iPhone Camera Hype? Look — it's NOT a good camera!

I have a beef with the heavily marketed notion (by Apple, Canon and Nikon in particular and in that order) that every person must have some sort of camera at the ready at all times. The Nikon D700 mated with almost any modern lens ever made by Nikon, represents a pinnacle of technical achievement which leaves only the photographer at 'fault' for capturing poor light, poor balance, poor composition or boring subject matter. The D700 is a bit of a load and it's therefore not glued to my hip 24/7. Sometimes, despite my enthusiasm about photography in general, I actually wander around without a camera (gasp!).

Chase Jarvis' insistence (along with Ken Rockwell, Scott Kelby, Steve Simon and dozens of other respected photography proponents, all of whom earn as much of a living from the sales of books and instruction courses as they do from photography and product endorsements) that "The Best Camera is the One You Have With You" is all well and good, but speaks to me of some urgent push to purchase an iPhone rather than any sort of genuine need to be in possession of a camera at all times.

Frankly, iPhone photos are mostly only marginally well focused, vaguely color accurate, and offer only limited dynamic range. The same is true for the vast majority of point & shoot cameras in conventional form factors. They're all perfectly useful in varying degrees of limited shooting conditions. So we snap shots, at every opportunity, of mundane things which catch our eye, and then spend yet more time sorting, approving, collating, cataloging and classifying hundreds (or thousands) more photos? For what purpose? To what end? Do we refine our photography eye in this way? Not with an iPhone.

Apple successfully promotes and supports a lot of surreptitiously effective marketing. "The Best Camera is the One You Have With You" is another example. I liken it to the widespread promotion and sale of MP3 music on iTunes and so many other music sites. MP3 files, even on the best reproduction systems, represent to me far too little of the originally produced CD or DVD. Given that even a cheap stereo system is capable of reproducing more detailed and accurate music from an original CD than any typical MP3 purchased through iTunes, what on earth have we accepted as a standard? MP3 is a huge step backwards.

Similarly, broad acceptance that "The Best Camera is the One You Have With You" motivates us to snap away at anything, secure in the knowledge that the average focus and average general image fidelity of a photo made with an iPhone is just fine because, well, everybody is doing it. Score another one for Apple.

The point is that a D40 will do just as well to extend our abilities as photographers as a D700. In my opinion, an iPhone will not. So we're being told what by Apple (through intermediaries such as Chase Jarvis)? That an iPhone is just as effectively creative as any dedicated camera on the shelf? Apple can and does do anything and everything it can to sell its products. So does RIM. So does Sony. So do all the others. But let's not allow reality to be warped by any arch notion that we should divide our precious time still more because we really should be looking at millions of 'wonderful' photos being made with iPhones.

The world is awash in digital photos, most of them being family photos (which are not at issue here). As usual, 90% (or more) of everything besides family photos is complete junk, of vague interest mainly to the photographer who saw something and captured it in some blurry, unbalanced or poorly composed way. But he got the shot! Thank you iPhone? I think Apple has done a successful job of making us turn our heads from time to time away from quality and toward mere convenience. The iPhone and its photos are like MP3 players and files - poor stand-ins for the real thing. We've even come to accept iPod audio quality which is measurably, and more important, audibly inferior to competing players.

Saving money, considering all the alternatives, then carefully choosing a fine camera (from a used Nikon D70 or Canon Rebel XT on up) with which to pursue the hobby, avocation or amateur pursuit of photography, is a wonderful process which almost always includes the gradual acquisition of more knowledge about the art and craft of photography. In my opinion the iPhone speaks to none of that. My BlackBerry Curve 8330 is capable of capturing the same absence of photographic quality as the iPhone, so its handiness is just as perfect for snapshots of things which need to be remembered (mistakes, wine bottle labels, notes, etc., etc.). It's only a creative tool if we force it to be. The only way to do that, it seems, it to spend so much time using it (to capture only softly focused shots of limited dynamic range) that we have no energy left for a walkabout with a camera that is capable of fully reproducing what we observe. In other words, we make an inferior choice.

Ken Rockwell, Chase Jarvis and many others would have us believe (in my opinion, mainly to drive retail clicks on their web sites) that as long as light and composition are just right, well, that's that - it's a great photo. Nonsense! Most of Jarvis' photos - indeed most of his iPhone photo collection - is just like an episode of Seinfeld: all about nothing.

Rockwell and Jarvis and many others would have us believe that we can rock our world with tiny point & shoots, iPhones and put away the Nikon D700 or Canon 5D MKII forever. But when the newest cameras and lenses are released, there are all the boys reviewing and writing madly and ensuring that B&H Photo and Adorama links are prominent all over the place. What self-serving nonsense they all promote! Of course they're entitled to promote their 'fortunes' and I think they do it well. But an iPhone is just another piece of semi-useful gadgetry to suck dollars out of our pockets and into Steve Jobs overflowing treasure chests.

Step out of the hype for a moment and walk around without a camera. No D700, no iPhone, nothing. Find things - observe things, inevitably - which capture your attention. Return when it's convenient with the least expensive Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, Panasonic or Sony digital SLR and almost any lens you can put your hands on to shoot the subject. Leave the iPhone at home (no phone calls to distract you). Carry the digital SLR and a small lens instead. You'll be much happier with the results.

I think that if a Nikon D700 (or even an old D70, D40 or P6000/P90) are all just too bulky or too much weight for you some days, that you're really not in the right mood to be making photos in the first place. Once again, step outside the Apple (and Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, Panasonic or Sony) hype and leave both the iPhone and the digital SLR at home. The change will do you good.

Not to be outdone by any of the other guys, we're happy to push good cameras too. Our favorites these days are the Olympus EP-1 & EP-2, Nikon D300s, Canon Rebel XSi, Nikon D5000, Canon 7D, and the Panasonic GF-1.

Best of the Best from CES 2010

Microsoft has put a lot of eggs into its remarkable Project Natal. For the uninitiated, project natal is the cover name for a clutch of integrated hardware and software designed to be able to sense motion in multiple dimensions simultaneously, velocity, color, angle and deflection. Some of you are thinking, "Hey, didn't Nintendo do all that with the Wii?" You'd be right — to a point. The enormous difference is that with Natal-enabled devices, you don't have to hold a controller. Kicking a virtual soccer ball, swinging a golf club, pointing and gesturing don't require anything except a nearby natal-enabled device and you. As has happened with Microsoft's wonderful Surface operating system (those exotic table computers seen regularly on CNN - think John King's political reviews on that huge touch screen monitor - and in the movie Quantum of Solace), really creative and broadly useful ideas rapidly morph into technology that is itself as useful as it is fascinating. Microsoft is also putting its Windows 7 operating system into a variety of Slate computers (what every other manufacturer calls a tablet PC). No doubt Apple is gearing up to compete in the tablet arena within the next three months.

Yet more technology to separate you from the best part of $5000 will show up this Spring in the form of 3D televisions. Whether they'll niche out or gradually become the de facto standard to follow HD remains to be seen obviously, but don't hold your breath for bags and bags of content. Frankly, all of the current 3D implementations (spiral polarizing, single side-by-side anamorphic stereo, single strip over-and-under stereo, stereoscopic digital 3D) require glasses to present the image stream to the eyes, and they all give me a faint headache. Lots of other people feel the same way, so the 3D TV makers have a got a lot of work to do before they start selling migraine boxes into the mass market. A two hour 3D movie is one thing, but daily 3D couch-potato sessions lasting four or five hours each will melt your brain.

The Panasonic VT25 Plasma 3D HDTV will be available this Spring. Look for many others to follow. By the way, 3D HD content is slated to be delivered to consumers on 3D Blu-Ray disc.

Forget about traditional backlit LCD TV and computer monitors. The market in 2010 will be inundated with vastly superior LED backlit screens as well as native OLED screens. What you're going to see (and crave) amounts to a significant step up in color depth, color saturation, realistic color, great dynamic range, deep blacks and razor sharp pictures. Finally, I think, I'm going to take a 46" LED or OLED plunge.

Intel introduced its Wireless Display (WiDi) adapter. It's basically a receiver box/device with a short cable that you plug into your HD TV. Thereafter, any WiDi-enabled laptop or PC can wirelessly display on that TV. Very handy, and it beats having to install a dedicated media PC in your living room. Look for WiDi boxes and Widi-enabled laptops and PCs this Spring. Think presentations, media streaming and gaming.

Eye-Fi got a lot of attention with its new Pro X2 802.11n, 8GB SDHC card. Well deserved attention of course, and more digital SLR owners should consider these Class 6 SD cards. Now if only Eye-Fi would come out with one of these things in CF format, I'd buy one, like, in a second.

Plastic Logic Que ebook reader is, as mentioned in a previous post, big and good looking and very, very thin. The form factor is too large to stuff into a camera bag or purse, but it will fit easily into an attache case, briefcase or messenger bag. eReaders are all over the place now, so don't be surprised to find yourself looking at a Kindle, Cybook, Sony eReader or Que online sometime soon. I love my Sony PRS-600 eReader and it goes everywhere with me (and it fits into a front pocket of my Domke camera bag). The Alex Reader from Spring Design is Google Android-based and it seems to work extremely well. The only problem is, no e-ink. It's an LCD screen-based ereader/tablet. Surprisingly readable though.The iRiver Story is a bit better yet. eReaders and more eReaders.

I hate Windows Mobile, but T-Mobile in North American is about to start flogging the HTC HD2 in its stores (U.S. first). It's been a European model for the past few months and it's about time it crossed the Atlantic. All anybody says about this ultrathin, 4.3" touchscreen smartphone is, "Nice, really, really nice."

It was apparent at CES 2010 that small laptops and netbooks are sort of meeting in the middle. I (still) like my year old Acer Aspire One, so I'm going to hang onto it for another year of walkabouts, travel and so on. But Lenovo (IdeaPad), HP and Dell (Mini) are all coming out with much more powerful new models. Intel will no doubt be shipping lots of dual core Atom processors, and you're going to have a choice between Windows 7, Linux and Google Android operating systems. Some of these new netbooks fold into touchscreen tablets (the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-t) and may finally convince me that tablets have some use. So if somebody blends an ebook reader with a netbook tablet under 2 pounds (less than half a kilo), I'll line up to get one.

CES 2010 — Real New Products You'll Be After This Year (most likely)

First up? We told you that Microsoft would come up with some sort of tablet thingy and they did. Now however (Bill Gates being mostly gone), Microsoft President Steve Ballmer is calling them "Slate" computers. Whatever. He showed off three units, one from HP (Kindle-size at approximately 9" x 6" x 0.3"), one from Archos (which looks like an oversize iPod Touch), and one huge thing from Pegatron (we couldn't find out the exact size but it looks about 8.5" x 11"), all powered by Microsoft.

Google's Android operating system is attracting some serious attention. All those touch screens on iPhone and Android smartphones enable a lot of effectively useful convergence. For example, the most obvious thing in the world is to combine a GPS with a touch screen smartphone. Navigon has done it for Windows Mobile and Android, and will release its MobileNavigator for both platforms in February and April respectively. Navigon's software already works extremely well and should be another boost for Android in its battle for market supremacy with the iPhone and BlackBerry.

Sony is showing off its 24.5" OLED 3D TV. That's right - another prediction come true. This is the biggest commercial OLED panel yet, and with the integration of 3D compliance (for at-home screening 3D blu-ray discs such as Avatar - you know they're coming), and the amazingly immersive and extremely detailed image, you know you'll be seeing even bigger panels like this when they hit stores next Fall. It's only money, man - only money. By all accounts, the Sony OLED screens are beyond stunning.

Samsung is showing off its NX10 Digital Hybrid SLR camera. It's got HD video, a really beautiful 3" AMOLED rear screen (better, significantly better, than even the very best 920K LCD found on the best pro digital SLR bodies right now), hi-speed video viewfinder (so there's no mirror hump), all wrapped around an APS-C sensor (that's bigger than four-thirds but smaller than full frame), all of which speaks to superior image quality with a long and distinguished line of lenses. We're rapidly reaching the point at which preferences for Nikon, Canon or whatever other traditionally top-of-the-line brand happens to dominate become irrelevant. Image quality (in the hands of a capable photographer of course) from all of the new crop of digital SLR cameras is so good, there's little to distinguish between them except feature and function sets.

Eye-Fi 802.11n Pro X2 SD memory cards contain geotagging capability, WiFi connectivity which helps you transfer files, and this version is class 6 which means it's had a speed improvement. It's still not as fast as the pro cards - nowhere near it actually - but Eye-Fi products have proven to be reliable performers. This one also contains something called Endless Memory which can be set to automatically delete images on the card after they've been uploaded to your laptop, PC or storage device.

Boxee is releasing its shiny new Boxee Box (by D-Link). It's the latest version of its streaming media box for the living room. We like it because the supplied remote and the user interface is so well done. Look for streaming media boxes like this to start showing up (and getting more popular as a result) quite early this year. Better than a Tivo, way better than some lame PVR from your cable provider, and way, way better than messing around with a PC in your living room running Windows Media Center. The software portion of the Box is in beta right now, so look for the new Box be early Spring.

New router (like we don't have about a zillion too many on the market already)! D-Link has released the D-Link Touch DIR-865. The Touch works at either 2.4GHz or 5GHz concurrently. It almost maintains multiple data streams which together allow a total throughput of up to 450Mbps as long as its communicating with 802.11N-enabled device. It will be really, really zippy and stable, but unfortunately carry a bit of a high price.

The Smartfish ErgoMotion Keyboard is one of the prettiest looking things at CES 2010. It's a motion-adaptable ergonomic keyboard which adjusts over time to your most comfortably ergonomic typing position. Is this (finally) a consumer-priced keyboard which will successfully displace expensive (albeit really good) ergo keyboards from Kinesis? The keyboard is sleek, looks gorgeous on a desk or keyboard tray, and most important offers excellent typing action and durability.

More to come . . .

Pre-CES Announcements . . . wherein all of the 'playahs jump the gun

UPDATED 18:25 EST, JANUARY 5, 2010
UPDATED 13:30 EST, JANUARY 5, 2010
UPDATED 13:10 EST, JANUARY 5, 2010
UPDATED 10:10 EST, JANUARY 5, 2010

Digital Imaging

• Canon has a new version of its already excellent 70-200mm f/2.8 pro zoom lens - updated optics with significantly reduced chromatic aberration, the latest image stabilization, and possibly slightly faster autofocus (we'll see about that).
  
• Sony, never one to leave a good thing alone, has released its umpteenth version of its Alpha digital SLR, this one the A450 - another sub-$1000 digital SLR offering little besides feature creep, an tiny bit less power consumption, and the same 14 megapixel sensor found in several other Alphas.
  
• Lexar is showing off a new Professional 32GB 300X CF cards - isn't that great? 32GB - really - fill it up (fast at 300x) and then sit for days in front of your computer sorting through thousands of images.
  

Computers

• Lenovo has got new ThinkPad laptops coming out its ears - of the new T-series models we really like the 15.6" W510 that can be loaded with a Core 2 Extreme i7-920XM CPU (yummy), up to 16GB of RAM (yummier), and an nVidia Quadro FX-880M graphics card (yummiest). The new entry-level ultraportable X100e is the first one of its kind for Lenovo and is designed to go head-to-head with netbooks, while offering optional bluetooth and 3G, plus much more serious processing power from the Athlon Neo.
  
• We're going to keep our eye out for a retail/buyable copy of Samsung's new netbooks - the new N-series looks terrific and the N220 is especially interesting with the ultra low power new Intel Atom "Pinetrail" CPU at 1.6GHz, lovely anti-glare 10" LED backlit screen, up to 12 hours(!?) of battery life, instant-on (via the integrated Phoenix HyperSpace tool), and enough storage space and usability to satisfy a lot of business users and a lot of traveling digital imageers. I want one.
  
• 3M will be showing off its Display M2256PW, 22-inch high-definition, multi-touch LCD display - its capable of responding to 10 different simultaneous inputs (10-finger touch sensitive in other words), and its native resolution is an impressive 1680 x 1050. This will be a really interesting product for designers and other pros in a variety of disciplines who need to physically interact more fully with their work.
  
• USB 3.0 is here now, so get used to it. Western Digital is first out of the gate with its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 My Book® external hard drive, among the first devices certified. Throughput is almost 10 times faster than USB 2.0 hi-speed, and it's all allegedly backward compatible with USB 2.0 (ahem). The drive is supplied with a USB 3.0 card so you'll actually be able to use it with your now-obsolete USB 2.0-equipped computer. Lots more USB 3.0 products coming, so stay tuned.
  
• In Store Solutions launched the Freetalk TALK-7181 HD PRO PLUS webcam for Skype HD - as long as you've got a minimum 800Kbps (up & down) web connection, you can use this thing to chat via high definition video. It uses embedded H.264 encoding to compress the video stream, and at 5 megapixels and an allegedly decent lens, might put competing products to shame. Let's just see how well it works and how often prevailing ISP throttling policies ruin the use of this product.
  

eReaders

• Interead Cool-er - it's an ereader that's almost all screen (6"), making it the smallest form factor on the market (and the e-ink screen is very good too), with 2GB of internal storage, expandability via SD card slot, and a 3G version coming mid-year. This one may make grab my attention away from my excellent Sony PRS-300 and PRS-600.
  
• The Skiff Reader seems to (finally) be a reality - it's a big momma with an 11.5" screen at 1200 x 1600 pixels and 174ppi, but the screen is a metal foil design that is really remarkable by all accounts and combined with the magnesium housing amounts to barely a pound in total weight. The specs boast an active week of battery life, but we'll believe it when we see it. For large form factor magazine and newpaper reading, the Skiff looks like a serious contender.
  

Home Entertainment

• Polk Audio will be showing its single footprint surround-sound wireless speaker system - I know, I know, how can you generate surround sound from only one front-n-center positioned speaker enclosure? It's a conundrum, but several other speaker makers have already released (dreadful) similar products. Polk Audio (back in the early '90s) had a wonderful reputation for producing competitively priced, audiophile quality speakers. Then Polk seemed to have slipped overall for a time. Too many products perhaps? In recent years, Polk has been regaining its quality edge, so let's give this one a chance shall we? The system uses a method of controlled sound dispersion via individual speaker drivers in the enclosure.
  

Wireless

• Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein has told everybody that v1.3.5 of the webOS mobile will be officially launched at CES 2010 - download and store more applications, enhanced program and WiFi performance, improved battery life, and increased device speed and responsiveness are supposed to come together to make great products such as the Palm Pre work even better. Okey-dokey - we'll see - but Palm is a funny place, so many times a world-beater, but lagging far behind the market leaders for quite a few years.
  
• The Google Android pre-CES press conference was a big deal actually. In addition to its existing T-Mobile relationship, Google announced new carrier deals with Verizon in the U.S. and Vodafone in Europe. Nice. Android phones are accelerating quickly in both quality and quantity, the operating system itself is terrific, and Google will outreach Apple very shortly because Google seems to be reeling in new carriers quite quickly.
  
• (added @ 18:15 EST, Jan 5) Google again. This time the search supergiant has unveiled its Nexus One smartphone (or as ZDNet has dubbed it, the Superphone). According to ZDNet the Nexus One is 11.5mm thick (a BlackBerry Curve is 15mm thick), 130 grams in weight (an iPhone 3G weighs 135 grams), every text field is voice accessible (speak to compose an email?), it's fully multimedia enabled and also contains a 3D subsystem for Google Earth. Don't forget the gorgeous, gesture-enabled touch screen. If it actually makes phone calls too, it might actually be a real superphone.
  

Automotive

• (added @ 15:08 EST, Jan 5) Kia Motors has announced its Uvo (powered by Microsoft) in-vehicle infotainment system (really - the pre-CES press release said "infotainment") - it's a voice activated system for controlling and configuring mobile communications and the vehicle's entertainment system (radio, CD, DVD) and turn-by-turn GPS. We promised there'd be plenty of this stuff in the wake of Ford's success with Sync, so here we go.
  

Nothing from Nikon, Panasonic or Sony. Apple will not be at CES, preferring - as usual in recent years - to do its own thing when its new product announcements won't be lost in the massive noise of CES. Apple's successful corporate individualism won't flag as long as Jobs helms the company. Google will not be at CES either, but has lots of products of its own in the pipeline and will be running (Google search, Google Chrome browser, Android) on almost every laptop (and many smartphones) at CES, (added 13:15 EST, Jan 5) and has a major press conference scheduled at its Mountain View, CA headquarters. We think Google probably has the right idea - just like Microsoft all those years ago: be needed and be everywhere.

Nothing pre-CES from an awful lot of companies, but it's a reflection of the times. Retail is off all over the place and manufacturers just aren't rushing new products to market right now. Makes sense. So will CES 2010 be a yawn? We'll see about that too.

More to come . . .

Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2010

It's b-a-a-ck! CES is here again. All the products any slave to media, entertainment, computing, gaming, communications and even small business technology could possibly want. Las Vegas, Nevada — January 7, 2010.

Here's what we'll be tracking this year, and why we think you and your small business enterprise will be interested in this particular CES:

• (Added/updated January 5) Look for a boatload of USB 3.0 products. That's right - just when you finally got all your USB 2.0 hi-speed peripherals playing nicely together, along comes a newer, faster standard. Why? Tell me why? Please.
  
• Netbooks and laptops. We'll be looking for new models of our favorite netbooks to show up with some really powerful processors and higher capacity hard drives. Now that I've learned to type on a smaller keyboard, and now that I've really gotten used to the smaller screens, I want some serious horsepower. I also want it at a low voltage that allows me to run the thing six hours straight. At the same time, expect to see the smaller notebooks and laptops (12.5"-15"), lighter in weight and with longer battery life, with even more power and more storage capacity.
  
• Auto tech is all the rage. If Ford's SYNC technology (in partnership with Microsoft) that's been showing up in all sorts of for cars and trucks is anything to go by, all the automakers are going to be shortly doing the same thing. Sync/play/update your iPod and library, voice activated turn-by-turn GPS with maps updating over-the-air, integrated WiFi hotspot module for all your connected devices in the vehicle, and lots more. It's about time. Look for even more robust, integrated offerings from Audi, GM, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen. How many miles to the gallon please, and does it come with 3G?
  
• eReaders and more eReaders. Sony eReader, Amazon Kindle DX, Plastic Logic QUE, iRiver Story, Bookeen Cybook Opus, Interead Cooler, iRex iLiad (what's with all the "i" names?), Barnes & Noble Nook, and the Hearst/Sprint Skiff which is a large format ereader scheduled to debut at CES. All-new models are coming on which you'll be able to read your daily newspaper, review business documents, read books, make notes, and so on, all on those highly readable e-ink touch screens.
  
• TV, TV, TV, TV, and more TV. Big TV. OLED screens (still too achingly expensive), lots more LED-backlit LCD models (bye-bye plasma I guess), and maybe even the first 3D integrated product lines (3D data player + 3D TV + optical quality 3D glasses even better than the ones at Avatar + 3D A/V decoder in new A/V receivers), along with a Logitech Harmony remote to control it all. Great. Where do I sign up?
  
• New mobile and desktop operating systems. We said it here a couple of years ago. Google is aiming to put an operating system into the mainstream. Well it's happening now. The Google Chrome OS is heading for a desktop near you and we're predicting that lots of hardware vendors will be showing it off at CES. At the same time, Google's successful release of its Android mobile operating system is spreading rapidly. The main reason is that it's a terrific alternative to the major players, it's extremely well-supported now, and beyond anything else it works really well. Ask any HTC user — they're raving about Android.
  
• Apple's rumored Tablet. We're not totally sure that CES is the best venue for Apple to release a major new product. On the other hand, people have gone broke predicting what Apple won't do. An Apple Tablet computer of some sort (combination ereader and netbook perhaps?) is surely in the offing, and we're guessing CES is a dandy spot to preview the thing. We'll see.
  
• Gaming platforms - console vs. PC. As far as we can tell, it's status quo for Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. No new gaming consoles this year. That's okay though, because we're just starting to see how good the existing hardware is with some of the new titles hitting the shelves. But as console games get even better, PC releases such as the incredible new Call of Duty 4 are taking advantage of incredibly powerful CPUs, videocards that are more powerful than many CPUs, huge desktop monitors and thunderingly accurate sound systems, all pushing the state-of-the-art even farther out. More to come.
  

Stay with us throughout the coming week for all the interesting stuff coming out at CES 2010.

Another Consumer Burden — The Darker Side of Web Loyalty Programs

The latest, pervasive consumer burdens spreading widely on the Internet are the so-called Web Loyalty campaigns that have been, until recently, a significant income earner for a shockingly long list of major online shopping sites including 1800Flowers, Buy.com, Classmates, Continental Airlines, Expedia, Fandango, Hertz, Orbitz, Priceline, Redcats USA, Shutterfly, Travelocity, U.S. Airways, VistaPrint and many other ultrahigh volume, online retailers.

Since July 2009, federal investigators in the U.S. have been probing three companies in particular: Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty. If you've shopped online, you've likely seen Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue's efforts in the form of a secondary transaction page which pops up asking if you're interested in 'cash-back', coupon or discount offers against future purchases. All you have to do is enter your email address and that's the end of it, or so it appears. The problem is that what you've actually signed up for (merely by entering your email address — no other information) is a regular monthly charge by Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty of anywhere from $4-$20 on the credit card you supplied to the original retailer or site from which you made a purchase prior to seeing that pop-up offer. In other words, Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty, many online retailers, and the bank which issued your credit or debit card, are all in cahoots.

Check your credit card statements right now for those small recurring charges. All such charges and the associated so-called loyalty programs have fallen under the uncomfortable scrutiny of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Back in August, Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty denied any wrongdoing and argued that their services offer users savings and are valued by many subscribers. In my opinion, the three companies have only offered what sound to me (and, I think, to most members of the Senate committee) like rather vapid responses.

Subsequently, Webloyalty announced late in August that it would henceforth require in all its ads and pop-ups that customers enter the last four digits of the credit or debit card used in the previous/current transaction to confirm their agreement to pay the membership fees. Affinion similarly altered its requirements in November. New, more extensive and clearly worded language is being added to the pop-ups which specifically explain that you're about to sign up for a recurring charge. Visit Webloyalty and Affinion Group to find out more about the so-called loyalty industry of which these companies are a part. If you don't like what you read, complain loudly.

Caveat emptor big time. These companies contribute nothing to the world. They create profits without providing a service, without manufacturing anything, and without actually doing much of anything. They convince you to sign up to pay a recurring monthly fee for something they have determined quite accurately that most of us will forget about the moment we navigate off the web page. Will the 'cash-back', coupon or discount really work at some point in the future if you do remember you've got it? Yes — but only if the server is available, the campaign hasn't ended, and the item or service you've chosen next time actually qualifies. Remember though that as usual, and not unlike the rebate dodge in which retailers rely on the fact that almost 65% of rebate coupons are never sent in, the vast majority of people who willingly or inadvertently sign up for web loyalty programs either forget about the deals, lose their access codes, or never have an opportunity to take advantage of any legitimate deals simply because they don't do the required kind of shopping, all the while still paying a small monthly charge for long periods of time. Don't let down your guard either, because Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty aren't giving up this money maker without a fight. Their whole loyalty business model is based in my view on not fully presenting consumers with the reality of recurring monthly charges, as opposed to providing consumers with the sort of fully informed consent that actually reads and feels that way.

As of this writing, Continental Airlines, US Airways, Priceline and VistaPrint have cut ties with Affinion, Webloyalty, and Vertrue. I suspect, more bad press and more consumer pressure will convince other online retailers to get either out of the web loyalty business or devise yet another surreptitious approach.

This latest online headache got caught because a few sharp-eyed consumers started questioning recurring charges appearing on credit and debit card statements. Make no mistake though. In my view, Webloyalty, Affinion, Vertrue and the retailers and banks with which they partnered, never believed for a moment that the income stream (in the tens of millions of dollars) would go on forever. They knew the programs would be questioned eventually, and that the government would slap them all on the wrist, waggle its finger and admonish them to not do it again. No punishment and no penalties. In the meantime they've all made their money, so it's on to the next scam.

Some people will note that almost every Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty sign-up page contains informative, consumer language in the fine print. If a few people inadvertently sign up, then complain loudly when they see the recurring charges, caveat emptor and too bad for those people. It is when hundreds upon hundreds of consumers began to complain that the effective visibility and comprehension of the consumer language on the sign-up pages was called into question. To Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty I say shame on all of you. Find something better to do with your ideas.

DHS and TSA Leak Like an Old Rowboat

Associated Press reported on December 30 that the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is going after travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott. The two bloggers published details of a confidential TSA security directive or memo which was issued in the wake of the December 25th attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines passenger flight. Frischling and Elliott claim to have received the details of the security directive from an anonymous source.

According to Eileen Sullivan's Associated Press report, the directive was dated Dec. 25 and was issued after a 23-year-old Nigerian man was charged with attempting to bomb a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam. The bomb, which allegedly was hidden in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's underwear, malfunctioned and no one was killed. Authorities said the device included a syringe and a condom-like bag filled with powder that the FBI determined to be PETN, a common explosive.

The TSA and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are in some important respects fractured organizations beset by intra-agency management power plays, and inter-agency communications difficulties. None of the problems are unusual in themselves — there isn't a big organization anywhere on the planet that doesn't suffer some of the same ills. The problem with these sorts of difficulties at TSA and DHS is that both agencies are responsible for people's lives. The horrible complexity imposed by inter-departmental communications — providing raw intelligence to various members and sub-agencies that can put it to use — amongst the dozens of players, security providers, investigators, intelligence organs and policing bodies over which DHS in particular is supposed to have jurisdiction, amounts to a mile high mountain that must be climbed every hour of every day. It's a hell of a lousy way to run a security and intelligence supervisory agency.

Information leaks out of government agencies like water from an open tap. It just keeps flowing and flowing. The most public thing the TSA seems to have done about this latest leak is to start pumping the bloggers for information.

The TSA and DHS are crippled by their own complexities. They and their sub-agencies need to redesign and re-implement their processes, procedures and poorly wrought inter-agency communications to create a truly cohesive and cooperatively efficient domestic security force. Fat chance. Sadly, it will likely happen only after so devastating a disaster takes place that even the most deeply entrenched, pork-barreling, party-loyal Senators, Congressional representatives and senior bureaucrats are finally heaved from office.

As always, the toughest decisions for national security are made only after the blood of citizens has been shed by some terrorizing monster bent on some insane mission. The problem which really creeps me out right now is that even in the long wake of 9/11, and after all the dead and wounded servicemen and servicewomen shipped home from Iraq and Afghanistan over the past few years, the politicians and senior bureaucrats are still jealously protecting their state and district empires, agonizing more about re-election than their constituents, and carefully tending to their big corporate sponsors.

Canada has little more to offer; the UK less still. Canadians are struggling with an insular federal government which spends more time talking to itself than its taxpaying citizens. The specter of a police state edging into view in the UK rears its ugly head with each successive arrest of yet another group of Islamist plotters. The European Union seems to have been lured into a bureaucratic minefield of its own making, while hoping its citizens will kind of hold it all together, starting in surprise at the immigrant unrest and outright rioting in the poorest neighborhoods of the largest cities. Oh dear United States of America — rest assured you're not alone.

We're dying out here, and we're paying big taxes for the dubious honor of yet again being threatened by a terrorist who yet again has circumvented security at an airport. The overworked security staff at Pearson International Airport did, however, manage to snag a pair of fingernail clippers two weeks ago from my carry-on. Kept me waiting for ten minutes while they were (I presume) deciding whether or not I was a threat to national security. But Chemical Umar managed to board his Northwest flight just fine. The TSA and DHS should be beating up on themselves for being the cripplingly complex organizations they are today. They can't even keep their own data secure. If the TSA and DHS do their jobs better, they won't have to worry about innocent bloggers.

Airline and Airport Security — What a Mess

Humility and privacy, above all else, should govern the conduct of those individuals, private companies, and government agencies charged with the responsibility of protecting airline passengers and aircraft. What we have right now — what we have had for thirty years or more — is a spectacularly insulting, abusive, but only marginally successful system.

Do you really think that thousands of incidents of harm, violence and terrorism have been averted because airport security ferreted out my 75 year old mother's hairpins, or because the nail clipper you foolishly left in your carry-on was seized, or because a drunk was kept off a flight, or because a man's Swiss Army pocket knife was triumphantly snatched from a pocket. You'd be wrong. The people who want to maim and terrorize just aren't that obvious most of the time. They get caught only when something goes wrong with the scheme they developed to circumvent security. The vast bulk of them get caught — are you ready for this — long before they ever get to an airport.

Terrorists started sneaking weapons on board aircraft, used the weapons to hijack aircraft and kill passengers, so we made it illegal to carry weapons and started putting everybody through metal detectors. The terrorists adapted and figured out how to get box cutters on board, seize crew members and take over the aircraft. So we started scanning and inspecting for trade tools and seizing everything in sight. The terrorists adapted again and started using relatively small amounts of liquid chemicals hidden in hollow shoe heels, whereupon the security services started restricting liquids of all kinds (and how about that rip-off $4 bottle of water at airport shops once you're past security). What did the airport security services do? They made us all take off our shoes, trudging along on dirty carpeting (and worse), while our shoes are being run through a scanner. But the terrorists adapted again, strapping condom-like bags of PETN to their thighs. Our vaunted airport security responded by patting down all U.S.-bound passengers to ensure they aren't wearing anything but their clothing. And because the airport security restrictions are really too much work for any sane person, forget too about bringing any carry-on luggage on board the aircraft, thereby continuing the unbroken pattern of locking the barn door after the horse has bolted.

Does anybody who is not a moron really believe that allowing their typically soft-sided camera bag to be checked into the luggage hold is not going to result in a thousand dollars worth of smashed and ruined camera gear? What a way to start a vacation. Does anybody who is not a moron believe that the airlines are going to improve upon their lost/mis-routed luggage mess? According to SITA, which tracks such things, in 2007 more than 42 million pieces of luggage were mishandled by the world's airlines. That works out to approximately 80 bags per minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; one 'lost' bag for every 90 passengers worldwide, according to SITA. The odds of mishandling are approximately 1 in 145 bags in developed countries, plunging to approximately 1 in 85 in Europe, then down to a miserable (approximately) 1 in 65 in less developed countries. It is into this mess that airport security is insisting more and more often that we check all our bags including carry-ons.

This idiocy has to stop, and there has to be a solution. I say, stop flying — right now. Not forever — just for a month or two. That's what (Kickstartnews.com publisher) David Coppola suggested recently. Stop flying. The fractured economics of the airline industry will split wide open. All of these airlines operating on paper thin margins because they're literally competing themselves to death, will fail and collapse out of existence if we all simply stop flying for a month or two.

Put the airlines and the airports out of business. Start over. The hours-long lines at security gates whenever there's an alert, the lack of true security, restrictions which have no basis in reality, passengers kept waiting on the tarmac for hour after hour while air traffic control sorts itself out, flights which never leave on time, cramped seating, low-cost fares in exchange for on-board food which tastes literally like cardboard (or worse) and for which you have to pay stupidly high prices if you dare to even consider ingesting it in the first place, cramped on-board lavatories in which even anorexic teenagers have trouble turning around, complete lack of carry-on measurement control during normal travel circumstances, idiotic electronic device usage restrictions which have no basis in scientific fact, tens of millions of lost suitcases, and a whole host of other stupidities which serve only to annoy, inconvenience and disrupt our plans.

Tell your sister in Winnipeg, your business associate in Denver, your investor in Madrid, your mother in Bogota, your head office in Osaka, your cousin in Mumbai, or your good friend in London that you're not going to be traveling for a few months. Ground yourself. While we're all doing that, the constipated, dysfunctional, multi-billion dollar boondoggle that is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the bureaucrats who run the laughably broken interdepartmental communications efforts which permeate and slow down almost every security issue in the United States and the European Union, will have time to rethink how well their internecine battling has served the taxpaying, fare-paying customers — the billions of customers — footing the stunningly massive bill for all the security incompetence, empire building, terrible service and broken promises which have taken place over the last 40 years.

The specter of tens of thousands of children, mothers and grandmothers being frisked at airport security gates after standing in what looks like nothing so much as Depression-era soup lines for an hour or more, is a pathetically awful vision representing the utter failure of competence and communications between and amongst our national and regional security agencies. This is how our fares, tax dollars and absurd security surcharge fees are being spent? Nonsense!

Stop flying, right now, for a couple months. Need to travel because of a family emergency? Fly on a charter. Lobby your Congressman, MP, or whatever your political representative is titled, to insist on legislation which allows you four travel days for every vacation week. Take the car or the train. Want to travel overseas? In a better world, your own government (you know, the government that issues your passport after investigating you), will issue an identity verification and security risk verification every time you book a flight. If the system spits out your name as a risk, you'll be notified by email to attend a separate security area set up at each and every airport in the world (all of which do have the space) to go through special security. No lines, no waiting.

In my world too, the fatuous, arrogant bureaucrats at different agencies who selfishly fail to communicate with each other quickly about perceived threats, will be held accountable for every injury and death which occurs because someone didn't pass along information or punch through the lines to inform the right people, or act (and, maybe, make a mistake), rather than sitting and musing about whether or not the political climate was right. It's enough to make you want to sit up and start a wholesale revolt against the people into whose hands we place our safety.

Security, as any truly experienced and successful expert will tell you, begins long before you ever get to an airport. Suspected subversives who are being tracked can't be allowed to fly, or indeed travel anywhere without special searches and special attention. Call it profiling if you like. When I was a kid — a white, Jewish kid in Winnipeg, Canada — I went to rock concerts at which I was profiled. After all, white Jewish teenagers (according to the local cops) were highly likely to be attempting to smuggle booze and dope into the venue. You know what? The cops were right. We didn't call it profiling then. We just said, "Damn cops caught me!" Guilty is guilty. So who are you and why are you traveling? What have you purchased and why have you purchased it? Where have you been recently? Who do you hang with? The bulk of security checks should be done when you purchase a ticket — in other words, when we've all got the time to undergo security. Think that sounds bad? You're right. But it doesn't sound half as bad as an explosion three rows back which happened because the system we've got doesn't scare anyone except you, your Mom and me.

IT and Software Projects Fail . . . and fail, and fail

When was the last time you can recall your web site being updated on time, a new software installation in your office going smoothly, or new computers delivered and set up without problems? How about never? Uh-huh.

Take heart. You're not alone. In point of fact, Information Services (IS) and Information Technologies (IT) installations (servers, networks, telecommunications), software development (web sites, new software applications), and new computer hardware (laptops, desktops, printers, etc.) remain far too glitchy, unstable, and fraught with set up and installation problems. The cost of all those problems to almost all SOHOs and small businesses is scary.

Thousands of dollars are lost each year by most SOHOs and small businesses because of web site programming problems, graphic artists who pretend to be web designers and hand you slow-loading sites, problematic database installations which leave your customers gasping for air as they leave your online store frustrated by poor functionality and tiny product photos and worse. At the grassroots of IS/IT projects - software development that is - inaccurate timelines, endless problems unforeseen during planning, poor project organization, sloppy programming, and programmers who build mini empires around their precious code, result in product delays amounting to months and sometimes years.

It's only money - billions of dollars, pounds, euros, pesos, yen and so on, just flying out the door. Don't mention the problems to your IS/IT trades or consultants or development staff however. You'll get the cold shoulder (and, strangely, even more problems and delays will crop up). Dare to suggest to a team of programmers that they should spend more time planning a project than arguing (fighting, battling) over its direction half-way in, and they'll turn on you like a pack of rabid wolves insisting that you'd better not try to tell them what to do or things will get screwed up even more.

The day of the programmer, software engineer, software architect, operator, IT manager and program manager essentially determining the fate of the products on which they're working must end as soon as possible. Many of these people have cost us dearly in viability, usability, salability and profitability.

There are large groups of great programmers, engineers, operators and IT managers who really know their stuff. They consistently deliver on time, communicate well and work toward the success of the companies at which they're employed. The competency percentage is unfortunately lower than that of other disciplines in the working world. That has to change.

Technology schools must be tasked with the notion of discipline in the business world. The fact that software development is taught without a concurrent education about the dangers of poor planning is a traditional omission which has to be immediately remedied.

Data Caps - your ISP is no longer a true access provider

Rogers Cable in Canada and dozens of other Internet Service Providers in Canada and the U.S. and Europe are capping your monthly data traffic. While caps vary, they're not really the point. What's important is that in many jurisdictions (in Canada and Europe in particular), data caps are a way around the regulatory strictures which force ISPs to get permission from regulatory bodies in order to raise monthly access fees.

See the trick? To hell with regulatory requirements when you can simply avoid the process altogether. All you have to do is cry bandwidth problems, throttle whatever data you want, point to fine print in the customer access contract, and then charge whatever you want for every gigabyte used over the arbitrary cap set on each regional or nodal block of subscribers.

I hate these people. They reaped big profits for years while allowing us to freely get used to downloading and browsing whatever we wanted. Now that we're almost addicted to high volumes of data, suddenly the ISPs impose data caps? Suddenly we're paying through the nose to view/browse/stream/download all the things which were covered by the fixed monthly fee for previously unrestricted internet access accounts?

Yes. We've been suckered.

All those profits went and continue to go to ISP shareholders and fat executive salaries and bonuses, not into the infrastructure needed to provide really great service, support and bandwidth to all the customers. Net neutrality is a dreamy myth. It never existed. The corporate communications mavens will no doubt soon attempt to charge us for just thinking about Internet access.

Governments sit back and do nothing. Governments hire consultants to help rip off billions in tax dollars in return for bad tech advice. Every last nickel will be milked out of the systems until people begin screaming and threatening, and only then will ISPs and governments react by (grudingly) enforcing the design and implementation of better quality and more consumer friendly Internet access.

In the meantime we pay ridiculous fees for Internet access, something which should be comoditized and turned into a public utility.