Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 23rd Mar 2012 15:09 UTC
I'm currently reading Jerry Kaplan's excellent book "Startup: a Silicon Valley adventure". In this book, Kaplan, founder and CEO of GO Corp., details the founding, financing and eventual demise of his highly innovative company, including the development and workings of their product. What's so surprising about this book is just how timeless it really is - the names and products may have changed, but the business practices and company attitudes surely haven't.
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RE[5]: What is the interesting question?
by WorknMan on Sat 24th Mar 2012 03:37
in reply to "RE[4]: What is the interesting question?"
Member since:2005-11-13
Apple fans get SO ANGRY in fact that they'll willing buy the next one, while shaking their fist in a threatening manner, saying "you better get it right this time!"
Customer satisfaction surveys would tend to disagree with you:
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/03/16/apple-tops-j-d-power-smartph...
The fact is, Apple is selling a ton of product, and their customers are happy for the most part. Of course, angry geeks will claim that this is brainwashing on Apple's part, as they stomp off to root their Android phones to get the bloatware off of them.
RE[6]: What is the interesting question?
by kwan_e on Sat 24th Mar 2012 03:49
in reply to "RE[5]: What is the interesting question?"
Member since:2007-02-18
"Apple fans get SO ANGRY in fact that they'll willing buy the next one, while shaking their fist in a threatening manner, saying "you better get it right this time!"
Customer satisfaction surveys would tend to disagree with you:
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/03/16/apple-tops-j-d-power-smartph...
The fact is, Apple is selling a ton of product, and their customers are happy for the most part. Of course, angry geeks will claim that this is brainwashing on Apple's part, as they stomp off to root their Android phones to get the bloatware off of them. "
I wasn't the one who said Apple fans get angry when Apple makes a bad product. My comment was sarcastic - if Apple fans do get angry, as the person I replied to claimed - they seem to quickly forget about it the next time something shiny is waved in their face.
Nothing to do with me being an angry geek. Those are the facts. Psychology shows people are capable of strong cognitive dissonance. Apple fans are not alone, but they obviously salivate a lot of money every time Steve 'Pavlov' Jobs rings his bell. Even from the grave. Do people not remember the wailing over Steve Jobs' death when two other giants in computing also died that week who arguably had a greater impact on computing than is visible?
Strangely, polls like that serve to strengthen people's willingness to forgive a company for mistakes that they will crucify another company for.
For the record. I don't own Android phones. I don't even have a mobile phone. I don't even have a landline. So no, this isn't about having vested interest in another platform either.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/15/13 23:03 UTC
"During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.More News »
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Member since:
2007-02-18
You can say that Apple products or the semi-mandatory Apple ecosystem don't appeal to you for whatever reason (and there are myriad valid reasons), but people aren't drawn to Apple products for irrational reasons, or because of "advertising."
People buy Apple products because of their inherent qualities, and people become loyal to Apple products because of their consistent quality. And Apple fans get very angry when Apple produces something that doesn't make the grade.
Apple fans get SO ANGRY in fact that they'll willing buy the next one, while shaking their fist in a threatening manner, saying "you better get it right this time!"
I never said anything about irrational reasons at all. You simply can't deny there is psychological conditioning going on with Apple products. Marketing is more than just advertising dollars. It's about image.
Have people never wondered why Apple tries so hard to defend its Community Designs? What did their Community Design actually do for "inherent quality" that warrants all the effort they're making to protect it? It's about image. The image of a featureless rectangular slab is part of the psychological game that Apple is playing.
You don't have to spend advertising dollars on psychology. Especially not when you're spending that money on defending a meritless Community Design.
Edited 2012-03-24 01:43 UTC