When I heard that Apple and Android products had spyware on it that tells someone (everyone is passing the buck over who gets the info and who puts it on the device) where your phone is and what it is doing, including the contents of text messages, the first thought that comes to mind is how to get it off. For once, Apple has been the least hidden about this and unalike with the Android phones, you can remove Carrier IQ from your iphone. And while Apple tricked you into agreeing to your phone being spied on, Android phones do not even ask. To remove Carrier IQ from your ipod touch, ipad, or iphone, go into settings, tap on general, than tap on about, than tap on Diagnostics & Usage and select Don’t Send. Otherwise your idevice will send reports to Apple saying where you are and what your idevice is doing. As is, your idevice will keep a log of what your idevice is doing, but at least it will not be sent to Apple.
Black Friday
Want a two or three hundred dollar phone for a penny? Go to amazon.com on black friday and you can chose between quite a few phone for a penny with a free $100 amazon gith card (with two year contact). While most retailer’s deals are not as spectacular, the $199 with $50 gift card from target is one of the better deals out there. The normally $300 xbox with kinect is $200 at Walmart. But for software you should head for Office Max which has Adobe Photoshop 10 for $55, down from $100 and Microsoft Office for Mac for $80 from $120. Also, at Radioshack and Walmart, you can get an xbox 360 with kinect for $200 down from $349. You can view the some of the deals available from various places at:
http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8929998-the-best-tech-deals-this-black-friday
AND
http://gizmodo.com/5851137/the-ultimate-black-friday-gadget-cheat-sheet
Apple versus Samsung
The way things are going in the patent wars between Apple and Samsung this is what I imagine next.
- It has a screen!!!!! Patent infringement!!!
- It is a phone!!!!!! Patent infringement!!!
- It has a touchscreen!!!!! Major patent infringement!!!
- It uses a mapping system??!!! Never mind they were first to do it. Patent infringement!!!
- As a call icon they have a phone!!!!!????? Patent infringement!!!
- It is useable???? Patent infringement!!!
- Their phones are the same size as ours??? Pull their phones off the market ASAP!!!
Lets Sue!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some Great Free and Paid apps for ios
- Game Dev Story- this game rocks!!!! Your goal is to create a wildly popular game. While short, a ton of fun. Its price is a small drawback but when a new game comes out the rest go on sale for as low as .99. Made by Kairosoft an awesome app maker!!!
- Mega Mall Story- Also by Kairosoft another great game!!!! You get to run a mall and make it the best mall around, beating out your competitors.
- Dawn of Magic- A RPG by chinese game maker Lakoo. You fight monsters with various allies and try to save the world. An absorbing free game.
- Plants vs. Zombies- Defend your house from zombies!! A beautiful game with wonderful retina graphics.
- Pocket God- Time to torture pygmies in various ways in the world of Pocket God and Pocket God Journey to Uranus.
- Traffic Rush- one of the best games by Donut Games. You try to guide cars through an intersection and avoid crashes. Like all of Donut Games’ games, this one will occasionally go free.
Why RIM and the Blackberry will lose
With so many compelling alternatives to the Blackberry why will anyone use them? The answer is that the won’t. There are enough smart phones around that ones that don’t have a touchscreen, don’t have an app store full of apps, and use a physical keyboard with physical controls is already obsolete. With the email outages for blackberry owners, RIM (Research In Motion) has sped up their doom even more. The Blackberry Playbook is regarded as a complete and utter failure. After all for $500 you can buy a Blackberry Playbook or an opening level ipad. Who are you going to pick?
ios 5
Our family is crazy for apple and when ios 5 comes out tomorrow, 4 of our 9 idevices will be updated. In my opinion, the best features are:
- imessage- being able to message my friends ipod touches will be awesome.
- Never having to plug my ipod touch into the computer again. I don’t know about you but my macbook pro almost always removes my 100+ apps from folders, put apps I don’t want on, and exceeds my device memory.
- Being able to edit my photos on the device with the new photos app.
- The new camera app which allows zooming in, focusing, and being able to take photos from the lock screen.
