Standalone GPS or cell phone?

I've got a Garmin GPS for my car. It's small enough to slip in my pocket, as well. And my cell phone wil tell me how to get where I'm going for a daily fee to Verizon; I haven't tried it yet.

Consumer Reports has some thoughts on the choice between a dedicated GPS and a phone.

• Smart phones are an increasingly popular navigation option, especially among models that come with turn-by-turn guidance built in. Other phones require purchase of a downloadable navigation app or a service subscription. In our tests, we have found that the best navigation applications are made by well-known GPS companies like Navigon, TomTom, and Magellan. These apps look and function much like a standalone GPS unit.

• Virtually any new cell phone is now capable of giving directions, whether it's smart or otherwise. Cell-phone providers, such as ATT and Verizon, offer turn-by-turn directions for a fee, usually about $10 per month or $3 per day. This form of navigation aid is handy for a vacation or if you only need directions occasionally.

• If you choose to go with a phone for guidance, keep in mind that a phone with a large screen will be easier to read and use on the go, and it can come closest to the performance of a portable GPS unit. But with any phone, you'll have to buy a mount and car charger separately, which can add another $50 or so. A good navigation app adds another $50, making the combined cost about as much as a dedicated device. And if you opt for a subscription plan, instead of a downloaded application, the monthly fee can quickly add up to more than the cost of a basic GPS in just a year.

Much more at the link.

Reviewing the 11-inch MacBook Air

Glenn Reynolds, who edits the Instapundit blog, gives his review of the MacBook Air.

So I cracked and bought the 11″ Macbook Air on Friday. I got the basic, bottom-end model since it’s mostly for web-surfing and column-writing. Conclusions so far:

(1) It’s really small and light. And thin.

(2) The keyboard doesn’t feel little at all.

(3) The screen’s excellent.

(4) Battery life is very good. I spent Sunday afternoon at the Lakeside Tavern writing a Popular Mechanics column on airport security. They don’t have wi-fi, so I was running the broadband EVDO card which uses a lot more power than wi-fi. I was there for a couple of hours, then came home and surfed with it on-and-off for a couple more hours, for a total of maybe 2.5 to 3 hours. Had 48% power left. Not bad at all.

(5) I do most of my column-writing, etc. — basically anything less than a law review article or book chapter — on Google Docs now, but I like having a word processing program. I thought from the reviews that the Mac App Store was already open, but it’s not. So I just downloaded OpenOffice for free instead of buying iWork. Did I mention it was free? Sorry, Apple . . . .

If I didn’t already have a 13″ Macbook Pro, I might have gone for the 13″ Air. It’s better than my Asus netbooks (which are good little computers), especially in terms of the keyboard. Helen hates the small keyboard on those. I don’t mind so much, which is odd, because my hands are size XL and hers are tiny. But this keyboard is like a fullsize Macbook, not like a netbook.

Dangers lurking in cell phone apps

People dump all kinds of apps onto their smartphones. The average iPhone user, for example, downloads nine a month. People use them to do banking or to store calendars and other files full of data about them.

But most folks don’t think twice about security, Jim Rendon writes at Smart Money. They should.

Anytime you download something onto your phone, you’re taking a risk it might include malware or spyware—software designed to do you harm. For example, one game hijacked Windows Mobile phones and used them to place calls to Somalia, running up hundreds of dollars in bills. (A spokesperson for Microsoft says the program wasn’t a Microsoft product, and consumers should take appropriate measures to secure their phones.)

John Hering, the CEO of Lookout. says the problem is only getting worse. His December 2009 surveys found there were four pieces of malware for every 100 smartphones; by May 2010 it had jumped to nine. “People need to do their homework,” says

Frank Dickson, VP of research at market-research firm In-Stat. They should read reviews and see who created an application before downloading random files.

And phones should be password-protected, says Hering.

Making the Kinect do amazing things

Oliver Kreylos, a computer scientist who specializes in virtual reality and 3-D graphics, has hacked Microsoft’s new Kinect gaming device and has used it to  create “holographic” video images that can be rotated on a computer screen.




Mr. Kreylos is part of a crowd of programmers, roboticists and tinkerers who are getting the Kinect to do things it was not really meant to do. The attraction of the device is that it is outfitted with cameras, sensors and software that let it detect movement, depth, and the shape and position of the human body.

Building a device with the Kinect’s capabilities would require “thousands of dollars, multiple Ph.D.’s and dozens of months,” said Limor Fried, an engineer and founder of Adafruit Industries, a store in New York that sells supplies for experimental hardware projects. “You can just buy this at any game store for $150.”

Maybe there shouldn't be an app for that

What they know about you

Smart Money has a rather disturbing article about those apps you download for your smart phone. Consider:

App developers know  all about you and how you use their apps. If, for example, an application you use involves banking, a malicious developer may be privy to your account details, according to John Hering, CEO of Lookout, a mobile-security company. Google, Apple and other vendors also know which apps you bought, which you use and which you have erased from your phone. Developers and the analytics companies they employ access much more detailed data about how you use the app. They can see, for example, how often and for how long you played a game and everything you did in it, says Peter Farago, VP of marketing at analytics firm Flurry.

All this data is invaluable to developers, who use it to improve their apps. They can also use it to build audience profiles in order to help attract ad dollars. Advertisers may be looking for gaming fans, for example, and want to target ads to people who spend lots of time using particular titles—information app developers then share with the middlemen who sell ads. “On the mobile platform, you know exactly who you are targeting ads to so you can target more specifically,” says Rob Terrell, founder of the app developer TouchCentric.

What else can happen to your personal information?

All that data about you tied to your smart phone gets circulated through an ecosystem of companies. Problem is, there are no rules about what they can do with it, other than some regulations about when it can be turned over to the government, says Jared Kaprove, former domestic-surveillance counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

More troubling, many of these companies—particularly the small ones—lack clear policies for using and storing your data. It can easily be stolen or misplaced, which can happen even at large corporations with good data-security practices. People simply aren’t aware of how their data gets used and how valuable it is, says Kaprove, and “companies prefer that you just don’t think about it.”

Fearing consumer perception of privacy issues—what Farago calls the “Big Brother creep factor”—the industry is trying to be open about its use of data and allows users to opt out of having theirs collected. But that can be a challenge, says Frank Dickson, VP of research at market-research firm In-Stat. “Any time you’re interacting in the public domain, you are going to leave bread crumbs,” he says.

Glad I have a dumb phone.

What the insurance companies are learning about you

Your online trail is being tracked, and now the insurance companies are following you. From The Wall Street Journal:

Data-gathering companies have such extensive files on most U.S. consumers—online shopping details, catalog purchases, magazine subscriptions, leisure activities and information from social-networking sites—that some insurers are exploring whether data can reveal nearly as much about a person as a lab analysis of their bodily fluids. 

In one of the biggest tests, the U.S. arm of British insurer Aviva PLC looked at 60,000 recent insurance applicants. It found that a new, "predictive modeling" system, based partly on consumer-marketing data, was "persuasive" in its ability to mimic traditional techniques. 

This data increasingly is gathered online, often with consumers only vaguely aware that separate bits of information about them are being collected and collated in ways that can be surprisingly revealing.

A key part of the Aviva test, run by Deloitte Consulting LLP, was estimating a person's risk for illnesses such as high blood pressure and depression. Deloitte's models assume that many diseases relate to lifestyle factors such as exercise habits and fast-food diets. 

Other insurers exploring similar technology include American International Group Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., executives for those firms confirm. Deloitte, a big backer of the concept, has pitched it in recent months to numerous insurers.

Make you nervous? Let the companies know. Here are their contact pages.

Alvia

AIG

Prudential

Deloitte

Google's little games

Turns out those Google searches may not be completely objective. A poster at Slashdot explains:

Technology consultant Benjamin Edelman has developed a methodology for determining the existence of a hard-coded bias in Google's search engine which places Google's services at the top of the results page.

Searching for a stock ticker places Google Finance at the top along with a price chart, but adding a comma to the end of the query removes the Google link completely. Other variations, such as 'a sore throat' instead of 'sore throat,' removes Google Health from its top position.

Queries in other categories provide links to not only Google services but also their preferred partners. Though Google claims it does not bias its results, Edelman cites a 2007 admission from Google's Marissa Mayers that they placed Google Finance at the top of the results page, calling it 'only fair' because they made the search engine.

Edelman notes that Google cites its use of unbiased algorithms to dismiss antitrust scrutiny, and he recalls the DOJ's intervention in airlines providing favorable results for its own flights in customer reservation systems they owned.

Here are the details.

The business end of social media

Eric Lefkofsky is worth some $750 million, it's estimated, which came from online companies he created. Lately he's been playing in the social media field. Consider:

Groupon is a social-coupon Web site that he bankrolled and started in 2008 — a venture that has been called the fastest-growing company ever. Groupon offers its followers a deal-of-the-day coupon, sponsored by a local business, that the followers are encouraged to share with their social networks. The local business gets customers, and Groupon takes a share of the coupon proceeds — a business model that has led to talk that Groupon, still privately owned, could be worth as much as $3 billion. 

Why social media?

"We think that the most disruptive business models will take advantage of that social graph over the next five to 10 years. Take travel as an example. You should be able to plan your entire trip online, invite your friends to come with you and even interact with other friends who have already been to that location. Those people will provide you with content that will augment your experience."

One idea involves hiring.

"Think about the way most companies currently hire. You post a job and then get blind résumés in response. This should be a social experience. If you took everyone and asked them to list everyone they knew, you could create an enormous social graph of several million people. There’s no reason to hire people that we can’t learn something about through some connection of our personal network. There’s no site today that takes advantage of the social graph in this way, yet."

Social networking looks less and less like a fad.

You may be getting your 4G signal from space

SkyTerra Under Construction at Boeing

Boeing has received the first signals from SkyTerra 1, a communications satellite it built for LightSquared that was hurled into orbit aboard a Proton rocket launched from Kazakhstan, Popular Science reports.

The satellite, which will provide signal coverage where terrestrial towers can’t reach, is part of a new LightSquared 4G-LTE mobile broadband wireless system and boasts the largest antenna reflector ever launched into space.

The mesh structure on SkyTerra 1 is an ultra-wide 72 feet across, and the increase in hardware up there should lead to space savings down here. The larger reflector will reduce the need to build bigger antennas and receivers into next-gen 4G devices, so a larger footprint in the sky translates into real estate savings in your pocket.

Boeing and Lightsquared will next initiate on-orbit maneuvers to move the 6-ton satellite into its geosynchronous orbit. It will be joined by SkyTerra 2 next year, and over the next 15 years will augment LightSquared’s ground coverage of North America, which should serve 90 percent of the U.S. population by 2015 under a deal inked with the FCC.

Now you have to pay attention in class

If any of the 70 undergraduates in Prof. Bill White’s “Organizational Behavior” course here at Northwestern University are late for class, or not paying attention, he will know without having to scan the lecture hall.

Every student in Mr. White’s class has been assigned a palm-size, wireless device that looks like a TV remote but has a far less entertaining purpose. With their clickers in hand, the students in Mr. White’s class automatically clock in as “present” as they walk into class.

They then use the numbered buttons on the devices to answer multiple-choice quizzes that count for nearly 20 percent of their grade, and that always begin precisely one minute into class. Later, with a click, they can signal to their teacher without raising a hand that they are confused by the day’s lesson. 

But the greatest impact of such devices — which more than a half-million students are using this fall on several thousand college campuses — may be cultural: they have altered, perhaps irrevocably, the nap schedules of anyone who might have hoped to catch a few winks in the back row, and made it harder for them to respond to text messages, e-mail and other distractions.

A senior computer moment

I had a problem yesterday, so I called Eric, the 11 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control and asked him to come over.

Eric clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem. As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong?

He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.' I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, 'An ID ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again.'

Eric grinned.... 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before? 

'No,' I replied.

'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'

So I wrote down: 

ID10T

The best apps for your smart iPhone

The Star Walk app for the iPhone

Some 300,000 apps are available for your iPhone. So you're going to spend a few minutes this afternoon deciding what you need?

Here are some suggestions from Bob Tedeschi at The New York Times.

GOOGLE (FREE) You can find Google through your mobile browser, but the app is a major time-saver. The voice search function is seamless. Ask it for specific Wikipedia entries, for instance, and it complies. Or just say "Starbucks" and the app uses the phone’s GPS to find the nearest location. A recent update put the "Goggles" service within the app, so you can snap a photo and let Google search for information on that object. And given Google’s emphasis on mobile, the app will continue to improve. 

EVERNOTE (FREE) The company advertises this as a personal digital assistant, and it’s an apt description. Evernote is a traveling notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your iPhone to copy an image, take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and it appears on your computer (and vice versa). It also recognizes your written text, within limits. The free version stores a fair amount of information, but for $45 a year, you needn’t sweat the data limits.

STAR WALK ($3) Point your phone toward the heavens and this app identifies all you see — constellations, planets, individual stars — in brilliant clarity. If you pivot in another direction, the app follows. It’s an astonishing app that’s great to pull out during dinner parties, beach walks or sleepless nights in bed. You needn’t have a clear view of the sky to experience the starry night.

FIREFOX HOME (FREE) In the same vein as Evernote, Firefox Home is a way to synchronize your desktop and mobile lives. Once you load the app and register, Firefox Home will show your browsing history and bookmarks. If you’re reading an important document online when you leave the office, you can start the app later and pick up where you left off. 


QUICKOFFICE MOBILE SUITE ($5) The next time someone e-mails you a Word, Excel or Powerpoint document, Quickoffice will open it and allow you to make quick edits from your iPhone. (Otherwise, you can open, but not edit, Microsoft Office files.) You can also create documents with the app, but it is far less useful for that purpose. Rather, Quickoffice offers a way to complete small work tasks easily while you are on the move.

REDLASER (FREE) It may not tell you if a clothing item makes you look fat, but otherwise RedLaser is a perfect shopping companion. Scan a bar code and it retrieves product information, including prices at online merchants and local stores (in case you are in the mood to haggle). Or follow a spouse or child around a store, scan what they like and you have an instant gift list. The app’s scans sometimes fail, but more often than not RedLaser works smoothly.

More at the link.

What the heck's a 4G network?

Those Sprint commercials are  intriguing -- for me, the part about streaming live to the web in particular. I wonder what that's going to do to those big white satellite trucks the TV crews drag around to every news event.

But what is a 4G network? Here's an explanation from wiseGeek:

A 4G network is the fourth generation of wireless communication. While still in development, the foundations for the replacement of the present network is currently being researched and constructed by the cellular phone industry and other technology developers. The overall goal for the network is to provide a comprehensive and secure Internet Protocol solution with much faster data speeds than previous generations.

What works on a 4G network? Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal's personal technology columnist, answers a reader's question.

Q. If I am correct, today's electronic devices made to operate on 3G networks will work on 4G networks. But will the newest of them—such as iPads, iPhones, and Android phones—achieve 4G speeds on 4G networks?

A: You are incorrect, unfortunately. Today's 3G phones and other devices cannot work on the new and coming 4G networks. Those new networks require devices with different internal radios. On the other hand, the few current 4G devices—mainly devices from Sprint—are designed to work the other way. They can use 3G networks if 4G coverage is unavailable.

How widespread is 4G? Mossberg again:

Sprint has a 4G network in scores of cities, and T-Mobile has a souped-up 3G network in many cities that it says can achieve 4G speeds. Verizon has pledged to introduce 4G service in several dozen cities by year-end. AT&T is planning to start rolling out 4G next year.


Two important caveats apply here. First, the term "4G" is a slippery one. While all of these networks offer faster data speeds than traditional 3G, they don't actually meet the technical definition of 4G speeds set by the international standards body that defines such things. Second, to get the full speeds offered by these new networks, most people will need a new phone. Currently, there are only a handful of phones that can do so.

More here about 4G networks.

Gadget lust: wearable video cameras

Given the price -- $200 or less -- I suspect these wearable video cameras will catch on. The New York Times reports:

Cameras worn on helmets or harnesses have been popular during the last decade for specialized uses like skydiving or auto racing. But a new generation of devices that cost around $200, some of them recording in high-definition, may move wearable cameras into the mainstream, offering a new dimension in first-person documentation.  

And they aren't just for fun.

Police officers and building inspectors, for example, may don wearable cameras to document their interactions and observations. Autobiographers may use them to capture all that they see as they wander about each day, and the absent-minded may find them helpful in recalling where they left the car keys. 

The Times highlights a few.

The GoPro HD Hero 960 ($179.99) records high-definition video at 1,280 x 960 pixels and 30 frames a second. This small cube of a camera — it’s less than two inches high — snaps into a waterproof case. Combined, the camera and case weigh less than six ounces. The lens can capture photos or video at an ultrawide, 170-degree angle, and the camera comes with a headband as well as plastic plates that can attach it to flat or curved surfaces.

The Looxcie ($199), a small wearable camcorder introduced recently, loops over the ear. The camera is built into a Bluetooth headset that streams digital images wirelessly to Android phones that use a free Looxcie app. From there, the clips can go directly to e-mail. Soon the company will offer apps that make the camera compatible with other smartphones. 

The Looxcie is not a high-definition camera. It records at a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels at 15 frames a second. But it has a special button that makes it ideal for taking video of unexpected moments. When the camera is running in continuous-capture mode, and the wearer suddenly sees a goal scored at a hockey game, for instance, a quick push of the button will tell the camera to automatically save a clip of the preceding 30 seconds. Then the footage of the puck sailing into the net can be preserved and automatically e-mailed to friends. The camera weighs about an ounce and stores up to five hours of video, he said.

Small video cameras played a role in the recent election, when things happened at political events and the facts were later disputed. These little cameras may well turn out to be like other technological developments: their users will find their uses.

Should your next laptop be something else?

I always read Walter Mossberg's annual computer buying guide. He's the personal technology guru at The Wall Street Journal, and he writes in a way that even I can understand.

This year, he leads off with a curveball: maybe you need something less than a laptop.

If you're looking for a light-duty, highly portable computer, it's worth considering the iPad, which starts at $499, instead of a small laptop. This is especially true if you're in the market for a secondary computer, or one mainly for use on the go. Many owners of iPads, including me, are finding it handily replaces a laptop for numerous tasks, such as Web browsing, email, social-networking, photos, video and music.

It has superior battery life, lighter weight, and it starts instantly. I don't recommend it for people who are creating long documents, especially spreadsheets and presentations, even though it is capable of those tasks. And I don't recommend it for users who require, or prefer, a physical keyboard.

If you don't like the iPad, there will soon be alternatives, Mossberg writes.

For instance, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which has a 7-inch screen versus the iPad's 10-inch display, and runs Google's Android operating system, will be available this month from major wireless carriers. Sprint, for example, will offer it at $400 with a two-year contract. But some tablet buyers may want to wait till the first half of next year, when many more models will be available, and Apple will likely roll out the second-generation iPad.

And, as for notebooks:

These low-cost, low-powered little Windows computers are losing popularity, but are still available, typically for about $350 to $500. They are being hurt by the rise of tablets and by light but larger laptops. Some buyers also find the screens and keyboards are too cramped. But these are evolving.

Some now have bigger screens and roomier keyboards. And Dell will soon introduce a sort of hybrid netbook-tablet. Called the Inspiron Duo, this model, starting at $499, has both a regular keyboard and a touch screen that flips around when the lid is closed to act like a tablet.

It will be interesting to see how many people find an iPad under the Christmas tree this year.

Kiss the remote goodbye

If you lose the thing it may be just as well. You can now control your television set with a smart phone. There is, as they say, an app for that.

TV viewing habits are changing as more Internet and on-demand content — YouTube videos, streaming movies, shopping sites, Facebook photos — flows directly onto big screens. Navigating all of that demands more action from the viewer, including a fair amount of typing, which current remotes cannot handle.

“Everybody realizes that the remote control is the dinosaur of the consumer electronics industry,” said David Mercer, a television analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research and consulting firm. “The cable companies and the TV manufacturers are beginning to realize that they have to start moving away from the traditional, basic remote control.”

There have already been successful attempts to use smartphones as remotes. Sonos, which makes Internet-connected stereos, offers a free iPhone application that replicates every feature of its own $349 touch-screen remote control. Over half of Sonos customers now use the app, which links to the stereo over a Wi-Fi network.

Several television manufacturers, like Mitsubishi and Samsung, are following suit with smartphone remotes, and phone apps are part of both Apple and Google’s TV offerings.

If you lose this remote, you can always call it and make it ring.