02.18.10

crapware

Posted in and yet true, tech talk at 10:03 pm by paul

Can you guess the time we installed the “upgrade?”

I’d take it more in stride, but this PostScript preflighting software licenses at $20k/host and stubbornly refuses to use more than one CPU/core. We were considering putting our 2 licenses on virtual hosts to at least free up some hardware, but can we really do that if it’ll consume 70% of a CPU when idle?

Add to that that you can’t run it as a service, you are requred to keep a generic user logged in at the console to run the application.

Fie on you!

02.04.10

silos

Posted in and yet true, tech talk at 10:41 pm by paul

An interesting op-ed by an former Microsoft VP, describing the silos that company is divided into and a bit of the internecine warfare that goes on between them.

Microsoft posted a rebuttal, and one of their point was the integration of a product called OneNote into the Office suite. This was the first I had ever heard of OneNote, so I clicked through to the demo page and found that it requires Flash.

Maybe someone should tell the OneNote team about Silverlight?

01.06.10

ces

Posted in tech talk at 10:17 pm by paul

We have finally seen the HP Slate, and it is … a PC with no keyboard. Add the Kindle application and it’s at least a general-purpose PC. But we found out nothing about battery life, pricing, data plans/connections, or system specs.

That, and there is no mention of it on HP’s web site. I managed to find a press release, but I am not sure if the device shown on stage is mentioned therein.

01.05.10

tablets!

Posted in and yet true, tech talk, unbelievable at 11:23 pm by paul

“Maybe it’s awesome”

Props to Mr. Gruber for the perfect summary of Microsoft & HP’s tablet/slate prototype. Complete with stylus! That is just what the world is waiting for, two years post-iPhone. A stylus! Can’t wit for the demo.

OK so seriously, there are a few things missing from this demo:

  • twitter
  • facebook
  • gmail
  • flickr
  • SMS
  • chat

ie, everything a modern consumer cares about on their (mobile) computer. A couple inescapable conclusions from this information:

  • Microsoft has had a skunkworks project for a new mobile operating system that looks nothing like any Microsoft product and specifically does not emulate any current features of Word, Excel or Outlook
  • Microsoft has given up one the Office/Windows duet that has given them two decades of profitability
  • this project has somehow seen the light of day, but hasn’t been released in any way shape or form

tethers

Posted in tech talk at 3:16 pm by paul

More iSlate speculation: Apple will have to figure out tethering before they launch a tablet/slate device.

Why? If Apple is going to launch a mass-market general-purpose tablet device, it is going to need network access. Very few consumers are going to be willing to accept that they have to pay for a second data plan. Apple won’t launch such a device if it can only tether to non-Apple phones!

So, if Apple were to launch a game-changing tablet device, it will have to tether to the iPhone. Tethering was supposed to be available on the iPhone by now, but of course it isn’t. Maybe we’ll see AT&T supporting only this new tablet tethered to iPhones, which would at least permit Apple to hold a fig leaf in front of AT&T when they offer tethering to other phones.

readers

Posted in tech talk, toys at 11:34 am by paul

Ray Kurzweil has joined the reader fray and his is software only.

So the defection from dedicated readers begins!

A hope for the Apple device that absolutely positively be announced the 27th (unless it is not): a screen that switches between a reflective, low-power mode similar to the Kindle and a higher-power backlit mode for browsing chat, and so on.

01.04.10

yakk

Posted in tech talk at 9:49 pm by paul

The “Skiff” reader that Hearst is working on, at least as described by The New York Times, is Yet Another Kindle Killer. Trouble is, the “Kindle” category has a lot more hype than it has sales, or Amazon would go ahead and release their sales figures. The Kindle doesn’t need killing, at least not yet.

Based on what I hear about the revenue that Hearst gets from Amazon, I am not surprised at all that they want to enter the ‘Kindle’ space and recover some of the 70% they surrender.

The device itself has a lot of appeal. But what is the business model? If the Skiff is a general-purpose computer, it won’t generate any revenue from content because it’s own web browser provides the same content for free. If the Skiff is a dedicated computer (ie provides access to content otherwise unavailable electronically) then people are expected to carry this thing in addition to or instead of a laptop or other general-purpose computer, it is the third entrant in a tiny, or at least niche, market.

Fuchsberg seems to indicate it will be a dedicated, niche device with this quote: “We think there’ll be a market for dedicated readers alongside applications on your phone or tablet PCs.”

Note to Hearst: if the point of the Skiff is to charge people for content, you have to charge everyone, regardless of the device they are using. I think that is why the Kindle hasn’t taken off, at least not as a news reader: who is going to buy a dedicated device for the privilege of paying for content that is free on gear they already own?