Monthly Archives: July 2012

Jul 31 2012
Microsoft

Goodbye, Useless – Vol. VI: Microsoft dumps Hotmail

Via GeekWire:

So in the end, why did Microsoft decide to dump Hotmail?

“We really did want to have one mail from Microsoft,” said Microsoft’s Dharmesh Mehta. “We think that’s helpful in simplifying.”

At the same time, he acknowledged the branding challenges faced by Hotmail.  ”For some people, it was not about, “Would I got to Hotmail.com?’ It was, ‘Would I put @hotmail on my resume?’ ” he said. But when it comes to @outlook.com, he added, “people love the brand.”

A chart in the GeekWire story tells the real reason Microsoft had to get rid of Hotmail: People were leaving the service in droves. About four million in North America alone in the last year. The new Outlook.com is visually appealing and fast. Not good enough to get me to switch back from Gmail (Where I’ve been happy since 2004) but certainly good enough to keep current users from looking elsewhere.

See Also:

Goodbye, Useless: Last Canadian penny to be made tomorrow

Goodbye, Useless – Vol. II: Microsoft shuts door on Windows Mobile Marketplace

Goodbye, Useless – Vol. III: Cisco kills the Cius tablet

Goodbye, Useless – Vol. IV: Zune branding going away

Goodbye, Useless – Vol. V: RIM discontinues the 16GB PlayBook

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Jul 31 2012
Google, Patent Wars

Apple v. Samsung: Google’s watching

Jessica E. Vascellaro writing at The Wall Street Journal, on the battle between Apple and Samsung in court:

Google will be watching the action closely. Its employees aren’t expected to testify, but legal representatives from Google are likely to attend the trial, according to a person who is familiar with the matter. Google lawyers have been consulting with device makers that Apple has sued, helping on matters such as the disclosure of internal company documents relevant to the case, this person said.

The search giant’s name is likely to come up during the trial. Apple has submitted to the court an email that a Samsung employee sent to his colleagues that included notes about a 2010 design meeting at Google to discuss two Samsung Galaxy tablets.

A win by Apple would harm every Android maker, as I pointed out yesterday, and would make the $12.5 billion that Google paid for Motorola Mobility seem even more foolish. Google needs a victory in court just as much as Samsung does to have any hope of making Android the market leader in high-end smartphones.

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Jul 30 2012
Apple, Patent Wars, Samsung

Apple vs. Samsung

The Verge has an excellent overview of the Apple vs. Samsung court case that begins today in California:

Samsung will almost certainly argue that these patents are invalid for being too broad — we’ve heard the company use the phrase “Apple’s black rectangle problem” in the past few weeks. The pendulum will also swing far in the other direction: Samsung will argue that its products don’t infringe because they’re not exactly what’s in the drawings. This part of the case will involve the most legalistic discussion of design elements, and will almost certainly seem a bit silly compared to the more holistic discussion around trade dress.

As important as this case is for Samsung, it’s actually way more important for Google. A win by Apple would seriously harm all future Android products by every manufacturer, from Asus to HTC to Google’s own Motorola Mobility. In the end, that is way more important to Apple than the $2.5 billion in damages it’s claiming.

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Jul 30 2012
Apple

Your next iPhone

Barring the most elaborate plans by Apple to throw everyone off the scent, it’s pretty clear that the next iPhone will look like this:

Video brought to my attention by MacRumors. Normally I avoid the rumour mill, but with all the photos and now video we’ve seen the last week, it’s a pretty good bet that this is what to expect from Apple come September. Also the music on that video is priceless.

Notice how I didn’t say “iPhone 5.”

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Jul 30 2012
Microsoft

Microsoft’s strategy: In plain sight

Ed Bott at ZDNet, on Microsoft’s most recent SEC filings:

The word devices appears 11 times in the “Risk Factors” section of the 2011 10-K. It appears 25 times in the equivalent section this year.

The word hardware appears 8 times in the same section of the 2011 10-K. You’ll find 15 references to hardware in this year’s report.

I expect a massive marketing push behind Surface, and I would be shocked if we don’t see more PC hardware from Microsoft in the next 12 months.

Deal with it, OEMs.

Head on over to the article to see sections lifted from Microsoft’s filings. It’s very clear they intend to copy the Apple model of computing. Only question is how successful they’ll be.

Jul 30 2012
Movies

2001: A Space Odyssey

If you’re a fan of the movie, you’ll love this trailer that turns the film into a modern summer blockbuster.

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Jul 27 2012
Google

Google still hasn’t deleted the Streetview data it collected illegaly

Via The Telegraph:

Despite repeated assurances in public and to the Information Commissioner, Google has admitted that it did not in fact delete all the data, which could include passwords and emails, collected over open WiFi networks by its Streetview mapping cars in 2010 in a number of countries around the world.

This is the company that wants us to trust it with wearable computers?

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Jul 27 2012
Apple, Patent Wars, Samsung

“Customers thought they were getting iPads”

Via AllThingsD:

Examples outlined in the documents include comments from Samsung workers discussing similarities with Apple’s products, and reports Samsung got from retailer Best Buy that Samsung tablets were being returned because customers thought they were getting iPads.

It’s been a great week for technology historians. Court documents are giving us an inside look at both Apple and Samsung’s little secrets in the patent wars.

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Jul 27 2012
Google

Google Fiber: Going after the cable and telco companies

Brad Reed at BGR:

And really, this is why Google Fiber is important, even if it never reaches beyond Kansas City: It demonstrates not only how slow most home broadband connections are but how overpriced they are as well. And if Google is correct that fiber-caliber speeds will be key to America remaning economically competitive over the next century, then both business and consumer demand for such high-speed networks will be absolutely huge in the coming years. And if the big-name ISPs don’t feel like keeping up, then Google has shown that big-name tech companies can capably replace them.

Google’s Fiber service, full details of which can be viewed here, is a geek’s wet dream. The telco/cable oligopoly should be quaking in their suits over the service. It will be very interesting to watch this play out in Kansas City, particularly how the competition reacts to Google stepping on their turf.

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Jul 26 2012
The Bubble

Zynga: CEO cashes out, company burns up

Via Gamasutra:

Though Zynga’s stock prices have plummeted since the company’s earnings report on Wednesday, CEO Mark Pincus and other insiders managed to reduce their damages from the crash by dumping shares months ago.

Of those insiders who sold their stocks early, Pincus made the most and brought in $200 million from the sale, but several others also took home eight-figures. They would have made a lot less if they waited until today to dump their shares like many other investors.

Somehow I don’t feel sorry for anyone who thought that the maker of FarmVille would be a good investment.

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Jul 26 2012
Apple

Apple’s Mac App Store problem

Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, says Apple’s new rules for developers may be backfiring. Via his blog:

How many good apps will be pulled from the App Store before Apple cares?

The problem with sandboxing isn’t that any particular app is incompatible with the current entitlements. It’s a deeper problem than that: Apple is significantly reducing the number of apps that can be sold in the Store after people have already bought them.

Apple’s stance seems to be pretty typical of them: comply with the new rules or leave. This usually works for them, but this time, they’ve made a critical strategic error: leaving is often a better option, or the only option, for the affected developers. Many of them have already left, and many more will.

It’s tragic to see great apps leave the Mac App Store, as it’s a great platform for discovering new apps. But I’d rather have fully functional apps instead of ones that have to make compromises to conform to Apple’s new rules.

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Jul 24 2012
Humour

Uncle Ben’s To Compete Against Apple With Brand-New Smartphone

Uncle Ben’s is getting into the smartphone game – at least according to The Onion, which is on an iPhone news story roll:

Hoping to boost profits by cutting into the valuable market share currently occupied by Apple’s popular iPhone 4S, top American rice manufacturer Uncle Ben’s announced plans Tuesday to release its first-ever smartphone.

As first reported by TechCrunch and the USA Rice Council, the Basmati will feature a 5.3-inch display with a density of 285 pixels per inch, a dual-core 1.5 gigahertz processor, and two gigabytes of RAM, as well as a “robust set of entertainment features” that includes a rear-mounted 8-megapixel autofocus camera, dozens of preloaded stir-fry recipes, and Adobe Flash support.

Adobe Flash support. Classic!

Full “news” story here. When you think of it, this makes almost as much sense as Amazon and Facebook making their own phones.

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Jul 24 2012
Apple, Patent Wars, Samsung

Apple’s case against Samsung

John Paczkowski at AllThingsD sums up Apple’s case against the iPhone with a single image taken from the court filing:

Apple Puts a Dollar Figure on Damages It Believes It's Owed by Samsung - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

For a more in-depth review of the case, head on over to the always excellent Foss Patents.

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Jul 24 2012
Google

YouTube asking you to name names

Via Wired:

When you comment on, or upload a video, YouTube will now urge you to “start using your full name on YouTube,” and ask if the video-sharing site can begin displaying the identity you’ve associated with your Google+ account (assuming you use Google’s social network). If you decline, Google makes you select a valid reason, like “My channel name is well-known,” as BetaBeat noticed this morning. (Google didn’t mention that wrinkle when it announced it would be rolling out this option.)

As much as this is about reigning it the juvenile comments that seem to pepper every video posted to YouTube, it’s more about legitimizing Google+. Real names will lead to more clicks on profiles. Don’t be shocked to see Google merge YouTube pages and Google+ pages as soon as they’ve pushed enough people into using their real names.

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Jul 24 2012
Big Brother

Skype can eavesdrop on your conversations

Via Slate.com:

Recently, however, hackers alleged that Skype made a change to its architecture this spring that could possibly make it easier to enable “lawful interception” of calls. Skype rejected the charge in a comment issued to the website Extremetech, saying the restructure was an upgrade and had nothing to do with surveillance. But when I repeatedly questioned the company on Wednesday whether it could currently facilitate wiretap requests, a clear answer was not forthcoming. Citing “company policy,” Skype PR man Chaim Haas wouldn’t confirm or deny, telling me only that the chat service “co-operates with law enforcement agencies as much as is legally and technically possible.”

It’s 2012. Of course Skype can let authorities monitor what you do on their service. As long as a warrant is behind any surveillance or wiretaps, people should have no qualms with continuing to use Skype.

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Jul 23 2012
Apple, WTF

Removing the white mold from your iPhone

From the folks at The Onion:

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Jul 23 2012
Facebook

Facebook: Less trusted than a used car salesman

Via The Washington Post:

One-third of Internet users said they’re comfortable with Facebook’s handling of personal information to target ads for them, according to a Harris Interactive Inc. survey released today. Twice as many, or 66 percent, are comfortable with online retailer Amazon using data on past purchases to recommend products, and 41 percent of respondents trust Google to show ads based on past Web searches, according to the data.

Even with 900 million captive users, this incredibly low level of trust threatens Facebook’s future. Many long-term plans of the company – especially those that involve making a phone or other devices – won’t fly if users continue to distrust Mark Zuckerberg and his minions.

On the flip side, the high trust numbers for Amazon make the rumours they’re developing a phone somewhat more palatable, even if it’s still a bad idea.

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Jul 23 2012
Apple

The iPad is for internet surfing (Primarily)

Via eWeek:

Still, for the most part, users are putting the tablet to every use Apple intended, including most of all, surfing the Internet, playing games and enjoying entertainment.

“At least 27 percent of buyers, and as many as 40 percent, use the iPad in these ways,” states the July 16 report. “Entertainment includes watching video, looking at photos and listening to music.”

There is a contingent of pro-Apple writers and bloggers that get visibly upset when anyone suggest the iPad is a consumption device. I don’t see what the problem is with that connotation. It simply reflects how the company had created a completely new category of devices people never thought they wanted or needed. If people use it primarily to consume stuff, great – there clearly was a need for a such a device in the marketplace.

Jul 23 2012
Facebook

Facebook starts making better use of its search box

Via TechCrunch:

Heads up, Google. Facebook is testing a new format of search ads called Sponsored Results that lets advertisers show ads in the Facebook search typeahead to users looking for a particular Page, app, or Place. It basically will let businesses divert traffic from each other.

This could end up being a really good thing for Facebook users. The more money the company can make off search, when users are actively engaged in finding something, the less pressure to abuse privacy for profits.

Jul 20 2012
Apple

In a mobile world, advantage Apple

Ryan Faas writing at Cult of Mac:

Apple’s integrated platform approach is not only attracting new customers and retaining them with incredible platform loyalty, it also encourages customers to buy multiple mobile and non-mobile devices. If there is a point where the world market stops expanding, that becomes a very significant advantage.

I couldn’t agree more. The Samsung Galaxy S3, the last Android phone I tested, is the a terrific device that would make most iPhone owners think twice about what their next phone should be. But upon that second reflection, it becomes pretty clear that Apple’s tight integration between all of its products, especially with the arrival of iCloud and new versions of iOS and OS X, is too hard to give up.

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