Jim Karpen

Author Details

Jim Karpen's picture

Author Details

Jim Karpen

Jim Karpen holds a Ph.D. in literature and writing, and has a love of gizmos. His doctoral dissertation focused on the revolutionary consequences of digital technologies and anticipated some of the developments taking place in the industry today. Jim has been writing about the Internet and technology since 1994 and has been using Apple's visionary products for decades.

As you likely know, a ton of documents pilfered and leaked by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the US National Security Agency (NSA), have shown that that agency's surveillance has been shockingly widespread, including having access to the phone records of you and me. In recent days, the leaked documents have brought the NSA's snooping even closer to home, with the release of documents that say the agency had the ability in 2008 to take control of an iPhone. They were able to "remotely push/pull files from the device, SMS retrieval, contact list retrieval, voicemail, geolocation, hot mic, camera capture, cell tower location, etc. Command, control, and data exfiltration can occur over SMS messaging or a GPRS data connection. All communications with the implant will be covert and encrypted."

Virgin Mobile began offering the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c yesterday, and this is quite likely the least expensive option for having an iPhone. Virgin is a no-contract carrier, meaning that you pay for the total cost of the phone up front and then pay as little as $35 per month for service. This lowest tier includes unlimited text and data, and 300 anytime minutes of calling. To take the bite out of that initial cost, Virgin Mobile is selling the unsubsidized phones for $100 less than Apple sells them. You can get the 16GB iPhone 5s for $550 and the 16GB iPhone 5c for $450. 

I was feeling jaded, as if I pretty much already knew most of what Apple would be announcing. I was wrong. Some of the features of the iPhone 5S are stunning—and show that Apple hasn't lost its vision. I was especially impressed with the camera (and I'm no photography buff). Some of the features don't exist on any other phone, or even any other camera, in the world. I'll leave it to the experts here to tell you more about it, but here's what I came away with.

I've just recently returned from a 10-day vacation in Tübingen, Germany, a university town with a remarkable and picturesque old city and castle. Many of the buildings in the old city date back to the 15th and 16th century. In preparation for the trip, I spent more than $50 on Tom Tom's navigation app for Europe, wanting to make sure I could get where I wanted to go in the city. Its offline feature was the most important for my needs, mapping info on my iPad without requiring an Internet connection. I have a Verizon LTE iPad and could have paid for data service, but it would have entailed some extra charges, and it seemed like Tom Tom, while expensive, would ultimately save me money. (Long story short: I'm currently grandfathered into a $20/month data plan with Verizon, but would have had to forego that plan if I signed up for service in Germany, and would have been forced into the $30/month data plan forever after.) 

I've long thought Amazon Prime is an excellent deal. For $79 per year, you get free two-day shipping on everything you buy on Amazon, unlimited instant streaming of movies via Prime Instant Video, plus a free book per month from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library of more than 270,000 titles.

And now, those of you with Prime accounts have yet another benefit — the option to stream video while perusing movies on IMDb’s free app, IMDb Movies & TV.

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