Archive for October, 2008
Oct
31
2008
 
Wal-Mart digital music store cuts prices of some songs to 74 cents, adds Mac OS, Linux and Firefox compatibilityPosted by: in General News
Who would have thought Wal-Mart would be at the vanguard of the push for low-cost, DRM-free legal music downloads? And yet, here we are. State what you will about the company, but this is a superior model for consumers than any other legal music download service I know of. Popularity: 1% [?]
Not bad at all. For a 3.15 megapixel camera, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1’s built-in snapper is quite capable. At least that’s what images over at USEB present:
Writer Michell should’ve also tried snapping shots in really poor conditions, like a smoke-filled bar. The daytime images are very decent, although some light graininess makes super clarity virtually impossible. In any case, take a look at the full collection here. (image by USEB) Tags: Pics, Sony Ericsson, Videos, XPERIA X1 Popularity: 1% [?]
Oct
31
2008
Is Microsoft finally ready to step into the era of Web computing?Posted by: in TechnologyCan Microsoft possibly live up to the expectations it has built around it’s Professional Developer Conference, which starts here in Los Angeles this day? As Microsoft-watcher Mary Jo Foley says, virtually any question put to an exec of the software company over the past year has been met with the response: “You’ll find out more at PDC.” This is meant to be Ray Ozzie’s coming-out party. Three years after joining Microsoft, he needs to prove that he has a plan capable of shifting the company’s centre of gravity to the Web. It won’t be simple. Microsoft has a habit of building up to massive moments like this and then leaving its audience hungry for more, as Nick Carr put it to me the other day (Carr’s latest book, The Massive Switch, is the ideal read so far about the significance of the shift to “cloud” computing.) Ozzie laid the groundwork for today’s event in this speech at Microsoft’s annual meeting with financial analysts last year. The picture he sketched out at that time was certainly ambitious. The Web-based computing platform he envisaged has a number of layers, starting with a base of large datacenters which Microsoft, like Google, has been racing to build. On top of this rests what he called a “cloud infrastructure services layer” - the most basic layer of software that spreads the computing load across datacentres and servers, parcels out storage capacity and manages the network. The next layer up he termed “Live platform services” - software that handles a range of services needed to support Web applications for consumers and small businesses. These services are things like identity management, a user’s ”social graph” of personal connections, and the Microsoft advertising platform, which third-party developers can use to make money from their applications. On top of all of this reside the actual services for consumers and office workers. Some will come from Microsoft, but most will be created by the developers at whom this conference is aimed. And then there’s the client computing platform, the PC and mobile software used to access the new Web services. What makes Ozzie’s job particularly hard is that Microsoft has a stake in every level of this new Web-based computing “stack,” so it has to tell a convincing story about each piece. Failure to present a convincing case would be pricey. Microsoft badly needs to win mind-share with developers when it comes to the next big computing transition. Failure would mean losing the initiative to IBM or Google. Popularity: 1% [?]
Oct
31
2008
VHS finally dead as JVC is the last to stop making standalone VCRsPosted by: in General News
Good riddance. Unlike the maudlin nostalgists at Engadget, I feel nothing but quiet satisfaction at the news that this crummy format is headed for a dirt nap. VHS tapes were always an execrable invention, saddling viewers with bulky tapes that could easily tear and produced terrible images. Rewinding was annoying, and listening to the mechanical whir and chunk of a tape spinning and stopping always left me wondering if the device was about to explode. And whenever you tried to pause the video to analyze some detail, you’d invariably get that blurry line in the middle of the screen that left you squinting like a myopic owl. VHS, you won’t be missed. Popularity: 1% [?]
The cases of Ilkka Kanerva and Kwame Kilpatrick are proof that text messages can come back to haunt you. It’s fitting that a politician in Finland—home to #1 cellphone maker Nokia—would be embroiled in an SMS-related scandal. Mr. Kanerva was forced to resign as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, after records surfaced showing he sent hundreds of text messages to an “erotic dancer” from his work phone. And this wasn’t the first time he played footsie via SMS. Personally, I don’t know why the Finns got so worked up over Mr. Kanerva’s actions. There was no proven misuse of funds or criminal behavior on his part, right? We can’t say the same for Kwame Kilpatrick, former Mayor of Detroit. While the text messages publicized here feature “simply” the illicit conversations between two grown adults (Kilpatrick was having an affair with his aide), at least one of them links to an alleged case of misuse of authority. Kilpatrick was always a subject of scrutiny over his use of city funds, but it looks like the virtual paper trail left by his text messages finally did him in. What can learn from the fall of these two prominent personalities? Simply this: if you can’t share the info with anyone else, don’t pass it along via SMS. At the very least, your service provider will have a record of your messages. (images from Wikipedia) Tags: Ilkk Kanerva, Kwame Kilpatrick, SMS Scandals, Text messaging scandals, text scandals Popularity: 1% [?]
Amazon is featuring a trailer of her Friday show on its site with Oprah talking about her new “favourite gadget” which is “life changing for me”. From a side-on view, the product she is speaking about looks very like a Kindle. In an email to subscribers, Amazon says its founder Jeff Bezos will be appearing on Oprah to talk to her about her new favourite gadget. Speaking to analysts on Amazon’s third-quarter conference call on Wednesday, he denied that digital books were having a cannibalistic effect on regular book sales:
Mr Bezos stated he did anticipate digital books to force down prices of physical ones in the long term but Amazon would hope to sell more units. A new version of Kindle wouldn’t appear until next year at the earliest, the call was told, but manufacturing capacity had been ramped up for the existing one and Kindles were in stock and available for immediate shipment. That’s good news for the retailer given the sell-out results of Ms Winfrey’s usual endorsements. Popularity: 1% [?] We all know that Google can count. The company based its IPO on a billion times the mathematical constant “e”, so I don’t doubt the arithmetic credentials at Mountain View. So the launch of the Android market, the application store for the new G1 phone, indicates that the Android team needs to check their calculations. The Android blog states:
And at Android market? I counted 29 apps. So where are the missing 21 (at least)? This isn’t just a rounding error. Some of our apps are missing. The rumour is that Google updated the market software close to launch, which meant many apps weren’t up to spec. In which case, the timing sucks. Google has launched products a bit early before, without causing too much damage. But with a phone that isn’t as slick as the iPhone in a highly competitive area, launching the Android market with the cupboard a little bare isn’t the smartest move. Popularity: 2% [?]
The New York Times ran an article over the weekend breathlessly noting that, hey, people don’t like long boot times on their PCs and laptops, and personal makers will have repairs out soon!! Color me skeptical (what color is skeptical, anyway? pea-green?). Computer companies have been trying to solve this problem for years, decades even. As I noted earlier this year, we were running articles in 2000 about attempts to cut Computer boot times, and even then the problem was ancient. The dilemma is that more powerful hardware makes your existing software run quicker. But when you have a more powerful system, you naturally want to run more complex software. So the performance gains are watered back down. If you really want instant on, here’s how you do it: Purchase any new, $1,000-or-above PC or laptop, and then install Windows 95 or 3.1 on it and don’t load any other program on the machine. If your desktop is totally empty, you’re in good shape. At that point, you’ll probably be rocking a boot time of 15 seconds or less. If you’re not willing to live with a decade-old operating system, though, don’t anticipate to get instant-boot in any modern, commercial OS. It’s just the cost of doing business. Popularity: 1% [?] So you come out with a new ad, in response to your competitor’s attempts to change perceptions over a much-maligned product. Do you concentrate on your strengths, re-highlight your competitor’s weaknesses, or simply go with a cleverly-worded lie? Reportedly, Apple decided to go for the latter. In a recent ad, they implied that Microsoft spent more money on marketing their products, rather than improving them. According to WinGeek: “…since Apple brought it up, they spend only .7 cents less per sales $1 on Advertising than Microsoft and spend a fraction of what Microsoft spends on improving its products.” For each dollar Microsoft makes, it spends 13.9% on R&D, compared to Apple’s 3.3%. The full dirt—as well as the sources of WinGeek’s research—are available here. Tags: Advertising, apple, Mac OS X, Mac vs. Computer, Mac vs. Windows, Microsoft, Windows, WinGeek Popularity: 1% [?] Woman jailed for killing avatar: “Reportedly, the husband divorced his virtual wife without warning, and hell hath no fury like an avatar scorned… so she entered the game using his password and deleted the character… the Sapporo woman was arrested and taken into custody charged with ‘illegally accessing a personal and manipulating data’.” Humans taste of bacon, states gourmet robot: “when NEC demonstrated the cybersommelier to a reporter and snapper from Associated Press, the robot claimed the former’s hand tasted of prosciutto ham, while the latter apparently had the unmistakable whiff of bacon about him.” 10 Years Later, Misunderstood DMCA is the Law That Saved the Web: “Still, the DMCA’s separate notice-and-takedown provision has proven even more crucial to the growth of the web. The provision allows immunity to so-called “intermediaries” — ISPs, for example — for any copyright infringement by their users. To earn that so-called “safe harbor,” the intermediary such as video-sharing site YouTube must promptly remove material if the copyright holder sends a takedown notice. But the company can restore the content if the user certifies that it’s noninfringing, and the copyright claimant fails to sue.” Tags: DMCA benefits, gourmet robots, Killing Avatars Popularity: 1% [?] |
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