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Displaying items by tag: iOS

News_3d_Apple_Logo_102The internet was all a buzz with Apple’s announcement of “The New iPad” which is what Apple has decided to call the 3rd generation of the iPad instead of following a numerical progression or (as some thought) adding HD to the end. So far the technical specifications look impressive with a 2048 x 1536 display (with 264 ppi which is an odd number), a 5MP HD camera (1080p@ 30fps) and video stabilization, WiFi, and even 4G LTE capability. Under the hood Apple has an A5X SoC.

Published in Editorials

73The Apple folks are all excited about today’s injunction awarded to them over Motorola Mobility over a patent that honestly should never have been awarded in the first place. There is a small catch though, Apple did win the injunction, but they have not been able to block sales of any devices as long as they remove the offending feature (the way the screen bounces at the end of the scroll when viewing pictures).

Published in Editorials

despdIn a recent article I published about Apple being nervous over Windows 8 I made the statement that Apple has never released a developer preview like this before and also that Apple does not do public Betas. Both of these statements were read incorrectly and the flood of comments from Apple fans came in. There were lists of the times that Apple has pushed out Developer Previews as well as a list of the times they have released betas to the public. It has been entertaining, but I think we need some clarification on these two items and also why Apple is nervous about Windows 8.

Published in Editorials

pp-for-ipad02After our initial report of an Office suite from Microsoft developed for Apple’s iPad it seems the company is trying very hard to deny the rumors and speculation, while at the same time leaving their options open.  What is the real story? We are not entirely sure, but we are convinced that something is going on that will allow Office functionality on the iPad and other tablets in the works.

Published in Leaks and Rumors

win8logoredesignedSo Microsoft is on a push to get out as much information as they can about Windows 8. This new operating system represents a massive change for Microsoft and not just in the way the new OS will function, but also in the manner they are interacting with the public. This is evident in almost everything they are doing, from the building Windows 8 Blog to the public statements, demos and interviews that are happening frequently.

Published in Editorials

untitledYesterday a round of happy articles from members of the press that are getting tired of Apple’s dominance in the tablet market hit the internet. Their primary focus was something that we have talked about since the original iPad hit the market; productivity. Although many companies try to use the iPad and Android based tablets they are often web-only options or rely on virtualization applications like Citrix’s Xen or VMWare’s View. These products are expensive to own and operate (in addition to the money for the tablets) and are usually not justifiable by the bean counters.

Published in Editorials
Wednesday, 14 December 2011 23:19

Google Currents Stumbles in its Infancy

P20111214224724Ok, so everyone knows that Google has launched a competing product to the very popular Flipboard. This software is a newsstand application that allows a user to follow their favorite publications in a magazine style format. It is a very slick application and very quick to pick up changes as they happen. We were fortunate to be in the second round of sites to get added to this app (through several emails) and have a few followers that are entirely Flipboard based (according to the numbers). The problem is that Flipboard is iOS only. There is no version for Android despite the publisher’s stating that they would release one.

Published in Consumer Software
Wednesday, 09 November 2011 07:34

Adobe could be dumping Flash for Mobile

flashA report from ZDNet appears to be showing that Adobe might be dropping future efforts for their Flash Player in the mobile world.  While there are probably more reasons for this than we will ever find out, the one that seems to be getting pushed is that Adobe is giving up on a losing battle. One site that offered this news to its readers even stated that Adobe Flash for mobile had only reached a fraction of the market. Well this is true as ½ is a fraction.

The original push to bring Flash to the mobile market was something of a pride thing between Adobe and Steve Jobs. At the same time we also saw Adobe working on hardware acceleration for some of their other plug-ins like Air and Edge. The thing is that as browsers both mobile and desktop move forward they are discovering (well they really always knew) that plug-ins are gigantic security holes, this is true for ANY plug-in not just Flash. If you follow security in the PC and mobile world at all you will find that this is very true and you will also see that browsers like IE, FireFox, Chrome and Safari are becoming les plug-in friendly. In fact FireFox 8 and the mobile FireFox have kicked out even more plug-ins than before.

This is Adobe’s motivation; they know that in the very near future they are going to have a very hard time getting their Flash plug-in to work at all. So they are kicking their work into CSS and HTML5 into high gear (something they should have done before). You will hear from multiple sites that this is Apple “winning out” or that Steve Jobs was right. Neither of these is completely true.  Apple has yet to realize HTML5 for most of their sites and continues to use their proprietary QuickTime plug in for their movie trailer site and for much of the code on Apple.com (although the mobile is moving to HTML5).  As for Steve Jobs being right; well the Adobe/Apple feud was about more than Flash on the iPhone. There was a time when Adobe optimized everything for Apple. If you wanted to run Photoshop with blazing speed, you bought a Mac. After Apple dumped the Power PC processor and forced Adobe to dump years of effort into optimizing for RISC (reduced instruction set) processors Adobe did an about face and began to optimize for Windows. To make matters worse after Apple jumped on the OpenCL bandwagon Adobe partnered up with nVidia to accelerate their applications with the closed source CUDA platform instead of the open standards found in OpenCL.

So you see this Flash Vs Apple war has been a long time in coming and it was the pride of two very large Egos that brought it out into the open. I am happy to see the plug-in go IF the replacement is more efficient and allows a better cross platform experience.

Source ZDNet

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Published in News

14621rotten_appleIf the name Charlie Miller sounds familiar to you it should. After all he is one of the researchers that has consistently found bugs and holes in Apple’s vaunted security. He is also a very frequent winner of the Pwn2Own competition where security experts and “hackers” alike compete to find the fastest way of breaking into a computer system. Charlie’s love for Apple and all of its devices has kept him in something of a love-hate relationship with the company for years, but recently things turned for the worse.

After the discovery of a flaw in Apple’s Mobile Safari that allowed the execution of unsigned code Miller reported this to Apple. He did this on the 14th of October and never received any word back on it. To further demonstrate the seriousness (and apparent ease) of this new flaw Miller submitted an app that had the malicious code packed inside. The App, which was disguised as a stock ticker, was approved by Apple and set up for distribution in the walled garden of the iTunes App Store. Miller was able to use the App to execute his code and take control of core functions of the phone.

For his troubles Miller was unceremoniously dropped from the Apple Developers Program for violating the terms of the agreement (which he really did do). The problem with this type of action from Apple is that it makes them seem like they do not want to admit or address serious security issues inside their operating systems. Miller has sent off an email asking for clarification stating “I’m mad, I report bugs to them all the time. Being part of the developer program helps me do that. They’re hurting themselves, and making my life harder.”

Miller feels that this is one of the changes that are coming after the passing of Steve Job and the new management. “I miss Steve Jobs,” he says. “He never kicked me out of anything.”

Source Forbes

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Published in News
Monday, 07 November 2011 19:04

Microsoft Hires Gavin Kim away from Samsung

WindowsPhoneWell color me impressed! After talking about all of the things that Microsoft has done wrong with Windows Phone I am finally seeing them do something right. It seems they have convinced Samsung’s Vice President of consumer and enterprise services, Gavin Kim, to leave the mobile device giant and come over to the Microsoft fold.  

According to Kim he feels that Microsoft has the talent and the tools (meaning the right OS) to push forward and become a favored choice for consumers saying ““Each time a consumer goes to buy a smartphone from a carrier or retail store, Windows Phone has to be on their short list”. Kim also said that he feels that the team he will be joining has a considerable amount of talent and is looking forward to not lonely leading them but learning from them. In fact he likened joining any team to dating, indicating that if the compatibility is not there then things are not going to work.

We hope that this new couple does have a bright future ahead, but we think that their relationship will be a tad stormy. Gavin Kim is a smart choice for Microsoft as Kim has had his hand in more than a few successes from Samsung. The problem is that Windows Phone does not have the right infrastructure or a large customer base. This will make gaining consumer acceptance difficult to say the least. Unless Kim comes in and manages to shake things up (which we really are hoping) Window Phone will still fail to impress the average consumer in the face of the iPhone or the Flagship Android products.

The next 6-10 months will be interesting to watch for the mobile market. Android 4.0 will launch, iOS 5.0.x will hit (hopefully with some fixes) and Microsoft might actually have someone leading their mobile market that actually “gets” the market.

Source BGR.Com
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Published in News
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