by Larry Magid
reposted from San Jose Mercury News

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos wants it both ways: He wants to change the way we read without making us feel that we have to change the way we read. The manifestation of this lofty goal is the Kindle – the company’s first electronic book reader. After testing the device, I found much to like but plenty of room for improvement. At $399, I also think it’s overpriced. The Kindle is hardly a new idea. There have been plenty of attempts in this category, including one called the Rocket eBook reader and, most recently, the Sony reader. But none of those has done much to wean people away from paper books.

But Amazon has something none of the other players can match – the world’s largest online bookstore and a powerful position with the publishing community. Its library of 90,000 e-books includes almost all the bestsellers. And, unlike typical e-book pricing, Amazon is selling electronic books at a very reasonable price – $9.99 for most new books and as little as $3 for older titles. I was on the verge of spending $18 for “Boom,” Tom Brokaw’s new book about the ’60s but am instead reading an electronic version that I bought for $9.99. › Continue reading…

Istanbul, Turkey — I’m in a city that spans Asia and Europe yet I’m happily using cell phones from Sprint and Verizon Wireless.

I’ve always thought of Sprint and Verizon as purely domestic carriers, serving only the U.S. market, but that’s not the case. Even though most phones from these two popular U.S. carriers are configured to access cellular networks that are totally incompatible with the GSM (Global System for Mobil) networks used in Europe, Australia, parts of Asia, Africa and much of the rest of world, both companies do offer phones that are also capable of accessing GSM networks overseas.

For example, both Verizon and Sprint sell the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition (prices vary by carrier and service plan) while Sprint also has a Samsung Ace Windows Mobile SmartPhone and Verizon the Motorola Z6c World Edition. Each of these phones uses its carrier’s CDMA network in North America but is also equipped with GSM SIM cards for use in other countries. Also, most of Verizon’s phones, according to the company’s Web site, do work in Israel, Brazil, Thailand, South Korea and a few other countries, but not in most of the world. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM technology that does work in most countries.

SIM stands for “Subscriber Identity Module.” All GSM phones have a slot for this tiny card that is required for them to make and receive calls.

From my present vantage point in Turkey and after stops in Majorca, Spain and London earlier this week, I can testify that the Verizon and Sprint phones work great in the places I’ve visited. Sprint loaned me the Samsung Ace and Verizon provided me with a BlackBerry 8830 for testing, and with both phones I’ve been able to make local calls as well as international calls to the United States and other countries. Data service also works with full access to e-mail, text messaging and Web browsing. And, perhaps because of Europe and Turkey’s extensive GSM network, the sound quality and coverage is as good as or in many cases better than in the United States, even from when I used the phone from a relatively rural areas of Spain and England.

Both Sprint’s and Verizon’s world BlackBerrys can use the high-speed 3G network in much of the world. Sprint’s Ace uses Sprint’s high-speed EVDO network in the United States but reverts to somewhat slower networks overseas. Since the only data I’m accessing from here is e-mail, I don’t really notice any difference.

And because these are U.S. phones, there is no need to change your number. The regular U.S. phone number rings over here, albeit sometimes in the middle of the night, thanks to the nine-hour time difference.

The only downside is the international roaming charge. It might not be a big deal if you just make a few calls or if you work for a company that pays your bill. But if you’re cost-conscious and plan to use the phone a lot from overseas, you had better heed the tariffs. In Spain and in most of Europe the international roaming charge is $1.29 a minute. It’s $2.49 a minute here in Turkey and from Ghana and Saudi Arabia. Sprint users who happen to be in Russia, Chad or Kazakhstan could pay as much as $4.99 a minute. There are also data charges for e-mail and text-messaging.

There are ways to beat the system. Sprint’s world phones are unlocked, which means you can buy a SIM card in the local country and pay much lower rates. In some cases, it costs as little as 10 or 15 cents a minute for outgoing calls and nothing for incoming calls.

The Verizon phone is locked, but upon request Verizon can provide an unlocked code. There are also third parties and Internet sites that, for a one-time fee, will unlock most but not all locked GSM phones or provide you a code to unlock it yourself. I’ve used, an independent cell phone dealer to unlock phones that I and family members have used when traveling overseas.

When you’re using a SIM card you buy abroad, callers have to dial into the country where you bought the card. So if you bought a SIM card in Spain, callers would have to dial a Spanish phone number to reach you. If you then traveled to France and bought a French SIM card, they would have to dial a French number.

Another option, especially useful if you plan to travel to different countries, is to purchase a global SIM card. Sim4Travel.com and GoSim.com sell cards that can be used in most countries at rates starting at about 60 cents a minute to call back to the United States. It may not be as inexpensive as buying a local SIM card, but you get to use the same number in each country and it’s cheaper than paying international roaming rates through your U.S. carrier.

T-Mobile sells phones that can be used both on GSM networks (for a fee of course) and free via WiFi. While in Spain I ran into fellow American journalist John Biggs from Crunchgear (www.crunchgear.com), who let me try out his BlackBerry Pearl 8120 to make a free call back to the States via the hotel’s WiFi network. As long as I was close enough to a hotspot, I was able to make and receive free calls. Callers are able to call your regular T-mobile U.S. number and if you answer it from a hotspot it’s free, but if you’re using the GSM network with T-Mobile’s US SIM card, you pay international roaming rates, which vary by country.

Because almost all AT&T phones use GSM, its phones can also be used in Europe at roaming rates comparable to those of Sprint and Verizon. AT&T does offer a $5.99 plan that reduces rates by about 30 percent per minute in Europe.

Istanbul, settled by the Phoenicians in 650 BC, is home to some amazing ancient architecture but when it comes to international communications, its as modern as any place on earth.

Credit: Apple, Inc.

Apple’s explanation for the widely reported iPhone 4 reception issues is, literally, stunning. “Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong,” the company said in a letter to iPhone 4 users.

The company implies that there never was a drop in reception, “We sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.”

Fixing the Display but not the Problem

Apple said that it is working on a fix that will improve the way they display signal strength but “the real signal strength remains the same.” They will fix the way they meter and report signal strength but not the signal itself. The “fix” is expected within a few weeks via a free software upgrade.

So, going forward, users will be able to figure out that they can’t use the phone by looking at the screen instead of trying to make a call. This would be like an airliner having a faulty fuel gauge that says the tanks have fuel when they’re actually about empty. The good news is that pilots would know they’re about out of fuel. The bad news is that they would be running on empty.

It Took Three Years to Discover the Problem

What’s really amazing about this is Apple’s admission that “this mistake has been present since the original iPhone.”

I find that astonishing that a company that prides itself on having the world’s best software engineers could – for three years– have a software problem as basic as not reporting a phone’s signal strength. It’s especially puzzling considering the enormous interest in the product and the millions of people who use it, including many of the world’s most technically savvy people.

For more, see “Poking holes in Apple’s iPhone 4 antenna explanations” (CNET News)

Apple on Thursday announced that it’s entering the health insurance business with a service called “iNsure.” Once the service launches later this year, people will be able to purchase health insurance from the iPhone and iPad App stores and via iTunes.

“We have been thinking about this for years,” said Apple CEO Steven Jobs, “but the new health care reform law makes it easier for us to enter this market.”

The large installed base of iPhone and iPod Touch users plus the anticipated buyers of the iPad (which will be released this Saturday) provide Apple with a large enough pool of users to underwrite a health insurance program. According to insurance industry analyst, Gerard Ketokian, Apple can make a good profit on health insurance because of the demographics of its customers. “By restricting the policies to people who own their equipment, Apple is tapping into a generally young and healthy group of people who are likely to have fewer claims than the average American,” he said.

A 2008 study by Rubicon found that about half of iPhone users to be under 30.
A 2009 Forrester Research study found that iPhone users are far more likely to be college educated which generally correlates with healthier lifestyles.

Must own Apple device to qualify

The application will allow users to purchase a policy directly from an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Users can also purchase it via from a PC or Mac via iTunes but must own a portable Apple device to qualify. Users will be required to enter their age and other data directly from the App and can pay for the insurance through their iTunes account. Apple will not ask about pre-existing conditions, according to a spokesperson. Apple said that iPhone users will get a 10% discount as long as they maintain their iPhone account with AT&T. There was no comment on whether the discount will be extended to Verizon customers. The Wall Street Journal on Monday had an unconfirmed report that Apple would release a Verizon version of the iPhone this summer.

Rather than going through a re-insurer, Apple is underwriting the program from its own cash reserves. The company had about $25 billion in reserve as of December. Apple has a market capitalization of nearly $214 billion with its stock selling at an all-time high.

In February, Jobs told shareholders that the company was hoarding cash for “something big and bold.” This certainly qualifies.

Plan has bi-partisan support

The move got generally good support by politicians from both sides of the aisle.
“What I like about the Apple plan is that it’s selling insurance across state lines, something Republicans have been demanding for years,” said House Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-OH). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that she decided to support the idea after speaking with former Vice President and Apple board member Al Gore. “Al convinced me that this is good for the economy and for the environment,” she said. “It’s good for the economy because the plan is controlled by one of our nation’s most entrepreneurial companies and it’s good for the environment because it’s completely paperless.”

There will be no paper forms used in any part of the process, said an Apple spokesperson. The iNsure App will be used for all applications and policy documents. Policy holders won’t even be issued a card for their wallet but will, instead, flash their credentials from their iPod, iPhone or iPad when they need service. At first it will be necessary for patients to show their credentials on the screen but the company is working on technology that will allow patient verification via Bluetooth or WiFi.

Software sends diagnosis to Apple

The company is also working with application developers on device-based diagnostic software. One app, called “FallResponse” uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to determine is someone collapses. If so, it immediately summons aid (using the phone ‘s GPS) and sends insurance information directly to the provider. Another program takes advantage of the phone’s previously undocumented breathalyzer. The device measures alcohol concentration every time someone speaks on the phone. If it finds repeated cases of intoxication, it warns the user and refers them to a treatment program. If the behavior persists, data about the alcohol use is transmitted to Apple’s iNsure underwriting department to be used to calculate future premiums or as a basis to drop coverage. “We don’t discriminate against pre-existing conditions,” said Jobs, but there is no way we’re going to support self-destructive personal habits.” The company is said to be also working with developers on an app that will automatically measure users’ body mass index so it can drop coverage for people who are gaining too much weight.”

Happy April Fools Day!

(Cupertino, Calif.) Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple will finally add multitasking to the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Third party developers will be able to program their apps to run in the background.

Apple also announced a new advertising platform for developers called iAp. Ads can run inside applications with video and interactive features.

Music and navigation in background

During the press conference held at Apple headquarters this morning, Jobs invited Pandora CEO Tim Westergard on stage to show that Pandora online radio can play in background while other apps are running. Jobs also announced that the iPhone users will be able to pick up internet phone calls from Skype and voice applications that can run in the background. The iPhone will also support background GPS navigation so you can be using a navigation program while talking on the phone or doing other tasks. Apps can ask for your location but the new operating system will give users the choice on an app by app basis.

Apple is also adding background notifications for third parties including a new service called local notifications that doesn’t require a server. Apps can running on phone can notify you from the phone

Task completion: Some apps, said Jobs, take awhile to complete tasks, but with the new OS, they will be able to do things like uploading photos in the background even after you switch away from the program.

Folders: Apple will make it easier to organize apps by creating folders on the iPhone desktop. Just drag one app on top of another and it makes a folder. It automatically names the folder but you can rename it. This can be extremely useful for people who have a lot of apps. I sometimes have trouble finding Apps on my iPhone’s home screen.

Enhanced Mail: Apple will offer a unified inbox so you can have multiple email accounts with all incoming mail in one inbox. You can also have multiple Exchange accounts and you can move between multiple inboxes if you prefer. It will also be possible to organize mail by thread. Apple has also added the ability to open mail attachments with apps. I wonder whether this could lead to security issues of the possible spread of malicious code via email.

iBooks will be added to the iPhone similar to what is now on the iPad. Of course it’s long been possible to read Amazon Kindle books on iPhone.

There are some features for enterprises including email encryption and better mobile device management tools. Businesses will be able to distribute custom apps wirelessly from their own servers. Apple has also added support for Exchange Server 2010

Game Center: Apple is adding a social gaming network. You can challenge your friends or find others to play with you. There will be a leader board to see how you’re doing compared to others.

iAd: iPhone will have an adverting platform for developers. Some aps now have ads but Jobs says most of the time “it really sucks.” He said that the iAd feature will be a more elegant solution. Jobs says that most people are using apps rather than a search engine on iPhones and sees apps, not search as the best way to deliver ads. He said that the average iPhone user spends over 30 minutes a day using apps. Apple, said Jobs, wants to improve the quality of ads to make it easier to deliver an “emotional advertising”as is now possible with TV. The goal is also to be even more interactive than web advertising. Today when you click on an ad it takes you out of the app which keeps people from clicking. With iAd they will deliver interactive video content without taking you out of app. Jobs said that there is “an opportunity to make “a billion ad impressions a day” which he says is a “fairly large number.”

Apple will sell and host ads and give developers 60% of the revenue. Jobs showed off a prototype of a Disney Toy Story ad (developed by Apple, not Disney) that includes a game, posters and video. It’s very interactive., You can even buy games from within the ad. Jobs calls it “an example of a new kind of mobile ad.” When you’re done with the ad, you click an “x” can go back to the ap.

This notion of apps being more powerful than search for delivering ads is kind of a dig at Google. Jobs said that the iPhone is the first time in history where there have been so many (185,000) aps on the desktop. He says that’s not true with personal computers and accounts for why user behavior is so different.

Apple plans to release the operating system to the iPhone and iPod Touch users this summer and for the iPad in the fall. Some features, including multitasking, will not be available on first and second generation iPod and iPhone devices.

I was sitting in the room yesterday when Steve Jobs announced that he was discontinuing the 4 gigabyte iPhone and dropping the price of the 8 GB model from $599 to $399.  Many in the room broke out in applause but it’s important to point out that besides press – who generally don’t applaud during press conferences – the rest of the audience were Apple employees, Apple enthusiasts and Apple bloggers who tend to enthusiastically support anything Steve Jobs announces.

But then reality set in.  People who spent nearly $600 for an iPhone during the past few months started expressing their disappointment and, in some cases, anger at Apple’s moves.  One person wrote on an Apple discussion board, “Having paid full price for my iPhone not more than 2 months ago, I am shocked that a price drop was announced so quickly. Not only was the drop in price surprising, but the amount in which it dropped was staggering to say the least. I demand an explanation.”

Steve Jobs heard the uproar and just over 24 hours after announcing the price drop, he issued a statement saying that early iPhone buyers  would get a $100 store credit to use at Apple stores or online.  Details will be forthcoming.

In an open letter posted on the company’s web site, Jobs wrote:  “I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it.”  He further said that  “it benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone ‘tent’. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.”

It’s income tax season once again – which means millions of people will be using tax software like TurboTax or TaxCut and taking advantage of the numerous online filing sites like TaxActOnline.com or Turbotax.com.

In fact, our friends at the IRS are encouraging us to use PCs to prepare our taxes and again this year are offering the “freefile” program (click on “freefile” at IRS.gov) that, according the IRS site,” allows taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $52,000 or less in 2006 to e-file their federal tax returns for free.” These sites will try to up sell you on other services and may charge you to file your state returns.

I must admit that for a variety of reasons, I don’t prepare my own return. Mine are a bit complicated and my brother, who heads up a CPA firm, gives me a family discount. But for the past couple of years, I’ve used Turbotax.com to prepare my college-age kids’ returns. Theirs aren’t terribly complex but they do have to account for earnings from self-employment and part-time jobs as well as interest and dividends.

For millions of other taxpayers, these services offer an inexpensive and simple way to get through this hated but necessary annual ritual. One thing I love about being a repeat customer at Turbotax.com is that it automatically brings up data from the previous year’s return, cutting down on a lot of data input. It also allows you to import data from online brokerage firms, which cuts down on an enormous amount of typing while greatly reducing the possibility of a mistake. › Continue reading…

MySpace has removed online profiles from about 7,000 registered convicted sex offenders. A group of state Attorneys General have demanded that MySpace disclose information about those individuals and, after initially citing federal privacy laws as a reason for not disclosing that data, the company and the Attorneys General have now come to an agreement regarding the information. Hemanshu Nigam, the Chief Security Office of MySpace parent Fox Interactive explains the situation and what the company is doing to protect children in a conversation with CBS News technology Consultant Larry Magid.

Listen here

If you’re looking for a very useful holiday present for a friend, loved one or yourself, you should definitely consider an external hard drive. I realize that a storage product isn’t nearly as exciting or instantly gratifying as a digital music player, a digital camera or a large screen TV, but it can be incredibly useful.

To begin with, you can use it to backup your hard drive – always a good idea. Most external drives come with backup software but you can use any backup program or merely use the operating system’s file copy functions to backup your content.

If you have a Macintosh with the new Leopard operating system, you can use the “Time Machine” backup program that’s included. Time Machine makes backing up and restoring files easy and strangely even fun. Microsoft Windows Vista also comes with a backup program that’s relatively easy to use but not nearly as appealing as Time Machine.

In terms of basic functionality, it hardly matters which brand external drive you get – there are excellent ones on the market from Maxtor, Seagate, Western Digital, Simple Tech, LaCie and others. Your most important decision is how much storage to get.

The more the merrier, of course, but in most cases, you probably don’t need to buy a higher capacity external drive than the number of gigabytes in your internal drive. And you might not even need that much storage since you don’t necessarily have to backup the operating system and your software: your data is what counts. › Continue reading…