Category Archives: Tech!

Why you shouldn’t buy the new HP Pavilion dv7 in one photo

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Don’t buy the new HP Pavilion dv7.

I’ve had this new “top of the line” laptop from HP for awhile, and despite the impressive speed, built-in BluRay, HDMI access, giant screen, epic sound, and stupendous battery life, this one photo shows why it’s almost time to play laptop-frisbee.

 

Don't buy the HP Pavilion dv7

 

Left hand on the A, S, D and F keys? No problem!

Right hand on the J, K, L and ; keys? You will ALWAYS trigger the trackpad.

Imagine getting halfway through a document, only to see that somewhere along the line, the trackpad activated from a palm-hit. Now you’ve got whole paragraphs out of place and spliced words all over the document because the cursor was jumping around while you were typing.

There’s a button on the trackpad you can triple-tap to “deactivate” the input (the little white box on the upper left) so you can type with your palms on the palmrest like you’re supposed to, but there goes your live mouse editing ability.

Click off trackpad, type comfortably, see error on review, click on trackpad, move mouse to specific edit area, click off trackpad, type comfortably, click on trackpad, put mouse back to end of document, click off trackpad, type comfortably, see error, click off trackpad… that gets old surprisingly fast.

How hard would it have been for HP engineers to move the trackpad over just ONE INCH TO THE LEFT? Or make the trackpad just a little bit smaller?! Didn’t anyone in HP quality control sit down with an alpha of this laptop and try to type with it?

Sorry HP. This one behemoth design goof makes the dv7 a “hell no” in my book.

NASA, Birds, Pigs and gravity : a new collaboration with the “Angry Birds : Space” game

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The latest version of Angry Birds has a direct tie-in with NASA’s recent Mars / Curiosity rover mission in addition to adding NASA rovers and landers to the game dynamics.

Sneaking legitimate education and real-time events into a game about birds that shoot at pigs in space through gravity wells?!

Why… thank you very much!

Here’s today’s NASA press release in full…

RELEASE: 12-285

EPIC STRUGGLE BETWEEN BIRDS AND PIGS GOES ON WITH A MARTIAN TWIST

WASHINGTON — NASA is helping pigs and birds explore the Martian terrain and shed light on the agency’s missions to the Red Planet in the latest update to the game Angry Birds Space. Rovio Entertainment, creator of Angry Birds, announced the update Thursday, complete with a cast of agency rovers and landers.

Earlier this year, millions of gamers were introduced to concepts of microgravity in Angry Birds Space, which was supported through a partnership with NASA and includes links to a variety of education information.

“Rovio is teaching huge new audiences about NASA’s missions to Mars thanks to this collaboration,” said David Weaver, associate administrator for communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It’s a great way to introduce both kids and adults to the wonders of the planet in a fun and entertaining way.”

NASA participated with Rovio on Angry Birds Space under a Space Act Agreement to share the excitement of space with the Angry Birds community, educate players about agency projects and programs, and collaboratively create interactive informational experiences for the public.

The game will include links to NASA web content about Mars exploration and NASA missions that are represented in the game. The content can be found at:

http://www.nasa.gov/redplanet/

“We’re huge NASA fans, and we were all cheering the Mars Curiosity rover as it touched down,” said Peter Vesterbacka, chief marketing officer of Rovio Entertainment. “So, working together on the Mars update was a perfect fit, especially since we got such an amazing response to our previous collaboration, the ‘Angry Birds Space: NASA announcement’ video, which quickly surged to the top of 2012’s viral video charts. We’re thrilled to continue working with NASA. Stay tuned for even more great fun and educational content coming up.”

For more information about NASA’s Curiosity rover and Mars exploration, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mars

For more about NASA’s other missions and projects, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Neiman Marcus (and Euclid) track you while you shop

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A few weeks ago, my gorgeous wife and I went shopping at Neiman Marcus. We were just looking around on the third floor (AKA the “very expensive gadgets to make toast” floor), when I saw some water fountains near the customer service area. I went over, got a drink, and as I was walking back into the general shopping area, I saw this sign on the wall.

 

Euclid Elements Warning Sign

 

“To enhance our customer’s experience, we use Euclid to identiry mobile devices in and around our stores. Only the information that your device publicly broadcasts will be collected. If you do not want this information collected, or want to learn more information about Euclid, visit euclidelements.com/consumer.”

Wow. Tracking me in the store? Without my consent? That was a nice little “oh hell no” kind of surprise.

So I immediately visited euclidelements.com/consumer and on the main landing page was a bullet-point style mash of “we do not link any information we collect with the owner” and it’s only “aggregate and anonymous data.”

Fine. But if you really want to know how Euclid works, you have to go in and read their big long Privacy Statement.

Here’s a summary…

“If and only if you have a wifi-equipped phone AND wifi is turned on, Euclid’s sensors collect your phone’s unique MAC address, some information that describes the manufacturer, and data that is used to estimate its location in relation to the sensor. We calculate and analyze client traffic based on these signals sent from shoppers’ mobile devices.”

In other words, they can tell exactly where you are in the store at any given point and how long you stay in each area.

They then “anonymize and analyze this information in order to provide our clients with valuable analytics reports so they can improve their operations.”

They have a LOT more detail on the Privacy Statement section of their site about the whys and hows their tech works, but this particular part stuck with me…

“Our clients use Euclid Services to answer questions like: How many new shoppers did I have today? Last week? Do more people stop and enter the store with one window display vs.or another? Do more people usually tend to grab a coffee or an ice cream after going to the dentist? Answering these questions does not require that we know who you are. We only need to determine that you are a unique person. ”

…and…

“Turning off wi-fi on your phone or turning the phone off will stop sensor collection but you are still advised to visit our site to delete any records we already have.”

Good to know.

Is this a big deal? Not if it had been addressed properly in the first place. I would have preferred a notice on the store’s entrance to let me know I had the option to opt-out before walking in. Like a software EULA. Let me, the customer, decide before you get my data if you can have my data. That’s the really important part right there. Don’t print this warning on a itty bitty sign and bury it in the no-man’s-land part of the store. I want to see things like this front and center.

The other part of this whole thing that bugs me is Euclid’s own statement that they “anonymize… this information.”

So, by inference, the collected data from my phone isn’t anonymous in the first place, and it is up to Euclid to anonymize it before passing it on to their paying customer. Soooo what happens if some other company buys Euclid later on down the line? Or what happens if someone breaches Euclid’s security just to take a little look-see at what data they have?

Just about everyone has WiFi constantly enabled on their phones these days, and some phones even have the “connect to any open network automatically” option checked by default. Tech companies like Euclid are probably very well aware of this, and I think this kind of “silent observation” is going to be more prevalent as more stores figure out they can very extensively track their customers from entry to exit.

Euclid’s motivations may be as pure as a chubby baby angel’s smile, but I highly recommend you go to the OPT OUT section on the Euclid website so that you can be removed from their databases, and by proxy, all the retail stores they support.

For now, I have it in my mind to switch off my phone’s WiFi whenever I enter any retail storefront. I’ve got nothing to hide, but just because I have nothing to hide doesn’t mean I want everybody and their dear old Aunt Petunia looking at what I’m doing either.

The latest in shopping cart technology

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During a recent visit to Walgreens, I saw a rather interesting tech upgrade to the plain old shopping cart.

Inside the shopping basket was a notice on a bright yellow background. “Attention shoppers! Our shopping carts will lock if taken beyond the parking lot perimeter. While distinctive yellow lines mark normal exits, the entire lot perimeter is protected.”

 

Shopping Cart Tech 01

 

So being a total tech neeeerrrrd, I started taking looking at the shopping cart to figure out how it worked.

The wheels looked OK from inside the basket…

 

Shopping Cart Tech 02

 

…but at the ground level, it was obvious that one wheel was completely different.

 

Shopping Cart Tech 03

 

The front left wheel (the same as the warning illustrated) was encased, and not completely solid like the other three wheels. It also felt heavier to spin by hand, but I didn’t notice any difference in moving down the isles when I was pushing the cart.

 

Shopping Cart Tech 04

 

Did I put enough eeeeerrrrd’s in the neeeeerrrrd description above?

Anyhow, the “Trojan wheel” had 10 phillips screws all along the perimeter and didn’t make any noise or give any resistance when I changed directions suddenly while driving the cart.

I’m guessing that this wheel is always listening to a signal that tells it it is “inside” the store grounds, and once that signal fades, a locking mechanism clamps down on the front left axle to bring the basket to a grinding halt. But I wonder if that means the wheels need occasional recharging or if the motion of the basket recharges the unit like our kinetic motion can charge modern watches?

Another option would be if there is a actual line-of-sight signal fence along the store perimeter, where if the basket crosses the signal line (which would have to be from ground level to about a foot high), the wheel gets the OK to seize up.

It’s an interesting piece of tech that I see being useful to stop some thieves from getting away with $75-$400 pieces of store inventory, but I wonder if these stores thought of how easy this security would be to bypass. If I was a bad guy, all I would do is pop the nut and bolt off the “trojan wheel” and put on a “normal wheel” from another basket! Done!

 

How to restore older versions of your apps in iTunes

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One of my biggest pet peeves about Apple’s iTunes store is that it’s almost impossible to downgrade to a previous version of an App once it has been “updated”.

For example, let’s say a developer releases a free game. Then, in a fit of pure evil, releases an update that adds “in-app purchases” that are not even necessary. Once you update the game, though, you can’t go back to the previous version.

I recently found a way around this.

First, we have to do a little preventative maintenance.

STEP ONE: Launch iTunes and click on the APPS section under LIBRARY.

 

01 App Backup And Restore

01 App Backup And Restore

 

STEP TWO: Pick an app. Any app. It really doesn’t matter which. (In this example, I chose TIMENOTES)

 

02 App Backup And Restore

02 App Backup And Restore

 

STEP THREE: Right-click (or control-click) on the app and go to SHOW IN FINDER

 

03 App Backup And Restore

03 App Backup And Restore

 

STEP FOUR: A folder will open called MOBILE APPLICATIONS. (These are all of the apps you have ever downloaded in iTunes.)

 

04 App Backup And Restore

04 App Backup And Restore

 

STEP FIVE: Go to EDIT in the top menu and go to SELECT ALL. All of the items in the MOBILE APPLICATIONS folder should then be highlighted.

 

05 App Backup And Restore

05 App Backup And Restore

 

STEP SIX: Now go to FILE and LABEL and choose a label color. (I chose green). All of the apps in the MOBILE APPLICATIONS folder should then change to that color.

 

06 App Backup And Restore

06 App Backup And Restore

 

STEP SEVEN: Close the MOBILE APPLICATIONS folder.**

Now when you go to the iTunes store and UPDATE an app (again, in this example I used TIMENOTES)…

 

07 App Backup And Restore

07 App Backup And Restore

 

…when the UPDATE is done, open the TRASH in the dock.

 

08 App Backup And Restore

08 App Backup And Restore

 

There’s the OLD version of the app!!

The updated app is already in the Mobile Applications folder, but iTunes keeps a copy of the old version of the app in the TRASH for a limited time!

Drag it out and save it somewhere for safekeeping!

If you don’t like the “updated” app, just follow steps one through four and delete the “updated” version from the MOBILE APPLICATIONS folder. Then copy the old version of the app back into the MOBILE APPLICATIONS folder and re-sync your iPad or iPhone.

Done!

** Addendum: If you want to be extra cautious about backing up your apps, follow steps one through six and copy everything in the mobile applications folder to a external drive for a complete backup. You can also tell which apps have been recently updated because they will not have a color-label.

*** Addendum #2: For those of you who noticed, yes, I have a LOT of apps. In my defense, I’ve been with iTunes since it was a alpha, so I’ve had a lot of time to accumulate what’s out there.

A reminder on how Facebook made their billions

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With the easy-to-scan timeline now in place for every user, and the packaging of the terabytes of freely-provided user data to companies eager to advertise to a wired audience, Facebook is having a grand old time right now.

I think there’s one little problem, though. Once corporations realize they’re just leasing the data on Facebook and not owning the data on Facebook, things will go downhill pretty quickly.

Let me give an example…

Let’s say there’s two competitor pizza chains, Road Runner Pizza and Coyote Pizza. Both pizza chains get to pull relevant user information from Facebook if they choose to advertise with them. Each company will get user’s ages, demographics, locations, weekend activities… everything freely posted by individuals to update their friends and to help corporate America make better targeted ads. Each pizza company will get to post their customized ads in the targeted demographic’s timelines and harvest any trending information that will help their pizza business succeed.

Here’s the boulder-in-the-face moment… let’s say a little ways down the road, Coyote Pizza drops their Facebook advertising for some reason or other.

Coyote Pizza’s data, all of their research, all of their demographic targeting, all of their strategies, all of their previous advertising positions, all of their activities done through and by Facebook, are STILL the property of Facebook.

Data which Facebook can now sell to Roadrunner Pizza since Coyote Pizza is no longer in the game.

Facebook made their billions by selling data. Not by selling physical products. Not by setting up free social meeting places. DATA. That’s their plan, plain and simple. Sell the data to whoever will pay for it. Why should Facebook treat corporate data any different from an individual’s data?

This boulder-in-the-face moment may take a little time to hit companies who are eagerly jumping on the Facebook bandwagon right now with giant $970 million dollar signs in their eyes, but when it does, I expect a serious “you tricked us!” backlash against Facebook.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Facebook will respect corporate information better than they do individual information and keep a balanced campaign for competing companies despite their overlapping demographic interests. Or maybe Facebook will happily take a blank check in trade for a few year’s of a company’s targeted strategies and tactics that another advertiser is interested in.

It should be interesting either way.

10 things RIM can do to survive Apple’s assault on the Playbook

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News that Apple is “likely to begin production of 7.85-inch iPads in 3Q12” hit the web today, and it’s seriously bad news for RIM and their recently re-vitalized Playbook tablets. 7″ iPads from Apple? Hey RIM, in case you didn’t see the subtle signs before, today marks an official countdown for you guys. Apple has noticed your little sub-tablet niche and is coming after it. Hard.

So what can RIM do to survive a direct assault from Apple?

1. Like I mentioned before, I think RIM can still make up for lost time by aggressively flooding the market with cheap tablets in the $150-$200 range. Send demo units to teachers, city employees and legal teams. Emphasize the very low cost to get in the door and target companies that can benefit from tablet-based connectivity at a 2-for-1 budget over the iPad.

2. Focus on the growing “I just don’t use my iPad” crowd. There’s a surprising number of iPad owners who just don’t use their iPad because it isn’t what they wanted (or thought it would be). Show the world that the Playbook is what they needed all along. SHOW you can really use office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) on a Playbook. SHOW how great the web is with a flash enabled browser on a Playbook. SHOW the new OS on the Playbook has everything (Email, Contact List, Embedded Twitter integration, etc). SHOW that the Playbook is available now in a “2.0” form. And SHOW the Playbook is cheaper than most video game systems!

3. Offer a generous unconditional lifetime replacement guarantee. Amazon does this with their Kindle lineup, and as a direct result, people will take their kindle with them to places they would never take their iPad. Think of the sales pitch… “You can spend $200 on a superior product with a lifetime warranty that you can use every day with confidence, or you can spend $400 on a piece of glass with no warranty.”

4. Make the “cloud” part of OS 2.1. Make a system-embedded option where documents, music, etc are all backed up to DROPBOX, or SKYDRIVE or whatever online service a user wants.

5. Get iTunes sync for music and videos. There’s already apps on AppWorld called ItunesSync and ItunesVideoSync that do this. Buy those apps out, integrate the apps into the system, and promote that feature on the Playbook. Make it so that everything in iTunes on a PC (or Mac) can be pulled over to the Playbook with two clicks. Instant ROI / happy customers.

6. Quit the feud with Netflix. Make nice and get them on board. Or go say hello to Amazon! Or Redbox! Get Hollywood on the Playbook’s HD screen and get access to a resource that has a established cross-platform movie and music library. (On a related note, get rid of 7digital. They’re NOT consumer friendly and their web-storefront is outright hostile.)

7. Allow in-app purchases directly to a developer’s website. Advertise online and in tech mags that RIM Playbooks not only allows for any and all in-app purchases, but does NOT take a cut of in-app sales like Apple does. Use this passive monetary incentive to get developers to come around of their own free will.

8. Constantly check the top 20 in the APP store in iTunes and call the developers of those apps. Always make them an offer to come over with a free Playbook to test their apps on. Also go after the Apple developers and the apps that were kicked off Apple’s app store and offer them sanctuary on the Playbook/RIM side.

9. Push multimedia. Buy (or write) a iMovie knockoff and emphasize how easy it is to make movies on the Playbook. Get with HP and buy (or copy) their touchscreen photo editor app. Make the Playbook the tablet/camera/live editing hardware the iPad looks ridiculous trying to be.

10. Allow exploits. Hear me out on this one… if you allow for a Playbook equivalent of Cydia, and let tech-savvy users root the Playbook, you WILL see sales of the Playbook skyrocket. As a by-product of this, support for the Playbook will be more grassroots-based, and the Playbook’s reputation as a “real” tablet will grow exponentially almost overnight.

People love the underdog in a fight. The “we try harder” motto worked for Hertz for a long time, and going against a juggernaut like Apple, in any situation, is definitely a big-time underdog situation.

I think RIM can not only survive, but prosper if they play their cards right. I guess we will all see around 4Q 2012 if that’s true or not.

A few comments on the RIM Playbook 2.0 OS update

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Just a few comments on the new RIM Playbook 2.0 (2.0.0.7971) OS that was released today.

  • The reboot after the update takes anywhere from 5-15 minutes. Don’t panic! Just let the startup screen with the blooming lights (or whatever they’re called) do their thing. The new desktop will eventually appear.
  • The OS seems faster and more responsive.
  • The update is big. Here’s two screenshots of the update process…
Playbook update 1

Playbook update 1

PlayBook 2

PlayBook 2

 

  • …and a screenshot of the new desktop!

 

Playbook 3

Playbook 3

 

  • You can create folders by dragging and dropping icons on top of each other.
  • The Messages app (Email) is pretty good. It looks and acts like Mail on the iPad with the column/pane layout, but you also get formatting, font and alignment choices, and sorting by tag and priority. It feels like a mini Outlook.
  • When you get a new message, the red light on the top of the Playbook blinks. Nice! (You can turn this off by going to the OPTIONS gear on the upper right of the main screen, and then choosing what you like under SOUNDS & NOTIFICATIONS)
  • You can’t email a photo from inside the Pictures app. You CAN email photos from within the Messages (email) app. Just go to the paperclip attachment icon when composing a new message and choose the PICTURES tab. (You can also email anything in the Video, Music and Documents directory.)
  • App world has a LOT more apps to choose from. Brace yourself.

Overall, I’m highly impressed with this update. If this was the embedded system that launched with the Playbook, Apple might have had a very serious problem on their hands.

I think RIM can still make up for lost time by aggressively flooding the market with cheap tablets in the $150-$200 range. Emphasize the very low cost to get in the door. Target service industries, city employees, the court systems and school districts with tight budgets . Anywhere that a large, typically under-appreciated workforce would benefit from tablet-based connectivity at a 2-for-1 budget over the iPad. Embed Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Acrobat in every system, and emphasize the browser is just like any PC’s desktop browser (IE: Flash!).

Advertising-wise, I would hype the smaller size and easier portability of the playbook, and tag team with Hollywood on the Playbook’s HD screen. (Sorry, Apple fans. Watching a HD movie on a Playbook VS. an iPad 2 screen isn’t even close.) Maybe embed some free movies on there, or team up with Netflix or Redbox. On the flip side of that, I would buy (or write) a iMovie knockoff and emphasize how easy it is to make movies on the Playbook. Make a contest where the best movie shot and edited on a Playbook gets a big prize.

Whatever RIM is planning, if I was in charge, I would move quick on this new system’s features. All Apple has to do is release an iPad that’s similar in size and screen quality as the Playbook (even if it is $50-$75 over the Playbook price point) and that will be it for RIM.

A EULA for our own address books

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If you haven’t heard by now, the iPhone apps PATH and HIPSTER have been copying every individual’s address book on every iPhone and iPad to their own company servers. I can’t imagine what they’re going to do with all that stolen information, but I’m personally furious these scumbags got away with it.

I don’t know of any way to block theft like this on a non-jailbroken iOS, but maybe putting up a digital equivalent of a “no trespassing” sign will keep future apps from trying something like this.

Tonight, I made a EULA for my own address book and contact list.

The first thing I did was go on my iPhone to SETTINGS, GENERAL, and ABOUT.

In the ABOUT page, I wrote down the NAME of my iPhone on the top of the page (REiPhone).

I then went to the bottom of the ABOUT page and copied my Serial Number for my iPhone (12345ABCD)

Then I went to Rocket Lawyer and threw together a custom EULA with my information.

To make this your own EULA, copy, paste and replace everything in a RED BOLD FONT. Specifically, you’ll need to replace…

1. REiPhone – serial 12345ABCD with your own iPhone’s name and serial number
2. REiPhone with your own iPhone’s name
3. TEXAS with the name of your State

—–

IPHONE CONTACT INFORMATION END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
The contact database and address book content and information on REiPhone – serial 12345ABCD (“the Software Product”) and accompanying documentation is licensed and NOT sold or intended for sale. This Software Product is protected by copyright laws and treaties, as well as laws and treaties related to other forms of intellectual property. REiPhone or its subsidiaries, affiliates, and suppliers (collectively “REiPhone“) own intellectual property rights in the Software Product. The Licensee’s (“you” or “your”) license to download, use, copy, or change the Software Product is subject to these rights and to all the terms and conditions of this End User License Agreement (“Agreement”).
Acceptance
YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT BY INSTALLING, USING, OR COPYING THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MUST NOT INSTALL, USE, OR COPY THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
License Grant
This Agreement expressly forbids you from installing and/or using any copy of the Software Product. In addition, you may not make any archival copies of the Software Product. The Software Product may not be on any storage medium of any type for any duration, and may not be used as a condition for the installation of any of Licensee’s product or any material provided from the Licensee. This Agreement does not permit the installation or use of multiple copies of the Software Product, or the installation of the Software Product on any computer other than the original REiPhone at any given time, or on any system that allows shared use of applications, on a multi-user network, or on any configuration or system of computers that allows multiple users. Multiple copy use or installation of the Software Product is not allowed under any circumstances.
Restrictions on Transfer
Without first obtaining the express written consent of REiPhone, you may not assign your rights and obligations under this Agreement, or redistribute, encumber, sell, rent, lease, sublicense, or otherwise transfer your rights to the Software Product.
Restrictions on Use
You may not use, copy, or install the Software Product on any system, or permit the use, copying, or installation of the Software Product on any computer. You may not use, copy, or install the Software Product on any system with identical systems as REiPhone or permit the use, copying, or installation by any user, or on any computer other than REiPhone. You may not decompile, “reverse-engineer”, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code and components for the Software Product. You may not use the database portion of the Software Product whatsoever.
Restrictions on Alteration
You may not modify the Software Product or create any derivative work of the Software Product or its accompanying information. Derivative works include but are not limited to translations. You may not alter any files or libraries in any portion of the Software Product. You may not reproduce the database portion or create any tables or reports relating to the database portion.
Restrictions on Copying
You may not copy any part of the Software Product. You may not make any archival copies to be stored on any medium other than the drive physically installed on REiPhone.
Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability
UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPLICITLY AGREED TO IN WRITING BY REIPHONE, REIPHONE MAKES NO OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN FACT OR IN LAW, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT OR IN THE LIMITED WARRANTY DOCUMENTS PROVIDED WITH THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
REiPhone makes no warranty that the Software Product will meet your requirements or operate under your specific conditions of use. REiPhone makes no warranty that operation of the Software Product will be secure, error free, or free from interruption. YOU MUST DETERMINE WHETHER THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT SUFFICIENTLY MEETS YOUR REQUIREMENTS FOR SECURITY AND UNINTERRUPTABILITY. YOU BEAR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY AND ALL LIABILITY FOR ANY LOSS INCURRED DUE TO FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT TO MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. REIPHONE WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR THE LOSS OF DATA ON ANY COMPUTER OR INFORMATION STORAGE DEVICE.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL REIPHONE, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY FOR INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING LOST REVENUES OR PROFITS OR LOSS OF BUSINESS) RESULTING FROM THIS AGREEMENT, OR FROM THE FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, INSTALLATION, OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT, WHETHER DUE TO A BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, OR THE NEGLIGENCE OF REIPHONE OR ANY OTHER PARTY, EVEN IF REIPHONE IS ADVISED BEFOREHAND OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. TO THE EXTENT THAT THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION LIMITS REIPHONE‘S ABILITY TO DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES, THIS DISCLAIMER SHALL BE EFFECTIVE TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED.
Limitation of Remedies and Damages
There is no remedy for a breach of this Agreement or of any warranty included in this Agreement. REiPhone reserves the right to deny access to the information on REiPhone, as well as deny any form of replacement and/or remedy. All limited warranties on the Software Product are granted only to you and are non-transferable. You agree to indemnify and hold REiPhone harmless from all claims, judgments, liabilities, expenses, or costs arising from your breach of this Agreement and/or acts or omissions.
Governing Law, Jurisdiction and Costs
This Agreement is governed by the laws of Texas, without regard to Texas’s conflict or choice of law provisions.
Severability
If any provision of this Agreement shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of this Agreement shall remain in full force and effect. To the extent any express or implied restrictions are not permitted by applicable laws, these express or implied restrictions shall remain in force and effect to the maximum extent permitted by such applicable laws.

—–

After copying and pasting the EULA into your favorite text editor and making the substitutions, mail a copy to your iPhone.

Once it arrives, drag-copy over the entire body of the EULA and COPY.

Now go to CONTACTS and create a NEW CONTACT

Type for the First Name : IPHONE CONTACT INFORMATION EULA

Type for the Last Name : *AAA

Now tap on the ADD FIELD button at the bottom of the NEW CONTACT window and choose NOTES.

When the NOTES field appears, PASTE in the EULA and save the contact.

Now the first contact in your address book will be your own EULA. When you click on the contact for more information, you can scroll through the legalese even though only a few lines appear at first.

This might be as effective as throwing a match in the ocean right now, and I’m honestly not sure how effective this would be against a professional corporate rottweiler of an attorney, but maybe if another app steals my contact information and sees this EULA, the scumbag app’s legal department will pounce on the developers and demand my contact database be deleted out of “an abundance of caution”.

I have a feeling once a member of congress gets their private address book posted on a public forum, real Federal legislation will pass in that makes data theft an interstate felony punishable by some “bankrupt the company and their owners” kinds of fines. For now, I would settle for Apple kicking developers like this out of the App store and ban them from ever coding for iOS again. (Hey, I can dream!)

RIM’s Blackberry Playbook WiFi dropping? Here’s the fix until Feb ’12

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Looong story short, if you have a RIM BlackBerry PlayBook and your WiFi connection keeps dropping…

  1. Switch the WiFi routers you connect to (and that are under your control) to 802.11g (no B or N), and set the security to a WPA2 \ AES combo (Don’t choose TKIP!).
  2. On the PlayBook go to WIFI settings (under the drop-down GEAR icon)
  3. In the WIFI settings, next to the SELECT A NETWORK, click the pop-up and go down to SAVED NETWORKS.
  4. In the SAVED NETWORKS list, click on the Pencil icon and hit the trash can icon (DELETE) every saved network you have.
  5. Turn OFF the WIFI by moving the slider button to OFF
  6. Now hold down the power button on top of the PlayBook until the black “POWERING OFF” icon appears (keep holding it past the three-color TURN OFF, STANDBY and RESTART buttons and let the PlayBook turn off by itself.)
  7. Once the PlayBook is off, let it sit for 60 seconds.
  8. Turn on the playbook and re-connect to the network you tweaked in step one.

The PlayBook won’t drop one bit of data from then on!

A little inside scoop I got today told me that Blackberry Playbooks are “really finicky” about their network connections, and even though this workaround is rock solid, “a Playbook update in February (2012) will take care of ALL of the WiFi connection problems”.

I’m glad RIM realized not all WiFi networks are 802.11g / AES.  WiFi that doesn’t drop is a absolute must if you want to be a contender.