Following yesterday’s report from the New York Post detailing Apple’s lease with the MTA for their new Grand Central retail store, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli plans on looking into the deal and ensuring “MTA hasn’t given away the store”. Other state officials are raising concerns as well. Yesterday DiNapoli issued a statement (via New York Post):Best iPhone 4S Case|Best iPhone 4S Cover|iPhone 4S Case|iPhone 4S Cover

The article in the New York Post about the MTA’s contract with Apple in Grand Central Terminal is a cause for concern. This is a prime property, and I intend to make sure that the MTA hasn’t given away the store.

Yesterday we found out that the MTA has given Apple a bargain on its lease for the new retail store at just $60 per square foot– approximately $800,000 during the first year– in comparison to the $200+ per square foot most other tenants pay. However, the MTA doesn’t necessarily agree with DiNapoli’s concerns, who has also performed an audit of the MTA in the past finding mediocre real-estate practices, and issued a statement regarding the issue. While pointing out Apple paid $5 million up front to restaurant Metrazur to move into the northeast balcony space, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan had this to say in a statement:

Consistent with the Comptroller’s recommendations, the MTA moved proactively to maximize revenue and quadrupled the rent we receive for this unique space… They are effectively paying $180 per square foot over the 10 years of the lease, almost 10 times the previous tenant.

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State Senator Tony Avella told CBS 2's Tony Aiello (via CBS) he thinks taxpayers are being ripped off in the deal:

There needs to be an investigation of who negotiated this deal. The taxpayers of this state are being ripped off that Apple is getting this sweetheart deal.

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DiNapoli’s concerns are understandable given last year’s audit of the MTA found the previous tenant, restaurant Metrazur, was given $2.4 million in lease concessions stemming from the MTA failing to meet a lease provision where the space would be kept at a particular temperature. The MTA apparently didn’t do the proper research before signing the lease with Metrazur and that lead the state to warn the MTA about their real-estate practices:

There was no evidence the MTA had conducted such a study before accepting the tenant’s request for the lease provisions,” the audit found. We recommend the MTA ensure such special lease provisions are, in fact, practicable before it commits to them.

Apple’s Grand Central retail store is expected to open next weekend.

It’s a stats day today as research firms push out various surveys at the beginning of each month. Having chewed on Apple increasing its lead over Android in mobile OS usage and Chrome surpassing Firefox globally, it’s time for some iPhone numbers. According to a ChangeWave Research survey of 215 iPhone 4S owners conducted November 2-9, folks are loving their new handset better than the previous model.Designer iPhone 4 Cases|Designer iPhone 4S Cases

Apple hit new highs in customer satisfaction as a whopping 96 percent of respondents are Very Satisfied (77 percent) or Satisfied (19 percent) with their new iPhone 4S, while only two percent consider themselves Unsatisfied. So much about the iPhone 4S battery issues tarnishing the Apple brand. That’s not to say the problem is non-existent as 38 percent of respondents dislike the too short battery life. However:Louis Vuitton iPhone 4 Cases|Louis Vuitton iPhone 4S Cases|Louis Vuitton iPhone 4 Case|Louis Vuitton iPhone 4S Case

Two-in-five owners said they had experienced reduced battery life with their iPhone 4S (40%). But when asked how much of a problem this issue was for them, only 8% of all owners said it was a Very Big Problem while 20% said it was Somewhat of a Problem.

Dropped calls? iPhone 4S owners reported half (2.5 percent) the rate of dropped calls their iPhone 4 counterparts (5.2 percent) reported in the June 2010 survey. Dropped calls on iPhone 4S are primarily attributable to “owners now using multiple wireless service providers – as opposed to only using AT&T back in July 2010?. Lack of 4G? A downer for nearly one in three (30 percent). Interestingly, just one in ten, or eleven percent, don’t like the new iPhone’s relatively small 3.5-inch display compared to the monstrous 4-inch and bigger Android devices. All other iPhone 4S dislikes are in a single-digit range.Chanel iPhone 4 Cases|Chanel iPhone 4S Cases|Gucci iPhone 4 cases|Gucci iPhone 4S Cases

As for the likes, 49 percent are sold on Siri, 39 percent are all for ease of use and 33 percent like the new camera system. Faster web browsing and high screen resolution also rated high. Interestingly, the heavily advertised iCloud service ranked sixth. More likes and dislikes in a pair of pretty charts after the break.

Call me a fanboy (I’ve been called worst things), but such a high degree of approval – 96 percent – is unheard of in the industry and goes a long way explaining the iPhone’s stickiness. In addition to ChangeWave’s reputation and this survey, another credible (depending on your view) organization, Consumer Reports, recently recommended the iPhone 4S, saying it “did not display the same reception flaw” in their tests compared to the GSM iPhone 4. With that in mind, we can finally put questionable “surveys” claiming iPhone 4S buyer’s remorse in South Korea and the United Kingdom to rest.

The bad news is that yes, Carrier IQ is running on iPhones right now, as we speak.  Carrier IQ,you’ll recall is the rootkit that Carriers put on many of their phones to monitor customer usage.  As a security researcher found out, Carrier IQ monitors keystrokes and sends that back to its own servers.  On Apple’s devices, it appears to have been cut off from such activities.  Developer chpwn breaks it down:Burberry iPhone 4 Cases|Burberry iPhone 4S Cases|Hermes iPhone 4 Cases|Hermes iPhone 4S Cases

Carrier IQ, the now infamous “rootkit” or “keylogger”, is not just for Android, Symbian,BlackBerry, and even webOS. In fact, up through and including iOS 5, Apple has included a copy of Carrier IQ on the iPhone. However, it does appears to be disabled along with diagnostics enabled on iOS 5; older versions may send back information in more cases. Because of that, if you want to disable Carrier IQ on your iOS 5 device, turning off “Diagnostics and Usage” in Settings appears to be enough.

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So it appears that on iOS it stores less information, and it doesn’t seem to be sending anything as long as ‘Diagnostics and Usage’ (iOS 5) is turned off – which is the default (you are asked to enable it during the iOS5 setup). On older versions of iOS, especially v3, it appears to be sending data without a toggle.

Verizon representatives have said that they do not run Carrier IQ on their devices which include iPhones, iPads, and Android, Blackberry and other devices.  Other carriers have yet to make a statement on the matter but Carrier IQ brags on its homepage that it tracks information on 141 million devices (and counting) which is about half of the US population.Louis Vuitton iPhone 4 Case|Louis Vuitton iPhone 4S Case

On iPhones where Carrier IQ is activated, it appears to send the following information back to the servers:

• CoreTelephony
  • your phone number
  • your carrier
  • your country
  • active phone calls
    • (However, I only saw it noting that a phone call was active, not what number was dialed or it was received from. But, I am not going to claim it doesn’t do that: it’s certainly possible, but didn’t see it.)
• CoreLocation
  • your location (Only, however, if Location Services are enabled.)
• (Possibly more I haven’t yet found.)

Top mobile operating systems. Source: Global Statcounter, November 2011. Click for larger.

A pair of reports released today reveal that Apple’s iOS mobile platform increased its lead over Android for the month of November, while Symbian remains the most commonly-used mobile operating system globally. This follows last month’s trend when iOS increased its lead over Android as well.Louis Vuitton iPhone 4 Cases|Louis Vuitton iPhone 4S Cases

Per Global Statcounter data, a mobile analytics service tracking three million sites, iOS in November 2011 accounted for nearly one-quarter of mobile OSs, growing from 23.48 percent in October to 24.21 percent in November as Android dropped marginally from 22.11 percent share to 21.9 percent share.

Apple’s lead should be viewed in the light of pent-up demand and the successful iPhone 4S launch, which sold four million units during the launch weekend. Symbian remained the leading mobile OS with a 30.95 percent share (up from 29.84 percent in October), while BlackBerry OS recorded another loss, dropping from 9.49 in October to 8.44 percent in November.Hello Kitty iPhone 4S Covers|Hello Kitty iPhone 4 Covers|Designer iPad 2 Cases|Louis Vuitton iPad 2 Cases|Chanel iPad 2 Cases

Net Applications, which collects data from the 40,000 participating web sites, paints a different picture but relative differences between mobile OSs appear to confirm Global Statcounter’s findings. According to Net Applications, both iOS and Android lost share in November, with the former dropping as much as 7.46 percentage points, going from 61.5 percent share in October down to 54.04 percent in November.

Android in the same period went from 18.86 to 16.72 percent share. However, Symbian – the top mobile OS in the Global Statcounter survey, emerged an also-ran in Net Applications data, having recorded just 5.27 percent share in November (3.47 percent in October). Interestingly, Android’s lead over Java ME was short-lived: The latter grew from  12.81 percent in October to 19.69 percent share in November, overtaking Android after Google’s software had managed to pass passed Java ME devices in October, for the first time.

Top mobile operating systems. Source: Net Applications, November 2011. Click for larger.

Looking at just mobile browsers, Global Statcounter pegged Android at 20.41 percent share in Nobvember, down from 20.88 a month earlier, while iOS grew from 18.78 to 19.53 percent share. This points to the conclusion that iOS’s lead in web page-heavy tablets is bigger than Android’s lead in relatively light usage smartphones. Net Applications confirms those relative trends. iPod touch, BlackBerry and Nokia all lost mobile browsing share in November and Opera remained the most commonly-used mobile browser, going from 21.52 in October to 22.49 percent share in November. Users are increasingly spending more time accessing the web through mobile devices at the expense of desktop computers. Mobile accounted for 6.95 percent share of all web use in November (6.55 percent a month earlier) while desktop platforms lost 0.40 percentage point, going from 93.45 in October to 93.05 in November.

A petition has been floating around this afternoon railing Apple for being ‘anti-choice’ extremist, because Siri won’t serve up Siri results for Abortion providers, instead leading users to “anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers”(CPCs). Groups like NARAL want Apple to take action:Gucci iPad 2 Cases|Burberry iPad 2 Cases|Swarovski Crystal Cases|Swarovski Crystal iPhone 4 Cases

News reports have documented that, in some instances, Siri responded to a question concerning where to find abortion providers by directing an individual to anti-choice organizations known as “crisis pregnancy centers”(CPCs). Anti-choice groups created CPCs to look like comprehensive health clinics, but many do not provide women with accurate pregnancy-related information. This issue is especially important to us at NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, as our state affiliates in California, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia have produced reports that document these deceptive practices. Many of these centers are not up front about their anti-abortion, anti-contraception agenda when advertising online or in other channels. For instance, many CPCs do not disclose their bias to women who walk through their doors or call their toll-free lines seeking information. Ultimately, many of these centers can be harmful and do nothing to help women locate the services they requested from Siri.

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The petition is issued straight to CEO Tim Cook with almost 20,000 backers. But is Apple really at fault here?  Just like when Google’s search algorithm pulls up manipulated results (like Santorum), Apple and its location partners like Yelp are pulling up manipulated results.  Still, Apple plans on fixing this issue.

The NY Times asked Apple about the matter and got a response from PR Rep Natalie Kerris.   She basically said that this isn’t intentional and that Siri is a beta product that will see changes in the coming weeks.

“Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want,” said Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, in a phone interview late Wednesday. “These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks.”

It’s apparent that Apple still has a few kinks to hammer out when it comes to Siri, and that’s obviously why they’re still calling it a beta product. Siri has also seen its first pro-longed outage and doesn’t return with the search results some would like. Still, it is much better than anything else out there.