Opinion

According to a recent article on Gizmodo, an iPhone owner sent an email to Steve Jobs asking: "Will the Wi-Fi-only iPad support tethering through my iPhone?" Steve replied with a one word answer: "No."

Assuming this report is accurate, what exactly are the iPad-related implications (beyond the obvious one) of Jobs' answer? In particular, how might it affect which iPad (Wi-Fi-only vs. Wi-Fi + 3G) you should buy?

But wait! Before answering these questions, you may want answers to some more fundamental ones. Questions such as: "What is Internet tethering?"; "Why would I want to use it?"; and "Why has AT&T not yet enabled iPhone Internet tethering?"

Whether you’re a seasoned digital photographer or an amateur looking to step up from iPhoto, chances are that Apple’s Aperture software can help you dramatically. Now in its third major iteration, Aperture is easier to use and more powerful than ever.

One of the first major questions that digital photographers of all stripes may have when first confronted with Aperture is, “Why do I need this?” The short answer is that Aperture lets you get a lot more out of your digital photos than you can get with iPhoto.

RealNetworks just screwed us all by settling lawsuits in which it might have lost--but which might also have given some new life to fair use for digital media.

The post-RealDVD world means that unless there's a major change to the law surrounding copy protection, there will never be a legal way to perform legal acts of copying or shifting protected movies, music, and games.

Take it from a guy who has a special E Ticket. The major movie studios can never sue me nor four other individuals ever for a variety of media-moving activities that you and 300 million other Americans could be subject to. It's like a superpower. More on how we got this pass later.

In 2010, as in 2007, the entire technology industry gathered at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, only to have the hot tech news of the week usurped by a smartphone announcement back in the Bay Area. In 2007, it was the announcement of the iPhone at Macworld Expo. This year, Google tried to replicate the experience by calling a media-only event of its own to announce the Nexus One, the first device running the search-engine giant’s Android operating system to be sold directly by Google.

With a new Nexus One in hand, provided on loan from Google, I spent several days using the Nexus One as my only smartphone, and another week with it in one pocket and my iPhone 3GS in another.

How does the Nexus One rate as a smart phone? It’s a really good device. It outdoes the iPhone in a few areas, and its weaknesses show that Apple’s device still has some serious advantages.

Adobe’s Flash, a multimedia plug-in for browsers, has become the flash point—sorry—for the future of video and interactivity on the Web. Apple doesn’t include a version of Flash in the Mobile Safari browser that’s part of the iPhone OS, and doesn’t allow third-party plug-ins for that browser.

Of course, no other handheld operating system platform offers Flash, either, but leave it to Adobe to whip up foment against Apple as a way of getting users to complain to the iPhone maker.

In the 10 billionth song that Apple sold through iTunes, Johnny Cash's "Guess Things Happen That Way", a man other than Steve Jobs famous for black attire bemoans the happenstance of his romantic misfortune.

But nothing could be further from the story of iTunes, in which Apple's meticulously crafted ownership of the end-user experience led to a dominant position in music sales. Now, on the dawn of releasing a new device that could be to television shows what the iPod was to music, Apple has an opportunity to create as commanding a lead in TV distribution -- if it is willing to again capitulate to consumers' media consumption habits.

GOOD RIDDANCE.

As the publishing industry wobbles and Kindle sales jump, book romanticists cry themselves to sleep. But really, what are we shedding tears over?

We’re losing the throwaway paperback.
The airport paperback.
The beachside paperback.

We’re losing the dredge of the publishing world: disposable books. The book printed without consideration of form or sustainability or longevity. The book produced to be consumed once and then tossed. The book you bin when you’re moving and you need to clean out the closet.

These are the first books to go. And I say it again, good riddance.

It was a trial, dear readers, to refrain from writing about Apple or Google or any of their products and services for a whole month. But it probably prevented you, me, and my editor from getting so sick of relentless announcements from both companies that that we’d have run amok in either an Apple Store or a Goodyear Tire Center (on the basis that Google has no public stores to run amok in)..

But though I didn’t write about the iPad during the month of February, I still spent a lot of time trying to learn more about it. So many simple and practical questions have yet to be answered; I’m still navigating through a list of concerns that I had immediately after Apple first showed the iPad off.

In the past month, though, I’ve managed to cross many of them off. Here are six questions about the iPad that no longer concern me.

When consumers rush out to purchase Apple's new handheld device, the slate-like computer called the iPad, they'll have several options to choose from. In addition to multiple storage capacities, iPad buyers will have to make an even more critical decision: Wi-Fi or 3G? Although Wi-Fi hotspots are in many places these days, from airports to coffee shops and sometimes even blanketing a city's downtown, anyone with an iPod Touch will tell you that they're far from being everywhere.

That problem certainly limits some of the functionality of the iPad apps, especially those relying on real-time updates for breaking news, data downloads or other Internet-only content. Considering that the contract-free iPad 3G plan starts at $15 per month, one would think that, given these potential issues, the 3G version would be the top choice among consumers.

However, AT&T's CEO thinks otherwise. He predicts the iPad will primarily be a Wi-Fi only device. Is he right?

When, back in late 2006, we last looked at the free DVD-ripping tool HandBrake, it had just turned 0.9.0. And for its 0.9.0 birthday it gained greater ease of use, better picture quality, conversion presets, and advanced encoding features. In the several years since, HandBrake’s version number has advanced only to 0.9.4, but that seemingly small version increment actually reflects big changes.

HandBrake 0.9.4 is speedier than previous versions. This is partly due to improvements made to the free x264 video encoder that works much of HandBrake’s magic. According to HandBrake’s development team, these improvements result in smaller, better, and faster encoding.

In the wake of the introduction of the iPad, I’ve been thinking about iPad software pricing. Apple is strongly encouraging developers to make a single binary that runs on both the iPad and the iPhone, so called “universal” applications. What that means is that while the user experience is enhanced because a user won’t need to buy both versions of an application, it means pricing is going be very tricky.

Apple has said that existing iPhone applications will run on the iPad and that they will be able to be “blown up” in size to be full screen. From reports I’ve heard and my own experience in the simulator, this doesn’t look very good. Developers will want to have an iPad specific interface built into their app. The amount of work to get an iPad app’s UI to have the great polish it should have is going to exceed that of the iPhone. This will mean higher development costs. Presumably with higher development costs, higher prices will come with it. The rub is that these universal applications are going to be subjected to the same price pressures from the iPhone side of the market because users will buying a single binary.

Apple reportedly took recent action to remove a bunch of boobie and bikini apps from the iTunes store. The reason, ostensibly, is that kids found them and that offended their parents. As we've demonstrated in our story "5 Sexy Apps Still In The iTunes Store," Apple's policy seems arbitrary and incomplete. And that's just its apps policy.

Leave the apps out of the equation, and you'll find that the iTunes store is actually full of porn. Chock full of porny, porny porn. I just spent a dirty half-hour plumbing the depths. (Sorry, Ziff-Davis IT department.)

Of course, I personally don't want a media landscape that's entirely dumbed down to what I think is safe for my four-year-old daughter to watch. I'm an adult. I want to be able to guide my kid's viewing, while being able to watch, listen to, and read adult material.

Let's start with audiobooks.

Recently Google entered the world of social media with their own service called Buzz. Buzz put Google directly in the real-time and social spaces, combined with a strong mobile component. Their approach is tied directly into Gmail on the desktop with a mobile website, and integration into various flavors of Google Maps. It would seem like a no-brainer and a success. Except I stopped using it almost immediately. Here’s why.

In the latest example of Apple's bungled and heavy-handed approach to its App Store approval process, Apple has begun to remove all apps with "sexual content" from the Store. Affected developers received an email last week notifying them of Apple's intent; the removal of apps began almost immediately thereafter. A CNET article claims that over 5,000 apps have now been removed.

As is typical for this sort of hot-button issue, reactions to Apple's move have been sharply divided. Some applaud Apple's decision; others view it as an unwanted and unnecessary intrusion. However, for this article, I want to step back from the smaller controversy surrounding "sexy apps." Instead, I want to focus on what I believe is a larger more ominous issue: How Apple mistreats its third-party developers and how this ultimately stifles innovation on the iPhone.

Developing an app for the App Store can take a considerable investment of time and money. Yet, other than its (inadequate) license agreement, Apple offers no pre-submission guidance as to the probability that an app will ultimately be accepted. In particular, Apple will typically not respond to developers' requests regarding a potential issue for a specific app. Only after the app is submitted will Apple reply.

This means that a developer can wind up spending thousands of dollars to create an app, only to have Apple reject it for reasons that could not have been anticipated.

Now that Apple has announced the iPad (much to our collective relief after months of rumors and hype), we have the brain space to look forward to what else Apple might do in 2010.

Instead of attempting to predict what we expect Apple to do, we instead want to share a few suggestions of what we'd like to see Apple do this year. And unlike some wishlists, we're doing our best to keep it real - all of these ideas are entirely within Apple's capabilities and, we believe, within the realm of Apple's business direction.

You nominated, everybody voted, and the results are in. The winners of the 2009 Engadget Awards are...

The massive manufacturing complex in the South China city of Longhua resembles an industrial fortress. To enter the facility, workers swipe security cards at the gate. Guards check the occupants of each vehicle with fingerprint recognition scanners.

Inside the walled city -- one of several compounds run by Foxconn International, a major supplier for Apple Inc -- employees are provided with most of their daily needs. There are dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, even banks, post offices and bakeries.

The rank-and-file within the compound have little reason to venture outside. That reduces the likelihood of leaks, which in turn lessens the risk of incurring the wrath of Apple and its chief executive, Steve Jobs, whose product launches have turned into long-running, tightly controlled media spectacles.

Many of Apple's finished gadgets, from iPods to iPads, are assembled at industrial compounds like the one in Longhua. And when it comes to guarding Apple's secrets, Foxconn, a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, and other suppliers throughout the region leave little to chance.

Macworld Expo 2010 is now behind us, though I'm sure we'll continue to publish and read news and reports from the show for some time to come. I've shared enough about my feelings on this past year's show on more than a few podcasts, so on that subject I'll simply summarize that I believe it to have been a success.

With that out of the way, let's look forward, shall we?

The New York Times reported today that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has agreed to work with former Time Magazine managing editor Walter Isaacson on an authorized biography. As Jobs is usually not someone who is terribly revealing in the few interviews he does, it should be interesting reading indeed.

The choice of Isaacson is an interesting one. He’s written a few important biographies of some of America’s larger than life figures: Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Henry Kissinger. Jobs certainly fits that mold, and chose the author with whom he’s willing to cooperate accordingly. I’m frankly surprised that it wasn’t Steven Levy.

Said to be a comprehensive look at his life, it would presumably give Jobs an extensive platform yet to give his version of events concerning certain anecdotes about his life that have come down to history, not all of them positive. It will be especially interesting to find out exactly how much editorial control Isaacson will have, given Jobs’ reputation as a control freak.

If, last week, you heard a faint Macintosh startup chime from the direction of San Francisco, it was the sound of Macworld Expo rebooting after the crash caused by the disappearance of Apple from the exhibitor list. The good news is that although the show was notably smaller than previous incarnations, in terms of floor space and exhibitor count, the reboot was successful. Macworld seems essentially unaffected - indeed, even improved in places - without Apple's presence.

Let's acknowledge up front that the tenor of the show was different without a Steve Jobs keynote to introduce new Apple products, and the show floor also felt different without the massive Apple booth. But the assumption on the part of many people was that those two undeniable facts would detract from the show, whereas I'd say that the reverse was, in fact, true.

The problem is that, as I've said many times, there's a significant separation between Apple and the ecosystem that has grown up around the company.

It was quite the week for Apple, first with its best-ever earnings and then the launch of the iPad.

While Apple didn't create this category of device, it did answer the fundamental question of why this form factor needs to exist. The meta lesson is that the story told is as important as the hardware, software and services being sold -- and while everyone may not be convinced, I do think Apple will win over the majority of a skeptical audience with high expectations.

But there's also four important lessons that Apple taught the market this week, as it enters a space that's been mostly a failure.

The iPad models that come with Wi-Fi and 3G will let users choose, on a month-by-month basis, whether to pay AT&T for 3G data service at one of two service levels. The unlimited plan is $29.99 per month, just like the iPhone's data fee; the 250 MB per month plan (combined upload and download) is just $14.99 per month. Will that suffice?

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the iPhone OS's lack of multitasking. That is, the iPhone OS can only let one app run at a time, and this is a frustration for many people, myself included.

The introduction of the iPad has led to an increase in this chatter, largely because the assumption is that this device, too, will be limited to (essentially) running only one app at a time.

To be clear, the iPhone OS supports multitasking just fine. It shares its core with Mac OS X and obviously that runs multiple apps without any concern. The iPhone OS is no different, and many apps DO run in the background including Phone, Mail, Safari and a few others. The problem is these are all Apple's apps, and no third-party apps have been granted permission to do this.

I find it especially ironic that — while Apple has succeeded in implementing a level of control over the iPhone OS that would have seemed unimaginable back in 1984 — so many people not only accept this control but applaud its virtues.

The irony is that back in 1984, the Super Bowl ad for the original Mac used a 1984 metaphor, heralding a Macintosh that would break the chains of the Big Brother oppressor. Here in 2010, it is Apple that might be viewed as the oppressor (yes, I am taking dramatic license to exaggerate here, but bear with me). Not exactly as a Big Brother, but more like what Neil Postman wrote in the forward to Amusing Ourselves to Death:

"We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us."

No, I don't believe the iPad or iPhone will "ruin us." Hardly! But I do believe there's a message here worth contemplating.

Apple is regularly voted the most innovative company in the world, but its inventiveness takes a particular form. Rather than developing entirely new product categories, it excels at taking existing, half-baked ideas and showing the rest of the world how to do them properly. Under its mercurial and visionary boss, Steve Jobs, it has already done this three times.

If Mr Jobs manages to pull off another amazing trick with another brilliant device, then the benefits of the digital revolution to media companies with genuinely popular products may soon start to outweigh the costs. But some media companies are dying, and a new gadget will not resurrect them. Even the Jesus Tablet cannot perform miracles.

Dvorak identifies the three things people are grousing about: There's no stylus (who the hell thought there would be a stylus?), there's no camera (I do, at least, get that one, even if it's not a "deal-killer" for me), and it doesn't run Mac apps (this one is just plain stupid).

He added, "These three gripes are just the beginning of a litany of complaints from the fact that it cannot run two programs at once or it has no telephony capability."

Doom! Doom I tell you!

Think about the following scenarios and whether you'd want a tablet or a laptop: airplane seat, a quick check-in to re-read a PDF before a meeting, hotel room, sitting on the couch, coffee shop, your desk. For me, the only place I prefer the form factor of the laptop is at my desk in the office because it gives me a real keyboard and props up my screen. Even there, though, I often just wind up using an external keyboard anyway, so I don't really even care as long as I have something to hold the screen up.

Give me the functionality of my MacBook Pro in a tablet form factor and I'm a happy man.

Apple is selling a product. They've chosen to keep it closed for demonstrably reasonable benefits. And—yes, okay!—several collateral benefits that come from controlling the marketplace that services their products.

But Apple is not the government. There's no mandate to buy an Apple product except the call of excellence. And if you think the average persona on the street doesn't recognize both the ups and downs of buying into an Apple ecosystem, you're eyeing them with the typical nerd myopia, looking down your nose with the same autistic disdain you cultivated in high school. Turns out the internet you helped build as a sanctuary ended up a great place for normal folk, too.

Consider a path that will truly inspire the coming generations of tinkerers and engineers: Working your ass off to make a product that competes with Apple on every count that matters—design, ease-of-use, a simple marketplace, customer satisfaction; you know, everything—and does it with the open-source licenses and values you claim to believe in; or fight to change the broken copyright laws that demonize the tinkering in the first place.

The iPad won’t kill the computer any more than the graphical user interface did away with the command line (it’s still there, remember?), but it is Apple saying once again that there’s a better way.

Regardless of how many people buy an iPad, it’s not hard to look forward a few years and imagine a world where more and more people are interacting with technology in this new way. Remember: even if it often seems to do just the opposite, the ultimate goal of technology has always been to make life easier.

The tech industry will be in paroxysms of future shock for some time to come. Many will cling to their January-26th notions of what it takes to get "real work" done; cling to the idea that the computer-based part of it is the "real work."

It's not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table's order, designing the house and organizing the party.

Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. Think of the lengths that people have gone to in order to acquire skills that are orthogonal to their core interests and their job, just so they can get their job done.