Posts Tagged ‘apple’

« Older Entries

iPhone 5 Launch Event Scheduled for October 4th 2011 – Let’s Talk iPhone

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
The invite for the Apple "Let's Talk iPhone" event

The invite for the Apple "Let's Talk iPhone" event

It looks as though the long awaited launch of the iPhone 5 is finally almost upon us. Apple have been sending out invitations to a special event that will take place next Tuesday at 6pm UK time. The invite says the event is called “Let’s talk iPhone” and so it is very likely to be the time that the latest incarnation of the worlds most popular smartphone is revealed to the world.

Obviously there is an awful lot of hype and rumour surrounding the new device which most people thought would be launched back in June. The launch event will be headed up by Aplle’s new CEO Tim Cook following Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO earlier this year. Many people will be looking to see if Apple will be steering a new course under their new captain. I doubt this to be the case though as Tim Cook had long been thought to be Jobs’ eventual successor.

One other rumour is that the event will also be used to launch Facebook’s iPad app and also a revamped version of its iPhone app. Apple and Facebook do seem to be getting cosier and cosier with each other. This is probably mainly due to them both having a common competitor in Google. For Apple the challenge is to keep selling more iPhone handsets and this is threatened by the ever increasing market share that Google’s Android mobile operating system has. Meanwhile Facebook are facing some real competition from Google+, the new social networking site from Google.

One commonly held belief is that the launch will take place on October 4th and the new iPhone 5 will be available in both the UK and the US from October 15th. There are suggestions that the new model will have a teardrop shape when viewed in profile.  It may also be the case that the iPhone 5 will have closer integration with iCloud, allowing you to store music, photos, apps and calendars and then push the data to multiple devices.

The wait is nearly over and I am sure that all will be revealed next week.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet News, Technology | No Comments »

Google To Buy Motorola Mobility, What’s In It For Google?

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

The tech world went wild yesterday upon the news that Google is looking to buy the manufacturing arm of Motorola, Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The deal has not yet been fully ratified but is expected to be completed by the end of the year or early in 2012 at the latest. Google, of course, are behind the Android mobile operating system and have in the past said that they would never manufacture their own mobile phones. Why the change of heart? A lot may well be down to the on-going battle that they are having with both Apple and Microsoft. Google have accused the other two of trying to kill off Android through the use of patent infringement. In buying Motorola Mobility they also acquire an awful lot of patents. This would tie in nicely with Google’s buying strategy of late, including purchasing over 1000 it purchased from IBM and an attempt to purchase more than 6000 patents from Nortel.

The reason that Google might want to buy patents is to help protect itself from extremely costly lawsuits. By having a whole raft of patents in its arsenal Google can ward off potential lawsuits from other companies by looking for ways the other company has infringed on Google owned patents and then counter suing the company. The world of patents is very like the Cold War in the terminology that is used, including Mutually Assured Destruction. This is where one company can sue for damages that are so great that it would drive another company out of business and the other company can counter sue with the same result and this mean that neither company will eve r take the risk. Hence owning patents can be very beneficial for a company. Google has realised that it is very vulnerable to this sort of attack and over the last six months in particular has been very busy buying patents.

Motorola while still a major player in the mobile space is not the behemoth that it once was. If you go back to the mid 90’s then the major phone manufacturers were Motorola and Nokia. Google might well fancy having a crack at getting Motorola back to that once dominant position again. They would be able to market mobile devices, both phones and tablets, offering the ultimate Android experience. They might even start to look at attacking Microsoft’s hold on the enterprise market. With more and more services being offered via The Cloud then why not offer the scalability that The Cloud can offer to businesses of all sizes. Google would be able to provide the platform via the Chrome operating system for desktop workstations and mobile devices running the Android operating system. It is likely that Chrome and Android will eventually become more unified possibly even becoming one ecosystem.

The markets responded favourably to the news, with a number of companies seeing jumps in their share prices including Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Huawei who all manufacture Motorola phones. Other phone manufacturers that use the Android operating system such as HTC and LG Electronics also so share prices rise on announcement on the Google acquisition.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet News, Technology | No Comments »

Windows 8 – First Thoughts

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Microsoft Windows 8Microsoft released a video last week giving people a chance to see what Windows 8 is going to look like and how it will function. Here are my thoughts on what we have been able to see so far.

The interface is very like Windows Phone 7 rather than Windows 7. The start screen has a series of tiles that represent the various programs and applications that you have installed on your machine. One good feature about using tiles rather than icons is that you can put more information into a tile. So rather than just being able to click on a Calendar icon to open the application you can see details of your schedule within the tile, giving users a better overall experience.

Microsoft have created a new development platform based on HTML 5 and Javascript that should allow new applications that are based on touch. This is really forward thinking to my mind, bearing in mind how often Microsoft seem to be playing catch up nowadays. There is a real emphasis on touchscreen throughout the video and it appears to only pay lip service to desktop users. I do wonder how effective this interface will be when used with a standard keyboard and mouse.

One nice feature is “snapping”. This allows a user to switch between tasks by swiping from the side. The last app to be used is then brought onto the screen, but the current app continues to utilise most of the display real estate. Think about picture in picture functionality on a TV. The user can then decide the scaling of the two apps so that either can be larger or they can both be the same size on your screen.

Windows 8 will ship with Internet Explorer 10 and again this seems to be being aimed at the tablet market as there is more talk about it having a touch first UI. There is also a touchscreen keyboard to help with entering URL’s and this can be split in two to give a more ergonomic experience.

As usual Windows 8 will allow you to use your existing applications with it. You will also be able to access other machines on your local network, though this is hardly ground breaking technology.

The video finishes off with a pledge that they will be showing us all more features over the next year which may indicate that Windows 8 is due to launch in Q1 2012.

As the owner of an LG Optimus phone that runs Windows Phone 7 then I would say that this is an enhancement on that OS. It is certainly a brave choice to move away from what people are used to. People are notoriously fickle and even within the tech community, a community who you would expect to embrace change, I hear a lot of murmurings about how it is too different .

The entire video focuses on the touchscreen aspect of Windows 8 and does not demonstrate how it will work on a desktop. Now I have a theory about this. Either they have not yet created the functionality for running on a desktop or eventually Windows 8 will be aimed at the tablet and smartphone market. If you look at Google they are currently running Android alongside Chrome, Apple have iOS and MacOS, so could Microsoft also develop two operating systems, one for PC’s and one for mobile devices? It will almost certainly be the case that in the future desktop PC’s will become the preserve of the office, geeks and gamers while the majority of the population who do not need the full functionality of a PC will be using tablets. So it could make sense to have an OS for the two types of devices. Time will tell.

I would love to hear your views on the new Windows 8 video teaser, leave me a comment. If you have not yet seen the video you can view it here.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Programming, Videos | No Comments »

BlackBerry Playbook Set to Launch in UK June 16th

Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Blackberry Playbook

BlackBerry PlayBook set to launch on June 16th

It has been announced by BlackBerry that the UK launch of the Playbook, their first tablet, will take place on June 16th. The tablet has a 7″ screen, Cortex A9 based dual 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM and dual cameras, 3 Meg front facing and 5 Meg rear . It does not use either Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android operating systems but instead has it own that was developed by QNX, who are also owned by RIM. It will come in three memory sizes 16Gb, 32 Gb and 64Gb and prices are expected to be £399, £479 and £559 respectively. The PlayBook will be available from Best Buy, Carphone Warehouse, Currys, Dixons, PC World and Phones4U.

The tablet market is getting very crowded and I cannot see this device being the fabled “iPad Killer”. I do believe it will be able to sustain a small share of the market though. The use of BlackBerry smartphones within the business sector may make it the tablet of choice for the enterprise market as long as they can get the right sort of apps. I do find the naming of the PlayBook interesting, BlacklBerry are renowned for their smartphones that are aimed primarily at a business market and yet this is called the PlayBook rather than the WorkBook. I think this shows that RIM are looking at trying to appeal to a wider market, when it was launched in the US RIM said that it was the perfect platform for playing games on. There are also enough BlackBerry fanboys out there who should see that the device survivies through to a second iteration.

Do you think you will be buying one?

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet News, Technology | No Comments »

Windows Phone 7 Update Went Well

Friday, April 8th, 2011
20110408-215437.jpg

My phone of choice in May, Windows Phone 7

OK, I admit it, I own a Windows Phone 7. It’s an LG Optimus 7 if you really want to know, and just for the record I love it! I have an iPhone for personal use and an Android phone (Nexus One) for work, but secretly I love my Windows phone. The camera is far better than either of the other two, and it has a separate button onthe side to activate it, which is a real improvement on either of the other two major players in the smartphone market.

This evening I decided it really was time I agreed to allow the update that the phone has been quietly reminding me about for the last month. I have read one or two horror stories about this online and so had a little trepidation about starting this process. How did it go? Pretty smoothly.

I had to first install the Zune software that handles the updates. Zune, for those that don’t know is a sort of Microsoft version of iTunes. The interface is much better than iTunes though. I was pleasantly surprised to find that all my iTunes purchases play through Zune. The update took about 10 minutes, not 23 as my laptop suggested. This was particularly encouraging as I must have one of the slowest Internet connections in the UK, let’s not get me started on that again!
The update went through without a hitch and I can now, among other things, copy and paste on my Windows phone. I have also now added my music library to my phone and am debating whether to pay £8.99 a month for a Zune pass that will give me unlimited downloads from their music repository.

There is a free two week pass to they it out and I think when my programming schedule calms down in a couple of weeks I might give it a whirl. In fact I think thatnin May I will make the LG Optimus 7 my main phone for a month to really give it thence over. I also have the perfect companion to go along with it as you can see in the pic.
  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A is for Apple, B is for BBC, C is for Conflict

Thursday, April 7th, 2011
Apple and BBC iPlayer Logo

Is the BBC afraid of being devoured by Apple?

I have been getting to know my Apple iPad over the last couple of weeks and also upgraded my Apple iPhone to iOS 4.3.1. One of the features of this upgrade is Apple’s Airplay which allows me to connect either device via WiFi to my Apple TV box and stream media through it. This is useful for video that has been shot on either device and it also allows content from certain sites to be streamed onto your TV via Apple TV.

While the iPad is a fantastic media player it can be advantageous to be able to stream content to a TV sometimes when there are a group of you all trying to cram round the iPad to watch, say a YouTube video.  I was really disappointed to find that content from the BBC provided via the BBC iPlayer cannot be streamed.

I missed last Sunday’s “Wonders of the Universe” with Professor Brian Cox and thought I could catch up with it online and stream it through my TV. Well sadly this is not allowed. I am not sure if it is being blocked by Apple or the BBC but I can only think it is by the BBC who are happy for you to catch up with shows you may have missed online but do not want you to gain the full TV experience at the same time.

I have spoken to a number of people about this and one suggested that maybe the Beeb where concerned that if people could watch stuff online any time then it would lead to a dip in TV sales. This could prove disasterous for the funding of the BBC who rely on a licence fee paid by every household that owns one or more TV sets. My counter argument is that if anything this would be less likely to lead to a dip in sales as you would be able to watch your favourite programs when you wanted on the medium that it was really designed to be viewed upon.

Another suggestion was that the BBC may be concerned about the impact on viewing figures. These are currently calculated based on people watching a program when it is broadcast. However, peoples viewing habits are changing. With the onset of DVR’s, Sky Plus and cable stations we are now more able to watch what we want, when we want rather than having to watch a program when it is transmitted.

In the last decade there was a sea change in the way that music charts were calculated. They now take into account of sales of music on download as well as CD and vinyl. We do not base our top 10 on vinyl sales anymore and yet we seem to be doing the equivalent with TV viewing.

One possible solution would be to take into account the number of people who have played a program via a TV station player. This would be relatively easy to implement. When a TV program is viewed online information can be collected from the browser to say what has been watched, how many times it has been watched on that machine etc. You could even tell if the program has been watched through to the end to get feedback on what programs work the best. It is possible that TV companies are already tracking this sort of information already. In my scenario all the views of a show that were watched between Sunday and the following Saturday would be counted. This would be likely to swell viewing figures rather than diminish them.

Perhaps now is the time for TV channels to change the way that they view their output over the airwaves. As people change their viewing habits and move to a more On-Demand society then maybe it is now time for TV stations to look at how they interact with consumers. Rather than seeing a TV station as the pinnacle of programming perhaps they should adopt a different model in which the TV channel is merely a shop window of the content that they can provide. Sure, they will put the content out first on TV, but then have the facility for those that missed it for whatever reason to be able to catch up through streaming direct to their TV set. This could be just the thing that our TV channels need to adopt in order for them to still remain relevant in an ever increasingly connected society.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

App Review: Vlingo (iPhone & Android)

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
Vlingo on the iPhone

Vlingo on the iPhone

Vlingo is a nifty little app that allows you to search the web, update social networks, write texts and emails using your voice as the input method. The way it works is that the first word you utter tells the app what you want to do. For example, if you say “Search Freelance Web Design Blackburn” then the app will search for freelance web designers in Blackburn. You can also choose which search engine the app will use, Google, Bing or Yahoo.

I have been playing with this app for about five days and have found it to be really useful. I am getting to that point in life where my fingers have started to press two keys instead of one on my smartphone keyboard and so the ability to not have to type is fantastic.
I do find that you have to speak slowly and clearly but even so the voice recognition software has virtually no trouble understanding my Lancashire accent. My main use has been to use Vlingo to update Facebook and Twitter. I have learnt that the longer you speak for the more likely Vlingo is to make mistakes in its voice recognition. However, if you keep things short and sweet (can you do anything else with Twitter?) then it is very accurate. Vlingo displays it’s interpretation of your commands in a text box allowing you the opportunity to amend the text if it has made a mistake before you post your update to the world.
The app is freemium. The free version allows you to search the web, update Facebook and Twitter. The paid version also allows you to send texts and emails. The cost is £3.99 for either text or email or £5.99 for both.
There is a syntax that you need to get the hang of to really get the most out of this app but it is worth the effort. Vlingo is a great app and one that I would thoroughly recommend.
Vlingo is available from both the Apple App Store and the Android Marketplace.
  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in App Review | No Comments »

Browser War: Local Version Sept 2010

Friday, October 1st, 2010

I thought that rather than just doing what I do each month and tell you what the stats are for browser usage to my site in September I would do something a little different and show you what the stats are for the last four months so that we can all get a real feel for what is happening to the various browsers.

As we can see Safari is currently the most popular browser on my site is Safari who while their share has fallen in the last month from a high of 38.85% in August have managed to consolidate their position as the browser of choice for users of my site.

IE seems to be falling rapidly having seen its market share drop by a third in the last four months. It will be interesting to see if the release of the Beta version of IE 9 has an impact or not in October. For although a lot of you tech savvy readers have long since ditched IE there have been some pretty good reviews of IE 9 doing the rounds so let’s see if some of you decide to give the old lady another whirl.

Now if the two most popular browsers have both dropped last month that must mean that there have also been some climbers as well. The two browsers that have made major in roads into my browser share are Firefox and Chrome.

Firefox is up to 26.32%, the highest it has been in the last four months up from 17.27% in August, which was the lowest Firefox has been in the last four months. Meanwhile Chrome, the search engine of choice for Gogglers, is still jumping about like somebody who has sat on a cactus. At 10.53% it is just short of its highest total of 11.00% in July. However it has also been as low as 1.61% and 2.88% in June and August respectively. The rest are all fairly insignificant in comparison to these four.

So what can we deduce from all of this? Well as with just about every other set of browser stats IE is in decline. Firefox and Chrome seem to threaten to take over but never actually do. Chrome has been bubbling between 5 – 10% for most of this year with promises from various sources that it is really going to take off in the next couple of months but never does. Firefox seems to gain about a quarter of the market share regularly but again can never seem to get higher.

The surprise to me is how many Apple Fanboys there must be visiting my site. I am not one of Apples greatest fans. I think that the iPhone is a fantastic smartphone, but I have never been really tempted with any of their other products, I guess that must be the programmer in me. However, Safari is now the browser of choice for you guys.

Keep up the good work!

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet News | 1 Comment »

App of the Week: Anaytics Pro by Thomas Blackburn

Saturday, August 14th, 2010
Analytics Pro by Thomas Blackburn

Analytics Pro by Thomas Blackburn, is this the best analytics app on the iPhone?

My app of the week is a very useful analytics client by Thomas Blackburn. I have used a number of analytics apps over the last 12 months and I would say that this is not only the best but also the one that is nearest to Google Analytics itself.

You sign in with your Google Analytics account and you are presented with the profiles that you have set up for your various sites. Pick a profile and then you are able to start to drill down into your chosen sites data. You can start with a summary of visitors for today, yesterday or the last 28 days. There is, of course, the option to set your own date range.

I find with most of the analytics packages that they are OK if you need to check some basic info quickly when you are away from my PC or laptop. You know the sort of thing, you are out shopping when a client calls and asks why they have suddenly had twice the number of enquiries in the last three days. Normally I can check the visitor stats and advise them that in the last three days I have registered their Blog with Feedburner and since then the traffic to the site has doubled, with the bulk of the new visitors coming through Feedburner.

With AnalyticsPro I have a whole raft of information at my finger tips including:

  • Countries
  • Location
  • Language
  • Visitor Loyalty
  • Browser
  • Operating System
  • Traffic Sources
  • Search Keywords
  • AdWords campaigns
  • Plus many more

The app loads quickly and gives you the data you request rapidly, suggesting that the code has been really well optimised. It is a very secure app and uses Google’s API to transmit and receive data.

I think the best endorsement I can give is that during this week I was speaking to a client and we were discussing her AdWords campaign, as a result of information that I gleaned from AnalyticsPro relating to which pages are the most popular on their site we have been able to tweak the AdWords campaign and are looking forward to gaining extra leverage from the clients budget.

I admit I could have reached the same conclusion if I had been at my desk. What surprised me was that we were able to reach the decision while I was sitting on a park bench with my dogs.

The UI is excellent with items nicely spaced out and the app is intuitive to use. This is not an app that I just recommend, this is an app that I have been using all week and will continue to use for the foreseeable future.

You can download Analytics Pro from the Apple App Store. At £3.99 you may think that it is a little pricey for an app, but what price do you put on having information at your fingertips? In my opinion this is the best analytics package for the iPhone.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in App Review | No Comments »

Battle of the Browsers July 2010

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Images of various browsers, including IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome
In the next day or two there will be loads of stats released talking about browser market share, so I am going to share with you the stats for my site. Let’s se how they compare with the “worldwide stats”. My browser share is broken down as follows:

1. Internet Explorer           36.00% 
2. Firefox                     24.00% 
3. Safari                      24.00% 
4. Chrome                      11.00% 
5. Mozilla Compatible Agent  3  3.00% 
6. Camino                       1.00% 
7. Opera                        1.00%

Compared to last months figures the big winner is Chrome which has jumped up from 3.12% last month to 11.00% this month. I think this is likely to be more reflective of what is happening on the web in general than last months figure.

The big loser is once again Internet Explorer that has dropped from 42.19% down to 36%, and while it is still 12 percentage points ahead of either Firefox or Safari it is yet another drop in marketshare for Microsofts browser.

Safari seems to be holding pretty steady dropping just a point from 25% last month to 24% this month. While Firefox has made some big gains with a jump from just over 20% last month up to 24% in July.

Of the remaining odds and ends it was interesting to see Camino on the list. Camino is a free Open Source browser for Macs, I hope the site renders well for you as I know it has not been tested with Camino, if you are using it do drop me a line and let me know.

I thought with the launch of the iPad that Safari might be doing a little better than it is. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months, will Internet Explorer continue to slide, and if it does who will become the biggest browser?

Personally I think that when the main figures come out that we will find IE is holding it’s own with around 50% of the overall marketshare. We will find out in the next couple of days….

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Internet News | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries