Apple ranks highest in overall satisfaction with a score of 830 and performs highest in all study factors except cost. Samsung ranks second with a score of 822 and achieves above-average scores in the features, styling and design, and cost factors.
Apple is known for its superior design and quality. When you put that together with price and the ecosystem of apps, music and videos, the iPad is unbeatable.
Researchers have uncovered Android-based malware that disables infected handsets until end users pay a hefty cash payment to settle trumped-up criminal charges involving the viewing of illegal pornography.
Sweet baby Jesus, go get an iPhone people.
Wired’s Philip Di Salvo interviewed Om Malik on the future of journalism. Good read.
Justin Williams:
I’ve been a founding member of the ADN movement since 2012 and have renewed each of my developer accounts without much hestitation. I’m abnormal however. I prefer paying my products rather than being advertised to, want to pay higher air fares for better service…
This is such a great article. I’m like Justin: I don’t mind paying for a good product or service, but we’ve become so accustomed to receiving everything for free with services like Twitter and Facebook, that it’s become the norm.
In other words, U.S. Internet providers are the worst at making sure their networks can meet demand, at least from Level 3. Instead of augmenting their network capacity (at costs that are “not significant,” according to Level 3), these ISPs are holding out for payments, either from middlemen or from content providers such as Netflix.
This is what we pay for. As consumers, there seems to be very little we can do because they are all part of the scheme.
When you look at the memory consumption on your iOS device, chances are high that a good chunk of it is taken up by a category labeled simply as “other”. Read the linked post for three steps you can take to free up some space. Even if none of these fixes are new to you, it’s nice to be reminded to clear the backlog every once in a while.
Peter Cohen:
I also use iTunes Match, which has a 25,000 song limit. What happens when I hit the limit? Turns out things get weird.
It’s ridiculous that this happens these days, and the solutions are cumbersome and awful.
The corporate titans who lead Australia’s top 50 companies are as likely to have degrees in engineering as ones in business or economics, according to a recent Leading Company analysis. Nor is it only Australian mining conglomerates where engineers are rising to the top. Around the world a combination of engineering experience with an MBA from a top business school tends to be a common path to the corner office. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is an engineer. So are General Motors’ Mary Barra and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and the list goes on.
In fact, engineering long has ranked as the most common undergraduate degree among Fortune 500 CEOs. Even Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, has an engineering Ph.D under his belt.
Why do engineers end up leading companies? Is it because engineers as such are CEO material, or is it because they are more likely to have changes of heart during their careers? If so, why, how and when does this occur?
I think one value of having a technical leader is that they have a deeper understanding of the problems their company is trying to solve. A background in sales and marketing is just not a big enough hook on which to hang a company’s vision.
Not that a CEO needs to know the tech itself. They need to know enough to appreciate the difficulty of the problem they are trying to solve, to understand how to communicate with the people who are solving the problems so the truth makes its way from one end of the company to the other.
That’s brutal.
“UX” (user experience) has always been a broad, fluffy, and rather nebulous term to me. But I’ve finally found an analogy that makes UX make sense.
Pretty good analogy.
Symantec Corp. invented commercial antivirus software to protect computers from hackers a quarter-century ago. Now the company says such tactics are doomed to failure.
Antivirus “is dead,” says Brian Dye, Symantec’s senior vice president for information security. “We don’t think of antivirus as a moneymaker in any way.”
The basic antivirus mechanism is too limited to keep up with both the sheer number of worms and viruses and the evolution of more sophisticated means of attack.
Symantec pioneered computer security with its antivirus software in the late 1980s. The technology keeps hackers out by checking against a list of malicious code spotted on computers. Think of it as an immune system for machines.
But hackers increasingly use novel bugs. Mr. Dye estimates antivirus now catches just 45% of cyberattacks.
That last bit is eye-opening. Just 45%? That’s a lot of malware slipping over, no, flowing over the gates.
You might think that Symantec was throwing in the towel. But no, they’ve got a new strategy. Interesting read.
The Galaxy S5 has 40 applications only, which is much reduced compared to, for example, the Galaxy Note 3 having 51 apps. 40 applications in the 2 pages. That’s it. If wanted, other relatively less frequently used apps can be easily downloaded through Galaxy Essential and Galaxy Gift widget.
Samsung is praising itself for only pre-installing 40 apps? That’s 40 apps… pre-installed. While admitting they used to pre-install more. Fucking morons.
I love this device. I just spent two weeks away in Ireland and Scotland, and was able to keep up on the NHL playoff games, thanks to my Slingbox. The only problem is that I need another one so I can watch my cable box too.
Ken Segall:
As product names go, iWatch is every bit as obvious as iPhone was. Apple would desire it for exactly the same reason: it clearly describes the category it is about to disrupt, and it echoes all the i-goodness that came before it. It’s a name that single-handedly does an awful lot of the heavy lifting for the marketing dept.Second, securing the iWatch name may require some fancy footwork. According to Bloomberg there are more than 50 companies that can lay claim to the name. The biggest one of the bunch is Swatch, which has been marketing a product called iSwatch since 2009. Swatch is already making noise that the name iWatch will cause confusion in the marketplace.
It will be easier for Apple when it comes to light that “iWatch” isn’t a product but an OS/platform.
Dalton Caldwell, App.net co-founder:
The good news is that the renewal rate was high enough for App.net to be profitable and self-sustaining on a forward basis. Operational and hosting costs are sufficiently covered by revenue for us to feel confident in the continued viability of the service. No one should notice any change in the way the App.net API/service operates. To repeat, App.net will continue to operate normally on an indefinite basis.
The bad news is that the renewal rate was not high enough for us to have sufficient budget for full-time employees. After carefully considering a few different options, we are making the difficult decision to no longer employ any salaried employees, including founders. Dalton and Bryan will continue to be responsible for the operation of App.net, but no longer as employees. Additionally, as part of our efforts to ensure App.net is generating positive cash flow, we are winding down the Developer Incentive Program. We will be reaching out to developers currently enrolled in the program with more information.
Very sad.
Ars Technica:
Yahoo yesterday announced that it will stop complying with Do Not Track signals that Web browsers send on behalf of users who wish to not be monitored for advertising purposes.“As of today, web browser Do Not Track settings will no longer be enabled on Yahoo,” a company blog said. “As the first major tech company to implement Do Not Track, we’ve been at the heart of conversations surrounding how to develop the most user-friendly standard. However, we have yet to see a single standard emerge that is effective, easy to use and has been adopted by the broader tech industry.”
As one of the commenters pointed out, “this is in a nutshell why optional compliance doesn’t work.”
EZdrummer 2 is the easiest and the best drum sampler I’ve ever used—and I’ve used almost everything on the market.
This is funny. Sad, but funny.
It’s a good day for Jazz lovers—iTunes has just added Blue Note Records to its list of labels on the store. That’s not all, iTunes Radio is also featuring Blue Note in a special channel that streaming music from 75 years of The Finest In Jazz.
Blue Note says its goal is to deliver all of its albums to iTunes. All of the 100 albums will be “Mastered for iTunes,” a technique recommended by Apple to ensure listeners get the best quality digital music possible.
Today’s catalog releases include a 75-track anniversary collection titled Blue Note 75 that spans the label’s entire history as well as six exclusive introductory 10-track Blue Note 101 compilations. A series of Blue Note Select collections will also be featured beginning with Miles Davis’ Take Off: The Complete Blue Note Albums on May 19, and Clifford Brown’s Brownie Speaks: The Complete Blue Note Recordings, which will be released June 10.
Blue Note’s iTunes space will feature a monthly Artist Spotlight, beginning with today’s spotlight on Herbie Hancock. His Blue Note albums include his debut album Takin’ Off which was recorded 1962, and comprises numerous classics such as My Point Of View, Empyrean Isles, Maiden Voyage, and Speak Like A Child.
The iTunes Radio station dedicated to Blue Note Jazz will feature songs from all 75 years of the catalog and will be updated as new music is released. Artists will include one of my personal all-time favorites, Thelonious Monk.
You can download the albums on iTunes or listen to Blue Note artists on iTunes Radio today.
Matt Gemmell does a great job on offering some advice on the dos and don’ts of working from home. Over the years, the hardest thing I’ve found is the discipline to leave work and spend time doing something else. I still haven’t found a remedy for that.
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
This is just incredible—I can’t even imagine what went into making this.
The National Design Awards program celebrates design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement.
Congratulations to the winners.
Interest in type, typefaces, typography and fonts has grown far beyond the graphic design community, yet few truly understand how and why these vital components of design are created and applied. This exhibition, organized by Monotype and designed by AIGA Medalist and Pentagram partner Abbott Miller for the AIGA National Design Center, celebrates 100 years of type as a constant influence in the world around us.
Apple Inc granted its new retail chief 113,334 restricted stock units, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday, valued at $68.1 million based on Monday’s closing share price.
Good people cost money. If Apple is convinced she is worth it, then pay up and let her do her job.
Samsung will ask the trial judge and an appeals court, if necessary, to reduce the damages awarded by the jury May 2 and yesterday to zero, John Quinn, a lawyer for the maker of Galaxy smartphones, said in a statement.
This slimy company is just unbelievable.
A custom-made, $10,000 guitar stolen in March from heavy metal rocker Zakk Wylde’s tour bus outside The Chicago Theatre has been recovered after being sold to a Chicago pawn shop, Wylde’s manager confirmed Saturday.
I can’t imagine how devastating it would be to lose a guitar like that. I’m glad to hear Zakk got it back.
Interesting move on Amazon’s part. I do question the effectiveness. I have yet to find a product to tag in my Twitter feed, though I have no doubt the spam will soon start to flow.
Watch the video to see how this works.
UPDATE: I set up a tweet to test this. Reply to the tweet, include the #amazoncart hashtag in your reply, and Amazon will ask you to authorize it to access your Twitter credentials. If you choose to do that, you’ll then be asked to press a button to add the tagged item to your cart. After that, all you need do is reply to a tweet with an Amazon item and the hashtag and it will appear in your cart automatically. Be sure you DELETE THE ITEM you just added, unless you are in need of a banana slicer.
I do not like this interface. Clunky and intrusive. What are the odds you will put a product in your cart without at least checking it out first. Add to that, the second time you do this, Twitter will flag your post as a duplicate if you simply reply to a post with the hashtag. Which means you need to insert a dummy word each time you do this. High annoyance factor, and potentially a big time spam enabler.
Just not feeling it, Amazon. Thumbs down.
Tom Dunham was the jury foreman in the case.
Mr. Dunham said the jury was curious about how Google affected Apple’s motivation in this case. Samsung’s smartphones and tablets use Google’s Android operating system. Apple hasn’t sued Google directly, but has sued Samsung and other device makers that use Android.
“If you really feel that Google is the cause behind this, as I think everybody has observed, then don’t beat around the bush,” said Mr. Dunham, whose job at IBM was to oversee developers expected to file patents. “Let the courts decide. But a more direct approach may be something to think about.”
His comments suggest that Samsung lawyers succeeded with arguments that Samsung was merely a proxy for Apple’s real target: Google and its Android operating system. Apple’s lawyers insisted that Samsung—and not Google—was the defendant in this case.
To support its point, Samsung presented evidence of an email sent by former Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs saying that Apple should wage a “holy war” on Google.
Straight from the horse’s mouth. I don’t pretend to understand all the complexities of this case, but didn’t this start out to be about wholesale copying of a groundbreaking user interface?
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