Technically Speaking

Cell phone dataplans compared

2011-12-05T17:25:00.001-08:00

Monthly cell phone charges will get progressively more complex and more expensive and, of course, it's the monthly charges that really add up. That's the reason carriers often give away the phones; once you're hooked, you're hooked. The following chart compares plans from three major US carriers. This information changes rapidly so check current numbers before buying.

Phone bills consist of four components, calling plan (minutes), text messages, dataplan and other fees and taxes. The dataplan can be the most confusing so make sure you don't buy more than you use - you can monitor and check usage with the carriers app or website. Always use wi-fi when available. Don't make the mistake of listening to music or watching video on wi-fi and then wandering out of the wi-fi location. Your phone will most likely keep right on downloading those megabytes over the 3g or 4g connection.

Cell phone Dataplans compared

Computer Glossary

2011-12-05T07:26:00.001-08:00

This long promised glossary is not alphabetical since that doesn't work very well for this type of material. It is loosely organized in some logical groupings but it is short enough that the best approach is just to skim the words in the left column to find ones you've heard and wondered about. Often it seems like you are the only one in the room that doesn't know what the "cloud" is but you are not alone. Here's your chance to catch up and get ahead of most of the people you encounter.

Word	Definition
Mobile Devices	Smartphones and Tablets are the most talked about mobile devices today. In a word, they are computers that are portable in the extreme. They have processors, memory, operating systems, keyboards and touchscreens for data entry and for displaying the output. Most importantly, to qualify as general-purpose computers they allow user installation of programs (apps in today’s vernacular). Without this last requirement some current refrigerators – and future toasters – would likely qualify as general-purpose computers.
Tablet	Tablets are at the large end in terms of mobile screen size – typically seven to ten inch diagonal measurement. The other primary difference from smartphones is that tablets generally don’t have a connection to a cell phone network and if they do it’s not used for phone calls – just for Internet activities. There is nothing stopping a company from putting a cell phone capability into a tablet. Two reasons they probably won’t: the tablet war is turning into a price war and every penny they can cut from the cost is a penny they can keep; the idea of talking into a tablet just seems strange and most tablet owners have or will have a cell phone. Nomenclature will be confusing for a while since someone could – and probably will – put telephone circuitry into a ten inch tablet or remove it from a four inch smartphone.
Phone - Smartphone	Smartphones allow users to install apps of their choosing
Phone – Feature phone	Feature phones can perform tasks using the Internet such as email and web surfing. They come with a fixed set of apps – calendar, contact list, etc.
Phone – Cell phone	Simple cell phones are used only for making phone calls.
Cell phone contracts	Many phones receive service from one of the carriers (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) based on a contract. Monthly charges are based on four elements. 1) Number of minutes of call time 2) Number of text messages 3) Amount of information sent and received (the dataplan) 4) Fees and taxes Dataplans are likely to cause significant confusion in the future since we are using mobile devices more frequently and very few people know how many megabytes are in a video. Traditional cell phones do not require dataplans. Prepaid cellphones are traditional cell phones that allow you to buy minutes in advance. These are individuals with limited need for a cell phone.
Internet TV	Much of our television in the future will come through the Internet. A simple computer can be incorporated into a TV set or offered as a standalone box. No matter the form, these are real computers – generally with limited storage. Content is streamed from the Internet not stored locally. They use the TV as a display and a remote control or keyboard for input. Some have relatively simple choices while others offer a full web browser on the TV.
App	An app is just a new name for a program. You used to install programs; now you install apps.
Operating System - OS	All computers including desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets have a program called the operating system (OS). In the past the three best-known computer operating systems were Windows, Mac and Linux. Currently the top mobile operating systems are Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. There are at least ten mobile operating systems today but few are likely to survive very long.
UI – User Interface	Ever since Apple introduced the graphical user interface in 1984 (icons manipulated with a mouse on a “desktop”) the User Interface (UI) has been critical. Methods of interacting with a computer (using a mouse and keyboard) have progressed slowly in recent years but touchscreen technology is changing the UI at lightening speed.
Wireless connections WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.	All of these are just the various types of radio signals that are used to connect devices wirelessly. They’re called radio signals since they were used for radios decades before computers were invented. For a more detailed explanation check out my July blog post.
Cloud	In the simplest terms the Cloud means storing information and running problems on the Internet rather than your PC. For the professionals it is much more complicated and you can read more in my June 2011 Newsletter.
Internet and the World Wide Web (Web)	The Internet consists of millions of computers connected together. They may be gigantic machines but even your personal computer is an Internet computer when it is online. The World Wide Web consists of software and files that allow anyone to use Internet computers to store and retrieve information - information that might be text, photos, music, etc. A web server is one of the most important web programs since it sends files (web pages) to you when you click on a link or type an address into your browser. It sends (or serves) the page to you and then waits patiently in case you want another file – possibly serving thousands of files to other users in the meantime. Sending and retrieving web files is only one use of the Internet. Email is another. Email uses the Internet but not necessarily the web. This situation is somewhat confusing since many email services are now available through your web browser.
Protocol	If two computers (or two people) are going to work well together, they have to agree on how they will do things. Often these agreements are called protocols. Who sits where at a state dinner is determined by the protocol for state dinners. In the case of computers, how they exchange information is called a protocol that is described first on paper – which signals are going on which wires, etc. To be able to communicate both computers must have a program that implements a particular protocol. Basically it’s a description of what characters will travel between the two computers and in what order. You may hear about IP addresses – these are the addresses used by all computers on the Internet (even yours) according to the Internet Protocol.
Encryption	We all remember making up secret codes at a very young age. Encryption is just the name for a myriad of techniques that can transform a message – text, photo, etc. – so it cannot be understood if it falls into the wrong hands. Breaking enemy codes was a major undertaking in World War II and today any spy agency worth its salt is doing the same thing with information intercepted on the Internet.
Units – Bit, Byte and Megabyte	We’ve heard that all information in a computer is stored as zeros and ones. If you put enough zeros and ones together you can represent a text book or reproduction of the Mona Lisa. If you take an image from your digital camera or off the Internet and enlarge it many, many times, you will see individual picture elements, (pixels or dots). Each pixel is a single color and that color is represented by a number – a string of zeros and ones. Storage space for a single zero or one is called a bit – just like storage space for a number from 0-9 is referred to as a digit. A group of eight zeros and ones is referred to as a byte. As a rough approximation a single character of text can be represented by a combination of zeros and ones stored in one byte (a=00000001, b=00000010, etc.) A kilobyte is roughly one thousand bytes; a megabyte is roughly one million bytes and a gigabyte is roughly one billion bytes. I say roughly because there are two definitions for each of those terms but they are similar enough for most people to ignore.
Pixel	A pixel is a single point (dot) in an image. A ten megapixel camera can take pictures with approximately ten million pixels. Each pixel requires several bytes of memory to record the color – see pixel depth.
Pixel depth	Each pixel (dot in an image) can represent millions of different colors. The value stored for each pixel indicates the color of that dot. The higher the pixel depth (more bits to store the value), the more colors that a pixel can represent. For example, if you stored the color of a pixel as a two digit number, you could store up to 100 different colors – 00-99. Computers store values in binary but the principal is the same.
Compression (JPEG or JPG for still pictures and MPEG for videos) In practice there are many other compression standards.	Storing a color value for every pixel in an image results in very large files. It is common practice to compress the image by, for example, indicating that a large area of sky is blue with only a few values – the numeric value for blue color and the boundaries of the block of sky. A tiny speck of a bird in the sky might just be tossed out in the process. The higher the compression, the smaller the resulting file and the more image points will be lost or modified. Videos can have each individual frame compressed in this way but add interframe compression; if two successive frames are nearly identical, only the changed pixels are included for the second frame.
Broadband	Generally used to describe high speed Internet access with a variety of speeds. Usually contrasted with dialup connections.
Modem/Router	The telephone system was originally intended to transmit human voices. When we began sending information between computers over phone lines, there had to be a way of changing zeros and ones to sound patterns (called modulating) when they were sent and then back into zeros and ones (demodulating) at the other end. The device we use is a modulator/demodulator (modem) - one at each end of the line. If there are multiple computers in your home or office and only one Internet connection, you need a way to keep transmissions separated. Signals from a computer connected a wireless network go first to the router which attaches a numeric code to indicate which computer sent it. When a response to that transmission is received over the Internet it comes back through the modem and then to the router to send it to the correct computer. Today modems and routers are usually combined into a single device that does both jobs.
HTML	A file type indicates what type of program created or can read a particular file - .doc for MS Word, .xls for Excel, etc. Files that come over the Internet to be displayed by a browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari use .html or .htm as a file type.
Flash	Flash is a type of file often used for video but for other purposes as well. Flash is losing favor as other more modern programming tools are developed, e.g. HTML v5.
PDF files	The pdf file type was developed in response to the many incompatible file types that were causing confusion. The idea was that all computers could have a pdf file “reader” so any document – word processing, spreadsheet, etc. – that could be converted to a pdf format could be read on any computer.
URL	A Uniform Resource Locator is the fancy name for the Internet addressing scheme. You could type an address into your web browser and call it either an address or URL. URL is the cooler term.
Touchscreen	Smartphones and tablet computers use display screens that can detect the touch of a finger or special soft stylus. They can be programmed to respond to various gestures – tap and double tap, as well as sliding motions involving several fingers. Cheaper touchscreens require pressure but later, higher quality screens respond to a very light touch. Touch gestures often imitate mouse clicks – double click/double tap, click and drag/tap and drag, etc.
Domain Names	To provide some structure to Internet addressing, the scheme starts with Top Level Domains. These include .com, .edu, .mil, .gov and .biz - called generic TLDs. They are not associated with any country. TLDs also include two letter country codes .us, . ca. ru, etc. New top level domains are just being rolled out now. Any organization that wants an Internet address can apply for its own name – braley.com or braley.us – consisting of a specific name associated with one of the TLDs. Needless to say most common words and proper names are already taken. This is how requests for information are routed around the Internet. Braley.com is essentially a folder of files stored somewhere on the Internet. One of those files is the home page that will be retrieved if no further information is provided. In most cases, someone might want a specific file and request braley.com/clients.htm. This is a file in the braley.com folder
www, http, https, ftp	A web file usually starts with www (world wide web) but if you leave that out, your browser will generally insert it for you. The Internet operates on Hypertext Transport Protocol - http -but again the browser will often add that to an address. Secure web sites use https and it is important to put that in to access those sites. FTP is the file transfer protocol – not a web service – which at one time required a separate – non-browser – program. But like many other services, FTP can usually be handled by your web browser.
Browser	A web browser was once a program with one purpose – to display files ending in htm or html. These programs have been greatly expanded to perform numerous other functions – see FTP above.
Email and web capitalization	Email addresses are NOT case sensitive. Web addresses are NOT case sensitive up to the first slash following the .com, .gov, .us, etc. Following that slash they may or may not be case sensitive so you need to assume they are unless you know otherwise. Braley.com is never case sensitive but the “file1.htm” in Braley.com/file1.htm is likely case sensitive.

Android phones outsell iOS phones so why don't Android tablets beat up on iPads?

2011-11-09T14:00:00.001-08:00

This seems like such an obvious question I'm amazed I've not seen it addressed more often. Android promoters gloat that their "platform" leads in sales but never explain why their tablets don't do the same. I have a theory. When most people buy a smartphone, they are thinking about its capabilities as a "phone". How many minutes do I get? Which carrier do I prefer? Is there a family plan? etc. The "smart"phone, i.e. computer aspect, is secondary. They may never address the operating system or the app stores since they are thinking in terms of replacing an old phone. Starting with that premise, anyone searching for a phone would more likely end up with Android - they are everywhere and many are less expensive than iPhones.

Buying a tablet is a different proposition. Consumers have no tablet experience so they have no natural starting point. This forces them down one of two paths. A few realize they are really buying a computer and investigate all the relevant technology and many are likely to go with Android. Most people though just buy what is available in most stores (iPad) or what their cool friends have (iPad). One of Apple's stealth moves with the first iPad was to place it in major retail outlets last year - Best Buy, Target, WalMart and Radio Shack - in addition to it's own 300+ stores worldwide. This leaves precious little prime shelf space for competing tablets.

If many smartphone purchasers aren't doing much critical thinking as I've suggested - after all they're just buying a phone - the companies may be forced to sell primarily based on price - as in the PC arena. While they may sell a lot of excellent Android handsets, they may not make sufficient profit to survive in spite of the sales figures. And speaking of sales figures, remember the difference between "shipped" and "sold". Sold is what matters; shipped means sent to retailers where they might languish for months before being sold - or returned to the maker.

Android fragmentation - the elephant in the room

2011-11-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

If there's one issue that haunts the Android "industry" it's the widely discussed problem of fragmentation. Dozens of companies (Motorola, HTC, etc.) make hundreds of Android models to be sold by numerous carriers, in retail stores and online. There are differences in the phones - different size screens, virtual or physical keyboards, price, etc. Having choices is certainly appealing - with the iPhone it's black or white, literally. However Android choices can be very confusing for someone trying to find the "right" phone - like the potato chip aisle at the quickstop - way too many choices.

Imagine if your one year old PC did not qualify

for the latest version of Windows.

This seems in some ways like the battle between Apple and Microsoft for PC dominance but there is a significant difference. If fragmentation in the PC world had been harmful, Apple would have been the logical beneficiary because there were hundreds of PC manufacturers over the years. But PCs were not all that different - they used the same processors, the same disk drives, the same keyboards, etc. so differences were either minor cosmetic factors or price. Most importantly they all ran the same operating system and most could be reliably upgraded for at least five years.

This meant buying one PC brand or another resulted in a generally similar outcome. Unfortunately this is where the comparison breaks down. Android based phones have a dismal record concerning upgradability.

A recent survey sheds light on the situation in very graphic form. A long list of Android phones has a horizontal bar beside each product name. The beginning of the bar is color coded to indicate which version of Android came with the device - green meaning latest version, yellow, one version back and red, two versions back. Progressing to the right, the bar color indicates the availability of upgrades on each model. Some models begin with a green portion indicating the latest Android version is factory installed but in other cases, the starting point is yellow - meaning the phone ships with an old version of Android. That's like buying a PC today with Windows Vista installed. Without even looking at the individual phones the overall picture is shocking - generally green to the left but a sea of yellow and red to the right - meaning one or two year old phones cannot be upgraded. Imagine if your one year old PC did not qualify for the latest version of Windows.

In the case of the Android phones, the hardware may be capable of handling the upgrade but the handset makers and carriers - not Google - control which phones will be upgraded and when. When you purchase any smartphone, there is no promise of whether upgrades will be provided or what they will include or cost. Apple has taken the highroad and provides free upgrades to all devices immediately. The Android situation is just the opposite. Some may not be upgraded at all and for those that are upgradable, when it will happen varies widely. A ten second look at the survey is all it takes to get the message.

iPhone 4S one month later - a Siri-ous new development

2011-11-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

I previewed the iPhone 4S last month the day after its introduction and I now have two weeks of actual use under my belt. I used it in my office as well as to give a presentation at an international conference. Yes, you can do a great slide show by connecting your iPhone 4 or 4S to a projector. My draft of last month's discussion actually referred to the iPhone 5. It's pretty amazing that dozens of companies were involved in the development of the device and millions were manufactured and the experts were still guessing at the name until the formal announcement.

Predictions concerning hardware where generally accurate - faster processor, much improved camera, more memory, etc. I received mine October 14th - the first available date - and I along with the overwhelming number of reviewers were thrilled with the device. In particular the camera and camera app are outstanding.

The more databases Siri connects to,

the less searches will be performed on Google..

The other half of the announcement was the new operating system - iOS 5. This free evolutionary OS upgrade claims over 200 new features and runs on all recent iPods, iPhones and iPads (see Fragmentation below). To top it off the biggest announcement of the day was not the phone -
but Siri - the "virtual assistant" capability built into the new OS on the iPhone 4S. I expect to see it running on the iPad 2 in the not too distant future.

Siri can interpret spoken language and answer questions or perform tasks as appropriate. The product has a long history dating back to its origin at SRI International, a major research firm once associated with Stanford University. Siri uses the venerable Nuance/Dragon voice recognition software and couples it with an artificial intelligence component that understands what you say and what you mean to perform its duties. You are going to be seeing and hearing all of the wonders of Siri - particularly if your friend has a 4S - and there's not room to discuss it further this month.

Google is certainly threatened by Siri since Siri doesn't provide an outrageously long list of "hits" but instead answers complex questions with specific information. Siri does searches by using direct connections to databases (a restaurant list if you ask about pizza for example) but uses Google and Bing if necessary. The more databases Siri connects to, the less Google searches will be performed and that means less ad revenue for Google.

Many product features can be copied - hopefully without violating too many patents and copyrights. Siri, however, represents such a stunning breakthrough in an area that has been researched for decades, it is unlikely any competitor will come close to its capability anytime soon (see patents and copyrights above).

If you've been on another planet and have not seen a demo, check out this short video on YouTube. Yes, it works that good based on my personal experience. Sometimes when Siri misunderstands you, you realize it's like a new acquaintance - maybe from a different part of the country or of a different age. There is some miscommunication at the beginning until you understand each other better. That's the way Siri appears to me and remember this is Siri V1.0. My opinion about keyboards has always been that the best keyboard is no keyboard and that is just the capability Siri provides - incredibly accurate and fast voice to text translation. It's very likely Siri will be the technology breakthrough of the decade - you heard it here first.

Photo Editing with the iPad

2011-09-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

I've been excited about photo editing with a touch screen ever since I got my iPhone. The iPad and its numerous apps makes creating great images a snap. This does not replace "sturdy" desktop applications for sophisticated photo manipulation - at least for now. In particular ten inch screens will always be a limiting factor.

Having said that I wanted to show an example of what I did in a matter of minutes starting with a 3MP image taken with my iPhone while strolling along the Mississippi in Minneapolis. I sent the image to my iPad using PhotoSync and used four of the 187 filters in PhotoStudio to create the special effects.

Four Bridges

My Social Media Survey Results Just Released

2011-08-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

At two recent lectures on Mobile Technology I surveyed participants on their use of social media. It was a simple eight question survey not directly related to the topic I was covering. Several points concerning the participants:

They covered a wide age range with many in the 30-50 year range.
They were above average in tech knowledge based on their professions.
Some were small business owners and others worked for companies of all sizes in the computer training field.

Three of the four questions ask about their use of Facebook and Twitter. The last question ask whether they owned a smartphone or tablet computer.

General results:

Nearly 80% had smartphones but only 17% had a tablet.
While two-thirds used Facebook weekly only one-quarter used Twitter that often.

Business application - use of Facebook and Twitter:

Facebook was used to communicate with clients by 40% of participants but only 20% used Twitter for that purpose.
In a similar vein 33% used Facebook to receive information from companies while 24% used Twitter to do that.

With a total of eight possible responses, a rough measure of "tech savvy" would be the number of boxes each person checked - have a smartphone, use Facebook weekly, etc. etc. Using that measure no one scored the maximum of eight while 26% checked three - typically Facebook weekly, have a smartphone and one additional item. 19% checked four or more but 7% did not check any of the eight boxes.

This was a small sample but I think the results are informative. First and foremost, even though everyone is told they have to use social medial to communicate with stakeholders, a significant majority don't do that at the present. As you might expect the few "heavy hitters" dominated the results and 38% had no business contact at all with others using social media. This is after several years of hearing how Facebook is taking over the world and "everyone" is doing it.

Like most surveys of this type, I made no attempt to assess how well these techniques worked - are people just tweeting and hoping it works or can they measure actual success in product sales or revenue results.

There are many other social media platforms I did not include - primarily to keep it simple. I assumed that a significant number where on LinkedIn but evaluating actual usage would have been somewhat more difficult. Several other lesser known services were considered and will be included in future studies.

The Perfect Tablet for Everybody - Now There's a Dumb Idea

2011-08-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

How often do you hear someone talk about "what people want?" Whether it's politics or technology, pundits act as if all people want the same thing and they know what it is. This leads to ridiculous criticisms of things like the current smartphones and tablets; notice I'm avoiding the political part!

You hear, for example, "the iPad and other tablets are flawed because people don't like virtual keyboards - they want a real keyboard. The reporter goes on to say "when I write my stories, I blah, blah, blah." This storyline makes it sound like a) they know what everyone wants and b) they represent everyone by talking about their personal needs in the same sentence.

I'm pretty sure "people" don't all want the same thing - whether it's in their computers or condiments on their hot dogs. This is more than just a complaint about the state of journalism - it goes to the core of how computers have been developed over the years.

Real keyboard - you want a real keyboard!

Let's look at automobiles as a starting point. There are several dozen different basic auto designs because "people" don't all want the same thing. There are compact hybrids and nine passenger SUVs and a whole crop of "crossovers". Because PC functionality has been controlled by one company for nearly thirty years, only one version of one product was necessary - the Windows PC. I don't know what "all people" want but I do know that

The Perfect Tablet will include

six card readers, firewire and

USB connectors, a mouse,

a keyboard, SLR equivalent cameras

as well as serial and parallel ports

"some people" would have preferred something different - specifically a whole lot easier to use and less prone to malware. Almost no one claims to use more than ten percent of the functions of Word or Excel - hyperbolic cotangent anyone? The fact that people do not always want the same thing requires that companies build more than one thing - at least if there are any competitors to worry about. Microsoft's only real competitor was Apple and they were not much better. Their product - although easier to use and less prone to malware - was still only one version. It ran MS Office just like Windows. Notice that both companies dropped the easy to use and cheap or free versions of their office software - MS Works and Apple Works. They did have decent alternatives to the gargantuan MS Office but no more.

As we turn the corner toward mobile devices, my hope is that companies will not try to build the "perfect tablet" that meets the needs of everyone. If they do, it will include six card readers, firewire and USB connectors, a mouse, a keyboard with numeric keypad, SLR equivalent cameras (front and back), dual game controllers, as well as serial and parallel ports - hey some people still have that 1995 dot matrix printer to hook up. And of course it must run Excel, Word and PowerPoint using any remote device purchased since 1950.

In the case of tablets the smarter decision will be to either offer several models - one with and one without a keyboard - or one product that has options - such as docks we've used for years or the wireless keyboard approach on the iPad. The primary driving force for tablets is size, weight, convenience and ease of use. I'll be terribly disappointed if they evolve into dinosaurs as PCs have done. Adding layer upon layer of functionality was no problem with desktop computers - users could just buy bigger monitors so there was some place to see the actual words in their document. Ten inch screens, limited keyboards and slower processors that characterize tablets may finally reverse the trend away from mega-applications.

The new crop of ultrabooks notable for their lack of hard drive and optical drive but with the ability to run full versions of Windows or Mac OS represent another change in direction. They are distinguished not by new features but by features that are omitted - what a refreshing change. Now only if the next version of MS Office included a version of Word with five hundred commands rather than one thousand five hundred. The Apple iWork package may indicate the new direction for productivity software.

Who's Doing What in Tech Today

2011-08-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

There are so many products, technologies and companies involved in the rapidly evolving tech market today, I thought it would be helpful to summarize some important facts in a simple table. I made a list of twenty-four products including computers and a variety of mobile devices and software - then added several service related factors such as shelf space and the cloud.

I created a table with eight leading vendors across the top to see how these vendors competed in the twenty-four areas. I think it's going to be difficult for companies to survive with only a handful of products - desktop PCs and laptops for example. You can click on the image below to enlarge the chart. Let me know what you think.

WI-Fi, Blue Tooth, 3G/4G, GPS, NFC - What's it All Mean?

2011-07-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

This array of communication technologies can be confusing but the basic idea is quite simple. These are all members of the family of Electromagnetic Waves. Other members of this family include

TV and radio signals
Microwaves in your oven
X-rays
Gamma rays (from radioactive decay)
Ultraviolet and Infrared rays
And the ever popular visible light rays in a variety of colors that surround us every day

The only difference in these waves is their frequency. If you could change the frequency of light rays, they might become microwaves and you'd be cooked like a hamburger when you turned on a lamp to read.

To communicate using electromagnetic radiation we have created devices like radio and TV transmitters coupled with sending and receiving antennas so we can hear or view the signals. Our antennas pick up all the signals and the tuner in a radio or TV set picks out a very precise frequency - 91.1 for example - so we hear a specific station.

Our cell phones have the capability to communicate using the parts of the spectrum listed in the title above. There is an antenna built into your cell phone for each type of signal it can handle. Obviously the 3G phone signal coming from a cell tower is included or it wouldn't be a cell phone. 3G means the third generation cell phone technology; 4G is coming soon. 3G and 4G signals are designed primarily for voice transmission but can be used for data if you don't have a wi-fi connection available. The other signals are designed for data but services like Skype allow voice signals to be be handled also.

Wi-fi signals are generated by a wi-fi router in your home, office, coffee shop or collection of devices in a city-wide system. 3G signals can be transmitted for miles but your wi-fi router only has a range of a few hundred feet. Your neighbor may be able to pickup your signal and use your Internet connection if she is in the right part of her house. Most modern cell phones can receive GPS signals from satellites eleven thousand miles above the earth (see "range" below). The GPS signal is not related to the 3G signals so a cellphone connection is not required.

Bluetooth signals are short range signals used so nearby devices such as a keyboard and computer or cell phone and ear piece can communicate. Even shorter range signals will be used by NFC - Near Field Communication system - being developed now for credit card applications. That signal can only be transmitted for an inch and a half; very low power indeed. Every signal differs from all others in two respects - frequency and amplitude (power).

The range a signal can travel is determined by its power - also referred to as amplitude. There are strict regulations on what frequency and amplitude someone can use to broadcast or transmit. A certain frequency can be used in one location by one radio station. That same frequency can be used in another distant city provided the strength of the signals are set so they don't extend into each others territories.

An entirely new system consisting of thousands of high-powered wi-fi towers is under development by LightSquared. These towers would blanket the US with high powered wi-fi signals for nearly universal Internet access across the country. There is controversy, however, because these wi-fi signals are very close to the frequencies assigned to GPS. and could interfere with navigation. This could be very serious since airline navigation systems are at long last being converted to GPS.

Mobile Devices and the cloud

2011-06-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

I've been talking about mobile devices for a year and a half and now the discussion is shifting to cloud computing. What is the cloud and how are the two subjects related? First, cloud computing means using computers on the Internet to store and process information which may have been handled by local computers in the past. The basic concept has been around for a long time - anyone remember time sharing? - but it has evolved into a very complex and powerful technology.

Second, the cloud is a natural extension of mobile devices since they do not have huge hard drives or powerful processors. And, since they are mobile, they are not typically attached to a local computer. Anyone with a Netflix account as seen an indication of this trend - you can receive a DVD or have the video streamed (from the cloud) to your computer or an Internet connected set top box such as Roku, Google TV or Apple TV.

The power and complexity of PCs has far outgrown the needs of most people so the combination of small mobile devices combined with available cloud processing and storage is very attractive.

Google has developed a combination browser/operating system called Chrome (not to be confused with the Chrome Web Browser) that presumes everything will be done over the Internet. Chrome computers that effectively operate like a browser for all services have just been released. While the Apple and Google approaches are not directly comparable, they both rely on the cloud. I'm thrilled that these companies do not merely copy what the other has done.

Of course you can't talk about electronics without discussing music. Google will store your music in the cloud and allow you to play it on any device. The catch is you have to upload it before you can do this - a process that could take a long time for someone with thousands of songs. Apple has an agreement with the four major music companies that allows you to stream the songs you own from the new Apple iCloud without first uploading your copies.

In a major change, you will now be able to buy, setup and update an iPad, iPhone or iPod without using a PC or Mac. The computer will no longer be the center of your computer environment: it will just be another device. The automatic backup as well as software purchasing and updating directly over the Internet is a significant change for Apple users. In a related development, the new Apple OS Lion will only be available over the Internet. The features of Apple's MobileMe service will be incorporated into iCloud and MobileMe will be discontinued in 2012.

Questions and Concerns
As with any new technology there are significant issues to address and you have the right to be skeptical at this stage.
Availability - High speed Internet access is not available everywhere and few cloud services will work over dial up. There is a major project underway to increase wi-fi coverage much like cities are already doing. it will be some time before this effort pays off. Concerns exist about interference of this system with GPS which is just being rolled out for airline navigation.
Speed - Even some "high speed" connections can be slow when transferring large files. When these connections are shared among several devices in a home, the problem is worse. Cloud computing as described by Apple includes continuous backup storage and streaming of all types of content.
Charges - There is no question we will pay higher fees to the telephone and cable companies that provide our data services. I will not go into the cost/benefit discussion of the cloud versus the "old" approach we've all been accustomed to. It would be a long discussion and since the cloud appears inevitable - a waste of time.
Reliability - Both Google and Apple foresee most of your information - documents, photos, etc. - being stored in the cloud. The obvious question is will the services be safe and reliable or will you have to keep your own copies as well? There will certainly be cases where duplicate copies are necessary - if you are not going to be on the Internet for a while - but for the most part they will be considered safe. We've been relying on banks and other businesses to keep accurate records for years with no idea where or how they do it. The cloud should be no different if it is to succeed.

Cool Photo Editing Apps - Part 2

2011-05-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

Computers are often associated with numbers and words but the new generation of tablets typified by the Apple iPad brings a whole new dimension to creativity. For those like me who are not artistic in the traditional sense, the ability to manipulate photographs with powerful, easy to use, touch screen apps is absolutely marvelous. Last month, I discussed a number of photo apps with some editing capabilities but whose main strength was taking pictures. This post describes some of my favorite among hundreds of apps that manipulate images although most can start with an available photo or take one using a basic camera function. My usage is limited to Apple iOS devices but many of these apps should be available on other platforms.

I won't spend a lot of time explaining whether the apps work on iPhone/iPods or iPads. That is easy enough to check out at the app store if you are interested. Certainly apps that work on images are most effective when they take advantage of a tablet sized device. However, there are some fun and useful photo editing tools for the small screen as well. Some of these apps are free while others cost $1-4.

Photo Studio, Photo Booth and Finger Design

With this background here are some of my favorites:
Photo Delight allows you to eliminate all color from a picture except selected portions. I've shown examples before and the UI (User Interface) is perfect. There are several others that do the same thing but none I've seen with the elegance of Photo Delight
Dynamic Light provides a number of stunning special effects as shown in the picture of Honolulu at the top right of this blog. Some photographs are meant to record an image as realistically as possible. Now with all the digital cameras we have plenty of "ordinary" photographs so apps like this can be used to create unusual images.
Camera FX (iPhone) and Photo Booth (iPad) offer effects similar to the popular Photo Booth app on the iMac. You preview a number of fun house type images and snap a picture of one (or hundreds!) that you like. (These apps are really in the category of camera apps I reviewed last month but I did not have Photo Booth installed at that time.)

There was a time in the analog age when filters were made of glass and attached to the front of your lens. They came in various colors; polarizing versions eliminated glare and others provided special effects. For large lenses, the filters could be very expensive. Today most of these effects can be provided by software after the picture is taken - polarizing is a notable exception. Not only are software filters much less expensive, you can experiment with different filters and different settings instead of selecting one or two filters and snapping a picture on film - never to be altered again.
Photo Studio (iPad and iPhone) and Perfect Photo (iPhone) are two apps with a collection of filters and other effects.

Photo Delight

Two things you almost always need to do to improve any photo are light adjustments and cropping. There are some apps that perform just those basic functions but many more powerful apps also include those functions.

Auto Adjust is an iPad app that concentrates on these basic functions.
Filterstorm and PS Express provide a much wider range of adjustments.
Photogene on the other hand provides numerous special effects without the basic lighting and cropping features.

Framed

For just plain fun, it's hard to beat Framed, Alien Booth and Photogoo. With the latter two you can waste hours making "interesting" pictures of your friends and family. Framed allows you to put your friends on TV, in a museum or on a milk carton among other places.

Finger Design does not process images but allows you to easily make a collage from your photos - original or edited versions. You can quickly select a background and arrange and resize any number of photos for display.

Finally, remember to check out my list of favorite apps and the places you can go to find apps.

How Shelf Space Limits Apple Competitors

2011-05-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

On a recent visit to Best Buy one thing was striking in the technology area. Apple signs and Apple products were everywhere. There were iMacs, iPhones, iPods and iPads in several different areas surrounded by accessories of all kinds. As I was about to walk away I saw two competing tablets hidden away on a three foot section of shelf space. One was the recently released Motorola Xoom and the other was the slightly older Samsung Galaxy Tab. I decided to give both of these Android based tablets a try.

The Xoom is similar in size to the iPad and it started up quickly and offered a similar but sparse display. Of the few apps available I selected one of the three games. Upon start up I was told I needed to download a large file so I tapped OK and the progress bar indicated it was downloading. Only a minute later, it stopped and said I needed to start over again. I tried it again with the same frustrating result and gave up.

It's hard to believe but the experience with the Galaxy Tab was worse. It has a smaller but similar screen and when I pushed the start button, a message said I needed to go through a setup process; apparently it had never been used. When I started the process, I heard a sound reminiscent of a modem dialing for a connection and a minute later it reported an error and I had to start over. I tried that with the same result and gave up.

From all reports both of these are great tablets but my experience was discouraging to say the least. I certainly wouldn't draw major conclusions about the devices from this simple test. The fact that these devices were almost invisible among the Apple products was far more telling. These companies and a hoard of other tablet makers have a long struggle ahead to be recognized by the general public as competitors to the iPad and iPhone; limited shelf space at major retailers will be a huge barrier.

Why Were the Experts so Wrong about the iPad 2?

2011-04-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Right before the iPad 2 hit the stores March 11th most pundits said it was no big deal - a minor upgrade - and thought the demand would not rival the first version that came out eleven months earlier. They could not have been more wrong. Not only did the first shipments sell out within hours but there have been lines of people every morning at every Apple store waiting with baited breath for the next truck. How could the experts have been so wrong?

They tend to overestimate the interest and knowledge of the general public. They believe everyone has the time and inclination to hang on every tweet from every tech vendor and writer. Surprise, surprise most people have real jobs and a variety of interests besides computers. In spite of all the hype about the first iPad a year ago, few people really knew much about it on day one - from the basics of how would it actually work to the more important "is it really suitable for business?" Questions like these prevented the vast majority of people from purchasing the first iPad early in the cycle.

Along the way, three things happened. First, the positive reviews came in and the early adopters showed theirs off to anyone they could corner - friends and coworkers alike. This created the buzz and the associated "cool factor." Next, businesses began to experiment and found that it really was appropriate for many tasks involving their mobile workforce - storage of sales and technical documents for example. Finally, at the end of 2010 many people who decided to buy were advised to wait because the next version would have a camera - or maybe two cameras.

Consequently, when the iPad 2 became available there was a huge demand in spite of the experts suggestion that it was not a major improvement over the original. When you think about it, what would the "experts" have required for a major improvement? It is unlikely in my opinion that any new tablet from any vendor will be considered a major advance over the preceding tablet. Just like the succession of PCs over the last thirty years, each one will be a little faster or have a slightly better screen or camera. The fact that tablets are primarily touch screens with a processor and solid state storage makes improvements primarily a matter of new and upgraded apps. There's not much you can do with the basic tablet slab except speed it up and add a new I/O port or button. I certainly am not saying there will not be better tablets in the future; I'm just suggesting that few new versions will be considered major leaps forward.

Cool Camera Apps - Part 1

2011-03-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

No subject gets more attention in my newsletter than the apps I review. (Note: in case you haven't heard - "app" is just another name for a program. The term evolved along with mobile technology but is now being used for full fledged PC/Mac software as well.)

I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I use my iPhone camera. It's certainly not a great camera but for many purposes it's "good enough" and, most important, I always have it with me. I divide camera apps into two categories
1) apps that are primarily associated with taking pictures (photography)
2) those that are mostly used for editing pictures (editing)
This distinction is not precise since many apps do a combination of the two. I base the distinction on the primary attributes of the app and what I generally use it for. Some apps modify still and/or video images as they are being taken; others operate on images from the library and some can do both. The following two apps cost 99 cents each.

For the photography apps, you can't beat QuickCam - often described as the camera app that should have come with the iPhone. For general purpose iPhone pictures, I've switched completely to Quickcam. It's easy to use and will start up and take pictures much faster than the standard Apple app. It has a rapid fire mode where you can touch and hold the camera button and take two pictures per second. While you are taking video, you can touch the camera button and take a still picture.

ToonCamera is another favorite. It works on both live and stored still and video images to create a cartoon effect by limiting the number of colors used. This picture of a fox taken in our back yard

Cartoon Fox - original shown in inset

shows the results. If you are familiar with the GIF image format, you get the same effect. GIF works great on art and drawings with a limited number of colors but produces the cartoon effect when used with photographs - like coloring with eight crayons!

Here's a quick list of other favorites in this category (many have free and paid versions)

Timelapse - Set your camera in a window and it can take pictures at regular intervals for a specified time. Then save the results and play them back as a movie - watch a flower grow!

ExternalCamera - Monitor the iPhone camera on your iPad - watch and listen to a sleeping baby or keep an eye on your front door.

CameraFun - Variety of special effects.

SneakyPix - Set the camera to take a series of pictures while you appear to be reading email or talking on the phone - that's sneaky.
CanScan - Use this camera app to snap a picture of a document and automatically rotate, crop and adjust the lighting for a perfect "scanned" document.

Tablet Typing can be Improved

2011-03-11T08:52:00.000-08:00

Portable devices all suffer from inadequate keyboards - inadequate in that they do not allow rapid touch typing like the "real" keyboards we're all accustomed to. There are ways to speed things up including -

Autocorrect features are generally quite accurate and should be allowed to work. Backspacing and correcting errors is such a natural action we waste time making corrections that are already suggested by the software.
Apple iPad and iPhone users should use the special key actions such as swiping the period key to enter a quotation mark. Because space is limited, some keys are relegated to secondary keyboards so these special actions eliminate the need to switch keyboards. For more info on this subject including easy ways to enter special characters see this article.
Android users who master the Swype app can significantly speed up their routine typing by sliding a finger from character to character and allowing the software make corrections as they go. This brief description will show you how it works.

Luxury Hotels Go Paperless and Mobile

2011-03-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

Starting in January, the iPad tablet replaced touch panels in every guest room at The Plaza Hotel in New York City, where it provides guest services and room controls.

Guests of the Plaza can use the touch screen to order room service, contact the concierge (or make their own dinner reservations), and control their room’s lighting and climate, plus general web browsing. Another benefit is moving away from having a guest directory in the room.

The paperless benefit of the iPad is also being pushed by The Forty 1 North Hotel Marina Resortin Newport, Rhode Island, which puts in-room iPads on its list of eco-conscious measures.

Directories, menus, maps, and daily newspapers are all delivered paperlessly to guests using the iPad.
(from CNBC)

Comparing Apple and Android App Review Process

2011-03-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

There are going to be hundreds of articles comparing Apple (iPad and iPhone) with the numerous Google Android tablets and phones. Two facts may be more important than any others

Fact 1 - At the present, there are thousands of apps available for both the iPhone and Android phones. Right now there only a couple of Android tablets that run the version of the Operating System designed for tablets and there are about twenty apps available. There are 65 thousand iPad apps available.
Fact 2 - Apple monitors all apps to make sure they are not harmful while Google does not. In fact the entire process of updating the Android OS is handled by the carriers - the phone companies. This would be like Microsoft having WalMart responsible for updating its software.

Read this excellent article to understand the ramifications of the second fact.

iPad monthly data plans compared

2011-03-05T13:08:00.000-08:00

The roll out of the iPad 2 brings additional monthly data plans - that is if you're willing to change cell phone providers. The follow chart summarizes the various plans available.

Chart from All Things Digital

The issue of monthly fees and long term contracts will become increasingly important and increasingly complicated as more mobile devices become available. I've mentioned before about the inevitability of "tiered pricing" - different rates for different types and quantities of data.

Purchase price will be less important as vendors attempt to lock users into long term, complicated, expensive contracts.

iPad 2 - first look

2011-03-02T15:07:00.000-08:00

There were no big surprises today when Steve Jobs introduced the latest iPad - except for the fact that Steve Jobs was on hand for the introduction. The iPad 2 is a solid but unremarkable upgrade to the best selling first iPad. I for one look forward to the faster processor - particularly when showing presentations with Keynote - the Apple version of PowerPoint. The Motorola Xoom - the current contender for the tablet throne - compares favorably on a feature by feature basis.

The big advantage the iPad has, and it is a big advantage right now, is the huge app collection. Developers have written over 50 thousand apps specifically for the iPad in addition to over 300 thousand iPhone apps that run on the iPad. Because the Honeycomb version of the Android OS is brand new, there are only a few dozen apps written for the Xoom.

Many people thought that competitors would need to be lower priced than the iPad to get in the game but if anything the Xoom is slightly more expensive than the iPad. The low price point set by the first iPad was a real shock last year and it put to rest the idea that Apple products were expensive.

The tablet market is just getting off the ground; Apple has a commanding lead right now. The fun is just starting! Stay tuned.

NFC - Will this be your next "credit card"

2011-03-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

We can now add NFC to the numerous methods of wireless communication. Wireless connections - whether Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or cell phones - are all based on radio signals transmitted through the air. They differ only in frequency (pitch) and amplitude (strength). The amplitude determines how far the signals can be detected - cell phones a few miles from the tower and Wi-Fi a couple of hundred feet from a home router.

Devices are tuned to certain frequencies so a radio will receive a specific station and not broadcast the microwave signals from the kitchen, the x-rays from the hospital down the street or the cosmic rays created during the big bang 15 billion years ago. I'm not making this up.

NFC stands for Near Field Communication. These are very weak (low amplitude) signals that will be used to communicate between your cell phone and billing devices that will replace credit card scanners. The NFC standard dictates the range of transmission to be four centimeters. When NFC enabled phones come out this year, they will replace credit cards in locations that can pick up the signals. Wave your cell phone near a reader and a charge will be recorded. The short transmission distance means you will not likely buy a shiny new BMW just by walking by the dealership.

Three Tablet Contenders Compared

2011-02-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

There will be dozens of companies and hundreds of products involved in the Tablet competition ahead; just like there were when PCs were introduced in the 1980's. The difference now is that there are some powerful, big name, experienced companies involved. In the 80's they were mostly companies you'd never heard of making products they'd never made before.

Click here for an early look at three contenders - Apple iPad, Motorola Xoom and HP TouchPad. The Xoom is coming this summer; the Touchpad is due this month and a second version of the iPad should be out within two months.

Mobile Operating Systems Galore

2011-02-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

First a little history - Some of us are old enough to remember what life was like before Microsoft Windows dominated the world of desktop computing starting in the late 1980s. For the previous ten years there were a dozen or more hardware designs and operating systems including Radio Shack (Trash 80), Commodore (Pet), Sinclair, Franklin, Timex, Altair, Atari, Heathkit, Ohio Scientific and of course the venerable Apple II. None of these survived or thrived for more than a few years. Even Apple faded into the background for a long dark night.

We are today in the middle of a similar struggle involving mobile operating systems. Early leaders included Palm and Blackberry. Now the question is: How many products can survive in the long run. In particular which operating system(s) will dominate. Once that is decided, phone and tablet makers as well as carriers will fight to differentiate their devices - all based on one of the dominate operating systems. The OS competition today involves Google Android, Google Chrome, Apple iOS, HP WebOS, MS Windows Phone 7, MS Windows Mobile, MS Windows 8 (possibly) and RIM Blackberry OS. And you thought it was a two way race.

How did this turn out in the PC world when (almost) everyone used Windows and also used basically the same hardware? It turned into a price war and there were many casualties. Hundreds of small and large companies went into and out of the PC business in the last twenty years. Technology was a minor consideration - shelf space and advertising budgets were what mattered most. PCs became commodities which meant the death of companies and the death of innovation.

There is every reason to believe this will happen in the mobile field as well. It's an issue of software developers, shelf space and mindshare. Companies can only develop apps for a limited number of operating systems; retailers have room for only a few products in their stores; and consumers and companies cannot spend countless hours choosing between dozens of platforms.

Watch this space (and every other space) for ongoing discussion of this exciting topic as the Mobile Internet unfolds before us.

About time we named these new gadgets

2011-01-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

For several years now we've called our most popular new gadgets Mobile Devices. That's a name only a geek could love. We have smartphones and tablets of all sizes and they all share common characteristics so it makes sense to name this group. I think they should be referred to as - drum roll - Companion Computers. First, they really are computers and should be identified that way. Some are used as phones but referring to them as phones misleads the public into thinking they are primarily phones - they are not. We've had desktop computers and laptop or portable computers so it makes sense to use the word computer here as well. In fact, some survey organizations are now including iPads in computer sales statistics as I believe they should.

Companion has two meanings. First, many of these new devices will be with us constantly and will be our companions. Certainly smartphones and the smaller tablets - think smartphones without a phone - will be in our pockets, our bags and our cars. Larger tablets can be taken and used everywhere much more easily than "traditional" computers. Second, these computers will also be companions for our desktop and portable computers. They will not replace them in the near future and will coexist peacefully and perform whatever tasks each one does best.

I'd certainly like to hear what you think - other nominations are welcome.

The end of an era

2011-01-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

Most Exciting Consumer Electronics Show Ever
By Horace Dediu (asymco)

At this year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show) two unthinkable things happened: The abandonment of Windows exclusivity by practically all of Microsoft’s OEM customers. The abandonment of Intel exclusivity by Microsoft for the next generation of Windows. Many of Microsoft’s customers chose to use an OS product from Microsoft’s arch enemy. Some chose to roll their own. Microsoft, in turn, chose to port its OS to an architecture from Intel’s arch enemy.

These actions confirm the end of the PC era. Although most people would characterize the era as exemplified by a particular form factor or market, for me the definition of that era is the way the value chain was structured and hence how profits were captured. That era was marked by the condensation of profits around two companies, Intel and Microsoft, with the simultaneous evaporation of profits from all other participants in the value chain.

To achieve this, Microsoft maintained a monopoly on the distribution of operating systems and Intel maintained a monopoly as the single supplier of chip architectures for that operating system. These monopolies are both over. And they both ended at the same time. And it happened this week.

Who says CES is boring this year?

Meet my friend the queen!

2011-01-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a less than enthusiastic report on social media - and a really fun read by Glyn Meek in Computerworld.

"I saw a while ago that even the Queen of England now has an 'official' Facebook page! What is she going to show, "me and Phil with the grandkids at Buck House?" or "Snapshots of Christmas at Balmoral?"

In The Book of Revelations Chapter 23, verses 12-13, is written the following…
12 And it came to pass that the eighth and final sign was the Queen sending forth her messengers to the people with all manner of tidings.
13 Many rent their garments and tore their hair at this sign of evil that the common people should know their rulers in such detail, and a plague was upon the land."
(full report).

Speaking of large numbers - really large numbers

2011-01-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

We just got used to gigabyte (billion) when along comes terabyte (trillion) and now petabyte (quadrillion). Some names of large numbers, such as million, billion, and trillion, have real referents in human experience, and are encountered in many contexts. At times, the names of large numbers have been forced into common usage as a result of excessive inflation. The highest numerical value banknote ever printed was a note for 1 sextillion pengő printed in Hungary in 1946. In 2009, Zimbabwe printed a 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note, which at the time of printing was only worth about 30 US dollars. For much more fascinating facts from this Wikipedia reference click here.

How many was that again?

2011-01-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

It's generally claimed but probably not true that IBM president Tom Watson said the world would need five computers. In 1980 many people thought the world needed just over four billion Internet addresses - wrong again! We know they believed this because that's how it was designed. All Internet addresses are numbers. The addresses we use - www.Braley.com for example - are immediately translated into a number (the real address of the site) before they are sent whizzing off to their destination. Imagine that you were setting up the records for a small town and decided to record every resident using a three digit number - after all it was a small town. Of course when person number 1,000 moves in, you have a problem.

That's exactly the predicament faced by the Internet - the 4.2+ billion Internet addresses are almost used up. People have seen this coming for a long time and created a new addressing system that will be phased in over several years. Internet addresses are called IP addresses for Internet Protocol. The current version is IPv4 and the new version will be IPv6. IPv4 addresses consist of a 32 bit string of zeros and ones - bits. IPv6 will be 128 bits long. Keep in mind that every bit you add doubles the size of the maximum number. The fact that everything from cell phones to printers and refrigerators may get an IP addressed assigned in the future is no cause to worry since a 128 bit address is inconceivably large - a 4 followed by 38 zeros - just shy of a duodecilion!

What's a TinyURL anyway?

2011-01-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

Internet addresses often look like "tinyurl.com/abdef". TinyURL.com is a web site that changes long web addresses (URLs) into short ones. TinyURL.com looks like this

You can type or paste a URL into the first box. You may enter a "vanity URL" in the lower box. The vanity URL is one that is unlikely to represent an existing address. Here's an example using the address of my November newsletter. The actual address is:

http://app.e2ma.net/app2/campaigns/archived/1402118/04524839befdceac7d3801bfcf3f7292/

Since the vanity address (Braley012) has not been used, TinyURL provided the following short vanity address

You can now use www.tinyurl/Braley012 in place of the longer original version. NOTE: The first part of a web address - up to the first slash following the .com, .edu, etc. is NOT case sensitive. Anything following that slash may be case sensitive.

TinyURL is not the only game in town. You might also check out

goo.gl, is.gd, kxk.me, tiny.cc. bit.ly or tr.im

The shortened URL is an intermediary web page set up by the shortening service. When you click to go there, you are immediately redirected to the desired page (with the original longer address.) For more information go to http://bit.ly/9g6sth

Great places to find Apple Apps

2010-12-27T09:52:00.000-08:00

There are many sites to find new apps. I only follow iPad and iPhone/iPod so those are the ones I can recommend.

-BestAppSite APP
-BestAppSite.com
Provides detailed reviews of several apps each week.

-AppAdvice APP
Offers brief comments on numerous apps. There's always a section with apps that are free for a short period - often only one day - so you need to check this one often.

-AppMiner APP
Great searching and sorting tools including Apps on Sale and a Watch List you create to watch for apps that go on sale.

-Macworld.com
Popular Mac magazine site with frequent app reviews

-gBraley.Blogspot.com
My personal blog with periodic app discussions

Numerous other sites including Computerworld, Maclife, PCworld and Datamation.

Internet based TV - are you ready to cut the cable or dump the dish?

2010-12-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

Imagine sitting with a tablet computer such as the iPad on the table or in your lap and doing the following things: 1) Write a blog entry, 2) Use the iPad Remote App to turn on your Apple TV, 3) Then use the same app to select some Christmas music from your PC or MAC to play through the TV, 4) Select photos from your computer library to display on the TV while the music is playing, 4) Continue working on the blog, reading email or the news and checking the weather, sports scores or traffic.

You don't need to imagine any longer; that's what I just did while working on this blog post. I've seen the future and it is Internet TV. Both Google and Apple are plunging full speed ahead in this exploding field. This really is the next big thing. Since the Apple TV is reasonably easy to understand I'll explain how it works.

What is the Apple TV? It's a very small computer that comes without a monitor, keyboard or mouse. It costs $99US and requires a $20US cable to connect to the HDMI port on a digital TV. It will not work on old TVs. To use it, you go through a set up process like any new computer - enter settings to add it to your wireless network, access your Netflix account, iTunes account, etc. This is all accomplished using the Apple TV remote control. Finding your account passwords may be the most difficult part.

Once it's set up, you can use the tiny remote or the Remote App on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to do dozens of incredible things.
> View Netflix movies
> Choose from thousands of free podcasts
> Rent movies and download music through iTunes
> Stream music, video and photo shows from any PC or MAC on your network to your TV.
Here are a few screen shots to show the simple on screen menu.

The Apple TV is a general purpose computer that comes with a set of programs (apps) to handle this type of home media application. I'm sure within a year you will be able to download additional apps for other tasks from an Apple TV app store. Starting January 6, 2011 that's one way you will purchase and install software for MAC computers - not just iPads and iPhones. 2010 will be remembered as the year the Mobile Revolution began and 2011 will be the year of The Internet TV thanks to Apple and Google.

Buying a new phone: the four questions you need to answer first

2010-12-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

Buying a mobile phone is a lot more complex than it used to be. If you intend to invest in a smartphone with a long term contract, there are four questions you should answer at the beginning.

Are you restricted by current contract, location or desire to a certain carrier or carriers?
Will this be your only mobile device or will you also own some type of tablet?
Do you want or require a specific operating system - Apple, Android, etc.?
Is compatibility with some other device important?

Once you answer these questions you will be in a much better position to begin your search and say something more intelligent than "I think I like the blue one".

Microsoft has big tablet plans for January

2010-12-15T09:06:00.000-08:00

According to this New York Times article Microsoft plans to roll out several new tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show opening January 6th in Las Vegas. Most observers have been disappointed in Microsoft's showing in the mobile area. Their Win Phone was announced, cancelled and then re-announced this summer. Windows Phone 7 OS based phones have had limited success. They have been announcing tablet computers since 2001 so it's not surprising there are skeptics.

Most of the debate boils down to which operating systems will win out. With Apple iOS and Android having wide spread adoption, can Microsoft convince people that one of their two operating systems - Windows 7 Mobile or Windows 7 (PC version with touch screen) - can be competitive. We'll know soon. The train has left the station and unfortunately for Microsoft it's high speed rail this time and not the lumbering freight train of the 1980's PC revolution.

Apple TV: What's going to be in your stocking?

2010-12-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

The second generation Apple TV was introduced this summer and gained additional capabilities when the Apple iOS operating system was upgraded. iOS4.2 is the operating system currently used by the iPhone, iPad and iPod. The Apple TV represents Apple's first salvo in the battle with Google and others to control your TV viewing. I will be trying the device soon and will give a further report shortly. In the mean time you can read this review from the generally reliable CNET.

Favorite Apps - My Brand New List Is Here!

2010-12-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

The Twitterverse is full of requests from new iPad users for app suggestions. NOTE: an "app" is just the new name for a program. Since there are over 300,000 apps (programs) available you can see why a newbie might be overwhelmed. I certainly haven't tried them all but I have used over 400 on both the iPad and the iPhone. Remember iPhone apps will work on the iPad; they will just use a small portion of the screen and will resemble the iPhone display. Of course most iPhone apps will also work on the iPod Touch. In many cases a company will provide two versions - one for the iPhone/iPod Touch and one that takes advantage of the large screen on the iPad. Many newspapers do this.

So - what do I like?

Travel

The built-in Maps - for navigation and traffic displays
Beat The Traffic - large screen version for the iPad
GPS Drive - locating coffee shops, etc.

Voice Input

Dragon Search - I use this for Google searches even when I'm at my computer
Dragon Dictate - tiny keyboards be gone! it's time to talk
Vlingo is the current alternative but I have not used it

Photo Editing (one of my favorite hobbies!) - The iPad doesn't have a camera but editing on the large screen is fantastic

Photo Delight - a wonderful and easy to use special effect app
Alien Booth - a simple version of iMac Photo Booth
Transfer - to move photos wirelessly between iPad, iPhone and iMac.
Filterstorm
Photogene
Framed! - you'll love this one
Imikimi
Fingerdesign
CameraFun
ToonCamera - can't wait for the video version
iFlashReady - compensates for the lack of flash on early iPhones (before version 4)
dpReview - digital photography review site

News and Weather

Fluent News - aggregates news from a variety of sources
SkyGrid - similar to Fluent News but more organized
Dozens of other general, technical and political news sites
Built-in weather app
The Weather Channel
ESPN - for all things sports

Calendar, Contacts, Etc.

The built in Calendar and Contact apps are integrated across platforms and the web
Bento - this easy to use Filemaker lite database greatly improves on the standard contact app and integrates with it
W&Y Pages - White and Yellow Pages
MobileMe - a service that has apps for syncing contacts and calendars
Bump - moves contact info, calendar dates and other information between Apple and Android devices - by bumping them together - you have to see it to believe it.

Presentation

Keynote - a version of the Mac program
Picture Frame - built in iPad photo display app

Reference

World Atlas - National Geographic
US Documents - text of 100 important documents from the Constitution to the Louisiana Purchase Treaty and the Gettysburg Address
Dictionary.com
MyConvert - thousands of conversation factors - just fun to try - did you know there were 12,152.23312 cubits in a league!

Entertainment

Netflix - Watch movies on your iPad or stream them wirelessly to TV
IMDb - movie database
TV Guide
YouTube
Movie Vault - free movies
Pandora - music
Flip Clock - radio
Several dedicated radio station apps

Stock Market

Stocks - Built in iPhone app
QFolio HD - A powerful iPad app

Apps for finding Apps - you'll need these!

BestAppSite
AppAdvice

Miscellaneous

FlightAware - flight tracking
Big Tipper - calculate tips and split restaurant bills
World Clock - display clocks for numerous locations of your choice.
TweetDeck and Twitter - for Tweeting
Sketchbook Pro - drawing and painting
Dropbox - file exchange

Tiered pricing - coming soon to a cell phone near you

2010-12-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

More details are being announced about the new way wireless companies will charge for your cell phone data plans. Tiered pricing is the general time for charging you by the speed of the service you choose and/or the amount of data you consume (download). The plans are likely to be horrendously complicated and a spike in monthly bills could be the first indication of what is happening. This Washington Post article provides some information about the subject. The trend will accelerate as companies roll out fourth generation (4G) services late this year and into 2011.

Ransomware - a costly computer infection

2010-12-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

In case you thought you'd heard of every dire threat to your computer, here's one more to add to your list of things to worry about - ransomeware.

This recent Computer World article describes malware that can get into your Windows PC through Adobe PDF files. It will search your computer for various files - Word, Excel, etc. and then makes them unreadable. A message will be displayed demanding $120 to restore the files. This trick has been around for several years but two new recent versions may indicate the threat is coming back.

As with many other computer "dangers", this reinforces the need to keep software up to date and to perform regular backups.

New tablets: all sizes including extra large!

2010-11-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

Many companies are coming out with devices to compete with Apple's iPad and most of them are small with 5-7 inch screens. The iPad is 9.7 inches. Since these are diagonal measurements a 7 inch screen is a little less than half the size of the iPad. One company, however, has gone to the opposite extreme and will be releasing a 14.1 inch dual screen whopper. It will open like a book and is intended for the education market. The company, Kno, has partnered with a number of content providers to deliver textbooks for the device, including McGraw Hill, Pearson, Random House and Macmillan.

iPad comparisons are inevitable and this one has a much larger screen, a higher price and it's heavier. A single screen version will be available. The dual screen model will weigh 5.5 pounds and sell for $899 and the single screen version will weigh half as much and sell for $599. They will have touch screens but also feature pen/stylus input for making notes and marking up text. Weight would seem to be the biggest drawback since the dual screen model will be heavier than many laptops. Click here to read more.

Sign of the times: US News and World Report dropping print subscriptions

2010-11-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

US News and World Report has been one of the three major news magazines for years. Once a weekly publication, they switched to bi-weekly in 2008 and six months later became a monthly publication. Now in another major change they are dropping subscription based printed copies and will go mostly online. They will still offer newsstand printed copies but it remains to be seen how long that will last. This is another step in the gradual but inevitable conversion to the all digital news world.

What's not to like about the iPad?

2010-11-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

Generally speaking I'm very impressed with the iPad. Given that it is a brand new category of device, Apple got a whole lot of things right on Version 1.0. This is the reason dozens of other companies are struggling so hard to create an "iPad Killer". Just do a Google search on "iPad killer" and you'll see what I mean. The size, weight and basic design are excellent. Apple has always been "minimalist" in terms of hardware features. They have preferred to let software handle most task and have gone from a one button mouse (that I have always disliked) to a one button iPad which I love.

Apple set the functionality bar high and the price low; most people thought it would be nearly $1,000 and there was a noticeable gasp at the announcement when the base price was quoted at $499. So it's really hard to come up with something that's "better" in some important way or lower priced.

What don't I like in the current model?

Arranging icons on the ten home screens is tedious since they are displayed in simple rows and columns and must be dragged from place to place in a clumsy and sometimes frustrating process. Apple went a long ways toward fixing this problem on the iPhone when they came out with their new operating system - iOS4.1. This version includes folders which contain multiple apps and greatly simplify app organization. It will be available as iOS4.2 on the iPad in November.
The iTunes store has evolved from a simple music download service to a powerful but overly complex infrastructure for all manner of activities. These include app downloads as well as syncing and backups for iPhones and iPads. An overhaul of this service is overdue.
A camera would be nice and rumors are that the next iPad will have a front facing camera for video conferencing.
The iWork productivity applications are weak on the iPad. I use the Keynote app for all my presentations and it is very limited compared to the iMac version. It appears Apple wanted to demonstrate that the iPad was a business tool and rushed these apps out to make the point. I'm definitely looking forward to an upgrade of these apps.
Printing capabilities are very limited. Again, the iOS4.2 upgrade will include wireless printing capabilities and it will be important that they get that right.
There is currently no USB connection which makes it impossible to connect directly to a printer.
There is no memory card interface. Internal memory up to 64GB should be more than adequate for most people at the present. Other devices that offer memory card capability often provide significantly less internal memory. And since more and more of our information and media will be stored on the Internet (the Cloud), internal memory should become less and less important.

Decisions, decisions: which gadget should I buy?

2010-10-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

You probably won't be forced to choose between a tablet or ereader or make other similar difficult decisions very much longer. One reason, of course, is that their capabilities are being merged in ways that may make a single device suitable for many uses - but that is not the main reason you'll avoid these agonizing choices. With all the uses for this versatile crop of new devices, it's very likely you'll have more than one. We certainly have numerous magazines and books on hand not to mention newspapers. If tablets, ereaders and smartphones become universal tools, a family will most likely have several.

After all, it's not uncommon to have multiple PCs in the house; it often makes sense to keep an older machine when upgrading since they have little resale value and work quite well at common tasks. Of course students regularly use computers for homework and the competition for "the computer" can get fierce in the evening.

It's important to note that we are in the early stages of the Mobile Revolution and dozens of different shapes and sizes of devices will come out soon. Distinguishing between tablets and smartphones will become increasingly difficult and naming conventions will evolve rapidly.

In any case, it is quite likely that a variety of tablets and other mobile devices will be used to replace collections of books, magazines and other publications. No matter how much we enjoy the feel of a "real book", we will rely increasingly on electronic means for much of our information and that means more electronic devices will be needed for access.

Bumping - the new way to connect

2010-10-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Business cards have been around for three hundred years but their fate may be sealed soon. We've tried numerous ways to track our contacts including business card holders and scanners to enter the information into our computers. There was certainly promise to automatic character recognition to convert card images to text but the artistic flourishes on many cards have rendered that strategy problematic. An email address embedded in a sea of flowers is just as hard to read by software as by the human eye.

Bumping has come to the rescue. There is a free app for iPhones and Android phones that automatically transfers contact information between two phones when they touch each other (bump). To learn more go to the companies web site www.BU.MP.

The process seems quite mysterious but it turns out the direct physical contact is not what matters. Because phones have built in GPS, it is easy to determine when two phones are near each other. Second, they have motion sensors that can sense when they move or are jolted. Tapping two nearby phones on the table would yield the same result. But since their may be other phones nearby, and another phone might be jolted at the same time, it is possible to connect with the wrong person. That's the reason, that each participant in a "bump" must confirm the identity of the other party before a connection is made.

In addition to exchanging contact information, the Bump software allows you to exchange photos, social network connections and calendar events.

Ebook formats and other issues

2010-10-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

While the Amazon Kindle may be the best known ebook reader (ereader) around, it is certainly not the only one available today. This brings up the question of compatibility and formats. An entry in Wikipedia lists 21 different ereaders using 13 different formats. That's not a misprint - 13 different formats. Fortunately some ereaders can read ebooks in multiple formats and seven formats are the most commonly encountered (Plain Text, PDF, ePub, HTML, MobiPocket, FictionBook and DjVu.)

Probably the most vexing but least discussed question concerning ebooks relates to your ownership rights. When you buy a real book, there is no questions what you can do with it - keep it, sell it, give it away or throw it away. What happens after you pay for an ebook? Can you transfer it to another similar device, another different type of device, a device owned by a friend, etc? Can you in fact create an ebook "library" like you would with real books? For years people have erroneously thought when they "bought" software they actually owned it - wrong! Virtually every software product includes a license agreement which strictly limits what you can do with it. You do not own software; you are a licensed user.

I firmly believe ebooks are the way of the future. It is just not clear how that future will develop and there are certain to be some unexpected bumps in the road along the way. Not surprisingly many of the issues (formats, licenses, etc.) are what we've dealt with for years with software.

Touch screens are not all created equal

2010-10-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Since touch screens are all the rage today, I thought I would expand on what I wrote last month when discussing stylus input. In that piece I explained the difference between resistive and capacitive touch screens - generally resistive screens are less expensive, require more pressure and are increasingly being replaced by capacitive models that are super sensitive to your touch.

If you compare touch devices, you will begin to notice more differences. Again there is a low cost approach that works like an ATM - touch an icon and an action is triggered. More sophisticated screens incorporate three additional capabilities - multitouch, physics and gestures.

As the name implies multitouch devices let you use more than one finger at a time - tapping with two fingers means something different than tapping with one - much like a right click on a mouse produces a different result than a left click.

A physics capability means the response of the screen mimics physical actions. For example, swiping your finger across an ebook page causes the page to appear to "turn" like a real book. I first noticed the realism this adds one time while reading on my iPad and had the urge to actually pick up the page to turn it. it became that "real" because of the way the device responded to my movement.

Finally, gesture means the screen responds to movements - such as the swipe across the screen mentioned above. A common example is that opening or closing two fingers changes the magnification of the displayed image - combining multitouch (two fingers) with gestures (finger movement).

Both e-readers and tablets will drop in price sooner rather than later. We've already seen a significant drop in e-reader prices as a result of the iPad introduction. One way to reduce prices when the pressure becomes intense will be to use cheaper, less sophisticated touch screens. There's nothing inherently wrong with this but you need to make sure you know what you are getting before you buy.

Without gestures, tapping an icon would turn a page. Without physics pages would turn in some programmed fashion. These may seem like minor issues until you experiment with different products. In general the lower priced gadgets will have the least number of these capabilities. How "natural" it feels to use a touch screen will depend significantly on if and how multitouch, physics and gestures are incorporated.

Artist Alert - touch screens offer exciting opportunities

2010-10-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

We hear about smartphones and tablets being used for communication, games and productivity but what's available for your artistic side? Since a picture (or in this case six videos) is worth a thousand words, I won't even try to describe the possibilities for painting with finger or pen on a touch screen. I will say I was amazed. Click here to see the exciting possibilities in this article by Jonny Evans.

Photography breakthrough: HDR for the masses

2010-10-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Thankfully we are now past the stage of "megapixel bragging"; every camera today has more than enough megapixels to do the job. Image stabilization (IS) is the most significant improvement in photography in recent years. If you've never experienced it, hold a camera zoomed to 300+ mm and see how different the image is with and without IS turned on. But one thing that still plagues amateur and professional alike is the uneven distribution of light in many images.
The Problem
On a sunny day, for example, the bright sky causes the camera to close down the aperture and underexpose the subject. Most people learn they can set the camera to allow in more light - back light compensation - but then the nice bright blue sky turns almost white. The highlights are said to be blown out. It turns out our eyes can see a wider range of light intensity than a camera.
Professional digital photographers have a solution. They spend money on expensive cameras, spend more money on Photoshop and then spend time combining three separate images - one standard exposure, one over exposed and one underexposed. High end cameras can easily produce this set of images. This is not an approach most people would want to try but the results are amazing; details are present in the bright, dark and intermediate areas of the picture.
The Breakthrough
On September 1, 2010 Apple announced an upgrade to their iOS software - used in iPhones, iPods and iPads. This change allows the camera to take the necessary three images and automatically combine them into an HDR photo. The results looked impressive in the demonstration but I'll have to see real results before I believe it. This approach does not require anything special in camera electronics or optics since the process is just rapid image capture followed by sophisticated image processing. Since all smartphones and the upcoming hoard of tablets generally include cameras, it is likely other vendors will implement similar capabilities that will produce better images and require little if any change in user behavior.

Thinking of a camera for Christmas?

2010-09-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

If you think it's time to upgrade your old 15 megapixel camera, this may be just what you need. A camera company you've never heard of - Leaf Technologies - just announced their 80 megapixel monster. That's no typo. You need plenty of memory cards though because each image takes nearly one-half gigabyte of storage. Oh, and you also need plenty of money; the basic model is $31,387 - also not a typo. And of course if you want to take any pictures, you need to buy lenses; they aren't included with the camera. If you keep your eyes open, you can probably pick one up for 10% off on e-bay. Actually, when you think about it, it's not such a bad deal. The previous model cost the same amount and had only a lousy 56 megapixels.

The future of paper: how long will it survive

2010-09-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

There are many sides to the debate about ebook readers (e-readers) compared to "real" books. Often the question of environmental impact centers around the fact that paper comes from trees therefore real books are bad. As in most such debates the reality is more complex.

Much of the impact of both types of books - and other products as well - occurs long before you even see them. Rare minerals and hazardous chemicals are used in the production of electronic devices as well as printers ink. An excellent article by Brian Palmer discussing this subject in depth in Slate Magazine is well worth reading.

Many discussions center around the "readability" factor. E-readers are said to be easier on your eyes than tablets like the iPad because they do not flicker. Some say curling up in bed with a computer of any kind is unnatural. Others prefer the physical connection with a nicely bound paper book as well as the ability to peruse a real library.

I believe that as desirable as real books, magazines and newspapers are for many, the battle is over almost before it has begun. Young people have grown up with electronic information sources of all types; the Internet has been used by the public for fifteen years. I'm confident most types of printed material will go the way of written correspondence, newsletters, technical journals, phone books, dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference materials of all kinds. These have disappeared with barely a whimper. The days of young children carrying thirty pounds of text books to school are numbered.

Friends don't let friends give out unreadable business cards

2010-09-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Type designers and page layout professionals go to great lengths to make sure their results are - above all - readable. Why can't the rest of us do the same with our business cards?

How often do you see an email address like this?

firstmiddleandlastnameplussomenumberslike1171@gmail.com

What are they thinking! Now try this -

FirstMiddleAndLastNamePlusSomeNumbersLike1171@gmail.com

This may be an absurd example but it illustrates the point. Cards are distributed to exchange contact information. If the artwork, type styles and other design elements make that difficult they should be changed. Specifically email addresses ARE NOT CASE SENSITIVE - EVER. Once more - email addresses ARE NOT CASE SENSITIVE - EVER.

Ask someone you trust to tell you whether your business cards are readable - without a magnifying glass and without several guesses as to whether that is a "1" or an "l". If that last phrase doesn't make the point, I don't know what would.

A hornet's nest - what a difference a year makes

2010-09-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

You have to give Apple credit for one thing - they've really stirred up a hornet's nest in the tablet computer business. Think back just one year - does anyone remember a single mention of "tablet computer?" Probably not unless it was an historical reference to Alan Kaye's Dyanabook design (1968), the Apple Newton (1993) or Microsoft's tablet announcement (2000). With the exception of "convertibles" and other variations on the PC notebook theme, major computer companies did not appear to have a tablet device under consideration - much less development.

Fast forward to the present. Technologizer just published a list of 32 tablets from 26 companies. A few are available; most are "coming soon". Vendors include the big names - HP, Motorola, Dell, RIM, Samsung, Sony, Cisco, Lenovo and Toshiba - but others are really a stretch - Nefonia and Fushion Garage for example. Very few are direct competitors to the iPad; some are aimed at students with very low cost and others are directed specifically toward businesses. Some are as small as 5 inch screens; the iPad is 9.7. CIO has a discussion of 15 Apple iPad Rivals as well. It's phenomenal that a category of product that did not exist a year ago is all everybody is talking about - not just a gadget but a whole category of gadgets. Certainly the personal computer was a new product category but it took ten years to catch on (1975-1985).

A look back at the Internet
This situation reminds me of the time way back in 1995 when I wrote an article on the "new thing" called The Internet ("The" was capitalized in those days). Now the Internet wasn't really new then; it had been in wide spread use in the Defense Department, universities and research institutions for years. In those days mere mortals could search specific locations on line using Compuserve, AOL and Prodigy. You couldn't Google or search Web sites since Google and the Web had not been invented.

I did search the archives of the Minneapolis Star Tribune using Compuserve and saw that three years earlier there was only one mention of the Internet; a year later it was less than a hundred; from then on it exploded into the thousands. That's the trend I see happening now - not just due to the iPad - but the Mobile Internet in general which includes smartphones and other devices yet to be named. I predict that in three years most people will find it hard to imagine a world without tablet computers.

A technology refresher - back to the basics

2010-09-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

Many of the new technologies and “gadgets” we encounter today are related to the “Mobile Internet”. You’ve probably heard the term and have some vague notion what it’s all about. It can be embarrassing though, to ask questions in this area when everyone in the room seems to understand what’s happening – except you! Believe me, you’re not alone; most people have little comprehension of the dramatic changes that are occurring today – changes that will completely alter the way we work, play, learn and communicate in the very near future.

A little background

The Internet is a collection of millions of computers connected by a complex collection of cables. A set of programs - often called protocols - make these computers work together. The World Wide Web (the Web) is collection of files that are stored on Internet computers (called servers). These files can be viewed on your computer using a browser program and they are sent to your computer by a program called a Web server.

There are numerous programs besides the Web that use the Internet – an email application such as outlook would be one; file download using FTP is another non-Web application that uses the Internet. Incidentally, your computer can have a Web server installed allowing people all over the world to access files you want to share – you can host your own Web site and it is really not that difficult to do.

Now some basic definitions

A Feature Phone is a cell phone that can store your contacts, send and receive email, browse the Web, play music, etc. It comes with a built-in set of programs (called apps – short for applications).

A Smart Phone is a step up from a feature phone since you can easily install apps yourself. The Apple iPhone 3G released in 2008 was the first true smart phone but many others have been introduced since that time. The MobileBurn Web site contains a searchable database of recent phones. Apps on these phones use the Internet and may or may not use the Web. The important point is they are very simple to use and do not involve a browser – they connect directly to various Internet/Web services with the simple touch of a button.

A Netbook is a small, low powered, low cost laptop computer. They are light duty computers intended for mobile tasks including email and Web surfing. Their low powered processors can not handle video production and their small screens and keyboards also limit their uses.

An eBook Reader - or just e-reader - such as the Amazon Kindle is primarily used for reading books downloaded from the Internet. Their specialized “eInk” displays are said to be easier on the eyes than a traditional display for extensive reading. They are very lightweight and some can also surf the Web.

A modern Tablet Computer is a “real” computer since it has a general-purpose operating system and the basic hardware elements of a PC. The Apple iPad is the best know example at the present. Virtually every major electronics company would like to produce an “iPad killer” and there are announcements every week by somebody who will make one “soon”. Recently discussed and announced models have included smaller screens than the iPad, have been directed toward business more than consumers and are promoted for content creation and not primarily consumption. Most tablets discussed so far use smart phone operating systems but others will use a mobile version of Windows 7 to mimic a standard PC.

What Lies Ahead

· Confusion will be rampant in the near term since it will be difficult to distinguish one category from another. Is a device with a five-inch screen a large smart phone or a small tablet? As new devices come out, new categories will emerge as well.

· The typical wireless data plan has allowed users unlimited data downloads for a fixed fee of $30. That will change soon since smart phone and tablet usage is overwhelming the infrastructure of the carriers. Some are already moving toward “tiered” pricing where you pay for different levels of capacity.

· Many of the specialized “gadgets” we have today will be “rolled into” smart phones and tablets. You will no longer need basic cameras, GPS navigation devices, MP3 and DVD players, calculators and a host of other devices since these can easily be incorporated into smart phones and tablets.

· Since tablets are general-purpose devices, they pose a serious threat to both netbooks and ebook readers.

· Just as a few companies have dominated the PC industry, it is likely that many smart phone and tablet makers will be knocked out of contention in the next few years; Investors and consumers are already placing their bets.

· Speech recognition will be widely used to dictate text, search the Web and perform other basic data entry tasks. Versions available today are very accurate, easy to use and inexpensive. Users will find that the best keyboard may often be no keyboard.

The new world of the Mobile Internet is here and the fast pace of change occurring now means our information society will be completely remade in ways we can barely imagine today.

The Dark Side of the digital age

2010-09-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

Many of us take more photos on a long weekend than we did the entire time we used film cameras. Arguably the quality is improved based on immediate feedback and numerous retakes. We also avoid finding out when our film is developed - and our vacation is over - that an entire roll was poorly exposed due to unusual lighting conditions or an improper camera setting. All in all we feel like we've solved one of the world's greatest problems - documenting our lives for future generations. After all we repeatedly view, sort and arrange those precious pictures taken a century ago. We hang them on the wall and proudly point to great-uncle Eggbert as we relate our family's illustrious or not-so illustrious history. But there is a looming downside to the digital age and it affects much more than our photo libraries.

I'm often ask about the best way to store/archive photos and other files for the long term and I give the same simplistic answers as every other "expert" - make copies on CDs, store them off-site, etc., etc. But the very serious problem of long term storage of files of all types was discussed recently in Computerworld and here is a hint of the problem.

The Domesday book - a detailed property ownership survey in England commissioned by William the Conqueror - was published in 1086. It was recorded on sheepskin and written in Latin. In 1986 an updated version was prepared using the latest technology - laser discs. Guess which one was readable fifteen years later - assuming you or a friend could read Latin. That's right, the 935 year old book could be read but the "modern version" could not because the laser disc players and software were obsolete. Reading the 1986 version required significant custom hardware and software engineering.

Reading at least part of the the article by Lamont Wood is informative. Organizations with substantial concerns include the Library of Congress, the National Archives and the U.S. Geological Survey and you can forget about gigabytes; they talk in terabytes and petabytes (one thousand and one million gigabytes respectively.) The problem is reminiscent of the Year 2000 Problem but this one will not be over in five years. Digital data has the potential to last literally forever - it's all just collections of zeros and ones - providing archiving strategies are developed to store those quadrillions (petabytes) of bits.

E-reader fire sale?

2010-08-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

If you're thinking about taking the plunge and purchasing one of the many e-readers (sometimes called e-book readers), you should know that competition is heating up. New models - some with color screens and other extra features - will be introduced over the next few months. For a discussion of what's happening read this excellent Computerworld article.

Tablet wars just beginning

2010-08-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

While tablet computers have existed for years, they've had limited appeal - particularly for consumers. The Apple iPad released just five months ago exploded on the market and now every electronics company wants to produce an "iPad Killer". This quote from an excellent article on the tablet market is informative

It may be true that the 2010 holiday season belongs to the iPad for tablets and that laptop-minded customers are not ready yet for tablet PCs. But 2011 will be the year when the tablet wars begin in earnest, says [Tim Bajarin from Creative Strategies] and Microsoft can't afford to be late.

While the article focuses on Microsoft, there is also good information about a number of other important tablet developments by major companies.

Comparing Apples and Androids

2010-08-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this topic for some time and decided now that the back-to-school and Christmas shopping seasons are upon it's to time do it - and nothing represents the Christmas spirit like a shiny new Motorola DROID 2 running the Android 2.2 "Froyo" OS and including Flash Player 10.1, a 3.7 inch screen, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a five (count 'em five) megapixel camera, an 8GB microSD card and a 3G mobile hotspot feature (for an amazingly low $20 per month.) Am I right?

All kidding aside (you did know I was kidding?) I thought it would help to summarize what is happening in the major technical competition of our day - the battle between Apple and Android phones. I use an iPhone so my knowledge of the Android market is limited to what I read and hear from colleagues. Any comments you can add will be appreciated. First a summary of major points you need to know:

Apple - Simplicity is the key - If you want to walk into a store, pick up a phone, set it up and begin using it in an hour, buy an iPhone.

• Easy to setup and use

• Easy to select - only two models and one decision - 3Gs or the latest 4G (16GB or 32GB)

• One operating system - iOS

• One carrier - AT&T - for now

• Number of apps - Huge

• Well designed portal - iTunes Store

• One source of apps - Apple App Store

• Tightly controlled apps - security, viruses, etc.

• Small size - pocket or purse

Android - Vast array of choices and decisions - If you want a carrier other than AT&T, or a physical keyboard, a larger screen or other specific hardware features and want no restrictions on your apps, then buy an Android phone.

• Choice of vendor - HTC, Motorola, LG, Sony-Ericsson, Google, Acer, Samsung and others

• Multiple designs - Each vendor can design their own phones and most have more than one version resulting in nearly a hundred different Android phones available today
• Wide array of features that vary from model to model - larger screen sizes, more physical buttons, physical QWERTY keyboards, higher resolution cameras, customizable screen layouts, dedicated social network functions, etc.

• Multiple OS variations - There are currently five different Android operating systems in use (1.5-2.2) and each vendor can add their own user interface (UI) to the OS.
• Multiple app sources

• Unrestricted apps

• Number of apps - Huge

• Competition will cause prices to drop

There are of course many other smartphones available but Apple and the Android family are all the rage today. Apple defined the category with the iPhone 3G in 2008. Google changed the game by introducing an operating system that runs on many phones and dozens of companies seized on this approach. This is reminiscent of the PC wars in recent years - Apple versus the "PC".

While it is often stated that Apple lost that battle, remember that IBM - the other major player - failed in the business altogether due to brutal price competition. Contrary to poplar wisdom, IBM tried to stop others from making PCs but less than ten months after the IBM PC was introduced in 1981, the first clones were announced.

The current hoard of Android phone manufacturers might look like an army storming the Apple "castle". What should not be overlooked in this scenario is that the attacking warriors are also trying to destroy each other - not a pretty scene. Who will ultimately prevail as the preeminent Android provider (like the 1990s Dell or HP) is anybody's guess.

The variety of choices in Android hardware and operating systems is confusing for many people. These differences can cause serious problems for vendors as well as explained in this article by JR Raphael in CompterWorld. Raphael is normally a vociferous Android proponent.

A footnote about Apple: Rumors have circulated for years about another carrier for the iPhone. In the past these have sounded more like hopeful speculation for the "I hate AT&T crowd" and those with poor AT&T service but recently the rumors have coalesced into a strong possibility that Verizon will be a choice after the first of the year. Stay tuned.

A fight to the death in the eBook wars

2010-08-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

Early this year everybody was going to sell an ebook reader to compete with the Kindle. However, the introduction of the $500 iPad - also an ebook reader - changed everything. The IEEE Spectrum has a really good discussion of the latest developments in this fast changing field - who's in who's out and who's on the ropes. As the price wars continue, remember an ebook reader is only as good as its supply of books. As companies drop out of the race their devices could become $200 boat anchors. Whoops, sorry about the old cliche - boat anchors need to weigh more than a pound!

More info about spotting dangerous web site links

2010-08-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

A reader ask for more information on this item from a previous post.

An address you see in an email message or web page may look legitimate but the link connected to that address may be entirely different. The button or words you click on are totally arbitrary and the underlying web address (the hyperlink) is what matters.

There are two easy ways to discover the real address of a clickable button or text phrase. You can "hover" over the item - move your mouse pointer over it without clicking - and see the real link displayed - usually at the lower left border of the browser window. You can also right click on the text or button and choose "copy the link" or "copy the shortcut". Then past this into your browser window address bar or any other document and see the actual link displayed. Both approaches - hover and copy/paste should also work with email messages that include links.

As mentioned in the earlier post, you should look closely at the Top Level Domain Name - which includes .com, .edu, .gov and country codes such as .us, .ch, .ru, etc.

Why you can be robbed blind in Cameroon without ever going there

2010-08-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

The country code for Cameroon is .cm and a common mistake is to type .cm instead of .com. If you accidentally type MyBigBank.cm instead of MyBigBank.com, you will go to an entirely different site and could be tricked into providing the password for your account on a web page that is a perfect copy of the legitimate bank site you normally see.

"Phishing" is an attempt to trick you into providing personal information such as bank account or Social Security numbers to someone who will use it dishonestly. Modern techniques are very sophisticated versions of the "Nigerian official who wants to share $40 million with you" scams.

These are seductive since they appear to be messages from a source you know and they are addressed to you by name - not "dear friend". Often they are requests for you to update contact information and will appear to come from the address of a bank or store you deal with and will have the logo of the institution prominently displayed.

If you know only one thing about Internet addresses, you can avoid many of these plots.

While Internet addresses are often long, confusing strings of letters and symbols, there is a critical set of two to four characters you need to understand. The following examples illustrate this point:

www.MyBigBank.com/file1/whatever/xxye*!345 - possibly safe

www.MyBigBank.ru/file1/whatever/xxye*!345 - probably unsafe

If you are a customer of MyBigBank, it is likely their address includes .com. It is highly unlikely it includes .ru. This set of two to four letters is referred to as a Top Level Domain name. These are either generic (.com, .edu, .gov) or country codes (.us, .ru). As you might guess us=United States and ru=Russia. So to significantly reduce your chances of clicking on a malicious site check the two to four characters preceding the first slash in the address. You should be suspicious of country codes in general and any .com address you do not know. For clarity the basic web address MyBigBank.com is called a domain name; .com, edu, .gov, are top level domain names. To have a web page you need to find a domain name that is not currently used. Smith.com is probably not available but Smith.md may be (.md is the country code for the Republic of Moldova.) Click here for a complete list of country codes.

Two other related facts: An address you see in an email message or web page may look legitimate but the link connected to that address may be entirely different. The button or words you click on are totally arbitrary and the underlying web address (the hyperlink) is what matters. Second, web pages can contain a "jump" command that could, for example, cause you to go to BigCompany.ru even when you enter BigCompany.com so keep a close eye on the Top Level Domains that show up in the browser address line.

Finally, the top five riskiest country codes for 2009, according to McAfee were:

Cameroon (.cm)
PR of China (.cn)
Samoa (.ws)
Philippines (.ph)
Former Soviet Union (.su)

A PC Defender - What do you think of his idea?

2010-08-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

John Dvorak, a well known PC writer. has this to say when comparing desktop PCs to mobile devices "With my PC I can actually calculate, with accuracy, the trajectory of a rocket shot to the moon, and the amount of fuel it needs to get there. On my desktop." Is this something we all need to worry about? Read the entire article in PC Magazine.

iPad Wannabees - Bargin or Scam?

2010-08-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

Online sites like eBay are offering iPad like tablets for less than $100. The devices are being sold under names like Apad and ePad, mostly from vendors in China. But buyer beware so read this article before you take the plunge.

What a Difference a Decade Makes

2010-08-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

For many years Microsoft, Intel and Dell lead the league in the minds of investors. The following snapshot of stock prices over the last five years shows an entirely different story today.

The chart shows how stock prices of six leading technology companies have changed over five year and one year intervals. In the extreme cases Dell lost 66% for its investors and Apple gained 498%. The other two "big names" a decade ago - Microsoft and Intel fared only slightly better than Dell.

Is Facebook getting too big to be useful?

2010-07-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

According to one writer Facebook's social network can't mirror the actual social networks, or social groups, that people have. Because of that, users are beginning to notice a curious effect: The more you use Facebook, the less usable it becomes. See what you think of Mike Elgan's article. More generally, this excellent NY Times Magazine article "The Web Means the End of Forgetting" by Jeffrey Rosen is a fascinating look at the endless archive of everything we say to everyone. Here's a quote that should get your attention.

"It’s often said that we live in a permissive era, one with infinite second chances. But the truth is that for a great many people, the permanent memory bank of the Web increasingly means there are no second chances — no opportunities to escape a scarlet letter in your digital past. Now the worst thing you’ve done is often the first thing everyone knows about you".

And according to this article the privacy policy of Facebook is longer than the US Constitution!

Is DC culture changing with the times?

2010-07-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

According to a recent article in the Washington Post "To do business with the feds, BlackBerrys are not preferred; they are often required. To my knowledge, I don't have contracts that require I get an iPhone for an employee," said Frank Smith, chief information officer for McLean consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton. "I do have contracts that stipulate BlackBerrys." ... But people [including] app developers, telecommunications companies and even the chief technology officer of the United States -- think change is coming..." Read the complete story.

New Photo Book software

2010-07-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Photo books have existed for several years but there's always room for something new. The complexity of photography and publication design means there are still opportunities for improving the design process as well as the user interface. Picaboo is a recent entry into the field and is worth considering. PC and Mac versions are available for download free. In my early but incomplete experiments it appears powerful and easy to use.

Favorite iPad, iPhone Apps Identified

2010-07-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

My recent post identified app categories but did not name names. There are so many in each category I didn't want to play favorites. But, that is exactly what makes app selection so difficult - there are so many to choose from. So here are the names of the ones I use most frequently - you can search for them at the app store. Remember iPhone apps are usable on the iPod Touch and iPad.

I am also interested in starting a discussion of apps on other devices and would be grateful for comments from Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Microsoft and other smartphone and tablet users to kick it off.

Comments are always welcome (go to the end of this post to leave a message).

Travel

The built in apps
GPS Drive
Inrix - One click display of current traffic - don't leave home without it - I've avoided countless traffic delays

Voice Input

Dragon Search - I use this for Google searches even when I'm at my computer
Google Search - similar to Dragon search but more limited
Dragon Dictate - tiny keyboards be gone! it's time to talk
Vlingo is the current alternative but I have not used it

Photo Editing

Filterstorm - I used this for the lighthouse photo but I've barely touched the surface of this one
Photogene
Framed
Imikimi
Fingerdesign
iFlashReady - compensates for the lack of flash on "old" iPhones (before version 4)

News and Weather

Fluent News - aggregates news from a variety of sources
SkyGrid - similar to Fluent News but more organized
Dozens of other general, technical and political news sites
The Weather Channel

Calendar, Contacts, Etc.

The built in Calendar and Contact apps are integrated across platforms and the web
Bento - this easy to use Filemaker lite database greatly improves on the standard contact app and integrates with it
Whitepages - long a standard for address look up

Presentation

Keynote - the only presentation program currently available - but probably not for long

Flight Tracking

FlightAware

Stock Market

Stocks - Built in iPhone app
QFolio HD - A powerful iPad app

The BestAppSite is always a good source for app reviews.

Is the Apple iPad just an overgrown iPod?

2010-06-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

Since Apple announced the iPad in January it has sometimes been dismissed as just an extra large iPod Touch. After all they bear a striking resemblance – except for size – when you put them side-by-side. In part this is due to the minimalist design embodied in Apple products – there are few physical buttons on either and those that exist are small and hidden from view.

The devices also use a similar interface – a single glass surface displaying twenty to thirty icons with no physical keyboard (an optional wireless keyboard is available for the iPad). Most operations are initiated by touching or sliding one or more fingers on the surface. Neither has a built in phone and both can run most of more than two hundred thousand apps available in the Apple App store.

But it turns out, size does matter. The iPod is certainly more convenient to take everywhere - measuring only 2.5 by 4.5 inches. The iPad is about the size of a thin book measuring 7.5 by 9.5 inches and weighing one and a half pounds. To see the important advantages the iPad has, you need to divide apps into three categories: those that run fine on both devices, those that work but not very well on the iPod and those that require the large iPad screen to function at all.

Navigation apps would be in the first category. Although a large display would certainly show a better map, the convenience of a small device while traveling will cause GPS devices and smarpthones to be the primary platform. Other well-established apps including contact management, calendaring and email will do quite well on the small screen. However, the power user with lots of contacts and lots of appointments will definitely appreciate the iPad calendar and contact applications.

Web surfing works on small devices but when you cross the line from simple searches to full blown web site display, the advantage of the large screen is obvious. Debates now concern whose display technology is best; debates which have been on going since the birth of the CRT display some forty years ago.

Possibly the most important use of tablet computers has barely begun. Successful tablets in the past have been used in commercial applications – health care being a primary example. When current tablet technology – including a touch screen interface and easy app installation – is adapted by the corporate world, tablet use will explode and the large screen iPad may be the device that propels this development. Windows based tablets will reignite the Microsoft-Apple wars of the past. This debate will become more complicated when you ask “which Windows mobile OS are you talking about? The company currently has four incompatible versions.

The ability to develop and display a presentation using an iPad illustrates the potential. The same 24-ounce device used for routine communication, web surfing, as well as corporate and private document retrieval can be used for boardroom presentations. Holding an iPad and changing slides with a finger like turning a page in a book completely alters the feel of the task. It is a change that presenters – other than die hard mouse fans – will quickly appreciate.

Make no mistake – the iPad is not perfect. One of its greatest strengths is currently its biggest weakness. The simple touch screen interface exists because the user does not interact directly with the operating system. You never navigate through folders to find documents; each app keeps track of its own files. Tap on an app such as Keynote – the Apple presentation program – and you immediately see a list of all Keynote presentations. Tap a file and it opens; nothing could be simpler. But, what if you have fifty or more presentations and they are all stored in one folder? This will be a problem.

The newest version of the iPhone operating system – referred to as iOS4 – introduces folders for applications. This allows you to have more than the current 180 apps on an iPhone and 226 on the iPad. It would make sense that this change will eventually lead to a folder structure in the applications themselves so organizing files within an app will be much easier. Whether or how Apple will address the fact that files of different types cannot be stored together – e.g. all files of any type associated with a project in one folder – is unclear. Since PC and Mac users alike waste enormous amounts of time trying to “find stuff”, coming up with an elegant but powerful tablet based filing system will be critical.

While tablets of been around a long time, only since the iPad was released do you see them popping up everywhere. Owners show them off and answer a barrage of questions about what they do. They are rapidly changing from specialty PCs to mainstream products. A variety of devices will coexist for many years but as the power of tablets increases and apps continue to multiply, it is likely the iPad and others like it will take a bigger part of the information pie.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Apps

2010-06-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

I was going to list my five favorite iPad iPhone Apps but quickly realized such a limited list would be impossible to create. So here is a slightly longer list in no particular order. These are app categories and not specific apps since there are often several good ones to choose from in each category. Keynote is the only app not available on the iPhone. Most iPhone apps run on the iPad and there are now over 10,000 iPad specific apps. Of course most of these apps are available on numerous other smartphones. I'm just writing about what I know best.

Traffic and Navigation - I've avoided many travel delays by checking traffic conditions before and during my trips. Of course locating a destination as well as a restaurant or other meeting place is a snap with the many navigation/GPS apps. All the major navigation device makers have iPhone apps.
Voice Search and Dictation - Voice search is much easier than typing on any tiny keyboard and extremely accurate. It's so good I'll even pick up my iPhone or iPad to do a quick search when using my desktop Mac or laptop PC. If the iPad is nearby, I just reach over and tap the voice search app, speak the query and see the Google search results appear. Using one finger, I scroll the list and tap on specific entries.
News and Weather - I check several news sites each day as well as a number of technology related sites. These are "readable" on the iPhone and beautiful on the iPad.
Calendar, Contacts and White Pages - The calendar and contact apps are integrated across all devices.
Photo Editing - I have a DSLR and often use Photoshop LE. Lately I've done much of my work on the iPhone and iPad. The latter does not have a camera - not a big omission in my opinion - but editing photos is simple using one finger to manipulate the controls. The original photo of a lighthouse in the Duluth harbor is shown first along with three "artistic" variations. Remember I'm a programmer - not an artist!

Presentation - Keynote is the Apple version of Powerpoint. It's easy to learn and a joy to use the iPad in presentations. Try scrolling through slides by swiping your finger on the screen and you'll never go back to a keyboard and mouse.
Flight Tracking - Checking flight information is a snap with one of these apps.

Smartphone Wars

2010-06-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

Most reports indicate that Apple and Google Android phones are gaining ground at the expense of other smartphone companies. RIMM (Blackberry) does not have the level of consumer interest or app store capability that are driving the current market. Palm, the early leader, was recently acquired by HP but it appears their primary interest is in the Palm WebOS operating system for tablets and not Palm phone hardware. In fact at the time the acquisition was announced, HP dropped their plan for a Windows tablet in favor of the "Streak" based on WebOs.

The choice is between a tightly controlled product from Apple where hardware, operating system and applications are well integrated and the wide open approach of Google where numerous companies make the phones which can operate over several carriers. There are currently five different versions of Android; each of which can be modified by the manufacturer. It's not easy to answer the question "exactly what is an Android phone?"

Having AT&T as the only carrier has definitely hurt Apple but it is likely that will change and Verizon or T-Mobile will be an option before the end of the year.

A Brief History of Tablet Computers

2010-06-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

Since the Apple iPad exploded onto the scene in January it might seem that tablets are a brand new idea. However, some tablets have been used in recent years where a portable handheld device operated with a pen or stylus could do the job. This would include medical applications where they could replace a chart or possibly warehouse and delivery functions.

The tablet concept, however, is really quite old. In fact the "Dynabook" was created by Alan Kay in 1968. Kay wanted to make “A Personal Computer For Children Of All Ages". Read more of the details here. Alan Kay and collaborators at Xerox PARC are credited with designing many of the elements of modern computing including the mouse and the graphical user interface nearly forty years ago.

And, as with most breakthroughs, there were a lot of trys and a lot of failures preceding any successes. Read A Brief History of Unsuccessful Tablet Computers.

Will the iPad Change the Way Congress Does Business?

2010-05-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

The US House of Representatives still operates on mountains of paper. The ubiquitous BlackBerry is used primarily for messaging and laptops are banned from the floor. A recent report in Politico shows why that may be about to change. “This thing is the bomb,” said Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who carts his midsized tablet everywhere but the House floor ... “It’s light; it’s portable. It’s accessible information. I love it.”

The Players and the Products

2010-05-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

The rapidly evolving fields of mobile hardware, operating systems and apps is shaking up the list of prominent consumer technology suppliers. In the past, we heard a lot about the PC makers - Dell, HP, etc. - as well as cell phone companies including Motorola, RIM and Palm. These companies are becoming "niche players" - supplying PCs and cell phones - while Google and Apple are battling it out for the hearts and minds of the public.

In the following chart I've listed four companies and indicated the products they offer. Microsoft, Google and Apple have a broad range of offerings and will be competing across the field. I've included Amazon because of its huge content offering as well as its leadership position in the eBook field.
(Click to enlarge)

While I was preparing this chart several significant announcements were made - Microsoft decided not to release it's Courier tablet. HP did the same with its Slate tablet. At the same time HP announced it would purchase beleaguered Palm - once considered the leading smartphone company. This could mean HP will switch to the Palm WebOS for its tablets instead of Windows - a major change for two big players.

It is likely that many products will be merged into other categories - mp3 players and GPS systems will be included in smart phones, for example. Nevertheless, it is instructive to compare the offerings each player currently has and try to predict the ultimate winners of this fascinating contest.

Is the Age of the Endless Upgrade coming to an end?

2010-04-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

With all the innovation that’s happened since the birth of electronic computing more than fifty years ago, have we been moving forward or heading over a cliff? Let’s take look at the simple process of preparing a typed document.

Early last century a manual typewriter could be used for twenty or more years with an occasional repair, a new ribbon and a can of oil. When a new model did come out, most people could catch on to the changes with very little training so upgrading every few decades was not traumatic. Today, it’s an entirely different story; the modern “typewriter” is Microsoft Word, a program that contains one thousand five hundred commands. The company explained the need to completely overhaul the user interface in the latest versions because this is ten times the number of commands available in the first version - nearly one hundred new features added per year. Imagine if typewriters had evolved this way what it would have done to the productivity of a secretary who could type eighty words a minute if the keyboard was rearranged every year!

The question is why did devices from typewriters to locomotives go unchanged for decades while current equipment is upgraded almost every year? Additionally we should ask if the current approach is better or worse and if it is worse, what is being done to make things better? Do we always have to live with the fear that “they are going to upgrade our system again”? Fortunately – as hard as it is to believe – we’ve started to turn the corner and the new direction will be much better than what we’ve suffered through in recent years. This may sound like the usual snake oil from promoters who say they need to sell you a better product since the ones they’ve been selling you for ten years are terrible.

Locomotives stayed the same for years because they were made out of steel (hardware) and they could not simply be reprogrammed. And they also worked “good enough” that improving the hardware was not deemed necessary – even without any sophisticated ROI calculations. The culprit - it turns out - is software. Electronic devices today are made of hardware and software.

Writing software is merely creating a string of zeros and ones (the program) that can rearrange other strings of zeros and ones (the data). A program uses the processor (hardware) to accomplish this rearrangement and the processors most common task is to add zero and one or one and one and store the answer in a “bit” of memory. The apparent magic in computers is due to the fact they can perform this simple functions millions of times per second. Because this programming process made it relatively easy to modify things – no screwdriver required, the process of upgrading has become commonplace. It also appears inexpensive because the companies do not consider the end user costs associated with upgrading and retraining.

Designers and programmers love to tinker with software and marketers love to have new features to boast about. The amount of money a software company can make is directly proportional to the number of times they produce upgrades. The fact that these upgrades might destroy users’ productivity for a period of time and are not actually desired by most users is of little consequence – particularly if the company has a monopoly on the product and everyone feels obliged to be “compatible”.

It’s likely that someone in these companies ask “what happens when this process produces software that is so ‘feature rich' users spend full time upgrading and never actually do anything productive”? If someone did mention this, their superiors would tell them not to ask such questions again. We may be approaching that point now and fortunately the issue is being addressed from a surprising direction – cell phones and mp3 players. Keep in mind that upgrading is not simply the process of downloading the new version and lying when you are ask if you read and agree to the End User License Agreement. Even if you need none of the new features, the true upgrade cost also includes time you spend every day for months looking for that feature you do use that has been renamed, relocated or both.

Cell phones were originally used for making phone calls and of course everyone under ninety needed an mp3 player. When someone thought it would be nice to get email when away from the office and also eliminate the dedicated mp3 player, the cell phone as a computer was born. The genius to the modern smartphone is not just that it can download programs – “apps” – but that these apps are very simple to use. They are not the bloated programs we have been forced to use in the past. It certainly is not clear how this new model will evolve in the future but the success of the smartphone and it’s “app store” is strong evidence that people like this simplicity.

This does bring up one interesting question – what level of capability is “good enough”. For years audiophiles argued that real music had to be played on LP records and CDs just didn’t sound right. Whether there was really a discernible difference in those two media is still debatable but there is no doubt whatsoever that mp3 storage and playback via “earbuds” represents a significant degradation in quality from CDs. The comparable effect can be seen in the difference between a high resolution photograph and grainy compressed version. But apparently the majority of people today have decided that mp3 quality is “good enough”. There is a very thorough discussion of this topic in a recent Wired Magazine article. It goes beyond computer and music issues and addresses the general problem of product quality and complexity very thoughtfully.

It seems that in software as in music, users are choosing simplicity over features when they have a choice. There may be hundreds of features in a desktop email program but the smartphone versions are adequate for a growing number of people. It’s possible that in the drive to compete more “feature rich” versions of today’s simple apps will be developed and it will be interesting to see how the market reacts. I for one am thrilled that installing a new program is no longer a days long process involving a hardware upgrade and numerous calls to tech support.

Great Article on "Good Enough" Design

2010-04-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

In a comment on my post about the Mobile Internet, Brian offered a link to a Wired Magazine article on how companies over-design products. It is a compelling argument about how products are "enhanced" with numerous features that most people don't need. Unfortunately, the "one size fits all" model has meant everybody has to have the largest, most complex, most expensive version. As new gadgets including tablets and smartphones are announced, this article is a great read.

Tablets by the Dozens Arriving Soon

2010-03-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

This year has been dubbed "The Year of the Tablet" for good reason. In addition the much-hyped April 3rd release of the Apple iPad, the company responsible for the design of many of these devices believes fifty other products will be introduced in 2010. While most people aren't familiar with ARM, this company licenses the right to its processor design to the majority of smart phone and tablet computer makers. Many of these devices will use mobile operating systems similar to those used by smartphones today. A few tablets will be be based on the Windows OS and some will use the Intel Atom processor which is at the heart of most netbooks.

While tablets have been around for twenty years and Microsoft introduced their mobile OS in 2001, these early models have been primarily used in specialized fields such as healthcare where they could replace a chart, clipboard or PC at the bedside. It's possible to get confused at this point since "tablet" also refers to totally unrelated drawing devices used with a "pen" by graphic designers - a "graphic tablet".

While some people couldn't imagine using anything less than a full operating system like Windows or MacOS, differences in mobile and desktop computing are forcing a second look at OS technology. Desktop (and laptop) computers are based on keyboard input and mouse control. For most people they also involve a small number of very complicated programs; the latest version of MS Word has 1,500 commands and Excel has a similar number. In contrast smartphones and their new cousins, tablets, use touch screens for the user interface (UI) and a large number of simple programs (apps). In addition smartphones and many tablets will incorporate GPS, music, video and game applications that are very different from the desktop PC model.

New "Middle Class" Cameras Available Now

2010-03-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

If you’ve always wanted a camera with the features and image quality of an SLR and the size of a compact, your dream has just come true. There is a new class of cameras referred to unglamorously as Micro Four Thirds. Four thirds refers to a sensor size found in some SLRs while Micro indicates the camera bodies are small.

These cameras look much like compacts but have interchangeable lenses – which of course will add to the size depending on the focal length. They are smaller than SLRs because they do not have the “reflex” mirror or prism used in the SLR viewfinder. Image composition is done with the LCD or optional electronic viewfinder.

The Four Thirds sensor size is on the small end for an SLR but many times bigger than any sensor found in compact cameras. Pixels can be bigger on a larger sensor and pixel size is more important than huge pixel counts. If you are wondering about the "four thirds" name, digital camera sensor sizes are based on an archaic TV tube measurement system that only vaguely makes any sense at all.

This diagram illustrates various sensor sizes beginning with "full frame" (upper left) that is equivalent to a 35mm film negative. Only a few high-end DSLRs have such a large sensor. The four thirds sensor is shown at the right of the second row. It is significantly smaller than some other DSLR sensors in the first two rows but many times larger than any compact sensor shown in the third row.

A typical Micro Four Thirds camera

4.5x2.8x1.7in - 11.8 oz - without lens

Panasonic and Olympus have products available today with prices in the $600-900 range. As with SLRs, additional lenses can drastically increase the price of the camera “system”. For more information on compact and DSLR cameras look at my comparison video.

Lens flexibility is a major design improvement with the Micro Four Thirds format. The lens "mount" or connector usually differs from camera to camera which is why Nikon lenses do not fit on Canon cameras. The Micro Four Thirds format defines both the sensor size and the lens mount so lenses are compatible among the various brands. Because lenses can be the most expensive component of your system and because they often last years longer than the camera, this turns out to be a very big deal.

At this writing the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 and Olympus PEN E-P1 have nearly identical specifications: same sensor size (4/3), same pixel count (12mp) and same burst rate (3fps). The Panasonic offers built in flash while the Olympus does not. The Olympus has image stabilization (IS) but the Panasonic does not. The Olympus IS is built into the camera resulting in simpler, smaller and less costly lenses.

More companies will get into the fray soon which will make more cameras and lenses available and inevitably cause prices to drop. The winner may be the company that comes up with a more appealing name for the product category!

The Mobile Internet: the Fourth Revolution

2010-03-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

My name is Gary Braley. I've been writing and speaking on information technology as a developer and consultant in aerospace and healthcare applications for many years. I've been sending out a newsletter for six months (see February Issue) but I have so much to say I decided to try blogging as another outlet.

My Web Site is Braley.com

and my LinkedIn Profile is LinkedIn.com/in/garybraley

To kick this project off, I'm going to discuss one of the current "hot topics" -

The Mobile Internet

There have been three information revolutions: first was the adoption of digital computers beginning in 1960; second, the introduction of PCs in the 1980s and third, the spread of information through the Internet in the 1990s. We are now beginning the fourth revolution and it is happening faster than any of the others – the Mobile Internet.

For many years – “information access” meant being shackled to a desktop computer at home or in the office. Progress was made when portable computers were introduced – slowly at first – remember the Osborne I weighed twenty-four pounds.

As laptop portability improved, information normally stored in the office could be taken anywhere. Internet access in the 1990s made a major change in the way we communicate and retrieve information. Significant technology changes are often complex and stressful but the latest one is different. The Mobile Internet makes more information available anywhere anytime and – most importantly – is extremely easy to learn.

Until now, using a new program (application) involved

Evaluating the choices
Purchasing and expensive program
Struggling through a difficult installation process
Learning to navigate hundreds of - mostly unused - commands
Months of Practice

The current "app" approach is easier in every respect.

These programs are single purpose and often have less than ten commands
The user interface is intuitive and a few minutes of experimentation is adequate
Many apps are free and others cost less than five dollars
Purchase, installation and startup can take as little as two minutes
Upgrades are downloaded automatically
Apps can be used anywhere since they run on smart phones and tablet computers.

To understand what it changing, we need to look first at the equipment – the “gadgets”. Cell phones have evolved into powerful computers referred to as “smart phones”. Such a device with 32 gigabytes of memory could store the equivalent of ten million pages of text – in a “telephone”! The current revolution is a direct result of the “app” approach. Until now we’ve used very complex programs – browsers, word processors, etc. – to perform very simple tasks. Creating a page of text for a report should not require a word processing program with over a thousand commands. Typing an email message has been possible but not fun on most phones. Today, voice dictation is being introduced to smart phones allowing voice to text transcription that has the potential to eliminate most typing and the endless arguments about which keyboard is best.; no two inch keyboard is “good”.

The problem is complicated by the number of devices now being produced – most notably ebook readers, netbooks and tablet computers in addition to dozens of smart phones. To understand what is happening, it is important to know about these devices and how they are different and how they are the same. For example, the Apple iPad tablet has been called an overgrown iPod but it also can run sophisticated word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software. You can read books on an ebook reader but also on a tablet and smart phone. How many devices do you want and how many gadgets do you need? Do you need a navigation device if your smart phone can navigate? Do you need a portable DVD player if a tablet can play HD video on a ten-inch screen?

Ebooks are creating a host of new problems. There are several incompatible ebook file formats. Even when it is theoretically possible to transfer books from one device to another, can you legally do it? Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology and law will be at heart of intellectual property disputes for years to come – remember illegal music downloads. While there are important questions and challenges, the fact that most text books will be electronic in the next few years will be a welcome relief to students, parents and schools alike.

Book, magazine and publishing industries will be turned upside down as print is replaced by electronic transmission. Most of us will be bystanders as questions are raised about who will pay and how the new model will be structured.

Blackberry and Nokia are the leading smart phone companies today but recent announcements from Google (Nexus Android phone) and Microsoft (Windows Phone 7 operating system) as well as increasing sales of the Apple iPhone could make a very different picture in the next two years.

This may all seem overwhelming at the present but that is because all companies see the future of the Mobile Internet and are struggling to keep ahead of or at least keep up with the “pack” as the transition occurs at lightening speed. The good news is that the direction is clear to most parties and you can’t make big mistakes with free, easy to use software.

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