330 Topics
 | It's with more than idle curiosity that I've watched the recent [URL="http://news.cnet.com/microsofts-lauren-ad-follow-up-disses-mac-power/?tag=rtcol;pop"]Microsoft ads[/URL] that attack Apple, subtly suggesting that it's too expensive and that it's all glitz with no real computing power. There is so much wrong with these assertions that it's hard to know where to begin. There is … |
| | In his keynote last Wednesday at AIIM, Andrew Lippman from MIT's Media Lab pointed out that not that long ago we went to work then we went home and watched TV and the two worlds never collided, but toda social networking tools and mobile devices are blurring the lines between … |
| | [I]Video killed the radio star. Pictures came and broke your heart. ~Buggles, Video Killed the Radio Star[/I] It turns out the old song was wrong. Video didn't kill the radio star and the internet didn't kill the newspaper industry. It was a failure to embrace new technology, to believe they …  |
| | Microsoft has been active lately, showing some signs of spunk. I reported last week that Steve Ballmer was going straight after Apple at the McGraw Hill Summit (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4155.html"]Ballmer Wastes No Words Going After Apple[/URL]). This week we see the release of an [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2009/03/new-microsoft-ad-goes-after-high-price-of-apple.html"]ad campaign comparing Apple … |
| | Not as though it's ever going to happen, but suppose I were at a party one night and [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/it100/2005/executive/GOOG.htm"]Eric Schmidt[/URL], CEO of Google happened to be there. I would love to corner him and get him a glass of wine or scotch or whatever it is that CEOs at large … |
| | I was a bit surprised to open my [URL="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-ballmer-apple-is-too-expensive-for-this-economy-and-thats-why-msft-will/"]PaidContent.org newsletter[/URL] this morning and find that Steve Ballmer was taking direct aim at Apple in pointed comments at the McGraw Hill Summit yesterday. Ballmer went straight for the jugular calling Apple too expensive for today's economy, perhaps because Apple's computer sales … |
| | For the better part of this decade Apple has created some amazing products from the Mac Book to the iPod to the iPhone. They've had an enormous technological and cultural impact, but even with all of these accomplishments, the meteoric rise of the App store is simply astonishing. They went … |
| | On Saturday afternoon during a weekend visit to New York City, we were walking back to the hotel when we spied a place called the [URL="http://www.spy34.com"]Spy Shops[/URL]. Think Q in James Bond and that's what you'll find here. A gadget lover's paradise, all designed for snooping. Naturally I had to … |
| | Lots of news from Apple this week. There is of course [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue-email.html?em"]the new Shuffle[/URL] which has the web abuzz with chatter because the controls are on the headphones and not the device (stupid design doomed to fail) and there is the standard [URL="http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/G-8Z2A_yWvk/another-patent-hints-at-mac-tablet.ars"]Mac Tablet[/URL] rumor (Yawn; call me when they … |
| | When Google released Chrome last Fall, I wrote that it represented a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3092.html"]direct attack on Microsoft and Apple[/URL]. This week, my colleague [URL="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=334716"]Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes in ComputerWorld[/URL] that Android could be coming to a Netbook near you by the end of this year. If this reports turns out to … |
| | [I]And I know I'm not the only one To ever spend my life sitting playing future games ~Fleetwood Mac, Future Games.[/I] When Microsoft released [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/SURFACE/Default.aspx"]Microsoft Surface[/URL] in 2007, it was easy to dismiss it, a PC the size of a table that cost $10,000. While everyone else was designing smaller … |
| | I recently had a conversation with [URL="http://www.coda.com/about/management-team?KeyPlayer_ID=13"]Jeremy Roche[/URL], who is CEO at [URL="http://www.coda.com/"]CODA[/URL], a high-end accounting software solutions vendor with more than 30 years in the business. Roche told me how his company began on the HP 3000, then moved to the DEC VAX, client/server and all the way to … |
| | Seems every time I write a piece suggesting open source as an option, I get a couple of comments warning readers about the scary complexities of open source licenses. So I decided to ask a guy who knows free and open source (FOSS) exactly what the deal was regarding FOSS … |
| | [I]This is the mystery of the quotient - Upon us all a little rain must fall. ~Led Zeppelin, The Rain Song. [/I] It's been quite a couple of weeks for Google. First there was the mistake that caused the entire Internet to be [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/31/google-flags-whole-internet-as-malware/"]flagged as malware[/URL]. Next came the great … |
| | The great Gmail outage, which as far as I can tell lasted a couple of hours over night in the US has prompted some nasty articles such as this one from [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/24/trouble-in-the-clouds-gmail-turns-into-gfail/"]TechCrunch[/URL] where they derisively refer to Gmail as Gfail. Let's grow up, people. Software fails all the time and … |
| | You have to give Microsoft credit. They keep trying, even if what they are trying is copying Apple. This time they have announced they are going to open retail stores. Sound familiar? It should because it's what Apple has done so successfully with its Apple Store strategy. The problem Microsoft … |
| | I've never made it a secret that I'm a big fan of Apple products. I love my Mac Book Pro and my iPhone, but I have to say that Apple has been pissing me off lately. The company has decided to throw its legal weight around to protect its market … |
| | When Facebook changed its [URL="http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever"]terms of service[/URL] on Monday, it caused an immediate uproar, and when people screamed loudly enough, Facebook backed down. What this shows me is that although Facebook is a free service, it exists and is successful because we make it so. The millions of people who … |
| | [I]Hans plays with Lotte, Lotte plays with Jane Jane plays with Willi, Willi is happy again ~Games Without Frontiers, Peter Gabriel. [/I] I'm forever fascinated with the gamesmanship that goes on between Google, Apple, and Microsoft. You expect them to undercut each other at every turn, to do whatever it … |
| | Microsoft is readying a new cloud service called [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/myphone/myphone.aspx"]My Phone[/URL] that enables users of Windows Mobile 6 or later to sync contacts, calendar appointments, photos, and other information with the My Phone web site. According to an [URL="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/02/06/microsofts-skybox-site-live-branded-my-phone/"]Engadget report[/URL] on Friday, Microsoft will officially launch the service at the[URL="http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/"] Mobile … |
| | Since Palm introduced its [URL="http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/090109-CES-2009-Palm-Introduces-Smartphone-with-GPS/"]new smart phone[/URL] at CES last month, the buzz has been deafening and for that alone, Palm deserves a lot of credit. Let's face it, they were up until that moment, a company on life support, but with one smoothly-presented product announcement they were on the … |
| | [URL="http://www.webinknow"]David Meerman Scott[/URL] (who is also a fellow contributing editor at [URL="http://www.econtentmag.com"]EContent Magazine[/URL]) is an expert in social networking and using the internet as a marketing tool and speaks frequently on the subject. His best selling book, [URL="http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/books.htm"]The New Rules of Marketing and PR[/URL] was published in 2007 and was … |
| | I came up with an idea this week: What if Microsoft made Windows open source? Before you accuse of me of link baiting, I believe this idea has merit for several reasons. It will reduce the cost of development, put the power of the community behind supporting what's become an … |
| | Last week Apple and Microsoft released their fourth quarter MP3 player sales figures, which Apple chooses to call its first quarter for some odd reason, and the numbers were a startling contrast. On one hand you had Microsoft with a 54 percent drop off in sales from the fourth quarter … |
| | There are number of factors coming together that lead me to believe that open source's moment is right now, today, this year. Open source already runs so many things and just last week as Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, he asked Scott McNealy of … |
| | For the last 10 years Google has been on an upward trajectory making gobs of money and astounding us all with there seemingly endless fount of innovation. For a time, there seemed to be a new product announcement every week. Google has always been very savvy about exploiting the news … |
| | There has been a lot of chatter this week about the health of Steve Jobs. On one level, it's a perfectly understandable discussion. Jobs is a public figure and as such what happens to him--good or bad--interests us. But a friend of mine suggested that any discussion of Jobs' health … |
| | There was a big fuss earlier this week when The Sunday Times of London published an [URL="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5489134.ece"]article[/URL] claiming that every Google search was the equivalent of boiling a pot of tea. My my, talk about a tempest in a tea pot. The Times attributed this bit of profundity to a … |
| | Lots of strong opinions about Microsoft out there. There are people who stand behind it staunchly. In their eyes Microsoft can do no wrong and critics like me are simply buffoons who don't get it. Then there are people who hate Microsoft for everything it stands for. In their minds … |
| | Let's face it, when you have Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show in the same week, it's an overwhelming amount of news to deal with, even (maybe especially) for a technology journalist like myself who gets paid to follow the latest and greatest and report back to you. I've been … |
| | I was carrying around the headline of this post all day yesterday since I saw a [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/05/steve-jobs-apple-health-letters-full"]Guardian article[/URL] yesterday morning with the text of a letter Steve Jobs wrote to the Apple community. Jobs explained that he felt compelled to let everyone know that he was sick, but he was …  |
| | I write a great deal about Google mostly because it is always trying new things and putting them out there for free for the world to try. The tools are easy to access and use from wherever you are--any device with a browser and an internet connection--and you can't beat … |
| | [I]Instant karma's gonna get you Gonna knock you right on the head ~John Lennon. [/I] It's 2009 and I'm sure the powers that be at Microsoft are hoping it's going to be a good one without any tears, but even as the old year closed, the news kept getting worse … |
| | With an incredible stroke of luck and happenstance, this is my hundredth post and my last post of the year. It seemed to me the perfect time to step back and assess my first year writing the DaniWeb TechTreasures by Ron Miller blog. [B]A Look at the Numbers[/B] Just today … |
| | This is the time of year for wish lists, so why not make a list of products I would like to see Apple make in 2009. I'm not under any illusions that Apple will actually listen to me, but this is a fun exercise and some of these would be … |
| | I wrote a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3687.html"]post[/URL] the other day criticizing the RIAA for failing to understand 21st marketing techniques. The night I wrote the RIAA post, I listened to an interview on [URL="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98591002"]Fresh Air [/URL]with author and Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig, who recently published a book called [URL="http://remix.lessig.org/"]Remix[/URL], and he articulated … |
| | The time has come to drag the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) kicking and screaming into the 21st century because it clearly has a lot to learn about marketing on the internet. The RIAA had a [URL="http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/music/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212501507&subSection=Management"]good news/bad news announcement[/URL] on Friday. The good news was that it would … |
| | Joe "Zonker"Brockmeier is the Community Manager for openSUSE. He has been involved with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) since 1996 when he discovered FOSS while a college student and was hooked. For most of his career he has worked as a technology journalist covering Linux and open source topics. … |
| | Cnet [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10122751-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5"]reported[/URL] the other day that Microsoft has placed an app, Seadragon, in the Apple AppStore, even before releasing it on the Windows Mobile platform because, get this, the iPhone is the only phone platform with the graphics chops to handle the application. There is such delicious irony in all … |
| | In a wide ranging [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/10/marissa-mayer-at-le-web-the-almost-complete-interview/"]interview[/URL] with Tech Crunch's Michael Arrington on Wednesday at [URL="http://www.lewebparis.com/"]Le Web[/URL] in Paris, Google's Marissa Mayer talked about all things Google, but what I found most interesting was when the conversation turned toward the future of search. Mayer said the key to the future of search … |
| | [I]Too much information running through my brain Too much information driving me insane ~Police, Too Much Information. [/I] Yesterday, Seth Godin wrote a post in his blog called, [URL="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/warning-the-int.html"]Warning: The Internet is almost full[/URL]. It's not of course, and he had is his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, but …  |
| | I love my iPhone, but like any device, it's far from perfect and there are several missing pieces. Fortunately, the App Store gives third party developers the opportunity to fill in these holes. Today, I'm going to review five tools that provide functionality missing on the standard iPhone. [B]Flash for … |
| | I like to follow news about Apple and its products as much as anyone. It's interesting and fun and watching the speculation is a kind of voyeurism, a way to get inside a company that keeps a tight lid on information, but much like baseball trade rumors, which I also … |
| | With much fanfare Sun announced its new JavaFX platform yesterday, but curiously [URL="http://channelsun.sun.com/video/javafx -- do more!/3856260001"]in a video introducing the platform[/URL], Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, made the browser the enemy of content owners, and set up JavaFX as the platform to give developers and content owners direct access to users. … |
| | Yesterday Adobe announced it would be laying off 600 employees worldwide, which represents, according to published accounts, 8 percent of the workforce. Reports suggested that Adobe was a victim of the overall economic slow down and the lower than expected earnings were due to selling fewer copies of the new … |
| | Today is Black Friday and people are going a bit insane standing on sidewalks overnight waiting for the the big deal on their desired electronics. Everyone from WalMart to Target to Best Buy to the Apple Store is getting involved. And so are online retailers like Amazon. And to be … |
| | According to a recent [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/23/microsoft-to-rebrand-search-will-it-be-kumo/"]TechCrunch article[/URL], Microsoft is planning to rename its Live Search product, Kumar, which means cloud or spider in Japanese. What Microsoft needs to learn, and what the [URL="http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/"]Get a Mac ads [/URL]have captured so well, is that it's not about PR or branding or the name … |
| | I've had my iPhone for about a month now and for the most part I'm very pleased with it, but if I could have a meeting with Apple engineers, there are a few things I would tell them to change: [B]1 Protect the Glass Out of the Box[/B] Perhaps my … |
| | It's been about a week now since the now infamous Motrin ad hit the air waves. It caused a social media firestorm the likes of which the internet might never have seen and that's saying something. If for some reason, you haven't heard, you can go to [URL="http://parenting.amuchbetterway.com/the-motrin-mom-videos/"]parenting.amuchbetterway.com[/URL] and see … |
| | In a report on enterprise open source usage released this week, Gartner research director Laurie Wurster stated in rather strong language that companies could face a big intellectual property issue because they are using the software without understanding the IP implications of the licensing language. But is she exaggerating the … |
The End.