Lawmakers want probe of Petraeus investigation

Senior lawmakers called for an inquiry into the FBI’s handling of the case of CIA Director David H. Petraeus on Sunday as new details and questions emerged about the investigation that led to his resignation last week.
Law enforcement sources identified Jill Kelley, 37, of Tampa as the woman whose report of harassing e-mails eventually exposed an extramarital affair between Petraeus and Paula Broadwell, a former Army officer who wrote a biography of the retired four-star general The departure in disgrace of one of the administration’s most respected and prominent figures came as President Obama is reorganizing his national security team for a second term. Petraeus was to have been a primary witness this week at a series of closed-door congressional hearings on possible intelligence and security lapses surrounding the September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said Sunday that news of Petraeus’s resignation was “like a lightning bolt” and that top lawmakers had not been aware the inquiry was underway.
Her first inkling, Feinstein said on “Fox News Sunday,” came from media inquiries Friday, just hours before Petreaus’s resignation was announced publicly. She called Petraeus, she said, and he told her of his plans.
“This is something that could have had an effect on national security,” Feinstein said. “I think we should have been told.” She said the panel will “absolutely” investigate why the FBI did not notify relevant officials sooner.
Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said: “It just doesn’t add up that you have this type of investigation. The FBI is investigating e-mails, the e-mails leading to the CIA director, taking four months to find out that the CIA director was involved.”
“I have real questions about this. I think a timeline has to be looked at and analyzed to see what happened,” King said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The FBI investigation began after Kelley visited the bureau’s Tampa office in early summer and provided investigators with harshly worded e-mails accusing her of seeking an intimate relationship with Petraeus. Kelley, who is married to a Tampa surgeon, met the general when he was head of the Tampa-based U.S. Central Command, from 2008 to 2010. A military official said she was an unpaid volunteer at MacDill Air Force Base, where the headquarters are located.

Ballmer: Apple has not produced a product that customers use

Someone in Redmond, WA needs to call the folks with the straitjackets, as it appears that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has gone certifiably bonkers. AllThingsD's John Paczkowski notes that in a recent interview with CNBC, Ballmer went on record as saying that "I don't think anybody has done a product that is the product that I see customers wanting. You can go through the products from all those guys ... and none of them has a product that you can really use. Not Apple. Not Google. Not Amazon."
Okaayyyyy, Steve. Just put down the Microsoft Surface and sit down, and let's talk about this. What about the 100 million iPads that Apple has sold in a little over two years? How about the Amazon Kindle Fire, which (despite the company refusing to release actual sales figures) is supposedly the best-selling Amazon product ever?
Ballmer is maintaining that everyone wants the Surface, which he touts as the product that can be both PC and tablet, at play and at work. Perhaps it's the stress of last week's product launch of Windows 8 and Surface, or maybe the fact that the company is spending an estimated $1.5 billion to launch those products that's causing him to lose sight of reality.
Paczkowski ends his post by saying that "Maybe Microsoft will change users' expectations for tablets. But after two and half years and 100 million iPads sold, it's not going to be easy."

Why Lightning is extra awesome

Updated for clarity & to note that 30-pin cable is also universal for iPhone and iPad.
Apple's Lightning cable received a fair amount of criticism when it was introduced along with the iPhone 5. The new port replaces the 30-pin connector found on previous iPhone models and contains proprietary technology that makes it difficult to clone.
As noted by Jason Perlow of ZDnet, customers who use the port may miss their arsenal of 30-pin accessories, but they may come to appreciate the technological advantages this new cable system provides -- especially when compared to the mixed bag of charging standards on the Android side.
The biggest advantage of the Lightning cable's design is that it lets you insert the cable into your iOS device in any orientation. Unlike the standard micro-USB connector and even Apple's 30-pin port, you don't have to eye the port and line up the sides to make the cable fit. Coming from someone who recently replaced the dock connector on an iPad and a Kindle Fire, this is a huge advantage over other port technologies.
Apple's Lightning connector also can carry up to 12W of power, which is plenty to charge either an iPhone or an iPad (when paired with an iPad 2A charger), just as you could do with the 30-pin cable. As Perlow points out, this is quite different from the micro-USB connector world of Android devices; there is no standard for conventional USB that supports more than 9W. This means complications and frustration for tablets that need 10W; either they need proprietary chargers or they charge at the 5W rate.
I don't need to tell you how convenient it is to have one cable and one power adapter to charge an iPhone, iPad, iPod and iPad mini, especially one that's built to last and that you can plug in without looking. This transition period from the 30-pin to the world of Lightning may be frustrating, but it will be brief -- and the next generation is going to be noticeably better.

Why original iPads still sell well

Back when it first shipped in 2010, the original iPad was considered a miracle of modern technology. As with most consumer electronic devices, though, the minute its successor -- the iPad 2 -- was out the door, the original iPad was shunned for the shinier, faster models. But as Wired Enterprise blogger Robert McMillan reports today, original iPads are not only keeping their value, but they're really quite the bargain for a big screen tablet.
Wired performed a study and found that used first-generation iPads are selling well, often at a price tag about US$100 less than a comparable iPad mini. The study quoted Nicholas Fiorentino of Totem, a used equipment reseller in San Diego, as saying "We are shocked at how well the iPad has held its value thus far. There are a lot of people who don't need all the bells and whistles that the iPad 2 and iPad 3 have."
At this point, a first-generation Wi-Fi iPad with 16 GB of storage sells for an average price of $236. That same device sold for $499 in April of 2010, meaning that it's retained almost half of its value. Wired compares that to a Lenovo T410 ThinkPad, which came out at about the same time at $1,270 -- used ThinkPads are now available on eBay for about $300, having lost about three-quarters of their value.
It's expected that the price of an original iPad will drop to about $50 within four years, making the device an irresistible buy for tech-savvy bargain hunters.

iOS 6.0.1 now available, iPhone 5 users need to download installer

iOS 6.0.1 was just pushed to iPhones and iPads running 6.0. The update is 34.7 MB and contains various improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Fixes a bug that prevents the iPhone 5 from installing software via over-the-air updates.
• Fixes a bug where horizontal lines might be displayed across the keyboard
• Fixes an issue that could cause the camera flash not to fire
• Improves reliability of the iPhone 5 and fifth-generation iPod touch when connected to encrypted WPA2 Wi-Fi networks
• Resolves an issue that prevents the iPhone from using the cellular network in some cases
• Consolidated the Use Cellular Data switch for iTunes Match
• Fixes a Passcode Lock bug which sometimes allowed access to Passbook pass details from the lock screen
• Fixes a bug affecting Exchange meetings
• The update is available via Software Update on your iPhone or iPad or the next time you connect your iOS device with iTunes.
• Note that iPhone 5 users will have to download an updater app first, which will then prompt them to update iOS. The FIRST updater will appear in General > Software Updates as normal updates would appear. It will then prompt you to launch it, send you back to Software Updates and the update to 6.0.1 can continue. There is no need to search the store for this app.

Update: It seems Verizon iPhone 5 users will need to reboot after the iOS Updater app is installed, whereas we can confirm AT&T iPhone 5 users do not.

Update 2: Apparently some AT&T users might have to reboot for phase one (the iOS Updater app). Your mileage may vary, apparently. Further, Sprint customers will also reboot.

Lightning to micro USB adapter now available in the US

Apple is now selling its Lightning to micro USB adapter on the US online Apple Store, and presumably in brick-and-mortar stores as well. The adapter plugs into your Lightning dock-enabled device (iPhone 5, new iPad or iPad mini) and then accepts a micro-USB plug. The unit will run you only US$19, and is currently set to ship out in one to three business days.
I'll tell you what Apple really needs to start selling: Lightning-enabled car adapters. I am still using my old (now offline) iPhone 4 to listen to podcasts in my car, just because my dock adapter isn't compatible with my iPhone 5's dock. Yes, I could go pick up a Lightning to 30-pin adapter (and honestly, that's probably what I'll end up doing). But I was hoping to use the upgrade as an excuse to get a brand new car audio solution, and none of those have yet appeared on Apple's website. There are still options out there, it just seems strange that this long after the iPhone 5's release, we still aren't seeing more Lightning accessories.

Evernote for iOS also getting a redesign soon

Now that the Evernote 5 for Mac beta is in the wild, the note-taking software maker has announced that it is currently in the process of redesigning its iOS app. Evernote 5 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is taking some visual cues from its desktop counterpart, with its designers focusing on improving its overall speed and reducing the number of taps required to perform common tasks.

In the preview video below, you can see the shift to a card-style "views" interface that allows for quick flipping between different elements including notes, tags, locations and notebooks. Single-tap actions are also being introduced, including the ability to add new notes with a tap. On iPad, you'll be able to quickly see a list of recent notes as well.

Evernote is saying to expect the update to hit the App Store "very soon," so keep an eye on that Updates tab.