Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth digs through the Internet on your behalf

PC sales fell again last quarter and the contraction is likely to continue.

Sales of smart phones and tables – Android and iOS (Apple) – are way up.

Intel processors are use in laptop and desktop computer, but not smart phones and tablets.

The calamity for Intel has been that they have had no part to play in the new category.  Perhaps that is because they had every part to play in the old category.

Lots of good reader comments to this story.

http://www.asymco.com/2013/07/18/the-pc-calamity/

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Kickstarter project called Tile set out to raise $20,000 to create small, flat, battery-powered stickers that you attach to your stuff, enabling you to find anything with your smartphone.

here's the awesome feature that drove Kickstarter contributions through the roof: If you lose something -- say, your bike is stolen or you leave your phone in a taxi, you log into your online Tile account and report the item as lost.

At that point, every Tile gadget in the world keeps a lookout for your lost item. If your dog or phone or car or bike gets within 50 to 150 feet of any other Tile owned by any user, you'll get a notification showing you where on a map your Tile was detected.

How cool is that?

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240921/Why_the_mob_rules

 

 

 

 

These Are The 217 Politicians Who Voted To Preserve NSA Surveillance

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-24/these-are-217-people-who-voted-preserve-nsa-surveillance

 

 

 

Apple's No-Growth Q3 2013 In Charts

The big picture:

After a rapid growth period with iPad and iPhone, growth has slowed down. It's time for something new, and we should start seeing more activity from Apple starting this fall.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/23/apples-no-growth-q3-2013-in-charts/

 

 

 

 

The case to buy Apple and sell Microsoft

Apple may never return to dramatic growth or avoid margin pressure going forward. But I think Apple is, at worst, at equilibrium right now.

Apple looks like a decent long-term bet.

don't fall into the trap of thinking Microsoft is safe.  Stable, yes, but hardly safe.

Microsoft continues to struggle mightily in the mobile space

Windows is waning and Microsoft hasn't figured out anything to replace it.  And it won't anytime soon.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-case-to-buy-apple-and-sell-microsoft-2013-07-25

 

 

 

 

 

Are the Feds Asking Tech Companies for User Passwords?

It's possible that the federal government is going to Google, Facebook, and Microsoft and saying, "hey, give us the passwords of thousands of your users."

Passwords could be used to log in to your accounts to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate you.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/are-the-feds-asking-tech-companies-for-user-passwords/278126/

 

 

 

TSA Is Making Airport Valets Search Your Trunk

"We search every car, we open the trunk and take a look around," says Saour Merwan, a keymaster at the valet service at San Diego International Airport. "We were told by airport authority to do that, since about two years ago. [We] keep an eye out for something suspicious, like wires and cables. The airport has security regulations and we have to follow them." Merwan says the service doesn't inform anyone that they're checking out the inside of the vehicles, and when asked what he'd do if he found illegal drugs, he says, "Of course we'd call the police."

"This is exactly what the Fourth Amendment was designed to say the government can't do, generally search everything without suspicion," says Fred H. Cate, a professor at the Maurer School of Law

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/tsa-car-searches-airport-fourth-amendment

 

 

 

 

 

Will These Guys Kill The Computer Interface As We Know It?

How two grade-school friends created Leap Motion, a company that wants to turn mouse-clicks into waves of the hand.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-07/will-these-guys-kill-computer-interface-we-know-it

Blast from the past by Robert Wright-why you were not online in 1996

From 1996...Top ten reasons why you are still not online

By Robert Wright, President Emeritus, MVUG

10. Can't figure out how to type the "@" symbol

9. Too busy reading books and articles about the Internet to actually get on it

8. Too busy writing books and articles about the Internet to actually get on it

7. Swore you would never buy a modem after seeing MacValley Hayes demo

6. Thought TCP/IP stood for "Taking Care of Proceedings In Progress"

5. Afraid that online smut would poison your mind

4. Afraid online smut would not poison your mind

3. Waiting for local cable TV company to install high-speed data access

2. Still waiting for GTE installers to put in a phone line

And the Number One reason why you are still not online…

1. Just can't find an America Online disk!



(Thanks to Ken Gruberman for giving me the MacValley Voice archives all those years ago)

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

Giant Brain Sculpture-Trust me, you'll want one. Larry & Sergey already have their orders in

Cruising around The Verge.com, I saw this article for a giant brain sculpture. Yes, it’s connected to Burning Man.

As for Larry and Sergey placing orders for such a device, that’s just snark on my part. Just kidding, Google. Call Off The Lawyers.

Courtesy of The Verge.com

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog

More Articles from Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth

Jim Cramer implies Snapchat is used for insider trading

Watch the video.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57594446-93/cnbcs-jim-cramer-implies-snapchat-is-used-for-insider-trading/

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "tablet" craze is over.  So is the "desktop PC".

Your future portable device will consist of (1) a keyboard and (2) a pointer - such as a mouse, trackball or trackpad.

It will NOT include a screen.  Instead, screens will be everywhere and you will wirelessly connect to them with your mobile keyboard + pointer device.

http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=222877

 

 

 

 

 

Google Caught Red-Handed Ripping Off an Apple Patent Graphic

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2013/07/google-caught-red-handed-ripping-off-an-apple-patent-graphic.html

 

 

 

 

 

Microsoft took a $900 million hit on Surface RT this quarter

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/18/4535976/microsoft-lost-900-million-on-surface-rt

Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth brings you the news

Adam Engst's view on the Apple Anti-Trust Trial.

Best article I've seen on the subject.

http://tidbits.com/article/13912

 

 

 

 

What Wall Street bankers have in common with teenagers: Snapchat

Wall Street bankers are using Snapchat to send pictures to one another without the leaving any incriminating evidence online.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/06/13/what-wall-street-bankers-have-in-common-with-teenagers-snapchat/

 

 

 

The Truth About Fake Online Reviews

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/07/truth-about-fake-online-reviews/67189/

Senior Correspondent has articles about Microsoft and the NSA

How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages

Microsoft's latest marketing campaign, launched in April, emphasizes its commitment to privacy with the slogan: "Your privacy is our priority."

But internal NSA newsletters, marked top secret, suggest the co-operation ...... is deep and ongoing.

Microsoft and the FBI came up with a solution that allowed the NSA to circumvent encryption on Outlook.com chats

The NSA has devoted substantial efforts in the last two years to work with Microsoft to ensure increased access to Skype, which has an estimated 663 million global users.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data

NSA Spying revelations: the good and bad news

Edward Snowden says that everybody else is as guilty of snooping as the United States — including some of the nations whose leaders have publicly criticized America.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/spying-revelations-the-good-and-bad-news-2013-07-10

So, You Want to Hide from the NSA? Your Guide to the Nearly Impossible

here is the full articulation of the deeply paranoid and complex life you must live in order to assure that the government leaves you alone.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/07/so-you-want-hide-nsa-your-guide-nearly-impossible/66942/

Real And Practical Ways To Avoid The Snoops

http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=222659

Edward Snowden case: Bolivia summons envoys over jet

The diplomatic row spilled onto the streets of La Paz, as thousands of Bolivians staged demonstrations against the US and four European countries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23234116

Four South American countries say they will recall some of their ambassadors after the Bolivian president's plane was banned from European airspace ........ amid rumours that American fugitive Edward Snowden was on board

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23297581

Apple was found guilty of antitrust violations that led to higher e-book prices.

http://allthingsd.com/20130710/apple-loses-e-book-antitrust-trial/

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/apples-violation-of-antitrust-law-explained-in-6-bullet-points/277679/

a federal judge issued a damning finding that Apple conspired with five major book publishers to fix the price of e-books.

The battle for the e-book market was, at its heart, a fight between Steve Jobs' and Jeff Bezos' differing business philosophies. Amazon was bent on keeping prices low, even at the cost of profits. Apple, as ever, wanted to make sure that it could make a bundle on e-books.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/apple_e_book_price_fixing_federal_judge_rules_in_amazon_s_favor.html

Demand for laptops is so weak that analysts have declared all of 2013 a “write-off”

The culprit in all of this?  Media tablets.

http://qz.com/102435/demand-for-laptops-is-so-weak-that-analysts-have-declared-all-of-2013-a-write-off/

An Ode to Computer Shopper

The era of computer magazines has ended.

Computer Shopper was like Vogue or Vanity Fair for nerds: You read it for the ads. Which it was filled with. Come to think of it, I'm sure they ran articles, but I don't think I ever read one. And yet it was thick, like a phone book, and you could find a whole world of PCs and components inside.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/an-ode-to-em-computer-shopper-em/277713/

Anti E-mail Trend

Now that even geeks don’t use email, holdouts like Janet Napolitano can declare victory

It’s actually getting increasingly easy to avoid email, with alternatives like Twitter for brief messages and instant messaging or Skype chats for longer ones.

Some techies are now shunning email because of concerns about government surveillance.

http://qz.com/103702/now-that-even-geeks-dont-use-email-holdouts-like-janet-napolitano-can-declare-victory/

Will Humans Still Be Humans in an Age of Artificial Intelligence?

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/will-humans-still-be-humans-in-an-age-of-artificial-intelligence/277732/

Approaching Paperlessness with Joe Kissell and three great articles from Lifehacker

Hola, fellow MacValleyites and my worldwide audience.

Today I have four items for you:

1. Joe Kissell writes at Macworld.com about the difficulty of becoming totally paperless. As the old cartoon of Snoopy on the john read, “No job is finished until the paperwork is completed.”

1. Adam Dachis of Lifehacker.com has ten things every Mac enthusiast should do, or at least think about.

• 3. Whitson Gordon, also of Lifehacker.com has a great column on how to turn almost action into a keyboard shortcut. For those typing on non-Apple keyboards (this Monoprice keyboard rocks!) this looks like something to try next weekend.
• 4. Whitson Gordon has another article introducing us to Apple’s Automatorand how to make it do the stuff we want it to.

I was going to have a link to a story about how Ireland’s Parliament decided not to grill Apple executives about using Ireland as a tax haven. I think this goes under the heading of “Leave the golden goose ALONE!” and “For every island in the Atlantic that tries to give Apple grief, there are 12 in the Caribbean and Pacific with warmer winters just itching to steal Apple’s business from us.”

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog