Oh, yes, here's another tablet computer. Or model deckchair. Photo by IntelFreePress on Flickr. Some rights reserved
A quick burst of 17 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team
Microsoft's consumer brand is dying >> CNN Money
Six months after Apple's release of the iPad, Microsoft still has virtually no presence in the tablet market. And its strategy for taking on Apple - Windows 7 on a tablet, rather than a tablet-specific operating system - is leaving potential partners cold. Lenovo's technology director recently told PC Mag that his company won't be building around the platform: "The challenge with Windows 7 is that it's based on the same paradigm as 1985 - it's really an interface that's optimized for a mouse and keyboard."
The idea that the Microsoft brand is becoming tarnished with consumers is intriguing - it would be interesting to see any research data to back it up. Meanwhile, my own tests have found that there is definitely a difference between a touchscreen-ready OS and a tablet-ready OS. (Thanks @avro for the link.)
Why Steve Jobs' Pixar uses Microsoft Windows Azure >> SeattlePI
There's only one problem with this story: pretty much everything in it is wrong. Pixar is a public company, not Jobs's; he didn't found it; Pixar's Renderman isn't used in every CG shot in the film industry; and it doesn't run on Microsoft's Azure - the demonstration at Microsoft's developers' conference was, an apologetic endnote accepts, a "proof of concept". Hey ho.
A look back at the iTunes App Store - Part I: Explosive Growth | Edible Apple
"The iTunes App Store opened up for business about 1 year ago [in June 2008] and boasted a somewhat modest figure of 500 applications. Since then, the number of downloads and available applications has skyrocketed.
"Just two months into the app store, Apple issued a press release announcing that iPhone and iPod Touch users had downloaded over 100 million applications from what was then a 3,000 strong library of available titles. A little over 2 months later, on October 21, 2008, Apple announced that 200 million applications had been downloaded from the iTunes App Store. On December 5, 2008, Apple took out ads in a number of newspapers touting that the App Store library had surpassed 10,000 applications and that there had been over 300 million downloads."
So Windows Phone 7 opening with 1,000 apps (more by the time it reaches US buyers from 8 November) isn't bad. The challenge will be to get the download growth.
Apple overtakes RIM as runner-up to Nokia in smartphones. Does volume matter? - GLG News
"In the future the environment might not be as favorable for Apple and RIM as it has been in the recent past. Top line growth will make international sales a higher priority and levels of operator subsidy abroad might be lower on average than those of the North American markets. This might result in growing pressure on the pricing side. Furthermore, competition is likely to increase. The Android pack gets larger every day, HP will re-launch webOS , Microsoft might at last gain traction thanks to Windows Phone 7 and Nokia should be expected to bounce back at some stage."
Blekko, The "Slashtag" Search Engine, Goes Live >> SearchEngineLand
A very interesting new search engine: "In particular, Blekko is keen to emphasis that auto-slashing keeps "content farm" material from dominating search results (see our previous article, Google, Content Farms & Why This May Be Blekko's Moment, for more about this).
"Personally, I don't see content farm material as all bad. Some of it can be helpful. Nor do I always see it dominating Google's search results. But it has become a flashpoint for some, and a pitch that Blekko can be a content farm free search engine may draw in a specific audience."
Flash Vs HTML5 >> CodeComputerLove
"Pong - written not just in Flash or in HTML5, but in both (the left side is Flash, the right HTML5). Interesting if only to show that both sides seem identical." (Thanks @whereistom)
Licensing Dispute Could Drive VLC out of the App Store - PCWorld Business Center
A nose/face/spite issue: "In order to maintain the freedom of the software it protects, the GPL imposes several conditions under which redistribution may take place; in particular, the redistribution of the software must be unrestricted under any circumstance, allowing any user to give another user a functional copy under the same original terms.
"According to VLC contributor Rémi Denis-Courmont, Apple's App Store violates these terms by using digital rights management technology (DRM) that prevents a user from redistributing apps obtained from the App Store to other users in an unrestricted way. In an e-mail he sent to the VLC developer list, Denis-Courmont claims that he has filed a copyright complaint with Apple, demanding that the software be pulled from the App Store."
Google's AdMob Integration Is 'Just Not Going Great' >> Business Insider
"Google's integration of AdMob is "just not going great," a mobile industry source friendly with many people at AdMob tells us.
"We reached out to our source after TechCrunch reported AdMob's CEO Omar Hamoui was leaving Google just 5 months after Google was approved by the government to spend $750 million on the mobile ad startup.
"Hamoui isn't the first to go, and he won't be the last."
Ocado deploy Google Apps >> Computer Weekly
"Moving [1,250 staff] to Google Apps should reduce IT costs, saving servers, back-up space, support and maintenance, whilst in the longer term eradicating costly upgrades and licence fees, Ocado said."
And Ocado badly needs to get costs down if it is to have a hope of being profitable this century. As Computer Weekly didn't, we asked Ocado what it was using before. The answer: Microsoft Exchange.
Android tablets: Big enough, smart enough, cheap enough? >> BBC: dot.Rory
"There are two big doubts for me about [the Samsung Galaxy Tab], its size and its price. Is there really a big enough niche in the space between a smartphone and an iPad for a tablet with a seven-inch screen? It's too small to be a comfortable place to type more than a short message, whereas on the iPad I managed to write most of this blog post. It is being sold as a more mobile device but you can do just about everything the Tab does on a much more portable smartphone."
Browser momentum: Chrome has it, IE doesn't >> CNET News
"For browser watchers, October was a continuation of previous trends: Internet Explorer lost share to Chrome, Firefox and Opera idled, and Safari edged upward.
"The statistics, based on Net Applications' monitoring of millions of Web sites in its analytics network, show that this summer's resurgence of IE has faded, at least for the present. At the same time, Chrome, now two years old, made its July dip look like a blip rather than a foreboding omen."
Also: IE8 usage barely changed between September and October. Explanations welcomed.
Privacy and the internet – parliamentary debate transcript >> Hansard
Well-informed: "I have no problem with Google photographing me in my garden, or my house, and putting those images on the web, but the point is that I want to give Google permission to do so. I want to opt in. Some people will respond that any citizen can walk up a street, taking pictures of people's houses. Of course that is true, but there is a difference of scale and of commercial interest. Google was not sightseeing; it was creating a product to sell advertising on a mass scale. No private citizen has the millions of pounds or dollars at their disposal to take a detailed picture of every house, street and company in Britain. That makes this case fundamentally different."
New MacBook Airs riddled with bugs >> THINQ.co.uk
"The new MacBook Airs seem to be manifesting some teething problems, which are proving a frustration for some early adopters.
"Apple Support has already issued a bulletin and patch entitled "About MacBook Air (Late 2010) Software Update 1.0" to resolve an issue where new MacBook Air (Late 2010) notebooks may become unresponsive while playing back movie trailers in iMovie. Apple says the update also addresses a problem where the computer may become unresponsive after waking from sleep when an external display is connected and contains general graphics performance updates for good measure."
Microsoft isn't worried about the tablet cannibals >> CRN
Are tablets "more of a threat than a help" to Microsoft?
Lars Rasmussen Quits Google, Joins Facebook >> Sydney Morning Herald
Rasmussen: "I've got a job description of 'come hang out with us for a while and we'll see what happens', which is a pretty exciting thing."
Paul Carr's NSFW: Yep, Montblanc Killed my MacBook Pro Today >> TechCrunch
Possibly the first time in living memory that TechCrunch commenters have been as witty (if not more so) as the piece. Meta is the new funny.
IPad a Therapeutic Marvel for Disabled People >> NYTimes.com
Truly a heartwarming story - though the platform is irrelevant; what's valuable is technology's ability to enhance the lives of the disabled: "Over the years, Owen's parents had tried several computerized communications contraptions to give him an escape from his disability, but the iPad was the first that worked on the first try."
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