'Juice Jacking'

Never heard of it before, but this totally makes sense.

At Instapundit, "USB IS TERRIBLY UNSECURE: Here’s why you should never use a public phone charger. “You could be the victim of ‘juice jacking’."

Satellite Phones Running Short in Puerto Rico

This is interesting.

At USA Today, "Puerto Rico's cell service is basically nonexistent. So this is happening."

Puerto Rico's cell service is basically nonexistent. So this is happening https://t.co/Vesqx3oYKD via @USATODAY

— Blue Alert (@BlueAlertUs) September 30, 2017

Apple's New Headphones Aren't Better

I wouldn't know. I haven't gotten my hands on any of these yet, heh.

The whole new iPhone 7, with the wireless headset, is supposed to be an industry game-changer.

But see Popular Mechanics, "Apple's AirPod Headphones Are an Awful Design." (Via Instapundit.)

Apple Unveils the iPhone 7

Following-up, "PLAY X STORE Wireless Bluetooth Earhook Earbuds."

Wireless really is the wave!

At LAT, "Farewell, headphone jack. Apple is killing you, but we'll never forget the decades we shared":

Apple made the first move to retire the audio jack on Wednesday, announcing that it will eliminate the jack from its flagship iPhone 7 smartphones.

When the device ships Sept. 16, it will come with a pair of wired earphones that plug into Apple’s proprietary charging port and an adapter that works with 3.5-mm plugs. The company also announced a pair of wireless earbuds called AirPods, priced at $159. Beats, the headphone maker that Apple acquired in 2014 for $3 billion, will offer its own range of wireless headphones.

The jack won’t disappear from electronics overnight, according to tech experts, who said decades of being the standard consumer audio jack has made the 3.5-mm port and its earphones pervasive.

“[But] this is a very big deal,” said Vince Ponzo, senior director of the entrepreneurship program at Columbia Business School. “When the world’s largest phone distributor and seller eliminates that piece of technology from its phones, it’s a big step toward doing away with that technology entirely.”

And that’s not hyperbole, because when Apple moves, the industry typically follows. The company was one of the first to get rid of serial ports on computers and move to USB ports. It got rid of ethernet ports on laptops, forcing customers to use wireless Internet. It got rid of floppy disks and CD and DVD players. And it all but got rid of buttons from cellphones. These are now the norm. With the iPhone 7, a wireless music listening experience could become the new normal.

Apple executive Phil Schiller said the decision to ditch the port “comes down to courage” — a statement that drew snickers from the crowd gathered at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Wednesday for the unveiling of the iPhone 7. He called the single-purpose technology “ancient,” taking up valuable real estate on an already compact device, and he spelled out hopes for a “wireless future.”

The new iPhone replaces the jack with another speaker, making the gadget twice as loud and allowing users to blast music for the first time in stereo.

The move will no doubt frustrate many customers who currently use wired headphones from third-party headset makers, or those whose junk drawers are filled with tangled earbuds for use when the current pair vanishes.

If Apple’s shift makes wireless earbuds commonplace, it will be a change mourned by those prone to losing things (imagine the frustration of digging through a purse to find only a single earbud). It will also irk anyone who doesn’t want to charge another device at the end of the day (Apple’s AirPods will run for five hours per charge.)

But the loss of the 3.5-mm jack won’t be felt for long, said Simon Hall, the head of music technology at the Birmingham Conservatoire, who said consumers will adapt.

“It’s going to be a change, but eventually it may be viewed as a storm in a teacup,” he said...

Keep reading.

How Apple is Preparing for the End of the iPhone Affair

Pretty interesting.

At Telegraph UK, "The launch of the iPhone 6s, fourth generation Apple TV and iPad Pro is impending, but it's Apple's battles with the likes of Netflix and Spotify which will prove pivotal to the company's future success..."

Amazon's Smartphone Release

Amazon's turning into the next tech juggernaut, and not so much in a good way.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Amazon unveils Fire smartphone."

And at Techmeme, "Introducing Fire, the First Smartphone Designed by Amazon."

eMarketer Report: Americans Spend More Time on Smartphones, Computers, Tablets Than Television

This is interesting.

At WSJ, "In Digital Era, What Does 'Watching TV' Even Mean? Study Suggests More Time Spent on Smartphones, Computers, Tablets Than Television":

We spend a full five hours and 16 minutes a day in front of a screen, and that's without even turning on a television.

So says a statistic from eMarketer, a research firm that focuses on digital media and marketing. It says that for the first time we are devoting more attention each day to smartphones, computers and tablets. All of which points to a big question: What counts as TV-watching today?

We are actually watching more television programming, just from a growing range of devices and platforms, say digital and television executives, as well as academics and statisticians. Traditional TV or cable-network fare is now available online, via streaming services like Netflix or for sale to be watched on mobile phones and tablets.

The report says that adults are watching their televisions slightly less—with a daily intake of four hours and 31 minutes this year, seven minutes less than in 2012.

The increase in mobile devices and the multitasking they allow, plus the trend toward watching TV shows on devices other than televisions, is driving the changes measured in the report, says Clark Fredricksen, a spokesman for eMarketer. The study, which came out in August, is conducted twice annually.

The company says its numbers reflect raw data and studies of consumer media behavior from sources such as companies that measure TV ratings and online traffic, social networking platforms, gadget retailers, software manufacturers and government records.

Although Americans are gravitating toward digital platforms and social networks, "in many cases, what's popular comes from the large entertainment companies," says James Webster, a professor who studies audience measurement and behavior at Northwestern University. He points to a recent video that looks homemade and shows a woman failing badly at the twerking dance move.

After the video exploded on YouTube—it has been viewed more than 13 million times—ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel announced that his team had produced the short.

Continue reading.

A New Touch for iPhone

At WSJ, "Fingerprint Technology, New System Make the 5S the Leader of the Smartphone Pack":

The iPhone 5S is the first digital device I've seen with a simple, reliable fingerprint reader—one you can confidently use, without a thought, to unlock the device instead of typing in a passcode. You can even use this fingerprint reader, called Touch ID, to authorize purchases from Apple's App, iTunes and e-book stores.

It sounds like a gimmick, but it's a real advance, the biggest step ever in biometric authentication for everyday devices. After using Touch ID, I found it annoying to go back to typing in passcodes on my older iPhone.

That's so cool.

RTWT.

Also, at Wired, "Debut of iOS 7 Heralds the Dawn of the Mobile-First Era," and "How to Prep Your iDevice for iOS 7."

Plus, "IMAGE GALLERYA Guide to the Differences Between Apple's New iOS 7 and iOS 6," and "How to Use iOS 7, Apple's New Operating System."

Still more at the Verge, "iOS 7 now available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch." (Via Techmeme, with additional articles on Apple.)


And on Twitter:

Downloading iOS 7. "About 16 hours remaining." What the hell?

— Robin Abcarian (@robinabcarian) September 19, 2013

Apple customers frustrated by lengthy iOS 7 download delays http://t.co/itYuX3BxnT #Apple

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 19, 2013

I'm holding off a bit before I upgrade, lol.

Apple Faces Limited Ban on Products

In tech news, at WSJ, "Ruling Blocks iPhone Sales: If Upheld, Decision Favoring Samsung Would Halt Sales of Older iPhones, iPads."