Oh. My. God. When I read this, and browsed the website, my face went like this. Do you remember the Amiga? That fun little computer that was miles ahead of its competition, but in recent years has been dragged through the mud by one shady figure after the next? Here's a new one: Amiga, Inc., the one 'run' by Bill McEwen, has partnered with a company called IContain to slap the Amiga logo on a bunch of low-end, incredibly sad products. Whether this is another shady deal I don't know, but worthy of the Amiga? I don't think so. I'm not putting this in the Amiga category, by the way. I refuse to. Forget it. It's going into our generic category. Fitting. Update: As was pointed out over at AmigaWorld.net, not only are these nothing more than brandless OEM products with Photoshopped logos, the website itself is just a standard, unmodified WordPress theme. Oi. Doesn't instil a lot of confidence, now, does it?It's supposedly a bunch of products directed at something called the 'rent-to-own' market, which, in my book, sounds like something the Beeper King would come up with. The website is at least functional - unlike some of the other truly shady Amiga businesses out there - but the products...
They're generic, brandless OEM boxes with 'Amiga' and the boing ball logo Photoshopped all over them. Android tablets and phones, a bunch of all-in-one computers, and even televisions. The laptops section is empty. But wait! We have quotes!
"From NASA to Disney, everyone loved Amiga in the past for its innovation," says IContain CEO Todd Kleperis, "It only makes sense that they would lead the charge with a revolutionary new way to enhance personal connectivity. We are extremely happy to have a partner in bringing the next line of connected devices to market and helping the RTO world."
"Amiga has continued to work on bringing new products with new partners, and we are pleased to be working with IContain providing new hardware and software solutions that will benefit everyone," adds Amiga CEO Bill McEwen.
Once, there was this girl. She was beautiful. Smart. Rich. Had everything going for her. Then, she started sleeping around. Got herself involved with the wrong people. She disappeared for a few years. Didn't hear from her. Now, she's a crack whore selling herself on the side of the roads near Prague. She'll give it away for just a spoonful.
It seems that at this point, you're best off just sticking to the two companies who have been able to deliver: Hyperion and ACube. They're real. They have products you can buy and run today that are actually really Amiga, not a Linux distribution with a skin or a generic box with a Photoshopped boing ball. The X1000 should've been here by now, but it isn't, and these silly IContain products sure aren't going to make any Amigans' hearts boing any faster.
At least we have AROS.
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0 The Verge is reporting that some important members of the WebOS developer team are going to Google. According to a reply from HP, Open webOS project is on schedule, but a number of people are indeed transferring to Google. Fun times - let's see some of that webOS in Android.
James Hague: "But all the little bits of complexity, all those cases where indecision caused one option that probably wasn't even needed in the first place to be replaced by two options, all those bad choices that were never remedied for fear of someone somewhere having to change a line of code... They slowly accreted until it all got out of control, and we got comfortable with systems that were impossible to understand." Counterpoint by John Cook: "Some of the growth in complexity is understandable. It's a lot easier to maintain an orthogonal design when your software isn't being used. Software that gets used becomes less orthogonal and develops diagonal shortcuts." If there's ever been a system in dire need of a complete redesign, it's UNIX and its derivatives. A mess doesn't even begin to describe it (for those already frantically reaching for the comment button, note that this applies to other systems as well).
"Dozens of teachers specialising in computer science are to work in English schools thanks to a partnership between Google and the charity Teach First. Google's chairman Eric Schmidt said money would also be provided to buy 'teaching aids, such as Raspberry Pi's or Arduino starter kits'. He said that without investment in the subject, the UK risked 'losing a generation' of scientists." My Raspberry Pi should arrive via UPS today, assuming they don't mess up. I'll try and get a few photos and first impressions up if it does arrive.
Dish' DVR has an 'auto-hop' feature, which automatically skips commercials on recorded TV. Fox is now suing Dish over this feature, because they claim it will destroy the business model of ad-driven television. "We were given no choice but to file suit against one of our largest distributors, Dish Network, because of their surprising move to market a product with the clear goal of violating copyrights and destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem," said Fox. This is the photographic film industry suing digital camera makers. It's so utterly absurd I can hardly believe it's for real.
"Today, we've been informed that Apple has removed Airfoil Speakers Touch from the iOS App Store. We first heard from Apple about this decision two days ago, and we've been discussing the pending removal with them since then. However, we still do not yet have a clear answer on why Apple has chosen to remove Airfoil Speakers Touch. Needless to say, we're quite disappointed with their decision, and we're working hard to once again make the application available for you, our users. As far as we can tell, Airfoil Speakers Touch is in full compliance with Apple's posted rules and developer agreements. We've already filed an appeal with Apple's App Review Board, and we're awaiting further information. Unfortunately, Apple has full control of application distribution on iOS, leaving us with no other recourse here." Alternative headline: 'iOS 6 to greatly expand AirPlay functionality'.
"Touchscreens, zoomable maps, page swiping, and more, all integrated into one Eames-chair-equipped media room." MIT, late '70s, and noted by Andy Hertzfeld as a direct influence for the original Macintosh. Fantastic story by The Verge. Favourite part: even back then, there was concern among the scientists that the touch screen page flipping animation was frivolous.Hewlett Packard announced the company would lay off nearly nine percent of its 300,000 person workforce over the next two years, or about 27,000 people. The move is expected to save HP $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually. HP stock went up 5% in response to the news Thursday morning. Research firm Ovum asks "...the key missing piece is [Whitman's] long-term company vision and strategy, which hopefully will be revealed to an anxious customer base soon... the question still remains: Just what kind of company does HP want to be next year, three years, five years from now?"
"Intel has released the long awaited x86 system image of Ice Cream Sandwich for the Android SDK and emulator. This will allow the Android emulator (long plagued with slow and buggy performance) to run at native speed on computers using the Intel x86 architecture.""For their part, most Apple employees seem more than satisfied with Cook. He often sits down randomly with employees in the cafeteria at lunchtime, whereas Jobs typically dined with design chief Jonathan Ive. It is a small difference that speaks volumes about how employees can expect to interact with their CEO. At Apple, Jobs was simultaneously revered, loved, and feared. Cook clearly is a demanding boss, but he's not scary. He's well-respected, but not worshiped. As Apple enters a complex new phase of its corporate history, perhaps it doesn't need a god as CEO but a mere mortal who understands how to get the job done." A must-read. Quite fascinating.
