Smartphone on OpTe.ch

Why Tesla and CarPlay Matter to Everyone

Tue, 04 Mar 2014 08:12:56 -0700

Tesla, along with Apple’s recently announced CarPlay, are positioned to have a major influence for everyone planning to be driving a car in the foreseeable future. This is independent of whether or not you’re driving a Tesla or a car equipped with CarPlay.

Stuck in the (Technology) Dark Ages #

The auto industry has managed to remain uniquely positioned with respect to technology. Low to middle-end cars are the worst offenders, but in this class cost almost always comes first. Higher end cars are still behind, but not as far. You could argue that Ford has had their voice control service for a while now, other companies are on a similar trajectory, but the offerings are entirely underwhelming at best.

Some Things Cannot Be Faked (Hint: Samsung)

Mon, 03 Mar 2014 17:50:50 -0700

Samsung isn’t exactly know for their design prowess or their honesty. They’ve been caught paying people to leave fake negative reviews on competitor’s products, they’ve been caught rigging their devices to perform better on benchmarks than they do in real life, and they’ve been caught stealing design cues from Apple (though rarely nicely implemented).

Side note: everyone in tech steals things from everyone else. There are a limited number of layouts, gestures, and features. There will be overlap. Don’t read into that one too much, I couldn’t resist posting a link to that Tumblr page.

Reality Check: Disrupting the TV Industry

Mon, 24 Feb 2014 08:19:37 -0700

There is pessimism, then there is reality. This is the latter. I dream of a revitalized television experience, I’d pay top dollar for it, and I think it will happen… eventually. The major technology media outlets have taken hold of this idea and run with it far beyond reason. You’ve got business men and women theorizing and then just assuming “the engineers will figure out the details.”

Consider this: the engineering side of it has been figured out for a while - brilliant smooth UIs, voice control, motion sensors, Bluetooth remotes, unified search, all of these exist today. That isn’t the problem. There are two major issues where the tech media has praised solutions yet I strongly disagree with their viability; when I say “major” I mean fundamentally damning to the entire notion.

Path Launches Windows Phone App

Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:50:37 -0700

Path is a simply wonderful social network. I connect with my close friends and family and we use the app to share more intimate moments that aren’t appropriate for the public or large following of acquaintances. The app is beautifully designed on iOS, it is acceptable on Android, and now has finally launched for Windows.

Path has enjoyed noteworthy success, though is not, and will never be, the next Facebook or Twitter. The fact that it took them this long to launch on the Windows platform goes to show how much Windows is struggling in the smartphone realm. This isn’t to say the platform isn’t good, but it seems too be too little too late.

Your Phone is Divulging More Information Than You Think

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 10:14:46 -0700

It is no secret that the NSA is, or is at least capable of, tracking your every move. Many people also realize that advertisers have a lot more access to tracking you than you’d think (or like), but most people do not.

Your phone is constantly connected to cellular towers, scanning for WiFi, and in some cases searching for Bluetooth. To make wireless connections, a handshake of sorts has to take place. This handshake includes some indentifiers to tell the source who you are. This information isn’t your name or email address, but a MAC address is unique enough to pretty easily trace you as an individual.

AT&T Announces Sponsored Data

Mon, 06 Jan 2014 10:49:13 -0700

There is no doubt that privacy is getting more visibility than ever with the NSA leaks of late. A lot of people are opting for more secure services, apps, and hardware. This often comes at a price as these services are harder to engineer and maintain, they’re not usually given away for free. The exception is Kim Dotcom’s MEGA service with 50GB of free ultra secure cloud storage.

AT&T announced sponsored data plans today that allow providers to pay for the data that you use on your mobile device while using their services. Imagine streaming Netflix without it counting toward your 2GB data cap, seems neat right? Well the financial savings represent the most obvious upside, the privacy issue presents the largest down side. Your data and your usage are now bought and paid for by someone else, meaning they own it.