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Blowin' in the Fan (with apologies to Bob Dylan)
How many tablet PCs must be built
Before people get that they're wrong?
How many demos must Microsoft give
Propped up by their own dance and song?
And after a decade of failure in this
Do they know that we won't tag along?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the fan
The answer is blowin' in the fan.
Before its best days have gone by?
How many new paradigms can be shown
That much better methods apply?
And how many times to the well will they go
Before seeing it's finally run dry?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the fan
The answer is blowin' in the fan. How many vendors were pulled on a chain
Building tablets unfriendly to hands?
How many failures and misguided tries
Were continued according to plans?
And when will they get the futility of
Shoehorning PCs into cans?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the fan
The answer is blowin' in the fan.
(Inspired by this tidbit about a prototype Windows 8 tablet.)
Microsoft’s Zune chief is leaving the company
What a coincidence, so is the Zune.
One Reason To Like Microsoft's Ribbon
Google and Motorola's Patents [UPDATED]
The problem, of course, is that if Motorola had a savior set of patents, it wouldn’t have been one of the first targets of Microsoft. And if Motorola’s patent portfolio were really that dangerous, Apple would have settled quickly, not dragged out patent countersuits of its own. Apple settled with Nokia pretty quickly…
Everyone's talking about the number of patents (17,000, with more in review), but not about what they cover. I suspect few of Motorola's patents relate to modern smartphone technology or UI because Motorola hasn't been making them for long, and they use Android.
If Motorola's patents haven't worried Microsoft or Apple up to now, it doesn't change much that they're now in Google's possession.
[UPDATE:] This post today re-iterates my point:
Motorola Mobility's portfolio has failed to deter, and it has so far failed to make any meaningful headway in litigation. Motorola Mobility is on the losing track against the very two companies Google says those patents will provide protection from.
Microsoft and Apple, blah, blah, blah. Will someone please talk about Google's role in all this?
Microsoft wants to make Android more expensive, Apple wants to make it less usable
This is nonsense.
- Microsoft doesn't want to make Android more expensive, they simply want to charge manufacturers for Microsoft IP. What the manufacturer charges the consumer is their business.
- Apple doesn't want to make Android less usable, they simply don't want manufacturers using Apple IP. What a manufacturer uses (dare I say, innovates?) instead is their business.
- What Google wants is to make Android as cheap and usable as possible by letting manufacturers use, for free, what's not theirs, and then rail against the sky when they're called on it.
Microsoft and Apple wouldn't be in a position to directly impact Android at all if Google hadn't ignored the property rights of others as they've done in the past.
These are perfectly valid approaches for Microsoft and Apple to take. It's no surprise Microsoft chose licensing, it aligns with their business model. Apple's business model is generally one of not licensing, which would also be no surprise. In either case these companies are not only within their rights, it'd be ridiculous for them not to protect their property.
So can we quit acting like Microsoft and Apple are some sort of schoolyard bullies, and instead place the blame squarely where it belongs? Google should know that when you take a chance in the rush to market, maybe you get caught.
Ho hum, an online petition to bring back Final Cut Pro's interface and features
Tell Apple: Bring Back Final Cut Pro's Interface and Features!
Greetings,
It's a dangerous thing when one company can hurt so many of its customers overnight…
I'm not surprised.
Just two days ago, when examining a scenario where the new interface was introduced as Final Cut Express before Final Cut Pro, I suggested such a petition would probably exist:
but there'll be much written (probably even online petitions) requesting that Apple not use the iMovie interface
There was no reason to think the FCE scenario had to exist before a petition was tried.
Some interesting data on Mac vs. PC vs. Other
It's interesting to note that while Mac people are most concerned with the OS debate, in all three groups over half the people either think they're pointless, or skipped the question altogether.
Smartphone OS Upgrades: iPhone's "can" vs. Android's "can't"
TechCrunch's post shows a huge discrepancy of smartphones running the latest versions of Android vs. iOS. The numbers will surprise no one that follows mobile tech, but I believe there's a larger point that doesn't even need a chart to make. What should be discussed is how many phones it's even possible to upgrade. That's the real story.
It's well known (if not well reported) that upgrading an Android device is hit or miss. It could be because of the carrier, or the manufacturer, or a combination of both. One thing's certain: Google has no control over the process for any phones other than their own Nexus-branded models, and there's only two of those.
Recently, Computerworld examined carrier and manufacturer "trust" in terms of upgrading Android phones, and the conclusions are dismal. For manufacturers, HTC took top honors:
50 percent of its Android phones having been bumped to Froyo within 2010. Its average upgrade time is also relatively impressive, at 56 days.
Only half their phones were upgraded, but other manufacturers were worse.
Meanwhile, for carriers Verizon took the crown:
A third of the carrier's qualifying Android phones received Froyo within the software's first six months on the market. On average, it took Big Red 58 days to get those updates delivered.
Only a third of the eligible phones are upgraded, yet it's King among carriers.
If you had an HTC phone on Verizon, you had about a 17% chance (one-third of 50%) of upgrading to Froyo last year. And that was your best shot since other manufacturer/carrier combinations were worse.
For the iPhone things are easier. Put simply, 100% of current and -1 generation phones are eligible for upgrades. Apple has even made upgrades available for -2 generation phones, though some features are not available.
It's not just that these iPhones are eligible, but that the carriers have no involvement in the actual upgrade. Just connect the iPhone to iTunes and let it upgrade. That's it. Further, the upgrades are available on the day a new OS is released, not two months later, which is the best Android's manufacturers/carriers can manage.
The mobile market tends to treat their devices as semi-disposable, so it may be unrealistic to discuss models over two years old, but in Android's case "old" models aren't needed to skew the numbers. There are models only five or six months old seemingly "abandoned". This makes Apple's major upgrade to each generation of iPhone, twice, all the more impressive.
