Showing posts with label Android. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Android. Show all posts
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The new arm race: Samsung Galaxy Gear, the Pebble and the Sony Smartwatch 2.[/caption]
Before cellular phones in the 1980s, pagers were the popular mobile device with professionals: little devices with tiny alphanumeric readouts that notified you when someone called your land line. Remember? No? Ask an old person, or a healthcare professional.
Cell phones made pagers obsolete over 20 years ago, but they're back again, retooled for the social media of the 21st Century and the irony?
The simple dumb phones that killed pagers, evolved into the complicated smartphones that are giving them a new lease on life.
Today's pagers still notify you of calls to your phone number; they also notify you of incoming SMS text messages or email or any social media nods -- they're all over Twitter and Facebook notifications. Most of them can "dial" your phone, and many of them can play MP3 files, and all of them can tell the time.
And "pagers" was so 20th Century -- they've changed their name to "smartwatches."
The new arm race: Samsung Galaxy Gear, the Pebble and the Sony Smartwatch 2.[/caption]Before cellular phones in the 1980s, pagers were the popular mobile device with professionals: little devices with tiny alphanumeric readouts that notified you when someone called your land line. Remember? No? Ask an old person, or a healthcare professional.
Cell phones made pagers obsolete over 20 years ago, but they're back again, retooled for the social media of the 21st Century and the irony?
The simple dumb phones that killed pagers, evolved into the complicated smartphones that are giving them a new lease on life.
Today's pagers still notify you of calls to your phone number; they also notify you of incoming SMS text messages or email or any social media nods -- they're all over Twitter and Facebook notifications. Most of them can "dial" your phone, and many of them can play MP3 files, and all of them can tell the time.
And "pagers" was so 20th Century -- they've changed their name to "smartwatches."
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Maybe you can use your old "feature" phone as more than just an emergency paper clip.[/caption]
The most popular tablets are essentially scaled up smart phones that don't make phone calls. Critics who pointed this out back in 2010, asked why people with an iPhone would ever want an iPad. Today the question is reversed: people with iPads and Android tablets are actually beginning to wonder if they still need their smart phones. Maybe all they need are their smart tablets and a dumb phone.
Predictions of the death of old-school "feature phones" (that flip-phone you have in a box with your Palm organizer and VHS tapes) at the hands of iOS- and Android-based smart phones may have been premature. The same features that made smart phones look so good: touchscreens, applications, cameras and Internet connectivity, actually look and work much better on tablet computers.
Maybe you can use your old "feature" phone as more than just an emergency paper clip.[/caption]The most popular tablets are essentially scaled up smart phones that don't make phone calls. Critics who pointed this out back in 2010, asked why people with an iPhone would ever want an iPad. Today the question is reversed: people with iPads and Android tablets are actually beginning to wonder if they still need their smart phones. Maybe all they need are their smart tablets and a dumb phone.
Predictions of the death of old-school "feature phones" (that flip-phone you have in a box with your Palm organizer and VHS tapes) at the hands of iOS- and Android-based smart phones may have been premature. The same features that made smart phones look so good: touchscreens, applications, cameras and Internet connectivity, actually look and work much better on tablet computers.
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Well... Halo runs on Xbox doesn't it?[/caption]
How sad. Microsoft could be competitive in less than a year. The Redmond-based software-and-hardware company announced today that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer would be stepping down within 12 months. Microsoft stock rose nine per cent on the news.
Steve Ballmer went to college with Microsoft founders Bill Gates, and Paul Allen, and started with Microsoft in 1980. He became CEO of Microsoft in 2000, after Bill Gates stepped down.
Ballmer is said to be smart as a whip, but he's always come off publicly as more than a bit of a clownish huckster. Elevation to Microsoft's CEO in 2000 only magnified his "bull in a china shop" optics. Steve Ballmer had the misfortune of becoming Microsoft CEO the same year Steve Jobs became Apple's self-proclaimed "iCEO" In the i-era, Jobs completely out-general-ed, out-coached, and outmaneuvered Ballmer at every turn. Ballmer probably couldn't have helped Apple more if he had worked for them. He blithely, and blindly laughed at, and ridiculed, each of the iProducts, as they pushed Apple back into profitability, and, in 2012, past Microsoft in market capitalization.
Ballmer seriously hated on opensource and Linux, infamously calling Linux, "a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." ► Balmer repeatedly threatened to sue opensource developers for patent infringement. Even without merit backing up it's claims, the threats alone, given Microsoft's legal resources, were designed to have a chilling effect on the opensource movement.
Steve Ballmer tenure as CEO has been a near-total disaster for Microsoft. Under his tenure, Apple came back from the dead to become a thriving innovative tech darling, and opensourse, with Google's help, has come out of nowhere to dominate cell phones. Microsoft has repeatedly been caught off-guard, and left playing catch-up against it's rivals. It's responses: Zune for the iPod, Vista for OS X, Windows 8 Phone for Android, and Surface for the iPad, have all failed.
Microsoft's board has reportedly begun the process to replace Steve Ballmer as CEO. Ballmer himself is quoted in Microsoft's announcement as saying:
Wrong again Steve -- 13 year, and 7 months ago, would've been a perfect time. From all the Apple users, and Linux users you slagged, and tried to terrorize with your "fear-leading" tactics: Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
Well... Halo runs on Xbox doesn't it?[/caption]How sad. Microsoft could be competitive in less than a year. The Redmond-based software-and-hardware company announced today that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer would be stepping down within 12 months. Microsoft stock rose nine per cent on the news.
Steve Ballmer went to college with Microsoft founders Bill Gates, and Paul Allen, and started with Microsoft in 1980. He became CEO of Microsoft in 2000, after Bill Gates stepped down.
Ballmer is said to be smart as a whip, but he's always come off publicly as more than a bit of a clownish huckster. Elevation to Microsoft's CEO in 2000 only magnified his "bull in a china shop" optics. Steve Ballmer had the misfortune of becoming Microsoft CEO the same year Steve Jobs became Apple's self-proclaimed "iCEO" In the i-era, Jobs completely out-general-ed, out-coached, and outmaneuvered Ballmer at every turn. Ballmer probably couldn't have helped Apple more if he had worked for them. He blithely, and blindly laughed at, and ridiculed, each of the iProducts, as they pushed Apple back into profitability, and, in 2012, past Microsoft in market capitalization.
Ballmer seriously hated on opensource and Linux, infamously calling Linux, "a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." ► Balmer repeatedly threatened to sue opensource developers for patent infringement. Even without merit backing up it's claims, the threats alone, given Microsoft's legal resources, were designed to have a chilling effect on the opensource movement.
Steve Ballmer tenure as CEO has been a near-total disaster for Microsoft. Under his tenure, Apple came back from the dead to become a thriving innovative tech darling, and opensourse, with Google's help, has come out of nowhere to dominate cell phones. Microsoft has repeatedly been caught off-guard, and left playing catch-up against it's rivals. It's responses: Zune for the iPod, Vista for OS X, Windows 8 Phone for Android, and Surface for the iPad, have all failed.
Microsoft's board has reportedly begun the process to replace Steve Ballmer as CEO. Ballmer himself is quoted in Microsoft's announcement as saying:
“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time.”
Wrong again Steve -- 13 year, and 7 months ago, would've been a perfect time. From all the Apple users, and Linux users you slagged, and tried to terrorize with your "fear-leading" tactics: Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
It's been big news throughout Linuxland that Canonical's planning for mobile Ubuntu (let's call it Mobuntu) may include an application packaging system which sounds like it has more in common with Apple's Mac OS X, and iOS, than with Linux.
According to this mailing list posting by Colin Watson -- Canonical's Ubuntu Installer Team leader -- The Ubuntu phone/tablet could get a new, simplified packaging format and app installer, in line with the lightweight nature of Ubuntu mobile apps. The new packaging format, called "Click packages" would have no dependencies between applications, no maintainer scripts and each app would be installed in its own directory. That certainly doesn't sound like your grandfather's Linux, although it sounds almost exactly like the innovative, but currently quiescent GoboLinux, and It sounds a lot like what goes on inside a MacBook Pro, or an iPhone.
According to this mailing list posting by Colin Watson -- Canonical's Ubuntu Installer Team leader -- The Ubuntu phone/tablet could get a new, simplified packaging format and app installer, in line with the lightweight nature of Ubuntu mobile apps. The new packaging format, called "Click packages" would have no dependencies between applications, no maintainer scripts and each app would be installed in its own directory. That certainly doesn't sound like your grandfather's Linux, although it sounds almost exactly like the innovative, but currently quiescent GoboLinux, and It sounds a lot like what goes on inside a MacBook Pro, or an iPhone.
Great Powers are meeting in battle as we make phone calls, surf the Web and play games. The prize is intangible; we can't hold it in our hands, but we can hold it in our phones, and our computers.
It's been said generals prepare to win the previous war. Back in the 1990s Apple and Microsoft had to just sit and take it while any old kludgey third-party software could be installed, and make a mess all over their operating systems. They could only fight back through the mail with floppy disks, and later, CD-ROM.
The rise of the Internet coupled with the powerful generation of cell phones that came after the iPhone in 2007, finally offered Apple, Microsoft, and new-comer Google, the ability to control their destiny.
The iPhone, in my opinion, represents a kind of "before-and-after" moment. It settled the question of what was the "best" form-factor; it finally broke Microsoft's effective monopoly over the Internet browsing experience, and it turned the premium feature of WiFi into a ubiquitous feature, creating the conditions for constant Internet conectivity.
In a world where everyone is increasingly connected 24-7 to a network (the Internet), that world begins to look like a traditional computer network, with network administrators wielding control over the user's access. But in this case, who are the administrators? Are they the the phone carriers who sell people the phones on plans, or pay-as-you go? Technically, yes, but the company’s who control the operating system, hold the greatest power of all. Apple controls the iOS, Google, the Android operating system, and if any phones running the Window 8 phone OS are sold, then Microsoft will control those.
Faster iPhone! Kill! Kill!
Network administrators have to be able to reach into any or all parts of their network to quickly deal with a threat, such as a virus. All the big computer companies have admitted to having such a "kill switch" in their phone and desktop operating systems.
Steve Jobs admitted there was one in the iOS in 2008 (♦). Microsoft has included one in Windows 8 (♥). Google has already used theirs, in 2011, to delete malware on 50,000 Android phones (♣). Even Amazon, way back in 2009 controversially used a kill switch on their Kindle (♠).
So this isn't the Wild West 1990s, when Apple had to stand by and fume, while Adobe's Flash plug-in caused so many Macs to crash so often. When Steve Jobs slammed the door on Adobe's mobile Flash, with Microsoft nodding in approval, in 2010, this was both a settling of accounts, and the start of setting things right.
Quality and quantity, together at last
Utter control of the user experience is part of ensuring customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty. Plus, Apple, for one, knows a bit about up-selling existing users.
The stakes and numbers involved, between Apple and Google are becoming positively planetary: Apple claims over 500,000,000 iOS devices sold -- that's half a billion. And, reportedly, cumulative shipments of Android devices top one billion. Of course, Mark Twain's observation concerning statistics applies.
So the legal see-sawing all over the planet between Apple and Samsung, isn't; it's always been Apple versus Google, for apparent control of the Earth. No idea who will win, but I Googled all these facts, and sources.
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