Techy Misconceptions

#1 Facebook wants to charge you money for its service

It seems like a week doesn’t go by that the rumor mill churns yet again that Facebook wants to charge you some kind of fee for its service. Basically, put them out to pasture - Zuckerberg and company loves your information that we all (maybe too) freely give out to want to charge us for the privilege of paying him to give it. So, feel free to grouse about the latest changes to the format but know that for now and into the foreseeable future, The Facebook is content to just be happy mining YOUR data.

#2 Apple “invented” the PC (or the MP3 player; or theTablet computer).

All of these are an astounding no. Apple marketed one of the first Do It Yourself (DIY) personal computers (for an astounding $666.66 (no, Steve Jobs is not the Antichrist either) and had a strong foothold in the market well before IBM unleashed its version of the PC onto the world a few years later - but many companies marketed computers well before Apple (some notable examples are the MITS Alter; HP 9100 (and even if you want to dig further back you can find examples like Honeywell’s Kitchen computer and even the DIY Simon that you could purchase the plans for).

Ditto for MP3 players (remember the Genica Tavarua) and tablet computers have been around for ages (it just took Apple to make them fun and bring them out of the business world and into our lives - with tons of knock-offs coming on its heels screaming “me too! me too! ”).

#3 Running Windows Updates will ruin my computer

Actually, quite the opposite may be true - if you avoid running updates, especially security updates, you put your computer at risk. While it is true that every once in a while an update has some - unexpected consequences - for the most part you are better safe than sorry running the update. However, it has to be said that if you update an entire operating system, then there is the strong possibility that many of your favorite programs will not migrate well to the newer version of the operating system (not that this has ever held me back - thank goodness for Virtual Machines and especially for XP Mode on Windows 7)

#4 Dell (or Apple, or HP, or Acer; or “insert companies name here”) manufacturers their own computers

While some companies may still ASSEMBLE some of their computers to order, most computer companies no longer own any manufacturing facilities or make their own computers. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, large computer companies have third party manufacturers build their computers. (which is why some of the largest BUILDERS of computers are companies that you may have never heard of, such as Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics and Hon Hai Precision (aka, Foxconn Electronics)).

Be assured that the computer you are probably reading this Tech Tip on was more than likely not actually MADE by the company that is on the label. This is one of the big reasons computers are basically considered commodity items (yes, even that shiny Apple PC - rolling off the same assembly line with Dell, HP, etc) and tend to have similar repair rates (which also means that they also tend to use many of the same OEM parts and components as well).This doesn’t mean that your computer was made poorly; or even that one computer may be “better” than another - it just means that they are all pretty much the same.

In Conclusion

Hope you liked this week’s Tech Tip! While urban legends and myths run rampant in the tech arena, rest assured that we here at Tech Tips have your back and are ready to beat back the hounds of ignorance and set a world on fire with Geek Busters!

iPhone 4

What Makes iPhone 4 great!

iPhone 4G

On Monday, Apple officially unveiled the iPhone 4. After playing around with it for 20 minutes or so after the keynote, I can safely say that it’s the most impressive mobile device I’ve ever seen. But plenty of people (many of which have never used the phone) disagree. Their arguments are mainly predicated on what Apple didn’t include rather than what it did. But what those people fail to understand is that this is exactly what makes the new iPhone (as well as the previous iterations) so solid.

iPhone 4 Say Hello Again

During his keynote address on Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that while Apple may not be the first to release features, they do so in a way that’s the best implementation. Many people view this as absolute bullshit. But what that implies is that they think Apple simply cannot get features done in time — or that they will not do them for some reason. I have a hard time believing either of those is the case.

Jobs cited the iPhone’s cut, copy, & paste functionality as one example of Apple getting a feature right. I have to agree. For two years, everyone complained (myself included) that Apple didn’t have this functionality. Could Apple have done it sooner? Of course. But would it have been half-baked? Probably. Just look at how it works on other devices — or maybe I should say: look at howpoorly it works on other devices compared to the iPhone. Most Android phones want you to use that damn ball to select text. Or worse, those arrow buttons at the bottom of the EVO’s horrid keyboard. It’s a nightmare.

Another popular example is background tasks (or multitasking). This feature is finally coming to the new iOS 4 after being on other devices for a few years. So was Apple dragging its feet out of incompetence? Or were they being stubborn? In their view, they were waiting to perfect the system that would not destroy battery life. Android’s background method is supposedly similar to what Apple will use, but it has issues.

Most people haven’t yet seen third-party apps running in the background with iOS, so it’s hard to know exactly how well Apple has done here. (And I only got to play around with one app, Pandora, running in the background for a few minutes.) But a few developers I’ve talked to who have used the system say it’s by far the best combination of functionality and battery-saving techniques that they’ve seen. One told me that it basically doesn’t ding battery life at all.

iPhone 4G makes other phones look cheap

With 4G, by all accounts, the battery ding is even worse. Also, 4G is still slowly deploying around the country, and some carriers  won’t have it really deployed for a long, long time. In other words, don’t be surprised if next year Apple still doesn’t have a 4G version of the device. Everyone will bitch about it, but in Apple’s view, it likely just won’t be worth it yet.

Another feature brought up is over-the-air (OTA) updates. While eWeek seems to specifically be talking about OTA firmware updates (does anyone really care about that so much?), the more pressing issue is the ability to sync things wirelessly on your iPhone. Currently, you can only truly do that with certain MobileMe elements (like Calendar, Contacts, etc). But over-the-air syncing of things like apps and music wasn’t in iOS yet.

This is a fair point both because it would be very useful, and because it’s baked into the latest version of Android, 2.2. But we have yet to see exactly how well this system with work with Android 2.2. The on-stage demos at Google I/O were impressive, but it probably wouldn’t have been made into a demo if it weren’t. The proof will be in the real-world usage of this feature.

Apple is clearly thinking about how best to do this as well. Jobs said as much during the D Conference a few weeks ago, and Apple has even blocked applications that do something similar (a sign that they’re likely working on it — and that they don’t want third parties touching the iTunes/iPhone sync interaction). Make no mistake: this feature will be coming to the iPhone. And I would bet it will be here next year. And if Apple is able to get its iTunes-in-the-cloud service off the ground in time, it could be a lot easier than people are thinking right now.

The point to all of this is that one of the things that makes the iPhone great is that Apple is so deliberate and meticulous in the features they choose to focus on and implement. Could Apple include more features? Of course. But anytime you try to do more, you take focus away from the key things you want to get done. It’s something that’s so obvious it almost needs to be restated.

It’s the same reason why startups that focus on creating as many features as possible often fare worse than those that focus on a few key ideas. The ones that keep it simple are able to execute much better. Apple (which likes to think of itself as the “world’s biggest startup”) is no different, and the iPhone is a testament to that
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