo questions or give it commands, as long as they fit into its knowledge domain. Watch the video below to get a sense of how broad that domain really is. And, I suspect, that domain will continue to grow over time.

I think Amazon will sell a ton of these. Why? Because they are filling a niche that is completely unserved right now. The butler robot is coming, but it is not here yet. And your cell phone is in your pocket and requires some amount of effort to access. Like that butler robot, Echo will be forever waiting for your command, waiting to serve you up some cloud-based information, assist you with a reminder, or help make an Amazon purchase, perhaps.

One key here is that Echo does not require a subscription fee. If you do not have a Siri-like capability on your cell phone, this adds that capability, and in a form that works well in your home.

I wonder if Echo will be able to access an existing reminder/calendar system? Given the lack of an iOS setup app, is it fair to assume that any bridge to your personal calendar will be limited to Android? Time will tell on this one.

I see this as a missing piece in the move toward home automation. This seems like a natural front end for Apple HomeKit. What Siri is no doubt headed for, but without having to pull my phone out of my pocket. The tiny time savings of not having to pull your phone out of your pocket might seem like a foolish thing on which to base a business strategy, but I do think it will work. Until it gets commoditized and everyone is selling one.

Interesting piece from Seeking Alpha (reg-wall):

Once paying for purchases at retail with a smartphone becomes commonplace, regardless of whether you believe Apple will roll out its own AppleCard, the credit card companies will fall one by one, starting with American Express. How can it possibly be prestigious to carry a Platinum or Black card when the card never leaves your wallet? Is it worth $300 or more per year when mostly what you’re paying for is a string of numbers punched into a smartphone that no one will ever see? As plastic credit cards disappear, which will accelerate with adoption, the ubiquitous Visa, MasterCard and American Express logos at retail establishments will be supplanted, and only one symbol will remain – a very large Apple.

Not sure the credit card companies “will fall”. Even without the “prestige” that comes along with showing off your black card, there are still plenty of differentiators: Air miles, cash back, concierge services, just to name a few. But that small part of business culture, pulling out a gold, platinum, or black credit card, will no doubt fall to the change brought by the acceptance of NFC.

A side point: I wonder who thought of Apple Pay in the first place. Was this inherited from Steve Jobs? The idea might have evolved from the iTunes/iPhone disruption model, but I don’t recall ever seeing Apple Pay attributed to Steve. Doesn’t sound like Jony either.

I think Apple Pay is a phenomenal business idea. Just wondering if this is Tim’s brainchild.

Time to get out of there and get back to making music.

The Daily Dot:

If you were previously in denial that the Christmas season had already begun, the arrival of the annual Christmas ad from British retailer John Lewis is sure to dispel that belief.

They had me at “penguin”.

Macworld:

With the news that Microsoft is making all of its mobile Office apps free—the iPad and upcoming Android tablet versions—you knew there had to be some caveats.

I’m glad I don’t have to use Office any more but for those of you who do, my sympathies and this article will help you figure out this news.

EW:

Set in the high-stakes world of a live sports news program, the Aaron Sorkin-scribed dramedy followed the behind-the-scenes exploits of fictional “Sports Night” coanchors Casey (Peter Krause) and Dan (Josh Charles), their brilliant producer Dana (Felicity Huffman), harried associate producer Natalie (Sabrina Lloyd), gruff executive Isaac (Robert Guillaume), and whip-smart researcher Jeremy (Josh Malina).

Such a shame this show wasn’t a hit. While set in a sports world, it wasn’t specifically about sports but about the workplace and relationships much like Sorkin’s other shows. It also had amazing actors and Sorkin’s typical great writing.

Yahoo! News:

It’s mission accomplished for little green army men.

The molded plastic must-haves for generations of pretend soldiers were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday, along with the 1980s stumper Rubik’s Cube, and soap bubbles.

Hard to argue with these choices. I loved my little green army men as a kid and still enjoy popping bubble wrap (although, I wouldn’t call it a “toy”). And even though I hated the Rubik’s Cube (I was never smart enough to solve it), it is undoubtedly a classic toy.

I have one of the older Satellite units and love it. I use it all the time, along with Universal Audio’s plug-ins when I record music.

Jim and Shawn talk Tim Cook, Surface Tablets as iPad stands, Dave Grohl and indie music

Sponsored by lynda.com (Start learning something new by visiting lynda.com/thebeard and get a FREE 7-day trial where you can access all of their 2,400+ courses).

Saw this on 512 Pixels, struck me as a good list to bookmark. Enjoy.

ReCode:

John Shahidi is the king of Twitter.

Teenagers beg him for retweets, and he appears in Vine videos where friends Justin Bieber and boxer Floyd Mayweather spar in the ring. Everything that Shahidi tweets — and we mean practically everything — is retweeted and favorited thousands of times. If Shahidi mentions you in a tweet, you’ll spend the next two weeks slogging through dozens of notifications every time you open the app.

This is a great bizdev strategy. Build a social network by bringing in, as investors, people with huge followings. It also can’t hurt that Shahidi’s Twitter name is @John.

Great piece on Microsoft’s new pilot program that combines surround audio and iBeacons to help people with sight loss navigate their world.

Chris Yates, an amiable mobility instructor for the charity Guide Dogs, handed me a long, white folding cane with a rubber stopper at the bottom and quickly showed me how to sweep it from side to side, tapping the pavement in front of me as if dipping a toe into bathwater of unknown temperature. As I tried the cane, Parker placed a pair of bone-conducting headphones around the back of my skull and handed me a heavy-duty black blindfold.

I was about to try a prototype of Microsoft’s 3D soundscape technology — an audio-rich experience in which the headset, smartphone and indoor and outdoor beacons all work together to enhance the mobility, confidence and independence of people with vision loss.

Make sure your audio is on. The 3D audio is central to the experience and brings the words to life.

Apple added this enterprise support page, titled AppleCare for Enterprise, to their web site.

Because Apple makes the hardware, operating system, and many applications for every Apple product, AppleCare for Enterprise delivers integrated support and service you can’t get anywhere else. You’ll get IT department–level support by phone or email for all Apple hardware and software. We’ll provide support for complex deployment and integration scenarios, including MDM and Active Directory. And if you need help with IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps, we’ll help troubleshoot your solution and work with IBM to get your issue resolved.

AppleCare for Enterprise provides IT department–level support for six technical contacts you designate. Support is available 24/7 with one-hour response times for top-priority issues, such as when a production service is down. You can also increase the number of technical contacts for an additional fee.

At first blush, this malware, known as WireLurker, seems reasonably innocuous, since it is initially delivered solely via an app store for jailbroken iOS devices in China. It’s a little more complicated than that, which makes it potentially a lot more of an issue.

The key is how it is spread. Once you’ve downloaded a WireLurker infected app, it waits for you to connect your iOS device to your Mac. That’s where the trouble really begins. According to Palo Alto Networks, the company that discovered and named WireLurker:

Users’ iOS devices could also become infected if they connected their mobile device to their Macs through a USB wire. “WireLurker monitors any iOS device connected via USB with an infected OS X computer and installs downloaded third-party applications or automatically generated malicious applications onto the device, regardless of whether it is jailbroken,” Palo Alto Networks security researchers said. “This is the reason we call it ‘wire lurker.’”

Obviously, if you don’t jailbreak your phone, and if you stay away from unverified USB chargers, you should be safe, right?

That’s where the potential trouble spot lies. The key here is staying within the trusted bubble of the iOS and Mac App Stores. Short of installing a test app, there really is no easy way to get a non-verified app onto your iOS device. But what about the Mac App Store? There are many apps that are freely downloaded from the net, not verified by Apple. What’s to prevent WireLurker from embedding itself in one of those apps and spreading to non-jailbroken iOS devices?

WireLurker points out a weakness in the Apple ecosystem. Is it preventable? Certainly, if you stay within Apple’s bubble of safety, only downloading apps via the App Store. But given that people will not abide by that limitation, is there something Apple can do to prevent this sort of attack? I don’t know the answer to this, but I would wager a large beverage that this exact question is the subject of much discussion in the hallowed halls in Cupertino.

Open Culture:

I still remember the thrill I felt when I happened upon a set of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories at an antique store. For a mere ten dollars, I acquired handsomely bound, suitably patina-of-age-bearing editions of each and every one of the sleuth of 221B Baker Street’s adventures that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote.

These days, especially given the recent ruling (just re-affirmed by the Supreme Court) that Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories “are no longer covered by United States copyright law and can be freely used by creators without paying any licensing fee to the Conan Doyle estate,” you can download the complete Sherlock Holmes canon in a variety of ebook formats, from PDF to ePub to ASCII to MOBI for Kindle.

At age 11, I received the complete works as a Christmas present from my grandmother. I devoured the stories before New Years and read them over and over again for years. I’m downloading this as we speak.

I guess in the U.S. this would be akin to trying to hire a hitman.

I don’t see the problem.

A wonderful pictorial by Doug Menuez with pictures of Jobs that I hadn’t seen before.

A friend of mine is selling this guitar and it’s a beauty. I wish I had the money to pick it up.

Pixelmator for iPad is a powerful image editor that gives you everything you need to create, edit, and enhance your images. It lets you work seamlessly between Mac and iPad and even work effortlessly with Photoshop images. Packed with powerful creative tools and engineered to harness the full iOS and 64-bit architecture power, Pixelmator for iPad is a real image editor right at your fingertips.

Chris Hadfield:

When David Bowie wrote and recorded Space Oddity in 1969, I wonder if he ever imagined it being played in orbit? Even more so, would he have imagined (or worried about) the legal concerns of extra-planetary music?

When the original video was pulled, there was a lot of complaining and misunderstanding of the reasons. Hadfield does a great job of explaining the story.

Dan Frakes:

Here are some of my favorite iOS 8 features, in no particular order, with an emphasis on things that haven’t been exhaustively covered elsewhere. I hope you discover something new and useful.

Dan has some great tidbits here. My favourite is the SMS relay feature.

Macworld:

The latest release of AgileBits’ password manager is as good as ever—and a perfect companion for OS X Yosemite.

I can’t recommend 1Password enough. Indispensable to my computer use.

Quartz:

It didn’t take long for me to get used to Apple’s large new iPhone 6 Plus. After more than a month of everyday use, it has become even more of the pocket computer I’ve always wanted. A few thoughts.

The article hits a lot of the points I was curious about. Anyone else have similar or dissimilar stories about using their iPhone 6/6 Plus for the past month?

The Robservatory:

Dearly beloved…

On this, the occasion of its 14th birthday, we’re gathered here to mark the passing of Mac OS X Hints.

While it can be hard to tell exactly when a web site has died, the signs are fairly obvious. It’s been over 45 days since the last new hint appeared on the site. There is no way for new users to sign up for an account. There’s been one new comment posted in the last two days. A sidebar box proudly proclaims Latest Mountain Lion Hints. The site design, logo, and icons were last updated when I worked for Macworld, over four years ago. To paraphrase a Star Trek character, “it’s dead, Jim.”

While Rob, the originator of Mac OS X Hints, makes a clear case as to why the site is no longer as needed as it has been in the past, it’s dormancy is still a shame. It was a site many of us relied on in the early days of Mac OS X to try and figure out the ins and outs of the new operating system.

Outside:

As airlines pack more passengers than ever onto each plane, a single storm can reverberate through the system—leaving flyers stranded as agents scramble to find ever-rarer empty seats on later flights. But you aren’t entirely at the mercy of the airlines. Should your itinerary be delayed, cancelled, or overbooked, knowing your rights can be the difference between a $300 voucher and a long night at the airport, for more information o this subject find all air passenger rights here . As air travel gets more and more onerous, it’s important to know what you are supposed to receive when the airline makes a mistake. As always, be firm but polite with any airline agents you speak to. First, get in line to speak with an agent. You might also want to call the airline while you wait. Typically, if your flight is canceled, the majority of airlines will rebook you on the next flight available to your destination at no additional cost. However, depending on why your flight was canceled, finding seats on a new flight may prove difficult and may alter your travel plans considerably. But when you fly with sky aviation, you will never experience any hassle or delays.

“In the event of a flight delay or cancellation, travel advisors have a number of tools to assist,” says Peter Vlitas, senior vice president of airline relations at Travel Leaders Group, one of the largest travel agency companies. “If we anticipate flight delays due to weather, for example, travel advisors receive advance waivers so they can select alternative flights before they sell out.”

If you didn’t purchase flights through a travel adviser, you can pay for Cranky Concierge’s Urgent Assistance plan, which charges a fee per one-way flight to help travelers find a solution to flight changes (either delays, cancellations or missed connections) and proactively monitor future trips. You can also try booking flights at Jettly if you want to schedule your flight at the time of day that is most convenient for you.

Writing for ReCode, Walt Mossberg lays out his thoughts on MCX and their anti-Apple Pay tactics. You no doubt know all the details (if not, click here).

CVS had no comment for this article, but MCX did grant me an interview.

When I asked the CEO of the MCX consortium, Dekkers Davidson, what he and the consortium were afraid of, he said, “nothing.” In fact, he said that eventually there ought to be multiple “compelling” mobile payments systems.

However, Davidson explained, MCX insisted on exclusivity for now, to provide “breathing room” for the development of CurrentC. When I asked whether that meant the merchants didn’t want another system to catch on, he said no, and repeatedly explained what a massive undertaking CurrentC is. He added that the exclusivity rule would expire in “months, not years.”

And this nugget:

Davidson flatly denied that MCX had ordered CVS to turn off Apple Pay, and he speculated that CVS might have simply done so because it had signed the exclusivity policy. He noted that one MCX member, the family-owned Midwest supermarket chain Meijer, hasn’t shut off Apple Pay.

Is there a difference? If the agreement with CVS specifically calls for exclusivity, that’s equivalent to an order for exclusivity. And if they acknowledge exclusivity, why make the case that Meijer did not adhere to that policy? I can only imagine what’s going on in the MCX boardroom right now. Fear, confusion, and a lot of finger pointing.

CNET:

Samsung was replaced by the iPhone maker as No. 1 in China’s mobile sector this year, according to the China Brand Research Center’s 2014 China Brand Power Index ranking report released Tuesday.

The Suwon, Korea-based company had previously held the top spot since 2012.

The China Brand Research Center calculated this year’s rankings by polling 13,500 Chinese across 30 cities, aged 15 to 60, from August 2013 to January 2014, about brand awareness and loyalty.

The report said Samsung failed to secure its first-place mobile ranking due to a focus on market share leading to falling consumer loyalty.