Early January brings many things.  Thousands of people head to the gym (if only briefly) to once and for all lose the weight.  Award shows take a look back at the prior year’s best shows, movies and music while quipping about the state of affairs (well maybe not this year).

But in the tech world, there are two very important events: CES and Macworld.  CES is a grand display, but I, personally, was anxiously waiting for Macworld and Steve Jobs’ keynote speech.  Afterall, if it was anything close to the iPhone introduction last year, it would probably have a bigger impact on me and the consumer market than CES this year.   

As I followed a live blog of the event, two things kept popping in my head.  One is the “wow” factor that oozes from every Apple announcement, but that was quickly followed by the lack of certain features or options in Apple products.  The iPhone got an amazing firmware update that includes such “wow” features as GPS triangulation in Google Maps and customizable home screens (in preparation for third-party native apps), but it also took 200 days (as Steve Jobs so adamantly quoted) for the iPhone to receive functionality allowing it to send a text message to multiple contacts.  Some people paid $600 for a smartphone missing a feature found on handsets cell carriers give away, and the iPhone still does not support multimedia messaging? 

Sure I could send a photo via email, but not everyone has a cellphone that supports email.  The worst part is receiving multimedia messages from friends and not being able to see them until I get home.  What’s the point? 

Don’t get me wrong.  I absolutely love my iPhone and can’t imagine returning to a conventional handset.  Even the text messaging interface with the conversational setup is fantastic, albeit limited.  Recently, I detailed these pros and cons to a friend who recently got a Voyager, and his first response to the text messaging omissions was, “Man, your phone sucks,” which he blurted (jealously, I might add) while mesmerized as he “flicked” through my albums in Cover Flow.  He then asked, “Does my phone do that?”

It seems a staple of Apple products to produce consumer-friendly products that forget to fulfill certain basic consumer needs and it doesn’t just end at the iPhone’s doorstep.  How long has the iPod dominated without keeping up with the times?  The players keep getting smaller and sleeker, but they still don’t have an FM tuner, voice recorder, more flexible file support or stereo bluetooth (also missing from the iPhone).  My old Nano can’t even shuffle a playlist without the help of iTunes.  How does Apple overlook, or worse, purposely avoid including features that are, in the omnipresent words of the retail world, “must-haves”? 

The latest exclusion came at the end of Mr. Jobs’ keynote with the big announcement.

Behold the MacBook Air.  This is an ultraportable laptop that lacks an optical drive (common in the category), but thankfully you can purchase a small, very sleek Superdrive add-on optical drive that plugs into the lone USB port.  If you want to import a CD you own into iTunes, then put it on your iPod or iPhone, you must plug the add-on drive in to rip the CD, then switch USB cables to your iPod for uploading.  And I hope you didn’t want to use a USB mouse to perform these actions because you’d be out of luck.  In today’s peripheral-happy society, there are never enough USB ports for adding devices and to only have one is simply careless. 

Of course, once I saw the envelope commercial and the features of this laptop, I was hooked anyway because it combines a form with a select group of features that are beyond anything I could have imagined.  That said, I won’t buy one because of the massive inconveniences resulting from the poor connectivity options.

And it’s in this very area that Apple has room for improvement — where the visions of sleek, consumer-friendly devices “that just work” actually intersect with the features consumers need for flexibility.  Had I known the frustrations that my Nano and iPhone would give me, I would have probably bought a more feature packed option. But now that I have them, I don’t regret either purchase. 

Maybe I should on principle, but the “wow” continually exceeds what’s missing.  I just wish Apple wasn’t always so willing to sacrifice substance for shine.

As I sat at my computer browsing the Internet for an article worth writing about, I began to think about writing itself. Isn’t writing about formulating a coherent and cohesive thought and then writing about it in a proper format? Growing up and attending school I was taught to properly use the English language whether it was spoken or written, but a new form of English has emerged that has decimated an otherwise perfectly good language.

Text Messaging has become a new form of communicating what an individual wants to say in a shorter form. Texting is a language of its own created as the need for shorter ways of saying simple phrases arose. A simple word such as, “ok” or a phrase like, “see you later” has been replaced with letters and numbers that would make an English professor cringe at the very sight of this language.

Fifteen years ago two men by the name of Neil Papworth and Richard Jarvis sent and received the very first text message, respectively. Fast-forward fifteen years and that one text message has multiplied to nearly one billion messages being sent every week - an increase by 25 percent over last year.

It’s from this need that the disintegration of the English language has developed. The use of this language as stated above has created a new shortened form of writing, but at what cost? The average teenager knows how to text and read the language as if by second nature. It becomes so second nature, that this jargon eventually ends up in the student’s formal writing. Articles have been written showing that the more a student is saturated with this language, the more apt she is to bring this form into the classroom.

So what’s the problem with texting? Students who learn how to use this language grow accustomed to reading it and eventually see past it, thus allowing the student to forgo the proper forms of punctuation, capitalization, spelling and many other proper grammatical nuances. The idea is that not only students, but grown adults are not distinguishing between proper English and texting language. In formal writing there is no place for texting lingo.

Basically, texting is a shortened form of the English language that has crept its way into standard writing. Gone is the time where students are taught how to properly write and its enforced everywhere they go. But instead of enforcement, these kids and adults alike are becoming more lackadaisical and its irritating when I receive a text message and I have to think about what these letters might mean. How hard is it to just type a simple sentence such as “I’ll see you later” instead of saying “c u l8er”? The answer is quite simple - It’s not hard.

Google unveiled today its new web app designed for the mobile browsing experience. Or, should I say, towards the iPhone browsing experience. The new web app recognizes the iPhone and Safari browser and automatically loads the new application. Instead of the normal Google web page, this app presents to users quick links to Google search, Gmail, Reader, Calendar and other services.

To coincide with the release of the new Google app, Google released a statement once again stating its goal of providing users with access to information wherever they may be, as part of its commitment towards mobile technologies.

Articles have been written in the past about the possibilities of Google outsmarting everyone, but it isn’t about outsmarting the industry, it’s about playing it smart.

With Google officially announcing its bid on the 700MHz spectrum, it may be inevitable that Google will become a force in the mobile market. The 700MHz spectrum has the ability to penetrate walls and extend over larger areas due to its lower frequency. This ability creates an available infrastructure capable of providing a nationwide Wi-Fi network.

With the possibility of acquiring this spectrum, Google may be able to push the envelope and begin to force its way into the mobile industry, much to the dismay of mobile behemoths Verizon and AT&T. Look at what Google has done recently: Android is growing as more companies and developers sign on with Google and begin developing apps for mobile devices with its free open source SDK. Android is becoming a platform that will extend Google’s reach far beyond the internet and well into the realm of the mobile market.

This may be a few years in the making, but think about this the next time you hear a development in the Google mobile story - Apple is rumored to be released from its contract in five years from AT&T and that might not just be a coincidence. Its entirely possible Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt are exploring a mobile relationship; a relationship that very well could push the boundaries of mobile devices and propel Apple and Google to the forefront of the mobile market.

Researchers at Dreamlab Technologies AG and Remote-exploit.org have found a way to eavesdrop, decrypt and log keyboard strokes when transmitted on a 27MHz spectrum. The researchers validated their results using Microsoft’s Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 and 2000 and they have projected these results to affect the Wireless Optical Desktop 3000 and 4000, although neither were tested.

In order for a wireless keyboard to function, a receiver must be setup on a computer and an association process must occur. This process, also known as “connecting” or “synching”, usually happens with the push of a button on both the keyboard and the receiving component. Once this connection is established, the receiver stores the connection to memory and only recognizes that one particular keyboard and will reject any other requests from other wireless keyboards.

Originally, wireless keyboards used an infrared signal to establish a connection, but now companies have switched over to a radio frequency-based keyboard operating at 27MHz. The data being sent over this frequency is encrypted using a one byte USB HID keystroke. This data, once sent, is decoded by the receiver. But metakeys such as “CTRL”, “ALT”, and “Shift” are not encrypted.

This encryption uses a simple XOR mechanism which leaves a possibility of only 256 different values per keystroke packet received. This XOR mechanism results in a value of “true” if and only if the encrypted data sent has the same value. It is a simplistic code that can be broken using bruteforce to obtain the correct code.

The researchers at Dreamlabs and Remote-exploit.org realized that by using a simple wordlist checking together with a weightening algorithm, they could decode all data in range within a few keystrokes. They even go so far as to say that with even the slowest of computers today, this encryption can be broken.

This simple hacking done by Dreamlabs shows how easy it can be for a keylogging to affect even wireless systems. As such, one of the simplest way to thwart such a security risk would be to have a wired keyboard. But even then you are not safe as trojans and viruses can attack the computer and log your wired keyboard activity, then transmit the information back to the attacker. It is an easy way to obtain passwords, usernames and to bypass certain security measures put in place to protect a network or private computer.

AT&T has announced a 3G model of the Apple iPhone is due out in 2008. This comes as expected, considering Steve Jobs had already announced a 3G iPhone model. So to put it bluntly, AT&T is not surprising anyone. Yet, what does a 3G model bring to the user of the iPhone? And what does it do for customers who purchased an iPhone already? Simply put, nothing.

As an owner of the iPhone, I marvel at how well designed the phone truly is. Everything has been designed to just work, with no true problems associated. The only problem that I have found with the iPhone is the network. AT&T’s EDGE network is just plain slow as compared with the EVDO network provided by Verizon.

A 3G iPhone would deliver a new experience to iPhone users as they would be able use the functionality of the iPhone in a much faster environment. Using the iPhone when not connected to a wireless network is just plain brutal when using Safari or any other application that requires network connectivity.

For the majority of iPhone owners, the aforementioned problem doesn’t dissuade them from enjoying such a good product. Customers did not switch to AT&T for the network, they switched for a product that appealed to them. But when AT&T begins to sell the 3G iPhone, it will irritate many of its existing customers. Why would Apple sell the most anticipated cell phone to come to this industry in many years on such a slow network when it knew all to well it was going to have a 3G model?

The reason Steve Jobs has given is the lack of battery life. As research and technology have advanced, Apple has been able to lengthen the battery life of a 3G model. But this does not help the already existing customers who have the EDGE iPhone.

The question of does this change truly matter is a question easily answered: no. But this change certainly will broaden AT&T’s customer base. More cell phone users would be willing to change providers because the speed they need on a network will be provided along with a phone they desire.

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