Monthly Archives: April 2009

Extreme typing challenge pits iPhone vs. netbook

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When I saw this video I knew that I had to post it. I hear some people lament the fact that the iPhone doesn’t have a hard keyboard on it. To me, the virtual keyboard was a huge selling point (primarily because I hate typing on hard, sharp, and tiny keys) and this video shows why it is better for a mobile device.

Our challenge was pretty simple: hop into the passenger seat alongside 14-time European Rallycross champion Kenneth Hansen, hurtle around Lydden racetrack in Dover, England, and attempt to type, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”–a pangram, or holoalphabetic sentence containing every letter of the alphabet–onto each device.

via Video: Xtreme typing challenge pits iPhone vs. Netbook | Crave – CNET.

TidBITS Safe Computing: Five Tips for Reading Mac Security Stories

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The need for computer security long ago passed from a minor annoyance to something that could affect our personal and financial safety. Just as disasters, crime, and tales of tragedy tend to dominate the news, stories of information security failures never fail to grab the headlines. When it’s a story with the potential to smear a media darling like Apple, you can bet the article will be right up there next to the latest celebrity embarrassment. But with a little consideration of these five tips, you can evaluate the reality level of any given security story.

via TidBITS Safe Computing: Five Tips for Reading Mac Security Stories.

How to turn off an iPhone

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I almost never turn my iPhone off. But, if I am out and about and far away from a power outlet or my charging cable there are sometimes that I have to turn it off to save my battery. If you find yourself in a similar situation hold the lock (or sleep) button on the top of the phone down until you see the “slide to power off” slider – about 3 seconds. You can also try this if your phone is acting strange. On the rare occasions something is not quite right, switching my phone off and then turning it back on (by holding down the same button until the Apple icon appears) will have everything back to normal.

iTunes Store music is now 100% iTunes Plus

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The entire iTunes Store catalog is now iTunes Plus. This means that none of the music purchased from the iTunes Store contains DRM. It also means that all of the music on the store is recorded at a higher quality.

Apple started this long, slow march with a letter from Steve Jobs titled Thoughts on Music. They updated us on the status of their efforts at Macworld in January and began accelerating their conversion to iTunes Plus then as well.

Learn more about upgrading to iTunes Plus, including what benefits may make it worth it for you.

iTunes Store adds 69¢ & $1.29 price tiers for music

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At Macworld in January, Apple announced that they would be introducing three tiers of pricing to the iTunes Store. Those new pricing tiers are now active. The pricing tiers on the US iTunes Store are now 69¢, 99¢, and $1.29. The good news for modern music buyers is that out of the top ten songs on the store, only three [later in the roll-out] six of them are priced at the top tier of $1.29 – one of which is “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas.

None of the top 100 songs are priced at the lower 69¢ price. Catalog items like Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s Greatest Hits do not reflect this new budget pricing tier. That album even contains a few premium tracks like “Bad Moon Rising” and “Down on the Corner.”  However, the full album is priced at a very reasonable $6.99. Finding a 69¢ song on the iTunes Store is like hunting for Easter eggs. I finally found some by looking at Kraftwerk. “Numbers” is priced at 69¢ along with six other songs. Still, this change isn’t as bad as one could have imagined. At the time of this writing only 33% of the top 100 songs are priced at an elevated level and one could have easily assumed the entire 100 songs would be $1.29.

I will continue to watch the pricing levels and will report on any large scale trends that differ from what we see today.