Monthly Archive:: July 2013

"Google is making another foray into the living room with the Chromecast, a small $35 dongle that allows users to stream videos from a phone or tablet to their TV using Chrome. Essentially, it turns every TV into a smart TV, but it uses the same basic interface as whatever device you're on." Looks like an absolutely fantastic product, especially with the low price point and SDK for developers. I want this. Now. Too bad 95% of the world can't buy it for now.

As expected, Google has just unveiled Android 4.3. It's not a huge release, but its got some nice optimisations, bug fixes, and a small number of new features. Nexus 4, 7, 10 and the Galaxy Nexus will receive the update today, and the new Nexus 7, also unveiled today, ships it by default. Speaking of the new Nexus 7 - it's got a 1200x1920 display, and is pretty much better in every possible way compared to the outgoing model. Still as cheap, too. Most of all: I hope they improved the horrible NAND flash Asus used which is the Achilles heel of the outgoing model.

Joel Spolsky killed a Microsoft patent application in just a few minutes - he found prior art and submitted it, and the USPTO examiner rejected the patent because of it. "Micah showed me a document from the USPTO confirming that they had rejected the patent application, and the rejection relied very heavily on the document I found. This was, in fact, the first 'confirmed kill' of Ask Patents, and it was really surprisingly easy. I didn't have to do the hard work of studying everything in the patent application and carefully proving that it was all prior art: the examiner did that for me." This is all under the umbrella of 'Ask Patents'.

"Every household in Britain connected to the internet will be obliged to declare whether they want to maintain access to online pornography, David Cameron will announce on Monday." And so, the UK nanny state turns to straight up censorship. Let's look at some of the authoritarian policies that David Cameron wishes to enact.

"It's now been almost three full days. I don't know anything about their infrastructure, but for a web service to be down this long with so little communication, most 'maintenance' or migration theories become very unlikely." Downtime is normally just part of life, but three full days? There's something going on.

So, the CyanogenMod team is teasing something new. My guess is that we're either looking at the CM team getting early access to new Android versions, or - and this is something I really hope - an OEM, preferably a large one, has decided to ship a device with CyanogenMod preinstalled. A boy or girl can dream.

"Surprise, surprise, a certain Korean company copies more of Apple's product design. When Apple launched the iPad mini in October 2012, Apple explained the design: the almost 8" screen size and thin border allow one-handed use. Now, the new 8" Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 has the same border design as the iPad mini." From what I can only assume is the The Onion of technology reporting. I love humour like this on a lazy Friday afternoon.

"Named General Distribution Release 2 (GDR2), the latest update enables Data Sense, a way to track how data is being used, alongside FM radio, and the ability to set other applications as the default camera. GDR2 also includes support for Gmail's CalrdDAV and CalDAV implementation, allowing Windows Phone users to continue syncing calendar and contacts after Google announced its intention to pull its Exchange ActiveSync service earlier this year." There's something wrong with your operating system's update/improvement rate when such a minute, insignificant release is news.

The Verge, reporting that Microsoft lost almost a billion dollars with Surface RT, in this quarter alone. "At the end of the day, though, it looks like Microsoft just made too many Surface RT tablets - we heard late last year that Microsoft was building three to five million Surface RT tablets in the fourth quarter, and we also heard that Microsoft had only sold about one million of those tablets in March." That's catastrophically bad.

"The worst thing about Android phones isn't the crapware, though. It's the 'skins' - the modifications that phone companies make to Android's most basic features, including the dialing app, contacts, email, the calendar, the notification system, and the layout of the home screen. If you get the Play edition of these phones, you'll see Google's version of each of these apps, and you'll come away impressed by Google's tasteful, restrained, utilitarian design sense. But if, like most people, you get your phone for $199 from a carrier, you'll find everything in it is a frightful mess." Android's biggest problem (lack of updates is part of this). I got my Oppo Find 5 yesterday, and after only a few hours with the official, skinned firmware, I ran crying to the officially supported CyanogenMod 10.1 (Android 4.2.2). Stock (CM is mostly stock) is such a beautiful and elegant operating system - OEM skins are like screaming kids eating popcicles in front of you on a line to a theme park ride. Whenever someone hands me a stock Samsung or HTC, I die a little inside. Those guys simply have zero clue about software.

"Google must do more to allay concerns that it is blocking competitors in web search results, the EU's antitrust chief said on Wednesday, after rivals criticized concessions it has offered as being inadequate."

"All three major Russian cellcos have stopped selling the iPhone, the most dramatic instance so far in a rising tide of operator backlash against Apple's tough contractual requirements. VimpelCom has severed its ties with the handset provider, following in the footsteps of MTS and MegaFon. VimpelCom says it has put Samsung at the top of its list of smartphones to promote under its BeeLine brand. According to PhoneArena, VimpelCom blamed 'draconian contracts' and 'harsh conditions especially in the marketing department' for its decision to dump the iPhone and sign a new deal with Samsung." Apple's treatment of carriers has long been a sore point, however, carriers didn't have much choice. Now that the iPhone is by far no longer the only big money maker, carriers have more leverage.

"A diverse coalition of 19 groups announced today a lawsuit against the United States government for 'an illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet electronic surveillance', known as the Associational Tracking Program, which collects all telephone records handled by Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint in the US. The group, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, aims to compel the government to inventory and disclose the records in its possession, to destroy them, and to immediately end the surveillance program."

"In its desire for authenticity, the Modern design movement curbed the ornamental excess of the 19th century, making design fit the age of mass production. Today, we're seeing the same desire for authenticity manifest itself in the 'flat' trend, which rejects skeuomorphism and excessive visuals for simpler, cleaner, content-focused design." Fascinating perspective on the whole digital vs. analog design debate by Dmitry Fadeyev.