Everyone’s favorite kicking-boy lately is Microsoft, and it’s easy to see why. Mobile is a disaster, Bing is having issues catching Google, the slate/tablet revolution started by Bill Gates has bypassed Windows … in so many ways Microsoft just feels so yesterday. Last week Microsoft execs clarified how they view their business, and how...
Read more »
The iPhone 4 fiasco continues unabated today, given that numerous independent testing agencies have found its reception lacking. The highly-respected Consumer Reports review might be the final straw: Apple will be forced to recall the iPhone 4 following Consumer Reports tests proving the “Death Grip” antenna issue is not software related, but a hardware...
Read more »
So much for the thin excuse that it’s a software issue … It’s official. Consumer Reports engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phones lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the...
Read more »
If I am Microsoft or Apple today, I’m fairly happy. It’s obvious that Google is a huge threat to both Microsoft and Apple. Using its massive cash surpluses from owning the high-volume, high value search ads industry, Google is funding investments that are commoditizing both mobile and “desktop” operating systems … and significant chunks...
Read more »
From Michael Wolff’s excellent post on Newser: For the machine-loving consumer, Jobs’ triumph over Microsoft and Bill Gates is a marvel. Life seldom turns out this way. It’s a first in the history of architecture, where, in the mass market, the sensuous and beautiful triumphs over the functional and economic. The cost of such...
Read more »
Like most Canadians, I’m mad about hockey (both in the British sense of being crazy about it, and the American sense of being ticked off that there are not enough Canadian teams). So when I can’t watch the game … iPad helps. Just download the official NHL app. All of the day’s games are...
Read more »
Why, why, why, Wired? 400 MBs of images in your 500 MB iPad app. Extremely uncool. From the story on Interface Lab: With the Wired app weighing in at a whopping 500 megabytes – just 100 shy of a full CD-ROM – how do they intend to maintain new editions of the magazine? 500...
Read more »
This is part of an occasional series on iPad use cases … or, more generally, tablet computing. All are written on my iPad. Today I needed a break from the office – a break from my desk, and a break from sitting. But I had an important email to review, with a long PDF...
Read more »
This is an occasional column that I’ll be writing on my iPad detailing how I’m actually using it. The first and most obvious use-case – especially for those of us in countries where the iPad is not officially released yet and therefore has no App store – is the web. The web is wonderful...
Read more »
An interesting argument from RoughlyDrafted Magazine: What better curse could one wish upon one’s mobile platform competitors than a bunch of performance and security problems, poor battery life, a mess of user interface inconsistencies, and a malignant boil upon their efforts to develop their own third party development platforms? Jobs didn’t express such schadenfreude...
Read more »
I’m a sharer. That’s why I’ve got a few thousand followers on Twitter, why I blog, why I save links to del.icio.us, post videos to YouTube, and so on … So I need social sharing features when I surf … and I just got an iPad. Most social sharing is done through Javascript “bookmarklets.”...
Read more »
If you’re wondering how to sync the movies from your digital camera to iPad, you’re not alone. I thought I had enabled everything necessary … only to find one little detail undone. Check this screen in iTunes: Make sure the “include videos” option is checked … otherwise you’ll sync and sync without – actually...
Read more »
In its first 10 days, Apple’s iPad has captured almost as much online usage share as the BlackBerry or Google’s Android operating system, a Web metrics firm said today. According to data from Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based NetApplications.com, the iPad’s share has averaged 0.03% since April 3, the day Apple started selling the media tablet....
Read more »
Who, in his right mind, expects Steve Jobs to let Adobe (and other) cross-platform application development tools control his (I mean the iPhone OS) future? Cross-platform tools dangle the old “write once, run everywhere” promise. But, by being cross-platform, they don’t use, they erase “uncommon” features. To Apple, this is anathema as it wants...
Read more »
I understand the fury at Adobe over Apple’s moves against Flash development on the iPhone. (And I’m sad that this particularly targeted spat may have incalculable fall-out on the rest of the Adobe-Apple relationship, which will potentially impact both companies’ customers down the road.) It’s got a bit of the feeling of Lucy pulling...
Read more »
Welcome to Sparkplug 9, John Koetsier's blog on technology, social media, education, innovation ... and anything else that catches my fancy.