Recently, Wall Street Journal has a series of articles about behavior targeted advertising industry called What They Know. I sometimes go to Starbucks to use Internet. A few months ago, Starbucks decided to offer free WiFi inside the coffee shop. I am curious what cookies (browser cookies, not eatable cookie) Starbucks WiFi tries to set in your user browser if you use Starbucks free WiFi.
So I enter a Starbucks coffee chop, clear all Internet browser Firefox cookies, visit the wikipedia.org website (WSJ reports that wikipedia does not set any third-party cookie on the user browser), which will be redirected to Starbucks WiFi start page. I accept the Starbucks Term of Use. Then I check the cookies in the browser and find cookies from 7 sites are set. 2 of them are from Starbucks site, i.e., coffeblogs.starbucks.com, and starbucks.com. The other 5 are from third-party, google.com, facebook.com, addthis.com (sharing and bookmarking service), ads.jiwire.com (mobile advertising), and tags.jiwire.com.
Overall, I think behavior-targeted advertising, a.k.a. personalized ads, is a good thing to Internet. It's a win-win-win for users, publishers, and advertisers. For users, they will see more relevant ads and coupons. So ads will become more useful and attractive to users; for publishers, they will make more revenue from advertising, thus produce more high-quality contents, survive and thrive; for advertisers, they will reach users what they really target at, thus improve their ROI (Return On Investment). But I agree that the Internet advertising industry should develop a better way to provide transparency and control to Internet users, although I think 90% and maybe even higher percent Internet users do not really care about behavior-targeted advertising and privacy.
Many people are happy about the free WiFi offered by Starbucks. I hope Starbucks can continue this free service by making some revenue from behavior-targeted advertising.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
What is Droid Incredible and EVO 4G?
Today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new version of iphone, although it had been leaked by Gizmo in April. Video chat is the new feature not leaked before. On the other smart phone camp, Android, there are some also hot products released recently. One is Droid Incredible on Verizon network. Last Friday, when I visited Palo Alto Verizon store, it was told to be sold out. If you order that day, you may get it in late June. It should be mentioned that Droid Incredible and Droid, released around holiday season last year, are quite different. For example, Droid Incredible has no physical keyboard while Droid has. Moreover, Droid is manufactured by Motorola, and Droid Incredible is manufactured by HTC. Droid Incredible is more like Nexus One than Droid.
The other is Sprint EVO 4G, which uses Springt 4G network, the first 4G wireless network in US. Interestingly, both EVO and Droid Incredible are manufactured by HTC, who also manufactures Nexus One and the very first Android phone G1. It should be mentioned that HTC is not Foxconn, which manufactures iphone, although both HTC and Foxconn are companies in Taiwan.
I also heard that right now the number of sold Android phones is larger than the number of sold iphone number, which is not surprising since there are many versions of Android phones on the market, while there are one or two versions of iphone on the market.
The other is Sprint EVO 4G, which uses Springt 4G network, the first 4G wireless network in US. Interestingly, both EVO and Droid Incredible are manufactured by HTC, who also manufactures Nexus One and the very first Android phone G1. It should be mentioned that HTC is not Foxconn, which manufactures iphone, although both HTC and Foxconn are companies in Taiwan.
I also heard that right now the number of sold Android phones is larger than the number of sold iphone number, which is not surprising since there are many versions of Android phones on the market, while there are one or two versions of iphone on the market.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
iPad is not an e-reader
Apple's iPad will go on sale in early April, very soon. The comments about iPad is mixed. One thing I definitely think about iPad is that iPad is NOT an e-reader as Amazon's Kindle, Sony ereader, or Barnes Noble's Nook. It may be an e-reader in the future, but not right now. I would consider iPad as a mixture of TabletPC and Netbook (for iPad with wifi functionality).
The reason I think iPad is not e-reader is mainly iPad does not use e-ink or other alternative technology to make reading experience much like reading physical books.
iPad uses LCD technology. I agree that LCD is better than e-ink in that 1) it is colored, not just black and white, so we can view nice pictures, play games, etc. 2) it has multi-touch screen. I hear that in the near future e-ink could not support neither color nor touch screen.
But an e-reader should have two basic features as a reading gadget. One is to make eye more comfortable and reading experience is like that of reading a physical book. iPad uses LCD, much better than CRT. But as an avid reader, I still feel my eye is tired after reading pdf on LCD for an hour. I have no such feeling after reading a physical book for an hour.
The other is that readers can use ereader to read it outdoors, such as during a picnic in a park, or when relaxing at a sunny beach. Do you have the similar experience with your smart phone that, in the sunshine, it is very hard to find who is calling you, what is written in a friend's email, or take a look at the picture you just shot? E-reader should let you read anywhere and anytime.
The reason I think iPad is not e-reader is mainly iPad does not use e-ink or other alternative technology to make reading experience much like reading physical books.
iPad uses LCD technology. I agree that LCD is better than e-ink in that 1) it is colored, not just black and white, so we can view nice pictures, play games, etc. 2) it has multi-touch screen. I hear that in the near future e-ink could not support neither color nor touch screen.
But an e-reader should have two basic features as a reading gadget. One is to make eye more comfortable and reading experience is like that of reading a physical book. iPad uses LCD, much better than CRT. But as an avid reader, I still feel my eye is tired after reading pdf on LCD for an hour. I have no such feeling after reading a physical book for an hour.
The other is that readers can use ereader to read it outdoors, such as during a picnic in a park, or when relaxing at a sunny beach. Do you have the similar experience with your smart phone that, in the sunshine, it is very hard to find who is calling you, what is written in a friend's email, or take a look at the picture you just shot? E-reader should let you read anywhere and anytime.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
What is WAP?
Although smart phone competition among iPhone, Droid, Nexus One, Blackberry, and Palm Pre is red hot, not everyone has a smart phone and actually most people still use simpler and much cheaper phones. According to New York Times article Firms Selling Apps for Simple Phones,"roughly 82 percent of cellphones in use are limited-function phones, the kind that typically sell for less than $50 or are given away with a two-year service contract."
These traditional phones can also access Internet. In Asian coutnries like China, WAP is still very popular to access Internet. So what is WAP? Here WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), not Wireless Access Point. It is a suite of protocol of wireless communications. It usally runs on 2G mobile network, like GSM, CDMA, and GPRS.
What is the difference between WAP and GSM/CDMA? Using analogy, some people consider GSM/CDMA as highway and WAP as vehicle on the highway. Using more technical terms (TCP/IP and OSI), GSM/CDMA provides lower level data link/physical layer and WAP provider higher layer (UDP, HTTP) and some a markup language WML (Wirless Markup Language), similar with HTML.
People can use WAP to browse websites, check emails, track sports scores, etc. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo offers i-mode as a competitor of WAP. But KDDI and SoftBank mobile use WAP.
Do not be confused about WAP and WAPI. What is WAPI? WAPI stands for WLAN authentication and Privacy Infrastructure and is the Chinese version of Wi-Fi. Chinese government required handset manufacturers to support WAPI if Wi-Fi is supported on cell phones. In 2009, it was a big issue when Apple iphone planned to enter Chinese market. When China Unicom introduced iphone in China later, iphone has neither Wi-Fi nor WAPI functionality, although it is reported that iphone with Wi-Fi and WAPI will be on the market in 2010.
BTW, what is the difference between WAP and Wi-Fi? Again, Wi-Fi is a data link layer and provides a data highway so that data can be communicated using TCP/IP protocol. In some sense, WAP can be considered as the counterpart of TCP/IP, and GSM/CDMA, which under the WAP, as the counterpart of Wi-Fi.
These traditional phones can also access Internet. In Asian coutnries like China, WAP is still very popular to access Internet. So what is WAP? Here WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), not Wireless Access Point. It is a suite of protocol of wireless communications. It usally runs on 2G mobile network, like GSM, CDMA, and GPRS.
What is the difference between WAP and GSM/CDMA? Using analogy, some people consider GSM/CDMA as highway and WAP as vehicle on the highway. Using more technical terms (TCP/IP and OSI), GSM/CDMA provides lower level data link/physical layer and WAP provider higher layer (UDP, HTTP) and some a markup language WML (Wirless Markup Language), similar with HTML.
People can use WAP to browse websites, check emails, track sports scores, etc. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo offers i-mode as a competitor of WAP. But KDDI and SoftBank mobile use WAP.
Do not be confused about WAP and WAPI. What is WAPI? WAPI stands for WLAN authentication and Privacy Infrastructure and is the Chinese version of Wi-Fi. Chinese government required handset manufacturers to support WAPI if Wi-Fi is supported on cell phones. In 2009, it was a big issue when Apple iphone planned to enter Chinese market. When China Unicom introduced iphone in China later, iphone has neither Wi-Fi nor WAPI functionality, although it is reported that iphone with Wi-Fi and WAPI will be on the market in 2010.
BTW, what is the difference between WAP and Wi-Fi? Again, Wi-Fi is a data link layer and provides a data highway so that data can be communicated using TCP/IP protocol. In some sense, WAP can be considered as the counterpart of TCP/IP, and GSM/CDMA, which under the WAP, as the counterpart of Wi-Fi.
Monday, January 25, 2010
How to change primary email account for Android phone G1 Dream?
Android phone G1 Dream has only one email account associated with Gmail app. When you start pre-installed Gmail app (not Email), you can directly read your email without login and get notification when you've got mail. This email account is also associated with other applications like Contacts (sync with your email account) and other Google apps. When the phone ownership changes, e.g., you want to give you G1 Dream phone to your spouse since you just bought a Droid, the email account needs to be changed. How can I change the primary email account? How can I remove existing contacts to protect privacy? How can the new owner import his contacts?
Some people suggest we do factory data reset. It is not necessary. Here is how you can do it without factory data reset.
1) Go Menu -> Setting -> Applications -> Manage applications.
2) Gmail Storage -> Clear data.
3) Gmail -> Clear data.
4) Google Apps -> Clear data.
5) Google Search (enhanced) -> Clear data, then your existing contacts and your former email account are removed.
6) Restart Gmail, which will ask you to set up your Google mail account. Now you can set up a new gmail account. Then emails and contacts will be synchronized and shown up shortly.
However, it does not work for Nexus One. On Nexus One, you will not see Gmail storage, Gmail, Google apps, or Google apps item on Menu -> Setting -> Applications -> Manage applications. But for Nexus One, you can associate several email accounts with Gmail app. Here is how you add multiple email accounts to Gmail application on Nexus One.
1) Go Menu -> Setting -> Accounts & sync.
2) Add account and set up another Google email account following the wizard.
3) When you start email, you have one primary account and emails associated with it to read. When you view email, you can select Setting -> Accounts and pick your another email to check emails associated with your other email accounts.
Some people suggest we do factory data reset. It is not necessary. Here is how you can do it without factory data reset.
1) Go Menu -> Setting -> Applications -> Manage applications.
2) Gmail Storage -> Clear data.
3) Gmail -> Clear data.
4) Google Apps -> Clear data.
5) Google Search (enhanced) -> Clear data, then your existing contacts and your former email account are removed.
6) Restart Gmail, which will ask you to set up your Google mail account. Now you can set up a new gmail account. Then emails and contacts will be synchronized and shown up shortly.
However, it does not work for Nexus One. On Nexus One, you will not see Gmail storage, Gmail, Google apps, or Google apps item on Menu -> Setting -> Applications -> Manage applications. But for Nexus One, you can associate several email accounts with Gmail app. Here is how you add multiple email accounts to Gmail application on Nexus One.
1) Go Menu -> Setting -> Accounts & sync.
2) Add account and set up another Google email account following the wizard.
3) When you start email, you have one primary account and emails associated with it to read. When you view email, you can select Setting -> Accounts and pick your another email to check emails associated with your other email accounts.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Wireless Signal Series: How to disable mobile carrier's data service on Android phone
Although smart phones like Android phone can use mobile network carrier's data service (e.g., 3G, Edge, or GPRS data service) to surf Internet, people sometimes do not want to use mobile network carrier's data service. For example, in some phone plans, mobile network carrier charges the consumer based on usage. When the wi-fi is freely available to the consumer, he wants to explicitly disable mobile network carrier's data service to avoid unnecessary usage charge and instead use the free wi-fi to surf Internet or check emails.
It should be mentioned that although we disable mobile network carrier's data service, we can still use mobile network carrier's voice service to make phone calls.
There are at least two methods to easily do this. One method is as follows.
1) Menu -> Setting -> Wireless & network -> Mobile network -> Access Point Names (APN).
2) Click the available APNs (T-mobile US, epic.tmobile.com for me).
3) Select APN.
4) Update a random prefix or postfix to APN name, e.g. change epc.tmobile.com to x-epic.tmobile.com or epic.tmobile.comx.
5) Click OK. Then the data service should be disabled.
The other method is to use APNDroid app.
1) Install APNDroid from Android market.
2) Start APNDroid.
3) Click Off/On button to disable or reenable mobile network carrier's data service.
It should be mentioned that although we disable mobile network carrier's data service, we can still use mobile network carrier's voice service to make phone calls.
There are at least two methods to easily do this. One method is as follows.
1) Menu -> Setting -> Wireless & network -> Mobile network -> Access Point Names (APN).
2) Click the available APNs (T-mobile US, epic.tmobile.com for me).
3) Select APN.
4) Update a random prefix or postfix to APN name, e.g. change epc.tmobile.com to x-epic.tmobile.com or epic.tmobile.comx.
5) Click OK. Then the data service should be disabled.
The other method is to use APNDroid app.
1) Install APNDroid from Android market.
2) Start APNDroid.
3) Click Off/On button to disable or reenable mobile network carrier's data service.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Does cell phone radiation affect human health?
San Francisco city is debating whether to require cell phone sellers to put a label about the amount of radiation levels emitted by cell phones on the cell phone. State of Maine also has a similar bill in work. Increasing amount of people in the world have at least one cell phone, increasing percentage of cell phones are smart phones (with more wireless signals, mobile network, wi-fi, bluetooth, and gps signal), and cell phones use the same radiation as microwave uses. It becomes a hot issue whether cell phone radiation affect people's health, particularly brain health.
Check wikipedia article Mobile phone radiation and health,
you can see that a lot of research has been done. From these research works, however, no convincing evidence proves one way or the other. Some research concludes that cell phone radiation is harmful to human health, some research think the cell phone signal is too weak to be harmful, and other research concludes that phone radiation is beneficial to the health.
If you have concerns about the potential danger of cell phone radiation, you may consider methods to disable some wireless signals, or use headset during the phone conversation.
BTW, although it is questionable whether cell phone radiation affect your health, it is very clear that overusing cell phone (like texting and calling during driving or walking) is a danger to public safety.
Check wikipedia article Mobile phone radiation and health,
you can see that a lot of research has been done. From these research works, however, no convincing evidence proves one way or the other. Some research concludes that cell phone radiation is harmful to human health, some research think the cell phone signal is too weak to be harmful, and other research concludes that phone radiation is beneficial to the health.
If you have concerns about the potential danger of cell phone radiation, you may consider methods to disable some wireless signals, or use headset during the phone conversation.
BTW, although it is questionable whether cell phone radiation affect your health, it is very clear that overusing cell phone (like texting and calling during driving or walking) is a danger to public safety.
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