Holga: An old school telephone dial with nine filters. Looks like a ton of fun.
Carrier IQ (CIQ) sells persistently privileged smartphone software that cannot be uninstalled, captures everything you do, to carriers such as Sprint and Verizon. Verizon, for example, uses the following information captured by CIQ: visited website addresses, device location, usage of apps and device features. In light of CIQ, I think this email exchange between a MacRumors reader and Steve Jobs is apt:
Q: Steve,
Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.
A: Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.
Sent from my iPhone
Update: Nilay Patel, The Verge:
The Carrier IQ smartphone tracking scandal continues to grow, but we’ve just learned some interesting news from an extremely reliable source: the Google Nexus One, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, and the original Xoom tablet do not contain Carrier IQ software. Each of those devices was launched in direct partnership with Google as the flagship for a new version of Android, so it seems that the addition of Carrier IQ comes from OEMs and carriers after Google open-sources Android’s code.
With more information about Carrier IQ the closer we get to finding out the truth. And so far the privacy violators seem to be not Google, not brands like HTC or Samsung, but the carriers. Should have seen that coming with a name like Carrier IQ.
Update 2: Verizon’s Jeffrey Nelson (@VZWjeffrey) tweets:
@joshuatopolsky To be 100% clear: Carrier IQ is *not* on #Verizon Wireless #VZW phones.
Update 3: Nilay Patel, The Verge:
Carrier IQ provides information that allows Sprint, and other carriers that use it, to analyze our network performance and identify where we should be improving service. We also use the data to understand device performance so we can figure out when issues are occurring. We collect enough information to understand the customer experience with devices on our network and how to address any connection problems, but we do not and cannot look at the contents of messages, photos, videos, etc., using this tool. The information collected is not sold and we don’t provide a direct feed of this data to anyone outside of Sprint.
CIQ can and does capture content, every single keystroke in fact. Maybe Sprint is using a different version of CIQ.
Update 4: Fuzzy statement from RIM. RIM doesn’t itself install CIQ and doesn’t authorize carriers to install CIQ. Do carriers need authorization from brands? Not really, so what I’m thinking is there are currently BlackBerry smartphones out there with CIQ installed and running.
Nokia made a strong and clear statement unequivocally denying the use of CIQ:
CarrierIQ does not ship products for any Nokia devices.
If CIQ can’t be installed on Nokia devices, there’s probably zero chance that Nokia is using CIQ. But Apple isn’t quite dirt-free:
We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.
That means iPhones and iPads (iPods?) running previous versions of iOS as well as some running iOS 5 are infested with CarrierIQ. Apple better get going with that future software update. I have not once agreed to ‘help’ companies by sending my usage information. I’m glad I haven’t.
Update 5: AT&T has admitted it uses CIQ. HTC points the finger squarely at U.S. carriers:
Carrier IQ is required on devices by a number of U.S carriers so if consumers or media have any questions about the practices relating to, or data collected by, Carrier IQ we’d advise them to contact their carrier.
Update 6: Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica:
But we were a bit curious about what “most of our products” means in that context. In response to our question, Apple tells us there is only one device running iOS 5 that still runs Carrier IQ, and it’s the iPhone 4.
If you own the iPhone 4, like I do, make sure to turn Settings → Location Services → System Services → Diagnostics & Usage off. I went ahead and turned off Location-Based iAds too. Let’s hope Apple issues a quick iOS 5 software update for the iPhone 4 that completely eliminates CIQ.
Update 7: CIQ speaks via John Paczkowski:
Carrier IQ acts as an agent for the Operators. Each implementation is different and the diagnostic information actually gathered is determined by our customers — the mobile Operators. Carrier IQ does not gather any other data from devices.
Two things. One, CIQ is attempting to clear its name by stating that it does only what it is told by the carriers to do. Two, the carrier tied to Trevor Eckhart’s HTC must have asked CIQ to gather everything.
Update 8: Terrence O’Brien, Engadget:
Well, Massachusetts congressman Edward Markey has even less patience than his esteemed colleague and has already asked the FTC to open an investigation into Carrier IQ. Markey wants the Federal Trade Commission to look into whether or not the rootkit and its creators have violated the privacy of millions of cellphone users and federal wiretap laws — an accusation the company vehemently denies.
Update 9: Andrew Coward, VP of Marketing at Carrier IQ, in an interview with Dan Goodin, The Register:
The other thing to think about is that while you potentially jump through all these hoops, the operators themselves are going to have all this information one way or another. The operators themselves will comply with law enforcement. They will have a huge amount of information even without our technology.
The carriers themselves have CIQ-like capability built into the phones?
Update 10: Sean Hollister, The Verge:
It might also surprise you to know that Carrier IQ may be installed on more devices than have already been uncovered. The company actually has two different models for collecting data: the first is built directly into the operating system, while the second is more of an aftermarket solution that can be installed by the OEM or carrier. It’s only the latter that has seen widespread investigation, but Carrier IQ has been around for six years and has been installed on over 141 million devices in that time.
If CIQ is part of the OS then it’s not surprising that it will be nearly impossible to kill the process. So it must be that carriers have their own CIQ-injected versions of Android, which is installed on smartphones manufactured by the likes of HTC.
TmoNews: T-Mobile uses CIQ and here are the infected smartphones:
Organizations and regulators across Europe, including Germany, have started looking into the use of Carrier IQ’s tracking software, to ensure that mobile phone vendors and operators are not violating users’ privacy.
Update 11: via Reuters. Eric Schmidt:
Android is an open platform, so it’s possible for people to build software that’s actually not very good for you, and this appears to be one. It’s a key-logger, and it actually does keep your keystrokes, and we certainly don’t work with them and we certainly don’t support it.
Update 12: FBI states Carrier IQ may be used with law enforcement proceedings. Michael Morisy, Muckrock:
A recent FOIA request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for "manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ" was met with a telling denial. In it, the FBI stated it did have responsive documents – but they were exempt under a provision that covers materials that, if disclosed, might reasonably interfere with an ongoing investigation.
Hmm. Carrier IQ might be part of something much bigger than just tapping smartphones for carriers.
Update 13: Carrier IQ vice president of marketing Andrew Coward:
As we went and did a deep dive into our technology to prove to consumers that there is nothing untoward in it, we found a bug. We found that if an SMS was sent simultaneously while a user is on the phone, the SMS would be captured by our software. Obviously, this is something that doesn’t happen very often, but we discovered that it could happen, and we caught it. Now, that information was never used. It wasn’t decoded. It sat on a server in encoded format, and no one could really get to it.
Update 14: John Paczkowski:
Responding to a Washington Post report claiming it’s the subject of an official FTC investigation, Carrier IQ said this is not the case. While it is meeting with federal regulators, the company says it is doing so proactively. It wasn’t summoned to Washington as part of a formal inquiry.
I’ve removed it. It was redundant. It took up valuable pixels. I couldn’t quite get complete control over it. So it’s gone.
A bit later:
As you can see, with the new Min theme that I developed from the ground up, the DISPLAYBLOG text and home link with space on top and bottom has reappeared.
I was never quite satisfied with that solution. The DISPLAYBLOG text at the top was put back because there wasn’t an intuitive way to get back ‘home’. But then I was tempted to stylize the logo while at the same time wanting to keep it straight text and without tapping third party services like Typekit.
Ben Brooks wrote an article, which prompted me to revisit this topic. He simply removed the logo from the header:
I just like the site without a logo weighing down the top, right or wrong, it’s really that simple.
I’m with Brooks. So here’s what I did. Instead of putting a ‘home’ link on top I decided I’d make use of those red, green, blue dots at the end of every post: They are now linked to ‘home’.
I take it once you’re done reading the post you’re either going to bounce out to another site or click to go to the front page of DisplayBlog. And the three dots linked to the front page is right there waiting for you to click it. I think I’ve finally found the solution to this header conundrum.
Update: As you may have already noticed I’ve gotten rid of the About page. I reduced the text to just, "DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim." so I thought it a bit too much to have a whole extra page, and a link, to an About page. That’s one. The next bit of change was based on a dislike of visual messiness. The underline under each RGB dot after the article got in the way of the simple, clean look I was going after. So instead of using the RGB buttons as a way to go Home, I decided to link ‘DisplayBlog’ instead. I know all of these changes could get confusing but hopefully once you get used to it it’ll grow on you. Thanks everyone!
Both models have an 800 x 480 screen, which is relatively sharp on the 4.0, with the TFT LCD showing the same bright and vivid colors Samsung’s Galaxy S phones are known for. 800 x 480 looks comically bad blown up to 5 inches, though; everything is enormous, like it’s zoomed in for the partially blind.
The resolution difference is big: 233 v. 187 ppi. Hardware specs matter, especially those of the display, because they have a significant impact on the overall user experience.
Update: Terrence O’Brien, Engadget:
Most of the front of the device is taken up by the four-inch 800 x 480 Super Clear LCD screen which, while not quite as stunning as the Super AMOLED Plus panels on its relatives, is still a pretty decent display. Colors are bright with plenty of eye-popping contrast and viewing angles are excellent, though black levels do leave something to be desired. The WVGA resolution is expected, but still a bit of a letdown. As a device primarily meant for media consumption we’d expect that Sammy would want to deliver the best visuals possible and, although it’s good, it’s not quite great. And the difference between those two things is glaringly obvious when you place the Player 4.0 next to its extremely pixel-dense, Apple-branded competitor. That being said, we did find watching video on the four-inch Samsung much easier on the eyes than squinting at the 3.5-inch panel on Apple’s devices. We still wouldn’t want to sit through a feature length film, but a half-hour episode of 30 Rock was pleasant enough.
via Ben Brooks. Cliff Kuang, Co. Design:
You’d think that Jawbone, the company that mastered Bluetooth headsets, would have made the UP communicate wirelessly with your phone. That’s not how it works: The wristband, which has a speaker jack clearly hidden on one end, has to be plugged into your phone every time you want to refresh your data. (Why no Bluetooth? Battery-life issues, apparently.)
Kuang suggests constant communication between your smartphone and the Jawbone UP for it to “become truly present in your life.” I agree, but others will have a different level of ‘constant’. I have a solution.
The friction in user experience (fUX), namely the trouble of physically connecting the Up to a smartphone, is harsh enough Kuang can no longer recommend it. There are other fUX too but I’ll focus on the lack of Bluetooth connectivity.
PhysOrg reported up to 74% power reduction of 3G smartphones by Finland-based Aalto University researchers, who used a network proxy to burst Internet traffic and force the 3G modem to idle in between bursts. This got me thinking.
Burst sync data from the UP to a smartphone and force the Bluetooth modem to idle in between bursts. The user can determine the exact tradeoff—realtime data at the one end and all-day battery power on the other—depending on the need. So that’s power consumption, but how about power generation?
Seiko Kinetic watches. Kinetic technology is based on micro-capacitors that generate electricity using the movement of the arm. The UP is asymmetric with a thicker, heavier top portion and I don’t like the overlapped bottom. Make the design symmetric allowing a bit more room for a few micro-capacitors. This establishes an interesting symbiotic relationship: Now your movements fuel the UP, which in turn encourages you to move.
Combine smart Bluetooth wireless technology with motion-based electricity generation and fUX can be significantly reduced giving the Jawbone UP a chance at being “truly present”. This enhanced UP might even earn a thumbs up from Kuang.
Update: Ben Brooks on Fitbit:
In the end these types of devices are utterly useless because they are tracking the wrong things. We don’t need our steps tracked, or for a device to guess at our ‘activity’ level, or looks at our sleeping habits. We need to be told what we are doing wrong and how we can change it.
That’s going to help.
And that’s not what the Fitbit, UP, et al does. Save your money, because these activity tracking devices are about as good as the Palm Treo was when all we were looking for is an iPhone.
The Jawbone UP or the Fitbit are mere data collectors. The analysis and recommendation part, the useful parts, will need to be done by you.
Update 2: Dana Wollman, Engadget, on the UP:
But all that means little when the device routinely malfunctions. Though the company says a minority of users have reported breakage, it’s telling that both of the units we tested over the past month have bricked — one of them within 24 hours. Worse, Jawbone hasn’t yet diagnosed the root cause of these problems, a collection of maladies that run the gamut from a rapidly draining battery to a silent vibration motor. We still feel that the Up has promise, but until its engineers iron out the kinks, we can’t in good faith recommend it.
Update 3: via Ben Brooks. Garrett Murray:
Here’s the TL/DR version: Don’t buy this piece of shit. It doesn’t work, it will fail, and the software is terrible. Jawbone is still selling them even though they know they’re all future bricks. *Don’t buy one.*
Update 4: Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman:
With your help, we’ve found an issue with two specific capacitors in the power system that affects the ability to hold a charge in some of our bands. We’re also fixing an issue with syncing related to the band hardware.
“The UP No Questions Asked Guarantee” starts December 9.
AT&T:
Taking advantage of LG’s new proprietary True HD technology, LG Nitro HD’s 4.5-inch AH-IPS (Advanced High-Performance In-Plane Switching) display supports resolutions up to 1280 X 720 pixels and offers unrivaled color accuracy, brightness, battery efficiency and performance. LG Nitro HD’s 500 nit display luminance allows for clear viewing in direct sunlight and RGB stripe pixels deliver incredibly accurate true-to-life color rendering.
The pixel format on the LG Nitro HD is not “up to” but set at 1280×720. A 4.5-inch IPS with RGB stripe 1280×720. Should look absolutely stunning. Available December 4 for US$249.99 with a two-year agreement.
Update: Joseph Volpe, Engadget (hands-on):
Of course, the real standout here is the 4.5-inch screen, boasting a resolution of 1280 x 720 and a Retina display-like 329ppi. Colors on the IPS panel pop and images, fonts and icons appears crisp. Viewing angles were similarly excellent, giving way to no instances of wash out.
Update 2: Engadget’s Joseph Volpe in his full-blown review:
LG’s chosen to outfit the Nitro HD with a 1280 x 720 AH-IPS panel boasting 329ppi that bests Apple’s Retina display… and it shows. The screen is simply gorgeous, rendering fonts and icons with a smooth distinction you’ll likely take for granted. Colors are vibrant and accurate, sidestepping the over-saturated pizazz typical of rival Super AMOLED tech for a more restrained performance. True, the blacks aren’t as deep as what you’d find on a Galaxy S device and you will have to pump up the brightness considerably for readability out in bright sunlight, but make no mistake, this is a top-notch screen with excellent viewing angles. The only glaring flaw is the hit or miss touch sensitivity. In certain instances, it took us more than a few hard taps to jolt the screen into responsiveness.
326 v. 329. In a heated battle for #1 the minuscule 3 ppi makes the difference between the winner and the loser, but in the grand scheme of things both the LG Nitro HD and the iPhone 4/4S are winners when it comes to incredible smartphone resolution. The hit or miss touch sensitivity sounds more like an Android problem than anything.
Update 3: David Pierce, The Verge:
The Nitro has a 4.5-inch, 1280 x 720 IPS display, and it’s certainly something to brag about: it’s beautiful, crystal clear, and has super-accurate colors. The Galaxy S II’s Super AMOLED display has a tendency to oversaturate colors, giving them a too-warm temperature, but the Nitro never does that — what you see is really what you get. The glass is also slightly curved, so it moves cleanly and nicely into the bezel without any sharp edges or obvious seams; it also makes it friendlier to sideways swipes. Its viewing angles are excellent, with very little discoloration as you get off-center (Samsung’s AMOLED displays start to glow blue as soon as you move to the side).
By Daniel Adel. Nothing new, but love the drawing. Hilarious! Here’s an idea: Street Fighter SV as in Silicon Valley with awesome characters such as Eric Schmidt, Steve Wozniak, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Jerry Yang, Philip Hwang, James Clark, Scott McNealy, and of course Steve Jobs to name a few. Each will have a super power with Steve Jobs having the most powerful: the RDF.
LED backlight penetration in LCD TV panel shipments reached 39% in Q3’11. Penetration is forecast to surpass 50% in Q2’12 and reach 53% in Q3’12. The main drivers for LED backlight penetration include lower power consumption, slimmer form factors, and environmental friendliness (no mercury). Many panel makers are developing low-cost direct type LED backlights, trading off panel thickness for cost, but still gaining the advantages of LEDs. Some panel makers are using direct type LED backlights in new sizes such as 39” and 50” in order to provide value models in developing markets.
Direct type LED backlights are currently associated with higher performance. With hundreds and sometimes thousands of LEDs in direct type LED backlights black levels were deepened and contrast ratio was enhanced through various local dimming technologies.
Update: DIGITIMES:
However, the employment of direct-type LED-backlit technology has brought down LED TV prices, said the sources, adding that the price differences between the mainstream 32-, 40- and 42-inch CCFL and direct-type LED TVs have narrowed to 5%-7% recently. Besides, the CCFL and direct-type LED TVs are now comparable in thickness.
I think TV marketers will emphasize that these LED-backlit LCD TVs are direct type and try to hoodwink potential customers into thinking that they are better than edge type when they are not. The only type of LED-backlit LCD TV worth purchasing is one that has hundreds or thousands of LEDs with local dimming capability that significantly improves contrast.
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