My Digital Life

My Rant of the Day: the Wall Street Journal’s Pricing Model Makes No Sense

I understand the need for newspapers to find ways to fund their reporting and paying for subscriptions is fair way to generate revenue. I pay for an annual Wall Street Journal online subscription. I was happy to see WSJ develop an iPhone application which is top notch, however they are now charging for content I already get via a web browser (IE or Safari). This makes no sense to me, once you purchase an online subscription you should be able use any device to view their content. They are currently discounting the additional feature for $52 per year, but will charge an additional $104 per year for the privilege of using the iPhone app. They are not going to get that from me!

 

Blocked WSJ content using the iPhone app.

 

This is the same article, viewed using my online subscription in Safari.

Underwhelmed by the Apple iPad, but There Were Some Interesting Nuggets

Let's face it the iPad is an iPhone on steroids nothing more nothing less. From an overall technology breakthrough it does not even come close to the introduction of the iPhone which redefined the smartphone market. I agree with Apple's positioning of the iPad between a smartphone and a laptop. The problem I see is that it acts more as a smartphone than a laptop. I personally want something in that segment that acts more as a laptop than a smartphone I agree 100% with Chris' comment on my post from yesterday); I need a smartphone because of its functionality and size, so why would I purchase a device that essentially replicates the iPhone experience without giving me some key functionality such as multitasking and Flash. I can't tell you how many web sites I browse on the iPhone and get the little blue Flash icon which prohibits me from fully experiencing the site.

That said I think the hardware is leading edge and shows the importance Apple is placing on chip design as a differentiator going forward. It will be interesting to see how proprietary chip design creeps into the Mac line. As usual the industrial design of the iPad is top notch, I am sure the device feels very comfortable to hold and use. The iPhone OS 3.2 announcement did not bring any features I personally was looking for other than the interesting nugget that allows VOIP over 3G, although with the A-List and included mobile to mobile I have so many rollover minutes that for now I would probably not use that feature.

My big disappointment yesterday was that there was no iPhone OS 4.0 or next iPhone hardware announcement. I understand that they not want to detract from the iPad but still a little nugget for their biggest customer base would have been nice.

I am sure that the iPad will be an initial success because it is an Apple device; the question is whether it will have staying power.

Although The Apple Tablet is Interesting, I Want iPhone 4.0!

Although Apple's implementation of a tablet based computer will be very interesting, I am more interested in what will be in the iPhone 4.0 OS. With Android fast on the iPhone's heels; Apple needs to play the leap frog game well with iPhone 4.0 or risk losing potential new or even current customers.

Here is what I would like to see in iPhone 4.0 (not necessarily in preference order):

• Ability to have a second ActiveSync mail account
• Ability to flag emails in an Exchange account
• Background push synching of selected email folders like sent items
• API access to calendar, contacts, email to allow developers like WebIS to develop fully integrated PIM applications (Pocket Informant)
• Background application functionality (let the users choose what app may run in the background)
• Active unlock screen to display weather, calendar events or whatever any app may provide.
• Customizable icon shapes
• More power management settings

On the hardware front:

• AMOLED screen
• 1GHZ processor
• 5+ MP camera with zoom

I will have to wait until this afternoon to see how my wish list fairs.

Dell XPS-720 H2C Windows 7 64 bit Upgrade

When I purchased my Quad Core XPS-720, I was excited to be able to purchase a major vendor's system with over clocking built into the default BIOS. Unfortunately, the promise has never been fulfilled. The system has locked up regularly since I purchased it and Dell's only support response: reinstall the OS. Given the amount of work and uncertainty of the fix I never did. Since Dell has released the XPS 730 and failed to certify the XPS 720 for Windows 7, I suspect that a hardware design issue may be causing the lockups, but given my options (this system was too expensive to dump after 2 years) I have decided install a clean copy of Windows 7 64 bit to see what happens.

I used my Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate upgrade DVD and installed using the fresh copy installation option (vs. the in place upgrade). This allows me to dual boot my machine (Vista or 7) in case something goes horribly wrong. The down side is that I have to recreate my environment.

The installation went fine and all the hardware drivers were detected found. The only issue was the failure of a critical Windows Update patch for the NVidia GeForce 8800 GT video card. Since, I could not find a valid Dell Windows 7 driver for the video card; I decided to try the Vista 64 bit driver. This driver solved the issue and actually provided more control panel functionality than the one found by the installation. I now need to install the NVidia RAID drivers to add the disk management functionality to the NVidia control panel.

I have started the application reinstallation process with Office 2007 Ultimate and SQL Server 2005 with all associated Service Packs. So far so good; I will add applications day by day and update this blog. I will start testing over clocking today by setting the processor to 3.2GHZ.

Removing the Internet Security 2010 Virus/Malware from Windows XP

Last weekend I was planning on upgrading my Dell XPS 720 Vista desktop to Windows 7, but a friend of mine ran into a nasty piece of malware called "Internet Security 2010" which removed a registry key that allows you to logon to the system and corrupted the system to the point where you could not successfully install any malware or virus protection. If you are to logon the Internet Security 2010 malware essentially holds you hostage for a fee to supposedly clean up the system but do not purchase the service it is a scam.

The first problem I had to deal with is the logon logoff loop. When attempting to logon you automatically get logged off. There are two potential problems to resolving the issue: You either have a missing or corrupt userinit.exe or the registry key pointing to userinit.exe is missing or corrupt. To identify either problem you need to be able to logon. Here are the steps to try:

1. Boot up in safe mode (F8 at initial PC power on) and select option 1 (you do not need the network). Try to log in (This did not work for me), if you can log on follow the Phase II and III instructions (Phase I is for another virus) in this article http://www.winxptutor.com/wsaremove.htm .
2. Some folks have used the recovery console which requires your XP CD to boot up with, but the only function you can really perform is to check if userinit.exe exists under your Windows/system32 directory. I used the Phase III instruction found here http://www.winxptutor.com/wsaremove.htme. The file userinit existed but copying it to wsaupdate.exe per the phase III instructions did not solve my problem.
3. It seemed my only hope was to try to access the registry and since the recovery console does not provide that functionality I had to find another way. The solution I used to accomplish this was to boot the system from a Bart PE CD which I had to create. The instructions to do so and how to edit the registry can be found here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm.

With the system booted with BART PE, I was able to edit the registry and found that the winlogon registry key was missing. I created it per the instructions above, rebooted and was able to logon. Once I logged on, I got the Internet Security 2010 malware message telling me I had a virus with a purchase scam. In order to remove the virus/malware I followed the instructions in this article http://www.softsailor.com/how-to/13827-how-to-uninstall-remove-internet-security-2010-virus-removal-guide.html.

The system is now functioning normally.

Will 2010 Mark the End of the Stylus?

Since the days of gray scale LCD screens on PDAs, the stylus has been the invaluable tool which allowed you to precisely navigate the small screen. With killer applications like the venerable PhatWare Calligrapher, which converts hand writing to text, you can use the stylus to mimic the analog world of pen and paper. Along, with integration of cell phone technology, the hope of a converged hand held device for your mobile life was starting to become a reality. As cellular data and push email where implemented, the world was starting to be at one's stylus tip. Microsoft along with Palm were visionaries in understanding that the success of this new world was tied to the innovation of third party applications and there again the stylus played a key role in providing an easy way to access application functionality. Although, Research In Motion has proved, with its thumb keyboard, that not everyone was or is a stylus devotee. However without the stylus the BlackBerry never became an multi faceted application device. The Windows Mobile vendors adjusted quickly to that fact and offer the best of both worlds with physical keyboards and/or styli support.

Four years ago, Apple through a monkey wrench into the device design paradigm by introducing the iPhone, a device with no stylus or physical keyboard. Google Android has followed suit by providing a finger friendly OS which does not require a stylus but does allow for form factors with physical keyboards like the Motorola Droid. On the Windows Mobile front the HTC HD2 is the first device that I know of, that does not ship with a stylus. As we slowly move towards Windows Mobile 7, will the stylus become extinct? With the talk of capacitive styli (HTC HD2 stylus) for the new breed of touch sensitive screens, designers seem to be on the fence and if a majority of users are not clamoring for a stylus, over the next couple of years the stylus could become instinct.

What are your thoughts, do you use a stylus or do you prefer your finger?

My Directv HR20-700 Video and Audio Stutter Issues revisited (Update 4)

I wrote about this problem back in November. The disk scan has helped the issue but it still occurs when I am watching a recorded show and the unit is currently recording another. After reading the long threads on dbstalk.com I have decided to replace my external drives. I use a Thecus N2050 RAID array enclosure with 2 Seagate 500GB drives in a RAID 0 configuration providing 1 TB of storage. The Thecus disk array with the 2 500GB drives. The two drives were extremely hot when I pulled them out. I replaced the two drives with one Seagate 1TB drive. If the heat was part of the problem, this should help considerably. BTW what do think of the quality of the picture, it was taken with Droid Eris (very good 5MP camera). The down side to this approach is:

• My old recordings are on the 2 500GB drives and I will lose them.
• I have to re-enter my To Do list.
• I have to reconfigure my Favorite channels.

Hopefully this will solve the problem caused by the Directv updates this fall, but I will wait a week or so to make a judgment. Next steps if this fails are a replacement DVR and if that does not work I am going with FIOS TV. Update 12/30/09: Last night I was able to watch the PBS News Hour from the beginning (time shift) while it was still recording without one audio or video stutter. I hope this fixes the problem. Update 12/31/09: Recordings are working fine after I replaced the 2 500GB with a 1 TB drive in my Thecus N2050 array, unfortunately I noticed that the percentage used was increasing rapidly and given the 1TB drive it should not. I went back and checked the Thecus documentation and found that the maximum drive you can put into the unit is 500GB. I am assuming that the DVR is only seeing 500GB of the 1TB drive. Since, I borrowed the 1TB drive from my XPS 720 RAID setup; I would have had to replace it anyway. I went ahead and ordered a Western Digital My DVR WDG1S10000 external drive. Amazon had a better price but they are of stock. I plan to sell the Thecus N2050 with the 2 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 10 drives when I receive the WD My DVR, anyone interested can email me at steve (at) mydigitallife.us. Update 1/09/10: Yesterday I received the WD My DVR 1TB unit and immediately proceeded to install it on my Directv HR20-700 DVR. The DVR booted, found the drive and proceeded to format the external storage. The DVR started successfully, and now all I needed to do is reprogram my recording lists and channel guide. Last night I performed my test where I watch the News Hour from the list, while it is being recorded as well as the NBC Nightly News. The viewing of the recorded portion of the News Hour was flawless (this test always produced audio/video stutter with my original drives). So far everything seems to be working perfectly and I am surprised at how quiet it the My DVR drive is. I will wait a week to make a final judgement. I am also very happy to have the iPhone Directv app to rebuild my recording list, it makes the process a breeze.

The WD My DVR drive with the yellow ring status LED looks like a book.

Update 1/19/10: 10 days later and the new WD 1TB My DVR drive is working perfectly. It is quiet and definetely run cooler. There have been suggestions that the problem may come back when a new DVR OS version is released. Hopefully that won't be the case, I will just have to wait and see.

My Directv HR20-700 Video and Audio Stutter Issues revisited

I wrote about this problem back in November. The disk scan has helped the issue but it still occurs when I am watching a recorded show and the unit is currently recording another. After reading the long threads on dbstalk.com I have decided to replace my external drives. I use a Thecus N2050 RAID array enclosure with 2 Seagate 500GB drives in a RAID 0 configuration providing 1 TB of storage.

The Thecus disk array with the 2 500GB drives. The two drives were extremely hot when I pulled them out. I replaced the two drives with one Seagate 1TB drive. If the heat was part of the problem, this should help considerably. BTW what do think of the quality of the picture, it was taken with Droid Hero (very good 5MP camera).

The down side to this approach is:

• My old recordings are on the 2 500GB drives and I will lose them.
• I have to re-enter my To Do list.
• I have to reconfigure my Favorite channels.

Hopefully this will solve the problem caused by the Directv updates this fall, but I will wait a week or so to make a judgment. Next steps if this fails are a replacement DVR and if that does not work I am going with FIOS TV.

AT&T “Mark The Spot” App is Brilliant

Yesterday, AT&T released (or should I say Apple) a customer service application for the iPhone called "Mark The Spot". It is brilliant on several levels.

• It allows frustrated customers to easily vent
• It provides AT&T network engineers with additional data to map issues
• It shows leadership in utilizing crowd sourcing to gather customer service data
• It shows its customers that it is trying to listen, the next step fix the iPhone (new chipset!) and network

From my experience in Washington, DC the AT&T 3G network has gotten better and better (the new cell tower down my street clearly helps), but when I was in midtown Manhattan last weekend I can vouch that 3G data sucked (awful latency) on both the iPhone and the Verizon HTC Eris.

The Mark the Spot app is available in the App store for free.

Quick Fix – Twhirl and Windows 7 Lockup issue

After I upgraded to Windows 7, I started having issues with Twhirl locking up. Even after terminating the process using Task Manager I could never get Twhirl to start up again without performing a reboot. My suspicion is that Adobe Air which Twhirl is based on is not fully Windows 7 compliant. The reason I say this is that once the problem occurs, I tried to use TweetDeck (which is also based on Air) and it would not load.

The quick fix is to go to start, type twhirl, right click on the program twhirl, click on properties, click on the compatibility tab, check "run the program in compatibility mode", select Vista Service Pack 2, and click ok.