Activity for May 31

Comment - What's the big deal about Intel Ultrabook?
(May 31, 2011 - 4:37 AM)

Although Apple has had something like this for a while, the price is prohibitive. Let's face it, the cost of a Macbook Air is far higher (and the size is far greater) than for a tablet or even a comparably priced business notebook (which tends to be only a bit lager than a netbook). If you're looking for productivity combined with price, size, instant on, processing power, storage capacity and all of the other variables that are the best features of tablets and laptops, but that aren't shared between them, you're out of luck.

A fusion of the two - a tablet's battery life, instant on and general portability with a laptop's performance, storage capacity, productivity and generally reasonable price all of which can integrate well into the Enterprise ecosphere, you're looking at something that may actually outsell anything on the market today.

I loathe tablets, but if I had their features without the handicap of their form factor in a more powerful, greater storage, machine capable of actual cost-and-time effective productivity at a reasonable price, I'd definitely be looking more than twice at it.
Comment - Somebody notify the next of kin, Microsoft KIN is dead
(Jun 30, 2010 - 7:31 PM)

The Kin was an awful marketing concept. "Person X is visiting their social network one person at a time with the Kin!"

OMFG, what a horror show that would be for most people.

Social networking - to me - is an utterly useless feature to even have on a mobile device, let alone design a device around the concept of social networking. Yes, kids (the young and gullible) may buy into the concept of social networking, but even the most dedicated of them (of which there are not enough to sustain a major market) aren't going to carry their social network around with them to be pestered day and night 24/7.

I'm guessing Microsoft never does focus groups or adequate market research. Some dim bulb way up on the decision tree probably looked at the numbers of social networking users and thought, "Ah HA! A ready market for a dedicated device!"

What a dip...
Comment - Apple has gone too far
(May 3, 2010 - 5:28 PM)

Apple is doing through autocratic and arbitrary controls what Microsoft did before with Windows - only more-so. They ban certain things from working with their OS, control the entire user experience with inconsistent rulings regarding what they will and won't allow a user to obtain. They tie it to their app store, and they maintain control over your hardware even after you have bought it. That is extremely anti-competitive and entirely monopolistic.

If Microsoft was doing with computers what Apple is doing with the iPhone and iPad, the feds would be all over them.

With regard to the iPad, this is definitely in violation of the anti-trust laws. There is no other device like it (as their advertising suggests, it's unique) and therefore Apple utterly controls that market. Even should HP's slate (with the Palm WebOS on it) be introduced as "competition", it's still a two horse race with Apple way out in front - again, a monopoly.

So, yes, most definitely Apple is engaging in monopolistic business practices in violation of the Sherman act and the feds should step in accordingly. They need to open their platform or open their hardware (or both) so that the end user has more control over what content THEY want.

This behavior is the primary reason I would never own an Apple product. Ever. Of any kind. I want to control MY experience and if I were to ever relinquish that control to someone else, I would want to know they are consistent and trustworthy. Apple is neither. It's time the feds took a look at what they're doing and decide if legal measures are in order.

In the meantime, I still say the iPad is a fad. While the hype has too many buying into the "cool"-aid mentality, the form factor will tell in the end and the iPad and Apple has no control over that. Slates suck for multimedia. It's still in the honeymoon phase and that new slate smell is still strong. I'll be interested in seeking a sales chart in say October, about 6 months after it came out as more and more people get over the uniqueness of the experience of multimedia and other "consumptive" behaviors on a slate and realize just how awful it actually is to use.
Comment - Is iPad really just a proof-of-concept device?
(Apr 5, 2010 - 4:45 PM)

If the iPad is supposed to do these things:

- Establishing a new platform for consuming professionally produced content
- Transforming how people interact with personal computers and related devices

It's going to fail based on form factor.

Dedicated eBook readers are more likely to be the product of choice for "consuming" (God, I HATE that word in that context) "professionally produced content" since the form factor favors reading. The iPad may help eBook sales - except it has a back-lit screen which makes it hard to read in the sun and very hard on the eyes for people who aren't used to staring at computer screens for hours and hours.

Beyond that, the slate form factor is about as awful of a vehicle for the kind of changes that the writer has suggested as can be imagined. The ONLY NEW innovation that will transform how people interact with PC's is AI. The slate's been tried (twice!) and has failed both times except for niche markets. Watching a movie, or even a 22 minute show on a slate is a chore. Casual reading while holding a 1.5 pound device is a chore. Typing on a hand-held, 1.5 pound device is a chore. You literally need a place flat enough to lay the thing down on and work. Your lap may work, but the view is still skewed.

The Apple iPad had a lot of hype. Those who bought into that hype bought an iPad. But they also bought the same form factor that has proven itself to be grossly inadequate to the task Apple has set as a goal. As such it's definitely a proof of concept device. And anyone with a slate (I have one, myself) can tell you that except for a very few specific applications at which the form factor shines, it's a pain in the butt to use. And it does NOT shine at multimedia by any measure of use.

They need a new target market that more appropriately fits the form factor. The multimedia market is NOT it.
Comment - Preliminary results: IE9 tech preview performs 7.8 times better than IE8
(Mar 17, 2010 - 8:24 PM)

This is like laying a keel of a ship and then declaring that the ship will be the fastest and "bestest" in the world. C'mon, now. You don't have any accurate idea what it will do until the tonnage is weighed, the propellers are on, and the thing gets underway in full sea trials.

Assuming it doesn't hit the Internet version of an iceberg (exploit) on its maiden voyage, of course...