iPhone - Legal Jailbreaking

Check out my iPhone home screen below.  It used to be that you need to hack into your iPhone ("jailbreaking") to enable cool third party applications that were superior to the existing Apple apps. The sucess of the App store combined with a relaxing of Apple's policy has given a rise to the number of approved apps that are awesome.  And guess what, Apple finally realized that it means more money for them! Remember, they get 30% of every App sale.  Combine that with the fact that an (admittenly) small amount of people will buy a phone based on some of these apps, and it's a win - win for all.

Spotify - Music player and discovery engine (see my Spotify post)

Instacast - Podcast player. Features automatic downloading, favoriting, and importing from itunes

Farenheit - Updates the weather right on the home screen - can open it for more details.  Yes, it's 82 degrees at 9 in the morning.

Pandora - Streaming internet radio

Google Voice - Get text transcripts of voice mails

Squarespace - The software I use to power this site. I can make and edit posts, manage comments, and view website stats

Articles - Wikipedia with an easy to use interface

CNN gets live streaming - if you pay for cable

CNN has jumped into the new media game headfirst by allowing live streaming of its TV channel. You can log on anywhere and view CNN on your web browser, iPhone, or iPad. Yes!

The catch? You have to be a paying cable subscriber. Since I'm in Philly, I had to verify my Comcast username and password. The good news is that I'm not tied to my Comcast internet connection - I can view CNN from any wifi access point.

This is a great move by CNN, and I'm sure it's only possible because its restricted to cable subscribers. Still, it doesn't help me to cut the cord, get rid of cable, and stream all of my TV online. Maybe it's just a dream ....

The Wall

One of the big discussions in the tech community has always been having an open source environment where anything goes, versus a closed environment where only filtered content is available. This discussion has recently manifested in the smartphone wars, with the open Google Android operating system vs the closed Apple iOS ("the walled garden"). TechCrunch has a great article covering the success of closed systems, stating that "the walled garden has won".

Giving all that power and control to Amazon, Apple, Google and Intel in exchange for security may ultimately be a reasonable and necessary tradeoff — but that kind of centralization of control still makes me more than a little uneasy.

Geeks hate control. We have the smarts, and we'd rather monitor and moderate ourselves. But that's just not going to work for the other 90% of the population.

My dream is that technology is regarded as an essential part of our society, which goes beyond people buying iPhones. Having a curated experience helps people of all generations to feel comfortable with technology without drowning in nonstop choices. People need a nudge in the right direction, just like they do with supermarket circulars, Amazon recommendations, and film reviews. It's the reason why it's easy to buy an iOS device and get the full experience by following the recommendations.

Part of it is a power play. The more open the environment, the more us geeks are in control. Because there are a sea of choices, we are the ones that hold the key to making sense of it all. In a closed environment such as iOS, people are fed suggestions based on what Apple highlights on the site, as well as "top 10" lists. Even though these can be gamed, people are not going to use something if it doesn't work for them. This is the benefit of the closed model - it is heavy on suggesting things to do, but it doesn't force the user to agree. Essentially, it reduces that amount of choices that the average person has to make.

Here's to the success of the wall - the more people engaged by tech, the more tech will be able to innovate. Let's keep the snowball rolling!

iPad 2 Impressions: Smart Cover, Safari / Multitasking Improvements

Tech Thoughts From the iPad 2 Launch Line

Yeah, I'm one of those crazy folk that waits on line for Apple products.  Aside from meeting similarly obsessed nerds, it also gives me a chance to actually churn out a post that I've been trying to do for a couple of days.  So here we go ...

I have a funny relationship with AOL.  I used the free CDs during my summers home from college to access the wonders of the web through my 28.8k modem, even though I had to brave the customer reps crying when I canceled at the end of the summer.  I no longer use AOL as a web portal, and I shuddered when they merged with Time Warner.  Currently, I respect AOL because they have invested money in some of my favorite sites such as Engadget and Techcrunch (though I don't think the Huffington Post acquisition was the best).  So I have a soft spot for my old buddies at AOL.

It saddens me that AOL has cut 20% of their work force.  I'm assuming that this is the best business decision, and it will make AOl leaner and meaner, but that is a lot of people being dumped into a still recovering economy.  Hopefully these people don't spend too long on the market, because this also has another affect: people that are just joining the workforce and attempting to jumpstart their careers will have no chance competing against a huge influx of ex-AOL employees.

I'm a Jersey boy, and they never fail to disappoint: they almost sold computers containing sensitive data.  According to Gizmodo, "Files on abused children, people's tax returns, computer passwords, names, addresses, birth dates and other information on hundreds of foster children and abused children and Social Security numbers all would've went public".  I really, really, really wish state governments will start hiring qualified people to make tech decisions.  Qualified people that know the internet isn't a series of tubes would ensure that mistakes like this are minimized.

Ok, time to finish my Italian BMT and continue chatting with the geeks.  Two more hours!