Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » octobre 6, 2011

BetaNews.Com (12 non lus)

Here's a driving tip: put the phone down

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 10:49pm CEST par Ed Oswald

You've been told over and over again: don't text and drive. Need more reason why? A recent study conducted by Texas A&M's Texas Transportation Institute indicates texting behind the wheel doubles your reaction time.

Distracted driving accounts for about one-fifth of all fatal car crashes, with cell phones the most common source of that distraction. One out of every five drivers has admitted to texting while driving but the true number is probably considerably higher.

According to TTI's study, non-distracted drivers were able to react to obstacles within one to two seconds on average. While texting, reaction times were at least three to four seconds.

To gauge the level of distraction, researchers placed participants on a test track with obstacles, and told them to navigate the course without texting. On the second run, participants were directed to text while driving. Their reaction times to a flashing light were also measured.

While we've covered the issues with reaction times, the results of the reaction to that flashing light were quite worrisome. Drivers were found to be 11 times more likely to miss the flashing light while texting, which could easily be equated to missing a traffic signal.

The results should serve as a wake up call to those of us who can't put the phone down.

"Most research on texting and driving has been limited to driving simulators. This study involved participants driving an actual vehicle," TTI associate transportation researcher Christine Yager says. "So one of the more important things we know now that we didn’t know before is that response times are even slower than we previously thought."

In addition to the reaction delays, researchers found impairment elsewhere: the ability to maintain lane position (especially on open non-barreled portions of the course) and the ability to maintain speed.

Researchers warn that the course was intentionally made simple to reduce the possibility of injury to those participating -- thus the dangers could be far greater than what this study suggests.

42 drivers in all aged 16 to 54 participated in the study.

Photo Credit: Poulsons Photography/Shutterstock
Kaspersky debuts Endpoint Security 8 for Windows, talks cyber-warfare

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 9:21pm CEST par Tim Conneally

At its Cybersecurity Symposium in New York City on Thursday, Security company Kaspersky Lab debuted the Windows version of its Endpoint Security 8 corporate security suite. The new security product takes a twofold approach to network security: Deep anti-malware protection, and comprehensive management and control systems.

On the anti-malware side, Endpoint 8 integrates with the Kaspersky Security Network, a cloud-based reputation database that is built from data submitted by millions of Kaspersky users so new definitions are acquired quickly without having to update an ever-growing local database. Secondly, it includes application whitelisting for administrators who want to set policies against specific applications, or against entire classes of apps. Third, the "System watcher" function tracks client system behavior for anomalies, and can revert to states before the system was infected. Finally, Endpoint 8 is based on Kaspersky's improved signature-and-pattern-based antivirus engine.

On the management side, Endpoint 8 offers broader management options for virtual machines, including support for VMWare virtual machine management, which gives full management of Kaspersky Lab products on non-persistent virtual machines. It also includes a Web console so networks can be remotely monitored and managed, and an improved reporting system.

All these features were highlighted in one way or another today in Kaspersky's symposium on Thursday which had a general theme of "What's next in cybersecurity?"

The answer to that question is deep, multi-layered, and frankly, pretty grim. Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of the security company said it could be looked at as the early stages of a global cyber arms race.

"China, South and North Korea, United States, Germany, NATO...they are all assembling Cyber Warfare teams. This is starting to look like a very, very, very bad Hollywood story," Kaspersky said. "A decade ago, there were students and kids coming up with viruses, then it became organized criminal elements. Now it's governments. I ask you...what do you think comes next?"

Kaspersky said the appropriate defenses must extend well beyond just personal protection. "There must be new designs, new innovations in IT and OS development. Systems that are more secure must be used in critical infrastructure," he said.

Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows and Kaspersky Security Center are now included in
Kaspersky Open Space Security.
Get your iPhone 4 (and the best plan) on Sprint now

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 7:25pm CEST par Ed Oswald

While customers will not be able to get their hands on an iPhone 4S for another day, Sprint on Thursday began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4. Like the 4S, the phone would ship out for delivery on Friday, October 14 or Saturday, October 15.

The iPhone 4 on Sprint is the same as the Verizon model that's been available for much of this year, except the capacity reduced to 8GB. It would be compatible with the carrier's 3G service, but not "4G" WiMAX.

In addition to allowing pre-order of the device, Sprint also confirmed that it would be offering its popular unlimited plans for iPhone customers. This would give Sprint an advantage as both AT&T and Verizon have dropped their unlimited data offerings.

Unlimited phone, text, and data would cost $109.99 per month. Sprint also has a plan for 450 voice minutes with unlimited text and data for $79.99 monthly, and 900 minutes also with with unlimited text and data for $99.99.

Even at those rates Sprint is competitive. The closest "unlimited" 450 minute plans (both with 2GB data caps) from AT&T would cost $84.99 and Verizon $89.99, and with 900 minutes it increases to $104.99 on AT&T and $109.99 on Verizon.
Nero updates flagship digital media software

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 6:00pm CEST par Mark Wilson

The Nero range of disc burning tools has been updated, and there’s something for everyone in this comprehensive suite of utilities. The company’s flagship Nero Burning ROM allows for the importing of files from the updated Nero MediaBrowser while SecurDisc Surface Scans make it easy to verify burn projects, but it is in the main Nero suite that the bigger changes are to be found, and the various tools that make it up.

One common use for the Nero suite is backing up data, and there have been a number of improvements in this area. As well as support for NAS drives as a backup location, there is now support for incremental backups of your drives as well as the option of creating 1:1 file copies. Related to safeguarding your data, NeroRescue Agent can now be used to work with partitions that have not been assigned a drive letter.

Nero Video now includes the option to import video clips directly from the Nero MediaBrowser, and if you have already started working with videos using Windows Live Movie Maker these projects can be imported into the program without fear of losing the work you have done so far. To help make your videos more exciting, there are now more audio and video effects to choose from and enhanced performance comes thanks to hardware acceleration with a wider range of graphics cards.

For when you are working with videos, Nero Recode also includes a number of useful enhancements. To make it easier to re-encode videos for playback on particular devices, there are now more re-defined profiles available but you also have the option of creating your own if you want to frequently save videos using the same settings. There are also new options for ripping both video and audio from DVDs as well as improved support for batch video conversion.

Other changes and additions across the suite include the ability to create and order photos products such as cards and calendars from within Nero Kwik Media, and Facebook video sharing.
Get the Windows 8 look and feel on XP, Vista or 7

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 5:14pm CEST par Mark Wilson

Even though the developer preview of Windows 8 is publically available, there will be some people who are keen to try out the upcoming operating system without having to go to the effort of setting up a dual boot system or wiping out their existing installation. This is where transformation packs can help, and the Windows 8 Transformation Pack 2.0 and UX Pack 3.5 have just been released with a view to making the task of mimicking Windows 8 easier and more impressive than ever.

In a matter of moments, the transformation tools enable you to turn your copy of Windows XP, Vista or 7 into a very close match to the look of Windows 8. The pack makes use of genuine Windows 8 resources to give an authentic finish, and this updated version includes changes to UI fonts, as well as the very latest icons navigation buttons and other interface components.

Closely related is the release of UX Pack 3.5. You have the choice of using the Aero, Aero Lite or Metro theme, complete with desktop widgets, and an authentic update version of the Start Orb. The updated version also includes new desktop wallpapers as well as new themes and users tiles.

Used together, the results that can be achieved with these two tools is genuinely impressive. Whether you are looking to get the Windows 8 look, or just fancy the idea of giving Windows a facelift, this is a great way to do so.

You can find out more by paying a visit to the Windows 8 Transformation Pack 2.0 and UX Pack 3.5 review pages.
Anti-Malware 6: Emsisoft boasts big performance gains

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 8:00am CEST par Nick Peers

If you're tired of sluggish antivirus tools taking forever to scan your system, then you're not alone.

But the good news is that at least the security vendors are finally listening. Emsisoft today became the latest company to announce major performance improvements, with the claim that their new Anti-Malware 6 is now on average 450-percent faster than before. And by making smarter decisions about what it checks, the program continues to get faster with every scan.

Anti-Malware 6's real-time protection has also seen optimization, delivering faster boot times and reducing any performance impact of the file guard.

A new direct disk access mode should deliver far better rootkit detection.

And there are the usual scattering of smaller, but still welcome changes everywhere you look. A new internal rating system aims to reduce false positives, for instance; if a scheduled scan is missed then there's now an option to run it when the program next starts; and the interface has been tweaked and reorganized in several places to make the program generally easier to use.

So how does Anti-Malware 6 behave in real life? It's relatively bulky, consuming anything up to 250MB of RAM when scanning, and even now can take some time to run (a first Smart Scan required some 20 minutes on our test system). It's thorough, though, detecting all our test samples (though with a couple of false positives thrown in).

As with previous editions, you can install Anti-Malware 6 as a limited free version, which gives you the ability to scan and clean your system only.

Alternatively, purchase a licence for $40 and you'll also get real-time protection, including on-access file scanning, behavior monitoring, surfing protection and more.

And if you're unsure, no problem: you can run a trial of the full system for 30 days, and switch to the free version at the end of that time if you decide that's sufficient.
What people are saying about Steve Jobs

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 7:29am CEST par Joe Wilcox

I first met then Apple CEO Steve Jobs in May 2001, during the opening of the first Apple Store at Tysons Corner Center in McLean, Va. Jobs hosted a media gathering a few days before thousands of Mac enthusiasts gathered to be the first customers. Jobs was dynamic and captivating. He made this unbelievable pitch for Apple's Mac market share reaching 5 percent and beyond, a seemingly unattainable goal at the time, with Windows so dominant. A decade later, Apple has accomplished that and so much more.

I'm genuinely sorry to see Steve Jobs' light extinguished from this earth. I offer my condolences to his family, friends and anyone else who loved him. But those words aren't enough, so I've collected others' sentiments -- from blogs, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. The many can express what needs to be better than can the one, meaning me.

Before others' sentiments begin, let me make something absolutely clear: Comments to this post will be treated with zero tolerance. This collection of sentiments honors someone beloved by many and who truly positively impacted the lives of millions. Please show your respect by saving snotty or searing comments for another day, another story.

Steven Levy: "I first met Steve Jobs in November 1983. I was working for Rolling Stone and over dinner he told me about the computer Apple was about to ship -- the Macintosh. That was the first of many interviews I would do with Steve, as I got a firsthand look at how this unique and brilliant man put a major, major dent in in the universe. It is with deep sadness that I write his obituary. Goodbye, Steve. You were unforgettable".

Justin Horn: "Can anyone name Founder/CEO from any other company that would have such a personal impact on people after hearing of their death?"

Robin Thede: "I feel like #SteveJobs was the only person keeping SkyNet from taking over. Now the machines will go rogue".

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates:

I'm truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs' death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work. Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives. The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.

Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal tech columnist: "He was a historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, and set the mold for many other corporate leaders in many other industries".

Mark Cuban: "The PC era is officially over. #RIP #SteveJobs".

Larry Page, Google CEO:

I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and Google's are with his family and the whole Apple family.

Alex Grossman: "A true visionary. People are lucky if they get one great business success. Steve had almost more than we can count, each one truly impacting the world we live in today. Business leaders like him come along only once in a generation and he shall be missed. Thank you for everything Steve".

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO: "Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you".

Fredrik Åkerberg: "Despite the fact that I always disliked many of his marketing strategies and ideas, not to mention his whole company, I cannot deny that he was a great man, that helped the technological development forward. After all, I will never forget the first time I used a Mac, iPod or iPhone".

"Steven, you have left me and millions of other entrepreneurs with the nothing but the very best path and leadership skills to emulate. You are forever & more one of the Greats this country has EVER been blessed with", Adam F., CEO, Speedmaxpc.com.

Steve Groner: "I have never owned an Apple product in my life. There is a decent chance I never will. But the effect Steve Jobs has had on my life, and billions of others, cannot be measured. To say we have lost a genius or a visionary does not do him justice. Rest in peace, Steve".

John Hilla: "Apple was blessed with a visionary he took an idea and it blossomed, even so when the very first concept of an iPod pre-existed with the Newton. No doubt his ideas and creation will live on for a long time. To his family and close friends, he touched lives from all walks of the earth. To his rivals, he kept them on the edge making them work harder."

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox
Steve Jobs: A remarkable life

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 3:29am CEST par Tim Conneally

"For the past 33 years, I've looked at myself in the mirror every morning and said if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer was no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
--Steve Jobs, 2005

Steven Paul Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple Computer died on October 5, 2011 from complications related to cancer, He was 56 years old.

Jobs will be remembered as one of the most driven and charismatic figures in consumer technology, whose vision of personal computing has had such a resounding impact that nearly everything Apple did under his supervision served as the yardstick by which all other consumer technology was measured.

Adopted as an infant by Paul and Clara Jobs, Steve graduated from Homestead High School, Los Altos, Calif. in 1972. He attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon but dropped out of after only one semester. Unencumbered by curriculum, Jobs sat in on classes he was interested in, including a calligraphy class he credited for creating his fervid interest in typography early in his career.

Computers

Two years after leaving Reed College, as the story goes, Jobs saw an ad in the Classified section of the San Jose Mercury News, for a video game company called Atari that said he could "have fun and make money" at the same time.

Jobs, who later developed a reputation for being a somewhat arrogant and high-strung, ended up being put on Atari's night shift due to conflicts with some of his Atari co-workers.

During his time on the night shift, Jobs was put to work on a Pong-inspired arcade game conceived by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Jobs and his friend, Hewlett-Packard engineer Steve Wozniak, worked for four days straight and created "Breakout."

The game was released to relatively little fanfare in the spring of 1976, just about the same time Jobs and Wozniak debuted their first Apple Computer at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, also to relatively little fanfare.

Jobs landed Apple Computer a contract for 100 units for Silicon Valley computer store The Byte Shop, and the computer company was on its way.

In 1980, after the incredibly successful follow-up to that first computer, Apple Computer went public, and the huge fanfares began. It was the single largest initial public offering since Ford in 1956.

Apple computer became the brand associated with creativity and innovation; and this year, thirty-one years after that IPO, Apple became the single most valuable company in the world, and is widely considered to be at the forefront of the "post-PC" mobile computing era.

Art and Entertainment

Jobs' pursuits in technology were always a bit more art than science, so his interests in technology have helped shape modern culture.

In the Movie world, Jobs acquired Lucasfilm's computer graphics division, Pixar in 1986. The impact this company has had on entertainment is massive.

Though it began as a financial drain for Jobs, at a time when he was no longer with Apple, every single film the group produced has become one of the highest grossing films of all time. This began with Toy Story in 1995, and continued with A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars. Walt Disney bought Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion, and Jobs became the biggest shareholder in Disney.

In the world of music, Apple's iPod became the dominant portable media player in the 2000's, and its music organization and distribution software iTunes became one of the most widely downloaded pieces of software, effectively helping turn the sale of .mp3s into a legitimate business.

Jobs' influence on American culture has been profound. The effects of his personal taste for business and design are as immense as they are immeasurable.

He was truly a remarkable individual.
Apple CEO Tim Cook's email to employees about Steve Jobs' death

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 2:36am CEST par BetaNews Staff

"Team,

I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing
human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Tim"

Photo Credit: 1000 Words/Shutterstock
Tech loses a visionary: Steve Jobs dead at 56

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 1:52am CEST par Ed Oswald

The tech world has lost one of its greatest visionaries: Apple has confirmed that Steve Jobs died on Wednesday due to complications from pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. Apple confirmed his passing on its website, although immediately did not give any further details.

A statement from Jobs’ family said that he died peacefully surrounded by those he loved, and noted how much he cherished his family. They expressed their thanks to those that had passed on their well-wishes during his extended illness.

“We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief,” it read.

Jobs’ death comes just a day after the company he founded introduced the iPhone 4S, the fifth mobile device in what has become a defining product line for the company. He was a notable no-show, and any mention of Jobs himself were curiously absent.

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being", the company said. "Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple".

The tech word also shared in Cupertino’s grief, including Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates. "Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives". he said.

"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely".

Jobs’ health had seemingly been declining rapidly over the past several months, which caused him to resign in late August, handing over control of the company to Tim Cook. Pictures later surfaced of Jobs on entertainment site TMZ.com, which many at the time thought were faked, but in the light of Wednesday’s news were likely real.

It was Cook who broke the news to employees in a companywide e-mail earlier today.
While he did say the company would "soon" hold a celebration of Jobs’ life, he also took time to express his own grief and admiration for the man he succeeded.

"No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him". Cook wrote. "We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much".

(See the rest of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s e-mail on Jobs’ death)

Apple has invited members of the public to share their thoughts, memories and condolences on the passing of Jobs at a special email address, rememberingsteve@apple.com.

Details on funeral arrangements have not been made public.

Betanews will continue to add to this report as more details become available.
Sparrow 1.5 soars to the cloud

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 1:17am CEST par Joe Cassels

Sparrow, the majestically minimal mail app for Mac OS has received a bit of a revamp in its latest release at version 1.4. Both its user interface and its back end have been significantly improved to deliver enhanced performance and more intuitive controls.

The latest release also provides integration with CloudApp, the file sharing service enabling you to link to attachments so recipients only download them when they decide to. Your attachments won’t cause a bottleneck when fetching email which should make you more popular with all your contacts.

This feature, which needs to be activated in Sparrow Preferences, makes adding an attachment to a message quick and easy. Just click and drag the desired file into the body of the message. It will then be added to CloudApp and is replaced by a download link. It’s quick, easy and very elegant.

Another pleasing improvement in the interface is the ability to display messages as conversations, like in Gmail, so that the older messages appear at the top of the thread. To enable this, just go to Sparrow Preferences and tick the relevant box. With a nod to many social media apps, Sparrow also provides pull to refresh mail fetching. Drag and release the top message to perform a send/receive.

Other useful tweaks to the user interface include providing a default image for threads in conversation view, adding the ability to resize windows and setting default sizes for compose windows and the message list as well as setting a minimal size for windows. Beneath the hood, there’s a new draft management system which enables you to send mail faster and synchronise your mailboxes more efficiently. It also provides better behaviour with an intermittent internet connection or offline working. Bug fixes include better Zoho compatibility and sorting out a hanging issue under Lion.

Sparrow 1.4 is available for download as a trial for Macs running OS X 10.x or later. The full version costs $9.99.
iPhone 4S is sheer brilliance

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 12:59am CEST par Joe Wilcox

New Apple CEO Tim Cook made his mark yesterday, with the launch of iPhone 4S. This isn't Chairman Steve Jobs' baby but Cook's. While Jobs technically remained chief executive through August, he was on medical leave from January , with Cook responsible for day-to-day operations. The world expected iPhone 5, but Cook and company chose to give something less. From a purely logistical perspective -- and for maximizing margins -- iPhone 4S is sheer brilliance.

Competitively, however, Apple has bet iPhone's future on sameness and demonstrated corporate arrogance that create opportunity for other phone makers. For them, iPhone 4S is another kind of brilliance -- a shining light of opportunity. They may also see in Cook weakness, that the genius of logistics lacks the qualities that made Jobs a visionary leader and in process an uncharacteristic risk taker among CEOs.

"S in 4S Means 'Same'"

There's little risky about the new iPhone. In comments to one of my Google+ posts Rodrigo Moraes writes about the new name: "I've heard that the S in 4S means 'same'". There's truth to that. The phone's guts may be new, but the shell and screen are the same. The iPhone 4 and 4S are essentially indistinguishable, which is the whole point. Sameness is fundamental to the iPhone 4S strategy.

In March, when rumors surfaced that Apple wouldn't unveil a new handset in June as widely expected, I posted: "Apple shouldn't rush iPhone 5, and neither should you". I gave five reasons, but one matters more than the others: "The goose is laying golden eggs -- don't disturb it. If people so want iPhone 4, by all means let them buy it".

So Apple chose to let people buy iPhone 4 longer, by releasing it-looks-the-same 4S. During second calendar quarter, the company shipped more than 20 million iPhones, up 142 percent year over year. iPhone sales are momentous -- the envy of every company selling anything. From a purely logistical perspective, there's little sense rocking a fast-moving boat like iPhone 4. The 4S looks the same, but is better inside.

Taking My Advice

Meanwhile Cook has done what I said in May Apple should do -- in post: "Can Apple stop the Android Army's advances?" I opined that Apple should do "with iPhone 4 what it does today with iPhone 3GS on AT&T -- offer a cheap smartphone for people who want the device and user experience but can't pay $199 or $299...There is a huge market for cheap iPhones, provided Apple sells an older model...iPhone 5 shouldn't come to market alone. Apple should let iPhone 4 be the loss leader, allowing more people to buy into the platform rather than letting them go to Android...I would not price iPhone 4 at $49, however. Ninety-nine dollars makes more sense, because Apple hasn't tapped that price point in most countries and $49 really could cannibalize iPhone 5 sales".

Concurrent with iPhone 4S launch, Apple will begin offering $99 iPhone 4 and the older 3GS for free (it's $49 today); carrier contractual commitments apply, of course. The pricing cuts the Android mid-tier to the quick, with Apple only modestly cutting into its margins. For a product like iPhone, the big costs are up front, in things like research and development, setting up manufacturing and opening distribution channels and such. But costs diminish over time because of economies of scale and lower component pricing, among other factors. It costs Apple relatively little to offer lower pricing on older models.

Meanwhile, there is huge competitive advantage against Android, for which new activations are more than 550,000 a day. That's more in 40 days than number of iPhones shipped in second calendar quarter. Apple had to do something to punch up sales, and an older-phones-for-less approach hits the necessary lower price points.

But there's arrogance offering iPhone 3GS at all -- that the broader brand is so coveted, people will take whatever Apple reaches down from its pedestal and offers them. True, that forthcoming iOS 5 will give 3GS some currency, but the hardware lags behind newer handsets also available for free. Cook has bet much on the strength of iPhone as a brand.

I agree with Betanews reader chinch987, who comments: "Real-world consumers will walk into a store and buy a nice 'phone' and form factor -- not Android or iOS. As you saw all summer at Verizon many went in thinking iPhone (that is like calling a a paper copier a 'Xerox machine' back in the day) and left with 4.3-inch smartphone (that happened to be running Android -- the buyer typically doesn't know or care)".

iPod nano Lesson

The 4S approach is tactical rather than visionary. When in better health, Jobs took radical risks, often to thwart copy-cat competitors and show them up. The original iPod nano is classic example. Apple killed off iPod mini in September 2005 at the height of popularity and replaced it with the diminutive nano. Copy-cat mini's were just reaching store shelves for the holidays, and suddenly they looked like last year's model and simply gigantic alongside iPod nano. It was a huge marketing and logistical coup and showed exceptional brilliance.

Cook's early tenure is marked not by risk but sameness. Apple launched new iPods yesterday that look like the old ones. It's another safe, logistical bet, but with a difference: iPod owns the portable media player market. iPhone is fighting for dominance. The original mini and nano were risks that led to huge spikes in iPod sales. A radically inventive iPhone 5 could have done something similar for Apple smartphone sales. Instead, Cook chose sameness, leveraging logistical strengths, instead. Competitors can sigh in relief, because Apple didn't pull an iPod nano on the smartphone market.

The sameness approach makes sense of all these Apple patent infringement and other intellectual property claims. If Apple planned to radically change iPhone -- to truly leap ahead of competitors, what concern would there be about copying? The so-called copy-cats would imitate last year's model. But last year's model is suddenly iPhone 4S.

In September, I offered another reason for Apple's patent attacks against Samsung, which has emerged as iPhone's biggest competitor:

The IP attacks against Samsung make the South Korean electronics giant appear to be the bad guy -- a copycat of Apple's good work. But the lawsuits serve another purpose, generating news about Apple vs Samsung rather than Samsung the successful competitor vs Apple the suddenly indecisive. Seemingly every day, this misdirection keeps pageview-hungry blogs and news sites writing about the lawsuits rather than asking the big question: Why hasn't iPhone shipped yet?

The question is more pertinent, now that Apple has released iPhone 4S and not 5. Apple's recent rash of patent bullying in context of yesterday's iPhone 4S announcement will be to some competitors sign of weakness.

Last Year's Model

That's because iPhone 4S really is last year's model, or close enough to it. Two days before Apple's smartphone launch event, I bought Samsung Galaxy S II, feeling fully confident the new iPhone can't compete -- and it can't. What a strange irony -- that a company renown for bleeding edge hardware and design is selling not next year's model, but last year's.

Commenter meandmyhomies contends (and I agree): "Jacking up specs isn't innovation. If you call 8 or 24MP camera 'innovation' you are delusional. Adding dual-core is a no-brainer. Heck, how about quad-core? Maxing out screen size/res is not innovation".

Betanews reader Ronny Bolding has "iPhone running iOS 5 beta and Samsung Galaxy S2. I like them both a lot. My gripe is that the iPhone 4S announcement claimed to be innovating all these key points. The Galaxy S2 ha[d] them before they were even announced by Apple. I will admit the hardware quality feel of iPhones are exceptional. I do feel the iOS system is in need of major re-tooling. I don't like being told what I can and cannot install or modify on my device. Galaxy S2 wins for me".

Charles Humble in comments to one of my Google+ posts: "Certainly no new hardware was a disappointment given all the hype and the relative certainty it was happening. I'm on iPhone 4 now and won't upgrade. Why? Will try the new OS though. Also very tempted by the SII. Microsoft must be gleeful".

I'm seeing reactions like these all of the web. Why? Because competitors aren't trailing behind Apple. Many smartphones are as good as, and many offer better hardware (including larger displays) and features than, iPhone 4 or 4S. Big screens are in. chinch987 writes:

For the next year iPhone will have the lamest hardware of any system, including BlackBerry. Windows Phone has 3.5-inch, 3.8-inch, 4.0-inch, 4.3-inch and 4.7-inch [screens] with and without keyboards. Android has everything. For Xmas and after, iPhone has a 3.5-inch phone that looks like the one released 2-3 years ago -- and does the same stuff, not much more".

The market was ripe for Apple to pull an iPod nano trick.

Which brilliance will outshine the other -- Cook's choosing the sameness and safety of iPhone 4 or the light of opportunity competitors see in last year's model? Perhaps the market will answer in 6 months or even a year.