Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms

Ending Apple's AT&T Problem Wed 23 Jun 10

Steve Jobs needs to get other phone carriers on board--fast.

The Apple-AT&T partnership for the iPhone and iPad hasn't gone exactly as well as planned. AT&T has stumbled more than once. Most recently, there have been problems with iPhone 4 order fulfillment, including indications that customers' private data was exposed to other customers, iPad e-mail addresses were hacked and the on-going problem with dropped calls.

Arguably, some of these problems resulted from the surge of demand when the iPhone 4 came out, but it shouldn't have been unexpected, given the experience with prior product launches. Couple all of this with Verizon's very effective "map" ads, and it's clear that AT&T is not in a good place right now in terms of marketplace perception.

Don't Blame Google For Grabbing Your Data Wed 09 Jun 10

Why people should secure their own Wi-Fi networks, and what the IT industry can do to help.

Google was taken to task recently when it was discovered that it had captured private payload data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks while its Street View cars traveling to collect data for Google's location-based products.

On the official Google blog, Google owned up to collecting this data mistakenly "even though we never used that data in any Google products." Google added that it collected only fragments of payload data. Despite this, a number of European governments and at least one U.S. state attorney general are launching investigations into Google's alleged invasion of privacy.

While I certainly cannot condone Google's actions, I am a little puzzled by the reaction. Where is the call for personal responsibility? People should be safeguarding their own data.