You see, I downloaded a 2.2GB GPS app, NDrive USA (ndriveweb.com), and while this app is horrific at memory management it’s a good little GPS program that gets the job done at a cost of only $2.99. So what’s the big deal? Well, I downloaded it from my iPhone (I do all my app management on my phone) and iTunes just refuses to accept it. I’ve “Transfer Purchases” 4 times and while each time it puts the app in the “Mobile Applications” folder, iTunes still refuses to load it, saying it’s “not a valid application”. This means if I sync my phone iTunes will rip that app off of it like a day old band-aid on a hairy leg.

Typically this would not be that bad (the app thing not the band-aid thing, that would suck) since iTunes let you re-download purchased apps for free, unlike purchased music. So I’d just download it again and off I would go. Well, here’s the twist. That app has been pulled from the store so I can’t download it again. This means if I lose it from my phone for some reason it’s gone. NDrive says they don’t know why the app was pulled and their working with Apple to get it back on the store. Good luck with that.

So let’s recap:

• I bought a huge (2.2GB) GPS app that has super crappy memory management but does what $50 GPS apps do for $2.99
• I purchased it from my phone and downloaded it via wifi so it only exists on my phone
• “Transfer Purchases” moves over the app file, but iTunes refuses to load it as an “app”
• The app is no longer on the app store so I can’t re-download it meaning if I lose it from my phone it’s gone forever
• A sync would erase it (as it’s not in iTunes) and a sync is required to upgrade to iOS4

Oh yeah, that last one…there’s the rub. If I want to upgrade to iOS and get all the awesome features that should have been on the iPhone months ago I’ll lose my app. So, what do I do? I haven’t talked to Apple yet but I plan to. I doubt they will even care about my problems, I mean, they’re not Google. So I’ll keep plugging away trying to find a solution myself. If you have any bright ideas please leave me a comment.  If I figure this out I’ll update the post.

Just press yes….

“Cookies” allow web sites to store a small amount of info (4 kb per cookie) into your web browser.  It’s how web sites are able to keep you logged in even after you leave, remember your “shopping cart” items, or greet you with a personalized “Welcome Back David” message.  Cookies were a wonderful invention and really allowed sites to customize a visitor’s experience. Cookies also allowed advertisers to “track” your online activities to deliver “better” advertising to you.  This is the problem with cookies, they allowed us to be “tracked” (for better or for worse), and in a time where “personal privacy” has become a household concept “tracking” is bad (m’kay).

As natural progression would have it web browsers began to build in features to control and remove cookies.  A good example is the “third party” cookie controls.  A third party cookie is where you visit “Site A” and it allows “Site B” (like an advertiser) to put a cookie on your computer.  Most web browsers allow you to disable these.  Next, virus scanners and other tools got the ability to search for and remove “tracking cookies.”  I’m sure we’ve all seen our virus scanner report a “tracking cookie” for some random advertiser.  Now lots of people clear their cookies, selectively delete them, or use programs that have come out to block them before they even get saved based on published “blacklists”.  Still, you may be fighting the wrong enemy!

Sites have been implementing a new way to track their users.  It seems they have noticed that the average Internet user has taken countermeasures to prevent being tracked with traditional cookies.  As a result companies went looking for a new technological solution.  They needed something that would allow them to save data on the user’s computer without letting them know and something that almost everyone had installed. Flash was the perfect solution.  Lot’s of people have flash installed to watch YouTube, make JibJab videos, or listen to streaming audio.  By default Flash lets a web site store info just like a cookie, matter of fact they call them “flash cookies”, and it even allows more data then traditional cookies so advertisers could store even more info about you.

The best part was most people didn’t know about flash cookies, they didn’t know how to clear them, and there weren’t a lot of programs out there to block or delete them selectivity.  I knew about “flash cookies”, but to be honest, I didn’t know that the use of “flash cookies” was so wide spread.  Some people estimate that over half of the most popular web sites have converted or are using “flash cookies” to track their users.  In addition, when you use your browsers “private” mode it doesn’t prevent sites from storing data about you into flash.

I’m sure as people begin to realize what is happening tools will emerge to clean and prevent flash cookies just as they did for browser cookies.  Until then however, here are some options. Here is a link to an eHow page on how to remove these cookies, http://www.ehow.com/how_4450318_delete-flash-program-cookies.html, and if you use FireFox, check out the “better privacy” add on.  Be careful though, both solutions can delete more then you want to so take some time to read the screens and understand what you are deleting.

However, this really isn’t about Apple and iPhone, this is about the DMCA in general.  This stance, if it is approved by the courts, set a precedent. That precedent is that you can’t use stuff you buy the way you want. So most people will just say “so what.”  With iPhone I kind of agree.  Apple gives a majority of the people what they need and a slightly majority what they want via iTunes.  Still, what about other things you buy.

Think about a few items in your house right now and imagine if all of a sudden the makes tell you how to use it.  Your coffee maker will only take coffee from certain makers.  Your toaster will only toast certain brands of bread.  Your car will only allow you to put in “super” grade gas.  It may seem ridiculous but I bet 50 years ago people would look at things today and find a few of our everyday experiences ridiculous.

Link: Apple Says iPhone Jailbreaking is Illegal | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Since Tekzilla insists on “auto playing” their video, here is a link rather than embedding the video here.

http://revision3.com/tzdaily/2009-01-09wintask/

If you want to listen to what I listen to while working, exercising, or shoveling snow (yes, my WiFi to iPod works outside too!) then check out my “Angry Rock” station.

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh44148192251893788

(As always this is my personal opinion and not a paid post, but if someone wants to pay me I am open to negotiation.)

People may not know this but when you load windows (unless you have certain versions, like Media Center) you can’t just watch a DVD. This is insane, but true. You actually have to buy a decoder to “read” the data on a DVD. This is because DVD data is encrypted with a crappy (for 2008) encryption algorithm that, if you want to stay legal, need to be licensed by the movie companies (kind of). Typically when you order a PC it comes with this pre-installed so you are good to go, however, if you are like me and reinstall your OS (I like to know everything on my system was put there by me) then you need to reload the decrypting software. The problem is this is usually on some disk that in sealed in the package with the manual, which I don’t open.

So I decided to go find an alternative. I got feedback from people who already had software like this, I looked on internet forums, and I searched Google. I came up with DVDFab. It runs on all flavors of windows, has a small install footprint, and it did everything I wanted it to do. It cost money (boo) but it lets you try before you buy. It will copy DVDs and while it does it the program removes all the copy protection. It also does a nice job of compressing the video so a 2 hour movie will fit on a single layer DVD. (DVD movies are double layer and can fit over 8GB of data, single layer caps out at 4.7GB. A 2 hour movie is like 6GB so you have to lose 15% of the quality.) DVDFab will also just pick out the parts of a DVD you want, no previews, no extra features, no Spanish audio track or subtitles, and it even drops those government warning messages that you can’t skip through.

DVDFab is also able to convert the movie to other formats, like DiVX (for PC playback), MPEG-4 (for iPods and PSPs), and WMV (for windows and X-Box). This was a plus since I have an iPod Touch and would like to put some content on there. This is also nice since DiVX and WMV are great for streaming to other PCs inside my house or to my media center device. Also, if you want to take a movie along with you on a usb device let’s say, you are not going to want the DVD format which is GB of data when you can get the moving in 1GB or less. One more note, spinning my DVD drive on my laptop spends a lot of battery power while reading from my disk spends less, but reading from a USB or SD card spends the least since it has no moving parts and friction is a huge waste of energy.

I should note that DVDFab is questionable legal. What this means is, while you have the right to make a copy of copy written material you own the rights to (fair use) you (maybe) do not have the right to remove the copy protection from DVD data. You see, the crazy courts in CA say you can’t while the federal and most other states haven’t said anything. So don’t be giving away copies of your DVDs. Check out the wiki pages below if you want to know more and the DVDFab website had legal disclaimers too. If you are international, sorry I don’t know every countries laws, but I do know you don’t want to go into Germany with this software (or make sure they don’t know you have it!) as they filed criminal charges against a news paper for LINKING to the DVDFab web site, and that paper has lost 2 appeals so far!

Overall, I like the software and they have different versions with different prices for what you need to do. The full boat platinum edition with the option to convert to other formats added is $70 ($50 platinum + $20 mobile option), while there is actually a free version to just do a DVD copy to hard disk or dual layer disk. The only problem I found is there is no interface to create a menu if you pick multiple items to “merge” onto one DVD. I guess if I really need to do this I can edit the content using other software and then burn it back. I give it a thumbs up.

Links:

1. http://www.dvdfab.com
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Scramble_System
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Copy_Control_Association
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

The one issue I had, and I guess It’s my fault for not looking, is that the device is not compatable with Vista 64bit.  So after plugging it into my Vista 32bit machine I was able to install the drivers and it basically just worked.  There was no complicated setup and the lastest version of Skype seemed to integrate with it perfectly.

I had read that the device would allow you to call your computer at home via skype and basically “route” your call out to the phone line.  This was the main reason I bought the device, however, I was unable to see any configuration that appeared to allow you to do that.  I didn’t open the manual becasuse after discovering the device was non-64bit compatable I basically gave up on the whole routing out calls thing.

So based on it’s limited functionaliy and the fact that it only cost me $5 I am giving it a “so-so” rating.  I may use it again but for now it sits here taking up space.