Robert’s Ramblings

I am normally wary of any claims of power savings, recycling or turning green made by large corporations. I know that most of the claims are just lip service to the environmentally conscious amongst us. However, I read some news today that makes sense. It seems that the MySpace web site has dumped all its hard drives and switched to solid state devices that are like the thumb drives that most of us carry around. Doing so has reduced the power consumption at the their data center by an astounding 99%. Now that is what I call socially responsible action. It  makes sense from both an environmental perspective and from a power cost savings.

I have a data center in my office and power consumption is now my third largest expense after payroll and rent. It has become such a large expense that I have been looking at ways to trim it. My efforts have been concentrated on replacing older servers that were less efficient with newer ones and also consolidating wherever possible. With this news, I now have another avenue to explore.

MySpace’s move is smart. It is economics coupled with ecological responsibility. Bravo!

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

Gizmodo, a very successful blog on gadgets and technology, uncovered information about a prototype tablet computer from Microsoft that is in the late stages of development. This is remarkable because Microsoft kept this device secret for a very long time and also because it could remake a company lately thought of as a technology has-been into cool and exciting again. The device uses the portfolio metaphor and opens up into two seven inch screens that can be manipulated by touch with fingers or with a stylus. The tablet shields the user from the operating system and works like a tool that a business person or student would use to take notes, doodle, set appointments and take pictures. It does not give you a Windows-like experience, but instead a very cool, super-iPod or super-iPhone experience. The following video gives you a sample of what the device can do.

The device has one button and has indicators along the edge of one of the tablets for displaying battery power and Wi-Fi connectivity. At this time, it is unknown how the device will be charged. The back side of one tablet has a camera with flash. Pictures of the camera lens indicate that it will be 3 megapixels and that it will also have a 4X zoom. It is not clear whether the zoom is digital or optical, but I’d bet on the former. I can easily see this device being used to read books or newspapers in full color and with a page flipping metaphor. (Watch out Amazon Kindle and Sony PRS-505.)

If and when Microsoft releases this as a product, the device could eliminate the need for notebook computers while travelling. From what is visible in the video, it has excellent handwriting recognition. The tablet user in the video writes an Internet address in the browser and is taken to the site. Perhaps this will also work with some yet undisclosed email client. If you can have your schedule, a note taking device, a web browser and email in this handy form factor, why would you lug around a notebook or even a netbook. It is not known if the device will offer any entertainment options, like the ability to play music. If it does, then Microsoft will have a hit on its hands and will finally have a tool that can take away the “cool” designation from Apple.

For pictures click here.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

In a future predicted by George Orwell’s “1984,” the government censors writing that it deems inappropriate and the population is left to read only what is approved. It seems Orwell was off by 25 years, but the dystopia he predicted may be beginning. Amazon recently deleted “1984” and “Animal Farm” from customer’s Kindle devices without notice or authorization. I consider this equivalent to a store clerk from a book store breaking into my house and taking a book that I purchased earlier that day. It is outrageous and portends a bleak, dystopian future.

Amazon has said that they mistakenly sold copies of the digital books without having the right to sell them. This may be true, but it still does not give them the right to delete them from personally owned devices. If this were allowed to stand as something that is acceptable corporate behavior, it would enable other companies to delete items from your computer, iPod or iPhone if they deem it to be pirated or objectionable for whatever reason. Now imagine a future where there are no paper copies of books, just electronic ones on devices like the Kindle. The government is taken over by, lets say left wingers, who want to eliminate all copies of Bill O’Reilly’s conservative books. They remotely delete them and all other conservative authors that they abhor. In that scenario, what can the regular guy do to get a balanced view of the world?

Amazon’s ill advised deletion should be the catalyst for congressional action. We need a Digital Rights Amendment that specifically details the rights of purchasers of digital content. It is outrageous to allow a corporation to go into our property and delete or take back something that you have paid for. It is also dangerous to a democratic society.

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon has apologized for his company’s action. Here is a quote from his apology:

Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

I accept his apology, but I do not accept his promise that Amazon will not delete books from end user devices going forward. I believe that the time is right for a law that prevents this type of abuse from occurring again in any form and from any source. What do you think?

I recently purchased a few Mac Minis to be used in the development of iPhone applications at Alonso Consulting. This is the first time that I have owned an Apple computer and it is the first time that I have used one for any purpose other than to click on the Safari browser and say, “That’s nice.” In fact, the last time that I actively used a Mac was in 1989 as a consultant at GE Capital and all I used was Microsoft Word to document some requirements for a project. These Mac Minis have given me more respect for Apple. They are solid, useful machines that are easy-to-use and configure. Even taking the components out of the box was a pleasant experience. Everything came in white boxes and all the parts were wrapped in thick cellophane. There is no comparison between the way a Dell arrives and the way an Apple computer arrives. It is a totally different experience.

I have grown accustomed to several open source applications on the PC. Three of these are TrueCrypt, FileZilla and VirtualBox. These are for encrypting volumes of files, using the FTP protocol for file transfers and creating virtual machines on the PC, respectively. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there were Mac versions of these available. I installed them and a few other very useful applications including Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac and am at the point where I could do all my work on the Macs and ignore the PC completely.

I am quite pleased with the way the Mac OS X works. It is pleasant and fast. I find the performance on a 2 GHz, dual core Intel processor with 1 GB of memory to be superior to the 2.4 GHz Intel quad core processor with 3GB of memory on my Vista PC. The only thing that I can’t stand is the crappy Mac keyboard that is flat and missing tactile feedback. I found a way of using an old IBM Model M keyboard with a Belkin USB to PS/2 Keyboard adapter and now feel more comfortable typing on the Mac.

Apple has a good thing going for itself requiring a Mac to develop apps for the iPhone. As we make progress on some applications, I will keep you posted on the progress. If you are looking for iPhone development, please consider my company; Alonso Consulting. We will deliver excellent results at a very reasonable cost.

One of the features that I always felt was missing from the iPhone was the ability to synchronize notes between Exchange/Outlook and the iPhone. I keep all kinds of small notes on my iPhone and separately on my Exchange Server through my Outlook client software. These notes are important and I find that I need them at times when the phone is handy, but not a computer. One example of this, is needing my frequent flyer number at an airport counter. I have this information in my Outlook notes, but not on the iPhone. That was the case until the new 3.0 release of the iPhone software.

New functionality in the iPhone 3.0 software eliminates this hassle, albeit not perfectly. It now synchronizes the notes application on the phone with notes on your Outlook client, but only when the phone is physically connected to the machine with the Outlook software. It does not synchronize over the air like it does with email and contacts. This is an unfortunate limitation, but one that I will live with. To me, this was one of the most pleasant surprises of the new 3.0 software.

I’ve upgraded my iPhone 3G to the new 3.0 version of the operating system and am very happy with the new improved software. I will write about the various improvements over a couple entries into this blog.

One improvement which is not getting a lot of attention is the built in Stocks application. This application allows you to track a portfolio of stocks. You simply look up the symbols and save it to the interface of the application. Figure 1 shows a sample portfolio with Ford Motors (F) highlighted. The upper part of the interface shows the stocks in your portfolio and their current prices (delayed 20 minutes.) You can press your finger on the colored area that shows the change in price and it will show you the percent change. This has always been the case, but the new software gives you an additional level of information. If you press a second time, you get the market capitalization of the stock.

Fig1. Stocks Base	Fig 2. Stocks News	Fig 3. Stocks Summary

The bottom portion of the screen shows a graph of the selected stock’s progress. You can select various time periods by pressing on “1d,” for today, “1w” for a week and continue increasing the time period as necessary by pressing the appropriate time period button. The new software adds the ability to scroll the entire graph region with your finger to obtain news on the selected stock. Figure 2 shows news for Ford.

Another scroll  to the right will display a summary screen on the stock. The summary screen shows the opening price, high, low,  volume, highs and market capitalization of the company. This is a very handy addition since getting this information in the past  required going to Yahoo! Finance. Figure 3 shows the summary screen.

Perhaps the most interesting improvement is the new landscape mode of the application. If you flip your iPhone (or Touch) on its side, you will see an enhanced graph of the price of the stock over time. You can then press your finger down on the display and move it to the left  or right on the display to get the price at any given point in the graph. The image to the left shows the graph with a vertical line through it showing the price at that point. That vertical line represents where my finger was on the screen when the screen was captured. If you use two fingers and spread them in opposite directions, you can  get the change in price for any period of time. The image below and to the right shows a range with a drop in value of 3.13% for Ford’s stock.

You can see the other stocks in your portfolio and stock indexes, by moving your finger along the top of the graph (where the symbol and date is displayed) to the right or left and the graph will change to the next or previous stock or index in your portfolio.

The functionality that this little application offers is just incredible. Just about the only improvement that you could ask for is real-time quotes. If that happens, then the iPhone will become and indispensible tool for anyone trading stocks seriously. My congratulations go to the developers of this handy tool. Bravo!

It is the end of an era; analog television broadcasts are now a thing of the past. As of this last Friday, the TV networks stopped broadcasting on the analog frequencies and are now only broadcasting in digital high definition on a different frequency. This has rendered millions of television sets useless. The deadline for this switch was delayed from February of this year to June 12th. It is now time to upgrade to a better set, pay for cable services (which will still support your television set through the cable input connector) or purchase a conversion box.

For the many who were probably caught unprepared for this, the FCC has established a hotline staffed by 4,000 operators to help you, You can call: 1-888-CALL-FCC. Alternatively, you can visit this government website: http://www.dtv.gov/

Does anyone remember analog cell phones, Betamax, VHS, LP record players, tape players, or heaven forbid, 8-Track players? If you do, you probably own a Sony Walkman tape player and need to upgrade to an iPod Touch. Get with it.

Many of you received wonderful Christmas gifts like digital cameras and computers. You may be wondering what to do with the thousands of pictures you plan on taking and storing for future generations. The laptop or desktop computer will allow you to store a couple thousand pictures before you run out of space. You should also have a plan in place for maintaining a backup of all those pictures. (A friend of mine lost several years worth of family pictures when his computer’s hard drive failed.)

The answer to ever growing storage needs is an external hard drive. Western Digital makes a very good 1 Terabyte drive, with USB 2.0 connections that typically sells for under $200. This drive has enough space for over 200,000 photographs, or 1,000 compressed movies. My recommendation is that you buy two identical drives and keep two copies of everything. You might even want to keep one drive at a remote location and only bring it home to keep it up-to-date.

Think about it–those pictures of your loved ones are definitely worth $400. If you are a patient shopper, you can even find the drives for about $149. The good news is that they work with both PCs and Apple computers.

It is amazing to me how far Sony has fallen from the dominance that it once had in consumer electronics. In the 1980s and 90s, Sony’s Walkman and Discman were must-have toys. Everyone that I knew, either had one or wanted one. If instead, you preferred large "boom boxes" that could drown out all other sounds within half a city block, Sony made those too.

Apple is the new Sony when it comes to portable music devices. Sony lost its dominance by allowing Apple to be hipper and to deliver a better music experience. It is doubtful that Sony can dethrone Apple any time soon. Apple appears to have learned from Sony’s folly and competes with itself by introducing new more exciting products each year–something that Sony did not do.

When Sony achieved some attention in the computer business, it sold expensive desktops and notebooks called VAIOs. This acronym stood for Video Audio Integrated Operation. I thought it was an excellent idea. Sony was going to make the PC an exciting platform for audio and video. This acronym was introduced in 1998, years ahead of the PC becoming a multimedia platform. Here, Sony would have had the lead and perhaps dominance if it were not for the fact that the machines were and continue to be prohibitively expensive. You can get a PC or notebook with equivalent specifications for a third to a half what Sony charges.

It seems that Sony is abandoning the original meaning of VAIO. They are now saying that it means, Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer. This new meaning will be applied to a new level of software and product integration. Who knows, maybe there is hope for Sony still? It will undoubtedly be difficult for them to catch up to Dell, HP, Lenovo and Acer in terms of products and market penetration. They have also expressed their unwillingness to compete in the netbook area where Asus and Acer are now dominating.

The Sony record on video is also haphazard. It lost the Betamax vs VHS format war in the mid 80s. This in spite of the fact that Betamax was introduced one year before VHS and was a superior format. The HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray format war has been won by Sony, but the format has not caught on. The high price and market dominance of DVDs have stalled Sony’s efforts in this market. The fact that you can purchase a DVD player with technology that scales the video to high definition levels for under $50 has certainly had an impact on Blu-Ray sales.

Likewise, Sony failed to anticipate the popularity of flat-screen televisions. It was so dominant with the Sony Trinitron TVs, that it ignored the demand for the newer technologies. It entered the market late and was forced to repackage Samsung LCDs with the Sony logo on it. When they did this, the market was dominated by Sharp–a company that was always known in the past as a tiny, low-quality competitor. Now, Sony is faced with many competitors that have better or equal products for half the cost of an equivalent Sony product.

The last consumer oriented segment that Sony is losing is the game machine market. Sony got into this market late, but managed to beat out many very successful competitors with its PlayStation (1994) and PlayStation 2 product lines. These game machines were the first to exceed sales of 100 million units. Unfortunately for Sony, it now has two very significant competitors in this market. Microsoft has entered the market with its Xbox and Xbox 360 product and Nintendo has entered the market with a low cost game machine called the Wii. Sony is getting squeezed from the bottom by the Wii and is getting pressured by Microsoft to lower the price of the PlayStation 3. Sony is in a very difficult position. The inclusion of Blu-Ray in the PlayStation 3 helped it win the format war with HD-DVD, but makes it difficult for the game machine to be competitive with Microsoft and Nintendo. We will see how this works itself out in the next year.

So I go back to the title of this post, Sony, what happened to you? How could you be dominant in so many consumer electronics product categories and lose on almost all counts? What will you do to regain your greatness? Maybe you should merge with Apple and have Steve Jobs direct your efforts.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

Those of you who have been reading this blog know that I have become a big fan of the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G software. The base software on these devices is a remarkable feat of software engineering. There is no denying this–especially after you have used Windows Mobile on a phone or some of the other music players that are available.

As you might expect, all is not perfect–it never is. Apple has demonstrated remarkable greed with the release of the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G. One example of this is that many of the cables that worked with previous iPods do not work with the new iPod Touch or iPhone. These include car chargers and USB docking stations not sold or licensed by Apple. The iPod Touch and iPhone do not have a way of outputting video to a TV set without an Apple purchased cabled that plugs into the flat connector at the bottom of the unit. The standard AV mini plug only outputs audio. Previous iPod generations sent audio and video out through the jack. The cables were swapped around to encourage people to pay extra for the Apple branded cable. The new setup apparently checks for some Apple chip or signal and requires the Apple part. This is just greedy on Apple’s part.

The cable situation made a video cable that I owned, a car charger and travel charger obsolete. Needless to say, I am not happy about this. Since I have owned several iPods over the years, I also own a Bose SoundDock for listening to music in my kitchen and dining area. It also has served as a charger for the kids iPods and my wife’s iPod. Unfortunately, the new iPhone will not charge on the Bose device. It says that it is not a compatible device. This is one of the premier third party products for the iPod line and Apple has now made it less useful to me. It can play music from my iPhone, but will not charge. Again, this is Apple greed.

One would think that Apple would not have made the Bose SoundDock user base experience any problems, since they now resell the dock on their web site. Perhaps newer models do not experience the issues that I am experiencing. These signs of Apple greed will make me think twice about further purchases from the company.

Other issues that I have experienced with the iPhone include poor data connectivity and no signal for calling. At seemingly random times, I cannot access web sites or my e-mail through the device. It often seems that it is not the connections, but instead some sort of DNS resolution issue. DNS resolution is when a server is called upon to convert a web site address like alonso.com to the numeric address for the server on which it resides. The “no signal” issue has plagued the iPhone from the very first day that I had it. I will get a message that there is no signal and will need to restart the device for it to find a signal. This is reminiscent of restarting a Windows PC that is running a bit slowly.

Although every issue I’ve mentioned so far takes away from what could otherwise be a perfect product, the one issue that really rankles me the most is that you cannot buy applications from anyone other than Apple. This was presumably done to guarantee the quality of the applications. I can tell you that having downloaded dozens of applications (some of which I have removed now) most of them are full of bugs and crash all the time. I use the New York Times application to read articles from the paper on-line and have to load it at least four times to get through a lengthy article. It continually crashes without any error message. Apple is not delivering a quality experience with the third party software. Unlike music which you can buy from Apple or from any third party and then install on your iPod with the iTunes software, the applications have to purchased and downloaded from Apple. This give Apple the ability to prohibit certain types of applications. One application that was released on the Apple store–presumably by mistake–called Netshare was removed and has not been seen since. It enables an iPhone 3G owner to share the 3G connection using WiFi so that a laptop can connect to the Internet through the iPhone. I managed to get a copy while it was listed, but now have no way up getting upgrades. This is horrible market control and should be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

Now it is up to you to decide whether you can live with Apple’s greed and ridiculous control.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting