Mereja

Author: Erica Ogg

  • Apple back on China’s good side after Tim Cook’s apology

    A little humility can go a long way — and result in better PR. In the face of an incessant media campaign against its customer service policies in the China and a week or so of being called “arrogant,” Apple chose a response that included a small change to iPhone warranties and a big apology — from its CEO himself, Tim Cook. The effect was nearly instant: just a day later, China’s government-controlled media outlets and a government agency are singing Apple’s praises.

    Reuters reports the reactions:

    “The company’s apology letter has eased the situation, softening the tense relationship between Apple and the Chinese market … Its reaction is worth respect compared with other American companies,” wrote popular tabloid the Global Times, published by Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily.

    The Foreign Ministry praised Apple for “conscientiously” responding to consumers’ demands.

    “We approve of what Apple said,” spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing on Tuesday.

    It’s quite a change in tune. Over the past two weeks, Apple has been the subject of an orchestrated campaign that included local celebrities bashing Apple’s return and repair policies on social media; a series of editorials calling the company arrogant; and a demand for new warranty policies, including upping the standard one-year warranty to two years for the iPad.

    Apple’s decision to have Cook put his name on an apology for the inconsistent warranty and repair policies in the country isn’t unprecedented — he’s apologized for the Apple Maps fiasco, and Steve Jobs apologized for the iPhone 4 antenna — but it’s rare. The outcome was positive for Apple this time: the apology had the immediate effect of changing the increasingly bad PR the company was getting in China. But it will be interesting to see what kind of precedent this sets for how Apple gets along in its No. 2 market with the Chinese media, and more importantly, the Chinese government.

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  • China extracts personal apology from Apple CEO over iPhone warranty policies

    Turns out that a good way to get Apple CEO Tim Cook’s attention is a well-orchestrated media campaign against the company. More than a week after the first complaints about Apple’s customer service and repair policies hit the Chinese media, Cook has issued an apology and detailed response to concerns over Apple’s repair and warranty policies in the country.

    On Monday, an open letter signed by Cook was posted to Apple’s website in China. In it, he apologizes for the company’s lack of communication and he promises changes. Here’s the (slightly rough) translation offered by Google:

    In the past two weeks, we have received a lot of feedback about Apple in China repair and warranty policy. We are not only a profound reflection on these views, together with relevant departments to carefully study the “Three Guarantees”, and also look at our maintenance policy communication and combing our management specifications of Apple Authorized Service Provider. We are aware that, due to the lack of external communication in this process and lead to the speculation that Apple arrogance, do not care or do not attach importance to consumer feedback. We express our sincere apologies for any concerns or misunderstandings this gives consumers.

    Cook’s letter lays out a change the company will make to its policies: the one-year warranty period for iPhone 4 and 4S will be reset if a major repair has been done or if the device is replaced. He also said that Apple has taken steps to clarify its warranty and repair rules with its authorized resellers in the China (i.e. not Apple Stores), and he explained Apple’s existing policy on iPad warranties (one year for minor components and two-year promise of replacement on major components).

    The last part makes it seem like he’s not giving in on Apple’s top consumer watchdog group demand; that the company start offering two-year warranties for free on iPads, an increase from the company’s standard one-year warranty offered to almost all of its other customers.

    The letter is long, but there’s only a very minor change. Following the ongoing campaign in China’s state-run media against Apple’s consumer policies, the true concession Apple is making here is the letter itself. Open letters from the Apple CEO are few and far between, as are apologies. But from Cook they come when he senses that public opinion is turning dangerously against the company — see also “Apple Maps.”

    China is crucial to Apple’s future and the company and Cook are still figuring out how to do business there. As he put it in the (roughly translated) letter on Monday, ”we also realize that operating in China, and communicate much we need to learn the place.”

    Thumbnail image from Cook’s visit to China in January provided by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

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  • China consumer group demands Apple offer 2-year iPad warranties

    China’s top consumer watchdog group has called for Apple to start calling the iPad a computer. Why? Because if Apple’s tablet is reclassified, it will mean the device will have to come with a standard two-year warranty like all other computers sold in the country. Currently, the iPad comes with a one-year warranty, the same policy Apple has in almost all other regions.

    China.org.cn has the China Consumers Association’s statement:

    In a statement posted on the CCA’s website, Apple Inc. was told to equalize the warranty periods in China compared with other countries. Buyers of iPads, after the company admitted the device is classifiable as a portable computer, are entitled to two-year after-sale service packages for its key components, said the statement.

    The major exceptions to Apple’s standard one-year warranty have been established recently: after a couple years of threats and fines, Italy’s consumer protection agency got Apple to start offering two-year warranties for free. The two-year period is actually the law of the land in the European Union, but not all states have taken enforcement as seriously as Italy.

    Calls for stronger consumer protection directed at Apple have been a theme in the Chinese state-run media lately. But put in context of the last week, the warranty demand appears to be yet another way for the Chinese government to get under Apple’s skin.

    The past week has seen media outlets controlled by the Communist government attack Apple’s device repair and refurbishment policy and then subsequently the company’s response to the criticism.

    Even before the wave of media criticism began last week, Apple’s been fighting a lot of different battles in China: the trademark and copyright laws in the country have kept Apple’s lawyers busy, while the working conditions in its suppliers’ Chinese factories have kept it on the defense, both in China and abroad. And meanwhile, the company is trying to make lifelong customers out of the country’s wealthier citizens.

    How Apple’s products and brand are portrayed in China — and especially in the media — is incredibly important to Apple’s future: CEO Tim Cook says the company is on track to have China as its No. 1 market one day.

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  • Shopster grocery list app learns what you like and where you shop

    Add to the list another thing your iOS can do for you: remind you to run your errands.

    A new app just hit the iOS App Store called Shopster that uses the geo-location services in the iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) to not only keep track of where you frequently buy your groceries, but what you buy at which store. Then it can notify you when you’re near those locations and what you might possibly need to run in and grab.

    Shopster costs 99 cents and it’s iOS only right now. The developer is Quadion Technologies, a software company based in Buenos Aires. Previous iOS titles under its belt are games; Shopster is the first utility app.

    ShopsterThe design of the app is simple and cheerful. There are just a few screens: one for your items you’ve said you need to buy, one for items you’ve previously purchased, and another that shows you the stores you’ve frequently purchased a specific item at on a map.

    There’s not much to learn either. There’s a sliding bar on the right hand side that suggests quantities (so you don’t have to jump to the numbers keyboard on your iOS device). You select a quantity then start typing “sourdough bread” or whatever you need to buy. Once you’re at the store and you tap the check box to mark sourdough off your list, the app makes note of the geo-position of the store for that particular item. It doesn’t delete the item, but moves it to the “purchased” page for later.

    Just after playing with it for a bit, I can see a few ways this would come in handy. For example, if you really like the produce at your neighborhood market, but prefer to get your meats at the butcher across town, Shopster will notify you when you’re near those places of what you’ve noted you need to pick up. Another way to use it: if you hunted all over town in a panic for fenugreek seeds before a dinner party and then later can’t remember where you found it, if you marked it off your Shopster checklist at that store, the app will be able to tell you the name. It’s also just a simple way to keep a running grocery list. Once you check something off as purchased, it goes to the “past purchases” tab. Need to remind yourself to buy it again next week? Just uncheck the box and it goes back on your “to buy” list.

    Shopster is aimed at keeping lists of frequently bought items, so groceries is the natural application. But it doesn’t have to be used that way: if there are supplies or parts you often need to pick up locally, Shopster would work with that too.

    They’re not doing it yet, but it’s easy to see that one day Quadion could begin to incorporate coupons or deals from grocers or other retailers if they know what you shop for at their store. It could be similar to what ZipList offers with coupons, but with the added twist that Shopster actually knows when you’re in the store or nearby.

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  • Apple ensnared in Chinese patent fight over Siri

    A Chinese company that makes an automated online chat technology is suing Apple in China, charging that Siri infringes on patents it holds, according to a report Wednesday in the Shangai Daily.

    Shanghai Zhi Zhen makes a product called Xiaoi, which the company calls a “chat robot system” used for customer service and hotlines. While Apple owns a patent on Siri, its voice-activated personal assistant app, the Chinese company claims its patent was applied for in 2004 and was granted in 2006. Siri appeared first on the iPhone in fall 2011.

    Siri was developed with a technology Apple acquired when it purchased the company behind it in 2010. The speech recognition engine is believed to have been built using technology licensed from Nuance Communications.

    Shanghai Zhi Zhen’s problem with Siri is the robot interaction aspect of Siri, not speech recognition, according to what its spokeswoman told Shanghai Daily:

    “The core technology of Siri is man-machine interaction rather than speech recognition, and that is based on the word chat robot system Xiaoi patented,” Mei [Li] said.

    Though the original suit was filed last year, the first hearing is set to take place Wednesday.

    Last year Apple was forced to pay $60 million to a local company after a Chinese court ruled against Apple in a trademark dispute over the iPad. The company that won the damages award was bankrupt and looking for cash. But this company, Shanghai Zhi Zhen, has not asked for any damages yet. But it is asking for its patents to be enforced.

    Apple, for its part, has reportedly asked the country’s intellectual property agency to invalidate Shangai Zhi Zhen’s patent.

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  • Why Apple doesn’t need a cheap iPhone if T-Mobile does it for them

    Does Apple need a cheaper iPhone to attract entry-level smartphone buyers? T-Mobile may have just found a way to do it for them here in the U.S.

    The idea that Apple needs to produce a phone that attracts buyers that can’t or won’t lay down $200 up front for a smartphone in addition to a monthly carrier contract has been touted as a way for Apple to regain its momentum in smartphones. The thinking is that Apple has nearly saturated the upper end of the market in established markets, causing its yearly iPhone sales growth to slow somewhat. The real growth, some say, will come when Apple convinces people who’d otherwise opt for the cheapest phone that comes with their plan to buy an iPhone instead.

    T-Mobile’s headline-grabbing $99 unlocked iPhone 5 may be one way of getting there. When you do the math – the $99 upfront payment T-Mobile requires plus 24 months of monthly payments at $20 – the total adds up to $580. That’s less than the $650 Apple charges for an iPhone that’s not locked to a specific carrier. And in addition to those savings, T-Mobile is also offering cheaper monthly plans, as my colleague Kevin Fitchard has detailed.

    For some people these prices will put the iPhone in their grasp. But it’s still not exactly cheap: what T-Mobile is offering is still probably a couple hundred dollars more than what analysts have suggested would count as a true “low-cost” iPhone.

    It is actually possible to pay even less for an iPhone from a major U.S. carrier: the nearly 3-year-old iPhone 4 is free on contract in the U.S. and the iPhone 4S is $99 on contract. But T-Mobile is actually making the latest-model iPhone cheaper.

    T-Mobile’s plan may stand out from the likes of Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, but if you look outside of the U.S., what it’s doing is not all that novel: it’s just a payment plan. It shifts the cost of the device over two years in place of a higher upfront cost or a subsidized, locked device. If you look at what Apple does in some developing markets like China and India, it looks very similar. Apple has used no-interest or low-interest payment plans as a way of helping give customers, who might not otherwise be able to swing an expensive smartphone, a way in.

    At surface level, this plan is about T-Mobile finding a way to attract new customers. But there’s also potentially interesting benefits for Apple too. It doesn’t just get yet another iPhone carrier partner, it might also be getting a new look from U.S. customers from that coveted “lower end of the market” that formerly wouldn’t have considered an iPhone because of the pricier subsidized, locked carrier models.

    Apple executives have been careful to say that “cheap” smartphones will never be “the future of Apple’s business.” But maybe, if T-Mobile’s experiment works, more creative pricing plans will be.

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  • Apple may expand retail presence in India, but plan still doesn’t include Apple Stores

    Apple wants to sell iPhones and iPads in India, but unlike in another populous emerging market — nearby China — it does not operate branded Apple Stores in the country. As Om noted after a recent trip to India, that may be a missed opportunity for Apple to sell more products if it can’t showcase its devices, services and customer service in typical Apple fashion. On Tuesday a new report said Apple is planning to boost its retail presence in India, but not through its traditional Apple Store model.

    The Economic Times of India says it has heard from unnamed sources that Apple plans to “triple its exclusive stores to around 200 by 2015″ in the country. “Exclusive stores” are certified by Apple as official resellers of Apple products — and only Apple products. They are owned by local franchisees, not Apple. The plan is said to be a part of an “aggressive” growth strategy that will also put more Apple products on the shelves of other retailers that sell competing products too.

    iPhones and iPads are still pretty expensive for many locals, but Apple has made some moves to accomodate that. It started offering payment plans for its devices, much like it did in China.

    There were 19 million smartphones sold in India last year. But there are estimates that by 2016 that number will be 108 million, according to IDC. Samsung has basically had the run of the smartphone market in India because of the lower price of the devices, selling about a third of all smartphones in the country last quarter.

    Opening more outlets that sell iPhones is one formula to try to improve sales. But a bigger part of that equation is probably changing how local customers think of the brand. Apple’s own stores are a huge part of its success in the last decade, especially in established markets like the U.S. and Europe — and right now we’re seeing the relationship of a growing number of Apple Stores, an improving brand image and product sales momentum play out in China.

    But there’s a sticking point in India Apple right now can’t overcome: Single-brand stores can be owned by foreign companies in India, but legally they have to source 30 percent of their wares from Indian companies. Until Apple starts making devices or components in India, it looks like there won’t be any Apple Store any time soon.

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  • Apple loves China, but its government is not returning those feelings

    A week after what appeared like a coordinated attempt by China’s state-run TV network to have celebrities badmouth Apple’s customer service in social media, a newspaper known as the Chinese government’s “traditional mouthpiece” publicly went after Apple over another issue: the way it handles media relations. For a country so prized by Apple, why all the Apple hate lately?

    The Wall Street Journal has a good post on the recent drama. It explains that these recent brushback pitches the state-run media outlets are throwing could be the government’s way of defending Chinese companies from being crowded out by foreign competitors, or its way of “doing more to encourage the growth of domestic smartphone companies and eat away at dominant foreign companies, such as Apple.”

    In the most recent case, it’s not clear if Apple’s PR team in China is acting any different than their PR teams do everywhere else on the globe – let’s just say Apple is extremely choosy as to what kinds of requests it responds to.

    This story is important because Apple’s increased presence in the country, and how its products and brand are portrayed, is critical to Apple’s future: CEO Tim Cook said he’s set his sights on China becoming Apple’s No. 1 market eventually. Right now, it’s No. 2, behind the U.S., but China’s growing population along with the company’s growing momentum in sales make it almost inevitable that the Chinese market will one day be the most important to the company.

    But operating in a country run by the Communist Party of China, which has outsize control over domestic businesses, industries and press, means the rules are much different than almost anywhere else Apple has a significant presence. As with the copyright and trademark laws in the country, Apple’s relationship with the Chinese state-run media is going to be something to keep an eye on.

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  • How indoor location could find its way into Apple services

    The fate of an acquired startup is never certain, and that’s especially true at secretive Apple. This question hangs over its latest acquisition, a small Silicon Valley indoor location company called WifiSlam. Apple may have simply wanted its Stanford-educated founders, or — more likely — it wants to integrate WifiSlam’s technology into its mobile products and develop the technology further.

    Here’s what WifiSlam says its service does:

    Allow your smartphone to pinpoint its location (and the location of your friends) in real-time to 2.5m accuracy using only ambient WiFi signals that are already present in buildings. We are building the next generation of location-based mobile apps that, for the first time, engage with users at the scale that personal interaction actually takes place. Applications range from step-by-step indoor navigation, to product-level retail customer engagement, to proximity-based social networking.

    WifiSlam uses a combination of Wi-Fi hotspots, as well as a mobile device’s compass, GPS and gyroscope to navigate indoors. (It’s not entirely unique — other companies, like Wifarer — are working on similar indoor positioning technology.) And to work, it needs buildings with prevalent Wi-Fi signals, which tend to be large public areas like malls, airports, train stations, museums and sports arenas.

    While it’s not very likely to pop up in the next version of iOS, here are a couple of ideas to give an example of how Apple some day could integrate WifiSlam’s capabilities to augment or improve Apple services as they stand today.

    Maps

    An example of indoor maps, from Google.

    An example of indoor maps, from Google.

    Apple still has its work cut out for it improving the GPS location data for its Maps app. But what if, like Google has already begun to do, Apple could map the inside of buildings and not just the outside? It could add extra layers to its maps so that it wouldn’t matter if you were indoors or outdoors; it could direct you right to your location no matter where you needed to go — and with far more specificity. Instead of providing you driving directions to the airport, for example, what if Apple Maps could switch to walking directions and show you how to navigate to your gate, a place to eat, grab coffee or pick up a book. And if it could show you those things, it seems feasible that you could also have the map display the location of Wi-Fi hotspots or charging stations at that airport.

    Passbook

    Besides Maps, this one seems the most obvious to integrate with indoor navigation. Passbook is for holding your movie passes, travel and event tickets, gift cards, coupons and rewards cards; an awful lot of things you do indoors. If you have, say, a Fandango ticket in your Passbook, the app can currently tell you when you’re close to the movie theater. Same with a Starbucks gift card — it can let you know you’re in range of a place to pick up a tall latte. But that’s where there’s somewhat of a disconnect right now: Passbook’s notification doesn’t tell you exactly where that theater or Starbucks is or how to get to it.

    Obviously if you’ve got an iPhone you can open up the Starbucks app to find the closest store, or Yelp or a maps app to find the theater. But what if Passbook could direct you to the Starbucks inside the airport? Or to the theater at the other end of the mall? Or if you were on a Wi-Fi-enabled train and had an Amtrak ticket in Passbook, the location of the quiet car or where your seat is located?

    With WifiSlam’s technology, Passbook could become a better or more accurate way for retailers to engage customers too: imagine if you had a Walgreens or Target card in your Passbook that could show you a deal on laundry detergent or toothpaste once you’ve walked into the store and direct you right to the aisle carrying that promotion.

    Find My Friends

    WifiSlam says it can do “proximity-based social networking.” In the case of what Apple is already doing, a new and improved Find My Friends with WifiSlam technology could notify you if a friend or co-worker or child is inside a building and possibly where to find them.

    findmy_friends_sharingReminders

    Reminders was introduced with iOS 5 in late 2011. It lets you set alerts based on locations, so when you when you’re arriving or leaving a place it can remind you of whatever you asked it to — call your spouse, pick up a prescription — though I haven’t had great luck with this feature working consistently myself. With Wi-Fi positioning of indoor locations, Apple could make this location-based service more accurate and useful if it could pinpoint you inside of buildings.

    Apple Store

    Apple has integrated its App Store app with other services: You can already use the app to order anything from an iPhone or MacBook to a Nike Fuel Band; you can search its contents via Siri; you use the Apple Store app while in an Apple Store to check out and pay for some items without interacting with a cashier. A natural extension of this, with indoor positioning technology, would be to direct you to an Apple Store in a mall. And in stores, even guide you right to the item you’re looking for or to the Genius Bar for your appointment.

    These are just a couple of thoughts as to how indoor location could make Apple’s services more helpful or interesting. But there are probably many more possibilities. What else would you like to see?

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  • Apple buys indoor location company WifiSlam

    Apple is still working to improve its outdoor mapping capabilities, and meanwhile looks to be getting into indoor navigation too. The company has acquired an indoor GPS service called WifiSlam.

    Apple confirmed the acquisition, and the Wall Street Journal reports that it paid around $20 million “recently” for the Palo Alto, Calif. company. Indoor mapping is the next phase of mobile location services; Google already offers indoor maps in a dozen countries. Most of its indoor navigation is limited to public buildings like airports, malls, train stations, sports stadiums and museums. It’s likely Apple is looking to beef up its own location services in a similar manner.

    WifiSlam’s service claims to be able to locate a mobile device with up to 2.5 meters of accuracy using just Wi-Fi signal nearby.

    The company is only two years old and it’s fairly small, with four founders — which is pretty much in line with the kind of small acquisitions Apple makes every year. What is less usual for Apple is the company’s close connection to its archrival Google: one of the WifiSlam founders, Darin Tay, is a former Google engineer, and one of its investors, Don Dodge, is a current Googler.

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  • CheckThis: a simple mobile blogging tool for the iPhone (video)

    What if Tumblr started on mobile instead of on the web? It might look something more like CheckThis, an app from a startup that began in Brussels and is now based in New York City. The app was launched very quietly over a week ago; it’s free and available for the iPhone only right now.

    The idea behind it came from the founder’s history running his own digital agency for 15 years: his musician and creative friends wanted a way to share content online, but felt limited by some of the more popular social tools available. “People wanted a place to make content and share,” Frederic della Faille told me when we met up in midtown Manhattan earlier this week. ”A tweet was not enough, an image was not enough. They wanted bigger space for more content.”

    Della Faille likes Tumblr, but he’s not a huge fan of the comparison. “CheckThis is for producing content and Tumblr is for browsing,” he said. And I think I agree with him, as a user of both services.

    CheckThis is a great way to tell stories with your mobile device: as I demonstrate in the video below, with just a few taps, you can create a “story” with color, some images, some text, and even take polls of fellow CheckThis users. While most stories I saw were very image-heavy, CheckThis stories are more like a blog posts than social photo-sharing. It has an “insta” aspect to it because the app is on an always-on type of device, but it also lets you be more reflective and thoughtful about what you share.

    A standout element of CheckThis is the design: you can tell this is made by hyper-creative types. The choice of fonts; the ability to select specific colors and shades; and the clever scrolling that you won’t find in other iOS apps were purposeful. But the key is giving users just enough tools without overwhelming them, della Faille said. “We try to create a product where you can’t make an ugly thing, where you are proud of every post.”

    Like, Vine, it’s almost stupidly simple to use. But unlike Twitter’s short-video sharing app, it’s not nearly as intimidating when it comes to actually producing content. Vine seems to assume a certain facility with what makes a good video; CheckThis is far more open.

    Naturally, an important question is: Do we really need another social network? For some people, they will. They might appreciate the creative community popping up in CheckThis. And for those who just want to use the tools, you can connect your account to other platforms you use, like Facebook and Twitter. It isn’t yet connected to Tumblr, but della Faille tells me that will be added in a future update.

    The team of seven developing the app has been mostly quiet about CheckThis, but it has raised funding over the last year: just under $1 million from Lerer Ventures, Betaworks, Index Ventures and SV Angel.

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  • Apple warns developers it will stop accepting apps that access UDIDs on May 1

    It’s been hinted at and implied in the past but Apple is serious about apps using universal devices identifiers (UDIDs) now: starting May 1, it will be rejected from the App Store, the company told its third-party developers on Thursday.

    On its developer site Apple writes:

    Starting May 1, the App Store will no longer accept new apps or app updates that access UDIDs. Please update your apps and servers to associate users with the Vendor or Advertising identifiers introduced in iOS 6.

    UDIDs, which were intended to be anonymous, have been used by publishers, developers and advertisers to track their app’s usage and more accurately target advertisements almost since the App Store opened in 2008. But there are huge privacy implications with that practice: with just a bit more identifying data, a device’s UDID can be traced to a specific owner.

    Apple first mentioned it would start rejecting apps that used UDIDs, due to privacy concerns, in late 2011. Then almost exactly a year ago, there were signs the company’s app review team had begun enforcing that rule. Then in September 2012, Apple introduced a replacement system for advertisers to use, the Advertising Identifier, an anonymized number that users can choose to reset, or opt out of altogether.

    By May 1, the Advertising Identifier will have been available for eight months; plenty of time for those who want to understand how their apps are being used to switch over to the new system.

    Besides UDID use, 9to5Mac notes that App Store reviewers will also be looking for apps that aren’t optimized for Retina displays and will reject them, along with iPhone apps that are not optimized for the 4-inch screen of the iPhone 5.

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  • Apple’s Podcasts app gets playlist creation, iCloud syncing and custom stations

    When Apple broke out Podcasts as a separate iOS app from iTunes last year, a rather glaring omission was the ability to create playlists. Six months later, Apple has added that feature along with several other improvements to the app in an update released Thursday.

    Podcasts 1.2 updateNew features in the Podcasts 1.2 update include: playlists synced from iTunes now appear in the app; the ability to create automatically updating stations featuring preferred podcasts; customized stations that are stored in iCloud and automatically synced across your iCloud-enabled devices; a choice to start playing either the newest or oldest episode; and the ability to add any podcast episodes to On the Go playlists.

    Apple has also toned down some of the corny design to make it look more like the iTunes app and less like an old tapedeck — perhaps related to Jony Ive’s elevation to head of software and hardware design at Apple — and a playback bug has been fixed.

    Apple’s Podcasts app has been lambasted by users since its introduction last fall (see the ratings and reviews in the App Store). The updated design and functionality should be welcome news to those frustrated with the iOS Podcasts experience; that is unless they’ve moved on to any number of third-party podcast apps that have moved in to fill the void.

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  • Apple does the two-step: new layer of security added to Apple ID, iCloud

    Apple is giving its users more security over their Apple accounts and remotely stored data with a new option of two-step security authentication. Users can add two forms of verification on their Apple ID — the identity used to sign into iTunes, the App Store, FaceTime, iMessage and more — and their iCloud account.

    Apple updated its two-step verification FAQ page on Thursday. By turning it on, users will have to enter a four-digit passcode in addition to their Apple ID or iCloud password. Apple supplies the verification passcode, and it can be saved to each device that is used regularly. The four-digit passcode will replace the need for a security question, according to Apple’s documentation.

    Apple two-factor authentication Apple ID

    Considering how widely the Apple ID is used across a host of Apple services and devices, it’s somewhat surprising this wasn’t previously an option for Apple users. Apple’s account security procedures were found to have several cracks in them in light of the awful hacking attack on Wired writer Mat Honan last summer. His personal accounts with Google, Amazon and Apple were broken into by a hacker who played the companies’ security measures off of each other.

    At the time, Apple suspended the ability to let users reset their Apple IDs over the phone with an account representative. Two-step verification looks to be the company closing the loop on its earlier promise to improve its security measures.

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  • How search can solve big data problems

    There are many solutions for figuring out how to parse large amounts of data, but LucidWorks CTO Grant Ingersoll has a suggestion: use search. At GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference in New York City Thursday, Ingersoll laid out his case for why search is a big part of dealing with databases and indexes.

    “Search should be a critical part of your architecture,” he told attendees. It is a system building block for any large problem you’re trying to solve that requires a ranked set of results. And it doesn’t have to be just text search, it can be for any type of search, he said.

    Thinking beyond traditional search features, like keyword search, will help businesses solve those problems more easily too. And it lets organizations bring in many differing kinds of data sources and more effectively combine them.

    And organizations that keep records of how people are using search to access their data, they have the best current view into the quality of their data.

    His main message was to give search another look. “There have been interesting changes in the way we can model relevance in the search engine,” he said. “If you’ve dealt with last-generation search technology, you should revisit this because there’s a lot more capabilities here.”

    Check out the rest of our Structure:Data 2013 live coverage here, and a video embed of the session follows below:


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  • Google chairman being coy about whether Google Now is ready for iOS

    So is Google’s own widely praised contextual search app coming to iOS soon or not? At an event in India on Thursday, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt wasn’t very forthcoming with a definitive answer. But depending on how you read into what he said, Google may have already submitted the app to the iOS App Store for review. Or maybe it hasn’t.

    At the Google Big Tent Summit, he was asked by the event’s moderator when Google Now would come to iOS. His response? Well, he played coy, as Mahendra Palsule noted on Twitter:

    Schmidt went on to say, somewhat cryptically, “Apple has a policy of approving or disapproving apps that are submitted into its store, and some of them they approve and some of them they don’t.” That could be read as a hint that Google is simply waiting for Apple to approve the app.

    The reason the question is on many people’s minds is because last week a video surfaced online that was purportedly a promotional video for Google Now coming to the iOS platform. The video seemed to have the same narrator as an earlier video promoting Google Now for Android, but the iOS video was promptly pulled from YouTube after discovery; usually that’s a tell-tale sign the promotion is legitimate.

    Google Now was very well received when it was launched as part of the Android Jelly Bean operating system in mid-2012. By knowing the user’s location, the time of day, and search habits, it can offer properly contextualized search results.

    It seems a lock that Google would want it to be on iOS. Google Now is a solid competitor to Apple’s own Siri. And Google has made it its goal to make better iOS apps than Apple, recent releases and revamps of Google apps for iOS include Capture, YouTube for iPhone and iPad, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Voice Search and Chrome for iOS.

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  • People will give up their personal info if you give them a good reason

    We face a constant barrage of requests for our personal information everyday, and more often than not our first concern is who has access to that information and how will it be used. At GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference on Wednesday, a panel of experts from the worlds of biology, location analytics and data science talked about how the concepts of personalization and privacy concerns don’t have to be at odds with each other. People will give up their personal information if you give them something they find personally valuable, Ken Chahine of Ancestry.com, Naveen Jain of Inome and David Shim of Placed agreed.

    Just like people used to be afraid of browser cookies and their implications for privacy and now accept them as standard, Shim, Placed’s founder and CEO, said he believes our attitudes toward our location data will undergo the same transition once people understand the inherent value of what they’re getting back in exchange for what they’re giving up.
    “Right now everyone’s afraid of [sharing] location … as people start to understand the benefit of sharing this kind of data it will start to become more open,” said Shim. “People won’t mind sharing data if you get something back in return. That perception will chagne over time.”
    Jain, founder and CEO of Inome agreed: while some mothers may object in theory to location sharing for privacy reasons, if they were given the ability to know their young child’s exact location and whether they had arrived after walking to school, they may feel differently. Similarly, he noted that people will be willing to offer up even more personal information like DNA or medical histories if they know that the result is (someday) personalized medicine for people with specific genome types.

    Chahine, who is SVP and General Manager of Ancestry.com’s DNA service, said he’s seen some of that with DNA. “People aren’t concerned about giving us their DNA,” he said. “They give us their DNA, we give them their result — and you won’t be surprised to learn — we don’t give them a generic result.” In other words, individuals get something out of it, the value of which is highest to them: who else they’re related to. That “value exchange” is crucial and what makes Ancestry.com customers comfortable handing over such personal information. And, he said, they’ll continue to do so “as long as we strike the right balance between privacy and personalization.”

    Check out the rest of our Structure:Data 2013 live coverage here, and a video embed of the session follows below:


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  • Apple sued again, this time over security patents by Intertrust

    A company that holds many patents to digital rights management (DRM) software is suing Apple over 15 patents. Intertrust Technologies, which is based near Apple headquarters in California, says the iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, iCloud and iTunes and other Apple software infringe on its security-related and distributed computing patents, according to papers filed in federal court.

    The Wall Street Journal first reported the suit on Wednesday, and noted that Intertrust is not some fly-by-night operation or random patent troll. It has two big backers who are also consumer electronics companies: Sony and Philips.

    Intertrust has 250 patents related to digital copy protection software security and and has licensed them to plenty of Apple’s peers — HTC, Samsung, Nokia,, Huawei — but Apple is apparently refusing to pay up, which resulted in the filing of the suit.

    In a statement, Intertrust CEO Talal Shamoon said:

    “Apple makes many great products that use Intertrust’s inventions. Our patents are foundational to modern Internet security and trusted computing, and result from years of internal research and development. We are proud of our record of peaceful and constructive licensing with industry leaders. We find it regrettable that we are forced to seek Court assistance to resolve this matter.”

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  • Walmart inches toward mobile checkout with Scan & Go app for iPhone

    Walmart is taking the idea of self-checkout to another, more mobile level. The retailer is bringing the “Scan & Go” feature of its Walmart iOS app to 200 stores in the U.S., according to a Reuters report Wednesday. The feature has been in use in some stores already, but at only about 70 near Walmart’s Arkansas headquarters and in Atlanta.

    Scan & Go is only available on the iPhone, though Walmart says an Android version is “coming soon.”

    Shoppers that have the Walmart app can select “in-store mode” and then scan each item’s barcode as they pick up items throughout the store. Users who have also created shopping lists or budgets within the app will see items scanned “checked off” on their lists. Once finished, they need only go to a self-checkout terminal, scan a barcode on the screen — which reads the items they have in their cart — and pay as usual by swiping a credit card.

    It’s not a mobile payment system exactly. And Walmart’s version doesn’t enable the same independence as, say, what Apple has enabled in its own retail stores with the EasyPay option in its Apple Store app or apps from companies like Square and Paypal. With Walmart’s app, you still need to scan one final time at a self-checkout terminal to make your payment through traditional means.

    But it’s a step toward easier physical world transactions using mobile technology in the company’s 4,000-store retail empire. Scan & Go could be even more convenient and useful to busy shoppers if Walmart were to enable a payment system within the app.

    A lot of companies are being creative with mobile payments and barcode scanning with smartphones. And the success of Square, LevelUp and plenty of others have demonstrated that mainstream users are getting used to the idea of paying with their iPhone — without need for technology like NFC chips inside the device.

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  • Adobe’s CTO heading to Apple?

    Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch has reportedly been wooed away by Apple. CNBC is reporting that Lynch has been hired but so far there are no details as to what his job title or responsibilities at the company would be.

    Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Lynch has been at Adobe since 2005 when the company acquired Macromedia. He is credited with the decision to develop early desktop publishing software Dreamweaver while at Macromedia.

    The move to Apple would be tinged with a bit of irony considering the bad blood between the two companies. In 2010, Steve Jobs posted his “Thoughts on Flash” regarding Adobe’s technology and its viability for mobile devices. Adobe publicly took exception to Apple’s claims, but just a couple years later,  Apple decisively won the battle.

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