Posted in May 2012 …

May 31 2012
Apple

The iPizza is coming

John Moltz at his Very Nice Web Site points out this hilarious job posting on Apple’s corporate page. Hilarious ’cause it’s true:

The ideal candidate has extensive experience making pizza dough from scratch and is able to portion and toss the dough; possesses the ability to hand stretch the pizza (without using a rolling pin) and cook the pizza to order in a high temperature oven. The cook will also prep and maintain all food items necessary to make a variety of pizzas (toppings, sauces and related prep).

At least 2-4 years of experience working a high volume wood burning pizza oven featuring thin crust, Neapolitan style pizza.

You can see the proof here.

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May 31 2012
RIM

Small victory

It’s been a rough week month year half-decade for RIM. Today, a win for the beleaguered company. Via Reuters:

Research In Motion is free to use the BBM moniker for its popular BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service after a court ruled the use did not infringe on the trademark of a company that measures Canadian television and radio audiences.

“We are pleased that the Federal Court of Canada sided with RIM and confirmed that RIM’s use of BBM does not infringe the trademark rights of BBM Canada as they had alleged,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Lost the war, but won a battle!

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May 31 2012
Television

3D TV: It ain’t happening

Will Greenwald from PCMag on the future of 3D TV:

We might see a lot of promise in what the technology could be given time and resources, but for now it simply is unworkable for most users. When gamers quickly turn off 3D on their 3DS because it’s easier than enjoying the depth of a game, how can we assume even more casual consumers will have the patience to sit stock-straight in just the right position for two hours at a time to watch a 3D movie? Even with eye-tracking, we’re several generations away from a screen that’s responsive enough to make watching 3D TV without glasses comfortable.

As long as people are stuck using passive or active glasses to enjoy it, 3D TV will remain a niche product, used more often to impress friends when they come over than to actually watch a movie.

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May 31 2012
WTF

“Do Not Kill” List

Americans, sign the petition at The White House’s official site:

The New York Times reports that President Obama has created an official “kill list” that he uses to personally order the assassination of American citizens. Considering that the government already has a “Do Not Call” list and a “No Fly” list, we hereby request that the White House create a “Do Not Kill” list in which American citizens can sign up to avoid being put on the president’s “kill list” and therefore avoid being executed without indictment, judge, jury, trial or due process of law.

I don’t know how effective this will be. I mean, I signed up for the Canadian Do Not Call List when it was launched, and I still got a call last week!

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May 31 2012
Apple, Smartphones

iPhone goes prepaid at low(er) price

Apple enters some new territory in June: The prepaid market. Via AppleInsider:

On June 22, Cricket will sell the 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S contract-free for $500, in addition to the 8-gigabyte iPhone 4 for $400. Both will be compatible with the carrier’s “unlimited” $55-per-month talk, text and data plan.

Customers will be able to buy both the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 in Cricket company-owned stores and select dealers in nearly 60 markets.

I know what you’re thinking: “Whoah, those iPhones are cheap!” And they are, a full $150 off what you would pay for an unlocked, no-contract iPhone 4 & 4S from Apple. I can guarantee you that Cricket isn’t paying less than big carriers for the iPhone. Even though they don’t have a contract to hold customers to, Cricket is banking on two things. First, that iPhone buyers will stick with the company for a long time. Industry stats support that assumption, with iPhone users the most loyal to their carriers. Second, Cricket is a CDMA carrier, so unlocking the phone to use on other networks, while technically possible, is not as easy as unlocking a GSM iPhone. Makes much more sense to buy a used iPhone GSM iPhone than dealing with the hassle.

For Cricket, the risk of someone buying the iPhone from them and using it on another network is far outweighed by the number of customers that will flock to the company’s $55 “unlimited” plan.

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May 31 2012
Television

The future of the remote control

The New York Times has a fascinating look at the remote control, from the Zenith Flash-Matic in 1955 to today’s confusing array of buttons and gestures:

“At the moment, the candy-bar remote is still popular, but over the next few years you’ll see mobile devices replacing it,” said Dave Pedigo, the senior director of technology for the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association, whose members install home theaters. And “in a decade, people will look at them as quaint. My daughter’s child will say, ‘What’s a remote control?’ ”

The first tech company to solve the remote control will win the living room wars. Gesture-based remotes, like the Samsung Magic Touch or LG Magic Motion, don’t cut it. Apps take far too long to access (anything over a second in the living room is an eternity) and are shackled to mobile devices whose batteries drain far too fast. That’s not going to replace something you’d rather leave on your couch all day.

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May 31 2012
Apple

The App App

I won’t lie, I’ve had some of these conversations before. Via CollegeHumor:


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May 31 2012
Facebook, Google

Google’s “Search Plus” shenanigans might be halving Facebook traffic

CNET on some new stats from a Facebook analytics company called PageLever:

What PageLever has found since “Search Plus Your World” hit the scene is that Google traffic to Facebook pages has dropped 51 percent. Studying 500 Facebook fan pages with at least 10,000 fans, the analytics company looked at external referrals from Google and Bing. Before January, Google drove 9.25 percent of external traffic to Facebook and now it drives just 4.52 percent.

Bing’s referral traffic seems to follow a similar trend — dropping by a whopping 59 percent from 2011 to 2012.

So is “Search Plus Your World” to blame? The answer is unclear.

If you were looking for evidence that 1) Google’s manipulation of search results is bad for competition and 2) That Bing just copies Google’s search results, you just found it.

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May 30 2012
RIM

RIM: Not much time left

Horace Dediu at Asymco on the BlackBerry maker’s future:

RIM has just entered what I call the Post-traumatic period of a phone maker’s life. This period is defined as beginning with a loss-making quarter and ending  with the company’s exit from the business.

Starting with a quote from an article I highlighted yesterday, Dediu breaks down the likely future of RIM by comparing it to competitors who have gone down the same path in recent years.

May 30 2012
Google

Google is going to make you use Google+ whether you like it or not

Via the Official Google Blog (emphasis mine):

Today, we’re rolling out Google+ Local, a simple way to discover and share local information featuring Zagat scores and recommendations from people you trust in Google+. Google+ Local helps people like my husband turn a craving—“Wow, I need brunch”—into an afternoon outing: “Perfect, there’s a dim sum place with great reviews just two blocks from here. Let’s go.” It’s integrated into Search, Maps and mobile and available as a new tab in Google+—creating one simple experience across Google.

Regardless of what Google says, if you’re not logging in to plus.google.com, you’re not using Google+.

The move is an aggressive response to EU regulators, who are looking into antitrust violations by the company. Google seems to be doubling-down on behaviour that’s gotten them into hot water in the first place, as Google+ Local gives the Google-owned Zagat a pre-eminent position in search results.

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May 30 2012
Apple

Tim Cook douses common sense water on owning carrier/telco fire

From tonight’s AllThingsD conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook on the company owning the pipe:

“Do I think we need to own a carrier or the pipe? No. I don’t think we need to do that.”

Cook noted vast majority of Apple’s business is outside the U.S.

“Owning something just in the U.S. would not have great value in our total worldwide footprint. I really think that guys that have it know a lot more about it. This is their area of expertise…. I want to make great devices and use some of the bandwidth. I think we can partner with the pipe owner.”

Let’s hope this answer, straight from Tim Cook’s mouth, will put to rest the ridiculous rumours that Apple will buy a mobile carrier or cable company. The world is simply too big, even for them. You can read more of my thoughts on the Apple/Mobile carrier question here.

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May 29 2012
Apple

“I love museums but I don’t want to live in one.”

It might be a while until AllThingsD posts a video to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s appearance at D, so check out the site’s real-time blog of the affair. Here’s Cook on Steve Jobs:

What did I learn from him? Focus.

“You can only do so many things great and you should cast aside everything else.”

Cook said not accepting things good or very good but only the best. “That’s embedded in Apple.”

I’m not going to witness or permit the change of that.

He also taught me the joy is in the journey and that was a revelation for me.

Cook also made a reference to the fact that Jobs stressed the importance of owning the key underlying technologies.

As for moving on, Cook said. “I love museums but I don’t want to live in one.”

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May 29 2012
Microsoft

Skype on Windows Phone (Or lack thereof)

More via this New York Times article on Microsoft’s purchase of Skype, one year later:

One of Skype’s most recent efforts, a version of the calling software for smartphones that run Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, has received disappointing reviews. When users shut the Skype application down on their Windows Phones, they can no longer receive calls. In the same situation on iPhones and other devices, Skype users receive a notification of an incoming call.

Brian O’Shaughnessy, a spokesman for Skype, said that shortcoming would be addressed in a future version of the software.

Leave it to Microsoft to screw this one up. Buy a well-know service whose goal is to be on every platform, everywhere, and then have it run poorly, or not run at all, on your newest smartphones.

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May 29 2012
RIM

RIM’s next challenge: Finding a big enough storage locker

RIM has a billion dollars in inventory lying around, and the number continues to rise. Via Bloomberg:

Research In Motion’s stockpiles of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets have swollen by two-thirds in the past year because of slumping sales, raising the chances of the company’s third writedown since December.

RIM faces an exodus of customers switching to Apple’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG)’s Android operating system. While the company is preparing to release a new lineup of phones based on the BlackBerry 10 software, the transition makes its current models even less appealing. That means RIM is more likely to record another quarterly expense next month to account for the inventory’s declining value, said Neeraj Monga, an analyst at Veritas Investment Research in Toronto.

“Clearly this stuff isn’t selling,” said Monga, who maintains a buy recommendation on RIM’s stock in anticipation of the company being sold. “Despite all the writedowns they’re taking on the inventory, these inventory levels are not dropping.”

It’s getting clearer that RIM’s massive layoffs have nothing to do with fixing the company. They just need to stop the bleeding while they wait for a buyer or a radical change in strategy.

May 29 2012
Microsoft

Microsoft’s Skype Division President uses a MacBook Air

It’s been one year since Microsoft purchased Skype. The New York Times interviewed Tony Bates, who’s still the head of Skype, about how the acquisition has gone:

In an interview in his spacious office here in Palo Alto, Mr. Bates, an affable Briton, said he insisted that his employees receive new security badges stamped with the Skype logo, not the standard Microsoft badges.

Another sign of his independence is the Apple MacBook Air on his desk. While using Apple products publicly is not unheard-of among Microsoft executives, it is nevertheless considered a mild form of sacrilege at a company where everyone is expected to fly the Windows flag.

“We’ve kept our identity and our autonomy,” Mr. Bates, 45, said.

Somewhere, Steve Ballmer is throwing a chair.

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May 29 2012
Music, Video Games

Rock bands becoming video game heroes

The way your favourite video game gets its soundtrack is changing. Via The Guardian:

While Max Payne 3 has its detractors (and we’re not among them), there’s one thing most gamers agree on about Rockstar’s latest slab of edgy interactive mayhem: the music is awesome. Over several months of intense sessions, US noise punk merchants Health recorded around six hours of new material for the score, producing a soundscape every bit as enthralling and messed up as the onscreen action.

This perfectly pitched collaboration isn’t merely a one-off novelty – it could well hint at both the future of game music and a whole new creative avenue for musicians. In the past, building a game soundtrack was usually all about licensing a selection of chart hits, or paying a composer to bash out an identikit orchestral score.

But we’re now entering an era of close co-operation; game developers are employing musicians who love games and understand them. And in return, music is becoming part of the design process.

If this makes for better games and a payday for artists that could use a new source of income, I’m all for it.

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May 29 2012
WTF

B.C. parents vote to limit WiFi in schools, still studying dangers of Marconi Wireless

The Globe and Mail reports on a group of Canadian parents that must have flunked out of school:

A group representing B.C. parents has voted in favour of two resolutions to limit WiFi technology in schools, reflecting the concerns of some parents that wired classrooms can pose health and safety risks to students.

Delegates to the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils passed two resolutions at their annual general meeting on May 26. One calls on school districts to have one school at each education level that is free of wireless connections, cordless phones and cellular phones. A second resolution calls on boards to stop installing wireless networks in schools where other technology is available.

Luckily the vote is non-binding and those in charge of decision making at B.C. schools don’t seem that swayed by the parents’ group.

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May 28 2012
RIM

RIM not gearing up, but switching gears

RIM’s top lawyer is leaving the company and there are plenty more layoffs ahead. Via Reuters:

The top lawyer at Research In Motion Ltd has resigned and will soon leave the struggling BlackBerry maker, RIM said on Monday, joining a parade of long-time company executives to depart since Thorsten Heins took over as CEO earlier this year.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company currently employs around 16,500 people globally. Two sources with close connections to RIM have told Reuters that RIM plans to bring its workforce closer to 10,000 by early next year.

These are not moves made when you’re gearing up to change the smartphone world. These are moves made when you’re planning on switching gears. As I’ve said in the past, RIM is preparing for a future where they’re not making hardware. Only a miraculous BlackBerry 10 turnaround will change that.

May 28 2012
Microsoft

Putting random words together doesn’t make for good branding

Randall Stross in the The New York Times on Microsoft ditching the  ”Windows Live” brand:

I bring this up because Microsoft acts as if its customers have a strong affection for all things Windows. For the last seven years, it has tried to make Windows the anchor brand for software that is not an operating system.

An array of products, with no natural connections to one another, have received the “Windows Live” moniker. Windows Live Essentials, for example, was the name for a suite of software products that could be installed on a PC, and included photo management, video editing and instant messaging. Windows Live Mesh provided file synchronization among one’s personal computers, including Macs. And the list went on: Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Search, Windows Live Toolbar, Windows Live Family Safety, Windows Live Writer, and others.

It was folly.

Windows Live Essentials turned out to be less than essential after all. The company is effectively leaving behind the Windows Live brand name as it renames the products that currently feature that two-word phrase.

I never understood the “Live” branding. Too often it was an indication of a stripped down and less useful product. By applying it to so many things, Microsoft gave the impression that anything with “Live” in its title wasn’t worth my time.

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May 28 2012
Microsoft, Smartphones

New Windows Phones with 256MB of RAM can’t run Skype or Angry Birds, 3-year-old iPhone 3GS laughs

Planning on buying a Nokia Lumia 610? The Verge has some news that will make you reconsider your options:

Skype, Tango, Angry Birds, and PES 2012 all refuse to install at the moment, presenting a RAM warning in the Windows Phone Marketplace. It’s too early to say whether the app developers involved will be pushing out updates to support 256MB of RAM devices, but the restrictions on such popular apps appear to signal the first type of hardware fragmentation on Windows Phone.

The iPhone 3GS, which also has 256MB of RAM (and was released in 2009) runs all those apps. It’s incredible that Microsoft’s partners can’t make a phone that’s at least as functional a full three years later.

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