Ask Tech Reporter
Send your questions here, for quick anonymous, plain brown wrapper answers.

Dear Tech,
What do you think of the new iPhone?
Signed,
Mac

Dear Mac,

The newly released iPhone is a slim combination phone, web browser, and music and video player. Its most noteworthy features are its brand-newness, its 3.5 in. touch screen interface and its Apple branding.

What else does the iPhone have over its current PDA competitors? A lot. The iPhone has a 3.5 inch wide screen (about 40% more than the majority of competitors), a full web browser (like current Windows Mobile 5 devices), ubiquitous cellular internet access, and Apple’s iPod proven media playing capabilities. Having one in July 07 will also allow you to draw the attention of your local technophile.

So you might be wondering, what are the drawbacks? reports are that the browsing is extra slow, even by PDA standards. Also, you can’t download songs on the iPhone, you have to download them to your PC then transfer them to your iPhone ala iPod. Its iPod pedigree may mean it’s a bit fragile for the more active users.

There is a serious security issue discovered wherein an attacker could use a web site with malicious code or just plain WiFi to enter the iPhone and collect all the information on it. However, Apple has released a patch.

The cost is about $500 for the 4Gig model. $600 for the 8 Gig model. Then add at least $60 a month for AT&T’s entry level plan. Currently only AT&T offers the iPhone.

The iPhone is targeted at the consumer market and not the business market. So currently, wireless synchronization with your Outlook server is only possible using IMAP. IMAP is a slightly less secure communication protocol as it is often set to pass account names and their associated passwords in clear text (i.e. text that is not encrypted). Since 500,000 where sold the first day, we should know more soon. Therefore, at least for now synchronizing your Outlook mail, contact and schedule is better left to your BlackBerry or better still, to your Windows Mobile 5 PDAs. At least until iPhone 2.0 is available in about 6 months.

Battle of the maps:
Mapquest.com vs. Google Maps - Google Wins

You have probably used Mapquest.com to get driving directions. If you have done so frequently you’ve probably learned to adjust the suggested route to suite your preference, less turns, bigger roads, etc...

In its inexorable march toward global conquest, Google has created Google Maps. As with Mapquest.com you enter your starting point and destination. Unlike Mapquest, in Google Maps you can enter the entire address in a single field. In Mapquest you must change fields for street address, town, state and zip.

However, GoogleMaps’ killer feature is that once the directions are displayed with a pathline across a street map, you can use your mouse to move the pathline around to adjust the pathline from the start point to the destination. As you move the pathline, the associated written directions change to reflect the new path. The estimated distance and required time also change.

You can also move the entire map by grabbing any part and dragging. No more clicking on arrows and waiting for the redraw.

Google wins.

OSI Tips: Look out for the New and Improved eMail scams
At this point we are all way too savvy to fall for email scams. However there has been a recent pair of fairly imaginative email scams that have gotten some traction with the unsuspecting public. The first scam is an email from the IRS "Tax Avoidance Investigation" department. Inside this email is a link to a form where you can enter your bank and personal information. The other scam is an email that is “a greeting card from a family member”. If you follow all of the links it will run malicious software on your computer. Obviously both of these scam emails must be deleted without being read.

OSI Tech Reporter is written and edited by Chaz Popovich, Alex Leone, Scott Schafer and Robert Stigliano. Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.