Federal Government Loosens Its Grip on the Blackberry

in , ,

Michael S. Rosenwald, reporting for The Washington Post:

Kundra, the U.S. top information officer, said, “The line between work and home in terms of technology is beginning to blur.” Asked what he typically hears from workers about government- or corporate-provided technology, Kundra said, “It’s not a question of whether they don’t like it. They despise it.” Kundra’s answer to the issue of people using unauthorized devices is simple: Give them what they want. Like many federal workers, he carries two devices — a BlackBerry (for work stuff) and an iPhone (for personal stuff). And like many people, Kundra says he wants to be a “one-device guy.” He recently began pondering a radical idea with federal agencies: Let workers use whatever mobile device they want, apply strict security settings, and have the government pay a stipend for service. Two basic points 1. If this happens, expect to see graphs of RIM's decline accelerate greatly. 2. IT Managers across the corporate world will fight this tooth and nail for years to come. Think of this in terms of the mentality that led those same people to make employees still use IE 6, Windows XP, etc. They like supporting Blackberry because it makes their lives easier. They've been doing it for years. They're used to it. The way the Blackberry server works from their end gives them a level of control over the devices that they wouldn't otherwise have. They also don't want to have to learn to support iPhones/Androids/etc. Cudos to the government for doing this.

Apple Secures Deals With All Four Labels For iCloud

in , , ,

Yukari Iwatani Kane and Ethan Smith writing for the Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc. has reached terms with major recorded-music companies to allow it to launch a digital locker service that would be more robust than those currently offered by Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. According to these people, deals with three labels have been completed, and the fourth, with Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, is likely to be signed this week. Apple has signed deals with Warner Music Group Corp., Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Group Ltd. Being out ahead of Amazon and Google to sign all four major labels is huge for Apple. This will allow Apple's music locker to be an 'active' one rather than a passive one. The current way Amazon and Google's services work is you must manually upload music to their services in order for you to stream it later. These deals could conceivably allow Apple to scan a list of all your music in iTunes, and simply make all of that music available on iCloud without you having to manually upload your music. This will make it much more painless to adopt. I'm sure these contracts will allow Apple to do other things as well that Amazon and Google aren't able to do legally.

Apple Announces WWDC 2011 Keynote

in , , ,

Apple:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering. It is certainly out of the ordinary for Apple to pre-announce exactly what the keynote will be about. As John Gruber says, it is probably due to Apple making sure there are no expectations that there will be any hardware. Gruber is usually correct on these things.

Video of Volcanic Eruption in Grimsvotn, Iceland

in ,

From the videographer's Vimeo page:> Volcanic eruption in Vatnajokull. Shot for Helicopter.is - Helicopter Service of Iceland.

Haven't really had time to watch the video. Volcano season keeps me pretty busy. I cut it on board the helicopter on the way back from the eruption. Threw some music from the fantastic composer Veigar Margeirsson (veigar.com) on it and posted it here. It took us 90 minutes to fly to Grimsvotn with a strong wind against us. The eruption looked magnificent in the sunset. Once we landed 5 miles away from the crater the cold glacier air hit us like a truck. We tried to work outside but I only lasted for a couple of minutes. Pilot Reynir Petursson also didn’t want to stay on the ground for too long since it was very windy and the ash fall was unpredictable. The light was also disappearing and he needs visual reference which is difficult on a white glacier. Once we got off the ground again we had to stay low because there were so many lightnings all around the eruption. Getting hit by a lightning in that strong wind, extreme frost and next to a live volcano was not desirable. We made it back to Reykjavik at 2am. Now the airspace has been closed in a 20 nautical miles radius because of ash.

Andrews Joint Service Air Show

in ,

My lovely wife and I went to what was previously known as Andrews Airforce Base, now called Joint Service Base Andrews for the annual Air Show and Open House. All branches of the military were there showing off their hardware and I brought my cameras along. Steff and I had been wanting to go for several years but kept forgetting to or would have other plans already made on that weekend when we found out about it. We managed to have a free weekend this year and decided to go. We came back with over 650 pictures and a nasty sunburn (72 degree day + cool breeze makes one forget about the sun). You can view the entire set of 680 photographs but first scroll below to see some of what I think are the best shots that I embedded here. Also, if you scroll entirely to the bottom, you'll see a video I put together from some clips of the Air Force Thunderbirds show that I shot on my iPhone.

Video of the Air Force Thunderbirds show.