Technology versus Privacy: Google’s Permutation of Reality and its Virtual Counterpart

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of playing with the finer details of Google Maps, welcome to the continuing saga of Google versus governments. The most recent resistance to Google’s controversial street-level matching view? Hold your breath. Hint: it’s the government of a country whose data protection laws are among the most tight in the world. Germany. Surprised?

Naturally, Google has no qualms fighting government policies; as the world’s most successful search provider, the company frequently runs into issues, especially regarding privacy, in governments all over the world. And, when you have the kind of coffers Google has invested in attorneys… you can pretty much do whatever you want.

Increasingly, Google is expanding its influence on people around the globe, and some wonder just how “personal” Google should get. Many Germans certainly object; the Wall Street Journal reported that 244,000 German citizens formally objected to having their homes photographed and viewable in Google’s mapping service. However, when you consider this number as only 3% of those in cities Google has slated to add to its “Street View” mapping, it’s tough to see how anyone can force the company to stop.

What does opting-out of Google’s service really accomplish? Amusingly enough, removing yourself from “Street View” simply blocks the image of your property. For those perusing the virtual map of your neighborhood, this is a minor detail; the street is still visible, as are all the properties surrounding the hidden location. Add the fact that Google’s service uses low resolution photography to keep internet loading times short and details low for security purposes and you have yourself a wasted request for Google to blur your property in its “Street View.”

Google is not the only company tightening the bond between the virtual world and reality; services such as AT&T’s “Family Locator” allow individuals to locate other people in the same family phone plan. Many argue this is an invasion of privacy, even when the service requires individuals to opt-in and agree to terms and conditions set by the company.

Granted, the technology is different, but the underlying issue is the same: privacy versus technology. Google’s conviction to slowly but surely tie the world closer than ever before is bound to hit hiccups along the way. A fine line must be navigated in order for technology companies to convince consumers that potentially intrusive technologies will make their lives better, and Google certainly faces the issue head-on.

Will a German minority be enough to force a technology conglomerate like Google to abandon its increasingly popular “Street View” service? Probably not. Even so, perhaps the resistance will prompt greater care in dealing with individual liberties.

The German government has already vowed to consider revisions to its technological privacy code in response to the new service. Supposedly, governments serve primarily to protect individual liberties, something increasingly important in an age of universal knowledge. Considering Google’s admittance earlier in the year of “accidentally” collecting personal user data in its earlier forays into “Street View” composition, it’s hard to blame anyone for being skeptical about the company’s intentions.

Privacy is certainly nothing to laugh about, but consider this: if governments, aka our “Big Brothers,” can read newspapers over our shoulders via satellites in space, should worrying over a low quality picture of your property online really be our first priority? Google's actions inadvertently bring attention to a larger issue: how can governments protect our privacy if they have the greatest ability to invade it?

Just a thought...

Music+Stereo Bluetooth+FM Transmitter=SUCCESS!

First, anyone wanting the perfect balance between an mp3 player and a phone need go no further. I was originally in the market for a RAZR v9, but after reviewing the specs, I decided this was the phone for me. I couldn't be more happy!

For not being a “smartphone,” this phone has pretty much anything a music buff can need. Of course, it's not the world's greatest mp3 player, but it's all in what you're expecting. For me, I haven't found anything an iPod can do that the Chocolate 3 can't; it even has the scroll-wheel like the iPod, except it's a more tactile feel. The wheel takes a little getting used to, but it's not rocket science.

The best thing about this phone to me is the variety of musical connectivity; loading music is easiest by plugging it into your computer's USB port and copy/pasting your music onto the phone. The phone also charges while loading, and automatically sorts songs by their ID3 tags. You can also load music via Bluetooth from your computer, as well as download from Verizon's VCast service.

In terms of music playing, the best feature ever is the built in 3.5mm headphone jack, something that is often taken for granted on cell phones. Also, stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) is WONDERFUL... I recommend the Motorola S805 headphones for anyone who wants noise-canceling headphones with GREAT reception, sound, and still hands-free calling simultaneously. If you have no headphones, the built in speaker is acceptable enough to play while waiting on a midnight bus or whatever time you have to kill.

The phone itself is very similar in form and depth to the RAZR v9; I wasn't expecting it to be a good looking as it is. I have the light blue version, but the black looks just as good. It's pretty sturdy, too; I've given it hell for the past three months, and it's still fine. My only complaint is the keypad itself... it isn't as smooth as the buttons on a Motorola phone, but it's just something to get used to.

One thing I really like that is unique to this phone is the ability to receive and read text messages, view and play music and pictures, start and use the camera, and view calendar entries from the front screen... without having to open the phone. This may seem useless, but I've found it to be quite helpful, especially when you're in a place when you want to stay inconspicuous.

The phone has all the basic features you'd expect... calendar, calculator, alarm clock, notepad... plus a fairly good camera (albeit no flash). The buttons on the phone are all laid out well, and the circular navigation arrows around the "ok" button are all programmable to a number of phone functions. When the phone is closed, there is an automatic “lock-keys” button to keep you from accidentally doing things to the phone while it's in your pocket. All you have to do to unlock it is press the button on the side, and you're good to go.

All in all, I strongly recommend this phone for anyone who likes Bluetooth connectivity, listening to music without having to carry a separate mp3 player, and still have all the features of a good phone. The battery life lasts about three days on average, depending on what you're doing, and that makes it great for travel. One minor con is that the phone, while using USB, does not use the standard mini-USB port on the phone; there is a proprietary USB connection type on the phone side, which makes it annoying when you forget the cord that came with the phone. But overall, I'm glad I went with LG.


PROS:
Strong-signaled stereo Bluetooth, adequate FM transmitter, easy-to-use music system, 3.5mm headphone jack (!!), expandable microSD slot, very helpful and convenient front screen, programmable shortcut buttons, small form size like the RAZR

CONS:
Front scroll wheel somewhat temperamental, a tad slow response on some features, fiip-phone spring not 100% durable after use, keypad not as pleasant to text on as RAZR, haven't found a way to set music you put on the phone yourself as ringtones

For those of you interested in buying a 4th-generation iPod, beware.

I bought this iPod thinking it would be the greatest thing ever... play video, pictures, and best of all, ALL of my music! It does all of these functions fairly well, and the battery life is very good (for music; for videos, you might as well bring the power cord... that you must BUY separately~~).

Sound on the iPod is very good, with many different EQ settings enhancing the sound. I don't use the included classic earbuds because they never stay in my ears, but any headphones I plug up work well. I like how the iPod automatically pauses when you unplug the headphones, and it turns on (if hold is off) when you plug them in. The bass could be a little more pronounced, perhaps by a three-level megabass such as those on many Sony CD players. Overall, though, it sounds great.

Photo and video capability on the iPod is also great. The screen, I must say, is fantastic for such a small size. Videos play smoothly, although I have encountered slight hanging and sometimes, on full length movies the video loses lipsync. Also, as I said, you can't watch many videos and/or pictures without the iPod drying up (think: battery life). Don't expect to be able to easily get videos on the iPod either... this can turn into a traumatic experience.

Playback on the iPod is fairly reliable. I have had the player lock up on me a few times, but it is a HD-based player, so this can almost be expected. Shuffle is extremely handy, although I wish the firmware would allow you to select what artists and/or genres were shuffled; sometimes I am not in the mood to hear rap, yet shuffle does not discriminate.

An improvement that is direly needed on the iPod (aside from iTunes... we'll get to that in a moment) is the way you find music. Especially on a 60gb model, where thousands of songs composed by thousands of artists are likely, it is very difficult to find the needed song in any moderate time frame (especially when looking for a specific song under "Songs" view). If you play the click wheel just right, it will zoom incredibly fast through the ABC-ordered songs, but it is VERY hard to get it to stop on the desired letter, much less song. Apple needs to update its firmware so that users can go directly to a letter in the alphabet, eliminating the need to scroll through ALL of the songs.

Some other things the iPod lacks are FM tuner/recorder and voice recorder. These are possible through some accessories, but I believe these should be givens for such a "great player."

Now for my iPod soapbox. My first erk is the lack of included power adapter. That is just sad. Apple is truly ripping-off America. Another turn-off is the video-out capability. It’s a great idea in theory, but not easily accomplished. You must BUY yet another accessory from Apple, a SEEMINGLY standard RCA cable. Regular RCA cables won't work.

This brings me to the reasons for which I am selling the iPod. The lack of accessories I may have dealt with grudgingly. However, the hassle you must endure to put songs ON the iPod and actually FIND them is ridiculous. My first problem with iTunes was the library itself. My music is on a separate hard drive, so after importing all the songs into iTunes (about an hour process, on a FAST computer), the next time I unplugged the hard drive iTunes thought none of my music existed. Anger. It then proceeded to do the "handy" auto-update of my iPod, thereby erasing over 2,000 songs from my iPod to match the "empty" library. I was mad.

After I finally corrected this problem, I made an attempt to delete all duplicate songs; iTunes has a handy feature to locate them. The only problem is that any remotely similar songs show up, and if you delete them (which I thought to be a good idea), you lose both the original copy and the duplicate song. There goes another few thousand songs from the iPod. AutoUpdate was promptly turned off.... Also, if you’re anything like me, your music may be organized via folders, and not all of your ID3 tags are correct. To find them on the iPod, look forward to searching through thousands of songs. Quite a pain.

FINALLY, when songs go onto the iPod, the songs’ filenames are renamed to a random four-letter/number combination. iTunes then randomly places the renamed files into one of 50 random folders. This is VERY painful if you want to give a friend a few songs from the iPod, or want to put them on another computer. iTunes won't allow songs to transfer from the iPod to a computer’s library. Big surprise.

So, even with the moderate plusses the player has to offer, I don't think it's worth the trouble of fighting Apple every time you want to upload or download a song or video. The stunningly barren feature list is another con. Finally, the extremely irritating software (iTunes), lack of "drag-and-drop" capability, and no included accessories simply do not fit the high price tag mighty Apple places upon the iPod. If you’re not obsessive about being in control over your music, and how to actually FIND it, you may enjoy the very simplistic, limited-access iPod. However, for anyone else, I do not recommend.