10 specific lies, 2 pointless whines & 1 vicious smear Apple told the FCC; also, how the Google Voice app really works (w/iPhone video proof goodness).

Aug 22nd, 2009

One thing I keep getting into it with Apple people over, the last day or so, is the look, UI, functions and even purpose of Google Voice, an app rather notoriously never released for the iPhone, as Apple rejected it, thus prompting the federal investigation ongoing this week.

I was in a hurry to get to the new Tarantino movie last night (awesome, going again), and just didn’t have time to cover this – really, the most extensive, outrageous, and easily exposed pile of lies in Apple’s response. “No, we didn’t reject the app” was bad enough, but here’s Apple’s description of how Google Voice works on a smart phone. I’ve marked everything that’s an outright lie in red, anything that’s a pointless, whiny distraction in blue, and one particularly nasty and unwarranted insinuation about Google is in green.

Question 1. Why did Apple reject the Google Voice application for iPhone and remove related third-party applications from its App Store? In addition to Google Voice, which related third-party applications were removed or have been rejected? Please provide the specific name of each application and the contact information for the developer.

(1) Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it. The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, (2) it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and (3) Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail. (4) Apple spent a lot of time and effort developing this distinct and innovative way to seamlessly deliver core functionality of the iPhone. For example, on an iPhone, the “Phone” icon that is always shown at the bottom of the Home Screen launches Apple’s mobile telephone application, providing access to Favorites, Recents, Contacts, a Keypad, and Visual Voicemail. (5)The Google Voice application replaces Apple’s Visual Voicemail by routing calls through a separate Google Voice telephone number that stores any voicemail, preventing voicemail from being stored on the iPhone, i.e., disabling Apple’s Visual Voicemail. (6) Similarly, SMS text messages are managed through the Google hub—replacing the iPhone’s text messaging feature. (7) In addition, the iPhone user’s entire Contacts database is transferred to Google’s servers, and (8) we have yet to obtain any assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways. (9) These factors present several new issues and questions to us that we are still pondering at this time.

Question 4. Please explain any differences between the Google Voice iPhone application and any Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications that Apple has approved for the iPhone. Are any of the approved VoIP applications allowed to operate on AT&T’s 3G network?

(10) Apple does not know (11) if there is a VoIP element in the way the Google Voice application routes calls and messages, (12) and whether VoIP technology is used over the 3G network by the application. Apple has approved numerous standard VoIP applications (such as Skype, Nimbuzz and iCall) for use over WiFi, but not over AT&T’s 3G network.

(Full text of Apple’s response is here.)

Wow, that is a lot of bullshit, even for Apple. Let’s try to move quickly, here. First of all, Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch had his own Umberto Eco on the road to Damascus moment recently and has been hitting Apple deservedly hard, much more so than anybody else in social/tech journalism or blogging – who tend to be, to put it mildly, a bunch of iFanboys. (Either that or they’re no party in the back, even, and necessarily dedicated to a better, more established enterprise solution than Stroke Phones – BB, Symbian, Palm. I respect that.)

He’s been pretty much winging it alone and taking a lot of pot shots for it (This pile of nonsense from his own house today, even – I address further down why calling Google Voice “totally the wave of the future” demonstrates perfectly Gillmor’s willful ignorance about everything he discusses in his piece. I’m just resigned, at this point, to the Apple faithful insisting that all the carriers are like AT&T when they aren’t and all the smartphones are like iPhones, really, until the wave overtakes them in a year or two.), and he posted earlier on this topic, covered stuff I don’t need to, and I developed some of what I’ll write here arguing in the comments. So just skip over there and don’t read the rest of this, I guess. Swing by and give Arrington some sugar if you’re hip to the Android scene, anyway. We Have An Advocate, Ladies and Gentlemen. They are a gift of the universe and should have virgins sacrificed and little pickles strewn on their behalf.

What’s most hilarious is that the Interwebs are full of Apple troops today, all repeating and embellishing Apple’s account of how Google Voice works, speaking with absurd confidence about an application whose noted absence from their platform of choice is the reason we’re all talking about it this week and the past several weeks. In other words, these people have never seen or used the software they’re describing as though they had.

After all, Apple said.

Anyway, on to numbered points. Twelve of them. Sigh.

***

(1) Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it.

You can start reading with Arrington’s column on this one. Or just go look up the media accounts from several weeks back, when it happened. There’s no chance for error in them, and there was no mistake in the report. Parties all around were quoted. Oh, and if you still buy Apple’s story, you might ask yourself why, after not rejecting the official Google Voice app, Apple purged the App Store of previously-allowed third party Google Voice apps.

The FCC didn’t start an inquiry into whether or not Apple did this, they’re investigating why. They’re not likely to be very impressed by the non-answer, never mind the implied condemnation of the Commission and its work by insisting the subject actions of the investigation never happened.

Oh, and the lying’ll piss them off, too. Especially if they can’t prove it – proving Apple actually banned Google Voice, for instance, could be tricky if they can now plausibly state it was all a misunderstanding. Luckily, Apple tends to lie big and wide when they do lie, so there’s always enough scattered and left over to pin solidly to them.

Thursday, when you woke up, the FCC was investigating Apple because they barred Google Voice from the App Store. That’s still true today. The only thing that changed between then and now is Apple said “Nuh-uuuuuuh.”

(2) it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality

Nope, it absolutely does not. You can’t even honestly say it “appears” to do so. Here’s a demo of a third party app for the iPhone, which works exactly like the Android version does, although it apparently has a “dialer.” That looks pretty much exactly like the default system dialer, so why they bothered, who knows?

That is not how they described the iPhone Google Voice app functioning in their statement, not even close. And this isn’t even the Google Voice app, it’s somebody else’s solution that does way more of what Apple’s complaining about than the Google Voice app does. And it was approved.

And hey, what do you know…third party applications that actually do some of the stuff with Google Voice Apple complained about so bitterly, that the Google Voice app doesn’t, like replacing the dialing interface, they were perfectly okay for the App Store, so long as Google didn’t make them! (They’ve been removed, since.)

VoiceCentral was approved, GV Mobile was approved, but when Google wanted to put a less intrusive official app in the store, that’s when Apple put its foot down.

OH, and on that note, check this shit out:

This is what customer service reps taking customers’ purchased software away were saying last month about it. Apple’s clearly covering for AT&T, now, too.

You use the system’s interface to make calls – dial out, choose contacts, whatever you usually do, and here’s what fully-functioning Google Voice, the app, does to your precious, precious UI:

(1) If you want to choose per call, you get a popup box, (2) if you’re dialing through Google Voice, you get a brief message saying that’s happening, which then vanishes.

If you want to turn on the options to always or never dial through Google Voice, you’d rather do that manually when you want to, you won’t see any of this except the “Calling with Google Voice” message for a second when you use it.

And I don’t even use the official Google Voice app. See, Google actually encourages third party developers to compete with its own offerings. And I added my Google Voice number to MyFaves so I can make any calls that might otherwise push me into extra minutes over my contract that way. So I use GV Dialer, an app that adds dialing my GV# and necessary menu items there to dial out to any number I want to when I call. I just dial the same dialer everybody does, and my call goes to Google voice and then I make a call out of there, except it’s automated.

I never even see the “Calling with Google Voice” message, using GV Dialer.

Oh, and BTW, there are any number of Apple-authorized dialer UI replacements in the App Store. This one even got picked as a featured app earlier this year. So they’re lying about even having a standard where nobody can rework those particular features.

Yeah, that’s some consistent standard Apple’s rocking on the iPhone about nobody replacing the dialer, ever. Should I go on? I can dig around and find a bunch more. Boy, it’s almost like it’s only Google who can’t do this on the iPhone, but that would be CRAZY.

and (3) Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail.

Already dealt with the dialer UI and features. This one’s easy: the Google Voice app does SMS and voicemail, yes. Its own. Which is separate from your standard carrier calls and solutions. Those are the only two things the app does, really, except dialing your GV# when you want it to. If you’re having messages or calls forwarded to your cell phone, they show up with all your other AT&T/T-Mobile/whoever texts and voicemails, just like normal.

There’s no interference, the two sets of data are entirely different, and if you want it to, Google Voice backs off and doesn’t even pop its head up to remind you it’s there.

(4) Apple spent a lot of time and effort developing this distinct and innovative way to seamlessly deliver core functionality of the iPhone.

This. Is the “distinct and innovative” feature they’re crying about. Which, again, doesn’t go anywhere if you’re using Google Voice.

Wow, a standard touch screen smartphone dialer pad with some controls at the bottom. That must have taken a lot of time and effort.

Palm couldn’t build nearly as fine a set of phone keys on screen back in 2003, when it introduced its first touchscreen phone, the Treo 600:

My god, what would we do without Apple’s devoting so much time and effort in the last six years to the perfection of that interface?

And lest we forget, a quick shared laugh at poor Microsoft’s expense. What a bunch of doofs. This is old.

The iPhone pad ain’t your daddy’s Windows Mobile pad from 2001! Oh wait, yeah, it pretty much is.

(5)The Google Voice application replaces Apple’s Visual Voicemail by routing calls through a separate Google Voice telephone number that stores any voicemail, preventing voicemail from being stored on the iPhone, i.e., disabling Apple’s Visual Voicemail.

Nope. Again, entirely separate, unless you want to route your calls one way or another, which is entirely up to you and you could do that with any phone and a bunch of available services on your iPhone, anyway.

(6) Similarly, SMS text messages are managed through the Google hub—replacing the iPhone’s text messaging feature.

See above, except you can’t reroute either SMS system. (In fact, I don’t even use my Google Voice SMS, except to send test messages to the various phones in this house. I got unlimited texting on the phones dirt cheap for being a loyal customer.)

(7) In addition, the iPhone user’s entire Contacts database is transferred to Google’s servers, and

This is a backhanded way of saying you can merge your Google and iPhone contacts, if you want to.

(8) we have yet to obtain any assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways.

Apple has never expressed any concerns of this sort, and indeed, have no cause to. Nobody does. All late “Google is evil” talk centers around what Google could or might someday do. I mean, sure, they can turn bad like any other company. I’m keeping both eyes open. But if you don’t mind, I’ll wait to start hating them until they actually do something bad.

This is a disgusting insinuation on Apple’s part.

(9) These factors present several new issues and questions to us that we are still pondering at this time.

There aren’t any “factors,” so no they don’t, and no Apple isn’t.

(10) Apple does not know

Bullshit. And if they don’t, I do and they’re fucking stupid, because they have no good reason not to know.

Here’s where the lying gets truly, truly truly outrageous. As there seems to be this massive confusion about a very simple subject among the Apple faithful, this month, and the service is still hidden behind beta and thus mysterious to most, allow me to tell you what Google Voice is: it’s a nicely-featured free answering service. Plus, an alternate long distance carrier. That’s it. There’s no opportunity for Google to utilize data pipes, and neither VoIP nor SIP is supported in any sense. Why would it be? It’d be like bolting a vector drawing canvas or metal detector app onto Google Voice – completely pointless.

All the official and unofficial Google Voice apps do is dial the answering service for you, that and the official one lets you read your voicemail transcripts and send SMS. (And really, if that was such a big fucking deal for AT&T, I bet Google wouldn’t have any problem losing it in the iPhone app.)

Calling through Google Voice, BTW, is not generally optimal. You’re relaying, big time, to make the calls, and call far away enough and you’ll get lag. The sound’s a little mucky, too – it’s a lot like calling through one of those cut-rate early nineties long distance resellers. Honestly, I think this is why T-Mobile doesn’t care about it, at least for now. (Obviously, that can always change.) People have, after all, known about the Google Voice/MyFaves thing and been doing it for six months, when Google Voice opened its doors.

There’s a tradeoff, you understand. The calls I make directly are much clearer. And I’ve still got a contract with T-Mobile, a whole pile of minutes and free hours to use every month, and four other filled slots in MyFaves, for the people I want to talk to all the time off-network, and I need to hear them perfectly as I can.

So T-Mobile loses nothing, I’m still using my minutes and hell, sometimes we even go over, still, and pay some more.

And all that, BTW, is why Steve Gillmor’s calling it “totally the wave of the future” demonstrates his total misunderstanding of what Google Voice is, in the first place. The unintended result, that you can give your phone number to the whole world at once – like I have - that’s interesting to me and an increasing number of other people, and a game-changer, but that isn’t part of Google Voice’s function, it’s a side benefit.

(12) and whether VoIP technology is used over the 3G network by the application.

This isn’t even an issue, since there’s no possibility of VoIP use over any data pipes and Apple knows this. This is further obfuscation and misdirection.

***

Oh, and I addressed that Skype bullshit at the end yesterday. Oh, and that and about a skillion other official apps on the iPhone provide alternate long distance and other voice delivery systems. This is a decision pointed specifically and solely at Google, don’t kid yourself.

So anyway, I have my reasons for mistrusting Apple, real ones, not Three Sillies imaginings about the Google-Fried Future.

There are twelve of them.

***

At any rate, there’s only possible ending to this: the dust is going to settle, things are going to shake out, and Google and Apple are going to have to do business with each other, again. How this is going to play from here is anybody’s guess, but I wouldn’t bet good money on the fed being done with Apple, just yet.

Tweedle me deedles.

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Posted in: Best, Geekery, Work, mobile.
Tagged: Android · apple · apps · bullshit · iphone · phones · tech

Jed

Listen, the bottom line is the App store is a privately run and owned
business; therefore Apple could do as it choses. This isn't the public
airwaves like the Howard Stern issue that lasted several years and he ended up on Sirius ( privately owned & run ). The FCC is sticking its head in where it has no business. Basically, grand standing and trying to make itself look relevant; too bad it took up the wrong issue.

As an example, if I own a store I could choose to sell Pepsi and not coke. If you don't like Pepsi than you can go elsewhere for coke. No one but the market can force me to sell coke.

admin

I assume you feel the same way about Microsoft and Windows, then, and will be petitioning the federal government to reverse the decisions and punishments related to their actions re: Netscape?

Because I sure as fuck don't, and you're nuts if you do. If you just feel like MS deserved punishment, you're just a flaming hypocrite, which is slightly more reasonable.

That's not actually how business works, except under criminally irresponsible Republican administrations that refuse to regulate business in any sense. Apple got a nice long ride on the Bush train, but that train done gone. Sorry.

admin

"The FCC is sticking its head in where it has no business."

BTW, just repeating this foolish meme displays your total ignorance of these matters. Cell phones are, in fact, regulated differently in the US than in other countries. Effectively, every single cell owner in the US is a licensed radio operator, that's how we dovetailed that emerging tech with existing law. So, yes, the Federal Communications Commission has the lion's share of direct federal oversight over cell phones, same as terrestrial radio, TV, ham radio, etc.

The FCC is *exactly* the agency that's supposed to do this, and whoever told you otherwise is an idiot.

lrd

Extrapolating the Windows case & Netscape to the GV case & Apple is ludicrous. You can buy an Android phone, a BB ( of several flavors ), a Motorola Windows Mobile phone, a Nokia Symbian phone etc. Windows for the most part is a business defacto standard and MS used this to push out Netscape & others. So please don't compare apples and oranges. Your dislike of Apple shouldn't lead to these erroneous comparison.

admin

I don't dislike Apple. I don't have personal feelings for companies, at all, negative or positive. I rate them solely on what they do.

Apple has turned down *every* browser maker for the iPhone and iPod Touch, based solely on their desire to have no competition in the browser space. If they end up a niche phone market, like they've long been in desktops, they're cool that way, and they can keep acting like Apple. Maybe.

Because there's a bigger picture here to consider, with iTunes at the center. Apple narrowly escaped the same clampdown in the US they suffered in Europe over their vertical monopoly (iTunes almost got kicked right out of the EU. And European customers didn't have to pay for replacement files when Apple killed the DRM there like two years before they did here, because they were forced to.) They still have the same monopoly in the US, they sell seventy percent of digital music worldwide, and in a year or so, they're supposed to hit 30% of all the music sold on Earth, period.

The DRM issue's over, since Apple valiantly gave up on that as soon as it was clear Democrats were coming in (Bush I being the exception, in my lifetime, anyway, Repub admins don't pursue antitrust cases and tend to kill regulations. Democrats put the regulations back and investigate anti-competitive acts and malfeasance.) But Apple still dominates music, and they're migrating that hardware market to iPhone/iPod Touch, making it one big market for them. And again, if you don't know this, iTunes is the real jewel at the center of everything, now. In fact, I'm reasonably sure Apple already knows what iTunes' new name is, because it's not going to be called that much longer. They're going to start selling OS and other software, soon, then third party software, and then I'm pretty sure they're going to add e-books and go head to head with Amazon/Kindle. That's what the tablet's about.

So, um, how many more spaces does Apple get to dominate in and merge into one before they get treated like any other company that big that does the same things?

They're being arrogant fucks about it, though, and doing everything the wrong way. This is the kind of thing that ends with companies getting broken up, sometimes. A little contrition goes a long way when the JD's up your ass, just ask MS. They barely managed to escape that.

Anyway, I'm really not interested in arguing this any further with wishful thinking folks who don't even know what the FCC does or that Apple barely got out of Europe, the last decade, with its skin intact. They take that way more seriously, over there.

admin

Oh, BTW, I talked to a for-real antitrust lawyer I know earlier today. He largely agreed with me - a little reluctantly, as he's also a big huge Apple Fanboy. He schooled me a little on some points I was off on, but...he agrees. It's time for them to take their Big Giant Company Assfuckin'. In fact, it's waaaaay overdue.

TGR

This entire Microsoft-Netscape argument is wrong. First, Microsoft was facing the issue abuse of power: monopoly. Before you can make such a comparison, Apple has to be convicted of being a monopoly in the smart phone/cell phone market. If an anti-trust lawyer agreed with that and said what you said, I would want a different lawyer. As your lawyer probably told you, it isn't illegal to be a monopoly but it is illegal to be abusive about it. We are a along way, in terms of iPhone and one application being rejected, from calling Apple a monopoly based on iPhone. Music may be a different beast, but again, abuse of power must be proven.

Also, your assertion that FCC is the proper agency to look at this is on very weak ground as well. Banning this application in no way hinders a user from making a phone call using an iPhone. At that point, FCC has little to stand on. The airwaves are secure and freely utilized by the consumer.

admin

"This entire Microsoft-Netscape argument is wrong. First, Microsoft was facing the issue abuse of power: monopoly. Before you can make such a comparison, Apple has to be convicted of being a monopoly in the smart phone/cell phone market."

They already have, in the music space. We just didn't b/c Bush was in power. And they're merging the two spaces.

I hate saying this again, but you clearly have no idea what the FCC does, so I have no response to your comments about that.

lrd

Oops! I missed the Palm Pre--- the latest iPhone killer. Sorry; but you get my point.

The FCC can't tell Apple which apps to approve and it can only ensure that Apple complies with content ( curse words & maybe porn) & radio frequency regulations- just look back at the Howard Stern case.

admin

"iPhone killer?" We're talking about two different spaces, and the one iPhone and Android are jousting in is new and I call it Stroke Phones. Ha ha ha. BB and Symbian and Palm are going to keep holding massive enterprise user shares for a good while, just due to the way those markets move. Google and Apple are fighting over the emerging personal use smart phone market. Enterprise inroads might come for one, the other, both, or somebody else entirely later.

"The FCC can’t tell Apple which apps to approve and it can only ensure that Apple complies with content ( curse words & maybe porn) & radio frequency regulations- just look back at the Howard Stern case."

Why on earth would you say something like that, when you know you don't know all the facts and are likely to be grossly wrong? Here, I'll just start you with the Big Seventeen at Wikipedia, grasshopper. If you want to read up on everything the FCC covers and does, have fun. I'd rather read Ulysses backward three times in a row, personally. It's got it's own freaking court system you can spend eight years investigating, if you want.

But you're somewhat correct, in that antitrust action is pursued by the DOJ (for some reason, this is one of those lifelong brain farts for me: I always call it the Justice Department in my head). What the FCC is doing right now is putting together a file on the situation and deciding whether or not it's time to go to the Justice Department with it.

Or you can say it's not it's not it's not and be really surprised when the spankings come.

***

Organization

The FCC is organized into seven Bureaus and ten Staff Offices.
[edit]Bureaus
'The Bureaus’ include processing applications for licenses and other filings, analyzing complaints, conducting investigations, developing and implementing regulations, and participating in hearings.
The Consumer & Governmental Affairs (CGB) develops and implements the FCC's consumer policies, including disability access. CGB serves as the public face of the FCC through outreach and education, as well as through their Consumer Center, which is responsible for responding to consumer inquiries and complaints. CGB also maintains collaborative partnerships with state, local, and tribal governments in such areas as emergency preparedness and implementation of new technologies.
The Enforcement Bureau (EB) is responsible for enforcement of provisions of the Communications Act 1934, FCC rules, FCC orders, and terms and conditions of station authorizations. Major areas of enforcement that are handled by the Enforcement Bureau are consumer protection, local competition, public safety, and homeland security.
The International Bureau (IB) develops international policies in telecommunications, such as coordination of frequency allocation and orbital assignments so as to minimize cases of international electromagnetic interference involving U.S. licensees. The International Bureau also oversees FCC compliance with the international Radio Regulations and other international agreements.
The Media Bureau (MB) develops, recommends and administers the policy and licensing programs relating to electronic media, including cable television, broadcast television, and radio in the United States and its territories. The Media Bureau also handles post-licensing matters regarding direct broadcast satellite service.
The Wireless Telecommunications Services (WCS) such as Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) and fixed, mobile, and broadcast services on the 700 MHz Band.
The Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) develops policy concerning wireline telecommunications. The Wireline Competition Bureau’s main objective is to promote growth and economical investments in wireline technology infrastructure, development, markets, and services.
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau was launched in 2006.
[edit]Offices
The FCC's Offices provide support services to the Bureaus. Though the Bureaus and Offices have their individual functions, they regularly work together on FCC issues.
The Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ) is responsible for conducting hearings ordered by the Commission. The hearing function includes acting on interlocutory requests filed in the proceedings such as petitions to intervene, petitions to enlarge issues, and contested discovery requests. An Administrative Law Judge, appointed under the Administrative Procedure Act, presides at the hearing during which documents and sworn testimony are received in evidence, and witnesses are cross-examined. At the conclusion of the evidentiary phase of a proceeding, the presiding Administrative Law Judge writes and issues an Initial Decision which may be appealed to the Commission.
The Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO) promotes telecommunications business opportunities for small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses. OCBO works with entrepreneurs, industry, public interest organizations, individuals, and others to provide information about FCC policies, increase ownership and employment opportunities, foster a diversity of voices and viewpoints over the airwaves, and encourage participation in FCC proceedings.
The Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) advises the Commission concerning engineering matters.
Its chief role is to manage the electromagnetic spectrum, specifically frequency allocation and spectrum usage. OET conducts technical studies of advanced phases of terrestrial and space communications and administers FCC rules regarding radio devices, experimental radio services, and industrial, scientific, and medical equipment.
OET organizes the Technical Advisory Council, a committee of FCC advisors from major telecommunication and media corporations.
OET operates the Equipment Authorization Branch, which is tasked with overseeing equipment authorization for all devices using the electromagnetic energy from 9 kHz to 300 GHz. OET maintains an electronic database of all Certified equipment which can be easily accessed by the public.
The Office of General Counsel serves as the chief legal advisor to the Commission. The General Counsel also represents the Commission in litigation in United States federal courts, recommends decisions in adjudicatory matters before the Commission, assists the Commission in its decision making capacity and performs a variety of legal functions regarding internal and other administrative matters.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recommends policies to prevent fraud in agency operations. The Inspector General recommends corrective action where appropriate, referring criminal matters to the United States Department of Justice for potential prosecution.
The Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) is the FCC’s liaison to the United States Congress, providing lawmakers with information about FCC regulations. OLA also prepares FCC witnesses for Congressional hearings, and helps create FCC responses to legislative proposals and Congressional inquiries. In addition, OLA is a liaison to other Federal agencies, as well as state and local governments.
The Office of the Managing Director (OMD) is responsible for the administration and management of the FCC, including the agency's budget, personnel, security, contracts, and publications.
The Office of Media Relations (OMR) is responsible for the dissemination of Commission announcements, orders, proceedings, and other information per media requests. OMR manages the FCC Daily Digest, website, and Audio Visual Center.
The Office of the Secretary (OSEC) oversees the receipt and distribution of documents filed by the public through electronic and paper filing systems and the FCC Library collection. In addition, OSEC publishes legal notices of Commission decisions in the Federal Register and the FCC Record.
The Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis (OSP), essentially a think tank within the FCC, identifies policy objectives for the agency. OSP works closely with the FCC Chairman and is responsible for monitoring the state of the communications industry to identify trends, issues and overall industry health. OSP acts as expert consultants to the Commission in areas of economic, business, and market analysis. The Office also reviews legal trends and developments not necessarily related to current FCC proceedings, such as intellectual property law, the Internet, and electronic commerce. Previously OSP was called the Office of Plans and Policy (OPP). Catherine Bohigian has been the chief of the OSP since 2005.[9]
The Office of Workplace Diversity (OWD) develops policy to provide a full and fair opportunity for all employees, regardless of non-merit factors such as race, religion, gender, color, age, disability, sexual orientation or national origin, to carry out their duties in the workplace free from unlawful discriminatory treatment, including sexual harassment and retaliation for engaging in legally protected activities.

lrd

And finally, should this become a regulatory issue; then the DOJ would step in. As they did with MS.

admin

Oh, they will. Apple's cruisin' for a bruisin', here. If MS had been remotely this cocky, like I've said before, there wouldn't be an MS, anymore.

cesjr

You're simply wrong. To equate google voice with a few random alternate dialing interfaces is a joke. Google voice threatens to shift users away from apples core interface. These other apps don't. Please get a clue.

admin

No, it doesn't. I established that at great length. I use it every day, you don't. Apple's lying to you, sorry. They do that a lot to their customers. It's one reason they're not a company I approve of, really.

admin

BTW, if I took VIDEO of myself using Google Voice on my Android phone instead of screen shots and you saw exactly how it worked, *then* would you believe me?

Because this is feeling all religious, up in here. I don't think anything could possibly convince you I'm telling the truth about how the app works and Apple is lying. I'm about to give up with "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Jed

Dude Apple could shutdown the app store tomorrow; it's that simple. Buy a BB or Palm and stop getting all excited about nothing. If GV is so good then buy an Android phone; ah, but does Sprint or T-mobile allow it? Would Verizon allow it? Or MS on Windows Mobile?

I am all for competition; and for choices but this case isn't worth getting all excited about. If GV is that good than Apple's the one that will suffer in the long run. I'd prefer for the iPhone to be on all carriers but I'm not crying foul.

admin

"Dude Apple could shutdown the app store tomorrow; it’s that simple. Buy a BB or Palm and stop getting all excited about nothing. If GV is so good then buy an Android phone; ah, but does Sprint or T-mobile allow it? Would Verizon allow it?"

They can't do anything about it, aside from not selling Android phones, really. VoIP, Googles gives countries and telcos latitude on, not like it matters, since you can run unauthorized apps under a standard Android install and there are several grey markets, already. I'm pretty sure the OS license on Android requires, in exchange for the software for free, that a base install be adheared to. And ain't never been an Android phone yet you can't just check a box on and run pretty much whatever you want.

I had like three different tethering apps I could run before I rooted my myTouch, and now I've got more and better. And my phone still ain't "jailbroken." If it fucks up under warranty, they'll give me a new phone. Only Apple puts a proctoscope up customer's asses on that kind of stuff.

I can do anything I want on my phone, and you can't on an iPhone. You can't even send me a text with a picture attached, for god's sake. What kind of asshole company does *that?*

Sorry if I'd rather you could do anything you wanted, too. It matters to me.

"I am all for competition; and for choices but this case isn’t worth getting all excited about. "

Sorry, I think it is. I don't want the primary computer spaces of the next decade or so to be run by companies like Amazon and Apple who think they can change agreements unilaterally whenever they like and raid customers' libraries whenever they feel like it.

Devotee

"Sorry if I’d rather you could do anything you wanted, too. It matters to me."

It also matters to me, and I really thank you for your post.

When it comes to criticize Apple, it seems that some people doesn't have a blindfold, but a fucking bath sheet wrapped all around their heads.

admin

"When it comes to criticize Apple, it seems that some people doesn't have a blindfold, but a fucking bath sheet wrapped all around their heads."

I keep harping on this, but...that's because Apple's been successful in marketing a story: that they invent everything, everybody else steals from them, they're the company that actually *loves* you, oh, and you're an instant computer geek because you bought Apple.

And what's really going on in that process, the important thing, is that the customer is being sold on spending way more for a specific platform. And people who overspend like that have a common defensive reaction whose name escapes me at the moment, but it's a key component in that kind of marketing. You make sure that when they start feeling Buyer's Remorse, they direct it at everybody else, not the people who sold them The Best Computer Ever Made by God Except You Get It Home and It Isn't.

It's ugly. I feel bad for people sucked into it, but not bad enough to care about their hurt feelings, especially as Apple people tend to be the biggest Can Dish It Out but Can't Take It folks in the universe, that way.

Devotee

I recently came into Apple's world (Universe?), as I needed an intel mac to use the iPhone/iPod SDK. I already had a (somehow) borrowed old emac that I upgraded myself (memory, hard disk, a real dvd recorder and the latest leopard release) and it works very well... I really like Apple's OS X, and I was quite impressed on how the 5 years old emac was responding after upgrading it... Until I tried to install the SDK and I found myself stuck with an "ooops! it seems you don't have a shiny intel mac computer!".

So I went for a mac mini. It's beautiful, it's small, it's fast, and it can be upgraded quite easily. For the price (apple store) of a March'09 2.2Ghz mac mini I bought a 2.0Ghz mac mini at a local retailer, 4GB of memory, and a 320GB internal hard disk. And it's a pretty decent machine, I must said, specially because of the OS running on it.

So far, it's really like a love story or a fairytale, isn't it. Don't hold your breath!

One day I needed to make a backup of all my data on eight DVDs. Everything worked fine until the mac mini decided that he wouldn't record another single disc again. The DVD drive was noisy. VERY noisy. Have you heard a 747 taking off in your own room? I can lend you my mac mini and you'll find out. Oh, and I just got a "Spinning Beach Ball of Death" everytime I tried to record a DVD, and had to reset the machine as it was totally unresponsive. That was the precise moment when I remembered everytime I had heard the typical "Your Windows crashed? You shoul get a mac, you'll never see a BSOD again!". Oh yeah, not a "boring" BSOD but a nice spining coloured ball.

I decided that what was happening wasn't normal, so I checked for my DVD drive model (a Sony Optiarc) and Google for it with the hope of finding an answer and a possible solution to my problem. And I sure did:

"We've had reports in this forum that there are different brands of DVD drive being used in the 2009 Mini, and that some of them vibrate excessively unless the Mini is turned on its side.

It's almost as if DVD drives intended for the iMac are ending up in some Minis.

As an experiment, you might try turning the Mini on its side to see if that silences the DVD drive. If so, I would return it for a Mini with a different model of DVD drive."
(http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?thread...)

I just couldn't believe it. I turned my mini as suggested and... Voilá! Total silence and it was recording DVDs flawlessly. It seems that Apple had some spare imac drives hanging around (drive is in vertical position on the imac) and they used it for the new batch of mac minis (the mac mini drive is in horizontal position). As the drive is calibrated in order to work in a vertical postition (imac) but you put it in an horizontal position (mac mini), things go bad.

And here I am. A proud owner of a noisy mac mini that needs to be turned on its side to work correctly. I might name it "Boeing" or "Airbus". Or "Thunderscreech", for historical (and geeky) reasons. I would downgrade the mac mini and try to send it back to Apple (that seems the only solution they can give -wouldn't a firmware update help?-) but I'm lazy and not really in the mood. And I'm scared of calling Apple and tell them "Hey, I have a noisy mac mini but I made some [minor] upgrades to it myself, can I send it back so you swap the dvd drive for a silent one?". I really fear their answer. The other option is to spend around $50, buy a REAL drive (that can be easily turned region free with a firmware upgrade -there is not a single firmware update for the Sony Optishit, either official or not-), upgrade it and forget (erm... not really... I'll forgive, not forget) this little adventure.

Apple fanboys can say whatever they might want, but ever since I entered the wonderful world of Apple, I just got kicked in the nuts. And that's NOT what they were promising my in those shiny, white, clean ads they make.

Ah, Apple... You looked soooo good far in the distance...

admin

Your Mac Mini story is not a big surprise. Remember, I started out on Macs, have used them extensively since 1992 (I mean, I'm a designer) and have been friends and frenemies and lovers of Apple folks.

Everybody I know who ever bought an Apple laptop? OMG, the stories, and not just stories - my ex had one of the first PowerBooks, which had this insane problem with the power cable, and she had to prop it up all the time in exactly the right way or the cable would come out and the laptop would shut down immediately. And Apple just keeps having that same problem with their laptops - I just heard about another one a few months ago - because Mac folks don't complain to or about Apple, ever. They just deal with the manna the Lord has provided for this day, and trust He will provide better later, and there must be some kind of plan to my continually buying hideously expensive laptops that work worse than bottom of the line models from Dell.

Me, I just buy computer hardware based on one primary vector: it doesn't do bullshit like that.

admin

Oh yeah, you should enjoy this: I go out and find Apple people talking frankly, sometimes, when I can. It usually happens when somebody gets handed a crushing disappointment, like Apple do, that kills all the good marketing happy feeling.

I read a very sad story online a few weeks back - this guy took his Mac laptop in to the Apple Geniuses on the last day of his warranty, because of a problem with his keyboard he kept putting off dealing with.

So the Genius takes it in the back and comes out with it all opened up and points out some little brown stain on the inside of the case that's probably stray glue from manufacturing or something. "You spilled coffee or soda in here," he says, "Sorry, your warranty is void."

Even better, everybody who responded just tried to resell him on how awesome Apple is, anyway. I have a feeling he got browbeaten into going and buying another laptop from those fucks.

admin

Oh, BTW, the predictable consumer state I was talking about is called "post-purchase rationalization." If you're willing to fuck with your customers in that state...well, you're likely to be as successful as any person asshole enough to take advantage of other people's weaknesses. Unfortunately, you can be pretty successful that way.

Anyway, I looked it up and then put it in one of those QR code things I've been doing, then remembered I'd mentioned it to you.

Jed

Oh, and let me add this last thought. We, the Govt, have bigger fish to fry than GV on an iPhone which even you allude has very little enterprise penetration. We have an economy of the verge of collaspe; Wall St. is for shit ( confidence level at all time low) we don't manufacturer shit; healtcare system on verge of collapsing; gas companies are raping us and the Govt does shit about; utility companies are raping us and the Govt does shit about... get the point.

admin

You're just acting like antitrust law doesn't matter because you don't have the slightest clue why it does. Trust me, you'll get umpteen opportunities, coming up, to learn that lesson. I hope it sinks in sometime. I don't think I have much more to say about this, do you?

Jed

Dude- don't hold your breath. The more I think about this the more I know the FCC isn't going to do anything. Be productive with whatever device you own or could afford. Don't hate Apple for who they are; I see that all too often.

Eventually all phones will resemble or be able to acquire the same functionality as the iPhone.

And of course if push comes to shove, Apple's got $31 billion cash it could you to protect its interest. With the iPhone on its way to a $10 billion in revenues for Apple ( I think ) I would fight if I needed to.

admin

" The more I think about this the more I know the FCC isn’t going to do anything. "

You've demonstrated quite ably that you don't know how to think shit about shit, so I'm not sure how more thinking appealed to you as a solution. How about if you stop thinking about it and go read a fucking book outside your head about how the FCC works? Or antitrust law? I can recommend several, just off the top of my head.

Jed

Google's attempt to "high jack" the iPhone and all the data on it would be unacceptable to Apple, RIM and any other phone maker. That would make it all too convenient for anyone at the end of their contract to jump to an Android phone. And I am sure Google would capitalize on this.

admin

"Google’s attempt to “high jack” the iPhone and all the data on it would be unacceptable to Apple, RIM and any other phone maker."

That scenario running through your head sounds delicious, and way more fun than reality. Yo go, girl.

Steve Gillmor

I skipped down to your promised explanation of why I'm wrong. In fact, the whole Google Voice disruption is about unifying the entry point to voice and realtime. That's why Apple is pissed and for good reason. It's also why they'll remain pissed right up until the carriers cave, which will come very quickly once there is a second front. Guess who that might be.

admin

"In fact, the whole Google Voice disruption is about unifying the entry point to voice and realtime."

I don't see any "disruption" except the one Apple pretends is happening, because they're a marketing-based-on-pretend company like that. Like I keep saying, it's a freaking answering service.

This is just Apple falling out of love again, like they do - I mean, how many times have we all swooned to the epic romances of Vineffer and Brangelina and AppleBM and Adobapple and MicroApple and Motorapple and AppleBe and...fuck, some of those people, Apple married and divorced three or four times! All the software we all use all day, now, is littered with the trinkets left from Apple's constant love of falling in and out of love. (Ah, True Type. Our salad days, where have they gone?)

So yeah, much as you might want to hope Liz Taylor will really find true love before she kicks, GoogApple was clearly never going to be Til Death To Us Part?

You may know a shitload of secrets more than me and may be right about the "voice and realtime" thing, but all I can go on is what little I dig up and my own insights into what's in plain sight. And Google isn't trying to do anything like what you're suggesting. Their core revenue stream is still what it always was, search, although they're clearly being smart in seeing the end of that coming up fairly quick.

Oh, and I do know that what I've been talking about, Apple drawing all its horses and wagons in around the iTunes store and going after Amazon and Kindle, that's really happening, and that's a justifiable area of a concern for anybody, very much so the federal government.

michael arrington

great post. twittering it at @arrington.

admin

Oh, thanks, man. Cheers.

Steve

RIM, Palm, Nokia and Microsoft could only dream about having these kind of problems.

Part of me does believe that rejecting the Google Voice app is a backhander at Google after the boardroom fiasco. Apple would have been pissed to hear they are coming out with their own operating system, this is a nice way to remind them who owns what in this world.

I also believe that Apple is experiencing growing pains with the app store. Seriously, this service is clearly a runaway train.... hence the envy of all other manufacturers.

I see good things on the horison. Apple will start to reject less apps which will only make the platform stronger. Look to see GV and a whole lot of other rejected apps make their way back onto the app store.

admin

This is just...how Apple is, what they do, how they act, or at least, it's the Apple I've been observing pretty closely for almost a quarter-century, now. Their whole rep, post-seventies, is based on their almost-successful attempt to convince the world they invented the GUI/Mouse computer and be the only company allowed to sell computers like that. They failed at it. That isn't noble, it's been a constant relief to me, actually, since.

Do you even remember the lawsuits, how Apple claimed over and over in court that a shitload of Englebart and Xerox inventions were theirs, and drove everybody who hit the PC market before Windows did, the little guys, out?* Do you remember the outcomes when MS fought back instead of folding like everybody else? A whole big list of Apple on paper in court saying "This is our invention" about almost everything about the desktops we've loved and suffered in teh past two decades, and they got spanked for it. (To be fair, yes, after four years, MS was found to have infringed on a couple of items, which they were required to remove from Windows. Bet you can't name any of them w/o looking them up.) Not as bad as they would have if they'd prevailed over MS, though, unlikely as that was: Xerox sued Apple halfway through the trial, just in case they won. Because if Apple had won, Xerox would have won a hundred times as much from Apple, and we might all be using or fondly remembering the Xerox Macintosh, today. No shit.

"Apple will start to reject less apps which will only make the platform stronger. "

Not by choice, not w/o a massive shift in company character and direction. That's the opposite of the way Apple's always done business. And it's the way Google already does on their little computers, why I decided to go Google.

*BTW, can you read between the lines on this and see that Apple, ultimately, cleared the way for MS to dominate in the DOS space and then carry that into Windows, as PC users migrated to GUI/mouse? That it didn't have to happen that way, there were at least two contenders in the space before Windows, and that Apple - not Microsoft - killed all the competition in the PC space for Windows before 1990? The Mac/Windows fight was over way before it even started. Thanks, Apple!

And really, that does piss me off. I would have appreciated the fucking competition.

Steve

I know Apple well. We all do.

But the Apple of old is dying along with Steve Jobs.

They will give a little.... but not so much that they become like Microsoft or Google.

Why should they? They have a winning formula right now. You may not like it but plenty of us consumers out there do. The fact that I work on a computer that only has 5% marketshare is irrelevant to me... I am happy. This is all that matters.

My iPhone continues to wow and convert my Blackberry peers (who like me have kids) and want to be able to record all their families endeavors before they grow up and leave home.

Chill out man... the world will continue to spin... albeit a little warmer than usual depending on who you believe ;)

admin

"They will give a little…. but not so much that they become like Microsoft or Google."

What, you mean "Not having done anything, so far, to warrant federal intervention, like Google?" Or do you mean "Already went buck-wild, got caught, got themselves neutered, like Microsoft?"

"Why should they?"

"Why should they" what? They aren't going to have any choice if they keep on like they're keeping on and the US gets as serious as Europe already got. Apple's like MS over there, now, in regards to music - the company no longer has the option, there, to do whatever it wants, however it wants. Just like Microsoft, here, and it should have happened to Apple here, already, and it's inevitable that it will.

And look, it's finally started, and Apple people keep acting like it's no big deal, and the FCC is a weenie organization overreaching in going after Apple, and thus mockable. Like I said, I'm done arguing about this. I honestly hope your favorite company doesn't end up split into three or four companies, but...that's where they're heading, reacting the way they have, so far. IMO, obviously, but it's also obviously a much more informed O on these matters than anybody who's argued with me on this in the last month or so.

"You may not like it but plenty of us consumers out there do."

No, I realize that consumers are sheeple, that way, and that pretty much every time a company becomes a competition crusher in a way that requires government action, that company has its customer-supporters who always say basically the same thing: "It's THEIR company, can't they do what they want?"

Nope, they can't. Once you reach a level of market share or engage in specific practices (price-fixing and the like) no matter how big you are, you turn into a company that can no longer do whatever it wants to compete. That's the way business law works, when it works best, in this country. It's slower to react than I'd like sometimes, but once that ball starts rolling, like I said, it doesn't stop until the company cries "Uncle" and goes and sins no more, one way or another.

Monkey Man

Sheesh.

Did Steve Jobs steal your lollipop when you were a kid or something?

Look we get it. You're got a hard-on for Apple. But you're getting quite boring now.

admin

You think I have a "hard-on" for Apple, now? Wait'll it finally dawns on them in the next year or so that they've got three phones and a handful of carriers around the world they've been locked to, and in the meantime, there are literally hundreds of phones and carriers running Android.

Then, if Apple and friends follow their old patterns, they're really going to start acting like shits, people like you are going to entrench themselves harder in the fantasy that anything Apple loses was stolen, and then I'm get really pissy. Because then the "You're a stupid piece of shit if you bought Android" campaigns are going to start. And this time, I'm going to do my best to expose how ugly and vile that message is, this time, and how unfortunate that we've just decided to enable Apple's acting out, that way, as a society. When politicians run campaigns like Apple does, they are justly and regularly condemned for it.

You probably think I'm spinning some fantasy scenario in my head, like you do out of habit for <del datetime="2009-08-23T11:26:21+00:00">Mommy</del>Apple, but no, this is all really happening, right now at this moment, and the outcome's pretty much inevitable. Although, you know, a Nano phone and a freaking TABLET, those two little things are pretty cute, too.

James H.

Personal attacks against your readers.... real mature. Why am I not surprised that Arrington recommended this shitty article?

PS I don't own an iPhone.

admin

I only attack people who post marketing babble - whether on behalf of Apple or PETA - in lieu of conversation. I do marketing for a living, some of the time. I don't have any patience for having the kind of shit I write sometimes to sell stuff thrown back at me in arguments as though it were Aristotle. I find it really insulting and kind of tragic, really, and if you think I accept an iota of responsibility for it...well, you'd be right about that.

AdamC

Yawn, yawn, yawn....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

admin

Thank you for your interest.

Partners in Grime

Apple made the iPhone.

admin

Um, yes. And love is good. And fire bad. And there wolf, and there wolf.

slaws

So, buy another phone.

admin

Thank you for reminding me. I really need to put up a couple of posts about the new phone I just bought, sometime soon.

Dipshit.

Devotee

I won't copy and paste this comment from iKeepass developer's blog, as it's quite long and should be read in context:

http://ikeepass.de/bl0g/?p=101&cpage=3#comm...

This application (iKeepass) is another "victim" of Apple's review process, it was submitted eight months ago(!!) and they're still rejecting it again and again.

admin

Yeah, I've been in the App Store, so I know better than to be impressed with that big 65K. Yep, there's ten times as many apps as on Android. And almost all of what passes for an "app" is some amateur-ass bullshit, much of which violates trademark and copyright willy-nilly. Yeah, we got unauthorized A-Team themes and sounds on Android, too.

Thanks, the confirmation of what I've been saying and thinking is welcome.

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10 specific lies, 2 pointless whines & 1 vicious smear Apple told the FCC; also, how the Google Voice app really works (w/iPhone video proof goodness).

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