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Monthly Archive:: October 2012

Ballmer to shareholders: MS faces “fundamental shift”

Steve Ballmer's annual letter to shareholders makes it very clear Microsoft is at a point of no return - and in the middle of a transition into a hardware company. "This is a significant shift, both in what we do and how we see ourselves - as a devices and services company. It impacts how we run the company, how we develop new experiences, and how we take products to market for both consumers and businesses." Line. Sand.

Verizon, AT&T sell users’ browsing, location histories to marketers

As it turns out, new Verizon customers (although there are reports existing customers are getting notified too) have 30 days to opt out of something really nasty: Verizon will sell your browsing history and location history to marketers. Apparently, AT&T does something similar. Doesn't matter what phone - iOS, Android, anything. Incredibly scummy and nasty. I quickly checked my own Dutch T-Mobile terms, and they don't seem to be doing this.

Microsoft updates Windows 8, Metro 8 applications

"We are pleased to be releasing a set of improvements to Windows 8 in broad areas of performance, power management and battery efficiency, media playback, and compatibility. These improvements are available starting today via Windows Update. We wanted to briefly talk about our improvements to the engineering system and in particular the speed at which we were able to deliver these updates to you." Good stuff. They're also updating the core Metro applications to make them less useless.

Nokia’s crazy hardware experiments

Sorry for linking to a long picture (why this isn't an article I don't know, but bear with me for a second), but this is an excellent overview of some of the crazy hardware experiments Nokia has performed during its golden years. For me, this is the best device Nokia ever made - and also, my personal best and favourite mobile phone I've ever owned. You hear people talking about how solid the iPhone 5 or the HTC One X feels? Fisher Price compared to the 8800. They don't make 'm like that no more.

No proof of ‘Copy-the-iPhone’-order from Samsung

Previously redacted documents presented in the Apple-Samsung case do not support Apple's claims that Samsung issued a 'copy-the-iPhone'-order to its designers. It's pretty damning. Apple has very selectively and actively deleted sections of internal Samsung documents and talks to make it seem as if Samsung's designers were ordered to copy the iPhone. With the unredacted, full documents without Apple's deletions in hand, a completely different picture emerges: Samsung's designers are told to be as different and creative as possible. There's no 'copy the iPhone'-order anywhere, as Apple claimed. Instead, it says this: "designers rightly must make their own designs with conviction and confidence; do not strive to do designs to please me (the president); instead make designs with faces that are creative and diverse." I guess my initial scepticism about the documents was not uncalled for. What do you know - lawyers twist and turn the truth. Shocker, huh?

What number is halfway between 1 and 9?

"Ask adults from the industrialized world what number is halfway between 1 and 9, and most will say 5. But pose the same question to small children, or people living in some traditional societies, and they're likely to answer 3. Cognitive scientists theorize that that's because it's actually more natural for humans to think logarithmically than linearly." Fascinating. The human brain is such a magical machine.

OS developer interview: Contiki and the ‘Internet of Things’

Contiki is a lightweight open source operating system designed for the 'Internet of Things': Networked, low-power embedded devices. It's been used for smart grids, smart streetlights, badger tracking systems and connecting a Gameboy to the Internet. Computerworld Australia recently caught up with its creator, Adam Dunkels, to talk about the system's history and future plans, as well as a new company he's founded, Thingsqure, which hopes to make creating applications for the Internet of Things as easy as creating apps for smartphones.

Microsoft to launch Surface 26 October

"Microsoft has started sending out invites to a special 'Surface Reception' event on October 25th. Alongside a Windows 8 introduction, the software giant will launch its highly anticipated tablet at midnight on October 26th - according to a company spokesperson. Some of Microsoft's holiday pop-up stores will open for the Surface launch at midnight, with other Microsoft Stores selling the tablet on October 26th." Very curious about pricing. That's going to be the key.

Jolla to unveil user interface, SDK 21 November

"A date and place has been set to reveal the new Jolla smartphone user interface and deliver the Jolla developer story and SDK. Jolla will demonstrate the Jolla user interface, based on the recently announced Sailfish alliance OS, at the Slush event in Helsinki, Finland on 21-22 November. Jolla is very excited to be able to share the user interface, and talk about the Jolla SDK and application ecosystem with the developers. Jolla will publish the device information, ID and expected availability before Christmas." Hell yes.

Blackberry Playbook gets 2.1 update

"Today a free software update has been made available for Wi-Fi BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. This release brings with it many new features for business customers and IT administrators that make the tablet a seriously enterprise-ready device and a productivity powerhouse. Combined with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and the coming BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, managing BlackBerry PlayBook tablets just got a whole lot more functional."

Posner weighs in on patent, copyright law reform

Well known judge Richard Posner scores another home run. "I am concerned that both patent and copyright protection, though particularly the former, may be excessive. To evaluate optimal patent protection for an invention, one has to consider both the cost of inventing and the cost of copying; the higher the ratio of the former to the latter, the greater the optimal patent protection for the inventor."

The ‘Lost’ Steve Jobs speech from 1983

"Regarding the speech, it is amazing to hear Steve Jobs talk about some things that were not fully realized until only a handful of years ago. This talks shows us just how incredibly ahead of his time he was. I've listened to the entirety of the recording a few times now and have taken extensive notes, of which I will further elaborate on in future blog postings." This 1983 speech by Jobs is not as visionary as it seems. It's virtually identical to Alan Kay's mind-blowing Dynabook vision... From 1968. Kay even describes multitouch (p. 8) and Siri (p. 6). Not entirely coincidentally, Kay joined Apple in 1984. Look people, Steve Jobs was an incredibly talented individual that left a real imprint on the world - you don't need to make him larger than he was.

Samsung’s claims of juror misconduct revealed

"Samsung has now filed an unredacted version of its motion for judgment as a matter of law, a new trial, and/or remittitur. That's the one that was originally filed with a redacted section we figured out was about the foreman, Velvin Hogan. The judge ordered it filed unsealed, and so now we get to read all about it. It's pretty shocking to see the full story. I understand now why Samsung tried to seal it. They call Mr. Hogan untruthful in voir dire (and I gather in media interviews too), accuse him of 'implied bias' and of tainting the process by introducing extraneous 'evidence' of his own during jury deliberations, all of which calls, Samsung writes, for an evidentiary hearing and a new trial with an unbiased jury as the cure." It's a treasure trove of courtroom drama, this. Like this one: Hogan got sued by his former employer Seagate in 1993, causing him to go bankrupt. The lawyer in said case is now married to one of the partners of the law firm representing Samsung in this case. Samsung seems to implicitly - and sometimes explicitly - argue that Hogan had a score to settle in this case, because - get this - Samsung has been Seagate's largest shareholder since last year. Hogan failed to disclose the Seagate lawsuit during voire dire, which is a pretty serious matter. No matter whose side you're on, this is John Grisham-worthy.