Security: Two-Step Security Verification Now Available For iCloud

Here's here. According to 9to2Mac, Apple has finally enabled a two-step verification for iCloud.  I've been using this for Google accounts and it's seemless.  I know I'll feel mucho better about iCloud now.

Right now, Apple's website for Apple ID is up but there's all these weird strings.  My advice is to wait a few hours until the dust settles before sign up for it.  But do sign up for it.

The way it works is that you type in your ID and password as you normally do.  You already do this.

Then Apple will send to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad a second code that you'll have to enter to gain access to your account.  Enter that access code and you're in. If someone else tries to log in with your credentials, even if they have the password, without the access code, they're still locked out.

BBC Pulls a CCTV (China State Station) Runs Hit Piece or Sponsored Post Against Apple By Sourcing Samsung's Own Ad Agency

Update:  BBC, how much is your integrity worth?  Hope AV or Samsung pay you enough to stoop this low. Because you'll never get it back.

BBC is another media company that has been hit hard by the changing media landscape.  I'm not leaking to the BBC post but I'll link to MacDailyNews that discovered it.  In its post, it said that apple's brand is less inspring these days.

When the post went online, it cited a report made by a consultant company called Added Value.  Well, what the post failed to mention was that Samsung is AV's client.  Apparently, folks have pointed that out and BBC has noted it.  However, the post remains and continues the biased reporting.

That somehow a survey from AV, again whose client is Samsung, that blasted Apple while lifting its client escaped BBC's editorial process.

This process sounds familiar.  Where have I heard this recently.

Oh, right.  It reminds me of China's CCTV hit piece against Apple that failed miserably when a coordinated Weibo attack was exposed by one of its paid poster.

That's right.  This is going to sound harsh.  BBC's tactics is on the same level of China's state-controlled media.  I guess Apple isn't advertising with BBC enough.

iCloud Tops Others In Cloud Use - Needs More Services And Openness To Stay Ahead

Source:  Appleinsider.

According to a newly published report from Strategy Analytics, more of a survey than anything else, iCloud accounts for 27% of cloud use with Dropbox and Amazon trailing.  However, I don't know if Apple should declare any sort of victory here.

The fact that Amazon is third over all with 15%, ahead of Google at 10%, suggests that a closed system like Apple and Amazon are more able to get their users to sign up for their own services.

If you want something amazing about this report, it's that Dropbox is in second place with 17%, ahead of both Amazon and Google.  Dropbox has no support in terms of native OS.  What it does have is an open strategy to allows its services to be used on any PC or mobile device with plenty of app support.

For iCloud, its use will be limited to Apple's ecosystem.  That is its advantage as well as potential pitfall.  Apple has to continue to innovate and expand its cloud offerings, an area where many consider to be its Achilles' heel.

Right now, music storage is the main function of these cloud services.  However, all this can change once video streaming becomes more mainstream.  Also, it depends on how fast video streaming is adopted by cloud services.

Another issue will be about the limited storage now provided by iCloud, Dropbox, and Amazon.  5 GB seems to be standard but looking for that to be increased as users become more comfortable with entrusting  their files to giant server farms.

Sponsored Posts Should Say So Right At The Top (In Titles)

Lately, I've fallen prey to posts from a number of blogs, even major ones you probably frequent, that have interesting posts.  Catchy titles that drew me and others in.  It's only after reading it and clicking through that we realized those aren't real posts.

They're sponsored posts.  I've been approached a number of times to do this.  No way.  Not here.

However, it's a practice I fear will only increase as competition does.  So, I think these blogs should do their readers a service and say right at the very top of the post and mentioned what they're reading are ad posts.

Better yet, add the word "sponsored post" in the title of the post.  Believe me, I might still click through if I really find it interesting and the blog is honest about it upfront and I'm sure others will too.

What we don't like is being duped.

Space: Jeff Bezos Funded, Led, And Found Saturn Engines That Took Americans To the Moon, Restoring Them Now For NASA

Source:  Yahoo News, Space, bezos Expeditions.


Regardless of how you feel about Amazon or even its CEO, Jeff Bezo, you gotta love the guy for what he’s doing here:  he launched an expedition that recovered enough parts to rebuild two Saturn V engines that took Americans to the moon during the Apollo program in the 60’s.  You know, a time when we put country first and felt that if we set our minds to anything, we can accomplish it.

Interesting thing is that NASA will continue to retain ownership of the engines that will be put on display as museums.

According to Bezos' update:

What an incredible adventure. We are right now onboard the Seabed Worker headed back to Cape Canaveral after finishing three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface. We found so much. We’ve seen an underwater wonderland – an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program. We photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces. Each piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of engineers who worked together back then to do what for all time had been thought surely impossible.

I cannot underscore what an achieve this is.  For Bezos, I am hoping his interest in this field will lead to Amazon or one of his many other investments lead to future projects actually in space.  Who knows?  This could be where the various tech giants turn their attentions to after the mobile war is over.

CNN: Z10 Won't Save Blackberry

Source:  CNN.  

 

CNN tried to be generous about Blackberry’s Z10 but you can tell that they’re just coming up short of tell you not to buy it.  They like the hardware even though they acknowledged that it’s behind its rivals like the iPhone, Galaxy S 4, and the HTC One.

This must be very disheartening for once dominant Canadian mobile giant.  The problem seems be the OS itself.  CNN believes, it has some polishing to do while it lacks some major native apps that its competition has plenty of.

The post ends with the fact that Blackberry lacks the infrastructure that Apple and Google has to make distinctive features like Google Now and Siri.  Personally, I would not have mentioned Apple in the same breath as Google when it comes to web services and infrastructure (Google is so far ahead of everyone else) but we get the point.

You cannot help but feel that the current BB10 hardware, and there are only two, is Blackberry’s attempt to stem the bleeding and show investors and consumers that it has the staying power to keep up with the big boys.

Regardless of how Blackberry does in third word markets, it has to hold ground in Canada and somehow demonstrate it can keep up with the Jones.  All Blackberry has to do is to show that it can be a strong distant third, ahead of Windows Phone.  It should not be too hard.  But if it screws that up, you can forget about 2014.

We're not going to see any major flagship Windows Phone devices from Nokia at least not until the second half of 2013.  We might see a Surface phone but Microsoft might hold that off to see how its partners do this time around.

Yahoo Should Buy Vimeo Instead of Dailymotion

Source:  Cnet.

Yahoo wants a piece of online video streaming to compete with Youtube.  So, it’s looking to buy a part of DailyMotion.  I think Vimeo is a better buy if it’s available for sale.

After all, Vimeo is the default video service for iOS and OS X after Apple dumped Youtube.  There’s gotta be a reason why Apple picked Vimeo.

Recently, Vimeo enabled a service, Vimeo On Demand, allowing providers to charge for their content.