The great Google storage price hike of 2012

Posted on May 5, 2012 by AMP

The other day, I finally saw a unicorn crossing my lawn — no, not quite. Another almost as mythical a creature appeared on my computer, however: the Google Drive. It’s a long-rumored online storage space for any kind of digital files that lives on Google servers and syncs up with a designated folder on any computer of yours that you’d like. Like Dropbox. Or Sugarsync. Or Amazon Cloud drive. Or…many others. It is Google and that’s cool.

But one less than cool bit? Since Google started letting us upload almost any kind of file you wanted to an online storage bin associated with your Google Docs account, Google has had the most amazing prices on earth. With Google Drive, prices skyrocketed overnight. And even worse, there’s no longer an option to pay for a year at a time. Desperately in need of more customer credit card numbers to feed into its Android Play store and other new services, Google Drive’s extra space can only be paid for on a month-to-month basis. That may be a smart way for Google to catch up with Amazon and Apple in the paying customer accounts department, but for me it’s just blah.

I’m probably a little extra sad because at the instant the Google Drive was announced, I looked at the pricing for extra storage and it hadn’t been changed yet. When I returned a day later, however, I saw this:

Under the old system, 1 GB of extra space cost 25 cents per year no matter how much you bought. Simple and cheap. As you can see, for just $5 I had 20 GB of extra storage. But from now on, storage is about 10 cents per GB per month. For 25 GB of extra space, I’m looking at an annual cost of $29.88, or $1.20 per GB per year. For 100 GB of space under the new plan, you get a better rate — four times the space at double the cost. That’s $59.88 or about 60 cents a GB per year.

Still, it’s cheaper than what others offer and that may be why Google saw room to hike its prices. You start with 5 GB free at Google. Dropbox gives you only 2 GB free and, if you pay annually, another 48 GB for $99 a year, or $2.06 per GB. SugarSync has an annual option for 25 GB in addition to the 5 GB free that’s $49.99 a year, or $2 a GB a year for the extra storage. They go to $1.81 a GB if you buy 55 GB and $1.58 if you buy 95 GB. Amazon’s Cloud Drive gives you 5 GB free. Then it’s smoothly increasing at $1 per GB per year if you ignore that first 5 GB. If you want to be as annoying as I am and exclude that free bit, it’s equal to $1.33 per GB per year at 20 GB, $1.05 at 100 GB and $1.01 at 500 GB. Apple’s iCloud is at the high end, scaling up from 5 GB free at exactly $2 per GB per year but only up to 50 GB extra.

And of course everybody EXCEPT Google lets you pay once a year.

Hot stuff, cold crap – shopping for your nerd gear in 2012

Posted on March 31, 2012 by AMP

I’d planned to spend a couple of hours watching my son at the first Little League clinic of the season today, but turned out it wasn’t that kind of clinic — dads begone. Like all good gadgetistas, though, I had a few niggling unmet accessory needs to fill. So sprung for a couple of hours of invented time, I headed into Boston.

I have a new carry-everywhere camera, the mostly delightful Samsung NX 200. It’s a slightly odd size though, kind of a tweener, and doesn’t fit into any of my current camera bags. It’s lost in the Crumpler “Three Million Dollar Home” that holds my digital SLR and it’s a complete no go to squeeze into one of the smaller cases designed for point-and-shoots I have lying around. But it’s high time to get some protection. Already had a few freak-outs — once, I left the camera in a jacket pocket, dumped the jacket on the couch, then looked on in horror as one of the kids sat on it. No crunch, no foul, luckily.

After striking out wandering into a local camera store and a Radio Shack (right, what was I thinking?), I decided to see what Google thought. Quick search for “Crumpler cases Boston” via the trusty Galaxy Nexus came up with a 2008 list of recommendations on Metafilter. The obvious answer seemed to be Hunt’s Photo & Video.

Shopping karma was good. I zipped into the city only to find a free parking space on Comm Ave right in front of the store. Inside, there was a great variety of bags plus the kind of truly knowledgeable sales people that make shopping fun. I ended up with a perfect fit, the Crumpler Two Million Dollar Home, as it turned out, and bought a needed lens filter, too.

I needed a couple of bottles of wine for a dinner we’re hosting this weekend and Hunt’s happens to be right over a liquor store with a reasonable wine selection and another super-helpful sales person. Grabbed some Shiraz and a couple of Merlots to go with the incredible lamb dinner super wife, aka Whitney Connaughton, is cooking up and it was time to move on.

I was on such a shopping high, I decided to see if I could find cheap, on-street parking in the Newbury Street neighborhood, which includes the giant Back Bay Boston Apple store. Sure enough, the parking gods continued to smile upon me and I got a great space. Walking down Newbury Street, Yelp vai Android advised the best caffeine refill is from Wired Puppy — and they’re correct as usual. A small cap and some fresh roasted beans later, I’m on my way in the spring drizzle, feeling like my shopping fu is so strong I cannot be defeated. The feeling doesn’t last long, unfortunately.

The second task was to get a new cover for our aged iPad2. My wife’s upgraded to an iPad (3rd Generation) and taken her leather smart cover and BRIGHT PINK Incase sleeve case — which they don’t even seem even to make anymore — with her to cutting-edge-gadget-land (where I assure you she’s just visitor not a long-time local like me). That’s left poor hand-me-down, kid toy iPad2 naked, vulnerable and smudgy.

I thought the obvious answer was just to go into an Apple Store. After all, they have an endless supply of iPhone and iPod cases. But, turned out, they’ve completely de-stocked iPad cases except their own smart cases at least at the big Boston store. I found that so hard to believe that even after one of the helpful blue shirts told me this information, I continued pawing the shelves in disbelief. Sure enough, they now have a vast and beautiful display of laptop cases, including many for the 11″ MacBook Air that would almost fit an iPad, but nothing else. Crazy. Ok, Apple, consider that at least $50 of my money you don’t get.

So what about the giant, three-floor Best Buy nearby? Almost as bad! A few choices of folio-type cases, a few hard covers for the screen and nothing. In desperation, I even wandered into the local urban Outfitters outlet. Cool stuff for cell phones, crazy-looking headphones and a few other tech-y items but for the iPad? Nada.

I don’t think I’m being too picky. I don’t like the smart cover (at all!). And I’m looking for something that will protect the iPad on both sides from scratches, scrapes and even maybe a short drop. I’d also like to be able to squeeze the iPad with cover into the laptop pocket of my briefcase along with my Macbook, so the cover needs to be devoid of scratchability on the outside, too. Is it really so hard?

The answer will have to reside online, I guess. Etsy has a billion possibilities, as does Amazon. I’m just not so psyched to shop online for something I’ll be holding in my hands all the time. No tactile info comes through on my screen. And the search experience with the billion possibilities leaves much to be desired. I wish there were checkboxes or sliders that worked to filter the choices in real time by color, material etc., but it’s all just keywords and prices. (Postscript: I ended up going with this kind of boring black sleeve from an Etsy seller)

But the experience got me thinking. With so much available online, it’s getting harder and harder for retail stores out here in the real world. Borders, Circuit City, CompUSA — all long gone. Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Gamestop — it feels like they’re just hanging on by a thread.

Apple’s doing fine but it’s such a banal and generic experience — there was almost no difference between the merchandise in the Apple store on Regent Street in London I perused last week and the one I visited today on Boylston Street in Boston. Of course, the computers and phones are the same, but even the range of bags and cases and other accessories was amazingly identical.

No one can deny that Apple has aced most of the winning strategies for succeeding at retail in the 21st Century but there’s one piece I positively ache for — a unique shopping experience — that they never give me. It’s just so damn generic. Is there room in the world of 2012 for a tech-y, nerdy store that stocks not computers and phones themselves but all the needed add-ons, goo-gahs and accessories? I want a focus on the high-end, the mega-high-end, the artsy, the unusual. If 40 or 50 million of us all have to carry around the identical iPad, the same phone, a common laptop, can we at least regain some style points or distinction via the case, the sleeve, the stickers, the wrapping, the externals and add-ons? And can someone smart and helpful curate a collection for sale of great accessories, the best, the lightest, the coolest, smallest, achingly brilliant ones that as soon as we see and touch we simply can’t do without? Must be a way.

What do you think?

Teenage wasteland? Defending the iPhone, dissing the Droid

Posted on March 13, 2012 by AMP

(As promised, here’s my teenage daughter’s rebuttal to my iPhone 4S whining. Added bonus: she threw in a rant against her brother’s Droid 4)

iPhone world

Listen to your favorite new song by that British boy band you and your friends have become recently obsessed with stream out of your pocket. Fumble around in your pocket until you pull out your phone- streamlined, smooth, made of metal- classic and practically indestructible-but you keep the adorable designer phone case on it anyways. Slide the lock open to answer the call, talk to your best friend as she moans about how she knows no boys.

Decide to get some homework done while she mumbles on- email your french teacher about the new french vocabulary and your math teacher about that simple interest rate equation that nobody on Facebook can remember- as you’ve already checked multiple times in your super-secret group you set up for your class 5 minutes before. Finish talking to your friend and then send your mom directions to [another school] — she’s picking you up there later after the winter play.

Get on the bus ride home- the 6th graders are having a bus party and offer you a cupcake. Someone has their radio and you decide you love the song they’re playing. Go onto iTunes, the largest database of music for mobile devices in existence. Buy the song, it downloads in seconds. You also have a second copy on your computer automatically, just in case you need some homework motivation later.

Open up Pages, and continue writing that English essay that you started last night on your computer- finish it and save to all your devices. One more thing done.

Listen to music from Youtube — and play Temple Run, your new favorite game, at the same time. Get totally distracted from the awesomeness of the game, until Siri reminds you to get some work done, you idiot. Go to the [another school] play and get totally lost on campus.

While jogging through buildings you don’t recognize, tell Siri to text your friend for directions. The text is sent easily, and Siri calls you cupcake, making you smile. Finally get a call from your friend who goes to [another school], he gives you directions and you make it on time.

Enjoy the play, switching your phone to silent with a flip of a conveniently located switch on the side of your phone. Download all the pictures you took on your phone to Facebook. Show your friend that dress you’re planning on wearing to her Bat Mitzvah next weekend using the Nordstrom App. Take silly pictures with friends at the cast party with your amazing camera and make them your wallpaper for your phone, making you laugh every time you take it out. Get an email from your friend- your skit for drama class has been chosen for the Arts assembly this fall. Yes. Beat your friend in words with friends. Double yes.

Go to bed feeling giddy.

Droid World

Hear the cliche wind chime noise emit from your phone- well, it could be yours, but who knows? everyone you know has the exact same ringtone. Curse under your breath as the awkward lock- 9 circles- won’t open because you’ve forgotten your overly complicated lock pattern. Again.

When and if it finally opens, see the cliche wallpaper on your phone- weird black and grey lines- your phone obviously trying to cater to the overly “manly” and wannabe gangsters. You groan. You’d change it to one of the pictures you took with your friends last weekend with Apple Photo Booth, but you can’t connect your phone to your Mac. You also have a horrific camera, so that keeps you from making it anything cool either.

Waste way more money than you should because you have to re-buy every piece of music that you have on your computer. Accidentally log yourself out of your father’s Spotify account and mope. You have no music. Try Youtube, but you can’t do anything else if you do that — the music stops automatically when you close the app. Ugh.

Try and send your sister a text using a voice command app, but it won’t work. On top of that, you can’t even find anything because it’s all jumbled together- there aren’t any categories for easy access like there are on your sister’s iPhone. Stinks for you.

Drop your phone as you get on the bus. The cheap plastic of your cheap case cracks, which you were pretending was protecting the cheap plastic of your phone, although you know it wasn’t. Try and find your Google Maps app to find your way to the Starbucks where your meeting your friend uptown today.

But… where is it? You flip through countless pages of apps that you never use and are all seem to do the same thing. You start to question your purchase of this phone- something you should have done a while ago. More than half of these pages of apps are all Verizon technical stuff. What on earth is “My Verizon”? Are trying to sell you something all over again? ugh. And what is “Let’s Golf!” ? You never bought that. And TMZ? this stinks. You have an app to turn on your vibrate… this is pathetic.

Go to bed and try to set a reminder to go to the Apple store tomorrow and get this atrocity out of your life. But, alas, it doesn’t recognize the the word iPhone. Or any of the others, for that matter. See? Even your phone is in denial.

Go to bed crying about how terrible your life is.

A Day in the Life: iPhone versus Nexus

Posted on March 10, 2012 by AMP

(People are wondering should I get the iPhone 4S or is the Galaxy Nexus better. Am I a man or am I a muppet, smartphone style. Everyone’s got their own needs and wants from their gadgets. Turns out, mine are best met by the Galaxy Nexus phone. The iPhone 4S? Tried it for a few months and got fed up. One man’s experience comparing and contrasting.)

Hearing the the slightly muffled tones of Cee Lo Green’s “F–k You” emanating from your pocket, you slip out your phone with your right hand without putting down the New York Times business section in your left. There’s that familiar, comfortable feel as you reorient the phone rightside up in your hand and then glance over and use your thumb to flick across the screen and answer the call.

Done chatting with Uncle Abe, pull down the notifications screen and see what’s up. Thumb flick away notices from Twitter and Facebook – you’ve got work to do.

But looks like you missed a call earlier – must have been driving through the Ted Williams Tunnel. Google Voice has got your back. The notice shows who called and the start of a transcription of the voice mail they left. Just the dentist’s office reminding you of next week’s appointment. Even if you hadn’t seen the notification, it’s right there on your home screen thanks to the Google Voice widget, too.

No need to call back but let’s make sure that oral appointment is down, shall we? Hit the big fat button for the list of all apps. CalenGoo is right where you expected it, sitting in alphabetical order. Handy. Looks like the appointment is all set. Hit the back button and you’re back in the list of apps.

Near by the Calengoo icon, there’s something new. Last night, after the kids went to sleep and you finally got your hands on the iPad, you read about a new Android app for Twitter that sounded cool, Boid. Zipping over to the web version of the Android Market — oops — Google Play Store, you checked it out and sent it to install on your phone right from the iPad. Play around with Boid for a few minutes and then back to work, salary man.

At lunch time, walking down the street, you decide to text the wife and tell her she’s sweet. Pull out the phone, swipe unlock and hit the microphone icon. Say “Text Whitney Connaughton I love you baby.” Watch as the phone calls up a blank text message and transcribes almost in real time. Hit send. Dictation fails when there’s no signal but you’re comforted that Android warns you immediately without making you waste time bleating into the void first.

Thinking of the wife, she wants you to get on your contractor, Chris, about those new windows. Hit the phone icon, then favorites. Scroll past those cute pictures of your favorites and there’s a handy-dandy list of frequently called numbers Android keeps up to date automagically. Of course, Chris is here — he’s not the world’s most reliable contractor. You can also get to him quick via the contacts app. There’s a button for groups and you’ve got one set up with all the numbers of folks working on the window replacement project. Done harassing Chris, it’s time for a sandwich. Pocket the phone and dig in.

On the walk back, call up some tunes in the Amazon MP3 player. It’s got everything — everything you ever bought from Amazon, saving a ton of bucks from Apple’s not-so-customer-friendly prices, and everything sucked up from iTunes, too. New Springsteen album got mixed reviews but we’re going to check it out for ourselves, aren’t we? It’s not on the phone yet, so hit the “Cloud” tab instead of “Device,” scroll to “Wrecking Ball” and start streaming it. “Heaven knocking on the door that holds the throne…”

Time to go home. Check how bad the commute’s going to be with a glance at the traffic widget on your phone. Yellow? Not good. Better grab a podcast. Love that awesome Pocket Casts app. It’s Friday so there’s a new episode of Hypercritical. Download it in about 30 seconds over Verizon’s super-fast LTE network.

After dinner, kids having grabbed all the iPads, you’re left surfing the Internets on your phone. Boston Globe too pessimistic about the Celtics chances this year? That got your juices flowing for a strong counter-argument to mount for your buddies on Facebook. Hit the share button, type in your unbeatable refutation and post. While you’re at it, jump over to the photo gallery and post that picture of your bike ride from last weekend to Facebook, too.

Time for sleep. Hit the microphone on the phone and say “Set alarm for 7 am.” Click okay. Head hits the pillow before the phone’s out of your hand.

Fade to black…we fade back in to: Three months earlier

Hearing the familiar if far away bleating of the “Marimba” ring tone, you do nothing. Must be someone’s iPhone around here. But the music doesn’t stop. Better check your phone. Grab that sharp slab of metal encased glass and take a look. Upside down again? Flip it over and answer the call.

Done chatting with Uncle Abe, pull down the notifications screen and see what’s up. Try to hit those tiny little buttons to get rid of the Twitter and Facebook stuff – you’ve got work to do. Stab madly a few times and finally give up. Make a mental note to change the default on notifications for Twitter and Facebook so they don’t hog so much of the notifications list.

Back on the home screen, looks like you missed a call earlier. Back to the list of notifications. How did you miss that Google Voice listing? Must have been pushed down below all the Facebook and Twitter junk. Here on the notifications screen, Google Voice tells you who called and adds a transcription of their voicemail. It’s a reminder for your haircut. Wonder for the fortieth time why the notice always adds “Voicemail from [the caller]” at the beginning of every transcription – it already told you who called on the line above. Tap, tap, tap at that tiny “x” to try and clear the listing. Never mind, you just hit the home button.

Got to check the calendar about that hair appointment. We’ve got CalenGoo on the iPhone, too, you self-satisfied Android fanboys, you think to yourself. Now where the heck did you put that icon? In the folder called “utilities” on your home screen? Nope. Slide over to the left, second screen, nope, third screen, nope. Wait, wasn’t it back on screen two in the folder called “organized life”? Right. Okay, tap CalenGoo and you’re all set.

Back on the home screen, seeing the icon for the official Twitter app reminds you of something you were reading last night on your iPad. You bought a new Twitter client app. The app store downloaded it to your iPad, but where is it on this phone? Oh right, just go to the app store app, click on update and then purchased items. Hit the “Not on this iPhone” tab and wait…and wait. Here’s the list, tap the new app and it’s downloaded and installed. Enough time wasted — back to work for you.

At lunch time, walking down the street, you decide to text the wife and tell her she’s sweet. Pull out the phone, hit the home key twice to call up Siri and say “Send a text to Whitney Connaughton I love you baby.” Wait a few seconds, then a few seconds more. “I’m really sorry Aaron. I can’t do that right now. Please try again later.” Doh. Resisting the urge to hurl Siri into the Fort Point Channel, you call up the messaging app and type it in.

Next tap the Google Voice app to call that contractor you just hired to put in the new windows. Hit contacts and a huge list of your iPhone’s contacts come up, straight out of the Address Book on your Mac. Ugh. Google Voice on the iPhone still can’t get to your Google Voice contacts? Right. But don’t worry, you’re syncing Google contacts with Address Book and you have the contractor in the group called “Window Project.” Hit the groups. Oh right, the syncing feature doesn’t sync groups so that group’s not here. Back to the list. Scroll down the list to find his name. Sure is neat-o the way it bounces to a stop.

Grab a sandwich and on the walk back it’s time for some tunes. Bought the new Coldplay album the other day. Is it on the phone? Check the music app. Not here. Purchased? Hmm, weird not there either. You’re so sure you bought it. Oh right – it was on sale at Amazon for like $5 bucks less than iTunes. Wasn’t iTunes Match supposed to match stuff even if you didn’t buy it from Apple? But on the phone iTunes Match can only show either every single song in your entire library or just what’s on this phone. And since the setting to change the view is buried somewhere, you’ve got it just showing local stuff.

Head back to settings, dig around, flick the switch. Wait a while for everything to get up to date. Find Chris Martin’s latest without thinking about his sham marriage to G. Paltrow. Hit play. No, no play – that’s download. Wait for the songs to download. Deep sigh. Wonder about Verizon’s faster LTE service while you wait. Unhappy thoughts. Hit the app store to install Amazon’s MP3 app. No go — it’s not available. Wouldn’t it be cool if Apple’s music app had tabs for on the device and in the cloud? Deeper sigh.

Time to head home and you’re wondering about the commute. Find that darn maps app on side screen four, open it up and click on the traffic overlay. Looks pretty messy. Let’s grab the new episode of Hypercritical. Downloading, downloading, downloading, some day my Siracusa will come.

After dinner, surfing the net on the phone, the urge hits to post an article about the Celtics to your Facebook buddies. Hit the share button. Hmm, no Facebook here, just Twitter. Can’t you just add the services you want? No? Not at all? What the…okay, well then let’s load a photo to FB. Can’t do that either, just Twitter again. Damn you Twitter, how much did you pay Apple for this annoyance-enhancing exclusivity? Go to FB app and post the pic. Then go back to laboriously cut and paste the Celtics article URL into another FB app post. Annoying.

Time for sleep. Double press the home button and say “Siri, wake me up at 7 am tomorrow.” “I’m really sorry Aaron, I can’t…”

Screen wipes to dead TV channel static.

(Coming later, my teen-age daughter’s rebuttal and why she loves the 4S and hates her brother’s Droid 4 with a passion)

Phone to Desktop Computing, Nexus style

Posted on February 24, 2012 by AMP

I got a little excited by some recent experiments of folks hooking their Galaxy Nexus phones to desktop computer set-ups: big monitor, speakers, full keyboard and track pad. Pretty sure that within a few years, we’ll have just one computing device in a phone form factor that can hook up to different size screens and is powerful enough to do all we need. So has the future arrived, Nexus style?

Well, it’s pretty cool at a rudimentary level. Using a Samsung-made HDMI adapter cable, I hooked my Galaxy Nexus up to a 23″ HP monitor. The screen is bigger than needed since the phone can only output video at a 1280 by 720 pixel resolution. But the HP was the smallest inexpensive monitor I could find with an HDMI port. I also wirelessly linked via Bluetooth an Apple portable keyboard and magic trackpad to the phone. As soon as you connect the HDMI cable to the monitor, the phone shifts to a horizontal orientation.

The trackpad lets you use the computing set up without touching the phone. When you put a finger on the trackpad, a small white dot appears on the monitor signifying where your virtual finger would be on the screen. Taps, double taps and drags all work as expected. It’s easy to watch videos, read via a browser or other app or do pretty much anything you would do on the phone — even make calls using the speakerphone.

The bigger screen and full size keyboard also make it a breeze to get serious writing done — something that’s challenging to say the least using any smart phone keyboard.

Caveats and issues? As mentioned, the resolution is not that great for a desktop computer. I think some of Motorola’s Android phones have a separate operating system or shell called Webtop that can use more screen real estate. Also, the set up at least with the cables and adapter I have was incredibly sensitive to being jostled. In fact, I had to try three different HDMI cables before I got a solid connection. And you’re limited to Android apps. That’s less of a limitation than I thought initially. But with things like Linux for Android on the horizon, that won’t be a barrier for much longer, it seems.

And, by the way, I wrote this post using the set up as described with the WordPress for Android app and it was pretty easy. Adding photos might be even easier than using the full blown WordPress editor.

A blog about technology and other things I’m interested in

Posted on February 24, 2012 by AMP

Post my experiment with running a daily link bog over at The Orange View, I’m going to re-position Gravitational Pull again, back towards a broader focus than just gadget and software reviews. In that spirit, I’ve changed the tag line to ”A blog about technology and other things I’m interested in,” which is both accurate and an homage to the great media blogger Jim Romenesko.

A true marketplace for privacy in mobile apps

Posted on February 23, 2012 by AMP

A huge controversy erupted the other day when a savvy programmer discovered that an app on the iPhone called Path was secretly uploading the entire contents of users’ address books to Path’s own servers. Then stories spread that many apps on the iPhone uploaded the contents of the address book. Turned out Apple had left the barn door open on address book data. Oops. But how could ordinary users tell if any of their apps were raiding the address book? No way to know for sure.

Here’s what’s not a great idea to solve the problem: add another alert dialogue box like the one apps must present if they want to access a user’s location. Sure, today’s crisis revolves around the address book but what’s the next piece of important personal data people will want protected? And the one after that? The dialogue box permission model is right out of Windows Vista. Shoot up enough and people will completely ignore it.

Another problem with the dialogue box permission model is it only presents the information to the user after they’ve already gone ahead and installed the app. There’s no way to compare app privacy policies – or personal data snatching policies – when choosing among different apps. And that’s a lost opportunity because if privacy is important to a lot of potential customers, there’s an incentive for apps to compete on the basis of better privacy protection.

The better solution is the one Android already employs in its market. Issue a standardized list of permissions and then list all the permissions an app wants in the app market. And if the permissions subsequently change in an update, the app is required to notify the users specifically about what has changed.

The obvious benefit is that everyone knows before they download or update an app what data it will access. It’s not only crystal clear disclosure to app customers. It also allows marketplace competition on privacy protection as a feature, a reason to pick this Twitter client over the myriad others or that sports news app over all the others. Developers also have the chance to explain why they need certain permissions and how they will use any collected data on their app description page.

As an added benefit, whenever a controversy or rumor arises, users can go back and check which permissions their apps required.

UPDATE: Sounds like the California Attorney General has secured an agreement from all the mobile platforms (Amazon, Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Research In Motion) for just such a system:

“This agreement will allow consumers the opportunity to review an app’s privacy policy before they download the app rather than after, and will offer consumers a consistent location for an app’s privacy policy on the application-download screen. If developers do not comply with their stated privacy policies, they can be prosecuted under California’s Unfair Competition Law and/or False Advertising Law.”

Macbook Airs, Android phones and other updates

Posted on February 16, 2012 by AMP

I’m in the process of kicking up the activity here and I started by overhauling and updating my “tools of the trade” pages. That’s my attempt to keep a running tally of the hardware and software I’m actually using on a daily basis, a kind of personal “best in class” list.

Read about the too many computers in our house, software and web services I use, printers and peripherals as well as a grab-bag of other hardware ranging from phones and cameras to the favorite coffee maker.

Next on the agenda? Figuring which page should list the iPad. Is it a computer or does it belong in the other hardware category? Maybe a whole new page for mobile devices?

Using iTunes Match to get rid of DRM-protected music

Posted on November 27, 2011 by AMP

Want to finally get rid of those low quality, DRM infested music tracks you bought from iTunes back before DRM free tracks arrived? Now you can.

When the iTunes Store first opened for business back in 2003, all the music tracks were locked up with a digital rights management (or DRM) scheme called “Fairplay” to prevent sharing. If you bought a track from the store, you could only play on it one of five authorized computers or via iPods that you had synced with one of those five. But not only could the songs not be shared with friends, you also couldn’t play the music you had just legally acquired on many other legal devices you might purchase, like a Sonos wireless speaker or almost all other non-Apple MP3 players. While DRM did nothing to discourage piracy, it harrassed, hindered and harried paying customers.

Eventually, the music industry saw the light, thanks in part to Apple agreeing to a huge price hike, and stopped requiring DRM encumbrances. That was a great move but it left a lot of us with collections filled with previously legally purchased music that still had the DRM lockdown. Apple graciously offered to upgrade such tracks to a higher quality, DRM-free version for 30 cents a pop. But the iTunes Plus upgrade service, as it was called, was a disastrous mess.

So I have long had a smart playlist I set up in iTunes to list all my music tracks that still had DRM. And, even after spending a small fortune on iTunes Plus, the list still had several hundred tracks remaining. Well, they were remaining until just the other day when Apple opened its cloud-based iTunes Match service as an extension to its regular iCloud music service. For $25 a year, iTunes Match lets you upload any tracks to iCloud which you owned but had not purchased from iTunes to share among all your registered computers and devices.

There is also another, less-publicized side benefit. Tracks downloaded from iCloud are DRM-free and recorded at the high-quality rate of 256 kilobits per second. This means that if iTunes match matched your leftover DRM-locked, lower quality music, you can finally get out of jail free. Here’s how:

1. Make a smart playlist where “Kind” contains the phrase “Protected AAC audio file” and the “bit rate” is “128 kbps.”

2. Everything that appears on this smart playlist is the old, locked up kind of music track. IMPORTANT: On the view of this list, right click at the top on the categories of stuff where it says Name, Time, Artist etc and add two more categories: “iCloud Download” and “iCloud Status.”

3. Run the “Update iTunes Match” on your library. It’s under the Store menu in iTunes.

4. Now you can start the laborious process of deleting these crummy DRM tracks and getting back better and freer tracks.

5. I started by sorting the list by artist. Then find all the tracks on the smart list that have an iCloud status of “Matched” or “Purchased.” THIS TRICK WILL NOT WORK ON TRACKS WITH A STATUS OF “UPLOADED” OR “ERROR.”

6. Unfortunately, you can’t delete tracks directly from the smart playlist. You have to identify each track on the smart list and then go back to your whole music library on iTunes and find it again. If you are paranoid, click command-I after selecting each track in the main music library to make sure it is indeed DRM locked, visible on the “Kind” line as “Protected AAC audio file.” Delete the track if so. DO NOT CHECK THE BOX THAT SAYS “ALSO DELETE THIS SONG FROM iCLOUD” — do not, not, not check that box. On the next dialogue box that comes up, click that you want to throw away the file in the trash.

7. Now that you have deleted the old DRM-ed file, the song should still be listed in iTunes but with a download from the cloud icon:

Click on the iCloud icon and a fresh new copy of the track will be downloaded from Apple’s servers, one that is DRM-free and 256 kbps. Sweet!

There are all kinds of tracks of that can’t be re-downloaded using this trick, unfortunately. In my library of 5,000 odd songs, I am still stuck with 25 that are low-quality, DRM-locked versions. Most are special versions of songs that the iTunes store no longer carries like an acoustic version of U2′s “Stuck in a Moment.” Some are from albums that are no longer sold for download, like Prince’s “Musicology.” Seven are tracks from the original, self-published release of Nellie McKay’s album “Pretty Little Head” that were excluded when Sony re-released the album later.

In some cases, though, the songs iTunes Match couldn’t quite match were just duplicates of songs I’d long ago upgraded via iTunes Plus. A little library clean up is in order in these cases. For example, a duplicate version of Matchbox 20′s song “3AM” was hanging around as the older DRM-locked file because it was listed as “3 AM” (note the extra space). I just deleted the duplicate from both my library and iCloud.

And that’s it! Good luck cleaning up your library.

Without Siri, the iPhone reminder app stinks

Posted on November 22, 2011 by AMP

One of the cool new features of the iPhone 4S — and the most hyped in Apple’s advertisements — is using the digital assistant Siri to set reminders. When you use Siri, you can usually speak as if you were talking to another person and Siri will figure out what you mean. Tell Siri “Make an appointment with my dad for next Tuesday at 3 p.m.” and Siri is capable of assessing who your dad is and the date of ”next Tuesday.”

But there’s a big glitch by Apple with this system and that’s when Siri is offline as “she” frequently is. Then you are left to set the reminder by hand. And the problem is that the new Reminders app absolutely stinks. Here are the steps and clicks to set one reminder without Siri:

1. Click on Reminders app

2. Click plus sign – almost never registers first click, so click again with verve.

3. Blank reminder comes in – type in content of your reminder.

4. Be puzzled about how to set the date and time. The virtual keyboard is still up. There is no indication of how to set the date and time.

How to add date & time??

5. Tap uselessly on the reminder text you just typed. iOS helpfully offers to select a word or paste.

6. Get frustrated and click “Done” even though you’re not done.

7. Back to the list of all your reminders. Click again on the reminder you just wrote. Now iOS shows a screen to get to the part where you can set the date and time or other details of the reminder.

8. Click on “Remind Me”

9. Slide the “On A Day” switch to “ON”

10. Click on the day and time. Use the slider control to reset the day and time (be prepared to slide forever if the reminder is not close to the current date).

11. Click “Done” to get out of the time setting slider

12. Click “Done” to get out of the reminder setting screen.

Phew! That’s a minimum of 10 clicks and slides to set one reminder. And the biggest problems with making the app so unintuitive and hard to use is that, usually, you’re using the excellent Siri interface to set reminders. So you only have to wade into this morass occasionally and, when you do, you never quite remember all the different steps and tricks. Yuck.