Month: July 2012

“I am High as a Kite” ⇥ theverge.com

Joshua Topolsky:

We had a chance to speak with Richard Piasentin (RIM’s Managing Director for the US) about where the company is headed in the near and long term. Though he was mum on any meaty details about the outlook for BlackBerry 10 or company strategy, there was no shortage of bullishness in the message he delivered. “I want to convey that fighting spirit that’s in BlackBerry… RIM knows what it’s doing,” he said via phone. “This isn’t just a new product; it’s an entirely new way of interacting with the world around us.”

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Top 20 Secrets of Coda 2 ⇥ panic.com

Cabel Sasser:

Coda 2 is, as you probably know by now, a surprisingly capable app, and I’m here to help you get the most of it. My promise: give this post a few minutes of your time, and you’ll learn something you didn’t know about Coda 2!

I learned some cool things. You will too. Probably.

Discovering San Francisco in Black and White ⇥ stephangeyer.com

Stephan Geyer:

I’ve been to San Francisco before, and whilst I have enjoyed the view from the Golden Gate Viewpoint on a foggy afternoon, and taken the mandatory touristic photos, I really don’t enjoy that type of shots. Today, I’ve decided to post a selection from my latest trip to San Fran, where I explore the type of photos I enjoy taking – All with the X-Pro1, naturally!

Stunning photos.

Microsoft’s Downfall ⇥ vanityfair.com

Vanity Fair has a scathing article about the internal culture of Microsoft:

“They used to point their finger at IBM and laugh,” said Bill Hill, a former Microsoft manager. “Now they’ve become the thing they despised.”

Kübler-Ross Would Like a Word ⇥ businessinsider.com

Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins says, “there’s nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now.”

He was speaking on CBC radio, and his comments were picked up by the Canadian Press. He also said RIM is not in a “death spiral.”

Stage one: denial.

Does Google Have Any Social Skills at All? ⇥ gizmodo.com

Sam Biddle reflects on the Google’s announcements at I/O 2012 in an article for Gizmodo:

The keynote sounded one futuristic clarion call after another: Glass, the wearable computer; Google Now, a smartphone system that provides intricately tailored life information; the Nexus Q, a social media streamer; and a fancy new way to throw parties with Google+. But underneath each of these feats of technology you could see a hollow, lurching weirdness that makes you wonder: Who will use any of this stuff besides the actors in Google’s promo videos?

Good question.

Facebook’s Unfixable Email Debacle ⇥ news.cnet.com

Mostly good article by Violet Blue for CNet regarding Facebook’s address book “bug”. The final paragraph describes iOS 6’s Facebook integration, and that’s where things go south:

When users became aware that automatic altering of users’ contacts without notification was built into Apple’s new iOS 6 Facebook integration — that Facebook for iOS will change address books without any warning — many people voiced concern that this, and the whole mess, top to bottom, was not in line with Apple’s values.

NDA be damned, there is a very clear message which states that Facebook contacts will be synced with local contacts, and in some cases merged. This entire paragraph mars what would be an otherwise accurate article in an attempt to provide “balance”, or something.

Forty Bucks ⇥ windowsteamblog.com

We set out to make it as easy as possible for everyone to upgrade to Windows 8. Starting at general availability, if your PC is running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 you will qualify to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 in 131 markets.

Microsoft seems to be taking a few pages from Apple’s book lately. First, they took tablet matters into their own hands with their own hardware. Now they have decided to sell the upgrade to the new operating system for cheap.

But while Apple can offset this cost by selling their own computers, Microsoft also has to please their partners. What does this mean for them? What if Microsoft were to make their own laptop?

Facebook Blames Email Problems On User “Confusion” ⇥ readwriteweb.com

Meanwhile, in the land where it’s entirely the fault of the users:

“By default, messages from friends or friends of friends go into your Inbox. Everything else goes to your Other folder,” Facebook spokesperson Meredith Chin said in an email. “That is likely where the messages are being sent from other people’s emails. Even if that person is friends with them on Facebook, if the friend doesn’t have that email on their Facebook account, the message could end up in the Other folder.”

By default, the “Other” folder does not send notifications. Facebook has managed to further break email. Bravo.

Mobile Browser Share for June 2012 ⇥ appleinsider.com

Net Applications has released their June data, and it’s a doozy:

The 65.27 percent share of Apple’s iOS platform, which is found on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, was up from 62.65 percent in May. Apple’s share has steadily risen, growing from a 53 percent position in August of 2011.

Apple’s next closest competitor in mobile browsing market is Google’s Android platform, which took 19.73 percent in the month of June. Android has also seen its share grow since last August, when it took 15.98 percent of mobile browsers.

What do Android users do with their phones? Even if you take into account the odd browser reporting 0.0x% and Android features such as home screen widgets, there’s no other explanation for such a dramatic difference in browser usage than many Android owners using them as feature phones. ComScore, for example, says that Android has a 50% market share in the US, with iOS at 32%. The discrepancy between market share and browser usage is bizarre.

Facebook’s Email Tampering Faces Far-Reaching Consequences ⇥ theverge.com

Ellis Hamburger, for The Verge:

Until everybody unhides their primary email addresses, those relying on Facebook contact sync for email will be left without a lot of information they’re used to having stored on their phone.

As we move to an increased reliance upon non-local, synced data, these are the problems we will continue to face, especially with a company as temperamental as Facebook.

What Twitter Could Have Been ⇥ daltoncaldwell.com

Dalton Caldwell:

I remember when you could go to Twitter.com and see the global firehose on the front page. They had no traffic. The global feed was mostly employees and their friends talking to each other.

Those were the days.

Shameless ⇥ youtube.com

I can’t see anything in this video of the Galaxy S III’s “S Voice” utility that reminds me of Siri. Especially not in that UI, or the phrasing of the responses. Nope. Via Jim Dalrymple.

“Apple Just Opens a Store” ⇥ smkyml.wordpress.com

Shawn King nails the difference between the opening of a Microsoft Store and an Apple Store. The former has no attraction, and therefore no reason for people to be excited. Microsoft is perceived as stiff and corporate, whereas Apple is perceived as cool and funky. A stiff-assed businessman in cuffed jeans and Converse is still a stiff-assed businessman.