Apple’s DCM … Good Idea or Bad?

First of all, what’s DCM, right? Digital Charger Management, new term, coined not by me, so don’t give me the credit … Apple has filed a patent application that will essentially prevent anyone from using an unauthorized charger with a device. Meaning, steal a device, and once it runs out of power, it’s a brick.

The idea is use a ‘guardian’ circuit to spot when someone is trying to use a cellphone with an unauthorized charger or cable.

This looks like a good idea on the surface. I mean, it will hopefully deter theft. But think about it for a while. While Apple might license this tech to other manufacturers, it will still increase the cost of chargers. Lose your synch cable on a trip? You can’t just use any old cheap 3rd-party cable any longer … at least not to charge, and I suppose you could use this circuit to prevent synching as well.

This smacks a lot of chips embedded in printer cartridges that prevent you from using knock-offs … which work perfectly well, but since consumables are the heart of profit in the printer industry, are discouraged. To me, it just sounds like another way for manufacturers to make sure you use their expensive accessories, instead of cheaper 3rd-party ones.

Additionally, my guess is thieves will still steal devices, then find out about the problem after the fact … meaning the device’ll end up in the trash and eventually a landfill. And, any bets on how long it takes for someone to hack this?

Finally, how would this stop someone from using a stand-alone charger? One that you just put the battery in, no device required (of course, that doesn’t apply to Apple’s non-swappable batteries, but that’s a whole ‘nother argument )

‘World of Warcraft’ Population Now Greater Than NYC

Yep, World of Warcraft (WoW) has surpassed New York City in terms of population. It’s reached a subscriber base of 9 million.

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has reached a new milestone, with a player base now totaling more than 9 million subscribers worldwide. The company is currently working with its partner for World of Warcraft in China, The9, to prepare the game’s first expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade™, for launch in mainland China and anticipates an influx of new and returning subscribers in conjunction with that event. Source: Blizzard Press Release

And yes, one of my friends sent me a 10-day free trial key … so it looks like I might be getting sucked into the abyss of WoW as well … interestingly, if you go to the U.S. Census Bureau webpage that estimates world population and type in 2007, you will see that 9 million will place WoW as a country (really, though, it’s a world, right?) at 89, just behind Sweden and above Haiti.

Congress: P2P Networks are a National Security Threat

My first thought was … whaa? My second was whaa?

Politicians charged on Tuesday that peer-to-peer networks can pose a “national security threat” because they enable federal employees to share sensitive or classified documents accidentally from their computers. Source: News.com

So yeah, you can see how it could happen. Someone installs a P2P file-sharing program on their computer, and shares directories that have sensitive information on it. Sure, I can see it … if they are ridiculously stupid users … or if your IT department is too lame to block the traffic.

Shades of the “tubes” debacle.

Take-Two Games and the Knife …

Take-Two has never been accused of good taste in its games, nor, apparently, of doing too well with tracking stock options … but this goes beyond bad taste. It’s all about Take-Two subsidiary 2K Sports’ All-Pro Football 2K8, which includes O.J. Simpson as a player.

A customized video clip on the Game Trailers Web site shows Simpson game highlights as his team, “The Assassins,” moves down the field. Toward the end of the clip, Simpson scores a touchdown, prompting a large hooded mascot (above) above the scoreboard to make stabbing motions with a large knife. Source: TheStreet.com

The Assassins? Note that GameTrailers frequently records their own footage, so Take-Two may not even be involved. Still, whether or not (as many commenters at other sites seem to think) you think this is overblown and humorous … it’s still in poor taste.

OLPCs Used to Browse for Porn

Small wonder that U.S. parents put filters on their children’s laptops. These are children who haven’t grown up with the technology we are used to in the U.S., yet they knew enough to surf to precisely the wrong sites …

Nigerian schoolchildren who received laptops from a U.S. aid organization have used them to explore pornographic sites on the Internet, the official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported Thursday.

A representative of the One Laptop Per Child aid group was quoted as saying that the computers, part of a pilot scheme, would now be fitted with filters. Source: Reuters

I was surprised, but my wife wasn’t. I suppose, naively, I figured these OLPCs just wouldn’t get that sort of use … now, since these kids are obviously tech-savvy, I wonder how long before those filters are bypassed?

The Able Planet Clear Harmony With Linx Audio Active Noise Cancelling Headphones Review

First, I’d like to thank Able Planet for providing me these headphones to review. Next, I’d like to say … wow, that’s one heck of a long product name. At any rate, let’s get started.

The Able Planet Clear Harmony with Linx Audio Active Noise Cancelling Headphones (let’s just call them ABCH) aren’t cheap by any means. They have a MSRP of $299. This puts them in direct competition witht the Bose Quiet Comfort (QC) series, and particularly, the Bose QC 2.

From the Able Planet website:

LINX AUDIO™ ADVANTAGES

• Award Winning Sound Quality
• Maximum Speech Clarity
• Soft Clips Distortion
• Restricts Electromagnetic Interference
• Increased Perceived Loudness Without Increasing Volume

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Superior Noise Canceling Technology
• Patent Pending LINX AUDIO™
• In-Line Volume Control for Easy Adjustment to Safe Listening Levels
• Lightweight and Comfortable fit
• Ideal for Creating Your Own Personal Space Filled with Full Rich Sound
• Removable Cord with 1/8” and 1/4” Stereo Adapters
• For use in Computer & Language Labs, Stereos, Personal Computers, CD, DVD and MP3 Players
• For Use With or Without a Hearing Aid

It came with a nice case, with space for the headphones, held in by an elastic strap, on one side, and a compartment for the accessories, as well as quite possibly an MP3 player on the other. Inserting the two provided AAA batteres into the left earcup, I could hear the soft hiss of white noise once I flipped the switch (rear side of the left earcup) on. Even without the headphones turned on, I could hear a good deal of background sound cut off with the earcups on. But does it reduce noise? It’s supposed to reduce background noise by 18dB.

The answer is yes. Listening to music in a noisy coffee shop, and listening to Internet radio while my wife watched a DVD on our HDTV, I can attest to the fact that it really helps cut out the background noise. And, by turning off the cancellation feature, and by using a splitter to hook in a different set of headphones, I could see a great difference.

Battery life is estimated to be 35 hours. There’s an LED near the switch that dims when only 30 minutes of battery life remain. However, although the instructions say it will work with rechargeable AAA batteries, it also indicates that with the reduced voltage of rechareables (1.2V vs 1.5V), the LED may not be a reliable indicator … and the life of the batteries will be halved. Unlike the Bose earphones, if the battery dies, the headphone will still work, a major plus.

Able Planet doesn’t have the name recognition that Bose does, but these headphones work well, and have the plus of working when the batteries are dead … if I were you, I’d take an opportunity to compare the two when shopping for noise-cancelling headphones.

Innovative Use of Google AdWords: Denial of Sexual Solicitation Charges

Let’s stay away from politics when discussing this one … I just thought it was a funny and innovative way to use Google AdWords. Yesterday, Jack Burkman, a powerful conservative pundit, was outed as appearing in the notorious DC Madam’s phone list. Well, earlier today, if you Googled him, you would have seen he was trying to use Google in a campaign to drive you to his website, to address the allegations.

Like I said, let’s stay apolitical, but if you want to get into a political discussion, head over to ThinkProgress, where I found this story initially. BTW, I doubt he would have thought of this himself. Most likely some young and tech-savvy staffer (heh). At any rate, it appears they a) realized people were writing / blogging about this, b) that it cost them each time the link was clicked on, as it’s gone now.

Honda Sued Over Hybrid Civic MPG Claims

There are a lot of arguments about whether or not hybrids save money, or even break even. That said, it was obvious that the EPA estimates were way out of line. Since then, of course, the EPA has developed a new mileage rating system. Too late for John True, though.

But after 6,000 miles of driving, True said he averaged 32 mpg in mixed city/highway driving. So in March, True, an Ontario, Calif., professional jazz piano player, filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Riverside, Calif., in what appears to be the first legal challenge of the mileage claims of hybrid vehicles.

The lawsuit claims American Honda Motor Co. has misled consumers in its advertisements and on its Web site. The suit notes that while the Environmental Protection Agency and automobile window stickers say “mileage will vary,” some Honda advertisements read “mileage may vary.” Source: Detroit News

Laying the burden of the suit on “may” vs. “will”? Not sure about that. And honestly, these are EPA estimates. No car ever achieves their EPA estimates (at least, not the old ones) and how you can pin the blame on Honda … I don’t know. One thing for sure, as a Prius owner, I can tell you, you can’t drive these hybrids like a normal car if you want to maximize MPG. I had to learn how to drive it properly (and the center console “video game” was a great help), and I have averaged 47 MPG over the life of the car.

‘Talking Trojan’ Makes Fun of You as It Erases Your Hard Drive

Anyone besides me remember those series of Southwest Airline commercials with the “Want to get away?” theme. The premise was you’d screw up badly, and thus need an airline trip to get away from it. One of them involved someone opening up a virus which then infected the rest of the PCs on the network, and the virus was laughing away all the time. Seems like someone else saw that commercial.

The program, called the BotVoice.A Trojan was first spotted by security vendor Panda Software SA last week. It is a Trojan horse program, which the victim must download first. But once installed, it gets nasty.

The Trojan soon sets to work trying to delete everything from the victim’s hard drive, while at the same time endlessly repeating an audible message, apparently designed to taunt the victim.

“You have been infected I repeat you have been infected and your system files have been deleted. Sorry. Have a nice day and bye bye,” the Trojan says. Source: PC World

Well, since you have to download it (meaning it’s really your fault if you get infected), my thought would be … here’s the Southwest Airlines website …

Apple’s iPhone Battery Replacement Plan … What fun!

One of the big minuses that many people have brought up about the iPhone – lack of a swappable battery. In fact, Apple has a replacement plan for devices that have their batteries fail out of warranty. It’s just not very palatable.

Installing a new battery also means users must expect a three-day wait and should be prepared for all the data on their phone — including contacts, e-mail account settings, text messages and other content — to be wiped out. Source: InfoWorld

Remember that Apple estimates 300 – 400 charges for a battery. This means for many heavy users, about a year or less. The cost is $85.95 including shipping, BTW. But this “losing all your data” when the battery is changed? That went out with old Treos a long time ago. I can’t believe that they would lose all the data when changing the battery … perhaps it’s just a caution to the end user … but still.