Research in Motion (RIM) just cannot seem to get a break nowadays. Its Playbook tablet has sold poorly and their smartphone market share continues to decline under powerhouses, Google's Android and Apple's iOS phones. Now a judge in New Mexico has ordered RIM to change the name of its OS that is still in development.
With the Nintendo 3DS pose to sell as many units as its predecessor, the Nintendo DS, in its first year Nintendo is fueling the fledging handheld with the release of Super Mario 3D Land. The title along with Mario Kart 7 is likely help sell the 3DS system, but not everyone will be happy with the game.
We may not get flying cars in the future but if a promotional video by Microsoft is any indication, our future is going to be sleek and dominated by holograms and touch-based appliances. The video paints a vivid future where productivity and ease-of-use go hand and hand. The question I pose, is it possible?
Amongst the news of Nintendo losing $926 million for the first half of its financial years is an underlying tone that Nintendo could perish. The sales of the Nintendo Wii, DS have slowed dramatically, compounded by the fact that the Nintendo 3DS, even after a price cut, is not doing as expected. This is leading critics and fanboys alike to claim that the demise of Nintendo is near. What if Nintendo ceases to be?
With Google apparently showing interest in video games and now based off a report by Engadget that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will support USB gamepads and HDMI, you might be able to turn your future Android phone and tablet into a nifty game console!
In a move that is not unexpected, Sprint (the third largest mobile company in America) has ended the all you can eat buffet of its 4G mobile plans for tablets, netbooks, USB cards, connection cards and its Mobile Hotspot service. Originally, customers had a 3G data cap of 3GB, 5GB, or 10GB respectfully, and if you had Sprint 4G in your area it was unlimited. Sprint has now combined the two technologies under the same restriction, whether it is 4G or 3G, they both count towards your data cap.
Imagine opening your monthly mobile bill and seeing six digits in the Amount Due box. How would you react? Celina Aarons told WSVN-TV that she was “freaking out” when she opened her bill and saw that she owed T-Mobile $201,005.44. Those six digits were no error, the mobile bill and charges are legit.
The Apple iPhone 4S has been released to much fanfare and 4 million units sold, not bad. One has to think, without the virtuoso Steve Jobs, will future iDevices still retain their top spots? According to a report from CNET, the Apple iPhone 4S was not the last iDevice Mr. Jobs worked on. Steve’s last hand’s on project is the iPhone 5. What comes after that is just “another” iPhone and without Steve’s genius at the helm, I sense trouble for Apple.
I have been untethered to a mobile contract since August of 2009. During that span, I had a Samsung A900, and then multiple flavors of Blackberries and finally, my HTC EVO 4G. My EVO has taught me to love touch based phones as I have been previously an introvert when it came to any phone without a QWERTY keyboard. Blackberry spoiled me.
Apple is set to reveal the next iPhone today at 10:00AM PST, but rumors and reports persist that the “next” iPhone is nothing more than a minor hardware upgrade from the iPhone 4. The minor upgrade is said to be the Apple A5 processor (same processor in the iPad 2) and more RAM, noting there is nothing about a radical change in neither the phone’s screen size nor its resolution over the iPhone 4. What does this all mean?
With the introduction of Amazon’s 7-inch Kindle Fire, the already flooded tablet market is looking like a dam on the verge of collapse. Although, the Kindle Fire is set to break away, using something out of Apple’s own playbook. I’m speaking of services, which Toshiba, Samsung, RIM, Motorola and other Android OEM tablet makers can’t match. On paper, Amazon has the clout and services to potentially take the hearts and minds of the mainstream consumer.
I may not use you too often and when I do, it’s brief but I can’t help seeing you following the same path that the once mighty MySpace took to its demise. I know you want to be a permanent fixture in my life; the center of my social universe, with your multiple arms spiraling in everything that I do, but what you want is too much.
How many features can someone put into a product before they come off as superfluous bullet points? In a new series I am dubbing the Superfluous Tech Top Five, I take a look at tech categories, single products and everything in between to find product “features” that are overwhelmingly superfluous fluff.
The product I am examining today is produced by a company that has a history of overzealously placing superfluous bullet points to “features” that are most of the time common in their competitors’ products. If you haven’t guessed the name of the company by now, it is no other than Apple Inc and the product is iOS 5.
There is a new trend going on in the game industry. This trend is to curve or somehow destroy the used game market. GameStop Inc is enjoying huge success and most of it is due to the sales of used video games. On one side of the coin are publishers and developers looking to find any way to slow down the sale of used games and on the other are consumers hurting from an economy that just won’t pick up and are trying to get the best value for their dollar.
On paper, Apple with it’s highly successfully line of iDevices (iPod, iPhone, iPad) is a company that arguably has no equal. You can say due to the reemergence of Steve Jobs in 1997, Apple has become the most innovative company in the last ten years. With a library of patents, award winning products and a mastermind at the helm, Apple could likely join any other tech industry and dominate. Lasha Krikheli (of Onefusedlife.com) posted an article that got me thinking, could Apple become a true market rival in the game industry?
Google’s music service joins a new wave of cloud-based offerings that have the ability and leverage to turn the music industry’s business model upside down on its head…again. Not since the dawn of the MP3 and file sharing has the music industry faced such a major threat and this time, it’s legal (for now).
Imagine purchasing an album one time and with a few clicks, have that album be made available to you on any computer and/or device at anytime. This scenario while possible now isn’t quite legal due to the restrictions imposed by modern digital music services like iTunes. Sure, music downloads don’t have the Digital Rights Management (DRM) embedded into their files but the terms and conditions you agree upon when you download still place restrictions on how and where you can use your music. This is set to change with services like Music Beta by Google.
Stop! Everyone about to purchase or thinking about purchasing a new PC, just STOP! A PC is so yesterday according to Steve Jobs of Apple, Inc. Never mind that iDevices like the iPad will never offer the same precision control as a keyboard/mouse combo in most applications. Never mind that there are hundreds of millions of smartphone users who STILL purchase and rely on notebooks and desktop computers for their everyday computing needs. Yes, stop all of your purchases of PC’s because iOS 5 with all of its revolutionary features has finally cut the need of wired connections (never mind that most phones – even featured phones – already have most of what iOS 5 offers).
Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) was demonstrated by Google on Wednesday, showcasing why an OS developed exclusively for tablets is better than an OS retrofitted for them. In the up and coming months, companies like Motorola (Xoom) and LG (G-Slate) will be releasing their “vapor” and Apple will be attacked from all sides.
If rumors are correct, the iPad 2 is merely an upgrade to the original (i.e. iPhone 3G to 3GS). While I believe Apple has the right to be comfortable (they have sold over 14 million iPads), small incremental upgrades won’t do, especially with powerhouses like the Motorola Xoom on the horizon.
To quote my good friend (and Apple faithful), Lasha at www.onefusedlife.com, from one of our many tech debates “it’s not about the hardware, but the software”. I agree with him on this. Yet, I also agree with Google on developing one OS for phones and another for tablets. Google is making real use of all of the real estate provided by larger screens, not just rows of app icons made famous by Apple.
If Google can successfully produce an OS that will allow for entry level to high end tablets, Apple will lose market share. The tablet market is only going to become more cutthroat as Microsoft and HP introduces their offerings. With Honeycomb, I think Google is ready to take on all challengers.
Many of my friends, family, clients, and colleagues knew I was a stark defender of all things Blackberry. Due to RIM’s inability to keep up with the times and their underwhelming smartphone offerings through Sprint, I did the unthinkable. I picked up an Android phone without a keyboard (gasp!). I went with a completely touch based phone and I fell in love.
This is a huge contrast to my previous anti-touch phone stance and loathing of all things iPhone. What did Google Android offer me over what Apple and their iPhone couldn’t? Freedom. The freedom of open software and the dictation of what I can and cannot do with my phone.
Far forward to the present and my allegiance is now with Google and Android. While I know Google isn’t perfect (especially when they made a deal with Verizon in regards to Net Neutrality), they are not trying to force me to stick within their confines. If I want to use the Google Market, I can. I can also, directly download and install, apps without it (yeah, yeah, at my own risk). Try doing that on your iPhone without it being jailbroken (that word really fits Apple’s grasp of their customer’s phones).
Android is now powering millions of phones, from entry level to the high end smartphones and Apple has the nerve to call Google’s next conquest, “bizarre”. On January, 18th, Apple’s COO Tim Cook called current Android tablets bizarre and labeled the up and coming Android tablets as “vapor”. More so, Mr. Cook liken Android tablets to oversized smartphones. These comments come from a company that released a “revolutionary” tablet in the iPad. Which itself is nothing more than a bigger iPod Touch. Someone needs to stop calling the kettle black.
I cannot predict the future. Will the Android tablets take over the Tablet market as the Android smartphone did to the cellular phone industry? Time will only tell. What I will say is that there is no other company outside of Google, in the position to challenge Apple in the tablet market. Apple has the right to pop shots at Google but don’t rest too much on those laurels Apple or you’ll once again see Google take first.
My Apple iPod Touch 64GB (3rd Generation) was suffering from very poor battery life and it is less than 8 months old. At the advice of a good friend of mine, I decided to bring it to an Apple Store. Using the Support section on Apple’s website, I settle on the Apple Store in the Danbury Fair Mall and I made an appointment for 5:00PM. Drawing from past experience with other companies and their poor support structure, I was expecting to have to buy another iPod Touch or at the very least, pay for the repair even though my iPod is within warranty.