A Pilgrim’s Digression

I did a stupid thing this weekend. So stupid, I feel embarrassed admitting it.

I left my cellphone in my pants pocket and it went into the washer. It came out pristinely clean and completely destroyed. It wasn’t an expensive phone–it’s the LG enV2 model from Verizon–but since we only have cellphones in our household, no land line, accidentally destroying a cell phone does present some unique challenges.

After debating my options, including whether I could get a new phone by the time I left for Washington last night, I called a friend to whom I’d loaned an old phone of mine and asked for its return. Fortunately, she still had it, and it was not in use.

So after getting this old phone from her, and sighing at how large and clunky it looks after only a few years, I called up Verizon to activate it. Afterwards, I gave the phone to Lynn to talk to the representative about ordering a new one. She gets a kick out of wheeling and dealing with these people to get the best deal she can. I’m not particular about the kind of phone I use, so I’d rather just let her order the phone for me.

The point of this post is that, at one point in the conversation, I heard her ask about the iPhone. Previously I’d mentioned to her this rumor from back in April that Apple and Verizon are in talks over the iPhone, so she knew I wanted one, as long as I don’t have to switch providers. After Lynn got off the phone, I asked her what the rep told her.

He said that although they aren’t supposed to say anything about it, Verizon is getting the iPhone in 2010, once Apple’s contract with AT&T expires. He also said the phone would be red.  My wife told him “Thank you, we’ll just use this old phone until then,” and so he lost a sale.

Do I believe him about the iPhone? On the one hand, it makes no sense for him to lie to people who want the iPhone, since it makes them less likely to buy a phone now.

On the other hand, he’s just a sales rep. What does he know? Probably nothing. Why would Verizon tell its low-level employees a secret so big it would literally make national headlines, if word leaked out?

Still, I want to believe.

Ever since the iPhone debuted, I’ve grumbled about Apple’s exclusive relationhip with AT&T which (from my perspective) makes no sense. Verizon is the largest carrier in the United States. But even if it weren’t the largest, shouldn’t Apple want their product available to as many people as possible? In my opinion, every cell phone company ought to be able to provide the iPhone to their customers, if they want it. I realize business doesn’t often make that much sense, however. Companies sign contracts with each other and have to honor them, for better or worse.

Maybe at the time the AT&T contract was the best Apple could get. It wouldn’t surprise me if they are trying to do better, now. Maybe the whole Apple/Verizon rumor is just a leveraging tactic meant to get a better deal from AT&T, however.

All I know is, having bought an iPod Touch recently, I’ve been given a taste of what the iPhone can do. I want one. I want one very, very much.

Here’s an interesting article about the Obama staffers reaction to a White House IT infrastructure that is just a little antiquated.

Mac-savvy Obama staffers frustrated with legacy White House.

I was particularly amused that anyone would be surprised that government computers would be running MS Office 2003.  Welcome to your United States government, Mr. Obama. You are now entering a world where computers do not get updated with the latest indisensible software as soon as it is released.  Windows XP is only now being rolled out to end users in my organization, and many of us have been waiting over a year to have it installed on our PCs (my unit is still using Windows 2000).

As for Macs, yes, some of us use Macs.  We have a Mac workstation in my office that we use for AV editing and conversion.  Our Macs are even on the Windows network with a dedicated staff of two people to troubleshoot all the Macs in the organization (admittedly, there aren’t many).

The ironic thing about the Mac is that while we peons are stuck using Dells running an operating system Microsoft stopped supporting years ago, the head of our agency uses a Mac, as do his staff and department chiefs.   It sorta reminds me of how Senators also have this privilege of using whatever hardware they like.  Senator Kennedy’s office is a Mac office, for example.

Anyway, yes, it is always shocking to enter government service and discover just how much it lags behind the rest of the world.  However, I don’t think it has much to do with the need to preserve records.  The way it has been explained to me is that it is first and foremost a security issue–government IT waits for an operating system or piece of software to be out in the wild, exposed to threats, for several years before it is installed on government machines.  In that way, exploits are exposed and patched before any government systems are damaged.

I also think government is just slow as molasses about changing anything, adopting any new technology or way of doing things.  Everything has to go through a complex security screening and approval process.  I have been waiting nearly a year for the open source image editor GIMP to be approved for installation on my telework PC.  Supposedly it’s still going through security screening.

Another way it was explained to me, and this does not exactly ring true given government’s pension to blow a budget, is that by waiting until an operating system or piece of software is obsolete, government saves money on the upgrade (which is iteself obsolete by the time government buys it, i.e. Windows XP).

Government worried about saving money?  I don’t think so.  I think it has to do more with the way government works and the long approval process.

I’ll be pleased if the White House becomes a Mac-centric unit of government.  It may mean more change is coming for the rest of us, too, but I’m not going to back up my files in preparation for an upgrade just yet.  I’m still waiting for my Windows XP.

I may have to eat my words about Time Capsule being one of the best products I have ever purchased from Apple. So far, it has been only a source of frustration and wasted time on the phone with technical support. I am having the worst experience of my life with an Apple product and Apple support.

Last night when I got in from Washington, I set up my laptop in the office and hooked it up via Ethernet directly to the Time Capsule. I turned off the Airport card. I started Time Machine working, backing up my hard drive. And I went to bed. That was around ten o’clock, or ten thirty. When I got up this morning, I went to check and see how much had been backed up in the night.

2.03 GB of 103 GB.

What!?

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time on the phone with technical support. Nothing they could tell me was of any use.

“Make sure you aren’t actually using the computer during the initial back-up…”

“Make sure you start the initial back-up at night…”

Finally, the advice I got was simply, “Delete the old backup file and try again.”

I kept asking, is it my network settings? Do you want to check anything there?

“No, no,” the representative says. “There should be no problem. This should work, it just takes a really, really long time.”

“How long? Like weeks? I could back up to my iPod faster than this!”

Anyway, I gave it another go. Three hours later, just under 1 GB had been transferred.

I called again.

After going through the same round of questions, and helpful suggestions, and reminders about how long the initial backup takes, finally the rep says, “OK, I am going to transfer you to a product specialist. But the wait time is really long. You might want to put your phone on speaker phone, if you have it.”

Some time later, I look at my phone and see that I have been on the phone, most of it on hold, for 58 minutes. I hang up.

What the hell is wrong with this product? Right now, I am ready to chuck it in the garbage as a shiny, but useless piece of crap.

More later. I am trying another backup, this time wirelessly. There is a USB port on the Time Capsule, but it says it is for a printer, so it may not work to transfer data. My next step is to buy a USB cable that can connect to my computer and give that a try. Right now, I feel like smashing the thing, though.

Currently, the backup has been running for half an hour and has transferred only about 248 MB. Thats megabytes. I’d get better transfer speeds if I connected via dial-up.

So it isn’t a flashy, new laptop with all of Apple’s latest hardware and software innovations. At first glance, it isn’t even an Apple product that would attract my attention as something I either need or want to buy.

But the Apple Time Capsule has turned out to be one of the best purchases I have made from Apple in some time.

Read more…

Yesterday I heard this story on NPR about how hackers are increasingly targeting the Macintosh community. As a Mac user myself, I know quite well how easy it is to become complacent about Internet threats. Spyware, Viruses, Keyloggers…we have never had to worry about the issues that Windows users deal with as a matter of course.

Personally, I have always prided myself on the fact that I have never felt the need to buy an Anti-Virus program. I don’t feel so smug anymore, however. It seems to me only common sense that if you use a product which advertises itself as so secure that you don’t need Anti-Virus protection, you are simply inviting hackers and codesmiths to break your system and steal your data. Therefore for the first time, just this morning I bought and downloaded Norton Anti-virus for Macintosh.

There are no doubt going to be a lot of Mac users who take issue with this warning, pointing out the Macintosh’s inherent security features that prevent it from being attacked as easily as Windows. I agree, and I certainly sympathize with folks who are not used to buying an Anti-virus product and don’t really want to become used to another yearly subscription fee. However, I don’t think we can keep our head in the sand to this threat any longer. Apple is growing in market share and visibility (though when I went to Best Buy the other day to purchase the new OS X, Leopard, the sales clerk did not even know what I meant by ‘Macintosh’).

I feel like it’s better to be safe than sorry, to use a cliché. Some people put signs in their yard advertising that their home is protected by a security system. Ironically, Macintosh users have broadcast their superiority to the world at large to such an extent that everyone knows Mac users don’t use Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware technology at all. It’s only a matter of time before someone takes advantage of our guard being down.

Thursday night, I did our taxes using H and R Block’s online tax preperation software. I’ve prepared my taxes online every year for the past three years, but I thought this year might be an exception, and that we might have to hire a professional to prepare our taxes. Since we bought a house this year, we were going to have to itemize. In the past, we have just taken the standard deduction.

And in the past, we have always owed taxes, sometimes as much as three or four hundred dollars in taxes.

This year, I even had more taxes taken out of my pay, in an attempt to prevent us owing money to the IRS. Nevertheless, despite itemizing, and despite having the extra taken out, we still have to pay. We owe $90.00 to the federal government.

But we are getting a sizable refund from the state. What does this mean?

New iPod. Oh yeah.

Read more…

In reading a New York Times article titled Apple Profit Rose 78% in Quarter, I came across this interesting passage.

Apple may also benefit in the coming months as consumers begin to consider replacing their computers after Microsoft introduces its Vista operating system. Many industry analysts say they believe that the delay in getting that system to market significantly hurt the sales of Windows-compatible PCs in the last quarter.

On Wednesday, Microsoft introduced new price plans for PC users who wish to upgrade their existing systems. The company said that high-end versions of Vista will ship with new PCs even though consumers will have access initially only to the more basic functions. They will then be able to unlock additional features by purchasing upgrades. [Emphasis mine]

Mr. Jobs noted that Apple’s operating system, Macintosh OS X, comes in only one version, and that sophisticated features like its FileVault, which protects data privacy, are standard. Microsoft users will have to buy the most expensive version of Vista, Vista Ultimate, for as much as $199 above basic Vista, to obtain BitLocker, a similar feature of that operating system.

It never ceases to amaze me that Microsoft can unload a steaming pile of crap into the Operating System market–late, mind you; then the company gimps less expensive, home user versions by locking certain features, while charging people $200.00 for the full operating system.

And many, many people pony up the bucks, take a big ol’ whiff of Bill Gates’ steamy pile, and call it roses.

The subject line of this post raises an interesting question, I think. In all the articles I read yesterday about the iPhone and the Apple TV, no journalist remarked on the fact that at the MacWorld Expo, for the first time in human memory, Apple Computer did not make a single product announcement involving actual Mac computers.

Don’t get me wrong, the gadgets Apple unveiled are exciting. The Apple TV is especially intriguing for me, a person who has come to adore DVR boxes as the Second Coming of the iPod.

Furthermore, if I didn’t already have a cell plan with verizon…and if the iPhone weren’t so damned expensive…I’d probably buy one. It’s basically a handheld computer, not a phone or a juiced-up iPod, or even a Blackberry. It’s all those things and more. It’s a beautiful, small computer.

What I found interesting–not disappointing, but interesting–was that there was nothing new unveiled involving Macintosh computers. No new laptops. No new iMacs. Not even the same old Macs, but with improved specs.

One thing that was unveiled, perhaps significantly, is a name change for the company. The Washington Post put it like this:

There was even a surprise name change for the company. Effective immediately, Apple Computer Inc. is dropping the “Computer” from its name and will simply go by Apple Inc., a sign that the Mac computer line is no longer the flagship product of a company that is increasingly a trendsetter in music, video and wireless networking.

I’m not sure how to feel about this. I love the gadgets; I miss seeing some advances in the computers. The Mac computer is why I buy Apple products in the first place.

I had hoped that at the very least, Apple would upgrade the Macbook or the Mac Mini’s video card, making them capable of playing World of Warcraft. Or failing that, maybe Apple would release a new widescreen iPod (I guess they did, sorta, if one regards the iPhone as a widescreen iPod). I could see myself buying a widescreen iPod in the next few months. Between Brendan and I, we actually watch quite a bit of film on my iPod.

I downloaded Cars for him, and I also have another Disney film, Chicken Little, on there, as well as many other short cartoons. For myself, I have been watching Lost on my iPod, rather than on TV. I watch it at night, lying in bed, and sometimes on my lunch break at work.

So did Apple release a widescreen iPod, or upgraded Macintosh computers?

No. Nada. Rien de rien. No soup for you.

Strange, don’t you think? This ain’t your daddy’s Apple Computer, Hon.

[Note: the best article I've found on the iPhone is this one from Time. Apple's New Calling: The iPhone. It's a bit frothy with adulation, but it makes me want one of these devices. I want one very badly. I've just gotta think...when is my contract with Verizon up?

I think if the next generation of the device is cheaper, has more storage, and if I can use it on Verizon's network, I'll probably have to buy one. That's a lot of "if's", so I don't think my wife has to start balancing the checkbook anytime soon. Still, it's a sweet item, a sweet, misnamed item. This device really is a small computer that happens to allow you to make phone calls.

Also, I disagree with the author's assertion that the iPhone is NOT a luxury item. At $499 for a 4 gig model, and $599 for an 8 gig mdoel, yes that is a luxury item for most people, including myself. The 8 gig model is more expensive than a Mac Mini desktop computer.]

[Ed. Note: this is the first in a multi-part series on my experience with technology from 1990 to 2006, or "how I learned to stop worrying and love the Mac." Other parts of this story will be published in forthcoming days, hopefully consecutively if I find time to write them.)

It still seems odd to me to think of the nineteen-nineties in a historical sense, but in large part the previous decade has already retreated into the dim past for most of us. Looking at old television news footage from 1991, the clothing styles already seem antique, the hairstyles too long and outmoded.

Even though barely fifteen years have passed since the beginning of that decade, it already seems aeons ago in large part due to the technological changes that have swept us into a future we could hardly have imagined back then. The Internet existed in 1991, but who knew anything about it, outside a few universities? People were still carrying around a Sony Walkman, rather than an iPod; but Apple computer was still king of the home computer market. Windows was still in its birth pangs; Windows 3.1 would not appear until 1992.

Some of us who used Windows 3.1 might say that Microsoft’s baby was still-born, or at least badly deformed. But that’s another blog post.

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Incredibly, it’s about as big as a matchbook and holds 1 gigabyte of music. The iPod Nano also got an update today, but the update is more retro than forward-looking. The addition of color to the iPod Nano line is reminiscent of the dearly departed iPod Mini of yesteryear.

In addition to the new iPods, Apple also announced a forthcoming product, called iTV, which would make it possible to play movies and TV shows downloaded from iTunes on your home entertainment system. Apple almost never previews a not-yet-available hardware product, so the iTV is probably going to command most of the attention from bloggers and Mac rumor sites.

MacDailyNews has photos of the iTV. It looks like a sleek DVR box, but from the description it is apparently not a DVR. No hard drive. No TV tuner. The box acts as an intermediary between your Mac and your TV and other home entertainment components, and as such seems kind of redundant.
The question becomes, are future Macs going to offer built in TV tuning and recording capabilities, such as are available from current models of DVR? Will the Mac effectively become the DVR?

I have to admit it seems a bit clunky to have two devices, an iTV and a Mac, performing the same functions as one device currently, a Tivo or DVR. Maybe when the product is finally released, we will find that the iTV is closer to the Apple-brand DVR or media center than it now appears to be.