RIM's PlayBook: iPad killer?

In a word, no. And the BlackBerry maker's first attempt at a tablet has a number of glaring omissions as it hits store shelves next week.

But I still think it's a neat product that gives the market a refreshing - and much-needed - alternative. It won't knock iPad off its perch anytime soon. Indeed, at all. But its arrival makes an interesting market that much more so. And the world needs interesting. And competition.

It's been a lousy week - being sick has knocked me for a loop - but I managed to do a bit of media this evening, including clips with CBC The National's Havard Gould and Global's Sean O'Shea, as well as CBC Radio's national business guru Meegan Read. I'm dropping by the studio again in the morning (7:50 a.m. ET) for a live chat with BNN's Michael Kane and Patricial Lovett-Reid. Not about the PlayBook, though: This time we're covering Google's just-announced quarterly results.

I can always sleep and recover over the weekend. In the meantime, I had the kind of day that reminded me just how much fun life can be if you let it. I hope I always remember how to let it.

Taking Facebook to work

Lots of Canadians use social media while at work. I'm sure we're not alone, of course, but a story in the Toronto Star last week contained some eye-popping numbers on just how pervasive it is.

I spoke with CTV News Channel's Marcia Macmillan on Sunday afternoon about all the time we're apparently frittering away updating our statuses and tagging each photos of each other. My conclusion? It's not as dire as it looks. Here's the video.

Your turn: Do you use social media at work? For personal use? Professional? Both? Does your boss know/care? Should this even be an issue?

When guns come to your kid's school

I was in Toronto yesterday, but my trusty BlackBerry kept feeding me regular updates of what was going on back home. The one that got my attention was the report of a lockdown at a high school - Mother Teresa Secondary - not a 10-minute drive from my house. All doors and windows were locked and the lights were shut off after witnesses reported seeing someone with a gun on campus.

Our kids don't go there, but my first thought was that it could just as easily have been my kids' school. It can be anyone's school, anywhere, anytime. Welcome to the modern age.

I put it out of my mind as I went back into my meetings, but as I headed through intense snow and traffic on my way home, my BlackBerry once again chirped. Patrick Maloney, a reporter for the London Free Press, wanted my perspective on how kids with cell phones and smartphones can affect how events like this play out. He wanted to know if I felt it was a good or a bad thing for kids to be texting in the middle of a crisis. Here's the result*:

For one technology expert, the Mother Teresa incident underscores the positives of letting cellphones in -- though he cautions it's not always a good thing.

"In many cases, in crisis situations, the facts people don't know can cause panic," said Carmi Levy, a London-based technology analyst.

"If properly used, (social media technology) can shed light on events and help people navigate them more easily."

But they can also spread rumours, he notes.

"That's the dark side of texting and social media . . . there are no checks and balances," he said. "It's just as easy to distribute bad information."

The full article, Students text to spread lockdown news quickly, may be found here.

Your turn: So what do you think? Do social media/texting-savvy teens help or hinder matters when bad stuff happens at school?

One more thing: Next Thematic - new theme, blue - will launch tonight at 7:00 Eastern. A little late, I know, but it's been a busy week. Thank you for your understanding.

*I lied, make that two: I wore a headset, Officer Bob.

Dear Steve Jobs: Only in health

The tech world is buzzing with news that Apple's CEO Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence (Mashable story here.)

The U.S. stock markets are closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but one can only surmise that Apple's share price will take a hit when investors return tomorrow. I'll be discussing this issue with Gary Doyle of 570News in Kitchener just after 1:00 p.m. Eastern today (listen live here.)

(If you'd like to listen to the interview, the show page is here. The actual interview, in MP3 format, is here.)

Beyond the seismic market implications of the potential departure of one of the most influential business leaders of our generation - I'm not fawning here; it is what it is - I find myself looking at things from another perspective. A human one.

He's sick. Very, apparently. And however much success we've amassed on this planet, we all leave it the same way. I feel deep empathy for his family as they ponder what tomorrow will bring, and watch his every move, wondering whether this is the beginning of the end. So many of us have been there that I feel compelled to view today's news through that lens before any other.

Your turn: Thoughts?

But wait, there's more: I ended up chatting about this on television...

• Business News Network (BNN) - video here
• CTV News Channel with Sandie Rinaldo - video here
• CTV National News report with Omar Sachedina - report video here, newscast video here (report is about 2:20 in).
  

My favorite clip from the day: "He's the tech world's equivalent of Wayne Gretzky. He can see above and beyond what everyone else sees."

Indeed.

Bearded television

Wanted to share a couple of recent TV interviews I've done. Not because they'll make the planet spin any faster or slower, but because they were fun to do. Both of them were on CTV News Channel, which is a national 24-hour news station here in Canada.

Today's hit was my first one with Power Play. this political show, hosted by veteran journalist Don Martin, is based out of Canada's capital, Ottawa, and is a regular stop for ministers, members of parliament and other top political types. It was a thrill to be able to join in. Today's topic was Twitter and Politics, and I was on with Stephen Taylor, director of the National Citizens Coalition and an eminent conservative blogger.

The video is here.

On New Year's Eve, I spoke with Christine Bentley about how easy it is for hackers to listen in on conversations on GSM-based cell phones. The neat thing: I was in Florida at the time, and given the fact that I had stuffed my suitcase exclusively with t-shirts and shorts - and, possibly, a pair of slippers, though I'll never publicly admit it - had nothing remotely like a jacket, tie or even a dress shirt. Oh, and my face had about 2 weeks worth of beard on it.

So rather than shave and run out to a store, I trimmed a little to make it look less ratty, ironed my best Hawaiian shirt, fired up my uncle's iMac and chatted live via Skype from his home office. Gotta love technology.

Here's the video for the earlier hit.

Your turn: Should I keep the beard?

Hackers revolt

It was a fascinating day in my hybrid world of media and tech yesterday. The WikiLeaks saga dragged on, with still more releases of secret/stolen documents. Of course, over time, I suspect the shock value of learning what this diplomat thinks about that country is beginning to wear off. But that's just me.

No, the real news yesterday revolved around a shadowy group, known as Anonymous (catchy, I know, and oh so Google-able) that launched Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against MasterCard and Visa. They creatively called their escapade "Operation Payback". The end result, the websites were either slowed to a crawl or were down entirely for part of the day.

The financial organizations' crime? Earlier this week, they stopped allowing credit card-based donations on the WikiLeaks web site. So this group, which has no apparent leader - but does have a 22-year-old guy in London known as "Coldblood" claiming to be a spokesperson - decided to take action against them to protest against censorship on the Internet. Previously, this group, which numbers about 1,000 members worldwide, took on, among others, the Church of Scientology and Gene Simmons of the rock group, Kiss.

• I wrote this story for The Toronto Star: Turning back the virtual mob
• I spoke live with CTV News Channel's Jennifer Ward. The interview is here*.
• Robert Fife, CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief, interviewed me for his report on the 11 p.m. national newscast. Here's the link to my badly captured video, and here's the report from CTV's server. I've also embedded it below. Newscast main link is here.

All told, a pretty good day. Now let's see what today brings...



*The interview was a little shorter than usual, as they had to quickly cut me off and jump to a news conference where Toronto's top cop, Bill Blair, talked about his department's handling of security during the G20 conference in Toronto. There's something neat about live television because you never know what'll happen. It wouldn't be as much fun otherwise.

WikiLeaks sucks

Deliberately hyperbolic headline aside, I'm evolving my feelings toward WikiLeaks. What was first launched as a somewhat altruistic endeavour designed to give political dissidents and whistleblowers a safe haven, a voice and a place to share their message without fear of reprisals from oppressive governments, regimes and organizations, has evolved into a somewhat different, more malevolent animal.

As the world watches the third major release of sensitive documents - this time it's U.S. diplomatic docs, while earlier this year it was the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts that had their inner workings shared with the world - I've been watching founder Julian Assange explain the rationale for his organization's actions. And I find what I'm hearing to be somewhat disturbing.

On the surface, there isn't anything in any of these documents that comes as a surprise. International sniping is a hallmark of the diplomatic process. Is this embarrassing? Sure. But shocking? Hardly.

What raises my antenna is the fact that we now have a process, a pipeline if you will, for disgruntled employees of any entity - government, military, private organization, whatever - to hoover huge amounts of data onto a flash drive, then upload it to this site. Got an axe to grind? The Web now has an answer for you. And Mr. Assange will happily accommodate you under the umbrella of "transparency".

Never mind that this is a pretty grotesque bastardization of proper journalistic process. Never mind that the checks and balances that have long governed the craft are nowhere to be seen. Never mind that no one seems to care whether the greater good is being served here. Make them public, says Mr. Assange. Let the world see what they're really like, he adds, and who really cares about the consequences, anyway?

I do. I spoke with CTV Parliamentary Correspondent Richard Madan yesterday, and he included a clip from the interview in a report he ran on CTV's national newscast at 11. Newscast link is here. Report link is here, and I've embedded the report below.

I also discussed it with Craig Needles from London's AM980, Gary Doyle of Kitchener's 570News, and Jessica Samuels from Kelowna's AM1150. Yahoo! Canada Finance published my article - Wikileaks leak a wakeup call for business - on October 29th. I suspect the discussion - and the leaks that spawned it - will continue for some time.

Your turn: Is WikiLeaks a force of good, a force of evil or something in between?

Hypertexting teens and me

According to a study released earlier this week by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, teenagers who send over 120 text messages per day are apparently more likely to engage in risky behaviors like drug use and unprotected sex. Who knew?

In fairness, the researchers said this doesn't imply a causal relationship. It simply draws a correlation that invites further study. Whatever: It makes for great headlines, and they certainly got lots of those from across the continent after they went public.

My take: Every generation has its own issues with new technologies, and every new technology comes with a dark side. Overuse anything and it, too, will potentially spawn some questionable outcomes. This should hardly be a surprise to any of us. We should also hardly be pulling phones from our kids' hands because their use will make them have sex and do drugs. It's not that simple.

I had some media fun with this one, speaking with CTV's Daniele Hamamdjian for a report that aired on the national 11 p.m. newscast (Report video here.) I also spoke with Priya Mann from 'A' News here in London, for a report that led off the London 11 p.m. show. Will upload video once I get it off my BlackBerry. (Update: Here's the video. It's also embedded below. I come in around the 0:50 mark. Enjoy the jumpiness.)

Your turn: Do teens text too much? Is this all needless hype?

The Canadian government wants to spy on us

Warning: Tech rant coming. But then I'm on TV. So it's not all bad.

Perhaps I'm overstating things in the headline, but not by much. It turns out the U.S. isn't the only place on the planet with a ridiculously oddball political landscape. Despite our reputation as mild-mannered hosers, Canadians can make political headlines, too.

To wit, our minority Conservative government, headed by none other than Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is introducing two bills that would greatly expand the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate citizens' online activities (background story here.) For the record, the bills are known as the Investigative Power for the 21st Century Act and the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act. Ooh, big words, I know. But what do they mean?

Simple: If these bills are passed, Internet service providers (ISPs) would be compelled to track and store information on our online activities. Send an e-mail, do a Google search, Skype your ex...your ISP will know, and they'll be forced, by law, the store it all in a database.

Part 2 is even more fun: Law enforcement agencies would be able to tap into this personal data without a warrant.

Now, don't get me wrong. Cops have been screaming for years that they need better tools to go after cybercriminals. They need more powerful, accelerated means of going after child pornographers, identity thieves and other freaks of the modern age. I get that, and I'll do everything in my power to support their quest to keep us safe.

But these bills, as currently structured, turn ISPs into proxies and open up massive privacy holes. I'm not so naive as to believe that ISPs don't already have this capability. Do anything online and you leave a footprint that is easily trackable by the dumbest of the dumb. But if this becomes law, ISPs will now be compelled to keep much richer datasets on our activities. And cops won't need a warrant to pore through the results. Due diligence much? Not anymore.

More ominously, do you really think your ISP - with outsourced tech support in Bangladesh - will keep a lid on your personal data? Do you think no-warrant access to every last bit about your online life is a good idea? My take: it'll open up a Pandora's Box, and it's a road we don't necessarily want to go down.

Want to improve law enforcement's ability to catch bad guys? Don't give them new, Draconian legislation. Instead, give them money and resources so they can hire and train the best of the best and give them the best technology humankind can buy. There's nothing in the current laws of the land that keeps them from kicking some cybercriminal butt.

Bills much like these two are nothing new. This is the fourth kick at the can in recent years, and they've died on the docket every time before. If Canadians are lucky, they'll die this time, too.

I did a live interview with CTV News Channel's Dan Matheson this afternoon, and the video can be found here.

Your turn: What thinketh you?

Apple hates RIM. Doesn't bother me a bit.

Apple had a big day today. It announced some neat new machines (which I now want), demonstrated some cool new software (which I also want), and gave us a sneak peek at its upcoming operating system, OS X v10.7, better known as "Lion" (do I have to state the obvious?)

The announcement, and the escalating war of words between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie, and this week's release of Apple's most blockbuster quarterly financial results ever, made for an interesting day in my world. I did two television interviews (CTV News Channel's Jacqueline Milczarek and BNN's Michael Hainsworth - video here - and a radio hit as well, with Sue Smith of CBC Radio Montreal's Home Run - audio here.) I also wrote an article, which I'll link to once it goes live.

Update, Thursday, 12:29 a.m.: The article, Macs, PCs not disappearing so quickly, is now live on Yahoo! Canada Finance.

I also confirmed my writing docket for the next couple of days, so tomorrow will dawn just as full of promise as today did. May I continue to have the wherewithal to turn that promise into something neat.

Your turn: How do you define a good day?

Google's stealing your data!

Okay, so the headline's a little hyperbolic. The truth of the matter is a programming glitch by a Google engineer in 2006 went unnoticed when the company later sent camera-laden cars driving up and down Canadian (and presumably American, European and other) streets for its Google Street View service.

The glitch resulted in the cars collecting far more than 360-degree pictures of their surroundings. They also captured Wi-Fi signals from folks like you and me (story here). And when those routers were not properly secured, said Google cars recorded personal information like names, e-mail addresses, proper addresses, phone numbers, and in at least one case the names of folks participating in a medical trial. Can we say oops?

Google has apologized for the oversight (months ago, actually) and has committed to righting this wrong by destroying the data, promising never to do it again and assigning a team of Googlers to wash and wax Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart's car.

So I'm stretching that last part. But Stoddart was ticked. And she called Google on it after thoroughly investigating the incident (press release here.) Media folks got wind of it, and before I knew it I was speaking with the good folks at the CBC. First I chatted with Sue Smith on CBC Radio Montreal's Home Run show this afternoon, then I ducked into the studio to chat with the national television news team for tonight's The National. If you're around a TV, the fun begins at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on CBC NN, and at 10:00 p.m. on the main CBC television network. I'll post links to the video here as they become available.

Your turn: Is an apology enough? Why is privacy such a touchy issue in the Internet Age?

This just in: Coverage of the Russell Williams court case (he's the monster making international headlines because he commanded Canada's largest air force base and flew heads of state around the globe while leading a double life of sadistic rapes and murders) forced CBC to cut the piece short. So my clips ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor. Which in the age of digital doesn't really exist, but you get the picture. Life in the media biz...no biggie. The phone will ring again soon.

Don't invade my privacy

Canada is fairly privileged to have a Privacy Commissioner who walks the walk. Her name's Jennifer Stoddard, and she's spearheaded a range of high-profile initiatives designed to protect our privacy and confidentiality in an age when data is so easily compromised.

If you're not already familiar with her work, she was the one who doggedly pursued Facebook and forced the social media giant to rein in its initially chaotic privacy policies and tools. Because of her, Facebook has improved how it handles confidential data not only in Canada, but around the world.

Stoddard has a global reputation, and she's not resting on her laurels: Her office just released a report that highlights how government agencies are dropping the ball on privacy. I spoke with CTV News Channel's Sandie Rinaldo this afternoon (interview video here, CTV's full story page here) about what it means for the rest of us, and how we can take steps to protect our data on computers and mobile devices.

Your turn: Ever had private information go where it shouldn't have?

One more thing: I also spoke with the Canadian Press about Rogers purchasing Atria Networks for $425 million. Story (this one's from the Lethbridge (AB) Herald) is here.

Twitter gets hacked. I get shot (with a camera).

The neat thing about having a front-row seat to the only thing more fun than a drunk roller derby race - read the tech industry - is the randomness of it all. When I wake up, the day I've laid out ahead of me can change on a dime if something big happens in the world of tech.

Yesterday's "something big" was the fact that Twitter, the popular microblogging service (wiki) that allows me and 160 million others to nag our friends, had been hacked. By the time the dust settled, the White House Press Secretary and the wife of the ex-British PM were among the victims. And my phone began to ring.

I spoke with CTV News Channel's Sandie Rinaldo - video here - and then appeared in Rob Brown's report - video here - on the CTV national newscast at 11 p.m. (well, 11:22-ish by the time the report aired.) The report re-ran in the morning on Canada AM. Here's CTV's main page for this story.

Your turn: On Twitter? Following me yet? Go here. Yes, folks, I'm that shameless.

You can read it in the Sunday paper

The day has dawned bright and sunny, so I suspect we'll be spending more time outside than at the keyboard. But not before we have a chance to meander our way through the Sunday newspaper. I can't describe it all that well, but there's a certain sense of calm and peace associated with plopping the carefully folded paper on the kitchen table before it gets gradually shared with everyone in the family. Before, long, each section is carefully unfolded, ready for the kind of slow, studied exploration that no laptop or iPad can yet replicate.

[Note to my wife: I still want an iPad.]

Today's paper, the Toronto Star, adds a fun wrinkle to the adventure: My latest article, Is it the end of the line for the landline? leads the business section. The piece examines the long, slow decline of the conventional phone in favor of mobile and Internet-based telephony services.

Earlier this week, I also published a piece in Processor.com, Power & Cooling Developments, that takes a closer look at some key data center technologies will impact your life more than you might suspect. Later today, my head may be discussing a disturbing case of rape and social media on CTV News Channel. More on that as I know.

Update: TV interview confirmed for 3 p.m. Eastern. If you're in Canada, you can watch it live on CTV News Channel. I'll post the link to the video here once it's posted to their server. Here's a link to the tragic case that started it all.

All told, a great writing/media week!

Your turn: Have you cut the landline chord yet? Why/why not? If you have, what's the experience been like?

I'm on TV. Don't watch if you're davening*

TVO's Steve Paikin interviews me on BlackBerry maker RIM's battles with foreign governments on tonight's show, The Agenda With Steve Paikin. The episode page, Wireless Storm, is located here, and the podcast will be posted here after the show airs. If you live in Ontario and want to watch it on-air, it's scheduled for broadcast tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Why am I on television when I really ought to be in shul hoping I get another year on this planet? (You just know my mother's asking this very question.) Not to worry: It was pre-taped earlier today.

Enjoy the show. More soon.

And if you find yourself in a synagogue tonight looking toward the year to come with hope and forethought, gmar chatimah tovah to you and your family. May 5771 be filled with peace, health and happiness for us all, whatever we celebrate.

* Davening = praying. Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins at sundown tonight and continues through sundown tomorrow (Saturday).

3PAR: HP wins. Dell loses. I write.

The media craziness continues, as I've been commenting extensively on BlackBerry maker RIM's challenges in India, the CRTC's decision to force carriers to give refunds to some of its customers, and the HP/Dell bidding war over storage vendor 3PAR.

I published a piece on that last bit - HP won the war yesterday, BTW, with a final $33.00/share offer that prompted Dell to bow out - in today's Toronto Star*. Here's the link:

Fighting for the cloud: Behind the duel for 3PAR

I've also been busy in front of the camera. Here's a rundown of this week's major hitters:

• CTV News Channel. Chatted with anchor Dan Matheson about the RIM/India thing. Video here.
• CBC's Lang & O'Leary Exchange. Spoke about the RIM story as well. Video here. They begin coverage about 1:15 in, and the interview proper starts at 16:50 in.
• Global National (first time!) I spoke with anchor Gord Steinke about the CRTC (Canadian telecom regulator) decision to tick off carriers by forcing them to refund some of the proceeds of the so-called "deferral account". Video here. Click the Sep. 1, 2010 image, then scroll to about 7:25 in (14:45 to go) for the report by Francis Silvaggio.

Whew...what a great week! This stuff never gets old, and I always feel privileged that the phone continues to ring, and that I get to share perspectives with some of the smartest people out there. Very cool stuff.

--
* This is my third article for the Star. Article 1 is here. Article 2 is here.

Published - Intel, McAfee and you

Last week, fate tickled me happily with a pretty big journalistic break: My first byline for The Toronto Star. I wrote about it here.

Fate's still working for me, apparently, as the Star published another article of mine - Why Intel's deal for McAfee will shake the laptop landscape - in today's edition. It's the lead article in the Business section, which is pretty neat.

I'm liking this.

Where I write about smartphones for a really big & cool newspaper

I've had quite a good day in a journalistic sense. My first article was published by The Toronto Star. The piece is entitled Can staid BlackBerry survive the smartphone wars? and in it, I explore the prospects for the device and the company that makes it, Research In Motion. Mobile users can find it here.

I'm more than a little jazzed by this, as it represents another step along a path I've been following for years. I will share additional happies from my tech journalistic quest in the weeks and months to come.

For now, if anyone lives in the Toronto area and has access to a paper copy of the paper, can I ask that you hold onto it and possibly take a photo of or scan the article for me? It'll be published in papyrus-based form tomorrow (Saturday, the 21st).

Your turn: So what else should I write about? I'm all ears if you've got suggestions.

The iPhone 4 sucks

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't - and debate on that front will clearly rage for months, if not longer. But there's no doubt that Apple has a PR debacle on its hands, one it hopes to resolve with a rather extraordinary press conference tomorrow.

I touched on Apple's woes during an interview last night with CTV News Channel's Marcia MacMillan. We were talking about another beleaguered smartphone vendor, Research In Motion, and it was only natural that we segued into iPhone territory for a bit, too.

The video's here. CBC coverage of the RIM situation is here. IT World Canada published this.

Your turn: Why so much controversy over a phone? Isn't it all just a little silly?

Me, the BlackBerry Tablet, and the CBC

Most days, I'm an unassuming husband, dad and data geek, commuting by bike to my office across town. It's a pretty cool existence, and for most folks, it would normally be enough.

But "enough" isn't always enough for me. Sometimes, I get calls or e-mails from producers, editors and reporters in faraway places. And suddenly my unassuming existence becomes a little less unassuming for a bit.

I had one of those moments on Tuesday evening. A reporter for the Wall Street Journal - Stewart Weinberg, who I've spoken to often in recent months - had published a piece on Research In Motion's plans for future BlackBerry devices and, most notably, a tablet-like machine to counter Apple's iPad. The CBC, Canada's public broadcaster, wanted to know if I wanted to chat about it on TV.

Before long, I was cruising through my neighborhood, on the way to the studio on the local university campus. I carried my bike into the studio, stashed it in a darkened corner just out of sight of the camera, changed into my presentable-television clothes, and sat down in the chair.

I spoke with Dianne Buckner and Kevin O'Leary, and the interview aired on The Lang & O'Leary Exchange. If you'd like to see it, click here for the June 15th show, then slide forward to about the 47-minute mark.

When I was done, I got back on the bike and cruised back to the house - and back to my normally unassuming suburban life. Some days, I really do have to pinch myself.