Tech Inertia

Mainstream tech has stagnated - let's think different, let's get tech moving again.

  • Apple goes all 'Deckard'...

    • 21 Oct 2011
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    I'm going to destroy Android...

    An early sneak peek of Walter Isaacon's Steve Jobs biography, let's slip the reasoning behind Apple recent moves to sue Samsung and others.

    "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

    That 'wrong' clearly being allowing Eric Schmidt on the board at all.

    It's well documented that Google did a 90 degree turn when then first saw the iPhone. Their phones up until that point were Blackberry clones, after the iPhone shook up the industry, their phones discarded the keyboard, became multi-touch capable and basically, ripped off the iPhone.

    Now, lots of people argue that this 'ripping off' is hogwash and there are numerous viewpoints that support and go against that fact.

    One thing that seems to have been forgotten, is that whilst Eric Schmidt was on the board at Apple, they hid the iPad's development from him.

    This is very significant.

    Why? Well it's also well known that Google have had a lot of trouble in re-imagining the Android OS for a tablet form-factor - it just wasn't built from the start with a tablet in mind. It has had to be hacked to get it there - and it shows.

    To me, this points towards the fact that the Android OS was built to be a phone OS, not a mobile OS that could be re-scaled easily.

    The reason for this is because when Eric Schmidt took the iPhone to Google and said "this is the future - copy it", they copied what they saw - a phone, not understanding the underlying construction to be scaled at some point into a tablet.

    That's because Eric didn't know the tablet existed.

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  • Android wallpaper app that steals your data was downloaded by millions...

    • 29 Jul 2010
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    Media_httpcdnventureb_tpvre
    via mobile.venturebeat.com

    An Android app that was uploaded to the Android Market that decorates your phone with wallpapers, is found to be collecting personal data and sending it to a website in China, according to Lookout.

    It's been downloaded anywhere from 1.1 million to 4.6 million times.

    Kevin MaHaffey, chief technology officer at Lookout said:

    “Even good apps can be modified to turn bad after a lot of people download it,” MaHaffey said. “Users absolutely have to pay attention to what they download. And developers have to be responsible about the data that they collect and how they use it.”

    So basically it's your fault, not Google's fault for setting up a totally insecure, unchecked market place for you to download apps for their phones.

    Maybe people will now be less prone to question Apple's closed, lock-down approach for downloading apps into their phone - but I doubt it.

    As a footnote, seeing as it's now legal to jailbreak your iPhone, I expect it won't be long before iPhone users too will be able to install excellent apps such as this.

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  • Apples and Lemons...

    • 20 May 2010
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    What happens when you upgrade an iPhone with it's latest software update?
    All your data remains intact (even backed up in iTunes), and you get lots of extra goodies.

     

    What happens if you upgrade an HTC Hero to Android 2.1?

    FROM HTC:

    TEXT AND PICTURE MESSAGES 

    Text and picture messages will be deleted with this software update. You can back up text and picture messages by forwarding them to an email address.

    Open the Messaging application

    Tap and hold on the desired text or picture message

    Tap Forward

    Enter an email address then tap Send

    APPLICATIONS 

    Applications will be deleted with this software update. You will need to re-download the desired applications from the Market after this update completes.

     

    Via the ever-excellent Daring Fireball.

    Can you imagine the fallout against Apple if they treated there users like this?

    They don't. They don't because they care about the user experience.

    This aspect of using Apple hardware and software, is the walking, talking and squawking definition of integration, of making the whole widget, of using an ecosystem that is derided in the popular geeky press.

    HTC either don't care, or more significantly are not close enough to the hardware to stop this from happening.

    Google don't care. They sold you a an OS, and that's where their involvement ends.

    A bit like Microsoft - and we all know where that lead.

    No wonder Apple share-price, growth, cash pile and sales are skyrocketing.

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  • There's Apple, then there's everyone else...

    • 20 May 2010
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    Google-phone-2

    Google blames third-party app developers for Android phones’ terrible battery life

    Do you know that computer you bought from Dell's website?

    That computer that ran somebody else's operating system, that worked OK for a while and looked very pretty?

    Do you know when it started to go wrong, with errors, slowing down, and then not-booting at all?

    Well the reason that happened, well, it wasn't Dell's fault you see.

    It wasn't the OS providers fault either.

    IT WAS YOUR FAULT.

    You didn't buy that anti-virus software did you?

    You didn't buy that subscription that would stop this from happening.

    You downloaded all that software, you used your computer day-in, day-out without thinking about taking those precautions, did you?

    You silly little user. Computer's are complicated things and you must not try to use them just for any purpose.

    Here, take it to your local geek, or that lovely, shiny new Microsoft store, where they'll make you part with even more money to get it working.

    Even though it cost you next to nothing, they'll make that cash back, don't you worry.

    </sarcasm>

     

    Back to a serious point, it's interesting to see Google behave exactly like the Microsoft-OEM model, where neither party take responsibility for the problems caused by that model.

    What we really need is a model where one company manage the whole widget.

    I'll let you work out the rest of that thought process yourself.

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  • Apple & Adobe - a new era?

    • 22 Apr 2010
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    Apple responds to Adobe's response...

    In order for Apple to control their own destiny, and prevent laggards like Adobe from holding them to ransom, Apple recently changed the iPhone Developer Program's small print, to specifically prevent anyone from using any other development platform other than Apple's.

    Adobe being Adobe, is not happy. Mike Chambers, Principal Product Manager for developer relations for the Flash Platform is quoted:

    "Adobe's Chambers added Google's Android OS was the platform of choice for future development, having become frustrated with Apple's iPhone restrictions. "Personally, I am going to shift all of my mobile focus from iPhone to Android based devices (I am particularly interested in the Android based tablets coming out this year) and not focus on the iPhone stuff as much anymore.""

    Note the reference to Android, a childish statement in my view. Is Adobe really going to focus all mobile development on a sector of the market that has little market share, is making little money for the developers involved and is fragmenting before our eyes?

    Yes they are, because it's the only game in town now. The only game that allows Adobe to carry on as normal with their development environment.

    A development environment that started many years ago when they thought (as did most other people), that Apple was finished. Adobe decided then, that a development structure that referenced Windows and had Apple as a 'semi-ported' afterthought would suffice. And when Apple finally shut their doors, they could continue with Microsoft.

    Well Adobe, that didn't happen. What did happen is a decade-and-a-half of half assed, 'just good enough' ports that didn't exploit Apple's technologies and allowed them to wither on the vine.

    Apple isn't going to let that happen again, and with the new iPhone OS platform (which encompasses the iPad), they want to start as they mean to go on - in control of the developers, and therefore in control of their platform.

    What will happen next? 

    I assume Apple is hoping that, sooner or later, Adobe will go where the money is. At the moment it's the iPhone/iPad AppStore. I say 'at the moment' because that may change. If the Android OS takes off, then Apple is stuck again with the same Apple vs Microsoft battle, only this time it's Google instead of Microsoft.

    If the Android platform gains traction, Adobe and others will migrate to that platform and Apple's in trouble.

    I'm worried because I always think of the future. 5-10 years from now, the mouse driven workstation will be dead. We'll all be using touch-sensitive, 7"-30" screens and pushing vectors & pixels with some serious, content-creation software.

    Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver etc will all migrate, and if Apple doesn't play this right, those screens won't have an Apple logo on them.

    It all depends on who blinks first. I understand why Apple wants to control the development environment, but they must think of the future.

    Maybe Apple's sick and tired of Adobe and is hoping that the a new 'Adobe-killer' company will come along, play ball with Apple of the 'Touch' platform and Adobe will be consigned to history.

    I don't see any new, up and coming companies though - so Apple, please think this through.

     

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  • About

    At the company I work for, there's a person that does the photography, there's a person that does the photoshop work, there's a person who designs the artwork in InDesign and there's a person that handles the marketing, manages the advertising budget and oversees the PR, and all of those people ARE ME.

    I also run 3 websites, and try to post to this one...

    Yes, I'm tired...and a bit grumpy at times...

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