I know I haven’t posted for awhile – been busy with another big project (PLEASE check out and like this Facebook page, if you can – http://on.fb.me/sentigo). But here’s some REALLY big news: The device that arguably started the modern tablet revolution – the Kindle – is largely the result of Israeli technology!
Not very well known until now, I heard about this from some friends of mine who work(ed) at SunIsrael, now owned by Oracle. After nearly 8 months of efforts, requests, permissions, etc., I got an opportunity to interview the team at Oracle Israel responsible for the implementation of Java that makes the Kindle go. It’s a very cool story, one that you willbe able to can read in whole at the Israel21c site.
Basically, Java had to be adjusted significantly to accommodate the Kindle’s needs, and it proves the versatility of Java as a platform, as far as Oracle/Sun are concerned. But for the rest of us, the big news is that the most revolutionary (non-Apple) device of the past few years – and, probably, the device that pushed Apple to speed up development of the iPad, which led to the tablet revolution now unfolding – is a made in Israel innovation! And, I am VERY proud to have been the one to break the story (thanks Eddie and Gordon!).
Kind of brings a tear to the eye – I will never look at the Kindle the same again!
The world is going gaga over the iPhone, yet again, thanks to the announcement that the iPhone 4 will be out at the end of June. Just my luck to have finally picked up an iPhone 3gs just a week ago, three days before they announced the new model! At first I felt bad, not because of the model upgrade but because Apple was cutting prices. But then I remembered – this is Israel, and I’m signed up with Orange – where the prices go up, not down, no matter what!
In Israel, iPhones really are for elite power users who have “resources” (ie money) to spare. It appears that the cellphone companies (Orange, at least) splits its “phone world” into two; iPhones and everything else. If you want to be in the iPhone world, be prepared to pay – more than you bargained for. In my case, it was (almost) the data network I had to pay for, without even realizing that I was being charged, and after doing everything I was supposed to in order to avoid the extra charges!
Here’s the story: Being in need of a couple of cellphones for members of the tribe (one to replace a broken device, the other for a new high school student traveling every day), I thought about upgrading to an iPhone, to replace my Nokia XM5800, which I had relatively few complaints about (and in fact outdoes the iPhone in some ways!). The reason is not because I consider myself to be part of some “cellphone elite”; so many of the companies I write about are doing apps for the iPhone (and Android phones or Blackberry, but not for Nokia’s Symbian phones) that I felt I was missing out on being able to write accurate stories about their technology. So things just sort of fell into place for a Shamah iPhone.
When I pick up my already ordered iPad in the States in a couple of weeks, I’ll have a whole Apple family – Dad (iMac), Mom (Mac Mini), a couple of teens and tweens (Macbooks, aluminum and white version), Junior (iPad), and Baby (iPhone)!
And the iPhone is everything they say it is – a beautiful screen, far advanced UI (light years ahead of the Nokia’s clunky UI), and an endless amount of apps that do anything and everything. While I really missed the lack of multitasking (a no-brainer on the Nokia, and a lack that will be resolved with the new iPhone OS due with the iPhone 4) and no ability to record phone calls (that one hurts!), it’s easy to see why people love their iPhones.
One big plus for me is the iPhone’s built in ability to tether its cellular connection to a laptop, enabling you to use it as a modem (I used a separate program for that, called Joikuspot, on the Nokia, but the iPhone’s implementation is far better). I use the modem program (known as tethering feature on iPhones) to connect to the net when the router goes down (an occasional problem where I live).
As it happened, the day after I got my iPhone, the internet was out for a few hours while I had “crucial” on-line work to do. So, I tethered my device to my Mac (that’s a story in itself, because I had to do a “mini-jailbreak” from the block Orange put on tethering!), and did my thing. Great connection via 3G – much faster than I ever had with Joikuspot on the Nokia! So I was happy.
But only for a little while. After about 2 hours (it was a long outage) I got an SMS from Orange saying that I had used up my internet surfing package, and would now be charged per megabyte. I thought it was strange that I had used up a full 150MB of upload/download time so fast – clearly it was the 3G, I thought – and realized I had to upgrade from my “middling” package (150 MB/NIS 47 per month, better than the free 30 MB they give you, but not as good as the 5 GB/NIS 88 a month I was planning to order). But that was for another day. For now, I went to settings, and turned off “Enable 3G” and “Data Roaming” on the Network settings.
Flash forward about a week. I still hadn’t gotten around to upgrading the package, but that was OK, because I seemed to be able to find a Wifi connection when I needed it (even when we ate out at a place in Herzliya for my wife’s birthday!). On that day (about a week after I got the phone), I got two phone calls from Orange – the first to try and sell me “screen insurance” (at NIS 47 a month I said no thanks), and a second from an Orange rep asking me if I liked the phone, did I have any questions, etc. (than in itself is a sign that they look at iPhone customers as being in a different league – no one called me when I had my Nokia, Sony, or any previous device!). Very helpful and thoughtful, I said to myself.
I said thanks, everything’s fine, and was about to hang up – when I figured that now would be a good time to order the 5GB wifi package. “Good idea,” he said. “You know you’re over the limit on your 30 MB connection package.” Whoa – 30 MB? Shouldn’t that be 150 MB? After all, they transferred my previous Nokia plan to the iPhone – or so they told me they would do in the Orange store!
But no – they apparently “forgot” to upgrade me, and now I “owed” them over 50 MB over my allocation! That works out to about NIS 95 that I was going to have to pay!
Unacceptable, I told the (now formerly) “helpful and thoughtful” fellow on the other end of the phone. In fact, it was impossible for me to have gone into such megabyte debt; did I not turn off 3G as soon as they warned me that I was now going to be charged for cell data connections, making sure to use only Wifi? After much hemming and hawing (and keeping me on hold for about 10 minutes), he came back with his best offer – Orange would knock off half the charges, and I would end up paying only NIS 45 (from my previous complaints to Orange, it appears that they have a stock policy of giving energetic complainers half off whatever charges they’re complaining about).
Nothing doing, I said – rather loudly, by this time. “It’s not my fault they didn’t transfer my 150 MB package, and anyway I was only using Wifi. If I still had my 150 MB package, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, because I only used 80 MB of allocation – and anyway, I was only using Wifi!” Unable to do more, he gave the number of customer service for data plans. I called, and spoke to another rep, who also listened, gave me an argument, then regave me the 50% discount – and then, after emphasizing numerous times my chief arguments and that I was not willing to pay a shekel for this – they knocked off the whole thing (or so she told me on the phone; it remains to be seen if they try to sneak the NIS 90 onto my final bill. As of now, it appears on my account usage page on the Orange site).
One of the reasons she gave me an argument was because of the following: Even if you turn off the 3G, you are still connecting to the data network via 2G, even if you’re just surfing Wifi! Accoourding to this Orange rep, you CANNOT connect to the internet without using a cell network, with just Wifi; the Wifi takes precedence, but if you move out of range, the 2G network AUTOMATICALLY kicks in – racking up the charges on your account, adding a phantom 50 MB in data usage. “The iPhone is the only device that does this,” she said. “You can connect using any other device using strictly Wifi, but not the iPhone.”
Needless to say, I though I was dealing with some ridiculous excuse to justify the charges – or some Orange-only scam (like disabling the internet tethering feature so they can charge you to open it!). Jumping to that conclusion makes sense, since Orange is very good at relieving you of your money in small increments (“nickel and diming,” they call it); the way the Orange website is organized gives you a clear indication of how they operate, but that’s a post for another day.
Anyway: Not believing this story, I actually called up Apple in the U.S., taking an educated guess that the device actually came from the U.S. (I was right, and anyone in Israel who wants can buy the Apple Extended Warranty for iPhone directly from Apple for $69! I don’t know how much Orange or iDigital sells it for, but I suspect it’s a tad more than that). And unbelievably, the Apple rep confirmed what the Orange rep said! Even if you turn off the 3G to save surfing megabytes, and even if you make sure to stay near Wifi hot spots at all times, you are STILL going to end up connecting to the cell data network!
The implications? If you have the iPhone, you are REQUIRED to have at least 500 MB in your data plan (since the next jump after 150 MB is 5 GB, that’s what you need to do, at least with Orange). Even if you plan on using just Wifi. Is this a “feature” Apple built in to help the cellphone companies it sells to? Why haven’t I heard this fact before (I did a lot of internet searching before calling Apple)? If this is the case, how can they let a customer walk out of the Orange store with only 30 MB in their data plan?
Once again, our local “business sharks” take what was supposed to be a nice, fun experience and use it as another excuse to shake down loyal customers. Lessons for the future: There is no way an iPhone is going to cost $200 (the price announced for the 16GB iPhone for last week) if you buy yours from an Israeli cellphone company. And two, when the iPad finally comes around, get ready to spend – $499 just isn’t going to do it. If they treat iPhone customers like millionaires who can throw money away on large data plans (who have no choice in the matter either), I can imagine what they’re going to do to the “super exclusive” iPad crowd!
As of Saturday night, Israelis are able to bring iPads into the country. The Communications Ministry has apparently decided that the wifi system in the iPad is not a danger to the security channels, as apparently had been thought originally.
So what happened? How does a “security problem” magically turn into a non-issue? Perhaps it was the heavy and embarrassing media coverage; or maybe they realized that indeed, as I reported, several Apple products that are already sold here already contain the problematic Broadcom chip that was at the root of the problem.
Whatever – the bottom line is that what could have turned into a boon for Apple’s Israel importer, iDigital, will now be working to its disadvantage, because it’s likely to be months before Apple is ready to supply international markets with iPads. Now anyone who wants an iPad can either peg a friend to bring one in for them. Or, they can order one from Mustop, which can get the basic wifi model one for $660, with all taxes and shipping paid. Too bad for Chemi Peres, son of Shimon Peres and the head of iDigital!
Oy vey. Once again Israeli buyers of a hip gadget are about to get ripped off – with the “authorities” doing everything they can to make sure they get “theirs” (as in their money) out of the pockets of the schnook customer.
But like with so many other items (coincidentally, mostly from Apple), the markup is going to be much higher, because “they” are going to do their best to prevent customers from getting reasonably priced iPads – basically forcing Israelis who want one to get it from the local Apple license-holder (the iDigitalretail store, which is NOT an Apple store!) for a premium price, just like they did with the iPhone. The difference is that the iPhone was a lot easier to hide, so the customs people have a much better chance of nabbing iPads when people try to smuggle them in!
the decision follows the refusal of the ministry’s engineering staff to compromise on testing the device’s suitability and compliance with Israeli wireless networks… For now, the ministry has not given the device categorical approval required for wireless devices; and ministry officials say its wireless technology is not compatible with Israeli standards.
“The iPad device sold exclusively today in the United States operates at broadcast power levels [over its Wifi modem] compatible with American standards,” explained the officials. “As the Israeli regulations in the area of Wifi are similar to European standards, which are different from American standards, which permit broadcasting at lower power, therefore the broadcast levels of the device prevent approving its use in Israel,” said the officials.
So, it’s possible that this is what the engineers meant when they said there were “different standards,” although 802.11n is in use in Europe as well. It would seem to me that they main bugaboo here is the chipset’s ability to broadcast, usually frowned upon in Israel.
Now, I’m no engineer, but I do know how to Google – and it took me about 45 minutes to come up with this data (the things I go through for you people!). But certainly one would expect engineers from the Communications Ministry to have put two and two together and realized that they had already approved use of this Wifi chipset in Israel! If I could figure it out, they could too.
The thing is, there is no one to lobby for approving the iPad, no one to point this out to – and now that the engineers have made their decision, any change is going to have to go through “channels.” And where will those channels channel through? Why, right through iDigital, the Israeli “experts” on all things Apple. And what do you think iDigital is going to say when asked if they recommend unfettered importation of an item they are planning to sell eventually, for more money of course? I may be a cynic, but I know how the game is played!
As I predicted, and as my prediction has borne out, the iPad won’t be coming to Israel for a long time – officially, that is (they say maybe at the end of the year…). But thanks to some enterprising Israelis, you can get an iPad right now – a used iPad, to boot, even though the thing has been on the market for three days!
This miracle comes to you courtesy of Israel’s premier second-hand site, Yad-2, where you can buy used electronic equipment, TVs, cars, even apartments – and now, iPads! There are currently about two dozen iPads up for sale on the Yad-2 site, apparently purchased by enterprising Israelis (or their agents) when the thing went up for sale (I imagine that the iPads are currently sold out in retail stores, and shipping from Apple takes about two weeks at this point). The prices for these “used” iPads range between NIS 2800 for the cheapest 16GB version – $756, not too bad of a markup from the $499 it costs at Apple stores – to NIS 4,700 ($1,270) for the $699 64GB version. Expensive, but still cheaper than paying for a ticket to the States, taking a cab or train to the Apple store, standing on line, having lunch at some mall eatery, doing some “extra” shopping, and coming back home.
About the iPad itself I have nothing to say, since it has all been said by every talking head out there already. Suffice to say I’m very happy with my Macbooks and my smart phone, so I’m probably not going to be an iPad early adopter. But you never know.
I did, however, notice some interesting phenomena associated with the iPad that I would like to share. Were I in the market to buy one, I would usually buy an item like an iPad at Amazon, which has free shipping, no tax, and easy return policies. Right now, though, you can’t buy an iPad at Amazon – they’re not being offered there yet.
Or is “yet” the right term? Usually, Amazon usually takes pre-orders for every new gimcrack and gizmo (especially those from Apple) – but there’s not a hint of iPad availability, now or in the future, at Amazon. Is it because Apple is keeping iPads “in the family” – ie only at Apple retail stores and, I guess, at AT&T stores when the 3G version comes out (a la the iPhone) – or is it because Amazon is taking seriously the iPad’s potential to compete with, and probably eventually outsell, the Kindle?
Here’s something really interesting: The domain, ipad.com, is NOT owned by Apple! It instead belongs to, according to Alexa, one Martine Bejasa of South Fork, New Jersey, and is copyrighted by the Enero 6 Corporation. There is much speculation in the blogosphere on the nature of this Enero 6 (Enero is January in Spanish), with some attributing it to an in-joke by Steve Jobs, who has historically made some major Apple announcements on January 6. However, there really is no need to speculate; the New Jersey phone number of Mr/Ms. Bejasa is listed on his/her domain information page.*
A quick Google search of the name shows that Martine is a real person and has owned the iPad.com domain name since 2001. Considering that Apple owns all the other domain names associated with their products – iPod.com, iPhone.com, and Mac.com (but oddly, not Macbook.com), Mr/Ms. Bejasa could be in for a big Apple payday!
*NOTE – I checked the info on the actual Alexa page and it seems to have been changed. But I still get the original info -with the phone number – using my Alexa plugin for Firefox. Which means I could actually call Mr/Ms. Bejasa to clarify this – but I’m not such an iPad fanatic. If anyone wants to scoop the blogosphere, here’s your chance!
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