Actual boy genius (he’s 16!) Matt Richman with some crazy BlackBerry numbers and a chart on his blog:
…the average selling price of a Blackberry was $203.46 this quarter. That compares to $246.04 last quarter and $285.45 in the quarter before that. In one 90 day period the average selling price of a Blackberry dropped by more than 17 percent; in 180 days it dropped by more than 28 percent.
If RIM is trying to tread water, sub-$200 phones in emerging markets is the only way.
Engadget has news of Flash’ demise on Android devices:
Adobe was very public about dropping mobile Flash last fall. In case that wasn’t clear enough, the developer just drew a line in the sand: Android 4.1 doesn’t, and won’t ever, get certification for Flash. The company is stopping short of saying that Flash won’t run, but it’s evident that Adobe won’t help you if the web browser plugin doesn’t install (or breaks in spectacular fashion) on that Nexus 7. Just to underscore the point, the firm is also halting new installations of Flash from Google Play as of August 15th.
So it you really really want Flash on a tablet, looks like the PlayBook is your only choice. Get one before RIM shuts its doors and stops making them!
Flash has always sucked on smartphones, has pretty much sucked on tablets (The notable is exception is the PlayBook, on which flash worked most of the time) and should have been abandoned long ago. “Thoughts on Flash,” an April 2010 letter by Steve Jobs, has proven to be right on the money.
Great look over at The Verge on the risks of backing a Kickstarter project:
Once a project is funded the company will not issue refunds, they said. While they will email absentee creators, and reserve the right to cancel ongoing projects that aren’t legitimate, once a project is funded they won’t take any legal action. They will, they say, assist prosecutors if backers get law enforcement involved. But ultimately, it is up to the backers to solve any legal issues.
I’d take a long and hard look before backing anything on Kickstarter.
SlashGear on the curious Nexus Q reveal yesterday:
For the Nexus Q, though, we had a fancy video in the style of Apple’s promos, an awkward and overly-long demonstration of how several people can manage a shared playlist, and little in the way of context. Even just promising “like Nexus phones, there’s hugely broad potential for the Nexus Q” could’ve been enough to prevent most of the post-keynote confusion.
Instead, the functionality and longer-term intentions were left vague, and without any mention of Google TV it was difficult to see how the two products are meant to sit together. That’s disappointing, after Google worked so hard to improve the latest iteration of its smart TV product; particularly if you’re Sony and Vizio, and announced second-gen Google TV boxes this week in the run-up to Google’s event.
Google is an interesting company in that it can have a lot of focus on one thing (cloud computing) but still launch an unfocused array of products. Where does the Nexus Q fit in? It isn’t a standalone device, it must be used with an Android phone or tablet. And Android users, who aren’t exactly known for paying a premium price for anything, are expected to fork over $299 for an accessory? When they’ve just spent $199 on a Sony Google TV box?
Watching Google’s demo yesterday, it’s clear that this is another product that was made for Google employees, not the average consumer. A normal person wouldn’t want all of their friends to come over and hijack their house party’s soundtrack. People don’t actually work that way.
Video of the Nexus Q here: Continue reading
Via The Holmes Report:
Jay Walsh, head of communications at the Wikimedia Foundation, told the Holmes Report that the new guidance from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) reflects the concerns of the Wikipedia contributor community.
“CIPR’s basic message, from what I see, that PR folks editing Wikipedia directly is problematic, echoes what we hear from the community of Wikipedia contributors,” said Walsh. “Those who come to Wikipedia with a clear conflict of interest are generally going to face real challenges in terms of editing and contributing to the project.”
It’s funny that groups have to hand out guidance on this issue. Should be a no-brainer.
Interesting article found via The Globe and Mail:
Sang-Jin Bae thinks something is amiss with computers. He should know. He’s used them for decades as a technical director for Disney’s Little Einsteins and as an animation production supervisor for shows at places such as Nickelodeon. He even teaches. His animation classes are some of the most popular at New York University’s ritzy Tisch School of the Arts.
To Mr. Bae, the problem is not the computer. It’s the people using them.
“When kids come into my class they divide into three groups,” he says. There are the pure geeks who love technology. There are those trying to understand. And then there is the biggest group: “Those who couldn’t care less.”
I think Mr. Bae is off here. People have always been this way. Most folks don’t have the time to learn about the technology they use. They just want products that work. 25 years ago those products were VCRs and CD players. Today those products are apps. There’s a good number of people that are geeks and want to understand how technology works, but they’re just a minority. An important minority, but a minority nevertheless. Always was, always will be.
The kids that Bae laments, “those who couldn’t care less,” have always been the majority. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
IGN has a story on Nintendo’s social ambitions, and contains this doozy of a quote from the company’s most famous game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto:
“With the Wii U, a system that we’re trying to make into the center of the living room, our ultimate goal is that this might be the most looked-at screen in the house, the screen on the GamePad itself, even more so than the television. That’s our goal.”
It’s as if Nintendo is completely unaware of the smartphone revolution. Their strategy in both mobile and home gaming would make perfect sense if smartphones didn’t exist! There’s already a screen we’re addicted to, one we glance at all the time and use as a second screen while we watch TV. It’s the smartphone screen, and in a growing number of homes, the tablet screen too. Thinking another screen, attached to a bulky controller and with substantially less functionality, will replace people’s iPhone or iPad is delusional.
With a big birthday in a few days, Business Insider has some amazing facts about the iPhone:
The iPhone business is now bigger than Microsoft. Yes, you read that right — “bigger than Microsoft.” A single product that didn’t exist five years ago is now bigger than the 30-year old company that was once considered so all-powerful that the government intervened to try to break it up.
The iPhone’s fifth anniversary is also a great time to remember these famous Steve Ballmer words:
The impact of the iPhone can’t be overstated. If the device never launches, who knows how long we would have waited for a smartphone revolution. As the success of RIM’s BlackBerry at the time indicates, smartphones with small touch-less screens and plastic keyboards would have got the industry only so far.
The good news? If you bought certain flaky HP desktops with a bad motherboard, the company is extending your warranty. The bad news? You won’t have your computer for a looooong time. Via Computerworld:
Turn-around time for a PC with a bad motherboard may be as long as three weeks, warned HP. “After HP receives your computer, HP will use its best efforts to repair and ship your computer to you within 10 to 14 business days,” the online support document stated.
With customer service like this, who needs customer service.
The Globe and Mail on RIM’s market share slide with youth:
Natasha Taylor, a 25-year-old Toronto dancer, stuck with BlackBerry because she was afraid that if she lost BBM she would lose touch with her contacts.
“I started noticing, one by one, people were switching off (BBM) and switching their phones,” says Ms. Taylor. She recently bought an iPhone 4S and simply texts her friends, instead. “I don’t think my conversations or friendships have suffered.”
I keep trying to find the value in RIM’s services to justify someone buying them, but I can’t. Everything they do can be replaced by something else.
Orbitz has found that people who use Apple’s Mac computers spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels, so the online travel agency is starting to show them different, and sometimes costlier, travel options than Windows visitors see.
Orbitz found Mac users on average spend $20 to $30 more a night on hotels than their PC counterparts, a significant margin given the site’s average nightly hotel booking is around $100, chief scientist Wai Gen Yee said. Mac users are 40% more likely to book a four- or five-star hotel than PC users, Mr. Yee said, and when Mac and PC users book the same hotel, Mac users tend to stay in more expensive rooms.
I don’t understand why anyone is raging about this. Mac users are on average significantly wealthier and more educated than PC users. Makes perfect sense to show them hotels that are pricier – statistically they’re more likely to book those hotels. If you’re a Mac user and on a budget, just click “sort by price” and you’ll see cheaper rooms. Problem solved.
Via the Chicago Tribune:
Without asking for permission, Facebook has changed users’ listed email address to one ending in “@facebook.com.”
The @facebook.com email service was announced in 2010, but it hasn’t really gained traction as a replacement to other email service. It makes sense for the social network to want to promote its own service, but the way it’s gone about it is sure to upset some people.
Facebook has 900 million users. Over half of these users log in every day, with that number rising thanks to mobile devices. Chances are that when one of these 900 people want to share something online, they use Facebook to do it. These are captive users. They’re not going to end up on Myspace or Friendster anytime soon. All their friends are on Facebook, so it makes sense to use the social network – it actually does a good job of connecting people.
Facebook has only one problem: Its users don’t trust it. And if anyone was starting to feel a glimmer of hope that Facebook was trying to earn its users trust, they lost it thanks to this move.
The email switcheroo is an unbelievably boneheaded move. It adds nothing for Facebook or it users. It only serves to breed contempt and mistrust for Mark Zuckerberg’s social monopoly.
If Facebook were to work to make users trust the site, there would be no stopping it. Imagine a social network loved as much as Apple. That is what Facebook’s ultimate goal should be. Instead, this email change makes users feel like hostages. Has Facebook not learned a thing from any of their previous privacy and profile snafus in the last eight years?
Changing information that users list on their profile without asking is an egregious abuse of their power. Now, more than ever, we need an alternative to Facebook.
Instructions on how to put your email field back the way it was can be found here.
Google TV is going global, thanks to Sony. Via The Next Web:
Following its UK rollout, both devices will be introduced in Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Netherlands, with the NSZ-GS7 Internet player also becoming available in Brazil and Mexico.
The Sony NSZ-GS7 Internet player. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Should be as easy to market as the awkwardly-named Apple TV.
Sony’s new set-top boxes will deliver Android apps, full Internet browsing capabilities and live video streams, formally signalling Google’s intention to takeover living rooms worldwide. With Samsung and LG pioneering embedded technologies within their next-generation televisions and Apple already enjoying limited success with the Apple TV, the launch of Google TV devices outside of the US has been a long time coming.
Also, the remote has buttons on three sides. And a “ctrl” button. Yup, they’ve really simplified the user experience this time around.
RIM breaking up the company? RIM not breaking up the company? Via The Globe and Mail:
Without saying where the information comes from, a report by the Sunday Times of London says that Research In Motion Ltd. wants to separate the hardware side of the business from the services side, or else sell a stake in the company.
The report mentions Facebook and Amazon as potential buyers, but on Sunday several people close to RIM dismissed the news as “a silly fantasy,” and “one of the most ridiculous ideas I have heard in a while.”
RIM spokesman Nick Manning, meanwhile, said the company’s top management remains committed to maximizing shareholder value by continuing on a turnaround strategy that will see RIM launch new devices in the coming months.
With RIM stock trading so low, it’s a prime target for manipulation. Be wary of any RIM rumour – chances are there’s someone looking to make a buck off a false story.
Google is shutting down its Mac blog, with good reason. Via the Official Google Mac Blog:
More than five years ago, we created this blog to tell you about our software for Macs. Since then, Apple’s products have become more popular than ever, and we’ve kept up by offering strong support for OS X and iOS, including the speedy and popular Google Chrome for OS X, the amazing Google Earth, and a whole bunch of excellent iOS apps.
Our Mac and iOS support has now become so mainstream that we realized we just don’t need to keep Mac news on its own blog, so we won’t be posting here any longer.
If you’ve ever watched a behind the scenes video of Google offices or a Google product demo, then you know how “mainstream” Apple products are among its employees. Makes you wonder how many Googlers use Chromebooks.
The New York Times has a lengthy and absorbing look at Apple’s retail operations, the many complaints of its employees, and why people still want to work at the company:
These true believers skew young, as anyone who has ever set foot in an Apple Store knows. And the relative youth of this work force helps explain why people are likely to judge the company by a different set of standards when it comes to wages, says Paul Osterman, a professor at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management.
“It’s interesting to ask why we find it offensive that Wal-Mart pays a single mother $9 an hour, but we don’t find it offensive that Apple pays a young man $12 an hour,” Mr. Osterman said. “For each company, the logic is the same — there is a line of people eager to take the job. In effect, we’re saying that our value judgments depend on the circumstances of the employee, not just supply and demand of the labor market.”
The timing of this piece is curious, with news of wage hikes for many of Apple’s staff this week, but is nonetheless a very fair look at the company’s successes and challenges in retail. A very recommended read.
Via Bloomberg:
The malware isn’t new. It was first spotted in the wild in 2010 and has spread to the U.S., India, Europe and South America, according to Symantec, the security firm.
It’s designed to serve unwanted advertisements on victims’ computers. But in the past two weeks, it has been doing something unexpected — forcing infected computers to print out endless streams of gibberish, for no apparent reason. The print jobs go until the paper runs out…
I’m just going to point the finger at the ink cartridge cartels, who stand to make the most out of these attacks.
Samsung is trying to make the switch from iOS to Android as painless as possible with “Easy Phone Sync.” Via AppleInsider:
The software allows users to transfer music, videos, podcasts, pictures, contacts and text messages from an iPhone to a Samsung device, like its new flagship Galaxy S III. The application was announced on Friday by Samsung Mobile U.K.
“We’re really proud to announce the launch of this new application and can’t wait to hear what our new and existing customers think of it,” said Simon Stanford, vice president of Telecommunications and Networks at Samsung U.K. “We know that traditionally iPhone users have been reluctant to switch to an Android device because they couldn’t use iTunes to manage their content. Easy Phone Sync means people can now enjoy their iTunes content on a Samsung Galaxy phone. What’s more is that it’s really easy for them to do, and literally takes five minutes to set up.”
This is a great idea from Samsung. A friend of mine is thinking about switching from his iPhone 3GS to the Galaxy S III, but is hesitant due to the hassle of transferring contacts and other content from old phone to new phone. If this software works, it’ll be an excellent tool to convert iPhone users over to Samsung.
Via Reuters:
Nintendo said on Friday it plans to launch its 3DS LL handheld game console on July 28, with a 4.88-inch display and a 4.18-inch touch panel, both nearly double the size of the current DS model.
That bigger screen is really going to help bring out the 3D games and content that no one is actually interested in.
The 3DS’ already poor screen resolution is going to look even worse when it’s doubled in size. The portable doesn’t need a bigger screen. In needs more built-in storage. 16GB, or 32GB, and no cartridge or SD card slots. And a real digital download store for all games and content.
Or better yet, just make Mario for the iPhone.
A study by the Electric Power Research Institute says that iPhone and iPads use much less power than most people would assume. In fact, depending on user habits, the boom in smartphone and tablet computing could be a good thing for planet earth. Via iPodNN:
If users are altering computing habits, such as surfing on a tablet rather than on a comparatively power-hungry desktop, then overall computing power consumption will fall. Consumers shifting from television-based video gaming consoles such as the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 to smaller touch devices also reduces overall power consumption. However, if tablets are being used as adjuncts to existing technology, used in parallel, an increase in power consumption is clear. Now that averages for various devices based on the cost of a kilowatt hour in the US has been determined, a future study will investigate whether users are using the devices alongside their usual, higher-power machines or in place of them.
Check out the link to see the all the stats. $1.36 a year to charge a new iPad every other day for a year is an astonishingly low number. Thank goodness our post-PC devices use ARM chips.
