iOS 4.0.1 may tackle iPhone 4's antenna problems | Electronista

iOS 4.0.1 may tackle iPhone 4's antenna problems | Electronista

Apple may already have a fix for the iPhone 4's allegedly overly sensitive reception as soon as next week. The company's support discussions have reportedly had mention of an iOS 4.0.1 update arriving at the start of next week that would fix the phone's baseband calibration by having it switch faster to the cleanest available cellular signal. Visitors to AppleInsider have claimed, however, that Apple has not only pulled the originating discussion thread but all other related talk for the upgrade. More...

Apple - Support - Discussions - Low battery life on iPod touch after ...

Apple - Support - Discussions - Low battery life on iPod touch after ...

Dramatically shortened battery, life on the iPod Touch, is a serious flaw in the new iOS4 operating system. Your battery drains dramatically during the day if you do not put the device in "Airplane Mode".  Check out the discussion in the Apple iPod Touch forum. Apple needs to post an update to correct this problem. More...

John H. Armwood

iOS4: Apple to start collecting user location data - Telegraph

iOS4: Apple to start collecting user location data - Telegraph

Apple is collecting real-time geographical location data from its users to 'improve its products and services'

Apple has amended its privacy policy to give it the ability to collect user location data. The changes are part of Apple's new iPhone, iPod touch and iPad operating system, iOS4, and users must give their explicit consent for the data to be collected.

Users are prompted to agree to the new terms and conditions when they download apps, music or movies from the iTunes store. Apple said that the data was anonymous, and could not be used to personally identify individual users. It said that the information could also be used by its partners and licensees to help improve services, content and advertising. More...

Smarter Than You Think - Computers Make Strides in Recognizing Speech - NYTimes.com

Smarter Than You Think - Computers Make Strides in Recognizing Speech - NYTimes.com

“Hi, thanks for coming,” the medical assistant says, greeting a mother with her 5-year-old son. “Are you here for your child or yourself?”

The boy, the mother replies. He has diarrhea.

“Oh no, sorry to hear that,” she says, looking down at the boy.

The assistant asks the mother about other symptoms, including fever (“slight”) and abdominal pain (“He hasn’t been complaining”).

She turns again to the boy. “Has your tummy been hurting?” Yes, he replies.

After a few more questions, the assistant declares herself “not that concerned at this point.” She schedules an appointment with a doctor in a couple of days. The mother leads her son from the room, holding his hand. But he keeps looking back at the assistant, fascinated, as if reluctant to leave. More...

Apple defends iPhone 4 amid poor reception claims | MacNN

Apple defends iPhone 4 amid poor reception claims | MacNN

Apple has released a statement defending the iPhone 4 against claims of poor reception if the phone is held a certain way. The company suggests that gripping any phone, including the new iPhone, will "result in some attenuation" of antenna performance. The effect is said to be more pronounced in certain places, depending on the positioning of the antennas.

"This is a fact of life for every wireless phone," the statement reads. "If you ever experience this on your Phone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases." More...

iOS4 Update Shortens Battery Life On Second Generation iPod Touch

I have noticed that my battery drains during the day on my second generation iPod Touch since I updated to iOS4.  The difference in battery drain using the new operating system is quite significant.  Hopefully Apple will post an update to address this problem.

John H. Armwood

Twitter Settles With FTC Over Security Lapses : NPR

Twitter Settles With FTC Over Security Lapses : NPR

Twitter has agreed to settle charges by federal regulators that it put the privacy of its users at risk by failing to protect them from data security lapses last year that let hackers access their accounts.

The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday the settlement bars Twitter from misleading consumers about its security and privacy practices and requires the start-up to establish a comprehensive information security program. No monetary damages were assessed. More...

iPhone 4 beset with screen, serious reception problems | MacNN

iPhone 4 beset with screen, serious reception problems | MacNN

Two main issues appear to be affecting new owners of the iPhone 4. The most critical of these, hinted at in early reviews, involves poor or completely absent reception when holding the device. In particular, covering the lower-left corner of an iPhone dependably forces 3G and even voice reception to disappear. This may make the handset especially hard to use for left-handed owners, at least without a case.

Apple has claimed that reception issues involve a software bug wrongly indicating bad signal, and that a fix is enroute. Because the iPhone 4 uses a new antenna design integrated into the edge, however, and covering part of the edge kills reception, concern has been raised that the flaw is inherent and could require a hardware revision. Cases, such as the bumpers sold by Apple, may provide a stopgap solution by preventing the interference caused by a hand. More...

Google launches HTML5 developer site | Developer World - InfoWorld

Google launches HTML5 developer site | Developer World - InfoWorld

HTML5 rocks, Google declared this week. The company launched a developer resource site devoted to HTML5 technologies and is calling it HTML5rocks.com

The budding HTML5 specification features multimedia capabilities for the Web and it is being embraced by companies ranging from Google to Microsoft and Apple. HTML5 covers a broad spectrum, said Eric Bidelman of Google Chrome developer relations, in a blog entry. More...

Find out what to expect in HTML5.
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Hopefully this technology will replace Adobe Flash, which is used to play most web videos and Active X, which is still used on many Asian sites.

John H. Armwood

Adobe Audition Coming to the Mac - PCWorld

Adobe Audition Coming to the Mac - PCWorld

Adobe Audition, a professional audio program for recording, mixing, editing, and mastering will soon be available for the Mac.

The software, now at version 3.0 on the Windows platform, offers an audio editing environment for fine-tuning single files or creating multi-track mixes. It also features audio restoration tools, enabling users to transform problem recordings into usable soundtracks. More...

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This is good news. I used this program on my old IBM T40 Thinkpad which my wife nows uses. It is a solid audio editing program.

John H. Armwood

Google Voice: 10 Reasons to Check It Out - PCWorld

Google Voice: 10 Reasons to Check It Out - PCWorld

Now that Google Voice is open to everybody in the U.S., small business owners, particularly those with less than 25 employees, should take a close look at Google's free phone management service. Here are ten good reasons why:

1) Be local, even when you're not: When setting up Google Voice, you have the option of selecting a phone number with the area code of your choice. So what's the small business benefit? Let's say you run a catering service that's based in San Jose, CA (408 area code), and you'd like to attract customers in nearby San Francisco (415 area code). By choosing a 415 number and making it the public contact number for your business--at least in your San Francisco-based ads, anyway--you may lure more customers from SF. (I'm assuming you'd also have a 408 number for your San Jose clientele.) Some industries benefit from a local presence.

2) Phone number for life: If your business moves (perhaps to cheaper digs outside the city), your Google Voice number stays with you. And if you switch to a new office phone provider or wireless carrier, your customers won't lose your number. Since you can configure your Google Voice number to ring one of more other phones, such as a work, home, or cell number, it's less likely that you'll miss important business calls too.

3) Easy voice conferencing: Nobody likes to enter a lengthy pass code and other digit strings to enter a conference call. Google Voice has a simpler approach: Participants ring your Google Voice number; as each call comes in, you follow the prompts to connect them to the conference.

4) Cheap international calls: Have a lot of overseas customers? Google Voice rates are dirt cheap--2 cents per minute to China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, the UK, and a bunch of other places. International calling is easiest on Android phones with the Google Voice app installed: Simply use your phone's native dialer to call abroad. Otherwise, the process is a bit clunky. Example: From the Google Voice inbox in your browser, click the "Call" button in the top left corner, enter a contact's name or phone number, and press "connect." Google Voice then rings your phone to initiate the call. When you answer, Google Voice connects you to the number you're calling. Another option is to call your Google Voice number and enter the international number you'd like to call.

5) Send free texts: Does your wireless plan make you pay per text message? Those nickel and dime costs add up fast. With Google Voice, you can send free SMS text messages from your Google number. You also can configure your account to route copies of texts to email.

6) Different customers, different voicemail greetings: Want a special greeting for your best customers? Google Voice lets you set up personalized greetings for individual contacts. Perhaps a friendly hello for Mr. Spacely of Spacely Space Sprockets. Or a curt "Where's my check?" for Deadbeat Dave from NeverPayMyBills.com.

7) Never miss an order: You can set up your account to ring certain phones based on who's calling, or on the time of day. Let's say it's dinnertime and you're expecting a big purchase order from an international customer. Google Voice will automatically route the call to the number of your choice.

8) Call screening: Remember how you used to be able to screen incoming calls with answer machines? With Google Voice, you can listen to a voicemail message as it's being recorded. An automated voice prompt gives you the option of taking the call or letting it roll to voicemail. Call screening is a good way to avoid, well, people you'd rather not talk to at the moment (e.g., bill collectors or irate customers).

9) Mobile app: Have an Android or BlackBerry mobile phone? You'll want to install the free Google Voice app, which nicely integrates the service with your phone's OS. The app lets you navigate visually between voicemails, and also read automatic transcriptions provided by Google Voice. (Don't expect perfect voice-to-text translations, however.)

10) It's free. You've got nothing to lose by giving Google Voice a try. To sign up, start here. More...

U.S. Government to Crack Down on Piracy - PCWorld

U.S. Government to Crack Down on Piracy - PCWorld

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration will seek to aggressively enforce its intellectual property laws by putting pressure on countries that don't shut down piracy Web sites and by requiring all government contractors to check for illegal software, the White House announced.

The White House Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, in a 65-page report released Tuesday, said the U.S. government will also step up its efforts to identify foreign Web sites trafficking in pirated goods and will create a database of intellectual property investigations to be shared among law enforcement agencies.

The U.S. government will also seek to protect U.S. intellectual property (IP) through trade agreements, including the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, the report said. Several digital rights groups have complained that officials from the U.S. and other countries have drafted ACTA in secret. More...

Google Voice Now Open to Everyone in the US - PCWorld

Google Voice Now Open to Everyone in the US - PCWorld

Google's telephony management application Google Voice is now open to all U.S. residents, as the company on Tuesday removed the requirement for prospective users to receive an invitation in order to sign up for the service.

Already, there are 1 million people with Google Voice accounts. Service features include a single phone number that, when called, rings a person's multiple lines, such as their home, office and cellular phone. Google Voice also offers voicemail message transcription, free calls to the U.S. and Canada, low international calling rates, conference call capability and a central, Web-based voicemail inbox. A subset of Google Voice features can also be used by people who don't want to get the single Google "phone number for life," but rather use one of their existing lines. More...

iOS 4 folders: Usable, but poorly implemented | Mobile | iPhone Central | Macworld

iOS 4 folders: Usable, but poorly implemented | Mobile | iPhone Central | Macworld

I’m a fan of Apple’s iOS 4 upgrade for the iPhone and iPod touch. The new multitasking and Mail features alone are great, but I was especially eager to get my fingers on the new folders feature.

Folders are essentially collections of apps. That concept appeals greatly to people (like me) with screenful-upon-screenful of apps; by grouping similar apps together, you can clean up your many home screens and spend less time swiping.

But there are two elements to iOS 4 folders that are—to use the technical term—really, really annoying. More...

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Read this article. I totally agree with the writers annoyance at certain features in the implementation of folders in iOS4.

John H. Armwood

BBC News - Google's Street View faces multi-state US probe

BBC News - Google's Street View faces multi-state US probe

US state Connecticut will lead a multi-state investigation into Google's collection of wi-fi data.

It is the latest in a series of global investigations aimed at the firm.

Google has admitted that its Street View cars "accidentally" collected data from unsecured wi-fi networks in 30 countries because of some rogue code in the software used by the service. More...

Apple Safari 5 - PCWorld

Apple Safari 5 - PCWorld

The arrival of Google Chrome 5 for OS X seems to have intensified the arms race among Mac Web browsers. Mere weeks after Google took its own admirable shot at the browser crown, Apple's Safari 5 once again secures its place on the throne. The duration of its reign is anyone's guess, but for now, you won't find a faster, more powerful Mac browser than Safari. More...

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I have to disagree with opinion of the writer of this article. I find Chrome 5 to be a significantly more flexible and usable browser for the Mac. I really wanted to like Safari 5 better than Chrome 5. I generally really like Mac software. I used Safari 5 a lot but I kept on missing Chrome 5.

I have used the latest versions of both programs since both of their launch dates. I find that simple things like highlighting a url for blogging purposes, as an example is much easier in Chrome 5. Wherever you click in the chrome 5 url bar the entire address will highlight unlike in Safari 5 where you have to be very careful where you place your cursor. I blog a lot. This small issue can be very annoying. Chrome allows favicons in the tool bookmark bar which really saves a lot of bar real estate, allowing more visible links. The Chrome extension gallery is large, I felt no loss pangs here when I ditched FireFox upon Chrome for Mac's release from Beta. I can find absolutely no speed advantage in Safari that is noticeable while browsing the web. Both browsers are very fast. I find Chrome's implementation of tabs to be more easily accessible than Safari's implementation. Safari does not support themes.

In conclusion my major reason for crowning Chrome 5 king of the Mac browser kingdom is its basic usability. Try it out for yourself. Try some extensions in both browsers like Shareaholic. The Chrome extension trounces the Safari implementation. On the other hand Abile software's sophisticated implementation of its Safari 5 extension is far superior to the beta version available for Chrome. Abile Software really needs to work on this extension since so many Mac users use their product.

John H. Armwood

Hands on with iOS 4's Mail features | Mobile | iPhone Central | Macworld

Hands on with iOS 4's Mail features | Mobile | iPhone Central | Macworld

Hands on with iOS 4's Mail features

More inbox options, threaded messages lead Mail’s changes in iOS 4

Posted on Jun 21, 2010 1:35 pm by Dan Frakes, Macworld.com

In the time since the first iPhone was released, I’ve been one of Mobile Mail’s biggest fans and its biggest critics. I'm a fan because, for an e-mail client on a mobile phone, Mail is surprisingly usable. But I'm a critic because, as good as Mail is, it’s long had a number of glaring feature omissions that hamper its usefulness, and some of my biggest wishes for iOS 4 included filling those holes. More...

AppleInsider | Apple releases iOS 4 for iPhone, iPod touch

AppleInsider | Apple releases iOS 4 for iPhone, iPod touch

Apple's latest operating system upgrade for the iPhone, iOS 4, was released Monday, packed with over 100 new features including multitasking and folders.

iOS 4 is compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G, as well as recent generation iPod touch. Multitasking is only available with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. iOS 4 also comes preinstalled on the new, $99, 8GB iPhone 3GS, as well as the next-generation iPhone 4, set for release this Thursday.

The build released Monday is 8A293, the same as the gold master release candidate introduced to developers at the iPhone 4 event last week. The full IPSW update file weighs in at 579MB and is available through iTunes.

New features of iOS 4 highlighted by Apple:

Multitasking: Now you can run your favorite third-party apps —- and switch between them instantly —- without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.

Folders: Organize apps into folders with drag-and-drop simplicity. Get faster access to your favorites and browse and manage up to 2160 apps.

Even better Mail: See messages from all your accounts in a unified inbox, organize messages by threads, open attachments in third-party apps, and more.

iBooks: More than a great ebook reader, iBooks is also an amazing place to browse and shop for books, day or night.

Testing Reveals Security Software Often Misses New Malware - PCWorld

Testing Reveals Security Software Often Misses New Malware - PCWorld

New research has further confirmed the difficulties security software companies are having keeping up with an explosion in malicious software programs on the Internet.

Security software from major vendors can take an average of two days to block a Web site designed to attack a computer visiting it, according to the latest report from NSS Labs, which tested security software suites against fresh malware released on the Internet. More...

Novelties - Soluto Offers a Program to Fix Those Irritating PC Delays - NYTimes.com

Novelties - Soluto Offers a Program to Fix Those Irritating PC Delays - NYTimes.com

FORGET about desperate housewives. To witness true frustration, watch desperate PC users trying to type, send e-mail or work on a spreadsheet, only to be delayed by those pesky hourglass icons for seconds or even minutes until their computers finally respond.

Now Soluto, a company based in Tel Aviv, aims to help these PC owners with an unusual program intended to minimize irritating slowdowns. The software runs in the background on PCs, collecting data on delays in program responses and sending the information to company servers for analysis, said Tomer Dvir, a co-founder and the chief executive.

As its first service, the company is offering a free program intended to solve a classic computer problem: a slow boot or start-up time. (The program is at the company’s Web site, www.soluto.com.) More...

"Pearltrees" Are Bookmarks Soon To Be Obsolete? - PCWorld

Bookmarks: Soon Obsolete? - PCWorld

Since the Web first came online in 1991, it has grown and improved beyond anyone's predictions. Unlike the gray background, mono-spaced text and ugly graphics on the Web in those early years, today's Web is rich with video, interactive applications and other useful and distracting goodies.

But even after all these years, the way we find, navigate and save content on the Web works pretty much like it always did. Here's a page with text. Some of the words are hyperlinked, so when you click on them, you open another page. If you want to save something, there's a wide variety of tools that help you do so, but most people use the bookmarking feature built into their browsers, or social bookmarking sites.

But now there's a conspicuously innovative new option. A service called Pearltrees from a small company in Paris gives you a new way to organize your stuff online. Instead of bookmarks organized with long lists, Pearltrees puts your links into a dynamic, sharable web of connections. More...

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This seems like an interesting concept, a merging of bookmarking and social networks. My initial question is does it allow you to follow RSS feeds? I organize my website reading through Google Reader and it's desktop software syncing tools released by Newsgator; NetNewsWire for Macs and iPhone and FeedDemon for Windows. I like these tools and I will spend the next couple of days trying out Pearltrees to see if this service provides a better method of organizing the websites I follow.

John H. Armwood