May 17, 2012

Dustin Curtis:

I’m not particularly surprised that Twitter is doing this kind of data analysis or collection. Facebook is almost certainly doing the same thing. But it is wrong. People do not expect Twitter or Facebook to know about their movements on the web. But they do. And that information is being stored somewhere. It is a violation of privacy and trust.
After almost forty five years of ownership rock superstar Jay Geils is selling his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. He has owned it since 1967 and it has appeared on every single J.Geils Band recording as well as on live shows around the world. Jay has played it on stage with bluesman B.B King, Duane Allman from the Allman Brothers Band, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells . Jay affectionately calls it his “lunch pail” Les Paul because he made his living for so many years playing it.

Somebody needs to buy this for me.

Austin Carr:

And, according to J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler, Jobs even envisioned rethinking the automotive industry. Speaking at Fast Company’s recent Innovation Uncensored conference, Drexler clued the audience in on some insider Apple knowledge.“Look at the car industry; it’s a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?” Drexler said. “Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar.”
“Every man looks better with a beard. Here’s proof.”

It’s what Jim and I have been saying for years.

Poornima Gupta for Reuters:

Apple Inc plans to power its main U.S. data center entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address longstanding environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms.

Apple has been the subject of protests by Greenpeace for using so-called “dirty” energy – power generated by the burning of coal – rather than through the use of renewable resources such as wind or solar.

The company said it’s buying equipment to power two solar farms to be built near its Maiden, NC data center. Once they’re operational they’ll generate 84 million kWh annually, according to the report. A small “bio-gas fuel-cell plant” will also be constructed.

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer told Reuters the company’s goal is to make all three of its data centers coal-free. He added that he’s unaware of any company working on onsite energy generation at Apple’s scale.

Of course, Greenpeace wants more.

“… Apple must adopt a firm siting policy to prioritize renewable energy when it chooses locations for new data centers. Only then will customers have confidence that the iCloud will continue to get cleaner as it grows,” said Greenpeace International Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook.

DVICE:

…financial institutions, mobile handset makers and carriers have dreamed of turning your cellphone into a mobile wallet, to use your smartphone the same way you use a credit or debit card.Finally, this year we may finally reach this near field communication (NFC) nirvana, of simply waving our smartphone over a retail payment terminal instead of a credit or debit card to pay for our copiously consumed commodities.There’s only one problem. Using your smartphone as a credit or debit card replacement may be more trouble than it’s worth.

I can’t imagine doing this on a regular basis. Too many concerns about security and data integrity for me.

U.S. Senators on Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s decision to renounce his citizenship to avoid paying taxing:

“It’s infuriating to see someone sell out the country that welcomed him and kept him safe, educated him and helped him become a billionaire,” said Senator Charles Schumer at a news briefing. “We plan to put a stop to this tax avoidance scheme.”Facebook plans to raise billions of dollars in an initial public offering that could leave Saverin, still a part-owner of the social networking company, with a big capital gains tax bill, estimated to be $67 million.

Xfinity replaces broadband usage cap with additional fees

Cable and Internet service provider Comcast on Thursday announced plans to replace its broadband usage cap with what it calls an “improved data usage management approach.” The bottom line: If you’re a heavy user of Comcast’s broadband Internet services, you may be paying more for the privilege. The news comes from a post to Comcast’s blog attributed to executive VP and general manager of communications and data services, Cathy Avgiris.

Comcast has been under fire in recent weeks after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and others suggested that Comcast’s “Xfinity for Xbox” app violated the spirit, if not the letter, of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy on “net neutrality” – the principle that Internet service providers such as Comcast should not restrict communication from some services over others. Comcast doesn’t count data transmitted through the Xfinity app against the user’s bandwidth cap, unlike similar software from other companies, including HBO and Netflix.

Comcast, for its part, denies that this is the case, and has said in statements that Xfinity for Xbox is run on its own private IP network, and is therefore not subject to net neutrality rules. This point is underscored by Avgiris, who wrote, “…for the last six months we have been analyzing the market and our process and think that now is the time to begin to move to a new plan. This conclusion was only reinforced when, in recent weeks, some of the conversation around our new product introductions focused on our data usage threshold, rather than on the exciting opportunities we are offering our customers.”

Avgiris tacitly admittedly that Comcast’s bandwidth usage cap hasn’t kept up with technology. “Four years ago, when we first instituted a broadband Internet data usage threshold, the iPhone had just been introduced…the iPad didn’t exist…and the experience of watching streaming video on your home PC or through a Roku box or direct to an Internet-capable TV was much different than it is now.”

Avgiris said that over the next few months, Comcast will trial its new data usage management policy, starting with new tiered “usage allotments.” The good news is that everyone will get more bandwidth to play with: 300 GB per month, up from 250 GB. Users who opt for Comcast’s Blast and Extreme services will have higher allotments, and users who require additional bandwidth will be charged $10 per 50 GB.

“In markets where we are not trialing a new data usage management approach, we will suspend enforcement of our current usage cap as we transition to a new data usage management approach, although we will continue to contact the very small number of excessive users about their usage,” wrote Avgiris.

(Thanks to Dwight Silverman at the Houston Chronicle for first alerting us of this change via Twitter.)

GamePolitics.com:

Blizzard has issued an apology to all the players all over the world that suffered through trying to log onto Battle.net to play Diablo III over the last few days. The company says that they have been humbled by players and by the gargantuan task of trying to keep Battle.net servers up and running as millions of people (many in vain) attempted to play the game. As of now, they say everything is stable and players should have no problems logging in.

Some Mac users have also complained about the performance of Diablo III’s Mac version. Anecdotal reports suggest that Diablo III performs better on some Macs running Windows in Boot Camp than natively in OS X.

Blogging is not a thing, it’s an attitude

After almost 20 years of writing news stories and blogs about Apple, it’s become very clear to me that large media companies do not get blogging. This isn’t new, but it’s not changing either.

Setting up a section of your Web site and giving it a different name does not make you hip and cool. You don’t all of a sudden become a blogger one day because you call something a blog.

What these organizations don’t seem to realize is that a blog is more about attitude than the real estate it takes up on your servers.

A blog isn’t about the feelings of the company, but rather a personal look at the writer. You can’t assign a blogger a story and hope the audience doesn’t get the fact that they have no idea what they’re talking about or worse yet, they don’t really care.

Readers connect with a blogger. They know things about them, they laugh together and sometimes argue over points in a story. It’s a give and take relationship that not everyone can handle.

Blogging is not about being stiff and rigid in your writing, but being flexible and flowing with ideas. It doesn’t matter if everyone agrees with your thoughts. In fact, that would be really boring — but you write it anyway.

If large media companies want their writers to be bloggers, they need to let them go. Bloggers need to feel free to express themselves and their opinions. There are plenty of great bloggers on the Internet — many of them came from these large organizations, but weren’t allowed to post their thoughts.

Blogging is also about trust. If you’re readers know that you are writing from your heart, they will listen. They will engage you, and in the process you will learn something new. That, in turn, will help shape your opinions.

Blogging doesn’t have an agenda, other than expressing your true thoughts on a subject.

This update enables sandboxing for OS X Lion and improves overall stability.

This is the very first app I’ve heard of that implements sandboxing.

According to Apple, “sandboxing protects the system by limiting the kinds of things an application can do, such as accessing files on disk or resources over the network. Limiting the capabilities of an app to just those operations that it needs to perform helps keep the rest of the system more secure in the event that an app is compromised.”

Not a big surprise to see the Pixelmator team ahead of the curve on implementing new features.

May 16, 2012

Philip Michaels:

Verizon wants more of its subscribers to opt for shared data plans which cover multiple devices like smartphones and tablets. To convince subscribers who’ve clung to their unlimited data plans to move to this new setup, Verizon is taking much of the choice out of the decision process: If you want to upgrade to a new 4G-compatible phone, you’re going to have to give up that unlimited data.

The carrot and stick.

Joe Palazzolo:

Apple, which hired Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP to fight the claims, said in a recent court filing that Siri may not be perfect — in fact, she is a Beta release, something the company has been upfront about — but she’s still “cutting edge.”

I don’t believe these blood sucking fools are suing for this. They should be sued for being stupid.

It has been fun to see Mark Zuckerberg go from being the awkward college dude to being a mega-billionaire.
Hello iPhoto for iPad & iPhone interactively guides you through all the features of iPhoto. With over 200 screenshots, you’re going to get an in-depth look at iPhoto and so many cool and hidden features.

This is what I love about iBooks Author — interactivity and well designed books.

Variety:

Sony Pictures has tapped its Oscar-winning “Social Network” scribe Aaron Sorkin to adapt “Steve Jobs,” Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography of the late Apple co-founder.Sorkin, who earned an Oscar for adapting Ben Mezrich’s Facebook tome “The Accidental Billionaires,” previously wrote “Moneyball” for the studio. His other feature credits include the politically-themed trio “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “The American President” and “A Few Good Men,” as well as “Malice.”

This announcement alone guarantees the movie will be better than anything Ashton Kutcher stars in.

The first five shots are from mockups as they evolved. The last screen shot is the shipping version — a screen shot from the app.
Jim and Dan talk about headphone guitar amps, a larger screened iPhone, the rumor of Mac’s with retina screens, Facebook streaming Casablanca, the Gibson Sheryl Crow Southern Jumbo Guitar, and Apple’s defense of Siri.Sponsored by Hover and Rackspace.

Reuters:

The service will allow passengers to send and receive text messages, emails and access the Internet on Virgin Atlantic’s new Airbus A330-300 planes flying between London and New York.The in-flight service is targeting business travelers and will be available in all cabins, although limited to six users at a time.
The guitar, handcrafted by Gibson Acoustic in Bozeman, Montana, is built with a top made from prized solid Adirondack red spruce and back and sides of solid mahogany. This special edition model is enhanced by a 1930s advanced X-bracing pattern made with scalloped spruce braces to attain optimal acoustic resonance. Together these woods and construction techniques provide a blend of depth, clarity, richness and warmth along with the power and projection that made the Southern Jumbo famous.

Jeff John Roberts for paidContent:

In a strongly worded opinion, US District Judge Denise Cote rejected requests by Apple and five book publishers to throw out a class action suit that accuses them of price-fixing.Citing ongoing state, federal and international antitrust investigations, Cote turned down arguments that Apple and the publishers had acted independently when they changed the pricing model for e-books.

Fascinating, I had no idea this book was even available. Thanks to Ian Hamilton for sending this to me.

May 15, 2012
For many users, the advent of smartphone technology has dramatically changed what they look for in a cell phone device. Two smartphones makers, Apple and Research in Motion (RIM), enter the ACSI with very different results. At 83, Apple (iPhone) leads the field by a long shot, while RIM (Blackberry) lags behind as the least satisfying at 69.“Companies with weak customer satisfaction often have weak stock performance,” notes Fornell. “RIM’s sales are slumping amid a bevy of problems, from hardware and software issues to server lapses that have caused email and messaging outages. Over the past year, share price for RIM has virtually collapsed.”At 83, Apple’s iPhone is a game changer when it comes to customer satisfaction. No other cell phone company has ever broken into the 80s. Apple’s nearest competitors this year are three companies tied at 75: Nokia (+3%) and ACSI newcomers LG and HTC.

So, Apple is on top and RIM sucks balls. Seems about right.

The 1440 Challenge is an awards program — totaling $75,000 — aimed at further developing the best new ideas that help people learn, improve, and share the life skills of self-awareness, authenticity, trust, and empathy. These relationship skills help people connect at deeper levels with themselves, each other, and their communities. By leveraging communication technology and social media, winning entries will accelerate the development of these skills in the areas of education, wellness, or the workplace.

Go collect your money people.

Mashable:

Grab some popcorn and your laptop. Facebook users on Wednesday night will be treated to a one-night only screening of the classic film Casablanca, which will be streamed from the film’s brand page.Casablanca — the winner of three Academy Awards in 1944 and often heralded as one of the best movies of all time (according to, among others, world-renowned film critic Roger Ebert) — will be complimentary streamed on Casablanca’s Facebook page on May 16 at 7:00 p.m. ET. Only one screening for each Facebook account is permitted.

I’m begging you – don’t do this. Rent the disc, sit in front of your TV on your comfy couch with a loved one and watch it. There’s no magic in watching this wonderful movie on your laptop.

PCWorld:

Apple has stopped calling the new iPad “4G-capable” after regulators cracked down on its U.S.-only capability to connect to high-speed LTE networks. Although it is still listed as being “4G LTE capable,” the new iPad is now called “Wi-Fi + Cellular” instead of “Wi-Fi + 4G” in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, and several parts of Asia.Apple’s labeling drew criticism from regulators in Australia because its advertisements misled regarding the device’s 4G connectivity, and Apple also got complaints from customers in Europe.

Steve Wildstrom:

But based on what I heard from an admittedly limited sample in Seattle, that’s not where real peoples’ concerns lie. Their worries about online privacy are less corporate and much more personal and intimate. Privacy concerns are real, but the policy responses can seem like solutions in search of problems.

I think this sums up my feelings pretty well. Privacy is a personal issue and one that we sometimes give up freely for a small reward.

In case you’re not familiar with Glassboard, here’s the deal: what Pair is to the bedroom, and Path is to the rec room, Glassboard is to the board room. (Hence “board” in the name. “Glass” refers to your phone’s screen.)In other words, it’s great for teams (whether co-workers or not). It uses the same statuses, comments, and sharing that we’re all used to from social networks — except that Glassboard is private.

Nice looking new version from Brent Simmons and Sepia Labs.

Mat Honan for Gizmodo:

This is the story of a wonderful idea. Something that had never been done before, a moment of change that shaped the Internet we know today. This is the story of Flickr. And how Yahoo bought it and murdered it and screwed itself out of relevance along the way.

And thus begins and impressively long and detailed accounting of photo sharing service Flickr’s rise and fall. As a long-time Flickr user, I’ve been really disappointed with how Yahoo has mismanaged it. It’s great to see Mat Honan deconstruct the situation and explain it for exactly what it is.

Lots of respect for Stephen, his family and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.