Mac Owners Love Their Tech

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This report from the NPD group is a few days old, but somehow I missed it. OS X Daily breaks the numbers down:

* 85% of Mac owners also own a PC

• 72% of Mac owners use a notebook / laptop

• 66% of Mac owners own three or more computers

• 63% of Mac owners own an iPod

• 49% of Mac owners own a navigation device (GPS, but is iPhone included?)

• 36% of Mac owning households report incomes over $100,000

• 32% of Mac owners have a Digital SLR camera

• 28% of Mac owners have an iPod Touch

• 20% of Mac owners have a Flash-Memory Camcorder

• 18% of Mac owners have a 50″ or greater LCD TV

• Average Mac owners have 48 consumer electronic devices, vs 24 for the average Windows PC user

• Mac ownership/marketshare is up to 12% in the USA, from 8% last year

FCC Looking into Google Voice

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WSJ:

At the heart of the inquiry is the allegation that Google may be blocking calls to certain numbers with high access charges.

Google reserves the right to restrict outgoing calls to some phone numbers, including adult chat lines and conference-call centers, which charge higher access fees to carriers. Blocking such calls reduces Google’s expenses for the service.

AT&T Inc. has cried foul about the practice, saying Google is violating rules that were designed to ensure that phone companies will connect all calls. Earlier this week a group of lawmakers asked the FCC for an investigation into the matter, saying the practice could hurt rural customers.

The service has been nothing but trouble for Google, it seems.

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

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CNN:

Unlike his predecessors, Obama was selected not for substantive accomplishments, but for his “vision” and inspiring “hope” at the beginning of his presidency.

I liek the guy and his policies; I just hope he lives up to this.

Tethering on Hold

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MacNN:

American iPhone owners will not be able to officially tether their devices for some time, AT&T has acknowledged. “Whenever we offer new features, we want to offer the best possible customer experience,” a carrier spokesman claims. “For tethering, we need to do some additional fine tuning to our systems and networks so that we do deliver a great experience.”

Same song, second verse.

MobileMe’s Mail Limits

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Apple Support Article #TS2883:

MobileMe Mail has a message sending limit of 200 messages or 1000 recipients per rolling 24-hour period. For example, if you send 100 messages at 8 a.m. and then 100 messages at 12:00 noon, you would reach your message sending limit at noon, but you would be able to start sending messages again at 8 a.m. the next day.

I wasn’t aware MobileMe had any in place. It seems Gmail has them too:

In an effort to fight spam and prevent abuse, Google will temporarily disable your account if you send a message to more than 500 recipients or if you send a large number of undeliverable messages. If you use a POP or IMAP client (Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, e.g.), you may only send a message to 100 people at a time. Your account should be re-enabled within 24 hours.

MobileMe is a lot more forgiving, but I suppose Gmail — being free — is a much bigger magnet for spammers.

More on Android, Google Voice and AT&T

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NYTimes.com:

Mr. McAdam was asked if Verizon would allow the Google Voice application, a service that offers free long distance calling, text messages and voice mail. He said it would.

“Either you have an open device or not,” he said. “This will be open.”

Apple has not allowed the Google Voice application to run on the iPhone, which uses the AT&T network. With an Android phone set for the Sprint network shortly, AT&T is now the only major carrier in the United States not to support Android.

Verizon Betting on Android

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While Verizon’s network is no doubt the best in the US, it’s array of handsets has always been disappointing — Blackberrys make the high-end, with random Motorola, Nokia and Samsung devices rounding out the low-end.

Today Verizon announced a new partnership with Google, promising new Android phones by the end of the year:

Verizon Wireless and Google plan to co-develop several Android-based devices that will be pre-loaded with innovative applications from both parties as well as third-party developers. The family of Android phones on the Verizon Wireless network will come from leading handset manufacturers.

“The nation’s best wireless broadband network is a perfect complement to the innovation of Android-powered services and devices,” said Lowell McAdam, chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless. “Together, we’ll work to deliver a compelling new experience to our customers.”

“The Android platform allows Verizon Wireless customers to experience faster and easier access to the web from any location,” said Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive officer for Google. “Through this partnership, we hope to deliver greater innovation in the mobile space to consumers across the U.S.”

This may be the best thing that’s happened to the Android platform — it’s finally getting away from T-Mobile’s grubby hands and will be on a proper (and far more popular) network.

It’s good for Verizon, though, as well. With the iPhone on AT&T and the Pre on Sprint, Verizon was left without a unique offering. With rumors of Motorola and others working on new Android phones for Verizon, they too will soon have a more exciting array offerings for users. No one loses here.

AT&T Cool with VoIP over 3G?

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Engadget:

AT&T’s restrictive network policies might have been behind some of the more notable iPhone app rejections in the past, but at least one major class of applications just got the green light, as Ma Bell just eased the restriction on iPhone VoIP calls over 3G. We can only assume this is the result of the FCC’s renewed push for net neutrality and AT&T’s argument that it’s doesn’t need new regulations to remain open, but — what does this mean for you? Well, Skype on the road, for starters, but we’re guessing a flood of interesting new VoIP apps will hit just as soon as devs can get their apps updated and submitted.

This is a good step in the right direction.

FTC Cracking Down on Bloggers in Bed With Advertisers

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Ars Technica:

Bloggers will come under the watchful eyes of the Federal Trade Commission for the first time, as the agency has finalized new rules governing bloggers and the products they write about. “Consumer-generated media” outlets (e.g., bloggers) will now have to disclose if they are being compensated by a manufacturer, advertiser, or service provider when they review an item. So if a blogger gets a laptop from a manufacturer to review and gets to keep it, he or she will have to make that fact public.

The new guidelines don’t tell bloggers how they need to make the disclosure, but they do lay out the penalties: up to $11,000 per violation with the possibility of injunctions to boot. The FTC could also order that consumers be reimbursed in cases where a relationship between blogger and advertiser isn’t disclosed and they suffer financial harm because of it.

[…]

If you’re into gadgets and computer hardware and like to blog about your newest purchases, chances are good that you’ll never draw the FTC’s attention. Those who buy a product “with his or her own money and praise it on a personal blog or on an electronic message board will not be deemed to be providing an endorsement,” read the rules. At the other end of the spectrum, anyone who is directly compensated to write about a product by an advertiser is covered by the new rules.

This further blurs the line between journalists and bloggers.

Stuffit Stuffed Full of It, For Sure

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TUAW recently took a look at Stuffit Deluxe 2010, the newest version of the long-lasting archiving software for the Mac:

First, the installer crashed during the initial installation with no error message in sight, leaving me to try to figure out what had happened. The second attempt was successful, but required that I log out of my current Mac session and log back in. That took an unusually long amount of time, and when I was finally able to use my machine again, iStat Menu showed that my dual-core CPU was pegged at 100%. While DropBox appeared to be the culprit and a reboot resolved the problem, I can’t help but think that the new addition of StuffIt Deluxe contributed to the issue.

Another thing that irritated me during the installation and setup was that I had to enter my registration code three times — once when installing the app, a second time for another purpose that I don’t recall, and a third time when I was signing up for StuffIt Connect. Why couldn’t I just enter my registration code once and be done with it? Well, that seems to be because this is not just a single application, but a set of seven applications that are sitting in the StuffIt folder. To be honest with you, I think there are more StuffIt applications hidden around my Mac, since signing up for Stuffit Connect appeared to launch one more application that wasn’t in the StuffIt folder.

Those are big issues for a program that’s been around for 20 years. TUAW also discusses the bloat that has been introduced with the newest version, which is disappointing. Back in the OS 9 days, Stuffit was a lean, mean archiving machine. It’s sad to see it go the way of say, Microsoft Office for Mac.

New ‘MythBusters’ Season Starts This Week

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CNET:

“MythBusters” has now completed production on 134 episodes, and to Hyneman, that much experience has allowed him and Savage to be much more advanced in their approach to busting myths than they were at the beginning.

“The kinds of insights that we’re seeing as far as the physics and the chemistry (and) all the dynamics of what’s going on there,” Hyneman said, “we’re starting out at a much higher level now, and so the results that we’re getting are not quite as basic as they were when we started.”

I like the caption for this photo:

While they have worked together on the show for years, they make a point of explaining that they are not friends off-screen and that any tension that comes across on camera is real.