Monthly Archive:: July 2013

"Microsoft's Surface RT is getting price cuts across the world this week as the company looks to boost sales of its first ever tablet hardware." Great vote of confidence on a platform barely out the door.

"If you are running a screen resolution of 1366x768 on a tablet, chances are that UI will look good at 100% DPI settings. But what about when you connect that tablet to an external high resolution display? In Windows 8 you can choose either 100% to optimize the UI on the tablet display or up to 150% to optimize the UI on the external display. You have to compromise. Windows 8.1 takes care of this issue by supporting per-display DPI scaling." That's pretty cool. Do other systems support this?

"The Moto X is apparently always listening for commands, the initiating command appears to be 'Ok Google Now' without having to load Google Now or select voice operation, after hearing this command the phone instantly responds with the information you require or performs the function you want, like providing directions or setting reminders or other Google Now functions." Google always listening in? Sure, that's not creepy at all or anything.

A perennial question that revolves around Nokia is: why didn't it choose to go with Android to replace Symbian when it decided to kill that as its smartphone operating system in late 2010?

I was in the running for a new Android phone, and I was quite dead set on getting a Nexus 4 - however, there was another phone in the running: the OPPO Find 5, a smrtphone with lots of positive reviews, but from a small manufacturer. The point that made me choose the Find 5 over the Nexus 4? OPPO actively supports the ROM community by giving away free phones, and boasts support for CyanogenMod, Paranoid Android, and an AOSP ROM, and obviously, rooting is easy. OPPO also updates its own firmware/ROM twice per month with new features, which is a far cry from the big boys. If you're looking for a new Android phone, you might want to consider looking beyond the established players as well, and support a company who works closely with the community - something the big player still need to learn properly. Once the device arrives on my doorstep, I'll be sure to tell you all about it, and if it lives up to the hype. It is, after all, from a relatively unknown company, so I am taking a risk here. I am a little bit nervous. But hey, if none of us takes the risk, we'll be stuck with the big players forever.

Documents released by Snowden show the extent to which Microsoft helped the NSA and other security agencies in the US. "Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal; The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail; The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide; Skype, which was bought by Microsoft in October 2011, worked with intelligence agencies last year to allow Prism to collect video of conversations as well as audio; Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a 'team sport'." Wow. Just wow.

In its struggle to find willing customers, Nokia just announced yet another flagship phone - the Nokia Lumia 1020. It's essentially a Lumia 920/925, but with the Nokia 808's PureView camera bolted on. Also, it's exclusive to AT&T in the US, for $299 with a two year contract, which is a steep price. So, who gets the honour to be the first to claim that this, yes this Lumia will turn Nokia around?

"In a large staff memo, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer details how the company is aiming for a 'One Microsoft', by altering its organization around the 'devices and services' vision. Terry Myerson will lead a new operating systems engineering group that will span across console, mobile device, and PC. Myerson used to lead the Windows Phone group at Microsoft. Julie Larson-Green takes over a new devices and studios engineering group."

I have a Surface RT tablet. I bought it because I'm a Windows Phone user, and despite its major flaws, I still hate WP much less than I hate its competitors. As such, it made sense to me that I would like the Surface RT as well - I mean, my favourite UI on a tablet? Count me in! It should come as no surprise by now that Windows RT was a major disappointment, so now that the Windows 8.1 preview is here, did Microsoft address any of the major problems?

"In a decision that could reshape how books are sold on the Internet, a federal judge ruled that Apple conspired to raise the retail prices of e-books in violation of antitrust law, and called for a trial on damages. The decision by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan is a victory for the U.S. government and various states, which the judge said are entitled to injunctive relief." Yet another ruling confirming that virtually all technology companies are criminals. But don't worry, there's nothing wrong with how companies are run and the immense power they have, no sirree!

"A war between two of the major conglomerates will always have casualties, and unfortunately for us, this time we are the casualties. We aren't yet at a state where it is impossible to use Google services on Microsoft platforms, but we are moving towards a stricter ecosystem world where we might see Googlers/Gmail users on one side and Bingers/Outlook users on the other. We can only hope for the sake of technologies future and for the sake of innovation that the two companies can learn to work together in an ever expanding world of data." We can hope so, but we're talking large companies, and large companies do not care about users. Never have, never will.

"Apple and Amazon.com have ended their lawsuit over who has the right to use the 'app store' name, clearing the way for both companies to use it." The silliest lawsuit in the history of technology.

After the release of the desktop version of the new Opera - based on Chrome and the WebKit-fork Blink - it has now made its way to Android. It's available free of charge in the Play Store for both tablets and smartphones.

"Windows 8.1 RTM will be available for OEM partners in late August. This means OEMs will be able to get the RTM bits and begin preparing devices with Windows 8.1 just in time for the holidays! We’ll have more details to share in the coming months for consumers and other customers on how to get Windows 8.1." So far, Windows 8.1 has been a massive improvement over Windows 8 on my Surface RT - except for the total system crashes (including shrieking sounds) Skype causes a few times per week.