Techwriter10

[I]I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars... and you. What else you need to know? ~Johnny Depp playing John Dillinger in the movie Public Enemies[/I] I love that quote from the movie [URL="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152836/"]Public Enemies[/URL]. Everything you want to know about a guy in one sentence. If you think about …

How many people enjoy their service with AT&T? <Peers out into audience holding hand over his eyes> Not many, not many. And AT&T just seems to keep getting more unfriendly all the time. Recently they announced data caps just before the release of iPhone 4 (see [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story287711.html"]New AT&T Data Plans …

I love books. My house is full of bookshelves overflowing with them. I have countless cabinets stuffed with them and they pour off my wife's and my night stands. We have spent many a night in book stores just perusing the shelves, spying the new releases and I've discovered some …

[URL="http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/23/hp-goes-nutsie-for-melodeo-pays-30-million-for-music-streaming-service/?utm_source=SNSanalytics&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=Tech+News"]HP purchased streaming music service Melodeo[/URL] today for $30M. Big whoop you might say, but if you look at this purchase in the context of other recent purchases including [URL="http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/28/hp-buys-palm/"]Palm[/URL] earlier this year, it shows a clear pattern. HP wants to be a playah in the mobile market and they …

Let me warn you I'm in a bit of an ornery mood today. So when I learned Microsoft is coming out with a refresh of Hotmail this week, you can understand I was less than enthused. Every time Microsoft refreshes a product, the technology press gets all excited about it …

The long-awaited iPad, the tablet computer from Apple had its coming out party this afternoon and for a while, I wondered if the event was even worth watching. For the first half hour, Jobs droned on about web pages, video and email like they were some fantastic new phenomena we …

Adobe Systems, Inc. the San Francisco-based software company, that has been heavily criticized recently by Apple, Inc CEO Steven Jobs, [URL="http://www.macworld.co.uk/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=3227682&blogid=14"]announced yesterday[/URL] they were releasing a mobile version of Flash, starting with Android cell phone OS. Adobe states in the press release that Flash is already one of the top …

Sometimes you look at the morning's headlines and wonder what exactly a particular CEO was thinking when they made a certain statement. Recently we've had these gems from seasoned CEOs: [LIST] [*][URL="http://www.mediaite.com/online/yahoo-ceo-carol-bartz-tells-michael-arrington-to-fk-off-video/"]Carol Bartz told Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch to f**k off.[/URL] [*][URL="http://blogs.computerworld.com/16249/steve_ballmer_admits_microsoft_is_number_five_in_the_mobile_race"]Steve Ballmer admitted his company was number 5 …

I spent the better part of this week at the[URL="http://www.e2conf.com/"] Enterprise 2.0 Conference[/URL] in Boston where I saw an excellent presentation called "The Dark Side of Enterprise 2.0." During this session, Kathleen Culver of Alactel-Lucent suggested that one of the big negatives of Enterprise 2.0 and by extension, social media …

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and so does business apparently. In the wake of Google's frontal attack on Apple at I/O recently, and this week's reports that [URL="http://gizmodo.com/5552152/google-hq-throwing-out-windows-in-favor-of-os-x-or-linux"]Google was dropping Windows as an OS [/URL]choice throughout its company, it seems that Apple could be running into the arms of Microsoft for …

At the end of May, [URL="http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/304693/has_asus_all_given_up_linux?rid=-219"]Computerworld reported[/URL] that [URL="http://usa.asus.com/"]Asus[/URL], one of the early Netbook success stories had all but given up on Linux Netbooks. This was telling because the [URL="http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=164"]Asus Eee[/URL] (of which I own one) has a very nice, simple-to-navigate interface. It starts up fairly quickly and has long …

Two years ago Apple introduced MobileMe. At the time I wrote a post called [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story219246.html"]Apple Has No Business Charging for Mobile Me[/URL]. My point was that people didn't want to pay $100 for a cloud service, that by all rights they should be getting for free. Folks pay a premium …

Apple released details of the [URL="http://live.gdgt.com/2010/06/07/live-wwdc-2010-keynote-coverage/"]extraordinary new iPhone 4[/URL] today at its [URL="http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/"]World Wide Developer Conference[/URL]. It's truly an amazing device and I'm sure everyone is going to be talking about the new features ad infinitum, so I wanted to reverse track and cover 5 things Steve Jobs didn't talk …

AT&T [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20006534-1.html"]announced new data plans today[/URL] dramatically reducing the amount of network bandwidth access that AT&T customers will have in the future. Currently, iPhone customers have an unlimited data plan for $30. Under the new plan, you get: [LIST] [*]200 MB for $15 per month [*]2 GB for $25 per …

[ATTACH=right]15150[/ATTACH]Google went after Apple in a big way at [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story285274.html"]Google I/O[/URL] last week and I've been seeing a lot comments suggesting that Google has now surpassed Apple technologically. First of all, I don't think you can dismiss Apple's market power that easily. Secondly, Google made some announcements, which doesn't equal …

The[URL="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574459380459235704.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular"] Wall Street Journal reported[/URL] yesterday that Dell plans to build its own cell phone running Google's Android operating system, and release it some time next year. It's worth noting that Dell has tried to get into the gadget business before. They made a couple of failed stabs at the …

A week ago today, the unthinkable happened. That's right, Gmail went down...for *two* hours. You would have thought, judging from the amount of chatter on Twitter that we were experiencing an epic attack, a horrible natural disaster, perhaps the end of life as we know it; but it was none …

There was a lot of pushing and shoving going on this week among the biggest players in technology. Google had its [URL="http://code.google.com/events/io/2010/"]I/O conference[/URL] and introduced several products and services aimed squarely at Apple, but that wasn't enough for them. Oh no, they had to rub Steve Jobs' nose in what …

[I]Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future... Steve Miller, Fly Like an Eagle[/I] [ATTACH=RIGHT]15151[/ATTACH]I've been carrying around that title all week. It came to me on Sunday morning, and it involves the idea of how automatically we record and broadcast our lives in the digital age. One of …

I'm a huge fan of the president. I loved how his campaign used social media to help drive him to victory in 2008. I think he's generally a smart, well-informed and extremely articulate man, but today he said something incredibly stupid about the iPad and I have to say something. …

[ATTACH=right]14831[/ATTACH]Two days ago, the Dow Jones Industrialized Average [URL="http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/probing+point+dive/3001581/story.html"]plunged almost 1000 points in a half hour[/URL]. That's almost 10 percent of the entire value of the market in 30 minutes. That's insane! What happened? Well, it turns out, it was a fairly simple technological trigger that caused the problem. Seems …

[ATTACH=right]14692[/ATTACH]Apple's feeling pretty good about itself lately and why shouldn't it? It sold [URL="http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/03/apple-sells-one-millionth-ipad/"]a million iPads[/URL] in the first month. That means iPad sales reached a million units twice as fast as the original iPhone. The revenue spigot remains wide open and I'm sure investors are happy, but Apple has …

[ATTACH=right]14585[/ATTACH]Google took an interesting step this week when it [URL="http://googlenexusoneboard.blogspot.com/2010/04/update-on-nexus-one-partnerships.html"]announced on its Nexus One blog[/URL] that customers who want to use the Verizon network might be more interested in the [URL="http://phones.verizonwireless.com/htc/incredible/"]HTC Droid Incredible[/URL] instead of its own Nexus One. I've never hidden my disdain for the Google Nexus One strategy …

In quick succession, HP and Microsoft reportedly killed off two iPad wannabes this week. With HP's purchase of Palm and its WebOS, it meant that [URL="http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/29/hewlett-packard-to-kill-windows-7-tablet-project/"]the Windows 7 tablet[/URL] that Steve Ballmer showed off at CES in January (and which you can see here in [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2010/04/hp-video-shows-ipad-wannabe-teaser.html"]this video[/URL]) is suddenly shelfware. …

[ATTACH=right]14667[/ATTACH]I've often discussed in this space, [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story255079.html"]the ongoing battle[/URL] among the technology titans--that constant struggle to find the missing link to control the computing world. This week, HP made its move when [URL="http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/28/hp-buys-palm/"]it purchased Palm for $1.2 billion[/URL]. On first blush, it looks like an incredibly stupid step, overpaying for …

You're too late, Ken. Word is they sold 700,000 of them yesterday. But don't worry, they'll make more. Ron

I wonder if age has anything to with it. I wonder how many older adults regularly check their credit scores or verify a web site is legitimate or do any of these things. Perhaps leaving compromising pictures is one that younger people are more likely to do, but the other …

[ATTACH=right]14446[/ATTACH]The iPad hasn't been out three weeks and already we are hearing reports that [URL="http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0412/Google-Android-tablet-rumored-to-be-around-the-corner"]Google[/URL], [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2010/04/hp-video-shows-ipad-wannabe-teaser.html"]HP[/URL], [URL="http://www.pcworld.com/article/194431/will_dell_supersize_its_mini_tablet.html"]Dell[/URL] and [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2010/03/engadget-movie-shows-off-possible-microsoft-digital-journal.html"]Microsoft[/URL] are planning tablet computers of their own. Much like touch phones, these devices are not likely to be created equal and it got me thinking what these companies must do to …

[ATTACH=right]14357[/ATTACH][B]Product[/B]: Apple iPad 32GB Wi-Fi [B]Web site[/B]: [url]http://www.apple.com[/url] [B]Price[/B]: $599 for reviewed model [B]Pros[/B]: Fantastic screen resolution, responsive touch screen, great battery life. [B]Cons[/B]: Need to connect to iTunes on a computer for first use, finger prints, not all app store apps are tuned for iPad, no Flash support. [B]Stars[/B]: …

[ATTACH=right]14341[/ATTACH]There has been a lot of talk the past couple of days about[URL="http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/08/apple-announces-iad-mobile-advertising-platform/"] Apple's new ad network[/URL]. The way it will work is that ads will live within the closed environment of the App Store apps. This supposedly means that that Apple will fully vet each ad it allows in …

[ATTACH=right]14321[/ATTACH][URL="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/04/08iphoneos.html"]Apple released details of iPhone OS 4.0 [/URL]today, but let owners of older versions of the phone know that they wouldn't be invited to the party. Unfortunately, according to Apple, owners of first and second generation iPhones (and iPod Touches for that matter) don't have the processing power to handle …

Ken, Apple reportedly has more than $25 billion dollars in cash reserves (and growing). They are gaining market share in the desktop market every year. Their brand is as solid as you are going to find. I'm trying to figure out what string of poor decisions they have made and …

[ATTACH=right]14257[/ATTACH]Rumor has it Microsoft will be jumping into the mobile phone market later this month. Much like Google's foray into mobile phones with the Nexus One, I think it's a horrible idea for Microsoft to sell phones, but according to this [URL="http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2010/04/05/microsoft-reportedly-to-unveil-new-mobile-phone-line-april-12/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+barrons/techtraderdaily/feed+(BARRONS.com+Blog:+Tech+Trader+Daily)"]story in Barron's[/URL], that's exactly what they intend to …

[ATTACH=right]14244[/ATTACH]The iPad hit the streets yesterday and reports have rolled in from bloggers, reporters and users. For the most part people seem very pleased with their new devices, but there have been some problems (as you would expect with any electronic device on its first day). Contrary to reports (including …

Probably just about everyone over 25 remembers the game and show '[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Sandiego"]Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?[/URL]' If San Diego were around today (maybe she is, who knows), we would all know exactly where she was because she would broadcast her whereabouts by tying her FourSquare account to …

[ATTACH=right]14218[/ATTACH]I was having a conversation with my editor today and he brought up an interesting point about the iPad launch tomorrow. The personnel who are supposed to know the iPad cold, have to be able sell it, service it and train new customers on how to use it; have yet …

The other day I was writing a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/reviews/review271593.html"]review of an online backup product[/URL], and I wrote about the advantages of backing up to the cloud. Even though I have two external backup drives, they are both tied to the same electrical system in my house as my computer. If the …

Great post, Davey. And I completely agree. You can't make money hiding behind pay walls. Ron

[ATTACH=right]14158[/ATTACH]I love my iPhone. It's a cool device with lots of free and low-cost apps at my finger tips, but I've been wondering lately if some of these Apps are a good thing. I mean, why do I need a dedicated New York Times app, for example? Why doesn't the …

[ATTACH=right]14127[/ATTACH] [I]We can be Heroes For ever and ever What d'you say ~David Bowie, Heroes [/I] Yesterday afternoon I read with some surprise that [URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032401543.html"]domain registrar Go Daddy was following Google out of China[/URL]. It seems they had had quite enough of the Chinese government's restrictions, and like Google, decided …

Say what you will about Apple, love 'em or hate 'em, you have to admit they have a special magic when it comes to creating gadgets that consumers clamor for. They have a unique mix of design, build-up and marketing that when combined drive popularity and sales in huge numbers. …

It's not exactly news that the relationship between Google and China has soured over the last month or two and it looks as though [URL="http://www.macworld.com/article/147096/2010/03/china_google.html?lsrc=rss_main"]Google may quit China soon[/URL] leaving the vastly lucrative Chinese market to Microsoft and others. What's not clear is what the implications will be for the …

Last night during the Oscars, Apple debuted [URL="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/07/apple_posts_surprise_ad_for_ipad_during_the_oscars.html"]its first iPad commercial[/URL]. Steve Jobs was even at the awards ceremony and [URL="http://www.tipb.com/2010/03/07/steve-jobs-oscars-red-carpet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheIphoneBlog+(The+iPhone+Blog)&utm_content=Google+Reader"]reportedly walked the Red Carpet[/URL]. The iPad is due out the first of next month and many folks have already announced plans to run out and buy one the second …

[I]The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh by the way, which one's Pink? ~Pink Floyd, Have a Cigar[/I] In the classic rock tale, the young, talented musicians are exploited by one of two entities: the unscrupulous manager or the greedy record company. This week Pink …

Google does a lot of things well, maybe too well, and it's adding to its portfolio of tools on a weekly basis. At some point you have to look at the number of pies in which Google has its fingers and start to get a little frightened of this company. …

Steve Ballmer, [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/03/microsoft-bing"]speaking[/URL] at the [URL="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/"]Search Engine Marketing Expo[/URL] this week, credited Google with being the first company to get internet search done right. Google certainly wasn't the [URL="http://searchenginewatch.com/2175241"]first internet search engine[/URL]. Yahoo!, InfoSeek, Excite and Alta Vista to name but a few, came along long before Google emerged in …

I was driving down the highway the other day, and it ocurred to me that Facebook sucks. No, really it does. Sure, it lets us connect with friends and we all put up with it, but think about just how bad it is. [LIST] The security features are hard to …

The other night my son had a homework assignment asking me how technology had changed since I was a child. I started rattling off the the devices and technologies we take for granted today that didn't exist back then. Sounding like my parents talking about the old days, I told …

Very cool, Ken. I would love to play with that when it comes out and choose the options that work best for me.

When you are dealing with a populations as large as China's, even when you take into consideration that three quarters of the population doesn't have internet access, you are still talking about a very large number of those who do. So it's no surprise that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! want …