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Open comments, and the first Geek Gathering of 2013

Friday, January 4, 2013
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Here it is: Your first open-comments thread of the new year. The calendar may have incremented, but the process remains the same.

You leave a comment about anything having to do with personal computing, and I approve it.

Others will see what you wrote, and respond.

You come back later to see what they said, then say some more.

And since it’s the first Friday of the first month, tonight is also the initial Geek Gathering of 2013.

jan2013gg

 

It’s the monthly meet-up of Technology Bytes, the Wednesday night computer call-in show I co-host in KPFT. The Geek Gathering kicks off about 7:30 p.m. at Khon’s Wine, Darts and Coffee at 2808 Milam at Drew in Midtown. Khon’s offers wine, craft beers and coffee. There will also be a DJ this evening. Although Khon’s doesn’t serve food, there are plenty of restaurants nearby and you’re welcome to bring in your own.

There’s free Wi-Fi and power, of course, so bring your gear.

I’m fighting off a cold that kept me off last Wednesday’s TechBytes episode, so my attendance is contingent on the weather and my energy level. Hopefully, I’ll see you there!

Categories: Open-comment Fridays

Linkpost | 1.4.2013

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• Google Agrees to Change Its Business Practices and Google settles on patents, other antitrust claims – Google gets off relatively easy as the Federal Trade Commission closes its antitrust review of the search giant. Google will allow companies to opt out of searches, and will quit scraping data. Also What Google’s settlement with the FTC means for users

• U.S. State Department knocks Google chairman’s planned North Korea trip – The feds say now is not the time for Eric Schmidt to be visiting North Korea.

• Android Jelly Bean passes 10% adoption, ICS nears 30%, and Gingerbread finally falls under 50% – And there are still Android phones for sale with Gingerbread (version 2.3).

• That Apple/Waze Deal Hits A Roadblock — That Roadblock Being Reality (Not Happening) – Apple and Waze may have talked about an acquisition, but apparently it’s not going to happen.

• Forrester Report Says Apple Will Sell $39 Billion In Macs and iPads To Businesses Over Next 2 Years – iPads are the bulk of those sales.

• Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs Film Due in April – The biopic will close the Sundance Film Festival this month.

• Barnes & Noble’s bad holiday: Nook, store and BN.com sales down – Barnes & Noble says Nook sales started strong but then faded. Tablets may be to blame: The E-Reader Revolution: Over Just as It Has Begun?

• Microsoft to patch Windows 8, but stays mum on IE zero-day fix – Cyberscum have been exploiting the IE bug since Dec. 7, but Microsoft says few customers are affected. Also Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla revoke two fraudulent Turkish certificates used in targeted attacks

• Ex-Windows boss Steven Sinofsky launches new blog focused on ‘technology product development’ – Besides writing in the new Learning by Shipping blog, Sinofsky will also teach at Harvard Business School.

• Facebook launches voice in iOS and Android Messenger apps, tests VoIP calling in Canada

• Why you should be skeptical of Chitika’s market-share reports – Ed Bott skewers Chitika numbers that have been inconsistent. The company would not provide him with a detailed explanation of its methodology.

• Toyota, Audi to show off self-driving cars at CES – The cars appear to be efforts independent of Google’s autonomous autos.

• Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to be three times more scratch resistant than previous generation – No word on when it will start showing up in smartphones and tablets, but it’s being announced at CES.

• Kim Dotcom: US “planted” evidence to obtain illegal search warrants – According to unsealed documents in the Megaupload case.

• Spotify disables song purchases in the UK – Britons may still stream music on Spotify. Downloads aren’t available in the U.S. on Spotify.

• Nokia planning aluminum body for thinner, lighter Lumia 920 successor – The new phone reportedly has the code name of Catwalk.

Categories: Linkposts

    • Here are the 5 most-read stories on TechBlog in 2012

    Thursday, January 3, 2013
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    topstoryLast year was a banner one for personal technology, with big stories dominating the landscape. From Facebook’s botched IPO, to the introduction of a redesigned iPhone and a smaller iPad, to the overhaul of Windows’ interface, 2012 was a helluva year for tech news.

    And because we can count the number of times any given story is get read, we know which of them appeal to the TechBlog community. Here are the top five stories from 2012 based on page views. Note that many different factors can impact the popularity of a story, including whether it’s played on the Chron.com home page; whether it’s linked from a high-traffic site; whether a story has a photo gallery; and whether it goes viral on social media.

    5. More iPhone 5 impressions, and a case recommendation – This was a follow-up to my iPhone 5 first-looks review, but its popularity was driven by the case recommendation. At the time, there weren’t many iPhone 5 cases available, but Best Buy had a decent stock of them and I found a winner there: A clear, silicone case made by Rocketfish, which is Best Buy’s house brand. Originally, I was going to use this as a stopgap case until I found a better one, but you know what? I never did. This is an excellent case, and I still recommend it to those who ask. It’s thin and clear, so it shows off the iPhone 5′s sleek design nicely.

    4. Windows 8 final read for download, and there’s a 90-day trial – Microsoft released the finished version of Windows 8 as a download via its TechNet and MSDN sites in mid-August, but changed the way users could try it out. Windows 7 downloads didn’t require that you activate the software for 30 days (which, through a variety of tricks, could be extended to 120 days), but Win8 wanted to activate most of its editions as part of the setup process. However, the Enterprise edition has a 90-day trial, and it’s a great way to try out the operating system if you’re unsure about making it your primary OS. That tidbit helped drive the popularity of this story.

    3. Your iPhone 5 may have already shipped. Here’s how to tell. – When Apple began shipping iPhone 5s to those who’d pre-ordered them, the delivery tracking system didn’t seem to work properly. This entry highlighted a trick on the UPS website for finding out where the package was in the process. Needless to say, a lot of anxious iPhone 5 buyers clicked on this one. Interestingly, it continues to get a decent amount of traffic.

    2. Houston’s newest Apple Store opening March 16: Source – With this story, I broke the news that Apple would hope its new Highland Village store on March 16, which turned out to be the same day that the third generation of the iPad went on sale.

    1. Windows 8 Consumer Preview: Should you install it? – The most-read story on TechBlog in 2012 is one that was written back in February, but continues to get steady traffic. The reason: People are searching on “Should I install Windows 8?” This was the first pre-release of Windows 8 that Microsoft aimed at consumers.

    What were some of your favorite tech stories from 2012? Bonus points if you include a link.

    Categories: Whatever

    Linkpost | 1.3.2013

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    • Microsoft and Google butt heads over Windows Phone access to YouTube – Microsoft says Google is preventing the development of a full-featured YouTube app for Windows Phone and, in a move dripping with irony, threatens to sic antitrust investigators on the search giant.

    • Skype updates Windows Phone app, temporarily nixes People Hub integration – Microsoft cites “device stability” in temporarily removing Skype from the People Hub.

    • Life After The iPhone: How AT&T’s Bet On Apple Mobilized The Company – Today, two thirds of AT&T’s customers have smartphones, and the company thinks differently about everything – from spectrum to the number of towers it has.

    • Is Apple Plotting A Route To A Waze Acquisition?  Rumours On The Road Point To Yes – Waze is already a data partner for Apple’s Maps application. The two are reportedly far apart on a price, however.

    • Apple is partnering with Broadcom to bring super-fast 802.11ac networking to upcoming Macs – For now, the chipset remains in development.

    • Ubuntu phone OS announced, first devices shipping in early 2014 – It’s built on the existing Android kernel and drivers. So far, no hardware partners have been named. And Hands-on with Ubuntu’s brand-new, gesture-based phone OS

    • Nexus 4 coming to all T-Mobile locations later this month – The LG-made Android phone is currently listed as sold out on Google’s and T-Mobile’s websites.

    • FTC Chairman Pushing for a Google Antitrust Decision This Week – The ruling had been expected before the end of last year.

    • Google Requires People to Use the Google+ Social Network, Gains Ground Against Facebook – Google’s integration of its social network into its other services and applications forces people to use Google+ whether they want to or not.

    • Andrew Sullivan’s Ad-Free Publishing Experiment Sees Six-Figure Revenue In First Six Hours – Political blogger Sullivan says he’s leaving The Daily Beast to start a paid site costing $20 a years. So far, so good.

    • Chitika says Kindle Fire web share jumped to 7.5% and iPad fell 7.1% over holidays in North America – Were iPad owners simply not using their devices? Or were enough competitors sold to put a dent in the market?

    • Patent trolls want $1,000—for using scanners – Shell companies are targeting small to medium businesses, demanding money if they use scanners to scan documents that are then sent as email.

    • Samsung announces new Series 7 15″ touchscreen laptop and 13″ ultrabook – Expect to see them at CES.

    • Sprint Will Begin Pay As You Go Service On January 25th, But Standard Sprint Phones Aren’t Invited To The Party – Only two smartphones are available for use with the new service, and they don’t appear to support 4G.

    • Analyst upgrades push Facebook’s stock up 5%, nudging its market cap back over the $60 billion mark

    • Amazon Wins Dismissal of Apple’s False Advertising Claim – A judge rules Amazon’s use of the term “app store” isn’t false advertising.

    Categories: Linkposts

    iOS 6′s Do Not Disturb bug persists past New Year’s Day [Updated]

    Wednesday, January 2, 2013
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    dnd

    [Note: Apple has posted a technical support document related to this bug. See Update 2.0 below.]

    On New Year’s Day, many owners of Apple devices that use the iOS 6 operating system woke to discover that a feature that blocks incoming texts and calls didn’t shut itself off as scheduled. An apparent bug in the code for  “Do Not Disturb” kept the feature from allowing incoming communiqués at the scheduled time.

    Now, it appears, that bug wasn’t a one-time thing related to New Year’s Day. This morning, the second day of 2013, the bug is still present, and may be affecting iOS 6 users who didn’t experience it on Tuesday – including me.

    I use Do Not Disturb on my iPhone 5, silencing it from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. I didn’t see the bug on Tuesday, but this morning Do Not Disturb remained on past 6 a.m. See the screenshot to the right, which shows the feature’s Moon-icon indicator in the status bar, even though it’s well past 6 a.m.

    I can turn the feature off manually and the Moon icon vanishes. But if I turn it back back on, the icon reappears and Do Not Disturb resumes blocking calls and texts. It should remain off until 11 p.m. [Note: See the update below. It appears DND does turn off as scheduled, but the Moon icon remains.]

    Powering the phone off and back on doesn’t fix the problem, and neither does a hard reset (hold the power and home buttons down until the iPhone’s screen goes blank, then restarts).

    Clearly, Do Not Disturb and 2013 do not get along well at all. It’s not the first time iOS has had New Year’s issues. In 2012, users of iOS 4.2.1 found their alarms didn’t go off on Jan. 1. A similar problem occurred the year before. Fortunately, 2013′s alarms aren’t silenced by Do Not Disturb, so you can’t use it as an excuse to sleep in.

    The bug is not just annoying, it’s embarrassing for Apple – particularly after launching a new iPhone ad touting Do Not Disturb and featuring tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. Ooops.

    Update: It appears the bug may be less severe than originally thought. If the Moon icon is in the status bar after the scheduled shutoff time for Do Not Disturb, calls and texts still come through. I called my phone from my desk at the office, and the call came through, even though the Moon icon was showing.

    callgetsthrough

    I’ve asked Apple PR whether the company is looking into the issue and if there’s an ETA for a fix. I’ll update this post when or if I hear back.

    Update 2.0: Apple has posted a technical support document on the Do Not Disturb bug. The fix is: Wait until Jan. 7 for it to work properly.

    Symptoms

    After January 1st, 2013, Do Not Disturb mode stays on past its scheduled end time.

    Resolution

    Do Not Disturb scheduling feature will resume normal functionality after January 7, 2013. Before this date, you should manually turn the Do Not Disturb feature on or off.

    To turn off the scheduling feature, tap Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb and switch Scheduled to Off.

    A similar wait-until-X-date fix was the answer to the 2011 alarm bug.

    Categories: Apple, Software, iOS

    Linkpost | 1.2.2013

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    • Windows gains market share after six months of decline: Windows 8 grabs 1.77%, Windows 7 passes 45% – According to data from Net Applications. Also IE10 below 1% market share, Firefox back under 20%, Chrome recovers from three months of losses

    • Vehicle rental giant Avis acquires car sharing company Zipcar for $500 million – Zipcar (which is not yet available in Houston) lets you reserve a shared vehicle online for a few days or just a few hours.

    • Tech Giants Brace for More Scrutiny From Regulators – Of particular concern: A change of leadership at the Federal Trade Commission.

    • Tech’s Hot New Market: The Poor – It’s the reinvention of the payday loan, using more data points to determine the cost of the loan, with transparency to make sure borrowers know what they’re getting into.

    • Ubuntu touch-based OS teased for January 2nd – It appears the announcement will be at noon CST today.

    • Intel’s Push Into Web TV Hits Delays – Licensing deals are the issue, the same problem allegedly holding up Apple’s TV plans.

    • Samsung unveils its ‘future-proofing’ Evolution Kit to bring new features to its 2012 Smart TVs – Plug the kit into the back of a 2012 model, and it will have the features available in Samsung’s 2013 lines.

    • Samsung Loses Bid to Seal Sales Data in Apple Dispute – Samsung must provide the number of units sold for several recent months, a federal judge rules.

    • Developers begin seeing new Apple iPhone hardware and iOS 7 in usage logs – A new iPhone is expected at midyear, with a peek at the next version of iOS expected to be announced in the spring.

    • Paris Apple Store robbed of more than $1 million in goods – Armed robbers forced their way into the Paris store after it closed on New Year’s Eve.

    • New services bypass Apple DRM to allow pirated iOS app installs without jailbreaking on iPhone, iPad – Installous may have closed down, but other serivces are taking its place.

    • Apple airs unfortunately-timed ‘Do Not Disturb’ ad with Venus and Serena Williams [video] – Funny add, but man, that’s bad timing. Note that Do Not Disturb appears to be broken today, too . . . at least it was for me this morning. It’s not just a New Year’s Day thing.

    Categories: Linkposts

    Linkpost | 1.1.2013

    Tuesday, January 1, 2013
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    Happy New Year, everyone!

    • iOS 6′s ‘Do Not Disturb’ Not Shutting Off Automatically on New Year’s Day – No calls or texts this morning on your iPhone? Better check the “Do Not Disturb” feature settings.

    • Google Is Attacking Apple From The Inside Out—And It’s Working – Google has a suite of iOS apps that are now better than Apple’s own, and plans to develop more.

    • Why I’m Quitting Instagram – Ryan Block, former editor-in-chief of Engadget and founder of Gdgt, quits both Facebook and Instagram (the headline’s a bit misleading), and explains why. Also Why Are People More Scared of Facebook Violating Their Privacy than Washington?

    • Antivirus Makers Work on Software to Catch Malware More Effectively – Antivirus makers admit they are “out of our league in our own game”. Also Microsoft releases temporary fix for vulnerability in IE6, IE7, and IE8; security patch coming soon

    • Sayonara, netbooks: Asus (and the rest) won’t make any more in 2013 – Acer is also killing off its netbook line. Cheap, small and underpowered just didn’t cut it.

    • Samsung announces Windows 8-optimized Series 7 Touch monitor – No pricing info or release date yet.

    • Hewlett-Packard Says It May Dispose of Units Not Meeting Targets – According to a statement in HP’s latest 10K filing. Does this mean the PC division could be up for sale again?

    • Techmeme’s biggest (i.e. tallest) stories of 2012 – There’s a three-way tie for first place.

    • Reddit’s impressive 2012 stats: 37 billion page views, 400 million uniques and 30 million posts – President Obama’s Ask Me Anything post was its most popular.

    • Amazon Apologizes for Christmas Eve Outage Affecting Netflix – Meanwhile, on New Year’s Eve: Netflix Goes Down: Company Says Only DVD Website Affected

    • Silencing the Smartphone – Some companies are encouraging their workers to disconnect when they’re off.

    Categories: Linkposts

    Linkpost | 12.31.2012

    Monday, December 31, 2012
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    • U.S. Internet Users Pay More for Slower Service – Can municipal fiber networks fix the country’s broken broadband model? Or, at the very least, can they goose commercial providers into providing higher speeds at better prices?

    • Disruptions: The Real Hazards of E-Devices on Planes – The real danger of not allowing devices to be used during takeoff and landings are the rules themselves, arguies the NYTimes’ Nick Bilton.

    • Unnatural Acts And The Rise Of Mobile – As desktop Web traffic shrinks and mobile grows, companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook are sacrificing the user experience in exchange for more revenue.

    • Microsoft confirms zero-day bug in IE6, IE7 and IE8 – The Council on Foreign Relations’ website had been compromised, and visitors to it using these versions of IE may have been infected.

    • Game Over: Zynga Shuts Down PetVille And 10 Other Titles To Cut Costs – The games it shut down didn’t have a large number of players, relatively speaking. However, they do include two of the well-known Mafia Wars titles.

    • Samsung aims to upend TV design at CES, clearly – A see-through TV screen might be cool. But in portrait mode? I doubt it.

    • Samsung reportedly set to sell its first Tizen-based smartphone in 2013 – Samsung is just one of several handset developers that will sell phones with the open-source mobile OS.

    • Exclusive: Huawei partner offered embargoed HP gear to Iran – The partner offered to sell 1.3 million Euros worth of HP computer equipment to Iran back in 2010, according to Reuters.

    • Sure, Big Data Is Great.  But So Is Intuition – Numbers don’t mean much if they’re not interpreted properly, and that often means bringing human intuition to bear.

    • Google blocks TwitPic over alleged malware, causing Chrome to deny access to some Twitter pages [Update: Fixed]

    Categories: Linkposts