It has finally happened. The iPhone has it’s first virus. Does the virus wipe all your data? No. Does it spam all your contacts? No. The virus puts something on your phone that no person should ever have to endure. Rick Astley.
That’s right, the first worm Rick Rolls iPhone users by changing their wallpaper to an image of Rick Astley. Luckily, that’s all it does. It only affects Jailbroken iPhones still using the default password and so far it’s only happened in Australia. But considering the number of Jailbroken iPhones floating around it might be time to start watching for this.
As smart phones become more widespread this type of activity will only get worse. So if you’re a Jailbreaker, go into Cydia, install the MobileTerminal app, and use the passwd command to change the default from “alpine”, to something a little more secure.
The last few months have been rather exciting in the OS market. Apple released Snow Leopard at the end of August and Windows 7 was released last month. The two operating systems being released so close to each other has sparked another round of the Windows vs. Apple debate.
To begin, I have always believed that this debate is fundamentally pointless since Apple is a hardware and software maker, they control every aspect of production and Microsoft is primarily a software vendor and has little control over what hardware their OS is put on.
On top of that, both Windows and OS X have their own advantages and problems depending on what you want to do with your system. To be fair, I’ll admit that I primarily use Windows machines but I have no problem with OS X, I use it regularly too. I choose to use Windows because I build my own computers (which I can’t do with OS X) and I play video games (most computer video games are only released for Windows).
Somewhere along the way a lot of people have lost perspective on this Windows vs. Apple debate. For example, read this article entitled “Windows 7 may test Apple’s winning streak“. Maybe Apple’s commercials attacking Windows over the last few years have done too good of a job because Apple’s mind-share is way bigger than their actual market-share.
Everyone loves a good fight but let me put this back into perspective for everyone. Here is a great chart put together by Ars Technica that should help demonstrate how the two companies really compare. To be clear, this is not meant to say one OS or company is better than the other. It’s meant to say that both companies are doing different things. And if you are going to compare the two, you need take a step back and remember to keep reality in mind when you refer to one OS’s dominance over another:
Net neutrality has gotten a lot more attention lately but it seems the average user doesn’t quite understand what’s at stake. Let me simplify it for you. If cable companies/ISPs get their way and get rid of net neutrality this is how you may have to buy your internet.
I know it seems far fetched but it’s really not. This is exactly how cable packages are, cable companies make you buy a block of channels and they control which channels are available. Source
I think that the technology market is right on the cusp of a revolution that is long overdue. It’s time for an interface revolution. What do I mean by this? We’ve been using the mouse & keyboard for over 30 years and it’s time for a change. How we’re interacting with technology is shifting and I can’t wait for it to become more widespread.
The main way we’re seeing this is through the increase in the amount of touchscreens on every device. Touchscreens offer something that a standard mouse or keyboard can’t replicate and that’s flexibility. A touchscreen can be anything you want it to be from an on-screen keyboard one second to any other type of interactive menu system the next second.
And we already have great examples of this. Everything from the iPhone to the Microsoft Surface. But I think we need to go further than that. Below is an proof of concept video of a new interface, the 10/GUI project. This video shows an extremely interesting way that interface devices can work. Just watch it and if you’re anything like me you’ll be itching for the future to get here.
The Kindle has done a lot for the e-book reader market. It’s taken it from a novelty device to a mainstream device. Amazon even managed to get Oprah excited about the Kindle 2. Of course Ellen prefers the Sony’s Reader but I digress.
The point is that e-readers are finally getting popular enough that they’re not just a fringe device anymore. While this is great, I have one complaint. As each of these devices are released they seem to pack more and more features. The newest device, Barnes & Noble’s Nook even includes a small color touchscreen at the bottom. Both the Nook and the Kindle have built in 3G so you can buy books anywhere.
I know the nature of gadgets is that they continue to get more complex and feature rich but I want the exact opposite of all this. We’re talking about a gadget that is essentially a book. Books are simple. You open them, read them, and close them. And they’re pretty cheap. Why can’t I have an e-reader like this?
I want a cheap ($99 or less) ereader that simply has a nice e-ink display and navigation buttons. No 3G, no touchscreen, no keyboard. Just me and the screen.
The reason for this is two-fold. One, I think there should at least be an option to get a simple cheap e-reader for people that just want to read. I can buy an simple cell phone, watch, etc. or an extremely complex one. I want that option for an ereader too.
The second reason is that switching to an e-reader means that I get this new device which is great, but I still have to buy books. So after dropping hundreds of dollars on an ereader I still have to pay for every book I buy. That’s fine when I get a discount on books but many e-books are more expensive than paperbacks. If I started with a cheap e-reader this wouldn’t be quite as much of an issue.
There’s a lot to be said for cheap simplicity. I do love that e-readers are getting more popular. I think they are great devices and a great concept but there need to be more options. Just because something is a gadget doesn’t mean you have to cram it with every possible function to make it better. Sometimes simple is best.
It has finally happened. The iPhone has it’s first virus. Does the virus wipe all your data? No. Does it spam all your contacts? No. The virus puts something on your phone that no person should ever have to endure. Rick Astley.
