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Editorials January 3, 2013

In the Midst of Some iPhone Rumors, Here is my iPhone wishlist.

I’m not picky. All I wanted in an iPhone before I finally made the switch from Android to iPhone was a bigger screen and 4G capability. The iPhone 5 had both; I jumped all over it and haven’t looked back since. But those were my requirements for jumping the Android ship; others might have had [...]

New Yale Study Using MRI Brain Scans Links Fructose to Weight Gain and Obesity

A new study from Yale University published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and reported at Bloomberg details something that has been gaining more and more scientific support: fructose has a significant link to weight gain and obesity. I have been compiling links for several months now about all of this stuff, including [...]

Video Game Violence

As recently reported in USA Today, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) introduced a bill to examine the impact of violent content, including video games, on children…This possible bill would require the National Academy of Sciences to submit a report within 18 months on whether violent video games and other programming adversely affect children. Other studies [...]

For 2013 Make Sure Your Resolutions Are S.M.A.R.T.

From now until 2013, we’re going to take a look at some New Year’s Resolutions and a Gear Diary way to help you keep them. New Year Resolution: Attain My Goals in 2013 It is not breaking news that most New Year resolutions are broken – in fact at this time of year there are [...]

Apple Killing the Kickstarter ‘POP’ Project Reminds Us of Why Closed ‘Standards’ Suck

UPDATE: According to ArsTechnica, Apple has replied stating the POP didn’t meet the standards for the ‘Made for iPod’ program, but has approved the device for side-by-side (by side) Lightning/30-pin (/USB) charging. OK, first of all, the title is imprecise; Apple did NOT kill anything. However, because they hold the patents – and therefore the [...]

Parents, Check Out These 12 Myths of Protecting Your Kids Online

This holiday season millions of kids will be getting an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet, Kindle Fire, Nook and so on … and maybe a few will get a traditional PC or Mac. One of the first things they will do with it is get online. Maybe just for email, but if they are [...]

Rapidly Advancing Smartphone Technology Makes It Hard to Go Back

Early this year I got the Motorola Droid 4 for Verizon (on release day no less), and I joined the 4G/LTE revolution. At first it was underwhelming since the 4G coverage in our area was ‘spotty’ at best, and non-existent for the most part. But within a couple of months, Verizon had added a new [...]

Apple’s Move to Make Macs in the US is Just Good Business Sense

This week the media has lit up over the announcement that Apple is already producing some Macs in the US, and that starting in 2013 Apple is investing $100 million in efforts that will bring entire product lines back from their current Chinese manufacturing sites. There are plenty of articles about this, some going so [...]

Release Windows ARE Stupid … But They Don’t Justify Piracy

Most people know of the popular trope called ‘Step Three: Profit’, in which an idea is started, no plan is developed, but there is an expectation of profit in the end. A random example from South Park: Step 1. Collect underpants. Step 2. ? Step 3. PROFIT The reason I bring that up is that [...]

Living with the Nokia Lumia 920 – The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

A few weeks OK I bought a shiny new Red Nokia Lumia 920. Generally, I love it, although I am STILL waiting for my wireless charging base to show up. It’s not perfect, in some ways far from it, but the overall approach the OS takes to delivering apps and services is a good one [...]

Is Apple’s Pricing Scheme Hurting Its Profits?

The strategy Apple adopted a couple of years ago of continuing to sell older iPhone models at reduced prices has helped broaden adoption and penetration at the lower end of the market. But another side-effect is that it reduces the average selling price (ASP) of Apple phones, and also the subsidy that they get from [...]

FTC and EU Prep Google Anti-Trust Cases … Gimme a Break!

I think it is fair to say that I am very critical of Google – mostly because of the old adage ‘trust least those who claim to give you something for nothing’. My basic view of Google is that they have successfully leveraged ‘free’ into a way for people to open up their most personal [...]

Shocking News – Some Smartphone Health Apps Are Totally Bogus, and Most Are Shaky at Best

It seems like a perfect fit – we all want to be more active and eat better, and more of us than ever are using smartphones … so it only makes sense that there has been an explosion of health and fitness apps on iPhone and Android devices. Don’t get me wrong – there are [...]

Are These Android Market Share Numbers Good for Anyone?

By now the Gartner global mobile phone sales/shipment estimates for the 3rd quarter of 2012 have been widely disseminated, and they are summed up nicely at places such as TechCrunch. For those looking for the basic bullet points, here goes: – Overall mobile phone sales declined ~3% in Q3 – Smartphone sales increased by 47% [...]