*-)- welcome aboard *-)-
just me. my current interests and stories for the interwebs.
Put it like this: You will have no problem transitioning from iOS 6 to iOS 7. Your parents, on the other hand, probably will. But just as they did when they first transitioned from a flip phone to an iPhone, they’ll get over it.
My thoughts exactly.
via BGR: A week with iOS 7: The search for innovation amid renovation
The excitement around Facebook was at a all time high last week with the expectations of a mobile phone. What we got instead was an app, wait, a skin, wait... "a completely new experience that lets you see the world through people, not apps." Facebook included a FAQ which I'm going to translate for you.
What is Home? Home is a new Android skin for your Android phone. It turns it into a money making and advertising platform in favor of Facebook but not until you fall in love with it will we turn on all the banners and advertisements. We want to suck you in first.
How can I get Home? Of course we are offering it for free on April 12 through Google's Play Store. You can also buy the experience for $99 on th HTC First which has Home pre-installed. But it's actually only for the most current devices for now too.
Where is Home available? We are testing the U.S first on April 12 but the rest of the world will follow shortly primarily due to Android fragmentation.
What Android phones does Home work on? Because of Android's fragmentation, we were only able to implement Home on a few select devices on launch including two future devices, the previous generation Galaxy and the Note II.
How can I buy a phone with Home on it? AT&T is the first sucker looking for something else besides the iPhone and they will offer the HTC First on April 12.
Is Facebook building a phone? No. We built an experience to install on a phone. Skinning is cheaper.
Is Facebook Home an operating system? No, but we want it to be that way with the family of apps we are going to release. They will become part of your phone.
I'm not sold on it but as Dan Frommer sees it, he thinks there's a market for it. Again, I don't see too many of my friends, if any, who will install this or use it after the first day. Most of us don't live within Facebook but rather visit.
Om Malik published his review and I couldn't agree more.
Bob O'Donnell, IDC Program Vice President, on the IDC Quarterly report.
"At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market..."
It's a bad time to be a vendor of PCs or Windows 8 for that matter.
An awesome and concise, no bullshit, no frills FAQ, by Rob Issac as to the reasons for Google to fork a well done piece of web technology. Essentially another doctrine to Google's new "Be Evil" ways. I think it's been pretty awesome how the web has come together but unfortunately and coincidently, on the heels of Safari becoming the most dominant and widely used browser on mobile phone, we have Google's fork.
In the longer term, we aim to have sufficient control over the installed base of web browsers to dictate whatever conditions we consider most appropriate to our business goals at the time.
If there is one app besides NPR that you need for "official" news, Reuters trumps them all. Download the latest now!Reuters iOS app
How do you manage your children's touch time?
A “rattle on steroids,” is what Buckleitner calls it. “All of a sudden a finger could move a bus or smush an insect or turn into a big wet gloopy paintbrush.” To a toddler, this is less magic than intuition.
via The Atlantic The Touch-Screen Generation
The Galaxy S III shipped 18 million units worldwide in that three-month span from July to September, compared with 16.2 million for the iPhone 4S, according to research by Strategy Analytics. With the release of the iPhone 5, Apple retook the lead in the final months of 2012, selling an estimated 27 million. But the S III hung in there with another 15 million units sold.
So wait, while Samsung narrowly beat the already one year old iPhone 4S by 1.8 million phones sold, the S3 hangs in there falling 12 million phones behind?
It's not much competition really. Come March 14, I definitely think it'll be a different ball game but these Apple doom and gloom journalists have to stop baiting!
They also forgot to mention that the iPhone 4 was selling pretty well too. What ever happened to the Samsung Galaxy S2?
I'm excited to see Jony Ive, the new head of Human Interface, execute his vision. On the other hand, I thought Scott Forstall was an awesome presenter and was surprised when his iPhone presentation was too similar to what we saw at WWDC. Progress was indeed stalled and when that happens, change must occur. And that "other" guy, Browett, he should have ever even tried to replace the out going master after the crap job he did in England. Apple should fire the headhunter that found him and recommended him in the first place.
“This was better than the Giants winning the World Series,” he said. “People are really excited.”
Apparently, peace is on the horizon.
via Bits NYTimes
Farhad Manjoo on the iPad mini.
Launching the iPad mini may be purely a reactive, defensive move for Apple. But when you’re as big as Apple is now, you can play offense and defense at the same time.
I whole heartedly believed that the 7" market was going to fail but with the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire's selling at $199, those devices captured an audience. Heck, I even bought the Nexus 7 but I'll admit, it'll be up for sale when my iPad mini comes in. Is the $129 premium worth the ecosystem of apps to you?
We love new phones but hide them in cases. We love nice cars but some of us are so infatuated with them that we only drive them to church (or on special occasions). Both are utilities that are made to be used and I could not agree more.
The iPhone, however, prefers not to play by these rules. Though exquisite in design, it was not born as art to be put on display. It belongs in our pockets. It is a tool. A utility. A gadget of gadgets.
The iPhone is here to work.
via Shawn Blanc
Marco Arment, from Instapaper & tumblr fame, has released a new subscription-based app on iOS simply called,"The Magazine". It's a different approach on technology related articles and their delivery. I'm already looking forward to the next issue after finishing #1. I want this to succeed and hopefully I can be insightful enough to be included some day!
Instead of the traditional labor-intensive magazine layout and expensive multimedia production, The Magazine’s article format is similar to Instapaper’s: one clean, adjustable, reader-friendly template with HTML, occasional images, and some small conveniences. It loads quickly, integrates well with sharing and system conventions (including text selection and VoiceOver), occupies minimal storage space, and shows the utmost respect for your time and attention.
The Magazine is leaving behind a lot of what magazines “need”. And many magazines really do need them. But I don’t think this does.
All of this is a bit crazy, and it’s not guaranteed to succeed. But I bet it will.
Looks like my unsubscribed The Daily app is going to have some companionship on my Newsstand.
If you want an iDevice sans cellular network, this is your answer. Granted Nintendo's 3DSXL and Sony's Playstation Vita come in at $100 less and up to $50 less causing me to question Apple's price point. Is this new iPod Touch more valuable than the other two gaming companies current offerings? I personally don't think so but that's because I already have an iPhone 5.
If you’re looking for a device like the iPod touch, buying this year's model is an absolute no-brainer, but I’d bet more people are going to think twice before laying out $300.
via David Pierce, The Verge