Adobe’s latest critical security update pushes scareware | ZDNet:

“Adobe did something good this week, releasing a new version of its Flash Player software with automatic updating capabilities.

They also did something truly awful—using their update page to push a third-party scareware program designed to separate naïve PC users from their cash.”

(Via ZDNet.)

I have a much easier solution to avoid having to upgrade Flash manually, avoid the malware associated with Flash, *and *avoid Adobe’s cheap attempts to sell you antivirus you don’t need.

Uninstall Flash.

Problem solved.

Sweden may also investigate Apple over iPad 4G/LTE marketing:

Just a day after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commissionfiled a complaintover Apple’s 4G/LTE marketing in the new iPad, Sweden is considering an investigation of its own. The Swedish Consumer Agency says it has received a number of complaints from iPad buyers about the device’s LTE capabilities—LTS is only available in the US—and is now weighing whether it wants to open its own investigation into Apple’s marketing practices.

(Via Ars Technica)

Apple’s going to keep running into this problem with other nations. And rightfully so. The carriers, particularly in the US, have been throwing terms around and redefining words (like unlimited) for so long that none of us knows what the heck is going on. And Apple is playing into their marketing terminology soup.

For some reason, the blatant deception flies in the US, but other countries are a little more consumer friendly in their regulations.

But why expose yourself to the legal repercussions? Does anyone really care about the difference between LTE, HDSPA+, etc.? Just keep making it faster every year. And more importantly, improve your coverage area.

Usually, Apple’s approach to geeky tech specs like this is to ignore them. Take them out of the marketing completely. They learned this lesson in the late 90s, when they realized that competing on specs is a slow race to the bottom. That’s why they won’t even tell you how much RAM an iPad has, even if you’re a journalist asking them point blank. (It’s 1GB in the new iPad, by the way.)

I imagine Apple will eventually want to use this approach for cellular technologies. Just stop mentioning the specific terms. The iPad has WiFi, Bluetooth, and Cellular connectivity. Done. No one but a geek cares if it’s 802.111n, Bluetooth 4.0, and 4G LTE. And he or she can always look up the specifics on the web site.

I realize that “4G” is a selling point right now. It’s a buzz word that people look for when shopping for phones and such. But it’s a meaningless term. And that’s the carrier’s game. Don’t play their game, Apple. Make your own rules, like you do for everything else.

Apple’s new Verizon iPad can serve as LTE hotspot for more than 24 hours:

The highly-technical Anand Lal Shimpi over atAnandTechrecently revealed that his tests of the new Verizon iPad found that it could act as a mobile hotspot by sharing its LTE connection with other devices — such as a notebook — forapproximately 25.3 hoursunder the proper conditions — namely that the device’s display remained turned off. That’s roughly 5 times longer than the 4 hours and change of popular LTE MiFi hotspots from Novatel and Samsung.

(Via www.appleinsider.com)

My limited experience with using my new Verizon iPad as a hotspot suggested to me that it was far less of a battery hog than when I used to use my iPhone as a hotspot. I was lucky to get an hour or two of use out of my iPhone4s as an AT&T hotspot for my laptop. With the iPad, I didn’t notice any battery drain at all after a few hours.

This research backs up my conclusions. Awesome news.

I’ve never been in the camp of those who suggest paying more for the cellular iPads “just in case” you might want to use data. I still think if you’re pretty much always going to be in WiFi range when you use your iPad, you can save yourself the money or spend less cash on the extra storage space. But if you do plan on being in places with no WiFi coverage at least once in a while, the new LTE iPads (and particularly the Verizon ones with the free hotspot feature) are an even better deal than they used to be.

The rumors have begun: next iPhone to get a bigger screen?:

The latest report comes from a Maeil Business Newspaper viaReutersand claims the next iPhone will sport a 4.6-inch display. An unnamed industry source provided this tidbit, so I wouldn’t place any bets just yet.

(Via TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

Android phones started getting bigger screens last year because hardware manufacturers were desperate to differentiate themselves from the iPhone. “Bigger is better” went the thinking. But I’d say the evidence is far from conclusive that this is what users actually wanted. Sure, these phones sold in decent quantities, but that’s because carrier store employees were pushing them like crack dealers. I know several people who walked out of the store with one of those giant leviathans and were immediately disappointed in the way the thing felt in their hands.

The big screen is far from a “must-have” feature. If that weren’t true, iPhone sales would be hurting right now, not growing.

Another speculation about the big screen phenomenon was that hardware makers needed bigger screens so that they could put in bigger batteries to make up for LTE’s lousy battery life. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but if it is, it didn’t work. Most 4G phones suck for battery life, anyway.

So that brings us back to Apple. Apple is not struggling to differentiate itself. The iPhone is iconic. Making it bigger actually would hurt the brand more than help it. Apple also never does anything just because everyone else is doing it. They don’t want to be seen as copycats on anything, even when they are copying other people’s ideas. If there were any value in a larger screen beyond marketing, Apple would have designed the original iPhone that way.

Furthermore, a larger screen requires either apps that need to be redesigned to take advantage of the larger real estate, or a lower resolution than the current retina iPhone 4s to stretch the same pixels over a wider area. This would mean the screen would look worse, and all the target areas we’ve grown used to would be bigger, causing a loss of familiarity in user experience. Can you remember the last time Apple made a new product that was worse in this fundamental a way than its predecessor?

Remember, for iOS, the screen is the device. You don’t follow up the awesome screen of the new Retina iPad with a lesser screen in the next iPhone.

With the battery thing, I have to think that Apple will come up with a more clever way to make an LTE iPhone work all day without strapping on a giant screen to make room for a larger battery. There are just too many downsides. Either Apple will wait another year for LTE chips to catch up on efficiency and take the slight negative press hit on that, or they’ll have some new chip up their sleeve that ekes more battery somehow. I just don’t buy all the “bigger iPhone” rumors.

Pew report: The Future of Apps and the Web:

Rob Scott, the chief technology officer for Nokia, believes the web will dominate and argues, “Once HTML5 browsers and fully capable Web runtimes are in place on the common Kindle through iPhone, the Web app will begin replacing native apps.”

(Via TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

I love how the tech world is full of this sentiment. “The browser is going to take over native apps any day now.” I’ve been literally hearing that since 2000. Hasn’t happened yet.

And why does it have to be one or the other? Why can’t I use native apps for some things, and HTML5 for others?

Native code is always going to be faster, and the experience is always going to be better when and app is tailored to a specific platform. It’s always the business suits who want to find the “write once, run everywhere” nirvana. They’re looking for cheaper ways to deploy.

Users have never asked for that and have never gravitated towards that.