October 2011
9 posts
“One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way...”
– Eliot, T.S., “Philip Massinger,” The Sacred Wood, New York: Bartleby.com, 2000.
Good Artists Copy, Great Artist Steal →
This quote has made the rounds but its origin will surprise you. The actual context in which Steve Jobs used it may even be more surprising - or make more sense, depends on which team you are playing for.
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Pundits still don't understand Apple's success →
The only way pundits can justify the amazing success of the iPhone 4S is to call its buyers zealots. Sad.
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Expectations
Now the Apple has officially announced the iPhone 4S and the tech world is officially let down (again) I’d like to discuss how Apple handled the expectations for this event. First, I don’t think they did enough. There were a couple planned leaks to their normal crew at the WSJ but it obviously didn’t have as much of an impact as the cases being thrown around by Chinese case...
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“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever...”
– Steve Jobs (2005 commencement address at Stanford)
thanks steve →
September 2011
6 posts
1 tag
Excellent customer service in crisis
What to tell customers when dealing with a crisis.
Here is what happened…
This is what I did to fix the issue…
The fix will be available in time frame…
Here is what I’m doing to prevent it from happening again…
If you want a refund/restitution…
The New Delicious →
Most of the stacks I browsed contained a lot of spam. I hope it gets better.
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Smartphone profit share
This is an update on profit share in the smartphone market. In 2010 I posted that Apple had 2.8% of mobile market share yet 39% of the operating profits. Fast forward and in the first half of 2011 Apple captured 66% of the operating profits in the mobile industry. See Horace Dediu’s post at Aymco for details and pretty graphs.
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Tablets Before and After the iPad
In light of the recent ruling banning the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany it is important to remember what tablets looked like before and after the iPad. Also remember that the ban is based on a design trademark and not software patents. Thanks to ReiVersuri for the image.
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Droid Bionic with 4G
Josh Topolsky reviews the Droid Bionic:
…this is the first phone to come preloaded with Google Talk video chat, which was great when I could get it to work (it still seems a bit buggy).
Even though the Bionic has a larger battery than every other LTE device on Verizon, I don’t see most people getting through a full day without a recharge or a spare battery, especially if you’re making lots of...
3 tags
Compromise
John Gruber posted about a MS article on Windows 8’s new “no compromises” design. While Steven Sinofsky goes to great lengths to reinforce the point of “no compromises” the fact is they are making compromises - you have to compromise something.
Microsoft may continue to tout “no compromises” but who said compromising was a bad thing? You want to see what...
August 2011
7 posts
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Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO
Having grown up using a PC from middle school to college I didn’t know much about the history of Apple but I had heard of Steve Jobs. He co-invented the personal computer back in the early 80s (ok, technically 70s).
After college I worked for a small design firm where all we used were Macs. That was 2005. I was amazed at the state of OS X and the company behind it. I read articles about...
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Android malware surging →
I bet the reason iOS has 0 malware is only because they have small marketshare…
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The first item of business for HP…
… should be to fix their URLs. Seriously.
http://h30261.www3.hp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71087&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1598006
Guess what that is - a link to the press release of their acquisition of Autonomy.
And this one? A little easier… but really?
http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/webos/us/en/tablet/touchpad.html
Let’s see what a url should look like.
http://apple.com/ipad/
...
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Responding to Google's Acquisition of Motorola
It has been fun to read some of the articles about Google’s buyout of Motorola. It is a very interesting story indeed. First thing yesterday, Dan Lyons (of Fake Steve Jobs fame) posted an articles, suck on it applesoft, which immediately prompted MG Siegler and John Gruber to respond with “Defending Android” and Balls.
I am very much siding with Siegler and Gruber as they...
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Google buys Motorola Mobility
For 12 Billion dollars! (In Dr. Evil’s voice). Here are the interesting parts of the blog post.
In 2008, Motorola bet big on Android as the sole operating system across all of its smartphone devices. It was a smart bet and we’re thrilled at the success they’ve achieved so far.
I’m not sure how Larry Page measures success but Motorola has been anything but successful. This deal was...
I love rushed software →
Makes for such a great first experience…
July 2011
4 posts
3 tags
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Lion Recovery Mode →
You can run Disk Utility to check or repair your hard drive, erase your hard drive and reinstall a fresh copy of Lion, or restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup. You can even use Safari to get help from Apple Support online. And if Lion Recovery encounters problems, it will automatically connect to Apple over the Internet.
This is built-in to the new Mac Minis and MacBook Airs. No hard...
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Open Letter to RIM →
A RIM employee nails the big holes in RIM’s structure and culture which are slowly causing them to become irrelevant.
RIM responds with 300 words of fluff. The quote below sums up their response.
and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.
I hate this corporate language. “more committed than ever”? That means nothing....
June 2011
7 posts
1 tag
Flash 10.3 Beta
Then there’s Flash. Yes, the TouchPad comes with Adobe Flash built in. You can set Flash to load automatically in the browser, or load when you tap. I don’t really have much to report about Flash on the TouchPad that you haven’t read somewhere else in the context of an Android tablet: the performance isn’t very impressive. When I connected to MLB.com’s Flash-based video stream of a live baseball...
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“When you look at any company the most important thing is people.”
– Steve Jobs (WWDC 1998)
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RIM is a sinking ship →
This shouldn’t surprise to anyone who has been following the mobile platform market closely. RIM has been out of the game for the past 3 years. And their management structure is a joke. Hardly anyone noticed because the smartphone market has been growing so incredibly fast and RIM was along for the ride. That ride is now over apparently because even in the smartphone market’s growth...
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Windows 8 UI Fragmentation
Microsoft is trying to shoehorn Windows 8 into every type of computing device. The video released yesterday shows the new UI…err rather UI shell for touch capable devices. Shortly thereafter, John Gruber posted why he thinks it is fundamentally flawed. I agree.
Windows 8 is going to be a fragmented experience across all these devices. On tablets people will mainly use the touch UI, on business...
May 2011
9 posts
“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team they will screw it up; if you give a...”
– Ed Catmull of Pixar
A New Start
I enjoy a fresh start. I remember going to college for the first time and making new friends and realizing that I didn’t have all the baggage of middle school and high school dragging behind me. I could be anyone I wanted. I liked that feeling and empowerment.
Fast forward 10 years or so. I recently graduated from Georgia Tech with an MBA while working as a contract web developer. Now...
iOS 5 Wishlist
Apple is going to release iOS 5 at WWDC in a couple of weeks and I like to come up with some things that I’m hoping we’ll see in iOS 5.
Notifications. A much needed overhaul of the notification interface and system.
New Lock Screen. Show basic information on the lock screen. Maybe even widgets or some sort of Dashboard.
Scheduled background tasks. Another background API that allows...
why google is losing my trust
I’ve been a Gmail user since invitations were hard to come by and Google really revolutionized the web in the 2000’s. However, the last few years I’ve felt more and more distanced from Google. I believe it is a mixture of the direction Google is heading and that my preferences are changing as I get older – however we are no longer aligned.
Here are a couple reasons.
I...
Apple Rumors
The planned meetings, combined with the 10-year milestone, have led to speculation that Apple could launch its said-to-be-completed cloud music service. Another report even claimed that Apple could introduce wireless near-field communication payments in its stores this weekend.
AppleInsider
I interpret this as no on has any clue as to what Apple is doing - if anything at all.
Samsung gives away 5000 Galaxy Tabs to Google IO... →
Even Google’s keynotes are supported by advertising.
Update: 2nd Keynote was sponsored by Acer with ChromeBooks.
Microsoft to acquire Skype for 8.5 Billion dollars →
This deserves some follow up in about 2 years. This is going to be bad. Sure XBox, Windows, and Windows Phone will gain more integrated Skype support but at the cost of 8 Billion dollars. That is laughable.
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Fight of the Century: Keynes vs Hayek →
Amazing video series about economics. Even if you have no interest in Econ check this out. Amazing video. Also, you can subscribe to the EconStories Podcast on iTunes.
April 2011
1 post
Nokia X7 with new Symbian →
Wow. It’s an iPhone from the 80s with poorly designed, overly-rounded icons. No wonder they came crawling to Microsoft for Windows Phone. This is sad to watch.
March 2011
2 posts
Flash Player 10.2 leaks for Motorola Xoom →
Does anyone still think Flash is a viable mobile platform?
“How it feels is the entirety of the iPad’s appeal.”
– John Gruber of www.daringfireball.com
February 2011
11 posts
“Rightsizing your business is one of the most important decisions you can make....”
– Seth Godin - An atomic theory of business size
“Still, the end user experience isn’t nearly where it needs to be, and...”
– Motorola Xoom review — Engadget
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App Store Subscriptions
Apple announced that they want a part of the subscription business on iPads and other iDevices. The downside is they want 30%. Forever. This seems too high to me. Apple provides a lot of valuable customers to new and existing platforms and they should be compensated for those leads however, 30% for subscription revenue infinitum is impossibly hard for most subscription services.
A more reasonable...
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iPad 2
A lot of talk going on right now about the iPad 2 and iPad 3. Having used an iPad for almost a year these are a few upgrades I’ll be looking forward to in upcoming revisions.
Higher resolution screen. I don’t think it is cost/technologically feasible to put a retina display in the next iPad. Maybe iPad 3. The resolution would have to double from 1024x768 to 2048x1536. That is almost...
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Feature Lists: Why Apple features are always...
If you compare feature lists of many electronics you’ll see that Apple products generally have less features than many competitors. Here is a great example. Google announced Android 2.3 and it features NFC (near field communication) technologies. The demo was holding the phone over a big sticker and it would read a url and open the browser.
One of the reasons I love Apple products is that...