“I’m pleased that Apple and Google have confirmed that they’ll be sending representatives to testify at my upcoming hearing on mobile technology and privacy,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said in a statement issued today.

A great opportunity.

A few reality checks, lest I inadvertently do a Glenn Beck number on all of you, here:

1. This database isn’t storing GPS data. It’s just making a rough location fix based on nearby cell towers. The database can’t reveal where you were…only that you were in a certain vicinity. Sometimes it’s miles and miles off. This implies that the logfile’s purpose is to track the performance of the phone and the network, and not the movements of the user.
2. A third party couldn’t get access to this file without physical access to your computer or your iPhone. Not unless you’ve jailbroken your iPhone and didn’t bother resetting its remote-access password…or there’s an unpatched exploit that would give Random Person On The Internet root access to your phone.
3. It’s pretty much a non-issue if you’ve clicked the “Encrypt iPhone Backup” option in iTunes. Even with physical access to your desktop, a no-goodnik wouldn’t be able to access the logfile.

The location data appear to be collected using cellphone towers and Wi-Fi access points near a user’s phone and don’t appear to be transmitted back to Apple. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Funny how these articles always include iPhone in the headline, despite the fact that other smartphones also behave in the same way. The Wall Street Journal, however, is one of the few sources I’ve read so far that haven’t outrageously sensationalized this issue. I’ve head lead-ins on the evening news asking “Is your iPhone spying on you?” and radio shows reporting that “Apple tracking your every move.”

It’s such a funny thing. Threats—like hurricanes and rectal exams—are only scary until they arrive. Once they’re over, they’re just the basis for funny stories. But, you do nearly always survive them. And, if you didn’t survive? It wasn’t because of a lack of fear. Like I say, the universe doesn’t particularly care whether you’re scared.

If you read one thing this week, hell, one thing this month, make it this.

✁

Far more interesting though are the simple apps that are missing from the promotional materials: Stocks, Weather, Voice Memo, Clock, and Calculator. With the exception of Voice Memo these are all basic apps that have been staples from the very beginning, and it makes no sense that they wouldn’t be on the iPad, so why are they absent? I see two options, one of which is far, far more interesting than the other.

It’s a good read, and I agree in Fox’s view that these apps are too obvious to be left out. However, I don’t quite think he’s found the solution. It doesn’ keep computing simplistic enough, as I see as iPad’s MO.

• Microsoft Office costs about $100 bucks. iPad’s productivity suite, iWork, costs $30 ($9.99 x 3). Microsoft is who should be really scared about iPad, not Amazon, not Adobe, not Google. Yes, I know that iWork for mac is $50 but the iPad apps will be a big deal because they’re on them from day 1 and Office isn’t.
• On the subject of price, Apple announced the release of these three apps at a purposely priced $9.99. If you look at other apps Apple has released for the iPhone, they’ve been priced at either $0.99 or Free. Nine-ninety-nine is the new $0.99.
• The Kindle cost $359 when it first came out. It now costs $259. I say this for reasons. First, the iPad costs $140 more than the Kindle, when looking at both on launch day. But with iPad, you get a hellavalot more, including a color screen, and 16GB of memory. The price of the Kindle hasn’t stopped Amazon from selling 3 million of ‘em. Second, and more importantly, price will come down over time. Five-hundred dollars was the price of the original 10GB iPod, which isn’t even in the same league as the iPad.
• iPhone OS 3.2? Not 4.0? As we should learn from the version numbering of iTunes, Apple considers point releases as minor releases, and dot zero releases as big-deal-new-announcement-worthy versions. The iPad was a HUGE announcement, yet no dot zero release. Something’s not adding up here…
• Comparing Steve Jobs in this Keynote with other significant Keynotes (I’m thinking iPhone), there seems to be holes that he’s not ready to talk about. What are these holes? Is that why it’s 3.2 and not 4.0?

At its core, the iPad is a consuming machine, not a creating machine (at least in its currently presented iteration.) Yes, I understand there are quite a few of those 140,000 apps in the App Store that allow people to create and share, but only under very specific constraints. And not nearly on the level that I can with my laptop.