Why Can’t Apple and Google Get Along?

The new iPhone came out a few weeks back.  Again thousands of Apple aficionados stood in line in front of the Apple temples to be the first to spend handsome sums to be able to have the state of the art product.  For sure the new iPhone, and all its previous iterations, is a marvelous product and has forced other manufacturers to develop innovative designs to compete.  For the most part this competition has benefited the customers especially the ones that can wait a few months for the prices to drop and the other phone makers to find legal ways of cloning Apple’s features.

 

All is not well in the Apple orchard, however.  Some iPhone users are getting lost.  The new iPhone does not have a built in app for Google Maps.  Instead Apple has included its own Map app.  It was only a matter of hours after the first new phones were in consumers’ hands that it became apparent that this app was not ready for prime time.  Even die hard Apple acolytes complained that the software was lacking.  David Pogue of the New York Times, perhaps the most respected technology writer in the country and not one to mince words, wrote, “It may be the most embarrassing, least usable piece of software Apple has ever unleashed.”   

 

So what’s up here? Why did Apple decide to drop Google Maps?  It comes down to (you guessed it) MONEY.  The two companies once got along quite well but that was when Google was essentially a search engine and Apple a hardware manufacturer.  Today Google has branched out into all sorts of software, provides email service to millions and has aggressively moved into the smart phone and tablet computer business.  Apple certainly continues to make outstanding products but other services like the iTunes Store and several proprietary apps like FaceTime and Siri are aimed at Google’s sweet spot.

 

So Apple  decided that they should ignore Google Maps on the new iPhone.  You can install it yourself.  They also decided to do the same with the YouTube app.  YouTube is another Google product.

 

Competition has always been a part of American business.  Apple has been and continues to be fiercely competitive and often this competition has benefited the consumer.  This time I think that Apple’s decision has been a real negative for the consumer.  I disagreed with the decision a few years ago to refuse to allow Adobe Flash to run on new Apple devices.  I agreed that Flash was old technology but that decision made the consumer have to scramble to find a way to play a Flash formatted video from the web.  At that time Flash was almost the de facto standard.  The decision to eschew Google apps is the latest example of putting competition before customer service.

 

Go ahead Apple and Google…have your fight.  May the best company win.  Just don’t let your fight make my life difficult.

 

Pay For WiFi, Get A Free Mint

I read with great interest an article recently about how hotels and motels are finding it necessary to provide more high tech amenities in order to attract and retain guests. Long gone are the days when a clean bed, air conditioning, color TV and free local calls were all that was necessary to attract weary travelers. The “magic fingers” were optional.

Today, corded telephones in rooms go virtually untouched as most everyone has a mobile phone and who wants to pay those excessive long distance rates. Now rooms must have an HDTV with either a game console or DVD player and, of course, high speed WiFi. Many high-end hotels also have iPad and iPhone docking and charging stations. Because the new iPhone 5 has a different plug at the bottom, the hotels are scrambling to find adapters to allow both the old iPhones and new iPhones to connect to the old docking stations.

For years many of us have used online reservations to secure the room but now smart phone apps have been developed to order from room service, book dinner reservations and tickets to movies or shows. The concierge is now in the palm of your hand and not seated at some fancy desk in the lobby. And the app doesn’t expect a tip for directing you to the pizza joint down the street.

One the crazy things I have noticed in my travels is that the lower priced hotels provide WiFi free and the high end accommodations charge through the nose. So you can expect complementary WiFi at Motel 6 but expect to pay $20 or more per night to go on line at the glitzy four-star establishments. Guess they need the extra money for the mint on the pillow.

So the next time you are in New York you might like to stay at the famed Plaza Hotel. If you do, you will find an iPad in your room loaded with apps that play a customized welcome video, enable you to order room service and control the room temperature. The iPad even controls the lights. Of course if you stay at Motel 6 they’ll just leave the light on for you and won’t charge you for WiFi.

Thank You Commander Armstrong

I remember clearly a small dusty beer joint in the middle of the California desert.  It was a Sunday (glad California didn’t have Blue Laws) and the date was July 20, 1969.  I was on a post-graduation “road trip” with some college buddies and as we drove that day the radio was keeping us up to date on Apollo XI as it prepared for the landing on the moon. 

We were becoming increasingly worried that we would miss seeing on TV perhaps the single most important event of the century.  Then we came upon this hole in the wall bar in the middle of nowhere.  Entering we saw a large crowd, but rather than the expected noise of conversation and clinking glasses we found the place to be as quiet as a church;  all eyes fixed on a snowy black and white TV set atop the bar. 

 

The recent passing of Neil Armstrong rekindled that clear and fond memory and also got me to think about all the inventions and products that we now use that find their genesis in the US Space Program.  How easy it is to forget that there is more computing power in your microwave oven than there was in the moon lander.

Our modern life is filled with technology that finds its roots in the space program.  Mobile Phones, GPSnavigation in our cars,  digital photography and virtual reality games, all now commonplace, were developed with technology pioneered by the space program.  It is easy to see how all of the above are connected to the research and development at NASA, but it may be surprising to learn of some other commonplace and now essential products that were developed by the scientists and engineers looking to land a man on the moon.

 

From 1959 to 1963 Project Mercury, the first US human spaceflight program, needed to develop a real time monitoring system to track the vital signs of astronauts. At that time we had no idea what effects periods of zero gravity might have on the circulatory system.  Would the brain be able to function?  The technology used today by EMTs, intensive care units and special heart units is a life-saving offshoot.

 

The next time you are on the slopes consider that the battery-powered thermal boots now used by many skiers were adapted from designs first developed to keep astronauts warm during the Apollo  program. Rechargeable batteries are worn inside the wrist of a glove, or the sole of a ski boot, and heat is generated by a small electrical circuit.

 

Long lasting, lightweight and high amperage batteries now used in a variety of cordless power tools have been a boon for DIY enthusiasts.  NASA had to come up with the batteries and tools since a very long orange extension cord was not an option.

 

The next time you come to a smooth safe stop in your car you can thank the space program.  The  development of high-temperature space materials has allowed the manufacture of more resilient and cheaper materials for brake linings. These substances are now found in truck brakes, cranes and passenger cars and make for better and more reliable braking at high speed.

 

Yes, we have a lot of reasons to thank the astronauts and the NASA scientists.  I just wish Neil had left the recipe for Tang on the moon.

Buying & Selling With Your Mobile Phone

The Smart phone is the new Swiss Army Knife of the digital age.  Many of us feel naked if we reach in our pocket or purse and find that we have left our phone at home.  Using it to make phone calls is among its less used features.  The GPS app helps us find our way to that next meeting or new restaurant. The calendar app makes sure we go there on the right day and access to Google has helped settle many a friendly bar bet. What city is farther east: Miami, Florida or Lima, Peru?

Well, the Swiss not only make neat knives, they are also noted for their financial acuity so it is interesting to note that today’s smart phones are morphing into electronic wallets and cash registers.

Using phones to purchase goods and services has been very prevalent in some European countries but has been slow to take off in the USA.  There are, however, a few companies that have embraced the service.  Starbucks’ mobile app is one of the most popular. You enter your Starbucks Card account number into your phone and it becomes your Starbucks Card. Your device will display a barcode you can use as your Starbucks Card to make purchases. This “Mobile Pay” is now available at over 7,000 company-operated Starbucks stores nationwide.  To date, there are some movie theatres and other entertainment venues that also accept payment using your smart phone.

Not only can smart phones be used to pay for items, they can be used to accept payment.  Applications that turn your iPhone or Android into a credit card terminal are now becoming commonplace.  Taking credit cards as payment once required signing up with one of the big credit card companies, i.e. MasterCard or Visa, and since you needed to have a brick-sized terminal connected to a phone line, it was impossible to verify a card at the point of purchase in a mobile environment.

Today, companies like Square.com provide a small attachment to an iPhone or Android phone that makes the phone a credit card terminal.  So the pizza guy or cab driver can take your card and verify in real time the transaction.  My oldest son runs a pedicab service in Cleveland and he uses this service to allow his customers to use credit cards on the go.

If this technology takes off like it has in some of the Scandinavian countries, soon getting a Pepsi and bag of chips from the vending machine will require only a wave of your iPhone in front of the machine. The phone bill might have a charge for minutes and calories.

LEDs Can Be a Bright Idea

All of us want to save energy.  Not only is it good for the environment, it is good for our wallet.  One of the ways many have chosen to reduce electrical consumption is to use high efficiency lighting in their homes and businesses.  Making the right choice on which light bulb to buy is complicated and, if you make the wrong choice, expensive.

Walking into Home Depot or Lowes in search of a replacement light bulb can be intimidating.  There are standard incandescent and fluorescent tubes, CFLs, halogen and most recently LEDs.  Each package is emblazoned with claims of tremendous efficiency, brightness, long life and warm colors.  Which bulb is really the most efficient and which one will really save money? As most often is the case, there is no easy answer.  The best choice must be based on how the light bulb will be used.

When Compact Fluorescent Lamps or CFLs first came out many people rushed out and bought them since they are very efficient.  A CFL rated at 7 watts could provide the light output of a standard 60 watt incandescent bulb.  Soon, however, some of the less than desirable qualities of this technology became apparent.  Early CFLs provided very harsh white light and were not able to be dimmed.   While these issues have been addressed, some CFL applications result in very short bulb life.

Using a CFL in a bathroom or other location where the light is turned on and off often will result in very short bulb life and any money saved will pale in comparison to replacing the lamp.  Since the light in a bathroom is used intermittently, a regular incandescent light may well be the best choice. 

For sure the new line of LED lighting provides the most promising of the new technologies.  LEDs can provide various color, be dimmed, operate giving off little heat and use minimal energy.  The lamps last for years.

Right now the prices are still very high but are coming down.  You can expect to pay about $20 for a 12 watt LED bulb that will replace the standard 60 watt incandescent in your living room lamp.  While this may sound like a lot to pay for a single light bulb, over the 20+ years of service you can expect from a single LED bulb it will use a fraction of the energy of traditional lighting.

Don't Put Your Digital Eggs In One Basket

Last week we discussed how there were several cloud-based options for backing up your computer files.  While using cloud-based back up options are an inexpensive and easy way to protect your important data, they should not be your only method.  Or, as your grandma may have said, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”   A recent news story on NPR and in Wired Magazine has received a lot of attention since it relates how one person lost all of his digital files in a single hacking attack.  All of his banking records, tax filings, family photographs were gone. 

The reason this story is getting so much play is because it happened to one of the technology writers at Wired Magazine.   Mat Honan is a smart and articulate technology expert and if it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone.

Rather than reiterate what happened to Mat and how the hackers were able to compromise his security ( http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/tag/mat-honan/  ) I would like to spend some time on how a bit of preparation could have alleviated the fall out from the attack.

Before you make a multi-level back up plan you have to do a bit of sorting.  All files are not equal and the loss of some files may only be an irritant while the loss of others a disaster.  For example, if you lose a copy of that letter that you wrote to your aunt Millie thanking her for the birthday gift, it is no big deal.  On the other hand, if you lose a file with your retirement account information complete with passwords and financial data, that is a big deal.  So too with family photographs, you can’t take a new picture of your daughter’s first birthday party when she turns twenty.

Once you have identified the files that are the most important, you can set up a two-level back up plan.  For many of the files you can rely on the cloud back up.  After all, if you lose an address for your Uncle Pete, someone else in your family will have it.  For those very important files like financial and tax records and family photos and videos, you can continue to use the cloud but you should also back up the files on some other media.  A data DVD, CD or stand alone USB hard drive works well.  If using the hard drive, make sure that once you make the back up you disconnect the drive from your system and store it in some safe, secure place. 

As we rely on digital storage, a good multi-level back up plan is a must.  I hope you never have to use it.

Cloud Based Back Up Easy and Inexpensive

If you are a regular reader of this column you know that over the years I have written several times about the importance of backing up the information stored on your computer.  I have suggested various ways of protecting your files, documents, pictures and videos from loss when your hard drive or other storage medium fails.  Notice that I said “when” and not “if” your hard drive fails.  If your use your computer for any significant length of time the storage drive will fail and if your files are not backed up you will loose them. 

Since many of us now store on our computer very important information such as tax returns, banking statements and legal documents, loss of these files can be a very serious matter.  With photography now almost completely digital, family photographs are no longer relegated to the shoe box in the hall closet but share space on that at-risk hard drive.

Up until now my recommendations for protecting your stuff have been hardware based. Backing up regularly on CDs or an external hard drive were the least expensive choices. In many cases, though, you had to remember to do the back up and, perhaps more important, make sure that the back up copy was stored in some safe place.  If the back up copy of your data is stored on a CD and that CD is kept in a box on your desk next to the computer, a fire or flood might well destroy both the computer and the back up.  In short, backing up your data has been a pain.

Now there are inexpensive options that not only make backing up easy, they solve the back up storage issue and the need to remember to do the back up.  There are several services that use the Internet and the cloud to provide reliable and affordable options.

Companies like Carbonite.com, myPCbackup.com and ZipCloud.com are only three of more than a dozen options.  Priced at about $4 per month, these services load a simple program on your PC that automatically backs up your files to their secure and redundant data centers located around the world.  The back up process is continuous; every time a new file is created or changed on your computer a copy is sent to the cloud.  This is done in the background and the user doesn’t even know it is happening.  It takes only seconds for a file to be backed up.

When you first sign on to one of these services it might take several hours for all your files to be transmitted to the back up site, but after that it is quick and painless.   When you need to restore the files you just download them from the cloud to your new computer or hard drive.  Many of these services also allow you to access your files from another computer.  So if you are on vacation away from your computer you can download any backed up file from the cloud to the other computer.

A list of the major cloud based back up providers is available on line at  www.top-10-online-backups.com/best-cloud-storage