September 22, 2011
Written by Jim Dalrymple
CNN:
Last week Sony changed the terms-of-service document for its PlayStation Network, asking U.S. customers to forfeit their rights to file class-action lawsuits against the company and its partners. Customers can opt out by sending the company a letter in the mail. … Sony said this week that the new terms-of-service changes were made, as some analysts suspected, in response to a Supreme Court decision in April. In that case, AT&T Mobility was permitted to include and enforce a clause in employment contracts that bars workers from bringing class-action suits.
Initially many suspected the changes to the PlayStation Network terms of service was a defensive reaction to lawsuits filed against Sony after the service was breached by hackers earlier this year, exposing personal information for tens of millions of accounts.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
CBS News:
Turns out, traits that make great software testers – intense focus, comfort with repetition, and memory for detail – also happen to be characteristics of autism.Aspiritech, a nonprofit in Highland Park, Ill., nurtures these skills while forgiving the quirks that can make adults with autism unemployable: social awkwardness, poor eye contact, being easily overwhelmed. The company’s name is a play on the words “Asperger’s,” “spirit” and “technology.”
While a lot of research and treatment focuses on providing children who have been diagnosed with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders, what makes Apsiritech different is their focus on adults. It’s a great idea, and goodness only knows the world can use more gifted and motivated software QA people.
I sat down to watch my beloved Boston Bruins play their first televised (delayed) pre-season hockey game against the Ottawa Senators today on the NHL Network. Just as the game started, the ticker came up on the bottom of the screen showing the scores and news from around the league. I wasn’t worried — only a complete moron would show the score of the game I am currently watching.
MORONS!
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Threatpost:
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said on Tuesday that her office would be inquiring into long-standing complaints about fraudulent purchases that leverage Apple’s popular online music store.In a lunchtime address to business and technology leaders in Massachusetts, Coakley said she was a victim of identity theft in recent months, and that her stolen credit card information was used to make fraudulent iTunes purchases. When asked (by Threatpost) about whether such fraud constitutes a reportable event under the Bay State’s strict data breach notification law, Coakley said that her office would be looking into that question and demanding answers from Cupertino, California based Apple, which has steadfastly refused to comment, or report the breaches to Massachusetts regulators.
Kinda figures that this didn’t get on her radar until AG Coakley herself was the victim of fraud.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Forbes’ “Richest People in America” list is out and it contains a lot of familiar names including Bill Gates ($59 billion) and Steve Jobs ($7 billion). One of the surprises this year is Mark Zuckerberg who is now worth $17.5 billion, putting him in 14th spot overall.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
NPD Research:
Among smartphone users, 82 percent have no security products installed on their phones; however, the percentage of users addressing this concern varies by platform, according to NPD’s “Emerging Technology Trends: Mobile Security” report. Although iPhone and Android smartphone owners share similar security concerns, 30 percent of Android smartphone owners have installed security products on their phones, compared to just 6 percent of iPhone owners.“Even though iPhone users are less concerned than Android users about device security, they are still clearly worried,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD. “Their biggest concerns were much more likely to be fears that their iPhone would be stolen or damaged, than any unwanted or harmful activities.”
iPhone owners feel pretty safe downloading apps from Apple because of the approval process the company has in place. The Android market has been caught a couple of times with malware apps and other nastiness available for users to download.
September 21, 2011
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I did an interview for The Bro Show this afternoon with Myke Hurley and Terry Lucy from the UK. We talked about all kinds of things, including RIM, Final Cut Pro, The Loop 2.0, and more.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
AppleInsider:
That observation, by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, was made in response to Gartner’s presentation, which estimated that 40 percent of organizations already support employee owned mobile devices.Gartner called the trend toward “bring your own devices” as an “unstoppable train coming down the tracks,” noting that “C-level executives” have opened the door to employee-owned mobile devices and that younger employees “prefer consumer technologies like iPhones and iPads over enterprise-provided alternatives.”
Some IT people tried to stop it, but ultimately users won. The way it should be.
Adobe plans to roll out Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 in October, according to a new blog post from Adobe’s Flash product manager Tom Nguyen.
Integral to the new Flash release is “Stage 3D,” a new hardware-accelerated 3D graphics architecture that delivers radically improved 3D graphics performance compared with Flash 10 – on the order of 1000 times improved, according to Nguyen.
“Additionally, these releases deliver new features to support theater-quality HD video, native 64-bit optimizations, high-quality HD video conferencing, and a powerful, flexible architecture for leveraging native device and platform capabilities,” said Nguyen.
Stage 3D Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) enable developers to use the graphics processors on a wide variety of computers, with features including dynamic audio, low-latency multiplayer networking, 1080P video playback, voice chat and other capabilities.
Nguyen says to expect the first crop of Flash 11-optimized games to arrive later this year and early in 2012.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Erik Sherman, for BNet:
…according to a quick survey done of 500 consumers by brand naming company Strategic Name Development, Netflix may have stepped into one of the worst muck holes it could have: blowing the name of its DVD division. And the reason it did was fear.…By associating Qwikster with the DVD business, top brass made the complete opposite choice of what they needed. The company could have brought on new name (preferably something with a more natural connection to the service that avoided the infamous suffix) and associated it with the streaming service. Netflix would have used the classic approach of promoting new name with the established one and then, over time, switched the emphasis.
Survey respondents suggested that Netflix should have named its newly-minted DVD service something evocative of the original Netflix name.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Kara Swisher:
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is being considered by Hewlett-Packard directors as a possible candidate for CEO, in a move that would replace its current leader Léo Apotheker, according to several sources close to the situation.
I wonder if Apotheker knew. Well, he does now.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The entire economy of Singapore; All the illegal drugs in the world; Every home in Atlanta, Georgia combined.
Funny stuff.
[Via Kottke.org]
Facebook users got an eyeful on Wednesday when they launched their Web browsers to be greeted with a new home page interface containing some changes. In a posting on the Facebook Blog, engineering manager Mark Tonkelowitz explained some of the recent changes.
The Facebook home page “News Feed” has, up to now, shown new content in chronological order. This offers a benefit to frequent users who can regularly refresh the page, but if you don’t, you’ll miss out on what’s going on with the people you’re connected to.
Tonkelowitz describes the new News Feed as “your own personal newspaper.” The News Feed now shows top photos and statuses that have been posted while you’ve been away, so it won’t matter as much if you visit the site multiple times a day or just once in a while.
A new sidebar Ticker shows what’s going on with your friends in real time; when they comment, ask a question or share new content, you’ll see it continuously updated there. You can adjust who can see your updates, and users of wider screen computers can slide a grey bar between the ticker and chat to adjust how many updates they see at a time.
Microsoft last week unveiled Windows 8, the company’s new desktop and tablet operating. With the announcement, Microsoft joins Amazon as companies that are expected to enter the tablet market within the next 12 months. However, I don’t believe they will be taking much market share from the iPad, rather I think, gains will come at the expense of Android-based tablets.
Microsoft
I have to give credit to Microsoft for coming out with a strategy that’s different than Apple. I have been calling on companies to be innovative and not just copy Apple since the iPad was first released. Finally, someone is doing it.
There are still a lot of questions surrounding Metro, Microsoft’s tablet operating system, but we’ve seen where the company is going and it looks like they have a plan this time.
While Microsoft is clearly aiming for the iPad, I don’t think Windows 8-based tablets will have much affect on Apple’s popular device. Instead, Android tablets will suffer the brunt of Microsoft’s market share gains when its partners release products.
The reason, I believe, is very simple. People are looking for an alternative to existing Android tablets, but nobody is looking to replace the iPad.
Microsoft will have a built-in customer base with Windows 8, but previous projects like the Kin and Courier show that you can’t rely on that base to make a new product successful.
Apple customers these days are also Microsoft customers. The iPhone, iPod, and iPad transcend those operating system and company battles that have raged for decades. People are happy to run Windows and own an Apple device too.
Microsoft are going to have to prove they have a device that can beat the iPad — I don’t think they can do that.
What I think they can do is provide users with a viable alternative to Android. It’s an alternative that many people will try.
Amazon
While I believe Microsoft will be successful in its tablet strategy, I also think that Amazon will be successful too. Again, this will be at the expense of Android-based tablets.
Amazon has a solid name among consumers. Millions of people shop there and they are trusted. As soon as Amazon comes out with a tablet, people will start buying.
Even though it will be based on Android, consumers will only see as far as the Amazon name. People will look at the device as an expanded Kindle rather than a tablet and buy it for that reason.
There is a whole subset of users that would be happy to have a tablet to read books, surf the Web and get email. That’s all they want, and all they need. Amazon’s tablet will be perfect for them.
Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple
All Apple has to do at this point is not screw up. If they continue releasing solid hardware and software, they will continue to rule the tablet space with little other effort.
Of course, I expect Apple to continue to innovate and maintain its wide lead on other manufacturers, but they could sustain the margin even if they sat still.
Microsoft and Amazon will offer solid alternatives to Android-based tablets and they will all fight for second place and whatever scraps are leftover from that.
The battle remains for second place.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
AppleInsider:
Industry sources told DigiTimes that the manufacturer is cutting back production lines for the PlayBook at a factory in Taiwan, offering preferential compensation to the roughly 1,000 workers who have been let go. Quanta confirmed the layoffs, but declined to provide further details.
I usually don’t put much weight behind DigiTimes reports, but this one seems solid, especially since the layoffs have been confirmed.
It seems reasonable that RIM would cut production considering it only shipped 200,000 PlayBooks last quarter. Even with price cuts coming, I would think that number would be about the same or worse in the current quarter.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The Guardian:
Orders to Quanta from Rim are reported to have dropped substantially as the company struggles to cope with the excess inventory. At its earnings call last week company executives hinted that they would begin price promotions over the next two quarters to get the devices into end-users’ hands.Quanta’s decision to cut staff and production suggests that Rim does not expect to clear its inventory before the end of its current financial year, which ends next May.
The report estimates that RIM may have an unsold inventory of almost 800,000 Playbook tablets. Sluggish sales are the reason why Quanta, which manufactures the tablets for RIM, has cut back the number of contractors working at its factory.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
John Paczkowski:
Tuesday, October 4. That’s the day Apple is currently expected to hold its next big media event, according to sources close to the situation, where the tech giant will unveil the next iteration of its popular iPhone.
Yep.
September 20, 2011
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Steve Lohr for the New York Times:
Mr. Schmidt asserts that Google’s search and advertising marketplace “helped generate $64 billion in economic activity for hundreds of thousands of small businesses throughout the United States.”
That’s a ton of money. Schmidt also says that most of the complaints that led to the antitrust investigations came from Web sites that don’t like where they place in Google’s search results.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Dan Frommer:
It communicated change poorly, again.It made customers feel like they weren’t Netflix’s priority, which is unusual for Netflix.
Okay, so Netflix may not communicate well, but I have no problem with what they did.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The following demo was made using a variety of CSS techniques. Rounded corners, shadows, gradients, rgba, pseudo-elements, and transforms are just some of them. A lot of these were generated by helpful tools, such as westciv’s tools and Border Radius. By combining these techniques, you can create rich graphics with just a few lines of code. Here are a few examples.
Absolutely amazing.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Chris Herbert for MacStories:
Freemium apps (free to download, but require an in-app purchase to expand the app) are growing particularly faster in the in-app purchasing paradise. Free app downloads have increased by 34% since 2010 while paid downloads only grew 7% in the same time frame. Distimo’s research only covered the Top 200 in each category, but that’s a strong selection of the App Store’s money makers.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
John Gruber on getting developers to embrace Metro:
The message could be, more or less, “Windows 8 supports an incredibly wide range of hardware, and Metro runs everywhere. But our most advanced mobile hardware designs are Metro only.”
Transitions are never easy, just ask Apple, but Microsoft has to keep its attention focused on the prize ahead, not looking backwards.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Ars Technica:
…Three Boston University researchers have produced a rigorous empirical estimate of the cost of patent trolling. And the number is breath-taking: patent trolls (“non-practicing entity” is the clinical term) have cost publicly traded defendants $500 billion since 1990. And the problem has become most severe in recent years. In the last four years, the costs have averaged $83 billion per year. The study says this is more than a quarter of US industrial research and development spending during those years.
In this economy, I suppose we should take heart that patent lawyers are getting rich, at least.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
In response to your demand for high quality and efficiency, We at DontCrack have developed a new series of plug-ins that will change the way you think about plug-ins. DontCrack has partnered with leading plug-in designers from around the world to bring you the V.I.P. plug-in series.
Don’tCrack is all about encouraging “fair use of software because developers need to be strongly supported to continue creating great software.”
Logitech on Tuesday introduced the Harmony Link, a new system that connects an iOS or Android device to your home entertainment system and turns it into a sophisticated wireless remote control. It’s a combination of hardware and software, and it will go on sale in October for $99.99.
The Harmony Link hardware connects your home Wi-Fi network, and receives signals from the iOS device – iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, equipped with software which will be available for free download from the App Store closer to launch. The hockey puck-sized device controls up to eight home entertainment peripherals using a “mini-blaster” accessory tuned to the infrared communication frequency commonly used by the wireless remote controls that operate those devices.
More than 5,000 brands of remotes are support, according to Logitech, and the IR sensor on the Harmony Link interface can “learn” commands from remotes, too.
The accompanying app enables you to perform functions like volume control, video playback and other operations using swipes and taps. What’s more, the Harmony Link device supports communication with multiple devices, so each user can operate devices independently without having to fight over a common iPhone or iPad. And if you’re using the software on an iPad, Harmony Link also supports a television guide that provides show and movie information.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Pretty good looking productivity bundle from Fusion.
Adobe Systems Inc. on Tuesday announced the release of Premiere Elements 10 and Photoshop Elements 10, two new consumer-level apps for Mac and Windows users aimed at video and photography, respectively. Each is priced at $99.99; a bundle combines both for $149.99. Upgrade pricing is also available.
Premiere Elements 10
New features in Premiere Elements 10 include color correction technology borrowed from Adobe’s Photoshop software, “InstantMovie” themes, and pan and zoom motions to incorporate still photos into video presentations – the equivalent of iMovie’s popular “Ken Burns Effect.” SmartSound lets Mac users add musical soundtracks to their presentations.
Premiere Elements 10 also supports AVCHD output to standard DVDs, and the Elements Organizer now lets users upload video files direction to YouTube and Facebook (provided such users and videos comply with each service’s terms of service).
Photoshop Elements 10
Photoshop Elements 10 adds new tools such as “Guided Edits,” which help users add photo effects like diffused glows and shallow depths of field step by step. New text functions let users add curving and flowing text to photos, and special crop guides help users create special compositions. The Smart Brush paints effects onto specific areas of photos, with 30 new effects including Pencil Sketch and Oil Pastel.
New organizational tools have been added like Object Search, which helps users find items within photos – landmarks, flowers or pets, for example. Elements Organizer can help you locate duplicate and near-duplicate photos, deleting the ones you don’t want. And like Premiere Elements 10, Photoshop Elements 10 lets users with video-capable cameras upload videos directly to YouTube and Facebook.
Adobe is also promoting new “Plus” cloud service for users of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements available to users in the US. The service costs $49.99 per year and provides online storage and backup, access to how-to’s, artwork and templates.
Trial versions are “coming soon,” according to the Adobe Web site.
FileMaker issued an advisory on Tuesday encouraging users of its Bento database software for Mac OS X to download the newest release, 4.0.6. The update is free for all Bento 4 users and is available for download from FileMaker’s Web site.
Bento 4.0.6 for Mac provides bug fixes and compatibility related to OS X Lion and iCloud.This update is STRONGLY recommended for everyone using a version of Bento 4 for Mac…
Users who purchased Bento 4 through Apple’s Mac App Store should see an update there for their copies presently.
SugarSync on Tuesday announced an update for their iOS app that adds several new features, including built-in text editing, a new menu bar and improved syncing. SugarSync for iOS is free to download; the service is subscription based.
SugarSync is a cloud-based file synchronization service for Mac, Windows, iOS and (with another Tuesday announcement) Android. SugarSync lets you identify specific files and folders you’d like to synchronize, then lets you manage which devices you’d like to sync the files to.
The update to SugarSync for iOS adds a built-in simple text editor, enabling you to make changes or create simple text files. It also integrates with QuickOffice, Document To Go and other apps for more sophisticated text editing.
The new menu bar helps iOS users sort files, upload photos or create new folders and text files on any computer or shared folder. Photos and videos can be uploaded directly to any folder on any synchronized device.
You can also now select multiple files and folders to sync locally to your device, for offline access – a boon to travelers who are out of range of Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity for extended durations, but who still need to work.
SugarSync is free for up to 5GB of storage; paid plans start at 30GB for $4.99 per month (or $50 per year).
