Interesting points on how having a consistent, real-world identity on the internet is almost forced as the standard on the internet, which is a turnaround from how the internet first looked:
It seems to me that the larger issue in this ongoing real names debate is not who you say you are, but the usefulness of a unified Web identity. The more we condense our online selves into a single person, the more reliable, accountable and monetizable our Web experiences can be.
While this post does point out some good features of the service (circles, privacy), it doesn’t explain why I should begin using it regularly.
The advantage of posting more than 140 more characters is also the service’s main problem — there is too much stress on the user having control that the controls are overwhelming. Developing a social network takes time on Google+, whereas on Twitter and Facebook everyone is on the same plane.
Today was pretty gruesome for the folks on Wall Street. In the past few months it seemed that tech companies were a ray of hope for Wall Street, but today proved to be a little different.
“The sound you just heard was the IPO window slamming shut,” said Geoff Yang, a partner at Redpoint Ventures, an investor in vacation rental site HomeAway, which went public this year.”
Interesting look at different panel types used in popular tablet PC devices. Most important to note is the chokehold that Apple has on this industry. Via Digitimes:
Many large cellphone brands such as Apple an HTC have been requesting for arc-shape panels for their upcoming products. Some panel firms find it difficult to comply with all the design requests of Apple.
Lukas Mathis:
So let’s turn this around. Nobody has ever told me exactly why the patent system is doing any good. In fact, there is more and more evidence that it costs a lot of money, but is not doing any good in return, especially when it comes to software.
Steve Milunovich, an analyst for Merrill Lynch:
The auto industry might change more in the next 10 years than the last 100. Electric vehicles represent a new category that Tesla could lead given that new entrants tend to win when disruptive technologies emerge. In our view, CEO Elon Musk may be similar to Steve Jobs in being a technology visionary also able to manage and create shareholder value.
(via SAI)
Software patents are the biggest mess of the patent system, since many believe there is no firm definition. While patents do force innovation, they also are unwieldy at best and always have such broad scope that it is difficult to understand what the nature of the patent actually is.
“When we look around the country, we see the disparities that exist,” he says. “Quite frankly, people in lower-income communities, mostly people of color, have such limited access to broadband than people in wealthier communities.”
Arnold Kim:
Apple has decided to move this one-to-one over to iCloud and is automatically signing up MobileMe users to the 20GB (+ 5GB free) tier plan in iCloud at no charge. We previously detailed the iCloud additional storage pricing which puts 25GB of storage at a normal yearly price of $40 USD per year.
Definitely the direction things are going.
Keep in mind the major console producers’ (sans Microsoft) missteps as of late.
Here’s an idea: Take a phone that can’t be as “smart” and allow users to opt-in to a 10/month subscription to an all-you-can-listen music service. Sounds lucrative on paper, but the question is how this service will do in practice.
But this is more future thinking than you may suspect — mobile devices will be the dominant way people connect to the internet and consume mass media before too long. By removing the app and making the service native, there is a lot of power there. The con of this service would be the high maintenance: apps are flexibly distributed (i.e. can be ported to other devices) whereas native functionality is easily transferred to future devices (even those within Cricket).
Shih’s comments amplify a crucial difference between companies that are innovating (Apple and Google) and companies that are sticking with what they know (like his own):
Commenting on Apple bringing tablet PC and smartphone products into the PC market to compete with PC players and creating a great impact on PC demand, Shih pointed out that PCs are the base of the IT industry and tablet PCs are also developed from the base; therefore, in the future, products will still need to go through the PC platform to create even more add-on value.
It is true that PCs are the base of the IT industry, but IT has always been about the bleeding edge and staying ahead of the curve. Since we live in a “post-PC era”, Acer and other companies (read: Microsoft) ought to think about the future, instead of the present. In 20 years, we may say that smartphones are the base of the IT industry.
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The use of face detection software isn’t new, but the idea of using social media as a way to datamine these features seems scary:
The software, called “suggested automatic tagging,” lets Facebook users assign digital name tags to people in their photographs. Photos that are uploaded later are scanned for physical features and can be tagged and stored.
It is opt-in if someone is tagged as a particular face. When someone is tagged on Facebook, the owner of the tag (the original name) has to accept the tag. If they reject it, the tag is not posted. But, if a user accepts the tag, the information associated with the face is kept in the Facebook database as a future suggestion, if the face doesn’t already exist.
There are several companies that are creating face-detection software, but some litigation should be required in order for this to become a reality. Imagine a data base somewhere that stores your face without your knowledge, and that information is used without your consent.
(Thanks, Ryan)
This is the wireless charging concept previously patented by Apple a month ago. The company created a demo video using an iMac charging a keyboard, mouse and tablet simultaneously.
This week’s show is a day early because of a certain concert that a certain co-host is attending. We talk Facebook and their recent efforts to beef up their design team; robots taking over the world; technology and its correlation to intelligence; Microsoft’s search and music business; and the Apple TV. This show is sponsored by listeners like you! Thanks for all of your support.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:46 — 77.4MB)
This anti-competitive strategy is also escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they’re really worth. Microsoft and Apple’s winning $4.5 billion for Nortel’s patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion. Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anti-competitive means — which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop.
Like the Roman Empire, Apple eventually should decline. That’s a pretty safe statement — whatever goes up, must come down. Apple is no exception. Apple may be at a peak, but they do not necessarily have to have a marked decline — many companies today (GE, IBM) have found their niche and continue to thrive by supplying what they are good at. One should also keep in mind that Apple has managed to hit several “peaks” over the past 10 years in widely different (but increasingly blurred) industries: music, mobile phones, and computers.
My main issue with Trip’s claims is the (now antiquated) claim that Apple’s lack of Flash support is going to contribute to the firm’s demise:
I think it would be an incredibly positive thing for the industry if Apple decided to support all of the web standards, because then Apple could be the best about everything. Right now they make a conscious choice. They want you to be in the App Store rather than the browser, so they cripple the browser.
It isn’t crippling the browser if not supporting Flash makes your experience better: leaving off Flash instantly provides better security, a smoother experience, and longer browsing capabilities. Until Flash fixes the general issues it has with mobility hardware, there is no reason to provide Flash support. Additionally, Apple has well over 300,000 apps that are natively written in Objective-C, so Flash (with all the problems associated with that technology) is not required. The difference in the experience of using an app written with Flash/AIR versus Objective-C is night and day.
It is hard to argue that missing Flash is hurting Apple, when it is because of this decision (and many others) that Apple hardware is preferred in both the tablet and mobile phone markets.
Apple has already allowed for re-downloading of TV shows, and it is likely that movies are coming as well. This means that iCloud will fully support customers who want all of their media on demand and not tied down by devices — music, movies, tv shows, etc.
This doesn’t mean that Apple is going to move forward with instant streaming of their content, it just means that the content you own is yours to distribute to all of your devices. Like owning a CD from your favorite artist, you will have the option of putting that music on whatever device you own.
I don’t buy stock in Apple wanting to make a TV with instant streaming. Netflix is already a add-on service available on Apple TV and there are rumors that apps in general can be added on. There is no point in Apple themselves allowing for streaming from the Cloud, since they already have apps available to do this for them.
If I owned an Apple TV, I would like the ability to stream:
Then, I should also be able to download applications via an Apple TV app store, like a CBS Apple TV app. I imagine that the UI for this would be similar to the Launchpad, which would streamline all of Apple’s software.
I am absolutely in love with infographics like these. It is especially awesome that this page uses no Flash. Here’s one statistic I was shocked to learn:
While the Internet has an amazing reach, it still has room to grow. While 71% of the people in developed countries are online, only 21% of those in developing countries have access so far.
You have to wonder what Facebook might be up to with their latest move. On August 2nd, the company announced it was purchasing Push Pop Press. The e-book company specializes in books for iOS. It said that Facebook does not intend to compete with the other e-book giants. The company says the technology will be used for sharing purposes.
Opera and Camino users scored the highest. But here’s the kicker:
There was a clear indication from the date that the subjects using any version of Internet Explorer ranked significantly lower on an average than others.
Of course, if IE were to go away, the next browsers down the line would be adversely affected.
(via NPR)
Update: This story was faked. Many sites caught the scoop, but here’s the news from BBC.
After a long wait for many users, Skype is now available on the iPad. The new iPad optimized version of Skpe utilizes the front and back cameras built into the iPad 2. Video calls can be made over 3G or WIFI!
The app is hopefully in the App Store for good now. It was sent out last night, but quickly pulled by Skype because it was “not ready” for prime time. Earlier this morning the app was back in the App Store and ready for download.
In two years, Microsoft’s Bing has doubled its share of the U.S. search market, from 7.2 percent to 14.4 percent. If you add Yahoo’s Bing-powered portal, it’s 27 percent. So why are loud voices clamoring for Microsoft to give up on search?
The overall appeal is obvious: the lights can apparently be modified to suit networking at little cost and with only minor adjustment, and can be used in places where traditional radio or wired networking is less feasible, such as in hospitals, on planes or in circumstances where running cables isn’t a possibility.