All Things Digital

Apple may soon regret the “twice as fast, half the price” slogan it chose for iPhone 3G. A first lawsuit has been filed against the company over the device’s performance and reliability, and it seeks class-action status. Brought by Birmingham, Ala., resident Jessica Alena Smith, the suit (PDF) alleges that while the iPhone 3G may be half the price of its predecessor, it is almost certainly not twice as fast. Worse, it’s prone to dropping calls. “Immediately after purchase, Plaintiff soon noticed that her Internet connection, receipt and sending of email, text messages and other data transfers were slower than expected and advertised,” the lawsuit reads. “The defective iPhone 3G appeared to connect to the 3G standard and protocol less than 25 percent of the time. Additionally, Plaintiff experienced an inordinate amount of dropped calls.”

Familiar complaints to some iPhone 3G owners, or to anyone who’s spent any time in Apple’s support forums lately. Indeed, Apple recently acknowledged the device’s reception problems. That said, the company’s “twice as fast, half the price” messaging does include the caveat “actual speeds vary by site conditions,” which would seem to absolve it of Smith’s charges of false advertising. And, beyond that, those who are disappointed by the performance of their new iPhone 3Gs had 30 days to return the device without consequence. Which is not to say that iPhone 3G’s performance hasn’t been disappointingly subpar or that it’s unreasonable to demand that Apple (AAPL) fix it. Just that Smith had recourse other than a suit demanding that Apple pay unspecified damages in addition to repairing or replacing all defective iPhones.

If, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently said, the launch of MobileMe was not Apple’s finest hour, then what can be said of the more than 800 hours that followed? Because they haven’t exactly been Apple’s finest hours either.

So, how about “here’s another free extension to your MobileMe subscription–now let’s forget this ever happened”?

In yet another attempt to make amends with dismayed MobileMe subscribers, Apple (AAPL) is granting them a free 60-day service extension. And that’s on top of the free 30-day extension it offered in July.

In an e-mail to MobileMe subscribers announcing the extension, a humbled Apple acknowledged that the Web services suite still doesn’t live up to Apple standards. “We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make,” the email reads. “… We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe’s launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around.”

Airline passengers will soon have a new option for getting wired at 30,000 feet.

This morning, Delta Air Lines said it will offer wireless Internet access across its entire domestic fleet by mid-2009. Though much larger in scale, the service is identical to the one used American Airlines (AMR), which Walt reviewed earlier this year.

Provided by Aircell’s Gogo, Delta’s (DAL) in-flight broadband will offer 3.1Mbps-connectivity for $9.95 on flights three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours. Not an unreasonable price. According to a 2007 survey by Forrester Research, 26 percent of leisure travelers would pay $10 for Internet access on a two- to four-hour flight and 45 percent would pay that on a flight longer than four hours. For business travelers, the percentage is quite a bit higher.

“Time on an airplane was either time lost or time found,” said Tim Mapes, Delta’s vice president of marketing. “This is going to totally change the dynamics of what a business trip is. Our customers are demanding of us the same type of wireless service they have on the ground.”

And they may even be able to use it, if they can get their laptops past The Department of Homeland Security …

Add Lenovo to the ever-lengthening list of PC makers turning their attention to the ultra-mobile PC market, that new category of extraneous mobile computing devices the electronics industry seems so determined to create. Announced today, the Lenovo Ideapad S10 features a 10-inch screen, a 1.6GHz Atom processor, a keyboard at 85 percent of full size and a three-hour battery. Like the ASUS Eee PC 1000 and MSI Wind, the S10 runs Windows XP. And like the Eee PC and the Wind, it too is designed for simple computing tasks. Surfing the Web, checking email, listening to music–the same sorts of things you’re probably already doing on your phone.

So why is it we need one of these things again?

No one seems to be sure, really — not even the PC vendors making them.

“At this point, you can expect all the major players to get into this market,” IDC analyst Richard Shim told eWeek. “The question is what is there level of commitment and what is their target audience and how much do they expect it to grow. A lot of the companies I talk to say, ‘We’re doing this as a defensive measure and we’re concerned about the success of some of the more aggressive players that have entered this market.’”

Google’s facing another billion dollar lawsuit–and, whaddaya know, it’s not from Viacom. It’s from LimitNone, a small software developer that claims Google’s (GOOG) Email Uploader tool copies the look, feel, functionality and distribution model of its gMove application.

The gMove app exports email, contacts and calendar information stored in Microsoft (MSFT) Outlook to Google’s online services. LimitNone apparently developed it with Google’s help and the understanding that the company had no intention of offering a competing product. But at some point, Google changed its mind. And it built Google Email Uploader–allegedly using LimitNone’s trade secrets. “Google claims its core philosophy is ‘Don’t be evil’ but, simply put, they invited us to work with them, to trust them–and then stole our technology,” said LimitNone’s CEO, Ray Glassmann.

A harsh accusation. And likely a tough one to prove. LimitNone never bothered to patent gMove. And beyond that, it’s hard to believe Google is so lacking in engineering resources and expertise that it would purloin an email migration tool.

Like Vegas, what happens in the White House’s remarkably troubled email system, stays there–FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) be damned.

A federal judge today ruled that the White House Office of Administration doesn’t have to release documents that might explain how 5 million to 10 million emails went missing from the White House archives. In a 39-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and is therefore not required to comply with FOIA requests.

Did I mention that the Office of Administration routinely complied with such requests from 1980 until August 2007, when it suddenly reconsidered the practice?

Suffice to say, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group seeking information on the missing emails, was disappointed by Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling. “The Bush administration is using the legal system to prevent the American people from discovering the truth about the millions of missing White House emails,” CREW’s executive director Melanie Sloan said in a statement. “The fact is, until CREW asked for documents pertaining to this problem, the Office of Administration routinely processed FOIA requests. Only because the administration has so much to hide here, has the White House taken the unprecedented position that OA is not subject to the FOIA.”

CREW has vowed to appeal the ruling, but it’s got its work cut out for it if it hopes to do so before the end of this administration.

Apple’s much lauded iPhone captured 28% of the smart-phone market in the States by the fourth quarter of 2007–just six months into its launch. Today it holds something less than that–about 19.2%. But to look at the headlines, you’d think it controlled the market in its entirety. A quick search on Google returns 19,035 results for “iPhone”– from Jun. 2, 2008 to today. Why? Because in a few hours, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will address the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, at which he is expected to unveil the next version of the company’s iPhone.

And for Apple’s (AAPL) sake, I hope he does. Because with expectations running this high, I’d hate to see what happens if he doesn’t. Although the new Apple Store housed in a life-size replica of the Golden Gate Bridge pictured in the invite would certainly take some of the heat off …

Anyway, I’ll be live-blogging from inside Moscone West in San Francisco starting at 10 a.m. PDT. Here’s something to read while you wait …

• From Moscone West: This is crazy. They just opened a single door to let cameras in and the media rushed the gate. Its like that 1979 Who concert in Cincinnati.



• The hall in Moscone West is filling quickly to the sounds of Jerry Lee Lewis. From the looks of it media and developers are here in equal numbers.
• Jobs takes the stage. I’m sitting about 20 rows back, but even I can see he’s looking pretty thin from here. He gets right into it, pulls up a slide of a stool and describes Apple as a three-legged company. Macs, music and the iPhone.
• Jobs will spend the morning talking about the iPhone. This afternoon Apple will discuss OS X “Snow Leopard.”

Read more »

Dear Friends; Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates sharing his fortune. If you ignore this, You will repent later. … When you forward this email to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (If you are a Microsoft Windows user) For a two weeks time period.

For every person that you forward this email to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00. For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, You will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a check.”

–Excerpt from the Microsoft giveaway hoax

My God … Bill Gates really is sharing his fortune. But not with folks who help out with that infamous Microsoft email “beta test.” He’s sharing it with consumers who use Microsoft’s Live Search engine to find and purchase products online.

Today, Microsoft (MSFT) will announce “Live Search Cashback,” a sort of search-engine loyalty program that rewards users with rebates on certain purchases of products found through Microsoft’s live.com Web search. “We want to earn your loyalty and reward it with cashback savings for your everyday online shopping,” Microsoft enthuses on the Cashback site. “We are ‘The Search That Pays You Back!’”

Cringe.

Like Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo (YHOO), this new service is yet another effort to bolster its laggard search service, which has long been a very distant third in the search market. Question is, will it work? Gartner (IT) analyst Van Baker says maybe. “Assuming that the rebate amounts are enough to be appealing to people, which it sounds like they are, that definitely could attract a fair number of consumers,” Baker told the Seattle Post Intelligencer. “But what they may do is just go to that site when they’re thinking about buying something, and use Google the rest of the time.”

With its curvier edges, stylish silver trim, half-VGA 480-by-320 pixel screen and improved iTunes compatibility, Research in Motion’s (RIMM) new BlackBerry Bold should be a big hit with IT operations professionals convinced the iPhone isn’t an enterprise-class mobile device but driven to near-aneurysm by discontented employees demanding them.

The device is largely as expected–an iPhonish-looking thing with both GPS and Wi-Fi, 1GB of permanent flash memory, a 2-megapixel camera, full HTML browsing, 3G support on GSM networks with HSDPA access and, of course, the BlackBerry’s one-trick killer app: instant, secure email. That’s a compelling combination for business users and casual ones not easily swayed by the iPhone’s hype juggernaut as well. Indeed, Citigroup analyst Jim Suva says it could boost RIM’s quarterly shipments by 200,000 to 400,000.

But perhaps not without a bit of struggle. The BlackBerry Bold won’t ship until as late as August, which means Apple (AAPL) could beat it to market with the enterprise-friendly 3G iPhone it’s rumored to be uncrating at its Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June. Which has got to worry RIM. After all, the first-generation iPhone had claimed a 28% market share by the fourth quarter of 2007. That’s still less than the BlackBerry, which holds about a 41% market share, but the iPhone hasn’t even been on the market a year.

Who says Google (GOOG) is hoarding Silicon Valley’s tech talent? In August of 2007, Gideon Yu, a Valley train-hopper with stints at Yahoo (YHOO) and then YouTube, resigned from his position at the video-sharing site shortly after it was acquired by the search engine to become CFO of Facebook. A few months later, Benjamin “bling” Ling, described as one of “Larry and Sergey’s golden boys,” left Google to run Facebook’s platform program. Then this past March, Sheryl Sandberg, Google’s vice president of global online sales and operations, bailed to join the social network as chief operating officer. Ethan Beard, Google’s director of social media, followed shortly after, taking a job as Facebook’s director of business development.

Now another prominent Googler has train-hopped to the popular social-networking company as well. As first reported by BoomTown, Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications and public affairs at Google, is leaving the search sovereign to become Facebook’s vice president of communications and public policy.

“[Elliot Schrage] will be responsible for developing the key messages we want people to understand about our products, our business and the growing global importance of social networking and what we do,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an email to employees announcing the hire. “The goal here is to help people understand how the Internet can strengthen people’s relationships. Elliot will direct our efforts to work with users, media, governments and other entities around the world to ensure that Facebook’s policies are transparent, responsive, effective and are recognized as being those things. … This is a really important role for us and one that we’ve been trying to find the right person for a while. Elliot’s role will be critical to helping us scale based on our culture that values transparency, openness and honest internal communications.”

“Elliot’s role will be critical to helping us scale based on our culture that values transparency, openness, and honest internal communications”?

Clearly, Zuckerberg meant “build from the ground up a culture that values transparency, openness and honest internal communications.” Because it’s only been about six months since the Beacon fiasco, which demonstrated how grievously the company was lacking in those qualities (see “DiaperFetishFactory.com Is Sending a Story to Your Profile,” “Epicurious Has Added a Potential Privacy Violation to Your Facebook Profile,” “Fiascobook,” and “Fiascobook, Redux“).

Perhaps if Facebook recruits enough former Googlers, it too will be able to lay claim to a silly informal motto like “Don’t Be Evil.”

Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) have apparently taken some of their merger negotiations out of the press and into the boardroom. The two companies are said to be in “last-ditch” negotiations to reach a friendly deal, despite threats from the software giant this week that it would launch a hostile proxy bid or walk away from the deal entirely.

DealBook, citing a person involved in the talks, says Microsoft has upped its offer by several dollars a share and refers to the fresh talks as an “enormous breakthrough.” That said, the person also cautions that talks could still be postponed or collapse entirely.

Oh, one last thing: a deal is still not imminent. My God, what a fascinating new development.

Anyway, it seems Microsoft’s sweetened offer isn’t yet sweet enough for Yahoo, which worries that the merged companies would be forced to divest their email and instant-messaging assets by antitrust regulators. “We need a lot of reason to do the deal, because it could be very bumpy once we agree,” a Yahoo insider told BoomTown. “How damaged would Yahoo be if it did not go through or if important pieces of Yahoo had to be separated from the company?”

So that “technical issue” that caused 5 million to 10 million White House emails to disappear from its archives? A botched migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange. Seems even the blame for the current administration’s failure to obey the Presidential Records Act can be laid on Microsoft (MSFT).

In written testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Steven McDevitt, a former information technology specialist at the White House, explained that the administration began migrating its email to Exchange without having an adequate records-management solution in place. Worse, its email-retention process was as laughably primitive as it was insecure. To quote McDevitt:

The initial email-retention process involved a manual process of copying messages from the Exchange journals to .pst files for storage and retention.”

The White House refers to this process as “journaling,” which is most likely a euphemism for “interns handled our email backups.” And, in this case, without the proper access and logging controls to prevent tampering or even note that it had occurred.

All of this is quite troubling, to say the least. But not to worry–the White House is at this very moment developing a new archiving system. Too bad it’s unlikely to go live before the end of this administration.