Tech4000

My PERSONAL Bookmarks FEED!

2011-12-16T03:09:00.001-05:00

You can get a FEED sent to you of the sites I bookmark, you can expect a couple a week, these are the bookmarks I add to MY bookmarks, so peak in on me while I browse the web.

P.S. Don't hold anything against me!! :)

http://delicious.com/v2/rss/r5416

Open a Padlock with an Aluminum Can

2011-12-10T22:07:00.000-05:00

Just when you thought your stuff was safe with a lock on it :)

Go figure....

Open a Padlock with an Aluminum Can

Happy 20th Birthday Linux!

2011-07-20T20:01:00.000-04:00

Happy 20th Birthday Linux!

If You Break The Rules On Google+, You Can Lose All Google Services

2011-07-15T10:46:00.001-04:00

In order to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Google+ requires its users to be at least 13 years old. Last week, a 10-year old Gmail user in the Netherlands signed up for a Google+ account, and Al Jazeera reports that that's when trouble started.
The boy, Alex, was kicked off of all Google services for his terms of service violation. Furthermore, his father writes in a blog post that Google informed him that his account will be deleted in 29 days unless he can provide some proof of age (he can't).

This brings up a troubling but important point. Google rules so many markets and this makes it entirely possible to rely only on one company for managing your digital life -- email, word processing and document management, and now social networking.

So play nice on Google+.

There are two sets of rules to follow. Its general terms of service applies to all things Google, and the community standards are specific to Google+. It includes things like:

no nudity or sexually explicit material

no hate speech

no impersonation of others

no publishing of someone's private or personal information

no copyright infringement

no spamming or phishing

These are all pretty common sense guidelines, but with the new precedent that you can lose all Google services for breaking them, it's a healthy reminder.

G+ Hangouts - Great place to learn some programming.....

2011-07-12T02:44:00.002-04:00

I was fortunate enough to enjoy a few hours programming with Mohamed Mansour and some friends this evening, and thought I would share some tidbits and also a blog posting Mohamed posted to the Hangout this evening. Here is a link to the programming project:

Framework for integrating small labs for Google+ into a single Chrome Extension

Google+ Labs for Chrome Extension

This Google Chrome extension will inject a link to your Google Plus profile so that you can share your post to Twitter or Facebook.

Here is the Blog Posting:

Software developer Mohamed Mansour has found one resourceful way to use the Hangouts video-conferencing feature on Google Plus. You might remember him from the Google Chrome extension, Facebook Friend Exporter, he developed that freed your Facebook contact data, letting you import it directly into Gmail or save it as a CSV file. Yes, he's the so-called "pesky hacker," err...software developer that Facebook has blocked.

Mansour's at it again, but this time he's teaching and sharing his passion for programming. He posted the following on his Google+ account:

"I thought it was a nice idea to show people on a Hangout how to develop Google Chrome Extensions, and it was really popular that I got many requests for it. From now on, I will be showing my development live on the Hangout in most times. So drop by and say hi, I will try and answer all software development questions on the Hangout."

If you're a programmer, make sure you follow him and join one of his next Hangouts. Maybe he'll inspire the next developer who gets their app or extension blocked by the notorious Facebook.

Framework for integrating small labs for Google+ into a single Chrome Extension

2011-07-12T01:37:00.001-04:00

Google+ Labs for Chrome Extension

This Google Chrome extension will inject a link to your Google Plus profile so that you can share your post to Twitter or Facebook.

Here is a little programming project I was fortunate enough to help with, if your wanting a invite to google+ let me know, visit my profile at :Rich Armstrong Google+ Profile

Im leaving facebook! Google+ rocks!! Tell alllll your friends! :)

Control your phone with a magnetic ring

2011-04-12T22:55:00.000-04:00

These days smartphones let you do practically anything, but you still have to reach in to your pocket to use them. Now, researchers at Nokia aim to solve that problem with a magnetic ring dubbed Nenya, after a ring found in The Lord of the Rings, that you can twist around your finger to control your phone.

The ring itself looks like a standard piece of jewellery, but is actually a strong magnet. Moving the ring causes changes in the surround magnetic field, which are picked up by a bracelet worn by the user that connects to their phone via Bluetooth. You rotate the ring to pick from a number of options, which could be memorised, played as audio through headphones, or displayed on a screen, then push the ring towards your fingertip to select. The options could include asking a caller to hold, or updating your location on a social network.

Users can turn the ring with either their other hand or the same hand, though the latter is more difficult. The researchers conducted two small trials and found that people could accurately position the ring in roughly 45 degree increments, suggesting that a ring-controlled menu could contain up to eight options. They will present their findings at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Vancouver, Canada next month.

There are few problems to solve before you can start ringing your phone, however. The bracelet is currently a rather bulky and unattractive device, but the electronics inside could be incorporated into a watch or jewellery bracelet, and the system also detects the ring when users move about, which could execute unwanted commands. There's also the issue of walking around with a great big magnet on your finger, with the potential to attract nearby metallic objects and damage credit cards or hard drives.

Using Sounds on your website.

2011-03-21T10:25:00.000-04:00

Here is the second in my web series on good web design techniques, in this posting Ill be going over good and bad use of sounds, as well as some of the different formats available to you when adding sound to your website.

Sounds can be played "inline" or by a "helper", depending on the HTML element you use.

When sound is included in a web page, or as part of a web page, it is called inline sound.

If you plan to use inline sounds in your web applications, be aware that many people find inline sound annoying. Also note that some users might have turned off the inline sound option in their browser.

My best advice is to include inline sound only in web pages where the user expects to hear the sound. An example of this is a page which opens after the user has clicked on a link to hear a recording.

Using A Helper (Plug-In)

A helper application is a program that can be launched by the browser to "help" playing sound. Helper applications are also called Plug-Ins. Helper applications can be launched using the "embed" or the "object" tag. One great advantage of using a helper application is that you can let some (or all) of the player settings be controlled by the user. Most helper applications allows manually (or programmed) control over the volume settings and play functions like rewind, pause, stop and play.

Using The "embed" Tag

The purpose of the "embed" tag is to embed multimedia elements in web page.

The following code fragment displays a MIDI file embedded in a web page.

Example
embed src="beatles.mid"

Note: The embed tag is deprecated. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend using the object tag instead.

Using The object Tag

The purpose of the object tag is to embed multimedia elements in web page.
The following code fragment displays a WAVE file embedded in a web page.

Example

object classid="clsid:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95"
param name="FileName" value="liar.wav"
object

Using A Hyperlink

If a web page includes a hyperlink to a media file, most browsers will use a "helper application" to play the file.

The following code fragment displays a link to a MIDI file. If a user clicks on the link, the browser will launch a helper application, like Windows Media Player to play the MIDI file:

Example

a href="beatles.mid" Play the Beatles

So there is just a couple of the ways you can use sound in your website.

Article: Skype's Crazy Regex Easter Egg

2011-02-16T09:09:00.000-05:00

Skype's Crazy Regex Easter Egg
http://blog.nyaruka.com/skypes-crazy-regex-easter-egg

(Sent from Flipboard)

Rich Armstrong - Sent from my iPad

Article: Upload Photos and Videos to the Cloud with CloudaTag

2011-01-30T03:18:00.002-05:00

Upload Photos and Videos to the Cloud with CloudaTag
http://www.nirmaltv.com/2011/01/29/upload-photos-and-videos-to-the-cloud-with-cloudatag/

(Sent from Flipboard)

Rich Armstrong - Sent from my iPad

Using images on your website.

2011-01-20T12:15:00.001-05:00

So you have a website you want to design for a client, and using know where to start, images, videos, what style type, music and many other options, in this series of blog posts I'm going to go over some of the techniques that I use, along with some of the sites i use for reference when assembling a website.

Im absolutely no professional but i figured if i could save you some time, and make the design process a bit easier it would be helpful, so let's not rip me apart and critique me till my flesh burns, be nice......

I guess a good place to start is photos, where do you find photos that you can use on your website, what size should the images be, and what are some good techniques for using photos. Let's start with some great sites to get free to use pictures, I've listed a couple here for your browsing pleasure, remember alot of photos you see online are not yours to do with as you please.

Here are a few places you can find photos to use on your website:

I was told about this site from a friend of mine, I haven't used it much but they seem to have a plethora of images can use on your site.

Getty Images

Flickr is a great place for pictures their earache engine will allow you to select common license pictures which are free pictures you can use edit or whatever. I use this site exclusively for my free pictures.

Flickr - select common license in this form.

Once we have selected a picture or two for our site, we need to think about sizes, some images can be quite large, and take considerable time to download, you need to think about your viewers and the different ways they will be viewing your site, for instance someone might be viewing your site from home on a computer that's connected to a fast Internet connection, but on the other hand you may have someone using a cell phone to view your site and be limited by bandwidth.

Here are some tips to make sure your images are not weighing your pages down:
DPI
Make sure you create your images at no more than 72 dpi (dots per inch). Higher dpi won't improve quality much and it will make the image file size much larger, slowing their load time. Photos taken with a digital camera are often 300 dpi. Make sure to compress any digital photos before trying to use them on a web page.

Resizing
Never resize your images in the html code (by changing the width and height tags that tell browsers how to display your images). If you make the photos look bigger than they really are, the image quality will be very poor. If you force them to be smaller than they are, the filesize will remain larger than necessary and the image will load slower than it should.

Instead of resizing images in the html code with height and width attributes, use an image-editing program like Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks to physically resize your photos (and also compress them for file size).

JPG or GIF
Generally it is best to use JPG format for photographic images, although if a photo has large areas of a solid color, the file size may be reduced by saving it as a GIF.

That should get you started on placing images in your website, on my next blog post in this series i will be video in your website and some great tips and tricks you can use to add video to your online masterpiece.

Peace....

My iPad and what i think, if u care.

2011-01-05T09:03:00.001-05:00

Ok so i just got my new iPad, yeah i know im behind the times a bit, but i wanted to voice my opinion anyhow, it's really cool, im actually posting this blog post using the on screen keyboard, lovely.

I do want to say that my wife who is sight impaired totally loves the thing, she can browse the web much easier than ever before, she can't put the thing down, which leaves me little time to mess with it.

I have installed a handful of apps and only actually purchased one of them, i was worried that everything i wanted for this thing would cost me money, not actually, although the fruit ninja game got me to spend a buck.

If your considering a iPad i would suggest you decide what you will be using it for and if it's worth the expense for you, as far as me i am happy, i love the thing even though it's really just a fancy toy. Oh yeah It has a calendar too...

Peace

3dfx Voodoo Emulation In the Works - Technology News

2010-11-04T16:46:00.001-04:00

3dfx Voodoo Emulation In the Works - Technology News

DOSBox is arguably the best PC-with-DOS emulator available today. It's great for playing older 1980s and early 1990s PC games. But some later 1990s titles exist in a sort of grey area—too complex for DOSBox, but not necessarily available in Windows 7-compatible versions either.
Now a new hack aims to change that. The next version of DOSBox will feature a software implementation of SST-1, 3dfx Interactive's seminal Voodoo Graphics chipset from 1996, according to a Slashdot post. Head programmer "Kekko" is working with the DOSBox team and a group of VOGONS board users to develop a faithful emulation of the historically important 3D graphics accelerator cards.
This may seem like an odd choice for a project. But any hardcore gamer from the 1990s remembers how significant 3dfx was. Some of us are still recovering from the company's rather spectacular downfall. Kekko said that by adding Voodoo chipset emulation to DOSBox, it will improve compatibility with many significant titles from that era, increase portability, and add Direct3D support for Windows 95 and 98 games. It also integrates directly with DOSBox's internal renderer, meaning that full screen mode and video capture would still operate.
For now, it appears SST-1 emulation works exceedingly well. A quick run-through in the forum shows that over a dozen games, including Quake III: Arena, X-Wing Collectors Series (with the updated Windows 95 engine), Grand Theft Auto, and Tomb Raider 5 are all up and running. However, the additional code slows DOSBox itself to a crawl.
To remedy this problem, Sir Arthur's Den reports that the group is now develping a multi-threaded architecture to split the work between different CPU cores, as well as offload some of it to the GPU. They're also improving compatibility for Glide games under DOS.
You can bet we'll be keeping a close eye on this project.

Internet Explorer 9 beta review: Microsoft reinvents the browser

2010-11-04T10:46:00.001-04:00

Internet Explorer 9 beta review: Microsoft reinvents the browser

Today in San Francisco, Microsoft will officially unveil Internet Explorer 9 and make it available to the general public. It is, without question, the most ambitious browser release Microsoft has ever undertaken, and despite the beta label it is an impressively polished product.
A closer look at the Internet Explorer 9 beta (screenshots)
The underpinnings of IE9 are no secret. Microsoft has been talking since last fall about its determined effort to adhere to Web standards and embrace HTML5. It has also detailed its efforts to improve IE9’s performance compared to previous releases. Developers and IT pros have been able to shake out compatibility issues and benchmark performance with four public platform previews over the past six months. But this beta is the first time Microsoft has publicly shown off the new browser’s user interface and given its Windows customers a product they can use day in and day out.
Click above to see this full article, Im gonna install this browser and check it out completely then post a review here.

Microsoft tempts antitrust lawyers with expanded antivirus offering

2010-11-04T09:13:00.001-04:00

Microsoft tempts antitrust lawyers with expanded antivirus offering

You want a good, solid, free antivirus program? Microsoft Security Essentials fills the bill nicely. Unfortunately, even though it was officially released more than a year ago, it’s still one of the best-kept secrets in personal computing. Its installed base of 30 million users worldwide might sound big in raw numbers, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the billion-plus Windows PCs in use.
All that’s about to change, as Microsoft has now begun delivering Microsoft Security Essentials via Microsoft Update to customers in the United States (a pilot program in the UK started earlier this year). If Windows detects that you’re currently running without up-to-date antivirus protection, this is what you’ll see in the Optional Updates section:

Although this development might seem like a logical one for Microsoft, it’s actually a big step—and a potentially risky one. Security software vendors have their antitrust lawyers on speed dial in anticipation of the day when Microsoft begins bundling antimalware protection directly into Windows. As a result, this long-overdue development is moving at glacially slow speeds.
Earlier this year, on the 10th anniversary of Microsoft’s landmark antitrust defeat, I noted:

Microsoft Security Essentials is available to any Windows PC as a free download, but it’s still not available as part of Windows itself. The Windows 7 Action Center will warn you if you don’t have antivirus software installed, but clicking the Find a Program Online button takes you to this page, where Microsoft’s free offering is one of 23 options, most of which are paid products.
[…]
In this case, I think the mere threat of an antitrust complaint from a big opponent like Symantec or McAfee has been enough to make Microsoft shy away from doing what is clearly in its customers’ best interests.

So Microsoft moves slowly, deliberately, one step at a time. Previously, you had to seek out and download this free (and very effective) software on your own. Now it shows up under Optional Updates, if you know where to look. And Microsoft has upped the stakes by altering the license terms so that small businesses can install up to 10 copies of the software free of charge,
The logical next step, of course, is for Micosoft to classify this update as Important, where it will be offered as an automatic update on unprotected PCs (similar to the way the Malicious Software Removal Tool is delivered monthly). At some point, it can and should be fully integrated into the operating system itself.
As the screenshot above makes clear, this update was released roughly two weeks ago, on October 19, but it’s only now beginning to appear on update screens across the United States. (Lee Mathews at Download Squad spotted this update in the wild last week. It wasn’t available on my system then or even earlier today, when I checked for updates manually. Ironically, I was in Redmond at the time, meeting with the Microsoft Security Essentials team and discussing this very issue. It appeared on my system for the first time just a few minutes ago.)
I’m willing to bet that antitrust lawyers for the big security software vendors are looking at this development very carefully. Will they actually threaten legal action? Stay tuned.

2010-11-03T04:24:00.001-04:00

Windows 7 powers 1 out of every 10 business PCs : tech4000.blogspot.com

Forrester: Windows 7 powers 1 out of every 10 business PCs | ZDNet

2010-11-03T04:20:00.000-04:00

While Windows 7 is running on only one out of every 10 PCs at North American and European businesses,that percentage will grow considerably in the coming year, according to a new report from Forrester Research.

(click on graphic above to enlarge)

Between June and August of this year, Forrester surveyed more than 2,300 2,321 IT execs in the U.S., Canada, France, German and the UK. These individuals represented both small/mid-size business and enterprise companies with two or more employee

Forrester found that one year after Windows 7’s launch (which happened on October 22, 2009), XP is still powering 75 percent of business PCs, compared to the ten percent currently powered by Windows 7.

Microsoft officials said just over a week ago that the company had sold 240 million Windows 7 license in the first year the product was available. That figure included sales to both business and consumer customers..

But as businesses refresh their hardware mix, adding new PCs, the Windows 7 business adoption rate will grow. At present, Windows 7 is deployed on 31 percent of brand-new PCs purchased by business users surveyed by Forrester. And the research firm is predicting that within a year, that number will grow to 83 percent.

Forrester also found via its latest survey that 90 percent of business contacted expect to migrate to Windows 7 eventually.

“Last year when we fielded a similar survey, only 7% of firms said they planned to deploy Windows 7 within the next 12 months or that they had already begun. This number has skyrocketed to 46% of firms now reporting that they have already begun or will begin deploying Windows 7 within the next 12 months,” the Forrester researchers said.

An additional 42 percent of firms surveyed said they were planning to deploy Windows 7 in more than 12 months. Another 10 percent have not yet looked into Windows 7 enough to make a prediction and another one percent claim to be considering “alternatives” to Windows 7, including Windows 8, Mac and/or Linux.

A full copy of Forrester’s “Updated 2010: Windows 7 Commercial Adoption Outlook” report is available for purchase from the Forrester site.

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Forrester: Windows 7 powers 1 out of every 10 business PCs | ZDNet

Google tweaks Gmail.com for iPhone, iPod Touch | iPhone Atlas - CNET Reviews

2010-10-29T14:04:00.000-04:00

Google has been fine-tuning its mobile in-browser Gmail experience on the iPhone and iPod Touch for years, and over the course of time, the addition here and modification there has added up to a very usable in-box experience in the spirit of Gmail on the desktop, if not its identical feature sets and dimensions.

This week's tweaks focus on iPhone and iPod Touch handsets running iOS 4 in English. They nail down the design of the navigation menu, which Google has been experimenting with on its iPhone-optimized Web site for the past few weeks. Now, the toolbar is fixed in place while you scroll, rather than following after you scroll through a message or the in-box.

Google also performed some back-end tune-ups on the scrolling speed to cut out the lag time between the motion of your finger and the motion of the in-box contents. We won't deny it: there's no delay.

We'll still use the e-mail in-box on our iPhone 4, but we will say that the mobile Gmail experience is improving, one tweak and turn at a time.

Google tweaks Gmail.com for iPhone, iPod Touch | iPhone Atlas - CNET Reviews

The 10 most gadgety Halloween costumes - Technology & science - Tech and gadgets - msnbc.com

2010-10-29T13:50:00.000-04:00

Stumped about what to dress up as this Halloween? How about your favorite gadget? Don't think it's possible? Well then check out these crazy examples. But since there isn't much time left to make something elaborate, you could always fall back on dressing up like a zombie and carrying around your old VCRs and cassette players. Obsolete gadgets, returned from the grave!

The 10 most gadgety Halloween costumes - Technology & science - Tech and gadgets - msnbc.com

2010-10-28T10:39:00.001-04:00

Follow Tech4000 on Twitter!!! http://ping.fm/EWHQb

TODAY Tech & Science

2010-10-28T10:06:00.001-04:00

TODAY Tech & Science

Hot gadgets: Buy now or later?

From smart phones to iPads and TVs, digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong offers advice on snagging the latest and greatest models for the lowest prices.

Technolog - Horrifying iPhone games to haunt your Halloween

2010-10-28T10:01:00.000-04:00

With All Hallow's Eve approaching, Apple's App Store is offering a plethora of Halloween-themed game apps. But be forewarned: The only terrifying thing about many of these iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad games is just how awful they are.

And yet, while many of these apps seem designed to do nothing but part you from your candy money, there are some wonderfully spooky, creepy and downright disturbing games that are well worth playing ... and paying for. There are also some hilarious can't-miss Halloween-themed choices as well.

Check out Technologs list of Halloween apps for your Iphone, Your sure to have a Hallow-Time!!!

Rich

Technolog - Horrifying iPhone games to haunt your Halloween

iPhone 4 Recall? Truth or Trash?

2010-06-27T21:54:00.001-04:00

     The Daily Mail reported this morning than an iPhone 4 recall is underway, but don’t believe it; the UK publication’s source was a tweet from a fake Steve Jobs Twitter account. Apple hasn’t announced any plans to recall its new phone.

     The Twitter account @ceoSteveJobs is a parody account — it even says so in the profile bio, and even if you don’t read the bio, it should have been obvious from the tweets, which include lines like “Be careful not to leave your #iPhone4 at the Genius Bar on the way out of the store. Gizmodo might pick it up,” and “I heard the CEO of AT&T got married recently. The service was great but the reception was terrible.”
The Daily Mail has pulled the original story, which began with a claim that a recall was coming and a quote from the fake Twitter account, and then continued to explain the issues users have had with signal loss when the iPhone 4 is held a certain way.

     It’s hard to imagine that Apple didn’t know about the signal issue. The engineers at the company probably decided it was a worthwhile trade-off for otherwise improved reception, so don’t expect a recall for that reason.

     Though you might surprised that The Daily Mail ran a story based on a tweet from an account that is so obviously fake, it’s not the first time something like this has happened. That’s why Twitter implemented a system for verifying the accounts of important people and publications.

iPhone 4 antenna issue: User error or design flaw?

2010-06-27T21:40:00.000-04:00

After just a few days in customers' hands, the iPhone 4 has been demonstrated to show signal loss when gripped in a certain way. Apple is writing it off as easily fixable by altering the way it's held. But is it a problem with the way customers are holding it or a flaw in Apple's design?

The iPhone 4, which went on sale for the first time Thursday, has two antennas built very close to the metal band running around the exterior of the device. The one running on the left side of the phone is for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the one on the right is for cellular reception. Steve Jobs said recently this design was intended to improve reception.

But by Wednesday night, complaints began popping up among users who received early delivery, that when the phone is gripped in a way that touches the left bottom area of the phone, reception degrades or disappears in some cases. In CNET's own testing we were able to replicate the problem in the iPhone 4 in some cases, though it appeared to vary by person, place, and device. Apple acknowledged the issue Thursday night.
"Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas," the company said in a statement. "This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases."

Their response points to the problem being the fault of the customer, not Apple's design. But the fact that the issue, when it happens, appears to be easily solved by shielding the bottom left corner with a silicone case, or as has been suggested with a piece of Scotch tape, points to the fault being in the way the phone was designed.
Utility or design?
In many smartphones today, the antenna is built into the bottom of the phone. That's for two reasons: to meet FCC requirements regarding the specific absorption rate, or SAR (how much radiation is allowed to enter the human body), and because the extending antenna went out of style several years ago.

Smartphone makers are placing more constraints on themselves to make increasingly smaller phones with increasingly sophisticated features and design. They're trying to fit larger batteries and more powerful processors into smaller packages, along with flashy materials, and a specific aesthetic. And those companies, like Apple with its iPhone 4, have to begin making certain choices and prioritizing, noted Spencer Webb, the president of AntennaSys, an antenna design firm.

"Given all these constraints, the person who designed (the iPhone 4) did something pretty daring. They moved the antenna to the vicinity of the band," said Webb in an interview. "Using the band as part of the antenna system is pretty bold. I don't remember that happening in a consumer device in my recent memory."
"Bold" could be interpreted as a poor choice, especially if it is causing some people to lose reception on their iPhone 4. Many phone makers have put the internal antenna near the bottom back of the phone. Apple did this with previous versions of the iPhone. As other handset designers began to do this, too, they started to include warnings in the user manual or a sticker that is removed before use. Users aren't told that poor reception will result from touching the antenna, they're just told to avoid the area.

The Motorola i1, HTC Nexus One, and Palm Pre have bottom-facing antennas as well. In CNET's own testing we did not experience a drop in reception or audio clarity even when we held the phones with our hand in the antenna area.
Quick fixes
It's been suggested that there are ways to fix the antenna issue. Putting a piece of tape over the antenna area in the lower left corner of the phone, or buying a rubber case, as Apple has suggested. But it's certainly not very customer friendly to suggest that after paying $199 or $299 for a phone that you also need to pay $30 to fix a possible design flaw.

It's possible customers will begin to demand less clever design and more utility out of their phones. It's a cycle that repeats itself, Webb said.

"I think it's a pendulum and the pendulum swings," he said. "When the pendulum swings to where it's all about visual and industrial design...as soon as (the phone) stops performing they won't do that anymore. When it gets to be good performance it goes the other way."

But Apple continues to sell phones at an impressive rate--possibly 1.5 million iPhone 4s in one day. So if customers keep voting with their dollars, it's unclear how much that could change.

Weekend tech reading: Google prepping Facebook 'killer'?

2010-06-27T20:11:00.001-04:00

Is Google about to launch a Facebook killer? Should we brace ourselves for another round of tech news headlines with the word "killer" in them? According to Digg founder Kevin Rose, Google is about to launch a social profile service called, aptly, "Google Me." Rose stated on Twitter earlier today that he heard a "huge rumor" from a "very credible source" that Google is about to unveil what is apparently a Facebook competitor, no other details forthcoming. SF Weekly