This is clever, charming, and I felt I must share it.

Here’s one from the Just Because You’re Paranoid Doesn’t Mean They’re Not Out To Get You Department:

“An examination of 101 popular smartphone “apps”—games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone’s unique device ID to other companies without users’ awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone’s location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders.”

This is from a recent Wall Street Journal investigation.  It goes on to say:

“Apps sharing the most information included TextPlus 4, a popular iPhone app for text messaging. It sent the phone’s unique ID number to eight ad companies and the phone’s zip code, along with the user’s age and gender, to two of them.

Both the Android and iPhone versions of Pandora, a popular music app, sent age, gender, location and phone identifiers to various ad networks. iPhone and Android versions of a game called Paper Toss—players try to throw paper wads into a trash can—each sent the phone’s ID number to at least five ad companies. Grindr, an iPhone app for meeting gay men, sent gender, location and phone ID to three ad companies.”

You can read the full story at the WSJ (subscription required).

For those of us defecting to Mac from Windows who miss the actual Delete key (as opposed to the Mac ‘Delete’ key, which to us is a Backspace key) hit Fn-Delete.

Yay! It’s delete as we know it!

Addendum – Here’s all the keyboard shortcuts:  Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

How did Apple do it? How did they brainwash me to the point where I simply HAD to have one of the new MacBook Air laptops? How? HOW?

The last Mac I had was a MacIntosh Classic. You know, one of those tiny screen black & white little box computers, closely resembling the original Mac. I only had it a few months and ended up selling it to finance a trip to Disneyland for the family.

I always missed it, but moved on. In the 90s I found myself having to support some Macs at a phone company, and ended up hating the damn things — because I no longer understood them. Immersed as I was in the Windows world I could no longer think in Mac terms and processes.

Then I got an iPhone when the 3G came out. This led to a 3Gs, and that led directly to me having to have an iPad. Now this new second-generation MacBook Air came out, with the sleek sexy form factor and solid state storage, the beautiful screen with the excellent graphics, the keyboard that types like a dream, the instant on and 11 second reboot cycle speed … I had to have it. I HAD TO. This was it, the Mac I’d been waiting for. The one that would bring me back over from the dark side.

See the progression? The iPhone led to the iPad, which led to the MacBook Air.

Do I have any buyer’s remorse? Hell no. This little thing cost exactly the same as my very first computer ($999.00, just like my old IBM PCjr — laugh at me if you must!) but this is infinitely better, and has made me one happy, happy, HAPPY technophile. I love this little thing. LOVE IT.

Can you tell I love it?

I love it.

As much as I wanted to use the iPad as a content creation device, which — if combined with a Bluetooth keyboard — it can very well be, I did keep finding myself struggling with its limitations. For the first few days I wondered if this little MacBook would replace my iPad. I even contemplated selling it. But no, they’re two distinctly different devices. As everyone says, and as even Apple states, the iPad is a media consumption device first and foremost. It’s replaced my TV. In a pinch it will serve to write a blog or an article, even without the Bluetooth keyboard. But this little baby here, this MacBook Air, is going to be my primary writing device as well as what I’ll use to edit video — both things which it does exceptionally well.

I have had many people ask me if I would recommend getting an iPad instead of a laptop to use as their one and only computer, and I couldn’t quite bring myself to give that recommendation. The iPad, as nice as it is, is not a stand-alone device. We’ll see if that changes in the future as the iOS operating system evolves, but for now it just isn’t. You need the umbilical cord to a PC in order to have it be fully functional.

If someone asked me if I would suggest the MacBook Air as a their one and only computer, I would — if their usage demands warranted it — recommend this computer without a single guilty twitch.

That is the highest praise I have for a computer.

But I still want to know exactly what Apple did to brainwash me. They did it very well. And I have joined the ranks of the Apple fanboys.

Okay, this is more like it. It might be a bit on the rudimentary side, but the latest edition of BlogPress for the iPhone / iPad / iPod has the ability to do some simple text formatting. You can now bold, italicize, and underline quickly and painlessly.

And unlike the latest version of WordPress for iPad / Pod / Phone / whatever, it doesn’t crash every 97 seconds. Then again, BlogPress isn’t free — so it’s one of those "you get what you pay for" type of deals.

S’okay with me. I think it’s worth it. As far as I can see, BlogPress has emerged as the clear winner as far as blogging on the iOS platform is concerned.

And it does way many more platforms than just WordPress. Not that this matters much for me, either — WordPress has proven itself the leader in blogging platforms.

Speaking of which, am I the only one a little nervous about Microsoft becoming a big fan of WordPress?

Okay, struggling to maintain a semblance of objectivity.

Failing.

I love this program.  This is so ultimately cool.  Apple just released a free program for the iPhone (it might be for the iPad too, I haven’t checked) that allows me to control any incidence of iTunes on any computer on my network from my phone via wi-fi.

Yes, it works on iTunes on your non-Apple computer, too.  Perfectly.  Control the songs, the playlists, the volume – just about everything.  Now if it would SYNC your darn phone, too, without having to plug in, it would be a total winner.

Oh, also, it controls your new Apple TV too.  Not that means anything to me – I don’t own a TV.  (Television sets are so last millennium.)

Link:  Apple Remote for iPhone

PS – Yes, for iPad too.  And iPod.  It says so in the above link.

Enjoy.

Does it do basic formatting yet? Maybe italic bold and underline will work if I use the HTML codes? I guess I’ll find out after I post this. Even if it does work, what a pain.

Hello dear readers! Yes, I’m testing out this latest version of WordPress for the iPad by using it to write a review of itself. So far it has crashed 4 times on me, which is already a FAIL. I was hoping they’d been able to include some basic formatting in it, but no, it appears not.

The new features include video uploads and some back end blog maintenance enhancements. Great, but … why? The iPad has no video camera, and the Safari browser works just fine for logging into your WordPress site and doing comment maintenance. It seems to me it’s misspent effort. Improve the writing interface and graphics handling and you’d have a winner. Until then I have to declare BlogPress the reigning champion for blogging on the iPad.

Okay, it’s crashed 5 times now. At least it didn’t lose what I’ve written.

Make that 6 crashes!

7 crashes! 8! I give up. FAIL! Plus, the preview feature doesn’t work. (see screenshot – that’s all I get when previewing this very post)

[Gone past 10 crashes now. Have stopped counting.]

The software industry gets away with this kind of thing, but only because they usually give the crippled version of their program away for FREE. But imagine buying a computer and getting it home, setting it up, only to find it’s as slow as snot, and to actually get the full speed out of it you have to pay an extra $50.

That’s exactly what Intel wants to do. They’re trying it out now to see how people react.

Thank goodness I’m not the only one to react negatively to this:

• Facepalm of the Day: Intel charges customers $50 to unlock CPU features – ZD Net
• Intel + DRM: a crippled processor that you have to pay extra to unlock – BoingBoing

If Intel doesn’t get a signal — a very LOUD signal — that this isn’t acceptable, then you’ll see all sorts of other business follow suit.

If you agree, this is what I suggest you do.  Tweet:  I don’t want your stupid, crippled processor, #Intel

And tell your friends to do it, too.  This should send a clear message to not only Intel but everyone else in the industry.

I had such high hopes for this app. It seemed promising. The feature set came across so impressive and useful that I bought it immediately.

Silly me.

The reality is, this is a toy for would-be writers so that they can pretend they’re writing something. Two clues that it’s not actually for professional use:

1. It gives you a choice of parchment background styles for you to write on.
2. It presents your manuscript to you as if it’s already published in a hardbound book.

Ergo, this is a wish-fulfillment app, not an actual writing tool.

It could be saved, though. Add the ability to format your text, and improve the export feature so that it gives you a professionally formatted manuscript, and it would actually be useful. I mean, I don’t really have anything against it being on a parchment background, or looking like it’s already hardbound. What does piss me off is that I spent money on it without realizing it won’t do simple — and I mean basic — things like indent your paragraphs and underline words.

For you aspiring writers out there, here’s an important tip: professional publishers like to see their manuscript submissions in a specific format. This app claims to enable you to produce a submittable manuscript within the confines of the app itself, and that is not true.

Until Black Mana Studios fixes at least this basic flaw, there’s no way I can recommend this to anyone who is serious about creating a manuscript on the iPad. Take your money and instead buy Apple’s Pages. It may not come with all the plotting tools, but at least it gives you all the standard, necessary formatting features you’ll need to produce a professional manuscript.

The title says just about everything you need to know.  I had no problems upgrading, and was giddy with nerdgasms over every little discovery, especially the new ability to link my Apple Bluetooth keyboard to the iPhone.

Case in point, what I’m typing right now.  Bluetooth keyboard.  No thumb-typing.  If the iPhone had allowed me to do this from the start, it may have kept me from pulling the trigger on buying the iPad.

DocsToGo, iPhone, Bluetooth keyboard … we’re talking an uber portable writing machine, harkening back to the days when I used to write on my Palm Pilot.

One minor disappointment:  I had this wild thought that maybe with the new OS, I’d be able to plug my iPad camera connecting kit to the iPhone and go to town just like I can with the iPad.  Nope.  No can do.

Ah, who cares?  I’ve already used the folder feature to shrink my ten pages of apps down to four, sent tweets and Facebook updates, and all the while listened non-stop to Pandora in the background.

It’s like having a whole new phone.