Tech Talk

Apple has unveiled the much-hyped and highly anticipated tablet device – known as the iPad.

“It’s a giant iPod Touch-looking device, just like we thought. Same home button, same bezel,” Erica Ogg wrote in a live-blog from within the tablet’s unveiling for CNET News.

The device, which can be oriented in either landscape or portrait mode like its iPhone cousin, could be utilized to surf the Web using the familiar touch screen navigation, Ogg wrote.

Like on the iPhone, there is a calendar an address book and access to Google Maps and, of course, the iTunes Store.

Videos could be watched, Ogg wrote, through YouTube and other sites.

It appears that it is very similar in operation to the iPhone — in terms of zooming, scrolling and syncing with computers, based on Ogg’s description. It also has a built-in iPod.

The iPad is WiFi enabled, Ogg wrote. Models will also have 3G, Ogg reported.

There will be two plans, according to CNET: 250MB of data every month for $15 or unlimited data for $30 per month. AT&T will continue to serve as the carrier. Both plans are pre-paid and require no contracts, Ogg wrote.

There are also groovy accessories — including a keyboard, Ogg reports, for folks who need to do a lot of typing.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and founder, said the iPad is much more intimiate than a laptop, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Journal reports that the thin device looks like a larger iPhone:

More on the looks: Thick black border on all sides. The background of the home screen is a photo that you can set for yourself. Jobs has finished the demo and is now talking about the hardware. It’s a half-inch in thickness and features a 9.7-inch IPS display, with multi-touch sensors.

The device, which comes with as much as 64 GB of flash storage, has WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities standard, the Journal reports. It also has 10 hours of battery life and more than a month of standby life, Jobs said.

The New York Times created an app for the iPad that, according to the Journal, “looks more like a newspaper than the iPhone app — you can resize fonts, and it flows along columns. Videos accompany the stories and can be watched along side.” No mention of price, though.

iBookstore was also unveiled by Jobs, according to the Journal.  Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette books will be available. CNET reports that text books will also be available.

New York Times’ Brad Stone was really impressed with iBook:

The iBooks store looks neat — plenty of colors, vivid book covers. Mr. Jobs is showing “True Compass” by Edward Kennedy, a book that was not available in the Kindle store for weeks after its release.

Among the cooler items on the device is iWork, which according to CNET, allows users to create presentations “with touch input only.” Spreadsheets could also be crafted.

16GB iPads will cost $499, Ogg reports. 32GB models will cost $599, 64GB models will cost $699; devices with 3G with cost an additional $130.

Shipments will begin in 60 days, she said. 3G models will begin shipping in 90 days.

Stone notes some of the more significant short-comings of the iPad:

• No ability to play Adobe Flash animations
• No camera
• No non-Internet phone function
• No removable battery for a device that can suck a lot of power
• No removable storage

Bottom line: The iPad looks cool and has a few neat new features, but will it be worth the price — particularly if you already own an iPhone 3GS and have a small laptop?

Much has been written recently about how technology is creating a Fifth Estate in America. The media has long been regarded as the Fourth Estate, or watchers of government.

Citizen and online journalists, who fall in the new category, are utilizing blogs, smart phones and server space to disseminate news and information quickly around the world.

However, smart phones are not only helping people around the world try their hand at journalism.  They are also saving lives.

According to an NBC News report, Dan Woolley survived under tons of wreckage in the lobby of his hotel in Haiti, in large part thanks to his iPhone.

Woolley had taken refuge in an elevator shaft, where he used an iPhone first-aid app to treat a compound fracture of his leg and a cut on his head. He had already used his digital SLR camera’s focusing light to illuminate his surroundings, and taken pictures of the wreckage to help find a safe place to wait to be rescued — or to die.

The app taught him how to fashion a bandage and touniquet for his leg and to stop the bleeding from a head injury, NBC News reported. It also advised him not to allow him to drift into deep sleep if he thought he might be going into shock. He told the peacock network that he utilized his phone’s alarm clock to go off every 20 minutes.

Eventually French rescuers discovered Woolley and brought him to safety.

Nexus One image courtesy of Google.

Rejoice!

Google’s new smart phone, the Nexus One, is now available for purchase. 

You could take a virtual tour of the phone here.

But before you run out — or, more accurately, log on – and give the search engine $530 for an unlocked version that is said to work with “nearly all” GSM SIM cards, (or send T-Mobile $180 and get locked into a two-year contract,) I suggest reading Wired’s detailed review here.

For more analysis and a comparison of how the Nexus One stacks up among other smart phones, I recommend checking out an article in the Wall Street Journal here.

And then, if you ultimately decide to get the phone, send your review to Tech Talk.  We would love to hear from you.

One of the biggest issues facing cell phone service providers is their inability to offer customers service during peak periods — like the dawn of a new year or during the height of a disaster.

As I write this post just 80 minutes into 2010 on the East Coast, I lack cellular service from AT&T in a location I generally have full service. I am suffering the same fate on my cell phone that utilizes Verizon service.

If cellular companies cannot provide service during periods of anticipated spikes in demand, what are they going to muster during unexpected spikes that occur during disasters where getting connected could be the difference of life or death?

One place I haven’t had any difficulties connecting this morning was through my home’s good old fashion landline — which got me thinking and grateful. Perhaps it’s because phone companies can better accomodate surges in customer demand over landlines, or perhaps it’s because fewer people are utilizing this technology to wish loved ones well tonight, but regardless, landlines connected me to the people I wished to speak with immediately without fearing a loss of service.

I had considered canceling my landline service, but changed my mind tonight. And I suggest you give a second thought before even considering canceling your traditional phone service. It may prove to be a life saver one day.

May 2010 be a wonderful year for you.

The American justice system is facing a threat that could result in the incarceration of the innocent and freedom of the guilty.

Graphic courtesy of California Court System

For years, judges have instructed juries to refrain from reading newspapers or watching local television news to preserve each defendant’s right to a fair trial.  However, the Internet threatens to strip our society from that inherent right of all men, women and children.

As Americans, and particularly folks from Southwestern Connecticut, become increasingly connected, it is becoming more difficult to avoid tainting a jury pool.  Countless blogs, tweets and Facebook statuses are disseminated everyday on a variety of topics — in an unpredictable manner.  As an example, a Tech Talk post from last week reported that almost 100 million words a day were posted in Facebook status updates at the beginning of the year.  It is impossible to anticipate the information one will find by logging onto the net.

For this reason, judges need to instruct juries to not just avoid – but stop visiting blogs and social networking sites – during their service as a juror.  Who knows, as was mentioned in a Tech Talk post earlier this week, it might even do the jurors some good to cut their digital leash for a little while.

The Internet also allows people, jurors included, to find supplemental information.  Jurors should be banned from using the net to find more information on the case they have been selected to offer a judgement on.

A TIME article reported that one juror doing research led to a mistrial in Miami.  This juror should be imprisoned.  It may seem harsh, but such actions threaten the very integrity of this country’s jury system — it’s that simple.  Think that juror’s actions were an isolated incident?  Think again! It was determined that at least nine of the 12 jurors Googled after hours.  America needs to get serious on this issue.

In another instance cited in the same article, a New York City juror sent a Facebook friend request to a witness during deliberations.  Following a guilty verdict, the defense team tried to get the verdict overturned, according to the article.  If the request had been granted, a potentially guilty person could have gone free and threatened the innocent.  If this person was innocent, someone who should not have been jailed was. How would you like to be imprisoned for something you did not do because of Facebook?  Either way, it is clear that judges need to prohibit jurors from utilizing social networking sites entirely during trials — and make clear that any use of the Internet, or any other means, to get supplemental information or to connect with people involved in the case will be a jailable offense.

New York City customers could once again purchase the iPhone online, Tech Talk has confirmed, as the Associated Press originally reported Monday afternoon.

AT&T customers living in New York City discovered over the past few days that they were no longer able to purchase the wildly popular iPhone from its Web site.

Customers who entered a New York City ZIP code were instructed to “Please shop for another phone.”

AT&T has yet to explain the reason for the suspension of sales, which the AP reports began several days ago, beyond that it periodically “modifies” its distribution channels.

The AP had previously reported that the phone company said its data network is overburdened with iPhone users in  New York and San Francisco creating speculation that the sales blackout is a traffic management technique.

However, interestingly customers were always able to purchase iPhones in New York City stores and from Apple’s Web site, AT&T customers reported extensively online.

Customers in New York have complained for months of dropped calls and slow service.  An AT&T representative indirectly confirmed that such service was at least particularly responsible for the change in service.

The Consumerist, the blog that may have broken the news, quoted an AT&T customer service representative as saying “New York is not ready for the iPhone. … You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.”

Mashable, the social media Web site, reported that some callers to AT&T were told that sales have been halted due to fraud.

What began just 13 years ago as a small community of people united by a common desire to celebrate Jerry Garcia’s music has transformed into a powerhouse.

In this photo, courtesy of the Vibes, fans huddle around the event's stage.

The Vibe Tribe, as the individuals are known, is a growing group of folks who take a single weekend out of their busy summers to simply enjoy life to the soundtrack of great music at the Gathering of the Vibes.

Event organizers have made it easier for the tribe to connect ahead of this weekend’s festival at Bridgeport’s Seaside Park with an increased focus in social networking.

“We’ve always had some online social networking,” Kevin O’Brien, marketing director of the Gathering of the Vibes, said. “But as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter has really blown up in the last couple of years we’ve realized we needed to be in that world.”

The Gathering of the Vibes recruited two recent University of Colorado graduates to help.

Jason Mitchell and Eric Dieter, co-founders of Movement Strategy, created a Twitter account and managed the Vibes’ other social networking sites.

“They came through for us,” O’Brien said.

Mitchell said he and Dieter attempted to get people talking.

“We wanted to build a community around the Vibes and what people are interested in,” he said of Movement Strategy’s efforts. “We wanted to give fans a place to have a conversation and I think we’re pretty successful with that — particularly on Facebook.”

In all, Movement Strategy has managed the Vibes’ Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube accounts.

“People are really sharing their stories and uploading their photos and videos,” Mitchell said. “One thing that was very successful for us was getting people to upload videos from previous shows.”

Just hours before the event kicked off, there were 6,172 fans on Facebook; 2,561 followers on Twitter and 7,760 friends on MySpace.

“We definitely focused a lot on Facebook because when you look at numbers around social networking, that’s where people are — and it allows you to share tour photos and videos,” Mitchell said. “I hope we can continue to build the community.”

In addition to the social network aspects, the Vibes also have a very active forum with 18,002 threads, 326,648 posts, 12,522 members and 2,736 active members.

The Vibes have also hosted weekly streaming video conferences with an average of 40 “dedicated fans” regularly attending, Mitchell said.

“The Gathering of the Vibes community has definitely gathered around social networking more than other communities have,” Mitchell said. “We understand better than other people that social media is about asking people to participate.”

Users input through the social networking sites have been noted and have directly affected decision-making, O’Brien said.

He pointed to one item in particular — the passing of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.

“It was a huge concern,” O’Brien said. “So we have implemented strike forces and a 24-hour call line.”

He said if people are scared to come to the festival, they just won’t attend, so feedback is always considered seriously.

Mitchell said he will be at this weekend’s event shooting video and still photos and regularly uploading their materials throughout their social networks.

“We will encourage people there to upload their own stuff,” Mitchell added.

He said he hopes to have a contest of user generated materials following the weekend-long concert.

“The idea is to get people to become part of the Gathering of the Vibes community — not just the weekend or the week leading to it,” he said.

AT&T has denied Internet reports that the telephone company would be delaying multi-media messaging (images, audio, video, rich text,) and that a tethering plan would cost an additional $55 per month for iPhone users in an e-mail to Wired.com.

In the message, a spokesman said that while the company will charge for a tethering plan, it has yet to be determined how much it will cost or when it will become available.  AT&T also maintained that MMS will be available “later this summer.”

However, the article does note a problem with the statement:
“Early September is still considered late summer, so if MMS doesn’t arrive until then, AT&T will not have broken its promise.”