Who’s really behind the iMessage encryption hype?

There have been many reports about how government authorities have been stymied by the level of encryption used by Apple’s iMessage service. cNet recently reported that even with a search warrant, “it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices“. Their report was based on an internal DEA ‘Intelligence Note’ that was “obtained by cnet’. Really. cnet ‘obtained’ an internal DEA document.

While discussing various conspiracy theories, a friend and I wondered if Apple was what really led cnet and others to discover the DEA document, and used the ‘leak’ to sell even more iPhones and iPads… albeit to a criminal audience.

Or perhaps it really is the feds, but they actually find iMessage easy to work with, and just want more bad guys using technology that makes it easier to catch criminals with. Nope. not likely.

Must have been Apple.

Why Windows8 and PC sales are down

Why aren’t more people buying Windows 8? Here’s my opinion: folks who are still using Win7 or even Vista, don’t have a computer that meets Win8 requirements, and aren’t willing to buy a new PC just to use Win8. They are also afraid that their printers and other peripherals won’t work well with Win8, so upgrading seems like a costly and frustrating ordeal.

So, why aren’t more people just buying a new PC? Because there aren’t enough compelling new features AND it means having to end up with Windows8, and too many people just really hate Win8.

Of course, the other reason is that Apple iDevices are outselling ALL forms of windows computers, and once a windows user is assimilated, the halo effect kicks in and more people are willing to convert to Mac OS X rather than upgrade an old PC to Win8, or buy a new PC with Win8.

WWDC could be improved, but does Apple care?

Once a year, Apple holds its World Wide Developer’s Conference at the mother ship in Cupertino to expose Mac and iOS developers to as many Apple engineers as possible, so as to ensure steady app growth. This year’s even sold out its 5,000 available seats in less than three minutes time, frustrating tens of thousands of developers who would gladly pay $1599 for a ticket.

With nearly 300,000 combined registered developers, many have wondered why Apple doesn’t change the way WWDC is done, and bring exposure and knowledge-sharing to more developers. Some think WWDC should be killed off.

My guess is that Apple doesn’t see WWDC as broken, since their platforms show the most app growth compared to whatever else you want to consider as competition. Thankfully, Apple is committing to publish event videos during WWDC, instead of months after. This should help to quickly educate more developers with the latest trends in app development… but really seems to just be a token effort to quiet the hordes who miss the chance to be there live.

Sadly, until such a time that iOS app development is perceived as the weaker platform, its doubtful that Apple would commit any more time and effort than they currently put into their WWDC.

T-Mobile the ‘uncarrier’ just as evil as other carriers.

T-mobile recently started a campaign calling itself the ‘uncarrier’ because they don’t tie customers to dreaded 2-year contracts like the other major carriers. Instead, customers get a moderately priced phone they can use without a monthly ‘commitment’, but spread off the payment of the balance of their phone’s cost over time, so long as they are still using t-mo service. If this customer chooses to walk away from tmo before the balance of their phone is paid off, the customer has to pay off that balance in whole.

Well… a state attorney general sees this restructuring of fees as a confusing marketing ploy and appear to be forcing tmobile to change their marketing hoopla since their uncarrier plan is hardly different than major carriers 2-yr contracts that force customers to pay an early termination fee if they walk away from their contracts.

Verizon was once known for being evil because they exercised bad math. I think T-mobile is just as evil for believing that their new uncarrier marketing ploy makes them better than the notoriously evil major carriers.

I seriously hope that tmobile ends up with a bunch of idiot customers who fall for the uncarrier marketing hype, because evil carriers deserve to have idiots as customers.

New 3D MicroBattery jump starts car and recharges instantly

Most of us can’t live without our electronic gadgets, and as they become smaller and more powerful, they become capable of doing even more to make our lives simpler and more productive. Driven by consumer demand, technological leaps in processor hardware and software features are happening at a rapid pace.

What hasn’t changed in a while is battery technology, leaving us with devices that can’t last as long as a typical work day. In addition, many great gadgets never make it to production because to be useful, they need small, light, higher powered and longer-lasting batteries that simply do not exist.

All that might change sooner that you think. Back in 2011, a University of Illinois research group led by Paul Braun developed a three-dimensional (3D) battery cathode structure that provided dramatically faster charging and discharging. But the cathode is just one of two main parts to modern batteries.

MicroBattery 3D Cathode/Anode Structure

MicroBattery 3D Cathode/Anode Structure – courtesy the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology

A new report from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tells of another research group led by William P. King that has “developed a matching anode and then developed a new way to integrate the two components at the microscale to make a complete battery with superior performance”.

These new “microbatteries” will offer a wide range of power and energy combinations, and could allow for credit-card thin cell phones with radio signals that broadcast 30 times farther, while at the same time be recharged in an instant.

king_william_a

William P. King

As King puts it: “This is a whole new way to think about batteries. A battery can deliver far more power than anybody ever thought. In recent decades, electronics have gotten small. The thinking parts of computers have gotten small. And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it.”

I look forward to my next iPad Mini with a full retina display and an Apple-developed quad-core processor… with week-long runtime provided by a reolutionary 3D microbattery!

Germanane could bridge gap until Graphene is practical.

Graphene grid of carbon atoms

Graphene Grid

Graphene is commonly described as pure carbon atoms arranged in a one atom thick grid resembling chicken-wire . Its being hailed as the successor to silicon that currently dominates integrated circuit construction, and promises to provide superior processing speed at smaller scale with lower power consumption. The problem with Graphene is that it is currently difficult to produce.

Not content to wait on Graphene’s future, Joshua Goldberger, assistant professor of chemistry at Ohio State wondered if more could be done to take advantage of current materials. Goldberger and his colleagues had been “searching for unique forms of silicon and germanium with advantageous properties, to get the benefits of a new material but with less cost and using existing technology” according to a recent Ohio State press release.

gernamane diagram

Germanane Diagram

What they came up with is being called Germanane, a one atom thick sheet of Germanium, the same material used over 60 years ago to create the first transistors. Constructed in such a way that uses Hydrogen, germanane is significantly more stable than traditional silicon, allowing its use in current/conventional chip manufacturing techniques — something graphene cannot do.

Besides being easy to integrate into manufacturing processes, germanane “conducts electrons more than ten times faster” than the silicone it could come to replace, allowing for progress that graphene promises to deliver in a distant future, but in the nearer term.

Germanane could also bring significant change to the solar energy industry in the near future as its “Direct Band Gap” allows for light to be absorbed and emitted far more efficiently than current silicon designs. Germanane can pass the same amount of energy in material that is 100 times thinner than current materials, which could allow solar energy to dominate in the alternative energy scene.

CBS’s ‘The Good Wife’ trendier than most

cast of the Good Wife
I’m a big fan of the CBS TV show “The Good Wife“, and last night’s episode had me wondering if its writers are clairvoyant as they integrated such trendy topics as Aaron Swartz, BitCoin and Anonymous into the latest episode of the thought provoking law drama.

What had me puzzled is that I know the episode had to have been shot at least 2 or 3 months ago, which would have been right around the time of Swartz’s suicide. Hats off to the writers for integrating his death into last night’s episode as quickly as they did, and tying in ‘Anonymous’ into its main story line so well!

DARPA TIMU chip provides location during GPS blackout

When a GPS system loses sight of satellites in space, they can’t continue to accurately provide your current location. DARPA recently announced that in conjunction with the University of Michigan, they are working on chip tinier than a penny that will help to provide location and navigation, even when there is no GPS signal available.

The chip works off of “timing & inertial measuring unit” — aka TIMU — and uses three gyroscopes, three accelerometers, and an extremely accurate clock, to calculate location based on last known GPS fix.

More info available in the DARPA press release.

TIMU chip is tinier that a penny

TIMU chip is tinier that a penny

Apple Should Buy DirecTV

In another post, I explain why Apple Should Buy Disney for its content and broadcast channels ABC and ESPN.

With a slew of historical and future content secured, I also think (and predict) that Apple should buy DirecTV, which gives Apple a means to distribute all that content.

Just imagine what DirecTV adds to the ‘ecosystem’ Apple already enjoys, and how the acquisition will help to make Apple iTV a greater success.

In fact, buying DirecTV makes more sense than buying cable TV outfits like Comcast or TimeWarner, because neither provides consumers the national availability that DirecTV does.

Once assimilated, Apple would quickly develop iTV to replace DirecTV’s existing software/UI in DVR’s, bringing to the Apply community, Steve Jobs’ vision of how television should truly be consumed.