Ballmer last night during an interview with Reid Hoffman:
Ballmer called the Android ecosystem “wild,” “uncontrolled” and susceptible to malware.
This coming from the man that’s in charge of the most virus- and malware-infected operating system in the world. Perhaps someone should have told Ballmer that the day before his comments, a teenager developed a prototype malware for Windows 8 that will be demonstrated later this month at the Malware Conference.
Drew Olanoff at TechCrunch did a great job of grabbing some other treasures from Ballmer too, like when Ballmer was asked about Windows and he said “Wow, it just works!”
Most Windows users in the U.S. know about Windows 8 but few have immediate plans to upgrade to Microsoft’s newest operating system. What’s more, about one-third of Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP users who are ready to buy a new personal computer say they intend to switch to an Apple product.
Fascinating numbers for me, but they must be frightening for Microsoft. Imagine that one-third of the customers planning to purchase a new computer — 16% of the 350,000 people in this survey — decide that your product is so bad, they are switching to the competition. Microsoft has run out of goodwill from its users.
Update: I updated the wording to make the number of people considering a new purchase clear.
Stef Gonzaga put together a great roundup of Markdown apps on AppStorm. I’m really late to the Markdown party, but I really like using it. I started with Markdown last year and it’s incredibly versatile.
It won’t be new to anyone who owns a copy of Kurt Cobain’s Journals, but for the rest of us, the late Nirvana frontman’s hand-scrawled list of his all-time favorite albums is a sight to behold.
It’s always interesting to see what other musicians listen to on a regular basis.
News of the intrusion surfaced late Tuesday, when a hacker claiming to be from Egypt claimed the hack and proved it by releasing 644 records from the site, including emails, saying that the release was done to prove that Adobe is slow in fixing security issues with sites and products it releases.
Jim and Dan discuss Sinofsky’s departure and it’s affect on Microsoft, US iPhone sales by outlet and the success and importance of the Apple Store, the desperate future of RIM, allergic reactions to the Blackberry, the iPad mini and Apple’s decline, the Zoom Multistomp, and the new USB Strat. Sponsored by Hover (use code DANSENTME for 10% off), Squarespace (use code DANSENTME11 for 10% off), Lynda, and Mutual Mobile.
The abuse of push notifications is spreading across the App Store. As a result, users are starting to reflexively reject app requests to send push notifications.
I couldn’t agree more. Some of the uses of push notifications have gotten way out of hand. Some apps even pop up notifications when you open the app advertising some of their other products. I hate it.
If you’re not doing anything in Boston or Cambridge tonight (Wednesday) and you’d like to get up to speed on the latest on the Mac game scene, feel free to stop by the monthly BMac user group, happening at 7PM at building E51 on the MIT campus. It’s a short jaunt from Kendall Square, easily accessibly from the T.
I’m going to be talking about Mac games – the latest ones to play, where to find them, and what’s going on with the Mac game scene these days. There may be free stuff, too.
Rene Ritchie on why Samsung won’t settle with Apple:
Being Apple without being Apple led to Samsung becoming far and away the leading Android phone vendor by market share, and there’s likely no amount of wrist-slapping that with level the playing field for vendors like HTC and Motorola which chose to go with more unique, more authentic products from the get-go.
Samsung blatantly copied Apple and made billions. They continue to make huge amounts of money, far more than any court settlement could give Apple. Hell, I wouldn’t settle either.
But it appears that the newest Nexus hardware is selling out fast. Both versions of Nexus 4 are now listed as ‘coming soon’ on the Play Store in the U.K., and the 32GB version of the Nexus 10 tablet is also apparently no longer in stock.
That’s great. I can’t wait to hear from Google exactly how many they sold.
Shares of Microsoft Corp slid on Tuesday after the surprise departure of a key executive, who analysts said marks the loss of the driving force behind the company’s biggest product.The shares were down 2.8 percent in afternoon at $27.21.
Wall Street took Apple’s executive changes in stride when they learned that Jony Ive and Eddy Cue would assume some of Forstall’s duties. It had a calming effect on everyone. Microsoft, indeed most companies, don’t have that.
The company said on Tuesday that in the coming weeks it would release a maps app called Here in Apple’s App Store. It will be a free download for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners.
I have quite a few analog pedals in my gear collection, but none quite like Zoom’s Multistomp. It has the form factor of analog pedal, but the guts of a digital stompbox.
The MS-50G is a unique pedal, but I was unsure how I would fit it into any of my current setups. Would it replace some of my analog pedals? Could I use it with my digital amps and cabs? The answer turned out to be yes.
I use the Zakk Wylde Overdrive with my JCM 800 and love what it does for my tone. I didn’t want to replace that pedal, but still wanted to add some of the effects in the Zoom Multistomp. Ultimately, that’s exactly what I did.
Whether you put the Multistomp before or after the ZW Overdrive is personal choice based on the tone you’re looking for and the effects you choose. I tried both, but preferred using the Multistomp before.
The Multistomp did exactly what I was hoping it would — it added to the tone. It didn’t try to overpower the tone that I already had, but rather allowed me to try out a bunch of effects that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to. The Multistomp comes with 55 effects and amp models and a tuner, so there is no way I would be able to buy all of that gear.
Here’s the beauty of the Zoom pedal. It has 50 presets slots and you can put up to six effects in each preset. Each preset is like it’s own stompbox.
You can program the pedal to load presets in whatever you order choose, so if you have a song that starts off with a clean tone, then goes to a crunchy tone, and then a lead tone, the Mutistomp can load them in order for you. Just stomp on the pedal and it changes to the new preset.
You can also change the order the effects are loaded in each preset, so you have complete control over your entire tone.
I also plugged the output from the pedal into my audio interface and tried the Multistomp with a number of amp modeling software applications. I disabled all of the effects in the software and used the ones in the Multistomp instead. The only thing I used in software was the amp and cab — it worked great.
Changing the settings for individual effects or global settings is done right on the pedal itself. There are buttons around the stomp pot and three knobs/buttons on the pedal itself. It will take you some time to figure out what button does what, but it’s not that difficult. By the time you set up your first preset, you’ll have it mastered.
Since the Multistomp is digital, Zoom included the ability to update the pedal’s firmware via USB. This is very handy if the company decides to make changes or enhance the pedal down the road.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with the MS-50G, but I’m pleased with what I found. A versatile pedal that added to my existing tone. The Multistomp costs $99.99 at Amazon.
What a great idea Google. A case for your smartphone that protects the edges, but leaves the screen free. And calling it a bumper is simply genius. Why didn’t Apple think of that a couple of years ago.
