Slipshft.com

The new iPad has many people breaking open their wallets to get one. While LTE is a new feature, the majority of traffic from the new iPad is coming from WiFi vs. LTE. Not really a big deal or a surprise, but what about those poor people that are using LTE, what is happening to them with that ‘blazingly fast’ wireless connection. Many of those users are starting to get their bills from the carriers for the LTE service, and many of them do not have unlimited data service. What does this mean? It means that once they hit that 3 or 5 GB limit for the month, they will be paying somewhere around $10 per GB. Still not a big deal right? Well think about this; one of the other new features of the new iPad is that really ‘beautiful’ display and with that new display comes larger program sizes. How much larger? About 3 times larger on average, some of the applications are over 1.5 GB in size. Now imagine that you just downloaded that app across the fast LTE connection, and a few other apps too, then watch a movie on that really nice screen with a fast connection. Now that you are past the 3 or 5 GB that you had for the month, what do you do? Quit checking your email, posting to Google + or Facebook (really you are still on Facebook?), or surfing the web in general, until the next month or face the higher bill.

Not many people asked about this or even thought about it when they signed up. Now they can stop using LTE since they are not under contract, but they just payed extra for LTE that they would not be able to use. Talk about a catch 22…

I think I will stick with my current tablet thank you very much.

All of the media outlets have been on the piracy bandwagon for a while now, but is it true. Here is an infographic that shows a different story than the one you are hearing. Makes you wonder if they really think that we won’t notice.

I found this info-graphic to be interesting.

Source: http://frugaldad.com

The saga with Carrier IQ’s ability to procure information from your phone continues. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile have all said that they use Carrier IQ to improve network and handset performance. Some security ‘experts’ have stepped forward to say that this whole thing is way ‘overblown’, that they are really only collecting metrics.

While I agree, that not enough information is known at this point, I would also like to point out that to collect metrics an application should not need to permissions that the Carrier IQ application has. Why would they need the ability to write a contact to your phone or intercept a call? Why would they need the ability to modify (write) the hardware settings on your OS? Why would the need to be able to create a bluetooth connection? They don’t need the permission for these things to collect metrics, they do need it if they want to control your phone from afar.

There are now lawsuits starting, we will see how far they get.

I will say it again, they got caught and are now trying to say ‘We only do <blank>.’ until someone can prove that they are doing more than they admit to. Wait for it…

Email is something that most people have or check on a daily basis. While we can be overwhelmed by shear volume (I used to get over 400 emails a day at work), why do we spend so much time going through it? Sure there are spam filters and junk mail filters, but you have to consistently check those to see that they are working properly and not dropping you wanted email in the ‘trash’.

Now some companies are trying to get rid of internal email altogether. While I find it interesting to think of no more internal emails, is it a wise course? Can Facebook type sites and Instant Messaging really replace email? My first thought was ‘Possibly’, but then I came to a resounding ‘No’. Wait… what? Why ‘No’? Well email is much like a letter that you send via snail mail (Post), it goes on its way after you send it, and then waits until the recipient opens it. Sure the recipient could just throw it in the trash without reading it, but they can also keep it for future reference. Instant Messaging is great for real-time communication, but what if you need to ask a question when they are not available to answer and what if the log is lost. Facebook type pages for each person can take care of the post a question, wait for an answer scenario, but now you have just added time to the persons day instead of freeing up time. Why? Well now, not only do they have to check their email for external communications, but they have to now go to another application (web or other wise) and look for those internal communications. Which leads to added time (or wasted time).

You could argue either way, but for now I don’t see a clear solution to getting email onto the retirement train…