WANTED: Apple Seeks Flexible Body.
“Apple Inc is looking for a display specialist to lead the investigation on emerging display technologies such as high optical efficiency LCD, AMOLED and flexible display to improve overall display optical performance.”
The job listing has since been removed by Cupertino HQ. We assume, this could be related to a future iWatch (can’t see this being released in near term with a ‘flex body’ if they’re posting the job NOW) or future iPhone.
On the matter of an ‘iWatch’, Microsoft did try this before:
However, Steve Jobs also said this:
“So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things.”
Ideas only become great when everything else is there to support it. Am iWatch or future TV can be successful for Apple, because everything is in place to capitalize on the success: Apple ID, broadband, iTunes, App Store, Siri, iCloud, GPS etc. Essentially, an established, “integrated” ecosystem exists feed these “thin client devices”.
Microsoft’s SPOT watch didn’t have that robust infrastructure and ecosystem…so it just didn’t make it far in 2003.
Sometimes, ideas are too ahead of their time. If Apple had released the iPad first vs. the iPhone, they would have missed the BOAT because the ecosystem IS the mobile phone user…not the third category user.
Releasing the iPad after the iPhone essentially staged the playing field properly as the education curve for users would allow them to easily adopt the iPad, and enable developers to tweak existing apps, before moving to full native iPad apps and easily add revenue to their bottom-line. The resulting effect of third category success (iPad) for Apple has been the complete and utter decimation of PC sales as has been reported recently.
A.
I am rather impressed by the U/X, tiles and speed of the Windows Phone and RT platform.
Their tablet seems a bit top heavy (screen) vs the keyboard. The keyboard seemed responsive but it felt fragile. Didn’t have enough time to actually write a full letter with it but it probably isn’t something I would use. At $700 plus, I am about $400+ away from a nice MacBook Air.
That said, I do like Windows Phone! Whether they can own the 3rd ecosystem is another question. The platform looks fast on the Samsung device that my colleague had even if the size of the Samsung was too big. Too much mental overhead worrying about that kind of size for a “portable”. Would be less of a “carry able” for me.
I never disliked Windows RT and Windows Phone. Just had reservations about traction.
BTW, there was a noticeably different app ecosystem experience on the tablet. Cleaner and just a tad more lively.
Kudos to my friend who works for MSFT keeping me hostage on the GO TRAIN LONG ENOUGH to unleash the propaganda. I am a fan. :D
What I found more disturbing was the terrible 4G connection even for a moving train. I got the impression 4G was just as bad in a stationary environment. For the pretty coin being dished out by citizenry, Canadian incumbents should do better than that.
The Rise Of Foreign #Exploits and #Cyberattacks
It has been an interesting couple of weeks. Outside of the general news reporting about exploits and cyber attacks, it was hard to ignore the chatter from my own personal network of folks, both in technology and the intelligence community, telling me about the rising attacks from foreign shores.
Even tonight, a media report on CBC’s the National reported about another incident that was undetected until the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre learned about the Chinese-originating cyber attack from the CBC. (See Video).
In the past week, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft succumbed to malware exploits and the other day, Tumblr’s platform (which this site is hosted on) sent a notice announcing a ZenDesk exploit which exposed account-level data for support issues.
Over a few drinks tonight, a respected colleague and I shared the latest thoughts on technology trends and macro geopolitical trends before he shared an interesting tidbit about a friend in Davos exchanging some strong words with a Chinese official over the rise of cyber-attacks from the region. The Chinese official replied back, “You stole our gun powder…” Talk about taking the long-view.
Most troubling is the fact that most media reporting about origin of most cyber attacks appears to very unclear. Some officials in the US intelligence community told western media this week that a China-origin attack was unlikely as the cyber-exploits appear “sophisticated” and of East-European or Russian origin where the underground cyber-criminal networks run deep.
How would we know? It could be spin-doctoring on a much grander scale. I smelled a rat on some of the reporting.
Even worse, Anonymous has functioned trans-nationally without any defined geographical framework very similar Al-Qaeda. Could the attacks purely be Russian, East-European, China or Anonymous? No one really knows.
Recent CBC reports from the past year appear to indicate that “state-sponsored” Chinese cyber-attacks have been economically-tied and part of a newer form of cyber espionage as shown in this video:
On February 21, Malwarebytes’ communications team contacted me about the NBC.com hack the same day which embedded malicious iframe code to spread the Citadel Trojan. It was detected as Backdoor.Agent.RS.
On his blog, Dancho Danchev suggested that the criminals behind NBC.com’s hack may be the same people behind recent fake emails from Facebook and Verizon which directed unsuspecting users to exploit pages.
In other words, NBC.com was compromised for about 15 minutes and the actual iframe with the malicious redirect was embedded in a java-script file located on the web server for NBC.com. It used the RedKit exploit kit to spread the malware and exploited both Java and Adobe Reader. The malware, Citadel, is a reproduction of the Zeus banker Trojan and has the same capabilities of stealing financial information from users. In addition, it can execute subsequent malware by installing Ransomware on the victim’s system. The exploit has since been taken down.
Interestingly, as a long-time user of Malwarebytes, the anti-malware product protects desktops/laptops from this threat due to its behavior-based zero-hour engine that stops new malware that has not been seen before and doesn’t yet have a signature (i.e. antidote) created to update a user’s desktop anti-virus definitions.
Microsoft’s Security Response Center posted this statement about their recent intrusion similar to those at Facebook and Apple.
Whether these exploits are of cyber-criminal, trans-national or state-sponsored origin, what’s becoming more clear for me is the growing requirement of online users to protect their digital profiles, cloud-based files, and financial information pro-actively with as many security measures as possible.
For me, this transformation started with Google products with Google Authenticator to protect online products and products accessed from multiple smartphones and tablets.
Skype Includes Facebook and Microsoft Logins
No No No. A Microsoft and Facebook account. :-)
#BBM Voice Test Leads To Astounding Results! Skype - watch out!
Last night, I installed the BBM Voice beta product from RIM via Beta Zone. Before I get into this short review, I’d like to bring up some history.
I’ve been a Skype user/customer for a very long time — so long, I was trying to use their mobile apps before “mobile apps” was even a mass market term. As well, I am carbon-dated through internet-time with VoIP technology. Indeed. I fooled around with VoIP technology in the early 1990s (boy, do I remember testing VoIP then lol - wow, we’ve come so far!) and then in 1995, Vocaltec, an Israeli-based company, released “Internet Phone” which would become the first VoIP application some of us tested wildly. :-)
How About Some Data Points:
These numbers were captured from public sources including Jim Courtney, resident Skype expert-friend-colleague from VoiceOnTheWeb.biz. Jim is such an expert about Skype, he’s dialed-in to the company and his own Kindle book out on Skype — more on this in the near term.
Jim Courtney I I will be doing a follow-up BBM Voice/Skype video to discuss the potential of BBM Voice and the latest on Skype - in CNN-speak, “we will break it down for you” with facts, not fiction.
We both think this is a RIM grand-slam. Disclaimer: Yes, we are Blackberry die-hard fans (but yes, I am also an iOS user - iPhone plus iPad).
Just look at those numbers! Once fully released to all 6/7 BB devices (and new BB10s), 60 million users (and growing) will instantly have VoIP capability that is easy and seamless.
Amazing that a “sleeping giant” was badly ignored by the Skype albatross which is currently being chopped, minced, and weaved into Windows. Even at 100 million for Windows Live Messenger, that was a paltry number for Microsoft given their massive installed PC install base.
BBM Voice Beta ‘Demo’ Results:
Amazing! Both Jim and I (remember, Jim is the Skype guru) were both in shock and awe at the sound quality. This sounded better than the network cell quality of incumbent networks (BTW: My Curve 9360 is on the WIND network and call quality is fantastic for an upstart)!
I even connected onto a weaker wireless network connection to get a real sense of the experience. Result? What a world of difference to the numerousSkype calls I have on my Macbook Air! Hands down, BBM Voice sounded so good, I was certain Jim was next to me…okay, he wasn’t but you get my point. Most people might think I was making a landline call. That’s how crystal it was.
If this is the shape of things to come fro RIM with new offerings, and BB10, the future is going to JAM! I stand my ground when I say that RIM has great IP, a solid BBM framework, and a future platform that is going to turn eyes and force the NYTimes writer to eat her words and carry a new Blackberry for years to come.
To Skype: I tried to give you another chance on my Blackberry. I went to skype.com/m and even tried SMS (you don’t have Wind Canada listed) and sadly, still no Skype app for my BB 7 device. That’s okay — as you disappear into Windows, I’ll be a happy BBM Voice user when this goes golden release.
#BB10Believe
- BBM 7 Lets BlackBerry Users Talk for Free (wired.com)
- RIM adds VoIP digivoice calls to BBM youngster-messaging ware (go.theregister.com)
#BBM Voice Beta Out - Test Time
I merged my Blackberry ID the other day with Blackberry’s Beta Zone. Want to join? Visit www.blackberry.com/beta One thing you should do is make sure you are setup with RIM’s very cool Blackberry Protect product. Totally love it. Secure and easy to use.
When you enter the Beta Zone, simply download the BBM 7.0 beta product which will contain the Voice function. Once installed, I noticed a silhouette phone icon in the top right next to BBM’ers I normally chat with. This only works on WiFi but this is going to be a real test and if it works, you can kiss Skype goodbye. I have owned a Blackberry for eons and one thing that always bothered me about Skype was their lack of BB support. In the early days, while working for a startup focused mobile platforms and apps (I am talking about 2003 here!), Skype was on Windows Mobile handhelds (“Palm” devices) and that always bothered me. It is likely that Blackberry will strike a home run here because of solid BBM penetration. It is also like that Skype will pay with userbase in some long-tail fashion - I doubt Skype would even support BB10 now that is owned by Microsoft - I can’t see any dramatic rush to support BB10 or the Playbook.
To be honest, Skype has become bloatware anyhow. Hope to see BBM Voice fully launched and extended with “other” features as this is a killer move by RIM with tons of opportunity for interoperability.
#Amazon Supports #Windows 8 RT, Ignores #Playbook.
I don’t understand Bezos and Amazon at times.
A few days back, I emailed Bezos and asked why Playbook did not have a native app. While the executive offices responded the next day with a rather “hopeful” response, they recommended I use the Cloud reader option through http://read.amazon.com. OK, on a few occasions, I’ve used it on the iPad but really, with a native app, there isn’t a reason to use it until I am ready to make a purchase.
Reason?
Apple’s revenue share model forced Amazon to move purchases outside of the AppStore ecosystem to avoid the 30% take. However, let’s not jump so fast as Amazon does the same thing in their own AppStore so it’s quid pro quo in the argument camp.
Anyhow, I tried cloud reader on the Playbook the other day and while functional, there are some serious rendering challenges when I shift from landscape to portrait. Can’t pinpoint if this is an Amazon issue or a Playbook browser issue.
Here’s the kicker.
When I downloaded and pinned a book to the Playbook from my library, we’re led to believe the content is stored locally for offline viewing in the absence of a connection. Fair enough. This works fine on my iPad. However, on the Playbook…guess what? Ta da! The content is missing and I have to re-download it again.
Not cool.
If I am a Playbook-only Amazon customer, I’d be relatively disappointed at the sub-standard experience available via the Cloud reader option. This problem doesn’t crop up on iPad so maybe there is an issue Amazon hasn’t encountered.
Further, the Playbook numbers, while not anywhere near the “magical” numbers Apple presents (84 million sold, in circulation, since September 21, 2012), aren’t bad either.
As of March 2012, RIM has announced that it has sold one million PlayBooks since its launch. On June 28, 2012, RIM announced that it had shipped an additional 260,000 PlayBooks and announced on the corresponding earnings call that sell-through to customers was higher than this number. On September 27, 2012, RIM announced it had shipped an additional 130,000 BlackBerry PlayBooks. As of September 1, 2012, Research In Motion has shipped 1.74 million BlackBerry PlayBook units.
Even if we break things out around definitions of what was shipped and sold, since March 2012, there were 1 million Playbooks in the hands of consumers. Is Amazon telling me they can’t build a native app for this beautiful device at these numbers even as they support Windows 8 for RT/Tablets at launch? C’mon.
What did Microsoft and Ballmer do? Cough up some koolaid to get native app support? Or was it money? Even though the hardware side of Microsoft’s tablet equation has received good feedback, the O/S hasn’t. Sure, things evolve but either way, there’s no excuse for Amazon here.
While Windows 8 RT tablets “sold out” on pre-order, we don’t know the actual inventory number. Books are a key content bucket for portable devices. I just feel if Amazon is going to play along with the Amazon Anywhere philosophy, they have to play the game fair and square.
Sure, it’s their dollar and strategy but I don’t think it would hurt to go native with Playbook.
While my enthusiasm for Amazon is high and I shared those views with the executive office, I’m told my comments would be forwarded to the product team. We shall see.
Do the right thing Amazon.
Your Cloud Reader for Playbook delivers a sub-standard experience which leaves me with no options except to pursue full “de-DRM” and “copy to” device solution. I don’t want to do this because it is “work” and well, I could do it if I wanted. However, I’ve expressed my loyalty in dollar-terms so hopefully, this means something and the Playbook user base gets their wish.
- Amazon launches Kindle for Windows 8, leaving Nook in the dust (venturebeat.com)
Source: venturebeat.com
Patent Portfolio Review Reveals Apple ‘Secret Sauce’?
I do spend time reading up on patents from companies via blogs, searches and even iOS apps. Found an interesting report from Thomson Reuters which peers into Apple’s Patent Portfolio and the future. Some interesting focus.
Here’s a snapshot:
How about this patent diagram from Apple?
Patent Number US20110311895 titled, “Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device” was filed in August 2010. The patent highlights new battery technology which would enable future iOS devices to remain charged for days / weeks!
How’s that for keeping the masses glued to the interwebs constantly? ;-) Visit the source link at the end of my post to obtain the study from Thomson Reuters (12 pages)
- Apple wins patent on Smart Cover ‘peek mode’ tech (macnn.com)
- New images reveal alleged complete iPad mini design (electronista.com)
- Nokia Patent Portfolio An Untapped Goldmine (seekingalpha.com)
- Apple wins patent for rotating and scaling documents on touch screens (reviews.cnet.com)
- Google: We didn’t really believe rounded corners were patentable (bgr.com)
- Bits Blog: The Patent Clues to the Apple iPhone Beyond ‘5’ (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
Source: bit.ly
[VIDEO #3] Does Size Really Matter? A Tablet Debate
In Video #3 of our ongoing “What Would Alex Bosika Do?” series with guest host, Roger Beharry Lall, we break open the floodgates on tablet dimensions and beer. There’s enough laughter and innuendo here to freak out the CEO’s from RIM, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. Watch our random walk down tablet lane. ;-)
So we ask, “Does Size Really Matter?”
More YouTube videos on this growing channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/alexbosika?feature=guide
- 6 Companies That Creatively Use Tablets (mashable.com)
- Size matters to tablet users, study finds (lenovo.com)
- Do iPads or Tablet Computers Constitute Their Own Product Market? (mydistributionlaw.com)
- Apple design expert Peter Bressler recreates Roger Fidler’s tablet prototype to point out major design differences (edibleapple.com)
- Samsung Galaxy Note throwdown: A big phone or small tablet? (reviews.cnet.com)
- Boosted by tablets, mobile TV is rising (lenovo.com)
- The New 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet: 4 reasons to buy it (blogs.blackberry.com)
- Rethinking the viability of the Windows 8 tablet (zdnet.com)
