The PhoneBoy Blog

Living Mobile and the Post-PC Era

PhoneBoy — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:10:37 +0000

I’m just going to come right out and say it: most of my personal computing is done on a mobile device. A mobile device being a tablet or a phone either with WiFi or some kind of mobile Internet connection. This is despite being surrounded by more conventional laptop and desktop computers. Note this does not count my work-related use of computers, which, unfortunately, is still tied to a more conventional laptop.

It’s hard to know when the tipping point happened for me. Likely when I started getting more capable smartphones from Nokia, whom employed me at the time. Surely I had experienced the various Communicator-style devices (I had a 9210, a 9300, and a 9500). However, the two most pivotal devices for me: The Nokia E70 and the Nokia N95, which is the middle of 2006. I still have (and occasionally even use) the Nokia N95, even though by today’s standards, it’s only marginally more functional than a featurephone.

Of course in those days, Smartphones were not entirely accesible to the masses. Sure, they were obtainable in the sense you could go to any operator and buy one. But then what? Most people had no clue how to use them. Why else do you think the US operators had no problem selling unlimited data packages? Because no one was really using them (except for a few of us).

Then something changed: the iPhone came on the scene. While the first iteration of the iPhone OS (now called iOS) was arguably less functional than smartphones of the day, it quickly became the smartphone that everyone in the developed world wanted. It raised the bar for what the user experience should be on a phone.

Then Google-backed Android came on the scene and, after a few iterations, became a credible alternative to the iPhone. Microsoft, being a bit late to the party, completely redoes their mobile operating system. Nokia’s Symbian, the long-time leader in the smarphone space, could not keep up with the level of innovation Google and Apple were cranking out and, eventually, Nokia announced their plans to sunset the operating system and go with Windows Mobile. RIM, maker of the Blackberry handsets, have also struggled to keep pace and have stagnated.

It’s pretty clear to most industry observers (and even lay-people) that Android and iOS are the dominant phone operating systems. But it’s more than that: it’s now mobile computing. The same popular smartphone operating systems are now available in a different form factor device: tablets. And, as a number of industry analysts are saying, tablets are the new personal computers.

Apple led the way again here by introducing the iPad, using the same OS used on the insanely popular iPhone. A number of other hardware manufacturers have tried (and failed) to duplicate the success that Apple has had with the iPad using Android. The only manufacturer having any success is Amazon, who introduced the Kindle Fire at the end of 2011. Even their numbers are anemic compared to what Apple sells, but they have something the other tablet makers don’t have: a thriving ecosystem on which to use the device. Remember, Amazon sells all kinds of digital goods in much the same way Apple sells them through iTunes and the App Store.

Why do people prefer to use mobile devices rather than traditional computers? For me, it’s always been: because the device is always with me and connects me to what matters most. Even if it’s not a full experience, it’s often good enough.

For other people, it’s that these mobile devices are easier to use than traditional PCs. This is partially due to the easier-to-use touch interfaces on the current generation smartphones and tablets. There is also less for the average person to “screw up” as well, making for a less intimidating experience.

For another class of people, it’s because they can’t afford the PC and everything it takes to make it operate. This is certainly true in less affluent nations, such as Nigeria.

I had an interesting conversation over Twitter with Yomi Adegboye AKA Mister Mobility (he’s well worth following at @Mister_Mobility). It confirmed this hypothesis. Of course, during the 10 years I worked at Nokia, I took every opportunity to read up on everything Nokia was doing, including how they were developing phones for places like India and Africa. My hypothesis was already well informed.

In these less affluent nations, many people don’t even have electricity. Or if they do, it is supplied by a generator of some sort. Wired phone service may or may not exist (if it does, it is surely expensive for voice service, much less data service). The infrastructure needed to operate a PC may be entirely out of reach.

Meanwhile, while even a basic mobile phone is out of reach for some, that, a SIM card, and an occasional source of power is all one needs to compute and stay connected. For these folks, their mobile phone is their only computing device. Not because they prefer it, but because that’s what they are able to obtain.

There is no doubt in my mind that computing is going mobile. Will more traditional computers go away? While I expect my children won’t even need to own a traditional computer when they are young adults, the traditional computer will likely never go away entirely.

There is always going to be a need for bigger screens and more horsepower than you can pack into a device that lives in your pocket. Especially by people who generate large amounts of content. Will that be the norm for the average person, however? No.

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Where Has All My Blogging Gone?

PhoneBoy — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:55:39 +0000

There’s been an interesting debate going on about the state of blogging lately. Jeremiah Owyang kicked off the most recent debate when he declared The Golden Age of Blogging Is Over in where he says that at least the tech blogosphere is maturing and changing as the result of a number of factors.

The funny thing about blogging is that it’s a new name for something I’ve been doing for 15 years or so: putting content on a website for other people to use and comment on. I am best known for a series of Frequently Asked Questions I wrote about the Check Point firewall products over a period of about 8 years. After that, I changed my focus to something more fitting to my nickname: telecoms, VoIP, mobile phones, gadgets, etc.

Blogging, both for myself and others, became a real serious business. That is the main point of Owyang’s piece, really. It was a business I thought I wanted to be in at one time, which is why I decided to join Creative Webblogging back in the day. I went through a period of time where I was blogging daily. Multiple times a day, in fact. I generated a lot of content. Both on my own site and for several of the blogs for Creative Weblogging.

During that time, I saw a lot of the same ideas over and over again, hashed and rehashed. Both in the products I was covering and the people talking about them. It’s not called an echo chamber for nothing and I simply got tired of contributing to it. The money I was making was not commensurate with the effort required to generate content. The payoff simply wasn’t there.

I also experienced a significant change to my personal situation in 2008 related to my job at Nokia. The end result is that I now work for Check Point Software, the company my personal brand has been most tied to over the years. This necessitated a change in focus for me–back to the very thing I was best known for, albeit with the backing and support of Check Point.

While I have a number of roles at Check Point, the most visible one is being an advocate for Check Point in the “social media” space. I created our Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ presence and actively participate there. I answer questions on two externally run forums about Check Point proudcts and services.

That isn’t to say I haven’t blogged about VoIP, telecom, mobile phones and the like. I occasionally blog about my employer as well. That said, I do not feel the need to say something on my blog every day. I am a lot more deliberate about what I decide to blog about and when. It has to be something unique or something I can provide a unique insight, perspective, and opinion on (to borrow a phrase from Andy Abramson).

I tend to express quick thoughts about a number of things on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and others. Thoughts that, some time ago, I would have turned into a blog piece. Is that the right approach? I’m not sure.

The one thing I do miss from the earlier years was the sense of community we had. While we independently put our words out there for all to see, we did exchange and play off each other’s ideas. That was fun. There is some of that going on today on Twitter, etc., but it’s not the same.

Rest assured, I will continue to provide my unique insight, perspective, and opinion. I may not do it as often as I used to on as many things as I used to, but you can be assured when I do, I’ve got something worth reading about something worth knowing about.

Nokia Launching Lumia 710 on T-Mobile USA, Won’t Kickstart WP7 Sales

PhoneBoy — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:45:50 +0000

It’s no secret that a number of outlets are reporting that the Nokia Lumia 710 will launch on T-Mobile USA sometime in January. This phone is one of two devices Nokia has produced with Windows Phone 7 on it (the other being the higher-end Lumia 800), which were initially made available outside the US in November.

Being an ex-Nokia employee for nearly 3 years now, and not being among the smartphone reviewing elite that companies regularly send handsets to for view, I haven’t seen this device up close and personal yet. That said I’ve heard and read a number of reviews of the device that suggest that it is a respectable device for the price point. Having used Nokia handsets for more than a decade, I have no reason to doubt those assessments.
The chatter I’ve seen on Twitter suggests people are excited about Nokia’s return to the US smartphone market, even if it is on the weakest of the largest carriers and not their “best” Windows Phone device they have. You have to start somewhere, I suppose.

I read an interesting statement on The Verge about how T-Mobile is positioning the Lumia 710 against other smartphones: “against first-time smartphone buyers.” In other words, they are betting the Lumia 710 will be big among people buying smartphones for the first time.

It’s great that Nokia’s getting back in the US Smartphone game with the Lumia 710, but let’s face it: the real barrier to adoption isn’t the price point of the handset itself, it’s the cost of the monthly service plan required to operate it.

If you wanted an iPhone and hadn’t yet bought one, you can get the 3GS for free on a two year agreement with AT&T. The iPhone 4 can be had on Verizon and AT&T for $99 with a two year agreement. You can find Android handsets at similar price points on all operators.

Handset cost for a subsidized smartphone is really not that much of an issue. It’s a one-time cost most people can absorb or save their pennies for. The much harder pill to swallow is the additional $15-$30 per line per month (in addition to a $40 voice plan) that is required when you buy a smartphone from a major US carrier. That’s a price you have to pay even if you choose to pay full price for the handset.

Until the operators restructure their service offers to make the overall cost operating a smartphone on their network cheaper, I don’t expect to see a massive uptick in smartphone adoption–here in the US or anywhere else.

And as for Nokia kick starting Windows Phone 7 sales, I doubt it. They’ll bring in some incremental improvements to their overall market share numbers, but I don’t see this phone on the weakest of the four national networks being the one that breaks open the market for Windows Phone 7.

Comments

18 December 2011, Coldstreams.com by Edward Mitchell » Blog Archive » What if smartphones are mostly for personal pleasure and not business? writes: [...] Nokia Launching Lumia 710 on T-Mobile USA, Won’t Kickstart WP7 Sales (phoneboy.com) [...]
19 December 2011, Ed writes: I agree completely with so your last sentence.
20 December 2011, Appisaurus writes: Well, the Nokia Lumia 710 offers great connectivity capabilities, including WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as great turn-by-turn sat nav with spoken directions with Nokia Drive which is not really bad. Well see how this will turn out.

Accell UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Video and Audio Adapter

PhoneBoy — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:05:29 +0000

Every laptop comes with some method for hooking up to a computer monitor. On PC laptops, it’s a VGA connector. On Macs, it’s whatever version of DisplayPort Apple is using these days. Some might have HDMI ports–heck, phones and tablets certainly do.

Getting a computer hooked up to a modern TV is not nearly the ordeal it used to be. My Visio has a VGA plug on it, making it really easy to hook up to any computer. So one wonder why you might need a device like the UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Adapter from Accell?

The problem with VGA: it’s an analog connection which means you can’t play back any videos with DRM. Also the video may not be as crisp and clear as you might get with a digital connection. You also would need a separate connection for audio. You might also not have a TV with VGA. Or, if you have one of those really thin laptops, no video output ports at all!
This USB 2.0 adapter solves that problem. Every modern computer has at least one USB port (whether it’s free or not is, admittedly, another matter). The device will work with any PC or Mac and includes a driver disc. Unfortunately, my PC laptop has no optical drive, so I opted for downloading them from the provided URL–interestingly not Accell’s site.

I tested the adapter, which was provided to me as part of this review, using a Lenovo X201 laptop and my 40″ Visio TV. Once I loaded the drivers and plugged in the adapter into my laptop, my big screen was now a monitor that Windows could mirror or extend my desktop to. I played a few videos to test the adapter and everything worked as expected.

You can get a UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Adapter from Amazon or other places for $99.99.

Comments

10 December 2011, Accell UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Video and Audio Adapter | Vga Port writes: [...] more: Accell UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Video and Audio Adapter Uncategorizedapple, computer-hooked, display, hdmi, laptop-comes, vga, whatever-version [...]
10 December 2011, You've been Stumbled! writes: [...] You've been Stumbled! [...]

Path: Social Networking Gone Micro

PhoneBoy — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:23:08 +0000

Every once in a while, a new app comes along that provides a fresh approach to something. For me, Path is doing this for Social Networking. Instead of encouraging to share with as many as possible, it’s encouraging me to share more to fewer people.

According to Path’s website, path is a smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love. It actually began its life about a year ago as a photo sharing service similar to Instagram with one major limitation: you can only share with a limited number of people. This started out as 50 but was increased to 150. Compare 150 friends with Facebook’s limit of 5000 or Twitter’s unlimited.

From a feature standpoint, there is nothing new in Path. It’s an Android and iPhone app where you can share your thoughts, photos, where you’re at, who you’re with, and what you’re listening to. Rather than being called a status update, though, it’s called a moment. Aside from sharing to your friends in Path, you can also share individual moments with your Twitter or Facebook friends and check-in on Foursquare. You can also be completely private, if you prefer, and show a moment to absolutely no one.

One unique feature I haven’t seen on any app so far is the ability to do an “awake/sleep” post. It automatically posts an “awake” or “sleep” message with time, location (specific to neighborood.city), temperature, and if you’re waking up, how long you slept. It’s a nice touch.

Finding friends is pretty simple. You can use your address book, your Facebook contacts, friends of friends, or just a regular search box. Select whom you want to share your path with. If they confirm you as a friend, you will be able to access each other’s path and your activities will appear in each other’s timeline.

The timeline view is well done. Scrolling is quick and easy. You can see how many people saw a particular moment (and who). You can react to a moment with one of five emoticons: happy, laugh, surprise, sad, or love. You can post a comment of your own. You can see when people become friends with one another.

The iPhone and Android applications are nearly identical, though the Android version is missing a couple features: the ability to share on posts on Twitter and utilize Instragram-like photo filters. Edit: Version 2.0.2 of Path on Android adds support for sharing posts on Twitter.

As I said, none of this is new. Many social media applications do all of these things. Arguably, these things can be done better on existing, well-established platforms.

This isn’t about features, though. It’s about the experience. The experience reminds me of something I used long ago on my Nokia S60 phones–Jaiku. Jaiku had at least some of these features and was tied to a Nokia S60 handset. As far as a social networks go, it had a very intimate feel.

Path definitely has that same intimate feel. By keeping the service phone-only and not providing the ability to share other things like web pages, or allowing you to import content from other services, you really only see moments that people make a conscious effort to share on the service. This keeps the noise relatively low. The upper limit on the number of friend forces you to be a little more choosy about whom you want to be friends with.

I really like Path. It’s clearly not for everyone as you have to have an iPhone or Android device to even use the service. That said, it provides me a new, fun way to share my life with others and be a part of other people’s lives. I wish there was an iPad version of the app, but that’s my only serious complaint. You can download it from the respective App Stores for Android and iOS:

My Review of the Amazon Kindle Fire

PhoneBoy — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 07:23:38 +0000

I like my iPad 2. I really do. While it’s not perfect, I have a significant investment in the Apple iTunes universe. I could get it with WiFi and 3G. It does most of what I need. In many ways, it is the replacement for my personal computer, even if it does have some restrictions.

So, one wonders, why did I decide to spend a couple hundred more dollars and buy a Kindle Fire? Especially for a device like the iPad, is tied to an ecosystem I am not heavily invested in?

A number of reasons. First of all, the price tag. $199 is quite compelling. It’s the kind of thing I see more people buying than an iPad, which has a minimum entry price of $499. It’s smaller than an iPad: 7 inches instead of 10, which will affect how one might use the device. Third, it is tied to a well-established company with nearly as compelling of an ecosystem as Apple. I have no doubt Amazon will introduce other Kindle Fire-type devices in the future and the first generation Kindle Fire will improve with additional software updates.

So how does the Kindle Fire measure up? Hit the break for my thoughts.

The Hardware

I thought Apple had a pretty minimal hardware design on the iPad with only a volume rocker, a power button, a mute switch, a headphone jack, and the ever-present iPod/iPhone connector. Amazon takes it a step further by eliminating all buttons on the Kindle Fire except for the power, a MicroUSB port, and a headphone jack. This undoubtedly keeps the cost down, but means you have to use the touchscreen for changing the volume, which some reviewers have pointed out may be problematic.

The Kindle Fire, while having a smaller screen, is also a little thicker (11.5mm versus 8.8mm on the iPad 2) and has a plastic back with Kindle embossed in the back rather than the solid aluminium back of the iPad 2. It does have speakers, like the iPad 2, as well as WiFi. No Bluetooth or 3G modem on the Kindle Fire. It also only has 8GB of internal storage (of which about 6GB can be used for applications and content), whereas even the smallest iPad 2 has 16GB (with about 14GB usable).

One advantage the iPad 2 has is that with a 10 inch screen, there is a lot of surface area for battery. Since the Kindle Fire is smaller, there is considerably less surface area for battery. That said, it’s much easier to hold a Fire in one hand. Reports from various reviews are the Fire gets roughly half the battery life of an iPad 2 (5 hours versus 10). I haven’t had a chance to test this yet.

The device comes with a MicroUSB charger. While you can charge using a regular MicroUSB cable connected to a computer,wage Fire will charge considerably slower than if you use the included charger. This is similar to the iPad. The main reason: you need more power to charge those big batteries in a reasonable amount of time. A typical USB port on a computer just won’t cut it. In either case, the power button lights up amber to indicate it is charging and not yet fully charged.

People have complained they’ve accidentally hit the power button at the bottom of the device. I didn’t that find that to be an issie. Theoretically, you can rotate the device so the button is at the top and the software adjusts–at least the built-in apps do. Not all the third party apps do.

While the screen on the Kindle is reported to be “chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, making it extra durable and resistant to accidental bumps and scrapes,” you might want to get a Kindle cover anyway. Fortunately there is a huge assortment of Kindle Covers available. Unfortunately, they aren’t much cheaper than their iPad counterparts.

The Software

The Fire is an Android-based tablet, but you may not necessarily know it by looking at it. That’s kind of the point. For most people, it is just a device that let’s them surf the web and consume content from Amazon. The fact it’s an Android device is likely only of interest to a few people.

When you pull it out of the box and power it up, the device asks you about what WiFi access point you want to connect to and not a whole lot else. The device comes activated right in the box. Not so great since the box it ships in says Kindle Fire right on it. Easy to open–it comes in Amazon’s “Frustration Free” packaging–and easy to steal off your doorstep. Fortunately, I was home when it arrived so it didn’t stay on my doorstep long.

The device presented itself with a carousel with all of the apps and content on your device. Scrolling through the content is fairly easy. You can also tap different sections along the top to access your newsstand (magazines, newspapers), books, music, video, documents, applications, and the web browser. There are also shelves you can put your favorite items on by simply holding down on the item in the carousel and selecting Add to Favorites. This interface is similar to coverflow in iTunes, but unique and relatively straightforward to use.

For the different content areas, there is a clear distinction between what is stored in Amazon’s Cloud and what is stored on your local device. For example, the Fire immediately saw all 4000 tracks I uploaded to Amazon’s Cloud Storage and showed me every app I had previously purchased with the Amazon App Store on my Nexus One. While pretty much all content can be streamed from Amazon’s cloud, apps must be locally installed in order to run.

The device has, as you would expect, an on-screen keyboard. It is relatively easy to use, given the device’s small form factor, but the spacebar is widely criticized as being way too small. After a few instances of typing several words separated by dots, I completely agree.

Because the device has no buttons other than the power button, you also have to use the touch screen in order to get to what would be the home, menu, back buttons on a traditional Android device. When you’re in an app, you will see a tiny bar with a carat in the middle of it (or you can touch the screen to see it). From there you can see a home, back, menu, and search button you might find on an Android device.

One unique and somewhat controversial piece of software on the Fire is the web browser called Silk. It is an “accelerated” browser in the sense that it uses the cloud to help render and deliver some of the content to your device. The problem is: it sends some information to Amazon about your browsing habits, though it turns out it’s pretty minimal. Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation was generally satisfied with the privacy of Amazon’s Silk browser. Reports are that in bandwidth constrained situations, it does actually improve things, but on my WiFi at home, it’s about as fast as my iPad at rendering pages.

One other bonus of the browser: it supports Flash. I played a few Flash movies on various websites and found the performance reasonable. This makes more websites accessible but even Adobe is dropping flash support for mobile devices, so it’s really only a temporary situation.

Applications for the device can be purchased from Amazon’s App Store, which is a bit more curated version of Google’s Marketplace. You won’t find every app there, but you will be able to find a lot of most common ones. Amazon also has a “free app of the day” where they make a paid app available for free for 24 hours. I’ve picked up some neat apps that way.

One thing I found somewhat disturbing about the Kindle Fire was how it handled software updates. I knew between the time I ordered the Kindle Fire and the time it arrived, Amazon released a new firmware for the device, so I was expecting a new software version to be available. What I wasn’t expecting is that shortly after I pushed the power button to turn of the screen, my device began to update on its own without warning!

I have two thoughts on this particular behavior: there are some users who would love to beta test updates. Then there are those whom will never choose to update, even if you give them a choice to do so. The device assumes you are one of the latter, which given this is aimed at a general consumer, is probably a safe assumption. I’m not sure how I feel about my device automatically updating on its own, but at least it chose to do it when I was theoretically not using the device. There are users who I’m sure would like some warning their device is about to be updated.

Given that the device comes with a 30 day trial of Amazon Prime, which activated shortly after I turned on the Kindle Fire, I checked out the streaming content available. There’s about 10,000 available for streaming (movies, TV shows, documentaries, etc) and it plays quite nicely on my home WiFi.

My general feeling on the software is that, while not as polished overall as iOS, it is certainly better than your typical Android distribution. With Amazon’s compelling ecosystem, Amazon has created the first real competitor to the iPad in the Kindle Fire.

Families and the Fire

One thing people are often tempted to do with devices like the iPad or Fire is share them amongst family members. I know any time I want to bring out my iPad, my kids beg to play with it.

The problem is that neither the iPad or the Fire were designed to be multi-user devices. There is one set of data, and only one set of data on the device. All those racy ebooks you bought on Amazon? R-rated movies you bought from Amazon Video? Also available on your Fire. And no way to prevent it short of deleting the books from your library, which means you have to repurchase them.

All content you’ve ever looked at is in the carousel, which makes it really easy to find stuff you’ve recently been looking at: Apps, Videos, Web Pages, and more. Unfortunately, if you’ve been reading one of those racy books you don’t want your kids to see, not go great. While some items can be cleaned out of the carousel (Apps, Videos, and Web pages can be cleared out via settings), not everything can and it’d be nice if there was a setting to just not put stuff there. Edit 22 December 2011: In the 6.2.1 release of the firmware, you can now tap and hold down on items in the carousel and manually remove them.

Even Apple gives you some rudimentary controls over content that kids might be able to view or purchase. You can disable access to Safari, the Camera, YouTube, iTunes, and Installing/Deleting apps. You can restrict changes to certain settings, and only permit movies, TV shows, and Apps to those rated below a certain value. You can disable in-app purchases entirely and/or require a password for all purchases. It’s not quite as granular as I’d like–for example I’d like to disable applications individually–but it’s at least something.

The parental controls on the Fire are limited to restricting in-app purchases with a pin. That’s useful, but why not purchases in general? On the plus side, unlike Apple, Amazon emails me right away when something is bought so I can find out if my kids bought something, so it might be a good lesson in responsibility for my kids. Edit 22 December 2011: There is also now a setting in the 6.2.1 firmware to only allow WiFi to be enabled with a password. This effectively restricts access to any purchases and the Internet, but it’s a relatively crude level of control and does nothing to restrict access to content already on the device.

While I am a firm believer that technical parental controls like these are no substitute for proper parental oversight, there’s zero excuse for not providing at least something. That said, a number of the “parental control” problems are addressed by using a free launcher application called Kids Place. You specify the apps that the children can launch from a traditional icon grid. It blocks Marketplace access. It can even force the device into Airplane mode (i.e. turn off WiFi). All other access is protected with a 4-digit PIN protected. It’s not perfect, ~~and not completely intuitive to set up,~~ but it addresses my major complaints.

I’ve read some complaints from people about filtering web access to only kid-friendly content. While I personally handle that on my local WiFi, maybe it’s something Amazon can offer as part of their SILK browser, maybe as a separate paid service (or something included as part of Amazon Prime)?

Customizing the Fire

Because Amazon is using Android on the Kindle Fire (specifically version 2.3), and they’ve not gone to great lengths to lock down the device in the same way Apple has done with the iPhone and iPad, the device has a much greater potential for customization than the iPad. Shortly after the Fire began shipping, Amazon published the source code, which they are required to do as a result of various Open Source licenses in Android. This doesn’t mean their entire software stack is published, but enough that someone could take the Kindle Fire and repurpose it as a general Android tablet. People also figured out how to root the device right away, which is the first step in installing custom firmware.

Even if you’re generally happy with the Fire as-is, maybe you want a bigger selection of apps than is available on the Amazon App Store? Because it is running Android and the ability to install third party apps is supported (touch the gear in the top right, touching More, then Device and enabling the Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources), you can do that. You can download applications from the web or copy them onto your device by connecting your device to a computer with a MicroUSB cable, mounting the device as a USB drive, and copy the files that way.

If you want to want the various Google apps on your Fire (Gmail, Google Maps, etc), including installing the Android Marketplace, it’s a little more complicated than that. You have to do a series of non-trivial steps that most people likely won’t bother to do (I didn’t) but if you simply must have your Google Marketplace apps on your Fire, you can. Edit 22 December 2011: If you let your Kindle Fire upgrade to version 6.2.1, the easy one-click root methods won’t work.

The Verdict

The Kindle Fire is 90% of an iPad 2 for 40% of the cost. It’s a great balance between the curated experience of iOS and the open, free-for-all, highly customizable Android experience. If you haven’t bought an iPad yet and you mostly consume content, this is the tablet for you.

Unfortunately for me, as I said above, I am not as heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem. I only watch the occasional movie from Amazon. I buy most of my music from iTunes. And I have a considerable investment in iPhone and iPad applications, many of which do not have Kindle Fire (or even Android) equivalents. I also do not necessarily trust that “the cloud” will be there when I need it–especially over WiFi. That’s why I bought an iPad 2 with 64GB and 3G.

More content, more storage (perhaps a MicroSD slot), and more connectivity options (3G, Bluetooth) would go a long way towards making the Fire a more compelling offering for me. That said, I believe the Kindle Fire has a bright future and will provide Apple some real competition against the iPad in a way that no other vendor has been able to do to date.

Comments

9 December 2011, Kindle Fire’s lack of parental controls raises concerns — Tech News and Analysis writes: [...] http://phoneboy.com/3428/my-review-of-the-amazon-kindle-fire Reply or Share [...]

Old FireWall-1 Nostalga

PhoneBoy — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 06:56:28 +0000

Every once in a while, I will either run into someone who remembers the old FAQ site I used to run here about Check Point FireWall-1 or I will get a fan letter about it. Both have happened this week.

I’m going to tell you a little secret about that old site. I really didn’t know all that much about Check Point, especially when I started doing it. I just wrote down what I learned both from my own experience and others. More importantly: I shared it.

Obviously doing the site helped me to learn the product back in the day. It also helped countless others and I do appreciate all the feedback I get from folks about it. I really do.

Anyway, a while back, I decided, for various reasons, to put up an old version of my FireWall-1 FAQ up on a hidden page to take a couple of screenshots. By posting a link here, decided to make it available again by posting a note about it here. It is for nostalgia purposes only, given that most of the information is older than many people’s IT careers (circa 2000). Also, links are likely to be broken, etc.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy the walk down memory lane…

My Thoughts on iOS 5

PhoneBoy — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 06:40:28 +0000

I figured I’d let some of the hoopla die down a bit before I offered my thoughts on Apple’s latest iteration of their mobile OS: iOS 5. It was officially released to the world on 12 October 2011 via iTunes, though the so-called “Golden Master” was released to developers (and consequently on Bittorrent) a week before.

The bottom line: if you have an unjailbroken iPhone 3GS or later: you should definitely upgrade. If you’ve dipped your toes in the jailbreak waters or, worse yet, used Ultrasn0w to unlock, you should likely avoid it unless you research very carefully.

I haven’t done a full analysis of the new features, but I can tell you what I’ve noticed. Note this is on an iPhone 3GS and an iPad 2. Your mileage may vary.

Notifications

Honestly, this was seriously broken before iOS 5. Popups are not an effective way of handling things. Especially for all applications. Now most notifications live in a tray that you pull down from the top, very similar to how it works in Android. You can configure what apps will show there and in what order. I like it better than how Android does it, though, because I get more information to boot and can easily clear individual application notifications. You can also configure which applications use the more traditional popup notifications versus the ones that live in the notification tray.

The Lock Screen

In addition to the notification tray, missed call and text notifications appear on your lock screen. There’s also a “camera” button that I’ve seen appear as well so you can activate the camera without unlocking. That said, I cannot get this to appear consistently on the lock screen.

The Camera App

The camera app has been improved with auto-focus and auto-exposure lock. You can also do minor photo editing: cropping, red-eye removal, an “auto-enhance” mode, and photo rotation. Not nearly as full featured as, say, Camera+ (which is still a great app) but good enough for me to revert back to the standard Camera app for most of my day-to-day use.

iCloud

Finally it is now possible to own and activate an iPhone, iPod Touch, or an iPad without a computer. This is due, in large part, to iCloud. Applications, their data, contacts, calendars, and device photos can be stored and/or retrieved “from the cloud.” You can even do firmware updates from the cloud as well.

Of course, with multiple iOS devices, I quickly ran into the “free” 5GB data limit. You can buy more, of course, or you can choose not to backup application data for some applications like I did. Or you can choose not to use iCloud at all.

iMessage

While I’ve tried to use things like TextPlus and Google Voice, they both leave something to be desired: they don’t “just work.” Neither will do text messages to international numbers unless those people sign up for the service.

iMessage just works. I just try and send a text as normal from the Messages app. If the person is using an iOS 5 device (and it can tell either by email address or phone number that I’ve already got configured for the user), it automatically is sent over iMessage, which is faster and cheaper than a conventional SMS. I can send text or pictures. It’s totally transparent to me other than the fact the text bubbles are in blue rather than green.

This is Apple’s answer to Blackberry Messenger except this just works without exchanging anything you don’t already have. I used it with a number of people–in some cases, not deliberately as I had no idea they used iOS 5 devices. It just worked as advertised. It’s hard to beat that.

Newsstand

I like the idea behind newsstand–put all your electronic periodicals in one place–but until applications are updated for it, your newsstand will look kind of empty. Mine only has the Wired app in it. It would be nice if I could also put, say, Instapaper or Flipboard in it, but alas, I cannot. I also cannot move the Newsstand icon into a folder. Very irritating.

Twitter Integration

Something else that came as part of iOS 5: Integration with Twitter. You can not only tweet pictures from the photos and camera app, but other Twitter apps can make use of your Twitter credentials stored in iOS as well. You can also update your contact pictures with information from Twitter.

The only annoying part is you need to have Twitter’s official app installed to use these features. I personally don’t use that app. I prefer Tweetbots, instead.

Summary

I know there’s a lot more features to iOS. I’m only scratching the surface, but these are the things I’ve used so far. What are your favorite iOS 5 features?

Comments

4 November 2011, Angela M writes: iCloud is by far my favourite :D

Samsung “Indestructible” MicroSD Cards

PhoneBoy — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:09:17 +0000

The folks at MemoryCardZoo.com sent me a Samsung MicroSD card, which various reviewers have said has “amazing levels of durability, being water, magnet, and shock proof.” How do they fare against standard MicroSD cards? Well, I decided to put it to the test and put together a video showing what I did.

WPvideo 1.10

Direct link to video

Comments

8 September 2011, Indestructible SD cards - help me destroy them - Neowin Forums - Page 4 writes: [...] 12-September 07 A video doing the same thing perhaps? (Unless this is you) http://phoneboy.com/...e-microsd-cards ipb.global.registerReputation( 'rep_post_594294444', { app: 'forums', type: 'pid', typeid: [...]
12 September 2011, MJS foto | Webplats » Vattentålig mobil writes: [...] Samsung ”Indestructible” MicroSD Cards (phoneboy.com) [...]

Verizon Following AT&T Yet Again, This Time on “Illegal” Tethering

PhoneBoy — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:01:37 +0000

From Verizon Stops Illegal Tethering, Follows AT&T – Mobiledia – The Mobile Future – Forbes.

Verizon today began blocking customers from tethering their data through jailbroken apps, following in AT&T’s footsteps as the company fights to stay on top of the U.S. wireless market.

The Basking Ridge, N.J.-based carrier now requires users have a hotspot-capable data plan if they want to tether data from their smartphones to other devices. Users who try to tether through jailbreak apps like MyWi will be redirected to a Verizon webpage where they can upgrade to a capable plan for an additional $20 a month.

Well that didn’t take long. The minute one of Ma Bell’s children does something anti-consumer like raising prices on unbundled SMS or eliminate unlimited data plans, the other is surely to follow. And AT&T wonders why people are so against their proposed merger with T-Mobile? And unlike what I said before, I’m definitely against the AT&T/T-Mobile merger now.

So let me get this straight. We can’t do unlimited data anymore. Even those who have it on a grandfathered basis on AT&T are gonna get throttled if they are in the top 5% of users. I’m waiting for Verizon to start pulling the same crap sooner or later.

And, to make matters worse, if we allow some other device to use that data via tethering, we have to pay more for the privilege? Sounds a bit like the old Ma Bell practice of charging you monthly for the privilege of having another phone jack in your house.

At least the old Ma Bell guaranteed universal service (meaning, you could get phone service anywhere). Not only can we not get service everywhere with these jokers, we pay out the nose for the privilege. Sounds like the worst of both worlds to me.

Securing Mobile Devices May Be Impossible

PhoneBoy — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 06:20:21 +0000

From via Securing Mobile Devices May Be an Impossible Task:

Attacks against smartphones such as BlackBerrys, iPhones and Android phones have become quite prevalent in recent years and many of them have focused on getting malicious apps on users phones. Thats a quick and easy way to get access to user data and sensitive information. But there are a slew of other real and potential vectors that attackers have at their disposal no, as well. Going after the device firmware is one potential method, as is attacking the mobile infrastructure itself.”

If I can update your phone remotely, I own the phone at every level and I own you. Its game over,” said Don Bailey, a senior security consultant at iSEC Partners, said during the panel discussion.

While I myself have been thinking about mobile security, this is an angle I didn’t even consider. If hackers can pwn the mobile phone network itself, well, everyone’s mobile device is in danger. There’s not much you can do about it, either.

Comments

6 August 2011, Robmitch writes: How is this any different to the current paradigm with PC's and the Internet? I don't see that the issues are much different, just that the form factors and the areas of attack change slightly. There's an interesting commentary at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/04/secret_iphone_hacking_tool/ on iphone hacking vectors, if you combine firmware update capabilities and this then there's some very evil stuff going on. But it's no different to the sort of MITM or Phishing-style attacks that we've seen on the Internet for years. Surely the same defence model can/should be used?
6 August 2011, PhoneBoy writes: Surely it can, but the mobile operating systems are so locked down third parties can't provide security services like they can on a PC. You also can't easily "firewall" your mobile phone with a hardware device like you can with your PCs at home. :)
7 August 2011, Robmitch writes: Fair point - that just means that the Mobile OS providers either have the obligation to secure their OS (Guess Apple kinda missed the boat on that one!) and the mobile network providers need to start incorporating that external "firewall" capability into their mobile networks. I think that corrupting endpoint devices is a relatively minor concern if the whole network is up for grabs - I guess the telcos have relied upon the technology to hijack or emulate a base station to be too expnsive and/or obscure up until now. Again, these are lessons that have been well learnt in the PC/Internet world, and another point where IP convergence into telephony/SCADA/infrastructure catches out historically poor security practice.
29 August 2011, Tomas writes: I bought my first Smartphone some weeks ago and I was thinking about security issues, too. I was looking for some good methods to secure my phone, but my search wasn´t as successfull as I was hoping. So it is and will be hard to really securing your phone.

Check Point: R75.20, SecurityPower, and New Appliances

PhoneBoy — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:11:28 +0000

By now I’m sure you’ve seen, heard, or read Check Point’s official announcements made at NASDAQ this morning. This is by no means a regurgitation of the official press releases, but it is my own personal take on what was announced. If you want to see the announcement for yourself, check out the recording!

(Just to be clear, I work for Check Point and these are my own thoughts.)

Check Point R75.20

This release (press release, download) brings a number of new features. One of the most anticipated ones is the ability to inspect outgoing SSL traffic. Not just for Application Control, where it is most needed given the proliferation of sites requiring SSL, but in all the various software blades we support. And its included as part of the relevant software blades license (i.e. it’s not a separate charge).

SSL inspection is done by essentially doing a “man in the middle” on the traffic. The gateway dynamically generates a certificate for the destination website, which is presented to the client when they connect. This allows the Security Gateway to see the traffic “in the clear” and make the relevant security decisions. The connection is encrypted as it leaves the gateway with SSL. Since SSL inspection is more intensive than inspecting HTTP traffic, and potentially creates potential regulatory issues by its use, you will have granular controls as to when this feature is invoked.

Another new feature in R75.20 is a completely revamped URL Filtering blade. While Check Point is still selling this as a separate product, it is actually integrated with Application Control. Applications and URL Filtering categories are given equal billing in the now combined Application Control and URL Filtering rulebase. You can do user-level URL filtering (with Identity Awareness) and can take advantage of our UserCheck technology to inform users of the policies. We can also handle HTTPS websites and custom categories. The categories themselves have also been substantially updated.

Unlike with previous versions of URL Filtering, where the entire URL filtering database was stored locally on the Security Gateway, the new engine makes use of the cloud. Commonly accessed URLs and their categories are stored in a local cache on the gateway. Over 99% of your web traffic should be met by the local cache on your gateway. When someone accesses a URL not in the local cache, the URL Filtering database in the cloud is consulted, with the result being stored in the local cache for future use.

The Data Loss Prevention (DLP) blade also gets a substantial update in R75.20. HTTP performance is substantially improved in this release and you also gain the ability to examine HTTPS traffic as well. A large number of additional “out of the box” datatypes are now included. We also integrate with an internal Microsoft Exchange server so DLP can be performed on internal email as well as email leaving the organization.

SecurityPower

A common complaint I’ve heard from Check Point customers over the years is that the performance numbers we quote for our appliances don’t reflect what performance you’ll get in the real world with real world traffic patterns. This is because performance numbers have been historically quoted for a single firewall rule (any any any accept) with the most optimal traffic pattern (1500 byte UDP packets). To be fair, this has been the standard industry practice for some time now. Every vendor of network equipment performs tests like this.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a good indicator of how an appliance will perform under real world conditions. With that in mind, Check Point has developed a new testing methodology for its appliances using a real rulebase (100 rules) with real-world traffic patterns (both based on industry standards and actual patterns seen at Check Point customer installations). This rulebase and traffic pattern exercises all of the various features and functionalities available in our Security Gateway. Based on those tests, Check Point has rated each appliance with a SecurityPower Unit rating (SPU).

One could call the SPU an arbitrary metric. What it gives you is a relatively simple way to compare appliances and the relative security load they can handle. More importantly, an SPU can be generated for a given set of requirements (required blades, throughput, number of connections, and so on). You can then compare that against the available appliances to ensure you choose the right security appliance for the right security task.

Check Point has developed a tool that does exactly this. It will be available shortly. Personally, I think this is a big deal.

New Appliances

Two new appliances are being launched today for the data center: the 21400 (press release, product page) and the 61000 (press release, product page). These appliances are aimed squarely at the data center, where tens or even hundreds of ~~megabits~~ gigabits per second of throughput are needed!

The 21400 is a powerful 2U platform that features massive port density (up to 37 1000-base-T ports, 36 1000-base-F SFP ports, or 12 10GBase-F SFP+ ports), 50 GB of firewall throughput, 21GB of IPS throughput, hot-swappable redundant power supplies and disk drives, and an optional Lights-out Management card. Everything you’d expect from a carrier-grade chassis. The appliance runs both R71 and R75 with SecurePlatform.

The 61000 series, on the other hand, is a monster appliance! It’s a 14U (DC) or 15U (AC) bladed chassis that, when fully loaded, will support 200GB of firewall throughput today and, with future hardware and software enhancements, will support over 1TB of throughput in the future! Aside from all of the various connectivity and redundancy options, the appliance acts as a single platform that, when new hardware blades are added, automatically configures itself to distribute the load between the blades! The platform currently runs a 64bit version of SecurePlatform based on R75.

Both appliances, which are referred to as Data Center Appliances, are available now on the Check Point pricelist.

Comments

2 August 2011, Most Important Announcement of the Year [2011] - Page 6 - CPShared Forums writes: [...] y'all are interested in my personal take on our announcement: http://phoneboy.com/4175/check-point...new-appliances __________________ http://phoneboy.com Email: my CPShared username @ gmail.com Unless otherwise [...]
2 August 2011, RStewart writes: Towards the end, I think you mean tens to hundreds of *gigabits*. Hundreds of megabits of throughput is easy. ;-)
2 August 2011, EF writes: Did you notice that they changed --AGAIN-- the price for software blades? The URL Filtering blade is now $1,500/$3,000/$4,500 depending on the appliance or container size, instead of a plain $1,500 per gateway.

Thinking About Mobile Security

PhoneBoy — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 04:00:17 +0000

Mobile devices are, like any powerful tool, a double edged sword. They enable unprecedented ability to access and create information from anywhere! They are also a huge problem for information security.

Unlike a traditional PC, where there are a number of solutions to address various information security needs, mobile devices (those running iOS, Android, Symbian, Blackberry and others) provide little if any mechanisms for third parties to provide security solutions. Beyond ActiveSync integration, which itself is potentially untrustworthy (remember how iOS used to lie to Exchange servers that their mail store was encrypted?), other options for securing the device or data on the device are limited.

That said, mobile operating systems have had the benefit of experience of other operating systems. They are designed to be more resistant to intrusion by requiring signed code, employing sandboxing, limiting the available APIs, and more. It doesn’t eliminate the risk of security vulnerabilities, but it does minimize the risk known ones will occur.

Unfortunately, the “baked in” security only addresses a small segment of potential security issues. It does nothing to address future security issues that might crop up. Due to the limited APIs, it is not possible for third parties to address these issues without cooperation from the OS vendor (e.g. Apple, Google, Nokia). Unfortunately, security threats evolve far faster than an OS vendor’s ability to mitigate these threats on their own. Just look at how long it took Microsoft to enable the firewall in Microsoft Windows by default, implement driver signing, or any number of other security mechanisms that are just the default on mobile operating systems.

Even so, the most important feature of a mobile device–the ability to access and share information from anywhere–is also a threat to an enterprise. The potential for data leakage is substantial! All I have to do is take a picture of a whiteboard in an office with confidential data on it using an Android phone with Google+ automatically uploading my photos “in the cloud” to have a potential data leak! Not to mention using your personal device to access mobile email and working with attachments.

Even if adequate tools existed to address all the issues on mobile devices, one should not blindly rely on these tools. It comes down to people understanding the security implications of their actions and adjusting their actions accordingly.

Comments

3 August 2011, jason @ Voip writes: It took years to get users to even consider security on their PCs. How long do you think it'll take them to consider it on their mobile phones? Till they are hacked? Oops! They have been and they've still not learned!
6 August 2011, Securing Mobile Devices May Be Impossible « The PhoneBoy Blog writes: [...] While I myself have been thinking about mobile security, this is an angle I didn’t even consider. If hackers can pwn the mobile phone network itself, well, everyone’s mobile device is in danger. There’s not much you can do about it, either. [...]
19 August 2011, Peter writes: Thanks a lot for this nice article. I think there are too many security breaches in mobile devices to use it with peace of consience. Just for example the untrostworthyness like you told the fact that iOS used to lie to exchange servers that their mail store was encrypted. I don´t know if i want to use a smartphone as long as i can´t get a clear overview over the security possibilities that are trustworthy.

Think Outside Keyboard with iPad

PhoneBoy — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:58:23 +0000

I have a habit of keeping older technology around. Just because it’s not new and shiny doesn’t mean it won’t continue to be useful.

Such is what I have found with my Think Outside Stowaway Sierra Bluetooth Keyboard. I bought it back in 2007 to pair with the Nokia N800 tablet. While the Nokia N800 never lived up to its full potential (and given what’s Nokia’s plans are for Meego, one wonder why they bothered to release the N950), the Think Outside Keyboard can still be used with any Bluetooth-enabled Smartphone or, in this case, my iPad 2.

I remembered why I liked this keyboard initially: it’s more or less a full sized keyboard complete with arrow keys. This makes it very easy to type on. It also folds up into a reasonable size, which makes it very portable.

For the sake of argument, I’ve taken some comparison pictures with the Zippy BT-500, which is a portable keyboard I reviewed previously. As you can see, the Zippy keyboard is a smaller keyboard, but the keys are too cramped to type on comfortably. This Think Outside keyboard is definitely better to type on.

The only thing I don’t like about it is that the keyboard is not suitable for using on anything but a flat surface. However, I can’t complain about the cost of this keyboard since I paid for it four years ago. With a fresh battery, it still works pretty good.

Think Outside got acquired by iGo at some point and they’ve stopped selling these or similar keyboards. It’s a shame, because a variant of this keyboard will still sell pretty well today.

RedMere HDMI Cables: Small Cable, Big Picture

PhoneBoy — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:32:58 +0000

I don’t normally write about something as mundane as HDMI cables. They’re all the same, right?

RedMere Technolgies makes an active-cable technology that various video cable manufacturers can incorporate into their cables to make them smaller, lighter, and more flexible, yet provide excellent video quality. While that’s certainly nice even for your typical HDTV components, where the thinner cables are really desirable is for portable devices such as mobile phones.

RedMere’s PR agency sent me a couple of cables for my Nokia E7 to review (they didn’t know if I needed an HDMI-C Mini or HDMI-D Micro cable, turned out it needs an HDMI-C). They were RedMere-branded cables, but RedMere themselves doesn’t make cables for sale. These are representative samples of cables you can find for sale from various manufacturers and retailers.

I hooked up my Nokia E7 to my HDTV using both the RedMere-supplied cable as well as a regular HDMI cable connected to my Nokia-supplied adapter. I could not tell the difference between the two cables in terms of video quality, but there’s a clear difference between the thickness and weight of the cables. The RedMere cable clearly wins in terms of portability, being lighter and thinner than even my Micro USB cables I couldn’t imagine putting a regular HDMI cable in my travel bag due to its thickness and size.

There are a number of manufacturers that make cables with RedMere technology inside. If you’re looking for a smaller, thinner HDMI cable, you can’t go wrong with one of these cables.

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