Two IT employees at Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School District have been put on administrative leave, and pictures taken from Webcams on school-issued computers have been turned over to the local police department, according to the attorney of one of the employees now on leave.
Attorney Charles Mandracchia, who represents school district information coordinator Carol Cafiero, told Philadelphia TV station Fox 29 that that “they had a private Web site for some of these pictures for the Lower Marion Police Department to view and they were the only ones who could view it.”
In February, the family of Blake Robbins, a 15-year-old student at Harriton High School filed a civil complaint in federal court against the district for allegedly using the Webcam on his school-issued laptop to take a photo of the student while he was at home. The district contends that cameras were only activated if a laptop had been reported lost or stolen. The district has since stopped using the tracking software to activate Webcams.
Speaking about his client and Michael Perbix, the other suspended IT staff member, Mandracchia said, “It was their duty to turn on the camera, but they would only do that if they received a request from the two high schools.” He also said the pictures were “taken by the computer itself…every 15 minutes once the computer was open, but it was only supposed to be done if the computer was lost or stolen.”
Marc Neff, the attorney for Perbix, told the TV station, “Every time a tracking device was activated, it was activated at the request of an administrator or another IT person. The district has admitted activating the Webcam tracking system 42 times.
The software used at the time, called LANRev, has since been acquired by Absolute Software, which has changed its name and removed the ability to remotely turn on Webcams. Absolute publishes LoJack for Laptops and Computrace, which can be used to locate stolen laptops but only after a police report has been filed and only by Absolute’s own technicians–not its customers, according to a company spokesperson.
Main Line Media News quoted a district statement that said, “Placing [Cafiero and Perbix] on administrative leave with pay is not a reflection of any wrongdoing on their part. It is a standard, prudent step in an investigation such as this one and it occurred in conjunction with the start of the review process nearly two weeks ago.”
Watch TV Station Fox29’s reports on latest developments in school Webcam spy case
Internet filters have been around since the early days of the Web and they can play an important role in preventing young children from accessing inappropriate content. But they’re not a replacement for parental involvements — and they’re not for everyone.
Before installing and configuring a filter, parents need to decide if their child needs to have software controlling how they can use the Internet and, if so, how the filter should be configured.
I don’t recommend routine use of filters for teens, especially high-schoolers. For one thing, there are lots of ways for them to get around filters, including accessing the Web from their cell phones, game consoles or other people’s PCs. And since teens are on a fast path to becoming young adults, it’s better to help them develop the filter that runs between their ears. You can’t protect them forever, so help them learn self-control. Of course, there are always exceptions, and some teens do need extra supervision.
Internet filters have been around since the early days of the Web and they can play an important role in preventing young children from accessing inappropriate content. But they’re not a replacement for parental involvements — and they’re not for everyone.
Before installing and configuring a filter, parents need to decide if their child needs to have software controlling how they can use the Internet and, if so, how the filter should be configured.
I don’t recommend routine use of filters for teens, especially high-schoolers. For one thing, there are lots of ways for them to get around filters, including accessing the Web from their cell phones, game consoles or other people’s PCs. And since teens are on a fast path to becoming young adults, it’s better to help them develop the filter that runs between their ears. You can’t protect them forever, so help them learn self-control. Of course, there are always exceptions, and some teens do need extra supervision.
Netbooks have been the rage for the last couple of years for very good reasons. These small laptops, which typically cost between $300 and $400, can do most things most people want to do with a laptop computer yet are cheaper, smaller and lighter than typical laptops.
It’s ironic that smaller machines are now cheaper than bigger laptops. Until a few years ago, users who wanted a small notebook PC would pay a premium. It wasn’t uncommon for machines under three or four pounds to cost two or three times as much as heavier notebook PCs. Netbooks turned the cost/weight equation upside down.
Consider this: For $269.99 (after rebate) you can order a Compaq Mini CQ10 machine that comes with Windows XP, a gigabyte of memory (enough for basic usage) and a 160 GB hard drive, which should be more than enough storage for many people.
The device, which I haven’t tested, has an Intel Atom N270 processor running at 1.60 GHz. I’ve tested similar netbooks from Hewlett-Packard, Acer and Gateway and find them to be adequate for most common tasks, such as Web surfing and e-mail. They’re also OK for viewing Web video, though I wouldn’t rely on such a low-power device to edit video.
The Compaq Mini has a 10.1-inch screen, which is small but big enough to be useful. The keyboard on this and many other netbooks is 92 percent the size of a typical notebook PC keyboard. That doesn’t bother some people but I’m a touch-typist who rarely looks at the
keyboard, and the smaller size bothers me a lot. I can handle it for Web surfing but for word processing or even writing e-mail, I strongly prefer a full-size keyboard.
But one of the good things about netbooks is that they’ve put downward pressure on the pricing of larger and faster notebook PCs.
Bargain notebooks with full-sized keyboards
For example, Lenovo just loaned me a ThinkPad Edge with a 13-inch display and a full-size keyboard. A version with AMD dual-core processor and 2 gigabytes of memory starts at $599. The one they sent me has a 1.3 GHz duo-core Intel processor and 4 GB of memory and sells for $799. It also has 3 USB ports, an HMDI slot so you can plug it into a high-definition TV, and a really good keyboard.
The Edge weighs 3.6 pounds, which is only about 11 ounces heavier than the ThinkPad 301, which costs $2,154 with the same amount of memory. For that price, the 301 comes with a 128 GB solid state drive, which is fast. But the far-cheaper Edge comes with a 320 GB hard drive. If money weren’t an issue, I guess I’d go for the slightly lighter 301. But considering the cost difference, I’d definitely buy the less expensive machine. I’m a fairly demanding road warrior — I carry my machine with me everywhere I go — and I’m certainly happy enough with this model.
On HP’s and Dell’s Web sites, I found plenty of impressive full-featured notebook PCs for under $700. If you need just the basics — and most people will do just fine with that — you can get a well-equipped Dell Inspiron 15 for $379 that comes with a dual-core processor, a CD/DVD burner, 4 GB of memory and a 320 GB hard drive. This machine has everything most PC users would need. At 5.8 pounds, it’s a bit heavy for my tastes, but if you don’t plan to carry it around all day, weight may not matter.
With the exception of netbooks, almost all the laptops I looked at feature Windows 7, which I’ve been using long enough to feel good about. I not only find it easier to use than XP and Vista, but it’s more reliable. Although system crashes still aren’t out of the question, they are infrequent.
Of course, there is that “other” camp, which also has some great laptops. Apple’s MacBook, which starts at $999, is a fine machine. If you want a Mac with same 4 GB of memory and 320 gigabytes of storage you’d get on the $799 Lenovo or the $399 Dell Inspiron 15, you’ll pay $1,149 — and that’s just for a MacBook. If you want the much cooler MacBook Pro with those specifications, it will cost you $1,399.
I’m not deriding the Macintosh, and I realize that some people would never consider buying a computer that doesn’t have an Apple logo on it. But in a tough economy, these low-cost Windows laptops are definitely worth considering.
This article originally appeared in the San Jose Mercury News
A recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 73 percent of online teens use social-networking sites. Updating their Facebook or MySpace page has become a regular activity for teens as is using these services to catch up on what their peers are doing. But, for the most part, teens are using social networking while they are away from school. Many schools actually ban access to services like Facebook and Twitter and often configure filtering programs to block students from accessing them.
While I can understand why it might not be educationally relevant for schools to allow students to polish their online profiles while in school, I worry that schools are disallowing the very technology that kids are using for their informal communications and learning. As my ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier blogged on NetFamilyNews, “Gutenberg’s press, was pretty controversial back in the day (15th c.) and probably didn’t make it into ’school’ for a while.”
Today, of course, books are a staple in school but, as any trip to a bookstore will illustrate, not all books are appropriate for classrooms. Should educators ban books because some books are “bad?” Of course not. Educators select appropriate books for use in class and incorporate them into the educational process.
The same should be true of social networking. While I’m not convinced that school filters should prevent kids from accessing sites like Facebook and MySpace from school computers during breaks, I can understand why educators would mostly avoid them for classroom use. Of course, there are pages on these sites with educational value, so it makes sense more sense for teachers to be granular by allowing access to appropriate social-networking pages rather than banning them entirely.
Social networking designed for schools
But it also makes sense to think about ways to incorporate specialized social networking tools in class. The Flat Classroom Project is one example where educators have built social-networking sites (mostly using Ning) specifically for use in class and home assignments. Not only does this allow for educationally relevant communication for students in the classroom, but for them to interact with students in far away classrooms both in the U.S. and abroad so students around the world can reach and learn from each other.
Mary McCaffrey, CEO of SchoolCenter
(Credit: SchoolCenter)
Fortunately, the idea of school-based social networking is starting to take hold. It has caught the attention of Mary McCaffrey, CEO of SchoolCenter. School Center, which bills itself as a “Web solutions company in the education market,” is in the process of developing social-networking tools marketed specially to schools. These tools will encourage students to interact with each other, using many of the same techniques they do when away from school but focused on their educational mission.
I spoke with McCaffrey not only about what her company plans to offer but about what many schools are currently missing.
The Webcam spy case in the Lower Merion School District near Philadelphia has raised concern as to whether others with Webcams are vulnerable to remote spying. The school district admitted to activating the Webcams 42 times during a 14-month period, claiming that it did so only to track lost or stolen laptops.
But for anyone with a Webcam (and Webcams are now built in to many laptops and desktops), the question is whether you are vulnerable to having your Webcam remotely turned on. The answer is yes, though the newest version of the software used by the district to monitor its computers can no longer be used to activate Webcams or even track stolen computers.
According to Harriton High School student Phil Hayes, officials at the Lower Merion School District used a program called LANRev to manage and track the Macintosh laptops issued to students. The product was published by Pole Position Software, which was acquired last year by Vancouver, B.C.-based Absolute Software. An Absolute Software spokesman verified that it is also his understanding that the school used LANRev software.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Mike Perbix, a network technician from the district, had recorded a Webcast where he talked about his use of LANRev. In a YouTube video attributed to Perbix, he says, “I’ve actually had some laptops we thought were stolen which actually were still in a classroom because they were misplaced, and by the time we found out that they were back I had to turn the tracking off and I had a good 20 snapshots of the teacher and the students using the machines in the classroom.”
In one portion of the Webcast (not in the YouTube video), Perbix says, “You can go into curtain mode, so if you’re controlling someone’s machine and you don’t want them to see what you’re doing you just click on the curtain mode icon…you can take a snapshot of the screen by clicking on the little camera icon.” Scroll down to the end of this post to listen to a 28-second audio excerpt from the Webcast, in which Perbix talks about “curtain mode.”
End users can no longer track machines
Absolute has changed the name of the program to Absolute Manager and will be marketing it for remote management of PCs, Macs, and iPhones, but the product will no longer be used for theft or loss recovery. For those functions, Absolute offers Computrace for enterprise customers (including schools) and LoJack for Laptops for consumers.
Unlike LANRev, Absolute’s current theft recovery products can’t be activated by end users, according to Vice President for Global Marketing Stephen Midgley. I interviewed Midgley by phone from his office in Vancouver.
Both the Computrace and LoJack products can be used to turn on a Webcam and photograph the user in the event of a theft investigation. But unlike the old LANRev, only Absolute engineers can track devices and activate recovery features. Company policy, according to Midgley, prohibits them for doing that until a police report is filed. “For us to begin a theft recovery process, we need a case file from the police,” he said.
Two of the recovery methods are GPS and Internet Protocol location tracking. Absolute tracks the location of devices every 24 hours, but once a device is reported stolen it increases to once every 15 minutes, according to Midgley. “That allows us to pinpoint the location of the device…we then provide the details over to the local law enforcement, who then go in and recover the device.” Midgely said the recovery team is made up of former law enforcement officers and that the company has relationships with well more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies across North America.
Midgley said the company doesn’t typically use Webcam photography, even if it’s available. “The photography doesn’t always take a picture of the criminal, and it’s not always permissible in a court of law,” he said. Often, the person who is photographed using the laptop is not the person who stole it. By the time it’s been reported, the laptop has been sold, and the person using it isn’t the same person who stole it, “so taking a photograph of them really proves no value. In that case, it’s not a photograph of the criminal. It doesn’t really help find out the location of the device,” he said.
Other ways to control Webcams
There are, however, other ways to remotely turn on a laptop’s Webcam. For one thing, there are many legitimate programs on the market that are used to control “nanny cams,” or Webcams used at vacation homes and other remote locations. If someone has physical access to a computer, it would be possible to install this software and turn it on remotely.
There are also programs such as GoToMyPC that are designed specifically to allow users to remotely control a machine via the Internet. Once connected, the person has complete remote control over the host computer, including the Webcam, microphone, and other features.
This picture was taken via GoToMyPC from a remote computer.
(Credit: Larry Magid/CNET)
To be certain that GoToMyPC can be used for this purpose, I downloaded a copy to a laptop and accessed it from my desktop PC via the Internet and then used my desktop PC to activate the camera on the laptop. To be fair, GoToMyPC puts up a notice on the remotely controlled machine indicating that there is a session in progress, but that notice can be immediately taken down from the remote computer.
You need physical access to a computer to install GoToMyPC, but it’s not uncommon for stalking victims to sometimes be in the same location as the stalker.
Malware can turn on Webcam
There are also Trojan horses and other malware programs that can be used to take remote control of a computer. According to Mike Geide, senior security researcher at cloud security company Zscaler, “there are several exploit kits out there that include rootkit functionality that allow (people) to interact with the operating system however they want, and that includes turning on specific services or running applications in the background that would include applications to report Webcams, record audio, or turn on a built-in internal microphone.”
Geide recently blogged about a Chinese government Web site that had been hacked to post malware to utilize an Internet Explorer 6 vulnerability to plant Backdoor:W32/Hupigon which, according to F-Secure, is “a remote-administration utility which bypasses normal security mechanisms to secretly control a program, computer, or network,” and “allows for recording with the user’s Webcam.”
TrendMicro education director David Perry stressed the importance of being aware of vulnerabilities. “It would do a public service, if we could make the public more aware that when you hook something like a Webcam up to your system that making it secure is your responsibility,” Perry said. “By default, it’s insecure.”
In October 2008, TGDaily reported on a “game” that could “mislead people into clicking on a link that can then remotely control the user’s Webcam and microphone.” This YouTube video shows a proof of concept of a simple game that could cause a user to turn on the remote camera for an attacker.
While security software can protect you against much of the malware, it can’t necessarily protect you against the misuse of legitimate programs designed to remotely enable a Webcam or remotely operate a PC. For that, the user has to be aware of what is running on the machine. While a sophisticated PC or Mac user may be savvy enough to determine if there are remote-control programs running on their systems, there are plenty of people who wouldn’t have a clue.
I spoke with a student at Harriton who said some students are employing a very low-tech solution to block their Webcams: they’re pasting black tape over the lens. Now all they need to do is figure out how to disable the microphone.
Click below to listen to a 28-second portion of Mike Perbix’s Webcast, where he talks about “curtain mode.” Audio taken from a longer Webcast downloaded from MacEnterprise.org.
Students at Herriton High School in Lower Merion School District near Philadelphia are given Apple MacBook laptops to use both at school and at home. Like all MacBooks, the ones issued to the students have a Webcam. And, in addition to the students’ ability to use the Webcam to take pictures or video, the school district can also use it to take photographs of whomever is using the computer.
In a civil complaint (PDF) filed in federal court, a student at the school, Blake Robbins, said he received a notice from an assistant principal informing him that “the school district was of the belief that minor plaintiff was engaged in improper behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the Webcam.”
The district said in a statement that the “security feature was installed to help locate a laptop in the event it was reported lost, missing or stolen so that the laptop could be returned to the student.” The district further explained that “upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature was activated by the district’s security and technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator’s screen.” The district claims it has “not used the tracking feature or Webcam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.”
Subsequently, district Superintendent of Schools Christopher W. McGinley sent a letter to parents saying that the security tracking feature is being disabled and that there will be “a thorough review of the existing policies for student laptop use” and a “review of security procedures to help safeguard the protection of privacy, including a review of the instances in which the security software was activated.”
In the mean time, the Associated Press is reporting that the FBI is investigating the district and “will explore whether Lower Merion School District officials broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws,” according to an unnamed official who spoke to the AP.
In an interview with CBS Evening News, plaintiff Blake Robbins said he was unaware that the camera could be activated at his house. “I thought that there was no way that they could do that at my home,” Robbins said, adding that the assistant principal “thought I was selling drugs, which is completely false.”
On the CBS Early Show, Harriton High sophomore Savannah Williams said she keeps the laptop in her bedroom and says that its on while she is “getting changed, doing my homework, taking a shower, everything.” She said she takes it into the bathroom with her to listen to music while showering. “I was shocked,” she added. She said “everyone is talking about it at school…everyone was really worried about ‘what are they watching me doing.’”
At least one student at Harriton isn’t particularly worried about the administration spying on students. In a podcast interview, 16-year-old junior Jon Brodo said “I don’t think anyone knows the true story…the problem is in this case is that there are so many rumors going around.” He said that he is somewhat concerned, but “I do trust that the school district knows its bounds.” Brodo said that most students, however ,”it’s been pretty hectic. It’s the conversation of everybody. I’ve seen the kid (plaintiff Blake Robbins) in the hallways. The atmosphere is definitely pro the kid and antischool district.”
On its Web site, Lower Merion School District says that it was one of the first districts in the country to issue laptops to all high-school students. And that is an extremely laudable effort on the part of the district to bring learning into the 21st century. It’s also commendable that the school put some thought into a recovery system to help locate lost and stolen laptops but it’s quite unfortunate that they used a system that enables administrators to take photographs of students using the machines away from school.
Of course, no judge has yet ruled on the plaintiff’s claim and the school has denied that it has used the cameras for anything other than helping recover missing machines. But even if that turns to be the case, the mere fact that staff members had the ability to turn on the camera remotely is problematic. While it’s fair to assume that the school could monitor what students do with district owned equipment (just as employers can with equipment used by employees even when they’re away from the office), I can understand why students and their parents would be shocked to learn that officials could remotely turn on the camera.
Google’s new Buzz service is getting some unwelcome buzz from the privacy community. On Tuesday, the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging that Buzz “is a significant breach of consumers’ expectations of privacy.” EPIC, according to a press release on its website wants the FTC “to require Google to make the Buzz service fully opt-in, to stop using Gmail users’ private address book contacts to compile social networking lists, and to give Google users meaningful control over their personal data.”
The complaint was filed days after Todd Jackson, Google’s product manager for Buzz blogged “there’s been concern from some people who thought their contacts were being made public without their knowledge.” Jackson pledged to make changes to Buzz to correct this issue including making the option not to show your followers more visible, making it easier to block anyone who starts following you and providing “more clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile.”
In an interview at Google headquarters on Tuesday, Google Vice President Bradley Horowitz said that the company is “making changes that will go a long way towards helping users and giving them transparency and control of how to block and how to expose their social graph.”
Product development process is social
He said that Google is “listening and reacting quickly” to what users are saying, and “reacting in days and in some cases hours.” Horowitz said that it is now clear to him and his team that “disclosures and speed bumps in place were not sufficient” and that “some user unhappiness resulted.” He was referring to an outpouring of criticism on blogs and, in some cases, on Buzz itself from users who felt that too much information about them was being shared.
Horowitz added that it’s essential for companies to get feedback from users when developing social media services such as Buzz, saying that many features that are now in Twitter were suggested by users rather than invented by the people who run the service. “My experience building social products is that you have to listen to the users. The product development process is itself social. … You can’t do it in a petri dish.”
Frequent Gmail contacts exposed
One complaint had to do with the way Google automatically created an initial set of followers based on people you communicate most often with via Gmail. The trouble with that is that the listing of who you follow on Buzz was initially made public, so that by exposing your Buzz followers, Google was also exposing the names of people you communicate with. That could be a problem if, for example, that list included a potential employer you were negotiating with while you’re still at your current job. You might not want your current employer to know you’re engaged in conversations with a competitor. It could also be an issue if you have a personal email relationship with someone that you might not want to disclose to a significant other.
Horowitz said Google will disable that feature, instead making it suggest possible friends to follow rather than having you follow them automatically.
Clearing out the clutter
Another issue with Buzz is that the amount of posts you see can be overwhelming. This is ironic because one of the points raised by Google when they announced the service last week is that Buzz would help users cut through the clutter. As Google co-founder Sergey Brin told me in a podcast interview I did for CNET news, the skill of “extracting signal from noise is one of our key competencies.”
Despite that intention, my experience with Buzz is that I am seeing far too many posts (or updates) often from people I have no interest in. For example, I follow some web-celebrities like podcaster Leo Laporte. I’m happy to read what Leo has to say but I’m also seeing updates from hundreds of people who also follow Leo. I’m sure these people have interesting things to say, but there is a limit as to how much I can digest. Horowitz said that Google is aware of that issue and is working to make it easier to hide comments from people you don’t follow.
Clearly, Buzz is a work in progress. I’m sure folks at Google hope that their developers can work faster than EPIC’s lawyers and are able to solve these issues before they — quite literally — turn Buzz’s privacy problems into a federal case.
In its search for new markets and revenue, Google seems to be taking a bite out of Apple.
For months the two companies have competed in the mobile-phone market thanks to Google’s Android operating system, and that competition is fiercer now that Google has stamped its logo on the back of the Nexus One (designed by Google and manufactured by HTC). Despite some differences, the new Google smartphone looks a lot like an iPhone.
There’s competition on other fronts as well, including the operating system business.
In its initial blog post in July, Google positioned Chrome OS as “an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.” That alone could harm Apple if Chrome-powered netbooks take sales away from Mac laptops. But now there’s talk about both Chrome and Android being used on tablet devices that could compete with Apple’s just announced iPad.
Concept of what a Google tablet might look like (source: Google)
There have been no product announcements, but Google’s Chrome Web site is displaying “visual explorations of how a Chrome OS tablet UI (user interface) might look in hardware.” The illustrations provide only a vague idea of what such a tablet might be like, but their very existence indicates that Google may be eyeing the market that Apple hopes to bust open.
Just in case one tablet operating system isn’t enough of a threat to Apple, Google is potentially going after the iPad with two operating systems at once. Android, in addition to Chrome, could also be used to create a potential iPad killer.
At last month’s Consumer Electronics Show, MSI displayed a 10-inch tablet running Google’s Android operating system.
It’s important to emphasize that neither the Google concept drawings nor the MSI prototype represents a real product. But what they do represent is the possibility, and perhaps the intention, of Google to quickly enter the tablet marketplace.
To be sure, there are important differences between Apple and Google. Apple is more focused and disciplined — it works long and hard on a very small number of products and keeps quiet about them until they’re almost ready for prime time. Then, with great fanfare, Steve Jobs announces them to the world and puts them on sale shortly thereafter.
Google throws lots of things against the wall to see what sticks. The company’s experimental culture is so strong that employees are allowed to devote 20 percent of their time to any project that strikes their fancy, some of which actually see the light of day as products or services.
Apple’s formula — at least with the iPhone — worked like a charm. The hype was followed by a product that delighted most early reviewers and customers. And although I questioned in last week’s column whether the iPad can live up to its hype, I acknowledge that it is an innovative product that might do well when it hits the market.
Google’s approach is usually to pre-announce months in advance and rely on partners like HTC (and now Motorola) to build devices around its open source software. Unlike the first iPhone, the initial Android phone — the HTC G1 — got tepid reviews. But with the release of the Motorola Droid and Google’s Nexus One, Android is starting to win fans and respect.
Google’s initial foray into the browser market was also a bit disappointing but that, too, is starting to change. When the Chrome browser came out, it was a bit faster than market leaders Internet Explorer and Firefox but not nearly as versatile because it lacked support for extensions that allow third parties to add functionality. However, Google recently released a beta version of Chrome that fixes that problem.
Last month Chrome overtook Apple’s Safari as the third-place browser behind Internet Explorer and Firefox, according to Net Applications. As more extensions become available and more people download the newer version, I’m confident its market share will continue to grow.
The biggest difference between Apple and Google has to do with control. Apps for both the iPhone and iPad will be distributed through Apple and be vetted and approved by Apple before being made available to users. Google has a more open approach, allowing anyone to create an app for their phone or their computer operating system.
The democrat (small d) in me sides with Google. But the part of me that’s concerned about safety and security understands the advantages of having a company like Apple examine the applications for its devices.
Mostly I’m just glad to see these two talented and resourceful companies compete with each other and, of course, Microsoft, which was once thought to be a monopoly but is now struggling to compete with both Google and Apple.
This post is adapted from a column by Larry Magid that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News
As I think about last week’s Apple iPad announcement, I recall PC-maker Lenovo showing off its IdeaPad U1 Hybrid at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The IdeaPad is an interesting cross between a laptop and a tablet. Unlike other tablet PCs, the screen actually peels away from the base station. In laptop mode it runs Windows 7. But when you use the screen by itself in “slate mode,” it runs a home-grown Lenovo operating system that’s optimized for use without a keyboard.
I thought it was cool and it was a clever-enough idea to win CNET’s best-of-show award for computers and hardware. Still, there wasn’t a great deal of buzz around the product. And, despite its rather weird design, I didn’t see a lot of press either praising or damning it. It was just an interesting idea from a company that makes some of the most respected laptops on the market.
Contrast that with Apple’s iPad announcement. The amount of pre-announcement hype was out of control. The blogosphere and even the mainstream press had a feeding frenzy speculating over what Apple would unveil. Apple was officially mum, but it’s likely someone in the company was leaking bits and pieces to help build anticipation. There was even a report in TechCrunch ahead of the announcement claiming that Steve Jobs was overheard saying it “will be the most important thing I’ve ever done.” When Jobs finally took the stage to unveil the iPad, he called it “magical and revolutionary.”
With all of this hype in the back of my head, I was one of hundreds of tech journalists to show up at Yerbe Buena Center in San Francisco on Wednesday to find out what all the fuss was about. The street in front of the building was crowded with TV satellite trucks and the press — many arriving hours early — were anxiously speculating about exactly what Jobs would pull out of his hat.
The answer is the now much-written-about iPad, which is getting a mixed reception from the press and those who are Tweeting and blogging about it. Writing in Thursday’s Mercury News, my colleague Troy Wolverton said he wants to buy one but “just not yet.” He’s waiting for version 2.0, which he hopes will support Adobe’s Flash and allow multi-tasking.
My take on the device was less charitable. In my CBSNews.com post, I called it “underwhelming.”
But my verdict has to be put into the context of all the hype. Had Apple called this device the “Ipod Touch 2,” I would have praised it as a really good follow up to an excellent product. I would have still questioned whether there is a market for a device that’s too big to put in your pocket but not as easy to type on as a laptop, but I would have given Apple the benefit of the doubt, just as I did with Lenovo.
It’s great to innovate, it’s great to introduce new ideas to the market and it’s great to “throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.” After all, experimentation, including experiments that fail, are an important part of what drives innovation.
But this was more than just experimenting with a new concept. To begin with, the concept isn’t new. There have been dozens of tablets or slate computers and none of them has been able to attract more than a niche audience.
I was at the Comdex computer show in 2000 when Bill Gates introduced the tablet PC. A year later Gates predicted that the tablet “would become the most popular form of PC within five years.”
Of course Jobs’ tablet PC is different than the ones built to Gates’ specifications. For one thing, the iPad is mostly about content consumption, and it’s built on the successful foundation of several generations of iPods, iPhones and Apple’s iTunes and iPhone Apps stores. Apple is also doing content deals with book publishers to assure plenty of stock for its new iBook Store that will compete with Amazon.com towards Apple’s goal of turning the iPad into a book and periodical reader.
The content, the elegant design, reasonable starting price ($499 for one with 16 GB of storage and no 3G modem) of the iPad and Apple’s superb marketing skills all bode well for this new device. Yet, I’m one of many people who came away a little skeptical and a bit disappointed, not because it’s not a good device but because it didn’t (perhaps couldn’t) live up to all the hype.
I pretty much expected it to look and work like it does, but I also expected Jobs to delight the crowd with “one more thing” that would make me want to rush out and get one of my own as soon possible. That didn’t happen.
This column first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News
This picture was taken via GoToMyPC from a remote computer.
