Mobility Digest » Rants

The Official Vimeo App For WP Still Can’t Upload Your Videos: Another WP Fail

David K — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:52:57 +0000

Sharing videos is an absolutely basic function for a smartphone, one that even Windows Mobile easily handled. In Windows Phones, Mango introduced the ability to upload videos to SkyDrive and Facebook but that was it. When I saw the feature list for the official Windows Phone Vimeo I was excited to see “Easily upload your footage in HD” so I had to try it out and…fail. The only videos that you can upload are those that you take within the app. So you need to launch the app, capture video within the app and those videos can then be shared. Other apps do the same trick by using your local storage and not \videos because Microsoft still restricts access to that folder.

This is somewhat unbelievable to me. Not only has this limitation restricted uploading to Vimeo, YouTube and anywhere else, but that limitation is also the reason there cannot be video editing software for Windows Phones. The workaround that Vimeo uses is novel but truthfully impractical. If you swapping between pictures and videos you shouldn’t need to launch an app to make that switch.

I’m done here…finish my rant in the comments if your stomach can handle it

My Kingdom For a Proper Windows Phone Notification System (and a Proposed Solution)

David K — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

If you have a Windows Phone undoubtedly you’ve heard that ding – there’s a new notification. Could be a text or it could be a notification. You get to your phone and just as you get close the backlight turns off so you turn it on and there’s no indication that anything happened. So now you know you just received a toast notification (you know, one of those guys that comes across the top) but once it goes away it’s gone…like gone. Could have been a number of apps that did it. Which one was it? Mystery meat…Maybe you just missed a notification about a Pageonce payment or maybe it was your invite to play Wheel of Wealth. Wrong – it was your turn to yell at flipping tiles and tell them to go flip themselves.

Windows Phones need a way to store your notification and make it simple and graphical. The other operating systems opt for a drop down method that you can swipe to view them. Microsoft has already shifted the use of the ‘Me’ tile (and Me card) as the place where notifications go but now those notifications are limited to Windows Live, Twitter and Facebook but not applications. If I had to guess, I’d bet that toast notifications find their way there and unread notifications would be visible on the home screen just like the People tiles, but with apps (well look at the poorly done mockup to see what I’m talking about) and then one tap of the Me tile and notifications galore, which launches the app. And yes, these notifications also need to be present on the lock screen and if you want to use a simple graphical system like emails, texts and calls ahs now (so just drop the apps icon on the lock screen or something) that’s fine. I’m at the point at not asking for perfection since now I have nothing and something is better.

Now I don’t care if it gets done this way or another way but one thing is for certain – we need a solution and we need it asap because for all the niceties that the notifications bring to Windows Phones this is a huge Achilles heel.

Eldar Murtazin Has The Credibility of The National Inquirer: Why Is This news?

David K — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:08:37 +0000

How many times will blogs post on Eldar Murtazin’s lies and give him a platform from which to spread his crap? There’s a few things we know. Eldar has not only been wrong on his latest ‘leaks’ about Windows Phones and Nokia, but he’s been so staggeringly wrong as to lose any credibility he may have had (like when he said that Andy Lees would be in a Nokia-MSFT merger meeting after Andy Lees had left Microsoft). He used to be a credible source of information but that’s long past and now he’s used his past record as a method to just make things up and spread whatever misinformation he feels like spreading. Probably just a way to make himself feel lie he’s still relevant. His tweets are thoughts – not fact and not leaks. He’s like the National Enquirer that may get something right once in a while but shouldn’t be considered a news source.

If you want to know about Windows Phone 8, we know very little about it. We don’t even know if it’s core will be a Windows (NT) or CE core. And even if we did know that, it wouldn’t necessarily tell us whether it would run Silverlight and XNA. At this point though, Microsoft is clear that apps will be backwards compatible. Everything else is rumor and if it’s from Eldar, it may be worse than that…

Hey Wiseass, Please Stop Hacking My Server

Doug Simmons — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:33:25 +0000

So I have this server I screw around with, throw XDA-types some free bandwidth and learn how to handle heavy traffic and to administer Linux, to experiment with tweaks before I drop them on this site (like the stock quote widget), this and that. It’s my digital mancave.

The other day I log in to see what’s doing with memcached which I installed to ease up the disk I/O activity (works great), I notice I’ve got recent timestamps on system binaries, wrong chmods, symbolic links in weird directions, netstat isn’t working, w, top, ps, basic everyday utilities. Netstat’s this thing that tells you about every TCP and UDP connection you’ve got, ports, processes attached to them. But the netstat I was looking at was only a few dozen bytes. So I cat netstat and get this:

Motd is the message of the day file, the thing you see when you log in through a text terminal, usually says something about the operating system. And here’s some guy inviting me to leave him a message to start a dialog of some sort, calling me by name, on this file on my system after I discover I’ve been rooted, implying that I should be confident that no matter what I try to do I won’t be able to prevent a subsequent reentry from someone who has taken an apparent persistent nefarious interest in me and my server. And this line in the script he wrote I’m guessing is to make it harder for me to spot a back door if I were to start looking. If he wrote it himself, he’s pretty good; if he just copied it from some hacking website, he’s still good enough to be a threat with his crosshairs on me still.

What’s there to discuss man? What hints have we to swap? I am aware you did this and are at liberty to do it again. I concede perpetual defeat. If you’re thinking extortion, which I doubt, don’t bother, it’s a hobby server. If you’re in the market for some nonstop cat and mouse, I’m not — I’ll pull the plug. Is that what you want? You clearly know what you’re doing, I wish you’d channel that elsewhere. Please don’t turn this taunt into a haunt because I’ll just shutter the joint which would suck for me, you a little, and some guys cranking out roms on xda.

Creepy that it’s someone who knows me as I don’t know anyone socially, real life and online, off-hand who is clearly much better than I am at maintaining the upper hand in what appears to be a game or someone making a point or perhaps trying to teach me a lesson. I try to match the file timestamps against the auth.logs to get this guy’s IP but he covered his tracks, deleted the logs. So I cat the .bash_history, which he did not delete either because he neglected to or to just taunt me, and began to see that what he did after he was in was rather quick and surgical, no fumbling around.

The damage that I could find didn’t strike me as malicious, just a byproduct of the things he installed, including a backdoor daemon and possibly a phone-home thing I found after managing to restore the tainted system files (including those of the sysvinit-utils, like lastb, which I would otherwise have been able to use for clues on who did what to these files). Meaning I don’t think he lit out to break anything unsubtle, hopefully not use my system for anything illegal, just wanted to get my attention.

The right thing to do in this situation is to wipe out the server with a fresh install and put it back together one piece at a time. A few problems with that, I don’t have the time and even if I did, this guy is good and either because I enabled the wrong Apache module or used MySQL instead of Postgres or made the wrong entry in php.ini, all he has to do is be inclined to get back in and I bet he would, resulting in a lot of wasted time. It’s futile.

I don’t purport to be an expert but I’ve thrown the book at this thing to repair the damage and mitigate the vectors of attack, checked everything in init.d and crontab, watched netstat closely, got rid of extraneous daemons, tougher passwords, “hardening” the server, running a bunch of things that listen for sketchy activity and alert me, my own self-penetration testing with things like Nessus remotely, eyeballing what processes are running when I turn everything I use off, server-side with things like Snort and Nagios, .. I guess I should restrict logins to my usual IPs too, better do that now. I think he got in through MySQL somehow, I guess I could try to figure out how to unload all my databases into Postgres and set up everything I use that uses SQL to use Postgres. Maybe he’s not that great and just has a site of MySQL injection updates bookmarked. But I doubt that; I think he’s both good at this and enjoys it.

Or I can hope that he’ll read my response in the MOTD (or this article) and decide it’s getting old (he popped in again recently, this time piping the .bash_history into /dev/null):

Yes I’m aware that asking someone who rooted your server to stop busting your balls as a means of securing your system is not a means of securing your system, but either he obliges and I take his word for it or I have to pull the plug on this thing. I’m aware that writing this article isn’t too bright either, but I think it’s pretty good material. I’m also aware it’s bad etiquette to the rest of the Internet not to format here (or turn off the lights permanently), but c’mon.

Maybe it’s one of you guys. If so, please stop eating up my weekends trying to figure this out. I mean, good job, I get it, you know your way around a server better than I do. I’m confounded yet impressed. And to the rest of you, please don’t get any ideas, this is a big enough pain in the balls, I just wanted to vent here and maybe warn those of you with a server to make backups regularly, to be very selective with respect to things you install that rely on PHP and SQL, not to run anything you don’t need, resist the urge to go for the unstable distribution of your operating system and to remember that if you’ve got an IP you are always a target either to bots or to a friend like mine. If you just want to host some websites, go with shared hosting administered by professionals, don’t spring for dedicated, colo or a vps just to make things more interesting. But if you must, and you don’t want to offer yourself to guys like this with your legs spread quite as wide as mine are, forget Linux and maybe go with OpenBSD.

Doug Simmons

Nokia Shipped over 1.3m Lumia–That’s Not 1.3m Phones Sold Blogosphere

David K — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:18:20 +0000

Isn’t it easier to report facts accurately? From Bloomberg:

The Lumia handsets, which went on sale in Europe in November, probably sold 1.3 million units globally to operators and retailers by the end of last year, according to the average estimate of 22 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The projections range from 800,000 to 2 million and only one analyst predicted sales of fewer than 1 million handsets.

They’re talking about sales to retailers here, not end users and the article continues:

Sales to consumers were probably less than Nokia’s shipments to stores, since the Lumia was not broadly sold out, the analysts said.

They note that an issue may be that the new Lumia’s are high end phones with high end sticker prices and they can’t discount older models yet since they don’t exist yet, but that’s besides the point. Let’s just all be clear that when we talk about these Nokia sales figures we’re not looking at phones in consumer hands and with those facts we can move on. k thnx

Was anyone else totally disappointed in CES 2012?

Matt Anderson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:58:05 +0000

I’ve been watching the yearly Consumer Electronics Show (CES) since I was in middle school. I remember getting incredible pumped and excited about seeing tons of new technology and prototypes that would be on the cutting edge of every field and every type of electronic device I could imagine, and many that I never could, springing to life before everyone else’s eyes and my computer screen. However, it seems as the years have progressed from the Playstation and milk with school lunches, to beer between classes and whatever the hell that thing Nintendo is supposed to be releasing next year, I have become jaded to this whole technological spattering of prototype tech. I think it is also highly possible that CES this year just sort of sucked.

So let’s examine the “me being jaded” angle first. I work at Best Buy and I see new gadgets coming out all the time. The usual plethora of goods shown off at CES don’t make their way to the big box retailers for a year or two, depending on the prototypedness of the device being shown, but what I’ve seen out of this years CES show has been nothing impressive or all too different from the current selection of goods and services out there right now. We saw a slew of new tablet manufacturers, woo-freaking-hoo, cramming the same Mobile OS’s into slightly bigger screens with mostly lackluster results. We saw Android crammed into a rear view mirror with basically no practical uses so far. To me, CES almost seemed like a giant promo shot for every device that was shown, saying “Wait until the smaller and more targeted trade shows before you can see anything cool.”

For me, this is not a problem. I’ve been way more impressed with the technology brought to bear in shows like the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, in the past few years anyway. I believe this is indicative of a major shift from a giant and singular electronics show, where devices can be lost in the sea of booths and swaths of enormous PR events from heavy industry giants like Microsoft and previously, though not this year or probably any time soon, Sony. There are major shifts away from this singular event to more targeted trade shows like MWC, E3, or Photo Marketing Association (PMA). Here these devices can differentiate themselves more from similar products on display at these shows. Along with the draw these more directed shows have for smaller manufacturer’s the larger companies are also starting to bail out too. Apple pulled out of CES several years ago and now CES big kick off company, Microsoft, is also ditching the trade show to focus on these more directed shows.

Now I am very excited about this years MWC. It hasn’t disappointed since I’ve been following. CES has had a slow slippery slide into lameness in the past three or four years. E3 has even failed to ignite my interest despite being an avid video game player, but I’m guessing this is merely do to my desensitization and anticipation from Skyrim, but this year will reveal the truth. So am I the only one that got absolutely no excitement from CES this year? Do you think CES is becoming less relevant in the face of the growing number of specialized trade shows? Let us know in the comments.

I’m Not Enraged By Apple’s iBook Author EULA–I Must Be Doing Something Wrong

David K — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:45:20 +0000

Today’s iBook 2 rollout was obviously going to be greeted with lot of applause at another game changing move by Apple and a lot of hate at the method and exertion they use to change the game. One surprise that came out of it is the outrage of developers who have read the iBook Author EULA. ZDNet’s article is titled “Apple’s mind-bogglingly greedy and evil license agreement” to give you a sense of the fire being sprayed and it relies on the findings of an article titled “The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA”. What’s this all about? Well here’s the clauses in the iBooks Author EULA:

IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a “Work”), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple.

And

B. Distribution of your Work. As a condition of this License and provided you are in compliance with its terms, your Work may be distributed as follows:
(i) if your Work is provided for free (at no charge), you may distribute the Work by any available means;
(ii) if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple and such distribution is subject to the following limitations and conditions: (a) you will be required to enter into a separate written agreement with Apple (or an Apple affiliate or subsidiary) before any commercial distribution of your Work may take place; and (b) Apple may determine for any reason and in its sole discretion not to select your Work for distribution.

There’s a few different attacks taken against this. The best attacks the ramifications of this passage. They correctly note that Apple has rights to the iBook that you produce using their iBook Author software. In other words, if you make an iBook using their software and wish to sell it then you can only sell it through Apple (and give them their cut). To be clear though, the content is still 100% the authors. You can take that same exact content and drop it into any other ebook authoring application even if you have an iBook. In fact, you can make an identical ebook provided that you don’t use the iBook Author software even if you also have an iBook Author version. It’s the output file that they have rights to. ZDnet notes “Imagine if Microsoft said you had to pay them 30% of your speaking fees if you used a PowerPoint deck in a speech.” Similarly Venemous Porridge states “It’s akin to Microsoft trying to restrict what people can do with Word documents, or Adobe declaring that if you use Photoshop to export a JPEG, you can’t freely sell it to Getty. “ Well yeah but we all see the difference here, right? Both PowerPoint and Photoshop are applications you pay for up front and then the resulting output is yours. The iBook Author software is free but you pay on the back end. Simply a different revenue model and maybe one that people don’t like but I’m not blown away by this. In fact the push back for their pricing scheme may ultimately play well for the industry. They just reestablished a profitable niche market and over the next few years there will be lots of new eTextbook software authoring tools out there and expect Google, Adobe and Microsoft to release their versions as well. Of course, those versions will likely rely on a standard format (like epub) as the output but on the other hand the software will probably be priced like PowerPoint, Word and Photoshop – expensive. Some give, some take and the markets continue.

Clearly there’s not too much actual outrage here as a lot of large textbook publishers have already signed on to this so they expect to give Apple their share and if they want to release these books for other platforms they’ll re-author the books for the other platforms, which is similar to what you have to do to port a game from iOS to Android (but actually far simpler in terms of eBooks).

Anyway, the critics are also noting that the EULA says that Apple can choose to not select your work for distribution. Blah. Really they’re using that to make sure that if something reprehensible is published they have discretion but if they start to use their market to choose what students learn expect an antitrust hearing to follow in short order. That’s not the purpose of this.

Bottom line for me is that I think this is all overhyped anger and if you’re that opposed to it, then don’t use their tools. I’m an Apple hater more than you are but when the blogosphere starts to attack first and ask questions later then none of us win.

So what are the Carriers actually testing?

Jim Szymanski — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:05:09 +0000

Earlier this week I was relieved to hear that update 8107 for Windows Phone was beginning to rollout to fix the “disappearing keyboard” bug, that I suppose was one of the 500 new features we got with the Mango update. That disappearing keyboard thing is one of those dark WP secrets that we fanboys (and girls, or maybe fanpeople) don’t talk about when touting how amazing our phones are. But it has honestly been a super PITA since it first appeared. Especially when the keyboard would vanish, after spending 5 minutes to write a thorough and concise response to an article on MD or other sites, while you were working on the final, “making my point”, sentence.

So I was a little more than dismayed when I read a couple days later that Microsoft is rolling the update out, “to those carriers who request it”. WTH! Anyone who has waited for a Carrier update knows what that means. I wonder what the current line in Las Vegas is for AT&T (and other US carriers) making this update available for any WP, and especially discontinued Gen1 devices. Of course there are reasons for not making the update available, first and foremost because they need to dedicate resources for “TESTING”. But we all know in mobile speak that means, “we want you to buy a new phone from us, preferably on contract so we can lock you in for another two years”.

Let me try to understand this. Microsoft released the highly touted, and long anticipated Mango update that every WP handset was eligible to receive. AT&T, along with every other Carrier, had many weeks, probably months to TEST this update before it was released to their customers. But yet they overlooked; the disappearing keyboard bug, the GMail syncing bug, the Exchange missing forwarded message bug, the voicemail notification bug, and the location allowed access bug. Ok, these are OS issues and I guess AT&T was not looking of them, but then what do they need to TEST in order to “allow” an update to be pushed through on their network. Why do these updates, which include bug fixes and features, need to be bundled? Why can’t Microsoft push bug fixes, that have absolutely nothing to do with the OEM or Carrier, stand alone and over the air. Why does AT&T have to test a bug fix, essentially a defect. Does your local car dealer TEST every manufacturer recall, and decide which one to make available. Help me to understand, please!

I have PCs, a laptop and a notebook, at home and at the office all running version of Windows, built by different manufacturers and using Bright House and AT&T as service providers for Internet/Data access. And I get updates from Microsoft every few days for each of them. Plus, if I check Windows Update, I often get updates for peripheral devices attached to these machines. Do Bright House or AT&T check these updates to make sure I still have an Internet connection after they are installed? No, why not?

Sure, I know that I can get this update manually by following Ramon’s well written directions here, but I have always been a stay between the lines kind of guy. I don’t install custom ROMs because every one I have read about fixes one thing and breaks or leaves off another. Basically, the only ROM I would be happy with would be one that I brewed myself. The Farmer Ted way of thinking. Now, I will be at my nearby AT&T store on March 18th looking closely at the Nokia 900/Ace and will most likely leave with one in hand, making my current Surround fair game for whatever I choose to do with it. But it does cause me to stop and think, do I really want to be at the mercy of my Carrier for another two years, “hoping” they “request” updates from Microsoft. I really can’t afford it, but an unbranded phone sounds better to me every day. Something to think about.

Rant: More Drivers Texting While Driving Even After Bans and Fines

Kristofer Brozio — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:24:42 +0000

I’m not sure what to say about this one, but I think it’s just stupid really. Apparently there are a lot of you out there who don’t care about laws, and are actually texting more while driving even after your states have banned it. What’s the reason for this really? Is what you have to say that important that you’re going to risk your life and the lives of those on the road with you? I guarantee that probably 99% of those texts are stupid and pointless things like gossip or just nothing in particular that couldn’t wait until you go where you’re going or actually saw the person. The sad thing is that the person you’re texting while driving and breaking the law is probably the person you’re driving to see.

Talking on the phone while driving is bad enough, but texting is a lot worse as you’re not looking at the road you’re looking at what you’re typing. Last night I had a stupid lady come inches from hitting me because she was talking on the phone and not paying attention to what was going on. I was trying to park to take my kids to their karate class, my turn signal was on and my car was in reverse, I mean the signal was blinking and the back-up lights were lit up but yet she just kept driving all the way up to my bumper and then she slammed on the breaks at the last second because she happened to notice I was backing up. At that point it was too late for me to park as there was traffic and she had no room to back up to let me park so I lost the spot and had to drive around the block two more time to get a parking spot. I’m sure if she was texting it would have been an accident and not a near miss like it was.

I’ve seen too many people driving while texting. The phone up on the steering wheel and they’re tapping away while swerving back and forth and even into oncoming traffic. Is that text that important? Is it more important that your life? What’s worse is that some of you morons out there actually are composing full emails while you’re driving?! I mean what? Why? A text is short and abbreviated, but a complete email while you’re driving? That’s just idiotic really.

Seriously though please tell me what the hell is wrong with you people? It’s illegal in 35 states now to text and drive but yet you’re texting more? Is it because it’s like more of a thrill now to do it because you’re breaking the law? There’s a reason the laws are in place, to protect you and to protect others. I remember when there wasn’t text messaging, what did you do then? Why is it so important now?

The funny part is hat those of you that text while driving actually think that it doesn’t affect your driving ability. Seriously? I’ve seen you people swerving while texting. I wish you people that think that could see a video from outside of your car, like behind it, of what you look like while you’re texting and driving because I’ve got news for you, it does affect your ability to drive.

They’re talking about enacting a national ban on texting and I’m all for it as I’ve seen to many people driving recklessly while texting and because I don’t understand what’s so important you’ve got to text while driving. You can’t give me the excuse that it’s business related either, there wasn’t always texting so what did you do before text messaging and emails on your phone?

I sure as hell don’t text while driving, actually I don’t like texting at all really. Honestly I try not to even use the phone while driving. If I’m expecting a call while I have to go somewhere then I’ve got a headset on, but if not I just won’t answer or if I do I say “I’m driving, let me call you back in a bit”. As for making calls while driving, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve done it while I was driving this year. As far as dialing I do it at a red light or stop sign, but not while I’m actually driving the car. For the most part it’s not even dialing, it’s hitting contacts and then hitting the person I want to call, and not actually dialing digits which takes more time for your eyes to be off of the road.

In my opinion, those of you that text while driving, especially in states where it’s illegal, you’re all a bunch of idiot morons. That text isn’t worth your life or the lives of those around you.

I could go on and on about this, but I think you get the point, or maybe you don’t as you’re probably one of those people who think you’re a perfect driver and can text, and eat, and read and write emails etc while driving. You know what, wake up, you’re not a good driver, in fact you’re a worse driver while you’re texting. I’ve seen it first hand but I’m sure you don’t believe that and you won’t until you’re in an accident or worse when you kill someone because you just had to text so and so about who knows what.

Grow up, drive responsibly, and start thinking about someone other than yourself for once. You’re not the only person on the road.

There’s a story at AP about this with quite a bit of info: More drivers texting at wheel, despite state bans

Here’s another interesting story regarding this: No more talking behind the wheel: Scientists develop system that can shut down your cell phone while you’re driving

Voice command makes me feel like Wilford Brimley.

Matt Anderson — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:42:03 +0000

I don’t know why, or even when I realized it, but I can’t stand voice controls. In part because of its inherent limitations and also because it just doesn’t work very well for me. Some people complain about voice controls not understanding colloquial accents and I, hailing from southeastern North Carolina, can totally understand how dialects can confuse the hell out of any OS but the thing is I have an extremely neutral tone. I have no southern twang in my speech and no discernible regional accent to speak of. I have been told that I mumble occasionally but I always feel like unless the microphone is situated directly against my vocal chords inside my throat that it’s about as useful as a sandbox in the Sahara. Before you get into the whole “Windows Phone voice controls just suck,” argument let me cut you off and slap you with the fact that it isn’t just Windows Phone. I’ve used voice controls on almost all platforms from Android and even old-school WinMo days, all the way through IOS and Siri. Screw them all. Local processing or server side doesn’t seem to help. The only thing that gets me any closer to proper results is changing my voice to sound like Microsoft Sam, which doesn’t appear awkward or anything when I’m trying to illustrate voice commands to customers. This isn’t my only gripe with voice commands though. There is a small functional problem with the implementation of every voice control I’ve seen on a mobile device.

Why in the hell do you have to press a button to start voice commands? This seems like a massive flaw. When you market voice commands as the “Use the phone without having to press buttons” sort of thing it just doesn’t make any sense. Then you have commercials of blind people using Siri to somehow manage a phone that has a grand total of two physical buttons?!? Yeah, no. Recently there was an article that explained how Siri was Apple’s broken promise to their customers. I don’t think it matters who it is that’s implementing these voice command solutions, as it never pans out as expected.

Does anyone else out there hate voice commands like I do? I’m interested because maybe, to voice command, I do sound like I have “Diabeetus”. But I’m wondering if anyone else does too. Should there be a command word to make the phone start listening for voice commands like most devices (GPS, PC’s, etc.) have to avoid the use of buttons entirely? Is Wilford Brimley still funny? I think the resounding answer to all of these questions is yes.