March 4, 2013

Steve Jobs’ Biggest Mistake

Filed under: News — admin @ 7:49 am

The article (below), says that Jobs insistence that 10″ was the ideal tablet size was his biggest mistake. Perhaps.

When the first 7″ tablet appeared, the original Galaxy Tab, Jobs scoffed. He famously said it was too small, the wrong form factor. Turns out that the iPad mini — itself a 7″ tablet — is outselling the 10″ iPad by huge margins. Oops.

It is the size? Is it the price?

Whatever, it’s not Jobs “biggest mistake.” I could mention the Apple III, the Lisa, the G4 Cube Mac, and the list is pretty long. Making mistakes just proved that Jobs was human. It’s his brilliance, his home runs, that people will always remember.

Link

March 3, 2013

About Your Evernote Password…

Filed under: News — admin @ 11:10 am

Apparently the database for the popular mobile app Evernote was hacked, granting the Bad Guys access to over 50 million unencrypted passwords. Yikes!

Evernote has apparently reset everyone’s password. I haven’t received a notice yet. I’m only a casual Evernote user, though I know the app is very popular and quite handy.

Link

March 1, 2013

Beware the In-App Purchases

Filed under: News — admin @ 8:27 am

I don’t know which is worse, the lure of in-app advertising targeted at kids or parents who let their wee tots use electronics without supervision?

Link

February 26, 2013

The Copyright Alert System

Filed under: News — admin @ 9:04 am

This system looks to be the first step in an ongoing battle to fight Internet piracy. It might even work.

Link

February 25, 2013

Muscle Recognition Control

Filed under: News — admin @ 5:08 pm

Interesting development: the MYO Armband, which gives you control over a computer or other device similar to the way Tom Cruise’s character in Minority Report controlled a futuristic computer: Wave your arms around. Pretty cool. I’m not sure whether it’s just for the Mac, though I don’t see how that would last long.

Link

February 19, 2013

Another Article on Apple TV

Filed under: News — admin @ 10:24 pm

Apple TV is supposed to be big. Not a big TV set, but something that moves the market. You’ll find lots of postulating in the article (link below). After playing with Internet TV for quite some time, I must say the thing it needs the most is a better interface. Typing search text using a TV remote sucks.

Link

Watching for the iWatch

Filed under: News — admin @ 8:55 am

Apple is sorely in need of some new product to help keep up the enthusiasm, not only of its fan base but of Wall Street as well. One of the soon-to-be products is the iWatch, which I would view as a wearable form of iPod. Can’t figure out whether such a thing is necessary, but my guess is that all the trendy kids will have one so everyone else will buy one too.

The link below covers the iWatch briefly; it’s edited by former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée.

Link

February 18, 2013

Google Steps Up to Fight Piracy

Filed under: News — admin @ 4:44 pm

I admire this move because, honestly, I don’t know how much money I lose to pirates who steal my books. Just a few months back I had an email spat with some guy who tried to justify his theft of my C programming book because he was using an illegal download according to the “fair use” copyright law.

Yeah, I couldn’t figure that one out, either.

While this move may help staunch the bleeding, I have some concerns.

First, there exists a culture, especially among young people, where they believe the works of others — movies, video, music, books — is free for the taking. Too much free stuff has created a generation of moochers and freeloaders. It would be nice to change that.

Second, and more importantly, I fear this move could be used by corporate bullies and governments to shut down legitimate criticism. Such a thing happened a few years back with the whistle-blowing web site wikileaks. That would be terrifying to know that governments or, more likely, some corporation that’s breaking the law could weasel their way out of it by suppressing information on the Internet using the same technology that fights piracy.

I’d like people to pay for my stuff. Google’s move may be a step in the right direction, but I hope it’s a cautious step.

Link

February 15, 2013

Businesses Giving Up on Internet Explorer

Filed under: News — admin @ 8:06 am

Internet Explorer once held 90 percent of the web browser market. Today it’s at 26 percent — and falling. Not only are its two main competitors, Chrome and Firefox, faster, but they’re becoming more acceptable to businesses as well as the mobile market.

If you’ve been to the Wambooli Home page using Internet Explorer, then you see a message displayed:

This web page looks much better when you use a web browser other than Internet Explorer

That message doesn’t show for other browsers, mostly because other browsers properly interpret this web site’s style sheets. Internet Explorer screws things up. Now I could go in and adjust everything for IE, but at 26 percent and dwindling, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Apparently big business thinks so as well.

Link

February 14, 2013

The Microsoft Surface Gets 1 Out Of 10

Filed under: News — admin @ 8:42 pm

That score comes from the folks at ifixit.org, who frequently disassemble technology to see how easy it is to fix and access. According to the article (link below), the Microsoft Surface tablet gets the lowest score possible. I’m not surprised.

No, this isn’t another Microsoft slam, despite my enjoyment of doing that. Technology is rapidly returning to its pre-1980s mode where you were forbidden to open a device and work on it. Of course, not everything was verboten; lots of microcomputers had to be opened to expand them. But most manufacturers preferred a closed system. Tablets and phones are closed systems. The Microsoft Surface? Very closed.

Link

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