Category: Uncategorized

RIM reaching out to Qt developers?

In a piece about RIM’s upcoming BBX phones, something tells me Sascha Segan and RIM hadn’t really done their homework regarding Qt development roadmap.

Qt was Nokia’s preferred developer framework before the company switched to Windows Phone, and there’s a population of disgruntled Symbian developers with Qt skills watching their potential market decline as Nokia switches over to Windows. RIM isn’t targeting Symbian developers specifically, but the company is reaching into Nokia’s traditional home turf.

RIM reaching out to Qt developers?

Adobe gives up mobile Flash

Adobe today:

We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash, April 2010

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Adobe gives up mobile Flash

Wired releases photos for public use under Creative Commons license

This is such an awesome news, I’m gonna scour Wired’s Flickr stream as soon as I get to the office. Some conditions of the licensing terms:

Placing our photos under CC BY-NC license means that designated images are free for all to republish, with minor restrictions, as follows:

  • Photos must be properly attributed to the photographer and Wired.com, and we ask for a link back to the original story where the photo first appeared.
  • We welcome editorial use by bloggers or any other publisher, but we are not authorizing commercial use, like using one of our photos in an advertisement.
  • Remixes and mashups are allowed.

You can’t use photos from the printed magazine, only the ones made available on the Flickr stream and make sure the photos you want have the CC mark on them. Yay Wired!

    Wired releases photos for public use under Creative Commons license

    Nokia’s N9 gets its first update

    If you’re one of the early adopters of the Nokia N9, get ready for an update. Nokia has just announced an over the air software update that’s being rolled out within the next few days and should be completed within two weeks. 

    The update weighs in at 218MB so you would want your N9 to be within range of a fast wifi connection and plugged in to a power source. The process supposedly could take up to 40 minutes in which your phone would not be usable until it’s completed and you’re advised to back it up beforehand.

    The current version of MeeGo on the N9 is the PR 1.1 (20.2011.40-2_PR_005), at least on the device I’m holding. The update will be designated 40-4 and is said to bring parity to the N950 developer device. 

    A number of features are listed on Nokia’s developer blog but it seems rather odd because some of them are already available on my device which I picked up right after Nokia World, namely: 

    • Music controls on the lock screen
    • Multi-language Swype keyboard
    • Default swipe down to close an app 
    • NFC tag reading
    • Photo and video shoot with color filter
    • Notifications on the standby screen

    That’s six of the ten listed new features. What’s left?

    • Noise canceling, (can’t say because I don’t use the N9 to make calls)
    • More powerful multitasking (it’s kind of slow right now)
    • Faster MfE (I have no idea what MfE means)
    • Multiple smaller improvements to the OS (can’t tell what these are)

    If you’re an N9 owner, have you got those features already or are you looking forward to have them?

    Apple’s secret to market power: Lazers pew pew

    Bloomberg Businessweek goes behind the scenes to reveal Apple’s secret to dominating the market through extremely tight supply-chain management and operations.

    Apple convinced the seller to sign an exclusivity agreement and has since bought hundreds of [laser equipments worth $250 thousand each] to make holes for the green lights that now shine on the company’s MacBook Airs, Trackpads, and wireless keyboards.

    The company locks up air freight costs and schedules far ahead the rest of the industry, giving it dominance in worldwide shipping.

    Apple realized it could pack so many of the diminutive music players on planes that it became economical to ship them directly from Chinese factories to consumers’ doors. When an HP staffer bought one and received it a few days later, tracking its progress around the world through Apple’s website, “It was an ‘Oh s—’ moment,” recalls Fawkes.

    That mentality—spend exorbitantly wherever necessary, and reap the benefits from greater volume in the long run—is institutionalized throughout Apple’s supply chain, and begins at the design stage.

    Apple locks up parts and equipments too and as a result competitors must wait for months to manufacture their products

    Before the release of the iPhone 4 in June 2010, rivals such as HTC couldn’t buy as many screens as they needed because manufacturers were busy filling Apple orders, according to a former manager at HTC. To manufacture the iPad 2, Apple bought so many high-end drills to make the device’s internal casing that other companies’ wait time for the machines stretched from six weeks to six months, according to a manager at the drillmaker.

    At this point, Apple can’t afford to lose Tim Cook. There’s really nobody who could take the helm of Apple from Jobs other than his former COO. Cook is swift, clinical, and ruthless in operations but he also knows his shortcoming, products, which is why that aspect of the company goes to people like Jonathan Ive and Scott Forstall.

    This tightly knit team is what makes this piece of news all the more important. Without all hands on deck, Apple would crumble and competitors will eat them. Apple may have lost a crucially important playmaker but as long as the company locks up its other MVPs, the rest of the team will fall in line.

    Apple’s secret to market power: Lazers pew pew

    Eric Schmidt: Google is not dominant in search

    In answering questions from the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt had this to say about its search business:

    I am confident that Google competes vigorously with a broad range of companies that go well beyond just Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo, and that Google has none of the characteristics that I associate with market power.

    Creepy guy indeed

    Eric Schmidt: Google is not dominant in search

    Losing Faith

    MG Siegler on Google’s failed launch of Gmail app for iOS earlier today:

    That’s maybe my biggest problem with Google. They release something, and I no longer have any faith that it’s going to be any good. It’s hard to get excited about a company like that. It’s the same reason why it’s hard to get excited when Microsoft and Yahoo release new things. The track record just isn’t there any more. The faith is gone.

    I share his sentiment for the most part but I still hold hopes for Microsoft and Yahoo since they seem to be getting back on the right track albeit slowly.

    Yahoo!’s releases today at Product Runway point generally to the right direction and Microsoft’s deal with Nokia for Windows Phone is beginning to show some promise even though it’s not as quick as I hoped it would be.

    RIM’s stock falls below asset value

    Speaking of the basket breaking, 

    Apple and Google are the dominant smartphone platforms and there is really only room for one more, said Veritas’s Monga. When Nokia was reorganizing, RIM had its chance to establish itself as the third. It may have lost the opportunity, he said.

    Eighteen months ago, RIM was fighting but had a fighting chance,” he said. “Now, the problems RIM has on its software platform seem to be insurmountable.

    RIM’s stock falls below asset value

    Microsoft and RIM are relying on a single basket

    A few weeks ago I gave this interview with Media Indonesia, a local newspaper who wanted to put up a profile of me for some reason and in it was a question about Microsoft. This is a small part of what I had to say about the company:

    The Surface table and the Microsoft Courier tablet were breakthrough devices between 2009-2010 which also could not get off the ground thanks to the company prioritizing the team on Windows and Office.

    By coincidence, C|net produced this article yesterday about how Bill Gates practically killed the Courier tablet even when he was no longer running Microsoft. This part here explained what happened to the Courier:

    Courier users wouldn’t want or need a feature-rich e-mail application such as Microsoft’s Outlook that lets them switch to conversation views in their inbox or support offline e-mail reading and writing. The key to Courier, Allard’s team argued, was its focus on content creation. Courier was for the creative set, a gadget on which architects might begin to sketch building plans, or writers might begin to draft documents.

    “This is where Bill had an allergic reaction,” said one Courier worker who talked with an attendee of the meeting. As is his style in product reviews, Gates pressed Allard, challenging the logic of the approach.

    It’s not hard to understand Gates’ response. Microsoft makes billions of dollars every year on its Exchange e-mail server software and its Outlook e-mail application. While heated debates are common in Microsoft’s development process, Gates’ concerns didn’t bode well for Courier. He conveyed his opinions to Ballmer, who was gathering data from others at the company as well.

    Within a few weeks, Courier was cancelled because the product didn’t clearly align with the company’s Windows and Office franchises, according to sources.

    Instead of seeking and taking a risk on a possible new revenue stream, Gates and Microsoft held on to its existing and proven source or revenue. This is similar to the approach that RIM took by requiring the PlayBook to be not much more than a BlackBerry accessory.

    Both companies are holding on to a core component which heavily relies on the success of a single product, essentially putting everything into a single basket. This is why they keep failing to innovate. RIMs basket is breaking as we speak although it’s probably going to be a long while before Microsoft’s Windows/Office basket breaks.

    Mona Simpson’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

    Have had this in my Instapaper account for a couple of days but I keep forgetting to post it on the blog. In case you haven’t caught on, Mona Simpson is Steve Jobs’ sister who only found out about their relationship when she was 25. A moving and powerful eulogy.

    Mona Simpson’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs