Just after posting the article about new safety measures on US aircraft I found an interesting post on New York Times "Jet Lagged" blog titled "Airport Security Folies"

Here after a short excerpt of Patrick Smith article

" Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd. The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless.

The first variety have taken place almost entirely behind the scenes. Explosives scanning for checked luggage, for instance, was long overdue and is perhaps the most welcome addition. Unfortunately, at concourse checkpoints all across America, the madness of passenger screening continues in plain view. It began with pat-downs and the senseless confiscation of pointy objects. Then came the mandatory shoe removal, followed in the summer of 2006 by the prohibition of liquids and gels. We can only imagine what is next…."

Continue reading it on NYT website 

On my own opinion, Airport security today is a mix between relevant and must have security measures on a side but also theatrical, annoying and ridiculous measures. Some of these measures are time consuming, put passengers and crew on their nerves for no safety added value. What does really justify them?

• Government "zero  political risk" (if something happens they will be able to tell that all possible protection measures were already taken) ?
• Fear factor = better military/law enforcement budget ?
• Security private experts / companies have highly increase their financial income since September 2001. They certainly not ready to give this golden egg away.
• Did I speak about million dollars detectors and scanners manipulated by low trained personnel ?    

but do you think air travels are safer to face well prepared, organized and motivated enemies ?

Yet another post about Apple iPhone, even if, as most of people, I haven't seen it yet. However, reading some articles about this "famous" iphone (11'000 print articles and 69 millions hits on Google in the last six months according the New York Times. 

I find very surprising that following support or services (according Presse-Citron review) will not be available on the, soon to be release, first Apple iphone :

Audio jack is not a 3.5mm standard. An adapter is needed if you want to use your iPod headphones.

Without 3G, Web browsing with the iPhone will be an experience..if you're patient enough and unlucky enough to not find a WiFi hotspot close by!

and last but not least, the antenna is located at the bottom of the phone, right there were your hand holds the phone. This will surely helps a lot when the signal is weak.

Cherry on top of the cake, iPhone will be available only with a 24 months operator's subscription and its price tag is above 500 USD. Even without seeing it live, the so much expected iPhone will not replace my HTC 620.

Sources : Pogue's iPhone Tour & Presse-Citron 

Today, following Steve Jobs presentation during Mac World 2007, all technical blogs were speaking about the long expected Apple iPhone.

Will this iPhone be so different than all others ?

Will Apple have a similar success like with iPods ?

Will it be THE new must to have gimick ?

A Quick Overview 

• 3.5 inches, 480×320 display
• Input method : multi-touch
• OS : Mac OS X "slim version"
• Storage 4 or 8 GB
• WAN : Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Wifi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0
• Built-in camera 2.0 mega pixel
• Size : 115 x 61 x 11.6mm / Weight 135 grs
• Battery :Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing - Up to 16 hours Audio playback

Pros:

• All-in-One Ipod-Camera-Phone
• Wide 3.5'' screen
• Using fingers on screen instead of stylus is rather a good idea
• Great design… as usual
• Safari browser + widgets
• Rich text email client
• Predictive input keyboard
• Hard Disk 4 or 8 GB
• Automatic display configuration change (portrait to landscape)
• Video Player
  

Cons

• Not a smartphone, impossible to add software
• No memory extension slot 
• Impossible to remove the battery (with so few autonomy is pity)
• Not UMTS nor HSPDA
• Price (499 or 599 USD for 2 year contract with the mobile network operator - USA)
• No wireless (wifi nor GPRS/EDGE) iTunes Store downloads 
• No WiFi syncing to your host machine.
• No tactile feedback when strocking keyboard 
• No MS Office, MS Exchange,  Lotus Domino support
• Only available in 2007 Q3 in USA &  2008 in Europe & Asia.

Some links that speaks about the iPhone:

• Ubergizmo
• Le Blog Gadget
• Engadget + Keynote
• Presse-Citron
• Daily Tech

Some report from guys who could briefly play with it:

• Brian Lam Gizmodo
• David Pogue New York Times

Mac World 2007 Keynote and full technical specs

Latest News
CBS News iPhone demo via Presse-Citron 

Now let's wait until the moment we will be able to play with a real one… and see if Steve Jobs was right or not when he said "Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone".