BrianKaneOnline » Apple

It Just Works…After These Messages From Our Sponsors

Brian — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:22:35 +0000

While everybody has been obsessing over the iPhone 4G “Antennagate” issue, the British IT news website The Register notes that Apple has submitted a continuation of a patent they submitted in 2009 that integrates advertisements into the operating system in a way that literally stops everything the computer is doing and forces the user to watch the ad before letting them continue working.

The code would allow the user to temporarily delay the ad, as shown in the diagram above. The revised code in the new patent filing does remove provisions that would deter users from disabling or tampering with the function by causing the OS to stop responding to an input device (keyboard, mouse, etc.) or by causing the application that was running to “cease generating output”.

Apple explains the idea as a way to let people have “free” OS upgrades — instead of paying the typical $69-$129 that Apple charges for a major upgrade, you could have it for free in return for letting your computer be crippled by occasional advertisements popping up, with no way of escaping them. Building in ads in return for free software isn’t a new idea — I have a couple of apps that I use all the time that always display an ad because I didn’t want to fork over fifty bucks — and there were even some PC makers who literally gave away their computers to people but forced them to have a frame of ads around their web browser window at all times, so I suppose it was just a matter of time before somebody applied the idea to the whole damn OS. It’s just disappointing (not surprising, just disappointing) that Apple might be the first one to implement it.

Probably Not What Steve Jobs Has To Say

Brian — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:58:22 +0000

Steve Jobs is making a big public announcement today, and it’s expected that Apple will announce that they’re going to do something to fix the problem with the antenna on the iPhone 4G. Personally, I think it would be AWESOME if Apple promised to send each and every iPhone user a big ol’ roll of duct tape, but that’s probably not what’s going to happen.

Also probably not gonna happen: no official endorsement by Steverino of this awesome faux bacon carrying case for your iPhone (via bookofjoe), but I’m betting that Steve himself probably carries his duct-taped iPhone 4G in one of these beauties and shows it off to all the other bajillionaires at his Bajillionaire Club meetings.

Meanwhile, to much less fanfare…Apple has quietly announced that they are beginning a fix-or-repair program for Time Capsules purchased between February and June 2008. You will recall that there has been a well-documented problem with the hard drives inside Time Capsules overheating and failing after about 18 months of use. I’m guessing this isn’t high on Steve’s deck of Powerpoint slides today, either.

Maybe Apple Meant We Should Bury Them In Our Yards For 50 Years

Brian — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:36:13 +0000

For my birthday this year, I convinced Bridget to buy me a Time Capsule network backup server. Apple had just launched the 2TB model and retailers were dumping the older 500GB model, so it was easy to find deals on the smaller ones. Charlotte and I both have Macs, so it seemed like a good way to add a painless backup solution AND the wireless access point built into the Time Capsule let me extend the signal of our home network so that I could sit in the living room and have a nice strong signal. 500 gigs isn’t as much as it used to be in terms of storage, but it’s more than enough for our backup/archival needs.

Now I’m reading that Time Capsules seem to have a disturbingly consistent lifetime limitation of about 18 months. After that length of time, apparently the hard drives wear out from overheating, and, due to Apple’s design of the device, which doesn’t really allow you to open the box and tinker around, the whole thing turns into a lovely white-plastic-and-brushed-aluminum brick. Moreover, because this happens AFTER your warranty has expired, Apple disavows any responsibility for fixing or replacing the thing. Charming.

The writer of the Guardian article has tried to get Apple to own up to the issue; consumer protection laws in the U.K. are a bit stiffer than they are here in the U.S., and there’s a case to be made that Apple does have to replace the drives in units sold there. He also notes that thermal damage is a repeated theme in Apple hardware: similar problems have affected AirPort Express nodes and at least one Mac laptop model. This Gizmodo post about the problem points to a website called The Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register, which hopes to collect enough serial numbers of bricked Time Capsules to demonstrate that Apple is deliberately ignoring the problem.

Since I have a bit to go before my Time Capsule hits that 17 month-17 day wall, I am not quite in disaster recovery mode just yet. I happen to have another 500GB external drive that I was using on my Windows PC, and once I get that cleaned up and reformatted for Mac OS, I can use it to make an archival copy of my Time Capsule drive and set it aside for that fateful day.

Steverino Giveth And Steverino Taketh Away

Brian — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:04:29 +0000

No sooner was the rumor last week about a $99 4Gb iPhone at Wal-Mart posted around the web (including here), than it was swatted down by several other tech news sites. Ars Technica says that Bloomberg News got the straight poop: WallyWorld will be selling the same 8Gb iPhone as everybody else, but at their own price point a couple of bucks cheaper than Apple’s MSRP.

But don’t stop believin’ in Steven, because this morning Engadget found this story from a generally-reliable Mac rumor mill that shows a prototype of a smaller iPhone that could be one of the new product announcements from Steve Jobs’ keynote at the January MacWorld Expo. The smaller device is being touted as being branded the “iPhone Nano”, and the only difference between it and the existing 3G iPhone is size. THIS could actually turn out to be the $99 Wal-Mart iPhone…stay tuned for more rumor control…

(Oh, and speaking of oft-rumored-but-still-unseen products, Engadget also reports that the FCC has issued its technical approval for the Garmin Nuviphone I lust after, but that’s a whole different story.)

Linkapalooza – Tech

Brian — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:41:55 +0000

How Do You Like THEM Apples? — MacRumors.com is spreading the story that Wal-Mart is about to start selling Apple iPhones for $99. They will carry a 4GB version of the second-generation 3G iPhone, and the phone will still come with the mandatory 2-year contract with AT&T Wireless. When the iPhone first came out in 2007, there was a 4GB version, but it was discontinued with the feature bump in the 3G models. The model Wal-Mart will have is NOT the original 4GB version, but rather the current version with less storage. Speaking as someone who owns and loves a 4GB iPod Touch, I would be plenty happy with 4 gigs on an iPhone, and the $99 price tag is going to make this a serious consideration for me, even if I do have to sign up with AT&T Wireless. MacRumors says that they are expected to show up on the shelves immediately AFTER Christmas — so if you get some crappy Wal-Mart gift for Christmas, you can return it to the store in exchange for a shiny new iPhone.

Measure For Measure — Back in October, I mentioned to any readers who live in Eastern Massachusetts that Comcast was pushing the DOCSIS 3.0 firmware to our cable modems to increase bandwidth. There was no big public announcement from Comcast when this happened, so knowledge of it came through blogs and news reports and such. It appears that they’ve finished with the rollout, though, because late last week I got an e-mail from Comcast trumpeting the “free” increase. They’re also bringing out several tiers of service levels for people who want even more throughput. Though the DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade has been in the works for a while anyway, much of the marketing around their new services comes from the brouhaha about their other announcement earlier in the fall to impose usage caps. The basic tier has a 250GB/mo. cap, which is a very generous amount to most of their customers and only seriously impacts people engaged in very heavy BitTorrent or other P2P uses. The new tiers offer the options of paying for bigger caps. There was also some criticism that most customers have absolutely no clue how much bandwidth they use and thus would not know if they were pushing that 250GB barrier or not; Comcast did not immediately have a response, but now they are about to roll out a “bandwidth meter” that will let customers keep track of their usage. I predict that non-tech-savvy users will discover that they are using hardly anywhere near 250GB and there will be some calls for Comcast to offer even cheaper tiers with reduced bandwidth and throughput caps…or, it will be the side door through which the much-dreaded per-use billing will arrive.

Blu-Ray For Hollywood! — Despite the intense marketing and all those side-by-side comparison demos you see at electronics stores showing just how much better the video quality of a Blu-Ray disc is than a conventional DVD, AND the surrender of the HD-DVD format a few months ago, it seems like retailers are still having to twist arms to get people to buy standalone Blu-Ray players. One thing that might help player sales is the coming bump in storage capacity without sacrificing compatibility with existing players. Pioneer has publicly demoed a 16-layer, 400GB Blu-Ray disc that they expect to start shipping in 2010. The current 2-layer media “only” holds 50GB, so this is an 8x increase in storage (and a 100x increase over the original single-layer 4GB DVD). Imagine having an entire season of your favorite TV series or an entire movie series on a single disc instead of a box set. Then, in 2013, we have 1-terabyte Blu-Ray discs to look forward to. The only problem I can foresee is that by 2013 people may abandon disc players entirely for streaming downloads and set-top boxes selling on-demand services.

That’s Life — A team of Korean researchers have published their results on developing a new material for use in LiON batteries that could increase the length of time a charge lasts by 1000%. A typical Lithium-Ion battery in a laptop, for example, is good for a max of about four hours under ideal conditions. With this new technology, you might not have to recharge that battery for almost six months of continual use. The work they are doing involves using a variation of graphite using porous silicon. The pores increase the surface area in the graphite, which massively increases the number of lithium ions that can cling to the material, and also help the graphite hold up structurally for a longer time under repeated use. This technology might also become a critical innovation for electric cars, significantly extending the range of an electric vehicle on a single charge, which in turn would make it much less expensive to build networks of recharging stations.

Linkapalooza – Media News

Brian — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:49:02 +0000

The more I use my iPod Touch, the more I am in love with it as the portable computer gizmo I have always wanted. At this point, I’d have to say I don’t feel the need to even think about looking at the increasing number of sub-notebooks and “netbooks” flooding the market. I might, however, step up to the bigger 32GB model that was recently introduced. There are only two things about it that really need to be addressed: the lack of ability to do cut-copy-paste operations, and the lack of a Flash plugin for the Safari browser. And it’s not just me; these are the two biggest complaints of just about every singly iPhone and iTouch user.

One looks like it’s about to be remedied: earlier this week Adobe announced that they had a Flash plugin all ready to go, just as soon as Apple would give its okay. There have been some valid technical reasons to hold off on allowing a Flash plugin, primarily the issue of memory resources, but there have also been some bogus (but typical) “you have to do things OUR way” foot-stamping fits of pique from Apple that were getting in the way. From the reports of the way Adobe casually mentioned the plugin, it seems likely that they’ve solved the memory issue, but not Apple’s stubborn approach to platform issues. Nevertheless, I think they’re likely to stop being petulant and let the plugin drop because Flash has become so used (indeed overused) as a primary website engine.

There’s no excuse for not having cut-copy-paste, though.

Oh, and could you Mozilla guys get off the stick and make some sort of Firefox browser for the iPhone. I realize Apple will NEVER allow a competing browser on the App Store, but we all know there are plenty of ways around that.

One of the coolest things about HDTV is how much dimensionality the higher-definition resolution brings to the images. Watching broadcast television on an HDTV, the difference between traditional NTSC and high-definition is stunning. It’s a crying shame that so much television programming continues to be shot in standard-def video even as more and more people are buying HDTV sets. Even with that increased dimensionality, though, there are still people who want nothing less than “real” 3D (which, of course, is pointless as long as you have a flat screen), and people are working on 3D imaging technology for HDTV monitors.

Engadget says that JVC Victor and the Japanese National Institute of Information and Communications Technology are working together to develop 3D imaging on a 72-inch display, and recently Philips demoed a 56-inch 3D display. Both systems work without the red-blue filter “glasses” that everybody remembers from old Hollywood 3D movies and those 3D posters you used to get in “Dynomite!” magazine. And that’s very good news for me personally; I have a big blind spot in the front of my left eye that makes it impossible for me to see 3D images using those red-blue glasses. There are other filter-based systems that do work for me (like these polarized filters), but they’ve always been far less common than the red-blue ones, and who wants to have to wear any kind of special glasses just to watch some television anyway?

The Arbitron ratings service introduced little handheld versions of their infamous “people meters” earlier this year to be used for measuring radio audiences. It hasn’t been entirely welcome, especially from minority broadcasters, but it had a pretty successful test run last year and is now rolling out to all the major markets. Meanwhile, media mogul Mel Karmazin (and how do you like THAT alliteration?), who is the CEO of the newly-merged XM Sirius Satellite Radio, recently told AdAge that he wants to completely re-do the way radio ratings are collected and used so that his service can be included in the ratings…and, of course, to work in his favor in that regard. He’s not making a lot of headway, not the least because he admits he has “no idea” how to do that.

NBC pegged a lot of its hopes for raking in big bucks from the Beijing Olympics on its online offerings. People complained that the prime-time broadcast network coverage was too limited (and it was), but for people who watch video on their computers, laptops, and mobile phones the amount and scope of the coverage was practically limitless. You did, of course, have to pay for that content, and you did have to choke down Microsoft’s “Silverlight” media plugin, but after that you could watch all the fencing, synchronized swimming, and race walking you could stand. NewTeeVee.com reports that while 90% of the total viewership still came in via regular television, they managed 6.5 million viewers via WAP (mobile phones), 7.5 million on their primary website, and 6.7 million for video-on-demand (cable and Internet). In the end, though, NBC just barely made a profit on the Olympics — they spent around a billion dollars to cover the Olympics, and made just over a billion in profit. Heck, Michael Phelps can fart and make a billion dollars.

Not Kindling After All

Brian — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:46:27 +0000

So, the story making the rounds on the tech and gadget websites is that real sales figures for the Amazon Kindle e-book have finally surfaced and the total is 240,000 units. To put that into some sort of context, Apple sold almost 11,000,000 iPods just in March of this year. So there’s no imminent danger of the Kindle becoming the must-have gadget any time soon, but the sales figures are pretty much in line with what “The Experts” said. “The Experts” also expect sales to double or triple over the next four quarters. Combined with the sales of the e-books themselves (Amazon says they now have 145,000 titles available), the Kindle represents a billion-dollar-a-year revenue stream. That’s decent, though probably not as earth-shattering as some of the early pronouncements.

One blogging buddy of mine simply adores her Kindle and credits it with re-energizing her reading habit, and another blogger I regularly read is similarly ga-ga about his. Even one of the little old ladies I do tech support for is talking about buying one, so it’s clear that Amazon has managed to capture interest in an e-book reader far beyond the futile efforts of earlier e-book devices. I still can’t envision wanting one myself, though. I’ve never been one to tote a book along wherever I go, and remain content with paper books at home.

Unless…blogger and magazine editor Rex Hammock, who likes his Kindle (but with some reservations), mentions the 500-pound gorilla of gizmos in this post from May: could the Kindle survive at all if Apple decided to make an e-book reader as an extension of their iPhone product? The current form factor of the iPhone is too small to work well for in-depth reading, but if they made it a bit bigger it would be adequate. And if the device had the ability to do everything the iPod Touch (the phone-less iPhone) does PLUS e-books, it would be a formidable gadget indeed.

Some Sci-Tech Links

Brian — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:07:46 +0000

Return Of The Zombie!

Brian — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:49:32 +0000

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the name given to all those unpopular and generally ineffective technologies used to try to prevent people from doing whatever they want with their digital content (movies, games, music, etc.). Security guru Bruce Schneier wrote this piece all the way back in 2001 entitled “The Futility of Digital Copy Prevention”, which pointed out that all DRM schemes can and will be broken, and the only thing imposing DRM on customers does is to treat them like criminals. Nevertheless, DRM technologies continued to be a way of life with digital content until last year, when Apple went out on a limb and offered DRM-free music downloads from a major record label (EMI). Shortly thereafter, Wal-Mart demanded DRM-free music from their suppliers, and before you could say “Metallica Sucks” DRM was virtually gone from every record label.

But while the labels acquiesced on DRM, the RIAA has not stopped their witch hunt for “pirates”, and this Ars Technica post quotes the technical chief at the RIAA as saying that DRM will rear its ugly head yet again, especially as people stop buying single track downloads and/or CDs and move to subscription services. Over at BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow didn’t mince words about this:

The RIAA believes in “intellectual property,” which is a fancy way of saying: they believe that they get to own property, and you have to rent it. The bits on your hard-drive belong to them, and that means you have to install DRM that lets them control your PC so that you don’t do bad things with their bits. In the information age, “property” is the exclusive preserve of giant companies that can afford to register copyrights and sue to defend them, while the rest of us get to sharecrop all our embodiments of their property, from furniture to t-shirts to music to games to cars to PCs.

Meanwhile, on the software-and-games front, BioWare, the producers of the game Mass Effect said that the PC version of the game will use a DRM technology called SecuROM (which is well-known and despised by gamers everywhere for causing their games not to run) AND an activation system that will require the computer to validate itself online every ten days. But what really has people shooting steam out of their ears is that the guy who said this also claims that the very highly-anticipated game Spore will feature the same activation/validation scheme.. Les, who blogs as “Stupid Evil Bastard”, is so pissed off that he says he might not even buy Spore as a result, and my friend Solonor isn’t pleased that if he goes on a long business trip and shuts off his PC, his game won’t work anymore.

My online friend Art Wells said it best over at The Site Which Must Not Be Named:

You don’t buy software. You rent the right not to be sued or prosecuted for using it.

So Why Bother With The Radio At All?

Brian — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:46:27 +0000

Tech blogger Dave Zatz reports that the satellite radio service XM has announced that it will start publishing free podcasts of some of its regular programming on Apple’s iTunes.

As someone who listens to an iPod in the car EXCLUSIVELY, I don’t know if this is going to convince me to buy an XM radio. How is someone else’s playlist going to be meaningfully different than the music I already listen to? Is the presence of a “radio personality” an improvement that justifies the cost? Depends on the performer and the content, I guess. A regular DJ just introing music is not, but maybe Bob Dylan is. I haven’t missed commercial radio at all since I started using an iPod almost four years ago, so the same is probably true for XM’s musical programming. And I don’t expect they’re giving away their non-music programming or any of the rest of their premium content.

The XM-Sirius merger will take place in early 2008, eliminating whatever overlap there is between the two services, and hopefully creating an overall-improved programming package where the stronger offerings from one network will replace the weaker offerings of another. At that point, the REAL issue that satellite radio needs to address is whether it’s the least bit relevant in the face of its competition. This recent BusinessWeek article says that the merger “makes sense”, but it does so from an argument that says that satellite radio isn’t worth the effort because of its miniscule market share, so who cares if there’s only one service provider. At that point, I’m not so sure that giving away any programming is viable unless their real intentions are to give up the satellite broadcasting and just be a content provider.

When Worlds Collide

Brian — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:45:23 +0000

Yesterday, Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates finally got together on stage at the D-2007 trade show to reminisce about the good old days. The computer press had been anticipating this for weeks because it has been a decade since the last time Gates and Jobs appeared together in person.

I realize I am probably not the first guy to notice this, but I just thought I’d point out that Bill and Steve bear an eerie resemblance to Barry and Eliot Tatelman. Now that Barry has left the family business, maybe Eliot could moonlight as Jobs’ double for publicity appearances. Heaven knows he’s not shy.

BrianKaneOnline » Apple

It Just Works…After These Messages From Our Sponsors

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Probably Not What Steve Jobs Has To Say

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Maybe Apple Meant We Should Bury Them In Our Yards For 50 Years

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Steverino Giveth And Steverino Taketh Away

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Linkapalooza – Tech

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Linkapalooza – Media News

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Not Kindling After All

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Some Sci-Tech Links

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Return Of The Zombie!

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So Why Bother With The Radio At All?

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When Worlds Collide

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