Silvexis » Technology

Reflections on the Apple Newton MessagePad Failure on the Eve of the iPad

Erik — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:43:49 +0000

As I hold on for the long wait for my iPad 3G I was inspired to pull out my Apple Newton MessagePad 120 to baseline how far Apple has come since the Newton was first released in 1993. I was amazed at how unintuitive it was to use and thought about how our perceptions and expectations of a handheld user interface have been transformed by the iPhone. Putting my thoughts into a 1993 state of mind for a moment I imagined what it was like using this thing so long ago. One thing stuck out like a sore thumb to me: The MessagePad seemed utterly and completely impractical by even 1993 standards.

I believe that its failure was guaranteed no matter how powerful its designers made it. It wasn’t because of the applications or even its form factor, no its size and note taking, calendar, contacts and other apps including eMail capabilities were all fine for their day. It all came down to the user experience. Using the stylus with the on screen keyboard or worse, the built in handwriting recognition was unbearable. This highlights something that technology companies regularly forget and it’s why Steve Jobs killed the Newton when he took back control of Apple: The user experience matters. A lot.

The Palm Pilot with its graffiti was first, then the BlackBerry with its thumb friendly keyboard and then the iPhone with its quick responding multi-touch screen. At each stage the innovation wasn’t the devices capabilities, plenty of devices have done what they did before them. The innovation was the user experience that enabled the technology and made it accessible. The iPhone’s multi-touch interface made it a usable applications platform and everyday device, the app store just greased the wheels. Had Apple released the iPhone with a thumb keyboard or stylus it would have been just as successful (and boring) as every mobile device that had come before it.

So as I wait now for my iPad to arrive and I read all the articles for and against it I think most people focusing on battery life, flash support or built in capabilities are missing the point. The real innovation that will decide the iPad’s success will come down to only one thing, the iPads user experience and how successfully it bridges the gap between humans and technology.

CES Round Up – Winners, losers and what you missed

Erik — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:31:51 +0000

I generally stay away from thinking about CES until the week is up and I can look at the big picture. For all the whining that goes on about FUD in the Information Security industry nowhere is there more hype and hyperbole than the annual consumer electronics show (CES) in Las Vegas. Here is our take on the events and products highlighted at this years CES event.

The annoying marketing gone crazy technology looking for a problem award goes to 3D TV

This year it seems everyone was talking about 3D TV’s with CNet, Engadget and others all talking about 3D tv’s like they were the second coming of Christ. I’m not sure who’s good graces they were trying to get into but let me say what everyone else is secretly thinking: 3D TV’s are stupid. Despite the obviousness of this, it didn’t stop CES from announcing the Panasonic VT25 as “Best in Show“. It just doesn’t make sense to make everything we watch 3D. I don’t want to watch the evening news, Old School or any movie with Matthew McConaughey in 3D. Ever.

And then there are the glasses. If you don’t have glasses on, then you get a headache. Anyone who walks in the room while you are watching a 3D show is going to get insta-frustrated. Oh and you look like a total idiot. The only reason this works in a theater is because everyone looks like an idiot so everyone keeps their mouth shut.

No, no one is going to run out and buy a new TV for this unless they have money to burn. Here is the big secret however that no one wants you to know, every TV will soon be a 3D “capable” TV and if your TV can refresh faster than 96Hz already (ideally 120Hz), it might already be ready (the HDMI 1.4 requirement might be a hiccup). This feature is going to be thrown in for free by the end of the year and right now is just a marketing gimmick to justify the cost of higher end TV’s. I expect Vizio to be carrying 3D capable TV’s at Costco around the middle of the year for the same price you would pay today for a regular TV. Unless of course the TV manufacturers try and create some sort of 3D hardware standards monopoly which is likely because that’s just what hardware companies do. For example everyone is pushing their “Full HD 3D” solution which requires shutter glasses vs. the cheap things you wore when you saw Avatar 3D at the IMAX theater last weekend.

The real winners here will likely end up being the content providers who will try and sell you 3D versions of movies you already have.

The totally pointless but yet I want one so bad award goes to the Parrot AR.Drone

You know something is going to be a success when people are already talking about all the scary things you can do with something and the Parrot AR.Drone has all kinds of awesome scary tricks. Like hovering outside your neighbors windows recording video all controlled by your iPhone scary. The moment you can equip these things with missiles is when I suspect the fun will come to an end but until then, I want one. Unless this product ends up being somehow fatally flawed and not living up to the hype expect every kid on the planet to be begging their parents for one. Parents everywhere are going to be rushing out to get these things too because they all secretly want this thing as well.

The should have gotten more attention because it’s going to change our life award goes to the RCA Airnergy Power System

Two words: Wireless Power. The RCA Airnergy system sucks up WiFi signals and turns it into electrical current. Let me say that again. WiFi signals go in, power comes out. Despite making everyone suddenly get worried that the WiFi signals in their house are frying their brain (it doesn’t, chill out) the idea of wireless power has the potential to change our lives forever. Think about the sort of devices that become possible when you suddenly don’t have to worry about plugging them in or charging them. I suspect this product is only the beginning of a whole series of new technologies that will branch out to absorb all kinds of energy and convert it to power. Despite the utter coolness and trans-formative nature of this technology it’s getting almost no attention right now. This either means it’s too good to be true or people just can’t believe it. Kudos to Engadget for also saying what was also on everyone else’s mind: The Airnergy gives RCA a reason to exist.

And the best of CES award goes to…

The product that is going to make the entire CES event seem like a distant and pointless memory, the upcoming Apple tablet. According to John Paczkowski over at AllThingsD the announcement is planned for January 27th 2010. I still stand by my predictions that I made back in August as well as my expectations that the new tablet will be called the Apple MacBook Touch. Stay tuned!

RCA Airnergy promises usable power generated from Wi-Fi signals. Possible? (crunchgear.com)
RCA’s Wifi “power harvester” (boingboing.net)
‘Airnergy’ promises charging over Wi-Fi (guardian.co.uk)
Is RCA’s Airnergy Snake Oil? (ask.slashdot.org)
Alt.CES: RCA’s Wi-Fi “Power Harvester” Snakeoil? (makezine.com)
Charge your BlackBerry battery using Wi-Fi signal (bbgeeks.com)
RCA Airnergy Charges Gadgets with Nothing But Wifi Signals [Chargers] (gizmodo.com)

Predictions on the upcoming Apple Tablet

Prediction Confirmed: Big changes coming to iTunes in 2010

Erik — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:07:41 +0000

Earlier this week I predicted that the La La acquisition by Apple was the start of an entirely new in the cloud online strategy for the iTunes music and media store. A few days ago the Wall Street Journal (link) confirmed my predictions by reporting that according to sources familiar with the strategy, Apple was “exploring an overhaul of the way it sells and stores music” with changes coming as early as next year. AppleInsider also suggested an more online future for iTunes but was not as specific as the WSJ.

The WSJ article explains that several of the La La executives will be leading critical aspects of the iTunes service which I think is a very positive sign and one that suggests Apple is serious about injecting fresh thinking into service. It’s a short but good article that validates a few of my predictions on how I think iTunes will transform itself in 2010 and a topic you can be sure I’ll keep a close eye on.

It’s all in the Cloud:What Lala means to the future of Apple and iTunes

Erik — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:57:08 +0000

With the pending acquisition of Lala by Apple speculation has begun on how Apple will integrate Lala into iTunes with many suggesting that this acquisition will enable iTunes to begin offering their own streaming services like last.fm or Pandora.

While these capabilities are almost certain to now find their way into iTunes, these predictions miss that something much larger is on the horizon. Apple didn’t acquire Lala just for it’s streaming capabilities, instead I believe that the pending acquisition of Lala by Apple signifies the beginning of an entirely new online iTunes platform and cloud computing media strategy for Apple.

While Apple has made huge investments into cloud computing infrastructure and services already with it’s MobileMe and web based iWork services the high profile iTunes ecosystem has remained strangely absent from any public online strategy. With the Lala acquisition Apple is putting the online strategy for iTunes on the fast track for a big announcement sometime in 2010.

The details will likely start to emerge by Q2 but I believe that a iTunes in the cloud solution will offer the following:

Merge your local music libraries with online libraries making your music always available to stream to you no matter where you are
Create a social network for sharing with friends your likes, dislikes and your current playlist driving new music discovery and therefore sales
Provide a completely online iTunes experience that will eventually replace the need for an iTunes desktop application
Provide streaming music subscription services

These are just a few predictions, I suspect there will be more to come as details start to become known. A big unknown to me and something I will be keeping a close eye on is how video content and the Apple TV will fit into a future Apple online and in the cloud media future but one thing is for sure: the future of iTunes is all in the cloud.

The Apple TV – Apple’s Secret Weapon

Erik — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:35:23 +0000

Have you been wondering what are Apple’s plans for the Apple TV?

Recently Apple dropped the price of the 160GB model by $100 and discontinued the 40GB model fueling the rumor mill that changes to what Steve Jobs has described as a pet project are forthcoming. Here is just some of the coverage and commentary:

Wired wrote a peice titled “Why Apple TV Must Evolve to Avoid Extinction” and referenced industry analysts James McQuivey of Forrester and John Barrett of Park Associates. Together they claimed that the Apple TV didn’t have much life left in it, that Apple needed to dramatically improve the product to compete and suggested things like a Tivo-like DVR feature, Movie and TV show subscription options and a Blu-Ray player.
David Coursey blogging for PC World suggested that a “New Apple TV For Christmas Seems Likely” and suggested the new iTunes LP format would be a big boost to the platform. David also suggested that the price drop had one goal: clear the warehouses of existing Apple TVs to make room for a new model that he expects in time for Christmas.
AppleInsider also supported the idea that the new iTunes LP format seems aimed at the Apple TV with some detailed analysis on the new format and the underlying Apple technology called TuneKit.

I agree with David that a new Apple TV model is coming and I give it a 80% chance of landing this fall for the holiday shopping season. The canceling of the 40GB model and the price drop does scream inventory purge and check out this recent conversation at an apple store, something certainly seems up. As for what this new Apple TV will look like however all of the predictions on what will be coming in the next Apple TV seem to be missing the mark, some in the extreme.

Blu-ray is never coming to the Apple TV

Blu-ray may have just won the format war but in my opinion it’s already dead on arrival. Delivered right at the apex of physical media it is now set to be eclipsed by online access to video and I predict that the era of physical media is set to expire within 3-5 years. With HD content appearing online from Netflix, Apple, Microsoft and others there is increasingly less and less reason to buy a disc.

With most home movies rented, not purchased, the days of the disc are coming to an end and the reasons for this sneakernet holdout won’t remain for much longer. The final nail in the coffin is the obvious one: Blu-ray does nothing to help the Apple online store giving Apple every reason to hasten Blu-rays demise, not support it.

An Apple TV DVR isn’t coming…yet

Apple has eschewed broadcast media for two reasons. First, like Blu-ray, HD cable and satellite broadcasts have their own complicated and expensive licensing costs and certification “bag of hurt” that Blu-Ray does. It’s these licensing issues that has kept PC CableCard decoders off the market for example although there is supposedly a PCI-E tuner on the way in 2010.

The second reason is because Apple hates kludges and the DVR is the mother of all kludges (bear with me here). The TiVo may have changed how millions watch TV forever but DVR’s exist to address a problem with the medium, namely you can’t pause and remind broadcast media. The future however is content that is bought, sold and downloaded online with the days of advertising interruptions coming to and end and I think Apple is content to wait it out until this future arrives.

There is one snag however that Apple needs to figure out how to deal with: live broadcasts. Live news and sports are not going away and once live TV is easily delivered over the Internet then you can expect to see a DVR option but until then the Apple TV will likely continue to maintain “pet project” status at Apple. If Apple starts to make inroads to solving the live broadcast problem however, this will the key indicator that Apple is getting ready to take on TV.

Why the Apple TV is Apple’s Secret Weapon

So if the Apple TV is only a pet project today and can’t replace your cable or satellite box because of live broadcasts what good is the Apple TV? I believe the Apple TV is a Trojan horse designed to slowly find it’s way into living rooms and eventually build critical mass. Supporting this theory is the fact that Apple is breaking even on the device which means that the goal here isn’t to make money selling the Apple TV, but rather to make money off of the market the devices are meant to create. Expect the Apple TV to slowly build momentum in the coming months if not years but keep a watch out for the following triggers that will signal Apple is getting ready to launch this weapon:

Apple addresses or make hints of addressing live broadcasts – pause/play/record for Internet broadcasts will likely arrive at the same time
Resolves the issues between the Apple TV and the Mac mini – Why buy an Apple TV when you can build one with DVR capabilities?

What to expect in the meantime for Apple TV

In the meantime as we wait for the Apple TV master plan to be revealed you can expect a slow trickle of new features that will keep the media from forgetting about this little device. Here is the shortlist of features I’m expecting to emerge within a year or less:

Fully featured online application, music and video store with “in the cloud” storage of purchases. (You won’t need to sync up with a PC or Mac to get the most of your purchase)
Online App Store for Apple TV and MacBook Touch applications
Gaming platform using WiFi based controllers as well as some very unique games and applications that make use of the iPhone/iPod Touch
Subscription based rentals for movies and TV shows
And the obligatory Increased capacity and processing power

So those are my predictions for Apple’s pet project. No Blu-Ray, no DVR(yet) but still a lot of interesting things to come. My recommendation to anyone keeping watch over Apple is to keep an eye on the Apple TV. It’s a precursor for things to come and a strategy that has yet been fully revealed.

This isn’t going to end well for Palm

Erik — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:00:39 +0000

Does anyone remember Real Networks and ultimately what happened to them? It’s a history lesson that Plam could learn from. During the early years of the online music battle a cat and mouse game between Apple and Real Networks broke out when Real built a player capable of playing music purchased on iTunes. Apple responded by breaking Real’s technology with every iTunes update and Real responded by fixing it with each update of their own.

Eventually Apple won out and customers grew tired of having a working solution one day and a broken one the next. The lesson learned from this story however was clear: business models that depend on you hacking your competitors products are a really bad idea.

Fast forward to today and Apple finds itself in the same position again, only this time it’s the Palm Pre with it’s dependency on hacking iTunes. It’s not even clear to me why the Pre needs to sync directly with iTunes this way as there is plenty of software out there that can interface with the iTunes library. Palm should put this misguided strategy behind them and create its own software for keeping everything in sync otherwise I guarantee you, this isn’t going to end well for Palm.

CrashPlan Central Review – The Perfect Online Backup Solution?

Erik — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:17:03 +0000

Many of you read about my poor experience with the Carbonite online backup service. After that experience I was ready to throw in the towel on online backup and not think about it until the market got a little more mature. This plan was cut short when my already favorite home backup solution CrashPlan lowered their online CrashPlan Central prices and made all of their plans unlimited. What might have been $169.42 a year limited to 200GB could now be as low as $41.64 a year (3 year plan) for unlimited storage as well as introducing a new family plan for $60 a year (3 year plan) that will cover all the computers in your house. At these prices I had to give them a try and see if they were the solution I had long been looking for.

About CrashPlan

CrashPlan from Code 42 software is an always on backup solution that runs in the background either backing up according to a schedule you set or continuously if you have CrashPlan+. It can backup over your home network to another computer in your house, to an external hard drive like Apple’s Time Machine does or even to a friends computer over the Internet and is a free download for personal use (They have a Pro version for business).

I started using CrashPlan in 2007 and upgraded to CrashPlan+ in Feb. of 2008. Since then I’ve used CrashPlan to backup my laptop to my home server (a trusty Dell server with a 4TB RAID 5 array). I had carefully configured an opening in my home firewall as well which meant that even when I was in the office or on the road my laptop was backing up to my home server.

This was a near perfect solution for me. The CrashPlan client was easy to use, unobtrusive, straight forward in letting you choose what was being backed up with no hidden limitations (unlike what I discovered when using Carbonite). But all this time I had a gap in my backup strategy, what about my home server? With everything I had being backed up to my home server I wanted to make sure my home server was backed up offsite in case of fire or theft. Enter CrashPlan Central.

About CrashPlan Central

CrashPlan Central provides CrashPlan users a convenient option to backup their files online and they offer a free 30 day trial. It’s clear that the CrashPlan team takes pride in their datacenter which is where your data ultimately ends up with full details available on their site. While some of these details are clearly more than the average home user might need I find it very refreshing that they are so upfront in describing where and how your data will be stored. A lot of online backup companies seem to go out of their way to not tell you where your data will live and take a “just trust us” attitude when it comes to your data. The only company that comes close to this level of transparency is BackBlaze which is also upfront in describing where and how your data is stored including an interesting overview of the hardware BackBlaze uses.

Going beyond their physical datacenter, CrashPlan Central also has some of the best data encryption options available. With three options you can choose to secure your private key with your account password, a specific password you choose or even replace your private key with one of your own. The easiest option is to just use your account password but keep in mind that this means that your private key is stored at CrashPlan. While you might trust them, if they were ever subpoenaed they may be required to hand over your data and private key. Choosing a private password is the best option to keeping your data and your private key private. Just don’t forget that password! If you loose it, you loose your data and the folks at CrashPlan have no way to recover it for you.

CrashPlan Central also offers online web access to your backed up files which is useful in a pinch although I found it easier to just install the CrashPlan client and restore files that way.

With regard to pricing, CrashPlan is a few dollars less than Carbonite or Mozy when comparing single computer costs. If however you choose a multi-year plan or the family plan option the cost savings are pretty significant. CrashPlan has a price comparison tool that when I checked it looked pretty accurate.

Evaluating CrashPlan Central

I started my evaluation of CrashPlan Central at 10 PM on August 27th, here are the details of my evaluation environment:

Hardware:	Dual Core 3GHz Intel Pentium D with 8GB of RAM
OS:	Windows Server 2008 64-bit
Internet:
Backup Set:	133.3 GB (Various files including, pictures, MP3’s, ISO images and Movies)

I also have a Laptop running Windows 7 beta (which seems to run CrashPlan fine) and a Intel iMac running Mac OS 10.6 (just upgraded). Both are running CrashPlan to backup to my home server. I also have one friend who backs up to my system remotely. All of this backup activity is centered around my home server which is the same system I used to test CrashPlan Central with making it a pretty good stress test for anyone. My home network is a mix of WiFi (802.11 n/g) and Gigabit Ethernet. Ultimately I have about 2.5 TB of data I plan to backup but I wanted to start with a smaller set to experiment with.

Thankfully I have a pretty fast Internet connection but as I found with Carbonite the speed of your own connection is not all that matters. If your online backup provider chooses to throttle your connection like Carbonite and Mozy do then you are not going to get the full value of your fast Internet connection.

I configured CrashPlan to use up to 100% of my CPU when I was away and 20% when I was using my computer and left it running almost 100% of the time during my evaluation. Here is an overview of the activity I documented during my test:

Date/Time	GB Completed

Aug. 27th	0
Aug. 28th	9.8 GB
Aug. 29th	20.1 GB
Aug. 30th	30 GB
Aug. 31st	44.8 GB
Sept. 1st	- not recorded -
Sept. 2nd	- not recorded -
Sept. 3rd	85.3 GB
Sept. 4th	- not recorded -
Sept. 5th	133.3 GB DONE!

That’s right, in 10 days I backed up 133.3 GB or an average of about 14.9 GB a day! This is the same set of data that never finished backing up in the several months I had a Carbonite license. The entire time I watched my backup for any signs that CrashPlan was throttling my upload speed and could find none. I double checked to make sure that all of my files, no matter what the file type, were being backed up and could find no discrepancies. CrashPlan Central appeared to be extremely fast and accurate. Throughout the backup I continued to use my computer daily, as I normally would using programs like Word, Excel, Photoshop, Google Chrome, Firefox, Picasa, iTunes, Dreamweaver and even Intellij IDEA 8 to do some Grails development. My computer usage was not light.

The performance of CrashPlan Central, even while still heavily using my computer, appeared to be simply amazing and just as important not disruptive to whatever it was I was working on at the time.

The truth is however that my backup time could have been even faster had it not been for a few issues I encountered while testing CrashPlan.

Issues Encountered During the Evaluation

Tthere were a few hiccups during the evaluation that are worth mentioning. Before I decided to try CrashPlan Central I had already been backing up to a friends computer who was also running CrashPlan. When I added CrashPlan Central as a destination it added it to my list of backup destinations (CrashPlan supports multiple backup destinations). At first this didn’t seem to be an issue but when I started to backup extremely large files (one file was over 4GB) my backup ground to a halt.

I wrote to CrashPlan’s support team and in about 24 hours I received the following response from Renee:

“CrashPlan prioritizes destinations based on which destination will finish first. Say you’re backing up to both CrashPlan Central and a local hard drive. CrashPlan is smart enough to know that it will finish backing up to your local hard drive sooner than it will finish backing up to Central, so it will complete backup to the hard drive (assuming the drive is connected, mounted, etc.), then it will switch to backing up to Central.”

What this meant was because I was constantly producing files that needed to be backed up CrashPlan was delaying every 15 minute my backup to Central so it could back up to my friends computer. It could never finish that 4GB file in 15 minutes so it kept on restarting. Once I understood this behavior I configured CrashPlan to only backup changed files after 2 hours and my backup was flying along again.

The other issue I encountered during the evaluation was with the “analyzing” phase. If you should ever interrupt your backup while it’s backing up a file it will pick up where it left off. However before it does is must first analyze the file to check for changes before it resumes. If this file is particularly large this analysis can be extremely CPU intensive and does not obey the CPU limits in the settings. Indeed this was my first indication that something was wrong with my backup when my CPU would go to 100% for 15 minutes every 15 minutes.

Missing Features

While CrashPlan Central really did impress me there is always room for a few improvements, here is what I would change or add to CrashPlan given the chance:

Better handling of large files when using multiple destinations.
- If CrashPlan always finished the current file it was working on before pausing one destination for another there would be less issues for users with multiple destinations.
The ability to manage and have different backup selections by destination.
- My friends are generous, but not 2.5 TB generous. If I’m going to want to back up my entire system I’m going to have to stop backing up to them before I enlarge my backup set since you can only have one backup file selection for all your destinations.
Application profiles.
- For the advanced user this isn’t really important but for home users it’s getting increasingly hard to keep track of where the applications you use keep their settings. For example being able to easily backup your web browser settings and bookmarks as well as easily restoring them without accidentally also backing up your cache files would be nice addition. I plan on describing how to optimize CrashPlan settings and backup file selections in a future article for those looking for some advice.
Better online web access to files.
- CrashPlan does provide simple web access to your files but it’s pretty basic. A more functional online system for accessing your files with the ability to browse through their contents before downloading them or the ability to package up a set of files and download them as a single zip would transform their online web access from simple a tool you use in a pinch to one you might use everyday to get to your files when you are working remotely. Perhaps borrow a few features from the excellent folder synchronization tool, DropBox.

Product Support

While I had a few issues and questions during my evaluation it gave me a chance to interact with the CrashPlan support team. I generally got a response in about 2 to 3 days, the responses were always from the same person (Renee) who I started speaking with at the start. Her responses were never canned and always helpful. Most importantly they also generally resolved my problem or answered my question. While I would have liked a faster response to my questions this was another huge difference from my experience with Carbonite support. CrashPlan also has a pretty comprehensive set of online support options including a wiki and support forums.

Final Verdict

Before I finished this article I decided to purchase a CrashPlan Central 3 year family plan. The price, performance and ease of use just can’t be beat. Comparing my CrashPlan experience with my experience using Carbonite has been like night and day, CrashPlan Central is what online backup was meant to be – fast, trustworthy and unobtrusive.

If you had been waiting on the sidelines like I had looking for the right online backup solution, look no further than CrashPlan. With it’s ability to backup to just about any destination you choose it’s already one of the most flexible backup solutions available. Add online backup using CrashPlan Central backed by what seems like an fun and honest company and you have all your bases covered at a cost that won’t break the bank.

Click here to download CrashPlan

Apple Thoughts and Perdictions Grab Bag

Erik — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:47:29 +0000

A lot of friends have been asking be what I think will be released Sept. 9th by Apple. Will it be a new Apple TV? Blu-Ray support? New iPods? the iTablet? I don’t expect any of these things other than the chance of new iPods, but I’ve got a few ideas of my own, each is only half baked at this point but I thought I would share them to get my readers involved in the brainstorm.

Things that are not going to happen:

There will be no Blu-Ray support in AppleTV or for that mater any Apple product, ever. Apple is finished with physical media as far as entertainment media goes. It’s clear there will never be a replacement to Blu-Ray because it’s the last of it’s kind. Why buy disks when I can click and have it on my TV in a few seconds? Blu-Ray is never going to happen. Just buy a Apple TV and watch whatever you want without having to keep a stack of discs laying around. I’ve already ripped all my DVD’s and used Handbrake to turn them into movies I could upload onto my Apple TV, why haven’t you?
I’ve already made my peace on the Apple Tablet, you can read that here

Things that might happen:

Apple is going to announce a new and improved package for albums that improves the “album” experience. I think this is fine but if it’s anything like the crap that you got when buying an “enhanced” CD then it’s going to be a big yawn. Supposedly something like this is exactly what the music industry is working on. When are they going to realize that they need to just stick to the music and leave the rest to companies that understand the Internet?
Apple is going to announce it’s upgrading a portion of it’s music collection to better than CD quality and will be releasing many future albums with better sound quality as well. This idea just entered my head. I can’t even begin to explain why I even think this is a possibility. I just see a pattern forming around music quality. The interest in good, high quality music and recordings is making a come back (for example 2008 vinyl record sales were up 37% over the previous year). As far as I can tell I’m the only one who is making this prediction so I’m going out on a limb here.
Something interesting will happen around Movie rentals or purchases. I don’t know what, but there is another pattern forming here as well.

Things that will happen:

The iPod line up including the touch are going to get a refresher, larger storage is in order but the addition of a camera is going to be the most interesting item. I think they are also going to announce the end of life of the iPod classic.
Steve Jobs is going to be doing the keynote

Ok that’s it, what am I missing?

Mac OS X: Snow Leopard

Erik — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:18:14 +0000

I’ve got my copy of Snow Leopard pre-ordered, do you?

One delightful change: Snow Leopard takes up less than half the room on a hard disk that Leopard did, and Apple says the average user who upgrades will free up about 7 gigabytes of space. On my 2008-vintage MacBook Pro, I gained back a whopping 14 gigabytes. – Walt Mossberg, Apple Changes Leopard’s Spots

When was the last time you heard of a new OS install that took less than the previous version? Apple does more by doing less. Again.

No related posts.

Amazon VPC, a not so private private cloud?

Erik — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:02:06 +0000

Amazon VPC

My next post was going to start defining the security referee concept I came up with previously but something much more interesting happened today: Amazon Web Services announced their newest addition, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) which adds a new dimension to Amazon’s cloud service offerings. Based on the information available, Amazon VPC works much the same way existing Amazon EC2 instances work with the very important exception that access to your EC2 instances are isolated within Amazons web services cloud network. To access your VPC instances you create an IPSec VPN tunnel between your organization and Amazon. Once set up EC2-VPC instances behave exactly like a local system on your network would, with whatever IP address you want to give it (including RFC 1918 addresses but not IPv6 addresses).

At first glance Amazon VPC is a significant new offering as it places you in direct control over the traffic entering and leaving your EC2-VPC instances (aside from the obvious that you are still trusting Amazon to configure and maintain things correctly on their end) and opens the door to enabling in the cloud hosting of all sorts of applications that previously you would only consider hosting internally. But is Amazon’s Virtual Private Cloud really private?

You might accidentally make the mistake and think that EC2-VPC equals private and therefore dedicated resources but you would be wrong. Your EC2 instance may only be reachable by you over your VPN tunnel but your EC2 instance is running along side one or more public instances and using the same networking equipment. You might be saying this is obvious (It wouldn’t be scalable for Amazon if it didn’t) but for most the definition of “private cloud” means a dedicated cloud computing environment where CPU, bandwidth and storage are private to one customer (perhaps your own data center or a remote data center that you have a contact with). Since Amazon VPC only offers private access but shared CPU, bandwidth and network it’s not a true private cloud. Amazon also has a plan to eventually allow VPC instances to selectively have direct access to the Internet if you wish it.

So what is Amazon really offering here? Is the only thing new here the addtion of a hardware based VPN tunnel and private VLAN? Perhaps and perhaps a better name for Amazon’s service is Amazon Virtual Private Network Cloud because it seems like the network might be the only private part of this offering.

Unfortunately the debate still rages on regarding cloud computing definitions (I support the NIST definitions) and the term “private cloud” is getting a lot of attention because some claim there can be no such thing. I however have a good example of a private cloud that exists today: The HP Next Generation Data Center (NGDC) project. The HP NGDC is a multi-year project at HP to consolidate the hundreds of data centers they have spread all over the world down to just a handful that embody all the properties of modern cloud computing. It’s elastic, it scales, it’s multi-tenant and best of all, it’s running today. When I was at HP I was involved in several projects to move the SPI Dynamics applications (including the HP SmartUpdate software update solution I helped design) into the HP NGDC. I’m happy to say that move was completed several months ago and if you are an HP Application Security Customer, you are using the HP private cloud, you just didn’t know it.

Here is the million dollar question: HP, why are you not advertising this, you have a huge cloud in your backyard and you haven’t noticed it. Hey Russ Daniels Eliav Levi (HP’s new CTO Cloud Computing), call me and lets talk.

So while Amazon’s VPC is not a dedicated offering and not as private as a true private cloud I still think it’s a good step in the right direction for cloud computing infrastructure-as-as-service (IaaS) providers. VPC might not offer the dedicated truly private environment you might want to reserve for running your Windows Domain Controller but it’s perfect for replacing all those QA labs and various “lab” systems that see very low utilization but needed an additional layer of protection before they could move into the cloud. In fact it’s these environments that Amazon VPC might just be perfect for but truly private? That’s up for debate.

Update: Aparently i’m not the only one thinking VPC is not so private, read Cloud Pulse: Amazon VPC pees in pool, not just on fire hydrant